Bonus chapter

Chapter 33: By my side.

Baekhyun

Life was advancing too fast. But he wasn’t complaining. Sometimes, when he looked back to the old days, he just found it fascinating how far he had gone to.

He remembered clearly the first day of elementary school when he was waving excitingly to his grandmother who was watching him outside the class. He remembered when he used to call this one chubby kid next class, whose ears seemed bigger and sticking out, more than ordinary that reminded him of Yoda from Star Wars and he started calling him that. But he chose to ignore him at first, of course to which made him screamed “YODA!” for the whole school to hear.

He remembered how he found out Yoda has a name called Chanyeol and they became friends when they were 13 when Chanyeol shared him a cigarette and they promised to their own dear life that they weren’t going to smoke again because they thought they could die from lung cancer from that one stick. That was a bad experience.

He remembered knowing Jongdae when he heard him screaming to their school basketball players about how cool and handsome they were from the bleachers while Baekhyun was there supporting Chanyeol, who was one of the players. He had this screeching, unbelievably high pitched voice that it rang for a few days after that in Baekhyun’s ears.

Baekhyun stared weirdly at the guy next to him. “Are you gay?” he didn’t mean to ask it out loud but he was sure Jongdae wasn’t a mind reader so, he guessed he must have asked that out loud.

“No.” Jongdae denied. “Can’t a guy compliment another guy handsome? Does that really sound gay to you? What a narrow minded person. I don’t even know why my dad put me in this stupid school, surrounded by stupid people like you.”

Weirdly somehow, they became friends from there.

Baekhyun was easily freaked out as a person. There was one time he freaked out about the fact they were turning into adults when he saw Chanyeol cried for the first time, asking and pleading at him when he was drunk. “What should I do? My parents think I’m useless because I never am good enough to go to the best school. Unlike you. Because I don’t have a path. Because I don't seem like I have future unlike my sister's bright one. I’m so useless, Baekhyun. What am I going to do?” He muttered while grabbing onto Baekhyun’s collar.

***

One day, out of nowhere, Baekhyun handed Chanyeol a thick amount of cash that made Chanyeol’s eyes turned wide. Chanyeol had told him a few times about what he had been dreaming of achieving and of course, for people like them, financial seemed to be the only hurdle for them to keep moving forward. “I don’t have much money but you can make the best out of it. You’re not useless, Yeol. You’re so much cooler than me. I’m in the best school in the country but I have no idea what I’m doing but you know what you want so you should go for it.”

He turned around to leave immediately before Chanyeol could reject it but he stopped when Chanyeol called out for him. “You can do it too. I remember you’re the bravest out of us all so why are you being sissy about it?”

***

“Tell me that I can do it.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Chanyeol gave a weird look at his best friend, who kept walking back and forth while murmuring something under his breath before surprising him with the request.

“You, telling me that I can do it was what made me a writer today. So, I’m asking you to tell me that I can do this, right now.” He explained.

At first, Chanyeol almost got carried away because he nearly choked up remembering the memory and Baekhyun remembered every single thing of it– hell, nothing felt the best than being appreciated. Other than loving his Suah, of course – and how he had no idea that small things he did could lead to something so big.

“You don’t need it, Baek. You know you can. I’ve never seen you any more confident than when you decided you want to marry her.” Chanyeol told him.

“I’m going to make her happy. She deserves that.”

“She does. And you’re going to give her exactly that.” Chanyeol poked his finger on Baekhyun, trying to snap him out of his own insecurities.

Baekhyun meekly nodded. “I love her so much, Yeol. I’ve never loved anybody this much.” He confessed.

“I know.” Chanyeol knew all that too well that he had to admit, even he hadn’t gotten that deeply in love with Suah like how Baekhyun had been for Hana and he sometimes envied that.

The emotional moment was ruined when the door suddenly slammed open and there was Jongdae, making an entrance like an oblivious person he was. “Guess where did I came from?” he chimed.

Before his friends could have answered, he dashed his way to their side and pulled out his phone to show them something. And it was a picture he took with Hana and Suah in the bridal waiting room. Jongdae was not as oblivious as I thought he was, Baekhyun thought as a smile naturally carved on his face.

“She looks so pretty.” Chanyeol murmured.

“She does. You got yourself a beautiful bride, aren't you liking it too much?” Jongdae teased Baekhyun while nudging his shoulder playfully.

“Oh, you were saying about Hana? I was talking about Suah though.”

“Ugh, you sure are annoying. I’m getting sick of this seriously. I have a strong feeling after this all we’re going to talk about are whose girl is prettier than whose. That’s absolutely no fun.” Jongdae looked grim at the thought of it.

“You know what could make you feel the fun?”

“What?”

“Start meeting a girl.”

“I do meet a girl! It’s just different girl every day.” Jongdae reasoned. “Moreover, there will be a lot more girls who want piece of me. Since I’m going to be in suit almost every day now.” He raised an eyebrow with a smirk darting towards his friends.

“You’re kidding me.”

“Are your dad sick?”

“What’s the matter? I’m the only son, of course it will make sense if I’m the heir!” he retorted.

Chanyeol shook his head with a displeased face, thinking of the future of Jongdae’s family company when it will be under his control. “Aren’t your dad worried that it will go down?”

Jongdae huffed. “Yeollie buddy, our family company couldn’t go down that easily. Our fortunes are a lot more than even Yerin’s family.” He bragged.

Baekhyun thought Jongdae must have been a peasant in his previous life that he enjoyed bragging about his fortune all the time in this life.

“Are you ready, brother?” Baekhyun turned towards the door immediately to see his brother smiling at him, to tell him that it’s time. He glanced back towards his friends, seeing them giving the same expression with Jongdae giving him two thumbs up in encouragement.

That was the day he could never forget in his whole life.

~~~

“I’m home! Honey, I’m home!”

Baekhyun could hear the cheerful voice coming from the entrance, knowing so well who did it belonged to. He murmured “I’m here.” lowly with his eyes were still focusing on the computer screen while doing his work.

Seconds passed, and he realized the light from the hallway was blocked when Hana stood by the door of the room. “What is this?” she complained. “You suddenly had a meeting on Saturday morning and you’re working straight after the meeting?” Hana asked in disbelief, as she sat on the table, right next to Baekhyun’s laptop.

“I was waiting for you whole day and this is what I got? Don’t you miss me?”

He turned to her with a chuckle slipped his lips when he saw her pouting. “I do miss you.” Baekhyun hung one arm around Hana’s waist. “Where have you been?”

“I was with Jinae. We went to watch Kyungsoo’s nephew at his school sports day.”

“Kyungsoo’s nephew?”

Hana nodded. “They’re going to have a baby soon. So, the mushy couple decided to babysit little Jihu to grasp the feeling of having a child. And I’m there as the third wheeler. Can you believe it? Until now, I’m still the third wheeler.” Hana grunted upsettingly, making Baekhyun wanted to kiss that pouty lips so badly which he did in the end.

“Should we have Jinae for a change then next time?”

She laughed loudly at his ridiculous suggestion. “Why should we have a heavily pregnant woman with us when going out?” She replied. “Since you said you miss me, how about you stop doing this,” She bent her body enough to block the screen. “and spend some quality time with your wife?”

“Give me a few minutes.”

Hana frowned. “Your few minutes meaning I’ll be on the bed sleeping already by the time you’re done.”

~~~

Four years later and it all felt like a déjà vu. Baekhyun found himself smiling, finding it fascinating at how familiar the sight was.

“What is it written here?” The little girl pointed to the thousands of words she saw on the screen, eyebrows narrowing in confusion. Baekhyun knew that all too well. It was just one of the ways she purposely tried to stop him from working.

“Try to read it for me.”

She turned her head towards Baekhyun and the frown went even deeper. “I still can’t read, daddy!”

“Then, should daddy teach you how to read?” Baekhyun replied as he lifted his daughter off the table and sat her on his lap.

Pouting, the girl murmured sadly, “But I want to play with daddy.”

“Inna! Come out and eat!” Hana was seen standing by the door soon after her voice was heard throughout the whole house. “Dinner’s ready. Do you want to eat now?” She continued.

“I’ll come out in a little while.” Baekhyun answered.

“Okay.” She replied. “Inna, let’s have dinner.” Inna reluctantly got off her father’s lap and walked to her mother. “Why is mommy’s daughter look so sad?”

“Because daddy don’t want to play with Inna.”

Hana feigned a disbelief look. She had reminded her daughter not to bother but she was stubborn, like her father. Her daughter had no idea how many times her mother had tried the same tricks and it never worked even once. “Really? Daddy is bad, is it? Let’s leave daddy alone and have dinner with mommy, okay?”

Inna nodded solemnly as Hana carried her up. “Do you like mommy better or daddy better?” Hana asked.

“Mommy.”

“Mommy is the best, right?” Hana’s cheerful face automatically brightened up the little girl. “Give mommy a kiss.” She ordered and got one straightaway. “Let’s eat Inna’s favourite food.” She chimed as she dashed, making the girl screamed in delight.

“Hana! That’s cheating. How can you make our daughter choose?” Baekhyun shouted and he jumped out of his seat, heading to the kitchen.

Baekhyun came into the kitchen a few minutes later, seeing Hana was having a