PARIS; 22:45

It were nights like these that Baekhyun liked, where he'd come up to his friend's apartment and relax outside in his spacious balcony, comfortable with each other's company along with a single bottle of wine only people like them could afford.

It was cold tonight, but Baekhyun didn't bother for a coat and stuck to his usual sweater instead. The thick material hugged his body loosely, the air seeping through easily, yet the cold only did little to bother his numbing skin. He was pretty much used to it by now, to the constant negative he exposed himself to. Sehun, on the other hand, opted to be warm, despite the raging fire burning by his outdoor fireplace. 

The tall boy was sprawled on one of his comfortable outdoor couches, his legs dangling off of the armrest, being too long to fit perfectly. Baekhyun stood against the railings, his back facing his friend, with a serene look on his face and his mind running elsewhere, somewhere far from Paris, far from France. He gazed at the stars, tried to count them, and took notice of how far away they were but still twinkling against the deeply contrasting night skies. He longed to reach them, but knew how it was absolutely impossible. He wondered if he could, someday, or if he'd only die wondering. 

     "I think our wine's getting chilled now." Sehun spoke, breaking the silent barrier between them. Baekhyun was brought back to earth, his mind now fixed on drinking as he withdrew himself from the ledge and sat on the seat next to his friend. He started sipping on his drink, feeling a little lightheaded since he hadn't eaten anything since lunch time. He only had an apple this morning before heading off to his lectures, and he ignored the constant rumbling of his stomach for the whole day. "You should eat, you know." It was Sehun again, his usual unfazed expression turning into one of concern, his lips turned downwards into a worrying frown. 

It was no secret to Baekhyun's closest friend that he was suffering inside, suffering because of certain concerns which were ridiculous for a man like Byun Baekhyun. At first he didn't understand why the older boy insisted that he wasn't hungry at all when he came to offer food, why he accepted eventually out of defeat but rushed to the bathroom almost afterwards to empty the contents of his stomach as if he was fed with poison. Sehun assumed he didn't like his offering but accepted anyway because of guilt, but then through time he just knew that wasn't the case at all. When he first visited Baekhyun's apartment he had nothing in his kitchen except for a few pieces of fruit and low calorie bread, and he drank nothing else but water. 

    "I'm fine, Sehun, really." Baekhyun replied, voice hoarse and sounding exhausted. It had been years already, yet not once did he ever succeed in convincing him to at least have a little more in his system. "You'll get Leukemia," he once threatened, "You're gonna have holes in your stomach, too, hyung," was another, but he never once listened. Baekhyun would only laugh it off like he had only heard a joke, and ruffle Sehun's hair without any kind of reply. 

Had he even gone to therapy today? Sehun asked himself. Baekhyun had been in and out of the hospital frequently these past two years, and he was assigned to a therapist to discuss about his eating disorder, but it didn't have any kind of progress at all. How could it have any succession when all appointments were cancelled due to fake excuses and all antidepressants flushed down the toilet, never to be found again? 

Baekhyun wanted to be happy, but his road to happiness was different. To him, happiness didn't come in orange pill bottles or a shrink who cared about nothing else but getting money out of pretending to care about people's feelings. Happiness can only be attained through perfection, through slim bones and the perception of being beautiful. To him, he wasn't in that stage just yet. Maybe he'd never reach that stage, but even then, he'd have to keep trying.

It was already past twelve when Baekhyun drove back to his own apartment, all chilly but still oblivious to it. The ride up to his suite consisted of blank thoughts, his brain drifting from the stack of papers cluttered above his desk and the apple he was gonna be eating tomorrow. Maybe he should go and buy some oatmeal for a change, but before he acted on the decision of going back down, the elevator let out a ringing sound, announcing his arrival to the floor. 

But stepping out of the lift didn't take him to his desired destination. Instead, he found himself standing in a dingy bar, all filled with people and loud music. He suddenly felt hot, a large contrast between the temperature back at Sehun's place. What confused him even more was the fact that all the people inside the bar were of South Korean descent, and that his apartment building didn't have a bar at all. 

     "Hello Sir. All the booths are currently taken, so are you alright with the bar instead?" A slim girl wearing a white dress shirt tucked into leather shorts which were too short for men to think they were allowed to take a peek approached him. The girl spoke in a language too far from the French he was used to, and he realized she had talked to him in Korean. 

     "Where- what is this place?" Baekhyun undoubtedly mumbled before he could stop himself. The girl's eyebrows furrowed in confusion before she administered that maybe he was just slightly drunk. She did smell the wine on his breath.

     "You're at The Lounge right now, sir. Are you a tourist?" She replied. Maybe he's from somewhere far from Seoul, but he didn't look much like it, so she settled on the assumption that he's raised in a different country. He did sound and look like someone with a lot of money. 

Baekhyun was incredulous about the whole situation. There was no way in hell that he's currently in Seoul when he just came back from Sehun's place in Paris. Paris. How could he have managed to travel eight thousand kilometers in a split second? Was he that drunk to have imagined a whole situation, and felt like it was truly real? He has never stepped foot in Seoul for years, he was already feeling unfamiliar about his home country. It must be hunger. He did have hallucinations back then a few times, but it was never like this. This time felt surreal.

His previous hallucinations only consisted of voices speaking harshly, telling him to lay off the food or he'd be bigger. He's never experienced visual hallucinations even at least once in his entire lifetime. He's dreaming, perhaps? Stuck inside his car and decided to just sleep in there? Couldn't be. He would never sleep in his car.

     "Sir? Tu n'as rien?" Baekhyun was startled and immediately blinked, and now in front of him was the extended lobby of his floor and a woman shaking him awake. The dim yellow lights and the intricate carpets were far from the flashing lights and neon signs he wore he had just witnessed before. The woman looked older, but now she wasn't wearing a uniform but instead a floral dress which accentuated her face. She was old and definitely French. 

     "Je vais bien, merci." Baekhyun replied, shaking his head before heading out of the elevator, leaving the woman inside with a relieved look on her face. What the hell happened? 

Baekhyun felt strange, considering the turn of events tonight, but one thing was in his mind for sure.

It was just all an imagination.

_

[A/N I don't know how to speak French, so please correct me if I am mistaken lmao.]