II

The next day, Park Chanyeol was back at the café. He was on one corner of the café, his camera was on top of the table and his eyes were wandering around; he was waiting for his coffee. To be honest, he’s not only waiting for his coffee, he’s also waiting for Baekhyun. He looked at the time, it’s already past 10, but Baekhyun’s nowhere inside the café. 

“You looking for him?”

Chanyeol’s head snapped up at the voice. “Kai. Hey.” He sat up straight but he stopped moving about when Kai sat next to him. 

“Baekhyun’s not here, you know. I don’t know when he’ll be back.” He informed the older.

Chanyeol, with his creased brows, sipped on his coffee before fixing his eyes on Kai and asked, “Why? Where’s he now?”

“Oh, I don’t know where he is right now but yesterday, after you left, he fell down. He was screaming in pain. I guess it was because you were familiar to him and he was starting to somehow, uh, you know remember you—credits to the book about amnesias that I’ve read.”

“You think he’ll still remember me?”

Kai just shrugged before starting to walk away. “Maybe?” He stopped and turned toward Chanyeol before adding, “If he won’t, then make him.” He smiled and raised a thumb at Chanyeol. “If you do that, I’m sure he will.”

Chanyeol stopped for a while, staring at his coffee before grabbing his camera, leaving his coffee again and started walking out to his car. When he got inside, his phone started ringing.

Calling: Mrs. Byun.

“Mrs Byun, he—”

[Chanyeol, we have to talk about Baekhyun. I’m in your dad’s office, we’re all here.]

Chanyeol arrived at their company almost immediately after the phone call. He was walking quite fast that he bumped into a small person along the way. He muttered an apology to the person, but he did not looked back, instead he just continued walking. When he pushed the door of his dad’s office, his and Baekhyun’s moms and dads welcomed him with dishevelled looks. 

“What are we—”

“Chanyeol, dear, please sit down.” Baekhyun’s mom told him.

Chanyeol did as he was told but as soon as he sat down, he asked again. “What about Baekhyun?”

“Chanyeol, I heard Baekhyun scream your name last night. When I entered his room, he was crying and he told me he had a bad dream about you. I don’t know what kind of bad dream that was but he said he didn’t like it one bit.”

“Son, I know very well that you’re stubborn and you don’t really listen to the things we say, but please, just this time listen to us.” His dad pleaded. Chanyeol knitted his brows in confusion, just as he opened his mouth to ask what they were talking about, his mom interrupted him. 

“Channie, Baekhyun said that he wanted to go away from this place. Away from you.”

“Listen, Chanyeol. We are his parents, we know how to deal with him.” Baekhyun’s dad started. “But we cannot say no to him on this, we can delay him though, if you still want to get him back. Chanyeol you know we love the two of you, and we wanted both of you to be happy. The peace he was looking for isn’t going to bring him happiness, and you won’t be happy without him either. ”

“Son, you said so yourself that you don’t want to bother with him anymore because it will just complicate things and you don’t want to make it hard for him but we wanted you to be happy. See, look at yourself, you’re not the same anymore, you’re a different Park Chanyeol from the one we raised.”

“Chanyeol, we don’t want you to stay like that because it’s frightening. We know you need Baekhyun, and Baekhyun needed you too, he just doesn’t remember.”

It took Chanyeol a couple of days of thinking to get his mind to work straight. He was kind of thinking that Baekhyun might still not remember him, but he’ll never really now if he won’t try and make him remember. He was already convinced that not all people has happy endings, and he knew he’s one of those unlucky ones, but he wanted to give this a try. He wanted to try and see if people who doesn’t have their happy ending but struggles to have one will have their own or not. 

Baekhyun’s mom told Chanyeol that their son would go to Canada in the next month, Chanyeol cursed as he hit the steering wheel.

It was a Friday morning when Chanyeol spotted Baekhyun on his usual table, one of his hands was holding his cup of coffee, the other one was on the table. Chanyeol, who was outside the café, struggled to get his camera to work on a right angle and snapped. But he forgot that the flash was and so Baekhyun was startled. 

Chanyeol pretended to look at the other way and after a while, he decided to get on his car. He checked the photo he snapped once he’s inside. For the first time in his depressed life, Chanyeol smiled because he captured Baekhyun beautifully. As he looked at the photo, Baekhyun’s face seemed blank but as you stare longer, you’ll realize the feeling Baekhyun had through his emotion and you could say that he was waiting for something—or someone in Chanyeol’s hopeful case.

On a Saturday, Chanyeol went back to the café, instantly, he saw Baekhyun by the window who looked like he was daydreaming. While inside his car, Chanyeol hastily grabbed his camera before snapping a photo. He looked at the photo he captured and smiled again. Baekhyun looked really beautiful and he thought, in every picture, as long as Baekhyun’s in it, it would turn out beautiful. 

The tall male went inside the café and lined up as he ordered. “Hey, Kai, can you give me—”

Kai shushed him but was looking at a different direction, “He’s looking at you.” 

Chanyeol’s eyes widen comically. “He’s what? He who?” Chanyeol followed Kai’s gaze and indeed, Baekhyun was looking at him. The small figure by the window tilted his head slightly before blinking his eyes for a few times. He tore his gaze off of Chanyeol and went back to staring at the nothingness by the window. 

“I heard he’s going to Canada. What are you going to do about it?”

“Still thinking.” Chanyeol answered. “Hey, coffee.” 

“The usual?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay. Uh, just wait anywhere you want to. Or you could just join Baekhyun in his table.” Kai winked before turning his back on Chanyeol. 

The brown haired male walked to Baekhyun’s table slowly as Baekhyun stared at him, wide eyes. “Um, can I sit here?”

“Who are you?” The other asked him, silently.

“I’m Park Chanyeol.”

“Yeah, I know your name but who are you really? Why did I dream of you? Why do I feel this way when I first saw you?”

“I’m Park Chanyeol and I’m someone you don’t have any memory of.” Chanyeol doesn’t know why but when he said that out loud, it felt tonnes heavier and he felt his body sank down the chair.

“W-what do you mean?”

“You’ll know soon. Soon when you remember.” As if on cue, Chanyeol’s coffee came. He abruptly stood up and waved goodbye to Baekhyun. “I’ll be going now, Byun Baek.” Then he left, but he secretly hoped he’d get a reaction from Baekhyun but instead, like their first meeting—or rather just like the first time Baekhyun met Chanyeol, Baekhyun only stared at Chanyeol’s retreating figure until it got inside his car. 

Byun Baek.

Byun Baek. Baekhyun watched as Chanyeol disappeared inside his car. He was confused. He remembered someone calling him Byun Baek, though he couldn’t recall who. 

Baekhyun walked to the counter and asked for Kai. When he didn’t saw the guy, Baekhyun went to the stock room, maybe his friend was there and he was. “Kai…”

The other looked at him and raised his brows, “Baekhyun, why are you here? Do you want to talk? Let’s go outside.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m just going to ask.” When Kai nodded, Baekhyun continued. “Why is that Park Chanyeol always here?” Baekhyun was looking at his friend expectantly, he was sure he saw something in Kai’s eyes glint. “You know him, don’t you?”

“Do you really want to know, Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun’s breathing halted. Do I really want to know?  He was curious about the man but he was feeling uneasy with the way Kai had asked him. He in one deep breathe before nodding. 

“Baekhyun, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this but, wait,” Kai walked pass him and closed the door, locking it and walked closer to Baekhyun before talking in a quiet voice. “Baekhyun, something happened in the past three months. I don’t know what exactly had happened but it caused you to be like this. You do notice how your mom and dad were always worrying over nothing in particular because of you, right?” Kai stuttered a bit before shaking his head and continuing, “Baekhyun I’m your friend but I don’t have the right to spill everything to you. You should know it from him, he’s the one who has answers to your questions.”

“I…didn’t understand anything, Kai.”

Kai sighed before smiling and muttering to himself. “I just hope he forgives me after this.” He placed both of his hands on Baekhyun’s shoulders and leaned closer. “Baekhyun, you forgot him.”

Baekhyun pulled away, enough to be able to stare directly at Kai’s face. “Him? Him who?”

The worker smiled as he fixed his uniform. He turned his back on Baekhyun and started unlocking the door. When he opened it, he glanced back at his friend who was still looking at him, confused. “You already know who, you just don’t remember.” With that, he left Baekhyun and proceeded to the counter, muttering apologies to Lay and to the two others who was left all alone to deal with the customers. 

Baekhyun woke up earlier than he thought he would, in fact, he hadn’t had enough sleep last night. In his mind was something about what had happened three months ago. He was busy thinking about someone he had forgotten, as Kai told him. His mind is just so tired since last night but he couldn’t stop himself from thinking hard. His head was replaying some events that happened some time ago. 

Now that he had given thought about it, he doesn’t remember where he was before waking up in his room that very day when he discovered a deep wound on the side of his head. He doesn’t even remember when and where he got that wound. Baekhyun squinted his eyes, trying hard to remember what happened that day. All that he recalled was that he woke up to a crying face of her mom and then there was a figure of another crying person by the door. Baekhyun closed his eyes and bit his lips as he tried to make out how the person looked like. He couldn’t recall the face but Baekhyun was sure the person has this curly auburn hair.

Somehow, thinking about that person led Baekhyun into thinking about Park Chanyeol. He was almost wishing—though he couldn’t admit it to himself—it was as if he was hoping for that other person inside that room to be Chanyeol, but he couldn’t be. Not when that person has a nice curly hair ad Park Chanyeol has his locks straight.

Creasing his brows, Baekhyun thought that that Chanyeol guy was just really mysterious because one, Kai and his mom knew that tall male. Two, he seemed familiar to Baekhyun. And three, after their first meeting at the café, Baekhyun’s head hurt—if that’d count to his mysteriousness. As he was thinking, Baekhyun couldn’t help but notice how Chanyeol seemed to have been looming in his mind these past few days. He even had a dream about Park Chanyeol. Baekhyun sighed before pulling himself out of his bed’s grasp. He fixed himself with the thought that he has to talk to Park Chanyeol. 

The raven haired boy found himself inside the café, staring at his usual table which has been occupied by a group of teens. He puffed his cheeks as he looked around for an unoccupied table and there in a corner, at the back part of a café, he saw a free table. He walked toward it but a worker suddenly bumped on him.

“Ah, it’s okay.” He smiled as the worker bowed to him, muttering some apologies before walking back to the counter. Baekhyun flashed his gaze again at the table but to his surprise a man has it already occupied. It was Park Chanyeol. He was about to turn around to look for another free table when Chanyeol caught his gaze and smiled a small smile at him. Biting his lips, Baekhyun walked toward his table, having no other choice because the café is surprisingly full today. “Can I…sit with you?”

The other guy stared at him and Baekhyun just wanted to take back whatever he just said but then, Chanyeol nodded at the other free seat across the table. “Yeah, but only if we could be friends.” Chanyeol smiled at him. 

Baekhyun felt his blood rushed through different parts of his body. He didn’t know why he became so tense just because of a smile but he quickly composed himself and pulled the chair. “A-about that,” He sighed before sitting down and stared at the guy with somewhat gold and somewhat brown hair. “I’ll be friends with you, i-if you tell me…who y-you really are.”