Chapter Text
Chanyeol sat alone in the back of the class with his fists filled with play-doh; he was trying to make his cat. But it wasn’t working the way he wanted it to. The only colors were blue and green, some kid had eaten all the orange last Tuesday, and he needed orange.
“That’s ugly.” A sweet voice said and Chanyeol looked up to see the cutest boy he had ever seen with his hand on his hip, one tiny finger pointed at the sad mush on Chanyeol’s table. His hair was soft and black and his eyes were big and sparkly. He looked like the puppy Chanyeol’s sister had brought home a few weeks ago. There was a purple nametag on his shirt that said, “Hi my name is Baekhyun,” written poorly in green marker.
“I know. There wasn’t any orange,” Chanyeol said, puffing his cheeks out and pouting.
“Even if it was orange it’d still be ugly,” Baekhyun said as he plopped down in the chair next to Chanyeol and grabbed the clay out of his hands.
That was the first time Chanyeol had met Byun Baekhyun, and as he watched the other boy smooth the clay into a pretty good elephant, he was star-struck. Baekhyun was new to the class, even though summer was going to start soon, and he sat with Chanyeol every day. Baekhyun was quick to become Chanyeol’s best friend. He’d only steal his glasses every once in a while, and he’d always give them back a few minutes later. He was sweet even if Chanyeol’s mom thought he was too snarky for a 6-year-old.
Over the summer they played together all the time. Baekhyun was Chanyeol’s only friend. All the other kids made fun of him and called him fat.
Baekhyun never called Chanyeol fat.
As elementary school went on Baekhyun made more friends, little boys who’d listen to anything he said and little girls that thought he was cute, but he never left Chanyeol’s side. Baekhyun still came over for cookies and pillow forts every Saturday.
In 6th grade, Baekhyun started to act differently. He walked with his nose high in the air and his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He stopped coming over to Chanyeol’s house and started taking his glasses more often. And he didn’t always give them back at the end of the day, and one time he left them at the top of the jungle gym. Chanyeol came home crying, and Baekhyun had gotten detention after Chanyeol’s mom called the school.
The summer before middle school Chanyeol had only seen Baekhyun once.
On the first day of middle school, he saved Baekhyun a seat next to him at the back of the class, but when he walked in with a new crowd of boys, he hadn’t spared Chanyeol a glance.
That’s when the bullying started.
Chanyeol had been picked on before, teased about his weight, glasses, or big ears, but he’d always been somewhat under Baekhyun’s protection. Yet, suddenly, it was that boy who was shoving him into walls as he walked by, filling his gym shoes with rocks, and pouring water on his homework.
Chanyeol had suddenly found himself the friendless, fat kid again.
He found Sehun towards the end of 8th grade. Chanyeol had been eating lunch outside by himself, it was too cold for the others to want to come out (including Baekhyun) when he’d heard crying. He wandered around outside, playing hot and cold with the sound of someone's tears. He checked the bleachers, the picnic table beneath the big gingham tree, and finally, back behind the sports shed, Sehun was crouched with the heels of his palms pressed into his eyes. He was sobbing. Giant tears fell down his cheeks and mixed with snot.
“Hey,” Chanyeol said, Sehun froze. “Are you okay?”
The kid peeked out from behind his fingers, and must not have been intimidated by Chanyeol (not that a lot of people are) because he wiped his face, shrugging. Chanyeol sat down next to him and pulled him into a tight hug. He’d been taught growing up that hugs could solve any problem. He wasn’t 100% sure about that, but he figured he’d give it a try. They stayed like that for a minute, Sehun sucking up his tears and sobs softening to hiccups.
“Are you going to laugh at me?” The kid pulled back, looking at Chanyeol with wet eyes and a heavy bottom lip.
Chanyeol leaned back and pointed at himself with a raised brow. “Do I look like a person who’d laugh at you?”
The kid bit his lip but shook his head.
“Exactly, what happened?”
“Some kid called me a faggot,” Sehun whispered. This outraged Chanyeol.
“They have no right to use that word,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, and they only did it cause I have a cat folder,” Sehun said.
They both paused. Chanyeol looked at Sehun, and Sehun looked at him. They burst into laughter.
“My best friend calls me Piggy,” Chanyeol admitted when he could breathe again.
“Kids suck.”
“Yeah. They do.”
The bell rang. They had ten minutes to get to their next class.
“I’m Sehun, by the way.”
“Chanyeol.”
They started sitting together at lunch. It didn’t take long for Baekhyun and his goons to notice, and they sauntered over with sneers on their faces.
“Hey, Piggy.” Sehun shot Chanyeol a look that he ignored.
“This your boyfriend?” Baekhyun was leaning over the table, both hands pressed flat into the metal.
His face was close to Sehun’s as he stared him down. Chanyeol sighed, but didn’t look up from his lunchbox.
“No, Baek," Chanyeol said softly. "He’s my friend.” Baekhyun snapped his head to Chanyeol, Sehun leaning back and letting out a breath.
“Don’t call me that,” he said with venom. Then, the frown was off his face and he was smirking like a cat. “It sure looks like you guys are dating,” he said winking at his friends behind him.
“Yeah, a couple of fags sitting in a tree,” called one of the bullies. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” the rest finished.
Baekhyun let out a bark of laughter before grabbing Chanyeol’s carton of milk and pouring it into his lunchbox.
“See ya, losers,” Baekhyun said, crumpling the carton and walking away.
Chanyeol stared at the food his mom had lovingly prepared bob up and down in a sea of milk and sighed again. Guess he wasn’t hungry anymore.
Sehun leaped up as soon as Baekhyun was out of sight. “Dude, what the hell was that? Has he always been that horrible to you?”
“No. Yes? I dunno. He’s usually mean, but today he seemed different.”
Sehun raised a brow.
“He seemed,” Chanyeol started, he glanced at his old friend laughing across the cafeteria. “…angrier?”
“Maybe he’s jealous that I get to hang out with you and he doesn’t,” Sehun said with a smile and an elbow to Chanyeol’s ribs. He didn’t reply.
When Chanyeol's mom gave him the choice to switch schools at the end of middle school, she thought he'd be happy - ecstatic even. He'd been asking her to let him transfer to an art school so he could finally, really, learn music. She finally caved when he mentioned leaving old bullies behind. But now that he'd met Sehun, the choice was harder to make. Sehun still had another year left. It was a lot easier when Sehun told him he'd be going to enroll at Seoul’s Academy of Performing Arts too.
Chanyeol was excited. Scared, but in a good way.
Yet, despite the hell he'd gone through, he still had an uncomfortable pit in his stomach when he thought about leaving Baekhyun.
The last day of classes before summer was an annual water gun fight.
When the sky rose higher in the sky the teachers started passing out water guns, Chanyeol had volunteered for the first shift of filling duty. He got to watch the battle from the sidelines, occasionally refilling kids’ water guns when they’d run out of ammo. He was sitting alone, the girl helping him had gone to the restroom, when his view of Sehun was blocked by a pair of bright red shorts. Baekhyun towered over him holding out two empty guns. Chanyeol stared. Baekhyun’s foot started tapping (he’d never been very patient).
“Well? Are you going to fill them?” Chanyeol snapped his head down and Baekhyun shoved the guns into his lap.
“You’re not supposed to have two guns,” Chanyeol said softly. Baekhyun scoffed.
“Whatever. What are you going to do? Tell on me?”
Chanyeol shook his head and handed the first one back. “No.”
Baekhyun seemed stunned for a moment, but shook it off and replaced with a sneer. Chanyeol handed back the second one, but Baekhyun didn’t move.
“What?” Chanyeol asked.
Baekhyun stayed quiet and bit his lip. By the time he answered Chanyeol had filled two more water guns.
“See you next year, loser," Baekhyun said. A twisted version of his old end of the year goodbye, but it lifted at the end like a question.
“No, you won’t,” Chanyeol said, looking Baekhyun in the eyes. “I’m transferring, not that you care.”
“Whatever, piggy!”
Baekhyun’s face twisted in anger, and he sprayed Chanyeol in the face. He turned and stomped back into the chaos of middle schoolers and water. Chanyeol’s cheeks burned, he picked up a spare gun to join Sehun on the field.
Screw Byun Baekhyun.
High school had been a great time for Chanyeol.
He’d grown a good foot, gotten contacts, and honed his passion for music. His voice had dropped to something deep and sultry that had girls and boys falling for him, which he really enjoyed.
Sehun and he became roommates at Seoul University, and he is now three years into his music production degree.
“Chanyeol, are you ready yet?” Sehun says through the door of the bathroom.
“Almost,” Chanyeol responds and finishes fixing his hair. He whistles at his reflection.
“Stop checking yourself out, idiot. I want to go.”
Chanyeol opens the door and winks at his best friend. “You can’t deny it though, I look hot.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get your keys,” Sehun says and leans down to tighten the laces of his vans.
“I can’t believe you're wearing those to the club,” Chanyeol says wrinkling his nose at the shoes and pulls on his jacket.
“I go to dance, not impress all the chicks with my footwear.” Sehun raises an eyebrow. “You’re being incredibly critical tonight, bud.”
“What can I say? I have a good feeling about tonight, plus,” Chanyeol touches a hand to his heart and with complete sincerity says, “I just want you to get laid already.”
Sehun aims a punch at him, but Chanyeol slips out of the dorm and down the stairs before he can.
Chanyeol parks a couple of blocks away from the club, but they can still feel the pounding of the bass in their bones. They light up a joint in the back of Chanyeol’s shitty van - a bright orange, ugly thing he'd bought at discount to haul his music equipment. He and Sehun hunch over stray drums, open guitar cases, and a carpet of sheet music and huff sour smoke into the air till their heads are pleasantly dizzy.
“You ready, big guy?” Sehun asks, patting Chanyeol’s shoulder. Chanyeol nods and slides the side door open.
Inside the club is like another universe. The entire building is bathed in purple and blue lights and the volume of the music has Chanyeol feeling as if he’s underwater. The crowd is a thick giant mass of boys in tight pants and girls in high, high heels grinding and writhing against each other. They slip over to the bar to greet Minseok where he's mixing drinks.
“Hey, kiddos,” Minseok says cheerfully. He smiles and slides two shots of tequila over to them. Chanyeol shakes his head and Sehun downs both.
“Can’t. I’m driving,” he says. Minseok rolls his eyes.
“You know I can smell the weed on you, right?”
“Yeah,” Chanyeol says leaning in close to the bartender. “I’ll be good by the time we leave.”
Chanyeol laughs as Sehun pulls him to the dancefloor, Minseok waving at them.
It’s hot and sweaty in the middle of the crowd, but as a girl in a slinky, gold dress presses back into his hips he can’t bring himself to care. Chanyeol’s face aches from the giant smile squishing his cheeks. His brain is swimming through the music, and he can’t see Sehun anymore. Well, he might be over there, but there are lots of guys with blond hair here. The girl leans her head back against his shoulder, her hair smells sweet, and any thoughts of Sehun slip from his mind as the beat consumes his soul. He knows his arms are a little too jerky and his shoulders are stiff, but he dances anyways.
A couple of songs in Chanyeol vaguely registers another body pressing against his till the girl leaves, taking her sweet scent to dance with someone else. Soft hands guide his to a flat stomach and sharp hipbones. He cracks open an eye to see a short male in leather pants grinding down on him. He looks like the type that would fall apart under Chanyeol.
At least from behind, but isn’t that all that matters?
They dance together for so long, Chanyeol's practically sober. Not that he notices with the euphoria of sound and touch and heat giving him a new high. The guy’s a lot better at moving than Chanyeol. The way he drops his hips and drags them back up -slowly, yet still to the beat- makes Chanyeol’s mouth water. He tightens his grip on the man and pulls him closer. He can feel him gasp and sees him look over his shoulder.
The lighting isn’t great so Chanyeol can only make out the man’s button nose and soft lips. The other man must like what he sees as he’s turning in Chanyeol’s grip to pull him into a bruising kiss. Chanyeol can taste whiskey and cigarettes on the man’s tongue. He dives down to place hot kisses on the shorter’s neck and jaw, and the man digs his nails into Chanyeol’s shoulders.
Chanyeol doesn't think he’s ever been more turned on than he is at this moment. But he doesn't know what to do with himself. He's done the hookup thing before, but usually at the end of the night and not when he's the designated driver. He continues to kiss the man, and his prayers are answered as he pulls Chanyeol in the directions of the bathrooms. Chanyeol thinks distantly of how he still hasn’t fully seen the man’s face as he's pushed into the empty handicap toilet, but then he’s being kissed again and he forgets about it.
“Fuck,” Chanyeol says between kisses. The man drags his mouth down to Chanyeol’s neck and sucks a dark bruise there before pulling his mouth off with a pop.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” the man purrs into Chanyeol’s collar bone. His voice is slightly husky from either smoking or not talking, but it's still silky. The sound of it sends a shiver down Chanyeol’s spine.
Chanyeol drags a hand through his hair and the man is dropping to his knees in front of him. A low moan crawls out of Chanyeol’s throat as his black jeans are unbuttoned and his underwear pulled down. The man wraps a hand lightly at the base of Chanyeol’s cock and gives the underside a rough lick.
“Shit.” Chanyeol bites his lip and pulls the man’s chin up to face him.
He’s still high so it takes a moment for his blood to run cold. The club music feels way too loud and claustrophobic. Suddenly, what feels like a warm ocean is now filling his lungs and drowning him. Chanyeol blinks the haze out of his eyes. He wants to puke.
Kneeling on the floor, breath hot on his dick is Byun Baekhyun. He’s wearing blue contacts and smoky eyeliner, but Chanyeol could never forget that face.
“Oh, fuck no,” he says and Baekhyun looks worried. His brows are pinched and his lips are swollen.
“Wha-what?” he asks and pulls his hand off Chanyeol’s dick.
“No way. Not doing that.” Chanyeol stuffs himself back into his pants and zips them up. Baekhyun looks thoroughly shaken.
“Wait, wait,” he says grabbing Chanyeol’s arm as he leaves the toilet. Chanyeol looks to the ceiling in a silent prayer for something to save him. “What did I do?”
“Oh, piss off,” Chanyeol says, yanking his arm out of Baekhyun’s grip. He stomps out to the crowd determined to find Sehun and get the hell out of here.
“Dude, what the fuck?” Baekhyun’s following him across the club.
He’d obviously never been rejected like this before. The thought makes Chanyeol’s stomach drop. He sees Sehun at the bar leaning on someone he hopes is a friend. Minseok sees him and waves him over.
“We’re leaving,” Chanyeol says, tugging on Sehun’s hand.
“Why?” Jongin asks and Chanyeol gives him a half-hearted greeting.
“Doesn’t matter, let’s go.”
“Hey," Baekhyun says. He crowds Chanyeol into the bar, pressing in close so Chanyeol can feel Baekhyun’s hard-on through his pants. Sehun looks at them funny. “You can’t just up and ditch me like that. At least not without an explanation."
“Baekhyun?” Sehun asks from where he’s leaning into Jongin’s side.
Baekhyun turns to him and has the decency to look bashful. Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever seen that expression on his face, and it makes his heart stutter. Recognition flashes in Baekhyun’s eyes, the way it hasn’t with Chanyeol.
“Sehun? Oh Sehun?”
Sehun looks quickly between him and Chanyeol before muttering, “Shit.”
“You know Baekhyun?” Minseok asks, popping up behind Chanyeol, who jumps.
“Uh, yeah. We went to middle school together,” Sehun answers.
Minseok turns to Chanyeol who’s avoiding eye contact with everyone, staring off into the wriggling bodies behind Baekhyun. Baekhyun giggles awkwardly.
“Yeah, I’m afraid I was a bit of an ass back then,” he says and Chanyeol sees red.
“A bit of an ass?” he repeats, his teeth grinding. Jongin squeaks at the sound, Sehun groans, and Baekhyun looks lost.
“Uh, yeah? Do you have a problem?” Baekhyun asks and his concern almost sounds genuine. A little bug in the back of Chanyeol’s head wants to believe it is. He squashes it.
“You know what?” Chanyeol leans in close to Baekhyun, ghosting their lips together. “Forget it.”
He turns on his heel and pushes his way out of the club. Sehun groans and slams money on the bar.
“I’m too drunk for this," Sehun says. He rubs his eyes and runs after his roommate, yelling his name. Baekhyun pales and turns slowly to Minseok and Jongin, both looking very confused.
“Did he say Chanyeol?”
“Chanyeol,” Sehun calls into the cool night air.
He’d lost his best friend on the way out of the club, and he’s way too drunk for this. He doesn’t look for long though as he rounds the corner onto the street they’d parked the van and Chanyeol’s sitting on the curb, his head resting on his knees.
“There you are," Sehun says lowering himself to the concrete. "I thought you’d straight up dipped."
Chanyeol doesn’t move his face from where it’s pressed to his jeans. “I was going to, but I had to wait for you,” he says, voice muffled. Sehun smiles and leans into Chanyeol’s shoulder.
“Thanks, buddy. I could’ve gotten a ride with Jongin or Minseok, though.”
Chanyeol lifts his head and glares at his best friend. “Shut up, I wouldn’t leave you.”
“Alright, alright,” Sehun says lifting his hands in surrender. “You’re the bestest best buddy in the world, I get it.”
The air is still thrumming with club music, but the two of them are silent. Neither knows what to say.
“Well, tonight was fucking weird,” Chanyeol says finally. Sehun looks at him and he looks at Sehun. They burst into laughter.
“I think we both need to get home and sleep. This is too strange for me to process right now,” Sehun says. He pulls himself to his feet and offers his hand to Chanyeol.
“Good idea, I honestly don’t know if I’ll even be able to process this. He licked my dick, dude.” Chanyeol sighs and they walk side by side to his van.
“Wow.”
“I know.”