Work Text:
“With that, the time is now nearing five in the morning and it’s about time for me to sign off,” Chanyeol says with a drowsy smile nearly pressing against the microphone. He sets up the next few songs to play before Jongdae comes in for the next shift. “This has been Park for the last few hours with only the best indie tracks to get you through all-nighters or stressful study sessions. For some, this is ‘good morning.’ For the rest of you: goodnight, sleep well, and tune in every weeknight between eleven and five to hang out with me on FM102 University Indie. Enjoy the weekend, I’ll be back on Monday.”
He swivels from side to side in the rolling desk chair as he pulls the headphones off of his ears and rests them around the microphone instead. Packing his laptop into his backpack, Chanyeol yawns deeply and prepares himself for the walk back to his dorm in the early hours. He throws away what little trash has accumulated during his shift and then stands, feeling each and every joint pop as he does so. Jongdae is already in the lobby chatting up the security woman there when Chanyeol stumbles his way out. He has a coffee in one hand and an energy drink in the other, both open. Chanyeol only shakes his head and chuckles to himself.
“Chanyeol!” Jongdae calls out to him and catches his attention as he’s on his way through the double-doors. “You sounded extra sultry tonight,” he jokes with a wink, lowering his voice at the world sultry.
Chanyeol walks out of the doors backwards so that he can look Jongdae in the eyes when he smiles and shoots him a thumbs-up in reply.
It’s chilly outside, fall finally creeping in with October around the corner. Chanyeol tucks his hands into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt after pulling his hood up over his head and ball cap. The university’s campus is on the smaller end of the spectrum, but it’s still not enjoyable to have to walk from one side to the other at five in the morning. All Chanyeol wants is to slide onto his mattress and only get back up once the semester has ended.
A few cars pass by the sidewalk that Chanyeol drags his feet along, probably people like him who work early in the morning. He wishes he could afford a car, too. All his money goes towards tuition and housing fees.
He lives on the fourth floor of the dorm building and the elevator is always broken, so Chanyeol considers his early morning walk up the stairs as his cardio every day. At the top of the steps, he is greeted by a creaky door and the unsettling noise of water running through pipes. The hallway beyond the door is much nicer, carpeted and well-lit. He opens his door as quietly as possible every morning, even though his roommate is always already awake when he gets back.
“You’re home earlier than usual,” Baekhyun hums over his laptop.
Chanyeol sets his backpack down by the door. “I didn’t linger around the studio today. Jongdae was too awake for me.”
This makes Baekhyun smile though he is trying to stay concentrated.
Chanyeol always admires Baekhyun in the early hours of the morning when he gets home from work. He might as well be a different person. Their friends always wonder how someone as playful as Baekhyun manages to be one of the top of his class, but they don’t see Baekhyun staying up until six in the morning each night studying and doing school work. Chanyeol is the only one who sees this side of the popular student.
“I listened to your broadcast tonight,” Baekhyun says. It’s rare that he talks while working.
Chanyeol looks up at the other student, “Yeah? I didn’t know you listened to music while doing school work.”
Clicking save, shutting his laptop, and swiveling around in the chair to face him, Baekhyun looks right at Chanyeol. “This isn’t for school,” he states. “And I just got curious. You have a surprisingly nice voice for the radio.”
He’s not sure what that means, but he thanks him nonetheless.
“You should bring me along next time. I want to watch.”
Chanyeol stares at Baekhyun quizzically. “Bring you?”
He gets a nod in response.
“Okay. I guess so.”
Chanyeol has never had anyone else inside the studio with him while he works. There have been a few instances where Jongdae has stood outside the door and made faces at him to distract him at the end of his shift, but he’s never had to share the space. When Monday night rolls around, he finds out that the studio space isn’t exactly big enough for two people. Baekhyun doesn’t seem all that bothered by it, though. He sets up his laptop and begins working even though his arm bumps into Chanyeol’s every time his fingertips dance over to the right side of the keyboard. Other than the awkward bodily contact and the rapid keyboard clicking, Chanyeol hardly realizes he’s there.
“As of right now, it is officially Tuesday. Congrats to all of you listening on making it to another day,” Chanyeol says. Baekhyun snorts and then quickly covers it up by looking away. “Anyways, that last song was a request. Speaking of which, don’t forget you can shoot us a message here at the studio with a song you’d like to hear, and we’ll try our best to play it. This next song should help keep you a bit more awake.”
He lets go of the microphone button and turns to his roommate, “This is probably shitty of me to ask since we have lived together for literally two years, but what’s your major?”
“Hm?” Baekhyun looks at him incredulously and then chuckles. “I’m majoring in literature. I thought you knew that.”
Chanyeol can only shake his head apologetically while he searches for a few more songs to add to the end of the playlist. “Is what you’re working on for literature, then?”
“No, it’s just for fun.”
“You could be asleep right now?” It wasn’t supposed to come out as a question, but Chanyeol is just so baffled that anyone would choose to be up at this hour when they could be sleeping.
Baekhyun goes back to typing when Chanyeol starts speaking again, and that ends their conversation for the night. The literature major shivers at one point, and Chanyeol wordlessly slips off his hoodie and hands it to the other, unable to look at him when he does so. There’s a small smile on Baekhyun’s face when his head appears through the hole. Chanyeol’s a little thankful that he gave away his hoodie, because suddenly it feels a bit too warm inside the studio, anyways.
He tags along with Chanyeol again two nights later. This time, he brings a textbook on composition with him. Chanyeol finds the way Baekhyun taps his pen against his lower lip very distracting and stumbles over his words a few times during broadcast. It’s nothing he hasn’t done before, though. But that doesn’t make it any less embarrassing, especially when Baekhyun looks up at him through his eyelashes and laughs softly at him. Chanyeol has to quickly avert his gaze and pull up his hood. He doesn’t want Baekhyun to see how red his cheeks get.
Chanyeol is very distracted throughout most of the broadcast. He plays a song twice in a row on accident and prays that no one complains about it. With his roommate sitting beside him, he feels strangely under pressure about everything.
“Are you okay?” Baekhyun finally asks, shutting his textbook as quietly as possible. Chanyeol is still startled by it. There’s no helping him.
“What? Yeah!” he replies, way too eager. The truth is, after two years, Chanyeol is only just starting to realize how cute Baekhyun actually is.
It started after the hoodie incident when he noticed just how small his roommate is in comparison to him. Then when they were walking home, Baekhyun sort of skipped his way there while humming under his breath. And to top it off, the way Baekhyun wakes up, stretches, and then crawls out of bed with his hair everywhere while barely croaking out good morning leaves Chanyeol clutching his chest and short of breath.
Two years. It took two years for Chanyeol to pay attention to his roommate.
“I’m just thinking about the upcoming exams, you know?” He throws in a nervous laugh for good measure.
“They’re not for nearly three months, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun states. Chanyeol freezes at his name, hesitates, and then waves off his company.
His shaking index finger misses the microphone button twice before he finally gets to press it down and speak. Clearing his throat, Chanyeol tries to compose himself for the broadcast. “I love that song,” Chanyeol sighs as Baekhyun slips him a note that reads: It was just on commercial? The radio host can’t even try to hide the embarrassed and pained look on his face. Baekhyun laughs from behind his sleeve at Chanyeol, the latter trying to calm the stutter of his heart.
“That was a… joke,” he tries. “Anyways! I have a pretty good lineup for the next few songs. They’re just the thing to keep you motivated to finish that paper due tomorrow.”
He expects Baekhyun to jump on him and harass him once he lets the microphone button go, but he doesn’t. Baekhyun just laughs to himself and then opens his textbook back up. They do their own thing after that, Baekhyun doing homework and Chanyeol managing to bring the broadcast back from travesty. He’s thankful that Baekhyun is preoccupied, though every time he looks over he worries that Baekhyun will catch him stealing glances.
“That’s it for this week, everyone. Enjoy your weekend and tune in between eleven and five on weeknights to hang out with me. See ya next time.”
Chanyeol’s proud of himself once it’s finally over, he really is. He lets out a sigh and can practically see the tension leave every muscle of his body.
“Ready to go?” Baekhyun asks, and Chanyeol finds enough confidence to smile and nod.
Jongdae’s in the hallway outside the studio door when Baekhyun and Chanyeol exit, and he stops dead in his tracks. “Baekhyun,” he grins, but really it’s more of a devious smirk as he looks between Chanyeol and his aforementioned friend. “What are you doing here?”
“Schoolwork,” Baekhyun says flatly, cutting his eyes.
Chanyeol wants to ease the tension, and also get away from Jongdae’s sketchy tone. “You guys know each other?”
Jongdae laughs, loud and bright for five in the morning. He wraps an arm around Baekhyun’s neck and wrestles him into submission, all while Baekhyun tries to claw his way out of the other’s grasp. “We’ve been best friends since high school!” he chirps.
“Best? Friends?” Chanyeol inquires. He isn’t quite sure how he didn’t know that. “How come you’re never over then?”
“Little Baekhyunnie here,” Jongdae starts (and is cut off by Baekhyun with, “We’re like the same size, asshole.”) as he pets Baekhyun’s head ever so patronizingly. “He won’t invite anyone over because his roommate takes afternoon classes and then works nights so he sleeps all day, apparently. I think he’s just making excuses to avoid me.”
Chanyeol looks to Baekhyun, who is glaring at his “best friend.” He convinces himself that the pink of Baekhyun’s cheeks is just from Jongdae nearly choking him out.
“That’s pretty considerate,” Chanyeol mumbles.
Letting go of Baekhyun, who then pats down all of his clothes and huffs loudly, Jongdae laughs and puts a firm hand on his shoulder. “Who even is your roommate again?”
“Please stop talking, Jongdae.”
Baekhyun adjusts his backpack on his shoulders and then walks off. “Bye, sweetheart!” Jongdae yells after him.
“That was seven years ago, Dae! Seven!” And then Baekhyun’s gone.
“What’s he so grumpy about?”
“I’m not sure? He was fine before you showed up,” Chanyeol replies. “That sounded meaner than I intended. Um… I’ll go talk to him? You… just do your broadcast or something.”
Jongdae yells something unintelligible, always trying to get in the last word, as Chanyeol uses his long legs to catch up to his roommate. Chanyeol wishes he could think of something to say to the other as they make their way back to the dorm, but he’s really not good at these kinds of things. So he just walks next to him and lets him stop sighing and rolling his eyes to himself. Chanyeol unlocks and opens the door for Baekhyun, who strips off his jacket and throws it on the couch.
“I finished all my work at the studio so I’m going to bed now, okay? Goodnight forever.”
“Okay?” Chanyeol replies, mildly amused at his roommate’s dramatics. He didn’t know Baekhyun was like this. “Are you going to change first?”
Baekhyun throws himself into bed with a groan and throws his blankets over his fully-clothed form. He takes that as a no.
“Can I ask what that was even about?”
Sitting up abruptly, Baekhyun cuts his eyes at Chanyeol in the same way he had done to Jongdae. “Why are both of you so dense? It wasn’t about anything. Forget it.”
Feeling mildly insulted, Chanyeol nods. Baekhyun grimaces and then lays back down much gentler this time. After taking his shoes off, Chanyeol texts Jongdae: I’m Baekhyun’s roommate.
When he wakes up at around three that afternoon, Jongdae had replied four hours prior: Trust me. I know.
“What do you know about Baekhyun?” Chanyeol asks his best friend over drinks at a bar on campus.
Sehun takes a swig and then looks at Chanyeol out of the corner of his eye, clearly annoyed at him interrupting checking out the bartender. He sets his glass down, ice cubes clinking together. “Why are you asking me about your roommate?”
“He’s cute,” he pouts, only a little bit drunk. It’s just enough to get him to confess the fact to both Sehun and himself. Chanyeol extends an arm across the bar and lays on it, tilting his own glass from side to side.
Sehun nearly chokes. “How long have you lived with him now?”
“Two years,” Chanyeol murmurs.
“And you’ve just now realized this? Everyone on campus knows that Baekhyun is cute,” Sehun says in one breath. “There are just a few problems. One, he’s not straight. I don’t care how many girls have ‘slept with him.’ It’s all lies because he would never. And you would have complained about it since you share a room. It’s all bullshit.”
Sehun isn’t even drunk. Chanyeol groans and turns his face into his arm to hide.
“Two, he’s not what people assume him to be at all and when they realize he’s not some happy-go-lucky little kid, they bail. Or they use him. He cares about his studies a lot, really. ”
“How do you know so much about him anyways?”
“We’re both lit majors, Yeol. We have like five classes together.” Sehun just knows everyone, though. He has always been that way. “But I wasn’t done. Lastly, I heard from that student studying abroad that I have been toting around everywhere for extra credit in my Chinese class- you know Yixing, right? He’s such a sweetheart. –Well, I heard from Yixing who heard from Minseok who heard from Jongdae, as unreliable as he is, that Baekhyun has totally had a huge crush on someone for like forever and is off-limits. So, tough break, little man.”
“I’m taller than you.”
“Is that all you heard?” Sehun scoffs, waving the bartender over and shyly asking for another drink. To the naked eye, Sehun seems so gentle and soft-spoken, but Chanyeol has been friends with him long enough to know better. He’s usually gentle, but by no means soft-spoken. At least, not with Chanyeol.
“Maybe he doesn’t actually like anyone?”
“I don’t know. He and Jongdae are pretty tight, though, so I feel like he would know.”
Chanyeol lets out a pitiful whine and then sits up off his arm. He slams both palms onto the counter, “Let’s do shots!”
Sehun grins, “Now you’re speaking my language.”
Chanyeol is still hungover on Monday at three-thirty when Baekhyun shakes him awake.
“Sorry,” Baekhyun starts off with. They haven’t talked since after the incident with Jongdae. “It’s just that you have class soon and I figured you didn’t want to sleep through it.”
Scrambling out of bed, Chanyeol throws a loud thank you over his shoulder as he bolts out of the room to get showered.
“See you after your broadcast tonight?” Baekhyun asks while Chanyeol slips into his shoes at the front door.
He nearly goes into cardiac arrest at the grin he gets when he replies, “Yeah, sure.”
Chanyeol ends up sleeping through his class anyways. So much for Baekhyun politely waking him up.
He makes it through the first fifteen minutes and then wakes up at the last fifteen minutes to someone poking him. It’s Jongdae, he notices after rubbing at his eyes for a moment. “What?”
“Baekhyun is adorable, right?”
“What?”
“Isn’t he?”
“What are you talking about?” Chanyeol finally wakes up enough to actually pay attention to his classmate and coworker. “Why the hell did you wake me up?”
“I wanted to know if you talked to him the other day because I pissed him off and he hasn’t told me anything,” Jongdae whines. He takes a seat in the empty one next to Chanyeol, pushing his backpack to the floor and making Chanyeol more irritated than necessary. “But what do you think?”
“Think about what?”
“About Baekhyun.”
“I don’t know?”
“I mean, he’s cute, right?”
“I guess?”
“What do you mean ‘I guess’?” Jongdae asks, pitching his voice down three octaves to mock Chanyeol.
“Yes. Baekhyun is incredibly cute. I still don’t understand why you are asking, though.”
Jongdae stands up and then gathers all of his things rapidly, “No reason! Bye!”
Chanyeol may not be that quick to pick up on things, but he gets the feeling that Jongdae is running to go twist his words out of context to Baekhyun. He groans and then packs up his own bag, ready to head off to his next class and then the studio.
Without any distractions, Chanyeol’s broadcast goes by smoothly. That is, until Jongdae shows up and starts talking to him through the door like he expects Chanyeol to be able to hear. He most definitely cannot, though. And when Chanyeol holds up a finger to tell Jongdae that he’ll be with him in just a minute, Jongdae resorts to making ridiculous faces and obscene hand gestures through the glass.
“The hell do you want?” Chanyeol hisses when he has a second to step away from the microphone. He’s already irritated, but it doesn’t help that Jongdae has zero sense of personal space and is literally winking at him repeatedly like he has a twitch. “Stop that.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“By ‘him,’ do you mean Baekhyun? No, Jongdae, I haven’t spoken to him in the like four hours since I last saw you.”
Jongdae smirks and leans against the wall, playing with the tab on his can of Red Bull. He’s so damn smug about everything, all the time. Chanyeol really cannot handle it at the moment, especially not when he has a broadcast to be doing.
“I still can’t believe you got him to come along to the studio and not just listen while he does his work like usual,” he utters.
“I mean, he asked,” Chanyeol replies, mostly just trying to hurry this along because he really should go back into the studio. Then, it clicks. “He listens to my broadcasts?”
“Baekhyun listens every night? He runs a music blog and uses the artists you play for his reviews and recommendations or whatever. This is basic knowledge. Don’t you know anything about your roommate?”
Chanyeol shakes his head, “No?”
Jongdae looks bewildered. He looks as lost as Chanyeol feels. Losing the arrogance altogether and placing a hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder, he offers Chanyeol some advice. “Just between us, I really think you should talk to him. Have an actual conversation. Call him cute.”
“I-“ Chanyeol starts, but Jongdae is walking into the studio and waving him off with two fingers. He locks the door behind him.
The desperation is Chanyeol’s eyes is pitiful as he whimpers, “My stuff is still in there.”
Jongdae has already hijacked the broadcast, though.
His phone is in his pocket, so he shoots Jongdae a text saying that he’ll only talk to Baekhyun after he lets him get his stuff back. Waiting a moment, he sees Jongdae mouth not a chance through the glass. Chanyeol slams his head against the door much harder than he originally intended.
He practically sprints across campus to his building because fuck Jongdae. The whole time he is cursing the man under his breath. “My laptop is in there. All of my assignments I am working on. My compositions. My headphones. Those were so expensive. I can’t believe this. It’s literally three in the morning. I can’t believe this.”
Chanyeol is still murmuring to himself when he knocks on the door because, that’s right, his keys are in the studio with his shitty coworker. Baekhyun answers and is definitely confused.
“Chanyeol?”
“Baekhyun.”
There’s silence as they just stare at each other. Baekhyun is shooting him questioning glances. Chanyeol is trying to catch his breath.
“Can I come in?” Chanyeol asks when the tension gets just a little too unbearable.
Baekhyun squints his eyes at him. “You live here.”
He nods and brushes passed Baekhyun. The radio is still on, and it’s on his station too. Jongdae is messing up his playlist. He can hear it.
“Is everything okay?” Baekhyun asks as he grabs two bottles of water out of the fridge and hands one to his disheveled roommate.
Chanyeol nods, opens the bottle and downs half of it. “We’ve got to talk.”
“About?”
Pointing to the radio and shaking his finger around, Chanyeol starts of simple, “You listen every night?”
Baekhyun gulps like he is guilty. In his silence, Chanyeol has a second to realize the situation. Baekhyun is in front of him, fingers toying with the water bottle in his hands, torso clad in the hoodie that Chanyeol lent to him and never got back, toes peeking out from pajama pants that are just the slightest bit too long. His cheeks are pink, and Chanyeol’s might be too because suddenly his face and ears feel very hot. He very abruptly called his roommate out and now regrets it, no matter how badly he would like his belongings back. Abort mission.
“I do,” Baekhyun finally croaks out after what feels like an eternity.
“You have a blog?” Chanyeol continues. He’s trying his absolute hardest to speak normally and not let his voice crack or waver.
“I do.”
“How come you never talked about it?”
Baekhyun only shrugs timidly.
Chanyeol scratches at his hairline. “Thanks?”
“You’re welcome?”
“Why, though?”
And it’s so awkward, how quickly the mood changes from tense to confused to shy.
Baekhyun shifts from foot to foot for a moment while Chanyeol tries his hardest to be patient with him. “I like your broadcasts,” Baekhyun whispers. Then even quieter, “I like you.”
Silence.
“That’s… cool.”
“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun deadpans. “This is the most awkward moment of my life and you’re calling it ‘cool’.”
Chanyeol laughs nervously. Baekhyun hums.
“What?” Chanyeol asks after way too long of staring.
“Are you going to say anything?”
“About?”
Baekhyun’s sheepish demeanor fades into irritation. “I just told you that I have feelings for you, and you’re just staring at me. Please say something.”
“Oh. Shit,” Chanyeol stutters.
In the background, he can hear Jongdae on the radio while Baekhyun stares up at him expectantly. Jongdae is ruining his broadcast and probably going to get him fired, but he sounds like he has not a single care in the world. “As you can probably tell, your usual DJ is not here. There was an urgent matter to take care of, so I’m here earlier than usual!”
Baekhyun looks like he’s physically deflating, and Chanyeol is terrified of messing this up even more. He instinctively places a hand on his upper arm to keep him from turning away.
“Aside from being the best radio personality ever, I’m also quite the love expert, I’d like to think,” Jongdae continues. His voice is slightly distorted along the radio waves, making him sound less obnoxious than he really is.
Baekhyun takes a step closer, testing out where Chanyeol is going with this. Chanyeol opens his mouth, but he can’t find the right words to say to Baekhyun. He stands there opening and closing his mouth like a fish.
“I think my best, or worst depending on the situation, piece of advice, is that if your words fail you,” Jongdae pauses to chuckle to himself.
Chanyeol’s hand slides from a firm grasp on his arm into a gentle caress down the other’s cheek, where it then rests at his neck.
“If your words fail you, you could always just kiss them.”
Chanyeol does just that, and it feels two years overdue.