Final

This is about keeping promises.

It all started with a stupid bet—but not the one with a person falling in love with another thinking it was true love and ending up knowing about the bet and all that. No, this is not that one.

Maybe in this story, the people included in the bet wouldn’t be too happy with the choices they made. Maybe they’d lie to cover up whatever they feel. And maybe they’d feel wrong all along. Then maybe they would succumb to whatever feeling was eating them and confess the truth. But, maybe’s are possibilities that doesn’t have full percentage. It’s a matter of whichever decision is going to be made at the last minute. And time is quick enough that you feel the pressure it’s putting you through.

This could be not that all cliché but then nothing else is not cliché in the world. Everything is a cycle and cycle means repetitions. When things are repeated a lot of times then it’s cliché.

Baekhyun is stuck between admitting that he feels something even stronger than what could be considered normal between two friends—between two male friends. But he swears he wouldn’t make their friendship complicated. He promised. And once he makes a promise, he never even dares to break it.

“Yeol, let’s make a bet.”

Once a decision is made, everything that follows gets affected.

“What kind of bet?”

“Here,” Baekhyun motions for Chanyeol to lean closer, which he did, and whispered, “whoever enters the cafeteria, you have to date him or her, for a week and I’ll treat you with whatever you want.”

Chanyeol stares at him, making Baekhyun absorb the thought that he doesn’t want the idea, but then the taller male smiles. “Okay. You’ll treat me with whatever I want?”

Baekhyun nods.

He does this because he doesn’t want to admit that he’s starting to like his friend. That he’s not just fond of him. That he feels something that might destroy him. And he’s scared that Chanyeol won’t look at him the way he does right now if he knew.

“I’ll do a countdown and when someone enters, the bet starts. Okay?”

Baekhyun counts.

Three.

Two.

One.

Ouch.

Their mutual friend, Do Kyungsoo, enters.

“What if he falls in love with me?” Chanyeol asks one day right after Kyungsoo agrees to date him.

“And?” Baekhyun asks back. He pretends not to understand the question fully. But his giant of a friend only stares at him and Baekhyun feels something again. “So what if he falls in love with you? Maybe in the entire week of you dating him, you’ll feel something for him, too.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of, Baek. Let’s say we fall in love with each other? What about the bet?”

Baekhyun shakes his head despite the twist in his heart. “He doesn’t have to know about the bet. I trust that it’s only us who knew.”

“Yeah, yeah, only you and me but—”

“Chanyeol, believe me. If he likes you and you like him back, that would not be a problem.”

His heart grows heavy as he finishes his reply.

“But what if I didn’t like him back? Or what if I liked him and he didn’t feel the same?”

“Well, bummer.” Baekhyun shrugs. “I don’t know, but let us not think about that now, you still have a week, you know. And after that, you’ll have a spree.”

Somewhere deep inside him, Baekhyun felt a needle taken out from his heart when Chanyeol asked him the second question.

Every day, Baekhyun would stray away from the topic of Chanyeol’s date with Kyungsoo and most of the time he’d hide from his friend just so he wouldn’t feel the pain. But sometimes, fate challenges him.

“Hey, Baek!” Chanyeol waves from afar. He runs towards his friend and Baekhyun could do nothing because if he runs from Chanyeol, his friend would question why he ran away and he doesn’t want that so he stays. “Baekhyu—wait, what happened to your eyes?”

Baekhyun forces himself to chuckle as he touches his eyelid. “Ah, these? I didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

What he said was not true, but it wasn’t that much of a lie either. It wasn’t that he didn’t get enough sleep but he really did not sleep. Why he didn’t sleep? So he wouldn’t cry. He wants to cry because he finally confirms to himself that he likes his friend and it’s growing stronger every day he sees him. He badly wants to cry but if he cry, his eyes will bloat. That would be hard to explain to his ever curious friend.

“Really? Baekhyun, I need to tell you something.”

Baekhyun opens his mouth to protest because he really doesn’t want to know how their date for a week ended up but Chanyeol wouldn’t have it as he lays a hand over Baekhyun’s mouth and continues to talk.

“Kyungsoo said he doesn’t like the way my ears seem to protrude like this.”

Normally, when he hears something like this, Baekhyun sees red. The way other people describes his friend doesn’t really go with him nicely, especially when Chanyeol’s features gets described in a nasty manner. But he gets confused why Chanyeol is grinning at him.

“Why are you grinning like that?” Baekhyun asks but when he realizes what Chanyeol might be doing, he glares at him. “Are you playing with me right now, Park Chanyeol?”

Chanyeol shakes his head furiously, and he was almost pouting when he says, “No, I’m not playing with you. I’m just glad he didn’t like me because I didn’t like him either.”

Pretending to be sad is something that doesn’t suit Baekhyun. He doesn’t know how to and well, he couldn’t really force himself to pretend because he’s so happy. But together with his happiness is the trouble approaching his mind. You promised.

It took three more bets for Baekhyun to finally give in.

He realizes that he couldn’t take not having Chanyeol as his. Forcing all his feelings to go down is not that easy just as how it is not easy not to sleep at night. His eyes hurt because he really wanted to cry his heart out already but he can’t. Bottling up your feelings is not so easy. But then, so is confessing.

He waits for the right moment. He wants to confess. Even though he knew he would regret if Chanyeol rejects him, at least he did something. Confessing is worth it even if you get rejected because you will never know how the other one would feel if you didn’t.

Baekhyun waits.

If he waits, maybe he’ll have some luck. After all, they say that nice things comes to people who waits.

Maybe he just needed a little push.

And maybe the pushes he needed were all the bets they made with him as the mastermind all the time.

Maybe that’s what he needs to finally admit to the world that he loves his friend.

He waits patiently.

He has learned to wait after four bets were made so waiting for the right moment to come is nothing compared to his patience.

But, maybe’s are possibilities that doesn’t have full percentage. It’s a matter of whichever decision is going to be made at the last minute. And time is quick enough that you feel the pressure it’s putting you through.

Baekhyun rushes to his room when his phone rings. It was Yoona, the subject of the third bet. She is already his friend.

He answers it right away, placing the phone against his ear.

“Hello?”

[Can I see you?]

He is putting on his white shirt when he receives another call. This time, it’s from Chanyeol.

“Yeolo!” He greets.

[Baekhyun!]

Baekhyun’s stomach rumbles. The butterflies inside liked the way his name sounds when Chanyeol says it. He stops himself from smiling so big so that he’ll still be able to talk normally.

“What?”

[I have something very important to tell you!]

Baekhyun laughs. His friend sounds so excited. “What is it?”

[I have to see you.]

“Now? I can’t. I promised Yoona that I’ll go see her.”

[Please? It’s urgent.]

Baekhyun sighed, but he was smiling because he knows Chanyeol would understand him. “You know I don’t break my promises, Yeol.”

[Can’t you break a promise for me?]

“No, Chanyeol, I can’t.” Baekhyun says and chuckles. But he will break a promise later after he talks with Yoona because that is when he will confess.

[Pretty please?]

“No.” He sticks his tongue out even though he knew Chanyeol wouldn’t see. “I have to go now. Bye, Yeol.”

He tells himself that he will only break one promise. He will risk the state of their friendship by confessing. He tells himself that only one is enough and he believes that will change a whole lot of things that is why he didn’t concede when Chanyeol asked him to break a promise for him. But fate really is challenging him.

And one decision affects everything that follows after.

“Baekhyun!”

He turns his head to where the voice came and sure enough, he saw Yoona sitting by a bench under a tree, enjoying the coolness of the wind on it’s shade. He smiles and waves at her as he walks towards her.

Yoona pats the space beside her, telling Baekhyun to sit down as well. When Baekhyun did, she sighs.

“Baekhyun, I need some help.”

Baekhyun’s brows furrows. The statement confuses him as much as it was confusing when Yoona asked to talk to him.

“What do you mean you need some help? Did something happen?”

“Promise me first that you’ll help me.”

“It depends. If I can, then why not?”

“You can. Promise?”

Baekhyun sighs, a smile forming on his lips due to Yoona’s pushing. “Okay, okay. I promise.”

Yoona hummed as she nodded, but she was grinning, “Yes, something terrible happened.” Baekhyun was searching to the depths of his mind for some clue to what Yoona is talking about when she says, “I’m in love with Park Chanyeol.”

He feels his world stills. Baekhyun’s breath hitches.

Why does this have to happen?

“And I guess you can help me.”

“Do you really love him?”

“I do.”

Baekhyun’s world completely comes to a halt.

You have to confess, something inside Baekhyun tells him. Baekhyun mentally shakes his head. He never breaks a promise. He shouldn’t even have thought of confessing to Chanyeol. He couldn’t do that to him. Chanyeol sees him as a friend—a dear one at that, how can he just throw that away? What useless feelings. He thinks.

He won’t break any of his promises.

Making up his mind, Baekhyun forces a smile in his lips—one that he was used to whenever Chanyeol would show up in front of him. “Okay.”

In every decision made, a domino effect is expected. And so when Baekhyun made up his mind with helping Yoona to be with Chanyeol, he prepares his heart and expects for the worst.

It is always ‘expect the unexpected’ because the turn of events is not always in our hands but even so, when you prepare yourself for something unexpected, you really cannot measure its amount of negativity. It’s the worst and it’s unexpected so you’ll never know when it will come and how bad is the impact and how deep is the effect.

For him, he just did what a friend should do. Since you are a friend, you are expected to help—some even to the point of breaking but Baekhyun is beyond the breaking point. No matter how he places the pieces of his heart back together, he can’t. He’s not just broken—he’s more than that. He’s crushed.

He never thought they would click all over again.

At the day of his friend’s wedding, he didn’t cry. He’s too lonely to cry. He’s too spent. He feels numb. He couldn’t even feel the microphone in his hand.

“You can do it, Baek!” Chanyeol says at the side, cheering for him.

He clears his throat. Another one of his fake smiles in his face. “I’m so sorry, I’m just too happy for my friends that I forgot what I should say, but, congratulations. Cheers to Chanyeol and Yoona.”

He can’t find the will to cry. Chanyeol’s not his and he is not going to be. He doesn’t have the right to cry.

It was the wedding day when at last, there were tears in his eyes.

“Kyungsoo!”

“Hey, Baekhyun! Oy, I remembered the bet you and Chanyeol made.” Kyungsoo playfully glares at him.

Right. Kyungsoo knew about the bet. Chanyeol told him some time ago.

“Oh, that. I’m sorry.”

“I just told you I remembered about it. I’m not angry.” Kyungsoo sighs and sits beside him. “I thought it would work.”

Baekhyun turns at him. “What would work?”

“You two.” When Kyungsoo sees the confusion in Baekhyun’s face, his eyes widens a bit. “Oh, didn’t he tell you?”

“Who? And about what?”

“Chanyeol. I thought you two would work.”

“Me and him? Please, we’re just friends.”

Kyungsoo smiles and shakes his head. “So he didn’t tell you.”

Baekhyun’s heart beat suddenly races. He is having the urge to know what Chanyeol had told Kyungsoo but at the same time he’s scared of hearing it. What if Chanyeol already knew from the start about what he feels for him and he despises it? What if Chanyeol said things about him behind his back?

His thoughts were interrupted by Kyungsoo when the man places a hand on his shoulder.

“Always the best man but never the groom, Baekhyun.”

“What?” Baekhyun asks in confusion.

Always the best man but never the groom.

He smiles sadly as he realizes what Kyungsoo said meant. His gaze drops on his lap.

“I told him to confess to you.”

Baekhyun looks up all of a sudden. He doesn’t understand what Kyungsoo is saying.

“When he took me out for a date because of the bet, he was all about you. It was annoying at that time so I asked him if he liked you and he said yes. He said he only agreed to the bet because he thought that would make you happy.”

Baekhyun feels his eyes getting watery.

“He told me that he wouldn’t mind agreeing to a thousand bets if that would make you smile. He only wanted to see you smile at him and only him. That’s why I told him to confess. I never said that I didn’t like his ears.”

Baekhyun was left on his own when Kyungsoo was excused by his now husband, Kim Jongin because they still have lots of guests to attend to.

He only wanted to see you smile at him and only him.

The first of his million tears fell when his gaze landed on Park Chanyeol who looks at him and yells, “Smile!”

Maybe in this story, the people included in the bet wouldn’t be too happy with the choices they made. Maybe they’d lie to cover up whatever they feel. And maybe they’d feel wrong all along. Then maybe they would succumb to whatever feeling was eating them and confess the truth. But, maybe’s are possibilities that doesn’t have full percentage. It’s a matter of whichever decision is going to be made at the last minute yet every decision affects the next one that is why consequences are expected.

This is the effect of his decision. He has to accept it.

Chanyeol is smiling at him. That is the smile that he wanted only for himself. But that smile now belongs to his wife.

Baekhyun cries in silent. He still doesn’t have the right to cry but he cannot bottle it up anymore. He promised not to cry. He promised because he doesn’t have the right since he didn’t do anything about his feelings. He promised. And once he makes a promise, he never dares to break it.

But he cries because now he knew.

Some promises are made to be broken.

A/N: I want to dedicate this to someone but I think so highly of that someone and I guess she's so busy so I won't bother her but I want her to read this but then again she doesn't even know me T____________T how sad is life. I wrote this because I was so moved with her story like a foot away from where I'm sitting right now ( wow okay .___. what a joke) alright, it's 00:27 in my homeland so peace out ^^

[talk to me? @SujimaHannako ]