Like Night and Day

Conditions and Obligations

Chanyeol was a patient friend even though Baekhyun made sure to make it clear that they were not friend-friends. The giant, however, understood. He only followed Baekhyun's ground rules about the no speaking policy until he began to question why Baekhyun would allow so and so to speak to him, but never the athlete.

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Lunch was one of Baekhyun's favorite time of the day. After grabbing something to eat at an isolated vending machine at the back of the school, he would resume to spend his time quietly in the very back of the library and lie on the floor to take a nap. If he was lucky on a given day, he would wake up just in time to go right back to class. If not, he'd have to walk back into the classroom and deal with an irritated teacher afterwards.

As he closed his eyes, lying on that library floor on a day like any other where Baekhyun wished to be home and were thankful that everyone had decided to leave the entire room vacant, questions surfaced about his future. To Baekhyun's credit, just because he didn't exactly give a shit about the physical school and its adequate instructors didn't mean he wasn't concerned about where he would end up.

Being undoubtedly poor and putting all his untapped potential to waste at a factory wasn't an option that Baekhyun was willing to take. He thought about whether or not he should continue on to University or take a chance at becoming a solo singer. At the moment, life weighed in too hard, depressing him by the amount of choices that he felt were unnecessary for one to make at such an age.

He stopped thinking about it. It wasn't worth wasting an afternoon on.

Baekhyun tried to sleep, but found that he couldn't. Although the heat of the weather was seeping through the cracks of the windows on the second story library, it was not lulling him to sleep. In his tired frustration, Baekhyun made a mental note to never think about his depressing future until he absolutely had to, and then proceeded to take out his cellphone and earbuds, drowning himself with the loud ruckus of the raw instrumentals as he stared up at the blank ceiling.

There were so many instances in which Baekhyun dreamed of changing the world, because in his mind, the bar was already set low by the current people in charge. One good—or adequate—change would put him up high above anybody's league. But to change the world, one needed to take an initiative and Baekhyun was too limited in time and priorities to step out of his box and move to push things in the direction that he would've liked on his own.

Being alone was a way for Baekhyun's mind to decompress. To be interrupted was one of the things he hated. In the midst of one of his playlist, for the first time in a few weeks after purposely trying to avoid him, Baekhyun found himself looking up at Park Chanyeol, who stuck his head out from behind the dark wooden bookshelves of the library.

He said something, but Baekhyun failed to hear anything, only able to read Chanyeol's lips. When Baekhyun's blank face gave it away that he wasn't in the state of hearing, Chanyeol scurried out of hiding and moved into full view. The brunet watched him in passive silence as he walked to where he was lying and crouched down.

"So, I was thinking..." Chanyeol started before he reached over and gently tugged one of Baekhyun's earbuds out, slightly annoying him. "Sorry. I didn't think you could hear me."

The isolationist blankly stared back, countering the happy demeanor of the smiling basketball player who didn't seem to know or care of the fact that he had interrupted the brunet's private time during school hours. "I can't say it's nice seeing you here, Chanyeol," Baekhyun woefully mumbled under his breath, roughing up the form of his hair. Pushing himself up on his elbows, he cocked his head. "I thought I told you not to talk to me during school hours."