Let’s Do It
Title: Let's Do It
Author: Anonymous until 1/30/14
For: candiedwebs
Pairing: Baekhyun/Kris [side: past!Baekhyun/Chanyeol, Baekhyun/Suho, Chen/Lay, Kris/Sehun, past!Kris/Jessica]
Word Count: 8,419
Summary: Kris is Baekhyun's best friend. He's also an idiot. This is a problem.
Warnings: girl!Baekhyun, girl!Jongdae, girl!Sehun, girl!Tao, girl!Kai
Rating: PG-13
One
Baekhyun flopped back on her mattress, blowing her too-long bangs out of her eyes. She had another chapter to study in her history textbook, but she was feeling too burnt out and unfocused at the moment to even think about doing so. She made a grab for her cell phone, but rolled away at the last second and sat up to peer out her window.
It was past eight at night and it was early November, so it was well past sundown and she could see clearly into the window on the second story of the house on the other side of the street- could see the familiar form hunched over his desk, writing furiously while the fingers of his left hand raked through his hair. Baekhyun smiled and reached across her bed for her phone, closing her fingers around it this time and opening her text conversation with Kris.
You're going to make your precious hair all greasy like that, she typed out, hitting send and scooting back to the window to watch the figure jump at the sound of his phone going off.
When he read the message, he immediately turned and met Baekhyun's eyes- knowing just where to look after ten years of living across the street from each other. He was half-laughing, half-rolling his eyes and Baekhyun blew him a kiss. She could see his snort of laughter.
I'm tired of studying. I want ice cream, she sent.
It's November, was the near immediate reply.
So? We don't have to eat it outside!
You're insane, he texted, immediately followed by, Meet you outside in five.
Baekhyun made a heart shape with her arms over her head out the window before rolling off her bed to find some suitably warm socks for the trek to the convenience store.
÷
Baekhyun and Kris had been friends since Baekhyun looked out her window when she was seven and saw the moving van parked across the street. She'd been bored of playing Barbie shoe store at the time, so she'd charged down the stairs and asked her mom for something to take to the new neighbor's house.
Armed with a paper plate of store bought cookies, Baekhyun walked across the street and knocked on the door only to be greeted with a harried looking woman who thanked her and pointed her toward the backyard where she found a boy her age sitting morosely on a swing. Before long, they were engaged in an intense game of the-wood-chips-are-lava and the rest was history.
Ever since, all Baekhyun had to do when she was bored was look out her bedroom window to ascertain if Kris was home and then walk thirty feet for a companion.
Naturally, getting older had changed their friendship a bit- people started asking if they were a couple when they hung out and Baekhyun ended up crying to Kris when she'd broken up with her one serious boyfriend, Chanyeol, sophomore year- but they remained best friends. Well, Baekhyun supposed that Jongdae was her best friend too. Her girl best friend, anyway. And Kris had Minseok. But still. She'd been friends with Kris longer than she'd been friends with Jongdae and he was the person she told first when she'd half-lost her virginity. So that had to count for something.
÷
“Did you see his layup?” Jongdae asked, clutching at her milk carton with passion before digging into her odeng soup, “And then his smile when Kris congratulated him?”
Baekhyun swallowed a mouthful of rice and blinked at her friend. “Yes, I saw. I was there, remember?”
It wasn't uncommon for Baekhyun to attend Kris' basketball games and since she didn't want to be sitting in the bleachers alone, she dragged Jongdae with her. Except lately she hadn't had to drag Jongdae at all since the latter had developed an infatuation with one of the players, Yixing.
“Does Kris ever talk about him?” Jongdae asked for what was probably the fifth time in the last two weeks and Baekhyun sighed.
“Just when he's talking about the team,” she told her again, “He doesn't randomly start to wax poetic about the marvel that is Yixing. He's not you.”
Jongdae stuck her tongue out at her before looking at Kyungsoo was was sitting across the cafeteria table from them, quietly eating his lunch and trying to ignore the insanity as per usual.
“Kyungsoo!” she barked and Kyungsoo slowly raised his head with an unamused look in his eye, “You have lit with Yixing, right?”
“Yeah,” he replied flatly, breaking off a piece of breaded fish with his chopsticks and bringing it to his lips.
“Does he say anything?”
“Well, he doesn't just sit there in complete silence for fifty minutes,” he said, blinking slowly.
Jongdae rolled her eyes at his unwillingness to comply and turned back to Baekhyun.
“But have you seen his hands?” she swooned, “They're so pretty!”
Having already noticed Kris walking by to the leave the cafeteria in her peripheral, Baekhyun reached out and grabbed Kris' wrist, yanking him by the arm and nearly hitting Jongdae in the face with his hand.
“Have you seen these hands?” she asked, waving Kris' hand around in front of Jongdae's face, “They look like serving trays.”
Jongdae leaned back and shot an are you crazy look at Baekhyun who seemed quite pleased with herself.
“Uh,” Kris said after a moment when Baekhyun still hadn't let go of his wrist, “Hi?”
“Hi,” Baekhyun chirped, finally releasing her hold and smiling up at him.
Kris raised his eyebrows as Baekhyun grinned.
“Just needed your hand for a quick demonstration,” she explained as though that was something that he should have expected.
“Alright,” Kris responded with an indulgent smile at the seated girl, shoving the aforementioned hands into his hoodie pocket.
“You can carry on,” Baekhyun told him, amusement coloring her words as she leaned down to spoon some soup into her mouth.
“Right. Okay,” Kris nodded, chuckling a bit and glancing at a softly laughing Jongdae and a completely uninterested Kyungsoo, “Yeah, I'll see you later?”
Baekhyun nodded, smiling winningly (all her smiles were winning, she thought), and giving a small wave.
Hastily pulling his hand out of his pocket, he waved and shot a quick smile at the table at large before loping toward the door.
“So,” Jongdae sang when Kris had caught up with Minseok outside the cafeteria doors, “Your boyfriend seems well.”
Baekhyun raised a brow, “Come again?”
Jongdae gave her a judging look, “Seriously?”
“That's what I should be saying to you,” Baekhyun told her, unimpressed, “Kris and I have known each other for years.”
“So?” Jongdae challenged, looking to Kyungsoo for support, but was met with a bland expression, “You can still date. There's no rule about how long you're supposed to have known someone.”
Baekhyun gave her a look and Jongdae just shrugged innocently.
“Go back to flailing over Yixing,” Baekhyun said to her with a roll of her eyes and Jongdae cackled.
“Can we vote on this?” Kyungsoo interjected, “Because I, personally, have no interest in Yixing's shoe size.”
Jongdae perked up.
“Hey Baek,” she said, “Do you know his shoe size? Can you ask Kris?”
Baekhyun blinked, staying silent for a moment as Jongdae watched her hopefully before cheerily answering, “Nope!”
“Baek!” she whined as Kyungsoo grumbled under his breath, looking incredibly put out.
And Baekhyun happily went back to her lunch.
÷
One of Kris' faults was that we was an idiot. Not an idiot like he was stupid. He was actually quite smart- he did well in all of his classes and knew more languages than any one person had any right to. But he could be pretty oblivious and dense. No one who knew him well would argue this fact.
The thing was, he also had many good points. He was handsome, tall, kind, the basketball team captain, and the smart thing again, to name a few. And those things made him popular with the female gender.
But to get back to his failure to notice the obvious, he didn't realize that he was popular with girls. Sure, he knew he had a lot of friends who were girls- he wasn't that stupid. But he always brushed aside any comment about the fact that most of them wanted into his pants, something Baekhyun pointed out on a regular basis.
Mostly because, lately, it seemed that Kris wasn't available to play along with Baekhyun's spontaneous whims as often.
She felt like every time she looked out her window to see if Kris was home because she didn't feel like doing homework, she'd see him leaving the house with an attractive girl or two flanking him.
Which was annoying.
She wasn't jealous. That was crazy. Especially considering these were just random hangers-on while she was basically his BFF. She was like Minseok with boobs. Or something.
So it wasn't like these girls mattered in the grand scheme of things. But it was still frustrating when she wanted to see if Kris wanted to watch a B-grade zombie movie that she had found online, only to see that he was strolling by with Sehun on one side and Zitao on the other.
Whatever they were going to do wasn't as awesome as whatever Baekhyun had planned. That was for sure.
Even if she wasn't always sure what that was.
÷
“Looking great this morning,” Baekhyun teased when Kris emerged from his house, “Very alert.”
Kris grunted in response, zipping his parka as he lethargically jogged down the porch steps and met Baekhyun on the sidewalk. His eyes were only half open and he looked like he might fall asleep if he stood still for too long, so Baekhyun grabbed his arm and started pulling in the direction of school.
“How come you look more dead than usual?” Baekhyun asked cheerfully, breath visible in the cold morning air.
“Couldn't sleep,” Kris mumbled, mouth not even moving to form the syllables properly like that would have taken too much energy.
“Oh?” Baekhyun stuffed her free hand into the pocket of her coat and fingered the knit gloves that she'd been too lazy to put on before leaving the house.
“Chem test,” was the reply and Baekhyun made a noise of sympathy. Despite his obnoxiously good study habits, chemistry was the one subject that Kris just couldn't seem to master. It wasn't like he was getting a failing grade or anything. An 83% was hardly shameful. But Kris had to work harder to maintain his low B than he did to get an A in most classes and he drove himself nearly insane over it.
After a few minutes of silence and breath puffing into clouds in front of them, Baekhyun hooked her elbow through the arm she had already clamped onto and pulled Kris so he was walking in stride with her, “You'll do great,” she told him, watching as he responded with a scoff that she could see in the air.
But his lips quirked up just slightly and he started to actively put one foot in front of the other instead of just letting Baekhyun drag him along, and Baekhyun grinned. With her hands tucked into the bend of Kris' elbow, she didn't even need her gloves.
÷
Pizza. Yep. It was a must. Baekhyun needed pizza at that very instant or she was going to die.
But she didn't want to order pizza by herself. That was just lame.
Looking out her window, Baekhyun's eyes immediately found Kris' room as she reached for her phone with the intention of texting him.
Except...
Was that Kim Jongin in his bedroom? Wasn't she dating Lu Han? What was she doing in his room?
Before she could stop herself, Baekhyun typed out and sent I want pizza now. Let's make this happen. I'm actually dying.
She watched as Kris leaned across his desk to reach his cell phone and read her message.
Jongin is here right now, but you are welcome to join us ^^
Baekhyun scoffed out loud. She didn't want to join them. She just wanted Kris. To get pizza with.
Nah, I think I'll actually go with Joonmyun. He was pestering me about getting dinner with him sometime anyway, she told him. And glared angrily at her phone when he responded with a simple okay :)
Well, fine. She would go out with Joonmyun. She knew he'd been angling for a second date ever since they kind of accidentally went on a first date to the movies a month ago. At least he would jump at the chance to eat pizza with her. She was not a third wheel, thankyouverymuch.
÷
“Study tonight?” Baekhyun asked as she and Kris exited their one shared class together. Baekhyun had the textbook and notebook held to her chest as she strode along beside Kris, her shorter legs having to take one and a half steps for every one of Kris'.
“Sure,” he agreed, “I don't think the test will be too bad tomorrow, but I definitely want to go over the emperors again to make sure I can-”
“Noona!” a voice interrupted Kris and had Baekhyun turning to find Taemin,a boy from the year behind her, falling into step on her other side, “What class are you coming from?”
“History,” Baekhyun replied with an eyebrow raise that implied that she was doubting Taemin's intelligence (something she did on a regular basis) as she held up her book that clearly said History in big, bold type.
“I can carry your books for you, noona,” Taemin offered eagerly, ignoring Baekhyun's judgmental stare and grabbing for the books in question.
“No, that won't be necessary,” Baekhyun informed him, holding them out of his reach.
“Let me help,” Taemin insisted, still trying to wrestle the books from her hold.
Baekhyun pressed them up against Kris' chest and grinned when he grabbed them without complaint, his arms free since he carried his backpack with him to class.
“Sorry, Taemin,” Baekhyun said to Taemin's pouting face.
“Next time, noona,” he promised, making a turn into the sophomore's hall.
Baekhyun let out a half scoff, half sigh, “Such a pest.”
“Must be such a burden to have admirers following you around all the time,” Kris joked, dutifully carrying Baekhyun's books until she made grabby hands at him to give them back.
Baekhyun snorted, “You're one to talk.”
÷
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” Baekhyun screeched, letting herself into Kris’ room and flopping face first onto his bed. She knew it might be considered a little weird for her to be having an outburst at her very male friend regarding her boyfriend, but Kris had been her best friend for years. She didn’t want to acquire a whole new best friend just for situations like these. That was impractical.
“What happened now?” Kris asked, sounding way too used to having Baekhyun barge into his room and flail on his bed. The last time this had happened, it had been when Chanyeol had told her that he loved her. And the time before that was when Chanyeol had asked her out.
“We totally did it!” Baekhyun announced, breathless from squirming around and completely messing up Kris’ previously made bed.
Kris’ eyes opened comically wide, “You had sex?”
“No,” Baekhyun told him and he seemed to relax a little in his chair, “Well, I mean. Kind of.”
“What does that mean?” Kris asked warily.
Baekhyun cocked her head to the side like she was thinking even though she already knew what she wanted to say. She knew what they’d done, after all.
“You know we…used our hands before, that one time?” Baekhyun asked, feeling her cheeks heat with the way Kris was watching her- eyes trained on her face and expression serious.
He nodded.
“Well…this time…” Baekhyun had to look away before she could finish, “Isuckedhimoff.”
When she looked back at Kris, his face was carefully blank, though his brows were a bit raised.
“Well, then,” he said and Baekhyun felt a nervous giggle bubble up in her chest.
“I love him,” Baekhyun defended. Just in case Kris was judging her. She wasn’t sure if he was. But just in case.
“I know,” Kris replied, expression softening and this time Baekhyun wasn’t able to stop the almost giddy laugh from coming out, “Did he…?”
Baekhyun shook her head. “His parents were gonna be home soon so….”
“Ah,” Kris nodded, looking thoughtful and Baekhyun almost wanted to ask what he was thinking, but decided against it.
Feeling another surge of ohmygod, Baekhyun flopped around on Kris’ bed again before sitting up to find Kris still watching her.
“You don’t have to feel as though you need to tell me everything about your,” he cleared his throat, cheeks going a little pink, “sex life.”
“Who else am I supposed to tell?” Baekhyun demanded, lower lip stuck out petulantly. Kris was her best friend! He was supposed to share these important moments in her life!
“Don’t you think Jongdae might be more appreciative of this kind of information?”
Baekhyun frowned, “I don’t know.”
Kris looked slightly panicked by her deepening pout, “You can tell whom you want! Obviously! You can tell me. Of course you can tell me. You can tell me anything. You just…you don’t have to, okay?”
Baekhyun felt herself smiling despite her previously dampened spirit.
“Alright,” she replied, deciding that maybe she wouldn’t tell Kris everything that happened between her and Chanyeol, but that she’d tell him if anything huge happened. Like she lost her virginity or something. She’d tell him then.
“Wanna play the new Final Fantasy?” Baekhyun asked, already bouncing to the edge of Kris’ bed toward the TV and gaming system.
Kris grinned, “I got a little further last night.”
“Without me?” Baekhyun demanded, getting up to start the game.
“Just a little,” Kris assured her, “I stopped before anything cool happened.”
“I guess I can forgive you,” Baekhyun told him, sitting back on the messy bed with a controller in her hands.
“You better. It’s my game!” Kris pointed out with a laugh.
“Yeah, but you suck at it,” she teased, laughing as Kris rolled his eyes.
And given that Baekhyun and Chanyeol never ended up having sex before they broke up, Baekhyun never talked to Kris about her sex life again.
÷
Baekhyun leaned against the locker next to Kris', playing with the zipper on her coat and making very obvious huffing sounds.
“Are you done yet?” she complained, hitting the heel of her shoe against the metal locker obnoxiously.
“One second,” Kris replied, a combination of amused and annoyed. But speaking from prior experience, he was more amused than anything else. The only times he got genuinely fed up with her was when he was stressed beyond measure and Baekhyun managed to tease him at exactly the wrong moment. Which rarely happened. She was pretty good at reading Kris' moods.
“But I'm hungry and I don't want to be at school any more. I want to go home,” she whined, pouting at him when he glanced over.
“You'll be okay for another minute,” he laughed, looking entertained when Baekhyun groaned in frustration.
“Hey Baek!” she heard from behind her and she turned to find Joonmyun smiling at her.
“Hi,” she replied, not too thrilled to see him after their less-than-lackluster date the previous Saturday, which she wasn't even sure how she ended up on except for the fact that she hadn't been able to think of an excuse to not go in a timely manner.
“Hello Kris,” Joonmyun added, smile drooping slightly when Kris straightened up at his locker and looked over at him.
Kris nodded in acknowledgment and then went back to loading textbooks into his bag.
Turning back to Baekhyun, Joonmyun's practiced smile was back full force, “Saturday was fun!”
Baekhyun hummed noncommittally because she wasn't sure how to tell him the most vivid memory she had of the date was alternately closing each of her eyes as he talked and watching as it looked like he moved from side to side on the bench he was sitting on.
“Maybe we can go out again this weekend?” he suggested hopefully and Baekhyun thought to herself, no, I am not getting roped into another museum tour wherein Joonmyun rambles about his vacation to Italy.
“Kris and I actually have plans,” she quickly told him, hoping that Kris wouldn't ask her what she was talking about considering they didn't currently have any plans.
Joonmyun's smile faded a little at the edges, but he maintained the expression nonetheless, “That's too bad. Maybe another time.”
“Maybe,” Baekhyun hedged, relieved when Joonmyun bid them goodbye and ambled away to go smile insistently at other people or something.
“We have plans?” Kris teased when he was out of hearing distance and Baekhyun hit him on the arm while making a whining sound.
“I cannot handle another date with him,” she defended, “It was so dull. If I wanted to know about how much better pasta in Italy is than the pasta we ate, I could...I don't know, look up restaurant reviews.”
Kris chuckled, “Did it ever occur to you to tell him that you're not interested?”
Baekhyun rolled her eyes, “Obviously, but...”
“Or does he make up for the lame dates in other ways?” he joked and Baekhyun looked at him quizzically.
“Huh?”
“Come on, Baek,” Kris said with a laugh, “I’m not judging you.”
“Judging me for what, exactly?” Baekhyun asked, feeling something heavy settle in her stomach.
“You know,” Kris waved his stupidly large hands around like that would be enough of an explanation, “Sex and stuff.”
“What sex and stuff?” Baekhyun demanded, getting frustrated and feeling sicker by the second.
“Just…I know you have experience and whatever,” Kris shrugged awkwardly, “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
Baekhyun’s mind was racing. What was he even talking about? Had someone been spreading rumors about her? She knew Joonmyun was eager, but would he really stoop to that level?
“Who said I have a lot of experience?” she asked, toned clipped, but voice coming out weaker than she’d have liked.
Kris seemed even more uncomfortable now that it was obvious that Baekhyun wasn’t just going to laugh it off.
“No one, exactly,” he said, fingers dragging over the bottom of his shirt nervously, “Just…you’ve gone out with a lot of guys-“
“So that means I’ve had sex with all of them?” Baekhyun scoffed, unsure if she was more hurt or angry about the assumptions her best friend had made about her.
“No, just…” Kris ran his fingers through his hair and made the hairsprayed strands go in strange directions, “I know you and Chanyeol-“
“Chanyeol and I never even had sex!” Baekhyun exclaimed, cutting Kris off and trying to resist the urge to hit something or cry.
Because Kris really thought that she’d had sex with all the guys that she’d ever gone on a date with. And, admittedly, there had been quite a number of them since Chanyeol.
Why would he think that? Did he really think she had such low standards? Or that she had so little self respect?
Kris was looking at her in shock now and he looked kind of stupid- like an overgrown goldfish- but Baekhyun couldn’t think over the voice in her head telling her that Kris thought that she was…a slut, basically.
“You and Chanyeol really never…?”
“No,” Baekhyun snapped.
“And you never…with any of those other guys?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
They were quiet for a while and Baekhyun wanted to be vindicated by the way Kris was squirming, but she was too disappointed and hurt to care.
“I just…I thought you stopped talking to me about…that stuff because I told you that you didn’t have to…” Kris started, voice quiet like he was afraid Baekhyun might hit him. It was tempting.
“Well, I kind of did, yeah,” Baekhyun said, “But I would have told you if I’d lost my virginity! You are my best friend and that’s kind of important…”
“Wait- you’re a virgin?” Kris was gaping and Baekhyun didn’t know how that was still a shock given that she just told him she hadn’t had sex with Chanyeol or anyone else. That seemed to say virgin loud and clear, but…
“Yes, I’m a virgin.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Well…yeah.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, Kris,” Baekhyun spat, “I know that must be hard to believe what with how much experience you must have with Sehun or Zitao or whomever-“
“You think I slept with Sehun or Zitao?” Kris asked, looking completely scandalized.
“I don’t know,” Baekhyun scoffed, “I don’t why else you’d be so shocked by someone being a virgin.”
“I’m a virgin, too.”
Baekhyun didn’t know why she felt a wave of relief at the admission, but she did.
“What about Jessica?” Baekhyun pressed, referring to the girlfriend Kris had had for a brief time while she was dating Chanyeol.
Kris almost snorted, “Considering the fact that she broke up with me for Tiffany Hwang, I don't think it's any surprise that we never did...much.”
That made sense.
Kris was looking at her nervously as Baekhyun took everything in.
“I'm really sorry I-” Kris started when Baekhyun was silent for longer than she typically ever was, but she cut him off.
“Yeah.”
She didn't know if she was angry or not. She certainly felt...something. And whatever it was was strong. But she no longer felt like punching Kris in the face. Instead, she just felt...sad.
“Baek, I'm really sorry,” Kris said again and Baekhyun knew maybe it wasn't fair to let him keep apologizing when she'd accused him of sleeping with Zitao and Sehun.
She sighed, “I know. It's fine.”
Kris was looking at her like he knew it wasn't fine, but didn't know what else to say. She shrugged.
“Ready?” she asked lightly and he quickly nodded, slinging his bag over his shoulder and slamming his locker closed.
The walk home was perhaps the most quiet in the history of their friendship.
÷
Baekhyun was having the hardest time concentrating on her trig homework. Which wasn't that odd considering it wasn't exactly Baekhyun's favorite subject. But while she'd normally look across the street and bug Kris, he was the reason why she couldn't concentrate in the first place, so that probably wasn't the best idea.
She just felt restless- unable to let their conversation from earlier in the day go.
Just...the fact that Kris had really gone all this time thinking that she'd been sleeping around bothered her. It really bothered her. Even though he knew the truth now and he'd apologized, she still just felt...icky.
On top of that, the fact that Kris was a virgin was kind of blowing her mind and she wasn't entirely sure why. Because she'd never really thought about whether or not Kris was a virgin before. But now that she knew, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
She'd kind of just figured that he and Jessica had done it at some point when they'd been dating. And she might have occasionally wondered about Sehun and Zitao since they obviously wouldn't have minded getting intimate with Kris (even if he denied the fact that they liked him as anything other than a friend).
“Focus,” she instructed herself out loud. She was getting all bent out of shape over nothing. Kris had made a lot of incorrect assumptions, but he'd apologized. She'd made a few assumptions of her own that were wrong, but now she knew. That was that. There was nothing else that needed to be done or said or thought about. The end.
But Baekhyun still struggled to stop replaying that day's conversation in her head over and over until she eventually fell asleep that night.
÷
Baekhyun was biting her lips and wringing her hands in her uniform shirt when she knocked on the door to Kris' house. She hadn't actually called or texted him before showing up, but she hadn't thought it through much. All she could think to herself was don't cry and just get to Kris'.
When Kris answered the door, she wasn't sure if she was glad it was him who answered or if she wished it had been his mother so that she could have held off the tears for another minute or two. As it was, as soon as Kris took in her uncharacteristically fidgety form and said with concern, “Baekhyun?” she embarrassingly burst into tears.
She barely even registered Kris ushering her in and leading her up to his bedroom. Out of habit, she ended up sitting on his bed as Kris sat down beside her, a hand on her back rubbing soothing circles. Which wasn't usual for him since he wasn't a particularly touchy person, but she couldn't even think about it at that moment as she hiccuped and sobbed and let her tears fall freely.
When she finally felt like she was bringing enough oxygen into her lungs, cheeks wet and itchy from her salty tears, Kris quietly asked, “What happened, Baek?”
She nearly started to cry in earnest again just from the kindness in his voice, but she took a deep breath instead.
“Chanyeol and I broke up,” she said, voice weak and wavering.
Kris made a sound of acknowledgment and kept rubbing her back while she worked to get a hold of herself fully.
“I'm really sad,” she told him, feeling like an idiot because that was probably a given, but that was all she could think. How sad she was.
“It's okay to be sad,” Kris told her, low voice as soothing as his touch, “Breaking up is sad.”
“Yeah,” was all she could get out.
“He doesn't know what he's missing,” he continued, reaching over to his bedside table with a long arm to grab her a tissue.
“I broke up with him,” Baekhyun clarified, taking the tissue gratefully and wiping her nose.
“Oh,” Kris sounded surprised.
“Maybe I'm crazy,” she worried, expressing the fear that had haunted her from the moment she'd told Chanyeol she wanted to break up, “I must be insane for breaking up with him.”
“Why did you?” Kris asked carefully, hand resting motionless on her shoulder now and spreading a comforting heat.
“I don't know!” she nearly wailed, sniffling and dabbing at the fresh tears that had started to make their way down her cheeks, “There just seemed like something was missing.”
Baekhyun took a shaky breath and twisted the tissue in her hands.
“Do you think I'm crazy?” she asked, legitimately worried that Kris would tell her yes. That he'd say she was stupid for ending a perfectly good relationship when she didn't even have anything specific to site that was wrong with it.
“Not at all,” he said easily and Baekhyun looked up at him in surprise, knowing that her eyes must have been bloodshot and her nose was probably bright pink. And she might have normally been worried about the fact that her mascara was most likely running, but this was Kris.
“Why?” she breathed, “I think I'm crazy.”
Kris squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, “Because if you felt like you needed to break up with him, then you needed to break up with him. You did the right thing.”
Baekhyun felt her face crumple and her eyes well up in relief even as Kris seemed to panic that he'd said the wrong thing.
Burying her face in his chest, Baekhyun relaxed when Kris' arms came to hesitantly wrap around her. He didn't give hugs often, but when he did, they were great hugs.
“Thank you,” she sniffled, holding onto the material of Kris' shirt.
She was still sad. Really sad. But she felt better than she had in a long time- since she'd first felt like there was something missing in her relationship with Chanyeol.
Kris made a snorty sound that was probably supposed to mean no problem, and Baekhyun smiled. She felt like things would be okay.
÷
Baekhyun managed to convince herself to let the whole virginity talk (as she'd started referring to it in her head since that had basically been the over-arching theme) go and Kris had seemed so relieved to see her smile at him like nothing had happened the following morning on the way to school.
Things between them had basically been completely normal for the remainder of the week and Baekhyun suspected she was nearly as relieved as Kris was. But then Friday rolled around and all of the tension Baekhyun had been carrying around regarding their conversation finally broke loose.
After school Baekhyun made her way to Kris' locker as she always did since she consistently packed up faster than he did. But when she got there, Sehun was leaning against the locker that she normally leaned on.
“Hey,” she said, making her presence known.
“Hi,” Kris immediately replied, grinning so his gums showed when he caught sight of her. Okay, she felt a little better about Sehun being in her spot.
“Just about ready?” she asked, mostly ignoring Sehun even though she knew it was pretty rude.
“Actually, Sehun and I are going to go to the library so I can help her with an essay,” Kris informed her casually and Baekhyun found herself frowning before he'd even finished speaking.
Sehun was grinning, pleased, and Baekhyun felt like kicking her.
“Thanks for letting me know in advance,” Baekhyun remarked sarcastically and Kris' face fell faster than it had when he'd found out he had the notoriously hard teacher for chemistry that year.
She felt a little guilty, but Sehun was still grinning like she'd won and no, that was not okay.
“I- sorry,” Kris told her, prominent brows creased in concern, “I didn't think you'd really care.”
“Well, it effects my plans, doesn't it?” Baekhyun snapped and Kris looked at a loss for what to do.
“Yeah, you're right,” he agreed, “I'm sorry.”
There was something tight in Baekhyun's chest that made her feel like arguing, but it was nearly impossible to argue with Kris if he wasn't arguing back and was genuinely apologetic when he hadn't even really done anything.
Baekhyun shrugged, pride stinging even if she didn't know why.
“Well, I'm gonna head out then,” she told Kris, not sparing a glance at Sehun, “Have fun at the library,” she added with an eyebrow raise that was far more bitchy than playful.
Before she could hesitate at the hurt look on Kris' face, Baekhyun strode off defiantly, hoping that Sehun saw what nice hips and thighs she had as she walked away. Just because Sehun was like a thousand feet tall didn't mean that she was hotter than Baekhyun. And Baekhyun hoped that Sehun knew it.
÷
Baekhyun was self-aware enough to know that the way she'd behaved was completely out of line and unnecessary. What had she even been thinking? She was embarrassed at how badly she'd overreacted.
But at the same time, the thought of that smug underclassman sitting next to Kris at the library and cutely calling him oppa at any given opportunity had Baekhyun's blood boiling. Sehun would probably scoot too close so their thighs toughed under the table and lean in when he spoke just as an excuse to get close.
And when Kris would, inevitably, walk her home afterward since it got dark so early in the winter, she'd probably coo over how how nice oppa was for helping her and how could she ever repay him?
The thought of Sehun licking her own lips like she ways did and angling for a kiss made Baekhyun want to throw something. So she picked up a pillow from her bed and chucked it across the room with as much strength as she had (which, admittedly, wasn't much). How dare Sehun try to take what was Baekhyun's!
She seethed for a moment, gazing at the sad looking pillow leaning against the wall by her door before she froze in her spot, eyes wide.
Had she just-? Kris wasn't her's. Why was she acting like he was? She was behaving like Kris was her boyfriend and that Sehun was trying to make a move. But while Sehun was trying to make a move, Kris was not her boyfriend. So it was really no character flaw of Sehun's if she tried to get Kris to kiss her tonight (the thought still made Baekhyun sick). And Kris was completely within his right to kiss her if he wanted (but he wouldn't really want too, right?). Because Kris wasn't Baekhyun's boyfriend.
Kris could kiss Sehun, or anyone at all, because he wasn't Baekhyun's boyfriend and he didn't kiss her, so it was okay if he kissed other people. Right.
Baekhyun felt nauseous.
She just wished that Sehun was out of the picture because...she was in the way. Baekhyun just wanted Kris to herself.
Baekhyun stopped where she was pacing at the foot of her bed.
She wanted Kris to herself. She really just wanted him to herself.
That was the most honest thing she'd come up with all night. But when said like that, it sounded like she had feelings for him. It would sound to any outsider that she wanted to date him.
But that was...
completely and utterly true.
Sinking down onto her bed, Baekhyun faced the reality that had probably been staring her in the face for who knew how long. She, Byun Baekhyun, had feelings for her best friend. She wanted Kris to be her boyfriend. She wanted him to pay the most attention to her. She wanted him to tell Sehun and Zitao and any other girl who liked him that he was taken. She wanted him to be her's, plain and simple.
Not so simple, however, was dealing with this realization.
What was she supposed to do now?
÷
An hour later when Baekhyun was lying on her back on her bed staring at the ceiling and very consciously not looking out her window to see when Kris got home, her phone chimed for the first time since she'd gotten home from school.
Afraid to get her hopes up, Baekhyun forcefully kept her mind blank as she grabbed her phone and checked the text.
Kris.
r u home?
Baekhyun let out a self-deprecating laugh at that considering she'd basically just been lying by herself, waiting for Kris to get home all evening.
She didn't tell him that, though.
yeah whats up?
It was only a second before Kris replied.
we should talk. can u meet me outside?
Baekhyun felt her stomach roll at the idea that Kris had figured out why she'd freaked out that day. Either that or he was just pissed at her for overreacting. Neither option was favorable.
sure be out in a sec
Rolling off her bed and making sure he hair wasn't going in too many directions, Baekhyun heaved out a sigh before making her way downstairs and outside. Kris was waiting for her at the bottom of his porch steps, hands shoved into the pockets of his winter coat and hair looking like he'd been nervously running his fingers through it (or Sehun had, her mind traitorously added).
“Hey,” Baekhyun said when she was in front of him, wondering how she'd never noticed how much she wanted him to kiss her before. That was an uncomfortable realization. Not that any of her realizations that day had been comfortable.
Kris smiled timidly, like he wasn't sure if she was still angry. Baekhyun felt a wave of guilt hit her that she tried to swallow down for the moment.
“Want to talk in my yard?” Kris asked and Baekhyun found her lips curling into a smile despite her nerves.
“On the swings?”
Kris laughed, shoulders relaxing, “Yeah.”
The swing set was where Baekhyun and Kris had first met in the middle of summer nearly ten years prior. Now, with the ground covered in week old snow and the only light coming from the back porch twenty meters away, it felt like a very different place.
Brushing the snow off both swings with his hands, Kris sat down and gestured for Baekhyun to do the same.
“So...what was today about?” he asked after a moment of swinging lightly, his feet never leaving the ground.
Baekhyun scowled to herself, at herself, and took a breath.
“I'm really sorry,” she began, huffing at herself for being so awkward around Kris, “I overreacted and it was dumb. I'm sorry.”
“I'm not...” Kris paused and Baekhyun looked over to see him swaying forward and backward on the swing, “I'm not mad,” he told her, “I just- is there something wrong with Sehun? Or...I mean, I just was surprised by how upset you were...”
“Are you and Sehun going to date now?” Baekhyun blurted out before she could stop herself, “Is that why you want to know if there's anything wrong with her?”
Kris' eyes widened in surprise, “What? No, I just-”
“She totally wants into your pants,” Baekhyun informed him, pushing off the ground and starting to pump her legs, “I bet she was trying to get you to ask her out all night.”
“Are you...are you jealous of Sehun?” Kris asked and Baekhyun felt her blood freeze.
She scoffed, “Please.”
“Because there's no need,” he went on, apparently knowing her well enough to see past her faked indifference, “First of all, I'm not dating her, nor do I plan to. And second, you're my best friend, Baek. You're more important to me than her.”
“Well, she plans to date you,” Baekhyun argued, feeling a little warmed by Kris' reassurance, but still perturbed by Sehun's general existence, “And how do you know your feelings aren't going to change? If she calls you oppa enough times, you might cave.”
“She can plan all she wants, but it doesn't mean I'm going to date her,” Kris pointed out and Baekhyun could feel his eyes on her as she continued to swing.
“You never know,” Baekhyun insisted, “Or what about Zitao? She wants to date you too. If Sehun strikes out, Zitao will try next.”
“I'm not going to date Zitao either...” Kris sounded mostly confused and Baekhyun mentally face-palmed at Kris' inability to realize when people were trying to get into his pants.
“If it's not Sehun and Zitao, it'll be someone else,” Baekhyun pointed out.
“It definitely wouldn't be Sehun and Zitao,” Kris said, bewildered and Baekhyun fought against the image of all three of them together, “And anyway, so what if it was someone else? What's the problem? I dated Jessica before and it wasn't a problem.”
“It wasn't a problem then,” Baekhyun told him, pumping her legs harder, “I mean. It was. No. It wasn't. And it's not a problem. But don't date Sehun. She's so young and, like, Sehun. She's been trying to manipulate you into bed all year. I don't trust her.”
“I don't think she's been trying to manip-”
“You are so oblivious!” Baekhyun complained, legs moving faster and swing going higher, “So many girls want you! You just never notice! You might be smart, but you're so dumb sometimes.”
“I don't know whether that was a compliment or an insult-”
“An insult,” Baekhyun immediately clarified.
“Okay,” Kris allowed, seemingly unperturbed by that, but considering he'd been friends with Baekhyun for nearly ten years, it made sense that he was immune to her unapologetic comments, “But I still don't understand why it's such a problem if Sehun or Zitao or whoever wants to date me. Why are you so bothered?”
“I'm not bothered,” Baekhyun insisted with an eye roll that Kris probably didn't see since she was swinging back and forth, “Sehun doesn't bother me. I just wish she'd go away.”
“Why?” Kris asked, still sounding so perplexed by Baekhyun's ranting.
“Because I want you all to myself!” Baekhyun exclaimed before she realized what she'd said and oh. Oops.
Her legs stopped pumping as she instead focused on how her heart was pounding due to her accidental confession.
When she finally got up the courage to look at Kris for his reaction, she was barely even swinging anymore so she could see the way he was watching her with wide, surprised eyes- mouth hanging open a little.
“Wait, are you serious?” he asked, staring at her with disbelief and Baekhyun found herself wanting to hide from the intensity of his gaze.
“Yeah,” she shrugged, trying really hard not to show how her pulse was racing and how much she was both anticipating and dreading his next words.
“So, like, you want me to be your boyfriend, is what you're saying?” he clarified, speaking slowly like he was having trouble comprehending what he, himself, was asking.
Baekhyun shrugged again, too ashamed of her outburst to look Kris in the eye.
“Baekhyun,” he said, needing an answer.
“Yeah, sure,” was her reply and she internally (and, quite possibly, externally) winced at how pathetic and evasive she was being.
Kris was silent and Baekhyun couldn't bring herself to turn her head to see why, fiddling with the swing's chain with fingers stiff from the cold.
“So...” he began, “If you get me all to yourself, does that mean I get you all to myself?”
“I guess if you want,” she mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat and hoping that her flush could be mistakenly blamed on the sting of the frigid air.
“I do,” was his immediate and emphatic reply which had Baekhyun's head snapping up in surprise.
“What?”
Kris' lips lifted in amusement, but the softness of his eyes let Baekhyun know he wasn't laughing at her.
“And you say I'm oblivious.”
When Baekhyun didn't say anything, he continued.
“Baek, I've been in love with you since eighth grade.”
Baekhyun knew she must have looked like an idiot gaping at him like she was but...well, that was a lot to take in.
“But...you dated Jessica!” she blurted out, a high-speed montage of the past few years playing in the back of her mind.
“You were dating Chanyeol,” Kris said with a shrug of a shoulder and oh, okay. That made sense.
Then the mental montage came to a screeching halt as Baekhyun gasped in horror.
“But I told you about sucking him off!” she hissed, mortified and ashamed all at once. She never would have rubbed something like that in his face had she known...but would she have even been with Chanyeol if she had known?
“Yeah...” Kris said with a chuckle that sounded kind of pained.
“Shit, I'm sorry,” she lamely apologized, feeling like a moron, but then Kris was smiling at her and she realized that there were more important things to be addressed than the fact that she may have over-shared in the past.
Kris stood up for his perch on the swing, still looking at her with his gummy smile, and offered her his hand.
“So, does this mean we're dating now?” he asked, pulling her to her feet so she was standing in front of him and looking up to hold his gaze.
But since when was Kris the smooth one? Since never, that's when.
Instead of answering, Baekhyun bravely hooked a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss him- chuckling against his lips when he made a noise of surprise when their mouths met.
“That's a yes?” he ventured when they pulled apart, grinning at her and making it impossible for her not to smile back despite the fact that her toes had gone numb ages ago.
“Don't be stupid,” she laughed and leaned up to kiss him again.
÷
Baekhyun let out a contented sigh as she stretched her arms over her head, feeling the pull of sweaty sheets against her back.
“Well, that was enjoyable,” she observed with a smirk, looking over to Kris who was on his back beside her with one hand raking through his hair as the other rested against her pelvis under the covers.
He let out an incredulous puff of air that probably meant you don't say.
Baekhyun laughed, but stopped when she thought of something.
“Hey, Kris,” she said, rolling onto her side to look at him and watching as he turned his head to meet her eyes.
“Yeah?”
“I have something really important to tell you,” she informed him solemnly and he seemed to snap out of his pots-coital daze really quickly- gaze sharp.
Pausing to emphasize just how life-altering her next statement was, Baekhyun watched Kris' brows furrow as he waited for her to continue.
“Since you're my best friend, and boyfriend,” she began, “There's something you should know.”
Kris nodded, looking serious.
“I just lost my virginity,” she told him with a straight face, observing the way Kris' expression morphed as what she said sunk in.
“Oh my god, Baek,” he laughed, gently pushing against her shoulder with the tips of his fingers in some sort of revenge for making him sweat...in a bad way, this time.
Baekhyun cackled. And she'd thought her day couldn't get any better. She'd clearly proven herself wrong.
Kris leaned over to kiss her to stop her from laughing at him and she was completely fine with that. She'd probably laugh at him again later. When the warmth blooming in her chest died down, that is.
“You're awful,” he mumbled against her lips, only affection in his words.
Baekhyun laughed into the kiss, “I know.”
A/N:
Title taken from Billie Holiday's song of the same name.
One
Author: Anonymous until 1/30/14
For: candiedwebs
Pairing: Baekhyun/Kris [side: past!Baekhyun/Chanyeol, Baekhyun/Suho, Chen/Lay, Kris/Sehun, past!Kris/Jessica]
Word Count: 8,419
Summary: Kris is Baekhyun's best friend. He's also an idiot. This is a problem.
Warnings: girl!Baekhyun, girl!Jongdae, girl!Sehun, girl!Tao, girl!Kai
Rating: PG-13
One
Baekhyun flopped back on her mattress, blowing her too-long bangs out of her eyes. She had another chapter to study in her history textbook, but she was feeling too burnt out and unfocused at the moment to even think about doing so. She made a grab for her cell phone, but rolled away at the last second and sat up to peer out her window.
It was past eight at night and it was early November, so it was well past sundown and she could see clearly into the window on the second story of the house on the other side of the street- could see the familiar form hunched over his desk, writing furiously while the fingers of his left hand raked through his hair. Baekhyun smiled and reached across her bed for her phone, closing her fingers around it this time and opening her text conversation with Kris.
You're going to make your precious hair all greasy like that, she typed out, hitting send and scooting back to the window to watch the figure jump at the sound of his phone going off.
When he read the message, he immediately turned and met Baekhyun's eyes- knowing just where to look after ten years of living across the street from each other. He was half-laughing, half-rolling his eyes and Baekhyun blew him a kiss. She could see his snort of laughter.
I'm tired of studying. I want ice cream, she sent.
It's November, was the near immediate reply.
So? We don't have to eat it outside!
You're insane, he texted, immediately followed by, Meet you outside in five.
Baekhyun made a heart shape with her arms over her head out the window before rolling off her bed to find some suitably warm socks for the trek to the convenience store.
÷
Baekhyun and Kris had been friends since Baekhyun looked out her window when she was seven and saw the moving van parked across the street. She'd been bored of playing Barbie shoe store at the time, so she'd charged down the stairs and asked her mom for something to take to the new neighbor's house.
Armed with a paper plate of store bought cookies, Baekhyun walked across the street and knocked on the door only to be greeted with a harried looking woman who thanked her and pointed her toward the backyard where she found a boy her age sitting morosely on a swing. Before long, they were engaged in an intense game of the-wood-chips-are-lava and the rest was history.
Ever since, all Baekhyun had to do when she was bored was look out her bedroom window to ascertain if Kris was home and then walk thirty feet for a companion.
Naturally, getting older had changed their friendship a bit- people started asking if they were a couple when they hung out and Baekhyun ended up crying to Kris when she'd broken up with her one serious boyfriend, Chanyeol, sophomore year- but they remained best friends. Well, Baekhyun supposed that Jongdae was her best friend too. Her girl best friend, anyway. And Kris had Minseok. But still. She'd been friends with Kris longer than she'd been friends with Jongdae and he was the person she told first when she'd half-lost her virginity. So that had to count for something.
÷
“Did you see his layup?” Jongdae asked, clutching at her milk carton with passion before digging into her odeng soup, “And then his smile when Kris congratulated him?”
Baekhyun swallowed a mouthful of rice and blinked at her friend. “Yes, I saw. I was there, remember?”
It wasn't uncommon for Baekhyun to attend Kris' basketball games and since she didn't want to be sitting in the bleachers alone, she dragged Jongdae with her. Except lately she hadn't had to drag Jongdae at all since the latter had developed an infatuation with one of the players, Yixing.
“Does Kris ever talk about him?” Jongdae asked for what was probably the fifth time in the last two weeks and Baekhyun sighed.
“Just when he's talking about the team,” she told her again, “He doesn't randomly start to wax poetic about the marvel that is Yixing. He's not you.”
Jongdae stuck her tongue out at her before looking at Kyungsoo was was sitting across the cafeteria table from them, quietly eating his lunch and trying to ignore the insanity as per usual.
“Kyungsoo!” she barked and Kyungsoo slowly raised his head with an unamused look in his eye, “You have lit with Yixing, right?”
“Yeah,” he replied flatly, breaking off a piece of breaded fish with his chopsticks and bringing it to his lips.
“Does he say anything?”
“Well, he doesn't just sit there in complete silence for fifty minutes,” he said, blinking slowly.
Jongdae rolled her eyes at his unwillingness to comply and turned back to Baekhyun.
“But have you seen his hands?” she swooned, “They're so pretty!”
Having already noticed Kris walking by to the leave the cafeteria in her peripheral, Baekhyun reached out and grabbed Kris' wrist, yanking him by the arm and nearly hitting Jongdae in the face with his hand.
“Have you seen these hands?” she asked, waving Kris' hand around in front of Jongdae's face, “They look like serving trays.”
Jongdae leaned back and shot an are you crazy look at Baekhyun who seemed quite pleased with herself.
“Uh,” Kris said after a moment when Baekhyun still hadn't let go of his wrist, “Hi?”
“Hi,” Baekhyun chirped, finally releasing her hold and smiling up at him.
Kris raised his eyebrows as Baekhyun grinned.
“Just needed your hand for a quick demonstration,” she explained as though that was something that he should have expected.
“Alright,” Kris responded with an indulgent smile at the seated girl, shoving the aforementioned hands into his hoodie pocket.
“You can carry on,” Baekhyun told him, amusement coloring her words as she leaned down to spoon some soup into her mouth.
“Right. Okay,” Kris nodded, chuckling a bit and glancing at a softly laughing Jongdae and a completely uninterested Kyungsoo, “Yeah, I'll see you later?”
Baekhyun nodded, smiling winningly (all her smiles were winning, she thought), and giving a small wave.
Hastily pulling his hand out of his pocket, he waved and shot a quick smile at the table at large before loping toward the door.
“So,” Jongdae sang when Kris had caught up with Minseok outside the cafeteria doors, “Your boyfriend seems well.”
Baekhyun raised a brow, “Come again?”
Jongdae gave her a judging look, “Seriously?”
“That's what I should be saying to you,” Baekhyun told her, unimpressed, “Kris and I have known each other for years.”
“So?” Jongdae challenged, looking to Kyungsoo for support, but was met with a bland expression, “You can still date. There's no rule about how long you're supposed to have known someone.”
Baekhyun gave her a look and Jongdae just shrugged innocently.
“Go back to flailing over Yixing,” Baekhyun said to her with a roll of her eyes and Jongdae cackled.
“Can we vote on this?” Kyungsoo interjected, “Because I, personally, have no interest in Yixing's shoe size.”
Jongdae perked up.
“Hey Baek,” she said, “Do you know his shoe size? Can you ask Kris?”
Baekhyun blinked, staying silent for a moment as Jongdae watched her hopefully before cheerily answering, “Nope!”
“Baek!” she whined as Kyungsoo grumbled under his breath, looking incredibly put out.
And Baekhyun happily went back to her lunch.
÷
One of Kris' faults was that we was an idiot. Not an idiot like he was stupid. He was actually quite smart- he did well in all of his classes and knew more languages than any one person had any right to. But he could be pretty oblivious and dense. No one who knew him well would argue this fact.
The thing was, he also had many good points. He was handsome, tall, kind, the basketball team captain, and the smart thing again, to name a few. And those things made him popular with the female gender.
But to get back to his failure to notice the obvious, he didn't realize that he was popular with girls. Sure, he knew he had a lot of friends who were girls- he wasn't that stupid. But he always brushed aside any comment about the fact that most of them wanted into his pants, something Baekhyun pointed out on a regular basis.
Mostly because, lately, it seemed that Kris wasn't available to play along with Baekhyun's spontaneous whims as often.
She felt like every time she looked out her window to see if Kris was home because she didn't feel like doing homework, she'd see him leaving the house with an attractive girl or two flanking him.
Which was annoying.
She wasn't jealous. That was crazy. Especially considering these were just random hangers-on while she was basically his BFF. She was like Minseok with boobs. Or something.
So it wasn't like these girls mattered in the grand scheme of things. But it was still frustrating when she wanted to see if Kris wanted to watch a B-grade zombie movie that she had found online, only to see that he was strolling by with Sehun on one side and Zitao on the other.
Whatever they were going to do wasn't as awesome as whatever Baekhyun had planned. That was for sure.
Even if she wasn't always sure what that was.
÷
“Looking great this morning,” Baekhyun teased when Kris emerged from his house, “Very alert.”
Kris grunted in response, zipping his parka as he lethargically jogged down the porch steps and met Baekhyun on the sidewalk. His eyes were only half open and he looked like he might fall asleep if he stood still for too long, so Baekhyun grabbed his arm and started pulling in the direction of school.
“How come you look more dead than usual?” Baekhyun asked cheerfully, breath visible in the cold morning air.
“Couldn't sleep,” Kris mumbled, mouth not even moving to form the syllables properly like that would have taken too much energy.
“Oh?” Baekhyun stuffed her free hand into the pocket of her coat and fingered the knit gloves that she'd been too lazy to put on before leaving the house.
“Chem test,” was the reply and Baekhyun made a noise of sympathy. Despite his obnoxiously good study habits, chemistry was the one subject that Kris just couldn't seem to master. It wasn't like he was getting a failing grade or anything. An 83% was hardly shameful. But Kris had to work harder to maintain his low B than he did to get an A in most classes and he drove himself nearly insane over it.
After a few minutes of silence and breath puffing into clouds in front of them, Baekhyun hooked her elbow through the arm she had already clamped onto and pulled Kris so he was walking in stride with her, “You'll do great,” she told him, watching as he responded with a scoff that she could see in the air.
But his lips quirked up just slightly and he started to actively put one foot in front of the other instead of just letting Baekhyun drag him along, and Baekhyun grinned. With her hands tucked into the bend of Kris' elbow, she didn't even need her gloves.
÷
Pizza. Yep. It was a must. Baekhyun needed pizza at that very instant or she was going to die.
But she didn't want to order pizza by herself. That was just lame.
Looking out her window, Baekhyun's eyes immediately found Kris' room as she reached for her phone with the intention of texting him.
Except...
Was that Kim Jongin in his bedroom? Wasn't she dating Lu Han? What was she doing in his room?
Before she could stop herself, Baekhyun typed out and sent I want pizza now. Let's make this happen. I'm actually dying.
She watched as Kris leaned across his desk to reach his cell phone and read her message.
Jongin is here right now, but you are welcome to join us ^^
Baekhyun scoffed out loud. She didn't want to join them. She just wanted Kris. To get pizza with.
Nah, I think I'll actually go with Joonmyun. He was pestering me about getting dinner with him sometime anyway, she told him. And glared angrily at her phone when he responded with a simple okay :)
Well, fine. She would go out with Joonmyun. She knew he'd been angling for a second date ever since they kind of accidentally went on a first date to the movies a month ago. At least he would jump at the chance to eat pizza with her. She was not a third wheel, thankyouverymuch.
÷
“Study tonight?” Baekhyun asked as she and Kris exited their one shared class together. Baekhyun had the textbook and notebook held to her chest as she strode along beside Kris, her shorter legs having to take one and a half steps for every one of Kris'.
“Sure,” he agreed, “I don't think the test will be too bad tomorrow, but I definitely want to go over the emperors again to make sure I can-”
“Noona!” a voice interrupted Kris and had Baekhyun turning to find Taemin,a boy from the year behind her, falling into step on her other side, “What class are you coming from?”
“History,” Baekhyun replied with an eyebrow raise that implied that she was doubting Taemin's intelligence (something she did on a regular basis) as she held up her book that clearly said History in big, bold type.
“I can carry your books for you, noona,” Taemin offered eagerly, ignoring Baekhyun's judgmental stare and grabbing for the books in question.
“No, that won't be necessary,” Baekhyun informed him, holding them out of his reach.
“Let me help,” Taemin insisted, still trying to wrestle the books from her hold.
Baekhyun pressed them up against Kris' chest and grinned when he grabbed them without complaint, his arms free since he carried his backpack with him to class.
“Sorry, Taemin,” Baekhyun said to Taemin's pouting face.
“Next time, noona,” he promised, making a turn into the sophomore's hall.
Baekhyun let out a half scoff, half sigh, “Such a pest.”
“Must be such a burden to have admirers following you around all the time,” Kris joked, dutifully carrying Baekhyun's books until she made grabby hands at him to give them back.
Baekhyun snorted, “You're one to talk.”
÷
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!” Baekhyun screeched, letting herself into Kris’ room and flopping face first onto his bed. She knew it might be considered a little weird for her to be having an outburst at her very male friend regarding her boyfriend, but Kris had been her best friend for years. She didn’t want to acquire a whole new best friend just for situations like these. That was impractical.
“What happened now?” Kris asked, sounding way too used to having Baekhyun barge into his room and flail on his bed. The last time this had happened, it had been when Chanyeol had told her that he loved her. And the time before that was when Chanyeol had asked her out.
“We totally did it!” Baekhyun announced, breathless from squirming around and completely messing up Kris’ previously made bed.
Kris’ eyes opened comically wide, “You had sex?”
“No,” Baekhyun told him and he seemed to relax a little in his chair, “Well, I mean. Kind of.”
“What does that mean?” Kris asked warily.
Baekhyun cocked her head to the side like she was thinking even though she already knew what she wanted to say. She knew what they’d done, after all.
“You know we…used our hands before, that one time?” Baekhyun asked, feeling her cheeks heat with the way Kris was watching her- eyes trained on her face and expression serious.
He nodded.
“Well…this time…” Baekhyun had to look away before she could finish, “Isuckedhimoff.”
When she looked back at Kris, his face was carefully blank, though his brows were a bit raised.
“Well, then,” he said and Baekhyun felt a nervous giggle bubble up in her chest.
“I love him,” Baekhyun defended. Just in case Kris was judging her. She wasn’t sure if he was. But just in case.
“I know,” Kris replied, expression softening and this time Baekhyun wasn’t able to stop the almost giddy laugh from coming out, “Did he…?”
Baekhyun shook her head. “His parents were gonna be home soon so….”
“Ah,” Kris nodded, looking thoughtful and Baekhyun almost wanted to ask what he was thinking, but decided against it.
Feeling another surge of ohmygod, Baekhyun flopped around on Kris’ bed again before sitting up to find Kris still watching her.
“You don’t have to feel as though you need to tell me everything about your,” he cleared his throat, cheeks going a little pink, “sex life.”
“Who else am I supposed to tell?” Baekhyun demanded, lower lip stuck out petulantly. Kris was her best friend! He was supposed to share these important moments in her life!
“Don’t you think Jongdae might be more appreciative of this kind of information?”
Baekhyun frowned, “I don’t know.”
Kris looked slightly panicked by her deepening pout, “You can tell whom you want! Obviously! You can tell me. Of course you can tell me. You can tell me anything. You just…you don’t have to, okay?”
Baekhyun felt herself smiling despite her previously dampened spirit.
“Alright,” she replied, deciding that maybe she wouldn’t tell Kris everything that happened between her and Chanyeol, but that she’d tell him if anything huge happened. Like she lost her virginity or something. She’d tell him then.
“Wanna play the new Final Fantasy?” Baekhyun asked, already bouncing to the edge of Kris’ bed toward the TV and gaming system.
Kris grinned, “I got a little further last night.”
“Without me?” Baekhyun demanded, getting up to start the game.
“Just a little,” Kris assured her, “I stopped before anything cool happened.”
“I guess I can forgive you,” Baekhyun told him, sitting back on the messy bed with a controller in her hands.
“You better. It’s my game!” Kris pointed out with a laugh.
“Yeah, but you suck at it,” she teased, laughing as Kris rolled his eyes.
And given that Baekhyun and Chanyeol never ended up having sex before they broke up, Baekhyun never talked to Kris about her sex life again.
÷
Baekhyun leaned against the locker next to Kris', playing with the zipper on her coat and making very obvious huffing sounds.
“Are you done yet?” she complained, hitting the heel of her shoe against the metal locker obnoxiously.
“One second,” Kris replied, a combination of amused and annoyed. But speaking from prior experience, he was more amused than anything else. The only times he got genuinely fed up with her was when he was stressed beyond measure and Baekhyun managed to tease him at exactly the wrong moment. Which rarely happened. She was pretty good at reading Kris' moods.
“But I'm hungry and I don't want to be at school any more. I want to go home,” she whined, pouting at him when he glanced over.
“You'll be okay for another minute,” he laughed, looking entertained when Baekhyun groaned in frustration.
“Hey Baek!” she heard from behind her and she turned to find Joonmyun smiling at her.
“Hi,” she replied, not too thrilled to see him after their less-than-lackluster date the previous Saturday, which she wasn't even sure how she ended up on except for the fact that she hadn't been able to think of an excuse to not go in a timely manner.
“Hello Kris,” Joonmyun added, smile drooping slightly when Kris straightened up at his locker and looked over at him.
Kris nodded in acknowledgment and then went back to loading textbooks into his bag.
Turning back to Baekhyun, Joonmyun's practiced smile was back full force, “Saturday was fun!”
Baekhyun hummed noncommittally because she wasn't sure how to tell him the most vivid memory she had of the date was alternately closing each of her eyes as he talked and watching as it looked like he moved from side to side on the bench he was sitting on.
“Maybe we can go out again this weekend?” he suggested hopefully and Baekhyun thought to herself, no, I am not getting roped into another museum tour wherein Joonmyun rambles about his vacation to Italy.
“Kris and I actually have plans,” she quickly told him, hoping that Kris wouldn't ask her what she was talking about considering they didn't currently have any plans.
Joonmyun's smile faded a little at the edges, but he maintained the expression nonetheless, “That's too bad. Maybe another time.”
“Maybe,” Baekhyun hedged, relieved when Joonmyun bid them goodbye and ambled away to go smile insistently at other people or something.
“We have plans?” Kris teased when he was out of hearing distance and Baekhyun hit him on the arm while making a whining sound.
“I cannot handle another date with him,” she defended, “It was so dull. If I wanted to know about how much better pasta in Italy is than the pasta we ate, I could...I don't know, look up restaurant reviews.”
Kris chuckled, “Did it ever occur to you to tell him that you're not interested?”
Baekhyun rolled her eyes, “Obviously, but...”
“Or does he make up for the lame dates in other ways?” he joked and Baekhyun looked at him quizzically.
“Huh?”
“Come on, Baek,” Kris said with a laugh, “I’m not judging you.”
“Judging me for what, exactly?” Baekhyun asked, feeling something heavy settle in her stomach.
“You know,” Kris waved his stupidly large hands around like that would be enough of an explanation, “Sex and stuff.”
“What sex and stuff?” Baekhyun demanded, getting frustrated and feeling sicker by the second.
“Just…I know you have experience and whatever,” Kris shrugged awkwardly, “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
Baekhyun’s mind was racing. What was he even talking about? Had someone been spreading rumors about her? She knew Joonmyun was eager, but would he really stoop to that level?
“Who said I have a lot of experience?” she asked, toned clipped, but voice coming out weaker than she’d have liked.
Kris seemed even more uncomfortable now that it was obvious that Baekhyun wasn’t just going to laugh it off.
“No one, exactly,” he said, fingers dragging over the bottom of his shirt nervously, “Just…you’ve gone out with a lot of guys-“
“So that means I’ve had sex with all of them?” Baekhyun scoffed, unsure if she was more hurt or angry about the assumptions her best friend had made about her.
“No, just…” Kris ran his fingers through his hair and made the hairsprayed strands go in strange directions, “I know you and Chanyeol-“
“Chanyeol and I never even had sex!” Baekhyun exclaimed, cutting Kris off and trying to resist the urge to hit something or cry.
Because Kris really thought that she’d had sex with all the guys that she’d ever gone on a date with. And, admittedly, there had been quite a number of them since Chanyeol.
Why would he think that? Did he really think she had such low standards? Or that she had so little self respect?
Kris was looking at her in shock now and he looked kind of stupid- like an overgrown goldfish- but Baekhyun couldn’t think over the voice in her head telling her that Kris thought that she was…a slut, basically.
“You and Chanyeol really never…?”
“No,” Baekhyun snapped.
“And you never…with any of those other guys?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
They were quiet for a while and Baekhyun wanted to be vindicated by the way Kris was squirming, but she was too disappointed and hurt to care.
“I just…I thought you stopped talking to me about…that stuff because I told you that you didn’t have to…” Kris started, voice quiet like he was afraid Baekhyun might hit him. It was tempting.
“Well, I kind of did, yeah,” Baekhyun said, “But I would have told you if I’d lost my virginity! You are my best friend and that’s kind of important…”
“Wait- you’re a virgin?” Kris was gaping and Baekhyun didn’t know how that was still a shock given that she just told him she hadn’t had sex with Chanyeol or anyone else. That seemed to say virgin loud and clear, but…
“Yes, I’m a virgin.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Well…yeah.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, Kris,” Baekhyun spat, “I know that must be hard to believe what with how much experience you must have with Sehun or Zitao or whomever-“
“You think I slept with Sehun or Zitao?” Kris asked, looking completely scandalized.
“I don’t know,” Baekhyun scoffed, “I don’t why else you’d be so shocked by someone being a virgin.”
“I’m a virgin, too.”
Baekhyun didn’t know why she felt a wave of relief at the admission, but she did.
“What about Jessica?” Baekhyun pressed, referring to the girlfriend Kris had had for a brief time while she was dating Chanyeol.
Kris almost snorted, “Considering the fact that she broke up with me for Tiffany Hwang, I don't think it's any surprise that we never did...much.”
That made sense.
Kris was looking at her nervously as Baekhyun took everything in.
“I'm really sorry I-” Kris started when Baekhyun was silent for longer than she typically ever was, but she cut him off.
“Yeah.”
She didn't know if she was angry or not. She certainly felt...something. And whatever it was was strong. But she no longer felt like punching Kris in the face. Instead, she just felt...sad.
“Baek, I'm really sorry,” Kris said again and Baekhyun knew maybe it wasn't fair to let him keep apologizing when she'd accused him of sleeping with Zitao and Sehun.
She sighed, “I know. It's fine.”
Kris was looking at her like he knew it wasn't fine, but didn't know what else to say. She shrugged.
“Ready?” she asked lightly and he quickly nodded, slinging his bag over his shoulder and slamming his locker closed.
The walk home was perhaps the most quiet in the history of their friendship.
÷
Baekhyun was having the hardest time concentrating on her trig homework. Which wasn't that odd considering it wasn't exactly Baekhyun's favorite subject. But while she'd normally look across the street and bug Kris, he was the reason why she couldn't concentrate in the first place, so that probably wasn't the best idea.
She just felt restless- unable to let their conversation from earlier in the day go.
Just...the fact that Kris had really gone all this time thinking that she'd been sleeping around bothered her. It really bothered her. Even though he knew the truth now and he'd apologized, she still just felt...icky.
On top of that, the fact that Kris was a virgin was kind of blowing her mind and she wasn't entirely sure why. Because she'd never really thought about whether or not Kris was a virgin before. But now that she knew, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
She'd kind of just figured that he and Jessica had done it at some point when they'd been dating. And she might have occasionally wondered about Sehun and Zitao since they obviously wouldn't have minded getting intimate with Kris (even if he denied the fact that they liked him as anything other than a friend).
“Focus,” she instructed herself out loud. She was getting all bent out of shape over nothing. Kris had made a lot of incorrect assumptions, but he'd apologized. She'd made a few assumptions of her own that were wrong, but now she knew. That was that. There was nothing else that needed to be done or said or thought about. The end.
But Baekhyun still struggled to stop replaying that day's conversation in her head over and over until she eventually fell asleep that night.
÷
Baekhyun was biting her lips and wringing her hands in her uniform shirt when she knocked on the door to Kris' house. She hadn't actually called or texted him before showing up, but she hadn't thought it through much. All she could think to herself was don't cry and just get to Kris'.
When Kris answered the door, she wasn't sure if she was glad it was him who answered or if she wished it had been his mother so that she could have held off the tears for another minute or two. As it was, as soon as Kris took in her uncharacteristically fidgety form and said with concern, “Baekhyun?” she embarrassingly burst into tears.
She barely even registered Kris ushering her in and leading her up to his bedroom. Out of habit, she ended up sitting on his bed as Kris sat down beside her, a hand on her back rubbing soothing circles. Which wasn't usual for him since he wasn't a particularly touchy person, but she couldn't even think about it at that moment as she hiccuped and sobbed and let her tears fall freely.
When she finally felt like she was bringing enough oxygen into her lungs, cheeks wet and itchy from her salty tears, Kris quietly asked, “What happened, Baek?”
She nearly started to cry in earnest again just from the kindness in his voice, but she took a deep breath instead.
“Chanyeol and I broke up,” she said, voice weak and wavering.
Kris made a sound of acknowledgment and kept rubbing her back while she worked to get a hold of herself fully.
“I'm really sad,” she told him, feeling like an idiot because that was probably a given, but that was all she could think. How sad she was.
“It's okay to be sad,” Kris told her, low voice as soothing as his touch, “Breaking up is sad.”
“Yeah,” was all she could get out.
“He doesn't know what he's missing,” he continued, reaching over to his bedside table with a long arm to grab her a tissue.
“I broke up with him,” Baekhyun clarified, taking the tissue gratefully and wiping her nose.
“Oh,” Kris sounded surprised.
“Maybe I'm crazy,” she worried, expressing the fear that had haunted her from the moment she'd told Chanyeol she wanted to break up, “I must be insane for breaking up with him.”
“Why did you?” Kris asked carefully, hand resting motionless on her shoulder now and spreading a comforting heat.
“I don't know!” she nearly wailed, sniffling and dabbing at the fresh tears that had started to make their way down her cheeks, “There just seemed like something was missing.”
Baekhyun took a shaky breath and twisted the tissue in her hands.
“Do you think I'm crazy?” she asked, legitimately worried that Kris would tell her yes. That he'd say she was stupid for ending a perfectly good relationship when she didn't even have anything specific to site that was wrong with it.
“Not at all,” he said easily and Baekhyun looked up at him in surprise, knowing that her eyes must have been bloodshot and her nose was probably bright pink. And she might have normally been worried about the fact that her mascara was most likely running, but this was Kris.
“Why?” she breathed, “I think I'm crazy.”
Kris squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, “Because if you felt like you needed to break up with him, then you needed to break up with him. You did the right thing.”
Baekhyun felt her face crumple and her eyes well up in relief even as Kris seemed to panic that he'd said the wrong thing.
Burying her face in his chest, Baekhyun relaxed when Kris' arms came to hesitantly wrap around her. He didn't give hugs often, but when he did, they were great hugs.
“Thank you,” she sniffled, holding onto the material of Kris' shirt.
She was still sad. Really sad. But she felt better than she had in a long time- since she'd first felt like there was something missing in her relationship with Chanyeol.
Kris made a snorty sound that was probably supposed to mean no problem, and Baekhyun smiled. She felt like things would be okay.
÷
Baekhyun managed to convince herself to let the whole virginity talk (as she'd started referring to it in her head since that had basically been the over-arching theme) go and Kris had seemed so relieved to see her smile at him like nothing had happened the following morning on the way to school.
Things between them had basically been completely normal for the remainder of the week and Baekhyun suspected she was nearly as relieved as Kris was. But then Friday rolled around and all of the tension Baekhyun had been carrying around regarding their conversation finally broke loose.
After school Baekhyun made her way to Kris' locker as she always did since she consistently packed up faster than he did. But when she got there, Sehun was leaning against the locker that she normally leaned on.
“Hey,” she said, making her presence known.
“Hi,” Kris immediately replied, grinning so his gums showed when he caught sight of her. Okay, she felt a little better about Sehun being in her spot.
“Just about ready?” she asked, mostly ignoring Sehun even though she knew it was pretty rude.
“Actually, Sehun and I are going to go to the library so I can help her with an essay,” Kris informed her casually and Baekhyun found herself frowning before he'd even finished speaking.
Sehun was grinning, pleased, and Baekhyun felt like kicking her.
“Thanks for letting me know in advance,” Baekhyun remarked sarcastically and Kris' face fell faster than it had when he'd found out he had the notoriously hard teacher for chemistry that year.
She felt a little guilty, but Sehun was still grinning like she'd won and no, that was not okay.
“I- sorry,” Kris told her, prominent brows creased in concern, “I didn't think you'd really care.”
“Well, it effects my plans, doesn't it?” Baekhyun snapped and Kris looked at a loss for what to do.
“Yeah, you're right,” he agreed, “I'm sorry.”
There was something tight in Baekhyun's chest that made her feel like arguing, but it was nearly impossible to argue with Kris if he wasn't arguing back and was genuinely apologetic when he hadn't even really done anything.
Baekhyun shrugged, pride stinging even if she didn't know why.
“Well, I'm gonna head out then,” she told Kris, not sparing a glance at Sehun, “Have fun at the library,” she added with an eyebrow raise that was far more bitchy than playful.
Before she could hesitate at the hurt look on Kris' face, Baekhyun strode off defiantly, hoping that Sehun saw what nice hips and thighs she had as she walked away. Just because Sehun was like a thousand feet tall didn't mean that she was hotter than Baekhyun. And Baekhyun hoped that Sehun knew it.
÷
Baekhyun was self-aware enough to know that the way she'd behaved was completely out of line and unnecessary. What had she even been thinking? She was embarrassed at how badly she'd overreacted.
But at the same time, the thought of that smug underclassman sitting next to Kris at the library and cutely calling him oppa at any given opportunity had Baekhyun's blood boiling. Sehun would probably scoot too close so their thighs toughed under the table and lean in when he spoke just as an excuse to get close.
And when Kris would, inevitably, walk her home afterward since it got dark so early in the winter, she'd probably coo over how how nice oppa was for helping her and how could she ever repay him?
The thought of Sehun licking her own lips like she ways did and angling for a kiss made Baekhyun want to throw something. So she picked up a pillow from her bed and chucked it across the room with as much strength as she had (which, admittedly, wasn't much). How dare Sehun try to take what was Baekhyun's!
She seethed for a moment, gazing at the sad looking pillow leaning against the wall by her door before she froze in her spot, eyes wide.
Had she just-? Kris wasn't her's. Why was she acting like he was? She was behaving like Kris was her boyfriend and that Sehun was trying to make a move. But while Sehun was trying to make a move, Kris was not her boyfriend. So it was really no character flaw of Sehun's if she tried to get Kris to kiss her tonight (the thought still made Baekhyun sick). And Kris was completely within his right to kiss her if he wanted (but he wouldn't really want too, right?). Because Kris wasn't Baekhyun's boyfriend.
Kris could kiss Sehun, or anyone at all, because he wasn't Baekhyun's boyfriend and he didn't kiss her, so it was okay if he kissed other people. Right.
Baekhyun felt nauseous.
She just wished that Sehun was out of the picture because...she was in the way. Baekhyun just wanted Kris to herself.
Baekhyun stopped where she was pacing at the foot of her bed.
She wanted Kris to herself. She really just wanted him to herself.
That was the most honest thing she'd come up with all night. But when said like that, it sounded like she had feelings for him. It would sound to any outsider that she wanted to date him.
But that was...
completely and utterly true.
Sinking down onto her bed, Baekhyun faced the reality that had probably been staring her in the face for who knew how long. She, Byun Baekhyun, had feelings for her best friend. She wanted Kris to be her boyfriend. She wanted him to pay the most attention to her. She wanted him to tell Sehun and Zitao and any other girl who liked him that he was taken. She wanted him to be her's, plain and simple.
Not so simple, however, was dealing with this realization.
What was she supposed to do now?
÷
An hour later when Baekhyun was lying on her back on her bed staring at the ceiling and very consciously not looking out her window to see when Kris got home, her phone chimed for the first time since she'd gotten home from school.
Afraid to get her hopes up, Baekhyun forcefully kept her mind blank as she grabbed her phone and checked the text.
Kris.
r u home?
Baekhyun let out a self-deprecating laugh at that considering she'd basically just been lying by herself, waiting for Kris to get home all evening.
She didn't tell him that, though.
yeah whats up?
It was only a second before Kris replied.
we should talk. can u meet me outside?
Baekhyun felt her stomach roll at the idea that Kris had figured out why she'd freaked out that day. Either that or he was just pissed at her for overreacting. Neither option was favorable.
sure be out in a sec
Rolling off her bed and making sure he hair wasn't going in too many directions, Baekhyun heaved out a sigh before making her way downstairs and outside. Kris was waiting for her at the bottom of his porch steps, hands shoved into the pockets of his winter coat and hair looking like he'd been nervously running his fingers through it (or Sehun had, her mind traitorously added).
“Hey,” Baekhyun said when she was in front of him, wondering how she'd never noticed how much she wanted him to kiss her before. That was an uncomfortable realization. Not that any of her realizations that day had been comfortable.
Kris smiled timidly, like he wasn't sure if she was still angry. Baekhyun felt a wave of guilt hit her that she tried to swallow down for the moment.
“Want to talk in my yard?” Kris asked and Baekhyun found her lips curling into a smile despite her nerves.
“On the swings?”
Kris laughed, shoulders relaxing, “Yeah.”
The swing set was where Baekhyun and Kris had first met in the middle of summer nearly ten years prior. Now, with the ground covered in week old snow and the only light coming from the back porch twenty meters away, it felt like a very different place.
Brushing the snow off both swings with his hands, Kris sat down and gestured for Baekhyun to do the same.
“So...what was today about?” he asked after a moment of swinging lightly, his feet never leaving the ground.
Baekhyun scowled to herself, at herself, and took a breath.
“I'm really sorry,” she began, huffing at herself for being so awkward around Kris, “I overreacted and it was dumb. I'm sorry.”
“I'm not...” Kris paused and Baekhyun looked over to see him swaying forward and backward on the swing, “I'm not mad,” he told her, “I just- is there something wrong with Sehun? Or...I mean, I just was surprised by how upset you were...”
“Are you and Sehun going to date now?” Baekhyun blurted out before she could stop herself, “Is that why you want to know if there's anything wrong with her?”
Kris' eyes widened in surprise, “What? No, I just-”
“She totally wants into your pants,” Baekhyun informed him, pushing off the ground and starting to pump her legs, “I bet she was trying to get you to ask her out all night.”
“Are you...are you jealous of Sehun?” Kris asked and Baekhyun felt her blood freeze.
She scoffed, “Please.”
“Because there's no need,” he went on, apparently knowing her well enough to see past her faked indifference, “First of all, I'm not dating her, nor do I plan to. And second, you're my best friend, Baek. You're more important to me than her.”
“Well, she plans to date you,” Baekhyun argued, feeling a little warmed by Kris' reassurance, but still perturbed by Sehun's general existence, “And how do you know your feelings aren't going to change? If she calls you oppa enough times, you might cave.”
“She can plan all she wants, but it doesn't mean I'm going to date her,” Kris pointed out and Baekhyun could feel his eyes on her as she continued to swing.
“You never know,” Baekhyun insisted, “Or what about Zitao? She wants to date you too. If Sehun strikes out, Zitao will try next.”
“I'm not going to date Zitao either...” Kris sounded mostly confused and Baekhyun mentally face-palmed at Kris' inability to realize when people were trying to get into his pants.
“If it's not Sehun and Zitao, it'll be someone else,” Baekhyun pointed out.
“It definitely wouldn't be Sehun and Zitao,” Kris said, bewildered and Baekhyun fought against the image of all three of them together, “And anyway, so what if it was someone else? What's the problem? I dated Jessica before and it wasn't a problem.”
“It wasn't a problem then,” Baekhyun told him, pumping her legs harder, “I mean. It was. No. It wasn't. And it's not a problem. But don't date Sehun. She's so young and, like, Sehun. She's been trying to manipulate you into bed all year. I don't trust her.”
“I don't think she's been trying to manip-”
“You are so oblivious!” Baekhyun complained, legs moving faster and swing going higher, “So many girls want you! You just never notice! You might be smart, but you're so dumb sometimes.”
“I don't know whether that was a compliment or an insult-”
“An insult,” Baekhyun immediately clarified.
“Okay,” Kris allowed, seemingly unperturbed by that, but considering he'd been friends with Baekhyun for nearly ten years, it made sense that he was immune to her unapologetic comments, “But I still don't understand why it's such a problem if Sehun or Zitao or whoever wants to date me. Why are you so bothered?”
“I'm not bothered,” Baekhyun insisted with an eye roll that Kris probably didn't see since she was swinging back and forth, “Sehun doesn't bother me. I just wish she'd go away.”
“Why?” Kris asked, still sounding so perplexed by Baekhyun's ranting.
“Because I want you all to myself!” Baekhyun exclaimed before she realized what she'd said and oh. Oops.
Her legs stopped pumping as she instead focused on how her heart was pounding due to her accidental confession.
When she finally got up the courage to look at Kris for his reaction, she was barely even swinging anymore so she could see the way he was watching her with wide, surprised eyes- mouth hanging open a little.
“Wait, are you serious?” he asked, staring at her with disbelief and Baekhyun found herself wanting to hide from the intensity of his gaze.
“Yeah,” she shrugged, trying really hard not to show how her pulse was racing and how much she was both anticipating and dreading his next words.
“So, like, you want me to be your boyfriend, is what you're saying?” he clarified, speaking slowly like he was having trouble comprehending what he, himself, was asking.
Baekhyun shrugged again, too ashamed of her outburst to look Kris in the eye.
“Baekhyun,” he said, needing an answer.
“Yeah, sure,” was her reply and she internally (and, quite possibly, externally) winced at how pathetic and evasive she was being.
Kris was silent and Baekhyun couldn't bring herself to turn her head to see why, fiddling with the swing's chain with fingers stiff from the cold.
“So...” he began, “If you get me all to yourself, does that mean I get you all to myself?”
“I guess if you want,” she mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat and hoping that her flush could be mistakenly blamed on the sting of the frigid air.
“I do,” was his immediate and emphatic reply which had Baekhyun's head snapping up in surprise.
“What?”
Kris' lips lifted in amusement, but the softness of his eyes let Baekhyun know he wasn't laughing at her.
“And you say I'm oblivious.”
When Baekhyun didn't say anything, he continued.
“Baek, I've been in love with you since eighth grade.”
Baekhyun knew she must have looked like an idiot gaping at him like she was but...well, that was a lot to take in.
“But...you dated Jessica!” she blurted out, a high-speed montage of the past few years playing in the back of her mind.
“You were dating Chanyeol,” Kris said with a shrug of a shoulder and oh, okay. That made sense.
Then the mental montage came to a screeching halt as Baekhyun gasped in horror.
“But I told you about sucking him off!” she hissed, mortified and ashamed all at once. She never would have rubbed something like that in his face had she known...but would she have even been with Chanyeol if she had known?
“Yeah...” Kris said with a chuckle that sounded kind of pained.
“Shit, I'm sorry,” she lamely apologized, feeling like a moron, but then Kris was smiling at her and she realized that there were more important things to be addressed than the fact that she may have over-shared in the past.
Kris stood up for his perch on the swing, still looking at her with his gummy smile, and offered her his hand.
“So, does this mean we're dating now?” he asked, pulling her to her feet so she was standing in front of him and looking up to hold his gaze.
But since when was Kris the smooth one? Since never, that's when.
Instead of answering, Baekhyun bravely hooked a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss him- chuckling against his lips when he made a noise of surprise when their mouths met.
“That's a yes?” he ventured when they pulled apart, grinning at her and making it impossible for her not to smile back despite the fact that her toes had gone numb ages ago.
“Don't be stupid,” she laughed and leaned up to kiss him again.
÷
Baekhyun let out a contented sigh as she stretched her arms over her head, feeling the pull of sweaty sheets against her back.
“Well, that was enjoyable,” she observed with a smirk, looking over to Kris who was on his back beside her with one hand raking through his hair as the other rested against her pelvis under the covers.
He let out an incredulous puff of air that probably meant you don't say.
Baekhyun laughed, but stopped when she thought of something.
“Hey, Kris,” she said, rolling onto her side to look at him and watching as he turned his head to meet her eyes.
“Yeah?”
“I have something really important to tell you,” she informed him solemnly and he seemed to snap out of his pots-coital daze really quickly- gaze sharp.
Pausing to emphasize just how life-altering her next statement was, Baekhyun watched Kris' brows furrow as he waited for her to continue.
“Since you're my best friend, and boyfriend,” she began, “There's something you should know.”
Kris nodded, looking serious.
“I just lost my virginity,” she told him with a straight face, observing the way Kris' expression morphed as what she said sunk in.
“Oh my god, Baek,” he laughed, gently pushing against her shoulder with the tips of his fingers in some sort of revenge for making him sweat...in a bad way, this time.
Baekhyun cackled. And she'd thought her day couldn't get any better. She'd clearly proven herself wrong.
Kris leaned over to kiss her to stop her from laughing at him and she was completely fine with that. She'd probably laugh at him again later. When the warmth blooming in her chest died down, that is.
“You're awful,” he mumbled against her lips, only affection in his words.
Baekhyun laughed into the kiss, “I know.”
A/N:
Title taken from Billie Holiday's song of the same name.
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