he bedroom was engulfed by darkness, the only source of light being the half-moon looking down from the sky. Baekhyun found himself staring at the ceiling sleeplessly once again, because of you. There was a lingering thrill tickling inside of his whole body. As soon as he recalled the memory of you leaning your head against his chest, his heart started stuttering. He could still remember the scent of your hair so clearly, the feeling of it brushing his skin was still fresh on his body. Turning to lay on his side, he sighed, wondering when he had become such a lovesick boy. He still needed to tell Jongdae, he could already hear his high-pitched teasing and see the mischievous grin he always wore on his face whenever Baekhyun talked about something of the sort.

The whole night consisted of Baekhyun restlessly tossing and moving endlessly in his bed. In his thoughts was a mental war, how was he going to act now? He wasn't sure that he would even be able to confront you with a straight face anymore. The memory still made his cheeks flare up and he thanked God because he didn't completely freak out then. Hence, Baekhyun was still having a hard time grasping the fact that he had actually hugged you. Until now, he hadn't even been able to imagine it. Maybe this was the reason why he was freaking out now instead.

After all, he could say that he had made some progress because he had somehow taken a grip on his constant blushing, and he wouldn't stutter as much around you as he sometimes would. Every day, Baekhyun would remember Jongdae's words about needing to man up. There was a time where he found it hard to accept those words. But sooner or later he realized how it didn't mean to completely change, he understood that if he wanted to be taken seriously he had to act like it. He didn't want you to find him weird, he wanted to be able to smile confidently around you, to charm you, to give you hints so that you could see that he liked you.

He found it a tiny bit ironic about himself because one moment he was hiding, the next he wanted you to know everything about him. 

Not being able to quiet down the thoughts in his head, Baekhyun dragged his body to the living room, lazily sprawling himself on the couch and quickly turning down the volume of the TV so that he wouldn't disturb his sleeping mother. He ended up watching Korean dramas instead of sleeping, attentively taking in every action and way of speaking of each male character. 

The truth was that he wanted to be different. Not a different person, Baekhyun didn't want to just look confident, he also wanted to be. Dyeing his hair had helped him gaining an ounce of confidence, but there was still a long way ahead of him. That's why he found himself studying the male protagonist of the drama, imagining himself doing the same things.

Baekhyun frowned at the sudden light that shone on his eyelids, groggily waking up, an instant sore pain rose in his neck because of the bad sleeping spot. One hand rubbed the sleep out of his eye while the other went to check the time. Baekhyun felt his eyes almost jump out of their sockets when he saw the numbers on the screen. Messily, he scrambled off the couch, throwing on the first thing he saw in his closet, jumped into his shoes, and ran directly to the school. 

His breathing was so quick that he couldn't even call it breathing, more like gasping when he entered the classroom barely in time for the first period. Baekhyun's footsteps were heavy and tired when he threw himself on the chair next to you. You took him in with curious eyes, noticing how his hair was disheveled by the wind and how his shirt was buttoned all wrong.

Your intense gaze tickled on Baekhyun's body and so he decided to respond to your eyes and keep your gaze until pictures of yesterday eventually started flashing through his mind and you couldn't help but be reminded of the same thing when his cheeks got tinted in red. You both ended up turning your heads shyly away. Although the warmness on your cheeks, you couldn't help but take another glance at him, a chuckle escaped your lips before you knew it, because of the troubled look on his face and the messy way he had presented himself in was making him look adorably silly. With his glasses barely falling off his nose and the constant pout on his lips when he looked back at you with questioning eyes, not understanding what was so funny. The blush on his cheeks was still visible.

Unconsciously, your hand reached for his head, you surprised yourself when your fingers brushed through his wild locks completely, unaware of how you were making the rate of his heartbeat pick at an insanely fast speed. Baekhyun could only eye you with surprise and shock.

Your cheeks eventually heated up when you noticed his stare on you and you quickly looked away, which made his heart flutter because although he felt nervous, that one action had been so cute that he couldn't help the smile from spreading on his lips.

"I'm sorry- Your hair was really messy and I just couldn't-"

"Thank you," He said, offering a cheery smile that you always found so special, and you felt yourself smiling back at him with an unknown excitement blooming inside of you.

"Your shirt is also kind of messy," You pointed out and his eyes snapped in a panicked manner down to his chest just to see the jumble that he had made out of his shirt in the rush of this morning. His ears were fuming when he excused himself to the restroom. The teacher entered the classroom just a few seconds after Baekhyun himself. 

Mr. Kim fixed the papers on the table and unenthusiastically announced the exams that were going to show up in a few weeks. Ignoring the protesting whines of the class he proceeded with annoyedly pushing his small glasses to the bridge of his nose with a finger while the other handheld a whiteboard pen to start explaining the things that were required to know for the tests.

Knowing that you wouldn't understand it when the teacher explained, you sneaked a glance on Baekhyun and nudged on his finger with yours, the sudden little action made chills run down his spine but he somehow managed to keep a straight a face when he looked over at you with curious eyes.

"Do you want to study for the test together then?" You whispered so that only he could hear, you knew that you would be able to pass a test if Baekhyun helped you with it. The suggestion made him way too happy, he wondered if perhaps a little part of you liked the idea of spending time with him more than studying after all. Although the question was simple he responded with a heartbreaking smile that was way too enthusiastic for anybody to believe that you were actually talking about studying.

"Fine, at the library after school?" Returning the smile, you simply nodded before turning your gaze to the teacher who was currently scribbling down incomprehensible numbers and letters on the board.

The library was as always, quiet and peaceful with the relaxing noise of pens scribbling onto papers and tapping of keyboards echoing in the walls.

None of you said anything for a while as you had been both too engrossed in your homework to say something. Although Baekhyun became done awfully early he didn't feel like voicing it out. Not only because you had barely sat there for half an hour, but mainly because he didn't want to leave. Didn't want to leave you. Baekhyun could sit there and take in your focused face for consecutive hours without getting a single bit bored, because every minute there would be something new to you that he needed to know about, to see more of.

Absentmindedly he leaned his cheek onto his palm as he slowly but certainly fell deeper into the daze that you were causing him, his dark orbs pulled themselves to your frame like magnets, no matter the many rushing thoughts in his head he couldn't bring himself to look away. Your face was concentrated and the way your frown was making a little crease appear between your brows made him want to put his finger there just to ease the tension on your face. And when lost strands of your hair fell in front of your face made his fingers twitch to pull it behind your ear himself.

It was such a sudden feeling that overwhelmed him but he wanted you. He wanted to get closer and show you that he liked you, there was a strange urge rising inside of him that almost startled him because it was a very different feeling from what he felt before, it was as if his emotions were turning wild and untamed.

Baekhyun's fingers twitched helplessly, his consciousness didn't say no in time before his hand had already twirled strands of your hair around his slender finger, your gazes met when you slowly turned your head and your heart froze at the moment, breath hitched inside of your lungs when you felt his warm fingertips brush against the back of your ear, the pen that was in your hand fell out of your weakened grip.

"Sorry..." His low voice faltered as his eyes lingered on yours before he shyly adverted them back on his textbook. "I couldn't help it," He continued sincerely, he could feel the tips of his ears steam and he wondered if what he had just done was perhaps wrong if you didn't like it when he touched you.

Despite himself, Baekhyun glimpsed at you from the corner of his eyes and the blush on your cheeks didn't go unnoticed, he didn't know where the confident feeling in his chest was coming from, but the troubled expression on your face made him almost feel relieved. He couldn't explain why he suddenly smirked so full of himself, it was just the fact that he made your cheeks go warm, the fact that he maybe, just maybe, had made you feel like you made him all the time. 

Did that mean that he had an impact on you?

A little sigh escaped his lips as he finally directed his gaze elsewhere, he didn't notice the way you wer