"So there's this girl," is the first thing that pops out of Wu Fan's mouth after unceremoniously throwing himself on Chanyeol's bed.

Chanyeol, who's more than used to his best friend's dramatics at ungodly hours of the day (he's probably the only person who's managed to tolerate seven years worth of 3 AM phone calls without killing himself), doesn't bat an eyelash or turn away from his laptop. He's got a paper due in four hours and no one is getting in the way of that A+.

"Get out," he greets Wu Fan, because that's really the only way to greet Wu Fan when he comes stumbling into your dorm room at 4 o'clock in the morning still wearing the clothes he had on yesterday and reeking of soju. "Later. Twelve hours. Paper. Professor Byun."

"Ah," Wu Fan replies. He may be drunk but he's not drunk enough to miss that Chanyeol's re-writing the paper he's been working on for the past two weeks for Professor Byun's class and he needs to come back in twelve hours if he wants Chanyeol's undivided attention for whatever crazy new story he's about to share.

Of course, because sober Wu Fan is an inconsiderate and alcohol multiplies that -ness by at least two-digit exponents, he doesn't get up from Chanyeol's bed and proceeds with his story.

"Chanyeol, Yeol, Yeollie, there's this girl," Wu Fan insists, capping off the broken sentence with a pathetic hiccup. "She drives me crazy, I just can't sleep."

Chanyeol sighs. He really doesn't know what he did in his past life to deserve idiotic best friends and insanely hot, seriously-out-of-his-league professors.

"Beginning a story with a Britney Spears reference doesn't make me any less inclined to hear it, you know," Chanyeol grumbles.

"But you love Britney Spears," Wu Fan whines unapologetically. Chanyeol doesn't try to deny it as much as his awkward 13-year-old self would have back in middle school when Wu Fan had caught dancing to Britney Spears in the music room.

"I listen to her songs occasionally," Chanyeol says and if he sounds just a teeny tiny bit defensive that's certainly not because he still has all of Britney Spears' hits memorized by heart. "I also know stories that begin with lyrics from her songs are doomed for tragedy," 

"You really think so?" Wu Fan asks, sounding so unsure of himself that Chanyeol throws him a glance over his shoulder.

Chanyeol may not know what this is all about but he does know his best friend's the kind of selfish douchebag who rarely questions his choices once he's made up his mind. Translated means Wu Fan's having a meltdown which translated means whoever this chick is, she must be crazy hot. Because his best friend's questioning the one thing he's always been most confident about: himself.

"I might be incredibly smart but I still haven't figured out how to foretell the future," Chanyeol says when Wu Fan turns to him with a kicked-puppy look he must've learned from his younger brother Zitao. Chanyeol sighs. He just knows he's going to get another C (the horror) tomorrow when he turns his swivel chair to face Wu Fan. "Before you go and hop into I've-been-dumped-by-the-love-of-my-life train, question. Have you even told her about this?"

He crosses his arms and attempts to imitate his mother's favorite expression, the one that says bull is invalid and will therefore be ignored.

"Yes," Wu Fan says, unmoving.

Chanyeol counts up to six before he groans and tries not to strangle the big lump of stupidity lying on his bed. "And?"

"She doesn't believe me," Wu Fan sighs, sounding like he's one shot of soju away from sobbing like a middle school girl in a One Direction concert.

Well, this is unexpected.

"Why the hell not?" Chanyeol asks, taken aback, and this time it's not sarcastic. 

Wu Fan sits up, despair painted on his face. That's not Chanyeol's edited description for extra dramatic factor, it's actually really that bad. 

"Yeol, I think I did it again."

Chanyeol tries not to throw a book at him. "Will you please stop with the Britney Spears references? Jesus Christ, it's four in the ing morning and Byun Baekhyun is going to crush me like little insignificant bug if I don't produce a ridiculously perfect paper on 18th century classical music tropes in four hours, do you have any idea how complicated my life is--"

"It's Yixing," Wu Fan stutters and the two words effectively halts Chanyeol's maniacal tirade and has his stomach dropping faster than Jongin's jaw every time he sees Kyungsoo. He almost falls off his chair but manages to slump against its back weakly instead.

He hasn't heard that name in three years, it's been a taboo to even mention the name between the two of them since their high school graduation, and even if the picture's a little bit hazy now, it still makes Chanyeol feel like he's eaten raw fish for lunch and his stomach doesn't quite know how to react to it.

"Th-that Y-yixing?" He can't even say the name without stumbling all over the two syllables but Wu Fan's the last person who'd judge him for it. No, he's probably the only person who wouldn't judge him for it.

Even wthout the acknowledging nod Chanyeol can tell it's really that Yixing just by the look in Wu Fan's eyes.

In fact, Wu Fan looks just about as nervous as Chanyeol feels and that never happens. Ever. 

God, it's 12th grade all over again.

Chanyeol turns to stare at the listless, white glare of his laptop, at his half-finished, supposed-to-be masterpiece on Mozart tropes and remembers the girl who may have, at one point, made him sing along to Air Supply and ruined his life. Remembers Wu Fan, stupid Wu Fan's heartbroken face on the day of their high school graduation that still haunts his nightmares sometimes. 

The absolute worst.

"Dammit, Wu Fan."