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"Come on! Get your out of your apartment," Eunji urged. Baekhyun just groaned in response, throwing an arm over his forehead. It was around 11AM, but he was still laying in bed, and he had taken an extra day off from work. Eunji had decided to wake him up with a phone call about wanting him to show up to her trial today, but he was currently trying (and failing) to convince Eunji otherwise. He wanted to simply stay in bed all day and ignore everything and everyone. He had even told his aunt that he was working, so he’d call her later in the day. His bed was nice and soft and warm, and he had absolutely no intentions to go back out into the cold weather. Even though it was still autumn and winter was still a few weeks away based on the time of the year, it definitely felt like it was already winter with the near-freezing temperatures. It had even snowed yesterday.

"I don't want to go,” Baekhyun whined. 

"I need moral support!"

"Take Chanyeol,” he proposed. He knew that Chanyeol was going on a date with Wendy today, but he wasn’t sure if Eunji knew. He hoped that by the time Eunji found out, it’d be too late for Baekhyun to go to the trial.

"You and I both know he has a date today." Damn it.

"Take Dongwoo."

"He's busy,” she said, talking as if it were extremely obvious that Dongwoo was busy and would not be able to come.

"And I'm not?"

"Clearly because you sound like you haven't even gotten out of bed yet. Chanyeol told me you took the day off."

"...how do you know that?" Baekhyun asked, feeling like his aunt was scolding him for waking up late. Eunji had this natural ability to become his mother, and the only consolation he had for feeling as such was that she did the same thing to Chanyeol. He sat up properly in bed, and the blanket fell off his chest and onto his lap. He rested his back against the headboard, and he flicked on the bedside lamp. His curtains were blackout curtains, and even though it was late morning, there was very little light coming through into his room. It didn’t help that his room was completely designed in grey and black decor. His living room and kitchen was more colorful with a few succulents and plants here and there, but he mostly just went into his room to immediately fall into bed and sleep, so there wasn’t much for him to care about in terms of making sure it looked bright. 

"I can hear the bed sheets as you move around, idiot."

"Oh," he responded, embarrassed. He resisted the urge to bang his head on the headboard.

"Yeah, oh. Now get your up and out of bed. The trial is at 12." Glancing at the clock, he realized that he only had an hour to get ready and get to the courtroom, and he sighed, mentally planning how he was going to have to get his breakfast to-go.

"Fine," he growled, annoyed.

Baekhyun normally would’ve been perfectly happy to go watch Eunji because he liked watching her when she was in her zone, but after the scene he inadvertently caused (okay, not inadvertently — stupidly) a few days ago, he didn't want to go anywhere near the courthouse for a long while. Especially not when Haeun would be nearby, and he knew the trial was the one between the two females. He shouldn't have let his temper get so out of control, and he shouldn't have brought it up to her right in the middle of the trial. He should've done it afterwards in a private setting. Or simply stewed alone about it. He didn't need to cause more issues, but instead, that's exactly what he'd gone and done.

He’d even gotten a text from Chanyeol’s sister the night of what he had decided to call ‘The Mess.’ She basically screamed at him through text for not telling her that he’d found her soulmate, and also that he had then proceeded to push her away. She was about two seconds from physically manifesting herself through his phone with the way she basically told him off. Yoora had basically adopted Baekhyun as her younger brother after he and Chanyeol became friends and had discovered that Baekhyun was often left alone at home after his parents passed away. To say that she was mad that he hadn’t told her that he had found Haeun was an understatement. 

Shuddering at the memory and then shuddering at the brush of cool air over his body as he got out of bed, he grumbled to himself the entire way to the bathroom, complaining about how he had to leave his perfectly comfortable and solitary apartment.

~~~

Baekhyun quietly slipped into a seat towards the middle of the visitor section in the courtroom as he finished chewing on his bagel, and he stared at Eunji from afar till she finally realized that he was looking at her. She sent him a nervous smile, and he just responded by sending her a thumbs up. She simply waved him off, and then she immediately went back to looking over the paper strewn on the desk in front of her as she fixed her prosecutor’s coat. From what he heard about the case, it was about a secretary that had blackmailed her boss over an affair, and then when the boss realized who was behind the blackmailing, the secretary shot her. Baekhyun figured that it would be an easy trial for the jury to judge because of the overwhelming evidence against the secretary, but he wouldn’t put it past Haeun to find a loophole. From what he had noticed, it was apparent that she was good at doing those types of things. She was good at finding holes in situations to save herself, and he’d seen it since the stalking incident a week ago.

Baekhyun was looking all around the courtroom trying to distract himself when he felt a sharp pain against his finger. Lifting it up, he found a small thin bruise forming on his right ring finger, and he rolled his eyes. It was nothing new for Haeun to be getting paper cuts, and Baekhyun suffered over them each time. 

His eyes strayed from Eunji over to his soulmate, and he was thankful that he was sitting behind a man who was fairly bigger in stature and height because he was mostly covered from view. Granted, he had to tilt his head a bit to see around the man, but that assured him that if Haeun tried to look in his direction, all she’d see was probably Baekhyun’s shoulder instead of his entire face. She wasn’t dressed in a coat like Eunji was, but she was wearing a simple dark blue pantsuit with a white button up underneath. Her hair was braided, wrapping around her neck to rest on her shoulder, and the color of her hair nearly blended in with her clothing. Idly, Baekhyun wondered if she purposely wore that color pantsuit to ensure that her hair wouldn’t stand out against everything else. Her hair did suit her, and he wondered if she’d dyed her hair other colors before. Haeun was scrutinizing her ring finger before she paused and then immediately looked up. He watched as she turned to look at the seated visitors and scanned them, and he slightly moved so that he’d still be out of sight as she looked around. After a moment, she shrugged to herself and went back to looking down at the papers.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been staring at Haeun, but he definitely noticed that it had been longer than it should’ve been because when he straightened his neck, he felt a soreness that wasn’t there before. Rubbing the back of his neck, he directed his attention to the bailiff that had walked into the room, carrying an aura that demanded attention. He spoke with purpose, and Baekhyun supposed that it was an acquired skill that came over time with practice in saying the same words over and over again.