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It was supposed to be a regular day for Chanyeol. Waking up to 20 messages from Baekhyun was standard. Baekhyun had a tendency to message him at the strangest times. Often it was Baekhyun asking him which word sounded better in a sentence. Sometimes Baekhyun asked whether or not he could use a date they had as a plot device. Sometimes it was just Baekhyun texting him goodnight. Chanyeol was used to these texts and often he’d reply to them after he had breakfast. However, waking up to 5 missed calls from Baekhyun was not standard.
Baekhyun had this quirk to him. If he could text everything he would. If they weren’t physically with each other, communication had to be done by text. This was a definite cause annoyance whenever Chanyeol was out of town or away from Baekhyun for a significant amount of time. Although, as time passed, as much as he wanted to always hear Baekhyun’s voice if they were apart, it just became something he learned to love.
Given this quirk Baekhyun had it wasn’t a surprise that Chanyeol was at a loss on what to do. The latest text Baekhyun had sent him was from 5 hours ago and none of them showed any reason as to why Baekhyun would’ve called him. He knew Baekhyun didn’t like taking calls but he did call Chanyeol himself.
Chanyeol ended up giving Baekhyun a call anyway. If the smaller complained then he’d just say that he called him first.
The phone rang three times before he was greeted with Baekhyun shouting, “Ya! Why are you calling me? You know I hate phone calls!”
“Hate to break it to you Baek but you called first. All I’m doing is returning the favor.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry I forgot.”
How someone could forget they called five times consecutively was confusing. Chanyeol however knew who he was talking to. Typical. Chanyeol thought. “So what was so important that you, of all people, decided to call me?”
“You’ll never guess,” Baekhyun said in a playful tone.
“Probably yeah.”
“Come on play along!”
Chanyeol sighed. He knew he had to or else he’d have a pouty Baekhyun later on. “Fine. Um, did a fan gift you a puppy?”
“No. It has to do with a relationship.”
“Did a fan propose to you?”
“No, idiot. Anyway that’s not exciting news. I get proposals every other week.”
Baekhyun was bragging, he didn’t get proposals that often, but that wasn’t exactly the truth. While he didn’t get proposals that often he did get them once a month. Why Baekhyun chose to be with Chanyeol never ceases to surprise him. God, he was lucky.
“Fine. I give up. Tell me!”
“Come on. I’ll give you a huge hint. One of our heart-shaped lipped friends is getting married!”
“No way.”
“Yes way! Kyungsoo told me like a few minutes ago,” that explained the five missed calls.
“What the hell! Who is he even marrying?”
“Who else?” there was only one person Baekhyun could be talking about given his tone.
“Oh my god. No.”
“If you thought of Jongin. Ding ding ding ding! You’re a winner! Congratulations for playing guess who is Kyungsoo’s fiancé”
“I can’t believe this. Kim Jongin is getting married.”
“That’s exactly what I said when Kyungsoo told me! The first thing I thought was ‘gosh what a lucky guy, I wonder who actually bagged Kyungsoo’ then I started to think ‘huh? Kyungsoo didn’t tell me he was with someone seriously?’ and then it hit me you know.”
Pacing often helped Chanyeol processed things and that’s just what he was going to do. “I’m in literal shock. I have no clue what to say.”
“I can hear your pacing babe. Come on, your best friend is getting married. Nothing to worry about.”
“Baekhyun have you forgotten who we’re talking about? Kim Jongin is getting married.”
Baekhyun huffs before he responds to Chanyeol. “I made some coffee before I left. Go get some. It might be cold but it’ll probably help. And stop pacing. I don’t want you to develop this habit again.”
“Okay. I’ll just pace towards the kitchen now.”
“haha. You’re such a comedian,” Baekhyun said in a sarcastic tone.
When Chanyeol reaches the kitchen he checks the temperature of the coffee and pours himself a cup. “Mr. Never Sleeps, you were only half right, the coffee was just lukewarm not cold.”
“Did you just wake up, Yeol?” Baekhyun said as Chanyeol poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Yeah like maybe five minutes after your first five calls, I think.”
“Aww. Sorry for waking you. I’ll make it up to you when I get home,” Baekhyun’s tone suddenly gets softer, “Heart lips just came in the room and I was supposed to have at least half a chapter done by now. Bye! Love you, see you later!” after that Baekhyun hung up the phone and their apartment was quiet again.
Well that was certainly a way to wake up.
—-
Apparently Chanyeol wasn’t freed from talks of Jongin and Kyungsoo’s marriage when he was at the office. By that he meant, right when he got to his desk, he received a call from Jongin.
“I’m getting married,” Jongin said seriously. Was this going to be a trend for Chanyeol now? Phone calls with abrupt greetings?
“Good afternoon to you too Jongin,” Chanyeol said with a slight chuckle.
“Is that all you’re gonna say?” Jongin said with exaggerated offense, “Your best friend is getting married and all you’re gonna do is great me good afternoon?”
“Baekhyun told me.”
“Oh that makes sense.”
“Yeah.”
“But couldn’t you even pretend that you were shocked?”
“Now what would be the point of that?”
“I don’t know. Drama? You know I love that.”
“Okay, since you’re my best friend and the office isn’t busy just yet I’ll play along,” Chanyeol then continues with an overly dramatic, “Really? What? You? Kim Jongin getting married to Kyungsoo? Kyungsoo? I mean you two were casual at most I can’t-”
Jongin responds with a slightly amused, “Fine. No wonder you never got into those plays I made you audition for when we were in high school.”
“I was there merely for moral support Kai,” Chanyeol teases with Jongin’s teenage stage name.
“Stop it. I was 16!” Jongin says in an annoyed tone, “Anyway, you’re genuinely not surprised about me and Kyungsoo? I mean you are right about the two of us never really being serious. No gasps? No violent reactions?”
“Nope. I got that all out in the morning when Baekhyun called.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I mean, me and Baekhyun had a running bet on when you two would stop being emotionally constipated and just own up to it and be serious. Speaking of, he owes me dinner so thanks!”
“Really? I was convinced you had basically given up on me and Kyungsoo.” Jongin’s voice went slightly more somber.
“Okay fine, I’m still slightly in shock that you proposed when you guys were never really serious, but I always knew you two would end up together at one point or the other.”
Jongin’s voice picked up again when he replied with, “Thanks hyung.”
“I better be best man! I was always rooting for you two.”
“Of course hyung. As long as I’m best man at yours,” this confused Chanyeol.
“My what?”
“Your wedding?” yeah still confused.
“Who exactly am I marrying?”
“Baekhyun of course, who else?” Oh. Oh.
The silence from Chanyeol confused Jongin and to think he had just finally lost his confusion over his and Kyungsoo’s relationship, “What? You’ve never thought of marrying Baekhyun?”
Chanyeol didn’t know how to respond, “Baek and I are pretty comfortable at where we are. We’ve never really talked about marriage, you know?”
“I’m engaged but me and Kyungsoo have constantly on again, off again. You and Baekhyun have been together for what? Six years now? Yes, you two have never actually talked about getting married? How exactly has marriage never been in your cards?”
“I don’t know? It just hasn’t?”
“Hyung,” this time Jongin kept a serious tone. That definitely wasn’t good, “You know that there are only two options in relationships. Either you two get married or you two break up. God knows I’ve been dumb and keep choosing the wrong way. Kyungsoo and I have been through so many break ups but look where I am today.”
Jongin realized he accidentally hit a nerve in Chanyeol, “Uh, anyway, thanks hyung for supporting me and Soo. See you soon?” and with that Jongin hung up leaving Chanyeol speechless for a second time this day.
—-
Chanyeol stayed in that state for a while. Chanyeol didn’t want to admit it but Jongin was right. There really were only two options in a relationship and as much as Chanyeol wanted to believe that he and Baekhyun would never break up, the possibility was always going to be there.
The only thing that took him out of this state were two rings from his phone.
“Ugh. I just remembered our bet. Okay, u were right Kyungsoo and Jongin got together this year.”
“You know I can’t cook. Is Chinese okay? I can pick some up before going home.”
All Chanyeol sends is a thumbs up.
—-
“Yeol are you okay?” Baekhyun asked as he plopped down beside Chanyeol on the couch. He handed Chanyeol his chopsticks and started eating.
“Yeah,” Chanyeol said before similarly stuffing his mouth with the take out Baekhyun brought over, “Why are you asking?”
“Well,” Baekhyun fished his phone out of his pocket and showed Chanyeol the thread of messages between the two.
“And you’re showing me our messages because?”
“You sent a thumbs up.”
“Yes. It’s a form of agreement. It shows that I was alright with Chinese for ton-“
“Yeol,” Baekhyun asked somehow with more sincerity.
Chanyeol took a deep breath before he finally gave into Baekhyun and told him the reason for such a brief response.
Baekhyun had his brows scrunched at that moment, “I’m confused. So you’re upset that your best friend is getting married.”
“It’s not that.” Chanyeol needed to be upfront about it but he didn’t know how.
“I’m the one writing the depressing novels Chanyeol, so tell me why it is that my precious boyfriend is sad and making me sad.”
Chanyeol took another deep, “Would you ever marry me?”
“Woah slow down there. Your best friend gets engaged and suddenly you want to get married?”
“I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m asking if you would? Like at some point or the other.”
“I mean I love you and I can’t picture a future without you in it.”
“So yes or no? Would you, Byun Baekhyun, at one point or the other, marry me?”
“What brought this up Yeol?”
“You know our relationship can only go two ways right?”
“How so?”
“Well it’s either we get married or we break up and with how you’re reacting right you’re obviously not going to marry me.”
“And who ever said that?”
“It’s just a general assumption you can make Baek. It’s been six years now? We’ve never even brought marriage up in regular conversation. There’s completely no trend towards marriage.” Chanyeol says sounding almost defeated.
“Yeol, our best friends who have almost never been solidly together are engaged. I think that completely destroys your reasoning at looking at trends when it comes to relationships.”
“Maybe we should break up. I mean it worked for Jongin and Kyungsoo. If we do it enough times maybe we’ll actually get engaged like them.” Chanyeol said jokingly.
That statement only makes Baekhyun frown. “For someone so into looking at trends you sure don’t see the trend of our relationship. Yes, we won’t get married now but you know we won’t break up.”
Chanyeol realized he was letting something Jongin said ruin his night. He realized he was at fault and swallowed his pride. “I’m sorry, I was being illogical. But there’s logic when I say this. We get married or we break up.
They remained in silence for a while. They ended up finishing the last of the take out before Chanyeol broke the pause.
“What do you think will happen to us? If for some reason we do end up not getting married. If we drift apart and we can’t fix it. Where are we gonna end up, if we break up.”
“I’ve never really thought about that.”
“Do you think we’ll still be friends? Keep in touch? Stay updated on each other?”
Chanyeol tried to add a bit humor by adding “Or do you think we’ll end up having a violent break up like your book characters?”
The humor doesn’t last. Chanyeol talked in a serious tone again and asked Baekhyun if they’d ever reach a point of genuine hatred for each other. Both of them couldn’t imagine that.
“If ever fate brings us to that point in our relationship, which I hope it never does, I guess I’d have to accept it.”
“So, you’re not even going to fight it?”
“Of course I’d fight it for a while Yeol. But like I said if fate brings us apart. Meaning there’s nothing humanly possible, and even witchcraft that you know I’d attempt, to bring us back together, I’d have to accept it. If ever a time comes where life keeps us apart and we end up in completely different places, where I don’t even have the smallest hint of what’s going in your life anymore, I’d always remember when we were in the same place. I’d remember now. I’d remember that period of time where fate let us meet and I’ll be thankful. I’d hope that wherever you ended up, you’d be thankful too. I think that’s all I could truly wish for.”