Like Night and Day

Touch Base

The morning of the second day was Hell the minute someone's loud alarm began ringing with an obnoxious song put on high. Despite in covered darkness, Baekhyun could faintly see his cabin mates begin to stir within their beds. Rolling over, he turned on his phone and glared against the LCD light as the device flashed. After seeing the god-awful time, he put the phone back on the ground and lied back in his bed.

It was seven-fifteen, and the sun hadn't yet broken out in the sky, but traffic was a pain in Baekhyun's ass. With no agenda to fight for space in the stall-limited bathrooms, he begrudgingly left his bed using a flashlight to see in the dark as he pulled out clothes and shower materials.

Once he finished, he stood up while aiming the flashlight on the floor. All efforts to slip outside quietly were hindered with every step on the creaky ground. When he heard a faint voice calling at him, he paused for a moment, looking back and pointing the light in the face of his neighbor.

"What're you doing?"

The question came out in a gruff voice, roughened by the early morning hours. Pointing the light back down, Baekhyun shook his head as he quickly found the door. "Go back to sleep, Chanyeol."

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The clouds that loomed over the sky the previous day lingered and returned with a windier fury than the last. Even the slab of concrete that was poorly called a "porch" was slick with water due to the rain that had issued back in play during the night. Cursing under his breath, Baekhyun pulled his towel over his head and made a careful dash up the rocky hill beside the cabin. Once he reached the bathroom building, he pulled open the heavy door forcefully and stepped inside.

His eyes stung, no doubt in his mind that it came from being awake so damn early. After checking the mirrors, he glared at his eyes, red and puffy from the uncomfortable sleep acquired from the lack luster matts the camp called beds.

The loud hiss of the shower head snapped the silence in the barren bathroom. Hanging his head, Baekhyun found himself breathing as though he was suffocating. Just beyond his sight, he spotted the dark bruises on his shoulder left behind by the invasion of Chanyeol's eager lips the day before.

Inwardly crawling within his skin, Baekhyun felt the turmoil of being engulfed in heated embarrassment again. Wrapping his arms around himself in a gentle manner, he stared at the white-tiled wall contemplating how his actions should be executed about that day. Smart tactics and strategies were key to the success of any war, and Baekhyun was on red alert in order to find his golden map out of the Hell he faced.

Perhaps in the beginning he was the overconfident prince peering down from his ivory tower watching the enemy with an ego, assurance that his walls would never be breached; however, the tides were changing and with physical evidence left on his body, Baekhyun felt his castle, his haven, intruded upon and failing to hold on to its security.

In Chanyeol's mind, Baekhyun might've seemed like a rose, red in seduction and fascinating, and perhaps that's how Baekhyun might've seemed to the giant from a distance, but it was only a matter of time before the persistent man would try and touch him only to realize that his very existence was covered in thorns.

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"Where did you go yesterday?"

Setting his cellphone aside, Baekhyun glanced up at the tired blond loosely holding the fork in his hand as he attempted to take impale the sausages given that morning. Luhan, as Baekhyun saw, looked as miserable as he, but in a fashion less severe. At least the latter didn't have blood shot eyes.