Baekhyun was still awake when he heard his mom and Minseok moving around at the crack of dawn. He was still awake when Jongsu rolled over and punched him in the face accidentally before getting up to find Minseok (breakfast).He was awake when Taeyeon woke up to her phone ringing on his nightstand.

“Hello?....oh that’s today??.....okay um, when are you getting here? Oh no, I’m actually, my nephew and I accidentally spent the night at my boyfriend's house...” She glanced at Baekhyun who was sitting up in bed and staring out his window. “Okay yeah I’ll be home to meet you okay? I’ll see you soon!”

“Who is that?” Baekhyun asked as she hung up the phone.

“My friend, Tiffany, is staying with me for a bit. She just moved back to Korea and isn’t sure where she wants to settle. We were really close in high school so she’s gonna stay with me until she figures it out. I forgot today was supposed to be the day she arrived.”

Taeyeon got out of bed and started getting dressed, “Um, I hate to ask this but could you take Jongsu home later? I don’t know if Jongdae is there or not.”

“Um, yeah it’s not a problem. You didn’t tell me that you had a friend staying with you.”

“Should I have? You didn’t tell me you fell out of a tree running from your ex.” Taeyeon turned her back to him to change out of his shirt and back into her own. That was unnecessary as he wasn’t paying attention to her anyways.

“That’s different” He said quietly.

“How?”

“Because me falling out of a tree wasn’t a big deal!”

“Oh and me having a friend stay at my house is?” She turned back to him and he finally met her piercing gaze. He regretted it. He wasn’t angry, he was too tired to be mad, and he knew he was being unreasonable and that she was right. He just, couldn’t stop himself from arguing.

“I mean, you could have mentioned it. How long have you been planning this? You couldn’t have brought up one like, ‘hey so my friend is coming to stay with me from America.’ and I would have been like ‘oh that’s cool! I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Baekhyun you’re being a little unreasonable. We aren’t even that serious! We have been going out for like three weeks and, to be honest, I'm not even sure if you want to keep going out so why should I tell you things?”

He didn’t have a response. He got out of bed and put on a sweater over his t-shirt.

“Where are you going?”

“To take a leak. But I didn’t think we were telling each other things”

“Don’t be a child Baekhyun. We are adults, we can talk about things like adults.” He stopped at his door and turned around to look at her.

She was beautiful, even when she was angry and sleepy. He didn’t say anything, for once he didn’t have anything to say. He actually had to pee but he reconsidered leaving at that particular moment.

“Are you not gonna say anything to me?”

“Maybe...maybe we should break up,” Baekhyun said, staring at the floor. Taeyeon was quiet for a long time, then she scoffed.

“You know what? Maybe we should.” She stormed past him and he followed slowly, she got to the door and rounded again, “You know Baekhyun you could have just told me you wanted to my cousin instead of leading me on for three weeks” she spat, the words stung partially because Baekhyun didn’t like being yelled at and partially because they were true and he knew he deserved them. She shook her head and left without saying anything else.

As soon as the door shut Baekhyun finally realized what had happened. He didn’t even feel sad, he felt empty almost. He went to the kitchen.

“Where is Minseok?”

“He left to open the shop with D.O. Why?” Luhan asked over a cup of coffee. Baekhyun looked around and saw his mom and Jongsu were outside playing with Jongin’s dogs. “Jongin is still asleep.” Baekhyun sighed and slumped into the chair across from Luhan. “You can talk to me, though? If you like...want to.”  Luhan had never sounded more awkward or emotionally detached.

Baekhyun just sighed and put his head in his hands. “Can you just kill me?”

“Oh that would be fun, but I don’t want to have to worry about what to do with Jongsu.” Luhan took another sip of coffee and started scrolling through something on his phone.  “Did you see Apink’s comeback? Eunji is so pretty” Luhan said, ignoring Baekhyun’s moans of distress.

“Aren’t you supposed to be gay?”

“I can still recognize beauty. She has a nice face shape. Also the dance was so cool.”

“Taeyeon and I broke up” Baekhyun moaned. Luhan ignored him.

“Oh also EXID is announcing a comeback. Maybe now Minseok will have a new dance to seduce me with.”

“I thought you said I could talk to you?” Baekhyun stood up and poured himself a cup of coffee as aggressively as he could, which as it turns out wasn’t very aggressive because he didn’t want to spill it all over himself.  

“You can talk to me, I don’t have anything to offer.”

“I need to go to the hospital.” Baekhyun dumped the rest of the coffee and put on a fresh pot.

“I can drive you. I’m going anyway.”

“Why?”

“To ask Minseok’s dad for his blessing.” Luhan deadpanned.

“What? For like, marriage?” Baekhyun almost dropped his coffee.

“No . I just have to drop something off. But if you’re gonna be quick I can take you.”

“Could you drop us off at Jongdae’s house after?”

“Fine, just call me the Luhan Taxi. This is just because you got dumped this morning though.”

“I dumped her” Baekhyun pouted.

“Whatever you say” Luhan took another long sip of coffee, and then stood up. “We leave in twenty minutes.” He said before going to the sofa to watch football until it was time to leave.

Baekhyun finished making a pot of coffee and put it into one of the thermoses they had, then found some leftover baozai and put them into a container. He also dug up some old coloring books, some crayons, and a ty YA dystopian novel and put them all into a backpack with the coffee and the baozai. He also managed to not think about Taeyeon, or Jongdae, or Jongsu, the entire time he was getting the backpack ready.

“Jongsu, you wanna go see your grandma?” Baekhyun shouted outside. Jongsu smiled and tried to stand up but was stuck and face planted in the snow. Baekhyun's mother helped get him up and brush him off.

“Can we see Uncle too?” Jongsu was making huge steps towards the house so he wouldn’t fall again, Jongin’s dogs were running circles around him which made it even harder for him to get inside.

“Yeah. He should be there!”

“Okay!!”

Baekhyun considered calling Jongdae but he knew he would be there and he wanted to surprise him, he also didn’t know how he felt about Jongdae, or about Taeyeon. 

“Are you going to tell him?” Luhan asked halfway through the drive. Baekhyun glanced into the backseat, Jongsu was playing a game with headphones on.

“Tell who what?” he responded even though he knew exactly what Luhan was talking about.

“Fair enough. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Your mom said you came out to her last night?” Luhan glanced over at Baekhyun. Baekhyun stared ahead, trying to read the bumper sticker on the car in front of them.

“Yep.”

“She asked when Minseok and I are getting married,” Luhan said in a voice that blamed Baekhyun for how awkward that conversation must have been.

“What did you say?”

“ you” They were at a red light and Baekhyun could finally read the bumper sticker ‘my child is an honors student at Seoul University’.

“You said that to my mom?”

“No, I’m saying that to you. I lied to your mom.” Luhan began tapping the steering wheel nervously. Baekhyun smirked.

“Are you really asking Minseok's dad for his blessing?”

“And giving him a heart attack? That would go over well. Besides, what makes you think I’m gonna be the one to ask. Minseok might already be planning.”

“I guess gay people don’t have rules huh. You should propose on christmas.”

“I’m not proposing to Minseok I just like, assumed we would grow old together just the way we are.”

“Yeah but if you’re married you get a tax deduction”

“We are here!!” Luhan pulled into the hospital and parked as quickly as he could and getting out of the car before Baekhyun could say anything else.

**********

Jongsu looked sleepy so Baekhyun carried him on his back until they got to the floor with Minseok’s dad and Jongdae’s mom.

Junmyeon was at the nurses station, he looked exhausted but he smiled when he was Baekhyun.

“How is your head?” He asked,

“Great thank you, is Jongdae’s mom here?”

“Yeah they are in room 4302, but he was awake all night so he might be sleeping.” Junmyeon pointed out the room and returned to the paperwork he had been doing. Baekhyun let Jongsu slide off his back and held his hand as they walked to Jongdae’s mom’s room.

“Okay so if they are asleep we are gonna be really quiet okay?” Baekhyun whispered.

“Yes!” Jongsu whispered loudly. They slowly opened the door and were met with almost darkness.

A few rays of light had managed to make it through the blinds but for the most part all the light in the room was from the machines hooked up to Jongdae’s mother in her bed. Baekhyun almost didn’t notice Jongdae at first because he was curled up in a chair in the corner, fast asleep. His hood was on and he looked cold. His shoes lay on the floor in front of him and he was hugging his knees to his chest. Baekhyun put his finger to his lips, pointing at Jongdae so Jongsu knew to be quiet.

He found a blanket on the table next to Jongdae’s mom and gently put it over Jongdae, moving his hoodie so it wouldn’t leave a line on his face. He was drooling slightly but Baekhyun didn’t think they were to the point where he could wipe it off. He put the backpack on the floor next to Jongdae and unpacked it, leaving the coffee and Baozai and books and crayons on the table next to him. He found a post-it note and scribbled a quick note,

“This is the first of many payments I will be making- xoxo bbh”

He set the note on the coffee thermos and grabbed Jongsu, slowly leaving and closing the door.

“We’ll come back later okay?” Baekhyun said, picking up the child and carrying him back to the nurses station. He found Luhan talking to Junmyeon.

“Yeah he’s an but I mean, he means well I’m sure.” Luhan was saying.

“Talking about me?” Baekhyun asked, setting Jongsu on the counter.

“Anyway if you do find yourself with nothing to do, our christmas party is always fun. It’s at Minseok’s coffee shop- “Luhan wrote down the address “- if Yifan is in town bring him, im sure Yixing would be happy to know he’s alive. If he isn’t here than you should come stag, it will still be fun.” Luhan winked and put the note in Junmyeon’s scrub pocket. Junmyeon blushed a little.

“Oh my god stop flirting with every man you see you are taken.” Baekhyun said, pushing Luhan away from Junmyeon, “when he wakes up can you tell Jongdae to call me?”

“Yeah sure.” Junmyeon said brightly.

“Are you done yet?” Luhan asked Baekhyun.

“Did you get permission to propose? Can I come ring shopping with you?”

“Oh my god I’m leaving you here.”

“How are you going to ask? You should put the ring in the bottom of a coffee cup”

“That’s so stupid.”

“You should put it in the coffee grinder and tell him something is stuck clogging it up and then have him go look at it.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Luhan made it to the elevator and began pushing the door close button as fast as possible.

“Really?” Baekhyun bounded in after him, Jongsu in tow, making it just in time.  

“No, it’s a terrible idea. Also, I’m not proposing. Also, why are you so chipper didn’t you just get dumped?”

“Well, your loss. If he proposes first you are gonna be so embarrassed.” Baekhyun ignored Luhan’s jab at his relationship.

“He’s not gonna propose first” Luhan muttered.

“Thirty bucks says he proposes first,” Baekhyun said. The doors opened and an elderly man with a walker got on.

“That’s not fair to you, I could go out right now and win it.”

“But you won't. You’re too scared. What if he says no.”

“He won’t also you will owe me thirty dollars”

“So we are on?” The doors dinged open one more time and as they were waiting for the old man to make his exodus from the elevator Luhan shook Baekhyun’s hand with determination.

“So now that you’re single, how long do you think it will be before you’re deep in Jongda-”

“Luhan!” Baekhyun almost punched him but since he was driving he simply gestured frantically to the child in the back. Luhan shrugged but looked significantly at Baekhyun. Before they could say anything else, Baekhyun’s phone rang.

“Hello?”

“When did you leave?” Jongdae sounded like he had just woken up, his voice was raspy and Baekhyun was more than he was willing to admit.

“We just left. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“You should have, I wanted to see you.”

“I’ll send a picture, then you can see me whenever you want.” Baekhyun made his voice purposefully cheesy and was rewarded by a harsh laugh from Jongdae.

“Alright. Do you have Jongsu?”

“Yeah we were gonna go back to your house and wait for you is that okay?”

“Yeah that’s fine, I’ll probably head home in a couple hours, um, she isn’t going anywhere. If you want we can get dinner?” Jongdae’s voice was heavy now, Baekhyun didn’t like that, he wanted him to laugh again, he wanted to hear Jongdae’s smile-

“Yeah that sounds great” He was aware his voice sounded strained now, but Jongdae didn’t say anything. Luhan, however, shot him a glance.

“Okay good, and um, Baek?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you, um-” Jongdae obviously wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words, “Thank you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, I appreciate it.”

“Anyway, we are pulling into your driveway so I’ll see you when you get here.” Baekhyun hung up before Jongdae could say anything else. They were nowhere near Jongdae’s house.

“That was cute,” Luhan said, snickering.  

“Shut up” Baekhyun was scrolling through his selfies to find a cute one to send Jongdae,

“Are you actually sending him a picture?”

“That’s none of your business,” Baekhyun said, finding one from a couple months ago and texting it to Jongdae.

“You should call Taeyeon,” Luhan said seriously.

“Why”

“I heard what she said, as she was leaving. I don’t think you want things to end like that.”

Baekhyun sighed and waited for Jongdae to respond to his text.

“She was right.” He said quietly, “I was leading her on, and I was an .”

“Was she right about you wanting to-”

“Shut up.” Baekhyun turned red and Luhan sighed,

“Dude.”

“I know.”

“She’s reasonable, I’m sure if you talk to her you’ll sort things out.”

“Fine.” Baekhyun crossed his arms and sunk into the seat as they pulled into the driveway. He found Jongdae’s spare key under a rock in the front and let him and Jongsu in.

As soon as they were inside Jongsu began playing a video game and Baekhyun pulled out his phone to call Taeyon. 

A/N: sorry ik u guys want more baekchen so that'll come next chapter !!! also ill prob upload a playlist w the next chapter just to thank u guys for sticking around for so long <3