He went home early that night.

The concert went well, maybe even better than their expectations. The lights were wonderful, his voice was working with him and hitting all the right notes.

If only she was there to see it.

He'd like it if she could be there to see it. She always had this funny, mesmerised look on her face when she was exposed to the stage and bright lights--and him. She'd look at him with those sparkly eyes and half open while he was singing, and he could ask for nothing more.

"Already going home?" Junmyeon raised his brows. Baekhyun nodded. "Someone's waiting," he grinned. Junmyeon chuckled and tapped his shoulder in mutual understanding. "Take care then."

Baekhyun wore his jacket, stepped into the car and headed home.

Her place, actually--but his home wasn't their dorm or his house. His home was a person.

His home was a girl with sparkly eyes and heartwarming laughter named Kim Taeyeon.

.

She was surprised to see him at the door.

"I thought you were going to celebrate with the boys."

He gave her his cheeky grin and shrugged. "I can catch up."

She let out an amused laugh and raised her eyebrows. "And you can't with me?"

"I can't wait to catch up with you."

She broke into laughter--her kind of laughter, the kind that rang in the air and warmed him inside out. He'd missed her--a lot. 

Taeyeon disappeared into her kitchen. "I don't have alcohol if you wanted to have some, by the way," she said to him, half shouting. 

"That's alright," he replied. "I brought some. We had quite a lot there--the boys were being generous."

Her head popped from the kitchen and she walked to him, picking up a bottle. "You want to open this?"

"Not without a game."

Taeyeon rolled her eyes. "A drinking game?"

Baekhyun nodded, visibly amused by all of this. "Drink when one of us starts saying something sappy."

Classic Baekhyun, she thought to herself as she held back her laugh. She didn't know if he realised it but Baekhyun has a way of stirring emotions--sad into happy, tears of joy and sadness. And she liked that about him--she liked how he never put emotions in squares. Feeling emotions with him was different; they were always a little bit more complex and comforting than what she felt with other people.

"Okay," she said, pulling out two glasses. Baekhyun poured the drink into them and she spoke up. "What was the concert like?"

His eyes lit up and the ends of his lips formed a small smile. The smile he always had when he spoke of his job. "Great," he said. "Beautiful." He fell silent for a while. "Would have been even more beautiful if I had you in the crowd, though."

Taeyeon burst out laughing. "That was sappy. Drink."

"No it wasn't!" 

"Yes!"

He laughed, gave in and brought the drink to his lips. "Alright," he said, half laughing before he drank. "Did you miss me?" Baekhyun asked.

"Mm." Taeyeon hummed her answer, picking the safe route. Baekhyun laughed and ruffled her hair. "Hey!" He said. "No cheating. Answer with complete sentences."

She pouted, and God it was cute. The three seconds that made him want to just squeeze her in his arms and not let go of her for another 5 days of concert.

"I did," she eventually said. "It's weird to not have you around. But I'm really glad you did well--I watched videos on the internet and you were amazing, you did so well during every concert." She tilted her head and gave him a warm smile. "I'm a proud girlfriend."

Baekhyun chuckled a bit, eyes attached on hers while he returned her smile. "You're sappy."

"I am," she bashfully admitted and drank. "Look," she suddenly said. "Jiwoong. I think he's getting a cat."

Baekhyun raised his eyebrows. "Really? How's Ginger going to cope with that?" 

His girlfriend shook her head, eyes fixated on her phone. "I have no idea," she said. "I miss Ginger."

"You said you missed me."

Her laughter rang again. "But I have you now. That's not the case with Ginger."

Baekhyun pulled her closer and ran his fingers through her head. "I know," he muttered into her hair. "I miss Ginger too." 

He stared at her as if he wanted to remember her face again. He was busy long enough for him to miss her that much. 

He loved this feeling. The feeling of sitting next to her and talking about things they knew only they understood, staring at her and seeing her stare back at him. And he could hold her hand anytime, or wrap his arm around her small shoulder, feeling just how small and vulnerable she was and knowing that all of her was his to keep.

"I love you." he unconsciously said.

She looked up at him, a little surprised, but the happy kind of surprised. Like she knew that one of these times that one line was bound to come along--but didn't know that it would really be there. 

He loved surprising her.

"I love you too," she said.

Good, he thought to himself as he smiled and kissed her forehead, life is indeed good.