Chapter 3

Baekhyun sighed as he closed the door behind his ‘guests’, not even sparing them a goodbye. Sliding to the ground, he buried his face in his hands. Dammit. He wrung his hands in frustration and froze.

Looking down, he saw his ring finger.

Or rather, what wasn’t on his ring finger.

Baekhyun began to shake uncontrollably. No, it couldn’t be. He knew his parents were heartless, but this? They wouldn’t…

They would.

He knew they would.

Just to make him forget about Jongin.

Damn them.

Okay, maybe he just dropped it. Yeah. He just dropped it. Please, just let it be here.

He got on his knees and grazed the carpet with his hands desperately. Oh god, please. The last thing he gave me...

If they've taken it from me, I'll never forgive them.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Luhan, they took it.”

“...Took what?”

“My ring, the one Jongin proposed to me with. They took it. To make me forget about him.” Baekhyun’s voice, though muffled through the phone, was eerily calm.

Luhan bit his lip. “I’m coming over.” He stuffed his cell phone into his pocket and strode out of his bedroom, into the living room. “Chanyeol, Minseok!”

“Yes?” came two voices simultaneously, Chanyeol looking up lazily from the couch as Minseok turned in his chair.

“I’m going to Baekhyun’s house. Chanyeol, show Minseok around; entertain our guest. I’ll be back in a few hours.” As the sound of the door closing echoed in the apartment, there was a moment of silence until Chanyeol and Minseok turned to stare at each other.

“So…”

“So?”

“So.”

“Do re mi fa so.”

“You’re stupid.”

“I looked everywhere, Luhan, I can’t find it!”

“Okay, okay, calm down.” Luhan squeezed Baekhyun’s hand. “When did you last see it on your finger?”

Baekhyun in a breath. “At the funeral; I was playing with it. But...no, wait, it was there when I left, too.”

“Where were you after you left?”

“At my apartment...and then I went to the graveyard, and then back to my apartment. And then they came.” Baekhyun refused to acknowledge them as his parents.

“Why don’t we check the graveyard? Maybe you dropped it on the tombstone.”

“Okay.” Baekhyun stood, Luhan rising moments after. “Let’s go.”

“Luhan’s something special, isn’t he?” Minseok sighed quite suddenly as he caressed one of the picture frames that they were looking at, part of ‘Channie’s special apartment tour’.

Chanyeol froze, clenching his fists. Was Minseok going to…

“Luhan’s so kind,” Minseok continued, “and gentle, and sweet, and-”

“And mine,” Chanyeol interrupted, the tips of his elvish ears crimson. “He’s kind, and gentle, and sweet, and mine.”

Minseok looked taken aback for a second, but regained his composure. “And are you his?”

Chanyeol paused for a second, and that was all that Minseok needed to know. The older guy smirked.

“I’ve known Hannie for way longer.”

“You left him to go to China. I’m his best friend now, not you.”

"You've been friendzoned, haven't you?" 

"I've had reason to think you've been friendzoned more than I have." Chanyeol shot back, glowering. "And from the looks of it, it seems like you've been friendzoned by him much longer than I have too." It was a wild, desperate, unsupported blow, but it seemed to have struck Minseok heavily. The guest flinched and snarled.

"You shut up; you don't know anything."

Chanyeol put on his best smirk. "Don't I?"

"No, you don't, so don't go around spewing off your damn excuses." Minseok stormed off, leaving a somewhat satisfied Chanyeol in his wake.

Baekhyun shuffled quickly to Jongin’s tombstone, Luhan following calmly after him.

And then he saw them, laying neatly beside his small bouquet of roses.

Two fresh-looking carnations, tidy and delicate.

“What’re you looking at?” called Luhan as he hurried over.

“These,” Baekhyun mumbled, “they’re not mine. Probably his family’s, or-”

“No, Baek, I don’t think so,” Luhan cut in nervously, staring at the two flowers.

Baekhyun blinked. “Uhh…”

“One of my ex-boyfriends worked at a flower shop. He gave these two colours of carnations to me, well, along with a bunch of others, but that’s not the point. He gave them to me when he dumped me and explained each meaning. It was cruel.”

“Okay, so, what does it mean?” Baekhyun hissed impatiently.

Luhan pointed at the striped one. “He said that this one means regret, like if you’re saying sorry to someone, or it’s sometimes given at a funeral, which I guess is fitting.” His finger shook slightly as he pointed to the yellow one. “And that one means disappointment. It can… it can..." Luhan paused nervously and gszed down at a stoic-looking Baekhyun, who glanced up and scowled. 

"Spit it out already."

Luhan fidgeted. "It can also be given to your girlfriend or boyfriend if you don’t want to date them anymore.” The words tumbled out of his mouth in a nervous rush.

Baekhyun’s grip on the tombstone tightened. “That doesn’t mean anything. Someone could have just thought that the flowers were pretty and bought them.”

Luhan shook his head. “Baek, these kinds of things are done on purpose.”

There was a pause.

“My ring’s not here; let’s go,” Baekhyun replied crisply, rising from the tombstone and walking quickly away. Luhan bit his lip, an upset expression marring his face, and followed swiftly.

“Baekhyun? This is Jongdae.”

Baekhyun sighed, irritated and exhausted. “This isn’t a good time, Jongdae.”

“I just wanted to say- y’know- for the things, and how- like the parents, like I didn’t mean to- to- y’know, and I think that- I really think that- well, if you wanna know, I’m kinda- I- and they-”

Baekhyun tapped the ‘end call’ button and threw the phone onto the ground somewhere, stumbling into bed. He had neither the time, nor the patience, for Jongdae’s stupid, stupid stutterings and ramblings. He had some much-needed sleep to catch up on.

Jongdae sighed as the beeping of the phone echoed in his head. He just felt really guilty for exploding on Baekhyun. In the poor guy’s home. That they kind of intruded into.

But, as usual, life hated Jongdae. Oh, sure, first kill off his brother, then force him to marry his brother’s fiance! And as an added bonus, he got to piss off his now-fiance and then completely mess up at apologizing! Great; he could see a perfect future ahead of him!

Sighing, he turned off his phone and tossed it into the drawer as his eyes blurred with a terrible combination of exhaustion and tears.

What was worse was that Baekhyun was probably hurting a lot more than him right now. And he knew it. Oh, how he knew it.

And on that dreadful, dreadful night, a man and his new fiance cried in their sleep.