+ sixteen

She eyed him with suspicion.

There was still time to go back on it, to tell her the truth. That Chanyeol wouldn't make it because he got held up by the managers of SM Entertainment. That he wanted to be there with her to watch the football game--even though Baekyun knew well that Chanyeol didn't really know the first thing about football, and neither did he.

Her dark eyes narrowed at him as she asked the question, "Why do I feel like you're hiding something then?"

"Why would I lie to you?" He retaliated with another question.

She thought about it, pondered for a moment. Then she decided he was right and relaxed again. "I guess that's true." Reaching for the menu in front of her, she began skimming through it and Baekhyun saw his window of opportunity slam in front of his very eyes. He had the chance to tell her what was really going on and he let it go. Though in his mind he comforted himself by thinking that Narda had once lied to him as well--so they were even. "So what do you want to eat? We can share if you want to."

"I really like the supreme pizza." He told her, but crinkling up his nose, he added, "But I noticed yesterday that your pizza only had cheese."

She nodded her head. "Well we can get a supreme pizza, and I'll just pick off all the stuff I don't like. I honestly don't mind. But I want chicken and mojo potatoes too." She pointed to the pictures of the sides on the menu.

Baekhyun nodded and waved the waiter over, ordering their food in Korean. 

They waited a while for their food to be ready. It was a busy day due to the football game, but they didn't mind because they were watching the television as well--both with bright green Mexican national team shirts. Some of the other Koreans in the restaurant glared at Baekhyun for supporting the enemy team by wearing the shirt.

The first goal came at the thirty sixth minute and Narda practically jumped out of her seat, screaming happily in Spanish. "Vamos Mexico!" Let's go, Mexico! The other people in the restaurant groaned that there was already a goal against them. "My papi Oribe Peralta, my hermoso." Hermoso--handsome--she called the footballer by his nickname. And Baekhyun had no idea what that meant. Though by the similarity of the word, he was able to guess what papi meant. Daddy.

With her football in front of her, it was like she had forgotten that she was an EXO fangirl, and that she was in love with Byun Baekhyun.

At minute forty five came the second goal for Mexico--and their pizza was already brought to them. But Narda couldn't eat because she was too focused on the game. Baekhyun on the other hand, dug into his food happily. 

"Yes, Alan Pulido, yes. Hazme mil hijos, cabron." I want to have one thousand of your children, mother fucker. She seemed to scream even louder for the second goal, even taking Baekhyun by surprise when she threw her arms around him and hugged him so tight that she almost pulled herslf onto his lap in the limited space of their booth. Baekhyun's slice of pizza fell faced down onto the tray it was brought in, but he didn't complain. He just didn't understand the passion she had for the sport, but he didn't criticize it.

Narda cleared her throat awkwardly and pushed herself off Baekhyun, blusing. "Sorry, Byun. So sorry."

He only chuckled and went back to eating his pizza.

The third and fourth goals came as no surprise to anyone in the restaurant--including Narda who still cheered like it had been the first goal they scored in that game. By the end, Mexico had defeated Korea four goals to zero, and Baekhyun was upset for his country, but slightly pleased that at least he was wearing the winner team's jersey.

-

They remained in the restaurant a bit after the game. It was now minutes past noon and Narda had her eye on the post game football segment. Since they were in Korea, it mostly focused on the Korean national team, and what they had done wrong during the game. But when they showed replays of the goals, she was just as excited as she had been during the game.

"You aren't really into football, are you, Byun?" She asked. While speaking to him, she opted for calling him Byun--by his surname. The last time she called him Baekhyun, it ended up sounding butchered and wrong.

He thought about it for a millisecond and almost at the same time nodded in agreement. "When it came to sports, I was always personally into hapkido--I practiced it since I was a little boy. Jongin and Luhan are the ones who are die-hard football fans. They get really into it whenever their teams play." He informed her, remembering when their countries were in the World Cup Qualifying rounds and faced each other. Korea against China. Korea ended up winning the match, but during the game, both boys had been in the lounge room watching it, yelling at the television as though the players could hear them.

"I'll have to watch a game with them one day." She commented enthusiastically, as thought the possibility might actually exist one day. "I know Lu Han likes Chicharito, and he's my favorite player too."

With that, Baekhyun couldn't agree. He didn't even know who Chicharito was. It was more than obvious that he was a football player though.

Sighing, Narda looked down at their tray of pizza. Out of eight slices, there was only one left, and she had eaten one because she had been too busy watching the game. The other six had been eaten by Baekhyun. 

Beside the pizza tray were two smaller trays with wings and mojo potatoes. Narda had only eaten two of the eight wings, Baekhyun had eaten three of them, and a majority of the potatoes were left. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet. It was red and blue--a very boyish wallet--with the Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz logo on it. It was one that her father had gotten for her as a birthday present when she was eleven. She still had it, and she still used it, even thought it was worn and old.

She was about to open it to grab some money when he stopped her, pulling out his wallet at the same time. It was a plain leather black wallet. "I've got it." He assured her, placing a hand on her wallet and pushing it down onto her lap.

Narda couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips.

But she still protested. "We should share the cost of the food since we both ate. Its only fair, Byun."

He shook his head. "You barely ate anything. I ate most of the food. I'll pay."

Narda insisted in helping him pay, but he would have nothing of her money. Deep down, Narda was happy that he had decided to pay for her because in her culture it was the gentlemanly thing to do. 

Baekhyun paid for a meal and asked for a to-go box, so that Narda could take the rest of the food home to Nari who was probably just waking up at that hour and was likely hungry. He even dropped her off at her apartment, since he had taken one of SM's cars that was assigned to the group.

On the way back home, they talked about little things, and Baekhyun thought that if she could always be that calm around him--without freaking out and fangirling--perhaps they could actually get along. 

Perhaps they could actually be friends.

-

Baekhyun entered his dorm room and dropped his keys on the computer desk nearby with a sigh. Chanyeol was laid down on his bed with his arms crossed over his chest and a sulk on his face. He hadn't been allowed to go out that day, but what was worse was that he wasn't allowed to go out until further notice--until SM could fix the problem he had gotten himself into, as they had worded it.

No doubt they were orchestrating a press conference where he would appear on national television to swear to the fans that he wasn't a pedophile who was into school girls. 

Baekhyun was lucky that people in the restaurant hadn't recognized him, what with the dim lights and the fact that he was dressed in a Mexican national team jersey. Otherwise, he would have been in the same amount of trouble as his room mate.

Chanyeol instantly noticed the foreign green shirt on his friend and sat up in his bed, gesturing to it. "What are you wearing?" He wondered, eyebrows furrowed in what seemed to be a permanent surly look since he had been forbidden to leave the dorm building that morning.

Looking down at his shirt, Baekhyun realized he was still wearing it. 

"Oh." He said in a nonchalant tone, tugging at the baggy fabric with aztec patterns adorning it in tones of green. "Guti let me borrow it for the game. I forgot to give it back."

Chanyeol raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You stayed and watched the game with her?"

His room mate nodded, following up with a shrug of his shoulders. "You weren't going to make it, and its no fun to watch a football game alone, so..." He trailed off.

"You don't even like football." Chanyeol pointed out bitterly.

"Neither do you." Baekhyun argued back.

"At least I know enough to be able to keep up with the game." Chanyeol said. Clearly, Baekhyun noticed that he was upset, and that his intention was to start an argument with his room mate. Probably so that he could get all his anger out and possibly feel better. "You probably had no idea what was happening." He tossed another shot at Baekhyun, trying to get him to react.

But Baekhyun had a good day, and nothing Chanyeol was saying to piss him off was doing anything to change that. "Well," He informed, walking over to his own bed and sitting down on it. He had a whole day ahead of him to do whatever he wanted, since it was a free day for the members of EXO. For everyone except Chanyeol--of course. "I know enough about football to tell you that Korea lost four to zero to Narda's country. So you didn't miss much." Although you did miss when she screamed so much and hugged me that she almost sat on my lap.

One of their conversations during the car ride back was a break down of Mexico's football history from 1927 to the present, as told by Narda Gutierrez Lozano. In return, Baekhyun explained the basics of hapkido, without physical demonstrations since he was driving. But he thought the way she told it--with so much passion and pride--actually made the sport sound rather interesting. Though he knew his country wasn't exactly a pillar or excellence at football. At least her country gave her things to be proud about in football. Football had never really been too popular in Korea to begin with.

With a sigh, Chanyeol pushed himself off his bed, a fire of determination in his eyes. "I'm going to sneak out of here. I want to apologize personally for not showing up."

He was already gone before I even woke up, Baekhyun's own words to Narda echoed in his mind.

"For what?" He asked his room mate, trying to remain calm. "I already passed on your message. She said she understood."

"And I really appreciate it." Chanyeol nodded. "But like I said, I want to do it in person." Gesturing to the bathroom door inside their dorm, he added, "Go change shirts and give me her jersey. I can give it back to her while I'm at it." She probably took it for me to wear, Chanyeol thought to himself. And he wasn't wrong.

Baekhyun refused with a shake of his head. "I'll give it to her later."

But he needed to find a way to stop Chanyeol from going to the apartment complex building across the street. Otherwise, his friend would know that he never told Narda why he didn't show up to their friend date.

-

yas, an update for this story because i haven't updated in almost a week, but i feel like its been ages tbh. here we have a sneaky ass byun baekhyun. just what is he even trying to accomplish with these lies of his? you don't know. but i do. lol

anyway, i hope you all like the chapter. please give it a nice vote and comment if you liked it.

and some shameless self promotion here: if you like bts, i am in the middle of developing and posting a series about them. its a series of short stories that is meant to keep me busy and entertained whenever i am not updating my exo fics. bc if it were up to me, i would update them everyday, like twice a day. but i know that would be WAY too overwhelming. so i uloaded this bts series that i can update in between exo updates.

thank you for the support! have a wonderful weekend.

-clary xx