Work Text:
gravity (n.)
/ˈɡravədē/
the force by which a planet or other body draws objects toward its center. The force of gravity keeps all of the planets in orbit. In even simpler terms, it is what keeps everything from floating off and away.
Oh Sehun knew gravity was everywhere in the universe. As a physics major, it was one of the very first things he had learned.
“Anything that has mass also has gravity,” mused a voice over Sehun’s shoulder, reading through the open webpage on his laptop. Sehun startled for a second before whirling around, eyes landing on one Byun Baekhyun.
“Objects with more mass have more gravity. Gravity also gets weaker with distance." The other continued, hand bracing against the back of Sehun's chair as Baekhyun leaned in close to read. "In other words, the closer objects are to each other, the stronger their gravitational pull is. Hmm, that's an interesting topic, even if science will never be my forte.”
For a moment, the world stopped, then slowed, and the quiet of the library intensified so all that was left in the forgotten spaces between the shelves was them: just Sehun and the boy he had always associated with the sun.
It was not because Baekhyun constantly glowed or burned (though Sehun admitted Baekhyun was very capable of both), but because people always seemed to gravitate towards him, the very same way planets continually orbit the sun.
It had always been that way for Baekhyun, even back when he was still a senior in high school and Sehun was just some junior in the same club. Even then, he had a force to him that called out to everyone, drew them in, made them want to stay. It just so happened that broadcasting was the perfect extracurricular activity that showcased what Baekhyun could really do, could really be. And as Sehun would watch him anchor whatever activity or host a new show, he couldn't help but think Baekhyun was always too far away, too unreachable for a nobody like Sehun.
So he lived throughout that year with his secret crush close to his heart.
However, that whole dynamic changed when they got into college and Sehun ended up not only having classes with Byun Baekhyun, but also ended up becoming dormmates with him. The older had taken a gap year and now, they started together in the same university, even if they were in different majors.
You saved me, Baekhyun had said that day during freshmen orientation, and he had bounded towards a dumbstruck Sehun, having spotted him in the crowd. Thank God you’re here, Sehun-ah. I'm completely lost!
It apparently didn't matter that Sehun was just as lost as he was, Baekhyun was just happy to have found a friend. He still could not comprehend how Baekhyun had known his name. In all of high school, they had probably only exchanged less than ten words to each other (made even worse since it was just their introduction in the club).
Hi, I’m Byun Baekhyun!
I’m Oh Sehun.
With that being their entire high school interaction since Sehun was always too scared to strike up a conversation, it was a miracle he braved the powerful force that went by the name of Byun Baekhyun this long.
“Sehun-ah,” the other said, pulling him out of his thoughts. Right, they were in the library. It'd already been more than a year since then. They'd exchanged more than just a few words by now especially since they were in the same friend group.
"Hey, hyung. Why are...I mean, what's up?"
Baekhyun smiled sheepishly, tilting Sehun’s world off its axis and he suddenly started to feel lightheaded. “Can I sit here? Every other table in the library is full.”
“Y-yeah, sure, go ahead,” Sehun spluttered despite himself, gesturing to the empty seat in front of him.
It still stunned him that Baekhyun knew his name and took the time of day to even approach him. It didn’t matter if it was in the hallways of university or in the common area of their dormitory, the older always seemed to find Sehun in his alone time just to be with him. His days were filled with Byun Baekhyun yet even with this unexpected closeness, Sehun was just as starstruck as the day he met him.
The more time he spent with the older, the more Sehun saw who Baekhyun was. And the more Sehun saw, the more he couldn't help but wish for something more. Something more than the friend label he found himself comfortably sitting in.
Like Icarus and the sun. He could almost hear his best friend, Jongin, shaking his head at Sehun’s lovelife. Tragic.
It really was. Even if Sehun didn’t read a lot of stories, he still knew the metaphor. Gravity had done its work then as Icarus fell after getting too close and that was how Sehun constantly felt when he was with the older boy. Always falling, always drawn into that orbit he could never escape; only he didn't know if it was to his death, or something else entirely.
Sehun knew all about gravity and more, but he was still not prepared for the force of gravity that came with the mass that was Byun Baekhyun.
He tried to concentrate on his work. Tried, being the keyword, however physics problem assignments were the last thing on his mind when Baekhyun sat a seat away, looking extremely distracting in a soft pink sweater and his dark brown hair a little mushed up. Sehun really tried not to stare, not to get caught up in the other's aura so it was with superhuman force that he kept his gaze pinned on his laptop and the article on gravity whose words had begun to swim, not to release the words that had bubbled up in his throat for who knows how long.
I like you, hyung.
He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face, earning a worried look from the other which he just waved it off. Thinking of telling Baekhyun now just when they had finally gotten close enough was just a tragedy waiting to happen.
Two planets A and B have the same material density. If the radius of A is five times that of B, then the ratio of the escape velocity...
He skipped that one. He didn't have the brain power to read through the problem again.
Two artificial satellites A and B are at a distance r A and r B above the earth's surface. If the radius of the earth is R...
Sehun closed his eyes and flipped the paper. Yup, he definitely didn't have the braincells for this.
He risked a glance when he knew he was going nowhere with his physics problems and found Baekhyun poring over some classic English novel, brows scrunching up as he read. The older had put on his wire-framed glasses and Sehun really tried not to think too much on what it did to him. Baekhyun suddenly glanced up at Sehun, amusement colouring his eyes. Sehun quickly refocused on his work; he hadn't realized he had been staring for too long.
Over the course of this year, Sehun found himself constantly in a limbo with Baekhyun. He wanted so much more than this—more than the quiet smiles and stolen looks. But he was too much of a coward for that first move.
He looked away, ears heating up. He felt Baekhyun stare at him a few seconds longer before turning back to his book.
The moment passed just like that and Sehun finally started calming back down.
"Psst, Sehun-ah," whispered Baekhyun after a few minutes of them just reading in complete silence, a charged up energy between them that hadn't been there before. "What are you working on?"
Sehun looked up, trying to keep his expression as nonchalant as possible. He was met with Baekhyun leaning on his forearms as he stared up at him. The warm library lights would never give justice to the stars in his eyes and Sehun found himself once again lost in them.
It took him another second to recover and remember the other had asked a question. You would think after a year of finally being friends, he would at least be able to stop making a fool of himself, but Sehun liked to prove otherwise.
"Oh, um, just some work problem Professor Kim wants us to submit by Friday. I finished most of them but…" Sehun shrugged, scratching his head, "there are still a few that leave me with a headache."
Baekhyun pulled one of the scattered papers on the desk towards him and scrunched his nose when he went over the equations. "Ah, what is this language? Sehun, I didn't know you spoke symbols and numbers. I don't understand any of this."
He couldn't help but chuckle at that. Okay, this was familiar territory. Physics. The lessons settled in his bones like stone in water. This was easy. This was something he could talk about.
“See, this here,” Sehun pulled the piece of paper back towards him and read quickly over the problem. It was one he had already solved. “Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation says that the force of gravity, F, is directly proportional to the product of their masses, m1 and m2, and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them, r square here.” He looked up to see Baekhyun staring at him, head tilted slightly to the right, eyebrows scrunched in concentration.
Sehun chuckled nervously, he tugged at his hair as he glanced back down at his notes. “Ah, I must have gotten carried away, I’m sorry. It’s just that I—”
"No, continue," said the other. "I like it when you're like this. It's sexy."
Sehun stopped breathing. He didn't know if he had heard it right, or if he was finally going crazy from over exhaustion.
Baekhyun chuckled at his expression. "I feel like I'm doing something crazy but you only live once, right?"
Sehun wasn't sure he was following anymore. He was still hung up over the other sentence.
"Sehun-ah," Baekhyun started fidgeting then, wringing his hands before taking a deep breath and meeting him with sure eyes. "Can I take you out?"
Sehun blinked and stopped breathing. He was pretty sure the world had ended right then and there, and that he was just living these last few moments in some kind of death dream. He did say he was in limbo just a few minutes ago.
"I mean like on a date, okay? Not because I'm like a hitman or anything," Baekhyun clarified, clearly mistaking Sehun's silence for something else.
Sehun’s head snapped up at the question, eyes widening comically. Yup, he had clearly died and gone to heaven.
"So, when you're free from your physics, wanna grab coffee with me?" Baekhyun smiled, and it was so quiet, so brilliant, and Sehun's world orbited completely out of its own axis, and veered straight into the beautiful boy’s.
Gravity is the force by which a planet or other body draws objects toward its center. The force of gravity keeps all of the planets in orbit. He knew gravity was everywhere in the universe, that it kept things grounded even when your soul was flying. He knew it was everywhere.
And so he let himself be pulled into Baekhyun's.