CHINGUX 2014: breathless (with a hint of hysteria) (1/3) for EVERYONE
Title: Breathless (with a hint of hysteria)
Author: aprilclash
Recipient: EVERYONE
Pairing/Focus: jongdae/baekhyun, OT4 (chanyeol/kyungsoo, hints of chanyeol/baekhyun/jongdae and baekhyun/kyungsoo)
Rating: R
Warnings: fluff, kids hanging from chandeliers, mentions of sex not in front of the children
Length: 21000~
Summary: It takes three mischievous kids, an ex-boyfriend, an obnoxious best friend and a murderous babysitter club president for Baekhyun to realise that, while everyone may have been in love with him, only Jongdae stole his breath and only Jongdae can bring it back.
It was Chanyeol’s idea. As a matter of fact, all the ominous ideas always come from Chanyeol and against his abysmal foolishness Baekhyun can do nothing more than slap himself and hope he’s heard wrong. He never does.
They’re hanging out together, the three of them, at the old, little park near the gym. Just a group of drowsy teenagers lying on a bench with little grace and the tiredness that comes from having to put up with a social life during high school. Chanyeol is busy browsing through his phone texts and Baekhyun is bickering with Kyungsoo. He doesn’t even know what they’re arguing about. Fighting with Kyungsoo is more about pushing his buttons than actually proving a point, because there’s nothing funnier than a petit, furious, violet-face Kyungsoo. Unless he decides to punch your dick, but Baekhyun considers himself a genius when it comes to dance over the subtle line between twisting Kyungsoo’s customary disdainful attitude towards the rest of the world into true, violent hatred, and actually putting himself in a dangerous situation. Or maybe he’s just masochistic.
He’s so good at it that Kyungsoo already has tiny fingers wrapped around Baekhyun’s neck and unforgivingly pressing into Baekhyun’s precious singer carotid, when Chanyeol gets up and fires the cannons.
“Let’s call Jongdae.”
“Excuse me?” two voices ask at the same time, and Kyungsoo even goes to the extent of letting Baekhyun breath as they both turn to shoot a dubious look at a triumphant Park Chanyeol.
Baekhyun, as always, hopes he’s heard wrong. If not, there’s always the option of butchering Chanyeol in his sleep during their weekly Friday XBOX challenge. But, judging by Chanyeol’s ecstatic expression, he really did propose to call Jongdae. Scratch that, he mentioned Jongdae’s name even if Baekhyun kindly asked him not to do it again in his presence during a hysteric fit about two months ago. He decides to ignore the breaking of rule #3 in “BaekYeol’s friendship master book of rules”, aka never mention that cruel human being’s name.
“Why would we call Jongdae?” he asks, trying to put all the disdain he can in that small, insignificant name.
“And who the hell is Jongdae?” finishes Kyungsoo, murdering them with his eyes.
Right, Kyungsoo doesn’t know who Jongdae is. They probably met once, last year, but they were never introduced to each other. A better reason not to call him, in Baekhyun’s opinion. He opens his mouth to say so, but Chanyeol beats him to it, “You know we need someone like Jongdae if we want to make it work, Byun Baekhyun. No, don’t give me the angry puppy look.”
Baekhyun isn’t giving Chanyeol any look, but even if he was, it wouldn’t be the angry puppy. It’d be the supreme betrayal look, or the just wait for my painful revenge look.
“We need someone like Jongdae? What can Jongdae do that one of us can’t?”
He would’ve liked to seem calm and in control while saying it, but his voice sneaks out of his throat all squeaky and outraged and angry. Chanyeol picks up the accusing tone, but doesn’t even bat his eyelashes. In fact, he scrutinizes Baekhyun from his head to his toes, and then shrugs his shoulders with a not-so convinced, accommodating look. The fact that his best friend, who’s known to throw tantrum like a toddler with a toothache whenever mango bread runs out at the cafeteria, is playing the all adult and yes, Baekhyun, you’re right, but you’re not fooling anyone with your childish act, keep living in your dreams game irks him. He stomps his foot on the ground. He’s not being childish. They don’t need Jongdae and Park Chanyeol is being unnecessarily obnoxious today.
“Jongdae could, for example, tend to the children’s needs. You know, the thing you’re supposed to do when you’re babysitting them.”
“You know, the thing that can be done by me, you and Kyungsoo, without involving a fourth person.”
“You know, you’re really starting to upset me, you two.”
They both look around to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes. Oh, right, they forgot about Kyungsoo. They may have forgotten about him, but Kyungsoo is still here, looking quite pissed off about the whole exchange. Sitting idly on the swing, with his feet lazily rocking back and forth and oh-so slightly scraping the grass on the ground and a murderous look set on his young, round face, he looks exactly like he just came out from a horror movie. Kinda Sadako-chan, but deadlier. Kyungsoo doesn’t exactly take so well to being ignored, or not knowing things, and a pissed Kyungsoo is a likely-to-hit-people Kyungsoo. Baekhyun and Chanyeol both glom as the short junior jumps off the swing, lands on a flowerless patch of garden and starts walking towards them, still scowling. Baekhyun may still be upset with Chanyeol about the whole Jongdae thing, but his left hand darts to hold his best friend’s right one behind his back, because if he really is to die today, he doesn’t want to die alone.
“Please, drop the pitiful act. I haven’t planned any corporal punishment for the both of you. Yet. Just tell me who this fucking Jongdae is and why Baekhyun started to tremble like a leaf during a storm when you said his name.”
“I wasn’t trembling!” shrieks Baekhyun, but Kyungsoo puts a finger on his mouth to advise him to shut the fuck up and completes it with a murderous look.
The duty to explain the truth falls on Park Chanyeol’s unreliable shoulders.
“Oh, Jongdae is a friend. A neighbour. His house is right between mine and Baekhyun’s.”
Meet Park Chanyeol, king of useless summaries. Jongdae is much more than that, but mostly Jongdae is evil, and they shouldn’t say his true name or he could appear, summoned like a demon.
“And why should he be included in our project?” inquires Kyungsoo, and they both ignore Baekhyun’s low “He shouldn’t, period.”
“Because he’s awesome with kids. And he’s a reliable, nice young man. I believe he’ll make a great addiction to our club.”
Kyungsoo isn’t too convinced. He looks like he wants to ask a question, probably something about Baekhyun behaving like a beheaded chicken. His eyes bounce back and forth between Baekhyun and Chanyeol, taking in the former’s uncomfortable stance and the latter’s begging pout coupled with batting eyelashes. Guess who wins.
“You know what? I don’t even want to know. Introduce this Jongdae kid to me, I’ll properly audition him and we’ll decide together.”
Baekhyun sighs. It’s going to be awkward.
Awkward doesn’t even cut it. The first reunion of their unofficial babysitter club passes in a blur, and Baekhyun doesn’t even know what they talked about, except that he’s the vice president and Jongdae’s uniform is too lascivious. Jongdae won’t even meet his eyes, obviously, and maybe it’s for the best because Baekhyun swore to stick a fork in those eyes if Jongdae even dares to look at him again.
He lets his body slump on the chair of the empty classroom they have chosen as their unofficial base, at least until they find a better suitable place. Jongdae shouldn’t even be there since he belongs to his fancy institute for rich kids, and he looks rather nervous and somewhat out of place, as he wanders through the alleys of Baekhyun’s public senior high in his expensive slacks and silk shirt. He’d look so good splayed against the walls, with Baekhyun’s fingers wrinkling the expensive fabric. No, brain, wrong route.
“Baekhyun, are you with us?” Kyungsoo snaps his fingers on Baekhyun’s face, waking him up from his rather obscene reverie. He smiles angelically at his friends, eyes never wandering to Jongdae’s face. “Are you alright? You’re quite red.”
“I’m okay,” he answers, “always fabulous. Sorry if this extreme perfection,” he says, pointing to his whole figure, “sometimes detaches me from your peasant matters.”
Chanyeol pinches his side, his subtle way to tell him that he’s being obvious and ridiculous. Kyungsoo stabs the table with his pencils, looking at Baekhyun’s chest expectantly. Being stabbed to death with stationery is not very appealing, though it’d give Baekhyun the possibility to pronounce Caesar’s famous words before he parts from the world. Tu quoque, Kyungsoo… But still, he wants to live, and he focuses on Kyungsoo’s face for once.
“Try to stay with us, just for a moment,” says Kyungsoo, before he shoves an ancient looking cell phone, the kind that has no touch screens nor apps and, as Baekhyun finds out when he snaps it open, not even coloured display, in his hands, “I’m giving you the phone.”
“The phone?” he parrots. He already has a phone.
Kyungsoo closes his eyes and counts until ten, trying to keep his zen. “I’m cursing the day I made you vice-president. Yes, the phone, you dumbass, the one we’ll use to talk with our clients. The one strictly reserved for business transactions. I swear to god, Baekhyun, if I find you texting your girlfriend with that phone…”
Baekhyun reddens. Jongdae chokes. Baekhyun doesn’t dare to turn towards him and see what’s happening, but at the corner of his eyes he can see Chanyeol patting Jongdae’s back with his trademark gentleness and sending his head to smash onto the table. He sighs. Yes, way beyond awkward.
“I’ll keep the money,” Kyungsoo continues, looking at them like he’s challenging them to object. Strangely enough, no one dares, but that’s the Kyungsoo effect. Baekhyun could, and he normally would, but Jongdae’s presence makes him feel torn between coming in his own pants on the path of old sex memories and barfing the greyish toast he had for lunch because he can’t believe he has the bastard’s neck at hands reach and he hasn’t tried to behead him yet. It must be Chanyeol’s presence, since he had the smart idea to put himself between the two of them and is now looking nervously between Jongdae’s pained face and Baekhyun’s equally pained one.
Still, fuck Jongdae, he won’t keep Baekhyun from harassing Kyungsoo with his obnoxious existence. “I protest. Why would you keep the money?” he whines.
“Because I don’t know the new guy so I don’t trust him. And because I know you, and more than everything else I know you’re not past spending all the money of the babysitting club in a desperate mass order of shōjo manga, so you’re not going near the cash. Not in this life, Byun.”
Oh, and when Baekhyun sees an opening, he feels compelled to hit right there. “Look, the Prince of Tennis nerd is talking. How do we know you won’t order Shiraishi-kun’s new action figure with the money gained through the sweat of our foreheads?”
It takes the combined efforts of Chanyeol and Jongdae to keep Kyungsoo from hurling towards Baekhyun and eat him on the spot.
“Jongdae-ssi,” Kyungsoo continues, when he’s calm enough to give up any murderous intent towards a smug Baekhyun, “I must ask you to be the secretary.”
“Yes,” snaps Baekhyun, “let’s put all the important thing in the hands of Kim ‘Let-Me-Down’ Jongdae.”
“Don’t be an ass, Baekhyun,” warns Chanyeol, while Jongdae looks puppy-like and crestfallen. Which makes Baekhyun even angrier, because Jongdae is an ass and asses are not supposed to inspire guilty in his wrecked soul.
“But Baekhyun is right,” comments Jongdae in a weak, tiny voice that makes Baekhyun feel like a monster, an evil, cruel monster who eats children. That, and he’s incredibly turned on by the fact that Jongdae said his name. Oh god, he’s so pathetic.
“I mean,” continues Jongdae, as everyone stares at him, “shouldn’t it be more appropriate if Chanyeol was the secretary? You both know him better, you probably trust him more than…”
“NO!” both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo shout, and while Jongdae is just a little surprised, Chanyeol’s eyes start to water a bit at their lack of faith. Kyungsoo tries to salvage the situation a bit, having always been the weakest to Chanyeol’s big, tender eyes.
“I mean, Chanyeol can’t be the secretary, because he’s already the president!”
Chanyeol looks the happiest man in the world and they all fear for a moment that he’ll jump on the table and onto Kyungsoo to lavish him with his eternal gratitude. Baekhyun sighs in relief because Chanyeol may be wonderful with kids, but the mere idea of having him managing the club’s records or the money is worse than a nightmare. Kyungsoo’s had Chanyeol as a teammate for Chemistry projects and Baekhyun is his best friend, they know how clumsy and absent-minded he can be. It takes a moment for Jongdae to connect the dots and nod frantically, “I think I’ll accept the position, wouldn’t want to rob Chanyeol of his leading rights.”
“Well, if that’s all I’d say we can start from next week. We’ll work in pairs of two. I’ll let you know about the pairs on Monday, but we already have a few kids to babysit.”
They all nod, and Baekhyun just hopes he doesn’t end up with Jongdae because that would be more than incredibly thorny. Compared to that, this meeting would be a piece of cake.
As he packs up his things and makes his best not to brush against Jongdae’s body as he leaves the room, he misses Chanyeol’s and Kyungsoo’s plotting glances.
Baekhyun sighs. Jongdae sighs. Sehun gets up, only to be pulled back on the couch by his two babysitters. He sighs.
“You’re boring. Babysitters aren’t supposed to be boring. Or ugly.”
Baekhyun is nursing a majestic headache and having to deal with the whiniest and shortest know-it-all of the prefecture is not helping. Having to do it with the help of his ex-boyfriend slash ex-best friend makes everything even worse.
“Watch your mouth little rascal, and be thankful we managed to stop you from burning the house,” he snaps, but the miniature monster only replies with a defiant look.
“In sitcoms babysitters are always hot girls who put kids to sleep and then the kids would cuddle against their chest.”
He inspects Baekhyun and Jongdae’s chests closely, waiting to see boobs sprout up from there out of nowhere. Baekhyun scoffs, “Sorry to disappoint you, Casanova, but you’re stuck with us and no girls.”
“And if you don’t behave,” adds Jongdae, “Baekhyun will put you to bed and force you to cuddle with him. How’s that?”
Sehun looks at them in horror and squeals, “Babysitters are supposed to be nice!”
He runs away before they can stop him.
Baekhyun doesn’t want to talk with Jongdae. He’s avoided doing it all day, unless absolutely necessary, but this time he’s forced to acknowledge the other’s presence as he’s being asked, “Are you going to chase after him or am I?”
He is not that eager to chase after little Oh Sehun around the house. The kid can survive alone for other five, ten, even fifty minutes. Now he understands why the mother seemed so keen to leave him in their hands. If he were a single rich woman with a son this lively, Baekhyun too would pay people to keep him entertained at least for a few hours. But the point is that they’re being paid to keep an eye on him, and no matter how tired he is, he can’t slack off if he wants the money. But he must move quickly, before Sehun manages to destroy the laptop or plays bungee jumping from the third floor stairs.
“I’ll go,” he says, getting his tired limbs to work. He also had extra practice with the swimming club today, but Chanyeol and Kyungsoo already covered for him yesterday and during the last weekend, when he had his class president duties.
Jongdae’s hand comes to rest on his knees, stopping him from leaving. “Don’t worry. Sit there and… uhm, rest. I’m going,” he says, and he’s gone before Baekhyun can stop him.
He leans his head on the backrest, faintly listening to the whining of that scaredy-cat Oh Sehun kid and Jongdae’s fake threats, put down that laptop right now, Sehunnie. His knee still tingles where Jongdae has touched him before.
“But I want to play pirates!” Sehun cries, and then screams like a little girl. Judging by the sheer intensity of his yells, Jongdae must have resorted to the tickling card.
He used to do that very often when they were together, pinning Baekhyun to the bed and tickling him senseless, until the only thing that escaped his mouth were broken sobs and begs for mercy.
Baekhyun knows what Chanyeol is trying to do, casually putting him and Jongdae together in the same shift and probably hoping they’ll magically make out from nowhere. He scoffs, as if life is a colourful My little pony episode where everything ends well.
But it must be exhausting for Chanyeol, to have his two best friends fighting and refusing to talk to each other. Ok, maybe Jongdae wants to talk but Baekhyun is been giving him the cold shoulder since he came back from the summer camp. But still, Jongdae is a little bitch and Baekhyun is done with him. No amount of Chanyeol’s evil plot can break his resolve.
Jongdae falls from the stairs laughing, little Sehun on top of him and trying to cover every patch of Jongdae’s skin with his devilish, ticklish hands.
“Baekhyun, Baekhyun please, help, he’s killing me!”
Jongdae doesn’t even deserve his mercy, but leaving anyone at the cruel hands of the Oh demon would be inhuman. Baekhyun sighs and with a swift move, he grabs Sehun by the collar of his shirt and keeps him raised in the hair, ignoring the attempted kicks of the crying thing.
“Put me down, evil babysitter, or I’ll tell mom you invited your girlfriend and you started making out with her instead of playing with me.”
Baekhyun laughs in his face, “Sorry kid who watches too many teen dramas, but the chances of me having a girlfriend are lower than yours.”
“I’ll tell her you were making out with Jongdae, then.”
They both freeze uneasily, Jongdae on the floor and Baekhyun in the middle of the room, with Sehun still suspended mid-air.
I would really like that to happen, thinks Baekhyun, I really would.
He dumps Sehun on the ground with no care whatsoever and smugly smirks at the kid’s pained moan. Jongdae’s eyes are fixated on his own, his expression difficult to read.
Baekhyun forces himself to ignore Jongdae and the pang on his stomach. He looks at the clock, counting the hours until the return of Mr. Oh.
Chanyeol is sleeping on his desk the morning after, and Baekhyun flicks his fingers behind his ear and wakes him up before the teacher can enter the classroom and find him drooling on his textbook. The other boy gurgles something at the back of his throat.
“Good morning to you too, Yeol, and thank you for leaving me with the enemy yesterday, that’s what real friends are for.”
Chanyeol opens his mouth to say something extremely stupid, but the discussion is postponed by the arrival of a very annoyed teacher, who zeroes on him and call, “Park Chanyeol, come at the blackboard and solve question number 356.”
He doesn’t miss the sick satisfaction in Baekhyun’s eyes as his best friend mouths “Karma is a bitch, Yeol,” before he surrenders to the teacher’s wish and gets up.
The second time it happens, Baekhyun just walks inside Sehun’s house expecting to find Mrs. Oh, Kyungsoo and the kid. He bumps straight into Jongdae and his nose plunges into a very familiar shirt.
“You’re wearing my shirt. Why are you wearing my shirt?” he asks.
“Hi,” is Jongdae’s meek greeting, almost covered by Sehun’s loud raspberry coming from the kitchen. Baekhyun walks inside, and it’s welcomed by a disgusted, “Oh, no. It’s him again.”
Sehun is swinging his chair back and forth, pouting and glaring at his math book so hard that Baekhyun can see smoke rising from the cover.
“Yes, it’s me because, guess what? I’m the one in charge of homework and making the bad kids study. If only you were a smart child, Sehun, you would never be forced to see me again. But since you’ve been a naughty kid, now we’ll sit down and talk about multiplications.”
Sehun looks at them and scoffs.
“But first you need to finish drinking your milk, Sehunnie,” continues Jongdae, with a voice so sweet that it could convince even a heart of stone. But not Oh Sehun, spoiled kid extraordinaire.
“No, I don’t want milk. I hate milk.”
Maybe Chanyeol was right. They really need Jongdae because if it wasn’t for him, Baekhyun would’ve already strangled Sehun.
“But you need to drink milk, Sehunnie. If you don’t, you won’t became tall and then you’ll never be able to mock Baekhyun because he’s a shortie.”
“Hey!” protests Baekhyun, “you’re shorter than me!”
But Sehun is already gulping down all the milk and asking for another glass.
They force him to make his homework afterwards. Baekhyun is a good teacher, but he doesn’t have any patience. Jongdae, on the other hand, sucks at math, but with his sweet voice and tender smiles he can keep Sehun calm and concentrated. It’s a pity that his parents won’t ever let him become a kindergarten teacher, but Baekhyun knows that there’s no space to argue in Jongdae’s household. His brother will inherit the clinic and Jongdae is to inherit the law firm. However, he’d look rather nice in a garden, surrounded by smiling children.
“Why are you wearing my shirt?”
Jongdae has at least the decency to blush, but Baekhyun barely manages to look at him while he does it. Not without remembering that he’s spent the last three months wallowing in self-pity and putting all his efforts into the total and complete elimination of Kim Jongdae from his life.
He lets his gaze dance on the expensive couch, wondering why a woman who gave birth to Sehun fooled herself into thinking that white leather was a good option for her living room. It’s a miracle that the couch is still there, clean and perfect despite Sehun’s destructive powers.
Concentrating on little details distracts him from the three giant boxes of Jongdae’s stuff still parked in his garage and from how emptier his room had felt after he got rid of everything that belonged to his ex-boyfriend. He had told Chanyeol to tell Jongdae to come and pick everything, but then Jongdae had told Chanyeol to tell Baekhyun something back, but Baekhyun didn’t want to listen and he had told Chanyeol to tell Jongdae to fuck himself but Chanyeol is a good mama boy and he never swears, so he had to deny Baekhyun this little favour. Chanyeol only wants them to make up, and maybe make out to seal their newfound peace, so he can finally stop being the messenger between them. Jongdae probably wants them to make up, judging by his kicked puppy look and the long looks filled with longing and sadness he keeps shooting at Baekhyun when he thinks he’s not watching. He wants to make up and possibly, possibly, make out. At least, that’s what Baekhyun hopes. He hopes Jongdae is missing him.
Jongdae kept his shirt, like he’s still keeping everything else. Half of Baekhyun’s most beloved possessions are still in Jongdae’s room, including Jongdae himself.
“Why are you wearing my shirt?” he repeats, firmer this time.
Jongdae’s eyes are soft. He bites his lips before he answers.
“Because I like to wear your clothes. It’s the only way to be close to you, since you won’t answer my calls.”
Baekhyun splutters and looks away not see Jongdae staring at him like the brat he is, like he has something to prove.
“Baekhyun,” starts Jongdae, and Baekhyun wants to interrupt him, wants to run away like he’s done for the past three months, an entire summer, but he can’t. Sehun is sleeping against him, his ruffled hair black against the white of Baekhyun’s uniform shirt. He seems like an angel in his sleep, but if he accidentally wakes up, he’ll become a devil again. They can’t risk it, they’re already too tired after dealing with him all day, so Baekhyun keeps still and silent, not even daring to raise his voice to tell Jongdae to shut up.
“I know I really messed up, and I can see you’re still quite upset,” quite upset is a euphemism, he’s furious, ready to punch Jongdae in the face and kiss him senseless, “but I really want to make up to you. I’ve missed you so much these last months, you can’t even imagine.”
Jongdae is a bad liar. He trips over the words, reddens, chokes in the most dumb and endearing way when he’s not telling the truth. There’s no mistaking it. He’s not lying.
Baekhyun inwardly heaves a sigh, relief washing over him at the thought that Jongdae missed him too, that he still wants them to be something.
“If you don’t want to forgive me now I’ll wait, but please let’s be friends, at least.”
He doesn’t answer for a long time. Being friends… How can they be friends when he craves Jongdae’s laugh against his neck, warm and loud? How can they be friends when Jongdae looks at him like he’s still the only thing that matters? How can they be friends after Jongdae cheated on him?
“I need some time to think about it,” he answers in the end. Jongdae isn’t happy, but he can’t say anything else because Mrs. Oh chooses that exact moment to come back. She find her child asleep on the couch between his two babysitters, hair a mess and a cute little frown on his dreaming face. She probably doesn’t notice the strange tension in the air, nor Jongdae’s moping and Baekhyun’s blush.
Aren’t friends supposed to make you feel better? Baekhyun’s life seems to fall apart whenever his friends are around. He doesn’t even know if Kyungsoo can fall in the friend category.
Byun Baekhyun and Do Kyungsoo were somewhat friends for three glorious minutes during first year. Three minutes, before the former declared that Kyungsoo was too repressed to be real and decided to loosen him up a little. That lead to Kyungsoo deciding that Baekhyun was his most hated person in the world, and from that moment onwards his life was dedicated to his complete annihilation. Their complicated relationship hit its peak that glorious time, at the end of freshman year, when a pissed off Kyungsoo pushed Baekhyun out of the window, hoping to end his life once for all. Ok, Kyungsoo said it was an accident, but still. Out of the window! Too bad that Baekhyun managed to drag his murderer down with him. Thirteen stitches for Baekhyun and eleven for Kyungsoo later, they settled on a truce. A glaring, scoffing, tense truce that became true friendship the day Chanyeol’s class was dissolved and he was transferred into theirs.
Kyungsoo melts around Chanyeol like a chocolate under the sun. He can’t stand his childish antics as much as can’t stand Baekhyun’s, but Kyungsoo would never be able to raise a hand on Park Chanyeol because he has a huge crush on the taller boy, and since the two friends come in an inseparable package, Kyungsoo was forced to suck it up and accept Byun Baekhyun in his life.
Baekhyun supposes that despite the countless murder attempts, they are friends now. But they won’t be for long if Kyungsoo keeps talking.
“Ok, tell me if I got this. You,” Kyungsoo points his fingers right towards Baekhyun’s nose, missing his right eye by an in inch, “and Sweet Cheekbones used to go out together.”
It’s pretty much the truth. Except it was more like Baekhyun had found his soulmate in a seven billion people world and then said soulmate stabbed him in the back with the blade of betrayal.
“We were just fooling around,” he whispers, trying to keep his voice low and inaudible.
“Oh, sure,” snorts Kyungsoo, but Baekhyun covers his mouth with a sweaty hand, ignoring Kyungsoo’s disgusted groan, and gestures him to shut up.
They both hear a soft padding sound coming from the other room. Someone opens the door and gets inside, opening it and slowly listening to any revealing sound. Kyungsoo goes rigid as a statue and Baekhyun tries not to breath. A drop of sweat runs down his neck, and he prays that the third person in the room can’t smell his fear. After a few, agonizing beats, the door closes and they’re left alone again.
Baekhyun sighs and slides on the floor on a heap of folded shirts. Kyungsoo follows him, making himself comfortable on a fluffy coat.
“That’s not what Chanyeol said. He said Jongdae was your boyfriend.” Oh, yes, and Kyungsoo believes everything Chanyeol says, no matter how dumb it sounds.
“Well, Chanyeol was wrong,” he states. Kyungsoo taps his fingers on his chin, gaze lost in the past.
“Hey, I remember about him! He’s the one who went to see you at the hospital after the window incident. Wow, he really worked up during the last year… There’s no doubt he was your boyfriend from the way you sucked face in front of my poor virgin eyes.”
Baekhyun feels irritation bubbling up in his chest. “More like fuckbuddy.”
“Boyfriend!”
“Fuckbuddy!”
“I knew it!”
Jongin’s voice interrupts them as the door of the bedroom slams open. A few seconds later the eight years old child spreads the shutters of the closet open on two blinded and confused Baekhyun and Kyungsoo.
“Found ya!”
Jongin is the prettiest kid ever. He seems a little princess, with long, curly hair and an innocent face. Too bad he hides the soul of a power ranger under the frilly dresses his mom forces him to wear. He’s also more energetic than Sehun, and he refuses to do his homework unless they beat him at some games. Which is an impossible feat. One would think that two almost adults would beat a brat like him, but they’ve playing hide and seek for more than two hours now. And they’ve always lost. Jongin’s high and piercing voice is starting to get mildly irritating.
“Wait here while I find a hiding place, ok? Start counting!”
As Jongin scampers away, Baekhyun glowers at Kyungsoo. “Are you happy? Now because you wanted to be a busybody he found us. Again.” Kyungsoo looks like he’s torn between tearing his hair and choking himself.
“Oh god, it’ll take another hour to find him.”
Jongin is like, the most creative kid in the entire neighbourhood when it comes to hide and seek. If a world hide and seek championship existed, he’d win it.
“I can’t believe we lost just because you can’t mind your own business, Kyungsoo.”
“I don’t care about your angsty teen romance story of broken love, Baekhyun. Come on, you’re acting like he cheated on you with your worst enemy,” which is, by the way, the actual truth, “but knowing you he probably scratched one of your limited edition Girls Generation albums.”
He lets out a pained moan at the mere thought. “He wouldn’t be still alive after doing something like that.”
“Like I said, I have no interest in your uninteresting life Byun, but you two have to stop ordering Chanyeol around just because you’re too stupid to talk to each other on your own.”
Baekhyun knows he’s right, but Jongdae is an ass who left him alone all summer. After cheating on him. “Oh, please, you’re just grumpy because I’m ordering your girlfriend around more than you do!”
Kyungsoo gags on air and his face turns scarlet, but he doesn’t dare deny the truth.
Baekhyun offers him a hand and he gets him on his feet and out of the closet. “I swear, the only reason I keep doing this except the money are all the blackmail photos of kid Jongin in a ponytail wearing a pink sweater. I can’t wait until he grows up, I’ll carry those photos in my wallet and show it to his friends every time I bump into him. It’ll take some time, but revenge is a dish best served cold.”
They both close their eyes, already tasting the sweet aftertaste of payback.
“Okay, let’s go,” Kyungsoo announces.
“Wait, shouldn’t we wait for Jongin to hide first?”
Kyungsoo’s leer is evil. “He promised me he would’ve done his homework if we managed to find him and I can’t waste my entire afternoon being humiliated at a game by a kid half my age. We’re cheating.”
Well, it makes sense. Baekhyun nods, “I’m checking first floor, you think of the bedrooms area.”
→ PART 2
Author: aprilclash
Recipient: EVERYONE
Pairing/Focus: jongdae/baekhyun, OT4 (chanyeol/kyungsoo, hints of chanyeol/baekhyun/jongdae and baekhyun/kyungsoo)
Rating: R
Warnings: fluff, kids hanging from chandeliers, mentions of sex not in front of the children
Length: 21000~
Summary: It takes three mischievous kids, an ex-boyfriend, an obnoxious best friend and a murderous babysitter club president for Baekhyun to realise that, while everyone may have been in love with him, only Jongdae stole his breath and only Jongdae can bring it back.
It was Chanyeol’s idea. As a matter of fact, all the ominous ideas always come from Chanyeol and against his abysmal foolishness Baekhyun can do nothing more than slap himself and hope he’s heard wrong. He never does.
They’re hanging out together, the three of them, at the old, little park near the gym. Just a group of drowsy teenagers lying on a bench with little grace and the tiredness that comes from having to put up with a social life during high school. Chanyeol is busy browsing through his phone texts and Baekhyun is bickering with Kyungsoo. He doesn’t even know what they’re arguing about. Fighting with Kyungsoo is more about pushing his buttons than actually proving a point, because there’s nothing funnier than a petit, furious, violet-face Kyungsoo. Unless he decides to punch your dick, but Baekhyun considers himself a genius when it comes to dance over the subtle line between twisting Kyungsoo’s customary disdainful attitude towards the rest of the world into true, violent hatred, and actually putting himself in a dangerous situation. Or maybe he’s just masochistic.
He’s so good at it that Kyungsoo already has tiny fingers wrapped around Baekhyun’s neck and unforgivingly pressing into Baekhyun’s precious singer carotid, when Chanyeol gets up and fires the cannons.
“Let’s call Jongdae.”
“Excuse me?” two voices ask at the same time, and Kyungsoo even goes to the extent of letting Baekhyun breath as they both turn to shoot a dubious look at a triumphant Park Chanyeol.
Baekhyun, as always, hopes he’s heard wrong. If not, there’s always the option of butchering Chanyeol in his sleep during their weekly Friday XBOX challenge. But, judging by Chanyeol’s ecstatic expression, he really did propose to call Jongdae. Scratch that, he mentioned Jongdae’s name even if Baekhyun kindly asked him not to do it again in his presence during a hysteric fit about two months ago. He decides to ignore the breaking of rule #3 in “BaekYeol’s friendship master book of rules”, aka never mention that cruel human being’s name.
“Why would we call Jongdae?” he asks, trying to put all the disdain he can in that small, insignificant name.
“And who the hell is Jongdae?” finishes Kyungsoo, murdering them with his eyes.
Right, Kyungsoo doesn’t know who Jongdae is. They probably met once, last year, but they were never introduced to each other. A better reason not to call him, in Baekhyun’s opinion. He opens his mouth to say so, but Chanyeol beats him to it, “You know we need someone like Jongdae if we want to make it work, Byun Baekhyun. No, don’t give me the angry puppy look.”
Baekhyun isn’t giving Chanyeol any look, but even if he was, it wouldn’t be the angry puppy. It’d be the supreme betrayal look, or the just wait for my painful revenge look.
“We need someone like Jongdae? What can Jongdae do that one of us can’t?”
He would’ve liked to seem calm and in control while saying it, but his voice sneaks out of his throat all squeaky and outraged and angry. Chanyeol picks up the accusing tone, but doesn’t even bat his eyelashes. In fact, he scrutinizes Baekhyun from his head to his toes, and then shrugs his shoulders with a not-so convinced, accommodating look. The fact that his best friend, who’s known to throw tantrum like a toddler with a toothache whenever mango bread runs out at the cafeteria, is playing the all adult and yes, Baekhyun, you’re right, but you’re not fooling anyone with your childish act, keep living in your dreams game irks him. He stomps his foot on the ground. He’s not being childish. They don’t need Jongdae and Park Chanyeol is being unnecessarily obnoxious today.
“Jongdae could, for example, tend to the children’s needs. You know, the thing you’re supposed to do when you’re babysitting them.”
“You know, the thing that can be done by me, you and Kyungsoo, without involving a fourth person.”
“You know, you’re really starting to upset me, you two.”
They both look around to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes. Oh, right, they forgot about Kyungsoo. They may have forgotten about him, but Kyungsoo is still here, looking quite pissed off about the whole exchange. Sitting idly on the swing, with his feet lazily rocking back and forth and oh-so slightly scraping the grass on the ground and a murderous look set on his young, round face, he looks exactly like he just came out from a horror movie. Kinda Sadako-chan, but deadlier. Kyungsoo doesn’t exactly take so well to being ignored, or not knowing things, and a pissed Kyungsoo is a likely-to-hit-people Kyungsoo. Baekhyun and Chanyeol both glom as the short junior jumps off the swing, lands on a flowerless patch of garden and starts walking towards them, still scowling. Baekhyun may still be upset with Chanyeol about the whole Jongdae thing, but his left hand darts to hold his best friend’s right one behind his back, because if he really is to die today, he doesn’t want to die alone.
“Please, drop the pitiful act. I haven’t planned any corporal punishment for the both of you. Yet. Just tell me who this fucking Jongdae is and why Baekhyun started to tremble like a leaf during a storm when you said his name.”
“I wasn’t trembling!” shrieks Baekhyun, but Kyungsoo puts a finger on his mouth to advise him to shut the fuck up and completes it with a murderous look.
The duty to explain the truth falls on Park Chanyeol’s unreliable shoulders.
“Oh, Jongdae is a friend. A neighbour. His house is right between mine and Baekhyun’s.”
Meet Park Chanyeol, king of useless summaries. Jongdae is much more than that, but mostly Jongdae is evil, and they shouldn’t say his true name or he could appear, summoned like a demon.
“And why should he be included in our project?” inquires Kyungsoo, and they both ignore Baekhyun’s low “He shouldn’t, period.”
“Because he’s awesome with kids. And he’s a reliable, nice young man. I believe he’ll make a great addiction to our club.”
Kyungsoo isn’t too convinced. He looks like he wants to ask a question, probably something about Baekhyun behaving like a beheaded chicken. His eyes bounce back and forth between Baekhyun and Chanyeol, taking in the former’s uncomfortable stance and the latter’s begging pout coupled with batting eyelashes. Guess who wins.
“You know what? I don’t even want to know. Introduce this Jongdae kid to me, I’ll properly audition him and we’ll decide together.”
Baekhyun sighs. It’s going to be awkward.
Awkward doesn’t even cut it. The first reunion of their unofficial babysitter club passes in a blur, and Baekhyun doesn’t even know what they talked about, except that he’s the vice president and Jongdae’s uniform is too lascivious. Jongdae won’t even meet his eyes, obviously, and maybe it’s for the best because Baekhyun swore to stick a fork in those eyes if Jongdae even dares to look at him again.
He lets his body slump on the chair of the empty classroom they have chosen as their unofficial base, at least until they find a better suitable place. Jongdae shouldn’t even be there since he belongs to his fancy institute for rich kids, and he looks rather nervous and somewhat out of place, as he wanders through the alleys of Baekhyun’s public senior high in his expensive slacks and silk shirt. He’d look so good splayed against the walls, with Baekhyun’s fingers wrinkling the expensive fabric. No, brain, wrong route.
“Baekhyun, are you with us?” Kyungsoo snaps his fingers on Baekhyun’s face, waking him up from his rather obscene reverie. He smiles angelically at his friends, eyes never wandering to Jongdae’s face. “Are you alright? You’re quite red.”
“I’m okay,” he answers, “always fabulous. Sorry if this extreme perfection,” he says, pointing to his whole figure, “sometimes detaches me from your peasant matters.”
Chanyeol pinches his side, his subtle way to tell him that he’s being obvious and ridiculous. Kyungsoo stabs the table with his pencils, looking at Baekhyun’s chest expectantly. Being stabbed to death with stationery is not very appealing, though it’d give Baekhyun the possibility to pronounce Caesar’s famous words before he parts from the world. Tu quoque, Kyungsoo… But still, he wants to live, and he focuses on Kyungsoo’s face for once.
“Try to stay with us, just for a moment,” says Kyungsoo, before he shoves an ancient looking cell phone, the kind that has no touch screens nor apps and, as Baekhyun finds out when he snaps it open, not even coloured display, in his hands, “I’m giving you the phone.”
“The phone?” he parrots. He already has a phone.
Kyungsoo closes his eyes and counts until ten, trying to keep his zen. “I’m cursing the day I made you vice-president. Yes, the phone, you dumbass, the one we’ll use to talk with our clients. The one strictly reserved for business transactions. I swear to god, Baekhyun, if I find you texting your girlfriend with that phone…”
Baekhyun reddens. Jongdae chokes. Baekhyun doesn’t dare to turn towards him and see what’s happening, but at the corner of his eyes he can see Chanyeol patting Jongdae’s back with his trademark gentleness and sending his head to smash onto the table. He sighs. Yes, way beyond awkward.
“I’ll keep the money,” Kyungsoo continues, looking at them like he’s challenging them to object. Strangely enough, no one dares, but that’s the Kyungsoo effect. Baekhyun could, and he normally would, but Jongdae’s presence makes him feel torn between coming in his own pants on the path of old sex memories and barfing the greyish toast he had for lunch because he can’t believe he has the bastard’s neck at hands reach and he hasn’t tried to behead him yet. It must be Chanyeol’s presence, since he had the smart idea to put himself between the two of them and is now looking nervously between Jongdae’s pained face and Baekhyun’s equally pained one.
Still, fuck Jongdae, he won’t keep Baekhyun from harassing Kyungsoo with his obnoxious existence. “I protest. Why would you keep the money?” he whines.
“Because I don’t know the new guy so I don’t trust him. And because I know you, and more than everything else I know you’re not past spending all the money of the babysitting club in a desperate mass order of shōjo manga, so you’re not going near the cash. Not in this life, Byun.”
Oh, and when Baekhyun sees an opening, he feels compelled to hit right there. “Look, the Prince of Tennis nerd is talking. How do we know you won’t order Shiraishi-kun’s new action figure with the money gained through the sweat of our foreheads?”
It takes the combined efforts of Chanyeol and Jongdae to keep Kyungsoo from hurling towards Baekhyun and eat him on the spot.
“Jongdae-ssi,” Kyungsoo continues, when he’s calm enough to give up any murderous intent towards a smug Baekhyun, “I must ask you to be the secretary.”
“Yes,” snaps Baekhyun, “let’s put all the important thing in the hands of Kim ‘Let-Me-Down’ Jongdae.”
“Don’t be an ass, Baekhyun,” warns Chanyeol, while Jongdae looks puppy-like and crestfallen. Which makes Baekhyun even angrier, because Jongdae is an ass and asses are not supposed to inspire guilty in his wrecked soul.
“But Baekhyun is right,” comments Jongdae in a weak, tiny voice that makes Baekhyun feel like a monster, an evil, cruel monster who eats children. That, and he’s incredibly turned on by the fact that Jongdae said his name. Oh god, he’s so pathetic.
“I mean,” continues Jongdae, as everyone stares at him, “shouldn’t it be more appropriate if Chanyeol was the secretary? You both know him better, you probably trust him more than…”
“NO!” both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo shout, and while Jongdae is just a little surprised, Chanyeol’s eyes start to water a bit at their lack of faith. Kyungsoo tries to salvage the situation a bit, having always been the weakest to Chanyeol’s big, tender eyes.
“I mean, Chanyeol can’t be the secretary, because he’s already the president!”
Chanyeol looks the happiest man in the world and they all fear for a moment that he’ll jump on the table and onto Kyungsoo to lavish him with his eternal gratitude. Baekhyun sighs in relief because Chanyeol may be wonderful with kids, but the mere idea of having him managing the club’s records or the money is worse than a nightmare. Kyungsoo’s had Chanyeol as a teammate for Chemistry projects and Baekhyun is his best friend, they know how clumsy and absent-minded he can be. It takes a moment for Jongdae to connect the dots and nod frantically, “I think I’ll accept the position, wouldn’t want to rob Chanyeol of his leading rights.”
“Well, if that’s all I’d say we can start from next week. We’ll work in pairs of two. I’ll let you know about the pairs on Monday, but we already have a few kids to babysit.”
They all nod, and Baekhyun just hopes he doesn’t end up with Jongdae because that would be more than incredibly thorny. Compared to that, this meeting would be a piece of cake.
As he packs up his things and makes his best not to brush against Jongdae’s body as he leaves the room, he misses Chanyeol’s and Kyungsoo’s plotting glances.
Baekhyun sighs. Jongdae sighs. Sehun gets up, only to be pulled back on the couch by his two babysitters. He sighs.
“You’re boring. Babysitters aren’t supposed to be boring. Or ugly.”
Baekhyun is nursing a majestic headache and having to deal with the whiniest and shortest know-it-all of the prefecture is not helping. Having to do it with the help of his ex-boyfriend slash ex-best friend makes everything even worse.
“Watch your mouth little rascal, and be thankful we managed to stop you from burning the house,” he snaps, but the miniature monster only replies with a defiant look.
“In sitcoms babysitters are always hot girls who put kids to sleep and then the kids would cuddle against their chest.”
He inspects Baekhyun and Jongdae’s chests closely, waiting to see boobs sprout up from there out of nowhere. Baekhyun scoffs, “Sorry to disappoint you, Casanova, but you’re stuck with us and no girls.”
“And if you don’t behave,” adds Jongdae, “Baekhyun will put you to bed and force you to cuddle with him. How’s that?”
Sehun looks at them in horror and squeals, “Babysitters are supposed to be nice!”
He runs away before they can stop him.
Baekhyun doesn’t want to talk with Jongdae. He’s avoided doing it all day, unless absolutely necessary, but this time he’s forced to acknowledge the other’s presence as he’s being asked, “Are you going to chase after him or am I?”
He is not that eager to chase after little Oh Sehun around the house. The kid can survive alone for other five, ten, even fifty minutes. Now he understands why the mother seemed so keen to leave him in their hands. If he were a single rich woman with a son this lively, Baekhyun too would pay people to keep him entertained at least for a few hours. But the point is that they’re being paid to keep an eye on him, and no matter how tired he is, he can’t slack off if he wants the money. But he must move quickly, before Sehun manages to destroy the laptop or plays bungee jumping from the third floor stairs.
“I’ll go,” he says, getting his tired limbs to work. He also had extra practice with the swimming club today, but Chanyeol and Kyungsoo already covered for him yesterday and during the last weekend, when he had his class president duties.
Jongdae’s hand comes to rest on his knees, stopping him from leaving. “Don’t worry. Sit there and… uhm, rest. I’m going,” he says, and he’s gone before Baekhyun can stop him.
He leans his head on the backrest, faintly listening to the whining of that scaredy-cat Oh Sehun kid and Jongdae’s fake threats, put down that laptop right now, Sehunnie. His knee still tingles where Jongdae has touched him before.
“But I want to play pirates!” Sehun cries, and then screams like a little girl. Judging by the sheer intensity of his yells, Jongdae must have resorted to the tickling card.
He used to do that very often when they were together, pinning Baekhyun to the bed and tickling him senseless, until the only thing that escaped his mouth were broken sobs and begs for mercy.
Baekhyun knows what Chanyeol is trying to do, casually putting him and Jongdae together in the same shift and probably hoping they’ll magically make out from nowhere. He scoffs, as if life is a colourful My little pony episode where everything ends well.
But it must be exhausting for Chanyeol, to have his two best friends fighting and refusing to talk to each other. Ok, maybe Jongdae wants to talk but Baekhyun is been giving him the cold shoulder since he came back from the summer camp. But still, Jongdae is a little bitch and Baekhyun is done with him. No amount of Chanyeol’s evil plot can break his resolve.
Jongdae falls from the stairs laughing, little Sehun on top of him and trying to cover every patch of Jongdae’s skin with his devilish, ticklish hands.
“Baekhyun, Baekhyun please, help, he’s killing me!”
Jongdae doesn’t even deserve his mercy, but leaving anyone at the cruel hands of the Oh demon would be inhuman. Baekhyun sighs and with a swift move, he grabs Sehun by the collar of his shirt and keeps him raised in the hair, ignoring the attempted kicks of the crying thing.
“Put me down, evil babysitter, or I’ll tell mom you invited your girlfriend and you started making out with her instead of playing with me.”
Baekhyun laughs in his face, “Sorry kid who watches too many teen dramas, but the chances of me having a girlfriend are lower than yours.”
“I’ll tell her you were making out with Jongdae, then.”
They both freeze uneasily, Jongdae on the floor and Baekhyun in the middle of the room, with Sehun still suspended mid-air.
I would really like that to happen, thinks Baekhyun, I really would.
He dumps Sehun on the ground with no care whatsoever and smugly smirks at the kid’s pained moan. Jongdae’s eyes are fixated on his own, his expression difficult to read.
Baekhyun forces himself to ignore Jongdae and the pang on his stomach. He looks at the clock, counting the hours until the return of Mr. Oh.
Chanyeol is sleeping on his desk the morning after, and Baekhyun flicks his fingers behind his ear and wakes him up before the teacher can enter the classroom and find him drooling on his textbook. The other boy gurgles something at the back of his throat.
“Good morning to you too, Yeol, and thank you for leaving me with the enemy yesterday, that’s what real friends are for.”
Chanyeol opens his mouth to say something extremely stupid, but the discussion is postponed by the arrival of a very annoyed teacher, who zeroes on him and call, “Park Chanyeol, come at the blackboard and solve question number 356.”
He doesn’t miss the sick satisfaction in Baekhyun’s eyes as his best friend mouths “Karma is a bitch, Yeol,” before he surrenders to the teacher’s wish and gets up.
The second time it happens, Baekhyun just walks inside Sehun’s house expecting to find Mrs. Oh, Kyungsoo and the kid. He bumps straight into Jongdae and his nose plunges into a very familiar shirt.
“You’re wearing my shirt. Why are you wearing my shirt?” he asks.
“Hi,” is Jongdae’s meek greeting, almost covered by Sehun’s loud raspberry coming from the kitchen. Baekhyun walks inside, and it’s welcomed by a disgusted, “Oh, no. It’s him again.”
Sehun is swinging his chair back and forth, pouting and glaring at his math book so hard that Baekhyun can see smoke rising from the cover.
“Yes, it’s me because, guess what? I’m the one in charge of homework and making the bad kids study. If only you were a smart child, Sehun, you would never be forced to see me again. But since you’ve been a naughty kid, now we’ll sit down and talk about multiplications.”
Sehun looks at them and scoffs.
“But first you need to finish drinking your milk, Sehunnie,” continues Jongdae, with a voice so sweet that it could convince even a heart of stone. But not Oh Sehun, spoiled kid extraordinaire.
“No, I don’t want milk. I hate milk.”
Maybe Chanyeol was right. They really need Jongdae because if it wasn’t for him, Baekhyun would’ve already strangled Sehun.
“But you need to drink milk, Sehunnie. If you don’t, you won’t became tall and then you’ll never be able to mock Baekhyun because he’s a shortie.”
“Hey!” protests Baekhyun, “you’re shorter than me!”
But Sehun is already gulping down all the milk and asking for another glass.
They force him to make his homework afterwards. Baekhyun is a good teacher, but he doesn’t have any patience. Jongdae, on the other hand, sucks at math, but with his sweet voice and tender smiles he can keep Sehun calm and concentrated. It’s a pity that his parents won’t ever let him become a kindergarten teacher, but Baekhyun knows that there’s no space to argue in Jongdae’s household. His brother will inherit the clinic and Jongdae is to inherit the law firm. However, he’d look rather nice in a garden, surrounded by smiling children.
“Why are you wearing my shirt?”
Jongdae has at least the decency to blush, but Baekhyun barely manages to look at him while he does it. Not without remembering that he’s spent the last three months wallowing in self-pity and putting all his efforts into the total and complete elimination of Kim Jongdae from his life.
He lets his gaze dance on the expensive couch, wondering why a woman who gave birth to Sehun fooled herself into thinking that white leather was a good option for her living room. It’s a miracle that the couch is still there, clean and perfect despite Sehun’s destructive powers.
Concentrating on little details distracts him from the three giant boxes of Jongdae’s stuff still parked in his garage and from how emptier his room had felt after he got rid of everything that belonged to his ex-boyfriend. He had told Chanyeol to tell Jongdae to come and pick everything, but then Jongdae had told Chanyeol to tell Baekhyun something back, but Baekhyun didn’t want to listen and he had told Chanyeol to tell Jongdae to fuck himself but Chanyeol is a good mama boy and he never swears, so he had to deny Baekhyun this little favour. Chanyeol only wants them to make up, and maybe make out to seal their newfound peace, so he can finally stop being the messenger between them. Jongdae probably wants them to make up, judging by his kicked puppy look and the long looks filled with longing and sadness he keeps shooting at Baekhyun when he thinks he’s not watching. He wants to make up and possibly, possibly, make out. At least, that’s what Baekhyun hopes. He hopes Jongdae is missing him.
Jongdae kept his shirt, like he’s still keeping everything else. Half of Baekhyun’s most beloved possessions are still in Jongdae’s room, including Jongdae himself.
“Why are you wearing my shirt?” he repeats, firmer this time.
Jongdae’s eyes are soft. He bites his lips before he answers.
“Because I like to wear your clothes. It’s the only way to be close to you, since you won’t answer my calls.”
Baekhyun splutters and looks away not see Jongdae staring at him like the brat he is, like he has something to prove.
“Baekhyun,” starts Jongdae, and Baekhyun wants to interrupt him, wants to run away like he’s done for the past three months, an entire summer, but he can’t. Sehun is sleeping against him, his ruffled hair black against the white of Baekhyun’s uniform shirt. He seems like an angel in his sleep, but if he accidentally wakes up, he’ll become a devil again. They can’t risk it, they’re already too tired after dealing with him all day, so Baekhyun keeps still and silent, not even daring to raise his voice to tell Jongdae to shut up.
“I know I really messed up, and I can see you’re still quite upset,” quite upset is a euphemism, he’s furious, ready to punch Jongdae in the face and kiss him senseless, “but I really want to make up to you. I’ve missed you so much these last months, you can’t even imagine.”
Jongdae is a bad liar. He trips over the words, reddens, chokes in the most dumb and endearing way when he’s not telling the truth. There’s no mistaking it. He’s not lying.
Baekhyun inwardly heaves a sigh, relief washing over him at the thought that Jongdae missed him too, that he still wants them to be something.
“If you don’t want to forgive me now I’ll wait, but please let’s be friends, at least.”
He doesn’t answer for a long time. Being friends… How can they be friends when he craves Jongdae’s laugh against his neck, warm and loud? How can they be friends when Jongdae looks at him like he’s still the only thing that matters? How can they be friends after Jongdae cheated on him?
“I need some time to think about it,” he answers in the end. Jongdae isn’t happy, but he can’t say anything else because Mrs. Oh chooses that exact moment to come back. She find her child asleep on the couch between his two babysitters, hair a mess and a cute little frown on his dreaming face. She probably doesn’t notice the strange tension in the air, nor Jongdae’s moping and Baekhyun’s blush.
Aren’t friends supposed to make you feel better? Baekhyun’s life seems to fall apart whenever his friends are around. He doesn’t even know if Kyungsoo can fall in the friend category.
Byun Baekhyun and Do Kyungsoo were somewhat friends for three glorious minutes during first year. Three minutes, before the former declared that Kyungsoo was too repressed to be real and decided to loosen him up a little. That lead to Kyungsoo deciding that Baekhyun was his most hated person in the world, and from that moment onwards his life was dedicated to his complete annihilation. Their complicated relationship hit its peak that glorious time, at the end of freshman year, when a pissed off Kyungsoo pushed Baekhyun out of the window, hoping to end his life once for all. Ok, Kyungsoo said it was an accident, but still. Out of the window! Too bad that Baekhyun managed to drag his murderer down with him. Thirteen stitches for Baekhyun and eleven for Kyungsoo later, they settled on a truce. A glaring, scoffing, tense truce that became true friendship the day Chanyeol’s class was dissolved and he was transferred into theirs.
Kyungsoo melts around Chanyeol like a chocolate under the sun. He can’t stand his childish antics as much as can’t stand Baekhyun’s, but Kyungsoo would never be able to raise a hand on Park Chanyeol because he has a huge crush on the taller boy, and since the two friends come in an inseparable package, Kyungsoo was forced to suck it up and accept Byun Baekhyun in his life.
Baekhyun supposes that despite the countless murder attempts, they are friends now. But they won’t be for long if Kyungsoo keeps talking.
“Ok, tell me if I got this. You,” Kyungsoo points his fingers right towards Baekhyun’s nose, missing his right eye by an in inch, “and Sweet Cheekbones used to go out together.”
It’s pretty much the truth. Except it was more like Baekhyun had found his soulmate in a seven billion people world and then said soulmate stabbed him in the back with the blade of betrayal.
“We were just fooling around,” he whispers, trying to keep his voice low and inaudible.
“Oh, sure,” snorts Kyungsoo, but Baekhyun covers his mouth with a sweaty hand, ignoring Kyungsoo’s disgusted groan, and gestures him to shut up.
They both hear a soft padding sound coming from the other room. Someone opens the door and gets inside, opening it and slowly listening to any revealing sound. Kyungsoo goes rigid as a statue and Baekhyun tries not to breath. A drop of sweat runs down his neck, and he prays that the third person in the room can’t smell his fear. After a few, agonizing beats, the door closes and they’re left alone again.
Baekhyun sighs and slides on the floor on a heap of folded shirts. Kyungsoo follows him, making himself comfortable on a fluffy coat.
“That’s not what Chanyeol said. He said Jongdae was your boyfriend.” Oh, yes, and Kyungsoo believes everything Chanyeol says, no matter how dumb it sounds.
“Well, Chanyeol was wrong,” he states. Kyungsoo taps his fingers on his chin, gaze lost in the past.
“Hey, I remember about him! He’s the one who went to see you at the hospital after the window incident. Wow, he really worked up during the last year… There’s no doubt he was your boyfriend from the way you sucked face in front of my poor virgin eyes.”
Baekhyun feels irritation bubbling up in his chest. “More like fuckbuddy.”
“Boyfriend!”
“Fuckbuddy!”
“I knew it!”
Jongin’s voice interrupts them as the door of the bedroom slams open. A few seconds later the eight years old child spreads the shutters of the closet open on two blinded and confused Baekhyun and Kyungsoo.
“Found ya!”
Jongin is the prettiest kid ever. He seems a little princess, with long, curly hair and an innocent face. Too bad he hides the soul of a power ranger under the frilly dresses his mom forces him to wear. He’s also more energetic than Sehun, and he refuses to do his homework unless they beat him at some games. Which is an impossible feat. One would think that two almost adults would beat a brat like him, but they’ve playing hide and seek for more than two hours now. And they’ve always lost. Jongin’s high and piercing voice is starting to get mildly irritating.
“Wait here while I find a hiding place, ok? Start counting!”
As Jongin scampers away, Baekhyun glowers at Kyungsoo. “Are you happy? Now because you wanted to be a busybody he found us. Again.” Kyungsoo looks like he’s torn between tearing his hair and choking himself.
“Oh god, it’ll take another hour to find him.”
Jongin is like, the most creative kid in the entire neighbourhood when it comes to hide and seek. If a world hide and seek championship existed, he’d win it.
“I can’t believe we lost just because you can’t mind your own business, Kyungsoo.”
“I don’t care about your angsty teen romance story of broken love, Baekhyun. Come on, you’re acting like he cheated on you with your worst enemy,” which is, by the way, the actual truth, “but knowing you he probably scratched one of your limited edition Girls Generation albums.”
He lets out a pained moan at the mere thought. “He wouldn’t be still alive after doing something like that.”
“Like I said, I have no interest in your uninteresting life Byun, but you two have to stop ordering Chanyeol around just because you’re too stupid to talk to each other on your own.”
Baekhyun knows he’s right, but Jongdae is an ass who left him alone all summer. After cheating on him. “Oh, please, you’re just grumpy because I’m ordering your girlfriend around more than you do!”
Kyungsoo gags on air and his face turns scarlet, but he doesn’t dare deny the truth.
Baekhyun offers him a hand and he gets him on his feet and out of the closet. “I swear, the only reason I keep doing this except the money are all the blackmail photos of kid Jongin in a ponytail wearing a pink sweater. I can’t wait until he grows up, I’ll carry those photos in my wallet and show it to his friends every time I bump into him. It’ll take some time, but revenge is a dish best served cold.”
They both close their eyes, already tasting the sweet aftertaste of payback.
“Okay, let’s go,” Kyungsoo announces.
“Wait, shouldn’t we wait for Jongin to hide first?”
Kyungsoo’s leer is evil. “He promised me he would’ve done his homework if we managed to find him and I can’t waste my entire afternoon being humiliated at a game by a kid half my age. We’re cheating.”
Well, it makes sense. Baekhyun nods, “I’m checking first floor, you think of the bedrooms area.”
→ PART 2