“Hang on a minute boss I have to take this call.” I said, putting down the files and leaving the office. I scanned my surroundings carefully and spoke into the phone. “Baekhyun is that you?”

                “You have to help me Yixing. You have to help me get out. I can’t do this anymore.”

                “Baekhyun calm down, where are you? Where are you? Tell me and I’ll get there.”

                “You have to tell Kris for me.”

                “Baekhyun you have to tell me where you are, right now.”

                “Yi…”

                “I’m serious! Where are you?!” I was getting more and more anxious and I could hear Baekhyun panicking in the background. Then I felt the phone wrestled from my hand and I whipped my head to find Kris by my side. Oh .

                “Byun Baekhyun what is going on? Where the hell are you?”

                “Kris…I’m so sorry…”

                “I don’t want your apologies. We’ll talk about this when we meet up. Where are you?”

                “Kris, I’m getting married.”

                “What kind of bull is this?!” Kris cursed into the phone and I looked at him worriedly.

                “You have to let me off my contract. Please.”

                “You get into my office NOW!!!”

                BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

                “. The ing bastard turned the phone off.” Kris threw the phone back at me and grabbed his coat. “Come on, we have to go and find him.”

                We raced to the basement and out of the building in Kris’s Mercedes. I called Jodi, but she has no clue where Baekhyun is. She said that Baekhyun had the morning off while Luhan was in the recording studio. She heard nothing from Baekhyun since last night, and he didn’t even come back to the dorm. I tried calling Luhan but I couldn’t even get to him. He must still be busy.

                “I heard him saying something about getting married. Has the boy lost his mind?!?!? He can’t possibly get married!! He isn’t even allowed to date!”

                “What if he has been dating without you knowing?”

                “Then I will screw him. I will screw him in general once I find him.”

                “I’m worried. I think he’s in trouble.”

                “He’ll be in even more trouble after this.” Kris growled, making a sharp swerve at the junction. We arrived at the dorm and we ran up the stairs. As Kris’s assistant, I also have the password to their dorms. I keyed it in and ran in. In a quick glance, the dorm looked the same, but I knew something was missing.

                “Byun Baekhyun!!” Kris hollered, tearing inside all the rooms. I scanned the living room, searching through stacks of newspapers and magazines. The kitchen was clean. There are two cups on the rack. Two pillows. Two plates. I checked the shoe cabinet and a few pairs were missing. Baekhyun’s favourite green sneakers were gone. There were no slippers. I ran inside Baekhyun’s room and tore open his wardrobe.

                “It’s half empty.” I noted. T-shirts were gone, jeans but he left thick clothes and some other pants behind. He couldn’t or didn’t have time to take everything with him. His bed was still neatly made, but most of his belongings were gone. His cell phone charger, his picture frames, his toys and even his trophies. The room wasn’t empty, but it was incomplete. The owner had taken the soul of the room with him. I was about to leave the room when I came across a something at the foot of the bed. I picked it up and it was an empty velvet ring box, big enough to hold a single ring.

                I could feel my knees shaking as I sat down on the bed, holding the box in my hand. Did Baekhyun really get engaged? I put the box in my hand and left the room. Kris was in the kitchen, hands on his hips and the look of anger had faded away. Instead, his eyes were wide, lips apart as he heaved and he looked downwards. He looked up at me and I held out the empty box.

                “Kris…”

                “I know… he ran away.” Kris swallowed thickly and sighed. I went over and slipped both my arms around him and gave him a hug.

                I didn’t do it just to hold him; I did it so that I could be held too. I was so scared that day. So ing scared.

                                                                ************************

                By the time we got our senses back together, Luhan had also found out about Baekhyun’s disappearance. He was in the midst of a solo interview for a TV show and I could hear him falling to the ground when he got the news. We were still calling Baekhyun and almost everyone who knows him and even thought about getting the police when later that afternoon, Luhan rushed in.

                “Where is he?!?!? Please tell me you found him!”

                “We didn’t. We couldn’t even contact him.” I told him.

                “What do you mean he disappeared?! I saw him this morning!”

                “You did?!” Luhan was the last person to see him before he disappeared.

                “Baek?” Luhan opened his eyes groggily when he came out of his room. Baekhyun was in the kitchen, making toast. Baekhyun smiled at him. “How are you feeling? Did you have a good date with Sehun?”

                “Yeah,” Luhan smiled. “We rented The Hunger Games and watched it at his place. It’s too bad we couldn’t go to the cinema. I would have preferred to see something a little bit more recent.”

                “Oh well, that’s life.” Baekhyun shrugged sadly. He handed Luhan a plate of toast.

                “What do you have today?” he asked.

                “I have an interview later and a recording session. You have the morning off right?”

                “Yeah, I have to do something about my waist.”

                “I hope you take care of it. I don’t want you to go to London with that injury.”

                “Yeah.”

                Baekhyun cleaned up the kitchen as Luhan got ready. It was a rather regular morning. Nothing special.

                “I’m going off Baekkie.” Luhan called. Baekhyun gave him a hug and a pat on the back.

                “See you later.”

                “See you.”

                “So there was nothing out of the ordinary?” Kris asked.

                “No. Nothing. It was just normal.”

                “Luhan, do you know if Baekhyun was in a relationship or something?” I asked.

                “Erm…” he bit his lips and his fingers started to shake.

                “We found this.” I showed him the empty ring box. “When he called us he said something about wanting to get married.”

                “I…er…”

                “You know something don’t you? What is it?” Kris pressed on.

                “I…”

                “Luhan, if you don’t tell us, you will never live to go to London.” Kris threatened. I placed a hand on Kris’s back to hold him back.

                “Baek…” I could tell Luhan knows something, but he can’t decide if he should tell us.

                “Luhan,” I ran over and held his hand. “Baekhyun could be in trouble. You need to tell us so that we can rescue him.”

                “Baekhyun…he is engaged.” Luhan admitted. “He got engaged a few weeks ago.”

                “He was in a relationship?! Since when?!” Kris stood up, livid as his eyebrows were raised.

                “Since high school.” Luhan said quietly. “He told me he was going to tell you!”

                “Well he obviously didn’t and he breached our contract! It said NO DATING!!” Kris yelled. I knew he wasn’t yelling at us but his voice was raised and Luhan was quivering. I held him and looked at Kris, holding my ground.

                “Boss, you might want to calm down…”

                “Calm? Oh I’m calm alright!” Kris cackled maniacally. “I will kill that son of a . I will kill him!!”

                “Luhan, leave the place. He’s going to go nuts.” I rushed Luhan out of the office as Kris picked up the glass sculpture on his table and flung it across the room, shattering it in a million pieces. Luhan ran away from us as I stood outside in the waiting room, my hands covering my ears as Kris vented out all his anger by continuously smashing things and yelling and screaming incoherent curses. He was a wild beast gone loose and I could only stand outside and watch him.

                “Yixing…we’re in trouble.” I saw Hongbin, the head of the PR team rush in and he showed me something that was on his phone. “.” Was the first word that escaped my mouth.

                “They know about it. The media sites are reporting the rumours of Baekhyun’s disappearance and I have more than enough calls plaguing my team. What are we going to do?”

                I look back inside and Kris is still going nuts. I’m usually very sure about what to do, but at that moment I really didn’t.

                “I don’t know. I…”

                “What is going on? KRIS!!!” I turned to see Joonmyun running down the hallways and past me. He ran inside Kris’s office and held him down. He held the beast down and sat him back down.

                “I’ll tell you later.” I told Hongbin as I rushed back in. Kris had his head in his hands and Joonmyun was panting. “Yixing, are you…” I jumped straight in his arms and told him to shut up.

                I have never been so scared and so confused before. My boss is crumbling apart and it eats me up inside. Then came someone who restores some sort of order and makes me feel a bit better. I want that person to just hold me and shut up. Just hold me and shut up.

                                                                **************************

                Something told Luhan that Baekhyun would come back. He went back to the dorm and sat on the living room, waiting for him. He had no schedules that night and he stayed up. He watched the clock tick. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…his eyelids fell downwards and so did his body.

                When he opened his eyes, he could see a figure at the door. The figure had a bag in his hand.

                “Baek…” Luhan scrambled up and ran towards the figure. He ripped the figure’s hoodie down and looked at the brown eyes, pink lips and soft skin before him. It was Baekhyun.

                “Luhan…”

                “Baekhyun…what’s going on?”

                “I’m…I’m running away.” He said, rubbing his nose and sniffing. His eyes were red and his cheeks were pink. “I can’t stay here anymore. I have to get out.”

                “Is this about marrying Chanyeol?”

                “It’s…it’s more than that… I want to explain this to you but I don’t think…”

                “Tell me now. Is this about marrying Chanyeol?”

                Baekhyun bit his lips. “My future is with him. I’ve wanted to marry him since I graduated. This industry, this crazy lifestyle with all work, no rest, plus my injury plaguing me and the fans…those crazy fans...it’s too much. I can’t take it anymore. I need to get out before I lose my mind.”

                “But Baekhyun…what about me?” Call him selfish but that’s what Luhan has been wondering all this time. He could care less about their career, but what about him? He spent his hours thinking about what would happen to him if Baekhyun disappeared, what his career would suffer and how his life would change. Out of all of the times humanity has faced a crisis, there has never been once where we stopped to think about what would happen to the other party. It has always been about us. Humanity has taught us to be selfish in order to survive, a deadly trait in the chain of evolution.

                “You will be fine. You always will. You need to continue with your career.” Baekhyun pressed the button on the elevator and Luhan followed him in.

                “I always thought you were happy. Weren’t you happy with what we have? Our career and the things we achieved together? Weren’t you happy with me?”

                “You’ve made me so happy throughout this journey.” Baekhyun said, holding onto Luhan. “But it’s not fair for me to depend on you. I need to go out and make my own happiness.”

                “But you said you would never leave me.”

                “I’m not. I’m not leaving you.” Baekhyun shook his head. “I’m still here.” He pointed to Luhan’s heart. “I’m leaving showbiz, not you.”

                “You’ll just go and get married and then come back right?”

                Baekhyun kept quiet at that. “Would that be fair after what I just did?”

                “But…but I…”

                “Can you really look at me and promote with me whole-heartedly? Can you trust me after this?”

                “I…”

                “You can’t save someone that was broken in the first place. And I…I’m clearly more broken than you imagine.”

                The elevator dings and the doors open. Baekhyun turned, easing his hands around Luhan.

                “I’ll see you soon Luhan.”

                “Promise?” Luhan sniffled, staying in the elevator.

                “Promise.” The door closed and Baekhyun disappeared from view. Luhan fell back against the wall. He fell down to the ground, holding his knees and sobbed.

                                                                                ***********

                Elevator rides are boring and mundane. Exciting things just can’t happen in a 10 second ride.

                But the joy and euphoria of eating a chocolate cake can be felt in 10 seconds. A heartbreak can most definitely be felt in 10 seconds. For Luhan, it took 10 seconds to feel his heart fall apart.

                For Sehun, it took 10 seconds for him to register clearly what happened when he pressed the elevator button. He was supposed to check on his boyfriend.

                He found Luhan inside, hugging his knees and crying. He lifted his head revealing a tear stained face. 10 seconds later, he immediately ran in and cuddled his boyfriend.

                It, however, took more than 10 seconds for both of them to stop crying.

A/N: And now we begin a very long and bumpy ride. I'll try to insert some fluff and maybe some in between to break the tension, but for now, it's drama all the way. Do leave a comment to let me know what you think!!

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