Yixing could say that the next day at school was not what he’d expected.

“Have you seen Baek?” Chanyeol frowned, looking around. He looked bothered and lost, to say the least.

Yixing shook his head, shrugging.

“He didn’t tell me he wasn’t in today, and he wasn’t replying to my messages yesterday… Do you know if he’s okay?”

Chanyeol didn’t even know.

Joonmyun’s hold around Yixing’s waist tightened.

“So he didn’t go running to you, then?”

Yixing elbowed Joonmyun’s side, sending him a sharp glare. “Keep out of this and keep him out of it. It’s not Chanyeol’s fault or either of your battles.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widened and he shook his head. “I haven’t heard from him since yesterday.”

“Baekhyun-”

Joonmyun was cut off by Yixing’s hand covering his mouth.

“Don’t say a word. If it concerns him he’ll find out.”

Joonmyun frowned but listened, and Yixing smiled apologetically, pulling out the notes app on his phone.

I don’t want to bring you into this, but Joonmyun won’t out so you should probably talk to Baek instead of us. We don’t really know what’s up with him, either.

Chanyeol bit his lip and nodded. “Yeah, alright,” he said, combing a hand through his hair, as he looked down. “Are you- are you okay?”

Yixing nodded, but there was a spark missing which was obvious to even Chanyeol.

Chanyeol knocked on Baekhyun’s front door. There was a single car out the front belonging to Baekhyun, so he knew he must be home. His parents were never the ones to miss a day of work.

“Baek, it’s me.”

He sighed heavily after waiting a few minutes for nothing. He could see the living room light on through the cracks in the curtains.

“Baekhyun, I know you’re in there. Open up.”

Nothing.

Chanyeol bashed on the door now, paled knuckles turning red as they painfully hit the wood.

“Goddammit Baekhyun, open up!”

“What do you want!?” the shorter boy said, annoyed as the door slung open. Chanyeol froze, partially in shock at the door finally opening, and partially due to what he saw. Baekhyun’s face was blotchy, his hair messy with dark circles under his eyes. On any other day, he would have refused to let Chanyeol see him like this, so to say it was a surprise was an understatement. It was worrying that maybe Baekhyun was just unaware, or maybe just didn’t care anymore.

Baekhyun huffed, staring pointedly. “I’d rather you leave, especially if you’re not going to say something.”

“Baekhyun…”

“What!?”

Unlike any other time Baekhyun had yelled, this was the first time Chanyeol hadn’t shrunk back. “Can I come in?”

“What if I said no?”

Chanyeol pushed past the door, frowning. “Then I wouldn’t listen to you.”

“’Yeol, go home.”

“Not until I find out what’s going on.”

“Oh, right, yeah. I get it. Joonmyun already told you what’s up?”

“He tried to, but Yixing wouldn’t let him and he gave in.”

“What a surprise.”

“I asked them what happened!”

“So then why are you here!? To break up with me?”

“What are you talking about!!?” Chanyeol pulled at his hair. “I’m here because I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m tired of not knowing anything!”

“It doesn’t matter what happened, it happened.”

“It clearly does!” Chanyeol almost yelled, “If it isn’t obvious you’re both upset, and you’re clearly looking a little worse for wear.”

“Just off, Chanyeol. I don’t want to talk right now.”

“You never want to talk! That’s the problem, Baek. Just talk to me for once in your life!”

Baekhyun didn’t want to give in, he wasn’t the sort to give in, but the pleading look on Chanyeol’s eyes was one that he didn’t know how long he could deny for.

“What sort of boyfriend am I if you can’t even tell me why you’re upset? Do you not trust me at all? Am I not good enough for you?”

“’Yeol, that’s not it…”

“Then what is it!?”

“I’m used to being the strong one! I’m used to being the one that keeps everything inside, okay! I don’t like to worry people, I don’t want to worry you, so just don’t ask and give me some personal space and hopefully I’ll get over this and things will be normal soon!”

Chanyeol snapped, hot tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. “I give you personal space all the goddamn time! I give you so much ing space it doesn’t even feel like its personal half the time! You’ve already worried me so just spit it out and give me some goddamn peace of mind! I know you’ve been feeling like you’ve been losing Yixing, but right now I feel like I’m ing losing you.”

Baekhyun finally cracked, breathing heavily as his knees buckled, and luckily Chanyeol was there to catch him.

“I ed up, Chanyeol,” he sobbed, “I really ed up.”

Chanyeol wrapped his arms farther around Baekhyun’s body, reaching up to his hair.

“Tell me what happened, okay? Tell me everything.”

“I spoke to Yixing.”

“No, no no no. Before that.”

Baekhyun bit his lower lip, clutching on to Chanyeol tighter.

“I miss him,” he cried.

“Go sit with Chanyeol.”

“But you usually sit with-”

“Calm down, I have other friends too. Maybe Chanyeol misses you.”

“What If he sits with Baekhyun?”

“You have other friends, don’t you?” Yixing poked out his tongue.

“Yixing…”

“I don’t want to sit next to you, now go away.” Yixing shoved him, before walking up to Jongdae, another person in their class. As far as he’d seen, his usual seat buddy was not there, and whilst they’d never had a proper conversation, they were at least past the acquaintance stage.

Yixing gave him the mind if I sit there? look, and Jongdae smiled, nodding.

“Can’t say I’ve ever seen you not sitting next to one of those two. You and Joonmyun look alright though, anything up with Baekhyun?”

Yixing opened his notebook, turning to a blank page.

I guess you could say so.

“You alright?”

I guess.

Chanyeol looked at Joonmyun guiltily as he entered the room, fingers linked with Baekhyun’s. Joonmyun shot Yixing a dirty look, to which he rolled his eyes at back, mouthing the words make friends.

It progressively got worse. By the next Thursday, Yixing was borderline mental breakdown, and Baekhyun was even worse. The guilt was eating him from the inside, but to apologise was to admit he'd said the things he had said, and he wasn't sure if he could deal with that, either.

"You're gonna hate me for saying this but- I think you should talk to him."

"It'll go away," Baekhyun said, "We'll be fine by next week."

"You know that's not true. Why are you so afraid?"

"Maybe he should be the one talking to me."

Chanyeol sighed, he was getting nowhere.

The longest they'd ever gone without talking was two days. It was when Baekhyun had been fourteen, and his grandma had made him go so far out of Seoul he couldn't get reception. Their arguments had always been petty fights- never something like this.

"He has a ing nerve," Joonmyun grumbled, watching Baekhyun from the other side of the room.

It wasn't that Baekhyun looked like he was faring well, either, and the dark bags that he couldn't hide under make up proved that. Baekhyun was going crazy. One minute he'd be upset, the next he'd be angry, and then he'd act like he didn't care. Chanyeol knew that that was fake.

Yixing finally gave in. "I can't deal with this anymore."

Joonmyun hadn't wanted him to cave in, to give up the fight that he clearly wasn’t the cause of. But he thought maybe the increasing hours Yixing had spent cuddled into his shoulder as he cried weren’t worth anything but pain anymore.

“Okay.”

“I’ll do it after class.”

Joonmyun placed his hand over Yixing’s on the desk.

“Okay.”

Yixing saw his chance as he spotted Baekhyun talking to the teacher, and stood at the side of the door as he watched student pour out, waiting. When Baekhyun finally left the room, he did not noting Yixing, turning the opposite way.

Yixing reached out, hand clutching Baekhyun’s arm. Baekhyun jumped slightly, caught off guard, before scowling at who it was.

“What?” he asked, irritated. The past few days he hadn’t been able to think, nor concentrate. Classwork was getting the better of him and his teacher had spoken to him about how he was behind. Yixing was not making it any better.

“We should talk.”

“What’s there to talk about?” Baekhyun’s voice raised. The last thing he needed right now was to be taken on a guilt trip. He didn’t want to deal with anyone right now.

“You know what.”

Baekhyun sighed, turning around and walking away. “I don’t want to talk. We don’t need to talk.”

They both knew he was lying.

Yixing gripped his arm once more, and Baekhyun shook it off, saying nothing more.

Yixing bit his lip. He didn’t know what he could do anymore.

Joonmyun was mad- no. To say mad was the understatement of the century. Joonmyun was totally, utterly and irrevocably furious as he made his way to his music class, and was coincidentally the only class he had with Baekhyun that Yixing wasn’t in, due to the latter deciding against music and instead free study periods. 

“What happened?”

“He shook me off,” Yixing signed sadly, gaze downcast. “I don’t know what to do anymore, I’ll just have to wait for him, now.”

Joonmyun couldn’t control himself when he spotted Baekhyun. It didn’t matter he wasn’t alone, it didn’t matter that he was with Joonmyun’s own best friend. His rage couldn’t be quelled unless there was some sort of conflict.

Baekhyun let out a yelp as he was harshly pushed back into the wall, a strong forearm pushing him against the wall.

“I can’t ing believe you and what you’re doing and your ing nerve,” Joonmyun growled, Baekhyun shrinking back into the wall so the other was towered over him. “I hope you remember when you first threatened me about never hurting him, because I am so ing close to punching your hypocritical in for hurting him this goddamn much.”

“Joonmyun-” Chanyeol was frantic, trying to pry him off his boyfriend. “What are you-”

Baekhyun wanted to reply, to say something, but his airway wasn’t having the easiest of times at that point.

“What you said was ing out of line, and when he tries to make things better you have the audacity to shake him off? You said something unforgiveable and then are an to him when he tries to make things better?”

“Joonmyun!”

Joonmyun paid no attention to the hands trying to pull him away, a weight that would usually beat him having no impact in his fiery state.

“I hope you ing realize how badly you’ve ed this up. You’re the only one that can fix this, now.”

Joonmyun pulled his arm off, and Baekhyun let out an audible gasp as air finally filled his lungs. The situation was awfully ironic, mirroring to a small extent what had happened the first time Baekhyun had learnt of Joonmyun’s interest in Yixing.

“What the is going on!?” Chanyeol shoved Joonmyun. “What the was that?”

“Why don’t you ask him, because he clearly didn’t tell you?” Joonmyun shot back, walking past the classroom he’d usually be in. He couldn’t deal with a moment more of Baekhyun’s presence.

Chanyeol looked desperately at Baekhyun for an explanation.

“I’ll tell you later.” he said, eyes downcast with a guilty expression.

“No,” Chanyeol grabbed his arm, pulling him in the opposite direction, away from the classroom and to the direction of the school gates. “You’re telling me right now.”

 Authors Note 

Joonmyun is definitely not a happy camper.
Neither is Chanyeol.
This chapter was actually split into two, because I didn't want things to move too fast ^^
The response I get from this chapter will determine whether or not I post the next one a little earlier than usual ;)
Depending on how motivated I am :P

Thank you for all the comments/subscriptions/upvotes from the last chapter!
They really mean a lot to me and they made me really happy so please keep it up ^^
I'm sorry this was a little late. I'm on holidays now so I've been sleeping. A lot.

Until next time! ^^