Chap. 7 Soysauce in The Bowl

It was one of those slow days, where customers didn't show up much, only two familiar foreign interns from the near local dental hospital who bought their usual dose of salmon mayo kimbap and banana milk for breakfast. Those two really loved the menu they always bought the same thing every morning for a month already. Baekhyun jumped a little from his crouching position in the mineral water isle- almost knocking down rows of purple bottles that he'd been arranging for the past 15 minutes- when his phone's vibration tickled his from the back pocket.

From: PCY

To: Baekhyun

Are you busy tonight?

Baekhyun's eyes got widened when he received the text. It was about two days from the last time they hung out together, when Baekhyun joined Chanyeol for his quest searching for a new guitar pick in his frequent music store. Apparently, Park Chanyeol the rapper (and the pianist) also played the most romantic string instrument, guitars. A text like this still successfully made Baekhyun's heart skipped a beat eventhough he received lots these days. From the looked of it, the tall rapper might want to meet him tonight.

To: Park Chanyeol

From: Baekhyun

Not really. Got morning shift today. Why?

Smooth. Not an over excited reply, eventhough his inside was a mess like a wrecked ship. Mutant butterflies came to life in his stomach, poking at his heart from every directions. Purple bottles of ionic drink with grape flavor were long forgotten. It's nights like this when he got so excited because of the prospect of spending one more night with Chanyeol. He didn't know until when he would have to enjoy such priviledge, for now, he'll just live it to the fullest.  

From: Park Chanyeol

To: Baekhyun

I need you to meet me in front of Kyobo in Gwanghwamun.. Uhm, around 7pm? I'll send you the details later. :)))

Ugh, no. Not those smiley emoticons. It looked so enthusiastic and made Baekhyun thought of Chanyeol's ear to ear wide grin. But he couldn't lost his calmness over emoticons, so he typed a very cool reply that he could think of at the moment with his tremor thumbs.

From: Baekhyun

To: Park Chanyeol

Ok.

..............

Turned out, Park Chanyeol was also a nerd. A comic geek. An otaku. He went to this humongous scale bookstore branch to get his favorite comic instead of trying to order it from the online book store.

"Because I love the smell of papers and new books," he said with wide handsome grin once again pasted on his face.

Baekhyun only nodded at the words. This was like the biggest branch of Kyobo and he never got in the shop this deep before. Baekhyun usually only go to some small local shop if he wanted to buy stationary or books, or online bookstore if the books were kinda rare. He's a big fan of books himself, but most of his books were being supplied by Kim Jongin. The kid might didn't look like it, but Jongin's a nerd, his book colections range from comics to self improvement kind of books. In short, Kim Jongin's a ing walking library.

"So, do you read?" Chanyeol asked as he was looking through the shelves. His eyes lingering mostly on One Piece series. Baekhyun heard he was mumbling while contemplated the last number that he already bought the last time.

"Yea to kill time. Arranging cans of soda in 365 only gave as much fun as watching the paint dry, you know." Baekhyun chuckled- he was browsing the comics on the shelves opposite from One Piece, full with Sket Dance series. Jongin also had those, Baekhyun have read it once and he thought of borrowing some of it later on from the younger.

This side of the store's pleasingly empty, so Baekhyun could hear Chanyeol's hummed to his answer, his long point finger was tapping his own chin, "What did you do when you're not reading?"

Baekhyun stopped his browsing and turned around to face the taller- who now was leaning against the shelves, looking at Baekhyun in a relax manner- his head almost as tall as the top one. It could be because there's no one here besides them, almost as if the store was close and reserved just for Chanyeol, but Baekhyun thought that might not be the case. "I listen to music? Cleaning and rearranging everything that need to be arranged?" Though lately, he had another thing to do while waiting for customers: such as stalking a tall rapper through sns or lurking for some infos and newest photos of his activities from fansites. But Chanyeol didn't have to know that-cough.

The rapper nodded at Baekhyun's answer, "I see. So-- what's your favorite book so far?"

Baekhyun's right eyebrow raised playfully, his forehead was exposed prettily- Pepper styled his hair up with gel today, "What is this? Are we playing 20 questions or something?" He was just teasing, but the flustered look on Chanyeol's red face might be worth it. Baekhyun enjoyed times like this, when Chanyeol exposed more of himself from time to time when they spent the time together so that Baekhyun would learn about him better. It's like each time peeling every new layers of Chanyeol the onion, revealing more side of him that maybe only those who close to the tall rapper who had the priviledge to know. Baekhyun couldn't help but feel special, he knew he shouldn't- for it might only hurt him more in the end- but he really couldn't help it.

"Well, I just want to know..." Chanyeol pouted and rubbed his nose with his thumb. He turned away and let Baekhyun faced his broad back instead.

This also couldn't be good. Chanyeol shouldn't want to know about him more than this. Sure, they're friends- but Baekhyun knew, even as friends they couldn't be a longlasting one. Everything would be back to normal when Dara deemed it's enough and there's no way he'll let Chanyeol to hang out with a nobody like Baekhyun. It didn't mean that Baekhyun would stay around to nurse his possible broken heart either after all of this. He had thinking a lot about Jongdae's preposition of studying abroad with a scholarship- he just didn't take any action about it..yet.

"I'm just kidding, Chanyeol," Baekhyun giggled. "Well I like to read comics it's interesting," he took a step forward and ended up beside Chanyeol who was still pouting, "One Piece for instance, makes me wanna take an adventure with my friends. But Jongin also tried to make me read those books about self improvement- and he didn't succeed even for once!"

Baekhyun beamed when Chanyeol turned his head to the left and the taller's eyes were big and bright like a kid who just met his first friend in kindergarten, "You read One Piece?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. I love Monkey D. Luffy and his crews,"

"You do? I love them too and Portgas D. Ace like the coolest flame guy and brother," Chanyeol released his handsome smiles- probably the one that succeeded in melting fangirls' heart. But it had 1000 times stronger effect when you looked it up close like this. Baekhyun almost literally swooned from the spot where he stood, but thankfully his hands skillfully grabbed the edge of the shelves in front of him.

It's unfair of how the usual cool and composed Chanyeol turned into a cute kiddy mess in front of Baekhyun and still could stole his heart and breath away. When it came to Chanyeol, Baekhyun would never stand a chance to be on the upper hand.

'He's always one step ahead in messing with my heart,"

..............

Since the beginning, the purpose of this whole stage was to show off Baekhyun who came out of nowhere as a mysterious but cute friend of Chanyeol to stir away people's attention from the famous rapper's real relationship with Dara. So, eventhough they enjoyed quite a private time together in the book store, Chanyeol and Baekhyun decided to head home to Chanyeol's apartment literally by foot. It wasn't too far anyway. They hope they could attract a fan or two in this cold weather instead of a hoard of them like the last time. At least enough to spread the news around- rumors and news could be spread in a matter of milisecond through a click on sns these days, anyways. So, in a way, mission accomplished.

It sometimes kind of made Baekhyun sad though, when it hit him how he actually just being used by Dara (and Chanyeol) to cover their relationship. How he wouldn't be matter after the whole facade's over. But the view from where he's standing right now, right beside the giant rapper- who was struggling with his white plastic bag full of comic books in one hand- was the best. Baekhyun would never trade it with anything else in the world.

Chanyeol was so handsome. A sliver of his dyed silver hair which appeared under his cap, his perfectly shaped eyebrows, his warm and dark chocolate irises, his pale skin, his high nose, his pouty pink lips, everything was so mesmerizing Baekhyun couldn't take his eyes off of him. His mind was busy writing memories of how Chanyeol looked like, how he smelt like, how he walked, how he expressed his inside through his face, how he breathed, how his small humming sounded like, it was literally all about the rapper. Baekhyun started to think, if you couldn't get someone out of your head, maybe they are supposed to be there afterall.

So, he decided that he would keep it, as long as he could. Dara could tell Baekhyun to scram away when it's over, but she could do nothing with what happened inside his head.

Just when Baekhyun was staring at the little mole on Chanyeol's nose to memorized how it looked like, the tall rapper turn his head and caught him red handed. It's so uncool to get caught when you're creepily staring at someone's nose like you want to eat it, so Baekhyun took a deep breath and grinned awkwardly to covered it up.

"What?" Chanyeol's deep and hoarse voice sent a vibration toward poor Baekhyun. The giant even had the nerve to smiled decently.

Baekhyun unconciously shuddered and turned his head away. A giddy smile plastered on his lips and he was hopping Chanyeol wouldn't notice the weirdness of it, "Nothing," he breathed- white fog was coming out of his mouth. It was that cold. The beginning of winter tonight was really cold, there were less people walking around on the street.

"Are you cold?"

Baekhyun nodded, "A little,"

Chanyeol was just looking down at him for a moment- before he suddenly transferred his plastic bag to his right hand and pulled Baekhyun into his embrace, "Then come over here,"

Baekhyun froze when he felt Chanyeol's arm on the small back near his waist and stayed there. He looked up and realized that they were standing literally close he could almost count Chanyeol's eyelashes and saw the freckles on his pink cheek. It was indeed warm to be so close to him and Baekhyun was about to say something when he heard a stuffed squeal from behind and stole a look over Chanyeol's shoulder. There were 2 or 3 girls with mufflers were taking their pictures with their handphones. 'Oh so that's why Chanyeol suddenly- because there're fans around so...' Baekhyun started to struggle to break free but the younger suddenly said,

"Stay. I don't want you to get cold,"

Baekhyun honestly didn't know what to think..

................

Baekhyun was lining boxes of strawberry milk when he realized that Jongin was still there, stucked in front of noddles isle with phone in hand and a pout on his face. This was one of those days where Jongin didn't fly out of the door as soon as his shift was over.

"You know-" the younger guy began and he got Baekhyun's attention eventhough the latter didn't stop stacking the milk on the shelves. "There's this rumor going around in twitter. About Chanyeol hyung,"

Baekhyun cleared his unitchy throat and busying himself with the back of the box, pretending to read the expired date seriously as if it was a letter from Hogwarts. "Yea, what about him?" He might know where this conversation's going so he tried to act (hopefully) nonchalant.

"Fans caught him going around with a cute guy lately,"

"Yea, what did they say?" Baekhyun stole a short glance to the younger who now perched on top of the cashier counter.

"Most of them wondering who the hell was the cute guy who seemed just came out of nowhere,"

Baekhyun's lips curled in acknowledgement.

"Some of them hate the small guy because Chanyeol hyung always hung out with him and didn't have time for Dara-nim,"

Baekhyun nodded.

"But some of them didn't mind and even started to ship them,"

Baekhyun choked, "Ship?"

Jongin looked at him curiously, wondering why Baekhyun sounded like he was just swallowing a lump of glue, "Yea,  as in shipping otp."

"What?"

"They think the guys would make a cute couple," Jongin shrugged, "I kinda think so, I like them better. No offense to those who pro Dara-nim, not because I'm playing on the same team either, but these pictures surely speak something," Jongin then showed a fan taken picture that was apparently going around the twitter. A picture where Baekhyun and Chanyeol were on their way home from the bookshop about two weeks ago, it was cold and Baekhyun couldn't forget how Chanyeol's wa