Baekhyun had put off packing for as long as possible because he knew once he started he wouldn't be able to back down or change his mind. Once he finally began, it made the situation all too real.

The excitement over having a girl was overshadowed by the unfortunate realization that the plane for Korea would leave in just a few hours.

Goodbyes to and from their friends had long ago been exchanged and it would be unfair to their families if they chickened out last minute. It had been too long since they'd even seen them. So there really was no turning back.

After going through security customs at the airport, he and Chanyeol quickly found two empty seats at their gate. Once seated, Baekhyun stuck his hands in the front pocket of his oversized hoodie and bounced his knee up and down anxiously. 

It was a definite sign that he was nervous.

Ever since they found out Baekhyun was pregnant, Chanyeol had noticed significant changes in their relationship.

For example, Baekhyun had always been the mature one, calming Chanyeol down when he needed it, looking after him to make sure he was okay. So it was now Chanyeol's turn to look after Baekhyun and tell him to relax. He assumed maturity just came with the knowledge that he would be a father soon.

He placed a hand on the older's knee to steady it. "Relax."

"I can't relax. I think I'm gonna puke." 

Baekhyun actually did look queasy. Whether it was from the pregnancy or nerves, he couldn't be sure. 

Baekhyun just wanted to go back to Harvard, go back to their room, crawl into his bed and sleep through the holidays. He was so envious of Minseok and Luhan having the opportunity to stay in Massachusetts for Christmas because they had opted to spend the holidays with their friends and Minseok's dad instead of their families. Why couldn't he and Chanyeol have done the same?

As for the rest of the boys, they would travel home at different time intervals and Baekhyun just yearned for more time to stall before having to face his parents.

Hoping to make things a little better, Chanyeol opened his arms for his smaller boyfriend to snuggle into. Baekhyun swallowed down his nerves and did so. 

Both of them would miss the intimacy they could share in public without scrutiny from their parents or nosy bystanders. They would miss a lot of things that they had in America that they would never have in Korea.

They wanted to savor the moment they were in, the moment that was most precious.

"See. All you needed to do was relax." Chanyeol murmured soothingly. 

Baekhyun no longer felt the urge to vomit. Instead, he just felt impatient. He wanted the trip to come and go so he could be done with it.

"Are you hungry?" Chanyeol asked gently. 

Baekhyun nodded. He reluctantly let go of his boyfriend so Chanyeol could leave to buy them something to eat. The older man sighed longingly while he watched the younger fade into the distance. Chanyeol looked the exact same as he did when they left Korea. Young, tall, fit, slightly skinny, and very handsome.

In spite of Chanyeol looking the exact same, Baekhyun knew he looked extremely different. The baby was causing changes to his body that he hated and had no control over. His appetite was forcibly larger and eating whole pizzas by himself had become the norm. His waist line was rapidly expanding and forcing him to wear oversized clothes.

His parents would definitely notice his change in appearance because it wasn't something he could hide. They would point out his weight gain based on the assumption that he wasn't taking care of himself properly and unknowingly crush his spirit. He wanted to stop obsessing about his appearance, something so minor, and come to the conclusion that his weight gain meant their daughter was healthy. Still, the more he thought about his appearance and what his family would say, the more upset he became.

By the time Chanyeol returned with coffee and muffins, Baekhyun was a sobbing mess. People did stare at them then. Only because Baekhyun was sobbing too loudly to ignore.

"Chanyeol, I don't like being pregnant. I'm fat and disgusting and my parents are going to notice everything." Baekhyun cried while he angrily grabbed the muffin from Chanyeol's hand. A muffin would do nothing to improve his mood. 

"Shh, keep your voice down, baby. You're disturbing other people. I promise you're not fat. Our daughter just needs you to gain weight." Chanyeol said quietly. 

"I don't give a about who I'm disturbing. Why can't you be pregnant? Why does it have to be me? Why do I have to do all the work?" How could Baekhyun successfully nurture another human being for 9 months? How was his body so prepared to do such a thing when his mind was so unprepared?

Chanyeol looked around apologetically before crouching down in front of Baekhyun. "You're lucky to be strong enough to nurture a growing life. I could never do that. You're pregnant and you're beautiful. Don't focus on trivial things like weight. It would be unhealthy not to gain weight. And look on the bright side, you can still fit in your old jeans."

"Just barely." Baekhyun pouted and Chanyeol laughed. Although it was true that Baekhyun's belly was the only thing that had really grown, Chanyeol just made sure to tell Baekhyun what he needed to hear.

Having a pregnant boyfriend came with a territory. If that meant convincing him multiple times a day he was beautiful and his weight was irrelevant, if that meant convincing him he was strong enough to nurture a developing child, so be it.

**

Time was an odd thing, Baekhyun concluded. Any other day, a 15 hour plane ride would seem endless. But because he was dreading when it was over, 15 hours flew by as if it were only an hour. 

"Is it too late to hope the plane crashes?" Baekhyun whispered to the person sitting next to him who was, of course, Chanyeol. 

Although the younger forced out a laugh of disagreement on the outside, on the inside, he wanted to take the next flight back to the US just as much as Baekhyun did.

He was just as scared as his boyfriend was, if not more, but he figured someone had to be brave and be the voice of reason. With Baekhyun under the influence of raging hormones, Chanyeol had no choice but to be that voice of reason.

"Baekhyun, you're blowing this way out of proportion. It won't be as bad as you think."

"No. It'll probably be worse. Just think about it." Baekhyun hissed back. 

Chanyeol held back a sigh. There were a ton of possible negative consequences associated with the trip but he didn't want to think about any of them. He didn't know what would happen.

All he knew was that the plan laid out for them when they arrived in Korea consisted of meeting up for a group reunion and a nice dinner, then going with their own families back to their respective homes. It seemed as if few things could go wrong with such a simple plan.

Well, aside from the fact that for the first time in forever, they wouldn't be able to sleep in the same bed. Chanyeol wouldn't be able to wake up every morning and press a kiss to Baekhyun's belly. He would miss the close proximity to his boyfriend and daughter.

Ultimately, the arrangement was only for 2 weeks. If they could power through the entire visit, they would tell their families that Baekhyun was expecting on the very last day. No matter the reactions, they would be going back to school almost immediately after and it was the best scenario they could come up with in order not to ruin anyone's Christmas with the surprising news.

Unfortunately for Baekhyun and Chanyeol and fortunately for everyone else, the plane did land safely. A flight attendant came over the loud speaker to welcome everyone to Korea in both English and Korean.

Before exiting the plane, Chanyeol gave Baekhyun a sweet kiss on the lips, the last one they would share for a little while. "It's only 2 weeks." He reminded his boyfriend. 

Then, Chanyeol gave his boyfriend's hand one last squeeze as his final show of affection.  For a definite amount of time, they were no longer Baekhyun and Chanyeol, boyfriends. They were Baekhyun and Chanyeol, best friends since 7 and 6 years old respectively.

Once they left the plane and manuevered their way throughout the airport, Baekhyun saw his parents and Chanyeol's parents anxiously waiting to greet their sons. He gulped and tightened his grip on his suitcase when he realized his maternal grandmother had decided to tag along. 

It might have been years since he'd seen her but he clearly remembered how strict and old fashioned she was. She would absolutely die if he told her the news about him and Chanyeol and their baby. He would hate to be the one responsible for his grandmother's death, even if he didn't like her.

"Baekhyun, we missed you!" Mrs. Byun shrieked as she enveloped her son in a hug. Baekhyun hoped she couldn't feel the baby who suddenly decided to squirm inside him. Thankfully it didn't seem like she could and he breathed a sigh of relief. If she didn't feel it, it was likely no one else would.

His grandmother held him at arm's length to examine him after everyone else had hugged him.

"You're much fatter than I remember. You need to lose some weight." She said to Baekhyun before turning to Chanyeol. 

Baekhyun sniffed and held back tears. He was expecting that something similar would have eventually been said to him but it was much different coming from his grandmother. She was always so outspoken and brash. That was how he remembered her. No matter how hormonal he was, he couldn't take anything personally.

"What's your name?" She asked Chanyeol. Baekhyun's grandmother was barely 5'3 and Chanyeol was over 6 feet tall. Although she was looking up at him, it seemed like she was looking down on him.

"Park Chanyeol, ma'am." He bowed politely. It had been a while since Chanyeol had bowed to someone, American customs being so unlike Korean customs.

"How old are you?"

"I just turned 18."

She stared at him for a good couple minutes before looking at Baekhyun. "Why can't you be more like him? He's tall, handsome, and very fit. Do you work out, son?" She turned her attention on Chanyeol.

"Yes, ma'am." He replied, obviously uncomfortable with the way Baekhyun's grandmother was treating Baekhyun.

"If I had a granddaughter, you'd be the one she'd marry. You seem like the type of young man with strong, active . You would make fine great-grandchildren for me."

Chanyeol coughed uncomfortably and Baekhyun paled. How ironic for her to bring up such a thing?

"I-I don't know about that." Chanyeol stuttered as his face began to burn in humiliation.

"Too bad I'm stuck with him for a grandson. What woman would want him? He's too short, he looks like a girl, and-" She spoke like Baekhyun either wasn't around or had no feelings at all. Thankfully, his mother interrupted.

"Mother, please. Baekhyun is a great young man and will find a nice woman. He'll have wonderful children."

Because Chanyeol's parents were feeling just as awkward about everything as their son, Mr. Park spoke up. "Are you guys ready for dinner? We'd assumed you'd slept on the plane. But if you're too tired we can go tomorrow."

Chanyeol was glad for the subject change. "I'm ready for dinner. What about you bab- Baekhyun?" He would have to get used to not calling Baekhyun cute pet names like baby.

"I, uh, I'm ready too." Baekhyun wanted nothing more than to go to the house and sleep but if he said so, everyone would suspect something was wrong.

The car ride over to the restaurant was spent with Baekhyun's family asking rapid fire questions about America in Korean. It was also spent holding back tears at his grandmother's sarcastic remarks to nearly everything he said. If he wasn't pregnant, maybe it wouldn't have upset him so much.

Chanyeol was in a similar situation in his parents' car because they kept asking him about America, about American people, and about Harvard without letting him take a breath.

Needless to say, by the time they arrived at the restaurant, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were exhausted from answering questions. 

As much as Baekhyun tried to prevent it from happening, he ended up sitting in between his grandmother and father and nowhere near Chanyeol.

"Come on boys. Tell us more of what it's like to live in America." Mrs. Byun leaned forward expectantly as if they hadn't talked enough about it already.

Chanyeol was about to respond before Baekhyun's grandmother cut him off.

"If you ask me, them living in America is a bad idea. They have way too much freedom. Look at Baekhyun, he can't even control his eating habits. All that American food is bad for him."

Baekhyun blamed 80% of his emotions on hormones and 20% of his emotions on being genuinely upset when his eyes filled with tears and his efforts to stop them were futile. 

"Excuse me." Baekhyun mumbled and hurried away from the table.

Mr. Byun was prepared to go after him but Chanyeol intervened. "I'll check on him, Mr. Byun."

Chanyeol jogged to the bathroom and found that it wasn't hard to locate Baekhyun. He was the only one in the bathroom and was sobbing heavily. 

Chanyeol knocked on the stall door.

"Go away!" Baekhyun hissed. 

"It's Chanyeol."

After hearing Chanyeol's familiar voice, Baekhyun flung the door open to reveal his tear stained face. Chanyeol immediately embraced his boyfriend and rubbed his back soothingly

"Coming back here was a mistake. My grandma is treating me like and she doesn't even know the truth yet. Can't we just go back home?"

Chanyeol paid special attention to the fact that Baekhyun was referring to Harvard as their home. The feeling was mutual.

"We owe it to our families. They've missed us, Baek."

"I-" Baekhyun didn't know what else to say. It's not like he could have afforded a plane ticket back to Korea on his own. It's not like he was brave enough to fly back on his own. Ultimately, he was stuck in Seoul.

For the first time ever, Baekhyun realized just how much their scholarships truly meant. Neither of them would have to worry about paying for school and could focus their money on their baby when it was time. Soon, it really would be time.

"I know it's hard. Your emotions are everywhere."

Baekhyun laughed at how true that was. 

"But it hasn't even been a day. Give it a chance."

Baekhyun smiled up at the younger man and cocked his head to the side. "When did you get so smart and mature?"

Chanyeol playfully poked Baekhyun's stomach. "It has a lot to do with this little girl here."

Baekhyun smiled and nodded before taking a slow breath in through his nose and out through his mouth to compose himself. He would simply ignore his grandmother's remarks and focus on dinner. That was the best thing he could do. Besides, he was starving any way and what good would he be doing himself by hiding in the bathroom and missing a great opportunity to enjoy some delicious food? The two of them quickly returned back to dinner and tried to forget that small incident which ended in tears.

By the end of the dinner, if asked, Baekhyun wouldn't have said dinner went particularly well but whenever he felt like crying, Chanyeol flashed him a small smile that was immediately returned. 

When they finally arrived home after the welcome back dinner, Baekhyun had half a mind to ask his parents if he could stay over Chanyeol's house. He was just so used to being with him all the time and because of that, his mouth worked before his brain. He blurted out the question without thinking of the consequences.

"You just saw that boy. Why don't you stop being a disgraceful son and spend quality time with your family?" His grandmother huffed.

Baekhyun put on a fake smile and said, "When you stop being a , I'll stop being disgraceful."

Any other time, he would have gotten a smack across his face for saying something so rude. But he smirked when his parents and grandma looked confused.

"Quit speaking in English. What did you say?" Mr. Byun asked.

"Oh, I just said I'm so terribly sorry. I don't mean to be disgraceful. Chanyeol's my best friend. That's all."

"And you see him everyday back at school. When was the last time you saw me?"

Not long enough ago, unfortunately. But Baekhyun knew that Chanyeol was right when he said their families missed them, it had been 5 months since he'd seen his family. The least he could do was pretend that he was happy to be back, even if he wasn't. 

To satisfy their cravings for qu