XXXII. A Merry Dinner

Distant Torment
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Apparently Chanyeol's shift was just now considered the “time to announce all the bad news" shift. The first day back to work after Baekhyun’s trial, Chief Kim announced that because Baekhyun had been one of the few detectives with such a high arrest number, the other detectives would have to pick up the slack. All the cases that would've been solved in three days were now taking one week; suddenly, the entire homicide department was working around the clock to make up for that. It was even worse for the drug department because after Jaehyun’s death, not only were they also missing out on one detective, but the morale was also extremely down. 

Chanyeol had no other words to describe everything besides “ hitting the fan” because to add to all that crap, the stress levels in the precinct were increasing at a steady rate thanks to the pressure from the media. They had to ensure that arrest numbers were high and crime rate was low because otherwise, there would be another thing that the media could hound them for. The phones were already ringing all day, and Chanyeol was beyond frustrated.

It didn't make his life any better that ten minutes before he left work after a twelve hour shift, Chanyeol was the one who told Baekhyun (and by extension Haeun — apparently they were meeting up for dinner, and he was most definitely planning on digging into the reasoning behind that) that a recording of Jaehyun and Baekhyun had been found.

It made no sense for Jaehyun to be accusing Baekhyun of trying to take revenge on Suho for dealing on school grounds because that area was under Baekhyun’s control. Baekhyun had never touched drugs, and Jaehyun knew that. Baekhyun would never take drugs, much less deal them, and then go and murder Jaehyun over that. There was also something about the recording that bugged Chanyeol. It didn't sound like Jaehyun. The drug department confirmed that it was Jaehyun's voice, and yet somehow it didn't exactly seem right. 

It was bugging him the entire car ride over to Wendy’s house for dinner, and when Chanyeol finally cracked and brought it up to her, surprisingly, she agreed. He wasn’t sure if it was just him, but now he knew it wasn’t, so at least it was worth looking into later on. It would be a discussion he would have to have with Haeun at some point soon. 

"No, yeah. There was something off. I don't know what it was, though."

“I guess this gives me a reason to bring it up to Haeun more in detail.”

“Definitely. Probably should find a way to dispute it before it turns into cause for an arrest warrant.”

"This is all so messed up," he complained, running a hand through the tangled mess that he called his hair. "Not to mention the fact that I feel like an for taking a vacation right now."

Wendy reached across the coffee table for his free hand with her own, lacing them together. They were sitting across from one another on the floor of her living room, their bowls of soup set on the coffee table. “You deserve a break, Chanyeol. None of it was your fault, and it wasn’t Baekhyun’s either. Besides, honestly, we could all use a break. Life’s been tough on everyone.” He squeezed her hand in response.

“Can’t imagine what Baekhyun’s going through,” he spoke. “Speaking of Baekhyun, when I called him earlier, Haeun was with him. Cooking,” he stressed at Wendy. She raised an eyebrow, and Chanyeol nodded enthusiastically. Wendy was aware that Haeun was Baekhyun’s soulmate because he had cracked one day during a conversation, and honestly, Chanyeol was surprised that he’d kept it a secret for this long anyway. 

“I know right! They’re making progress, and it makes me so happy.” It felt like he was gossipping over a drama, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted his best friend to be happy, and he wanted his best friend to get his happy ending with the girl he had been looking forward to meeting since he had turned sixteen. Sure, they had some bumps in the road, but he believed that they’d get to their destination soon enough.

“She has no idea, does she?” 

“I don’t think so,” he mused, settling his head on his free hand, his elbow leaning on the table. “I wouldn’t put it past her to have suspicions, though. Haeun’s quite smart. I wish there was something I could do that would take Baekhyun’s mind off of things and just kick start their relationship.”

“Like that went so well last time,” Wendy pointed out, rolling her eyes. She was referring to the night when Jeonghan and Chanyeol had locked the two into Haeun’s apartment, and Chanyeol was regretting ever telling her that story. 

“Hey! They made progress for a night!”

“And then they both freaked out on each other which led to a whole argument in the middle of a courthouse.”

Chanyeol just ignored her in favor of spooning some more soup up into his mouth before he had an idea. “We should do something special for him. We could all use a bit of Christmas cheer in our lives.”

Wendy nodded, and she got lost in thought. He knew that look on her face; Chanyeol dubbed it her “I will have a brilliant idea in about 4 seconds” look. His girlfriend was just that amazing.

And sure enough, she spoke up excitedly within seconds.

“Wait! I have an idea!” Chanyeol just grinned in response. 

“Let’s hear it.”

“What if we held a Christmas dinner on Thursday? Christmas is on Saturday, so that should be a good day for us to invite everyone over! We can do it here since you’re living with Yoora.” God, he wished he had her brain sometimes. “We invite them over, and pretend to invite the others as well, but tell Haeun and Baekhyun that they couldn’t show up!”

“Have I mentioned that I love you?” Chanyeol laughed, expecting Wendy to laugh with him, but when she didn’t, he paused and looked up. Wendy was gaping at him, mouth slightly open, and so he paused and replayed the words in his head.

I love you. 

He hadn’t mentioned it.

They had been dating for almost a month now, but they hadn’t confessed that they loved each other. 

“Um. So I haven’t. But I do. I guess that’s out now,” he mumbled, looking down at his soup, pushing the spoon around against the bottom of the bowl. He couldn’t bear to look up at Wendy’s face because he was so embarrassed. He kept making fun of Haeun’s lack of a filter, but it wasn’t like he was much better, honestly. 

“Chanyeol,” she called him, tugging on his hand. She was trying to get him to look at her, and it wasn’t fair. She knew that he was weak for her puppy-dog eyes.

“What?” he asked, shoving more soup into his mouth, trying to avoid a conversation.

“Look at me?” She sounded like there was a smile on her face, so he gave in and raised his eyes ever so slightly. 

Sure enough, she was grinning, but when she noticed that he was looking, she let go of his hand to cup his face. She leaned over the table to kiss him softly once, then once again. 

“Yes you haven’t, but now you have. And I love you too,” she whispered against his lips. Chanyeol pulled away from her to look at her face, and he could tell that she was being completely truthful, and a small smile graced his face that Wendy mirrored. 

Chanyeol kissed her again before pulling away.  “We should finish dinner and get to planning this upcoming dinner.”

Wendy nodded and sat back down. “Do you think our bond broke?” she asked, tilting her head.

Chanyeol paused, his hand suspended mid-air with a spoonful of soup. “I totally forgot about that.”

Wendy reached out and pinched his arm, and he flinched, a bit of the soup falling out of the spoon. 

“Hey! Ow?!”

“I didn’t feel that!” While It was actually nice to not have to worry about being clumsy because Wendy would feel all his bumps and bruises, it was also somewhat scary to not feel Wendy’s injuries because he wouldn’t know how she was doing. He had to remember that this fear was normal, and she would deal with the same when it came to him, and they’d be fine. 

“Great, but why did you have to pinch me?”

“I would’ve felt that if we hadn’t broken the bond,” she shrugged.

“You could’ve just pinched yourself, and we could’ve checked by whether or not I felt it!”

She shrugged again. He opened his mouth a few times to try to retaliate, but he just ended up closing his mouth with a clack and finishing his soup.

~~~

“You know,” Wendy hissed at Chanyeol as she pulled him into the hallway, away from the bright lights and chatter that filled the living room and kitchen in Wendy’s apartment, “when I said that we should pretend to invite the others, I meant don’t actually invite them. It was supposed to be a double date situation!”

Chanyeol winced. “I’m sorry! I accidentally spilled it to Dongwoo who told Eunji who then mentioned it to Haeun, and then Haeun invited Jeonghan. We already had invited Haeun and Baekhyun at that point,” he apologized, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. 

Although she was mad at him, the two of them were wearing matching white Christmas sweaters, just with different patterns, and Chanyeol had to resist the urge to kiss his girlfriend. It wasn’t his fault that she was hot when angry.

“Chanyeol, I swear to god, you’re an idiot,” she hissed, hitting him in the chest with the back of her hand.

“Okay, but look! They’re sitting next to each other on the couch!” he pointed in the vague direction of where his friends were sitting. 

“Haeun’s literally trying to get in contact with the prosecutor in charge of Baekhyun’s case,” Wendy deadpanned.

“I’ll take any progress at this point, Wendy.” Wendy narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, and for a second, Chanyeol swore that he was seconds from getting murdered by his girlfriend (what a way to go, though) before Wendy simply sighed and dragged him back to the kitchen. 

Despite her annoyance, Wendy really did look extremely happy, and she looked full of life. Wendy always had a harder time around the holidays because most of her extended family lived in Canada while her parents were living a few hours away from them. She hadn’t had a proper Christmas with her family in years, so it was nice for them to get together this way because not only did it help Baekhyun a bit, it also made Wendy feel less lonely. 

Chanyeol had made it his personal mission to give Wendy as much time as he possibly could during the holidays, and he wanted to make sure that she knew she was already his family. He was spending today with her and his friends, but she was coming over to spend the weekend with his family the next day. 

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hamsterboo
[DT] yes you are not seeing your update page wrong, there's a new chapter :)

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Baekkyoongja
0 points #1
Chapter 57: Ahh very sweet hihi thank you for the bonus chapters authornim!
Baekkyoongja
0 points #2
Chapter 56: Haha yes I thought it’d first date with baek but ah now it explained the beginning hihi
Baekkyoongja
0 points #3
Chapter 55: Kkk definitely how loud they’re when they play games
Baekkyoongja
0 points #4
Chapter 54: Oh finally they watched the concert 🥳
Baekkyoongja
0 points #5
Chapter 53: Kkk both are jealous 🤭🤭
Baekkyoongja
0 points #6
Chapter 52: The two bestie are really the best for each other
Baekkyoongja
0 points #7
Chapter 51: Ahhaha kai being a cute an lazy cat is hilarious..
Baekkyoongja
0 points #8
Chapter 50: 🥹🥹😍😍fluffy moment here we are.. romance is in the air 😍😍
Baekkyoongja
0 points #9
Chapter 48: Arggg!!! The ring scene is so them ahahha cute and lovely couple
Baekkyoongja
0 points #10
Chapter 47: Omooooo 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 what a relief..