"merry christmas."

"yeah."

the call was dull. in the background, baekhyun could hear the clicking of keys and the television running some news about inflation.

"can we facetime? it's been so long since I've seen you yeol."

"I'm a mess right now, it's embarrassing."

"oh, I see. it's alright."

last time he's seen his husband was thanksgiving, and even then, he saw his face through a screen. his love was in the heart of Seoul; working on a promotion project for his new boss. he left the household around June, a month after baekhyun's birthday. the two have been conversing over rare video chats and frequent texts, sometimes calling on special occasions.

"you got so many presents this year yeol, our neighbors miss you."

"you can open them if you want."

"I want to see you open them though."

"send them over and we can skype. you know my apartment number."

"ah... okay."

silence followed and baekhyun felt like his heart would burst. his chest was swallowing him whole and tears were choking his throat. it's only been six months. surely chanyeol still remembered how baekhyun's hair smelt, what the sheets felt like, and how warm it was when they cuddled together at night. surely chanyeol still loved hot chocolate while opening presents and cheesy mistletoe jokes.

"say something... please-"

"I have to go. this project is really hard baek, I need some time. miss you."

the call ended and baekhyun found his tears staining his shirt. it's been six months. isn't that long enough?

back in their senior year of college, everything was perfectly wrong. they sneaked out of their dorm rooms to meet each other. they stayed up late 'studying' when they were really cuddling on the couch of the television room together. they had romantic dates on the study hall table, the sound of hot noodles being slurped echoing through the darkened room. baekhyun ended up barely passing his classes while chanyeol barely passed ('my ,' baekhyun retorted. 'having A-'s and one B+ isn’t barely passing. that’s called acing the stupid class.') his own as well.

it was stupidly amazing. baekhyun fell harder and harder for chanyeol each and every day. it was, of course, no shock to any of their friends when they received a group text from baekhyun after graduation saying

'guys. im engaged.'

'i can’t believe im actually engaged.'

chanyeol on the other hand, sent out something like this

'i did it. I ACTUALLY DID IT. IM ENGAGED TO BYUN GODBLESS BAEKHYUN.'

the couple ended up watching some weird movie chanyeol found on the internet, the two still thinking about their recent engagement.

"so, i guess i can call you Mrs. Park- OW-" the taller winced and rubbed his shoulder where baekhyun and punched him, smiling though, when he noticed a slight blush. "you have to admit, baek. park baekhyun sounds pretty nice."

"it does."

the man sat crumpled against the front door of the once lively house. in his hand was a note he kept since his sophomore year in high school. the scrawls on the paper made no sense, they were so messy. the lines and he circles of the letters were almost too hard to decipher at this point. baekhyun held onto the note, hoping his tears wouldn’t corrupt it any more than they already had.

"so please, come back and remind me how it sounds. i want to hear your voice. i can’t live the rest of my life like this park."

he sighed and felt his chest contort from pain in his heart. the heart ache he felt was strong, spreading to his will to live and happiness.

baekhyun rose from his resting place to grab a red pen. the object felt awkward in his hand, as if he had never handled one before. he opened the folded note and retraced the check mark he put in the 'yes' box.