[oneshot] fool for love

Jan 19, 2014 00:27

Title: fool for love
Pairing: chanyeol/d.o
Rating: pg13
Genre: slice-of-life, romance
Warnings: swearing
Author: gdgdbaby
Notes: college au. chanyeol never thought he'd be the type to read cosmo cover to cover, but here he is. written for st_ashleigh for the 2013 round of sncj_santa, originally posted here. 3,587 words.



"Okay," Baekhyun says, arms akimbo, bent over Chanyeol's prone form on the living room floor, "as your favorite roommate-"

"Technically, you're my suitemate," Chanyeol mumbles. "And the only one I have."

"As your best friend," Baekhyun revises, tapping his foot. His big toe crinkles over the corner of one of the magazines spread out around him. Chanyeol grabs his ankle to lift it off and away. "As your best friend, I'm telling you: we have to go out tonight. You're coming with me."

"I'm busy."

"Oh?" Baekhyun peers at the hot pink spread lying next to Chanyeol's left knee. "Fifteen fool-proof ways to romance your man," he reads, obnoxiously nasal. "Number one: buy a nice wine and cheese platter and rent a French film for an easy night in. French is, after all, la langue d'amour." He snorts. "Are subtitles also the language of love? Because I'm pretty sure the only French you know is ferme la bouche, merde, and suce ma bite." He bends down to flip to the cover despite Chanyeol's half-hearted efforts to shove him away. "Cosmo? Really? Dude."

"Listen, Yura swears by these, alright?"

Baekhyun's eyebrows jump. "Huh. I didn't think she was into that kind of thing."

"Stay away from my sister, you punk," Chanyeol says, flipping to the next page of Seventeen with studious interest. There's a compatibility quiz on the left side, printed in Curlz MT and assuring 100% accurate results. For a minute, Chanyeol actually entertains the idea of filling it out. Then he pulls himself back from the precipice. Test results are never 100% accurate. Statistics taught him that.

Baekhyun opens Cosmo again. "Hey," he says, voice going rough with amusement. "I'd totally suck you off if you put a donut around your dick. Sounds hot." He shoots Chanyeol a measured look. "Definitely more appetizing."

Chanyeol snorts. "Go fuck yourself."

"That can wait. Maybe later."

"Leave, then, if you aren't going to be helpful."

"What do you think I'm trying to do here?" Baekhyun mutters. He pries Seventeen out of Chanyeol's hands and grabs Chanyeol's shoulders, gives him a little shake. "Poring over terrible dating tips from Vogue and Glamour and Things Even Prepubescent Girls Would Know Better Than To Try isn't going to help you. It's nonsense."

Chanyeol scowls. "What do you suggest, then? Sticking my hand down his pants and taking it from there?"

Baekhyun pretends to consider it for a moment, head cocked to the side, eyes raised to the ceiling. "No, idiot," he says at last. A smug look crosses his face. Smug looks cross Baekhyun's face with alarming frequency, because he's usually correct, and likes the entire world to know as often as it occurs. "We're going out tonight. With Jongdae and Minseok and Lu Han." He grins wider. "And Kyungsoo."

"Oh, no," Chanyeol says, raising his hands up. "No, no, no."

Baekhyun sends him a weird look. "Isn't this what you wanted?" His brow furrows. "An opportunity to ask him out?"

"What if I choke?" Chanyeol snaps. "What if he remembers what happened at the party last weekend, what if he totally shuts me down, what if I make a complete ass of myself?" He buries his nose in the August 2011 issue of Glamour and goes cross-eyed when he's met with an appropriately illustrated diagram of Hot New Sex Positions To Try With Your Partner(s).

"Don't be ridiculous," Baekhyun returns, flat. "This is Kyungsoo we're talking about. You know the color of every single pair of underwear he owns." He straightens up and nudges Chanyeol's ribcage with his bony knee. "Go get ready, lover boy."

It isn't that he thinks Kyungsoo doesn't like him. They'd all lived in the same dorm together freshmen year. The three short ones, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongdae-and Chanyeol, who stuck out like a sore thumb every time they walked to the cafeteria for dinner after studying in the library for hours. They'd become close because they had to; born first out of necessity and pure physical proximity-having to deal with Baekhyun's scratchy warbling in the shower at ass o'clock on weekend mornings, and Jongdae commandeering the kitchen in increasingly alarming attempts to bake, and Kyungsoo's passive aggressive household chores boycott after Jongdae set the oven on fire-and later because they all ran in the same circles: the Korean Students Association, the Asian frat, band and choir practice.

And it's not that Chanyeol has ever really had issues with relationships, or bagging dates. He's always been pretty popular. He knows how to navigate social terrain with relative ease. People who are good at making other people laugh are generally well liked, and Chanyeol's been making people laugh (at him, with him, in his general direction) for his entire life.

It's just-somehow, Kyungsoo makes everything different. Raises his levels of self-consciousness up so high that it backs up in his throat, because Chanyeol's never had to deal with liking one of his closest friends before. He can't present his best self because Kyungsoo already knows he blasts rap music in the middle of the night when he's stress-studying for an exam the next day, and that he'd rather go without coffee and fall asleep in class than buy Starbucks' shitty overpriced lattes. That he never purchases anything without checking three other websites for better deals, and aggressively coupons his groceries, and is so fucking allergic to cats he can't even be in the same house as one of them but still tries anyway. That he's only chivalrous to a point-and that his previous girlfriends and boyfriends have left him one by one because they couldn't (didn't want to) deal with the fact that when the niceness fell away, all that was left was him.

Chanyeol Park: sometimes douchey, often self-absorbed, always confident. Except in this.

Yura's the kind of older sister that Chanyeol never appreciated until after she left for college. Even then, he'd done his best to annoy the shit out of her, and she retaliated with occasional email flurries of Chanyeol's embarrassing baby pictures-but sometimes, like the morning after the party last weekend, she could provide much needed perspective. Of course, she'd laughed at him for about an hour before settling down and actually attempting to help.

"What happened?" she'd asked over the phone. The crackle of feedback cut through his head like a knife, and he groaned wetly into the receiver, trying to sort everything out through the painful haze of his hangover.

What happened was this: there'd been a party, with the usual suspects. This time it'd been Friday night after the first round of fall midterms, and they'd all piled in Kris's place, the Lambda brothers boozing together until the break of dawn. Chanyeol always runs his mouth even more when he's drunk, and last weekend was no different, squashed in against the armrest of the couch, Jongdae perched on the back of the sofa and Kyungsoo to his right, sipping something bright orange and fizzy. Baekhyun must've slipped something strong as hell in the punch because Chanyeol felt floatier than usual, and it seemed right to lean over and tuck his nose into the tuft of hair sticking up in front of Kyungsoo's ear. To say hey, I like you, we should date, probably, and mean it.

He hadn't stuck around to see how Kyungsoo reacted. Or, rather, he'd passed out promptly afterward and hadn't had the chance. He woke up with the hangover crawling up his nose to web around his brain and Baekhyun had dragged him back to the apartment. The end of the night trickled back to him in the middle of his shower. He'd jumped out and nearly cracked his head open on the slippery bathroom floor reaching for his phone.

So the magazines were probably Yura's idea of a shitty joke, but Chanyeol's so desperate at this point that he really needs all the help he can get. The last guy Kyungsoo dated was some super hunk on the football team, Hyunsik Lim, who brought Kyungsoo flowers at work and took him to weekend matinee shows on Broadway. Like, what? Who was this guy? Chanyeol barely has money for his textbooks every semester, and the only car he has access to is Jongdae's, which was only ever on the table when he decided he was feeling generous. It's no contest. Chanyeol's gotta get creative.

The club of the night is some hole-in-the-wall on the Upper East Side. Baekhyun and Jongdae mysteriously disappear after the first round of drinks, and Minseok and Lu Han are already going at it on the other side of the booth. The evening crowd presses in around them. Chanyeol ends up half-glued to Kyungsoo's side, strobe lights in the place reflecting off the rippling surface of his drink.

Kyungsoo taps his shoulder. Chanyeol leans down. "You were pretty smashed the last time I saw you," Kyungsoo says, mouth lifted in a heart-shaped smile.

"Yeah," Chanyeol says, wincing. "Sorry about that." His mind hops to one of the editions of Cosmo he'd been flipping through, something about getting down and dirty on the dance floor to show your love interest how you feel. For most of Chanyeol's post-pubescent life he's tried to move away from dance floors, but it's worth a shot. "Do you want to dance?"

Kyungsoo's big eyes flick toward the gyrating crowd. "Do you?"

Chanyeol grabs Kyungsoo's wrist. "Let's go," he says, and dives through the nearest gap.

It's a clusterfuck right from the start. Chanyeol takes up too much room even when people aren't packed in like sardines. There's a lot of shoving involved once he gets going, and Kyungsoo's so small the crowd swallows him up in about half a minute. The next time Chanyeol sees him again they're both clear on the other side of the floor, someone's drink spilled on Chanyeol's shirt, Kyungsoo wincing and holding the left side of his face gingerly. Chanyeol fishes him out from between two couples sucking face next to the mixer and shuffles them through the door.

Kyungsoo's panting into the cool October air. Chanyeol reaches over and brushes Kyungsoo's sweaty fringe out of his eyes (Glamour Tip #12 for Lead-ins to Steamy Sex). "That was horrible," he says. "Why did we come here again?"

"They don't check IDs," Kyungsoo offers, massaging his cheek. "And I think Baekhyun wanted to score free drinks off the clientele. Jongdae made it into a competition."

"Of course," Chanyeol mutters. Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows. They come to an unspoken understanding. Chanyeol falls into step with him as they walk to the subway station.

The city isn't terribly cold yet, but it's chillier outside than it was in the club. Kyungsoo starts shivering two blocks away from the station and Chanyeol automatically moves to drape his jacket over Kyungsoo's slim shoulders. Kyungsoo sends him a cutting glance but doesn't say anything, for which Chanyeol is thankful. He doesn't need a step-by-step guide from Cosmo to know how to behave like a semi-decent human being.

Chanyeol does walk Kyungsoo home from the station, past Washington Square to the apartment he shares with Jongdae. Kyungsoo hands Chanyeol's jacket back and smiles at him from two steps up. "Go home," he says. "You have a 9AM tomorrow."

Chanyeol makes a face. There is, however, one thing he can't chicken out of trying before he goes. "Get coffee with me on Wednesday," he says, tucking his hands in his pockets.

If Kyungsoo's surprised, he doesn't show it. "Sure," he says, punching his code into the keypad. "I have practice before noon."

"One at Jack's?" Chanyeol suggests, and Kyungsoo's mouth goes heart-shaped again. He's at the perfect height to kiss, if Chanyeol only just leaned forward, and-

"Sounds good," Kyungsoo says, and disappears into the stairwell.

"Are you wearing a sweater-vest?" is the first thing Kyungsoo says when he ducks into the coffee shop on Wednesday. "You own a sweater-vest?" He's windswept and pink-eared and slides into his chair with a thump, stares down at the neat row of five cups on his side of the table. "What's this?"

Latest issue of Seventeen brought up a cute scenario involving taste testing different orders and trying to guess which one your hot date preferred.

"I don't know what this is supposed to accomplish," Kyungsoo says flatly after Chanyeol tells him so. "You already know my order."

True. Chanyeol should've probably thought this through in greater detail before the execution. In his defense, he'd spent most of the morning trying to pick out what to wear. "Just drink the damn coffee," Chanyeol grumbles, grabbing one off the table. He gags at how sweet the vanilla shot latte is.

Kyungsoo's eyes flash with amusement. "What are we supposed to do with three extra?"

"We'll figure something out," Chanyeol says. Eventually, because he's a sucker, and cheap, he ends up drinking all of them. He's already feeling more than a little jittery by the time they leave the café. Kyungsoo hooks his hand around the inside of Chanyeol's elbow to steady him.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Fine! Just fine," Chanyeol says, teeth chattering. His stomach's starting to feel like it wants to secede from his body.

"Uh huh," Kyungsoo says. The grip on Chanyeol's arm tightens. Kyungsoo steers them down the sidewalk, away from campus.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking you home," he says firmly.

"Don't you have-class? Work?"

"Yes," Kyungsoo says, "but that can wait." They cross the street and Chanyeol trips on three cracks in the sidewalk all the way back.

The next thing Chanyeol registers is Kyungsoo's hand riffling through the pockets of his jacket for his keys. The jangling seems overloud. Kyungsoo puts him to bed and suffers through two of Chanyeol's giggle fits before threatening to gag him. Kyungsoo settles in the desk chair with his Economics in Media textbook and nudges a cup of water at Chanyeol every half hour until he calms down enough to stop shaking.

He doesn't know when he passes out, but when he wakes up, Kyungsoo's gone.

They see each other intermittently in the next month at group gatherings and the usual club functions. Everything's frustratingly the same as usual-no mention of the failed coffee date, or the party confession, just Kyungsoo rolling his eyes at Chanyeol's stupid jokes and casually manhandling him into submission.

And it's not like they aren't busy with their own shit. Kyungsoo still has rehearsal in exponentially increasing increments of time. He spends long hours with Baekhyun in the practice rooms as the weather gets colder. Chanyeol and Jongdae take it upon themselves to terrorize AKPsi's new pledge class with the adept ease of seasoned brothers. He's not exactly sure what happens the night of initiation, but it ends in Jongdae's car with a broken window, three empty kegs squeezed in the trunk, and the backseat drenched with about five liters of Armani's Acqua Di Giò Essenza.

"Fuck," Jongdae wails, sticking his head past the jagged glass. "It's going to take months for the reek to go away."

"I always appreciate car rides that smell like high school locker room," Chanyeol says cheerfully, and ducks out of the way as Jongdae's arm swings toward him in a wild arc.

At the end of November, Chanyeol misses the fall semester's joint a cappella concert because he has a KSA board meeting with Joonmyun & Co. Baekhyun comes home the morning after looking too pleased with himself for someone who should be hungover. "I'm the greatest friend ever," he says, and shoves an envelope in Chanyeol's hands. "I won one of the raffle prizes on your behalf."

"Thanks?" Chanyeol says, blinking. "Can I eat it?"

"Don't be stupid," Baekhyun says. Chanyeol opens the flap and slides two tickets out. "They're front row seats to the new show at the Sondheim Theatre. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical." He pauses for dramatic effect. "Kyungsoo really wants to go."

"Huh," Chanyeol says. "Sometimes I'm glad I keep you around."

"I'm the light of your life," Baekhyun counters, punching him in the shoulder, and slides into the bathroom to wash up.

Kyungsoo says yes, of course, in that typical deadpan way of his. They're tickets for the last day of classes, two weeks before Christmas. Chanyeol has the foresight to dress for the occasion instead of defaulting to jeans and a hoodie. He takes Kyungsoo to dinner beforehand and manages to resist the urge to pick out all the cheapest things on the menu for himself.

There was something in Glamour about violin to go with your red wine and steak tartar. Kyungsoo looks like he's about to shrivel up and die of embarrassment when the string quartet shows up at their table and embarks on a slow rendition of L-O-V-E. When they've moved on to the next table, Kyungsoo uncurls himself and gasps, "What was that?"

Chanyeol coughs. "Maybe they got the wrong people?" He checks his phone and shovels the last of his mashed potatoes in his mouth. "Let's go, we're gonna be late."

He gets snow in his Oxfords on the walk to the theatre, but Kyungsoo's in rare form and keeps chattering about how excited he is to see the musical, so Chanyeol can't be too annoyed. This lasts all of two minutes into the show, when Chanyeol remembers he can barely sit through a 75-minute film, let alone two and a half hours of song and dance.

Next to him, Kyungsoo's rapt with attention. Chanyeol lasts until intermission before he finally breaks. He angles his body away and slides his phone out. musical flirting etiquette should be the same as movie flirting etiquette y/n??? he texts Baekhyun.

kyungsoo's gonna kick your ass when he finds out you aren't paying attention kkkkk is the helpful reply.

He isn't expecting another text, but his phone buzzes a minute later. Stop playing Dots on your phone in the middle of the show, you heathen. When Chanyeol whips his head around Kyungsoo's staring at him, eyebrows raised, hands folded around his program.

Chanyeol sends him an apologetic smile and pockets his phone again. His foot jiggles through the next musical number. Kyungsoo presses his palm down on the flat of Chanyeol's knee to stop it. Chanyeol sighs. He inches an arm over the back of Kyungsoo's seat and is rewarded with a long-suffering expression for his trouble.

"Did you enjoy the show?" Chanyeol tries, when they're getting their coats.

"Yes," Kyungsoo says drily. "I take it you enjoyed your iPhone?"

Chanyeol runs his fingers through his hair and comes out with a handful of product. He wipes it off discreetly on his long jacket. "You know how I get."

"Yes," he repeats. "I do."

They move out onto the street and toward the Times Square subway station, breath leaving Kyungsoo's mouth like smoke. He's quiet all the way back to campus, digesting the show. Chanyeol keeps playing Dots.

Kyungsoo gets up on the second stair again when they get to his apartment building. He's sniffling a bit from the cold, hands shoved in the pockets of his coat. "Thank you for taking me," he says. It sounds genuine, which just makes Chanyeol feel worse.

"Sorry for being such a bad, you know, plus one," he blurts out, and bites his bottom lip.

Kyungsoo shakes his head. "It's been fun watching you bend over backwards trying to please me this semester," he says, smiling a bit before his expression sobers. "But I think we should probably stop now."

Chanyeol's stomach sinks. He waits for the inevitable: that Chanyeol was best friend material but not boyfriend material, that Kyungsoo was better off looking elsewhere for what he wanted, that Chanyeol should just quit while he was ahead. It's happened so many times before that it was only a matter of time, here. He's surprised Kyungsoo let it go on for so long.

"Don't worry," Kyungsoo says. "I knew about Yura's magazine thing whole time."

"Huh?" Chanyeol says. "I mean, what?"

"I was just curious to see how far you'd go," Kyungsoo continues, and he might as well be speaking Latin because Chanyeol has no idea what's going on. "Pretty far, considering the string quartet at dinner and sitting through an entire musical." He's grinning again. "It was nice, but it wasn't you. I like you."

"What?"

"You can't blame me, Chanyeol," he says. He tosses his head so that his hair sweeps to the side, voice going husky with laughter. "Watching you twist yourself into knots over this was entertaining." He wiggles his fingers. "Dance, marionette, dance. Sweet, really. I'm touched."

"Oh, my God," Chanyeol says, sticking a finger in Kyungsoo's stomach just to watch him squirm. "Are you kidding me right now? What are you saying?"

"You didn't have to try so hard," Kyungsoo says primly. "I liked you already. I like you. Everything demonstrative was just a bonus."

"You are the worst person I know," Chanyeol breathes. "Who's Baekhyun? It's you. I spent so much time agonizing because-how was I supposed to romance you when you already knew all this shit about me, and now, this? You know what? Never mind, I don't want to date you anymore-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kyungsoo says, laughing, "whatever, just-" He seizes the lapels of Chanyeol's jacket and scrunches his nose. "It's cold."

"I hope you're cold for the rest of your life, asshole," Chanyeol says, and cranes his neck up to kiss him.

fin

length: oneshot, #fic, ship: chanyeol/do, fandom: exo

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