Baekhyun comes out of the bathroom, refreshed and vanilla-scented, folding and placing his towel carefully on the small secretaire which serves as auxiliary furnishing on the side of the room, even though it must have cost a small fortune, with its finely polished wood and carved adornments. Baekhyun frowns thoughtfully, comparing it to his own furniture at home, which are not bad on any account but they are definitely not in the same league as this piece of vintage beauty in front of him. Suho is indeed too rich and Baekhyun is not used to it.

He turns around, just as Chanyeol ends the call he had been making –work related, would be Baekhyun’s guess, because Chanyeol sounded a lot like Kyungsoo when he’s talking money with their clients, in the distinct way people have such conversations. Baekhyun wasn’t paying particular attention on the words that slipped through the cracks of the bathroom door though, finding an unexpected, soothing and lulling quality in the humming baritone of Chanyeol’s voice mingling with the warm water of the shower, and focusing on that instead of minding the content of Chanyeol’s conversation; he was raised to be a discrete gentleman after all, and, even though Chen calls it ‘accidentally decoding auditory frequencies’, Baekhyun still calls it eavesdropping and he refrains from it.

Chanyeol leaves his phone on the bedside table after clicking a few more things in it with a troubled look. It is strange to think that the man who cannot escape his work and his copious amounts of burdening responsibilities, not even for two days, is also the man who is sitting on the bed right now, with his hair slightly tussled, looking childish despite his height, the man who has been smiling so heartily with his many teeth and laughing cheerfully with his booming voice all day. The resilience to life difficulties Chanyeol seems to have makes Baekhyun feel guilty for every morning of his past that he happened to wake up grumpier in the prospect of his own life’s difficulties, because his troubles are obviously nowhere near as important. He is definitely going to try to be cheerful on every morning from now on.

Baekhyun hops slowly on the bed, as he assumes he is expected to do, given that he can’t linger on the side of the room for the rest of the night, standing in silence like he plans on growing roots there. He knows that Chanyeol is watching him by now but he chooses to ignore it. This situation is awkward enough as it is and they both know it, evident in the way they are being careful not to disturb the strangely electrified silence between them.

They didn’t voice out any arrangements or ask questions throughout the day; they seem to have made a silent agreement, with just as much uncertainty on both sides, that they will sleep in the same bed tonight, like yesterday night. Assuming that it’s okay with the other and that it’s something somewhat normal for a pair of friends. Yesterday seems to have set the norm –but yesterday was not exactly normal, since Baekhyun was practically asleep when they reached the bed. But he is not asleep now, so all the embarrassment and the awkwardness he should have felt yesterday are coming to haunt him. How on earth will he convince himself to go to sleep, if Chanyeol is sleeping only a few centimeters further from him, under the same covers? This night is going to be torturous, Baekhyun can imagine it.

Almost trembling in embarrassment, Baekhyun crawls higher on the bed silently, praying that he will fall in deep slumber as soon as his head touches the pillow, although he knows that, in truth, he’ll be lucky if he gets a wink of sleep tonight. Chanyeol is still watching him closely and mutely, adding more tint to Baekhyun’s cheeks. He feels very conscious of his actions, even for the most trivial things, like how his pajamas look on him. The silence is AWKWARD, capital letters necessary. And it is just too silent in the room; Baekhyun can hear nothing other than his loud heartbeat, not even his breath or any other noise from outside their room. Baekhyun settles on his side of the bed and pulls the covers gently above his legs –and that seems to have done it for Chanyeol.

“I-I can’t do this! I’ll just sleep on the floor” the taller explodes, jumping out of the bed in an instant. Baekhyun watches him in shock; he didn’t mean to kick Chanyeol out of bed like that –even though what did he expect, with all the unease in the air? He couldn’t help it really, but he still feels guilty.

“No, you don’t have to do that!” he reassures Chanyeol quickly, but his own voice sounds stressed and pitched.

“But it’s no big deal, really! It will be easier, I think. I mean, yesterday we somehow managed to sleep…like that, but today, I feel…I don’t know, I, uh…” Chanyeol looks around flustered, and his cheeks are becoming slightly pink and his lips start jamming together, his fingers playing nervously with the hem of his t-shirt. Baekhyun feels bad for the tall giant who is fidgeting like a child, standing beside the bed, but he also feels very embarrassed and distraught himself.

“Yeah, I know what you mean, I feel the same” Baekhyun relieves him of the stressful obligation to explain anything further -making them blush any further- and then he takes on his business look. This situation needs some professional planning and it will wrap up quickly. “But, we are just being childish. We are both adults, right? Objectively, it will be more efficient if we both sleep on the bed –we both fit here perfectly fine and we can rest equally, avoiding numbness and strains in our sleep. Subjectively, it is not a problem either, because we are not strangers or anything, so we can sleep in peace. So, we should sleep here. I promise to stay on my side of the bed and you will stay on yours, and it will all be over in eight hours or so”

That sounds remotely reasonable. Baekhyun nods in approval at his own words. He doesn’t know where this awkwardness is coming from; maybe it’s Chanyeol’s height or the color of Baekhyun’s pjs, maybe it’s the fact that neither is used to sharing a bed, maybe it’s the film industry’s fault for making this stuff seem like a big deal, maybe it’s something else entirely. But Baekhyun has to be an adult in control of his emotions and he’ll try to be casual and efficient for one night, like Chen would do. Sure, he will startle like a scared bunny at the tiniest of Chanyeol’s stirs, but he won’t let it bother him; yeah, he is going to be efficient.

“Baekhyun, why are you going all business on me all of a sudden?” Chanyeol asks timidly, his eyes wide and quirking one eyebrow. Baekhyun loses all the miniscule amount of confidence in his efficiency skills that he managed to mentally pep-talk himself into, and he cowers, becoming small under the covers.

“Sorry, I thought that’s what we needed” Baekhyun admits sheepishly. It was a thought and it seemed like it had chances of success. But it’s obviously not working. Chanyeol blinks and his forehead shows signs of distress.

“Well, it only makes me think we are both insane, because we don’t make sense, neither objectively nor subjectively, so…maybe I should just sleep on the floor” he rushes through the last part of his sentence as if it’s not important, but Baekhyun startles all the same.

“No!” he squeals, successfully stopping Chanyeol, who looks at him frozen in surprise and wide-eyed. Baekhyun bites his lip in embarrassment, because maybe the squeal was a bit too much; but in Baekhyun’s defense, Chanyeol has been displaying a rather persistent willingness to sleep on the floor, and Baekhyun won’t have that, so he needed something drastic. Baekhyun huffs in frustration; they are making this harder than it needs to be. “I cannot let you sleep on the floor; I will feel guilty for a week after that. So, what if I sle-”

“What you’re about to suggest is not even an option” Chanyeol stops him quickly in an absolute tone, and Baekhyun frowns. Oh, okay, fine. But if Chanyeol doesn’t sleep on the floor to save Baekhyun’s conscience, and if Baekhyun doesn’t sleep on the floor either after Chanyeol’s veto, then what are they supposed to do, besides sleeping together? ‘Sleeping together’? That sounded so wrong, Baekhyun only meant ‘sleep in the same bed’. Right. Yeah. Totally.

Oh dear, his thoughts are starting to travel down uncomfortable and indecent paths, and that just had to happen now. Baekhyun doesn’t dare curse his luck, because he depends on it, and he is not sure he can curse Chanyeol for having nearly perfect male anatomy, but he sure does curse Chen for putting those indecent ideas in his head, by praising Chanyeol’s gorgeousness at the beach and drawing Baekhyun’s attention to things he shouldn’t be paying attention.

“Well, there is no other option then, is there?” Baekhyun pouts, shoving all indecent thoughts out of his mind. Chanyeol hesitates for a moment and then sighs, letting out some tension. He takes a moment to think, evaluating the options. Which are non-existent, as pointed out earlier.

“Okay, so, let’s just…try this” he mumbles in the end, a rosy color creeping back on his cheeks as he motions vaguely to the bed. Oh, sweet reason. Oh, dammed luck. He slides under the covers again and Baekhyun, besides the comeback of the amazing awkwardness, feels happy, as if he won the argument –even though the outcome is pretty self-destructive for him, so you can’t really call that winning.

Chanyeol flicks off the grand lights of the room and only the bedside lamps give off some light in the darkness. Baekhyun compares his length to Chanyeol’s carefully distanced length under the covers and he starts worrying his lower lip. The light is more than enough to see each other, but only with the corners of their eyes, because they both prefer to stare at the sea in the darkness outside the window, avoiding each other by all means. They are both stiff, to the point of feeling slightly sick and nowhere near sleepy, opting to sit silently for a while. Baekhyun hates it, he really does. Chanyeol is awkward sometimes, but in his own cute way that Baekhyun adores; this just doesn’t feel right. If they weren’t following an unspoken law of silence, Baekhyun would whimper in frustration. Why can’t they just be normal people? Baekhyun’s shoulders are starting to ache from the tension and he doesn’t even dare roll them for relief.

“Baek?” Chanyeol sighs at some point, and Baekhyun can tell that he is not enjoying this any more than he does. Who would? He turns to the taller very willingly, relieved that the silence has been broken and hoping for a solution which will magically appear and save them from dark circles. “I know this is really weird, but…do you think we can act normally, like we usually do? Because I don’t think this is normal. It feels wrong and…it felt like I didn’t know you one moment ago, and it creeped me out” Baekhyun smiles a little at Chanyeol’s childish, horrified expression.

“I thought you’d never ask” he agrees, relief obvious in his voice, receiving a wide smile from Chanyeol.

Without sharing a word and yet being perfectly in synch, they both squirm under the covers with mischievous smiles, until the comforter is covering their heads. They hold the light material slightly raised above them with their arms, creating a small sort of tent, so that they can see each other clearly and breathe without the blanket on their faces. The light from the bedside is piercing through the covers, giving a very clear view of each other under the comforter, and Baekhyun smiles, turning on his side to look at Chanyeol, just like Chanyeol is turned across from him. It feels like they are kids, plotting in the darkness of their room to steal the cookies tomorrow morning. This feels more right to Baekhyun; childish, innocent, carefree, fun.

“So this is our normal, huh?” Chanyeol asks in a whisper, an amused smile tugging at his lips. Baekhyun shrugs his shoulders with a smile and tries to engrave this sweet memory in his brain to remember; how the sheets feel cool under his skin, how the comforter is very light above him, how the air is stuffier but in a good way under the covers, how the light plays with the shadows on Chanyeol’s angelic features, how his eyes twinkle and his hair brushes on his forehead.

“There are many different ways to be normal” Baekhyun whispers back with a smile, and it really does feel like mischievous kids plotting, hushed and secret from the rest of the world. Chanyeol smiles and nods vigorously in agreement, looking childish. They gaze at each other in quiet for a while, but it is not awkward like before, it is comfortable; Baekhyun gets curious about Chanyeol’s thoughts because the glimmer prettily in his caramel eyes.

“Baek? I don’t think I can sleep” Chanyeol admits in a whisper after a while. His eyebrows tangle in confusion, proceeding to create a cute pout. Baekhyun hums in thought, realizing that he should also be asleep by now but he doesn’t even feel tired, no matter how many hours he spent playing at the beach all day and despite the fact that sharing the bed with Chanyeol doesn’t feel strange anymore.

“Me neither” he says, smiling with a strange sense of endearment in his chest and shrugging his shoulders, indicating that he doesn’t know the answer to their problem.

“What should we do?” Chanyeol’s eyes open wide innocently and Baekhyun suddenly has to hold back an urge to pinch the taller’s nose. “What do you usually do when you can’t sleep?” Chanyeol asks to fill the silence, but also seeming genuinely interested on the topic.

“Thinking, I guess” Baekhyun knows his answer is nothing spectacular but he keeps the conversation going just for the sake of it. “I can’t blank my thoughts” he sighs in defeat. After twenty-something years of existence, he has found out that keeping the reins of his thoughts or chasing them out of his head are not possible solutions for his occasional insomnia, which feeds off of this very weakness of him during the wee hours.

“What do you usually think about?” Chanyeol whispers, blinking lazily with a hint of a smile at the corners of his lips. Baekhyun stops breathing for a moment and his eyes open in surprise, half-thinking ahead at the monologue he has been requested and how to avoid it, hoping for now that he is not blushing, although he probably is, but thankfully the light is not bright enough to give away his fluster from being the centre of attention. It feels like he is getting more attention than he thinks he deserves from Chanyeol and that makes his heart jumpy.

“That would be pretty boring for you, Chanyeol” he warns, hoping they will drop the subject. Baekhyun never claimed to be the most interesting person on the planet, let alone his lullaby ideas, which he is most definitely not ready to share. He squirms and wiggles a little in embarrassment and peeks with the side of his eye, his hot, red face planted in the pillow.

“Nothing you say is boring!” Chanyeol retorts, in a low yet audible voice, making Baekhyun blush even deeper for some reason, and he continues honestly “I really like listening to you when you talk. It’s different and somehow…comforting” he says, and Baekhyun imagines that the poor lighting is hiding a faint blush on the giant’s cheeks. Chanyeol reaches over and starts caressing Baekhyun’s forehead, putting back into place all the strands that Baekhyun tussled against the pillow earlier.

They remain looking in each other’s eyes for a while, an unwavering, goodhearted stare of two caramel eyes returned by a hesitant, vulnerable gaze of two chocolate ones. Chanyeol never makes fun of him, he has never let him down and he has given him every reason to trust him, so there is not much Baekhyun can doubt. His blood gradually cools down, trusting Chanyeol like he always does, almost instinctively, and he feels only a little shy due to the prolonged silence. “So, what do you think of the most before you fall asleep?” Chanyeol asks in a deep and low voice, sending slight vibrations on the mattress under Baekhyun’s fingertips, a feeling which makes him feel slightly languid and very comfortable.

“Stories…” his lips mumble, seemingly of their own accord. Chanyeol’s lips twitch with a pleased smile but Baekhyun focuses more on his own thoughts. “Stories of random, fictional people who are not alone”

Baekhyun imagines all the happiness one can possibly find, hoping he will stumble across some of it too, because Baekhyun doesn’t like being alone. Maybe life has not graced him with someone special to be with yet, but he imagines he has someone for him out there. He doesn’t feel particularly deprived, to be honest, and he doesn’t need someone to sacrifice for him or constantly and consciously make an effort to be next to him, he just wants someone to be there when his small self overflows with loneliness and needs a hug, someone to understand him and accept him and tolerate him, someone to piece him back together if he ever breaks. Baekhyun starts drawing patterns on the sheets and he watches his fingers as they scratch on the soft material. Chanyeol’s fingers join him with his incoherent drawings soon after.

“I see a poetic hidden side of you” he observes playfully, and all of Baekhyun’s anxiety dissolves inside him, and every splintering fragment of lonesome memories melts softly, at the sound of the velvet voice and the sight of a small smile. Baekhyun turns on his back and closes his eyes, not minding the sheet over his nose.

“No” he says softly. I just have lonely moments. “Sometimes it’s about love and brilliant fireworks, spectacularly romantic gestures –brutally commercialized in movies and books and yet still surviving with fragments of dignity. It can be fun, getting lost in the rose spectrum of the rainbow, with diamond rings and bouquets of roses, like in old Hollywood movies. Sometimes it’s about companionship, a subtle kind of affection you find in silence, spending your life dedicating your existence to another person. It’s easy to forget those softer hues in life, those morning-lit smiles, those lingering looks, the strength and inspiration you find in the resonance of the other’s voice. Sometimes it’s about hurt and loss and hatred, bitterness and torn promises, trapped feelings that turn poisonous and ruin any kind of relationship, be it friends or family or lovers. It doesn’t hurt any less, if you’ve truly loved them”

Baekhyun closes his lips and gets completely lost in the world behind his eyelids, where familiar figures from previous sleepless nights and faceless figures of the future are shaping their stories of friendship and love and breakup, across the world and across time, as far as his imagination can take him. Chanyeol keeps silent, respecting Baekhyun’s reverie. Baekhyun tries not to think about how much of himself he has just exposed to Chanyeol, because that would undoubtedly make him want to hide in a corner and die. His ideas never were cool, or impressive, or sophisticated; instead he has been pretty boring and mushy all his life. But that never seems to disappoint Chanyeol; he has a way of accepting all the quirky details of Baekhyun’s existence.

“Those are sad” Chanyeol breaks the silence then, in a voice that empathizes. He lifts the sheet from Baekhyun’s face, holding it attentively above their heads for both of them, so that even Baekhyun can breathe more comfortably. Baekhyun turns his head to the side and gives a small smile to Chanyeol’s slightly troubled eyes.

“Sometimes I’m sad” he whispers, feeling small. It’s hard to keep planning imaginary happy endings when you feel sad. Chanyeol smiles at him comfortingly, and Baekhyun is starting to believe that no matter what, this smile will always make him feel better. Gazing at Chanyeol’s gleaming eyes, Baekhyun thinks he has found a wonderful person. Chanyeol is the only one who cares so effortlessly about Baekhyun; sure, he has friends, but none of them is like Chanyeol. Chanyeol is the one to make him feel safe and protected and peaceful, he makes him feel sunny and precious with everything he does. They are not completely normal sometimes, but when they are the least normal Baekhyun feels the greatest. He turns on his side again, facing Chanyeol and taking over the task of holding the blanket above their heads. “So, what do you do when you can’t sleep?” he chirps with interest. Chanyeol blinks, looking taken aback, and then smiles nervously.

“It doesn’t happen often, but…Have you ever started counting your favorite things in the world, and before you even get to ten, you have fallen asleep without realizing?” he says and then chuckles shyly, joined by Baekhyun. Baekhyun is sure that Chanyeol’s method wouldn’t work for his overly-active mind, but it’s a cute, childishly innocent way to go to sleep. Chanyeol whines in embarrassment and half-hides behind his pillow. “I just killed all the romance” he mumbles, and they both laugh again, softly.

“Romantics are not what people think anyway” Baekhyun reassures him, patting his arm in encouragement. Chanyeol quirks an eyebrow questioningly and Baekhyun continues to explain. “If you tell people that you are a romantic, they all think you like long walks at the beach, sunsets, roses, expensive dinners, knightly gestures and long poems about love ever after. And that you are searching for the perfect person on earth to be your other half, that you will never fight and that you will always live in a pink, superior, perfect bubble. And that it all starts spectacularly, with a loud heart and rainbows or stars, and that the other person saves you in distress, or crushes in your life like a comet, or he knows you better than yourself. But no, not really.

“If I am a romantic, my kind of romance is somewhere where other people cannot always see. It is small gestures, details, however common or not, it is moments. You need effort to see it. It is not only flowers and sunshine, it’s also darkness and fighting, it’s boring times and simple staring in silence. It is the sort of love you know is there; you don’t need to see it, hear it, feel it, you just know. And knowing is so beautiful. When you realize its existence, it is always surprising and sweet. I don’t need someone to open the door for me, if I know I am always welcomed inside. I don’t need kisses in the rain and serenades; I want to live a regular life and do normal things with that person. And there will be ‘oh’ moments, when I realize that ‘this person really loves me’, no matter where we are or what we are doing”

Baekhyun realizes with a start that he has been speaking for longer than he should and that he is saying far more than he should. He glances worriedly at Chanyeol, scared of what his reaction might be after Baekhyun has essentially paved the way to his heart for whomever is interested; he should really start minding his surroundings, no matter how easy it feels to open up to Chanyeol, because, at the end of the day, he’s probably completely indifferent to those things that Baekhyun has been making him listen to.

“I sound so complicated; no wonder I’m single, right? I’m making my life unnecessarily difficult” Baekhyun tries to joke, to lighten the heavy atmosphere he has created, and he forces a nervous, awkward laugh out of his lips. There is a small pause between them and Baekhyun watches Chanyeol, who stares steadily back at him. His expression is soft and his eyes twinkle adorably in the faint light. He looks dazed, or better, fascinated. But Baekhyun can’t read minds, so he cannot be sure. Maybe he is just bored out of his mind or sleeping with his eyes open. He feels embarrassment and dread mingling with his panic with every passing heartbeat, but then.

“You just think differently; I like that.” Chanyeol says seriously, with a small frown marring his pretty features. The blood that was drained from Baekhyun’s face a few moments earlier now returns, rushing back under his cheeks as Chanyeol continues. “Baekhyun, you’re a great person; don’t let anyone else or yourself convince you otherwise. And I don’t believe you, if you are trying to tell me that you are just an overrated, ordinary human, who can’t stand himself as a bad person and who has a very active imagination” Chanyeol pouts adorably and Baekhyun reflexively smiles at the sight.

“Why not?” he dares, teasing the taller. Chanyeol doesn’t disappoint, pouting even more, like a stubborn child.

“Where’s the magic then?” he answers and Baekhyun chuckles playfully, rolling on his back.

“Interesting…” he muses to himself, still teasing; it is too much of a temptation to resist. He is supposed to be an adult, but sometimes Baekhyun is really childish and mischievous. “Park Chanyeol believes in magic”

“Hey, of course I do!” Chanyeol protests but there is no offence taken in his words, falling into the lighthearted mood. He pokes Baekhyun on his side for revenge, unknowing that Baekhyun is ticklish, and for the first few small touches Baekhyun swallows his laughter. But Chanyeol keeps poking playfully for a reaction and Baekhyun feels the bubbles of laughter rising in his throat. He tries to push it down but this time a strange sound comes out of his nose –it sounds more like a hippo, really. Chanyeol freezes for a moment but Baekhyun breaks out into giggling fits, finding it technically impossible to hold his loud voice inside his chest anymore. Chanyeol seems a bit concerned when Baekhyun chokes on his breath but Baekhyun recovers quickly and Chanyeol flashes a mischievous smile.

Suddenly, Chanyeol attacks Baekhyun again, this time poking him on purpose. Baekhyun releases more and more of his babbling laughter, and he is starting to think that they might wake everyone in the house with their tickle fight, but Chanyeol doesn’t stop, no matter how much Baekhyun halfheartedly pleads in a breathless manner. He’s worried Chanyeol will end up kicked in the gut by accident –Baekhyun will make himself apologize in every language Chanyeol knows, if such thing ever happens. He can’t see through his eyes, scrunched in amusement, his laughing crisis going strong. He can barely breathe right and he feels slightly dizzy, but Chanyeol is laughing too, and he sounds nice when he laughs. They make a mess of the sheets as Baekhyun squirms and kicks uncontrollably, trying to poke back at Chanyeol and keep him away in the same time, convulsing with laughter all the while, as Chanyeol tries to sneak his fingers on him. Baekhyun can’t remember the last time he laughed so much or had someone to play with like this. He doesn’t even remember how this started, but they keep playing until Baekhyun is breathless and tired; Chanyeol is not in a much better shape.

“Okay, okay, I surrender! I surrender!” Baekhyun yelps and Chanyeol draws back, falling flat on his back, out of breath. Baekhyun tries to calm down, giggling every now and then and panting hard. With a content and happy smile still on his lips, he turns to Chanyeol, who looks back at him, completely disheveled and gorgeous. They stay like that for a while, radiating with mirth, regaining their breath which gradually turns into sleepy sighs.

“I feel sleepier now” Chanyeol suggests with a smile, fixing the covers above them to the best of his ability and curling his long legs closer to himself.

“Me too” Baekhyun feels exhausted too, so he won’t argue with that plan. Then, Baekhyun takes Chanyeol’s large hand in his. “It’s to make sure I’m safe” Baekhyun explains to Chanyeol briefly, when the latter looks at him with wide, surprised eyes, which immediately turn into smiling crescents and then close, seeking sleep; Baekhyun blinks a few more times, taking in the sight. He makes it sound as if safety is related to Chanyeol’s tickling attacks earlier, but really, safety is about Chanyeol being there. Baekhyun needs to know that Chanyeol is there.

--

Kai feels calm. It’s unusual but not unpleasant.

His life usually feels like speeding down the fast lane of the highway with open windows; everything is going too fast, the sidelines are blurring, everyone is racing, noise and wind muddling your senses, there is always the thrill of the momentum, an inexplicable urge to laugh because your mind thinks the rush is fun, the margins for mistakes are very small and their impact very large. But it’s not a bad life. You’re never alone, never bored, never caged. The sense of freedom has always been comforting.

After his plans to become a living form of art fell apart, he had to choose another way to live and ‘fast’ seemed like a good option. It was; it is. His mind gave up arguing and reasoning against his impulsive choices after a while and everything has been easy; smile at every given chance, live life to the fullest, be fare and don’t be afraid of making mistakes because they are bound to happen, forgive your enemies, forget your sadness. By all means, forget. Speeding through life is the only way you can keep yourself busy enough to forget, and hope that your problems won’t catch up.

But it has started to become tiring. It’s not like he regrets his life or that he wants to change it drastically, but maybe, he thinks, he could slow down a bit. Just enough to match with Kyungsoo’s pace. Maybe it would be nice to make a few stops down the road and enjoy the scenery, maybe you don’t have to race with anyone if you always come first for someone, maybe the tears are worth living in this lifetime too, maybe you can define and be responsible for your own mistakes. It sounds like a good life. You can share it with someone special. That sense must be priceless.

Kai’s arms tighten instinctively around Kyungsoo. It’s late and they’re both tired after a long day they have spent having fun with friends, but sleep seems to be refusing to pay a visit to their room. They lay wide awake in each other’s arms, silently thinking inside the different worlds inside their heads. The smaller twitches every now and then, impatient to find a position which his body will deem comfortable enough to doze off; Kai simply makes sure he’s holding him as close as possible without suffocating him. He wonders what Kyungsoo might be thinking and just then, Kyungsoo’s fingers trail on the side of Kai’s bare waist and then slide behind him, searching on the skin until he finds the scar. Now Kai definitely knows what Kyungsoo is thinking.

“Soo, stop worrying about it” he mumbles halfheartedly. His lips feel numb after not having been used for a while. He wonders why he’s not asleep yet. Kyungsoo huffs in the taller’s chest.

“I’m not” he retorts, maybe a bit too soon, his voice muffled on skin but still sounding sleepily indignant. Kai smirks, even though Kyungsoo can’t see him. Or maybe he can, by some magical power no one knows of, because he just pinched his side in retaliation. Kai’s body manages to laugh at the childish action, but he quiets down soon enough, as the small hand finds its way to the scar again and slender fingers splay on top of it. “I’m worried about you” he whispers, almost inaudibly.

Kai bites his lips, hoping he won’t get pinched for another smile that Kyungsoo magically found out about. He knows what Kyungsoo is thinking. Ever since this morning, after Kai told Kyungsoo about his dancing history and his back surgery, Kyungsoo seemed oddly thoughtful at first, but soon it became obvious that he has been thinking about Kai and his health. Kai caught his large eyes once too many straying to his lower back worriedly, as if to check if the scar is still there. Kai understands that it might take Kyungsoo a while until he gets used to it, but he doesn’t need to worry about it; it doesn’t even hurt anymore.

“You’re the sweetest when you want to, Soo” he muses with a smile; it doesn’t hurt anymore but it’s been so long since Kai had someone worrying and fussing over him. It’s nice to feel important enough to deserve someone’s concern. Even if that someone shows his concern by punching you in the gut, like Kyungsoo just did.

“Shut up” the shorter growls begrudgingly. Kai might be wheezing from the contracting pain in his core but he still thinks Kyungsoo is the sweetest. Kyungsoo seems piqued and he disentangles his limbs from their embrace in spite, childishly turning his back to Kai, rolling around and hogging the covers in the process. Kai is cold now but he lets him fume cutely for a few silent minutes, watching his small shoulders tense in irritation and his black locks looking like a murky mess on the nape of his fair neck in the darkness of the room.

“Soo~” he calls out when he can no longer handle the urge to give in to Kyungsoo’s stubborn antics. He worms his way closer to Kyungsoo on the bed, curling his arms around him, who whimpers in annoyance but he doesn’t push him away. Kai takes it as a sign that he’s halfway to being forgiven. He squirms even closer, claiming back some of the covers and nuzzling his nose on the side of Kyungsoo’s neck. “I like this shirt” he says, clutching his fingers around a handful of soft fabric. Kyungsoo seems to relax in his arms after the change of topic.

“It was a gift from Baekhyun” he mumbles and, after a few comfortable moments of silence which Kai spends blissfully forgiven and finally teetering on the edge of unconsciousness and while Kyungsoo feels suspiciously awake still and thoughtful, he continues “I wonder what Baekhyun is doing…”

“Why wouldn’t he be sleeping?” Kai mumbles a question which he thinks is legitimate. He’s not very sure though, because sleep has undeniably started to take over his body, his limbs becoming heavy, his breath evening out, his eyes closing and his senses dulling to a mingling haze. He hadn’t realized how much he wanted to sleep until now. “Unless pink, sparkly koalas have invaded the room to abduct him and Chanyeol and take them to some rainbow, fluffy place to feed them chocolate and make them kiss already” A few moments of silence and Kai is almost unconscious. Almost.

“Did your brain just come up with all that?” Kyungsoo asks with an amused voice. Kai’s thoughts feel so disconnected, weird and incoherent in his head right now.

“Kind of…what did I say exactly?” It involved glitters, koalas…Kai can’t bother remembering the rest. He falls asleep to the quiet sound of Kyungsoo’s soft chuckling.

--

“Sehun, wake up” Luhan calls, grabbing Sehun’s shoulder and shaking him carelessly. Well, they will have to work on that a bit, because that is not proper boyfriend behavior. Sehun guesses it is Luhan’s last defense, treating Sehun clumsily; but hey, Sehun has managed to break through the greater barriers, this will be nothing. He pretends to be asleep for a while further, letting Luhan make a few more efforts at waking him up, curious to see what the shorter blond might come up with.

Sehun doesn’t know exactly when he decided that he wanted to be Luhan’s boyfriend. But he did. And he knew it wasn’t going to be easy; he is young, but he is not blind, and he might be in love, but he is also a realist. He knew Luhan is stubborn, opinionated, tough and hurt, presenting passive-aggressive behaviors, getting defensive out of the blue, experiencing severe mood swings and dealing with trust issues. But Sehun is not intimidated by all that; try having a schizophrenic mother for thirteen years, who then dies and leaves you to be raised by an alcoholic father and a neurotic stepmother – the latter in the non-medical sense, but close enough. Sehun’s childhood wasn’t perfect, but he is not the complaining type. Besides, he turned out just fine, didn’t he? Even after all that, he is normal. Most of the time. I mean, okay, everybody has not-normal moments.

The point is, he knew Luhan would be hard to crack, but he was determined. Luhan wouldn’t fall for flowers and chocolate for a confession –it’s not Sehun’s style anyway and doesn’t even want to go there– so Sehun skipped it. His confession was simple and custom-made; maybe he will try something more mainstream later, at some point in the future when Luhan will be ready to believe him. He tried to be normal around Luhan, who loves to hate being teased, and when it felt like it was the right moment, he decided to kiss Luhan; really kiss him. Things escalated from there, but that is not the most important thing to keep in mind; the most important achievement of his, is that he managed to slip through Luhan’s defenses. Sure, he had to put up with the shower of cursing words and then with the flight instincts, he even had to overcome the ‘I’m not good enough for you’ talk –seriously…

Things are getting better though. Sehun is confident that Luhan needs him and he is planning to thoroughly re-train him and tame him. Sehun is going to turn Luhan into the person he can be and make him stop hiding behind this persona he has created. And, as the boyfriend, he is going to enjoy the ride as well. However, Luhan doesn’t seem very keen on the boyfriend concept. For one thing, he is not grasping it right, to be certain. Because kicking your boyfriend awake, like Luhan is trying right now, is definitely not in the concept.

“That hurts” Sehun groans, when a particularly strong kick lands on his thigh.

“Oh, good, you are awake” Luhan only says nonchalantly. The pressure on the bed shifts as Luhan hops off the bed, ready to turn to the bathroom.

“Is that how you should wake your boyfriend?” Sehun calls and Luhan stops in his tracks.

“Why shouldn’t I?” he challenges, turning around. His eyebrows are tangled in annoyance under his blond locks.

“Because he is a human being. And your boyfriend.” Sehun gives Luhan a deadpan look. You don’t even kick the dog awake –because who would kick dogs? That’s a crime. Much less kick humans, who share the same ancestors as you. Much less boyfriends, who share the same bed as you.

Luhan rolls his eyes like he doesn’t like the idea; but Sehun has a plan about this relationship and it will require of Luhan to put up with many ideas he won’t like. Sehun is ready to be punched at any given moment, but it is too early in the morning for violence, even for Luhan. With a sigh, Luhan comes back to the bed and perches on the side.

“I can’t believe I am letting you get to me! Ugh!” Luhan growls through his teeth.

“You like it when I get to you though” Sehun retorts with a smile. Luhan lets out another frustrated sound and then moves on the bed and settles near Sehun above the covers, half of him pressed on Sehun and half balancing on the bed. He tries to look halfhearted as he pecks Sehun on the lips, but the soft blush on his cheeks says a whole different story.

“There. Now, wake up” he says softly. When he is like this, Sehun can see glimpses of the real Luhan, the wonderful sides of him. Moving fast, Sehun snakes his arms around Luhan and locks him in place. Luhan blushes differently this time, confused and flustered. Playing with Luhan is fun; Sehun is a firm believer of that.

“I don’t want to wake up” he says simply. It’s the simple tone that dares Luhan the most when he is in a romantically bewildered state, as Sehun likes to call it.

“You cheating mutt, let me go!” Luhan exclaims; as expected. He starts whimpering incomprehensively and squirming in vain attempts to break free. Sehun holds on tighter and smiles at his work. But he doesn’t want Luhan to get honestly mad at him, so he has to change the game. There is only one way to get to Luhan fast when he is like this.

Sehun cranes his neck and nuzzles his nose on the soft skin between Luhan’s neck and shoulder. Luhan smells nice, like peaches, and his skin is very soft and white, albeit a little hot from the blush. Luhan freezes immediately in Sehun’s arms; mission accomplished. Looking straight in his eyes, which are wide open in shock like a deer’s, Sehun smiles at Luhan innocently, and then he pecks him on his soft, numb lips.

“Let’s go for breakfast” he suggests –but he doubts Luhan can move right now. It’s okay; Sehun can wait for a while until Luhan regains conscious control of his body.

--

“Why am I in the back seat? With him?” Kyungsoo asks with a cute, annoyed pout. The answer is pretty obvious though; as if Kai would ever let Kyungsoo out of his sight. This vacation has been going extraordinarily well so far, and he would like to keep it that way, thank you. He has serious hopes of going on another, official vacation with Kyungsoo, okay? He cannot mess this up, so little Soo has to be under his supervision at all times.

“I called shotgun” Sehun answers casually, with a shrug of his shoulders. Kyungsoo huffs; he called it childish when Sehun ran out the door singing ‘shotgun~’ but look at them now. Besides, Kai doesn’t see why calling shotgun is childish; it makes perfect sense to him.

“Okay, then why am I not driving my own car?” Kyungsoo eyes Luhan in the driver’s seat this time. Kai gets this feeling that Kyungsoo is trying to make it sound like he sort of doesn’t want to be with him. Admittedly, Kai could be deemed slightly overbearing during the last few days…But that might be just his imagination playing tricks on him.

“I didn’t drive at all when we were coming here, so it is only fair” Luhan answers, eyes fixed on the road.

“I don’t mind fairness! You could put him behind the wheel!” Kyungsoo points an accusing finger at Kai “Somewhere not next to me!” Okay, time to speak up.

“Soo, I’m right here and I can hear you. And I feel hurt. I want to be next to you!” for the rest of my life, preferably. But if Kai lets that slip, there is no one in this solar system who will be able to save him from Kyungsoo’s punch and wrath.

“Oh, please…” Sehun mumbles and covers his eyes in disgrace. Kai doesn’t mind that. He likes the kid and the kid likes him too, it’s just that they prefer different sorts of approach to romance. Different opinions and varying tactics are perfectly acceptable in the love game; that’s why it’s always so beautiful and just right for everyone.

“As if I’d let the mutt drive; I love my life, thank you very much” Luhan snorts from the driver’s seat. Kai perks in his seat. Oh, can you feel that in the air? It’s good old bickering time!

“What’s wrong with my driving?” Kai pretends to be offended and Luhan falls quickly into their game. You have to love this hyung.

“You drive like a mad man who doesn’t know what red lights mean and races like his house is on fire! Or like a horde of wild ducks are coming after you and you are stepping on it for dear life! And what’s with the turns? I mean, skidding is not good for your tires, or for the passengers’ heart condition! You drive like crazy!” he explodes; Kai gasps, playing along.

“I am so not-”

“Oh, yes you do! Try being a passenger when you are driving. It feels like you are going to die due to a crush or a heart attack any moment!”

“No, it doesn’t!”

“Yes, it does~”

“No way!”

“Yes, way!”

“As if you are driving any better! You just passed a red light!” not really, it was orange. But Luhan doesn’t know that.

“Oh, bite me!” he snaps.

“No! You can’t bite him!” Sehun pipes up all of a sudden, throwing both Kai and Luhan out of their bickering orbit.

“Huh?” they ask in unison, giving Sehun a curious look. It always takes a few moments of confusion until you can come back to the reality of coexisting with other people after a good bicker. But in this case, even Kai knows that ‘bite me’ is a pretty harmless figure of speech; unless... Sehun puts on one of his notorious poker faces and turns to Luhan.

“He can’t bite you. No one can bite you. I mean, if you want someone to bite you, I could do it for you-”

“We are not having this conversation! I don’t need to hear this…” Kyungsoo interrupts Sehun before it is too late, smacking the kid’s head with his hand.

But it sort of is too late now, because Kai thinks he knows something he wasn’t supposed to know. Kai bursts out into loud laughter and Luhan blushes. Kyungsoo smacks Kai’s arm, probably because he is being slightly insensitive, but even Sehun is smiling, so, obviously, he is not the only one who finds it funny. He knew those two were playing peanuts at night! (Playing peanuts? Kim Jongin what’s wrong with your brain? What sort of expression is that?) They are all inconspicuous skinship and lovers’ quarrels during the day; it was inevitable. He suspected it when he found Luhan setting the table and Sehun pouting beside him, but Kai has many ideas all the time and he cannot afford proof-reading every single one of them much less have time to verify them. This is gold though.

Kai can’t wait to tell Chanyeol and then they can torture Luhan together.

“Kai, if you don’t shut up, I am punching you” Luhan warns him after a while, and Kai would love to see how he will manage driving and punching him in the same time. But really, he should stop laughing, his cheekbones hurt.

“Oh, don’t worry, I got you covered” Kyungsoo mutters and next thing Kai knows, a small fist collides with his shoulder, leaving a slightly painful sting. He stops laughing and a shocked expression appears on his face.

“You punched me!” he exclaims. He doesn’t really mind that Kyungsoo punched him and it doesn’t even hurt. If anything, Kai is excited with this punch. Because this is normal, Kyungsoo is acting normal. With every day that passes, Kyungsoo opens up, he ventures out of his shell and tries being human, he tries acting like any other normal person would in a relationship. And that makes Kai a little happier. Kyungsoo doesn’t have to be perfect or hide and be timid and gullible all the time; he just has to be himself. If Kai can make him see that, then he cannot be that bad a person. And if he is not a bad sort of person, then Kyungsoo will not want to stay away from him any longer. This vacation was a perfect idea.

“Don’t act like you didn’t have it coming” Kyungsoo mumbles with his big eyes opened wide in warning, and Sehun tries to muffle his giggles while Luhan is sporting a vicious smirk.

“Yeah, but you punched me! It hurts” Kai pouts exaggeratedly, placing one hand above his heart. It doesn’t hurt, but this feels like a good chance to extract a fragment of affection from Kyungsoo. Kai is not stupid to let these chances slip away. Kyungsoo said it himself: you never know when and if you will experience it again.

“Oh, you’ll live” Kyungsoo says, rolling his large eyes and taking Kai’s hand in his, entwining their fingers. There goes his fragment of affection, and it feels as important as the world to Kai.

“Oh, hyung, I forgot! What about Baekhyunnie hyung and Chanyeol hyung?” Sehun says all of a sudden. Aaand, change of topic.

“Don’t worry about them; they’ll be fine” Kyungsoo dismisses with a wave of his hand and Sehun turns back to the front instantly, completely free of his worries, as if the switch which got randomly in his head has just been turned off as easily.

Well, as for those two, they’d better be fine! Kai hopes his giant friend will put his pretty head into good use and finally do something! I mean, he is obviously into Baekhyun, has been since the get go, and Kai just doesn’t get why the Park Chanyeol has not made a move in so long. It has been so freaking long! So maybe it is just that Chanyeol didn’t have the chance to make a move –but really, Chanyeol must be thickheaded, because Kai has been throwing chances at him whenever he can– or maybe he didn’t feel ready; but yesterday seemed like a pretty good indication that he is ready, the way he was all smiley and affectionate around Baekhyun. And here is his chance. Kai had to conspire with Kyungsoo, Chen, Lay and Suho to make this arrangement. Sehun, Luhan and Xiumin don’t know about the aspiration to get this couple into motion, but they hold the minority of votes anyway, so they are harmless, and they were pretty easily lured out of the house.

A small sigh from Kyungsoo who is gazing out the window brings Kai back to reality. Sure, his friend’s –sad– love life is interesting, and so are whatever fluffy times are going down back in the house where they abandoned the pair for privacy, but now Kai has more important things to think about. He has to tease Kyungsoo and cheer him up; because he has ignored the love of his life for five too long minutes, and that is unforgiveable.

--

Chanyeol wakes up to the sound of his thundering heart, god knows why. He opens his eyes slowly, feeling bewildered and slightly concerned for his heart condition, but it all makes sense when the rest of his consciousness tunes in to the world. If it wasn’t for his heart imitating a hummingbird, Chanyeol would have had some difficulty believing his situation.

Baekhyun is sleeping in his arms. There is no exaggeration and no imagination playing there; he is really quite literally sleeping in his arms.

Baekhyun makes a cute puppy noise in his sleep and presses his back further on Chanyeol’s chest. Okay heart, calm down, or else you will jolt him awake. But it is kind of hard to do, when Baekhyun feels so small and warm and soft between his arms. Chanyeol has no idea how they ended up sleeping like this, but what might happen when Baekhyun wakes up? Oh my glitters, he is going to think Chanyeol is the weird sort of clingy, or worse, that he is trying to get his hands on Baekhyun in inappropriate ways! Chanyeol tries but he cannot pull his hands away easily; Baekhyun is resting his head on one of his arms and the other is s around his delicate waist with Baekhyun’s hand holding it in place. If Chanyeol tries to move, Baekhyun will wake up. So what can he do?

He lets his head fall back on the pillow and the faint fragrance of Baekhyun’s shampoo reaches his nose. Well, there is always the option to wait until Baekhyun wakes up…Chanyeol is pretty sure a part of his brain just exploded. No, no Park Chanyeol, this is not fair to him, if you just enjoy the cuddling times and he is unaware. He might seem creepy sometimes but he has morals too, and he refuses to take advantage of Baekhyun in any way. He tries to free his arm around Baekhyun’s waist, pulling it slowly and timidly back. But not five centimeters later, Baekhyun reacts in his sleep and pulls Chanyeol’s arm even closer to him, curling his little body around it as if his life depended on it and resulting in the greatest physical proximity Chanyeol has ever experienced with Baekhyun. Great. It’s endearing, but what is Chanyeol supposed to do now? He really wishes his life was easier at times.

Suddenly, Baekhyun’s phone alarm starts tinkling and chanting, sending Chanyeol one step closer to insanity and doom, and panic settles in his chest. His breath hitches. Oh my god. What to do, what to do?! Think fast, come on! Baekhyun stirs in his sleep, but it is still not enough to free Chanyeol. Universe, why do you hate Chanyeol so much?! His heart is beating behind his teeth. When Baekhyun’s long eyelashes start to flutter, Chanyeol thinks this is the end, and he can think of only one thing. Okay Chanyeol, play dead! He falls back on the pillow abruptly and pretends to be asleep, praying to every god out there for mercy.

Baekhyun wakes up eventually and disentangles himself from Chanyeol to move closer to his phone and close the alarm –which Chanyeol hates for having the worst timing ever, or for hating Chanyeol first and cursing his luck. Chanyeol refrains from pouting with all his willpower, keeping up his sleeping act, but it feels empty now. It is cold and well, there is no other way to describe it, empty in his arms, now that Baekhyun is not there. It makes Chanyeol strangely sad.

“Oh god, not again” Baekhyun whispers slightly distressed; Chanyeol has no option but to pretend he didn’t hear that. His curiosity shoots through the roof. Not again? Again what? “How did we manage to end up sleeping like that again?” a faint sound of hands cupping cheeks is heard, but Chanyeol’s brain is working on basic programming right now.

Sleep + We => Embrace. Again? So, the previous night => Shock. Last morning + Baekhyun woke up first => Embarrassment. God. Why. Chanyeol + Death => Shoot him now.

Okay brain, you heard none of this. You don’t know any of this. Pretend to act normal, like you do all the time. Pretending to be normal is Chanyeol’s forte –or else mankind would have renounced him long ago. He stirs the way he supposes people stir before waking up and then opens his eyes slowly. Baekhyun’s eyes are slightly wider than usual but otherwise he looks completely normal.

“Sorry, did it wake you too?” Baekhyun asks with a sheepish smile, showcasing the mobile device in his hand. Chanyeol returns the sheepish smile; he expected to see Baekhyun red and stiff and stuttering, but then again, what Chanyeol doesn’t know can’t harm him, in Baekhyun’s mind…Chanyeol makes a mental note that Baekhyun is an amazing actor when he wants to be.

“What time is it?” he asks, hearing his too deep voice humming. On a side note, Baekhyun looks stunning. His brown hair is falling softly on his forehead, and his puppy eyes are gleaming, still not completely used to the bright sun outside. His skin looks silky and smooth, all the way down his neck and collarbones, because his light blue top has shifted, making him look so se*y and yet so pure, glowing with the bright sun from outside, like a baby angel from heaven.

“It’s ten am. I set the alarm for nine, but something went wrong, I guess…” Baekhyun frowns and starts searching his phone to locate the malfunction in the software.

But there is no need to look for the problem there; the problem is obviously Chanyeol’s luck. Because he had a freaking meeting through skype with his father’s lawyer for nine thirty this morning!

“Ten?!” he squeals –not very flatteringly, he must say– and then he jumps out of the bed in panic. Well, at least he tried to jump out of the bed, because he ended up tangling his long feet in the sheets, tripping over his ankles, hitting his elbow on the headboard, face planting in the pillow, flailing his arms like an octopus, making sounds like a yelping squirrel –if there is such a thing– and finally, landing unceremoniously on his rear next to the bed. Talk about abnormal.

“Are you okay?” Baekhyun’s head pops out from the side of the bed above him; he looks down at Chanyeol worriedly, his puppy eyes wide in alarm.

“Yup, I’m alive” Chanyeol groans. His ribs and his elbow hurt a bit, his pride is already buried six feet under, but he has survived greater blows from life. He scurries to his feet and looks around anxiously, making calculations in his head. Maybe he can still save the situation. “I need a laptop. ASAP. Oh, and a hair brush. Maybe a shirt too. And a quiet place to work. A pen. Did I say good morning?” You guessed it right; he is delirious.

Baekhyun hops off the bed quickly and rounds the room methodically, but Chanyeol doesn’t pay much attention to what Baekhyun is looking for, observing instead how much like an overactive, curious puppy Baekhyun looks and blooming heavens, his figure looks sultry even in sky blue pjs. Eventually, he stands in front of Chanyeol, handing over some materials that seem alien to Chanyeol’s panicked mind.

“Here: shirt and hairbrush. Laptop, pen, place, work; all in Suho’s office. And good morning” Baekhyun says like a good soldier, saving the day, and then he tiptoes to peck Chanyeol on the cheek for good morning. Chanyeol’s knees wobble slightly, even though he knows that it’s just the adrenaline acting up in Baekhyun. A part of his conscious brain tries to make an estimate of how hot his face can get before he self-combusts. “Go, office, quickly” Baekhyun ushers him to the door and Chanyeol is thankful that they can speak the same language, and so he is not completely alone, hanging above a cliff of panic and confusion. Then he picks up his pace and runs to the office, because he can’t waste any time. His father will kill him.

--

After Chanyeol’s panicked exit, Baekhyun is left alone in the quiet. Too quiet. He glances out the window but their friends are not on the beach. He goes down the stairs, searching for signs of life curiously on the way, until he reaches the kitchen. The house is pretty much dead, as if everyone has disappeared. Baekhyun walks to a plate which is left lonely on the counter, covered with a food net, and picks up the small note beside it, with Chen’s unmistakable handwriting on it.

“Hey Baek! We decided to go to the town for shopping and stuff the amount of groceries we consume. We didn’t want to wake you up, but we left you some food. Kyungsoo’s croissants and cookies are delicious! Kai’s car is available, if you want to join us or go somewhere. Or just stay home (you housecats you <3) We don’t know when we will be back, but if it takes too long, eat by yourselves –it’s not like we won’t eat either. Enjoy your day! Ps. I’m sure you woke up first, because you always put your alarm on. I might or might not have tampered with it last night :3. You deserve to sleep in a bit on your vacation! We love you guys! XOXO”

Well that explains it then. It explains a lot of things, actually. Baekhyun leaves the note back on the counter and takes in a big breath. So, he is alone in the house –technically, Chanyeol is in there too, but he has to work alone, so he doesn’t count. Baekhyun watches the seashore and wonders idly what sort of work Chanyeol had to do that was so important. The poor giant was running amok earlier. Oh well, little Byun Baekhyun is not one to understand the life of a future CEO. But he can make it easier.

He returns to the bedroom and peeks inside, just in case Chanyeol is already back, but there is no such luck. He decides to change into proper clothes before anything else. He grabs a pair of jeans and a soft polo shirt, which doesn’t have the best color on earth, but it does feel the most comfortable. He combs his hair – thank god Chanyeol was too panicked to notice him earlier with that awful bed hair– and brushes his teeth, practicing his best smile. Good morning to the world.

When he feels ready, he decides to proceed with his plan. The plan is simple: make Chanyeol’s life a little brighter. Because it is really unfair that he has to work even when he is on vacation, and Baekhyun doesn’t want to be the only one enjoying himself. Happiness is contagious and there is a reason it’s made that way: if you share it, it doubles. He tiptoes to the door of Suho’s office and sure enough Chanyeol’s deep voice sounds faintly every now and then. Baekhyun disappears into the kitchen and ten minutes later he returns to that door.

He doesn’t knock, because that would interrupt Chanyeol, who needs to work in quiet. He cracks the door open soundlessly and glances inside. Chanyeol is sitting behind the luxurious desk, organizing stacks of paper with notes in front of him, paying attention or discussing with the laptop all the while. So this is how the Park Chanyeol looks like when he is working; if we’re being honest, he looks amazing and he takes attractive to a whole new level. As he watches Chanyeol quirking his eyebrows in thought, pressing his lips, talking sophisticatedly in that deep voice, reciting numbers, giving orders, pointing out facts, Baekhyun feels like this person is someone new, someone he doesn’t know. But he is also someone fascinating and stunning. He is very serious and professional, and the image is very charming and charismatic in Baekhyun’s eyes…Until his eyes land on the lower half of Chanyeol, who is still wearing his sleep-trousers, which clash comically with the neat, immaculate appearance of his top half, and Baekhyun stifles a giggle. Of course, you can’t have Park Chanyeol without just Chanyeol.

He nudges the door open and walks in the room as quietly as he can. Chanyeol glances at him briefly but doesn’t present any other reaction. Baekhyun didn’t expect any other reaction either, because he is non-existent to the person who discusses with Chanyeol, so the latter cannot acknowledge his presence or stir suspicion, for the sake of smooth business talk. Baekhyun leaves the tray he has been carrying on the side of the desk where the laptop camera doesn’t reach and leaves a mug of coffee and a plate of biscuits. He flashes Chanyeol an innocent, bright smile. He couldn’t let him starve for one thing, and for another, he thought that maybe Chanyeol would cheer up if he felt like someone is taking care of him. Baekhyun doesn’t drink coffee, so he can only hope he got it right, but he made sure to pick the biggest and prettiest biscuits for Chanyeol. He picks up Chanyeol’s sleep-shirt from the floor and leaves the room quickly without making a sound.

Baekhyun returns to the room, hoping to find something to keep himself busy while Chanyeol is working. And his business would have to be silent, because he cannot go around creating a fuss when the other needs peace and quiet. He looks outside and thinks of going for a walk at the beach, but if Chanyeol finishes and doesn’t find him in the house, he might get worried. Since the tv would be too loud with that cinema-like sound system, Baekhyun decides to listen to music with his earphones. He sits down in front of the glass wall, he plugs the earphones and starts listening away to one of his playlists. With the panoramic view, it feels like he is outside –but this ‘outside’ has better temperature conditions and there is not any annoying sand. He sways from side to side to the music, his legs curled close to himself on the floor. It feels nice, as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist, as if there are no worries. He refrains from humming, because he might disturb Chanyeol next door, but his shameless lip-sync skills are put to use; there is no one to see him anyway. He stays like that for an indefinite amount of time before his legs start feeling numb and he gets off the floor. He starts for the bed, without looking away from his playlist, planning to listen to the rest while laying down, when suddenly, he knocks on something hard and falls back on the floor.

“Aw…” he hisses, and as if his rear didn’t hurt bad enough, that something falls on top of him, making him lay flat on the floor completely. Baekhyun looks up petrified, his earphones scattered and forgotten. Oh my god, this is not happening. This is so not happening!

Chanyeol looks back with his eyes wide in shock and his lips slightly parted. When did Chanyeol get in the room? And when did Chanyeol lose his shirt?! Baekhyun freezes for a good minute, staring at Chanyeol who is staring back. He looks so beautiful, with his damp hair and fair skin, his full lips and his large caramel eyes looking down at Baekhyun, like an angel in the sunlight. Then Baekhyun’s heart kicks into gear and starts thumping, making him feel hot and hotter. He realizes, flustered, that their faces are close, too close, so he averts his eyes quickly. Chanyeol must have taken a shower, which would explain his presence in the room, his damp hair and the lack of clothes, except for a towel around his hips –which means that, when Baekhyun glances away, he is greeted by endless, fair skin, exposed to the sun. The sudden proximity with Chanyeol’s toned body makes Baekhyun even more confused and his heart thunders in record speed. He tries to move, because he doesn’t know what to feel or what might happen or what else he is supposed to do when he is lying on the floor under Chanyeol, only to find out that his thighs are tangled with Chanyeol’s long legs.

Oh my god, Baekhyun is not allowed to feel what he just felt.

He panics and squirms, but that move results in knocking out one of Chanyeol’s arms which have been supporting his torso above Baekhyun, and Chanyeol loses his balance and crushes on top of him. Now Chanyeol’s body is pressing flush against Baekhyun, weighing him to the floor, and Baekhyun wants to disappear. He yelps in surprise and tries to find his hands somewhere under Chanyeol’s weight, but he only manages to caress his hands on Chanyeol’s perfect muscles and exposed skin?! Holy chocolate, just let him die already! He wants to bang his head on the floor for being so stupid and clumsy, and for feeling things he shouldn’t be feeling, but well he does, because Chanyeol is positively on top of him. Baekhyun whimpers in distress.

“Baek, wait, don’t move” Chanyeol orders in a panicked voice. Baekhyun obeys immediately; he doesn’t know what else to do anyway. He has never been in such a…situation before, not with a friend, not with anyone. He closes his eyes tightly and keeps dead still, as he feels Chanyeol’s weight gradually disappear, together with his freshly washed smell. He can hear Chanyeol stumble to the bathroom; but it doesn’t matter where Chanyeol is now, because he was on top of Baekhyun just a moment ago! Baekhyun covers his blushing face with his hands. This was so, so, so inappropriate…Baekhyun has to forget. For the sake of his friendship with Chanyeol. Yup, he will forget about it. It will be like it never happened. Baekhyun is good at repelling memories. He will forget; do you hear me, brain?!

“It’s okay, you can move now” Chanyeol’s voice is back, somewhere near him. Baekhyun realizes he has not moved an inch since Chanyeol’s order earlier and he peeks between his fingers. Chanyeol is sitting on the floor beside him fully clothed, finally.

“I am SO SORRY!” Baekhyun exclaims, sitting up with Chanyeol’s help. He is sure he looks red as a beet right now, even though Chanyeol seems pretty calm and put-together, oddly enough. “I was listening to music and I thought you were working and then I was walking to the bed and I couldn’t hear you because the music was too loud and so-”

“Baek, it’s okay, it’s okay” Chanyeol reassures him, caressing his arm comfortingly. “Breathe” he says in a calm voice, looking straight into his eyes and Baekhyun realizes that he needed that breath. They both listen to Baekhyun breathing in and out for a while. “I wasn’t paying attention either, so it wasn’t entirely your fault. But it’s okay. Are you hurt?” he asks worriedly. Baekhyun shakes his head. He might have been scarred for life from Chanyeol’s perfection but he’s bodily well, except for a sore rear that is not considered a real injury. “Good then” Chanyeol flashes a wide smile. Baekhyun returns a small smile reflexively. At the first sign of recovery, Chanyeol pulls his hand back and shuffles on the floor to sit a bit further away. The breathing space is appreciated by Baekhyun. “So, what were you listening to?” Chanyeol asks cheerfully. His effort to make things less uncomfortable is also appreciated by Baekhyun. And Baekhyun jumps on the given chance.

“Dream a little dream of me” he blurts quickly, followed by a shy twitch. He has never asked on the topic, but Chanyeol doesn’t seem the type to listen to that kind of music, so maybe he doesn’t like that song. Baekhyun expected a laugh, a snort, a noncommittal nod, but instead Chanyeol’s eyebrows quirk in question; Baekhyun gasps. “Come on, Chanyeol, everyone knows this song!” How can there be someone who has not listened to at least one version of this song? Chanyeol only shrugs his shoulders with a small, innocent smile. “Okay, this is wrong. We need to fix it” Baekhyun says decisively and walks to the small console in the room, where there’s a sound system –yes, this house is luxurious to the point where every room has its own expensive sound system, you can cry now.

Baekhyun plugs in his device and presses play. Not a second later, the room resonates with the trumpet and a soft singing voice in high quality. He turns around and looks at Chanyeol, who is still sitting on the floor cross legged like a child, listening to the song carefully with a smile. Baekhyun leans back on the console and looks out the window lazily, at the sunny sky and the glinting waves, feeling the smooth rhythm flow through him and making him relax. He joins in the singing absentmindedly, his shy voice sounding faintly to his own ears so that he will not disturb the song. He hardly ever sings seriously in public –because people usually stop and stare; and maybe he has a decent voice, but it is uncomfortable if every friend around you stops whatever they are doing and starts gapping at you– but he cannot refrain from singing along to this song.

“Stars fading but I linger on, dear~” Baekhyun closes his eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin and imagining dreams of starry skies and beautiful pictures; this song is so simple, yet it always gives him so many wonderful and peaceful pictures behind his eyes, that’s why he likes it. His eyes wander in the room and eventually fall on Chanyeol, who is watching him closely. Baekhyun blushes slightly, realizing that Chanyeol caught him singing, and he fidgets nervously. Chanyeol motions him to keep going with an encouraging smile. Baekhyun blushes even deeper, but he smiles a little and keeps on “Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you, sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you, but in your dreams whatever they be, dream a little dream of me” Baekhyun sways his finger in the air, following the music of the final notes.

When the song is over, Baekhyun quickly turns around and unplugs his device, and then puts it aside. He makes a point not to look at Chanyeol, because he is sure he will go thirty shades of red darker. Did he just sing in front of someone? Someone none other than Chanyeol?! His heart is fluttering in his chest, repeating squeals of disbelief at what he did. He doesn’t want to see the stunned look on Chanyeol, because that would be uncomfortable, but he doesn’t want him not to say anything either. He doesn’t know what he wants or what to expect, he just hopes Chanyeol will do the right thing, like he always does. Noticing the silence in the room, Baekhyun clears his throat.

“So, did you like the song?” he asks, trying to sound casual, but his voice cracked slightly at the beginning. He keeps toying with the buttons of the console with no purpose, making it look like he is busy, avoiding looking at Chanyeol for now.

“Yes, I did” Chanyeol’s deep voice surprises him when it sounds from somewhere closer than Baekhyun had expected. Baekhyun turns around and sees Chanyeol standing a few steps away, his hands jammed casually in his pockets and a small smile gracing his lips. “And, Baek?” Baekhyun gulps.

“A-and?” he stutters, his heart thundering in his ears.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Chanyeol leans forward to match eye level with Baekhyun, even though he is standing further away. Baekhyun’s tongue is a knot in his mouth, so he nods, watching as Chanyeol’s smile turns mischievous. “I already knew the song. I just wanted to hear you sing it”

“Park Chanyeol!” Baekhyun explodes, stomping his foot, his ears growing red in embarrassment to match the rest of his skin; it feels as if there has just been an explosion of mortification within him and his voice might still be resonating somewhere in the empty house. If there was an open window near him, he would have jumped out. “W-why would you do that?!”

“I just heard somewhere that you have a pretty voice and I couldn’t help but wonder” Chanyeol shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly. Baekhyun thinks that if Kyungsoo or Chen are behind this, they are so dead. Chanyeol reaches out and ruffles Baekhyun’s hair playfully, making Baekhyun feel even more fragile and exposed. “Don’t worry, Baek; your voice is so, so beautiful. I wish you would let me hear it more often” Chanyeol reassures him in his deep voice. Baekhyun huffs stubbornly.

“Really?” he asks shyly, looking up at Chanyeol under his lashes. He still feels embarrassed, but Chanyeol is being so supportive and Baekhyun can’t help but feel safe and reassured when he is with the giant.

“Really.” Chanyeol promises in a serious voice with a smile. Baekhyun didn’t know what he wanted or what to expect, but Chanyeol did the right thing again. Slowly, his redness fades until there is only a faint shade of pink on his cheeks and his heartbeat becomes normal. Just like that, everything works out when he is with Chanyeol. No matter what Chanyeol does, it is always the right thing.

--

“That carrot is suffering” is Chen’s fantastic input to Luhan’s seething situation.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Luhan growls back, unblinking and unmoving. Why did he growl. Why is he not dropping the mangled carrot he has been gripping in a menacing choke hold already. Why is Chen talking to him. Nothing makes sense.

Luhan ignores Chen’s snigger and keeps his eyes and mind-power focused on his target. He has to keep his eyes and ears open to absorb and decode as much information as he can. He doesn’t have valid auditory input, because there are too many people, scattered around vegetables and trying to negotiate with themselves about the price of potatoes, the color of the apples and the knocking sound of the watermelon. It just had to be a small grocery store. Luhan is standing only five steps away from his target and yet there are enough people around him so that he can’t hear anything substantial; because Sehun doesn’t talk too loud in the first place and the giggles from the other boy are not substantial, mind him.

But it’s funny how Luhan can hear very clearly Kyungsoo’s annoyed groan as he shoves away Kai somewhere, and Lay thinking to Suho that they should buy spring onions, and Chen still snickering beside him, and that the woman who’s the neighbor of the woman who’s standing somewhere near Luhan had her first baby yesterday. Maybe it is terrible acoustics or whatever; Luhan has never been fond of physics.

Luhan kind of wants to yell at everyone, even the bees, to shut up already because he can’t hear them.

For the lack of audio -much to Luhan’s frustration- he has visual contact at least. He can see the boy flipping his blond fringe away from his forehead cutely, smiling up at Sehun with his small lips, his almond eyes twinkling, his cheeks tinting pinker whenever Sehun speaks. The boy tries not to fidget too much but he finds the perfect excuse when an old lady pushes his posed hips aside to make way, practically shoving him closer to Sehun, and he giggles and blushes, but stays within Sehun’s personal bubble and attempts to touch him inconspicuously. Luhan is sad to find out that he can’t kill someone by willpower alone, because if that were possible, it would have happened already, like, ten minutes ago.

And oh no, he doesn’t mean just the pretty boy; he means to seek justice in the form of Sehun’s dead body, too.

Because that idiot of a self-proclaimed boyfriend does nothing to push the blond siren away. Absolutely nothing. He just stands there, looking at him and answering sometimes to whatever he asks. The way his eyes stay on the boy while he speaks is making Luhan’s blood knock furiously in his temples, and the way Sehun scratches the back of his neck uncomfortably makes Luhan lock his jaw so hard that it cracks. He wants to march over there and grab Sehun and kiss the living daylights out of him in the boy’s face, to let him know that yes, Sehun swings that way but he’s very much taken, and then drag him away to the car where he can lock him in and leave him there, safe from the tempting sirens of this world.

But then again, Luhan is not very sure that if he gets his hands on Sehun he won’t be choking him to death the next second.

Luhan’s annoyance hits unbearable levels when a fly zooms past his ear, heading for the strawberries, and Luhan is so annoyed by anything living and breathing that is standing between him and Sehun that he feels like slapping someone. That someone turns out to be Mr. melon, as Luhan moves over to the side, taking a few small and as inconspicuous as possible steps closer to the target. Luhan soon finds out that he still can’t hear much and he groans at the back of his throat. What’s even worse, Luhan has lost contact with Sehun’s face and he has no way of knowing what Sehun is doing –although it’s probably just the ever-present blank face. The boy laughs a little louder and Luhan fumes. The boy is actually pretty damn handsome and young.

“You are aware that these things have a breaking point, right?” Chen says, appearing miraculously next to him again. Luhan growls incoherently in answer and glances at his hands, forgetting about the lovey-dovey teenagers for a moment. He decides that he doesn’t feel like breaking a watermelon right now and ending up soaked in red sugary substances that flies love to chase around, because that would only be embarrassing. He puts the watermelon down slowly and carefully, as if its fragility has increased a tenfold, pressing his lips in annoyance and tightening his jaw, his curiosity itching again to see what is happening a few meters away from him.

“Hyung, are you okay?” Kai asks out of the blue and Luhan lifts his eyes, not to look at the much loathed scene of unashamed flirting, but finding the faces of Kai, Kyungsoo, Suho, Lay and Xiumin staring back at him in concern from across the table of groceries. Luhan clears his throat.

“Yeah, why?” he tries to sound nonchalant. He’s not sure he’s fooling anyone. Hell, he doesn’t even know why he was so obvious with the jealous stalking; he’s usually more careful than this irrational childish antics.

“Because you look like this” Kai says and then goes on to open his eyes scarily wide and push his ears forward with his hands, he locks his jaw and looks ahead blankly and murderously, and Luhan makes a face because wow, we just found an expression that doesn’t look good on Kai’s face.

“I don’t!” he yells back indignantly. His face is much too pretty to look like that and he’s possibly somewhat flushed in fluster as of now. Kyungsoo clears his throat mildly and blinks at Luhan innocently.

“Uh, you kind of do though” he says and Luhan sighs, throwing his arms in the air. Can’t a person boil in jealousy in peace in this world?

“Luhan, I’m your friend; please tell me what’s wrong” Lay asks calmly, his voice laced with concern. Luhan looks at his trustworthy and considerate friend with a helpless look.

He wants to. He wants to tell everything to Lay, who has seen him screaming and shouting and crying and throwing things at the wall during their many years of friendship. He wants to yell Sehun’s pretty ears off about how boyfriends don’t flirt with beautiful strangers, much less right in their boyfriends’ faces. He wants to cry out his insecurities, because he’s too old and not good, and Sehun is too young and beautiful and nice, and he has every right to drop Luhan and move on, without even a particular reason. He wants to throw something breakable and heavy at a wall and watch it shatter, hoping it was the world, for being so unfair to him. But he can’t do any of the above or even express his childish feelings while he’s under public scrutiny.

“It’s a private matter” he says finally, schooling his facial features into the calm and composed face he has been practicing all his life. Kai dramatically rolls his eyes at him.

“You mean aside from the fact that we all probably know why you’re-” he doesn’t get to finish, because Kyungsoo is quick to clamp a hand over Kai’s mouth, shaking his head to dismiss the attempt at a comment ever made. Luhan is not so convinced though, despite Kyungsoo’s scarily large eyes. Just as Luhan is ready to ask for an explanation about what Kai meant, Lay demands his attention again with a serious voice.

“I’m your friend” he stresses in the don’t-you-dare-try-hide-from-me voice. Luhan whimpers quietly. What is this intervention all of a sudden? Wasn’t buying carrots enough? He is pretty sure those situations, when your friends decide to have a serious, life-changing talk with you about your life, happen when everyone silently knows about it and your nerves have been wrecked in the process of waiting for it to happen; not simply out of the blue, on a sunny morning, over a table full of edible plantlife. His eyes shift to Suho under the pressure of Lay’s fiery gaze –which can be actually scary and not at all unicorn-like, like the rest of his expressions.

“I’m your friend’s boyfriend” Suho explains quickly, as if to say, ‘don’t mind me’. Luhan rolls his eyes because that’s one mile away from the point right now, and his gaze falls to Kai.

“I’m your little brat~” said idiot sing-songs when he realizes the attention is on him, adding a cute face. As if that would work with Luhan. Luhan glares at him.

“I’m the person who suffers from the same little brat” Kyungsoo sighs resignedly, when he probably misunderstands Luhan’s judging glare –add another to the pile. He doesn’t mean to judge any one of them, he actually thinks he’s vaguely grateful for their concern, but he needs space. Doesn’t anyone in this world know the concept of space?

“I’m the little brat’s friend” Xiumin adds, but he’s only faintly paying attention to the whole conversation. He might be the only one who is actually doing grocery shopping, checking the list given to him and then picking the juiciest lemons. He’s probably used to multitasking while listening to another person’s life problems; he’s a bartender, after all. And he’s probably the only reason they are going to have enough food to eat dinner tonight.

Luhan feels like crying. Why is this his life? He turns his eyes away from the expectant crowd, only to land them on Chen, who is standing beside him and looking back at him with a completely soulless look.

“What?” he deadpans and then it seems he realizes something, if the arch of his eyebrows is anything to go by. “Oh, I’m the person who knows…” he trails off indicatively and gives Luhan a knowing look. Luhan would so much like to punch him right now. In a heartbeat, Chen is back to interrogation mode and the change is so fast that it’s kind of funny, but not for Luhan, who wants to dissolve in mortification. “So spill”

“What are you guys doing here?” everyone nearly jumps from the accumulated, almost palpable tension in the air, when Sehun’s quiet voice asks a simple question. Most of the spooked people look at him weirdly, Chen seems annoyed, Xiumin doesn’t even look surprised and Sehun gives them all a look before looking at Luhan with inquiring eyes.

“Uhhh…” is all Luhan intelligently has to say. Just. Great.

--

Baekhyun bites into his croissant, sliced in the middle and filled with strawberry marmalade by Park Chanyeol himself. Now isn’t that royal treatment? Baekhyun smiles to himself and lifts his gaze to the fluffy clouds that stroll in the bright blue sky under the late morning sun. Oh look, that one is like a koala! The exclamation is on the tip of his tongue but he swallows it back, his shoulders sagging a little in disappointment. It would be nice if he could start a cloud game with Chanyeol, but they both have work to do. Well, mostly Chanyeol has work to do. Baekhyun is just making a collage out of magazine scrapes –hoping that no one will miss the magazine later– which he might use for an upcoming project he’s organizing.

Baekhyun knows you’re not supposed to work on vacation, because isn’t that kind of the point of vacation? But it can’t be helped this time. After his morning meeting with whoever the important person on the computer was, Chanyeol seemed very anxious and bothered about something, although he was trying to hide it. He was doing a poor job, if you ask Baekhyun, who could almost spell the worry on Chanyeol’s forehead. After persistent questioning by Baekhyun –who even went as far as using his puppy-eyes weapon– Chanyeol admitted that something about his company was disconcerting and that he needed to do a few work-related things. So, they decided –meaning, Baekhyun decided and forced Chanyeol to play along– to work a little bit, even if this is vacation time, if that would appease their worries so that they can enjoy the rest of the day carefree.

Baekhyun thinks that it’s okay if they work like this, because it’s work Baekhyun-style. It involves wearing your most comfortable clothes, eating proper breakfast and sitting on the porch with a beautiful ocean view, and Suho’s wonderful house provides such a wooden construction, right outside the kitchen door, fully equipped with a table, comfortable chairs and a shed, adorned with flowers and protecting them from the progressively brighter burning sun. Chanyeol’s work also involves stalk market papers splayed on his half of the table, the laptop screen informing them about economy law, a few papers with hasty scribbles and many frowns on his perfect eyebrows that make Baekhyun feel the very urgent and forbidden need to swoon. Baekhyun’s work involves the magazine, scissors and glue, too many useless outlines of his cut figures and sometimes murmured melodies before he realizes he must be annoying Chanyeol and stops himself.

He bites his lips pensively, eyeing the table. His work looks really childish; his messy chopping session has already spread to the point where his materials are mingling with Chanyeol’s and maybe that’s annoying, even though Chanyeol would never admit it. Maybe Baekhyun and his outdoor ideas are one big distraction for Chanyeol’s important work –although Chanyeol does seem rather impressively focused…But, then again, what else are they supposed to do in a huge, quiet, empty house by themselves? What else, indeed…Yes, Baekhyun is aware of the possibilities but he’d rather not think about certain possibilities, so he takes the easiest available option and enjoys his silent time alone with Chanyeol.

He sighs and swings his legs back and forth under the table once, accidentally nudging Chanyeol’s legs that seem to be everywhere with how long they are. Baekhyun’s eyes widen in alarm and he is ready to apologize for disturbing Chanyeol, but a quick glance at him informs Baekhyun to his great surprise that Chanyeol hasn’t even flinched and he’s still focused as ever on his work. Baekhyun bites his lips to hold in a sigh of relief and carefully tries to draw his legs back guiltily and keep them safely near his chair, his bare feet sliding cautiously over the wooden floor of the porch. He keeps his eyes on Chanyeol, ready to apologize if he accidentally touches him again and makes him lose his focus.

Chanyeol’s plum lips twitch as the first sign of broken concentration in the past half hour, his eyes never leaving the papers but glinting slightly, and suddenly Baekhyun can feel the air shifting under the table and his legs get tangled and imprisoned by strong legs. Baekhyun had expected Chanyeol to flinch but, funnily enough, he’s the one who flails and almost flies out of his chair, a surprised squeak leaving his lips at Chanyeol’s sudden, playful move.

“Baek, what are you doing?” he asks with an irresistible, low chuckle, looking up at Baekhyun with confused yet entertained eyes. Baekhyun blushes and looks down on his lap, embarrassed for having been caught in the act and for being very aware of the way Chanyeol’s legs have twisted around his. And they are in almost public.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…I’m just…sorry. For bothering you. And everything.” Baekhyun stutters, his voice getting more quiet with every word. He’s not sure what to apologize for when his entire existence seems to him guilty of burdening Chanyeol at this point. He’s really too small to understand or even coexist with someone as important and busy as Chanyeol, he’s only good for ruining the taller’s precious concentration.

“You’re not bothering me; it’s actually kind of amusing” there is a smile in Chanyeol’s voice and Baekhyun lifts his eyes a little to check, only to find the former leaning both his forearms on the table and resting his head on them childishly, giving him the perfect angle to watch Baekhyun’s lowered face and look at him straight in the eyes with his large, almond-shaped caramel eyes. Baekhyun blushes even more but tries to will the blood back down from his cheeks. He clears his throat.

“You should finish your work before the others come back, or I’ll be in trouble” he tries to sound casual, but maybe he sounds a bit urgent too, so he tries to hide his fluster by tossing a paper on Chanyeol’s adorable face to make him focus back on his important work and maybe not notice Baekhyun’s blushing cheeks. Baekhyun doesn’t want to think what will happen to him if Kyungsoo and Chen come back to find him and Chanyeol working on their vacation. He’ll probably be hanged under that lovely tree over there. Chanyeol chuckles goodheartedly.

“I’m almost done” he promises, lifting his head and his arms off the table to sit straight in his chair again. Baekhyun’s legs fidget nervously from under the table but it’s not like they can move much with how they’re imprisoned in Chanyeol’s firm hold, which seems to get instinctively firmer when Baekhyun makes the smallest move. Baekhyun opens his mouth to plea for his leg’s independence, and he finds himself with no words but with a chocolate taste on his tongue. He closes his teeth around the edge of their last chocolate cookie, but he doesn’t understand why Chanyeol felt the sudden urge to put it in his mouth. Does Baekhyun need to stop talking so badly?

“It’s tribute for the princess” Chanyeol says with a toothy smile and a small eye twitch when he notices Baekhyun’s bewilderment. Baekhyun almost forgets that he has a cookie to hold in his mouth and almost smiles back automatically, and he almost doesn’t notice that he’s just been called a princess, but he does, and he frowns, trying to convince his mind that this is not worth blushing for.

“Uh’m nogh aw pwinghehh” he so eloquently objects with the cookie still in his mouth and a frown deep between his eyebrows. Chanyeol laughs heartily and his laughter carries over the golden sand and the quiet ripples of the ocean. It rings beautifully in the silence.

“I know, but you deserve royal treatment for putting up with all this” he explains, making a gesture to showcase all of his papers. Baekhyun swallows the delicious bite in his mouth, weighing his options to answer.

“That I can live with” he decides and Chanyeol nods approvingly, finally turning his attention back on his work. A few moments of silence pass between them, the soft breeze messing with the tickling ends of their hair. Baekhyun eats the cookie silently, watching Chanyeol as he works. He has the same businessman aura from before, the refined and serious, impressive and, quite frankly, insanely attractive image of him working, that Baekhyun never knew he’d see and, what do you know, he’s actually mesmerized by it.

“I like what you’re making, by the way. It’s very pretty” Chanyeol says seriously, his eyes never lifting from his papers, his frown never changing, his thoughts never straying too far away from his work, as if he doesn’t notice what he is saying feels like to Baekhyun, whose eyes widen in surprise to find out that Chanyeol took time to notice what he’s been crafting, and he blushes a little for Chanyeol’s comment. He doesn’t know if the sweet taste on his tongue is the chocolate anymore.

--

“What’s wrong?” Sehun asks, hoping that he has a chance at getting a real answer this time, something that is not half stuttered, half lied and half scowled. He has bought Luhan bubble tea, after all. Pineapple and mango, his favorite. That ought to count for something. Overall, Sehun thinks he has gathered enough boyfriend brownie points to exchange them for a legitimate answer.

“Nothing is wrong” Luhan shrugs his shoulders casually, keeping his eyes focused on his drink as he pins down bubbles with his straw with more zeal than necessary. And so another hour of sulking would have normally commenced, but Sehun won’t have that. He has had enough of Luhan’s long face ever since they left the grocery store, and nothing Sehun has done ever since has helped the situation. Maybe he can bear for ten more minutes in silent treatment but then that’s it.

Luhan seemed fine this morning and it’s really frustrating Sehun that he has to see those pretty eyes shadowed by whatever darkens Luhan’s mood. He managed to steal him away from the others and stir him into a bubble tea shop and he tried cheering him up with his favorite drink and with silly little jokes; he even poked Luhan playfully a couple of times but that didn’t go well and Luhan punched his arm at some point. Spectators might have deemed it playful but Sehun got the point, alongside a brand new bruise.

Okay, Sehun thought. Space. People need space sometimes. He doesn’t want to push. It’s okay; just wait until he comes to you at his convenience. Wait. And wait and wait. Well, let’s say that if Luhan is coming, he’s taking the detour through Scandinavia.

They have been walking in silence for a long while now, aimlessly wandering the streets of this small town. It’s actually a nice town, with small houses, white fences, blooming gardens and clean roads. Everything is quiet if you walk further from the area of picturesque shops and everything gets a more rustic aura, with lemon trees blossoming on either side of the streets and releasing their fragrance in the salty air, scattering white blossoms on the pavements. Sehun waits a while longer, throws away their trash dutifully at a public bin and then takes ten more steps next to Luhan.

“Don’t lie” his voice is stern and deep and calm, absolute one would say. He keeps his eyes forward and his head tall; he doesn’t need to glance to know that Luhan startles at his words, almost flailing for a moment before a mixture of panic, stubbornness and spite settles on his pretty face, wrinkling his brow and hardening his jaw. He looks older like this. It seems like he stares at Sehun’s profile as if he’s trying to burn a hole there, but after a while of Sehun irresolutely standing his ground, Luhan gives up and looks ahead with a sigh.

“It’s really nothing…” he kicks a pebble out of the way and Sehun thinks that he will have to use other means to get Luhan to open up. Luhan is a strange sort of person; he is open to people when he wants to, he takes his time, but more often than not, he just keeps things to himself, as if he needs to keep locking the door in a room he has holed himself up. He is a good liar and he can stir impressions and conversations away from him skillfully, so much so, that you can keep talking to him for an hour and never achieve anything other than grazing the surface of his shell. The only way Sehun has found so far to get Luhan out of his comfort zone is to corner him, sometimes physically, leaving him no choice but to jump out of his confines like a spooked canary flies out of its cage. Sehun takes action.

With one swift step to the side, he grabs Luhan’s arm and pushes him back while he’s still disoriented and surprised. In two steps, Sehun has Luhan pinned against a red brick wall and the small impact seems to be the only thing that Luhan registers, looking like he’s in a daze. Sehun presses against Luhan and blinks much closer to his face than before.

“Nothing?” he questions, voice laced with doubt. He is so close that he can feel his breath mingling with Luhan’s, straight out of his lips, sweetened with pineapple remnants. Luhan doesn’t attempt to struggle at all, letting Sehun hold his hands against the wall. Sehun can feel Luhan’s heart picking up the pace and ricocheting against his ribs, he can feel his breath hitching with the proximity of their faces as Sehun is looking down at him and he can feel the smaller’s legs fidget for a moment as if they have half a mind of their own to run away. He is aware that this is a very compromising position, but there is no one to see them anyway. Luhan blinks, blushing more and more, until he turns his head ninety degrees to the side, avoiding Sehun.

“It’s not important” he says and Sehun can see in his profile that his eyes still hold a bit of his earlier resolve. On the bright side, he doesn’t seem about to fight or flight, in spite of being trapped against a wall, and Sehun can already see that most of the barriers to Luhan’s mind are down; it shouldn’t be hard to work around the little resistance left.

“I want to know” he tries in a calm voice in contrast to his steel hold on Luhan’s wrists. He noses Luhan’s jaw and chin gently, trying to get him to turn his head and he succeeds. When Luhan turns his head forward again and looks up at Sehun, the latter makes sure that he won’t see anything but concern on his face.

“But it’s not important” Luhan mumbles, his lips temptingly close once again and his doe eyes blinking up vulnerably at the taller. He squirms slightly in surrender as the taller’s eyes scan Luhan’s face.

“I’m your boyfriend, so everything about you is important to me”

“Seriously…” Luhan whispers with resignation but there is no bite to the word, there is no room for that left between their lips. Luhan takes a moment, his breath becoming steady once again. “It’s just that I…I didn’t like it” There you go, now we’re getting somewhere.

“Hm?” Sehun encourages, searching in Luhan’s eyes that seem uncertain. Luhan flutters his eyelashes and turns his gaze down, as if he is embarrassed.

“I didn’t like that…you were…talking with that kid…flirting with that kid…” he murmurs in a hushed voice that Sehun would have missed if not for the proximity between them. Sehun frowns at Luhan’s answer. What kid? He tries to remember any kid since this morning. And then he remembers the grocery shop boy, the one who was about Sehun’s age and who was happy to find someone as young to talk to in this town. Oh, that kid. The flirting didn’t go completely unnoticed, but Sehun pretended he didn’t see anything unusual and just conversed casually with the man, avoiding any advances as politely and discretely as he could. And Luhan thought that all that was… “I don’t know why I’m like this, I don’t like myself for reacting this way, I’m sorry…”

“Luhan” Sehun calls, letting go one of his slender hands to touch his chin and guide hid face. Luhan obediently lifts his eyes and looks at Sehun again, his brown eyes helplessly glinting with defenselessness. Sehun makes sure to steal Luhan’s breath for his next pleading words. “I’m your boyfriend. Say it” Luhan hesitates for one heartbeat.

“You’re my boyfriend” he whispers, drawing in his lost breath and all he breathes is Sehun, and maybe that’s why his words sounded so wrecked, so much like saying ‘please, kiss me’. There is no mistaking this by the look in Luhan’s eyes.

“Good” Sehun doesn’t know if he is praising him or agreeing with him right now; maybe the latter, because he ends up kissing him. He closes the minimal distance between them and seals his lips above Luhan’s, tasting softness and fruit sugar. His hand caresses Luhan’s cheek, swiping away the bitterness between them and leaving the skin warm in the evening sun. Luhan’s free hand anchors on Sehun’s neck, pulling him down, just as his lips become more insistent. Sehun makes a sound at the back of his throat involuntarily, sensing what Luhan is asking, and Luhan’s body struggles to arch off the wall and come closer to Sehun even though there is no room to move.

Sehun remembers where they are and pulls away first, leaving Luhan stumbling out of balance. He catches him quickly before he falls and chuckles, thinking how Luhan is so much like a kid, even though he always calls Sehun that. Luhan is probably more childish, at least when they are together. Luhan seems to snap out of his daze too, shaking his head and whining incomprehensively as he rubs he presses his hands against his eyes and scrunches his nose. Sehun ignores the protests from the bizarre, shorter being, who likes to make everything complicated, and hooks his arm around his neck, dragging him along to walk forward.

“So,” Sehun says with a sly smirk, when Luhan has stopped with his noises “you were jealous?” The question seems to send all the blood rushing to Luhan’s head, his eyes opening wide and his cheeks turning red.

“Like hell I was!” he yells indignantly, jabbing Sehun in the ribs with his elbow. Sehun laughs.

--

Kyungsoo slumps his rear on the first decent bench his eyes land on, instantly feeling the relief. “My feet are killing me” he complains and leans down to rub his sore ankles. When they said grocery shopping Kyungsoo had not expected a proper excursion, first hunting down potatoes, then wandering idly in the town’s stores, then going out for lunch, and then for coffee, and then going for a walk by the sea. They have been trudging on the pedestrian street for at least forty minutes now. Kyungsoo means to glare at Kai for all the aforementioned suffering the later has been inflicting on his poor feet, but a glance to his right reveals a thoughtful Kim Jongin, already looking back at him, and that is never a good omen. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks reluctantly.

“Soo, take off your shoes” Kai instructs, very sure of himself and his spontaneity, which is actually concerning. Kyungsoo’s eyes widen instinctively and he coils back apprehensively.

“Why?”

“We’re going to walk on the beach” Kai announces confidently and Kyungsoo gives him a strange look. Not that he is not relieved that Kai’s ideas had nothing to do with embarrassing piggy back rides as Kyungsoo dreaded at first, but walking on the beach is not the splendor of Kyungsoo’s wishes in this moment. He’d much rather he could magically teleport to his comfortable bathtub, filled with warm water and relaxing scents.

“And get completely messy with salt water and sand? I don’t think so” he refuses, turning back to nurse his aching feet, thinking about the dreadfully long walk back to the car.

“I do.” Kai ignores his input completely, sitting next to him on the bench and taking off his shoes. Kyungsoo glares warningly at him; they are not teenagers anymore, to have romantic and playful walks on the beach and all that jazz. Kai smiles cheekily at him, getting off the bench and taking the first step on sand, thus signing Kyungsoo’s conviction. “Come on, Kyungsoo, we’re on vacation!” he calls over his shoulder, walking away with unreasonable grace, considering he’s walking on sand. Kyungsoo glares for a while, but he knows he’s in fact surrendering more and more with every next of the dancer’s steps. He sighs quietly.

“Why am I stuck with you?” he whispers, watching Kai’s slim silhouette advancing towards the glinting sore in the sunlight. And if he is being completely honest in this moment, he doesn’t mind being stuck with him. He doesn’t know why Kai happened in his life, but it’s not a bad life since he did. Kyungsoo begrudgingly waddles on the sand, the grains tickling the skin of his feet as he approaches Kai, joining him to walk side by side with a mumbled “Idiot”, answered by a wide smile.

--

“Why are we stuck with the groceries?” Chen complains, balancing the bags for the tenth time in his arms and trying to peek past a carrot sprout to watch his step on the uneven stone pavement.

“Because we’re se*y, free and single?” Xiumin shifts his own bags, cradled between those strong forearms and toned biceps that have been winking at Chen for a while now, and smiles a dangerously charming smile at Chen, adding a clever wink of his eye.

--

Baekhyun swirls the towel, drying another plate. They didn’t have many dirty dishes in the first place, but they decided they should clean everything –blame it on their maybe-too-nice-for-their-own-good conscience. Chanyeol was the faster one in grabbing the dishwashing gloves and Baekhyun accepted the sacrifice with a pout, blaming his short legs for making him slower than Chanyeol. Chanyeol insisted that it wasn’t much for him to do the washing, although Baekhyun thinks it’s one of the most boring chores one can get stuck with. They have been cleaning in silence for a few minutes now and for some reason the silence is unnerving to Baekhyun. There is a strange aura crawling on his skin, one that has nothing to do with the synchronized moves of handing over plates and tableware like they have done this a million times, even though this is the first.

He glances over at Chanyeol. He seems fine; unusually quiet, but fine. Baekhyun frowns thoughtfully at the bright horizon outside the window; is he imagining things? This unsettling feeling in his stomach wasn’t there earlier, when they were having breakfast outside. Maybe he ate too much marmalade. Unless…

Baekhyun risks another glance and soon it turns into a stare, and the stranger part is that Chanyeol doesn’t even notice. He’s so engrossed in his thoughts that he doesn’t notice when Baekhyun stops taking the plates from his hands, and he starts stacking them on the side instead, mechanically proceeding with the cleaning ritual. Baekhyun observes small things then, things that he might have suspected they existed ever since Chanyeol finished his online meeting this morning. Chanyeol’s shoulders are slightly hunched, his lips are set in a stern line, his eyebrows are on the verge of wrinkling and his eyes are downcast and shadowed with troubling thoughts. Baekhyun squints his eyes, seeing right through Chanyeol and realizing that the taller lied when he said his work was finished and settled earlier; it is obviously still hanging above his head like gloomy clouds and it bothers Baekhyun’s sunshine.

“Hey, Mr. CEO, is everything okay?” he breaks the silence, keeping his voice light and playfully swaying his hips to the side, just enough to nudge Chanyeol’s side. In an instant, Chanyeol changes his glum countenance, flinching out of his depressive stupor and painting a smile on his lips.

“Sure Baek, why?” he asks, looking down at Baekhyun as if nothing is wrong in the world; except Baekhyun can spell it on Chanyeol’s forehead that something is bothering the taller, and his effort to hide it is somewhat a communication barrier in Baekhyun’s current opinion.

“It’s about work, isn’t it?” he guesses, trying his luck. He doesn’t want to press Chanyeol too much and be prying or annoying, he just wants to help him if he can. A puzzled look crosses Chanyeol’s face.

“What is?”

“Don’t try to evade me, Park. I’m the master of psychology here” he chides playfully and Chanyeol cracks a smile, a small and genuine one that makes him look fragile, and maybe that’s why Baekhyun is more gentle with his next words. “I can tell something is bothering you. Is it serious? Can I help?” Chanyeol looks at him with surprised eyes.

“You can tell?” he asks incredulously. Baekhyun gives him a cheeky grin and a nod, and Chanyeol blinks a few times before a hesitant look takes over his face. His eyes favor the dishes in the sink instead of Baekhyun as he continues. “You’re right, it’s about work. But I didn’t mean to bring it up and ruin your mood; I’m sorry” he glances apologetically at Baekhyun and then back to the dishes so fast that Baekhyun doesn’t know if he had time to actually see him. Chanyeol scrunches his nose in regret. “I know it’s vacation and I’m not supposed to think about it, but my brain won’t listen to me”

“Maybe you can tell me later?” Baekhyun asks hopefully after a few moments of deep silence pass between them. He doesn’t like Chanyeol looking so defeated and tired but that doesn’t mean that he will keep nudging him until he opens up; it’s better if Chanyeol comes to Baekhyun in his own terms, when he will feel comfortable enough to share what is on his mind. Chanyeol’s lips curve in an expression that is not exactly a smile but it shows his dimple, and he nods once.

“Maybe later”

Baekhyun smiles widely, feeling accomplished with Chanyeol’s answer and his trust, and picks up his work again. Chanyeol still looks a bit blue, and Baekhyun knows this because he glances his way every third heartbeat, until Chanyeol notices and chuckles at him, making Baekhyun quirk his mouth to restrain a smile and the urge to fan himself in hopes of not going completely crimson in the face.

--

“Guess who’s back!” Kai exclaims, throwing the front door open and making a dramatic entrance in the house. Sometimes, Kyungsoo is not sure why he likes him, so please don’t judge. “Hey, lovebirds, we’re home! Where are youuu?” he prances off to the living room but the rest just ignore him –especially Kyungsoo– and head for the kitchen, carrying the shopping bags.

“What does he mean by lovebirds?” Luhan asks in confusion “I thought Chanyeol was too incompetent to start a relationship with Baekhyun. No, scratch that, he can’t even flirt!”

“Oh, I know” Lay deplores in agreement, shaking his head.

Kyungsoo doesn’t know for himself, but these two seem to think of Chanyeol as a real disappointment. He shrugs and starts peeling potatoes, because they need to start preparing food if they are going to have dinner today. But really now, is Chanyeol a disappointment? Well, he has not asked Baekhyun out on a date in so long, has he? Well, brain, that doesn’t necessarily mean he is a disappointment. Maybe Baekhyun is the faulty one here –because, let’s face it, Baekhyun’s romantic experience is zero. Besides, Chanyeol doesn’t have any reason to hold him back or result in disappointing performance; he is young, good looking, smart, funny, charming, gorgeous, fashionable, rich, educated, toned, cute, polite, filial, hard working, and this list could go on forever. Just Kyungsoo’s opinion.

“Hey, guys, I can’t find them” Kai pops his head in the kitchen.

“Did you check the bedroom?” Sehun asks and receives a slap on the head by Luhan. Chen snickers while helping Suho with the meat, mumbling something that sounds like ‘you’re worse than I am, kid’. “Why? They could be sleeping!” Sehun defends his earlier suggestion innocently. And it is because Kyungsoo knows Sehun that he understands that Sehun’s intentions were as innocent as he just stated. He lets out a sigh; Kai is undoubtedly halfway to the bedroom by now.

“Hey, that’s them out there, right?” Xiumin says, looking out the kitchen window at the beach.

“Shhh, keep your voice down. Let the idiot search a bit longer” Luhan says in a low voice, moving to Xiumin’s side with curiosity. From his position, Kyungsoo only has to look up and see the two on the beach.

Baekhyun is perching on the swing which is hanging under the shade of a tree from its long branches. He is wearing that pink polo shirt which makes his eyes look warmer, like melted chocolate. Chanyeol is sitting on the ground, a bit further away from Baekhyun, with his back turned to the audience –meaning, everyone in the kitchen. Baekhyun is swaying slightly in place, his feet stepping on the ground, and his twinkling eyes focused intently on Chanyeol. Whatever the latter is saying must be funny, because Baekhyun bursts out in babbling laughter which can be heard faintly even from the kitchen, throwing his head back in amusement. Kyungsoo smiles just by looking at his friend smile. He doesn’t see how Chanyeol is a disappointment if he can do that, if he can make Baekhyun so happy.

“Aww, they look cute” Xiumin says with a smile. Kyungsoo realizes that everyone is smiling just by watching Baekhyun smile; there you have it, the ‘Baekhyun charm’. Someone steps on Kyungsoo’s foot a little, from where they have very indiscreetly gathered to watch in a heap of limbs and curious faces, but he doesn’t mind.

“Exactly my point!” Chen exclaims, finally getting some acknowledgement for his insight.

“Do you think they got together already?” Lay asks, returning to help Suho with the meat. Poor Suho is the only one who takes their dinner seriously.

“What do you mean? Has Chanyeol been making advances on my cutie pie Baekhyun?! If it is so, then I will have to teach him a lesson-” Luhan glares daggers at Chanyeol while pushing his sleeves up his arms angrily –except, his shirt doesn’t have any sleeves, so he only does an exaggerated imitation. Kyungsoo smiles in amusement because Luhan probably doesn’t realize how he is contradicting himself by wanting and not wanting Chanyeol to have a relationship with Baekhyun; but he also finds Luhan’s concern for Baekhyun adorable.

“Well, sorry to break it to you, but that was the plan, you know” Chen says coolly, looking at Luhan with a completely detached expression. Luhan’s eyes open wide in surprise.

“There was a plan about this?!”

“WHAT?!” Kai squeaks, catching everyone’s attention. When did he come into the kitchen? “What is this?! They look just like when we left them! There is, like, a whole finger’s distance between them!” he exclaims and tries to align his finger with the distance between the two men outside in his line of sight. His reasoning is so wrong on so many levels that Kyungsoo won’t even attempt to comprehend that. “Did nothing happen? Nothing at all?! Dumb giant…” he pulls at his hair in frustration and marches swiftly closer to the window and closer to Sehun, with such steady determination that Sehun flinches back.

“Man, keep your face away from mine” he whines, shoving Kai’s face backwards, looking weirded out, but Kai pointedly ignores his protests and clings back on him in an instant, almost pressing his nose against the glass curiously. Sehun sighs and gives up the struggle after a while, getting shushed even by Luhan who’s trying to hear what’s going on outside.

“Maybe they need a bigger hint” Chen flashes a mischievous smirk, his mind racing ahead on topics that the rest can’t even imagine yet. Given that eight people had had to banish themselves from home for nearly ten hours just to give those two a bit of ‘romantic time alone’, Kyungsoo is not sure he wants to know what will be required of him to do for the next plan; but he sure hopes they’ll find a better excuse, because where on earth does it take eight grown men and a whole day to shop for groceries? Baekhyun is smart and they wouldn’t stand a minute of interrogation if he decides to ask about it.

“You mean leaving them all alone with their unsuspecting crush for each other in an empty house with nothing to do other than being together in a perfectly domestic environment and with an amazing view of the sea was not enough?” Lay jokes, half-hidden behind the fridge. He has a point though.

“There’s no way nothing happened!” Chen groans. Kyungsoo’s opinion is fifty-fifty on the subject. “I wonder if Baekhyun will tell me what happened today if I ask him about it nicely…” Chen takes on his Sherlock look, eyeing the two unsuspecting men outside with an examining stare.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear that story!” Kai smirks and eyes Chanyeol slyly. Kyungsoo feels slightly bad for those two out there; they have no idea what is going on behind their backs…

“Now we’re in the same wavelength, my friend” Chen approves and joins Kai in the plotting.

“Okay, was that supposed to make sense?” Luhan asks bewildered.

“We’re not doing anything!” Kyungsoo objects, scolding the scheming duo, who have the audacity to call themselves their victims’ best friends “Let them work things out at their own pace”

“Someone should call them over” Suho advises innocently “we are about to start making dinner”. Kyungsoo doesn’t know if the shocked silence which spreads suddenly in the room is because Suho hadn’t spoken at all until now or because of something else.

“Not it!” Chen is the first to exclaim. Yup, definitely something else.

“Not it!” Kyungsoo quickly adds. This is childish, but if it is going to save him, so be it. He doesn’t want to repeat yesterday morning all over again, with no door to hide behind this time.

A storm of -very mature- “not it!” exclamations fills the kitchen at once, and Kyungsoo cannot pinpoint which ones have said it clearly or first, but he cannot recall someone who has not said it either, or someone who said it last. They look at each other in doubt and expectation, like a bunch of idiots. Then, they slowly become wordlessly defensive, the way intimidated animals get, and Kyungsoo can feel his hair rise from the tension in the room. They all look as if they are ready to bolt out the kitchen any moment and scatter in all directions to save themselves.

Save themselves from what? See? It’s childish. But the terror they feel is real; because who wants to be that one awful person to walk in on that romantic scene outside and ruin it for good?

“Hey guys! You’re back!” Chanyeol’s booming voice sounds cheerfully from the door out of the blue.

“AAAACCCKKK!!!!” is the terrified, surprised-out-of-their-skin, univerbal reaction. They all run away from the door and hide behind each other –mostly Suho– at the other end of the kitchen. The stare at Chanyeol as if he has two heads and green skin.

“We thought we heard you talking from outside, so…” Chanyeol quirks his eyebrows and gives them a curious look –because they are acting so inconspicuously… (sarcasm here). Baekhyun’s head pops up behind Chanyeol, just like yesterday morning, when Kyungsoo had a similar experience with Chen. Man, this couple is going to give them a heart attack some day.

“What’s wrong? They don’t look so happy to see us” Baekhyun says innocently, with the cutest pout. Oh, Baekhyun, if only you knew…

“Do you notice the number of times they act like this?” Chen whispers to Kyungsoo. They are hidden behind everyone else in the furthest corner possible, so it is safe to whisper.

“Yup” Kyungsoo confirms “Twice.”

--

“…I think it was white, and white ones are cute, but it shouldn’t be in there all the same –even with its cute, white, little ears~ No wait, we’re hating it right now. Please, Chanyeol, I’m not crazy, I promise; just…will you do it?” Chanyeol sighs and rolls over on his back, lazily basking in the sunlight. He hadn’t realized he was dozing off, sprawled diagonally across the bed and lulled by the soft sunbeams of the afternoon sun on his skin, until Baekhyun’s sweet voice pulled him out of his slumber. Maybe the morning meeting with his father’s lawyer and the work he tried to cram within one breakfast period left him more exhausted than he thought. Chanyeol covers his mouth to hush a yawn and tries to focus more on what his little guy has been explaining to him in his sleep. He feels the mattress dip and bounce slightly as Baekhyun puddles closer to him on all fours.

“Chanyeol, are you still sleeping? You grunted earlier and I thought-oh my god, I’m going to give him a headache. I’ve been practically talking his ears off and he’s not even awake. I’m so awful, worst roommate ever” a muffled whimper of pity can be heard and Chanyeol’s sleepy lips pout at Baekhyun for blaming himself unfairly, because in fact he hasn’t disturbed Chanyeol in the least. His hand searches blindly on the covers in the assumed direction of Baekhyun and he clumsily finds a knee, covered with stretched denim. A hand would’ve been better, but he settles for the limb he has available, curling his fingers around Baekhyun’s small knee to physically tell him that everything is okay. The contact initiated by Chanyeol seems to spar Baekhyun on, successfully bringing him out of his self-pitying mumbled prayer. “Chanyeol, are you awake now?” he asks hopefully, grabbing Chanyeol’s hand in both of his.

“Hmm” Chanyeol hums sleepily and the squishy surface underneath him shakes with little waves generated from Baekhyun’s jubilant flailing. He must have really wanted Chanyeol to wake up; for what reason Chanyeol can’t guess, but he has a feeling he will find out soon. He focuses on trying to pry his eyes open instead, fighting his heavy eyelids.

“Thank god!” Baekhyun exclaims in relief, dropping Chanyeol’s hand on the mattress just as Chanyeol cracks his eyes open. And then- woah! Chanyeol gets the shock of his life with a facefull of Baekhyun. Chanyeol’s eyes open wide automatically, trying to find focus. Baekhyun’s nose is five centimeters away from Chanyeol’s, his chestnut bangs falling like a curtain and almost touching Chanyeol’s forehead, his puppy eyes glinting prettily with the light –he can’t see anything past his nose but he doesn’t think he can handle even the thought of the proximity anyway. Chanyeol is pretty sure he can count his eyelashes, marveling the pretty shadows from the gradually softening sun on Baekhyun’s sharp cheekbones. “Chanyeol, we’re friends, right?” Baekhyun asks pressingly, and his voice finally helps Chanyeol register the urgency in his expression, his wide eyes and raised eyebrows. His face is really too close.

“Baek?” he croaks in confusion and then he clears his throat, but it doesn’t help his voice sound anything lighter than a double bass. He tries to focus and answer the question. “Yeah”

“Like, really really really good friends” Baekhyun insists eagerly, coming even closer if that is possible, making Chanyeol’s heart bang in his chest with a sudden intention to move out and he gets completely lost in the way the chocolate colors play in fine specs and strings in the crown of Baekhyun’s irises. Baekhyun looks small and confused; fussing over something that Chanyeol doesn’t know in adorable fluster. His lips feel all tingly and he doesn’t even register what he answers.

“You look cute right now”

“What? No, Chanyeol, focus!” Baekhyun quirks his eyebrows, giving him a questioning and reprimanding look to bring him back into focus. But you see, that’s the problem. Chanyeol is focusing. Maybe too much. Because Baekhyun’s face is suddenly very HD in front of his nose. Baekhyun doesn’t seem to mind the unprecedented proximity though, in the midst of whatever commotion is making him uneasy. “So, we’re really really good friends” Baekhyun confirms with relief in his voice and then he takes a deep breath and establishes steady eye contact with Chanyeol who, needless to say, is pretty dazed by this moment. And then, Baekhyun pops the question. “Would you kill someone for me? Please?”

And that successfully throws whatever small part of Chanyeol’s brain was still working reeling, completely sidetracked and dumbfounded. What? What?! Are his pink, dumbo ears working properly? Did he just hear Baekhyun say what he thinks he heard him say? Is this the right reality? What is life? And although it’s greatly concerning that Chanyeol was this close to answering him instinctively with a very natural ‘yes’ -and no, you really don’t want to know where his thoughts had been, not even he wants to know- it’s even more startling that Baekhyun wants someone dead on one fine April afternoon. It’s Baekhyun we’re talking about. But even in the off case that this is actually a moment in real life and not some sort of illusion that Chanyeol’s disturbed mind has come up with, Chanyeol thinks that the answer he would give would still be yes. Chanyeol doesn’t assume himself to be an exceptional assassin, even though he can be a force of lethally clumsy hazard to be reckoned with, but he guesses there must be a handbook for amateur executioners out there. He would really kill for him; who knew. But wait. What is he even thinking?!

“Ughhh…” is all that comes out of his stunned lips. It usually takes a while until his brain tunes in fully to the human customs and the earth’s rotation but illegal stuff like murder can be advised against in that amount of time. Baekhyun huffs, slightly disappointed with the answer and the air that leaves his nose brushes against Chanyeol’s face and that’s just angelic.

“How ruthless can you be?” Baekhyun asks with an adorable frown, changing the subject slightly, but Chanyeol still has the feeling this is not something entirely sane and legal they are discussing. Chanyeol blinks helplessly, trying to reboot his mind to work properly and spilling out the answer with uncertainty.

“I don’t know; maybe a little?” He can be pretty unfeeling when it comes down to things that need to be handled coldheartedly, but those concern his job more often than not. He’s also not afraid of splatter movies, does that count as ruthlessness? And he has sometimes maybe fantasized about strangling Kai for doing stupid crazy stuff, but it’s not Kai he has to kill…or is it? Baekhyun’s pink lips quirk in contemplation.

“Hmm, it’s okay; it’s small anyway” he decides and then uses his hold on Chanyeol’s hand to pull him closer to the edge of the bed. For a guy his size, Chanyeol has to admit that he’s stronger than he would have thought and maybe that, combined with his adrenaline, is what helps him to physically drag Chanyeol off the bed and get him on his feet with only half the owner’s conscious effort. Baekhyun proceeds to pushing Chanyeol with two small but firm hands on his back. “Will you get up now? You have to go kill it! It’s in the bathroom”

“Uh, Baekhyun?” Chanyeol finds a bit of common sense as his feet take him forward and he steps aside from the course that Baekhyun has been so determinedly pushing him onto. “Just for curiosity’s sake, what exactly am I going to murder ruthlessly?” Baekhyun’s eyes widen in surprise or horror, probably a bit of both, and he takes one step closer to Chanyeol, lifting himself on the tips of his toes, and once again Chanyeol finds Baekhyun’s face closer than it should be. Chanyeol doesn’t flinch only because Baekhyun looks so dead serious when he whispers.

“It’s a mouse”

Huh? “A mouse?” Chanyeol repeats, his voice involuntarily laced with doubt. Baekhyun nods his head furiously and lowers himself to his original height, but he keeps standing close and right in the middle of Chanyeol’s personal space as he explains further with an endearingly serious face.

“A white one. It’s in the bathroom. I went in to brush my teeth, and it was there. Right there. Looking back at me. And I tried to ignore it but you can’t exactly ignore a mouse watching you brush your teeth, so I walked out of the bathroom inconspicuously and closed the door and then I came to you for help, and I’m sorry for interrupting your evening nap, but I didn’t know who else to ask, because everyone would make fun of me and, can you please go in already, Chanyeol? It’s right there” Baekhyun makes a gesture with his hands like holding a photo frame and stares inside it with horror and determination, as if he can actually see the mouse there.

“So, there’s a Mickey Mouse is in the bathroom and you want me to kill it?” Chanyeol sums up Baekhyun’s cutely flustered rant, his mind already planning ahead on finding a broom to maybe shoo the little creature out of the house, because he’s never been good with killing stuff, not even mosquitoes. Suddenly, Baekhyun slaps an arm in front of Chanyeol to stop him from moving one step closer to the bathroom and it stings the taller’s ribs slightly, his stomach definitely getting the worst of the hit. He’s about to ask what happened and he’s being so violently restricted all of a sudden but he stops when he sees Baekhyun’s lost and panic-stricken expression.

“Wait.” He says in breathless wonder and then turns to look at the taller with eyes unnaturally wide and somewhat appalled. “Chanyeol, you can’t kill Mickey Mouse!”

“Wha-”

“I said a mouse, not Mickey Mouse!” Baekhyun looks pale even at the thought, and now that Chanyeol thinks about it, you must be pretty sick to kill Mickey Mouse. But Chanyeol wasn’t planning to kill it in the first place and he named it Mickey out of habit; it seems that his mouth keeps making one mistake after another when he’s on autopilot. Baekhyun shakes his head in an absolute way. “You can’t kill it now. No way. I can’t be part of Mickey Mouse’s assassination plan, I would hate myself forever!” he hides his face in his slender hands and Chanyeol is about to start explaining that he’s sorry for his stupid mouth letting out unfiltered, terrorizing expressions that have formed after years of habit, but Baekhyun peeks through his fingers and looks up at Chanyeol. “Can you just catch it instead? We can take it outside then” he asks in a meek voice, as if he thinks this is too much to ask of Chanyeol.

“Okay, I’ll try” Chanyeol promises, thinking that it’s best to leave things simple for now; he can explain later. He’s going to go in there and chase a mouse around the shower and across the washbasin and over trinkets and other china bathroomware, and possibly, probably, break a few things while he’s at it. Oh the things he would do for Baekhyun.

“Thank you! I owe you cookies afterwards!” Baekhyun exclaims and pushes Chanyeol towards the bathroom door. Chanyeol almost trips on his feet on the way and he misses a collision with the door for mere seconds. He is surprised that Baekhyun can be so efficient when he’s in a hurry; then again, he works in a demanding business, doesn’t he? As soon as he’s through the door, Baekhyun shuts it behind him to prevent the mouse from escaping into the bedroom. Chanyeol sighs, only now fully awakened, and searches around for the mouse. But the silence in the bathroom combined with the uncomfortable task of trapping a mouse makes him nervous, so he starts talking to distract himself. After a few minutes of mumbling and humming to himself and still no sign of the mouse in vicinity, Baekhyun asks through the door “Did you say something?” after having heard Chanyeol’s incoherent and pointless rant to himself.

“Meanie Baekkie, locking me in the bathroom with a treacherous mouse” he teases.

“I didn’t lock the door!” Baekhyun defends immediately and then goes on in a nervous voice “And mice are not that dangerous. And I think this is a good time to let you know that I’m not afraid of them in general; in fact, they don’t bother me at all in their natural setting outdoors and I usually ignore them. But I just can’t stand the thought of having one as a roommate; it’s unsanitary and they tend to stare at you with those beady eyes as if they hate you for existing and it’s just ugh” Chanyeol can picture every single grimace that Baekhyun is making, from the proud nod of his nose, to his innocent stare, to his cringing with his lips curled. Chanyeol smiles without noticing and straightens his back.

“Well, Baek?” he says, putting his hands on his waist and taking one final sweeping look around the room.

“Did you catch it?” Baekhyun sounds nervous and his voice is louder, closer to the door. Chanyeol gives a few more looks around but there is no sight of the mouse.

“No”

“Has Mickey fallen in the line of duty?” this time Baekhyun sounds desolate at the prospect of Chanyeol having accidentally killed the mouse. Chanyeol chuckles.

“No, silly. I think he left through the open window” he says and the door creaks open. Baekhyun pops his head inside cautiously, his eyes running over every surface of the bathroom with anxiousness.

“Really?” Chanyeol doesn’t answer because Baekhyun already seems convinced enough, allowing Chanyeol to open the door properly and step out of the bathroom and into their room. Baekhyun stays behind to search with his eyes a bit more and then he turns around with relief written all over his small face. “Thank you! I promise I’ll make you some cookies when we go back home! Thank you Chanyeol!” Baekhyun gives him a wide smile, bright enough to outrival the sunset, showing all his pearly teeth, and Chanyeol suddenly finds himself breathless at the sight of two beautiful half-moon eyes. The world goes into slow motion and sparkles float around, and sunflowers, Chanyeol didn’t even know those things were possible in real life. He feels shocked, but the moment is gone soon, and he is left standing awkwardly unmoving and awestruck in the middle of the room.

“Why?” he asks nervously, blinking and blushing furiously for no apparent reason. He feels his heart leaping in his chest and he is very sure his blood pressure is not healthy. By no means is Chanyeol going to survive this vacation, he is sure now that his heart will give out. He scratches the back of his neck with embarrassment “I didn’t catch it”

“But you were willing to do it” Baekhyun says relieved and cheerful “It’s the thought that counts”

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a/n: I’m back~ It's so good to be back! Thank you for sticking with me, even though this update took forever (I’m so sorry T--T) I promise the next one will not take nearly as long. I think this is the longest chapter to date (hopefuly the only one this huge ever) & I must have rewritten it at least five times (and I mean the whole thing…did anyone say perfection maniac? *cough*) It includes every pov & many incidents, which I hope you found interesting! I want to keep this short, so I won’t say much, but let me know which sides of whom you enjoyed the most!^^ Make sure you guys stay healthy during the changing of the seasons! I love you and thank you once again! kitty~