lights off | baekyeon

chapter two

09:21

—

The cafeteria bustled with activity as artistes and staff alike queued for their breakfast. All 9 boys gathered together in the morning, with Suho in the lead and Yixing joking around with Sehun as always. A normal morning, with everyone in good spirits after having a good night's sleep in their respective rooms. Baekhyun, as what everyone had noticed, was quieter than usual. However, he brushed their concerns off, blaming the uncomfortable bed sheets. 

That morning, the tired boy had woken up to someone shaking his shoulders. When Taeyeon's face came into view, he had rubbed his eyes and asked what time it was in his husky morning voice. It was way too early, but he didn't press on the issue. After all, it would be best to wake up before anyone else does, so as to avoid the public eye. Thereafter, she had returned him his room key and left in a haste. 

The sweater he had given her the previous night lay on the bed, neatly folded. It was a mixture of his familiar wardrobe smell, and her shea butter scent. So she did use it after all. A part of Baekhyun wished he could see her in it, but knowing Taeyeon well, she would be on high alert and probably checked everything thrice before leaving the room.

"Baekhyun!"

He blinked, turning his attention to whoever was calling him. Xiumin had his eyebrows raised, gesturing to the stack of plates. Flashing a sheepish grin, Baekhyun picked one up and followed Xiumin to fill the plate, all the while with the elder shooting concerned glances at him. 

"Are you okay? You look like something's troubling you."

Baekhyun grabbed hold of a pair of tongs to pile green onion pancakes onto his plate. Just as he was wondering what's with the widespread of food today, since they usually don't serve pancakes in the morning, Xiumin grabbed his wrist, halting his movements. 

"Baekhyun, those are cucumbers."

He glanced down. The 'green onion pancakes' on his plate were, indeed, freshly sliced cucumbers. Gaze wavering, the flustered boy struggled to conjure up an excuse.

"I-I'm taking these for Yixing. He said he has never tried Korean cucumbers before."

Xiumin's eyes told Baekhyun that he wanted to probe further, but, thankfully, he moves on without questioning him.  Once he turned his back to Baekhyun, the latter scrunched his nose up and pushed the cucumbers aside, before scooping some rice and side dishes. 

As soon as he was done, Baekhyun made his way to the back of the cafeteria where the EXO members were sitting at. It was a long table, one that allowed about 10 people on each side. He thought it was cute how the NCT kids settled far away from them, too shy to interact with their seniors. 

Making himself comfortable, Baekhyun started digging into the piping hot meal, occasionally placing cucumbers on Yixing's plate whenever he wasn't paying attention. Thank god Yixing already had a few cucumbers on his plate — just that he glanced around questioningly after noticing that the number of cucumbers on his plate wasn't decreasing no matter how many of them he ate.

Making small talk here and there, their conversation was interrupted when a small commotion sounded at the far end of the cafeteria. The members looked up to find the members of SNSD roaming around to find seats — this late, there were hardly any seats left.

Except for the ones beside the boys.

And that was exactly where they were heading towards. Chanyeol was the first to stand, followed by the rest of the members. Since they were fairly close and on good terms, the girls waved them off and settled down with their food trays. As a habit, Baekhyun glanced around.