There is no time
To rest senselessly

The heat of the sun beat down on the side of my face, making it feel like it was placed against a hot stove in comparison to the coolness of my other cheek. Baekhyun sat opposite me, his spectacles settled on the bridge of his nose, watching my hands as they moved over the printed sheet.

"It's so hot," I complained, squinting as I turned my face to the open window, raising my hand to block the sunlight from getting in my eyes. "How can you bear it?"

In the past hour or so, the two of us had developed something of a rapport. From what I could see, neither him nor I was particularly interested in becoming good friends right off the bat, but a few icebreakers and empty but apparently important conversations later, here we were.

"I'm used to it." He said quietly, and bent his head over the papers spread out on the space of the bed between us. "Concentrate."

"Yeah, sure." I rolled my eyes quickly so he wouldn't notice, almost unbelieving of the boy's extreme conditioning. "If I can with all this sunlight."

When he raised his eyes to mine again, his forehead was crinkled in a frown. "Just close the blinds, Y/N." He muttered. "It's not that deep."

"Oh, right, I thought I would need your blessing or something." I said through gritted teeth, slipping off the side of the bed and successfully shutting off the hard light from the window. "Ah, ice."

Baekhyun had a small, amused smile on his face as he watched me climb back up on the bed, rubbing my heated cheek with my fingertips. "Indoor person?"

I thought of the lush leather interior of the GT86, and wondered if cars counted as outdoors. "I don't know."

"Hm." He hummed, resting his cheek on the palm of his hand, his eyes skimming through the rough sketches I'd listed out on plain white paper in the remainder of the lunch hour. "What about this one?"

His finger traced the lining of the piping drawn just right of the sheet's end, and I started explaining the measurements to him, gesturing with my hands and periodically tapping the paper. He watched me with careful eyes, almost observant, and I kept speaking, not realising that I had dropped to a ramble.

Finally, when I had come to something of an awkward pause, he stared at me, glasses still resting crookedly on his nose. He reached up and straightened them, allowing himself a small smile. "You seem to like your subject."

"Well," I hesitated. "If you didn't pick that up in the last two hours."

His smile widened to reveal teeth, and he leaned back against the headboard, crossing his arms somewhat authoritatively over his chest. "You like cars?"

The question jolted me, making me freeze for a moment, disoriented and confused. Not too long ago, I remembered the same enquiry, but such, such different situations. "I guess." I said carefully, weighing my words and what strings might be seen attached to them.

Baekhyun studied me for another moment, his analytic gaze unnerving and spontaneous. "Say what," He said finally, straightening and pushing away the notes from between us, and I watched them slide across the soft bedsheet to the other side of the mattress. "Let's take a break."

I observed his expression warily, but I couldn't see how he could have any idea of what went on behind exit doors of posh bars. "I'm assuming this isn't the two-minute water break."

"You assume correctly." His lips lifted in a half-smile. "We could get to know each other, right? If we'll be working together for these few years, might as well."

It wasn't that he was wrong; to work together, anyone would need at least some extent of knowing each other to stick together. But there was something of a barely controlled enthusiasm in his tone, and not a good type—that made me wary, but then, I was the type to be suspicious of everything.

And again, not everyone was a catch.

Pursing my lips, I leaned back, resting my turned palms against the mattress next to my hips. "What do you propose? Twenty questions?"

"Just general stuff." He shrugged, eyes not once leaving mine. A pause. "Why do you like mechanics so much?"

I blinked, the mixture of the expressions of his eyes and his lips not sitting well with me. "My dad used to be into cars."

A raise of the eyebrow, a flicker of open curiosity across his face. Then it was gone.

"Vey basic." He commented, rearranging himself against the headboard and settling the back of his head against the wall.

"Yeah, except it doesn't matter." I propped my chin up against the heel of my palm. And then, unable to think of any better question: "Favourite colour?"

His face relaxed into a smile, not exactly teasing but not very encouraging, either. Weirdly enough, it was much too in character for the image of the Baekhyun I had built in my mind. "Gray. Do you have practical experience with cars too?"

The question made me tense, but mentally. He was definitely a hard person to understand, but his unpredictability was sort of predictable at this point. "More than I would've liked."

"You don't like driving? Or are the rules to confining?"

Too close to home. "It's my turn to ask you the question." I raised an eyebrow, the gesture challenging in a manner, if he accepted to interpret it that way. "What experience do you have with rule breaking?"

A small smirk lifted the corner of his lips, no doubt accepting the challenge, if, for him, it was as relevant as for me. "More than I would've liked."

"Huh." I frowned a little, his answer having been more indulging than I would've expected. "Your turn."

I hoped he wouldn't hold on to his previous question, but he humoured me. "What about bikes? Are you just as invested in bikes, too?"

A muscle twitched in my jaw. I didn't know if he was asking me all of this on purpose, but his enquiry triggered memories I wasn't ready to explore. I turned away from his searching gaze, looking vacantly at the blinds. "Used to be."

The answer, despite the vagueness, seemed to satisfy him. With a self-satisfied looking smile, he clapped his hands together, giving me a look. "What's it like?"

Measuring my words carefully, I pressed my lips together. "It's fast-paced, of course, or else it would be boring." I took a deep breath, calculating my next words so as not to rouse any sort of skepticism from him and no remembrance from me. "It feels freeing."

"Is that a good thing?" He leaned sideways, tilting his head and studying my expression for any hint of...what, exactly? What was he looking for? At any rate, this was definitely not a simple q&a session any more. "The freedom?"

"Depends on to what extent you're going." I was on guard, not sure if this was his general way of asking questions, like an interrogation bordering on something that seemed almost undercover, or something much deeper than that. "That's two extra questions."

"Does it matter?" Baekhyun asked quietly.

"Three extra questions." I spoke in a low voice, swallowing back a horde of my own. "Why are you so interested in my interest in automobiles?"

He pulled up a confident smile, but I was pretty sure that both him and I knew that he had gone too far. Blown his cover, whatever that was. This didn't seem like it was limited to smooth moves.

"Because that's the only thing in common with what we're studying and what you," He paused, as if he wasn't sure how to continue his statement, "and I both have an interest in."

I scoffed a little as he spoke, but didn't disregard his response. "So favourite colors don't count?"

"Why do you like wheels and engines so much, Y/N?" He didn't follow my example, instead choosing to completely ignore my attempt at a change in topic. "Is it just the speed, or something else?"

What the absolute fuck? Yeah, this was definitely more than just getting to know each other. "Aren't you a curious cat." I mused, smiling to myself. "It's all in the job description."

Baekhyun breathed in deeply, holding my gaze for a few seconds. Then he dropped it, chuckling. "Just kidding."

Sure.

There was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind that I hadn't been asked for help just for the sake of help. Baekhyun knew more than he was supposed to, or at least suspected something. He was onto the whole thing, but the only loose end in the web was why he had picked me out of a whole crowd of suspicious people from Gyeongju-seon.

It would have been much easier to pick up someone more accessible like Minhyuk or Seulgi—or was it the fact that I was new and he actually had an excuse?

Or maybe I was overanalyzing the whole thing, and he was just an extra-studious college kid who didn't know much about personal space.

I nodded to myself and leaned forward, extending my arm and cleanly removing the glasses from the top of his nose bridge. He didn't even blink.

"You don't need these." I placed them on top of the pile of sheets, and turned my attention back to him. "Why did you ask me for help, Baekhyun? Is it just the notes, or something else?"

He laughed, and I smiled along thinly. "We're going to get along just fine." He said, ruffling the top of his brown hair slightly. "Partners?"

I shrugged, and glanced at my watch. Seven already.

He raised his eyebrows slightly, and I stared at him for a short moment, the intelligence sparkling in his hazel eyes, the slight, amused tilt to his lips.

"Of course." I smiled, and his smirk widened. "Partners it is."

──────

do you think baek's onto something? or is she just being overly suspicious?

theories apart, the tempo teaser baek is wayyy to similar to this baek and i could cry. all we need is a racer/pink jennie concept for her solo, and maybe a daredevil seulgi for the next rv comeback, and it's going to be a rush-themed comeback season lol

(it's supposed to be a velvet cb this time around, tho, right? sm really needs to do a sexy car-themed concept because i NEED)

halloween, yuwin's birthdays, cb season...whoop i guess this has been one hell of a month, with more shit to come.

SURVIVE OKAY

love,
Manx.