Track 39. PETE DAVIDSON by Ariana Grande | ♩

Ahyoung waited at the front porch, watching the Park siblings arguing, but with smiles on their faces. Chanyeol would occasionally bump his shoulders against Rara’s and she'd slap him in the head. She remembered how they were exactly the same when they were little. Nothing has changed at all. Rara still found her brother’s shoulder the best thing to lean on and Chanyeol’s protectiveness over his sister was sometimes much more endearing than her mate’s, given that he wasn’t destined to do it for his entire life, but he acted like it was, even though, as said, she already has someone to protect her. 

Rara gave Ahyoung a bear hug as soon as they arrived, followed by Chanyeol. “Where have you two been, huh?”

“Just for a walk, Gran.” Chanyeol said, dusting the snow off his coat. “A bit of an exercise.” 

“Should’ve joined you guys. I love a good workout.” 

“Ah, yeah, now that you’ve mentioned it, I should’ve just taken you instead of Rara because I’m pretty sure she had worked out with Baekhyun before heading here.” He snickered, earning a kick in the leg from his sister. He looked at her, mouthing ‘What?’ innocently, making Rara roll his eyes at him.

“Uh, don’t listen to him, Gran.” Rara said in a low chuckle. 

Ahyoung smiled at her knowingly. “What type of exer—”

“Gran, I love you, but please, no.” Her grandmother laughed amusedly, leading both of them inside. “And by the way, Merry Christmas, Gran.” 

“Merry Christmas, my dearest.”

“Dad, your hands are as steady as Mum’s.” Rin complimented as he watched his father decorate a Christmas-tree shaped cookie. Usually, Rara took care of vamping up the cookies—it made sense as she was an artist and a surgeon. Not a single swipe of icing would go astray under her watch. 

“Yeah, your hands used to be so shaky and Mum’ll have to try and salvage the cookies you take charge of!” Bomi exclaimed, making the Other Baekhyun chuckle. 

The three of them hadn’t noticed that Chanyeol and Rara were watching them from the living room. The twins were in charge of carving shapes from the cookie dough while their dad did the designing and frosting. As the twins complimented their dad’s skills in elevating the visual presentation of the pastries, which was a skill that they thought only their mom had, it urged Chanyeol to ask Rara if she taught him to do it.

“This is gonna sound like a lie, but he’s really good at arts. I taught him how to portrait for a while and the dude understood the assignment.” Rara said in a low voice. “He’s about as good as me.” 

Chanyeol breathed deeply, obviously skeptical over his sister’s words. “It does sound like you’re just making it up. But if he’s good at something you’re passionate about, it makes it hard for me to believe why you two can’t get along properly.” He snickered, crossing his arms. “But maybe that’s because he’d rather have you as a medium, rather than a proper canvas.” Before Rara could come up with a retort, he called out the twins’ names and made their mother’s presence known. 

“Guys, could you stay with your mum for a minute? I just need a moment alone with your dad.” 

The twins obliged and washed their hands and went to Rara’s side. She looked at Chanyeol warily, then he just flashed her a half-smile, before walking towards the Other Baekhyun. The twins saw the snow piling up outside from the window, and asked permission to go out and enjoy the snow while they’re on a break from cookie duty. Rara agreed and leaned against the wall separating the living room from the kitchen and stood just right beside the opening that led towards the kitchen.

Chanyeol stood beside the Other Baekhyun, his back leaning on the kitchen island, while the Other Baekhyun faced the trays of cookies.

“I’ll keep this short and clear because I’m afraid of the things I might do to you if I linger around longer.” Chanyeol said in a quiet but dark tone. “I know you’re not entirely Baekhyun. I know you’re the physical manifestation of his negative traits. That being said, if one whole of Baekhyun protected Rara oh-so-delicately like she was an irreplaceable, vital organ, the bad half would act the opposite for the same reason. She’s invaluable but she’s also permanent and withstanding, so you find joy in pressing her buttons knowing she’ll stay with you no matter what.” Chanyeol reached over for the bag of icing and silently examined it. “Rara didn’t ask me to do this so don’t even think about pinning this on her. In fact, I had to squeeze the truth out of her because like I said, I know you did something bad to her last night and I also know she wouldn’t hold you against it because you’re you; you’re still Baekhyun to her.” Without a warning, Chanyeol grabbed the Other Baekhyun’s wrist, forcing him to hold out his palm. The alter ego remained quiet, trying to figure out what his brother-in-law was going to do to him. “I’m not going to do a play-by-play of what happened between the two of you. You were there. You know what happened and you know what you did.” His grasp tightened and he pulled his arm, just under the pipe of the bag of icing. “So I’m just here to tell you that the next time you hurt her, I’m going to squash you until your insides come out of your ,” The Other Baekhyun’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second as Chanyeol extracted out a generous amount of icing on his palm. 

Splat.

“And put it all back through your ing mouth.” 

Chanyeol forcefully sent the Other Baekhyun’s icing-covered palm flying smack-dab on the center of his face.

“Merry Christmas, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol said, dusting off his hands. “Not scorching you in my red-hot fire is an expensive gift alone. I would’ve gotten you just that but then we’d see each other in hell, because Rara would surely kill me if I do.” 

Chanyeol exited the kitchen, not even waiting for the Other Baekhyun to reply. Without looking at Rara, he just told her that he’d get the twins back inside, a subtle green light to go and talk to the Other Baekhyun. 

Rara approached the Other Baekhyun slowly and flashed him a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry ‘bout that. You know how Chanyeol is.” She handed a towel to The Other Baekhyun and he took it. 

“His attitude towards me is justifiable.” He snickered. “I was an to you.” Without warning, he pulled Rara by the arm and smeared the icing on his face on hers using his head. “I still am.” He added, chuckling as he watched Rara, whose face was covered in icing, look at him with annoyance and surprise.

“Byun Baekhyun!” Rara glared at him and slapped him lightly on the temple. “Could you please, for, like, one second, act like an adult?” She hissed. 

The Other Baekhyun removed all the frosting from his face with one swipe of the towel. He put it to the side and leaned in and kissed Rara softly, tasting both and the icing and smiling in between.

Simple-minded bastard. “Stop it.” Rara said, pulling away first. She crossed her arms and said, “I meant a different kind of mature, airhead.” 

The Other Baekhyun laughed and tilted her chin and wiped off the frosting on her face with a tissue. “I know. We’ll save my kind of mature later.” 

Before Rara could come up with a reply, Chanyeol and the twins came back inside, with the twins’ eyes glued to their mobile phones. It seems that they were playing an online game. Chanyeol was behind Rin, observing his gameplay, and as the battle ended, he groaned in frustration. 

“Bomi, you seriously at this.” Rin complained. “Kibum plays better than you.” 

“Yeah, well, you’re self-centered and you always leave me to die. Whenever Kibum’s in the team, he looks out for me!” Bomi retorted.

“Why is Kibum not playing with you guys right now, anyway?” Chanyeol asked. “Is he offline?”

“A