Chanyeol pursed his lips as he saw Nayeon move on from the branded bags shop to the men’s clothing one. He wondered if she really cared enough to be shopping for Kyungsoo too, when the guy couldn’t care less. It was almost sad, but not enough to deter him from his plan.

Deciding it was the right moment, he walked towards the brand line store, his hands in his pockets, like any other person out shopping.

He entered the store, spotted Nayeon with her bodyguards in tow, and casually sifted through different display panels before turning to the one she was at.

“Oh! Hi!”, He put on his best surprised smile as Nayeon turned at his voice, her expression mirroring his. “Fancy meeting you here”

“Hi! What are you doing here?”, Nayeon looked pleasantly surprised.

“Same as you”, Chanyeol pointed to the shirts aisle. “Find anything good?”

“Not really, I don’t what kind of clothes Kyungsoo oppa likes to wear”, She shrugged, the gesture bordering on sad.

“Well, let me help you”, Chanyeol smiled charmingly and they started fishing for clothes for Kyungsoo. He selected all the very best ones, satisfied thinking of the tab being on Kim Minjun, knowing Kyungsoo would never in a million years buy clothes this expensive otherwise.

“Shall we go get something to eat? I’m hungry”, Chanyeol baited Nayeon as they left the store, looking around for signs of Jinyoung.

“Sure”

As they walked towards the food court, Chanyeol hoped the guy would get there when they started eating. That would be a perfect time to make the two of them sit and interact.

He had done his research on Nayeon, through the social media and the tabloid reports. The girl’s life was like an open book. Much to his surprise he had found his cousin Park Jinyoung in one of the reports, and that’s when he had concocted the idea. From what he knew, Jinyoung was the only guy Nayeon had dated for a whole year, none of the others lasted more than three months. And she’d been seen with him often after wards too, which told him that their relationship went beyond just a superficial dating scandal, (from what he knew of the guy, Jinyoung wasn’t good at faking things like these) and he had felt like he’d been given a golden chance to turn the whole mess his friend was in around. Though it made him feel bad to use his cousin, who he had rarely contacted or taken an interest in before, he had no choice. Desperate times call for desperate measures, is what he’d told himself to appease his guilty conscience.

They both ordered cheeseburgers and sat down to eat. Chanyeol silently took out his cell and texted Jinyoung of their whereabouts, telling him he was eating with a ‘friend’.

“Oh hey, hyung?”, Came the surprised voice of his cousin, and Chanyeol turned to him with raised brows. “Oh hey”

He saw how both Jinyoung and Nayeon’s eyes widened upon seeing each other, and smirked internally. “Come sit bro, this is my friend and soon to be sister-in-law Nayeon. Nayeon, this is my cousin Jinyoung”

Jinyoung finally cracked a smile after gaping in surprise the girl for a few minutes. “What a surprise, Na-peach!”

Nayeon managed a strained smile in return. “H-hey, Jin”

“You two know each other?”, Chanyeol feigned innocence.

“Yeah, small world huh?”, Nayeon smiled artificially again, looking nervous as Jinyoung came to sit with them.

“I think I should probably congratulate you on the wedding first”, Jinyoung said, trying his best to sound happy, but Chanyeol still felt the underlying glumness in his words. He felt a pang of guilt, realizing the guy might still have feelings for the girl sitting with them but it was too late to turn back.

Nayeon looked uncomfortable, but she brushed it off with practiced perfection and gave the guy a smile. “Thanks”

Jinyoung’s jaw hardened but he said no more. They were awkward alright, just how Chanyeol had predicted. He hoped Nayeon had some feelings left too, however little. Who knew, even a single moment of self-doubt could work to make her realize Kyungsoo wasn’t the one for her.

“So how do you two know each other?”, Chanyeol broke the quiet, and they both turned to him like they had forgotten he was even there.

“Uhh, we were friends back in middle school”, Jinyoung clarified.

“Were?”, Chanyeol sipped at his pineapple slush, hoping his attempts at making them awkward weren’t obvious.

They momentarily glanced at each other, silent words filled with a life that was, were exchanged.

“We just kind of drew apart after school ended, I guess. Haven’t get to see each other much”, Nayeon explained, shrugging.

But Chanyeol knew there was more. That maybe this boy had tried holding onto the scraps of a relationship they’d had, but the girl had gotten too busy with her new life and forgotten she even had a friend. That maybe that had been her own way of doing him a favor, by not leading him on further when there were no feelings involved from her side. It really.

They got up after finishing their meals, and Jinyoung caught up ahead with Chanyeol, although the latter had tried to leave the two of them behind to ‘catch-up’.

“Hyung?”, Jinyoung had a big question mark on his face. “Why did you call me here?”

“To shop, of course”, Chanyeol lied.

Jinyoung seemed to be contemplating. Chanyeol expected the guy to retort with something along the lines of ‘How come you realized I existed all of sudden?’ but the guy was apparently too nice to say that. “I actually have a bit of work….at home that’s on my mind, can we please do this sometime later?”

Chanyeol felt a twinge of affection for his younger cousin and he also realized that this was harder for him than he’d thought. He clearly felt for Nayeon more than he showed, and with a sigh Chanyeol decided he couldn’t keep doing this to him. “Yeah, sure”

As the guy walked off after a last lingering look in Nayeon’s direction, Chanyeol called out to him. “Do keep in contact, okay?” And he really would, this time. Make an effort to know the potential friend he had in his cousin.

“So, where to?”, Chanyeol asked, slowing his pace to match Nayeon’s.

“Actually, I think I’m done for the day. I should probably get home”, She looked a little distracted.

He tried not to look disappointed, he had been hoping to have some more ‘casual’ conversations with Nayeon to make sure the seed of doubt was planted firmly, however subtly.

“You sure? It’s only 3:00”

“Yeah, I am. Should probably start doing some packing too”, She tried to look excited about the idea, but Chanyeol could tell she wasn’t finding it as appealing as she probably had before.

“Well, I’ll leave with you too then. I’m not feeling much like shopping either”

As they walked, Chanyeol got fidgety. Time was running out as they descended in the elevator, and he needed to say something to make her think about this whole thing again. There was no time.

When the landed on the ground floor of the mall, he slowed his pace and then something caught his eye nearby. His chance.

“Life is path full of choices, the good ones to cherish and the bad ones to regret till your death”, He read out the quotation displayed outside a nearby book store.

Nayeon’s head shot toward him as if she’d been wondering about choices herself, and he smiled and pointed innocently to the picture display. “Don’t you agree?”

“Y-yeah”, She agreed frowning.

“I mean, I’ve seen people believe in something so much they thought it was all they wanted in their life and then changing their decisions last minute because they realized in time it actually wasn’t what they wanted, that those choices might have been the worst of their life”

He realized he’d hit close to home, with the slightly dazed look she gave him. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah”

They stopped near the exit. “I hope you’re happy with all your decisions, Nayeon shii”, Chanyeol said to her in goodbye.

“I hope so too”, She replied thoughtfully.

“I guess I’ll see you at the wedding then, huh?”

For the first time, Chanyeol saw Nayeon’s face fall instead of light up, at the mention of her impending nuptials. “I…I guess”, she gave him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Good luck”, he turned and started to leave but stopped and turned upon hearing her call out his name.

“Thankyou, Chanyeol shii”, She said, her eyes genuine.

As Chanyeol walked out of the mall, he hoped he had done enough. That somehow he might have made her realize that this marriage with Kyungsoo wasn’t what she wanted.

But what if it didn’t work? What if all they had done had been absolutely useless and Nayeon hadn’t even had the slightest bit of doubt about her decision?  The question lingered like a sword on his head. Now all they could do was pray.

_

Taeyeon decided to talk to Hyuk after thinking about it all night. It couldn’t go on any longer.

Ever since that day at the hospital where they’d hugged, things had been less than simple between her and Baekhyun. She didn’t know why she felt like something had changed, like a wall had come down, and the way he’d been acting all distant since that day made her want to avoid him. And once she saw Hyuk, all smiles and happy thinking they were dating, she couldn’t help but feel guilty. They’d gone on only a few dates since the first, but they all bordered on a good night out and not romantic and special like they were supposed to feel, even though the guy had made so much effort. And ever since that hug, she’d completely avoided him too, feeling like she’d broken his trust.

But then again, hadn’t she already done that when she’d agreed to date him despite the fact that her heart was elsewhere?

But not any longer. She hadn’t been able to sleep well for the past few nights because there was so much on her mind, half of it because she couldn’t share it with Seungwan. The girl was going through her own problems and Taeyeon did not want to pester her with her own. She just hoped that the guy’s plan would work and something would give, that the whole wedding fiasco would be over.

The thought of her father’s arrival had also had her stomach in knots for a while, even though he had not informed them of when he would be arriving or how long he would stay. But it was spring already, and Taeyeon knew he would be calling any day to drop the bomb on her aunt. She wondered if he would bring his other family along. If maybe she would get to meet her younger brother this time, he would be fifteen now, if she remembered correctly. Of all the worries she had these days, this thought for some reason gave her more anticipatory butterflies rather than nervous ones, her hatred somehow remained focused on her father and could not extend to a boy who was just as helpless in all this as she was.

And once they got some breathing time from Spring Week prep and their exams, maybe Baekhyun would stop acting so weird (it irked her) and she would be able to talk to him too. She didn’t know why but she just needed to get things clear with him, to get it all out there and ask him why he was acting so distant. She didn’t want to run away anymore, and hoped that when the time finally came she would have the courage to initiate and face everything. She had to.

She walked into college ground, the air warm under the spring sun and waited for Hyuk by the bench she’d told him to come to after his class. She thought through what she would say again, and expected with all her might that it would go amiably without any hard feelings.

“Hi”

She turned at his voice and found him standing there with a solemn smile.  He walked up to her and they both sat down to talk. “I was just thinking of calling you too, I had something I needed to tell you” He said after they’d exchanged the necessary pleasantries, Taeyeon’s heart rate increasing every minute.

“Oh yeah? What?”

“Yeah, I wanted to…”, He bent his head, clearing his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about…..us”

This is it. “Yeah, listen, Hyuk – “

“No”, He cut her off. “Let me complete first” It seemed as if it was taking a lot of effort to say what he wanted to, he contemplated looking down in his lap. But then he took a deep breath and looked up. “I want to break up”

“What?”, Taeyeon gaped.

He got up to explain. “Look I know this might seem all very sudden or maybe it doesn’t seem like anything because well, we’ve only gone on what two – three – dates, they might not even mean anything to you – “, He rambled nervously, not meeting her eyes. “But it can’t go on any longer, I just….can’t”

He looked towards her breathlessly, looking a bit sad behind the nervous energy and all Taeyeon could do was gape at him. “I can’t believe you’re saying this”, It was supposed to be her saying all that. She threw her head back and let out an incredulous huff.

“Yeah, well”, He shrugged, the sadness in his voice not lost on Taeyeon. She looked at him, and their eyes met briefly, giving Taeyeon the answers she wanted.

He was doing this for her.

The idiotic masochist was saving her from the guilt she would’ve felt after initiating the break-up. He knew, she realized, maybe he’d known all along about what she felt, or rather didn’t feel and had been too much of the nice guy he was to confront her about it.

She got up and hugged him, probably surprising him as much as she surprised herself. “Thankyou”

She let the word linger, without saying anything further. She could hardly fully put into words how grateful she was for his understanding, his friendship and his selflessness. She’d maybe never tried, maybe she was too far gone for that, but he’d still given her a chance, made her feel special and wanted.

She leaned away from him and looked at him sincerely. “You’re a great friend, and you’ll always have a special place in my heart for that”

He cracked a smile. “Thanks, and you too”

She gave him a pat, and then went away, feeling like a burden had been lifted off her chested.

……………………………………………………

Not too far away, Baekhyun watched the whole thing with bated breath. He didn’t know why his heart was sinking again, you have no right to miss her, remember? But it was. And it hurt, still, seeing her with someone else.

After everything they’d been through, it had to. Maybe he was only feeling this way because he’d never felt for someone as deeply, as he’d come to feel for Taeyeon. They had all been fancies and flings and nothing more.

And now he’d finally found someone he really, deeply cherished, but he’d screwed everything up with her a long time before it even started.  He deserved it, feeling this way, like his heart was breaking into pieces every time he looked at her and saw someone he loved so much but couldn’t have. He couldn’t hurt her again.

And so he walked away, trying to appease himself with the thought that at least she was happy. Even if the person behind her smiles wasn’t him (it might never be him), she was at least moving on with her life. And maybe he would too, eventually. But it was a lie. And he knew it.

There would never be another Taeyeon for Baekhyun.

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