Symptoms

grasping the concept of infatuation.

There was a pretty fine line between approximately two meter radius distance and intimate head on shoulder position.

For Chanyeol, that is.

Either he was playing dumb, messing around with Kyungsoo or plain deaf when the latter had clearly explained to him earlier ago to stay away from him since he felt uncomfortable. Chanyeol refused to believe that Kyungsoo disliked him to such an extent, thus explaining the forced close contact engaged between the two.

And no, Kyungsoo isn't complaining like how he thought he should, instead, he was actually enjoying the feeling of Chanyeol's locks tickling his ear and his chin resting casually on his short boy shoulders. It was a nice bubbly feeling in his stomach compared to the other ones he used to endure. Because those were probably during the weird intimate moments, Kyungsoo mused.

"Don't you think the waist is a bit thick?" Chanyeol mentions and Kyungsoo takes notice of the comment. He starts dragging his hand on the pad slowly while pressing down slightly, making the pen swiftly move on the drawing tablet. God knows what'll happen to him when he manages to accidentally break Chanyeol's equipment. Merely scratching a CD was asking for a death wish from code name Devil Jin aka Park Chanyeol.

When he had no reason and power to go against Chanyeol's protest and request to help him with his techie project, he was actually bemused for a moment. The perplexity of what will happen next after their first project making helping thing bugged him. It was so intriguing and it made him anxious, maybe that's why some limbs of the diagram angled awkwardly out of place and the waist was wider than how it should be ideally. What Kyungsoo means is that he's nervous, and afraid.

Unlike any other damsel in distress, Kyungsoo was the typical shy but adventurous type. A daring little red riding hood that's willing enough to snarl back at the big bad wolf. In all honesty, he didn't mind the past very close and very weird encounters with Chanyeol. It was just simply the future that irked him to no end. He's afraid something else will be the fruit bore by their now progressing relationship – and Kyungsoo clearly can't have that.

Chanyeol still hasn't removed his head from his shoulders as they sat on the floor. From a person in a 45° angle view, they'd think Kyungsoo was getting all comfy and soft on Chanyeol's lap but they were actually sitting all on their own. Talk about misunderstandings.

Kyungsoo sighed, "My hand is shaking, I can't do this!" He drops the pen down on the table rather gently for someone writhing with frustration. Chanyeol begs to differ.

Hand creeping up hesitantly but surely to the younger shoulders, he had slipped his head from beside Kyungsoo's and now had both his palms pressing on the sides of his neck with ample pressure. Too much boyfriend material, Chanyeol placed a small smile on his lips before patiently waiting for Kyungsoo's tensing muscles to calm down.

Inside his mind, Kyungsoo screamed ear splitting cries of "What are you doing?!" but his body had to argue with his thoughts. He needed this, it helps to ease the tension. So he did nothing but sigh, "Do you want me to massage your hand too?" Kyungsoo hears Chanyeol ask faintly.

Just when his neck muscles were about to make him nod like an innocent kid to the taller, his doorknob had twisted and turned then viola, pasta ala Kim Junmyeon is now served.

"Hey here's your Fifty Shades, I need to return and run-" Junmyeon ceased abruptly and coughed. That kind of signaled Chanyeol's sleeveless arms to flop down helplessy beside his torso and sent Kyungsoo blushing too much to his own liking. "Junmyeon," Kyungsoo gulped.

The elder laughed it off casually, "I see you two are getting handsy-handsy nowadays, huh," he joked. This leads to nothing but Chanyeol's utter state of over-redness. "Chill guys," Junmyeon chuckles again.

Way far from embarrassed, Kyungsoo didn't know what he should be flushed about: the massage or the book being returned. Or preferably both, yeah.

Chanyeol cleared his throat, "I-I'll go get some water, you go get your book, 'kay?" And Kyungsoo nods to this because why the not, he wanted to jump off a cliff at this moment. Alone time was more precious than gold right now. He nods and Chanyeol scurries hurriedly to their kitchen, flip flops hitting the floor and limbs swinging to and fro like a kid running from an angry mother who's about to spank him.

"Hello," Kyungsoo finally retorts back to Junmyeon.

"What hello?" Junmyeon gave a rather confused face to him, so his shoulders slumped. "Junmyeon," Kyungsoo started.

Feeling uneasy, he gestured for them to sit on the dining table but Junmyeon shook his head and put the book on the table instead, "Just here to bring this back to your library," he taps Kyungsoo's arm.

"Gotta go, I have philosophy with that cute Chinese guy from Vanc," he says before turning his back on the younger and headed towards the door. All Kyungsoo did was gawk at him and become an awkward turtle in front of a ten year long friend.

Junmyeon smiles at him before slipping out, "Bye, oh by the way," his smile turns into a nasty teasing one, "the book has surprises inside." Kyungsoo nods in confirmation before seeing the door close and not open again.

He thins his eyes at the book before opening it till the preface, and that's only how far he could go since it was a ographic genre of literature and a silent "oh" escapes his mouth. There inserted was Junmyeon's house key, well, Junmyeon's copy of his house key to be exact.

A key that Junmyeon swore to protect since the day Kyungsoo had moved out from Gyeonggi, in his parents' house. It was a valuable everyday item that Junmyeon pledged to never give back until the most extreme of circumstances surface. His words echoed inside Kyungsoo's mind.

"Not until you move out, obviously," Junmyeon says with a cocky tone and Baekhyun clicks his tongue, "or when you get kicked out for not paying the rent."

Their guardian continued, "Not until you get called back to your house," he took a asip of his frappe, "or possibly, when I don't need it because-

"You have a boyfriend," Baekhyun chuckled with eyes turning into crescents. "When you find a partner because Junmyeon wouldn't want to, you know," he hinted.

"I don't want to walk into one of your non-existent 'moments', Kyungsoo," Junmyeon shook his head, "that would not do."

Kyungsoo gets flustered as he grips the key on his palms, the baby blue key chain dangling in between his fingers. Anything, if there was anything around that he could distract himself with, he needed that. Abandoning the book on the table, Kyungsoo dashes for the restroom and locks the door with a loud and hurried click.

"Kyungsoo," Chanyeol stopped suddenly when the person he was looking for was nowhere in sight. The need to run to the kitchen earlier wasn't because of Kyungsoo's friend or the Fifty Shades book being returned – but he kept a mental note to ask Kyungsoo about that – instead because of his hands on his skin, that seemed to be scalding hot under his touch.

As much as Chanyeol didn't want to admit it, he's getting caught up in each and every moment with Kyungsoo since the night he first moved in. Something bugged his mind, and possibly his heart too because Kyungsoo seemed so close yet so far. He was so confusing at times, saying yes then saying no. The giddy feelings didn't help Chanyeol figure him out at all.

Complicated simpleton, yeah, but still. Kyungsoo's one of those huge diaries with a padlock on the cover just to seal it from opening so easily. And Chanyeol always has a hard time prying that book open, it was so hard to read him.

Every time, it's a mental battle for Chanyeol and he felt it was similar for Kyungsoo too. Like earlier, when his cold palms pressed on Kyungsoo's burning skin despite the low airconditioner temperature filling the room, the younger's eyes looked panicked but his body was relaxed. They were both hesitant, Chanyeol thinks and realizes that maybe, it's hard to cope with the feelings because they're both scared of what will happen.

Slouching on the carpet with his head on the couch pillow, he heaves a sigh and closes his eyes. Was he possibly, like, he doesn't know, falling?

Falling as in, falling for a person? Or maybe it was his hormones acting up on him, he doesnt really know. Chanyeol's an adult now, he had to think like one but not act like one – pretty much his life motto. A little fun in life was good, and love is fun, but you can't play around with it. It's like a person's heart.

"I'm in ing university," he says to himself with a groan from his chest. It was always the same when he starts getting attracted to someone. What in Luhan's name was Chanyeol so stressed about?

It was his heart.

The way it raced, thumped on his chest or whatever thing the heart does when you think you're attracted to the person across the room. When he was holding Kyungsoo's shoulders, he did nothing but stare at his side profile. How his eyes blinked and how his breathing changed. Chanyeol absorbed the small details like how he did in games. That deed only came to actualization on things he loved, but now he thinks the case it totally outlandish and different. It acted on people now, too. In particular, Do Kyungsoo.

"Are you okay?" Chanyeol asks through the door, slightly banging on it.

After composing his hormones, calming his heart and easing his mind, Chanyeol stood up and searched for Kyungsoo's safe place: the restroom. It was quiet and cozy with the warm yellow lighting and the lavander scent diffusing inside the small space of comfort.

If he calculated right, Kyungsoo's locked up inside there for half an hour.

He hears a faint, "Yeah," before a thump resounds inside the room.

Chanyeol panicks and places his ear on the door, eyes bulging in horror, "Kyungsoo, open this!" He shouts loudly.

With a long click, the taller's sent back a few steps away before a red-eared, and still flushed Kyungsoo stumbles out into the open. Chanyeol breathes out his worries, "Are you okay?"

Gulping with huge doe eyes, Kyungsoo nods slowly and tries to look anywhere but at Chanyeol and those eyes. Those eyes that take him farther into them, draw them deeper within them. The eyes that he gets lost seeing and staring at, and its owner – its owner that captivates him so much.

Obviously feeling Kyungsoo's nervousness again, Chanyeol scratches the back of his neck before a genuinely beautiful grin streches on his lips and he laughs softly.

Kyungsoo's pulse quickens. He knew all too well that he disliked it when Chanyeol laughed or smiled, since it always seemed that to him everything was a joke. But this smile that played on his lips – it was different. Bright but not blinding, genuine and carefree. He looked so...handsome.

"Uhm," Kyungsoo finally says with hot reddened cheeks, "uhm," he repeats.

Chanyeol doesn't stop smiling and instead taps his arm lightly. "It's okay," he mutters with a gentle tone, "you don't have to force yourself out of your comfort zone for me."

He realized he was holding his breath when Chanyeol's hand touched him again. Turning his glance sideways, he takes in the information a little too late because Chanyeol's wife-beater clad chest met his head, and his arms engulfed him completely in a cozy hug.

"I'm sorry for taking it too far, or," Chanyeol chuckles and Kyungsoo's cheeks colourise back to life, "whatever it is that I did earlier." The vibrations in his chest traveled from his ears to down his spine, making him shiver with anxiety and other feelings he can't seem to figure out.

One of Chanyeol's hands grasped his waist tightly, as if he didn't want to let him go. Surprisingly too, Kyungsoo didn't.

Was this called progress? Kyungsoo was clueless, but Chanyeol turned hot and became bothered exactly when Kyungsoo mumbled a small "Thank you, Chanyeol," on his chest whilst giving him a light squeeze.

Not to mention the bona fide grin that lingered on his lips— that Chanyeol liked too much.