Beauty starts at the core.
Title: Beauty starts at the core.
Author: Anonymous until 1/30/14
For: reduxed
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Word Count: 7,700
Summary: Baekhyun is stuck in the world of materialism and being a boss ass bitch.
Warnings: drug use, (added by mod: self-esteem issues + physical appearance)
Rating: PG-13
One
IMATS: The International Make-Up Artist Trade Show is the make-up world’s biggest gathering. Thousands of make-up artists, vendors and enthusiasts discuss, display and collect the best the industry has to offer.
÷
To be honest Baekhyun thought the “expirement” phase in college was just exactly what he saw in movies.
The typical weekend nights of “Let’s get high!!” or “Let’s dance till the night ends!!” in the pompous, overbearing and too dark to see of a dorm room and the drunken induced ambiance in frat parties that make everyone usually a bit more horny than usual. But no, being in his early 20’s college was not like that for Baekhyun. Instead, Baekhyun spends his time with his face like he’s customizing a blog on Tumblr.
Makeup to Baekhyun never was a real interest to him until he went off and realized that “sexuality was a way to express your individuality” (or whatever that tumblr quote said), but as soon as he saw his first L’Oreal eyeliner in a mall trip with Jongdae in their fourth year of high school, he knew it was love at first sight.
And what better way to express your inner Nicki Minaj by getting himself in front of his crappy Toshiba laptop and completely and utterly failing at the art of covering your stupid insecurities. Baekhyun can’t help but laugh at his past makeup videos, and Baekhyun knows there’s a fine line between the genuine and the plasticity. But he can’t seem to help it, as materialistic as it sounds. The notion of covering your face to hide the pimple, or to better intensify the windows to your soul was all just a fascination, and he couldn’t stop.
Getting past his early youtube days, he’s gained well rounded recognition on his innovative ways of beauty, from curling your hair with paper bags, or a how to video of still looking flawless during finals. But overall just the perfection of Baekhyun's face, or so it seems.
Having gaining the heavyweight title of makeup guru, he stumbles along great opportunities to travel and see his dedicated fanbase. But when he’s not behind a camera, smiling and looking pristine, he attends his regular college classes but still, girls see him as a go-to person for not just makeup, but for all all things romance. But Baekhyun has never been so good at those kinds of things to begin with. Infact, his love life equates to somewhere along the lines of a drought in summertime.
As hypocritical as that may sound, Baekhyun knows that he isn't that grandiose of a person that can heal the sick or solve world hunger. Whenever he would take his makeup off, alone, in his one bed room apartment, with a way too small bathroom to hold all his facial care products,showed a face that was naked, bare and real, and he seemed too…. outlandishly normal. So Baekhyun vows to himself that makeup is a damn necessity and no one can stop him from having a banging ass body and high self esteem.
He turns on his HD camera and begins recording his new video.
He starts to speak until his door creaks and Baekhyun is almost ten thousand percent sure he knows who it is.
“Baekkkk ,I sorta need your Mac foundation" Jongdae yells across the room, knowing everyone within a ten mile radius will hear him and Baekhyun knows this will up the rent a bit more.
“Can you not fucking yell across the whole nation that you need my stuff while I’m making a video?” Baekhyun screams across the doorway and Jongdae could almost swear that one of Baekhyun’s eyebrows were off and quickly remarked back with a “You have ugly-ass eyebrows”, which prompted Baekhyun to throw his L’Oreal eyeliner at Jongdae’s eye making sure the pointy part struck into his corneas first but failed, knocking his video camera down while screaming at the top of his lungs as he lunged towards Jongdae with a pair of scissors threatening to cut his precious hair. “Fucking take that back you little shit”
That needs to get edited out.
÷
“Hey guys! Flower boy Baekhyun here! Bringing you the latest and greatest makeup and fashion tips you need to get through your week!” The glamour intro of his video plays and Baekhyun watches as thousands of views pour in on his most recent video. His face is flawless under the pristine and professional lighting, pink, shiny coated lips from his new MAC lip gloss, his signature bold and defined eyeliner made all the viewers wail in agony, envious of his beauty (and those goddamn perfect hands).
“That’s all we have today ladies and gents,-oh! And make sure you visit me at my booth in IMATs this weekend. It’ll be fun and I’ll take a picture with the first 50 of you guys!” And the video ends just before Jongdae walks balk in with a tall espresso in hand, wearing Baekhyun’s ray-bans, and with the same lip gloss Baekhyun had just bought this morning.
“Make sure you ask for my shit next time or else I’ll turn your hair into cornrows while you sleep,” Baekhyun raves as he types on his laptop, responding to someone’s recent comment.
“Relax, kid. I’m only borrowing it cause the cute Chinese kid just moved into the sophomore dorms and I want to impress him with your high class shit like look,” Jongdae picks up Baekhyun’s last bottle of Chanel N5 he got as a gift from his fans and wafts it in front of his nose, “Do you think he’ll be impressed if he recognizes the smell?”
“Jongdae, you could wave a fucking dildo in front of his face and you still won’t have a chance at him,” Baekhyun retorts, standing up to take the priceless perfume bottle out of Jongdae’s hands and taking his sunglasses off of him which made Jongdae look ridiculously more ridiculous indoors.
Jongdae moans, “Ugh, When you get to IMATs this weekend will you please get fucked for once because all you do is kill my vibe and I really can’t put up with that.” Jongdae’s head is down completely unaffected by Baekhyun’s deadpan stares, inspecting at his newly polished cuticles and Baekhyun looks completely downright disgusted at his best friend.
Baekhyun sighs, “Jongdae, first of all,” he takes Jongdae’s hand and pretends to put on a sarcastic smile, you’re in my fucking room stealing all my crap, and second of all,” Baekhyun applies more pressure on Jongdae’s hand, “how am I ‘killing your vibe’ you shouldn’t be the one talking with your white girl persona and ridiculous thirst for people you don’t even know,” Baekhyun exclaimed.
“Okay okay, I get it! Ow, ow stop it, you’re ruining my nails” Jongdae begs and Baekhyun reassures him with a bitchy “okay”, leaving a terrified Jongdae inspecting his nails in an effort to find Baekhyun’s nail filer. Baekhyun swears that he thought he himself was the most self centered person in the universe.
÷
The day of IMATs comes full circle and Baekhyun feels dominant. He walks out of the cab with fierce model runway strut, with perfect synchronization to the rhythm of a Girl’s Generation song. He feels powerful, with a Louis Vuitton handbag, American Apparel Jeans that fit his curvy waist and thighs, a fluffy beige cashmere sweater, and Doc Martens that makes a click sound of every step that Baekhyun commands. His sunglasses give him an aura of mysteriousness, giving him some decent mask of anonymity to not give himself away from any fans that might see him pass by.
But all of a sudden, Baekhyun feels lost, and he takes a moment to laugh at himself because he was so overwhelmed by looking so glamorous, flipping his hair while he’s at it. But fear creeps up on him as he sees that there is completely no one in this street corner. He starts to wander around, trying to find signal so the GPS on his phone could work but to no avail he let the nervousness and over thinking get to him until he found a bench to sit on. He tries to gather his thoughts until he heard faint guitar music playing in one of the poorly lit shops that remind Baekhyun of a lot like Hollister. He considers going in the place and asking for help, but he wasn’t quite sure. But he was running out of time and he had to do something. Hesitantly, he walks up in front of the store, slowly opening the rusty door and just right there in that moment, all of a sudden Baekhyun’s life flashes before his eyes as a crashing wave of smoke and lighted blunts consumed every aspect of Baekhyun’s senses. “Oh god” He whispered to himself, trying to make out the scene before him. He tries to regain his senses, picking up a hint of coffee and faint sounds of a drink being mixed despite the melodramatic loudness coming from the elevated stage to Baekhyun’s right.
The beat of the drums and the psychedelic melodies of the guitar subsided.
As Baekhyun clears the smoke that infiltrated his vision he can make out that it was a coffee shop; plain, minimalistic and simple except for the fact that Baekhyun feels like he’s right under the fucking Mexican drug smuggling centre of LA.
He tries to walk straight to the counter, but the strong smoke from the multiple blunts made Baekhyun feel a little queasy. His vision was a little hazy, and he was almost about to stumble until a man lightly grabbed his waste to keep him from falling.
“Hot diggity damn,” The man exclaims in the most deeply slurred tone of voice ever, “look at this bro over here you guys, I finally cracked my theory of second hand weed smoking can cause slight dysfunctional movements!”
“Chanyeol, you’re fucking high, I don’t even think that’s classified as a theory,” the younger boy with white hair that parted in the middle next to the tall man that caught Baekhyun.
Baekhyun slowly backs away from him and takes a travel-sized lint roller from his purse and proceeds to roll.
“No you dweeb, I just got overwhelmed by the fucking drug cartel you guys got going on here,” he scans the room as the smoke clears and in front of him he sees the tall boy with big rimmed glasses that didn’t quite in fact hid his wide bloodshot eyes. He flashed a really goofy smile and Baekhyun can see the dimple on his left cheek. Baekhyun looks at him fondly admiring his features, and the man was staring right back, only this time creepily as he plays with the hem of his grey chain link v neck sweater.
“Um, hi… hehe. I’m Chanyeol and I believe in peace.” The boy muttered with the same low, groggy slurred tone, a half smirk plastered on his clumsy face. And Baekhyun wanted to laugh at how incredibly uncomfortable he was right now, and considers actually taking a blunt or two.
But Baekhyun snaps out of it, beginning to realize that this is probably the typical hippy college vibe scene that Baekhyun does not want to affiliate with at all.
The boy next to him began to speak, “Well yeah, um, hi. Excuse my friend here, he’s pretty stoned as fuck right now. I’m Sehun. Did you come here to get coffee? Hang out and blaze it or what.”
“Hehehe Sehun look. He’s really pretty,” Chanyeol boyishly says, still having that really big smirk on his face.
Baekhyun tried to ignore the compliment but blushed crept up his cheek but he still held his ground, “Yeah I was pretty lost and I’m trying to get to somewhere. Do you know where the LA convention center is?”
“Hell yeah babe, I know where that is,” Chanyeol mumbled, his eyelids half closed. He wraps an arm around Baekhyun shoulder and Baekhyun’s demeanor went from calm and collected to completely grossed out.
“…Um? Get off me?” Baekhyun managed to look up and wow, he can’t help but think that he’s too cute up close.
“Chanyeol stop, dude, you’re making him uncomfortable” Sehun pulls Chanyeol away from Baekhyun, leaving Chanyeol confused, looking at Sehun with puppy eyes.
“But Sehun, look he’s really pretty.”
“Just shutup for one second, ..-here” Sehun grabs a rubix cube that seemed to glow from his pocket and hands it to Chanyeol.
“Whoa”, He sits down the lounge sofa, his eyes wide like a seven year old who just saw snow for the first time, “this is hella rad.” Chanyeol exclaims as he’s completely fascinated by the object.
Sehun looks at Baekhyun sternly, “Bra how are you here with all this snazzy fittings, LA Convention is like a few miles though, just walk up north some and then a make a righty and you’ll see a big ass building, aight?”
Baekhyun narrows his eyes and tries not to throw up at the white washed hippy slang, “You’re telling me to just walk up a few miles north? In these shoes? Please, I think I need a ride, can I call a taxi, do you guys have a phone?” He walks up to the counter and looks for some way of contacting the outside world, and right now Baekhyun is slightly aggravated and when he’s aggravated he gets moody.
“Yo, There’s like no signal here though. If ya want Chanyeol can drive ya” Sehun smiles and turns to Chanyeol and he’s still looking at the damn rubix cube.
“Well if you can’t tell, your friend there is higher than fucking Mt. Everest and you’re telling me, that he, under the influence, will drive me to my appointed destination?” Baekhyun ranted, his hands fist filled with his hair, “Oh my god, no, I can’t do this, I just wanna go home this is too much for me I need a soy latte.”
“Can’t you just drive me?”
And Sehun just giggles, his hand over his mouth trying to muffle the sounds, “I don’t have a license I ride a bike. Ya know, to conserve the environment.”
Baekhyun hisses and closes his eyes and all he wants to do right now is leave and just walk and find a main street somewhere.
So Baekhyun does. He stands up straight, trying to maintain a steady composure and recites his early morning confidence boosters to clear his head. He opens his eyes and glares at the two boys in his direction.
“Thanks for nothing, but I’m leaving. I’ll walk by myself,” Baekhyun says his adieu and struts to the front door. Opening the door, he steps outside, hissing at the sudden brightness and swearing at the obnoxious LA heat.
“Hey wait!” Baekhyun was reluctant to turn back again, not wanting to even breathe the same foul air as them and for causing more trouble and stress than he was already in.
So he doesn’t turn back and faces the dangerous streets on his own.
Use
÷
The first thing that Baekhyun notices when he arrives at the convention center is that the clock on his phone barely struck 11am but it was already scorching hot.
And Baekhyun thinks that the drops of salt tasting water on his face is not sweat but just something to make his face shinier.
The crowd behind the big brass doors seems to be settled down and unphased of Baekhyun’s coming. And he realizes he’s about 45 minutes late not knowing how to tell his manager how he ended up so miserable and shitty looking. He picks out his phone from his purse, all the while opening the door to the convention, his big designer sunglasses covered his eyes all the way to his forehead, making sure he doesn’t get recognized all the while subtly avoiding the stares he gets when he walks in with ridiculous sweat pouring out every inch of his face. Knowing that his makeup is not waterproof he curses to himself realizing that his image right now might look horrible and might have to change later.
Calm whispers filled the room as the crowd’s noise starts to rise into a slight uproar and Baekhyun tries to ignore it.
"Is that the guy from BaekBeauty? Byun Baekhyun?"
"Yeah i think so, why does he look so out of breath and... Greasy?"
"His skin doesnt look that good in real life though."
"Yeah I agree," Baekhyun hears in response and as much as Baekhyun would like to spray the crowd of girls with a really big can of bitch spray, Baekhyun can’t help feeling displeased with his image as constant negativity coming from the small crowd of teenage girls attacks his self esteem. He doesn’t know why it affects him this much, feeling insecure and out of place all of a sudden. He tried to ignore the feeling and not let negative thoughts in his head get the better of him, so as he walks through the hallway and enter backstage, he waves to the crowd of girls and on impulse, he flips them off with both his hands causing loud ughs and gasps coming out of the girls mouths.
"Stupid bitches" Baekhyun mutters to himself.
He walks up to his manager, Joonmyeon, who was wearing a hot pink suit and tie talking to one of the coordinators of the convention, a fake smile plastered on his face but Baekhyun knows he’s in deep shit. As Baekhyun gleams closer, Joonmyeon finally looks up and his whole disposition changed as his eyes find Baekhyun’s, looking like he wanted to drop a really big poop because he looked outright pissed as Baekhyun begins to open his mouth.
“I-“
“Where have you been?” He asks abruptly and Baekhyun is not sure how to explain.
“Well um, my taxi sorta got me in the wrong side of town and I don’t even know why but like, I sorta got lost and ended up in some trashy underground club place where I asked some questionably attractive guys who were completely high and incoherent mind you, anyways. I asked if they had a phone so I could call you but they had no service and my phone had no service either so I walked seven hundred miles here and here I am” Baekhyun rambles and then theres Joonmyeon who looks completely stoic as he listens to his story.
“Baekhyun, you do know that you have a schedule to adhere to in this convention, hundreds of people were in line to see you right now but you missed it. So I had to reschedule it to 2pm and all your fans are disappointed in you” Joonmyeon’s brows are furrowed and Baekhyun maintains his diva cool.
“Yeah well tough luck, it wasn’t my fault anyway but ugh don’t I look so ugly right now like wow this weather is so hot and I’m dying for an iced soy latte, I need to go back to my apartment and change, see you later in the meetup.” Baekhyun awkwardly laughs and waves but as soon as he was about to leave Joonmyeon’s uncomfortable presence, Joonmyeon grabs his wrist.
“We’re not done yet, Paris Hilton. You got something going on in 15 minutes and I did this so you could make it up to your fans.”
“What are you talking about, we only agreed to a fan meet what do I have to do now?” Baekhyun grumbles and Joonmyeon perks up and laughs maniacally at Baekhyun’s misfortune.
“You have to do a demo…” His laugh seems to be more profound with every word he says, “… with Michelle Phan.”
“You did not just say that” Baekhyun’s face turns completely sour.
“You totally didn’t say she who will not be named. Oh. My. God. Joonmyeon, no I can’t handle her she’s so stuck up and has ugly eyebrows, you remember the last time I had to collaborate with her!”Baekhyun fusses wildly, stomping his left foot repeatedly on the concrete floor.
“Suck it up…. Stuck up. Get it? Cause you’re irresponsible and I made a joke on why you’re irresponsible?” Joonmyeon continues to laugh and Baekhyun doesn’t get how this man has an infinite amount of jokes to only please himself.
Baekhyun moans in response and begged for Joonmyeon to cancel the event, but he knows Joonmyeon can’t and he’s left there on the ground to suffer.
÷
It was a year ago when Baekhyun first bumped into Michelle Phan. Baekhyun was still an immature makeup guru trying to gain viewers and was promoting his work through a beauty pageant contest. Hot headed as Baekhyun was, he was so determined to win so he dressed in drag to impress the judges, and each time he gets up on the stage, Michelle tries to outdo him. Luckily there was no swimsuit competition. But during backstage as he’s putting on his wig for the last question and answer, Michelle comes up to him, her eyes were brim and Baekhyun shivers at her cold aura. She looked like the wicked witch of the east, her eyes swallowed by the way too bold eyeliner and her midnight toned eye shadow looks as if she hasn’t slept in weeks.
“Hey Michelle, big fan. Are you trying to channel your inner Morticia from the Addams family?” Baekhyun smiles brightly, knowing that if he pissed her off she would get out of his way.
Michelle laughs way too hard, desperation running through her vains and this could mean trouble, “Listen Byun Baekhyun,” her mouth is way too close to his ear, “I came to this pageant ever since I was seventeen and since then I’ve won every year, and if you win I swear to god I will make your life a living hell,” Michelle’s face looks like a Chihuahua trying to act tough but Baekhyun just laughs and turns to her and pats her shoulders.
“There, there Michelle. Now I know that you’re nothing but an attention seeking hippo, but no hard feelings right? I mean, it’s all just a game, don’t worry! I won’t ever get in your way!” and those were Baekhyun’s last words to her before he put itching powder on all of Michelle’s foundation bottles.
Baekhyun left that pageant with first place and nationwide recognition; leaving Michelle, the bitch with the itch, in cold dead second.
÷
Now Baekhyun is here and the feeling is all too familiar. Across from him he see’s Michelle with the ugliest pink sparkly Uggs that were way too hot to be wearing and as they both simultaneously walk up the stage, Baekhyun acknowledges that Michelle still has the upper hand, having a larger fanbase than his so he needs to pretend that they’re best friends.
“Oh Michelle! It’s so glad to see you again hello!” Baekhyun reaches for Michelle and they embrace for a hug.
“Oh Baekhyun long time no see!” Michelle laughs and Baekhyun swears she’s hugging him too hard.
Baekhyun let’s go first and doesn’t spare Michelle another look. He still doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing for this event, but there are two chairs and lots of makeup kits on stage and a quickly gathering crowd.
The flamboyant MC comes on stage momentarily carrying two mic stands for the both of them. He swiftly moves in front of the stage and he places his hands on his hips as he belts out, “Hellloooooo everyone! Welcome to the live interactive demo with none other than your favorite makeup gurus, Michelle Phan and BaekBeauty! Give a round of applause everyone.”
This time the crowd was inevitably huge and Baekhyun still has his sweat drenched clothes he wore this morning, making him feel ugly and dirty.
So this is just an interactive demo nothing special, Baekhyun, he thinks, and hopes that he can do a demo on Michelle’s face instead.
“Now, before we can start, we need two brave people to come up on stage so these talented young makeup artist can make your face as good as theirs!” The MC roars and most of the crowds hands go up, “Wow, there are a lot of you guys!” the MC giggles but as Baekhyun scans the crowd his jaw drops and notices the distinctively and awkwardly tall boy from the coffee shop standing in the midst of the crowd with a devilish smirk raising his left hand calmly and collectively. He realizes he was staring back at him and Baekhyun blushes and acts like he didn’t see him.
“Look at this tall man in the gray sweater over here, you are so tall! Why don’t you come on down?!” The MC yells and Baekhyun feels queasy again, knowing he cannot deal with his own species, especially the attractive ones, at all. As Chanyeol rose up the elevated steps to the stage, his goofy smile that once coated his face from when Baekhyun first saw him wasn’t there anymore. Instead, he gave off this distinct aura of sophistication and mellowness, a half smirk made him all the more sexier. His fine pink supple lips, his signature rimmed glasses and soft brown locks that swayed and defined his features.
The crowd seems to love him, and there was no doubt about that, Baekhyun thinks. He looks like a prince.
“You can decide who you want as your mentor, uh what was your name?” The MC asks.
“My name is Chanyeol,” he says, the low register of his voice sent shivers down Baekhyun’s spine, “and I pick him.” On the corner of his eye, Baekhyun can see Michelle sending death glares at his direction, her eyes slightly twitching.
Baekhyun ignores her, and then his eyes fall on Chanyeol. He laughs brightly as the two met eyes, he fans himself because fuck it was too hot in here.
“Hello, sir. I am so glad to meet you again.” Chanyeol uttered and picks up Baekhyun’s soft silky and slightly sweaty hands and kisses it, causing the crowd to scream and swoon.
As the MC finds the second person for the event(ironically a middle aged and really sweaty man), the demo was ready to begin. Michelle seems to be really disgusted by the fact that the MC had the audacity to choose this guy, but to Baekhyun it’s all for his own entertainment.
They were each given the mics and the countdown started. They were both given ten minutes to beautify the person’s face. But Baekhyun doesn’t seem to see any flaw on the boy at all. He picks up the mic, “I don’t even think he needs makeup at all, right guys I mean look at him he’s gorgeous.” Baekhyun teases, and the crowd goes wild, hooting and hollering all the while, but he knows he has to do something to beat Michelle.
“So like, what do you want me to do, I really wanna beat that girl.” Baekhyun whispers to Chanyeol.
“You can do whatever you want to me,” Chanyeol teases and Baekhyun just continues to laugh and sweat profusely.
“Uhm, well, I think we should try the eyeliner. We could remove your glasses and uh,I think you’d look sexy with it, I’d think.” Baekhyun stutters and with one swift motion, Chanyeol is already taking off his eyeglasses, his eyes still locked onto Baekhyun’s own which internally made Baekhyun scream for help.
Baekhyun turns to see if they have appropriate eyeliner for Chanyeol, and realizes that he has no makeup kit anywhere, but swears that it was there before the event started. He figures that it might have been Michelle’s evil doing, the bitch was so highly competitive she’d do anything to win.
So Baekhyun walks up to Michelle’s side of the stage, nonchalantly going through the several makeup kits as the crowd snickers and takes almost half of the things inside it. He notices that Michelle was too focused on getting the oil out of the man’s humid face to notice that he was taking her stuff, so he runs back and finally has what he needed.
Chanyeol stood there bewilderingly; his wide eyes still locked on him, but Baekhyun tries to ignores it despite the uncontrollable jitters. Baekhyun is too concentrated on sharpening the eyeliner that he thinks he’s sharpened it too much, but he recognizes the time, he has two minutes left and he still hasn’t done anything to Chanyeol’s face yet.
He hurries up and takes a huge breath before looking at the boy’s brown eyes again.
Having the courage to stare back, Baekhyun was about to go all in but all of a sudden Chanyeol grabs Baekhyun’s wrist.
“Hey, why are your hands shaking. Don’t be like this or I’ll hold your hands for the rest of the day, ” Chanyeol says all too handsomely and Baekhyun notices that Chanyeol’s mouth is way too near the mic and now girls are screaming their head off and Michelle looked so displeased and grabbed the mic to divert the crowd’s attention to her. “As you can see what I did to this man’s face…”
Baekhyun still has his hand hovering over Chanyeol’s face. He’s not moving and all Baekhyun can do is just stare. He’s never been this eye fucked so hard in his life that he’s almost about to stab the guy right in his eye.
He snaps out of Chanyeol’s addicting gaze, realizing that Chanyeol’s hand is grasped onto Baekhyun’s wrist, “What are you waiting for?”
And Baekhyun is getting frustrated because he can’t win if he doesn’t focus, “Shutup, im trying concentrate,” and as he dives in to the vicinity of Chanyeol’s eyelids he might have gone in a little too fast, causing the way too sharpened eyeliner to poke Chanyeol’s left eye which prompted Chanyeol to yelp.
Baekhyun spoke too soon.
÷
Two hours later and Baekhyun didn’t win the competition. Baekhyun and Chanyeol are in In N Out, sitting next to each other on a table. Baekhyun is holding up an ice pack to cover Chanyeol’s eye as the two exchange small talk.
“I am so sorry I did this to you, I was just so nervous and you were making me flustered and my hands were shaking too much and ugh.” Baekhyun sighs in defeat.
“Please disregard that notion and tell me your name, beautiful.” Chanyeol’s voice booms through Baekhyun’s right arm that’s holding up the ice pack, feeling like his ephemeral voice is sucking all the energy out of him. Was this even the person he first met at the coffee shop? Chanyeol looked really dumb almost and child like when he first saw him, now his brevity and complex vocabulary threw Baekhyun off. And to think that Chanyeol was those typical college hippy kids that all they do for fun is smoke and get high. It’s amazing what weed can do.
“My name is Byun Baekhyun, and you probably know that I’m a makeup guru by now since I perfectly excel at poking people’s eyes out.” Chanyeol laughs and Baekhyun watches the way Chanyeol’s chest rises and feels the vibration of his voice.
“Well, Mr. Byun, you are probably wondering why my presence has shocked you. But you see, I’m a model here for IMATs. I excel in letting people draw on my face. And for your surprise, I’m the manager of the coffee shop you bestowed upon when we first met. And it seems,” He pulls something out of his black fitting jeans, “that you left your lint roller in the shop.” Chanyeol smirks and Baekhyun takes it, their fingers briefly touching.
“Why do you act like you’re ten years old again when you were high? It’s like the person you are now doesn’t even add up to how you acted from before.” Baekhyun questions and Chanyeol laughs breathily.
“I don’t remember half the shit I do when I get high, it’s like I’m taking this thing in and everything to me just seems so highly concentrated and focused x100 and I feel like I’m 10 years younger. But sometimes I do it so I can write songs because it sorta unleashes like this inner vocabulary you’ve never known you had.” Chanyeol spoke with such amusement.
“And when I play guitar when I’m high I sorta act like I’m Elvis Presley and I do this stupid Elvis impersonation, and you don’t even wanna know” Chanyeol giggles and Baekhyun grins.
“You play guitar?”
“Yeah, didn’t you see me?”
Baekhyun recalls the memory but all he can make out was Chanyeol looking at the rubix cube like he just solved cancer.
“No, not really” Baekhyun says fondly.
Chanyeol lightly grabs Baekhyun’s hand and lays it down on his thigh.
“You should see me play sometime, My band’s got a great gig on Wednesday. Just come to the coffee shop around 5.” Chanyeol smiles widely causing his glasses to lift up.
“Wait wait wait, just to make it clear. You’re a singer and can play the guitar, and model too?” Baekhyun suggests.
“Only during IMATs I’m a model. I don’t really want to pursue that path in my life.” Chanyeol says.
Baekhyun smiles and looks down, “Wow, is a model actually asking me out?” And Chanyeol laughs, a big grin spreads across his face.
Baekhyun can’t help how much perfection he is seeing right in front of him. It completely defies every expectation he’s had in his head. That you need makeup to look pretty; covering the wretched imperfections on your skin, genetic flaws that are not changeable through surgery. But as he stares at the boy’s face, a bare face with no makeup, everything is flawless and he makes it seem so effortless.
The beauty of his wide eyes, the milky toned skin, and the naturally smooth pink lips that looks so kissable. His caring, thoughtful and witty personality was such a turn on and everything about him, Baekhyun feels so in awe. He’s never felt so much admiration for a guy before.
“I can be a model, a guitar player, a drug dealer, anything you want me to be, I just want to get to know you more.” Chanyeol replies honestly and a set of sympathetic eyes began to settle on his face and Baekhyun just doesn’t know what to say at the moment.
He gathers the courage and speaks, “I’ll see you there.” Baekhyun responds.
“But don’t impress me too much or I’ll explode and you’ll never see me anymore.” Baekhyun laughs and this time, with his eyes.
÷
“Baekhyun, Baekhyun? You there?” Baekhyun hears the obnoxious knocks coming from his front door and he doesn’t want to deal with Jongdae’s incessant annoyance right now.
“What is it Jongdae” Baekhyun says, not wanting to get up from his coffee table.
“I heard from Joonmyeon you got a new boy toy.” Jongdae giggles through the door, “Talk to me about it cmon, twink to twink.”
Baekhyun almost barfs.
After ten minutes later of knocking and begging Baekhyun finally lets Jongdae in and Baekhyun musters up the courage to face the onslaught of questions that Jongdae will ask.
“So when did you meet him exactly, but wait. How tall is he first, you know how much I love tall men, ugh. Remember my ex Kris, ugh, man I didn’t even have to go on my kne-“
“Jongdae! Stop! I hate when you pry onto my personal life like were on fucking Oprah. Goddamn, I don’t want you ruining it for me this time!” Baekhyun demanded, trying to control his himself from throwing his hot green tea on to Jongdae’s face.
“His name is Chanyeol. And apparently he’s a model and he’s so loveable and gorgeous and he’s so out of my league.” Baekhyun speaks out, his right hand resting on his chin.
“What you should do is you should get the sexiest colour of lip gloss, and wear pink shota panties to make him squeal. And also you should wear extra eyeliner so he doesn’t see how small your eyes are without makeup.” Jongdae suggests sitting on the couch while filing his nail.
“I have small eyes? Baekhyun take out a mirror out from his back pocket. Baekhyun has no makeup on, and whenever he stares at a mirror he always takes a hard look at himself, often he would look at himself for a very long time, pointing and cursing out the imperfections he has on his face. No one except Jongdae has ever seen BaekBeauty’s bare face.
“Yeah you obviously do, ever since high school people thought you were blind cus’ no one thought your eyes were open.” Jongdae jokes.
Baekhyun ignores what he says, his eyes were perfectly fine and no one in high school ever made fun of him for his eyes. But as the thought of it lingers in his mind, he can’t fight the urge to take out his eyeliner from his makeup kit and start drawing on his eyes.
Baekhyun’s insecurity never seems to go away. No one has ever told him his natural appearance was perfectly fine just the way it is.
“But other than that, with your regular makeup you’ll look just fine.” Jongdae adds and Baekhyun’s not sure if Jongdae is honestly helping him or if he’s joking around. But be honest, Jongdae is just trying to help Baekhyun for the better, but he’s not exactly sure how far he’ll take Jongdae’s advice.
“Should I come with you? Would it be better for me to help you step your game up or what.” Jongdae reassures him, but Baekhyun is not sure if he wants Jongdae to accompany him. But Baekhyun doesn’t really want this to go wrong and Jongdae might ruin it.
“I don’t think so Nicole Richie, besides you’re trying to get that hot barista’s number from the coffee shop, remember?” Baekhyun tells him.
“I don’t even want him anymore he doesn’t pay attention to me.” Jongdae looks to the distance and his mood turns bleak and suddenly he’s blabbing on about the meaning of life and the misconception of romance, just like any other day when Baekhyun’ turns on Jongdae’s sentimental button.
÷
Before Baekhyun knows it, it’s Wednesday night and he’s getting ready for Chanyeol’s gig. He doesn’t know how much makeup he wants to put on, after all the coffee shop’s interior resembles a lot like Hollister so his face might not look completely defined under the shit lighting. He looks at himself in the bathroom mirror, his face in it’s most natural state. Bona fide and pure to the bone he cringes at the sight of his bulging eye bags, probably due to the overuse of eyeliner, but still he takes out his everyday regime. He’s already ran out of the second bottle of his foundation, and has already used a third of his pink lip gloss and Baekhyun wonders how much he has to put up with buying more and more makeup.
He tones his clothes down a bit, wearing simple fitted black jeans, and a knit sweater. He applies the pink smeared lip gloss, takes a look at himself one last time and heads off.
The LA night scene around this part of town seemed so vibrant and lively opposed to the seemingly quiet the place was when he first stumbled upon here. It’s like a strip of clubs but wasn’t. The central hub of it all was coming from the vibrancy coming from the coffee shop.
Baekhyun notices that the place was called “Véritable.”
He walks in and as soon as he breathes in the smoke filled room he recalls the countless times he’s been through this, the scene felt like a college house party all over again, and he wished he brought Jongdae with him.
He doesn’t really know anyone here at all, and awkwardly squeezes through the crowd, but many people were quick to recognize him and as he walked past by them he can make out what some of them were saying.
“Wow he looks so fake in real life”
“Who knew one has to put so much makeup on to look that pretty”
“Is that really his face?”
And just like that Baekhyun’s composure and confidence were suddenly stripped away from him, his whole self esteem left leaving the building. Baekhyun’s mood had suddenly turned into a mix of angry and bitter, his inner consciousness began to take in all of the negativity. He wishes they were just YouTube comments that he can just delete forever, and Baekhyun just wants to find Chanyeol as fast as he can so he can feel safe.
He walks faster to see what was happening in front of the stage. And then he sees him. He finds Chanyeol on a stool tuning his guitar, wearing a soft warm smile on his face, fluorescent light shining down on him.
The MC walks in front of the stage, “Okay dudes, time for some mellow beats and sadcore tunes, this is… Syndication!
Loud applauds fill the room and the strum of his guitar quiets the crowd and Chanyeol speaks,
“Before I start, I would like to dedicate my performance to my friend Byun Baekhyun, are you here?”
Baekhyun raises his hand, and the crowd diverts their attention onto him and soon the audience were all whispering, and Baekhyun knows what they were all talking about, his face, his makeup. But Baekhyun doesn’t care, he sees Chanyeol and he’s never felt so right.
Baekhyun chokes a laugh and Chanyeol smiles light heartedly before he starts to sing. And the beauty of it all was that for once a presence like his felt so safe and at bay. Warming up his heart and anchoring down all the things that once escaped from him moments ago. And as both of them stare at each other’s eyes, Baekhyun knows that there is hope.
÷
As soon as it was over the audience applauded and the scene died down. It was almost midnight now and people started to leave and transport their energy into the raving night clubs. Baekhyun sits down on one of the lounge chairs as he makes friends with the people in shop, exchanging small conversations with Kyungsoo, a cute and friendly barista, Jongin, a drummer who is part of
Chanyeol’s band who he seldom catches flirting with the barista, and of course Sehun, who was too busy trying to fix a broken bong.
Chanyeol came out ten minutes later walking up to Baekhyun. He scratches the back of his head, “Can I order you a drink?” Chanyeol says, blush creeping up on his face..
“Soy latte”, Baekhyun replied as he sits down the coffee table and rests his head on his right hand.
Chanyeol takes a seat next to Baekhyun and makes himself comfortable, “So, what did you think of my singing?”
“It was horrible, it was like listening to Cher.” Baekhyun remarks seriously, trying to hold in a laugh as Chanyeol’s eyes just widen.
Baekhyun bursts out laughing, looking at how Chanyeol’s whole face looks stunned.
“Oh my god, you should’ve seen the look on your face,” Baekhyun retorts and Chanyeol chuckles and drops his head down in defeat.
“Yeah, it was really good. I love your singing and guitar playing, you lived up to what you bragged about from before,” Baekhyun remarks.
“I wasn’t bragging, I was merely stating the cold hard facts. I wasn’t trying to impress you or anything,” Chanyeol says as he scratches his cheek.
“Hmm, really.”
“Really” And their eyes lock again.
But Chanyeol interrupts as he closely examines Baekhyun’s face. “Why do you wear so much eyeliner?” and Baekhyun pauses. He feels offended and fuck, Baekhyun almost can’t believe he just said that.
“And you shouldn’t wear too much lip gloss.” Chanyeol adds, and Baekhyun is one step closer to punching the guy’s face because oh my god, he’ got everything so wrong about this guy. Baekhyun thought he was different and that everything would change but no, no one gets him and it clicks that no one will ever do.
Baekhyun’s eyes furrowed, “Why can’t I wear this amount lot of eyeliner? Huh? Should I tone it down for you? Should I draw wings on it so I can fly and land on your crotch? I don’t need you to tell me how much eyeliner or how much lip gloss I should wear Chanyeol.”
“No, Baekhyun. I-“
“No, Chanyeol. You don’t understand, you don’t understand because you can look so handsome without doing any single fucking thing to your face. But you don’t understand what it’s like, the struggle of covering up how imperfect you are. Not knowing how it feels for people to look at you and judge you because you’ve been putting so much shit on your face, so much that people think you’re a fake.” Baekhyun bawls leaving a tense and awkward mood inside the shop. All eyes were on him and before Baekhyun could look into Chanyeol’s eyes he storms out of the shop with tears and smudged mascara.
÷
BaekBeauty: Last updated, Two weeks ago.
Baekhyun has been stuck in his apartment for the past two weeks, eating the appropriate serving of ice cream (a bucket a day keeps the boys away) and no physical or social contact with anyone at all.
He stopped wearing makeup on the second day of house arrest, realizing that it’s not even worth it anymore. He avoids Joonmyeon’s calls, and hasn’t been checking his phone for any messages.
Meanwhile, Jongdae keeps trying to knock on Baekhyun’s door every god damn hour of the day and sometimes he discreetly slips in Mcdonald’s coupons through the crack of his door in hopes for Baekhyun to get out but to no avail. Not even food can make him get out.
But it wasn’t till the 17th day; during his fourth straight marathon of America’s Next Top Model did Baekhyun hear faint noises of guitar strumming.
He turns off his tv and presses his head against the front door. It seems to come from the end of the hallway, Baekhyun thinks and he has the urge to open the door but takes the courage not to.
But then he hears singing and oh my god he knows that low groggy voice from anywhere. Then he hears knocking and it was Jongdae again, all while the sounds of guitar strings grow louder.
“Baekhyun-ah! Get out here there’s uh… pizza. “ Jongdae tells him and Baekhyun really wants to open the because all he’s been eating is ice cream and pizza sounds so good right now. But he knows for a fact that it’s not pizza, but his eyes are so sore and seeing Chanyeol meant that Chanyeol will see his bare face.
But then he hears Chanyeol’s voice again and he’s so tempted but his god damn face. But he has an idea. He grabs a face mask from his cabinet, he takes a deep breath and opens the door.
“Where’s the pizza?” Baekhyun screams and it’s Chanyeol in front of him and he’s so tall that part of his forehead is taller than Baekhyun’s door.
“You’re not pizza.” Baekhyun says and he can see Jongdae on his phone smiling, probably taking a congratulatory selfie for trying to be a good friend.
Chanyeol’s voice is rusty and full of grogginess, “I’m better than pizza, and babe I can make you feel so much better than pizza.” He stops strumming the guitar and Chanyeol runs into Baekhyun’s body into a full on hug and Baekhyun can’t breathe.
“You’re actually trying to kill me”, Baekhyun tries to mouth as he thinks in his head, unsure of wanting to go through this feeling again.
“I’m sorry Byun Baekhyun, please forgive me. I’ve collected my thoughts and it’s been so long and all I can think about is you.” Chanyeol looks at Baekhyun with those sympathetic eyes again. Baekhyun sees Chanyeol pulling a piece of paper out of his front pocket. Chanyeol unfolds the creases, “I sorta wrote you something so just listen.”
“Baekhyun, I don’t care what you look like under your makeup. Your beauty to me is more than that, like looking at the night sky and taking in all the wondrous and vast beauties of the stars and galaxies. You are like the thousands of flowers in any garden and all that is natural in the world can not add up to what you look like with makeup, or without. Bare or covered, nothing else matters but you. Chanyeol sputtered, and Baekhyun tries to not puke at Chanyeol’s attempt at poetic justice.
And Baekhyun trusts in him, and for once, it feels like Baekhyun can believe in himself. As he takes off his mask Chanyeol smiles so brightly, he reached in for another hug and Baekhyun all but grins and covers his face in to Chanyeol’s comfortable chest.
÷
They talked for hours on end, nuzzled in each other’s warmth as Chanyeol strums random melodies of different songs. They look at each other’s eyes and he feels so warm. He’s not scared at all when Chanyeol looks at his bare face, he’s not scared of what he thinks because he trusts the beauty within himself, and thinks that Chanyeol will not look at him for what’s on the outside. And whatever Baekhyun was being held down on in the past has completely been washed away from the newfound feelings.
It’s the middle of the night and they’re half asleep, Chanyeol is still whispering cheesy romantic song lyrics into Baekhyun’s ear. Baekhyun’s eyes are closed and theyre comfortable enough for their heads to touch as the soothing sounds of the guitar engulfs Baekhyun’s conscience as he’s trying to keep himself from falling asleep.
Chanyeol stops singing and Baekhyun opens his eyes.
“Baekhyun?” Their eyes meet again, and Chanyeol trails his eyes down to Baekhyun’s lips. Knowing what comes next, Chanyeol closes the distance between them. Passionate yet innocent, they kiss and Baekhyun breathes in all the words that Chanyeol has sung to him, lips move like the strumming of chords. Their bodies perfectly mesh together and everything to Baekhyun might now possibly feel perfect.
÷
BaekBeauty posted a video 2 minutes ago: BOYFRIEND TAG!
“Hi everyone BaekBeauty here, and many of you have asked me if I am in a relationship well here I am, and here is he.” The video cuts and Chanyeol has bloodshot eyes, and is grinning so stupidly as he nuzzles his face onto Baekhyun’s shoulders.
Baekhyun laughs all too brightly, “Stop it! Tell everyone who you are.”
“Hi~” Chanyeol’s voice slurs, “I’m Chanyeol, and I believe in peace.”
Baekhyun slaps his face and continues on with the question, “Question 1: Where did you first meet?”
“We were in a coffee shop and Baekhyun fell on my crotch.” Chanyeol says and Baekhyun can’t help but laugh.
A/N: I tried so hard to be funny and oh my god, I feel like I failed miserably. Since I’m a guy, I honestly don’t know much about makeup. But I guess I know some basics and just wrote from there. Sorry authornim for drastically butchering your prompt. *sighs*
A/N:
I tried so hard to be funny and oh my god, I feel like I failed miserably. Since I’m a guy, I honestly don’t know much about makeup. But I guess I know some basics and just wrote from there. Sorry authornim for drastically butchering your prompt. *sighs*
One
Author: Anonymous until 1/30/14
For: reduxed
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Word Count: 7,700
Summary: Baekhyun is stuck in the world of materialism and being a boss ass bitch.
Warnings: drug use, (added by mod: self-esteem issues + physical appearance)
Rating: PG-13
One
IMATS: The International Make-Up Artist Trade Show is the make-up world’s biggest gathering. Thousands of make-up artists, vendors and enthusiasts discuss, display and collect the best the industry has to offer.
÷
To be honest Baekhyun thought the “expirement” phase in college was just exactly what he saw in movies.
The typical weekend nights of “Let’s get high!!” or “Let’s dance till the night ends!!” in the pompous, overbearing and too dark to see of a dorm room and the drunken induced ambiance in frat parties that make everyone usually a bit more horny than usual. But no, being in his early 20’s college was not like that for Baekhyun. Instead, Baekhyun spends his time with his face like he’s customizing a blog on Tumblr.
Makeup to Baekhyun never was a real interest to him until he went off and realized that “sexuality was a way to express your individuality” (or whatever that tumblr quote said), but as soon as he saw his first L’Oreal eyeliner in a mall trip with Jongdae in their fourth year of high school, he knew it was love at first sight.
And what better way to express your inner Nicki Minaj by getting himself in front of his crappy Toshiba laptop and completely and utterly failing at the art of covering your stupid insecurities. Baekhyun can’t help but laugh at his past makeup videos, and Baekhyun knows there’s a fine line between the genuine and the plasticity. But he can’t seem to help it, as materialistic as it sounds. The notion of covering your face to hide the pimple, or to better intensify the windows to your soul was all just a fascination, and he couldn’t stop.
Getting past his early youtube days, he’s gained well rounded recognition on his innovative ways of beauty, from curling your hair with paper bags, or a how to video of still looking flawless during finals. But overall just the perfection of Baekhyun's face, or so it seems.
Having gaining the heavyweight title of makeup guru, he stumbles along great opportunities to travel and see his dedicated fanbase. But when he’s not behind a camera, smiling and looking pristine, he attends his regular college classes but still, girls see him as a go-to person for not just makeup, but for all all things romance. But Baekhyun has never been so good at those kinds of things to begin with. Infact, his love life equates to somewhere along the lines of a drought in summertime.
As hypocritical as that may sound, Baekhyun knows that he isn't that grandiose of a person that can heal the sick or solve world hunger. Whenever he would take his makeup off, alone, in his one bed room apartment, with a way too small bathroom to hold all his facial care products,showed a face that was naked, bare and real, and he seemed too…. outlandishly normal. So Baekhyun vows to himself that makeup is a damn necessity and no one can stop him from having a banging ass body and high self esteem.
He turns on his HD camera and begins recording his new video.
He starts to speak until his door creaks and Baekhyun is almost ten thousand percent sure he knows who it is.
“Baekkkk ,I sorta need your Mac foundation" Jongdae yells across the room, knowing everyone within a ten mile radius will hear him and Baekhyun knows this will up the rent a bit more.
“Can you not fucking yell across the whole nation that you need my stuff while I’m making a video?” Baekhyun screams across the doorway and Jongdae could almost swear that one of Baekhyun’s eyebrows were off and quickly remarked back with a “You have ugly-ass eyebrows”, which prompted Baekhyun to throw his L’Oreal eyeliner at Jongdae’s eye making sure the pointy part struck into his corneas first but failed, knocking his video camera down while screaming at the top of his lungs as he lunged towards Jongdae with a pair of scissors threatening to cut his precious hair. “Fucking take that back you little shit”
That needs to get edited out.
÷
“Hey guys! Flower boy Baekhyun here! Bringing you the latest and greatest makeup and fashion tips you need to get through your week!” The glamour intro of his video plays and Baekhyun watches as thousands of views pour in on his most recent video. His face is flawless under the pristine and professional lighting, pink, shiny coated lips from his new MAC lip gloss, his signature bold and defined eyeliner made all the viewers wail in agony, envious of his beauty (and those goddamn perfect hands).
“That’s all we have today ladies and gents,-oh! And make sure you visit me at my booth in IMATs this weekend. It’ll be fun and I’ll take a picture with the first 50 of you guys!” And the video ends just before Jongdae walks balk in with a tall espresso in hand, wearing Baekhyun’s ray-bans, and with the same lip gloss Baekhyun had just bought this morning.
“Make sure you ask for my shit next time or else I’ll turn your hair into cornrows while you sleep,” Baekhyun raves as he types on his laptop, responding to someone’s recent comment.
“Relax, kid. I’m only borrowing it cause the cute Chinese kid just moved into the sophomore dorms and I want to impress him with your high class shit like look,” Jongdae picks up Baekhyun’s last bottle of Chanel N5 he got as a gift from his fans and wafts it in front of his nose, “Do you think he’ll be impressed if he recognizes the smell?”
“Jongdae, you could wave a fucking dildo in front of his face and you still won’t have a chance at him,” Baekhyun retorts, standing up to take the priceless perfume bottle out of Jongdae’s hands and taking his sunglasses off of him which made Jongdae look ridiculously more ridiculous indoors.
Jongdae moans, “Ugh, When you get to IMATs this weekend will you please get fucked for once because all you do is kill my vibe and I really can’t put up with that.” Jongdae’s head is down completely unaffected by Baekhyun’s deadpan stares, inspecting at his newly polished cuticles and Baekhyun looks completely downright disgusted at his best friend.
Baekhyun sighs, “Jongdae, first of all,” he takes Jongdae’s hand and pretends to put on a sarcastic smile, you’re in my fucking room stealing all my crap, and second of all,” Baekhyun applies more pressure on Jongdae’s hand, “how am I ‘killing your vibe’ you shouldn’t be the one talking with your white girl persona and ridiculous thirst for people you don’t even know,” Baekhyun exclaimed.
“Okay okay, I get it! Ow, ow stop it, you’re ruining my nails” Jongdae begs and Baekhyun reassures him with a bitchy “okay”, leaving a terrified Jongdae inspecting his nails in an effort to find Baekhyun’s nail filer. Baekhyun swears that he thought he himself was the most self centered person in the universe.
÷
The day of IMATs comes full circle and Baekhyun feels dominant. He walks out of the cab with fierce model runway strut, with perfect synchronization to the rhythm of a Girl’s Generation song. He feels powerful, with a Louis Vuitton handbag, American Apparel Jeans that fit his curvy waist and thighs, a fluffy beige cashmere sweater, and Doc Martens that makes a click sound of every step that Baekhyun commands. His sunglasses give him an aura of mysteriousness, giving him some decent mask of anonymity to not give himself away from any fans that might see him pass by.
But all of a sudden, Baekhyun feels lost, and he takes a moment to laugh at himself because he was so overwhelmed by looking so glamorous, flipping his hair while he’s at it. But fear creeps up on him as he sees that there is completely no one in this street corner. He starts to wander around, trying to find signal so the GPS on his phone could work but to no avail he let the nervousness and over thinking get to him until he found a bench to sit on. He tries to gather his thoughts until he heard faint guitar music playing in one of the poorly lit shops that remind Baekhyun of a lot like Hollister. He considers going in the place and asking for help, but he wasn’t quite sure. But he was running out of time and he had to do something. Hesitantly, he walks up in front of the store, slowly opening the rusty door and just right there in that moment, all of a sudden Baekhyun’s life flashes before his eyes as a crashing wave of smoke and lighted blunts consumed every aspect of Baekhyun’s senses. “Oh god” He whispered to himself, trying to make out the scene before him. He tries to regain his senses, picking up a hint of coffee and faint sounds of a drink being mixed despite the melodramatic loudness coming from the elevated stage to Baekhyun’s right.
The beat of the drums and the psychedelic melodies of the guitar subsided.
As Baekhyun clears the smoke that infiltrated his vision he can make out that it was a coffee shop; plain, minimalistic and simple except for the fact that Baekhyun feels like he’s right under the fucking Mexican drug smuggling centre of LA.
He tries to walk straight to the counter, but the strong smoke from the multiple blunts made Baekhyun feel a little queasy. His vision was a little hazy, and he was almost about to stumble until a man lightly grabbed his waste to keep him from falling.
“Hot diggity damn,” The man exclaims in the most deeply slurred tone of voice ever, “look at this bro over here you guys, I finally cracked my theory of second hand weed smoking can cause slight dysfunctional movements!”
“Chanyeol, you’re fucking high, I don’t even think that’s classified as a theory,” the younger boy with white hair that parted in the middle next to the tall man that caught Baekhyun.
Baekhyun slowly backs away from him and takes a travel-sized lint roller from his purse and proceeds to roll.
“No you dweeb, I just got overwhelmed by the fucking drug cartel you guys got going on here,” he scans the room as the smoke clears and in front of him he sees the tall boy with big rimmed glasses that didn’t quite in fact hid his wide bloodshot eyes. He flashed a really goofy smile and Baekhyun can see the dimple on his left cheek. Baekhyun looks at him fondly admiring his features, and the man was staring right back, only this time creepily as he plays with the hem of his grey chain link v neck sweater.
“Um, hi… hehe. I’m Chanyeol and I believe in peace.” The boy muttered with the same low, groggy slurred tone, a half smirk plastered on his clumsy face. And Baekhyun wanted to laugh at how incredibly uncomfortable he was right now, and considers actually taking a blunt or two.
But Baekhyun snaps out of it, beginning to realize that this is probably the typical hippy college vibe scene that Baekhyun does not want to affiliate with at all.
The boy next to him began to speak, “Well yeah, um, hi. Excuse my friend here, he’s pretty stoned as fuck right now. I’m Sehun. Did you come here to get coffee? Hang out and blaze it or what.”
“Hehehe Sehun look. He’s really pretty,” Chanyeol boyishly says, still having that really big smirk on his face.
Baekhyun tried to ignore the compliment but blushed crept up his cheek but he still held his ground, “Yeah I was pretty lost and I’m trying to get to somewhere. Do you know where the LA convention center is?”
“Hell yeah babe, I know where that is,” Chanyeol mumbled, his eyelids half closed. He wraps an arm around Baekhyun shoulder and Baekhyun’s demeanor went from calm and collected to completely grossed out.
“…Um? Get off me?” Baekhyun managed to look up and wow, he can’t help but think that he’s too cute up close.
“Chanyeol stop, dude, you’re making him uncomfortable” Sehun pulls Chanyeol away from Baekhyun, leaving Chanyeol confused, looking at Sehun with puppy eyes.
“But Sehun, look he’s really pretty.”
“Just shutup for one second, ..-here” Sehun grabs a rubix cube that seemed to glow from his pocket and hands it to Chanyeol.
“Whoa”, He sits down the lounge sofa, his eyes wide like a seven year old who just saw snow for the first time, “this is hella rad.” Chanyeol exclaims as he’s completely fascinated by the object.
Sehun looks at Baekhyun sternly, “Bra how are you here with all this snazzy fittings, LA Convention is like a few miles though, just walk up north some and then a make a righty and you’ll see a big ass building, aight?”
Baekhyun narrows his eyes and tries not to throw up at the white washed hippy slang, “You’re telling me to just walk up a few miles north? In these shoes? Please, I think I need a ride, can I call a taxi, do you guys have a phone?” He walks up to the counter and looks for some way of contacting the outside world, and right now Baekhyun is slightly aggravated and when he’s aggravated he gets moody.
“Yo, There’s like no signal here though. If ya want Chanyeol can drive ya” Sehun smiles and turns to Chanyeol and he’s still looking at the damn rubix cube.
“Well if you can’t tell, your friend there is higher than fucking Mt. Everest and you’re telling me, that he, under the influence, will drive me to my appointed destination?” Baekhyun ranted, his hands fist filled with his hair, “Oh my god, no, I can’t do this, I just wanna go home this is too much for me I need a soy latte.”
“Can’t you just drive me?”
And Sehun just giggles, his hand over his mouth trying to muffle the sounds, “I don’t have a license I ride a bike. Ya know, to conserve the environment.”
Baekhyun hisses and closes his eyes and all he wants to do right now is leave and just walk and find a main street somewhere.
So Baekhyun does. He stands up straight, trying to maintain a steady composure and recites his early morning confidence boosters to clear his head. He opens his eyes and glares at the two boys in his direction.
“Thanks for nothing, but I’m leaving. I’ll walk by myself,” Baekhyun says his adieu and struts to the front door. Opening the door, he steps outside, hissing at the sudden brightness and swearing at the obnoxious LA heat.
“Hey wait!” Baekhyun was reluctant to turn back again, not wanting to even breathe the same foul air as them and for causing more trouble and stress than he was already in.
So he doesn’t turn back and faces the dangerous streets on his own.
Use
÷
The first thing that Baekhyun notices when he arrives at the convention center is that the clock on his phone barely struck 11am but it was already scorching hot.
And Baekhyun thinks that the drops of salt tasting water on his face is not sweat but just something to make his face shinier.
The crowd behind the big brass doors seems to be settled down and unphased of Baekhyun’s coming. And he realizes he’s about 45 minutes late not knowing how to tell his manager how he ended up so miserable and shitty looking. He picks out his phone from his purse, all the while opening the door to the convention, his big designer sunglasses covered his eyes all the way to his forehead, making sure he doesn’t get recognized all the while subtly avoiding the stares he gets when he walks in with ridiculous sweat pouring out every inch of his face. Knowing that his makeup is not waterproof he curses to himself realizing that his image right now might look horrible and might have to change later.
Calm whispers filled the room as the crowd’s noise starts to rise into a slight uproar and Baekhyun tries to ignore it.
"Is that the guy from BaekBeauty? Byun Baekhyun?"
"Yeah i think so, why does he look so out of breath and... Greasy?"
"His skin doesnt look that good in real life though."
"Yeah I agree," Baekhyun hears in response and as much as Baekhyun would like to spray the crowd of girls with a really big can of bitch spray, Baekhyun can’t help feeling displeased with his image as constant negativity coming from the small crowd of teenage girls attacks his self esteem. He doesn’t know why it affects him this much, feeling insecure and out of place all of a sudden. He tried to ignore the feeling and not let negative thoughts in his head get the better of him, so as he walks through the hallway and enter backstage, he waves to the crowd of girls and on impulse, he flips them off with both his hands causing loud ughs and gasps coming out of the girls mouths.
"Stupid bitches" Baekhyun mutters to himself.
He walks up to his manager, Joonmyeon, who was wearing a hot pink suit and tie talking to one of the coordinators of the convention, a fake smile plastered on his face but Baekhyun knows he’s in deep shit. As Baekhyun gleams closer, Joonmyeon finally looks up and his whole disposition changed as his eyes find Baekhyun’s, looking like he wanted to drop a really big poop because he looked outright pissed as Baekhyun begins to open his mouth.
“I-“
“Where have you been?” He asks abruptly and Baekhyun is not sure how to explain.
“Well um, my taxi sorta got me in the wrong side of town and I don’t even know why but like, I sorta got lost and ended up in some trashy underground club place where I asked some questionably attractive guys who were completely high and incoherent mind you, anyways. I asked if they had a phone so I could call you but they had no service and my phone had no service either so I walked seven hundred miles here and here I am” Baekhyun rambles and then theres Joonmyeon who looks completely stoic as he listens to his story.
“Baekhyun, you do know that you have a schedule to adhere to in this convention, hundreds of people were in line to see you right now but you missed it. So I had to reschedule it to 2pm and all your fans are disappointed in you” Joonmyeon’s brows are furrowed and Baekhyun maintains his diva cool.
“Yeah well tough luck, it wasn’t my fault anyway but ugh don’t I look so ugly right now like wow this weather is so hot and I’m dying for an iced soy latte, I need to go back to my apartment and change, see you later in the meetup.” Baekhyun awkwardly laughs and waves but as soon as he was about to leave Joonmyeon’s uncomfortable presence, Joonmyeon grabs his wrist.
“We’re not done yet, Paris Hilton. You got something going on in 15 minutes and I did this so you could make it up to your fans.”
“What are you talking about, we only agreed to a fan meet what do I have to do now?” Baekhyun grumbles and Joonmyeon perks up and laughs maniacally at Baekhyun’s misfortune.
“You have to do a demo…” His laugh seems to be more profound with every word he says, “… with Michelle Phan.”
“You did not just say that” Baekhyun’s face turns completely sour.
“You totally didn’t say she who will not be named. Oh. My. God. Joonmyeon, no I can’t handle her she’s so stuck up and has ugly eyebrows, you remember the last time I had to collaborate with her!”Baekhyun fusses wildly, stomping his left foot repeatedly on the concrete floor.
“Suck it up…. Stuck up. Get it? Cause you’re irresponsible and I made a joke on why you’re irresponsible?” Joonmyeon continues to laugh and Baekhyun doesn’t get how this man has an infinite amount of jokes to only please himself.
Baekhyun moans in response and begged for Joonmyeon to cancel the event, but he knows Joonmyeon can’t and he’s left there on the ground to suffer.
÷
It was a year ago when Baekhyun first bumped into Michelle Phan. Baekhyun was still an immature makeup guru trying to gain viewers and was promoting his work through a beauty pageant contest. Hot headed as Baekhyun was, he was so determined to win so he dressed in drag to impress the judges, and each time he gets up on the stage, Michelle tries to outdo him. Luckily there was no swimsuit competition. But during backstage as he’s putting on his wig for the last question and answer, Michelle comes up to him, her eyes were brim and Baekhyun shivers at her cold aura. She looked like the wicked witch of the east, her eyes swallowed by the way too bold eyeliner and her midnight toned eye shadow looks as if she hasn’t slept in weeks.
“Hey Michelle, big fan. Are you trying to channel your inner Morticia from the Addams family?” Baekhyun smiles brightly, knowing that if he pissed her off she would get out of his way.
Michelle laughs way too hard, desperation running through her vains and this could mean trouble, “Listen Byun Baekhyun,” her mouth is way too close to his ear, “I came to this pageant ever since I was seventeen and since then I’ve won every year, and if you win I swear to god I will make your life a living hell,” Michelle’s face looks like a Chihuahua trying to act tough but Baekhyun just laughs and turns to her and pats her shoulders.
“There, there Michelle. Now I know that you’re nothing but an attention seeking hippo, but no hard feelings right? I mean, it’s all just a game, don’t worry! I won’t ever get in your way!” and those were Baekhyun’s last words to her before he put itching powder on all of Michelle’s foundation bottles.
Baekhyun left that pageant with first place and nationwide recognition; leaving Michelle, the bitch with the itch, in cold dead second.
÷
Now Baekhyun is here and the feeling is all too familiar. Across from him he see’s Michelle with the ugliest pink sparkly Uggs that were way too hot to be wearing and as they both simultaneously walk up the stage, Baekhyun acknowledges that Michelle still has the upper hand, having a larger fanbase than his so he needs to pretend that they’re best friends.
“Oh Michelle! It’s so glad to see you again hello!” Baekhyun reaches for Michelle and they embrace for a hug.
“Oh Baekhyun long time no see!” Michelle laughs and Baekhyun swears she’s hugging him too hard.
Baekhyun let’s go first and doesn’t spare Michelle another look. He still doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing for this event, but there are two chairs and lots of makeup kits on stage and a quickly gathering crowd.
The flamboyant MC comes on stage momentarily carrying two mic stands for the both of them. He swiftly moves in front of the stage and he places his hands on his hips as he belts out, “Hellloooooo everyone! Welcome to the live interactive demo with none other than your favorite makeup gurus, Michelle Phan and BaekBeauty! Give a round of applause everyone.”
This time the crowd was inevitably huge and Baekhyun still has his sweat drenched clothes he wore this morning, making him feel ugly and dirty.
So this is just an interactive demo nothing special, Baekhyun, he thinks, and hopes that he can do a demo on Michelle’s face instead.
“Now, before we can start, we need two brave people to come up on stage so these talented young makeup artist can make your face as good as theirs!” The MC roars and most of the crowds hands go up, “Wow, there are a lot of you guys!” the MC giggles but as Baekhyun scans the crowd his jaw drops and notices the distinctively and awkwardly tall boy from the coffee shop standing in the midst of the crowd with a devilish smirk raising his left hand calmly and collectively. He realizes he was staring back at him and Baekhyun blushes and acts like he didn’t see him.
“Look at this tall man in the gray sweater over here, you are so tall! Why don’t you come on down?!” The MC yells and Baekhyun feels queasy again, knowing he cannot deal with his own species, especially the attractive ones, at all. As Chanyeol rose up the elevated steps to the stage, his goofy smile that once coated his face from when Baekhyun first saw him wasn’t there anymore. Instead, he gave off this distinct aura of sophistication and mellowness, a half smirk made him all the more sexier. His fine pink supple lips, his signature rimmed glasses and soft brown locks that swayed and defined his features.
The crowd seems to love him, and there was no doubt about that, Baekhyun thinks. He looks like a prince.
“You can decide who you want as your mentor, uh what was your name?” The MC asks.
“My name is Chanyeol,” he says, the low register of his voice sent shivers down Baekhyun’s spine, “and I pick him.” On the corner of his eye, Baekhyun can see Michelle sending death glares at his direction, her eyes slightly twitching.
Baekhyun ignores her, and then his eyes fall on Chanyeol. He laughs brightly as the two met eyes, he fans himself because fuck it was too hot in here.
“Hello, sir. I am so glad to meet you again.” Chanyeol uttered and picks up Baekhyun’s soft silky and slightly sweaty hands and kisses it, causing the crowd to scream and swoon.
As the MC finds the second person for the event(ironically a middle aged and really sweaty man), the demo was ready to begin. Michelle seems to be really disgusted by the fact that the MC had the audacity to choose this guy, but to Baekhyun it’s all for his own entertainment.
They were each given the mics and the countdown started. They were both given ten minutes to beautify the person’s face. But Baekhyun doesn’t seem to see any flaw on the boy at all. He picks up the mic, “I don’t even think he needs makeup at all, right guys I mean look at him he’s gorgeous.” Baekhyun teases, and the crowd goes wild, hooting and hollering all the while, but he knows he has to do something to beat Michelle.
“So like, what do you want me to do, I really wanna beat that girl.” Baekhyun whispers to Chanyeol.
“You can do whatever you want to me,” Chanyeol teases and Baekhyun just continues to laugh and sweat profusely.
“Uhm, well, I think we should try the eyeliner. We could remove your glasses and uh,I think you’d look sexy with it, I’d think.” Baekhyun stutters and with one swift motion, Chanyeol is already taking off his eyeglasses, his eyes still locked onto Baekhyun’s own which internally made Baekhyun scream for help.
Baekhyun turns to see if they have appropriate eyeliner for Chanyeol, and realizes that he has no makeup kit anywhere, but swears that it was there before the event started. He figures that it might have been Michelle’s evil doing, the bitch was so highly competitive she’d do anything to win.
So Baekhyun walks up to Michelle’s side of the stage, nonchalantly going through the several makeup kits as the crowd snickers and takes almost half of the things inside it. He notices that Michelle was too focused on getting the oil out of the man’s humid face to notice that he was taking her stuff, so he runs back and finally has what he needed.
Chanyeol stood there bewilderingly; his wide eyes still locked on him, but Baekhyun tries to ignores it despite the uncontrollable jitters. Baekhyun is too concentrated on sharpening the eyeliner that he thinks he’s sharpened it too much, but he recognizes the time, he has two minutes left and he still hasn’t done anything to Chanyeol’s face yet.
He hurries up and takes a huge breath before looking at the boy’s brown eyes again.
Having the courage to stare back, Baekhyun was about to go all in but all of a sudden Chanyeol grabs Baekhyun’s wrist.
“Hey, why are your hands shaking. Don’t be like this or I’ll hold your hands for the rest of the day, ” Chanyeol says all too handsomely and Baekhyun notices that Chanyeol’s mouth is way too near the mic and now girls are screaming their head off and Michelle looked so displeased and grabbed the mic to divert the crowd’s attention to her. “As you can see what I did to this man’s face…”
Baekhyun still has his hand hovering over Chanyeol’s face. He’s not moving and all Baekhyun can do is just stare. He’s never been this eye fucked so hard in his life that he’s almost about to stab the guy right in his eye.
He snaps out of Chanyeol’s addicting gaze, realizing that Chanyeol’s hand is grasped onto Baekhyun’s wrist, “What are you waiting for?”
And Baekhyun is getting frustrated because he can’t win if he doesn’t focus, “Shutup, im trying concentrate,” and as he dives in to the vicinity of Chanyeol’s eyelids he might have gone in a little too fast, causing the way too sharpened eyeliner to poke Chanyeol’s left eye which prompted Chanyeol to yelp.
Baekhyun spoke too soon.
÷
Two hours later and Baekhyun didn’t win the competition. Baekhyun and Chanyeol are in In N Out, sitting next to each other on a table. Baekhyun is holding up an ice pack to cover Chanyeol’s eye as the two exchange small talk.
“I am so sorry I did this to you, I was just so nervous and you were making me flustered and my hands were shaking too much and ugh.” Baekhyun sighs in defeat.
“Please disregard that notion and tell me your name, beautiful.” Chanyeol’s voice booms through Baekhyun’s right arm that’s holding up the ice pack, feeling like his ephemeral voice is sucking all the energy out of him. Was this even the person he first met at the coffee shop? Chanyeol looked really dumb almost and child like when he first saw him, now his brevity and complex vocabulary threw Baekhyun off. And to think that Chanyeol was those typical college hippy kids that all they do for fun is smoke and get high. It’s amazing what weed can do.
“My name is Byun Baekhyun, and you probably know that I’m a makeup guru by now since I perfectly excel at poking people’s eyes out.” Chanyeol laughs and Baekhyun watches the way Chanyeol’s chest rises and feels the vibration of his voice.
“Well, Mr. Byun, you are probably wondering why my presence has shocked you. But you see, I’m a model here for IMATs. I excel in letting people draw on my face. And for your surprise, I’m the manager of the coffee shop you bestowed upon when we first met. And it seems,” He pulls something out of his black fitting jeans, “that you left your lint roller in the shop.” Chanyeol smirks and Baekhyun takes it, their fingers briefly touching.
“Why do you act like you’re ten years old again when you were high? It’s like the person you are now doesn’t even add up to how you acted from before.” Baekhyun questions and Chanyeol laughs breathily.
“I don’t remember half the shit I do when I get high, it’s like I’m taking this thing in and everything to me just seems so highly concentrated and focused x100 and I feel like I’m 10 years younger. But sometimes I do it so I can write songs because it sorta unleashes like this inner vocabulary you’ve never known you had.” Chanyeol spoke with such amusement.
“And when I play guitar when I’m high I sorta act like I’m Elvis Presley and I do this stupid Elvis impersonation, and you don’t even wanna know” Chanyeol giggles and Baekhyun grins.
“You play guitar?”
“Yeah, didn’t you see me?”
Baekhyun recalls the memory but all he can make out was Chanyeol looking at the rubix cube like he just solved cancer.
“No, not really” Baekhyun says fondly.
Chanyeol lightly grabs Baekhyun’s hand and lays it down on his thigh.
“You should see me play sometime, My band’s got a great gig on Wednesday. Just come to the coffee shop around 5.” Chanyeol smiles widely causing his glasses to lift up.
“Wait wait wait, just to make it clear. You’re a singer and can play the guitar, and model too?” Baekhyun suggests.
“Only during IMATs I’m a model. I don’t really want to pursue that path in my life.” Chanyeol says.
Baekhyun smiles and looks down, “Wow, is a model actually asking me out?” And Chanyeol laughs, a big grin spreads across his face.
Baekhyun can’t help how much perfection he is seeing right in front of him. It completely defies every expectation he’s had in his head. That you need makeup to look pretty; covering the wretched imperfections on your skin, genetic flaws that are not changeable through surgery. But as he stares at the boy’s face, a bare face with no makeup, everything is flawless and he makes it seem so effortless.
The beauty of his wide eyes, the milky toned skin, and the naturally smooth pink lips that looks so kissable. His caring, thoughtful and witty personality was such a turn on and everything about him, Baekhyun feels so in awe. He’s never felt so much admiration for a guy before.
“I can be a model, a guitar player, a drug dealer, anything you want me to be, I just want to get to know you more.” Chanyeol replies honestly and a set of sympathetic eyes began to settle on his face and Baekhyun just doesn’t know what to say at the moment.
He gathers the courage and speaks, “I’ll see you there.” Baekhyun responds.
“But don’t impress me too much or I’ll explode and you’ll never see me anymore.” Baekhyun laughs and this time, with his eyes.
÷
“Baekhyun, Baekhyun? You there?” Baekhyun hears the obnoxious knocks coming from his front door and he doesn’t want to deal with Jongdae’s incessant annoyance right now.
“What is it Jongdae” Baekhyun says, not wanting to get up from his coffee table.
“I heard from Joonmyeon you got a new boy toy.” Jongdae giggles through the door, “Talk to me about it cmon, twink to twink.”
Baekhyun almost barfs.
After ten minutes later of knocking and begging Baekhyun finally lets Jongdae in and Baekhyun musters up the courage to face the onslaught of questions that Jongdae will ask.
“So when did you meet him exactly, but wait. How tall is he first, you know how much I love tall men, ugh. Remember my ex Kris, ugh, man I didn’t even have to go on my kne-“
“Jongdae! Stop! I hate when you pry onto my personal life like were on fucking Oprah. Goddamn, I don’t want you ruining it for me this time!” Baekhyun demanded, trying to control his himself from throwing his hot green tea on to Jongdae’s face.
“His name is Chanyeol. And apparently he’s a model and he’s so loveable and gorgeous and he’s so out of my league.” Baekhyun speaks out, his right hand resting on his chin.
“What you should do is you should get the sexiest colour of lip gloss, and wear pink shota panties to make him squeal. And also you should wear extra eyeliner so he doesn’t see how small your eyes are without makeup.” Jongdae suggests sitting on the couch while filing his nail.
“I have small eyes? Baekhyun take out a mirror out from his back pocket. Baekhyun has no makeup on, and whenever he stares at a mirror he always takes a hard look at himself, often he would look at himself for a very long time, pointing and cursing out the imperfections he has on his face. No one except Jongdae has ever seen BaekBeauty’s bare face.
“Yeah you obviously do, ever since high school people thought you were blind cus’ no one thought your eyes were open.” Jongdae jokes.
Baekhyun ignores what he says, his eyes were perfectly fine and no one in high school ever made fun of him for his eyes. But as the thought of it lingers in his mind, he can’t fight the urge to take out his eyeliner from his makeup kit and start drawing on his eyes.
Baekhyun’s insecurity never seems to go away. No one has ever told him his natural appearance was perfectly fine just the way it is.
“But other than that, with your regular makeup you’ll look just fine.” Jongdae adds and Baekhyun’s not sure if Jongdae is honestly helping him or if he’s joking around. But be honest, Jongdae is just trying to help Baekhyun for the better, but he’s not exactly sure how far he’ll take Jongdae’s advice.
“Should I come with you? Would it be better for me to help you step your game up or what.” Jongdae reassures him, but Baekhyun is not sure if he wants Jongdae to accompany him. But Baekhyun doesn’t really want this to go wrong and Jongdae might ruin it.
“I don’t think so Nicole Richie, besides you’re trying to get that hot barista’s number from the coffee shop, remember?” Baekhyun tells him.
“I don’t even want him anymore he doesn’t pay attention to me.” Jongdae looks to the distance and his mood turns bleak and suddenly he’s blabbing on about the meaning of life and the misconception of romance, just like any other day when Baekhyun’ turns on Jongdae’s sentimental button.
÷
Before Baekhyun knows it, it’s Wednesday night and he’s getting ready for Chanyeol’s gig. He doesn’t know how much makeup he wants to put on, after all the coffee shop’s interior resembles a lot like Hollister so his face might not look completely defined under the shit lighting. He looks at himself in the bathroom mirror, his face in it’s most natural state. Bona fide and pure to the bone he cringes at the sight of his bulging eye bags, probably due to the overuse of eyeliner, but still he takes out his everyday regime. He’s already ran out of the second bottle of his foundation, and has already used a third of his pink lip gloss and Baekhyun wonders how much he has to put up with buying more and more makeup.
He tones his clothes down a bit, wearing simple fitted black jeans, and a knit sweater. He applies the pink smeared lip gloss, takes a look at himself one last time and heads off.
The LA night scene around this part of town seemed so vibrant and lively opposed to the seemingly quiet the place was when he first stumbled upon here. It’s like a strip of clubs but wasn’t. The central hub of it all was coming from the vibrancy coming from the coffee shop.
Baekhyun notices that the place was called “Véritable.”
He walks in and as soon as he breathes in the smoke filled room he recalls the countless times he’s been through this, the scene felt like a college house party all over again, and he wished he brought Jongdae with him.
He doesn’t really know anyone here at all, and awkwardly squeezes through the crowd, but many people were quick to recognize him and as he walked past by them he can make out what some of them were saying.
“Wow he looks so fake in real life”
“Who knew one has to put so much makeup on to look that pretty”
“Is that really his face?”
And just like that Baekhyun’s composure and confidence were suddenly stripped away from him, his whole self esteem left leaving the building. Baekhyun’s mood had suddenly turned into a mix of angry and bitter, his inner consciousness began to take in all of the negativity. He wishes they were just YouTube comments that he can just delete forever, and Baekhyun just wants to find Chanyeol as fast as he can so he can feel safe.
He walks faster to see what was happening in front of the stage. And then he sees him. He finds Chanyeol on a stool tuning his guitar, wearing a soft warm smile on his face, fluorescent light shining down on him.
The MC walks in front of the stage, “Okay dudes, time for some mellow beats and sadcore tunes, this is… Syndication!
Loud applauds fill the room and the strum of his guitar quiets the crowd and Chanyeol speaks,
“Before I start, I would like to dedicate my performance to my friend Byun Baekhyun, are you here?”
Baekhyun raises his hand, and the crowd diverts their attention onto him and soon the audience were all whispering, and Baekhyun knows what they were all talking about, his face, his makeup. But Baekhyun doesn’t care, he sees Chanyeol and he’s never felt so right.
Baekhyun chokes a laugh and Chanyeol smiles light heartedly before he starts to sing. And the beauty of it all was that for once a presence like his felt so safe and at bay. Warming up his heart and anchoring down all the things that once escaped from him moments ago. And as both of them stare at each other’s eyes, Baekhyun knows that there is hope.
÷
As soon as it was over the audience applauded and the scene died down. It was almost midnight now and people started to leave and transport their energy into the raving night clubs. Baekhyun sits down on one of the lounge chairs as he makes friends with the people in shop, exchanging small conversations with Kyungsoo, a cute and friendly barista, Jongin, a drummer who is part of
Chanyeol’s band who he seldom catches flirting with the barista, and of course Sehun, who was too busy trying to fix a broken bong.
Chanyeol came out ten minutes later walking up to Baekhyun. He scratches the back of his head, “Can I order you a drink?” Chanyeol says, blush creeping up on his face..
“Soy latte”, Baekhyun replied as he sits down the coffee table and rests his head on his right hand.
Chanyeol takes a seat next to Baekhyun and makes himself comfortable, “So, what did you think of my singing?”
“It was horrible, it was like listening to Cher.” Baekhyun remarks seriously, trying to hold in a laugh as Chanyeol’s eyes just widen.
Baekhyun bursts out laughing, looking at how Chanyeol’s whole face looks stunned.
“Oh my god, you should’ve seen the look on your face,” Baekhyun retorts and Chanyeol chuckles and drops his head down in defeat.
“Yeah, it was really good. I love your singing and guitar playing, you lived up to what you bragged about from before,” Baekhyun remarks.
“I wasn’t bragging, I was merely stating the cold hard facts. I wasn’t trying to impress you or anything,” Chanyeol says as he scratches his cheek.
“Hmm, really.”
“Really” And their eyes lock again.
But Chanyeol interrupts as he closely examines Baekhyun’s face. “Why do you wear so much eyeliner?” and Baekhyun pauses. He feels offended and fuck, Baekhyun almost can’t believe he just said that.
“And you shouldn’t wear too much lip gloss.” Chanyeol adds, and Baekhyun is one step closer to punching the guy’s face because oh my god, he’ got everything so wrong about this guy. Baekhyun thought he was different and that everything would change but no, no one gets him and it clicks that no one will ever do.
Baekhyun’s eyes furrowed, “Why can’t I wear this amount lot of eyeliner? Huh? Should I tone it down for you? Should I draw wings on it so I can fly and land on your crotch? I don’t need you to tell me how much eyeliner or how much lip gloss I should wear Chanyeol.”
“No, Baekhyun. I-“
“No, Chanyeol. You don’t understand, you don’t understand because you can look so handsome without doing any single fucking thing to your face. But you don’t understand what it’s like, the struggle of covering up how imperfect you are. Not knowing how it feels for people to look at you and judge you because you’ve been putting so much shit on your face, so much that people think you’re a fake.” Baekhyun bawls leaving a tense and awkward mood inside the shop. All eyes were on him and before Baekhyun could look into Chanyeol’s eyes he storms out of the shop with tears and smudged mascara.
÷
BaekBeauty: Last updated, Two weeks ago.
Baekhyun has been stuck in his apartment for the past two weeks, eating the appropriate serving of ice cream (a bucket a day keeps the boys away) and no physical or social contact with anyone at all.
He stopped wearing makeup on the second day of house arrest, realizing that it’s not even worth it anymore. He avoids Joonmyeon’s calls, and hasn’t been checking his phone for any messages.
Meanwhile, Jongdae keeps trying to knock on Baekhyun’s door every god damn hour of the day and sometimes he discreetly slips in Mcdonald’s coupons through the crack of his door in hopes for Baekhyun to get out but to no avail. Not even food can make him get out.
But it wasn’t till the 17th day; during his fourth straight marathon of America’s Next Top Model did Baekhyun hear faint noises of guitar strumming.
He turns off his tv and presses his head against the front door. It seems to come from the end of the hallway, Baekhyun thinks and he has the urge to open the door but takes the courage not to.
But then he hears singing and oh my god he knows that low groggy voice from anywhere. Then he hears knocking and it was Jongdae again, all while the sounds of guitar strings grow louder.
“Baekhyun-ah! Get out here there’s uh… pizza. “ Jongdae tells him and Baekhyun really wants to open the because all he’s been eating is ice cream and pizza sounds so good right now. But he knows for a fact that it’s not pizza, but his eyes are so sore and seeing Chanyeol meant that Chanyeol will see his bare face.
But then he hears Chanyeol’s voice again and he’s so tempted but his god damn face. But he has an idea. He grabs a face mask from his cabinet, he takes a deep breath and opens the door.
“Where’s the pizza?” Baekhyun screams and it’s Chanyeol in front of him and he’s so tall that part of his forehead is taller than Baekhyun’s door.
“You’re not pizza.” Baekhyun says and he can see Jongdae on his phone smiling, probably taking a congratulatory selfie for trying to be a good friend.
Chanyeol’s voice is rusty and full of grogginess, “I’m better than pizza, and babe I can make you feel so much better than pizza.” He stops strumming the guitar and Chanyeol runs into Baekhyun’s body into a full on hug and Baekhyun can’t breathe.
“You’re actually trying to kill me”, Baekhyun tries to mouth as he thinks in his head, unsure of wanting to go through this feeling again.
“I’m sorry Byun Baekhyun, please forgive me. I’ve collected my thoughts and it’s been so long and all I can think about is you.” Chanyeol looks at Baekhyun with those sympathetic eyes again. Baekhyun sees Chanyeol pulling a piece of paper out of his front pocket. Chanyeol unfolds the creases, “I sorta wrote you something so just listen.”
“Baekhyun, I don’t care what you look like under your makeup. Your beauty to me is more than that, like looking at the night sky and taking in all the wondrous and vast beauties of the stars and galaxies. You are like the thousands of flowers in any garden and all that is natural in the world can not add up to what you look like with makeup, or without. Bare or covered, nothing else matters but you. Chanyeol sputtered, and Baekhyun tries to not puke at Chanyeol’s attempt at poetic justice.
And Baekhyun trusts in him, and for once, it feels like Baekhyun can believe in himself. As he takes off his mask Chanyeol smiles so brightly, he reached in for another hug and Baekhyun all but grins and covers his face in to Chanyeol’s comfortable chest.
÷
They talked for hours on end, nuzzled in each other’s warmth as Chanyeol strums random melodies of different songs. They look at each other’s eyes and he feels so warm. He’s not scared at all when Chanyeol looks at his bare face, he’s not scared of what he thinks because he trusts the beauty within himself, and thinks that Chanyeol will not look at him for what’s on the outside. And whatever Baekhyun was being held down on in the past has completely been washed away from the newfound feelings.
It’s the middle of the night and they’re half asleep, Chanyeol is still whispering cheesy romantic song lyrics into Baekhyun’s ear. Baekhyun’s eyes are closed and theyre comfortable enough for their heads to touch as the soothing sounds of the guitar engulfs Baekhyun’s conscience as he’s trying to keep himself from falling asleep.
Chanyeol stops singing and Baekhyun opens his eyes.
“Baekhyun?” Their eyes meet again, and Chanyeol trails his eyes down to Baekhyun’s lips. Knowing what comes next, Chanyeol closes the distance between them. Passionate yet innocent, they kiss and Baekhyun breathes in all the words that Chanyeol has sung to him, lips move like the strumming of chords. Their bodies perfectly mesh together and everything to Baekhyun might now possibly feel perfect.
÷
BaekBeauty posted a video 2 minutes ago: BOYFRIEND TAG!
“Hi everyone BaekBeauty here, and many of you have asked me if I am in a relationship well here I am, and here is he.” The video cuts and Chanyeol has bloodshot eyes, and is grinning so stupidly as he nuzzles his face onto Baekhyun’s shoulders.
Baekhyun laughs all too brightly, “Stop it! Tell everyone who you are.”
“Hi~” Chanyeol’s voice slurs, “I’m Chanyeol, and I believe in peace.”
Baekhyun slaps his face and continues on with the question, “Question 1: Where did you first meet?”
“We were in a coffee shop and Baekhyun fell on my crotch.” Chanyeol says and Baekhyun can’t help but laugh.
A/N: I tried so hard to be funny and oh my god, I feel like I failed miserably. Since I’m a guy, I honestly don’t know much about makeup. But I guess I know some basics and just wrote from there. Sorry authornim for drastically butchering your prompt. *sighs*
A/N:
I tried so hard to be funny and oh my god, I feel like I failed miserably. Since I’m a guy, I honestly don’t know much about makeup. But I guess I know some basics and just wrote from there. Sorry authornim for drastically butchering your prompt. *sighs*
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