The cup of coffee was between his hands and the guy could only concentrate on it, in its warm temperature, in its beautiful brown color and in its distinctive scent. He couldn’t focus on anything else, not even in that distant voice that was calling for him ever so softly and patiently, since that sound was only part of the background. He felt somewhat disconnected from the world and from his life, which in a sense was understandable, as his mind was full of uncertainties, doubts and concerns, and although he had decided not to think too much about that issue, he was unable to do so completely, after all he had been living in the darkness for fourteen long months ... more than a year and nothing was happening.

“Chanyeol, are you listening to me?” The girl seated in front of him asked for a second time.

Finally the actuary looked up to make contact with the girl, smiling slightly at the concern in her beautiful face. “I'm sorry, I wasn’t listening ... I'm … I’m very distracted.” He answered quietly, playing with the cup of coffee carefully.

“You're always distracted though. You're thinking about him again, aren’t you?” She smiled shyly.

Taeyeon was a colleague of his, a pretty vivacious, sweet and caring girl. It was easy to open up with her; it was easy to see her as an indispensable ally, especially when the actuary felt so empty and vulnerable. She had a bright personality and was always so sweet that Chanyeol couldn’t help but smile when he was with her. And as if that weren’t enough her appearance was simply from another world, her beauty was undoubted and could say with certainty that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. Taeyeon had soft white skin, large, adorable eyes, thin, delicate nose, long blond hair and a small mouth with red lips. In short a true beauty. Actually the beautiful girl reminded him of a certain person; they had the same kind nature and they both looked like fallen angels. Many times the giant had seen his ex-boyfriend reflected in this girl and that had caused him to have inappropriate thoughts of her at some point, since he had been trying to find the love that he had missed madly in this girl who somehow assimilated his puppy, therefore whenever he had looked at Taeyeon he had searched for Baekhyun in her. He now new that it wasn't healthy at all what he had been doing, since he had been transferring his dependence on Baekhyun towards another person just because of the resemblance between them. And at some point Chanyeol really had felt emotionally dependent on the girl who had become the replacement of his true love inside his distorted mind.

The first month after Baekhyun's departure to Peru had been relatively peaceful and easy. Chanyeol had every intention of living the experience to get to know himself for real, as Baekhyun had advised him, so for that short period of time the latter's absence hadn’t been that palpable and noticeable. However, the tranquility and confidence he had been feeling till then gradually faded away and by the third month Chanyeol had felt terribly lonely and lost, he had underestimated the situation and hadn’t realized how difficult it was to learn to be a better person without the support from the only person who made him feel alive. It had really been difficult to change and get to know himself when he felt so depressed because of his lover's absence, and the situation had worsened because Baekhyun hadn’t wanted to communicate with him in any way. The giant had sent messages to his cellphone, to his social networks and even had tried to communicate with the restaurant where the puppy was doing his practice, but everything had been in vain, Baekhyun hadn’t given any signs of life. Without a doubt that was what had triggered Chanyeol’s loneliness and vulnerability in the following months, since then he had felt like a real anima wandering through a world he perceived as foreign. But just when he had been about to lose his way Taeyeon had given him a hand. This situation had given him a tremendous feeling of déjà vu, yet he hadn’t been able to fully assimilate it, because at that time he had only wanted to escape from the heartbreaking solitude and to see the sun once more with the help of this warm and gentle girl. That had worked just for a little while though; only three weeks specifically and perhaps he would never have noticed the shamelessness of the situation if it hadn’t been for the comments of his friends, who had obviously noticed his slight obsession with the girl. They hadn’t been the ones who opened his eyes, but simply sowed a little doubt in the giant's mind, not obvious enough to give him the answer, but that was what had made him notice the mistake he was committing ... once again. He had finally realized that the story of his life had always been the same and that in the end he always seemed to need someone else to be his own person, and after that he finally had seen the part of himself that he had to change urgently. His problem was that he had been dependent on people who cared for him, had fed on the good intentions of a person and for obvious reasons he could no longer allow the story to remain the same. He couldn't make the same mistake again and again, he had to be his own support ... his own person; he had to find his own identity.

Since then he had tried to avoid the beautiful girl, which had been very difficult at first as expected and hadn't helped the fact that she kept on insisting on being a part of his life, apparently Taeyeon had grown very fond of the giant – a little too much it seemed –, so she had refused to be pushed out of his life at first, so Chanyeol had to explain the reason behind his sudden rejection towards her. After that Taeyeon had understood why he needed to do this, so she left him alone, although not before warning him that she didn’t intend to give up their friendship, at that time Chanyeol had only smiled at her with gratitude. It hadn't been serious, the way he had felt towards her. Even though he had had some platonic feelings towards her, it hadn’t been something concrete and real, it had only been a kind of temporary illusion, because his love was only reserved for a certain puppy.

And there he was now, fourteen months later and he was totally renewed, with a new mentality, grateful for the circumstances that brought him to this important point. Many might think that fourteen months was a very short time to change, but in fact Chanyeol had been undergoing this change since much earlier, all this discovery of his inner self began when Kyungsoo left his life, culminated when he hurt his Baekhyun and finished in the latter’s absence. Of course, he still had unresolved issues, like everyone else, but that negative part of him was finally gone and the giant longed to prove to his lover what he had accomplished with so much effort.

“Yes, I was thinking about him. It’s just that I haven’t heard of him yet.” He answered sadly with a faint smile.

“Don’t worry, Chanyeol. I'm sure he has a reason for everything. Maybe he wants you to have space for yourself to focus on only you.” The girl offered him an encouraging smile, using a warm and sweet tone of voice.

The giant let out a long sigh as he squeezed the coffee cup between his hands. “I trust him, but I'm worried. He should have come home seven months ago and I don’t know anything about how he’s doing. His parents won’t tell me anything other than telling me that he's okay and will come back soon, but that's what they’ve been telling me for months now. What he’s still doing there? Why doesn’t he answer my calls or messages?” He expressed himself in desperation; he was definitely dismayed by the apparent rejection of his ex-boyfriend.

Taeyeon extended her hand and placed it on top of the giant's. “Listen, I don’t know Baekhyun personally, but I know him through your memories and stories and I know that he loves you and that he is not capable of abandoning you like this. Honestly if it hadn’t been him, I would tell you that you are clearly wasting time waiting for a person who will not return. However we are talking about Baekhyun here, and he would never give you hope in vain. You have to trust that he will come back for you, is the least you owe him after everything that has happened.”

The actuary nodded, gently taking her friend's small hand between his bigger one. “Yes, you're right. I must not doubt him, I made him a promise and I will not forget about it just because of my weakness.”

She giggled beautifully. “That’s my boy.” She smiled brightly, unconsciously emitting good vibes in the direction of the vulnerable giant.

He smiled back at her timidly. “You know, I'm very grateful to you. You're ... you're a good friend, Tae.” He said shyly.

“I know. I'm amazing, right?” The girl joked easily with a playful smile.

"Yes, you are." The giant chuckled heartily.

Life for Chanyeol wasn’t especially exciting and completely happy, since he still missed his puppy so badly. The giant was happy with the achievements he had made, with the decisions he had made lately, but he still felt a small void in his life and knew that Baekhyun was the only one who could fill that gap. The giant wanted to trust him and be patient, but fourteen months had passed and he didn't know what to do with this uncertainty anymore. He was happy, but something was missing.

However, it turned out that he didn’t have to wait too long, because his special someone would come sooner than he had expected, specifically three days later.

Chanyeol woke up in a good mood that morning, leaving him for the rest of the day with an enviably positive attitude. Everyone could feel the joy radiating from the giant; the innocent joy that shone in his eyes and the genuine enjoyment hidden behind his huge, almost creepy smile. He was in such good mood that even his best friends had to comment about it, naturally asking him why he was so happy.

"It's because of Taeyeon again?" Kris asked with an unamused face. The tall guy liked the girl, she was indeed an angel, but didn't like the idea of her near his best friend, since he knew about the little confusion that arose between them months ago.

The giant just shook his head and showed them the screen of his cellphone so that Chen and Kris could finally understand what this was all about.

“No way!” Chen exclaimed with wide open eyes in surprise, being the first one to react to the sudden but very welcome news.

Chanyeol just smiled as he put his cellphone back in his pocket. The giant couldn't notice it for obvious reasons, but his friends could see the tenderness and longing residing in his now expressive eyes. The two boys could clearly see how sensitive and committed Chanyeol had become since a certain person's departure, after all they were there to witness the process of it. Chanyeol had changed in an extraordinary way, his essence remained the same, but in a more mature version. He had become more aware of his actions, more responsible, more courageous in facing his faults and was now much more independent than before. He had finally managed to stand on his own rather than rely on the goodwill of another person, they guessed that the situation with Taeyeon had been necessary for the learning of their friend, since finally the giant had become a person deserving of the love of his special someone, his only special someone. And his friends gave good faith of that.

“That’s great, Yeol.” Kris commented smiling at his best friend gently, feeling happy to witness the innocence shine in the eyes of the giant after so long. He always knew that Baekhyun was the right lover for his tall friend. “Finally, after more than a year, huh.”

Baekhyun was finally ready to return to his homeland after fourteen long months. He was supposed to be in Peru for seven months only, but for reasons unknown to him, the puppy decided to extend his stay indefinitely. At first Chanyeol had felt quite hopeless by the lack of news form his lover, thinking even the worst of the worst – which would be basically a definitive breakup – but his pessimistic state hadn’t lasted for a long time – part of that was thanks to Taeyeon –, since he couldn't afford to doubt himself or his pup under such circumstances, not when he had promised Baekhyun that he would wait for him for as long as he needed, he had said it very seriously and certainly had every intention of keeping the promise that had kept him sane all these months without his petite lover. That promise was the only thing that motivated him to give his best every single day; he had decided to be a better man for his baby boy and there wasn’t a day where Chanyeol didn’t try. Honestly speaking, the actuary didn’t notice very clearly the supposed changes he was experiencing, but he relied on the comments of his friends, who told him again and again that he was on the right track.

“I know, and it seems like a dream. I cannot believe that I will finally see his face again after so long. I really miss him.” Chanyeol answered with a gentle smile.

“I can’t believe it either.” Chen continued with a dreamy smile on his face, in fact you could almost see hearts coming out of the boy's eyes. “Finally I’m going to see that beautiful smile of his. I cannot wait. My angel will be back in just two more days.” He expressed himself with shameless enthusiasm, without hiding the great happiness of the arrival of his crush. It wasn’t a secret after all, everyone knew that he really liked the puppy boy, but how can they not notice when Chen didn't mind showing how enchanted he was by Baekhyun charms? Before Chanyeol used to get quite angry when his friend proclaimed his apparent admiration for his baby boy so openly, but eventually he learned to live with that, because he finally realized that no matter how many times he told his best friend to stop, the latter wasn’t going to do it. Besides Chanyeol thought it wasn’t serious at all, he was sure that Chen was just playing around.

The giant only chuckled at his friend’s exaggerated reaction even though he himself wanted to run around the restaurant and shout to the world that his love was finally back. Yet, when he said goodbye to his friends and arrived to the solitude of his apartment all his joy was replaced by insecurities, which brought him down to the raw and uncertain reality. He had to remember that they never agreed on anything specific, in fact they even hadn’t kept in touch for these fourteen months, two weeks, and four days, moreover, this message was the only one he had received from his boyfriend ever since he left. Therefore he didn’t even know what had happened to their relationship. Chanyeol liked to think that they were still together, that they still had an official title to their ambiguous relationship if that made any sense at all, but that obviously meant nothing, because the reality was that he didn’t know if his puppy was willing to take him back after all this time. Perhaps during the separation Baekhyun finally came to his senses and realized that Chanyeol was no big deal – far from it in fact, the giant liked to think –, perhaps he had met new people and had consequently met another person whom he wante