Green-Eyed (ChenLay)

One Plus One Equals Three: The BaekChenLay Chronicles

pairing: ChenLay
length: 3262 words
A/N: Written at the request of kakashilover! Hope you like it!

--

Jongdae liked to think of himself as a reasonable guy. He didn’t overstep boundaries and made sure to be respectful of others’ space. He didn’t pester or nag people and if he did, it was for variety purposes to show off a more comical side of himself.

But it was difficult seeing Yixing smiling at the beautiful woman standing next to him at the Kung Fu Yoga press conference. Jongdae was live-streaming it on his laptop in their shared bedroom that had often felt like a single since the previous year. Even though Minseok had kindly offered to move in with Jongdae, since the oldest member lived in a single bedroom, the proposition had been ultimately declined. To Jongdae, it would have felt like he was trying to replace Yixing, which was far from what he wanted.

Whenever the camera panned away from Yixing, who looked stony throughout the press conference due to extreme exhaustion (Jongdae didn’t know how many times he had reminded the poor boy to rest, since it seemed like the Chinese male would fall asleep while standing up nowadays), Jongdae would shift his attention to his cell phone to see if his manager had texted him. The group had another music awards show to attend that evening, so the idol needed to be ready to leave when the manager summoned them for a quick dress rehearsal before the red carpet event and the actual ceremony took place. Yixing wouldn’t be joining them that night since he had to prepare for his flight to Shanghai from Beijing the next day and it just wasn’t feasible for him to fly between countries at the moment.

It didn’t make Jongdae feel any less insecure when he wasn’t seeing Yixing and the beautiful actress on his computer screen while the camera showcased the other cast members of Kung Fu Yoga, since he knew they were still there. The green-eyed monster in his heart reared its ugly head whenever he noticed the actress staring at Yixing, because he recognized the gaze that came from her. It was the same adoring manner in which the Korean male looked at Yixing whenever they were together. Jongdae knew he shouldn’t let his jealousy get the better of him, but it was too difficult to when he knew this woman lusted after Yixing the same way he did.

He silently watched her eye up Yixing, who noticed as well due to her lack of subtlety, and then watched the two of them beam brightly in front of all of those cameras as if they weren’t in the middle of a very public press conference. It was like a punch to the gut, seeing all of this unfold in front of his eyes. The previous insecurities that had been plaguing Jongdae for the past month returned full force and he had to force himself to take deep breaths to calm down. When he saw her noiselessly flirt with Yixing again, Jongdae immediately powered off his laptop and pushed it to the side, unable to continue watching the live-stream. He burrowed himself under his heavy blankets, trying to erase the images of the Chinese male smiling at someone other than him.

--

Zhang Yixing
Are you back from the awards show yet? I’m in my hotel room for the night, so we can call each other now.

Jongdae was almost about to disregard the text message, but decided at the last moment to respond to it, knowing that if he didn’t, Yixing would blow up his phone with dozens of text messages. Not to mention, the Chinese male wouldn’t be able to sleep at all if Jongdae didn’t reply.

Kim Jongdae
Yeah, we got back about half an hour ago.

Zhang Yixing
Is now a good time to call you?

The Korean male hesitated, knowing that if they spoke tonight, this particular conversation would most certainly be a long one. Yixing was already lacking sleep and Jongdae himself was quite drained after the awards show earlier that night. But the temptation of hearing Yixing’s voice was too much for him to ignore and in the end, Jongdae sent the other male an affirmative.

Seconds later, the screen of his cell phone lit up with an incoming call from Zhang Yixing. Jongdae’s hands slightly fumbled, having forgotten that he had set his phone on vibrate, before holding up the device upright and swiping the green Accept icon to the right.

“How are you, Dae?” came the husky, exhaustion-laced voice of Yixing’s.

Jongdae relaxed slightly, feeling more at peace with the knowledge that at this moment, it was just them two. “Tired. Let’s not talk for long. You sound like you’re about to fall asleep.”

“No, I’m—” Yixing yawned loudly. “I’m fine. I want to talk to you.”

Jongdae followed suit by yawning as well. “But you have an early flight tomorrow morning. We can talk some other time.” Then maybe he’d be able to forget the yearning look in that beautiful woman’s eyes as she basically undressed Yixing with her strong gaze. The Korean male reflexively drew in a sharp breath as the unwelcome image invaded his mind once more.

“Dae? Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, Yixing! I’m fine.”

Yixing furrowed his eyebrows upon hearing how agitated Jongdae sounded on the other end of the line. The younger male had never snapped at him before, no matter how tired they were after their schedules. This was quite unsettlingly and the Chinese male was at a loss on how to respond. “Jongdae, you’re obviously not fine. Did something happen at the awards show? I haven’t had the chance to watch any recordings of it yet, but was there anything that made you upset today?”

“I guess that actress took up a lot of your attention, didn’t she,” Jongdae responded flatly, unable to keep the green-eyed monster at bay.

“Huh?”

“At the press conference for Kung Fu Yoga. The beautiful woman standing next to you.”

It took a moment for Yixing to think back to the press conference earlier that afternoon, especially since he had been somewhat out of it due to fatigue. “Oh, you mean Amyra Dastur? What about her?”

Hearing how clueless Yixing sounded irked Jongdae to no end. How was the Chinese male unaware that the two of them had basically flirted during a very public event that had been broadcasted for hundreds of thousands of people to see? And listening to Yixing refer to the actress so casually caused the pit of jealousy within Jongdae to grow even larger. “It looked like the two of you were having a lot of fun with each other during the press conference. And I’m sure you two had even more fun afterwards when the cameras were off,” Jongdae remarked bitterly, unable to control his tone.

“Dae, what are you talking about? Amyra’s just a colleague of mine.”

“Colleagues don’t look at each other with stars in their eyes or flirt with each other on public television!” Jongdae retorted.

“I didn’t know you were watching the live-stream of the press conference, otherwise I would have been more self-aware. I’m sorry, Jongdae. But—”

“So you’re acknowledging that you were flirting earlier?”

Yixing growled in irritation as he replied, “No, that’s not what I’m trying to say. I don’t know how on Earth you got the idea that Amyra and I were flirting with each other, but we weren’t. I’m just saying that I would have paid more attention to my surroundings if I knew you were going to be scrutinizing my every moment and making assumptions about me, even though you know me better than that.”

Jongdae physically recoiled from the Chinese male’s words. “That’s—that’s not what I was trying to do—”

“Well, that’s what it sounds like. And I’m going to sleep right now, because there’s no point in wasting my time trying to argue with you when I could be resting instead.”

“Fine. I didn’t want to talk to you anyway.” And Jongdae hung up before Yixing could respond to those hurtful words. The Korean male instantly regretted it, but he was too distressed and agitated to make amends right now. Tears leaked from his eyes as he silently cried himself to sleep while holding Yixing’s pillow to his chest.

--

Several days passed and Yixing finally returned from China. However, he and Jongdae were still ignoring each other after their fight the other night. They refused to sit near each other during mealtimes and more often than not, one of them would excuse themselves while citing lack of hunger as the reason for not staying. The obvious tension in the air created a frosty environment for the other EXO members, who had no idea how to remedy the situation. They weren’t aware of why the two were fighting with each other, but as the days passed, the situation became more frustrating for them as well.

They had upcoming back-to-back concerts in Hong Kong and it was one of the rare times when Yixing would be joining them for a full stage. However, the unfriendly vibes that emitted from both Jongdae and Yixing made being around the two of them very uncomfortable for the group, especially during rehearsals. The two males slowly isolated themselves, although Baekhyun attempted several times to remedy the relationship to no success.

The moment their airplane touched down in Hong Kong, the idols were mobbed by the massive crowd of fangirls who had been waiting for their arrival. The group members huddled close to each other, knowing that there was safety in numbers, while the staff members and bodyguards herded away the screaming girls. Yixing kept his head down with his earphones blasting music to drown out the ear-piercing shrieks while mindlessly shuffling forward. He had done this hundreds of times, but it didn’t get any easier. As long as he kept his feet moving one step forward each time, he knew he’d safely get to the van that was waiting outside the airport to the idols to their hotel.

The EXO members successfully managed to traverse through the sea of fangirls and tumbled into the van one by one. The most of the staff members climbed into the second van while the manager and head stylists clambered into the large vehicle after the idols settled themselves in the seats. Junmyeon quickly did a head-count and then frowned as he recounted the number of members several more times, his grimace widening with each count. “Where’s Jongdae?”

“Is he not here?” Baekhyun asked while also looking around to check who was in the van.

“No… Did he go to the bathroom?”

Everyone else shrugged. No one had really been keeping tabs on the small male as they trudged through the frenzied crowd earlier. Yixing was usually the one to walk with Jongdae.

“Oi, Yixing!” Baekhyun jabbed the Chinese male’s side, since he had been too preoccupied with his blaring music to hear the conversation currently taking place.

“What?”

“Do you know where Jongdae is?”

Yixing shook his head. “Why?”

“He’s gone.”

“What?!” Yixing abruptly stood up from his seat and knocked his head against the car roof, hissing in pain from the sudden impact. “How?!”

“That’s what we were asking you.”

The Chinese member's face immediately paled as his racing mind created all sorts of horrible scenarios with the news that Jongdae was missing. He shouldn’t have been so stubborn and stupid to ignore the other male, even though they were upset with each other. He should have relented first, since he had noticed Amyra flirting with him that night. It had just been easier for him to brush it off, since it meant nothing to him and Yixing hadn’t expected Jongdae to be so affected by it.

Unfortunately, the fangirls were beginning to swarm the van and it was too dangerous to stay at the airport any longer. They had no choice but to leave without Jongdae. Despite Yixing’s extremely vocal requests to be let out so he could look for the missing member, the van carefully made its way out of the crowd and drove out of the airport towards the hotel.

--

Baekhyun anxiously paced back and forth in Junmyeon and Chanyeol’s hotel room; the two other members were speaking with the manager about the issue of Jongdae’s disappearance. Baekhyun had wanted to join them, but Junmyeon noted how jittery the younger male was and had ordered him to stay behind. So he was walking around to work off the nervous energy, not that it was really helping. He almost jumped out of his skin when his cell phone suddenly rang and his heart almost stopped when the caller ID read Kim Jongdae. “Oh my god, Jongdae, is it you?”

“Baek?”

Jongdae’s voice sounded so thin and filled with terror over the receiver. “Dae! Where are you?! What happened?!” Baekhyun exclaimed in anguish while immediately running to the hotel room he shared with Yixing. Upon entering, Baekhyun found Yixing staring limply at the empty space on the bed where Jongdae would have been lounging if he had been there since the three of them had been assigned to the same room. The younger male shook Yixing’s shoulder to grab his attention and then put a finger to his lips before putting the phone call on speakerphone.

“I-I don’t know. I just remember getting mobbed by a bunch of fans and I think something knocked me unconsciousness. I woke up in this dingy, dark room while tied up to a chair.”

Yixing’s eyes blazed with anger as he thought of poor Jongdae getting swallowed by the crowd of crazy fangirls who had taken advantage of the chaotic atmosphere to steal away the defenseless idol. Baekhyun noted how worked up Yixing was getting and quickly asked Jongdae, “How did you manage to call me?”

“The ropes aren’t too thick and there happened to be a sharp edge of the chair that I used to break loose. I don’t think these girls planned this out very well, to be honest. No one’s guarding me and they didn’t take away my cell phone.”

“Then we’ll rescue you right now. Turn on your phone tracking signal and I’ll use the tracking system on my phone to find you,” Baekhyun directed reassuringly. “Hold tight, okay?”

“Thanks, Baek.” There was a slight pause before Jongdae’s voice continued quietly, “And please tell Yixing that I’m sorry for blowing up at him the other day. I…I was just acting out of jealousy.”

“Don’t worry. He knows,” Baekhyun answered gently with a sideways glance at the stricken Chinese male.

Yixing felt horrible. If only he and Jongdae hadn’t fought that night. If only they hadn’t dragged out this cold war for so long. If only they had reconciled the moment he returned to Korea. Then Jongdae wouldn’t be in this mess, because Yixing would have kept a close eye on the younger male at all times. Not to mention, they were currently in a foreign country and Jongdae must have been frightened out of his mind after waking up in a strange place. God, this was all this fault.

Once Baekhyun hung up, Yixing turned to the younger male and demanded, “Give me the coordinates. I’m going to find him.”

“Wait, let me come with you!”

“No, you stay here,” Yixing ordered as he shrugged on a thick coat. “It’ll be easier for me to slip away with Jongdae if it’s just the two of us. Three people will attract too much attention. And you need to be here in case our manager comes looking for me. Both of us will get into trouble if we go ‘missing’ as well,” the Chinese male explained with air quotes.

“Still—”

“Please, Baek. Do this for me.”

The younger male saw the steely glint in Yixing’s narrowed eyes and so, he backed off and quickly the tracking system to locate Jongdae. Once the phone synced with Jongdae’s, Baekhyun rattled off the coordinate numbers to Yixing, who inputted them into his own phone’s map which revealed the place to be a warehouse. “Be safe, okay? Don’t do anything rash and call me if you need back-up,” Baekhyun said as he watched Yixing strode out of the hotel room. “I’ll keep you updated if his location suddenly changes.”

The Chinese male just held up his hand in response before disappearing down the hallway. He turned up his coat collar and pulled down his snapback, so most of his face was covered as he passed dozens of people on his way out of the hotel. Luckily, it was relatively easy to hail a taxi after seating himself inside the cab, Yixing tightly gripped the side of the door as he stared out the window, praying the entire time for dear Jongdae’s safety.

--

The warehouse didn’t look abandoned, but it didn’t look inhabited either. Yixing inferred that the crazy fangirls had managed to pool together enough money to rent out the building and hadn’t bothered to refurbish its insides after renting it. He hadn’t spotted any cars upon arriving, which was a good sign, and he silently thanked the heavens for these girls’ lack of proper planning. Jongdae hadn’t sounded like he was wounded or anything grave, so Yixing was able to search around with a slightly freer mind.

But as every minute passed and each room turned out to be empty, the Chinese male grew more restless. The emptiness was beginning to feel oppressive and he almost wished that he were dodging the crazy fangirls instead, since it would force him to hurry up the search and find Jongdae more quickly. The warehouse wasn’t even that large to begin with, but there was no sign of the missing idol whatsoever.

It wasn’t until he saw a shadow suddenly appear in the hallway that he was turning to that Yixing felt his heart race and he ran as fast as he could, because he recognized that silhouette. That relatively short, skinny stature with an angular face and high cheekbones. “Jongdae!”

The named male’s eyes widened upon seeing Yixing and he too began running as fast as he could to meet him. “Yixing! You’re here! You came!” When they finally met in the middle, Jongdae flung his arms around the older male and streams of tears began falling from his eyes as he buried his face in Yixing’s firm chest. “I’m sorry f-for being a brat earlier. I missed you s-so much,” Jongdae wailed as their embrace tightened.

“Don’t worry. You’re safe now,” Yixing whispered softly in Jongdae’s ears as he gently rocked the younger male who was still sobbing in the Chinese male’s arms. “I’m never going to let you out of my sight ever again. I love you so much, Kim Jongdae.” Yixing began kissing away the flowing teardrops on Jongdae’s peaked face. “So, so much,” he added in between the feathery-light kisses.

“I-I was so scared that I w-wouldn’t see you again,” Jongdae managed to verbalize, thanks to the almost magical healing effect of Yixing’s fervent kisses.

The small Korean male looked so vulnerable with his tear-stained cheeks and childlike expression that Yixing felt a strong protective urge bubble up in his chest. He hugged Jongdae even closer before standing up and carrying him out of the building. “I’m never going to let this happen again,” the Chinese male resolutely promised once more before placing another chaste kiss on Jongdae’s forehead. “I couldn’t bear it if I ever lost you.”

♈♈♈

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Thank you!
luv_kero
[1+1=3] THANK YOU to the person who advertised this collection!! <3 It came as a complete surprise and I'm so grateful that someone cared enough to promote this, so THANK YOU and I hope everyone enjoys the random scenarios that pop into my head, hehe ^^

Comments

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Djatasma
#1
Chapter 161: One Wednesday night soon I'm going to go get McDonald's and play Genshin. Even though my HuTao is mad weak 🥲
Djatasma
#2
Chapter 160: A late but Blessed Belated Baek Day. 🩵
Djatasma
#3
Chapter 158: Happy 11th EXOversary!
Djatasma
#4
Chapter 155: 🥰🥰
ReadRealize #5
Chapter 154: Hope that we get to see ot9 soon.
zaikenhuo
#6
Chapter 148: Baekhyun doing shots with Yixing, Baekxing just living the moment, regrets be damned ❤
ReadRealize #7
Chapter 151: Happy birthdae!
Djatasma
#8
Chapter 151: Blessed Dae Day!
Djatasma
#9
Chapter 149: 😭
zaikenhuo
#10
Chapter 144: Love it how this baekxing is the total opposite of the last one i've read, i'll just never have enough of domestic clingy boyfriends baekxing au ❤