“Stupid ing school.”

Baekhyun sniffles pathetically and wipes his runny nose on the sleeve of his jacket, diverting his red-rimmed eyes to the floor in an attempt to hide his dishevelled appearance. There’s only a few people in the corner store anyway, since it’s almost nine o’clock and the streets are frighteningly dark, but Baekhyun’s pride is still too high to allow him to show himself in such a pitiful state.

“Stupid…stupid school. Stupid assignments…stupid…”

Baekhyun watches a pair of shoes pass his own as he shuffles miserably past the aisles, knowing he’s probably gaining a couple of weird looks because of his bitter muttering. Despite his flaming cheeks – partly from anger, partly from shame – he still barely has the energy to care. All he wants is to fill his empty stomach, since his barren fridge couldn’t achieve that, and go to bed. With only a lightweight wallet and a dead phone in his pockets, cheap instant foods seem to be the only reasonable option.

The crestfallen college student kicks a fallen piece of trash under a shelf, rubbing the stinging tears from his eyes, and scans the rows of packaged items before him, squinting to focus the blurriness through the dregs of his tears.

“Stupid ramyun,” he hisses, cursing the food industry for producing an unnecessary abundance of varied noodle brands. Baekhyun is a self-proclaimed picky eater – and, unfortunately, only a single flavour of a single brand of ramyun will ever suffice when he’s at a vulnerable point in time.

“’Scuse me!” an obnoxious voice cries from the front of the corner store. Baekhyun’s eyebrows lower even further down his forehead, and he squares his shoulders, continuing to search for his desired late-night comfort food with futile attempts at ignoring the noisiness that has unexpectedly disrupted his concentration.

“Stupid kids.”

A resounding series of crashes erupt from an unidentifiable location in the store, and the same voice yells an insincere “sorry!” for presumably knocking over a display. Baekhyun grits his teeth, and continues to move along the aisle, frustration bubbling – both from the rowdy intruders and his struggle to find the ramyun he wants.

Baekhyun hears footsteps approaching him, walking up the aisle from the opposite end he entered from, but he doesn’t look up, still bitter and sensitive from the unforgiving day’s events.

Finally, Baekhyun’s eyes land on the packaging imprinted into his mind, and he sighs a small breath of relief – the exact ramyun he wanted. All to himself.

He moves forward to reach and take the packet of ramyun, but the whisper of “score” – seemingly the by previous intruding voice – interrupts him, and a white-skinned hand snatches his prize off the shelf, revealing an empty row – the last packet. The thief has taken the last packet of ramyun.

Open-mouthed, Baekhyun looks up, eyes burning from the tears he’d spent hours crying, and he watches as a tall male figure steps back from the shelves and turns to walk to the counter and purchase the food.

“That’s mine!” Baekhyun blurts, unable to suppress his irritation. The male turns, and locks eyes with Baekhyun, and the smaller flushes in embarrassment.

“Huh?”

“That—give it back!”

The stranger looks at the packet in his hands, and then back down at Baekhyun - and a small smile tugs at his lips. He holds up the ramyun, and the artificial store lights gleam off the aluminium.

“This?”

“Yes,” Baekhyun snaps, detecting the mocking tone in the boy’s voice. His impatience is building and he’s too drained to play games – he just wants the ramyun, and he wants it now.

“Sure.”

The stranger holds out the ramyun packet, using his other hand to brush his dirty-blonde hair from his eyes, and Baekhyun reaches to take it – until it’s held high out of his reach.

“Oops. Looks like you’re too short for it, doll.”

Baekhyun balls his fists, breaths growing short and shallow.

“Give it to me,” he growls, “you stupid .”

“Excuse me? All bitter because of your height?”

“Stop it!” Baekhyun explodes, tears from nowhere welling up in his eyes. He stomps his foot and a childish sob tumbles from his lips, as he helplessly grabs for the ramyun, and misses.

“Stop it, you ing ! It’s not funny!”

The blonde-haired stranger watches as Baekhyun breaks down into tears, eyebrows raising in astoundment at the unexpected emotional outburst. Baekhyun, ashamed at his inability to keep his building distress at bay, only cries harder, feeling absolutely pathetic for bursting into tears over a packet of instant ramyun.

“What’s up with you?” the stranger scoffs, lowering his arm, words cutting sharper than intended. Baekhyun lifts the hem of his shirt and uses it to wipe away his angry tears, snivelling pathetically.

“I’ve had a day, okay?” Baekhyun spits. “I’ve had a ing day and I don’t have any money so just give me the ing ramyun because I’m ing hungry and I want to go home!”

Baekhyun, noticing that the other male has dropped his arm, grabs the packet from his fingers and holds it to his chest, ignoring the fact that it’s probably crushed from all the rough snatching. Beginning to feel humiliated for his immature behaviour, Baekhyun takes the cowardly approach of attempting to leave so he doesn’t have to face the other male any longer, but he’s stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Instinctively he looks up, and the blonde-haired male is suddenly level with him, bending down to look into his teary eyes.

“Hey, were you mugged or something?” the stranger says, his tone much softer than before. Baekhyun, mortified, only stares, stunned at the sudden closeness of the other male.

“What, can’t you talk now?”

“N-No,” Baekhyun stammers, shaking off the blonde’s hand and stepping back – only to crash into a shelf, a couple of ramyun packets falling and hitting him on the head.

Exhausted, Baekhyun only whimpers in resentment, and buries his head in his hands, tears flowing from his eyes all over again.

A few degrading seconds pass, and Baekhyun hears somebody picking up the fallen items and placing them back onto the shelves – and soon, warm hands are slowly uncovering his eyes, dabbing away his tears.

“Alright, enough crying, princess. Let’s get you out of here.”

Baekhyun allows the stranger to gently pull him out of the aisle, taking the ramyun from his hands, and he helplessly uses his sleeve to cover his eyes, humiliated.

Baekhyun finds himself outside the store with a packet of ramyun in his hands and an arm around his shoulder, the blonde stranger walking him down the poorly illuminated street. He’s sandwiched between the wall and the stranger’s body, and despite the lingering awkwardness, it’s the first time all day he’s felt emotionally secure.

“You live around here?”

Baekhyun doesn’t respond, even though he’s slightly fearful of being rude after his less-than-friendly outburst at the (surprisingly) kind stranger.

“If you don’t tell me, then I won’t be able to walk you home.”

“I don’t need you to walk me home,” Baekhyun grumbles, accidentally coming off as extremely rude despite his less-than-friendly outburst at the stranger (whose kindness is apparently growing by the minute).

The blonde male sighs in exasperation, fed up with Baekhyun’s sour attitude, and he shrugs.

“Alright then. I’ll just have to walk you back to my place then.”

“What?” Baekhyun gasps, “no, God, I have—I have class tomorrow, , I have to finish my presentation—”

Blonde stranger places a finger over Baekhyun’s lips to silence him, and whispers for him to shut up and play with his precious food until they get home.

Baekhyun knows this could easily be a death trap, and he could be walking towards a terrible fate lead by a hero with an (admittedly, attractive) unnatural hair-do, but his ‘ it’ viewpoint overpowers his common sense, and he decides to go along with it, anyway.

Stranger introduces himself as Sehun, and Baekhyun huffs, subtly inching closer to the warmth his arms are offering.

“Tell me why you cried over a pack of noodles,” Sehun inquires, collapsing back into his sofa after cooking Baekhyun his cheap meal. Baekhyun, tears dry and mind clear, is wrapped up in a sweet-smelling blanket, curled up in the corner of Sehun’s couch with a polka-dot bowl in his hands, and he’s decided that the guy deserves to know, since he’s been such a gentleman for no good reason.

“Bad day,” Baekhyun murmurs, scooping the food into his mouth gratefully.

“How so?”

Baekhyun downs the mouthful and sighs regretfully, looking away when he realises Sehun is watching him curiously. If he stares for too long he knows he’ll blush, because now that they’re in the quality lighting of Sehun’s apartment, Baekhyun has realised how drop-dead attractive his hero truly is, and he doesn’t want to risk creeping the guy out when they’ve barely met.

“I don’t know. It was just from start to finish,” Baekhyun starts spitefully. “I missed my bus and I forgot my lunch and two of my books and some dickhead at school took my money and then I had to present my assignment but the file ed up and I got stage fright and the professor yelled at me and told me he’d take five percent off my mark and I have to present tomorrow and I’m totally screwed and I had to stay back and work on it all afternoon and I haven’t eaten since breakfast and it’s just been ty. So ty.”

Sehun blinks in curiosity and Baekhyun looks up from underneath his eyelashes, cheeks dusted in pink, unaccustomed to the attention the blonde is showing him.

“And there’s no more buses home.”

Sehun smiles. “You still haven’t told me your name.”

Baekhyun blushes, visibly now, and fills his mouth with more noodles to stop himself from saying anything to further add to his embarrassment.

“Byun Baekhyun,” he mutters.

“Do me a favour, Byun Baekhyun. Stay over the night. You owe me.”

Baekhyun laughs in disbelief, lowering his utensils, heartbeat accelerating slightly.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

Sehun rolls his eyes. “I don’t mean , you freak. Just stay over and we can get to know each other. You’re amusing. Besides, I need new friends.”

Baekhyun’s cheeks burn, and he opens his mouth to defend himself, but Sehun motions for him to continue eating, standing up and stretching his arms above his head.

“I’ll bring over some pillows. Oh, and give me your number, so I can chase you down if you leave before I wake up.”

Baekhyun blinks as Sehun’s phone lands in his lap, and the man is gone.

“I made you breakfast.”

Baekhyun’s eyes open slowly, and he groans at the blinding sunlight abusing his tender eyesight. The plastic smell of instant ramyun fills the room, and Baekhyun’s neck aches from his uncomfortable sleep on Sehun’s couch.

A tall figure stands in front of the source of the light and Baekhyun opens his eyes a little wider, shielded from the brightness, and he meets Sehun’s gaze.

“Your favourite.”

Baekhyun tucks his hands under his chest and he pushes himself up, blinking away the heaviness of sleep from his eyelids.

“But you made me the ramyun yesterday.”

Sehun places the bowl of noodles in Baekhyun’s hands, and then points to the kitchen, a devilish smile on his lips.

“Look.”

Baekhyun turns, and comes face-to-face with a small pile of at least fifteen packets of instant ramyun, all of the same brand, all the same flavour.

Sehun chuckles and Baekhyun turns back around, eyes ablaze with pure hatred.

“I only took the ramyun ‘cuz I knew you were eyeing it.”

“Sehun,” Baekhyun hisses, “you are an absolute .”

Sehun shrugs. “I know.”

Baekhyun is about to drop the bowl of breakfast and storm out of the apartment, right then and there – partly because he’s pissed, partly because he’s starting to realise that he needs to get to class and leave this weirdo’s house – but he’s stopped when Sehun bends down and kisses him square on the lips. He seizes up, and his eyes stay wide open the whole three seconds.

“Baekhyun,” Sehun breathes, pulling back mischievously, “you are totally, one-hundred-percent gay.”

He saunters away and vanishes into the kitchen, and all Baekhyun can do is cup his fiery cheeks with one hand, and collect his phone and wallet with the other, and run, because his first kiss (shameful, yes) has just been stolen away by a completely attractive, completely observant and completely crazy blonde-haired stranger.

A minute passes, and Baekhyun’s phone vibrates in his pocket, and Baekhyun finally slows down and decides it’s safe enough to stop bolting. It takes him a moment of confusion to realise Sehun must have charged his phone while he was asleep.

[9:42am] Unknown number: You forgot that you gave me your number, didn’t you?

Baekhyun curses and smacks himself on the forehead. There’s no escaping the shame now.

[9:43am] Unknown number: Have fun in class.

He shrieks, and takes off again, heart pounding in utter fear of what his professor would say about his project this time – or maybe it’s just the adrenaline still pumping through his veins from the feeling of Sehun’s soft lips on his own.

Okay, so maybe he’s screwed for class, and maybe he made a complete fool out of himself in the middle of the store he visits every day.

But somehow, tasting the familiar flavour of instant ramyun on his lips, Baekhyun doesn’t regret a thing.