His Biggest Hater

88

"Sir! Sir!"

When Chanyeol hears the muffled and distressed cries, he comes back up to the surface, his vision a little blurry because of the chlorine stinging his eyes. When he finally figures out where he is and what he's doing, he spots a man at the edge of the pool, his outfit telling him that he's some type of guard.

"Jesus Christ I thought you were dead," the man says under his breath before redirecting his speech at Chanyeol, his voice loud. "It clearly states that the pool closes at 10 PM. It is three hours past that time, sir."

The way that he says sir is a little bit of a sneer and it causes Chanyeol to snort, the giant climbing out of the pool right next to him. When he's standing on dry land again, he's only a little taller than the guard, the man looking a little startled and intimidated (who wouldn't be afraid of some guy swimming in full clothing at 2 AM?).

The man's eyes narrow and he examines Chanyeol closer, the guarded look in his eyes slowly disappearing. "Are you Park Chanyeol?" he finally questions and Chanyeol grins.

"Yes, sir."

And now he's fully glaring, surprising the giant who thought that he just met a fan.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to escort you out of this hotel."

"Wait—what—"

It doesn't occur to Chanyeol to check the man's nametag until after Sehun and he are kicked out of the hotel, the two of them standing at the entrance with their two suitcases.

Huang Zitao, it says.

—

"Well shit," Sehun says as he flops down on the significantly smaller bed, letting out a deep sigh. "You just had to go fuck around in the pool at 2 AM?"

"Hey, I would've been fine if I didn't meet the wrong person at the wrong time," Chanyeol defends, making Sehun sit up and raise an eyebrow at him.

"You mean the guard?"

"Yeah... I sorta used to know him when I was in high school. He was my neighbour, and a really good friend of Baekhyun's."

"Baekhyun, as in the guy that you've been crying about this entire night?"

"I have not been crying!" Chanyeol exclaims quickly, but Sehun just bursts out laughing when he sees the idol's huge ears turn red.

Chanyeol sighs and sits down at the couch across from the shabby bed, not even caring that this hotel was of less quality than the earlier one. He decides to tune out Sehun's boisterous laughter as he replayed some scenes of the past in his mind.

It's no surprise that Tao kicked him out, to be honest. Chanyeol knows that Baekhyun and Tao had a deep friendship back in the day, and there is no doubt that Baekhyun told Tao about everhthing that happened between him and Chanyeol. Tao probably still hates Chanyeol for treating Baekhyun like trash.

Chanyeol slumps in his seat as he recalls what it felt like to be underwater, before Tao interrupted him. It felt nice, and in the short minute and a half that he had been under the surface, he, for some reason, thought about what it would be like if he wasn't an idol.

Would Baekhyun and he have a figured something out? Or would he have kept rejecting Baekhyun even when living in the same city and neighbourhood? Would he still have set up Yoora and Baekhyun like the idiot he was, even if he knew Baekhyun didn't even like girls?

He remembers a time during his two-year training when life was not looking bright, where he ended up starving himself for most days and only ever doing whatever the company told him to do. He was feeling worthless and miserable—he didn't know if he was ever going to debut with how terrible he was at everything—and coupled with the fact that he got the news that his mom was ill back at home, he felt... horrible. He blamed himself for everything that happened and he has the vague memory of standing at his place's balcony, just staring over the edge at the cars below. He's not proud of the thoughts that went through his mind at that time, but he figures that it's just a part of life.