He does not exactly know how long he has been sitting by the cafeteria, holding onto a small cup of cheap coffee in his hands. He brings the cup of espresso nearer to his nose, taking a whiff of the smell of coffee. Hospitals tend to have this suffocating stench of death and heartbreak. Chanyeol wasn’t such a fan of them – yet he could not bring himself to get the hell out of there.

He sits there alone, slightly glancing at the nurses and patients walking in front of him. The beeping texts are left unseen, the phone calls left unanswered—it makes Chanyeol feel like a bad fiancée. He leaves a ten-dollar bill on the table before he walks out of the cafeteria, taking a sip of his espresso as he walks around the hospital. Quietly, Chanyeol questions himself; why is he still here? He should have left hours ago.

Kris and Baekhyun are engaged. He does not know how, or when, or why, but as Kris had stated a few days ago, they are engaged. He recalls the way Kris had pulled Baekhyun into a hug while the latter was crying over his son’s unconsciousness. Perhaps Kris’ words were true after all. Chanyeol chuckles at the irony – he left Baekhyun because of Kris. He was too blinded with fame, too pathetic to make Kris have a good impression on him back when they were in college.

His shoulders visibly slump in disappointment, dragging his feet to the exit of the hospital before sees a delicate-looking man standing by the exit door, his hand softly rubbing the small bump of his stomach. The said man smiles when his eyes land on the guy walking behind Chanyeol, who rushes towards the pregnant man and holds him carefully by the waist, laughing with each other as they walk out of the hospital.

Chanyeol stares at the walking pair before he mutters a curse under his breath, heading back to the cafeteria instead of exiting the hospital. He might need another cup of coffee.

Somehow Chanyeol finds himself back on the 3rd floor, two cups of coffee in his hands and his heart on his sleeves. The irritating sounds of children screaming and crying come from his left and right, but all he focuses on is walking towards the room on the furthest left, not sure if he would regret doing so. He knocks on the door once, refuses to wait for the door to open itself as he welcomes himself in, almost dropping his cups of espresso as he notices the way Baekhyun’s reddening eyes brim with tears.

“H-Hey, Baek,” Chanyeol gives a lame greeting. Baekhyun seems fairly surprised, flinching when he realizes that a guest had walked in while he was mid-crying over his son.

Chanyeol’s ears deafen and all he could hear is the tapping sounds of water dripping into the IV. Baekhyun walks towards him, approaching him with a confused look on his face.

“Hi,” Baekhyun says. “What are you doing here?”

He tries to ignore the slightly cold tone in Baekhyun’s question. “I wanted to see how he’s doing… And I brought you coffee.”

Baekhyun’s piercing gaze on him softens as he accepts the small cup. He leads Chanyeol closer to the sleeping boy lying down on the bed, looking smaller than he already is. Running his fingers through the boy’s brown locks, Baekhyun sighs. “He’s doing fine for now but the doctor didn’t allow me to take him home yet. Honestly saying, all I want to do is go home. I hate being here.”

“No one likes being in hospitals, but I think it’s better if he stays longer so that the doctors could keep an eye on him.” He stares at the way the boy’s chest heaves up and down slowly as the boy sleeps. He looks so fragile – all Chanyeol could think of that this boy is his son.

“What’s…his name?” Chanyeol asks, although a bit reluctant.

Baekhyun turns to look at him for split second before his eyes drift back to the little boy. “Jaehyun. His name is Byun Jaehyun.”

Chanyeol doesn’t realize that he’s smiling until he feels his cheeks hurting. The name sounds nice on his tongue as he pronounces it.

“And as far as I remember, he has a twin…?” Chanyeol looks at the other boy sitting on the couch, a children’s book in his chubby hands.

“Byun Junhyun,” Baekhyun replies with fondness laced with adoration in his voice. He leans in closer to Chanyeol and whispers in his ear. “He’s pretending to read. Although Jun only knows the alphabets A to J, K and as I quote “Elemenopi”, he reads his books so seriously but blabbers incoherent words most of the time.”

Chanyeol laughs as he watches Junhyun reading his book with his brows furrowed and Baekhyun laughs along with him, both men standing too close to each other. Their laughter simmers down to become a comfortable silence.

Chanyeol’s grin falters as he notices. “They look—”

“Exactly like you, I know,” Baekhyun smiles bitterly. “They even have your ears and your eyes – all they inherited from me is their obedience and politeness.”

He grips into Baekhyun’s arm, then his hand reaches up to rest itself on Baekhyun’s shoulder—before he could stop himself, he has his left hand on Baekhyun’s cheek. “You…raised them well. And I’m sorry for not being there for you.”

“It’s okay,” Baekhyun nods. “I understand.”

“I want you to know that if I… If I had known about this sooner, I’d leave everything else just to be there for you and the twins.” He says truthfully; avoiding any form of eye contact as he confesses. “I was a coward and I left. I’m sorry.”

“If you didn’t leave, you wouldn’t be engaged to Chaeyoung now.” Baekhyun tilts his head up, Chanyeol’s palm burning onto the skin of his cheek, yet he allows it.

Chanyeol frowns a little, pinching Baekhyun’s damp cheek. “You wouldn’t be engaged to Kris, either.”

Baekhyun blinks in sudden confusion. “Kris? I’m not engaged to Kris! Gross, I’d let myself get married to the hospital’s janitor than being engaged to that guy.”

“You’re not?” Chanyeol blinks as well, his hand now awkwardly hanging mid-air. “But I thought…”

Junhyun whines suddenly, his attention now on his father as he throws his book away, getting off the sofa to pull onto his father’s shirt. “Appa, appa…”

“What is it, Jun?” Baekhyun kneels down on the floor to match his son’s height. Chanyeol tries to ignore the waves of warmth in his heart.

“Hungry, Jun is hungry,” Junhyun pouts, stomping his feet on the floor to emphasize his hunger. “Jun wants eat!”

“Okay, okay. Appa will go and buy some food,” Baekhyun chuckles at his son’s behavior. “C