Chanyeol stared at Taemin, unable to believe what he just heard.

Taemin, the nice kid. Taemin he watched over ever since he started his internship here, in PKO, and whom he always had the best relationship with. Taemin, who was always smiling, and who was always ready to do everything to help with any tasks Chanyeol needed his help with, and whom he really trusted.

He couldn‘t comprehend it.

Jongin looked just as shocked as Chanyeol was, if not more. He just stared at Taemin, not saying a word, and not looking away even for a second. As if looking at him could give him any kind of answers.

“Oh?” Taemin tilted his head mockingly. “I probably spoiled the answer, didn’t I?  Aw, I’m sorry. I thought you already had it solved.”

He chuckled to himself.

Seemingly the only one unaffected by the unexpected turn of events, Kyungsoo took a step forward towards Taemin’s desk. He crossed his arms on his chest, and narrowed his eyes at the smiling male.

“You’re admitting to the fact that you're the culprit just like that?” he asked seriously. “It’s kind of suspicious, if you ask me.”

“There’s just no point in hiding it anymore,” Taemin shrugged. “I’m tired of hiding, it's been weeks and weeks since I started to. I already knew you were on my tail when you found out the traitor was from marketing. This whole thing with Baekhyun hyung was really just a try, I kind of knew that it’s not going to work, but there were other reasons for me to reveal that deal, so I just went and did it.”

“What the , Taemin?” Jongin growled, moving past Kyungsoo and burning the younger with his eyes. “How can you sit there like this and talk so happily about this, when you did it to us? We were always treating you like family, like our ing own baby brother! And now you just stabbed us in the back, and smile about it like it's nothing!”

Watching Jongin yell at him, Taemin stopped smiling. His eyes turned dark. 

“I just picked others over you,” he answered the other in a low voice. “Just like you have, Jongin hyung.”

Jongin scoffed with disbelief.

“What are you even talking about?”

“Who. Baekhyun hyung,” Taemin leaned back, staring at the other, with mockery in his eyes. “Think, Jongin hyung. You’re not dumb, right? You can do it.”

For a moment, everybody stared at Jongin, and Jongin only looked at Taemin, looking nothing but enraged and frustrated. But slowly, realization fell upon his face, and Jongin’s eyes turned from furious to shocked.

“What?” Kyungsoo asked, taking a step to stand in between Taemin and Jongin protectively. “What’s going on, Jongin?”

Kangjun also stepped forward, close enough to shield Kyungsoo if Taemin attacked him from the back while he was looking at Jongin. That move made Taemin laugh.

“What has Baekhyun got to do with all this?” Chanyeol asked, big eyes moving from Taemin to Jongin and backwards. He couldn't really understand what was going on in here, but as soon as Baekhyun was mentioned, his whole body tensed.

He didn't want to hear anyone blame Baekhyun again, he had enough of that already. Chanyeol just wanted to protect Baekhyun, so that no more would be put on his shoulders.

So that he could be calm and happy, and reach his dreams in the music production like he always wanted.

Although everybody was waiting for him to speak, Jongin didn’t answer anyone. He didn’t seem to see everyone's eyes on him, and didn’t look like he felt Kyungsoo’s gentle touch on his elbow. He just kept silent.

“I’ll tell you, since hyung seems to have lost his ability to speak,” Taemin sighed, apparently out of patience to wait for Jongin any longer. “I’ve been an intern in here for ages. More than a year, right, Chanyeol hyung?”

Startled by Taemin adressing him so unexpectedly, Chanyeol just nodded.

“Well, Jongin hyung was my team leader. Ever since the very beginning. On the very first day of me coming here, he told me that if I do my best, I can stay in his team after I finish university and, of course, I believed him. I didn't see a reason not to.”

“I didn’t think about it,” Jongin murmured, taking a step away from Taemin's desk, and from the worried looking Kyungsoo. “I didn’t think about it like that. Baekhyun was supposed to work elsewhere later anyways. He was meant to go to music production.”

Taemin looked at him.

“And how was I supposed to know that? You just said he’s joining the marketing team from now on, the team, that is allowed to have up to five people. And I was the only intern in there. I thought that it was all pretty clear.”

Kyungsoo seemed to have understood everything, too. He frowned.

“Let me get this straight,” Kangjun took a step forward, taking out a tiny black notebook and a pen. “You saw that your team leader brought in a new person, who was going to take your possible workplace, and you decided to betray the company in return? As a revenge?”

“Not only that,” Taemin told him, seemingly eager to finally speak freely about what he'd done. “That other company also offered me a job for doing it. They said they would hire me after I gave them the chance to blame PKO for plagiarism.”

“You do realize that you all are going to get punished for this?” Kyungsoo asked, eyebrows raised. “You’re not going to get any job anywhere, kid.”

“I know,” Taemin told him calmly. “I understood it later, when you caught up to me. But I understood I wasn’t even planning to take that offer on anyways. Do you think that after getting thrown out of PKO, I would be able to work in some low, small, meaningless company for the rest of my life? I'd rather stay in jail after doing my best to give PKO back what it gave me.”

“Your logic is really ed up,” Kyungsoo informed him, stepping closer to Jongin. “I’m sure the police will be glad to learn more about it, but we have heard enough. Kangjun, call officer Kim if you may, and ask him to come take this guy with him.”

Kangjun listened almost immediately, taking out his phone and leaving the office. Chanyeol stood there, not knowing what to do. He wanted to go and comfort Jongin, who was still not uttering a word even when Kyungsoo tried to talk to him, but he didn’t think Jongin needed that right now. For such situations, Kyungsoo was always better for getting Jongin to calm down.

He looked at Taemin, not knowing how to deal with all this and understand, that it’s really the same Taemin he knew. Noticing that Chanyeol was looking at him, Taemin returned his look and seconds later smiled.

 “I'm sorry, Chanyeol hyung,” he said, and his voice sounded sincere. “You have nothing to do with this, you were always kind to me. I always liked you, and in no way I wanted to harm you. But things turned out this way, and I had no choice.”

Kyungsoo scoffed at him through his shoulder.

“But I think telling you about the deal was a good choice,” Taemin continued, ignoring the owl-eyed male. “I think you deserved to know what people around you were doing, and that Baekhyun hyung was not really who you thought he was. Just like Jongin hyung wasn’t to me. We're kind of alike in that way, aren't we, Chanyeol hyung? We were both tricked by people we thought we could trust.”

“Would you shut up already?” Kyungsoo growled, angered by the last line. “I’m sick of hearing your disgusting voice. Go spit your lies to someone else, leave Chanyeol alone.”

Taemin raised his eyebrow at him.

“Aren't you the guy who left Jongin hyung and disappeared?"

With those words, Kyungsoo was caught off guard, and a flash of pain passed through his dark eyes. He quickly composed himself, but didn’t say anything back, and that made it obvious that Taemin hit a hurtful spot.

“The officer is coming. He said he’d be here in five minutes at most,” Kangjun said as he returned to the room, and looked at Taemin. “You’re going to be put in jail, do you understand that, Mr. Lee?”

Taemin looked at him.

“I did what I needed to do,” he answered calmly.

 This was all too much to take in for Chanyeol. He took a step backwards, as if he wanted to leave. He did.

Taemin looked at him, and for a moment, his smug expression wavered.

Chanyeol didn’t want to stay and watch him get arrested. He looked at Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo answered his look with his own, and nodded. He understood.

Chanyeol turned around and left, feeling unfamiliar heaviness weigh his shoulders as he walked out of the room.

He could feel that Taemin was still looking at his back.

After Taemin’s confession and his arrest, days in the marketing apartment went by quickly - everybody was that busy, trying to get back to the normal rhythm and get things done. But the dark atmosphere stayed.

Chanyeol was all over PKO these days, dragged around from meeting to meeting, giving explanations on Taemin’s situation and being scolded for not checking interns enough before taking them in. Jongin followed him everywhere, ready to take on any scolding himself. He did receive some, but the heaviest burden was placed on Chanyeol’s shoulders, and that Jongin felt guilty about more than anything else.

Baekhyun had learned about Taemin from Yixing. The producer was mostly the only person from PKO he saw these days, because Baekhyun was only coming to work on his voice, practice, and talk about what kind of songs he would like to be singing in the future. At least that was what he was supposed to be doing. But during these meetings, trying his best to hide his nervousness, Baekhyun would also carefully ask about Chanyeol; how he was doing and how did he look when Yixing last saw him. Baekhyun was desperate to hear something about Chanyeol, anything, since he hadn’t seen the male for days, and the last time he saw him Chanyeol didn't look too good. Baekhyun was very worried.

When he heard Chanyeol was scolded for not realizing who the traitor was sooner, he jumped up from his chair in anger.

“How in the world should he have known?! Even Jongin didn’t realize!” he roared protectively at the unimpressed Yixing. “Chanyeol never— he’s just not the person who would suspect such things in other people! And he's no investigator! He’s—“

“The general manager,” Yixing finished calmly. “Which makes him responsible."

Baekhyun opened his mouth to argue, but no word left his lips. He knew there was no point. Yixing was right. The person who was scolded for everything was always the manager, regardless of who truly messed up in the department.

What a stupid, rotten system.

Defeated, Baekhyun slumped back into the chair, and closed his eyes. His head hurt.

“You okay?” Yixing asked, concerned eyes watching Baekhyun worriedly. “You haven’t been well these days, tired, stressed, and then that cold you got on the weekend. Is that gone now?”

Baekhyun brushed his hair out of his face with the back of his hand, eyes still closed.

“I don’t know. I guess so.”

Yixing frowned at his emotionless answer, and reached out to touch Baekhyun’s forehead.

“I think you have a fever,” he said, eyebrows furrowing. “Maybe we should postpone the recording.”

Opening his eyes, Baekhyun shook his head.

“No, I’ll do it today, " he said quickly. " If I really get sick, it will get gross. I’ll cough and probably won’t be able to sing at all for a while. And CEO Park won’t like that.”

Yixing shrugged.

“If you want so,” he shot Baekhyun a warning look. “But if you feel it getting worse, tell me instantly, okay?”

Baekhyun nodded, and reached out to take the song sheet from Yixing’s hands.

Today was the day he was going to record his first song. He thought he would be excited, or at least would feel a little bit of joy in the whole process. But now, it didn’t really feel exciting or joyous at all.

He lost Chanyeol. He was missing him to the point it hurt. These whole days, Baekhyun wondered how was he even able to walk around and do things, sing, talk, when his whole being felt like it was being torn in half and burned. Like something crucial was missing from him, taken away from him, and yet he was doing nothing to get it back.

He stood up and walked out of Yixing’s room to get into the recording room. He placed the sheet on the note stand, and pulled the headphones over his ears.

Do it for him, he thought again. That was all he said to himself these days.

Do it for Chanyeol, do everything for Chanyeol. If not, what have you got left, Byun Baekhyun?..

Yixing motioned to the note stand, wordlessly asking him to check the lyrics and notes. Baekhyun knew that he will have one listen of the instrumental version, and only on the second time of Yixing playing it he will need to sing along. Yixing had taught him that.

He took the sheet and started reading.

And at the same time, the music started playing, and Baekhyun recognized the tune. His heart lost the usual, steady pace, and its beat quickened in the startle.

His song. Chanyeol's song.

Guitar sounds, playing in the headphones, were so beautiful. Baekhyun could swear that he could hear Chanyeol‘s fingers on the strings, strumming them gently, lovingly, like he himself was. He could imagine him, eyebrows furrowed with concentration as he played, and that view alone was enough for his chest to fill up with warmth and that sad, lonely longing he was already full of for days. Baekhyun‘s eyes ran through the letters as he listened to the song, and his heart ached more and more with every line he read.

 “Baekhyun?” Yixing’s voice sounded in the room. “The instrumental is repeating. You missed the beginning.”

Baekhyun didn’t answer him. He should have, but he couldn't.

All he could hear and understand was his own drumming heartbeat, and all that was in his head were those words. Words Chanyeol had written, printed on that sheet, words that broke Baekhyun's heart.

“Baekhyun, are you okay?”  

No. No, I’m not. 

“Baekhyun?” Yixing asked, voice getting more nervous when Baekhyun didn’t answer. 

“This song is for me,” Baekhyun whispered.  “He wrote it for me."

No songs for months, but then that one song for October.

God, how could have Baekhyun not understood it. How could he not thought of it? 

He was the only thing that changed, that came to Chanyeol's life.

Picking up my old guitar,
The confession that I couldn’t make
 

"Is there any chance you would play it for me, someday?" he asked quietly, looking at Chanyeol. He hoped, he really hoped there was. 

Chanyeol scatched his neck, clearly very uncomfortable.

"I-I don't know," he took a step forward, and gently tugged the notebook out of Baekhyun's hands. "I don't think it's that good enough for anyone to listen to, Baekhyun. It's just a draft."

"And to me, regardless if it's a draft or not, it's still amazing.  And I would really love to hear it one day. When you complete it."

Pretending I made one song, I’m about to tell you
Just listen, I’ll sing for you

 It was as though Chanyeol was talking to him through that song, the Chanyeol from the past. The one whom he had not yet hurt back then. 

 And then he hurt him.

“Baekhyun, I don’t want to do this anymore. You’re free. You can consider your task, your part of the deal completed. Go, Baekhyun.

“Just go.”

The words that I regretted when I looked back

I will apologize but just listen,

I will sing for you

Chanyeol never really wanted Baekhyun to go. He loved him, he wanted him to stay. He was never mad at him for anything, he was only mad at himself for sending him away, he was intending to apologize for things that he never should have apologized for.

He, Baekhyun, hurt him. Not the other way around. So why was he thinking he had to apologize for telling him to go?

Because Chanyeol was kind. He never blamed Baekhyun for anything.

“Baekhyun,” Yixing stepped into the room, eyebrows furrowed. “Is everything alright with you? Do you feel sick?”

Everyday I am thankful that you are with me
My gift that God gave to me

“Baekhyun,” Yixing put his hand on his shoulder, worried eyes plastered to the shorter. “Baekhyun, you’re crying.”

The words I want to say, but missed the chance
I will confess but just listen,
I’ll sing for you, sing for you
Just listen once and smile

“I know.”

Today I will take courage and tell you, but just
Listen to it carelessly, I’ll sing for you

 This was all too much to take in.

 “When did he give you this?” Baekhyun asked, voice shaking as much as he tried to remain as calm as he possibly could. "And don't even try to pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, Yixing. I know the song is his."

The producer sighed, looking away from Baekhyun.

"I wasn't even going to," he told him tiredly. "I was going to tell you the same day he brought it to me, but he asked me not to. I couldn't betray him."

Yixing knew there was half-hell going on in the company on that day, and he was not thrilled about it one bit. That, actually, was precisely why he chose to stay in his very own recording room, where nobody could disturb him with stupid rumors or useless chatter. Or both. God, how much he hated those.

He stayed in his room for a long time, not moving anywhere further than the bathroom at the back of the hallway. Inspiration was kind of failing him these days, and therefore his mood was not at its best either.

All of a sudden, after hours of sitting there with a half-empty sheet on his knees, there was a quiet knock on his door. Yixing turned his head, eyebrows furrowed.

“If you’re here to ramble about Baekhyun, Jongin or Chanyeol, don’t even bother coming in and go along,” he warned the visitor loudly. “I’m sick of your folks' gossip.”

The door opened slightly.

And Yixing most certainly did not expect to see Chanyeol.

Chanyeol looked awful, though. His eyes were slightly red, his skin was pale and he looked so distraught that Yixing barely held himself back from standing up and walking ove