Christmas Eve: The Fourth Year

Baekhyun woke up with prominent tears in his eyes. Patting the small table beside his bed, he got his phone and speed-dialed her.

“I had a nightmare…” He begins as soon as she answers. Kina was a light sleeper and she would always pick up her phone no matter how late or how early.

“Hmm?” She mumbles groggily.

“Yeah…” His voice cracked a little at that and he felt his heart go heavy again. “Can I come over? Please?”

“You were here just some hours back…” She chuckles and he tenses up. He really needed to see her right now. “But eh… It’s Christmas. Come on over.”

“Okay.” He almost shouts and jumps out of bed. “I’m running over to you. Wait for me.”

“Of course,” She says with sounds of rustles, “You want mistletoes as well?” She adds with a snort making him roll his eyes.

Ever since last year, mistletoes have become a sort of an inside joke between them.

“Haha…” Baekhyun said dryly, “I’ll be there in 5.”

“Don’t run, stupid.”

“Yup.”

But they both know he was going to run anyway.

“Where are you going at this hour?” His dad’s voice suddenly rang out just as he was about to leave. What on earth was he doing up at this hour? It was four in the morning! “Don’t tell me you’re running off to that girl. I cannot believe I have such a wimp for a son.”

There he was with his usual sweetness. Can’t he, for once just leave him alone?

“What are you going to do with your life?” He starts and Baekhyun sighed miserably. This was going to take time. Kina was waiting for him. “You don’t want to try out for exams as I told you and you are not even putting any effort in your studies and you don’t even want to go for further studies. All you ever do is run around that girl like some lost puppy. Aren’t you even ashamed?”

Baekhyun stood at the hall some steps away from the door and wistfully looked at it. It was just some steps away… If he just takes some steps, he can run to her.

“You are well aware that she already has everything figured out for her life,” He spoke with annoyance and Baekhyun listened this time in intensity. He was talking about Kina again. “Her parents own that Bank and she is the sole child. Not only that she is good with her studies and knows proper manners. I just don’t understand what she sees in a boy like you. Aren’t you even slightly ashamed that she excels over you in almost every way?”

Was he? Baekhyun mulled over it for a moment… The only thing he felt was pride that she was so good at everything. He never felt ashamed.

“You better have something to do soon. In some months you are going to graduate and she is going to start working. What on earth will you be doing? Be her assistant?”

That doesn’t sound bad. He’d be the best assistant for Kina in the whole wide world because he knows her like he knows the back of his hand.

Baekhyun sighed and looked at his phone. It’s been more than 5 minutes.

“Learn something from her.” His dad says with finality and Baekhyun nearly sighs out loud. He was nearing the end of his speech. “A man can’t be one that runs after a woman. Have some manly pride at least.”

Baekhyun openly scoffs at that. “Is that why mom is miserable with you?”

There. His father was now looking at him with shock and anger but he couldn’t help it.

“I will rather be someone who makes her happy than one who provides for her.” Saying that he stomps out of the house ignoring the angry shouts of his father.

Years of watching his sweet mother cower under his father’s sternness have made him bitter towards the figure he called a father. One of his goals in life had been to not be like his father and that perhaps had made him into what he was today. He was not ambitious and really lived unplanned… The opposite of his father.

He let out a ragged breath and watched the mist escape his lips into the darkness. It was absolutely quiet in their neighborhood and cold. His legs did not feel like running anymore as he hugged himself tightly and sighed again.

First, it was the nightmare, now his dad.

He walked on thinking about what his father has said. It wasn’t like he will be immune to it and there was always a ring of truth to it even though he wanted to ignore it.

Would Kina be better off with someone? Was she really too good for him?

She liked her life as planned but she was willing to bend it for him and unlike his father, her plans never have been imposed on anyone else besides herself.

“I’m surprised that you actually walked for once,” She says with a lazy smile as she opened the door for him. The way she looked in the morning always have his heart thumping in the most tumultuous ways. She never looked like this for anybody else.

“So…” She begins as he jumps into her bed and curls up, holding the blanket that smelled like her. “Was the nightmare really bad?”

“Do you think I am incompetent?” He dodges her question with another as he looks at her sitting at the edge of the bed. At that question, she frowns and climbs up the bed towards him.

“Why would you think like that?” She says with a worried face as she lay down looking at him. Her hand came up to run through his hair and he lets out a sigh.

He lets go of the pillow and went towards her to be engulfed in her hug. God. How wonderful is it that she always, always make him feel at home?

“I dreamt that you were married.” He begins as she continued to hug him and ran her hand through his hair.

She lets out a small laugh through her nose. He hugged her body tighter and brought her closer feeling the need to affirm that she was his girl.

“You were married to our history professor.” He narrates solemnly, “and it felt so real… I was there as well but I was only a friend of yours and… and… You were not mi-mine.”

He lifts up his head to look at her. “Do you know how much that hurt? I was crying trying to tell you that you were my girlfriend but you only laughed at me as though I was joking. I called you wifey… but you were angry at me.”

S