Not many things have changed for us. Our ual chemistry continues to blow me out of the water. I just can’t seem to get enough of him. He’s trying to kill me. I just know it.

High school wasn’t a hard time for me to express myself ually. The thing about Baekhyun being my first was more beneficial than I’d like to admit. Sure, he was your average -no-commitment guy, but he never shamed me or any of the other girls he slept with for that matter.

And maybe I shouldn’t be thinking about the other girls, but I wasn’t jealous. It was never a problem. I’d always been secure enough to know that to him—I’m the only thing that matters when I’m with him.

He’d always made me feel that way whether I’d known then or not. One of my brightest memories has to be the day of our Spring Fair. Baekhyun and I competed per usual. Every Spring Fair was the Trojan war.

You were either team Baekhyun or team me. We’d always tally up our sales and flaunt in each other’s faces. Unfortunately, we tied 2-2 by our senior year. His idea of a polaroid photo-op was crafty considering that all high schoolers really cared about at that time was aesthetics.

In hindsight, our rivalry had to be ridiculous to anyone who bore witness. Any ideas that Baekhyun spouted, no matter how much sense he made (and he made sense most of the time), I would refute it in a heartbeat.

Hate was a lot like passion in that way. Being angered felt like having . With Baekhyun, there was barely a distinction. He was the cause of the deafening sound of blood rushing to my ears. He was also the cause of my skin tightening and feeling flushed. He made me stumble over my words—often too flustered to snap back at times.

Right now is practically a case in point.

He’d only gotten better, and I’m convinced that he has to know what he’s doing with his body. Baekhyun trails his lips down my neck, pressing intimate kisses. His touch is confident and nothing is wasted. There is no sloppiness in the way his mouth moves on mine. It’s precision.

I stifle my moans, but he’s making it really ing difficult to focus. Walk straight. Easier said than done. Between my wobbly legs—the culprit could either be my tipsiness or just his finesse.

The elevator dings to his floor, and he pulls away from me. “Come on. I’ll show you my apartment,” he tells me with a genuine smile.

My heart flutters. That also hasn’t changed. The unexpectedness of what his smile does to me. Our rivalry only extended as far as smugness and triumph. There wasn’t any earnestness in what we shared. Until now.

Baekhyun laces our fingers, gently leading me beside him. So casually. As if this has always been normal between us.

I look at him, and the boy that I’ve known since prep school is nowhere to be found. This has to be someone else entirely, and the sudden contrast in a relationship I was comfortable with is a big pill to swallow. But the thing is—I’m far too gone to oppose this. The currents can swallow me, and I’m so perfectly okay with that.

“This is—cute,” I comment when he closes the door behind us.

His soft half-mocking, half adoring laughter frolics in the space of his apartment. “The lights aren’t on, cerise.”

I don’t even bother to be embarrassed when I push him against his door. “Can we pretend that I’ve been polite and have gone on six hundred dates with you already?”

He tilts his head. It’s hard to make out his expression in the dark, but I can imagine that he’s absolutely joyed by my boldness. “Is it because you’re afraid of moving too fast?”

I make a strangled sound in the back of my throat. “Baekhyun, we’ve been doing this back and forth since we were fourteen. I think some honesty would be nice.”

He brushes my nape with the back of his hands. I shudder as the distance between our bodies disappears. “I can be honest with you.”

I decide to entertain this. “How so?”

“Like in the next few minutes, we can skip to the part where I take off all your clothes.”

I grin. “Wow, I’m really liking this approach.”

He takes my bottom lip between his and nibbles. “Yeah?”

I touch him. “Yeah. And I personally think that we should take this honesty to the next level.”

“How so?” He teases me by playing with the hem of my dress.

“We can skip to the part where you forget about our absolutely embarrassing history and just pretend that we’ve been dying of this entire time.”

Baekhyun pauses for a second, and then, he laughs. Like—really, really laughs. “Don’t worry about that last part. I’ve wanted you since you walked into the canteen, cerise. And as for our history, it makes me ing adore you. I wouldn’t want to forget that.”

“Even when we were running for POTUS for government?”

“Except for that. You were pretty scary.”

“I kicked your so hard in the campaign video. I don’t know how you were able to show your face the next day,” I remark, reminiscing the day of the absolute peak of our dramatic rivalry.

Baekhyun’s voice falls to a hush. “To be fair, seeing you hot and bothered fuels me to do it all over again. You might’ve won that day, but it doesn’t matter to me. Our back and forth was the only thing that drove me to get up for school.”

I melt a little bit. Just a little bit. Sweet-talking Baekhyun just might be my weakness. “You didn't fail to piss me off with your indifference.”

“I’m a pretty sweet actor if I say so myself,” he murmurs. “I always felt like I cared too much. You consumed me. And you were always in my peripherals. Couldn’t you tell?”

I scrunch my nose. “You were a bit obsessive, yeah, but...” I squeeze him in my arms. “It made me happy that you cared. Not in a literal sense, but I guess more in a you reacted way. Whether that was being pissy or continuing to instigate. The point is that I wasn’t lonely in high school, and it was all thanks to you.”

Baekhyun blinks, and as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I can see the surprise in his. “You never fail to win me over with your words, huh?”

I feign shock. “I’m winning you over? In what world?”

He grins. “Do you remember senior prom? The garden?”

“Of course,” I chirp. “I called you a bucket. But to reiterate, you did call me a basket.”

“Ah, yes, the classic basket.”

“We were so stupid, Baekhyun. What were we thinking?”

“We weren’t,” he answers. “My brain malfunctions when I’m with you. I find that I begin to resemble one of my little cousins. You do bring out that side of me.”

“So what won you over? It surely wasn’t asparagus that did it, was it?”

“Oh, no. It was absolutely thunder .”

I choke on a laugh, falling over sideways. “Oh my god. Did I really call you that?”

“But, no, on a more serious note, it'd been the look in your eyes.”

“What look?”

“Relief. You gave me this look like there was no place you would rather be than right there, swearing at me in the middle of that stupid garden than being with ing Will.”

I don’t say anything because I partly have nothing to say. I’m all smiles.

Baekhyun pulls me into the crook of his neck. “That was the night, cerise. The point of no return. You’re a high I never want to go down from.”

“Let’s skip to the part where we have now,” I whisper. The hairs on my arms stand straight up.

He shakes his head. “Not right now.”

“What—why?”

“Because you’re intoxicated.”

“Oh,” I say dryly.

“Cerise,” he gently calls out to me, gathering the bits and pieces of my attention span. “When we , I’ll imprint it in your mind and with each step you take, you’ll remember that I was inside of you. You’re worth more than sloppy, drunk . Got it?”

[a/n] yes, he can be sweet. the gag-worthy fluff is just beginning. finally right? hopefully, i built up the tension ok. their banter/back and forth is so fun to write especially when they're simping for each other. hope you guys like this update :))