The sound of the screaming crowd makes it hard for me to concentrate.

Focus, Minhwa.

Fo—

“There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere—we don’t have time, our performance will be in five minutes, so we have to get our asses into the room right behind the stage,” it’s Jongin, and he’s breathless.

He’s dressed in his full costume with his face already smothered to perfection with stage makeup, and his eyelids glitter a little under the lighting as he talks to me.

“W-what? But I thought I still have a good twenty more minutes before my performance?” I feel my heart dropping to the bottom of my stomach, and Jongin just frowns before taking my wrist with his hand, dragging me along with him.

“A member from the performing crew that’s supposed to perform after this got caught in a small accident—we’re covering for them,” Jongin explains as we thread through the throng of people dressed to the brim, and I swallow the lump in my throat painfully.

As we make our way through the hallway, I can’t find the words in me to tell Jongin that I might—might just be—unready for this performance.

When we finally arrive at the side of the stage, Jongin turns around abruptly to face me.

“Look at the bright side, noona—we’re no longer the closing performance, so that should burden you less, right? Just think of this as another day of practicing with me back at the studio. You told me you used to love crowds,” Jongin says slowly, half yelling because the music is impossibly loud, and the crowds’ screams are even louder.

I wince.

“That was years ago—I—I don’t think I can do this… it’s embarrassing now…” I look at the amount of people standing in front of the stage, their unfamiliar faces occasionally illuminated by the stage lights, and it makes me feel nauseous.

“The people who love you will be watching you—heck, even Kyungsoo will be watching you!” Jongin convinces me harder, and it only makes me feel worse.

He doesn’t miss the look of disappointment that washes over my face, and he sighs.

“It’s because of him, isn’t it? It’s because he isn’t here that you feel so discouraged? If it is, then you should get over it, noona. He’s just another pretty face in the crowd.”

I don’t get to say anything else because suddenly the music stops, the crowd cheers, and a split of second later I’m already pushed onto the stage. Jongin is already in his position at the other end of the stage, gaze focused, his aura transforming into his performance.

Instinctively, I scan the crowd for familiar faces, and I do find them. Jaehyung, Somi, Minseok and the girl called Seolhwa who shortly after graduation joined our circle of friends—the list goes on and on—but the one face I want to see so badly is nowhere to be found.

Then the music starts.

***

Two’s a company, but three’s a crowd.

That’s how it feels sitting on the dining booth right in front of Jaehyung and Somi, who is disgustingly mushy and touchy-feely. I hate it.

“You’re not a crowd, Minhwa, we’re the Three Musketeers, aren’t we?” Somi comments, laughing, and I don’t even realize that I’ve said the sentence out loud until she responded. Jaehyung laughs along too, and his hands are placed around Somi’s shoulder comfortably, eyes dripping with honey as he observes his girlfriend laugh.

Yes, girlfriend. Who would have thought that my two idiot best friends would end up being together after graduating university—that they had their own angsty love story they never told anyone else?

I scoff. I also hate the fact that they look so good together—the it couple everyone fawns over—especially when Jaehyung is now the chairman of his family’s company and Somi a successful owner of one of Korea’s most famous restaurant chains. Even Minseok told me once that it gets suffocating looking at their perfect happy little bubble from time to time.

“The only third musketeer that wants be part of your stupid duo will be the poor child you give birth to if Jaehyung gets you knocked up,” I grumble, plucking the menu placed on the side of the table.

I don’t notice the abrupt silence that ensues because I’m too busy scanning for food that looks good enough for me to order, until Jaehyung himself clears his throat to get my attention.

When I look up, I see that Jaehyung and Somi now has a good ten-centimeter gap between them, and they’re discreetly nudging each other like little children caught red-handed doing something they shouldn’t do, forcing one another to confess.

I frown—“Somi, are you pregnant?”

My question makes Somi choke over nothing, and Jaehyung frantically rushing to her aid just confirms my theory even more. Jaehyung calls for the waiter for a cup of water quickly, and I just observe the both of them in silence, waiting for an explanation.

“You’re crazy,” is the first thing Somi says after finishing her cup of water. Surprisingly, I find myself sighing in relief, because deep down inside I don’t think I’m quite ready to be an aunt nor come to terms with the fact that Somi is going to have a child before me.

Though technically I should be able to accept the fact that Somi might, because my love story isn’t a love story easy enough for me to be able to pave my way to any kind of talks about marriage so soon. I blink at her as a response.

“But,” Jaehyung intercepts with my thoughts of relief. “What we’re going to tell you runs somewhere along the lines of that.”

My mind draws a blank.

“We actually called to meet you here alone because we wanted you to be the first to hear the news ahead of everyone else—we’re getting married!”

I blink again, looking at Jaehyung and Somi’s ecstatic facial expressions, and find myself punched with a series of emotions. Then a couple of seconds later, my tear ducts starts to malfunction and I find myself crying for the nth time that week.

“Hey, you okay there?” Jaehyung asks, brows furrowed. He hands me a couple sheets of tissue out of worry, which I snatch away harshly from his hands.

As quick as I try to dry my tears, a fresh batch of tears replaces the old ones, and the aching feeling inside my chest suddenly feels unbearable. I don’t understand why I’m being so emotional, but I can’t stop the tears.

“Tears of happiness, I guess? I don’t know why I’m crying either—but I’m really very happy for you guys,” I say in between my choked sobs, and Somi takes my hand in hers.

“It’s because of that bastard Baekhyun, isn’t it? I knew it. He’s truly the only person that could ruin my wedding announcement! I even saw him being tagged on Taeyeon’s facebook yesterday—a shameless prick,” Somi is seething, and Jaehyun rubs her shoulders slowly in an attempt to calm her down.

“Don’t say that,” I chide, and this only invites more sentences of insult to fly out of Somi’s mouth. Jaehyung then excuses himself to take an important call, and I’m guessing it’s probably because he’d rather skip on listening to Somi’s endless rants when it comes to Baekhyun.

“Can you stop now? Right now, it’s not about me, it’s about you. Tell me, how did he propose?” I cut Somi short in the middle of her rant, my tears slowing down to a stop, and thankfully she does.

“I… it’s really stupid, actually,” she blushes, but I nudged her to go on and continue.

“I was accompanying his sister going shopping in this random mall, and the whole time I was there he was picking a fight through text messages and all. I felt so ty and quickly wanted to go home, then when I got out of the mall I see this huge billboard advertisement that says ‘Somi, will you marry me?’”

“Then long story short, he’s suddenly there on his knees with a velvet box asking me if I’d marry him. I said yes and cried and now his sister has a two-minute video of me sobbing like the fool I am.” Somi laughs fondly, a soft look on her eyes—she’s probably reminiscing the moment as she tells the story.

I can’t help but laugh along and finally feel the joy for my friends I’m supposed to feel a few minutes ago.

“He’s really, really extra, isn’t he? That’s the most Jaehyung proposal I can ever think of, he really outdid himself. I can’t believe he didn’t tell me beforehand,” I smile happily at Somi.

“Yeah, and I love him for that,” another smile adorns her pretty face, and she shows me the beautiful diamond ring perched on her ring finger with pride. I reach out to pat her hands.

I find myself tearing up yet again. This time, it’s appropriate though, because my best friends have finally find their happiness and I’m really truly happy for them.

“I never knew you were such a sap like this.”

A familiar, way too familiar voice interrupts my moment with Somi’s. I whip my head around to the sound of the voice just to confirm it for myself—so I know that I’m not hallucinating—even though I know who the voice belongs to like the back of my hand.

Baekhyun is standing there with a bouquet of flowers and a stupid smile on his handsome face.

The smile gets wiped off a couple of seconds later, though, along with the bouquet of flowers that gets discarded onto the floor as he rushes to my side, cupping my face with his hands. My tears probably triggered his response.

“What happened? Did someone hurt you, or—”

He stops when I start hitting him, and I actually put some force into it so he knows that it hurts.

“Took you long enough to get yourself here, Baek! You don’t know the amount of tears she’s been shedding for you this week just because she missed you. Anyone normal would think that you’ve broken up with her or something, God,” Somi groans, and Baekhyun laughs.

His laughter instantly spreads warmth inside of me like butter on toast, and I bury my face into his chest to feel his real warmth. He’s taken aback, but returns the gesture.

Somi clears , and it reels me back into reality. Jaehyung is already sitting next to her—I don’t even know when he returned—and he sports a stupid grin on his face that matches Baekhyun’s previous ones.

“Sorry,” Baekhyun smiles sheepishly, then circles his hand around my waist to bring my body closer to his. “So you’ve told Minhwa that you guys are getting married?”

“I thought you said I’m the first person to hear about this!” I glare at Somi and Jaehyung through my tear-stained lashes, and they only shrug in return.

“So that means I can take her home now, right?”

Somi and Jaehyung don’t get to answer because Baekhyun has dragged me halfway out of the restaurant.

***

Baekhyun speeds all the way back to our home, one hand on my thigh and the other on the steering wheel. The bouquet of peonies he bought for me is tucked carefully into the backseat, and for a while, we don’t say anything.

The silence is comfortable, and I intertwine my fingers with his absentmindedly as I watch him drive, tracing every single facial feature he has as the traffic light illuminates it from time to time.

“Enjoying the view?” he asks, eyes still on the road, but his lips are curled into a teasing smirk. I don’t mind.

“Of course. I haven’t seen you in almost a whole month, you little —I miss your face,” I reply, scooting closer to him to get all up in his face as close as I can without interrupting his driving to annoy him, and he laughs—his beautiful, stupid laugh I like so much—then untangles our intertwined hands to pat my hair slowly.

Baekhyun had gone to the States for a few weeks to take care of the settling down of the newly opened international branch of Chanyeol and his’ company. Chanyeol, despite being a captain of the uni’s soccer team, turned out not to be the dumb jock I thought he’d be. He was a computer science major and practically a genius, who developed a new kind of software freshly after we graduated—and both Baekhyun and him started a company from scratch where they co-chair each other with Chanyeol as the brains for the program, and Baekhyun as the treasurer.

A lot has changed since university. Five years have passed by in a blink.

“What a drama queen. It’s only been a little more than two weeks,” he replies, sneaking a chaste kiss onto my lips when the lights turn red. I lean forward to deepen the kiss but he jerks his head back immediately, and I frown at his rejection, sending him a questioning look that earns me another laughter from him.

The light turns green, and he focuses back onto the road, both of his hands now on the steering wheel.

“What?” he chuckles without looking at me, because he obviously can see my angry glare from his peripheral vision. “You’re on your period, so I don’t want to kiss you too much because one thing might lead to another.”

He sneaks a glance at my reaction and laughs even harder than before, the look of betrayal etched on my face apparently amusing enough for him to laugh until his face turns red.

“Two weeks in the states and you return as a misogynist? I thought US was supposed to be the land of the open-minded! Did you think I was on my period just because I cried a lot this week? Well shame on you—I’m not—so you’re not getting some!”

His laughter immediately stops, and at the same time there’s another red light, so he takes the opportunity to face me with a serious look on his face.

“Huh? I didn’t assume because you were moody, sweetheart,” he takes my hand in his again, rubbing circles on it with his thumb, “I thought you had your period because your cycle is linked to my calendar from that period app of yours, remember? I know how painful your periods are for you,”

I blush immediately, annoyance dissolving at how thoughtful Baekhyun is being, and I send him a stupid smile.

I sneak an innocent peck on his cheeks as an attempt to apologize, and even though he keeps the perpetual frown on his face, I can see the him pressing his lips into a thin line to prevent himself from grinning.

***

The first thing I notice is how the apartment is dimly lit when Baekhyun unlocks the door, and I frown in worry, remembering that I’ve turned all the lights off before I left last week to sleep over at my parents’. When I take another step into the apartment, though, I realize that I’m worrying over nothing.

From where I’m standing, the walls of the entrance hallway restrict my view of the living room, but it’s decorated and barricaded with tea light candles every half a meter or so, and my heart picks up its’ pace at the thought of Baekhyun being romantic—the only times he pulls any kind of romantic things are only when it’s called for. Both him and I don’t really mind over the top romantic celebrations, but we prefer to keep things normal and mundane most of the time.

“What’s the special occasion?” I ask excitedly, whipping around to see Baekhyun with a proud yet fond smile on his face.

“To the great start of Woohan software’s international branch, of course—we already have two major investors cashing in for our start up,” he replies, and I quickly embrace him in a proud bone-crushing hug, peppering him with small kisses of congratulations all over his face after I let go.

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