Baekhyun half listens, half doesn’t as Seunghee talked about her little rendezvous or whatever. Apparently, she and that Woohyun went to the cafe to eat some cake since Seunghee said she loved cake, and then they went to a restaurant to eat chicken and drink beer. The rest, Baekhyun blocked out because he really didn’t need to know. Or he didn’t want to know. Regardless, she came home a whole other person. Someone who’s happier and brighter. Him on the other hand, was cranky and frustrated. 

Quietly chewing on his food, Baekhyun stares at the grain of the table, thinking to himself as Seunghee rambled and rambled about home much she liked the guy. His back was slumped and his eye bags were dark from the lack of sleep, not to mention this nagging inside voice he keeps hearing. It was quite ridiculous how much this is bothering him but the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes how strange this whole situation was. His excuse is that she’s never been like this before and he’s very protective (as much as he hates to admit it). A hand waves in front of his face and he blinks, looking up. 

“You good?” Seunghee raises an eyebrow. He lets out a sigh and nods, resting his head on his palm. “You look like you aged ten years last night.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. He felt like he did. “How did the party go?” 

“I don’t remember.” He murmurs, not really wanting to talk about it. It’s not really worthy to mention how annoyed he was the whole time because she left with a strange boy. Or really, he doesn’t need her to know that he despises that Woohyun guy when he’s the light of her life right now. 

“Oh, you must be hungover.” Seunghee gasps in realization. Baekhyun looks at her, his eyes narrowing because that wasn’t the case at all. Although he’d rather be hungover than feeling like this. 

“Yes so please, stop talking.” Seunghee snaps her tongue at him and goes back to eating, that happy pink and yellow glow still floating around her. Baekhyun rubs his eyes and decides that it wasn’t a really bad thing that she was happy. He’s really never seen her this excited before so that’s a point for that . Tired of thinking and looking at her spread joy over all the food, he gets up and shuffles back to bed, laying down. 

Seunghee frowns at him from the table and he looks at her before pulling his blanket over his head. Now that she’s home, maybe he can get some sleep. 

“Excuse me, do you expect me to do the dishes?” She scoffs. Baekhyun ignores her, closing his eyes. Seunghee huffs at him, going back to eating. “You're lucky I’m in a good mood.” 

-

-

It’s Monday, the worst day of the week, and everyone is miserable because they have to get to class. Except for Seunghee who is as happy as ever of course. The clouds were gray, and the sky threatened to shed rain. 

Baekhyun stared out the window as the wind roared, beating against the window of the library. Chanyeol sat in front of him, at the whipped cream of his hot chocolate. He looked ridiculous and it looked dirty and sticky but Baekhyun doesn’t say anything because Seugnhee always did that too and he couldn’t be bothered pointing out something so small and stupid. 

“And so she came home safe?” Chanyeol raises a brow. Seeing how moody the boy was, he figured Baekhyun needed open ears. And who had ears more open than Chanyeol? He was great at listening and giving advice. In fact, he wrote for the anonymous advice column for his high school newspaper. 

“Yeah.” Baekhyun murmurs, dazed. “But I don’t understand. How can she look so happy?” Chanyeol wrinkles his nose, wiping his mouth with a napkin. 

“Cause she’s in love, maybe?” Baekhyun grimaces at the thought, refusing to think about it. 

“I don’t know what to think, Chanyeol. I like that she’s happy and all but not with him.” He adds a menacing tone, shaking his head. Chanyeol looks at him, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. 

“Well, if she’s your best friend you let it go. You think she’s gonna be single her whole life? That’s miserable.” Chanyeol scoffs, shivering at the thought of himself being 40 and alone at a family gathering, surrounded by happy families. 

“But I don’t trust him.” Baekhyun groans, rubbing his face. Chanyeol narrows his eyes at him in thought, taking a big gulp to finish his drink. 

“Maybe you’re jealous.” Baekhyun lets out a big scoff at that, even laughing. How ridiculous! “You’re just scared that she’s gonna forget about you.” Baekhyun scoffs again, spluttering as he took a sip of his coffee. He has thought about the possibility, and he knows it’s the case, but he refuses to come to terms with it. He’d rather not enter that kind of territory. “Just let it go, Baek.” Chanyeol sighs, sliding over his bag of cookies to cheer him up. “I gotta get to work.” He packs his things and zips up his bag, swinging it over the shoulder. It knocks over his cup and Baekhyun flinches at that, gaping. “Oops, good thing it’s empty.” Chanyeol grins, picking it up. “See you later.” He walks off and Baekhyun is left alone. 

Scratching his head, Baekhyun goes back to studying, resting his head on his arm as he takes some notes. Chanyeol's talk has relaxed him a bit. He’s been telling himself the same stuff for the past few days but it sounds a lot better hearing it from someone else. Despite his mood, he feels calmer, and his eyes are getting droopy. He reminds himself to call Jongdae and make him go for drinks with him later as a sign of acceptance. Slowly, he falls asleep, hand still holding his pencil. 

-

-

It’s been a whole week now and tomorrow is Saturday. By now, Baekhyun is feeling a lot better, and he’s beginning to appreciate Woohyun for having Suenghee in such a good mood, because today, she offered to do the dishes on her own. That’s never a bad thing. 

Frowning from his bed, Baekhyun watches as Rian painted Seunghees nails at the table, the two giggling and talking to each other excitedly. Seunghee’s been talking to that Woohyun guy all week and he’s finally invited her out on a date tomorrow night. For the first time, Seunghee wants to dress up. 

“Come here, Baek, I’ll paint your nails too!” Rian grins at him, waving him over. Baekhyun grimaces, laying back down and going back to his phone. They laugh at him and go back to giggling. Why couldn’t she bring the boys over so they can distract him from all this date stuff? 

Jongdae figures that he needed a distraction to get him away from his nagging thoughts so he suggested that they go eat tomorrow night, just the boys. Baekhyun agreed easily because he knew it’d be better than him staying home and waiting all night again. It felt like he just went through a breakup, and with the way that his friends are treating him, he believed he did. He broke up with the naive, innocent little Seunghee he grew up with.

Seunghee suddenly appears at his bedside, grinning at him. Baekhyun frowns as she squatted down. She puts her fingers out in front of him for display, wiggling them. “They don’t look that bad, right?” Baekhyun could tell she was super excited and he snorts, rolling his eyes. 

“Right.” He goes back to his phone and Suenghee groans at him. Holding her hands up to avoid them from getting messy, she falls into his bed, right on top of him. Baekhyun grunts as the air is knocked out of his body, lifting his head to glare at her. “What’s wrong with you?” He groans, trying to kick her off. 

“You think he’ll like them?” Baekhyun sighs as the dreamy look on her face reappeared, propping his head up with a hand. 

“Yes.” He admits. Her hands were very nice for someone who didn’t care about them at all. Though her nails were always short and her hands were always stained from pen or marker. They were very soft and the perfect size. Although, his hands were the best out of everyone in the friend group. He’ll let her take second place. Seunghee tilts her head back to look at him and he flinches at how she looked upside down, pushing her face down so she wasn’t looking at him. She shakes his hand off her face, letting out a loud ew! before rolling off of him and laying on her stomach. 

“You think so?” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. 

“Yeah, yeah. Now go do your toes or something.” He sighs, waving her off. Seunghee grins and climbs off his bed, walking back to Rian. Baekhyun sighs, watching her get scolded for messing up her nails despite being so careful with them. He’s never really thought about it but she’s really precious. 

As long as they’re still best friends like this, he’s fine. 

-

-

Baekhyun pulls on his coat, fixing his turtleneck to properly cover his neck because tonight was gonna be cold as balls. It was Saturday night and he was getting ready to go hang out with Jongdae and Kyungsoo. Seunghee was also getting ready for her date, singing a song in her room as she did so. 

Leaving the bathroom, he goes to grab his keys and such, ready to go but he stops because he figured he should be the one locking the doors. “Yo, are you ready?!” He shouts over her singing. The singing stops and she shouts back at him. 

“Yeah, yeah!” She comes out in a rush, grinning from ear to ear. Baekhyun opens his mouth in surprise, looking at the dress she wore. He hates, absolutely hates to admit it but she looked really pretty. It’s been a while since he’s seen her wear a dress and since she’s wearing one out of her own will this time, she looks even prettier. The other times he’s seen her wear a dress, she didn’t really want to, so this is definitely different. She looks at him with a frown, slowly picking up her phone from the table. Blinking, Baekhyun begins to nag. 

“Aren’t you gonna put a coat on or something? It’s gonna be cold tonight!” He hisses. Seunghee gasps. 

“I forgot!” She runs back into her room and Baekhyun shakes his head at what an airhead he was, opening the door. Coming back out, Seunghee begins to put her shoes on, bent over like she wasn’t wearing a dress. Baekhyun face palms and closes the door so the neighbors won’t walk by and see. 

“Maybe you should close your legs when you wear a dress?” Seunghees cheeks redden with embarrassment but she doesn’t close them since she’s already kneeling, standing up. Baekhyun gets a whiff of her hair. He leans closer and sniffs her, frowning. “Is that… perfume?” Seunghee grins and pokes his nose. 

“Yup! Rian bought if for me two years ago.” Baekhyun scoffs at how unbelievable she was. She’s definitely become a woman. But he smiles, glad that she’s finally growing up. Not that she wasn’t grown up before, he just hasn’t seen her dress up like this before. , she didn’t even dress up for that party a few nights ago. 

“Where’re you meeting him?” He raises a brow, letting her get out before closing the door and locking up. Seunghee hums, looking at her phone. 

“He said in front of the movie theater downtown.” Baekhyun frowns, putting his keys in his pocket before turning to her. 

“Why’s he taking you so far? Want me to take you there?” Seunghee snaps her tongue at him, eyebrows furrowed and nose wrinkled. 

“No! The restaurant is in the other direction.” Baekhyun crosses his arms. There’s no way he can let her go all the way downtown on her own. He pulls her to begin walking. 

“I’ll walk you to the bus stop then.” Seunghee groans but she doesn’t deny him, walking closely behind him. “Why isn’t he just picking you up from home?” Baekhyun grumbles, beginning to walk down the stairs. Seunghee hums, that’s true. Woohyun didn’t live far from them. 

“I don’t know…” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. 

“Next time, tell him to pick you up from here. And tell him to drop you off at home too, the bastard.” Seunghee gasps at the name calling, slapping his shoulder. He turns around, offended. 

“He’s not a bastard!” Baekhyun blinks at her. 

“Then you’re a bastard. Hurry up or you’ll be late!” He hisses, walking down the steps faster. Seunghee sighs at his nagging, hurrying her feet. 

Baekhyun walks Seunghee to the bus stop and he even waits for the bus to arrive with her, despite Seunghee begging him to just go. He ignores her, arms crossed as he waits. Glancing down at her, he raises a brow. “You have bus money?” Seunghee sighs. 

“Yes.” 

“You have your phone?” Seunghee sighs again. 

“Yes.” 

“Call me if something happens.” 

“I know.” 

“Your bus is here.” 

“Thank god.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes as she pats his chest before walking off to get on the bus. He watches her sit down and give him a dirty look before the bus drives off. Letting out a sigh, he begins to walk to the restaurant. It was pretty cold so he walked faster, worried that his best friend might freeze to death on the way to the movies. 

Jongdae and Kyungsoo were already there, waiting for him with their mouths wet with only water since they had to wait for him to order. He sits down with a grin, picking up the menu. 

“What took you five days?” Kyungsoo grumbles. 

“I had to walk the idiot to the bus stop.” They both raise a brow at that. 

“He didn’t come pick her up?” Baekhyun shakes his head and sees the confused look on their faces. 

“That’s the face I gave her, don’t look at me.” He shrugs, trying to be as indifferent as possible to avoid getting angry and busting their date. 

“Who the meets up for a date, downtown?” Jongdae scoffs, laughing. They all shrug. “So old school.”

“Auntie, we’re ready to order!” Kyungsoo shouts, starving. 

-

-

“Let's go back to your place to drink!” Jongdae cheers, latching onto Baekhyun's back. He groans and pushes him off, annoyed. 

“No, you’re gonna make a mess.” The last time they drank at his place, he and a Seunghee had to clean up a lot and pick up after a lot of trash that was leftover. Or more like the trash that Jongdae left over. Jongdae was pretty clean and organized but not drunk Jongdae. He was another being. It was nuts. Never again. 

“I don’t want to drink.” Kyungsoo mutters, picking at his nails as they begin to walk home. Jongdae sighs at how boring they were, moving to walk on his own. 

“Go drink with your roommates.” Baekhyun sneers teasingly, making Kyungsoo laugh and hook an arm around his shoulder. Jongdae's roommates were really hard to get along with since they were so quiet and reserved. They didn’t like him either because he was loud. 

“Shut the up!” Jongdae groans, unamused. Baekhyun reaches his street and pats them both on the back. 

“See you guys.” They wave him off, continuing to walk back to the dorms. Baekhyun shoves his hands in his pockets, extra cold now that the company is gone. His mind trails back to Seunghee and he hopes that whatever they’re doing on a date, they’re inside so she’s not freezing to death. His feet stops and he’s no longer walking as he frowns at the floor. Wait, when has he cared so much? “Psh.” He curses himself for making the sound out loud, ignoring the strange looks some people give him as he walks by. 

The apartment is dark when he gets home, which means Seunghee is definitely not home yet. Of course, she wouldn’t, it’s barely been three hours. What kind of date lasts for three hours. He snorts at the thought and turns the light on, pulling his coat off. 

Walking to the bathroom to wash up, he freezes when he hears sniffling. Frowning, he presses his ears against the wall to see if it was his neighbors and he rubs his chin when he finds that it wasn’t. Seeing how Seunghees door was a little open, he walks over and pushes it open a little. 

His best friend was in bed, curled up into a ball as she cried into her pillow. Baekhyun clenches his jaw, anger rising in his chest. He doesn’t want to think about the possibility but something definitely happened. Walking in, he sits down on her bed. 

“Why’re you back so early?” He asks quietly, resting his hand on her back. He can feel her body shaking, either from being so upset or from the cold. Or both actually. Baekhyun sighs and pulls the blanket up, covering her better. “Was the date bad?” Seunghee cries even harder. She cried often because she was pretty expressive about her emotions. But Baekhyun has never seen her cry like this. Like a heartbroken teenager. “Tell me what he did.” He hisses, getting heated. 

“No.” Seunghee sobs, refusing to lift her head. 

“Why?” Baekhyun frowns. 

“Because you’ll get mad.” 

“Oh, I’m already mad.” Baekhyun glares out the window, turning to look at her. “So tell me.” Seunghee lifts her head, face wet with tears. Baekhyun feels his heart crack a little at the sight. He’d give her a tissue but they didn’t have any issues because they were broke. Scooting closer, he wipes her face with his sleeve. 

“He never showed up.” Baekhyun lets out a breath, feeling the sadness switch back into anger. “I waited for him for three hours and I was texting him and calling him but he never answered.” Seunghee sighs, burying her face in her hands. “And then, when I called him for the last time, he answered.” Baekhyun leans in closer to hear better since her words were muffled by her hands. “He said he forgot to cancel the date.” 

“What the did he say?” Baekhyun clenches his fist, looking around for her phone. “Call him right now.” He hisses. Seunghee sighs at him, deflated. 

“Just leave it, Baek. He’s not worth it.” Seunghee murmurs. Baekhyun looks at her and he wants to swear and yell but he holds it back, seeing how heartbroken she was. He remembers how excited she was to go on the date and it pisses him off that the person she was so happy for was the same person who killed the excitement she’s had for days. Pulling Seunghee to his chest, he pats her head, letting her cry. Seunghee lets out a long sigh, grabbing his shirt and covering her eyes with them. Normally, he’d be annoyed, but he guesses he can sacrifice a shirt for her. 

———

It’s been a while since I’ve updated! I’ve been petty busy with online school work but it feels good to update. Thank you to those who have been reading, subscribing, and commenting! It makes me happy to see that people are enjoying this story. Stay safe, everyone! ♡