Final

“This is actually rather scary,” you muttered against the pillow you were holding snugly against your chest. Hair a tangling mess, you combed your bangs aside to get a better view of the television screen; your heart palpitating in a fast motion, somewhere between cars racing and planes flying. You wanted to throw up at the scene where the character’s face was up someone else’s bosom. “Scary is an understatement. This story is just downright gruesome, Baekhyun.”

“I didn’t know Centipede was going to be like this either,” your boyfriend squirmed a little. And when you touched his thigh, he squealed like a high school girl being harassed by an immature boy. And because you giggled at his reaction, he hit you with a pillow of his own. “That was not funny in any way.” He commented wryly and harrumphed when you pinched the both of his squishy cheeks.

It had been two months since the two of you were together, and you had to admit that you were really grateful to Byun Baekhyun for confessing to you the other day in the science laboratory; or else, the two of you wouldn’t be curled up on the couch watching a horror movie at that moment. The lights were off and the air-conditioner was on a full blow; the two of you tried to make it seem like you were at a cinema. “Because when you can’t bring yourself to the cinema, you bring the cinema to you.” You recalled Baekhyun utter in the midst of your mind.

Once the movie was over, you yawned and turned off the CD player. Saturday evenings for you and Baekhyun had always concluded in tiredness over watching movies and complaints over cold, unsalted popcorn because you wanted caramel. However, Saturday evenings also meant dinner at Baekhyun’s house because your parents were never home on Saturdays.

“Do you want anything in particular for dinner?” You heard him ask as you collected the blankets that were strewn all over the floor. You turned around to face him and smiled goofily. “Yes,” you said and he raised his eyebrows and propped his elbows up on the counter as he awaited your response. “I want to taste your cooking.”

“You know I can’t cook.”

“You know I can’t either.”

Baekhyun sighed and rubbed the both of his temples with his fingers. You felt bad because you couldn’t even brew him coffee properly on the first try, let alone cook for the guy. Remorseful that you didn’t take any cooking lessons, you immediately went up to where he was and situated yourself on the counter. “Takeout?”

“You’re highly preposterous.” And you pouted because maybe this time Baekhyun didn’t want to agree with you, but you were wrong yet again; like how you were wrong about the other things you thought Baekhyun was before. “Fine, we’ll have takeout.” You beamed and let out a crooked smile for him to see.

After calling the restaurant, you threw the phone across the room and it landed with a soft thud on the stretched-out couch. Then, half an hour later, the delivery man came knocking on Baekhyun’s door and Baekhyun paid with his own money, before closing the door behind him and stealing a quick glance at you who was still looking through your Biology book. “And you wonder why you get headaches.”

“You got accepted at the University in New York, so please.” You teased at which Baekhyun scrunched up his nose in dismay. He had never found it funny or humorous when you talked about the scholarship he had received and was about to turn down. “Can we not talk about this?”

“Why shouldn’t we? You got accepted. You should be rational and accept this wondrous offer. You know it’s what you want.” Retorting back, you leaned back against the dining chair and waited for him to set the table; he usually did so, anyway. But after the words escaped your mouth, Baekhyun’s mood turned sour and he just placed the food on the table.

“What I want is to stay here with you. When will you ever get that?” He, obviously frustrated with your stubborn behavior, sat on the dining chair as well. “I still think you should go. You’re missing out on a lot. “

“What is there to miss out on when you have the world’s greatest girlfriend in a one meter radius from you, friends that are always there to support you when you forget to flush the toilet in the men’s bathroom and parents that don’t even mind when you exit the house half past midnight?” Baekhyun tried to lighten the mood, he really did but when you didn’t even crack, he sulked. “You’re no fun.”

“I disagree with you on that statement. I am in fact a person that’s always ecstatic.”

“I beg to differ.”

“Well, I’d rather have you not beg at the sole of my feet, at all.” Crossing your arms, you flipped through the pages of your biology textbook. You were intrigued with the questions that you were about to answer, more pages that you were bound to flip and the crisp sound of shizzled paper applause when you were done reading. All those little things fascinated you meanwhile Baekhyun on the other hand, was fascinated at you who were fascinated by those tiny details.

And since you weren’t going to set the dining table any time soon, Baekhyun did it instead. He was more of the possessive and uptight one in the relationship whilst you were the chill, laid-back type of person. It was a beautiful and interesting contrast and sometimes people had always asked how he had coped with you because you never really showed public affection towards him.

“Does it ever bug you that we’ve never actually held hands?” Baekhyun’s question took you by surprise and you were stunned with his sudden interest in such an odd topic. Shaking your head, you answered with a higher pitch of tone. “No. It doesn’t disturb me in the least bit. I mean we’ve hugged before in the past; holding hands are just fingers intertwining with one another. Why?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “I mean, I know our bodies have shared close contact, but –but our fingers haven’t.”

“Does it..does it displease you that we’ve never had intertwining fingers?” You asked and your boyfriend could only shake his head slowly between the bites of his food but somewhere in the centre of it all, when he thought you weren’t looking, his head was bobbing up and down. Finding him cute was rather rare for you, since you’ve always been very hard to please, however when your boyfriend acted like this, you couldn’t help but find him just downright adorable. You should’ve guessed that he wanted a little skin ship.

“I mean, I know that you’re uncomfortable since hands do get clammy after all, but I just –I just wanted to try is all.” You melted a little inside at his shy statement and closed your book. “Then, let’s try, Baekhyun.”

“Excuse me? I think I misinterpreted your words. Did you say ‘let’s try’ as in let’s try to hold hands?” Thinking that Baekhyun was mocking you, you took a pen from your pencil case and threw it across the room, aiming for the latter’s head. The boy laughed whole-heartedly and threw a used chopstick in your direction. It fell to the floor, hence Baekhyun groaned in defeat.

“Come on, you wanted to try holding my hand.” You reassuringly outstretched your hand and Baekhyun took a hold of it with his, then with his unoccupied hand, he rubbed his chin. “Hmm.” He hummed. “This actually feels relaxing.”

“And suffocating at the same time, if I might add.” After finishing his sentence, Baekhyun grinned because you had always found a way to make his lips stretch into a gigantic smile. Sometimes he thought you were agitating with your slight elaborations and bossy attitude. But at certain times, such as this, he just liked to hear your voice.

“God, I love you.”

Monday mornings when the two of you were at school, people would stare.

And if there were types of stares, the stare that they would give you and Baekhyun was the ‘boring holes into your skull’ kind of stare. Honestly, you attempted to brush away the thought that your name was beginning to rise amongst the elites and cliques in the entire school, but after getting a bad reputation amongst them, you felt a little defeated –yes, people sprouted nonsense and couldn’t keep their holes shut when you or Baekhyun were around the school compound.

“She’s not as pretty as Sooyoung.”

You just –you just had to deal with these delinquents and dimwits. You couldn’t tell Baekhyun (because perhaps he already knew) and you couldn’t keep it in forever. All you wanted, no, needed was a friend you could talk to; share your problems with and perhaps help you out for the time being. So, when Baekhyun introduced you to his best friend, Chanyeol (which was once your partner for a project, by the way) you were more than thrilled.

He was like an older brother you had never dreamed of having and a long lost friend. He was funny, charming and sometimes stupid and dumb. You could talk to him about anything. For example: the study of composition, properties; maybe even physical matter and he would understand and process everything. It wouldn’t just enter one ear and exit the other.

And sometimes, Baekhyun regretted introducing Chanyeol to you.

“And what he said was ‘you make my dopamine levels go all silly’. Like, I laughed so hard.” Chanyeol stifled his laughter for a little while before bursting into erupts of it. Baekhyun, of course, didn’t understand what dopamine levels meant when he said it to you, so all that was left for him to do was blush whenever you mentioned it to someone.

“One girl told me that my chromosomes are beautifully sculpted. What the hell, even?” And there went Baekhyun’s sanity.

A boyfriend would always be jealous whenever his girl went just a little too friendly with a guy. It doesn’t matter whether that guy was his best friend, his brother or even his father; a boyfriend would always be jealous. It was nature. Jealousy was somehow nature, in a way Baekhyun supposes. He peered over to his left, only to witness Chanyeol hitting you playfully. He needed to put an end to this.

“I think lunch break is over.” Baekhyun seethed before grabbing your hand and tugging you away from Chanyeol’s grasp. You mouthed a ‘see you later’ before turning around abruptly to face him. If you were to study his emotion with your brain, you’d say he was pissed. “Yes, I am pissed, if you are wondering.” And you were amazed at how his brain connected to yours. It was remarkable!

“It’s just Channie,”

“He even has a nickname, great.” Baekhyun sarcastically chimed whilst he blew a raspberry before taking you to your next class which was on the other side of the school. Having four blocks did , Baekhyun thought and when you tried to ooze him into talking to you, he just gave you the silent treatment. And mind you, he never shut his trap.

Once you reached your destination, he left without tucking a strand of your untamed hair behind your ear, which was his signature move, by the way. You sighed, today was just not Baekhyun’s day. And you didn’t even know the exact reason as to why he was behaving like the way he was. He was leaving you perplexed, unanswered, really.

And once school was over and done with, you waited for him outside and he never arrived. He would usually walk you to your house and he would usually be standing at the front gates waiting for you, but it was the other way round that day. Something was definitely off.

You tried calling him that night but all that you got were voice messages to leave for the other end of the line to recieve and not his honey-coated voice that would sooth your eardrums the second the line clicked. You hadn’t notice that you were starting to actually develop feelings for this guy. But hell, you weren’t going to admit that you were being tangled up within this chemical phenomenon (yes, you still referred ‘love ‘as chemical phenomenon) anytime soon.

To you, dating Byun Baekhyun was like trying out a new experiment. There were procedures that needed to be done along the way and hypothesis’ to be made, variables to be observed. You didn’t actually expect to like him. You just wanted to try this out for the sake of saving someone else from heartbreak.

However, along the cracks of laughter and lame jokes, you guessed that maybe you did sort of have a liking towards him. Maybe he wasn’t just your boyfriend for the sake of an experiment. Maybe he was just your boyfriend because he was just yours.

So, you did what your rash mind told you to do which was to head over to his house.

You knew exactly where his bedroom was from the outside and guessing that there were no vehicles parked outside of his sanctuary, you picked up a few rocks and threw them, aiming for his window. (Obviously, you didn’t want to break anything or else you’d have to pick up the shards of broken glass) And after a few tosses, Baekhyun screamed in anger.

“Who are you and what the actual (you’d rather not cuss) are you doing at my house?!” you winced a little. Had he always been that violent in speech and vocabulary? “It’s me, Baekhyun!” you shouted back and he stiffened because he could recognize your voice from a mile away.

“My name’s Baekhyun. If you’re here to steal my identity, then I suggest you leave.” He said before tugging on the blinds and shutting his window completely, so that he didn’t need to see your face in his peripheral view. You continued to toss more rocks and one of them accidentally hit his window, and as you could predict; the window broke.

“Thanks, really!” You could hear him groan as he got up from his bed to check up on the damage. Well, you guessed at the moment that he needed a new window anyway, and if that rock got the both of you to settle your problem, you’d have to thank that inanimate object. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently on the floor.

“You want to talk, right?! Let’s talk __-ah.”

You gulped and downed your saliva before wiping some dust on your jeans. Biting your lip, you took out a piece of paper from your pocket and began to read your semi-essay that consisted of a lot of apologies and question marks at the end of each ‘I’m sorry.’ (Because you didn’t know what you were sorry for)

“I, __, have pleaded guilty for my foolish act of ‘I don’t really quite know’ but since I am a civilized person and I want to save this so called ‘relationship’ which I would rather refer to as ‘two people connecting for the sake of science and for you to prove me wrong about the chemical phenomenon –“

“Love –“

You exhaled as your chest fell and your feet crumbled into nothingness and gelatin. “I’m sorry, Baekhyun. I’m sorry.” From a side glance, you could see Baekhyun furrowing his eyebrows in democracy, he was thinking about whether or not to let you off the hook. “You need to know what you did wrong first. You shouldn’t be pleading guilty if you didn’t even know what you did wrong. That’s not how Law works.”

“Now you’re speaking Law the way I speak Science. Get to the point, Baekhyun.” Fumbling with the letter within your hands, you smiled a little because hearing his voice made you happy. Ugh, sometimes you wished you could flush your own head down a toilet because that sounded remotely cheesy and romantic, and you certainly were not a romance kind of girl.

“You totally ignored my presence this afternoon for the sake of Chanyeol or –Channie, you call that babooshka Channie, am I correct?” You nodded and he pretended to look away to wipe a fake tear that was at the verge of cascading down his complexion. “You hurt me,”

“He’s like a brother to me, Baek.” Your boyfriend scowled because you were defending the one hundred and eighty-five centimeters worth of dork, even after you had apologized. He scowled so hard that you could see his face and visible unpleased expression. “Yeah, a brother you tell everything to. What do you even tell me these days?”

“How my day was at school?” wrong choice of words; Baekhyun stormed away with his raging overpowering emotion. You thought that he had went back to bed and ignored the broken window but instead you heard loud trudging of footsteps going down the stairs and a minuscule of a moment later, he was outside and in front of you.

“Tell me something I actually want to know.”

“I like you.” You blurted, almost immediately and his eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his sockets. The words that had escaped your lips didn’t exactly register in your mind until you saw Baekhyun turn tomato red in his white robe. Okay, your words finally sunk in. “Y-you like me?”

“Yes, Baekhyun, I do.” Baekhyun nibbled on his bottom lip and his fists clenched, thus his knuckles turned white a little due to the excessive amount of pressure. Beads of sweat began to roll down the sides of your temples as you tried to rekindle your words, but stammered instead. Baekhyun actually kind of enjoyed to scene but what bugged him was that you didn’t say you loved him. Unable to control his curiosity, he fired.

“You don’t love me, then?”

“It –it takes a while for me to grow affections towards someone. Be grateful that I don’t hate you.” Now it was your turn to blush pink from the neck upwards. You were so embarrassed, especially when he took a hold of your hand and daringly stared into the depths of your irises. “Now, don’t get all grabby with me. I still believe in my theory.”

“Oh, I know you do.” He smirked. “It’s just,”

“It’s just what?”

“I’ll prove you wrong, someday.”

You scoffed a little but you knew that one day he would eventually fulfill his promise. You were scared, immensely petrified; you didn’t want to be left behind like some girls did after their boyfriends got bored of them; you didn’t want to lose Baekhyun. You wanted to be that one girl in cliché stories where she gets to keep the bad boy (Baekhyun wasn’t bad, though) and you wanted to have a good future with him.

“We’ll see.”

Dates meant getting dressed well. And well, you never dressed well.

Your sister had been nagging you all day, all week about what to dress into when Baekhyun and you had reached your sixth month. On top of all of that, she was beyond surprised when you said that you and Baekhyun had never kissed before. “Close to impossible, you!” she yelled and shrieked as you put on your dress.

“Not even on the cheek?”

“Nope.” You meekly responded and hissed when the size didn’t match you. You were a size five and she gave you a size four. “I’m a slowpoke, y’know. I just dislike rushing into things. We might not even kiss, for all I care.” Your sentence earned you a wack on the head with a stiletto from your sister. Well, she seemed angry –how uncanny.

“Kissing is a must in a relationship, didn’t you know that?” she screeched and you almost wanted to wear ear buds because she was just that noisy. You could hear the bustling sounds of saleswomen outside of your dressing room and shushed your sister; telling her to quiet down if she wanted to even see you in a dress.

“There are advantages to kissing, you know. Kissing stimulates the brain and creates a sense of peace and calmness by altering the body’s oxytocin levels.” Then only did you realize where you had gotten your smarts from; your sister because the both of your parents never really were into science. Letting out a breath of exasperation, you asked. “Have you ever been kissed before?”

“Honey, I’ve been kissed before tons of times. Trust me, it feels fantastic.” You gawked in amusement and shock. “Do you have a boyfriend?” squeezing out of your dress, you still had the chance to ask.

“As a matter-of-fact, I do.” She smiled and for the first time in your life you actually knew that she was happy; glowing, really. And that she had found her match. Well, how could she have not found her match, your sister was gorgeous. Every time you stood next to her, you felt like a potato –but honestly, you loved her, so being a potato was a good thing.

“Think of it as an experiment. You never know it’s bad until it explodes.”

Well, you wanted to explode already.

“Nice day to be on a date, don’t you think?” Baekhyun asked as he walked abreast with you, his shoulders always bumping into your sides. “Certainly,” you said and Baekhyun noticed that your hair had grown a lot longer for the past few months he hadn’t seen you because he had decided to take up the offer of going to New York at the last minute and now it reached below your chest. Being the mischief boyfriend he was, Baekhyun tugged on one of the strands. “Ow!” you complained but smiled the minute he said it was just a joke.

“So,” you tried to break the ice; voice cracking slightly out of nervousness. “How’s New York?”

“It’s hectic, to say the least. There are pros and cons of being approximately 14,000 kilometers away from you.” He grinned and grabbed your fingers to play with them as you two sat on the bench at the park. You hadn’t realized that his hair had grown longer too; it covered his entire forehead now and he couldn’t spike it up like how he used to six months ago. “What are the pros?”

“I don’t have to hear you nag on and on about chemicals and functions of human organs in iambic pentameter.” He joked and you couldn’t help but snort in an improper manner. It was very not lady-like at all, not that Baekhyun minded in the slightest. “Only one pro?”

“Only one pro,”

“What about the cons then?”

“Well,” he thought for a second and chose his words wisely, unlike the old Baekhyun who just used to shoot at anything that crossed his mind. “I miss you a whole lot, I don’t get to hear your voice often because telephone bills are d –“

“Baekhyun –“

“Dishwashers, I meant to say dishwashers.” You giggled because he had always made up the lamest excuses of all time. However, you let him continue and he rambled some more about the disadvantages of living in New York. “I don’t get to hug you every night. I don’t get to kiss you all day long and I certainly do not get to say ‘I love you’ to you in real life because apparently my screen gets all the confessions now –but you’ve never once replied me with an ‘I love you too’ anyway, so talking to my wallpaper doesn’t really make a difference.” He shrugged.

You corrected him with a tone that he missed so dearly. “You’ve got that all mixed up now. We’ve never actually kissed before.” Baekhyun blushed because as-a-matter-of-factly, you two actually have never pressed your lips against each other, or your cheeks, or your –you get the point. You wanted to tell him, you really did but being shy eggs.

“Well, why don’t we try?” he suggested with raised eyebrows and pursed lips. You could tell that he was just as nervous as you were. You wanted to hide and conceal in a shell. This was not what you were expecting. “Wait, did I misinterpret your words? You, the Byun Baekhyun want to actually try and not just initiate the oxytocin reliever?”

“Oxytocin reliever. Should’ve seen that one coming.” You tilted your head to the left and let out an amused sigh. “I’m actually dating you?”

“Unfortunately,” you replied accompanied by a giggle as you let out a chortle. A few moments later, Baekhyun leaned in and you shut your eyes to savor and awaited the moment he took the ity of your lips away. They weren’t going to be pure anymore; they were going to be infected with germs by the time Baekhyun was done snogging you.

“Mommy, mommy!” a little girl hollered from afar and pointed in you and Baekhyun’s direction with her finger. The toddler’s mother could only shake her head in shame. “Children, these days.” She said before walking away in a different direction, making sure to take her child with her on the journey to a better place rather than this infested park filled with hormonal teenagers.

You guys didn’t even kiss yet.

“I’ll give you a kiss when you come over to my house okay. But for now,” he pecked your lips lightly and brushed your hair away with his fingers. “That’ll do.”

In every relationship there was a honeymoon phase and a fighting phase. There was also a phase that came after that but you had to surpass the first two phases to get to the next one.

You and Baekhyun were on phase one –at the moment anyway.

Kisses, hugs and hand-holding didn’t even match up to what Baekhyun had installed for you for the two weeks he was allowed to be home. He had already visited his parents the day before and the two were so glad that he had taken the offer that they cried when he came back. However, the days after was only going to be spent with you –and you only.

High school had ended and you had graduated already. You had been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout the entire year and you were just done with school, you didn’t want to go back there ever again. Now all that was left for you was to apply for colleges and if your results were good enough, maybe even universities. Your highest aim was Yale and Baekhyun was proud that you aced your SAT’s.

“Hey, you know what you’re missing?” Baekhyun cooed against your ear as he nuzzled against your neck, sending shivers down your spine. You tried to pry him off with your hands, but he was too stubborn and witty to listen to your complaints. “What is it, Baekhyun? I’m in the middle of sorting out my applications right now.”

“Look into your closet.” He randomly blurted out and you were too dazed to hear what he had said until he repeated his words once again. “And your toilet.” He added, so you did as you were told. To your shock, all of your clothes were gone and your toiletries were missing as well. You panicked, but you knew Baekhyun had something to do with this.

“Baek, where are my clothes?” you asked. “And my toothbrush, my facial wash, my body lotion –Baek, where is everything?”

He mumbled some mumbo-jumbo beneath his breath but you listened carefully to each decibel he uttered. “Your things are at my house.” Your heart palpitated; it palpitated so fast that you thought you were about to pass out. Byun freaking Baekhyun you are so dead, you already imagined mentally killing him in your imagination.

“Move in with me.” He grabbed a hold of your hand and tugged on your sleeves. “I want you to move in with me. We’ve been with one another for almost a year and everyone has graduated, what am I even saying?” Baekhyun inhaled and recollected himself before trying again.” –I just want you to move in with me.”

“Isn’t it too fast, though?” you looked into his eyes with a questioning gaze and he could tell that you were beyond doubtful of his innocent suggestion. “And Baek, you live in New York. It’s a bustling city with loads of cars and traffic. I know I’m good at English but this does not give you the right to torture me.”

He placed a kiss on your knuckles. “Trust me on this. If I can make you believe that love isn’t just a chemical phenomenon that occurs amongst the human species, I can make you believe that moving in with a pig like me wouldn’t be that bad either.”

You were still a little inconspicuous about the whole thing but searching through his eyes made you trust him. You trusted him, and that was all he needed you to do. Trust him. “I love you __-ah and I hope we can take this relationship to the next level.”

“Alright, I’ll go. I’ll just…sort things out with my parents and we can figure something out.” You smiled a little too much and Baekhyun returned to you the favor. “Good. We’ve got a flight to catch in another week.”

And for the first time in your life, you never thought you would utter such whimsical words that you thought meant nothing and was absolutely absurd about a year ago. You finally said.

“I love you too, Baekhyun.”

“But where are my clothes now? On a plane?!” You almost yelled and Baekhyun was stunned at your impeccable choice of words. “They’re at my house, silly. Move in with me in Korea first then we’ll head over to New York in a week, okay? Sheesh, woman.”

Everything was going picture perfect. From the apartment Baekhyun and you shared to the successful response you had received from Columbia University. Everything was just pristine and polished to the brim, living with Byun Baekhyun was worth it.

However, at times like this, you wanted to throw yourself off a cliff.

Baekhyun left his underwear outside in the middle of nowhere to dry; genius. You couldn’t muster up the courage to confront him about it the first time but now that he’s done it too many times for you to count with your fingers, you decided that maybe a confrontation would be relevant. Sitting upright in the kitchen, you waited for him to unlock the door and welcome you with a greeting kiss.

“Hello, beautiful.” He kissed you (like always) and threw his backpack to the side, turning on the TV as he plopped himself onto the sofa. His father had managed to give you two an apartment to share as the both of you managed to study in the same city together, except for the fact that he was a major in arts and you were a major in Science and Technology. The old man gave the both of you good respects and blessed the relationship you two had. He also helped pay the electricity and water bills, since the two of you didn’t really have jobs at the moment.

“Hey, Baekhyun I was thinking –“

“ENTV is playing right now, I don’t have time for your irrelevant Science chatter,” you groaned and tossed a pillow at his head. “What was that for?”

“Your underwear is outside shimmering in it's glory for the whole world to see. Now will you please just pick it up because it’s dry?” you said through chattering teeth and boiling anger. He meekly smiled and continued to watch the sports channel on TV and you wanted to choke him –literally. He was insensitively pushing your buttons.

“I’m going to combust, Baekhyun if you don’t do it this instant!” this time you were shouting at the top of your lungs, causing the latter to topple over the edge of the couch and fall onto the floor with his hand supporting him before he landed with a soft thud. In an attempt to cool yourself down, you headed over to the kitchen again to fetch yourself a glass of cold water.

“Alright, alright.”

As the two of you progressed in the relationship, things started to change drastically.

Baekhyun and you could fight like there wasn’t a world outside of your front door, as if the two of you didn’t have neighbors to file police reports or complaints about the arguments that happened behind closed doors, like no one even meant a speck of existence. You two fought as if there was no tomorrow over such silly little matters and ridicule subjects; it was just ridiculous.

And now the two of you were in phase two –a phase couples usually give up in the minute they step into that phase. It was a horrible phase to begin with and if people weren’t ready to enough to enter it, they’d fail and things would crumble into nothing but bits of pieces of forgotten memories and soon nothingness. There were many factors as to why relationships failed rate. One factor, as people usually would simplify it was called lack of communication.

The two of you definitely lacked a whole lot of that.

Baekhyun had always been expressive to how he would feel. For instance: the Chanyeol incident back when the two of you were still in high school. Anyone could clearly see with their two eyes that he was extremely raged with jealousy. If he didn’t like something or someone, he would be straightforward and tell you in a jiffy. An open book, you supposed and it was good. However, the contrast between you and him was just like the night sky and the morning sunrise.

You, on the other hand, were timid and didn’t precisely know how to vent out your emotions. You had always been that way and you supposed it was because you didn’t grow up in a friendly environment. It’s not that you were an emotionless twit. It was certainly not that because you did sometimes express how you felt; like the emotion of happiness. But when you disliked a certain thing or specifically a human being which was a female, you couldn’t really put your words in a sentence. Your words would always be hitched inside of your throat. They’d be stuck and you couldn’t spit it out.

You see, your boyfriend had this friend.

She was gorgeous. The epitome of a perfect girl guys would love to date; long hair, legs that could go on for days and an upper torso that made you seem as if you were a little on the plum side. Feeling insecure was what you hated to feel; I mean who liked feeling like a rug next to a shimmery carpet? You weren’t insecure, or at least you attempted not to be.

It all started when he brought her inside of the apartment one day, and you really tried not to assume that he was cheating on you. You were definitely not the type of person to conclude things without further observation. But the way Baekhyun looked at her started to raise your qualms quite a bit; quite a lot, actually.

“__, this is Amanda. And Amanda this is, well you know who she is anyway.” You huffed a little because he didn’t introduce you to that so called Amanda as his girlfriend but nevertheless, you extended your hand and the two of you shared a deliberate handshake that felt more like a judged greeting. It was mortifying; to say the least and you remembered swallowing your bile when she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. And it didn’t help that Baekhyun was speaking English to you now, either.

You understood of course, but speaking to you in English was just downright rude, in your opinion, anyway.

“Help me fetch some drinks, hmm?” and at that moment, you thought that he was treating you like you were some sort of servant, but you kept your hole shut. Being a little overprotective was just ridicule, you thought. So, you did as you were told and came back with drinks. A little mishap and clumsiness soon took a toll on you and within the next second, you dropped everything on the floor. Thank God the cups were plastic and not glass.

“I’m sorry!” you immediately attempted to pick up everything as Baekhyun went over to the kitchen to grab a wiping cloth for the mess you had made. Things like that had always occurred at home but apparently Amanda was a little flabbergasted with the sudden intrusion of liquid soiling her new pedicure. She hissed.

“I didn’t know Baekhyun dated such a klutz. I get that I’m gorgeous and all but you didn’t have to go all apeshizznit on me.”

You scoffed. “I didn’t know Baekhyun had a judgmental freak which was and maybe still is bimbo as a friend that doesn’t even know how to make a difference between an accident and a purposeful attempt at humiliating a certain person amongst the human species.” And she gawked; in amazement or because she was perplexed at your words, you couldn’t really tell. “And by the way, apeshizznit isn’t a word. Try finding it in a dictionary before uttering such incoherent embarrassing vocabulary. And you’re American.”

You honestly hadn’t thought that you had it in you. You guessed that reading books from popular authors that had great grammar wasn’t a waste of time, after all. But Baekhyun definitely wasn’t on the same page as you.

“What you said was just downright offensive.” His volume of voice was increasingly louder than ever before. Maybe it was because he was embarrassed, but he shouldn’t have been. “Well, you didn’t know the words she threw at me. Nor will you ever know because you’d be on her side, anyway.”

“Of course I don’t know. And it’s because you’re not telling me what she said.” Grabbing the locks of his hair out of frustration, he breathed in heavily and exhaled. “ Well, c’mon! Throw something. Tell me something; anything, really that’ll make me change my mind about you being a rude person.”

“I wasn’t rude! I was just being rational about her behavior.”

“She’s my partner for singing for crying out loud! And if I might add, having her as a friend does have its benefits because she’s the daughter of the investor of the university, Why don’t you try and think about what she could do to help me throughout the entire semester?” You didn’t think Baekhyun would stoop so low into befriending someone just because they had links to his success.

You slammed your hand on the wooden dining table. “If you’re just using her for the sake of being a successful artist, person; whatever, then you’re just like a cigarette that needs to be dubbed on an ash tray because you’re only eating yourself up.” You stated and continued when he didn’t even look the slightest bit convinced. “I’m sure you’re not getting what I mean by that but to cut it short, you’re digging your own grave, Baekhyun. I can tell that she likes you and once you’re done with her, she’s not going to be done with you.”

“But aren’t you doing the same thing?”

You furrowed your eyebrows together. What was he saying, in all honesty? “You think I don’t know that you’re only dating me because you’re trying to analyze how this stupid chemical phenomenon works?” Okay, now he was just being absurd; you raised your hands up a little like a student in a classroom because you didn’t get where he was going. “What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about?” Baekhyun croaked out and eventually you heard him let out a pathetic whimper. He fished for something in his right jean pocket and eventually took out a piece of crumpled paper. His fingers grazed the paper but his eyes were piercing through yours and you felt stunned when he suddenly spoke yet again. “I found this in your handbag about a month ago.”

“No –“ You said because it seemed all too familiar because you didn’t think that he would ever lay his hands on that piece of paper filled with your scrawny handwriting. “And it’s got a hypothesis, an aim of the investigation and a measured, manipulated and constant variable but surprisingly.” He folded the paper in his hands –you could tell that he wanted to crumple it and throw it into the trash can. “There’s no conclusion yet.”

“I was stupid. I didn’t –I didn’t know that I’d actually –“

“That you’d actually be where you are today? Standing right in front of me in our apartment about to say ‘fall in with you’? Is that it?” he took the words right out of your mouth and you honestly couldn’t have made it any clearer that yes; you were in love with him. He made you believe that he was the reason that you wanted to start believing. “And look; there’s even an expiry date.” He sadistically laughed as he sobbed.

“Baekhyun –“

“Don’t touch me. Please just don’t.” he pried your hand off his shoulder and you were left dumbfounded when the next set of words escaped his lips. “Maybe we –maybe we should just take a break for a little while.”

“Please, Baekhyun –“

“We’re not breaking up. Not if you don’t want to because you said here,” he pointed. “ That it expires on the 27^th of June in 2015. It said that our expiry date is on the 27^th of June in 2015 and that date would sum up our three-year anniversary.” You stood there solid; rigid as tears were at the verge of cascading down your face –they were so close to leaking; they weren’t supposed to leak but when you blinked –they fell. And never once in your life did you feel so pathetic and so helpless, so vulnerable and fragile.

“Well,” Baekhyun wiped the remnants of his broken outer appearance before heading towards the front door. “I’ll just go get some Italian food because I’m in the mood for it. You can uhm,” he bit his lip and choked back a sob. “Stay here, if you want. Please just, just stay here. Alright?”

And so you stayed as he shut the front door. The minute he left, you cried and you cried so hard because your heart just hurt. It just –hurt.

And you didn’t know whether it was because of the release of certain chemicals stimulated by your brain or just because of a broken heart.

Baekhyun never came back after that day.

You missed him, even if you were in denial about it because you didn’t get to hear his stupefying laughter anymore, his lame jokes that you would still make a sarcastic plot twist to and definitely his singing. You missed everything about him –or maybe you just missed him. His presence, his smile, his aura, his happiness, his agitating ways of waking you up in the morning –him, you just missed him.

There were no more sounds of blaring alarm clocks in the morning, no SNSD songs he would blast to in the shower, no more failed attempts at cooking pancakes in the early mornings of summer. All that was left was just you and this old apartment you two shared. You woke up in the morning to serene tranquility and peace, cold floors and silence instead of noisiness and agitating Baekhyun.

You needed to find him.

You didn’t know how to, of course besides calling him but he usually never pressed the green button when he saw the caller ID. However, no matter how hard Baekhyun wanted to hide the fact that he was still in love with you, he couldn’t.

You weren’t the only one suffering.

He’d usually wake up to you nagging him to turn off the blaring alarm clock and hitting him, pinching him, even. He loved the way you would scold him whenever he never put the toilet seat down because you seemed motherly every time you did so. He enjoyed sticking his tongue out at you when you got pissed at him for not ironing his own clothes. He just loved you.

But after seeing that stupid piece of paper with your initials on it about an experiment called ‘love’, he just –he just couldn’t forgive you. Was he an object you could test on? Was he a rat stuck in a laboratory? He wasn’t any of the above. He was just a guy who was hopelessly in love with a girl who had a strong theory that love ceased to exist.

But now he was starting to believe that maybe love didn’t exist at all.

“The number you have dialed is unavailable. Please try again later.”

You threw your phone across the room and unfortunately, it didn’t land with a soft thud on the couch like it used to –it landed on the floor. Having an iPhone did at times, you thought because once you checked the screen, it was cracked. The impact must’ve been so harsh when it reached the floor. And you didn’t know why you wanted to make an investigation about it.

Science had drifted your thoughts away from Baekhyun, but it didn’t drift away your heart from him.

Lonely nights, you would cry yourself to sleep because of what he had said. Lonely nights, you thought about your stupid theory again and wanted to prove yourself wrong because Baekhyun had proved you wrong. You continued to ask for advice from some of your colleagues, which they had not helped at all in your situation.

So, you thought of the best solution you could think of; a surprise apology party –if that even made sense in a way.

Planning everything in your spaced head, you shut the door behind you as you went store by store to get everything you needed for the party for the two of you to reunite and fix your feelings.

“Thank you, Miss! Come again.” The shop assistant chimed as you exited the shop and continued your journey. You were feeling a little bit giddy; excited, maybe at the fact that you were going to make everything better again. The feeling; you couldn’t precisely elaborate on it –it was sort of in between nervousness and giggly, somehow good yet bad.

And the more you rekindled on your thoughts, you were thinking that maybe you’d actually confess to Baekhyun that you’ve always liked him, no, loved him actually and that you want everything to just reconnect again and not dispatch and fall apart. You wanted to start a future with him; eventually you hoped that he would agree.

But when you saw two familiar figures pressed up against a wall, that dark brown hair and those beautiful fingers on another woman’s shoulders, you –you didn’t want to believe it; no, you couldn’t believe it. You stammered, maybe even tried to suffocate yourself under the humid weather and you wish you could’ve shut your eyes from the horrible sight just in time because Baekhyun was kissing someone.

And that someone was not you.

If you inched a little closer, maybe took a few steps to the front, you’d see that the girl he was kissing was Amanda. The woman turned around when she felt two eyes boring holes through her neck and she smirked at you –she smirked at you. Baekhyun, who was in the midst of it all, could only leave his mouth ajar because he hadn’t expected you to be there to witness it all as a silent spectator.

Baekhyun stuttered, he wanted to explain and tell you that it was all wrong, that it wasn’t his fault but you put the words into his mouth before he could’ve spoken.

“I told you I didn’t believe in love.”

But what you didn’t know was that Amanda kissed Baekhyun and not the other way round.

And you ran home, you ran the hardest you could’ve and you’ve never ran in your whole entire life like you did at that moment. Your heart was palpitating and racing, your fingers were clenched as you felt them digging within your palms, your hair was getting soiled by the beads of sweat racing one another to rest just nicely beneath your chin –you ran ‘til you felt like you couldn’t run anymore; ‘til you felt suffocated because now the pain felt excruciating and you just wanted it to just stop.

Slamming the door shut, you slid and slid your body until your bottom hit the floor. You laughed because you felt so silly but your laughs sounded like sobs if people heard properly at the other end of the corridor. You couldn’t even bother taking off your shoes because everything just hurt. Every fiber of your body felt like it had been stabbed with a thousand knives, it felt like all your arteries and vessels had been cut off and your throat was sore –very sore.

You hit your chest simultaneously as you chanted.

“Why won’t the pain subside?”

Baekhyun felt remorseful for everything he had done to you.

He didn’t mean to leave you and he hadn’t meant for Amanda to be snogging up his face in front of you, either. He felt sick of himself; impure, horrid. He had imagined what it had felt like to be put in your position. And by the looks of it, you must’ve cried.

He hated it when you cried.

He had already made you cry once that day when he left you, and now he was making you cry again and he couldn’t forgive himself for being such a selfish snob and a pain in the neck.

He tried calling you.

Obviously, it wasn’t one of the best solutions of all time, because technology ruined romance and romance wasn’t meant to be soiled by man-made objects. You didn’t pick up, as expected and he already knew that you wouldn’t have but he just wanted to try anyway. He felt like he didn’t deserve you in the slightest and maybe –maybe he didn’t deserve you at all.

But he loved you.

And to him that was what mattered that was what kept him holding on to that little thread of hope that one day you might love him back; that one day that ice-cold heart would melt in the hands of someone warm. He knew he made you believe him that love was something beyond Science and chemicals.

And with a determined spirit, he was going to fix everything.

It was his turn.

You sat in front of the TV, flipping through the channels mindlessly when you weren’t even paying attention to the shows on the screen. With popcorn in your hands, you popped one in your mouth and chewed on it harshly. A romance film was playing and when you wanted to flip the channel, the remote controller couldn’t function. Romance just wasn’t kicking into full swing right now, for you anyway.

It was a typical story, the bad boy fell for the good studious girl and they lived happily ever after with children and told their treacherous love story to the public. You honestly couldn’t have described the story with any other word besides ‘cliché’ and you hated it. Cursing mentally in your head, you turned off the television and slept on the couch soundly.

“Why is it so dark in here?”

You awoke with the lights turned off but frankly, the air-conditioner was still on. Trying not to panic, you patted the coffee table in front of you, searching for your phone; attempting to use it as your source of light. And when you didn’t feel a solid object in the grasp of your hand, you started to freak out slightly –obviously.

However, being a wise person, you breathed in and out, relaxing yourself before heading to where the light switch was. But when you the switch, the lights still hadn’t on. It was absolutely positively mind-boggling. However, when you thought it over, you remembered that you had never once paid the bills and Baekhyun’s father always did, so it was kind of logical for the electricity to be cut off.

However, if the electricity bills had not been paid, then wouldn’t the air-conditioning to work too?

This was getting a little too much for you.

Out of the blue, the lights flickered on and off, as if they were being controlled. You screamed at the dubious event and even yelped. “Who are you? You –you savage!” was what escaped your mouth and to be quite frank, you thought that you were so stupid to even utter those words. What if the person who was controlling the lights was a serial killer? You thought you were imbecile, really.

And when you looked down, you could see speakers connected and the minute you landed your eyes on those bad things, a voice said. “Follow my instructions and you’ll survive.” You immediately nodded your head and shouted in English, just like the man. “I’ll do everything you ask me to as long as I live. That’s my deal.” And before Baekhyun could agree, you added. “I will not strip, if that’s what you’re wondering. Stripping not classy and I do not have a fit body for your eyes, “

Baekhyun had to stifle a chuckle on the other end of the microphone because his girl was still making a deal with this random guy, even she didn’t know who he was. Baekhyun kept his cool and still put on a façade. “Alright, but you’ll have to follow my instructions as well. You’ll live, I can promise you that.” You nodded your head vigorously.

“Step 1: Head over to your kitchen.” And you did as you were told, talking easy steps. However, when the man told you to scurry, you sprinted. You could hear the clearing of his voice before he continued. “You will have to answer five chemistry questions in order to overcome this challenge. Then, at the end of it all, I shall reveal who I am, where I am and what I am.”

“What you are?”

“I could be a vampire, for all you know.”

“That’s very humorous. Your sarcasm sure is wonderful.” You mustered up the courage to reply and you sighed because if you knew where the power room was, you could’ve hit this guy with a bat. The only thing you remembered Baekhyun telling you was that the power room was in a secluded place that definitely wasn’t in your apartment.

He had told you that there was a question paper on the kitchen counter and when you saw it, you almost cackled because it was one of the easiest questions you had yet to answer in chemistry. “How many hydrogen atoms are there in 20 mol of hydrogen molecules? Really? Is that the best you got?” and you answered and then he gave you the next question.

Soon, you were done with the four chemistry questions and what was left was to proceed with the final question. “I’ve decided to change things up a bit.” You heard him say and raised your eyebrows. He wasn’t going to screw his deal, right? You knew you shouldn’t have trusted the guy anyway because in movies, people usually got slaughtered no matter what they did.

"You know the movie Titanic?" You answered or rather shouted with a loud 'yes', hoping that the crazy lunatic who was most probably in the power room would just quit playing with your mind already. But still, you kept your cool, just like Baekhyun who was practically trying so hard not to burst out into flames because he could honestly tell that you were scared. Basically, Baekhyun was going to get hit by a truck if he continued at this rate, not that he minded, anyway. So, he proceeded.

"If you were attentive throughout the entire movie, you'd notice that there was a way to save Jack and Rose at the same time. And Jack didn't have to die and wallow in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean." the man said and you only nodded, trying to process his words by bits and pieces. "So now, I want you to tell me how to save Jack and Rose with that one singular plank."

You hummed and thought thoroughly about the entire procedure in your head. It didn't exactly make sense to save the both of them because the movie's sole purpose was to make Jack Dawnson die; it was the of the entire show, but you had never actually thought that there was a way to save him. But now that you were thinking about it, there actually was a way.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," you began as you cleared your throat. "But Rose was wearing a life jacket when she was in the water, was she nott?" and the man from the speaker answered. "Yes, she was wearing a life jacket. Where are you getting at?"

"She could've balanced the plank by tying her life jacket at the bottom of it to increase the rate of equilibrium. Thus, the both of them would've survived and lived 'happily ever after'." You pursed your lips together when you heard the man sigh. You were in fact correct and not wrong in the slightest. "Alright, you win. The power room is outside the apartment, to your left."

"Thanks,"

"So, it was you the entire time?" You gawked in amazement and a little in mahagony. It did kind of click to you that he was behind it all, but you just wanted to play along. At first you really thought he was a serial killer. However, only Baekhyun would've asked you to solve Chemistry questions and ask you how to save Jack from drowning. It only clicked and made sense that he would ask such a non-sensical question. "I knew it."

"I didn't kiss her." He blurted out, almost a little too fast because you had almost forgotten about the whole incident that had broken you. "She kissed me. You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Prove it to me, won't you?" You cocked your eyebrows upwards, taunting him and he seemed a little upset that you weren't buying what he was saying. Baekhyun wasn't lying, but that didn't mean that you were believing his little fiasco. "I don't have any proof to show you, nor do I have anything that'll make you believe me, besides my words."

"Then where does that leave us?" You were mocking him now, mocking him with your hurtful words and he looked so hurt that it actually killed apart of you on the inside too. "You left me, Baekhyun. You could leave me again. You would leave me again, wouldn't you?"

"I thought you were going to leave me. I just didn't want to get dumped -"

"I wouldn't dump you." You admitted, which was true beyond all odds. Fidgeting with your fingers, you stared at him with full determination. "I couldn't even if I wanted to. Who else can be patient with me? Who else can love me the way you do? Who else can teach me how to love when I didn't even know what love was to begin with?" You honestly didn't want to pick a fight with Baekhyun, but there was just this urge inside of you that caused you to swell up a little.

"Then let's fix this. Let's fix everything -"

"It's not that simple, Baekhyun -"

"Make it simple, then." This time his voice sounded commanding, like he was giving you a strict order to follow by and you could've succumbed. You wanted to, but you didn't at the same time. Loving him was just downright twisted and complicating. Or maybe you were the problem and not him. "I was never a simple person to begin with."

"I know, I know." He softened a bit because he realized that yes, you were right, you weren't simple, nor will you ever be simple and that was one of the things Baekhyun adored about you. Simpleness was beautiful but solving riddles and puzzles were fun too; and to him, finding out who you were was like solving riddles and puzzles. And he'd always been into those kind of things. Well, ever since he met you, anyway.

"Can't I just make you fall in love with me again?" He said with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

"Or are we going to start from the basics because I think you would want me to persuade you that I'm in love with you." and you could hear his faint whisper of "And that you're in love with me."

"It's going to take a whole lot to persuade me, you know."

"I know but if I have to relieve your oxytocins everyday in order for you to forgive me, then I would." And he pecked you numerous of times 'til you felt as if you were suffocated, but you liked it. You liked kissing Baekhyun a lot, or maybe just Baekhyun. "Science can only take you so far, but love goes beyond boundaries and over galaxies."

"That sounds rather cheesy," you teased and Baekhyun encircled his hands around your waist. "Back to basics, you say? This isn't basic at all. This is the embodiment of two people -"

He sighed in contentment. At least he could hear you ramble on and on again. "I'll just shut you up now." And he leaned in and kissed you.

And moments later, when it felt like eternity, you finally requited him in both the kiss and your emotions.

When you were sure Baekhyun was sleeping like a log in the bedroom, you grabbed a piece of paper and a black ballpoint pen from the study room and wrote:

"My conclusion throughout this experiment is that this 'love', so called does in fact exist. However, on the contrary, it takes the right person to show you how to be loved and how to love. Yes, there is a difference, if you mad scientists are wondering. Love isn't just something you simply plot, it is something far beyond planning. It cannot exactly, precisely be written down and treasured. Love is unexplainable and is in fact a perpetually good feeling to experience. Henceforth, my experiment showed me that it is in existence."

Author Note:

Thank you for reading this story :)

And thank you thecafewriter for giving me the permission to write my own personal 'sequel' to this story. It has been an honor.

Ps: If there are any typos, I apologize because skimming through this fic was tiring and I tried my best to fix everything and anything that needed to be fixed.