♞

From that moment on, Chanyeol started his days with lies.

“Yeah I’m coming.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m fine.”

He doesn’t even notice it anymore. Ever since the night in the diner, he was more concerned on replaying what happened with him and Baekhyun in his head. He seldom eats. He goes to school in his PJs. In class, he’s physically present but his mind is wandering somewhere else. It seemed like life has ended for him the moment Baekhyun walked out of his life.

Yeol, you’re not worth staying anymore.

He’d often walk with earphones stuck in his ears even if there’s no music playing. And it was no different that afternoon, a few weeks after their “breakup”. (Chanyeol wanted to call it a breakup. He wanted to believe they both cared enough to call what they had an official relationship.) He was on his way to their frat house. The clouds were gray and appeared to be heavy with rain. He kicked stones on the pavement, oblivious to the cold and the approaching storm.   

“Hey dude, what’s wrong with Chanyeol?” he hears from behind him. Luhan. Still he kept his head low and continued watching the stones bounce on the ground.

“Don’t mind him, he’s heartbroooooken,” another voice answered, he was so sure it was Minseok, followed by a hearty chuckle.

This time, Chanyeol craned his neck to look at them. The two guys gave him the “Oh !” look and smiled nervously. Minseok decided to keep talking, “I mean maybe he’s just tired. Right, Yeol? Ehehe”

“ you, Minseok.”

The three of them continued walking in silence.

Suho sensed the tension as the three walked into the house. He looked at Chanyeol who quickly sank at a nearby couch and then to the other two newcomers. “What happened? You both look pale as a sheet,” he asked, but Minseok just shushed him with one finger and pointed at the boy on the couch who’s now facing away from them.

“He’s gonna hear youuu,” Minseok says in a rather loud whisper. Suho creased his forehead while Luhan nodded in silence.

“I just ing did, ,” Chanyeol muttered, in a husky monotone. The three others looked at each other. Minseok faked a punch on Suho’s arm and mouthed an “I-told-you-so”. The president shook his head and scoffed. “Come on, you three. Everyone’s waiting upstairs,” He continued and the newcomers followed, albeit the two distancing from Chanyeol all the while.  

Tomorrow would be the day of their biggest event this semester. While other organizations opted for parties, the president, surprisingly and annoyingly (at least for Chanyeol) decided to go for speed dating. Chanyeol wasn’t sure if he was overreacting or his frat brothers were again extending some unsolicited help. He was pissed the moment everyone voted for it to happen, and he was even more so when later that night he was confronted by Suho and Minseok to ask if everything was going okay. He remembered answering them with: “The breakup was pretty ing dramatic, thank you very much,” before storming out of the room. They never tried to talk to him again ever since.

Chanyeol wasn’t even sure why he was there in the frat house helping them make this repulsive plan possible. Was he guilty? Was he desperate on keeping himself busy? In the first place, he could have backed out and just curled into a ball in his room. But somehow he felt better just listening to the shouts and arguments of his frat brothers through his earphones as soon as they walked into the meeting room (which was, in fact, Suho’s bedroom in chaos). At least he’s preoccupied with getting annoyed than feeling broken. He sighed and walked to the bed and completely fell flat face first on the mattress. That shut everyone up.

Chanyeol noticed and gave them a thumbs-up. “Go on, I’m listening,” he said, and let his arm fall aimlessly on the bed. Kris, the vice president, cleared his throat and turned to Suho. “As you can see Suho, the body is in an uproar because Kyungsoo here suggested we let everyone come into the speed dating event.”

Suho chuckled. “Well that’s the plan, isn’t it?”

Kris groans. “Dude, by everyone I mean, EVERYONE,” he lifted his hands repeatedly for emphasis. When from one side of the room, Kyungsoo shouted.

“Every ing person no matter what ual orientation in the university.”

And again the room’s in chaos.

And Chanyeol’s grabbing the blankets on the mattress.

you. you and your one million words. 

Suho’s mouth fell open as his eyes fixed on the small wide-eyed boy. There’s a hint of a smile on his lips as he began to rub the faint stubble on his chin. “That’s…” Kyungsoo’s eyes won’t let go of his, “…actually a good idea,” he faintly muttered. Kyungsoo’s smile reached his ears as Suho locked his gaze on the boy. But the boos in the room quickly took him back to reality. “Well of course, we’ll let the body decide.”

Kyungsoo shouts profanities to shut the mob up - worked every time. Kris, then again cleared his throat and turned towards the boys in the room.

“It would be nice if we can hear from both sides of the spectrum. Yes, Chen? You’ve been barking like a rabid dog ever since we started. You have something to say?”

Chen rolls his eyes. “ you.”

“Okay, that’s it?”

“ you Kris I’m not yet done.” Chen stood up and crossed his arms. “This question is directed to you, Do Kyungsoo. Have you forgotten that we’ll be participating in the event, too? How can you be so cold towards your bros? That is all Mr. Vice President,” he took a bow and then looked at Kris hard. “And you, again.” Half of the body cheered for the grinning boy. Kris rolled his eyes.

When Kyungsoo stood up, again everyone fell silent.

“Hello Mr. President youlookdashingtoday, and hello to you, too, Mr. Vice President, if you please allow me to represent the other part of this argument ahead of your introductions. Yes?” The two nod in agreement as Suho forcibly stifled a grin. “Good.”

“To Chen and to all those against my idea, I say good luck to you because we are ing pushing this through. Why?” Kyungsoo takes out a piece of paper from his file case. “As your secretary slash peace officer slash public information officer, I was going to print copies for you to pass around but I figured it will be such a waste because you won’t even read it so I’ll just summarize everything for you.” He cleared his throat.

“I don’t know if you noticed but everything we did this semester was party. Yes?” Some of them nodded. “Well according to my records, we’ll have to have at least one community service oriented event for the university to recognize our fraternity next year. If the university doesn’t recognize us, we won’t be able to hold parties again.” He looked at Suho. “I’m sorry Mr. President if I wasn’t able to tell you ahead. I was anticipating your unbiased judgment on this matter,” and then Kyungsoo smiled before turning towards the audience again. “Well anyway, if you guys don’t want to clean toilets or plant trees or get bitten by stray dogs, let’s get on with this . At least we’ll just be sitting for what – an hour or so? And then the university will be impressed with our stand on gender equality. Yes? ” Kyungsoo threw the paper at the boys. “And for pete’s sake get over your homophobia! You’re grownups so just… GROW UP!”

Kyungsoo definitely knew his way with these boys because they all fell silent once again. Only Suho’s muffled laughter could be heard.

“Come on. You just want to patronize me,” Chanyeol said unmindfully, regretting it as soon as the words came out. But the silence went on and he hoped no one heard him.

“Okay, so now that we’ve listened to both sides, let’s vote,” Suho announced, clasping his hands together. “You know the S.O.P’s: two-thirds of the body gets to decide on this. Remember guys, this is for tomorrow. Let’s not mess this up. So who goes for no-let’s-not-do-this-because-we-think-non-straight-men-will-treat-us-like-how-we-treat-women?” Suho asked, chuckling, garnering scowls from the crowd. No one raised their hands.

Until Chanyeol raised his.

“Oh.” Suho muttered.

A loud scowl echoed through the room. “Oh come on, man!” It was from Minseok, pouting. Chanyeol lifted his head and looked at Minseok hard.

“Why, dude, you got something to say?” Chanyeol asked, his tone unreadable. But his eyes were burning in fury.  Minseok gulped and shook his head in defeat.

“Nothing man.”

“Hey, hey, we got things to do. Let’s not waste time on this, okay?” Suho said in an attempt not to make things worse. But he was too late because the boys were already all eyes on both Minseok and Chanyeol. It seemed like everyone could sense the tension and if not for Suho interfering, god knows what might have happened.

“Err… So who says this is worth sacrificing tomorrow?” The president asked again. Everyone raised their hands. No one complained because no one cared for the event anymore. All attention was on Chanyeol and whatever it was that he’s hiding under that buried face.

you.

 Chanyeol, grabbed the blankets harder, feeling the familiar warm moisture on his cheeks. He was angry but he didn’t understand why he’s crying. He didn’t cry when memories of him and Baekhyun replayed in his head. But here he was, baring everything out. The feeling in his stomach was killing him from the inside. It’s like the butterflies he felt when he first saw Baekhyun. Only this time, it felt like all of his butterflies had died.

But Chanyeol, you’re not worth staying anymore.

Chanyeol won’t budge from the bed. Even after everyone left, he kept his head buried under blankets making no movement. Suho heard him counting the footsteps on the floor and resonating his voice with the creak of the bedroom door. But he just won’t come out.

“Yeol, you better do something in there like move an arm or something or else I’ll assume you’re dead and call 911,” Suho said as he was organizing the mess left by the storm of teenage boys earlier. He took a quick look at the bed and saw a thin outline of – he’s guessing – a finger poking under the blanket but he’s not so sure himself.

“Is that a thumbs-up or a -you?” Suho chuckled.

“A you,” he heard Chanyeol’s raspy voice. From that alone, Suho guessed what had happened. He left everything he was holding and went towards the bed. He sat on the edge and let out a big sigh.

“Yeol, Minseok and I never actually got the chance to say this since you walked out on us last time when we tried to talk to you,” Suho looked at the covered Chanyeol. “But we’re really sorry with what happened, man.” Suho heard Chanyeol’s breath tremble.

“We really hoped for the best. You can’t keep relationships going with lies, Yeol. It was an abrupt decision that night to walk in on you. But we never anticipated you two breaking up. We were just trying to help,” This time, Chanyeol pulled down the blanket to his chest. Suho could now see that his eyes were red and puffy.

“I wasn’t even lying to him, Suho! He didn’t know about our first meeting being set up!” Chanyeol shouted while a tear slowly carved its way down his right cheek. “I couldn’t just blurt out at the end of the day, like, ‘Oh! I actually talked to you for a Ferrari but you’re cool to hang out with so let’s just pretend you didn’t hear that one!’ Everything was going okay, Suho. I was even about to ask him to… to officially be my b-boyfriend and then you came and now he’s gone, and he’s not coming back!”

“And don’t you ever play stupid on me! I know that the speed dating was for me, to forget Baek. My hunch became stronger the moment you approved Kyungsoo’s idea. I felt like I was hit with a speeding truck head on! Is that what you call helping?” Suho kept mum. Chanyeol wiped the tear from his cheek. He sat up and turned his back to Suho.

“This is really hard, man,” his voice cracked and he had to pause for a while before resuming talking. “It’s like I can fantasize that everything’s gonna be better someday and I’ll forget him. But this is today. And it . I don’t even know why I’m ing crying to be honest. My feelings are all over the place. It to feel like this every single day.”

“It’s hard to convince myself I’m okay when actually I’m not.”

Suho extended his hand to grab Chanyeol’s shoulder. “Dude, actually I have something to sa-“but Chanyeol whisked his hand away and stood up.

“I’ll be there tomorrow, don’t worry. Heck I’ll even be one of the speed daters! But don’t expect me to be over what you did and over losing Baekhyun with just one night,” He plugged his earphones back to his ears. He slowly walked to the door. Suho was sure he’d leave in silence until he saw Chanyeol look back to him. His eyes pierced his.

“And next time, stop extending unsolicited help.”

Suho’s left with a dull bang of the door and a dull ache in his chest.

Chanyeol walked out of his apartment in a plain white shirt and black jeans, earphones stuck in his ears. He had no time to think about what to wear. Besides, he couldn’t help but be nonchalant about everything that night. The universe should be thankful he managed to shower and brush his teeth first before going out. The night air was cold and so was he.

He walked aimlessly towards the restaurant where the event should be held. He smiled to himself as he bit his lips. Suho couldn’t have chosen a better place for the event. It was the same eat-all-you-can restaurant where Chanyeol and Baekhyun had their first date. It was still three blocks away, but Chanyeol could already feel his frustration balling his hands into fists. Funny Suho, very funny.

When at last he reached the restaurant, he saw big crafty posters he knew only one person could pull off – Kyungsoo. One even screamed: The Bible said Adam AND Eve, so I slept with them both. He found himself chuckling to himself, a first after how many days.

The first thing he noticed as soon as he stepped inside was the red roses all over the large hall. “It’s not even February, dude. This looks lame,” he heard Minseok talking to Suho from one corner. Suho just laughed. “Come on it looks good,” he turned to a boy bending down on one of the tables to arrange the flowers. Kyungsoo. “Great job, Kyungsoo,” he told the boy who answered him with a big smile. Chanyeol rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. The posters outside are lots better than this,” he said in an attempt to announce his arrival. Most of the guys were huddled around the buffet table on the farther side of the hall so that only the nearby guys looked at him and smiled. Minseok was the first to approach him.

“Yow dude! Looks like the old Chanyeol’s back!” he beamed but Chanyeol answered him with an unamused look.

“Please, don’t overdo it.”

Minseok retreated towards Suho. “Oh. Sorry.” The president, on the other hand, laughed and shook Chanyeol’s hand. “Glad you made it.”

“I told you I would,” he tapped Suho’s arm and then made his way towards the buffet table. “Now enough of that, I’m starving.”

The event started an hour later. All those chosen brothers to participate in the speed dating were distributed among the twenty tables in the hall. That meant only twenty people would be allowed to join from the crowd that was steadily forming outside the restaurant. Kyungsoo had planned this all along, Chanyeol found out. Before anyone could participate, they would first bid outside. “We need funds you know!” he heard Kyungsoo shout earlier in exasperation as his voice drowned in the sea of angry and desperate contenders – capitalism at its finest.

From the mob of almost a hundred, the number dwindled to a whooping nineteen, thirteen were women and six were men. Wait, why are there only nineteen participants? Chanyeol noticed the uneasy looks on his brothers’ faces. Must be a long night for them. The participants waited by the door until Minseok, the emcee of the night, went to the center stage.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen! And welcome to Epsilon Chi Omicron’s Take Me Home! A Speed Dating Event! Woohoo!” Minseok blared over the speakers. Only the participants by the door whooped in frenzy, the brothers looked anxious.

“Well looks like we have a bunch of nervous boys right here, eh?” And Minseok came off the stage to sprint to Yixing’s table. “Waddup Yixing!” They clasped their hands together. Minseok continued talking. “To our honored guests today, Yixing for your information is a Chinese exchange student, a junior studying BA in Mythology. So Yixing? What are you expecting tonight?” Yixing took the mic.

“Uhh… Well, I just hope I don’t forget your names,” And the brothers’ roared in laughter. That seemed to break the ice. Minseok took the mic and shrugged. “That won’t be a problem. Participants, daters, let me see your name tags.” Nineteen cards were raised in the air. “We specifically did this for you Yixing, nah just kidding.” And then he sprinted to another table.

Chanyeol’s.

“So Chanyeol…” Minseok cleared his throat. Chanyeol looked annoyed. ”…are you ready for a new chapter in your life?” Chanyeol’s forehead wrinkled, he looked at Minseok and then traveled his gaze to lock with Suho’s. Suho was smiling.

you, both of you.

“We’ll see,” he answered curtly, albeit adding a quick smile.

Minseok breathed in hard. “I could sense your optimism, Park Chanyeol.” And then he turned to the participants. “Park Chanyeol here is a junior studying Civil Engineering and he hopes to take over the family business, am I right Yeol?” Chanyeol nodded. And then Minseok sprinted back to the stage. “Now who will take home our esteemed resident brothers in the hoooouse?” Again, the participants screamed in agreement. “Do you want to take me home, too?” And the crowd went wilder. Chanyeol rolled his eyes.

In that moment of disorder, he caught sight of a Suho lingering by the restaurant door looking uneasy. He saw him take his phone out, dialed, and called someone. But the other line didn’t pick up. Chanyeol followed him with his gaze until he disappeared through the door. Something felt odd, and Chanyeol wished he knew what it was.

“Okay, so here are the rules guys. The twen-“ Minseok realized the mistake, too, Chanyeol guessed as his brows wrinkled. “Uhh… I mean the nineteen of you here will be randomly distributed to the twenty handsome men in this hall. You are allowed to talk about anything you want. The goal is simple – based on your experience with them, you have to choose one of these young men to take home at the end of the night.”

Protests filled the hall.

“Wait, what? I thought we could choose too?” Chen yelled.

“Uhh… I’m not quite sure myself Chen. It’s in the rules that Kyungsoo gave me. Says, and I quote, only the non-members of the fraternity are allowed to choose who to take out at the end of the night with the purpose of proclaiming the effectivity and fairness of said competition, end quote. Sorry.” Minseok shrugged, smiling.

“OH COME ON KYUNGSOO!”

“Shut up Chen. We have guests,” Kyungsoo answered him with a smile. Chen sank to his seat.

“Okay moving on. And because this is speed dating. We will only allow you three minutes each table. After your time runs out, you have to move to the next table to your right. Got it?”

A girl from the crowd raised her hand.

“Oooh. A question. Feisty.” Minseok ran to the girl. “Yes?”

“By anything you mean we can talk about anything we want? Even like or something?” she asked. Her carefully drawn brows half raised. Minseok bit his lip stifling a giggle. The others had muffled chuckles too.

“Well you could put it that way. Rules don’t mention anything specific. It’s just words, after all.” Minseok answered, and then went back to the stage.

Just words huh? Chanyeol thought. 

“ARE YOU READY?”

“YES!”

“Nooo.” Chanyeol mumbled to himself.

Just then, Suho entered the restaurant with an unfamiliar guy wearing a ponytail and specs. He looked flustered and shy, like he was just pulled from the street to participate in the event or something. Suho tapped his shoulder and nodded, before giving him his nametag. Chanyeol couldn’t deny his curiosity with the newcomer. 

A few moments later, every participant was given their seat assigned randomly through a number guessing game that Kyungsoo again planned in the first place. Chanyeol was assigned to a girl named Ana who wore heavy makeup and razor sharp nails.

“Hey there, Chanyeol,” she PURRED while her claws circled the olive in her drink. He smiled accordingly, politely saying they haven’t even started yet. Chanyeol’s eyes traveled to find the newcomer. He was assigned to Sehun’s table and they looked like they were making progress.     

“This is your first table guys, make the most out of it. Okay here goes… your time starts now!”

“So what do you do?” Chanyeol asked, to be polite. Ana crossed her legs before answering. “I’m taking up Sociology.”

“You wanted that? Or you had your parents choose?”

“Mom decided.”

“I see.”

“I actually like it though.” Ana sank to her chair, arms crossed.

“Tell me about it.”

Ana talked about people’s behavior, of how interesting it is especially when people are exposed to certain circumstances like dates or starvation. Chanyeol looked at her, nodding, grasping the bits of information he could comprehend. Even if Chanyeol was aware of the intelligence in her eyes, he couldn’t shake off the feeling that she’s bored of what she’s talking about. He is suddenly reminded of when Baekhyun talked about his philosophies and goodbyes during their first night, of how his eyes glinted of wonder and delight. His heart ached at the sudden memory but he shoved it back in his head.

From what he could muster, their conversation was either rapidly progressing or rapidly becoming awkward. He was about to ask about her nails when she spoke.

“So about… the .”

Chanyeol almost choked on his own tongue.

“You’re just gonna go ahead with it?”

“Come on. I’m guessing that’s what everyone’s talking about now. Look around.”

“Okaaay?”

“So how many?”

“How many what?”

“How many partners have you had?” Chanyeol’s eyes widened.

“What the f-”

“Tell.”

“No! That’s too weird.”

“What? You can talk about with a guy but you can’t with a girl?”

“Well…”

“That’s ist.” As soon as Ana said that, Minseok announced that they had thirty seconds left.

“Hey that’s not fair.” Chanyeol pouted. Ana smiled, she crossed her arms and rested them on the table. “Okay Chanyeol, you seem like a nice guy and I still am in a good mood since you’re my first table so I think I’ll let you know that, actually…” Chanyeol blinked fast. Ana continued,” I’m here for some field work.”

“Field work?”

“Yeah. Remember the girl who raised a question earlier?” Ana asked while Chanyeol nodded.

“We’re doing this for our report, you know, asking men about and taking note of their reactions,” She winked and Minseok yelled time was up. “Don’t tell your bros,” she added before moving to the next table.

Well that was unexpected. Chanyeol exhaled deep, smiling.

Chanyeol talked to four more people after Ana. He found it fun, surprisingly. Even his sour mood from days of self-pity was gone. He was so invested in the talking that he didn’t notice his next customer – the guy with the ponytail.

“Hi,” he said as soon as he reached Chanyeol’s table. Chanyeol’s eyes widened and for a moment, got tongue-tied. A closer look revealed a handsome face hidden behind his specs. Chanyeol couldn’t help but take in a small gasp.

“H-hello. Take a seat,” was what he answered. The newcomer chuckled and took the chair. He glanced at Chanyeol anxiously, biting his lip in the process. Chanyeol, on the other hand, looked at him in curiosity.

“I’m Kai,” he said, extending his hand. “And you’re Chanyeol, right?” Chanyeol took his hand and shook it, smiling. “Yes, nice to meet you,” His hands are ice-cold, Chanyeol told himself. “Dude, you look stiff, ease up.” He added, chuckling a bit.

Kai joined in. He sighed. “Was I too obvious?” Chanyeol laughed louder this time. “I can even feel your legs shaking the table.” Kai smiled.

“So uh tell me about yourself,” Chanyeol beamed noticing the awkward aura between them. Kai answered after fixing his specs with his pinky. “Well, I’m a senior, taking up Fine Arts.” He paused and then looked at Chanyeol. “That’s about it.”

Chanyeol scoffed. “Seriously? How about interests? Talents?”

“Hmm… I love painting. I can ride a bike from here to the university without holding the handle.” He rubbed the back of his neck while crunching his nose, which Chanyeol found adorable. “Actually that’s how I got here.”

“That’s awesome! Now we’re talking,” Chanyeol sank to his seat. “So… I’m Chanyeol, I’m a junior taking up Civil Engineering. I know how to play the guitar but other than that, I’m just plain nerdy frat boy I guess.” Kai laughed.

Chanyeol took the opportunity of easing the irritating curiosity itching at the back of his head. “Can I ask you something?” Kai’s forehead creased but he nodded nonetheless.

“What happened back there with Suho? You know, the one who got you in earlier. I saw you both rushing inside. I’m just curious.”

“Oh that,” Kai leaned forward on the table. “I’m not supposed to be here, actually. I came by a friend’s request. You see, I was on my way home when this friend of mine basically just calls me out of the blue and starts yelling incoherent words. And then later when he calmed down, he said he can’t go to this speed dating event that he got invited to-”

Chanyeol interrupted. “Wait… You have invitations?” They have invitations? So was the bidding staged? ing, Kyungsoo.

Kai nodded. “At least, my friend has. I don’t know. Just like what I told you, I came here because my friend wanted me to come on his behalf.”

“Okay go on, sorry I cut you off.”

“Where was I? Oh! So now he starts nagging and pleading me to come. I was looking forward to a hot shower back in my condo but I had to do this for him. And so there I was flying through buildings and cars from the university to this restaurant to fulfill a friend’s request.”

“So you came here unprepared?”

“Basically, yes.”

“So you’re not…” Chanyeol gestured with his hand. “gay?”

Kai laughed. “You could say I swing both ways but I didn’t expect I’ll be having a man buffet tonight. My friend just told me it’s a speed dating event.”

Chanyeol straightened out from his seat, admiring the loyalty of the boy in front of him. “, eh?” Kai smirked looking at the table. “This friend of yours, he’s special. Am I right?”

Kai’s smile was the brightest Chanyeol saw that night and he noticed the obvious sparkle in his eyes. He looked at Chanyeol straight in the eye and nodded.

“Yes.”

Chanyeol smiled although he could feel a dull ache in his chest. Here’s a guy who could have been him if Baekhyun didn’t walk away. Baekhyun could have been the sparkles in my eyes, he told himself. He took the thought away and decided on distracting himself with their conversation.

They continued talking until Minseok shouted.

“Thirty seconds!”

They both looked at Minseok. Deep inside, Chanyeol could feel a surprising disappointment which he didn’t feel from the customers before Kai. He thought maybe it was because here he was finally clicking with someone after so many attempts and time’s about to run out for both of them. Chanyeol groaned. He shouted to no one in particular. “Can we have an additional three minutes please?” Most of the people laughed.

Minseok looked at him with bright eyes. “Ooooh. It seems like our friend Chanyeol here has found his match, ladies and gentlemen! Woohoo!” Chanyeol mouthed a “ you” which Minseok answered with a pout and puppy eyes.

Kai looked at him, smiling and then back to Chanyeol. “Well, I guess this is it Chanyeol. I had fun talking to you. You know, the real thing, not just plain courtesy and . You seem like the type who’s nice to hang out with.”

“Me too, Kai. I had fun. I’ll be happy if you take me out, just so you know. You can teach me how to ride a bike without holding the handle.”

Kai laughed. “I better make sure I pick first. Seemed like you’d be one of the top picks.”

Chanyeol shrugged with a smirk, teasing. “That’s a deal! Goodbye then.”

Kai then stood up to move to the next table. He could hear Minseok shouting. Kai turned to Chanyeol.

“No, Chanyeol. No goodbyes.”

Chanyeol froze. For a moment, he’s taken back to a night of shared laughs and butterflies.

“No goodbyes? What do you mean no goodbyes?”

Kai shook his head, chuckling. “Oh no, sorry. It’s just a thing I got from that friend of mine. He always says it kinda makes him sad how goodbyes basically bore the weight of  finality and – “

“…and everything that came before it,” Chanyeol almost cried. He could feel the knot in his chest unwind in a rush forcing hurried breaths out of his mouth.

“Holy . How’d you know that?”

Chanyeol stood up and grabbed Kai by his arms, taking the ponytailed guy by surprise. Kai could see his eyes glisten with tears.

“Kai, where is he?”

“Chanyeol what are you talking about? Let go of me dude. Where is who?” Around them, people are already shifting their attention to the two.

“Please Kai tell me. I’m begging you.” Chanyeol’s voice cracked.

“Where’s Baekhyun?”

A/N: DID YOU MISS ME HUH? DID YOU MISS ME? ;333333; I'm sorry it took soooooo long to update. I tried so hard to write in the past months but the fire just won't burn right. But here it is now, the third and second to the last part of the story. Hope you enjoy it! I'll hear you out in the comments. 

Good news! If you're following my other stories, watch them get updated in the days to follow too! And oh don't worry I won't leave you hanging again for that long. <3