Keeping true to his word, my father invites Baekhyun to stay for dinner. And Baekhyun, keeping true to his character, accepts. 

At the dinner table, my father sits across of me, and Baekhyun sits by my side. The food my dad ordered from some Chinese restaurant is mediocre at best, but that isn't what I'm most concerned about. It's the tension in the air, which is almost palpable.

I would say that it's uncomfortable, but I'm too preoccupied with staying quiet to truly feel the discomfort.  My father tries to make small talk with Baekhyun, asking about his life and other things that he probably doesn't care about. Baekhyun answers the questions dutifully, but it's obvious that he's distracted. He keeps looking at me. Every time I emit a small sniffle, his head snaps towards me, his eyes full of worry.  Every time I look up and he sees my red eyes, his shoulders slump and his tone lowers. I want to scream at him to stop, that I don't need his pity, but I can't do that with my father right in front of us.  He has been trying extremely hard to ignore all the things that Baekhyun wouldn't, and I don't want to push my luck with him.  

Dinner passes excruciatingly slowly. It is not until I realize that all of our plates are nearly empty that I see a glimmer of light at the end of this suffocating tunnel.  My father tries to coax Baekhyun into staying for dessert, but he declines, saying that he had been too much of a burden to us already. I scoff at this; who is he trying to impress? Then my father has the audacity to ask him to stay for a drink instead. I almost lose my temper and start yelling at him, but Baekhyun steps in front of me and declines once more.  

He then leaves, and my father watches his car go. I return to my room. 

My father enters the open doorway (which I hadn't realized I didn't close), with his special cup in hand. He doesn't seem drunk, yet he does something I hadn't expected.  

Gesturing vaguely towards the door, he says quietly, "That's a good guy."  After stating that, he closes the door gently, and leaves. 

I don't feel very good, and I realize that I am filled with unease. I am surprised to find that the source isn't from my father's continuous relapses or even that he asked someone to join in his misery (although in hindsight, I did that as well). I am even more surprised when I do pinpoint the reason for my disquiet.  

He left without saying goodbye. 

I rationalize that this bothers me so much because he broke a set of social conventions that even a bum like him can't ignore.  But the fact remains the same that he did something to me. 

~ One month later ~

The mall is crowded with overly excited people who care far too much for their overly overrated lives.  I want to strangle them all.  

This is the last place I would want to be, but I know that its a necessary evil, especially in my case. I dropped out of my third year of college a year ago when my mother died in that car accident, unable to cope with the grief.  However, although I had been trying to avoid it, I now realize that I have to get back to school. It'll be the best (and safest) way for me to get rid of my dad, and honestly, I really do want to do well in life. I want to escape my pain and become successful and happy, unlike my father.  

I head to an electronics store to buy myself a new flash drive and noise-cancelling headphones (I don't want to hear my father's drunk rampaging every night). After I've finished purchasing those items, I next approach a clothing store. Although I loathe wasting money on such shallow material things, it is yet another necessary evil I have to face.

On the way there, my eyes pass over a familiar bakery. I stop abruptly, and a man walking behind me pushes past me angrily. I pay no attention to him however, because right in front of the bakery stands an apparition. The lanky figure has its back to me, but its cap cannot hide an unmistakable pair of large ears.

I know him.

That thought propels me forward into the sea of people, and I lose sight of him.  However, I keep pushing past the crowd, focused on getting to the bakery. I keep my eyes on the cheerful sign that exclaims, "We have the best muffins!" (which is true), until I finally reach the front door.  I look around, but he is no longer near the entrance. 

Pushing aside my hesitation, I open the door to the bakery.  

He isn't there.

I release a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding.  As I inhale another gulp of oxygen, a burst of common sense rushes to my brain as well.  With shaky legs, I sit down to face the repercussions and implications of what I had just done.

Although my rational side had fought hard, in the end, impulsiveness won out.  

I returned to the shopping mall everyday at the same time for two weeks in hopes of catching another glimpse of the apparition, the unpleasantness of the mall forgotten. 

On the sixteenth consecutive day of my 'stakeout', I finally saw him. This time he was near a music shop, and what's more was that he was looking straight at me.  

He has a curious look on his face, as if he's trying to figure something out.  After a moment or two, he breaks out into a huge smile and starts exaggeratedly waving in my direction.  I am transfixed by him, and my legs start moving on their own accord, towards him through his magnetic pull. 

"Eunkyung!"  

My head whips around in reflex, and my eyes find a familiar, completely inconvenient person. 

Baekhyun approaches me, but I turn back around, my eyes scanning for the apparition once more. I comb the whole area around where he was standing only moments ago, but I am met only with disappointment. 

"Hey Eunkyung.  It's been a while. How are you?" He's concerned again. I really don't need that.

"Go away!" I lash out, but my trembling voice gives away my vulnerability. He takes a step closer and I flinch. I back away from him. I have to be alone so I can figure out whether or not my imagination has started to run out of hand, and also, what exactly it means to me if it had, or hadn't. 

His eyes harden with resolve, something that worries me. He continues to approach me until the back of my knees brush up against a stone ledge, forcing me to sit down. He bends down until he is eye-level with me.

"Come, let's go do something together."

A/N: So I'm going to stop promising to update at certain times because it's pretty obvious I'm not too good at keeping those promises. However, I am back with this chapter, and I promise I haven't forgotten about this story.  Now I have finally introduced Chanyeol, and you'll be seeing him a lot more in the future.  Tell me what you think, and please upvote, comment, and subscribe.  

Thank you to my one new upvoter (who was also super loyal, and I'm really thankful to her): Missbyunbang!

Side note: Muahaha I predicted the future with Baekhyun and Taeyeon as mentioned in Chapter 2. That's a clear sign that this story is magical and you should keep reading^^ (Yeah, I know that this is old news already, but the last time I updated was a few days before the scandal came out, so I couldn't say anything then) Anyways, see you next chapter!