Chapter 14 Not The Same Soysauce

Two years later- Orlando, Florida, US

Baekhyun sighed as he flopped down on the chair before his desk- where thick text books about planes and mechanical s were opened, papers of notes scattered everywhere, and his laptop laid untouched.  He's already doing his endless assignments since this morning but apparently the working load was too much he still got lots to do on his list. Being an aviation maintenance specialist wasn't easy. But this was what he wanted, and what his father probably had always wanted. He just had to endure for two more weeks until all the assignments and tests hell is over then he'll be having his 3 months study break.

Baekhyun was about to continued his work when he heard a sigh from the other occupant of the room- his roommate slash bestfriend, Jongdae.

"Maaan, I'm sick of this. I've burn my brain and I'm so hungry I can eat an elephant," he whined. Jongdae was taking an advance course for aviation maintenance experts, and this's his hell weeks too. Baekhyun had long lose count of how many times that guy already whined since this morning. "Hey, Baek, what do you want to have for dinner? I'm thinking something warm like ramyun... with kimchie,"

"Please, Dae. Are you homesick or what?  You've eat that for the past five days," Baekhyun chuckled from his desk while Jongdae collapsed on his own pile of papers on top of the (verrry) messy bed.

"What if I am?" The guy on the bed dragged his voice like a kid but suddenly stop. Baekhyun frowned and wondered why, did Jongdae choked on his own papers or- the brunet whipped his head in a flash to check on his bestfriend, but turned out Jongdae was just thinking. His face looked serious. "Speaking about homesick, why don't we just go home this winter break? It's been two years,"

Going home? Baekhyun bit his lips at the idea, it's not like he had other plans for his 3 months break,  but he didn't really  want to go home, yet. Besides- "Nah, I'm fine. You can go though, Dae. It's not like I have someone to visit there," -he didn't have people that missing him or something. Except Jongin. Probably just Jongin. Mostly just Jongin. Not that Jongin wasn’t important, but...

"Well, actually.. there's your dad, and that bratty coworker of yours, Jongin," Jongdae scrunched his nose at the name. Unfortunately, Jongin and Jongdae didn't really have the best first impression when they met and it stayed that way. "Oh, and also that hot boyfriend of yours, the model, Oh Sehun," he wriggled his eyebrows teasingly.

Baekhyun nodded, "Right. Jongin. But we skyped almost everyweek so he wouldn't miss me that much. And Oh Sehun isn't my boyfriend, you doofus," Baekhyun paused and throw a ball of useless paper to Jongdae when the latter smirking a teasing smirk. "And my Dad, he's actually not that faraway because he's always with me,"

"I hope you mean because he's always 'in your heart' cliche thing and not because you brought a piece of his ash everywhere literally with you,"

The brunet was rolling his eyes and threw another paper to Jongdae who couldn't stop teasing him.

"But seriously though, what's with the 'Oh Sehun isn't my boyfriend'  when the guy's practically visiting you here every two months or three?"

"It's because of his job, Jongdae. He had a project here that's why he had to fly back and fro to here from Korea. He never came here just to visit me. Infact, he's just arrived today for another photoshoot and we'll meet tonight for a dinner at Oasis and I was about to ask you to join us, but you said you're craving ramyun and kimchie, again,"

"Of course I want ramyun.. and kimchie, and jjampong, and jjajangmyeon, and kimbap, I mean, who wouldn't miss kimbap?" Jongdae suddenly back to his whining mode.

Kimbap.. Of course, who wouldn't miss kimbap?

Jongdae never knew about Chanyeol. Baekhyun never told the former about him, because if Jongdae knew, he wouldn't let it go and probably pestering Baekhyun to spill out the details 24/7. It's not like talking about it- getting it out of his chest wouldn't help moving on at all- but Baekhyun thought it's better to just keep the secret in the dark. There were too much people knew about it back at home- he didn't really need to add more on the list.

Speaking of Chanyeol, Jongin was still kinda updating him once in a while about the tall rapper. Somehow, the younger managed to squeezed in a word or two about his whereabout. There was a time, in a fine spring day when Jongin 'accidentally' told him (because Baekhyun specifically- or maybe just hinted- to the younger that he didn't want to talk about Chanyeol anymore) that Chanyeol was coming to the store all sweaty and nervous and fidgety, as if the tall rapper was running away from wherever he was, to 365 looking for Baekhyun. But being a good apprentice and accomplish of Baekhyun, Jongin didn't even budge and let Chanyeol lost in the oblivion of Baekhyun's whereabout. Baekhyun thanked him for that.

And in one of Sehun's earlier visit, the model kind of mentioned that Chanyeol wasn't in a very good condition at that time, as in 'really bad' that even fans noticed. Baekhyun didn't do anything to check about it though, he tried really hard not to care. He didn't ask Jongin and he didn't even log in to his sns account to find out- because if Chanyeol was really unwell, the whole fandom would be in a mess and sns would be a chaotic place. He pat himself on the back after two weeks battling his curious inner side until finally, his inner 'moving on' side won (with the help of Jongdae and tons of assignments that were serving as great distraction).

"-but of course, I also appreciated free dinner in Oasis, if you should know," Jongdae shamelessly ended with a gross excessive blinking and Baekhyun had no idea what his bestfriend had talking about for the past couple of minutes.

"Yea, sure," Baekhyun replied uncertainly but seeing that Jongdae looked satisfied, he must had giving the right answer.

...............

Oasis was a very small place in the row among all the big cafes and restaurants in that area, but they sold the best fish and chips in town. Baekhyun accidentally discovered it when he was on a quest to find a bubble tea shop with Sehun. Since then, the small but warm and comfy place- that serve big pieces of crunchy on the outside but juicy on the inside dory- became their favorite regular place to hang out everytime Sehun visited Orlando.

The place was full house, as usual, because of the very good quality food but with very reasonable price. Luckily, Baekhyun succeed in getting a table for them because Eric, the handsome owner, had taken a liking for Baekhyun since the brunet had help him translating a korean tourist couple who came to eat in summer.

"Do you want the usual, Back?" Eric asked with a very heavy accent, but Baekhyun knew he tried. It was so hard for him to pronounce 'Baekhyun' so the brunet told him to pronounce it like 'back', shortened for 'Baek'hyun.

"Nah, I'm good. I'm waiting for Sehun. But Jongdae," Baekhyun declined with a smile as he turned and asked his bestfriend, "Do you want to order now?"

"Yes, Eric, please. I'm starving. I want fish and pasta tonight," Jongdae smiled.

"Okaay, fish and pasta is coming up," And Eric's big built was gone between the patrons.

"For a 'not boyfriends',” Jongdae paused to emphasized, complete with the air quote gesture by his fingers, “-you surely act like you guys are, Baek. Waiting for him before you order?"

The brunet rolled his eyes at his smirking friend, "Why are we back into this conversation?"  

"Because I have leisure time while waiting for my food,"

Baekhyun didn't answer, instead, he just narrowing his eyes at the smugly looking Jongdae who would even more if Baekhyun decided to reply. The first time Sehun came to Orlando and meet Baekhyun- who brought Jongdae along at that time, the latter was quite shook to be honest- where, when, and how his ‘awkward’ bestfriend knew Sehun from. Sehun's popularity this year wasn't a joke, he modelled a lot for international brand that even Jongdae who never had any idea about branded things knew him because all the commercial ads he starred in were literally scattered on billboards everywhere. The duo said they met in some billiard place in Hongdae- leaving out the details about Chanyeol. Thankfully Jongdae never asked further though, of how precisely Baekhyun and Sehun could be friends to each other eventhough he probably would find it weird, because they're like people from two different world. Jongdae didn't ask anything that night, but he surely gave Baekhyun a firm pat or two on his shoulder, probably glad that Baekhyun could find another friend except him and Jongin.

Sehun arrived right when Jongdae's pasta was served. The model gave Baekhyun a warm hug first with a very bright smile and the short male greeted him back with some compliments while Jongdae just snorted watching h