Chapter 5

It had been almost two months since Wu Fan met the two idiots in the first day of the semester. Since that day they had been glued to him like two annoying limbs that don’t really help you move, but instead drag you away from your path.

Baekhyun was more sensible than Chanyeol.  Kris had realized that very early on and this impression was confirmed daily. The eyeliner guy was wealthy, but he was renting an apartment near the campus and no longer stayed at home, like Chanyeol did. He was more sociable too and less temperamental, which resulted in him having various friends that Chanyeol had shown no interest in meeting.

“You can just go, Baekhyun-ah. I’ll stay here to study with Duizhang.” The curly-haired guy stuck his nose inside a book he wasn’t even reading and said.

“What? You’re bailing on me? Again! But you promised you’d go out with the guys today.” Baekhyun who had put on even more eyeliner for the occasion whined.

“Sorry, I can’t leave a guy like him” he pointed at Kris, “alone in a foreign country.”

“But, I’ve invited Wu Fan too!” Baekhyun protested.

Chanyeol chuckled under his breath. “There’s no way Duizhang is coming with you to a karaoke…”

“Actually, I said yes.” Kris put in apathetically, finding a little enjoyment in his friend’s shocked glance.

“You did?! Seriously? And what about studying?” For some reason Chanyeol had agreed to study every day, as long as Wu Fan stayed and studied with him. It didn’t matter to him if they had to put up with the noises in a cafeteria, or the lack of space in Kris’ dorm- because he had gotten them banned from the library. If Wu Fan was up for it Chanyeol would probably sit down and study. And Kris was usually up for studying.

So it was a surprise to the younger boy that his Canadian friend who so much loved doing homework was opting to spend his night out.

“It’s Saturday tomorrow.” The blonde reminded him and rolled his eyes.

“So you’re both coming, right?” Baekhyun beamed.

Kris grabbed Chanyeol’s backpack that was lying carelessly on his desk and put it on his shoulder, over his own bag.

“We are.” He confirmed even though the other part of ‘we’ was mouthing ‘no’s to him.

Baekhyun lead them to a nearby karaoke place where he had booked a room for them.

Inside the room there were already four guys talking animatedly with each other.

“Look! It’s Baekhyun-hyung.” One of them, a solemn looking boy, not older than eighteen, pointed out.

“Sehun-ah!” Baekhyun greeted happily as another member of the group grunted.

This guy looked familiar, Wu Fan noted.

“Sehun and Jongin shouldn’t be out so late. And in a place where people drink alcohol too! I don’t know why I let you come along…” The familiar looking guy muttered grumpily.

“It’s because you hate yelling at them.” A guy with huge eyes said and took a sip from his drink.

“Don’t worry, Junmyun-hyung, we’ll take care of them.” Baekhyun assured, which didn’t seem to calm the familiar guy - was it Junmyun?- down.

“Just take care of yourself first, hyung!” A dark-skinned guy who was probably Jongin said sarcastically.

“Oh! I almost forgot to introduce you guys!” Baekhyun exclaimed.

“This is Sehun, Jongin, Kyungsoo and Junmyun. And these two guys are Wu Fan, our Duizhang, and Chanyeol.” Kris’ eyeliner friend said pleasantly and Wu Fan hurried to shake everyone’s hands formally.

“Wow, he really is a foreigner!” The guy with the big, surprised eyes, the one called Kyungsoo, commented.

“What is ‘Duizhang’?” Sehun asked and surprisingly, Chanyeol volunteered to explain.

“Well, if you meet Kris, you’ll see that he is just like a Team Leader.” As Chanyeol spoke Sehun and Jongin, they both stared at Wu Fan for a moment, then they both nodded in comprehension.

“He is always serious and dutiful and very polite. So I said I’d call him ‘Team Leader’. But this guy didn’t know what ‘Team Leader’ meant, because he’s half-Canadian, half-Chinese.” Again the two guys nodded at Chanyeol’s narration.

“To solve that problem I looked it up at a dictionary and turns out ‘Team Leader’ in Mandarin is ‘Duizhang’. So here it is.” Chanyeol finished triumphantly and everyone laughed.

Meanwhile Kris was getting to know Junmyung who, just as he had suspected, worked at one of the cafes he and Chanyeol had tried to study in.

“It’s not some prestigious job, but it helps pay the rent. My parents are paying for Art’s school, so I didn’t want to burden them more.” He explained to the blonde with a kind smile.

“It sounds great. I’m sure you’re going to be a very famous actor one day.” Wu Fan grinned. It was a little half-hearted though. Not because he was not happy for Junmyun, but rather because he felt nostalgic for the times when he, too, was working hard and earnestly to become someone.

“I will be successful, because I’m never giving up.” Junmyun said brightly and Kris nodded. He looked briefly around only to see Chanyeol perfectly in tune with the group, listening to the nicknames Sehun had given to his friends.

“Yeollie is doing ok. In case you were worried about him.” Baekhyun nudged the blonde and whispered in his ear.

“I wasn’t worried.” Wu Fan denied. “I just don’t get why he didn’t want to come. He’s good at making friends.”

Baekhyun pouted slightly. “Yeollie is good with people. Always.” He stated confidently.

“It’s just that people aren’t always good to Yeollie.” Hearing this made the Canadian skip a beat.

“When you’ve been treated badly by so many people, it’s normal to be afraid to make new friends.” Baekhyun sighed knowingly and the blonde looked away, trying to hide a pained expression that had taken over his face.

The rest of the night passed faster than Chanyeol would have wanted, as the curly-haired guy told Wu Fan on their way back.

“And did you see how well Kyungsoo sang that song? The kid’s amazing. And Jongin is such a little devil! Poor Junmyun-hyung will suffer a lot with him.” Chanyeol laughed excitedly as he walked next to Wu Fan.

“Sounds like you had fun after all.” The older of the two suggested with a smirk.

“I did.” Chanyeol agreed. “Oh, I know what you’re going to say! I should have agreed to meet them long ago. I should be more sociable…” He pouted.

“I wasn’t planning on saying anything.” Kris shrugged and hid a smile.

“I remember how much you like to be sociable. You even tried to make friends with those stalkers at the beginning of the semester.” The crazy boy accused playfully.

“But I can’t be this way. No, I don’t want to be this way.” Chanyeol’s eyes lost a bit of their light and he looked away.

“I didn’t say that to judge you.” The blonde cleared up in a serious tone. “I was just happy to see you enjoying yourself.” He said in a small voice.

Suddenly the boy’s eyes were fixed on him again, as if trying to solve a riddle that was both hard and amusing at the same time. He wanted to figure him out. Was the blonde speaking seriously or just joking? Did those words came from his mouth or his heart? Finally, it seemed like Chanyeol had made up his mind to leave this riddle unsolved for the moment, because he stopped looking so intently and just smiled.

“Whoaa…That sounded emotional, Duizhang. I thought you didn’t do emotional.”  He joked.

“Can’t we say this is a one-time thing and forget about it?” Kris offered.

“I can say I’ll forget it, but I'll probably be lying, Duizhang.” The culry-haired boy rested his hand carelessly over his friend’s shoulders and closed his eyes, letting himself be lead by the taller guy.

“Do you often tell lies like that?” The blonde guy felt the weight of his friend dragging him a little off the pavement, yet he made no attempt to push him away.

“No, only this once.” Replied the boy, without so much as a moment’s thought. “Do you?”

“I do.” Kris confessed, while he felt the usual sting inside his ribcage.

“Then, were you lying when you said you were happy for me?” Chanyeol continued and Wu Fan stared at him briefly, wondering what the boy was thinking under those long eyelashes.

“I wasn’t lying about that.” Again his chest was hurting but Kris wanted to be perfectly honest.

“And are you lying right now?” The other pressed on.

“No, I’m not.” Kris answered, smiling at how childish Chanyeol could be when he was talking about something so serious.

“You’re smiling right now, aren’t you?” The boy exclaimed, his eyes still shut.

“No…” The blonde tried to sound persuasive.

“Yes, you are. I can hear it in your voice.” Chanyeol chuckled causing both of them to stumble out of their way for a second, since he was still holding his friend's shoulder with closed eyes.

“Can’t you just walk on your own? You’re not drunk or anything and we’re almost there.” Wu Fan scolded yet, once again, he made no move to get rid of his burden. Besides, they were just a few feet from his dorm.

“I don’t want to.” The curly-haired guy frowned childishly.

“Why not?” Kris asked trying to find his keys.

“Because Duizhang is fun to be with.” Chanyeol blurted out.

“Am I? Actually, there is something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” At that, the shorter of the two opened his eyes and moved a step back from Wu Fan to listen to his question.

“You said you don’t make friends easily. However, on my first day here, you were the one who approached me first. Why is that?” The Canadian gave his friend a curious glance.

Instead of an answer the curly-haired boy stepped in front of Kris, making him stop walking and just stand still.

“You’re very tall.” He put his hand over the Canadian’s head measuring him, like parent's measured their children.

“Since you’re so tall, you always look superior and a little different from everyone else I know.” He continued.

“And you have cute blond hair that don’t really fit your looks very well, but that’s a relief, because you’d be too dark otherwise.” To Wu Fan’s annoyance the younger boy ruffled his hair and moved his hand over the blonde’s face.

“Your eyebrows make you look like an ‘Angry Bird’.” Chanyeol’s long fingers brushed over his eyebrows.

“Your eyes are sad. Always so sad. When you’re staring at me, like you are now, I feel like crying.” He said slowly and softly forced his eyelids down to cover his eyes.

“Your nose is straight and perfect,” He followed the bridge of his nose “and your lips…” as Chanyeol’s fingers rested on his lips Kris felt electricity running through his whole body.

“Your lips are so thick and small, it looks like you have a beak instead of a mouth. Maybe it just became this way since you don’t talk a lot…” The boy teased, but his voice lacked some of its honesty. Awkwardly, he took his hand off Wu Fan’s face and touched his shoulder.

“Your shoulders are broad but your body is lean and your muscles are toned even though you rarely work out. It makes me jealous.” He commented and the Canadian, with his eyes still closed, wondered if that was true.

“So did you try to be friends with me because I’m good-looking?” Kris spoke in a low tone, as he fought to keep his heart from jumping out of his chest.

“No.” The other replied easily. “The first time I saw you I was surprised by all these things I could see about you. ‘How is it possible for this guy to say so little, yet show so much?’ That question crawled into my mind and didn’t leave. So I had to know the truth.” Chanyeol finished pulling his hand from Wu Fan’s body and taking a step back.

Slowly, the blonde opened his eyes and glanced at the boy’s retreating figure with a sense of fear spreading around his already numb from the contact body.

“What if the truth is no good?” Kris whispered.

The Korean boy froze in the spot for a moment.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“What if under these intriguing things you saw, there’s only a big lie?” Kris felt his fingers that were pulled into fists, cutting his flesh.

However, the younger guy didn’t seem to notice his distress. He blushed and kept walking backwards, away from him.

One, two, three, four steps… Kris counted unable to drift his eyes from Chanyeol’s feet.

Why was he walking away? Was he running away from him? The blonde shivered at the idea.

“I will be sad of course.” The curly-haired guy finally answered.

“But I think I will accept Duizhang, with his intriguing personality and his big lie.” He added kindly.

“You know… because I like Duizhang a lot already.” The boy’s blush deepened and he lowered his head in embarrassment.

“Aish… I should have agreed that we both forget about this, when you suggested it…” Chanyeol covered his face with his hands and hurriedly turned around and run to the parking lot where he had left his car.

Meanwhile, Kris stood there, suddenly feeling his empty insides filling up a bit.

“And here I was thinking this guy’s cheap tricks didn’t work on me anymore…” He mumbled clutching his chest.

A/N: So what do you guys think? Like it? Not so much?

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