He must have been dreaming. Yes, or else there will no logical explanation for this. So Baekhyun had told himself for the nth time. This must be part of his wild imagination, partial of his disarranged mind. Something that only exist in his fantasies. He again tried to persuade himself into believing. But, even his own self cannot convince otherwise.

Because, it feels real. The warmth, spreading everywhere but mainly is his face. Baekhyun must looks like a boiled crab at this point. But, he doesn’t feel bad at all. He can even say it was quite pleasant. It’s like dream come true. His heart flutters and angels sing. Except, he can get the first one right, but Baekhyun supposed the sound of his so-called best friend’s laugh, a reverberating obnoxious laugh, is anything but an angel sing.

Thus it was it was inevitable to straightforwardly say, ‘No, I’m not. Currently I was having a fantasy in the unicorn land, not kissing my best friend’. Baekhyun’s eyes widened as fully realization hit him, and, by the look of the equally large eyes, he’s definitely in any meaning, is not in fact dreaming. This is reality.

“Ah!” both he and Jieun’s body distanced in a mere second, both face flushed in deep red. Their eyes are still meeting and that only deepening the blush on their face. Chanyeol’s laugh – a sorry excuse of a best friend still roared, and if Baekhyun wasn’t currently trying so hard to find the right explanation, he already hulled one or two desk in the classroom at his direction.

As he and Jieun finally grasped the entire situation, eye contact already become burdening. Baekhyun feel himself once more heated up as Jieun’s trembling finger touched her lips, where they had meet with Baekhyun’s. They looked away to prevent further embarrassment, but their heart – or at least, Baekhyun sure his is – thrumming inside their chest, threatening to break their ribcage. Baekhyun gulped. “Um… Jieun-“

He hasn’t even finished his sentence before the girl muttered a quick apology before bolted out, her friend Suzy, followed her not a second later. If only the earth listen to his wish, Baekhyun would have been inside of it since a minute ago, when he’s still blushing so hard. A hand circled on his shoulder startled him enough to wake up from his own messy string of mind.

Baekhyun is not in any definition, feel amused by the huge grin and the showcase of pearly white teeth of Park Chanyeol. “You know that’s bound to happen soon or later” the tall boy said cheery.

Baekhyun swears his inside is literally boiling hotter than his face for a reason he’s not quite able to point out. Either way he hits Chanyeol’s arm hard. “Shut up” he growled before stalking back to his seat, leaving the groaning best friend of his. Serve him right, he thought loudly inside his head.

The night was literally a sleepless one. Baekhyun cannot sleep a blink without his imagination playing with his head. It was very distracting. His inner self is struggling between each thoughts. One will deny the other will accept. One will support while the other might make him slap his face for even thinking of that. Clearly enough with a mind filled with hornets, stinging nonstop, Byun Baekhyun could only give beautiful sleep a cheery goodbye.

If it’s not worse enough, today is apparently a school day. If today’s happened to be a weekend, at least perhaps he can put his head on relaxed mode.

Scratch that. School or not, he will still be restless for the entire period until everything settle down. Which is when, the boy don’t have the slightest clue. And, not seeing Lee Jieun might only worsen the situation. They are best friend for crying out loud. For him just walk away was simply wrong in the friendship code or whatever code that exist in this world.

“Just talk to her” Baekhyun could only gave a tired look at Suzy who in return gives him cold look. Well, she always has that stern look on her face when he’s screwing up with her best friend. And, Baekhyun was more than sure, if he’s not make up with Jieun, Suzy probably going to mashed His head to the ground alive herself. The thought made him gulped nervously.

Baekhyun fidgeted, eyes travelling everywhere. The lockers, floor, passing students, everywhere but Suzy’s demanding look. “What should I tell her? She knows it was an accident” Baekhyun stated stupidly. The girl just let a single sharp sigh as if the answer was there all along, just Baekhyun refuses to see it.

He seeks for others’ words, in case they could give him some sort of comfort – or at least something that might give him a slightest clue of what to do. “Wasn’t it obvious enough?” Chanyeol says with mouth full of sandwich. And, Baekhyun tried not to feel disgusted of what he saw. Yet, ‘tried’ is an absolute keyword as he averted his gaze away from his tall friend.

“How can it be obvious enough when now I’m literally asking the last person in line for this” Baekhyun said after a beat. In his defense, everyone say that to him. It’s obvious, they say, yet he remains oblivious.

Chanyeol pulls a hurt look. “Baek, that’s mean” he whined at Baekhyun who doesn’t even spare him a glance. “Fine then!” now he managed to make the shorter startled and stares at Chanyeol with quirked eyebrow.

The tall boy crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Everyone knows Baek,” but before Baekhyun could intercept his words, Chanyeol already continues, a finger on the shorter man’s view. “And don’t deny it. You. Like. Lee. Ji. Eun. Period” he exclaimed and the look on Baekhyun’s face is more than just ‘priceless’, it would be an understatement. “And, just like what others had told you earlier, you are obvious… well, Jieun doesn’t exactly do better than you, to be honest”

Baekhyun’s mind went blank. “Chanyeol, what do you mean by that?” he asked, still feeling his answer is floating above his head yet he wasn’t able to reach it. His best friend stood up from the cafeteria’s bench – Baekhyun was so immersed on questioning Chanyeol, he even forgot he shouldn’t be asking such a risky place. But, then again, the place is too noisy, people wouldn’t even notice.

His train of thoughts abruptly stopped when he feels a hand on his shoulder. When he looks up, he meets a smile on his best friend’s face. But, unlike yesterday, it wasn’t a teasing and amused grin. Heck, he can even say it looks awfully sincere. “Yah Byun Baekhyun,” Chanyeol calls. “How many times you asked people around, you won’t able to find the answer” he says.

“What should I do then?” Baekhyun still said, but Chanyeol just grins at him.

He gave a pat on the shoulder before he says, “Just do the first thing in your mind, even if anyone would have guessed that!”

And so here he is, doing the stupidest thing in his life.

His mind screaming, this is insane! And, yelling at him to run away of this situation. This was absurd. But, there’s a voice on the back of his mind that reminds him, if he’s taking another step to avoid this, it would be the end of everything. So, when he confronts Jieun after the last class, he’s mustering all his courage, although he was sure it wasn’t enough. The anxiety is overwhelming.

He took a deep breath as he feels Jieun’s stare boring at him. But, maybe Baekhyun just exaggerated it. Gulping the lump on his throat, Baekhyun began to speak the matter that makes him kind of jumped into a pit of further insecurity as he stopped the girl from leaving the music club room.

“I like you”

There is, he said it. Baekhyun merely blurted it out so straightforwardly for his own liking. For a moment he doesn’t exactly mind if Jieun might just tell him how weird he was, or that she doesn’t want to be Baekhyun’s friend anymore. Baekhyun tries not to care. He was about to say he was sorry for saying such thing so suddenly. But, second before the words leave his mouth, his breath stopped.

Jieun said it clear, her eyes on Baekhyun’s, even if she feels the same anxiety that has been eating the boy. “I like you too” she said with little to no hesitation.

Baekhyun’s face break into a huge smile. But, before he could express more of his happiness, Jieun mumbled something that yet again makes him blinks his eyes in disbelief. “W-what did you say?” he asked slowly, a bit unsure whether he sounds stupid or what.

As he stares at Jieun, now he can see the prominent red blush on her cheeks. Or how she bites the inner of . “I said, I do,” she pauses when looked away from Baekhyun’s gaze. “If you’re asking me out. That is” Jieun continued as she lowers her head, feeling extremely ashamed for blurting something like that.

But Baekhyun doesn’t care. He’s fluttering inside and he knows he should at least comfort the girl to not be ashamed of that. Hell, out of nothing – or maybe not, he finally said the three words he’s been keeping hidden even from himself, in a blunt fashion. But no. His mind is in haywire. So, out of other word and sentence that formulated inside his mind, he said other thing.

“How do you know I wanted to say that?” he asked and a second later after realizing, Baekhyun wants to slap his face for saying something like that in a such amused tone. He was about to retract his words, but Jieun’s giggling.

Her chiming laughs filled the room. “I don’t know, maybe it’s too obvious?” the girl inquired. Baekhyun tries not to turn into a boiled crab on that.

He coughed, trying to clear his throat. “Hahahaha,” Baekhyun laughed as he rub the back of his neck. For some reason he feels his back hair standing. “Maybe you’re right-“

Baekhyun paused. And, it seems Jieun also feels that too. Both of them leered behind, at the door. When they looked closely, they can see the creak on the door. There are sound from the other side of the door, and both Baekhyun and Jieun sighed in unison when they recognized the hushed voice. One is deep yet the excitement on the voice is apparent. When the other is a lot more feminine but the tone is sharper.

However, neither of them is angry at their best friends – poking around their business, as if it was a natural thing in this world. “I think it’s only normal for them to eavesdrop” Jieun spoke with a quiet voice, but still hearable. Baekhyun nodded his head in agreement before turned his head towards Jieun’s direction, a particular glint on his eyes.

“Want to do something more obvious?” he said when he’s walking towards the girl. Baekhyun silently wished Suzy won’t snap his neck later for doing this. But, for now he’s just going to ignore it, as he kissed his best soon-to-be(?) girlfriend on the lips.

It might not like what he always imagining, unlike his dreams. There are no moonlight or angel’s singing. The background is the music club room instead of glowing roses with sparkles. It’s a warm sunlight instead of cold wind of night after a dinner. As a substitute of light romance songs, is the voice of Chanyeol and Suzy, their best friend, squealing (Chanyeol) and shrieking (Suzy). But, maybe that’s what reminding him that this is not a dream, this is very much real.

He smiled. To think this all start like a bad wake-up call from a very unlikely dream.