A week before Sehun and Irene's wedding, there was a certain morning when many things arrived at once. 

Firstly, it was a text from Chanyeol, which read distinctly like him. 

Yeolo: THANK YOU FOR THE NETFLIX SUBSCRIPTION. I've finished three seasons of LOST now. 

Another was a separate text fro Hojung. 

Hojung Dearrie: Save me. Chanyeol has been addicted to Lost and he's been secretly watching the show during shop opening hours. Thanks for the free month though. 

That brought a smile to my face, because the thought of Chanyeol getting caught by Hojung for not paying attention during was too funny. I could almost imagine Hojung pulling Chanyeol by his large ears and nagging at him was too funny. I supposed giving up my Netflix subcription share to them was a fantastic choice after all. 

The other thing that arrived that morning were the outfits that Baekhyun and I had ordered online for SeRene's wedding. The lilac chiffon dress I ordered was supposed to go with Baekhyun's shirt of the same colour. We made decision around the dress, because we both decided that the dress was too pretty to miss, and Byun Baekhyun insisted that we just had to agree on what I was wearing because he would look good in anything. 

The third thing that arrived that morning was an unexpected cup of morning coffee on my office desk. 

"Because you look dreadful lately, and constantly look like you are deprived of coffee and sleep," said Taeyong as he invited himself into my office. "You're spacing out again, Manager-nim." 

The corners of my lips turned up ever so slightly at Taeyong's nonchalant tone but obvious concern. 

"You know, Taeyong, you've been getting rude lately. That's a major turnoff for any ladies, and worse when facing your boss," I teased. He snorted softly, but remained unaffected by my teasing comment. 

"What're you worried about?" 

It was very unlike Taeyong to ask me something like that during office hours, and at once I knew my morning was unproductive and consisted mainly of me staring into the abyss of my black window desktop background again. For my young colleague and friend to step beyond the boundaries and ask upfront, I knew there was really no point denying the problem to him any longer. Taking out a post-it note, I hastily scrawled Baekhyun's name and new address across the paper and handed it to him, along with Bakehyun's outfit that I had brought with me to work that day. The original plan was to find him at his office nearby during lunch hour, but the thought of possibly bumping into the couple having a meal together deterred me. I didn't want to be like the mum who interrupted her son's date. 

"I need you to help me make a delivery." 

He looked at the piece of paper and then at me, stunned by my not-so-subtle way of relaying things to him. 

"I thought you guys were together, and just had a lover's quarrel or something," Taeyong lowered his voice to almost a whisper, and I had to mentally tell myself to not focus on the worry in his voice. It felt like he was regretting something vicariously on my behalf, and that was not what I needed. 

"He's moved out with his girlfriend, but his delivery for a function this weekend came to my doorstep. Could you help me deliver it to him?" I said firmly, without removing my gaze from Taeyong's. Could he tell I was trying to be brave? 

He searched my eyes, and I tried desperately to suppress the wavering thoughts in me, as if afraid he could see right through me. Eventually, he nodded and took the post-it and shirt from me. Fortunately, Taeyong did not ask for any further clarifications, but before he exited my office, he left me some words that I did not know what to make of. 

"I take it as this is your way of breaking things to me. I hope you don't mind me saying this as your friend, but if this is your outlook and way of love, I would have loved to protect you. But at the same time, I'm kind of glad we didn't end up together," he said everything very gently and slowly, as if afraid his words would hurt me, "I think it'd have been too much pressure for me to live up to the feelings you have."

He dropped an invitation for dinner after work again, which out of habit, I declined. 

~~~

Sehun and Irene's wedding felt like a high school reunion, because there was a considerable number of us who were on their guest list. For all the detention that our homeroom had given Sehun, our classmate still decided to put him on the guest list. Even Kyungsoo, with his busy filming schedule, turned up in a smart suit to attend our friend's ceremony. Chanyeol and Chen wouldn't stop messing around with his head, because Kyungsoo had apparently shaven bald for an upcoming film. Their other halves Hojung and Xiumin both looked like they were trying very hard to dissociate themselves from the jokers.  

As it turned out, Sehun had asked Baekhyun to be the emcee of the night instead, because his older brother absolutely refuse to relinquish his position of groomsman to anyone else. Baekhyun had arrived early for his duty with Mijoo, who was donned in a canary yellow maxi dress that was elegant and simple. 

It felt really strange when the first words exchanged between me and Baekhyun were, "How are you?"

It hadn't dawned on me how Baekhyun and I had never really said those words to each other before. There was no such need, since we were flatmates for the past three years. Even before that, living in the same neighbourhood meant that we would hang out at each other's place every other day. At the very least, both our mothers' superior cooking ensured that happened. 

The three words, on any other day and with any other friend, would've felt like a pleasant indication that the other person actually cared about your life enough to ask. Coming from Baekhyun though, it felt like an unwanted reminder that we hand't contacted each other much for a month, and that was probably the longest time ever we'd been out of touch. 

We were surely setting new milestones in our friendship journey. 

Before I could really answer Baekhyun, he gave me a befuddled look and pointed to my dress, "What happened to your lilac chiffon?"

I had turned up in a spare turquoise pixie dress I found in my closet, much to his astonishment. The purple shirt that Taeyong delivered to him was very fitting, and I smiled at our wise shopping choices once again.