---

 

 

It haunts him. It haunts Kyungsoo almost every night. Starting from that moment in the club when he first sees Chanyeol drowning his pain on alcohol, crying and killing himself, that moment the plan started. As a psychologist, having to get paid to do this for Kris is unnatural and new to him. Psychologists are supposed to help people get their minds and feelings straight, but him, he was paid to get Chanyeol’s heart over his head, forced to swallow his poisonous words, forced to believe that love is just an undying disadvantage for power, and that Chanyeol doesn’t need love, he only needs him, only Kyungsoo.

 

It was hard to stop it when it’s already done, when it’s already too late. Kyungsoo has actually planned to slowly detach himself away from Chanyeol but every time he does so, he can hear Chanyeol’s needy calls, and Kyungsoo doesn’t really have the heart to let a man get heartbroken twice. And until now, Kyungsoo still doesn’t know how to pull Chanyeol away from him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, the hotel wasn’t hard to find. It stands just four blocks away from Berke’s and there’s a whole lot of clubs and shops surrounding it. Surprisingly, maybe, just maybe (Baekhyun doesn’t want to jump to conclusions himself given that he’s probably the best target for a punching bag for Chanyeol right now), Chanyeol kind of felt that Baekhyun is exhausted and thus he walked to the reception himself to get their key cards while Baekhyun sits comfortably on the couch at the waiting area, their bags close beside the couch, resting his sore and tired feet. Man, he has no idea why girls are so obsessed with heels.

 

Chanyeol comes back a few seconds after, tilting his head to the direction of the elevator while grabbing his bag. Baekhyun stands up slowly, feeling a slight pain on his soles, and catches up to Chanyeol. He really should’ve picked a better dress, no, wait, better shoes. He sighs immediately once they’re inside the elevator and leans on the wall to support the heavy weight on his feet. It’s been a really tiring day. He can even smell how much he stinks. Although, he feels as though the exhaustion isn’t coming from the long day of work but rather, it’s emotionally. It is exhausting—the thought of having to put armor on and pretend like nothing’s wrong between him and Chanyeol and get through the day believing it’s only for work is draining his energy. He’s not used to this, having to chase something unreachable, unsure even if there’s a finish line. Is there?

 

The elevator stops and Baekhyun’s immediately pulled from his thoughts. He shakes his head and follows Chanyeol to the hallway. The interior is nice and the hallways are bright and clean, and the walls are mostly composed of continuous line of mirrors that everywhere he turns, he sees his reflection in the mirror—no, he doesn’t see himself, he sees someone else. Not Elliot, not even Baekhyun, but someone else.

 

“Baek?” He snaps and turns beside him at the call and he sees Chanyeol looking at him, hands on the door. “Something wrong?” Chanyeol asks and Baekhyun wonders if his pain is visible to Chanyeol.

 

“No…”

 

Chanyeol shrugs and walks inside the room. Baekhyun follows immediately, albeit almost tripping at the doorway due to his feet giving in from exhaustion. He really wants to just lie down the bed and relax so bad. He looks up at the bed and he sees his hope fading away along with his temper snapping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Baekhyun slams his palms on the desk, startling the reception lady. “WHY DO WE ONLY HAVE ONE BED?!”

 

The lady blinks at him, and then switches his gaze to Chanyeol, and then back to him. “Uh—sorry?”

 

“ROOM 506! WE’RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE TWO SEPARATE BEDS!”

 

The lady browses the monitor before turning back to Baekhyun. “Mr. and Mrs. Park right?”

 

Chanyeol snorts.

 

Baekhyun looks away in frustration. “Oh Jesus—WE’RE NOT TOGETHER!”

 

“But that’s what was reserved for you, Ma’am.” The lady explains.

 

“NO THIS IS YOUR FAULT!”

 

Chanyeol attempts to grab him. “Baek—“ Baekhyun immediately slaps his hand away.

 

“Ma’am, if you could please just calm down,”

 

Baekhyun pauses and side-eyes the people around him, immediately noticing how they’re staring and whispering and his Baekhee face being known, he really doesn’t want this kind of attention. He clears his throat and fixes his clothes. “Forget it. I’ll just get another room,”

 

“There is no other room, Ma’am,”

 

Baekhyun is really really pissed off now but no, stay calm, he needs to stay as calm as possible. “What?”

 

“We’re fully-booked.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so as what the circumstances has led him to, he finds himself forced to accept the fact that he has to stay in one room with Chanyeol (that’s bad enough) with only one bed (“This is nightmare!”). But he’s too tired to argue now so maybe he can just lie on the bed and save the tantrums for later. He jumps on his back on the bed, bouncing slightly, and he sighs heavily, feeling the comfort the bed is giving him. Chanyeol, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to feel the same exhaustion as him.

 

“I’m going to the bar,” Chanyeol says and it took a sound of the door shutting to make Baekhyun’s realize what Chanyeol said.

 

Baekhyun shrugs. He slowly takes his wig off, letting his hair fall to his cheeks, as he drops the boots on the floor. He turns to his bag to grab a change of clothes and remembers when he sees his purse that his phone has been ringing constantly since coming in. But he figures it can wait after bath. He jumps off the bed, clothes on his hand, and happily skips to the bathroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“HOLY —“ Luhan exclaims while Sehun is as equally surprised beside him when the scene where James McAvoy aka the protagonist (although they’re not so sure about that now) starts hitting whoever is playing Elizabeth Lamb and yeah they’re watching Trance because they thought it’s a good idea to watch Trance. “Oh come on! He’s cute! Why is he the bad guy now?” Luhan adds, completely drawn to the storyline.

 

“That’s probably the main reason why he’s the bad guy,” Sehun says. He turns beside him when Kai suddenly plopped on the couch, eyes fixed on the phone on his hand. “Still not answering?” He asks, pertaining to Baekhyun who Kai has been calling since the movie started. Kai shakes his head.

 

“I don’t like where this story is going,” Luhan comments while munching some popcorn. Sehun decides to ignore him. “Man, it’s like the antagonist is Yixing. He turned out to be good in the end. Meh, whatever, I still hate Yixing though. Letting Baekhyun go through all that …”

 

Sehun decides to ignore him. “He’s probably busy,”

 

“Guess so,” Kai shrugs.

 

Sehun snorts. “You’re worried because he’s with Chanyeol?”

 

“When I called earlier, he said they were stranded. It’s already past 6. I just want to know how it went with the meeting.” Kai reasons although Sehun knows completely there’s a deeper reason behind that. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Like that. Like you’re implying there’s something going on here.”

 

Sehun grins.

 

“Oh Sehun!”

 

“Is there?”

 

“Guys shut up! I’m watching a movie!” Luhan yells.

 

“I thought you didn’t like where it was going?”

 

“I still have to know how it ended—“ Luhan stops when he notices Kai secretly talking to someone on the phone beside Sehun. “Who’s he talking to?”

 

Sehun turns to Kai and snorts. “Looks like Baekhyun finally answered.”

 

“Baekhyun?” Luhan brightens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chanyeol felt a little weird when he arrived in front of the room. He finally knew why when he entered the room and saw Baekhyun on the bed, hair still wet, and completely occupied with the iPad in front of him with his phone glued to his ear, talking to someone. He’s wearing pajamas, something Chanyeol’s eyes were used to, and he looked so comfortable that just staring at him made Chanyeol want to cuddle into his soft skin but a hundred reasons why he shouldn’t pulled him back. Baekhyun didn’t seem to notice him coming in so he decided to take a bath. He walked to the bathroom silently, missing Baekhyun’s subtle glance at him.

 

“Baek?”

 

“Oh yeah! What? What?”

 

“Oh my God B—“

 

“Luhan what are you doing—“

 

“Are you alone with Chanyeol?!”

 

“Hey! My phone!”

 

“Hyung—“

 

“What the—Sehun get your feet off my face!”

 

“I want to talk to Baekhyun hyung too!”

 

“Get the hell off me!”

 

“But—“

 

“Get out!”

 

“NO DON’T THROW MY PHONE!!!”

 

Baekhyun flinches when he hears a few tumbling sounds and imagines Sehun was pushed away by both Luhan and Kai. Oh the poor kid. He sighs and then places his phone back on the desk when he notices that the call has ended. It’s a bit too quiet, if he must say, after all the familiar noise from his friends over the phone his gone. In fact, too quiet that the sound of the shower from the bathroom is too clear that it makes him uncomfortable. Wait. It is already uncomfortable having to be stuck with Chanyeol in one room with one bed.

 

He sighs and unlocks his iPad, figures he can just entertain himself with games. Funny how he still doesn’t feel a bit sleepy even after an exhausting day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chanyeol comes out after a few minutes to the sound of Baekhyun humming a familiar song. When he finally realizes the song’s the one he sang during Gyuri’s party, he couldn’t help but smile. That was almost half a year ago, but the memory’s still fresh, because he swore at that time, he felt infinite.

 

Baekhyun’s playing some game on his iPad, he guesses it’s 2Fuse based on the sounds, and Chanyeol walks to his luggage to grab a change of clothes. Still, even with the amount of noise he makes behind the bed, Baekhyun is too fixed on the game and it was kind of infuriating because hell, he’s not used to this kind of silence, at least not with Baekhyun.

 

After changing clothes, he grabs his laptop and seeing as Baekhyun built a territory on the bed, he settles with the couch at the side. He checks his mails, particularly the ones about the progress of the deliveries of the weaponries to Japan. The sales this year are nothing compared to the sales last year but at least the company’s safe from bankruptcy now. Just thinking about all the employees that had to suffer if ever the company goes down makes his head ache.

 

“YES!”

 

Chanyeol looks up when Baekhyun suddenly yelled.

 

“I DID IT! TOP SCORE!”

 

He sees Baekhyun rolling around the bed, smile reaching up to his ears.

 

“I PASSED KAI’S 1 MILLION YAY!!!”

 

Chanyeol shakes his head and looks back down to his laptop when a sudden thud pulled his attention back to the now unoccupied bed.

 

“Baekhyun?”

 

“I’m fine!” A hand appears from the floor on the other side of the bed. “Just fell…AH! I BROKE A NAIL!”

 

 Chanyeol laughs.

 

And laughs.

 

And laughs.

 

Baekhyun peeks from the bed and instead of getting offended, the sight of Chanyeol smiling so wide, laughing with his shoulders shaking takes him to a whole new level of solitude. His laugh sounds so good echoing around the room. All he sees from the day he went back is Chanyeol and his eyebrows weirdly getting attracted to each other, forming a frown, so seeing Chanyeol laugh wholeheartedly like this makes him happy.

 

Chanyeol stops when he spots Baekhyun looking at him. “What are you looking at?”

 

“What are you laughing at?”

 

Chanyeol’s expression immediately softens as he chuckles. “You sounded like an old lady when you yelled earlier.”

 

“I did not!”

 

“Did so! And only old women actually care about broken nails.”

 

“Every hygienic person cares about broken nails which clearly you aren’t.” Baekhyun retorts sticking out his tongue.

 

“You sayin’ I’m dirty?”

 

Baekhyun smirks. “Nope. You concluded that on your own.”

 

Chanyeol stands up, not breaking contact with Baekhyun’s eyes, and stops beside the bed. They stare at each other for a moment before Chanyeol finally speaks. “I’m going to sleep.”

 

Baekhyun immediately stands up and grabs the bed sheet after Chanyeol did. “I’m going to sleep too!”

 

“I said it first.” Chanyeol says, pulling the sheet.

 

“I lied down first!” Baekhyun yells back, pulling back the sheet.

 

“I paid for this room!”

 

“I sealed you a deal!”

 

That shut Chanyeol up for sure. “Fine, take it.”

 

Baekhyun eyes him as he walks back to the couch. “You sure…?”

 

“Yeah, I mean, I’ll be fine here. In this couch. Small couch.” Chanyeol shrugs. “Don’t worry. It’s no biggie. I’m sure my neck wouldn’t hurt in the morning. Yeah I’ll be comfortable—“

 

“Shut up already!” Baekhyun yells, pouting. “You can sleep here.”

 

Chanyeol turns to him with a grin.

 

“With me.” Baekhyun adds and Chanyeol’s grin immediately disappears, replaced by a smirk. “Don’t ever think I like this idea. I just don’t want to owe you one.”

 

“Suit yourself.” Chanyeol says simply while lying down comfortably on the bed. Baekhyun watched him for a second, slowly getting pissed off by the giant but then decides that everything is ed up enough to it up even more. He’ll just have to hold on to his patience for now and that growing anxiety inside him. Everything just feels so wrong tonight. It’s like he’s purposely hurting himself by agreeing with everything fate is giving him. He could just sleep in the couch and leave Chanyeol with the bed but to him that would be showing weakness and he really doesn’t like showing weakness.

 

Seeing Chanyeol already comfortable on the bed, Baekhyun immediately lies down next, pulling his fair share of the comforter. He puffs his cheek thinking how this idea is the worst ever but he’s sure Chanyeol will keep on pestering him about it if he lets him sleep on the couch.

 

Baekhyun faces the ceiling trying to ignore the man beside him. Well, this is awkward. He thinks of a lot of things he can do. They could talk but nobody seems to want to talk. And even if one of them does want to talk, he’s sure the other party would just refuse to listen. Baekhyun has always wished for him to be given an opportunity to have a serious talk with Chanyeol but every time he’s given so, he feels as if it’s not the right time. When is the right time? Or maybe he’s just being a coward? These thoughts always float around his mind every day, wondering.

 

But, Chanyeol looks contented with Kyungsoo.

 

Wouldn’t it be selfish for him to break that?

 

Wouldn’t it be selfish for him to wish that when he finally voices out, Chanyeol will choose him in the end?

 

He never loved anyone like this before so the thought of a dead end is scary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baekhyun has no idea why Woo Bin is hosting a ball in the middle of Summer but this isn’t new to him, parties popping out wherever. They arrived just in time. Baekhyun is praying in his mind that his feet don’t give up in the middle of the party as he walks to the hall with Chanyeol serving as his . The hall’s bright but everything stays classy and elegant. The number of beautiful women, chins held high, gives Baekhyun a dozen of insecurities. But he’s not here to fit in or show off, he’s here, dressed up as any other woman, for a purpose.

 

One of the staffs handed both him and Chanyeol their masks, white for him and black for Chanyeol, or rather white for women and black for men, and they walk further inside after putting their masks on, blending in with the other guests.

 

When Baekhyun’s feet aren’t killing him, his chest area is though.

 

Damn, the dress is too tight.

 

“You alright?” Chanyeol asks, stopping in the middle of the crowd.

 

Baekhyun looks around. Everybody is at least busy conversing with someone and there are no signs of Woo Bin, at least not yet. He turns back to Chanyeol. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

 

Chanyeol grabs two wine glasses from the waiter who passed by and offers one to Baekhyun. “Here,” Baekhyun takes it with a smile and drinks it all up in one shot, startling Chanyeol. “Should I be worried about your party animal self?”

 

Baekhyun chuckles at him. “I’m not gonna get drunk. More importantly, I don’t see Woo Bin anywhere.”

 

“Well, the party’s only started. He might be here later…” Chanyeol says while letting Baekhyun drink his own share of the wine. “Are you sure you’re fine?”

 

Baekhyun gulps the last drop before turning to Chanyeol. “Yeah.” He pauses. “Actually, no. I have to go to the powder room.”

 

Chanyeol confusedly watches Baekhyun scurry out of the crowd to the powder room, wondering what was wrong. He decides to follow Baekhyun when a woman suddenly came up in front of him. “Hi. Mr. Park Chanyeol, right? Park Industries’ CEO.”

 

Chanyeol immediately recollects himself, convinced that the woman in front of him is another businessman. “Yes.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In all honesty, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. Baekhyun just wants to get away from Chanyeol because his ing perfume is giving him the shivers—that kind of feeling that he just wants to hug Chanyeol all night long because he smells so good and looks so good with that suit and yeah, this is the reason why he needs to get away from Chanyeol. It was really hard to make a poker face.

 

But still, there’s no way he can stay away for the rest of the night. He just wishes he can find Woo Bin amidst the sea of people and talk to him. He washes his hands. He fixes his dress and his hair. He looks at his reflection thinking that he can do this, that he’s strong enough to last after getting back all the investors.

 

He walks out of the powder room, smiling at a few women who walked in. He turns to the left and bumps into someone, slightly stumbling back with his head spinning. “Ouch.”

 

“Oh? Ah, sorry.” Baekhyun hears and looks up. There are male identical twins standing in front of him. “We didn’t see you.

 

“It’s okay.”

 

The twins eye him, he knows because he feels exposed all of a sudden, and then the two boys lean closer to his face and in a quick second, swiftly snatch his mask. Baekhyun stares at them in shock. “Ohh. You’re pretty. What’s your name?”

 

Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. “Ha?”

 

“You deaf?” They ask in unison, glancing at each other and shrugging. “Ah, but she heard us earlier. So she’s just not talking?”

 

“Baekhee.”

 

The twins pause and slowly their eyes turn to him. “She talked.”

 

Baekhyun is eventually getting pissed. “I’m not deaf.” The twins crooned mockingly. “Ya!” Then the twins laugh at him. “Why are you laughing now?”

 

“Cause you’re funny!” The twins reply with matching grins. Baekhyun notices how tall they are. It’s obvious that they’re not as tall as Chanyeol but judging from his previous assumption that these two are younger than him, being tall like that is slightly infuriating.  

 

Baekhyun huffs in frustration. “Give me back my mask!”

 

“Nope.” One of the twins said while hiding the mask behind him.

 

“Give us your number and we’ll give it back.” The other one said, showing a confident smile.

 

Baekhyun crooks his eyebrows and wonders what the is up with these two. He can’t imagine any girls actually giving their numbers to cloned troublemakers. More importantly, he has to do something important right now that he’s not in the mood to play hard-to-get to these two. “Look, I have to go somewhere. And it’s important. Now give me back my mask!” Baekhyun yells while attempting to grab the mask behind the guy but the guy, of course, is fast enough to move away.

 

“Whoa,” The guy croons. “Well, this one is a tsundere.” The other agrees by laughing.

 

Baekhyun groans in exasperation and decided to just hapkido the both of them when a voice interrupted.

 

“Boys.”

 

The three of them stop and turn at the entrance of the corridor where a grown-up, possibly in his 40s, is standing and then slowly walks towards them. Baekhyun gasps when he finally recognizes his face. “Sir Woo Bin!”

 

“Ah, Dad.” The twins say in unison, giving Baekhyun the shock of his life.

 

“Dad?!”

 

“Now, now, what are you doing causing trouble to this young lady here?” Woo Bin says, chuckling. Baekhyun notices how the man has such a kind face that when he smiles, his eyes disappear. “Miss Baekhee, I take it?” Baekhyun nods.

 

The twins groan beside them. “That’s unfair, dad. We saw her first!” Woo Bin, again, laughs at them.

 

“You’re here for the deal, right?” Woo Bin asks Baekhyun. “Come, your CEO is already in my office.”

 

Chanyeol? How? Baekhyun immediately follows Woo Bin and the twins who have walked first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sehun almost drops the porcelain doll his mother donated to Luhan’s shop when a sudden scream echoed around the shop. He immediately scurries from the clothing racks back to the lounge whilst still holding the doll in his hands.

 

“Luhan?! What happened?!” He scans the room and sees Luhan frozen on his spot, staring at the computer. “…Luhan?”

 

“I FOUND DO KYUNGSOO’S OFFICE!”

 

“Okay?”

 

Luhan runs to Sehun, eyes gleaming with excitement, and grabs Sehun’s arm. “Don’t you understand? This is it! If we find something against Kyungsoo, we can blackmail him into breaking up with Chanyeol!”

 

“But Luhan, that’s bad.” Luhan glares at him. “Besides, isn’t this Baekhyun and Chanyeol’s problem? I think we should let them settle this on your own.”

 

“You’re too young. That’s not how the world works. You also think it’s weird right? That he’s a psychologist yet he worked in various restaurants. Especially now that he’s Park Industries’ new VP, yet he’s doing nothing at all.”

 

Sehun sighs. “I know what you’re trying to say but I don’t exactly get why you’re telling me this?”

 

“Are you an idiot? We’re going to break in his office!”

 

“We’re going to what?”

 

“I’m sure something’s up! Something is definitely up!”

 

“You always say something’s up. When I brought this doll, you said something’s up. When Kai woke up early today, you said something’s up. When his cat, Sheldon, meowed from the second floor you said some—“

 

“Shut up already!” Luhan yells in frustration with a pout. “Fine, if you’re not going to help me then I’ll do it myself.” He adds before turning around, grabbing his things from the counter. “Don’t forget to close the shop.”

 

“Luhan, ya—“ Sehun calls in attempt to change Luhan’s mind however it was obvious, even to the porcelain doll he’s holding, that Luhan has made up his mind about the breaking in thing. When Luhan was finally out, Sehun groaned and placed the doll carefully on the counter before running outside. “Hey wait up!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baekhyun sighs as he continues to follow Woo Bin and the twins to the third floor. From the hallway he can see the party lights illuminating the hall and he can hear the music playing through the speakers. It was really grand, especially with the whole masquerade concept. While walking earlier, he heard the host talking about some game and at the back of his mind he thought that it’s a pity to miss the game. But he has more important matters to attend to. He looked back to Woo Bin and started wondering if he made a bad first impression to a client.

 

“Um,” Baekhyun starts. “Sir Woo Bin?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Earlier…actually, I was going to look for you so we could talk and…”

 

“There’s no need for you to explain. My boys always cause trouble to my guests.” Even though he said it in a negative way, Baekhyun notices he’s still smiling as if he’s completely fine with it. “Besides, there’s no particularly need for a negotiation. I think I’d be forced to sign the contract back anyway.”

 

“Eh? What do you mean?”

 

Woo Bin stops in front of a room and Baekhyun immediately does the same. The twins, however, slam the door open and run inside immediately. “CHANYEOL HYUNG!”

 

By the door, Baekhyun looks appalled while Woo Bin laughs at the sight. “They’re extremely fond of Chanyeol.”

 

Baekhyun continues to watch as the twins jump on Chanyeol who’s seated on the couch. Chanyeol, startled, immediately pushed them away but the twins continued to grab on him while laughing loudly.

 

“You guys are going to ruin my suit!”

 

“Did you miss us Chanyeol hyung?”

 

“You missed us right?”

 

Woo Bin walks inside. Seeing, Baekhyun follows him, realizing that he’s staring too much at the three. One thing the scene reminded him though is that Chanyeol has always been good with children and he guesses, he kind of missed that sight and those times they spent with Yuan and Jiyoung. At that time, Baekhyun felt that everything was falling into their rightful place.

 

Woo Bin lead him to a table, only a few meters away from where Chanyeol and the twins were fooling around.

 

“He’s always been good around kids, wasn’t he?” Woo Bin says and Baekhyun agree with 500 more reasons to that. “My twins really like him because he used to always send them gadgets and prototypes. Before he approves the gadgets, he makes the twins play with them then if they think that it’s good in the market, he’ll approve of them.” He continues while offering Baekhyun a cup of tea that was just served by one of the maids.

 

Baekhyun was quick to analyze that what he’s talking about were obviously weapons. He sighs as he picks up the tea. “Their names?”

 

“Min Joon and Shin Joon.”

 

“How old are they?” He asks before taking a sip.

 

“16.”

 

Baekhyun chokes in shock. “And already that tall?!” Woo Bin laughs at his reaction. Baekhyun immediately wipes the tea off his face. “Sorry about that.”

 

“It’s fine. You’re quite a peculiar one, it’s refreshing.”

 

 

“Hey dad! Dad! You’re going to sign the contract back right? RIGHT?”

 

Woo Bin just smiles at them.

 

“Chanyeol hyung, do you have new gadgets?”

 

“How about that new KMS Bazooka?

 

Chanyeol chuckles as he fixes his position in between the twins. “I knew you’d pester me once we meet so I brought you this.” He took out a ballpoint pen. “If you press this, a net will come out. Quite useful for capturing women.”

 

The twins immediately grabbed the pens. “Cool!”

 

“Here you go, Miss Baekhee.”

 

Baekhyun, almost forgetting about Woo Bin because of being too fixed in watching the three, snaps his head in turning back. “Ah.” He sees the signed contract being handed to him and he’s not quite sure how to react seeing as it seemed like he did nothing at all or that this came too easy, something he’s not used to. “Thank you.”

 

He really is sincerely thankful for letting Chanyeol meet the twins, this way, he got to see this side of Chanyeol again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Luhan, Luhan,” Sehun yells, probably for the 10^th time since arriving at some isolated part of the streets, but alas, it was to no avail. “Are you really really sure about this?”

 

“Stop being a .” Luhan says, not even sparing a glance on Sehun. He looked up the large post in front of him and Sehun, just by watching him observe the building, knows exactly that he’s planning to climb up. “We gotta climb up,” Sehun crooks his eyebrows, confused as to what exactly is Luhan’s plan. Earlier, Luhan said they were breaking in but now they’re going to climb up the building in front the building where Kyungsoo’s office is located.

 

“You’re kidding right?” Sehun finally asks.

 

“We have to wait until midnight before we can break in. The building’s still alive. We have to wait for the workers to leave, duh.” Luhan explains as-a-matter-of-factly. “And I got this from Kai.” He adds, showing Sehun the binoculars. “He said it’s some prototype that Chanyeol didn’t approve. It would be a pity to throw it so he let me borrow it.”

 

Sehun sighs in defeat. “You really are serious about this.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five minutes after the contract signing, both parties expressed their gratitude and Baekhyun and Chanyeol were finally invited as Woo Bin has to get ready for his speech at the ball later. Walking out with the contract feels nice, especially when Chanyeol feels as happy as Baekhyun.

 

“So, how did you find Woo Bin, anyway?” Baekhyun asks.

 

Chanyeol glances at him and shrugs. “Luck, I guess. Well, a woman approached me earlier and we talked about business. I mentioned about Woo Bin and told me where he was.”

 

“A woman? Who?”

 

“Now that you mention it, I wasn’t able to get her name. She didn’t introduce herself either.” Chanyeol replies, slightly pouting. “Ah, well, she wore too much red lipstick. She wouldn’t be too hard to find even with the mask on.”

 

“Ah.” Baekhyun replies feeling a slight pang of jealously he doesn’t even know from where.

 

“I forgot to say something to the twins. Wait for me here.” Chanyeol immediately scurries back to the room, leaving Baekhyun outside to hang for a while.

 

Baekhyun takes this chance to reflect on everything that happened since yesterday. Being with Chanyeol like this is nice, although they both know that it’s definitely not the same, but this different feeling still is nice. Chanyeol has gone through a lot so he tries to understand that but he wishes that Chanyeol would actually talk about it. He regrets giving that answer to him when he first arrived back in Seoul, he regrets not telling him that he came back for him, he regrets not being strong enough to voice out what he really feels and so Chanyeol has always been confused, the both of them unsure.

 

He thought about what would’ve happened if he came back a little earlier. Or if he chased Chanyeol back to London as soon as he drove out of that parking lot. But regretting about it now is no use because he knows if he had the chance at that time, he would. But nothing was easy for him and so probably, this is the payment.

 

He snaps out of doze when he remembered about the mask the twins snatched from him. He turned around to get back inside but stopped when he saw a woman walking towards him. She walked with elegance, her dress full of glitter and her hair styled fabulously, with a few of her fringe hanging down on her mask. “Did you lose your mask, young lady?” Even with the mask covering almost half of her face, Baekhyun can imagine a beauty. Moreover, the voice was oddly familiar to him. Too familiar that it’s scary.  “Young lady?”

 

Baekhyun snaps out and smiles immediately. “Ah, yeah, unfortunately.” He notices the red lipstick and guesses that she’s probably the woman Chanyeol was talking about earlier.

 

“Here you go,” Baekhyun looks down on the woman’s hand, palm occupied with a mask. “Take it.”

 

“Thanks,” Baekhyun says, taking the mask happily. When the woman withdraws her hand though and when that little dazzling light coming from the jewel on her finger presented itself, Baekhyun froze right that moment, his whole body in shock as he finally recognizes the voice.

 

“No problem,” The woman said before walking away, leaving Baekhyun in a state of confusion.

 

Amanda.

 

That jewel, or ring, is definitely her wedding ring. He knows because he used to hate it.

 

Amanda’s here.

 

Realizing what it could mean, Baekhyun scurried to the stairs, wanting to desperately get away from whatever it is that suffocates him with fear. He ran down the stairs until he reached the ground floor where the party was taking place and continued to run and run and run, his lips parted in gasp, unconcerned even to the guests, men and woman alike, he bumped into on the way to the door. A lot of things are playing in his mind, a lot of scenarios, a lot of bad things he never thought he would imagine.

 

He finally reached outside and he continued to run until he reached the fountain where he tripped and almost fell on the water. He stayed on the ground for a moment, breathing in the lost air from running.

 

This was too much.

 

He knew when he left London, he was running away.

 

But to throw the reality right at his face is too much for his heart to handle.

 

And more than that, he needs answers. Answers only one person could find.

 

He searched through under the dress for the phone he hid and dialed Kris’ number, his fingers shaking. He bites his nails while waiting for an answer and almost dropped the phone when Kris finally did.

 

“Kris, she’s here—“

 

“What? Baek—“

 

“She’s here! I saw her!”

 

“Baekhyun, calm down. Who did you see? Who’s her?”

 

“Amanda!” Baekhyun yells. “Oh God, she’s going to kill me!”

 

“Did she see you?”

 

“I—I don’t know. I’m…dressed up. It’s a long story.”

 

“Then it’s fine. Just calm down, Baekhyun.”

 

“Kris, what am I going to do? If she’s here then she’s looking for me.” Baekhyun says as he unconsciously bites his nails in panic. “How did she even get here?”

 

“Baekhyun, listen to me. It is true that she wants revenge but she’s not going to come for you directly. You know this. Just like what happened to me, she’s going to attack you at your most vulnerable state. Baekhyun, keep your friends close.”

 

“Friends?”

 

“She’s going after whoever is the most important person to you instead.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Baekhyun?”

 

Baekhyun turns at the call and sees Chanyeol standing a few meters away from him, panting.

 

“Thank God. I was looking all over for you. What are you doing here?”

 

He notices his face and sees that sincere worried look, something that he didn’t think he’d see again, but something pulls him back, something isn’t right. It all makes sense now. His most important person is standing in front of him right now. It’s funny how this will never work in all angles, despite how much he wants to.

 

He shouldn’t have gone home.

 

“Baek? Are you okay?”

 

“I’m fine.” Baekhyun replies, dropping the phone on his lap. “Just tired.” Chanyeol notices him standing up so he immediately walks over to help. Baekhyun looks up at him and Chanyeol immediately retreats his hand. “I just need some rest. I think…we’re done for tonight.”

 

“Alright, I called the car.” Chanyeol watches him walk first, and wonders if this is how it feels like seeing the person you love walk away from you, like how he did back in London, and the guilt slowly builds in. He follows Baekhyun to his car immediately.

 

It’s really a funny thing. Baekhyun thinks. How the world does everything just to keep them apart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It’s already past midnight, Sehun notices, but other than that, “I have class tomorrow.”

 

“Shut up.” Sehun groans. They’re lying on the roof of some shop in front of Kyungsoo’s office building, Sehun facing the sky and Luhan busy with the binoculars, checking the office every now and then. “You’d die for a reason to skip class.” Luhan adds. Sehun sighs because it’s true.

 

“How long do we have to stay here?”

 

“Not too long. Kyungsoo’s fixing his things.”

 

Sehun sits up, his body suddenly shivering in cold when the wind passed him. He looks around the area, the noise is already dissipated making him feel more bored. He turns beside him when he hears a cat and gasps when it looked so much like Sheldon. “Did he follow us here?” Kai would rip off their heads if he found his cat missing when he gets home. He looks back to Luhan. Seeing as he’s too fixed on the binoculars, he decided not to disturb him. He quietly crawled to the edge of the roof where the cat was its fur, slowly as to not scare it off. Up close, he’s sure it’s not Sheldon but it could be his playmate. He crawled closer, making tiny sounds because of his weight, and then finally he hopped slightly to catch the cat but well, the cat, of course, ran away, and Sehun being an idiot, did not think of the possibility that an edge is an edge.

 

“Sehun he’s gone!” Luhan yells. When he didn’t get a reply, he turned around and found Sehun nowhere. “Sehun? Sehun! What the , did he leave me here? Ya, Sehun!”

 

“Down here!”

 

Luhan ran to the edge of the roof and looked down, only to find Sehun sprawled on the ground in an unfortunate position, groaning in pain.

 

“Oh Jesus.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baekhyun doesn’t remember much after the party other than ignoring Chanyeol until he’s too tired to even lift a finger anymore and like that, he drifted to sleep. But the next morning, he was still on his dress so it was quite uneasy for him to wake up with that look. Still, when he found his breakfast ready on the bed, he felt guilty for treating Chanyeol that way. He remembered as much as Chanyeol trying to cheer him up when he noticed his frown but Baekhyun couldn’t smile after what he has learned.

 

He woke up the second time because of the cold, this time on Chanyeol’s car. They’re now travelling back to Seoul. The first thing he notices is the silence. He sits up straight and yawns then he turns to Chanyeol who looks stiff. There’s that guilt again.

 

“Chanyeol,”

 

“Hm?”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

A slight pause. “About what?”

 

“About last night. I didn’t mean to be so—“

 

“It’s fine. You were tired.” Chanyeol gives him a smile. “Besides, it’s not like that was new to me.”

 

Yeah. Baekhyun thinks. Like the old times, huh?

 

Baekhyun opened his mouth to reply when his phone suddenly vibrated. He fished it out of his pocket to answer the call from Luhan. “Lulu? Hey, we’re almost there—what? Sehun? AT THE HOSPITAL?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 “So, let me get this straight.” Kai starts, glancing away from Sehun’s sorry state on the bed with all the bandages on his limbs. “You sleepwalked? And you tripped hence all those broken limbs?” Sehun nods while trying to stifle a laugh. Luhan just decided to cover his mouth in a not-so-obvious way. “You sleepwalked?” Sehun nods. “SLEEPWALKED?”

 

“Kai, what are you trying to prove by imitating a parrot?”

 

“Nothing.” Kai replies. “Luhan, did you call Baekhyun?”

 

“Yeah, 10 minutes ago. He’s on his way.”

 

Kai checks the time. “Hm, I’ll grab some food first.”

 

“Okay.”

 

When Kai was finally out of the room, Sehun and Luhan sighed in relief.

 

“How are you feeling?” Luhan asked while slowly leaning on the edge of the bed, gazing at Sehun. “You look terrible.”

 

“If you give me a kiss, I’ll feel better.”

 

“You’re stupid.”

 

The door suddenly opened, startling the both of them.

 

“Uh,”

 

“Chanyeol?” Sehun and Luhan ask in unison, both surprised.

 

“What are you doing here?” Sehun adds.

 

“I…heard from Baekhyun. He’s not here? He walked first.” Sehun and Luhan shake their heads. Chanyeol, seeing as Sehun never looked so unfortunate than this forever, walks inside even though he feels slightly out of place. “Hey.”

 

“Hey.” Sehun replies. “Long time no see.”

 

“Not really.” Chanyeol stops in front of him. “I knew you were an idiot but I didn’t think you’d let yourself get almost killed.”

 

“Dude, I live dangerously. It just so happen that some CEO is always saving my sorry .” They both laugh, like the old times. He may not show it but Chanyeol misses his best friend too.

 

Chanyeol clears his throat. “I’ll go look for Baekhyun.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Chanyeol walks to the door but stops halfway. “You look good together by the way, the two of you.” He says before finally disappearing behind the door, leaving Luhan blushing in embarrassment.

 

“W-what—“

 

Sehun laughs beside him and he throws a pillow at him in frustration, resulting in Sehun feigning pain.

 

“Shut up Oh Sehun!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Chen, you better make this fast, I’m already lost. I think I made some wrong turn somewhere.” Baekhyun says to the phone while awkwardly walking around the hallways of the hospital.

 

“In honor of Sehun’s sacrifice,” Chen jokes. “I’m going to tell you a little something about Do Kyungsoo.”

 

Baekhyun pauses at the mention of the name but immediately resumes walking to find his way. “What about him?”

 

“He’s working for Kris.”

 

Baekhyun stops this time, unsure of how to react.

 

“You’re kidding.”

 

“No, B. I’m not.” Chen sighs from the other line before continuing. “I asked Kai to place a voice chip in his office, I heard the phone calls.  I hacked his e-mail and read the mails. I could send them to you if you want but I’m sure that’s not needed anymore. You believe me.”

 

Do Kyungsoo working for someone isn’t that peculiar but Kris? Of all people?

 

“I’ll call you back.” Baekhyun says and ends the call. He immediately dials Kris and when he finally answers, everything just started to burst because he’s ing tired. “KRIS YOU SON OF A —“

 

“Baekhyun? What now?”

 

“I know about Do Kyungsoo! Why would you do this?! So what, you’re just playing with Chanyeol?!”

 

“Baekhyun, listen to me—“

 

“You’re just going to watch me cling on so desperately to the relationship I’m trying to save?! You know how much this means to me but you just had to do this!”

 

“Baekhyun, that was a long time ago.” Kris says. “Before I met you. You know I had to make a deal with Amanda to save Yixing right? That was the price. I don’t exactly know why Amanda is so desperate to destroy Chanyeol, but that’s what she told me to do in order to save Yixing’s company. Baekhyun, I’m sorry. I know this is already too late but I really am sorry.”

 

Baekhyun drops on the ground. He suddenly questions his sanity. Actually, he questions about everything. This is already too much for him. This isn’t reality anymore. This is torture. It’s too much. He can’t do this anymore.

 

“Baekhyun, don’t worry. We’re coming there to fix everything.”

 

“Huh? What?”

 

“About Amanda and Kyungsoo, we’ll fix it. We’re coming to Seoul.”

 

“We?”

 

“Yes. Yixing and I.”

 

“Yixing…and you?” Baekhyun blinks, his mind unconsciously projecting an image of Luhan and Chanyeol. He doesn’t really know why but he thinks it’s going to be even harder with Yixing and Kris around but they’re the only ones who can fix this mess now and Baekhyun really appreciates it because a little bit more and he’ll be jumping off a bridge.

 

 

---

 

A/N:

hello!

im really sorry i didn't update for a long time

my back/shoulders really hurt. ;A;

i hope this is fine. :)

- gelie