Vomit. Puke. Throw up. Barf. Belch.

There was just too many synonyms to choose from and Chanyeol stared at his little list with a frown. He didn’t know which one to use. Which one would sound better. Which one would be closer to what the author originally meant in his sentence. Why was such a disgusting word so important to this sentence?

He hummed, stared, hummed, checked the definitions in the dictionary again, checked the definition of the original Korean word again, and settled on using the word spit instead. Overall, it was a word that matched the meaning and image portrayed in this text the best.

He continued translating, erasing, despising this ty novel, translating it, erasing a sentence, wishing he could just rewrite the novel entirely, translating, checking definitions, translating until he felt something tugging on the leg of his sweatpants and tapping on his foot. He carefully rolled his chair away from the desk and looked down at his cute little ball of furry dynamite.

"What’s wrong, buddy?" he asked Toben who silently put his paws up higher up Chanyeol’s leg. He snorted and leaned down. "Oh, do you want me to take you into my arms, Your Highness?" he asked him, scratching behind his tiny ear with a finger and then adding three more digits.

Toben nuzzled against his palm, it until Chanyeol laughed and tried grabbing him. Before he could hold the pup properly and lift him, Toben slipped out of his hold.

"Of course you don’t want me to hold you, that would’ve been so weird and unusual," he huffed, leaning back into his seat and watching the puppy momentarily get distracted by the chair’s foot. 

He glanced back at his screen. He was halfway through the chapter and it was going pretty smoothly so far. Chanyeol hadn’t felt like ripping his head out even once. That was a success. He could do a little more and then finish up the chapter in three days at most. Once Toben was away from the chair, he rolled back closer to his desk. As soon as he rested his fingers on the keyboard, Toben’s paws started clicking around quickly and Chanyeol looked down at him when he tried jumping up his legs again.

Alright, maybe His Highness Toben wouldn’t let him work more tonight. He mindlessly watched him wiggle around and jump around more, almost numbed by the black of his fur after having stared at the light of his computer screen for a major part of his day. It was only when Toben started nibbling on his foot and groaning that Chanyeol got a grip of his disintegrating brain and shook his head. 

He glanced at the time on the corner of his screen and rubbed a hand over his face, tugging at his nose. It was past 5pm. He hadn’t let Toben out in much too long. He didn’t even remember if he’d let him out at all today. Maybe in the morning. Or was that yesterday? He didn’t remember and he hated himself a little.

Leaning back down, he cupped the puppy’s face and nuzzled his nose against his snout.

"Sorry, buddy. I was an today, wasn’t I?" he said, scratching his cheeks and closing his eyes. "Is that a reason to eat my foot, though? It kinda is. But still, please don’t eat my foot, alright?" he asked when Toben nosed against his chin. He laughed and let go of him. "Come on, we’re gonna go on a long walk so you can just run around like the cute crazy guy that you are. You’ll forgive me if we stay out longer than usual, right?"

Toben stared at him before following once Chanyeol stood up to go look out of the window. It was sunny today, no clouds in the sky for the first time the whole week. Chanyeol went to the bathroom to quickly wash up and get a grip of himself. He ran a hand through his hair and grimaced at his dark circles before tugging on his cheek.

He’d never seen dark circles on Baekhyun. He wondered if he just naturally had no dark circles or if he used some makeup magic to cover them up. He’d been wondering a lot of things about Baekhyun since that last party, more than a week ago. Toben clicked his way into the bathroom, running around and jumping up to reach the towel hung next to the sink. Chanyeol snorted at his own reflection and pulled the drawer open. There was a bottle of sunscreen inside that had been there for a long time. He figured sunscreen didn’t expire. Or at least, he hoped so.

He applied a small amount of it, wincing at the white on his cheeks and aggressively rubbing it until the skin was a little red. It didn’t even cover up his dark circles. How useless. It only left his forehead with a glistening sheen.

He dumped the bottle back into the drawer and called out to Toben to follow him.

They walked a little further than usual today, the weather was nice and Chanyeol really did want to make it up to his bestest friend. His mere best friend Jongdae wished he was as adorable as Toben. Chanyeol wished Toben was as calm as Jongdae, especially whenever he suddenly started running, dragging Chanyeol along by the leash, and abruptly stopped, making Chanyeol stop in urgency to avoid tugging on the leash too harshly and hurting him. Toben was his bestest friend but Chanyeol was pretty sure he was Toben’s servant.

Chanyeol was also pretty sure he was hallucinating from the effects of expired milky sunscreen when they walked into a park and he saw Baekhyun a few feet away from them, walking a corgi.

He was wearing a big hoodie and holding onto his phone, muttering something to his dog. It was Baekhyun. It wasn’t a hallucination. Going through a list of synonyms of the word ‘puke’ hadn’t made Chanyeol go mad. It really was Baekhyun walking his dog in the same park as him. Totally sober. Chanyeol was totally sober and he had no idea why Baekhyun just looked like the perfect pillow in that big pastel pink hoodie he was wearing.

Chanyeol snapped out of it when Toben started tugging on his leash with a small bark to get him to walk again. He looked down at him, apologized, and started walking. When he looked up, Baekhyun was looking towards them, probably having heard Toben. Chanyeol swallowed and almost tripped when Toben decided that they should stop walking so he could sniff on a lump of grass.

Baekhyun was walking towards them. Chanyeol should probably start panicking. He should probably decide whether he wanted to talk to Baekhyun or not. They had barely even looked at each other when they’d seen each other in front of Jongdae’s house. But this was different. He wasn’t sure how, but this was different. And stressful, a little.

He had something to say to Baekhyun now. Someone with a bicycle passed in front of him. He could tell Baekhyun that he was wearing sunscreen like he’d promised him to, that night. 

But Baekhyun had been drunk back then. Chanyeol had been sober but not Baekhyun. This wasn’t the same thing as being at a party. They’d never truly talked to each other. Even if Chanyeol knew Baekhyun took sunscreen seriously and liked Gallant’s Weight in Gold. Chanyeol wasn’t sure Baekhyun remembered anything they said to each other under the influence of alcohol. Or anything they did together. All the cuddling.

They weren’t drunk. Neither of them was drunk. They had nothing to say to each other.

Chanyeol stood there, bound by his puppy, and smiled back at Baekhyun when he passed by him. Another nod served as a greeting between them.

Chanyeol didn’t look back once Baekhyun walked out of the park, behind him.

This was his third confirmation. Baekhyun was cute whether Chanyeol was sober or not.

"Baekhyun used to take vocal lessons but he stopped because he got too busy with work."

Chanyeol looked at Junmyeon over the rim of his glass. He had no idea how Junmyeon went from talking about his students to telling him about Baekhyun’s life. He put his glass down.

"Why are you telling me that?" he questioned the other, giving him a suspicious glance that widened Junmyeon’s eyes with casual innocence.

Although, Chanyeol had to say he wasn’t surprised. Baekhyun could even sing. No wonder his humming had sounded so pretty that night. There really seemed to be nothing Baekhyun couldn’t do. It made Chanyeol’s fingers tingle with the urge to grab that glittery bundle of talent and hug him. But he’d never say that to Junmyeon. He already found it weird enough on his own.

"I’m just saying," Junmyeon said, dragging his chair forward when the person sitting behind him pushed theirs back to get up. "Isn’t he your alcohol boyfriend?"

"My what?" The barista called out a name and Chanyeol glanced towards him before narrowing his eyes at Junmyeon whose raised eyebrows looked very annoying as he drank his coffee. He sighed. "Is that how Jongdae calls him?"

Jongdae had made fun of him a few times because of that whole drunk cuddling ordeal. He wasn’t even surprised he’d dragged Junmyeon into the joke to ruin Chanyeol’s life even more with embarrassement. Junmyeon put his cup down when Chanyeol grabbed his again.

"Not really. Jongdae calls him your alcohol teddy bear, I prefer the term boyfriend."

"Stop calling him like that," Chanyeol huffed, halfway between a whine and a groan. A very ugly, embarrassed sound.

Not that it was unpleasant, calling Baekhyun Chanyeol’s boyfriend. That would be one hell of a beautiful boyfriend. Baekhyun was probably a wonderful boyfriend, with his amazing cuddles and his delicious-looking lips. But he wasn’t Chanyeol’s boyfriend. He frowned and took a big gulp of coffee.

Great. Now, Junmyeon had planted the boyfriend idea into his mind and he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to disassociate it from Baekhyun again. Wonderful.

"You do act like you’re boyfriends though," Junmyeon insisted, so casually Chanyeol kind of wanted to tie him into that chair and leave him in a place full of coffee addicts to be driven crazy. 

But Chanyeol was a nice friend so instead, he just childishly kicked Junmyeon under the table.

"Stop it," he threatened him through gritted teeth. Junmyeon snorted. He hadn’t hit him hard enough. Damn him and his way too kind and loving heart. He rested back into his chair and crossed his arms. "It only happens because we’re drunk. I ran into him a few times sober and we w