Haeun didn’t know why she wanted to know, but she supposed it was the first step to truly moving on from whatever weird passive-aggressive relationship the two of them were in. She had been thinking about the question ever since they had their talk earlier, and she was honestly waiting for the moment that they would be alone so she could get it off her chest. As she waited for Baekhyun to organize his thoughts, she took the chance to study his face and was struck by how good looking he was. She had always avoided him, and that included thinking about how attractive he was. Since the day the two had met, she had always found him irritating and irritatingly handsome but always stopped that train of thought before it could go anywhere. 

Now that they had — what she liked to believe was — a budding friendship (and because he wasn’t paying attention to her), she figured that she could take the chance to really look at him. His hair was combed down so that his bangs covered his forehead. Oftentimes, when she saw him at work, he would style his hair upwards with gel so only part of his forehead was covered, but Baekhyun sitting there with his hair completely down made him look much younger than his 27 year old self. It really wasn’t fair; she could see him wearing a high school uniform and totally fit in. He would smile, the dimple on his left cheek showing and his deep brown eyes (which, now that she thought about it, reminded her of milk chocolate) crinkling at the edges as they turned into small slits, and there would be people falling over themselves to be with him. 

“You know, you could take a picture. It would last longer.” Baekhyun’s voice jolted Haeun out of her trance, and she realized that she really had been staring at him for much longer than she probably intended to. She felt herself flush, and she couldn’t think of a retort to turn the attention away from herself. Some of the color had returned to his face after what happened earlier. 

“Sorry,” she mumbled, drinking more of her beer, hoping that he would blame her red cheeks on the alcohol, but she knew he wasn’t buying it by the small smile on his face that was very clearly a teasing smile. Rolling her eyes, she spoke up. “Are you going to answer my question?”

“Nice save, but yes,” he responded, his lips. “You know how my parents are dead, right?” She nodded, still sipping at her beer. “They were soulmates, and when my mom died, my dad died soon afterwards. My mom actually had cancer, and they were going to do surgery to try to remove the tumor but because of medical malpractice, she, um, ended up dying on the table.”

Haeun froze mid-sip, and she felt her hands clamming up. She instantly knew where he was going with the story, and she hated it.

She gave him so much for acting all high and mighty, and all this time, he had a decent reason for disliking defense attorneys. 

He looked at her with a wry smile. “I can hear your brain running in circles.”

“I’m so sorry,” she breathed.

“You didn’t know,” he shrugged. “The hospital got off with no charges. My dad died soon afterwards.” He spoke with a nonchalant tone, but she knew that it wasn’t easy for him to tell her this. She struggled to decide whether or not she should hold his hand, but Baekhyun took a hold of his own can of beer, cupping it with both hands; his eyes were trained on the can.

“How old were you?”

“Sixteen. I grew up with my aunt.”

“It probably wasn’t easy paying for everything…” she hesitantly brought up as she carefully glanced at the lush apartment around her. Baekhyun cracked a smile before turning his eyes towards her again. They were glinting under the light, and he laughed for a moment. 

“I could tell you were wondering about just how much money I have based on the way you’ve been looking at my furniture.”

“It was a valid question, okay? It's not like a cop makes a ton of money.” Okay, so she was probably not as discreet as she thought she was. 

Baekhyun laughed, and she felt her face flush again, and this time, she was definitely blaming it on the beer. She downed the rest of the beer in the can, and she felt herself passing the line between sober and tipsy.

“My parents both had life insurance that was passed down to me, and my aunt’s a tour manager for a few different companies.”

Haeun perked up at that. Leaning in close to Baekhyun, she asked, “Did you just say tour manager? For who?!” 

“Are you drunk?”

“Tipsy,” she waved him off. “Who?”

“Uh, she’s on tour with the AOMG artists right now.”

“Oh my god,” she gasped, grabbed onto Baekhyun’s forearm, ignoring the muscles tensing under her arm. “You have a perfect connection to all of these concerts! You should’ve introduced yourself with that! I would never have hated you for that long!”

“Oh, so now you only want to be friends with me for my connections?” he joked. Haeun rolled her eyes as she let go of him to go to the kitchen and grab a few more cans of beer. 

“Isn’t that why Chanyeol’s friends with you?”

“Now I see why he’s always complaining about you.”

“Wow,” she squinted at him. “You two talk about me behind my back?”

“You’re saying that as if you’ve never talked about me with Jeonghan,” he laughed. Haeun quickly decided that she would much rather hear him laughing than argue with him. She sat back down next to him, and she tilted her head to look at him. He really did look a lot younger when he was carefree.

“What?” he asked. 

“Nothing,” she shook her head. “Just thinking about how things would’ve been different if we had done things differently.”

A strange look passed in his eyes for a very brief moment before Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Gee, I wonder what would’ve been different. For one, we would’ve been friends.”

“Ah yes, sarcasm. We are now at that stage of friendship.”

“So what was with all the sarcasm while we were arguing?”

“Passive-aggressive arguing.”

“Fair point.”

“Besides, we were friends for a while. And then you had to go open your mouth and talk about opinions,” Haeun teased. 

“Would’ve been longer if you hadn’t made it worse,” he retorted. “And then you were the one who decided to act like a self-sacrificing idiot when you ran after Taehyung that night.”

Haeun snorted. “I’m not the one who freaked out.” 

“Are we friends now, though?” he asked. She looked at him, and she could see the tentativeness in his expression.

“Aren’t I sitting here drinking all your beer?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you have your answer,” she beamed. Haeun had to admit that it felt really nice to let go of the frustration she held over her relationship with Baekhyun, and she was happy that they were actually getting somewhere. 

Great, first official day (although, technically it was the third-first official day) of friendship, and she was already showing off her tipsy self.

“What happened with your date with Taehyung anyways?” Haeun drank more of her beer to push off responding because it felt weird to mention that she was dumped because he was still hung up on his soulmate. Scrunching her nose as she drank, she knew that she should slow down considering she had work tomorrow, but she really didn’t feel like it.

She didn’t know if she should be thankful or annoyed, however, when Baekhyun plucked the half-empty can of beer out of her hands and stood up to throw it away. He must've picked up on her thoughts from her expressions.

“Wha— hey!”

“You have work tomorrow, don’t you?” he raised an eyebrow as though he were daring her to challenge him. 

“Yes, I do,” she said back.

“Then why are you trying to give yourself a hangover? And avoiding the question?”

“You never told me about Jieun,” she retorted.

“There was nothing there to tell,” he fired back. “Besides, you already know what happened.”

“Fine, fine. God, you’re annoying,” she huffed as she laid down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. 

“As if you haven’t said that to me before.”

Haeun glared at him. “Taehyung and I never dated. He told me that he was still hung up on his soulmate, so we left it at being just friends. I haven’t actually spoken to him in a bit, though.”

“He knows who his soulmate is?” he asked, voice strained. Haeun watched as he sat down next to her head, and she sat up, crossing her feet under her.

“Yeah, but she's in a relationship. Don’t you know too?”

He looked like he had stopped breathing for a moment, and she raised an eyebrow at his actions. He waved her off. “Yes. I do.” 

“Why aren’t you with her, then?” Haeun looked at him carefully, watching for any indication that he was talking about her. She had thought that maybe Baekhyun was her soulmate, but she had no proof, and she wasn’t sure if she was willing to simply injure herself to see how he’d respond. 

“She doesn’t know I know.”

“You haven’t told her?”

He looked right into her eyes, and she had this strange sensation of feeling as though he could look right into her soul. “I don’t want to scare her off.”

“I doubt you would. I mean, maybe considering you have the temper tantrums of a 4 year old, but I don’t think she would run away from you.” 

Baekhyun sighed and rolled his eyes — something he did a lot around her, she noticed, but it was never rude but rather almost fond. “She already did a few times. She’s going to run away permanently if I tell her.”

Haeun brought her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “I wish I knew who my soulmate was.”

“Why?” he asked.

Haeun thought about this for a moment, trying to figure out how she wanted to word it. “I want the chance to know if it’s worth it to be with my soulmate.”

“Would you prefer to be with your soulmate?” 

Haeun trained her eyes on the clock, watching the seconds tick by. “I was thinking about it, and I feel like I know...but I don’t know. There’s just so many people in the world. How are you supposed to find the one person that’s meant for you? What if they’re across the worl