By the time Thanksgiving rolled around Baekhyun had all but forgotten about his first love.

Chanyeol decided to throw a party Thanksgiving weekend while his brother was back and, of course, everyone was invited. Baekhyun intended to use the opportunity to let Kris know exactly what he was missing. He drunk a little too much. He danced a little too much. He was definitely having a good time until Luhan sprinted across the living room to pull him downstairs. Baekhyun couldn't understand why his best friend looked so panicked at a party. 

“Kris is here with someone.”

Baekhyun blinked. “What?”

“He brought someone home, Baekhyun. I’m so sorry. None of us knew. They're upstairs right now.”

Baekhyun stumbled backwards. His brain was working a mile a minute to comprehend the information he'd just been given. Luhan was waiting to see how he would need to comfort and/or restrain his best friend. But when tears welled in Baekhyun's unfocused eyes he refused Luhan's embrace. He said he was going home in the smallest voice.

Chanyeol was in the kitchen making drinks and talking to a very cute soccer player when Baekhyun stumbled right into the kitchen island. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, shuffled and made for the back door.

“Baek, what's wrong?” Chanyeol asked. The shorted was struggling with the (locked) back door. “Baek,”

Chanyeol came up behind Baekhyun to help him with the lock but Baekhyun whirled around in surprise. Chanyeol was shocked to see his tear strained face. Without thinking he wrapped his arms around his friend. Baekhyun sunk into the the embrace, sobbing into Chanyeol’s shirt.

“I wanna *hic* go home.” Baekhyun choked out.

“I don’t think you can drive, Baek.” Chanyeol said quietly. “Let’s go upstairs and you can go to sleep, OK?”

Baekhyun nodded. Chanyeol threw an apologetic look to the guest he'd been entertaining and started tugging Baekhyun by the hand through the house. Tao was acting as a guard on the bench by the stairs, making sure no one was sneaking up to the bedrooms. He gave Chanyeol a look, asking what was wrong. Chanyeol shrugged the tiniest bit before dragging Baekhyun upstairs. Through the doorway of the living room Kris watched, smile dropping as his ex went upstairs with another guy.

Chanyeol took Baekhyun straight back to his room and closed the door on the noise from below. Baek stood awkwardly in the center of the room with a steady stream of tears down his face. Chanyeol didn’t know what was wrong and therefore didn’t know how to help. He knew Baek was still at least buzzed so he made a plan to deal with that first.

“I’ll go get you some water. Just-uh-make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.”

He jumped down the stairs like he always did and started searching for Luhan and/or Kyungsoo. Surely one of them knew what had happened. He found them, both of them, yelling at Kris in the hallway to the basement.

“What's going on? What happened with Baekhyun?” Chanyeol demanded.

“This brought a date here.” Kyungsoo answered.

“Is it illegal for me to date people?” Kris asked, exasperated.

“You knew he was going to be here, Kris!” Luhan yelled.

“You brought someone here when you know Baekhyun’s been waiting for you?” Chanyeol asked, anger making his deep voice frightening.

“I never asked him to wait for me.”

“You know what?” Chanyeol shoved Kris into the wall. “Get out.”

“What?”

“You heard me.” He spat. “Baek is sitting upstairs crying his eyes out because of you. So get. The . Out.” 

After Kris stormed off Chanyeol sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “What am I supposed to do about Baek?”

“He's upstairs?” Luhan asked. 

“Yeah. I ran into him in the kitchen and took him to my room. He was crying so hard.”

“He wouldn't let me hug him.” Luhan told them.

“We should probably just let him sleep it off. We can come see him tomorrow.” 

The three of them talked a minute more before Chanyeol remembered Baekhyun was waiting for him. He grabbed two bottled of water along with the aspirin. Tao didn’t question him the second time around.

When he got to his room Baekhyun was curled up in a ball under his duvet. He wasn’t shaking which meant he'd probably (hopefully) stopped crying. Chanyeol set everything on the night stand. Apparently Baekhyun heard him because he rolled over in bed to face the giant.

“What took so long?” He whispered. 

“Nothing,” Chanyeol lied. “Are you OK?”<