It's going to be a night you won't forget.

That's what Sooyoung had whispered to me when we had parted ways in front of the main entrance to the hospital after I had agreed to meet her and Jongdae at the bar later today. I started regretting my decision right away, mainly because of two reasons. One - no one agreed to have a party, just a few beers together, and the fact that Sooyoung already planned to have fun till the dawn was quite distressing. The second reason was based on my personal assumptions. I tried to blame it on my imagination but my mind couldn't dismiss the look on Baekhyun's face I'd seen the moment I'd agreed to Jongdae's invitation. To say he had looked mad would've been an exaggeration but he haven't seemed happy either.

I felt like a source of his potential bad mood now because what if I just forced him to something he wanted to avoid? What if spending more time with me was the last thing he really wanted? I felt uncomfortable around him enough without those annoying questions without answers pilling up inside my head but now I couldn’t even hold a proper conversation with him.

At this point, I was scared to even ask about the weather.

"Are you okay?" Baekhyun's sudden voice pulled me back from my thoughts, and I whipped my head in his direction.

He already had the car parked in front of my house, already knowing the roads in my city like the back of his hand, and I could've smiled at that sweet independence in finding the way to my family’s property if the awful pangs of blame weren't slowly consuming my conscience.

I unfastened my seatbelt and opened the door, keeping the eye contact to a bare minimum, "Yeah, let's go in."

He followed me inside, walking right behind me without a word, and I screamed inside in frustration because he barely bothered to talk after we left the hospital. Yesterday he was touchy and protective and now? Why was he so hard to understand and so inconsistent in his moods? I couldn't even ask him that because he would've dodged every question with ease - maybe even the one he promised me to answer with sincerity.

I stole a glance at him taking off his shoes, wondering when I would have a chance to ask it. That question was a precious gift from him, a chance to find the key to Baekhyun's mind, and I didn't want to waste it on something trivial. On the other hand, I didn't want to pry on his privacy, pleading the stupid promise we had as my excuse to take any information out of him.

With a sigh, I took off my own shoes, placing them far away from Baekhyun's. I did it on purpose even if he wouldn't have noticed, annoyed at the way he kept distancing himself from me at times. It might seem funny or pathetic, but I liked to see it as my small protest against his cold treatment because I was already fed up with the heavy silence.

“What time do you want to meet them?” Baekhyun asked, watching how I pushed my shoes to the very right corner of the corridor, and I shrugged, not really interested in setting the appropriate time of the meeting when he wasn’t even eager to have fun with us in the first place.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” I added after a short moment, finding it appropriate to give him an opening to run. It seemed like he needed one, after all.

Surprisingly, he gave me a confused look, “What makes you think I don’t want to go?”

“Please,” I laughed dryly at that, “it doesn’t take a genius to see that you’re not happy with going there.” Otherwise, why would he behave so coldly now?

I made an attempt to pass by him and head to the kitchen to prepare something quick for us to eat, but Baekhyun was quick to catch my arm and stop me from making any more steps away from him.

I glared at his hand touching me before I lifted my eyes to stare him right in the eye with the same frustration, “What?”

“That’s the exact same thing I want to ask,” he said, not letting go of me despite the silent warning I sent him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I don’t know,” I barked back, feeling every bit of an ugly emotion pouring out of me. “Get inside the closet for five seconds and maybe I will tell you.”
 
As soon as those words escaped my lips, Baekhyun’s grip loosened and I knew I crossed the line. I couldn’t even tell why I got so mad in the first place and it made me feel even more awful at lashing out at him out of the blue.

I closed my eyes for a moment, annoyed with myself, “Sorry about that. There’s just... too much going on in my head right now.”

I noticed him clench his jaw for a second, debating whatever he was supposed to do. Then he ran a frustrated hand through his black hair, leaving it in a sudden mess matching my tangled feelings. My mind proposed to reach to the sticking strands of his hair and run my own fingers through them but I quickly scolded myself for that inappropriate thought.

“Do you want me to leave?” He finally muttered, sounding uncertain with his own question and I was quick to shake my head, afraid he would head to the door if I wasn’t fast enough with my answer.

“No, but I also don’t want you to stay here if you’re forcing yourself to keep me company.”