"Don’t drop the treasure or I’ll kick you out of the car," Chanyeol threatened, closing the door behind him.

Baekhyun snorted and held the square box tighter in his hands. "I’m not even in yet, don’t be mean."

His words were clearer than earlier, when Chanyeol had suggested they got out of that noisy nightclub and grabbed something to eat. Baekhyun had agreed with the drunken yell of a Domino’s! and Chanyeol had sworn they were soulmates at that exact moment. Baekhyun had read his thoughts and maybe he’d also read how beautiful Chanyeol found him. Maybe that was why he’d held his hand and pulled him out of there.

A Domino’s was a few blocks away only and the walk back to Chanyeol’s car had been hilarious. Chanyeol wasn’t sure what he preferred, being drunk off his mind with Baekhyun and laughing hard enough to feel like falling right into Baekhyun’s mouth or being totally sober and watching the alcohol take over Baekhyun’s body.

Sober Chanyeol decided that anything he’d do with Baekhyun, anything he’d feel about him would always be equally as priceless.

Baekhyun groaned theatrically, an exaggerated sound as he closed the door behind him and settled properly on the seat, panting as if he’d just ran a few blocks. They hadn’t. They’d walked. Baekhyun had held onto the pizza. Chanyeol had held onto Baekhyun. 

They hadn’t seen each other in a week. Chanyeol had an early conference call tomorrow morning, about his translation, and he’d only came here because Baekhyun had asked him if he would follow Junmyeon to the club. He’d strayed away from alcohol as much as possible and perhaps that had pushed baekhyun to drink even more, drink for him. Chanyeol still made sure he wasn’t too waisted, he didn’t want to worry about Baekhyun’s hangover tomorrow while discussing anaphoras and canceled literary devices tomorrow at 8am.

"You okay?" he snorted, looking at Baekhyun who was staring down at the pizza box he’d put on his lap.

He looked up at Chanyeol with a cheeky grin.

"I have pizza," was all he replied, causing Chanyeol to burst into a fit of chuckles that amplified into louder laughter when Baekhyun followed along.

It was stupid. Nothing funny. But the tone he’d used was so dreamy, so merry, so childishly innocent, Chanyeol just couldn’t hold it in. Baekhyun swayed towards him until he could rest his temple against his shoulder, vibrating with laughter. 

Or maybe Chanyeol just wasn’t intoxicated on alcohol but on the glow dusted over Baekhyun’s collarbones. That had been the first thing Baekhyun had shown him at the club. He’d grinned at him brightly as soon as they’d met, called his name, hugged him and then pointed at the low collar of his shirt, showing him the highlighter on his collarbones. Chanyeol had found it difficult to pay attention to anything else after that, not even his drinks. The sparkles added definition to the already sharp and thin sculpt of his bones, added creaminess to the already appetizing skin.

It dazzled him as soon as he switched the roof light on. Maybe Baekhyun was so amazing he’d caught the sun as it had set, crushed it between his fingers, and spread it on his skin. Chanyeol would be willing to live in eternal nights if Baekhyun eternally wore highlighter on his collarbones.

To coax him into it, Chanyeol opened up the box to prevent Baekhyun from ripping it in his struggle and let him take the first slice. 

"Is it cheesy enough for you?" Chanyeol asked as Baekhyun stretched his slice away, a greasy string of mozzarella still stubbornly linking it to the other slices. 

"Yes, it’s perfect. It’s gonna ruin my lipstick though," Baekhyun said, frowning as he pressed on the slice that on the left of the one he was holding, to keep it there as he pulled more, until finally the string of cheese snapped. He let out a sound of triumph and then pursed his lips. Alcohol made him switch expressions and moods too quickly. "You’ll still like my lips even if they’re not glossy and sparkly and pink anymore, right?"

Chanyeol kind of wanted to burn himself off with the still fuming pizza. He’d made it too obvious that he liked Baekhyun’s lips.

"I think I’ll like your lips no matter what," he confessed because he was over this. 

He was over hiding his feelings. He’d never really tried to do it anyway. It was difficult to hide the fact that he nursed a crush for Baekhyun when they’d spent so much time cuddling in the first place. Denying things would be ridiculous.

And when Baekhyun grinned, the fluff of his cheeks glowing, their highest points blazing beauty, the curvature of happiness on his lips lasting even through the first bite into his pizza, Chanyeol knew that honesty was the right way to go with things. It earned him the joy and privilege of making Baekhyun smile so brightly.

"I hope you don’t mind though, I know you preferred that one pizza with lots of veggies," Baekhyun said around his mouthful of cheese as Chanyeol separated his own slice from the rest of the pizza. 

A little bit of sauce stained the corner of Baekhyun’s lips before he it clean. Cute. 

"Nah, I really like cheese too so I don’t mind eating this," he said, biting into it and humming at the various sorts of cheese merging into one satisfying flavor. "And the club was getting too loud anyway, I feel much better here."

It wasn’t always fun to be the only sober one amongst your friends, especially at a club. Only Baekhyun truly stayed with him, talked to him, pulled him closer as they danced, and let Chanyeol cuddle into his shoulder. 

"Clubs get boring after some time," Baekhyun hummed, already engulfing the crust of his pizza. He was a fast eater. Chanyeol wasn’t sure it was a good thing when allied to how much alcohol he had in his stomach, even if he was much more sober than when they’d been at the club. "I’m having much more fun here with you. Even if we’re just eating pizza and talking."

If Baekhyun continued being so sweet, Chanyeol would melt and turn into goo and cheese. Though, he wouldn’t mind being eaten by that mouth. Baekhyun slurped a string of mozzarella into his mouth, lips puckering adorably, shinily. From the gloss, from the cheese, from the fact that they were Baekhyun’s lips.

"If we put music on, this could be our personal nightclub," Chanyeol chortled, humming in distress when his pizza turned stringy.

Baekhyun laughed, laughed more when the first song that came on when Chanyeol put his phone on shuffle was the Baby Shark song. Baekhyun using his pizza as a fin and dancing to the song was a sight to behold, a sight that made Chanyeol wheeze. Baekhyun humming along to Coldplay was something Chanyeol wished he could record. He almost preferred it to the original song. That said something. Chanyeol had gone to four Coldplay concerts. Baekhyun complementing him on his music taste was something Chanyeol would, from then on, put more value to than the diploma he’d gotten after studying English and Korean for five years. 

Baekhyun sobered up little by little, turned mushier and drowsier little by little. Chanyeol put on his ballads playlist, let it play, and asked Baekhyun to give him a complete list of the veggies he didn’t like. He’d been horrified back at Domino’s when Baekhyun had told him he didn’t like bell peppers.

The list Baekhyun gave him was long, terrifyingly so. He’d had to find a list of vegetables on the internet, read it, and gave his opinion on each of them. Chanyeol had never thought someone just plainly reading vegetable names and trashing their taste or nutritional value would be cute. And yet here he was, crush growing, culminating the urge to curl up on Baekhyun’s lap and stick his ear to his chest to listen to the vibrations of his voice. 

He forgave Baekhyun for basically liking and semi regularly eating only four basic vegetables. Terrible. Chanyeol had never thought he’d be by a vegetable hater. Baekhyun was truly amazing.

He promised both Baekhyun and himself that he’d, one day, cook eggplants in a way that Baekhyun would like it. 

When Baekhyun accepted the challenge earnestly instead of arguing that he’d never like that weird, gooey, kinda pulp-like vegetable, Chanyeol had to keep in the thought that he wouldn’t mind cooking for Baekhyun for the rest of his life.

This novel .

There were too many useless simply’s. Too many flowery sentences that Chanyeol just didn’t understand the use of. The characters stepped in or forward or back or closer too much. There was a billion other ways to describe characters walking towards a certain destination. He’d seen the word soft used at least a hundred times and he was barely halfway through the novel. There was only so many Korean synonyms of the word soft Chanyeol could find to diversify the vocabulary of the novel. If he had to translate that despicable word one more time, he’d throw his own head into the screen. Or print the novel and shred it page by page.

He downed his third cup of coffee of the day, slammed the empty mug back down on his bedside table, snuggled back into his pillow, adjusted his laptop so it wouldn’t dig into his stomach anymore, and drummed his fingers on the keyboard without pressing on anything. He was saved by the flash of light in the corner of his eye.

Diving for his phone, Chanyeol sighed in admiration at Baekhyun’s name on the screen. What a hero, what a life safer, sending Chanyeol a snap just when Chanyeol wished he didn’t need the money and could drop this ty novel.

Discarding words and sentence structures, Chanyeol opened up the app and instantly huffed a chuckle out at the picture popping on his screen. Baekhyun wearing a sheet mask, frozen features but casual stance in his sweatpants and baggy shirt. He was holding the phone up above him, minimizing his shoulder size and maximizing his head size, his free hand tucked into his pocket. Don’t I make the hottest ghost, the caption said.

And yes. Yes, he did. If Baekhyun were a ghost, Chanyeol would very much enjoy being haunted by him until the day he died. Possibly possessed too. Coffee always picked his up by a little. Or maybe that was just Baekhyun’s effect.

After staring at the picture for much longer than necessary, Chanyeol typed a quick cutest hottest ghost who takes care of his skin, and then put his phone down. He should be translating. Baekhyun put a lot of importance into skincare.  A few days ago, he’d sent him a mini essay about exfoliating and moisturizing in the form of almost twenty notifications. Chanyeol learned Baekhyun suggested skincare products that he deemed necessary to each of his clients after doing their makeup. That was kind. Chanyeol thought he didn’t have to, he was a makeup artist after all, not a skincare artist. He stared at the blocks of words on his screen until his phone lit up.

Look I even have patterned ones, was the caption on a picture full of thin-looking packages. Strawberries, teddybears, an anime character he didn’t know, and even a pikachu-patterned one.

Oh my god you have so many and they’re all so cute??? he sent, biting his lower as he imagined Baekhyun with the teddybear sheet mask on his face. The only teddybear Chanyeol needed in his life. 

He waited, eyes stuck to the screen as Baekhyun typed. That’s not many at all! I don’t even have enough TT.

Chanyeol sighed. Emojis should be stupid and childish. Not adorable and endearing.

That’s not many?? Aren’t they reusable though? he asked, genuinely curious. And also Baekhyun got extra cute whenever he talked about makeup or skincare and Chanyeol was willing to ask a hundred questions if needed.

Baekhyun answer came quickly enough. You never used a sheet mask before, have you?

Chanyeol frowned. That meant it had been a stupid question. That was alright. The amusement he could imagine on Baekhyun’s face was worth it. That little smile he had in his eyes, the part of his lips, ready to laugh or make Chanyeol laugh. Moreover, no stupid questions meant nothing to learn.

Uhhh no I haven’t, he said, suddenly wondering if he should’ve listened to his sister whenever she claimed that sheet masks were the best thing ever invented.

His phone lit up and Chanyeol looked down at it.

You’re going to come over asap and I’m going to plaster one of these on your face.

Chanyeol knew being a would get him to important places someday.

"I never thought I’d see this day with my own two eyes," Jongdae said, shaking his head dramatically at his phone, with his best imitation of a teary smile.

"Is that why you took a screenshot of it," Chanyeol snorted, looking at the picture of Baekhyun and him making blank faces at the camera, features draped by mast sheets. 

Chanyeol hadn’t really thought about the consequences when Baekhyun had asked if he wanted them to take a snap last night.

"This is a historical moment," Jongdae huffed, locking his phone and putting it on the table to grab his cup of coffee instead. "You usually hate putting stuff on your face. But Baekhyun convinced you to keep a whole mask sheet on for a few minutes. Powerful, truly."

Chanyeol groaned, dropped his fingers on the table and dropped his forehead against a forearm. Jongdae wasn’t making fun of him per se, he wasn’t wrong at all either. It was just a little embarrassing to hear how whipped he was for Baekhyun. This was the worst crush ever and the best crush ever at the same time.

"There, there," Jongdae snorted as Chanyeol felt him pat his head. 

It didn’t make him feel better, especially since they were in a mildly crowded coffee shop and Chanyeol probably looked miserable to anyone who’d see this scene. And he wasn’t miserable. He was ecstatic, that was the thing. Baekhyun made him so happy. And they weren’t even anything yet, nothing was happening yet. 

Chanyeol kind of wanted things to happen now. He really wanted to act up on his fuzzy feelings now.

"Soon, you’ll even let him do your makeup at this rate."

He raised his head off the table and supported it on the palm of a hand. He hummed at Jongdae’s amused curls on the corners of his lips.

"That might not be too bad, actually." he shrugged, grabbing his mug to sip on it as Jongdae raised his eyebrows. "He brushed my cheek with a brush once and it was so soft. Kind of a pleasant sensation."

"Actually, you’re right," Jongdae said, huffing a laugh out before his next words. "Sooyeon once sat me down and did my makeup just for the hell of it. It was pretty relaxing until she started drawing on my cheek."

"That sounds exactly like her," Chanyeol chortled, moving his cup in circles on the table.

"Would you be into that though? Makeup?"

He looked back up at Jongdae and tilted his head. He could say yes, with nothing to fear. He was completely aware that boys a