31

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     “We've got so much to talk.” Baekhyun says, sighing inside Chanyeol's embrace. Chanyeol chuckles and Baehyun let out small smile. It's nice to hear that laugh again.

“I agree Princess.” Chanyeol replies. “But not now.”

Baekhyun let go of the hug so suddenly that he might as well have pushed the taller guy. Chanyeol seeing the reaction of Baekhyun, laughed once more.

“I have to get back there Princess.” Baekhyun pout. “Oh come on. You're not possibly getting jealous again?” He groans teasingly.

“Jealous?” Baekhyun scoffs. “Why would I? Dream on Park Chanyeol. Ha ha.” He let out a strained laugh while Chanyeol looks at him judgingly. He shuts up immediately.

A silence engulf them for a few seconds before they erupt into a series of laughing. Both realizing the absurdity of the situation. One moment they were pouring their emotions to each other, another they were bickering like an old married couple. Really absurd.

Chanyeol offered his hand to Baekhyun and for a while Baekhyun stares at it. '

“Let's get back there. Your friend must be worrying after your little act there.” 

Baekhyun flushes a deep shade of red as the scene of his hasty actions flashed before his eyes. He is quick to get it together too when he realizes Chanyeol's underlying meaning.

“Yes, Jongdae's just a friend.” Baekhyun says in a dignified tone.

“Yeah right.” Chanyeol bites back.

“Is Mr. Park Giant Chanyeol jealous? Huh??” Baekhyun teases, small smile plastered over his lips.

“Jealous? Why would I?” Chanyeol mocks, mimicking Baekhyun. Baekhyun shakes his head in amusement and grabs Chanyeol's still awaiting hand.

“Let's go.”

Chanyeol tsked but starts walking anyway. Baekhyun, once again, smiles and yup, just like an old married couple. 

 

 

He can get use to it.

₰₰₰

“Baekhyun!” 

Jongdae shouts as soon as both him and Chanyeol re-enters the restaurant. He felt Chanyeol slowly letting go of his hand but before it got completely separated he feels a light squeeze. Baekhyun took it as a sign and made a beeline back to his and Jongdae's table.

“What was that about?” Jongdae inquires almost immeadiately after he sat.

“Nothing.” Baekhyun shrugs and reached out for the menu. “Let's order.”

“No. Na-uh.” Jongdae snatches the menu away from Baekhyun's hands. “You will tell me all about that fiasco and then we order.” 

Baekhyun glares at Jongdae but gives up anyway. He can never win against this spawn of Satan. He sneaks a glance towards the giant's table and saw Chanyeol looking at him. He gave a small smile to Chanyeol's way and averts his attention back to a smiling smugly Jongdae. 

Well, he doesn't much have a choice, does he?

 

Meanwhile on another table, another person is curious.

 

“He's cute.”

Chanyeol snaps his head to look at the person before him. Sora is smiling at him.

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“No.” Chanyeol flushes. “Well, not yet anyway.” He clears his throat and Sora chuckles.

“I see. You look good together.”

“Thank you.” Chanyeol lets out a genuine smile and for a moment they were enveloped in silence. Sora is the one who broke it.

“You shouldn't let your parents control you Chanyeol. Your a nice guy but I can't possibly marry you. Not when I see that you're so in love with another person. No, don't interrupt me just yet,” she silences Chanyeol when he is about to say something, “and as it is, I'm aware of your situation- our situation. Why we're here.” Sora smiles and Chanyeol wonders how can she stay calm about this.

“Like I said, your a nice guy and although I can't really promise I'll try to talk to dad to help you and your family in the best he can without us marrying.”

Chanyeol freezes, it feels like everything is getting back to their rightful place. And although it's still in procession he knows they'll get there. He can get back his life together.

Without a doubt, he reaches for Sora's hands and gives it a squeeze.

“Thank you. You don't know how much this means to me.” Chanyeol says.

“No problem.” Sora retracted her hands and offered it for a handshake. “It's what friends are for right?”
Chanyeol takes it and nods.

“Yes. It is.”

Sora then takes a move to leave, grabbing his hand bag she stands up. But before she can take another step, Chanyeol speaks.

“Baekhyun said sorry. You know for what he did earlier.”

Sora laughs and sneaks a glance to where Baekhyun is. 

“I'd like to meet him one day, I feel like we'd get along just fine.”

 

“So you're saying Park has been courting you all these time and both of you just happened to be tangled in this mess of a family of yours?” Jongdae said in one go. “Heol!”

“Yes.” Baekhyun deadpans. “I don't really know why I'm telling you all this, it should be private.”
Jongdae grins. 

“I told you we're bestfriends already!”

“Best friend my arse.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes but he's in no way annoyed. He actually finds himself smiling at the idea. He clears his throat. “Now can we order?”

“Gladly.”

₰₰₰

Chanyeol knows it’s not Suho’s fault. He knows that just like him, his brother was just unfortunately dragged into their family’s mess. It’s been days (maybe weeks, Chanyeol didn’t really count) since that fateful dinner happened and if Chanyeol’s going to be honest, he misses him. 

He misses Suho. He misses the good times, the laughs, and the talks. And what makes Chanyeol even sadder is the fact that they never fought before this. Not even once. 

This fight or misunderstanding or whatever this thing between them is called, he wants to put an end to it. He doesn’t really want to drag this any further. 

But that’s where Chanyeol is lost. He doesn’t have a single clue on how to act on it. Should he say sorry? Should he cry? He doesn’t know where to start.

Suho has been Chanyeol’s foundation ever since he was a child. Suho being six years older than him, has had always put his sake’s first than himself. If Chanyeol wanted the whole serving of the cookies, he will whole-heartedly give him them. If he wanted a bedtime story, Suho was more than ready to lend his voice for his baby brother. And if he’d wanted to play, Suho would make sure he’d play to his satisfaction.

Chanyeol never really thought about it until now. Suho has been nothing but an angel to him, a guardian angel to be exact, and yet he still managed to blow him up. He still managed to drag him away from him without even letting him give a proper explanation.

When Suho had told him they weren’t related by blood, Chanyeol didn’t really think much about it. Suho has been more than a real brother to him and that was all that matters. He didn’t even mean to bring the subject up during the dinner but that night, Chanyeol felt betrayed because at that one situation he need his hyung’s protection the most, it wasn’t there.

But like he said, it wasn’t Suho’s fault. 

Two days after the unexpected counter with Baekhyun at the restaurant, Chanyeol’s mood slowly gets better. He no longer sulks in his bed all day and he makes sure to see to it that he eats his meal on time. He also already convinced himself that what Jongin did was for the better and supports him all the way. 

For the first time in a while, everything starts to look better and brighter.

Chanyeol gets up early on a Saturday morning and quickly took a shower. By fifteen past eight, he is already downstairs ready to have his breakfast. The ahjumma who has been their caretaker ever since he can remember is just delighted to see the youngest Park getting back to his usual self. She served him a bountiful amount of pancakes and a hot cocoa, Chanyeol’s favorites.

He takes his seat and is about to take a serving of his pancakes when he caught movements from the kitchen’s door (Chanyeol never eats breakfast in the dining hall). Whipping his head to the door, he sees Suho, whom he hasn’t seen yet since his mood started to go up, frozen on the spot. He can tell that his brother is a fighting a war of ‘to enter or not to enter’ inside him and if it was any other situation, he’ll be laughing at his hyung’s current face. It looks really ugly.

But of course, since an awkward cloud still hoversabove them, he fought the urge. Instead he cleared his throat and tried initiating a conversion. It is his chance anyway.

“Uh… morning hyung?” He says though he sounded shy. 
Suho is visibly shock at the action and still stood frozen for a few seconds before continuing his move to enter the kitchen.

“Breakfast?” Chanyeol tried once more hoping that his brother is getting the message. Suho sat beside him and eyed him for a few seconds and the slaps himself. Chanyeol gapes at his brother’s action.

“I’m not dreaming right?” Suho half sob, half laugh. “You’re actually talking to me right? I’m not imagining things. Ahjumma Chanyeol is talking to me right?”

Chanyeol smiles and shakes his head. “You’re not dreaming hyung. I’m actually talking to you.”

“But how?” Suho asks and for a moment Chanyeol’s confused at the thrown question but even before he could say his thoughts, Suho speaks again. “I’m sorry. Chanyeol, I really am sorry.”

“Don’t beat yourself up for it hyung,” Chanyeol gives a sad smile and reaches out to his brother’s shoulders, squeezing it, “it wasn’t your fault and I should apologise too. I know I’ve hurt you in more ways than one.”

“I should’ve stood up for you though. Should’ve fought to secure your freedom.” Suho sighs deeply. 

“Don’t blame yourself hyung.” Chanyeol assures once again, chuckling a little bit. “I know we’ll find a way out of this.”

“I hope we do.” Suho smiles; not full but enough for Chanyeol to know that they’re okay now. “What changed your mind?”

“Baekhyun.” Chanyeol answers simply and takes a full serving of pancakes in his mouth, syrup flowing all over his lips. “I’ve met him a couple of days ago during my date with my bride-to-be,” Suho visibly flinches at the mentioned event, “and we decided to talk everything out. Today.”

“You’re going on a date with him?” Suho asks a smile playing in his lips.

“More or less, Yes.” Chanyeol returns with a grin. “And I've got some news for you.”

“What is it?” Suho asks as ahjumma puts a cup of black coffee in front of him.

“Sora, who was supposed to be the girl I'm marrying said during our date that she'll try to get his father help us in a way without us getting married.”

“How were you able to make her say that? Did you threaten her Chanyeol?” Suho narrowes his eyes and stares at Chanyeol. The youngest just chuckles.

“No, hyung I was in my best behaviour. I was a real gentlemen. I swear!”

“Then how?”

“Again, Baekhyun. But that's not the point right now okay. Atleast we have her word.”

“Chanyeol, look, that's great news but still this is business. You can't give without getting anything back. Maybe yes, her father will help us but what if its not a full help? We need something to fall back to. A plan B. I won’t promise you but I will try to find ways to secure the company from being gone without you ended up actually marrying a full stranger.” Suho says. “I know business is a tough world and unfortunately I haven’t been around it much to know which strings to pull. But I am more than willing to try my best to seek companies that are willing to merge with us. It’ll be hard but-” Suho stops midway his speech and abruptly stood up. Taking a gulp of his black coffee, he rushes towards the door to leave but not before looking back and saying, “meet me at my office later. I’ll text you. And oh! Bring Baekhyun too!”

Chanyeol stares, dumbfounded at the place where his brother was just at wondering what exactly did the hell happened.

₰₰₰

“You’ve been wiping that same spot for almost five minutes you know.” 

Suzy’s lighthearted chuckle brings out Baekhyun out from his reverie. He stops and stared at the dirty rag in his hand wondering if what Suzy said is actually true. He shrugs then proceeds wiping the same spot again, completely ignoring the girl. But again, Suzy can be a brat sometimes. She stole the rag from Baekhyun’s hand and when Baekhyun gave him the ‘look’ she just raised a brow. Baekhyun’s sighs in resignation.

“What are you trying to get at Suzy?” Baekhyun pouts, leaning at the counter arms crossed in his chest. There’s not much customer at the coffee shop at the moment, not unusual considering it’s only three in the afternoon. Baekhyun, Suzy and Minseok—the trainee, are free to laze around for a bit and the only girl do sure knows how to use the said free time.

“I don’t know oppa. You seem happy lately.” Suzy shares her point.

“And is that a bad thing?” Baekhyun asks innocently. 

“No, no…” Suzy shakes her head furiously, “It’s just that you seemed distracted a lot since that day I picked you up. But now, there is this glow in you that I can’t really explain. I can feel your happiness all the way thru my veins.” 
Baekhyun laugh at the statement and gave Suzy a warm smile.

“Yes I'm happy. Can we leave it at that?” Baekhyun asks hopefully.

“Nope.” Suzy replies popping the 'p'. “Does it have to do with Chanyeol oppa?”

Baekhyun ignores her again and proceeds to the sink to wash the rag.

“It does right?” Suzy teases but even before Baekhyun could retort the bell of the coffee shop rang and speaking of the devil, Chanyeol steps inside the shop in his all 186 cm glory.

“Knew it.”

Suzy whispers at his ears before scrapping to greet the giant.  He hears her talking animatedly to Chanyeol in his annoyingly sweet voice and not before long Suzy comes back hopping to his side and snatches the rag away from his hands.

“Go get lover boy.”

Baekhyun sighs at Suzy's consistent teasing and wipes his hand on his apron. He goes to the counter where Chanyeol is waiting.

“Hey.” Baekhyun greets and Chanyeol gives him that familiar grins. His heart flutters at the sight.

“Hey Princess.” Chanyeol greets back. “When is your out?”

“I still have an hour. Can you wait?” Baekhyun asks.

“Of course.” Chanyeol assures. “I know I said we'll talk today but my brother insists on bringing you with me to meet him later. Is that okay?”

“Oh.” Baekhyun curves into an understanding smile. “Actually I think that's the right way to start our talk.” He laughs at Chanyeol's confused face.

“Go get yourself a seat. I still got work to do you know.”

“Alrighty then.”

“Wait, do you want anything?”

Chanyeol grins.
 

 

“Just water.”

 

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I am effin back! Yesss. I'm so sorry for bein MIA for 9 months! I actually came to a point where I thought of just giving up writing Taking Chances... but you know what, I don’t think I can. This story means a lot to me and I’m determined to finish it no matter long how it takes. Please forgive me and thank you for still believing in me and waiting for me.

That being said Taking Chances… has only three more chapters left. It’ll be very hard to let go but every good things must come to an end.  L

Anyway, I do promise a new update next month and this time its for real. HAHA  Don’t forget to comment. I always appreciate comments good and bad.

Once again, thank you! I love you my dear readers.♥