A New Leaf
Just Another Day
The incessant ringing of a phone woke Wu Yifan up at three thirty in the morning. He grumbled and checked his phone - it wasn't his, after all. He turned to Chanyeol, who was sound asleep, and peeked over the snoring elder's shoulder - it was his phone. Yifan considered waking his boyfriend up but decided against it, knowing how the other was dead tired the whole previous day. He grumbled and cleared his throat, answering the call.
'Hello?' he mumbled, clearing his throat once more and repeating the greeting.
'So? When do I come over to take my things? Sorry I'm calling now,' the caller said, not sounding apologetic in the least. 'Was busy.'
Yifan frowned, checking the caller - it was an unknown number.
'Please may I know who you are?'
'Stop playing games, Park,' the male over the line scoffed. 'Anyw--- wait a minute, you don't sound like Chanyeol. Who are you?'
'You called, I believe you should introduce yourself first,' Yifan grunted, starting to get irritated.
'Ah...' the caller drawled. 'You must be the new boyfriend.'
'And you're...' Yifan frowned, trying to bite the other with a comeback. He sighed and rubbed his tired face.
'It's three thirty in the morning, what do you want?'
'Tell Channie I'll talk to him at noon,' was all the other said before cutting the call. Yifan frowned and set the phone aside, lying in bed.
'Ah... You must be the new boyfriend.'
He turned the words over in his head and realized the caller was Chanyeol's ex-boyfriend, Lee Seunghyun.
'Take his things...?' he mumbled to himself.
'Ah! Don't pick that box up,' Chanyeol said, catching Yifan's wrist.
'Why not? And you haven't even mar--- Park Chanyeol, is this a secret stash of or something?'
'No. God, no,' the elder laughed, his smile dying down almost immediately. 'Just... ignore it.'
Choosing not to push the matter further, Yifan ignored the unmarked box obediently.
'What was in that box, Chanyeol?' Yifan asked quietly when they had finished unpacking Chanyeol's clothes and accomodating them into Yifan's huge closet.
'... Seunghyun's stuff. But don't worry, I'm not hung up over him or anything,' he waved off. Noting the younger's lingering discomfort, Chanyeol took one of Yifan's hands in his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
'We broke up a good year before we had our first date, Yifan. I just didn't bother with his stuff because I was so used to it by then.'
'Where's... the box now?'
'I donated it to an orphanage. It had his clothes. I already threw out any trinkets and all that we had...'
Yifan nodded and turned to the other boxes silently.
'Well... whatever,' Yifan shrugged, turrning to the side and trying to go back to sleep.
The morning rolled in with Yifan barely having had enough sleep. He got up and brushed his teeth, taming his hair before heading to the kitchen. At some point while he was unloading his omlette onto his plate, Chanyeol entered, completely awake.
'Hello,' he grinned, back-hugging Yifan and nuzzling his nose against the other's cheek. Yifan gave a small smile and handed him the plate, choosing to make another omlette for himself instead.
'Can I ask you something?' he slowly worded after Chanyeol had finished eating and was drinking his coffee.
'Go right ahead.'
'... Your... Seunghyun called last night while you were asleep.'
'He got your number? How? When?'
'On your phone.'
Chanyeol sighed and took another sip of coffee.
'He wanted his stuff back.'
'Yeah, well, too bad,' Chanyeol scoffed.
'... I'm sorry, but...'
'Yifan?'
'How did both of you... you know... break up?'
Chanyeol's eyes held a bitter look as he clenched and unclenched his fists. He took a deep breath and trained his gaze onto the mug of coffee before him.
'I caught him cheating on me with one of his clients.'
Yifan pursed his lips and was about to say something, shaking his head when Chanyeol continued.
'It's funny, you know? ... How it was so... easy for him. Turns out he did like me before, but he stuck on only because it was cool to say he had a musician for a boyfriend.'
No reply. Chanyeol went on, seemingly in a trance.
'I spent hours late at night, you know? Sitting on the couch with some beer... maybe some vodka every once in a while. Wondering why I wasn't good enough for him, why he cheated on me. Nobody needs that, you know? Cheating on someone is probably the worst thing you could ever do to anyone. It's like... suddenly, every 'I love you' starts haunting them. It drove me insane, I'll tell you that. But I guess the signs were always there... that he didn't love me anymore. It's just... I never bothered to look at them.'
Yifan flinched at how nonchalantly Chanyeol shrugged, downing the rest of his coffee and grinning.
'But it's not like I care anymo---'
'I'm sorry,' the taller male cut
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