Minseok took a seat across from Baekhyun after they’d exchanged greetings, in the hospital cafeteria that Monday.

“You look….ty”, Minseok stated plainly.

“Thanks”, Baekhyun replied humorlessly.

He hadn’t been able to sleep the whole night yesterday. His mind kept calling to him with all sorts of questions and scenarios trying to justify what nurse Seojung had told him. But nothing worked.

“I’m sure you didn’t call me here just to look at uncle Byun resting, so what is it?”, Minseok asked as he sipped his espresso.

Baekhyun tried to find the right words to start. “You remember our high school farewell party, hyung?”

“Course”

“What….what happened there?”

Minseok looked up from behind the cup obscuring the rest of his face, at Baekhyun’s question.

“I mean…”, Baekhyun leaned forward, pressing his hands tightly around his own cappuccino. “I mean about about…Taeyeon. I know something happened, you went out with Seohyun shii I remember, but I was never told about anything”

“That’s because you went to the States a day after that. I didn’t want the goodbye to be on such a note”

“So something did happen”, Baekhyun’s heart thudded. “What, tell me?”

“Why do you want to know? It’s all in the past and I’m not sure Taeyeon would really appreciate me telling you anything. Ask her yourself”

“Hyung please…”, Baekhyun closed his eyes and pursed his lips, desperation dripping from every syllable of his plea.

Minseok sighed and started. “They were Soyou’s friends…”

Taeyeon sat in the middle of the school garden, the whole world feeling a numb distant reality.

I have never looked at you like that, Taeyeon, Baekhyun’s words kept on repeating themselves in her mind, like a never ending tape.

He was all she’d had in her life, for the past one, almost two years. His smiles had brought sunshine, his presence all the warmth she had lacked in her cold life up till then. And so easily, it was all gone. Just one sentence and she felt like her heart had been run over a thousand times.

“There she is”

The biting female voice made her look up, eyes still filled with tears. The blurred figures of three girls, distantly familiar (junior year, Taeyeon thought) came into view at the edges of the lawn.

“What?”, She croaked out, the sound feeling like it wasn’t coming from her own throat.

“Still crying I see. Bit**** like you don’t know when to stop huh? Get up!”, The middle, tall one was on her head in a flash and Taeyeon barely had time to register what was happening before she was yanked up forcefully, her glasses falling away on the grass.

“Who are – “

The hard impact of the girl’s hand against her cheek, made her blink back new tears, her head feeling dizzy. What were they doing?

“Who are you people? What do you want?”, She cried out, the faces of her tormentors inches away, but unable to form in her eyes properly without her glasses.

“The nerve she has!”, One of the other two girls sneered, pulling at Taeyeon’s dress, the resistance tearing away a piece of her clothing.

“How dare you go near Baekhyun Oppa? A fat ugly nerd like you!”, Another shouted, too near her face. Taeyeon closed her eyes, wishing it all to go away, wishing it all to be a nightmare.

“Confessing to him, were you?!”, The impact of the next slap had her staggering back and falling ungracefully to the ground. She tried to sit back up, only to be pushed back violently, her back hitting something hard on the ground. She bit on her lower lip, to stifle the cry that threatened to escape.

They were looming above her before she had time to re-orient herself, pulling and tearing at her dress, her hair, her body rolling on the soil and the grass, her arms and back scraping against sharp stones embedded in it. The side of her face where she’d been slapped twice felt swelled.

If she hadn’t been feeling numb enough as she was, she might have screamed. Might have fought back. But she didn’t. Didn’t even make a sound. Later she regretted it terribly. But not then. Right then, she welcomed the physical pain as it clouded all her senses, took her mind off the emotional pain.

“If we see you near him ever again, we’ll kill you with our own bare hands!”, The girls were gone after they were satisfied with the spectacle they’d made, whispering amongst themselves.

Taeyeon rolled on her back, every part of her hurting and looked at specs of silver on the gigantic black canvas above. Her head felt like it might combust, her heart beating so hard she thought it might tear out of her rib cage. But there were no tears. No more left maybe.

Instead she smiled weakly, wondering if her mother was watching all that had happened to her from above.

Call me to yourself, Mom, she pleaded as her lids drooped close. I have nothing left in this world.

“Seohyun found her in the garden, and then came to ask me to help take her to the hospital. She had seen the three girls walk away, and reported them a few days later. They’d come crying sometime later, asking her of Taeyeon but Seohyun never told them, I think. She didn’t even tell me where Taeyeon had been taken after she was discharged, and I didn’t ask. I only met Taeyeon again when I got into the university”, Minseok had finished relaying what had happened that night to him.

……………………………………

Baekhyun had listened, his face a cold blank mask and then gotten up soundlessly to walk to who knows where. He had heard Minseok sigh and say something along the lines of ‘it wasn’t your fault’ but Baekhyun was already in another world.

As he walked the eerie hallways, he wanted to break something, preferably something in his own body and shout and scream until his lungs gave out but some sane part of his mind kept him from doing so.

She had suffered so much worse than he’d thought. And all because of him. Just because he hadn’t had the courage to man up to his feelings then. It all made so much more sense now, her hatred towards him and he wondered if it was enough.

It isn’t, his mind told him. She could hate him with all her might, and he could love her, for the rest of their lives, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

He wanted to laugh out loud, thinking about how he’d confessed to her, she must have thought he was out of his mind thinking he deserved her after all that she’d gone through because of him. His heart clenched remembering her solemn, teary eyes, the affection and fear in them so intermixed as she had told him she couldn’t risk falling for him again, on that winter night in the mountains two months ago.

Not realizing where his feet had taken him, he stopped when he almost ran into a girl wearing a white sweater and looked up to find the person he last expected to be there at that time.

_

Taeyeon decided to visit Mr. Byun early the next day, knowing he was going to be discharged by the time her classes ended.

She turned into the hallway of his hospital room, to find Baekhyun walking from the other side, looking lost. His head was bent, shoulders hunched and he seemed to be lost in another world. As they drew near, he lifted his head and her eyes widened seeing the tear tracks on his face.

“Baekhyun”, She closed the gap between them. “What happened?”

He looked at her with strange incredulity. Like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. And then he laughed, a single painful sound.

Dread filling her core seeing his condition, she ran down the hallway to Mr. Byun’s room, opening the door in a flash and breathed in relief finding him sleeping soundly, the machines around him beeping in rhythm.

She walked back to Baekhyun quickly, wondering what the cause of his forlorn condition was. She found him standing just as she’d left him, staring into space perplexed. “What happened, Baekhyun?”, She asked in a worried tone, lightly holding his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

His gaze shifted towards her, and there was so much longing and sadness in his eyes that Taeyeon instinctively wanted to comfort him. He bent his head and silent sobs started raking his being, and she reached out and wrapped her arms around him, whispering softly.

“It’s okay” She knew she was going against her resolve, everything she’d believed and fought against for the past few months since he’d shown up but in that moment she didn’t care. She just knew that he was sad, and she wanted nothing more than to console him. “It’s okay, Baek”

Baekhyun lost himself in her embrace, holding on to her as if she was his only chance at life, and cried like he would never again.

I love you, Taeyeon.

_

Kyungsoo walked towards the auditorium building after his class, where the hub of activity was nowadays at their university, his shadows following him. They had stopped trying to blend in and keep a formal distance since the incident last Sunday with his friends and now followed him closely everywhere. Minjun had started being extra-protective too, and Kyungsoo wondered if there were now more mafia agents keeping an eye on his every move. But then again, he already knew he would have to pay some price for his little rebellion.

“Hey, D.O. yah!”, Baekhyun walked towards him as he emerging from the other side of the lobby. “What are you doing here?”

Kyungsoo made an annoyed expression. “Why does everybody keep asking me that? Last I remember, I was a student here too!”

“Yeah but with only a week till the wedding – “

“So?”, Kyungso countered. “I’m getting married, not dying!”

Baekhyun stared at his outburst for a minute, and then chortled, curling his arm around his neck. “Somebody’s grumpy today”

He wasn’t grumpy, just….tired. He didn’t want nor like how much his life had changed over a matter of months, and his aversion kept increasing as the wedding drew near. And especially now that he had his friends in the loop, he didn’t want to keep hiding away anymore.

“Bought a tux yet?”, Baekhyun asked as they started walking.

“Nah, Mr. Minjun would probably arrange a special one, no need to waste my time”

They fell into random chatter. “How’s uncle by the way?” Kyungsoo had visited Mr. Byun at their house when he’d gotten discharged from the hospital.

“Far too happy for someone in his condition. He called all of his old friends a day after his discharge told them he was back in Korea, and the house feels like a club every evening nowadays”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Are you planning on shifting soon?”

“Already have. I put the apartment up for rent”

“That’s good”

They walked out of the building into the warm sunlight and on towards the auditorium. “So how’re the Spring Week preparations going?”

Baekhyun briefed him about what they’d decided for the dramatics this year. They were doing ‘Tribute to Shakespeare’, with a musical for each of Shakespeare famous literary works. The auditions were in full swing.

Kyungsoo did his best not to show but it hurt him somewhere that he wasn’t a part of all the planning and decision making for any of it, even though he was the co-head of dramatics. He thought about how much more Yixing must resent him for putting all the burden of his duties on him.

“Who’s writing the adapted version?”, Kyungsoo asked as they finally entered the premises of the large hall, to find it steaming with activity. The arts society member were everywhere with their posters and graphic designs and what not. Names were being called, people sitting in small groups with their laptops and papers. The singing auditions were being held at one end, Kyungsoo saw Jongdae and Soojung as they listened to a girl’s ballad, wondering where Chanyeol was as he was supposed to be judging them too. He realized he’d missed this, being involved and busy in creating something new, and it saddened him thinking that it might be too late to get properly involved as many of his friends around the room were.

“Uhh…”, Baekhyun paused as he led him towards the benches side of the hall, where Kyungsoo could distantly spot a group of people sitting with papers in their hands, probably script reading. “Kang Seulgi shii from the arts department and Wendy shii….”

Kyungsoo’s heart skipped a beat, as they drew closer and he spotted Seungwan sitting at the far end of a bench with her friend, both of their heads hunched over printed sheets.

“Oh, hey”, Yixing’s voice turned his attention away from Seungwan. “What are you – “

Baekhyun gestured at him to not ask, and Yixing obliged just in time. “Nice seeing you here, come sit”

Kyungsoo sat down at the plastic chair that was apparently being used as the director’s seat, Baekhyun sitting beside Yixing on the bench. He met with the surprised eyes of Minseok, Junmyeon, Irene and a few others and barely nodded to them in greeting, feeling a little out of place. Was it really such a shock that he was there?

Yixing told him that they’d already auditioned and selected the main characters for the four plays they were doing, except the two main characters for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was the play they were practicing then. He asked the rest of them to take a break for five minutes and they scattered.

“I had actually really hoped you would play Lysander, but since you’re busy – “, Yixing shrugged, eyeing the two humans standing like statues a little away from them.

“I could still do it”, Kyungsoo responded.

“But will you be able to manage? It’s going to be the last week of this month, won’t you be on your honeymoon or something at that time?”

At that brought him back to the reality that his life was currently. That his life would always be from now on. “I could still try” He would only get to have ten days off at most anyway, couldn’t afford to miss more of college especially as the exams were going to be held in April and it was his last year.

“No need”, Yixing brushed him off. “We’ll find someone, and if we can’t I’ll ask you, but for now you should focus on yourself. How’re the preparations going? I’m not missing out on anything, am I?”

“Nada”, Kyungsoo clicked his tongue and leaned back against the bench. It wasn’t like there was a lot of cause for celebration either, not on his side anyway.

_

Seungwan kept glaring at the two men sitting at the bench a few feet away from her and Seulgi. It wasn’t her fault, she couldn’t help it. Seulgi was saying something about the changes they needed to make in the dialogues of the second play, but Seungwan was hardly listening, her attention focused on the man with the heat-shaped lips talking to her cousin.

It was so easy for him, wasn’t it? To come waltzing into the university, midst everyone, like everything was fine? Like her heart didn’t sink into a bottomless pit every time she saw him?

Apparently not. And she wondered if this was how it was going to be from now on, that he would keep showing up in her life every now and then, stomping all over her heart every time? Not giving her space to get over him? She wondered if that was how Taeyeon had felt, when Baekhyun had forced his way into her life again. She must have.

She thought back to the time when Taeyeon had told her about how Baekhyun had rejected her in high school, and its aftermath, and how she’d worried if Kyungsoo might be like his friend too but had brushed away the suspicion. How right she’d been then.

You can’t let him do this to you. Right, she couldn’t. And she wouldn’t.

“Break’s over guys! Come back”, Yixing’s voice rang through the vicinity and all of the people involved in the play one way or another, started back towards their seats.

She got up and walked back to her side of the bench with Seulgi, across from where Yixing had to sit and read Lysander’s lines as Yoona did Hermia’s. It was a temporary arrangement until they casted people for the two roles, and since Yoona was already playing the leading role in one of the other plays.

“Kyungsoo, read Lysander’s lines this once will you?”, Yixing got up from his place, asking Kyungsoo. Seungwan sighed, lowering her head as Kyungsoo took his place directly in her line of sight across from Yoona.

Lysander (Kyungsoo): “Don’t cry, dear Hermia. What’s true love without any hardship?”

Something twitched inside Seungwan at his tone, but she didn’t let it show. They were just reading lines afterall, and Kyungsoo was a good actor.

Hermia (Yoona): But what will we do? I cannot marry you here against my father’s will!

Lysander: I have an Aunt who lives seven leagues from Athens. Come meet me in the forest tomorrow night, and let’s run off to a faraway land!

Seungwan looked up as he said the line and wished a beat too late that she hadn’t. She didn’t know if he’d memorized the lines or what, because he was looking straight at her as she sat behind Yoona, his gaze carrying an intensity that made her heart thud painfully against her chest.

“……Where there will be no threat to us or our love, where we can keep our promises and stay in bliss together…”

Unable to stop herself, Seungwan got up at that moment, tearing her eyes away from Kyungsoo. She didn’t care if this was her letting him affect her too much.

“I’ve got to go, my singing audition is coming up”, She whispered to Yixing, thanking the heavens for the timely excuse that had popped into her mind when her gaze drifted to Jongdae at the other end of the room.

She gave a cursory bow to everyone and walked away without another look in Kyungsoo’s direction.

I hate him, she blinked back tears of frustration. But she hated herself more.

_

Yixing sighed internally, taking the sad scene around him. For one, there was Seungwan, pretending not to care but still caring way too much. And then there was Kyungsoo sitting an arm’s breadth away, looking more forlorn then war victims. Up until the point Seungwan had decided to leave, he had been reading the lines just fine. Now he was reading them like a boring homework, barely putting any emotion into the words.

And then there were Baekhyun and Taeyeon, walking all across the room, but never around each other. It was like a subtle game of cat and mouse, that only Yixing noticed. Whenever either of them saw the other approaching they changed their course, trying to avoid each other without making it obvious. They would talk when it was desperately needed, even show up when they were both called somewhere together, but wouldn’t meet each other’s eyes. They were acting like embarrassed teenagers after their first kiss, only Yixing wasn’t sure if that was really the case.

Shaking his head at the amount of in the room, he quietly took out his cell to text Chanyeol, after glancing at the people reading dialogues in front of him once.

Yixing: How’s it going there? Any progress?

Chanyeol: She seems lost in shopping. I’m still waiting for the right moment to divert these two hoodoos attention and approach her.

Yixing: Is your cousin….Jinsung coming?

Chanyeol: It’s ‘Jinyoung’. He just texted me he’s on his way to the mall, I am hoping I can get a chance to run into Nayeon myself first, so that they don’t find it weird.

Yixing: Well, all the best. We are all counting on you.

He put away his cell and sighed, hoping something would come out of Chanyeol’s plan. It was there last hope before circumstances became permanently despairing.

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A/N: Eeeeekkkk. And atlast the puzzle has turned into a picture.

Thankyou for reading and commenting! I love you guys for the encouragement you give <3