"He crumbled the note right in front of me!"

"Then that's a no"

"But he almost smiled at me!"

"Then that's a yes"

"Then why was he glaring at me!"

"That means no"

"But then why would he tell me about the time he finishes library?"

"That's a yes"

"Yah Kim ing Jongdae are you kidding me?"

"WHAAT?"

"You are not helping me here! what does that mean a yes or a no?"

"How would I ing know it's not me who was with him up there!"

"..." Chanyeol sat at the plastic chair next to Jongdae "This is all because of you dickhead" He made sure to kick his friend's chair hard enough that he almost lost his balance under the ahjumma next to them threatening gaze since they were cursing in front of her child.

"YAH YOU'LL GET US KICKED FROM HERE YOU " Jongdae threw him a disgusted look after he balanced himself on the chair again.

After what happened at the rooftop, Chanyeol immediately fished his phone calling Jongdae who was at a convenience store nearby the university.

After they met up, Chanyeol narrated everything that has happened to Jongdae as he found it hard to interpret what Baekhyun's answer was, but, to no one's surprise, Jongdae was of no help as he hardly paid Chanyeol any attention while he was on his phone.

"I hate you! I really do! Why are you doing this to me?" Chanyeol whined.

"Everything comes with a price Chanie"

"I'm literally your best friend!"

"Unfortunately for you then"

"You're a ..."

They fell into silence as Jongdae was grinning at his phone, Chanyeol next to him frowning at the empty space in front of him.

"What are you even doing?" Chanyeol tried to snatch his friend's phone and Jongdae just jolted back causing his chair to lose balance one more time except that this time he fell for real after somehow the leg of the plastic chair broke and Chanyeol just couldn't help but throw a fit of laughter ignoring the people around staring at them.

Of course, after that, they were kicked out by the owner after paying for the broken chair.

" it's all because of you "

"It wasn't me who pushed you tho... But I believe this is Karma for what you are doing to me"

"Yah don't you have a date or something right now why are you still roaming around my annoying the out of me"

"What why what time is it?"

"Seven-thirty"

"WHAT WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIER"

With that, Chanyeol started running toward their university since he didn't bring his car and it'd take him around fifteen minutes to get there if he just walked, and he was already standing on unsure lands with Baekhyun.

It took him a little over ten minutes to get there running, the area was deserted, and when he reached the library, the lights were all off and the old librarian he recognized as Mrs. Kang was closing the door with keys.

He stood there panting one hand on his knee while the other fished his phone. '7:42'

"!" He hissed under his breath as he looked around, maybe Baekhyun didn't go that far.

As he was doing so, a thought crossed his mind that maybe Baekhyun lied to him? Maybe he wasn't even at the library to begin with?

Convinced that it was the case, Chanyeol slowly walked out of the university after his breath came back to normal, frustrated that he was played, returning his hopes of getting Eunji to point zero.

He stood at the entrance of the uni thinking of what he should do next, if he should just announce his defeat to Jongdae? Or maybe try again with Baekhyun tomorrow?

Lost in his thoughts, he almost missed the silhouette in the dark of the night that just fell, sitting back to him on the bench right in front of the gates.

It was obviously Baekhyun and for a moment, Chanyeol felt guilty of doubting him. Baekhyun seemed unaware of Chanyeol's presence as he was quietly seated on the bench.

"Baekhyun?" Chanyeol asked tentatively as he approached where the other boy was, but he received no answer "Baekhyun?" He asked again still no answer.

That was when he saw that Baekhyun had his eyes closed and the phone in his hand connected to his earphones that were plugged to his ears.

Chanyeol walked until he was next to him, sat down while he unplugged one of Baekhyun's earphones and put it on his ear. Startled, Baekhyun on reflex backed away and the phone slipped out of his hand and it almost crushed to the ground if it wasn't for Chanyeol that acted fast and caught it in time.

"Hey it's just me" Chanyeol said with a faint smile as he handed Baekhyun his phone back.

"You scared me" Baekhyun mumbled as he took his phone back. Chanyeol tried to re-take the earphone but Baekhyun snatched it away and hid both his phone and earphones in his pocket.

"What were you listening to? I won't judge you even if you were listening to some bubble-gum songs"

"You're late" Baekhyun changed the subject, his voice monotonous.

"You waited for me tho"

"I told you I'll be here... I kept my word"

They stayed in uncomfortable silence for a while before Chanyeol spoke up.

"So... Let's go eat something?"

"I'm not hungry"

"Let's go for a walk?"

"I'm tired"

"I'll bring my car it's in the parking"

"I don't feel like riding your car"

Oh God, what did you get yourself into Chanyeol...

"You are going to give me a hell of a hard time aren't you?" Chanyeol asked a bit amused at how Baekhyun frowned.

"You asked me to date you, you still can take back your words if you think so"

"Oh, so we are dating now not just getting to know each other?" Asked Chanyeol with a smirk.

"..." Baekhyun whispered softly but Chanyeol was able to hear it.

"Yah! I heard that!"

"Good for you then..." Baekhyun was tracing invisible circles on the fabric of his bag that he was hugging.

"Oh God, I'm going to regret this" Chanyeol singsonged causing Baekhyun to stop what he was doing and look at him.

"You know what, I'll just pretend I haven't seen you or heard anything you said at the rooftop today, you won't have to regret anything" And he stood up ready to walk away until a hand grasped his wrist.

"Let go of me!" Baekhyun tried to free his hand but to no avail.

"Are you always this uptight? I was joking"

"It didn't sound like a joke to me"

Well... it is technically not a joke, Chanyeol knows he will regret this.

"I was kidding" He let go of Baekhyun's wrist and the later just stared at him. Without another word, Baekhyun turned around already heading toward the main road. Chanyeol watched in disbelieve and cursed numerous times under his breath before following him and grabbing his wrist once again, this time dragging him opposite from where he was headed.

"What do you think you're doing!"

"Let's go somewhere" Chanyeol continued to drag the frail boy behind him.

"I don't want to go anywhere with you leave me alone" Baekhyun was struggling to free his hand. Chanyeol stopped walking and turned to him. Thankfully nobody was around except for the uni's security guard that was eye-ing them from his place.

"I was just trying to joke around, why are you being like this!"

"Look, as you said I am going to give you hard time, I'm going to make you regret asking me out that is obviously what is going to happen, so let's just end it here befo-"

"I asked you out, I am willing to take the risk" Chanyeol smiled at him although it was forced.

"I'm gonna make you regret this..." Baekhyun was frowning at him again.

"My skin is thick I'll handle it" And he dragged Baekhyun again with him.

"Where are we even going" Baekhyun was willingly letting himself dragged.

"A new ice-cream shop two blocks from here, maybe it will cool down that temper of yours" Chanyeol eyed him from the side.

"Pfft..." Was Baekhyun's replay.

They walked in silence a distance separating them after Baekhyun freed his hand from Chanyeol's.

Chanyeol kept throwing glances every now and then at the other boy, the way he was still hugging his bag to his chest.

"Want me to carry that for you?" Chanyeol gestured to the bag.

"No"

"Are you still mad?"

"No"

"You look like you are"

"Whatever"

Chanyeol chuckled and pushed the door open for Baekhyun and himself.

The place was rather cozy, at most six tablets spread here and there in the not-so-big space that was the Ice-cream shop, Some soft ballad music playing.

There were not that many people there, only two out of the six tables were occupied. Baekhyun stood there scanning the place with his eyes, not knowing what to do next, until Chanyeol put his hands on his shoulders and guided him to a rather secluded table from the rest that had a view of the outside through the window.

"What flavors do you want me to get you?" Chanyeol was standing while Baekhyun was seated, eyes on the window looking outside.

"I don't want anything..."

"Baekhyun..." No answer "Please let's not complicate things okay? I apologized... What do you want me to get you?"

After a few seconds Baekhyun diverted his gaze to Chanyeol and shrugged his shoulders "Anything..."

"Anything? Baekhyun I-"

"Anything is fine..." His voice dropped a few notches.

"You don't have a favorite flavor?" Chanyeol asked in disbelieve and Baekhyun just shook his head.

Chanyeol left still shocked over how someone doesn't have a favorite ice-cream flavor. Opting for a safe choice, he chose Almond/Nuts for Baekhyun and a more exotic flavor for himself (Mango/Strawberry). He paid his purchase in the counter after having a small chat with the cashier since he was a regular, and then took the tray and headed back to his table with Baekhyun.

Putting the tray he was holding on the table, he pulled the chair across from Baekhyun. The cup of Almond/Nuts was deposed in front of the other boy while he took the Mango/Strawberry to himself and sat down.

Baekhyun looked back and forth between Chanyeol who already had a spoon inside his mouth, and the cup in front of him. Sighting, he pulled the cup closer and took a small portion out of it.

They sat once again in uncomfortable silence, Chanyeol digging on his ice-cream while Baekhyun bearly eating it and just playing with it.

Chanyeol took the opportunity to stare at his bo- well... almost-not-really new boyfriend. He seemed lost in thoughts, swirling the spoon in now the melted ice-cream in the cup.

Now if Chanyeol was to be honest with himself, Baekhyun wasn't bad, physically talking, far from it actually, he was quite pretty for a boy. Chanyeol couldn't help but imagine how far better he will look without the panda circles around his eyes and a little weight for his cheeks.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Lost in his thoughts as well, Chanyeol didn't realize that Baekhyun was staring back at him.

"You're pretty" Cause Chanyeol had no filter.

"Cheezy" Baekhyun mumbled under his breath but it was loud enough for Chanyeol to hear it.

"Hey... Let's play a game" Chanyeol put away his cup and folded his hands on the table.

"A... Game?"

"We practically don't know anything about each other... Let's do that twenty questions game or something"

"Are we teenagers or something? What kind of game is this?"

"Come on let's just do this"

"Seriously how old are you?"

"Speaking of which how old are you?" Chanyeol asked.

"Twenty-three..." Baekhyun answered.

"We're the same age... What month?"

"May..."

"I'm in February! Call me hyung!" Chanyeol grinned.

"Pfft..."

They continued their Q&A for some time, Chanyeol asking all sort of questions and Baekhyun barely answering with a word or two, not doing any effort of asking Chanyeol anything (This later took it upon himself to answer un-asked questions about himself).

Chanyeol knew about different things like the fact that unlike him who had an older sister, Baekhyun was a lonely child, joined their university with a scholarship just like Jongdae, and that he still lived with his mother and didn't move to the dorms provided by the university since the house was nearby the uni anyway.

Chanyeol also learned that Baekhyun helps sometime in the library for extra grades in literature club and that he works a part-time job at some coffee shop.

The answers were half-hearted and mostly forcefully answered, but somehow as they went by, it eased some of the tension between the two.

It was a little past 9 PM and somewhere around the forty-two question asked by Chanyeol when they-read Baekhyun-decided it was time to call it a night.

"Should I walk you home?" Chanyeol said as they exited the ice-cream shop.

"No..."

They stood there, Baekhyun hugging his bag avoiding Chanyeol's gaze for some time.

"I-I'll go now" Baekhyun was about to head his way when-

"Hey Baekhyun..."

"Hum?"

"You didn't give me your phone number"

"Why would you need my ph-" His sentence was cut when Chanyeol took two/three strides to him and before he even knew it, Chanyeol reached to his pocket retrieving his phone.

"Ya!" Baekhyun tried to reach for his phone "What are you doing!"

"There is no point in asking you anyways" Chanyeol unlocked the screen and was met with a cute picture of a little Corgi "Is this your dog?"

"None of your business... Give it back!" Baekhyun tried to reach for it once again while Chanyeol was holding it up still tapping on it.

After some struggling-Trying to keep the phone out of Baekhyun's reach-, Coldplay's Everglow resonated. Chanyeol reached for his own phone in his pocket and grinned, holding the two phones as he tapped few more times on Baekhyun's before giving it back.

"I hate you" Baekhyun glared at him while pocketing his phone back to where it was and walking away.

"YOU'LL EVENTUALLY LOVE ME!" Shouted Chanyeol at him before walking the opposite direction patting his pocket.

Mission Succeeded... Jongdae'd better give him Eunji's number...

Notes:

Anyways for those who are wondering, no, Baekhyun is not someone who's teenager phase hit late at Twenty-three, every action of his I made, is calculated and has a reason behind it, pay attention carefully to everything he does cause it'll be key events for the last chapters of this fic.

I totally struggled with the making of Baekhyun's character here, I had a certain picture in my head, but once I started actually writing, the character I created for him suddenly didn't fit anymore, so I had to change several other things in order to not have plot-holes, other than that I have everything coming ahead of this chapter planned I just need time to write everything down.

I am a low-key disappointed in the way my writing turned out to be, I guess stopping from writing for over four years have its side-effect after all.

Sorry for the late update, I got caught up with life again and lots of stress, coupled with what is happening to EXO right now, everything happening with my bias (Kyungsoo), all the rumors are literally killing me, and, the fact that I have one more exam I have to ace in order to graduate. Thanks for your love and patience.