raising the stakes
pairing: baekhyun/luhan
rating: pg-13
words: ~3.4k
summary: when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, things always start with a dare.
when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, things always start with a dare. i dare you to say that again is the first, muttered by a brave little boy who for some reason has made it his business to scare off the bullies, despite the fact that they are tall and bulky and sort of right. (the new chinese exchange student is pretty weird, after all.) i dare you to run as fast as you can down the soccer field and back; i bet you can’t beat my time record, boasts a proud little athlete who later has to hide his tears from his quiet new friend who had, in fact, beaten his record.
i dare you to tell the girl in class three that you think she’s cute. i dare you to talk back to the teacher. i dare you to skip soccer practice for once and come hang out with me, because it’s my birthday and i miss you, you dolt. the years pass and the boys age into young men, and with their growth comes the growth of their relationship. luhan is no longer that timid foreign kid but instead the cool and collected boy of every girl’s dreams. baekhyun is just as wild and unruly but now he wears a decorated letterman jacket instead of stained overalls.
they are an unlikely pair, but an inseparable one - their bond still founded on dares but ones that seem so much stronger than the juvenile promises of their youth. i dare you to stay on the phone with me all night is whispered through sniffs and whimpers when baekhyun’s first girlfriend dumps him. i dare you to tell your sister we’re secretly dating, is said with a playful laugh when family members start asking questions. i dare you not to cry when we graduate.
but they do cry, or at least baekhyun does, because he’s always been the emotional offset to luhan’s more stoic personality. and high school had been baekhyun’s castle - he was popular and kindhearted and loved by everyone. luhan, on the other hand, is a little relieved that all of that is over. the only person that ever really mattered to him was his best friend; the rest were just faces in the crowd, people he’d forget about sooner or later.
of course, baekhyun doesn’t want him to forget anyone, because how could you not care about all of our friends? and luhan doesn’t have the heart to say you mean your friends, so he goes with when he asks (or rather, dares) him to attend the post-graduation party with him.
it’s all loud music and suspicious drinks and people reminiscing on “the good old times” and luhan doesn’t like it - not one bit. but he stays because baekhyun wants him to, because baekhyun dared him to, and they never ever back out of dares.
luhan doesn’t know why or even how, but sometime after i dare you to have another beer and before i dare you to walk me home, he’s pushing baekhyun against a wall and muttering i dare you to kiss me. baekhyun stares at him for a moment, eyes glazed over from the alcohol, and licks his lips.
“why?” he asks, and luhan blanches in surprise. why? well, he’s not sure. so he shrugs.
baekhyun frowns in response, but makes no move to push him away. luhan can feel the heat starting to crawl up his neck and he wonders in the back of his mind what possessed him to do this. at the same time, though, he already knows. he always has.
“i don’t like guys,” baekhyun drawls. and luhan nods, because he is aware of this.
“true,” he mumbles.
“…and you don’t like anyone,” the younger continues, staring up at him. luhan nods again, whispering something that is meant to sound like “also true” but that doesn’t quite come out right. but hey, that’s okay, because it’s a lie, anyway. he likes baekhyun, after all.
“so why should we do this?”
luhan’s shoulders slump into another shrug. “why not?”
baekhyun seems to consider this for a minute before apparently coming to the conclusion that it’s a good enough answer for him, because next he leans forward slightly and presses his lips against luhan’s. for a moment, both of them stand frozen in place, unsure of what to do until luhan boldly moves closer and cups baekhyun’s face in his hand, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.
this is all it takes for the kiss to deepen, then deepen some more, and continue to deepen until a lightheaded and slightly drunk baekhyun suggests that they head home before someone sees. luhan merely nods, not in the right state of mind to try and analyze just what baekhyun means by that, and begins to walk out of the party. his hands are a little clammy but he laces his fingers with baekhyun’s anyway, and when baekhyun doesn’t protest, it causes his stomach to twist into knots.
when they reach baekhyun’s house, luhan isn’t planning on staying. but then baekhyun is tugging on his sleeve and mumbling i dare you to spend the night, so he follows him inside. baekhyun kisses him again and luhan kisses back. this is way more than the older boy ever expected from a silly spur of the moment dare, but there’s no way he’s going to stop now.
many sloppy kisses later and he’s curled up on his best friend’s bed, baekhyun passed out next to him and snoring softly. luhan smooths over the hair on his head before falling into a deep slumber of his own.
i dare you to forget about last night, baekhyun reads in neat handwriting, peeling the sticky note off of his forehead the next morning. he frowns and presses his fingertips to his temple to suppress the headache that has suddenly hit him full blast. last night? what happened last night? it takes him a moment to remember but when he does, his eyes widen to the size of saucers. suddenly, all the details of the previous night flood to the front of his mind. luhan’s hands on his hips. luhan’s breath on his neck. luhan’s tongue in his mouth and fingers in his hair and - oh, shit.
baekhyun doesn’t quite understand why this makes his stomach feel fluttery or why luhan’s scrawled message makes him frown; all he knows is that he doesn’t want to forget. so he quickly locates his phone (how did it get all the way over there on the floor?) and shoots his best friend a short text message containing merely two words: i can’t.
when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, they never turn down dares. ever. not even when luhan was dared to eat a whole jar of mayonnaise and got sick for three days afterwards. not even when baekhyun was dared to wear a skirt to school and almost got suspended for breaking dress code. not even when the two of them dared each other to try to make the jump from the top of baekhyun’s bunk bed to the small sofa on the other side of the room (luhan made it, but baekhyun wasn’t as fortunate and ended up with a broken arm that took him out of soccer practice for months).
baekhyun refusing to carry out luhan’s plain and clear dare of forgetting their kisses is sort of a big deal. or luhan thinks it is, anyway, and he doesn’t know what to do about it. they’ve never had this problem before. things have always been simple with them - no awkwardness whatsoever - but the boy soon realizes that he’s pretty much fucked this up forever. oops.
he suddenly decides that dares are stupid. he doesn’t care if they’ve been an integral part of his relationship with baekhyun since the beginning of time - dares are dumb and he’s never going to dare anyone to do anything ever again. and better yet, he’s never going to complete a dare ever again. what was the point?
i dare you stop ignoring me, baekhyun texts him a few hours later, after luhan has made it clear that his initial text message was not what he wanted to see. this only irritates him more, though, and he can’t help but text back angrily, no.
aha! so you are alive. luhan can practically see baekhyun’s cheeky grin as if it’s right there in front of him.
no, he replies again. he isn’t quite sure why he’s doing this, or why he’s even upset - because he doesn’t want to forget, either. but it’s weird. thinking about baekhyun and kissing baekhyun and loving baekhyun was weird, and he just wasn’t sure what any of this meant.
i dare you to come over for dinner tonight, baekhyun tries again a few minutes later. my mom says she misses you.
luhan rolls his eyes. he knows exactly what baekhyun is trying to pull, because he always does this. he always tries to guilt trip luhan into doing things for him, softening it with a dare because he knows that his friend won’t be able to refuse that way. and of course, it always works. but not this time.
no, luhan texts one last time before turning his phone off.
baekhyun doesn’t try again.
summer makes it easy to avoid people. luhan has always been fairly skilled at this, as he was never much of a people person to begin with, but this is the first time he’s ever had to avoid baekhyun. it’s harder than usual, especially since he doesn’t exactly want to avoid him, but it’s not impossible. baekhyun is astoundingly predictable, and it isn’t too difficult for luhan to know when he’s going to show up at his house or try to bump into him somewhere else.
they somehow manage to go a week without interacting. it’s the longest they’ve ever been apart since the moment they met, and it’s weird. but not as weird as the way luhan feels whenever he thinks about kissing baekhyun, so he figures this is okay.
baekhyun, on the other hand, thinks differently. being apart from luhan has made him realize how much he has really relied on him these past years. sure, he’s always had tons of friends. but luhan is his best friend. and he misses him.
which is why on “day eight without luhan,” baekhyun practically camps out in the bushes outside his front door until he catches him leaving to check his mail.
he waits for luhan to lazily walk over to the mailbox, keeping his eyes trained carefully on his best friend’s unmistakable light hair and rosy cheeks. the prime opportunity to strike appears just as luhan is walking back up his front steps, gaze directed downward at the pile of papers in his hands.
baekhyun wastes no time. “gotcha!” he shouts, jumping from the brush with enthusiasm and latching onto luhan’s arm like a leech. the older boy lets out a surprised shriek and drops all of his mail on the ground. he mutters an irritated just fucking great, before realizing who is currently clinging to him.
“oh, b-baekhyun,” luhan stutters, pulling away slightly. baekhyun frowns but loosens his grip a bit. he doesn’t want to anger his friend any more, after all. he hardly even knows what he did to piss him off the first time.
“hi!” he chirps, a small forced smile finding its way onto his face. (before the party, he never had to force smiles around luhan. it hurts his heart to think about this. so he doesn’t think about it.)
“um, hi,” luhan answers, averting his gaze. “...what are you doing here? i’m a little busy right now, can you come back later?” he lies. it’s probably the first time he’s ever really lied to baekhyun and he isn’t sure why he’s done it. but it’s too late, because baekhyun knows.
baekhyun knows that the other boy isn’t really busy, because it’s the middle of the afternoon and luhan must have just woken up from his daily mid-afternoon nap. and after his mid-afternoon naps, luhan likes to sit and talk and sip on some coffee to wake him up. baekhyun knows this, and he also knows that luhan has been avoiding him. so he frowns.
“no,” he says, suddenly moving to stride into the house, dragging the other boy in with him. luhan opens his mouth to protest but before he can say anything, baekhyun is shoving him down onto the couch and taking a seat next to him. “don’t you dare run away,” he threatens, giving luhan his best glare. luhan momentarily thinks he looks a bit like a harmless puppy and almost starts to laugh, but then he remembers...this isn’t funny, and he’s in a lot of trouble.
“i dare you to tell me what’s on your mind,” baekhyun says, his voice quieter than luhan has ever heard it before. they have been sitting in silence on his couch for the past ten minutes, and baekhyun can’t take it anymore. but luhan doesn’t want to talk. he just wants his best friend to leave.
“no,” he answers, and baekhyun groans in frustration.
“what the hell is wrong with you?! you’ve been acting weird and avoiding me ever since...that night. i know it’s kinda hard to just pretend that never happened, but do you really have to be this immature about it? why won’t you talk to me? i dare you to fucking talk to me.”
luhan continues to stare blankly down at his hands. he’s afraid that if he looks up, he’ll break. “can you not do that anymore?” he asks weakly. “the dares, i mean. they’re...childish.”
“...what?” for once in his life, byun baekhyun is speechless. he stares wide eyed at his best friend, wondering if he really heard that correctly. stop the dares? but...that’s their thing. they are baekhyun and luhan, the dumbasses who are always daring each other to do stupid shit. what would they be without that?
“i mean it. let’s not dare each other stuff anymore. please,” luhan continues. he stands up from his spot on the couch and makes his way to the front door. “now i think you should leave. i have packing to do.”
the frown on baekhyun’s face is now so large that he thinks he can feel his jaw locking up, but he doesn’t care. all he cares about is that his best friend is kicking him out of his house, and probably his life, too. “oh. fine,” he says, trying his best not to let his voice crack in disappointment. as he is standing up, he realizes something. “...packing? for what?”
luhan clears his throat awkwardly and opens the door wider. “i’m going back to china for the summer. checking out a college campus. if i like it enough, i might stay.” he finally ventures a look up at baekhyun’s face and instantly regrets it.
he looks like shit.
“you...you’re leaving? for the whole summer? this is the first i’m hearing of this...” baekhyun chokes. this can’t be happening. he and luhan were supposed to play soccer together all summer. they were supposed to go camping and teepee their history teacher’s house and finally beat the co-op campaign on halo 4. but they can’t do any of that if luhan’s in china. and if he decides to stay, then they may not do any of it ever again.
he wants to tell him not to go, to beg him to stay, and the words i dare you not to leave me are on the tip of his tongue when he remembers. luhan doesn’t want him to give dares anymore. and if luhan doesn’t want it, then he won’t do it. but fuck, he’s going to miss his best friend.
“oh, sorry,” luhan says, although his apology doesn’t sound too genuine. “i guess i forgot to tell you.” right, just like i forgot to tell you i’m in love with you. “...i’m leaving on sunday.”
baekhyun has to suppress the whimper that bubbles up in his throat. i don’t want you to leave, he thinks.
“i...hope you have a good time,” he says.
then he walks out the door.
luhan thinks this would be a great opportunity to just cut baekhyun out of his life completely. he can start over, find a new best friend - one who doesn’t force him to eat mayonnaise or cheat on tests. but there’s just one problem. he’s not really leaving for china on sunday. in fact, he’s not really leaving at all.
what he told baekhyun isn’t a total lie - his mother did mention something about a university there that he could, if he so desired, visit for summer quarter - but he had declined almost instantly. he had no intentions of leaving seoul or baekhyun. ever.
so why did he lie about it? he had no fucking idea.
well, okay. maybe luhan wanted to hear his best friend tell him not to go. maybe he wanted to know that baekhyun needed him, that baekhyun wanted him to stay, without the assistance of a dare. but that wasn’t what he got. instead all he got was a sickening feeling of guilt in his gut and a pang of hurt in his heart. awesome.
on sunday, luhan contemplates going over to apologize to baekhyun. but his pride gets the best of him, and he decides to just take a nap instead. maybe he can make up some excuse about his flight getting canceled or the summer program falling through. he’ll think about it tomorrow.
at least, that’s his tentative plan - until he hears the sound of his bedroom door opening. he looks up and is met with a familiar face. of course.
“your mom let me in,” baekhyun says, shuffling his feet nervously. “...she also told me that you turned down the offer to go to china weeks ago.”
“uh,” luhan says, standing up abruptly and fixing his shirt.
“what’s your deal? why did you lie to me? i da-”
“don’t,” luhan cuts him off before he can utter the words, panic spreading through his voice. he gulps when he sees baekhyun’s surprised face. “...don’t say you dare me,” he continues, slower this time. “i wasn’t lying about wanting to discontinue that. i mean...it’s stupid, isn’t it? we should do stuff for each other because we want to, not because one of us dares the other. ...right?”
baekhyun blinks. “i...guess.”
“i just don’t want our relationship to be founded on forced actions,” he blurts out before he can stop himself. “don’t you agree?”
“our relationship?” baekhyun asks, completely ignoring the question. his expression is a mixture of confusion and amusement, and luhan isn’t entirely sure what this means.
“...our friendship,” he answers, blushing.
“right.” baekhyun nods, but a small smile has found its way onto his face, and luhan doesn’t miss it. how could he? baekhyun’s smiles are all attention-grabbers, no matter how small. “so...what is it that you want, then? since you can’t tell me through a dare. and you’ve been really hard to read lately.”
“i know i have. sorry,” luhan replies. he definitely thinks his best friend deserves a better apology, but it will have to wait, because he can’t exactly think straight when baekhyun is looking at him like that. “i...i don’t know. i want us to go back to how we were before.”
baekhyun laughs. “it’s your fucking fault things are weird in the first place, idiot.” luhan wants to protest but he knows it’s true. damn.
“i know!” he whines, crossing his arms like a child. “and i’m sorry. again. but i...” he pauses, face flushing red once again and he realizes what he’s about to say. “i also sort of want to kiss you again.”
it takes him a second, but when baekhyun finally processes these words, his grin grows even brighter. “only sort of?”
luhan punches him in the shoulder. “shut up, asshole. you know what i mean.”
“i don’t think i do,” baekhyun answers, his smug expression growing more irritable by the second. but as cocky and annoying as his best friend is, luhan can’t be mad at him. this is all his fault, after all.
“if you keep this up, then i won’t want to kiss you at all,” he says, although it’s another lie. he’ll always want to kiss baekhyun. “...if i told you i lo...like you, and that i was only avoiding you because feelings are gross and i was running away from them, what would you do?”
baekhyun pretends to think this over for a minute before laughing again and stepping closer. “hmm...i would tell you that you’re stupid as hell and...”
“...and?”
“yeah,” baekhyun nods again. “you’re stupid as hell.” he takes one more step forward, closing the distance between them and tilting his head upwards to brush their lips together. “but i forgive you.”
luhan still thinks he owes a more concrete apology, and he’d like to argue that he isn’t that stupid, but he’s too preoccupied with kissing baekhyun again to worry about it too much. besides, he guesses he can handle the derogatory nicknames for a while if it means he gets to be forgiven. all he wants is for things to be wonderful again.
(but when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, they always are.)
rating: pg-13
words: ~3.4k
summary: when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, things always start with a dare.
when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, things always start with a dare. i dare you to say that again is the first, muttered by a brave little boy who for some reason has made it his business to scare off the bullies, despite the fact that they are tall and bulky and sort of right. (the new chinese exchange student is pretty weird, after all.) i dare you to run as fast as you can down the soccer field and back; i bet you can’t beat my time record, boasts a proud little athlete who later has to hide his tears from his quiet new friend who had, in fact, beaten his record.
i dare you to tell the girl in class three that you think she’s cute. i dare you to talk back to the teacher. i dare you to skip soccer practice for once and come hang out with me, because it’s my birthday and i miss you, you dolt. the years pass and the boys age into young men, and with their growth comes the growth of their relationship. luhan is no longer that timid foreign kid but instead the cool and collected boy of every girl’s dreams. baekhyun is just as wild and unruly but now he wears a decorated letterman jacket instead of stained overalls.
they are an unlikely pair, but an inseparable one - their bond still founded on dares but ones that seem so much stronger than the juvenile promises of their youth. i dare you to stay on the phone with me all night is whispered through sniffs and whimpers when baekhyun’s first girlfriend dumps him. i dare you to tell your sister we’re secretly dating, is said with a playful laugh when family members start asking questions. i dare you not to cry when we graduate.
but they do cry, or at least baekhyun does, because he’s always been the emotional offset to luhan’s more stoic personality. and high school had been baekhyun’s castle - he was popular and kindhearted and loved by everyone. luhan, on the other hand, is a little relieved that all of that is over. the only person that ever really mattered to him was his best friend; the rest were just faces in the crowd, people he’d forget about sooner or later.
of course, baekhyun doesn’t want him to forget anyone, because how could you not care about all of our friends? and luhan doesn’t have the heart to say you mean your friends, so he goes with when he asks (or rather, dares) him to attend the post-graduation party with him.
it’s all loud music and suspicious drinks and people reminiscing on “the good old times” and luhan doesn’t like it - not one bit. but he stays because baekhyun wants him to, because baekhyun dared him to, and they never ever back out of dares.
luhan doesn’t know why or even how, but sometime after i dare you to have another beer and before i dare you to walk me home, he’s pushing baekhyun against a wall and muttering i dare you to kiss me. baekhyun stares at him for a moment, eyes glazed over from the alcohol, and licks his lips.
“why?” he asks, and luhan blanches in surprise. why? well, he’s not sure. so he shrugs.
baekhyun frowns in response, but makes no move to push him away. luhan can feel the heat starting to crawl up his neck and he wonders in the back of his mind what possessed him to do this. at the same time, though, he already knows. he always has.
“i don’t like guys,” baekhyun drawls. and luhan nods, because he is aware of this.
“true,” he mumbles.
“…and you don’t like anyone,” the younger continues, staring up at him. luhan nods again, whispering something that is meant to sound like “also true” but that doesn’t quite come out right. but hey, that’s okay, because it’s a lie, anyway. he likes baekhyun, after all.
“so why should we do this?”
luhan’s shoulders slump into another shrug. “why not?”
baekhyun seems to consider this for a minute before apparently coming to the conclusion that it’s a good enough answer for him, because next he leans forward slightly and presses his lips against luhan’s. for a moment, both of them stand frozen in place, unsure of what to do until luhan boldly moves closer and cups baekhyun’s face in his hand, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.
this is all it takes for the kiss to deepen, then deepen some more, and continue to deepen until a lightheaded and slightly drunk baekhyun suggests that they head home before someone sees. luhan merely nods, not in the right state of mind to try and analyze just what baekhyun means by that, and begins to walk out of the party. his hands are a little clammy but he laces his fingers with baekhyun’s anyway, and when baekhyun doesn’t protest, it causes his stomach to twist into knots.
when they reach baekhyun’s house, luhan isn’t planning on staying. but then baekhyun is tugging on his sleeve and mumbling i dare you to spend the night, so he follows him inside. baekhyun kisses him again and luhan kisses back. this is way more than the older boy ever expected from a silly spur of the moment dare, but there’s no way he’s going to stop now.
many sloppy kisses later and he’s curled up on his best friend’s bed, baekhyun passed out next to him and snoring softly. luhan smooths over the hair on his head before falling into a deep slumber of his own.
i dare you to forget about last night, baekhyun reads in neat handwriting, peeling the sticky note off of his forehead the next morning. he frowns and presses his fingertips to his temple to suppress the headache that has suddenly hit him full blast. last night? what happened last night? it takes him a moment to remember but when he does, his eyes widen to the size of saucers. suddenly, all the details of the previous night flood to the front of his mind. luhan’s hands on his hips. luhan’s breath on his neck. luhan’s tongue in his mouth and fingers in his hair and - oh, shit.
baekhyun doesn’t quite understand why this makes his stomach feel fluttery or why luhan’s scrawled message makes him frown; all he knows is that he doesn’t want to forget. so he quickly locates his phone (how did it get all the way over there on the floor?) and shoots his best friend a short text message containing merely two words: i can’t.
when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, they never turn down dares. ever. not even when luhan was dared to eat a whole jar of mayonnaise and got sick for three days afterwards. not even when baekhyun was dared to wear a skirt to school and almost got suspended for breaking dress code. not even when the two of them dared each other to try to make the jump from the top of baekhyun’s bunk bed to the small sofa on the other side of the room (luhan made it, but baekhyun wasn’t as fortunate and ended up with a broken arm that took him out of soccer practice for months).
baekhyun refusing to carry out luhan’s plain and clear dare of forgetting their kisses is sort of a big deal. or luhan thinks it is, anyway, and he doesn’t know what to do about it. they’ve never had this problem before. things have always been simple with them - no awkwardness whatsoever - but the boy soon realizes that he’s pretty much fucked this up forever. oops.
he suddenly decides that dares are stupid. he doesn’t care if they’ve been an integral part of his relationship with baekhyun since the beginning of time - dares are dumb and he’s never going to dare anyone to do anything ever again. and better yet, he’s never going to complete a dare ever again. what was the point?
i dare you stop ignoring me, baekhyun texts him a few hours later, after luhan has made it clear that his initial text message was not what he wanted to see. this only irritates him more, though, and he can’t help but text back angrily, no.
aha! so you are alive. luhan can practically see baekhyun’s cheeky grin as if it’s right there in front of him.
no, he replies again. he isn’t quite sure why he’s doing this, or why he’s even upset - because he doesn’t want to forget, either. but it’s weird. thinking about baekhyun and kissing baekhyun and loving baekhyun was weird, and he just wasn’t sure what any of this meant.
i dare you to come over for dinner tonight, baekhyun tries again a few minutes later. my mom says she misses you.
luhan rolls his eyes. he knows exactly what baekhyun is trying to pull, because he always does this. he always tries to guilt trip luhan into doing things for him, softening it with a dare because he knows that his friend won’t be able to refuse that way. and of course, it always works. but not this time.
no, luhan texts one last time before turning his phone off.
baekhyun doesn’t try again.
summer makes it easy to avoid people. luhan has always been fairly skilled at this, as he was never much of a people person to begin with, but this is the first time he’s ever had to avoid baekhyun. it’s harder than usual, especially since he doesn’t exactly want to avoid him, but it’s not impossible. baekhyun is astoundingly predictable, and it isn’t too difficult for luhan to know when he’s going to show up at his house or try to bump into him somewhere else.
they somehow manage to go a week without interacting. it’s the longest they’ve ever been apart since the moment they met, and it’s weird. but not as weird as the way luhan feels whenever he thinks about kissing baekhyun, so he figures this is okay.
baekhyun, on the other hand, thinks differently. being apart from luhan has made him realize how much he has really relied on him these past years. sure, he’s always had tons of friends. but luhan is his best friend. and he misses him.
which is why on “day eight without luhan,” baekhyun practically camps out in the bushes outside his front door until he catches him leaving to check his mail.
he waits for luhan to lazily walk over to the mailbox, keeping his eyes trained carefully on his best friend’s unmistakable light hair and rosy cheeks. the prime opportunity to strike appears just as luhan is walking back up his front steps, gaze directed downward at the pile of papers in his hands.
baekhyun wastes no time. “gotcha!” he shouts, jumping from the brush with enthusiasm and latching onto luhan’s arm like a leech. the older boy lets out a surprised shriek and drops all of his mail on the ground. he mutters an irritated just fucking great, before realizing who is currently clinging to him.
“oh, b-baekhyun,” luhan stutters, pulling away slightly. baekhyun frowns but loosens his grip a bit. he doesn’t want to anger his friend any more, after all. he hardly even knows what he did to piss him off the first time.
“hi!” he chirps, a small forced smile finding its way onto his face. (before the party, he never had to force smiles around luhan. it hurts his heart to think about this. so he doesn’t think about it.)
“um, hi,” luhan answers, averting his gaze. “...what are you doing here? i’m a little busy right now, can you come back later?” he lies. it’s probably the first time he’s ever really lied to baekhyun and he isn’t sure why he’s done it. but it’s too late, because baekhyun knows.
baekhyun knows that the other boy isn’t really busy, because it’s the middle of the afternoon and luhan must have just woken up from his daily mid-afternoon nap. and after his mid-afternoon naps, luhan likes to sit and talk and sip on some coffee to wake him up. baekhyun knows this, and he also knows that luhan has been avoiding him. so he frowns.
“no,” he says, suddenly moving to stride into the house, dragging the other boy in with him. luhan opens his mouth to protest but before he can say anything, baekhyun is shoving him down onto the couch and taking a seat next to him. “don’t you dare run away,” he threatens, giving luhan his best glare. luhan momentarily thinks he looks a bit like a harmless puppy and almost starts to laugh, but then he remembers...this isn’t funny, and he’s in a lot of trouble.
“i dare you to tell me what’s on your mind,” baekhyun says, his voice quieter than luhan has ever heard it before. they have been sitting in silence on his couch for the past ten minutes, and baekhyun can’t take it anymore. but luhan doesn’t want to talk. he just wants his best friend to leave.
“no,” he answers, and baekhyun groans in frustration.
“what the hell is wrong with you?! you’ve been acting weird and avoiding me ever since...that night. i know it’s kinda hard to just pretend that never happened, but do you really have to be this immature about it? why won’t you talk to me? i dare you to fucking talk to me.”
luhan continues to stare blankly down at his hands. he’s afraid that if he looks up, he’ll break. “can you not do that anymore?” he asks weakly. “the dares, i mean. they’re...childish.”
“...what?” for once in his life, byun baekhyun is speechless. he stares wide eyed at his best friend, wondering if he really heard that correctly. stop the dares? but...that’s their thing. they are baekhyun and luhan, the dumbasses who are always daring each other to do stupid shit. what would they be without that?
“i mean it. let’s not dare each other stuff anymore. please,” luhan continues. he stands up from his spot on the couch and makes his way to the front door. “now i think you should leave. i have packing to do.”
the frown on baekhyun’s face is now so large that he thinks he can feel his jaw locking up, but he doesn’t care. all he cares about is that his best friend is kicking him out of his house, and probably his life, too. “oh. fine,” he says, trying his best not to let his voice crack in disappointment. as he is standing up, he realizes something. “...packing? for what?”
luhan clears his throat awkwardly and opens the door wider. “i’m going back to china for the summer. checking out a college campus. if i like it enough, i might stay.” he finally ventures a look up at baekhyun’s face and instantly regrets it.
he looks like shit.
“you...you’re leaving? for the whole summer? this is the first i’m hearing of this...” baekhyun chokes. this can’t be happening. he and luhan were supposed to play soccer together all summer. they were supposed to go camping and teepee their history teacher’s house and finally beat the co-op campaign on halo 4. but they can’t do any of that if luhan’s in china. and if he decides to stay, then they may not do any of it ever again.
he wants to tell him not to go, to beg him to stay, and the words i dare you not to leave me are on the tip of his tongue when he remembers. luhan doesn’t want him to give dares anymore. and if luhan doesn’t want it, then he won’t do it. but fuck, he’s going to miss his best friend.
“oh, sorry,” luhan says, although his apology doesn’t sound too genuine. “i guess i forgot to tell you.” right, just like i forgot to tell you i’m in love with you. “...i’m leaving on sunday.”
baekhyun has to suppress the whimper that bubbles up in his throat. i don’t want you to leave, he thinks.
“i...hope you have a good time,” he says.
then he walks out the door.
luhan thinks this would be a great opportunity to just cut baekhyun out of his life completely. he can start over, find a new best friend - one who doesn’t force him to eat mayonnaise or cheat on tests. but there’s just one problem. he’s not really leaving for china on sunday. in fact, he’s not really leaving at all.
what he told baekhyun isn’t a total lie - his mother did mention something about a university there that he could, if he so desired, visit for summer quarter - but he had declined almost instantly. he had no intentions of leaving seoul or baekhyun. ever.
so why did he lie about it? he had no fucking idea.
well, okay. maybe luhan wanted to hear his best friend tell him not to go. maybe he wanted to know that baekhyun needed him, that baekhyun wanted him to stay, without the assistance of a dare. but that wasn’t what he got. instead all he got was a sickening feeling of guilt in his gut and a pang of hurt in his heart. awesome.
on sunday, luhan contemplates going over to apologize to baekhyun. but his pride gets the best of him, and he decides to just take a nap instead. maybe he can make up some excuse about his flight getting canceled or the summer program falling through. he’ll think about it tomorrow.
at least, that’s his tentative plan - until he hears the sound of his bedroom door opening. he looks up and is met with a familiar face. of course.
“your mom let me in,” baekhyun says, shuffling his feet nervously. “...she also told me that you turned down the offer to go to china weeks ago.”
“uh,” luhan says, standing up abruptly and fixing his shirt.
“what’s your deal? why did you lie to me? i da-”
“don’t,” luhan cuts him off before he can utter the words, panic spreading through his voice. he gulps when he sees baekhyun’s surprised face. “...don’t say you dare me,” he continues, slower this time. “i wasn’t lying about wanting to discontinue that. i mean...it’s stupid, isn’t it? we should do stuff for each other because we want to, not because one of us dares the other. ...right?”
baekhyun blinks. “i...guess.”
“i just don’t want our relationship to be founded on forced actions,” he blurts out before he can stop himself. “don’t you agree?”
“our relationship?” baekhyun asks, completely ignoring the question. his expression is a mixture of confusion and amusement, and luhan isn’t entirely sure what this means.
“...our friendship,” he answers, blushing.
“right.” baekhyun nods, but a small smile has found its way onto his face, and luhan doesn’t miss it. how could he? baekhyun’s smiles are all attention-grabbers, no matter how small. “so...what is it that you want, then? since you can’t tell me through a dare. and you’ve been really hard to read lately.”
“i know i have. sorry,” luhan replies. he definitely thinks his best friend deserves a better apology, but it will have to wait, because he can’t exactly think straight when baekhyun is looking at him like that. “i...i don’t know. i want us to go back to how we were before.”
baekhyun laughs. “it’s your fucking fault things are weird in the first place, idiot.” luhan wants to protest but he knows it’s true. damn.
“i know!” he whines, crossing his arms like a child. “and i’m sorry. again. but i...” he pauses, face flushing red once again and he realizes what he’s about to say. “i also sort of want to kiss you again.”
it takes him a second, but when baekhyun finally processes these words, his grin grows even brighter. “only sort of?”
luhan punches him in the shoulder. “shut up, asshole. you know what i mean.”
“i don’t think i do,” baekhyun answers, his smug expression growing more irritable by the second. but as cocky and annoying as his best friend is, luhan can’t be mad at him. this is all his fault, after all.
“if you keep this up, then i won’t want to kiss you at all,” he says, although it’s another lie. he’ll always want to kiss baekhyun. “...if i told you i lo...like you, and that i was only avoiding you because feelings are gross and i was running away from them, what would you do?”
baekhyun pretends to think this over for a minute before laughing again and stepping closer. “hmm...i would tell you that you’re stupid as hell and...”
“...and?”
“yeah,” baekhyun nods again. “you’re stupid as hell.” he takes one more step forward, closing the distance between them and tilting his head upwards to brush their lips together. “but i forgive you.”
luhan still thinks he owes a more concrete apology, and he’d like to argue that he isn’t that stupid, but he’s too preoccupied with kissing baekhyun again to worry about it too much. besides, he guesses he can handle the derogatory nicknames for a while if it means he gets to be forgiven. all he wants is for things to be wonderful again.
(but when it comes to baekhyun and luhan, they always are.)