Date Day

Baekhyun might have a tragic spice tolerance, but to his credit, he can plan nice dates.

Set: The day after Cutlass ends, in Aesta.

This was a fluff drabble I wrote for my friend in early 2018, so it’s been around 3 and a half years! I found it in my drive yesterday and thought I’d add it into the drabble collection rather than let it rot :’)

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Hei wasn’t sure how she ended up arguing with Baekhyun who was going to eat the skewer of vegetables and dried tofu first, but somehow, that was what they were doing. Aesta was beginning to fade in the distance as they headed up a slight hill, and he pushed her hand away from him and made a face.

“You first,” he insisted. “I bought it for you. Why are you making me eat it? I’m not hungry.”

Hei eyed the skewer. “You’re refusing to eat it and that means there’s something off about this.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Are you accusing me of trying to poison you?”

“Why aren’t you eating it, then?”

“Will you eat it if I feed you?”

Hei gaped at him. “How old do I look like to you? Here, we can both eat one at the same time.”

He complied with a sigh, and Hei broke the first piece off. She handed the end of the stick to Baekhyun, and he took it from her with a bit of reluctance.

“You eat it first,” Baekhyun finally said.

tShe groaned. “We are not going through this again. I’m counting to three. One, two, three.”

Hei was half expecting it to taste extremely weird when she chewed on it, though there was nothing exceptionally off about it (except for the fact that it actually tasted extremely good). It was also relatively spicy, though it didn’t really bother her.

In her peripheral vision, she saw Baekhyun set his untouched skewer down.

She gaped at him. “Hey!”

Baekhyun raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“You didn’t eat it!”

“I said I didn’t want—”

He didn’t quite struggle when Hei wrestled the skewer out of his hand, pulled off the next piece and lifted her hand up to his mouth. “It was a deal,” she told him, and he eyed it with a copious amount of distrust.

“I don’t really like—hey, I don’t—”

Baekhyun glared at her as he chewed and Hei took another piece off. It was a couple of moments later that he actually reacted, which happened to be by fanning his mouth and blinking rapidly. Hei squinted up at him, though he turned his head the other way, eyes squeezed shut, covering his face. She caught a glimpse of tears pooling in his waterline before he had his back to her.

“Are you crying?” she demanded.

Baekhyun wiped his palms under his eyes. “No.”

Hei tried to tug one of his wrists down so she could see his eyes, though he refused to budge. “Why are you crying?”

He breathed out shakily. “Spicy.”

She let go of his wrist and gaped at him. “Pardon me?”

Baekhyun gave a choked cough. “It’s spicy,” he repeated. “I hate spicy.”

Incredulous, Hei tried to hold back a laugh, though she wasn’t exactly successful and before she knew it, Baekhyun was complaining about how she shouldn’t laugh at him for no tolerance for spices and she was also trying not to cry, though it was most likely because she was laughing so hard. He gave her a light shove. “Stop,” he groaned. “I don’t like spicy food, seriously—”

Hei wiped her eyes. “I can’t believe you.”

“Why?”

“You broke into Hua by killing, like, half the guards, managed to kidnap me without my family noticing for hours, went to Hell’s Gate and back—and you can’t handle spicy food.”

“None of that that you listed has anything to do with spicy food,” he pointed out. “Finish it. I’m not eating it.”

“I will,” she shot back. “It’s not even that spicy. You’re just weak.”

He whacked her lightly on the arm, laughing quietly, and Hei couldn’t help but smile too.

***

The sun was dipping lower when Baekhyun turned down another path—she was pretty sure it didn’t lead back to the ship—and Hei paused, trying to figure out if she had remembered wrong or if he’d gone off the right path, though he continued and she ended up running after him.

“Wasn’t the ship the other way?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “We’re detouring for a little while. Just to watch the sunset. We should be off right when we get back.”

“Luhan’s going to nag you for taking so long,” she laughed, though didn’t protest as he pulled her along the other way, grip firm around her hand. “You said we’d be back in the afternoon.”

“I’ll bet you that Minseok gets back even later,” he replied with a snort. “He’s been talking about dropping by to visit Joohyun forever and never got the chance too. I won’t be surprised if he’s somehow convinced her to join us again.”

“Joohyun?” Hei echoed.

He hummed in reply. The path was beginning to slope towards the shore slowly but steadily, the gravel getting sandier. It was a lot cooler than it had been midday, though the temperature was also just right for the dress she was wearing. A breeze was beginning to travel from the sea, which had seemingly come with a couple of clouds that hadn’t been there during the day. Hei watched as it ruffled Baekhyun’s already messy hair, flyaway locks sticking up absolutely everywhere.

Tiptoeing, she reached upwards to pat it down. Baekhyun gave her a quizzical look at first, then it turned into an amused grin when he realized what she was doing. “Why?” he asked.

“It’s messy,” she told him.

The path was beginning to slope