"Who?" He thought his ears tricked him.

"Kris Wu!" So it wasn't the ears, it was the world making fun of him. "By any chance, do you know him? Since you're in the same grade as him and all," she chirped, still not knowing what effects had she induced on him.

"I.. I..." Chanyeol's eyes met her curious twinkling ones. He wished he could say more; ask more, but all the words he intended to say only lumped in his throat when he tried to pronounce them. His thoughts were going haywire and everything around him turned blurry, as though he was in a nightmare.

She only stared at him, calling his name confusedly as he stumbled his way out of her room, bidding her goodbye without looking back at her.

---

Chanyeol walked into the living room, shoulders sloping down.  He immediately headed towards the stairs, desperately wanting to lie down and process the too much information that had just been squeezed into his brain all in one day. Unfortunately, his noona that was laying down idly on the couch noticed the different air surrounding him and she just had to care.

"What's wrong with you?" she lifted herself to a sitting position, switching glances between him and the television.

He stopped right in front of the first step and turned to face his sister, "Just tired." Yet she didn't find any focus in his eyes.

Chanyeol had forced himself to smile, maybe it would help him avoid questions.  But despite it being one of what his lips do all the time, this time they weren't of such strength to curl upwards. He then could only hope his sister wouldn't ask too much.

"You weren't tired when you closed our front door with a bang, Chanyeol."

Chanyeol waved her accusation away as he trudged upstairs, suddenly running out of excuses.

She was worried of his unusual attitude, and a natural instinct as an older sister took over her being. A thought passed through her head to follow him up to his room and bombard him with questions, but something else in the back of her mind told her to leave him alone.

She bit her lip as she weighed the two options, and sighed when she finally decided to do the latter.

---

Chanyeol closed the wooden door of his room silently so he wouldn't bother anyone, then flopped himself on down the white mattress.

He stared mindlessly at the equally white ceiling, trying hard to make his brain function normally. It hadn't recovered from the shock of her words that had dawned into him just a moment ago.

He had once thought that this would eventually happen, her to fall for someone else. It's because he was such a coward; a coward who hid behind his image as a Casanova, who had his arm wrapped around different girls every month.  He kept waiting and waiting for her if one day she would visualize her jealousy of how he treated those girls, even if only subtly. Right at that moment, Chanyeol would say,  "They're nothing to me. But you, you are everything," then they would kiss shyly like how it happened in novels. Look, Chanyeol even have it all planned out.

Now she had already slipped out of his fingers just like that. He had gotten defeated, even before he made his first move. The thought of losing her made the pounding of his head worsen. He felt like banging his head on the wall and scream.

But Chanyeol also blamed her, because she was too oblivious to his feelings.

Perhaps she regarded him as a brother, and a brother only. He laughed bitterly at the notion. 

Brother? Really?

Was that one time holding her to sleep when thunders crackled all night long so brotherly? Was getting soaked in the rain because he made use of his umbrella to cover her from the raindrops so brotherly? Was getting all beat up because of protecting her from the bullies on the street so brotherly? Was accompanying her to get through her insomnia by texting even though his eyes were practically shut down so brotherly? Did everything he had done for her bear no more intimate meanings than what a brother would do?

He thought she was smart enough to put two and two together.

That didn't matter anymore though, because now she already had her eyes fixed on someone else, someone that wasn't Chanyeol, but Chanyeol's brother instead.

How could she possibly expect him to deal with it?

He draped his right arm across his face to block his eyes, as if it would help him get over his regrets of agreeing to help Kris. Oh please, who was he kidding with? Kris Wu could get any girl he pointed his finger at, any kind of girl, even without Chanyeol's help. She was no exception to that power Kris had.

His heart waver at the mental picture of Kris holding her hand, Kris hugging her, Kris kissing her. The girl Chanyeol was supposed to hold hands with, the girl Chanyeol was supposed to hug, the girl Chanyeol was supposed to kiss.

It's too late, he grunted as he dropped his arm from his face.

Or not too late, Chanyeol thought again, jolting upwards as a lone positive thought settled itself among the other negative ones. It may not be too late, because there were a bunch of other possibilities lingering around every occasions. He decided not to be so melancholic and think further.

Maybe Kris was just bored out of his loneliness, maybe he just wanted to make her as a fling, as someone not as important as Chanyeol thought she would be. Maybe it was set up so after she got her very first heartbreak, Chanyeol would be there to help her collect herself together, to wipe her tears, to kiss the pain away, and finally make her his.

Chanyeol kept this positive thought in his head until finally drowsiness kicked in, and he fell asleep. Not too tightly, since Kris and the girl with their respective words were still wandering around, even in his subconscious world.

---

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