---

Three days.

It's been three days since Chanyeol has seen Baekhyun. After the night they broke up, Chanyeol wandered around the looby waiting for Baekhyun to come out of his apartment. He wasn't ready, however, to see Baekhyun come out of the elevator with a suitcase in tow. The shorter had looked at him for a second, the same unreadable stare, before walking past him towards a waiting car without a word. 

Chanyeol had reached out and grabbed the shorter's arms and spun him around. For a second, the Park heir swore that he saw Baekhyun's expression flicker into a one of despair but then it shifted back into nothing. 

"Let go of me, Park," Baekhyun said. Cold. Like a stranger. 

"Tell me what's going on, Baek. Please," Chanyeol begged. He never begged, but Baekhyun didn't waver. 

"Let's go," he said to the driver who nodded before opening the car door and gesturing at Baekhyun to enter. The Byun boy stepped out of Chanyeol's hold and into the car, closing the door. 

The car sped away before Chanyeol could recover from his shock. 

He stared down at his hands that still remembered the warmth and texture of Baekhyun's skin, speechless. 

Two days.

The two days after Baekhyun left, the Park heir was a mess. He couldn't function anymore. He looked like every other guy who has ever broken up in romcom movies — his hair was a rats nest, his apartment completely trashed, dark eyebags under his eyes ....

", man," Yifan says when he sees him. He leans across the desk to scrutinize the hobo that was supposed to be their general manager. 

"Are you okay?" Yixing, his ever-so-sweet secretary asks. 

Chanyeol mumbles something, and Yifan and Yixing exchanges glances. 

"What?" Yifan asks again, cautiously.

"I said," Chanyeol says, clearer this time, "Baekhyun broke up with me." 

Silence.

Yifan and Yixing exchange looks.

"Oh..." 

Though Yifan and Yixing had only met Baekhyun once, they understood how important he was to Chanyeol. The Park heir seemed infinitely happier whenever the shorter boy was around, exuberent and like a child again. It seemed like their relationship would last forever. They fit together so well. 

"Do you want to go home today?" Yixing ventures, concerned.

"I'm trying to understand why he would do something like this without a word of explaination. I'm so.... ugh," Chanyeol groans, plopping down on his seat and leaning back against the leather office chair. "I thought we were doing so well.."

"He must have had his reasons," Yifan says.

Chanyeol studies him and then turns to dial Baekhyun's number on his phone. It was his 10th? 50th? 100th? phone call. His boyfriend — no, his ex boyfriend still wouldn't pick up. Chanyeol slams the phone down on the table in frustration. 

--

Two weeks.

Baekhyun tosses and turns in his bed. Two weeks. Two weeks since he's broken up with Park Chanyeol and returned to Busan. A week since he's begun the process of inheriting the company, meeting with this executive and that executive, this department and that department, this business partner, that business partner. Baekhyun is terribly exhausted. He doesn't allow himself to remember the past.

He doesn't have that luxury.

Work hard.

Make your parents proud.

Inherit the company.

Work hard.

Marry a pretty girl.

Work harder.

Make your parents proud.

He decides, since he couldn't sleep anyways, to do more paperwork. He rolls out of bed, turns on the lamp of his desk, puts on his glasses, and begins. The clock reads 1am. 

Work hard.

Work harder. 

--

Two months.

Park Chanyeol still wakes up thinking about Baekhyun. Still remembers the boy's smile. The boy's laugh, his pretty hands and pretty heart. Byun Baekhyun. A pretty name that was also a curse. 

Nobody knew where Baekhyun was. Or at least, nobody