Not Intended | CHANBAEK (BOOK I)

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Chanyeol knew Baekhyun was lying. He knew. Kai was a wallflower and didn't seem to have a backbone when it came to saying "no" to anything Baekhyun did. And from what Chanyeol figured, Kai allowed himself to be whipped into surrendering the keys that time when Baekhyun and he went to the store to buy cheesecake ingredients, but came back with a stubby dog. There was practically no doubt in his mind that the raspberry-blowing idiot in the seat next to him, who was practically jumping up and down from excitement over a few books, was the culprit of his black SUV's minor imperfection.

He had been giving Baekhyun the silent treatment to an extent while on their drive, but it only worked for a few minutes. Baekhyun moved on to being casual and leaned over, turning on the radio. And when Chanyeol shut it off, Baekhyun shrugged and started singing to himself, rocking his body from side to side and ignoring the annoyed, grumpy driver next to him.

Not even putting the car in parked gear yet, Baekhyun was already fumbling with his seat belt and reaching for the door handle. Chanyeol had to bark at him to stay put until the car stopped moving, but Baekhyun wasn't even listening anymore. Not a second after Chanyeol put the car on park, Baekhyun already opened his door, fixed his jacket and hair in the side mirror, and then hopped on the sidewalk.

"Are you gonna come in with me?" he asked.

Taking his time in getting out the car and closing the door, Chanyeol took off his glasses and hung them on his shirt. "Do I want to? That's the question."

Baekhyun tilted his head. Then he shrugged. "Fine. Don't."

Turning on his heels, Baekhyun walked into the small book store, leaving Chanyeol with his hands in his pockets, watching the brazen, romance novel lover enter the store without him. Still not completely happy over the fact that one of his cars was damaged, Chanyeol followed after Baekhyun, sporting a displeased look on his face. Once inside the store, he could see Baekhyun laughing with the elderly woman at the front desk.

Seeing Chanyeol enter, Baekhyun momentarily turned his head in his direction. "You didn't have to come in."

"I'm the one paying for your little fantasy books, remember?" Chanyeol reminded him. As Baekhyun shrugged and turned back to the woman, Chanyeol looked around the store and noticed the range of books around. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he hadn't really been in the store that much since he preferred visiting the library for all his book needs. One of the few times he had been in there was to buy Baekhyun those books to make up for the fact that he gave the dog away—though the gesture was ignored. Baekhyun, on the other hand, seemed like he frequented the store often. From the conversation that Baekhyun was having, Chanyeol guessed that Baekhyun often gushed about Nugget and his dog's "accomplishments" like learning how to sit on command.

"Baek, what books did you come here to get?" Chanyeol asked as he heard the conversation strain into another long topic. They needed to get a move on in his opinion.

Remembering his purpose for being there, Baekhyun set a palm on the front desk. "Oh! Right—Did 'One Heart to Win' come in?"

As the woman answered his question, Chanyeol slowly strolled around the store while rolling his eyes at the cheesy title. Looking at the books on the shelves, he noted that all the romance books there had cheesy titles meant to melt lonely women on their knees. Glancing back at Baekhyun, who was nodding at the storekeeper, Chanyeol shook his head, unable to really understand why Baekhyun liked reading stories about fictional love.

He knew that there was something about how the characters "fell in love" in a "nonsystematic" way as if they were never "obligated" to fall in love, but that was just about as far as Chanyeol could understand Baekhyun's mind. Baekhyun didn't like systems or anything coded, so in a way, Chanyeol didn't find it so hard to believe that the guy liked the uncertainty and adventure of romance novels. But still, to Chanyeol, if Baekhyun wanted uncertainty and adventure all he had to do was ask and he would throw him a hard cover copy of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".