Baekhyun is left with two options.

Well, the more obvious one is calmly talk his parents out of this ridiculous party they're orchestrating and pacify them with the idea of him not being into marriage yet and then two, organize a devious plan that will make them see reason by bringing their enemy's son as his date. Naturally, he picked the latter.

The thing is, Baekhyun didn’t always hated Park Chanyeol. He was kind of in love with him at one point – until that one class debate which Chanyeol single-handedly crushed him and broke his heart with his too bright smile. And that thing where his dad was fired by Chanyeol’s dad, oh the amount of profanities that left Mrs. Byun’s mouth that night would leave you speechless.      

            It just so happens that they’re bound to cross paths every now and then and the hostility from both parties are sometimes indescribable. They’re friends had already dubbed them as frenemies for life – mainly because the only thing they get along at are class debates, never mind that it’s also some form of argument.

            “Baekhyun, are you listening?” Kyungsoo asked, his brows furrowed and his heart shaped lips twitching to form a smile. Baekhyun doesn’t understand why, until he realized what, who – he was looking at. Park Chanyeol.

            “I was thinking.” He said defensively. He hadn’t meant it to come out like that.

            “Uh-huh.” Kyungsoo hummed under his breath, like he knew something Baekhyun didn’t.

            “I really was.” Baekhyun muttered under his breath, picking at his food since he can’t stomach to eat today – or any other day that they eat at the school cafeteria. “What were you saying?”

            “What are you planning on your parents’ party next week?”

            Baekhyun groaned, just the thought of it makes his head ache. He doesn’t even want to participate at the stupid party they orchestrated without his knowledge.

            “What party?” another voice pops up and Baekhyun turns his head just in time to see Chanyeol grabbing a chair to sit beside him. Baekhyun raises one perfect eyebrow at him, and he shrugs before taking an apple from the other’s plate. Kyungsoo chuckles, and as soon as Baekhyun turns to him – he disguises it as a cough.

            “You don’t need to know.” Baekhyun retorts and Kyungsoo looked like he was going to engage the giant in a conversation so he kicks the latter’s shin. Kyungsoo smiles at Baekhyun in reply, he looks at Chanyeol who’s suddenly interested in their chat.

            “Baekhyun’s parents are throwing a massive party next week. It’s also just a disguise of his parents to find him a rich girl to marry. They’re inviting everyone who has money.”

            “So, it’s like you’re being auctioned off?”

            Baekhyun sighs while Kyungsoo nods in agreement. “Dude, that .” Chanyeol says, brows furrowed in concentration, as if he’s the one that needs to worry. And then Baekhyun’s heart jumped at the thought – before completely dismissing the idea. It seems like he isn’t as over as he thought he was on his stupid crush than he would have thought.

            “Don’t patronize me.” Baekhyun says, and the food in his plate suddenly became more interesting. He might have pretended it doesn’t bother him as much, but as the days grow closer he realizes that keeping it all in is taking quite a toll on him. Never mind the fact that even his own parents downright refused to acknowledge that he’s gay, he’s tempted to just scream himself hoarse in front of their faces.

            “I wasn’t – I’m not – ugh”

            Baekhyun looked at Chanyeol this time, and if the latter was incoherent the first time – he’s downright speechless now. Just once, Baekhyun told himself, despite the protest somewhere in the back of his mind. He’s going to give in just this one time and he’ll be over his stupid crush of two years from Chanyeol.

            “Be my date.” Baekhyun says, eyes boring into the latter’s and seeing his adam’s apple bob up and down. Kyungsoo, for his part choked on his own food.

            “What?”

It was a bad idea, his conscience told him so – and Kyungsoo did too.

            “Are you crazy? I thought you wanted to get over him? This wouldn’t make you get over him!” Kyungsoo argues, clutching his books against his chest and pointing a finger at Baekhyun.

            “Relax, I got this.”

            “Yeah, sure, Kyungsoo you got this, the aftermath isn’t so bad, you’re just only putting your best friend’s pieces back together. Hey, no biggie!”

            “Kyung—”

            “It’s fine, you’re just patching him up like it’s putting on a ing band-aid!” Kyungsoo says, more to himself than Baekhyun before he’s speeding up ahead to his class and leaving the latter behind. Baekhyun rolls his eyes at Kyungsoo’s exaggeration, this couldn’t be that bad.

            “Hey bacon!” Chanyeol calls, and Baekhyun halts.

            “So, we should probably know more about each other, right? To make it believable.”

            “Yeah.” He answers, and then he racks his brain to say something – anything to make it less awkward.

And that's how he and Chanyeol ended up huddled close in a cafe with short post it notes littered across the table with legs pressed up a little too close for comfort. Not that Baekhyun's complaining, he's been nursing a stupid crush on the other guy ever since they first met - even though said incident didn't made a good impression for the both of them. That was two years ago.

"Your favorite food is ramyeon?" Chanyeol asks, reading from one of the pink post it notes on the table. His brow furrowed and lips twitching into a small smile. Baekhyun willed his heart to calm down.

"It's the easiest to cook." He mumbles, looking for yellow post it notes that will tell him a little more about the latter.

"Tonkatsu?"

"Yeah, and some galbi. Anything with meat, really."

"You don't even look like you eat!"

"Muscles underneath." Chanyeol replies easily, hand reaching out to pick another Baekhyun fact on the table. And then Baekhyun's phone rings, distracting them both from their little game.

"I'll, uh, just be a minute." Baekhyun says, before picking it up and going to the bathroom. He sees Kyungsoo as the caller id and whatever he's going to say, it can't be good.

"Hello?"

"--this idea is so ing stupid and when you get your little heart broken who's going to put the pieces back together?!"

Baekhyun had to move the phone away from his ears, just in case Kyungsoo had the ability to talk someone's ears off, which he might've by the length he's going now.

He was there after all, when Baekhyun asked Chanyeol to be his date at the party. The party which his parents thought were going to be great for him and which Kyungsoo dubbed as him being auctioned off. Well, in retrospect, his conclusion wasn't that far from the truth. Not only is his father angry at him, his stepmother is adding fuel to the fire and at this rate? He'd be homeless in a snap if he doesn't follow their rules.

Baekhyun already planned the whole thing; find a part time job, pack bags and stay low until the big day. And Park Chanyeol wasn't supposed to be a part of it but as it turns out, he had the biggest role to play in Baekhyun's little scheme.

"Calm down, and stop exaggerating. I'm not going to get my heart broken to something as simple as this."

There's a pause at the other line and Baekhyun could've sworn it was an eyeroll. He could already imagine Kyungsoo rolling his eyes at him and scoffing at the blatant lie.

"Byun Baekhyun, you are nuts, and I hope to God you know what you're doing."

"Relax. I play the player, right?"

"Uh-huh. You can't fool anyone here. I'm just saying, if he ever does break your heart I will hang him by the balls as my wall decoration."

"Kyungsoo!"

"What? It's not believable unless you have a best friend watching out for your back."

"Well, it’s highly appreciated but unnecessary, I got to go. You know, I have a date unlike--"

"Yeah? Don't get way too over in on yourself." Was the last thing Kyungsoo said before hanging up and Baekhyun made a face at his friend's blatant disregard of social niceties. It's both unnerving and refreshing at the same time.

Suddenly Chanyeol's right there at the door, opening it halfway and Baekhyun quickly tucks his phone in one of his back pocket.

"Everything okay?" He asks, and Baekhyun smiles, nodding his head in the process.

"Peachy! Let's go back to our table."

A few days later, Kyungsoo found them by the bleachers reciting facts about each other and looking like the pining won't be over soon. He might lose the bet at this point. Chanyeol was hunched over and then in the next moment he was throwing his head back and laughing with his left hand placed above Baekhyun's right knee.

Baekhyun had managed not to get his nerves all jumbled up every time Chanyeol smiled, and so far, - he's survived. Even though there's a tiny telling when his ears turn beet red at every compliment Chanyeol's thrown at him.

The week went by in a flash and Baekhyun learned more things about Chanyeol than he cared to admit. He knew Chanyeol liked his coffee black and he’d never let you pay for his meal unless you beat him in rock, paper, scissors, the guy’s a gentleman but sometimes he zones out and you’d have to snap him from his daydreaming, he’d make Baekhyun laugh even when the both of them are exhausted from school projects. He’s also good to Kyungsoo! Like that one time Kyungsoo went up to check them and he ended up chatting with Chanyeol for an hour, winning his approval – not that there’s any need for that.

            And it wasn’t supposed to be that big of a deal, except Baekhyun thinks he should have listened to Kyungsoo’s advice. It’s even worse when Chanyeol had to lean over and whisper some funny joke, because every time he does that Baekhyun thinks he’s going to be kissed.

            “So, are you ready for tomorrow?” Chanyeol asks, handing out a cup of iced coffee.

            “I’m always ready. Remember the code for getting out of a sticky situation?” Baekhyun says, accepting the beverage.

            Chanyeol laughs, “Sugar plum, honeybunch. Got it.”

            Baekhyun smiles, now that they said it out loud it’s kind of ridiculous. He’d have to pack his clothes later and drop it off at Kyungsoo’s if ever the worst case scenario happens. He still haven’t told Chanyeol that tomorrow’s simple act would render him homeless – call it a gut feeling but he’s fairly certain that Chanyeol would never approve.

“Well, I have to go home to get some rest for the big day tomorrow.” Baekhyun says, excusing himself and hoisting his bag up on his shoulders.

“Baekhyun?”

“Yeah?” Baekhyun looks up, that’s one of the few times that he’s called him by his full name and the sound of it from his lips makes Baekhyun heart ache. It’s like a magic word and if Chanyeol asks for anything right now, he’s not sure he’d be able to deny him.

“I – uh – maybe after this,” Chanyeol says, looking everywhere but him. “Uh – I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He looked like he’s constipated and Baekhyun shook his head at him with a laugh, it’s been a while since he’s been intimidated by Baekhyun anyways.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Uh, yeah, great. That’s – yeah, okay.”

He’s on his way over to drop his belongings over to Kyungsoo when a black car pulls up by the side of the road and Baekhyun had a sinking feeling that he’s going to be robbed, the worst thing about this is he doesn’t even have any money to give.

            The window rolls down and Baekhyun refused to look, speed running up ahead without a care in the world, the car continues to follow him and – “Get in!” a familiar voice shouts, and Baekhyun’s eyes widened at the sight of Chanyeol behind the wheels.

            “Jesus Christ you scared the crap out of me!” He shouts over, clutching his belongings more loosely now than he had earlier.

            “Will you please get in?” Chanyeol had sounded irritated and Baekhyun furrowed his eyebrows at him, he wasn’t the one scared half to death by the thought of being killed at the side of the road in the middle of the day, though in retrospect Baekhyun realized it’d be stupid to get killed when there are so many witnesses around.

            “Hey, you’re the one who almost gave me a heart attack, why’re you giving me at