It was finally Friday; five days into his first week back at school and Baekhyun looked and felt like he hadn’t slept at all. That may have been because that was very close to the truth. His eyes were dull and surrounded by dark circles that even Luhan’s concealer wouldn’t hide. His cell phone was also suffering. He couldn’t remember the last time he managed to charge the battery fully without needing to rip the charger off to take his phone out the room in the middle of the night. Lack of sleep accounted for his physical exhaustion but suffering from these nightmares was also draining his energy like no tomorrow. He sat down at the lunch table with a sigh and began chasing his food around the bowl with chopsticks, not quite having the heart to put enthusiasm into eating. Still dazed, he didn’t take one second to realise where he’d sat down.

“Oh god, did he-“ Luhan groaned, barely looking between the gaps in his fingers as he covered his eyes.

“He did. He totally did. Oh my god.” Yixing assured him with some amusement laced into his usually sarcastic voice. Sehun and Jongin were staring, mouths open, mid-chew as they too watched what had just happened a few meters across the dining hall. “I call dibs not saving him.” Yixing broke the silence a little carelessly with a shrug and turned his attention back to his food.

“The people on the table are just staring at him like he killed their families or something.”  Jongin started laughing, spraying food across the table a little which fortunately didn’t faze Sehun who still had his unblinking eyes on Baekhyun who was still staring at his food. Sitting on a complete different table. “I would usually love basking in others misfortune but the idiot doesn’t even realise.” Jongin cringed, getting up from his seat. “I can’t watch it anymore.” He smoothed down his uniform and walked quickly, but with attitude, to the table a few meters away.

He placed a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder, the older looking up at him slowly, a single noodle hanging from his lips as his hooded eyes blinked.

“Hyung, we understand the point you’re trying to prove, but would you please sit with us again. It’s not the same without you.” He insisted, blinking his dark, lidded eyes at Baekhyun who hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. Jongin’s eyes flickered upwards for a split second to scan the faces of the people sitting at this table.

“What?” Baekhyun looked at Jongin, and followed his gaze, and he thinks he feels actual vomit make its way to his throat. He gulps, the single noodle falling back into the bowl as his eyes rake over the faces of complete strangers. He gets up quickly and allows Jongin to wrap an arm around him whilst they hurry back over to the correct table.

“That was classic,” Yixing wiped a tear from his eye as he almost wheezed with laughter, ignoring the kick to the shin he received from Luhan was trying to do the polite thing and swallow his laughter.

“You let me sit there that long?” Baekhyun whined, pushing his tray forward and dropping his head to his arms as he groaned. “I ing hate you guys.”

“We could have left you there longer.” Jongin retorted with a slap upside the head, clipping the small brunette’s ear which was already sporting a cherry red glow out of embarrassment. “Some people are so ungrateful.” He made a small tsk sound under his breath before continuing to eye up the doe eyed boy on the table he’d just rescued him from.

Said doe eyed boy, however, was more occupied with the arrival of somebody else at their table. His eyes turned into almost perfect crescents as he smiled, thick lips twitching into a smile.

“Hey, Chanyeol.” He greeted the giant sporting messy, auburn locks. He opened his mouth to ask how the taller had been but the conversation at the table was soon changed.

“Your timing , Chanyeol you just missed something seriously funny.” The other tall boy, albeit not as tall as Chanyeol but getting there, let out a deep laugh, leaning over the table to nudge him.

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that funny-“

“Kyungsoo, it was hilarious.” Kyungsoo’s sympathy for others wasn’t always appreciated. He sometimes wondered why he hung out with these people. “This loser, completely out of nowhere, sat at our table and was mumbling to his bowl like he’d escaped an asylum!” The tall, honey blonde laughed again, for longer this time, as he recounted the tale. Kyungsoo frowned.

“Really?” Chanyeol cracked a smile, “Who was it?” He asked, peering around the lunch room, waiting for his friends to point him out. It might cheer him up after his hellish morning, maybe. It definitely getting an eraser tossed at you to wake you up. He rubbed the back of his head in bitter remembrance.

“That kid, two tables behind me,” He doubled up in laughter again, “The one that’s lying on the table, what a loser!” He sighed happily, turning his attention back to the dark haired boy beside him. Chanyeol realised that, after identifying the loser, it wasn’t going to cheer him up in the slightest. In fact, he felt his stomach twist a little in sympathy as his gaze fell on the table he’d sat at just a few days prior. His eyes were still locked on the body slumped over the table, a small hand rubbing his back, as Chanyeol’s smile fell considerably. He thought again, of Baekhyun, and how he’d found him this morning, like every other morning this week, asleep on the couches in the living room.

“Kris, give it a rest.” Kyungsoo sighed, turning his attention back to Chanyeol who was dazing out of focus. “Hey, are you okay?” He patted his spacey friend’s chest to bring him back down to their planet at least for as long as he could manage. “You look seriously tired.” His charming doe eyes darkened a little as his eyebrows knit together in concern.

“Huh?” Chanyeol blinked, looking down at Kyungsoo without a clue of what he’d said.

“Yeah, you look like you haven’t slept in a week. Is it because of your room mate?” The fourth of them at the table joined in, ignoring Kris’ prodding to laugh at a joke, and frowned at Chanyeol.

“You never did tell us about your new roommate,” Kris gave up and joined the discussion. “don’t tell me, you got stuck with a total loser didn’t you. Does he keep you up?” He asked. Chanyeol’s neck had turned a little red as he listened to the accusations.

“No he doesn’t!” He started to retaliate, a frown on his face, lip jutted out.

“No- wait- I got it!” Kris held his hands up, “He brings girls back doesn’t he? God, I bet that’s why you’re so tired, having to listen to this guy fu-“ Kris was interrupted by Chanyeol’s hands slamming down onto the table and even the table next to theirs stopped to look.

“He’s not a loser and he doesn’t keep me up, I’m fine and I’m not tired!” He insisted, getting up as quickly as he’d arrived and leaving the cafeteria.

Chanyeol was tired. Each night he had been staying up with Baekhyun, watching a movie or playing video games because the other didn’t seem to care about bedtimes and the fact they still had classes in the morning, but who was Chanyeol to be a party pooper? If the brunette was willingly spending time with him then he wasn’t going to say no. It was usually past midnight by the time Baekhyun either fell asleep on Chanyeol’s  shoulder or they finally decided it was time to go to bed. But then Chanyeol’s eyes would snap open, his sensitive ears picking up the sounds of discomfort from the bed across the room. Baekhyun would eventually wake up and leave the room, never coming back until the following morning when Chanyeol traipsed down the hall to the 4^th floor lounge to wake the pained looking boy on the couches. Chanyeol was exhausted. He realised guilt kind of did that to you.

When Baekhyun returned to his room that afternoon after his last class of the week, he hadn’t expected to see his roommate face down and fast asleep on the bed. He raised an eyebrow and laughed a little under his breath as he tossed his bag onto his own bed. As he was humming to himself, pulling off his uniform, he didn’t register the movement on the bed behind him. Baekhyun turned around, in all his half glory, about to pull his school pants down and stopped. Big, beady and startled eyes were boring into his. After a considerable amount of awkward seconds passed, Chanyeol spun around and forced his face into the pillow again.

“I didn’t see anything, I swear!” His muffled scream was just about audible over the rustling of clothes as Baekhyun tried desperately to scramble into a new shirt and jeans. “Is it safe?” the same smothered voice, though, considerably quieter asked after a few minutes.

“It’s safe.” Baekhyun laughed nervously. He looked at Chanyeol properly this time. His outlandish hair was even more all over the place and his uniform was creased. The most noticeable factor were the dark circles under his eyes that matched his own. “Did you even go to class?” He asked with a raised eyebrow, doing nothing to hide his amusement.

“Until lunch.” Chanyeol answered, his usual smile nowhere near evident on his face. Chanyeol’s stomach gave a convincing growl.

“Did you even  eat at lunch?” Baekhyun asked whilst grabbing his phone from his blazer pocket. Chanyeol’s lower lip stuck out as he shook his head sadly. Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Do you want to go eat now?” He chuckled. Chanyeol noted it wasn’t really a chuckle, less than a giggle. Baekhyun’s cheeks had turned pink and he was refusing eye contact but the overly tall red head was nodding enthusiastically enough for him to see out of his peripheral vision.

“Are your friends coming, too?” Chanyeol asked whilst arguing with one of his shirts he was trying to scramble into but struggling. He was a mess of arms and cloth sticking out all over the place when he heard a heavy sigh and after a sharp tug of the fabric, his head was free and his arms were in the right holes.

“No, just us.” Baekhyun answered, pretending he didn’t notice the excessive beam that spread across his roommate’s face.

Baekhyun had paid for Chanyeol’s dinner, even if it had just been a burger and fries from the diner down the street from their campus. He thought he at least owed it to him for giving him those god awful rings of exhaustion under his usually perky eyes. After a phone call from Jongin half way through, however, they risked indigestion in order to eat the rest quickly to run further down the block to a child’s playground. They weren’t given reasons, per say, but to come quickly. It was all explained, though, the moment they tore around the corner and reached the gate to the park.

It had taken the five of them nearly twenty minutes to pull Sehun from the confines of a child’s swing that he’d somehow wedged his into. Five was more like four as Yixing struggled to do anything but lower himself onto the floor as tears of laughter spilled from his eyes.

When Chanyeol finally returned to his room with Baekhyun late that evening, he decided he liked hanging out with Baekhyun’s friends. He liked them, even if Jongin had put a worm down his shirt, and Luhan accidentally projected water at his face from laughing so hard, they were nice. Well, nice wouldn’t be the word he’d use to describe Yixing, he thought that guy was kind of sassy. But a tolerable kind of sassy. Almost.

By midnight, Chanyeol was lying upside down on his bed, watching as Baekhyun fumbled around for something in his bag. Chanyeol yawned.

“Baekhyun, you can show me the game tomorrow, for now let’s just sleep.” He slurred, partially because he was tired, but mostly because the blood was rushing to his head from his obscure laying position. Baekhyun stopped searching and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, biting down on his lip. He did this a lot when he was nervous.

“Sure.” He mumbled, forcing a smile. He clambered into bed whilst Chanyeol turned off the main light, the room only illuminated by Baekhyun’s desk lamp. The smaller boy took his time pulling the covers over him and settling into bed, still aware that the other was looking at him. Chanyeol smiled awkwardly, eyes flitting to the desk lamp. “Oh, yeah, sorry.” Baekhyun muttered, reaching over to turn the lamp off with regret. He felt his stomach lurch.

“Goodnight, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol yawned, pushing his face into his pillow and falling asleep almost instantly.

Chanyeol’s sleep was disturbed as quickly as it had started, though. He pulled his phone from the desk and checked the time. It was nearing 4am. He rubbed his eyes and was about to turn over when he was sure he heard sniffles. He sat up, and as his droopy eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room he could see the movement in the bed opposite. He held his breath as he listened. There was a harsh thump as Baekhyun’s arm hit the wall beside him, the owner of the arm making a pained noise. Chanyeol waited, thinking the other had woken up but he remained in the bed.

For god’s sake Chanyeol, the kid paid for your dinner, let you hang out with him and his friends, and you’re going to sit here?

He kind of wanted to punch whoever narrated inside his head because the truth in the words running around his brain were making him feel increasingly sick. He pushed the covers away from his long, spindly legs and wobbled over towards Baekhyun’s bed, tall, lean body towering over it. Even through the darkness he could see the wetness on the other boy’s cheeks, eyes scrunched up in discomfort and sweat on his forehead. Chanyeol was starting to panic. He reached out and lightly patted Baekhyun on the chest, hand recoiling instantly. He hadn’t expected him to be so… cold. Although he’d felt so chilled, Chanyeol could tell that his shirt was soaked with sweat. He instantly felt like he’d been kicked in the gut just watching Baekhyun’s face contort in pain. It was so different to the almost angelic feel it gave off usuallly. Chanyeol blushed at his own thoughts.

“Baekhyun,” He whispered shakily, tapping his shoulder again, a little rougher.

Still nothing.

“Baekhyun!” He said this a little louder and shook Baekhyun by the shoulders. “It’s just a nightmare,” He cooed, “It’s not real, it’s not, it can’t actually hurt you.” He insisted, voice getting a little more hysterical as his words were not only to convince Baekhyun, but himself as well. Baekhyun made a noise that made Chanyeol’s chest hurt. It was half way between a sob and a whimper and it scared him. “It’s me, it’s Chanyeol, it’s only a dream, I promise.” Chanyeol kept talking, he didn’t know how to stop his rambling, or his arms as he kept shaking Baekhyun.

“Leave me alone.” The words were quiet, soft, but blunt and spoken in a raspy, worn out voice. Chanyeol froze momentarily. “Let go of me and go away.” Baekhyun spat, trying to sit up, chest rising and falling quickly as he continued to cry. Chanyeol panicked. He couldn’t comfort a crying baby, let alone a fully grown human. His hand shook as he stopped Baekhyun from sitting up. He reached out with a shaky hand to push Baekhyun’s hair back from his forehead where it was sticking with sweat. What the hell was he doing?

“I’m,” Chanyeol’s voice cracked as he tried to speak, “I’m not going to leave you alone, just,” He stammered, stuttering with each word as he still clung to Baekhyun. “Just move over.” He demanded, nearly pushing Baekhyun over in the already small bed, making room for himself. He hadn’t a clue what he was doing or why he was doing it and he was pretty much just bracing himself for a punch in the nose but it never came.

Baekhyun scooted over, still sniffling as his breathing became erratic. Chanyeol gulped, mouth suddenly dry as he registered the small hands clinging to his shirt for dear life.

“Just,” He croaked, “Shh,” He gingerly wrapped an arm around the smaller boy’s shoulder and coaxed him into lying down. Chanyeol eased his own head onto the pillow, pulling the covers up around both of them, even though his feet were now sticking out at the end of the bed and he may well topple over the side at any given moment. “Shhh.” He whispered again, hand soothingly rubbing in circular motions on Baekhyun’s back as his breathing slowed.

Ten, maybe fifteen minutes passed, and Baekhyun’s face was buried in the crook of Chanyeol’s neck which was still a little wet from where he’d continued to cry a little before calming down completely. His hands were still balled up in the grey material of Chanyeol’s shirt and the two of them were lying flush up against one another, but that was a given as the beds could barely accommodate one person, let alone two.  Chanyeol sighed. He thought he’d done the right thing and he honestly didn’t know what else he could have done. Baekyun had at least gone back to sleep in his own bed instead of running out. The guilt was easing, but apprehension soon took its place, the anxiety filling his mind as he wondered how Baekhyun would react when he woke next when the sun was up and his thoughts were clear. Chanyeol gulped.

I just aujjgjasjdfjskd.
awkward Chanyeol is my favourite Chanyeol.
sassy Yixing is my favourite Yixing.
idiot Sehun is my fa-
I see a pattern developing /shot.

precious.