EXO FICS.

Another Winter

Another Winter

It's odd the way the cold always seems to hit you almost overnight. One day the temperature is moderate, comfortable even, then a blanket of snow lays its way on the pavements outside and you wake up shivering. Chanyeol swallows, blinking the sleep away from his eyes and the back of his throat is dry and a little sore. It's not that he's getting sick, but it's a good indicator to the fact that the rest of the world is probably frozen. The other good indicator is how bitterly cold it is in his room. The tip of his nose feels like ice and the slivers of skin that escape the cover of his duvet shiver violently beneath the chill.

The first thing he thinks of is Baekhyun. His best friend loves snow and cold weather and anything white and frosted. Today's the day the town center flips on the Christmas lights, and it's been a yearly tradition for the two of them to go together. It's sort of rare for it to snow around this time of year though, and Chanyeol lets a small smile form at the thought of how much more excited Baekhyun will be to see the ground covered in blankets of white as the small town center lights up.

Chanyeol groans as he ruffles through his closet, cursing when his feet hit the cool wooden floor because his bed was so warm but now everything is cold and that probably means even his warm jacket is frozen now too. The wooden clothes hangers clack together as he searches, and he lets out a soft “ah!” when he finally spots his prize – the large army green parka that Baekhyun and him had bought together last year.

If it weren't for Baekhyun, Chanyeol thinks he may not be able to function in winter. He slides into a pair of slim fitted jeans, the same kind he usually wears, and unravels the scarf Baekhyun had bought him from one of the hangers on the right hand side of his closet. He lets it hang loose around his neck, not bothering to tie it, as he shoves his feet in his sneakers and heads out the door.

Chanyeol throws a half-assed snowball at Baekhyun's window, groaning when it dissipates before it even has a chance to hit the glass. He sees Baekhyun walk past and shouts for him, waving him down outside his house from his window. Chanyeol can't decide if he's either frozen or restless, maybe a combination of both, with the way he's hopping from one foot to the other with his hands dug deep in his pockets. He watches Baekhyun put on his own matching parka from his view into the boy's bedroom window, and as a violent shiver hits him he wonders vaguely if it would be rude to just let himself in.

Baekhyun trudges up to him a few minutes later, careful not to slip on the icy spot of his stairs and he sighs exasperatedly at the shivering mess of a boy in front of him.

“That's not how you wear a scarf,” he says, as he twists the knitted wool snug around his best friend's neck. “And you can't wear those shoes in the snow, stupid. They'll be soaked before we even get there.”

Chanyeol looks down at his tattered old converse shoes, curling his toes and seeing a significant hole that forms where the rubber bends.

Chanyeol groans, “I don't have any other shoes.”

Baekhyun ponders for a moment, and Chanyeol eyes him warily. Baekhyun often comes up with these 'ideas'that Chanyeol is never really much of a fan of. The last one left him with a huge lump of a bruise on the side of his head from where it collided with Kyungsoo's radiator. Baekhyun runs back into his house quickly, before Chanyeol even has a chance to tell him to stop thinking, only to return with two plastic shopping bags in his hand and a devious smirk on his lips.

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol asks tentatively.

“Put these on your feet,” Baekhyun says, thrusting the bags into Chanyeol's hands. “Tie them up, then your feet wont get wet.”