We’re Raising Funds, Not (1/1)

“We all want to put up the annual year end play again this year,” Junmyeon tells the members of the Drama Club and they all nod in unison. “However, very unfortunately, the Drama Club doesn’t have enough funds this year,” Junmyeon continues in a grave tone, his face solemn to match the gravity of the situation.Kyungsoo’s right eye twitch at Junmyeon’s words. “What do you mean we don’t have enough funds?”“Meaning last year, we went slightly over budget - “ a stern look from Kyungsoo cuts Junmyeon off mid-sentence and he clears his throat before correcting himself. “We went over the budget by a large sum and coupled with our current expenditure on our stage outfits and finding a live orchestra, we don’t really have any money left to rent a theatre hall.”“Can’t we just use the university’s hall?” Jongdae asks with a frown, wondering why the president didn’t think of it.“I’m talking about the university hall,” Junmyeon states calmly.“Isn’t it free?” Junmyeon would think that Jongdae isn’t being serious with his question if not for the look of absolute bewilderment on his face.“We have to pay for that,” Junmyeon replies as he tries to keep his cool.Jongdae’s eyes widen to a comical extent and Junmyeon’s frown deepens. “I never knew.”Sighing, Junmyeon holds the bridge of his nose with his index and middle fingers, his brows pulled together as if he’s suffering from a very bad headache. “You never knew that we have to pay the school if we use their facilities?”“I always use the gym for free,” Jongdae explains very seriously.“You always use the gym with my gym membership card that I pay for monthly,” Baekhyun interjects, scowling at Jongdae who grins proudly at him. Crossing his legs elegantly and resting his hands on his knee, Baekhyun looks at Junmyeon with a sweet smile. “So we don’t have enough money to book the theatre but we have our costumes all ready?” Junmyeon nods slowly and Baekhyun lets out a light chuckle. No one else is laughing though. “Tell me, what’s the point of the costumes, the script with a freaking awesome plot, a damn live orchestra, and a bunch of amazing and talented actors if we have nowhere to perform?!” he raises his voice near the end and finishes with a loud huff.The room stays silent until Junmyeon speaks up to address Baekhyun’s concerns, which to be fair are the concerns of all the members too.“We just need to find some way to raise some money,” Junmyeon tells the club.“We just need to find some way to raise some money,” Baekhyun parrots annoyingly and Junmyeon shoots him a glare that promptly shuts him up.The members of the club all fall to silence as each and every one of them rack their brains for a way to earn quick money. They have to find a way if they still want to put on the annual play. Though it’s more like - they have to find a way because it’s tradition and because it’ll be embarrassing and because the alumni of the club will hunt them down.“How about a mistletoe kissing booth?”“Kyungsoo,” Junmyeon begins in his usual cool demeanour. “What did you just say?”“A mistletoe kissing booth,” Kyungsoo repeats, turning to look at Junmyeon with his round eyes.“A what?” Jongdae echoes Junmyeon’s concerned tone.“A mistletoe -““Great!” Baekhyun exclaims, effectively cutting Kyungsoo off and clapping his hands together while smiling at Kyungsoo for a job well done. The other doesn’t look proud about receiving Baekhyun’s recognition because Baekhyun’s attention means nothing to be honest. “We’ll do a mistletoe kissing booth,” Baekhyun concludes, making the decision for the whole Drama Club despite not knowing the details of the mistletoe kissing booth or what Kyungsoo has in mind and what the hell they’re supposed to do to get the money.Kyungsoo’s looking at him like he’s an idiot but frankly, Baekhyun doesn’t care. Because Kyungsoo’s judgement means nothing to be honest.Smiling brightly, Baekhyun looks around the room and tries to meet the eye of every single member to hypnotise them into agreeing with him and going ahead with Kyungsoo’s idea.When no one voices any objection, Baekhyun walks up to Junmyeon and clasps the president by his shoulder. “It’s settled then!” Turns out that the first step of constructing the mistletoe kissing booth is ‘Junmyeon, we need to use your house because it’s the biggest so find a day when your parents aren’t in so that we can use it’.Junmyeon says no because it’s Kyungsoo’s idea and he isn’t going to risk his house getting messed up. A bunch of college kids in any house isn’t a good combination, Junmyeon knows that.Eventually, Kyungsoo offers his house as sacrifice, allowing the next part of the plan to commence. Baekhyun thinks that Kyungsoo is a little more than enthusiastic about his idea but he isn’t complaining and he most certainly isn’t going to ask Kyungsoo why he’s so hyped up about kissing boys and girls under a mistletoe.“What exactly are we doing, again?” Jongdae asks when they’re all gathered at Kyungsoo’s house for the first and only meeting.There’s a bunch of plastic bags holding a heap of mistletoes lying on Kyungsoo’s living room floor.“You all know how a kissing booth works, right?” Kyungsoo asks and majority of the members nod. He doesn’t explain what a kissing booth is to those who don’t know. “This works the same way, except you kiss under a mistletoe.”“Simulation, please!” Jongdae calls out and the other members cheer in agreement.“Simulation, no. But situation, yes. So we hang all these mistletoes around my house, restricted to the first level and within the house so I don’t want to find any mistletoes in my porch or hanging on the gate, okay?” Kyungsoo pointedly looks at Baekhyun and Jongdae who casually avoid eye contact with Kyungsoo. “Whoever that comes to the booth and isn’t from the club will understand the rules which I’ll explain in a minute so don’t interrupt me,” he directs the last part to Baekhyun and Jongdae again. “If a club member and a non-club member stand under a mistletoe, they’ll have to kiss and then the non-club member has to pay the club member so remember to claim the money or it’s the club’s loss and yours too to be honest. We don’t have to wait under the mistletoe so it’s more like a chance kind of thing.”The members are murmuring amongst themselves, most nodding their heads in approval of Kyungsoo’s plan.“It’s like a game so it’s more fun and that’ll make people want to participate more. It’s like an investment. Trust me, this will work. I’m a business student.”“What has that got to do with anything?” Baekhyun whispers to Jongdae.“I don’t know but Kyungsoo likes to point out the fact that he’s majoring in business much like how you like showing off about being in med school.”“Makes sense, except I’m not in med school so mine’s a lie whereas Kyungsoo’s telling the truth.”Jongdae points to Baekhyun playfully with his eyes squinted and Baekhyun points back like ‘yeah bro’.“Wait,” Baekhyun says abruptly, looking at Jongdae worriedly. “What if we have to kiss someone we don’t like or someone gross?”“I think we should just run if that happens.”Baekhyun and Jongdae nod in unison, a determined line on their faces.“If you have anything to say or have any concerns at all, say it to all the members,” Kyungsoo says.Jongdae raises his hand and Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. Seeing that no one else has their hands raised up, Kyungsoo has no choice but to call Jongdae.“So, simulation?”“Which part of club member and non-club member did you not get?” It’s more like a mistletoe kissing house than a booth but whatever. Who cares about technicalities?“Did you really print mistletoe kissing house on the flyer?” Kyungsoo demands, waving the piece of paper in front of Junmyeon’s face.Frowning, Junmyeon takes the paper and reads the details on it before facing Kyungsoo and nodding seriously. “If you write ‘booth’, people are going to expect one. If you write ‘house’, people will expect a house.”“He’s got a point there,” Jongdae chips in and the president sends him a grateful smile. “Anyway it’s too late to change anything. People are coming.”Kyungsoo snatches the paper back from Junmyeon’s hand before walking to the door to scan the crowd. There’s a surprisingly big turnout, except it isn’t that surprising because it was Kyungsoo’s idea after all.“Listen up, guys,” Kyungsoo says to the club. “Remember our quota. Everyone should hit their quota first. That’ll ensure that we have enough money to rent the hall. We can go over it and I’m sure we all will but let’s not rely on that and assume that everyone will just hit the bare minimum so that we don’t slack off, alright? We’re all good-looking people so this should be a piece of cake.”The club members all cheer in unison and Kyungsoo opens his front door. Baekhyun’s halfway through his quota when the front door opens and there stands the bane of his existence in the form of a biochemical student.“Oh, no,” Baekhyun says to himself when he sees a six foot tall giant walking in the house. “Oh, no, no, no, no,” he continues as he shakes his head in disbelief.Park Chanyeol stops right in front of Baekhyun with an infuriating smile and an even more infuriating posture that makes him look manly as fuck. Baekhyun’s mind very helpfully deletes the last few words until ‘posture’.“Hey, Byun,” Chanyeol greets in his infuriating voice that makes Baekhyun’s treacherous heart flutters as his logical mind tells him that every guy with a deep voice will make his stupid heart beat faster.Raising a finger, Baekhyun points at Chanyeol and the latter raises an eyebrow at it, amused. “I am not kissing you,” Baekhyun says firmly before withdrawing his hand.“Who says I wanna kiss you?” Chanyeol counters, fixing Baekhyun with a firm stare as he takes a step closer.Honestly, Baekhyun’s first instinct is to step closer and pull Chanyeol into a lip-lock but his brain is telling him to take a step back because it’s Park Chanyeol. Baekhyun does neither and stands his ground, staring back, unyielding and unwilling to back down. Byun Baekhyun isn’t one to back down from a fight.Eventually, Chanyeol blinks and Baekhyun smirks victoriously before batting his eyelashes furiously at the science student who grimaces at him.“Not kissing you,” Chanyeol says again before he walks further into the house.Baekhyun sticks his tongue out at Chanyeol’s back childishly and hopes to himself that Chanyeol won’t be able to find anyone to kiss or will not stand under the mistletoe the same time as any other Drama Club member because Baekhyun doesn’t want to feel sorry for any of his peers. Most of all, Baekhyun doesn’t want to be the one accidentally standing under a mistletoe with Chanyeol and having to kiss him so that he won’t end up feeling sorry for himself. Reaching the quota is a piece of cake and Baekhyun should be done by now and moving on to the ‘over the quota stage’ like some of the other members already are but Baekhyun is not even three quarters done with his quota. He reaches the conclusion that it’s all Chanyeol’s fault. He’s ashamed to admit it but Chanyeol’s appearance has thrown him off balance and he’s getting fewer kisses per ten minutes than when the thing just started.The next time he spots Chanyeol, he realises that the taller is actively avoiding all the mistletoe spots, much like Baekhyun was doing for the past thirty minutes, as he makes his way to the living room where Baekhyun is. Not that Chanyeol’s walking over to Baekhyun.So Baekhyun takes the initiative to approach the taller because he’s not in his right mind and because he wants to know how much kissing Chanyeol did in the past half an hour.“So who have you kissed?” Baekhyun asks more bitterly than he intended to.“No one,” comes Chanyeol’s simple reply.“What? Then what are you even doing here?” Secretly, Baekhyun’s pleased that Chanyeol wasn’t kissing anyone. Before Chanyeol can say anything though, Baekhyun’s already narrowing his eyes suspiciously and pointing accusatorarily at Chanyeol. “You’re here to gloat about the Drama Club not having enough money to put up our year-end play, aren’t you? You know you science people are really the reason why the arts can’t survive in this world,” he chides, tutting excessively to make his point.“I’m here cause I need an excuse to want to kiss you.”Baekhyun blinks twice before he bursts out laughing while clutching his stomach. He’s pointing at Chanyeol as tears of mirth fall from his eyes. “You’re funny, Park. Even I have to admit that this time. You’re funny,” he repeats, more to convince himself that Chanyeol is joking than to really call Chanyeol funny.“I’ve been wanting to kiss your damn pouty lips ever since you started posting those pictures of your lips onto Instagram.” “You follow me on Instagram?” Baekhyun asks, looking confused and conveniently ignoring everything else Chanyeol said in the sentence, choosing to focus on the point that he finds the most relevant.“No,” Chanyeol answers with a shake of his head and Baekhyun looks even more puzzled. “But your account’s public.”“Maybe I should lock it,” Baekhyun ponders aloud. He isn’t being serious. If he locks his account, the hashtags he uses would be useless and he’ll get less likes so, no.

From Chanyeol’s face, Baekhyun can tell that the other doesn’t believe him either. “Maybe I won’t,” Baekhyun says with a shrug and Chanyeol looks at him like “I know you won’t”. “I’ve watched all your school plays, Byun,” Chanyeol says suddenly, moving on from the Instagram topic.“What? I’ve never seen you at any of them.”“That’s because I always get the cheapest tickets so I’m all the way at the back but I can still see clearly cause I’m tall and all, you know.” It’s a dig at Baekhyun’s height and Baekhyun knows it. But as always, Baekhyun is the bigger person and he casually ignores Chanyeol’s not-so-subtle insult.“What?”“I get the cheapest tickets cause I think watching a play is waste of money but I want to see you on stage anyway.”“It’s a waste of what?”“Money.”“You piece of - ““Let’s focus on the main point, shall we?” Chanyeol cuts in before Baekhyun gets around to spilling any vulgarities.“And what is that?” Baekhyun asks unhappily, crossing his arms in front of his chest and glaring at Chanyeol because the other has personally offended him and his drama soul.“That I want to see you on stage?”“Right,” Baekhyun says, nodding to himself and trying to find something to do with his hands or he might just do something crazy like pull Chanyeol in for a kiss. Actually, it doesn’t sound that crazy. “Okay, since we’re playing double truth - ”“We’re not,” Chanyeol interrupts but Baekhyun doesn’t mind him and continues talking.“I think you’re really hot. And I’ve been to all the stupid science fairs that you were part of and all of your swim meets.”“Excuse me?”“I know you’re on the school swim team,” Baekhyun declares loudly and proudly and Chanyeol looks scandalised but a little smug. Mostly scandalised.“That’s not the point. What science fairs?”“Stupid science fairs.”“Byun.”“Park.”Gritting his teeth, Chanyeol throws his hands up in the air. “You win.”Baekhyun smirks triumphantly. Of course, he wins. He always wins. Losing isn’t an option and neither is ending up in a draw.“How do you know that I’m on the school swim team anyway? I thought you hated me.”“I do,” Baekhyun agrees easily with a small frown on his face and Chanyeol looks displeased. “But you’re hot and they’re mutually exclusive.”Chanyeol shrugs in acceptance because he’ll never be able to understand Baekhyun’s logic. At least not for another thousand years and the dinosaur age might be back by then so he won’t be alive. Not that he’ll be alive in another five hundred years or two hundred years. “So? What now? I think you’re kind of cute and I watch your plays and you think I’m hot and watch me swim - ”“I go to the fairs to look at your inventions too,” Baekhyun hurriedly cuts in.Nodding, Chanyeol says, “yeah you do that too. So, what now?”“So, kiss me,” Baekhyun demands shameless, taking a step forward towards Chanyeol. Without saying another word, Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun in by the front of his shirt and slams their mouths together. Everyone in this house is also kissing everyone else so no one’s minding them.The kiss is hot and it sets Baekhyun’s skin on fire. He can feel Chanyeol’s large hands in his hair, massaging his scalp, making him moan into the taller’s mouth and press his body closer to the other.After they break the kiss, the first thing Chanyeol does is to look up at the ceiling then he looks at Baekhyun again and tells him, “there’s no mistletoe on top. I’m not paying.”Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Oh, shut up, Park.” He pulls Chanyeol down for another kiss and their lips crash against one another.It’s Baekhyun who breaks the kiss and he smirks at Chanyeol before pushing him back and walking away while swaying his hips on purpose.“You’re paying for those two kisses.” Kyungsoo stands next to Chanyeol who’s in dreamland as he stares at Baekhyun’s butt until the other disappears into the kitchen.Blearily, he turns to Kyungsoo who has his hand stretched out, palm faced up. “Huh?” he asks, not quite getting the purpose of Kyungsoo talking to him or Kyungsoo’s hand in front of him.“Pay,” Kyungsoo demands strictly.Snapping out of his daze, Chanyeol furrows his brows. When Kyungsoo hardens his gaze, Chanyeol reluctantly pulls out his wallet and gives Kyungsoo two notes to pay for the ‘mistletoe’ kiss.“Why do I have to - “ Kyungsoo walks away before Chanyeol’s even done with his short sentence. “Pay,” Chanyeol says anyway with a scowl.From the corner of his eye, he spots Baekhyun standing under a mistletoe. As he turns to look at his new...boyfriend (are they dating?), he finds that a random guy has taken the spot opposite Baekhyun. A wave of jealousy hits Chanyeol so determinedly, he stalks up the where Baekhyun’s standing and pushes the guy who’s about to kiss him away. The stranger looks incredulous and he’s about to push Chanyeol back when he realises how tall Chanyeol is and decides to secretly run away instead.Baekhyun’s looking at Chanyeol, incredibly displeased, with his arms crossed in front of himself. “Seriously?”“I’ll be the one kissing you under all the mistletoes.”“You don’t have to kiss under every single one,” Jongdae joins the conversation and Baekhyun pushes his face away, ignoring Jongdae’s cries of protest.Smirking, Baekhyun points above his head. The nuisance that is Jongdae has disappeared thanks to Junmyeon chiding Jongdae to let Baekhyun “do his job”. Oh, Baekhyun has a really big job to deal with alright. “Mistletoe. You have to pay this time.”“I paid just now too.”“What?” Baekhyun asks, eyes widening in surprise. “Why? There wasn’t a - ”“Oh shut up, Byun,” Chanyeol interrupts and cups Baekhyun’s face to pull him in for a kiss full on the lips. “And we’re dating,” Chanyeol announces when he pulls away. “Right?” he adds on in an uncertain tone.Laughing, Baekhyun stands on his tiptoes for a brief moment to peck Chanyeol once on the lips. “Yes, we’re dating. So if you don’t want me kissing anyone else, you’re gonna kiss me under mistletoes around this house until I reach my quota.”Smirking, Chanyeol tilts Baekhyun’s chin up. “Gladly.” Another cross-post from my 12 Days of Chanbaek Christmas series on AO3~