The Particular Complexities of Friendship (Part 2/2)
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 2)
Part One
Baekhyun doesn’t seem too happy about meeting Chanyeol’s friends, which Chanyeol feels rather guilty about afterwards, because Baekhyun spends the rest of the evening and the next morning looking rather traumatized. Finally, Chanyeol confronts the other man that evening, when they’ve both come home from work and are eating dinner in the dining room. “I’m sorry. Really. I should have warned you about my friends.”
“Huh?” Baekhyun looks up from his bowl of rice, then shrugs. “It’s okay. It wasn’t that bad. I like your friends. They’re…interesting.”
Chanyeol frowns and shakes his head, unconvinced by the way Baekhyun’s eyes dart around nervously. “I don’t think your definition of interesting matches them. But seriously. I’m sorry. I’ll do anything for you if it’ll make you feel better. I promise.”
The slightly maniac glint in Baekhyun’s eyes makes Chanyeol sort of regret his rash words. “Anything?”
“Um.” Chanyeol really does feel guilty for surprising Baekhyun, so he supposes that he deserves punishment, although the smile on Baekhyun’s face is really worrying him. “Yeah. Anything.”
Baekhyun runs off and comes back with a DVD case, and pushes it towards Chanyeol. “Watch this with me. I haven’t been able to watch a good movie with someone for ages.”
Chanyeol looks down at the DVD case and gulps. Tangled. He looks up at Baekhyun and makes a strangled sound as he attempts to speak. Finally, he manages to gasp, “What.”
Baekhyun blinks at him innocently. “It’s a good movie.”
Unfortunately, Chanyeol can think up of at least a thousand more torturous situations than spending the next hour or two watching a movie about a princess (whose name he can’t remember) with ridiculously long hair and large eyes who runs away from a crazy evil witch mother with a thief whose nose is never drawn correctly on his wanted posters. He has no reason to complain. “Fine.”
“Really?” Baekhyun’s face splits into a grin and he jumps up, nearly knocking his bowl of rice over. “Let’s go watch now!”
“We haven’t finished dinner-” Chanyeol calls out half-heartedly, but Baekhyun is already in the living room, inserting the disc into the disc player and setting up the television.
It’s in the middle of the movie that Chanyeol gives up on paying attention and instead stares blankly at the television screen, thinking of his novel. Baekhyun seems to notice ten minutes later, and pauses the movie. “What’s wrong? You said you would watch with me.”
Chanyeol blinks and shakes his head, trying to wake himself from his stupor. “Sorry. I know, I said I would. I got distracted by my novel. My bad. I’ll watch now.”
Baekhyun doesn’t resume the movie and looks at Chanyeol instead, his expression scrunched up in concentration. Chanyeol briefly thinks that it’s cute, then wonders why he’s thinking about that. Sehun’s words are influencing his thoughts a lot more than he likes-he suddenly remembers that Sehun told him something about watching cheesy movies together on the couch…well, isn’t that what Chanyeol and Baekhyun are doing at the moment?
“Your novel is about two people who are just friends, but realize that there’s a thin line between friendship and love.” Baekhyun finally says. “So what’s difficult about writing it?”
“How it feels like,” Chanyeol admits. “It’s hard for me to write realistically if I don’t know how two people feel if they’re friends but not quite friends. You know what I mean? Like, they think they’re friends but they’re actually falling in love, but they’re confused on that. I don’t know if I should continue with this. It’s so hard to write, but I don’t want to waste all the writing I’ve done. What should I do?”
Baekhyun is silent for a minute or so, then says quietly, “We could try it out.”
“What?” Chanyeol stares at Baekhyun, puzzled. “I don’t understand.”
“I mean, we could see what it feels like…to be friends…but also, kind of, see how there’s a thin line between friendship and love…you know what I mean?”
Chanyeol does. He squints at Baekhyun, who flushes and shakes his head. “I don’t mean it in that way! I’m just saying, it’ll be helpful. They say that you can’t write something as realistically or convincingly if you haven’t experienced it. This is to help you write.”
It’s not that bad of an idea, once Chanyeol thinks it over once or twice. He ignores the thought of Sehun yelling that he’ll fall in love with Baekhyun. Sehun is just a strange person (who’s in love with Luhan and refuses to admit it), and anyways, Chanyeol doesn’t even have any feelings towards Baekhyun, so there’s nothing to be worried about. Baekhyun is smart-he has that fancy job and he even solved Chanyeol’s problem with his rent. If Baekhyun thought up of this idea, well, it obviously must work, because Baekhyun thought of it. And maybe Chanyeol will actually write his novel, have it become a bestseller, and finally feel as smart as Baekhyun is.
So he agrees. “Yeah. I guess we can try that out. But we’re just friends, right? Nothing else. We’re just doing this to help me write my novel.”
“Of course,” Baekhyun reassures, “just friends.”
“Okay. Just so that it’s clear.”
They sit on the couch together for a few more moments, not sure of how to begin. Finally, Baekhyun asks, “So what do friends who are perhaps a bit more than friends do, exactly?”
Chanyeol shrugs. “I don’t know. Well, Sehun and Luhan say they’re friends, but they’re obviously more than that, so I suppose we could copy them. Um. Apparently they like watching cheesy movies together and hugging. We’re watching a cheesy movie on the couch together right now, so I suppose we’re halfway there.”
“Tangled is not cheesy.”
“It’s still a movie.”
“Fine.” Baekhyun frowns and begins playing the movie again. After another five minutes of watching the princess (whose name he really cannot remember) with extremely long hair run around, Chanyeol suddenly feels an arm around his waist. He looks down to see Baekhyun sitting a lot closer to him than before, with his arms around him.
“Um.”
“It’s hugging, right?” Baekhyun murmurs, sounding rather comfortable as he leans his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder and closes his eyes. “It counts.”
Chanyeol hesitantly puts his arms around Baekhyun. He realizes that Baekhyun does fit perfectly in his arms-he can imagine Sehun’s smirk and his snide remark: “Just friends.”
Chanyeol frowns. It’s not like he actually has any feelings towards Baekhyun, other than a friendly, brotherly care for the singer. But Baekhyun does feel like he’s made for Chanyeol’s arms, and it feels nice. Chanyeol gulps and focuses his attention on the television screen-he shouldn’t get distracted.
“Do you think Sehun and Luhan kiss?” Baekhyun asks sleepily after a few more minutes. “Are we going to try that?”
“Probably,” Chanyeol replies slowly, panicking slightly as he realizes what Baekhyun is asking. “Um. I don’t think we should go there yet. We might want to take it slowly.”
“Oh, because people take time to feel comfortable out of being just friends. Okay. Let’s wait until we feel comfortable hugging-so that we get used to it. See, you’ve already got it! You know how the relationship is going to start out as in your novel!”
Chanyeol grins as the princess on the screen (he still can’t remember her name) starts singing with the thief character, watching glowing lanterns light up the sky. Baekhyun is so smart. His idea is already helping him, and they’ve only just begun.
:: :: ::
It feels a lot more natural and comfortable to hug Baekhyun after they do it for a few days in a row. Chanyeol thinks nothing of it when Baekhyun wraps his arms around his waist and pulls him closer, and putting an arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders when they sit on the couch together and watch more movies feels like something he has been doing every day of his entire life.
There’s still a line they can’t cross though, but they have a mutual understanding about it despite the fact that no one talks about it. No extreme intimacy. Chanyeol learns that it takes time to feel completely natural about being with someone, something he has not realized before. It does give him a lot of insight on his novel-it means that he has to write a few more chapters than he originally has planned, but it’ll sound more realistic than he could have ever dreamed of before Baekhyun’s suggestion.
He supposes that they’ll probably start having to experiment around with kissing and such sometime in the future, or else he won’t understand how that progresses in his novel, but at the moment, thinking of kissing (and other, less innocent actions) makes Chanyeol freeze up and shudder inwardly. Not because he doesn’t want to with Baekhyun (but that doesn’t mean he does), but because he hasn’t had much, er, practice with it, and he feels slightly awkward when it comes to intimate relationships.
Okay, perhaps more than slightly awkward.
Two weeks after Baekhyun suggests his idea, Chanyeol comes back to the apartment before Baekhyun, as usual, and begins to cook dinner. The noodles are well on their way when the door of the apartment opens and Baekhyun staggers into view, looking tired and worn out. Chanyeol reties his apron (it was falling) and walks over to help Baekhyun hang up his coat. “Let me get that for you.”
Baekhyun looks up at him dazedly and nods slowly. “Thanks,” he says vaguely, staring blankly at his coat as Chanyeol takes it and hangs it up in the closet. When Chanyeol turns around again, Baekhyun suddenly gives Chanyeol a peck on the cheek and wraps his arms around Chanyeol’s neck. “How was your day?”
Chanyeol stiffens at the action and steps slightly away from Baekhyun on instinct, too surprised to respond. Baekhyun notices his change of expression and lets go, drawing his hands away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. Um.” An awkward silence spreads throughout the room and Baekhyun clears his throat, looking away as his face turns slightly pink. “I just wanted to hug you…because I was tired…why am I even talking about this?” He laughs nervously, the sound strained and fatigued. “Bad day at work. Sorry.”
Chanyeol accepts his apology quietly and goes off to the kitchen to check on the food. When he comes back with bowls of noodles in his hands, Baekhyun is slumped over the dining table, his head in his arms. He must have had an exhausting day at work. Chanyeol begins to feel terrible about only serving people in a restaurant for work while Baekhyun has to go through such tiring procedures every day. Sometimes, he wonders how Baekhyun feels about the two of them living together-Chanyeol feels like he doesn’t do enough work and that Baekhyun ends up making the most effort. He still hasn’t heard Baekhyun sing even once in the weeks they’ve been staying together-all Baekhyun does these days is to help Chanyeol with his writing, and Chanyeol feels guilty that he hasn’t been able to help Baekhyun with his singing.
“Baekhyun-ah,” he says softly, placing a bowl of noodles next to his friend. “Dinner’s ready.”
Baekhyun raises his head and stares at the food. “Oh. Thanks.” He yawns and picks up his pair of chopsticks and begins eating. “It’s good. Thank you.”
They eat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Baekhyun speaks again. “Chanyeol-ah, do you any good places to drink at?”
“What?”
“A good place to drink at,” Baekhyun says sleepily. “I’m in the mood to get drunk today.”
Chanyeol frowns and continues to eat his noodles, although he makes sure that his mouth isn’t full when he talks. “Why? You look like you need some rest, not alcohol.”
Baekhyun shakes his head adamantly. “I’m not actually tired in the way that I want rest. I’m kind of stuck in a work-induced stupor. I need to loosen up. And it’s the weekend tomorrow. I don’t have to worry about work and hangovers at the same time.”
“I don’t think getting drunk is the best way to solve that problem-” Chanyeol begins, but he trails off and sighs. “Fine.” If Baekhyun wants it, then he might as well let him have it. Chanyeol already feels too guilty for taking up so much of Baekhyun’s time; Baekhyun should be able to do what he wants, as long as it’s not too harmful (therefore why Chanyeol hopes nothing bad will happen if Baekhyun drinks too much, although he’s quite sure that it’s not very good for Baekhyun’s health). “I know a place. I’ll take you there after dinner.”
Okay, so maybe they both are a bit drunk when they come back (or perhaps somewhat more than a bit drunk), and maybe Chanyeol isn’t exactly in a very coherent state when he stumbles through the apartment door. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken Baekhyun, and maybe he should have insisted that Baekhyun stay at home and rest. Whatever the reason, when Chanyeol finally manages to think clearly enough for the moment to figure out where the floor is (apparently, it’s not above him), the first thing he sees is Baekhyun’s face in front of his, and he suddenly realizes that Baekhyun’s lips look very kissable.
Very.
Chanyeol leans forward and presses his lips against Baekhyun’s, more out of muddled curiosity than anything else. Baekhyun responds readily, if not a little greedily, and Chanyeol finds himself in an intense and rather intimate battle of tongues, to which he would normally shudder at if not for his current, befuddled state.
Baekhyun wraps his arms around Chanyeol’s waist and pushes Chanyeol against the wall-for someone so much shorter than Chanyeol, he has a surprising amount of strength. Chanyeol responds by wrapping his fingers in Baekhyun’s hair, but when he breaks away for air, he notices that Baekhyun’s fingers are fumbling at the buttons on his shirt.
“Not here,” he gasps, and somehow manages to lead Baekhyun to his room, where they collapse onto the mattress in a tangle of limbs and resume their kissing. Chanyeol finds out a few minutes later that Byun Baekhyun is quite-no, extremely-good in bed.
So much for taking it slowly.
:: :: ::
Chanyeol begins writing his novel in earnest, often while sitting back to back with Baekhyun on the floor. They split up their days now-Chanyeol works on his novel one day and Baekhyun works on his singing the next. It takes a few days of coaxing, but Baekhyun finally sings for Chanyeol, and Chanyeol has to admit that he can’t think of any other sound that’s more beautiful to listen to than Baekhyun’s voice.
Baekhyun even convinces Chanyeol to rap for him, although Chanyeol collapses and hides in his embarrassment afterwards and it takes Baekhyun two quick kisses on the corners of Chanyeol’s mouth to convince him to get up again.
“I’m not rapping for you ever again,” Chanyeol announces resolutely as he rests his head in Baekhyun’s lap and closes his eyes when Baekhyun begins gently brushing his hair with his fingers. “I don’t care what you do. I’m not rapping again.”
Baekhyun laughs and flicks Chanyeol’s hair playfully. “I like it. You’re good at it.”
Chanyeol huffs and pouts, but Baekhyun merely laughs harder and wraps Chanyeol’s hair around his fingers. It’s amazing how they’ve gotten so much more relaxed around each other-kissing and hugging (that’s a little more intimate than the hugging friends do) feel as normal as talking and eating. It doesn’t really bother Chanyeol that they’re doing things together that friends probably shouldn’t be doing-after all, it’s all just an experiment to help Chanyeol write his novel, right? They’re just friends. Nothing else.
Just friends…sometimes, in the middle of the night, when they’re sprawled over each other, Chanyeol watches Baekhyun and something in him flutters at the sight of Baekhyun sleeping next to him. He wonders if it’s because he has feelings for Baekhyun, then dismisses it as a silly idea. They’re friends. Maybe friends who have a different relationship than normal friends. But friends. Just friends.
He finishes his novel two months later. The day arrives when he types out the last sentence and clicks the save button on the screen. It’s taken him months and months to write, and months and months of frantic thinking and revising, but he’s finally done, and all he can do now is hope that a publishing company will take it.
The two of them sit around the laptop as Chanyeol shows Baekhyun his final product. Baekhyun reads it and is silent for some time before saying, “Sounds sort of like us.”
Chanyeol grins and wraps his hand around Baekhyun’s smaller. “Then that means your idea worked. It’s realistic enough.”
Baekhyun grins back. An unnamable feeling rises in Chanyeol and he looks away, unable to explain why he flushes at the sight of Baekhyun’s smile.
They go to the post office and send copies of the manuscript to countless publishing companies. And then, they wait. The first letter arrives a week later, and Chanyeol opens it with shaking hands at breakfast, only to see, with extreme disappointment and tearful eyes, a large note of rejection, printed in dark, bold font. Baekhyun comforts him and tells him that they sent a lot of manuscripts, and he doubts that all companies are intelligent enough recognize Chanyeol’s talent. Chanyeol thinks he’s pushing it with the praise, but he feels better all the same.
They go through five more rejections before one morning Chanyeol finds yet another letter in the mailbox with the name of one of the publishing companies printed on the envelope. He almost doesn’t open it, sure that it’s probably another rejection (he really isn’t in the mood for that at the moment), but at the last minute, he rips the envelope open and takes out the letter inside.
He reads the first sentence and drops the letter, yelling.
“What is it?” Baekhyun runs over to him with a concerned expression. “Is anything wrong?”
Chanyeol shoves the letter into Baekhyun’s hands and begins laughing gleefully, jumping around. Baekhyun stares at the letter for a few seconds before he also laughs and begins to jump around with Chanyeol. “You did it, you did it!” he shrieks excitedly, and throws his arms around Chanyeol, who staggers back in surprise and overwhelming excitement.
Somehow, it turns into a kiss and the next Chanyeol knows, he is lying on the couch with Baekhyun sprawled over him. It is then that he decides that the title of just friends doesn’t really fit their relationship.
:: :: ::
A week later, the two of them are eating dinner together as usual when Chanyeol begins the conversation. “Baekhyun-ah, now that I’m done writing my novel…”
“Yes?” Baekhyun looks at him innocently, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth. “What now?”
“Are we still going to act the same way around each other?” Chanyeol blushes as he says that-it sounds a lot more awkward out loud than when he’s thinking about it. “Um, I think you know what I mean.”
“Is there anything wrong about it?”
“We can’t stay as just friends,” Chanyeol says abruptly. “It isn’t right. Friends don’t do what we do.”
“Then what are we? Enemies?”
“Haha. Funny.” Chanyeol sets his chopsticks down and looks at Baekhyun sincerely. “I’m being serious.”
“Then what do you want us to be?” Baekhyun asks nonchalantly, picking at his rice. “Lovers?”
Chanyeol continues to look at Baekhyun silently, heart beating rapidly in anxiety as he waits for Baekhyun’s response.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Baekhyun finishes his rice and stands up to clean up. Chanyeol follows him to the kitchen and waits until Baekhyun has placed his bowl in the sink before hugging him from behind and resting his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder (although he kind of has to stoop down to Baekhyun’s height).
“So it’s official?” he murmurs, taking in the sweet scent of Baekhyun’s hair. “We’re not just friends anymore?” He hardly dares to believe what he’s heard-he just wants to make sure that he heard Baekhyun’s words correctly.
“I don’t know if there’s anything official about it,” Baekhyun replies casually, sounding completely unaffected by the fact that Chanyeol is hugging him, but Chanyeol can feel Baekhyun’s chest rise a bit more rapidly than usual and he knows that the singer is a lot more distracted by the hug than he lets on.
“You know what?” Chanyeol whispers softly, burying his face in Baekhyun’s shoulder, “I want to live with you for the rest of my life. We can go visit the coffee shop together every Saturday for the rest of our lives. When you become a singer, I’ll be writing more novels, and we can split up the rent and eat ramen when we don’t have enough money, although I think you make enough in your job right now to support a family of five for the rest of their lives. Should we do that?”
“You’re such a sap,” Baekhyun demurs, but he places his small hands on Chanyeol’s and leans back into Chanyeol’s embrace, smiling. “I’d like that.”
“Really, now.” Chanyeol smirks, and looks pointedly at the door of the bedroom. Baekhyun glances at the clock on the wall and shakes his head.
“It’s too early.”
“It’s not like we have anything else to do.”
“We could wash the dishes,” Baekhyun points out calmly. “I mean, we can’t just leave them sitting in the sink. It’ll lead to bad habits.”
“So you’d rather wash the dishes.”
“I didn’t say that. I said that we could.”
Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun away from the kitchen sink but doesn’t stop hugging him. “You know what else we could do?”
the end
a/n: omfg what the heck is this extreme weirdness ._.
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 2)
Part One
Baekhyun doesn’t seem too happy about meeting Chanyeol’s friends, which Chanyeol feels rather guilty about afterwards, because Baekhyun spends the rest of the evening and the next morning looking rather traumatized. Finally, Chanyeol confronts the other man that evening, when they’ve both come home from work and are eating dinner in the dining room. “I’m sorry. Really. I should have warned you about my friends.”
“Huh?” Baekhyun looks up from his bowl of rice, then shrugs. “It’s okay. It wasn’t that bad. I like your friends. They’re…interesting.”
Chanyeol frowns and shakes his head, unconvinced by the way Baekhyun’s eyes dart around nervously. “I don’t think your definition of interesting matches them. But seriously. I’m sorry. I’ll do anything for you if it’ll make you feel better. I promise.”
The slightly maniac glint in Baekhyun’s eyes makes Chanyeol sort of regret his rash words. “Anything?”
“Um.” Chanyeol really does feel guilty for surprising Baekhyun, so he supposes that he deserves punishment, although the smile on Baekhyun’s face is really worrying him. “Yeah. Anything.”
Baekhyun runs off and comes back with a DVD case, and pushes it towards Chanyeol. “Watch this with me. I haven’t been able to watch a good movie with someone for ages.”
Chanyeol looks down at the DVD case and gulps. Tangled. He looks up at Baekhyun and makes a strangled sound as he attempts to speak. Finally, he manages to gasp, “What.”
Baekhyun blinks at him innocently. “It’s a good movie.”
Unfortunately, Chanyeol can think up of at least a thousand more torturous situations than spending the next hour or two watching a movie about a princess (whose name he can’t remember) with ridiculously long hair and large eyes who runs away from a crazy evil witch mother with a thief whose nose is never drawn correctly on his wanted posters. He has no reason to complain. “Fine.”
“Really?” Baekhyun’s face splits into a grin and he jumps up, nearly knocking his bowl of rice over. “Let’s go watch now!”
“We haven’t finished dinner-” Chanyeol calls out half-heartedly, but Baekhyun is already in the living room, inserting the disc into the disc player and setting up the television.
It’s in the middle of the movie that Chanyeol gives up on paying attention and instead stares blankly at the television screen, thinking of his novel. Baekhyun seems to notice ten minutes later, and pauses the movie. “What’s wrong? You said you would watch with me.”
Chanyeol blinks and shakes his head, trying to wake himself from his stupor. “Sorry. I know, I said I would. I got distracted by my novel. My bad. I’ll watch now.”
Baekhyun doesn’t resume the movie and looks at Chanyeol instead, his expression scrunched up in concentration. Chanyeol briefly thinks that it’s cute, then wonders why he’s thinking about that. Sehun’s words are influencing his thoughts a lot more than he likes-he suddenly remembers that Sehun told him something about watching cheesy movies together on the couch…well, isn’t that what Chanyeol and Baekhyun are doing at the moment?
“Your novel is about two people who are just friends, but realize that there’s a thin line between friendship and love.” Baekhyun finally says. “So what’s difficult about writing it?”
“How it feels like,” Chanyeol admits. “It’s hard for me to write realistically if I don’t know how two people feel if they’re friends but not quite friends. You know what I mean? Like, they think they’re friends but they’re actually falling in love, but they’re confused on that. I don’t know if I should continue with this. It’s so hard to write, but I don’t want to waste all the writing I’ve done. What should I do?”
Baekhyun is silent for a minute or so, then says quietly, “We could try it out.”
“What?” Chanyeol stares at Baekhyun, puzzled. “I don’t understand.”
“I mean, we could see what it feels like…to be friends…but also, kind of, see how there’s a thin line between friendship and love…you know what I mean?”
Chanyeol does. He squints at Baekhyun, who flushes and shakes his head. “I don’t mean it in that way! I’m just saying, it’ll be helpful. They say that you can’t write something as realistically or convincingly if you haven’t experienced it. This is to help you write.”
It’s not that bad of an idea, once Chanyeol thinks it over once or twice. He ignores the thought of Sehun yelling that he’ll fall in love with Baekhyun. Sehun is just a strange person (who’s in love with Luhan and refuses to admit it), and anyways, Chanyeol doesn’t even have any feelings towards Baekhyun, so there’s nothing to be worried about. Baekhyun is smart-he has that fancy job and he even solved Chanyeol’s problem with his rent. If Baekhyun thought up of this idea, well, it obviously must work, because Baekhyun thought of it. And maybe Chanyeol will actually write his novel, have it become a bestseller, and finally feel as smart as Baekhyun is.
So he agrees. “Yeah. I guess we can try that out. But we’re just friends, right? Nothing else. We’re just doing this to help me write my novel.”
“Of course,” Baekhyun reassures, “just friends.”
“Okay. Just so that it’s clear.”
They sit on the couch together for a few more moments, not sure of how to begin. Finally, Baekhyun asks, “So what do friends who are perhaps a bit more than friends do, exactly?”
Chanyeol shrugs. “I don’t know. Well, Sehun and Luhan say they’re friends, but they’re obviously more than that, so I suppose we could copy them. Um. Apparently they like watching cheesy movies together and hugging. We’re watching a cheesy movie on the couch together right now, so I suppose we’re halfway there.”
“Tangled is not cheesy.”
“It’s still a movie.”
“Fine.” Baekhyun frowns and begins playing the movie again. After another five minutes of watching the princess (whose name he really cannot remember) with extremely long hair run around, Chanyeol suddenly feels an arm around his waist. He looks down to see Baekhyun sitting a lot closer to him than before, with his arms around him.
“Um.”
“It’s hugging, right?” Baekhyun murmurs, sounding rather comfortable as he leans his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder and closes his eyes. “It counts.”
Chanyeol hesitantly puts his arms around Baekhyun. He realizes that Baekhyun does fit perfectly in his arms-he can imagine Sehun’s smirk and his snide remark: “Just friends.”
Chanyeol frowns. It’s not like he actually has any feelings towards Baekhyun, other than a friendly, brotherly care for the singer. But Baekhyun does feel like he’s made for Chanyeol’s arms, and it feels nice. Chanyeol gulps and focuses his attention on the television screen-he shouldn’t get distracted.
“Do you think Sehun and Luhan kiss?” Baekhyun asks sleepily after a few more minutes. “Are we going to try that?”
“Probably,” Chanyeol replies slowly, panicking slightly as he realizes what Baekhyun is asking. “Um. I don’t think we should go there yet. We might want to take it slowly.”
“Oh, because people take time to feel comfortable out of being just friends. Okay. Let’s wait until we feel comfortable hugging-so that we get used to it. See, you’ve already got it! You know how the relationship is going to start out as in your novel!”
Chanyeol grins as the princess on the screen (he still can’t remember her name) starts singing with the thief character, watching glowing lanterns light up the sky. Baekhyun is so smart. His idea is already helping him, and they’ve only just begun.
:: :: ::
It feels a lot more natural and comfortable to hug Baekhyun after they do it for a few days in a row. Chanyeol thinks nothing of it when Baekhyun wraps his arms around his waist and pulls him closer, and putting an arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders when they sit on the couch together and watch more movies feels like something he has been doing every day of his entire life.
There’s still a line they can’t cross though, but they have a mutual understanding about it despite the fact that no one talks about it. No extreme intimacy. Chanyeol learns that it takes time to feel completely natural about being with someone, something he has not realized before. It does give him a lot of insight on his novel-it means that he has to write a few more chapters than he originally has planned, but it’ll sound more realistic than he could have ever dreamed of before Baekhyun’s suggestion.
He supposes that they’ll probably start having to experiment around with kissing and such sometime in the future, or else he won’t understand how that progresses in his novel, but at the moment, thinking of kissing (and other, less innocent actions) makes Chanyeol freeze up and shudder inwardly. Not because he doesn’t want to with Baekhyun (but that doesn’t mean he does), but because he hasn’t had much, er, practice with it, and he feels slightly awkward when it comes to intimate relationships.
Okay, perhaps more than slightly awkward.
Two weeks after Baekhyun suggests his idea, Chanyeol comes back to the apartment before Baekhyun, as usual, and begins to cook dinner. The noodles are well on their way when the door of the apartment opens and Baekhyun staggers into view, looking tired and worn out. Chanyeol reties his apron (it was falling) and walks over to help Baekhyun hang up his coat. “Let me get that for you.”
Baekhyun looks up at him dazedly and nods slowly. “Thanks,” he says vaguely, staring blankly at his coat as Chanyeol takes it and hangs it up in the closet. When Chanyeol turns around again, Baekhyun suddenly gives Chanyeol a peck on the cheek and wraps his arms around Chanyeol’s neck. “How was your day?”
Chanyeol stiffens at the action and steps slightly away from Baekhyun on instinct, too surprised to respond. Baekhyun notices his change of expression and lets go, drawing his hands away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. Um.” An awkward silence spreads throughout the room and Baekhyun clears his throat, looking away as his face turns slightly pink. “I just wanted to hug you…because I was tired…why am I even talking about this?” He laughs nervously, the sound strained and fatigued. “Bad day at work. Sorry.”
Chanyeol accepts his apology quietly and goes off to the kitchen to check on the food. When he comes back with bowls of noodles in his hands, Baekhyun is slumped over the dining table, his head in his arms. He must have had an exhausting day at work. Chanyeol begins to feel terrible about only serving people in a restaurant for work while Baekhyun has to go through such tiring procedures every day. Sometimes, he wonders how Baekhyun feels about the two of them living together-Chanyeol feels like he doesn’t do enough work and that Baekhyun ends up making the most effort. He still hasn’t heard Baekhyun sing even once in the weeks they’ve been staying together-all Baekhyun does these days is to help Chanyeol with his writing, and Chanyeol feels guilty that he hasn’t been able to help Baekhyun with his singing.
“Baekhyun-ah,” he says softly, placing a bowl of noodles next to his friend. “Dinner’s ready.”
Baekhyun raises his head and stares at the food. “Oh. Thanks.” He yawns and picks up his pair of chopsticks and begins eating. “It’s good. Thank you.”
They eat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Baekhyun speaks again. “Chanyeol-ah, do you any good places to drink at?”
“What?”
“A good place to drink at,” Baekhyun says sleepily. “I’m in the mood to get drunk today.”
Chanyeol frowns and continues to eat his noodles, although he makes sure that his mouth isn’t full when he talks. “Why? You look like you need some rest, not alcohol.”
Baekhyun shakes his head adamantly. “I’m not actually tired in the way that I want rest. I’m kind of stuck in a work-induced stupor. I need to loosen up. And it’s the weekend tomorrow. I don’t have to worry about work and hangovers at the same time.”
“I don’t think getting drunk is the best way to solve that problem-” Chanyeol begins, but he trails off and sighs. “Fine.” If Baekhyun wants it, then he might as well let him have it. Chanyeol already feels too guilty for taking up so much of Baekhyun’s time; Baekhyun should be able to do what he wants, as long as it’s not too harmful (therefore why Chanyeol hopes nothing bad will happen if Baekhyun drinks too much, although he’s quite sure that it’s not very good for Baekhyun’s health). “I know a place. I’ll take you there after dinner.”
Okay, so maybe they both are a bit drunk when they come back (or perhaps somewhat more than a bit drunk), and maybe Chanyeol isn’t exactly in a very coherent state when he stumbles through the apartment door. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken Baekhyun, and maybe he should have insisted that Baekhyun stay at home and rest. Whatever the reason, when Chanyeol finally manages to think clearly enough for the moment to figure out where the floor is (apparently, it’s not above him), the first thing he sees is Baekhyun’s face in front of his, and he suddenly realizes that Baekhyun’s lips look very kissable.
Very.
Chanyeol leans forward and presses his lips against Baekhyun’s, more out of muddled curiosity than anything else. Baekhyun responds readily, if not a little greedily, and Chanyeol finds himself in an intense and rather intimate battle of tongues, to which he would normally shudder at if not for his current, befuddled state.
Baekhyun wraps his arms around Chanyeol’s waist and pushes Chanyeol against the wall-for someone so much shorter than Chanyeol, he has a surprising amount of strength. Chanyeol responds by wrapping his fingers in Baekhyun’s hair, but when he breaks away for air, he notices that Baekhyun’s fingers are fumbling at the buttons on his shirt.
“Not here,” he gasps, and somehow manages to lead Baekhyun to his room, where they collapse onto the mattress in a tangle of limbs and resume their kissing. Chanyeol finds out a few minutes later that Byun Baekhyun is quite-no, extremely-good in bed.
So much for taking it slowly.
:: :: ::
Chanyeol begins writing his novel in earnest, often while sitting back to back with Baekhyun on the floor. They split up their days now-Chanyeol works on his novel one day and Baekhyun works on his singing the next. It takes a few days of coaxing, but Baekhyun finally sings for Chanyeol, and Chanyeol has to admit that he can’t think of any other sound that’s more beautiful to listen to than Baekhyun’s voice.
Baekhyun even convinces Chanyeol to rap for him, although Chanyeol collapses and hides in his embarrassment afterwards and it takes Baekhyun two quick kisses on the corners of Chanyeol’s mouth to convince him to get up again.
“I’m not rapping for you ever again,” Chanyeol announces resolutely as he rests his head in Baekhyun’s lap and closes his eyes when Baekhyun begins gently brushing his hair with his fingers. “I don’t care what you do. I’m not rapping again.”
Baekhyun laughs and flicks Chanyeol’s hair playfully. “I like it. You’re good at it.”
Chanyeol huffs and pouts, but Baekhyun merely laughs harder and wraps Chanyeol’s hair around his fingers. It’s amazing how they’ve gotten so much more relaxed around each other-kissing and hugging (that’s a little more intimate than the hugging friends do) feel as normal as talking and eating. It doesn’t really bother Chanyeol that they’re doing things together that friends probably shouldn’t be doing-after all, it’s all just an experiment to help Chanyeol write his novel, right? They’re just friends. Nothing else.
Just friends…sometimes, in the middle of the night, when they’re sprawled over each other, Chanyeol watches Baekhyun and something in him flutters at the sight of Baekhyun sleeping next to him. He wonders if it’s because he has feelings for Baekhyun, then dismisses it as a silly idea. They’re friends. Maybe friends who have a different relationship than normal friends. But friends. Just friends.
He finishes his novel two months later. The day arrives when he types out the last sentence and clicks the save button on the screen. It’s taken him months and months to write, and months and months of frantic thinking and revising, but he’s finally done, and all he can do now is hope that a publishing company will take it.
The two of them sit around the laptop as Chanyeol shows Baekhyun his final product. Baekhyun reads it and is silent for some time before saying, “Sounds sort of like us.”
Chanyeol grins and wraps his hand around Baekhyun’s smaller. “Then that means your idea worked. It’s realistic enough.”
Baekhyun grins back. An unnamable feeling rises in Chanyeol and he looks away, unable to explain why he flushes at the sight of Baekhyun’s smile.
They go to the post office and send copies of the manuscript to countless publishing companies. And then, they wait. The first letter arrives a week later, and Chanyeol opens it with shaking hands at breakfast, only to see, with extreme disappointment and tearful eyes, a large note of rejection, printed in dark, bold font. Baekhyun comforts him and tells him that they sent a lot of manuscripts, and he doubts that all companies are intelligent enough recognize Chanyeol’s talent. Chanyeol thinks he’s pushing it with the praise, but he feels better all the same.
They go through five more rejections before one morning Chanyeol finds yet another letter in the mailbox with the name of one of the publishing companies printed on the envelope. He almost doesn’t open it, sure that it’s probably another rejection (he really isn’t in the mood for that at the moment), but at the last minute, he rips the envelope open and takes out the letter inside.
He reads the first sentence and drops the letter, yelling.
“What is it?” Baekhyun runs over to him with a concerned expression. “Is anything wrong?”
Chanyeol shoves the letter into Baekhyun’s hands and begins laughing gleefully, jumping around. Baekhyun stares at the letter for a few seconds before he also laughs and begins to jump around with Chanyeol. “You did it, you did it!” he shrieks excitedly, and throws his arms around Chanyeol, who staggers back in surprise and overwhelming excitement.
Somehow, it turns into a kiss and the next Chanyeol knows, he is lying on the couch with Baekhyun sprawled over him. It is then that he decides that the title of just friends doesn’t really fit their relationship.
:: :: ::
A week later, the two of them are eating dinner together as usual when Chanyeol begins the conversation. “Baekhyun-ah, now that I’m done writing my novel…”
“Yes?” Baekhyun looks at him innocently, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth. “What now?”
“Are we still going to act the same way around each other?” Chanyeol blushes as he says that-it sounds a lot more awkward out loud than when he’s thinking about it. “Um, I think you know what I mean.”
“Is there anything wrong about it?”
“We can’t stay as just friends,” Chanyeol says abruptly. “It isn’t right. Friends don’t do what we do.”
“Then what are we? Enemies?”
“Haha. Funny.” Chanyeol sets his chopsticks down and looks at Baekhyun sincerely. “I’m being serious.”
“Then what do you want us to be?” Baekhyun asks nonchalantly, picking at his rice. “Lovers?”
Chanyeol continues to look at Baekhyun silently, heart beating rapidly in anxiety as he waits for Baekhyun’s response.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Baekhyun finishes his rice and stands up to clean up. Chanyeol follows him to the kitchen and waits until Baekhyun has placed his bowl in the sink before hugging him from behind and resting his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder (although he kind of has to stoop down to Baekhyun’s height).
“So it’s official?” he murmurs, taking in the sweet scent of Baekhyun’s hair. “We’re not just friends anymore?” He hardly dares to believe what he’s heard-he just wants to make sure that he heard Baekhyun’s words correctly.
“I don’t know if there’s anything official about it,” Baekhyun replies casually, sounding completely unaffected by the fact that Chanyeol is hugging him, but Chanyeol can feel Baekhyun’s chest rise a bit more rapidly than usual and he knows that the singer is a lot more distracted by the hug than he lets on.
“You know what?” Chanyeol whispers softly, burying his face in Baekhyun’s shoulder, “I want to live with you for the rest of my life. We can go visit the coffee shop together every Saturday for the rest of our lives. When you become a singer, I’ll be writing more novels, and we can split up the rent and eat ramen when we don’t have enough money, although I think you make enough in your job right now to support a family of five for the rest of their lives. Should we do that?”
“You’re such a sap,” Baekhyun demurs, but he places his small hands on Chanyeol’s and leans back into Chanyeol’s embrace, smiling. “I’d like that.”
“Really, now.” Chanyeol smirks, and looks pointedly at the door of the bedroom. Baekhyun glances at the clock on the wall and shakes his head.
“It’s too early.”
“It’s not like we have anything else to do.”
“We could wash the dishes,” Baekhyun points out calmly. “I mean, we can’t just leave them sitting in the sink. It’ll lead to bad habits.”
“So you’d rather wash the dishes.”
“I didn’t say that. I said that we could.”
Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun away from the kitchen sink but doesn’t stop hugging him. “You know what else we could do?”
the end
a/n: omfg what the heck is this extreme weirdness ._.