Y/N

A year later...

It's 12 a.m. and I've been watching the door, waiting for Baekhyun. It was the last day of his encore concert, concluding his world tour. He's late for the after-party with all the people involved in the successful tour. I'm actually the one who planned the party but wasn't able to go. I have been stuck at home for three straight days because of a flu, all while Baekhyun's encore concert was happening. And I insisted for him to stay in a hotel instead of going home so he didn't have to travel all the way to the dome, and for him to prevent getting a flu from me.

Of course I had to do that, I didn't want to spread sickness around staff and especially to my Baekhyun. I haven't seen my boyfriend for so long. I think I don't have just a flu, but I'm also lovesick. I used to call it cringe. I never thought it really existed.

Fortunately, this morning, my intense coughing stopped, I can breathe properly again, and I regained my strength . I feel so much better after Baekbeom and his wife came to visit and took care of me while Baekhyun is away. Although most of the time, Seoyul and Siwoo were being told to stay away from me, we still got to play for few hours once I got better before they left to go home earlier.

My body jerked up from the couch once I heard my door password being punched. I was a second away from deciding to wait for him in the hallway. I already couldn't contain the biggest grin when Baekhyun walks in and immediately finds me waiting for him. The tiredness in his eyes disappeared as he smiled back and approach me with his arms wide open.

"My Baekhyunie." I ran to him and threw myself in his arms.

"You waited." he sleepily said against shoulder.

"I just miss you so much, I can't wait for tomorrow to see you."

I yelped when he scoops me up in his arms and I encircled mine around his neck as a reflex. "Well, I'm here now and your stupid flu is gone."

A smile graced my lips and he did take his time looking at my face until I felt the urge to have his lips on mine. So I pulled him close and claimed his lips for a kiss. And he returns a passionate response. I can almost hear him say how much he missed me to the way he kissed me deeply.

"I missed you."

"I missed you more than you do."

I leaned my head to his shoulder, tightening my hold around his neck and I sighed in satisfaction as he walked towards the bedroom.

Oh, to have you right beside me again, my love.

----

Now that Baekhyun's world tour has ended, we finally got a break and can spend time without having to leave our homes. But he started making videos for his YouTube again since he doesn't have much to do and he wanted to give his fans something, so it's kinda like going on schedules.

"That's the second video I made for this week." he proudly announced as soon as the cameras we turned off.

"Why are you counting them?"

Baekhyun seems to realized that, his face holds an expression as if there's something that I shouldn't know and that what he said might give me a hint. The staffs fell silent and kind of froze from what they're doing. Tension arises, making me even more curious as my innocent eyes skimmed the whole place. They were all staring at me.

"Oh, uhm. I'm counting them to make sure there won't be any delay during their respective release dates."

"Okay..." I reluctantly muttered. It's not that I don't trust Baekhyun's answer, but I feel like he and these staffs are hiding something from me.

"Why is everyone staring at me like I'm supposed to know anything?"

Collective gasps from several people followed after that and they started moving once again. Turning the lightings off, taking the cameras and previously used props out of the studio. Once the place looks unused and cleared from anything, they hurried their way outside like I'm going to chase them out anytime from now.

"Why are they acting strange?" I asked Baekhyun when were the ones left inside.

He shrugged. "I have no idea, my love."

I decided to let that slide, although it's really bothering me.

I couldn't tell Baekhyun. I'm afraid that it might turned out nothing serious. That I'm just worried over nothing, or something very petty to overthink about.

But why do I feel lost?

After his week of break, Baekhyun started preparing for his next comeback. It means busy days ahead and him always dead tired at the end of the day. In the middle of his hectic schedules, he's still making videos and all that I could do is to be his manager. I was barely a girlfriend to him at this point and it honestly worries me. Feeling of doubt lingers in my heart every time he doesn't kiss me good night.

I didn't want to make his life more hectic with all these overthinking over nothing. Even when he's my boyfriend for a year now, he's still an idol who loves to give his fans something that makes them happy. Maybe I'll just have to think like a fan for now, waiting for those videos he made to be uploaded and support his upcoming comeback. That'll help instead of having these ridiculous thoughts in my head.

Though that doesn't mean that I'm totally forgetting about how distant and suspicious Baekhyun had been lately.

"You won't be going with me today?"

I fought the urge to look away from him, so I wouldn't look like lying. "Yeah... Uh, I'm going to our class reunion dinner and it's tonight. You don't get off to work till midnight so..."

"Oh," he scratches the nape of his neck and I can see that his regretful eyes, too, are fighting not to avoid mine. "Look, love. I'm sorry if I was so busy and distant these days. You know I can get off to work and accompany you to that dinner instead. I don't want any of those people to look down on you like what happened before."

"No, I'm good. You can't ditch the photoshoot just for a boring dinner."

"Then why are you going if you know it's going to be boring anyway?"

"I haven't seen my friends..." I lied again.

"I see... You know I'm not holding you back to do whatever you want if you're not in the mood to be my manager." he kissed my lips, making me smile when I felt his hand on my cheek after that. "Have fun."

"I will, Baek."

He took his leave and literally a second after my apartment door closed, my phone rang. It was a call from Saeri, our class president back in the days.

"Are you going, Y/n? Everyone will be there."

"I won't be going." I heard multiple whines from the other line after saying those.

"Everyone believes you. Okay, you're your idol's manager as what Doeun told us a year ago. Don't be ashamed."

"I'm not ashamed. It's just... His schedules are hectic as hell and I don't have the time."

"She just don't want to go because she doesn't have someone with her until now. Maybe let's just respect that?" I heard someone says, followed by distant laughter from men.

I could've appreciated it when they said to respect my decision not to go, but the fact that they think it's because I can't bring someone with me gave it away.

I bit my lip, feeling the anger slowly rising. Taking a deep breath wasn't able to help me to calm, so I snapped instead. "Okay, fine. Maybe I don't want to go because of that reason. I'm sorry if I didn't want you guys to make fun of me because apparently, it's funny when people can't bring someone when they go to a class reunion." I paused to breathe. "Wait, I thought it's a class reunion? Why are people who weren't in our class joining the dinner?"

When I turned around, I nearly screamed and my heart stopped for a second. Baekhyun was there and staring at me, disappointment all over his face.

"That's final, I'm not going. I do hope you respect that and I'm sorry." before Saeri could respond, I already dropped the call and quickly looked away from my boyfriend.

"Sorry, I lied about going to that dinner when I'm not really. But it's true that I'm not really in the mood to be your manager."

"Why can't you just tell them you're in a relationship with me?"

I looked at him once again. "Baekhyun, no one has to know you're dating your manager. It's the only condition Sooman had set for us to stay this way. Unless you want me fired and have Youngmin as your main manager instead."

He was about to fire back but his phone rang, and with a slight roll of his eyes, he answered the call.

I heard Sooman from the other line, starting off with Baekhyun's name and the rest of what he said were incoherent. I have no idea what was it all about, but shock instantly took over Baekhyun's expression as if he was told an awful news. Looking at how his visage change is like I was watching how thundering clouds suddenly invaded the once clear sky.

"I will be there." he stuttered and ended the call. He was dumbfounded for seconds with his lips parted and eyes wide open.

"Baek, what was that all about?"

He snaps out of it. "There's this..." and then he sighs and looks at me, like he wants to say something but he can't bring himself to. I waited for him to speak, blinking innocently to encourage him. We stayed like that for a minute or two before he shook his head and broke away from the eye contact first.

"I just went back to get my keys." he walks past me and grabbed his keys on the coffee table. "I have some very important matters to discuss with teacher Sooman. Guess the photoshoot and lessons had to wait, I'll be back home after that. Promise, I will tell you everything." he made sure to leave a peck on my lips before hurrying his way to the door and leave me a million times more confused and lost than I already am.

Hopefully, once he's back he'll be able to give me answers because I'm not staying still while I know nothing.

----

It's been an hour and I still haven't heard from Baekhyun. I'm circling around the living room, worrying about what actually caused that reaction on his face. Someone caught us? Dispatch managed to find out that Baekhyun is dating his long-time manager? Did someone reported about Baekhyun's rude attitude from before and decided it's a good time to ruin his reputation?

Those maybe pretty ridiculous but it can actually happen. However, Baekhyun made sure that he apologized to every single person he had done something rude before. Even those managers he got rid of. I don't think they'd spill something as it has been a year and they'll surely get nothing good from doing that.

I abruptly came into a stop when my ringtone resounded. Thinking it would be Baekhyun, I answered the call immediately and let the caller speak first.

"Okay, I didn't call to force you into going... We understood, just now, why you don't want to."

It was just Saeri. Confused with her words, my eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean'what do you mean'?" she mimicked how oblivious I sounded. "Your idol is currently all over the internet, Y/n."

"Let me check that." after that brief phone call, that's when I noticed an Instagram notification from five minutes ago, saying that Baekhyun shared a new post.

But before I could click on the tab, I suddenly feel my heart throb violently. I get this when there's something good or bad coming in my way, and I could never tell which one is going to be it. I blew a good amount of air, hoping it's the weight that's making my heart heavy. Finally, I pressed the notification tab and was immediately led to Baekhyun's new Instagram post.

Few seconds and the images loaded, I was greeted by a picture of Baekhyun's penmanship. The amount of likes are rapidly increasing. It was a hand-written letter and it started with an introduction: Hello, this is Baekhyun.

I suddenly lost the courage to continue after his name, but when I caught a glimpse of the word 'girlfriend' somewhere in the middle, I quickly went on reading until reaching the end of the letter.

I stood still, ridges visible on my forehead as I deathly stared at what's on my screen. No matter how many times I have read each words that makes up the hand-written letter, I couldn't sink it in.

And the fact that after one scroll to the left, next to the letter, was my photo. One that Baekhyun couldn't stop talking about being his favorite photo of me. Another scroll was a photo of us together—that certain picture that we both love the most. Three pictures in one Instagram post that sent netizens and his fans to a frenzy, waiting for SM to say something about it.

Baekhyun never told me that he's telling the world about us... I never saw this coming, no nothing to get me ready for this time to come. Baekhyun told me that he can't keep me hidden forever, but I never thought I'd be out there with him this soon.

"I should go talk to him." I muttered to myself before turning around to leave my apartment. But then I remember that he's probably still at SM. We can just talk about this sudden revelation in front of Sooman and the next step to do after this.

They might have been talking about this. It's either Baekhyun convinced Sooman to let them know, or the other way around because the elder has been pushing us to be romantic all over the place for no apparent reason.

Right after opening my door, Baekhyun appears, his forefinger is sticking out probably just about to enter my password. We stood by the doorway, facing each other quietly trying to come up with words. I inhaled sharply to start and his eyes blinked, like he didn't know what to say. Mouth slightly open but he can't seem to say at least a word.

"Baek-"

"I'm sorry for the sudden reveal, Y/n. It was an abrupt decision that I have to make. Sooman has been talking me out to do it. He told me about making my fans realize while I'm away or what. Some things like that." he walks in, going straight to the living room. His habit of pulling the strings of his hoodie told me he's anxious.

I tried my best to calm down, so he knows I'm not going to snap at him. "You should've called me so I can prepare myself-"

"I'm leaving, my love."

My world momentarily stopped as my head cocked to the side, brows furrowed. Leaving? Is he trying to break up with me? Wait, he just told the world that we're dating and even posted my picture to let everyone know who's to kill or protect—it's their choice to imagine what they want to do to me for being Baekhyun's girlfriend.

But why is he leaving? And to where?

Seeing how his words confused me, Baekhyun went on, "I mean, not you. I will never leave you. The reason why I had to tell them now is because I'm giving them the time to realize that I'm dating someone. They probably feel betrayed or what after reading my letter and seeing your pictures, but by leaving them to sort out their thoughts might help them to accept us in the future."

I still don't underst