I stared at Baekhyun with an open mouth, completely unaware of how long I was taking to reply. 

Baekhyun was fidgeting, but he did not say anything which made me feel like he and I were the only ones here. 

Did he just officially propose to me?

"Apart from the time limit we set?"

"Apart from that."

"No more, 'I'll find a way to stop this engagement'?"

"No more of that too." 

When reality hit, I started to take the whole situation in. The happy tears pooled in my eyes and I started to grin like a dummy. 

"YES!" He returned the silly, but cute grin and engulfed me into a huge hug. I hugged him back, but he suddenly pulled back, giving me chills.

"Wait. The ring first." I nodded and he slipped the ring into my ring finger, and I did the same to him. 

"Since we already had a ceremony, do we need to have another one?" 

"Well... those were just announcements... not real ceremonies." I pouted and looked at the floor. I didn't want to be whiny or greedy, but I wanted a real ceremony filled with people who cared about this matter. 

Baekhyun nodded and smiled at me, shining his pearly whites. 

"Okay. Ceremony it is." 

-

When we were done hanging out at the river, we went to the HanGang river and walked on the walking area. The weather was nice and the moon was out. 

"Are you okay walking out in public like this?" 

"If it's with you, I have a reason not to be bothered." I blushed and looked away. Baekhyun grabbed my hand and intertwined it with his fingers. I looked at Baek with a teasing grin and brought the hand to my cheek. 

"Your hands are pretty bigger than I thought." Baek nodded and chuckled. 

"Call me oppa. Not 'you'."

"Siruh. NO." I was still teasing him, but he glared at me in a playful way. 

"Fine. Give me the ring back, then." 

"Okay." I let go of his hand and slipped the ring up to the joint of my finger when Baekhyun started to panic.
"NO! I was just kidding!" I laughed and grabbed his hand again. 

"Don't EVER take it off, do you hear me Heeyoung? You're MINE." I nodded and rolled my eyes. TOO MUCH LOVEY DOVEY-NESS!

-

He stopped the car in front of my house and I honestly didn't want him to go. 

"By the way.... I'm probably gonna become really busy starting tomorrow.... We're releasing a new single and we need a lot of practice. I wanted to propose to you before I starting getting extremely busy." 

I nodded and looked at the ring. It was a promise made between us that will be kept.

Right?

"It's fine with me. I'm just glad you told me before hand. I'm gonna go now." 

I unbuckled my seatbelt and grabbed my bag. Before I opened the door, I called Baekhyun's name. He turned around and raised his eye brows at me in a questioning way.

I leaned in and crashed my lip against his lip. 

"Try not to have another newspaper headline while you're at it. Good night!" I hopped out of the car and ran into my house. 

I have to admit though, I already missed him. 

-

The next few days seemed to be quiet, and there were no scandals or headlines regarding Baek. 

I went to school with a smiling face and did the best I could concentrating on school work although Baekhyun's face kept popping up in my head. 

When lunch came around, Hana and I were at the cafeteria enjoying our food when Yeri and her usual crew walked up to where we were sitting. 

"Look who's back now after that scandal." Hana rolled her eyes and looked up at Yeri's face.

"Look YERI. She wasn't the one who had a scandal, and you know just as well as we do that it was a paparazzi that was just stalking on him. 

"Uh huh... yeah sure. Anyways, how come you didn't come to school for a week? Isn't that too long of an absence?" 

I put down my spoon with a loud clank, and looked up at her. The whole cafeteria had their eyes on me, and that was exactly what I wanted. 

I held up my left hand and faced the ring towards her. 

"This. This is the proof Baekhyun and I are completely fine and well together. Thanks for your worries, but it's fine, so give yourself a break." Everyone in the room had their mouths open including Hana who was shocked. I never talked like that, but just this time, I wanted to sound sassy. 

Taking my stuff and Hana's arm, I marched out of the cafeteria which the people inside started to break off into their own conversations. 

When we were at the roof, Hana bursted into laughter and she pat my back. 

"Well done Heeyoung. Did you see her face? It was beyond hilarious oh wow..." I grinned back at her and we were laughing for a few minutes. 

Hana looked at me while a head was tilted. 

"Wait, so what happened? What's up with the ring?" I blushed and broke out into another coy grin. I told Hana what happened and when I was done, she squealed and jumped around. "

"So you guys are like, the real thing now? Not just in public eyes?" I nodded and smiled at her while she screamed some more. 

"I'm so happy for you! When's the wedding? How many children are you guys going to have?" My smile immediately disappeared at the questions she asked. 

"Don't rush things... we're still figuring each other out first..." 

"Don't be silly! You'll get married though right? Probably not until he is done with his EXO career though....*GASP* I am so sorry! I didn't... oh gosh..."

I was in a daze when Hana pointed that out. It was true that we probably couldn't get married until he was done with his career. I on the other hand, was just a somewhat ordinary high school student, and I could get married whenever. 

But he... he was currently everyone's Byun Baekhyun. 

Even though the ring around my finger made me feel less insecure for a short time, I was still hesitant. 

Will we really get married?

-

Through the promotion period for EXO's new song, Baekhyun and I kept in touch and frequently called each other. 

When he had free time, we would meet up to go watch a movie or just hang out at his practice. Luckily, the news about him and Taeyon quieted although there were still some suspicious looks people were giving us. 

Today was one of those days where Baekhyun had no schedule, just practice, so I went to see him at their practice room. 

I opened the door and was greeted by EXO and Hana. There were a few other people, but they were all about to leave. I searched through the crowd and found Baekhyun. 
My face immediately washed off the smile and I started my way towards them. They were sitting next to eachother and looked at eachother whil grinning and Baekhyun was leaning against the mirror, making his head tilt in a way that just made it look even more misunderstanding. 

"Hi Baekhyun." Baekhyun's head snapped up to look at me, and his face brightened. It made me feel better, but I knew he realized how I was thinking. He opened his mouth, but I held up a hand towards Taeyeon. 

"Hi. My name is Heeyoung." 

Taeyeon who looked at Baekhyun first extended a hand and shook mine. 
"Hello. My name is Taeyeon." The air was cold in the room, and the EXO members were all looking at us. I sensed this, and didn't want to be the dramatic fiance. Although it was a little too late. 

I joined Hana and sat next to her, and I was facing Baekhyun and Taeyeon. Chanyeol had scooted to make room for me next to Baekhyun, but I acted like I didn't see it. 

"Thanks, but I'll just sit next to Hana. It's fine." The crowd got back to the usual conversation where there was small groups and big groups talking. I was talking with Hana, but from the corner of my eye, I could see that Baekhyun was talking with Taeyeon.

Even then, I saw his effort to make eye contact with me which clearly made Taeyeon pisssed. 

Eventually, Taeyeon stopped talking and was talking with another member in EXO. 

In the middle of talking with Hana, I felt an arm hook around my shoulders. I looked up to see Tao who was grinning at me. 

"HI FRIEND WHO SAID SHE WOULD CALL ME BUT DIDN'T." I ducked and smiled at him.

"Right... sorry. I had... some business." 

The conversations around us quieted and came to a silence and all eyes were on us. Tao saw the ring on my finger and his face was less bright even though he was smiling. 

"Did you get proposed to?" Tao looked at Baekhyun who looked at the two of us with a straight face. 

I looked back at Baekhyun and then to Tao.

"Yes. Yes I did, but it's just a promise symbol for this engagement." 

"That's what an engagement ring means right?"

"It does, but my case is different."

"How so Heeyoung?" Baekhyun asked all of a sudden, and I turned my gaze to him in the coldest way possible. 

"It means, there is not definite answer in this ring. You know as well as I do, that this engagement was-"

Baekhyun got up and snatched my wrist before taking us out of the room and to the room nearby. 

"What's that matter with you? It was just a few days ago that we were confessing to each other." 

"That was before I realized you put this on me just to keep ME out of trouble."

"what?"

"I know you still have feelings for Taeyeon." 

"I-I don't." 

"Sure you don't."
"I really don't!" 

I turned my face away from him. 

"I saw the way you were looking at her." 

"How was I looking at her? I looked at you the same way-" Baekhyun's mouth was hung open as he realized what he meant.

"When you figure out your own feelings, THEN see who this ring will belong to." I took the ring off and shoved it to his chest. I opened the door, and the members of EXO looked away and cleared their throat. They probably heard everything. 

I left the practice room and was on my way out of the building when Taeyeon stopped me. She came out of the dark and looked at me with a worried look.

"I'm sorry I caused the scandal and trouble. I really didn't mean to-"

"Stop acting nice." Taeyeon blinked couple times and looked at me. 
"What do you-" 

"Stop. Acting. Nice." 

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. 

"Fine. But so what? I'm still sorry about the scandal, but the fact he likes me is something I can't change." 

"Your point?"

"That it's his decision in the end. But I don't think things are looking so good for you right now." 

"Does that make you happy?"
"Can't say it doesn't." 

I scoffed and looked away.

"Well I'm gonna let you go now, and be the nice supporter for Baekhyun like I am... bye~"

I left the building and walked to my house instead of taking the bus. 

 

I took out my phone and texted Baekhyun. 

I'm sorry Baekhyun, but I can't. 

________________________________________________________________________________