Hi! I'm dumping some of my story drafts that I started, but never continued or pursued. Maybe I'll look at them in the future and think about picking it up again (like what i did with ATTWY and Think About It)

Draft #1

Being a model for years and, consequently, transitioning over to designing, Baekhyun was always aware of details and the importance of image in the public eye since public opinions were everything to him. By the age of twenty-nine, he had done everything he had wanted to. He made a career out of nothing, became one of Seoul’s most sought-after fashion brands by the time he was twenty-seven, continuously worked hard to build his empire, and eloped with his college boyfriend days before he turned twenty-five. It seemed too perfect in his head and in the media that it was almost easy to maintain the picturesque life he had.

Nothing felt off or wrong with his life until the day they fought and Chanyeol just...left.

☂

“Baekhyun, listen. I’m not going to lie to you because, as your manager, this looks bad. I already have a publicist on it so we’ll start damage control as soon as possible.”

Junmyeon was obviously doing his best to manage him in the best interest of everyone involved, but Baekhyun couldn’t help but keep staring out the window of the moving car, drowning out half the things that was being said to him. It wasn’t the best idea since it concerned him, but he wasn’t in the mood. “Okay.”

Frowning, Junmyeon reached over and touched him by the arm. “Listen, it’ll be fine. We’ll leak a statement to one of the outlets and hopefully, other sources will pick it up.”

“And then what?”

“Well, I’ll try to get in contact with Chanyeol. Maybe see if he’s willing to meet so we can talk about the situation and--”

“We?” Baekhyun turned his head to his manager. “He’s my husband. Don’t you think I should be the one to get in contact with him?”

Acknowledging his mistake, Junmyeon nodded. “Yes, I know. Of course… but, Baek. It’s been three days. You even told me that he hasn’t said a word to you. Three days isn’t a long time, I get it. But you and Chanyeol… It’s different when you two market yourselves as the perfect couple. There are already articles speculating divorce. It doesn’t look good.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

Despite the male agreeing, Junmyeon wasn’t entirely convinced since the latter still seemed dazed by the blurry environment outside his tinted windows. “Right… So the best thing to do is to fix this as soon as possible. I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but I’m going to need you to call Chanyeol and talk to him. We can’t have this continue for his sake and yours.”

☂ 

Baekhyun had the habit of procrastinating, especially when the thought of a certain task did nothing but give him stress. However, his lack of action concerning his marriage stemmed mostly out of confusion, fear and, consequently, a bit of pride. He lost track of time in order to soothe himself and buried his focus into approving looks for the new summer collection. Before he knew it, a week had passed. The only thing that reminded him of Chanyeol was a set reminder on his phone about a dinner date that they had pre-scheduled the month earlier. Ironically enough, it worked as a reminder to call the man himself.

That evening, he returned back home to the empty condo and poured himself a half-glass of wine, wondering how god-awful he must look like if some poor stranger just happened to see him in that moment. But out of all the things that Baekhyun could do in the world, apologizing and making amends sober just wasn’t one of them.

After finishing his first glass, he poured another just for the sake of things. He could already feel the alcohol loosening his nerves, but he needed a bit more to feel comfortable enough to call his own husband which seemed almost ridiculous, but it was the only way he knew how.

Before long, Baekhyun finally took a seat on their white sofa, lied down, and hit call. In the back of his mind, he knew he was a bit of a mess. Waiting for Chanyeol to pick up the phone seemed like an eternity (or maybe it was just the alcohol), but the moment he heard it stop ringing, his heart stopped. A split second of silence went by before Baekhyun found his voice again.

“Hey.”

Chanyeol took a bit of time to respond back, but when he did, he sounded a little more irked than Baekhyun had hoped for. He didn’t really know.

“Hi.”

“How’re you?”

God, he sounded so stiff and rigid. When did talking to Chanyeol become to hard?

“I’m fine. Why? Do you need anything?”

Taken aback by the man’s tone, Baekhyun made a face at the stark white ceiling.

“I just called because I wanted to know when you plan on coming back,” he said, bluntly. The wine was really working its magic, but then he deflected. “Junmyeon also told me to call you so there’s that, too. We have photoshoots scheduled in about a week. Are you going to be able to--”

“I know,” Chanyeol said, cutting him off. “Junmyeon actually called me a week ago. He seemed pretty surprised when I told him you hadn’t even tried contacting me all week.”

“Oh…”

“We already canceled my participation in some of the upcoming events, so you don’t need to worry about whether or not I’ll show up, because I won’t.” There was a small pause before Chanyeol sighed. “Anything else? Or was work the only thing you wanted to talk to me about?”

Baekhyun wasn’t sure how to answer. His grip on his phone tightened, but he was so blindsided that everything he had planned for in his head was useless preparation.

“I’m assuming you’re not coming back--”

“Why’re you asking?”

“Because it’s been a week and a half!” Baekhyun answered, beginning to feel as equally annoyed at Chanyeol’s blunt tone. “Dispatch has photos of you leaving our place and staying over at someone else’s place. The only other place you’ve been to is your studio and… It doesn’t look good.”

“Funny. Junmyeon actually said the same thing.”

“Right. Then you know that--”

“Listen.” Chanyeol had no issue asserting himself, which made the latter feel as though he was losing his grip on the situation. “If you’re just calling me to act like a manager or publicist, then I’m done with this call because I had this same exact conversation with Junmyeon. I have things to do and I can’t waste my time if you honestly think that this is what I want from you-- of all people.”

“Then what do you want?” Baekhyun finally asked, sitting up as his pent up frustrations began to simmer over. “You wanted to leave, so I let you. And now you don’t care how this is affecting how we’re seen and--”

“God, you know what? This is the problem,” Chanyeol said. His voice subtly gave hints to the hurt that he tried to keep at bay. “And I told you this when I left. The way you talk about me-- ! The way you talk about us! It always has to be about somebody else, which is why you don’t care about fixing this relationship.”

“That’s not true,” Baekhyun argued back. “I care about this just as much as you do. The fact that you think that I don’t is so--”

“Is so what? Insulting? Babe, what’s insulting is that it feels like you only want me back just so someone happens to take a photo of us. And it’s been like this for a while, but like I said last week, if this relationship is just for your brand’s sake, then just… I don’t know. Figure it out. Let me know whether you want your husband or your public image back, because you can’t have both, Baek.”

☂

Aftering getting off the call with his husband, Chanyeol set his phone on the tried to get back into mixing the audio for the rough version of his latest EP, but, frustrated, he stopped, pushing himself away from his work space. Putting both hands behind his head, he paced around the room for a few minutes. When the door to the studio opened, he paused, jerking his head in direction of the sound of someone clearing their throat.

“You wanted it straight black, right?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Soo,” Chanyeol muttered as he reached forward to take the drink from the latter. “Sorry for making you go on a coffee run. I just wanted to finish tonight.”

“Hmm… This’ll be your third song this week. You’re pretty much overworking yourself at this point,” Kyungsoo commented, taking a seat on one of the extra chairs in the room. “When was the last time you actually went home and slept in your own bed instead of crashing in the loft upstairs?”

“I’m not going to talk about that, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol warned him. However, he could see that he wasn’t affected by the remark and it didn’t result in anything but an eye roll from his friend.

“Do you honestly think running away from your problems with Baekhyun is going to fix anything? He hasn’t even called you all week, so this silent treatment thing doesn’t seem all that great.”

“He did call me. Just now, before you came in.”

Raising his brows, Kyungsoo cocked his head. “No wonder you seemed like you were in a tier mood than when I left you thirty minutes ago.” He paused for a moment before asking, “And..? Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“I just said I didn’t want to talk about it--”

“Cut the bull, Park. What happened?”

Chanyeol looked at him, almost challenging him to back off, but Kyungsoo’s demeanor left no room for submission. Exasperated, the giant shook his head, moving his chair close to him and sat down. “Same thing. Talked to me like I was one of his clients and just talked about schedules.”

“And that’s not what you wanted.”

“No.”

“What did you want?” Kyungsoo asked before he waved his hand. “Actually, scratch that. What were you expecting out of that call?”

“It doesn’t matter. I should’ve known better.”

“But--”

Shaking his head, Chanyeol sighed. “Can we just get back to work?”

Kyungsoo snorted. “Fine. I’m just saying that you two aren’t dating, and I know this for sure because I was a witness for your ceremony. You two are married, so expecting Baekhyun to do all the work is, in my opinion, pretty dumb.”

☂

There were some things that Chanyeol managed to pull himself out of, but other contracts were so iron-tight on clauses that he had no other choice but to do the show. The entire situation made Baekhyun a little nervous, because he felt awkward about the entire thing despite the obvious fact that they’d been married for practically four years. Not being on speaking terms with your significant other wasn’t the best situation to be in, and it made it even more difficult to interact naturally in front of the camera.

They were set to film a short mini-series titled “Love in Paradise” with other celebrity couples. However, when they signed the contracts, they were actually still talking to each other and there wasn’t a heavy loaded spotlight on their so-called “broken relationship” (as described by Korea Weekly).

Oddly enough, seeing Chanyeol get out of his tinted van at Incheon international was the first time (besides online photos) that Baekhyun had seen him since their first three weeks ago. It took a lot for him to look camera-ready, especially since all he had been doing was moping around the condo and getting dragged to places by Jongdae who, in his words, described him as a hot mess.

☂

“Let’s go out tonight. Maybe hit a few exclusive bars.”

The suggestion wasn’t entirely terrible. He had been staying in the condo practically all week unless he had a meeting or a event to attend, but otherwise, Baekhyun spent most of his free time in bed, streaming movies on his laptop. A night out could do him some good, but his mind was too distracted by the repercussions that not even Jongdae, one of his closest friends, could keep him

“I can’t.”

“You overthink everything too much!” When Baekhyun didn’t answer, Jongdae moved over to where his friend was lying on his couch and tried to pull him in a sitting position. “Let’s go to the Octagon. I can get a private booth. Drink a little. Maybe even--”

“Can you just imagine what the outlets would do to me if they got a pic of me at a nightclub?” Baekhyun groaned, retaliation by trying to get Jongdae’s hands off of him. “Hell. It’d be PR hell.”

“ PR and the stupid outlets,” Jongdae replied, rolling his eyes. “We’re going out.”

“But--”

“Not hearing any of it. One night’s not going to kill you.”

Unfinished