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Baekhyun checked himself into the mirror for the tenth time. The matte black suit fitted him well.  He brushed his gelled hair back, baring his forehead. He wore his expensive cologne. The golden expensive watch made him a bit more confident about his look. He fixed his bowtie so that it wasn't imbalanced.   'I could pass as the groom.'   He thought bitterly.

 It's still late morning. Munhee's wedding ceremony would be held in the afternoon. But he was told to go earlier, since he was one of the few male Lee family could depend onto to check the preparations in the wedding hall. After all, Munhee's in-laws were The Oh's,  so they couldn't afford any lacking into their hospitality. 

Baekhyun sighed, checking himself out for the last time, giving his practiced welcoming smile so that no one could get even a tad bit whiff of what was going inside him. His smile didn't reach his eyes, but he deemed it was okay. Munhee and Sehun would be the star of the event, no one would put much attention into his smiles. But he still would need to smile time to time.  

Shrugging the unimportant thoughts away, Baekhyun finally went outside. His eyes fell on the Lee mansion as soon as he stepped out of his house, perks of being neighbors.  He hadn't seen Munhee after last night he had unofficially handed her to Sehun. He knew that Sehun was dependable, he would take care of his Munhee.  "Calling her mine already sounds foreign."   He mumbled to himself. Shaking his head to keep determined to not bring any unnecessary thoughts of Munhee or his pathetic heart, he made his way towards the wedding hall, which was in fact ten minutes of walking path than their houses. So he decided that he would just enjoy the cold morning air to reach at his destination.

"Baek, wait!"  He heard Junmyeon calling him from behind. 

Junmyeon huffed as he rushed towards Baekhyun.  "You're going to the wedding hall, right? Let's go together."

"Okay."  Baekhyun agreed without seeing any problem in doing it.  

"I can't believe, we've grown up so much, now it's our friends' marriage."  Junmyeon casually said.

"Yeah. Though, it was you who's supposed to get married before them."  Baekhyun agreed and then tried to move the topic from Sehun and Munhee to Junmyeon as he didn't want to drown into another session of deep hurtful thoughts.

"I'd love to. But Jisoo wants to graduate first. Her family's way too modern."  Junmyeon groaned. 

"How I wish our families were this modern as well." Baekhyun murmured, a soft sigh leaving past his lips. If their families were modern then there could've been a tiny chance of him and Munhee to happen. Or even if he couldn't marry Munhee, then at least he could've spend some more years with her without any restriction if they'd permit her to graduate as well.

"Did you say anything?"  Junmyeon asked dumbly.

"No. We're here."  Baekhyun let his friend know.  He had to halt his steps for a moment before entering the hall.  This was the place where Munhee would become Sehun's forever. This was the place where he'd lost her forever.

He shouldn't have been here. He should've been crumpled over his hard bed back at his rented apartment, sitting inside the dark room without any presence of lighting, smoking until his lungs would just be clogged, until the pain there would be so much harsh that it would finally, finally top the pain inflicting inside his chest every passing moment. 

"Baekhyun?"  Junmyeon's loud call from inside the vacant hall broke his suicidal thoughts.  

"It's worth it, Baekhyun. You're doing this for her happiness. You're her best friend."  He whispered to himself so that it would work as a pushing mechanism to his own self, whenever he'd feel like he wouldn't be able to do anything else without wailing out his agonies.  "You can do it."  

                                           _______

Baekhyun was physically exhausted, as all he did in the past hours was to run from one corner of the hall to another, giving out  more like  shouting out orders to the decorators, checking the quality and quantity of every single dish that would be served for the guests, testing the mic, checking the stage meticulously so that there wouldn't be any kind of accident which could harm Munhee as she would be the one who would be here with Sehun.

He was fine. He was fine doing all physical works, getting physically drained. These sort of helped his mind from getting occupied to any extra pathetic thoughts.

The hall was beginning to fill up with both bride and groom's family members. Everyone looked happy. Sehun looked dashing in his groom attire, added with his rare smile. It seemed like he wasn't even forcing himself to smile, he was genuinely happy. Munhee also arrived at the venue, probably half an hour ago. She, along with her elder sisters and some of her female friends had entered from the back gate of the hall. Baekhyun was more than thankful for it as he didn't had to see Munhee.

But whom was he kidding? He was dying to see Munhee. He wanted to keep watching her every remaining seconds. He wanted to see how she looked in her wedding gown. But at the same time, he was in no way prepared to get even a glimpse of her in her bridal attire. He had lost counts of how many dreams he had brewed of watching her walking down the aisle in her beautiful wedding gown, just to get married with him.

But now that it was actually the time of her walking down the aisle, it prickled every cell of his body painfully to know this unavoidable truth that unlike his dreams, he wouldn't be the one standing at the opposite end, waiting with a gentle smile, teary heart eyes for holding her hands and start walking to their new journey. Journey of love, journey of their married life, journey of forever.

Even though it was killing him inside, he took brave steps towards the empty hallway, at the right corner, it was the bride's waiting room. Baekhyun took huge intake of oxygen, gulping the huge bile inside his throat, he knocked on the door. Munhee's second older sister opened the door.

She gave Baekhyun a meaningful look,   "You don't have much time. Hurry."  reminded him and walked away, leaving the two of them alone. 

Baekhyun nodded and entered the room. He concentrated on closing the door before he turned out and looked up towards Munhee's direction. 

His world stopped.

His breathing stopped.

The only thing that constantly assured him that he was st