07:30

The sun was shining brightly down on the small town, birds sang their greeting to the early morning. A soft and soothing breeze flew by, rustling ever so slightly through the trees and the grass. The grass that had white daisies contrasting to the bright green color, a flowery scent followed the narrow streets, giving out a welcoming feeling.

However, the beautiful morning wasn't enough to soothe the nervous pink head walking his way to his new school year, accompanied by his loyal friend Jongdae who was currently watching Baekhyun with a worried expression on his face.

"Bro you should really calm down, I can see the sweat dripping from your chin." Jongdae cringed at the pitiful sight of Baekhyun's lucid forehead and wide eyes. At his statement, Baekhyun quickly rubbed the sleeve of his sweater across his face, pushing his round glasses further up his nose in the process.

"I'm totally fine Jongdae, just a little bit uh, nervous that's all," Baekhyun assured, voice breathless at the same time, he didn't look as convincing as his words, Jongdae lifted an eyebrow at him while still eyeing him with pity.

"Yeah, no," Jongdae said under his breath, waiting for his pink-haired friend to let go of the useless mask that he was keeping up. In fact, a couple of seconds later, Baekhyun turned his face to him, lip caught in his teeth.

"Do you think they'll laugh at my pink hair?" he urged, worried out of experience, people had teased him a good amount of times for his hair in the past until they eventually got used to it. Baekhyun had always acted indifferent towards the issue, even though deep down it hurt him, his friends had suggested to dye it back to a natural color, but the boy wasn't going to change because of other people's opinion.

"Nah, definitely not, PinkiePie." Jongdae snorted, using the creative nickname their friends had picked out exclusively for him, the worried expression on Baekhyun's face turned into a cringe as he slowly turned away from his friend.

Baekhyun commented a wry "Thanks for the support." 

Baekhyun's worries had been almost accurate when he entered the classroom, no one really laughed at his hair, moreover, he found himself being gawked at, twenty pairs of eyes stared at his head in curiosity. He proceeded to his seat with his head tilted downward, not tolerating the attention. One of his elegant fingers pushed up the round glasses up the bridge of his nose as he sat down, his cheeks were red, very red, the blush reached his ears and Jongdae was afraid Baekhyun was going to faint in any moment.

For the whole hour, people didn't miss the chance to study Baekhyun's appearance and he couldn't help but feel explicitly observed and judged, his cheeks remained flushed red during the whole class.  He felt like one hundred kilos had been lifted off his shoulders when the bell finally rang. Baekhyun stood up immediately, giving his friend a side glance and ran out of the class room before someone could come up to him and ask  to touch his hair.

The two found each other in the library, as usual, the place was their most common hang out spot. No one would really bother them there, it was quiet and the perfect place to read some Japanese comic books. The boys seated themselves on the ground between the many bookshelves, leaning against them with their back.  Baekhyun turned to Jongdae with excitement and expectation lightening up his eyes.

"Do you have it?" he prompted with a smile on his face and his friend nodded with the same amount of excitement before stuffing his hand inside of the bag he had around his neck, eventually pulling out the two new volumes of their favorite manga.

"Fresh out of the oven!" Jongdae sang as he scooched closer to Baekhyun so that they could admire the shiny cover of great quality, sharp colors and perfectly printed images, together.

Baekhyun pushed the glasses up his nose, eyes still set on the books, his mouth wide open in awe as he flipped through the pages. Slightly distracted, his eyes looking up through the empty spots of the shelves in front of them.

"Woah Jongdae this is dope..." he said absentmindedly as his eyes kept glancing up to the graceful figure in the flowery dress ornated in dazzling colors. When he couldn't concentrate on the images anymore, Baekhyun pushed the comic into Jongdae's lap before crawling to the shelf where he could have a better look at you. Taking in your shiny and healthy hair, your body, your gestures in awe, his mouth was slightly agape as blood rushed to his cheeks. The round glasses slipped down his nose at the dreamy view.

"Seriously, what the hell are you staring at like a creep?"Jongdae hissed from behind, making his way next to Baekhyun, while the boy was following your every move. From when you kindly smiled at the librarian to when you excited the big glass doors, his pink head bumped into Jongdae's when he was trying to see what his friend had been so fazed by, the both of them let out a loud groan of pain, rubbing the hurt spot.

"What the hell man? Are you blind? Deaf?" the whiny boy spat at Baekhyun, his head throbbing from the sudden hit. Baekhyun just clucked his tongue at him, a painful frown on his face.

"Shut up, brat, I'm not a creep, I just saw someone interesting," he muttered under his breath and glanced towards the doors again, only to be hit by a strange feeling of disappointment, you weren't there anymore.

Jongdae came into his view again, a sly smile on his lips and his orbs shining with mischievousness.

"Oh PinkiePie has a crush?" he sneered and Baekhyun just pushed his hand into Jongdae's face.

"Shut up, you camel." and so on their bickering continued.

                                                                                                    ***

The next period Baekhyun found himself being way more relaxed than before, perhaps it was because of the stares had stopped, but mainly because Jongdae was there and so he was able to feel more at ease. He would have felt so much out of place if Jongdae hadn't been to his same class.

Students were talking with their seatmates, waiting for the teacher to come, Baekhyun and Jongdae weren't seated next to each other to his dislike, and his seatmate had yet to come, so he stared dazed at the clock, challenging it to go faster. Just a couple of moments later, the chair next to him shifted and someone sat down. Baekhyun was too lost in thought to even bother looking at the other person until they eventually poked his shoulder and he jumped, startled, out of his trance.

Seeing you next to him made his heart flip inside of his chest, it had been unexpected and he suddenly felt very flustered when you shot him a kind smile, parting your lips to ask him something.

"Do you perhaps have a pen? I accidentally left mine in the locker," you reasoned to him and Baekhyun reacted faster than he thought he would have and nodded frantically, rustling in his case for a pen. Your smile widened when he handed it to you, and his heart skipped for the second time a beat, no one had ever smiled so genuinely at him before, well a girl that is. And that made his cheeks go red again, it was stronger than him and he couldn't help it. Baekhyun mentally slapped himself when you chuckled at his obvious blush. You found it kind of cute, though Baekhyun was more embarrassed because in his head you probably thought he looked like a five-year-old blushy mess of a kid.

Baekhyun heard a still sneer from behind him and he knew exactly who it was so he didn't hesitate to shoot a glare behind his shoulder, Jongade was holding his hand over his mouth, muffling his laughs because obviously, he found satisfaction in Baekhyun's way of embarrassing himself. In the meantime you sat there, your wide curious eyes shifting between the two boys.

The class went faster than expected, it was probably because there was such an intriguing person seated next to him, Baekhyun reasoned. When the bells rang, he felt almost disappointed; as if he didn't want the class to end yet. But you took him by surprise when you briefly stopped him from exiting the classroom. The boy gave you a questioning look as his fingers pushed up his glasses. 

"I just, I'd like to know your name?" You said, aware that you sounded slightly awkward; you flashed him a smile to cover up. You felt your grin widen when the boy's lips curled into the brightest smile ever, his mouth taking some kind of rectangular form, he didn't know, but he looked adorable.

"I'm Baekhyun," he replied overly happy, in fact, Baekhyun was sure he'd never been so excited to introduce himself to someone in his whole life. "What about you?" he continued softly, straining himself to look calm and composed, while inside of his chest was his heart beating extremely fast. 

"I'm Y/n," you smiled, again, you were giving his heart no break by making it flutter again, he just loved how there always seemed to be a smile on your face, lightening up your every feature. Your orange painted cheeks reaching your sparkling eyes and that flowery dress compensating you so well, reflecting you.

                                                                                          ***

Through the first week of school, Baekhyun shared more classes with you than he had ever expected, the two of you being seatmates almost in every one of these classes but one, and suddenly not having Jongdae as his seatmate didn't seem like such a terrible idea. He found you kind and nice, you intrigued him and no matter how much you talked, it always felt like he never knew enough about you, to him you were like a deep-rooted tree, there was so much to you and he was ready to get to know anything you'd show him.

There was always a certain rush of excitement inside of him even when sharing a simple conversation, and he had come to notice it himself. Baekhyun felt odd about it, it was something new in his life and the extreme pull he felt towards you was so strong that it led him to stay awake the nights, replaying your voice in his head, wondering something he never thought would ever pass through his head. If you liked someone. He was genuinely curious, but at the same time; he didn't want to know. The chance that you maybe liked someone made his heart clench painfully and he felt uncomfortable about it.

His fingers tightly presses into the fabric of his pillow as he tried to shoo away the image of you being someone else's.

In the third week of school, Baekhyun and you met early in the morning, surrounded by the soft chatter of the classroom. As always though, when you offer him a greeting, Baekhyun finds himself nodding slightly at you, smiling half-heartedly. His smile didn't reach his eyes and as soon as possible, his gaze returned to his desk where he could avoid your eyes. That wasn't the first time he had done that, and he wondered if you ever noticed because nonetheless, you kept giving him those kind smiles of yours, making it hard for him to get a hold of his feelings. They grew so much and so fast under such a short period of time that Baekhyun couldn't help but feel overwhelmed and instinctively, avoiding was the first thing he tried out. Although it hadn't turned out to be the right solution.

In fact, it didn't work nearly as well as he had hoped when his studies were constantly being interrupted by the memory of your laugh and your insanely pretty smile. It drove him to frustration. The more he prohibited himself to think about you, to talk to you, the opposite happened, the more he thought about you without even noticing, the more you tried to approach him. Baekhyun couldn't deny the sympathy you had in his regards, and that made it impossible for him to just ignore you. How could he just push you away when you made him feel so completed?

The teacher was just handing in the test results from the past days, as soon as his eyes caught the little number written in red on the paper of his result, one thousand kilos fell upon his shoulders as he eyed the paper with mortification, face struck with horror. Never had he failed a single test in his life, and the result written in red was yelling at him to get himself back together. He couldn't continue like this, or you'd be the death of him, he had to man up. 

"How did your test go..." Jongdae started causally but eventually, his voice faded into the air when Baekhyun turned to face him with the test in his hands, eyes wide, almost glossy. Jongdae blinked twice at the sight before looking up at his friend again.

"Why does it feel so scandalous that you failed for the first time..?" he muttered under his breath and Baekhyun placed the paper back down and desperately grabbed his own cheeks, let out a groan and shot back "Because it is Jongdae! I failed my test." Baekhyun hissed desperately.

Jongdae sank deeper into his seat with a soft sight, a hand ran through his chestnut brown hair as he nodded towards Baekhyun's other test results.

"Well at least you got a full point on the math one," The friend tentatively comforted,to which Baekhyun could just roll his eyes at. Math was his specialty there was no way he'd ever fail, Jongdae knew that. 

Their heads snapped to the side when they heard a sharp gasp from beside them, curious yet surprised expressions washed over the boys' faces when they saw you staring at Baekhyun's math results with astonishment.

"No way... A full score, that's so amazing," You breathed, " I barely saved myself from an F,"  you admitted a little shamefully and your gaze shifted quickly from Baekhyun's to your hands.

All Baekhyun could do was scratch the back of his head shyly at your compliment, his lips into a thin line. Jongdae instead leaned more onto his desk and fired a few questions.

"Oh, so math is your weak spot?"  There was a mischevious glint in his eyes and that could never promise any good. You nodded slightly; "You got me," you chuckled in spite of yourself.

Jongdae clapped his hands together as if he had been waiting for that specific answer this whole time, a wide grin spread on his lips and Baekhyun squinted at his friend with suspiciousness. Your eyes enlightened with curiosity, waiting for his next words.

"Well, Baekhyun can tutor you! Isn't that perfect? He's like a math God." Jongdae eventually chimed, a bit too excitedly for Baekhyun's taste as he bored holes into his back with his dark gaze. He had said that and only the thought of sitting alone with you in a library made his cheeks warm up.

Baekhyun found himself caught in your hopeful eyes as a smile made it's way on your lips, muttering a surprised really? The pink head dug the teeth deep into his lip and before he knew it he was already nodding despite that his head was telling him to decline Jongdae's suggestion.

"I'll do my best!" You cheered, a bright, thankful smile on your face as you said the words. The view made Baekhyun almost dazed, he thought he was crazy when you seemed to shine in front of him and inwardly cursed himself for not being able to stop the excitement bubbling inside of his chest. He couldn't lie, he had anticipated the moment he would be sitting next to you in one of his favorite places. But the excitement was instantly replaced with panic as he wondered how he was supposed to act, cool? Sassy? Reserved?  Every possible fail became a scenario in his head, he was aware of the fact that he blushed a lot, and that alone was a big problem for him.

Although the many doubts Baekhyun still showed up in the library at the time the three of you had decided. He was taking deep breaths as he reached your table, placing his material as soundlessly as possible on the spot next to yours. The moment you had looked up from your book to smile at him, his heart had done such an amount of flips that he wondered if it was healthy for it to beat so quickly and flutter at the same time. Baekhyun couldn't find it in himself to return the smile out of shyness, the blood reached his cheeks once more and he sat down next to you. Your scent hit his senses and he figured out that it was one of the most amazing fragrances he had ever smelled. A sudden urge to hug you just to feel your aroma embrace him crossed his head, and his body reactted by flushing his face all the way to his ears. 

It wasn't fair how every trait of yours seemed to be better than the other, a scale of perfection that only you could fulfill. You eyed him worriedly when he covered his face with his hands for a while, a hand of yours carefully patting his shoulder, making him flinch ever so slightly.

"Hey, are you okay?" You had asked and Baekhyun waved your concern away immediately, eventually uncovering his face, fanning it with his hands; "It's just a bit hot in here," And you nodded understanding when you saw his red face. In the end, he couldn't handle your stare on him, he couldn't help but feel small under your gaze, so Baekhyun ended up clearing his throat and asking you where you needed help. Without second thoughts you pulled out everything you needed and showed him what part you didn't get. Relief washed over him when your attention wasn't on his face anymore.

He studied carefully the problem and once he was done he knew exactly what it was about. Baekhyun shifted on his chair, sitting straighter as the pen spun skillfully between his fingers.

"Right, this is actually very simple," He muttered and glanced from under his lashes quickly to see if you were following, only to see you roll your eyes playfully at what he had just said, his cheeks turning a bit red.

"What?" He muttered a bit confused and you lightly poked his arm with a pout on your lips.

"Of course it's easy for you," Realization flashed in his eyes and Baekhyun barely kept his lips from a grin by biting them.

"Shh," He said instead of answering and a chuckle escaped your lips, his eyes widening at the sound and his heart skipping a beat, so far your laugh had been one of the most beautiful noises he had heard come from a human being and that made him fall further for you. His teeth dug into his lips once more to swallow back the happy giggle that was going erupt from his throat.

Eventually, the two of you returned the focus on the math problem, Baekhyun leaned ever so slightly closer just to explain the process to solve the equation, your nose hit with the absurdly nice scent of Baekhyun's aftershave, a strong urge to lean closer overtook you but you managed to shake it off and focus back on what he was doing on the paper. His pretty hands pointed and wrote all over it, his voice a mere whisper to not disturb other people in the library. All of those things were so undeniable pleasing and nice about him, you wondered if he was aware.

Meeting up in the library had become a habit after a few meets, most of the times Jongdae would come too as he found Baekhyun's help better than he had expected. The three of you got along so well that both you and Baekhyun found yourselves wishing to spend more time with each other, these meetups being the highlight of your days. 

"No Jongdae, the chemical formula for water is not O2,"  Baekhyun said while rubbing his temples in desperation, you, on the other hand, had to cover your mouth to muffle your laughs. While the shorter boy eyed Baekhyun with a frown on his face, hand scratching the back of his head.

"But- I was really sure that it was O2-"

"Jongdae, it's H2O," The so-called boy just scoffed and threw the pen in Baekhyun's face.

"Whatever you say Pinkie Pie." Jongdae crossed his arms on his chest, giving a side glance at Baekhyun, in his eyes blazed mischievousness.

Baekhyun skillfully avoided the pen as if Jongdae threw stuff at his face every day and was used to it. He just laughed at his friend's behavior and started gathering his material back into his bag.

"I think that's enough for today," Baekhyun started, giving you a playful beam before facing Jongdae, "And remember; the formula for water is H2O-"

"Shut up," The friend spat in his direction and later grimaced at Baekhyun as an imitation of him, which only caused the two of you to finally let out the laughter that you had been pushing away for the privacy's case. The librarian sent you a threatening glare from her spot and the three of you immediately muted, skipping out of the glass doors as soon as the table was empty from your material.

There was no other way Baekhyun had wanted to spend his days, this way was just perfect, filled with laughter but not any less productive and that gave him such a feeling of satisfaction. He realized just how much he loved spending his time with you, how he wouldn't mind if you got to know every single detail of him, just like he was dying to know you even better. He decided to drop the avoiding card and instead make the best out of the time he got with you, he wasn't going to waste the opportunity to have someone as amazing as you by his side.

A smile was on his face as he made his way through the corridors of the school, most of the students seemed to have gone home when the three of you went separate ways home.

Baekhyun felt his face pale when heard the loud chatter of familiar voices coming from the end of the corridor, a slight rush of fear made the hair on his arms stand up. It was too late to run away now and he had no choice but to go straight and ignore silhouettes that were getting closer and closer. His hand tightened the grip around the strap of his backpack as he swallowed down a line of profanities.

As soon as the gang of boys saw him, their faces lit up with something he couldn't decipher, anyhow it wasn't promising anything good. In a matter of seconds, he was surrounded by them and the noise they were causing suddenly died down as they all eyed him, disgust and inferiority reflected on their faces. Baekhyun felt how the heart was going to burst against his ribs, his heartbeat the only sound he seemed to be able to hear when one of them suddenly picked a strand of pink and blond hair and yanked it. The person's lips moved but Baekhyun couldn't hear a single thing while he tried to swallow back the lump pushing in his throat. They laughed when Baekhyun pushed his hand away, a deep unusual scowl covering his soft features. 

They all laughed at him, playfully poking and pushing him. He hated himself, Baekhyun hated himself, he hated how weak he was, he couldn't even stand up for himself.

He didn't know what had gotten into him when he suddenly placed his palms on the chest of one of them, harshly pushing so that he went stumbling to the ground, and for a second he believed that he could get through this, at least this time. 

Or maybe not.

A painful sting hit his face, warm metallic liquid running down his nose, his face flying to the side with another fist, and one more, one more, more pain.

A/n: hi! so I decided to post this earlier than I thought before I feel even worse about it and don't post it at all. Originally, I would have wanted to have done at least 4 chapters, which I haven't (sue me pls hit me or smth) because it takes time to write good chapters.

So comments and opinions are really appreciated, please don't be shy, this is not for the attention, moreover for me to improve and to know what you guys like, I hope I won't let you down! Please enjoy, much love; P.🍑💖

(Also feel free to point out any typos and stuff!)