Important A/N regarding upload schedule!! Please read!

Baekhyun stumbled out of the courtroom, nearly tripping over his own feet as Chanyeol draped himself over Baekhyun’s back. Their friends were following the two out of the room, having waited for the public to leave the courtroom and for Haeun to finish speaking to the judge and the prosecutor.

“Chanyeol, seriously. Get off of me, you giant oaf,” Beakhyun grumbled, tugging on the arms that his friend had wrapped around his shoulders. 

“No! You’re a free man!” Baekhyun rolled his eyes at the dramatic excitement, but he had to admit, it felt amazing to be officially acquitted of all charges against him. He wanted to speak to Haeun, but they were surrounded by people, and he knew the conversation that needed to occur had to be a private one. 

There was also another conversation that he needed to have, Baekhyun remembered, as he twisted out of Chanyeol’s death grip to find his eyes settling on Jieun.

She looked almost haggard, but she smiled at him softly as their eyes met. 

Baekhyun turned to look at his friends, and they looked at him with varying degrees of happiness in their eyes, but he also knew that they knew what was coming.

“‘I’ll see you guys out?” Dongwoo sent him a thumbs up before wrapping an arm around Eunji’s shoulder and walking away, the others trailing after him. He had almost turned back to look at Jieun when he felt a brush of a hand against his arm, and he looked up at the source in surprise; Haeun’s brown eyes were gazing at him, and she sent him a smile. He could almost make out the words in her eyes: good luck. Baekhyun watched as she turned away from him and walked towards Jeonghan who’d been waiting for her. She wrapped an arm around his bicep as she chatted with him, her heels clicking on the marble tiling; the sound getting softer and softer as they left the building.

Once they were alone in the middle of the hallway, Jieun spoke up.

“Congrats,” she smiled at him, but her eyes were unfocused, and Baekhyun internally grimaced at the thought of breaking her heart. They hadn’t been dating per se, but he was well aware of the fact that they were leading up to it.

“Thanks,” he tried to smile back, but he felt himself grimacing more than anything else. “Can—we talk?” he asked, pausing between words. He honestly didn’t know what to say.

“Aren’t we already?” she lightly teased, and Baekhyun raised a hand to rub the back of his neck.

“Right.”

“I can guess where this is going,” she responded, her eyes hazy. The empty hallway was suddenly too quiet, and he wished they were somewhere louder where he could drown out of the roaring in his head. He knew Jieun had liked him for a while, and he was the who led her on.

“I’m sorry,” he answered. “I wasn’t putting in a lot of effort into...us before this all happened, and I don’t think I will be able to now.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants, not knowing what to do with them. 

Jieun pursed her lips slightly as she responded. “It’s okay.” Her eyes trailed from his face to look over his shoulder, her head tilting slightly. Her eyes focused on something behind him, and he resisted the urge to turn and look. Baekhyun had a feeling that she was just looking past him and not at him because she was hurt. He couldn’t blame her for that. “I’m sure you have more important things on your mind, anyways.”

Baekhyun hesitated for a moment, but he took one hand out of his pocket to reach out for her, but she flinched as her eyes snapped to his hand. Baekhyun winced and retreated his hand, taking a step back away from her.

“You should go, Baekhyun. I’ll see you around.” Jieun walked around him to walk away towards the exit, but he lingered back, and he realized that the roaring in his head had gone quiet as the empty space around him, and somehow, it was even worse as the emptiness threatened to swallow him whole.

~~~

His friends had all taken the day off, and they had decided to make Baekhyun’s apartment the meet-up location for the night as they all crowded around in his living room and kitchen. Jeonghan immediately made his way to the kitchen to look through his fridge with a loud exclamation about how rich Baekhyun was while Chanyeol and Wendy curled up on one end of the L-shaped couch — Eunji and Dongwoo taking up the other end. Haeun simply took off her blazer and put it in the coat closet near the front door where everyone else’s jackets were and sat down on the ground in front of the sofa near Eunji’s feet, a few feet from where Baekhyun was sitting between the two couples. 

It was interesting to see how all of them were still in their professional clothing, yet their shirts were all wrinkled from the lack of attention any of them had paid to their clothing after the trial ended. Baekhyun himself had simply thrown his coat on the ground by the door after opening up two more buttons from his shirt and rolled up his sleeves, and he saw Chanyeol, Dongwoo, and Jeonghan doing the same. Eunji was wearing a sweater dress, and Wendy didn’t bother taking off her blazer.

“So who’s this Junmyeon, and why did Haeun freak out when she accidentally blurted his name to me yesterday?” Jeonghan asked, leaning his elbow on the kitchen shelf as he cracked open a can of beer and sipped at it.

“Hey!” protested Haeun, twisting around to look at her friend. “I needed to think out loud, and you happened to be in the room!” Then after a pause, “It’s 5PM. Why are you drinking so early?”

“As if you don’t need the alcohol after the week you’ve had,” he countered, raising an eyebrow.

“Fair enough. Hit me,” she commanded, holding a hand out.

“Hit yourself.”

“You’re a jerk.”

“You’re lazy.”

“You’re an annoyance.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he waved her off.

“,” she grumbled as she stood up and walked over to the fridge, pulling out an unopened six pack of beer. Rummaging through the drawers, she pulled out a scissor, opened it and carried the cans in her arms over to the sofa and passed one to the rest of them before sitting back down on the ground and taking a sip of her own beer.

“It’s great that you all feel so at home considering some of you have literally never been to my place before,” Baekhyun drawled in response. Then he looked at Haeun. “And it’s illegal to be sharing information about confidential cases.” While he was visibly annoyed at how his stash of beer was depleting, he wasn’t actually mad about them being at his house. He appreciated the company, and he was feeling selfish enough to enjoy his newfound freedom. He wanted to be grateful that he was free and with his friends for a few hours until he knew he would have to return to reality. He was laughing with his friends while Jaehyun would never get that chance again.

Baekhyun was alive while Jaehyun wasn’t.

And bringing up Junmyeon was just a reminder of that. 

“Never stopped us before,” Haeun shrugged, sending him a smile. 

“And yes, you have a lovely home. Now tell us everything,” Jeonghan added, moving to sit in a high-raised chair next to the kitchen counter.

“Are you sure that you’re a 27 year old male?” Eunji teased. “You like gossiping as much as a 17 year old girl.”

Haeun snorted. “He did have long hair in senior year of high school.”

“We need pictures,” Chanyeol perked up. “Like yesterday.”

Jeonghan whined. “No. No pictures. And this isn’t gossip,” he hissed. It wasn’t gossip, and even though Baekhyun knew they weren’t taking the situation lightly, something in him stirred. He felt the roaring in his head return, and Baekhyun almost wished for the emptiness instead. He’d rather feel nothing than feel everything at once.

Baekhyun opened his mouth, fully intending to answer Jeonghan, but Chanyeol moved to cover Baekhyun’s mouth with one hand, the other going to clamp down on his shoulder. 

“I will not relinquish my hold on him until I see pictures. I know you have pictures on your phone, Haeun.” Baekhyun rolled his eyes and pulled his friend’s hand away from his mouth roughly. Chanyeol finched, moving away, and then he looked at his hand as though it were going to detach from his arm and fly away. 

“Baekhyun—” Chanyeol began, clearly recognizing that Baekhyun was not in the mood.

“You’re a child. She can show you the pictures later,” Baekhyun bit out. Chanyeol gaped at him, but he didn’t respond. Baekhyun looked away, feeling guilty but unable to apologize.

“Okay,” Haeun spoke up after a moment of silence that echoed through the room. She stood up and looked at them. “Why don’t you guys go get us some food? Eunji, can you take Dongwoo to the pizza place that has the best garlic bread and bring us a few pies? Wendy, take the two children over there and please get a few tubs of ice cream. We’re going to need it.”

“And me?” Baekhyun asked, looking up at the female.

“You and I need to talk. I’ll be back,” she murmured before leaving the living room. He watched as he wandered into the hallway, and he could only assume that she was going to the bathroom.

The rest of them filed out of the room quietly, quickly catching onto the fact that something was wrong, and that something was Baekhyun. 

He wanted to quiet his mind, but all he could think about was how unfair everything was. He should’ve kept Jaehyun safe. He owed it to Jaehyun to find the murderer, and all they could think about was their childhood, and that was something Jaehyun would never be able to reminisce about anymore, and—

“I’m sorry.” Baekhyun jerked his head up to find Haeun looking at him with sadness in her eyes, and to his surprise, absolutely no pity. She had waited to speak until the rest of t