October 20, 2018

6:53PM

 

“No, , that’s wrong!”

 

Baekhyun yelled out in frustration, throwing the innocent number 2 pencil across the room, striking the door. Chanyeol walks in, just time as the pencil falls to the ground. He spots a frustrated Baekhyun who is attempting to pull up the chair he was sitting on, to hurl across the room. Chanyeol sighs, closes the door behind him and approaches the smaller one. He puts his hand on top of Baekhyun’s head, and Baekhyun slumps his arms to the side, retreating his head towards Chanyeol, his face on his chest sighing and trying to hold back tears.

 

“I’m so tired...” His voice muffled by Chanyeol’s chest. Chanyeol sighs once again and turns his little petting on Baekhyun’s head onto an actual hug. Baekhyun resists the urge to hug back, and continues to breathe in Chanyeol’s scent.

 

“It’ll be fine. You’re just pressuring yourself too much. You’ve been at this since 4AM. Maybe take a break once in a while?” Chanyeol says, as he spots the uneaten cold food on the table. He sighs, for the third time.

 

“You didn’t even eat your damn food.” Chanyeol pulls Baekhyun off of him, and approaches the neglected meal. Baekhyun pouts behind him like a child.

 

“I didn’t like it.” Baekhyun lies. He loves the food Chanyeol makes for him.

 

At the wee hours of the morning, 2:39AM to be exact, Baekhyun kept rolling around the bed. Unable to fall into a deep sleep, unlike the taller man next to him who was snoring by 8:39PM like an old man. Baekhyun had the hardest time sleeping, he just had too much running in his mind, and one of them was the work he had not put out in ages.

 

Baekhyun was an artist. An amazing one at that. His hands found ways to allow people to be in awe of his work. To have people discuss it, talk about it, while he lurks in the shadows with his ears roaring at the sounds of praise and understanding. There were a few people who couldn’t grasp it, but there were the rare few that knew exactly the turning gears his mind had put into each and every one of his art.

 

He breathed that in, he lived it, it was something that he would never replace for the world. His hands and his mind gave him the capacity to turn what others would just call, lines and colors on a sheet of paper, into something far beyond. He mainly did it for himself, until he had met Baekhyun at one of his gallery openings.

 

-

 

October 20 2010

 

“Baekhyun, they all look so beautiful! I can’t believe you came up with all of this in a week!” Kyungsoo said, holding a full glass of wine on his hand. He wasn’t going to drink it, he just didn’t want to feel awkward being the only person walking around holding nothing in a dark violet turtleneck, a choice that Kai has dreaded so much when he stepped out of the closet, metaphorically and literally.

 

“Thanks. I think I was in such a high for that week. Is this what people who snort feel like?” Baekhyun said, a distasteful joke that only Kyungsoo would really understand.

 

As pretentious as the event may seem, due to the fact that so many of them just love feeling like they belong, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo did not belong to such a world. It irritated Baekhyun that the rich and snobby were the main investors of his work. But if putting that stuff out there was going to help him earn money, get noticed and have the real ones come out and see his work, it was a small thing he was willing to give out.

 

And Kyungsoo was too much of a good friend not to support Baekhyun, even if it meant he had to wear turtlenecks for the rest of his life, holding onto $500 glasses filled with $5 wine to look the part. In fact, this little look that Kyungsoo had going for him started out as a joke and in some way, a scam. He was trying to help out Baekhyun on his first gallery showing, and so he dressed up as pretentious and ridiculous as possible, pretending to discuss art loudly so that the rich would throw their money on it just because some weird man in a turtleneck said something.

 

It was Kyungsoo’s idea to wear the outfit, he had grabbed the most expensive looking wine glass in his mother’s collection and filled it with cheap wine that he bought at a drug store. It was the best $5 investment he and Baekhyun ever had. And it just continued on as a weird tradition that he does every time Baekhyun has major events.

 

“Everything looks amazing. Even that guy over there.” Kyungsoo teased, as he gestured towards the small little table at the side that had food on it.

 

There stood a tall man, in a white dress shirt, black vest and a ridiculous polka dotted black and white bowtie. He had thick large frames on, and stood behind the table with his hands on his back smiling like a moron at no one in particular.

 

“Who is that?” Baekhyun asked, curious. Kyungsoo raises a brow at Baekhyun, who had his eyes glued to the taller figure. Kyungsoo smirks and nudges his friend forward.

 

“What the ?” Baekhyun hisses at Kyungsoo who just gives him a laugh.

 

“He’s cute, approach him. You hired him.” Kyungsoo said and Baekhyun rolled his eyes.

 

“Technically, your husband hired him. He set the event up .” Baekhyun said and Kyungsoo pouted, pretend to be hurt like a child. He sips his cheap wine and ignores Baekhyun for the rest of the time.

 

Baekhyun, curious, approaches the table. The tall figure flashes him a goofy smile, and Baekhyun prays to the Gods above that he wouldn’t crack a laugh. But the longer he stared, it was just inevitable. He finds himself cracking up, a bunch of heads turning at the loud laughter that comes out of Baekhyun’s mouth, but quickly return to their own business when they see its nothing of interest.

 

The taller figure looks at Baekhyun confused, unsure of what exactly was even happening.

 

“Are you okay, sir?” The taller figure asks, leaning in a bit closer, unaware of how close his face was to Baekhyun, who after his fit of laughter realizes how beautiful this tall man’s eyes were. And now he has resolved to blushing.

 

“You’re pretty red, do you need some water?” The taller one asks and Baekhyun shakes his head, his mouth open a little bit strangely fascinated and taken aback at the tall one before him.

 

“I’m Baekhyun and my name is fine.” Baekhyun quickly says and the taller one squints in confusion. Baekhyun realizes slowly what he had said. He closes his eyes and sighs in frustration at how pathetic he must’ve looked and sounded.

 

“I mean, I’m fine and my name is Baekhyun.” Baekhyun clarified and the tall one laughs at him.

 

“My name is Chanyeol.” He introduces himself as he grabs a glass of water filled with ice, handing it over to Baekhyun, who simply stares at it.

 

“You might actually need it. It’s free anyway.” Chanyeol says and Baekhyun just smiles and takes the cold glass, their fingers touching and Baekhyun smiling at the feel of it, and the tall one secretly feeling the same way.

 

Baekhyun takes a sip of the water, his eyes divert into the numerous goods on the table. He takes a piece of shrimp, that looked innocent enough and pops it into his mouth. His face changes, shock, as the flavors of the shrimp just dances around his mouth.

 

“Oh my God this s so good.” Baekhyun finds himself saying, a couple of heads turning and giving him looks for his cussing. Baekhyun places a hand on his mouth, completely embarrassed.

 

“Don’t worry. I’m nothing like them, I don’t care if you curse. Who gives a .” Chanyeol exclaimer and Baekhyun smiles.

 

“Where’d you get this?” Baekhyun asks as he takes more of the shrimp and begins to eat it.

 

“I made it.” Chanyeol says and Baekhyun’s eyes grow in surprise. Chanyeol smiles, pleased at the reaction.

 

“Really? You cook?” Baekhyun asks, as if he had never met a man cook in his entire life. Chanyeol nods, and proceeds to explain to the small man before him that he is currently attending his last year of culinary school, and he needed some extra cash so he’d take on gigs like Baekhyun’s gallery showing.

 

“But what if no one eats it?” Baekhyun asks and Chanyeol shrugs.

 

“Doesn’t matter, I’ve already gotten paid beforehand. Whether they eat it or not, I’ve made it. It is insulting to see no one even trying one but, at this point, the money is a bit more important to me. But don’t be fooled, I love this. In a way, it’s my art.” Chanyeol says and Baekhyun nods in agreement.

 

“If anything, I feel bad for whoever the artist of these works are.” Chanyeol says and Baekhyun stands there in confusion, realizing that Chanyeol doesn’t know he was the artist.

 

“How so? People are buying the works. They sell like hot cakes.” Baekhyun says and Chanyeol gestures across the room.

 

“You have all these people who have the money to buy all this work, they bust out their checkbooks and expensive pens, write down digits but at the end of the day, all of this is just living room or dining room decorations for them. I mean, do they really understand the work? Do they bother to get to know who made them? I bet you none of them have any idea who even makes this.” Chanyeol says, the last part a bit ironic.

 

“I would. I would want to meet whoever made all of this, ask them why they made it, ask them if they have a muse. Ask them if they’ve always seen themselves doing this, and what else was art to them, and how far can they go with it.” Chanyeol says, his hands in his pockets as he looks at the work with intent.

 

Baekhyun finds himself once again blushing. It may not have been a direct compliment, but it definitely was a compliment that he has never received, and one he takes in with a whole heart. There stood before him a man who would probably understand his frustrations at the people who can’t even grasp the ideas behind his work.

 

-

 

October 20 2018

7:25PM

 

Baekhyun sat at the dining room with Chanyeol. He was playing with his food, uninterested while his mind was occupied. There was nothing in there, but it was occupied.

 

“Eat.” Chanyeol simply says as he forks down another piece of broccoli. Baekhyun, already frustrated, hurls the plate across the room. Chanyeol ducks just in time, the plate crashes at one of Baekhyun’s works, smearing it with the sauce from the food, a piece of the broccoli sticking but slowly slides off to join the broken pieces of the expensive plate on the ground.

 

“What the is wrong with you?!” Chanyeol screams, he gets up and the chair screeches on the floor. Baekhyun just stands there, his hands on his sides as he stares at his work.

 

It was a painting of him and Chanyeol. Portraits were never his thing, nor was drawing humans he knew in general. When he started a relationship with Chanyep=ol, he couldn’t stop using the man as his muse, and before he knew it he had a collection of Chanyeol. They were like everyday photos he had taken, and later on turned into one of his creations. A photo of Chanyeol behind a cherry blossom tree would later on be turned into Chanyeol surrounded by cherry blossom pieces.

 

They were works he would never see himself doing, they were too cheesy or too basic for his taste, but he did them anyway because it was his way of expressing how much he had adored Chanyeol.

 

“Baekhyun, what the hell is wrong with you?” Chanyeol asks again, cutting down his tone from anger to concern.

 

“I hate that.” Baekhyun says under his breath, looking away from the painting on the wall. Chanyeol turns to look, and suddenly feels pain.

 

“That’s from our wedding.” Chanyeol says, looking at Baekhyun, pain written all over his eyes. Baekhyun had always said he loved that, it was one of his favorite works. It was taken from his and Chanyeol’s wedding photo.

 

When same- marriage was legalized and celebrated all across the world, Baekhyun and Chanyeol were in bed, in pajamas under a fuzzy blanket. Chanyeol turned to Baekhyun that night, and tells him he loves him and that they should get married tomorrow morning. And that they did, marching to city call hands interlaced with the intent of getting a marriage license. They got married in court, and a few months later planned an actual wedding before friends and family.

 

They went the extra mile, from the venue, the music, the food and the decorations of course, and the photos were beyond extra. And Baekhyun made it a point to turn every single photo from their wedding into art. He had it decorated all over the house to be reminded of how lucky he was to have met Chanyeol.

 

“Do you hate our marriage?” Chanyeol asks, his voice deep as he stares blankly at the shorter man before him. Baekhyun keeps himself mum, and Chanyeol sighs deeply, in frustration.

 

“I’m sick and tired of your bipolar personality. Being happy one second and then frustrated and mad the next. The other day you literally flipped the couch around, and almost crushed our dog. A while ago you tossed a pencil at the door and was intending to hurl your chair too. And now this?” Chanyeol says as he points at the ground, towards the sad broken plate.

 

“What are you going to do, hurl me next?” He adds as he sighs.

 

“I can’t take any of this anymore.” Chanyeol whispers to himself.

 

It wasn’t just that day, or the other day. It has been years.

 

When Baekhyun had met Chanyeol back in 2010, things were smooth. They got together a few months after meeting, after all the high school giddy text messages they would send to each other at night. It was smooth sailing till 2013, a year after they decided to get married. When that year entered things were okay at first, but then progressively began to worsen.

 

Baekhyun was moody all the time. He had his moments, but half the time he was busy hurling and breaking things out of frustration, yelling and not wanting to eat. He had been so frustrated. He hadn’t put on a single gallery opening since 2012. And it was beginning to frustrate him because none of his works were ever enough. Today, he even tried to take a different approach, to do all of his work with a pencil rather than directly just taking a brush and painting.

 

At first, Chanyeol was scared. He talked to Kai about it who just told him that this was textbook Baekhyun. That he’d get frustrated at times, especially when it came to his work. Kai reassured him that things were going to be fine as long as he gave Baekhyun the space he needed, and so he did. But things just turned for the worse, and Chanyeol would often find himself alone in bed. He could barely remember the last time he and Baekhyun even went out on a date.

 

Kyungsoo would also try to reassure Chanyeol, who would later crawl back to them in tears full of fear a year later after Kai had tried to reassure him. But it just wasn’t enough, because Baekhyun was not changing at all. He was turning worse, and Chanyeol and him would barely exchange words. He had lost the Baekhyun he had met, and married.

 

There stood before him a complete stranger. An angry complete stranger who was pulling him down. Chanyeol had sold his restaurant for a hefty price, and put an investment on another to keep him stable. He had sold the restaurant with a heavy heart, because he thought that if he was home more often, even if Baekhyun would barely speak to him that it was enough to let Baekhyun know that Chanyeol was there for him all the time. To comfort him, tell him that he’ll one day finally discover what was missing in his works.

 

But even with that heavy of a sacrifice, was still not enough. And Chanyeol was just slowly growing out of the relationship. He would find himself late at night scrolling through Facebook, seeing his friends out and about with their husbands of over a decade or so, happily taking vacations, adopting children, adopting pets, buying homes and just going on dates with smiles on their faces.

 

He was envied them so much. Because he thought that this was going to be his life with Baekhyun. But the reality was, he was at home with a man who barely spoke to him because he was frustrated that his work wasn’t going to where he wanted it to go.

 

And Chanyeol had sacrificed enough, and that was exactly it.

 

It was enough.

 

Chanyeol sighs and walks out of the dining room and up the stairs. Baekhyun snaps out of his anger, and sees what he has done. His eyes grow weary at the sight of what he had done, feeling a sting on his heart at the destroyed work before him. He notices that Chanyeol is gone, and so he follows the tall one up stairs.

 

As he gets to the second floor, he looks around to see that there was light in their room. He pushes the door further, sees a suitcase on top of the bed with a bunch fo disheveled clothes stacked inside. Chanyeol appears from the closet with a handful of more, and begins to pack them neatly.

 

“What are you doing?” Baekhyun asks, as he tries to hide the panic in his voice.

 

“Don’t be a ing moron, you know what I’m doing Baekhyun.” Chanyeol says as he continues to pack, trying desperately to fight the voices in his head telling him to stop packing, toss the luggage aside and just pull Baekhyun into bed.

 

“Why are you doing that? Stop it.” Baekhyun said, as he approaches Chanyeol, grabbing him by the wrist and trying to get him to stop.

 

“Stop it.” Baekhyun said, repeating the same two words as he tries to grab all the clothes inside and toss them onto the floor, still repeating the same two words.

 

Chanyeol stops, steps back and just gives up. He watches as Baekhyun struggles to toss all of the clothes out of the luggage, creating a bigger mess on the floor. Baekhyun stops as he reaches the end of the luggage, to find a small little frame buried within the clothes. He takes it in his hands, holding them gently like a delicate flower.

 

“You were going to take this with you?” Baekhyun questions as he stares at the frame.

 

“Yes.” Chanyeol replies quietly.

 

It was a small old frame, of a napkin with a drawing of two people on their backs, supposedly watching the sunset cozied up together. It was a small little doodle, if you may, but it was something more important to Chanyeol.

 

“Do you remember what we were doing when I drew this?” Baekhyun asked, but no reply.

 

“It was a terrible first official date. You had a reservation at some fancy restaurant but when we got there the hostess said there was none. We spent an hour arguing with her but she insisted there was none. We went out and we tried to eat some street food instead, and when we decided to salvage the rest of the date to watch a movie we couldn’t even get that because they had sold the last set of tickets to a couple before us. And so you said we should just watch the sunrise.” Baekhyun said.

 

“But we fell asleep in the car and woke up freezing and the light of the sun just hitting our face. And you were so apologetic that the date , and so I pulled out a napkin and pen from your glove compartment and drew this.” He continued.

 

“We may not have seen the sunrise together. But in our dreams when we slept we would have.” Chanyeol said, repeating Baekhyun’s words verbatim.

 

Tears began to stroll down Baekhyun’s cheeks, hitting the glass of the frame and staining it. Chanyeol just stood behind him, emotionless. He had spent years crying in secret over the way Baekhyun was changing, and how the entire marriage was just so different from what he had imagined. There was just no tears left to cry.

 

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Chanyeol said in a whisper, as he approached the crying Baekhyun, resisting all urges to hug him like he always does when Baekhyun would cry. He grabbed the frame and put it on the bedside table. He turned and continued to grab the clothes on the floor, shoving them back inside the luggage.

 

Chanyeol took whatever strength he had left to resist the urge to hug Baekhyun. He was weak, Baekhyunw as his kryptonite, and in particular it was Baekhyun crying that would usually break him down from anger. But he needed all the strength to fight the crying Baekhyun. He knew that he was a cry baby, even if he was so strong when he was mad. Baekhyun was weak, fragile, someone who needed more than just hugs.

 

But after so many years Chanyeol didn’t know if there was any of himself left in this marriage, and he wasn’t going to wait and see what it was going to turn him into. This was not the marriage he wanted, this was not the future he saw himself having, and that was not the man he fell in love with. He doesn’t know where that man went, and he was tired waiting.

 

“I’m going.” Chanyeol said, as he zipped up his bag and pulled it off the bed to the floor.

 

The two of them stood there. Baekhyun still in the exact same positiion. Crying silently and trying to plead in his mind for Chanyeol to just come up and hug him. But the tears just kept flowing, especially as the minutes flew by and there were no warm embraces, soft petting or wonderful kisses. There was none of that at all, and the ness of it just broke him even more.

 

“Where are you going.” Baekhyun asked and Chanyeol sighed.

 

“You don’t need to know.” Chanyeol replied and walked out the door. Leaving a broken Baekhyun to comfort himself.

 

-

 

4 Years Later

 

“Would you stop touching my face?” Baekhyujn angrily swats away Kyungsoo’s hand, causing the beauty blender to bounce off into Neverland.

 

“You’re so grumpy, how are we even friends.” Kyungsoo says and even if he didn’t mean it, and Beakhyun knew this, it still hurt Baekhyun.

 

He was grumpy. And four years of therapy was making a small change towards that and everything else that was going through his head.

 

When Chanyeol had left, it was the last time Baekhyun had heard from him. There was no phone call, no email, not even a snail mail to let him know that Chanyeol was still alive and kicking somewhere.

 

“Where did it go? God, Baekhyun, if I don’t find that my sister will kill me.” Kyungsoo said as he desperately searched for the tiny egg shaped sponge.

 

Baekhyun ignored his friend, and found himself rubbing a finger across the dirty golden band on his finger. Even without contact for four years, Baekhyun never took off his ring. It took a year before Kyungsoo could get Baekhyun out of the house, let alone have something to eat. The house was just lifeless when Chanyeol left.

 

Kyungsoo received a call a week after that day from Chanyeol. Chanyeol had asked Kyungsoo if he had seen Baekhyun, and when Kyungsoo said no the deep voice on the other end of the line began to explain what had happened that night. Kyungsoo cursed at Chanyeol, who took it in stride and apologized to Kyungsoo. Before the phone call ended Chanyeol told Kyungsoo to take good care of Baekhyun. When Kyungsoo asked when Chanyeol was coming back, the dial tone replied.

 

Kyungsoo and Kai headed to Baekhyun’s that day, surprised to see the mess the home had become. Outside was beautiful, but inside was a disaster. It was like a murder scene, the victims were the paintings. Every single one was broken, slashed, destroyed. Broken glass everywhere, it was just no longer the happy wonderful home that Kyungsoo saw it months before. And a broken Baekhyun was laying in his bed, practically lifeless.

 

“I found it!” Kyungsoo exclaimed, and Kai opens the door.

 

“Why are the two of you here? You’re supposed to be mingling outside Baekhyun.” Kai ordered, as he marched in, grabbed Baekhyun by the arm and dragged him outside. Kyungsoo followed behind the two.

 

Outside there were people, so many people. It wasn’t just the rich and pretentious anymore. Kyungsoo had retired his turtleneck and cheap wine. Baekhyun had made it clear on the flyer that he wanted everyone to come. Despite Kai’s dismay at the idea, Baekhyun invited people who couldn’t even afford a bottle of wine from the event. 

 

But nonetheless, he had invited them, and the prices for his paintings?

 

$0

 

Baekhyun stated that the only price of the paintings, were a conversation with the artist. If someone were interested, all they needed to do was approach Baekhyun, tell him they love it and start a small conversation about their interest and it was theirs to keep.

 

Baekhyun had laid out even work from years before, work he was too shy to show, or ones he deemed were unfit. But when the gallery was being set up, he looked over them an a familiar deep voice played in his head telling him these were works that many would enjoy and needed to be shown and not tucked in a dark corner of his house.

 

And so Baekhyun did exactly that.

 

“Baekhyun, look.” Kyungsoo said as he pointed across the crowd.

 

It didn’t take long for Baekhyun to see where Kyungsoo was pointing. In the sea of people, stood a tall man. He had his back turned, but Baekhyun knew exactly who it was. He stood out not just because of his height, but because Baekhyun could just feel him in the room. And it was a simple painting of a vase full of white roses that this man was looking at.

 

“Baekhyun, this is Mrs. Choi, she’s interested in one of your works. Willing to pay a price.” Kai interjects as he has a woman in an expensive Valentino dress in his arms.

 

“But Baekhyun doesn’t want any money.” Kyungsoo whispers and Kai hushes the man.

 

“I’ll be right back.” Baekhyun says and walks away, ignoring Kai calling after him.

 

Baekhyun crosses the sea of people, a few of them not aware that the artist was among them. He went through the sea of people, and the closer he got to his finish line the faster he moved, and the more the people began to disappear from his surroundings.

 

When he got there, he stood behind the man, and observed as the tall figure stared at his work. The man’s head leaning from one side to the other, as if trying to understand what the work was portraying.

 

“It was the vase of flowers in my apartment, the first bouquet of white roses you gave me the morning we woke up from our terrible first date. You were driving me home and when we were stopped at a stoplight, I said, those white roses look beautiful and you looked to see where I was looking. You asked me if I wanted any, I was to shy to say yes but you parked at the side, got down and bought the bouquet for me anyway.” Baekhyun spoke out, and the tall figure stood stiff.

 

“Even when the flowers were dying I kept them in the vase, them framed the dead petals afterwards.” Baekhyun finished off.

 

The figure stood still. Unmoving and seems to be resisting the urge to move to begin with.

 

“Where have you been? You’ve missed four anniversaries.” Baekhyun said, looking at his watch, that had the time and date of the day.

 

“Including today.” He added.

 

It was October 20, their anniversary. It was the same date they meant, and they chose to celebrate that day every single day. It was the day they chose for their wedding as well. Kyungsoo had protested, saying it was a weird month to choose but the couple ignored him and went ahead with it. The date just meant so much to them.

 

The tall figure turns around, he wasn’t smiling. Baekhyun’s smile fades as he watches the look on the man’s face.

 

“Chanyeol...” Baekhyun calls his name out silently. Chanyeol, sighs, and pushes a folder in front of him.

 

Baekhyun stares at the folder, unsure of what was inside. But he had a feeling it wasn’t something he wanted to see. Chanyeol kept nudging the folder to him.

 

“If you’re wondering what it is, it’s divorce papers.” Chanyeol said and Baekhyun felt his world fall apart at the word.

 

Such a simple word, that held so much power.

 

Baekhyun lifted his head to look at Chanyeol. Who seemed emotionless, who didn’t seem to have any sympathy or any sort of feeling of sadness whatsoever. He was just standing there, serving Baekhyun divorce papers on their anniversary.

 

“Chanyeol!” A high pitch voice called out.

 

Baekhyun watched as his world crumbled before him.

 

He watched as a woman ran towards Chanyeol. Chanyeol was quick to put his arm out, allowing the girl to fit perfectly in his arm as she tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. She had a smile on her face, and Chanyeol had mirrored the same smile.

 

“I was talking to the bartender, told me that the works here are free. Just have to talk to the artist! I found one I want, I love his work so much.” The woman says, cheerful and excited. She turns and gasps at the sight of Baekhyun.

 

“Oh my God! It’s you!” She points her finger out at Baekhyun, who was just standing there swallowing what’s left of his pride and dignity.

 

He just watched as a woman approached his husband, kiss him on the cheek and dare to say his name.

 

“I’m a huge fan! I love your work!” The woman says, and continues to babble at Baekhyun’s side. Completely oblivious towards the elephant in the room.

 

Chanyeol stands before Baekhyun, his face stoic. Baekhyun wanted an explanation, he needed one but he wasn’t going to get one, because Chanyeol wasn’t going to say anything. And beside Baekhyun was a woman just babbling on about how much she loves Baekhyun’s work, how her mother was a huge fan and constantly bought a piece of his work at every gallery.

 

She was a pretentious rich kid, the same people that Baekhyun had catered to before.

 

And she was with Chanyeol.

 

“I’m being rude. My name is Hana. This is my fiancé, Chanyeol.” She introduced the tall man. She walked up to him, took his arm on hers as she said his name.

 

There was a silent shattering sound within Baekhyun as he watched this woman call Chanyeol her fiancé.

 

“You should talk to my manager about the painting. Tell him I sent you. He’s the man over by the bar talking to the man with weird eyes.” Baekhyun said to the woman. She cheerfully smiled and excused herself as she looked for Kai.

 

Chanyeol and Baekhyun stood there in silence, with the crowd’s noise slowly fading. It was as if the two of them were alone in the room, a spotlight on both as they stared at each other. And it was there that Baekhyun began to cry. And Chanyeol felt his heart strings tugging at the sight.

 

“No more tears. Just sign them.” Chanyeol said as he shoved the folder towards Baekhyun, and attempted to flee, but Baekhyung grabbed him by his wrist and Chanyeol allowed himself to be stopped.

 

“Why her?” Baekhyun asked, his voice quiet.

 

“I don’t need to explain to you my life now. You seem better, stay that way. I want to be better too, I deserve to be better too.” Chanyeol said and Baekhyun bit his lower lip hard, practically tasting blood. He spins Chanyeol around, and he was now facing the crowd but with Chanyeol’s tall physique he was shielded from everyone. Out of anger, Baekhyun shoves the folder back at Chanyeol.

 

“You think I’m better? What part of this makes you think I’m better? What? Because I’m finally catering to people who will understand my work? Because I’m out here and not inside our home slowly dying? You think I’m better now?” Baekhyun silently hissed at the man before him.

 

“I endured your pathetic anger for years. I should’ve left you years ago.” Chanyeol bit back.

 

“So you leave me for a woman?” Baekhyun goes low at his reply and Chanyeol knew then and there that Baekhyun had not changed one bit.

 

“There it is. The Baekhyun who destroyed what was left of our marriage.” Chanyeol said and Baekhyun swallowed the lump on his throat. There was the silent sound of pain that lingered around him at Chanyeol’s words.

 

“Am I a monster to you?” Baekhyun asked Chanyeol who closed his eyes, sighed and opened them up slowly at Baekhyun, trying to contain his anger. Unlike Baekhyun, Chanyeol had control.

 

“You became a monster.” Chanyeol replied and Baekhyun looked down on the ground, once again finding himself in tears.

 

Baekhyun felt a familiar weight at the top. of his head.

 

Chanyeol hesitantly placed a hand on Baekhyun’s head, his fingers coming to a close as if trying to grab Baekhyun’s head. Baekhyun looks up, finding a tearful Chanyeol. Through his thick frames Baekhyun watched as the tears were falling from Chanyeol’s face.

 

“This is just our reality Baekhyun. We can’t be together. Everything has changed. I changed, and in some way you have too. Let’s just call it in before we change into people we don’t like. Before we completely lose ourselves forever.” Chanyeol said, biting back some tears but failed miserably.

 

“Give me a chance.” Baekhyun whispered but Chanyeol shook his head.

 

“Sign them. Then deliver them to the address at the bottom.” Chanyeol said, pulling his hand away from Baekhyun’s head, and Baekhyun feeling the emptiness of it.

 

“Goodbye Baekhyun.” Chanyeol said and disappears into the crowd.

 

Baekhyun stands there, still crying. People around utterly oblivious to the crying artist. Baekhyun watched as everyone’s life move forward, and his began to crumble down. From a distance, his friend Kyungsoo watched.

 

Kyungsoo watched as his friend stood there in tears, lost and unsure of what to do.

 

“He doesn’t deserve this.” Kyungsoo says and runs after Chanyeol who had left the place, and was headed for his car.

 

“Chanyeol!” Kyungsoo yells angrily. Chanyeol and Hana turn around to find an angry Kyungsoo standing before them.

 

“How could you do that to him?” Kyungsoo says and Hana stands there confused.

 

“You go ahead, I’ll follow. Go.” Chanyeol says as he tries to urge his fiancee in the car. Chanyeol waits for Kyungsoo to continue.

 

“You left him just like that, you come back and leave him again but this time with a woman? Are you trying to tear him apart? Because he’s already broken.” Kyungsoo says and Chanyeol just stands there, taking in everything.

 

“What about me? When he was busy being mad at the world during our marriage what about me? He himself had left me years ago. He was there physically but everything else, he was jus gone.” Chanyeol said and Kyungsoo stood there in silence.

 

“I want to be happy, and I want him happy. We were no longer happy together. But he seems to be getting back on his feet without me. He’ll be happy, he’ll find his happiness too.” Chanyeol said and Kyungsoo shook his head.

 

“You’re a ing coward.” Kyungsoo says and Chanyeol just takes the insult in.

 

“If me being a coward means I can find my own happiness and so can he, then so be it.” Chanyeol said and walked away.

 

Kyungsoo returned to the gallery, trying to look for Baekhyun. He went through the sea of people and still did not find him. He approached Kai, asking if he had seen Baekhyun to which he replies that Baekhyun was at the back room. Kyungsoo quickly walks over there, and sees the door ajar. He slowly pushes it forward and sees his friend sitting on the vanity.

 

“Baekhyun?” He calls out, and slowly approaches his friend.

 

Baekhyun was seated in front of the vanity, dried tears on his face.

 

“Tell Kai this is my last show, okay?” Baekhyun said and Kyungsoo stood there confused. He looks down and sees Baekhyun’s name signed on the piece of paper.

 

“You signed it...” Kyungsoo said quietly.

 

He stood there, enveloped in silence along with Baekhyun. The two of them could hear nothing but the crowd through the door. Everyone was cheerful, except that room. The two of them were in it, and Kyungsoo was in pain seeing Baekhyun the way he is. He took so long to finally come out, and when he did, he was torn into shreds at the sight of Chanyeol.

 

Baekhyun looks at his finger, on the golden band and pulls it off. He closes the folder and places the ring on top. He stands up, buttons his coat and heads for the door.

 

“Please send that to Chanyeol. Don’t make him wait for it.” Baekhyun said, stopping by the door.

 

“He’s waited for me enough.” Baekhyun says and disappears through the door.