Phoenix - Chanbaek

4. Can we install doors?

(One week later)

(Chanyeol's POV)

"Wow, this place is so cozy" I stated when I looked around my and Baekhyun's soon-to-be shared apartment.

"Yeah, I know. I'm thinking of turning this area into something different" Baekhyun told me then gestured for the big empty space in the living room.

It was such a big place to be an apartment, but I liked it a lot. I had only lived in houses my entire life... but this would be a good change.

"You know what?" Baekhyun started. "I look forward to us living here together, I feel like we could be pretty good friends, you know?"

I nodded slightly, wondering from where all of this enthusiasm came. He didn't seem that keen on me living together with him at first.

"So where are the living rooms?" I asked. Baekhyun broke out from his intense thinking and turned around. He shot his arm up in the air and shouted happily "this way, please!"

I followed him into a corridor that I didn't see before, and there were four doors there. "So these three are bedrooms. One for you, one for me, and if we get guests, one for them" Baekhyun explained. He had obviously already been to this apartment a few times before.

"This is the bathroom I think..." he opened the door that he was referring to "yup!" Inside was a shower, a bathtub, a big full-body mirror and a new, shining, white toilet.

"This looks nice" I said coolly.

"I know right!" Baekhyun turned to me. '"So when do you think we should move in?"

I thought for only a couple of seconds. "Well, as soon as possible. It's so boring at Kyungsoo's house and he never cleans up after himself" I complained. "Hahaha, okay. But it looked pretty nice last time I was there." "That's because I cleaned after him, that baby" I said and left the bathroom.

"Which room's whose?" I asked.

"You can have the biggest one if you want, I will probably barely spend any time in my room."

I looked into the different room a last time before Baekhyun pulled me away to show me the kitchen.

"Kyungsoo told me you like to cook, so I thought you would like this" he said before showing me the kitchen. It was a big room with a lot of space to move around. There were a whole fridge and a whole freezer, not those ones that are split into two. The walls looked new and everything was clean. Some walls were black and some were white. The cupboards were colored in a pleasant wooden color, with thin handles made of matte metal.

"Wow" I said. I couldn't believe we would be living in that place in only a few weeks. "Yeah, I knooow... I thought you would like this. It's a bit bigger than Kyungie's kitchen, huh?" Baekhyun said and leaned on the wall next to the doorway.

"There's just one thing..." I said hesitantly and turned back to Baekhyun. "What?" He asked. His smile dropped a bit, probably expecting something bad. "Well, can we install doors to the entrances?" I asked. "What? What for?" He asked, and he looked rather amused.

"Well, what if the place catches fire? A door might save your life, shutting out the smoke from either the room or the rest of the apartment" I told him.

He looked... surprised. "Yeah, well... that's true, I suppose. Why? Do you have some fire phobia or something?" He asked me. "Uh, sure... I guess you can call it that..."I trailed off.

He shrugged and turned to look at the room better. "Yeah, I guess we can do that. I mean I don't have that much money, but I could do it, sure" he said.

"Nonono, I can pay for it. I have money. Don't worry about it, I mean, I'm the one who asked for it..." I convinced him. "Okay" he said. He sounded annoyed, but when I turned to look at him, he looked more relieved than anything.

"Okay, so, I was planning on moving here in two weeks, but you can move in whenever. Get to know the area maybe. I mean I already live close to here, so we could do something some time too if you want." Baekhyun said. "That is... if you want to move here... before me..." he said.

"I think I can wait for two weeks. Let's move in at the same time..." He looked happy now, and kind of embarrassed.

"Uh. Right. Sure. Let's do that" he smiled at me weirdly. I'd say it was cute, but that'd feel strange to say since I'm straight.

But he looked cute, I just can't deny it.

"So do you know this area?" I asked him.

He told me about a nice pizza place nearby, and he was friends with the owner already, so he sometimes got free pizza. Which was awesome, since I love pizza.

(Baekhyun's POV)

I told him everything I knew about the place. About the little stores along the street and things like that. I told him how to get to the center of the city from here, and I told him about my friend Park Jaesu that ran a pizza place only ten minutes from the apartment.

Chanyeol listened and asked some questions sometimes.

I loved his eyes, they looked so happy all the time. It was like a happy virus had spread to me because just looking at him made me happy. His skin was perfect, and his voice was pretty dark.

We decided to take a taxi back home. He looked a bit surprised at my suggestion. "I have never gone anywhere in a taxi before," he said and looked out on the street. "Really? What, you have a driver's license?" I asked. "Uh, no... but I always had someone drive me" he said.

"Like a friend?"

"Kind of... "

I looked at him, and he looked away. Probably embarrassed by something that he almost told me.

After a while of awkwardness, we started talking again. I began talking about music, and that was something we both were really interested in.

I told him I loved to sing and had practiced a lot since I was just a kid, and he told me about all the instruments he could play.

"Wow, even guitar? Isn't that like, really hard to learn?" I asked. "Well no. It's different, but not harder. I actually prefer guitar over a piano. But I like to play both"

"Well if you want, you can play guitar in the apartment whenever you like, I don't mind. And the landlord told me there was no one living under us, and that above us, there was only a deaf man. So it's okay" I told him. He smiled and I could feel warmth and giddiness crawl up my body.

"Thank you" he said, then we left the subject to talk about k-pop groups.

We stepped out of the taxi when we arrived back at Kyungsoo's house. Chanyeol and I went in, and Kyungsoo had made food for us.