“I’m going to ask you one more time, Chanyeol. Do you know why you’re here?”

If I say no, will you leave me alone? Will I finally be able to go home where I can crawl under my covers and hide and cry and scream until they swallow me up and I wake up and realize that it was all a dream, that Kris’ arms are still around me, that Baekhyun will be just a phone call or text message away. No, I don’t think that will happen. This nightmare I’m living in is called real life and I don’t know when I fell asleep and found myself here. The memories themselves are a blur, anger and blood and fear all mixed together in a melee in my mind, but going as far back as I can think, I’m pretty sure that this all started with Kris, or as everyone liked to call him, the ‘face’.

When I’d first heard the term, I found it hilarious. I didn’t take it too seriously at the time, only having known Kris for a day, but as time went on, I found that indeed, his face did seem to be frozen in a cold and angry expression. I’d tried to talk to him a few times and received very short answers in response, before he would just go on acting as if I wasn’t there. I’d always hated it when people were rude and at first I resented Kris for giving me the cold shoulder, but as time went on I tried to give him more and more chances; of course he just continued acting like the world’s biggest jerk to me. I was just about to give up on him, until the one time I saw his angry exterior crack. It was pretty sudden and anticlimactic; I was in Sehun’s kitchen looking for something to drink during one of our get-togethers, when I heard footsteps behind me. Assuming it was the man, or boy, of the house, I began to complain.

“Sehunnie, tell me you have something other than milk and juice in this fridge,” I called out, not moving from my bent position in front of the large appliance.

There was no answer behind me as I continued pawing through the contents, sticking my head further into the cold air.

“I mean, I could just drink the milk, but do you want me any taller? I mean I’m pretty sure that I’m soon going to be taller than Kris and then he’s going to have to look up at me and he won’t be as intimidating and,” I turned around, coming face to face with the subject of my rant himself, and cut myself off with an embarrassed giggle. “Oh hello, Kris,” I said with a large grin.

Kris just snorted, reaching past me to one of the cupboards where Sehun kept his snacks, opening the door and revealing a few cans of pop.

I pouted, crossing my arms defensively. “Well who keeps pop out there anyways?”

Kris smiled, and good lord his smile was gorgeous, and rolled his eyes. He didn’t say anything, just grabbed two cans, handing one to me, and turned to leave.

I was still trying to calm down my heart from its near heart attack but managed to shout out an awkward, “Thanks Kris!” He ignored me, exiting the room without even acknowledging my words, but I didn’t care. The great Wu Fan had smiled at me, and that wasn’t the last time I saw the once rare sight either. Over the next few weeks he smiled more and more at me, whether it was in response to a joke I made, or something embarrassing I did, sometimes I would even catch him smiling at me in response to me just laughing. I wasn’t sure if it was just because he thought I looked like an idiot and he was laughing at me in his own Kris way, but it made my heart pound nonetheless. And then it hit me, I was falling for him; the ‘face’, the great Wu Fan, Kris.

He didn’t really fit in with most of my friends; in fact a lot of them were irritated with his cold demeanor. He’d been introduced to me as a friend of a friend of mine, meaning a friend of Lay’s who was a friend of Suho’s, and since then had joined in with me and my friends whenever we hung out, only I wasn’t sure if it was of his own free will. When we went on outings or just hung out in someone’s house, he never really seemed to enjoy himself, only really talking with Lay or Suho or Tao.

I was jealous of Tao, I had already accepted that fact once I realized that I had a slight infatuation with the cold man, and seeing the two of them sitting there talking as if they were the best of friends, which they probably were, frustrated me incredibly.

We were all at Lay’s house today, the seven of us, Lay, Suho, Kris, Baekhyun, Tao, Sehun, Kai and I, all occupying some space in his living room as we tried to decide what we were going to do for the day. As expected, Kris was seated on the couch next to Tao, the two of them immersed in conversation as I looked on from my seat on the floor jealously.

Suddenly, Kris looked up at me quickly, catching my eye. I jumped, startled, my eyes widening and my cheeks flushing when I realized that I had been caught. To my annoyance, my eyes refused to break their contact with Kris’ and the ‘face’ and I proceeded to stare back at one another, neither one of us moving.

Tao noticed this, following Kris’ gaze until he met mine, and shook his head with a laugh. He whispered something in Kris’ ear, nodding at me suggestively, and the corners of Kris’ lips turned upwards into a smirk as he continued to stare at me. I remained frozen, unsure of what to do, when I was saved by none other than my best friend, Baekhyun.

Baekhyun was shorter than me by quite a lot, only really reaching my shoulder, but I didn’t like to think of him as small, instead calling him ‘fun-sized’. To me, it was true; we always had tons of fun together, whether it was laughing at nothing or play fighting  or trying to annoy one of the hyungs to no end.

“Chanyeol, what are you doing?” He stood in front of me, blocking Kris from my view, and I had to look up at him, probably one of the only times when I would be doing this in my whole life.

“Uhh n-nothing,” I stuttered, ducking my head to hide my blush.

Baekhyun eyed me suspiciously. “You were staring at Kris. “

“Was I?” I squeaked, trying to play it off innocently.

“Yes…”

“Oh.” I nodded twice and smiled, hoping to end that subject of conversation quickly.

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes, staring me down, but when all I did was twitch my right eye, he sighed and shook his head.  “Whatever, so anyways…” He began to talk quickly, sitting down and allowing me to look over his head at Kris, and his voice faded into the back of my mind as I tuned him out.

Kris was still looking at me, and he suddenly stood, nodding with his head meaningfully before walking into the hallway. I was shocked, was that an invitation? My heart skipped a beat but I tried to calm myself down, looking quickly at Baekhyun. “Sorry Baekhyunnie,” I interrupted his rant, “I have to go to the washroom, one sec.” And with that, I rushed out into the hallway, nearly running into the object of my affections in the process.

Kris chuckled, “Eager are we?”

I blushed, unsure of what to say. “Did you want to talk to me, Kris?” I finally spoke tentatively, internally scolding myself for acting so shy and nervous; it was definitely unlike me.

“I noticed you staring at me earlier,” He said, leaning against the wall.

I gulped; was I in trouble or something? I rushed through a thousand excuses in my mind, but only managed to cough out a meek, “Yeah, sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Kris said and I swear if I was drinking or eating something, I would have choked on it then and there.

I smiled hesitantly and the two of us stood in silence for a few seconds.

“I hear you like me, Chanyeol,” Kris said evenly, eyeing my reaction.

Was that what Tao was saying to him?! I blushed and began stammering out a response, at first trying to deny it, then playing it off as liking him as a person, but all my words came out as a jumbled mess of gibberish while Kris watched with amusement.

“Well, Chanyeol,” He spoke, interrupting me; “I like you too.”

I swear in that moment I could have died and gone to heaven.