❝ChapterFour;

“You don’t love me.”

The way Sehun said it was like a slap in the face to Chanyeol, as if the younger had known it all along. Many nights, Chanyeol snuck away to the safety of the bar, getting drunk and in turn having to call Baekhyun to save him from his utterly drunken state. Each time, it resulted in Chanyeol staying at Baekhyun’s house, sleeping on the couch, Baekhyun just sitting and watching over him. Sometimes, heated exchanges between the two brought on angry kisses from Chanyeol, but Baekhyun had to force himself to be the first one to pull away, to feign anger, to feign resentment.

Only, Chanyeol believed Baekhyun didn’t love him anymore.

“Don’t say that, Sehunnie,” Chanyeol whispered, his eyes almost void of any emotion as he stared at his boyfriend, but Sehun was already shaking his head.

“No, you love Baekhyun. I know you do. I can see it in your eyes, Chanyeol. The way you look at me like you wish I was him, how you wish he was right there in your arms. I know you escape to his house all the time... Luhan tells me. He and Jongin may be together, but nothing goes unseen in his eyes,” Sehun brought his wrist up to his eyes and harshly swiped at them, sniffling. “Chanyeol, I love you more than anything. But I don’t want you to be confused and make me confused and make everything hard between us because I couldn’t stand it if you left me for him. It’d be better to know that I let you go to him.”

Chanyeol just stared, watching. This was what he wanted, wasn’t it? To be free of Sehun, to go running to Baekhyun? It is what he wanted, but now that he knew that Baekhyun didn’t love him anymore... He figured that he could just be with Sehun in peace. But now, Sehun was leaving him, all because he held onto something that wasn’t there.

“I don’t love Baekhyun,” Chanyeol whispered, more for himself than for Sehun. “Maybe I did before, but not now. I realize now that I love you, maybe it’s too late, but I do. I love you, not Baekhyun, and... I don’t want you to go. Please don’t go...”

Right there, Chanyeol broke. To Sehun, it seemed like he was breaking down because he didn’t want to lose his boyfriend, but Chanyeol knew it was because he couldn’t let Baekhyun go, no matter how hard he tried. Sehun watched, his bottom lip trembling, reaching out with shaking hands to try and soothe Chanyeol, but his hands touched the air where Chanyeol once was. Chanyeol was running now, away from Sehun, running to his house.

Once in the safety of his own home, Chanyeol locked the door and allowed himself to break. He slid down the door, his hands gripping at his shirt and tugging almost violently, tears streaming down his cheeks. Sobs wracked his body, his shoulders shaking with the force of his cries. Then, out of nowhere, he heard the text tone of his phone. He tried calming himself, slowly taking the phone form his pocket, and through teary vision, he saw that it was Baekhyun, a single sentence causing him to cry even harder.

let’s hang out.

Chanyeol pushed himself up from the floor with shaky steps, stumbling to his room. Though he was still crying, he set to work. He changed into a different set of clothes, ones that were completely black, and drew the hood over his ginger curls. He shoved a pair of glasses on his face, sniffling and wiping his nose and eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie, then left his house, determined.

He ended up at the bar once again, not to his surprise, and as soon as he was inside the bartender noticed him. The strongest drink he could have was set in front of him, multiple times, actually, and soon his was in once of his worst drunken states he could’ve ever been in. After a while, Chanyeol got the drunken courage to call BAekhyun, who answered groggily.

“So now you wanna hang out?”

“Baaeeeek, let’s haaaaang.”

“Are you drunk?”

Chanyeol burst into a fit of giggles, nearly falling off his stool at the bar in the process. “Me? Drunk? Neverrrrr.”

“You’re totally drunk. I’m coming to get you,” The line went dead before Chanyeol could protest, and after a moment or two he slipped his phone back into his pocket, shrugging.

Chanyeol pointed to the pocket he dropped his phone into, grinning like a madman at the bartender. “My husband’s gonna come get me,” He said in a drowsy tone, earning a chuckle from the bartender.

“You don’t have a husband, Yeol. That’s Baek that’s coming to get you.”

“Yeah! See? My husband!” Chanyeol cackled, this time slipping from his barstool and falling onto the ground, only causing him to laugh harder. After a few moments of his insane giggles, he placed too much money on the counter and began walking out, his hood drawn over his eyes, his feet stumbling after another. He was a bumbling idiot, and soon he came face to face with Baekhyun on the street.

“Yeol, how in the world could you get this drunk?”

“I’unno. I’m sleep, lemme sleep,” Chanyeol leaned against Baekhyun, closing his eyes, his arms draped loosely around Baekhyun’s waist. He caused the other to stumble backwards slightly, struggling against the dead weight of his overly tall best friend.

“You’re not sleeping right now, Chanyeol. We’ve got to get you home.”

“Can we have a sleepover at your house, Baekkie?”

“No.”

“Then I’m gonna sleep right here,” With that, Chanyeol promptly collapsed onto the ground, curling up in a small ball as he began to drift to sleep, sighing contentedly as if the pavement was his very own bed.

Baekhyun was so not going to put up with it this time. “Get your up or I’m going to drag you,” And when Chanyeol made no move to listen to Baekhyun’s orders, he did just that. Grabbing him by his wrists, Baekhyun began tugging and pulling the drunk male towards his house, making it a long and tedious journey for the two of them. Baekhyun huffed and tugged, huffed and tugged, Chanyeol making no noise or indication of even being alive. Baekhyun silently hoped Chanyeol woke up with a ton of bruises and a pounding headache, along with the weight of guilt making it hard for him to breathe in the morning.

Once they were in front of Chanyeol’s house, Baekhyun dropped his wrists and collapsed in front of him, panting from the exhaustion of dragging his friend all the way home. After a few moments of recollecting, Baekhyun stood up ad dragged Chanyeol to his feet, and only then did he realize that Chanyeol was wide awake and actually crying. Chanyeol’s legs seemed to miraculously begin to work again, and after a few steps he tripped, grabbing Baekhyun’s wrist and tugging him down with him.

“Dammit Yeol,” Baekhyun grunted, opening Chanyeol’s door and shoving him inside. He watched as Chanyeol stumbled to his bedroom and fell onto the bed, passing out on the spot, and then he finally shut the door. “I hate you.”

As he was walking home, though, Baekhyun pulled out his phone and sent Chanyeol a text, sighing once he did so.

listen. you need to get a hold on your feelings before you go and do stuff like this, yeol. i love you, but nothing is going to happen until you figure yourself out. so go figure it out. then come back to me.

;End❞