The next morning when Kyungsoo left for class, there was a note taped to the outside of his door reading:

Morning Kyungsoo,

I broke up with her.

She was understanding.

Let’s meet after your class.

- Baekhyun

After reading it, Kyungsoo was reluctant to attend class. Because if there was no “after class,” there would be no confrontation that traveled with it.

Still, after his class (that he so dutifully attended) he saw a puppy-eyed boy in the hallway sitting on the edge of a windowsill, kicking his feet playfully. When Baekhyun spotted Kyungsoo out of the masses of people filling out of the lecture hall he jumped from the ledge, smiling with a shimmering glow in his eyes. Kyungsoo gulped, he thought he was going to faint; his pulse was thumping so violently.

The older boy approached him silently and Kyungsoo just stood there with his eyes wide and lips, which were abandoned by words, slightly parted. Baekhyun quietly slid his hand down the back of Kyungsoo’s arm, sending chills through his torso that eventually worked their way up to his neck and shoulders. He lifted the younger boy’s hand up with his, their fingers interlocked, “Is this okay?”

Kyungsoo nodded restlessly.

For a moment he was the shy one and Baekhyun was the one unwrinkled.

“I’ve never been with another man.” He said looking up with eyes that craved.

And Kyungsoo swore he nearly growled that statement out.

“I’ve never been with anybody,” Kyungsoo replied, “much less another guy.”

“My father hated faggots.”

And the grip on Baekhyun’s hand almost caused him to wince; nails were digging into his palm so roughly that he thought blood would drip from his hand.

“Don’t look at me with pity like that, Baekhyun.”

“It’s okay.”

“He’s dead,”

“anyway.”

Every word he said, even the silence seemed to have an echo. Reverberating in the air around them cruelly.

Baekhyun swallowed the concern that sat in the middle of his throat.

“Right.” He said.

.

“What major are you?” Baekhyun was embarrassed that he didn’t know that basic amount of information about Kyungsoo - it made everything they shared feel cheaper.

“Vocal.”

A smile ran across the older boy’s face, “I was a vocal major last year, but I quit singing.”

“You quit?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

And Kyungsoo watched as Baekhyun scrunched his lips together, strug