“I swear, Nahee! We had not been talking for three minutes and the guy had already disappeared.” Chanyeol retorted, looking at her friend who just raised her eyebrows and went on reading her magazine.

“Chanyeol, no offense, but it would not be the first time you imagine things when you’re drunk.”

He annoyed her, he could tell by the way she looked at him, the way she talked to him. Of course, she was reading, and her magazine should be way more interesting than hearing that he had met someone in a club and that someone had disappeared.

“But I wasn’t drunk.” Chanyeol replied, furrowing his brows.

“It only makes it worse, you should consider meeting a therapist.”

Chanyeol furrowed his brows, hating the way Nahee was talking to him. He had not imagined Baekhyun. He had met him, and he still could not grasp why the other had suddenly disappeared, as if they had not been talking for the whole evening. It was pure nonsense.

Maybe he had annoyed the hell out of Baekhyun? Chanyeol sighed and closed his own book, putting it back on the pile that stood next to his friend. “I’ll have a walk and check my mail.”

Nahee hummed. Sometimes Chanyeol wondered if they were friends or if she only bore him because she had no other friends and she wanted someone to talk to in case of need. One day, she would realize that she did not need him anymore and she would leave him behind. Nahee was that kind of person.

Chanyeol left the apartment block, glancing up at the repairmen who were busy fixing the fire alarm. It was about time. He ran a hand through his hair, sighing, as he entered the mail room, taking the small key out of his pocket. A letter hanging from the next box caught his attention so much that he did not realize that he was inserting the key into the mailbox itself. As he let go to push the letter into the box, he heard a metallic noise.

“Holy cow.” The key. He had just… Not again!

That was just his luck.

He went out of the mail room, feeling even angrier than the moment he stepped in and, slamming the door, he almost wished that the window would break. Now he would need to find the janitor and ask him for a second key, if he still had one, since he was the king of bad luck and mistakes.

“I mean, really.”

There should have been a medal for people like him. Or a kind of Nobel Prize. A world records. The medal of the unluckiest person on Earth, that would be a thing.

He was still pondering over the loss of his keys when his eyes met a figure, a few meters away from his block, looking up at the building.

“Baekhyun!” He called angrily, heading for the place where the other stood. As he arrived, the other noticed him. “What the h…”

“I’m sorry.” Baekhyun’s tone seemed so sincere that Chanyeol stopped boiling. The latter furrowed his brows, eyes locked on the other’s face.

“Oh, you can. You disappeared without former notice. Does it seem right to you?”

Baekhyun shook his head, looking away as thought caught red-handed.

“I had an urgent call and I had to leave. I’m sorry.”

Chanyeol did not know whether he could believe him. He looked tired, as if he had not gotten enough sleep. Maybe he had not noticed that look the night before. Maybe he had always been like that.

“But I was, what, four meters away?”

“I’m sorry.” He said more firmly, before looking up at him. Now, Chanyeol could tell he was angry by the dirty look Baekhyun was giving him. “Is it something you can’t understand?”

“Relax I…Was it serious?”

“Not your business.”

Chanyeol sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking at the building where the repairmen where still at work, shouting instructions to each other.

“What are you doing around here?”

“I was looking for you.”

“How did you…”

“You’re not unknown, Chanyeol. I just had to find a friend of yours and I knew where you lived.” He chuckled before shaking his head. “By the way, that building looks terrible.”

Another of those strangely enthralling smile curled Baekhyun’s lips as he looked at the building. It looked miserable, almost unattended, but it was good enough for students, when they have not enough money to pay for something better. Eating only kimbaps when money was scarce was already painful enough.

“Why were you looking for me?”

“To apologize?” Baekhyun scoffed, eyeing him before rolling his eyes. “Did you really think I was going to disappear and never come back?”

No matter how tired he looked, Baekhyun always seemed to have the last word. Yet, as Chanyeol was looking at him, he could not miss the look of sadness that flashed into his eyes.

“Do you want to come in? We can have a beer or I don’t know…”

Baekhyun only nodded, following Chanyeol as he led him to the apartment block, climbing the stairs before opening his door on a small, dark room with a bed, a small fridge, a television and a desk. He shared a bathroom and a kitchen with the rest of the floor, and Chanyeol would not have complained about it because it helped him get social interactions.

“How long have you lived here?”

“I’d say a few years already? I moved in when I started college.” Chanyeol handed him a bottle of beer and sat onto his bed, taking his shoes off.

Baekhyun moved to the window, sipping from the bottle as he looked outside. The curtain was closed. He pulled it open and looked up, slightly bending over before stepping back and sighing.

“That place really is terrible”

“Why? It’s not as bad as it seems.”

Chanyeol chucked and took a gulp of beer as Baekhyun was heading for the chair. He stopped laughing as he saw the saddened look on Baekhyun’s face. Again? What was wrong with that boy ?

“What is going on? Baek?”

“You can’t even see the sky.”