A Dream Within A Dream (XiuHun)

Texts

Sehun was typing a text on his phone when someone very rudely barged in to his empty classroom. He almost jumped out of his seat because of the shock. He turned to look at who came in the class room. If it was a student, he would've said that he is not willing to give extra classes for them.

But it turned out to be his fellow colleague, Byun Baekhyun.

"Sehun-ah, come grab a coffee with me," he said while sitting himself on Sehun's desk.

He raised an eyebrow to him. "Why me? Where's your,"— he did air quotes with his hands,—"'smol' chef you call boyfriend?"

Baekhyun crossed his arms in front of his chest. "He is busy running the restaurant he owns." He emphasized a few words in his sentence. "Come on, Hun. You seem really busy with your own world these days. Just a cup of coffee with me, please?"

With a sigh, Sehun agreed to go get coffee with his work mate. Which made Baekhyun smile from ear to ear. They went out to their favourite café, which means the closest one to campus that serves decent drinks. 

When they entered the small shop, various smells of coffee mixed with baked goods intrudes his nose. The mixture of bitter and sweet was a pleasant smell, to be honest. For him, no day was a perfect day without smelling coffee.

They both went and ordered their usual drinks and sat down at an empty table near the window. As Sehun was sitting down, his phone lit up, a message just came in. Knowing who it was from, he checked and replied the recent message, ignoring Baekhyun's slightly annoyed face.

"This is what I mean by 'your own world'. Every time I see you outside of class, you're constantly checking your phone, which you rarely do."

Without looking up from his phone, Sehun replied, "You really like to pay attention to me, creep."

"I'm just looking out for you!" Baekhyun sighed. "Who are you texting anyway? A girl? Or a boy, maybe?"

This made Sehun snap his attention to him. He hasn't exactly told anyone about his sexual orientation. He isn't the most open person in the world, especially about him being gay. If he came out, he believes that his parents won't let him come home anymore. Being their perfect selves, their own and their company's image is always number one.

"It's just a friend I met at Jongin's a couple of weeks ago."

"'Just A Friend'. Sure I believe you." Sehun exhaled sharply and that made Baekhyun chuckled. "I'm just teasing you! But seriously, you can tell me anything, you know that right?"

He gave his colleague a smile, a genuine one. "Thanks, Hyung. I appreciate it."

Their coffee arrived and they drank their respective drinks in silence. A couple of minutes passed from them enjoying the caffeine. In those minutes, Sehun did notice some bystanders looking at their direction. Some were giggling, some just stayed silent. It's no secret that both of them were very good looking, and that they were among the youngest University's staff. 

"Oh, another serious note, you need to get laid." Sehun almost chocked on his drink.

"The fuck Baek— can you even leave my love life alone for a day?"

He grins a cheeky grin. "Nope, as your friend, best friend even, I need to interfere with everything in your life." Sehun was going to say something about 'intrusion of privacy' but the guy didn't even let him speak. "You need to loosen up. Get all the stress out of your system. And what better way to do that than good old se—"

Sehun's really not having it right now. Also he's not going to think about lewd things in public, much less talking about lewd things in public. To shut him up, Sehun shove the last piece of cinnamon roll he order to Baekhyun's mouth.

Before the guy could even protest, Sehun was already on his feet and was walking away from their table already. Some of the bystanders were even holding a laugh. "Thanks for the coffee, Baek. But I really should be going. Gotta teach in a bit," he said with a smile and a wave of his hand.

***

The rest of the day went in a blur. He taught a couple of evening classes, and now is already in front of his apartment's building.

What saved his day from extreme mental exhaustion was the many text messages he got today. Well, he usually get some messages from some 'admirers' from campus. But he normally just ignores them. Rude? Yes. But texting your teacher flirtatiously is also rude. 

But the messages he received were from Minseok. They moved from emails to phone messages now. And to Sehun's surprise, he was very elated when they did so.

These past couple of weeks since they met, he felt some weird things. Like the sudden urge to smile when he sees him, or the turn of his stomach every time he laughs, in a good way, of course. 

He hasn't felt those things as intense as this before. But then again, what does he know about this feeling? What even is the things he's experiencing right now? He has been in several relationships in the past, but they all felt... monotone.

This though, this is something else.