pairing: BaekChenLay
length: 4057 words
A/N: Written at the request of ShaMusume! Hope you like it! I wrote two possible endings to this. One is called A Second Chance. The other is called Another Chance.

--

Wedding bells rang throughout the chapel as red and white rose petals rained down on the happy couple. Yixing smiled as he and Jongdae faced each other while lovingly holding hands. Sobs could be heard from both males’ mothers, who sat in the first pew and bawled their eyes out at the beautiful scene of their two sons being wedded to each other. It was a priceless moment.

“You may now kiss.”

“I love you, Jongdae,” Yixing murmured before the two wrapped their arms around each other and shared their first of many kisses as a married couple.

--

Married life was great.

Every morning, Jongdae would wake up next to his wonderful husband and the two would snuggle for several extra minutes before getting out of bed to prepare for work. And each day, when Yixing drove up to the building that Jongdae worked at, the two would lightly peck each other’s lips before the younger male unstrapped himself and left the car. He would always turn back to wave to his husband, who would smile and wave back before driving off to his own office.

While at work, Jongdae would sit at his desk, doggedly analyzing reports and typing up proposals to be sent off to his managers. Every so often, he’d glance at the clock to see the time and count down the hours until he would get to see Yixing again. And every afternoon at six o’clock on the dot, Jongdae would power down his computer, say goodbye to his coworkers, and race down to the front where Yixing would be waiting for him in the car.

Once the two of them reached home, Yixing would cook dinner while Jongdae took the two-year-old border collie they had adopted together while they were dating for a nightly walk. By the time the younger male returned, his husband would have several dishes ready to eat on the table and the two would dig in while speaking about the day’s happenings.

They would then work on their own work-related projects until it was time for bed, where Jongdae and Yixing would cuddle affectionately before falling fast asleep. Only for the cycle to repeat again the next day.

Weekends were filled with movie dates and trips to amusement parks. On special anniversaries, Yixing would take Jongdae out to a fancy restaurant where they’d clink a glass of wine, reminisce about their younger days, and discuss their future. During the holidays, the two would spend their vacation by traveling abroad and indulging in each other’s company while making new, precious memories that they could hold on to forever.

Jongdae couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life with anyone else.

Because life was perfect with Yixing.

--

Or so he thought.

Lately, Yixing had been acting weirdly.

He would never have time to send Jongdae to work anymore, claiming that he needed to attend to some issues at home before heading off to work himself. These issues were always work-related and Yixing would say that he needed to resolve them before he went to the office. So Jongdae would have to drive himself to work and bring himself back home.

To an empty house.

So Jongdae would have to make dinner himself. And eat the dinner himself. And clean the dishes himself as the remaining food for Yixing grew cold and stale.

Jongdae would then walk their border collie for about an hour before returning home and finally seeing Yixing’s car in the driveway. Once the leash was hung up and his hands were properly washed, Jongdae would go to Yixing’s study room to surprise him with a hug and a kiss. But the room was always pitch-black and vacant.

So the younger male would go to their bedroom and find Yixing already sound asleep.

When Jongdae would finally crawl into bed at night, he would feel a pang of loneliness strike him. It seemed like his husband had no time for him nowadays. Jongdae understood that work was important, but it seemed like he had been completely cast away. All the younger male needed was just a little bit of reassurance that his husband still cared about him. Anything would do.

A quick hug. An encouraging smile. A light kiss. A declaration of the phrase, “I love you.”

Jongdae was desperate for anything at this point.

--

But things kept getting worse.

When Jongdae was changing into his pajamas in the closet one night, he found Yixing’s clothes messily thrown onto the floor. With a sigh, the younger male carefully picked up the rumpled articles of clothing and shook them out before placing them into the laundry bin. But as soon as they left his hands, he realized there was a strange and unfamiliar smell being emitted from them. Stooping down to pick up Yixing’s light blue shirt, Jongdae brought it up to his nose and sniffed it warily.

This woodsy smell with heavy notes of pine was completely foreign to Jongdae. He personally used a lighter lavender-based cologne while Yixing usually used a muskier amber aroma. He couldn’t fathom why this heavy scent was all over his husband’s shirt.

Or he just didn’t want to think of the obvious explanation.

Because even if he tried to block them out, the suspicions were beginning to creep through his mind.

And Jongdae hated that.

He didn’t want to doubt his husband. He didn’t want to lose trust in the one he had pledged to spend forever with. He didn’t want to believe that the love of his life was going behind his back.

And cheating on him.

--

Yixing’s phone buzzed softly as its screen lit up in the dark room. Jongdae sleepily rubbed his eyes and was about to drift back into dreamland when the phone buzzed again. Wondering who was messaging his husband so late at night, Jongdae reached over to grab the phone and looked at the screen.

Wu Yifan
Thanks for the other night. I really appreciate you coming over. It means a lot to me.

Wu Yifan
I was wondering if you were free again sometime soon. I’m free all day tomorrow, so if we could get together then, that’d be great.

Jongdae didn’t realize he was crying until his vision blurred with tears that splashed onto the phone screen. Not wanting to wake up Yixing, who was in a deep sleep, Jongdae carefully wiped the screen and set it back on the counter of the older male’s dresser. And as he laid back down, he felt like everything he knew was a lie.

And a small piece of his heart died that night.

--

“What is this?” Yixing stormed into the dining room, tossing a manila envelope onto the table. His eyes were blazing as he stared at his husband, waiting for an answer.

Jongdae folded up the newspaper he had been reading and stared straight back at the older male without picking up the envelope. After all, he already knew what it contained, having placed the envelope on Yixing’s desk himself. “It’s exactly what it says.”

“And why did you suddenly decide we should get a divorce?!” Yixing roared as he picked up the envelope again and shook it in Jongdae’s face. “What is wrong with you?!”

“What’s wrong with ME?!” The chair Jongdae had been sitting in screeched loudly as it was roughly pushed back while the younger male suddenly stood up to face his husband. “You’re the one who never comes home anymore! When was the last time we had dinner together?! And when you do come home, you go straight to bed without even greeting me! It’s like I’m living with some random guy who’s just boarding in my house!”

“This is my house as well!” Yixing shot back. “And just because I haven’t been coming home as early as I used to doesn’t mean we need to get a divorce! That’s going completely overboard!”

“Not when you come home smelling like other men.”

“What?” Yixing’s face instantly paled. “What are you talking about, Jongdae?”

The younger male tried to fight the tears that were threatening to spill out of his eyes as he choked out, “You’ve never used a pine-based cologne before. And Zitao told me he saw you with another guy at a bar one night.”

“Jongdae, that’s—”

“STOP!” Jongdae yelled, unable to hold back the flood of tears. “JUST STOP TALKING, YIXING. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT. I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANY EXCUSES FROM YOU ABOUT YOU CHEATING ON ME WITH WHOEVER WU YIFAN IS.”

“JUST LET ME SPEAK!” Yixing grabbed Jongdae’s shoulder and shook the smaller male, trying to stop his husband from continuing with his tirade.

But Jongdae didn’t want to hear his husband’s voice anymore. The younger male’s chest ached too much due to this confrontation.

He was tired of this. Tired of waiting. Tired of trying. Tired of everything that had to do with this marriage. “Let’s just stop this, Yixing. I don’t want to be in this toxic relationship anymore. I just…want to be happy.”

The severe words spoken in Jongdae’s emotionless voice shattered Yixing’s heart. The older male looked, really looked, for the first time in months at his husband. There were dark circles under Jongdae’s eyes, emphasizing how fatigued he was. His peaked face carried no hint of cheerfulness that was usually there and his hollow cheeks made him look even more worn out. Jongdae looked terrible.

And it was all Yixing’s fault.

“If…if I sign this, will it really make you happy?” Yixing prayed that he would say no. He needed another chance. He needed to make it up to his husband. He needed Jongdae.

But not everyone was allowed a second chance.

And Yixing felt like he was tumbling down a bottomless hole when Jongdae resolutely nodded, tears still falling from his eyes.

“Please.”

So Yixing gave in. Because on their wedding day, he had promised that he would make Jongdae happy, no matter what. And if signing the divorce papers would bring happiness back into Jongdae’s life, Yixing would do it.

Even if he felt like he was killing a part of his soul.

--

Jongdae looked around his empty house, now a bachelor pad. Yixing had moved out as soon as the divorce was finalized. A bitter taste filled his mouth, because his now ex-husband was probably going to move in with Wu Yifan, whoever that trashy guy was. Yixing didn’t say anything about where he would be living from now on, but Jongdae wouldn’t be surprised if he was already settling down in Wu Yifan’s house, wherever that was.

Or maybe he just wanted to believe it, so the pain and anger from the divorce that still afflicted him could be justified.

Jongdae didn’t know anymore.

He the furry head of his border collie, who was laying on his lap, as the two sat on the leather couch in the living room. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he still missed Yixing. The older male had been his other half. And without him, Jongdae felt incomplete.

“Yixing shouldn’t have cheated on you then,” Zitao reminded Jongdae as he rubbed the devastated man’s back in comfort. The two were sitting in the parlor of Zitao’s house, since Jongdae didn’t want to be at home while Yixing was packing his belongings.

But even so, Jongdae couldn’t erase the last eight years he had been with Yixing. It wasn’t that easy.

--

After he picked up his strawberry smoothie, Jongdae walked past another man who piqued his interest. He paused and looked back, trying to see why this man looked so familiar. It was just on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t figure out what about this man had caught his eye. Jongdae moved to the side after someone had asked if he was in line and he continued looking at the mystery man from his new spot, sipping his smoothie pensively.

Several minutes later, the man finally turned around after paying for his order. And Jongdae’s eyes widened in shock. He had seen this man in several pictures with Yixing. Even if he knew it was completely masochistic of him, Jongdae walked up to the man and tapped his shoulder. “Excuse me?”

The man turned around in surprise. “Yes?”

“Do you…know Zhang Yixing?”

“Yixing? He’s my cousin. Well, cousin-in-law to be exact. It’s complicated.” The man laughed. “Are you a friend of Yixing’s?”

“N-no…” Jongdae’s heart constricted with pain as he thought of his ex-husband. “I…just know him…”

“Oh, that’s cool. I’m Byun Baekhyun.” The man held out his hand and Jongdae hesitantly took it, his fingers soon enveloped in a firm handshake.

And that was the start of an unexpected friendship.

--

Jongdae knew he couldn’t lie to himself. And he couldn’t continue lying to Baekhyun either. Not when he was beginning to feel something for the other male. Jongdae had never broached the topic of Yixing since that day more than three years ago. The two had become close and Baekhyun would encourage Jongdae to go out with him on nights when the younger male felt like staying in. When Zitao found out about this new friendship, he hinted that maybe it was time for Jongdae to get back into the dating game. After all, he couldn’t mope around forever, especially when he was still young and attractive.

But Jongdae was apprehensive of opening up his heart again. Because a tiny part of him still wanted Yixing back. A tiny part of him was still hopelessly waiting for Yixing to miraculously appear on his doorstep.

Jongdae knew he was crazy. What sane man would wish for his cheating ex-husband to return to him? Zitao knew that Jongdae was still beating himself up over the divorce, despite several years having passed since then. Which was why he tried to get Jongdae to at least consider meeting other guys, since it didn’t seem like he wanted to pursue anything with Baekhyun.

That wasn’t completely true. Jongdae was just afraid that Baekhyun would look at him differently if the older male knew that he had previously been married, to his cousin of all people. He knew if a bomb like that had been dropped on him, he would be very wary of starting something romantic with that person.

Even so, Jongdae knew he couldn’t keep it a secret from Baekhyun forever. That wasn’t fair to him as a friend. And that was why he invited Baekhyun over to his house one Saturday afternoon.

“What’s up?” Baekhyun plopped himself onto Jongdae’s couch while the younger male brought over two glasses of chilled water from the kitchen.

As Jongdae sat next to Baekhyun, he tensely pulled at his shirt collar, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he gulped nervously. “Um, I need to tell you something.”

Baekhyun sat up straighter as the serious atmosphere surrounded the two men sitting in the living room. He smiled encouragingly at the younger male, hoping to ease some of the tension that was emanating off of Jongdae. “Go ahead.”

“I hope this doesn’t have an effect on anything between us.”

“It won’t,” Baekhyun promised reassuringly.

So Jongdae plucked up the courage and began to divulge the part of his life that he had kept hidden from Baekhyun for three years. “Remember how I asked you about Yixing when we first met?”

“Yeah. You guys are acquaintances, right?”

“Not exactly…” And then came the moment of truth. “He’s my ex-husband.”

There was a long stretch of silence following the revelation. Baekhyun’s mouth dropped open as his brain processed the information he had just received. Jongdae had been married before? To his cousin? “Y-you were the one Yixing married?”

Jongdae nodded, feeling scared.

“Oh my gosh. That means I missed YOUR wedding.” Seeing Jongdae’s questioning gaze, Baekhyun explained, “Yixing invited me to his wedding all those years ago, but I couldn’t attend because I had a conference that weekend. So I never met his husband, who turned out to be…you.”

“Oh.”

There was another pregnant pause until Baekhyun spoke again. “What happened?”

Even three years later, it was still painful to say the words. “Yixing…cheated on me.”

“What?!” Baekhyun looked at Jongdae in disbelief. “He did?!”

Jongdae nodded again.

“That’s…that’s impossible…” Baekhyun breathed out. “The Yixing I knew would never cheat.”

“He did though.” There was a hardened edge to Jongdae’s voice now. Because even if he didn’t want to believe it either, he had been forced to come to terms with it three years ago. Tears began leaking out of Jongdae’s eyes and he turned away, not wanting Baekhyun to see how vulnerable he was.

But the older male had already caught sight of Jongdae’s tears. He moved over to clasp his arms around the younger male and did his best to comfort him.

And Jongdae sobbed uncontrollably in Baekhyun’s arms, thoughts of Yixing still affecting him till this day.

--

Byun Baekhyun
Are you free this afternoon?

Kim Jongdae
Yeah. What for?

Byun Baekhyun
Let’s meet up.

Jongdae wasn’t sure why Baekhyun wanted to meet up suddenly, but agreed to see him at the café where he had first approached the older male. When he opened the door to the café, Baekhyun jumped up and waved him over. And then Jongdae froze, because sitting right there in the booth was Zhang Yixing. “W-wha—”

“You two are going to talk,” Baekhyun declared as he gently pushed Jongdae into the other side of the booth. “And neither of you are going to leave this place until you get closure on what you should have sorted out years ago.” Before Jongdae could protest, Baekhyun walked away with a smile. Jongdae’s phone vibrated a second later with a message from his friend.

Byun Baekhyun
Please don’t leave without talking to him. Please do this for me.

Jongdae let out a sigh as he pocketed his phone, knowing that Baekhyun had good intentions. He looked up at Yixing, who gave him a small smile.

“Hey Jongdae.”

“Hey.”

“I didn’t know you were friends with Baekhyun.”

“I didn’t know you were a cheater when we first met either.” Jongdae knew he sounded rude and callous as he spoke to Yixing. But he couldn’t help it. He was still mad that Yixing had been so easily swayed by another man.

A look of pain crossed Yixing’s features. “Jongdae, please, let me talk. Don’t shut me out like you did three years ago.”

“I don’t want an excuse. I’m sure you’re happy with Wu Yifan, especially now that I’m out of the picture,” Jongdae responded flatly.

“Jongdae, I swear I never cheated on you. Not with Yifan. Not with anyone. I don’t know why you think I did.”

Jongdae’s anger flared up considerably at Yixing’s words. “Really? Then why were you always home late? Why did you come home with your clothes smelling of another man’s cologne? Why did Wu Yifan text you to thank you for staying the night and ask to meet up again? Is that not suspicious at all?”

Yixing looked down at his hands before answering quietly, “Is that why you divorced me? Did you really not trust me?”

“Yixing, can you honestly say that you would trust ME if I came home late at night with some unknown scent after spending time with another guy you didn’t know about?” Jongdae pointed out.

Yixing knew Jongdae was right. There were too many red flags surrounding his past behavior. It was human nature to be doubtful. But he had hoped that their love was strong enough to overcome such obstacles. But instead, the two of them just became another statistic in the growing numbers of divorce cases.

“You hurt me a lot back then.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Yixing looked up again as he said, desperation evident in his tone, “But please, let me explain what happened. I promise that if you’re still angry with me after this, I won’t try to justify anything that happened and I’ll never see you again.”

Jongdae didn’t want to give in, but a part of him was curious to hear what Yixing had to say. He supposed that since he was here already, he might as well give the older male a chance to speak his piece. “Fine. Talk.”

“Wu Yifan is an old childhood friend of mine. He came back to Korea three years ago and he contacted me so we could catch up. He was looking for a job here and since we happened to work in the same field, I offered to help him find a position in either my company or one of our partner brands. I had to spend extra time helping him build up his portfolio and managing my own workload, which is why I started coming home late and falling asleep as soon as I got home. I was just so exhausted since I was in the running for a promotion as well.

“Yifan was also having problems with his boyfriend at the time. Since he didn’t have a lot of friends to vent to, he asked me to come over and give him advice. Like whenever you call over Zitao or go to his place. So I’d listen to him talk and go with him to bars whenever he wanted to drink away his problems with Kim Jongin. That must’ve been when Zitao saw us together. Yifan would sometimes get so drunk that I’d have to haul him back to his house and make sure he wouldn’t have too much of a hangover the next morning. That’s probably how his cologne got onto my clothing.

“And when Yifan finally broke up with Jongin, he asked me to stay with him while he cried himself to sleep. I swear that nothing has ever happened between us. We’re just close friends and that’s all we’ll ever be. He even offered to let me share his apartment after you and I divorced, but it didn’t feel right since I knew you suspected I was cheating on you with him. So I bought a small apartment for myself near my workplace and I’ve been living there ever since.

“I wanted to contact you so many times, but I didn’t have the courage to face you after I signed those divorce papers. And when Baekhyun called me a week ago, asking if I would talk to you, I almost said no because I was scared of facing you after so many years. But then, he told me that he was giving me one chance to prove myself. And this would be the only chance I got before he took you for himself.” Yixing paused for a moment before continuing, “I guess the reason I’m here today is to ask if you’ll forgive me and if you’ll take me back. Because I have never stopped loving you, Kim Jongdae. Even if you’ve forgotten me, I’ve never forgotten you.”

Fresh tears rolled down Jongdae’s face. He had never imagined that he could’ve been so wrong about Yixing. He felt like the worst person on the face of the earth. For so long, he had pegged his ex-husband as a cheater. He had spilt buckets of tears over Yixing wronging him, when it had actually been the other way around. “Why did you sign the papers then? Why didn’t you fight harder and just tell me this in the beginning?”

Yixing turned away as he answered sorrowfully, “I just wanted you to be happy. You seemed so sick of me and I didn’t want to stress you out any longer. Since you were so adamant about getting a divorce, I decided to honor your wish. And it was my fault for not being a better husband and for making you worry so much in the first place. I deserve every ounce of hate you felt towards me. But I want to come back into your life, if you’ll still have me. I know I’m contending against Baekhyun now and he’s one of the sweetest, nicest guys ever, so my chances probably aren’t that great. I won’t pressure you into choosing me though.”

Yixing locked eyes with Jongdae as he said, “I want you to choose whoever you think will make you the happiest.”

♈♈♈