The faults in Byun Baekhyun

Chapter 27: What is a Baekhyun?

Chanyeol insists on sitting next to Kris during mealtimes, and even though everyone thinks that's because he misses his best friend, he's in fact trying to avoid Kyungsoo as much as possible. Thank god nowadays Jongin is talking to Kyungsoo more and keeping him occupied, therefore Chanyeol doesn't have to worry too much about anyone else noticing the awkwardness between them.

He basically gets ignored by Kris throughout, who's focusing all his attention on a still-disinterested Joonmyun. Chanyeol sighs. He doesn't even pity himself, because he's spending all his time pitying his friend.

If this is how Joonmyun displays his crush, Chanyeol thinks to himself, then I wonder how he displays his hatred ...

These days, whenever they finish eating, and sometimes even before, Chanyeol would be one of the first ones to leave, just to avoid Kyungsoo. Today is no other day.

As everyone stands, preparing to pack up and then leave, Chanyeol grabs his already-ready dish in his hands and rushes off, saying he has things to do. Once he drops his dish off in the buckets, he sighs in relief, happy that he has dodged Kyungsoo once again.

But he jokes with dread that he can't dodge Kyungsoo forever. After all, they're in the same Music Club group and they're in the same minor class. It's going to be inevitable someday.

He doesn't even know why he had rejected Kyungsoo in the first place. He was supposed to say yes. He was supposed to say yes, god dammit! But he didn't.

Why didn't he?

And yet, as he avoids Kyungsoo, there isn't even any longing to see his face, or to talk to him again sort of feeling that he usually gets when he hasn't seen Kyungsoo in a long time. It's not even the same anymore.

He remembers he didn't even know he had a crush on Kyungsoo until Kris saw him stiffening when Kyungsoo brushed past him and told him that he had a crush on that small boy. Now, Kris can't help him because 1, he's so obsessed with Joonmyun and 2, Chanyeol's not going to tell him what happened with Kyungsoo, because he's too embarrassed to and he's afraid what his actions might mean to him, afraid of what Kris might see.

He does miss talking to Kyungsoo, and he misses those moments they had together when they started getting closer. He misses that. But then again, it's the same feeling he gets when he missed Kris when Kris had stopped contacting him that Moon Angel era, when he missed Kris when he had been with Baekhyun (actually, he had missed Baekhyun more but that's just his subconscious talking), when he misses Kris now when his attention is always on Joonmyun, and when he had missed Jongin when Chanyeol had moved schools at first and left Jongin at his old one, and finally, when he had missed Jongin for half a year when he was at the hospital.

But if these feelings were the same, and he doesn't even feel remotely romantic towards Kris and Jongin, doesn't that mean ...

Does that mean ...

"Chanyeol!" A smooth voice calls, and while previously Chanyeol had wanted to close his eyes and hear that voice melt his ears, this time he knows it's not the same anymore. He misses that voice, but at the same time he wants to run away. "Chanyeol, wait!"

Chanyeol can't run anymore. It's time he faces his fears and confronts what he's terrified of confronting. Taking a deep breath, he turns around and sees Kyungsoo standing one metre from him. Kyungsoo looks beautiful, still looks beautiful, but this time, he's changed.

Wait, that's wrong. Chanyeol's the one that changed.

All those feelings that he bore for his crush, the ones he had accumulated and nurtured over the years, have suddenly turned into ones of friendship that he feels towards all his other friends.