How Nice Would 'Us' Be?

- - -

An anniversary is something every love struck couple look forward to, and it was definitely something Baekhyun had long been preparing for. It was easy to make arrangements for his 1 year anniversary with Jongin - easy enough, at least, since he had the venue ready for the night, and working in a cake shop meant any catering was organised for. He spent a good few months making sure that when the night arrived, everything would roll off the carpet perfectly and there wouldn't be a single flaw in his preparation.

Not a single flaw, just like Jongin himself. The night would be a reflection of how Jongin was pictured in Baekhyun's eyes.

He was grateful for Chanyeol's help as well, the boy being his best friend of definitely more than a year. They had known each other through their parents, at the ages when nappies were entirely normal. They had grown so close, that there were many times when Baekhyun would catch himself thinking about Chanyeol in not-so-friendly ways, but of course, he never acted upon them. 

Chanyeol was completely girl-crazy, and rumours were that he was a playboy too. The school was flocked with girls who would stop at nothing for a chance with Chanyeol... but Baekhyun was the only one who knew the truth. 

Ah... Park Chanyeol wasn't such a bad guy. He was the greatest friend Baekhyun could ever ask for, and if he treated girls like how he treated Baekhyun, then he would surely score a beautiful heart eventually. The rumours - neither knew where they had started from, since Chanyeol hadn't ever been on a single date in his whole life. And he was already borderline 18, and not having had a girlfriend before was just... weird.

Even Baekhyun beat him, having had a total of two boyfriends in his life. His first was entirely unsuccessful - more like a primary school fling, really. Barely a boyfriend. They didn't even hold hands, so really, was that actually a relationship?

His second, and current, was Kim Jongin. Now, Jongin was truly the ruler of the bad-boy rep at their school. At only 11, he had scored his first girlfriend, and then two months later, he started to date a boy. His relationship history was all over the place, and everyone was surprised when Jongin had been close to lasting one year with Baekhyun. His relationships hadn't lasted longer than a Mentos mint, so how did he last so well with Baekhyun?

Even Baekhyun failed to answer that, but let's not downplay his excitement when he looked at his calendar that morning, and realised that tonight was the night. There was slight disappointment when he hadn't received a single text message from Jongin to date - he was busy with some sort of out of town business, but said he would beg his parents to drive him back to town for their special night.

Grinning all his way through classes that day, even Chanyeol couldn't help but be happy for him. But, as any clichéd, long-time-best-friend story goes, how could Chanyeol truly be happy when he loved Baekhyun the way Baekhyun loved Jongin? And the way Jongin loved himself, more like? It hurt everyday to hear the joy in Baek's voice when he talked about how excited he was to have such a caring boyfriend - it wasn't that Baekhyun was oblivious, because really, Jongin had proven himself so well for a year.

But Chanyeol couldn't help the nagging feeling at the back of his skull. Something was telling him to be a little more alert tonight...

...and surprise surprise, how right he was.



- - -



"Hello...? Yes... my name is Byun Baekhyun and I... I made reservations for tonight?" Fingers grabbed tightly at a single tissue paper, dabbing it roughly against his cheeks. "I'm sorry, I have to cancel... something came up... no! No, no, I don't want to reschedule, I just.... yeah... thanks..."

The same hand, bunching the tissue up into a ball against his palm, scribbled onto a tear-stained notepad. 

Music.
Decorations.
Outside catering.
Inside catering.
Lighting.
Venue.
...engagement ring.

How foolish he had been. He had already paid for the most expensive ring he had found in that jewelry shop, because in his mind that's what Jongin would have wanted. And true, that's what Jongin wanted.

He wanted diamonds, and expensive cars, and a coffee break every 5 minutes. In a sense, he was so much like a female celebrity. But there was nothing girlish, or even gentle, about the way he spoke to Baekhyun on the phone, roughly an hour ago.

"I mean, he has a lot of money! And don't worry, you won't see me anymore. I've already had moving arrangements made. Sorry about this, Baek, but I hope you understand... you're just not good enough for me."

"What does good enough even mean?" Baekhyun moaned to himself in the wine cellar of his home. He had found himself wandering mindlessly toward the house after leaving the cake shop a mess, and his parents didn't even have to ask why his eyes were all red and swollen, like he lacked sleep for a million and one days. And hey, maybe he did, but that definitely wasn't the reason, because they had received a package earlier from Jongin, which happened to be a sympathy card with a 'sorry about this', and a sympathy gift.

A really expensive, personalised silver bracelet band, that Baekhyun had flushed down the toilet.

Moments later, he found himself with the home phone and his checklist down in the wine cellar, where it smelt musky and was too dusty to breathe. But he grew accustomed to it after a few minutes of struggling with his throat, even with the fan his mother set up there, to move the air around a little bit. It did nothing, and Baekhyun just spoke into the phone, red-faced and racked with coughing fits.

"Hi... yeah. I'm Byun Baekhyun... please cancel the order I made about... two months ago. Yeah... I won't be needing it... no, no worries. Keep the money, donate it to... charity... or something... thanks..."

"Baekhyun...?"

Said boy tilted his head up, which was almost entirely covered by the dusty, mothballed blanket that draped over him completely. He squinted through the darkness of the cellar, and managed to hit the back of his head against one of many racks of wine sitting behind him. The clinking of glass frightened the living daylights out of him, and before Chanyeol could reach him to calm him down, Baekhyun simply burst out into a thousand tears.

His face, buried against his fingers and the phone sandwiched between his palms, flushed bright red. He could feel his skin burning, because this was the second time in two hours that he had cried, and he didn't want this to continue for much longer. He was now exhausted enough to sleep for a million years, and if it hadn't been for Chanyeol's hands keeping him upright, he would have already fallen to the side and collapsed.

"Son of a ..." he muttered under his breath, and Chanyeol's husky laugh followed.

"Yeah, I agree. 'Son of a ' is right." With a slight heave, he placed himself before the latter, cross-legged and hands still steady on the boy's shoulders. "Your dad called and told me he was going to rip his hair out if you kept crying over, quote, 'that motherer', so..." He laughed once more, and this time, Baekhyun joined in.

Although his eyes were swollen enough to stay shut for a long while, he managed to pry them open to stare through bleary tears at Chanyeol's face. The other boy had a lovely smile on his face, the one he often used to console Baekhyun over his sadness and frustration periods. It was as if, whenever Chanyeol smiled, then everything in the world was okay again.

What a scary feeling.

One simple smile and suddenly, Baekhyun was mirroring it. It was like Jongin had bolted from his mind as quickly as he came, and now there wasn't a trace of sadness etched on his face. Surprising, because doesn't it usually take a bit longer than two hours to heal a broken heart...?

"He didn't actually say that, did he?" Baekhyun mumbled behind a sniffle, and took the tissue Chanyeol offered him. Chanyeol, on the other hand, just burst out laughing and nodded.

"He did, actually. And it wasn't even to me - it was to my dad. They both cursed at each other like no tomorrow for a few moments, before I finally pried the phone off of him long enough to know what was wrong." His amusement faltered for a moment, and he turned his attention back to Baekhyun, wide-eyed and all. "What happened anyway...?"

Baekhyun snorted, not wanting to relive the moments. He simply handed Chanyeol the sympathy card Jongin had gifted him with (his mother wouldn't let him flush that down the toilet - the bracelet would be enough to clog their water pipes for a few weeks), as well as relaying the short phone conversation that was between them two. By the end of his lazy explanation, Chanyeol was barely breathing. He just sat quietly, and let the dust accumulate on his shoulders.

"Wow. Motherer." he muttered, scrunching the card in his hands. "You were going to propose to him, weren't you?"

Baekhyun nodded only once, and shrugged the words away. "It's fine. I'm sure there will be someone who will want to marry m--"

"I'll marry you" came Chanyeol's reply, without missing a single beat.

The two stared at each other for a moment - Chanyeol's eyes were so painfully honest, and that ing scared him. So Baekhyun laughed instead, and sighed in relief as Chanyeol joined in with him.

It's okay. It was just a joke. Chanyeol's rarely ever serious.

"You're not even old enough to get married, you jerk." Baekhyun teased, before dropping his eyes to the pile of tissues sitting beside him. "And neither am I... what was I thinking? That he would jump for joy, reach for the stars and write my name amongst them? I'm really going crazy..."

"I would do that for you."

And once again, those honest eyes were back, and Baekhyun felt his fingers tingling... tingling with the urge to slap his friend.

"Oi. Stop your nonsense, you're scaring me."

"What's scary about my confession...?" Chanyeol continued, clumsily scooting closer. Or as much as Baekhyun let him, as a lithe hand shot out and bumped his chest, halting his movements. 

"Confession? Hey! I just broke up with my boyfriend of one year! Shut up, !" Baekhyun gave his friend's cheek a light tap instead, and stood up then. Chanyeol blinked in surprise, because he was fully expecting what Baekhyun had been preparing.

He was preparing a long- speech about how he needed time, and how ing stupid Chanyeol was right now because, wow, playing with his feelings, was he? He wasn't going to take this crap, because he knew his best friend didn't like him that way, and that he liked girls; that all 18 years of his life was not wasted on pining after Chanyeol unknowingly, because it never happened, it just never happ--

But then Chanyeol kissed him, and the words never even had the chance to leave his mouth.

How did Chanyeol stand up so quickly, anyway? One minute he was a sprawled giraffe on the floor, and the next he was the Leaning Tower of Pisa, with his arms around Baekhyun's waist, and lips locked.

"...oi." Baekhyun mumbled, but made no moves to shift away, and his arms, instead, wrapped around his ahem, best friend's, neck. He was making out with his best friend, for God's sake, and the way Chanyeol held him was somehow deliriously good.

They stumbled to and fro for a minute, desperately kissing the breath from each other, before Baekhyun's back bumped hard against a wine rack, and the next thing they knew, red and white alcohol mixed together on the floor with a loud shattering, and they both pulled apart abruptly to stare at the mess.

"Aw, ."

Baekhyun could practically hear his father's footsteps thundering down the cellar stairs, and his cursing of "motherer, my wine collection!"



- - -



Turns out the cancellation for the engagement ring never happened, because the shop owner thought Baekhyun deserved a quality item for the amount of money he coughed up. So, a few days later, Chanyeol snatched the package off the kitchen bench and opened the jewellery box up, inspecting the ring. Baekhyun said nothing but flushed a bright, tomato red, as Chanyeol slipped the ring onto his finger, as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

"You know, I was serious about marrying yo--"

"Oh, shut up."

- - -

A/N: ...
WHAT THE--
I--
WHAT WAS THIS????????????
THIS IS ME TRYING TO BE FUNNY. AHAHAHA. LOOK HOW WELL IT WORKED OUT.

Okai, in all seriousness, I fail at keeping prompts and requests. I also wanted to write something fluffy... because my next few projects are just asdfghjkl crazily angsty. So. Before I go jump out the window at this piece of failure, LAUGH IN SYMPATHY. PLEASE ;U;.