“Well, we’re here, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun said in a bored tone.

“Okay. Hmm, I just hope if it’s someone you guys really don’t know, you won’t call me a stalker. Because I’m rather sure this is really Sehun.”

“Well, what did the person tell you his name?” Kris asked.

“He said his name is Shixun.”

“Shixun?” Kris frowned, and Baekhyun immediately reached out to smooth it out.

“Don’t frown too much, or you’ll get older a lot sooner!”

“That’s alright, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun then retreated and formed a small pout, which Kris didn’t pay any heed to.

“Sehun once asked me how his name is spelled out in Chinese. I told him, based on his Hanja name, that it’s Shixun.”

“Shixun? It’s the same as Sehun then?”

“Basically, yes. If it really is Sehun, to tell his Chinese name to you would be so stupid of him.”

They all fell into silence. Chanyeol decided it was probably time to show the picture. He started fidgeting with his camera, and once he found the picture, he showed it to both of them.

“Here you are.”

Both Kris and Baekhyun looked gradually surprised after a moment looking at the picture. Then at the same time, they turned to look at Chanyeol, who in turn looked back in confusion.

“So it really is him?” he said as if it wasn’t to confirm, but to state the fact.

“You’re saying you want to quit.”

“Yes.”

Joonmyun folds back the letter spread on his desk. “There’s no need for you to write this.”

Sehun looks up to see Joonmyun offering him his letter and a smile. “Does that mean you allow me to…?”

“I would, but I want to beg to you first.”

“Beg to me what…?”

“I wish you can keep working here.”

Sehun doesn’t know what to say about it. Joonmyun has been such a good manager, so good that he even takes over his shift sometimes when he can’t go to work, and Sehun has been quite used to the atmosphere of his workplace. It’s friendly, with people like Joonmyun, Minseok, and Jongin (even though the latter was added very late, but he’s a decent person in his opinion) as his coworkers, he couldn’t think of working in a better place than this.

It’s just too bad that Chanyeol found him.

“I’m very thankful that I got the chance to work here.”

Joonmyun nods and smiles, sadly. It hurts a little bit.

“Is it because of that customer? I told you, if he bothers you, tell me and I’ll take care of him, right?”

“He’s not exactly guilty of all this. I got a personal problem to take care involving him.”

“Then I’m not allowed to meddle, I guess?”

Sehun offers a smile to him. “I need to stay away from him. I’m holding a promise.”

Joonmyun nods again, and this time he doesn’t say anything else but, “Fine.”

That one day when Chanyeol comes to the bubble tea shop again, he can’t see any sight of Sehun anywhere. He wonders if he finally quits from his job or probably he’s sick. He only knows that it’s another waiter tending to his order, and it isn’t Sehun who brings his bubble tea to his table. He actually wants to confront Sehun and settles everything between them, but instead, the subject won’t come.

“Are you waiting for our Sehun, Sir?” A waiter with chubby cheeks comes to him and takes the other empty seat casually. He knows this waiter as Minseok, from the nametag, and silently, he knows this guy has been supporting him, silently as well.

“Sehun?” The name, though, brings his attention to Minseok. So Sehun had been trying to fool him all along, but he indeed fails miserably.

“Yes. You always ask for him to deliver your drink, right?”

“Well…yes.”

“I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but apparently, Sehun has quitted from his job. And I think it has something to do with you.”

“He quitted?” It’s exactly like one of his convictions. He really quitted. Chanyeol feels some sort of panic rising, because how in the world will he be able to see him again if not in this bubble tea shop?

“Don’t worry, I know where he lives. But from what I heard, he wants to move as well, so you better visit him really quick.”

“R-really?” Chanyeol can’t believe that the guy will help him this far. “Well, give me his address, please.”

He feels like closing his eyes for now, because he has just escaped the lion. Well, not really. Joonmyun has been kind enough to let him out of his employee status, not to mention to free him from work on the day he submitted his resignation… He thinks he should redeem it to him some time later, when he’s got a better job with better pay, of course.

Now all he needs to think about is where to move.

But not now, actually. There’s a ringing doorbell that blurs his mind. He realizes it belatedly that it’s the doorbell to his own apartment.

Without thinking much, he gets up from the bed to answer the door.

But he certainly doesn’t expect a certain Park Chanyeol to stand on his doorway.

“Y-you?” he says instead, unable to let out the fact that he knows Chanyeol’s name.

“Sehun-ah,” Chanyeol calls, this time without sugarcoating anything (there’s no need to do so, he thinks). “Why.”

“Why?” Sehun looks back at him in confusion, as if he doesn’t understand what Chanyeol means by ‘why’, but deep down, he gets it completely.

Chanyeol wastes no time to hold both sides of the younger’s face and presses his lips onto Sehun’s passionately.

Although surprised and completely taken aback by Chanyeol’s action, Sehun doesn’t pull back. Instead, he gives in to the kiss. He lets Chanyeol’s tongue entering his mouth and exploring the depths, he lets the warmth from the kiss spreading to his whole body.

And when they break it, a string of saliva appears to connect their mouths together before it truly breaks.

“I’m…sorry,” is the thing that Sehun can only muster again.

“Why do you always say sorry to me?” Chanyeol looks at him in question. “You still love me, don’t you?”

Sehun can’t force himself to answer.

“If you still do, why don’t you come back to me right now? I’ve been dying to see you every day in darkness, and then you left me. And then you appear before me, and then you stay away from me. What is it exactly that you want?”

He still can’t bear to answer.

“Please, just stay with me. I choose you to stay with me, Sehun. I won’t choose anyone else but you.”

“You can’t,” the younger finally says. “I can’t.”

“Why we can’t?”

“Because I made a promise. For you. For me. To my father. He’s gone now, but I know he’s watching. He won’t like it if we’re together.”

“Sehun-ah.” Chanyeol attempts to walk closer to him, but Sehun steps back instead. “Why didn’t you tell me that before? I’m terribly sorry about it.”

“If you’re sorry about it, then help me keep my promise. Please go.”

Chanyeol’s face shows a look of disbelief. “Don’t you want to stay with me together?”

“I want to, I really want to,” Sehun manages to croak out, “but not in this lifetime. Not in this cruel fate.”

Chanyeol can’t really do anything to prevent the door closed in front of his face.

“My son…”

“Dad…”

“Soon, I’ll be gone from this world…”

“Don’t say that, please…”

“But it is going to happen soon. I’ll give you one last favor.”

“What is it, Dad?”

“I’ll give my eyes to you once I’m gone.”

“Dad?”

“When you use my eyes to see, remember to keep your sight away from that boy who stole your eyes away.”

“He didn’t—”

“Just promise me that, Sehun-ah.”

“I…promise…”

He promises, and promises, and promises, but he always fails to keep them.

Chanyeol wished to see him with his eyes for the first time. He broke that promise.

Then his father asked him to stay away from Chanyeol, to never see him again, especially with his given eyes. He broke that, too.

What choices are left for him if he keeps breaking his promises? Should he just do what he wants to do or pay for the broken promises with misery worth a lifetime?

“Chanyeol!”

For the first time after awhile, he feels so free to shout the name.

“Chanyeol!”

But something gets caught in his heart.

“Chanyeol!”

The lanky figure is going to cross the street.

“Chanyeol!”

The bus is speeding down the road.

“Chanyeol!”

The crash occurs.

“Don’t you want to try sometimes?”

“Try what?”

“Leaning on me.”

“Ah, why should I do that?”

“You think because I’m blind I’ll always be dependant of your shoulder? I admit, your shoulder is the most comfortable place for me to lean on, but I want to be like that to you, too.”

“Like what?”

“Like this.”

Chanyeol felt Sehun’s head with his hand, and then he pulled his head to his own shoulder gently.

“Isn’t it comfortable too?”

“You’re too pushy. But I admit, it is rather comfy.”

“Well, that means, our shoulders are perfect for each other.”

Both of them chuckled at the statement.

“Chanyeol hyung?”

“Hmm?”

Sehun wrapped his arms around Chanyeol’s waist, which made the elder a bit startled, but soon he relaxed into the hug.

He returned the hug and put a kiss on the younger’s forehead.

The shoulder, the hug, the kiss...

Why does everything feel so familiar? Like it’s where I’m supposed to belong...

He thinks he sees his own reflection before it eventually disappears. Then the reflection is replaced by the face of the person he wants to see the most.

“S-S-Sehun?”

“Sshh, Hyung, you’re still recovering now. Don’t talk too much.”

“I thought—”

“I almost forgot I broke my promise with you first. I broke your promise to keep the promise with my father. But I broke it by seeing you at the bubble tea shop that day. Then I thought, the hell with promises. I don’t really care anymore.”

A smile is spreading on Chanyeol’s lips upon listening to Sehun’s words.

“But I still remember one promise that I haven’t broken. The one with you.”

“Hmm? What was the promise?”

“Don’t you remember?”

Confused, Chanyeol shakes his head.

“It’s a promise to love you… forever. I can’t stop doing so. Therefore, I can’t break it.”

Baekhyun is rather apprehensive upon seeing Sehun sitting by Chanyeol’s bedside, but Kris is rather cool with it. As long as you don’t hurt him anymore, in physical and mental terms, as he had implied.

None of them will be able to change Chanyeol’s decision to start his relationship with Sehun again.

“Hyung? I’m here.”

“Where?”

“Here! I’ll come to you, wait.”

It took a minute before he felt Sehun’s presence beside him.

“Took you long enough.”

“Yes, sorry. But how did you get to this tree by yourself?”

“Some kind passersby led me to the tree.”

“Oh, I get it. Hmm…it’s really such a shame that you can’t see the beautiful cherry blossoms…”

“Why don’t you describe them to me instead?”

“Cherry blossoms? The petals are not really small, not really big… it’s pink in color, and it’s soothing.”

“Sehun, the soothing part doesn’t really help your description.”

“I know, but to me, it’s soothing! Pretty much like your voice.”

“What? You think my voice is soothing for you?”

“If you whisper to my ears with that y deep voice, yes.”

“I’ll do it then.”

“Oh, wait, I need to be ready first—”

“I love you. Forever.”

“I— Thank God you don’t see my face right now.”

“I don’t know how your face looks like, but I love you.”

“A-alright, let’s go—”

“Why don’t you tell me the same thing?”

“What?”

“I promise you I’ll love you forever. Now your turn.”

“I’m not the guy for this.”

“You are, for me. Come on.”

“Fine. I…promise you I’ll love you forever.”

>>><<<

Sorry about taking so long to update. I actually intended to tweak this chapter but I couldn't find the time to do so. Hence, I just went with the original draft. This is the last chapter, but there's still an epilogue which will hopefully come real soon! And just want to clear it up for you guys, no one has gone blind again. It's just that Chanyeol got into an accident but he doesn't suffer from blindness anymore.