“Stop it, Sehun.” Baekhyun chuckles quietly as he feels the light touch of a maple leaf on his forearm that slowly finds its way upwards towards his shoulder, tickling his exposed skin. His eyes are closed and he lies on a blanket right next to a big old tree, in the midst of lush green grassland.

“Why should I stop,” Sehun answers amused, now tickling Baekhyun’s neck and cheek. The younger boy sits next to Baekhyun and follows the movement of the leaf with his eyes, smiling a bit wider every time he notices Baekhyun shiver because of the contact. He draws an invisible line closer to Baekhyun’s lips and decides to annoy him just a little more. And as the leaf grazes over Baekhyun’s nostril he unwillingly takes a deep breath, suddenly having the urge to sneeze.

“Achooo!” The way he does it is so adorable and beautiful at the same time that Sehun wishes to see it every day for the rest of his life. Baekhyun’s eyes are firmly pressed together, his neat hands cover his mouth and nose and it makes him look like the little boy he no longer is.

“Awww, you’re so-” Before Sehun is even able to finish his sentence he gets attacked by Baekhyun who pushes him down onto the ground, startling him.

“Youuu!!” he playfully says in an angry way, grabbing Sehun’s shirt while halfway lying on top of him to keep him down. Sehun looks surprised at first but then he starts to grin and Baekhyun does the same shortly after.

“You look like you’re still sixteen from down here.”

“You don’t even know how I looked like when I was sixteen,” Baekhyun replies with a light laugh and he’s right, because he was twenty-five and Sehun twenty-three when they first met at the café. Sehun rolls his eyes at this and wraps his arms around Baekhyun’s neck, pulling him down to kiss him and to end the argument before it even started.

It has been like this every Saturday for the past year now and Baekhyun couldn’t be any happier. Since he knows Sehun, everything seems so much more meaningful. For example the fact that he actually did move to London and learned the language himself to communicate with others and to live a better life or all the hardships he went through to keep his job at the agency.... He doesn't regret anything and loving Sehun makes it all worth it. Sehun makes him forget about the past and that’s just the best thing Baekhyun could have ever wished for. It’s perfect like this because he has everything he needs and even though he sometimes wonders what has happened to Kyungsoo or if he’s even still alive, it doesn’t hurt anymore like it did five years ago. And he’s sure that Kyungsoo feels the same about it. Time actually heals the wounds, slowly but it does.

Baekhyun pulls away, showing Sehun one of the best eye smiles he has and Sehun smiles back lovingly, a comfortable silence surrounding them. None of them wants to actually say anything but Sehun suddenly thinks of something completely not matching the situation and widens his eyes in shock.

“Oh damn! I forgot that Luhan hyung wanted me to call him back this morning!” And then it’s gone. Baekhyun’s smile fades as soon as he hears the name of the guy who’s with Sehun five days a week and sometimes even on Sundays because it’s their day of the week. He can’t help but feel upset about Sehun’s attention being directed towards Luhan while they are together right now. Baekhyun decides to give in and he sits up to let Sehun do the same so that he can take out his phone. They usually agree on turning it off and Baekhyun always does it but Sehun doesn’t seem to care because it’s already switched on, it’s just set silent.

Sehun dials the number while Baekhyun can only watch how his boyfriend’s mood seems to become even better the moment a gentle voice answers.

“Hyuung, I’m so so sorry!” Baekhyun looks around, trying to distract himself from Sehun who is now doing aegyo because Luhan acts angry like always. Words form in his head before they are even said by Sehun and he can imagine Luhan’s answers all the time… the sweet words he whispers to Sehun over the phone. Hell, he’s so jealous he can’t take it and the moment he stands up he looks at Sehun, waiting for a reaction but he’s laughing right now and doesn’t really care.

A deep sigh leaves Baekhyun’s lips. He pushes his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and just walks away without getting stopped by a hand or a voice. Sehun knows where he can find him because it isn’t the first time this happens.

It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay, Baekhyun tells himself, humming a random melody while going deeper into the woods with his destination already right in front of him.

The usually light sapphire blue lake appears darker today. Baekhyun approaches the beautiful wooden house right next to the water and walks along the shore. The ground is still wet and soft from yesterday’s rain and to every step there follows a light gurgling and sound as his shoes get stuck in the mud all the time.

He stops walking when he feels like it’s the right moment to turn to the lake and he watches the beautiful sight of the sunlight getting reflected by the resting water surface. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath of the fresh air that is able to calm him down within a second. He blends out everything else and just listens to the nature surrounding him, but as he hears someone walking towards him through the mud, he is sure it is Sehun who surprisingly ended the phone call quite early. Baekhyun decides to keep his eyes closed until the moment he hears a different voice that doesn’t belong to Sehun.

“I never thought other people were coming here, too,” the calm voice states and as Baekhyun looks into the direction of the guy who just said that, he is greeted by a total stranger. The guy who seems slightly younger than Baekhyun himself slowly comes closer and smiles friendly before stopping right next to him. He is talking in English and Baekhyun still has a hard time to understand the whole meaning of the sentence so he looks a little confused at the other.

“Hey… do you even understand me?” The guy chuckles quietly and it makes him even more likeable than he already is because of his good looks and gentle appearance. Baekhyun nods once and clears his throat before apologizing with a light bow.

“Yeah… I do, sort of,” he answers with a heavy accent and somehow he’s embarrassed because the other sounds like English is his mother tongue. The good thing about Baekhyun’s failure is that the guy understands almost immediately and he starts to speak Korean all of a sudden.

“Are you from South Korea?”

“Nae... I am.” Baekhyun doesn’t really know what to say or if he’s even supposed to say anything else, it’s just so awkward for him that he even stutters a bit.

“No need to be shy, I’m Kim Jongin and I’m also Korean...” Jongin bows a bit deeper than Baekhyun but the smile never leaves his lips.

“Ah… nice to meet you,” he says a bit too fast and Jongin only laughs at this.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Jongin turns to look at the lake and Baekhyun nods once again as he lowers his gaze to the ground, fumbling with his hands while humming in affirmation.

“And it’s all mine,” Jongin adds what makes Baekhyun look up again in wonder and suddenly he’s interested.

“What do you mean, it’s yours?”

“I bought it last winter and I live here with someone else when it’s summer. It’s our first day here today,” he turns around a bit, obviously looking for another person, “but I don’t know where he is right now.” Jongin shrugs his shoulders and folds his arms in front of his chest, sighing a bit.

“That’s… really awesome.” Baekhyun smiles now and even though he’s somehow envious because this place is just so beautiful and calming, he’s relieved to be welcome here.

“It is, yeah...”

“HYUNG?” someone yells from afar and they both turn around to see a surprised Sehun with his mobile phone still in his hand. “Let’s go home, please?”

Baekhyun doesn’t answer Sehun and looks at Jongin to let him know it’s time to say goodbye now.

“Hey, let’s drink a coffee together next time, alright?”

The invitation is said so fast that Baekhyun agrees without really thinking about it before walking towards Sehun, not looking back a single time.

“Who is this?” Sehun asks once Baekhyun is close enough for them to hold hands.

“Kim Jongin, he lives here and he invited us to spend some time with him and his friend next Saturday, I guess.” Sehun is a bit confused but he doesn’t say anything against it while they are walking back to their car.

Right in that moment someone opens the door of the wooden house and steps outside, noticing the two guys walking away first before discovering Jongin.

“Jongin-ah, come in already, we still have to unpack our stuff!”

“Yeah, yeah… I’m coming!” Jongin approaches the house while glancing over to Baekhyun and  Sehun every now and then.

“Some people who wanted to disturb us?”

“Of course not, Kyungsoo. They love this place just as much as we do,” Jongin explains while closing the door behind him once they both are inside again.

“What’s the name of the guy you talked to? He somehow seemed familiar from behind.”

“Oh… I didn’t really ask for his name.” Kyungsoo laughs and rolls his eyes, pulling Jongin closer by his wrist to steal a short kiss from his lips.

“Whatever, it’s not important.”