She was seated in the city bus waiting for the bus driver to reach her stop when suddenly he plopped himself on the empty seat beside her and decided that it was okay to take a nap and lean on her shoulder. She shrugged his head off but like a boomerang, it came back. She kept doing that until the guy let out a deep chuckle and finally lifting his head off her shoulder and instead leaned on his seat’s headrest.

“Could’ve just let me sleep, it’s been a long day for me.” He still had his eyes closed but she knew he intended for her to hear that.

“Well it’s not right for you to just suddenly sleep on a random stranger. Do you do that to everyone?” he turned to face her and stared deeply into her chocolate brown eyes and said,

“No,” he slowly leaned closer to her face, “only the cute ones.”

She’s Kim Taeyeon.

He’s Byun Baekhyun.

This is their story.

The beginning

Kim Taeyeon was dozing off while waiting for her stop when a heavy weight on her left shoulder jerked her awake. She turned to see a mop of familiar jet black hair in her face,

“Ugh, it’s you.” Out of all the empty seats, she sighed and gently pushed his head off and moved it to his own headrest and quickly shifted away from him to get back to her much needed rest. However the weight was back causing Taeyeon to groan and a soft snigger filled her ears. Annoyed, Taeyeon roughly pushed his head off, “Excuse me; I don’t appreciate your lack of sensitivity towards other people’s comfort,” to which he simply laughed at.

“Look, I’m sorry but you look even cuter than you did yesterday, I couldn’t help myself.”

“Is this how you get all the girls to fall in love with you? A little compliment here and there and with an attractive face like yours, you get them all putty in your hands.”

“So, you think I’m attractive?” he had a teasing glint in his eyes and Taeyeon failed to hide her flushed cheeks. “I’m Byun Baekhyun, and you are?” he asked with a mischievous smile fortunately the bus reached her stop so Taeyeon jumped out of her seat and rushed to the sliding doors but a warmth around her wrist stopped her from moving any further,

“Tell me your name and I’ll let you go,” Taeyeon was desperate and wasn’t thinking straight,

“It’s Taeyeon.”

The middle

Baekhyun was outside Taeyeon’s apartment, fingers jittery and palms sweaty as he hesitated to knock on the door. “Come on Baek, you can do this. Just knock and just ask her, she won’t say no right? Plus you’re already here. Okay, let’s do this!” Just as he was about to knock the door opened to reveal a male who looked about just his height but older then a familiar voice reached Baekhyun’s ears;

“Oppa, what’s wrong?” Taeyeon came into view from behind the unidentified male. Baekhyun deflated when Taeyeon called the male ‘oppa’, damn I was too late. “Oh hey Baek, what are you doing here?”

“Huh, um nothing…just, ya know, in the area. I was just about to go,” Baekhyun started to turn but Taeyeon stopped him from walking away, “Seriously Baek, come on, just come in.”

“It’s okay, really, you seem busy. Maybe next time,” but Taeyeon was stronger than she looks so she dragged him inside and pushed him to the couch. Taeyeon went back to the door to give the still unknown man a hug and a kiss on the cheek causing Baekhyun to further bury himself in sadness. She then came back and took the seat next to him,

“You’re lookin’ great tonight, so what’s up?” Just then Baekhyun stood up and went straight to the door which confused Taeyeon as she followed him out the door. She heard him mumble something like, this was a bad idea, God Baek why are you so slow. Taeyeon gripped Baekhyun’s shoulder and pulled him in close,

“Byun Baekhyun, what the hell is going on? Tell me what’s wrong now, you can’t just be outside my apartment door and just leave, obviously you wanted to see me so tell me what’s going on now!”

“I love you! That’s what’s going on, I love you Kim Taeyeon but obviously I’m too late since you’ve already got yourself a boyfriend.  God, I’m so stupid and to think I thought you liked me too and here I was about to ask you on a date, good thing I didn’t or else I would make a-” Taeyeon burst out laughing at Baekhyun’s rambling and clutched onto her stomach with how hard she was laughing. Baekhyun frowned and started to look angry at Taeyeon’s reaction to his confession of his love for her,

“I’m feeling very hurt right now and you laugh at me! I’m serious Taeyeon, this is not laughing matter!” Baekhyun whined but Taeyeon continued to laugh so Baekhyun stared at her before turning around to leave.

“Wait!” Taeyeon tried getting her breath back but a few more laughs came out before she was calmer than before, “The guy is not my boyfriend,” a small giggle, “he’s my brother, he just came to visit me and give me some homemade food from my mom.” Another giggle and she cleared to steady herself before looking at Baekhyun, “Yes, I would love to go on a date with you and since you look dashing right now, let me make it up to you. I’ll go get ready and we can go to the movies or maybe dinner, my treat?” Baekhyun was dying in embarrassment and didn’t want to look at Taeyeon as she dragged him back to her apartment.

“Movies but I’m paying.”

Their first date didn’t go as amazing as Baekhyun planned, the movie of their choice was sold out and was forced to watch a crappy movie about random people trying too hard to be heroes and not only that, Baekhyun was short on money so Taeyeon had to pay for the snacks.

But that didn’t stop Taeyeon from going on more dates with Baekhyun and eventually she said yes to being his one and only. Taeyeon has never felt this way before, everything just seemed new with Baekhyun, even sitting on her couch while watching nothing and everything seemed different.

The end

They’ve been dating for 4 years already and Taeyeon and Baekhyun was just as in love with each other since the day they first started going out but recently Taeyeon started to doubt whether Baekhyun was just as in love with her as she was with him.

He has been making excuses and saying that he was really busy with work whenever he misses a date. It was almost to the point Taeyeon had to tell Baekhyun about their dates weeks before as if she had to make an appointment to just be with her boyfriend. Sometimes he would be on their dates but he it’s as if he was not mentally there. He would constantly be on his phone and would barely say anything during their time together. Taeyeon reasoned that he was busy especially when he had to keep up with his parents’ expectations of him.

Taeyeon was seated at a fancy restaurant which she booked months before and saved up for because she wanted to make the night of their anniversary special. She even made sure to remind Baekhyun last night and this morning about their date tonight. She was all dolled up with light make-up in a red dress with her hair up as she waited with only a glass of water.

She wanted tonight to be the night; she was going to propose to Baekhyun and break tradition because she knows that she can’t ever imagine a life without Byun Baekhyun. She was feeling giddy but nervous because, first of all, she’s a woman proposing to her man and secondly, the pressure of asking someone to marry you.

“Ma’am, are you ready to order now?”

“No, I’ll just wait for my date to arrive first. Thank you.”

That was already the third time the waiter had asked over the past two hours Taeyeon had been sitting in the restaurant. She kept her cool and stayed positive that Baekhyun was coming soon. In the next half an hour, she finally saw Baekhyun in his handsome glory with a smile that melts her every time and she was glad that he finally came. But he didn’t come in the restaurant instead he just passed by and she realized that he had company; a very beautiful woman with an equally beautiful smile was hanging onto her Baekhyun.

Her world crashed in seconds, she felt numb as she watched them pass by, wrapped in their own little world. She was frozen on the chair as she stared into nothing. She should’ve known, he was no longer around, constantly busy and would only reply with short sentences to her texts. It made sense that he found someone better, someone even more beautiful, with more class and even more deserving of his love.

The next night when Baekhyun came over, he didn’t stay long. “Baekhyun, you know I care about you and I want to make you the happiest man on earth,” Taeyeon’s breath started to stagger, “Just tell me when, okay…”

Taeyeon knows that Baekhyun understood what she meant, please let me go. But she wasn’t ready but she also knew that holding on would hurt her even more. She decided to be selfish one last time and kissed him; pouring out all the love she had for him and hoped the woman from last night would love him just as much and more. When they parted, she just sat there and simply waited, maybe an explanation, but all he did was stand up and out the door he went.

Taeyeon sat there listlessly because she knows that her heart left with him.