[oneshot] the gentle art of romcoms
Title: the gentle art of romcoms
Pairing: baekhyun/chanyeol
Rating: r
Genre: au, mild humor, romance
Warnings: swearing, sexual themes
Author: gdgdbaby
Notes: actor au, wherein baekhyun stars as the main supporting actor in the latest kris wu romcom, and chanyeol, his ex-boyfriend, happens to be playing the main male lead. ft. kyungsoo the long-suffering manager and taeyeon the long-suffering lead actress. everyone's in their mid/late twenties. played it fast and loose with the way the korean film industry works, so many apologies about that. written for this prompt on exopromptmeme. 3,126 words.
He doesn't actually know Chanyeol's playing the lead until he walks into the first table read and spots him chatting with Kris over the catered breakfast, long legs stretching out beneath the table, annotated script in hand.
Because the universe hates Baekhyun, Chanyeol still looks as good as ever: blond hair blow-dried to perfection, Ray-Bans cocked over the crown of his head. Today he's in skinny jeans and a slim-cut gray sweatshirt with black polka dots on it, one that shows off the line of his neck. Baekhyun looks down at his own fuzzy striped sweater and groans a little.
"What the hell," he mutters, swerving past the coffee table and dropping into his seat, fingers fiddling with his name placard. Kris sees him and walks over a minute later, eyeing him with trepidation. "You didn't tell me about this bullshit."
"I didn't think you'd show up if you'd known," he says apologetically. "It's just-he was the right person for the part, you know?"
"Misunderstood douchecrepe with a heart of gold?" Baekhyun returns, voice dry. "I can see why." Kris sighs. "I think I'm just offended you thought I wouldn't be able to handle it professionally. Who do you think I am? It's been two years. That's like a decade as far as people like us are concerned."
"You're sure it isn't gonna be awkward?" he asks, raising his eyebrows. "Chanyeol said he was fine with it but I wanted to ask you, too."
"And what would you do if i said no?" Baekhyun returns, genuinely curious. "Fire one of us?"
Kris's hands twist in the hem of his dress shirt. "I could try to make special arrangements-"
"Relax," Baekhyun cuts in, rolling his eyes. "We're both adults, and we've both moved on. It's not going to be awkward."
It is, in fact, incredibly, excruciatingly awkward.
Well-that's not entirely true. On set, when they're filming, things are fine. Everyone involved is a consummate professional: Kris's been directing since he was a teenager, and last year he'd had to deal with Lu Han and Minseok on the disastrous set of Baozi, which ended up being a box-office hit despite all the drama involved. Taeyeon's fairly down to earth about everything despite her superstardom; Baekhyun spends the first few shooting days over the moon about getting to act alongside her, and only manages to pull himself together when Kyungsoo threatens to tell her about the embarrassing collection of movie posters featuring her face that's stuffed somewhere in Baekhyun's closet. Chanyeol still slides into his characters like they're a second skin-and when Baekhyun gets into the zone there's really nothing else that matters to him, just the words coming out of his mouth and the thrill of being someone else entirely, if only for a moment.
It's the time they spend off camera that's worrisome. Mostly it's awkward because Baekhyun just doesn't know how to talk to him without it being weird, like he can't trust himself not to say something inappropriate about how hot Chanyeol looks in the outfit wardrobe has him in for the tenth scene, or ask why Chanyeol thought they never worked out (were they just too busy with their respective careers, or were they too similar in temperament that they could only see their own flaws magnified tenfold in each other?). Overshare on all counts-so it's better, he thinks, to just cut his losses and ignore Chanyeol outright. Which makes for a kind of charged atmosphere when the cameras aren't rolling, but they get by.
They're supposed to be best friends in the script, Baekhyun playing Chanyeol's snarky gay best-friend-slash-wingman as Chanyeol tries to get the unattainable girl. The only words they say to each other those first few weeks are the ones other people have written for them.
They shoot the drunk kissing scene at the end of day 35. Everyone's gathered in Chanyeol's character's apartment for this, Zitao the assistant director behind the main camera.
At the moment, Chanyeol's trying to drink his relationship problems away. "Sometimes I think," he croaks, fingers moving up and down the neck of the soju bottle in his lap, "things would be a lot easier if I were gay."
Baekhyun lets out a huff of wine-soaked laughter. "Not as easy as you think, princess."
"I didn't mean it like that," Chanyeol says, shifting up on the couch and turning his shoulders so that he's staring at the top of Baekhyun's head. "i mean-" Chanyeol's voice catches, and something in his eyes flickers a little, a brief waver in his carefully constructed persona, and Baekhyun has to swallow hard around the lump in his throat. Chanyeol reaches out to cradle his jaw, fingertips brushing gently against the soft skin behind his ear.
Baekhyun freezes. "What are you doing?"
"I mean," he repeats, "it'd be so much easier to just run away with you, wouldn't it? You know me, you understand me, you-" He leans down as Baekhyun's lips part and kisses him wet and sloppy, catches more of Baekhyun's chin than he does his mouth.
Baekhyun leans into it for one glorious moment before shoving Chanyeol off. He wipes the back of his hand against his mouth, lips dipping down in an unhappy frown. "You don't want this," he says, firmer than he feels, and scoots back when Chanyeol tries to reach for him again.
"We could make it work," he says desperately. "Don't you love me?"
Baekhyun inhales sharply. "Yes," he says, "but you aren't gay." He stands shakily, uses the arm of the sofa to steady himself.
"Don't go," chanyeol says, eyes wide and glittering in the ambient light. Baekhyun feels the visceral desire to grab Chanyeol and kiss the shit out of him thump hard in his chest, but he shoves his hands in his pockets and turns on his heel, slams out the door instead.
Chanyeol finds him tearing savagely at a pastry in craft services after they finish up the scene.
"That poor egg tart didn't do anything to you," he says, half-grin on his face, the first line of non-dialogue he's said to Baekhyun all month, and Baekhyun snorts despite himself.
The next morning Baekhyun goes back to pretending Chanyeol doesn't exist off camera-self-preservation at its finest. Chanyeol sends him a series of increasingly confused glances during the long breaks in between takes before giving up and locking himself in his trailer.
"Kris asked me to talk to you," Kyungsoo says a couple of days later.
"What about?" Baekhyun hedges, and Kyungsoo stares at him flatly.
"Don't play dumb. It only looks cute on me."
"Haha," Baekhyun says. "You should consider a career in variety."
"Stop changing the subject, I'm trying to be serious," he snaps. "About Chanyeol-"
"We're fine," Baekhyun insists.
Kyungsoo cards a hand through his hair and tosses him a disbelieving look. "Just-stay civil, alright? Only a few more weeks of this and then you won't have to see him again."
"Yeah," he says, studiously not thinking about Chanyeol's hands on his face or the warm slide of his lips against Baekhyun's. "I know."
Kris calls it a wrap in mid-June, two and a half months after filming began. Baekhyun and Chanyeol have exchanged about a handful of words off-screen in that time, and Baekhyun lets out a tense sigh of relief when it's finally over.
There's a lot of slapping on the back and glad-handing all around, and even a fancy after party at the producer's house in Gangnam that night. Baekhyun downs slimy hors d'oeuvres by the half-dozen and pastes on a smile when Kim Joonmyun comes by to congratulate him on a job well done. Chanyeol tries to catch Baekhyun after he finishes trading contact info with Taeyeon and the rest of the supporting cast and crew, but Baekhyun manages to slip out of the party before it happens.
don't forget the seoul red carpet premiere in october, Kris texts him sternly. i expect you to be there, and on your best behavior. i'll send kyungsoo the exact dates when they come out.
pls. when have i ever let u down?? Baekhyun shoots back.
He spends almost all of post-production trying to forget about Chanyeol, on extended vacation in Belize with Jongdae, who'd composed the film's soundtrack. "What you need is some fresh dick to put things into perspective," Jongdae says sympathetically, shoving him further inside the packed club.
Baekhyun ends up trying to go home with some tan surfer kid named Kai, but they've barely gotten to first base before Baekhyun's imagining the way Chanyeol used to grin absurdly when he tickled Baekhyun's neck or sucked bruises into the groove of his hip, how he always murmured, "Hey, baby, is this okay?" before swallowing Baekhyun's erection into his mouth, fingers clenching hard around Baekhyun's thighs.
"Sorry," Baekhyun gasps, disentangling himself from Kai's limbs halfway down the block. "I don't think I can do this."
Back in the hotel suite, Baekhyun jerks himself off in the shower, hot spray washing away all the semen and sweat accumulated from a night out on the town. Shit, he thinks, pressing his forehead into the glass. Shit, shit, shit.
Kris calls him in for ADR with Yixing the sound mixer in September, and they do a couple of intense rerecording sessions for Baekhyun's opening scenes. He bumps into Chanyeol on the last long afternoon, throat sore from the multiple takes. Baekhyun's in laundry day clothing, baggy sweats and a violently orange shirt three sizes too large for him, hair wild and uncombed beneath his hat. Chanyeol's impeccable, of course. He pulls at the lapels of his blazer and coughs as Baekhyun brushes past him out of the sound studio.
"Baekhyun," he says, and grabs his wrist in the hallway.
"Yes?" Baekhyun says coolly, breathing in slow and level.
"Look, can we talk?"
"Why do you think we never worked out?" Baekhyun blurts out, and claps a hand to his mouth right after it leaves his mouth. He tries to tug his other arm out of Chanyeol's hand but the grip on his wrist just goes tighter. "Let go of me."
"Wrong place at the wrong time," Chanyeol says seriously after a long moment, loosening his grasp. "We were too young, too focused on other shit to treat each other properly." But we aren't anymore, his gaze seems to say, and Baekhyun feels glued to the floor, as if his feet have put roots down through the carpet and wood and reinforced concrete foundation. Chanyeol scratches the back of his head uncomfortably. "I gotta go record, but wait for me, okay?"
"Okay," Baekhyun says, just to get him to go. He floats out to the parking lot in a daze, drives home and bundles himself into bed. When he wakes up, his housekeeper's done the laundry, at least, so that's something.
"Absolutely not," Kyungsoo snaps down the line, irate.
"Please," Baekhyun whines into his receiver. "It's not that big of a deal, is it?"
"You may under no circumstances skip the red carpet," he bites out. "You are the second supporting male lead, everyone else is going to be there, this is the biggest opening of the season-what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I just don't want to go."
"This is about Chanyeol, isn't it?" Baekhyun doesn't say anything, and Kyungsoo snorts. "You idiot. I swear to God, I will drive over there tomorrow myself and drag you out in your boxers if I have to."
"Wouldn't that be really bad PR?" Baekhyun tries feebly.
"Take it up with your publicist, asshole," Kyungsoo says, and hangs up on him.
Baekhyun spends all morning before the premiere in the salon, getting his hair and make-up done for the first time since filming wrapped. His stylist, Sehun, comes by the apartment with Ferragamo Oxfords and a three-piece Oswald Boateng at noon, nearly pricks him to death with his needles.
"Knock 'em dead," he says apathetically when he's finished, giving the burgundy tie around Baekhyun's neck one last tug. "Chanyeol won't know what hit him."
"Man, how the fuck do you know, too?" Baekhyun grouses.
Sehun just shrugs mysteriously and shuffles out with his bag.
Baekhyun fingers his fringe and casts a longing look in the direction of his bed, and the messy pile of sleep clothes on top of it. Someone's horn honking stirs him out of his reverie and he sticks his head out the window to see Kyungsoo's car parked outside his building.
"I wasn't fucking kidding," he yells up at him.
Jesus, Baekhyun thinks, scrubbing a hand over his face. He sets his jaw and walks out the door.
Taeyeon looks radiant in her strapless Armani Prive number. She steps out of the limo and Baekhyun twists a hand around her waist, smiling for the paparazzi. They give several short interviews with Kris and spend the rest of their time leaning over the barricades to speak to the fans. Baekhyun checks his watch-the screening starts in half an hour and Chanyeol still hasn't shown up.
He arrives with ten minutes to spare, hair styled in casually windswept fashion, decked out in a navy single-button Zegna. He grins charmingly for the cameras and waves to the screaming crowd before spotting Baekhyun halfway down the carpet. His eyes go a little wide and Baekhyun turns his head, says something to one of the girls he's signing a poster for.
A vise-like grip closes around his elbow a minute later. Baekhyun grimaces his apologies at the hands still waving DVDs and magazines at him and steps away. "Come with me," Chanyeol says roughly into his ear, strong-arming him toward the theater.
"You're late as hell," Baekhyun hisses. "You have interviews to give."
"Fuck that," Chanyeol says. They slam into the theater and down the side hallway into the men's bathroom.
What the fuck do you think you're doing? Baekhyun wants to ask, but before he can get a word in edgewise Chanyeol's kissing him hard enough to bruise, teeth scraping along the edge of his bottom lip, tongue tracing deft circles against the roof of his mouth.
The paper towel dispenser digs into Baekhyun's shoulders as he falls against it. Chanyeol tugs at the buttons on his suit jacket, hips pinning Baekhyun in place. When Baekhyun tries to rear his head back Chanyeol just follows him, lips nipping at his.
"Stop," he says, panting into Chanyeol's mouth.
Chanyeol pulls back and stares at him, knee sliding in between Baekhyun's legs to press against his obvious erection. "Why?"
"I don't know what I want," Baekhyun says, "but I know it isn't you."
"You can't even convince yourself that's true," Chanyeol returns without missing a beat.
"Chanyeol," he says, "do you remember why we broke up?"
"I only remember the good times," Chanyeol claims, and winces at the way it comes out of his mouth.
"Really? That's funny."
"Is it?"
"I only remember the fights," he lies, squeezing his eyes shut. "The day I left, you landed a part I'd auditioned for. Three rounds in, and we were both being considered by the director. Would've been the first big role for either of us, and you got it-and then you got drunk as fuck to celebrate."
"Baekhyun-"
"You threw it back in my face all night," he continues loudly, "how you were finally going places. I was happy for you, of course. But we're both too ambitious for our own good, and I was so fucking fed up after years of playing stupid bit parts. So I left, for the most self-absorbed, petulant reason in the world." He opens his eyes again and Chanyeol's gazing down at him, lips pressed together in a thin line. "And then we both made it, but I was too chickenshit to come back."
Chanyeol leans down and laughs a little, knocking their foreheads together.
"What?" Baekhyun says, a little indignant.
"I wanted to ask," Chanyeol says, "if you had any idea how hot you looked in those outfits wardrobe had you in? Because the answer is really fucking hot. You look really hot today, too, just so we're clear-and every other day, to be honest, but-"
"What the fuck," he interrupts flatly, shoving at Chanyeol's shoulders. "I just bared my heart to you and all you can think about is-"
"Listen," Chanyeol says, holding Baekhyun in place as he tries to squirm away. "I was an asshat, and you were an asshat, and we were both stupid fucks. Okay? I knew where to find you but I didn't try to, either. I don't-" He leans back and runs a hand through his hair. "You remember that scene in Two Moons, on the balcony with the cigarette. The long conversation with Yoon Eunhye about lost opportunities. It ended in tears."
"Yeah," Baekhyun says helplessly. "I've seen all your movies, idiot."
"I was thinking," Chanyeol says, wincing again at how painfully twee the sentiment is, "about you."
"I didn't know you were a fucking romantic," he replies, "I bet you use that line on all the boys," and then Chanyeol's kissing him again. Baekhyun lets him, mouth opening up beneath his, hands pulling at Chanyeol's bespoke. They end up fucking in one of the bathroom stalls like a couple of horny teenagers, muffling each other's moans with their hands and necks and the closest body part handy-because everything about them has always been messy and spontaneous, quick to anger and just as quick to bed, Chanyeol's hands pulling him to completion.
Afterwards, Baekhyun tries his best to smooth out the creases in his suit in front of the mirror, to no avail. Sehun's probably going to give him shit about it for weeks. Chanyeol leans against the linoleum counter and asks, "Do you know what you want yet?" and Baekhyun rolls his eyes. "We can take it slow," he adds earnestly.
"I don't think having sex on premiere night is really taking it slow," Baekhyun mutters. He tugs his phone out of his back pocket and jumps a little when he scrolls through twenty carefully-worded texts from Kris, three bemused ones from Taeyeon, and one from Kyungsoo. GET YOUR ASS IN HERE BEFORE THE MOVIE'S OVER OR FOR FUCK'S SAKE I WILL QUIT AND THEN WHERE WILL YOU BE YOU UNGRATEFUL SHIT, the last one says. Charming as ever, that Do Kyungsoo.
"We're gonna look like shit for the Q&A," Chanyeol remarks, attempting to pat his ruffled hair down with water.
"I don't really care," Baekhyun says. He reaches out to thumb the skin of Chanyeol's wrist, biting his lip. Chanyeol grins back at him, face crinkling with it. Baekhyun pushes him toward the door. "Come on. Time to go out and face the music." The bounce in his step buoys him all the way to the theater.
fin
A/N: MAN I'M REALLY TERRIBLE AT THIS CUTESY SHIT can you tell. I TRIED THO, LORD KNOWS I TRIED.
Pairing: baekhyun/chanyeol
Rating: r
Genre: au, mild humor, romance
Warnings: swearing, sexual themes
Author: gdgdbaby
Notes: actor au, wherein baekhyun stars as the main supporting actor in the latest kris wu romcom, and chanyeol, his ex-boyfriend, happens to be playing the main male lead. ft. kyungsoo the long-suffering manager and taeyeon the long-suffering lead actress. everyone's in their mid/late twenties. played it fast and loose with the way the korean film industry works, so many apologies about that. written for this prompt on exopromptmeme. 3,126 words.
He doesn't actually know Chanyeol's playing the lead until he walks into the first table read and spots him chatting with Kris over the catered breakfast, long legs stretching out beneath the table, annotated script in hand.
Because the universe hates Baekhyun, Chanyeol still looks as good as ever: blond hair blow-dried to perfection, Ray-Bans cocked over the crown of his head. Today he's in skinny jeans and a slim-cut gray sweatshirt with black polka dots on it, one that shows off the line of his neck. Baekhyun looks down at his own fuzzy striped sweater and groans a little.
"What the hell," he mutters, swerving past the coffee table and dropping into his seat, fingers fiddling with his name placard. Kris sees him and walks over a minute later, eyeing him with trepidation. "You didn't tell me about this bullshit."
"I didn't think you'd show up if you'd known," he says apologetically. "It's just-he was the right person for the part, you know?"
"Misunderstood douchecrepe with a heart of gold?" Baekhyun returns, voice dry. "I can see why." Kris sighs. "I think I'm just offended you thought I wouldn't be able to handle it professionally. Who do you think I am? It's been two years. That's like a decade as far as people like us are concerned."
"You're sure it isn't gonna be awkward?" he asks, raising his eyebrows. "Chanyeol said he was fine with it but I wanted to ask you, too."
"And what would you do if i said no?" Baekhyun returns, genuinely curious. "Fire one of us?"
Kris's hands twist in the hem of his dress shirt. "I could try to make special arrangements-"
"Relax," Baekhyun cuts in, rolling his eyes. "We're both adults, and we've both moved on. It's not going to be awkward."
It is, in fact, incredibly, excruciatingly awkward.
Well-that's not entirely true. On set, when they're filming, things are fine. Everyone involved is a consummate professional: Kris's been directing since he was a teenager, and last year he'd had to deal with Lu Han and Minseok on the disastrous set of Baozi, which ended up being a box-office hit despite all the drama involved. Taeyeon's fairly down to earth about everything despite her superstardom; Baekhyun spends the first few shooting days over the moon about getting to act alongside her, and only manages to pull himself together when Kyungsoo threatens to tell her about the embarrassing collection of movie posters featuring her face that's stuffed somewhere in Baekhyun's closet. Chanyeol still slides into his characters like they're a second skin-and when Baekhyun gets into the zone there's really nothing else that matters to him, just the words coming out of his mouth and the thrill of being someone else entirely, if only for a moment.
It's the time they spend off camera that's worrisome. Mostly it's awkward because Baekhyun just doesn't know how to talk to him without it being weird, like he can't trust himself not to say something inappropriate about how hot Chanyeol looks in the outfit wardrobe has him in for the tenth scene, or ask why Chanyeol thought they never worked out (were they just too busy with their respective careers, or were they too similar in temperament that they could only see their own flaws magnified tenfold in each other?). Overshare on all counts-so it's better, he thinks, to just cut his losses and ignore Chanyeol outright. Which makes for a kind of charged atmosphere when the cameras aren't rolling, but they get by.
They're supposed to be best friends in the script, Baekhyun playing Chanyeol's snarky gay best-friend-slash-wingman as Chanyeol tries to get the unattainable girl. The only words they say to each other those first few weeks are the ones other people have written for them.
They shoot the drunk kissing scene at the end of day 35. Everyone's gathered in Chanyeol's character's apartment for this, Zitao the assistant director behind the main camera.
At the moment, Chanyeol's trying to drink his relationship problems away. "Sometimes I think," he croaks, fingers moving up and down the neck of the soju bottle in his lap, "things would be a lot easier if I were gay."
Baekhyun lets out a huff of wine-soaked laughter. "Not as easy as you think, princess."
"I didn't mean it like that," Chanyeol says, shifting up on the couch and turning his shoulders so that he's staring at the top of Baekhyun's head. "i mean-" Chanyeol's voice catches, and something in his eyes flickers a little, a brief waver in his carefully constructed persona, and Baekhyun has to swallow hard around the lump in his throat. Chanyeol reaches out to cradle his jaw, fingertips brushing gently against the soft skin behind his ear.
Baekhyun freezes. "What are you doing?"
"I mean," he repeats, "it'd be so much easier to just run away with you, wouldn't it? You know me, you understand me, you-" He leans down as Baekhyun's lips part and kisses him wet and sloppy, catches more of Baekhyun's chin than he does his mouth.
Baekhyun leans into it for one glorious moment before shoving Chanyeol off. He wipes the back of his hand against his mouth, lips dipping down in an unhappy frown. "You don't want this," he says, firmer than he feels, and scoots back when Chanyeol tries to reach for him again.
"We could make it work," he says desperately. "Don't you love me?"
Baekhyun inhales sharply. "Yes," he says, "but you aren't gay." He stands shakily, uses the arm of the sofa to steady himself.
"Don't go," chanyeol says, eyes wide and glittering in the ambient light. Baekhyun feels the visceral desire to grab Chanyeol and kiss the shit out of him thump hard in his chest, but he shoves his hands in his pockets and turns on his heel, slams out the door instead.
Chanyeol finds him tearing savagely at a pastry in craft services after they finish up the scene.
"That poor egg tart didn't do anything to you," he says, half-grin on his face, the first line of non-dialogue he's said to Baekhyun all month, and Baekhyun snorts despite himself.
The next morning Baekhyun goes back to pretending Chanyeol doesn't exist off camera-self-preservation at its finest. Chanyeol sends him a series of increasingly confused glances during the long breaks in between takes before giving up and locking himself in his trailer.
"Kris asked me to talk to you," Kyungsoo says a couple of days later.
"What about?" Baekhyun hedges, and Kyungsoo stares at him flatly.
"Don't play dumb. It only looks cute on me."
"Haha," Baekhyun says. "You should consider a career in variety."
"Stop changing the subject, I'm trying to be serious," he snaps. "About Chanyeol-"
"We're fine," Baekhyun insists.
Kyungsoo cards a hand through his hair and tosses him a disbelieving look. "Just-stay civil, alright? Only a few more weeks of this and then you won't have to see him again."
"Yeah," he says, studiously not thinking about Chanyeol's hands on his face or the warm slide of his lips against Baekhyun's. "I know."
Kris calls it a wrap in mid-June, two and a half months after filming began. Baekhyun and Chanyeol have exchanged about a handful of words off-screen in that time, and Baekhyun lets out a tense sigh of relief when it's finally over.
There's a lot of slapping on the back and glad-handing all around, and even a fancy after party at the producer's house in Gangnam that night. Baekhyun downs slimy hors d'oeuvres by the half-dozen and pastes on a smile when Kim Joonmyun comes by to congratulate him on a job well done. Chanyeol tries to catch Baekhyun after he finishes trading contact info with Taeyeon and the rest of the supporting cast and crew, but Baekhyun manages to slip out of the party before it happens.
don't forget the seoul red carpet premiere in october, Kris texts him sternly. i expect you to be there, and on your best behavior. i'll send kyungsoo the exact dates when they come out.
pls. when have i ever let u down?? Baekhyun shoots back.
He spends almost all of post-production trying to forget about Chanyeol, on extended vacation in Belize with Jongdae, who'd composed the film's soundtrack. "What you need is some fresh dick to put things into perspective," Jongdae says sympathetically, shoving him further inside the packed club.
Baekhyun ends up trying to go home with some tan surfer kid named Kai, but they've barely gotten to first base before Baekhyun's imagining the way Chanyeol used to grin absurdly when he tickled Baekhyun's neck or sucked bruises into the groove of his hip, how he always murmured, "Hey, baby, is this okay?" before swallowing Baekhyun's erection into his mouth, fingers clenching hard around Baekhyun's thighs.
"Sorry," Baekhyun gasps, disentangling himself from Kai's limbs halfway down the block. "I don't think I can do this."
Back in the hotel suite, Baekhyun jerks himself off in the shower, hot spray washing away all the semen and sweat accumulated from a night out on the town. Shit, he thinks, pressing his forehead into the glass. Shit, shit, shit.
Kris calls him in for ADR with Yixing the sound mixer in September, and they do a couple of intense rerecording sessions for Baekhyun's opening scenes. He bumps into Chanyeol on the last long afternoon, throat sore from the multiple takes. Baekhyun's in laundry day clothing, baggy sweats and a violently orange shirt three sizes too large for him, hair wild and uncombed beneath his hat. Chanyeol's impeccable, of course. He pulls at the lapels of his blazer and coughs as Baekhyun brushes past him out of the sound studio.
"Baekhyun," he says, and grabs his wrist in the hallway.
"Yes?" Baekhyun says coolly, breathing in slow and level.
"Look, can we talk?"
"Why do you think we never worked out?" Baekhyun blurts out, and claps a hand to his mouth right after it leaves his mouth. He tries to tug his other arm out of Chanyeol's hand but the grip on his wrist just goes tighter. "Let go of me."
"Wrong place at the wrong time," Chanyeol says seriously after a long moment, loosening his grasp. "We were too young, too focused on other shit to treat each other properly." But we aren't anymore, his gaze seems to say, and Baekhyun feels glued to the floor, as if his feet have put roots down through the carpet and wood and reinforced concrete foundation. Chanyeol scratches the back of his head uncomfortably. "I gotta go record, but wait for me, okay?"
"Okay," Baekhyun says, just to get him to go. He floats out to the parking lot in a daze, drives home and bundles himself into bed. When he wakes up, his housekeeper's done the laundry, at least, so that's something.
"Absolutely not," Kyungsoo snaps down the line, irate.
"Please," Baekhyun whines into his receiver. "It's not that big of a deal, is it?"
"You may under no circumstances skip the red carpet," he bites out. "You are the second supporting male lead, everyone else is going to be there, this is the biggest opening of the season-what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I just don't want to go."
"This is about Chanyeol, isn't it?" Baekhyun doesn't say anything, and Kyungsoo snorts. "You idiot. I swear to God, I will drive over there tomorrow myself and drag you out in your boxers if I have to."
"Wouldn't that be really bad PR?" Baekhyun tries feebly.
"Take it up with your publicist, asshole," Kyungsoo says, and hangs up on him.
Baekhyun spends all morning before the premiere in the salon, getting his hair and make-up done for the first time since filming wrapped. His stylist, Sehun, comes by the apartment with Ferragamo Oxfords and a three-piece Oswald Boateng at noon, nearly pricks him to death with his needles.
"Knock 'em dead," he says apathetically when he's finished, giving the burgundy tie around Baekhyun's neck one last tug. "Chanyeol won't know what hit him."
"Man, how the fuck do you know, too?" Baekhyun grouses.
Sehun just shrugs mysteriously and shuffles out with his bag.
Baekhyun fingers his fringe and casts a longing look in the direction of his bed, and the messy pile of sleep clothes on top of it. Someone's horn honking stirs him out of his reverie and he sticks his head out the window to see Kyungsoo's car parked outside his building.
"I wasn't fucking kidding," he yells up at him.
Jesus, Baekhyun thinks, scrubbing a hand over his face. He sets his jaw and walks out the door.
Taeyeon looks radiant in her strapless Armani Prive number. She steps out of the limo and Baekhyun twists a hand around her waist, smiling for the paparazzi. They give several short interviews with Kris and spend the rest of their time leaning over the barricades to speak to the fans. Baekhyun checks his watch-the screening starts in half an hour and Chanyeol still hasn't shown up.
He arrives with ten minutes to spare, hair styled in casually windswept fashion, decked out in a navy single-button Zegna. He grins charmingly for the cameras and waves to the screaming crowd before spotting Baekhyun halfway down the carpet. His eyes go a little wide and Baekhyun turns his head, says something to one of the girls he's signing a poster for.
A vise-like grip closes around his elbow a minute later. Baekhyun grimaces his apologies at the hands still waving DVDs and magazines at him and steps away. "Come with me," Chanyeol says roughly into his ear, strong-arming him toward the theater.
"You're late as hell," Baekhyun hisses. "You have interviews to give."
"Fuck that," Chanyeol says. They slam into the theater and down the side hallway into the men's bathroom.
What the fuck do you think you're doing? Baekhyun wants to ask, but before he can get a word in edgewise Chanyeol's kissing him hard enough to bruise, teeth scraping along the edge of his bottom lip, tongue tracing deft circles against the roof of his mouth.
The paper towel dispenser digs into Baekhyun's shoulders as he falls against it. Chanyeol tugs at the buttons on his suit jacket, hips pinning Baekhyun in place. When Baekhyun tries to rear his head back Chanyeol just follows him, lips nipping at his.
"Stop," he says, panting into Chanyeol's mouth.
Chanyeol pulls back and stares at him, knee sliding in between Baekhyun's legs to press against his obvious erection. "Why?"
"I don't know what I want," Baekhyun says, "but I know it isn't you."
"You can't even convince yourself that's true," Chanyeol returns without missing a beat.
"Chanyeol," he says, "do you remember why we broke up?"
"I only remember the good times," Chanyeol claims, and winces at the way it comes out of his mouth.
"Really? That's funny."
"Is it?"
"I only remember the fights," he lies, squeezing his eyes shut. "The day I left, you landed a part I'd auditioned for. Three rounds in, and we were both being considered by the director. Would've been the first big role for either of us, and you got it-and then you got drunk as fuck to celebrate."
"Baekhyun-"
"You threw it back in my face all night," he continues loudly, "how you were finally going places. I was happy for you, of course. But we're both too ambitious for our own good, and I was so fucking fed up after years of playing stupid bit parts. So I left, for the most self-absorbed, petulant reason in the world." He opens his eyes again and Chanyeol's gazing down at him, lips pressed together in a thin line. "And then we both made it, but I was too chickenshit to come back."
Chanyeol leans down and laughs a little, knocking their foreheads together.
"What?" Baekhyun says, a little indignant.
"I wanted to ask," Chanyeol says, "if you had any idea how hot you looked in those outfits wardrobe had you in? Because the answer is really fucking hot. You look really hot today, too, just so we're clear-and every other day, to be honest, but-"
"What the fuck," he interrupts flatly, shoving at Chanyeol's shoulders. "I just bared my heart to you and all you can think about is-"
"Listen," Chanyeol says, holding Baekhyun in place as he tries to squirm away. "I was an asshat, and you were an asshat, and we were both stupid fucks. Okay? I knew where to find you but I didn't try to, either. I don't-" He leans back and runs a hand through his hair. "You remember that scene in Two Moons, on the balcony with the cigarette. The long conversation with Yoon Eunhye about lost opportunities. It ended in tears."
"Yeah," Baekhyun says helplessly. "I've seen all your movies, idiot."
"I was thinking," Chanyeol says, wincing again at how painfully twee the sentiment is, "about you."
"I didn't know you were a fucking romantic," he replies, "I bet you use that line on all the boys," and then Chanyeol's kissing him again. Baekhyun lets him, mouth opening up beneath his, hands pulling at Chanyeol's bespoke. They end up fucking in one of the bathroom stalls like a couple of horny teenagers, muffling each other's moans with their hands and necks and the closest body part handy-because everything about them has always been messy and spontaneous, quick to anger and just as quick to bed, Chanyeol's hands pulling him to completion.
Afterwards, Baekhyun tries his best to smooth out the creases in his suit in front of the mirror, to no avail. Sehun's probably going to give him shit about it for weeks. Chanyeol leans against the linoleum counter and asks, "Do you know what you want yet?" and Baekhyun rolls his eyes. "We can take it slow," he adds earnestly.
"I don't think having sex on premiere night is really taking it slow," Baekhyun mutters. He tugs his phone out of his back pocket and jumps a little when he scrolls through twenty carefully-worded texts from Kris, three bemused ones from Taeyeon, and one from Kyungsoo. GET YOUR ASS IN HERE BEFORE THE MOVIE'S OVER OR FOR FUCK'S SAKE I WILL QUIT AND THEN WHERE WILL YOU BE YOU UNGRATEFUL SHIT, the last one says. Charming as ever, that Do Kyungsoo.
"We're gonna look like shit for the Q&A," Chanyeol remarks, attempting to pat his ruffled hair down with water.
"I don't really care," Baekhyun says. He reaches out to thumb the skin of Chanyeol's wrist, biting his lip. Chanyeol grins back at him, face crinkling with it. Baekhyun pushes him toward the door. "Come on. Time to go out and face the music." The bounce in his step buoys him all the way to the theater.
fin
A/N: MAN I'M REALLY TERRIBLE AT THIS CUTESY SHIT can you tell. I TRIED THO, LORD KNOWS I TRIED.