“How did you lose him again, Baek?”

“Hyung, I told you like ten times already, I took Mongryong to park for a walk. And I left him for like 5 minutes..”

“Why did you leave him alone? What about his leash?!”

“Hyung!! Don't scold me. I wanted to buy some ice cream from the vendor so… you see?

I set him free cause he wanted to play in the park ..when I came back he was nowhere.. I searched around for him in my whole neighbourhood already..”

“Relax Baekhyun, I'll call the police.. my friend is a policeman you know.”

“Thanks hyung…”

“Okay I'm going now, I'm getting late for work. Concentrate on your studies for now, Okay? Bye, love you little bro”

“Me too… thanks for calling me.”

“Was that Baekbeom hyung?” this was the first question Jongdae asked Baekhyun in the classroom.

Baekhyun nodded and took a seat next to him. Jongdae gave him a look for a moment but continued playing Clash of clans on his phone.

Baekhyun noticed the odd look and questioned his best friend.

“What is it, Dae?”

“You really want me to answer that for you?” Jongdae raised an eyebrow and put his phone aside to confront Baekhyun. “You see, Baek, for past few days you have really been so grumpy. Earlier you used to argue with me whenever I asked you to skip this lecture as you wanted to sit next to Chanyeol. But now you're running away from him. Whenever I try to be good with you… you snap at me.”

It was true, Baekhyun had been never so frustrated in his life like he was since past few days. He knew how mean his replies were sometimes these days, he was never a sweet talker but these days he had become totally a cruel person.

“Dae...you know I'm so frustrated over all this.. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm so sorry,” Baekhyun pleaded, as he was feeling guilty for real. Who knew how he would have reacted all his life if Jongdae weren't there to correct him.

“Sorry isn't enough. Come and hug me, you jerk.”

Baekhyun wasted no time to give a bear hug to his best friend. Jongdae in return hugged him back. After all, there was no one like him who would understand Baekhyun. He was no saint or angel, if something, he considered himself one of the insensitive and careless person alive.

“Anyway, how long are you going to avoid Park Chanyeol?” Jongdae asked, resting still in Baekhyun’s embrace.

“Definitely after finding Mongryong. I'm afraid that I'll end up acting rude out of my stupidity. He is sort of sensitive, you see.” Baekhyun let go of Jongdae to sit comfortably on the seat, which actually belonged to Oh Sehun. Of course he didn't care whose it was.

Jongdae couldn't help but smirk at Baekhyun’s reply, he was aware of his best friend’s tiny crush on his seatmate since the beginning of second semester, three months to be precise.

Baekhyun started hitting him on the head with a notebook, fully aware where this conversation was going now.

“Kim Jongdae, don't you dare to start talking about him here, okay? Or else you'll spend Christmas in a graveyard this year.”

“Yeah, Yeah, I'll take your secret to my coffin. Don't worry, chill bro.” Jongdae shielded his head with his arms.

“If you guys are done with your PDA then move aside, the lecturer is coming.” Sehun stood there, looking tall and handsome, just like always. He crossed his arms on his chest, and his expression was no different than the usual.

“Hey Oh Sehun, can’t you just sit there again?” Baekhyun requested, using his ultimate weapon, the power of puppy eyes. Just a thing that he learned from his pet obviously.

“Umm.. How about a no? The teacher told us to sit with our assigned seatmates, now move, she is coming.” Sehun shrugged off the smaller boy to sit on his seat, next to Jongdae.

Baekhyun had no other choice but to sit with Chanyeol. He was saved yesterday though, as Chanyeol didn’t come on the previous day, much to his relief. But today he had no way to run off. He just wished not to say something bad from his potty mouth to that sensitive kid.

Collecting his notebook from the bench, he walked away to his assigned seat, he was a bit relieved not to find his seatmate yet in the class.

The teacher came in right after a minute and Baekhyun found a paper lying on the top of his desk. He looked up to the teacher and waited for the instruction for the project work.

Just when the teacher was about to give the instructions, Park Chanyeol made his way in, quietly begging his apologies as he made his way to the seat.

Chanyeol didn’t greet Baekhyun like always today, instead he serenely settled down without creating any disturbance in the concentrated atmosphere.

However Baekhyun couldn’t concentrate.

Baekhyun noticed a thin layer of bandage wrapped around Chanyeol’s right hand, wondering what could have happened. He knew that Chanyeol wasn’t the type to get into a fist fight or offend anyone.

‘Did he get into an accident? Is that why he didn’t come yesterday? Maybe I should approach him..’ Baekhyun wondered, not daring to ask, instead he just kept staring at Chanyeol’s injured hand until the latter spoke himself finally.

“It’s nothing. Stop ogling, Baekhyun.” And that brought Baekhyun once again in his defensive mode.

“Why would I ogle you? Huh, Dream on!” He immediately retorted.

“Yeah, right, why would you…” Chanyeol replied, with a lingering sadness in his tone, something that Baekhyun obviously couldn’t comprehend due to his lack of understanding.

“Okay now Class, listen to me, as you can see the ten topics on the paper given to you all, choose any two. I want you guys to work with your seatmates as a partners on this project. Am I clear? Good! Now off to work. No class for today as I have to go somewhere for work.” Their teacher didn’t even wait for the feedback before exiting the room.

The moment she left, a pandemonium was created in the room. Nobody expected a project work right after the Christmas break. All the students started bickering over the newly found problem.

“What the hell is her problem? Two projects in a week? That too handwritten?!”

“Mrs Kim is crazy!”

“I can’t believe she just ruined our weekends.’’

“Well we can finish it before Christmas if we start now”

“No way!”

Just like others, Baekhyun was losing it too. He was already upset with the disappearance of his pet dog and now this.

Conversely, there was someone in the room who was having totally different perception about the assignment.

Chanyeol started hyperventilating just at the thought of working together with Baekhyun on a project as partners, which ignited his hidden desires too.

‘Project partners….

Partners…..

Life partners

Baekhyun and I… as life partners? Oh my god!’

Baekhyun noticed the peculiar behaviour of his seat mate, he raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something offensive but straightaway recoiled.

‘I almost lost my temper again.’ He mumbled under his breath.

Baekhyun packed his bag as he got up from his seat, catching Chanyeol’s attention. Before the younger could question, he commanded, “follow me, Park.”

And Chanyeol, just like an obedient puppy, trailed behind the bossy boy, without even questioning where they were going.

After five minutes, they both were sitting across each other on a table in the library with hands resting on the top of table.

Neither of them said anything for the first two minutes, it became a staring competition between the two.

“Listen Chanyeol, as your right hand is injured, I’ll do the work of writing. Is that fine with you?” Baekhyun suggested, looking considerate.

This was enough for Chanyeol’s heart to flutter. He couldn’t believe Baekhyun would be so considerate to him.

‘I think it will be our best interest to get married at this rate.’ His inner fantasy kicked in once again.

“However you need to find me the exact data we need to write. Teacher won’t take the one copy pasted from internet. So you have to read books and the