10:11 - part i
10:11
Baekhyun/Chen
PG | ~11,655 words
for sncj_bigbang
Baekhyun gets three messages from different people at the same time. 10:11 A.M. How the rest of his day depends on who he responds to first, but he always finds his way back to Jongdae in some shape or manner.
Stacks of paper are strewn around a desk where a young man with disheveled hair sits. His bloodshot eyes are wide open as he scans through lines, and small bags are threatening to form under them. Soothing alternative rock blares through his headphones that are resting around his neck, and empty mugs and coffee stains cover the table space next to his arm. Books on film history, theory and aesthetics topple over one another on the floor next to him, and the only source of light is a lonely lamp in the corner.
Just kill me now, cruel world. Byun Baekhyun thinks to himself as he reads through yet another essay on why "Hannibal" has the best cinematography on television or why British shows are better than American ones. With a groan, he tosses the paper he currently has in his hands to the side, and decides that no, he really doesn't care that a student's grades are on the line here.
Baekhyun stares at his phone with squinting eyes, willing for it to ring or beep or have any indication that a person out there wants to talk to him in some shape or form. It's pretty pathetic now that he thinks about it, but he knows that there must be others out there thinking the same thing. Or not, but that's besides the point. If there's one thing Baekhyun hates the most, it's the fact that he has to be the one inviting people out all the time. Sure, he's sociable, but it gets tiring when people are always expecting him to be the one to organize events.
With a huff, Baekhyun rolls onto his stomach, scrolling through the different apps he has installed. It's between Candy Crush or Temple Run when his phone vibrates, jingles and the face of Kim Jongdae pops up at him -- tongue sticking out between two fingers and all. The time on his phone reads 11:11 and Baekhyun wonders momentarily if this is a joke, or if it's the gods answering his really dumb request. If it's the latter, then Why, gods? Why didn't you answer earlier to a more legitimate request like, I don't know, making me a successful millionaire at the age of 15?
Baekhyun swipes his finger over the answer button (right where Jongdae's mouth is; he had positioned it there for kicks) and puts his phone against his ear.
"Hello...?"
"Hey hey, Baekhyun!" Jongdae chirps, and Baekhun has to double check that the name that popped up on his phone was indeed Kim Jongdae.
"Jongdae, it's like, 11. What is it? Is something wrong?" He may have willed for his phone to ring, but he wasn't really expecting anything.
"What?" Jongdae asks and a silence briefly lingers in the air before Baekhyun hears some shuffling from the other line and his same-aged friend's voice returns. "Ohhh right, sorry. I just wanted to know if you were free tomorrow. I haven't been to CoEx in a while and wanted to go."
Baekhyun blinks and half-heartedly looks around his room at the memorabilia of their times at the aquarium. When he and Jongdae were younger, their parents forced them to volunteer to "stay out of trouble", and they suddenly found themselves visiting the aquarium a lot. And even through college, their designated meeting place was always the aquarium. But Jongdae was right; they haven't actually been inside for quite a few years now.
"That sound great!" Baekhyun says, a smile forming on his lips. He'll have to stay up and finish grading some more essays tonight, but hey, he's not one to turn down offers that fall onto his lap.
"Alrighty, see you tomorrow then. Nighty night." Jongdae chuckles and ends the call.
Baekhyun drops his phone next to his pillow and looks to his desk again. The pile of essays cry out to him and he can see the pouts of the undergraduate students now. He rolls off his bed with another moan and slumps into his seat. Contemplating which essay to grade next, Baekhyun reaches for the middle of the stack in front of him. There has to be one essay in these four classes that aren't about Hannibal. He closes his eyes and blindly pulls one out. He opens on eye and reads the title of the essay: Hannibal: The Best American Show On Television Of The Decade.
"Oh for fuck's sake."
-
Baekhyun wakes up with the deepest regrets and the sound of his alarm clock pounding through his eardrums. He groans into his pillow dramatically; it's way too early for him to get up, but he has things to do, places to go. Such is the life of a grad student.
He flops onto his side to shut his clock up before finally sitting up, eyes still shut. There's a crook in his neck that he needs to get rid of, but he ignores it for now and mentally runs down what he has to do later. Finalize plans for next week’s lessons, finish grading some underclassmen's essays (last on the list, really) , answer emails, print research, write for his thesis, and finally, meet with Jongdae.
Baekhyun could barely contain his excitement for all the school work, and therefore actually really looks forward to seeing Jongdae. He goes through his morning routine while planning on the rest of the day, but his first step is make some hot chocolate to wake him up instead of good ol' fashioned coffee.
-
As he steps out of his apartment, Baekhyun feels his phone vibrate three times in quick succession and a soft ping sound rings into the air. Just for good measure, he supposes. Confused, he slightly cocks his head to the side before pulling his device out to stare at the notifications on his home screen.
[Text] Kim Jongdae
Baekhyun, meet me in front CoEx at 12!! 10:11 AM
[Email] Oh Sehun 10:11 AM
Situation with You Know What
Hey, I would text you but my phone died and I haven’t replaced it yet.
Anyway, when you can…
Zhang Yixing 10:11 AM
Missed Call & Voicemail
The first thought that comes to Baekhyun’s mind is a mere huh before he tries to calculate the possibilities of this happening; three people actually contacted him all at the same time using different means of communication. This had to be one in a million, billion, trillion even.
It's times like these when Baekhyun briefly wonders about alternate timelines -- what differences there would be for the day depending on which person he decided to answer first.
Fascinating, really. But before Baekhyun could reply to anyone or even think about who to get back to first, the sound of a vehicle's engine rumbles and sputters on the street in front of him. Baekhyun looks up from his phone to be greeted with the sight of an older man parking a beat-up motorbike covered in stickers. The man has a blue hat on and gloves and Baekhyun contemplates whether or not to approach him. The man hums a random tune and hops off of his seat and Baekhyun's eyes follow the man’s actions and soon, Baekhyun nods once in understanding.
The mailman was here-quite early for once too. The older man looks through his assortment of mail for the day, separating out the letters and whatnot that belonged to the apartment complex. As he finishes up, Baekhyun notices that the man only had a box and a few letters.The young man wonders if he should actually wait for the mail or simply come back for it considering he has some errands to run, when the mailman promptly clears his throat.
“Excuse me, young lad.” The mailman said, waving Baekhyun over. Baekhyun turns around to see if the mailman was pointing out to someone behind him, but finds no one around. With a slight bop in his walk, Baekhyun takes a few steps toward the mailman.
“Yes, sir?” Baekhyun responds politely with an almost reluctant smile.
“Do you know where a fellow naaamed…” The mailman pauses, bringing up the box closer. “Byun Baekhyun?”
Baekhyun's mouth forms an 'o'. “That would be me.”
Baekhyun is all for surprises, but this is really just a bit too much. Besides, today wasn’t even close to his birthday, nor was it close to Christmas.
“Ah, perfect timing then.” The mailman chuckles to himself, seemingly pleased at the job well done and scribbles on a small slip of paper. When he was done, he dramatically hands it over to Baekhyun. “If you can just sign right here…”
The time on the slip says 10:11 AM. And that doesn’t freak Baekhyun out at all.
Baekhyun hesitates, gripping the pen between his fingers. This has got to be a joke. A huge joke called life and...screw it.
He bites on his lower lip and knits his eyebrows together, before he finally flicks his wrist to finish off his signature and somewhere along the line of handing each other papers and boxes and smiles and small words, Baekhyun finds himself standing at the corner of the street, waving to the postman as the latter’s motorcycle roared away into the distance, leaving smoke to rise into the air.
When he looks down at the package again, in all its beat-up glory. He rubs his lips together with uncertainty when his phone beeps again to remind him of his unread messages.
Baekhyun shrugs to himself, opting to walk back to his apartment instead and open the damn thing. Because even if he had plans, receiving physical mail was rare and exciting. Forget superstitions. He got a package in the mail and everyone else can wait.
-
He was hoping for there to be lots of goods, but instead Baekhyun can only think of three words to associate the box with: rectangle, small, light. He shakes it a little, trying to guess what it could have been, but no sounds come out. Baekhyun wonders for a brief moment if this was someone’s idea of yet another joke. After all, someone could have mailed him an empty box. Thoughts of high school pranks plague him and a certain cheeky boy comes to mind. Baekhyun scrunches his nose before glancing at the address from where it was delivered.
The Korean letters haphazardly and crookedly written on the upper left hand corner could only belong to one of two people, but one of them wasn’t the type to send packages-or anything else really. Baekhyun could hear Joonmyun now: “If I had anything important to tell you, I’d tell you in person, Baekhyun.” But Baekhyun and the rest of the world knows that Joonmyun doesn't send packages or emails or anything mostly because it's too "troublesome." The truth is, of course, Joonmyun just doesn't want to bother spending extra time mailing things because stamps and packages and weights are a pain to deal with and typing things out is a pain too.
Baekhyun cuts the tape that is heavily layered on the cardboard box, and when he peers into the space, he finds…another box to his disappointment and confusion. There are also two sheets of paper with more chicken scratches on them. Baekhyun resists the urge to roll his eyes at the horrendous penmanship that could only belong to, "Wu Fucking Yifan." he says out loud, slightly shaking his head and scans through the letter.
Baekhyun,
I need you to pick something up for me, but you have to be discreet about it...
Baekhyun reads the letter again slowly scanning through the lines. When he reaches the end, Baekhyun motions his eyes back up to the top once more. This time, he carefully digests the words and despite the letter being short, Baekhyun is confused.
By the end of his fifth reread, Baekhyun comes to the conclusion that he has no fucking idea what Yifan is trying to say. He almost contemplates calling Jongdae, but the bold words in the middle of the paper scream out at him. The fact that Yifan actually pulled out a straightener to draw three exact lines meant that he really didn't want anyone to know about it. (But why not?)
Baekhyun peers into the package again, and feels almost gypped. Instead of a gift, Yifan gave him a dumb task to follow through with: deliver a box that was in another box. They haven't even seen each other in a couple of years since college ended, and this is not Baekhyun's idea of a fun reunion. Or fun in general.
Baekhyun looks at his watch. 10:45. He has plenty of time until he had to meet up with Jongdae, and the address to Yif-Kris's...thing was close to the shopping complex anyway.
With a shrug, Baekhyun shoves the box under his arms, grabs his keys, and slams the door behind him.
-
Baekhyune promptly wants to go back home when he finds himself standing outside of a super shady and rundown building. He pulls up the small slip of paper from the first envelope and squints at the directions. He knocks on the door in a very specific tune before he hears a--
Beep....Beep....Beep
coming from the electronic pad thing on the left, so Baekhyun presses the flashing button that's compelling him to push it.
"Hello?" a crackly voice answers, and oh, it's a telecom.
Baekhyun pauses mid-thought, forgetting what he was going to say.
"Uhhh," Baekhyun starts lamely. "Hi! I'm Baekhyun and I'm calling this number becaaaaause my friend Kris Wu asked me to deliver something here?" Baekhyun only hears the sound of teeth chewing gum and deep breathing on the other line. He's about to open his mouth to repeat himself, but is interrupted with--
"...Who?" The voice grumbles, and a loud sniffling echoes in Baekhyun ears. The sound is grating to the point that Baekhyun's not even sure what to say anymore.
"Um...Kris Wu?"
"Ya mean Wu Fan?" The man clears his throat without bothering to move away from the receiver and Baekhyun could almost feel the phlegm and spit running down his ears.
Baekhyun imagines himself mentally slapping Yifan and hopes that he feels the pain mentally. "Yeah, but he--"
"Well, why didn't cha just say so?" The man said and the crackling sound disappears as Baekhyun hears the unlocking of what seemed like a hundred locks before the door swings open.
Baekhyun blinks blankly. Before him, a tall and young looking man was looking away from him, and Baekhyun Is greeted with red hair. When the person turns, Baekhyun sees a familiar side profile and almost wants to laugh. The timing is incredibly too coincidental for his liking, but Baekhyun put on a smile and tries his best to not jump to any hasty conclusions.
“Tao,” Baekhyun chokes out, exaggerating and elongating the vowels of his name.
"Oh, Baekhyun-hyung!" Tao said, and the higher-pitched, excited voice that Baekhyun knows is back. The younger man's eyes widen with surprise. "Why didn't you just say it was you?"
Baekhyun almost wants to strangle Yifan and his horrendous sense of directions and lack of specificity and the mailman for giving him a a package.
"Why didn't Yifan just tell me it was you?" Baekhyun said, exasperatedly. "And what was with that really disgusting voice?"
"Just in case you get lost in a ditch or something so that it doesn't count as bad evidence against us." Tao answers happily, and Baekhyun's not sure if he's on the same page as him or if he wants to be.
"Um..." Baekhyun deadpans. God, should he even ask about it? What if Tao beats him up for jumping to conclusions? So he shakes his head and waves a hand instead. "So what have you been up to?"
"The usual. School and things." Tao lets out a nonchalant hum and motions for Baekhyun to come inside.
"Anyway, check out my crib, hyung. I've got the coolest things in here and Yifan's helped me deck it out, y'know?"
Baekhyun waggles his eyebrows while nodding and picks up a couple of weights and toy models.
Good ol' Tao.
"So when did you guys start...collaborating?" Baekhyun doesn't know how else to phrase it because he's pretty sure he's about to partake in something highly illegal and he's surprised really, because Tao never seemed like the type of person to do shit like cartel or drugs or anything like this. But being influenced by Yifan isn't something of unheard of -- especially since Tao looks up to him so much,
"Ge told me he was interested for a long time," Tao says and sticks a couple more sticks of gum in his mouth. Baekhyun hopes it isn't nicotine gum. "But he's finally got the resources to start it up now. It's pretty amazing."
Baekhyun stares and almost glares. When they were all in high school together, he always thought that Yifan was a typical basketball player who looked down upon smoking or inhaling chemicals or anything else of the sort. But hey, he guesses that people are different than how they appear to be.
"That's nice." Baekhyun says halfheartedly before remembering how long it had been since they last talked to each other. "So what did you do after high school anyway?" Tao picks at his ear and Baekhyun tries to ignore the earwax that is laered on his pinky.
He wonders if Tao actually followed through with his aspirations.
"Went to college for a bit, but realized that it wasn't for me. Parents were pretty upset, but, well, I wanted to follow my dreams. And now I'm here."
"Very idealistic." Baekhyun picks up another statuette and throws Tao a smile. "In a good way, of course."
He's glad that Tao can because Baekhyun's just the same. This is what they both related to when they were younger and no one understood them. But Baekhyun's not entirely sure how he feels about the whole drug lord thing....if that's what Tao wanted to be anyway.
"Thanks, hyung. Not a lot of people are supportive of a college drop out." Tao laughs at himself and Baekhyun slightly widens his smile because what are you even supposed to say in these situations?
"Hey, How about I take you for a run?"
Baekhyun's about to protest but Tao speaks up again first. "We're getting lots of orders recently, but we haven't initiated phase two yet so we're still going old school and going door to door."
Baekhyun's face drops even more and Tao blurts out, "It'll be really fun, I swear. I've been wanting to take a friend around for a while! Please?"
And who can resist such a pout?
-
Baekhyun regrets to agreeing to anything and feels the color drain from his face as Tao revs the car.
"YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE THIS THING, RIGHT?" Baekhyun yells over the sound of rock music and wind blowing through from the sun roof that Tao discovers five seconds ago while completely not paying attention to the street.
"Yeah, totally!" Tao says easily, rummaging through some things in the compartment between the two of them.
"Alright, so sit tight and I'll be right back."
Baekhyun's feeling intense Breaking Bad vibes now and he does not want to be in this situation right now. He looks through the back window, then to the front and the sides. No one's around, but Baekhyun's counting the seconds, the minutes until someone pops up, knocks on his window and asks him what he's doing here.
Tao returns eventually and starts the car up again and Baekhyun realizes that he wasn't breathing as much as he should. He intakes a deep breath of air before letting it out slowly.
It's relaxing, Baekhyun thinks as he rests his head against the side of the door and slowly wiggles his fingers out the window. Or it could be, if he tried to imagine this as one hunky dory road trip through Seoul.
-
"For this last one, I'll need you to help me drop off the goods because it's a big order." Tao says as he parks the car and Baekhyun stiffens in his seat.
"Relax, there's nothing chemically dangerous in these boxes. You won't burn or anything." Tao flashes him a smile and hops out of the car. Baekhyun feels his heart thumping as he tries to decide what the next logical move is. He can either call the cops before anything happens, run far away before anything happens, or just sit here and pretend that none of this is actually happening.
"Hyung?" Tao peeks his head in the window and Baekhyun sighs before unbuckling his seat and gets out of the car. There goes his perfectly clean criminal record.
"Oh, hm...that's strange, it won't open." Tao scrunches his nose and slams his hand down on the trunk. Baekhyun's heart thumps louder with each pound that Tao hits on the car. Baekhyun wonders if he can talk Tao out of this because they're really in the open. "May--"
He's interrupted with Tao's cheer as he finally gets the trunk open and Baekhyun braces himself and closes his eyes for the inevitable small bags of white powder and plant leaves and money that is bound to be there. But then he opens his eyes and is utterly confused at the sight before him because instead of drugs, he sees...a bunch of hats. Baseball caps and grandma hats and cowboy hats.
"Wait, so this wasn't a drug drop off thing?" Baekhyun blurts out before he can stop himself and Tao cocks his head to the side, confused.
"What?" Tao almost guffaws. "Hyung, I manufacture hats. Ge wants to start his own business and he's keeping it on the low down, y'know?"
Baekhyun blinks blankly before rolling his eyes. "You mean down low?"
Tao raises an eyebrow and looks to the side. "...Yeah."
"So why didn't you guys just tell me from the beginning?" Baekhyun almost flails his arms up, and turns to the mess that he-- they made.
"He wanted to be discreet, hyung."
Baekhyun's not sure if he wants to bother comprehending Tao's logic, or worse, Yifan's logic, but before he could the clock tower behind them starts ringing, indicating that it's 4 p.m.
Fuck. He was so worried about the danger of his life and being caught by the police that he completely forgot to check up on the time or call Jongdae up.
"Look, Tao, I have to meet up with Jongdae, so uh..."
"Ooooooh, no problem, man! I totally get you." Tao nods reassuringly, waggling his eyebrows while making pigeon-like head motions at the same time. "It's a shame you didn't get to drop this stuff off yet, but we should do this again sometime, yeah? Next time you can bring Jongdae too to keep us company."
Baekhyun slowly nods while widening his eyes.
Yeah...no, not happening.
"Yeah, definitely...!" Baekhyun smiles without baring his teeth and starts walking away. It's only when he is a distance away when he wonders why Tao acted strangely at the mention of Jongdae. After all, the only time Tao really saw them together was in high school, and they were rivals and pranksters and really just dumb kids.
But maybe he's just imagining things anyway.
-
Baekhyun almost lets out a breath of relief to see Jongdae sitting at a bench in front of the biggest (and their favorite) tank in the aquarium.
It's still as glorious as it was the last time he left it, with colorful fish of all shapes and sizes swimming about it. A studio light shines through the water making the blue even more luminescent.
Baekhyun huffs and sits down next to Jongdae, facing away from the tank. "You won't believe what I went through today."
Jongdae doesn't respond at first...or at all, and Baekhyun looks at him in slight confusion. "Jongdae?"
"Hey." Jongdae says with lackluster and Baekhyun tries to assess what the problem could be. They've had misunderstandings and arguments before, of course, but they had been on good terms for a while now. There hasn't been a fight in forever, and although he was extremely late, but no harm was done right?
Baekhyun blurts out, "Look, I had a run-in with Tao and we had to deliver a lot of things and I didn't notice the time and--"
"It's fine." Jongdae offers an empty smile and Baekhyun almost winces and recoils back at his cold eyes. Seeing Jongdae being fake happy is frustrating, and he knows how much Jongdae despises it when people don't keep in contact with him.
"Hey, there's still time, right?" Jongdae says in a softer voice and Baekhyun finds himself nodding. He feels like he's the one being comforted now when it should be him comforting Jongdae for his mistakes and carelessness. What if Jongdae had been sitting here for four or five hours just waiting? God, the day had started out semi-well too. Sure, he woke up late, but could a few minutes really have made a huge impact? Where the hell did it all go wrong? Wait, never mind. Baekhyun knows exactly where it went downhill. He wishes he can blame the mailman, blame the clock, blame the entire world. But in all honesty, all that's going through his mind right now is that he swears he's going to kill Wu Lee Kevin Kris Yi Fan Ben Ben a million times over.
Snapbacks, man.
----
Baekhyun groans at the sound of the alarm clock before slamming the snooze button. He had set it fifteen minutes earlier than the actual time he needed to wake up, but you know what?
Life can wait five more minutes.
-
Baekhyun wakes up fully content. His body no longer has any knots or crooks and when he looks at the time, it's only been half an hour, so he has plenty of time.
Baekhyun turns the corner to see the number 40 bus he rides switch on its left signal. No, no, no.
"Wait!" Baekhyun yells running after it, but the smog and the cars and people keep moving forward and Baekhyun groans into his hands. Life doesn't seem to want to wait for him, it seems. He huffs and makes his way back to the bus stop, kicking a rock onto the road. The people near him don't bother to look at him or say anything and the day starts off to a horrid beginning.
His phone vibrates three times in quick succession and a soft ping sound rings into the air. Baekhyun tucks his wallet between his mouth and pulls his device out to stare at the notifications on his home screen.
[Text] Kim Jongdae
Baekhyun, meet me in front CoEx at 12!! 10:11 AM
[Email] Oh Sehun 10:11 AM
Situation with You Know What
Hey, I would text you but my phone died and I haven’t replaced it yet.
Anyway, when you can…
Zhang Yixing 10:11 AM
Missed Call & Voicemail
Baekhyun would be impressed by this if it wasn't for the fact that he missed his bus and would have to wait longer to get his fix of morning coffee. Slumping into the bench at the bus stop, Baekhyun taps through his phone. He briefly wonders why Yixing would call him since it's been a while since they last talked, but he decides to open Sehun's email first because "you know what" is usually code for Kim Jongin, and Baekhyun feels immense joy whenever he gets to tease Sehun about his relationship with the fetching young fellow.
-
"Hyung!" Sehun waves him over and Baekhyun raises a hand up before walking over to the small corner table of the campus cafe.
"Sehun, Jongin." Baekhyun acknowledges both of them before dropping his belongings on the floor next to his chair and scoots up.
Baekhyun looks to Jongin and sees the way his eyes soften a bit when the younger man watches Sehun. He looks to Sehun and sees the sparkle in his eyes, and Baekhyun suddenly feels like he's interrupting a date or missing out on some secret between lovers. Ah, young high school love...or, well, college.
"So Jongin finally bought The Last of Us and we're here to kidnap you from your obligations so you can play with us because god knows you need a break." Sehun breathes and Baekhyun stares at him for a few seconds before turning to look at Jongin, who shrugs and nods back.
"Don't you guys have essays due for history tomorrow?" Baekhyun's had their professor before, and the essays were hard as shit.
Sehun rolls his eyes and throws an arm over Baekhyun's shoulder. "That's the best thing about the word tomorrow, Baekhyun. It's tomorrow."
Baekhyun snorts.
-
They finally get back to Jongin's house in one piece and Sehun plops down onto the sofa like he owns the place. Jongin's about to sit next to him, but Sehun pushes him off and shoos him away.
"Jongin, get us some drinks. We have a guest."
Jongin rolls his eyes and pads his way to the kitchen and Baekhyun opts to stare at Sehun because he's been acting weird all morning, even on the way here. Sehun is only fidgety when he's nervous, and has no control of his face or body language.
"Okay, so spill. What's the problem?" Baekhyun asks as soon as Jongin shuts the door behind him.
Sehun immediately lets out a whine and rolls over to Baekhyun's side. "Hyung, it's going to be the one year anniversary in three days and I don't know if I need to plan anything."
Baekhyun tries to ignore how dumb that sounds and tries his best to hold back the snort that is on the verge of escaping his lips, but--Baekhyun snorts and Sehun's onto him now, hitting his arm repeatedly. "Hyung, I'm being serious here!"
"I don't doubt that," Baekhyun says in between laughs and he lets out a wistful sigh. "You didn't have to use a game as an excuse to ask me about this."
"Yeah, but his parents aren't home today and we're working on our essay tomorrow so today's the only time I can talk to you."
Baekhyun puts on his relationship mentor hat and tries to come up with a plan as to how Sehun can have a romantic date with Jongin that isn't haphazardly thrown together last minute or on a whim. (Because Sehun has done that before and that did not go well at all.)
Even if he hasn't been in a relationship since, forever, Baekhyun would like to think that he knows how they work, and what is considered romantic.
By the time Jongin comes back, they're setting up the PS3 and bickering over if they should start The Last of Us immediately or play some Call of Duty first.
-
After a few rounds of Call of Duty (and not to mention Defiance), Baekhyun looks up from the game and finds himself in a very awkward situation. Jongin's staring at Sehun and Sehun's beet red, and it's all really too much, because he's right here and they're sitting on Jongin's bed and he shouldn't be here and god, do they not have any self-control?
Baekhyun wonders if this is what he'll turn into if he ever gets into a relationship, if he would be worried about things like how to be romantic or worrying about gifts all the time. "I should probably go."
"Hyung, we've only started!" Sehun pouts and Baekhyun has been immune to those pouts after the millionth time of begging for extra credit in the he ta'd for last semester.
But then the opening sequence of The Last of Us finally ends, and he remembers why he was invited in the first place.
"...Okay, never mind I can play for a while." Baekhyun extends his palm out and Jongin hands him the controller.
Sehun leans into Jongin and whispers, "Score."
-
Baekhyun reaches some checkpoint and Jongin's room feels hot. His palms are sweaty and he's completely pooped out from just sitting there and playing for hours. A pleasant silence lingers the air and Baekhyun almost wants to sleep on the floor. (It wouldn't be the first time after a gaming session.)
The ceiling fan above them whirls and occasionally makes a popping sound, but that's the only sound that's audible at the moment besides the music from the television. The three boys are lulling around, none of them motioning to move to open the window or turn off the game or anything, really.
"I'm gonna get some water." Sehun announces to the world and hops up toward the door.
Baekhyun rarely plays relationship mentor considering he's not even in one, but he still remembers when Jongin and Sehun first got together like it was yesterday. It's crazy to think that's it been a year now--and he never even really had the chance to ask Jongin the one question he's been meaning to ask.
"How did you know?"
Jongin stares at him blankly.
"That you liked Sehun in that way."
Jongin smirks as if he knows something Baekhyun doesn't and Baekhyun wants to wipe the smirk off his face. "It doesn't have a process, hyung. There isn't a dramatic wave of feelings that hit you like a tidal wave out of the blue. One day you're just sitting there with someone, and at the end of the day, you're already thinking about what you're going to do with them next time."
"Wow, poetic."
Jongin shrugs. "What can I say? I'm a natural."
Baekhyun regrets asking Jongin anything and rolls his eyes. "You guys are sickening."
"You love it, hyung." Jongin beams at him and Baekhyun mutters under his breath because he's right. He loves it when two lovers are sweet to one another and yeah, it's kind of cheesy, but it's a good level of cheese and Baekhyun isn't afraid to say that he's a romantic at heart.
"Hyung, didn't you say you have to meet Jongdae hyung today?" Sehun pipes out of nowhere and Baekhyun jumps up from his seat to check the time.
He doesn't even say bye to Jongin and Sehun, instead, just picks up his things and runs.
-
The thing is, Baekhyun finds himself to be a pretty reliable person; he plans shit out to the minute, and he does his best to balance things when unexpected events occur, but today is just a huge mess of hell that he doesn't know what to even tell Jongdae. It completely slips his mind that he never bothered to really check his phone during this whole charade and he groans when he brings out his phone to see that there is a huge 100+ next to the green icon of text messages and a whopping 20+ next to the phone icon.
Baekhyun runs a hand into his hair -- forgetting that it probably looks like a really big mess now after his run-in with Sehun and Jongin. He hopes that the messages are from a few people but then when Baekhyun checks it, it's all from Jongdae and Baekhyun feels his heart almost drop. It's rare for him to not check his phone and nothing really happened today, so Baekhyun doesn't know what he could say to make up for it. He thinks up of a few excuses that sound really pathetic (and probably sound even more pathetic if he said them out loud) and when he looks up again, he sees Jongdae standing arms-crossed a short distance in front of him.
“Oh, you actually made it after all.” Jongdae is expressionless, voice monotone. Baekhyun doesn't know how to react and suddenly has the urge to apologize on the spot and fall to his knees and .
“Yes, but--”
Jongdae immediately puts a palm up and nods, not looking up.
“Jongdae.” Baekhyun frowns. He hates the lump growing in his throat. He knows he fucked up bad, and that Jongdae probably had a crappy day, but he still hopes Jongdae still got the chance to walk around the aquarium at least. He hopes that he can make it up to him
The speakers in the aquarium crackle and an automated tune jingles. "May I have your attention please?" An automated recording. "The aquarium is closing in half an hour. Please make your way to the exit in a fashionable matter. Thank you for visiting CoEx!"
People around them are starting to shuffle toward the entrance and Baekhyun hesitates, not knowing what to say or do. He wants to invite Jongdae for a fun dinner or walk around other places, but words aren't forming right in his mind.
“It’s okay, really.” Jongdae said with a lighter voice and a smile that Baekhyun knows meant bad news. He's still averting his eyes and Baekhyun tries to step closer or lean forward or anything, but Jongdae looks up at him with such tired eyes and Baekhyun finds it hard to breathe.
“You’re a hard person to get a hold of sometimes, but I get it. I’ll just see you later, okay?” Jongdae doesn’t let Baekhyun respond, flashing a quick smile and the briefest glance before turning away. He adjusts the straps of his messenger bag on his shoulder and Baekhyun wants to yell something, anything, but no words form. He stands there helplessly, watching Jongdae disappear into the crowd of elementary kids and their chaperons.
He briefly thinks back to Jongin and Sehun's relationship, and how they started, and randomly thinks to Jongdae. Neither of them really ask about each other's love life, but Baekhyun realizes that he's never actually seen Jongdae seem interested in anyone, ever. He wonders about their standing, if Jongdae's ever thought the same about him and--wait, this is Jongdae we're talking about, Baekhyun. When did it even matter?
He lets out a frustrated sigh and rubs his closed eyes with the length of his arm.
“Can I get my fifteen minutes of sleep back?”
No one responds, save for the fish in the tank before him, who only gapes back.
part ii.