What Byun Baekhyun decides to do as our first date is completely unexpected, and really just sufficiently awkward.

Ice skating.

But it’s not just us; it’s a double date, with some Canadian guy called Kris and some equally awkward Chinese exchange student whose name escapes me.

Tao?

Huang?

Whatever it was, I can’t pronounce it.

Chanyeol, you can’t pronounce Korean words properly and that’s your first language.

Thanks for your insight, brain.

Whatever.

So Kris is like some tall guy that constantly bleaches his obviously naturally dark hair (because he’s Asian) blonde, and he’s amazing at ice skating which is kind of expected because he’s Canadian and it snows there.

At least that’s what I’ve learnt at school.

Wait, you learnt something at school?

Do you have an off switch or something? I didn’t pay for this.

Yes, it snows in Korea too. But I never leave our apartment. Actually, I never really leave the confines of my bedroom because there is always so much amazing ual goodness in the Byun Baekhyun tag on Tumblr.

It is painfully obvious that I can’t ice skate properly.

Chinese guy doesn’t know how to either, but after one time around the ring of the rink he’s holding hands with Kris and gliding.

Gliding.

He’s like a bird in flight, one leg extended out in front of the other, gliding on the ice like he owns the place. I, on the other hand, am still clinging to the edge for dear life.

“Chanyeol, are you OK?” Baekhyun asks as he swirls.

I mumble an apology for being slightly more incompetent than usual.

After my fifth time around the edge, Baekhyun is back.

Well technically he’s been trailing behind me, watching as my legs splay across the ice as I stack it an bruise my for the twentieth time.

“Come on Chanyeol, take my hand.”

“Uh…?”

Apparently it is hard for my brain to process words whilst simultaneously flapping my arms about to stop from falling over (again). I grab the edge and cling to it.

“NO!”

I realise I must sound like a three year old that’s been asked to take a bath after swimming around in a puddle of mud like a deranged dolphin.

Pretty much, yeah. You actually sound like that.

Shut up, brain. You know me plus uneven surface equals disaster.

I cling so hard to the wall I’m sure if the wall was a living thing I’d be cutting off its circulation.

I don’t want to ice skate.

I don’t want to ice skate.

Hell, I can’t even walk properly let alone stumble around on pointed blades!

But Byun Baekhyun has other ideas.

He takes a hand and leads me out into the fast part of the ice, where all the pro ice skaters have congregated in a mass of twirling limbs and danger.

“AH!”

I shout at Baekhyun, flailing. I almost drag him down with me for stack number twenty-one.

“PUT ME BACK!”

“No!”

Baekhyun’s words are sweet and simple.

“Just hold my hand and stay still.”

It takes a while for me to get used to the fact that Byun Baekhyun is HOLDING my hand.

MY HAND.

My stomach feels so unsettled and I just want to go home.
A wave of nausea.

Chanyeol, don’t conk out now!

My head is spinning, just like that disco ball that is hanging from the ceiling above the ice, only a lot less flashy.

Your head is swimming, you should calm down.

Baekhyun senses my discomfort and drags me back to the edge and out of the rink, peeling off his skating shoes. He walks me over to a bench and sits me down.

“Chanyeol, talk to me,” Baekhyun says. I only groan and stick a hand to my head.

I think it might be a combination of the cold of the ice and the pumping music, or just Baekhyun in general that makes me feel this way.

“What’s wrong?” I hear deep-voiced Kris ask from somewhere above me.

Baekhyun is quick to respond, “I think Chanyeol just needs some fresh air.”

He leads me outside and pushes me down onto the concrete in a sitting position, my head between my legs.

“Are you OK?”

My head is still throbbing. Baekhyun hands me a bottle of water and I am quick to down it, slinking so that I am lying face down on the concrete.

So this is what it feels like to die, I suppose?

I’m not dying!

Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Oh wait, every time you do it smashes.

Shut up, brain! Ugh, why do you even exist?

I am you, Park Awkward Chanyeol.

UGH!

“Chanyeol?”

About half an hour later Sehun is tapping his foot grumpily on the doorstep of our apartment. I don’t even want to know what I interrupted him and Luhan from doing right now.

“What happened?”

“I dunno, he just got sick or something.”

Sehun pushes me down the hallway and into my bedroom, a concerned Baekhyun following on behind him.

Baekhyun decides to stay for the night, and he pulls my desk chair across the room so he can sit next to me while I sleep.

--

The next day I wake with a scream. Byun Baekhyun is still here.

“How’d you sleep?” Baekhyun is unfazed by my screaming at his beautiful face.

“Eh,” I rub my eyes groggily.

“I don’t like ice skating.”

Byun Baekhyun lets out one of the most ridiculously attractive giggles I have ever heard in my life. Ever.

I mean, I have heard him laugh before on all those talk shows I sit glued on YouTube to watch, but in real life it’s even more hauntingly beautiful.

Stalker.

Now, now. No need to name-call.

“You had me really worried!” I stare at Baekhyun as the words leave his pouty lips.

I shrug.

“I don’t even know what happened to be honest.”

Baekhyun jumps off the chair and onto my bed, pulling my blanket up and over him. He leans forward and wraps an arm around my body, his head resting on my chest.

Uhm, what?

What?

Excuse me?

Mr hot Oppa Byun Baekhyun is in my bed.

I’m in my bed.

Uhm, what?

“What?”

Baekhyun sighs and pokes me harshly on the stomach.

“Next date, we’re so not going ice skating.”