PART 5

*Do have this track on repeat. It goes well with the later scenes. 

 

The little strip of sunrays peeked through the curtains of their shared room’s window, preventing Sehun from fully parting his still sleep-heavy eyelids. With eyes still closed, Sehun reached out to the space next to him, expecting to wrap his arm around the boy he had fallen asleep with only to find himself on a half empty bed. He finally managed to open his eyes, blinking with a little frown on his forehead when he saw that Baekhyun was nowhere in sight. He sat up slowly, cursing silently at himself for not getting changed into proper clothes before he slept. But the memory of tearful smiles and breathless words made him remember just what happened the night before. It brought a smile to his lips and motivated him enough to hop off the bed.

He barely noticed his bedhead as he walked past the life-size mirror just by the door and headed straight to where he could hear clanking of kitchen utensils and quiet mumble that he was sure came from Baekhyun. He noted that it was almost half past twelve and wondered why Baekhyun hadn’t woken him up for breakfast. The kitchen was a mess when he finally entered it; trays scattered all over the kitchen counter, packets of flour strewn all over the floor that is almost covered in white. Egg shells were abandoned on the dining table and over by Baekhyun’s favorite spot was Baekhyun himself, body half bent in concentration as his hands worked on finishing the decoration for what seemed to be a cake. Sehun frowned; he’d always known that Baekhyun is a messy worker but what he saw was completely different to what he thought he knew.

Sehun lets his eyes scan every inch of the kitchen, half concerned with the change that Baekhyun was slowly showing. He quietly picks up the egg shells and shoved them into a plastic bag, collecting whatever empty packets that Baekhyun had left on the floor. He accidentally hit the chair, causing it to scrape the floor. It startled Baekhyun and the smaller boy jumped and whipped around only to see Sehun behind him. His eyes looked swollen and his button nose was pinkish as he tried to flash a smile at Sehun. He turned to lift up the cake he had baked and presented it to Sehun, sniffling and smiling at the same time. The cake, as always, looked pretty but Sehun could tell the way Baekhyun had rushed with it. Something tugged at his chest and his worry for Baekhyun escalated.

“Happy 6 Years Anniversary, baby.” Baekhyun wished, grinning at Sehun with a little red in his cheeks.

Sehun searched Baekhyun’s eyes, deciding that it didn’t matter if the cake was pretty or not. He was only worried with the way Baekhyun had grown drastically emotional since he last saw the boy. “Baekhyun, why are you crying?”

The cake almost fell as Baekhyun’s hands shook, lips quivering violently and his eyes grew even redder, the tears freely falling down his reddened cheeks. Sehun quickly took the cake from Baekhyun and abandoned it on the table, his attention once again back on the boy in front of him. He placed his hands on Baekhyun’s shoulders in an attempt to calm him but all Baekhyun does was sob as he covered his face with his hands. He shook his head but he couldn’t say anything.

Sehun thinks he should just wrap his arms around his lover but he wanted to know what really happened so he fought the urge and waited for Baekhyun to speak. The black-haired took about three seconds before he began to blabber on and on about things Sehun couldn’t quite understand.

“I’m so sorry, Sehun. I should’ve had everything prepared last night but I forgot it was our anniversary and everything isn’t going the way I wanted it to. I’m a terrible fiancé and I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve you at all. I don’t want you to hate me. Please don’t hate me, Sehun.” Baekhyun spoke in between sobs, the tears that lingered in his eyes leaking like little droplets down his cheeks. Every inch of his face was red by now and Sehun shook him once to make him look into Sehun’s eyes.

“Hey, Baekhyun. Baekhyun, listen to me.” Sehun said, and when Baekhyun finally looked him in the eye, he continued. “You are not terrible. And how could I ever hate you, Byun Baekhyun? You’re all that I’ll ever need and you’re everything to me. I can’t hate you even if I try.”

Baekhyun sniffled, ignoring his tear-streaked cheeks and letting one of his hands cup the side of Sehun’s face. “I’m sorry. I love you so much. Please don’t leave me, Sehun.”

Sehun lets out a sigh, taking the hand that rests on his cheek with both of his and kissing Baekhyun’s palm. He was guilty for giving Baekhyun the fear of being left again and for a brief second, he regretted ever saying yes to the offer Oxford had given him. “Baek, I promise I will never leave you. Trust me that I’ll keep this promise.”

It should somehow make Baekhyun smile but instead of being greeted by the stretch of Baekhyun’s lips, Sehun was met with Baekhyun’s sobs, growing harder by the second. The smaller boy pressed his face into Sehun’s shoulder and continued to cry, apologizing over and over again as he wrapped his arms around Sehun’s torso, holding Sehun as close to him as possible. Sehun’s heart clenched and he lets his hand run down Baekhyun’s black hair, his other hand on the small of Baekhyun’s back. He lets Baekhyun cry into his shoulder and he doesn’t question why Baekhyun was apologizing one time too many. He ignored the question in his head and closed his eyes instead, breathing in the scent of vanilla and apples.

Three hours later found both Sehun and Baekhyun seated on the couch, with Baekhyun’s legs over Sehun’s thighs and Sehun’s arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders. They smiled and laughed as they fed each other the cake that Baekhyun had baked, fingers sticky from cream and lips tasting like chocolate. Baekhyun had stopped crying after almost half an hour of Sehun holding him and they had resorted to spending the next hours lounging on the couch and feasting on the cake. Sehun decided a long time ago that he loves Baekhyun’s smile, but nothing could compare to the feeling in his chest when he saw the curve of Baekhyun’s lips when he looked up at him.

He had been so worried and when he asked, Baekhyun only explained that he hadn’t been the nicest boyfriend to Sehun and he was just a little guilty. Sehun couldn’t help but notice that there was probably something more that Baekhyun wasn’t telling him but he decided to let it past. There is no point in making Baekhyun cry again. All he wanted to see was the beautiful smile that grazes Baekhyun’s pink pouty lips. He thinks it was all that matters at that moment.

Wiping chocolate off from the corner of Baekhyun’s mouth, Sehun stared at his boyfriend lovingly, studying every feature and wanting to remember them forever. Baekhyun had stopped smiling, but he doesn’t look like he was about to cry so Sehun refrained from panicking. Instead Baekhyun only stared back but soon the beginning of another smile lingered at the corners of his lips and he began to trace invisible patterns on Sehun’s clothed chest. He had his free arm around Sehun’s waist and the silence that surrounded them was comfortable. Baekhyun leaned up to place a chaste kiss on Sehun’s lips, his smile widened an inch.

“I have a little something for you, Sehunnie.” Baekhyun broke the silence, getting up from the couch and disappearing into their room before he came back with a bottle in his hand. Sehun smiled up expectantly at his boyfriend, taking the glass bottle when Baekhyun handed it to him. “It’s something I made back when you just started schooling. I was missing you terribly and those happened to remind me of you so I made it into a fragrance.”

Sehun read the black ink scribble on the surface of the bottle, noting the almost unreadable handwriting of Baekhyun and saw that it read ‘Oh to my Byun’.  The name of Baekhyun’s invention made him smile even wider and his cheeks were beginning to hurt again from too much smiling. He uncovered the bottle cap to get a whiff of the fragrance and mildly made out the presence of eucalyptus and olive. “Do I really smell like this?” He asked with a little smile.

Baekhyun nodded, in his lower lip as he sat back down next to Sehun, looking slightly nervous for Sehun’s opinion. “Well, at least that’s what came to my mind when I think of you. And you really do smell like that, but only the luckiest could ever get so close to catch a whiff of the original scent.”

“You’re the lucky one, then.” Sehun teased, raising an eyebrow.

“Mhm,” Baekhyun made a point by leaning up to breathe in the scent on Sehun’s neck. “I’m the luckiest.” He placed a peck on the skin of Sehun’s long neck, his breathing shaky when he exhaled. “If you’re going to say that I’m not the only one then please spare me and tell me a lie.”

A frown made its way in between Sehun’s brows at the words that Baekhyun had just said and the way Baekhyun’s voice had gone softer. He leaned back far enough to be able to see Baekhyun’s face and saw that the smaller boy had his eyes closed, fingers making their way to lace with Sehun’s. “What are you saying? You are the only one. Do you doubt me, Baek?”

Baekhyun’s voice when he spoke again was calm, but the guilt was heavily laced around it. “I don’t, Sehun. I doubt myself.” He took almost five seconds to even out his suddenly ragged breathing, voice breaking as he kept his eyes on Sehun’s fingers. “I’m the luckiest, but you aren’t. If anything, you’re wasting your time on someone like me.”

Sehun couldn’t help but think that there was someone else in Baekhyun’s heart. It was wrong to doubt Baekhyun but it was all that invaded his thoughts. His heart cracked just at the thought of his Baekhyun being in love with someone else and to think that his boyfriend no longer bears the same feelings for haunted his conscience. His heartbeat raced at his chest and his body tensed, fingers untangling from Baekhyun’s. The smaller boy noticed Sehun’s visible change, both parting from each other to look into the other’s eyes. Sehun was tongue-tied and he clenched his hands into fists on his lap, afraid to know the truth but craving for it to bring his fear to an end.

They were silent for a long two minutes until Sehun found the ability to speak again. “If you’re saying that there’s someone else then… I don’t know what to say.” His eyes burned and his vision blurred as his heart clenched. Suddenly everything hurts.

But Baekhyun was quick to deny it, shaking his head and letting his trembling lips touch Sehun’s knuckles. His cheeks were already tear-streaked. “No, not in my heart there isn’t anyone else.” Baekhyun takes Sehun’s hand and placed it over his chest where his heart should be, inhaling deeply for the breath he seemed to need most. “Can you feel it, Sehun? This heart beats only for you. There’s only you in it and if you leave me I wouldn’t have a reason to be.”

Sehun stayed silent, listening intently to every word Baekhyun was saying and feeling the soft thumps of Baekhyun’s heartbeat against his hand. For a moment, he doesn’t know what to believe but his trust and love for Baekhyun go way back to the times when he was just a child. He could tell the truth in those words but he could also sense something that was kept hidden. It was impossible to imagine a life without Baekhyun even for a second. So the only other option for him was to continue to believe or he would completely break inside. Sehun