Chapter 3

Another Ending

Baekhyun tried to act like he was okay. He gave it his all but he was still bad at it.

Jongdae and Kyungsoo could see how Baekhyun’s cheeks got smaller, how his arms looked more fragile and how his, used to perfectly fit, clothes looked too big on him, hanging loosely on his too thin body.

When he found out Minseok disappeared a week after their break up and was missing for more than a month, Baekhyun got even worse. He didn’t even try to seem as if he was coping. He stopped going to work, stopped talking, barely ate…The worry was eating him alive.

Kyungsoo practically moved to Baekhyun’s place, afraid that the other might stop eating and going to work all together if he wasn’t there for him.

Jongdae was really mad at Minseok but also really worried. What if something had happened to him? Aside from a postcard from Tokyo Jongdae got a week after Minseok went away, they didn’t hear from him at all.

“Hello?”

“Luhan-hyung, it’s Jongdae.”

“Oh, Jongdae. I haven’t heard from you for months. How are you?” Luhan’s voice was as happy as ever. He was always kind and cheerful. Minseok introduced Luhan as his new best friend when Jongdae was in his third year in middle school and both Luhan and Minseok were freshmen in high school.

“I’m okay. How are you?” Jongdae politely asked, deciding against jumping on the problem immediately.

“Ah, I’m great. I’m going on a vacation soon and I was thinking of visiting Korea. Maybe we could meet up?”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” Jongdae tried to sound excited but it wasn’t working, he couldn’t hide distressed tone in his usually joyful voice.

“What is wrong, Jongdae? Should I not come to Korea?” Luhan caught Jongdae’s not-so-happy tone immediately.

“No, no! It’s not that. I’m happy to hear you’re coming soon but that is not the reason why I called.” Jongdae explained, “Minseok-hyung is missing.”

“…What?” Luhan’s voice lost its cheerful sound and got replaced by shocked one.

“Hyung is missing. He has been missing more than a month ago. He broke up with Baekhyun and came to my place for three days before disappearing completely. He only sent us one postcard from Tokyo weeks ago and we haven’t heard from him since. We tried to find him but nobody knows where he is. I went to his working place but his boss said he resigned. Kyungsoo even went to his parents’ place but they denied even having him as their son. He said he was shocked when he heard that. We tried asking Baekhyun if he knew anything about it but he refused to answer us. He hardly speaks anymore…” Jongdae explained.

Luhan was quiet. He didn’t know what to say. He could barely hold his phone properly.

“Luhan-hyung?” Jongdae’s voice ranged from the other side.

“Why didn’t you call me sooner?” Luhan finally asked.

“We didn’t want to worry you. We thought he would come back soon, that all he needs is some time alone to think everything over. But we didn’t know it would take him more than a month.”

“More than a month?! And you’re only calling me now?!” Luhan was angry. Why didn’t he know any of this? He was Minseok’s best friend. Why did they hide it all? Why didn’t Minseok tell him that things between him and Baekhyun weren’t good anymore? Why didn’t he come to him? Why is he always the one left out?

“Please, hyung, don’t be like this. We’re as worried as you are, Baekhyun even more. Their break-up affected him greatly and when he found out that Minseok left he changed so much. He barely eats, sleeps and talks.”

“I’m sorry… It’s just that… I’m so frustrated… Why am I always the one out of the loop? Especially when it comes to Minseok? I’m supposed to be his best friend…”

~*~

Luhan and Minseok have been best friends since their freshmen year. They had many things in common; soccer and coffee being one of the main ones. They also understood each other really well; they didn’t need words to know what the other was thinking… Or so Luhan thought.

Luhan loved Minseok dearly, he would do anything for him. That’s what scared him. He wasn’t supposed to love his best friend in that way. He was supposed to like girls and talk with Minseok about how beautiful and hot they are. He was not supposed to think his best friend is the most beautiful being on this Earth… But Luhan couldn’t help it.

Minseok rarely showed emotions but Luhan could see how kind Minseok is from his actions such as putting others before himself, never refusing to help other people and protect them from injustice and many more.

So it wasn’t weird to Luhan that Minseok took Baekhyun under his wing when the kid was being bullied for being different from others.

It also gave him sense of security if he ever decided to confess Minseok his true feelings. Although he might get rejected, Minseok wouldn’t judge him for it.

But Luhan could see that Minseok started changing when he started hanging out with Baekhyun.

He started talking more, being his true self not only to Luhan, like it used to be, but to others as well. Especially to Baekhyun.

Minseok’s top-notch aegyo that was once only Luhan’s privilege became Baekhyun’s too.

Minseok stopped calling him in the middle of the night when he would have a nightmare.

Minseok had terrible nightmares. Luhan never knew what would cause them because, as far as Luhan knew, Minseok never shared any traumatic experience in his past.

Imagine his surprise when he found out that Minseok was living his trauma daily.

Luhan noticed that Minseok often had a few bruises on his body but he thought it was caused by playing soccer.

But when he found out that Minseok was constantly being beaten by his father, whenever he didn’t meet his expectation, everything finally made sense to Luhan.

All those bruises on his back and abdomen, Minseok’s constant need of having make up with him, his weird behavior every time he didn’t get a perfect score on the test and the increased amount of make up the day after the test results….

Luhan cursed at himself for not putting two and two together sooner. He would’ve saved Minseok sooner. And maybe he would’ve won Minseok’s heart instead of him.

But Baekhyun was the one that found everything out and helped Minseok. And he was also the one who managed to steal Minseok’s heart.

It could’ve been him. But it’s not. Because Luhan was always out of the loop.

~*~

"This time I won't be the one out of the loop, I'll make sure of it." Luhan whispered as he put his phone down on the nightstand.

Here's the chapter three. I'm sorry for not updating sooner, school keeps getting in the way.

I hope you liked this chapter and story as a whole.There are three to four chapters till the end, depending on how I'm going to divide the story and if I'm going to add a few scenes (I got inspired by one song I accidentally heard but I don't know a name of, I'm pretty bad at memorizing things).

As you can see I love writing flashbacks and there will be even more of them in the next few chapters, some of them really short but sweet to get the idea of how cute and perfectly imperfect xiubaek relationship was (spoiler alert).

Please comment and let me know what you think.