Chanyeol runs a wet hand through his hair, attempting to fix the wayward strands. He had forgotten to do so before History, and valued his looks more than food.

He hears someone walk in, but doesn't check who it is until they're right behind him, meeting his own stare in the mirror. Great.

"If the words you spoke and thought appeared on your skin, would you still be handsome?" he speaks quietly, his gaze unwavering.

"What does it matter to you?"

"It doesn't. Just some food for thought."

"Then go away. Leave me in peace."

Baekhyun takes a hesitant step forwards, his gaze still locked on the giant's. "Don't be a narcissist. No one likes a narcissist. Don't be the master of lies and deception. Don't hide. You aren't helping anyone."

Chanyeol looks away, and Baekhyun takes the chance to spin him around. "No. Look at me."

Chanyeol slowly looks up.

"I don't know what happened to you in the past. But whatever it is, it's no excuse for you to be acting this way. Stop denying what you don't want to hear. You aren't that almighty."

Slow anger bubbled inside the giant at every word. He knows nothing. "You have no idea what I've been through! You don't know!" The giant slams a hand on Baekhyun's chest, pushing the brunet backwards. Baekhyun wobbles, but stays on his feet. He backs up until he can feel the cold wall press thought his top.

"I never said I did."

"No." Chanyeol puts a hand on the right side of Baekhyun's head, pressing his knee up against the brunet's stomach in an attempt to scare him. "You shouldn't be talking."

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"You have no idea how much trouble you've brought me." Chanyeol leans in so close that he can feel Baekhyun's breath on his lips. His breath smelled of spearmint, and Chanyeol recalled seeing him chew gum.

"Really? Then let me bring you more." And before Chanyeol can respond, the brunet's lips are on his.

They're soft and sweet, everything that they looked like. Before Chanyeol can do anything about it, Baekhyun pulls away, licking his lips. It was too short. The giant found himself yearning for more.

Baekhyun looks up through his lashes, biting his lips as if to challenge the giant. To see if he would lose his restraint. "Park?" The name sounded ethereal rolling off of Baekhyun's tongue.

"What?"

"You never answered my question."

"Which one?" The giant asks flatly.

"The first one."

No. If the giant was being completely honest, the answer would be no.

Baekhyun presses the side of his face against Chanyeol's chest. His eyes flicker as if calculating.

"What are you doing!?"

The brunet looks up. "So you do have a heart after all. You just need to learn when to use it." Baekhyun swiftly presses a lingering kiss to Chanyeol's left cheek and easily escapes his grasp. "See you later!" He exits the restroom.

What the heck was that?

Baekhyun laughs to himself after exiting the bathroom. I just had my first kiss in a school bathroom. He shakes his head. What a day.

Baekhyun thought the kiss was nice. He enjoyed the sensation of the giant's lips on his. I'd like to feel it again sometime.

"Byun!" Baekhyun turns around to see Kyungsoo dragging Jongin along. "Where were you? We were looking for you."

"Hm? I was in the bathroom." Baekhyun scratches his head. "So are you two a thing now?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Sort of," Jongin concedes.

"Huh?"

"It's complicated."

"Well, then. Do you two like each other?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Then what's so hard about it?"

"Don't try to play matchmaker on us." Kyungsoo throws his friend a look.

"Fine fine. Do as you please."

***

"Yah! Chanyeol! Pay attention! That's the third time you've given up an easy shot. Do you want to run suicides?"

"Ah, sorry." The giant shakes his head. Stop thinking about him!

"Run the play again." The coach passes the ball to Luhan.

This time, Chanyeol envisions his opponent as Baekhyun, and rams into him.

Tweet!

"Chanyeol, I think you better sit out for a moment."

"Alright." The giant trudges over to the sidelines.

Byun. Baek. Hyun. Grr...

- § -

It's after practice that Chanyeol decides to do something. He rushes to the art room and ducks around the corner, keeping out of sight.

When Baekhyun leaves the art room and goes into the nearby bathroom, Chanyeol takes the chance and sneaks into the art room.

He makes his way over to the brunet's workstation, the paints and brushes sprawled everywhere. Perfect.

He sets his book bag down on a nearby chair, unzipping it and taking out a plastic container filled with a clear solution. Rubbing alcohol.

The giant takes the container, uncaps the lid and holds it over Baekhyun's acrylic paints. Should I?

Chanyeol gives the bottle in his hand a hard glance. It's the same one from all those years ago. It holds so many painful memories.

Before he can change his mind, the giant dumps a generous amount of the strong solution into the color, mixing it up with a spare brush. After he deemed the mixture okay, he opened up a container of paint and poured a bit out and set it on an nearby counter to mask the stench. Bleh. The smell of rubbing alcohol was absolutely disgusting.

Chanyeol can hear Baekhyun's light footsteps as he comes out of the bathroom and heads back.

Oh shoot! Time to flee. The giant quickly packs up his stuff and dashes out of the room just in time.

Whew! That was close.

As Baekhyun sits down in his chair, he could immediately tell something was off. I never fill my paint trays up that much. He pokes the surface gently. And the paint is never that thin. He leans over and sniffs the liquid. Instead of the familiar scent of paint, he's met with something much sharper. What is this? The brunet grabs a spare sheet of paper, dips his brush in the strange paint, and drags it across the page. He sets the paper aside, then stands up to get more copper paint, not trusting the old one.

When he returns, the test paper is mostly dry, and small splotches have begun to form within the paint. That is not normal. Baekhyun sniffs the odd mixture again. Is that rubbing alcohol? Baekhyun recognizes the scent. I am so glad I didn't attempt to use that. He takes the sabotaged paint and trashes it along with the paper. Now who would try to do that?

The brunet deduced that it had to be either someone in the coding club or on the basketball team. No other students would be at the school at that hour. And Baekhyun highly doubted that it would be a teacher.

But no one in the coding club has crossed paths with me recently...

So the basketball team?

Jongin. No not him. He's genuinely nice to me.

I hardly know Yixing, Junmyeon, Zitao, Yifan, or Sehun.

I have classes with Luhan, Jongdae, Minseok, and Chanyeol.

Ah, Chanyeol! I should have known. Of course.

Dang it Park. You're making it harder for me to be friends with you.

- § -

Meh. :l

Baekhyun seems very indifferent about kissing Chanyeol...

As clarification, adding rubbing alcohol to paint is actually an art technique. It does make splotches in the paint... it's kinda hard to describe, I had to do some research to be able to write it. Search it up if you want.

<3

I've been exhausted for the past two weeks... sorry if the chapters are a little wacky. Whatever, I'll live. :l

(Holy cow, I gained like five followers yesterday all at once. What even happened?)

Bai.

022318