"Buff"-a snort left the lips of an exhausted Baekhyun as he flopped onto the bed.

Finally Friday! -Those 2 words had the same effect on his body as taking a bubble bath. At least now he would have 2 and a half days to relax before his big headache started: Christmas week. Don't get him wrong, it's not that Baekhyun hated this time of year, well maybe he hated it a bit. It's that it was difficult for him to deal with everything that this celebration entailed; first his family; his mother had been insisting three Christmases in a row for him to go and celebrate with them. But Baekhyun didn't feel like spending the last days of the year with his father arguing about how "unusual it was to be attracted to boys" and also with his brother ,who never thought twice before boasting about his achievements: his 50k-dollar-sport car, the two-story house he and his fiancee just bought and earning a raise 2 times in the short period of 1 year and a half that he had been working for the Gangnam Stock Exchange*, things Baekhyun could only dream of. If you compare his achievements to Baekhyun's, it is not too hard to realize that Baekchan was the perfect heaven-blessed-older son while Baekhyun was, well, just Baekhyun.

On the other hand, his work as a graphic designer didn't help much. He had to do a lot of designs for the Christmas holidays, New Year's Eve and Harvest Week in January, so his tasks kept piling up on his desk. Sometimes when he saw a Christmas tree, Baek just felt a strong urge to set it on fire and watch it burn.

Although his life seemed pathetic, Baekhyun wasn't that unhappy with it. At least he had a place to live and he didn't depend on his parents, he didn't earn much, but it was enough to pay his expenses and from time to time treat himself with the money he had saved at the end of the month.

After a 30-minute break, he gets up from bed and heads to the kitchen to prepare something for dinner before taking a shower.

"Mmhh"-she rubs his index finger on his chin as he thinks about what to cook with the ingredients left in the fridge-"Looks like I'm having ramen and egg tonight."

He lets the noodles cook in the pot while he gets ready to grab his towel and pajamas and take a quick shower. As she pulls out a new towel from the cabinet by the bed, he accidentally drops a blue-bound book with a little white ribbon. Baekhyun bends over to pick it up thinking it was one of his old design books from college, but anything like that vanishes from his head as soon as he reads the gray letters on the cover: Yi Chong High School Year 2016-2017 . It's his high school yearbook; he only saw it once: on graduation day.

August 2017
“Attention all senior students and their parents, please head to the school theatre. The diploma ceremony will be held in a few minutes and the yearbooks need to be signed before that.”

The head master's rough voice echoed from the speakers in each of the facility's rooms. Baekhyun sighed softly; he seriously didn't feel like standing on a stage in front of the whole school just to get a damn piece of paper, if he were a good actor, he would have faked a stomachache or maybe appendicitis that morning so he could skip the ceremony, but he couldn't do that tn his mother who had not stopped chattering about how proud she was of her youngest son the entire weekend . No matter how annoying Mrs. Byun can be sometimes, but she is his mother and he adores her. Baekhyun suddenly looked towards a specific desk where a particular person used to sit and smiled bitterly as a blurry memory came to his mind. He looked at his desk table with the letters BB carved by himself,and then he looked up to have one last look at his classroom and get out of there.

The ringing of the phone snapped Baekhyun out of his trance. He placed the yearbook along with the clean clothes and towel on the bed and went to the living room to take the call.

"Hello."

“Design Assistant Byun. I'm CEO Shim, I know it's Friday and it's already late at night…” -Baekhyun takes a quick glance at the square-shaped-black clock hanging on the wall above his TV, which already shows 10:30pm; yes, it is quite late; he says to himself -“…but I would need to meet you now to discuss an important work issue”.

“Yes sir, It's alright, no problem” – Mr. Shim is the second highest ranking employee in the company, it's not like Baekhyun can turn down his superior request.

"Good. Let's meet at a nearby cafe. Is Itaewon Cafe okay for you?"

"Yes-yes of course"-says Baekhyun a little nervous, at least he hopes the meeting is not to tell him off for a shoddy job.

“I'll be there in 10 minutes. Good evening”- With a simple farewell and after having agreed on the details of the meeting, Mr. Shim hangs up the phone.

“From here to Itaewon Cafe it's 8 minutes by taxi, so I won't have time to eat; bye-bye ramen and egg night”.

"Ramen, ramen…"; those words made a click in his head, as if it was something important, something essential, something that he needed to re…re…recall! - “Ramen, my ramen is burning”.

Baekhyun ran into the kitchen only to find a huge mess: the water in the container had overflowed, some of it was flooding the burner area, and some of it dripped onto the floor in a small puddle, along with a few noodles spilling out. In the blink of an eye Baekhyun was next to the cooker trying to close the gas pipe but all he got was his hand burnt .

"Great, simply great"'-it would be impossible to tidy everything up and get to his appointment on time when he was already a few minutes late. He decided to leave everything just like that and go to his meeting place. Anyway when he gets back home he will have more than enough time to clean up that mess.

He grabbed his gray leather jacket, his wallet, and his cell phone, also checked his appearance in the mirror, and when he thought he looked acceptable, he walked out the door.

In the minute Baekhyun was inside the elevator until reaching the reception floor, he started thinking about why his boss wanted to see him: maybe it was a problem with one of the designs, although he and Miss Min, one of the employees from the Marketing department and also in charge of the Christmas designs, thoroughly reviewed each document looking for the slightest error, but in case that was the problem they could fix it right there without having to postpone the situation until Monday, since Baek always kept a copy of his work on his cell phone as a precaution. It could also be about that incident on Thursday when he accidentally spilled his mango juice on Human Resources Chief(HRC) Huang, while he was walking amusedly playing Stickman Party on his cell phone; but that wasn't entirely his fault; number 1: it was his lunch hour and at that time everyone is in their own world, either gossiping, eating tteokbokki or playing video games as is his case; number 2: it is almost impossible to see Mr. Huang, that HRC is 35 cm shorter than him and Baekhyun is 1.72, that man is a dwarf, it was a fact that sooner or later someone would end up bumping into the poor guy and number 3 : That game is more addictive than all drugs put together. The other idea that was going through his head is a promotion or at least a raise, although that would be difficult since he has only been working in that company for ten months and luck did not hit him as often as his brother Baekchan. Whatever the reason for the meeting was, he doesn't think it can more apocalyptic than those 15 minutes at home. Seriously, it cannot get worse, right?

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ITAEWON CAFE, INCHEON 10:45pm

Itaewon Cafe was exactly Baekhyun-style. Once you step in the place and you can already feel an aura of tranquility surrounding that cafe, the dim lights coming from the Chinese lamps hanging on the ceiling give the location a romantic touch, in addition to the fact that the light was made to be pleasing to the eye. The base and feet of the tables were made of black mahogany and the glass of this wooden furniture was brocaded, so every time someone looked at it that person would feel as if they were looking at snowflakes stacked side by side in the most perfect way. The walls were a light gray like the suits used by executives, perhaps that was why he regularly saw businessmen meeting at the place. It was located on HanSoo Street, which only had a small shopping centre, a grocery store and a hardware store, there were neither clubs nor schools nearby, which made the street not very crowded. ; Baekhyun appreciated that. He really hates noisy places, it's good  he and Mr. Shim are on the same boat.

Once he got there, he went inside timidly, Baek was already thinking on his way to the cafe a bright excuse to justify his lateness, something that would be better than "the ramen and also almost my whole kitchen burned down due to our phone call". To his surprise , Mr. Shim had not arrived, he must have gotten stuck in traffic, after all, it is Friday and it is almost the end of the year, it would be a miracle if his superior had arrived on time.

While waiting for his boss, Baekhyun decides to sit at one of the tables at the back of the cafe. One of the waitresses approaches with a bright smile to take his order: mango juice. Bekhyun envies the ability to keep a smile on his face 24 hours-a-day that some people have , if he were a waiter he would probably have a ty face 90% of the time. As he waits for the drink, Baek watches the TV, which is on channel 8: the news channel.

Regularly at this time it is only broadcasted breaking news, such as companies that have just gone bankrupt, traffic accidents or some information given by the president of the country, even sometimes a Dispatch reporter had his 5-minutes-of-fame on  tv, while stating they posses irrefutable evidence that this celebrity is dating this other one, just to increase the channel ratings. This time it is a man in his 60s who held a press conference to discuss a specific topic about his company. For some reason this man looks familiar to him, not in the way of being someone close to him or someone he's been in contact with before, it is like he's seen the old man before maybe even more than once but his head can't remember where. Suddenly he began to speak:

"Good night everyone. Thank you very much for attending the press conference scheduled by the company tonight. My name is Park JiSook and I am the President of ELID Entertainment.”

"ELID"- were the words that came out of Baekhyun's mouth. Now he could remember where he knew the old man from. He was also the president of JBC, a well-known television network that had produced famous dramas, which have break ranking score in Korea and America, he is always seen at the Baeksang Art Awards either as a guest or to give a speech as a reward for being the company with best results in the industry. Baekhyun also remembers that when he was finishing his first year at university, Mr. Park announced that he would enter the music industry, after that he founded ELID and just 3 years ago a group called ATeen  under ELID name. Despite the short active-time of these young idols, they have positioned themselves several times on the Billboard top 30 list with some of their songs, they also won the Daeseng Awards for 3 years in a row and it would be a crime to forget that unbelievable moment: winning the Rookie of the Year Award just 4 months after debuting, that was epic .

“Many people have been interested in the “reordering of job positions” that the company has been doing in recent months, many of you are concerned that this will affect the performance of our artists or workers or harm the company in some way. . I want to tell you that we have been very strict and careful with this process. Many of the changes carried out are due to the growing expansion of both companies as well as the absorption of small industries and contracts signed with important allied companies. To continue with these current projects I have assigned two new directors for both of my companies”.

The old man stands up slowly and turns to the right to point at a person, the cameras focus on a young man of around 24 years who has just stood up.

He honestly seems too young for that position. Accepting such a big responsibility at such a young age is like throwing a whole life to trash bin - Baekhyun thinks to himself.

"Choi HiSoo, new CEO of JBC" - the mentioned man bows slightly before sitting back down.

Suddenly the camera focuses on the person sitting on the right of the new CEO and Baekhyun feels his heart beating fast, so fast that his chest starts to ache and his breathing starts to become irregular, as if someone is pressing hard on that spot for the sole purpose of knocking him out. air. Tears begin to pool in his eyes and his mind begins to bombard him with memories. Baekhyun must be looking pretty pathetic right now, anyone walking past him would laugh at the state he's in, because honestly he looks ugly when he cries, but it's not like he cares about anyone else's thoughts right now. His brain can only think of one thing .

“The new CEO of ELID”-announces the old man.

"Pp-park Chan..yeol"- those two words come out of Baekhyun's mouth like a whisper, as if he's afraid that by speaking too loud someone might know what he's thinking.

"Park Chanyeol"-the mentioned young man stands up and imitates his seatmate by bowing slightly.

It would be impossible for Baekhyun to forget about that boy, He would be able to recognize him even in a crowd. Although 10, 100, 1000 years will pass, he would be able to recognize him; Even if he dies and comes back to life, even if he has never seen Chanyeol in that new life, his heart would be able to recognize him if their paths crossed one day.

"Baekhyun."

This can not be happening.

"Baekhyun."

Why after so many years….?

"Byun Baekhyun."

CEO Shim's call-almost-scream brings Baekhyun back to reality.

"Mm-Mr. Shim"- Baekhyun sits up straight quickly as he wipes the trail of tears from his eyes.

"Are you feeling well?" asks the eldest once he sees the state his employee is in.

"Yes, it's just the allergy"

Very unconvinced, Mr. Shim puts the matter aside and gets ready to talk about what really matters.

“I'm so sorry for my lateness, there were problems in the office and the traffic didn't help much either. I wanted to talk to you about an important topic.”

Baekhyun decides to leave his demons aside because he will have time for that, and he focuses on listening carefully to the director.

“One of our partners is trying to promote a new brand in his company, it is something completely different from what they have done before. They decided to hire an experienced company that could handle the design and advertising of this brand. We are not a big company or as popular as those in the capital, as you know; however, we received the offer and of course we are not going to reject it”.

Baekhyun nods his head as a sign that he is paying full attention to the conversation.

"I had a long talk with the leader of the Design Department and we reached an agreement that it was better to send one of the interns."

"But Mr. Kim is the one with the most experience in this field, everyone else in the office has just graduated or has been working for a short time. I think it would be better to send someone more competent" -Baekhyun says-.

“I thought about that too, but Mr. Kim made me change my mind. The best thing is to send one of you. Yes, it is true that you all are new and fresh, but you kids have shown me that you try to do your best every day at work. Sending you guys to do this job may end up being the worst mistake of my career, but if it works out, the company will have gained some reputation, money, and recognition in the marketplace, and one of you will have gained enough experience to take a higher position. Also remember Mr. Kim's age, he is no longer in a position to take on a challenge like this."

Baekhyun sighs, "So one of us is going to work for that company?"

"Yes, until they are done promoting their product."

Baekhyun takes a sip of his drink as he exchanges glances with his superior.

“I want you to go Baekhyun”

"Me, why?"-Baekhyun opened his eyes wide at the unexpected news.

“You are just as good as the rest of your co-workers, but there is one thing that you surpass them in: your tenacity. That is a characteristic that I greatly admire about you. You always complain when you have to do overtime for a job not finished or with a mistake to fix, but you would never go home without solving that problem, because you are very committed to your work and you know that the result of what you do can influence in the people around you one way or another, to come to a conclusion like that you gotta have a mature person, which is difficult to see in a 23-year-old boy; because well Baekyun, I was your age too and acted like 23 person would.”

Baehyun's face reddens slightly. Just imagining that his superior thinks of him like that makes him feel proud of himself and wanting to kick his brother every time he treats him like an incompetent and inferior being. this up! Baekhyun 1 Baekchan 0.

"Thank you very much Mr. Shim, I promise not to disappoint you or the company" - Baekhyun says with great efficiency.

"I am glad to hear that. Here you go”-and he hands Baek a thick blue folder-”All the information you will need to know about your work in that company is on those papers”.

"Thank you. I'll read everything carefully, Don't worry.

Mr. Shim nods pleased.

"By the way," Baekhyun asks before taking another sip of his juice, "What's the name of the company where I'm going to work at?"

"Oh it's a music company that has become very popular lately" -the older one pauses  for a few seconds and says- "Its name is ELID".

That four-letter word is all Baekhyun needed to spit all the juice he just drank onto the table and some of his clothes.

Oh yes, Baekhyun was so wrong, tonight could get worse.

✩･*:｡≻── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩ ✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩ ✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩ ✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩ ✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ──.•*:✩

Author's note

After posting this first chapter on July(yeah, a really long time ago) i decided to spend this X-mas checking every grammatical mistake in the chaps. I was reading them and i was like: "Bloody hell, is that even english?!"

I write on my way back home on a bus, after a very exhausting long college day and my part-time job night shift, and my keyboard autocorrect su*** ,so my pardon

I checked every line carefully and correct every mistake I found, but if you feel free to remark me about it

BTW i was kinda bored so I was watching TVD for the 1000000x time and i turned my romantic-mode switch mode(didnt know i had it) and some of the next chapters are getting pretty lovey-dovey ૮ ˶´ ᵕˋ ˶ა but this novel was suppose to take the comedy-drama highway, so lets see how all this mess turns out

So have a nice cold snowy X-mas (where i live will be really hot) and see y'all on next episode(3)

Mei kisses to all of you (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)♡