The Particular Complexities of Friendship (Part 1/2)
Title: The Particular Complexities of Friendship
Genre: Crack/Fluff/Humor
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Baekyeol
Length: 8050 words
Summary: “Just friends” becomes a rather unconvincing excuse after you’ve been living together for some time, doing who-knows-what.
Vietnamese translated version.
The Particular Complexities of Friendship (Part 1)
Saturday mornings, Chanyeol likes to sit in the corner of the coffee shop and sip hot chocolate (he doesn’t really like coffee, to be honest-it’s too bitter) while writing his novel on his laptop. Chanyeol is a novelist-at least, he wants to be one. It’s not like he’s written much yet. He’s a man of many ideas, and he keeps on changing them, much to the dismay of his friends, who wonder how he will ever finish writing if he never gets past the first chapter.
Chanyeol doesn’t mind. It’s nice to sit there in the corner by himself, tapping away at his keyboard and pausing every once in a while to take a contemplative sip of his drink. And his ever-changing ideas aren’t the only things that distract-sorry, inspire-him. Chanyeol enjoys watching the people pass by in the shop, and he has memorized all the favorite drinks of all the regular Saturday costumers. His excuse is that watching the people gives him inspiration for characters; his friends merely scoff and shake their heads in exasperation.
There is one customer that particularly catches Chanyeol’s attention-a brown-haired man who looks about his age, who arrives at the coffee shop at ten o’clock sharp every Saturday (Chanyeol watches the clock in addition to the people). It’s not exactly the person Chanyeol is interested in-instead, he’s intrigued by the fact that the brown-haired man orders hot chocolate every time instead of coffee. What’s more, he orders the same exact size as Chanyeol does, and even asks for extra whipped cream, just like Chanyeol.
After he orders, the man always sits in the far corner with his drink and spends the next half hour or so sitting there, staring blankly at the wall and sipping his hot chocolate every once in a while. At this point, Chanyeol loses interest and resumes with his keyboard tapping, contemplative sipping, and customer (and clock) watching.
It goes on for about two months-once a week, always at ten o’clock sharp (although maybe off sometimes by a few seconds or so-after all, one can’t be that precise). Then one Saturday morning, the coffee shop is rather crowded, and when the brown-haired man receives his hot chocolate, his usual seat has already been taken up by a rather noisy family of four.
The only empty seat in sight is right next to Chanyeol, so the brown-haired man shrugs and sits down next Chanyeol, who spares him a curious glance and goes back to his novel-writing, not particularly interested in why the brown-haired man is suddenly sitting next to him.
Ten minutes pass, in which the noisy family of four finish their drinks and walk out. Yet, the brown-haired man doesn’t move back to his seat and instead remains sitting next to Chanyeol, sipping at his hot chocolate, but not staring blankly at the wall for once.
Chanyeol looks up from his laptop to see the brown-haired man watching him curiously. “What?” he asks, taking a sip of his own hot chocolate. It’s not every day he finds himself being watched by a stranger in a coffee shop, so Chanyeol isn’t exactly sure how to react.
“Are you writing something?” the brown-haired man questions, still looking at Chanyeol. “You’ve been typing for some time.”
“Oh.” At the mention of writing, Chanyeol beams at the brown-haired man and nods. “Yes. I’m writing a novel. I’m planning to be a famous novelist one day-do you want to see what I have so far?”
“Sure.” The brown-haired man sets his hot chocolate down and leans over to read the text on the screen of Chanyeol’s laptop. “The Particular Complexities of Friendship,” he reads out loud. “That’s an interesting title.”
“It was something different yesterday,” Chanyeol sighs, staring at the screen as if to rebuke it for having different titles each day. “But I think I like this idea.”
“What’s it about?”
“Oh, about how there’s a line between friendship and love, and how it’s often difficult to discern between the two of them. I’m trying my hand at romance novels. Do you think it’ll be a bestseller?” Chanyeol looks up at the brown-haired man hopefully-maybe this person will have a different opinion than his friends.
The brown-haired man stares at the screen for a few more moments at the rather empty screen, then comments, “You haven’t written much yet.”
“That’s okay,” Chanyeol states confidently. “I think I’ll stick with this idea this time. I only started this today. I think I’ll be able to actually finish this project.” He dismisses the fact that he has said this for every single idea he has had so far, including the idea he had the day before.
“Cool.” The brown-haired man nods and sits back in his chair, sipping his hot chocolate once again. “I wish you luck.”
“Thanks.” Chanyeol goes back to typing and they are silent for a few more minutes. Finally, the brown-haired man speaks again.
“I’m Byun Baekhyun. And you?”
“Park Chanyeol,” Chanyeol replies, still focused on his laptop, humming slightly under his breath as he tries to think of his next sentence. He isn’t trying to be rude on purpose-it’s just that Chanyeol has a tendency to be a rather awkward conversation maker once he’s focused on something. “Nice to meet you.”
“Mm.” Baekhyun looks down at his watch and drinks some more of his hot chocolate. “I have to go. It was nice talking to you.”
“Same,” Chanyeol says politely, nodding as Baekhyun stands up to leave. “Have a nice day.”
:: :: ::
The next Saturday, Baekhyun arrives at ten o’clock sharp, and once he receives his hot chocolate, he walks over to Chanyeol and points at the empty seat next to him. “May I sit here?”
“Suit yourself,” Chanyeol replies, continuing to type and not looking up. Baekhyun sits down and watches the laptop for a while before scooting closer to Chanyeol and peering over his shoulder.
“How is your novel coming along?” he asks curiously. “Are you still writing out that idea you had last week?”
Surprisingly, Chanyeol is. He grins and nods, pointing to the screen of his laptop, where a chapter has already been typed out. “I stayed up for a few nights, and I think I’ve gotten the plot outlined. I’ve even finished the first chapter.”
“Have you not done that before?” Baekhyun asks hesitantly, apparently noticing something about Chanyeol’s joy. “You sound extremely happy about it.”
“Nope.” Chanyeol grins broadly and does not notice the bemused expression upon Baekhyun’s face. “Never, so I’m really excited about this.”
“Oh.” Baekhyun sounds slightly less enthusiastic, but he smiles nevertheless. “That’s good.” They spend the next few minutes in an awkward silence-at least, Chanyeol assumes it’s an awkward silence because he isn’t feeling particularly awkward, although Baekhyun doesn’t look entirely comfortable with the absence of speaking.
“So,” Chanyeol finally says, more for Baekhyun’s benefit than his own, as the other man looks rather unsure of what to do at the moment, “what do you do?”
“Me?” Baekhyun turns his hot chocolate around in his hands and shrugs nonchalantly. “I’m a singer-at least, I want to be a singer. I’m training right now, and I’m thinking of auditioning for a company sometime soon.”
“Oh.” So much for breaking the (somewhat) awkward silence. A singer. Chanyeol has nothing against singers, but he has nothing for them either. To him, singers are…singers. They sing. And Chanyeol doesn’t really know much about singers beyond that. Singing never really held that much appeal for him-he prefers rapping (although he’s too embarrassed to admit it) and writing.
“What do you do-” Baekhyun begins, obviously following the mindless human habit of repeating questions so that everyone gets an equal chance to answer the same thing. “Wait. You write. I knew that. Sorry. Wasn’t thinking.”
They settle back into silence, broken only by the sound of Chanyeol’s fingers rapidly tapping on the keyboard, until Baekhyun finishes his hot chocolate and stand up. “Um, it was nice talking to you,” he says, even though both of them know that they haven’t talked much in the past half hour. “See you next week?” At this point, Chanyeol vaguely wonders why Baekhyun even wants to sit with him if the other man obviously feels awkward talking to him.
Surprisingly, they get a lot less awkward the next week. Baekhyun turns out to have a rather creative imagination, and between the two of them, they manage to elaborate Chanyeol’s plot into a full blown story with multiple plot twists and ingenious scenarios. They even laugh together once or twice. All in all, Chanyeol decides that Baekhyun is a funny, interesting person, and that he would make a rather good friend.
So they become friends. Week after week, every Saturday morning at ten o’clock sharp, the two of them sit together in the coffee shop, sipping hot chocolate with whipped cream, discussing Chanyeol’s novel, Baekhyun’s singing, and anything that comes to mind, really. Chanyeol learns that Baekhyun lives alone in an apartment and works at an office, filing papers, responding to calls, and filling out documents to earn money. Chanyeol feels rather awed at this information-Baekhyun seems so smart and proper with his fancy job and all Chanyeol has is his novel writing and a job as a waiter serving food to hungry customers who don’t always talk nicely to him if he’s a bit too slow for their liking.
Baekhyun laughs when Chanyeol tells him of his envy. “But I don’t like my job,” he explains. “I earn a lot of money, but it’s boring, and I’d rather do something I enjoy and earn less. At least I’ll be happier.”
“Are you not happy?” Chanyeol asks.
Baekhyun laughs again. “I’m happy. But singing would make me happier.”
Chanyeol frowns and sits back, setting his hot chocolate down and staring at Baekhyun. “So technically, you’re not extremely happy.”
Baekhyun shakes his head and smiles. “Go back to your novel writing. I’m happy enough, talking with you.”
:: :: ::
Chanyeol comes home one day to find a notice taped to his door. He reads it for a few moments, eyes widening as he stares at the words, unable to believe what he is seeing.
“What,” he mutters to himself, and peers at the notice again. Your rent is overdue, it reads in large, bold font. Please pay the rent-otherwise, you will be kicked out.
Chanyeol swallows nervously, his throat suddenly extremely dry. The thing is, he doesn’t have enough money to pay the rent this time. He swears, reads the notice again, and smacks his forehead on his palm. “What am I going to do?”
He almost convinces himself that a life as a hobo begging in the streets isn’t as bad as he thinks it is (think of all the experiences with nature! Think of all the experiences with the elements, like strong winds, endless rain, and freezing snow! Think of the joy in sleeping outside under the stars in the winter while trying to not freeze to death! Think of all the cheap ramen!) when he realizes that Baekhyun probably has an idea to offer. Baekhyun has his smart, fancy job, which means that he’s smart, so he’ll probably be able to solve Chanyeol’s problem.
It’s a good idea. Chanyeol wonders why he didn’t think of it before-it would have saved him the trouble of telling himself that ramen is extremely beneficial to his health when eaten every day. He takes out his cell phone (and realizes that not being able to pay the rent means that he’ll probably not be able to pay his cell phone calling fees pretty soon) and dials Baekhyun’s number. The phone rings twice, and Baekhyun picks up with a cheerful “Hello?”
“Hi. It’s me,” Chanyeol replies, before realizing that ‘it’s me’ is probably the worst thing someone can say to identify himself on a phone call. “I mean, it’s Chanyeol.”
“Oh,” Baekhyun replies, still sounding cheery. “How are you doing?”
“Not good,” Chanyeol says morosely. “I just got a notice on my door. Apparently, if I don’t pay the rent soon, I’m getting kicked out of my apartment.”
“Oh,” Baekhyun says again, sounding confused this time, although Chanyeol can never figure out exactly what people are feeling judging by their voice over the phone. “Then why don’t you pay the rent? That might solve the problem.”
Chanyeol sighs. “I can’t. I don’t have enough money left to pay for it. So I called you because I was wondering if you had a solution for that.”
“Oh. Wait. Give me a moment.” There’s a sound of keyboard tapping and Baekhyun shouting in the distance to someone. Then, Chanyeol hears Baekhyun breathing in his ear again, apparently back from whatever he had been doing. “Do you need to find a cheaper apartment?”
“My apartment is the cheapest you can find out there,” Chanyeol groans, beginning to feel slightly frantic. “I can’t afford to pay anything. I should have finished my novel sooner-it takes time for publishing companies to accept books, and there’s still the process of editing, and it might not become a bestselling book and I’ll never earn any money, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life serving food to stingy people all day long-”
“Stay with me,” Baekhyun offers suddenly. “We can split up the rent of the apartment and the cost of the food and all that stuff. It’ll cost less, you’ll have a place to live, and I won’t be lonely all by myself. Does that work?”
Chanyeol considers the option. His other friends, no matter how much they love him, will never allow him to stay with them, partly because Chanyeol has the problem of driving people nearly crazy with his chattering whenever he’s in a talkative mood, partly because Chanyeol doesn’t really earn that much money and therefore will eventually end up borrowing the money of his friends. In other words, Baekhyun’s idea sounds extremely beneficial to Chanyeol.
“I don’t want to be a burden,” he argues half-heartedly, so that he won’t sound too eager while secretly hoping that Baekhyun won’t mind. “I don’t really earn that much, and I don’t want to take up your space and time…I talk a lot sometimes…”
“It’s fine,” Baekhyun says dismissively, and Chanyeol feels an overwhelming sense of relief. “You can move in now, if you want to.”
“We’ll be eating things better than ramen every day, right?” Chanyeol asks worriedly. “I have nothing against ramen. I like ramen. It tastes good. But I don’t want to eat it all day long, every day. It’ll remind me of being a hobo, and I’ve decided that I’d rather not be one.”
“You’re rambling, you know.” Baekhyun’s voice sounds amused (although, as mentioned before, Chanyeol can’t identify tones over the phone very well, so Baekhyun might be actually angry), and he laughs (okay, maybe not angry). “I’ll see you in a while.”
He hangs up, and Chanyeol grins stupidly at the wall for a few moments, not exactly sure why, before he remembers that he doesn’t know Baekhyun’s address. Cursing, he dials Baekhyun’s number again, although this time, he’s comforted by the fact that he won’t have to worry about his cell phone bill anymore. Or ramen.
Life is looking pretty good at the moment, Chanyeol decides. Maybe he’ll even finish his novel one day and earn enough money to feel as smart as Baekhyun is.
:: :: ::
Unfortunately, looking at his possessions doesn’t make Chanyeol feel extremely smart. He doesn’t really own much, due to his constant lack of money to spend. He sighs and stares sorrowfully at his single, small suitcase, and knocks on Baekhyun’s door, already feeling rather insignificant as he stares at the fancy, sophisticated building Baekhyun lives in.
“Uh, hi,” Chanyeol says nervously when Baekhyun appears in the doorway. “Nice apartment.” He peers over Baekhyun’s shoulder and gulps. From where he’s standing, he can’t see very much of the inside of the apartment, but already, he can see a large television set and a fancy looking table, not to mention the obscenely fluffy rug on the floor that looks like it cost Baekhyun an arm and a leg to buy.
“Come in,” Baekhyun smiles. If he notices how small Chanyeol’s suitcase is, he doesn’t show it. “You can set your stuff in your room. I’ll show you.” He leads Chanyeol past a large kitchen (Chanyeol nearly dies when he sees the size of the refrigerator) and a living room (Chanyeol averts his eyes at that part-he doesn’t need to feel any more insignificant). They arrive in front of two doors, and Baekhyun points to the one on the right. “That’s my room. Yours is on the left.”
Chanyeol nods hesitantly and opens the door on the left. He gapes at the room inside and freezes, eyes widening as he takes in the large bed, spacious floor, and huge windows. “Ohmaigodwhat.” There’s even a personal bathroom, and everything looks so fancy. Chanyeol feels like he’s dreaming, because this cannot be happening. He drops his suitcase at the foot of the bed, then decides to give up on being dignified, and launches himself at the bed, yelling in sheer glee as he begins bouncing on it.
A few moments later, Chanyeol remembers that Baekhyun is watching, and looks up to see the brown-haired man bent over, laughing. Chanyeol frowns as he realizes that Baekhyun is still standing there, and promptly walks over and drags Baekhyun over to the bed. “Don’t just stand there,” he reprimands, and begins jumping on the bed again. Baekhyun sits there for a moment, staring at Chanyeol in amusement, before joining the jumping, laughing as Chanyeol trips and falls over.
Finally, when they’ve calmed down and are sitting at the edge of the bed, Chanyeol remembers something important. “Um…how much does the rent cost exactly?” From what he’s seen so far, he doubts that it’s very cheap-is the rent, when split up, really going to be cheaper than what he usually pays for his own apartment?
Baekhyun runs off and comes back with a piece of paper covered in calculations. He shows the final amount to Chanyeol, who whistles. “Wow. That cheap?” It’s still money to be paid, but it’s a lot less than what Chanyeol used to have to pay. “How is that possible?”
Baekhyun grins. “The actual apartment isn’t that costly. I just added a lot of renovations. We’re still going to have to split the bill for food and other stuff.”
“As long as it’s not-”
“-ramen,” Baekhyun finishes for him. “You’ve said.”
Chanyeol smiles sheepishly, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry. I have a habit of talking too much about things.”
“You’ve said,” Baekhyun repeats, but he looks amused, so Chanyeol supposes that the other man isn’t too bothered. “When do you work?”
“From nine in the morning to six in the evening,” Chanyeol sighs, his mood gloomy once again as he thinks of his job. “You?”
“Around the same time,” Baekhyun says quietly. “Are we still going to the coffee shop every Saturday?”
“Mm. I suppose so.”
“That’s good. We can work on your novel in the evenings if you want.”
“Yeah. And your singing. You should sing for me.”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “No.”
“Why not? If you’re going to be a singer, then you might as well practice singing for others.”
“Maybe next time.”
“That’s what my friend Kris says all the time. You should meet him. I should have you meet all my other friends someday. They’ll like you.”
“I’d like that.”
They trail off into silence, but it isn’t awkward like when they first met. Chanyeol watches Baekhyun out of the corner of his eyes and smiles to himself. Life really is looking pretty good at the moment.
:: :: ::
It takes one week for Chanyeol to run out of ideas, again. Well, not exactly ideas-he supposes it’s his lack of inspiration and motivation, but whatever it is, it’s keeping him from writing past chapter four. So when Baekhyun comes home from work that day, Chanyeol decides it’s time to relax a bit and perhaps have some fun. Maybe it’ll even give him some inspiration for writing. “I’m taking you to meet my other friends,” he announces when Baekhyun walks through the apartment door.
“What?” Baekhyun blinks at Chanyeol, his expression sluggish and confused. “Sorry. Long day at work. Could you please repeat that?”
“I’m taking you to meet my friends,” Chanyeol repeats, walking over to Baekhyun. “Let’s go now.”
“But I haven’t even changed out of my work clothes yet,” Baekhyun protests weakly. Chanyeol folds his arms and stand there, waiting as Baekhyun stumbles off to change. Baekhyun comes back a few minutes later, wearing jeans and a casual jacket instead of his office suit, frowning. Chanyeol merely grins and leads him out of the apartment and calls a taxi.
Ten minutes later, they find themselves standing outside Chanyeol’s friend Sehun’s house. Sehun is one of those socially gifted people who always has someone (or multiple people) over no matter the time, so Chanyeol has a feeling that most of his friends are also with Sehun at the moment. Sure enough, when Sehun answers the door, Chanyeol can hear the sound of laughter and talking in the house.
“Hey, Sehun-ah,” Chanyeol beams, “how are you doing? I came to introduce my friend.” He takes Baekhyun by the shoulders and pushes him slightly forward. “Baekhyun-ah, this is Oh Sehun. Sehun-ah, this is Byun Baekhyun.”
Sehun stares at Baekhyun for a few moments, then shrugs. “Hey.” He frowns, then looks back at Chanyeol, obviously thinking of something. “Chanyeol-ah, he’s short enough to be just the right size for you to cuddle. I think he’ll fit perfectly in your arms.” Sehun looks back as someone yells out his name, then turns to Chanyeol once again. “You might as well come in.”
Chanyeol watches as Sehun disappears into the house, then faces a bewildered Baekhyun, who looks like he’s about to pass out. “Don’t mind him. Sehun does that all the time. He likes to ship people with each other. Just ignore it. You’ll get used to him after a while.”
“Um,” Baekhyun stammers, his eyes still wide in confusion (almost enough to rival to eyes of Chanyeol’s friend Kyungsoo, who’s quite well-known for his expressions and stares). “T-That’s nice. He seems like a nice person. Um. Yes.”
Someone yells “Let’s eat cheese!” from inside the house and Baekhyun flinches. Chanyeol decides that Baekhyun is just surprised by the yelling and randomness of the statement (therefore hopefully not scared of cheese), and pats Baekhyun reassuringly on the back.
“It’s okay. Um, my friends are a bit strange. Okay. Maybe more than a bit strange. You’ll get used to them after a while.” Chanyeol begins to wish he had warned Baekhyun beforehand. “Let’s go in.”
Baekhyun stares at him like he’s insane. Chanyeol shrugs nonchalantly and leads Baekhyun into the house.
The moment they step inside, Baekhyun gets dragged away by several of Chanyeol’s friends, including Kris, who starts introducing Baekhyun to everyone else. Chanyeol begins to follow them to make sure Baekhyun doesn’t get accidently murdered, but is immediately dragged away to the kitchen by Sehun, who hands him a bottle of liquid (Chanyeol presumes it’s some form of alcohol).
“So,” Sehun begins, leaning against the counter, “how’s your roommate?”
“Fine.” Chanyeol takes a gulp of the drink and looks at with curiosity. It doesn’t exactly taste like alcohol, but it’ll do.
“Have you fallen for him yet?” Sehun asks rapidly, his eyes lighting up with interest. “I mean, you’re living with him and everything.”
Chanyeol snorts and almost chokes on his drink. “Fallen for him? Why would I? We’re just friends.”
Sehun rolls his eyes. “Just friends.”
“You’re the one talking,” Chanyeol points out, having stopped coughing over his drink. “What about Luhan? I noticed that he’s not here today.”
Sehun stiffens visibly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Chanyeol scoffs and shakes his head. The thing about Sehun and his friend Luhan is that the two of them refuse to admit that they’re in a secret relationship, but from the way they stare at each other, Chanyeol is pretty sure that if they’re not in a secret relationship at the moment, they will be sometime in the near future. “Yah,” he says, “you don’t even know what we do. Why would I have fallen for him if we’re just friends and roommates? We’ve been living together for a week. There’s nothing between us. Why am I even trying to explain this to you?”
“So you’re saying that the two of you live together and that’s it? Like, you don’t even sit together on the sofa and watch cheesy movies together? Or hug?” Sehun rolls his eyes. “I find that hard to believe.”
“That’s what you and Luhan do. Not everyone’s definition of friendship means acting like star-crossed lovers.”
“You technically didn’t deny it.”
Chanyeol groans. “Listen, Sehun-ah, Baekhyun and I are just friends. Will you please get it out of your mind that everyone has to be in love with someone else? Friends are allowed to be friends, okay? Just because you’re madly in love with Luhan doesn’t mean-”
Sehun reaches over and gives Chanyeol another drink. “Less talking, more drinking,” he says hastily, opening another bottle for himself. “Let’s not waste time blabbering about unnecessary things. I haven’t had a good drink for a long time.”
Chanyeol stares down at his bottle, then back at Sehun’s bottle. “This isn’t even alcohol. Are you trying to get me drunk on fruit juice?”
Sehun flushes. “I’m underage, okay? I don’t want to get into any trouble.”
“More like you don’t want to accidently end up making out with some guy who’s not Luhan and have him find out, because if he ever does, you’re going to die single-”
“I said, less talking, more drinking.”
Chanyeol sets his drink down. “Never mind. I think Kris should be done with the introductions by now. I’m off. I’ve got another appointment later.” He walks off, with Sehun shouting behind him that he’s going to fall in love with Byun Baekhyun.
Chanyeol chokes back a laugh. Sehun really can be ridiculous at times.
Part Two
Genre: Crack/Fluff/Humor
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Baekyeol
Length: 8050 words
Summary: “Just friends” becomes a rather unconvincing excuse after you’ve been living together for some time, doing who-knows-what.
Vietnamese translated version.
The Particular Complexities of Friendship (Part 1)
Saturday mornings, Chanyeol likes to sit in the corner of the coffee shop and sip hot chocolate (he doesn’t really like coffee, to be honest-it’s too bitter) while writing his novel on his laptop. Chanyeol is a novelist-at least, he wants to be one. It’s not like he’s written much yet. He’s a man of many ideas, and he keeps on changing them, much to the dismay of his friends, who wonder how he will ever finish writing if he never gets past the first chapter.
Chanyeol doesn’t mind. It’s nice to sit there in the corner by himself, tapping away at his keyboard and pausing every once in a while to take a contemplative sip of his drink. And his ever-changing ideas aren’t the only things that distract-sorry, inspire-him. Chanyeol enjoys watching the people pass by in the shop, and he has memorized all the favorite drinks of all the regular Saturday costumers. His excuse is that watching the people gives him inspiration for characters; his friends merely scoff and shake their heads in exasperation.
There is one customer that particularly catches Chanyeol’s attention-a brown-haired man who looks about his age, who arrives at the coffee shop at ten o’clock sharp every Saturday (Chanyeol watches the clock in addition to the people). It’s not exactly the person Chanyeol is interested in-instead, he’s intrigued by the fact that the brown-haired man orders hot chocolate every time instead of coffee. What’s more, he orders the same exact size as Chanyeol does, and even asks for extra whipped cream, just like Chanyeol.
After he orders, the man always sits in the far corner with his drink and spends the next half hour or so sitting there, staring blankly at the wall and sipping his hot chocolate every once in a while. At this point, Chanyeol loses interest and resumes with his keyboard tapping, contemplative sipping, and customer (and clock) watching.
It goes on for about two months-once a week, always at ten o’clock sharp (although maybe off sometimes by a few seconds or so-after all, one can’t be that precise). Then one Saturday morning, the coffee shop is rather crowded, and when the brown-haired man receives his hot chocolate, his usual seat has already been taken up by a rather noisy family of four.
The only empty seat in sight is right next to Chanyeol, so the brown-haired man shrugs and sits down next Chanyeol, who spares him a curious glance and goes back to his novel-writing, not particularly interested in why the brown-haired man is suddenly sitting next to him.
Ten minutes pass, in which the noisy family of four finish their drinks and walk out. Yet, the brown-haired man doesn’t move back to his seat and instead remains sitting next to Chanyeol, sipping at his hot chocolate, but not staring blankly at the wall for once.
Chanyeol looks up from his laptop to see the brown-haired man watching him curiously. “What?” he asks, taking a sip of his own hot chocolate. It’s not every day he finds himself being watched by a stranger in a coffee shop, so Chanyeol isn’t exactly sure how to react.
“Are you writing something?” the brown-haired man questions, still looking at Chanyeol. “You’ve been typing for some time.”
“Oh.” At the mention of writing, Chanyeol beams at the brown-haired man and nods. “Yes. I’m writing a novel. I’m planning to be a famous novelist one day-do you want to see what I have so far?”
“Sure.” The brown-haired man sets his hot chocolate down and leans over to read the text on the screen of Chanyeol’s laptop. “The Particular Complexities of Friendship,” he reads out loud. “That’s an interesting title.”
“It was something different yesterday,” Chanyeol sighs, staring at the screen as if to rebuke it for having different titles each day. “But I think I like this idea.”
“What’s it about?”
“Oh, about how there’s a line between friendship and love, and how it’s often difficult to discern between the two of them. I’m trying my hand at romance novels. Do you think it’ll be a bestseller?” Chanyeol looks up at the brown-haired man hopefully-maybe this person will have a different opinion than his friends.
The brown-haired man stares at the screen for a few more moments at the rather empty screen, then comments, “You haven’t written much yet.”
“That’s okay,” Chanyeol states confidently. “I think I’ll stick with this idea this time. I only started this today. I think I’ll be able to actually finish this project.” He dismisses the fact that he has said this for every single idea he has had so far, including the idea he had the day before.
“Cool.” The brown-haired man nods and sits back in his chair, sipping his hot chocolate once again. “I wish you luck.”
“Thanks.” Chanyeol goes back to typing and they are silent for a few more minutes. Finally, the brown-haired man speaks again.
“I’m Byun Baekhyun. And you?”
“Park Chanyeol,” Chanyeol replies, still focused on his laptop, humming slightly under his breath as he tries to think of his next sentence. He isn’t trying to be rude on purpose-it’s just that Chanyeol has a tendency to be a rather awkward conversation maker once he’s focused on something. “Nice to meet you.”
“Mm.” Baekhyun looks down at his watch and drinks some more of his hot chocolate. “I have to go. It was nice talking to you.”
“Same,” Chanyeol says politely, nodding as Baekhyun stands up to leave. “Have a nice day.”
:: :: ::
The next Saturday, Baekhyun arrives at ten o’clock sharp, and once he receives his hot chocolate, he walks over to Chanyeol and points at the empty seat next to him. “May I sit here?”
“Suit yourself,” Chanyeol replies, continuing to type and not looking up. Baekhyun sits down and watches the laptop for a while before scooting closer to Chanyeol and peering over his shoulder.
“How is your novel coming along?” he asks curiously. “Are you still writing out that idea you had last week?”
Surprisingly, Chanyeol is. He grins and nods, pointing to the screen of his laptop, where a chapter has already been typed out. “I stayed up for a few nights, and I think I’ve gotten the plot outlined. I’ve even finished the first chapter.”
“Have you not done that before?” Baekhyun asks hesitantly, apparently noticing something about Chanyeol’s joy. “You sound extremely happy about it.”
“Nope.” Chanyeol grins broadly and does not notice the bemused expression upon Baekhyun’s face. “Never, so I’m really excited about this.”
“Oh.” Baekhyun sounds slightly less enthusiastic, but he smiles nevertheless. “That’s good.” They spend the next few minutes in an awkward silence-at least, Chanyeol assumes it’s an awkward silence because he isn’t feeling particularly awkward, although Baekhyun doesn’t look entirely comfortable with the absence of speaking.
“So,” Chanyeol finally says, more for Baekhyun’s benefit than his own, as the other man looks rather unsure of what to do at the moment, “what do you do?”
“Me?” Baekhyun turns his hot chocolate around in his hands and shrugs nonchalantly. “I’m a singer-at least, I want to be a singer. I’m training right now, and I’m thinking of auditioning for a company sometime soon.”
“Oh.” So much for breaking the (somewhat) awkward silence. A singer. Chanyeol has nothing against singers, but he has nothing for them either. To him, singers are…singers. They sing. And Chanyeol doesn’t really know much about singers beyond that. Singing never really held that much appeal for him-he prefers rapping (although he’s too embarrassed to admit it) and writing.
“What do you do-” Baekhyun begins, obviously following the mindless human habit of repeating questions so that everyone gets an equal chance to answer the same thing. “Wait. You write. I knew that. Sorry. Wasn’t thinking.”
They settle back into silence, broken only by the sound of Chanyeol’s fingers rapidly tapping on the keyboard, until Baekhyun finishes his hot chocolate and stand up. “Um, it was nice talking to you,” he says, even though both of them know that they haven’t talked much in the past half hour. “See you next week?” At this point, Chanyeol vaguely wonders why Baekhyun even wants to sit with him if the other man obviously feels awkward talking to him.
Surprisingly, they get a lot less awkward the next week. Baekhyun turns out to have a rather creative imagination, and between the two of them, they manage to elaborate Chanyeol’s plot into a full blown story with multiple plot twists and ingenious scenarios. They even laugh together once or twice. All in all, Chanyeol decides that Baekhyun is a funny, interesting person, and that he would make a rather good friend.
So they become friends. Week after week, every Saturday morning at ten o’clock sharp, the two of them sit together in the coffee shop, sipping hot chocolate with whipped cream, discussing Chanyeol’s novel, Baekhyun’s singing, and anything that comes to mind, really. Chanyeol learns that Baekhyun lives alone in an apartment and works at an office, filing papers, responding to calls, and filling out documents to earn money. Chanyeol feels rather awed at this information-Baekhyun seems so smart and proper with his fancy job and all Chanyeol has is his novel writing and a job as a waiter serving food to hungry customers who don’t always talk nicely to him if he’s a bit too slow for their liking.
Baekhyun laughs when Chanyeol tells him of his envy. “But I don’t like my job,” he explains. “I earn a lot of money, but it’s boring, and I’d rather do something I enjoy and earn less. At least I’ll be happier.”
“Are you not happy?” Chanyeol asks.
Baekhyun laughs again. “I’m happy. But singing would make me happier.”
Chanyeol frowns and sits back, setting his hot chocolate down and staring at Baekhyun. “So technically, you’re not extremely happy.”
Baekhyun shakes his head and smiles. “Go back to your novel writing. I’m happy enough, talking with you.”
:: :: ::
Chanyeol comes home one day to find a notice taped to his door. He reads it for a few moments, eyes widening as he stares at the words, unable to believe what he is seeing.
“What,” he mutters to himself, and peers at the notice again. Your rent is overdue, it reads in large, bold font. Please pay the rent-otherwise, you will be kicked out.
Chanyeol swallows nervously, his throat suddenly extremely dry. The thing is, he doesn’t have enough money to pay the rent this time. He swears, reads the notice again, and smacks his forehead on his palm. “What am I going to do?”
He almost convinces himself that a life as a hobo begging in the streets isn’t as bad as he thinks it is (think of all the experiences with nature! Think of all the experiences with the elements, like strong winds, endless rain, and freezing snow! Think of the joy in sleeping outside under the stars in the winter while trying to not freeze to death! Think of all the cheap ramen!) when he realizes that Baekhyun probably has an idea to offer. Baekhyun has his smart, fancy job, which means that he’s smart, so he’ll probably be able to solve Chanyeol’s problem.
It’s a good idea. Chanyeol wonders why he didn’t think of it before-it would have saved him the trouble of telling himself that ramen is extremely beneficial to his health when eaten every day. He takes out his cell phone (and realizes that not being able to pay the rent means that he’ll probably not be able to pay his cell phone calling fees pretty soon) and dials Baekhyun’s number. The phone rings twice, and Baekhyun picks up with a cheerful “Hello?”
“Hi. It’s me,” Chanyeol replies, before realizing that ‘it’s me’ is probably the worst thing someone can say to identify himself on a phone call. “I mean, it’s Chanyeol.”
“Oh,” Baekhyun replies, still sounding cheery. “How are you doing?”
“Not good,” Chanyeol says morosely. “I just got a notice on my door. Apparently, if I don’t pay the rent soon, I’m getting kicked out of my apartment.”
“Oh,” Baekhyun says again, sounding confused this time, although Chanyeol can never figure out exactly what people are feeling judging by their voice over the phone. “Then why don’t you pay the rent? That might solve the problem.”
Chanyeol sighs. “I can’t. I don’t have enough money left to pay for it. So I called you because I was wondering if you had a solution for that.”
“Oh. Wait. Give me a moment.” There’s a sound of keyboard tapping and Baekhyun shouting in the distance to someone. Then, Chanyeol hears Baekhyun breathing in his ear again, apparently back from whatever he had been doing. “Do you need to find a cheaper apartment?”
“My apartment is the cheapest you can find out there,” Chanyeol groans, beginning to feel slightly frantic. “I can’t afford to pay anything. I should have finished my novel sooner-it takes time for publishing companies to accept books, and there’s still the process of editing, and it might not become a bestselling book and I’ll never earn any money, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life serving food to stingy people all day long-”
“Stay with me,” Baekhyun offers suddenly. “We can split up the rent of the apartment and the cost of the food and all that stuff. It’ll cost less, you’ll have a place to live, and I won’t be lonely all by myself. Does that work?”
Chanyeol considers the option. His other friends, no matter how much they love him, will never allow him to stay with them, partly because Chanyeol has the problem of driving people nearly crazy with his chattering whenever he’s in a talkative mood, partly because Chanyeol doesn’t really earn that much money and therefore will eventually end up borrowing the money of his friends. In other words, Baekhyun’s idea sounds extremely beneficial to Chanyeol.
“I don’t want to be a burden,” he argues half-heartedly, so that he won’t sound too eager while secretly hoping that Baekhyun won’t mind. “I don’t really earn that much, and I don’t want to take up your space and time…I talk a lot sometimes…”
“It’s fine,” Baekhyun says dismissively, and Chanyeol feels an overwhelming sense of relief. “You can move in now, if you want to.”
“We’ll be eating things better than ramen every day, right?” Chanyeol asks worriedly. “I have nothing against ramen. I like ramen. It tastes good. But I don’t want to eat it all day long, every day. It’ll remind me of being a hobo, and I’ve decided that I’d rather not be one.”
“You’re rambling, you know.” Baekhyun’s voice sounds amused (although, as mentioned before, Chanyeol can’t identify tones over the phone very well, so Baekhyun might be actually angry), and he laughs (okay, maybe not angry). “I’ll see you in a while.”
He hangs up, and Chanyeol grins stupidly at the wall for a few moments, not exactly sure why, before he remembers that he doesn’t know Baekhyun’s address. Cursing, he dials Baekhyun’s number again, although this time, he’s comforted by the fact that he won’t have to worry about his cell phone bill anymore. Or ramen.
Life is looking pretty good at the moment, Chanyeol decides. Maybe he’ll even finish his novel one day and earn enough money to feel as smart as Baekhyun is.
:: :: ::
Unfortunately, looking at his possessions doesn’t make Chanyeol feel extremely smart. He doesn’t really own much, due to his constant lack of money to spend. He sighs and stares sorrowfully at his single, small suitcase, and knocks on Baekhyun’s door, already feeling rather insignificant as he stares at the fancy, sophisticated building Baekhyun lives in.
“Uh, hi,” Chanyeol says nervously when Baekhyun appears in the doorway. “Nice apartment.” He peers over Baekhyun’s shoulder and gulps. From where he’s standing, he can’t see very much of the inside of the apartment, but already, he can see a large television set and a fancy looking table, not to mention the obscenely fluffy rug on the floor that looks like it cost Baekhyun an arm and a leg to buy.
“Come in,” Baekhyun smiles. If he notices how small Chanyeol’s suitcase is, he doesn’t show it. “You can set your stuff in your room. I’ll show you.” He leads Chanyeol past a large kitchen (Chanyeol nearly dies when he sees the size of the refrigerator) and a living room (Chanyeol averts his eyes at that part-he doesn’t need to feel any more insignificant). They arrive in front of two doors, and Baekhyun points to the one on the right. “That’s my room. Yours is on the left.”
Chanyeol nods hesitantly and opens the door on the left. He gapes at the room inside and freezes, eyes widening as he takes in the large bed, spacious floor, and huge windows. “Ohmaigodwhat.” There’s even a personal bathroom, and everything looks so fancy. Chanyeol feels like he’s dreaming, because this cannot be happening. He drops his suitcase at the foot of the bed, then decides to give up on being dignified, and launches himself at the bed, yelling in sheer glee as he begins bouncing on it.
A few moments later, Chanyeol remembers that Baekhyun is watching, and looks up to see the brown-haired man bent over, laughing. Chanyeol frowns as he realizes that Baekhyun is still standing there, and promptly walks over and drags Baekhyun over to the bed. “Don’t just stand there,” he reprimands, and begins jumping on the bed again. Baekhyun sits there for a moment, staring at Chanyeol in amusement, before joining the jumping, laughing as Chanyeol trips and falls over.
Finally, when they’ve calmed down and are sitting at the edge of the bed, Chanyeol remembers something important. “Um…how much does the rent cost exactly?” From what he’s seen so far, he doubts that it’s very cheap-is the rent, when split up, really going to be cheaper than what he usually pays for his own apartment?
Baekhyun runs off and comes back with a piece of paper covered in calculations. He shows the final amount to Chanyeol, who whistles. “Wow. That cheap?” It’s still money to be paid, but it’s a lot less than what Chanyeol used to have to pay. “How is that possible?”
Baekhyun grins. “The actual apartment isn’t that costly. I just added a lot of renovations. We’re still going to have to split the bill for food and other stuff.”
“As long as it’s not-”
“-ramen,” Baekhyun finishes for him. “You’ve said.”
Chanyeol smiles sheepishly, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry. I have a habit of talking too much about things.”
“You’ve said,” Baekhyun repeats, but he looks amused, so Chanyeol supposes that the other man isn’t too bothered. “When do you work?”
“From nine in the morning to six in the evening,” Chanyeol sighs, his mood gloomy once again as he thinks of his job. “You?”
“Around the same time,” Baekhyun says quietly. “Are we still going to the coffee shop every Saturday?”
“Mm. I suppose so.”
“That’s good. We can work on your novel in the evenings if you want.”
“Yeah. And your singing. You should sing for me.”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “No.”
“Why not? If you’re going to be a singer, then you might as well practice singing for others.”
“Maybe next time.”
“That’s what my friend Kris says all the time. You should meet him. I should have you meet all my other friends someday. They’ll like you.”
“I’d like that.”
They trail off into silence, but it isn’t awkward like when they first met. Chanyeol watches Baekhyun out of the corner of his eyes and smiles to himself. Life really is looking pretty good at the moment.
:: :: ::
It takes one week for Chanyeol to run out of ideas, again. Well, not exactly ideas-he supposes it’s his lack of inspiration and motivation, but whatever it is, it’s keeping him from writing past chapter four. So when Baekhyun comes home from work that day, Chanyeol decides it’s time to relax a bit and perhaps have some fun. Maybe it’ll even give him some inspiration for writing. “I’m taking you to meet my other friends,” he announces when Baekhyun walks through the apartment door.
“What?” Baekhyun blinks at Chanyeol, his expression sluggish and confused. “Sorry. Long day at work. Could you please repeat that?”
“I’m taking you to meet my friends,” Chanyeol repeats, walking over to Baekhyun. “Let’s go now.”
“But I haven’t even changed out of my work clothes yet,” Baekhyun protests weakly. Chanyeol folds his arms and stand there, waiting as Baekhyun stumbles off to change. Baekhyun comes back a few minutes later, wearing jeans and a casual jacket instead of his office suit, frowning. Chanyeol merely grins and leads him out of the apartment and calls a taxi.
Ten minutes later, they find themselves standing outside Chanyeol’s friend Sehun’s house. Sehun is one of those socially gifted people who always has someone (or multiple people) over no matter the time, so Chanyeol has a feeling that most of his friends are also with Sehun at the moment. Sure enough, when Sehun answers the door, Chanyeol can hear the sound of laughter and talking in the house.
“Hey, Sehun-ah,” Chanyeol beams, “how are you doing? I came to introduce my friend.” He takes Baekhyun by the shoulders and pushes him slightly forward. “Baekhyun-ah, this is Oh Sehun. Sehun-ah, this is Byun Baekhyun.”
Sehun stares at Baekhyun for a few moments, then shrugs. “Hey.” He frowns, then looks back at Chanyeol, obviously thinking of something. “Chanyeol-ah, he’s short enough to be just the right size for you to cuddle. I think he’ll fit perfectly in your arms.” Sehun looks back as someone yells out his name, then turns to Chanyeol once again. “You might as well come in.”
Chanyeol watches as Sehun disappears into the house, then faces a bewildered Baekhyun, who looks like he’s about to pass out. “Don’t mind him. Sehun does that all the time. He likes to ship people with each other. Just ignore it. You’ll get used to him after a while.”
“Um,” Baekhyun stammers, his eyes still wide in confusion (almost enough to rival to eyes of Chanyeol’s friend Kyungsoo, who’s quite well-known for his expressions and stares). “T-That’s nice. He seems like a nice person. Um. Yes.”
Someone yells “Let’s eat cheese!” from inside the house and Baekhyun flinches. Chanyeol decides that Baekhyun is just surprised by the yelling and randomness of the statement (therefore hopefully not scared of cheese), and pats Baekhyun reassuringly on the back.
“It’s okay. Um, my friends are a bit strange. Okay. Maybe more than a bit strange. You’ll get used to them after a while.” Chanyeol begins to wish he had warned Baekhyun beforehand. “Let’s go in.”
Baekhyun stares at him like he’s insane. Chanyeol shrugs nonchalantly and leads Baekhyun into the house.
The moment they step inside, Baekhyun gets dragged away by several of Chanyeol’s friends, including Kris, who starts introducing Baekhyun to everyone else. Chanyeol begins to follow them to make sure Baekhyun doesn’t get accidently murdered, but is immediately dragged away to the kitchen by Sehun, who hands him a bottle of liquid (Chanyeol presumes it’s some form of alcohol).
“So,” Sehun begins, leaning against the counter, “how’s your roommate?”
“Fine.” Chanyeol takes a gulp of the drink and looks at with curiosity. It doesn’t exactly taste like alcohol, but it’ll do.
“Have you fallen for him yet?” Sehun asks rapidly, his eyes lighting up with interest. “I mean, you’re living with him and everything.”
Chanyeol snorts and almost chokes on his drink. “Fallen for him? Why would I? We’re just friends.”
Sehun rolls his eyes. “Just friends.”
“You’re the one talking,” Chanyeol points out, having stopped coughing over his drink. “What about Luhan? I noticed that he’s not here today.”
Sehun stiffens visibly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Chanyeol scoffs and shakes his head. The thing about Sehun and his friend Luhan is that the two of them refuse to admit that they’re in a secret relationship, but from the way they stare at each other, Chanyeol is pretty sure that if they’re not in a secret relationship at the moment, they will be sometime in the near future. “Yah,” he says, “you don’t even know what we do. Why would I have fallen for him if we’re just friends and roommates? We’ve been living together for a week. There’s nothing between us. Why am I even trying to explain this to you?”
“So you’re saying that the two of you live together and that’s it? Like, you don’t even sit together on the sofa and watch cheesy movies together? Or hug?” Sehun rolls his eyes. “I find that hard to believe.”
“That’s what you and Luhan do. Not everyone’s definition of friendship means acting like star-crossed lovers.”
“You technically didn’t deny it.”
Chanyeol groans. “Listen, Sehun-ah, Baekhyun and I are just friends. Will you please get it out of your mind that everyone has to be in love with someone else? Friends are allowed to be friends, okay? Just because you’re madly in love with Luhan doesn’t mean-”
Sehun reaches over and gives Chanyeol another drink. “Less talking, more drinking,” he says hastily, opening another bottle for himself. “Let’s not waste time blabbering about unnecessary things. I haven’t had a good drink for a long time.”
Chanyeol stares down at his bottle, then back at Sehun’s bottle. “This isn’t even alcohol. Are you trying to get me drunk on fruit juice?”
Sehun flushes. “I’m underage, okay? I don’t want to get into any trouble.”
“More like you don’t want to accidently end up making out with some guy who’s not Luhan and have him find out, because if he ever does, you’re going to die single-”
“I said, less talking, more drinking.”
Chanyeol sets his drink down. “Never mind. I think Kris should be done with the introductions by now. I’m off. I’ve got another appointment later.” He walks off, with Sehun shouting behind him that he’s going to fall in love with Byun Baekhyun.
Chanyeol chokes back a laugh. Sehun really can be ridiculous at times.
Part Two