Chapter Text
Plain and bitter is the two exact words that perfectly describes Baekhyun's current mood as he sits himself by the window of the coffee shop and eyes every human being that passes by in this dreadful spring morning. His laptop is open in front of him with a brightness setting that can potentially blind him and in his browser: lays open millions of tabs filled with research, research and more stupid research, alongside with an email notification that Baekhyun immediately groans in disgust at as his eyes glance towards the screen. Revision. The subject reads bold and capitalized, and he wants nothing more than to just shut his laptop and throw it out in the middle of the busy street.
He takes a sip out of the paper cup in his hand and winces as his tongue is burnt by the hot liquid. He probably should've blown on it a little before drinking and is now he's going to be stuck with a weird tingling on his tongue that will probably last for the next few hours. Resentfully, he hovers his cursor over the email notification and opens the attached document.
Baekhyun is no smartass. He knows his own academic capabilities and he knows that his academic supervisor is the biggest jackass alive as he looks at his thesis draft filled with (harsh) comments and critiques typed in bright red. Some may or may not be necessary. Who gives a fuck about formatting? Obviously not Baekhyun but his supervisor had obviously made a huge deal about the 0.5mm margin that was a little bit off and is “unattractive to look at”—and Baekhyun mentally curses in his head that he doesn’t even see the difference.
Professor Park Jeongsu, Baekhyun whines in his head. Please let me graduate, don’t make my life a living hell like this.
Being in his final year of university means that Baekhyun has less than a year before he is shoved into the real world of adulthood and having set working hours (ew). He had complained to Junmyeon, his senior who graduated a year before him, about how he’s contemplating to throw his laptop out of a window every time his insanely perfectionist academic supervisor gives him a nice grilling over in the comments section of his draft thesis. Junmyeon merely chuckles and gives him the fatherly advice of “kid, you have a storm coming if you think that’s hard”.
Of course Junmyeon would say that. A law school graduate who ranked 4th out of his entire batch and was practically drowning in job offers in his last semester of university, would have a different standard of “difficult” compared to Baekhyun. Baekhyun often wonders if his decision of becoming an English major was a mistake and should’ve followed what his parents wanted him to study and applied for business school but he remembers how much he swore upon himself that he hated the idea of having a desk job. He's grateful for Junmyeon who had encouraged him to go after his dreams back in high school when Baekhyun told the older that he wanted to become an author.
He quickly skims over the comments left by his professor, taking note on which sections he would need to revise and which parts he would need to delete completely. His heart sinks whenever Professor Park tells him to delete a section entirely because he did not damn well research for hours to have his work deleted just like that. Sometimes he wants to fight Professor Park but the man is a professor with a doctorate degree and knows what he’s doing and saying when he says Baekhyun is wrong.
“Fucking smartass man,” He mumbles to himself and closes the email tab. He still has another two hour to kill before his class starts, so he starts to look for anything aside from his thesis that he could do. He tries to remember if his best-friend, Jongdae, is available but he recalls the very obvious death threat that the younger had said if Baekhyun even dared to bother him, because Jongdae has finally found his muse to paint and prepare for his final portfolio and the art exhibition after weeks and weeks of art block.
If Baekhyun is being honest, he would rather not work on his thesis right now. No one would. Especially after Professor Park had just delivered the most critical blow on Baekhyun’s ego and he wishes he wasn’t someone who is stressing over trying to fucking graduate. But unfortunately, if Baekhyun wants to graduate on time and receive his degree at the same time as his current fourth year friends, he will need to get his shit together and just write. He made a promise with Jongdae ever since they were wee elementary school students that they would always graduate together and Baekhyun remembers their elementary school graduation picture, their first graduation together, and that their university graduation picture will be the last picture to complete the frame.
As the stress of final thesis and the thought of graduation hits him, Baekhyun can't help but feel envious towards his juniors. He remembers his own excitement back then and chills run down his spine as the thrill of finally being independent suddenly washes over him. Independent, living alone for the first time, no curfews, no parents and doing everything legally. Now he’s at the bitter age of 22, trying to pretend like he isn’t afraid of what’s about to come next after graduation, whether or not he’ll find a job and be able to pay his rents and bills, or even someone to settle down with and build a family together.
Bitter. Yes, that’s exactly how he feels whenever he remembers the term “settling down”. A term that his mother will never let him live down and pester him with. His brother, who is seven years older than him, had gotten married and now has a son while Baekhyun is changing boyfriend after boyfriend. He remembers quite well how after his brother’s marriage ceremony, his mother had cornered him and asked “who are you dating Baekhyun?” “when are you bringing your boyfriend over?” and the more he’s pressured into dating someone, the more he starts to lose interest in the whole idea of dating overall.
[08:42] Kim Jongdae: where are you?
A LINE message notification pops up on his laptop screen. Jongdae. Baekhyun thinks his best-friend has finally left his cave (Jongdae’s art studio) and wants some real human interaction instead of playing around with the creepy faceless human artist model that he has in there. (In all honesty, the wooden figure freaked the hell out of Baekhyun and Jongdae once, as a joke, placed it near Baekhyun’s head while he was sleeping and Baekhyun screamed bloody murder the moment he opened his eyes.)
[08:43] Byun Baekhyun: cafe near apartment
[08:43] Byun Baekhyun: what are you doing? you finally want human interaction?
It takes a while for Jongdae to reply. The coffee shop manager is already giving Baekhyun the stink eye from how long he’s staying without ordering another cup of coffee but Baekhyun just wants a little something to wake him up for his dreadful morning lecture. Another messages comes through from the background and it was Chanyeol just starting up a ruckus in the group chat so early in the morning. Chanyeol has this habit of messaging everyone ‘good morning’ in the group chat, making sure everyone is awake and not dead in a ditch and prepared for whatever class they have today.
[08:58] Park Chanyeol: Good morning! Lets all wake up and not be late for class today!
Chanyeol was too cheery before 9AM and Baekhyun watches the rows of complaints and disses roll into the group chat.
[09:00] Kim Junmyeon: morning, chanyeol-ah
[09:00] Kim Minseok: how are you this excited on a Tuesday
[09:01] Lu Han: go back to sleep, kid
[09:01] Zhang Yixing: good morning Chanyeol! :)
[09:02] Oh Sehun: shut up hyung
His seniors are up (and so is Sehun, surprisingly) and probably getting ready to get to work or, in Luhan’s case, back to sleep because he’s all the way in London trying to complete his Masters program and Baekhyun always admires the Chinese man’s dedication when it came to education. Like Junmyeon, Yixing had also graduated the year before and currently interns at a music producer’s company. Minseok, the eldest in their friendship circle, and the one with most sensibility, is an accountant for a somewhat prestigious accounting firm. Baekhyun admires all four of his hyungs because just listening to them talk about their jobs and problems they face after graduating from university already makes him want to pee his pants and crawl back home to his parents.
[09:04] Kim Jongdae: i need to eat. starving
Jongdae’s reply finally comes through and Baekhyun switches between the chat window to reply to his best-friend.
[09:05] Byun Baekhyun: good. i thought you wouldve eaten your paint pallette or something since you didnt leave the studio for days
[09:07] Kim Jongdae: funny. i know you have nothing to do right now so can you bring food by to the studo
[09:07] Kim Jongdae: studio*
[09:08] Byun Baekhyun: studo
[09:09] Kim Jongdae: shut up and be quick before i actually eat my paint pallette
Baekhyun logs out of the LINE app and closes his Macbook, gathering all of his belongings and packing it all away into his bag. He goes up to the counter and eyes the food on display and decides that Jongdae deserves a nice and hearty meal after all of those hours cooped inside a cold art studio. So he goes for the minestrone and a nice orange poppyseed muffin to accompany and a cup of coffee to go. Baekhyun laughs at the way the barista draws a small smiley face beside Jongdae’s name.
—-
Venturing the cold streets of Seoul has always been a bitch. Baekhyun hates it, he’s pretty sure everyone does as well. Except Chanyeol who’s practically immune to the cold. He regretted not taking the car with him today because he thought that walking would warm his body more but boy was he wrong. His car’s heater and seat warmer would’ve warmed him up more. By the time Baekhyun reaches the Fine Arts department, he worries if the food he bought for Jongdae has gone cold. He dusts off the small pile of snow that piled on his shoulders and head and ventures through the hallways of the department building to find Jongdae’s art studio.
Admittedly, Baekhyun was sort of glad that he and Jongdae shared the same faculty, though both boys were on the opposite ends of faculty grounds. He remembers the first time Jongdae had asked him to come over to the Department of Fine Arts and check out his art studio and Baekhyun kept on heaving and grunting at every flight of stair and down every long hallway till he finally reaches his destination. Now, his even pitiful 22 year old self still heaves and grunts, especially since he’s carrying food in his arms and has no free hand to grip the stair railing. Shit I need to work out, he thinks to himself.
After a few more minutes of struggling and nearly walking into a few more art students, Baekhyun kicks at Jongdae’s art studio door and waits for his friend to open it for him.
“My saviour,” Jongdae smiles as soon as he opens the door to let Baekhyun into the room. The lighting was harsh and bright and Baekhyun wonders how Jongdae’s eyesight isn’t screwed up from spending hours and hours in here. He notices Jongdae’s paint stained hands grabbing at the paper bag in his arms and hands over the food before he gets any paint on Baekhyun’s coat.
“How’s your portfolio going?” Baekhyun shrugs his coat off and folds it into a neat pile on the floor.
“Good. I got the feeling today so I just went for it.” Jongdae answers taking a big spoonful of minestrone into his mouth. “Thanks for the food, by the way. I’ll pay you back later.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Baekhyun scoffs and takes a seat beside Jongdae in front of a big white canvas. “So is this your latest one?” Jongdae nods. “I like the colours.”
Jongdae takes a few seconds to answer Baekhyun’s compliment as he’s trying to swallow the big chunk of meat in his mouth. Baekhyun has always admired Jongdae’s works. Jongdae’s works were either vivid and explosive in colours matched with harsh brush strokes or soft hues with the gentlest strokes and touches but there was always an essence of Jongdae in every piece of artwork he creates. He’s happy that his best-friend is out of the dreadful weeks of art block because seeing Jongdae mope and sulk around the apartment was a pain in the ass for him as he’s also trying to kick his own writer’s block out of his system.
It’s a little chilly in the studio so Baekhyun scoots over a little to try and latch onto Jongdae’s body warmth. Jongdae doesn’t like closing the blinds in his studio. The big glass windows seeped in the cold air from outside and the heater in the studio barely works. Jongdae likes the view he gets from his studio, from here, he can see almost everything that happens on the east side of campus.
“They say, painting is like a silent poetry and poetry is a painting that speaks.” Jongdae says, his lips curving into a smile. “I like to think that colours by itself can tell my story in paintings.”
“Kim Jongdae, are you really using a quote from Plutarch? On me, out of all people?” Baekhyun snorts and playfully smacks Jongdae’s arm which almost made the younger drop his food on the floor. “Also is this how you woo people? Make them think you’re some sophisticated fucker?”
“Fuck, I always forget you’re an English literature student.” Jongdae groans. “You’re researching his philosophical impact on English literature for your final thesis right?”
“Yes and please never use that quote again,” Baekhyun laughs. “Does that even work on anyone?”
“Surprisingly, yes.” Jongdae smirks. “Got me into Junmyeon hyung’s pants rather well.”
“Okay, stop there.”
“But seriously now, how’s your final thesis going? Is your supervisor still being a pain in the ass?” Jongdae drops the serious question for Baekhyun as he unwraps the plastic off the poppyseed muffin. Baekhyun stomach churns as he remembers the revision that his academic supervisor had sent him this morning and wants to cry in Jongdae’s lap. Jongdae knows that anything related to “final thesis” has been a little sensitive with Baekhyun.
Baekhyun’s eyes wanders frantically between Jongdae and the floor and then at Jongdae’s painting in front of them and then back at Jongdae again.
“Good. I mean, I just got revision from Professor Park again this morning on my first chapter draft.” Baekhyun’s head lowers and goes to play with his shoelaces. “You know the usual.”
Jongdae does know the usual. Just like every other time Baekhyun gets revision from his professor. Jongdae is always stuck and never knows what to do because firstly, he can’t relate on having his work being told to be changed entirely in substance or deleted and second, he knows how Baekhyun busts his ass every night to research, research and research until his eyesight worsens and lives on three hours of sleep. “I’m sorry.” is usually the only thing Jongdae can mutter as he wraps his arm around Baekhyun and pulls his best friend into a tight hug.
“It’s fine, Dae.” Baekhyun rests his head on Jongdae’s bony shoulder. “Honestly, once I graduate, I’m going to shove my thesis papers in his face.”
“You go do that.” Jongdae chuckles and so does Baekhyun and the two spend the next hour talking about anything else aside from Baekhyun’s dreadful final thesis and Jongdae’s sex life because Baekhyun is already scarred enough.
—-
Baekhyun comes into class exactly three minutes before it starts, still trying to catch his breath after sprinting from Jongdae’s art studio to the english literature department. Professor Park liked his students to be on time and Baekhyun also wants a small explanation on the revision that his professor had sent him earlier this morning. He takes a seat besides Myungsoo, his one and only friend in Professor Park’s class and the older flashes a (handsome) small smile at Baekhyun before returning back to his phone.
The clock now reads 11.05AM and it was weird for Professor Park to be late since class had started five minutes ago.
“Where’s the Prof?” Baekhyun whispers to Myungsoo who also has an equally confused look plastered on his face.
“Dunno. He usually sends an email if he isn’t coming to class.” Myungsoo answers, peering his gaze at the doorway. Baekhyun replies with a simple ‘oh’ and goes to open his Macbook and thoroughly read the revision that Professor Park had sent him.
“Is that revision?” Myungsoo asks, his tone a little concerned and surprised as he sees the ocean of criticism all over the document. “Who’s your supervisor?”
“Professor Park.” Baekhyun answers while jotting down dot points on what to research more for his revision. “And yes.”
“That’s a lot.” The older replies. “I don’t think mine gives that much.”
“Who’s yours?”
“Professor Kim Ryeowook.” Answers Myungsoo. Baekhyun can’t help but feel a little jealous because Professor Kim is known for being a sweetheart and instead he’s stuck with a perfectionist supervisor who wants his thesis nothing but perfect.
The two talk briefly about their thesis topics, even though Baekhyun really, really hates talking about his thesis because Professor Park is constantly ruining his ego but Myungsoo is also an English Literature student, so if anyone can relate to his problems on researching and writing, it would be him. Baekhyun forgets about class momentarily before he hears rushed footsteps coming down the hallway and he thinks Professor Park must have overslept and just now made his way to class.
Maybe today was Baekhyun’s lucky day or maybe it was also his unlucky day but the man who just walked through the classroom door was definitely not Professor Park. The entire class had gone silent silent, the girls behind him who chattered continuously about beauty products had fallen shocked in awe as a tall and definitely handsome man walked in. So was Baekhyun.
“I’m sorry for the surprise,” The man speaks loudly to the class and places his leather briefcase on the lecturer’s desk. “Professor Park had to suddenly attend private matters out of town and I will be his replacement.”
Great, just as Baekhyun needed his professor the most to save his ass, his final thesis and his damn ego, the man goes out of town and is replaced by this, this sex-on-legs, attractive, Chinese man. Wu Yifan, he said, as he introduces himself to the class.
“I’m Wu Yifan, you can call me Mr. Wu or Yifan is also alright since I graduated from this university two years ago so I’m not really that much older than you guys.” Yifan chuckles at his lame attempt to be funny and Baekhyun rolls his eyes. Myungsoo looks indifferent towards this and opens his own laptop to prepare for the lecture. The girls however, could not stop gawking over Yifan.
Baekhyun honestly can’t even remember having a senior named Yifan. If he graduated two years ago, that means he would be in the same batch as Minseok and Luhan but Minseok and Luhan are both in different faculties so there would be little to no chance of them actually knowing Yifan. Nonetheless, Yifan was a decent lecturer, though occasionally stuttering in between sentences but it was a given since it was his first and sudden day of lecturing. He knew his shit, that’s what Baekhyun likes in lecturers and also his impeccable fluent English and Mandarin just made Baekhyun more and more fond of him. (yes, his phone rang in the middle of class and Baekhyun heard him speak in the corridor).
In the middle of class, Baekhyun manages to sneak a chance to email Professor Park, asking him about Yifan and consultations regarding his thesis and Professor Park had advised him to go to Yifan since he is his replacement for the next five weeks.
“This guy really knows his stuff,” Myungsoo whispers, eyes still focus on Yifan’s presentation on Plutarch’s “Moralia” references in Montaigne’s “Essays”. Baekhyun also praises the lord because what Yifan is talking right now in class is exactly needed for his research material and the way Yifan is explaining it makes it much easier to understand.
“Plutarch also had a great influence in other works aside from Essays. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists was also heavily influenced by Moralia—” Yifan continued to speak and Baekhyun found himself being more and more immersed into the lecture and attentatively taking notes, not even bothering to check his phone as he usually does.
By 13.00PM Yifan had ended the lecture and dismisses the class. Myungsoo took his leave and said good bye to Baekhyun as the younger was still busy packing his belongings into his bag. The class emptied slowly till it was only Baekhyun and Yifan left in the classroom and Baekhyun thought maybe this was a good time to bring up what Professor Park had said earlier to him.
“Excuse me, Mr. Wu—Yifan?” Baekhyun approaches the older whose busy packing his belongings into his briefcase and rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt. Baekhyun’s eyes might’ve lingered a little too long on Yifan’s arm before he was startled by Yifan’s reply.
“Yes? Can I help you? Call me Yifan, by the way.” Yifan smiles and honestly, Baekhyun is starting to feel even more nervous and just wants to bolt out of the door.
“Um,” He mumbles, scratching the skin behind his ear. “I’m not sure if Professor Park told you about this, but I’m one of the students that he’s supervising for final thesis matters.”
“Oh!” Yifan gasps. “You must be Byun Baekhyun then?” Fuck, Baekhyun curses in his head.
“Yes, that’s me.” He replies and lowers his head. He feels his fucking cheeks burning and his entire face go red.
“Professor Park told me that I will be here for your consultations. As for revisions, if I can remember, he sent you one early this morning right? So why don’t you submit your revised draft to me and I’ll try to catch up on what you have so far.” Yifan is a sweetheart, Baekhyun wants to just cry on the floor because goddamn, fucking Wu Yifan keeps flashing him that gorgeous smile and ruining his ego even more because now he doesn’t want to disappoint Yifan with his crappy writing skills. “Also, please don’t hesitate to ask me anything that you have difficulty with.”
Baekhyun mutters a small okay and leaves the classroom pocketing Yifan’s email and phone number into the pocket of his jeans. He finally checks his phone and sees the top message from his group chat.
[13.10] Park Chanyeol: hey guys, me and kyungsoo are at the courtyard cafe if you guys want to join for lunch!
—-
“Someone go to the arts department and drag Jongdae’s ass here.” Chanyeol groans as he sets down his tray of food onto the table. Kyungsoo flinches as Chanyeol’s elbows nearly smack him in the face because Chanyeol’s big butt tried to fit in between Kyungsoo and Zitao. Lunch was rowdy as always with his usual group of friends. The courtyard cafe is usually where he and his friends meet, being that it’s at the centre of the university grounds meaning an equal distance from each other’s respective faculty.
“Don’t. Jongdae is finally out of his art slump.” Baekhyun speaks, shoving a forkful of jajangmyeon into his mouth. “I brought him food earlier.”
“Seriously?” Chanyeol raises an eyebrow. “I’m glad. Got sick of seeing him mope around the apartment.”
“I hope Jongdae hyung is taking care of himself.” Jongin says in between slurps of his noodles.
“Hey, I hope you’re taking care of yourself, Jonginnie.” Baekhyun barks from his seat at the younger. “I see your dance studio all the way from my department and you have to rest, kiddo.”
“But the art exhibition is soon, hyung. I have to practice. I have the main role.”
“Is Jongdae getting ready for the art exhibition?” Kyungsoo asks. “Is that why he’s all cooped up in that haunted art studio?”
“I’m guessing.” Chanyeol answers. “I mean, all of the art, music and performing arts student have to—Zitao, that was my last piece of meatball!” Zitao snickers as Chanyeol tries to steal a piece of meatball off of Zitao’s plate.
“I wonder what the theatre kids are preparing this year,” Kyungsoo continues to munch on the plastic chopsticks. “I teared up during last year’s performance."
“Woohyun hyung was amazing last year.” Baekhyun says. “I’m sad he’s graduated now.”
“It’s weird. First Minseok hyung and Luhan hyung graduated and now Junmyeon hyung and Yixing hyung graduated. Next year, we won’t be here—” Chanyeol sighs, letting his shoulders droop. “Things are moving too fast. I'm not ready.”
“I won’t miss you at all, hyung.” Both Sehun and Zitao unanimously speak up at Chanyeol and the older reaches his arm out to pull at Sehun’s platinum blond locks. Zitao had gotten up quick enough and escaped Chanyeol’s attempt to pinch his cheeks and went to the counter to get a carton of milk. Sehun winces as his senior tugged roughly on his hair.
“Brat.” Chanyeol pouts. “No wonder Jongin is my favourite dongsaeng.” and Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. Baekhyun continues to eat his jajangmyeon uninterrupted and thinks over Chanyeol’s remark about how weird it would be for them to not be at the university daily after graduation. It’s terrifying yet there lies a sense of freedom behind it but also obligations as he’ll have to find a career and work and live the actual adult life. Baekhyun suddenly remembers about Yifan.
“Hey, do any of you know a Wu Yifan?” Baekhyun asks his table of friends. Zitao returns from the counter with a carton of milk that was aggressively snatched by Chanyeol.
“Wu, who?” Kyungsoo asks while gulping down his orange juice.
“Wu Yifan.”
“Oh! I know him!” Zitao exclaims. “He’s Luhan gege’s friend and—Chanyeol hyung, go away! You’re spilling milk everywhere!—where was I?”
“He’s Luhan hyung’s?”
“Right! He is Luhan ge’s friend from his Korean classes. Well, mine too.” Zitao continues. “But I think he was on an exchange to Canada at the start of his third year and only returned back to campus in his fourth year.”
“So he wasn’t here for the entire year when I was in my first year?” Baekhyun asks. “No wonder I don’t know him.”
“Why do you ask, hyung?” Sehun cocks his eyebrow up.
“He’s replacing Professor Park for the next five weeks and he’s my temporary academic supervisor.” He explains and toys around with a leftover piece of soggy vegetable in his bowl.
“He’s really handsome,” Zitao adds. "A lot of girls fawn over him."
“I noticed.”
“Baekhyun, don’t think about hitting on your lecturer.” Chanyeol teases at the older and earns himself a smack from Kyungsoo because he’s moving the table around so much.
“As if.” Baekhyun denies Chanyeol's crude statement, yet he feels the red growing on his cheeks. “Like, yeah, of course he’s attractive and all but I need him to—”
“Fuck you into your mattress?”
“No, asshole, to help me with my final thesis.” Baekhyun wants to murder Chanyeol’s unfiltered mouth. “God, you have no decency, Yeol.”
“Hyung your face is turning red,” Jongin rests the back of his hand on Baekhyun’s cheek. “Are you catching a fever?” Chanyeol bursts into a fit of laughter, earning nasty looks from the other group of students who are gathered at the courtyard cafe and it was safe to say that Baekhyun received a handful of teasing from Chanyeol and he swears he’ll change the lock to their apartment door so Chanyeol will sleep his ass out in the cold corridor.
—-
Later on that night Baekhyun finds himself sitting cross legged on the floor with a whining Sehun in his living room. The younger has pestered Baekhyun into letting him into his apartment because he was lonely and Luhan, Sehun’s boyfriend, was still in class and couldn’t attend to Sehun’s needs and pleas.
“I swear, if Luhan hyung comes back with a sexy British accent, I'll die.” Sehun coos as he scrolls through his messages with Luhan. “Last time we spoke, he sounded more sexy.”
“Okay Sehunnie,” Baekhyun replies, his eyes not daring to leave the laptop screen as he reads through paragraphs and paragraphs of scholarly journals. He’s desperately trying to remember if he’s read this sentence before or not.
“Seriously hyung,” Sehun whines again and rests his chin on top of Baekhyun’s coffee table. “What if he gets more sexy and leaves me for someone else?”
Baekhyun only hums and decides to ignore his junior’s whines and complaining on how hard maintaining a long distance relationship is. Baekhyun wouldn’t know. He’s been single for a good five months now and his last date had ended up horribly wrong that he seriously just wanted to shove aside all thoughts of his critical dating life. (Courtesy of Chanyeol, for setting him up with the most incompatible person alive).
“Hyung,” The younger visibly pouts. “Are you even listening to me?”
“I am,” Baekhyun replies, tucking a strand of his brunet hair behind his ear. “You complain about the same thing ever since Luhan hyung left for London tho—ah shit!” Baekhyun curses as he accidentally closes a tab that he was reading and quickly tries to recover it.
“But what if it’s true, hyung? What if he leaves me for someone better?”
Baekhyun gives up on reading whatever article he was on. The language was hard anyway and he wasn’t in the mood to try and understand complex academic literature on an empty stomach. He pushes the laptop off of his lap and gets up to place it on the coffee table beside Sehun.
“I’m sure he won’t, Sehunnie.” Baekhyun smiles and ruffles Sehun’s hair and for once the younger didn’t bite him for messing up his perfectly styled hair. “When two hearts are meant for each other, no distance is too far, no time too long and no other love can break them apart.”
“You’re so corny, hyung.” Sehun smiles and hides his face in his arms.
Baekhyun chuckles at the younger and makes his way towards the kitchen. “Shut up. Now help me make dinner, Chanyeol and Jongdae will be back soon.”
—-
With the art exhibition just around the corner, Baekhyun finds himself more lonely as most of his friends are intensely preparing for one of the most eventful day of the year. In the mornings and afternoons where he didn’t have class to attend, he’d find himself having the apartment all to himself as Jongdae nowadays only comes back to shower and change into a new set of clothes before dashing back out to the art studio and Chanyeol only returns in the evening after practicing in the music studio.
He finds himself seated by the window of the department’s cafeteria, laptop opened in front of him, mass piles of articles stacked beside and as always, a hot cup of black coffee. Yifan had emailed him a list of articles to check out for reference to his research and Baekhyun had taken the liberty to print it out (and kill an entire forest, a girl had obnoxiously pointed out at him back in the printing place) because he finds it rather difficult to read digitally and he really just liked highlighting shit because it made him seem more academic and intelligent.
Jongdae had commented on Baekhyun’s preferred method of “book researching” rather than online researching and called him a “fucking neanderthal jackass”.
Yifan so far has been nothing but helpful towards Baekhyun, even though Baekhyun is almost always distracted during their consultation sessions because God, Baekhyun wants to personally thank Yifan’s parents and whatever lead the older to become Professor P(oop)ark’s teaching assistant. He quickly types down the summary of the paragraph he just read into a word document before he forgets and that’s when his eyes catches the figure that just walked through the cafeteria doors.
He watches Yifan walk up to the counter and talk to the cafeteria lady. There’s a little jealousy growing at the bottom of his stomach as he watches Yifan flash his gummy smile at the ahjumma who playfully smacks Yifan’s arm. He probably just told some cheesy compliment or joke like he always does. Baekhyun only rolls his eyes and goes back to reading his article before Yifan notices that he’s been staring at him. He watches the wave of LINE notifications that’s coming through his laptop. Chanyeol had just sent the group chat a picture of Sehun’s ass, clad in tight white pants and a noticeable brown smudge on his left side. Look, Sehun shat himself Chanyeol had typed that as a caption accompanying the photo which caused Jongdae and the other hyungs to tease the youngest and Sehun kept on convincing everyone that he accidentally sat on Zitao’s chocolate bar.
Minutes later Chanyeol also uploaded a picture of Zitao’s ugly laughing face into the group chat.
[13:43] Huang Zitao: DELETE
[13:45] Kim Jongdae: CHANGE IT TO THE GROUP’S PICTURE
[13:45] Byun Baekhyun: whats up with your face zitao its living up to luhan hyungs
[13:47] Lu Han: I’m glad to know nothing has changed since I graduated
Baekhyun chuckles and proceeds to save the two embarrassing pictures of his juniors for future blackmailing needs. He doesn’t notice Yifan walking towards him until the older calls out his name in that deep, husky voice of his Baekhyun is regretfully attracted to.
“Baekhyun!” Yifan calls out causing the younger to snap his head around so quickly to look at Yifan. He's surprised his neck hasn't sprained. Oh how Yifan's so fashionable today. A nice white turtleneck paired with a cream coat and slim fit black pants that hug his long legs nicely. He should definitely be a model rather than a teaching assistant for English Literature.
“Hi!” Baekhyun squeaks out and he thinks, what the fuck was that, at the sudden inhuman noise he just let out.
“Is this seat taken?” Yifan gestures at the empty seat in front of Baekhyun and Baekhyun shakes his head, motioning for Yifan to sit down. He scoots his belongings a little closer to him, giving table space for Yifan to place his food and drink down. The older says thank you as he takes his seat in front of Baekhyun and slides the coat off of his shoulders.
“I see you’re reading the articles I recommended you,” Yifan says, taking a sip out of his coffee. “Ah, so bitter.”
Baekhyun wants to laugh and comment on how weak Yifan is at taking his coffee.
“Yeah, they’re really helpful. Thanks a lot.” Baekhyun smiles at the older and tucks his hair behind his ear nervously. “I never even thought about discussing Pseudo-Plutarch.”
“Glad to be at help.”
“But the language is kind of hard to understand.” Baekhyun nervously chuckles, now moving to twirl the end of the paper in between his fingers. “If only they wrote these kind of articles in Korean.”
“Don’t we all.” Yifan throws his arms over his head to straighten his back. He groans at the amazing feeling of his back cracking and Baekhyun catches a flash of milky white skin as Yifan’s sweater rode up a little. “I never saw you as the type of guy who likes their coffee black.” Yifan points out.
“Yeah well,” Baekhyun mumbles. “Strongest coffee to keep me awake.”
“You must think I’m a wimp cause I said a cappuccino was bitter yet you’re taking it black with no sugar and no milk.” The older chuckles, turning his face to the side to look out the window and Baekhyun admires Yifan’s side profile that was bathed under the gentle afternoon ray. Breathtakingly beautiful— just like the way he feels when he sees one of Jongdae’s finished artwork. If he could paint, he’d paint this moment forever. This, this is what a date with Wu Yifan feels like—and he feels himself shrink to the size of a pea and cheeks growing red at the thought. Maybe this is a good opportunity to ask if he’s going to the art exhibition or not.
“Yifan...hyung.” Baekhyun calls out and the older who was engrossed in watching two students snowball fighting outside turns his head and focuses back on Baekhyun.
“Yes, what is it?”
“I—don’t think you’re a wimp cause you said cappuccino was bitter.” He chickens out and he only feels his face heat up even more. “I just, didn’t even see you as someone who even drinks coffee.”
“In all honesty,” Yifan leans forward onto his elbows, eyebrows scrunching up in a serious thinking expression. “I prefer alcohol better.”
Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Who doesn’t?”
“Is there a thing where you mix coffee with alcohol? Is that socially and morally acceptable?”
“There is.” Baekhyun sighs. “It’s called Irish coffee but, I doubt you’d want to drink that before a lecture, Yifan hyung.”
“If I come to lecture and I’m drunk it’s totally your fault, Byun Baekhyun.” The older teases and quickly downs his cup of coffee and checks the time on his watch. “Oh, I have to go. 3PM lecture.” Yifan gets out of his seat and puts on his coat, doing last minute checks and making sure he doesn’t leave anything behind. Baekhyun watches Yifan’s fingers thread through his blond hair, pushing it back and fuck, he looks ethereal.
“Tell me about your progress okay? I look forward to your revised first chapter.” Yifan waves goodbye and dashes out of the cafeteria before Baekhyun has the chance to say goodbye. The last of his concentration had dissolved the moment Yifan had taken the seat in front of him so he called it a day and packed up and followed suit, leaving the cafeteria and makes his way to the parking lot.
—-
“Baekhyun hyung,” A voice and the sudden vice grip on his arm snaps Baekhyun out of his daydream. “You almost rammed the cart right into that woman.” Sehun scolds while he ducks his head, apologizing to the old woman that Baekhyun nearly rear ended.
“Sorry, I was thinking of what to get next.” Baekhyun apologizes and picks up his speed.
“You seem so distracted today—ah, get that cereal for me.”
“Are you sure you want this?” Sehun lets out a persistent nod and Baekhyun throws the box into the pile of groceries in their cart. Despite being 20 years old and a whole head taller than Baekhyun, Sehun is sometimes like an excited small puppy. Sometimes it was still a little hard for Baekhyun to believe that Sehun is a legal adult and, regretfully, a super sexy and handsome one though externally, he looked like he’s had his emotions ripped out of his ass.
“Hyung,” Sehun whines and interrupts Baekhyun who was busy going through the groceries list. “Can you go and get me the flea ointment from the next aisle? I’m too embarrassed to.”
“What? Flea ointment?” Baekhyun asked in confusion. Sehun’s face had gone beet red and hastily clamped his hand over Baekhyun’s face so the older wouldn’t mutter one more word.
“Be quiet! People are going to hear hyung!” He hisses, burying his face into Baekhyun’s shoulder to hide embarrassment. “You heard me loud and clear.”
“Why do you even need flea ointment?” Baekhyun smirks, purposely raising the volume in his voice to tease the younger and watch as Sehun squirms trying to clamp his hand over Baekhyun’s mouth. “See, this is why you shower daily, Sehun-ah.”
“No, fuck—it’s all stupid Jongin’s fault—hyung please get it for me cause what if some girls from university see me?”
“Sehun you’re gay—”
“So? Doesn’t mean I can’t be popular with the ladies. Now please, hyung, get it for me before we—I start a scene in the cereal aisle.”
“Fine. Brat. You owe me.” Baekhyun pockets the grocery list and storms off to the next aisle. Sehun yelled out a loud “I love you hyung!” as Baekhyun makes a turn to general medicine aisle.
“They all look the fucking same,” Baekhyun curses underneath his breath as he squints his eyes to get a better read at the different ointment packages. Sehun didn’t even mention which brand of ointment he needed or what it even looked like at least so now he’s stuck there like a deer caught in headlights. He’s pretty sure all of these ointments work the same, regardless of the brand or packaging or whatever. Baekhyun doesn’t understand why Sehun doesn’t just ask the store employees if he wants to save face and dignity so much.
“Excuse me—” He calls out at one of the employees who was busy restocking the shelf before his words die in his mouth as he saw Yifan turn the around the corner, shopping basket in hand and happily chattering away on the phone. Out of all places, this has got to be the worst place to have run into the one lecturer Baekhyun has an awkward semi-crush on.
Baekhyun tries to fight the urge to bolt back to where Sehun is because one, he’s deemed himself “not presentable” (or in Sehun’s hip simple lingo: Messy) to meet Yifan who constantly looks like a runway model and two, he’s holding numerous packages of flea bite ointments and Yifan is and will think he’s the one with flea bites instead of his dumbass dongsaeng who was too scared to get it by himself.
However Baekhyun likes to think that he’s a mature adult (by law, he is) and sees that this is probably not even a big deal. Everyone has their own little emergency problems that they need to deal with and at least it’s not laxatives to cure a week long constipation. So he decides to remain cool, which, of course, backfires on him completely as he couldn’t control his arms and knocked over the entire content on the shelves onto the store and his little yelp, the store employee’s death glare, and Yifan hanging up his phone call meaning that he heard everything, didn’t exactly help ease the situation on Baekhyun’s already unstable emotional state.
“I’m so sorry,” Baekhyun whispers as he kneels to the floor helps the store employee clean up Baekhyun’s mess. His cheeks are burning and he’s pretty sure he’s about as red as the colour of the employee’s uniform. The employee chuckles before muttering “it’s okay” and diligently gets back to reshelving the packages. Baekhyun only prays that Yifan didn’t see him or else he’s ready to do a 100M dash back to his car in the parking lot.
Thankfully, Yifan was too busy looking at different shampoos for him to notice that Baekhyun literally took down nearly half of the shelf onto the floor. He prays to an unknown god out there and says his thanks on saving his ass from making a fool out of himself in front of Yifan.
Or so he thought.
“Baekhyun?” Yifan readjusts the glasses that’s perching low on the bridge of his nose to get a better look at the younger. God, he’s so cute. Baekhyun groans and wants to die internally. Yifan’s making his way over towards Baekhyun and Baekhyun is completely frozen in place as he watches the older close in. He quickly hides the ointment in his hands behind his back and presses himself against the shelf. The employee lets out an audible gasp as Baekhyun backs into the shelf, worried if the contents will fall onto the floor again.
Baekhyun never thought about how uncool and lame he truly is.
“Hi!” He squeaks again, feeling his neck constrict as if the wrap of his scarf had been too tight.
“Why do you look so pale? Are you sick?” The older asks as he stops in front of Baekhyun and leans down a little to examine the younger’s face. “You’re not overworking yourself on that final thesis aren’t you?”
“N-no,” Baekhyun squeaked for the third time in the last ten minutes. What the fuck, Baekhyun. He cursed to himself and tried to avoid any eye contact with Yifan. “I’m okay,”
“Hey, stay still for a minute,” Yifan says while taking a step forward towards Baekhyun. Baekhyun didn’t think it was possible to back-up even more into the shelf without causing a denture in the metal behind him. Yifan reaches his hand out and his long fingers thread to the side of Baekhyun’s head, combing through the brunet locks and tickling his ear. Baekhyun’s heart is on the verge of jumping out of his chest right now. Is he going to kiss me? What do I do? Oh god. Should I close my eyes?
“Why do you look so scared?” Yifan finally speaks up again after several seconds of silence, eyebrows cocked up in confusion. Baekhyun finally has the courage to open his eyes and he sees the yellow price sticker stuck on Yifan’s fingertips. “The price sticker must’ve stuck gotten stuck to your hair when you backed into the shelf.” He watches Yifan roll the sticker into a tiny ball and tosses it into his shopping basket.
“Oh,” Baekhyun mutters, finally feeling like he’s able to breathe and move. “Thanks, Yifan hyung.”
“No problem,” The older smiles and dusts his fingers on his coat. “Didn’t expect to run into you here though.”
“Yeah, my apartment is close by and I’m out shopping for monthly groceries with a friend,” Shit. Sehun . The brat is probably pouting and waiting for him.
“I see,” Yifan wonders. And before Yifan could say another word to Baekhyun, Sehun yelled out, like the indecent brat he is and saves Baekhyun’s ass from humiliating himself.
“Baekhyun hyung!” Sehun shouts from the end of the aisle with a visible pout and is clearly munching on a grape that he had picked off the shelf. “What’s taking you so long to just get flea ointment?”
Oh my god, Sehun. Baekhyun grips the tube in his hands so hard that he’s not even surprised if half of the contents in it squirts onto the floor but the fact that Sehun had just yelled out down to the entire aisle (or even the entire fucking supermarket) that he was there to get flea bites ointment, which, if traced back to the original story, was meant for Sehun and Yifan heard as clear as day and raised his eyebrows before softly asking Baekhyun “flea ointment?” with a worried look plastered all over his face made him want to dig a hole and bury himself in it.
“I have to go!” Baekhyun mutters nervously and he struggles to move alongside the shelves, praying to hide the flea ointment behind his back out of Yifan’s sight. “It was nice seeing you! I’ll email you about my revision soon!” He says one last time in a very, very weird high pitch voice, before he quickens his pace and Yifan can only stand still and awkwardly wave goodbye as he watches Baekhyun rejoin his friend, smacking him on the back which made his friend let out an audible yelp.
“Bitch! What was that for?” Sehun curses, one hand pushing the cart and the other caressing the sharp pain on his back from where Baekhyun had slapped him hard.
“Watch your mouth, brat.” Baekhyun hisses, ducking his head to hide under his scarf. Baekhyun just wants to go to the check out right now and leave and not return again for at least a year. There were plenty of other supermarkets anyway.
“Who was that? Hyung, your face is so red—” Baekhyun lands another hard slap on Sehun’s back.
“Just, let’s get out of here before you fucking embarrass me even more.”
“But there’s a sale on galbi, hyung. I promised Chanyeol hyung to pick that up for him—” Sehun whines while having his arm tugged away by Baekhyun.
“Galbi is the least of my problems right now, Sehun-ah.” Baekhyun scolds, his face is still burning red and ignoring all of Sehun’s protests about how Chanyeol will be mad at him if Sehun didn’t get the galbi because Sehun had promised (Sehun had eaten Chanyeol’s last piece of galbi last time and he felt apologetic) so Baekhyun gave in, telling him to quickly run to the meat section and go grab it while he stands at the checkout line because all he’s thinking about is getting the fuck out of that supermarket and crawl underneath his blankets in bed.
—-
“I heard from Sehun you nearly died in the pharmacy aisle,” Chanyeol teases as he helps Baekhyun bring the groceries into their kitchen. Jongdae was setting at the dining table with his sketchbook and and laptop open in front of him, ignoring his two roommates chattering about in the kitchen and pays no mind to help unpacking the groceries but Baekhyun knows Jongdae is hard to budge when he’s concentrated.
“That brat,” Baekhyun hisses as he stands on his tiptoes to try and store the cereal on the top shelf. “Yeol, help.”
“So you ran into that hot TA of yours while buying flea ointment?” The younger asks and Baekhyun rolls his eyes because Sehun must’ve been messaging with Chanyeol when they were in the car and if Baekhyun had known earlier, he would’ve dropped Sehun off in the middle of the highway.
“Why were you buying flea ointment?” Jongdae perks up from the dining table. “I told you to change your bedsheets every two weeks.”
“For your information, it was for Sehun because he was too embarrassed to go and get it by himself.” Baekhyun defended himself. Chanyeol lets out an excited gasp as he raids through one of the grocery bags and finds his promised galbi and hugs it tightly against his chest.
“And your TA caught you while you were buying it?” Jongdae raises his eyebrows, attention now focused fully on Baekhyun. “Since when were you this awkward, Byun Baekhyun?”
“Yeah, don’t you usually come on to guys you’re sexually interested in rather boldly?” Chanyeol winks at him and lands a playful smack on Baekhyun’s ass.
“Hey, that incident with you, was years ago and I was drunk off my ass. I would’ve grinded up on Sehun if I was that drunk.”
“Yeah but you would’ve probably ended up behind bars because he was what? 17 at that time?”
“Okay, enough, I don’t want to hear about that right now.” Jongdae interrupts, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “You’re both so fucking nasty.”
“Like you and Junmyeon hyung aren’t nasty, Jongdae, don’t talk like you’re the purest.” Chanyeol laughs and a slipper smacks the back of Baekhyun’s head as the taller male ducks and uses Baekhyun as a shield from Jongdae’s flying house slipper.
Baekhyun smacks the side of Chanyeol’s head with the slipper for using him as an impromptu shield because Chanyeol is being more of a hindrance than helpful right now and he’s scared that he will knock over the eggs he just bought onto the floor. But Baekhyun does miss this. It had been a while since the three of them were spending the night at the apartment. Usually it was just Baekhyun alone in the big three bedroom apartment but now it’s lively and his stomach sinks in thinking that this is their final year of university and who knows how many more nights can he spend like this.
“Have you guys eaten dinner, by the way?” Baekhyun asks after he’s stopped smacking Chanyeol with the house slippers. “We haven’t eaten dinner together as a three in such a long time.”
“I had a late lunch today but I don’t mind,” Jongdae replies. Chanyeol shakes and immediately offers to cook because Baekhyun had finally gotten off his ass and did the groceries so Chanyeol wanted to get creative and cook a nice dinner for the three of them (and also his galbi). Jongdae also offers to help, rolling the sleeves of his sweater up and Chanyeol automatically finds himself ordering everyone around, Jongdae diligently chopping up vegetables and Baekhyun cook the rice.
It wasn’t until ten minutes in that Chanyeol finds Baekhyun and Jongdae quarreling over the size of the cuts of the carrots and Chanyeol kicks Baekhyun out of the kitchen before a brawl starts and tells the older to set up the table instead.