Nullification

It was incredibly tense and awkward between the two of them for the following weeks, until something finally snapped.

"I'm getting some coffee, do you want one too?"

"Are you going out for coffee or are you lying to me again?" Was what Chanyeol almost said instead of shaking his head in response.

"Okay. Do you want me to get the report from the Human Resources department?" Baekhyun asked while standing at the door. 
Chanyeol was exhausted. He hadn't been sleeping well at all for the past week ever since he found out Baekhyun lied about his whereabouts that day. Was he cheating on him? No, that couldn't be. He wouldn't talk about going out with someone for coffee, even if it was only as friends, if he was cheating. 

"No, I'll go down there by myself in a few minutes before my meeting," he said. 

Just ask him. Ask him why he lied. 

"Before you go," Chanyeol asked right before Baekhyun opened the door of the office. He turned back around to face Chanyeol. 

"I don't think I'll be able to do the family interview with Jihae, I'm sorry. I'll be more than glad to join you on my own, but I don't want her exposed to the media this early," he said instead. Baekhyun cracked an apologetic smile. "I get it, no worries. I'll tell Taeyeon. Is that all?" Baekhyun asked, as if he could tell there was something Chanyeol needed to get off his chest. 

Come on, tell him. Ask the question!

"Actually, there is one more thing," he started off and Baekhyun walked over to the chair infront of his desk, sitting down and facing Chanyeol. 

"Why did you lie to me about where you were?"

"What do you mean?" Baekhyun responded with a question, seemingly nervous. 

"I think you know what I mean. You never went out for coffee with Jongdae."

Baekhyun crossed his arms, furrowing his brows. 

"Why would I lie to yo-"

"Oh, for God's sake, Baekhyun! He told me himself that you two hadn't met up for months!" Chanyeol shouted in desperation, sick of all the lies and the withholding of information. He had told himself it was fine for long enough. It wasn't fine at all. 

"You talked to him? How did you even get his contact information?" Baekhyun said in a soft voice, almost a mere whisper.

Silence. That's the only answer Chanyeol could give. But Baekhyun knew well enough. 

"You went through my phone, didn't you? I- Listen. I know I don't get to say anything because I lied to you, but did you really have to go that far? I broke your trust, but so did you," Baekhyun said, shocked at the fact that Chanyeol went to such lengths. 

"You paint me as the bad guy as if you haven't lied to me as well," Baekhyun said, fighting back the tears when he remembered how Chanyeol simply refused to tell him about that Kyungsoo guy. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Chanyeol groaned, completely lost on the matter. He had already forgotten. 

"I- No, nevermind. Forget it. It's fine. I don't even care anymore," Baekhyun held his hands up in defeat and stood up from the chair. 
"Just tell me."
"No, it's fine. It really isn't that big of a deal!"

"Do you even expect me to believe you anymore?!" Chanyeol shouted out of rash anger. 
"All you've done is lie and lie and lie to me, and I'm pretty sure you're doing it again right now!" he added. 

"Fine. Why didn't you tell me who stole your file?" Baekhyun finally asked after beating himself up over it for so long, thinking Chanyeol didn't think Baekhyun was important enough to know something with such significance to him. 

"What? How do you even know-" 
"It's not important how I know! I just.. I just want to know why you lied, saying you didn't know. Did you not trust me enough already back then? You told me the entire story. Everything, everything but his name. Why?" Baekhyun's voice faltered before he finally let the tears fall. 

"You never even told me why you walked in the office so angry that day. That's it, right? You don't trust me enough to know, but everyone in this ing company does!" Baekhyun cried out, pulling open the office door and slamming it shut behind him, not even bothering to give Chanyeol a chance to explain. 

Chanyeol buried his face in his hands, shaking his head repeatedly. 
 

He shouldn't have asked. He should've just shut up. 

He should've just lived with the pain that came with it, because this felt ten times worse. 

"Where are you going? Why are you crying- Baekhyun?!" Tiffany shouted when Baekhyun walked through the lobby and left the building, not looking around him at all. 

He wasn't even going anywhere. He was going to sit in his car and cry hysterically for fifteen minutes before taking his laptop and go to the cafeteria to work there. But then he remembered the car was a gift from Chanyeol so he walked all the way to Hongdae to go to his only friend available for consolation. 

He knocked on the door, knowing the doorbell never worked. 

"Just a second!" he heard and he let out a sigh of relief knowing he was home. 

The door opened. 

"Baekhyun? What are you doing here?"

"Hi, Jongdae."
 

"So, you lied to him, he got upset, then you got upset because he lied to you as well, and now you're skipping work?" Jongdae summarized while walking out of the small kitchen of his apartment with two cups of warm milk. 
"Yeah, basically," Baekhyun said, taking one of the mugs out of Jongdae's hands. 

"Well, he does have the right to be upset, though I did find it weird that he called me at 12 A.M. last week," Jongdae said and sat back down next to Baekhyun on the floor of his livingroom. 
"He went through my phone. I mean, I shouldn't have lied, I know that too, but isn't that too much?" Baekhyun took a sip of the long milk. He felt so comfortable like this. Sitting on a hardwood floor in a tiny Hongdae apartment with rent that is way too high while holding a cup of warm milk in his hand. 

"So now what? You're going to get a