His Biggest Hater

101

The first thing Baekhyun notices is Chanyeol's smile.

He looks really happy, Baekhyun speculates. And it's strange, because it's not his birthday and he's not the one getting gifts and food. Instead, he's the one giving, throwing the jumbo-sized bear onto Baekhyun's face and making him stumble back.

"I got you that present a few days ago but you didn't know that—"

Baekhyun cuts Chanyeol off, afraid of his volume at this time of night. "Shut the hell up!" he hisses. "It's midnight and you'll wake up Jongdae!"

Chanyeol recoils a bit but he recovers just as quick, already used to being told to be quiet. People do it a lot, anyway. They say his laugh is annoying.

"Sorry," he whispers.

It's at that moment that the bedroom door opens, a messily-dressed Jongdae emerging from inside.

Baekhyun stares as Jongdae goes to slip on his shoes, speaking up before he leaves. "What are you doing?"

"Um. Going out? What does it look like?" he asks, opening the door. "Probably gonna go raid Junmyeon's fridge and sleep on his kitchen table while you two do whatever it is that people in denial do."

Baekhyun scoffs when Jongdae leaves, falling onto the one-seater while smothering the teddy-bear.

Chanyeol sits down on the couch opposite to his, setting the food down on the coffee table. Baekhyun notices that Chanyeol isn't as smiley as before and he feels bad because he kind of knows that it's his fault for telling him to shut up.

"Hey," Baekhyun whispers, and Chanyeol looks up from where he was staring at the bag of food blankly.

Chanyeol is met with the sight of Baekhyun, hidden behind the bear that now sat on his lap. He's flapping around the bear's arms like it was alive, acting like a complete child and making Chanyeol raise an eyebrow in amusement.

He sees a brief flash of Baekhyun's face off on the side, as if the shorter was checking if Chanyeol was looking at him. When it's confirmed, Baekhyun's hidden again and speaking. "I'm really—" he drags out the word and makes the bear open its arms wide, "—happy that you're the first person to say happy birthday to me."

Chanyeol can't hold back the smile on his face, leaning back in his seat as he continues to watch Baekhyun.

"It's very, very, very..." There's a dramatic pause and Chanyeol's anticipating Baekhyun's next word, knowing, somewhere in the back of his mind, that Baekhyun's trying to cheer him up. "Endearing," he finishes.

Chanyeol can't hold back his chuckle, remembering their phone call all those days ago.

"And I wanted to say sorry," the bear shifts in Baekhyun's arms and now he can fully see Baekhyun's face. With his pouting lips and his messy hair, Chanyeol questions how he can ever be mad at the shorter. "Because you arrived here at midnight to give me gifts and the first thing I did was tell you that I hate you, and then I told you to shut up. I'm a real asshole sometimes."

Chanyeol smiles softly at Baekhyun, the brunet's cheeks blushing lightly.

Seeing the way that Chanyeol stares at him; Baekhyun feels his heart speed up. There's really no one else that looks at him like that—like he can never do any wrong. Like he's the only thing that matters.

It always opens his eyes. He realizes everytime that Chanyeol really cares for him. He always has, in every way. He had his own reasons to reject Baekhyun and that can't override all the good things he's done—all of the times where he took care of Baekhyun and let him lean on his shoulder. Baekhyun was wrong in thinking that a mishap could erase all of that.