Warning(s): cursing, drinking, drugs, mentions of adult situations
Length: 6.7k words

“Does this dress look good on me?”

“Yeah, but I’d look better on you.”

You gave Baekhyun a playful stare which he returned with a hearty laugh. He shrugged and winked like the awful boy he was, like he was in a competition with himself to see just bad he could get. Apparently, he could get pretty bad because you had only tried on a second dress and he was already acting insufferably.

“Why’d I bring him here again?” you asked yourself, but Baekhyun overheard.

“So I can tell you what’s easiest to take off for when I’m undressing you, baby.”

You wanted to tell Baekhyun to leave if he wasn’t going to behave, but you could only wheeze in your own laughter. Last week had happened, he had said awful things, but now you were back to square one; you had cursed yourself for being and idiot before promptly forgiving him—again.  

Did you deserve better? Of course you did.

But did you want better? No, you wanted Baekhyun.

- - - - -

“Why do you like him so much?” Hani queried. She had been trying to stop you from getting dressed and seeing Baekhyun, but she had failed for about the hundredth time. Every single time Baekhyun called you, you picked up and did as he said. “He treats you like trash,” Hani continued, “and he’s not even your official boyfriend. For all you know, he could be ing other girls.”

“No, he’s not like that,” you waved her off. “He’s more of a friends-with-benefits type.”

“Are you listening to yourself?” Hani scoffed. “You’re insane, Chun.” You were literally about to take your hand and wave her off, but your hand slipped off your blush brush and you bent down to pick it up with an annoyed sigh—which Hani mocked. “Why are you doing this to yourself? He obviously doesn’t want anything more but to you and then leave you.”

“Well, I mean I care about him.”

“What’s to care about?”

“A lot,” you mumbled, patting on your blush. “If you knew him, you’d want to care about him too cuz he’s actually a good guy.”

At that point, Hani left the room—undoubtedly sick of your delusions. You couldn’t blame her, though. Not a lot of people knew Baekhyun’s cheesy, poetic, soft side. It was the side of him that most people overlooked when they saw him; most people saw him as another , another no-good frat boy who was a hurricane of chaos. Though that was true, and he was terrible at times, even hurricanes had eyes; even Baekhyun had redeemable qualities. The only difference between you and most people was that you saw the good before the bad.

Was that your downfall? Of course it was. But it never felt like a downfall; it just felt like being a good person.

You soon finished getting ready for your “date” or whatever Baekhyun had planned. He had called you a few hours ago to pregame for a party, but that was vague, and you wanted to come over and make sure he drank as little alcohol as possible.

Since Hani was still sick of your antics, you had Jessica drive you to Baekhyun’s apartment, and when you arrived there, you were surprised to see Seulgi and Baekhyun sitting on the hood of his infamous red Mercedes, both peering into the viewfinder of her camera.

Baekhyun had his arm slung over Seulgi’s shoulders as he leaned forward to squint at the viewfinder. His brows were furrowed as he seemed to struggle to make out what he saw. You watched them from afar for another moment, and within those few seconds Baekhyun finally understood what he was looking at and threw his head back in a laugh that was so contagious that Seulgi broke out giggling. It was such a wholesome moment between two friends that you didn’t want to interrupt, but they saw you, and Baekhyun waved you over.

“Baby,” he purred. He lifted his arm from Seulgi’s shoulder to move over and make room for you on the hood of his car. “Look at this.”

Seulgi tilted the camera for you to see, and she revealed a close-up picture of Baekhyun’s face as he posed with yellow-tinted sunglasses, his mouth slightly ajar as he showed off his lip piercing. The next picture was of him with his eyes closed as the setting sun washed his features out with an orange glow. Next was an artsy shot of him sitting on the red hood of his Mercedes as he sported a common smirk that transformed into a smile by the time Seulgi showed you the next picture.

He had a face that all heartbreakers in tragic love movies had.

“What is this for?” you asked Seulgi as she continued to show you one flawless photo after the other.

“It’s part of a project,” Seulgi explained. “I’m documenting a living subject and making a photobiography about them.” She kicked Baekhyun in the leg. “And I only have this as a willing participant so I’m pretty much stuck with him.”

“I’m a great person to get stuck to,” Baekhyun quipped. “I mean, look at me. I’m ing hot.”

Yeah, you are, you said inside of your head. “So,” you continued to talk with Seulgi, “what’s the biography focusing on? Is it about his entire life or just some specific events?”

“His entire life.” Seulgi put her camera down and lifted her head to look at you. You looked right back at her, but to your shock, both she and Baekhyun had started looking right into your eyes. It was in that moment that you realized why they were best friends; they had intimidating qualities to them starting with their gazes. Though Baekhyun seemed to flirt with just the way he looked, Seulgi seemed to analyze.

“W-What?” you stammered, feeling shy under their stares.

“I wanna take a picture of you,” Seulgi said, “with Baek.”

Your cheeks felt like they had been slapped with a heatwave, and your tongue felt like it was glued to the top of your mouth. No one had ever wanted to take a picture of you like that. Usually what happened was that your friends would want to take a picture of you with them—for the memories or the occasion, but never because of some project. Even then, no one had ever wanted to take a picture of you and only you as the primary subject.

“Let’s go,” Baekhyun said coolly. It was as if he had been doing stuff like this his entire life, and it made sense considering he looked the way he did. “How do you want her to pose, Seul?”

Seulgi rolled her eyes. “This isn’t a Playboy photoshoot.” She pointed to the front seats of Baekhyun’s car. “I need you to look candid. Sit over there.”

“You sound like a director,” Baekhyun remarked. You found it funny, but Seulgi slapped him on the arm.

“Baekhyun, shut up and do as I say,” she hissed. Baekhyun fortunately did as he was told and sat in the driver’s seat as you joined him on the passenger’s side. Seulgi didn’t seem to like that, however, and she gestured for you to move. “Sit on his lap,” she directed, “but don’t cover his face.”

“I’ll try,” you murmured under your breath, “but it’s uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable?” Of course, Baekhyun overheard. “You ed me here the other night.”

“Shut up,” you hissed back as you positioned yourself on his lap. As pretty as his convertible was, it wasn’t made to have two people sitting in the driver’s seat. You had to wriggle your body on top of Baekhyun’s to get comfortable, and as bad as it was for you, he enjoyed it too much.

“Nice ,” he whispered into your ear.

You wanted to push him away, but you were literally stuck with him in that tiny space. All the while, Seulgi had begun to take pictures of the two of you through the windshield.

“Why do you look so tense?” Seulgi asked, lowering her camera. “Chun, relax.”

“But I can’t relax,” you said. Your face felt hot from the stress of being photographed and the fact that Baekhyun’s snaking hands had found themselves under your shirt. He had only placed them around your waist, but his calloused hands were enough to incite you to shiver. “It’s really tight sitting up here with him.”

Seulgi’s eyes scanned the two of you. “Let’s try a different position then. Get on the hood.”

You were glad to get out of the car and off Baekhyun’s lap, but he was only two steps behind you when you sat atop the car’s hood. Seulgi had the two of you lie down there, and it was simple enough—but as long as Baekhyun was involved, things would always be a little bit more complicated. Even as he laid still, he brought you to realizations and revelations—such as the fact that you really weren’t anything when placed beside him. He was a perfect storm, and you were merely a boat.

Seulgi directed Baekhyun to do most of the moving while you kept yourself still except for a few nudges here and there. It only took a few minutes for Seulgi to finish, and when she was done, she smiled to herself in such joy that she left you and Baekhyun by his car—something about needing to edit the photos right away.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Baekhyun apologized for no reason. “She really likes taking pictures.”

“I like it,” you reassured him. “Passion makes people more beautiful.”

“What are you passionate about?” Baekhyun asked, nudging your shoulder. “Hm, Ms. Econ Major?”

“I don’t know,” you admitted. “I’m really passionate about school, though.” At the sight of Baekhyun’s faint smirk, you knew he wanted to laugh but kept himself composed. “Don’t be mean,” you muttered, pushing him back. “It’s okay not to know.”

“Mhm.” Baekhyun sat up, and you followed to look at him in the eye. Based on his movements and the lack of alcohol-smell on his breath, he was still sober—though it was likely that it wouldn’t last much longer. “You know,” he started, “I see you as the professor type.” He tilted his head to side to examine your features. “You’re really patient.”

“Maybe too patient,” you mumbled, recalling all the terrible things that Baekhyun had done to you. You quickly pushed those troubled memories out of your head, however. “Can I ask you something?” Before Baekhyun could answer, you were already talking. “Are you seeing anyone else?”

Baekhyun the cross on his necklace and shook his head lightly. “You keep me occupied, so no.”

“Really?”

Your skepticism undoubtedly annoyed him. “No,” Baekhyun said more forcefully, his voice irritated. “I’m not taking other girls on picnics and ing them in my car.” He raised a brow as if to challenge you. “Why’re you asking?”

“Well,” you stammered, “you said you didn’t like labels, so we’re not like a couple or anything.”

“That’s right,” Baekhyun confirmed, shattering your hopes. You wanted him to show some sort of interest in the joint term boyfriend and girlfriend, but the words obviously meant nothing to him. “We’re like friends…” He paused to squint through the sunlight and then gave a sly grin. “Friends who .”

“Yeah…”

“You don’t like that.”

You shook your head to make it more obvious. “I wanna be more exclusive than ‘friends who ,’ Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun placed a hand on your thigh and squeezed lightly, as if to reassure you, only it didn’t work. Since he was the insufferable frat boy type, it wasn’t hard to guess what he was going to say.

“Look at it this way,” he said, staring into your eyes with a playful gaze. “If you ever get bored of me, there’s nothing stopping you from going ahead and ing another guy. But let’s face it.” He smiled so sweetly and sickly. “You’ll never get bored of me.” You wanted to hate how openly arrogant he was, but even he seemed to pride his own cockiness. “No one does it like how I do,” he continued, “but if you don’t believe me, you can find out for yourself—if you want.”

Never had you felt so aroused by someone’s demeanor. You loathed that about yourself.

“I don’t want to,” you assured Baekhyun, and he patted your thigh with the knowing ease that you wouldn’t ever stray far from him.

“Good.” Baekhyun was grinning. His ego was surely inflated like some blimp. “Besides, everyone else is a discount version of me.” He curled his lip upwards and shook his head in annoyance. “No one in my frat dressed the way I do until I started doing it—those es.”

“Well… it is attractive,” you said as you took note of Baekhyun’s attire for tonight. He was wearing light-washed jeans that he paired deliciously with a Hawaiian shirt that showed a risqué amount of chest. You had known the chest-details—shirt ed too low to showcase several necklaces and the slight curves of his pecs—to be so Baekhyun that you couldn’t associate it with anyone else. In that sense, he was right about every other boy in his frat being a discount version of him; only he could pull off that type of look as well as he could.

“Course it is. Otherwise I wouldn’t be wearing it,” Baekhyun teased with a sly grin. “So,” he said after a moment’s silence, “you ready to go? We got a party waiting for us, baby.”

“No pregame?”

“No,” he said, making your heart skip a beat. There had been plenty of times that Baekhyun had consumed alcohol only to drive about five minutes after. Of course, he never drank until he was intoxicated to the point where he couldn’t drive, but you still worried about him. “There’ll be plenty when we get there.”

“O-Okay,” you murmured, already getting concerned. Baekhyun got antsy to the point where he experienced tremors if he didn’t get his fix of alcohol, and you didn’t want to make him wait until that point. “Can you give me a sec?” you asked. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

Baekhyun stood up as he nodded at you. “Go ahead and think of me when you touch yourself.” You stopped dead in your tracks, and he looked at you quizzically. “What?” he asked.

“Seriously?” you wheezed, half-laughing and half-wanting to cry. “Did you really just say that?”

“Baby…” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Just be quick.”

You laughed to yourself as you walked to his and Seulgi’s apartment. It was strange how his mind worked; one moment he was reciting poems off the top of his head, and in the next, he was showcasing the abilities of his quick, dirty-minded tongue. Funnily enough, you liked that about him.

When you knocked on the apartment door, Seulgi opened it and squinted at you. “What?” she snapped. “Don’t you have a party to go to?”

“Yeah, I do,” you said in a hushed voice. Though Baekhyun was parked down the street and out of sight, you still wanted to take a precaution. “Listen,” you whispered, “can you come with me?”

“Why the would I do that?”

“I don’t want him to drink a lot.” Memories of seeing Baekhyun intoxicated came back to you and made you shiver in disgust and fear. “I wanna try to stop him before he gets, you know…” You waved your hand as if it was enough to gesture what you meant. Fortunately, Seulgi seemed to understand, and she straightened her hunched form.

“Fine, I’ll go in a little bit,” Seulgi said, “but I’m not getting in the way of him and his vodka.”

“And that’s fine! I just need you to, like, look over him here and there.”

“I can do that.” Seulgi shrugged casually, but she stared at you quite intensely. “But honestly,” she