His Biggest Hater

18

"My comeback is next week."

Baekhyun stares at the little screen he was holding in his hand, his earphones plugged in and his butt glued to the bean bag in the corner of his room. He coincidentally woke up when Chanyeol started a live on IG and he—though it was a rare occurrence—decided to watch it.

The entire time, Chanyeol wasn't really talking and was instead just messing around. He seemed to be in his room on his bed, his hair messy and his face completely bare. The sight made Baekhyun feel weird, and whenever Chanyeol made eye contact with the camera, Baekhyun would look down at the comments instead.

Chanyeol is now leisurely reading some of the comments he's getting, laughing and answering some of the questions. Baekhyun, not really caring if Chanyeol sees or not, types out his own special little comment.

'Your album cover sucks'.

Baekhyun clicks send without really thinking about it.

Chanyeol keeps reading the comments and Baekhyun hears him read out the comment right on top of his own, and when Chanyeol finishes that one, he's quiet when his eyes scan the screen next.

"Do you guys like my album cover?" Chanyeol asks suddenly, and it takes a second or two but Baekhyun's comment gets drowned out by fans exclaiming their love for the dreaded album cover with multiple heart emojis.

Chanyeol is staring into the camera again and this time Baekhyun doesn't look away, glaring at his screen as if the other could actually see it.

Baekhyun swears Chanyeol smirks.

"It seems like a lot of people like it."

Baekhyun switches onto Line, momentarily leaving the live to send a text that read 'Chanyeol's being a bitch' onto the infamous groupchat. When he gets back onto the IG live he gets peeved about the notifications he receives on the top of the screen, forgetting to mute the sounds on Line. Jongin was saying something about his shoes.

Baekhyun sees Chanyeol checking out what seems to be a secondary phone—one not being used for the IG live, because the kid was rich—before he himself quickly exits to tell Jongin to shut up, muting the notifications to get back to watching the live. Chanyeol's laughing to himself when Baekhyun gets back on the live, staring at something on the screen of his phone.

His fans question what he's laughing about and Chanyeol says something about how his manager was being weird (honestly, Baekhyun wasn't paying attention because he was wondering if Chanyeol actually noticed his comment from earlier).

The next few minutes are filled with Chanyeol talking about bits and pieces of his life and Baekhyun is surprisingly attentive, only straying from his thoughts when he adjusts the blanket around himself. He still avoids looking straight at Chanyeol because he can't stand the idiot's face—and mostly in live time. It makes him feel like Chanyeol is still there with him when he's not.

He's forced to read the comments and listen to Chanyeol's voice, hating that he decided to watch the live because of the fact that simply Chanyeol's voice made his stomach flip. And yet, he can't seem to click x.

"I'm really tired lately," Chanyeol speaks up randomly, "I just can't sleep."

Baekhyun then rolls his eyes, wondering what kind of image Chanyeol wanted to give to his fans. Shouldn't he be acting strong and pretending everything is fine, just like all the other idols? Dumbo and he should stay up together and be the idiots they were.

Baekhyun reads the comments and sees an influx of messages with people saying things like 'get lots of rest!', 'don't be worried!', 'ily!', etc.

There's a slight shift on the screen and Baekhyun's gaze gets fixed onto the minute movement, finding himself staring at Chanyeol. A smile appears on the idol's face when he sees the comments and Baekhyun watches the entire thing happen on screen, quiet and unmoving.

All of a sudden, his thoughts travel to places and he gets lost in scenes that he swore he'd never think about again, only brought back to reality when Chanyeol chuckles.

It's as apparent as it was before.

He hates that smile.

"That's right," Chanyeol begins, seeming proud of his fans for all of the caring comments, "If someone is hurting, you should always help them."

Says you, Baekhyun thinks bitterly, watching how Chanyeol's face shows off all the features Baekhyun memorized—the little dimple in his cheek when his lips curved, the crinkles near his eyes when he laughed—and the lone boy recalls that the memories were worthless, ever since he figured out that he had them etched onto his heart only to lose the source of it all.

The grip on his phone tightens. The heart beating in his chest suffocates.

You never helped me.

—

"do you have to make everything angst?" multiple readers ask.

"yes of course," parkbacon replies

P-Nut oot.