The same bell ends the classes four days later.

Baekhyun can’t believe he’s talking to Chanyeol again, so normally, like the confession a week ago was all a dream, like he’s messing it up with reality, like it didn’t really happen.

They both stand in front of the classroom doors but separated in a way the people inside could also pass through. Baekhyun is listening to how Chanyeol is excited to go home for his mother’s cupcakes, but soon enough, the younger’s voice slowly drowns in the background and everything turns into a blur for Baekhyun.

All that is steady and alive left is Chanyeol’s sparkling eyes, and his billion dollar smile as he tells his endless stories.

The hallways are noisy and the constant shuffling of feet continues to go on and on but Baekhyun doesn’t mind. Even though the smaller isn’t actually listening much, he nods occasionally throughout the duration of the story to avoid being rude next to Chanyeol. He doesn’t particularly want this conversation to end. In fact, he missed the certain giant. Chanyeol being embarrassed of him the whole week is noticeable so it’s quite pleasing for him to be back on his usual self again.

When Chanyeol began asking him what he’d be doing after school, that’s where he starts paying more attention to their conversation.

“Well, it’s been a habit but I think I’d visit the plaza again today,” he wishes Chanyeol didn’t catch that little stutter when he said the word plaza. His mind reminded him of the sudden confession seven days ago and Chanyeol avoiding him the week after but to his surprise, Chanyeol nods understandingly.

“Oh right. I heard there’s a dance. Baekhyun would dance?” Chanyeol teases him.

He rolls his eyes at him. “No I won’t. I think I’d just stay for fifteen minutes, just so I could clear my messy mind.”

Baekhyun wonders. Chanyeol has already gotten over the confession, right?

Without thinking how it might bother Chanyeol’s plans, Baekhyun asks playfully. “Do you want to go with me? I mean before you go home if that’s fine with you—”

“Hey, Chanyeol hyung!” Jongin greets and approaches the both of them on the hallway, hugging a soccer ball to his chest.

It still feels a bit weird, seeing Jongin without his best friend even though it’s been a year already. After all, that friend would usually cling to Baekhyun after he and Jongin part their ways.

Baekhyun smiles uneasily and the playfulness from earlier suddenly vanished. There’s that feeling again. The feeling of being small next to the people around him.

“Jongin.” Chanyeol returns the greeting and Baekhyun slowly scratches his arm in awkwardness as he watches them converse.

He could feel the tanned skin boy staring at him, his words, however, directed to Chanyeol. “We’re going for a booze later, do you want to come?”

He doesn’t know why, but his stomach suddenly sinks. Of course, not that he is expecting Chanyeol would go with him again this time, but he’s sure even though he is friends with Chanyeol, he would still choose his bestfriends. That isn’t meant to be salty, but it sure does sound like it.

He feels his breath hitching and his hands balled themselves into fists inside his pockets. Oh my god, Baekhyun, what is happening with you?

Baekhyun could feel an awkward laugh escaping from him.

“I’d love to, but,” Baekhyun feels an arm snaking on his shoulder, pulling him closer. “I believe I have already made plans with this midget.”

Alarmed, Baekhyun turns to his side and then immediately regretting he did because he shouldn’t have seen how Chanyeol is looking at him with a grin. He feels his world stopping in its tracks.

Baekhyun wishes he didn’t stare afterwards. He should’ve have averted his gaze instead. He thinks it would be safer.

A glint passes on Jongin’s eyes and… is that a small smile Baekhyun sees?

“That’s better!”

What?

“Then I’ll go now! Baekhyun hyung,” he bows a little and Baekhyun just nods, still a little bit dazed of the weight on his shoulders.

Soon enough, he could feel Chanyeol pulling the both of them away from the scene.

“Why won’t you go with them?” Baekhyun hears himself asking before he could even stop his own mouth.

Well, he’s curious. Maybe Chanyeol did tell Jongin about what happened because catching Jongin looking at him like that, it’s as if he knows something.

Okay, and when he said ‘that’s better’, that part is confusing. What’s better? Chanyeol spending his after school hours with Baekhyun instead? Why is that better?

He really feels something is going on but he doesn’t press on it. He somehow hopes though, that Chanyeol semi-embracing him would give him his answers.

“Why? Do you want me to go with them instead?” Chanyeol asks him.

“Why not? I mean, they’re your friends, right?” Baekhyun replies back, indirectly hinting that he wants him to answer his unsaid questions.

But to Baekhyun disappointment, he receives nothing.

They stay silent for a while, and it wasn’t until they reached the end of the gates, with Chanyeol turning them around in a corner, that the silence was broken.

“If going to the town plaza makes you happy, Byun Baekhyun, then why wouldn’t I go with you?”

Baekhyun feels himself panicking over his words. In it goes to his box of unsaid questions again. What is Chanyeol thinking for him to say that, without any form of hesitance in his tone?

Baekhyun feels hot inside, and then cold. It’s as if every ounce of breath was taken away from him. Then he feels the heartbeats beginning to thump unwelcomingly on his chest, and he knows it wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon.

He feels like pausing then and there, his mind already making up excuses that would allow him to back out in this mess that he created, but then he decides to go with the flow. Ha, those words mean nothing, really. He’s just overthinking. Chanyeol is a friend.

—A friend he had confessed his feelings with a week ago.

It’s still embarrassing, that’s why he’s feeling like this. Baekhyun pinks.

They have been walking for minutes already on that position but he feels no numbness on the heavy weight on his shoulder that is Chanyeol’s arms.

Soon enough, they reach the town plaza. Baekhyun secures them a spot (even if he doesn’t even like that bench) and ushers Chanyeol away immediately after sitting, throwing him his pocket money, enough to buy the both of them a drink so Chanyeol has no reasons to refuse. He figures he needs to be away from the giant as soon as possible, because he feels like turning into a puddle every time he’s next to him, out of agitation.

He isn’t really thirsty, and he isn’t really planning to stay for a long while here too because he still has something to do once he goes home. He wishes he could create an opening later that would allow him to run off again. Man, he can’t wait to go home.

Once alone, Baekhyun roams his eyes around the place. People are wearing their suits and cocktail dresses and it’s obvious enough they really did create whole effort to look good tonight considering this is a semi-masquerade ball, and people are required to have their dates.

Well he’s here so maybe Chanyeol’s his date.

No, he’s not! And I want to go home! He whines inside his head.

For the first time, Baekhyun doesn’t feel really light. Even though this place is breathtaking, the heaviness inside of him didn’t really vanish. He hates being stuck in a situation so stuffy (and he blames them all to Chanyeol).

He can’t help but to admire the place though, because it really is mesmerizing. The plaza lights glow in their prettiest color, and they seem to shine everywhere Baekhyun looks.

He could see Chanyeol approaching their spot a few minutes later. He keeps looking at the surroundings with two punches in his hand, dazed, Baekhyun fears that he would trip on invisible stones because he’s been bobbing his head left and right endlessly, peeking through the trees to see the magnificent surroundings.

Baekhyun catches Chanyeol a little later in full view, with his eyes glossy and his mouth a little parted. They lock gazes for a second before Chanyeol breaks out to the most stupefying smile.

He doesn’t know why, but Baekhyun feels enchanted as his lips reach high towards his own cheeks too. He can’t deny it at this point. Chanyeol is mesmerizing. He makes Baekhyun feel stumped with just a little glimpse on the windows of his soul, the most beautiful pair of eyes Baekhyun had stared at that day.

Chanyeol is like a wanderer in his own little world and he looks so innocent, Baekhyun feels like he is the one who is supposed to be guiding him. Yet here he is, staring at Chanyeol from his spot, looking like he is the one who got lost instead.

“They really went full preparation mode this time. I mean, last year’s dance wasn’t even as pretty as this and I think it’s nothing comparable. Like, I tried to ask the vendor where they got enough money to fund this but he threatened to kick me out. Luckily, I have charms so I told him that maybe I know someone who could kick him out instead. Obviously, it was a joke, I never asked him. Here’s your punch by the way.” Chanyeol finishes, offering a huge cup to Baekhyun.

“Jesus, you really feel the need to talk that much don’t you? And what’s with this large cup? Are you planning on overstaying?” Baekhyun says as he reaches the drink his hand, scooting a little to the right to give Chanyeol a spot to sit on.

“Wait, you mean I shouldn’t use all your money to buy two large drinks?”

“What the do you mean with that how much did I give you—”

Chanyeol raises a hand and hands him what’s left on the money he gave him earlier. “I’m kidding! Don’t blame me, those were the only cups they had. But I also bought myself an egg tart with your money, if you don’t mind.”

Baekhyun is about to ask him if he bought something for him to snack on too but when he turns his head to the side, Chanyeol is already crumpling the wrapper that came along with his tart, munching happily. Baekhyun narrows his eyes at him in response. “Sure.”

Silence ensues them, and they did nothing but watch as the busy people traipse the place. A minute later, Chanyeol unexpectedly places a cookie on his lap. “Kidding again. Of course I bought you one too. Please don’t be mad at me?”

Baekhyun looks at the treat on his lap for a few seconds, a little too late suppressing the smile that is forming on his lips. “I’m not mad.”

He unwraps it and takes a little bite, “This is super sweet though.”

“Wait, I could get you another one. I’ll use my own money—”

“No need, I think it tastes perfect. Thank you.”

He takes full bites until eventually, he finishes all of it.

Baekhyun could feel a stare coming from his side and he knows exactly who is doing it. His heart begins to beat fast again, the lump on his throat getting bigger and bigger as time passes.

—Until he swallows up his anxiety by asking him what’s going on instead. “Chanyeol, you could just speak up, you know.”

But Chanyeol keeps staring.

“I’m sorry but, look, I don’t know much about what is happening right now, or anything going on really except the fact that this place is obviously fascinating. Seeing how calm and collected you are, it makes me feel dumb next to you because you are really good at everything and you probably know much about what to do and I feel so stupid knowing nothing. But can I have this opportunity to dance with you? Because I just really want to. I hope you don’t mind.”

Obviously taken aback with the sudden useless word vomit, the compliments, and the fact that Chanyeol asked him to dance, Baekhyun doesn’t even notice how Chanyeol forcefully yanks him off his seat and drags him towards the dance floor unsolicitedly. He almost bites Chanyeol off to pry himself away but his grip on his arm is warm and inviting, all he could do is to give in.

He makes him feel all sorts of emotions right now. His mind is all over the place. Is this what Chanyeol mean when he told Baekhyun that the elder is calm and collected?

The giant settles them in a place a little bit away from the center. Baekhyun could only stare incredulously as Chanyeol coughs, all the reds starting to gather on his ear. Observing that, the smaller grows embarrassed too, probably because they are the only people here who are dressed in their freaking school uniform. Then confusion replaced the bashfulness in Baekhyun’s face.

“Why do you want us to dance?” He asks him curiously.

Instead of answering, Chanyeol boldly takes a step closer to Baekhyun and holds him by the hand, slowly guiding him to sway, disregarding the upbeat music, while everyone’s doing the exact opposite thing.

Baekhyun panics, his anxiety resurfacing before yelling out, “whatever we are doing doesn’t even match the song!”

“I told you, I know nothing about this!” Chanyeol loses his poise and yells back because the piercing music keeps on cutting off their conversation. “And if I do then, what the hell, Baekhyun, it is still not the first dance I imagined I would be having with you!”

Baekhyun freezes in his spot. “Wait, the first dance you... imagined?” Baekhyun asks out of confusion as he stares at Chanyeol in disbelief.

The giant closes his eyes and belatedly sighs, holding Baekhyun by the shoulder and smiling at him, pulling him closer to his chest, allowing Baekhyun to hear his uneven heartbeats without any forms of restriction.

“I know this is absurd, or even feels like I am assuming a lot of things but… why do I asked you to dance with me?” he said it in whispers but Baekhyun could hear it clearly, and he could feel his heart jumping out of his own chest at the proximity of their bodies. Both their heartbeats sound louder than the music, and right now, Baekhyun couldn’t think of anything more than just staying like this until the night ends.

What’s happening is kind of weird. But he likes it.

“I asked you to dance with me, Byun Baekhyun, because I feel like both of our nights wouldn’t be complete without it.”

They are clearly doing everything wrong. From how Baekhyun is biting his lips because all he could think about is how he would explode if he gets any nearer to Chanyeol, to their hands clasped together on Chanyeol’s chest. How Baekhyun doesn’t want to look up because then he’d witness how endearing Chanyeol probably looks, and how their feet aren’t doing a great job on keeping them standing throughout the duration of the song.

But he feels right when he disregards the wrong signals and leans in closer, looking up, smiling at the giant looking like an absolute angel from above. He’s pretty. The scattered light decorates Chanyeol’s hair so as to look like they’re sparkling.

He has no words for the emotions inside him, especially now that Chanyeol looks like a movie he is streaming on 1080p, HD.

Baekhyun’s eyes glow as they do the job of telling the words for him, and although he is trying so hard, he decides not to wear his whole heart on his sleeves.

Baekhyun did all he can to prevent his emotions from spreading all over his face, but God, every damn time he’d catch a glimpse of Chanyeol, no matter how hard he tries to conceal his feelings, they would just show.

It’s terrifying. It’s great. It’s also the most annoying thing he had experienced in the entire world.

Chanyeol smiles at him and Baekhyun’s heart relapses. He makes sure to smile him his most sweetest smile back, hoping it would have the same effect to Chanyeol.

He swears it’s over. Heck, he even confessed it to Chanyeol seven days ago.

So what is happening right now? Can someone explain it to him, why he’s suddenly feeling this way again?

It’s as if they were the only people existing in the world right now, how Baekhyun feels like he is flying. Chanyeol guides Baekhyun on the dance floor slowly, both of them experimenting as they take careful synchronized sways.

But his eyes do sting right now, why does he suddenly feel like crying? It’s like he is on the top of the world, and he wouldn’t be coming down anytime soon.

Then he asks himself like it’s the first time. Is this how people fall in love? Like, running in circles, continuing despite knowing how it would never end? Feeling things so absolute, like growing fire, having no exact reasons to extinguish it as it burns your whole body? The spark of lightning, or electricity, as they continue to flood and travel on every single vein?

He bites his lips. Is he falling in love again? With Chanyeol?

Is he falling in love again with the same person who didn’t catch him the first time?

He hangs his head low and bites his lip harder than before, thinking of happy thoughts that would stop his tears from escaping. But, for God’s sake, happy thoughts, how could they possibly exist when his greatest happiness is just in front of him? What more could he ever ask for, when all he could think about is him?

This is really wrong. And this is really, really bad.

A few days ago, he’s sure they’re gone, but now the thought of how the feelings merely rested continues to bug him.

Because why is he acting like this then? As if he didn’t fall out of love in the first place?

He could feel his anger bubbling, because now it looks like Chanyeol is leading him to a place somehow dead end. How easy it is for Chanyeol to play with his feelings like that? Is he a toy? But why, why, why does he hate himself more that he let time fool him in thinking the fireworks already left him? The reason why he did the (probably most) stupid mistake of confessing to Chanyeol without any plans, his suddenness also surprising him?

He’s sure that’s the reason why Chanyeol is acting like this. Maybe he’s feeling guilty for what happened years ago, so now he’s making up, leading Baekhyun on.

If that’s the case, then it’s a really wrong thing to do. Especially if Chanyeol isn’t there to wait for him at the end.

He feels a hand holding him by the chin, lifting his head up.

There goes his sanity, lost together with the tears that clouded his vision. A pair of caring eyes stare at him with utmost confusion.

“Why are you crying?”

Baekhyun could only shake his head in response as he pulls his hand away from Chanyeol to wipe his own tears. The taller stops him from doing so, leaning in lower so he is on level with Baekhyun’s line of view.

“What’s wrong, Baekhyun?”

At this point, everything?

He goes quiet, allowing time to do the job of stopping him from crying. They do a few more sways, until Baekhyun grows tired and anxious, all he could think about is running away.

—But fearlessly, he asks Chanyeol. “What else do you want to say last week, when I told you I already forgot my feelings for you?

It is like a weight lifted off his chest, asking that. He is lying if he says it isn’t the thing that had been bothering him for days now.

Baekhyun anxiously waits for Chanyeol’s answer, not at all minding the butterflies he feels when Chanyeol leans his forehead onto his, not at all minding the lovely eyes that keep on staring and staring and staring.

God, he’s drowning—

“My answer?”

—And he likes to think that maybe Chanyeol’s willing to save him.

“I don’t want you to forget about your feelings, Baekhyun.”

His chest thumps loudly again, unsaid questions keep flooding and flooding until they’re all what clouded Baekhyun’s mind.

He looks at Chanyeol, but gone is the annoying seatmate with a mass of messy hair and an endless chattering mouth. The person who he always ends up in trouble with, the guy he confessed his feelings to a week ago.

All he sees now is the person he fell in love with…

And with a loving stare like that, it seems like he’s going to catching him?

He closes his eyes as he lets out an airy laugh.

But Chanyeol, what you said wasn’t enough.

I certainly need an answer more than that.






Baekhyun’s thoughts last Friday were probably just because of his impulsiveness, he thinks, trying to convince himself. Because why the hell would he be in love with Chanyeol right after he confessed he had fallen out of love with him again?

Chanyeol answer kept lingering on his mind, and now he regrets even asking that stupid question.

The roaring rain is the only thing comforting him on this hour. He’s been thrashing around his bed for a while now because even though he denies it, it’s all that he could think of.

Placing meanings on Chanyeol’s subtle words is easy because the sentence screams how it’s all about Baekhyun. Chanyeol being in love with him? Showing weird signs all of a sudden? Right after he confessed?

Out of all the things wrong he thought about that day, the only thing that’s right is him saying how he certainly needs more answer than that, because he really does.

This is the first time he has ever been so bold to anyone, and that person returning back the same intensity of boldness? It does weird stuff to him. He hates to admit it, but King Chanyeol’s entirety is pretty much what’s ruling his entire kingdom of a brain right now.

Thrashing around becomes a very tiring thing to do a few minutes later, so Baekhyun stares at the ceiling instead. Without forewarning, his mind drifts off to the part where they both remove each other from the hold, feeling like they have already said enough for the night yet still have plenty of more questions to ask judging by the atmosphere of uncertainty never leaving their side.

The song changes so Baekhyun prys himself away from Chanyeol, laughing as a useless attempt to feel calm and collected. He stands up straight, using his fingertips to wipe the tears gathering on the corner of his eyes. “I’m sorry about that. I tend to be over dramatic at times.”

“It’s okay,” Chanyeol mutters. “I figured it out. But it’s really rare to see you cry. I think it’s the first time. Have I been really bothering you?”

“I… I really don’t like crying.” He bites his lip, hoping Chanyeol wouldn’t point out how he didn’t answer his last question.

Because he doesn’t really want to, or maybe he hadn’t found the answer to that just yet. Has Chanyeol been bothering him? Or is it the overthinking he made inside his head that has been bothering him?

There he realizes how Chanyeol is just a friend.

If friends are fast beating hearts next to each other or finding it hard to catch your breath like you have just recovered from running a three-floor flight of stairs, then a friend Chanyeol really is.

Maybe he did fall out of love, when Chanyeol had showed him nothing.

—But now that he’s showing him something, he feels like falling in love with him all over again?

He directs all his feelings towards the pillow he has been punching every time a certain giant shows up unexpectedly on his head. He punches and punches, until he imagines soft features again, a mess of a hair tousled effortlessly yet so perfectly, pimple marks and pink cheeks he could see on a distance that close, the nose mole which adds more to the attractiveness, and the most beautiful pair of eyes he had ever seen.

His muffled screams are barely heard when he did it the same time the thunders roared outside. Baekhyun debates himself whether he should talk to Sehun despite the late hour because he always tell the best advices. But he thinks he’s busy with Luhan, so maybe not.

Instead he dials a number. It is a few minutes of his finger hovering across the screen until he finally rings it.

Kim Jongdae.






“Mom, I’m leaving!” Baekhyun yells as he goes out of the kitchen without missing a glance at the living room clock. “,” he whispers to himself, the voice of Ms. Kim ghosting him like fragments of unwanted memories he never wants to go back to.

Well, technically, it’s still particularly early and even though Baekhyun waits for 15 minutes before he actually leaves home, he’d barely be late. Barely. But, he figures out it’s not the case here, because there’s actually a huge blockage on the main road that is the only way for him to go to school, considering how there are not so many routes on this little town. So if he doesn’t run now, if he doesn’t set foot outside the house, his mother would really get that call that Ms. Kim was telling him about in the beginning.

“Wait, Baekhyun!” his mother calls him again. He turns back, his hair whipping at the same time with him. “What?!” he asks, irritated.

“I know you don’t want to be late today, but I wouldn’t want you to go with an empty stomach too so, here, take this,” his mother smiles at him caringly as she hands him a packed sandwich and a milk carton as a drink.

“Thank you, Mom.” Baekhyun mutters as he extends his hand to reach them, feeling a little bad that he snapped earlier. He turns to the door again to exit, but he hears his mother calling him yet again.

“I’m really proud you’ve changed now.”

Baekhyun smiles before he closes the front door. Ms. Kim’s advices actually made sense, and Baekhyun remembers every single one of them as he stares at the neighboring houses outside his home.

A few minutes later, Baekhyun trudged his way towards school, being extra careful walking on the main road clouded with busy honking cars, uninformed and unaware. He doesn’t even dare to think how a tree would block the expanse of the said road, but the thunderous rain yesterday as he is calling Jongdae is probably a huge part. No one got hurt, luckily.

After that hellish walk, he rents a bicycle for a day, then goes to school after because he had already missed the bus that he usually takes.

“Stop teasing him about me,” Baekhyun hears the first time he enters the classroom.

Even though the place is already crowded and everyone has someone to talk to, his voice seems to stand out, still.

Far back the room, he sees Chanyeol sitting on his table instead of his chair and Junmyeon leaning close to the wall next to the window. The student council president seems to be talking to Chanyeol about something, and he remembers what happened a few days ago in the canteen. Baekhyun can’t help but to wonder if they’re talking about that again.

He promised never to be late again, so here he is, standing dumbly in front of the classroom with no one acknowledging his presence because they are too busy chit-chattering. He wonders what the duo at the back is really talking about but then again, he convinces himself that he doesn’t really care.

He roams his head around, looking at all his busy classmates, until he got a view of Do Kyungsoo, sitting ever so pleasantly and perfectly in front of everyone else.

He’s the reason for everything two years ago.

Everything that’s still fresh on my mind, Baekhyun thinks, strangely.

Kyungsoo is still so admirable, clad in his uniform free of even the slightest creases and his hands that rest gracefully on the top of his desk. He seems to be bobbing his head on whatever he is looking at. Baekhyun later found out that it is Jongdae, drawing circles on the blackboard. Kyungsoo is counting off what Jongdae is drawing inside his head that’s why he’s nodding. It is kind of cute.

He acts so subtly, maybe this is the reason Chanyeol fell in love with him.

“Jongdae, what are you doing?” Baekhyun asks, both heads turning to look at his direction.

Out of panic, Baekhyun stares at Kyungsoo first and he is actually surprised that the latter returns back not just the gaze, but the smile. Baekhyun is a bit skeptical at first (considering how he had felt small next to the perfect being that is Kyungsoo two years ago, so there must be something evil beyond it) but he finds it really genuine and actually endearing, so he returns it back.

When he diverts his attention to Jongdae, however, the latter is sporting a smirk, so Baekhyun frowns.

He ignores him, walking nonchalantly towards his desk with his head hanging low because he’s trying hard to whisper his beating heart to calm down, it’s only Chanyeol, until he hears a loud thud that made him whip his head towards that direction.

The next thing he could hear is Junmyeon’s infectious laughter, then his own secret chuckles to himself because of the position Chanyeol is currently in.

He has his lower back and straight flat the floor, both his feet are high up on the air. Instead of Baekhyun helping, he just keeps on giggling to himself, finding the situation a little too funny especially when he is also hearing Junmyeon’s laughter on the background.

“Are you alright?” Baekhyun asks him breathlessly a few seconds later, watching Chanyeol get up by himself.

The taller shrugs to avoid his question yet he winces in pain afterwards. He feels a little bad for Chanyeol who is obviously disgruntled, yet it doesn’t stop him from looking a little cute in Baekhyun’s eyes. Junmyeon stops hitting his knees a little bit later, helping Chanyeol get up by his shoulder.

“Sorry Baekhyun, it seems like he found it quite a shock to see you approaching.”

“Junmyeon.” Chanyeol warns with a gritting teeth.

Baekhyun’s eyes widens. “What do you mean by that—”

“Baekhyun!”

Another familiar voice makes Baekhyun whip his head towards the direction, and he sees Jongdae jogging over to him slowly. He is reminded of all the things he said to him one rainy night, and he can’t help but to feel embarrassed yet again because he says the most stupidest and corniest things when he is so confused. (Thanks, Chanyeol.)

He could see at a split second Jongdae eyeing Junmyeon something, but it seems like his imagination has been playing with him for quite a while now, so he ignores it. “I need to tell you something.”

“What is it—” in all it’s rudeness, Baekhyun is cut off the second time around, but now it isn’t because of Jongdae, but the bell ringing indicating the start of classes.

Jongdae could only wink at him. “I’ll tell you later. Promise me you’re mine, and mine only.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes but laughs. “Whatever.”

Junmyeon smiles and Chanyeol sits back his chair expressionlessly, Baekhyun could feel a dark aura surrounding him.

Later he found out that Jongdae drawing circles on the board is actually for a class activity. As absurd as it sounds, Jongdae is the class president. Next to him is Junmyeon, the class vice president, Chanyeol’s friend, also the president of the student council. Baekhyun can say both of them does a really good job on handling things in class well, often working together to get the class functioning properly as, well, a class. Baekhyun admires his best friend for that. Even though he riles Baekhyun up so much, he is actually proud that Jongdae manages angering him yet keeping everything together in order at the same time.

The day passes in a blur and the next thing Baekhyun becomes aware of is him thinking how Chanyeol rarely talked to him that day, and remembering how he needs to meet and talk to Jongdae after classes.

He is on the way to the school library to meet up with Jongdae, but a pair of large eyes and heart shaped lips stops him in surprise.

Baekhyun smiles at Kyungsoo although he feels the slightest panic, and a drop of his stomach. “Is there anything I could help you with?”

“Not really,” Kyungsoo tells him. “But I need to talk to you,” he roams his eyes around and Baekhyun just stands there uneasily, hugging a class folder securely on his chest. “Privately.”

He gulps, mind wandering off to Jongdae. Did he say anything to Kyungsoo, that he is one of the reasons why I kept on holding back years ago? That .

He already has a slightest idea that that’s what they’re going to talk about, and frankly, he doesn’t want to speak about it. But even though he wants to shrug Kyungsoo off, his feet listens to his mind’s curiosity, which explain the reason why he can’t seem to stop following him wherever they would be going.

Kyungsoo secludes them both in a corner of a quiet hallway and places a finger on Baekhyun’s lips when they hear footsteps. Baekhyun’s panic worsens. He feels his anxiety coming, especially when Kyungsoo asks the question he had in mind.

“Are you also in love with him?”

He could feel his brain getting fuzzy, his hands growing clammy as his heart loses all its hope with just a single sentence. He doesn’t understand what’s happening to him.

“Also? What do you mean with also? Are you sure you are talking to the right person?”

Please. He might be talking to the wrong person.

“No, I’ve been meaning to talk about it with you.” Kyungsoo stares at him straight in the eyes. “About Chanyeol. Are you also in love with him?”

Kyungsoo said also again.

Baekhyun could feel all the colors draining out of his system. He can’t answer that directly, his fear grows and grows inside of him.

Two years ago, this was what happened. Baekhyun knowing that Kyungsoo returned back Chanyeol’s feelings. (Minus all the confession Kyungsoo is currently doing, therefore confirming whatever is bothering Baekhyun's thoughts.)

Baekhyun that time was merely observing, never hearing about it directly unlike today. In turn, his feelings started increasing ten folds. You know, the ache. “Oh, wow. I have always known you feel that way about him.”

“What?” Kyungsoo whispers with wide eyes, “you have no idea what I’m talking about?”

Baekhyun stares at him, obviously isn’t understanding one bit of what’s happening. Isn’t Kyungsoo confessing to him how he has feelings for Chanyeol? Why is he suddenly acting like he knows nothing of what Baekhyun is talking about?

He decides to let go of the worries in his heart. It’s the fourth time around he’s confessing. Not with Sehun, not with Chanyeol, not with Jongdae, but this time, with Kyungsoo. And he’s going to tell him just because he wants to escape and finally meet with Jongdae. (Then, he could go home. Thank God.)

“If this is the answer you have been meaning on getting, then yes, I was absolutely in love with him. Was, Kyungsoo. Two years ago, then I finally stopped.”

All because of you.

Kyungsoo raises an eyebrows.

“That’s not the version I heard with Jongdae.” So I’m right that that  has something to do with this. “Look, I’m here to help you.”

Why does Kyungsoo care? “I’d be honest with you, Kyungsoo, but I really don’t need help. You’re in love with Chanyeol, and he’s in love with you, so maybe just get it together, will you? I don’t want to be involved in this anymore. Please, just stop bothering me.”

Kyungsoo could only stare at him incredulously as he lets his heart out. Doesn’t Kyungsoo understand? He really doesn’t like talking about this. “You got it all wrong!”

“In what part was I wrong with that?” Baekhyun asks him.

“I—you’re just like Chanyeol! You are absolutely so ing stupid, just like him!”

It’s amusing, to see Kyungsoo getting riled up like that. Baekhyun’s panic goes away when he watches Kyungsoo explode because it is rather cute than terrifying. He, however, cares about his life more, so he decides it’s best to stay expressionless and avoid commenting about it.

But how dare him compare him to that… that prick.

“I can’t believe you actually said tha—”

“Look, Baekhyun, you got it all wrong.” Kyungsoo tells him, looking at him straight in the eye. “I was never in love with Chanyeol. I am, however, in love with his friend, Jongin.” Kyungsoo tells him.

Baekhyun chuckles like it is the most obvious thing he has ever heard. “Of course you are in love with Chanyeol! It is present in your eyes—wait, what?”

Jongin? What’s Jongin got to do with all this?

“I said I like him,” Kyungsoo tells him, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks, “and he told me he likes me back.”

Wait. Baekhyun doesn’t really understand. Just a few moments ago he is so sure Kyungsoo is talking about Chanyeol, but then he tells him it’s about Jongin? What is happening?

“I don’t understand, Kyungsoo. Chanyeol and you—”

“—Were nothing really special,” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, it even looks like he’s disgusted. “I know he’s infatuated with me two years ago, but it has always been one-sided on his part. I’m pretty sure you are also aware of his said feelings towards me, since you were really close back then, since I observed you look at me with jealousy, since you had always been in love with him up to this day,” what the . “But believe me, it stays like that. Eventually, I became a little fed up. A few months after him crushing on me,” why does he keep saying italics? “I decided it’s enough. I straight up rejected him. Then, a while ago, Jongdae and Junmyeon—”

“You rejected Chanyeol.” Baekhyun repeats. “I think I need to rewind. What’s it about Jongin again?”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “I was in love with him for the longest time, even before Chanyeol came—”

“And Chanyeol?”

“I rejected him, because I feel nothing towards him.”

“And Jongdae?”

“I overheard him talking to Junmyeon earlier. It seems like Chanyeol told Junmyeon that he is planning on confessing to you.”

Oh. Chanyeol is confessing to him—what.

Did he hear that right?

“Stop joking, it isn’t funny. I know Jongdae already told you about this, but when I told that about how I feel about Chanyeol that day, it was because my thoughts were so messed up and I wasn’t thinking straight. I am really over him. I hope this removes your doubt towards me. I even told Chanyeol how I was once in love with him. Keyword again since you must’ve missed it the first time: was. I mean, I was a dumb kid back then—”

“Even a lot more dumber now.” Kyungsoo blows a raspberry, tuning out of Baekhyun’s rambles.

“Look, how simple is it to let it go?!” Baekhyun’s voice is already rising.

“Not that simple,” Kyungsoo tells him, his voice a lot even drier. “Especially when you keep holding it back, yet it’s evident how you have never fallen out of love with him.”

Baekhyun is caught off guard. Who is Kyungsoo to doubt him? “I fell out of love, Kyungsoo.”

“Okay, let’s say you did, but what about all this?” Kyungsoo gestures to the entirety of Baekhyun, “why are you sugarcoating all your words, Baekhyun? And why are you crying?”

He touches his cheeks. He swears he didn’t feel it getting wet.

“The reason why I’m telling you this is that, I don’t want you to hold back anymore. You held back two years ago, when you thought it’s already over, you held back while you’re moving on, too occupied to notice what a certain person is feeling like when he’s next to you, and you are holding back now, while you are too busy trying to convince yourself that you forgot about everything, when you still feel everything about it.” Kyungsoo looks at him. “It seems like you’re too busy telling yourself how it’s over, again and again, you didn’t hear what your heart really wanted in the first place.”

Baekhyun’s throat feel dry because of that. “Jongdae told you that much?” And where the hell did Kyungsoo get the information that Chanyeol is feeling like that next to him?

Kyungsoo stares at him incredulously. “Really? That’s all what you’re going to say?”

Baekhyun places and hand over his chin. “And... why are you being so kind to me?”

Kyungsoo smiles. “I just want you to get this happy ending, Baekhyun, especially now that I’m getting mine too. Besides, that’s what friends are for, right?”

Baekhyun sniffs and Kyungsoo frowns at him. “Oh my god, stop crying.”

Baekhyun continues sniffing.

“I just realized, Jongin’s right. You tend to be really over dramatic.”

Baekhyun stops faking his sniffs. “Wait, how did he know about that—”

The song changes so Baekhyun prys himself away from Chanyeol, laughing as a useless attempt to feel calm and collected. He stands up straight, using his fingertips to wipe the tears gathering on the corner of his eyes. “I’m sorry about that. I tend to be over dramatic at times.”

So Chanyeol was telling Junmyeon and Jongin about him all the time, and Jongin in turn, is telling it to Kyungsoo.

By now, he thinks he figures out already who told Kyungsoo the information that Chanyeol is falling in love with him when he’s too busy trying to move on to notice it.

Chanyeol’s such a stupid son of a . Everything falls into place now. He could feel a smile creeping off his lips.

Kyungsoo could only wink at him. “I think you already know by now.”






Baekhyun runs. Fast. As fast as his legs could take him.

He figures out later that Jongin and Jongdae did a set up.

The both of them thinks how it’s finally time for Chanyeol to confess to Baekhyun, so they did a set up.

It would really just be Chanyeol and Baekhyun, alone in the library later that day. Junmyeon and Jongdae are probably out of school right now, enjoying their milkshakes while Baekhyun and Chanyeol would be suffering alone.

Those ing es.

Before he even enters the library, he knew that he would see Chanyeol alone on a table. He peeks in a little just to see him frowning impatiently, his foot tapping the floors as he keeps on glancing at his Rolex to the large library clock at his back. Baekhyun figures, enough ogling for one bit! and decides to enter the library.

“ing finally, I have been waiting here for 15 minutes already. I thought you already ghosted me—Baekhyun?” Chanyeol says in stutters, obviously unaware of what’s happening. “But I thought Junmyeon would be meeting me here, and I—”

“Jongdae told me he was going to meet me here too. I think it was a set up.” Baekhyun chuckles, pulling up a chair to sit in front of him. Chanyeol visibly stiffens at his action.

Well, maybe Kyungsoo is really smart then, that he noticed before Baekhyun himself how even though he acts like being with Chanyeol means nothing, he is feeling everything but that.

Chanyeol grows fidgety in his seat because of nervousness, Baekhyun thinks, and he would actually laugh right now if he doesn’t see himself two years ago now as he stares at Chanyeol. “Yeah… a set up.”

Baekhyun hides a grin and taps his foot on the floor below. “So… how are you?”

Chanyeol smiles at him awkwardly. “I think I’m feeling fine?”

“Wrong answer.”

“How would you even know?!” Chanyeol yells back.

Baekhyun shrugs. “Because I was told you wanted to say something?”

Chanyeol reddens and he turns quiet.

It is the most quiet Chanyeol has even been, Baekhyun thinks as he watches Chanyeol plays with his fingers on his seat. He sighs as he watches him dart his eyes from left to right, probably thinking of ways on how he could escape.

Good luck to him, but Baekhyun won’t be letting that happen.

“Someone told me how I shouldn’t hold back, so I asked you that.” Baekhyun bites his lip. “So I think, you shouldn’t hold back too?”

Chanyeol laughs, a little bit shaken. “Well then, why don’t we start with you, little Mr-I-Know-What-To-Do-In-Every-Situation.”

“I also don’t know what to do now, so I am waiting for you,” Baekhyun’s introvertedness is showing already, having talked to a lot of people today and he’s beyond exhausted of all his emotions. He feels no guiltiness as he passes on all the responsibility of confessing to Chanyeol.

What Chanyeol said next took all the air left in his lungs. This time, he really caught him off guard. For real.

“Someone told you that I should tell you what? That I love you?”

He knows that already. But it feels a whole lot better when Chanyeol is the one spilling it off his lips. “I started loving you, I think when Kyungsoo rejected me.”

Baekhyun’s eyes turn into slits. “When did he reject you, though? I don’t remember anything about that happening. You were always so happy.”

“I also don’t know why I didn’t feel really sad. It just passed… like a really normal day.” Chanyeol explains to him. Baekhyun listens.

“I have always been scared since you confessed, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol tells him. “That I lost my chance. That you don’t want to be with me anymore, the same way I wanted to be with you.”

Chanyeol breathes. “But then Junmyeon told me that Jongdae told him that you told Jongdae that—”

“What did that say?” Baekhyun says in between gritted teeth.

“That you were still in love with me too, despite you confessing you already fell out of love. I thought it would take long before I could properly confess but I’m here, you’re here, so…”

“I never told him anything about being in love with you!” Baekhyun suddenly yells in disbelief, Chanyeol is taken in surprise. “I just told him that… Friday made me so happy because I got to spend it with you.”

A smile creeps its way back to Chanyeol’s face. “Isn’t that like, the same thing?”

“No, it isn’t.” Baekhyun tells him. “It gets close, but never the same thing. Stop smiling at me like that!”

He debates whether he would give Chanyeol a knack on the head, or tell him about all the misfortunes he had experienced. Or just plain stare at him dumbly, like he used to do because he couldn’t get enough of him, because he’d rather be lost on his eyes instead.

He decides to go for neither those.

Instead, Baekhyun finally stops holding back, starts giving in, closing his eyes, leaning on towards Chanyeol, then finally capturing the distance between them using his lips.

He isn’t too sure if Chanyeol is aware of what is happening right now, because judging himself on what he’s currently feeling, he most certainly feels like he had already lost his mind a few seconds ago.

Baekhyun didn’t imagine his first kiss just being like that, an awkward clash of two dry lips with little too air that they can’t even continue.

But even though his heart hurts and his lungs hurts so much more, the first dumb kiss becomes so worth it, especially when he feels Chanyeol smiling halfway through it.

There are plenty of things he wants to say right now, make Chanyeol understand what kind of emotions the giant made him experience, how he cheesily and endlessly compared Chanyeol’s eyes to the stars above, shining and twinkling so beautifully, yet so blinding, so far, it’s almost impossible to reach—

I love you, too.

He could feel his own lips tugging upward halfway their kiss too.

—but he thinks this is fine for now.




There was really an attempt, to forget about Chanyeol. Baekhyun has been doing it for the past two years now.

But as he gets to breathe normally after the end of it all, Baekhyun’s glad he failed it.




Kyungsoo sips on his milkshake, watching how Chanyeol’s eyes smile at him as he approaches him, straight fresh from the bathroom. Knowing Chanyeol, he probably didn’t even wash his hands. Ew.

“Heyo, Kyungso—”

“I am not in love with you.”

For the moment there, he almost felt sorry for the devastated look that flashes visibly onto Chanyeol’s face. He looks like a kicked puppy, on the verge of crying, a little too sad when he’s been barely invested on the likes of Kyungsoo.

“Why would you say that suddenly, Kyungsoo? I mean I—”

Kyungsoo takes another sip, shrugging. “I am not in love with you. However, I am in love with your best friend, Jongin.”

Chanyeol places a large hand over his chest. “Y-you… you are in love with him? Not me?”

As if on cue, a little boy with pretty pink hair approaches the room, taking small, cautious steps, peeking with his head first inside the classroom to see if there are any teachers present.

Sensing how the room is empty with authorities, except for Junmyeon standing in front, currently scolding the supposed class president who is chewing gum and has his feet raised up the teacher’s desk, he blows a sigh, rushing over to his seat with heavy feet.

“Baekhyun!” Chanyeol calls him enthusiastically as he sees him.

The person next to Kyungsoo immediately lights up, his previous sadness replaced with sudden glee. It’s as if he didn’t get rejected, Kyungsoo thinks. He really is an absolute idiot not to notice his own feelings.

What came next isn’t really a surprise. Kyungsoo has barely counted to ten, and the next thing he becomes aware of, is how suddenly he is left alone on his seat again.

He watches how Chanyeol becomes a little too noisy around Baekhyun, how his eyes seem to light up like he’s watching a thousand fireworks uncover before him. Kyungsoo’s sure that Baekhyun is experiencing all those too, but he isn’t a little too obvious just like Chanyeol. Baekhyun has always been hiding his feelings well.

Kyungsoo knows absolutely no reason why Chanyeol thinks he is in love with the likes of him instead when clearly, whoever Chanyeol’s been looking for, has just been always next to him.

The doe eyed guy stands up from his seat and goes to the trash bin, throwing his cup empty of the sweet drink. After he finishes doing so, he feels a tall figure looming over him, slam dunking whatever he was holding at the bin, too fast enough for Kyungsoo to even notice.

“Good morning, Kyungsoo hyung!” Jongin greets him with a wide smile, waving enthusiastically before running off to the other side of the room again. He really moves too fast for Kyungsoo to even notice.

He figures the younger had been bribing Junmyeon, his brother, with money, so that he wouldn’t tell their mother what he’d been doing. (What was it?)

“Jongin, hurry up! We’ll be late!” A voice from the other side of the room calls.

“Wait up, Sehun!” Jongin yells back, almost slipping on his way to the door. “Junmyeon hyung, I love you, I’d die for you, I will forever be thankful for you. Really, thank you! I owe you on this one!”

“Wait! I’m not yet done talking—”

And just like that, Jongin’s gone, taking all of Kyungsoo’s breath along with him.

notes:
1. Oh my god finally lol
2. Yes I edited this but I’m not good at that, neither at writing, so I hope this wasn’t such a disaster
3. You know how you want to change a detail but it would that story up?
4. That happened with me three times xoxo
5. See me here!