{Chanyeol}

Kris pretends to know nothing about his weekly attempts at finding love and yet he unfailingly comes by to drift around Chanyeol post-breakup. It's not that his presence at the house is such an oddity; he and Yura are engaged after all, and yet... It's beginning to feel more and more like he's rubbing it in, a constant reminder of something Chanyeol can never have.

Today he has flung himself dramatically over the cream-coloured sofa in a not at all transparent attempt to show off his new crimson silk T-shirt. He waits for a reaction but Chanyeol only continues reading.

"You're so boring!" Kris sulks. "You used to be the Happy Virus - what happened to you?"

You happened to me, that's what, Chanyeol wants to retort but remains silent. There's no point getting Kris all worked up; Yura will only be annoyed with him later. Instead, he sets the book down on a side table and directs his attention towards the needy blond, countering with an attack of his own.

"Don't you have a painting to work on or something, hyung?" he asks.

"Nope!" Kris grins. "I'm taking time off for inspiration."

Chanyeol sighs. One of those days again. Oh well, it's not like I really wanted to go to school anyway. He's not so sure he's ready to try again.

"What are you working on right now, hyung? Should we go somewhere?"

Kris swings his legs back onto the ground and sits up pensively. He knows he's won today's battle.

"I'm working on something in a sort of impressionist style...it's a landscape of a river bank with trees. I know, let's have a picnic!" He claps his hands delightedly, forgetting to pose against the sofa.

He's far more beautiful when he's forgetting about his style, Chanyeol thinks to himself. But that's how it's always been; the childish prodigy, the vulnerable boy and the cold sophisticated city guy never sharing the same space. Or the same heart.

"Okay hyung," Chanyeol mentally prepares himself for spending a morning out with his complicated brother-in-law-to-be. "Why don't you go tell nuna we're going out while I ask the kitchen for some lunch?"

Kris wilts visibly. "I don't walk to talk to her right now."

Chanyeol isn't too alarmed. Their relationship is far more steady than the frequent surface tensions would imply. If only I had known that at the beginning...

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asks gently, ignoring the dull ache in his chest.

"No," Kris mumbles. He looks across the room at Chanyeol and forces a grin. "We're going on a picnic and I'm going to go talk to the kitchen because otherwise they'll forget to put in the fried chicken!" He bounces up off of the sofa and steps lightly out of the room.

Chanyeol smiles despite himself. Since when is chicken your style? But that's just Kris for you. He unfolds his long legs and braces himself to go to talk his older sister. Hopefully this time they've kept the drama to a minimum.

After a surprisingly fun picnic spent outdoors with a cheerful Kris who, rather than looking at the landscape, obnoxiously steals his phone to play angry birds, Chanyeol decides he'd better make an appearance at school, at least for his later classes. Kris seems to have recovered his equilibrium and even though he didn't get a chance to talk to Yura since she was out at a board meeting, things are probably going to be okay. This time at least.

There's no point in sneaking in since he's so late, and seeing as the school is unfortunately quite aware of who his sister and father are, Chanyeol just gets Kris to drop him off at the front gate.

"Bye hyung!" he waves to Kris. "Thanks for the ride!" Kris only laughs and speeds off happily in his red Ferrari. Hyung and nuna will be as inseparable as ever at the dinner table tonight. Chanyeol shakes his head, feeling that dull ache in his chest again that he can never manage to dislodge.

{Baekhyun}

Baekhyun is looking idly through the window down at the students in the courtyard during their gym session. Occasionally he smiles when a cute girl giggles and waves his way, but most of the time he's looking blearily at his completely incomprehensible Mandarin notebook through sleep-blurred eyes. After a particularly face-contorting yawn, he is startled by a rolled up notebook smacking him upside the head.

"Ouch!" he protests. "That hurt!" He turns around to glare at the person behind him, and Sunyoung gives him an equally disgusted glare back.

"You're disgusting, sunbae," she smirks. "No wonder all the girls who admire your delicate flower boy prince image from afar all end up breaking up with you after they've had any exposure to your true revolting nature. If you're not careful you'll break up with this girl too." She laughs to take away some of the sting, but Baekhyun only nods in tired agreement.

"I don't have to worry about that anymore," he retorts with a wry smile. "She broke up with me yesterday."

Sunyoung stops grinning and looks sympathetic. "Are you okay?"

"I knew it was only a matter of time," Baekhyun sighs. "None of them even want to know the real me. They all have this fake image they've made up of this perfect princely boyfriend, and there isn't a real person alive who could possibly measure up."

"I know the real you and I'd really rather not have," Sunyoung jokes, laughing, but then her face becomes thoughtful. "Well, there is the second year Park Chanyeol..."

"Chanyeol?" Baekhyun asks. "I don't think I've heard of him."

"He joined the music club after you retired when you became a third year," she replies, "but I don't think he shows up a lot. And I think he only transferred in at the beginning of this year. He was in the other class so I only met him a couple of months ago, but he's made quite a splash in the lower grades."

Baekhyun perks up his ears. Anything is better than self-study. "I haven't heard anything!" he whines cutely, smirking at his hoobae. "Tell this bored sunbae everything!"

Sunyoung moves to smack him on the head again and Baekhyun jerks back reflexively but she only laughs and drops into the seat beside him. "As long as you order fried chicken for lunch."

"Fried chicken?" Joonmyun has wandered in through the classroom door from the hallway outside, and drops into the chair beside Sunyoung. "I'm hungry."

Sunyoung laughs and pokes his cheek. "You're too old to be eating greasy fast food!" she teases her boyfriend. "You'll get fat!"

Joonmyun starts to try some aegyo but seeing Sunyoung's fearsome death glare he quickly re-arranges his features. "Please?"

"Fine," she mumbles, "as long as I never have to see that again. Once was enough, and I don't think our relationship will survive a repeat."

Baekhyun shows Sunyoung his phone's fried chicken order confirmation screen. "Transaction complete. So what were you going to tell me before this hungry hyung so rudely interrupted?"

"Well, it's kind of strange really, when you think about it," she begins thoughtfully. "I've seen a lot of playboys flirt with anything that moves and always have a girl or ten on their arm, but Chanyeol's not like that. Every Monday he'll go out with the first girl who confesses to him, and every Sunday he breaks up with her."

Baekhyun is curious. "Doesn't that make him a playboy then? He's dating a new girl every week!"

"But during the week that he's dating, he'll be the best boyfriend you could ever imagine. And it's always a week; he won't randomly dump you or even look at other girls. It really seems like it'll be forever."

"But why aren't the girls mad when he breaks up with them?" Baekhyun asks, bemused. "Because I've never heard anything about him at all and if he had a horde of angry exes you'd think there would be some commotion."

"Because for the one week you get to spend with him, it's like you're living in a dream." Sunyoung has a soft half-smile on her face, and Baekhyun is suspicious.

"Oooh, have you gone out with him too?" he teases, expecting to get another head-bashing. So he's a little taken aback when Sunyoung only grins.

"I had a week a couple of months ago," she admits sheepishly, looking at Joonmyun guiltily out of the corner of the eye, but his attention is firmly fixed on the French novel he's currently devouring and he doesn't notice. She gives him a sharp kick in the shin instead, ignoring his outraged protests.

"That was before I started going out with this idiot here."

"So weren't you sad when the week was over?" Baekhyun is determined to get to the bottom of this strange state of affairs. When he gets interested in something, it'll weigh on his mind until he figures it out.

"Yes, a little," Sunyoung admits. "Kind of like when a really pretty flower you got for White Day starts to wilt and you have to throw it away. But it's okay, because all along you knew that he could never be yours." She shrugs.

Baekhyun feels irritated with her laissez-faire attitude. The whole situation just doesn't feel right to him.

"But why does he even do this? What's in it for ..." He's interrupted by his phone telling him to go pick up his chicken order.

"Be right back," he calls over his shoulder as he darts down the hall.

The stupid chicken is late. Baekhyun's been waiting at the school gate for ten minutes already, despite the "guaranteed notification time of no more than five minutes". What a load of rubbish. He's about to call the restaurant and complain when a flash of red catches his eye. Oh good, the chicken has finally arrived, except it isn't. He watches in surprise as a sleek red Ferrari pulls up to the school gate and disgorges a student in a second-year uniform. He catches the name "Chanyeol" in the reparté between him and the sophisticated-looking driver before the blond laughs and speeds off.

Speak of the devil.

The boy nimbly scales the gate and hops over into the school grounds before noticing Baekhyun sitting by the entrance. He looks surprised, quickly smoothing his attractive features into a cool smile. Before Baekhyun can stop himself, his big mouth is open and yapping again as usual.

"Hey, are you Park Chanyeol?" he asks, and then winces. That had sounded more accusatory than he would have liked.

The boy stops and looks surprised. Although it is somewhat unusual for third years to randomly talk to second years with whom they are not somehow acquainted, Baekhyun doesn't think he merits that kind of reaction. Relax. I'm not going to bite your head off. I'm just...curious, that's all. He's not sure if he's trying to convince Chanyeol or himself.

"Yes?" the boy answers, a question inherent in his rising tone.

"Don't worry, I don't care if you skipped class or not," Baekhyun is quick to reassure him. Although why am I worried about that anyway? "But it's lucky for you that the gatekeeper's not here right now; I saw him wander off in the direction of the cafeteria about five minutes ago."

"Oh, that's okay," Chanyeol shrugs carelessly. "It wouldn't have mattered anyway." There's something in the set of his jaw and wrinkling of his eyes that looks a little...sad.

"So, who's your new girlfriend of the week?" Baekhyun blurts out curiously, before curling his fingernails into his palms in disgust. I can't believe I actually said that. He waits for Chanyeol to look annoyed or blow him off or any number of things that people always do when "Big-mouth-Baekhyun" starts talking too much as usual, but Chanyeol only looks slightly bemused.

{Chanyeol}

I never expected a third-year to know about it too.

Chanyeol isn't sure what to think. This random third-year sitting by the gate has suddenly started talking to him and even knows his name. At first he thinks that it's just a typical sunbae exerting his seniority over the underclassmen as usual, but there's something different about this one. He's really pretty, for a start. Chanyeol doesn't think he's seen such a pretty boy before. Besides a certain someone.

"I don't have one yet." He decides to act as though being questioned about his dating habits is a perfectly normal thing to have happen to him. Besides, so far, besides being a little curious, the strange boy has done nothing wrong.

The pretty boy leans his head to the side, scrunching his nose cutely. He looks like he's trying to figure out a particularly difficult math problem or something.

"So, you'll just go out with the first one who asks you on Monday?" the boy asks. "Don't you have, like, a type or anything like that?"

A type? It's been such a long time that Chanyeol's been trying to find someone he can love; he doesn't worry about first impressions. Falling in love at first sight is over-rated anyway. It's falling out of love that's the hard part.

"No, not really," he replies. "I don't really think about that much."

"Well, if you had a type then." The boy seems determined to figure it out. Chanyeol is starting to find his cute inquisitiveness endearing rather than obnoxious. When was the last time someone really wanted to know what I thought about anything?

"Um, I don't really know. I like your face." For some reason, this seems to affect the strange boy negatively, and he looks a bit sad, as though he's come to a surprising yet somehow expected conclusion. Chanyeol is therefore surprised at the boy's next question.

"What about going out with me then?" The boy seems like he's joking, but there's something in the tilt of his eyes...Chanyeol is about to reply when he hears the approaching hum of a motorcycle and and the boy quickly gets up to jog towards the gate.

"What's your name?" Chanyeol calls out to the retreating figure.

"Byun Baekhyun," the boys responds over his left shoulder as he reaches through the bars for the chicken delivery box.

He has to ask around before being able to find out what class Baekhyun is in, but it turns out they're actually both in the music club as well, or were, at least until Baekhyun retired before starting his third year. And it's not like I go that often anyway.

Waiting outside the third-floor classroom, surrounded by unfamiliar third-years who swarm around him and down the corridor, talking about university acceptance exams and job expectations and other things he hasn't even begun to consider, Chanyeol feels like he's in a different world. So when the end-of-day rush begins to peter out, he's relieved to see Baekhyun still sitting in the corner, chatting with another boy. He's about to call out when the other boy seems to notice his presence and turns, fixing Chanyeol with his piercing gaze. He has the biggest eyes he's ever seen. The boy reaches for Baekhyun's shoulder and nods towards the classroom doorway. Baekhyun directs his attention towards him, his animated expression settling into slight puzzlement.

For a second, Chanyeol feels strangely nervous. He's dated countless girls, but he's never gone out with a boy before. Are you sure about that? Nevertheless, he gathers his private reservations together and smooths a winning smile onto his face.

"Hello sunbae!" he calls out cheerfully.

"Hello?" The uptilt in Baekhyun's greeting makes it sound like a question. Chanyeol falters for a moment but keeps on walking forward.

"I never had a chance to get your number," he explains. "It was hard to track you down."

"My number?" Baekhyun seems confused but reaches out his hand for Chanyeol's phone anyway. "Okay." The large-eyed boy gives Chanyeol a calculating look.

"Hi," Chanyeol says, ignoring the intimidating stare. "My name is Park Chanyeol and I'm a second-year."

"Do Kyungsoo," the other boy replies. Even if it hadn't already been obvious due to the class he is currently in, Chanyeol would have been able to tell that Kyungsoo is also a third-year by his uniform.

"Here you go." Baekhyun interrupts the moment by pushing Chanyeol's phone back into his hands. Chanyeol is about to open his mouth, to say what I don't know, when Baekhyun heads him off.

"Don't you have music club practice?" he asks.

"Music club?" Chanyeol is confused. What does that have to do with anything?

"'Music club?'" Baekhyun imitates him, including his puzzled expression. Somehow it looks cute instead of dumb on the smaller boy's face. I like the way his nose wrinkles. "I've heard you've been slacking off a lot!" Baekhyun has gone right into fully-fledged scolding mode. "I don't know if you know, but I used to be a celebrated member of that club and I definitely don't want the underclassmen to go dragging it down! Now off to practice with you!"

He gives the younger, albeit taller, boy a not-exactly-gentle push towards the hallway, but his smile is encouraging rather than mocking. Chanyeol, completely bewildered by the sudden turn of events, allows himself to be directed towards the music room. I guess it doesn't hurt to stop in once in a while.

{Baekhyun}

"So why was Park Chanyeol looking for you?" Kyungsoo directs his attention towards Baekhyun as soon as the younger boy has left the classroom.

Baekhyun is puzzled himself. Is Chanyeol just a really friendly guy? "I don't really know," he replies, equally bemused. "I just met him by the gate when I was picking up the fried chicken order." He's surprised with a sharp jab to the ribs. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Byun Baekhyun!" Kyungsoo is annoyed. "How many times have I told you to make your own lunch? Or if you're that lazy, I'll make it. Fast food is a waste of money and bad for your health besides!"

Baekhyun feels betrayed. "It's not my fault! It wasn't even my idea!" Seeing Kyungsoo's skeptical expression and twitching elbow, Baekhyun is quick to further elaborate on his defence. "I had to get it for Sunyoung as payment for information!"

"Information for what?" Baekhyun can see that Kyungsoo's angry mother persona has been averted for now, but in order to avoid another flare-up he lets his mouth rush forward without thinking.

"She was telling me about Park Chanyeol and..." Baekhyun's voice trails off as he catches Kyungsoo's expression.

"...and what?" Kyungsoo prompts him, a strangely neutral expression on his face.

"...and I was curious?" Baekhyun tries for the right answer. What is the right answer anyway? "Anyway," he goes for changing the subject instead, "I need to get going because there's a package coming for my parents that I need to receive at the door. If I'm late I won't hear the end of it."

Kyungsoo looks like he would prefer to further his line of inquiry but Baekhyun is relieved to see him drop the subject. Probably only for now, though.

As he walks down to the school gate, under the cherry trees in full bloom, a stray though pops into his head. He couldn't have taken me seriously, right? Like...we aren't really dating...are we? He shakes his head. Both of us only date girls anyway.

Names: I know that it might be a bit strange to use Kris' stage name as opposed to his Chinese name when I'm using everyone else's Korean name, but there's a reason.