Chapter 7 (1/1)

--CHAPTER 7When Chanyeol and Baekhyun had been walking through the city, Baekhyun noticed that no one was in sight. He wondered if maybe it was abandoned, but he thought that was probably the least likely situation. So he asked Chanyeol why that was, and Chanyeol replied with, “I think it’s because they’re scared of the beast. Or maybe they’re all sleepy and went to bed.”They reached Chanyeol’s home which was a very small building made partially of brick and plaster and appeared to be slightly lopsided. Its door was made out of wood and was painted with a green that just vaguely matched the color of the sky, but the longer Baekhyun looked at it the more it looked a completely different color. Right at the bottom of the door was a gap between where the door and its door frame met and Baekhyun assumed that many cold drafts must have come through there in the night time.Chanyeol opened the door to his home and allowed Baekhyun to walk in first—beckoning him inside with a wave of his hand and a smile. When Baekhyun walked in, he was immediately met with a pair of eyes—a pair that looked at him quite discerningly, at that.“We’re back, Jongdae,” Chanyeol cheerfully said as he closed the door behind himself. Chanyeol looked forward and saw that his friend Jongdae was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed and the basket of picnic food still with him in between his legs. In his hand was a piece of bread that was nearly gone and he stared directly at Baekhyun and didn’t even bother to look at the one who greeted him. “Jongdae, this is Baekhyun,” Chanyeol said while gesturing his hands toward Baekhyun. “And Baekhyun, this is my friend Jongdae,” he pointed at the body on the floor.“You better help us fast, Baekhyun,” Jongdae firmly said and then looked away. “That is, if Chanyeol was right about you.”“Hey!” Chanyeol yelped when he noticed that Baekhyun looked a bit crestfallen due to Jongdae’s coldness. “Be nice, Jongdae. You just met him, after all…” Chanyeol placed his hands on his hips and sighed.Baekhyun stepped forward a little and tried to look at Jongdae who was looking directly toward the cracked wall and had some bread he just bit into stuffing his left cheek. “H-hi, Jongdae,” Baekhyun started in a shy tone. “I-I’ll do my best to help…”Jongdae bit his bread three times and swallowed. Then after a few moments after swallowing Jongdae turned his head to look at Baekhyun who shuddered a little when he noticed Baekhyun looking at him. “Hey…” Jongdae said in a flat tone. His dark brown eyes then lightened and his eyebrows arched to the side and suddenly his eyes morphed into crescents as he smiled. He laughed out loud—a large, nasally laugh that was quite distinct to him—and his hand rose to point at Baekhyun. “Did you just stutter? Did I scare you?” He laughed some more and fell onto his back onto the floor.“Jongdae, that’s not very nice…” Chanyeol heaved out and walked over and kicked his friend in the thigh while he laughed, but Jongdae didn’t seem to notice.Baekhyun stared oddly at the situation. These two acted like strange siblings and it seemed that poor Baekhyun had just been put into the middle of it all…“Ah, okay! Okay!” Jongdae yipped as his face was buried into the floor. He was now detecting the harsh impacts that were launching into his sides from the foot of the giant Chanyeol and he had had enough. He used the palms of his hands to push Chanyeol aside, causing him to stumble a little but then regain his step. “Honestly, though…” Jongdae breathed out heavily after his large bout of laughter. “How do you expect him to help us much? He looks too cute.”At those words, Baekhyun instantly blushed. How was he cute? Baekhyun viewed himself as such a plain boy… Jongdae’s words were so uncharacteristic of how people spoke of Baekhyun (unless it was his parents, which that was an entirely different matter).“I told you,” Chanyeol folded his arms over his chest while he watched Jongdae sit up on the floor, “I have a strong feeling about this.”“I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, Chanyeol,” Jongdae rubbed his nose as he spoke, “but we’re kind of known for being wrong when it comes to having strong feelings about things.” He scratched the back of his head with his fingernails and messed his already messy black hair some more.When Chanyeol heard Jongdae’s direct words, his head lowered a bit. He sighed and then blinked once and said, “Yeah… I know.” His head rose and he looked kindly over to Baekhyun with a small smile on his face. “It’s different now, though.” His eyes stared directly into Baekhyun’s, causing Baekhyun to shudder lightly. When Chanyeol noticed that his gaze made Baekhyun uncomfortable, he quickly averted his eyes from him and looked down to Jongdae who was yawning seemingly not amused.“Hmph,” Jongdae breathed through his nose. He began to yawn once more—his right eye closed and his left eye hanging slightly ajar—and suddenly there was a large burst in the room like a pocket of air had exploded and left a resounding sound in its stead.Chanyeol lifted his brows and looked around to Jongdae and Baekhyun who were looking around just as confusedly as he was. Then he looked down at Jongdae who gradually met eyes with him and when Chanyeol saw how Jongdae’s expression looked vaguely conniving (though it usually did in general), he cocked his lip and asked, “Was that you, Jongdae? Is it going to stink?”Jongdae furrowed his brows and widened his eyes. “WHAT?!” he burst out. How could someone accuse him of laying one? “Maybe it was your little friend!” He pointed an accusing finger toward Baekhyun whose corners of his lips fell at the accusation.Then while the three were swept in a blame game of strange sorts, a large crack in the floor formed, causing them all to stop and grow silent just to look at the occurrence. And while their eyes fell to the crack in the floor, it burst open and created a large, gaping hole in the floor of the house that they all fell through. They screamed as they fell and Jongdae’s arms flew above his head while Baekhyun reached his hands out toward Chanyeol.Baekhyun had no idea what was happening, but as he reached out toward Chanyeol while they fell into a pit of complete mystery and darkness he saw that once again on Chanyeol’s face was that expression of conviction. It was strange, really. While Baekhyun was completely clueless to it all and Jongdae seemingly was too by the way he was screaming, Chanyeol seemed to be aware of the entirety of it all. It was like he was expecting it and was preparing for it. But even if Baekhyun reached his hands toward Chanyeol, he just couldn’t grasp.Would they stop falling soon? Baekhyun worried greatly, but he remembered now that they were in a world different from his own, and by Chanyeol’s words, it was a world where many things happened differently. Even if they fell forever, they’d still find a way out. At least, that’s what Baekhyun hoped.*~*~*~*“Minseok, you’re so cute,” Baekhyun heard a nasally voice say aloud to his college friend.Baekhyun had been looking afar at this situation, and what he saw was… startling, to say the least. He saw that Minseok had been with someone, despite the male usually being so enveloped in his studies that he had no time to spend with others romantically, and this someone had been holding him by the waist. Then Baekhyun saw just who it was Minseok was with and—for the love of god—was that ever surprising.Jongdae had been standing there with the puffy cheeked Minseok, grasping him in his arms and cooing at him. “What the…” Baekhyun would think to himself. Apparently he was rid of a voice again.Minseok giggled and looked away from Jongdae who had been leaning in closer and closer with his lips perked. “Please… I’m not cute.”That’s exactly what Baekhyun thought of himself. But why did Minseok think he wasn’t cute? After all, whenever Baekhyun would look at or speak with Minseok, he would think that the man had a certain charm about him that exuded cuteness.“But you are!” Jongdae yelped with his eyebrows arched. “You’re very cute, Minseok! And you shouldn’t think you’re not.”Baekhyun watched as Jongdae got close enough to where the two were breathing in each other’s air and as Minseok shyly looked into Jongdae’s eyes and then their lips became increasingly closer…“Baek!!!” Chanyeol yelled with a fury that could have rivaled the beast’s roaring.Quickly Baekhyun opened his eyes, blinked them a few times, and saw that Chanyeol and Jongdae had been looking down at him with concern. “Huh?” Baekhyun moaned under his breath.“He’s okay, see?” Jongdae eyed Chanyeol while raising a brow. Jongdae was not with Minseok and he had not been getting close with him in an affectionate way… Apparently that was a dream, Baekhyun assumed.“Ah,” Chanyeol breathed out in a positive air. He smiled vibrantly. “Thank god. I thought that maybe you had died.”Died?! Baekhyun quickly sat up and looked around. He recalled coming to Chanyeol’s world and meeting Jongdae and all… then he remembered that somehow they had fallen… and that was where they were now. Wherever it was, though, it was definitely not the city where Chanyeol’s and Jongdae’s house was located, but it was what appeared to be a cavern.The cavern was filled with gray stones that were cast with blue-ish crystals that glowed here and there like they did it whenever they pleased. There was the sound of dripping water, but Baekhyun could not locate a source of where it could have been coming from. As his brown eyes wandered the surroundings, Chanyeol and Jongdae turned to each other and started conversing.“Didn’t this happen with Baro’s and Sandeul’s home the other day?” Chanyeol inquired with his friend.Jongdae shook his head. “Nah. That was just a sink hole. We just had to help them get out and then everyone helped rebuild the floor…” He looked to the side. “That’s kind of scary, huh?”Chanyeol nodded.Now Baekhyun remembered. The floor in Chanyeol’s and Jongdae’s home had suddenly opened and from there that’s where they fell. But judging by the unknown place where they were now, that hole they fell through was most likely not just a sink hole. Instead of thinking about it for much longer, Baekhyun stood up from the ground and asked, “Guys, where are we?”Both Chanyeol and Jongdae turned their heads to look at Baekhyun. Both of them stared equally blankly at him as well. “Uh…” Chanyeol held his lips open for some seconds and then closed them to press them together to form a line.“We don’t know, Cutie,” Jongdae answered plainly. It seemed he had donned the nickname “Cutie” for Baekhyun and Baekhyun couldn’t help but blush lightly as he heard it.“I’m sure it’s not a problem, though,” Chanyeol smiled encouragingly to the other two. He then placed his fist in the air encouragingly. “We’ll find a way out of here.”Jongdae sighed very loudly and rolled his eyes. “We can only hope!” he dramatically exclaimed as he cupped his hands just over his heart. “How could I miss out on eating if we don’t end up getting out of here?” His head shook back and forth slowly and Chanyeol only stared at him with an “are you serious” sort of expression.Baekhyun giggled at the action. They were so charismatic when they interacted with each other and when they spoke… It was quite darling, really. “If it means anything,” Baekhyun chimed in, causing the other two men to stare at him quickly, “I’ll do whatever I can to get us out of here.”“That’s the spirit!” Chanyeol cheered. He walked over to Baekhyun’s side and rested his hand on his small shoulder. “There’s no way I couldn’t count on you, Baek.” His head tilted to the side and his wide eyes bored directly into Jongdae’s, making Jongdae quiver a little. “Isn’t that right, Jongdae?”“Of course.” Jongdae answered and after a pause, his eyes darted to the side.After the three of them laughed a few times together, though Jongdae’s being a little more worried sounding, they decided that it was best that they should press forward, even if they weren’t particularly sure of where they were headed. They walked through the cavern, eyeing the beauty in the rocks in how the blue crystals embedded in them would flicker with light like small fireflies flashing just before flying away. It was a gorgeous sight to take in and it was nothing like Baekhyun had ever seen, even in the books he read.At this point, Baekhyun had begun to forget about his previous obligations like college and studying with Minseok. Instead he thought of what this road had in store for him and how exciting a journey would be with the two enthusiastic friends Chanyeol and Jongdae. His sandals were generally not shoes he would have worn on long walks or adventures, but this time around they seemed appropriate with their open toes and the way he felt the breeze on his feet.For once, Baekhyun was extremely excited for something. He was not nervous at all.A/N: I have lots of fun writing Jongdae's part o3o