[CONTENTID1] and Secrets[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]"I mean, sleeping with a thirty year old is bad enough, now you and Chanyeol? You don't your friends! It's in the rules!"[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

"Here. Earl Grey, right?" 

Yeseul stared at the cup Joonmyun was holding out, thumb hooked around the straps of her tote to stop it from slipping off her shoulder. They had met outside the library, and were about to go and do some revision together while they both had a break between classes. Yeseul's was only an hour and a half and Joonmyun's three, but she'd been writing her series of papers in the middle of the night and they definitely weren't her best work, so she wanted to seize the opportunity and have him take a glance. They only had one class together this term, thanks to different electives mixing up their schedules, and it also happened to be the one that Yeseul was the least certain about. 

"Um, yeah," she said, taking it from his grasp. "Thanks, Joonmyun." 

He smiled. "You always look so tired," he said, which made her frown. "And I remember you saying how you don't like coffee, so ..." 

"I only drink it under dire circumstances," she admitted, taking a sip of the tea. There was too much milk, but it would do. "Next time I'll return the favour. What's your drink?" 

"Americano." 

"Fancy." 

They headed inside, and Joonmyun chuckled. "Not really." 

It was a busy time of year, with students in every department rushing to finish assignments and crowding into every available study space on campus, including the formerly quiet library that Yeseul and Joonmyun had been frequenting all year. 

The top floor had several individual study spaces available, but they had to share a table with a few Biology students because there wasn't any space for two people to sit together anywhere else. Luckily, the others weren't the sort that gave dirty looks for talking, since they were doing it too. So the table was filled with quiet chatter – albeit about completely different subjects – and Yeseul didn't have to tell anybody off for being uptight. 

"How are things?" Joonmyun asked, looking up from his computer. They'd been working in relative silence, with the occasional request for the other to read a paragraph over. 

"All right," Yeseul shrugged. 

Joonmyun raised his eyebrows. "Just all right? They seemed pretty good on Monday when Chanyeol picked you up from class. I don't think I've ever seen you smile like that." 

She narrowed her eyes at him, pausing with her cup halfway to . "What are you suggesting?" 

"That you're sleeping with him," Joonmyun said. Before she could open to argue, he pointed at her and grinned. "You are. I know that look!" 

"Whatever you think you know, you're wrong," Yeseul said firmly, sipping her tea.

"Except that you definitely are." 

Yeseul made a disgruntled sound, scowling at him over her laptop. Joonmyun sat back in his chair, looking pleased with himself. "It's complicated." 

"Ha!" Joonmyun exclaimed. It was a bit too loud, and the boy at the end of the table looked up from his notes. Joonmyun muttered an apology, then leaned toward Yeseul. "So you do have a heart." 

"Go away." 

"I'm happy for you," he said earnestly. "I mean, I'm not going to deny the fact that I was still kind of hoping something would happen with us, but this is okay too." 

"Thanks?" she said, confused. 

Joonmyun chuckled. "That sounded weird, I'm sorry. But I really am happy for you." 

"Okay," Yeseul looked back at her screen. She didn't like talking about this sort of thing, especially not with Joonmyun, who she'd turned down for months. But the fact that he'd noticed something was going on with her and Chanyeol by a simple look was concerning – there was a possibility that Baekhyun had noticed something too. He hadn't mentioned anything yet, but it had only been three days since he got back from Seoul. 

"Hey, I've just sent you my conclusion for the Tintern Abbey assignment, could you give it a read?" 

Yeseul clicked on the email that had just popped up, feeling the need to tell Joonmyun that he could just send her his essay when it was finished rather than copy and pasting each paragraph into a separate email as he wrote them. But he'd probably keep doing the same thing anyway, so she looked over his conclusion and replied with her advice. 

"You're getting better with intros and conclusions," she said. It was where Joonmyun had struggled in the past. He tended not to get carried away in the middle, like she did, so they made a good proof-reading pair. 

But soon enough she had to head to her class, and she left Joonmyun to work on the rest of his assignments in the library. 

Yeseul saw him from the corner, grabbing a duffle bag from the backseat of his car. They met at the door, and she glanced at the bag in his hand as he reached for the door, keys already in his hand. "Shouldn't you be at work?" she asked. 

"I'm only on dinner service now," Chanyeol replied, grinning sideways at her. 

"Is that a good thing?" 

"It means I don't have to be up at the crack of dawn to back scones," he said. "I've proved myself as a capable assistant pastry chef, so now I get to work in the evenings regularly instead of once or twice a week." 

They got in the lift. "So, what's the difference?" 

Chanyeol glanced at her, and she could see he was pleased that someone was asking about his work. "Basically it's just me and the head pastry chef, instead of a rotating schedule of cooks assisting her. I'll be doing a lot more precision work as well, like with sugar and fondant and stuff." 

"Sounds complicated." 

"Yeah, but I've been practicing. My buttercream is bomb." 

Yeseul couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips. Chanyeol blinked at her, clearly not finding it amusing, but didn't comment as she unlocked the apartment and went inside. Baekhyun wouldn't be home until at least seven, and they were going to the bar for 2 for 1 Thursdays. Yeseul had been planning on texting Chanyeol about it, but it was clear he wouldn't be able to come now. 

She tossed her jacket on the bed and started to unpack her tote onto her already cluttered desk, noticing how Chanyeol left his duffle by her door before flopping onto the bed with one of the books she'd lent him. With another glance, she saw that it was A Clockwork Orange. "What do you think of that so far?" she asked, setting her bag on the floor so she could sit in her chair. She rolled it closer to the bed and propped up her feet.

"I have no idea what's happening," Chanyeol admitted. "Most of it isn't even in English." 

"Keep at it," she encouraged. "It's ed up." 

"Yeah, that bit's pretty obvious." Chanyeol read another page, then looked back at her. "Your taste in literature makes absolutely no sense to me." 

"Good." 

Chanyeol chuckled, sliding the scrap of paper he was using for a bookmark in before snapping the book shut and dropping it onto the matress. He rolled onto his side, nudging her leg with his foot and gesturing for her to come over. "Come here," he said, when she stayed where she was. Moving from her chair onto the bed, Yeseul lay next to Chanyeol, and he lifted his arm to accomodate her, letting her curl up against his chest. "You should know now, before you commit to this, I'm a cuddler." 

"Beofre I commit?" she asked quietly. 

"Well, I mean, I knew we had all those serious talks before," Chanyeol said slowly. "But this is like ... a warm up. We're still getting to know each other, right? Like, romantically?" 

She hummed. She had forgotten what it was like to be held. Chanyeol's hand sliding along her back, gazing down at her with his head propped up on his fist, blinking slowly. He was all warmth, apart from his feet. But he was wearing socks, so she didn't notice as much. "Then you should know that I need to be alone sometimes, and I'm sorry if it gets in the way of us, but–" 

"You don't need to explain yourself," Chanyeol interrupted. "I knew that about you already." 

"But you don't always leave me alone," she mumbled. 

A deep frown came over his features, knitting his eyebrows together. "I'm sorry. From now on I will, you just need to tell me, okay?" 

Yeseul nodded, feeling a little weight lift off her.

They lay there for a while, eventually shifting so they both lay on their backs, and Yeseul rested her head on his shoulder. Chanyeol's fingers trailed along her collarbone, his arm hooked under her neck, and she told him about Joonmyun and how he'd figured something was going on when Chanyeol picked her up from her lecture on Monday. 

"That's not such a bad thing, is it?" 

"I sort of wanted to be in control of when we tell people, that was the whole idea with Baekhyun wasn't it?" 

Chanyeol hummed. "Baekhyun's a bit different though, isn't he? Like, Sehun knows, but he's not gonna go shouting it from the rooftops and making a fuss like Baekhyun would." 

"Sehun knows?" Yeseul asked, sitting up so she could look Chanyeol in the eye. 

"Yeah?" Chanyeol said, sheepish. "I've sort of been going to him for advice, ever since ... well, always, if I'm honest. You and him are similar, and he understands you better than I do sometimes. Helps me figure out how to approach you. Mostly he just tells me not to be a cheeky bastard, though." 

Yeseul raised her eyebrows, still feeling lingering annoyance toward him. She'd known that Chanyeol went to Sehun when he needed someone to talk to, but having it confirmed that Sehun knew practically everything that had gone on between her and Chanyeol made her uncomfortable. Yeseul cherished her privacy. 

But Sehun knew that, and Chanyeol was right; he wouldn't tell anybody unless they explicitly said he could. 

"That's good advice," she decided. Chanyeol grinned, his nervous expression disappearing. Perhaps he'd been expecting her to blow up at him. Yeseul went back to her previous position, and Chanyeol let out a low, contented hum that reverberated in his chest. "You know, Sehun knowing means we could hang out at your house more." 

"Kyungsoo is going home this weekend, too, so we wouldn't have to tell him yet," Chanyeol added. 

"That must be why he was so adamant we go to the bar tonight," Yeseul said. 

"You're going?" 

"Yeah, I've been dodging their invites lately," she said. "I don't know how I used to go out every weekend back in first year." 

Chanyeol chuckled, and his hand slipped under her blouse to rest against the small of her back. "You've become old and boring." 

"I'm twenty-one," she grumbled. 

"Just boring then." 

"Hey!" She smacked his chest and Chanyeol only laughed louder. 

The time for Chanyeol to leave came around faster than she would have liked. He disentangled himself and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then scrambled around for his things. Yeseul sat up, sliding to the edge of the bed, and she watched him tug on his shoes through the open doorway. "Should I go back to yours, then? After the bar?" 

"What would you say to Baekhyun?" 

"That I'm staying at yours? Sehun will be there, and I don't expect he'll want to stay out too late. I'll just leave with him." 

Chanyeol hitched his duffle onto his shoulder. "Sure." 

"Then you can drive me to my eight-thirty class tomorrow," she said with a grin. 

"Hilarious," Chanyeol replied dryly. She raised an eyebrow. "Fine." 

Baekhyun arrived home with a pizza, leftover from one of his meetings. His final semester at university had been hectic thus far, with something going on all the time – from meetings to lectures to studying. Yeseul could tell he was really looking forward to going to the bar, especially since she'd finally accepted his invitation to join them. 

"Chanyeol's usually here by now," Baekhyun said, collapsing on the couch and setting his plate onto his stomach, four slices of pizza piled onto it. "Know where he is?" 

There were only two slices on Yeseul's plate, but she'd skipped lunch to study with Joonmyun and would probably end up eating more than Baekhyun by the time the pizza was gone with the way her stomach was growling. "He's on dinner service now, full time," she said, tearing off a bit of the crust and popping it in . 

"That's good ... right?" 

"He said it was," Yeseul shrugged. "I've got no idea what a buttercream is, but apparently his is bomb." 

Baekhyun let out a single, loud HA! dropping the slice in his hand back onto his plate. "It's a kind of icing," he said, but he was eyeing her curiously. "You and Chanyeol are getting on, huh? Seems like you've been closeer since New Years." 

"I guess." 

"It's much quieter around here without you two fighting all the time," he said. "Careful though. Fights with friends can be much worse than ones with people you don't like in the first place." 

It was strangely wise, coming from Baekhyun. "I'll try not to be too nice to him then," she said. 

"Good plan," Baekhyun nodded. 

"Why don't we ever fight, Baekhyun?" 

He looked over at her and shrugged. "I don't know." 

"I think I wasted all my angry energy on Chanyeol." 

"To be fair, he kind of asked for it." 

Yeseul laughed, and Baekhyun joined in, excited as he always was whenever she displayed his favourite emotion. 

They finished up their pizza, and then Baekhyun rang Kyungsoo to see when he and Sehun were thinking of heading to the Gallery. It turned out they were already there and about to start their second round, even though it was only half past eight and the plan was to meet at nine. Baekhyun gave Kyungsoo a few choice words before leaping off the couch and grumbling about how he still had to change his shirt.

Yeseul waited for him by the door, raising her eyebrows when he finally emerged from the bathroom with his hair sticking out in every direction. She raised them further when he chose to wear a demin jacket with a white knit underneath, and clad in his ever-present black slacks. Then, if it were possible, her eyebrows would have receeded into her hairline when he tugged on a pair of white trainers. 

"Did you let Chanyeol talk to you about clothing again?" she asked, striding into the hallway. 

Baekhyun scoffed, but didn't answer her. With the door locked, they left the building and headed straight for the bus stop. "Can't believe those dickheads started without us," he grumbled, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his jacket. 

It was early in March, so it was still cold out. Not to mention that there was always a chance of rain, which Yeseul was prepared for with the hoodie she had tugged on over her top. That and her wool jacket left her nice and toasty, while Baekhyun would have to drink several pints before he stopped feeling the cold. 

When they got to the Gallery, they found Kyungsoo and Sehun at a booth along the wall, watching as a group of guys across the bar played a pitiful round of darts. After dropping off their jackets, and Baekhyun flipping Kyungsoo off for not ringing him when they got there nearly an hour ago, they went up to get their drinks. 

Back at the booth, Yeseul slipped in next to Sehun and Baekhyun sat next to Kyungsoo, if only he could smack him upside the head. "Hey!" Kyungsoo exclaimed, as Sehun laughed. 

"It's your fault too!" Baekhyun hollered at him. Sehun held up his hands and stayed quiet. "Right, guys night out!" Baekhyun exclaimed, slapping his palm against the table. Yeseul cleared before sipping her pint, meeting Sehun's amused gaze. "Come on, Seul, you've always been one of the guys."

She rasied her eyebrows at him. "Because I girls too?" 

"Well–" 

"Please think about what you were about to say, and I guarantee you're going to reconsider saying it." 

Baekhyun glanced at Kyungsoo, who shrugged back. "I apologise for making a judgement based on your uality." 

She smiled at him and tipped her glass to his. "There's a good boy." 

"But–" 

"Are you really going to argue with me on this one?" 

Baekhyun grunted and drank his beer. Kyungsoo clapped him on the shoulder, directing his attention to a pair of girls near the bar. "That will cheer you up, Baek." 

"Not in the mood anymore," he replied, sending Yeseul a sour look. 

"Oh, come on!" Kyungsoo exclaimed. "I'm going home for the weekend, and as much as I love my Dad, he's not the sort of person I can take to the bar to chat up girls. I need my wingman!" 

"All right, all right, let me at least get a buzz on before we go talk to them, though," Baekhyun said. Kyungsoo gave a cheer and tapped his glass to Baekhyun's. They fell into a discussion that didn't apply to Sehun or Yeseul, leaving them in each other's company on the other side of the booth.

"How's things with Chanyeol?" Sehun asked quietly. 

Yeseul glanced across the table at the other boys before she spoke. "Fine, yeah. I mean, it hasn't even been a week yet, so." 

"You both seem pretty happy about it, though." 

"I got tired of telling myself it was a bad idea," Yeseul said, and Sehun chuckled. "By the way, I'm gonna be staying at your house tonight." 

"Sumin'll be there."

"That's fine." 

"Kyungsoo too." 

"Well, he'll be too drunk to notice," she said. "Besides, I'll probably be in Chanyeol's room the whole time. What time is Kyungsoo's train?" 

"9AM." 

"And he's out tonight? Looking to get with someone?" 

Sehun shrugged. "It's Kyungsoo." 

Yeseul realised she'd done the same thing half a dozen times before, right before a train ride to Seoul. She had that winter break, in fact – only she hadn't been looking to get with someone. Still, taking the train home with a hangover was not fun. 

"I'm getting another," Baekhyun said, sliding out of the booth. "Seul?" 

"I'm okay, thank you though." 

He nodded, sauntering off to the bar. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo leaned his forearms on the table and fixed Yeseul with a serious look stare. "When was the last time you actually had , Hwang?" 

"None of your business, Do." 

"You used to to be so much fun," he said in a resigned tone. "What the hell happened?" 

"So suddenly I'm not fun because I don't want to get with someone on a Thursday night?" 

Kyungsoo sighed. "Well, when you put it like that ..." 

"Yeah," she said. Out of the corner of her eye, Yeseul saw Sehun smirking into his glass. She elbowed him for good measure. 

When Baekhyun returned, he and Kyungsoo went straight back to scheming. But Yeseul took a glance at the girls in question and shook her head. "You know, if you were smart you would have just gone up and talked to those girls instead of making it into a big thing." 

"What?" 

"They've got company." 

It was the dart players, which only served to annoy Kyungsoo. But Baekhyun had seen a girl sitting alone at the bar when he went to get his second pint, and directed Kyungsoo's attention to her. A few minutes later, Kyungsoo was heading over with Yeseul's warning not to be too much of an . 

"You're really not going to go for it tonight?" Yeseul asked Baekhyun. 

He shrugged, taking a drink. "It's guys and gal night. I finally got you to come out, what kind of friend would I be if I ditched you to go talk to a girl?" 

Yeseul gave him a sympathetic look. "I wouldn't be mad, if that's what you're thinking." 

"You've just been different about this stuff lately," Baekhyun said. "After that last guy, at least." 

Yeseul ignored Sehun's raised eyebrows. Baekhyun was still the only one who knew about Daeho, and things were still feeling a little shaky on that front, what with her text ending things going unanswered. And though he was one of her best friends, Yeseul thought Baekhyun was the worst person to tell things to. It was why she was hesitant about telling him about her and Chanyeol; she liked the privacy that came with him not knowing.

Yeseul hadn't been back in her own apartment for more than ten minutes in the past two days. She had work in a few hours, but she started around the same time as Chanyeol so he offered to drop her off. For the time being, she was content to lie around the house and get some reading done. Sehun and Sumin were somewhere around too, but they had disappeared shortly after the four of them had breakfast together and she hadn't seen them in nearly three hours. She suspected they'd fallen back asleep after the omelettes Chanyeol had made. 

"You've been staring at that page for twenty minutes," Chanyeol said, interrupting her thoughts. 

She glanced over her book to where Chanyeol was sprawled out on the other couch. He'd been reading the last time she looked up, but now the novel was sitting on the coffee table and he held the remote in his hand. She hadn't even noticed that the television was on. 

"The Monk's Tale is complicated," she replied. 

"I can see that," he said. "I've been trying to get your attention for ages." 

"Oh," she said quietly. "Sorry." 

"It's alright." Chanyeol promptly got up and plucked the book from her hands, ignoring the sound of protest she made. Once it had been set on the table with her page marked, he held her face in his hands and leaned down to give her a lingering kiss. 

When he pulled away, Yeseul frowned. "What was that for?" 

"You looked like you could use a kiss," he shrugged. "And now you look like you need to stop doing work for a minute and come cuddle with me." 

"Chanyeol–" 

"No arguing," he said, grabbing her hands and hauling her up and out of the recliner. Soon enough they were lying on the couch, her back against his chest. "Do you feel more relaxed yet?" 

"Is that what this is about?" she asked. "This is just a busy time of year, Chanyeol, I'm allowed to be stressed. Don't you remember anything about university?" 

His breath fanned the back of her neck right before his lips brushed over the curve of her shoulder, bared by her wide-necked t-shirt. "I was only trying to make your mind off it, Seullie," he mumbled. 

Chanyeol's hand flattened against her stomach, his thumb moving in slow, sleepy circles. If she were the sort of person who took naps, Yeseul might drift off right there. But then Sehun and Sumin decided to appear, and he snatched the remote off the coffee table. They both say on the recliner Yeseul had been occupying moments earlier, Sumin folded up in Sehun's lap and his arm draped over her shoulder. 

Perhaps she should have noticed it earlier at breakfast, or even the night before when they all argued over what film to watch (which Chanyeol arrived in the middle of and promptly fell asleep with his head in Yeseul's lap), but it was smacking her right in the face just then and she had no idea how this had all happened so quickly. 

She lifted Chanyeol's arm and got to her feet, pushing a hand through her hair as she left the room. She grabbed her cigarettes and jacket, shrugging the latter on as she walked out onto the front porch and sat down on the steps. When she'd taken a few drags she felt a little better, the smoke swirling out from between her lips in hazy spirals. 

When she went back in and took off her jacket in the foyer, Chanyeol came from around the corner, his brow creased with concern. "Everything all right?" 

"You and I used to fight a lot," she said, because it was all she'd been thinking about outside. "I could barely tolerate being in the same room as you." 

"Okay," Chanyeol said slowly, taking a few steps towards her. 

Yeseul tucked her cigarettes into her jacket pocket, where it hung next to a slew of mens coats. "It's just strange, how we went from that to this ... domestic life. In, like, a week." 

"Does it feel like it's been a week?" 

"I don't know, it's all blurred together." 

"It's okay to be boring sometimes, Seullie," Chanyeol said. "Can you imagine if we still fought all the time?" 

"But we do still fight," Yeseul flicked her gaze to his, and felt her own frown reflected back at her. "We had a row about raspberries versus blackberries this morning. But it wasn't even a proper fight, I mean, I wasn't angry with you or anything. Things just ... it feels too easy." 

He pursed his lips, closing the gap between them to rub his hands over her shoulders. "Remember how I said this was like a warm-up?" he asked, and she hummed to indicate that she did. "Well, maybe this is part of that. Maybe we're the sort of people who just spent time together. You don't want to have the sort of relationship where we actually make plans to go on proper dates, do you?" 

"Sound