AN: W00T 2 chapters in 2 days

To be fair though, I'd written them a few weeks ago...

“Guess what, pup? Baekhyun’s not home yet and I’m totally not freaking out.”

Some people might have thought the sight strange. A grown man, sitting crosslegged on a bed, babbling to a puppy that wasn’t his in the first place.

“You’re right, pup, I should call him,” Jongdae muttered, pouting. “But what if he’s still at work? I don’t wanna make him angry for disturbing him.”

Jongdae’s luggage was splayed across the floor of the guest room he was occupying, clothes strewn across the bed.

“Well, I’m going to be here for a while, pup, so you better get used to me,” Jongdae said firmly, simply sighing when the puppy stood, stretched and bounded off in search of Baekhyun.

Whatever; I’ll get more chances to bond with it. Him? Her? It. Jongdae frowned at the clothes all over the bed. Now the real issue here is what to wear… will it be a casual night tonight? Romantic? He slapped his forehead at the thought. What are you doing, Jongdae? He obviously hasn’t even warmed up to you as a close friend, let alone as a…

But you’re his fiance now, aren’t you?

“Black shirt, yes, I’ll wear a black shirt,” Jongdae blurted out frantically, trying to blot out the thoughts from his mind. The puppy darted into the room curiously, but padded away after a few moments, bored.

Eesh, better hurry up before Baekhyun gets home.

“Kyungsoo, what are you doing here?”

“What does it look like to you, huh?” Kyungsoo sneered. “I’m paying my… respects.”

From above, Jongin looked on worriedly. Kyungsoo, please...please don’t do this to him.

“I meant to ask you what you were doing, showing your face here.” Surprisingly, Baekhyun’s tone wasn’t cold, nor was it angry. It was simply flat; lifeless.

“Sweetheart,” Kyungsoo chuckled, “I can do anything I want.”

“Get out.” It wasn’t a question.

“No.”

“You’re this close to getting punched,” Baekhyun snarled. “Get. Out.”

Kyungsoo threw his head back and cackled, the sound echoing eerily through the graveyard.

“Baekhyun, sweetie-”

“Don’t call me that!” Baekhyun recoiled, dropping the flowers in the process.

“Shame,” Kyungsoo smirked, “because that’s what your pretty little fiance called me. Kyungsoo, my sweetie. My sweetheart. I just thought I’d pass it on to you. It’s a gift from him to me to you, aren’t you gratefu-”

“Shut up!” Baekhyun and Jongin shouted in unison, though Baekhyun was oblivious to Jongin’s desperation. “I’ve heard enough,” Baekhyun continued bitterly. “The voicemails on his phone from you told me that much.”

“No, no, no, no!” Jongin screeched from above, throwing himself against the barrier. As always, he simply bounced off, the transparent screen not giving as much as a ripple. He scrambled back, trying to claw through the barrier to reach them. “Baekhyun, please, I didn’t do anything with him!”

Down on earth, the two unaware men had locked their gazes. Kyungsoo’s eyes widened slightly before he grinned again.

“So you checked his phone after he died. Well, you were right to be suspicious. Because you know what, sweetie? He kissed me when you were visiting his parents. That’s right, Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo continued, enjoying the look on Baekhyun’s face, “while you were getting all buddy-buddy with his parents for his sake, he was kissing me. Are you jealous yet?”

“I didn’t-” Jongin froze, memories flashing by of a peck on the lips, then apologizing when he realized that it wasn’t Baekhyun. The flushed but delighted look on Kyungsoo’s face. “Oh, no...”

“Kyungsoo, stop-” Baekhyun’s voice was no more than a whisper now, and it seemed to anger the man in front of him, who grabbed him and pulled him closer.

“Answer me,” Kyungsoo hissed, inches from his face. “Are you jealous?”

“Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun mumbled with sudden realization, smelling the other’s breath, “you’re drunk.”

Something inside Kyungsoo snapped and he gripped tightly onto Baekhyun’s shoulder until fear, wonderful fear grew in Baekhyun’s eyes.

“Well, guess what, Baekhyun? Your fiance was drunk when he was driving. You know that at least, right?”

“What?” Jongin’s eyes widened. “I hadn’t been drinking! Baekhyun, please listen to m…” His voice died down as none of the figures budged, or gave any signs of recognition.

I can’t… I can’t do anything now.

Baekhyun shook his head. “The...the body was too damaged for them to tell.” He gazed bravely at Kyungsoo. “Please don’t do this.”

“Well, he was drunk,” Kyungsoo snapped, seemingly out of patience. “And that’s because he was coming back from my house.”

“Kyungsoo, please, you’ve obviously been drinking a lot,” Baekhyun murmured, looking down. “I’ll drive you home. Come on-”

“I’m not leaving until you die!” Kyungsoo screamed, grinding his foot into Baekhyun’s fallen bouquet until it was unrecognizable. The other man backed away slowly, tears in his eyes.

“Well, then, you’ll have to wait a long time,” Baekhyun hissed, and he sprinted out through the forest, making his way to his car.

Kyungsoo watched him go with a sweet, sick sort of satisfaction.

Go ahead, Baekhyun. Go die and be with your stupid little lover.

As Baekhyun slammed the door of his car, the unshed tears began spilling.

Why am I even crying? I don’t feel… that sad.

It was true. He felt strangely empty.

Which was perhaps why he was crying.

As he stopped at a traffic light, the bright red, amber and green all bleeding into each other through his tears, he wondered if Jongin would be upset if he died the same way he did: accidentally driving forwards during a red light.

And if he’d known how much of a sobbing mess Jongin was up above, he wouldn’t have considered it at all.

The dinner that Jongdae had prepared was getting colder by the second, and he was certain that the puppy had taken a bite out of at least one of the dishes. But finally, the long-awaited sound of the doorbell elicited barks from the puppy, and Jongdae jumped into action, grinning as he opened the door.

“Finally! What took you-” But his voice died down as he caught sight of the flushed, shivering mess on the doorstep.

“Baekhyun?”

“J-jongdae…”

“What?” Jongdae was absolutely bewildered. “What happened? Did you get fired? Because I can just-”

“No,” Baekhyun mumbled, and he fell forwards into Jongdae, who stumbled backwards but held on tightly to him, confusion still evident.

“Aww, Baek, what’s wrong?”

Baekhyun shook his head and sniffled. “N-nothing’s wrong. I just…” He brushed his hair away from his eyes absentmindedly, and that was when Jongdae noticed.

“...Baekhyun, you’ve been crying.”

Hesitating, Baekhyun shook his head again. “I… I’m just tired. I’ll go up to sleep.”

“You don’t want dinner?”

“No, but thank you.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Jongdae said brusquely, and Baekhyun looked up through his bangs, shocked.

“You’re-”

“I am coming with you, Byun Baekhyun,” he snapped, fed up with Baekhyun’s distance. “You know, you don’t have to act so tough and high-strung all the time. God, it’s like you don’t even care.”

“You know what, Kim Jongdae?” Baekhyun mocked, his tone suddenly vicious. “I don’t know what everyone expects from me. I cried at the funeral and you know it. You think I wasn’t heartbroken? You think I didn’t care that my fiance died? You think I didn’t care that the last thing that he did was cheat on me?” And the tears started to drip on the floor while Baekhyun’s puppy whined at their heels, but all Jongdae could do was stare, utterly shocked at Baekhyun.

“Baek… I… Jongin wouldn’t.”

“He would!” Baekhyun screamed, feeling his heart twist and pull in a million different directions. “He would, and he has, Jongdae! Don’t… don’t…” He covered his eyes with his arm and let out a pitiful sob.

“...Baekhyun…” Jongdae sighed, feeling his own tears well up. Jongin, what’ve you done? “Baek, it’ll be alright. Just come with me, and we can talk about everything.” He mustered up a gentle smile and offered his hand, which Baekhyun fortunately took.

“Come, let’s sit on the couch.”

Baekhyun sniffled and curled in on himself on the far side of the couch, while Jongdae maintained a safe distance. As he prepared a conversation starter, it came as a surprise when Baekhyun himself spoke up, voice hoarse.

“This man… Kyungsoo. He was… in love with Jongin. At the time I’d heard a brief mention of his name from Jongin, but I’d thought nothing of it because… because I trusted him too much.” Baekhyun swallowed a sob and laughed. “I wasn’t some possessive, jealous girlfriend. I couldn’t possibly imagine Jongin wanting anyone else. How presumptuous of me.

“One day I saw another guy clinging to Jongin’s arm. It was at some park and I was on my lunch break. I put a name to a face.” Baekhyun laughed bitterly. “Kyungsoo.

“So I asked Jongin that night who he was, and he said it was ‘just a friend’. Typical response, but we were engaged and I-” He choked on a sob. “He lied, Jongdae, he lied!”

Jongdae, who had been silent the entire time, shuffled closer a bit to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“So I checked his voicemails.” Baekhyun looked away. “They just confirmed it.”

Jongdae searched for a phrase beyond ‘he wasn’t worth it’, ‘it was probably just a misunderstanding’ or the dreaded ‘everything will be okay’ because he couldn’t tell a lie.

“Baekhyun… you know I’m here for you.”

Maybe it was the stress of that day, or maybe even the gentle tone of Jongdae’s voice that caused Baekhyun to burst into tears. And maybe it was impulse, or just pure friendship that made Jongdae wrap his arms around Baekhyun.

“Thank you, Jongdae,” Jongin whispered. “Thank you for everything.”

After a while, the sobs grew quieter and eventually faded away, leaving Baekhyun slumped over and asleep in Jongdae’s arms.

Gingerly, Jongdae slipped out of the embrace and moved Baekhyun onto his back, grabbing a nearby blanket and draping it over him. After a few moments of internal debate, he slipped under the blanket too, next to Baekhyun. It was a bit of a tight space, but Jongdae found that when he put his arms around Baekhyun, it was a lot less cramped.

Goodnight. Hopefully you won’t be mad in the morning.