5,800 words

TWELVE

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Joes says smugly down the telephone, his voice loud and clear through the speaker. “We’ve done more in less time on previous occasions.”

“Great,” Baekhyun sighs with relief, swivelling left and right in his office chair. “I’ll pay for everything, don’t worry. And make sure you invite everyone! Even the newcomers. Just keep it a secret, okay? I don’t want anyone doing anything suspicious or smirking at him funny. I know it’s hard for everyone to wrap their heads around the concept of a surprise but please, just this once, let it actually be a surprise.”

“Eh! I’ll have you know we’re all very well behaved! Very well behaved indeed! I’ll get Mable to bring her fortune cards, shall I? Oh, and I’ll bring my banjolele! And I’ll let Mrs Mason know that she needs to make a cake. Chocolate?”

Baekhyun considers it, then nods. “Yeah, chocolate sounds good. We don’t need a buffet, though. I’m planning on taking him to the pub before.”

“Don’t need a buffet?” Joe gasps in horror. “You’re not taking me to the pub beforehand! When am I going to have dinner?”

“Okay fine, we can have a buffet!” Baekhyun replies, letting loose a laugh. “I don’t want to be any more trouble than I’m already being though,” he says sincerely, eyes landing on the canvas that sits on his easel. He inhales deeply and puts his hand against his chest, trying not to overthink. “Just do what you can, alright? Don’t go out of your way. I’ll try and make some time to come down and help everyone later.”

“Don’t worry about it, Baekhyun. You just focus on getting yourself sorted. We retired folk have a lot of time on our hands. Is Chanyeol out of town today?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun sulks, staring glumly at his feet. “An emergency meeting. We were disturbed by his boss during breakfast.” It’s typical, Baekhyun thinks. His first birthday with Chanyeol and work comes along and ruins everything. He’ll he having words with Chanyeol’s boss if it ever happens again.

“Ah, that’s a shame. Bet you two made plans, didn’t you?”

Baekhyun sighs again. “We did, but I think this will make up for it. We can always go and ride roller coasters another day anyway, it’s not a big deal.”

“That’s the spirit!” Joe cheers. “Anyway, I’ll ring you if we encounter any difficulties or Agnes problems.”

Baekhyun snorts at Agnes problems. “You leave her alone,” he sniggers, shaking his head.

“Did you hear what happened? Those bloody guinea pigs of hers escaped! She’s inconsolable, Baekhyun. I’ve made a few bets as to whether she’ll find them or not. I voted no,” he giggles guiltily and Baekhyun rolls his eyes.

“Well, on this occasion, I’m hope you’re wrong,” he chuckles, glancing at the time on his computer desktop and sitting up from his slouch. “I’d better go. I’ll speak to you soon!”

“Alright, Baekhyun. See you later!”

Baekhyun hangs up and stretches his arms above his head, trying to eliminate the kinks in his spine before he tucks himself back in at his desk. It feels like all he’s done for the past few days is work, work and work, and he’ll be glad to have a little break later on, even though it’s not the break he was hoping for. They planned to head to a theme park today. Baekhyun was going to win Chanyeol a stupidly oversized cuddly toy from one of the sideshows and buy him a refillable slush even though it’s winter. And there was going to be fried chicken.

Nevertheless, it’s not the end of the world despite how wistful he feels. For now, he has emails to contend with, and spends the next half an hour organising his inbox until only the important messages are left.

He redid the concept art last week for his author client, following all her suggestions and critiques to create something that looked nothing like what he’d done before. Her email sits there unopened, pinned at the top of his inbox with a red flag that puts him off clicking on it. Baekhyun takes a deep breath before he opens it, then deflates when he starts reading. She loves them – his pieces, and Baekhyun gets to read about how ‘great’ he is from a true dictionary mastermind. It’s the most artistic, poetic and rhythmic praise he’s ever gotten, and he thinks he might put it on a t-shirt.

He's been liaising with a few other potential customers over the past few days too, as well as talking back and forth with the owner of the dog he’s going to paint, still waiting on a professional photographer to capture Baekhyun some good reference photos. A couple of orders have also come through, probably early Christmas presents, and Baekhyun writes down everything he needs to print and everywhere he needs to mail them to, compiling a list that takes up two pages of A5 and brings a cheery smile to his face.

In the early afternoon, he finally gets around to wrapping up Chanyeol’s portrait. He’s sealed it and glossed it and left it to dry for twenty-four hours, and when he looks at it, it’s the strangest thing; maybe he’s getting cocky or maybe it’s because it’s a painting of Chanyeol, but he can’t see a single flaw. There’s nothing wrong with it, no mistakes, nothing he itches to change. There are only hints of wobbly where Baekhyun’s arm shook from a happy memory; accidental blobs of the wrong paint colour where he got distracted by Chanyeol’s texts or his calls; blotches of wet paint smeared together from when Chanyeol came over and he was in a rush to hide it. They are anything but errors.

As a joke, he bought the most childlike wrapping paper he could find, a garish neon blue colour with ‘Birthday Boy!’ printed all over it, surrounded by cartoon rockets. It’s obviously intended for kids under the age of ten, and apparently only boys can like outer space, but Baekhyun thought it would be funny and hopefully make Chanyeol smile, even though he’s turning twenty-seven and not eight.

To be completely over the top, he covers the whole thing in silver and gold gift bows and spells out Chanyeol’s name with the rainbow stickers he bought, fulfilling his crazy ‘arts and crafts’ vision he was having. He’s thinking about Friday, when Chanyeol is going to introduce him to his friends from university. From what he’s heard off Chanyeol, they’re an eclectic bunch that melded together through many trials and tribulations, and he’s been assured that he’ll fit right in.

Chanyeol also invited him to spend the weekend at his parents’ house for the family celebrations, and though he has neither accepted or declined just yet, he’s still a little nervous (even with his mum being a ‘fangirl’). It makes him wonder what his own parents are up to, and the fact that he doesn’t know makes him feel terrible. He hasn’t seen them since December and hasn’t spoken to them since May. So much has changed since then, so much that they don’t know about, and will never know about unless Baekhyun has the decency to call.

In truth, he doesn’t know why he hasn’t called. Is it his way of getting his own back for the months of wallowing they did when he allegedly threw his future away? And then the years of them looking down their noses at him as he tried to make art his career? Is he trying to make a statement? Or has he just wasted the last eight years of his life neglecting the people who raised him because he felt betrayed when all they did was care?

Chanyeol and his parents are peas in a pod, making sure to ring each other at least once a week. They even have a Facebook group chat where they send each other interesting articles and pictures, even memes. From Baekhyun’s perspective, it’s idyllic. He might not know about the arguments that happen or the disagreements they have, but he does know that they never hold grudges and it doesn’t take them long to revert back to normal. And Baekhyun misses that. He wants that. So he reaches for his phone.

The dial tone seems to get louder with every ring, an impending doom, and then he hears his mother’s voice on the end of the line.

“Baekhyun?”

“Mum, hi!” he greets, mouth forming the words with a painful twinge of unfamiliarity.

The pause that follows suggests she’s nonplussed, but she manages to stammer out a “Hello” in return. “Is there something the matter?”

“No, no.” Baekhyun shakes his head even though she can’t see him.

“Then, why are you calling?” she asks, tone one of genuine confusion and not repulsion.

It hurts to realise that his mother believes he’ll only call when he wants something and not just to check in. It hurts ever more to know that she thinks he’ll only ring when something’s wrong. He has himself to blame for that. “Just… How are you? How is everything? How’s Dad?”

It takes her a moment before she remembers how to speak, then Baekhyun is moving to sit back on his bed to get comfortable. He almost forgot what a chatterbox she is, and in small doses, he loves it.

“Your dad’s been doing my head in,” she grumbles, and starts complaining about how they’re having the patio redone.

They talk for half an hour before the questions are reversed, before she asks about his life and what’s happening with work. He tells her about some of his recent projects and promises to send her pictures (though not of his concept art, with it being top secret). Then, he breaks the news.

“I’m actually seeing someone new. It’s his birthday today. We’re all celebrating. He’s really great.” He blushes. “I think you’ll really like him.” He almost tags he went to university on the end, but thinks better of it. He’ll have to face her at some point, tell her how he still feels about the whole ordeal, and seeing as they’re coming up to spend Christmas here like usual, he thinks he’ll wait to say it to her face.

When they hang up an hour or so later, Baekhyun spends a couple of minutes letting everything absorb. Apparently, his parents have had a conservatory installed, adopted a rescue dog and re-roofed the house. His mum also has a new car and joined a yoga class where a woman called Janice can’t stand her. With Dad retiring soon, they’ve booked a celebratory cruise around the Caribbean for spring time next year and are looking to buy a holiday cottage somewhere near the coast. It’s a lot to process, especially at the speed his mum talks, but it feels good. He feels included, and he can just imagine the look on his dad’s face when Mum says they’ve been talking.

His phone buzzing in his hand pulls Baekhyun from his thoughts and he looks down to see a text from Chanyeol lighting up his lock screen.

Chanyeol

27th November

[Leaving hell. Be home by 6 x] 16:44

Of course, Chanyeol compares Hapton to hell, and Baekhyun laughs fondly at him until it clicks that the text means he only has an hour to get ready. Then, he panics. He still has to shower and pick an outfit and find his nice going-out shoes, and then he needs to style his hair, shave his stubble and write Chanyeol’s birthday card.

Baekhyun cracks his knuckles and sprints to the bathroom.

He has just about managed everything on his list when the doorbell rings. He’s still half and trying to pull jeans up his moderately damp legs, a hard task even when he’s completely dry, and has no idea which shirt he’s going to wear because he hasn’t had the chance to look yet.

The doorbell rings again and Baekhyun lets out a noise of frustration, running to his wardrobe and pulling out the first thing he sees, forcing it on as he jogs down the stairs, risking his life with how much clutter the steps are covered in. He only achieves doing up three buttons by the time he gets to the door, but he’s sure Chanyeol won’t mind a little peek at his chest.

He pulls the door open and smiles at Chanyeol standing there, delicious in a suit that makes Baekhyun look hideously underdressed (as well as undressed).

“Taxi for Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun deadpans, trying to smother his smirk because Chanyeol is cheesy as hell and doesn’t deserve to be encouraged in any way. Chanyeol looks very pleased with himself at his joke, his cheeky expression too adorable for Baekhyun to maintain his straight face.

“Get in here,” he laughs, waving Chanyeol inside and kissing him on his doormat.

“Why are you half ? Are we about to get down and dirty?” Chanyeol teases, pulling on Baekhyun’s gaping shirt for emphasis and exposing a .

Baekhyun smiles against his mouth and bumps their noses. “No, that’s happening later. We’re going to the pub for dinner. I’m starving.”

“Ah, my twentieth dish,” Chanyeol sighs dramatically. “It’s been a long journey but I’m glad I’ve finally got to this point.”

“It’s the end of an era,” Baekhyun plays along as he shuts his front door and finally buttons up the rest of his shirt, heart jumping when Chanyeol decides to help. “Kyungsoo will have to change his menu.”

“He will indeed. Whatever will I eat now?”

“Nothing, clearly,” Baekhyun snorts, briefly glancing at himself in the hallway mirror and fixing his hair. Afterwards, he turns to face the pile of shoes at the bottom of his stairs with a determined expression and starts to search for buried treasure.

“I’m buying you a shoe rack,” Chanyeol decides, entertaining himself on his phone while he waits. Baekhyun is about to tell him that he doesn’t need a shoe rack because he knows exactly where everything is, except he is only able to uncover one of his shoes and can’t find the matching pair. “Definitely buying you a shoe rack,” Chanyeol amends when he sees Baekhyun’s st