Stacks of paper are strewn around a desk where a young man with disheveled hair sits. His bloodshot eyes are wide open as he scans through lines, and small bags are threatening to form under them. Soothing alternative rock blares through his headphones that are resting around his neck, and empty mugs and coffee stains cover the table space next to his arm. Books on film history, theory and aesthetics topple over one another on the floor next to him, and the only source of light is a lonely lamp in the corner.

Just kill me now, cruel world. Byun Baekhyun thinks to himself as he reads through yet another essay on why "Hannibal" has the best cinematography on television or why British shows are better than American ones. With a groan, he tosses the paper he currently has in his hands to the side, and decides that no, he really doesn't care that a student's grades are on the line here. 

Baekhyun stares at his phone with squinting eyes, willing for it to ring or beep or have any indication that a person out there wants to talk to him in some shape or form. It's pretty pathetic now that he thinks about it, but he knows that there must be others out there thinking the same thing. Or not, but that's besides the point. If there's one thing Baekhyun hates the most, it's the fact that he has to be the one inviting people out all the time. Sure, he's sociable, but it gets tiring when people are always expecting him to be the one to organize events.

With a huff, Baekhyun rolls onto his stomach, scrolling through the different apps he has installed. It's between Candy Crush or Temple Run when his phone vibrates, jingles and the face of Kim Jongdae pops up at him -- tongue sticking out between two fingers and all. The time on his phone reads 11:11 and Baekhyun wonders momentarily if this is a joke, or if it's the gods answering his really dumb request. If it's the latter, then Why, gods? Why didn't you answer earlier to a more legitimate request like, I don't know, making me a successful millionaire at the age of 15?

Baekhyun swipes his finger over the answer button (right where Jongdae's mouth is; he had positioned it there for kicks) and puts his phone against his ear.

"Hello...?"

"Hey hey, Baekhyun!" Jongdae chirps, and Baekhun has to double check that the name that popped up on his phone was indeed Kim Jongdae.

"Jongdae, it's like, 11. What is it? Is something wrong?" He may have willed for his phone to ring, but he wasn'treally expecting anything.

"What?" Jongdae asks and a silence briefly lingers in the air before Baekhyun hears some shuffling from the other line and his same-aged friend's voice returns. "Ohhh right,  sorry. I just wanted to know if you were free tomorrow. I haven't been to CoEx in a while and wanted to go."

Baekhyun blinks and half-heartedly looks around his room at the memorabilia of their times at the aquarium.When he and Jongdae were younger, their parents forced them to volunteer to "stay out of trouble", and they suddenly found themselves visiting the aquarium a lot. And even through college, their designated meeting place was always the aquarium. But Jongdae was right; they haven't actually been inside for quite a few years now.

"That sound great!" Baekhyun says, a smile forming on his lips. He'll have to stay up and finish grading some more essays tonight, but hey, he's not one to turn down offers that fall onto his lap.

"Alrighty, see you tomorrow then. Nighty night." Jongdae chuckles and ends the call.

Baekhyun drops his phone next to his pillow and looks to his desk again. The pile of essays cry out to him and he can see the pouts of the undergraduate students now. He rolls off his bed with another moan and slumps into his seat. Contemplating which essay to grade next, Baekhyun reaches for the middle of the stack in front of him. There has to be one essay in these four classes that aren't about Hannibal. He closes his eyes and blindly pulls one out. He opens on eye and reads the title of the essay: Hannibal: The Best American Show On Television Of The Decade.

"Oh for 's sake."

—

Baekhyun wakes up with the deepest regrets and the sound of his alarm clock pounding through his eardrums. He groans into his pillow dramatically; it's way too early for him to get up, but he has things to do, places to go. Such is the life of a grad student.

He flops onto his side to shut his clock up before finally sitting up, eyes still shut. There's a crook in his neck that he needs to get rid of, but  he ignores it for now and mentally runs down what he has to do later. Finalize plans for next week’s lessons, finish grading some underclassmen's essays (last on the list, really) , answer emails, print research, write for his thesis, and finally, meet with Jongdae.

Baekhyun could barely contain his excitement for all the school work, and therefore actually really looks forward to seeing Jongdae. He goes through his morning routine while planning on the rest of the day, but his first step is make some hot chocolate to wake him up instead of good ol' fashioned coffee.

—

As he steps out of his apartment, Baekhyun feels his phone vibrate three times in quick succession and a soft ping sound rings into the air. Just for good measure, he supposes. Confused, he slightly his head to the side before pulling his device out to stare at the notifications on his home screen.

[Text] Kim Jongdae
Baekhyun, meet me in front CoEx at 12!! 10:11 AM

[Email] Oh Sehun 10:11 AM
Situation with You Know What
Hey, I would text you but my phone died and I haven’t replaced it yet.
Anyway, when you can…

Zhang Yixing 10:11 AM
Missed Call & Voicemail

The first thought that comes to Baekhyun’s mind is a mere huh before he tries to calculate the possibilities of this happening; three people actually contacted him all at the same time using different means of communication. This had to be one in a million, billion, trillion even.

It's times like these when Baekhyun briefly wonders about alternate timelines -- what differences there would be for the day depending on which person he decided to answer first.

Fascinating, really. But before Baekhyun could reply to anyone or even think about who to get back to first, the sound of a vehicle's engine rumbles and sputters on the street in front of him. Baekhyun looks up from his phone to be greeted with the sight of an older man parking a beat-up motorbike covered in stickers. The man has a blue hat on and gloves and Baekhyun contemplates whether or not to approach him. The man hums a random tune and hops off of his seat and Baekhyun's eyes follow the man’s actions and soon, Baekhyun nods once in understanding.

The mailman was here—quite early for once too. The older man looks through his assortment of mail for the day, separating out the letters and whatnot that belonged to the apartment complex. As he finishes up, Baekhyun notices that the man only had a box and a few letters.The young man wonders if he should actually wait for the mail or simply come back for it considering he has some errands to run, when the mailman promptly clears his throat.

“Excuse me, young lad.” The mailman said, waving Baekhyun over. Baekhyun turns around to see if the mailman was pointing out to someone behind him, but finds no one around. With a slight bop in his walk, Baekhyun takes a few steps toward the mailman.

“Yes, sir?” Baekhyun responds politely with an almost reluctant smile.

“Do you know where a fellow naaamed…” The mailman pauses, bringing up the box closer. “Byun Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun's mouth forms an 'o'. “That would be me.”

Baekhyun is all for surprises, but this is really just a bit too much. Besides, today wasn’t even close to his birthday, nor was it close to Christmas.

“Ah, perfect timing then.” The mailman chuckles to himself, seemingly pleased at the job well done and scribbles on a small slip of paper. When he was done, he dramatically hands it over to Baekhyun. “If you can just sign right here…”

The time on the slip says 10:11 AM. And that doesn’t freak Baekhyun out at all.

Baekhyun hesitates, gripping the pen between his fingers. This has got to be a joke. A huge joke called life and...screw it.

He bites on his lower lip and knits his eyebrows together, before he finally flicks his wrist to finish off his signature and somewhere along the line of handing each other papers and boxes and smiles and small words, Baekhyun finds himself standing at the corner of the street, waving to the postman as the latter’s motorcycle roared away into the distance, leaving smoke to rise into the air.

When he looks down at the package again, in all its beat-up glory. He rubs his lips together with uncertainty when his phone beeps again to remind him of his unread messages.

Baekhyun shrugs to himself, opting to walk back to his apartment instead and open the damn thing. Because even if he had plans, receiving physical mail was rare and exciting. Forget superstitions. He got a package in the mail and everyone else can wait.

—

He was hoping for there to be lots of goods, but instead Baekhyun can only think of three words to associate the box with: rectangle, small, light. He shakes it a little, trying to guess what it could have been, but no sounds come out. Baekhyun wonders for a brief moment if this was someone’s idea of yet another joke. After all, someone could have mailed him an empty box. Thoughts of high school pranks plague him and a certain cheeky boy comes to mind. Baekhyun scrunches his nose before glancing at the address from where it was delivered.

The Korean letters haphazardly and crookedly written on the upper left hand corner could only belong to one of two people, but one of them wasn’t the type to send packages—or anything else really. Baekhyun could hear Joonmyun now: “If I had anything important to tell you, I’d tell you in person, Baekhyun.” But Baekhyun and the rest of the world knows that Joonmyun doesn't send packages or emails or anything mostly because it's too "troublesome." The truth is, of course, Joonmyun just doesn't want to bother spending extra time mailing things because stamps and packages and weights are a pain to deal with and typing things out is a pain too.

Baekhyun cuts the tape that is heavily layered on the cardboard box, and when he peers into the space, he finds…another box to his disappointment and confusion. There are also two sheets of paper with more chicken scratches on them. Baekhyun resists the urge to roll his eyes at the horrendous penmanship that could only belong to, "Wu ing Yifan."  he says out loud, slightly shaking his head and scans through the letter.

Baekhyun,

I need you to pick something up for me, but you have to be discreet about it...

Baekhyun reads the letter again slowly scanning through the lines. When he reaches the end, Baekhyun motions his eyes back up to the top once more. This time, he carefully digests the words and despite the letter being short, Baekhyun is confused. 

By the end of his fifth reread, Baekhyun comes to the conclusion that he has no ing idea what Yifan is trying to say. He almost contemplates calling Jongdae, but the bold words in the middle of the paper scream out at him. The fact that Yifan actually pulled out a straightener to draw three exact lines meant that he really didn't want anyone to know about it. (But why not?)

Baekhyun peers into the package again, and feels almost gypped. Instead of a gift, Yifan gave him a dumb task to follow through with: deliver a box that was in another box. They haven't even seen each other in a couple of years since college ended, and this is not Baekhyun's idea of a fun reunion. Or fun in general.

Baekhyun looks at his watch. 10:45. He has plenty of time until he had to meet up with Jongdae, and the address to Yif-Kris's...thing was close to the shopping complex anyway.

With a shrug, Baekhyun shoves the box under his arms, grabs his keys, and slams the door behind him.

—

Baekhyune promptly wants to go back home when he finds himself standing outside of a super shady and rundown building. He pulls up the small slip of paper from the first envelope and squints at the directions. He knocks on the door in a very specific tune before he hears a--

Beep....Beep....Beep

coming from the electronic pad thing on the left, so Baekhyun presses the flashing button that's compelling him to push it.

"Hello?" a crackly voice answers, and oh, it's a telecom.

Baekhyun pauses mid-thought, forgetting what he was going to say.

"Uhhh," Baekhyun starts lamely. "Hi! I'm Baekhyun and I'm calling this number becaaaaause my friend Kris Wu asked me to deliver something here?" Baekhyun only hears the sound of teeth chewing gum and deep breathing on the other line. He's about to open his mouth to repeat himself, but is interrupted with--

"...Who?" The voice grumbles, and a loud sniffling echoes in Baekhyun ears. The sound is grating to the point that Baekhyun's not even sure what to say anymore.

"Um...Kris Wu?"

"Ya mean Wu Fan?" The man clears his throat without bothering to move away from the receiver and Baekhyun could almost feel the phlegm and spit running down his ears.

Baekhyun imagines himself mentally slapping Yifan and hopes that he feels the pain mentally. "Yeah, but he--"

"Well, why didn't cha just say so?" The man said and the crackling sound disappears as Baekhyun hears the unlocking of what seemed like a hundred locks before the door swings open.

Baekhyun blinks blankly. Before him, a tall and young looking man was looking away from him, and Baekhyun Is greeted with red hair. When the person turns, Baekhyun sees a familiar side profile and almost wants to laugh. The timing is incredibly too coincidental for his liking, but Baekhyun put on a smile and tries his best to not jump to any hasty conclusions.

“Tao,” Baekhyun chokes out, exaggerating and elongating the vowels of his name.

"Oh, Baekhyun-hyung!" Tao said, and the higher-pitched, excited voice that Baekhyun knows is back. The younger man's eyes widen with surprise. "Why didn't you just say it was you?"

Baekhyun almost wants to strangle Yifan and his horrendous sense of directions and lack of specificity and the mailman for giving him a a package.

"Why didn't Yifan just tell me it was you?" Baekhyun said, exasperatedly. "And what was with that really disgusting voice?"

"Just in case you get lost in a ditch or something so that it doesn't count as bad evidence against us." Tao answers happily, and Baekhyun's not sure if he's on the same page as him or if he wants to be.

"Um..." Baekhyun deadpans. God, should he even ask about it? What if Tao beats him up for jumping to conclusions? So he shakes his head and waves a hand instead. "So what have you been up to?"

"The usual. School and things." Tao lets out a nonchalant hum and motions for Baekhyun to come inside.

"Anyway, check out my crib, hyung. I've got the coolest things in here and Yifan's helped me deck it out, y'know?"

Baekhyun waggles his eyebrows while nodding and picks up a couple of weights and toy models.

Good ol' Tao.

"So when did you guys start...collaborating?" Baekhyun doesn't know how else to phrase it because he's pretty sure he's about to partake in something highly illegal and he's surprised really, because Tao never seemed like the type of person to do like cartel or drugs or anything like this. But being influenced by Yifan isn't something of unheard of -- especially since Tao looks up to him so much,

"Ge told me he was interested for a long time," Tao says and sticks a couple more sticks of gum in his mouth. Baekhyun hopes it isn't nicotine gum. "But he's finally got the resources to start it up now. It's pretty amazing."

Baekhyun stares and almost glares. When they were all in high school together, he always thought that Yifan was a typical basketball player who looked down upon smoking or inhaling chemicals or anything else of the sort. But hey, he guesses that people are different than how they appear to be.

"That's nice." Baekhyun says halfheartedly before remembering how long it had been since they last talked to each other.  "So what did you do after high school anyway?" Tao picks at his ear and Baekhyun tries to ignore the earwax that is laered on his pinky.

He wonders if Tao actually followed through with his aspirations.

"Went to college for a bit, but realized that it wasn't for me. Parents were pretty upset, but, well, I wanted to follow my dreams. And now I'm here."

"Very idealistic." Baekhyun picks up another statuette and throws Tao a smile. "In a good way, of course."

He's glad that Tao can because Baekhyun's just the same. This is what they both related to when they were younger and no one understood them. But Baekhyun's not entirely sure how he feels about the whole drug lord thing....if that's what Tao wanted to be anyway.

"Thanks, hyung. Not a lot of people are supportive of a college drop out." Tao laughs at himself and Baekhyun slightly widens his smile because what are you even supposed to say in these situations?

"Hey, How about I take you for a run?"

Baekhyun's about to protest but Tao speaks up again first. "We're getting lots of orders recently, but we haven't initiated phase two yet so we're still going old school and going door to door."

Baekhyun's face drops even more and Tao blurts out, "It'll be really fun, I swear. I've been wanting to take a friend around for a while! Please?"

And who can resist such a pout?

—

Baekhyun regrets to agreeing to anything and feels the color drain from his face as Tao revs the car.

"YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE THIS THING, RIGHT?" Baekhyun yells over the sound of rock music and wind blowing through from the sun roof that Tao discovers five seconds ago while completely not paying attention to the street.

"Yeah, totally!" Tao says easily, rummaging through some things in the compartment between the two of them.

"Alright, so sit tight and I'll be right back."

Baekhyun's feeling intense Breaking Bad vibes now and he does not want to be in this situation right now. He looks through the back window, then to the front and the sides. No one's around, but Baekhyun's counting the seconds, the minutes until someone pops up, knocks on his window and asks him what he's doing here.

Tao returns eventually and starts the car up again and Baekhyun realizes that he wasn't breathing as much as he should. He intakes a deep breath of air before letting it out slowly.

It's relaxing, Baekhyun thinks as he rests his head against the side of the door and slowly wiggles his fingers out the window. Or it could be, if he tried to imagine this as one hunky dory road trip through Seoul.

—

"For this last one, I'll need you to help me drop off the goods because it's a big order." Tao says as he parks the car and Baekhyun stiffens in his seat.

"Relax, there's nothing chemically dangerous in these boxes. You won't burn or anything." Tao flashes him a smile and hops out of the car. Baekhyun feels his heart thumping as he tries to decide what the next logical move is. He can either call the cops before anything happens, run far away before anything happens, or just sit here and pretend that none of this is actually happening.

"Hyung?" Tao peeks his head in the window and Baekhyun sighs before unbuckling his seat and gets out of the car. There goes his perfectly clean criminal record.

"Oh, hm...that's strange, it won't open." Tao scrunches his nose and slams his hand down on the trunk. Baekhyun's heart thumps louder with each pound that Tao hits on the car. Baekhyun wonders if he can talk Tao out of this because they're really in the open. "May--"

He's interrupted with Tao's cheer as he finally gets the trunk open and Baekhyun braces himself and closes his eyes for the inevitable small bags of white powder and plant leaves and money that is bound to be there.But then he opens his eyes and is utterly confused at the sight before him because instead of drugs, he sees...a bunch of hats. Baseball caps and grandma hats and cowboy hats.

"Wait, so this wasn't a drug drop off thing?" Baekhyun blurts out before he can stop himself and Tao his head to the side, confused.

"What?" Tao almost guffaws. "Hyung, I manufacture hats. Ge wants to start his own business and he's keeping it on the low down, y'know?"

Baekhyun blinks blankly before rolling his eyes. "You mean down low?"

Tao raises an eyebrow and looks to the side. "...Yeah."

 "So why didn't you guys just tell me from the beginning?" Baekhyun almost flails his arms up, and turns to the mess that he-- they made.

"He wanted to be discreet, hyung."

Baekhyun's not sure if he wants to bother comprehending Tao's logic, or worse, Yifan's logic, but before he could the clock tower behind them starts ringing, indicating that it's 4 p.m.

. He was so worried about the danger of his life and being caught by the police that he completely forgot to check up on the time or call Jongdae up.

"Look, Tao, I have to meet up with Jongdae, so uh..."

"Ooooooh, no problem, man! I totally get you." Tao nods reassuringly, waggling his eyebrows while making pigeon-like head motions at the same time. "It's a shame you didn't get to drop this stuff off yet, but we should do this again sometime, yeah? Next time you can bring Jongdae too to keep us company."

Baekhyun slowly nods while widening his eyes.

Yeah...no, not happening.

"Yeah, definitely...!" Baekhyun smiles without baring his teeth and starts walking away. It's only when he is a distance away when he wonders why Tao acted strangely at the mention of Jongdae. After all, the only time Tao really saw them together was in high school, and they were rivals and pranksters and really just dumb kids.

But maybe he's just imagining things anyway.

—

Baekhyun almost lets out a breath of relief to see Jongdae sitting at a bench in front of the biggest (and their favorite) tank in the aquarium.

It's still as glorious as it was the last time he left it, with colorful fish of all shapes and sizes swimming about it. A studio light shines through the water making the blue even more luminescent.

Baekhyun huffs and sits down next to Jongdae, facing away from the tank. "You won't believe what I went through today."

Jongdae doesn't respond at first...or at all, and Baekhyun looks at him in slight confusion. "Jongdae?"

"Hey." Jongdae says with lackluster and Baekhyun tries to assess what the problem could be. They've had misunderstandings and arguments before, of course, but they had been on good terms for a while now. There hasn't been a fight in forever, and although he was extremely late, but no harm was done right?

Baekhyun blurts out, "Look, I had a run-in with Tao and we had to deliver a lot of things and I didn't notice the time and--"

"It's fine." Jongdae offers an empty smile and Baekhyun almost winces and recoils back at his cold eyes. Seeing Jongdae being fake happy is frustrating, and he knows how much Jongdae despises it when people don't keep in contact with him.

"Hey, there's still time, right?" Jongdae says in a softer voice and Baekhyun finds himself nodding. He feels like he's the one being comforted now when it should be him comforting Jongdae for his mistakes and carelessness. What if Jongdae had been sitting here for four or five hours just waiting? God, the day had started out semi-well too. Sure, he woke up late, but could a few minutes really have made a huge impact?Where the hell did it all go wrong? Wait, never mind. Baekhyun knows exactly where it went downhill. He wishes he can blame the mailman, blame the clock, blame the entire world. But in all honesty, all that's going through his mind right now is that he swears he's going to kill Wu Lee Kevin Kris Yi Fan Ben Ben a million times over.

Snapbacks, man.

————

Baekhyun groans at the sound of the alarm clock before slamming the snooze button. He had set it fifteen minutes earlier than the actual time he needed to wake up, but you know what?

Life can wait five more minutes.

—

Baekhyun wakes up fully content. His body no longer has any knots or crooks and when he looks at the time, it's only been half an hour, so he has plenty of time.

Baekhyun turns the corner to see the number 40 bus he rides switch on its left signal. No, no, no.

"Wait!" Baekhyun yells running after it, but the smog and the cars and people keep moving forward and Baekhyun groans into his hands. Life doesn't seem to want to wait for him, it seems. He huffs and makes his way back to the bus stop, kicking a rock onto the road. The people near him don't bother to look at him or say anything and the day starts off to a horrid beginning.

His phone vibrates three times in quick succession and a soft ping sound rings into the air. Baekhyun tucks his wallet between his mouth and pulls his device out to stare at the notifications on his home screen.

[Text] Kim Jongdae
Baekhyun, meet me in front CoEx at 12!! 10:11 AM

[Email] Oh Sehun 10:11 AM
Situation with You Know What
Hey, I would text you but my phone died and I haven’t replaced it yet.
Anyway, when you can…

Zhang Yixing 10:11 AM
Missed Call & Voicemail

Baekhyun would be impressed by this if it wasn't for the fact that he missed his bus and would have to wait longer to get his fix of morning coffee. Slumping into the bench at the bus stop, Baekhyun taps through his phone. He briefly wonders why Yixing would call him since it's been a while since they last talked, but he decides to open Sehun's email first because "you know what" is usually code for Kim Jongin, and Baekhyun feels immense joy whenever he gets to tease Sehun about his relationship with the fetching young fellow.

—

"Hyung!" Sehun waves him over and Baekhyun raises a hand up before walking over to the small corner table of the campus cafe.

"Sehun, Jongin." Baekhyun acknowledges both of them before dropping his belongings on the floor next to his chair and scoots up.

Baekhyun looks to Jongin and sees the way his eyes soften a bit when the younger man watches Sehun. He looks to Sehun and sees the sparkle in his eyes, and Baekhyun suddenly feels like he's interrupting a date or missing out on some secret between lovers. Ah, young high school love...or, well, college.

"So Jongin finally bought The Last of Us and we're here to kidnap you from your obligations so you can play with us because god knows you need a break." Sehun breathes and Baekhyun stares at him for a few seconds before turning to look at Jongin, who shrugs and nods back.

"Don't you guys have essays due for history tomorrow?" Baekhyun's had their professor before, and the essays were hard as .

Sehun rolls his eyes and throws an arm over Baekhyun's shoulder. "That's the best thing about the word tomorrow, Baekhyun. It's tomorrow."

Baekhyun snorts.

—

They finally get back to Jongin's house in one piece and Sehun plops down onto the sofa like he owns the place. Jongin's about to sit next to him, but Sehun pushes him off and shoos him away.

"Jongin, get us some drinks. We have a guest."

Jongin rolls his eyes and pads his way to the kitchen and Baekhyun opts to stare at Sehun because he's been acting weird all morning, even on the way here. Sehun is only fidgety when he's nervous, and has no control of his face or body language.

"Okay, so spill. What's the problem?" Baekhyun asks as soon as Jongin shuts the door behind him.

Sehun immediately lets out a whine and rolls over to Baekhyun's side. "Hyung, it's going to be the one year anniversary in three days and I don't know if I need to plan anything."

Baekhyun tries to ignore how dumb that sounds and tries his best to hold back the snort that is on the verge of escaping his lips, but--Baekhyun snorts and Sehun's onto him now, hitting his arm repeatedly. "Hyung, I'm being serious here!"

"I don't doubt that,"  Baekhyun says in between laughs and he lets out a wistful sigh. "You didn't have to use a game as an excuse to ask me about this."

"Yeah, but his parents aren't home today and we're working on our essay tomorrow so today's the only time I can talk to you."

Baekhyun puts on his relationship mentor hat and tries to come up with a plan as to how Sehun can have a romantic date with Jongin that isn't haphazardly thrown together last minute or on a whim. (Because Sehun has done that before and that did not go well at all.)

Even if he hasn't been in a relationship since, forever, Baekhyun would like to think that he knows how they work, and what is considered romantic.

By the time Jongin comes back, they're setting up the PS3 and bickering over if they should start The Last of Us immediately or play some Call of Duty first.

—

After a few rounds of Call of Duty (and not to mention Defiance), Baekhyun looks up from the game and finds himself in a very awkward situation. Jongin's staring at Sehun and Sehun's beet red, and it's all really too much, because he's right here and they're sitting on Jongin's bed and he shouldn't be here and god, do they not have any self-control?

Baekhyun wonders if this is what he'll turn into if he ever gets into a relationship, if he would be worried about things like how to be romantic or  worrying about gifts all the time. "I should probably go."

"Hyung, we've only started!" Sehun pouts and Baekhyun has been immune to those pouts after the millionth time of begging for extra credit in the he ta'd for last semester.

But then the opening sequence of The Last of Us finally ends, and he remembers why he was invited in the first place.

"...Okay, never mind I can play for a while." Baekhyun extends his palm out and Jongin hands him the controller.

Sehun leans into Jongin and whispers, "Score."

—

Baekhyun reaches some checkpoint and Jongin's room feels hot. His palms are sweaty and he's completely pooped out from just sitting there and playing for hours. A pleasant silence lingers the air and Baekhyun almost wants to sleep on the floor. (It wouldn't be the first time after a gaming session.)

The ceiling fan above them whirls and occasionally makes a popping sound, but that's the only sound that's audible at the moment besides the music  from the television. The three boys are lulling around, none of them motioning to move to open the window or turn off the game or anything, really.

"I'm gonna get some water." Sehun announces to the world and hops up toward the door.

Baekhyun rarely plays relationship mentor considering he's not even in one, but he still remembers when Jongin and Sehun first got together like it was yesterday. It's crazy to think that's it been a year now--and he never even really had the chance to ask Jongin the one question he's been meaning to ask.

"How did you know?"

Jongin stares at him blankly.

"That you liked Sehun in that way."

Jongin smirks as if he knows something Baekhyun doesn't and Baekhyun wants to wipe the smirk off his face. "It doesn't have a process, hyung. There isn't a dramatic wave of feelings that hit you like a tidal wave out of the blue. One day you're just sitting there with someone, and at the end of the day, you're already thinking about what you're going to do with them next time."

"Wow, poetic."

Jongin shrugs. "What can I say? I'm a natural."

Baekhyun regrets asking Jongin anything and rolls his eyes. "You guys are sickening."

"You love it, hyung." Jongin beams at him and Baekhyun mutters under his breath because he's right. He loves it when two lovers are sweet to one another and yeah, it's kind of cheesy, but it's a good level of cheese and Baekhyun isn't afraid to say that he's a romantic at heart.

"Hyung, didn't you say you have to meet Jongdae hyung today?" Sehun pipes out of nowhere and Baekhyun jumps up from his seat to check the time.

He doesn't even say bye to Jongin and Sehun, instead, just picks up his things and runs.

—

The thing is, Baekhyun finds himself to be a pretty reliable person; he plans out to the minute, and he does his best to balance things when unexpected events occur, but today is just a huge mess of hell that he doesn't know what to even tell Jongdae. It completely slips his mind that he never bothered to really check his phone during this whole charade and he groans when he brings out his phone to see that there is a huge 100+ next to the green icon of text messages and a whopping next to the phone icon.

Baekhyun runs a hand into his hair -- forgetting that it probably looks like a really big mess now after his run-in with Sehun and Jongin.  He hopes that the messages are from a few people but then when Baekhyun checks it, it's all from Jongdae and Baekhyun feels his heart almost drop. It's rare for him to not check his phone and nothing really happened today, so Baekhyun doesn't know what he could say to make up for it. He thinks up of a few excuses that sound really pathetic (and probably sound even more pathetic if he said them out loud) and when he looks up again, he sees Jongdae standing arms-crossed a short distance in front of him.

“Oh, you actually made it after all.” Jongdae is expressionless, voice monotone. Baekhyun doesn't know how to react and suddenly has the urge to apologize on the spot and fall to his knees and .

“Yes, but--”

Jongdae immediately puts a palm up and nods, not looking up.

“Jongdae.” Baekhyun frowns. He hates the lump growing in his throat. He knows he ed up bad, and that Jongdae probably had a crappy day, but he still hopes Jongdae still got the chance to walk around the aquarium at least. He hopes that he can make it up to him

The speakers in the aquarium crackle and an automated tune jingles. "May I have your attention please?" An automated recording. "The aquarium is closing in half an hour. Please make your way to the exit in a fashionable matter. Thank you for visiting CoEx!"

People around them are starting to shuffle toward the entrance and Baekhyun hesitates, not knowing what to say or do. He wants to invite Jongdae for a fun dinner or walk around other places, but words aren't forming right in his mind.

“It’s okay, really.” Jongdae said with a lighter voice and a smile that Baekhyun knows meant bad news. He's still averting his eyes and Baekhyun tries to step closer or lean forward or anything, but Jongdae looks up at him with such tired eyes and Baekhyun finds it hard to breathe.

“You’re a hard person to get a hold of sometimes, but I get it. I’ll just see you later, okay?” Jongdae doesn’t let Baekhyun respond, flashing a quick smile and the briefest glance before turning away. He adjusts the straps of his messenger bag on his shoulder and Baekhyun wants to yell something, anything, but no words form. Hestands there helplessly, watching Jongdae disappear into the crowd of elementary kids and their chaperons.

He briefly thinks back to Jongin and Sehun's relationship, and how they started, and randomly thinks to Jongdae. Neither of them really ask about each other's love life, but Baekhyun realizes that he's never actually seen Jongdae seem interested in anyone, ever. He wonders about their standing, if Jongdae's ever thought the same about him and--wait, this is Jongdae we're talking about, Baekhyun. When did it even matter?

He lets out a frustrated sigh and rubs his closed eyes with the length of his arm.

“Can I get my fifteen minutes of sleep back?”

No one responds, save for the fish in the tank before him, who only gapes back.

———

Baekhyun opens his eyes to birds chirping and a hazy blue morning light peering through the window. He lulls his head left and right before pausing to see what time it was.

Five minutes before the fifteen minutes before the actual time he needed to wake up by.

He hates these days the most. The five minutes of sleep he could have had are now spent laying awake, trying to decide on whether or not he should actually get up and prepare for the day or just take it slow.Baekhyun knows better than to go back to sleep. Five more minutes can quickly turn into half an hour or more, so he sits up and yawns while mentally going through his to-do list and plans out the rest of his day.

And above all, Baekhyun is going to get his morning coffee no matter what obstacles may come in his way.

—

Baekhyun sits in front of a bus stop and pulls out a beat up copy of House of Leaves, a book that Jongdae recommended to him from a while ago. He hadn't had the chance to read it earlier since he's been working on his thesis for the past semester, and Jongdae always seems disappointed whenever he asks about the progress with the book, and now he can't put it down.

He feels his phone vibrate three times in quick succession and a soft ping sound rings into the air. He tucks the corner of the page he's on and pulls his device out.

[Text] Kim Jongdae         10:11 AM
Baekhyun, meet me in front CoEx at 12!!

[Email] Oh Sehun           10:11 AM
Situation with You Know What
Hey, I would text you but my phone died and I haven’t replaced it yet.
Anyway, when you can…

Zhang Yixing                 10:11 AM
Missed Call & Voicemail

Well that's interesting. He's sure that this is something he can tell to a load of people and they wouldn't be too impressed, but he almost wants to call Jongdae up right now--but that can wait since they're seeing each other soon anyway.So it's down to Sehun or Yixing, and as much as he wants to laugh at Sehun about his relationship woes, he's actually more curious about why Yixing would call him up.Without listening to the voicemail, Baekhyun taps on "call back" and waits for Yixing to pick up.

He doesn't even think one dial tone rings when Yixing answers in a relieved voice."Baekhyun! Thanks for calling back, man."

Baekhyun hopes that everything's okay and that he's not about to ask to borrow a bunch of money or something. It's been a couple of years since they both graduated from college and each person went on to do their own thing without really catching up. He's honestly surprised that Yixing kept his phone number. But things could be worse if hewasin need of money because Baekhyun's a broke college student still.

"Of course! What's up?" Baekhyun raises his shoulder to keep his phone in place while he turns the page of his book.

"Are you busy today?" Yixing sounds almost desperate now, and he's trying to guess why, but Yixing's voice snaps him out of his thoughts. "Baekhyun?"

"What, oh, not really. I have to meet Jongdae at noon, but I'm free until then."

"Oh, awesome!" He can almost hear Yixing's grin, and in all honesty, is super glad that someone else looks forward to seeing him.It's like the gods were being kind to him for the lack of wishes granted in the past.

"Meet me at Junggye Park?"

"Sure. See you soon."Baekhyun hangs up with Yixing and looks at the bus schedule to see how he can get to the park. Once he has his path figured out, he continues to sit there and waits for a 40 bus to come.

He still needs his coffee.

—

Baekhyun puts his hands in his pockets when he walks over to Yixing feeding ducks near the pond at the local park.

"Hey, hey!" Baekhyun says, leaning forward to catch Yixin's attention and hands him a cup of coffee.

"Hey, thanks for coming!" Yixing lets out a relieved sigh and he stands up, wiping his palms against his pants and accepts the cup. "Hmm, hazelnut."

He smiles and Baekhyun nods back. "New arrival at the local coffee shop I go to. You'll be my guinea pig."

Yixing rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

"Okay, so what's up?" Baekhyun gets straight to the point and Yixing's smile slightly falters and the latter heaves out a sigh.

"Things have been kind of tough on set lately, and I don't know why. "

"Baekhyun, you're a sociable guy, how do you do it?" Yixing looks at him helplessly and Baekhyun doesn't know how to react because it's not like he has his life planned out either. Yes, he has a goal, but he's still going through grad school to help obtain it, and besides saying the typical things, Baekhyun has never really been good at encouraging people.

He doesn't dislike Yixing for bringing it up, but asking about his sociability has almost become a trigger question for him. It's times like these when wishes that Jongdae was here to help because although they were all collegemates, Baekhyun had met Yixing through him, despite the fact that they shared the same major and shared classes together prior to their official meeting.

"It just takes effort." Baekhyun finally says; it's his answer for everything in life, really.

—

The two of them are still sitting at the bench when Baekhyun's alarm goes off.

"Hey, I have to go." Baekhyun says regrettably. He knows how hard it can be when you're insecure and wanting support.

"It's fine, really." Yixing looks up to the sky. "You're great company, as always."

Baekhyun smiles until dimples are prominent and stands up. He extends his hand out."Do you want to come with?"

Yixing pushes him playfully and Baekhyun pretends he's highly offended, but the former simply grins back. He sticks his tongue out and stretches his arms above him, reaching for the sky.

"Nah. I wasn't invited! Don't wanna crash the party or anything." Yixing continues to stay in the awkward pose of having both his arms up in the air before he his head forward and looks around the park. "Besides, it's a nice day for a walk."

"Well, call me or Jongdae if you have any other concerns." Baekhyun says in all seriousness and Yixing nods and shoos him away.

"Go. I don't want to be the one ruining precious time with precious friends."

Baekhyun gives him a questioning look, but doesn't reply since Yixing's sitll shooing him away so he rolls his eyes and turns to make his way toward the aquarium.

—

Baekhyun's here early, but instead of wandering around, Baekhyun heads straight for their regular meeting spot and he's not sure he's mentally prepared to see it, really. It has been over two years since they last set this tank as their meeting place and when he looks up, Baekhyun regrets not coming by more often.

The fish in the slightly familiar tall tank are gracefully swimming back and forth, the blue water shines and sparkles, and Baekhyun feels relaxed like he's at home. He never understands why people always half-heartedly walk through the aquarium in less than an hour without taking the time to appreciate each exhibit. If it was possible, Baekhyun would stay from opening to closing to admire the fish as well as to people watch. It sounds kind of boring, but Baekhyun enjoys the slower-paced environment compared to people-watching at a theme park or around a mall. Mostly because while the children were having the time of their lives, many of the parents looked tired, disheveled and completely done with life. At the aquarium, however, he's had the chance to see so many parents look just as amazed as the children were, and seeing those faces in awe made each and every single day completely worth it.

"Nothing's really changed, has it?" Baekhyun's ears perk up at the sound of Jongdae's voice and he turns around to face his friend, lips curved up.

"Hey." Baekhyun says wistfully.

"Hey." Jongdae smiles back and scratches the back of his head. "I wasn't expecting you to come early."

Baekhyun raises a brow. "Were you planning something for me?"

"No!" Jongdae runs a hand through his hair and Baekhyun suddenly finds him suspicious.

"Then are you here to ask me for advice too?"

"What do you mean?" Jongdae slightly his head to the side and Baekhyun shrugs. "It's nothing really. I met up with Yixing earlier on a whim when he called earlier and he just needed someone to talk to, I guess."

"Everything okay?" Jongdae doesn't look at him, instead, he's putting an open palm against the glass and he knows that some janitor will be angry later when they find an adult-sized hand print among the tiny ones.

"Yeah, or at least, things are as okay as they could be given the situation." Baekhyun scrunches his nose. "He asked me about about friends and keeping them and how to be good around people, and I don't really know what he expected from me.”

"Well, that's easy." Jongdae takes out a bag of chips from his bag. "You're easy to talk to."

Baekhyun doesn't know why he feels his cheeks reddening at that because it's such a normal thing to say.

—

They finish wandering around the aquarium and although they chatted throughout, something seems incredibly off to Baekhyun. He just can't put his finger on it.

"Oh, did you want to eat together or something?" Baekhyun asks hesitantly, but Jongdae shakes his head. "I actually have to meet up with someone, so maybe another time."

Baekhyun wants to ask him if there was something wrong, or if he was being completely paranoid. Because Jongdae's attitude from last night and today have completely different vibes, and he's pretty sure that this is the first time in a while since they've met up, so surely he must have wanted to hang out longer?

"See you around then." Jongdae says as he pulls out his phone.

"Okay, see you." Baekhyun says eventually and is about to wave but Jongdae turns before he can.

Baekhyun feels like he missed something by the time he walks out of the aquarium too.

He's not sure if it's because of Yixing, the gods or the fish.

It totally could have been the fish.

————

Baekhyun opens his eyes to darkness. He looks to his clock on his night stand and sees green neon light flashing back at him -- 5:00 a.m. and groans at how ridiculously early it is. His heart is still beating fast from the nightmare he was having just a brief while ago, and he knows that he isn't going to be sleeping anytime soon.

—

"Baekhyun, is that you?" A deep voice starts off low but then pitches up high by the end of the question and Baekhyun takes a moment before turning around to see if he recognizes who it is. But before he could even turn, hands are waving in front of him and a huge grin accompanied with a signature laugh confirms it.

"Chanyeol!" Baekhyun grins. "It's been forever, how are things?"

"Still going through grad school."Chanyeol grins and waggles his eyebrows and plops down in front of him. "For astronomy, of course."

Baekhyun nods approvingly. "Good to see you didn't give up."

"I also still play for shows at night with Kyungsoo to help pay for tuition. I'm on a coffee run right now since we just finished a show. Wanna say hi to the other dudes?"

The other dudes being Baekhyun's other high school friends that he failed to keep contact with. It's not that they fought or held grudges against each other, but Baekhyun moved and, like anything else in life, it takes effort to keep a friendship going.

"I'd love to!" Baekhyun smiles and for once, he's glad his internal clock was messed up today. Even if he was surviving on 3 hours of sleep, catching up with people always leaves a good feeling afterward.

—

Baekhyun takes a look around the studio apartment that Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and "some dude you don't know" share and is taken aback. Not because it is pretty or neat, but quite the opposite. Cans and paper plates are spread out on the floor

"Sorry for the mess." Chanyeol tippie-toes his way through their makeshift living room and into the kitchen. "Kyungsoo kind of gave up cleaning the living room since this is what it usually becomes by the end of the night anyway."

Baekhyun looks to their walls and sees framed records and movie posters hung up in an orderly fashion.

"Feel free to sit around anywhere. I'll get you some water." Chanyeol's voice becomes muffled as he walks farther away into the kitchen and Baekhyun pushes some empty cans off the sofa and sits down and looks to the sheet music on the table in front of him. Baekhyun remembers when the two of them tried to rope him into joining them for a three-piece band, but he had refused. Besides, all he knew how to play was the piano.

The upright piano in the studio apartment calls out to him though, and before he knows it, Baekhyun finds himself sitting in the seat and softly brushing over the keys of the piano. He plays a simple song that he memorized from his last endeavor on the piano and is startled with the sound of hands clapping

"Play it again, Sam." Chanyeol says gleefully, placing two glasses of water on the table behind him.

"You know that's not actually a line from Casablanca." Baekhyun says as he stretches his fingers across the piano.

"You get what I mean." Chanyeol huffs and rests his head against the sofa's arm.

Chanyeol pops open a can of beer an offers it to Baekhyun who doesn't budge. Drinking in the morning is not a good idea, especially after he just downed a cup of coffee.

"Just one drink. For old time's sake."

After seeing Chanyeol's wide smile, Baekhyun finally gives in.

—

Baekhyun feels his phone vibrate three times in quick succession and a loud ping ring in his ears

He doesn't bother checking his phone, knowing that Jongdae probably wants to meet at their usual time.

—

He feels completely wired up by the time he gets to the aquarium, and isn't sure if he should actually take off his sunglasses or not because everything is bright and painful and--

"God, you look like a wreck."

"Well hello, I missed you too, Jongdae." Baekhyun says as he sits down on the bench in front of their favorite exhibit. Although the bench has gotten a makeover, and although different fish have been shuffled in and out, Baekhyun still finds this tank to be the best in the aquarium. Sure, it's not the newest one installed, but there's just something about the tank that calls out to him. It's one of the centerpieces of the aquarium, and at least he'd always

“You know, the weirdest thing happened to me today.” Baekhyun says, biting his lower lip. Jongdae raises an eyebrow at him, so he continues. "I woke up super early and you won't believe who I ran into."

At Jongdae's expression Baekhyun points at him and shakes his finger. "It's totally not a Baekhyun thing, okay?"

Jongdae only smirks back.

"But yeah, do you remember Chanyeol?"

Jongdae's smile slightly drops and Baekhyun rubs his eyes to see if he's imagining things but the moment is gone by the time he opens his eyes again and Jongdae's back to giving him a full smile.

"Of course. I mean, I haven't seen him in a while, but it's hard to forget someone like Park Chanyeol."

Baekhyun nods in agreement. "He definitely gives a lasting impression."

The two of them share eye contact and laugh.

"But in all seriousness, I just ran into him this morning before making my way over. He's still going the astronaut route, it seems."

"Very good for him." Jongdae says, impressed.

They continue to talk about high school and laugh over the best pranks they pulled on innocent victims.

—

Jongdae shuffles around in his bag and with an aha expression, pulls out two slips of paper. "Here, one of my friends got spare tickets to an advanced screening of The Wolverine so I saved some for you."

"Oh my god!" Baekhyun makes grabby hands at the tickets and observes them up close. "I never knew you knew someone who worked at a movie theater!"

Baekhyun has been looking forward to seeing the movie and had planned on watching it on release day next week (or perhaps the midnight showing) and in this moment, he swears he loves Jongdae. "Do you want to go together?"

"Sorry, I'm kind of busy in the next few days." Jongdae smiles and Baekhyun tries to search through Jongdae's eyes, but his friend isn't looking at him at all and Baekhyun wonders what or if something was wrong.

But they tell each other everything, so it wouldn't make sense for him to not say anything.

"Alright, well...another time, then?"

"Yeah." Jongdae says and stands up. "Shall we then?"

Baekhyun nods and they begin the familiar tour around the aquarium that they had given to elementary kids in their high school years. The changes that the aquarium has gone through remind him, dumbly, of the changes

Because even though, the aquarium is still the same.

—

After a slow day at the aquarium and an awkward meal together, Baekhyun and Jongdae part ways at the train station in silence. Jongdae slightly waves and Baekhyun wants to say something, but Jongdae turns around so all he can do is watch his retreating figure until he can't see it anymore.

Baekhyun presses the power button to respond back to Sehun and to call Yixing back, since he has nothing else to do. And also to see if they could give any insight as to what just happened. (Even though out of the four of them, he's the one closest to Jongdae. He can see them now: "If you don't know what's going on, then how do you expect us to know?"

He tries not to let it bother him.)

————

Jongdae opens his eyes to the sound of his fan humming and morning birds chirping. After finally calling Baekhyun and setting up the meeting places, Jongdae has finally got the chance (and guts) to do it. It sounds kind of dumb to him now, but he's already set the plan in motion and now he has to add some finishing touches to it.

9:00.

He has plenty to do before meeting up with Baekhyun.

—

Jongdae waits in front of Minseok's apartment for the promised movie tickets. He had to spill to Luhan about the details, but now Jongdae wonders if it was a good idea to tell him because by now the whole world probably knows what he plans to do today.

The door swings open and a smiling Minseok greets him.

"Here you go." Minseok says, handing two tickets to an advanced screening of The Wolverine and Jongdae feels his heart soaring because things are going along well. "Are you sure this is okay?"

Minseok nods dismissively. "Yeah, Luhan does this for a lot of people. He apparently gets them from Junmyeon too, so. No sweat."

Jongdae feels like he's learning the inside trade to the movie theater underworld.

"Hey, good luck, man." Minseok pats him on the shoulder and Jongdae salutes him.

He bops his way toward the elevator and sees the flower shop across the street through the window in the hallway. He considers buying a bouquet before shaking his head, because that's way too obvious and way too much.

—

Jongdae goes through other errands and is rushing from a quick practice run with Luhan when he steps into the cool air conditioning of the aquarium. He's missed this place like crazy and when Jongdae steps into the once-familiar corridor, he's afraid to look up at first.

He has this place to thank for bringing him and Baekhyun closer as friends. Prior to volunteering at the aquarium, the two of them would bully each other's friends a lot, and even after, they were snobbish with one another.

His stomach growls and Jongdae almost wants to hit himself for not remembering to eat.

—

The clock strikes 12, and Jongdae is surprised to see Baekhyun through the reflection from the tank. He doesn't turn around at first, holding his breath because Jongdae's rarely on time. Baekhyun's shoulders slightly hitch up and slowly fall back down and Jongdae hopes that he isn't imagining the way his friend looks relieved at finally arriving at his destination. He hopes that Baekhyun doesn't notice the way his face heats up or the way his heart feels like it's about to explode on the spot.

The thing is, Byun Baekhyun is a really busy guy, and Jongdae's used to seeing the former show up tired and disheveled as if he went to hell and back. It's almost become routine that instead of greeing the usual hello, how are you's...Jongdae turns around and says, "What mess did you get yourself into now?"

Instead of a reply, Baekhyun gracefully falls ("I just plopped down, Jongdae.") down next to him on the bench and rests his head against his shoulder. Jongdae has to hold his breath for a few seconds before he can say anything.

"Jongdae, just give me a moment. Recharging." Baekhyun says and mutters some more nonsense into his arm and it's moments like these when Jongdae feels like he can wait years, decades and eons for Baekhyun to be by his side.

It's terrifying,horrificto be in such a position, to suddenly have this type of dedication toward someone who started off as a hassle, as someone he just simply had to deal with and has since grown to become someone whose opinion actually mattered, whose feelings he had to consider.

"I had a really weird day, but nothing too bad happened on my way here." Baekhyun says, looking to the fish in front of them.

“Really?” Jongdae raises an eyebrow, mouth positioned to bite into his hotdog. As if he didn't hear that one a million times before. It would be more weird if nothing happened.

Baekhyun seems to be thinking about where to start, and Jongdae continues to chew on his hotdog, waiting.

“You..." Baekhyun starts then blinks and turns. "You know how everyone always talks about how life is full of coincidences and there's no such thing as fate and things?"

Jongdae belches out an agreement. "Yeah, like life isn't about waiting for something to happen, but about making it happen."

"Gross, Jongdae." Baekhyun scrunches his nose, but Jongdae just laughs. "And, I mean, I guess it's safe to say that everyone has probably gotten that feeling at least once in their life?"

Jongdae shrugs, but nods to humor Baekhyun. This is fun, easy, and simple. There have been times before when they would have hour long conversations about different topics and sometimes Joonmyun joins in too.

"Well, right when you texted me my phone told me that Yixing gave me a call and that Sehun sent me an email." Baekhyun says, and Jongdae waits for him to continue, but Baekhyun seems to be waiting for some sort of response.

Jongdae his left eyebrow up. "That just tells me you're a popular guy, Baek."

"But I mean, literallyat the same time--10:11." Baekhyun's almost waving his hands now and Jongdae resists the urge to roll his eyes.

"Oh.that is pretty trippy." Jongdae says and nods before taking a sip from his soda.

"Right? And, that just got me thinking about what changes there would have been if I like called Yixing first or emailed Sehun back or like even open my mail before coming here."

Jongdae hopes that Baekhyun doesn't notice anything different. He hopes that Baekhyun doesn't notice the way that his hands are sweaty or the way that his face is reddening or that his heart is beating twice as fast as before, because Baekhyun had just knocked the breath out of him."You mean...you actually left your schedule open for right now?"

Baekhyun almost throws his arms up. "Why is it hard to believe that I actually don't do anything sometimes?"

Jongdae stares at him skeptically, a silent Are you serious right now? lingers in the air.

"When does Byun Baekhyun ever stop?" Jongdae pauses. "Except when you have to recharge, but seriously Baekhyun. You've got one of the busiest schedules ever. It's amazing you're going to grad school."

"You should be flattered I came then." Baekhyun says, smiling smugly and Jongdae rolls his eyes. He puts a hand over his heart and says playfully,"Oh, my lord and savior, you grace me with your presence."

Jongdae waves his left hand around for dramatic effect and Baekhyun pushes him while laughing.

"But I do wonder about the probabilities of that happening, I mean...that sounds pretty crazy." Jongdae says trying to lighten up the mood.

"Oh, but do remind me to get back to them eventually. Sehun emailed me about problems with you know who, and Yixing called me about...something. I didn't check the voicemail."

"What! Unfair, why didn't he call me?" Jongdae pouts.

"Don't worry, I'm not about to steal your precious friend." Baekhyun says teasingly and the two of them begin walking through the aquarium.

—

They're at the last exhibit before the exit and Jongdae doesn't know how to bring it up without sounding or feeling awkward. Now that they've walked through memory lane, he wishes that he planned this out better, that he invited Baekhyun to a cooler (or more romantic) place, because he can do better than this. Even if the aquarium has a significance to the both of them.

Jongdae fiddles with the movie tickets in between two fingers, trying to convince himself that this is the time. He opens his mouth and promptly closes it when he looks up to see Baekhyun, and Jongdae lets the tickets fall into the depths of his bag again.

His words escape him and Jongdae's nervous; how does one confess? Everyone has been telling him there is no right or wrong way to do it, but now that he's about to do it, Jongdae feels like throwing up.

Mostly because he still doesn't know how Baekhyun feels about him, and maybe this isn't the right time to do it after all. Jongin had encouraged him before, but it's not that easy. Baekhyun's not Sehun, and he's sure not as confident as Jongin.

"Jongdae, you don't have to, you know." Baekhyun says, interrupting his thoughts, and Jongdae feels relieved yet bothered at the same time. Because did Baekhyun even know what he was going to say? And if so, how on earth?

"You're someone really special to me, and if you're about to do what I think you're about to do, then I just wanted to say that, yeah. I think I'm a great person too."

"Hey." Jongdae complains, but doesn't say anything else.

"But seriously. Even though we've been through some bumpy times in the past and in our younger years, I'm glad that you're here now Kim Jongdae. I honestly don't know what I would do without you."

"Well, first of all, you'd be at home grading more essays." Jongdae replies easily and Baekhyun smiles at him.

If there was one thing that he loves the most, it's how, under normal circumstances, Baekhyun is one of the few people who tell it to him straight.

"To be honest, I don't know if what I feel for you is love, but I do know that I care about you a lot, and that you're an important person to me." Baekhyun's face is suddenly sincere and serious and Jongdae doesn't know how to react and doesn't know what to say, and he can hear Luhan screaming at him because wow, all that wasted effort in practicing and coming up with reasons as to why he liked Baekhyun.

He's pretty sure Luhan came up with half the list anyway, because, in all honesty, Jongdae can't quite place the words and form the sentences to explain why he feels the way he does around Baekhyun. He just...does.

"Okay." Jongdae says lamely and suddenly this confession seems much more lame than he would have liked, but he's just so confused that Baekhyun is even stepping up to take control of the pace of the show. Then again, Jongdae doesn't imagine their relationship to change much, really.

"You're cute, Jongdae." Baekhyun smiles in amusement as he holds the tickets in his hands. "Come on, let's go watch the next screening."

Baekhyun reaches back to interlace his fingers with Jongdae's and leads him to the movie theater.

Because Baekhyun has been leading all this time, since day one.

—

Jongdae's laying on his bed recounting the events of the day and he still doesn't know how Baekhyun found out. It's bugging him a lot and he's trying to figure out if Luhan would really be the one to tell him.

His phone vibrates and jingles and the face of Byun Baekhyun pops up at him -- mouth open wide mid-laugh. The time on his phone reads 11:11 PM and Jongdae rolls his eyes before answering.

"Really, Baekhyun?"

"Hey, you planned it last time too." Baekhyun's laugh is soft. "Impressed?"

"Enthralled." Jongdae bites the insides of his cheeks because he didn't expect Baekhyun to figure him out that fast.

The latter lets out an amused hum.

"So you know how last time we talked about if it was worse to die in space or the ocean?" Baekhyun asks out of the blue, and Jongdae finds that this is what he loves best about them. Because he's sure that this would only happen with Baekhyun, where even after a confession from both of them (or one and a half), they can still go back to the things they love to do and talk about topics that interest both of them. They don't have to worry about impressing one another, or lingering awkward silences or anything of the sort.Jongdae smiles to himself as he listens to Baekhyun talk about the intensity of the pressures in deep water and before he flops over onto his back.

He thinks about when Byun Baekhyun used to be that annoying kid who didn't know when to stop talking to the cute and not-so annoying kid who didn't know when to stop talking who understood him the most. And realized that, it didn't really matter when it changed.

"Are you still there?" Baekhyun's voice interrupts his thoughts and Jongdae makes some unflattering snorting sounds.

"Yuck." Baekhyun says and Jongdae can see him scrunching his nose.

Because, in the end, they were still the same people as individuals who bring out the best of one another when together.

"I also wanted to let you know that Luhan told me before I went to the aquarium."

That bastard.

———

Baekhyun feels his phone vibrate three times in quick succession and a soft ping sound rings into the air. He freezes momentarily, before pulling his phone out and lets out a chuckle.

"Ha, ha, Kim Jongdae. Very funny."

[Text] Kim Jongdae
good     10:11 AM

[Text] Kim Jongdae
morning     10:11 AM

[Text] Kim Jongdae
darling     10:11 AM

"." Baekhyun says with a grin, swiping his finger over the picture of their smiling faces to reply.