Warning(s): cursing, mature innuendos
Length: 5.6k words

You couldn’t help yourself. You originally wanted to tell no one that you had kissed Baekhyun and smoked weed with him, but you couldn’t help yourself. It was Baekhyun! Big B for this was a big ing deal. As much as you hated yourself for not keeping the secret a secret for long, you couldn’t and didn’t blame yourself. Shutting yourself up when that party was the most life-changing thing that happened to you was impossible. How could you not run your mouth with memories of kissing him while you two were high off the ground and out of your minds?

For hours, you dreamed about that boy, his red-and-black hair, his red Mercedes, his perfectly fitting jeans…

“And you know what really gets me?” you asked your small clique one day. “He said ‘call me when you wanna chill again.’ He said ‘when,’ you guys! Not ‘if’ ‘cuz he ing knows I’ll call him.” Jessica rolled her eyes, Hani didn’t even react because she had probably long since tuned you out, Ananya just facepalmed, and Eunice was the only one who was as excited as you.

“Are you ever gonna call him?” Hani inquired, leaning her cheek against a pillow. “Or are you gonna keep fawning over that loser?”

“I’m gonna do both.” you said as a matter of fact. “I just don’t know what to say. I don’t want to make a fool of myself.”

“You’ve already done that,” Hani said with a snort. “You’ve blabbed about this guy for days. Literal, ing days.”

Before you and Hani could get into another short fight about when to call, you told her to shut up before leaving the room and running outside to the lawn that bordered your sorority house. Since it was May and the tail end of the academic year, there weren’t as much girls hanging out on the back porch as there usually would be on other days. You should have been studying for finals like them, but when a boy like Baekhyun had his number in your phone, who the would be studying? Definitely not you.

Baekhyun (otherwise known as “BAEKHYUN!!” followed by several heart emojis in your contact list—added by you, however, and not him) was at the top of your favorites. His name, being the only one that started with a B and spelled in all-caps, stuck out like a sore thumb—but in a good way.

You called him after a moment’s hesitation and waited patiently.

One ring turned into two—

“What’s going on, Chun?”

. His voice was so goddamn attractive. You had to close your eyes for a moment and scream internally to get a hold of yourself. The two of you were on a phone call with each other. What was life?

“Hey,” you gasped, trying to control your nerves. “When do you wanna hang out?”

“We can hang out now if you want,” Baekhyun surprisingly replied within a second of deliberation. “I’m working on an essay, but you can come over at my place.”

He was working on his essay? God, it was so bare ing minimum for you, but you thought that was hot. You could only imagine what he looked like—messy haired possibly? Maybe he wore glasses. Maybe sat slouched on a sofa with his feet up, his laptop placed across his thighs. Maybe he wore a pencil on his ear.

“I’ll come over,” you said gleefully. “What’s the address? Or what dorm?”

“I’ll text it to you. Hey, Chun?”

Your heart shook. “Yeah?”

“Can you buy me some Heinekens? I’ll pay you back.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course!” You shook your head for beings stupid. What did you think he was going to say anyways? “I’ll buy you one.”

“No, buy me a 12-pack.”

A 12-pack? You drew your phone away from your ear to glance at the time. Were you tripping on an unseen gas? It was only 5:30, and since summer was close by, the sun hadn’t even set. To top it off, it was Tuesday. The last day of classes was next Wednesday—not tomorrow, but next week.

“Um, sure, I guess,” you said despite your confusion. “Are you throwing a party or something?”

“Life’s a party itself, Chun. Just come soon, okay?”

“O-Okay.”

“Thank you, baby,” Baekhyun purred from the other line. Hearing him say baby like it was a rhyme made your cheeks flush. Baby, he said, like a ing dream. “I can’t wait to see you.”

When Baekhyun hung up, you fell backwards into the grass of the yard and fist-pumped the sky above you. You were going to do it; you were going to hang out Baekhyun. He called you baby. He wanted you to come over. He couldn’t wait to see you. yeah. This time, you could make things right. Instead of being an awkward loser, you could finally just spit out: hey, Baekhyun, can I your ? Unlike last time, you could cut to the chase. Right?

You squealed in glee as you kicked your legs in the air.

Truth be told, you didn’t know what you want—well not exactly. You did know, but you just didn’t know in what order. Did you want to his or cuddle with him? Did you want to know his favorite color or take a ride in his car? The answer was simply yes.

Because yes, you were about to go see Baekhyun.

- - - - -

Your beautiful fantasy of pulling up to Baekhyun’s “place” with a case of beer in hand was marred when you realized that you went to the wrong apartment and had to walk a few blocks while dragging along a 12-pack case. Perhaps you could have called Hani to pick you up, but Baekhyun’s text said 296 River Lane, and you didn’t want to admit to her that he accidentally sent the wrong address (396, not 296) because she would have said something smart like “oh wow, this guy can’t even type his address in right?” and it would have just been a mess.

Thankfully, Baekhyun sent you the right address, and you arrived to his actual apartment less than 15 minutes later. You were a bit winded, sure, your hair had gotten messy, yes, but you were there—and it was unlike you ever expected.

Despite being an international student (or maybe it was because he was an international student), Baekhyun lived in a comfortable apartment complex a few stories tall with a private garage. Surprisingly, he also lived with his best friend, Seulgi. How that arrangement came to be, you didn’t know, but you didn’t have the courage to ask—especially not after you distinctly saw Seulgi roll her eyes when she let you inside. You didn’t even want to ask her about where to put the case of beer Baekhyun wanted because she quickly retreated back to her room and shut the door which was followed by the clicks of a lock.

“Baekhyun?” you asked no one in particular. The boy was nowhere to be seen, and the apartment was quiet except for the soft whir of a fan.

“Here!”

You whipped around and saw an open door at the end of a small corridor. That was probably his room. Eager as ever, you rushed towards the room—and what you saw made your cheeks hot.

Baekhyun was sitting cross-legged on the floor, wearing nothing but sweatpants, glasses, and adorably enough—a pencil on his ear. On his bare chest was a silver necklace with a cross as a pendant. In front of him was his laptop, and all around him was a mess of papers, binders, textbooks, and several empty bottles of beer. The 5PM sunlight was streaming in from the window, highlighting not only the contours of his chest, but also the red streaks in his hair. When he lifted his eyes from his laptop, you swore that there could be no other man to ever be. He wasn’t wearing those green contacts like last time, and all the glory of his brown eyes was made all the more beautiful with the sunlight catching on them.

“Chun,” he said, his face glowing in a smile (and in the sun). “Hey, sorry I sent you the wrong address. My head’s kinda fuzzy.” He looked down at the case of Heineken you brought and took off his glasses to toss them onto his bed. “But thank god you still have that. Seul won’t buy me anymore.” He shoved the textbooks by his side to make a clear space on the floor. “Come on. Open one up and help me finish this bull essay.”

Ask him for a study break, ask him for a study break, ask him for a study break—

“So what’s the essay about?” you asked instead. .

Baekhyun tore open the case of beer with quick fingers and shook his head. “It’s stupid . My poetry professor wants us to do two final essays.” He took the bottle that you held for him and snapped the cap off. “One is about analyzing these poems—which was hard but way ing easier than the next one.” His fingers jabbed at the keys of his laptop in frustration. “I have to write my own poem and then analyze it myself.”

“Wow, that must be really hard,” you said perhaps a little too blandly. You wanted—truth be told, swear to God—to sound interested but you were a dumb economics major. You knew everything about production possibility frontiers but nothing about poetry. Regardless, you wanted to be of service to Baekhyun. “Is there any way I can help?” you inquired. “I mean, I’m an econ major, but if I can analyze oligopolies, I could probably do the same with a poem.”

“Those are far from the same thing, Chun,” Baekhyun said to his laptop screen. He was so intent on completing his essay that he didn’t even look at you. “Some things are meant to be disassembled and analyzed. Some things are meant to be felt and felt only.”

, you were so ed.

You always knew that Baekhyun was an English major, but you didn’t know just how passionate he was about it all. Now that you knew, nothing could ever get more attractive.

“What was the poem you analyzed?” you asked after a moment.

“Lord Byron’s ‘She Walks in Beauty,’” Baekhyun replied, still not taking his eyes off his laptop. He grabbed the pencil that he had been wearing on his ear and placed it on the floor to look at you more earnestly. “You ever heard of it?” he asked. You shook your head, and somehow, he managed to see that. “Honestly, it’s one of my favorite poems ever. It’s so sad that not enough people know about it.”

“How does it go?”

Baekhyun finally detached his gaze from his laptop and looked straight into your eyes. It felt like he was either going to kiss you or devour you, and you wanted him to do both.

“She walks in beauty,” Baekhyun started. His voice, oh god his voice, had never sounded so y, and you hated that word because nothing could ever define it right, but now, Baekhyun’s honey-toned voice sounded like running your hands in warm sand. Husky, deep—like he might actually devour you whole.

“Like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies,” he continued, his eyes never leaving yours. “And all that’s best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and her eyes.” His lips curled at one end; the son of a knew exactly what he was doing to you, and he was probably enjoying everything of it. “Thus,” he was now grinning, “mellowed to that tender light which heaven to gaudy day denies.”

You had forgotten how to breathe, how to even swallow.

.

“One shade the more, one ray the less, had half impaired the nameless grace which waves in every raven tress…” Baekhyun reached his hand out, and you were already as still as a statue when his thumb brushed across your cheek. “Or softly lightens o’er her face.”

You didn’t belong to yourself anymore. No, you were positively Baekhyun’s .

“What the ,” you murmured to yourself. Apparently, your reaction must have been funny because Baekhyun tilted his head back to laugh, and he pulled away to set his laptop on the floor before it slid off his lap. Meanwhile, you couldn’t help but to stare. “Are you ing serious?” you asked him. “Did you memorize that? What the hell?”

“Every time,” Baekhyun wheezed in laughter. “Every single time I quote that poem, I swear to god that every girl gets so wet for me.”

He wasn’t wrong, and you hated it. How awful could he get? How much more of your ing type could he be?

“Baekhyun!” You slapped him on the arm and tried to feign anger, but you were laughing too. “Are you serious? Is that why you recited that? Were you even actually analyzing that poem?”

Baekhyun shook his head. See? There he was again—being so damn awful.

“I ing wish I was analyzing that poem,” he responded casually. “That poem is literally about finding some girl attractive. Easiest analysis ever.” Baekhyun shook his head, picked up a book off the floor, and then handed it to you. “Nah, I have to analyze like a chapter of that.” The Odyssey, the cover read. “It’s the worst ing ‘poem’ to exist,” Baekhyun said. “I wish I could analyze a poem like ‘She Walks in Beauty.’ It’d be so much easier.”

“I bet,” you said to yourself. “So,” you raised your voic