“Goodbye, Soojin. You will always be in my heart.”

A deep male voice stopped Chanyeol from pushing the door and he found himself embedding to his spot. It was not like he didn’t expect Kris to come. Though Kris said that he wouldn’t attend the marriage, somehow Chanyeol believed that he would come, especially after Baekhyun told him that he was leaving the country today. There was no way he would leave without saying the last goodbye to Soojin or at least coming to see her for the last time. He swallowed hard as the nervousness suddenly washed over him.

Silence came as the reply to his previous remark. Chanyeol could hear his footsteps coming closer and he didn’t understand why he stood there instead of walking away because Kris might catch him eavesdropped his conversation with Soojin. Chanyeol secretly counted in his heart, waiting for him opening the door but suddenly Chanyeol heard Soojin calling his name.

“Yifan…” Chanyeol felt something different in the way her tongue rolled his name.

“Yes?” It took couple seconds before he replied to her call and another silence came in the background. Beads of sweats started forming on Chanyeol’s forehead as the quietness made his uneasiness grew bigger.

“I love you too, as much as you love me.” Her voice was too shaky when she finally admitted her feeling for Kris and Chanyeol could tell that she was crying.

An inevitable immense pain ran through his heart. Chanyeol chuckled bitterly. It was not like he didn’t know that he would never have a place in her heart. He knew it, very well, but he always refused to accept it until last night Baekhyun came and slapped him with his words. Baekhyun was right. Chanyeol was indeed afraid to find out that Soojin agreed to marry him because she felt indebted for everything he had given her in the past four years. He had been thinking about his friend’s words all night long and now he was coming to her to let her choose between marrying him and leaving him. He just didn’t expect that Kris would precede him.

“I knew it. I’m glad you finally admit it, Soojin.” He said calmly. “Thank you for loving me.”

Soon Chanyeol felt ashamed of himself. If he was Kris, he would probably ask Soojin to runaway with him but instead of asking her to do so, he just thanked her. Could Kris be a bit more evil so he didn’t need to feel like one unforgiving bastard here? Kris loved her. So why did he not do anything to stop her from marrying him? Why did he just let her go when she asked him to? Why did he not fight for her? If you loved someone, you had to fight for her no matter how hard it would take, right? Was he wrong to think that way?

“Yifan…”

Soojin called Kris once again and Chanyeol didn’t know why he held his breath while waiting for her to continue speaking. He knew that he should have given up on her. She would probably hate him for the rest of her life instead of learning to love him for what he had done to her if he didn’t do anything to stop the wedding. But on the other side, Chanyeol also wanted to walk away and pretended that he had never heard anything, including her latest confession but his body acted the otherwise. He couldn’t move.

“Mm?”

“Take me with you.”

Chanyeol felt like his heart stopped beating. He couldn’t hear what Kris said afterward and before his brain could process, he found himself pushing the door open. Kris spun around almost immediately, his eyes widened when he saw Chanyeol. Chanyeol shifted his gaze to Soojin who looked as surprised as Kris but he didn’t fail to notice how beautiful she was in her wedding dress.

“Chanyeol…” His name escaped as a mere whisper and he could see fear in Soojin’s eyes while she was staring at him. Was she afraid of him? The thought made him feel guilty.

“I thought you said that you wouldn’t come, Kris.” Chanyeol said to Kris, shoving his hands into his pocket as he walked toward them.

“I just wanted to wish her good luck for the marriage.” Kris replied, a bit defensive.

“The marriage?” Chanyeol chuckled bitterly. “Are you really sure the marriage will still happen?” He shot them a look.

“What do you mean?” Kris asked, looking questioningly at the younger guy.

“Why don’t you ask Soojin, Kris?” Chanyeol stopped a meter away from them. “Do you still want to marry me?” He shifted my gaze to Soojin.

He could tell that his question surprised her a lot. She bit her bottom lip as she clutched on her dress. He saw Kris turning his head to see her.

“Chanyeol, I don’t want you to-”

“It is ‘yes’ or ‘no’, Soojin.” He cut her off.

“No.” Soojin said in a low voice. Chanyeol barely could hear her.

“You should tell me earlier that you don’t want to marry me, Soojin.” He smiled faintly.

“Chanyeol, I don’t want to hurt you.” She replied almost immediately, her eyes brimmed with tears. Did she know how much he hated it to see her cry?

“Do you think you are no hurting me right now? Today is our wedding day, Soojin. Out of all the days you have, why should you choose today?”

“I’m sorry, Yeol…” Her voice bathed with regret. “I know that I don’t even deserve your forgiveness. I’m the worst person you have ever met, right?” Tears escaped her eyes. Chanyeol unconsciously took a step closer to her but he didn’t have the guts to wipe her tears.

He shook his head. “You are still the best thing that has ever happened in my life, Soojin. You don’t need to apologize to me. It is me who should say sorry to you. I should have tried to accept the reality that you will never love me. It is me who needs to let you go, not Kris. It is me who must say goodbye to you, not Kris. Baekhyun was right. I’m just the villain in your love story with him.”

“Yeol, please don’t blame yourself. Everything is my fault.”

“I did a big mistake here, Soojin. I said to Kris before that I only want you to be happy so if in the end it is him you choose then I will just let you go. But what did I do? I never let you to choose. I lied to you and I also made everyone thinks that it’s you the mastermind behind everything.”

“Yeol, but I-”

“Take her with you, Kris.” Chanyeol interrupted her once again. Kris looked at him right away. “I heard everything. I heard her telling you that she loves you too. I heard her saying that she wants you to take her with you. You know what? You should pick another date to leave and not today. This is not very cool my bride leaves me in my wedding day. Tsk.” He tried to joke.

“Chanyeol, you are-”

“She chooses you, Kris. I’m just fulfilling my promise here. She told you to take her with you and she said that she doesn’t want to marry me anymore. I guess it explains everything, Kris.”

“But-”

“Are you going to tell me that you don’t want her anymore?” He threw Kris a look.

“That’s not possible.” Kris snarled.

“So what are you waiting for? You heard it too, right? She wants to go with you. She chooses to leave me because she doesn’t want to lose you.” Chanyeol gave Kris a single pat on his shoulder. Kris gazed at his hand for awhile before looking at his eyes. “I’m not planning anything. You can trust me this time.”

“Yeol.” Soojin called him. Chanyeol quickly diverted his gaze from Kris to her. “I’m really sorry.”

“Hush~” He placed his finger above her lips. “How many times I should tell you to stop apologizing, Soojin? This is not only your fault. Let’s say that everything is our fault, all of us.”

“My fault only.” Kris suddenly said. “Everything happens because of my stupid mistake four years ago.”

“Can we just stop it here? This everything-is-my-fault game will not end if we keep blaming ourselves, Kris. Every one of us is at fault. That’s the reality.”

“If you said so.” He mumbled, looking down at the floor.

“So, can I have a last hug from you?” Chanyeol brought his gaze back to Soojin. “Kris, I hope you won’t mind.” Soojin quickly glanced up at Kris who simply gave her a single nod. His expression was surely a lot better than Chanyeol’s when Kris asked her to hug him back then.

“Thank you for everything, Yeol.” Soojin wrapped her arms around him and the hug lasted for moments before Chanyeol pulled away and kissed her forehead. Soojin gazed up at him with a smile adorning her face, a smile that he hadn’t seen for the past two weeks. He realized something. Kris was indeed her happiness.

“Do you see that, Kris? She is smiling right now. She couldn’t smile like that before.” Chanyeol said with a playful tone, making her blushed scarlet. He chuckled. It wasn’t so bad actually. Because when he saw her smiling, the pain simply faded away as the tinge of happiness replaced its place.

“So that is true. When you see the one you love happy, even though you can’t have her, you will simply happy too. I guess I finally understand what love is now.” He continued, smiling gently at both Kris and Soojin.

“Chanyeol, I-”

“She is yours, Kris. You shouldn’t thank me. I have been so blind all this time. I’m glad I realize it before everything is too late.” Chanyeol said genuinely before he turned around and walked to the door. “Don’t forget to invite me to your wedding and I insist to be your best man, okay?” He added with a light tone and with that he left the room.

I decided not to put this into the epilogue so I posted it separately. I'm sorry for Chanyeol biases. Just kill me if you want to... *runaway*