Their relationship’s always been like that — small touches, embarrassed chuckles; flushing cheeks, stuttering lips — but it’s awfully warm and comfortable and they wouldn’t have requested for anything more.



…



“Listen to me Park. You’ve got to bring your game up, spice your relationship up a little.” Tablemate Jongin demands during Algebra, teeth gnawing at the ends of the already chapped pencil. 

Chanyeol takes a glance across the room to where Baekhyun is, studiously taking down notes. Baekhyun’s head turns around slightly and catches Chanyeol’s eyes, giving him a small shy smile before turning his attention back to the board scribbled with algebraic expressions. Chanyeol sighs dreamily in reply.

“Your relationship has become so still that I believe you can breed dengue mosquitoes in there. It’s only holding hands and whatnots, don’t you desire for something more?” Jongin furrows his brows slightly at Chanyeol’s lack of response. He cups his friend’s babyface, eyes staring so deep into his soul that Chanyeol could almost feel it piercing through before taking a deep breath before letting it out and continuing his sentence like he was talking to an elementary schoolkid. “Don’t you think he wants a little something more?” 

A thought of how Jongin even manages to get such excellent results without listening in class briefly flashes pass Chanyeol’s mind as he shakes Jongin’s hands away before he suddenly gets to thinking. Don’t you think he wants a little something more?



…



The question bugs Chanyeol for the whole day after Jongin brings it out. Chanyeol curses Jongin when he sleeps with the question haunting him relentlessly. Don’t you think he deserves a little something more?

“Well yes, yes he does.” He calls Jongin at the crack of dawn and is redirected to the voicemail. Then he calls again and gets redirected to the voicemail again.

The cycle repeats until Jongin finally picks up his phone and grumbles into it, “the do you want.” 

“Give me tips on how to move on, y’know, like kiss him.”

“Twenty-one missed calls and you ask me .”

“Well, you were the one who gave me the question which kept me tossing and turning about the whole night so—“ 

“Yeol shut up I want to sleep.” 

Chanyeol does his puppy eyes and sticks out his bottom lips before he realizes the fact that Jongin isn’t even there to look at him. Jongin must have felt either guilty or sorry because he continues after the pause, “You press both your lips together,” or maybe neither. 

Jongin hangs up on Chanyeol after that and switches his phone off, leaving him mopey and dejected like a kicked puppy.

Chanyeol then googles on “How to initiate a kiss.”



…



“Can you come over now?” The little fidgeting Chanyeol makes could still be heard despite the deep voice. 

It wasn’t the first time Chanyeol asks him out, but when it was going over to his house, homework was usually the culprit. “Is there anything wrong?”  Baekhyun replies, concern evident in his voice. 

“I…I just wanted to see you.” Baekhyun could hear the voice reducing to a soft mumble. He could imagine Chanyeol smiling at him bashfully as he waits for his reply.

And Baekhyun replies with cheeks heating up to a deep shade of tomato red, trying to hold back his stupid stutters. “Ah o-okay.” Badum badum. His heart palpitates wildly against his ribcage as butterflies bloom in his stomach. 

He places a hand to his chest where his heart lay, fluttering his eyelids closed and taking deep breaths, in. out, in out because if he doesn’t, his heart might just burst. He might just melt into a puddle under the heat of shyness coursing through his whole body



…



When Chanyeol’s lookalike noona, Yura opens the doors, a flustered Baekhyun greets her. “Hi I… Chanyeol…” Baekhyun’s tongue breaks down on him into incoherent nonsense and he mentally wails desperately for Brain and Tongue nerves to keep your together. 

“Noona stop staring. You’re scary.” Chanyeol interrupts, saving Baekhyun from his cute blunder like a knight in shining armour. Except well, he was donning adorable yellow giraffe patterned pajamas and his hair looks like a bird had made a nest out of it.

Yura rolls her eyes and retreats to her room, leaving Baekhyun together with Chanyeol. Chanyeol could see the bubbles of happiness in Baekhyun’s mirthful smile and his crinkling eyes.

It makes Chanyeol muster up a little more of his courage because Baekhyun definitely deserves more. You can do it, yeol. 

Chanyeol leads their way to his room, fingers interlaced with Baekhyun’s, where a red box of peppero lies harmlessly on the soft bed. Both of them sits on the bed, beginning to settle into an awkward silence when Chanyeol decides to take a deep breath and ask “C-can we play the um… peppero game?”

It doesn’t come out as cool as he had practiced, and he winces a little at the thought of rejection. But when Baekhyun gives a little nod, his thoughts all fly out of the opened windows. 

He could almost hear angels singing.



…



Their breaths are intermingled; Chanyeol’s back bend slightly so that they could be of the same height. Their heads tilt forward with the shortening peppero stick between their lips. Closer, closer, their heartbeats rise. Chanyeol could feel it, Baekhyun’s ragged breath and the faint scent of chocolate and almonds. 

And then just before their lips touch, the small bump of their noses ruins it all. 

Chanyeol winces mentally as they both burst into embarrassed chuckles and the short piece of biscuit falls onto the bed. First attmpt was a failure, keep your nose out of the way. Meanwhile, keep yourself buried beneath the ashes of hell because you definitely deserve it. 

But the phrase Baekhyun deserves more pushes him forward again and he finds himself staring into Baekhyun’s pretty brown orbs and the words “let’s do it again” rolling off his tongue.

Baekhyun nods with his rosy pink cheeks and picks another chocolate-coated peppero stick out while popping the short fallen one into his mouth and Chanyeol gets the impression that Baekhyun might secretly be more interested in eating pepperos than playing the game.

They shift slightly, readjusting themselves into a comfortable position and placing each ends of the biscuit stick into their mouths. Chanyeol stays tied between thinking whether it was Baekhyun who has picked up his nibbling speed or it was just his running thoughts. 

Their breaths are intermingled again; Baekhyun’s eyes are softly closed and it takes Chanyeol’s breath away to look at him at such close proximity, short lashes countable. Baekhyun leaves a little space to let Chanyeol do the rest of the nibbling and their heartbeats rise again. Just a little more.

Chanyeol could feel Baekhyun’s enticing pink lips centimeters away from his own and he could hear the blood pulsing through his ears. He wills himself to advance forward but somehow, their noses are already nuzzled side-by-side and he still stays paralyzed and unmoving.

Chanyeol gives himself a smack mentally after he bites down on the biscuit and the small crumb fall off, Baekhyun’s lips untouched. 

Baekhyun giggles music again despite his failed attempt to kiss, and it makes Chanyeol feel like he had snatched a lollipop away from a child forcefully, he wanted to only bury his head into the floor as he wallows in shame. Coward Park Chanyeol. You, are a coward.



…



“So, first kiss?” Kyungsoo chirps, an arm slung over Baekhyun’s shoulders as he asks about his best friend’s relationship’s progress. Kyungsoo had heard about Chanyeol’s peppero game from Jongin, and damn that Jongin because he refused to tell him any more after “Chanyeol’s gonna play peppero with Baekhyun.”

The stumped look on Baekhyun’s face as Kyungsoo stared at him with his intensely widening eyes makes Kyungsoo groan. “Really Baekkie?” 

Baekhyun’s eyes drift downwards and he dedicates himself to staring a hole in the ground. It had been perfect like that, nothing more had been needed. His teeth tugs at his lower lips as Kyungsoo follows up with his strong objection to their slow progress.

Sometimes Baekhyun wonders how he even became acquainted with someone with such opposing opinions. 

“… and he probably chickened out because he was too scared.” 

Baekhyun could feel his cheeks heating up all over again at the memory and he barely mutters a soft, “it’s not… It’s not like that…” in weak denial.

“Oh really?” Kyungsoo replies disbelievingly in mock sarcasm, enunciating the letters ‘e’ and ‘a’ in ‘really’. 

Baekhyun’s red on his cheeks breaks the redness scale as he blushes more. 

“You know, you should do something to tip him over. I believe a little nudge would be needed to get your kiss.” Kyungsoo goes on; mind swirling with thoughts and completely ignoring Baekhyun’s widened eyes and beginning protests.

“I don’t need the kiss, we are perfect like that, really.” 

Kyungsoo takes a glance at Baekhyun’s flailing hands and insistently shaking head and he gets the urge to smack him shut. An impich smile makes his way to his lips, “Ah, you don’t need it, but you want it, don’t you?” 

The silence that comes after along with Baekhyun’s eyes casting down again and his foot shuffling from left to right and right to left says it all.

With a victorious look in Kyungsoo’s eyes, he links his arms with Baekhyun’s, pulling Baekhyun’s fiddling fingers apart and dragging him off, “Let’s get a nudge.”



…



Chanyeol brisk walks towards their usual spot to wait for the train station. It’s been days and he missed Baekhyun pretty (really) much. He looks at his wristwatch and a little frown appears. 

It’s already 11am and Baekhyun’s always early. Chanyeol swipes over the bright screen of his phone, waiting for any incoming text messages or calls to inform him of Baekhyun being sick when he spots a breathtakingly familiar male from the corner of his eyes.

Baekhyun was jogging up to him except— except something was different and Chanyeol couldn’t put his finger to the different. Then the head of mussed up magenta and perfectly smudged kohl eyeliner strikes him, s his thoughts up and makes him go damn. 

Baekhyun looks infinitely ier than usual, not that he was complaining because Chanyeol would very well die in contentment. 

“Hi,” Baekhyun greets him. His voice as soft and gentle as usual and Chanyeol could almost imagine how heaven feels like before he manages a stutter, “H-hello.”

Chanyeol’s heart is thumping at a hundred miles per hour and he falls in love all over again. Baekhyun looks really, really, really beautiful, more than anyone he had ever laid his eyes on. Eyeliners are sinful substances on Baekhyun, he decides that moment.

“You look beautiful.” Chanyeol blurts out his thoughts involuntarily. Baekhyun blushes to the tip of his ears again and Chanyeol corrects himself immediately. “I mean – uh handsome, yea, handsome.” He then mutters to himself that Baekhyun is handsome in fake affirmation because Baekhyun really is beautiful and he couldn’t seem to convince himself out of that.

Baekhyun lets out a tinkling giggle when the train arrives with the loud whistle that covers up Baekhyun’s voice. Chanyeol narrows his eyes at the rude interruption by the long vehicle and mutters a curse to it under his breath.

The crowd of passengers shuffles past him before he hears the familiar monotonous, “train doors are closing”. He hurries himself in, hands unconsciously reaching out for Baekhyun’s and pulling him in along. Boy, was the train crowded. 

They find themselves shoved into the back of the train, Baekhyun’s face flushed against his chest, slim fingers fitting against his own perfectly and the heat which he thinks was probably not due to the stuffiness of the train but their intimate position.

Chanyeol takes a whiff of Baekhyun’s chocolate scented hair, and shuts his eye, memorizing the scent as Baekhyun scent. His heartbeat increases again at the thought of chocolate-coated peppero sticks held between Baekhyun’s pursed lips and he desperately hopes Baekhyun wouldn’t hear the heartbeat that he himself could loudly in his ears.

It isn’t until Baekhyun tilts his head up at him shyly, hesitantly and from his pocket, he takes out a familiar red peppero box. “Peppero game?” His cheeks were once again flushing adorably and Chanyeol couldn’t seem to get enough of his shyness.



…



“I like you.”

“I don’t mean it in the friend kind.”

Nervous biting of lips and fiddling of the hems of his shirt. 

“Be my boyfriend?”

It was supposed to be more romantic than he thought, perhaps a little more flowers or cheesiness and chocolates. Little melodies sung by the birds filled the background as Baekhyun’s head goes in a slow down-up-down motion. 

He swore his heart almost burst.



… 



Just like then, his heart is breaking down, not apart, but it seems like his whole circulatory and respiratory systems are giving up on him. He willingly let his breath get stolen by the breathtaking male opposite him.

They move closer, along with their telling heartbeats, a sigh escapes from Baekhyun’s lips and he giggles softly in embarrassment. Baekhyun’s cheeks color and they turn tantalizingly red. . Chanyeol mutters in his head. Closer than ever. Their lips seemed so much closer than ever, but um, just a little bit more. I want to, hey, just for a little bit more.

Just like that, the peppero stick disappears. Just like that, Chanyeol finally catches Baekhyun’s lips in a kiss in their peppero game. Their hearbeats overlap and tie together the time of their first love. 

Baekhyun’s lips mold perfectly against his own, soft and smoother than he had ever imagined them to be. Chanyeol presses into the kiss, conveying silent messages of “I love you”s. 



… 


“I guess you managed to move forward after all, huh?” 

Baekhyun nods shyly, his hands clasping tight around Chanyeol’s and trying to control the smile from overtaking his whole face as he stares up at Chanyeol’s eyes. Chanyeol pulls him in for a chaste kiss.

“Gross.”