✎Lessons with Troublemakers ♥

PART FOUR.

word count: 2,500

un-betaed

Byun Baekhyun was mean.

Not only did the eyeliner prince offended Kyungsoo during their first tutoring (“So tiny. You look like you’re no older than twelve.”) but several times did Baekhyun sarcastically said things that made Kyungsoo’s nose scrunch up in displeasure (“You have narrow shoulders.” “You sound like a mouse.” “Those glasses are too big for your face really.”).

Do Kyungsoo took it all in stride. It was all for the sake of extra credits.

And so Kyungsoo tried to distract himself by going through the Mathematical questions as fast as he could. He didn’t care if Baekhyun wasn’t listening, it was more to keep himself occupied before the pretty male could much less attempt to open his mouth again and hurl more hurtful words at Kyungsoo.

“Hey.”

“This equation -”

Halfway explaining how to solve the algorithm, Kyungsoo went all wide-eyed at his tutee. He nearly tumbled over his chair when he realized that Baekhyun’s face was a hair’s breadth away from his.

“I’m sorry?” It was hard not to stare at Baekhyun’s beautiful eyes, bright and all glitter inside with a hint of danger lurking underneath. Kyungsoo swallowed and prayed to himself that this session would end quickly, his gaze focusing on Baekhyun’s hands instead.

Baekhyun squinted (from the lack of attention) and then scoffed out, “I thought your owl eyes are weird but now that I look closer, it might be your face.”

The pencil fell out of Kyungsoo’s grip as his eyes widened, the hurt apparent in his gaze. “I-I..” I’m not weird. He was trembling like a leaf and Baekhyun failed to realised that.

“Yeah, that’s all I wanted to say.” He fluttered his eyelashes coyly up at the wide eyed boy and then nonchalantly dragged his gaze back to the book where Kyungsoo’s half written equation was. “Continue.” Baekhyun said with a flick of his hand, treating poor Kyungsoo like he was a mere slave to abide his orders.

He had always been self conscious of his body. Kyungsoo knew he wasn’t on par with his gorgeous schoolmates especially tall dark Jongin and princely Suho, not sociable like Chanyeol or a joker like Chen and he, Kyungsoo, plain looking Kyungsoo could never compare to a beauty like Baekhyun.

His level of confidence instantly dropped to zero and soon it fell to a negative point where Kyungsoo just wanted to lock himself up in the janitor’s closet and weep from every sarcastic comment Baekhyun made. He had never felt so degraded in his life up until now. No one had told about his out of proportion features and they would never, at least not in front of his face.

Kyungsoo lowered his head, sullen and scared to see Baekhyun’s face ; all smug and knowing with that intense gaze set on him. Kyungsoo didn’t appreciate how Baekhyun taunted him all the time, for what purpose exactly? That left Kyungsoo with no answer.

“You’re so scrawny. Has your mother been feeding you?”

Kyungsoo’s round teary orbs shot up to meet Baekhyun’s. He let his mouth fall open slightly, a soft ‘no, that’s not it’ spilling out from his lips that was too quiet to be heard.

Baekhyun’s finger traced the numbers on the page boredly. “Your shoulders are tiny too. You could be easily mistaken for a girl if you wear a wig.” He waited for a choked response from the other because honestly, he liked to see his tutor getting all flustered and red in the face. But after a few seconds of complete silence, Baekhyun realized that this was no longer a funny game of teasing anymore.

“Oi.” A pout made way to the older male’s lips showing how displeased he was being ignored. Still silence greeted him. Baekhyun sighed heavily, ready to make another comment but abruptly froze when a tiny whimper was heard. Red alarms rang in his head, so loud, it was deafening. Whipping his head around, he levelled his gaze to Kyungsoo and felt his heart broke into a thousand shattering pieces.

Angelic, sweet Do Kyungsoo was crying. His red rimmed eyes brimmed with tears, most of them rolling off his face in a liquid trail down to his chin. The guilt soaked Baekhyun’s entire being like how tears soaked Kyungsoo’s entire face. The tutor released another string of pathetic whimpers and sniffed louder. More droplets of tears drenched his cherubic face.

Baekhyun swore under his breath for getting himself into such a situation. He wanted to jump off a cliff right there and then for being the world’s biggest jerk to Kyungsoo. At the same time, he found himself completely entrance at the stunning sight of Kyungsoo’s tear stricken face. Was it even possible for someone to look this beautiful while crying? Baekhyun was sure last time he check he was no masochist.

“You’re mean.” Kyungsoo shakily sobbed out. His lower lip was jutted out almost angrily yet adorably as he exclaimed, “I-I don’t like you!” He didn’t hear the sound of the chair scraping the floor loudly as the other male walked around to his side.

“You don’t like me?” Baekhyun’s monotone voice whispered.

Kyungsoo hated it, how much it was affecting him. Byun Baekhyun was mean and Kyungsoo should be mad but then why was he shuddering when the Baekhyun kept pressing warm kisses to his ears, cheeks and nose. Tremors wrecked his tiny form as he tried to push the other away from enclosing his arms around him. He tried to turn his wet face as he quietly murmured, “D-Don’t like you. Go away.”

“No.” A deep rumbling that sounded like a growl was emitted by Baekhyun who then wrapped his arms around Kyungsoo’s waist, tugging him closer. “Don’t go. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He kept whispering calming words to the sobbing boy, rocking their bodies back and forth gently.

Minutes passed, then hours. Kyungsoo thought it felt like days with him caged within Baekhyun’s arms. It was getting harder to breathe with his nose running and his eyes felt puffy and swollen from crying. Yet he couldn’t deny the serenity he gained from Baekhyun’s presence. Also the apology from him played a big part too.

“Hey..” Baekhyun sounded weary as if he was almost afraid that another comment would break the fragile Kyungsoo into pieces. He watched Kyungsoo twist his head to the side a little, acknowledging him albeit shyly.

“I-I don’t hate you okay. I just wanted your attention.” Baekhyun made an embarrassing choking sound at his own dorky confession. “I teased you a lot because I find you very cute when you’re flustered and angry.” It makes me want to kiss you until you turn redder and redder.

Although he was floored by the unexpected confession, Kyungsoo managed to squeak out an ‘it’s okay’ before he got suffocated by Baekhyun’s embrace. It was hot (Kyungsoo convinced himself that it was due to the fact they didn’t turn on the air con) and Kyungsoo didn’t really stop the older male from raining affectionate kisses down his face.

It was the beginning of their friendship right?

✎

“Sing for me.”

Kyungsoo nearly dropped his juicebox from the sudden command. “W-What?” He fastened his wide owl eyes at Chen, who was lying on his back where three chairs were joined together. It was supposedly their break from all the Chinese language Kyungsoo had been teaching him. He didn’t know why Chen had failed for this subject seeing his skills of this language was more than tolerable.

“I want you to sing for me.” Chen turned aside and lazily smiled that feline smile, the edge of his lips twirling up handsomely. “Your voice..” He paused and scratched his cheeks, pondering of the right word to describe the petite male’s heaven sent voice.

The tutor was horrified. Never once in his life he’d sing before (except in the shower but yeah that was because no one would be there to hear his lame singing). Kyungsoo prepared himself to kindly reject the delinquent and crossed his fingers that he would be going home safe today without a black eye. Or rather the taser in his bag would come in handy today.  

“I’ve never -” Kyungsoo silenced himself in a ‘meep’ when Chen glared heatedly at him as if daring him to say no.

“Sing.” Chen urged him, making hand motions to conduct him. The look of reluctance on Kyungsoo’s face had him frowning slightly. “That day on the rooftop, I heard you. You didn’t sound that bad.”

Kyungsoo wanted to run, far away but he knew his attempt would be useless. It’d probably be a fatal risk if he took that. Moreover, he was so embarrassed he’d been caught singing shamelessly on the rooftop the other day. He was never singing there again.

After much convincing (and blackmailing), Chen was finally granted the pleasure of listening to Kyungsoo’s singing; how smooth and melodious the boy sounded as he belted out all the lyrics harmoniously. So beautiful, so perfect, Chen was absolutely starstruck.

After a few more lines, Kyungsoo ended his song with a long pleasant hum that would match the song’s beat. He kept his eyes closed, body swaying slightly from left to right.

“I want to marry your voice.” Chen blurted out.

Kyungsoo blinked cutely and made a spluttering noise before covering his flaming face. “P-Please don’t say that. It’s embarrassing.” No one had complimented his singing before and Chen was the first.

Chen’s laughter was contagious, Kyungsoo found the edges of his lips twirling up together with him.

There were bright sparkles in his eyes as he bounced over to Kyungsoo and suggested, “How about we sing together for every tutoring session, Kyungsoo?” He was too enthusiastic, Kyungsoo couldn’t find the heart to deny him.

“Ok, but that’s only during our breaks.” Kyungsoo firmly added and Chen complied, nodding his head eagerly and started urging Kyungsoo to sing another song since there was still a few more minutes for their break time.

Kyungsoo thought Chen wasn’t that bad for a delinquent until -

“You tell anyone else about this and I’ll tie you up in the janitor’s closet and leave you there to rot, Kyungsoo.”

Or maybe not.