After the call had disconnected, Baekhyun was back into robot-mode; speaking only when spoken to and keeping as little emotion on his face as possible. Even Jongin and Sehun’s incessant blabber and ual innuendos could affect him no longer as the photo shoot dragged on longer and longer. Chanyeol was, as expected, a true professional when it came to work. The two hadn’t spoken since the morning car ride and for that, Baekhyun was thankful, because he was certain that one more word from the giant would crumble his resolve. “Blind love…” continued to run through his head, over and over like an annoying commercial jingle, only serving to add onto the misery that was beginning to crawl its way onto his once happy morning.

          He’d thought that Chanyeol may have really, truly, possibly been interested in him, but he was wrong. It was just some dumb infatuation born from a drunken mistake in a foreign land.

          Normally, Byun Baekhyun was a realistic person who didn’t believe in such fads as magic or destiny or fate, but there was something in his sister-in-law’s voice that had the ugly head of uncertainty and doubt turning the cogs in his mind. He was genuinely scared… what if Chanyeol really did feel nothing but blind adoration for him? What then because if Baekhyun was being completely honest with himself, he was already falling a little bit in love with the tall, awkward photographer with a wonky smile that scrunched up his face and made him look just a little bit (or a lot) insane.

          “Well, you look like …” a whispery voice crept up behind him but Baekhyun was too preoccupied with glaring at his tablet screen (and sneaking glances at the hard-at-work Chanyeol who was clicking away – and complimenting, to his dismay – Jongin) which was opened to an email from a certain tiny businessman he would rather not talk to at the moment (or ever, really). Peering up, he saw his assistant standing a good few meters from him, smirking in his way while shaking a half-empty Venti Starbucks cup which sloshed around his iced tea.

          “I could fire you, you know that?” Baekhyun sneered.

          “Yeah, but you wouldn’t,” the raven-haired male bravely chuckled, slowly making his way over to his boss with a teasing smile. “So seriously, is something wrong?”

          “I’m ed, Tao, really ed…” Baekhyun murmured, harshly shoving his tablet back into his satchel with a defeated sigh. Tao, being Tao, already seemed to know what happened even before the designer could vocalize the rest of his sentence.

          “Does this have something to do with the tone of pheromones you’ve been exuding lately?” the assistant asked with an easy smirk, arching an eyebrow at the obvious darkening of his boss’ aura. “Or is it to do with the fact that you’ve been eye-ing Park Chanyeol for the past two hours?”

          “It’s everything,” Baekhyun petulantly whined, collapsing onto a nearby chair without consideration of anything else. “My life . And it’s my own fault.” He really had no idea why he was suddenly pouring his heart out to the one person he knew could leverage anything and everything he ever said to him, but Baekhyun was getting desperate (and if he was being completely honest, he really didn’t know who else to talk to since he had a pretty small – read: abysmal – group of friends), and would take pretty much any semblance of sympathy right then.

          “Well I knew that,” Tao joked, sobering up pretty quickly when the designer didn’t even bother glaring at him like he usually would when any form of insult or disrespect (or joke, really) came his way. Tao cleared his throat. “What’s wrong?”

          “You’re going to think I’m insane.”

          “Look, do you want my help or not?” Tao was already tapping his toe impatiently.

          “Fine!”

          “Hey, Baekhyun, what’s wrong?” Immediately, every bone in the petite male’s body chilled and his blood ran cold at the sound of such a familiarly enticing, deep, velvety voice and Baekhyun halted his breathing for a second, just wishing he could crawl into a hole because wow, here Chanyeol was, suddenly bent down in front of him, staring deeply into his eyes with an expression full of genuine (spell-induced) worry and concern and oh God, Baekhyun had completely forgotten how nice Chanyeol’s voice sounds and how good-looking he is and how amazing his cologne smells…

          “He’s on his man-period, I think,” Tao sniggered from the sidelines, winking suggestively at the stock-still designer as he walked away with a sly excuse of, “I need more iced tea.”

          “Do you want to talk about it?” Chanyeol murmured, sounding oh-so-y and looking oh-so-delicious and smelling oh-so-intoxicating in that way of his. Baekhyun couldn’t trust his words so he just shook his head. “Listen, the shoot is going well, so you don’t have to worry about it… as usual, Jessica’s being her ultra-cold, supermodel self and Jongin and Sehun—”

          “Don’t,” Baekhyun warned. Just the sound of their names drove him up the wall with anxiety. “Don’t even mention them…”

          “Okay, well, just relax, yeah? Everything’s running smoothly and if this keeps up, we can probably wrap up sooner than expected,” Chanyeol good-naturedly grinned, “And maybe we could grab something to eat again?”

          Panic rose up the length of Baekhyun’s spine at the innocent question because oh-good-Lord his heart was beating way too hard again and this was bad because he had to stop himself from falling too quickly. The alarm in his expression arose a look of sadness from Chanyeol. “Or, you know, we could take a rain check, if you don’t feel like it…” The relief Baekhyun felt almost completely overshadowed the sadness in his heart. Almost. Because if there was anything that Baekhyun never knew he hated, it was seeing Chanyeol sad. “Do you even like me like that, Baek?”

          There was absolute silence for the longest time in forever. “Look, Chanyeol—” He could barely even choke out the photographer’s name, let alone an entire coherent sentence before Baekhyun’s throat closed up.

          “Okay, right, I get it, I—” Chanyeol murmured, looking so much like a kicked puppy that all Baekhyun wanted to do was suffocate himself. “I won’t bother you anymore, okay?”

          “Wait, Chanyeol—”

          “Please, Baek, you don’t owe me anything,” Chanyeol whispered, staring at the slim fingers wrapped pathetically around his wrist and blatantly avoiding staring into Baekhyun’s hopeless eyes. “I, uh… I’ll finish this shoot, okay? No worries. But… I think I’ll pass on the fashion show.”

          “Chan—” He was already gone.

          The hours seemed to drag on after that. Chanyeol did his best to remain as chipper as he was in the morning but Baekhyun could see through his well-kept façade, if the photographer’s avoidance of him like he carried the plague was any indication. More or less, though, everyone – including Baekhyun’s satanic boss – seemed to be pleased with the results of the shoot, meaning that no shots had to be redone and that the end of the day was nearer than the setting sun. Soon, the crew were packing up and Chanyeol stood on his own, silently shoving his camera equipment into the big backpack he’d carried in that morning, smiling softly and bowing gratefully whenever anyone passed by with a word of thanks. Baekhyun, as he’d done the entire day, lurked in his own corner, pretending to look busy by flicking a lazy finger at his tablet every now and then with a painful gaze flickering up at the tall man every so often.

          All the models had already left, much to the designer’s relief, a half an hour earlier and now all that was left for Baekhyun to do was to ensure that everything was packed and ready to be returned to the office; the clothes, the photos for printing, the props, the staff… And in record speed, everyone was headed home in cars and vans and trucks, leaving behind nothing but a trail of dust from the unpaved roads outside the photo studio and Baekhyun watching their silhouettes become smaller and smaller until they all disappeared.

          And it was only then that he realized one vital and crucial thing: he hadn’t brought his car that morning. So, for all intents and purposes, he was stranded.

          “God damn it,” he muttered, kicking at the dirt with his loafers (and regretting it when he saw dust settling over the polished black leather) and huffing out.

          “Get in.” Suddenly, Chanyeol’s back was in front of him as the tall photographer walked ahead to his car, packing his gear into the trunk with one swift haul, leaving the passenger side door open as he stepped into the driver’s seat, starting the ignition without so much as a glance backwards.

          Baekhyun knew he had no choice but to obey, considering that he’d practically stomped on the guy’s heart, and settled in, buckling his seatbelt and noting that the click was far too loud in the silence of the car. No words were exchanged, no sounds filling the silence as they rode back to the city with the setting sun behind them. Baekhyun had never felt so ty about his life than he did at that moment.

          Unlike their morning ride up to the venue, the ride back to Baekhyun’s apartment was much too cold and much too silent, with Chanyeol being uncharacteristically mum and entirely too focused on the road ahead while Baekhyun was left fiddling with his fingers, stealing glances at the photographer and mentally kicking himself for being so damned insecure about himself.

          And that was what bothered him the most, if Baekhyun was being honest. He’d always perceived himself to be this totally professional, confident person and yet, when it came to the tall guy beside him, he was nothing more than a high-school teenager with an infatuation with someone he fears will never really love him back. It frightened the living hell out of him.

          But what if it’s not true? The small voice in Baekhyun’s mind continued to whisper to him, refusing to be defeated by the cloud of self-depreciation that had taken residence in his brain. What if this is all just a big coincidence? You’ve got no solid proof that that fountain nonsense is actually true…

          But before he could even think any further and justify his thoughts, they had somehow magically appeared in front of his building, where Chanyeol was turning off the engine and there was nothing left but the sound of the passing traffic and the indistinguishable murmurs of people strolling idly by on the sidewalks. And then, Chanyeol was speaking; “You know, this ,” he mumbled, flicking invisible dust off the steering wheel with uncertain fingers, “I really thought you felt the same about me.”

          “Chanyeol, it’s just…” Baekhyun tried, he really did, to continue his sentence, but at the sight of Chanyeol’s eyes as the taller man turned to face him had him completely paralyzed.

          “You could have just told me from the beginning, you know,” the giant murmured solemnly, “I really would have left you alone. I’m not some sort of stalker, I just thought I had a shot…”

          “Would you really have left it alone?” Baekhyun asked, uncertain of how his curiosity would benefit either of them when this conversation already hurt so much. “Because I don’t believe you.”

          “I would have,” Chanyeol nodded, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself of this as well because Baekhyun was giving him such a skeptical look. “It would have been really hard,” he added, “But I would have. I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable. Not like Sehun or Jongin…”

          “You noticed that?”

          “I’m not blind, Baek,” he smiled weakly, “And like I told you before, news travels fast in our circles. Photographers are notorious gossips, I said.”

          “So you knew?” Baekhyun asked, blushing a little because of the embarrassment. Again, Chanyeol flashed him a shaky smile and a single nod, just staring into his eyes are reducing Baekhyun into a quivering mess of nerves.

          “You could have just said you were into the model type, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol whispered, “I wouldn’t have been mad. I actually think it would have made more sense, you liking one of them. I mean, look at you. You’re gorgeous. And then there’s me… It just kind of made more sense that you’d like them. You liked Kris, after all. Everyone knows he’s handsome.”

          “Chanyeol,”

          “Yeah?”

          “Shut up and kiss me.”

Hey guys, I'm sorry for disappearing for a little longer than a while, I'd just gotten back from vacation and have been swamped with school stuff + jet lag for the past few weeks! But thanks for patiently (at least, I think so) waiting for me to update! 

I hope y'all like this chapter and I promise I'll try to be back with the next chapter much sooner! Till then, please comment and subscribe!
xoxo