52: Baekhyun always was Luhan's person. Pairing!BaekHan, PostDeparture!Canon

It's mere chance that sees Baekhyun scrolling through his Instagram notifications at the very moment a fan tags him in something with the comment "Oppa, is this true?!"

Baekhyun's intrigued enough to go look, even though he knows it's probably just another fan video outlining all the reasons he and Chanyeol are obviously an item, engaged to be married, and/or expecting their second love child. Some of the theories EXO fans concoct truly are mind-boggling. Still, Baekhyun's curiosity gets the better of him this time, and once he sees the image Baekhyun's glad that it did because Luhan's name is right there on SME's EXO-M info page. Baekhyun's in EXO--he lives in a dorm with its members and doesn't need a website group profile to tell him about them, so he's never bothered to look before. A perusal of the picture's comments reveal that this is a new development, though, and Baekhyun finds himself wishing he could go right up to Lee Soo Man and ask "Oppa, is this true?" The honorific is wrong, he knows, especially since President Lee is essentially Baekhyun's boss, but he allows himself a moment to appreciate the symmetry.

As it is Baekhyun can't ask his company's president about Luhan's--and Yifan's and Tao's--return, so Baekhyun does the next best thing and asks Luhan himself. He formulates the message with care and sends it with a heavy heart, unwilling for a negative response--or no response at all--to crush the tiny spark of hope growing in his chest. Baekhyun was always Luhan's person, after all, and the Chinese boy's departure had been devastating to all of them, but had affected Baekhyun the worst. Baekhyun could understand why Luhan left, could understand the drowning desperation of homesickness in his own way. He didn't take it personally, either, because sometimes loving someone means letting them go.

And no one loves more in the world than Baekhyun loves Luhan.

It's for that reason, after waiting for an agonizing few minutes and then finally receiving a response, that Baekhyun rushes to the door of the dorm, flinging it open as he chokes back a heavy sob. Right there--right in front of him, in the flesh--is Luhan; Baekhyun has never seen anything more beautiful. Dropping his bags to the floor and opening his arms wide, Luhan accepts Baekhyun's tight embrace with budding smile and a few tears of his own.

"I'm back, Baek," Luhan whispers against Baekhyun's hair as the younger cries tears of bittersweet happiness into his shoulder. "I've come home."