Secrets.

Baekhyun loves secrets. Baekhyun hates secrets.

He loves secrets because it made him feel special to know something that a person doesn’t want to share with anyone but him. It feels like he’s trusted enough, that he’s someone who others can depend on. Like he’s more mature than the said person.

But he also hates it. He hates the burden and the responsibility that came with it. He hates it if he’s the only one who knows something important, because he has to act that everything’s alright, and he has to be extra careful not to spill anything. And sometimes he has to watch someone getting hurt by the secret he couldn’t share.

So this morning when he found his mother and Lady Kim sitting in the living room, he should’ve known better to smell the thing that’s coming towards him.

“Oh, Baekhyun! Just in time.” Lady Byun exclaimed as she patted the space next to her on the couch. “Here, sweetheart.”

Not forgetting to bow politely at Lady Kim, he took the space and sits properly. “What’s up, mom?”

“Before I told you about it, I have to tell you something.” Lady Byun said carefully. “You’re already mature enough; therefore I could trust you with big important things, right? You know, things like in the office, your CEO things.”

Baekhyun nodded, still oblivious. “Yes, mom.”

“So, there’s this one thing I’m going to tell you about.” she said, before she eyed her in-law slash her long time best friend. The latter then fished out something from her bag, and a light brown map appeared. Lady Kim put in on the coffee table.

“What.. is that?” Baekhyun asked.

“We’ll show you.” Lady Kim pipes in. “But promise us, that you will keep this thing as a secret. Just until everything’s settled.”

“So, promise us that you won’t spill anything about our later conversation to anyone?” his mother took his hand in hers and squeezed in gently. “Seriously, Baekhyun, you’re the only one who knows it. Well, your father and Uncle Joonsoo also know about it, but you’re the first non-adult to know. So?”

Baekhyun frowned at the mention of Uncle Joonsoo, which is none other than Lady Kim’s husband, and Joonmyun’s father. “If adults are the only ones who know it, why are you sharing this thing with me?” I don’t even know yet what this is all about.

“Because we don’t want to have a lot of misunderstandings. If at least one of the youths knows, the problem won’t be too big when it occurs.” Lady Kim explained.

“And you’re the one that came in my mind when we were deciding who we are going to trust.” Lady Byun said. “So, what do you say, Baekhyun?”

Suddenly everything is clear to him. He shuddered as he stared at the brown map on the table.

I ing hate secrets!!

 “What are you doing?”

Joonmyun watches in amusement as the petite girl retreats back from the space under her bed, dusting off the imaginary dirt before she grinned at him. “Just looking for my book.”

“Gosh, that book again? So you didn’t find it yet?” Joonmyun said as he offered a hand to her. When she took it, he pulled her to standing position and brings her to the bed, sitting at the edge of it. “You said it’s just a book, but you’ve been searching for it everytime you’re home.”

“How will you know if I kept my bank account’s book in it?” Saehyun snapped at him – which made him laugh more over her random antics. “Or how will you know if I keep the password to my father’s safety box?”

Joonmyun chuckled. “Well, do you keep your bank account’s book or the password of your father’s safety box in it?”

“… well no.”

“Then?”

The question left unanswered. They drown into a comfortable silence, with Saehyun gazing to nothing and Joonmyun eyeing the alpaca plushie that sits calmly next to her pillow. Such a weird alpaca, it’s wearing thick sunglass and a blue scarf, not to forget the little pirate hat on the top of its head. He remember that thing, he saw it once when Saehyun was unpacking her belongings.

“He’s Ace. Ace Wu.”

Joonmyun frowned at her. “What?”

“His name is Ace, duh.” Saehyun said. “You’ve been staring at him, so I thought you want to know his name.”

“Him?”

“Don’t give me that judging look, Kim Joonmyun.”

But Joonmyun only laughed more. “Just, you referred it with him. What, he could talk?”

“Plushies can’t talk, moron.” Saehyun hissed at him.

After smacking her lightly on the head – “oww Joonmyun you meanie!” –, he eyed the stuffed alpaca again. “Do you really need to give it a scarf?”

“He looks cool with that, right?” she giggled before she took the plushie in her arms.

Joonmyun just chuckled, almost cooing over how cute she looks with that plushie. It’s like she’s being a little girl all over again, babying a stuffed alpaca. He then eyed the scarf, noticing a few embroiders at the tip.

‘KW’

“K…W?” he voices out loud. “But I thought his name is Ace?”

Saehyun blinks at him in confusion before she looks down at her ‘baby’. “Oh,” she chuckled softly, “someone gifted him to me. It’s the person’s initial.”

Forming an ‘o’ shape with his lips, Joonmyun nodded.

“Say, Joon,” the girl says softly, “if you ever lost something important to you, what will you do?”

“Hm, I will try to find it if there’s still the chance, I guess?” Joonmyun answered.

The girl nodded slowly. “Even if… the whole world tells you that it doesn’t worth your time? Even if they tell you that you should let it go?”

Joonmyun, the most oblivious man when it comes to his own wife, hummed as he thinks about his own opinion. “I’ll keep looking for it? I mean, they don’t know how it means to me, so I’ll keep looking for it until there’s no hope for it anymore.”

A soft chuckle comes out from Saehyun. “But won’t you be tired, then?”

“Maybe..?” Joonmyun blinked at her. “Then what do you think?”

Saehyun’s gaze wanders over the ceiling. “I don’t think you could be tired of loving something, or someone, if that thing or person really means a lot to you.” she shrugged. “You’ll get tired by what it causes you, but you could never grow tired of the love. Like, how could you possibly stop loving someone or something?”

“But if it’s so, then why are there breakups and divorces? Don’t they happen because two people stopped loving each other?”

“I don’t think they stopped loving each other.” Saehyun said. “Breakups and divorces, to me they proves that two people never really loved each other since the first place. But if they really loved each other then they broke up, then it would never be easy for them to erase their feelings. That’s why there are so many cheap ballad songs, singing about how they’re hurting by a break up, how they live hollowly by it, because the feelings never really left. And also, break ups or separations could happen because of the circumstances too, right?”

Once again, Joonmyun found himself stunned. “You’re right.”

Saehyun laughed. “That’s why there are so many stupid people,” she said quietly, “foolishly looking for something that will never come back.”

Somehow, by looking at Saehyun’s face when she talks about the whole thing, Joonmyun could slowly tell that she’s either talking about the book or talking about someone.

“Ramyun-ssi, it’s already thirty minutes to nine, are you sure you’re not leaving for the office yet?” she asked.

Joonmyun blinked his reverie away. “Huh? Oh, I don’t have any meeting today.”

“But you still have dozens of documents to read, right?”

“They can wait.”

Slowly the frown on her face turns into an amused grin. “Are you staying longer here because of me?”

Yes I want to spend more time with you so what? Joonmyun blinks rapidly at her. “N-no! I – I just like staying in my house, so what?”

“Yeah yeah please yourself.” Saehyun hummed.

____________

Over the past few days, Zhang Yixing has been walking around with this large bubble of emotions above his head, ready to explode in any minute. He just played good enough to hold it. But the certain person who caused it keeps showing in front of him, as if the heavens and hells hate him so much that they’re pleased to make him suffer. And the bubble, the very large bubble, is already at the edge of exploding.

And who he saw this afternoon in the café near his hotel could be the one to cause the explosion.

“Yixing?” the girl looks surprised as well, and he believes her, because she will never be a hypocrite no matter how he wished her to be. “What a coincidence. Are you buying Caramel Macchiato?”

And she still remembers my favorite drink. “Yeah.” he mumbled.

Joohyun smiled politely at him. “Hey, why don’t you join me for a while? I hate eating alone.”

Aaaand I still remember that. “Okay. I’ll just buy my drink first.”

So the