Baekhyun sinks back on the black chair nearest to the entrance in the waiting room again. He holds his backpack against his chest with the straps drooping onto the floor. He looks up to see the clock by the entrance. Tick tock tick tock. Still, Baekhyun has found himself waiting alone again.

"Good morning Baekhyun," says a women that stands behind the office counter who's around her late 40's.

"Hi, Mrs. Kwon," Baekhyun replies with a faint smile as he gives her a small polite wave.

"Still coming to see him aren't you?" she asks as she starts to write on her clipboard. Baekhyun's smile disappears before he hangs his head low, chin resting on his bag. He adjusts his position as he leans towards the floor, back arched with his elbows resting on his knees.

"Yes," he gives her a short response like he has been doing ever since the incident. The harsh scribbling comes to a halt as she hears his reply. She looks up from the clipboard as she stares at him with such pitiful eyes.

"Oh, Baekhyun. You come here every single day," she states, emphasizing the last three words. "It's been 2 years already. Don't you think it's time to move on?" Baekhyun slowly seals his eyes shut as he hugs himself. He begins to fiddle with the hem of his shirt as he presses his knees together. Mrs. Kwon watches the lonely soul begin to try to push away the reality of it all. She's been a nurse for over 20 years. She's seen families bawl over deaths, husbands and wives sob over miscarriages, and so much worse. But Baekhyun had a different story. "You've been coming to this hospital every day after your classes. All of the staff here already know you. You've even spent your birthday twice here with a man who can't even open his eyes–" and then she stops as she widens her eyes. She's crossed the line when all she wanted to do was help Baekhyun move on.

Baekhyun stands up from the chair, pushing it back as it screeches against the floor from the sudden action. She watches him walk hurriedly out of the room towards the entrance to all of the patients' rooms with his head hanging low and bag dragging across the floor. His steps are fast and quick as he tries to escape this unbelievable reality he's come to face. Without even having to look for the room number for his loved one he walks towards it; the path engraved into his memory. You know that instinct when you walk inside your house and you already know where everything is: the kitchen, the bathroom, your bedroom? This is how Baekhyun feels. He's never seen at his own apartment anymore because this has become his new home.

Baekhyun grabs the knob and twists it as he swings the door open. He lifts up his head and sees his loved one in bed again. He instantly calms down. Reality washed away again. He walks towards the body as he sits down on his chair next to it. Here lays a porcelain young tall man with jet black hair. His eyes are shut as well as his lips. His arms lay next to his sides with a blanket covering him from feet up to his chest. He's sleeping, is what Baekhyun believed, but what we all know is that he's been sleeping or far too long. Baekhyun grabs a hold on his left hand as Baekhyun silently prays to himself. Once he's done, he looks up with a gleaming grin.

"Chanyeol-ah, I got a 97% on my oil painting project!" Baekhyun continues to talk about everything that had happened to him this day. He talks about school, the funny joke one of his classmates told him, and so on. For two whole years, this has been Byun Baekhyun's life routine. Nothing more, nothing less; this is it. It could've been worse, but thankfully it wasn't.

Chanyeol was still alive and breathing, but to everyone else he wasn't anymore. To everyone else, he's just that guy who got jumped for that other guy. Everyone calls him "the sleeping hero" but to Baekhyun, he's still park Chanyeol, the same boy who toured him around school, the same boy who broke his foot, the same boy he gave himself to, the same boy he fell in deep unrealistic love. Why couldn't anyone else see that anymore?

Suddenly, the door opened again, and in stepped Chanyeol's best friend. When he opened it, he expected to see Chanyeol in bed with Baekhyun's hand on him. And he did. It wasn't surprising at all for anyone.

"Hey, Baek," Kris greets as he walks towards the two.

"Hi, Kris," Baekhyun happily greets. Kris looks the cheerful boy and looks right at his eyes. All he could see was foolishness hidden within his brown orbs. Everyday Baekhyun is here. At first, everyone understood it all. Baekhyun loves Chanyeol deeply and can't live without him, but now it's clear to everyone's eyes that he really can't. Baekhyun, to everyone, is hopeless. They'd all tried to convince him to get on with his life but he's just too stubborn he won't listen. Kris sighs as the smile is still placed on the other man's face. Kris takes a seat on the end of the bed, making it sink a little. Kris opens his legs as he places his hands on his knees while looking down trying to think. Baekhyun doesn't care though, all of his attention is still on the sleeping Chanyeol.

"Chanyeol-ah, I learned something really cool today. Did you know that–"

"Baekhyun, stop it. Stop it right now," Kris commands clearly irritated. Baekhyun's smile fades slowly as he listens to the words that shoot out of his mouth. He looks at Kris with concern.

"Kris, are you okay?" Kris shoots his head up and stands up from the bed making it shake. He looks at Baekhyun again and marches towards him.

"Baekhyun, no. No I am not okay. No one is, okay? We're sick of you coming here every ing day. Listen, I don't want to come off rude, but...." Kris stops as he can see the shock written all over the smaller ones face. "But Baek, you have to listen to me. Chanyeol will never wake up!" he shouts at the shaking Baekhyun. Kris huffs deep breathes as he tries to calm down. He feels so sorry for Baekhyun. He didn't mean to scream and shout, but this was the last option.

Baekhyun looks at Kris's face, searching for an answer for this madness but he can't seem to find one. Finally, Kris gets on his knees in front of Baekhyun. "Kris–"

"Chanyeol is in a coma. He's been in one for two ty years. He threw his life away for you. He wanted you to live your life. He wanted you to be happy, and get on with time. But you're here, waiting for a hopeless wish to come true! Chanyeol gave up his life for yours before you got tossed away in a ing dumpster!" he boomed while shaking his head trying to forget it all. The puzzle pieces, they finally start to put themselves together in Baekhyun's mind. Kris looks up to see the face of his best friend's lover. He sees it all clicking in his mind.

"If you stay here any longer, it'll be the same as throwing yourself into that dumpster." -

--------

It's been five months since that day the pieces all came together. Five months since he's seen Chanyeol. Since that day Kris confronted him, he's never seen him again. He just couldn't. Chanyeol didn't want him I waste his life. Chanyeol lives through Baekhyun now, and he's so regretful it took him so long to understand that. Took him far to long to realize Chanyeol will never wake up. But now everything is so clear. Now he can do whatever he wants without having to worry because he's going to do what Chanyeol wants. And that was to live for him.

So now Baekhyun sits at the coffee shop which is only 2 blocks away from his new campus. Yes, Baekhyun has truly moved on. A month before the day Chanyeol fell into a coma, Baekhyun had gotten an accepting letter from his dream art school. He had applied only a couple months before without thinking he'd get accepted behind Chanyeol's back. At first, it was a wishful thought to be accepted, but now he's living that thought. Baekhyun had flew all the way across the world to get to the university without telling anyone. He didn't tell anyone at all; not Kris nor Chanyeol's noona. He just vanished. If they all wanted him to move on, then so be it.

He cut all remaining connections he had with them since they only reminded him of the past. Of course he'll never forget them, he just wants them to end up at the back of his head. He wants them to be just another memory, not a dead thought.

"Here you go sir," the waitress said in English while handing him his cup of coffee. Yes, he had moved to America where his school is. The day after he had that talk with Kris, he immediately packed up his things and left without another word.

"Ah," he said aloud. "Thank you," he told her as he took his order and bowed slightly. His English was still a little rusty, but he'll get the hang of it sooner or later. He set down his cup of coffee as he looked out the window.

It was another bright and sunny day for Manhattan, New York today. Only a few white clouds surfaced the light blue sky. He looked around and saw the busy streets with people parading on the sidewalks. It was a wonderful place Baekhyun thinks. He would've loved to live here now that he thinks about it. Maybe he could've lived here with Chanyeol. Would Chanyeol ever taken him to this place? Would he be sitting across from him at the table right now as he stares at Baekhyun's distinguished side profile as he looks out into the city? Maybe he could've. Baekhyun shakes the thoughts away again.

"Get over it," he muttered to himself as he picked up his cup and sipped the hot steamy bitter liquid that fueled him up for the morning. Baekhyun sets the cup down as he picks up one of the magazines that sat on the coffee table and decided to look through it. "This will probably help my English" he mummers to himself as he flips through the pages.

Baekhyun sits here as his cup loses the steam from rising up from the hot coffee. He has trouble with the large English words, but he eventually gets the hang of it. Once he's done with the magazine, after spending half an hour trying to read it, he's done with his coffee and walks out. He passes the busy bodies that scram across the sidewalks like an ant colony. Unlike them, Baekhyun takes his time walking, admiring everything. Oh, how Chanyeol would've loved it here.

-----------

Baekhyun has a few friends here. A few Koreans but most of them are from all over the world. But they all converse in English which helps him learn the language more and more. Translating it back into Korean however is extremely difficult for him though.

"Hey, Michael!" someone shouts out to him in his English name he chose out for himself a long time ago even before he got here. Baekhyun looks back and sees one of his friends walk to him.

"Hi, Jenny!" he chimed in response. The girl with long blonde hair that past her hips with milky white skin walks over to him waving.

"So Michael, the guys and us girls are heading over to the club downtown that everyone is talking about," she started. "Wanna come?" Baekhyun looked at her with wide eyes. He couldn't really understand what she was trying to say. All he could hear were the words "boys", "girls", and "club".

"What?" he asked nervously while tilting his head confused. She laughed at his confusion and held up a hand and told him to wait for a second. She took out her phone out of her back pocket and started to text something quickly. Once she was done, she showed it to him. It was the translated version from English to Korean of what she tried to tell him. "Oh," he said understanding. She nodded giggling at his innocent acts. "Sure, what time?" he asked as he looked at his wrist watch.

"9. I'll have David and Noah pick you up, okay?" she asked while placing her hands on her hips. Baekhyun nodded understanding and then waved goodbye. He went back to his dorm and decided to kill the hours by working on his new artwork that was due in a few weeks.

The people who lived here were really kind to him. They invited him to all different types of places so he could experience it all, but he still felt so uncomfortable with them all. He's positive none of them will ever become close friends of his. He gets homesick sometimes when the English word "Park" or when somebody else is named Chris or Kris. Udon noodles made him cry on the inside. It sounds funny, but he can't help it. That's what Chanyeol and he always ate. He loved this place, but it just didn't seem like home.

-----------

"DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!" everyone cheered as one of their friends took his tenth shot. Everyone was drunk, including Baekhyun. At first he refused to since he wanted to wake up tomorrow without having to deal with a painful hangover, but the thought of numbing out all of his feelings for Chanyeol came to mind, so he gave into peer pressure and joined.

They all had fun dancing and talking together. Some girls had tried hitting on Baekhyun, but at the time his brain was still functioning correct, but now it wasn't. A random girl started grinding into Baekhyun while he danced with his friends. Baekhyun hadn't felt like this in forever and couldn't help but hold her hips and dance against her. She turned around and started to kiss his jaw and then his lips. The kiss was sloppy and wet but nobody cared. She dragged him out of the crowd and into a reserved booth.

He laid on the couch and almost fell asleep closing his eyes, but she sat on top of him and started to undress herself. Baekhyun felt the extra weight on top of him and opened his eyes again. He saw her in nothing but a bra and . Instantly, he pushed her off of him. She screamed and started to cuss him out as he walked out of the booth crying.

He missed home. He missed Korea. He missed his simple life with Chanyeol. He just wanted everything to go back to the way it was, but he knows that'll never happen because this is the reality everyone wants him to get with. He can't numb this pain. He can't forget Chanyeol no matter how much he tried. They say time heals wounds, so why isn't it working?

-----------------

"Look, oppa! It's the Statue of Liberty!" a young woman hollered out to a young male as she pointed out the window.

"Mhm! Isn't she cool?" the man asked her smiling. She gave him a single nod.

"You know, the statue was originally brown since it was made out of copper, but as time passed by, it rusted into green," he informed the astonished woman.

"Wow oppa, you know so much about New York," she said surprised. He leaned back into his chair and put on his shades and nodded. She leaned back into her chair as well and put her hands on the coffee table and then leaned forward. "Where should we go next?" she whispered to him playfully. He leaned forward and pinched her cheeks.

"Out of all places in the world, I've always wanted to go to Manhattan," he whispered back. She held onto his hands that held on her cheeks.

"Really? Then let's go there tomorrow, okay?" she asked while rubbing his hands trying to keep them warm. He grinned and nodded giving her his confirmation.

"Do you want to know a secret?" he whispered again. She grinned and nodded frantically. He let go of her cheeks and grabbed her head lightly to pull her closely.

"I've always wanted to take my future love there," he said in a hushed tone before he kissed his girlfriend on the cheek.