Important!!! I updated last Thursday if you haven't read 44!! But before you guys get into the very last chapter of DT, I just wanted to say thank you for supporting and reading till the very end. It's been an incredible journey, and I'll have a bigger author's note about behind the scenes (?) stuff for the fic, other things I want to say, and info about the drabbles/requests I've received for DT probably up either later today or tomorrow. Also, like, ending this was really hard to write. I just hope you guys are satisfied <3 it's super long :D

Within the year following Heechul and Junmyeon’s arrest, things had started to go back to normal, especially once Haeun and Baekhyun had both started going to therapy for their respective traumas. Haeun knew that recovering from everything that had happened wouldn’t be easy for either of them, but they were on the right track, so that’s all that really mattered. She and Baekhyun had even moved in together, choosing his bigger (and nicer) apartment for the two of them to live in, along with Kai. They had already been sleeping over at each others’ places often enough that Haeun just slowly started bringing all over her belongings over to his place a few months after Junmyeon had been arrested. 

Getting Kai adjusted to a new home was one issue, but another long lasting one was that Baekhyun was now used to her presence and could ignore her a lot easier.

“Come on, Baekhyun,” Haeun begged, pulling at Baekhyun’s arm. He barely budged, not even looking at her. His eyes were trained on the TV as he watched a historical drama, and she was getting annoyed.

“Haeun, I just wanted to spend some quality time with you,” he murmured in response, his hand blindly finding hers. He laced his fingers with hers, and she felt her heart skip a beat at how easily he had found her hand even though he was barely paying any attention to her. Quickly shaking her head to get the feelings out of her brain, she diverted her attention from their hands to Baekhyun’s face. She let go of Baekhyun’s hands and cupped his jaw, turning his face to look towards her, except his eyes just moved to remain trained on the TV.

“We can only spend some quality time if you decide to look away from the TV. Besides, if we go out to the club, we’d be spending time together anyway!”

“You know I meant at home,” he responded, raising an eyebrow, finally turning his eyes away from the TV to look at her. Rolling her eyes, she decided that it was time for her to pull all the stops out. She wasn’t going to do this at first, but it was time, and she wasn’t going to be cowardly about it.

“Fine, be that way,” she responded, letting go of Baekhyun’s face. He stared at her for a beat longer, clearly not trusting her, and when she turned to look at the TV, she could feel his eyes on her for a bit. When Haeun didn’t say anything further, Baekhyun turned his eyes back to the drama, and Heaun took that as her chance. She stood up, pretending to stretch, a sliver of skin showing as her shirt rode up, but instead of sitting back down in her seat, she turned to look at Baekhyun. At first, she casually moved to stand in front of him, and he tilted his body to watch the drama around her, but she just stood there, watching him. Baekhyun tore his attention away from the drama and looked up at Haeun. She smiled at him softly, taking in his annoyed expression. He was clearly seconds away from asking her what she was doing, blocking his view, when she decided to place her hands on his shoulders and get up close into his personal space. Her smile grew when Baekhyun’s annoyance faded away, and she heard his breathing hitch ever so slightly. 

Haeun placed her knees on either side of Baekhyun’s legs, straddling him, but not sitting on him, and his hands instinctively went to rest on her hips. She could feel him digging his fingers into her skin, the warmth bleeding in through her shorts. Haeun could see him starting to forget about everything except her, and truth be told, she was beginning to give in to the urge of abandoning her plans, but she had a bigger purpose. She pushed herself closer to him, and she leaned down just enough so that her lips brushed his earlobe.

“If you come, we can spend some quality time later tonight,” she whispered, smirking against his ear when she felt him stiffen ever so slightly under her. He let out a slight gasp, as though he had stopped breathing momentarily before remembering that breathing was a vital function, and she pushed herself away from him far enough to look into his eyes. His eyes were sparkling under the light, but she knew there were darker thoughts lingering in them as his eyes struggled to stay on her face.

It didn’t look like it took him long to decide before he answered. “Fine,” he responded, his breathing slightly more rough than it was just moments earlier. 

Haeun grinned. “Thank you!” she exclaimed before quickly pecking her boyfriend on the lips. She pushed herself off of him and bounded off into their bedroom to change. As she walked in, her eyes glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, and she had a sudden thought. She poked her head out of the bedroom to find Baekhyun blankly staring at the TV, watching but not really watching.

“You know, we have about an hour before we have to leave,” Haeun slyly said. Baekhyun looked at her curiously. “I think that’s enough time for both of us to shower.”

Baekhyun simply looked at her, eyes still blank, and he nodded.

“Okay. I’ll take one after you.”

Haeun blinked at him. Once, then twice.

“You’re hopeless,” she responded, shaking her head at him. “I’m giving the man an opportunity, and he just lets it go to waste.”

~~~

“Now see, isn’t this fun?” Haeun giggled as she pressed up against Baekhyun’s side as they walked. His arm got caught between their bodies, and he pulled it out so he could wrap it around his girlfriend’s waist. Part of the reason was because he just wanted her close and part was because he was worried she was going to trip in her heels and fall face first into the ground since she was already tipsy. She immediately pressed herself further into him, and he could smell the perfume and shampoo she used. His senses were bombarded with lavender and coconut, and he just wished that this was happening at home so he didn’t also smell the sweat and a lot of tequila off of at least a hundred other bodies. 

To be fair, some of the smell of tequila was coming from him and Haeun (but mostly Haeun).

Haeun had managed to convince him to go dancing for a bit, and as they were making their way to the dance floor, Baekhyun had given up on thinking that he’d be able to hear the next day. It’d been a while since he was at the club, and his body wasn’t used to the environment anymore. 

The music was pounding in his head; the bass was incredibly bone-jarring, and yet, Baekhyun felt himself loosening up after being here for the last hour or so with the rest of their friends. Dongwoo and Eunji were cuddled up in the booth, Jeonghan was at the bar trying to flirt with one of the guys at the bar, and Wendy and Chanyeol were...somewhere. He hadn’t seen them in a bit, and the closer he and Hauen got to the middle of the dance floor, the less he cared. They were surrounded by rocking bodies, and yet, Baekhyun only cared about one.

He felt himself giving himself up to the music and the feeling of Haeun’s body on his own. They were impossibly close, and even though she was barely showing off any skin in her black leather jeans and dark red blouse with net sleeves that stopped just a few inches above her waist, she was still absolutely captivating. They swayed their bodies to the beat, and she put her hands on his shoulders, pulling him close. He wrapped his arms around her waist, his hands settling on the bare skin of her waist. He unconsciously dug his fingers into her, and she let out a small gasp. Baekhyun had this sudden need to kiss her, and at first he stopped himself. But after thinking about it, there was absolutely no reason that he couldn’t kiss her, so he leaned his head down and captured her lips with his own. 

Kissing her was intoxicating, and not only because he could taste the alcohol on her tongue, but rather because it felt like with every movement of their lips, he was slipping more and more. It felt like he couldn’t get enough of her, and he was addicted to her as though she was the only thing that he needed to live, and if he had her, he’d be okay. Hell, she saved him from a lifetime of imprisonment; he was sure that he only needed her to function. 

The spell they were under was broken when Haeun was pushed into Baekhyun by a reckless dancer, and she quite literally tumbled right into his arms, pushing him a few steps back.

“Okay,” he laughed, “I think it’s time we go back to the booth.”

“I hate people,” Haeun grumbled, grabbing a hold of Baekhyun’s hand and dragging him back. She stumbled every few steps, but at this point it seemed more like she was having a hard time walking in her pencil thin heels with so many people around rather than the alcohol in her system.

By the time they had gotten back to the booth where the rest of their friends had been sitting, Jeonghan, Chanyeol, and Wendy had all returned. Eunji and Dongwoo were sitting on one side of the booth, with Chanyeol, Wendy, and Jeonghan sitting in the opposing seats. 

Baekhyun sat down next to Eunji, expecting his girlfriend to sit next to Jeonghan, but instead, she reached for Chanyeol’s shot glass and downed it immediately.

“Hey!” Chanyeol protested, a hand raised to grab the now-empty shot glass. Haeun simply shrugged in response before quickly grabbing Jeonghan’s forearm. 

“We’ll be back,” she announced to no one in particular before dragging her best friend away. Baekhyun rolled his eyes at the sight but didn’t bother saying anything.

“What just happened?” asked Chanyeol as he blinked, reminding Baekhyun of an owl. Because of the loud music, they were practically yelling to be heard by one another.

“Haeun being Haeun,” he replied as he sipped on the beer he’d left at the table earlier. It was still his first glass, and he was trying to stay sober because he had a feeling Haeun was going to be anything but. He could see their plans for later slipping away, but they both needed a night off, so he wasn’t complaining.

“Yeah nothing new,” Dongwoo replied. “She has times when she needs to let loose, so she just goes crazy on the drinks. The annoying part is that she can hold her liquor, so it takes a while for her to get drunk.” 

“Wow, I’m jealous,” Chanyeol replied, stealing Wendy’s drink and drinking half of it. Wendy didn’t even flinch, and instead she just finished off the rest before pushing the glass towards the back end of the table. 

“She gets sober really quickly too,” added Eunji. “She and Jeonghan used to go clubbing once a week during semester breaks, so the two of them have high tolerances.”

“Speaking of Jeonghan,” Wendy piped up, “isn’t that him downing shots at the bar?” She pointed in the direction of the bar, and Baekhyun was grateful for the slightly elevated booth seating in the club so that they could see the dance floor and bar area quite easily. And just like Wendy pointed out, there Jeonghan was, easily throwing back shots of tequila as though it were nothing. 

“...and there’s Haeun,” he added, seeing her standing right next to her best friend, also throwing back shots. After watching them for a few minutes, he realized that they were competing over how many shots each could take. “Oh no.”

“Oh, god wait, don’t tell me they’re—” Eunji started, her voice sounding strained as she clearly came to the same realization that Baekhyun did.

“They are,” Baekhyun confirmed, his voice sounding as dead as he felt inside. He could foresee his near future, and it involved dealing with a drunk Haeun as he tried to get her home and ready for bed. It was a huge question in his mind how he was utterly in love with this woman to the point where he wanted to marry her, considering he was already thinking about looking at rings.

He sighed and turned back to his beer, knowing that Haeun would be coherent enough to not do something stupid and get kidnapped, but he kept checking in on her every once in a while anyways. She caught his eye at one point and waved at him excitedly. Baekhyun scoffed but waved back, somehow feeling proud that even with all these people around her, he was the one she was looking at.

The next ten minutes passed by idly; Baekhyun chatted with his friends while keeping an eye on Haeun. She looked like she had decided to settle down with Jeonghan at the bar, and the two of them were talking with big gestures, waving all over the place. Baekhyun snorted at how much she pleaded for him to go to the club with her so they could spend time, and here she was, ditching him. 

At one point, Chanyeol got up to grab another pitcher of beer, and when he came back, he was laughing.

“What’s up?” asked Wendy as she poured herself half a glass.

“Jeonghan and Haeun are arguing over who liked who when they were in high school.” Baekhyun barked out a laugh.

“You knew about that?” Wendy asked, leaning her arms on the table. A single finger traced the outer rim of the glass in front of her.

“Haeun had a huge crush on Jeonghan before the bond developed between us, and then after she realized her soulmate wasn’t Jeonghan, she moved on fairly quickly, but her dad mentioned how she was desperately hoping that Jeonghan was her soulmate. I didn’t know about Jeonghan’s side, though.”

They continued talking until a loud cheer distracted Baekhyun from the conversation about relationships. He jumped in his seat and spun to find a sight that he had never seen before and wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry.

Haeun was dancing. 

On the bar.

And she was pulling Jeonghan up with her.

Baekhyun tilted his head in confusion as he watched Jeonghan then pull up a familiar looking man with them. He was wearing distressed black jeans with a flannel shirt, a hint of a tattoo peeking out from underneath his collar. Baekhyun wanted to pay attention to whatever the hell Haeun was doing, but he was too busy trying to not gawk at the fact that Jeonghan was looking incredibly chummy with the club’s owner, Xu Minghao.

“Oh my god,” he heard Eunji speak, but he was too focused on the strange sight in front of him to react. 

“This—” laughed out Dongwoo, “is amazing blackmail material.” Baekhyun turned to find Eunji looking at him with wide eyes, Dongwoo recording the entire thing, and Chanyeol holding a lighter above his glass of beer. 

“Chanyeol!” he exclaimed, jumping to push the glass out of the way before the orange flame could touch the alcohol. Wendy jumped as well, grabbing Chanyeol’s hand and blowing the flame on the lighter out. Dongwoo turned the camera on Chanyeol as he tried to fumble with the lighter, trying to turn it back on.

“But—I want to see what happens when I light the beer on fire!” he protested, clearly more inebriated than everyone had previously thought he was.

“No, Chanyeol,” Wendy gently coaxed, “that’s a very bad idea.” She moved her hair and the beer out of reach way too casually to be anything but purposeful.

"But why? It's all in the name of science," he protested, holding the lighter out of reach. Baekhyun watched helplessly as he looked between his girlfriend and his best friend, trying to figure out where damage control was needed more urgently.

Seeing his helplessness, Wendy spoke up.

"Dongwoo and I got this, you and Eunji should go after the crazed drunks." Then, "Dongwoo, please stop recording for now! Once we calm this down, you can go back to it.”

Eunji sighed, and she pushed Baekhyun’s shoulder as an indication to move, and the two made their way over to where Haeun was jumping up and down on the bar. Even the bartender looked increasingly amused, and Baekhyun had to laugh at how excited Haeun looked. Jeonghan was cheering her on from the ground, a fist up in the air. 

Baekhyun and Eunji pushed their way past dancing (and sweaty) bodies, and once they got to their destination, Eunji immediately went for Jeonghan, trying to pull him away from the alcohol on the table. The club’s owner had disappeared, so he just went straight to Haeun.

"Come on," he heard her urge, and all he heard in response was a mumble of words. Shaking his head, Baekhyun reached his hand out towards Haeun.

"Come on, Haeun! It's time to head home," he called. She turned to him and shot him a big smile that nearly had him melting, but he couldn’t.

"But I'm having so much fun!" She grabbed onto his hand and tried to pull him up, but she just ended up slipping on the table slightly. She managed to right herself but didn't let go of his hand.

"You're drunk, babe," he laughed as Haeun swayed to the pounding music.

"No, I'm not! You're just a tad bit blurry," she spoke, using her free hand and pinching together her index finger and thumb, trying to show him how blurry he looked. It was amazing how her speech wasn't slurred, and yet her eyes looked hazy, and it was clear she was losing control of her limbs.

"Haeun," he chided, amusement clear in his voice as everyone around them disappeared, and it was just the two of them left in their bubble. "Come on. We can go home and see Kai."

"Oh," she gasped, putting her free hand to , "I'm a cat lady."

"Yes, you are a cat lady. You own a cat," he reminded.

"I do! He's old!"

"He's 11 years old, yes."

She bent down to his eye level, and then whispered, tears lining her eyes, "Will he die soon?"

"No, Haeun, no," he consoled, using the opportunity to let go of her hand and wrap his hands around her waist. He picked her up, and she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck. He was going to put her down on the ground, but she wrapped her legs around his waist.

"I want you to carry me," she mumbled into his shoulder, and he smiled despite the fact that at any other time, they’d both be too embarrassed f