White Lies

"Because.. Because I'm in love with you," Baekhyun repeated once more and pulled his face away from Chanyeol. 
"I love you, Park Chanyeol. I want to have a real relationship with you," he added. Chanyeol had fallen quiet. 

His sole reaction being a blink.

"Huh..?" was all he could get out of his mouth before breaking out into a broad smile and engulfing Baekhyun into a warm embrace. 
"Really? You mean it, right? You can't take it back anymore, okay?" he said happily while crushing the poor man with his strong arms. 
"I- I am serious, but I can't date you if you don't let me breathe," he choked out until finally getting released from Chanyeol's hold, gasping for air. 

"Are you really serious? Do you really want to be with me?" Chanyeol said with his goofy smile. "Do you?" Baekhyun asked. 
"Do I- Are you stupid? Of course I want to be with you, you idiot!" Chanyeol laughed.

Chanyeol held Baekhyun's face carefully in his palm, pulling him closer to his own face. He glanced down at Baekhyun's slightly parted lips before looking back into his eyes. There weren't enough words in the world for Chanyeol to describe how much he loved the feeling of kissing Baekhyun's lips.

There weren't enough words in the world for Chanyeol to describe how much he loved Baekhyun in the first place. 

"I love you, Byun Baekhyun," Chanyeol breathed out with a euphoric smile before pressing their lips together. 

Kissing Baekhyun felt ten - no - a million times better now that he knew Baekhyun felt the same way. 

Two weeks passed since that fateful day.

"He's a good guy," Baekhyun told Tiffany during their coffee break. "But?" she asked. 
He let out a heavy sigh. It wasn't that he didn't like Chanyeol anymore, he was still in love with him. 
But to him, things felt out of place. Not in a way that it was awkward, he just felt out of place. 
"I feel like I'm not good enough to him. He's aware of that, too, he's not being clingy or anything like that. I just.. I don't know. I think I'm disappointing him or something," he said. He felt a significant difference between being in a fake relationship and being in a real one, and for some reason he couldn't find it within himself to not worry. 
"You're such a worrying type.. God, you're like my mom sometimes, you know," Tiffany scoffed. 

"You think you're boring him. That's just it. You two have already done everything there is to do and you take the blame of that. And judging from the smile Mr. Park had on his face this morning, I doubt he even cares. You worry too much about trivial things," she explained to him. "Moving aside from that, when's your interview being released? There's a lot of anticipation for it," she said, changing the subject quickly before Baekhyun could worry once more. 

"Tomorrow. Apparently they used me on the cover instead of on the feature page," Baekhyun answered. "Cover? You're going to be on the cover of W Korea?" Tiffany said in disbelief to which Baekhyun nodded. "I don't get it either. It's probably to milk the media play and boost their sales even more," he responded and threw his finished coffee in the paper bin. "Have you heard anything of the guy who broke into our office?" Tiffany shook her head and shrugged. "I know just as little as you do. Chanyeol knows him seeing how panicky he left. He didn't tell you anything?" Tiffany asked to which he shook his head in response.

"All he said was that it was an old friend who worked here but not who it was," he added. "The one who started his own company..?" she asked and Baekhyun nodded. Tiffany's mouth opened in shock. She grabbed Baekhyun by the shoulder and pulled him close to her before whispering "Do Kyungsoo infiltrated your office?" into his ear. 

Do.. Kyung.. Soo..? 

"I- I guess? I don't even know who that is-" "You don't know Do Kyungsoo? Rising CEO Do Kyungsoo? Do Kyungsoo who rules over the entertainment industry? Oh my God... Baekhyun, he's so powerful he could buy KIM Ent. three times and still have money left," Tiffany interrupted, in absolute disbelief that Baekhyun had no idea who the man was. "You need to be careful. If he finds out you're signed to KIM Ent. and he's out here to ruin Mr. Park, you could lose your career. Mr. Park banned the name from this building, you're never ever ever ever ever allowed to mention it in his presence-"

"What isn't allowed to be mentioned in my presence?" the two turned their heads to see Chanyeol standing at their table. 
"Nothing, sir! It's not even that important. Oh, would you look at the time, I have to get back to work! Bye, Mr. Park, you look lovely, bye Baekhyun!" Tiffany said nervously before running out of the cafeteria to return to the reception, leaving Baekhyun alone with Chanyeol.

"What was that about?" Chanyeol asked, taking Tiffany's former seat. "N-Nothing, it was just casual gossip," Baekhyun lied while looking away from Chanyeol, something he had made a habit whenever he lied. "Is the casual gossip nowadays about me?" Chanyeol chuckled, buying the small lie of Baekhyun. "I- I wasn't g-gossiping about you.." Baekhyun said with a voice buried under layers of embarrassment. "I believe you. I doubt you'd gain anything about it anyway," Chanyeol said with a kind smile. 

Baekhyun felt guilty for lying, but it wouldn't do any harm, right? 

Besides, it was only one lie.

Chanyeol knew Baekhyun had lied to him. He saw it immediately. But was he really going to question him? He didn't even think that much of it. Or, well, he thought he didn't think a lot of it. 

He threw glances at Baekhyun who was busily typing away the keys on his laptop, wondering what he was talking about with Tiffany before he walked in on them. 

Maybe I should just ask him..

"Hey, Baekhyun," he called out, turning towards him in his chair. "Yeah?" he answered without looking up from the screen. 

Forget it, he's busy. It's not that important.

"Nevermind, I forgot what I wanted to ask."

Chanyeol really didn't know how to bring it up. He wanted to, he just didn't know how. Everytime he wanted to he told himself it was a useless thing to worry over and he'd just tell Baekhyun that he forgot what he wanted to say. 

"Are you okay? You're forgetting a lot of things today. Are you stressed?" Baekhyun asked over dinner later that evening. 
Chanyeol mentally facepalmed himself for telling that he forgot his words so many times; he worried Baekhyun. 
"Yeah, a little bit," he said nervously and took a sip of his drink.

"It's because of that stupid file," Chanyeol reasoned and Baekhyun felt his heart drop. That stupid file. It would've been better if he hadn't known at all, he hated the guilty feeling that came with that small lie. "Did you find out who stole it?" Baekhyun unknowingly blurted out. 

Chanyeol fell quiet for a moment, staring at his plate. 

"No," he lied. 

He doesn't want to talk about it with me. Maybe it's better that I lied.

They continued eating in silence. 

"Good morning," Tiffany greeted Baekhyun when he walked into the building the fo