Chanyeol parked on the side of the road. He unlocked his car doors and lowered the window.

''Hey, need a ride?'' he said.

The boy seated on the grass, jumped up. He looked surprised, eyes wide. Cute, Chanyeol thought. 

''So?'' he asked again.

''Yes! Do you go to Suwon?'' the boy asked.

Chanyeol nodded, inviting him to settled in his car. 

They departed quickly. 

Outside, the sun was shining brightly. It was a beautiful Sunday. The road was calm, nearly deserted.

 

''Thank you to have taken me in,'' the boy stuttered. Chanyeol chuckled at his companion's shyness. 

''It's nothing, I work in Suwon. You looked deterred back there.''

The boy turned away to the window. Chanyeol didn't push it further. It wasn't necessary to have a conversation. 

 

He had felt intrigued, earlier seeing him, head lowered under the sun. He had never given a ride to a stranger before. Maybe today, he had been needing company.

 

''What do you do?'' 

Chanyeol raised an eyebrow, the question unexpected from the teenager.

''I work in an assurance company,'' he answered, and then asked. ''Why were you left like that in the middle of nowhere?'' 

''Something I should worry about?'' Chanyeol joked. after a time with no answer.

''No! Nothing of that sort!'' the boy exclaimed. ''I was asked to get out of the car. But it wasn't because I did something bad...'' 

Chanyeol threw him a look, the boy had his head down, biting his lip. ''Yeah, I see,'' he said to comfort him. ''Your past driver was crazy, leaving you there. Don't worry, kid.''

 

''I'm Baekhyun.''

Chanyeol smirked. So he had a name: Baekhyun. He liked it.

''I'm Chanyeol,'' he presented himself as well. ''Where I'm leaving you once we're in the city?'' he informed himself.

Baekhyun shrugged, looking anxious.

Chanyeol let it go.

 

*

 

They were entering society. Warehouses were appearing along with road lights. 

Chanyeol noticed a gas station with a restaurant attached to it.

''Hey, what about eating something? I'm hungry.''

Without much reaction from his passenger, he made the turn.

The restaurant was pretty old. They seated themselves at a little square table. The chairs screeched on the tiled floor as they pulled them. Baekhyun was fidgety.

Chanyeol observed him. He found it funny, how the boy was sitting on his hands.

''I'm inviting you, okay?'' he said for formality.

Baekhyun nodded. 

''You're a student?'' he asked. 

''Yes.'' The boy let out before turning his head away.

Chanyeol thought, maybe he had made a wrong move in bringing them in this restaurant. He had hoped the boy would open up a bit more.

He sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought.

 

*

 

The chicken was good, tender in the soup he had commanded. Baekhyun was slurping quietly in front of him. Catching his eyes, the boy smiled. Chanyeol coughed in surprise. For the first time they had encountered each other, Baekhyun wasn't sulky. 

 

''I was thrown out of my parent's car,'' Baekhyun revealed, after a gulp.

 

Abruptly, Chanyeol stopped eating.

''We were coming back from visiting my grandparents house, when I said to them I was gay.''

What were the chances, the man wondered. 

''We had came to see my grandfather who is sick. Afterward, I had the urgency to tell them. Before they would die.''

Chanyeol frowned, not sure to understand.

''You believed they would die soon?''

Baekhyun frowned, linking his hands on his lap. ''I realised they would die someday. Mother had cried at grandfather's side at the hospital. They all said, he would die soon.''

Chanyeol hummed, pensive. ''So then, when you told them, they became angry, and they threw you out of the car?''

The boy froze for a moment, then relaxed, and nodded to Chanyeol's question.

''I think, they were overwhelmed by the shock. Father made me get out, ordering me to walk the rest of the road to make. He shouted to me, to change my mind before coming back home.''

''That's ridiculous,'' Chanyeol let out involuntarily.

Baekhyun looked at him, a certain wonder in his eyes.

Chanyeol thought, he could do something for this young man.

''You were brave enough to tell them you were gay. You didn't say you thought about boys, or that you found an idol cute. You clearly stated, what you found yourself to be.'' He swallowed, throat tight for a second. ''I was never that brave.''

Baekhyun exhaled soundly, a new light in his eyes.

''You're gay too?'' he asked with enthusiasm.

''Yeah,'' Chanyeol whispered. He looked around, the worker not visible at the counter.

''Oh,'' the boy muttered, looking around too.

''Let's get out,'' Chanyeol told him, reaching for his wallet.

 

*

 

They were still in the parking lot, sitting in the car. Chanyeol didn't know what to say. For the moment, he was confused on what to do. Baekhyun didn't remind him of himself, except that they shared the same ual orientation, but it was enough for him to feel concerned about the kid. 

The kid, Baekhyun, wasn't saying anything at all now. 

Chanyeol started the car. 

''What do you want to do?'' he asked Baekhyun.

''I don't know. I'm not sure I want to go home,'' the boy stuttered.

''Where would you go else?'' Chanyeol asked seriously.

The other pouted, his spirit had lifted up, since the restaurant conversation.

''And you? Where are you going? I mean—''

Chanyeol frowned. ''Baekhyun...'' he interrupted him. 

To what extent would he lay out his generosity? It had never been his intention to get involved with the kid. He had seen him needing a ride. Then, seeing him sad, he had paid him a meal. Tomorrow, he would go to work. And tonight, he would—

''You can stay for the evening in my apartment, but you'll need to call your parents,'' he proposed.

Baekhyun smiled, grateful. ''Thank you, I will.''

The rest of the road, Chanyeol wondered about Baekhyun's parents. They would come to accept him, Chanyeol wanted to hope. After a while, they would realise, their son was still their son.

And then soon, Baekhyun would be old enough to be on his own. 

That's what Chanyeol had done. The earliest he could, he had left home. He had gone to a university in Seoul. He had had a scholarship and had stayed there after his studies. His parents had never knew about his uality. But he had always thought, that it didn't concern them. They didn't have to know. 

Was life throwing Baekhyun at him to reveal himself to his own parents?

 

*

 

Baekhyun had come to cry. 

They were in his room. It was small; a toilet, kitchen and bedroom. 

The boy had just called his parents. Chanyeol had went to the kitchen to wait, but hearing cries, he had went back in.

He looked at Baekhyun, trembling, his body shook by sobs. He was crying so hard. 

It must have been hard, Chanyeol thought. Did Baekhyun regret telling his parents? Even if for the teenager, it had mattered that they knew. And now, what had they said to him?

The man sat beside Baekhyun on the bed. He put an arm around his shoulder. The boy leaned on him. Chanyeol squeezed his shoulder, his head leaning on the boy's own.

Chanyeol's chest was tight, his own eyes were prickling. He took big breaths to calm himself.

''Are you alright? What did your parents say?'' he risked to ask.

''They said to come home.''

Softly, Chanyeol exhaled, a weight being lifted off his shoulders. 

Baekhyun's face was wet from tears, and his nose was running badly. Chanyeol wiped it off gingerly. 

Baekhyun stopped crying, his pain relieved for the moment. He sniffled a last time against Chanyeol's shirt, and then chuckled.

Chanyeol startled, looked at him.

''They said to come home,'' Baekhyun repeated, thunderstruck. ''They said, they don't understand me, but they worry about where I am. I was fearing their reaction for years. Wondering how they would take it. I did and didn't believe in them to accept my uality.''

Chanyeol listened, surprised by what was saying Baekhyun.

''I don't know,'' the teenager suddenly let out, ''if I have to be glad to have a brother who can produce the grandchildren they want.'' He looked haggardly around him. ''What if I had been thrown out of the house too? What about school, and where would I live? The streets?'' he exclaimed himself. ''Would I have sold myself? Is this a gay cliché? I told them, because I feared they would die without knowing...I'm their son, I want them to know. To love me like I am.'' 

Baekhyun looked at Chanyeol. ''It felt like a lie not telling them, because it was not telling them many other things as well.'' 

Chanyeol felt tears at the corners of his eyes. He blinked repeatedly, unable to retain them any longer. But, he didn't want to cry. Baekhyun was baffling him. 

He had asked himself the same questions, when he was younger. In the end, he had stayed hidden. It had been better like this in his time, for his safety and for his livelihood. Now, he had no more parents to tell. But really, did they never guessed, or felt it? There were hints, Chanyeol was sure: questions he would evade, jokes he never laughed at, girlfriends he didn't bring home. He could have had a perfect cover, he knew people who had been able to achieve that. 

He considered Baekhyun, with now dry eyes, sitting with his back straight. This boy had been brave, he told himself. This boy had been able to be brave in his circumstances. 

Chanyeol breathed in deeply. He didn't want to start to regret, to want to go back in time, and judge what he had or hadn't done. 

In this charged atmosphere, he decided to finally confess to his parents. He confided in them, he was gay. 

He had a partner back in Seoul, Jinho, that he had met at his first class of university.

They had been together for so long, Chanyeol didn't know what it was to be without him. And now that he had been transferred for a new position in Suwon, it was getting so hard to make it all work. 

He was having a hard time. 

He was losing it. 

He was tired of living like this. 

In the end, he broke down. Tears fell freely, invading his face. His lips trembled, before his cries shattered the silence reigning in the apartment. Chanyeol curled on himself. 

 

He felt a hand on his shoulder. 

It was Baekhyun. The boy smiled sadly at him, a slight nervousness etching on his face. 

''Perhaps you could also call home?'' he proposed him.

Chanyeol stared at the boy, his vision blurry. Slowly he nodded, swallowing his pain. ''I'll do that, but only after I have driven you to your parents.''

He wiped his tears. ''Let's go,'' he told Baekhyun.

 

*

 

The phone rang a few times.

''Hey, Chanyeol.'' Jinho's sweet voice finally greeted him.

''Hey, baby...'' he greeted back. Then twisting his tongue a few times, he confided in him,

''I'm already missing you.''