A week had gone by and it was no surprise to Baekhyun when he had walked into school the next day just to find the shorter one from his group finally make the decision to walk on over to the tall to confront him about the situation for the past week.

Ever since Baekhyun had called the pair out for their reckless behaviour, Chanyeol and Sehun had done nothing but go out of their way to tease and bully the sensible trio. Whether it be in the cafeteria or in class, it was their goal to seek and destroy their confidence, as well as self-esteem, and Minseok had just about had enough of it.

What did surprise Baekhyun though, was the way Kyungsoo and Jongdae trailed behind Minseok. They conveyed a sense of hesitation and helplessness whilst they dragged their feet, each whisper-shouting a variety of 'Think about this!' and 'Stop!'s as he slowly approached Chanyeol and Sehun. This wasn't very likely of them at all, Baekhyun thought as he watched from the corner of the study room.

Minseok figured that even though Chanyeol wasn't alone, he was not going to let that fact stop him from saying something as he knew himself, Baekhyun, Jongdae and Kyungsoo had suffered way too much for him not to do something. If he was going to do something, he was going to do it now.

Chanyeol would be listening to Sehun brag about some random hookup last weekend before getting bodily turned around by the rather aggravated looking older.

"What makes you think you're better than anyone else?" Minseok blurted out, arms crosses and complexion slightly crimson from pure frustration.

Chanyeol's eyebrow would raise slightly, but still remained silent. Minseok took this as a cue to continue as he took a deep breath through his nose before allowing himself to soldier on.

"You have no right in consistently trying to embarass my friends for the past week now. Just because you can't get over the fact that someone has come into your life and told you nothing but the truth about how you need to change your ways for not only yourself, but for everyone else, does not mean you should think it's okay to do such things like trip us up in corridors and take our ." Minseok would be tapping his foot aggressively at this point, slightly relieving the massive amount of angry pent up energy he had been holding in from this whole situation.

Minseok turned round for a moment as he noticed the rhythm of Kyungsoo's breathing change whilst the other clenched his fist, looking back at Chanyeol with a blank expression.

"And I know for a fact, someone is still heated over the fact that their favourite jacket has been stolen. As he should be."

Despite the raw anger right in front of him, no emotion so much as flickered over Chanyeol's face as Minseok was only left with seeing a small smirk appear on the taller one's lips. When it was clear that Minseok had been done ranting,a heavy sigh could only be heard from Chanyeol as his arrogant friend started to snigger beside him once again.

"Listen Minsock, I'm- is that your name?"

In an instant, Minseok felt all of his righteous anger drain out of him as he suddenly felt knocked down from the humiliating mispronounciation of his name. Taking a moment to recover, he weakly managed to get out a, "It's Minseok".

Chanyeol nodded carelessly. "Right, Minseok. It's an actual shame that you're really standing here in front of us, wasting both our precious times by trying to address we don't care about. Clearly you have deeper issues going on, but don't worry. I'm sure you'll find the one eventually, crushing on close ones isn't the best idea. Also you're not my type so there's no way you'll be getting anything from me. Sorry." Chanyeol shrugged.

Minseok could only stand there with his mouth agape as he tried to process what the hell Chanyeol had just said to him. He wouldn't be able to look back at the two of his friends, especially Jongdae, as Chanyeol had essentially exposed the older one's crush for his best friend.

Suddenly, a distant laugh could be heard as it broke the silence between the lot of them. Chanyeol's head tilts to the right in disbelief as he thinks to himself on how this situation would be funny to anyone else except Sehun.

With a wide smile on his face and a stride in his step, Baekhyun made his way over to the scene as he placed himself conveniently right in front of Chanyeol.

"Are you ing kidding me? Like you've got to be ing kidding me right now. You are actually acting SO pathetic over the pettiest thing of me commenting on both of your lifestyles. How ing damaged do you have to be? Did you never get any validation as a child? Mummy never complimented your drawings? Daddy never come to any of your games? We all know that-"

"You just want a kiss from the Mr Park Chanyeol himself? You shoulda just asked me idiot!"

Baekhyun stood dumbfounded for a moment. After every word that had dripped with venom, Chanyeol still somehow maintained that patronising looking smile on his face. He fumbled for his words as he replied back. "Why I ought to- Don't make me come up there!" He'd proceed to shake his fist as he angrily paced his feet on the spot from side to side.

Chanyeol's smile doesn't droop at all, if anything he looked even more charmed at Baekhyun's attitude.

Baekhyun sighed as he still got no response. "Look, Chanyell-"

"Chanye-" Chanyeol tried to interrupt, making Baekhyun immediately shake his head.

"I don't care. Listen, Chanyell, neither I nor my friends here want anything to do with the two of you, so why don't you just off?"

Baekhyun truly hated how there was a part of him that would most definitely like to be affliated with Chanyeol. If it weren't for his friends literally standing behind him, as well as the rest of the study room listening in, he would've never said something as rude. In fact, he'd probably continue to tease all the way up until they actually kissed.

His friends would start to make their way to the door as Baekhyun trailed slowly behind, stopping in his tracks halfway down the hallway as he heard Chanyeol's booming voice call out to him. Baekhyun looked back for a moment as he debated whether or not to stop the insufferable man.

Seeming as he wasn't bothered to catch up with the others, he decided to comply and turn around.

"I figured whilst you're still in arms reach, I'd ask for your help... So, I heard you've been getting good grades recently in English." Chanyeol pauses to let Baekhyun confirm or deny, but Baekhyun did neither as he didn't want to give him the satisfaction of having an answer, and it's with another smirk that Chanyeol continues.

"I'm doing terribly in the class right now, and I'm completely ed if I don't get my grades up. Do you think we could maybe meet up on a weekly basis so you can help me out? I don't mind whether it be at the library or even at someone's house after college is finished with."

boys are a different species, Baekhyun thought as he racked his brain for a moment to come up with something quick on the spot.

"I haven't been doing that good in English." Baekhyun lied.

"I heard you speaking on the phone the other day in the study room during one of your free periods. You sounded pretty pleased to brag about the grades you got to whoever you were talking to at the time... and didn't you have a full on conversation to a foreigner the other day, over the phone? It sounded way better than most people taking the actual course."

Baekhyun frowns. Apparently Chanyeol was eavesdropping in on past phone calls and he didn't know how to feel about it. Angry? Concerned? Either way, why was he feeling somewhat oddly flattered?

"That wasn't me though, and even if it was – that's pretty ing creepy to confess, dude." Another blatant lie.

Chanyeol kept that same smug expression that was getting on Baekhyun's nerves as he shrugged lightly at the older one's words.

"Well if you do happen to find someone who's doing good in English or you magically remember how to speak English, pop up on Insta."

"Do your own work." Baekhyun growled as he roughly pushed past him.

When Baekhyun had finally made his way to the end of the hallway, he was greeted by the rest of his group.

"What was that all about? We saw Chanyeol talking to you back there." Kyungsoo asked with a tone of confusion.

"Who knows what goes on in a boy's mind," Baekhyun shrugs.

"Anyways, back to binge watching the show I've probably seen a hundred times by now on my laptop and hating myself in the process." He chuckled as he led his friends back to their usual library spot during their free periods.

Things are finally looking up for the group. Minseok and Baekhyun's confrontation managed to get the duo to put their shenanigans to a halt as Baekhyun was now able to start concentrating in lessons without having to hear any irrelevant comments. Furthermore, the others seemed to not be getting any hassle from the pair, especially Sehun. The only way it could have been better, in Baekhyun's opinion, was if everyone could've minded their own damn business as rumours of Minseok being Jongdae's secret admirer started to spread as Chanyeol's hint left his lips. Nosy students who were there that day heard the line and decided to tell the rest of the year what the taller one had said.

Though Minseok was fine with how things were as he knew after a while, the other students would eventually put together that rumours are just rumours. The ones that had common sense anyways.

"The showcase is in a week guys... With everything going on, we haven't really had time to prepare for it." Minseok remarked whilst looking at the flyer pinned to the billboard of the library.

The boys were starting to stress out. They had a drama showcase coming up, which was getting recorded and assessed by their drama teacher, so it was important that they made sure to practise on the daily.

"We're spending the weekend at Jongdae's to prepare anyways. I'm sure we'll pull through." Baekhyun shrugged.

"Yeah I guess," Minseok sighed. "I just wish that we had more time though."

"Oh? You guys in the upcoming production?" chimed Chanyeol.

Baekhyun huffed as he heard the familiar voice. He thought that he had already told this guy to off and do his own work. He turned around to glare at him.

"What could you possibly want now?" His question managed to crack a playful smile from Chanyeol. Baekhyun wanted to sigh in the moment, he just could not win with boys.

"I came to see if your 'mIsSiNg eNgLiSh aBiLiTy' has come back."

"Oh honey, it's still just as missing as your sense of respect - Now off." Baekhyun would wave his hand in a dismissive manner as he turned back round to face his group.

As per usual, Chanyeol did not get dissuaded by Baekhyun's harsh words. Instead of responding back, he just kept looking at Baekhyun. Even if the short boy had his back to him.

Baekhyun couldn't help but feel Chanyeol's presence still behind him as he whipped round to give him a raised brow, the smaller one instantly regretting to look back once he had. He had tried to resist a noticeable gulp as he noticed the oddly sincere look in Chanyeol's stare as he looked up at the boy.

"What?"

"Well Baekhyun, you're beautiful."

For a split second, Baekhyun could've sworn that his heart sped up before his brain had caught up with him. This was Park Chanyeol, the guy who brutally hurt Minseok's feelings. The guy who was also able to get to Baekhyun through stupid compliments on his appearance.

The feeling of happiness would burn to ash once he focused on the first statement of hurting his close friend's feelings along with damaging his pride in the process.

"So boys really do have only one thing on their minds. Let's go, boys." Baekhyun scoffed as he didn't even bother looking at Chanyeol whilst he turned back round to walk away, his loyal friends following closely behind.