“Um, excuse me, but can you please move your foot a bit?”

“Um, excuse me too, but how the do you even expect me to move?”

The sad thing about the school that Baekhyun’s in is that they still do the traditional “assembly” every Fridays, and it’s just his luck that the classes only started this week, which means longer assembly time because the teachers will still have to introduce themselves one by one and enlighten the students about the school’s activities and and Baekhyun just wants to go back to their classroom, or better yet, go home.

But the sadder thing about it is that they are told to sit on the floor of the school’s auditorium, and sitting on the floor takes so much space than needed when sitting on plastic chairs and Baekhyun swears he will beat the out of this guy if he still doesn’t realize that there is literally no space to even lift a ing finger.

“But…” the boy’s face saddens as he looks down on the floor. “the ant…”

What?

Baekhyun followed his gaze and sees that his foot is blocking the way of an ant. What the actual —

“So…” the man tries again, “can you please move your foot a bit?”

Baekhyun’s expression turns into a scowl. “Oh yeah, sure.”

He raises his foot a bit, and moves it a bit to hover it just above the ant, then he steps on it.

“NO!” the idiot shouts at him and he looks like he’s close to crying. “O-oh my god… you—“ his lips tremble as he shakily raises a finger to point at Baekhyun. “y-you…”

“Oh my god, me,” Baekhyun imitates him and points at himself too before swatting the boy’s index finger away from his face. “What are you, five?”

Now it’s the boy’s turn to glare at him. “I’m old enough to know that what you did isn’t in any way reasonable and that it’s not only humans who have the right to live.”

Baekhyun stares at him for a second before he laughs, mouth covered with his hands but still loud enough for the students sitting beside them to turn their heads towards his direction. Is this man for real? How could you even think of ants and animal rights when you’re currently being sandwiched by your sweaty schoolmates because the school doesn’t put their huge air conditioners to use?

“Why are you laughing?” The boy looks genuinely confused and that made Baekhyun laugh even more. “No—wait, please stop, the teachers might hear you—seriously shut the up.”

It wasn’t until a minute later that Baekhyun decides to finally stop laughing. “I like how your brain functions.”

The boy has a wounded look on his face. “I am seriously offended.”

“Please don’t be.” Baekhyun smiles at him for the first time. He meant it. The boy seems so pure and innocent and it’s like a breath of fresh air for Baekhyun. “I actually missed it.”

The boy tilts his head slightly. “Missed what?”

“Hearing uncomplicated things,” his eyes spot an ant near the boy’s foot that seems to be running in circles. “Hey look,” Baekhyun pointed a finger towards the ant. “that one looks drunk.”

The boy looks at where Baekhyun is pointing at and chuckles. “What if it is?”

“Huh?”

“What if it really is drunk?”

“Alright, let’s say that it is.” Baekhyun decides that playing along wouldn’t hurt. “But what would be the reason, though?”

“What if he’s sad?” The boy answers quickly.

“Wow. So you get to decide that it’s a he instead of me?” Baekhyun jokingly pouts at him. “I saw it first.”

“He’s a he.” The boy defends his verdict with confidence. “He doesn’t seem feminine.”

Baekhyun gapes at him, “How the do you even analyze an ant’s body structure?!”

“Just because.”

Baekhyun couldn’t do anything but blink at him. “That… is a well-structured explanation.”

“Uh huh, just because.” The boy repeats it for him and Baekhyun doesn’t stop himself from slapping a hand on his face.

“Do that later,” the boy holds his wrist to stop him slapping his face. “Let me finish my hypothesis first.”

Baekhyun wanted to slap his face more but the grip on his wrist is tight and so he lets his hand fall back on his lap. “Yeah,” hypothesis. “Sure. Whatever.”

The boy beams at him and Baekhyun thought for a moment that he looks beautiful with his right eye twitching, “As I was saying, what if he’s sad? What if he lost his job and his family left him because of that or his wife left him for another man who got the job he just lost—“

“Christ, dude, calm the down.” Baekhyun covers the boy’s mouth with his palm. “I can’t even understand .”

“Sorry,” the boy pokes on his wrist with his index finger and Baekhyun can feel his smile on his palm. He moves his hand away and smiles back at the boy. Cute.

“Really?”

“Huh?”

“You think I’m cute?”

Baekhyun’s closes his eyes in embarrassment and heaves a sigh as he realizes that his brain-to-mouth filter s up yet again. “No. you.”

The boy slowly inches his face closer to his and Baekhyun swears his heart will get out of his chest any minute now if the boy doesn’t stop with his ridiculous attempt of flirting. “When?”

Baekhyun covers his face with his palms. “I feel so harassed.”

“Heh. Shouldn’t I be the one to feel—“

Baekhyun covers the boy’s face with both of his palms and his voice turns serious. “Stop.” Some of the teachers are already looking at them and Baekhyun doesn’t really want to receive an invitation to hell that comes in the form of a detention slip today.

The boy seems to notice it and he sits properly. “Oh. Sorry.”

None of them talked after that and Baekhyun tries to avoid the awkward feeling by setting his gaze on the stage where a teacher is talking about something he doesn’t really care about and pretends to listen to her.

Ah, this is going to be a long day. Baekhyun can feel it.

Baekhyun is not much of an outgoing person. He doesn’t know how to start a conversation with other people unless there is something important that needs to be talked about, and neither does he know how to prolong one. He’s also always told that he “makes the atmosphere awkward” because he—unintentionally, in his defense—often cuts conversations short which makes the people he’s talking to—again, unintentionally, in his defense—feel uncomfortable.

He himself knows that he might be a little hard to talk to, especially if you’re a stranger to him, and so it makes him wonder why his conversation with the boy beside him earlier seemed so casual as if they have known each other for years.

Baekhyun decides that he wants to be friends with the boy, and it seems like the other also wants to, so it wouldn’t be bad to try, right?

 “Let’s be friends.” “Let’s be friends.”

They both said at the same time. Baekhyun wouldn’t deny that he’s slightly amused with the pink tinting the boy’s face. “Okay.” The pink becomes red and now reaches the tip of his ears and Baekhyun hopes that he doesn’t look the same. “Baekhyun,” he extends his hand for a shake. “Byun Baekhyun.”

The boy only slaps his hand away and frowns at him, “Yah. Don’t tell me you don’t know my name.”

Nope, he doesn’t. “Uh…”

“We’re classmates,” Baekhyun looks lost and confused and the boy is now glaring at him. “since fifth grade.”

“Um, wow? Five years? Haha?” Baekhyun can feel his face heat up from embarrassment. “I’m sorry…?”

The boy folds his arms across his chest and stares blankly at him. “I can’t believe you.” he shakes his head. “To think that we’re not even more than twenty in class.”

Baekhyun brings a hand to his nape and smiles apologetically. “I, um, usually don’t… notice… people…?” The boy is still glaring at him and he clears his throat. “Sorry.”

“Alright, I accept your half-assed apology.” The boy reaches for his hand and shakes it violently while smiling. “Park Chanyeol. That’s the name you will never forget.”

Baekhyun smiles and shakes his head, “Conceited bastard.”

They were both smiling at each other when Baekhyun realizes that the boy is still forcefully shaking his hand.

“Ow! Dude, stop! You’re breaking my wrist!”