[CONTENTID1]Following and Forgiveness[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]"You still didn't have a right to do that, Chanyeol, especially without even telling me. I don't need you fixing my problems." [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

Yeseul was trying to read, but Baekhyun kept on throwing sweets at her. They were sat in the Student Union building, having snagged a pair of armchairs by the window on the second floor where it was almost always crowded, but they'd hit a spot of luck in the second day back from break and there was hardly anyone around. 

"Come on, will you put that down for five minutes and talk to me?" 

Yeseul closed the book around her finger, gaze sliding up to Baekhyun. "What is it? We met up to study, Baek. And it was your idea!" 

"Okay, first of all, it's only the second day back from break. And second, who actually studies when they make plans to study?" 

"I do." 

Baekhyun groaned. "But we've hardly hung out since you and Chanyeol ..." his face twisted, and he had to eat a sweet and throw one at her before he was ready to speak again. "I just feel like I've lost my best friend." 

"Fine," Yeseul said, tucking her bookmark between the pages in place of her finger. "What's up?" 

"Well, I'm graduating in two months." 

"Yeah." 

"You'd think I would know what I was going to do, but ..." 

At his hopeless shrug, Yeseul softened a little. But because she at least wanted to keep up appearances, she stretched out a leg and knocked her foot against his knee. "You've got that offer, haven't you? For the non-profit or whatever it is?" 

He nodded, picking at the hem of his t-shirt. "Yeah, but I have no idea if I'm going to take it. One of my professors told me about this opportunity in Seoul, said I would be a good fit ..." 

"But?" 

"I don't know about that either." 

"You're going to have to start being decisive soon," she told him. 

"This will be you next year, Seul, any idea what you'll be doing?" 

"Hell no," she replied, without shame. "But you've got loads more potential than I have, Baek. And you've made more of your time here." 

His frown was immediate, and directed right at her. "You've got loads of potential." 

"You sound like my Mum. Or worse, Chanyeol." 

"Well, they're right. If you could do something, anything, what would it be?" 

Yeseul took a moment to consider, running her thumb down the corner of her book and watching the pages curl and flip rapidly. "Something I like. Something that even if it makes me angry, I still want to be doing for the rest of my life." 

"That's not very specific." 

"Because I don't know what it is yet, Baekhyun." 

But when she looked up at him, Baekhyun was grinning. She narrowed her eyes. "What?" 

"I still like what you said." 

She snorted. "Well, why don't we throw a party?" 

Baekhyun cackled, throwing another sweet at her. Yeseul caught this one, popping it into with a grin as she kicked Baekhyun's knees again. He actually let her get back to her book for a solid ten minutes before he was bored again, and they fell into a steady stream of conversation of the sort which hadn't occured in a few weeks. It felt like first year all over again, when Baekhyun would crash into Yeseul's dorm room when he didn't feel like studying and lie on her bed, eating all of her snacks and asking her who she'd got with that week. When it was just the two of them, no Kiseong, Eunha, or even Chanyeol interrupting the flow that she and Baekhyun had. 

"When's your next class?" she asked, when Baekhyun returned from the cafe downstairs with toasties and tea for both of them. 

"In an hour," Baekhyun replied, eagerly unwrapping his toastie once he'd handed Yeseul hers and sat back in his chair. 

Baekhyun's latest wild tale was about the drama within the Model UN committee, something about the treasurer and secretary accidentally hooking up at a party over the weekend. Baekhyun himself was the vice-president, despite having angled for the president position last year, and did more of the work despite his lower rank. He seemed to have gotten over it, though, because everyone knew he was the more capable one by now. It really shouldn't have made sense, given his track record everywhere else, but Yeseul had no doubt in Baekhyun's abilities. Or, for that matter, his future career in whatever path he chose to follow. 

She was mid-bite, trying not to scoff at his description of the awkward tension at the meeting yesterday, when her eyes drifted behind Baekhyun to a smartly-dressed man with a crooked grin, chatting with some of his peers. Baekhyun seemed to have noticed Yeseul's gaping expression, because he stopped talking and looked over his shoulder. 

"Oh, for 's sake," he said, putting down his sandwich. "Has he noticed us? We should leave." 

"I have to talk to him," Yeseul said in a rush, throwing down her food and scrambling to her feet. She forgot for a moment that she was wearing her boots with the higher heels and nearly face-planted, but managed to get her bearings before it happened. "Watch my stuff, please?" 

"What are you going to do? I swear, if you even think–" 

"I need to make sure he knows it's over," she said, cutting Baekhyun off. 

His eyes settled. "Good." 

Daeho was near the stairs, and it looked like him and his friends were probably getting ready to head down. Yeseul didn't want to be some random student going up to a TA, and tried to catch Daeho's eye on her slow, purposeful walk over. 

But when she caught it, he clapped one of his friends on the shoulder and hurried down the stairs. It wasn't the sort of hurry where you wanted anybody to follow you, either. But she did anyway, catching up to him halfway across the expansive ground floor of the building. The food area, buzzing with students, was over on the other half of what was essentially one big room, and Daeho was about to duck into the hallway that led to society offices. 

"Wait!" Yeseul exclaimed, when she was tired of following him, planting her feet and folding her arms across her chest. "What the hell?" 

"Yeseul," Daeho said, her name a whoosh of breath escaping his lips. He scratched his head, smiling sheepishly at her. "Didn't think you ... um, I guess I wasn't expecting this." 

"You didn't expect me to seek you out? Talk to you?" she asked, and he nodded. "I just wanted to make sure my text was clear. I didn't want to do it like that, but I–" 

"Text?" Daeho asked, furrowing his brow. That only made Yeseul frown, because she hadn't seen him at all and there was no other explanation for his behaviour. "Oh, right, yeah. I forgot all about that." 

She was bewildered. Here he was, trying to stay away from her, and he didn't even remember getting her text. It seemed unlikely that he'd had a very sudden and drastic change of heart, and yet, it seemed that he had. 

"Look, I'm not going to try and get with you when you've got a boyfriend, okay? You've got nothing to worry about." 

"Boyfriend?" 

"Tall guy, brown hair, big ears?" Daeho asked, quirking a grin. "Ring a bell? Unless some randomer cornered me in my office and told me to stay away from you." 

Yeseul blinked. "He ..." 

"And so you didn't know," Daeho mused, his smile a little more pitying now. Yeseul wanted to smack it off his face. "Thought you might not, you don't seem like the type to let other people fight your battles." 

"I don't," she seethed. 

It made absolutely no sense. Chanyeol knew Yeseul too well, he had to know she'd be upset with him stepping in when it wasn't any of his business. This was her problem, and the only person that solved Yeseul's problems was herself. 

She spun on her heel, too focused on her anger with Chanyeol to be relieved that at least everything had been sorted where Daeho was concerned. Whatever Chanyeol had said – without her permission or knowledge – had apparently worked. If she didn't want to shout at him so badly, she might kiss him. 

Yeseul went back upstairs, throwing herself down into the armchair across from Baekhyun and taking an angry bite of her toastie. She avoided his gaze, but it was pointless, because she knew he was going to ask what happened anyway. 

"So?" 

"ing Chanyeol confronted him." 

"What?" Baekhyun asked, shocked. 

Yeseul scoffed at her sandwich. "Can you believe the nerve? Thinking I can't do it myself." 

"I don't think that was what he–" 

Yeseul wasn't having it. "Clearly if he went and talked to Daeho without telling me, he didn't think I would do it." 

Baekhyun looked conflicted. "I don't think Chanyeol would do that, Seul." 

"Then why did he talk to Daeho? How did he even–" she broke off, remembering Chanyeol asking after Daeho, if he was around during his break. "That bastard." 

"What is it now?" 

"He must have gone right after he found out about it, and didn't even ... well, that explains why he's been so pleased these past couple of weeks. Because he sorted everything out all on his own, not even considering that I can solve my own problems!" 

"Yeseul, I think you should calm down about this. Consider what Chanyeol–" 

"Calm down?" Yeseul repeated, sitting up straighter. "Damn it, Baek, you know how much I hate that." 

He grimaced. "I know, but just think about it properly, okay? Before steam starts blowing out your ears." 

Just as she knew she would be, Yeseul was still upset about the whole thing the next time she saw Chanyeol. But she didn't want to explode on him; she wanted to try and deal with her anger like an rational adult, not some wild, impulsive teenager who didn't think things through properly. It was the perfect opportunity to prove to herself that she was getting better, that the way she used to deal with problems wasn't the best method and now she was learning, improving. 

As it was, she ended up giving him the cold shoulder, because looking him in the eye was too difficult. She could hardly even imagine him striding into Daeho's office (god knows how he'd even found it in the first place) and telling him to stay away from Yeseul, probably having to explain who he was and why he saw Daeho as a threat. The whole situation was totally ridiculous, because Chanyeol was the least imtimidating person on the planet and he'd probably stumbled over his words more than once and made an incredibly long winded speech about respect. Even if that had worked, and Daeho let her bed, it seemed so out of character for Chanyeol to do somethig like that. Knowing that only made her more confused and upset. 

She knew that ignoring him was making Chanyeol frustrated, because his eyes would follow her whenever she entered the room without so much as a greeting, his jaw perpetually clenched and his eyebrows pulled together. Yeseul supposed that Chanyeol thought she was in one of her moods, adn if he left her alone for a day or two then it would blow over and they would be back to normal. That explained why he hadn't asked about her behaviour yet, anyway. She has asked Baekhyun not to say anything about that day in the Student Union when she ran after Daeho, and after dropping the bomb on everyone at his bull intervention he felt guilty, and had so far kept his mouth shut. 

Serin's birthday was on Saturday, and Yeseul knew she had to do something before then because everyone was supposed to go out for a drink to celebrate – including herself and Chanyeol. It was going to be their first time out in public with their friends as a proper couple, and naturally they were hardly talking to each other. It was her fault, but she had no idea what she was going to do and she was afraid of what she might do if she actually confronted him. 

On Thursday night, Chanyeol came home from work well past midnight. Yeseul was out on the balcony, her eighth cigarette of the day between her lips as she stared out at the slumbering city beyond. She'd been slipping lately, and was perceptive enough to realised the connection between her smoking and stress, so as much as she wanted to tell herself that everything was fine, whilst her habits were telling her that it wasn't. 

The balcony door creaked open and a tired Chanyeol stuck his head out, already frowning. "How many is that today?" he asked, shutting the door gently behind him as he moved to the railing and leaned against it, facing her. 

"Too many," she responded, glowering at the cigarette in her hand instead of at him. 

"Is something wrong?" Chanyeol asked, not bothering with small talk. "I mean, have I done something? We've barely spoken all week, Seullie." 

She shrugged, flicking her smoke against the ashtray. 

"Yeseul. Come on, talk to me. I don't like it when you shut me out like this, it makes me feel like we haven't made any progress at all." 

"Why did you do it?" she asked quietly. 

Chanyeol stepped forward, brows knitted in confusion. "Do what?" 

"Go see Daeho." 

She looked up just in time to see his expression freeze. "How did you find out?" 

"I saw him on campus, and I went over to talk to him like I said I would," she said, leaning over to stab out her cigarette. "And he told me you'd gone to his office and told him to stay away from me." 

There was a beat of silence as Chanyeol surveyed her, searching for something in her expression, posture, tone, but she didn't think she was giving much away yet. She had done well so far with keeping calm, and didn't doubt that it was throwing him off. "Is that why you're upset? Because I told some other guy to stay away." 

"No." She stood up, not liking the way he was looming over her. On her feet she was still shorter, but it didn't feel like he had all the control over the conversation anymore. "I'm upset because you don't have any faith in me." 

"W-what?" Chanyeol stammered, eyes going wide. "What makes you think–of course, I do." 

Yeseul folded her arms over her chest, looking away. She couldn't help the bitterness that seeped into her voice. "Clearly you don't, if you go behind my back and try to fix everything before I even have a chance to." 

"I wasn't–that's not–" he sighed, running a hand through his hair and then over his face. She could hear the resignation in his voice. "I knew you'd react this way." 

That was when she snapped. "So why the did you do it in the first place?" 

Chanyeol stood up straighter, eyes hard. She was used to seeing drastic and sudden changed in countenance with Chanyeol, but thi