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“Jongdae! Babe, I’m home!” Yixing called out as he walked into the house and set his shoulder bag on the couch. There was no response, so he looked around, curiously. “Dae?” There was no sign of him in the living room, kitchen, or bathroom.
“Jongdae?”
It was completely silent in the house, so Yixing figured that his boyfriend was probably still sleeping. It was a little strange though because Jongdae was an early riser; he was usually up and about when the first ray of sunlight streams in through the window. He should be awake and active already at this hour.
THUMP! THUMP!
♪♫♪ HWIMORACHINEUN SUNGAN NAE SESANG-E MEOMCHWEOSEON~ NEON NA-E ONLY ONE ♪♫♪
Yixing groaned, knowing he had more things to deal with even after coming back from his night shift job. He quickly ran up the stairs and went straight to the room he knew Jongdae was in. If Yixing can hear pounding and loud music like that from downstairs, that meant Jongdae was dancing.
It also meant that Kim Jongin has arrived.
Yixing walked into the dance room just as Jongdae was doing a hip thrust. He danced a little more before he noticed that there was someone else in the room.
“Xing hyung! Long time, no see, brother-in-law! Did you just get back from work?” Jongin, one of Jongdae’s many personalities, asked, skipping over to the stereo to turn the music off. He grabbed the towel on top of it to wipe off the sweat from his hair and forehead.
“Jongin?”
Jongin nodded. “It’s been so long, you don’t even recognize me anymore, huh?”
“I—uh, it’s not that—”
“I should come out more often in that case,” Jongdae said. “Especially since I need to practice for that upcoming showcase…”
“Showcase? What showcase?” Jongin just pursed his lips and turned back to the stereo. “You signed up for a dance showcase again?! How many times have I told you not to do that?!” Yixing exclaimed. “What's the name of the competition? I'll tell them you're dropping out.”
Jongin whipped back around to face Yixing. “But hyung, I want to perform!!”
“I’m sorry, Jonginnie, but we don’t even know if you could make it… Jongdae really doesn’t know how to dance if he has to go in your place…”
“Aish, he’s useless!!” Jongin said exasperatedly. “I told him to go take dancing lessons to keep this body in shape!!”
“Don’t talk about your older brother that way,” Yixing berated. “He’s really bad at dancing, and he’s not very passionate about it in the first place.”
“But I am,” Jongin insisted. “Which is why I need to go to that competition.” He started to walk out of the room.
“Hey! Kim Jongin! Where are you going? You can't just leave like that! I thought you said the competition was another day!” Yixing yelled after him.
“It is! I’m going outside to look for any stray dogs that I can help!” the younger yelled, already at the bottom of the stairs.
“Why, out of all days?” Yixing asked himself aloud while hurrying to the front door to chase Jongin. The younger was already running way down the street, so he had to run even faster to catch up.
Kim Jongin claims to be Jongdae’s younger brother who has a passion for dancing. He insists that he was taller than Jongdae and that his older brother doesn’t eat enough chicken. He approves of Jongdae’s relationship with Yixing, but he doesn’t like it when Yixing tries to keep him under control. He also has an obsession with dogs and roams the street to find any strays that he can take in. One time, Jongdae woke up in his house with ten unclean dogs running around the living room.
“KIM JONGIN!! WAIT!!” he yelled, but the younger didn’t slow down. “JONGIN-AH!!”
Jongin turned left, and Yixing knew that there was nowhere to go from there. It was a dead-end alley between two buildings where a box full of abandoned puppies always sat. Of course that would be the first place Jongin would run to.
When Yixing finally caught up, he gasped.
There was a huge dark dog at the end of the alley, growling ferociously in front of the box of puppies. Jongdae was already halfway through the alley, slowly approaching it.
“Jongin!! No!! Come back here!!” Yixing whisper shouted, not wanting to startle the gigantic dog and cause it to attack Jongdae.
“JONG. IN.” Yixing whispered more fiercely this time. It was now evident that the younger was ignoring him on purpose because there was no way he didn’t hear his name being called.
“Please, please, don’t go any nearer!!” Yixing desperately pleaded. “I’m scared you’ll get bitten and Jongdae will get rabies, oh my God!!”
Jongin stood up from his crouching position and Yixing saw it as a chance to tackle him down onto the ground before the dog could do so. Jongdae’s head hit the ground, but Yixing didn’t notice at that point. He wrestled Jongdae’s body even though it was Jongin’s mind that was so determined to get in contact with the dog.
Meanwhile, the dog trotted past the both of them, turning out of the alleyway and onto the street.
Yixing stayed on top of him, just making sure that it was deemed safe before Jongin could think of running away again.
“AISH! Hyung! First you won’t let me dance in the competition, now you let that big dog get away?! You’re making me stressed and frustrated!! Ow, ow, ow…” Jongin flinched, bringing a free hand to the back of his head. “YOU MADE ME HIT MY HEAD ON THE GROUND!! NOW IT HURTS!!” he yelled out, a rare occurrence for Jongin.
He must be really pissed off.
Yixing expected him to lash out again, but Jongin suddenly laid his head back down and closed his eyes. The elder looked at him curiously for a few seconds, feeling the need to apologize, but Jongdae’s eyes opened again.
There was immediately something different about his expression.
“Jongdae?”
An all-knowing smirk grew on Jongdae’s face. One glance and Yixing knew he guessed the wrong person.
He could almost picture the mischievous blond under him right now.
“Baby, why are you on top of me right now? I thought you chose Jongdae over me,” the teasing words coming from Jongdae’s mouth. The younger looked around and gasped, “Why are we in a dark alleyway? I didn’t know you were that kinky.”
When he felt Jongdae start stroking his arm, Yixing immediately rolled off of him and scrambled to stand up. He squinted his eyes as if it could help him see the person in front of him more clearly. “Byun Baekhyun?”
“That’s my name, unless you want to take up my offer from before and call me daddy ,” Baekhyun whispered seductively and winked.
“Offer, what offer… More like you’re the one who was begging to be called that,” Yixing muttered, then shuddered at the thought of Baekhyun’s daddy kink. It didn’t work well for him when Baekhyun was acting like that with Jongdae’s body.
Baekhyun ignored the elder’s words and stood up by himself. “But, really, what are we doing here? What were you doing with Jongdae on the ground?” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.
“Well, Jongin ran over here and—”
“Ah! Say no more!” Baekhyun interrupted, raising his hand in front of Yixing’s face to stop him from talking. “I don’t want to hear about that dog-obsessed kid! I’m gonna head back to my natural habitat.”
Yixing raised his eyebrow. “You mean you’re going to head back to the house, where you’ll play your stupid— ”
Baekhyun gasped exaggeratedly. “League of Legends is not stupid!! Play with me, I dare you to beat me! Prove me wrong!”
Baekhyun grabbed Yixing’s hand as they stalked out of the alleyway. He turned to the left and started walking until he realized he didn't know where he was going.
“It's the other way,” Yixing deadpanned.
Baekhyun shrugged and let go of Yixing’s hand before turning around and skipping down the block, back into the house. Yixing was too tired and sleep-deprived to have the same amount of energy as Baekhyun to keep up with him. When he finally got to the house, the front door was left wide open.
Baekhyun must have been really excited to play again since he hadn’t come out in a while.
Yixing locked the door behind him and trudged all the way to the room where he knew Baekhyun would be; a small room that had a desk against the wall with a desktop monitor, keyboard, and mouse on top of it. Baekhyun was already in the chair, clicking away on the mouse.
“You’re finally here, slowpoke, sit down!” Baekhyun exclaimed, patting the chair next to him without taking his eyes off the screen.
Yixing sat down, already feeling his body giving out. “Baekhyun-ah,” he called out.
“Huh?”
“I’m going to close my eyes for a while, so behave alright?” Yixing asked.
Baekhyun briefly turned his eyes away from the computer. “Behave as in don’t touch you, or behave as in don’t go running off? Because I know you can’t resist having my hands all over you…” he smirks.
“BOTH,” Yixing immediately answered sternly, making it a clear message that he didn’t want the other molesting him.
Baekhyun pouted as he turned back to his game. Soon enough, his expression became so concentrated on the game that Yixing was contemplating if he could actually just leave the room and sleep in his bed. Baekhyun wouldn’t do anything if he’s so focused on his game, right?
Yixing thought he could finally get some peace as he closed his eyes.
He was dead wrong.
“Let’s do this!!”
“Wait, wait, WAIT!!”
The rapid clicking and tapping away on the keyboard bothered Yixing to no end.
“GOOD! GOOD! Good!”
“AAAAAAAAAH! Fall back! Retreat!!”
“NO!”
A good half hour went by like that before Yixing decided to open his eyes. He sat up and smacked his lips together before speaking. “Byun Baekhyun… do you think it’d be okay if you quiet down and not yell so much? It’s just a game, don’t get so angry.”
“I don’t get angry that easily,” Baekhyun insisted, eyes stuck on the screen. “I play these games to release stress, how can I get angry?”
Jongdae hated playing video games, but Baekhyun was so good at League of Legends that Yixing really wondered how his boyfriend got stuck with a gamer personality. His thoughts were interrupted as he was startled by Baekhyun’s yelling again. “Did you see that?! Tell me you saw that!”
“Kill!! Great! Great!”
“RUN! RUN! NONONONO!!!”
“AISH! Surrender, surrender! I lost!!” Baekhyun deliberately pushed away the mouse and keyboard and completely leaned back on his chair in defeat. He was breathing heavily and had his eyes closed, trying not to spew curse words everywhere, but Yixing could tell he was definitely angry.
Yixing peered over at him again after a few more moments since Baekhyun was growing more and more quiet. Suddenly, the latter opened his eyes and sat upright. He was staring at the computer screen for a while before he shut it off.
“That fool Byun Baekhyun was playing computer games again,” a different personality of Jongdae’s muttered. He pushed back on the chair away from the table, and nonchalantly got up and left the room. Yixing followed him, knowing exactly where he was heading: the kitchen.
Yixing knew that most of Jongdae’s personalities wouldn’t necessarily call Baekhyun a fool ; there was only one personality that would.
By the time Yixing reached the foot of the stairs, he caught sight of Jongdae’s body bending down to open a cabinet full of pots and pans. Seeing that this person was getting ready to cook (or maybe use the pan as a weapon, either option seemed possible), his initial guess was definitely confirmed.
“Kyungsoo,” Yixing breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he could finally rest.
Kyungsoo squinted in his general direction, since he wasn’t wearing his glasses. “Yixing-ssi,” he nodded his head in acknowledgement once he saw who it was, his facial expression going back to that cool and serious look.
Kyungsoo was a personality that never caused any trouble for Yixing and Jongdae. Yixing had only ever seen Kyungsoo go to the kitchen and whip up a meal instead of running out of the house and wreaking havoc /cough cough Jongin cough. The only downside to him was that he was a little scary and violent whenever Yixing did something small to upset him, such as when he hugged him or kissed him on the ear when he thought he was Jongdae.
Yixing could finally get some sleep in.
“You’re only going to cook, right?”
Kyungsoo nodded. “Is there something you would like to eat?”
“Cook whatever you want. Surprise me,” Yixing answered.
Kyungsoo thought for a moment before setting back to work.
Yixing watched for a while before he spoke up again. “You’re really just going to cook, right?”
The cook nodded again, then focused on turning on the stove.
“I’m going to trust your word, okay? Kyungsoo, help me out here. I need to sleep, so please stay here and don’t cause any trouble,” Yixing pleaded, as if he wasn’t already begging on his knees.
“I’m not Kris Wu or Byun Baekhyun, I’ll be fine,” Kyungsoo waved him off. “Go get some sleep.”
Yixing bowed to thank Kyungsoo. He wanted to give in to temptation and sleep in his own fluffy bed, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that told him that something wasn’t right. Three out of the six personalities have come out in one day. What are the chances that the other three will come out, too?
Yixing made his way to the couch on the living room and flopped down on it. He could feel himself drifting off to sleep with the sound of sizzling oil and the smell of cooking meat in the background…
But to him, it felt as if he woke up just as quickly as he fell asleep.
A loud bang! coming from the kitchen startled him awake as he shot up from the couch. In a disheveled state, he stumbled into the kitchen to see what happened.
The countertop of the kitchen was a mess. There were splatters covering every surface, and cracked eggs and opened packages of meat and wrappings were all over the place. Yixing looked at the dumbfounded Kyungsoo, who was just staring at what he had done.
Or so Yixing thought.
“What happened? Kyungsoo?”
Jongdae’s facial expression looked disgusted. “Kyungsoo? Are you calling me that prude ?” The unknown personality looked down his body and saw that he was wearing an apron. “What the heck did he put on this poor boy’s body?! Lay-di, you allowed that prude to wear something as unfashionable as this?” he asked in an obnoxious tone.
This was definitely Wu Yifan.
“Kris…” Yixing started cautiously, calling him by his “stage” name. “Do you know what happened here? What happened to Kyungsoo?”
Yifan shrugged. “The meal he was cooking ended up in the garbage,” he said, pointing at the trashcan. Indeed, there was a broken container of yukgaejang sticking out of it. “I’m guessing he messed up, felt ashamed, threw a tantrum, and trashed the kitchen. Probably leaving me to deal with the shame and humiliation he felt in the end.”
Yixing looked at the clock and saw that he had only slept for a little less than an hour. Then he looked at the counter and groaned because of how much of a mess he had to clean up. Usually, Kyungsoo would leave the kitchen sparkling after finishing up with his cooking, but right now, Yifan wouldn’t dare touch anything that would dirty his hands…
Yixing started to pick up the wrappings and wiped down the mess. He was too preoccupied that he didn’t know when Yifan slipped out of the kitchen.
When the countertop was decently cleaned, he finally realized that the other man wasn’t in sight. Yixing smacked himself in the head for assuming that Yifan would behave for even one moment. He quickly finished up cleaning the kitchen and sprinted up the stairs to the bathroom — the place where Yifan would most likely be found first.
The latter was squatting, rummaging through the sink drawer.
“What are you doing right now?”
Yifan stuck his head out to see a distraught Yixing.
“Looking for all my hair dye of course,” Yifan answered. “I think I’m going silver this time. Maybe I should dye your hair, too, Lay. You’d look really good in a dark purple shade.” He stuck his head back into the cabinet and Yixing could hear boxes moving around. “Found it,” he announced as he stood up with a product in his hand and a smile on his face.
Yixing’s eyes widened. There really was hair dye in there. When did he have the time and money to buy that?! Yixing reached out and grabbed the dye out of Yifan’s hands.
“Yo, Lay, what are you doing?! Give that back!”
Yixing hid the bottle behind his back. “Kris, please use the temporary color spray!! What would Jongdae say when he wakes up to a complete hair change?!”
“That punk would look better with anything I put on his face or hair!! I can’t believe I’m stuck with this face! I’m so much better looking!”
Yixing tossed the dye into the trash, causing the other to gasp dramatically. Despite Yifan’s protests, Yixing grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the bathroom. He was really happy that Yifan was in Jongdae’s body, and not the 6 feet 2 inch giant with the unbalanced limbs as Yifan always claimed to be.
It would have been really hard to drag this airhead back into reality.
Yixing knew what to do to occupy the other’s mind. Yifan was so easily distracted with glam, glitter, and the galaxy, so it wasn’t a difficult task to keep him away from the kind of trouble that Jongin and Baekhyun get themselves into.
Yifan really believed that he was an idol who was co-workers with Yixing. He is called Kris by his fans and Yixing was nicknamed as Lay. Yifan had an ego that was the size of a continent, and Yixing could only serve to inflate it. Such as the time when Yifan truly believed that NASA tried to recruit him, and that he’s better than Michael Jordan in basketball. He also believed that he saw his name in the list of the Top 100 of Best Dressed/Taste in Fashion.
Instead, it’s the complete opposite.
He’s really not a good dresser.
He’s more of a fashion terrorist.
But Yixing had to inflate that ego as opposed to letting Yifan roamed freely.
“Kris, how about we work on which top you should wear for the upcoming awards ceremony?” Yixing suggested, hoping to lure him away from thoughts about the dye.
“Isn’t that my stylist’s job?”
Yixing blanched at first before quickly conjuring up a lie. “She’s on vacation!! She went to Hawaii, you know, aloha~” he said, doing a simple hula dance, moving his arms in a wave-like motion. He stopped, then straightened his stance. “She won’t be back until after the ceremony.”
“Ah, I see,” Yifan nodded thoughtfully. Yixing thought he was off the hook, until the other’s expression turned serious again. “Then call her to come back. She should have asked for my permission.”
Yixing’s face was full of disbelief. “You can’t just do that?! She should be enjoying her vacation!” The younger started to think that it was ridiculous how he was insistently defending a nonexistent stylist. “I can dress you well though; you’re going to look so good that they’re going to rank you No. 1 in Cosmopolitan’s Best Dressers this time.”
Yifan seemed to be thinking about accepting an award since his face looked dopey for a moment. Then he nodded at Yixing. “Okay, let me see what you have. I’ll trust you this once.”
Yixing dragged him over to the designated closet that Yifan insisted he set apart from Jongdae’s. Out of all the different personalities, Yifan’s wardrobe is the one that contrasted the most. Everyone else was fine with Jongdae’s choice of clothes, except Yifan and Joonmyun. Of course, no one would dare to dress as horribly as Yifan, and no one could have the money to dress as luxuriously as Joonmyun.
Yixing pulled out a decent blazer, a red button up, and black dress pants. He told Yifan to try them on while he looked for matching shoes and a tie to go along with all of it.
He was met with harsh disapproval from the other.
“What the hell is this ?! I look so mediocre!! Are you trying to get the media outlets to criticize me while I stand next to Lu Han?! They’re going to rank me at the bottom when they compare me beside him!!”
Yixing internally flinched. Lu Han, the Chinese idol with pastel pink hair and glittering jackets? He dresses almost as bad as you do! He was tempted to voice his thoughts aloud, but bit back his tongue.
“Find me another outfit! This time, it better be good!” Yifan said sternly, waggling a finger to emphasize his point. He started unbuttoning the red shirt as he continued, “No… not just good. I want it to be exceptional!”
Yixing couldn’t help but cringe as he pulled out the black and white super baggy polka dotted jumpsuit that he was sure Yifan would like. There was also no doubt that the idol would want that yellow highlighter t-shirt to show under it, too.
This is not for a real award, the award show is not real, Yixing had to constantly tell himself before he allowed his sleep-deprivation to make him more agitated than he should be, because WHO WOULD WEAR A BLACK FEDORA AND BROWN SHOES WITH THIS DREADFUL OUTFIT?!
Yifan was so happy when he put it all on though. Especially with the heavy gold chains dangling from his neck (they’re all fake, but Yixing managed to convince him that they were real).
After standing in front of the mirror and checking himself out for the past five minutes, Yifan spoke up, “My husband is going to be my plus one, correct?”
At these times, Yixing felt as if Yifan treated him as more of a manager than a fellow idol. “Uh, Kris… you guys got a divorce…”
“Oh… did we really?”
“Yeah… I was told to relay the information to you and ask if you had any objections, and you answered, ‘If that’s what he really wants,’ then waved your hand at me like this,” Yixing answered, swatting his hand in a “go away” motion.
“Oh… that’s so sad,” Yifan said, his face pulling back into a slight frown. It didn’t last for long though. “Anyways! We should get you dressed up, too!”
Yixing was too bewildered and too tired to protest as Yifan chose out an outfit for him. He ended up putting on a red, blue, and yellow plaid dress pants with a striped red and white shirt; in his mind, he knew the outfit clashed, but this was definitely Yifan’s style.
Yifan stroked his chin while tilting his head to observe Yixing. “You look really good, it's not fair. You might actually get ranked higher than me. Can you just not attend?”
“Uhhh…”
“I can probably dress you in the worst possible outfit and you'd still look good. It's no wonder your fan base number is almost catching up to mine.”
Yixing could literally see Yifan’s eyes sparkling with jealousy. It didn't look so pretty with Jongdae’s face. It made him appreciate his boyfriend’s main personality tenfold.
“I'm just gonna change out of this now…”
“It doesn't matter because you'd probably look good without clothes either!! I'm not going to the ceremony if you do!!”
Yifan stormed out of the room, his ears steaming and all.
Yixing had to take a moment to decide whether he should change out of the awful outfit choice or to immediately chase after Yifan, but he ended up choosing the latter.
“Kris! Kris!!” he called out after the idol. “Kris, I won't go!”
There was no response, so he had to look throughout the house to find him. He spotted him in the shoe closet, which was right near the entrance of the house.
“What are you doing now?” Yixing asked him. The other had his whole upper body stuck into the closet, rummaging through shoe boxes and other junk in there.
He finally pulled out, holding a small black card.
“What is that?”
“Oh! Hi, Xingtuo!”
Xingtuo?
“Joonmyun?”
“Yeah! The funniest personality, here! How’ve you been?”
Yixing scratched the back of his head. “I've been fine, I am just a little tired right now.”
“Hi, just-a-little-tired-right-now, I’m dad,” Joonmyun joked, snickering to himself.
Yixing didn’t find it too funny so he couldn’t laugh, and Joonmyun noticed. “Why aren’t you laughing? You didn’t find it funny? I thought it was hilarious, I’m so funny.”
Yixing knew immediately that it was Joonmyun since: one, he already cracked a dad joke; two, he was holding a black card right now. If Jongdae knew he had a black card in his hand, he would probably go off on a spending spree and buy everything he saw at the mall. Since Yixing saw Joonmyun rummaging it out of the closet, he’s probably going to find a new hiding spot for his card.
Yixing always wondered what Joonmyun did to earn his money behind their backs. He remembers letting Joonmyun out of his sight one time, only to have him come back in a dashing suit with his hair slicked back. When asked where he went, he only replied, “Business meeting.”
Yixing slowly shook his head, and Joonmyun stopped smiling, “Fine, forget it. Anyways, I know you’re tired, but are you up for going to the mall?”
“I, uh, not today…” Yixing hesitated. “I would probably collapse if we went.”
Joonmyun thought for a little. “Alright, how about online shopping?”
It didn’t require getting in the car, falling asleep, and getting killed in an accident and it would keep Joonmyun busy, so Yixing thought why not? and agreed. He went upstairs and came back down with a laptop in his hands. He plopped down onto the couch beside Joonmyun where he was waiting.
Joonmyun grabbed the laptop and did not hesitate to log into his own account.
Yixing remembered when he first noticed Jongdae having different personalities, his boyfriend didn’t remember making a separate account under Joonmyun’s name; he couldn’t remember the password at all.
Joonmyun went straight to the website of a clothing brand that was famous for its style and overpriced tags. It was where Joonmyun got most of his clothes, actually.
“Let’s buy some things for you today,” Joonmyun suggested.
Yixing’s eyes widened at that.
“No, no, no, you really don’t have to,” he insisted. “I have more than enough clothes in my closet. I don’t need anymore…”
“I probably have more clothes than you and I have more than enough money to spend, so pick out something you like and let me buy it!”
Yixing cowered and stopped fighting Joonmyun, because the tone that he used was a little scary and vicious; it sounded as if he was going to turn into a red horned monster if he got any angrier.
Joonmyun had a sudden mood shift as he began to happily scroll down through the grid of items laid out by the website. He clicked on the men’s section and began to look through some nice shirts that Yixing would never dream of owning.
What would he ever wear them to? They would just be covered underneath his white coat all night.
Jongdae also wouldn’t appreciate Yixing accepting gifts from, technically, another man.
“Do you like this?” Joonmyun asked, clicking on a shirt to enlarge it.
Yixing shook his head.
“Hmm…” The other exited out of the selection and scrolled down to choose another one. “What about this one?”
Again, Yixing shook his head.
He noticed that Joonmyun was becoming a little disgruntled, but he really didn’t want anything to be bought for him.
It kept going like that, but Joonmyun finally blew up after the seventh shirt, second shoe, and fourth pair of pants.
“WHY ARE YOU SO PICKY?!” he thundered, tossing the laptop aside on one side of the couch, Yixing shrinking back on the other side. “I’M BEING SO GRACIOUS TOWARDS YOU EVEN AFTER GOING THROUGH A ROUGH DIVORCE AND YOU’RE NOT ACCEPTING MY GENEROSITY?! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! WHY CAN’T YOU JUST PICK SOMETHING!”
If Yixing wasn’t so scared right now, he’d probably think of how Joonmyun should stop with all his dad jokes, because he was acting like a sensitive middle-aged mother on her period instead.
Joonmyun sat back down onto the couch with a broken expression. “I shouldn’t have divorced Yifan,” he sobbed. “He would always let me buy him things he wanted, and he would laugh at my jokes…”
Yixing’s mind blanked out, not really knowing how to comfort the distressed dissociative state, and he really almost started to pray for Jongdae to come back soon. Joonmyun was literally crying into his hands front of him, and he didn’t know what to do.
“There, there,” Yixing said softly, patting the other’s back. “I may not appreciate your humor, but I’m sure a lot of people do. And I just spoke to Yifan, and he thought that it was sad that you guys divorced. I think he did it without realizing it, so you guys should work it out.”
The crying stopped — pretty abruptly in Yixing’s opinion — and Jongdae’s hands were removed from his face. The expression he wore drastically changed so much that Yixing could tell this was not Kim Joonmyun anymore.
The expression was despondent, miserable, dark, dismal, inconsolable…
It broke Yixing’s heart to see Jongdae’s face reflecting those emotions.
“I’m crying already…” a deep voice rumbled from Jongdae’s throat. “I haven’t even been out for a mere 5 seconds and I’m already crying.”
“Chanyeol…”
“Hyung, I feel… more unhappy than usual…”
Yixing hated this personality the most because he was the worst with dealing with depressed patients. With Park Chanyeol, who was the first personality to ever came out to Yixing, he’s already had more suicide attempts than he could count on both hands. Out of all the personalities, Chanyeol is the one that Yixing needed to keep his eye on the most.
Jongdae told Yixing that Chanyeol has been with him the longest. He would wake up to rope burns around his neck, cuts on his wrist, wet hair and bruised lungs, but he would never remember how those happened.
The last time Chanyeol came out, he tried to play hide-and-seek where Yixing had to find him within an hour, or he’d kill himself. It turned out he was hiding on top of a 30-story building, and he was going to jump off if Yixing hadn’t found him with 2 minutes to spare. After that stressful event, Yixing told himself that next time Chanyeol came out, he would ask why he was so depressed.
That time was now.
“Do you know why you're so unhappy?”
“I… I can compose a whole song in one day and I can master a new instrument in a week, but I can't figure out why I'm like this right now.”
Yixing propped himself up on the couch. “Alright, how about in general? Do you know why you’re so depressed?”
Chanyeol stopped staring into space and looked at Yixing. “I know.”
Before Yixing could ask why, he got up and walked up the stairs. Yixing immediately followed, knowing they were making their way towards Chanyeol’s private studio. It was 6 PM now, and he hasn’t properly slept in approximately 36 hours, but since this was Chanyeol, he felt more alert and awake than ever.
Chanyeol sat down in his chair and pull another one out, offering a seat to Yixing. The older sat down as the other put on his headphones. He turned on his desktop and piano keyboard, and it was clear that he was going to compose and work on some of his music.
Now, all Yixing could do was wait until Chanyeol was ready to talk.
After an hour or two (Yixing doesn’t know because he’s lost track of time), Chanyeol finally removed his headphones and faced Yixing.
“I was tired of smiling and pretending everything was okay.”
Yixing could only stare as he is finally witnessing the moment Chanyeol is opening up to him.
“Jongdae… he’s had a rough past, but everyone would tell him to keep smiling. There’s a reason you never see him genuinely upset; he’s weak, he holds everything in and I end up holding onto those feelings.”
Yixing waited a moment to see if Chanyeol would say anything else, then spoke up, “What I think is… you should let Jongdae handle his sadness on his own, instead of taking it up for him. I know Jongdae, and he’s one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. He always had to deal with cleaning up after Jongin, Baekhyun, and Yifan, but he doesn’t complain. He’s not weak… he can bear his own sadness.”
For once, Chanyeol smiled. It was small, but genuine.
“Thanks, hyung. I feel a little better, but I still feel unhappy. I won’t go trying to kill myself for now, because I know how much Jongdae means to you. He’s really lucky to have someone like you by his side.”
Yixing smiled back and patted Chanyeol on the back. “Thank you.”
“I’m tired, so I’m going to rest,” Chanyeol announced, then proceeded to shut down his computer and piano keyboard. Yixing got up and followed Chanyeol to his own shared bedroom with Jongdae.
Chanyeol lied down on the bed and covered himself in the blanket. “Can you sleep with me tonight?”
Yixing took a deep breath and sighed. “Sure.”
He climbed into the bed and under the covers next to Chanyeol. His body felt relieved from all the strain, stress, and exhaustion it was put through throughout the entire day. It wasn’t long until sleep overtook the two of them.
Yixing woke up about five hours later. The moonlight shone through the window and casted its light onto Jongdae’s face, showing his eyes already wide open and awake.
“Jongdae?” Yixing called out gently.
Jongdae nodded.
Yixing let out a sigh of relief “You’re up?”
Jongdae nodded again.
Yixing looked up at the clock and it read: 3:03 AM. He found Jongdae’s hand and held it, squeezing it comfortingly. “We should go back to sleep.”
“Yixing…”
“Hm?”
“What happened?”
It was the middle of the night and Yixing didn’t want to stress Jongdae out too much, but the earnest look in Jongdae’s eyes told him it was better to tell him now. “All six other personalities came out during the day. That’s never happened before, right?”
Jongdae looked hesitant to answer, so Yixing asked, “What’s the matter? Did something happen?”
“… While you were at work, I woke up on the bed without you beside me, so I felt lonely…”
Yixing’s heart swelled at those words, but at the same time, he felt sorry towards Jongdae. He pulled him closer and wrapped his arm around him. “I’m here now. You know I love you, right?” Yixing pulled back so he can look at Jongdae’s face. “I’ll say it again and again until you don’t feel lonely anymore. I love you.”
Jongdae buried his head into Yixing’s chest. “I love you, too. I just don’t like that you have the night shift. Being a psychiatrist and ruining your sleep pattern is going to drive you crazy.”
“You know who drives me crazy? Baekhyun and Yifan, those two are too much.”
Jongdae laughed out loud, not caring if it’ll wake up the neighbors. Yixing loved hearing it loud and clear, because hearing Jongdae’s happiness was like music to his ears.
“Do I drive you crazy?” Jongdae suddenly asked.
It took him a moment to reply. “Mhm.”
Jongdae gasped, looked up at him with puppy-dog eyes, and pouted. Yixing laughed before adding on, “You drive me crazy in love.”
Jongdae smacked him for being too cheesy, while the older laughed even more. Yixing kissed him on the forehead and held him tighter, so that Jongdae would definitely feel him holding him.
Jongdae woke up in the morning with a huge smile on his face because Yixing was still sleeping beside him. He watched Yixing snore lightly for a few more minutes before he woke up.
“Good morning,” they greeted each other simultaneously before bursting into a fit of laughter.
That day, Jongdae was with his one and only person — Yixing — which is great, because if they say three’s a crowd, imagine spending the day with six!