Suho adored his roommate, more than it was ‘natural’ to in fact, but he couldn’t deny that the boy was a little bit strange (another thing that added to his charm though in Suho’s opinion). Currently, his roommate had a new fascination for rubber ducks – it didn’t help that they had just watched Harry Potter and his roommate was now asking what the function of a rubber duck was.

“There is no function Chanyeol. They’re just to float on water and amuse kids.”

“They amuse me though,” Chanyeol replied rather stubbornly.

“That’s because you’re still a kid.”

“I am not,” he retorted, putting down his newly purchased toy and swivelling round on his seat so he could look at his older roommate. Suho was too busy writing an essay to notice that Chanyeol’s attention was now on him.

“Hyung?”

“What?” Suho remained staring at the half filled piece of paper in front of him.

“Hyung?” Chanyeol whined a little more.

“Chanyeol what is it?” Suho sighed and spun around on his chair to give Chanyeol the attention he wanted. Despite only being a year younger Chanyeol was a very needy person. Suho usually wouldn’t mind but he had an important essay to finish.

Chanyeol noticed Suho’s tone of voice and pouted slightly.

“Sorry. It doesn’t matter. It can wait.” Suho felt bad, he didn’t like it when Chanyeol got sad.

“It’s okay… I’m done for the night,” he lied. He could always take a nap and wake up later when Chanyeol was sleeping to finish it. The way Chanyeol’s face lit up made it more than worthwhile.

“What are you doing Saturday?”

“Saturday?” Suho repeated sounding very confused. “Nothing I think. Why do you ask?”

“Do you think you can spend the day with me?”

Suho’s heart lurched slightly and he nodded his head more than willingly. Being honest with himself, he had been crushing on a younger boy for a good 6 months now, but he never had the courage to try and take it a step further in fear of losing his friendship with the boy. Chanyeol was popular, had the looks and was weirdly charming – his self however was short and nothing but brains. So thus Suho kept his feelings well hidden, more than satisfied with being stuck in the friend zone. Friend zone was better than no zone after all.

Chanyeol’s phase with rubber ducks quickly passed, having found no satisfactory answer of what the function of a rubber duck was - he also couldn’t do magic which disappointed him a lot, his letter to Hogwarts getting lost in the post apparently. There was one phase however that would never pass – and that was his fascination for the human body. Being a med student had him curious about a lot of things and he certainly wasn’t squeamish about anything. Even though he knew the logical answers, he wasn’t always satisfied with the science answer.

Suho got the surprise of his life when the next evening he was going to take a short nap but instead had Chanyeol sat on his bed pulling up his t-shirt to reveal his stomach.

“C-Chanyeol!” he couldn’t help but stammer as Chanyeol invaded all personal space.

“Hmm?” Chanyeol hummed questionably, his eyes were trained onto the elder’s stomach however clearly absorbed with curiosity. Suho gulped as he watched Chanyeol, not sure if he should stop the other when Chanyeol became a little more hands on.

“What are you doing?” His voice, expecting it to come out strong, came out rather quietly.

“Your belly button is cute,” hummed Chanyeol, suddenly circling it with his finger. Suho’s automatic response was to his stomach in and bite his lip so he didn’t laugh. Chanyeol’s gentle touch was rather ticklish. “Did you know they can serve as a way of distinguishing identical twins?”

“Uhm… no.”

“Pretty cool right?”

Suho hoped that Chanyeol’s new fascination wouldn’t last long, he wasn’t sure he could mentally cope with Chanyeol touching his stomach. Though mind you, at least it was above the belt. If Chanyeol suddenly decided to take an interest in es then he would probably throw himself off a cliff (or into the Han River which happened to be closer).

Saturday came, and they spent the afternoon window shopping (because that’s all they could afford as students) and then Chanyeol took Suho to a small but rather cute café for dinner. The interior had a fresh pine smell and was decorated with plants and cute Plushies, and a bookshelf assorted with a variety of books. Suho wondered why he had never found this place before – it seemed like the perfect place to study.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t go anywhere fancier,” Chanyeol told him, looking extremely apologetic. Suho couldn’t quite understand why.

“I like it here,” he reassured him. Appeasing Chanyeol was a very easy task, something Suho had learnt over the months. But he wasn’t lying – he really did like the café.

Food came, and conversation flowed rather…’normally’ for a change. There were no weird questions or strange topics; just a normal conversation about coursework and some annoying peer called Baekhyun that Chanyeol seemed to have a love/hate relationship with. Apparently the boy didn’t like that Chanyeol was so tall. Suho, being the observant friend couldn’t help but notice that Chanyeol was rather fidgety throughout the entire meal.

“Are you okay?” Suho asked feeling concerned. Chanyeol had been very out of character. Chanyeol nodded his head, his voice a little squeakier than usual.

“Of course hyung, why wouldn’t I be?” He laughed nervously.

When they finished eating, Chanyeol got up to go and pay leaving Suho to ponder what was wrong. He had never seen Chanyeol acting this way before and it worried him. Perhaps he had said something stupid earlier – he admitted he didn’t always know how to respond to Chanyeol but he did try his best. He wasn’t allowed to worry for long though as the lights suddenly went out.

“Happy Birthday to you~”

Chanyeol sang gently as he carried a small cake over, his smile the most illuminating thing Suho had ever seen. When the song ended, Suho awkwardly stood up, tripping over his own feet slightly as he was overwhelmed by feelings.

“You forgot your own birthday didn’t you hyung,” Chanyeol smiled. “Well make a wish”

Suho closed his eyes, making his wish and then blew out the candles before breaking out into a large smile. The lights came back on and Chanyeol grinned back at him.

“I’m sorry if I stole your birthday, I just thought with how busy you’ve been you would probably forget and I wanted to celebrate it with you.”

“N-No… Thank you, Chanyeol. I mean it. This is the best birthday ever.”

The two of them sat back down and Chanyeol looked at Suho.

“I have another surprise for you.”

“Another?” Suho replied surprised, already overwhelmed with what Chanyeol had done for him so far.

“Close your eyes.”

Suho did so without questions, his brows furrowing as he heard the scraping of a chair moving back. Before he could ask questions, he was suddenly embraced from behind and he could feel Chanyeol’s breath against his ear.

“Hyung… I like you. I-I want to be more than friends…”

He now realised why Chanyeol had been so nervous and without thinking, he suddenly burst into tears.

“W-Why are you crying hyung!” Chanyeol panicked, letting go of Suho terrified that he had just done something wrong. “Oh my god hyung, I’m sorry. It was stupid of me... I’m sorry.”

“No stupid. I’m happy,” Suho choked out, rubbing his eyes feeling extremely embarrassed about the sudden tears. “I like you too Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol stared dumbfounded then started to laugh out a relief. The pair of them now laughing and crying at the same time. When the eventually managed to calm down and Chanyeol sat back down, Suho reached across and grabbed the younger’s hand.

“Thank you Chanyeol.”

“For what?”

“For making my wish come true.”