When I get up in the morning, I like to be awoken by the sound of singing birds, or the smell of bacon, or even the ringing of a bell or an alarm clock. I like to be greeted by the sunshine and the sight of someone you love (or in this case, your housemate) greeting you and smiling widely. All of this promises a good day’s start and I believe that if you don’t start that way, your day will never end well either.

                So when I woke up the next morning, I found myself staring at dark ceilings and my back clinging to something sticky and terribly uncomfortable. There were no birds singing, instead it was the sound of heavy downpour, the rain beating against the roof and windows like bullets. I sat back up and found myself in Kris’s waiting room. The office floor was empty, but I was still here, in my sticky work clothes. The iPad lay beside me and I peeled my body off Kris’s leather couch. I stood up and saw Kris slumped against his work table. Then I remembered everything that happened last night and I wanted to fall back asleep.

                It would be almost 24 hours since Baekhyun ran away. I turned my iPad on and checked the news portals. My eyes were still blurry but I could see Byun Baekhyun’s name clearly, so I didn’t need to fully open them to see that the case has already made headlines. I checked Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and many other online social media sites to see if anyone had any clue as to where Baekhyun had disappeared to. One fan claim she saw Baekhyun get into a car and drive off somewhere but there were no pictures and no statement saying when or where it happened. No one had any clue and everyone on the internet was just or even more anxious than us. Ridiculous rumours and conspiracies come to light and I just turned off my iPad and fell back against the couch.

                How easy is it to run away? How could someone who couldn’t even leave the dorm without being recognized just disappear? We had considered calling the police but that could make this even more complicated than it already was. My mind flashbacked to the sight I saw yesterday. Kris went nuts, thrashing everything about and scaring the hell out of me and all our employees. Joonmyun came and stopped him. We tried to make head or tails of the situation, and the three of us including Jodi stayed up last night trying to contact him. But from the looks of it, Jodi went home. She has a family to care for so she must have left. Kris and I were probably so tired we just fell asleep here.

                “Yixing!!” I heard someone call my name and I saw Tao coming in, his hands full of plastic bags. He came in the waiting room and gave me a hug. “I was so worried about you when you didn’t come home last night. Joonmyun told me you crashed out here. Are you okay?”

                “Oh Tao…something terrible has happened.”

                “I know, I know, I saw the news and Joonmyun told me.” Tao patted my back and quickly unravelled his bag. “I got you a clean set of clothes and some toiletries. Do you want to wash up?”

                “Yeah. Thank you so much!” I hugged him back gratefully. Joonmyun walked in at the time and he helped me up. “Are you okay?”

                “I guess so. I’m not sure, really.”

                “Go freshen up. I’ll get Kris up. Maybe we can make sense of everything today.”

                “Okay.” I did what they told me to because that’s what I do best. My mind couldn’t help but race to where Baekhyun is. The fact that he is engaged haunts me. Did he elope? Why couldn’t he tell us? What about their European debut? The one we spent months working on? Are we supposed to just forego that? Is he coming back? What if he does?

                I could feel the water streaming down my cheeks and I think my tears got mixed in as well. After a long day, I finally broke down and cried. It’s hard to explain why, but imagine an egg that had undergone an earthquake and a volcano eruption. It managed to come out unscathed but the vibrations are still inside, so when you touch it cracks and breaks apart. By the time I came out, Kris was outside waiting for his turn.

                “Boss…” he looks terribly haggard, his eyes were red and his clothes were a mess. His nose was stuffed and we looked at each other. I think we realized in that moment that we had both just cried. I’ve never seen my boss like that before but I couldn’t move.

                “We’ll get him.” He said, lifting his hunched shoulders. “We’ll get him.”

                I didn’t want to tell him how much I doubted him then.

                Tao and Joonmyun had bought us breakfast. Coffee, warm toast, porridge and even scrambled eggs. I sat on the couch with the coffee in my hands as Joonmyun took the food out and Tao helped to clean up the area.

                “I hope no one got hurt. It’s a warzone here.” He said.

                “Aside from the glass statues and maybe little kitties, we’re fine.” I said, sipping the coffee.

                “So what do we do now?” Tao asked, sitting next to me with a bowl of porridge.

                “I don’t know. What’s going to happen?” I asked Joonmyun.

                “Well, I think we’ve established the fact that Baekhyun ran away to be married, but there’s a few possibilities, he could come back after he got married, or he could be running away for life. If that’s the case, he would have to terminate his contract or by law, we could get after him and sue him. So he’ll have to sue us first technically.”

                “Would he do that?” Tao asked worriedly.

                “He could. You didn’t hear me yesterday Tao. He was desperate, and almost hysterical. Something happened to him, something bigger than just getting engaged.” I said.

                “I can’t believe he would just run away, if you ask me, that’s a very selfish thing to do. He could just talk it out you know.”

                “I don’t know. Something happened to him and I’m just worried about him and Luhan. Poor Luhan…” I couldn’t imagine what Luhan was going through.

                “The media is having a field day with this.” Kris said, entering the office, looking refreshed but not any less tired. He grabbed the coffee and took a mean swig of it. “Those bastards, eating and chewing us up.” He tossed his phone aside.

                “We can’t do much about the media. Let them say what they want to. We can’t fully disclose what has happened until we are sure about something.” Joonmyun advised and Kris nodded. “Why do I have this terrible and impending feeling something very bad was going to happen?”

                He wasn’t wrong. A couple of hours later, after Tao had left and Joonmyun had gone to check up on his magazine company, we got a visit from a representative of the Seoul District Court. The lady handed us a file and I could hear Kris’s heartbeat stop. The worst had happened. We are being sued.

                Within seconds, the news was released. I turned the TV on and every single news channel was reporting it. BxL’s frontman Byun Baekhyun files for termination against his agency, Starling Entertainment.

                The company was up in arms, and the media was every bit of juicy rumour around. The fans were heartbroken and the rain was falling. Jodi called and said Luhan had refused to come out of his room in the dorm all day. I told her it was no different. Kris refused to leave his office.

                I wish I could tell you how the rest of the day went but I was thoroughly distracted. All I could think about was Baekhyun, all I could hear was the blaring TV and the rain actually getting harder, all I could feel was the hurt and betrayal for my boss, Luhan, the fans, the company and me. I didn’t know how attached and how much I cared for him until he left.

                The lesson I learnt that day was that as humans, we care. We care for the things and people we see every day, even if we don’t know them or have never spoken to them. We crave normalcy because the pattern that occurs every day becomes a part of us. When something changes, no matter how big or small, we can feel our whole world shift because no matter how we try, or deny, or say so, we care. We always care.

                Joonmyun came back and he saw me looking out the window, watching the rain fall. He turned the infernal TV off and put an arm on my shoulder.

                “Are you okay?”

                I hated that question. I’ve been asked that a million times since yesterday.

                “Shut up and hold me.” I sniffed.

                “Okay.”

                And he did.

                He cares.

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

                Kyungsoo didn’t hear of the rumours at all. He was out with Jongin until late at night, so he was surprised when he woke up the next morning and read the notifications on his Twitter and on his Tumblr. Why were all the fans in such a chaos? Had something happened?

                He read back the rumours and dismissed them immediately. Kyungsoo wasn’t a fool to fall for rumours so quickly. He thought it was something menial and that it meant nothing. Besides, he had class that day. He and Jongin had entered a social studies class. Kyungsoo was genuinely interested and Jongin did it only because it gave him extra credit. Nevertheless he had never had a class with his boyfriend before so he was excited.

                “Over here!” he waved to Jongin, who trudged in slowly, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He smiled at Jongin, who clearly just woke up not long before class started.

                “Why does class start at 8?” he groaned.

                “Because all classes start at 8.” Kyungsoo smiled, rubbing the back of Jongin’s neck. Their professor, Mdm Jenkins came in and class started. Kyungsoo was listening as per usual while Jongin tried to stop staring at Kyungsoo when all of a sudden, his phone started vibrating. Kyungsoo shook his head and said he would not get it. It could be just a small update on Twitter. Nothing big.

                But then, his phone kept vibrating in his pocket. There were so many people messaging him or tweeting him. Something big must be up. Kyungsoo took out his phone and his eyes widen at the notifications. He saw the words ‘Byun Baekhyun files for…’ and he could feel his blood travel down south.

               He regretted reading the article when he opened it. His hands started to shake and his phone dropped on the floor, breaking the silence of the class. Mdm Jenkins turned her head and raised an eyebrow at him.

                “Do you have a problem young man?” she asked him.

                “Er…I…” Kyungsoo gulped. Jongin looked at him worriedly. “May I be excused?”

                “Is it an emergency?”

                “Yes.”

                “Very well then.” Kyungsoo dashed out of the lecture hall, leaving his phone behind. “Excuse me Mdm but I’d like to check on him.” Jongin said, taking Kyungsoo’s phone and running after him.

                Kyungsoo dashed down the hall and into the men’s bathroom. “Kyungsoo!!” Jongin chased after him but Kyungsoo shut the door against him. He fell against the door he locked and eventually his body slid down to the floor. His breathing was ragged, his heart was pounding and then he tried to register what he read. He couldn’t finish it and then he broke down in tears. He cried and cried.

                Jongin could hear Kyungsoo’s sad sobs. He looked at Kyungsoo’s phone and he dropped it again. “Baekhyun…” he stuttered. His cousin took Baekhyun away. He eloped. With one hand on his mouth as the feeling of fear mounted upon him, he fell down against the bathroom door and slid down. What has he done? What did Chanyeol do? What is going on?

                I helped them.

                I broke Kyungsoo’s heart.

                He shouldn’t feel guilty, but he did. Kyungsoo’s sobs were the saddest thing he has ever heard, and he felt like he just made the biggest mistake ever. He should have never helped Chanyeol propose.

                The two of them leaned against the same door on opposite sides, breaking down and watching everything they know slip away from them like the feather carried in the wind.

A/N: No words needed, you all know what to do XD