He returned to his apartment that afternoon with a clearer head. Everything from the last few days slotting itself into place. As he flopped onto his couch, Baekhyunnie jumping up to snuggle and join him, he finally listened to the twenty voicemails that Baekhyun had left before he had just stopped calling altogether.

“Chanyeol...Chanyeol...it’s Baekhyun. What happened? Did you get stuck at work? Let me talk to them. I’ll talk them into letting you leave. Just call me back,” Baekhyun said in the first message. He had sounded worried and Chanyeol’s heart began to ache.

The voicemail rolled into the second message. “Chanyeol, why aren’t you answering my calls? Please call me back. I want you here.” And then into the third, “Did I do something wrong? Is that why you aren’t coming? What did I do? I can fix it. Please, Chanyeol…” He really didn’t know. Oh god, he had truly made a mess of things. Why did he have to be so dumb?

His phone continued playing through the messages, Chanyeol’s heart aching more with each message, and then they stopped as a new call from an unknown number interrupted the stream.

“He’s an idiot,” Jongdae said the moment Chanyeol answered. “I’ve always told him that one day he was going to do something like this and he didn’t believe me.”

“How did you get my number Jongdae?” Chanyeol asked, wary of what the phone call would entail.

“Baekhyun may be a complete idiot, but he is my best friend. I stole his phone for your number. I know his passcode so nothing is safe.”

“Apparently,” Chanyeol said, rolling his eyes. “Why are you calling me?”

“I told you. Because he’s an idiot...I saw the article. I assume that’s why you aren’t here and Baekhyun’s losing his mind,” Jongdae said. “He thought he was protecting you. He used to do that to me all the time.”  

Chanyeol contemplated a response, rolling words around in his head, but there wasn’t anything he could say.

“Can you please talk to him at least?” Jongdae continued. “If you’re gonna break up with him over something this ridiculous, you could at least have the common courtesy to tell him yourself.”

“I’m...I’m not going to break up with him,” Chanyeol muttered.  

“Great! Then could you please tell him that?” Jongdae sighed. “I don’t know if you saw this weekend’s competition, but he isn’t doing terribly well. He’s going to be lucky if he makes it into the top ten. I think he might break something seriously if he doesn’t land his Triple-Triple combination correctly. I’ve never seen him skate this badly...even when he was first learning...and he was bad…”

“Oh ,” Chanyeol groaned. “. No. No! That’s not...no...Tell him... well first, tell him I’m sorry . And then tell him this is about him figuring out what he wants...I don’t want to be the boyfriend hiding in the shadows or the guy everyone online speculates about , but I will be if that’s what he wants . But, I don’t need protecting. Look, if what he wants is still me when he weighs all of his options, that’s great. I’ll be here waiting. And if it’s not me, that’s ok too and we’ll go our separate ways. I’ll always be his fan, no matter what. ”  He took a deep breath, his heart pounding in his chest as he relayed the words to Jongdae. What if Baekhyun did decide that his career was more important? It would be fair after all, they had only been dating for a few months. Everything was moving rather quickly.

“Why don’t you tell him?” Jongdae asked.

“Because I want him to make the decision on his own. I don’t want to influence his choice. I want to be part of his life, but only if I fit.”

“I see, and what about you?” Jongdae said.

“He already fits into my life. He has for a long time,” Chanyeol replied.

“Thanks, Chanyeol,” Jongdae replied. Chanyeol could feel the sad smile on the other end of the line. Perhaps Jongdae was worried Baekhyun would make the same decision that Chanyeol feared.

“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol replied. “Goodbye.” And with that, he ended the call.

He ran his fingers through his hair and stretched his neck out. This was all wrong. . He picked up his phone and pulled up the text message chain. He typed back, ‘ Did you know Jongdae knows your passcode? Cause he does. You should chat with him about that. Wouldn’t want to give anyone another reason to think you have a boyfriend or anything. ’ and hit send. His phone pinged with an immediate response, but he ignored it, for now, hoping beyond hope that everything would work itself out.