⠀⠀Jongdae had invited Chanyeol over to just hang out and do work with him, and it was only natural for Chanyeol to immediately agree after being asked. In fact, he high-tailed it to Jongdae's apartment at a speed that was probably more dangerous than his family would've liked it to be.

⠀⠀ Chanyeol was to write up a report on Edgar Allen Poe's writings, due in a week like he had mentioned in the other day. He probably should've started working on it the day it was assigned to him, but he was Park Chanyeol, for goodness sake! Since when did he need to be "on time?"

⠀⠀"Since you made a bet with the deity of love, which states that all of your beloved will perish on midnight of the twenty-seventh of November on the dot," Cupid's voice rang in Chanyeol's head—prim, proper, and absolutely infuriating. At this point, Chanyeol was in the midst of taking his helmet off, and his lips curled into a snarl as he slid the helmet off of his head.

⠀⠀Stop getting into my head! Chanyeol snapped at the god of love in his head, his blood boiling as Cupid laughed with unfriendly mirth. His grip tightened on his bag straps as Cupid talked.

⠀⠀"Oh, but don't you like it when I pop in to see you, Yeollie?" Cupid asked, sickeningly sweet to the point that Chanyeol wanted to vomit. Disgusting. "Besides, I want to get my arrows ready, and Psyche insisted that I wait until you actually fail to meet the time limit. Ugh, it's been a few millennia and my wife is still no fun at times," Cupid sighed dramatically. Chanyeol rolled his eyes and glared at no thing in particular.

⠀⠀Leave me alone, Cupid, Chanyeol growled mentally.

⠀⠀"Hey. Watch your tone with me, Park," Cupid warned, his steel-edged voice engaged once again before he disappeared from Chanyeol's mind. Chanyeol smiled in a relief at the disappearance of the god before running up the stairs of the apartment complex to Jongdae's apartment.

⠀⠀Knock, knock, knock.

⠀⠀Jongdae pulled open the door, a bowl of sliced watermelon in his hands. Smiling, he pulled Chanyeol in with his free hand before closing the door behind the two of them. Jongdae then walked over to the dinner table where a few sheets of paper, a pen, and a carton of milk laid, along with a cup of instant ramen. Chanyeol frowned and put down his bag next to the couch.

⠀⠀"What's with the hobo meal, Jongdae?" Chanyeol pulled out a seat next to Jongdae and sat down next to him, gesturing widely at the food laid out on the wooden table. Jongdae laughed, his eyes crinkling adorably, before smiling softly and shrugging.

⠀⠀"I'm a college student, first of all, and I don't have the time, funds, skills, nor patience to make any food," he explained simply. Chanyeol cocked his head.

⠀⠀"Couldn't Baekhyun or... or his boyfriend or whatever cook for you?"

⠀⠀"Actually, Kyungsoo came over just to do that, only to realize that our kitchen is emptier than Yixing's eyes when he's bored," Jongdae laughed again, clearly proud of his tiny roast of the Chinese boy with a smug smile on his kittenish lips. Chanyeol rolled his eyes and snatched a piece of watermelon from the bowl with a loud indignant cry from Jongdae. "Hey, who said you could eat that!"

⠀⠀"The fruit ninja who cut this up said, that's who!" Chanyeol argued in mock aggravation, swiping the entire bowl of cut up watermelon in one swoop of his arm. He stood up and raised the bowl high above his head, laughing as Jongdae got onto his feet with a concentrated frown and began to reach fruitlessly for the fruit. Pun completely intended.

⠀⠀"Chanyeol~!" Jongdae whined as he stood his toes, "You know I'm short! Give me my lunch, you string bean!" He continued to jump, leap, and stretch all he could to reach the bowl eight feet in the air but continuously failed. Meanwhile, Chanyeol couldn't help but splutter incredulously at the analogy.

⠀⠀"A string bean?" he asked with wide eyes. Jongdae huffed and crossed his arms, pouting as he stared up at the Park boy.

⠀⠀"Well, er, you're tall so I can't call you a small bean so, I—um, string beans are long and you're long, I guess. . . ?" Pink dusted across Jongdae's nose as he averted his gaze back to his food and work on his dinner table. Chanyeol's mind began to wander into far more dirty territories, on the other hand.

⠀⠀Long? He said I was long. . . Blushing face and all, what if he's wondering if I have a long di—

⠀⠀"Aha!" Jongdae shrieked in triumph as he took advantage of Chanyeol's suddenly blank state and snatched his bowl of watermelon by tugging dazed Chanyeol's arm down. He hugged the bowl close as Chanyeol snapped out of his inner monologue and attempted to take the bowl back.

⠀⠀"Hey, that's no fair!" the taller boy complained as he wrapped his arms around Jongdae's waist in an attempt to get to the fruit bowl (or, y'know, maybe he just wanted to get his arms around Jongdae). The smaller male was just howling with mirthful laughter, delight bouncing off of each and every dulcet tone of his voice while Chanyeol continued with, "I spaced out—you can't do that!"

⠀⠀"All rules of gentlemanly game were thrown out when you decided to mock me for my vertical difficulty!" Jongdae hollered in between his uninhibited joyful laughter. He twisted this way and that, all the while stuffing the several remaining pieces of watermelon into his mouth and giggling at the absurdity of the entire situation. Silly and fun stuff like this was usually reserved for him and his girlfriend, not for him and a guy who's been his classmate for God knows how long that he barely knew.

⠀⠀"Aargh! Don't hog—sharing is caring! Did your parents teach you nothing? Were they fucking missing or something, haha!"

⠀⠀Suddenly, Jongdae froze. Chanyeol could literally feel the smaller boy's muscles grow incredibly tense in his hold, and he frowned tightly. Had he said something wrong? He didn't recall saying anything out of his normal nature. There didn't seem to be a reason for Jongdae to suddenly stop their play session like someone had just hit a universal pause button. But Chanyeol figured he had done something, said something—fucked up somehow. Now, he held upon his shoulders the weight of the duty of finding what he did so wrong—oh.

⠀⠀"I—um, did I, erm, hit a nerve?" Chanyeol asked slowly. Not a movement from Jongdae. Chanyeol wasn't even quite sure if the smaller blinked or not. Shit. "Jongdae? Did I say something?" he asked, his voice laced with worry. Now, he was genuinely concerned. "Hey, Jongdae? Talk to me." Chanyeol's brows knitted closely together as he craned his neck around to look at Jongdae in the face, only for the latter to avert his gaze and break away from Chanyeol's hold.

⠀⠀The taller watched as Jongdae put down the bowl of watermelon he had been clutching so protectively to his chest. He watched silently as Jongdae planted his palms flat on the table next to his work and took two deep breaths—in through the nose and out through the nose. Damn it all, he really fucked up. Chanyeol swore himself out in the back of his mind, the front being occupied with a plethora of worries, mostly concerning the boy in front of him.

⠀⠀"Chanyeol. . ." Jongdae began slowly. The mentioned stiffened immediately with his hands clenched into fists by his sides.

⠀⠀"Um, yes, Jongda—"

⠀⠀"I refuse to delve into details, but don't make any jokes like that. I don't find them funny," he said lowly. Chanyeol was both extremely concerned and terrified; it sounded like Jongdae was restraining himself quite a bit from absolutely losing it. "I'm dead serious, Chanyeol. I hate those things. I don't even let Liyin or Baekhyun make those jokes, and only Baekhyun and my brother knows why. Deadass. Don't play those kind of jokes, okay?"

⠀⠀"I-I—"

⠀⠀"Chanyeol, you've really pushed yourself onto me all of a sudden. While I don't particularly mind that, even though I admit it's odd, you need to know the boundaries I have when it comes to certain things. I'll let it slide because we literally started talking a little more than a week ago, but I will seriously be pissed off if you do it again, so please don't make those jokes," Jongdae stressed with a glare, a dangerous or else floating in the air. Chanyeol nodded slowly, his eyes blown wide open.

⠀⠀"Promise, I won't," he said sincerely after getting over the initial shock of the one-eighty flip of Jongdae's normally warm and kind personality. Jongdae took a few more deep breaths before turning his head and smiling gently towards Chanyeol.

⠀⠀"Thanks. I. . . I appreciate it." He nodded before grabbing his pen and music scores and walking to the open living room, soon placing the sheets on the coffee table in front of the couch, sitting down on that couch. He hunched over to scribble stuff down on the sheets, turning to look at Chanyeol briefly. "Hey, Chanyeol, get me my guitar—second room on the right. I need to see if this sounds okay."

⠀⠀"Y. . ." Chanyeol was still a bit stunned into silence at the sudden flip-flop of Jongdae's personality. He took a silent deep breath before saying, "Yeah. Just, uh, give me a second."

⠀⠀As he walked to the designated room per Jongdae's instructions, his mind wandered as to why Jongdae was so sensitive about, what Chanyeol assumed to be, parents. Cupid took this opportunity to once again pop into his head and croon, "Ooh! Lover boy fucked up. Wooh, it was a bad one too!"

⠀⠀I hate that you're right, Chanyeol mourned as he grabbed the guitar off its stand and made his way back to Jongdae in the living room.

•••

surprise update??? IM REVITALIZING THIS STORY SINCE I FINISHED FWASOL HURRAH

so how have all of you been? good, I hope. it's holiday season, and I hope you're all having a good break! hope that you'll have a nice holiday and get all the presents you want~

hope it wasn't too bad, ily and thank you for reading~

WARNING PROMO: so I made this one shot called "happy virus" and it's a chanyeol story (surprise surprise chanyeol is very writable) and it's sorta bromance!chanhun so check that out and feedback would be nice thnx