In the end, Baekhyun decided that the better thing to do was let Jongdae into the room and have him ask Chanyeol about it. Call it a gut feeling but Baekhyun feels like Chanyeol’s more inclined to tell Jongdae about it rather than him. He knows, really, how stupid of him to pull his favor for something as small as this. But in all honesty, he doesn’t know if he could ever cash in the favor that Jongdae owed him in the future.

Baekhyun feels more like he owes something rather than the other way around. After a few more minutes of waiting, Chanyeol arrives with a food tray in tow.

*

Jongdae groans frustratedly, this wasn’t even possible. The sheer absurdity of the whole thing makes him want to cry at how he’s got a handful of idiots just waiting for the other shoe to drop. If he knew this was going to happen a few months back, he would’ve just said it and left them locked into a room together except – they are. They’re stuck as roommates for months and nothing happened.

“God, please give me the strength not to strangle either of them,” He mutters as soon as he’s read the letters while Chanyeol was in basketball practice and Baekhyun was called to the nurse’s clinic. He hears the door twist open, he expects Baekhyun coming in until he sees Chanyeol standing there, still in his basketball jersey with a towel slung across his shoulders. Crap.

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol asks, eyes widening when he sees Jongdae clutching the letters.

“I’m looking for dirty magazines?” Jongdae supplies. There’s a really slim chance that Chanyeol would question that given, well, Jongdae’s reputation. The one time he got caught was the one time he wasn’t even looking for it. Not to mention, Chanyeol isn’t really the type to hide magazines under his bed – he’s more likely to hide Baekhyun’s pictures and Jongdae isn’t even kidding.

Chanyeol rubs a hand across his face, the image of someone who’s just been caught guilty. Jongdae wants to twist his mouth in disapproval – his affections for the older is clear as day that you would have to be a real idiot not to see it, wait, scratch that. The two idiots have already reached their peak at being idiots.

“So, you know.” The taller sighs – put upon. Jongdae acts mildly surprised for his sake.

“Uh, yeah. Are you going to confess?” Jongdae asks.

Chanyeol looks at him as if he’s the one nuts – Jongdae raises an eyebrow, I’m not the one hiding love letters, he doesn’t say. The taller goes on to sit on his bed while Jongdae sits comfortably on the floor. The thing is, now that Chanyeol’s caught him red-handed, pfft, he’s not going to be able to tell Baekhyun what the letters are. He’s going to have to improvise if he doesn’t want Chanyeol getting mad at him.

“No. There’s just,” Chanyeol trails off, eyes going unfocused like he’s thinking too hard about the complications. Jongdae still thinks they’re idiots.

“Look, take my advice – just go and confess. It’ll work itself out.” He says, maybe they need a little more push, more nudge. Gods, this wasn’t what he signed up for when he first asked for that favor from Baekhyun. He did get out more than Baekhyun did in their deal, after all, he’s happy with Minseok who’s still exasperated at him most of the time.

Chanyeol shakes his head, scandalized. “He’d hate me. I can’t risk our friendship like that.”

Jongdae frowns, if Chanyeol really believed that Baekhyun doesn’t share the same feelings then that would be indeed a deal breaker. He understands somewhat, Chanyeol’s perspective in all this. He’s not one for being selfish. “So, what? You’re just going to keep your mouth shut and forever hold your peace?” Jongdae chuckles, trying to make light of the situation. He had to find a way to push a confession from Chanyeol to Baekhyun.

Chanyeol doesn’t say anything and Jongdae looks at him incredulously. “You’re serious? No, you can’t do that! What if someone comes along and steals him?” Jongdae says gesturing it with his hands, as if that would make it more believable. “You have to confess, you’re going to get hurt if you don’t. And if there was even a slim chance, you have to take it, he’s the love of your life!” He says, quoting from one of the letters.

The taller throws a pillow on his face which quite frankly he deserved. He laughs anyway.

“I know that’s why I can’t have him hating me for the rest of our lives,”

“He’s not going to hate you, it’ll be the opposite.” Jongdae says, pretty convincingly he might add.

“You’re awfully optimistic today,”

“Gods, you’re an idiot.” Jongdae smiles wryly at him. Chanyeol gives him an offended look. “I’m saying that there’s more than a fifty percent chance he’s not going to hate you.”

“That’s still fifty percent more likely,”

Jongdae buries his face on his hands and finally puts both of it up in mock surrender. “I give up, I don’t know what to say anymore.” He says, resisting the urge to scream or worse, bash Chanyeol’s head in. So, he gets up from the floor and leaves, like any rational person would do. They can be idiots together, he doesn’t care anymore, it.

Chanyeol’s brows are knitted as he sees Jongdae walk out of the room with his arms up. He didn’t even know what he did this time, and he should’ve been more than mad that Jongdae went snooping through his stuff. Jongdae was acting weird – he’s not usually like this. And since when did he tolerate Baekhyun? Didn’t they hate each other?

He looks at his feet – he had the cast off today since coach had been badgering him to get back on the team. He probably had an inkling that Chanyeol may have been faking the half of it to get off from practice. The team had welcomed him back although Hongbin wasn’t as pleasant to him like the others were. Chanyeol couldn’t blame him, he did decide to one-up the guy in the last game.

After much deliberation, he decided to go see if Baekhyun’s still in the nurse’s office. He hoped he wasn’t getting the flu – not that Chanyeol minded getting sick too, but they would probably isolate him from the dorms if it was the case, to ensure no one else gets infected. He grabs a book from his night stand, a copy of Sherlock Holmes that he used to read whenever he’s bored – Baekhyun might probably need it if the nurse is keeping him in the clinic.

The walk to the clinic was short, Chanyeol peeked his head in and threw a charming smile at the nurse who in return just rolled her eyes at his antics.

“Your friend is here,” She says out loud and Chanyeol sees Baekhyun sitting up on one of the beds with a weary look. He did look a bit better than he was last night though. The nurse sees Chanyeol pause at the door, “He’s not contagious. It passed, he can go back to his room.” She says, going back to scribbling something on her notepad. Baekhyun gives him a wave.

“Well, that’s a shame. I brought a book and all to keep you company, I guess you’re stuck with me again,”

Baekhyun shrugs, “Looks like it,” Chanyeol quickly rushes to his side to help him up, he’s still a little bit weak from the looks of it but at least his fever went way. Baekhyun, thankfully, doesn’t protest and wraps his arm over Chanyeol’s shoulder. They walk like that back to their room with a few banters here and there. Chanyeol tried to squash down the feeling of disappointment when they reach their room as he helped Baekhyun sit on his own bed. The warmth of Baekhyun’s body against his now entirely leaving him. He couldn’t help the thought that if only their room was farther from the nurse’s clinic then they would’ve spent their time longer. It’s as close to Baekhyun as he is ever going to get.

“What’s with the sour face?” Baekhyun asks as soon as he’s settled comfortably on his bed. He meant to ask Jongdae if he found out what the boxes contained but with Chanyeol in the same room, it seemed too risky to try and text the other. Besides, he’s not rushing to know what it is. Chanyeol quickly schools back his expression to something neutral, as if he’s a better actor than Baekhyun.

“What?” He says, opting for clueless that Baekhyun shakes his head in amusement. Ridiculous.

“Never mind,” Baekhyun says, snapping. He doesn’t know why he’s sud