I feel like this story is starting to progress really slowly.
5000 words that makes no sense.
Baro and Sandeul kiss.
Jinyoung acts like a mom.
Baro has constipation.
Enjoy!
(I want to make a graphic for this fic, but no photoshop skills whatsoever)

My nose was still running and my head was still a bit fuzzy, but I managed to get up in the morning.

Everybody had fancy food for breakfast while I was stuck with soup . Again. Jinyoung wouldn’t let me eat anything else and he was practically up my throughout the whole meal until I finished the bowl.

Baro was on my other side during breakfast, constantly asking if there was anything I needed and offered to do basically everything for me. And that also included giving me a bath, to which I so graciously threw him out of the bathroom and slammed the door shut before he could put his dirty little hands anywhere near me.

Baro wouldn’t let me out of the room until I put on a double layer of clothing to make extra sure that my fever wouldn’t get any worst.

“Are you even sure that going with us is a good idea? You’re still a little sick,” he asked with a worried expression. He put the hat on my head and then went straight to adjusting my scarf.

“I’m a lot better than I was yesterday. Besides, I have something I need to do today.”

“What’s that?”

I pushed Baro’s hands away when I noticed they were getting a bit too touchy. I frowned at him and said, “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

“I’m always worried about you,” Baro said with a chuckle, “You’re my little Deullie.”

“Your attachment for me is really creepy.”

Baro just laughed again at that comment before flashing me a wide grin.

I felt my chest tighten up and so I turned away, so I wouldn’t have to look at Baro’s stupid face, and pretended that whatever was hanging on the wall was much more interesting and worth my attention than the person standing in front of me.

Jinyoung suddenly popped his head into the room and smiled when he saw the way I was completely overdressed. It was much worst than last time. “Cute.”

“Isn’t he?” Baro said with that stupid grin still on his face. He reached to touch my hat but I swatted his hand away.

“So Gongchan said that the plan for today is to go to this indoors amusement park. It’s about an hour away by car.”

“Oh joy,” I muttered, “Being stuck in a van with you guys for an hour sounds like a thrill.” The sarcasm was practically leaking out of me.

Jinyoung ignored my comment and continued with his explanation of today’s plans. “Since the place is indoors, it won’t be as cold as you would expect. So you don’t really need to go over the top with your outfit, Sandeul.”

“Indoor amusement park, huh,” I mumbled uninterestingly, “Do those even exist?”

“According to Gongchan, they do. It’s not one of those fancy ones either. It’s pretty small compared to others.”

“Baro,” I said as I turned to look at him, “I need water.”

“Of course!” He automatically responded and practically dashed out of the room and towards the downstairs kitchen.

“Doesn’t he realize you guys have a mini fridge right over there?”

“He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.”

Jinyoung chuckled, but then he suddenly turned serious and I immediately knew what was coming next. “So when exactly do you want your alone time today? I still don’t know how I’m going to convince Gongchan to let you guys go. Especially since you were gone yesterday and Baro wasn’t acting like himself at all. He’s going to want to make that time up with you guys.”

“I don’t need a lot of time,” I answered, “Just about 10 minutes. Maybe even less. I’m sure you will figure something out.”

I could tell Jinyoung didn’t like the idea of lying. Especially not to his precious little puppy. But before he could respond, Baro came rushing back into the room. And along with him was Gongchan and Namsoo.

“Jinyoung!” Gongchan practically shouted when he saw his favorite person of all time. Pushing Namsoo to the side, Gongchan ran up to Jinyoung like an over excited puppy. You could practically see his imaginary tail wagging. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes,” Jinyoung said as he patted Gongchan on the top of his head. I wanted to laugh at this pathetic scene. It would have been a little more cute if Gongchan wasn’t practically the same height as Jinyoung. That just made everything a little weird.

“There’s this one ride that spins you around and around in a complete circle. I bet I can totally ride that without throwing up.”

I pushed the mental image of a Gongchan leaning over a trash can out of my mind. “You’ve been there before?” I asked. Not that I really cared.

“Yep! During a family vacation. It’s the best indoors amusement park around. Trust me.”

Gongchan was suddenly pushed to the side by Namsoo, who went to stand next to Jinyoung. “I’ve been to plenty of amusement parks in my life too. The biggest one was the once I went to during my trip to France where…” he then went on and on about his stupid family trip that nobody really cared about so I completely lost interest in an instant. But Jinyoung just nodded his head and occasionally threw in some “that’s nice” and “wow”. It wasn’t long before Gongchan butted in and began talking about his own family trips in an attempt to grab Jinyoung’s attention again.

I sighed as I watched the pathetic scene go on and suddenly Baro placed a warm watter bottle in my hand. “I didn’t know if cold water would be bad for you or not. You know, since you’re sick.”

“I would’ve preferred cold. But thanks.”

“I’ll go get cold then!” He turned around to leave, but I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back to my side.

“It’s okay.”

Baro didn’t seem convinced but he let it go and soon went to push Jinyoung and his puppets out of the room, claiming that he still needed to change and he couldn’t do it with everybody in the room. It was true, since Baro was still only wearing his baggy t-shirt and basketball shorts, which I assumed he wore last night to sleep.

“Why does Junghwan get to stay?” Gongchan whined as he was pushed out.

“First of all, it’s Sandeul. Not Junghwan. And second, because he can.” Before another complaint could be made, Baro closed the door in their faces and locked it too, just to be safe.

“Yes,” I sighed, “Because that doesn’t sound suspicious at all.” Baro made his way to his suitcase and I sighed again. “I could have left with them. I don’t need to be here while you change either.”

“But I like having you here.”

He wasn’t look at me and I was glad. Even with the scarf practically covering most of my face, I didn’t want to risk Baro seeing the blush that had formed.

It didn’t take Baro that long to change and the two of us soon headed downstairs to meet with the guys.

Jaehyun wouldn’t look at me and instead kept all his attention on his phone to keep him distracted. He wouldn’t look at me during breakfast either. It annoyed me to see him avoiding me when really it should be me who should be avoiding him.

But I tried to act like his actions weren’t affecting me. But I don’t think it entirally worked.

-

The car ride to the amusement park was way worse than I expected. Instantly, Baro fell right asleep the moment we drove out of the lot, and he decided to use my shoulder as his pillow.

Gongchan spent the whole hour rambling on about the rides we’ll be witnessing and all the different game stands we could play. But I knew it wasn’t going to be as exciting as Gongchan made it sound. Nobody was even listening to him except for Jinyoung, and that was enough for him to ramble on the whole time without a single break.

“How much are the tickets?” Jinyoung eventually asked. He was sitting right in the middle between Gongchan and Namsoo. I will never understand how he can deal with both those two idiots tagging along with him all the time. Then again, I had to deal with Baro and Jaehyun glued to my side, so I guess it’s understandable.

But, for reasons only I know, Jaehyun sat in the passenger seat beside the driver. His excuse was that “I want to see the scenery and it won’t be the same if I sat in the back.” But from the way he had his earphones in and his eyes glued to his phone, it was all a lie to not sit next to me.

“For an access pass for all the rides, it’s about $90 each,” Gongchan said mindlessly, as if that didn’t sound expensive at all. “There’s also lunch and snacks too. But I already have us covered. You guys don’t need to worry about anything.”

You’d think I’d be glad for having rich friends, if you can even call them friends. Especially the ones who pays for everything. But it just made me feel like I’m going to eventually fall into a huge debt by the end of the day because of these guys and that’s too much of a hassle for me to deal with.

“$540?” I asked as I tried to shift my seating position a bit while at the same time making sure not to wake Baro up. “Just tell us what you want from us now so we don’t have to go through all this. It’s really a waste of time.” Baro mumbled something in his sleep and snuggled himself closer to my side.

“For the last time, I’m not doing this to gain anything! It’s because I’m your friend and I’m totally the nicest guy ever.”

I was completely skeptical about the whole thing because, really, since when was Gongchan ever nice before? Only to Jinyoung, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he was really just doing this to gain Jinyoung’s love again. He’s just dragging us all with him for some stupid reason.

I was about to make another comment when Baro mumbled something again in his sleep and I suddenly felt an arm wrap around my stomach and Baro buried his nose into my neck.  My eyebrows creased at the way his breath tickled my skin.

I was just glad that we were sitting in the back and none of the other guys was aware about what was going on. But when I glanced up at the rear view mirror for a split second, I could have sworn that the drive was looking at us.

-

We made it to the amusement park without me having to kill anyone due to all the annoyance I felt. But it took a while for Baro to wake up and even a longer time to pull him off of me.

Gongchan didn’t even give us any time to take a look around and take in the new area because as soon as we got off, he literally dragged us inside.

The first ride Gongchan tried to get us on was this deadly looking machine that span about a hundred times a second, and yeah I might be exaggerating a bit, but unlike everybody else, I actually wanted to stay alive to see the next day. So I managed to convince Gongchan to let me stay back while everybody else got on.

Not with just that ride, but with every other ride as well.

I never liked the amusement park, even as a kid. Whenever my parents managed to drag me to one, I would always spend the majority of the time avoiding going on any ride they tried to force me on. I preferred sitting at the rest area until it was time to go home and by the end of the day my father would spend the drive back home grumbling about wasting his time and money for nothing.

Gongchan didn’t complain though. I guess he was just content with the fact that I was actually here and not back at the vacation home where I would totally prefer being.

But the guys seemed to having a blast, especially Baro, so it wasn’t all that bad.

After a handful of rides, it was finally time to grab some lunch at one of the restaurants they had throughout the park.

The place had an underwater theme, which I didn’t understand at all. The only thing on the menu was seafood and the place was just straight up weird.

Jinyoung caught my attention by grabbing my sleeve as the rest of the guys went to sit at a seashell shaped table booth. He pulled me back and leaned to whisper something in my ear.

“This is the perfect time to talk to Baro. Talk to him now before Gongchan goes back to dragging his around everywhere. Who knows when you’ll have another opportunity.”

He had a point. It was now or never.

The two of us walked towards the booth and I nudged Gongchan to grab his attention away from the menu. The seating arrangements were already set with Gongchan, Namsoo and Jinyoung sitting on one side, and Jaehyun, Baro and I sitting on the other. I noticed the seating arrangements is usually always like this.

“Is there a bathroom around here?”

Gongchan looked around before pointing towards the other side of the restaurant, where a narrow hallway could be seen. “I think it should be over there.”

“Thanks.” I turned to Baro and said, “Help me find it,” as I grabbed his arm and dragged him away with me.

I heard the guys snickering behind us and Gongchan saying, “Are the love birds going to make out before lunch?” But I choose to ignore it all and continued to hold onto Baro.

Shutting ourselves in the one-man bathroom, I took a quick glance around and noticed the fish wallpaper and the shell shaped mirror.

“For someone who doesn’t want our relationship to get anymore suspicious, dragging me in the bathroom wasn’t sure a good idea.”

I reached over to lock the door and ignored the confused look Baro sent me. “Are we really going to make out?” he jokingly asked, “I mean, I don’t mind. But the guys are going to know what we’re doing and-”

“Can you shut up?”

I didn’t mean to say it as harsh as I did, and the way Baro quickly shut his mouth and sent me an apologetic look made me feel a bit bad. But I wasn’t in the mood to hear anymore jokes about me and Baro. It was beginning to get on my nerves.

“What’s up?” Baro finally asked after a moment of silence.

I bit my lip as I tried to think of the best way to get this out of my system. I could just rip the bandage right off and tell him straight out without sugar coating anything. But if Jinyoung ever finds out that I did this without considering Baro’s feelings, he’ll probably kill me. I’m still pretty young to die.

Eventually, I sighed and leaned against the locked door. There was really no other easy way to say this.

“I decided.”

“Decided what?”

I let out another deep sigh. “On what to do about… us.”

Baro blinked. “Oh.” The bathroom was pretty small and so there wasn’t that big of a gap between us and not really anywhere for my to keep my gaze while avoiding eye contact. “So. What did you decide?”

He said the words so slowly, it struck an odd nerve.

“This is all so pointless.”

Maybe not the best choice of words, but they were true.

“What?”

There was no reasons to drag this out any longer. Maybe to spare some feelings, but he’ll get over it eventually.

“We’re teenagers, Baro. I realized there’s no point in any of this. In a couple of years, none of this will matter. So why should we bother to deal with it now? It’s just a hassle and a waste of time.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Baro said before I could continue. There was something in the way he was looking at me made me pretty sure that this conversation wasn’t going to be over any time soon. “You’re saying that my feelings don’t matter?”

“Wait? No. I’m saying-”

“That’s exactly what you’re saying,” he said cutting me off again.

I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed. “No,” I said slowly. “I’m saying that there’s no point for dealing with all this. Why do I need to waste my time to think about my feelings? Lets say we do get into a relationship, it won’t last longer than a couple of months. Weeks maybe. Teenage relationships never last. So why should we deal with all this now if it’s just going to end eventually. It’s pointless.”

Baro tried to take a step back, and that made me frown. Baro never tried stepping away from me. He’s always trying to get closer. He had a frustrated look on his face as his eyes scanned my face as if he was still trying to figure everything out. Which he probably was.

“I’m confused,” Baro said, “Are you saying that you like me but you don’t want to date me?”

“No-”

“So you’re saying that you might like me but there’s no point in figuring it out?”

“What I’m trying to say is-”

“Or are you saying to tell me that I wasted all these months struggling to deal with my own feelings while you can’t even spend more than a few days without giving up because you just don’t care.”

“What?” I was beginning to get annoyed. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Then what the hell are you trying to say?” Baro snapped out of frustration.

“Maybe if you stop interrupting me every god damn minute then I can tell you when I meant,” I snapped back. I gave yet another sigh and began to speak calmly again.

“I was thinking everything over and I realized that there is no point.”

Baro tried to interrupt me again, but I quickly continued before he could.

“There’s really no point in wasting our time thinking all this over. I’m not the type of the person to over think anything. I’m simple minded in the sense that I will only do things that are not annoying or a hassle to deal with. I was actually taking time to consider your feelings for the past couple of days, but I realized that I was just wasting my time, as well as yours. But when you think about, none of this will really matter in a few years. All of this will eventually pass by and we will move on with our lives, so what’s the point of dealing with it now?”

There was no response as Baro just stood there, letting everything I said sink in. I felt myself fidget a bit as I realized what I said probably made little-to-no sense at all. But there wasn’t really any other way I knew how to lay this all down. And as long as I had an understanding about my reasons, then why worry about what others had to think? Then again, this is Baro we’re talking about. And I admit, I’m not entirely sure what I was saying either.

“So let me get this straight,” Baro finally said. “In other words, you just don’t want to deal with my feelings.”

He wasn’t entirely wrong. But I wouldn’t put it in those words.

“It’s not that I don’t want to deal with them. I-”

“You think it’s a waste of time to deal with me, huh?” Baro muttered. He was slowly starting to glare at me and I didn’t like it one but. Barely rarely ever glares. Especially not at me. “I spent all those months having a mental freak out because I was falling for my best friend. My best friend that’s a guy. I couldn’t eat or sleep for weeks. I lost so much weight, my grades started to drop because I couldn’t concentrate in class, and I couldn’t do anything productive at all because the only thing running through my mind was you and how you would react if you ever found out that I like you. I was going through all this for months, and you want to tell me I was just wasting my time?”

I was a bit taken back by the sudden speech and it took me a while to respond.

“I just-”

“I didn’t waste my time.”

I paused. “No. You didn’t.”

“And my feelings aren’t a waste of time either. I am not a waste of time.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

Baro didn’t speak after that and the two of us just stood in the middle of the small bathroom. We’ve been here for a while and if we didn’t leave now, one of the guys will probably come to check on us. But I could tell that didn’t matter to Baro at the moment.

“So, what,” Baro mumbled. “Do I just give up? Is that what you want?”

“I just don’t want to deal with this anymore,” I finally whispered.

And then it all finally clicked.

“It’s not me that you don’t want to deal with.” The sudden realization was finally hitting Baro and I hated it so much. “It’s your own feelings. It’s your own feelings you don’t want to deal with.”

I didn’t say anything as I shifted my weight onto my other leg.

“You’re scared. Aren’t you?”

“What? No.”

“Yes you are.” By now Baro’s eyes were wide as he was wagging his finger in my face with a small smirk forming at the corner of his lips. “Deullie, I know you. Don’t think I don’t. And I know you’re scared.”

“Why would I be scared?” I muttered. I pushed his finger away from him and scowled.

“Because this is the first time you’re actually putting your own feelings into consideration.”

I wanted to cut in, but Baro didn’t give me the chance to.

“You’re cold, Deullie. You don’t care about anyone or anything. This is the first time you’re actually caring about something. I mean, it’s not a lot of care seeing how quick it took you to try to brush this all off, but it’s something.”

“Please don’t talk as if you know what’s going on in my head,” I muttered. But he wasn’t entirely wrong.

It wasn’t that I was exactly scared or anything. There was nothing for me to be scared of. I’m just not used to dealing with my feelings or other peoples’ feelings. I don’t have a clue how to go about this whole thing. I’m not even sure what exactly I’m supposed to be thinking over. It was just all too annoying for me to deal with. I shouldn’t have to deal with it at all.

“Deullie,” Baro mumbled. He took a step forward again, and since before he barely had any space between, there was even less space. His body was practically up against mine. “You don’t have to be scared.”

“I said I’m not scared.”

“You don’t like getting attached to people, am I right?”

He wasn’t wrong.

“And you think that, let’s just say, you discover you have feelings for me, it’s the same thing as saying that you’re attached?”

Again, he wasn’t wrong.

I wasn’t prepared for Baro to suddenly put a gentle hand on the top of my head and give me a soft, but reassuring smile. “Deul. When I said I wanted you to think about your feelings, I didn’t mean to think about years from now. You’re talking about “in a couple of years” when you shouldn’t be worried about that. Just focus on what’s going on now. And when a couple of years come, we’ll deal with it then.”

Maybe Baro didn’t clearly understand what my intentions were. But he what he said was still enough to calm myself down.

“And you don’t need to rush how you feel either. Whether it takes you a week, or months, you can take your time. I’ll wait. So don’t pressure yourself.”

“But won’t you eventually get impatient?” I mumbled.

Baro shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows. Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll deal with it when it comes. It took me forever to figure out I like you. I’m pretty sure it’ll take you around the same amount of time. Maybe even a little longer.”

I tilted my head to the side and watched as Baro leaned in a little closer. “I just want to stop spending all my thinking about this. I can’t even do the simplest thing without worrying how it might affect you.”

“You can take all the time you need, Deullie. Don’t worry about me. There’s nothing to be scared about. I’m here to help you with whatever you need.”

I didn’t realize how close Baro actually was until he pulled himself in and placed his lips against mine. I didn’t respond immediately, but slowly I found myself kissing him back. The heat on my face increased, but I tried to ignore it as Baro reached down to move my arms and place them around his neck. I wasn’t completely thrilled that I was in the ‘girls’ position, but screw that, I was kissing Baro and it was pretty great.

It only lasted a few seconds and soon Baro was pulling back, a stupid silly grin on his face, and his face probably even more red than mine.

“But I’m pretty sure you like me.” He chuckled and nudged his nose against mine. “I’ll just let you figure it out yourself.”

“Don’t just assume things,” I muttered as I pulled him back in.

--

Jinyoung stared at us with wide eyes as me and Baro made our way back to the table booth. None of the other guys noticed anything, which was a bit of a surprised. With our swollen lips, flushed faces, and the fact that we’ve been gone for over 15 minutes, you would have assumed they would have questioned us.

Only Jinyoung seemed to understand what had happened.

“What took you guys so long?” Gongchan asked when we finally sat down. The food was already on the table and everybody else was already half way done with their meal.

“Baro had constipation.”

Baro spit out the water he just so happened to take a sip of and spent the next couple of minutes trying to clear his name while Namsoo and Gongchan just laughed their asses off.

“Sandeul,” Jinyoung said. He has a smile on his face, but I could feel the angry reeking off from him. “Can you come with me for a minute?”

“I just sat down. Let me eat.”

“Now.”

The whole table got quiet at the way Jinyoung suddenly snapped.

I swallowed a lump as the two of us got up from the table and walked together outside.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

There was people walking around us and so I know Jinyoung couldn’t raise his voice like he probably wanted to. For the first time, I was actually glad to be surrounded by people.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you and Baro did. I mean, your lips double the size. And that doesn’t happen just from a simple lip-to-lip contact. You guys had tongue involved, didn’t you?”

I would have laughed at his stupid question, if it wasn’t true. Only a little. I mean, we were making out for about 15 minutes straight, of course we were going to expand a little on the making out part.

“I gave you the chance to talk with Baro, so unless you guys are officially dating, this is completely unacceptable. What did I tell you about messing with Baro’s feelings?”

“Why are you so concerned about Baro’s feelings?”

“He’s my friend,” Jinyoung pointed out, “I know we’ve only been hanging out for a couple of months, but he’s still my friend. I’m the oldest in the group, so I feel like I need to be the one to watch all you guys. He’s not the only person I’m worrying about. I’m also looking out for you too, you know.”

It didn’t seem like it, but I sighed. “Well, I had a talk with Baro.”

“And?”

“I’m not quite sure what really happened. But I’m not going to stress over this whole ‘figuring out my feelings’ crap anymore. I’ll just let whatever happen happen.”

“But what about Baro?”

“He’s okay with it. I guess. I think.”

“You guys didn’t really talk much, huh?”

My face flushed again and I nervously coughed. “We did. I just don’t really know what.”

Jinyoung sighed. He didn’t seemed exactly happy with the situation, but there wasn’t really anything he could do about it. Even if he is the oldest, I still don’t see why he keeps butting into this when it’s not even his problem. But its kind of nice to have someone to talk things with even if he does nag me most of the time.

“Just… just don’t hurt him okay.”

“Okay.”

Jinyoung sighed again and pulled me in to put an arm around the shoulder. “Also, come to me if there’s ever anything you need to talk about. I’m all ears.”

I felt my face heating up again and I found myself playing with the hem of my shirt. “If that’s the case, can I tell you something? I’m not asking for advice, I just need to get this off my chest.”

Jinyoung looked concerned as he let go of me and nodded his head. “Of course. What’s up?”

“I think I might like Baro.”