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Do you believe in happy endings? Because Chanyeol used to. He did believe in happy endings but things happened, life happened, fate happened, and that was when he finally stopped believing.
    

He didn’t know when it happened but it just did. Every morning, before going to work, Chanyeol always found himself stopping by the café, whether the purpose was to grab coffee or to watch the boy with raven black hair lined with green highlights. He would always feel incomplete without seeing the said boy. He knew he’s just torturing himself by doing that, and he’s always reminded of it when he goes to that café and found the workers stare at him with sadness in their eyes, but he couldn’t stop. It was something unstoppable. 

Chanyeol found himself by the beach. His gold brown hair was dishevelled and his white, almost see-through shirt was almost crumpled by the wind blowing violently. He walked around without any footwear, having the result of the sand sticking on his feet but he didn’t care. His pants were pulled up his knees. He continued wandering around, trying to soothe his wavering heart. 

This was his work—but not really since he quit his job last month because of a certain someone. He sat down with one knee raised up so he could prop his camera on it, and click!

Chanyeol sighed as he stared at the thing he just captured. He used to capture best moments, best memories, he used to capture emotions, but then, something happened and Chanyeol lost his will to capture things right—just like now. He clicked and captured the nothingness of the sky. 

He used to be a happy person, his behaviour wasn’t like it was now. He was never silent, not the blank and cold looking one. When he walks, he usually jumps, he skips and sometimes hums a song. The Park Chanyeol everyone came to know was someone lively and someone who always waves and greets everyone along the way, and not the Park Chanyeol that walks pass through people as if he was the only one in the world. Park Chanyeol isn’t one to hide his emotions but now…he doesn’t know how it happened. Sometimes, people are afraid of him because of his void looks, and when he talks, his voice lacks emotion. It just occurred, it was something he couldn’t avoid. Chanyeol knew that everything about him is wrong. He has changed into something he knew wasn’t right. 

It was some time later, while still staring at the dullness of the thing he captured that he had thought of a thing. He thought that maybe, if he couldn’t set things right about himself, then he should at least try to turn back to when things about him were still right. Pretty dumb, right? Even he doesn’t know what he meant by that. But to Chanyeol, if he couldn’t set things according to what he was thinking is right, then he has to start over, to return to the time where everything was still okay. Maybe, just maybe, by the second time around, he could avoid doing the same mistake again. After all, everything that happened was his mistake. 

Chanyeol saw him at a café. His arms lied crossed on the table, brows creased as if thinking really hard and cheeks puffed with air. Chanyeol chuckled at the boy’s face, before walking toward his table, and that’s when he saw the boy solving something that looks like…‘ah, a puzzle’. The tall male gently placed his coffee on the table, but it was ignored. Having no reaction from the sitting boy at all, Chanyeol pulled the chair and sat opposite the boy. 

The boy, startled, fixed his gaze on the stranger in front of him and slowly deflated his puffed cheeks as his brows knitted further and met in the middle just below his forehead. 

“Hi?” Chanyeol managed to let out, eyes glued to the boy in front of him as the other quickly arranged his puzzle pieces and stuffed them inside its box before hiding it inside his bag. 

“H-hey.” The boy greeted back without looking at Chanyeol. “Um—”

“My name’s Park Chanyeol.”

As soon as Chanyeol introduced himself, the boy stopped moving. Chanyeol watched, amused, as the boy slowly turned his way and looked at him straight in the eyes. “Park Chanyeol?” Chanyeol nodded, indicating that the boy was right. “I m-might have heard your name somew-where.”

Chanyeol doesn’t want to ask because he already knew the answer to his own question but he still tried, thinking they should not stray away from formalities. “What’s your name?”

It took the boy some time to respond but it doesn’t matter, he replied anyways. “I…I’m Byun Baekhyun.”

To say that Chanyeol missed him is an understatement. It was more than that. More than beyond. He always has this feeling that rushes through his veins whenever he sees this Baekhyun. Sometimes, Chanyeol just wanted to run to him and hug him, and kiss him and tell him, I missed you and I love you, but he couldn’t. He knew he could, but he won’t. He knew that if he did what he wanted, the possibilities of seeing the boy in the next days would be at risk, so he won’t.

Chanyeol chewed on his bottom lip before asking, “Can we be friends?” He looked into Baekhyun’s eyes, searching for something but failed, he only saw confusion. 

“Why…why do you want to be my friend?” The other asked, and Chanyeol could tell Baekhyun’s watching his every move.

“Just because.” He answered. “But if you don’t want to, it’s okay.” He waited for Baekhyun to answer but when he didn’t receive any, he stood up. He took a sip from his coffee and left it on the table before walking out of the café. He was hoping, though. He was waiting for Baekhyun to yell ‘stop’ and tell him that it would be nice to have a new friend, just like the first time they met, but Chanyeol was already inside his car and he heard nothing from the boy. He looked at the café through his car window, his eyes were searching for that male at the corner of the place, just beside the glass window and he saw Baekhyun. Baekhyun was staring at him—or his car. Taking one last glance at Baekhyun, he sighed before speeding off. “He really didn’t remember at all.”

Baekhyun was on his usual table again, inside their café. He’s always there, if not for the coffee, then he’s there to think about his puzzle. His puzzle which was missing a piece. He placed his elbow on the table and propped his head on his hands. He creased his brows as he thought hard of where he had placed the last piece. He’s growing tired of thinking that he let his arms lie folded on top of the table, but with brows still knitted, he puffed his cheeks and continued to stare at the puzzle, as if he would find out where the missing piece was hidden if he keep on staring at it.

On the puzzle was him, he was sure it was him in there, but there was another person beside him who’s a bit taller. It was a picture of him and another person customized into a puzzle. He didn’t know when he got that puzzle but that must be a gift, a gift from someone he didn’t know since he only found that puzzle inside the drawer on his nightstand with a piece of paper beside it saying: for you ^^

The raven haired male was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t have the time to be shocked when he saw a cup of coffee placed on the table. He decided to ignore that and continued staring at his puzzle, but all of a sudden, a stranger was sitting with him in his table.

Baekhyun lifted up his gaze, the air inside his puffed cheeks seemed to escape through his mouth when he laid his eyes on the beautiful stranger in front of him. His brows creased further as he tried to think of a possible reason as to why a beautiful stranger like this would sit with him. 

“Hi?” The stranger said, Baekhyun’s eyes suddenly widened and he caught his hands stuffing the puzzle pieces inside its box and hiding it away in his bag.
 
Thinking that maybe the stranger thought he was a rude kind of person, Baekhyun tried to greet him back, awkwardly, “H-hey.” Noticing that the stranger’s eyes were on him, Baekhyun tried to ask him why, with hands and eyes still working on his bag, “Um—”

“My name’s Park Chanyeol.”

Baekhyun froze. Park Chanyeol. Why does he feel like it was something familiar? He slowly turned and fixed his eyes on the male sitting across the table. “Park Chanyeol?” The Chanyeol guy nodded. “I m-might have heard your name somew-where.”

“What’s your name?”

Should I tell him? He thought but soon, his lips started to move on its own. “I…I’m Byun Baekhyun.” Right after he said his name, silence ensued. The silence was making Baekhyun feel uncomfortable. They’re staring at each other so Baekhyun broke it off and stared at Chanyeol’s coffee. But Baekhyun stared back at him when he heard Chanyeol asking him.

“Can we be friends?”

Friends?

The way Chanyeol stare at him makes Baekhyun feel mixed emotions. It was as if there was something he was missing but Baekhyun knew there wasn’t anything to be missed. “Why…why do you want to be my friend?” Baekhyun asked as he tried to eye the other intently.

“Just because.” As soon as he heard that, Baekhyun felt the urge of raising a brow but he forced himself not to. “But if you don’t want to, it’s okay.” The other added before sipping from his coffee. Baekhyun just stared at him while he placed the coffee back on the table and pushed himself up.

Baekhyun stayed rooted on his seat as he watched the other got out of the café. He continued watching as the Chanyeol guy went inside his car, the window was tinted so he couldn’t see but Baekhyun kept his eyes on it. 

Baekhyun sighed heavily as the car disappeared down the road. He didn’t know he was holding that breath. His left hand soon found its way up and he was suddenly clutching on the fabric right above his chest. Why this kind of feeling all of a sudden?

The raven haired boy got up and was about to leave the café too, when he fell on his knees. His hands felt for his head, it seemed like someone was blowing him in the head, so hard that he couldn’t even hear his own screaming.

Two of the workers rushed up to him worriedly, the other two froze on their places and could only watch him in pity. Some of the customers stopped doing their things and watched with wide eyes, some with mouth gaped, as the workers hurried their way toward the screaming young male.

Kai, one of workers, who is also Baekhyun’s friend, together with Lay, brought the owner of the café to the room beside the stock room. 

Baekhyun was crying and shaking as he buried his face in Kai’s chest, wetting his friend’s uniform. Kai couldn’t help but shed a few tears as his friend continued to cry and hold on to him as if he would die if he loosen his grip.

“Is he okay now?” Lay asked as Kai rubbed the back of the owner who eventually stopped crying but was still in Kai’s embrace. Kai just shrugged, he also doesn’t know.

A few moments later, the door of the room flung open and revealed a worried looking woman. “Baekhyun, dear, are you alright?” She asked walking past Lay who was near the door and sat next to Kai who was sitting on the bed with Baekhyun pushed on his chest.

Baekhyun nodded and a muffled ‘I’m okay, mom’ was almost not heard. The dark haired boy slowly lifted up his head and searched for his mom’s face. “My head just hurt a while ago, I don’t even know why.”

“Mm.” His mom nodded and scooted closer to him as Kai got up and pulled Lay with him to leave the two of them alone. “What happened before your head hurt?”

“I…I don’t know. I was just sitting on the table.” Baekhyun started, “Then a stranger sat with me and asked if we could be friends and after he left, that’s when my head hurt.” Now that he thought about the stranger, he felt like his head was about to hurt again but it did not, instead, he blurted out a question to his mother. “Mom, do you know someone named Park Chanyeol?”

Baekhyun didn’t know if it was just because his eyes were puffy that he’s imagining things or his mom’s eyes has really widen at the sound of the name. “Park Chanyeol? You met him?”

The male nodded. “He was that stranger who sat with me in my table. I—I’m not sure about his face but his name sounded familiar. Mom, do you know him?”

His mom looked at Baekhyun in worry. Chanyeol had told them (The Byuns and the Parks and everyone else in their circle with the exception of Baekhyun) not to tell Baekhyun anything about him but she just could not lie at her son. She nodded before she answered, “I know him.”

“Ah, maybe that’s why he seemed familiar.” Baekhyun was silent for a while before he hold his mom’s hand. “Mom, I feel really dizzy. I want to rest. Let’s go home?”