untouchable

Baekhyun is one of those class clown types.

He’s not really out to get attention though - in fact he rarely makes outbursts during class and when he does it’s usually because he has an incredibly stupid question. But all the girls like to crowd around him and giggle at his apparently awesome voice imitations before class starts. And it’s sad really, when Chanyeol thinks about it, because this is college, not high school and class clowns are so high school, not college. It makes him wonder just where exactly Baekhyun is planning to go with his life. Not that he cares because he doesn’t even know the kid. He never pays attention to when he’s making other girls laugh because he’s always too busy brooding over other things. More important things.

But then one day is different because Baekhyun is a little later than usual getting to class and when he arrives he doesn’t go to his usual posse to meet their new imitation challenge but instead takes a seat by Chanyeol and smiles. “Hi,” he greets in an all too friendly matter that has the taller boy raising a brow at him.

“Hey,” he returns only because he’s polite, not because he wants to talk. It’s almost midway through the semester and midterms are coming up soon and Chanyeol and Baekhyun have never spoken a word to each other until today.

“You’re Chanyeol, right?” A nod before, “I’m Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun really isn’t that great of a flirt and maybe it’s because Chanyeol has been around long enough to know where this is heading and wanting absolutely nothing to do with it. He scoffs and gives Baekhyun a pointed look. “I’m not interested,” he says curtly before picking up his bag to move elsewhere. He ignores the hurt look on the other’s face because, really, he hadn’t even said anything yet and he ignores how he probably just broke someone’s heart but that’s just fine because he’s been there and done that.





Kyungsoo’s breath hitches and he jumps when Chanyeol storms into their usual meeting place in the coffee shop on campus and dumps his books on top of the table with a loud thump before plopping down into his seat with enough force to scoot it backwards, the legs screeching against the ground unpleasantly. He lets out his breath when he registers that it’s just Chanyeol and he picks up his eraser to erase the large line he drew over his math homework when the elder scared him like that.

Beside him Tao briefly glances up from his reading, his gaze hardening when he sees Chanyeol, clearly annoyed by his presence and the way he decided to announce himself. “Is there a problem?” he snaps.

Kyungsoo resists the urge to scoff at that question because, frankly, there’s always a problem when Chanyeol and Tao are near each other and it’s really quite frustrating. He only wishes that everyone could get along.

“What’s stuck up your ass,” Chanyeol shoots back.

“Guys,” Kyungsoo interrupts, always the mediator. He looks to Tao and then to Chanyeol smiling when both back down from him. He offers the taller male a look to tell him that he will happily listen to his troubles but Chanyeol picks up a book he has to read for English and chooses to outright ignore him instead.

Tao clicks his tongue and returns to his economics reading, groaning in displeasure because he hates it and everyone knows it.

“Why the fuck do you major in business if you hate it?” Chanyeol quips at him every once in a while.

“Because I need the knowledge if one day Gucci is going to be mine.”

The answer always gets Chanyeol who tends to give him a weird look and shrug but by the next day he forgets why Tao is taking economics again.

They lapse into a semi-comfortable silence after that, only made awkward because they know Chanyeol is silently seething in his seat and it’s never easy for anyone to converse with him when he’s like that. The only noises come from when Kyungsoo takes a sip of his coffee or Tao slurps at his smoothie. Eventually Chanyeol gets up too to order a tea and that’s the most noise he makes so far. He’s half way through it when they’re joined by another.

Sehun practically throws his backpack to the floor and takes a seat between Tao and Chanyeol, but he scoots closer to Tao just to be safe. As usual he whips out his phone to do God knows what, but it only takes a quick observation of the taller man to figure that something is wrong though and he raises a brow. “What’s got your panties in a bunch?” he asks the eldest. Kyungsoo sends him a disapproving look that silently tells him to shut up and Tao gives him a pointed look as if to say “I told you so.”

The sound of the bathroom door opening reaches their ears but they pay no mind to it. “This idiot in my English class tried to ask me out,” Chanyeol says, scooting closer to Kyungsoo since he’s the only one who never minds when Chanyeol is close. He has nothing to be scared of unlike the others.

“Whoa, someone actually likes you?”

Kyungsoo screeches at the unexpected voice behind him and he knocks his coffee over in his panic, watching in horror as the liquid ruins all his long, hard work he did for math for the last hour and a half or so. All that work gone just like that. He sniffles. Now he’ll have to start all over again. “You scared the crap out of me!” he hisses to Jongin as the younger boy pulls an extra chair over to their table and squeezes himself in between Chanyeol and his boyfriend. He elbows the taller male on the arm, careful not to make skin-on-skin contact and sticks his tongue out at him before looping his arm with Kyungsoo’s.

“When did you get here?” Tao asks after giving up on his economics reading. He flips his book shut and pushes it out of the way with a sigh.

“Just now. Had to teleport to the bathroom first otherwise Kyungsoo-yah would have negated my ability.” He speaks his boyfriend’s name in such a sickeningly sweet manner that Chanyeol makes a face and throws a spare napkin at him. Jongin turns away from him and holds his arm up defensively and then grins at him when the attack is over. “So what is this you were talking about? Someone likes you is it? Someone can put up with your attitude? I’ll have to see it to believe it. She must be either brave or idiotic.”

Sehun snorts and momentarily pulls himself away from his phone to high five Jongin across the table because he thought that last comment was too funny. Chanyeol is not as amused though. “Piss off. And he was a boy, okay? Not a girl.” As if that information is supposed to make it any better.

Sehun outright laughs at him this time and Jongin turns away to hide his smile. “That is so not helping your case right now.”

Chanyeol turns to stare at him. “What the hell are you doing here anyways? Why don’t you go bother your boyfriend or something?”

“Luhan is teaching an evening class this semester so he’s busy right now. There’s nothing better to do except hang with you guys.”

Kyungsoo decides that now is the time to jump in and save his friend from further torment before he really blows up. “Don’t you have homework to do?” He looks at Sehun meaningfully.

Sehun makes a face and sighs, getting the message loud and clear. “ I fucking hate high school. College is way more fun. I should have stopped like Jongin.” He picks up his backpack and stands up from his seat. He sends everyone a nasty look as if to blame them for his misfortune of going back to high school and he pushes his chair in with his hip.

“You too,” Kyungsoo says to Jongin whose jaw drops when his boyfriend tells him to leave. “Suho should get off work soon. Why don’t you go pick him up?”

The younger boy pouts and tugs on Kyungsoo’s arm. “Why don’t you come with me then? He’d be happy to see you too.” He smiles slyly, persuasively but as usual it doesn’t seem to have an effect on Kyungsoo who only seems uncomfortably by the prospect.

The elder shakes his head and motions down to his ruined homework that he had yet to clean up “You made me ruin my homework. I’m going to stay here and redo it. I’ll meet you guys at home, okay?” Annoyed, Jongin stands up with a huff and follows Sehun out of the coffee shop but still Kyungsoo doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by his boyfriend’s attitude. He almost never is. He still acts like he’s not dating them.

Cringing as he picks up his wet and now light brown colored papers, he quickly gets up and throws them away before returning with a handful of fresh napkins to clean up the rest of the coffee mess from the table. Tao plays with his economics book, looking like he knows he needs to read it but really not wanting to.

“Who was it?” he eventually asks as Kyungsoo wipes up the coffee from the table and makes a little pile of coffee soaked napkins to the side. “Who was it that tried to ask you out?” he clarifies when Chanyeol shoots him a look.

“Why do you want to know?”

Tao shrugs his shoulders and reluctantly pulls his textbook over to open it again. “Thought I might do you a favor and tell him to fuck off.”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes. “Oh, how kind of you to offer.”

“Just trying to be a good friend.” Tao grins and it’s a total and obvious lie because they’re really not friends with each other. In fact, Chanyeol and Tao don’t really like each other at all. They simply came to a peaceful but tense truce over time.

“Baekhyun,” he finally answers while flipping a page in his book and continuing on with his reading.

Kyungsoo snaps his attention away from where he was restarting his math homework to look over at Chanyeol beside him. “Did you say Baekhyun? Baekhyun as in Byun Baekhyun?” He briefly looks down at his homework to rework one of the problems. He glances up again while his pencil is still moving - blindly solving the problem.

“Um, I guess? Yeah.”

Kyungsoo’s brows furrowed in concern and he sets his pencil down and peers up at Chanyeol. It’s weird though how he’s suddenly interested in the subject now and it puts him on edge. “What did you say to him?”

A little suspicious, Chanyeol shifts in his and stares at Kyungsoo over the top of his book and narrows his eyes at him in suspicion. “I just told him that I wasn’t interested. Why do you care?”

The younger purses his lips and doesn’t seem all too pleased with the response but he doesn’t do anything to voice that displeasure. It’s not in his nature. “I know him,” he says as an explanation. “We took a music class together last year. He’s a really sweet guy.” He bites his lip thoughtfully and stares back down at his homework again. “I hope you didn’t hurt his feelings too much.”

Chanyeol shrugs his shoulders and returns to his reading. “Who cares? Give him another fifty years or so and he’ll be dead anyways.” He keeps his eyes fixed intently on his book so as to easily ignore the upset expression on Kyungsoo’s face.

“Then what do you have to lose?” Tao snorts.

Chanyeol lowers his book and stares at the younger boy for all of ten seconds before apparently deciding that he’s had enough of this. He slams his book shut which is quite a feat considering how small and tiny it is compared to Tao’s textbook and he grabs his stuff, pushing his chair out rudely as he stands up. He doesn’t bother to say good-bye or push his chair in, only shoots Tao a dirty look before storming out of the cafe.

“Why can’t you guys get along?” Kyungsoo asks quietly while tapping his pencil against the table. He’s only gotten through the first of his problems and there are still many left to go and he really kind of feels like giving up hope because seriously that means another hour and a half of his life just to get to where he was before. “You’re so nice to everyone else. Except Yixing.” He adds the last part as an afterthought. It’s true though. Tao is a sweetheart so long as your name isn’t Chanyeol or Yixing.

“It’s a long story,” Tao says.

Kyungsoo sets down his pencil abruptly concluding that for tonight he needs to say fuck it to math. He’s still new. The newest one Kris found and he still doesn’t really get everyone’s relationship. Hell, he can’t even understand his own, but he needs to start learning sooner or later and Kyungsoo has always been a sooner rather than later person.

“Well, I’m all ears.”






Chanyeol isn’t so sure he should be surprised when someone inevitably comes to check up on him when he slams the front door shut rather viciously. He’s maybe just a little tipsy from the couple of drinks he decided to have before coming home, but he feels perfectly sober so it’s probably fine. However he is surprised to see that it’s Kris and not Minseok or Jongdae or - fuck - just anyone but Kris. He takes a moment to stare at the elder before sneering and kicking off his shoes. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at work?”

That Kris is taken aback by Chanyeol’s attitude is an understatement. Not that the younger man is a placid angel but he’s not usually quite this furious either. “Yixing is sick,” he answers calmly. “I took a day off to look after him.”

A snort escapes Chanyeol. “Well I hope the princess is recovering nicely then.” He attempts to shoulder his way past Kris but the other is having none of it because if there’s one thing he really can’t stand it’s lip, especially from Chanyeol because he always gives him lip.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asks, grabbing the younger man by the sleeve of his shirt and pulling him back so that they’re face to face again.

“You’re not my boyfriend anymore,” Chanyeol snaps. “It’s none of your business.”

Kris snaps. “Is that why you’re angry? Chanyeol that was years ago just drop it already would you? You’re just like a child -”

“Don’t even start with me you asshole,” he interrupts with a snarl, pulling his arm away and lifting his hand up threateningly. He’s pleased by the way Kris backs away from him but he is too overcome with his anger to fully bathe in the triumph. “What was so wrong with me anyways? Was it because you couldn’t touch me? Kiss me? So you left me for someone else fine. Whatever. But what the fuck about  fucking Tao? You give two people your heart but you won’t let that second one be me.” He doesn’t give Kris a chance to answer before he’s pushing past and heading for the safety of his room.

Nonetheless Kris follows after him, feeling just about as upset as Chanyeol. Sure the younger has gotten moody over the subject in the past but he’s never gone this far. “That isn’t the reason and you know it.”

“Fuck you, Kris!” Chanyeol hisses as he slams his door open with way more force than necessary. “Fuck you!” And he slams the door in his face.

Sighing, the eldest has half a mind to throw the door open and beat some sense into Chanyeol - literally - and he might have done it two if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Kris.” It’s Tao who speaks his name and Kyungsoo is standing beside him looking a bit uncomfortable as his gaze shifts from Kris to Chanyeol’s door.

Running a hand through his hair, Kris forces a smile on his face as greets the other two, pulling Tao into a hug and patting Kyungsoo on the head. “Suho and Jongin on in their room,” he tells Kyungsoo and his implication is kind of obvious, but the younger ignores it just like he always does.

“I’ll talk to him,” he says instead, referring to Chanyeol.

There isn’t any protests as he heads for the door but Kris promises to tell Jongin and Suho that he isn’t home yet if they ask. Kyungsoo nods his head before opening the door and slipping inside.

Chanyeol has a room all to himself because he and pretty much everyone else thinks it’s too dangerous for him to have a roommate. For a while Kyungsoo was, but that was only because he was safe from him - from everyone. Chanyeol can’t hurt Kyungsoo because the younger is the only one that can stop his power because that’s his power - he can negate other abilities but only in a short range. All it takes is being just outside his personal bubble and his power is useless. But still Chanyeol could touch him.

It was the best few months of Chanyeol’s life, having a roommate he could play around with who he could touch and it would be just fine because he wouldn’t burn someone for once in his life. He used to swear that he might have fallen in love with Kyungsoo eventually, maybe even forced himself if he had to because finally, finally there was someone he could touch. Someone who's skin he could feel and savor.

But then Jongin had butt in and declared that Kyungsoo was his - theirs - and promptly moved him from Chanyeol’s room to his and Suho’s and the taller male has been alone again since.

Kyungsoo closes the door quietly behind him as he scans the room in search of Chanyeol. He spies a lump in the blankets on the bed and assumes that’s where the other is hiding. Steeling himself for any outbursts the other might have he marches over and crawls onto the bed, touching the lump of blankets on what he thinks is Chanyeol’s shoulder.

“What?” the elder croaks out and sniffles.

“Are you okay?”

“Sure.” It really doesn’t answer the question and Kyungsoo purses his lips.

“Look, about Baekhyun.” Chanyeol’s eyes snap open and he sits up so he can turn to stare at Kyungsoo because this is so random. “Maybe you should go on a date with him.”

He narrows his eyes at the younger boy, not really amused by the suggestion. He’s a bit angry right now if Kyungsoo hadn’t noticed. Really, the last thing on his mind is asking out the resident class clown in his English class. “I’m not going to take pity on him just because you happen to know him.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Kyungsoo defends. “Tao told me about you and Kris and that’s why you guys don’t really get along and I think I understand where you’re coming from, especially given the nature of your power but you can’t just hole yourself up because one relationship didn’t work out. You have to give it another shot and if Baekhyun is interested then you might as well use him. It’s like you said anyways, give it a few years and we’ll probably be leaving anyways. He’ll forget about you eventually and he can just be another blip in your life.”

Chanyeol raises his eyebrow because he doesn’t think he’s ever heard Kyungsoo speak so softly while uttering such cruel words before. It’s surpising. “I thought you said that you didn’t want me to hurt his feelings.”

Kyungsoo shrugs his shoulders. “You won’t if you give him a chance and date him. I’m sure even he knows that most relationships aren’t meant to last. And you’re lonely. You have to distract yourself. You have to try.”

“I think that is a stupid idea,” he says, flopping back down on his bed and pulling his blanket up over his head.

“There are only so many ways to fight loneliness though.”

Too few ways, Chanyeol would be inclined to say. There are too few ways to fight it.





They don’t age and they don’t die easily which makes everything about following Kyungsoo’s advice stupid, yet he sits in class two days later staring at the door and waiting for Baekhyun to come in. He’s running a little later than usual again like the day before when he was well on his way to asking Chanyeol out on a date but this time when he comes in he doesn’t even look in Chanyeol’s direction and immediately heads for his usual spot in the back of the room.

That’s Chanyeol’s cue to move and he gets up from his seat and intercepts Baekhyun on his way, raising a brow when the shorter male bumps into him because he isn’t paying attention. “Whoa. Um.” He stammers a bit when he sees that Chanyeol is the one blocking his way.

“Look, about the other day -”

“Sorry,” Baekhyun interrupts immediately, scratching the back of his head and staring down at the floor. “Um. I’m sorry about that. It was really awkward and I totally get it that you’re straight and I probably really shouldn’t have done that because I mean we’ve never talked before, you know, and -”

“Do you want to grab a coffee after class?”

“What?” He peers up and Chanyeol a little anxiously, his eyes squinted in what the taller man deems a mildly cute manner. “Er. I thought you weren’t interested.”

“A close friend of mine knows you,” Chanyeol says dismissively as he tugs at the end of his shirt. It’s not that he’s nervous or anything. He’s just bored and there’s a hair there which he picks off. “He changed my mind. Told me I should give it a chance. So coffee? After class? Or are you not interested anymore?”

“What? No, no! I’m - I’m still interested. Coffee sounds nice.”

Chanyeol nods his head and shuffles back to his seat. “Then coffee after class,” he finalizes, turning away before he sees the grin that cracks across Baekhyun’s face before the shorter man finishes the climb to his usual seat, fidgeting now as he counts down each minute till the end of class. Somehow his smile manages to stay put throughout the entire lecture.



Baekhyun is weird. Like really, actually weird. He trails just a little bit behind Chanyeol on their walk to the coffee shop and Chanyeol swears he’s wearing like six different layers of clothing to protect him from the winter chill. Maybe it’s just because he’s Chanyeol though and he’d feel the most comfortable stripped down to his tank and sweats in this weather because frankly he’s burning up and he knows that’s unusual because everyone around him is complaining about the cold. Still he thinks six layers is pretty excessive too.

That’s not the only thing weird about him though. He keeps staring at Chanyeol’s hand and pouting thoughtfully before shaking his head and he wonders if Baekhyun makes it a habit to act out his thoughts.

“Can I, um.” He lifts his arms up to free his hands from the abnormally long sleeves of his jacket and his fingers twitch as he reaches for Chanyeol’s hand. The taller of the two jerks his hand away when Baekhyun tries to touch him and sighs at the dejected look on Baekhyun’s face. It’s not that he hates it, hand holding is nice and something he hasn’t done for years and years and years but he has to be careful too, so he tugs the sleeves of his hoodie over his hands to cover them up before offering it to Baekhyun.

“My hands are cold,” is his excuse, but Baekhyun seems to buy it as he grins and grabs hold of Chanyeol’s hand.

“Really?” he questions as he wraps his hand around Chanyeol’s and it’s a little awkward because he’s holding the sleeve of his hoodie closed with his hand but it’s the closest thing he can get to real hand-holding. “It feels really warm though.” He lifts the other’s clothed hand up to press against his cheek to confirm it and the action makes Chanyeol a little nervous, but Baekhyun is grinning and pulling his hand away. “I like people with warm hands.”

Chanyeol quirks an eyebrow and refrains from making a comment about how he’s always warm because he really doesn’t want to encourage this too much. “Why?”

Baekhyun shrugs. “I don’t know. I just think it’s nice.”

Kyungsoo and Tao are already there when they arrive, but Chanyeol doesn’t lead him over to them and instead pulls him to the other side of the coffee shop to one of the smaller tables made for two, maybe three, people. He asks Baekhyun what he wants and tells him to wait there while he goes to get their drinks and maybe a pastry to split. While he’s waiting at the counter he glances over to Kyungsoo and Tao who are blatantly staring at him and his date. Kyungsoo nods his head in approval while Tao narrows his eyes at Baekhyun like there’s something off about him. He sighs as he orders his usual tea and a mocha for Baekhyun not at all surprised that Tao isn’t happy for him.

When his order is up, he takes the two cups and the plate with the pastry on it and makes a point not to look back at the other two as he stiffly heads back over to where he left Baekhyun at the table. Somehow Baekhyun manages to keep a conversation going between them despite the fact that Chanyeol rarely responds and he’s balancing drinking his mocha and nibbling on the danish between them. It must be a gift from God himself, Chanyeol thinks a bit sarcastically.

He doesn’t mind though. Actually he kind of maybe likes it because he can’t remember the last time someone wanted to know so much about him. The only time Baekhyun really talks about himself is not really when he’s talking about himself but excitedly retelling a story because one of Chanyeol’s answers reminded him of something. It’s nice, he thinks but he also knows that it’s only because Baekhyun is blissfully ignorant. He’s friendly because he doesn’t know and the thought makes Chanyeol frown.

“Hey, are you listening?”

Chanyeol snaps out of his trance just fast enough to jerk his hands away and hide them under the table when Baekhyun reaches out to touch him. It takes the shorter male by surprise and he blinks before bringing his own hands back to his lap dejectedly. “Sorry, I just zoned out for a moment.”

Nodding his head in understand, Baekhyun opens his mouth to say something further but is cut off by the sound of chair legs screeching against the stone floor of the coffee shop and a crash. They both jump, eyes immediately flying around to find the source of the commotion and Chanyeol fumes when he sees Tao sprawled on the floor with Kyungsoo kneeling frantically beside him.

The younger man turns his eyes to Chanyeol and flails his arms because he has no clue what to do. “Fuck,” he mutters under his breath, not particularly wanting to get up and help.

“Oh, my God. Is he okay?” Baekhyun moves to get up and that’s when Chanyeol decides that this is officially the worst date ever and now it’s probably over.

With a sigh and gets up and heads over to his friends along with Baekhyun and he kneels down next to Kyungsoo who looks completely and utterly lost and still panicky. “What do I do? He just fell over!” he hisses, briefly glancing up at Baekhyun who has his hands on his knees while peering down at Tao and wonders if this will be a problem. Chanyeol forgets that this might be the first time Kyungsoo has seen this happen. Tao doesn’t do this often and Kyungsoo only recently joined them half a year ago.

“Is he your friend?” Baekhyun asks in concern, talking to Chanyeol. “Should I call an ambulance?”

Chanyeol waves him off. “Don’t worry about it. He’ll be fine. This just happens every once in awhile.” He looks down at Tao and then resists the urge to sigh again. “I’ll call Kris,” he finally says, standing up to grab Tao’s jacket from the chair. “We need to get him home.”

Kyungsoo nods and struggles to find a way to lift Tao off the ground, ignoring all the looks everyone is giving them. He eventually manages to pull him half onto his back and Chanyeol helps get him on the rest of the way before pulling out his phone.

“Are you sure you don’t need to call an ambulance?” Baekhyun asks again anxiously.

“It’s really none of your business.” And maybe he feels kind of a little bad because of the hurt look on Baekhyun’s face. What can he say to that?

“O-oh. Okay. Um.”

“I’m sorry about this,” he says to try and salvage the situation. “Maybe next time, okay?”

Baekhyun perks up a little at the mention of a next time but still seems overwhelmed by the rejection earlier. “Yeah, okay. Next time.” With that he gives a slight nod as a gesture of farewell before he pulls out his phone to call Kris and Kyungsoo follows behind him, struggling with Tao’s deadweight on his back.





“So,” Kyungsoo begins awkwardly after they brought Tao home and Kris somehow managed to wiggle his way out of work again, freaking out the entire way back and then almost treating Kyungsoo and Chanyeol like the whole ordeal had been their fault. Then he apologized and went to his room to check up on Tao and Chanyeol decided he wanted to watch some TV. Unfortunately Jongdae had the TV first so he was forced to put up with watching the foodnetwork. Really, Jongdae isn’t even that great of a cook.

“How was the date?”

Jongdae blinks and looks over at Kyungsoo curiously. “Date? Who had a date?”

Smiling proudly Kyungsoo points at Chanyeol who covers his face with his hands and groans. Fucking traitor.

“Really?” Jongdae perks up and looks over at the taller man who glares at him before glaring at Kyungsoo. “That’s good, Chanyeol. That’s good.” He pats the younger man on the back as he says those words and Chanyeol gets the distinct feeling that he’s being mocked.

Kyungsoo opens his mouth to repeat the question but finally God is looking to be his savior because the door opens and Suho and Jongin walk in, freezing when they see Kyungsoo in the living room. The exchange a look before quickly pouncing, Jongin teleporting as close as he can while Suho springs forward and they grab hold of Kyungsoo before he can do anything.

“No, wait!”

“No more excuses!” Jongin declares as he pulls Kyungsoo away from the living room with Suho’s help.

Finally. Sweet justice. Chanyeol points and laughs at his misfortune while Kyungsoo only glares in return. Sweet, sweet justice.

“So how was your date?” Jongdae interrupts his victory tour and the taller man turns to glower at him because one does not simply interrupt Chanyeol’s victory tour since he never gets one.

“Tao fainted,” is all he says.

“Yeah, but -”

“Tao fainted and ruined my date.”

“Oh.”

When Chanyeol receives a text message from an unknown number asking if he’s okay with a lunch date tomorrow when he’s about to go to bed he wonders if he needs to ask Baekhyun just how, exactly, he managed to get his number.






The second date is much better than the first one and Chanyeol chalks it up to the fact that there’s no one annoying around that he has to worry about. They’re just two guys at a restaurant. Nobody knows them and they don’t know anyone else and it makes everything much, much better.

Baekhyun is a little quieter today, but he’s still talkative, still inquisitive and Chanyeol thinks that it’s probably incredibly unfair to him but he likes how Baekhyun really likes him even though he doesn’t return those sentiments. Never will either. It gives him something to do though to waste time away from home and he’d be lying to himself if he said it didn’t stroke his ego just the right way. Besides, hadn’t this been Kyungsoo’s advice? Use him? Okay, he can do that because in some years one of them will be long gone and Chanyeol assures himself that he won’t be looking back.

The promise becomes harder to keep though when they both unwittingly ditch their afternoon classes to hang out because Chanyeol really loves how Baekhyun adores him and he adores his cute little smiles too. He realizes that it's getting out of hand then. He’s not supposed to like Baekhyun because whatever this is that they have right now can’t be for very long.

When Chanyeol truly begins to believe that perhaps dating Baekhyun won’t be such a bad idea he has to harshly yank himself away from that fantasy and stare down at his hands to ground himself back into reality. These hands that will never be able to touch him serve as a powerful reminder as to why it can never be and Chanyeol once again assures himself that when he’s gone he’ll never look back.

At least that’s what he thinks until he returns home later that night and is instantly greeted by Tao who, he guesses, was pacing around the living room waiting for him.

“Didn’t realize you loved me that much,” he says when Tao demands to know where he’s been.

“Shut up. Where were you? Who were you with?”

“Aw, are you worried that I’m cheating on you?” Chanyeol coos in an all too mocking manner that has Tao bristling at him in seconds.

“Chanyeol,” Kris reprimands him with a stern look. Yixing is standing next to him and he wants to gag and roll his eyes. Great, now he has to put up with Kris and his annoying bitches. “Tao saw something.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured,” Chanyeol says, clearly uninterested in whatever it is as he toes of his shoes and makes a beeline for his room. “Doesn’t he always see something when he has one of his episodes? And why can’t you see the future instead of the past. Everyone knows what happens in the past. God that’s so useless.” He’s almost to the safety of his room when Tao stops him.

“It’s about that kid. The one you’re dating.”

“I went on two dates with him,” Chanyeol defends. “That doesn’t mean we’re dating.” He makes for his room again but apparently none of them want to drop the subject just yet.

“He’s like us, Chanyeol,” Kris says this time and he freezes, hand just at the doorknob and all he has to do is twist and duck inside but he can’t because it feels like his mind is starting to fail him. He forces himself to open it just a crack before he relents because he’s curious and a little angry and little hurt too.

He turns his head to look at them, Tao and Kris the only ones who look at him while Yixing quietly turns his head away. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

“I saw it,” Tao says. “I saw him. He’s not normal. He’s lived for far too long. I don’t know what he can do but whatever it is it obviously isn’t a detriment. He can blend into any time period easily. He’s adaptable. Very adaptable.” Chanyeol winces at the word detriment and mentally soothes his wounded ego. He is not a detriment. He’s just as adaptable.

“If it is true you need to talk to him,” Kris tells him. “We can’t just leave him on his own.”

Chanyeol presses his lips together before closing his door with a rattling slam. He stands there in front of his room for some minutes as the other three stare at him like they’re waiting for him to do something. Finally he takes a couple steps away from his door and sighs before heading in the direction of the front door again.

“Where are you going?” Kris asks him as he bends over to pull on his shoes again.

“To talk,” Chanyeol says, his tone a little heavy as he yanks on his second shoe. He doesn’t really know why he feels this way: betrayed. But he does and he’s not going to let that wither quietly away. He walks out the door making a note to kick Kyungsoo’s ass later.




“Who is it?” Baekhyun’s voice is muffled through the door as he talks and Chanyeol stares at the door just barely seeing a reflection of himself in the metal surface. He wonders what he looks like right now. Angry? Upset? Blank even? He doesn’t know what he’s feeling either. He’d gone through a whole mess of emotions on his way here.

“Um. It’s me. Chanyeol,” he calls back, hiding his hands into the sleeves of his hoodie and - God! - it’s so fucking hot right now even if it is the middle of winter.

There’s a pause on the other side that makes Chanyeol a little nervous. Shit, does he know now too? But how could he? How could anyone know? That’s what he had to keep telling himself when he felt anger and betrayal on his way over. They hide. That’s how they live so how could Baekhyun have known and how could he have known? If it weren’t for Tao he might have never known.

There’s a click of the lock before the door opens with a creak, Baekhyun peering at him through a crack just small enough to reveal him, not wide enough to invite the other inside. “Hey, did you forget something?” he asks. The only reason Chanyeol knows where he lives is because he dropped Baekhyun off here only an hour ago.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “Can I - can I come in?”

Baekhyun hesitates for a moment before nodding his head and opening the door a little wider so that Chanyeol can step inside. That’s when he decides to turn the tables on him. He grabs Baekhyun by his shoulders and whirls him around, slamming him up against the door which in turn slams the door shut. “What are you doing?” Baekhyun cries out.

“What can you do?” Chanyeol demands.

“What are you talking about?”

The taller man is having none of it though. He shakes Baekhyun a little too roughly and the smaller of the two gasps when his head knocks back painfully against the door. “Tell me what you can do? How long have you lived?”

Baekhyun is in hysterics as he tries to escape but there’s nowhere to go between Chanyeol’s grip and the door. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Honestly!”

“Bullshit!” He narrows his eyes at Baekhyun who is squirming against the door still trying to escape from him. “It bothered you, didn’t it? When I wouldn’t let you touch me. Wouldn’t let you hold my hand. Want to know why?” The smaller man’s struggles lessen a bit at the question but he still looks weary like he’s afraid to know what he’ll say. “Do you want to know?” He shakes Baekhyun again, but not as harshly this time.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Baekhyun just barely nods his head but Chanyeol still sees it. He takes in a deep breath, still holding on to Baekhyun with one hand but moves the other down to do something he hasn’t done for decades and he almost futilely hopes that maybe for once it won’t do anything. Yet as his fingers brush against Baekhyun’s wrist the same old thing happens and Baekhyun eyes snap open and his mouth drops in a gasp, arm jerking away from him like he had been singed and Chanyeol knows that nothing has changed.

“What did you do?” Baekhyun whimpers as tears prick in his eyes. His nerves are on fire as they signal up and down his body because his wrist is burning.

“I can’t control it,” he explains softly. “I hurt everyone I touch. That’s why I wouldn’t let you hold my hand. You don’t know what it’s like to live the way I do. I can’t touch anyone. Not really anyways. It’s hard for me to fit it. Took me forever to do it - to become cautious enough not to let anyone touch me. Yet you just come into my life with your stupid fucking crush and you pass day to day unnoticed. What can you do? Tell me!”

Breathing heavily, Baekhyun brings his wrist up and blows nice, cool air against the burn there. For the longest time he doesn’t say anything to answer Chanyeol and continues to try and soothe the pain in his wrist, but it doesn’t do much except relieve the pain for but a few seconds.

The taller man doesn’t seem bothered by his delay though because it’s not as if Baekhyun will be escaping any time soon. So he stands there with Baekhyun still pinned to the door and he waits for him to say something. Eventually though as Baekhyun clenches his eyes shut in pain and his fingers curl into a fist, Chanyeol pulls away briefly and leaves the other by the door to nurse his burn as he searches the kitchen for a plastic bag and some ice. When he returns he hands the bag of ice over Baekhyun who grabs it and gingerly places it over his burned wrist.

“Sorry,” he apologizes a little late.

Baekhyun shakes his head, hands shaking a little from the pain. His rests the side of his head against the cool metal of the door and breathes in deeply. “I can still steal your voice,” he says and Chanyeol almost reels back at how deep his voice suddenly sounds and it sounds just like him. “I can steal your voice. I can take your words.” He turns his head and coughs and when he speaks next his voice is back to normal. “That’s what I can do.” He sniffs, briefly pulling the ice bag away to check on his burn before replacing the cold bag back on the injury. “How did you know about me?”

Chanyeol licks his lips. “Do you plan on staying on your own?” he asks instead.

“What? You have a family or something?”

“Of sorts.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Just a group others like me - us.”

Baekhyun shakes his head and curls into himself by the door. “No. I’m okay on my own.” Chanyeol squashes the trickle of disappointment that seeps into his head.

Then a thought suddenly comes to mind and he’s kind of afraid to ask, but he wants to know. “Then that time when you wanted to ask me out, you never intended for it to last long, did you? You were planning on leaving when you needed to.”

Baekhyun freezes at the accusation and he stutters. “I - um - I...I thought you were normal.”

Chanyeol tries not to think about why it feels like Baekhyun just ripped away a piece of his heart because he thought the other was normal too and he’s equally as guilty for plotting the same thing. And maybe he had grown to kind of like him over the two dates they had so God! does this really suck right now. “Yeah, well I guess you’re okay on your own,” he repeats poisonously, planning on marching out and never looking back.

Baekhyun obviously has different ideas though and he throws himself against the door, blocking off the only way out. “I didn’t know then,” he says like it should actually mean something now.

“But you were still planning on it?” Chanyeol stops when the smaller man cuts him off.

“I didn’t know!”

“And does knowing change that?” he demands, fist clenching at his side and he has to resist the urge to try and haul Baekhyun out of the way because he’s pretty sure he could but he’s only in a t-shirt and sweats and Chanyeol doesn’t really want to burn him again.

“Yes!” He sounds a little desperate, a little scared and like he’s ready to rip his hair out if Chanyeol doesn’t start cooperating, but he’s always had difficulties cooperating with anyone.

He shakes his head and approaches the door anyways, shoving Baekhyun to the side with his shoulder while he fights to keep his place, to keep Chanyeol from leaving. “I’m going home,” he states firmly, fighting for the right to turn the doorknob. Baekhyun’s fingers grip onto the sleeve of his hoodie and he pushes back but the taller already caught him by surprise and it doesn’t take much more effort to push him away.

“Chanyeol, wait please!” He reaches for his hand on the doorknob to pull him away but hisses when the touch burns his fingertips. Chanyeol tenses for a moment at the sound before quickly snapping out of it and he’s out the door before Baekhyun can say anything else.





He steels himself as his eyes trail over to Baekhyun when the elder takes a seat beside him the next day in English. He has half a mind to either kick him out of his seat (which he thinks he probably can’t do) or get up and move elsewhere himself like he had the day Baekhyun almost asked him out. God, Chanyeol rolls his eyes because he really hates thinking about that day and then the day after that when he decided to take Kyungsoo’s advice and then the day after that when he actually asked Baekhyun out. Which reminds him, he still has to kick Kyungsoo ass later.

Before he can do either of these things though Baekhyun says, “It changes things because I wouldn’t have to run away.” Chanyeol raises a brow and stares at him, watching as he sets his hands on the table, fingers peeking out of the sleeves and he sees bandages covering three fingers from when he had touched the back of his hand. “I’ve always had to run away before and I hate it. God, I spent hours last night crying because of what you said. I didn’t know that there were people...like me.” He wipes at his wet eyes with his damaged hand.

“How many relationships have you been through exactly?” he asks, not at all liking how jealous he sounds.

“A few here and there,” Baekhyun replies vaguely. “I stayed with them as long as I could. Thought that maybe, you know, this time would be the time. I always told myself that one day I would find someone to stick with forever - or well at least for as long as they lived. What about you?”

“One.”

Baekhyun appears shocked. “One?”

“Just one. A long time ago.”

“But you know about...you know.” He glances around like he’s paranoid that someone might be listening in on their conversation.

“Yeah. I know. He was the one who told me about myself. Still living with him actually.”

Now Baekhyun looks outright horrified. “Then - then what happened?”

Chanyeol sighs, turning his head away to look straight ahead. Their instructor is arranging her materials on her desk, pushing her glasses up her nose and generally calling for the attention of the class. “Things just didn’t work out between us.”

“But, I mean, if you knew about others...you never found someone else?”

Reaching for the sleeve of his jacket, Chanyeol picks it up - it’s the closest he can get to touch his hand - and holds it out in front of his face as if Baekhyun is too blind to see the bandages wrapped around his wrist and fingers. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I can’t exactly going around just touching people. It makes having a relationship incredibly difficult.” He speaks this all bitterly and drops Baekhyun’s hand which lands limply on the table. “I live with ten other kids but I have to sleep by myself in my own little room because everyone’s too scared of me. Sure, they love me and I know that, but they all skirt around me because they can’t bare to fucking touch me, touching me hurts too much.”

Baekhyun lowers his head and peers up at Chanyeol through his eyelashes but the taller man isn’t looking his way but rather staring down at the instructor and pretending to listen to her. “I still want this,” he says quietly. “I still want this to work especially now that I know I don’t have to run away.”

Chanyeol snorts. “You say that now but with time you’ll wish you hadn’t. You don’t get it Baekhyun. We can’t touch. Ever. I can’t hold your hand or kiss you or do anything intimate. I can’t do it.”

“I still want this.”

“No, really, you don’t.”

Baekhyun bristles in annoyance. “I would like to decide that for myself. Thank you much.”

“Yes and I would like to save myself the heartbreak,” he retorts.

They’re silent for a minute after that, the instructor’s words finally reaching their ears now that conversation has stopped but still neither of them are paying any attention. Chanyeol keeps ignoring him though at the very least acting like he’s a good student listening to her lectures while in reality he was thinking of a hundred different ways he could torture Kyungsoo into begging for forgiveness. He gets to number twenty-three when Baekhyun reaches for his hand and he has to jerk it away before the other does something stupid like burn himself again. “Don’t,” he warns.

“I want to try this,” Baekhyun repeats. “I can be committed.”

With a shake of his head, Chanyeol hides his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. “I don’t believe you.”

“Because you won’t give me a chance,” he hisses under his breath so that people around them won’t hear. “You have to give me a chance. Besides I don’t believe you either.”

Chanyeol is shocked. “Don’t believe me about what?”

“Never being able to touch you. I think one day we can.”

“I think you’re an idiot.”

Baekhyun grins at him. “Great. So coffee again after class?” Chanyeol heaves a breath but doesn’t reject the offer.




“So are you like a pyro - pyrokinetic?” Baekhyun asks, struggling to pronounce the word right. It’s kind of cute in a weird way. He has his arm looped through Chanyeol’s and he holds on to the sleeve of his jacket because it’s the closest he can get for now.

The taller man shrugs his shoulders as his sneakers drag against the sidewalk. “Not sure. For a while Kris thought that I might be but it if I am it never manifested. I don’t make fire. I’m just a bundle of heat really.”

“Maybe you can learn to control it,” Baekhyun suggests. He’s rubbing his other hand against his jeans, wincing at the friction it causes against his burn.

“Stop scratching.” Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun behind him so he’s on the other side and he has the other loop his injured arm in his this time. “It won’t help. You’ll just make it worse.”

“I know.” The shorter male bites his lip as he tries to scratch again, but Chanyeol presses his arm to his side, trapping Baekhyun’s hand. “But it’s so itchy! I really, really need to scratch it.” He struggles futilely with Chanyeol for a moment before giving up and instead trying to ignore the itchy sensation. It’s really hard though and he ends up curling his fingers tightly into the other’s jacket to release some of the tension.

They’re almost to the coffee shop where Chanyeol just knows Kyungsoo and Tao are going to be. They always meet there before going home together. “Anyways, are you sure about this?” he changes the subject. “I’m not exactly great boyfriend material.”

“Why?” Baekhyun sniffs. “Because I can’t kiss you yet?”

“Um. You can’t kiss me ever,” Chanyeol points out.

“Yes, I can,” he says confidently.

Chanyeol blanches. “How the fuck do you figure that?”

With his free hand, Baekhyun shakes his arm until the jacket sleeves fall over his hand and then he bunches them up with his finger to create a makeshift glove much like Chanyeol had done the first time he wanted to hold hands. He presses three fingers against his lips for a moment before lifting his arm up to press his jacket-covered fingers against Chanyeol’s lips.

“See?” he says a little too cheerfully. “Our first kiss.”

It’s really lame as far as lame first kisses go but Chanyeol grins anyways because Baekhyun has to be the first person who’s tried so hard. And really, it’s totally cute.