When he was finally able to escape, Chanyeol ran inside the building, frantically searching for Baekhyun. His eyes landed on the small boy sitting at the bottom of the stairs, a bandage wound around his right hand. His legs were stretched out on the stairs, and when he shifted into a more comfortable position, Chanyeol could see him wince. The giant watched as Baekhyun shrugged off his coat and hugged it.

He rushed over quickly, sitting on the step right below the brunet. "Hey." He wiped at his lips. "Are you okay?"

Baekhyun nodded, stretching his arms above his head. "Yep." He brought his knees up to his chest and laid his head on them thoughtfully. "It's really empty now. Kinda nice."

"Are you nervous?" Chanyeol patted Baekhyun's back lightly.

"Terrified." Baekhyun's eyes glimmered with humor. "But it's sorta familiar. Nostalgic, even." He paused. "Especially this." He stared straight in front of him, at the metal barrier a foot away from his toes. "Just you and me. Mostly quiet." He closed his eyes. "It's a bit painful too." The fur from his coat brushed up against his nose and Baekhyun forced back a sneeze. "What are your encore classes?" He made small talk.

"I'm learning a bit of Chinese now." He paused. "你很美 (Ni Hen Mei)." Chanyeol smiled.

Baekhyun let out a small laugh, having no idea what Chanyeol just said. "Was I suppose to understand that?"

"You don't need to." Chanyeol would be perfectly content if he could stay like that for the rest of the day, just talking to Baekhyun and making him laugh. But alas, all good things must come to an end. The bell rang overhead, disturbing their little moment. Chanyeol stood up. He stuck out his hand. "Here, let's get you up the stairs and to homeroom, okay?" Already, Chanyeol could hear his peers pouring into the school.

Baekhyun fitted his hand in Chanyeol's much larger one, then allowed Chanyeol to pull him up shakily. The giant's other hand held his waist gently, steadying him. Slowly, they made their way up the stairs, then down the hall to Baekhyun's homeroom.

After Baekhyun was introduced to his homeroom, Chanyeol gave him a small squeeze and walked into the room across the hall.

Baekhyun walked in and found his seat, set his stuff down, the walked to the pencil sharpener by the door. As the pencil sharpener was eating his pencil (the things were so inefficient) Baekhyun saw Kyungsoo going into the same room as Chanyeol. He watched as Chanyeol instantly smiled as Kyungsoo slid into the seat next to him.

That was enough for Baekhyun. He hurried away from the pencil sharpener, his brand new pencil half gone and still dull. His seat mate took pity on him, handing him a pencil and telling the new boy to keep it.

The teacher introduced Baekhyun, then told him to stand up and tell everyone a bit about himself.

"Ahem." He scratched the nape of his neck. "Wow, it's nice to see so many familiar faces. I'm not entirely new. I also recognize a lot of you guys from the showcase last month. I'm excited, to be honest. The environment is great, and I've missed it. I want make the most out of this semester." He sat down again as the classroom buzzed with activity. The bell cut into the haze, and the students rushed out, some stopping to greet Baekhyun, to the brunet's relief.

Chorus. Now where is the classroom?

He walked downstairs (with some difficulty), and straight into Jongdae. The dino-boy grinned and dragged him along to their first class.

As introduction, the teacher asked him to name one song that described him.

"See You Again. It's a bit of a sad song, but it describes one of my goals here. Another reason: I know a lot of you guys. I'm seeing you all again." He smiled at the class, and most of them smiled back. Kyungsoo of course, was sulking in the back. Baekhyun wasn't too worried. Jongdae was there.

"Fair enough. And Baekhyun, your performance last month was wonderful. I would definitely love to incorporate your skills into future performances," the teacher praised.

"Thank you. I look forward to the opportunities."

Baekhyun was given the scores for their current pieces, then Jongdae volunteered to teach him the movements. Kyungsoo looked like he wanted to say something, then closed his mouth.

Just because Baekhyun wasn't worried didn't mean that he trusted Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo had proven to be a rat many times over, after all.

He was so glad Jongdae was with him.

***

He saw Chanyeol during second period, but Kyungsoo was also there. Baekhyun could see Chanyeol holding his breath as the teacher decided where Baekhyun should sit. Unfortunately, the teacher was somewhat indecisive, so Chanyeol almost turned blue. Fortunately, Baekhyun was placed far far away, out of imminent danger.

And it didn't sit well with Baekhyun when Kyungsoo would do nothing but talk to his seat partner. And when Chanyeol laughed and smiled back, Baekhyun had to suppress the jealousy rising up in his throat. There was something about the way Chanyeol looked at Kyungsoo that brushed Baekhyun the wrong way. It looked guarded. Guarded but not forced or strained at all, unlike one may assume. It was like he was hiding something.

"Mr. Byun. Please focus." The teacher looked at him. Baekhyun stopped doodling.

"Sorry." He looked at the board and took a few notes. English had always been easy for him, and he had a tendency to zone out.

***

To the brunet's relief, next period, he had Chanyeol all to himself. And it was math class. Right off the bat, Baekhyun could tell that the teacher didn't care that much. As soon as Baekhyun finished his work (which was quite soon, mind you) he turned to Chanyeol, who was his seatmate. The brunet helped the male through a few quadratic equations. "Negative B, plus or minus the square root of B squared times four A C, over two A."

"How do you memorize stuff like this!?" Chanyeol muttered as he scrawled the formula down. "Four what?"

"Four A C. And mind you, I memorized it in sixth grade." Baekhyun rolled his eyes. "Just sing pop goes the weasel."

"That's not going to help. You're the weasel," Chanyeol teased. "Sneaking into the regular math class and making me look dumb."

"It's not my fault that all the slots for the advanced classes were filled!" Baekhyun complained. "Maybe I'll raise your math grade a bit more this way."

"But you were fun to toy with, and you did raise my grades. But you're useless to me now. Kyungsoo was right when he called you sickening. Don't come close to me again."

No, he isn't like that anymore. He wasn't ever like that. It was all an act.

"Plus," Baekhyun continued, "you're the ferret boy. Not me."

"You remember?" Chanyeol gaped.

"How could I forget? The cute little thing. And you were so chubby back then." Baekhyun patted Chanyeol stomach lightly, feeling muscle underneath the soft fabric.

"Not anymore," Chanyeol laughed, finishing the last problem and dropping his pencil.

"'Course not." Baekhyun agreed. "You're more handsome now."

Chanyeol's grin could rival the sun's brightness.

- § -

Someone please help me. I'm doing quadratics, but it's with factoring, and I honestly am so slow with factoring. It just doesn't click.

My math class so slow, it's unreal.

Or maybe it's just me.

And can I just say that TFIBBH, TFIPCY, and all the drabbles are so so so so good!!!!

Read it if you haven't!

(And because of reading that, I'm having a problem reverting to writing in past tense. Welp.)

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