Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Get down, Park,” the brunette hissed, lacing his fingers in the tall man’s auburn hair and shoving him down behind the wall.

Chanyeol cursed as he blew a strand out hair out of his eyes and glared up to the other man. “They couldn’t see us from over here even if they knew we were here.”

“Anyone can see you and your stupid little grin from miles away. Calm down before you get us kicked out of here for being suspected of planning to rob the place.” Baekhyun looked at Chanyeol with a grimace. “And how could you wear such bright and disgustingly unfashionable clothes? What part of undercover do you not understand?”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes behind his large sunglasses that truly did nothing to help him hide his identity. It wasn’t as though his friends couldn't notice him from his long, bow legged stance, or the bright, wiry hair that covered his large eyes that were currently squinted with annoyance as Baekhyun pushed him down, leaning on the top of his head to peer into the large window.

He wasn’t entirely sure how he got roped into this situation, being drawn out by Baekhyun early that morning just to be stuck here when he’d rather still be in bed.

“I didn’t sign up for this type of abuse,” Chanyeol muttered, wincing when Baekhyun gripped his hair tighter.

“Yes you did; now shut up and watch them.”

Baekhyun wasn’t necessarily someone that Chanyeol hated – wait, scratch that. Yes he was. But that wasn’t the point. The feeling was mutual, and it wasn’t a fact either of them felt a need to hide. Contests and competitions between the two of them were spent together bickering and picking apart the other’s ideas and work, and even simple games of soccer turned into full blown wars. It wasn’t a rivalry as much as it was just a strong dislike of the other person’s existence, nor was it past experiences that led them to their current relationship of teasing, obvious glares, sarcastic jeers from across the room, and rude insults from time to time. It was a mutual extreme dislike for each other that just sort of… happened.

So whatever possessed the small, boisterous man to approach him, Chanyeol couldn’t say, but he was definitely regretting his terrible decision of joining the sketchy plan ever since Byun Baekhyun had come up with the idea only about a week ago.

“Park!” Baekhyun’s voice had boomed throughout the quiet library that Thursday evening, immediately drowned out by the harsh “shh” of librarians and other busy students as Baekhyun skidded over to Chanyeol’s seat.

Chanyeol had looked up from his book with a sigh to the small brunette who scowled at the others in the library before he swiped all of Chanyeol’s papers from the desk, and sat upon it. “I have a proposition.”

Chanyeol glanced down to the books on the floor and up to him. “I was reading those.”

“So as I was saying, I have–”

“I was reading those. As in I’m busy.”

“And now you’re busy listening to me, so hush up.”

Chanyeol gave him an unamused glare and bit back his own sarcastic remark, figuring that listening to him would be the fastest way to get him to leave, so he pressed his lips into a thin line as he picked up a single book from the floor and flipped through the pages. “What do you want, Byun.”

“I have a favor to ask of you.”

Chanyeol blinked for a second before accidentally letting out a disbelieving puff of air, but Baekhyun’s fingers were curled in his collar faster than he could defend himself, tugging Chanyeol up from his seat until their faces two inches apart. “Don’t say a word.”

Chanyeol held up his hands, dropping the textbook from his fingers. “I didn’t; I didn’t.”

Baekhyun snarled as his fingers tightened in his shirt. “I wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t a request from a friend. Don’t let it get to your head, Park.” He let out a soft sigh as he let go of the fabric and backed away from the man, pushing himself back up on the desk. “Anyways. That friend of yours… Do Kwangsoo?”

“Kyungsoo.”

“Whatever. I know someone that kind of likes him.”

Chanyeol raised an eyebrow. “And why are you telling me about your unrequited crush on my friend?”

Chanyeol barely held back a curse as Baekhyun swung at his head with one of the thicker, hardback books. “It’s not me, dumbo. It’s my friend. Chen.”

“Oh your friend.”

“Shut up unless you want your nose shoved down your throat.”

“I don’t think that’s humanly possible.”

“I’ll make it humanly possible.”

Chanyeol’s jaw set. “Calm your man boobs; I know of Chen. Kyungsoo’s been glancing at him a bit too. It’s been rather annoying, actually,” he added with a sigh, recalling whenever Kyungsoo would pause in the midst of a walk to catch a glimpse at the taller, poodle-haired man and then slapping Chanyeol away whenever he questioned it.

Kyungsoo’s and Chen’s blooming romance story definitely wasn’t anything new. Although Chanyeol had found out about Kyungsoo’s crush much more recently, it had started months ago with Baekhyun finding his friend zoning out in the middle of his conversation by staring across the lunchroom, mindlessly poking at his food with his chopsticks as he let out a dreamy sigh, laughing it off with a quick shake of his head and a soft “it’s nothing” when Baekhyun asked who he was staring at. However, his behavior continuously occurred – staring out the window, not focusing on his studies in class, looking out in the stands for a certain person during a soccer game – Baekhyun quickly became more than slightly intrigued by the guy who had taken Chen’s simpleminded interest, until he noticed that he had been staring at Park Chanyeol’s table of all places. Why even. It took him a bit to realize that Chen’s heart-eyed love-locked vision had been completely zoomed in on the cute little raven haired man sitting next to Chanyeol, currently holding him in a chokehold, and with a smile, Baekhyun immediately approved, because anyone that wouldn't think twice about hurting or embarrassing the elf-eared giant was worthy enough to call themselves Chen’s boyfriend. The only problem was actually getting the two together. And that’s where Chanyeol came in.

“So,” Baekhyun sighed, lying back against the long, library table, “despite how much I’d detest having my friend in your little clutches, this isn’t about me and you. It’s about Kyungsoo and Chen.”

Chanyeol hummed as he adjusted his glasses. “So you’re asking me to help you play matchmaker.”

“I guess you could look at it like that.”

“And? Why should I help you? What would I get out of this?”

“Another week to live,” Baekhyun responded, sitting up and glaring down his nose at the tall man with a challenging look in his eye. “I already took enough time out of my day to come see you; don’t make it be in vain. Not to mention, you don’t need anything out of this; isn’t your friend’s romantic happiness enough?”

A small, teasing smile tugged upward on the corners of Chanyeol’s lips. “Aww, look at you, doll face. Even someone like you can do a few nice things every once in a while.”

Chanyeol wouldn’t have taken that extra harsh tug on his ear from Baekhyun so easily if he had known it would land him here – stuck crouching behind the old concrete wall of Super Smoothies, getting their hands dirty with dust and the orange paint that peeled from the walls as they peeked in through the large windows to observe their friends. Chanyeol let out a harsh sigh, trying his best to ignore the obvious judgmental looks from suspicious passersby as Baekhyun stood on the tips of his toes, making faces into the window as he watched Chen and Kyungsoo sitting awkwardly at a small table in the corner of the restaurant.

“Tch,” Baekhyun muttered, adjusting his sunglasses on his face, “they ordered separate smoothies.”

“This is just their third fake ‘date’, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol said, pushing him away and clapping the dust off of his hands, “what did you expect?”

“That they’d share a romantic Sunday morning sipping a passion fruit smoothie together as they stare lovingly into each other’s eyes and slowly realize that they’re in love… Maybe their hands would accidentally brush against each other’s or they’d shyly laugh and look away from each other to hide the blush on their face…” Baekhyun sighed blissfully, earning a glare from Chanyeol who opted to slap the back of his head, coloring his shiny brown hair gray with dust and earning a devil’s glare back from his thin, annoyed eyes.

Ever since Chanyeol agreed to help him, their plans had gone as smoothly as riding a rickety motorbike with a couple of loose bolts and a deflating tire over an endless uneven dirt trail of loose pebbles and broken glass in the rain. From the first date – a simple lunch period spent at the same table playing a card game that quickly turned to a full blown competition between Chanyeol and Baekhyun that ended in disaster – to the second – an awkward (supposedly accidental) meet up in the park that Baekhyun and Chanyeol had tagged along to, lying in the freshly cut green grass that scratched at their faces as they pointed toward the sky, arguing about the shapes of certain clouds while Kyungsoo and Chen awkwardly avoided each other’s gaze and sat in silence until it began to rain – Chanyeol had figured that this wasn’t necessarily their area of expertise. It wasn’t Chen and Kyungsoo that had problems, but considering how the four of them didn’t necessarily make the most perfect bunch of the stereotypical happy buddy-buddy best pals, the tension in the air stretching between all of them didn’t provide the best atmosphere to cultivate romance and catalyze their fragile relationship.

He turned back to the scene, watching as Chen probably cracked another cheesy joke that Kyungsoo was trying his best not to laugh at. Chanyeol couldn’t help but smile. The two had chemistry; they just didn’t know it yet.

“Look,” Baekhyun sighed. “They’re so perfect together. I’m so good at this matchmaking business. If you did my homework for a week, I could probably even find you a match to that sour personality of yours.”

Chanyeol nudged his shoulder, nearly pushing him off balance. “I don’t want you to try to hook me up with someone. Anyone you choose would be distasteful and annoying, like you.”

Baekhyun turned to him, a sneer set heavily on his lips. “They couldn’t be like me because you and I would never match, even in an alternate universe. I’m too good for you, Park.”

“Since when have bossy, annoying, and unintelligent been a good qualities?” Chanyeol asked with a roll of his eyes that had Baekhyun tugging at his hair again.

They tumbled into a mess of insults, too busy bickering about the size of Chanyeol’s elephant ears and the irritating pitch of Baekhyun’s voice to notice the glass door open, until a rush of cold, fruity slush poured over their heads.

“What are you two doing,” Kyungsoo asked, his voice devoid of any emotion except annoyance, glaring lasers down to the duo as he held his cup upside down over Chanyeol’s head, letting the last drops drip onto his hair.

Chanyeol shook his head like a wet dog and pointed to Baekhyun. “His idea,” he coughed out as he ran a hand through his hair and flicked the remaining smoothie on his fingers at Baekhyun.

“What idea?” Baekhyun asked, licking at the corner of his lips as he shot a glare to Chanyeol before innocently trying to look up to his friend between the clumps of Chen’s pink smoothie gathered on his eyelashes. “It’s coincidence. Hey, Kyungsoo. Didn’t know you were coming here, today.”

“Like hell you didn’t,” Chanyeol muttered, trying to clean the smoothie from his glasses.

“You red-headed nerd,” Baekhyun spat back contemptuously turning toward him as he curled his fist, cut off only when Chen held him back by the collar with a sigh.

“Don’t fight in public. That’s not classy.”

Chanyeol glanced to him, wanting to make a remark about how they already weren’t classy, dripping with smoothie and sitting on the curb in torn jeans and t-shirts, soliciting outside of an old smoothie shack, but he just rolled his eyes and drew a few clumps of mangoes from his hair.

“Blame Byun for whatever,” Chanyeol said with a sigh when Kyungsoo gave him a disappointed stare. “He’s the only reason I’m here.”

“What, did you get smoothie in your ears too?” Baekhyun asked, tugging on Chanyeol’s ear sharply as he gritted his teeth, growling, “I said I didn’t do anything, Park.”

Chanyeol curled his lip in a snarl, pushing Baekhyun away from him with a scowl, about to tell him to stop pretending when they were obviously caught, shamefully sitting, dripping with thick smoothies that dried on the hot pavement, but Kyungsoo interrupted with a loud sigh. “Whatever. I’m going home. I’ll see you around school, Chen,” Kyungsoo said, waving nonchalantly as he walked off.

“Nice going, Baek,” Chen said, pushing his friend softly with a disappointed frown before walking in the other direction.

“Well that didn’t go as planned,” Chanyeol sighed, pressing his fingers into Baekhyun’s cheek. “Way to go, loser. I swear your dates just get progressively worse.”

“Will you stop?” Baekhyun sneered, taking the extra smoothie on his shirt and smearing it on Chanyeol’s face.

Chanyeol smeared his own mess back on Baekhyun’s face with a grimace. “Because meddling and interrupting their date was the perfect way to start their Sunday.”

“I said stop.”

Chanyeol groaned with a soft “whatever” as he stood up and patted his pants, giving a final swipe of his fingers through his hair as he walked away without another glance, followed by the hopeless romantic waddling behind him.

---------------

“Come,” Baekhyun sighed, tugging on the back of Chanyeol’s shirt, interrupting his lunch time and game of Egyptian war as he pulled him from the bench.

Chanyeol dropped his cards on the table, fidgeting as he tried to regain his footing. ”What the– let go of me– come where?”

“After that last failure two days ago, we have to plan their next date.”

“Next date? Why are we getting involved in this again?”

“Because it’s obvious they’re helplessly in love and too dense to realize it or make a move on their own.” Baekhyun said, shooting a sharp glare to Chanyeol as he tripped. “And I don’t want my friend to die old and alone. ...God, you’re an idiot.”

Chanyeol gave an irritated groan as he stood up and patted the dust from his pants. “Shut up. We’ve had three strikes already, Baekhyun. I swear, your meddling is probably just making their chances worse.”

“It's really not that bad.”

“My hair still smells like mangoes.”

“At least it smells better than it usually does.” Chanyeol opened his mouth to complain, but Baekhyun cut him off, pursing his lips as he thought aloud. “But I don’t know whether or not if I should continue on without you. You’re just dragging me down.”

Chanyeol glared down to him, a sharp remark on the tip of his tongue before he held it back. “Fine. Do it without me.”

Baekhyun blinked, narrowing his eyes at to Chanyeol, whose face was too smug as though he was challenging him like ‘Good luck getting Kyungsoo to agree to anything you plan to do on your own.’

Baekhyun sighed. “I’ll plan the date. Just… get Kyungsoo there. I don’t care how.”

A smile took over Chanyeol’s hard demeanor. It felt good to be in power. “One request. Let’s stop hiding or pretending they’re coincidence. Let’s meet up and hang out like normal people, okay?”

Baekhyun grumbled his approval, and after exchanging their phones to input each other’s phone numbers (after both of them raided the other’s phones with remarks of “ew, your selcas make me lose faith in humanity – why are there so many with that stupid V sign?” and “Get out of my pictures – but yours make me want to bleach my eyes”), they left each other after a few bland remarks of “Just make sure your next date is good,” and “Oh trust me, Park. It will be,” and Chanyeol glanced to the new contact, grimacing and quickly replacing Baekhyun’s name with ‘midget idiot’ because ‘stupid little annoying midget idiot Byundumb’ was too long.

Chanyeol sighed, looking back in the direction that Baekhyun walked off in, internally cursing Kyungsoo for falling for someone who happened to be friends with the world’s most annoying bean sprout.

“So,” Chen asked, “is this like a double date or something?”

Chanyeol nearly choked, spitting his water onto the table and wiping away the thin stream trailing from his lips with the back of his hand. “No, oh god, no; it’s just a… a friendly thing,” he responded, and Baekhyun turned to him, shooting him a sharp glare that asserted that they were definitely anything but friends.

Chanyeol just returned a simple roll of his eyes that confirmed that he knew and didn’t intend to change that in any way either. But he figured it’d be easier to just pretend until their friends finally started dating and could finally move on from their awkward “I swear I don’t like him” period with Kyungsoo’s uncharacteristically long stares and soft, shy demeanor around the guy he liked that was beginning to freak Chanyeol out a little bit, if he was honest.

Of course, Chanyeol would probably never understand the reasoning behind why Baekhyun had dragged them all to an art museum of all things, especially when he had seemed so excited about the supposedly amazing date he had planned all on his own and Chanyeol was going to be super jealous that he didn’t think of the idea first. As if. They were high school boys with minds too small and preoccupied with things like girls (or boys) and sports and video games and their upcoming graduation to hold any extra interest in other irrelevant things like art.

So Chanyeol just leaned back smugly and mumbled, “Or maybe we’re here to be bored to death.”

“We’re here to have fun, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun said with a sigh, taking another sip of his drink.

“Fun? You actually think we’ll have fun here?”

“Anyone with a brain larger than a peanut would enjoy art, but I guess you wouldn’t know, huh? Fucking–”

Baekhyun winced as Chanyeol kicked his shin under the table shooting a sharp glare to the innocently smiling taller man. Chen quickly cut them off with a nervous laugh. “Why don’t we just go back inside and… look at some stuff, okay?”

Everyone at the table stood in silent agreement as they packed their lunch to head inside. Sitting outside under the shade of the green trees and talking to Chen and Kyungsoo (and kicking Baekhyun) would probably the best part of this date; Chanyeol groaned, knowing that the rest would be spent inside of a stuffy art museum next to old women with white hair and tiny glasses explaining how “the texture and the style of the High Renaissance painting was so much nicer than the Impressionist still life next to it because of its use of perspective, and everyone should just return to the older art styles” as she argued with another person who claimed modern art actually had meaning. Ugh. Gag him.

Chanyeol sighed, lacing his hands behind his head, staring up to the ceiling with a bored frown as he walked through the halls, occasionally glancing at a painting or two with a hum of approval, before accidentally bumping into Baekhyun’s back.

“Watch where you’re going, Park. I’m trying to admire the art.”

Chanyeol raised an eyebrow, a frown set on his face. “You’re actually enjoying this.” They had been inside for barely fifteen minutes and Chanyeol was sure they were just walking in circles because everything looked the same. White walls, old people asking for assistance with audio tours, art students with sketchpads, and people falling asleep and getting left behind. Sure. This was the life.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun responded, turning back to the painting with a nod. “That’s a… nice painting.”

Chanyeol shot him a glare. “Stop pretending to be so interested. It’s embarrassing.”

Baekhyun’s face scrunched in irritation as he mocked him with a nasally voice. “Stop being such a downer. It’s annoying.”

“I don’t sound like that,” Chanyeol called, his voice accidentally echoing throughout the small room.

“You’re right,” Baekhyun said, lowering his voice as much as he could, though it shook as he tried to speak. “You sound like a 76 year old ahjussi.”

Chanyeol lunged toward Baekhyun menacingly, although his attempt at violence was interrupted by Kyungsoo as he turned to them with threateningly large eyes. “Will you two stop acting like children before I break one of these paintings over your heads?”

Chanyeol recoiled from his position, both of them silently apologizing to Kyungsoo, who rolled his eyes as he turned back around, muttering, “I’ll send you to jail handcuffed together, I swear.”

The two of them winced, looking at each other disapprovingly and they joked about it often, but was Kyungsoo actually Satan because wow that sounded like hell. Baekhyun scoffed, pushing ahead of Chanyeol as Chen called his name.

“Baekhyun, look! Huge naked lady!”

Kyungsoo sighed as the two ran off toward the marble statue. “They’re both idiots.”

Chanyeol laughed, slipping an arm around his friend’s shoulder. “At least Chen’s cute, yeah?”

“W-What are you talking about,” Kyungsoo stammered.

“Don’t lie. You’ve secretly had a thing for the idiots,” Chanyeol laughed, ruffling his friend’s hair.

“I can’t stand any of you guys,” Kyungsoo responded with a groan. “But I guess that explains why we’re friends at least. You’re the king of idiots.”

Chanyeol gasped, giving him his saddest puppy face.

“Don’t pretend to be any better than them,” Kyungsoo chided, pushing Chanyeol’s arm away from him. “You’re just as bad as Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol’s face hardened. “Please don’t compare me to that annoying thing.”

Kyungsoo just rolled his eyes with a laugh as he walked off, and Chen turned away from the statue to follow loyally behind him.

Chanyeol sighed and tucked his hands into his pocket, his eyes unconsciously focused on Baekhyun’s back as he walked behind him, thinking about nothing in particular until Baekhyun’s voice drew him out of his bored stare.

“I know I’m entrancing, Park, but don’t stare at the art for too long,” Baekhyun said, looking over his shoulder as he put his hands on his hips with a smirk.

Chanyeol squeezed his eyes shut, groaning as he shoved past the brunette. “What art? I didn’t see anything but a pile of garbage.”

Baekhyun’s face dropped, wiping the sentiments of “my hips are a beauty but no flash photography please” and “don’t try to touch what you can’t afford” clean off his lips as he narrowed his eyes at Chanyeol, grumbling, “What are you, blind and dumb? Can’t appreciate art when you see it...” before he quickly ran past him and pushed him, causing him to stumble and crash into the wall, skewing the orientation of a painting. Baekhyun ran off ahead of him, laughing as Chanyeol quickly looked between him and the painting before following him.

“Hey, Byun!” Chanyeol shouted angrily, chasing after him as they ran through the halls, skidding between people and bumping into walls and statues while ignoring any shouts for them to stop or be careful, screaming too loudly to hear them anyways. Baekhyun leaped over desks and pedestals, pushing people out of the way without a care, laughing loudly as he burst through the glass doors leading outside of the museum and into the garden.

The brunette glanced behind him to see Chanyeol quickly closing the gap between them, and he gave a shriek, cursing Chanyeol’s long, giraffe legs as he squeezed his eyes closed and sped up, immediately bumping into Chen and Kyungsoo, and the four of them fell into the large koi pond together, accidentally splashing some nearby observers.

Baekhyun coughed as he resurfaced, screaming and splashing Chanyeol when he came up from the water, and the two were immediately at the other’s throats; Chanyeol gripped Baekhyun’s hair and pushed head back under the clear water until he caught sight of an angry Kyungsoo, and he let go of Baekhyun as Kyungsoo huffed and Chen held him back with a nervous laugh.

Baekhyun lifted his head from the pond and pushed Chanyeol away, though the taller male just weakly pushed him back with a sigh. “I think we’re just terrible at this matchmaker thing,” Chanyeol said, brushing his hair away from his eyes and shooing off a couple of fish. “Dates have never been your forte after all.”

“Shh,” Baekhyun cut him off with an elbow to the side as he pointed toward Chen and Kyungsoo, the former laughing as he stood and helped a blushing Kyungsoo up from the pond after finally calming him down a bit. Chen stood up proudly despite the water making his white shirt see-through as it clung to his body, and Kyungsoo turned away from him, shyly trying to push him away while Chen waddled toward him with his arms wide in an attempt to hug the shy, younger man, laughing as Kyungsoo splashed him before slipping and falling back into the pond on top of each other.

“You were saying?” Baekhyun asked with a smug smile set on his annoying little lips that Chanyeol splashed again with a roll of his eyes.

Baekhyun stood, pulling a few leaves from his clothes and nonchalantly dropped them onto Chanyeol’s head.

“You’re just jealous that I’m actually good at this.”

Baekhyun let out a startled squeak as Chanyeol grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down into the pond with a groan.

“Don't get cocky, Byun.”

Baekhyun stuck out his tongue childishly as Chanyeol turned away from him, watching as Chen draped a towel he had received from an employee around Kyungsoo’s shoulders and dried the shorter man’s dark hair with his own towel and a large smile on his face. Chanyeol smiled. How sweet – they were going to give him cavities. He should push them into ponds more.

The two of them were brought out of their admiration for the almost couple, cringing as a stout woman shouted at them for running in the museum and told them to promptly leave.

Baekhyun hissed, slapping Chanyeol’s arm. “You got us in trouble.”

“Getting in trouble was probably the most fun part of this boring ass ‘date.’ You should be thanking me,” Chanyeol responded smugly, but Baekhyun just rolled his eyes as he stood up, his sneer turning into a half smile as he gave a soft chuckle, swiped a towel from a nearby worker and tousled his hair with it before he tucked his hands in his back pockets and left Chanyeol behind.

---------------

‘Codename: Project Chensoo’

That’s what was written at the top of the crumbled piece of paper that Chanyeol was smacked in the face with in the midst of a yawn as he walked out of school.

“What's this?” Chanyeol asked, after taking the paper into his hands and threatening to hit the brunette back with it.

“Our battle plan.”

The nearly blank piece of paper turned out to be a list of things that Chen and Kyungsoo had to accomplish before project Chensoo could be marked as complete that ranged from holding hands, back hugs, stealing a quick kiss when no one was looking, and sharing a deeply romantic moment together. Baekhyun impatiently explained that they would fill in more ideas as they thought of them, as well as keeping track of their dates, whether they were successful or not.

As long as Chanyeol didn’t have to witness all of them, he’d be okay.

Chanyeol seemed to be increasingly turned off by the thought of their blooming romance, but the slow but steady progress between Chen and Kyungsoo only fueled Baekhyun’s drive to see them together as a couple because “they’d be so cute, we can’t stop now!”

Chanyeol wasn’t sure when he began to see his determination to get these two together as more humorous and entertaining than annoying as he had before, but seeing the brunette smile every once in a while wasn’t bad either. It was a relief to not be fighting every second of the day, and although it was awkward, it became more bearable as time passed until the awkwardness between them thinned and was forgotten. Baekhyun would begrudgingly bite his tongue to hold back insults and stopped scowling every time the taller man approached him, and Chanyeol slowly began to not dread meeting up with him more often over lunch or after school, in the mornings or during homeroom to plan a few other dates together that surprisingly didn’t fail as miserably as the first few had.

The quartet went to the theater and had fun on a date that went off without a hitch aside from Chanyeol and Baekhyun arguing over what movie to see, settling on one that Kyungsoo had suggested, as well as the popcorn fight Baekhyun and Chanyeol had dragged Chen and Kyungsoo into that ended up getting them kicked out of the theater, although they couldn’t help but laugh about it on the way home.

They often met up after school to play games together, and soon began spending lunches together at the same yellow picnic table under the large oak tree, and overtime, their awkward atmosphere began to dissipate as Baekhyun would set the mood, filling the air with laughter, whether it was with him or at him.

As time slowly ticked along, Chen and Kyungsoo’s relationship slowly progressed as well until they became comfortable enough to hang out on their own without Chanyeol and Baekhyun forcing them together or staying by their side to clear the awkwardness from the air.

Chanyeol caught them together fairly often and watched them from the window as they sat together on a bench in the garden behind the school scribbling notes down in notebooks. From his position, Chanyeol noticed everything from Chen stealing a glance at the younger man at any possible moment, and Kyungsoo’s hesitant leans toward Chen until he pulled away at the last moment, shifting uncomfortably as Chen laughed when he finally let his head rest against his shoulder, peeking over it to watch as Chen scribbled something down on his paper. Kyungsoo sat up quickly, his eyes lighting up as they said something in unison, ending with a cute hi-five that had them both laughing as they turned back to their papers.

They settled back into common conversation, Chanyeol assumed, until Chen slowly walked his fingers along the bench and set them on top of Kyungsoo’s hand. Kyungsoo pulled away and shuffled away from him as Chen laughed before reaching out to rub his ears softly, leaning in to whisper something that made Kyungsoo’s ears turn a bright red.

A smile spread across Chanyeol’s face. He had never seen anyone make him go from creamy pale to cherry tomato that fast. Kyungsoo stood up, and Chen laughed as he stood too, following behind the shorter male as he tried to push Chen away, but caught up to him and wrapped his arms around him, holding him in a back hug as he set his chin on top of his shoulder.

Chanyeol smiled, watching as they slowly swayed from side to side in that position as he recalled how awkward they had been too afraid to even breathe the same air two weeks ago. They had gone from hiding behind bookshelves in the library and awkward stares across the lunch room to blushing when their hands barely brushed and jokingly back hugging each other.

If that wasn’t progress to be proud of, Chanyeol didn’t know what was.

With a satisfied smile, Chanyeol leaned back in his chair, thinking about Baekhyun, immediately wondering if this would have happened on their own or if Baekhyun’s meddling had actually instigated it. Either way, Baekhyun’s plan was working in one way or another, and although he’d hate to admit it, he was doing something good with all this interference if it made the two of them so happy. He chuckled, thinking about how the over excited romantic would react to the news as he pulling out his phone to congratulate the idiot.

To midget idiot:

‘Good job, Byun. Looks like your plan is actually working out well for once :)’

Chanyeol paused. His finger hovered over the send button as he reread the message a couple of times.

Did he just admit Baekhyun did something good?

He shuddered and quickly erased the message.

To midget idiot:

‘Looks like project chensoo is nearing its final stages.’

From midget idiot:

‘And this means…?’

To midget idiot:

‘That you’re only an idiot most of the time, and I finally won’t have to put up with you anymore.’

Chanyeol tucked his phone in his pocket, giving one last admiring glance to the two as Kyungsoo pushed Chen away and returned to his spot on the bench before Chanyeol turned back to his work.

---------------

“What are you doing at my house?”

Baekhyun hummed softly, lying back on Chanyeol’s bed, staring at the ceiling as he counted off the ideas on his fingertips.

“They can go paintballing. Or laser tag?”

“I didn’t invite you here.”

“We can send them on a romantic boat ride even. Or not... Chen gets seasick easily and we don't need to deal with that.”

“Baekhyun–”

“What?” he asked, glancing up slightly with a small smile. “Your mom made me cookies. You can’t kick me out.”

“Technically, she made them for me, and you just took one,” he responded, eyes narrowed, but the brunette ignored him as he went back to naming date ideas.

“Hmm… Library study date.”

“You want them to have a date at school.”

Baekhyun sat up. “We’ll just set them up. It’ll be simple.”

Chanyeol leaned back his chair and frowned. “Too boring. Think of something better because all of your ideas so far have been lame.”

“Didn’t you just say a couple of days ago that I’m not an idiot anymore–”

“I implied that you’re still an idiot most of the time.” Chanyeol looked up to the ceiling, about to mention that perhaps they should just stop meddling and let them realize their chemistry on their own, because their presence seemed to be nothing more than the ultimate cockblock right about now.

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at the taller man before leaning over, taking the cookie from his fingers, and biting it with a contemptuous frown. “Well I don’t see you coming up with any ideas Mr. Genius.”

Chanyeol scowled as he snatched back the cookie. “Take them out to dinner or something. Send them to a fancy restaurant.”

Baekhyun licked his fingers and lay back down with a roll of his eyes. “They’d be so awkward together in a place like that.”

“We’ll go with them. Just to start it out, and then pretend something comes up, and we leave.”

Baekhyun’s eyes lit up. “Order lots of expensive food, eat, leave, and make them pick up the tab?”

“Before we order any food,” Chanyeol asserted with a frown.

“They can bond over how much they hate us for making them pay.”

“I’d rather not have their date end by letting Kyungsoo strangle us to death.”

Baekhyun shuddered. “Point taken.” He stared at the ground as if sorting out his thoughts before looking back up to Chanyeol with that mischievous smirk on his lips. “But what if he doesn’t catch us?”

That conversation ended with a hard flick to Baekhyun’s forehead and led to the two of them sitting across from Chen and Kyungsoo in a cold booth in a restaurant somewhere on the outskirts of town, with Chanyeol’s eyes straying up every so often from his hands folded neatly on his lap to Baekhyun fidgeting with his bowtie next to him.

Chanyeol couldn’t help but look as a small, smug smile appeared on his lips from the satisfaction that he had somehow managed to get Baekhyun to wear a bowtie though he knew he hated the stupid things, and although he knew the thought was wrong, he couldn’t help but notice that Baekhyun could clean up rather nicely when he tried, and perhaps Chanyeol should force him into suits more often.

He twiddled his thumbs nervously, feeling too intimidated from the overall air of the restaurant that had him too afraid to even touch anything, lest it break. Although the restaurant was indeed fancy, it wasn’t bank-breaking material, but the atmosphere had made him feel that everything, even the silverware in the red, folded napkins was more expensive than him, and even Baekhyun seemed so porcelain and perfect under the light of the fancy crystal chandeliers hanging above their table that he too could break if he stared too long at the way the light sparkled across his skin, yet Chanyeol just stared longer, trying to differentiate between the flawless, diamond Baekhyun that he momentarily saw him to be and the small idiot he currently was, kicking his legs like a child as he happily flipped through the dessert menu, pointing out all of the different cheesecakes.

“You know, this is great and all, but we don't have to do this,” Kyungsoo mumbled, adjusting his tie when the air felt too thick and tense.

“Yeah, going out or even staying inside to do something fun would have been fine as well,” Chen added.

“Chanyeol doesn’t know the meaning of fun,” Baekhyun said, gnawing on his fork with a bored roll of his eyes, his lips twitching up into a smirk as he glanced toward Chanyeol. “He’s as boring as a brick.”

“Yah, Byun Baek,” Chanyeol said, reaching out to grab Baekhyun’s neck and laughing as he tickled the brunette into submission. “I’m not the one that made us go to an art museum,” he finished, though his voice was lost behind Baekhyun’s loud laughter.

“Stop stop,” Baekhyun barely made out, squealing as he pushed the taller man away from him, the remnants of laughter still tinting their voices as their hands fought with each other for dominance. Chen and Kyungsoo watching them with wide eyes because were Chanyeol and Baekhyun actually laughing? Together? And not at each other? Someone please take a picture of this beautiful fleeting moment.

“Excuse me,” a soft voice interrupted, drawing them out of their laughter as they glanced up to a small, elderly woman standing at the edge of their table. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said as she smiled down to them, “but you two are the cutest couple I’ve ever seen.”

And it was strange, Chanyeol thought, specifically because it was a table set up for four guys, none of which were necessarily in a relationship yet, and although Kyungsoo and Chen did make quite a nice couple together, she wasn’t even looking in the direction of the two, and then it clicked.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol glanced to each other before Chanyeol let out a disbelieving “Us?”

“Oh we’re… we’re not a couple,” Baekhyun stuttered with an embarrassed laugh. “We’re just friends.”

Friends. Friends?

Chanyeol focused on Baekhyun, his face contorted into that confused, wide eyed stare as he wondered when he had been upgraded from worst enemy or even from “someone Baekhyun hates with an incredible burning passion” to friend. This was news. Last time he checked, they were definitely not friends.

The elderly woman smiled as she nodded in Chanyeol’s direction, holding back a soft laugh. “It doesn’t look like he thinks so.”

Chanyeol could feel the color draining from his face as everyone at the table turned to him. Was that really what it looked like? People think he actually likes Baekhyun? The Byun Baekhyun? He almost gagged. “P-please don’t misunderstand,” Chanyeol said, standing quickly and accidentally snagging the tablecloth, pulling it from the table and dragging all of the drinks on the table toward him, sending them crashing into both him and Baekhyun. In surprise, Baekhyun stood as Chanyeol reached out to grab him, hoping to save him from the disaster, but he slipped on the bunched up cloth and liquid beneath their shoes, and they fell to the ground together as Chanyeol pushed him down, pinning Baekhyun to the floor.

Chanyeol jerked backward, hitting his head on the bottom of the table with a loud curse as Baekhyun lay on the floor, dazedly staring up to Chanyeol with wide eyes.

“Oh well, excuse me,” the woman said, holding a white-gloved hand up to her lips, failing to hold back her laughter as she stepped around the two. “I’ll leave you two to your date then.”

Chanyeol watched as she walked off with her husband as he turned to her.

“How could you tell?” Chanyeol heard him ask as they left the scene.

“Did you see how they looked at each other? All the cute ones are gay, dear.”

“Park! Park Chanyeol, get off!” Baekhyun shouted to snap him back into attention, and Chanyeol drew his hand away from Baekhyun’s body as Kyungsoo’s hands curled under his armpits to help him stand, still in a daze as he mumbled “I don’t know what happened” and continuous apologies that jumbled together into a mess that sounded desperately of ‘please don’t think wrongly, I swear we’re still just best worst-enemies.’

Baekhyun angrily wiped the drinks from his clothes after he struggled to stand, muttering something that sounded distinctly like “incompetent little shit” as he glared at Chanyeol.

“Perhaps we should just go,” Chen suggested, looking back and forth between people jeering from their tables and impatient waiters that were all staring in their direction. “We’ve already made enough of a mess here.”

Kyungsoo frowned, clapping Chanyeol on the back of his head, “This is your fault, Park.”

Chanyeol cringed when Chen pulled Kyungsoo away, laughing and asserting that it was funny anyway and at least no one got too hurt. Chanyeol glanced toward Baekhyun before he looked away with a sigh, rather overjoyed with the idea of leaving the restaurant, as he knew it’d be too awkward anyway, hiding his face and trying to keep from making eye contact with Baekhyun for the rest of the night.

The quartet promptly returned to Chen’s house to watch movies and play video games, eating chips and popcorn while Baekhyun and Chanyeol sat on opposite sides of the couch after changing out of their wet clothing and into some of Chen’s baggier clothes (that were still too small on Chanyeol), hugging their knees to their chest, trying to keep from sparing each other awkward, strained glances.

---------------

From the #1 idiot:

‘You ruined my only tux.’

From the #1 idiot:

‘Idiot.’

---------------

It took approximately a week for Baekhyun and Chanyeol to hold a proper conversation without stumbling over their words or bringing up the awkward dinner date incident.

Chanyeol groaned. What was wrong with him? Usually they'd be hooting in laughter at how ridiculous it was or making fun of each other at least for their simplistic responses to the situation, and Chanyeol would have made at least one joke about how he was the best fake boyfriend Byun Baekhyun could ever score.

Rather, Chanyeol was going to school late and returning home early, hoping to avoid running into him in the halls or seeing him during lunch or in the library. Awkwardly ending conversations ensued whenever they felt the need to “act natural”, whatever that meant, and Chen and Kyungsoo began to avoid each other to help keep the two from meeting and getting caught in the middle of another uncomfortable situation. This cycle continued for days until Baekhyun finally got the courage to text him, asking if he was ready to stop being a baby and meet up to plan more dates because they were driving Chen and Kyungsoo apart, and their conversation ended with concerns of are you sure you still want to do this – of course – even after that last disaster – just don’t mention that.

The first time they met again was for ice cream at their usual parlor, when Chanyeol accidentally bumped Baekhyun’s arm, and his cone dropped onto his pants. They stared at the ice cream as it dripped down his thigh, leaving a dark, wet trail in its wake, until the entire cone fell from his pants and crumbled against the ground.

Chanyeol laughed nervously, trying to alleviate the awkwardness. “Maybe life is telling us to stop. Whenever we try to help with Chensoo dates, we always end up wet and sticky.” He paused and glanced toward Baekhyun, who just gave him an unamused glare, before Chanyeol stuttered through an attempted explanation. “I mean... not like–”

“Let’s forget you said that.”

“But I didn’t mean–”

“Just shut up, Chanyeol.”

“Okay.”

Slowly, however, they began to warm up to one another again as their days warped from tense laughs and forced pats on the back and short, focused texts back to long, playful days and chats and hearty laughter at absolutely nothing. Back to showing up unannounced and falling asleep on Chanyeol’s bed, and fights of smearing peanut butter on each other’s face. Lounging around outside and scheming between classes. Numerous homework breaks and ice cream dates.

“Here.”

“I wanted–”

“–Strawberry. I know.”

It was common by now to meet up after school like this, eating ice cream and staring out the window of the parlor as they thought of new date ideas, teasing the others and secretly wondering when they’d find a love of their own.

Chanyeol had gotten used to these things. Used to waiting for Baekhyun to show up behind the bleachers or at the locker late with an irritated frown because Chen held him back while spying on Kyungsoo.

To nodding mindlessly at every new date idea that Baekhyun proposed and unconsciously handing him his snacks whenever he had any because he knew that Baekhyun would ask eventually.

To having stared at Baekhyun so often that he could probably draw his face from memory by now.

To sitting outside of his bedroom door to listen as Baekhyun mindlessly sang in the empty room because he knew he’d stop and laugh it off once he entered.

To watching from a classroom, scrunching his nose in disgust as Baekhyun would make funny faces at Chen and Kyungsoo, a soft smile touching his lips as the brunette clapped his small hands and spun around in a circle with a large smile before tripping over his feet and falling to the ground.

(Chanyeol just scoffed as he turned away from the scene, trying to subdue the smile spanning across his lips. Idiot.)

To Baekhyun doodling “chensoo” in his notes and small hearts around it, and nudging Chanyeol’s shoulder to show him. “I ship it. I ship it hard.” Chanyeol would just laugh and push him back.

To being too busy losing track of time and their grasp on reality to realize that they were caught somewhere in the sweet limbo between moments of ‘could be’s, possibilities, and fantasies and not necessarily wanting to find their way out.

---------------

“Ahh,” Chen sang, holding his mouth open toward Kyungsoo. The wide-eyed boy glanced to him and frowned, picking up some of his food and poking his chopsticks into Chen’s mouth. Chen chuckled as he smiled to Kyungsoo, giving him a delighted hum and a thumbs up.

Baekhyun tapped Chanyeol’s leg with a snicker, directing his gaze to them. Sharing Food. Check. “Look at you two being all lovey-dovey and cute. Is this a new romance story that I see blooming?”

“It’s not,” Kyungsoo said, wiping the sauce from the Chen’s bottom lip. “He wanted some so I just gave him a little.”

“Feeding him like a lover, no?” Baekhyun asked, hiding a chuckle behind his hand, much to Kyungsoo’s disapproval.

“He’s been making a lot of new recipes recently,” Chanyeol said, softly nudging Baekhyun’s arm. “Usually I have to beg him to try anything, and here he is, just feeding it to Chen like his wife.”

“Oh is that so? What is this, an indirect kiss?” Baekhyun said making a kissy face toward the two, and Chen shot back a scowl.

“Don’t.”

“Why? You two should kiss – pepero kiss!” Baekhyun said, jokingly, laughing as he teetered back and forth on the bench, shaking the box of pepero in front of Chen’s face.

“Like hell we will,” Chen croaked out with a loud, embarrassed laugh, snatching the box from his friend’s hand with a faint blush before Baekhyun stood up, lunging at him from across the table, and the two playfully slapped each other’s hands away with loud teases of “You’d be cute!” and “That’s not for you to decide!”

“Let’s make it a game,” Kyungsoo said, turning away from Baekhyun and Chen to look at Chanyeol. “See who can get it the shortest. Me and Chen versus you and Baekhyun.”

Chanyeol blinked, his eyes wide as he glanced back and forth between Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. “Me and… But… But I hate him.”

“No wait,” Chen interrupted, catching Baekhyun’s hands to focus his attention on Kyungsoo, “I think it sounds like a great idea. We won’t do it unless you two do.”

Chanyeol glanced back to Baekhyun, expecting him to lash out violently or at least start throwing food in their direction while screaming profanities, but the smaller man sat back down, staring at the two of them before picking up and opening another box of pepero on the table.

“Baek,” Chanyeol called, tugging on the brunette’s sleeve. “Don’t be bothered by them, come on.”

“Fine,” Baekhyun said, pulling out a stick and slipping the chocolate side into his mouth as he turned to Chanyeol. “We’ll do it.”

Chanyeol looked down to him as he burst into laughter, waiting for Baekhyun to do the same and shame them for how ridiculous this terrible idea was, but Baekhyun didn’t react, just staring at him when Chanyeol’s laughter slowly morphed into nervous chuckles as he pushed himself slightly away from Baekhyun. “Wow, you can’t be serious.”

Baekhyun only pushed himself forward silently, holding the stick between his teeth and giving Chanyeol an expectant, wide-eyed glare that screamed ‘it’s for chen and soo; shut up and stop complaining.’

Chanyeol stared down to him incredulously. They had barely added the pepero kiss to the list a few days ago, but it was hard to go against that look in Baekhyun’s eyes stressed that they needed to do this because if they didn’t do it now, they probably wouldn’t easily get the chance again. Chanyeol let out a loud sigh as he gave in simply because he’d never hear the end of it if he let this chance go, hesitantly tilting the brunette’s head upward to clamp down on the other side of the pepero stick, and Baekhyun shuffled forward, placing his arms too near to his thighs as he inched closer to Chanyeol to even out their height difference.

“Aww,” Chen cooed, “You two look so natural.”

“Shut up,” Baekhyun hissed around the pepero stick, before focusing his eyes on Chanyeol’s, and the taller man quickly looked away.

“You lose if you break it,” Chen added, hiding a snicker behind his hand, and it looked like Baekhyun was using all of the self-control he contained in his tiny being to not get up and smack the smug look off his face.

Baekhyun closed his eyes as Kyungsoo gave the signal to start.

The beginning was okay. Well, as okay as it could be when Chanyeol was too lost in his thoughts, inwardly groaning with disgust because he was actually doing something like this with Byun Baekhyun of all people.

But as he looked down to the brunette, he couldn’t help but notice that Baekhyun actually looked half decent and peaceful when his eyes were closed and his mouth was shut.

Perhaps he should enjoy these few seconds because Baekhyun would probably never be this quiet again.

Then everything quickly snowballed downhill. His heart began to beat faster as he inched closer to the small brunette, and Chanyeol paused, not entirely sure of why it got progressively harder to breathe as they advanced toward each other.

It’s a game, Chanyeol, it’s just a game.

He tried to even out his breathing, slightly tilting his head as their lips neared, and although he wanted to close his eyes and pretend perhaps he was doing this with a hot supermodel or at least anyone other than Byun Baekhyun, he couldn’t take his eyes off the smaller male’s pale face.

They were too close. Close enough to hear his soft breaths as he took the pepero stick further into his mouth. Close enough to smell his shampoo. Close enough to freeze Chanyeol in place as he stared at him, suddenly utterly lost.

And he couldn’t help but focus on the soft curve of Baekhyun’s long eyelashes.

And how soft his pink lips looked pursed around the thin stick in his mouth, and how they’d feel against his lips...

And maybe if they held out long enough he’d be able to find out...

And he kept nearing… slowly… ever so slowly…

And Chanyeol couldn’t hear himself thinking from the sound of his heartbeat thumping in his ears.

And…

The pepero stick broke.

---------------

“Chanyeol you broke it!”

“You’re too short for us to do this right anyway.”

“It’s not my fault; you’re just too tall.”

“Whatever just... shove off already.”

---------------

From Baekhyun:

‘Hey are we still meeting up today?’

From Baekhyun:

‘Come on we have to set Chensoo up on some more romantic stuff. We’ve been slacking recently.’

From Baekhyun:

‘Serious, Park, I’m not playing. Where are you?’

-2 missed calls-

From Baekhyun:

‘Idiot, pick up your phone’

-4 missed calls-

From Baekhyun:

‘Chanyeol?’

---------------

“Chen and I are going ice skating this Saturday.”

“That’s nice.”

“Yeah? You should come.”

Chanyeol sank into his mattress, letting his stress dissipate into it as he let out a deep breath. This seemed to be what he originally wanted – letting the two finally go out on their own and experience their own date without him and Baekhyun sitting between them, but perhaps he’d want to see the couple interact a little bit before he let them spread their wings and fly on their own. He sighed. Chen and Kyungsoo were like his babies. Babies that he and Baekhyun had raised and fathered together – wait what–

“I’ll think about it,” Chanyeol quickly mumbled.

“Baekhyun’s coming too.”

Or not. Chanyeol groaned, pressing his face further into his pillow. “Ahh… how about no.”

As time would have it, Baekhyun’s name began to leave a vile taste in Chanyeol’s mouth whenever it was mentioned, and forming the name on his lips was a chore. He didn’t really think that running away and hiding from the brunette at all possible moments was the best solution to this problem, but when he was like this, what other choice did he really have?

Kyungsoo sat at the edge of his bed, running his hand along Chanyeol’s back as he curled into a ball, drawing his blankets tighter around his body.

“What, are you still afraid of him?”

Chanyeol closed his eyes and groaned. Afraid of him, no. Avoiding him until he figured out whatever this sudden allergic reaction was to him, yes. “I’m not afraid of him.”

Kyungsoo hummed softly. “You have been hanging around him a lot in the past month or so.”

“He's tolerable, I guess,” Chanyeol mumbled into his pillow, debating whether or not if ‘tolerable’ was the right word to describe it. Tolerable was okay. The bland taste of unbuttered bread and water when you’re craving something extravagant, the bore of bathing in lukewarm water – not unpleasant, but not necessarily wanted. Baekhyun was… something else. Something confusing. Not pleasant, but not necessarily unwanted?

Kyungsoo placed his hand on his back. “You two haven’t seriously insulted each other in a week or two. It’s weird.”

Chanyeol pressed his face further into his pillow as he curled his arms around his stomach with a groan, internally cursing that strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.

This had been going on for days now. Baekhyun is mentioned; Chanyeol feels sick. It’s a different type of sick – not the sick where he’s disgusted by the name and his existence and everything would be better if he just imagined pushing him off a cliff – it was a different type of sick. Clammy hands, fast heartbeat. His ‘flight or fight’ response was always set to fight when it came to Baekhyun, but suddenly it was set to flight; whenever he saw him in the hallways, whenever his name came up in conversation, whenever possible, he’d evade him.

Chanyeol only knew of one explanation for this, but that was definitely out of the question. In fact, it hadn’t even occurred to him until Kyungsoo was sitting down next to him, droning on about the man he wished to avoid and how their relationship had changed.

But there was no harm in asking, he figured, hoping to dispel any fear that what he was experiencing was… the forbidden emotion.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol asked, glancing up to the shorter male sitting beside him. “How did you know that you liked Chen?”

“Chen?” Kyungsoo quipped defensively. “What are you talking about – I don’t like Chen.”

Chanyeol’s eyes narrowed into a sharp glare. “Don’t play dumb.”

Kyungsoo hissed. “Falling in love – not with Chen, mind you – is like... I don’t know. It’s lots of different things. You want to stare, like you can’t look away.” He let out a soft sigh, glancing up to the ceiling as he continued. “It’s a funny thing. Probably bipolar. Like sometimes, your heart is floating on a cloud and you’re setting a cage of butterflies free on a breezy spring day, and sometimes you’re standing in the rain all frazzled and confused, arguing with yourself over whether or not you left the stove on and if returning home to check is really worth it and everyone around you thinks you’re crazy, and other times you just really want to punch them in the face.”

Chanyeol cringed. There’s the Kyungsoo he knows.

The raven-haired man laughed. “But that’s the crazy thing, I guess. When it all comes down to it, there’s no other place you’d want to be. You never want to leave their side. They’re always in your thoughts, like you’re aching for them, and it’s like everything else is irrelevant until all you ever see is them. You can’t really put a name to the feeling when you get it. You sort of just know.”

Chanyeol gagged at the hearts in Kyungsoo’s eyes. “You’re pretty much screaming ‘I just really love Chen’ right now, you know that.”

“It’s not Chen,” Kyungsoo snapped, a faint blush coloring his cheeks as he changed the subject. “Anyways, you’re coming with us on Saturday. Don’t even think about missing out.” A smile crossed his face as he nudged his shoulder. “And maybe you could bring the pretty girl you think you’re falling in love with too.”

Kyungsoo quickly leaned to the side to dodge the pillow that Chanyeol had aimed directly at his face, followed by Chanyeol hissing at his friend and hiding his face back in his other pillow. I don’t need to – you already invited him.

Not that he was falling for Baekhyun or anything.

“Okay, your loss,” Kyungsoo sighed. “I’ll text you the details in case you change your mind.”

Chanyeol didn’t respond, waiting for the sound of his door latching closed to roll onto his back and hug his pillow to his chest as he sighed up to the ceiling.

“You sort of just know.”

Chanyeol frowned. He wouldn’t be asking if he really just knew. But perhaps because he doesn’t know, it’s not… that emotion. Perhaps he shouldn’t have bothered asking. Of course that wasn’t it. He couldn’t. Not with Baekhyun.

Sure, he seemed to be on his mind quite a lot recently, but that’s because he was annoying and doing that weird thing to his feelings, and Chanyeol always had to be alert when avoiding him. And sure, he stared at the smaller male sometimes, but not because he was entranced by him or something. Perhaps it took too long to come up with a comeback, or because he was so dumbfounded by the sheer stupidity scrawled across his face that he just couldn’t look away from Baekhyun’s face that he really wanted to punch.

Oh no.

Chanyeol shook his head. That wasn’t it though. It wasn’t the same feeling. That couldn’t be it. Baekhyun’s face deserved to be punched because who was he to go around looking all pretty like that? Those droopy, puppy eyes and his pouting pink lips were just begging to be hit. And every time he did something stupid like usual or laughed his annoying little laugh or smiled or made Chanyeol’s chest tighten again, it got inconceivably harder to ignore the urge to slap the smile right off his face.

Chanyeol took a deep breath.

That wasn’t it. It definitely wasn’t it.

He’d never experienced that weird butterfly thing or whatever that “leaving on the oven” thing he had explained was, nor had he ever imagined Baekhyun having his babies (because ew, what the hell).

He just… he didn’t know.

But that didn’t stop his chest from tightening whenever he thought about him. That didn’t stop him from hearing the brunette’s voice in his head as he hummed a melody that he had sung a few days before. That didn’t stop his mind from filling with remnants of his soft laughter and thoughts of his smiling, crescent shaped eyes.

Oh no, heart. Please don’t do this to me.

Falling for Byun Baekhyun was not on the project Chensoo list. It definitely was not on any list that Chanyeol planned to complete.

He had been spending the last week away from Baekhyun trying to convince himself that he only felt that way because that was his first pepero kiss with anyone, and of course he’d have reacted the same way with anyone else that didn’t happen to be Byun Baekhyun.

So for whatever reason that his heart skipped a beat when he got a new text from Baekhyun, he didn’t know, but he did know it had nothing to do with that strange emotion called love.

It didn’t. He swears.

From the bean sprout:

“Kyungsoo told you already, I bet. You’re coming. It’s a Chensoo date. You have to be there.”

To the bean sprout:

“I’m not going. I’m busy.”

From the bean sprout:

“With what? The hell am I supposed to do there while those lovers are sucking face then?”

From the bean sprout:

“Seriously though – I’m not going unless you go. It’ll be boring if you’re not there.”

His heart skipped a beat again. Did it speed up a little too?

To the bean sprout:

“Let’s just both not go.”

From the bean sprout:

“Hahaha no. Don’t be a kill joy. You’re coming even if I have to put you on a dog leash and drag you out of your house ;)”

Chanyeol didn’t respond, dropping his phone to the ground as he screamed into his pillow, willing that annoying tightening in his chest to just go away already. It didn’t.

And somehow, he still ended up stuck sitting at a round table at their local skating rink next to Baekhyun who gave him continuous nervous glances that he passed off as annoyed with sarcastic remarks that always seemed to twist into concern.

The group of four were currently in the middle of a conversation about how pink could totally be a manly color, but Chanyeol wasn’t paying attention, gnawing on his straw as he focused on the groups of couples currently skating in circles around the rink, trying his best to keep his thoughts away from holding Baekhyun’s hand and skating around in useless circles and probably laughing when the little idiot would fall, although he’d definitely drag Chanyeol down with him too–

“Chanyeol’s falling in love.”

“What?” Baekhyun looked up, immediately turning to the man in question who began to choke from Kyungsoo’s sudden statement.

“He is; he asked me to tell him the secrets to love.”

“With who?”

“I don’t know – some secret mistress he won’t tell me about.”

Chanyeol gave a quick glance toward Baekhyun who looked too interested in his not-exactly-love-interest before looking away to keep himself from turning hot under Baekhyun’s stare. “I’m not,” he stressed, focusing his sight on Kyungsoo. “And I didn’t ask that.”

“Uh huh, sure.”

Baekhyun leaned against the table, staring at Chanyeol for a few seconds as he struggled to find his straw again with his mouth. “Good luck with your one-sided love,” he mumbled with a roll of his eyes. “No one would ever fall for you, Park.”

“Shut up,” Chanyeol grumbled, tugging Baekhyun’s hat down over his eyes as he laughed dryly, pushing Chanyeol away from him.

Chen glanced between them before looking toward Kyungsoo and tugging on his sleeve. “Do you want to skate?” he asked, his voice soft as though not to disturb the two. Kyungsoo gave a nod, and they helped each other to stand and adjusted their skates.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Baekhyun said lowly, leaning a bit too close to Chanyeol for comfort, and the taller man desperately hoped that he couldn't hear his heart pounding in his chest.

“I’m not avoiding you.”

“You weren’t answering most of my texts.”

“I had nothing to say to you.”

Baekhyun frowned, sitting back up, his stare lingering on his side profile before he sighed and tucked a nacho into his mouth.

Chen and Kyungsoo gave a quick wave back to Chanyeol and Baekhyun after offering for them to come join them in the rink, but Baekhyun gave a soft laugh and refused, mumbling under his breath that they should spend a nice lovers’ moment together as he waved them away.

Baekhyun leaned against the table with a sigh after they had left. “At least they’re having fun, right?”

Chanyeol looked down to the smaller man beside him, his face scrunched with uncertainty. Baekhyun wasn’t wearing anything out of the ordinary – he had no need to dress to impress. He looked just as thin as usual, as pale as usual. Just as normal as he had months ago when he used to aim tennis balls at the back of his head whenever he passed by the courts.

He didn’t feel anything strange right now.

Baekhyun glanced up. “What?”

Now he did.

Chanyeol leaned back with a loud sigh. “Look at the way he gets so shy around Chen. How disgusting.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, shoving another nacho into his mouth. “I never thought I’d see Chen flirting. It’s gross.”

The two looked to each other and laughed, before turning back to their friends.

“You did a good thing, Byun Baek,” Chanyeol sighed, resting an elbow on the brunette’s head. “They look so happy.”

Baekhyun hummed in delight. “I’ll give you my card if you want my help, but I charge $20 an hour.” A pause. “On second thought, don’t.” Baekhyun shook off chanyeol's arm. “I can’t imagine working with you again like this.”

Scowling, Chanyeol pushed him softly. “With how disastrous these events were in the beginning, I wouldn’t ask you anyways.”

Baekhyun snorted. “At least Chen and Soo are probably going to start dating soon. That means we’re almost done.” Chanyeol froze. Almost done? “Ahh,” he sighed, leaning back with a soft smile. “No more seeing your annoying face every day, right?”

Chanyeol stared at him, his mind blank. Almost… done?

“Chanyeol?”

He blinked, quickly regaining control over his thoughts and giving him a fake smile as he agreed. “Yeah. Finally...” his smile dropped as he looked down to his thumbs.

He refused when Baekhyun asked if he wanted to skate.

He didn’t pay much attention as the brunette pouted and rested his elbows on the table, softly grumbling “Fine.”

He was too preoccupied with the thought of actually being done with this. What was this, exactly? This was him and Baekhyun sitting around, trying to get their friends to date. This was long days spent side by side in laughter with their friends. This just a simple task to Baekhyun. But what was it to him? He... didn’t know. And he still didn’t know as he let the thought fill his mind for the rest of the night, on the walk home, lying on his bed, falling asleep; it remained nagging at the back of his head.

Thinking about it, it was obvious that if Chen and Kyungsoo were to get together, Project Chensoo would be done and he’d have no reason to contact Baekhyun anymore.

They wouldn’t need to hang around in the middle of the night plotting stupid things anymore.

They wouldn’t meet up in the hallways or pass each other notes in class anymore.

They wouldn’t go out for ice cream after school on Wednesdays, and Baekhyun wouldn’t tease him as ice cream dripped down his fingers because he was absentmindedly lost in the delicate features of Byun Baekhyun’s face anymore.

They wouldn’t randomly meet up anymore.

They probably wouldn’t talk anymore.

They wouldn’t be friends anymore.

They’d be strangers again. Rivals again.

But… that was okay… right?

Chanyeol’s heart clenched. Goddammit, it wasn’t okay.

He lay back on his bed, his arms extended well above his head as he flicked between the photos that Baekhyun had taken on his phone, chuckling softly. These photos were gross, he mused as he flicked to the next one, his smile growing with each of the dumb selcas the pup had taken until he paused on one that Chanyeol had taken of the brunette sleeping like an innocent little puppy on his pillow, his original intent to use it to blackmail him whenever necessary. Rather, he lay on his bed, staring at all of his soft features from his dark eyelashes that fanned over his soft pink cheeks, to his plump, slightly parted lips.

Slowly, he lowered his phone and affectionately swiped his thumb across his sleeping face.

This wasn’t love.

No. It couldn’t be.

But he finally understood that strange feeling that Kyungsoo was talking about.

And he finally knew what this was.

This was pain. Ephemeral, unrequited bliss.

And it was almost over.

---------------

Chanyeol’s eyes didn’t follow Baekhyun as he walked into the classroom and hopped up onto his desk.

“Hey,” he quipped, looking down to Chanyeol, who refused to acknowledge his presence. “Still not talking to me?” Baekhyun asked with a pout, and when Chanyeol merely sank down slightly further into his chair with a small, detached sigh. “Whatever. Chen and Soo are going to the theater this Thursday, are you in?”

Still no response.

Baekhyun tapped his fingers on the desk irritably, glaring down to him with a frown. “It doesn’t matter. You’re coming anyways.”

Baekhyun stared at the nonresponsive Chanyeol for a few more seconds before hopping down from his desk with a groan. “You’re not fun if you don’t have comebacks. I’ll see you Thursday, Chanyeol,” he waved as he walked away from his desk.

Chanyeol’s narrowed eyes followed his back as he left the room.

---------------

From that one guy:

‘Chensoo date at 7. Don’t forget. You’re coming.’

---------------

The door slammed closed.

“What are you still doing here. I told you 7, didn’t I? Chanyeol!” Baekhyun stormed into the house, screaming his name until he spotted him, sitting lazily in front of the television, his eyes not focused on anything. He groaned as he marched over to him. “When are you going to stop this evasive act already? It’s getting boring, and I’m getting annoyed.”

Baekhyun stood in front of him, blocking his view of the fuzzy television. “So? Get up. We’re going to be late.” Baekhyun stood there for a few seconds before he bent over, his face level with his and barely a few inches away, forcing Chanyeol’s eyes to finally lock on to his.

“Speak to me, or I’ll castrate you on the spot.”

“How did you get in here?”

“I picked the lock. And? Are you going to get your ass up yet?”

Chanyeol blinked lazily. “I already told you, I’m not going.”

Baekhyun drew away from him, sputtering sarcastically, “Not going? We didn’t plan all this for you to not be going. Get up.”

Chanyeol’s eyesight dropped from him back to the television. “Will you move? I can’t see.”

“No,” Baekhyun replied, obstinately placing his hands on his hips. “I’m not moving until you agree to come with me.”

Chanyeol groaned, sinking down further into the couch as he tried to look around the brunette’s thin frame. “Why do you want me to go with you so badly?

“Because it’s a Chensoo date, and we’re a team, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun asserted, swaying to block his view. “Look at me.”

Chanyeol closed his eyes and groaned, leaning back into the couch. He didn’t want to deal with Baekhyun right now. He didn’t want to deal with Baekhyun at all. Anything involving love and feelings and a tiny brunette with a cute doll face and thin fingers and a beautiful voice could just jump out a window for all he cared. It was too much to deal with.

Baekhyun made a low noise before the couch shifted, and Chanyeol slowly opened his eyes as the brunette leaned over him, once again drawing his attention back to him as he placed a knee between his legs and his hands on Chanyeol’s shoulders, pushing him back against the couch. “I’m not playing, Park,” Baekhyun said, his voice unusually low and serious.

Chanyeol’s chest hurt.

He stared at him, stuck between ignoring him and bothering him so much that he’d just leave. There was also the option of just going along with his date and avoiding the drama, but being stuck next to Baekhyun in a dark theater for the next two hours didn’t truly sound that bad, if he could ignore the uncomfortable pain in his chest and awkward pins and needles in his body as he tried to keep himself from even looking at the man that was causing him all sorts of pain.

“Are you coming or not?”

What am I doing? Chanyeol asked himself as his eyes locked onto Baekhyun’s large brown irises as he tilted his head. He couldn’t keep himself from staring at the brunette, probably failing to keep a straight, composed, uninterested face, or the exact opposite of everything he was currently feeling – sweaty hands, fast heartbeat, trembling fingers. Being around Baekhyun was such torture. But it was so hard to keep his hands pressed into the couch to keep from drawing him closer.

“That wasn’t a question,” Baekhyun sighed, pulling away from Chanyeol and patting his pants as he stood. “Come on. Movie starts in 30 minutes and we can’t be late.”

This wasn’t love, he reminded himself. This wasn’t anything close to the word.

“Get up. Wear something nice; you look like a mess. I’ll wait outside, okay?”

He couldn’t move. But if he doesn’t, he’ll lose Baekhyun. But if he chases after him, then he’s giving in, right?

“Okay?”

...Right?

And Chanyeol’s eyes slowly trailed over to the brunette, who just rolled his eyes and turned away from him. No extra insults. Just the usual annoyance. And Chanyeol held his breath, waiting for something, anything to happen, as if moving would upset this fragile balance that they were barely surviving on. As though if they defined their relationship, all of the magic would disappear, and they’d dry up and become brittle and stale like old, worn pottery and they’d chip. They’d peel. They’d crack.

Chanyeol couldn’t let them crack.

Screw it.

“Hey Baekhyun,” Chanyeol said, jumping up from the couch to catch Baekhyun’s attention. “Let’s not go.”

“Wha– not go?”

“Stay here. Let’s stay.” Yep, I’m going insane.

Baekhyun blinked, and suddenly Chanyeol thought he lost it all, until Baekhyun let a soft, bright tinkle of laughter out of his lips. “Stay? You want us to stay here.”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol said, letting the words tumble from his lips before he could think about what he was saying. “Let’s stay. Let them go out on their own while we watch a movie.”

Baekhyun stared up to him, raising an eyebrow slowly. “Why?”

“They’d have much more fun on their own, don’t you think?”

Baekhyun stared at him silently, a skeptical frown still heavily placed on his lips.

Chanyeol merely returned a shy smile until Baekhyun let out a loud puff of air and his demeanor deflated. “What’s the matter with you,” he asked tiredly. “One second – no, one week you’re ignoring me, and the next you’re trying to make me stay at your house.”

“I wasn’t ignoring you,” Chanyeol asserted with a nervous laugh as he pushed Baekhyun’s shoulder. “I was just…”

“Ignoring me.”

Chanyeol’s jaw tensed. Avoiding you. “No.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes as he turned on his heels. “We’re going to be late, Chanyeol.”

“Wait, hear me out,” Chanyeol said, getting Baekhyun to stop and glance over his shoulder. “Kyungsoo’s been getting annoyed with Chen recently, you know? Our interaction is really just hindering their relationship,” he stuttered, hoping Baekhyun wouldn’t catch him in a lie. “I think we should step back into the shadows a bit. Maybe even keeping them further away from each other will help enhance their romance.”

“Keep them away to get them together?” He asked, unconvinced. “Won’t that just slow them down?”

Exactly.

“Or… I don’t know. Let’s just stop showing up to their dates; maybe they’ll finally kiss if we aren’t around?”

Baekhyun stared at him silently as Chanyeol fidgeted nervously, coming up with a plan on the spot that he knew Baekhyun wouldn’t agree with. In fact, sitting around with the intent to spend as much time as possible with Baekhyun and stall project chensoo until then didn’t seem all that logical.

A smile slipped onto Chanyeol’s face.

This strange emotion he’d been feeling had never been all that logical in the first place, anyways.

“What haven’t we done?” Chanyeol asked, bouncing over to the brunette’s side. “Leave them alone to have lunch on their own? Plan to meet up at the arcade and not show? Go on a walk and disappear?”

“What?” Baekhyun asked, “none of these sound like fun – are you sure about this?”

“Of course I am. This is perfect. It’s foolproof. Trust me.”

“Fool proof,” Baekhyun said, doubtfully. “A fool proof plan made by a fool.”

A smile spanned across Chanyeol’s face. “You have to trust me.”

“What’s gotten into that thick skull of yours?” Baekhyun asked with a bemused chuckle, rapping his knuckle against Chanyeol’s forehead before shaking his head and walking off towards the door.

“Wait,” Chanyeol called, reaching out to grab Baekhyun’s wrist. Instinctively, he tugged the small brunette back toward him and pulled him into a hug.

He pressed his nose into his sweet-smelling hair and released his words in a soft breath against it.

“Don’t go.”

Baekhyun stood still, caged in his arms, and Chanyeol held him there tightly, too nervous to move, and too worried that Baekhyun could feel how abnormally hard his heart was thudding in his chest as seconds stretched to minutes, as silence became loud, ringing white noise.

“Fine, will you just let go of me?” Baekhyun grumbled, breaking free from his arms with a scowl before plopping down on Chanyeol’s old, gray couch with a heavy sigh.

Chanyeol stared at Baekhyun incredulously for a few seconds as if wondering if the Baekhyun being swallowed in his couch was real and actually staying with him until he glanced over his shoulder with a questioning raise of his eyebrows, patting the seat next to him. “You coming or what?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol nodded dumbly, wandering toward the sofa and sitting down next to Baekhyun as the brunette propped his feet up on the coffee table and began flipping through channels.

He barely inched himself closer to Baekhyun, suggesting what to watch when he was interrupted by a text from Kyungsoo.

‘Where are you two?’

Chanyeol smiled as he typed his reply, still reveling in his silent victory.

To Kyungsoo:

‘We can’t make it. Have fun with Chen!’

---------------

“Chanyeol.”

“What?”

“You’re watching me more than you’re watching the movie.”

---------------

To be honest, Chanyeol didn’t expect his not-a-plan plan to work so easily. He expected Baekhyun to be as sassy as usual, turn around and walk out of his house often, tease him for making up stupid ideas, and leave Chanyeol alone, melting into his couch once again to spend another night by himself with the torturous brunette running through his mind.

Yet every day passed by with the same routine.

“Come on,” Baekhyun would say, showing up at his house whenever another date was planned for Chensoo.

“Please,” Chanyeol would beg, showing off his wide eyes like a puppy asking its owner to scratch its belly, and Baekhyun would always just stare at him for a couple of seconds.

Chanyeol was always surprised whenever Baekhyun (begrudgingly) complied.

It was almost like he showed up already swayed to stay at Chanyeol’s house. He didn’t even try anymore. It nearly became routine for these days full of moments planning dates for Chen and Kyungsoo, Baekhyun attempting to drag Chanyeol along, and the stubborn Chanyeol managing to keep Baekhyun at home for himself.

“Chen and Soo are going out for pizza, wanna come?”

“Or we can just order here and watch a movie.”

“Let’s go hang out with Chen and Soo at the park.”

“I’d rather stay inside and play some games. Can’t play alone though, can I?”

“Hey, we should–”

“Or let’s just…”

To be honest, he wasn’t sure whether having Baekhyun next to him, making his hormones run wild was worse than just missing him, or if having him here, ruffling his hair, hearing his voice, having his senses clouded by all of him was this sweet, painful type of bliss that he would rather endure for as long as it could last.

And with all the time that passed that they spent together, it seemed inevitable that he would just fall again, harder every day.

Time was spent with Chanyeol’s arm propped around Baekhyun’s shoulder as he smiled down to the brunette sleeping against his chest as the credits to another movie rolled in the background on Chanyeol’s grainy television.

Time was spent giving annoyed, playful glares as Baekhyun would win another card game, teasing Chanyeol because he was the self-declared master, after all.

Time was spent sharing genuine smiles with each other as they met up on walks to school in the mornings, sat around in class doodling, or played on a playground in the park near Chanyeol’s house after school, terrorizing little children that happened to be nearby as Chanyeol pretended to be a giant, getting the children to laugh and attack him, until he’d call out for Baekhyun’s help, but the brunette just stood on the sidelines, laughing and encouraging them to continue, and sometimes joining in on the fun.

In fact, it was almost like they were completing the project Chensoo list themselves.

It was moments like these that Chanyeol wanted to wrap his arms around the brunette and never let go. Simply being in his presence began to make him happy, but soon he wanted more. Jealousy and possessiveness began to creep under his skin whenever Baekhyun would spend time with Kyungsoo or Chen on a friendly outing, and he’d pout at him until Baekhyun would laugh and apologize, unable to resist Chanyeol’s whines of “play with me~” before curling up against his side or engaging in their own activities, laughing the night away.

Everything had been going perfectly until Chanyeol went outside for lunch to find Baekhyun sitting at the usual table all alone.

“Where’s Chen?”

Baekhyun sighed, picking at his food as he pushed himself to the left to make room for Chanyeol to sit next to him. “As if I know. Looks like they really don’t need us anymore. They’re off on their own anyways. Probably fucking in the library.”

Chanyeol sat by his side with a frown. “That’s a good thing though, isn’t it?”

Baekhyun sighed, and Chanyeol couldn’t take his eyes off the frustrated curve of his brows, the twist of his lips, or the soft downward tug of his eyes. Chanyeol smiled. He was truly beautiful. They had been spending a lot of time together recently, and Chanyeol had nearly memorized Baekhyun’s face, yet he always found himself staring anyway, drawn in by his breathtaking beauty and that desperate want to make him his. Yet he didn’t move. Despite how much he liked him, he liked their friendship more, and possibly messing this up wasn’t something he planned to do any time soon.

After all, how do you tell your old-worst-enemy-but-not-really-enemies-anymore-sorta-friend that you’re in love with him?

Chanyeol looked away as Baekhyun perked up at the sound of people approaching the table. Kyungsoo huffed as he marched ahead of Chen, who followed behind him, whining about something.

Kyungsoo groaned as he dropped his tray onto the yellow table.

“How was your date last night?” Baekhyun quipped with a smile as Chen threw a leg over the bench.

“Date?” Chen asked, pausing in his position to look down to the brunette. “What date?”

“This loser stood me up,” Kyungsoo said, plopping down on the bench beside Chanyeol and folding his arms across his chest.

“We had a date?” Chen asked.

“Chanyeol told me you wanted to meet at the theater at 9.”

“I didn’t get a text from Chanyeol at all.”

Under the stare of the other three at the table, Chanyeol shied away with a nervous laugh. “Maybe it didn’t send?”

Kyungsoo groaned as he stood. “You’re an idiot, Chanyeol,” he groaned as he walked away from the table, quickly followed by Chen, shouting “Is that why you were angry? Kyungsoo!” as he followed after him blindly.

Baekhyun watched them for a second, his puzzled face slowly turning into unamusement. “I’d been noticing there was not much progress recently,” Baekhyun said, slowly turning back to Chanyeol. “I thought it was strange. I should have done something earlier.”

Chanyeol shrugged, an embarrassed blush touching his cheeks. He wasn’t supposed to get caught this early. “Everything doesn’t always go like I think it will, I guess.”

“No, ever since you told us to stop getting involved, they’ve been at a stalemate.” He narrowed his eyes. “Did you plan this?”

Chanyeol pursed his lips. “It was a simple accident, Baekhyun.”

“An accident,” Baekhyun said before shaking his head. “I knew something was strange with you. What do you want? Why are you doing this?”

Chanyeol frowned. “I’m not doing anything, Baekhyun, please.”

“And now you’re clinging to me like a dog. Get off, Park,” Baekhyun said, snapping back into his usual tone of disgust as he pushed himself further away.

Chanyeol blinked, a heavy, annoyed frown tugging down on his lips.

“I’m actually trying here, Chanyeol.” Baekhyun’s voice was unusually stern. Teasing, playful, sarcastic, even angry and fuming were things he was used to hearing. Stern and punishing were out of place in the creases of Baekhyun’s angry brows, his squinted eyes, his thinned lips.

A sharp “So am I” was quickly replaced by an “I’m sorry” sitting on the tips of his lips, but he folded them back in, because he wasn’t sorry. He hadn’t been trying at all.

Chanyeol opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out.

“I’ll do the planning from now on,” Baekhyun whispered harshly, tugging on his ear before he stood up. Chanyeol hissed back, holding a hand to his ear as he looked away, refusing to watch as Baekhyun packed his lunch and left the table without sparing another glance back toward him.

---------------

“A Moonlight Picnic.”

“Really?” Chanyeol had asked as soon as Baekhyun suggested the idea, not because it sounded cheesy, disgustingly romantic, and gross (although that also contributed to his dislike of the idea), but mainly because it sounded like something Chen and Kyungsoo would enjoy. Too much.

“Yes really,” Baekhyun replied with that look in his eye that asserted he was going through with it no matter what Chanyeol said. “It sounds cute!”

Cute wasn’t the problem. Affective was.

Chanyeol didn’t argue. The past week was spent trying mend his relationship with Baekhyun and regain his trust, as he watched as his previous efforts to keep the two away from each other were quickly demolished with Baekhyun’s interference.

That was something he was good at. Being nosy and getting stuff done.

Baekhyun had ignored every soft “I’m sorry” that Chanyeol had mumbled in the hallways, every note he passed him in class, every text he sent after school, until he just stopped trying. That was when Baekhyun came up with this idea.

“I wouldn’t have asked you, but it’s too much for me to do on my own.” He gripped Chanyeol’s tie and pulled him down to his height. “But I swear if you do anything to mess this up–”

“I won’t; I won’t,” Chanyeol stuttered, pulling away quickly as Baekhyun let his grip loosen on his tie.

Baekhyun looked up to him as he adjusted his collar before sighing and looking away. “I’ll go to your house tonight so we can finish planning this. Don’t be late.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol replied as the brunette began to walk away, clenching his fists at his side. And Chanyeol watched him leave with a small smile, wondering how he ever managed to ignore him for so long. “I missed you.”

Baekhyun glanced over his shoulder. “What?”

“Nothing!” he shouted, quickly turning away and walking off in his own direction.

This moonlight picnic didn’t sound so bad. Set up a table for Chen and Kyungsoo by the river on the night of the full moon and let them give into romantic urges and finally kiss already, and then they’d be done. That was how Baekhyun explained it.

Being butlers, however, was a small detail that must have slipped his mind until he showed up at Chanyeol’s house wearing a black suit, complete with a vest and tie, his hair styled up nicely, and his eyes defined with thick eyeliner and soft eyeshadow. His attention was only drawn away from his gorgeous face when he raised his arm, showing off another suit draped over it.

“This one is yours.” A sadistic smile spanned across his face. “I hope you like being ordered around, Butler Park.”

“I’m not going to be a butler.”

That was all he was able to say before Baekhyun was on him, struggling to remove his shirt as Chanyeol protested, but Baekhyun tickled him until the shirt finally came off before moving to his pants, and Chanyeol screamed because Baekhyun was trying to undress him in the middle of his living room. His hands tugged at his waistband, pulling down his pants and perhaps his boxers with them, before Chanyeol finally gave in, pushing Baekhyun out as he went to change into the suit.

Baekhyun’s triumphant smirk dropped into a reserved smile when Chanyeol exited the room.

“You look nice.”

Chanyeol nodded back. “So do you.”

They had prepared a small set up of a table set for two, a vase of red roses in the center, overlooking the river that sparkled in the moonlight, red rose petals scattered around the grassy area, dimmed by the soft flickering light of two long candles. Baekhyun had convinced Chanyeol to bring his guitar along to play some music for the two, perfectly setting the romantic ambiance they needed.

Chanyeol really had to admit it. Baekhyun was good at this.

Once everything was set up, it was almost time for the two to arrive. Baekhyun shifted his weight from one foot to another, waiting for the couple to come and be awed by his work.

But they didn’t show up.

By the time twenty minutes had passed after the time they were supposed to meet, Baekhyun was getting antsy. The pre-date jitters he had hadn’t subsided, his earlier excitement mixing with his anticipation and anxiety and frustration and “Where the fuck are they?”

“Maybe they’re just late?” Chanyeol offered lightly as to not help Baekhyun blow another fuse.

“Ah,” Baekhyun sighed, sitting down in one of the chairs and leaning back against it as he checked his phone, “what’s going on. We told them the right date, right?”

Chanyeol held back a groan. The one time he actually intends for something to go smoothly is when it goes wrong. Perfect.

No, really. Perfect.

“It doesn’t seem like they’re coming,” Chanyeol said after ten or so more minutes passed without a sign of the two.

“Don’t tell me we planned all this for nothing,” Baekhyun groaned, slapping a hand over his face. “Please tell me I didn’t get all dressed up in this butler suit for nothing.”

Chanyeol did nothing but stare. It wasn’t for nothing. Seeing the brunette styled up so nicely was something that Chanyeol had been waiting for for quite a while now, and just having Baekhyun in his presence was good enough.

“It’s not,” Chanyeol said, a small smile gracing his lips. “I mean we’re still here. The food is still here. We can enjoy it at least.”

“Us?” Baekhyun asked, his eyes spouting all of the questions that his mouth wouldn’t form. Chanyeol gave a quick nod, simultaneously answering all of them. Baekhyun glared down to him with amused eyes, leaning back and sinking into the chair with a smirk. “You must be fucking kidding, Park,” he said, amusement sparkling in his teasing eyes.

When Chanyeol didn’t respond, he slowly uncurled from his position, sitting up and tucking his hands between his legs like a puppy. “You’re not.”

Chanyeol cleared his throat, glancing away awkwardly as he tried to explain. “I mean… we already have it set up and stuff. It wouldn’t be worth it to let it go to waste. Let’s take this as a trial run, if we do it again for Chen and Soo, yeah?” After all, going on a midnight picnic with you wouldn’t be so bad either.

The silence between his explanation and Baekhyun’s response was suffocating.

“Okay. Sure,” he chirped, turning to the basket. “Free food is always a good thing.”

Setting up the table was full of laughter and giggles, pretending to be butlers for each other and playfully tasting and stealing food when the other wasn’t looking. Baekhyun spoke about how excited he was to eat and his condolences that Chen and Kyungsoo wouldn’t be able to enjoy anything they prepared. Chanyeol explained how hard it was to make that bulgogi perfect, and Baekhyun better like it because he spent way too much time on that.

And for a second, just a single moment, it felt like they were able to slip away from everything being about ‘Chen and Kyungsoo’ to something finally being about ‘Chanyeol and Baekhyun.’

“You made this?” Baekhyun asked as he licked a grain of rice from his lip, and Chanyeol nodded, leaning forward to wipe at Baekhyun’s bottom lip.

“You eat like a child,” Chanyeol said, merely smudging the sauce. “Tsk.” He reached out to wipe it away at the same time that Baekhyun’s small tongue darted out from between his lips to lick it away.

Chanyeol blinked before sitting back down and wiping his thumb on his napkin as Baekhyun covered his mouth, softly laughing. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to lick you.”

Chanyeol shook his head. He didn’t know a tongue could be so cute. He wanted it in his mouth. God, he wanted to suck on it. Calm yourself, Chanyeol, this is too fast. “Don’t worry about it.”

Baekhyun just smiled sheepishly as he began to eat again, a slightly more awkward silence forming between them. Chanyeol pushed his plate away, resting his head in his hands as he silently observed Baekhyun, who had finished his food and was halfway through his cheesecake and was chattering on about something Chanyeol wasn’t paying attention to when Chanyeol received a single text.

From Kyungsoo:

‘Are you enjoying your date alone with Baekhyun?’

Son of a bitch.

“Was that Kyungsoo?”

Chanyeol nearly fell off his chair trying to hide the message from Baekhyun.

“Yeah–” His voice cracked. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, uhh…”

Baekhyun held back an amused chuckle as Chanyeol hid his phone under the table, preparing to text him back ‘Where are you? And it’s not a date; we’re just enjoying your date for you’ and oh god it was totally a date, wasn’t it.

Chanyeol swallowed hard. This wasn’t part of the plan at all.

He glanced to Baekhyun, who was still staring at him, an eyebrow cocked expectantly. “What did he say?”

Chanyeol looked down to his phone. “He got busy and forgot. He’s not sure about Chen.”

Baekhyun pouted in disapproval, and Chanyeol clenched his fists, wondering if he was doing that on purpose because there was no way anyone could accidentally be that cute. “That’s too bad…”

Chanyeol nodded slowly, turning his attention away from the brunette who turned back to his cheesecake, poking at it with a pout. “At least we have all this food to enjoy and we can brag about it to them later,” Baekhyun said with a smile, and Chanyeol couldn’t help but smile back.

Time always seemed to pass by slowly when he was in Baekhyun’s presence like this. With just the two of them, moments felt infinite.

Chanyeol looked away from him, finally picking up his guitar and sitting on the grass as he began to play. Baekhyun quickly finished his plate of cheesecake and sat by Chanyeol’s side as he hummed along to a familiar melody that Chanyeol had often heard him singing behind closed doors. The two let time warp around them as they sat together between everything and nothing, simply enjoying each other’s presence and their time to themselves.

Baekhyun leaned back, staring up to the sky as his eyes darted between each of the twinkling stars and a smile slipped onto his face. “Ahh, this would have been the perfect date for Chen. He loves gross romantic stuff like this.”

“Yeah?” Chanyeol asked, leaning back like Baekhyun, closing his eyes as he continued strumming the guitar.

Baekhyun laughed. “He’d probably say something gross right now too. Like ‘I think you’re more beautiful than all of the stars.’ Or something.”

“That was bad,” Chanyeol laughed and playfully slapped his shoulder. “Kyungsoo would just laugh and push him away like that.”

“Looking all cute and pink-cheeked with that innocent, heart-shaped smile of his.”

“The undercover devil.”

The two laughed to the harmony of Chanyeol’s simple guitar rhythm until he paused and reached out to curl a strand of hair behind Baekhyun’s ear, and before he knew it, he was leaning forward and his lips were softly pressed to Baekhyun’s cheek in an innocent kiss that that the small male quickly drew away from, his laughter stilling to reveal a thick silence, as he held up a hand to his cheek.

“What was that?” he asked, his voice soft and still, almost lost behind the chirping of the crickets.

“K-Kyungsoo… he’d probably have done something like that…” Chanyeol stuttered with a nervous laugh. “You know…”

Baekhyun stared at him for what felt like forever before he slowly pursed his lips, shaking his head, and hesitantly leaning forward. Chanyeol instinctively backed away from him, but as Baekhyun closed his eyes and pressed his lips to Chanyeol’s, his eyes widened as he stared straight ahead of him blankly. His lips were as soft and plump as they looked, almost like a baby’s butt, although Chanyeol had never kissed a baby’s butt, so perhaps the comparison was invalid. Maybe they were as soft as Baekhyun’s butt, in fact, because such an ass like his, so round and perky, had to be nice, soft and squishy as well, and no Chanyeol hadn’t been staring at it and no he doesn’t think of these things often, and Chanyeol was only drawn out of his frazzled admiration for Baekhyun’s lips (and butt) as the small brunette drew away from him, his voice soft as his eyes met Chanyeol’s wide-eyed stare. “Chen would tell him to kiss him properly.”

Chanyeol swallowed thickly, trying to realign his thoughts that were like a glass vase that Baekhyun had thrown off a building and effectively shattered into millions of tiny little pieces because the Byun Baekhyun had just kissed him. No no, he kissed Baekhyun.

But… Baekhyun kissed him back.

On the lips.

Holy. Hell.

Chanyeol just stared blankly ahead, keeping himself from screaming in confusion, and he silently licked his lips, his tongue ghosting over the sweet taste left behind on his lips as he tried to calm his labored breathing down to a normal pace, hoping his surprised reaction wasn’t freaking Baekhyun out. They’re too close to each other. Breaths mingling, heart pounding, thoughts blurring. They’re too close to each other. Too close for Chanyeol to think – too close to see his reflection in Baekhyun’s glassy eyes – too close to keep himself from leaning in and brushing his lips against those baby butt soft lips again. “Kyungsoo would probably kiss him back.”

Baekhyun stared up to him, his eyes sparkling with the reflection of the bright full moon and his hair framing his face angelically as a question formed on his lips, spoken in a whisper softer than the breeze that blew his words away. “Would you kiss me back?”

Chanyeol didn’t need words to answer as he slowly leaned forward, their lips barely brushing against each other, teasing with soft, warm breaths, hesitating as they hovered close enough to each other in hot anticipation before Chanyeol pushed himself toward the brunette to connect their lips before Baekhyun could change his mind. Baekhyun lifted himself up to meet Chanyeol's lips, pushing them over and into Chanyeol's arms, which curled around his back to draw him closer as he sucked Baekhyun’s lower lip into his mouth, still soft and sweet from their dessert. Baekhyun’s hands cradled the side of Chanyeol’s soft face as he kissed his breath away, breathing in the other’s pleasant scent as he let out a dreamy sigh against his lips. Chanyeol’s mind clouded with nothing and everything, inhaling Baekhyun like he couldn’t get enough of his sugar lips, or his soft and pleased puppy moans, and Chanyeol refused to allow his mind drift as he focused on Baekhyun. On the taste of Baekhyun’s lips, on the brush of his hair tickling his skin. On the way his body fit between his arms, on the way his thin fingers held his face. On Baekhyun, drawing away from him slowly, their lips clinging to each other’s, unwilling to part as their eyes opened and they froze in their position, staring at each other in silence.

Chanyeol couldn’t count the seconds that passed as he focused on Baekhyun’s small eyes that quickly turned up into little crescents as a soft, sheepish laugh escaped from his lips, and he licked them shyly as he glanced away. Chanyeol barely noticed a large smile spreading across his own lips from Baekhyun’s pink tinted cheeks as he sat back slightly, drawing a hand away from Chanyeol’s face as he gave him a cute, shy smile that looked so right, that Chanyeol could help but give him back that goofy grin that Baekhyun used to make fun of.

The angelic brunette gave another soft laugh as he ran his thumb across Chanyeol’s lower lip.

His voice was soft and sweet, matching the breeze that distorted the light from the moon sparkling across the river. “Chen would say he liked that.”

Chanyeol smiled up to him, his voice just as soft. “Kyungsoo would say–”

“Fucking finally,” a voice interrupted, and the two of them looked up like deer in headlights as Kyungsoo and Chen stepped out from behind the dense bushes behind their area, applauding something. Baekhyun pushed himself up and off of Chanyeol’s chest as Chen whistled.

“They kissed!” Chen sang with a large smile spanning his face. “They finally kissed.”

“What’s going on?” Baekhyun asked, fear creeping into his voice as he shrank back from Chanyeol, bristling with apprehension as he glanced between the two of them and hesitantly licked his lips.

“You just kissed the Park Chanyeol,” Chen said through his laughter.

“I didn’t – I didn’t!” Baekhyun said, pushing Chanyeol away from him with a nervous laugh. “I don’t know what you’re on.”

“Don’t pretend,” he smirked. “We saw it all.”

“Chanyeol’s first kiss was weak,” Kyungsoo said, glaring down to his friend. “I thought you were better than that.”

Chanyeol blinked. “I…”

“I thought Baekhyun would be faster,” Chen mumbled, “considering that he’s probably liked you for longer.”

“I don’t like him, you nut,” Baekhyun hissed, his face red as he pulled a few blades of grass from the ground and threw them weakly in his friend’s direction.

“You what?” Chanyeol asked, sitting up slowly to face Baekhyun.

Baekhyun’s voice wavered as he looked away from him. “I– I…”

Kyungsoo frowned, shooting a glare to Chanyeol. “Not like it was unrequited anyways.”

Chanyeol winced, looking away from Baekhyun’s stare.

“Thank god this is over, though,” Kyungsoo added with another sigh. “I don’t know what I would have done if we had to set up another date for you two after leaving you alone as much as we already did.”

Chanyeol and Baekhyun turned to him, their jaws nearly dropping. “Excuse?”

Kyungsoo gave a shrug. “You would never have agreed to go on a date if we didn’t trick you into one or two.”

Baekhyun chuckled as he stood to his feet. “No no, you must have it all wrong. We had Project Chensoo – we were the ones tricking you two into dates–”

“Which was a stupid plan,” Kyungsoo shot down, “because it became obvious real quick. So Chen and I went along with your stupid dates so the two of you could finally get along.” Kyungsoo looked away from the brunette’s stunned face and toward Chanyeol with a bored roll of his eyes. “Then you started ignoring the annoying thing, until you suddenly confessed you were in love with him.”

Chanyeol frowned, leaning back on his hands. “I didn’t say I was in love with him.”

“Uh huh, sure,” Kyungsoo said, his eyes suspiciously narrowed. “We had to do something so you guys didn’t turn back into rivals or… whatever the hell you were before this. I was almost prepared to tell you that I was falling for Baekhyun or something else irrational. I couldn’t be attracted to that loser if I tried.” He paused, glancing toward Baekhyun. “No offense.”

“Offense taken.”

“But come on Chanyeol, what did you plan to do? Keep him in your house and stay in the friendzone? You had to make some move eventually. We were just helping.”

“Anyways,” Chanyeol interrupted, “That means that you two…”

Chen laced his fingers between Kyungsoo’s and held them up for the two to see. “Are already official. Have been for a while.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Baekhyun shrieked as Kyungsoo shyly tore his hand away from Chen’s.

“Of course not,” Chen replied, laughing as he slipped his arm around the shorter man’s shoulder and tugged him into his side. “You two seemed so happy pretending to get us together.”

Chanyeol groaned, taking his face into his hands. “What have we done.”

Baekhyun looked between Chanyeol and their friends, nervously laughing. “I’m not…”

“Don’t you dare say anything about not falling for Chanyeol,” Chen sighed. “We all know about how you’d sneak out late at night to see him, and the love poems and love songs, and the time you spend in the bathroom–”

Baekhyun’s face flushed a bright pink as he rushed over to cover his friends mouth. “Don’t say that,” he hissed before turning to Chanyeol, crying, “Don’t believe that!”

Chen just laughed, and a soft smile slipped onto Chanyeol’s face as he looked at the flustered brunette.

Baekhyun pouted as he looked up to Chen, taking his hand away from his mouth. “So I didn’t help with your relationship at all?”

Chen smiled to him, ruffling his hair. “No, you helped.”

“If ‘help’ was force us together until we took matters into our own hands to make you two stop,” Kyungsoo sighed.

Chanyeol shrugged. “Good enough.”

“Anyways,” Chen said, lacing his hands behind his head, “did you eat everything already? I’m starving…”

He wandered off toward the table, followed by Kyungsoo, while Chanyeol and Baekhyun just stood there, watching the two raid the basket. Baekhyun shook his head disbelievingly. “We were played like a fiddle.”

Chanyeol nudged his shoulder. “No one would ever fall for me, huh?”

“Shut up, Park,” Baekhyun growled, his cheeks tinted red.

Chanyeol placed a finger under Baekhyun’s petite chin, turning his face toward him. “Make me.”

Baekhyun scrunched his nose irritably before pushing himself up to the tips of his toes to press his lips to Chanyeol’s in a quick, chaste kiss. He pulled away and held a finger to his smiling lips. “Don’t say a word,” he whispered with a wink before skipping ahead of Chanyeol, leaving taller man behind.

He stared at the brunette for a second before a large smile slowly spread across his lips as he shouted his name and ran to catch up to them.

---------------

“We didn’t finish the Chensoo list.”

“What’s left?”

“Kiss in public.”

“... We’re not going to kiss in front of you idio–”

“Okay.”

“...”

“Happy?”

“C-Chen!”

---------------