Like Night and Day

Conditions and Obligations

Taking it upon himself, Chanyeol took a hold of the bottom of Baekhyun's hoodie, which had ridden up to show his abdomen, and pulled it back down. "Well, first of all," the giant calmly began, taking a seat on the floor and crossing his legs, "Sorry. Your, um, belly button was showing. I just thought I'd fix it for you. Second of all, I thought I'd get this entire friendship thing off the ground."

"It's school hours," Baekhyun sighed, giving Chanyeol an all too knowing stare. "What did I tell you about school hours?"

"You told me to only talk to you before school," Chanyeol said, almost reciting the condition and making it known that he hadn't forgotten. "I thought that it was doable, which is why I agreed to it, but it took me a while to realize that you're not here before school starts like everyone else."

Baekhyun's face remained stoic. "Why would I come early to this hell hole?"

"Right! But, see, I didn't know that!" Chanyeol exclaimed with a dumb look on his face as he appeared to look like a defeated pup. "I feel like I've been cheated with this entire friendship deal."

"I did tell you to never settle," Baekhyun shrugged.

"I'll keep that in mind for next time, then," Chanyeol said, forming a grin and attempting to give the brunet a high-five, which he refused to take. "Anyways, what're you listening to?"

With his face flat, Baekhyun shook his head in dismissal and lied back down on his side with his arm acting as a poor head cushion. "I don't mean to be rude, Chanyeol, but you should leave me and go eat lunch or something."

As Baekhyun chose to close his eyes, he secretly wished that the giant beanstalk would heed his demand. But when he peeked a few minutes later, he saw that Chanyeol was still sitting beside him. "Park Chanyeol," he said as if warning the male.

Ignoring the calling of his name, Chanyeol proceeded to ask, "Do you know how many stars there are in the sky?"

Opening his eyes again, Baekhyun quirked his brows. "A lot."

"Damn, you're smart," Chanyeol sighed in awe.

Baekhyun didn't know how to feel about the lopsided smile the jock was giving him. It was cute, Baekhyun had to admit, but cute wasn't his kind of taste. "What do you think you're doing, Chanyeol?"

"Making small talk."

"Stop."

Afterwards, Chanyeol kept quiet, turning his attention to the setting around them. Once the giant began picking at the books and pulling them out to read, Baekhyun's face softened as he tried to rest his eyes once more. His music continued to play, but he had pulled out the buds from his ears, only hearing the faint instruments from the tiny, tiny hole in his headphones.

The atmosphere felt heavy and Baekhyun hated feeling such a thing. In those cases, there always seemed to be some sort of obligation that he felt he had to do. In his case at the moment, the dead space between the giant and him were antsy for words to fill the gap. Although he yearned for Chanyeol to leave, to lift the burden of having to make an attempt to socialize off of him, Baekhyun knew that the chances of the possibility to ever happen was slim to none.

Giving up and conceding to the feeling of being dragged along dirt, Baekhyun begrudgingly pushed himself off the floor and sat up, mumbling curses underneath his breath. Rubbing his eyes, Baekhyun could feel the jock's attention solely on him and his dishevelled appearance. When he finished, he continued to sit with his legs spread open and shoulders heavily slouched—a complete contrast to Chanyeol's crossed legs and straight form.

"Are you going to leave?" Baekhyun said in a tired voice. "I can't sleep with you in here."

It took a few blinks and seconds for Chanyeol to respond. Looking down at the book in his hand, he pursed his lips inwards as if he was thinking of something more complex than the average thought. "I guess if I'm bothering you then I can," he finally said, lowly raising his eyes to meet Baekhyun's.