!Fic: (I wanna be) Close to You
Title: (I wanna be) Close to You
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama, Romance, Domestic AU
Warnings: none
A/N: based on
Disclaimer: I don't own exo
Summary: Chanyeol really needs to figure out how to rely on his husband a little more.
No you don't need my protection
But I'm in love, can't blame me for checking
I love in your direction, hoping that the message goes
Somewhere close to you
"Good morning, Baek."
Ah, those were the sweet words that kept Baekhyun going. His husband's deep, chocolatey voice never failed to motivate him to get up and out of bed so he could meet Chanyeol in the kitchen. Baekhyun had never been a morning, but when he married and moved in with Chanyeol, all of that changed. He was up and ready to get on with his day, everyday, with his husband.
"I made breakfast, I have to leave soon, though." Chanyeol added. Baekhyun was a good cook, he really was, but Chanyeol was always up first in the morning and he never failed to steal Baekhyun's thunder.
"'Yeol, you should have woken me up, I would have made breakfast for you." Baekhyun pouted up at his husband, but Chanyeol just smiled cheekily. Baekhyun grumbled in response and sat up on the bed.
"Don't worry about it, I wanted to let you have your beauty rest, babe. I'm on my way out now though, my first class is at ten." Chanyeol explained and padded out of the room.
Baekhyun smiled and got up to follow his husband to the door. “Did you take your lunch? When do you finish today? Did you take your water bottle? I filled it for you last night… Do you have your phone charger?” Chanyeol rolled his eyes playfully and leaned down to give Baekhyun a loud smooch on the cheek when he reached the front door.
"Yes, mom.” Chanyeol said sarcastically. “See you."
The door slammed in Baekhyun’s face before he could get have a good day! Out of his mouth. He pouted at the door for a while before deciding that doing so wouldn’t bring his husband back to answer his questions.
Baekhyun sighed and made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth before heading to the dining table to get a bite of his husband’s scrumptious cooking. The spread looked delicious, but Baekhyun couldn’t help but smile a little sadly at the food on the table. He was happy that he got to eat his husband’s cooking every morning, but sometimes he just wished that Chanyeol would rely on him a little more to do things like this.
They were a dual income household, but Baekhyun only paid one-fourth of the bills since he wasn’t making much, being a music teacher. Sometimes, he got large sums of money for qualifying his kids for competitions, but beyond that, he couldn’t help his husband pay the bills.
Chanyeol, on the other hand, was a math professor at a prestigious university, so they were far form being short on money. They were even able to acquire a lovely one story house with a huge backyard in the suburbs of Seoul, which was a hard feat.
Sometimes Chanyeol would even go as far to pay all the bills without taking Baekhyun’s cut, stating don’t worry, I make enough and we’re married, for god’s sake.
Baekhyun couldn’t help but feel guilty about it, though. He wanted to help his husband out, even if it meant just doing the chores around the house but Chanyeol often did those for him, too.
Baekhyun had grown up in a house with four other siblings, and everyone always had to do their part. His whole family worked hard to make ends meet and contributed equally both with the house and with paying the bills, so being so reliant on Chanyeol made Baekhyun uncomfortable.
Not that Baekhyun was ungrateful, as people would die to be in this situation… But, he couldn’t help but feel like Chanyeol was getting the shorter stick in the relationship.
Despite Baekhyun’s clashing feelings, he ate all of the meal that was prepared for him. When he got up to do the dishes, he noticed that Chanyeol had left his lunch box on the kitchen counter.
“‘Yes mom’ my ass…” Baekhyun mumbled before picking the lunch box up. Baekhyun’s first piano class didn’t start until one, so he decided that he’d pop by his husband’s work place to drop off the food. Baekhyun shot his husband a text telling him so.
Baekhyun was practically beaming as he cleaned the house that morning. It made him giddy to finally be of use to Chanyeol, and the opportunity to finally see his husband's workplace was a major plus as well. He would be able to show off to Chanyeol's co-workers that he Park Baekhyun, was Chanyeol’s loving husband.
When the time came, Baekhyun set out for the university in his car. It was only a fifteen minute drive, so he happily sang to songs on the radio the whole way. When he arrived at the university, he parked and made his way to the campus. He texted Chanyeol, telling him that he had his lunch box and to meet him in front of the administration office.
When Chanyeol arrived at the office, he pulled Baekhyun in by the waist and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you so much, baby, you’re a lifesaver. I have to get back though. I left the students on a five minute break.” Chanyeol quickly grabbed the lunch box from Baekhyun, who just blushed and nodded.
When Chanyeol let go and turned around to get back to class, he was stopped by voice calling out to him. “Hey, Chanyeol! Skipping class to date around, huh?” Chanyeol slowly turned towards a tall, handsome man who was clad in an expensive looking suit. Chanyeol cursed under his breath.
He brought Baekhyun closer and introduced him to the man. “Hey, Kris, this is my husband, Baekhyun. Baekhyun, this is my colleague, Wu Kris. He teaches physics…” Chanyeol was reluctant to say more, and Baekhyun could tell. Kris just chuckled at the bland introduction.
“Nice to meet you, Baekhyun. You’re as lovely as Chanyeol described.” He softly took Baekhyun’s hand and kissed his knuckles. “I have to hurry along now, though.” Kris turned away from Baekhyun back to Chanyeol. “So, I’ll see you at one for lunch, yeah? Same place?”
Chanyeol’s smile froze and he nodded stiffly. “Y-yeah…” Baekhyun looked up at his husband confusedly once Kris left.
“You were meeting him for lunch? At a restaurant? Why didn’t you tell me?” Chanyeol gulped, trying to think of an excuse. Truth was, he had been going out for lunch with Kris almost everyday, neglecting his husband’s food.
“I made plans with him when I figured that I left my lunchbox at home…” Chanyeol whimpered.
If there was one thing Baekhyun had learned over their last six years together, it was how to read his husband like an open book; whenever Chanyeol would lie to him, he would look away and his left eye would twitch violently. It was usually hilarious enough for Baekhyun to excuse the lie completely, but this time was different. Baekhyun scowled.
“Liar. This isn’t the first time you’ve gone out with him without telling me either, assuming you’ve been going for lunch often enough for him to say the ‘same place.”
Chanyeol groaned. This was not the time for Baekhyun to become a full blown Nancy Drew. “Babe, that’s not it. Sometimes, yeah, I go out to lunch with Kris… but I usually eat your food!”
Baekhyun stepped away from his husband’s grasp and crossed his arms. “I’ve been making food for you everyday, and not once have you mentioned that you go out for lunch with your friend, ‘Krease,’” Baekhyun mocked with air quotes, “who by the way, I’ve never even heard of before this moment! Have you... have you been eating any of the food I’ve been giving you, or have you been throwing it all away?” Baekhyun asked incredulously. Given Baekhyun’s background, where food was usually rationed and sometimes his family would have to skip dinners to make it through the week, throwing food away was like a sin.
When all that came from his husband was a low ‘I’m sorry’, Baekhyun scoffed.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Chanyeol? If you already have these scheduled dates with your friends, I won’t make lunch for you everyday, just when you need it! You don’t have to hide your friends from me, or whatever the hell you were trying to do.” Baekhyun snatched the lunch box from Chanyeol’s grip and marched to his car, ignoring his husband’s pleas to wait.
--
When Baekhyun got home, he parked in the driveway and just sat in the car. He stared into space for a while, processing all of the new information. After a while, he rested his palms on top of his eyes and sighed heavily.
Learning that Chanyeol had been lying about eating the food he cooked for him was like a huge slap in the face. After two years of marriage and four years of dating, Chanyeol still couldn’t be honest with Baekhyun, and just tell him that he was eating out with his friends. Baekhyun felt like a terrible husband, what had he done to push Chanyeol to the point where he couldn’t rely on him for anything? Even for something as menial as lunch?
He removed his palms from his eyes and stared at their beautiful house. They had the ideal life, an ideal marriage. But under the surface, their marriage felt so one-sided. It was like they were roommates, where Chanyeol just wanted to live his own life, and Baekhyun was the annoying and clingy roommate who kept on bugging Chanyeol to be his friend.
A half an hour later, he exited the car and went into the house. He had about an hour until his first student came for her lesson.
--
Chanyeol arrived home at five thirty, shitting bricks. He knew how important the topic of food was to his little husband, and so he knew that he had really pissed him off this time. He had put off coming home until he knew Baekhyun was done teaching his students for the day, because he knew that they would have to have a talk once he got home.
When he stepped into the house, it was pitch black. Chanyeol panicked, thinking Baekhyun might have packed up and left to stay at his friend’s house, but he was proved wrong when he heard the sound of the piano being played in the living room. He walked towards the sound, and leaned against the arch that led to the living room. The melody was soft and incredibly melancholy; it broke Chanyeol’s heart to pieces. When the song ended, Chanyeol tried to call out to his husband, but he could hardly get the first syllable of his name out.
Chanyeol was saved from his predicament when Baekhyun himself turned towards Chanyeol. His sad eyes coerced Chanyeol’s broken voice to speak.
“Baekhyun, I-I’m so sorry. I knew I should have told you, I--”
“Am I a bad husband?” Baekhyun cut his husband’s excuse off with the question that had been rolling around in his head the whole day. If he was being real, it had been in the back of his mind for the past few months.
“Wh-what?” Chanyeol ran his hand through his hair in one rough motion. “Why would you even think that? If anyone’s the bad husband right now, it’s me...”
“I--” Baekhyun sighed. He turned around fully on the piano bench and faced his husband head on. “Why don’t you ever rely on me?”
“Rely on you? How did the subject of lunch become a question of my reliance on you?” Chanyeol scoffed.
“You couldn’t rely on me enough to tell me something as stupid as ‘Babe, I’m eating out with my friends tomorrow, I don’t need lunch.’” Baekhyun mocked, imitating his husband’s deep voice. “I can’t even fathom the reason. It’s something so small, but it’s bigger than that! You never communicate, never ask me to do anything for you, I don’t even know why you keep me around!” Baekhyun started tearing up; letting out all the past months’ frustrations out. Chanyeol’s brows furrowed and he padded towards his husband.
Chanyeol wrapped his arms around Baekhyun and began, “Baby, first of all, I love you. Let’s get that straight. I had literally no idea that you felt like this.”
“N-no, let me go!” Baekhyun pushed Chanyeol away as his words turned into sobs. “No… no I... “ Baekhyun sobbed out. “What did I d-do? Wh-why do you h-hate me s-so much? You s-slam the door in my f-face, you-you never t-talk to me, you never a-ask my opinion on important things like paying the b-bills and doing the t-taxes...I-I want to help you, I w-want to be your hus- husband, I hate seeing you struggling to live your.. your independent life and leave me on the back-burner like I‘m-I’m... dead w-weight to you.”
Baekhyun finally let go and cried into Chanyeol’s stomach. Chanyeol made shushing noises and ran his hands through Baekhyun’s soft, black hair. He then bent down and kissed the top of Baekhyun’s head multiple times, muttering apologies over and over again.
When Baekhyun’s sobs started to die down, he spoke again, forehead to Chanyeol’s stomach.
“S-sometimes I just feel like you want to…to...” Baekhyun hiccuped, “...leave me, but you’re too scared to tell me to my face, so you’re just trying to slowly r-remove me from your routine... But 'Yeol, that hurts even worse… so, if you have even a little bit of the affection you had for me when we got married, please, just...divorce me.” Despite his words, Baekhyun tightened his hold on Chanyeol’s sweater.
“No! What the fuck?!” Chanyeol exclaimed and pulled away. “This is spiraling out of control. Baekhyun, you say I never communicate, but you’re not listening to what I’m saying right now. I. Love. You. And I’m not letting you go, ever. Get that into your head first. Secondly, I’m sorry I’ve been acting like this recently. I’ve been trying to make friends with Kris and he’s very... cool and independent, so I guess... I wanted to be cool in your eyes too, so I started to act a little like him.” Chanyeol blushed. “Also, I want you to be comfortable all the time, and not have to worry about things like the bills or taxes so you can focus on your art, because I know that your whole life has been about trying to pay the bills and making ends meet.” Chanyeol gasped. “Not that that’s a bad way to live! But it’s hard nonetheless. My thought process was that I’m a math professor for god’s sake, I can take care of the taxes! But, I understand now that that’s not the way to behave in a marriage... I should have included you. I’m so sorry I made you feel sad, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol raised Baekhyun’s chin with his fingers and pecked him on the corner of his mouth.
“Oh, and I’m also sorry about slamming the door in your face this morning…” Chanyeol added sheepishly.
Baekhyun chuckled and raised his hand to pull on Chanyeol’s ear lightly. “Dumb Giant… You’re already the coolest in my eyes. But, you're right. You need to talk to me and include me in things... I'm your husband.”
Baekhyun’s teary eyed smile was probably the most beautiful thing Chanyeol had ever seen. Chanyeol smiled softly and bent down to leave kisses all over Baekhyun’s face.
“Forgive this dumb Giant, please, baby…” Chanyeol whispered against Baekhyun’s skin in between pecks.
“I don’t know… seems a little too fast don’t you think?” Baekhyun said playfully, and then started laughing at Chanyeol’s overly exaggerated pout.
“But Baek,” Chanyeol stomped his foot like a child and whined out. At this point, Baekhyun was full out giggling.
Chanyeol looked on lovingly at his giggling husband, and vowed to make sure that his smile never slipped off of his face.
--
“Chanyeol~ doing the taxes is so boring!! Let’s do something else!”
“Weren’t you the one who wanted to help out????”
(cough) “uhm… I have a class soon so I’m just gonna go…”
“PARK BAEKHYUN!”