A/N: This one is especially for K, who is celebrating her birthday today, and I wanted to finish it for her bc she brightens up my days and deserves all the happiness in the world. I hope you enjoy it babe <3

~

In the morning they checked up on Dae’s arm, deeming her fit enough to get started on the healing process on her own, and they discharged her from hospital with a shiny new appointment card for her own doctor a week from then.

Before she could leave, the doctor warned her that her arm would likely get itchy on the way back home and that she would need plenty of painkillers if she wanted to be pain-free, but that was all. They had no reason to keep her there another day.

After thanking the doctor and the nurse on duty, which was thankfully not the strict one they had needed to deal with the night before, Baekhyun took Dae’s uninjured hand and started guiding her down the hallway. He was acting as if she was a cripple and couldn’t at all move around on her own, which of course was stupid because it was only her arm which was hurt, but it was also kind of cute.

Some people smiled their way, probably seeing more in Baekhyun’s kindness than there actually was to it, but Dae only smiled back and focused on getting the hell out of that hospital. It was already much later than what they had planned on leaving at and they would be driving up North, which would take a few hours at least.

They would be getting closer to home with every hour that passed, but before they’d really go back they would spend their last night at the seaside.

Dae wasn’t entirely looking forward to the long hours they would be spending together in the car, especially because Baekhyun would be the only one driving and they would need plenty of breaks to make that work, but mostly because they still had their unresolved issues to deal with.

Sure, her accident had made things much smoother, but it was a pretending that nothing had happened in the first place, and that was not what was right in this situation. If she would let it rest, if she didn’t address this, she would forever hold it in and it would eat away at her and grow bigger and bigger until one day it would come out when it would be far too late.

Still, as she sat in the car, with Baekhyun buckling up her seatbelt for her, she couldn’t find the words to start such a conversation. The thought that they would end up fighting while Baekhyun was driving, having them end up on the side of the road in a ditch somewhere, did not come across as particularly inviting. And so she didn’t say anything, again, even though she really wanted to.

Maybe it would have to wait until they had returned home, until they were in a place where one of them could walk away if it became too much or too uncomfortable. A place where they were both grounded and at ease enough to speak their minds truthfully. Yeah, maybe that was best. Dae would try to make small talk until they’d get home, she would try to stick to the more natural vibe they had been in at the hospital, and once they’d arrive back in Seoul, then she could discuss the kiss.

Having made up her mind by the time Baekhyun climbed behind the wheel, she turned to her crush while she fumbled with one hand to plug her phone into the aux cord. As he the engine she scrolled through her phone with her right thumb, “before we drive off,” she said, “I want to give you the present I had prepared for yesterday but never got to give.”

She easily found the playlist she was referring to on her own account, titled ‘Daebaek roadtrip’, and she smiled as she saw the first songs on the list there. It had taken her weeks to finish, weeks in which she had spent hours visiting old memories and writing down songs that were linked to the two of them. It had become a list of songs that meant something to their friendship.

But it weren’t just songs that Baekhyun knew, it had more than those tunes that he would recognise as ‘the one from that party Dae ended up tumbling into those prickly bushes’ or ‘the one we played for Chanyeol to cheer him up after his break up’.

There were also ones that were special to Dae. Ones that she recognised as ‘the one that was playing when I first saw him’ and ‘the one I cried along with when I realised I was in love with him, my best friend’.

She hoped that they would give him the same feelings she had experienced. She hoped he would understand her thoughts about him without her having to say them. And the good thing about the playlist was that if Baekhyun were to somehow not be blind enough and he would see the link between the songs and Dae’s feelings, and if he would be upset about it, about Dae’s crush on him, she could easily deny it and play it off as something else.

“It’s a trip down memory lane, while we travel to a new place we haven’t seen yet. Combining the old and the new in a way I hope – and think – you’ll like,” Dae explained, keeping her eyes on Baekhyun’s face still, “it’s a list full of songs that remind me of you in a way, whatever way. You could see it as a way to show my appreciation for you, as well as a celebration of how much fun we’ve had together already.”

Baekhyun stared at her in surprise and only blinked, eyebrows slightly raised, and so Dae pressed play and started them off with the song they had first been introduced on. Dae remembered it clear as day, because it had been so fitting to the situation – for her at least -  and due to the fact that Baekhyun had screamed the artist’s name in her ear before he had shaken her hand.

My heart melts at your smile
when our eyes meet
My heart pounds

Oh I’ll sing for you on your spring day
Think about it for several times a day

Oh this is what I think of you
You’re beautiful

It had been exactly how Dae had felt that first meeting. Her palms had gone sweaty and her heart had jumped out of her chest, almost loud enough to trump the music ánd Baekhyun’s voice. But his voice had been soothing, like melted butter, and had managed to break through the noise easily. As it had done ever since.

Her crush was singing now, voice full and loud in the car as he started driving, and Dae sat back and relaxed as his voice soothed her instantly. He didn’t have to thank her, his singing was a sign of how much he liked it and an acknowledgement to what she had done for him.

It resonated even more when his hand briefly left the gear stick to squeeze her knee, and when Dae looked up in surprise, Baekhyun was smiling, his eyes on the long road ahead of them.

~

It was during their break, the third one that day, that Baekhyun decided to catch her off guard. They were sitting on the edge of the trunk, their faces half hidden from the sunlight that was warming their bodies somewhat, and Dae had just taken a sip from her juice through her straw again when he said, completely out of the blue, “I think I’m going to tell my crush that I like her.”

Dae felt it as the juice went down her windpipe, and she immediately found herself in a coughing fit that had juice coming out of her nose, it was that bad. Baekhyun, who was instantly worried because of Dae’s poor physical state, started patting her back to help her get rid of the drops of liquid that she was trying to get out of her lungs.

The difficult part was that with one arm tied up against her chest, Dae couldn’t exactly wipe her face and hold the drink at the same time, and so she pushed the bottle into Baekhyun’s hand and turned away so she could finally clean herself up. There were tears in her eyes and juice dripping down her chin, it was embarrassing as hell.

Behind her, her crush took her choking as disapproval. “What, do you think it’s a bad idea? I feel like I should be more daring in this,” Baekhyun’s hand was on her back still, slowly rubbing circles now, “I thought you would be telling me the same.” He sounded a little less sure now, as if Dae’s response had made him doubt himself.

Dae made sure to swallow before she tried using her voice, afraid she would start a coughing fit again if she didn’t, “I don’t know, I guess you’re right.” She blinked her eyes, thankful that they were already wet with tears from her coughing, that way Baekhyun wouldn’t suspect they had anything to do with him, “I would be nervous, though. Like, are you positive she feels the same way about you? And if not, then are you at least sure she won’t stop talking to you just because you like her?”

Baekhyun was quiet for a while, watching his best friend for a moment as she fidgeted. It was hard to manoeuvre with one arm basically dysfunctional, but she felt that if she stopped moving for just a second she would explode like a ticking time bomb, it was better to keep moving.

“I’m not positive about her feelings for me,” Baekhyun replied eventually, and when Dae made the mistake to look at him she was met with the softest of smiles that he directed at his knees, “but I’m sure about my feelings for her. And I can’t imagine her turning on me even if she doesn’t feel the same way, so.”

Dae’s mouth had gone dry and she swallowed as she tried to imagine who the hell was lucky enough to deserve a smile like that. Had she been focused on watching Baekhyun so much that she had totally missed the way he was looking at someone else? And who could it be, she had to be someone Baekhyun talked to on a regular basis, someone he met up with besides her. Why was there no one she could think of right now?

“Why did you bring me on this trip with you instead of her? It would have been a perfect opportunity to see if the two of you could deal with each other for so long,” Dae mumbled, her eyes on the cast around her arm as she fixed the placing of her sling, “like the beach we’re heading towards now, it could have been the perfect place to admit your feelings. You’re really an idiot.”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun snorted from besides her, “I’m sure it’s me that’s the idiot.” She didn’t understand what he meant with that, was he calling his crush an idiot too? That would be a mean thing to do.

“Anyway, if you’re still not sure maybe you should ask Chanyeol whether it’s smart to do so or not,” Dae said with a shrug, which turned into a hiss because doing so hurt more than she had anticipated. It was worth it, though, because rather than discuss any more about Baekhyun’s crush and his decision whether to confess to her or not, her best friend started fussing about her health again.

He guided her to the passenger seat and helped her back in her seat, “we should be careful with you,” he shook his head, “I keep forgetting that you’re clumsy, and with you already injured we don’t need any more of it.”

He buckled her up again and Dae really wanted to cross her arms, but she realised too late that she couldn’t, proving Baekhyun’s whole point by whining as she touched her hurt arm accidentally.

“See, I need to wrap you up in bubble wrap,” he joked with a low chuckle before he straightened himself and smiled at her, “arms in, I’m closing the door.” He was being mean on purpose, Dae knew that and she wanted to punch his pretty face for it.

That desire evaporated soon enough as Baekhyun started driving again, though, with him pressing play on her playlist the same way he had done all day so far. A special song started playing, one she added as one of the first songs on that list: their slow dance song.

Baekhyun seemed to remember it too, as he mumbled a quiet, “we should dance to this again some time.”

Dae hummed in agreement, but her mind was already back to that moment months ago, at Baekbeom’s wedding, where Baekhyun had asked her to dance to this song. His arms had been around her, her head on his shoulder as they had shuffled around in circles. The memory was sweet and warm, and with her eyes closed as she danced inside her head, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

~

When Dae woke up the car was parked and Baekhyun was no longer in the seat beside her. She blinked herself awake while yawning loudly, a hand in front of to cover up, and when she finally properly looked outside she saw they had reached their destination at last.

From the car she could see the beach, the dark waves hitting shore with white foam the sand at every possible occasion. There was quite a bit of wind, or so it seemed, and the sky was cloudy with some rays of sunshine peeking from behind it, but it seemed to be late afternoon already.

In the middle of her view, she could see Baekhyun’s hunched back. Her crush was seated on the hood of the car, legs pulled up and arms wrapped around them. His chin was resting on his knee, his hands hidden in the sleeves of their road trip hoodie, and he seemed to be staring off into the distance.

It wasn’t a surprise that he had let her sleep rather than woken her up, knowing how much he worried about her health right now, but she wished he had. The sun was already going down, and the whole point of them being here was to watch it. They had kept it until the final day: sundown at one of the most beautiful places in Korea. Was he really going to let her sleep through it?

Slowly but surely, Dae started moving in order to get herself unbuckled without hurting herself more. Opening the door on her right with her right hand was a bit complicated, but she managed, and the sound of it made Baekhyun look up and turn her way for a moment.

Once she was safely out of the car, however, he turned back to face the water which was still some good distance away from the car.

Dae didn’t climb up on the hood, she couldn’t with her arm in the cast, but she leaned back against it right next to Baekhyun. He said nothing to her to acknowledge her presence, and somehow it felt off. The air was tense, a little awkward, and Dae turned her head to properly look at him but Baekhyun’s face was closed off from all emotion. He had shut her out, he had shut everyone out.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, wanting to let him know that she had noticed it, that she knew him better than that and could tell that something was up. It could be plenty of things, each one worse than the other, but something had taken that easy smile off his face. The smile that had still been there before she had fallen asleep, when he had been singing along to the music.

Baekhyun didn’t immediately answer her. Maybe he was hoping that if he wouldn’t, she would let it be, but there was no such thing between them. Just like he would always press her when things were rough, she would push him too.

Dae put a careful hand on Baekhyun’s knee, the one he wasn’t resting his chin on, and stepped slightly closer to make him look at her. He sighed as he did. “Nothing,” a reply finally came, although it was muffled and almost too soft to hear, “just thinking about Mokpo.”

Mokpo? Baekhyun was thinking about Mokpo? The city they had seen two days ago? Why would he- oh. It was the city of their first kiss, the city where things had gotten awkward, and that in turn had led to them fighting in Jeonju and Dae breaking her arm there. Was he thinking about the city, or was he thinking about all of that?

“What about Mokpo?” Dae asked tentatively, wanting to find out more about what it was that Baekhyun’s mind was pre-occupied with. She could read the hope in her own voice, but she knew it didn’t mean to him. He had forgotten all about it, it might as well not have happened. She had to learn how to let it go, but clearly she hadn’t mastered the art yet.

Apparently it was the wrong thing to ask, for Baekhyun pushed her hand away and jumped off the car rather than properly answering her, “whatever, it doesn’t matter.” He walked off like that, acting cold and having stabbed Dae right in the chest with his insensitive attitude.

She was left there alone, confused and thrown off, and close to tears too. What the ?

She turned to face his retreating back and told him just that, her voice loud and perplexed, “what the ?!” It was useless, Baekhyun didn’t reply to her at all, and the farther he walked, leaving a trail of footsteps in the sand, the harder it became for Dae to keep her emotions in check.

Turning back to stare at the car, she felt hot tears of anger burning behind her eyes, and in that moment she felt so utterly done with everything. She wanted to be alone, wanted to forget the world. “God, I want to go home,” she whispered to herself, tilting her face up to the sky as if that would help fight the tears. It didn’t, they had started flowing before she could stop them.

In her frustration, Dae snatched her phone from her pocket and dialled Chanyeol’s number. It was the only other person she could think to call right now, and she was glad he picked up on the third ring rather than let the call go to voicemail.

“Yes helloooo?” he answered, dragging the ‘O’ sound excitedly, as if he was in a really good mood for whatever reason. It probably had to do with Kyungsoo. That changed the second he heard Dae’s sniffing on the other end.

“Ha? What’s wrong?” Chanyeol asked, sounding concerned right away, which only made his voice sound whiny, as if he was a toddler. Dae couldn’t laugh at it today, not with how ty she felt right now, but usually she would have. Now, though, now her arm was hurting, the painkillers having worn off, and Baekhyun hadn’t made things easier at all.

“Chanyeol-ah, I want to go home,” she cried, gasping for air after her words so she could explain better, “Baekhyun’s a stupid , I don’t want to spend another day in the car with him. Please, I know we’re a few hours away, but can you please come and get me? I’ll even pay you!”

“Woah, woah hold up, hold up,” Chanyeol was quick to interrupt the continuous stream of begging that followed right after the confession, “you can’t leave now, it’s your final night together, right?”

“So? He just told me ‘whatever’ and walked away from me,” Dae retorted, leaving out a whole lot of context that would have made things easier for Chanyeol to understand, “I’m so tired of him, Yeol, I can’t do this anymore. I- my heart can’t do this anymore. It hurts.”

“Your heart? What are you on abo- holy ,” Dae could hear how realisation dawned upon him, how the puzzle pieces were slowly falling into place after she had let that slip, “Dae, do you like him? Do you like Baekhyun?”

He sounded urgent, like this was the best news he had heard in ages and he needed it confirmed right this very instant. Dae couldn’t share in his excitement. She laughed, the sound dry and without happiness, “what does it matter, Yeol? He likes someone already. He’s going to confess to her he said. And- and it’s clearly not meant to be for us, because him- and I- and he doesn’t remember, and I-“

Dae had started hyperventilating as she was both crying and trying to calm herself down mid-speech, and clearly that wasn’t working. Chanyeol on the other end of the line kept repeating his words over and over, “what are you trying to say, Dae? He doesn’t remember? What doesn’t he remember?”

“That- that,” Dae stuttered, turning around so she could lean against the hood of the car and give her legs a break. From where she was standing, she could tell that Baekhyun was sitting in the sand near the shoreline, letting his hands run through the grains. He looked small and sad like that, just the way Dae felt too, but she wasn’t going to pity him this time.

“We kissed,” she finally brought out, “we went to the beach and played a drinking game and we ended up kissing. Such a stupid mistake… The next morning we woke up and he doesn’t remember a thing.”

Her crying finally subdued, the heaviness of her heart too much to carry as she admitted it to Chanyeol. That she liked him and that she had done so for a while, but that it was pointless. He had to tell her the same now, right? That it was best to forget about it and move on, for the sake of their friendship.

But on the other end of the line, Chanyeol only sighed loudly and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, “aish, honestly, he truly is an idiot.” The words were spoken softly, and Dae wasn’t sure they had been meant for her to be heard, and so she didn’t comment. She waited for her friend to say more.

“You have to stay. Don’t run away now, Dae, I promise you it’s best to just stay and hear him out,” Chanyeol argued, sounding so hopeful that it almost worked too. Almost. “Hold on, once we hang up I’ll send you something via app, listen to that, okay? Listen to it and then walk up to him and tell him to ing man up.”

Dae frowned, not really understanding what he was getting at, but Chanyeol wasn’t done. He could tell from her silence that she was conflicted, and he groaned quietly before he used his authoritative tone on her, “promise me, Dae. Promise me you’ll do as I say.”

She pouted, not wanting to give in to Chanyeol because she knew it was meaningless. This whole week had been a mess, with her making a fool of herself more than anything. Over the past days she had only fallen for him harder while at the same time it kept becoming clearer to her that he wasn’t interested in her in any other way. What was the point of this?

But it was Chanyeol, her second best friend, and she had to trust him. Sure, Chanyeol liked to joke around, but in serious situations he would always be there for her, so if he was telling her to promise him this, it was surely because he felt she could fix things with Baekhyun. He had to know more than her. It was why she eventually agreed, “fine.”

Chanyeol cheered on the other end of the line and grumbled something under his breath before he directed his words to Dae again, “alright, it’s time you two stop being a pain in my . Keep an eye on your messages. Bye!”

He sounded way too cheerful before he hung up on her, and she stared at her screen for a while after the call was disconnected. What the hell had that been about? And had she really promised to stay, when their whole situation was out-of-this-world embarrassing?

The sound of an incoming message interrupted her train of thought and she looked at the notification to see Chanyeol had sent her an audio file over message. It made her frown, confused about what on earth the dude was doing considering they had just talked on the phone and he had hung up on her. If he had needed to say more, why had he hung up?

But it wasn’t Chanyeol at all. The audio file was simply a message he had received, which he had now forwarded to her. It wasn’t Chanyeol’s voice that entered his ears, it was Baekhyun’s. A slurring Baekhyun.

“Holy ing hell, Yeol,” the voice said, hiccupping slightly mid-sentence, “I did it. I kissed her! No, wait, she kissed me. Yeah, she definitely kissed me, I think.” His words were bubbly and bright despite the obvious alcohol lacing his tongue, “I can’t believe it happened. She fell asleep right after, I think she drank too much or something, but it happened. But… but if she drank, and she fell asleep, maybe she won’t remember. Oh my god, no way. No way, Yeol, what do I do then?”

Dae could hear a certain worry in his voice as he thought of that possibility, followed by a string of, “no, nono that can’t- right? She has to like me, you said this would work! I didn’t put myself out there for it not to work, you-” and then the audio cut off, and Dae realised that Baekhyun never actually finished his rant over voice memo.

As she looked at her screen again she saw Chanyeol had sent along a screenshot of their conversation, in which he told Baekhyun to have a little faith and to not give up on anything yet. That if she would forget, he would have to try again, and before the trip was over too.

Baekhyun’s only reply was a heart emoji, which could mean anything from a ‘thank you’ to much, much more, but still seeing it there in that conversation made Dae’s heart leap in her chest.

“ing… that ing…” she started, feeling so overwhelmed and shocked and loved and everything at once that she worried she would combust right there. She was scared that everything that had been bottled up inside of her, which was now coming out, would make her detonate like a grenade. With that audio file, Chanyeol had pulled out the pin that had been holding her together this whole week.

Dae was pissed off, she was absolutely furious because Baekhyun had known all along and he had refused to own up to what had happened. Instead of facing the consequences the way Dae had been ready to, he had taken the easy way out and pretended alcohol had been a thing.

He had been a huge pain in the all week, pretending not to like her but doing all these things that so easily could mean more, and now she knew they meant more. But instead of everything having led to them working things out together, she had ended up feeling like for two days straight because he had claimed he didn’t remember their kiss, and that in turn had resulted in her breaking her arm as well.

“Goddamn idiot,” the anger was still overpowering the way her heart was all but slamming against her ribcage with the knowledge that she wasn’t alone in this feeling. She didn’t just have a crush on Baekhyun, but Baekhyun had a crush on her as well. Goddamn idiot or not, the feelings she had, those were mutual. She should be celebrating rather than planning Baekhyun’s death. And yet.

The car door slammed shut after she had bowed over to grab the single white envelope from her bag, which she stuffed in her back pocket along with her phone. It was all crumpled now, after having been in her bag for days, but it didn’t matter. He would still be able to read the words that way, and that was the whole point of a letter to begin with.

She had been trying to find the courage for months now to hand it over to him, and she had hoped that this week there would have been a moment to do it. She had kept it for last, in case the trip would have made her braver than before.

The envelope held her confession, and before today looking at it had made her feel close to puking her guts out every time she had laid eyes on it, but somehow she didn’t feel that at all right now. It was different because she knew it was finally the right time.

Stalking her way down the beach probably didn’t look as intimidating as it would have done had she not been wearing a sling, but Baekhyun wasn’t looking her way anyway, so whatever. It gave her the perfect opportunity to surprise the she loved so much, and she did so by flattening her hand and having it smack him right in the back of his head.

Baekhyun groaned on the, “ouch,” that left his lips, and a hand came up to rub at the spot where Dae had just hit him. Then he looked up, his eyebrows furrowed in an annoyed fashion, but that faded away into bewilderment as he saw how Dae looked practically livid as she glared at him.

“Yah, you ing idiot,” she cussed as she flicked Baekhyun’s forehead with her finger this time, “I can’t believe you. I really want to hit you so damn hard.” She balled her hand into a fist, but instead of putting it to use, she felt herself deflate some. The frustration she had felt until now was slowly seeping away, enough to have her close her eyes and bite down a squeal that was now begging to be released.

“What are you even talking about?” Baekhyun asked from his spot in the sand while he was still rubbing his head with his lips stuck in a pout. God, he truly was dense this motherer, he couldn’t even take a guess.

But rather than explain everything with words, Dae fished her phone out of her pocket and tapped it a few times, until the audio file Chanyeol had sent her was playing. Baekhyun’s slurred voice started talking again, “Holy ing hell, Yeol, I did it. I kissed her! No, wait, she kissed me. Yeah, she definitely kissed me, I think.”

She watched her crush’s eyes go wide as he realised what she had heard, and he opened his mouth to explain, to apologise without a doubt, but Dae wouldn’t have any of it. “I thought you didn’t remember? I thought you got too drunk, thought you really didn’t know what I was upset about, but you knew it all this time,” she accused him, “why would you lie about that?”

Baekhyun’s mouth opened and closed a few times, and then he sighed and sagged in on himself, his eyes downcast, “I thought that you didn’t remember, at first. I mean, you fell asleep right after it happened so I thought maybe you hadn’t even been aware of it, especially not with the drinks we had, and-“ he paused as he sought out more arguments, “I was afraid you would turn me down.”

“ you,” Dae retorted, “why would I kiss you and then turn you down? I’ve never jokingly kissed you before, I’ve never jokingly kissed anyone else either, so why would I have?” She wanted to cross her arms again, but all she could do was her hip and rest her free hand on it, “in the car I told you I was upset that you didn’t remember the night before, what the hell do you think I meant with that?”

“Well you were being so cold that I thought you regretted it! So I did us both a favour and pretended I didn’t remember. That way you didn’t have to worry about having to talk to me about it and I wouldn’t have to deal with the rejection,” in his own head, Baekhyun was probably making a lot of sense to himself, but in Dae’s none of it did.

“If that was it, then don’t you think I would have relaxed right after you freaking told me you had no recollection of that night? Because as you may recall I didn’t ‘chill’ after that talk in the car. I would not have broken my arm if I had been ‘chill’ about it,” Dae continued arguing, groaning loudly as she saw Baekhyun’s innocent looking face.

She was done with it, though, and so she pulled the envelope from her back pocket and threw it his way, “here, your final-day present, you dim-witted idiot.” It fell into the sand in front of his feet, but Dae didn’t wait to see him pick it up. She stalked away again, needing space between them while he read the words she had so carefully formulated back home, one day back when her heart had been full of him.

It didn’t really make sense to her why she was so frustrated with the whole situation, because this had been as much of a confession on his side as the one on her side, which he was reading right now. But it was the fact that it had taken so long, that there hadn’t ever been a need for her to feel so uneasy around him after their night in Mokpo, that made it she hadn’t thrown herself in his arms already.

As she flung herself in the passenger seat she squeezed her eyes shut against the tears of betrayal she felt pricking behind her eyelids. She could have been kissing him for two days already, could have actually introduced him as her boyfriend to that nurse at the hospital, if only he hadn’t been so anxious. If only both of them had been more honest.

Dae placed her hand over her eyes, focused on her breathing as she waited for something to happen now. Because it would, Baekhyun must have read it by now. He had to know now how she really felt about him, how she had loved him from the very beginning, and she was going to faint with how nervous that made her feel.

Either way, she had done it. She had come clean about her crush and no matter the outcome at least she could say she hadn’t backed down from that. Sure, the audio file had been exactly what she had needed to be daring enough, and the chances of a positive outcome were much larger than they would have been had she not known there was a possibility Baekhyun liked her, but still. She could have tried to ignore that and wait for him to make a move, the fact that she hadn’t made her proud.

It felt like an eternity had passed by the time the door on her side opened, and she still sat there with her hand over her eyes, too scared to face him. A cold breeze blew in, cooling her burning face, yet she didn’t move. She could hear his breathing right next to her, but all it did was freeze her in her spot even more.

“I’m sorry,” his voice finally broke through the silence, and Dae could detect a hint of tenseness in his words, “for being so blind to how you felt about me. I never realised how we were on the same page, I thought maybe I was only dreaming up the things you did and said to me, that I shouldn’t have seen it as actual flirting. But I think you’ll understand that, because although you have every right to call me an idiot for how I’ve been acting the past two days, you sure were just as blind as me before then.”

Before Dae had the chance to bring her hand down and retort with what would be without a doubt the weakest reply of her life, her fingers were already being peeled away from her face. Baekhyun held on to them as he succeeded at it, taking her whole hand in his and entwining their fingers together.

She turned her head to look at him, and when she saw his eyes there was this sparkling hope in them that took her breath away.

Baekhyun was smiling at her softly with eyes that shone brighter than any stars in the sky above them. She knew that look, she knew it so well because she saw it in all the pictures they had ever taken together. It was the look she had always given him, a solid depiction of love.

Had it always been this visible in his eyes, too? Had she missed it all those times?

He slowly tugged on her hand, urging her to get out, and as Dae shot him a questioning look he smiled brighter and asked her, “come watch the sunset with me? Like we planned?” it wasn’t the question she had really hoped to hear right now, but she figured it could wait a little bit, and so she nodded.

Climbing out of the car while holding his hand wasn’t anything new, yet it felt strangely different from others times it had happened. Moreover, he continued to hold on to her after they had long left the car behind them, as he carefully guided her towards the shore.

Dae had completely missed before how the spot Baekhyun had sat at had been nicely set out, she had been too caught up in her anger to notice, but as they were approaching she saw how cute it really looked.

There was a blanket spread out on the sand, a bottle of something and two glasses on top of it. Lastly there were a few boxes of take-out food that Baekhyun must have ordered while she had still been asleep in the car, they finished the beach picnic scene it created.

Her letter lay folded in the middle of it all, the page slowly blowing in the faint wind, and she smiled briefly as she remembered everything that had just happened. Baekhyun was still quiet, not saying a thing, but Dae could already feel how the atmosphere had changed for the better. The tension and anger that had been there had mostly dissipated and all that was left was the anxiety of not knowing what to currently expect.

Nerves coursed through Dae’s body, all in the uncertainty of what was to happen now. They became slightly easier to deal with once Baekhyun had helped her sit down, leaving her without the added trembling in her legs, but it was still enough for her to not feel hungry at all. She turned down the food she was offered for exactly that reason and focused on swallowing her worries back down and breathing properly.

Baekhyun himself took a few bites of the take-out before he put down the box again, looking too distracted as well. He turned his head towards the setting sun as Dae pulled her legs up to her body as well as she could, supressing the sudden shivers she felt. It had been colder out than she had expected, but with her arm in the cast she couldn’t run back to the car to put on her hoodie.

Baekhyun noticed her sharp inhale and the way her teeth chattered for a few seconds. It was as if the sound had put things back into motion again, because he snapped out of his staring and turned to the bag he had brought, “are you cold? I brought an extra blanket.” He was asking, but at the same time he already knew the answer, and so he didn’t wait for a reply before he unfolded the fabric of it and draped it around Dae’s shoulders with gentle touches.

Only when he was sure that she was wrapped up nice and warm in the blanket did he pull back his hands. Even then, with the touch lost between them, he didn’t go far. He was much closer than before, slightly turned her way too, and rather than look back at the sunset he was looking at her. She could feel his eyes on her face, and it was a little embarrassing, leaving her with a soft blush, but Baekhyun had lost any reservations now that he had read her letter.

His fingers brushed her hair next, as if to sweep away a strand of it, but they lingered even after, ending in his palm cupping her jaw. “The sun is almost setting,” he told her, stating something so trivial, but it turned out there was more to it, “I had expected to be panicky right now. You see, I’ve been dreading this day all week, knowing what I wanted to say to you and the risks that were involved in it, and now it turns out you beat me to the punch.”

Baekhyun laughed, the sound of it light and melodious, and his thumb brushed past the corner of Dae’s mouth, as if to catch her attention. It worked, because in her surprise she turned her head to look at him and meet his expectant gaze. That smile was still there, the one that caused stars to light up in his eyes, and she was caught in them like a fly in a spider’s web.

“I- god I don’t get why this is still so difficult to admit even though I already know how you feel,” there was a tremor in Baekhyun’s voice, betraying just how nervous he was, and Dae felt close up with emotions and anticipation. All she could do was smile and hope he would feel it against his skin, that he would take it as encouragement.

“It took me quite some time to realise that my feelings for you were very different from the way I feel about anyone else. I’ve spent so long telling myself that it was alright to be jealous of others talking to you, you are my best friend after all and I don’t want anyone else to take that spot… and that things like wanting to hold you close while watching a movie on my couch, was just part of being best friends. I thought we had a special friendship, but I didn’t realise I felt more than that until a while ago,” Baekhyun explained, his tone changing from playful to more serious.

“Just like you, I was too scared of ing things up, and I was still so uncertain too. I thought maybe I was going crazy, maybe I had only imagined it, maybe I wasn’t really in love with you at all. That would have made it all so much easier too, I wouldn’t have had to risk what we had that way, but the more time passed the more I realised it was pointless to deny it. Even Chanyeol saw it, like it was written on my face. That was when I decided I wanted to go on this trip and that I wanted you to come.”

Baekhyun’s hand fell from Dae’s face as he continued his story, not done confessing just yet, “I was so scared you’d say no, or that you wouldn’t want to be alone with me, but when you said yes, my confidence grew. Chanyeol convinced me I had a shot with you and that it was at least worth trying to see where things would go,” he chuckled, “and so we left, and I only fell for you harder. Your cute little presents and thoughtfulness, the confrontation with Jongin showing interest… even my worries after you broke your arm. All of it was shouting at me to see how right it felt, how being with you makes me the best ‘me’ I can be. I knew I’d have to confess, the way I had planned.”

Baekhyun finally looked down then, and Dae was glad because she was sure by now her face was on fire. It was hard to hold back any squeals and even harder to not lean in and ing kiss him already, the way she was dying to, but she managed because she wanted to hear his story more than that.

“I was going to, that night in Mokpo. The game was the perfect way for me to let loose some and test your response. So was my reason for talking to you about my ‘crush’. I thought maybe your reaction could give me courage, and although I was hopeful I was never quite sure. Then we kissed, well, you kissed me after I said that stupid thing about kissing your best friend. I wanted to tell you then. I was trying to find the nerve to do so, but then you fell asleep and I lost any courage I had had.”

Suddenly Dae felt very stupid for not having answered him that night. He had called out her name, yet she had been too scared of rejection to answer to it. She hadn’t ever thought it could have been something entirely different.

“When you didn’t mention it on our way back, nor the morning after, I thought maybe it was best to let it rest,” Baekhyun went on, “it all turned into a mess after that, I know, but the fact that I was an idiot to do that doesn’t make my feelings for you any less real. Because I like you, Dae,” Baekhyun full on admitted it, making her heart skip a beat before he full on stopped it, saying, “no, scrap that, I know better than that now. I love you. I goddamn love you.”

Dae didn’t understand how she was still breathing or functioning like a proper human being after those words entered her consciousness. Because Baekhyun had just said that he loved her, he had confessed to her the way she had so often imagined in her mind. It had been hard to differentiate between reality and imaginary then, and she was having a hard time right now too.

She could tell Baekhyun was waiting for her reaction to his words, but she just sat there a little dumbfounded, almost as if she hadn’t understood a word he had said. The problem was that she had understood clearly, maybe a little too well, and now she was stuck in a space where she was internally freaking out to a point she worried she might pass out, but on the outside she was quiet and frozen in place.

It felt like it lasted forever, but of course it couldn’t. Soon enough Baekhyun was done with her silence and grabbed her hand, making her gasp so loudly her breathing finally picked up again. She snapped out of it so quickly then that it dizzied her, but before she could faint she felt how there were lips pressed to her wrist, leading to her knuckles, and that kept her grounded.

Only when Baekhyun saw he had in fact managed to grab her full attention did he speak again, knowing she was listening, “I won’t be stupid and pretend to have forgotten this time around,” he promised, staring at Dae intently, and she cursed herself for how long it took before her mind caught up on what he meant with that. It wasn’t actually until her crush leaned in, being the one to initiate it this time, that she realised this was about to lead to their second kiss.

She closed her eyes just as their mouths met, and she sat still like that: eyes squeezed shut, lips pursed and her wrist still in Baekhyun’s grip. It was awkward in a way their first kiss hadn’t been at all. Maybe the alcohol had helped make it less nerve-wrecking back then, or maybe it had been because that kiss hadn’t been anything serious, as she had thought, but now was very different.

Baekhyun kissed her worries away one by one, until her arm had gone limp in his grip the same way the rest of her body had done. He kissed her with determination, as if he couldn’t stop it even if he had to or he wanted to. It was as if she was his rain after a long drought, as if he needed this to survive, and well, Dae could relate to that.  

She was desperate for the way his lips moved against hers, addicted to the summersaults her stomach did every time she felt his lips part for her. They were completely missing the sunset that was supposed to be the highlight of their final day, but this was without a doubt much better than the beauty of a setting sun.

When Baekhyun broke away, she tried to trail behind and keep them locked, but all she received was a chuckle and a soft squeeze of her hand before he let go of it. She used her fingers to trace where his lips has been and she sighed against them dreamily, begging him, “please, do that again.”

Her crush hummed, sounding smug and happy, and Dae couldn’t help but smile along. “Only if,” Baekhyun started, pausing a moment to leave her hanging, “you agree to be mine and mine alone.”

Finally he had asked her the question she had wanted to hear ever since she had first realised he felt the same way. Finally, after a forever of longing after him, she was being asked the question she had heard in her dreams a thousand times before. She had answered in many ways, each more dramatic than the other, but throwing herself at him or saying something extremely cheesy suddenly didn’t feel fitting anymore.

She only tilted her chin up, getting their faces pressed closer again until they were breathing the same air, and murmured a soft spoken, “okay.” With half-lidded eyes she looked at him, seeing his gaze fall to as she said yes to his question, and knowing how he wanted her too was extremely pleasing. Getting what she wanted was even more so.

Baekhyun’s kiss was way more passionate this time, like her promise was all he had needed to really let go and finally give her his all. He tugged Dae into him as close as he could with her hurt arm in the way, and like before his hand found her face to cradle it caringly. It didn’t last too long.

By the time Dae parted her lips for him his hand was in her hair, tangled up in a way that told her it would be hard to unpick. She didn’t care though, because she had gotten what she wanted.

In the end, although it had taken some time, she had won. Baekhyun was hers and she was his, and this trip had been exactly what they had needed to work that out. Through the good and even the bad, they had slowly but surely found their way to each other, only to end up together on the final day of their trip and at their final destination.

Unlike before, Dae didn’t want to go home any longer. She wanted to sit there forever, kissing the love of her life and feeling the last rays of the setting sun on her burning red cheeks. She wanted to stay there long after the sun had set, snuggled up against his side and gazing up at the stars. But the excitement of knowing how things would be very different returning home from when they’d left, was enough to finally get her back to the car.

It wouldn’t be long before they’d be back to where they started off. Back to Seoul, where Chanyeol and his boyfriend would throw a party for the two idiots that took too long to figure out the heart-eyes they had for each other, where they would have their first ever date and where Dae would kiss Baekhyun goodbye at her door that night only to tug him inside with her at the very last second.

Who knew what else was right ahead of them, what they’d miss if they would stay at that beach until the end of time. No, Dae did want to go home, but for a different reason than she had told Chanyeol. She wanted to hit off what was long overdue, wanted to start their time as a couple together, and as Baekhyun’s hand found her knee whenever he didn’t need it to shift gears, she thought maybe he was ready for that too.

A/N: So that was it <3 I'm sorry the final update took forever, but I've been busy and going through a lot so it took some time. 

Anyway, friend me if you're ready for more chanbaek, bc I've got something new cooking which is probably coming after summer!