I'm in Red

~ ❦   ❦ ❦ ~

Baekhyun hovers his finger over the green call button on his phone later that night. Deliberating between digging deeper and confronting what ever that was going on right now, or just leaving it to run it’s course. It’s not exactly crazy for a teenager to want to start working, it’s inevitable and he figured they would start soon, when they decided on where first. Not to sound cheesy o anything, but he’d always thought they would start together. For it to happen so soon and right under his nose- of course Baekhyun’s surprised.

What could he possibly be thinking of? There didn’t seem to be any particular pressure from his parents to start early. They were just as laid back as their own son was, so that couldn’t be the explanation. And considering the fact that Chanyeol was just about the King of putting off things, how he would voluntarily sign up for something that would result in him having even less time to play- it just didn’t make sense. He liked his free time and took leisure very earnestly, more than anything else in his adolescent life. Chanyeol’s very logic was to have fun first before work.

Being the impulsive boy that he is, Baekhyun can’t resist the need for an explanation, the next piece of the puzzle he was currently trying to solve. Biting his tongue, he  presses the dial button and waits for the ring.

He suddenly get’s hit by the feelings of regret and guilt. There was no reason to pry into what Chanyeol seemingly wanted to keep from him. It’s not like he had to tell him every detail of his life, they were two separate beings after all. After being constants in each other’s lives for so long, privacy was possibly what he wanted. Time apart would likely do them good.

Chanyeol could do with some lessons in independency. And Baekhyun could probably enjoy the quietness, which rarely ever came by with the duo.

It rings twice and no answer. Another two times and Baekhyun begins to doubt it and abandon the plan. He doesn’t know why he thought to call him first since he knows the younger rarely answers his phone.

He could possibly be still working right now and Baekhyun would only be annoying him. What is he even doing? He forgot to ask Jongin that. He didn’t know how late his work hours went, or what days he worked.

Just about to cancel the call, he hears a muffle on the other end and is met with the deeply voice of his best friend. He never noticed how different it sounded on the phone. Why he’s bothering on noticing such things, he’s not sure.

‘Baekhyun…?’ The voice calls out from the receiver. The older male nearly jumps at the sound of the other in the raspy connection, surprised that he actually picked up.

Baekhyun is purely shocked for the first few seconds, because he wonders how Chanyeol was able to identify who it was before he even spoke. He surely couldn’t be the only one who called him. That or does he really just have some unsightly habit of pressing the phone up to his mouth while he breaths?

Then he remembers there’s a thing called ‘caller ID’.

It would have been weird to really consider the option that the younger could tell him by his breathing pattern. Weird, for even them.

Quickly recollecting his scattered thoughts, the brunette clears his throat and confirms that it is him with a nervous stammer.

Chanyeol makes a sound of disbelief, crossed with amusement. ‘You usually never call though,’.

‘That’s cause you usually never pick up!’ the elder retorts, adding an annoyed grumble at the end. Chanyeol laughs, the line becoming even messier.

‘You always sound like a little puppy deprived of attention when you do that, it’s even better than the sounds you make before you fall asl-’

‘Stop saying lame things like that,’ Baekhyun stops him mid-sentence before his insides curl from the cheesiness.

‘Aigoo, my Baekkie, so cute’ he continues, voice loud and full of his accustomed to be bubbly character.

Laughing like this, it felt strange since it’d been quite some time. It was like the tension had disappeared and everything was back to normal. Even if it was just for a few seconds. Is there really nothing to worry about then? Baekhyun wonders. Talking like usual here, he starts to think that maybe he’s been over thinking the simple things, and made them seem like problems. He almost forgets the reason why he called.

With Chanyeol, there’s rarely anytime to get bored. He always made sure there was plenty to converse about.

‘So…what are you calling for?’ After the chuckles dies down, the awkwardness settles in.

It’s cheap to play the ‘clearing your throat’ card to buy more time to think, when the matter is already so obvious and straightforward. He could just come out and say it quickly to get it over and done with at long last. It probably won’t be as bad as he thinks. There’s virtually nothing that could go wrong, the last second he ponders about it. He was just over-complicating a simple situation. That’s Baekhyun for you.

‘Um-’ Baekhyun starts, but his mouth hangs open with no words coming out. How should he start?

Chanyeol waits patiently on the receiving line, wondering for a moment if the phone has dropped out because of the lack of response.

With the both of them barely talking, the elder is able to pick up a weird airy sound on the other side. Not having anything else to progress the conversation with, he quickly changes the topic.

‘Where are you right now? It sounds…windy…’

‘Ah- I’m in the store room right now,’ Chanyeol blurts out, then seemingly makes a sound to berate himself, like he’d just said something he shouldn’t have. The tables have turned.

Gathering all that has happened in history Baekhyun has most often been the one to be on the mature side, as opposed to his childish counterpart. He didn’t mind the latter being the silly thing he was, and neither did he mind that Chanyeol was taller than him, despite being younger. It gave him the pride to be a caring senior and dependable big (little) brother in the end. Being the ‘levelheaded’ one in the relationship, it was recommended to be as rational possible. If they wanted to make it.

But lately these days, he starts to think that he’s beginning to sound more and more like child than Chanyeol does. With these tendencies for clinginess and lame comebacks. 

‘Store room?’ Baekhyun starts to feel the uneasiness inside of him, though he doesn’t really know why.

‘Yeah-I’m in a store room at the grocers….’

‘Why are you in a store room at the grocers?’

Whenever Baekhyun plays the question game with Chanyeol, his responses in return always seem to raise more questions instead of answers.

‘I… work there’

There it is, the confirmation. He’s not sure where his aim lies at now, because he certainly knew it wasn’t going to help anything if he didn’t know what he himself wanted.

Baekhyun is quiet for a while, and so is Chanyeol, strangely.

It’s getting cold inside the storeroom and Chanyeol is posi