Seolhee is feeling a lot of emotions right now. First, she feels her heart racing because of Baekhyun's spam text messages. He seems genuinely sorry for missing her birthday. Second, she feels empty and miserable because of how many times Baekhyun had to say sorry to her. If he's just being a decent man to her, he wouldn't have to apologize so many times.

     Plus, Seolhee had a great time even without Baekhyun that she can't care less about Baekhyun not showing up.

     In less than 15 minutes, she hears knocks on her door -- loud and consecutive knocks. She sighs and opens the door to see a panting Byun Baekhyun.

     "Can I come in?" Baekhyun asks. Seolhee simply nods and makes way for him.

     "I'm sorry, Seol. I know I said I would come but something happened and..." Baekhyun trails off when he sees Seolhee's face. She looks okay; at least better than how he expected her to look.

     "What happened? What's that something? Tell me." Seolhee says with a soft voice. She's close to giving up. "I don't care about you ditching me on my birthday, Baekhyun. I care about the reason why you didn't show up. So tell me."

     Baekhyun stands in front of Seolhee, not knowing what to say. When Seolhee notices the long silence, she almost laughs. How can she be fooled so many times by this guy in front of her?

     "Are we really dating, Baekhyun?"

     "Yes." he answers immediately.

     "How do you define dating then?"

     "We see each other, and we have only with each other."

     Seolhee chuckles at his response. Today, she forgot about Baekhyun when she was hanging out with Kyungsoo and his sister and that felt good. It feels good to forget about Baekhyun. She stopped worrying for a moment, and she almost forgot how that felt until today. Somehow, she wants to do feel like that again, but there's that's not easy with Baekhyun constantly confusing her.

     "Yes, Baekhyun. But aside from that, we also talk to each other about our day, we go on dates like normal couples do. We tell things about each other, Baekhyun... personal stuff. We laugh, and smile, and go on road trips maybe. We do stupid things because we're young and in love."

     In love? Baekhyun shudders at the word. Love? 

     "That's what dating is, Baek. And if you can't do that with me, I can't stay."

     She can't stay? Does that mean he won't see her anymore? Baekhyun got so confused after hearing that. He got confused because his heart suddenly felt like it was ripped to pieces.

     "I don't even know why you decided to date me when you were never willing to do so in the first place." Seolhee buries her face in her palms. "God, how can I be this stupid to let you do this to me over and over again." she says with a muffled voice. 

     It is rare for Baekhyun to want to say his feelings out loud, but now, he wants to. As of this very moment, he wants to... but even he is confused about his feelings.

     Lately, he's found himself wondering about the same girl over and over again. Has Seolhee finished her exams? Why isn't she calling me? Seolhee would love to see the noisy kids who are waking in a line on their way to the school bus. And every time he finds himself thinking about her, he smiles. Lately, Seolhee's been the sole reason for his smiles, and he kind of wants to get away from that.

     But now that Seolhee's talking about leaving, and he knows he just can't let her do that.

     "No," Baekhyun takes both hands that are covering her face and holds on to them tightly. "Stay, Seol." Baekhyun leads the way to her couch and sat them both down.

     The boy takes in a deep breath, taking his time to sort out his thoughts. "Stay, okay? Because I want you around. I like having you around, Seol."

     Seolhee hates herself for being this easily swayed by Baekhyun. She knows that all it would take for Baekhyun to make her stay is to actually ask her to. And now he's doing just that and she already knows she's screwed.

     "I couldn't make it today because my nephew was sent to the hospital and I had to take care of my niece while my brother is at the hospital," Baekhyun says, finally explaining a personal matter to Seolhee for the first time.

     "Is he okay now?" Seolhee can't help but be relieved that Baekhyun explained. She 

     Baekhyun nods. "Yes." Seolhee hums and mumbles an 'okay'.

     And then there was silence.

     "Seol, I'm not familiar with all this dating stuff, but I'll try, okay?" Baekhyun hopes with all his heart that Seolhee will say yes. "I'm not certain about everything right now but I'm sure that I like your company, and how you annoy me."

     Seolhee feels her heart beating roughly against her chest. That was actually sweet. 

     "Baekhyun," Seolhee calls.

     "Uh?"

     "You know that I like you, right? Or maybe even more. But I'm not gonna be stupid anymore because I've given you so many chances already."

     Baekhyun's heart fell to his stomach.

     "But damn it I like you so much." Seolhee squints her eyes and shakes her head slowly. "This is your last second chance, Baek."

     Baekhyun couldn't hide his smile. So she's giving him another chance. "You just cursed."

     "No, I didn't."

     "You said damn."

     "I did?"

     "Yes, you did. So we're still together?" Baekhyun plants his palm on the couch and leans forward, smiling wholeheartedly towards Seolhee. "Yes, we are."

     "Good." Baekhyun didn't waste time capturing her lips, moving against each other in a synched rhythm. Baekhyun swivels his head back and forth, widening and then closing the gap in between them.

     Seolhee and Baekhyun have no regrets for how that night went. Even after it took them hours to finish melting against each other's bodies, they both know that the exhaustion was worth it.

     Because for the following weeks, Seolhee has been busy preparing for the holidays with her family. Being a daughter of a head surgeon and a lawyer is hard because one, her older sister is abroad and she has to go to whatever business events her parents have to go to.

     This is the time where she felt like a trophy. She wonders how her parents could be so 'disappointed' with her when they're alone and suddenly brag about her when they're around other people. Maybe it's an Asian thing? She doesn't really know either but it's been like this since she can remember.

     After Christmas was the only time she finally got in touch with her friends, but it wasn't long until she had to accompany her parents on their separate new year events at the hospital and the firm.

     Baekhyun would slip in a text once in a while, asking what Seolhee is doing and she would reply shortly on what kind of event she is attending now.

     During new year's eve, her mom suddenly got called for emergency surgeries because apparently, there are still some idiots who play with firecrackers and get their heads blown up. Now she's left with her father who's been locked inside of his office to finish some paperwork.

     Seolhee lies in her bed, wide awake, quite disappointed on how her new year would be. Was she surprised? No, not really. Her parents were never really there during the holidays. On rare occasions, they are. Physically, at least, but never emotionally and mentally. It has always been about work, work, work, and work.

     She scrolls through her phone, looking at her friends' Instagram photos who are preparing for the new year. After a while, she got bored and decided to text Baekhyun, which he replied to immediately.

hi baek, watchu doin?

nothing.

 why?

just asking :))

you wanna meet?

     Seolhee almost gasped at his reply. How did he know? She smiles and types her reply.

is that okay? are u with your fam?

yep.

I'm at my brother's house

but i can drive to your house to pick you up

i guess

if you want me to

     Seolhee smiles again at his messages. She likes how he types in short sentences and not as a whole paragraph or something. Is she being stupid? Yes, probably.

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