B. Blossom [3/3]

[lababoreine]

Three

In truth, Baekhyun did want Chanyeol there for support, but he did not want another reason to anger Tae Suk. He already thought that Baekhyun was cheating on him with Chanyeol, and after his lapse in judgment that one night not so long ago, it was technically true, at least in that moment. However, he hoped to go to their apartment, get his things, and leave before Tae Suk even came home. A hand-written note was already prepared so that he would not have to face him in person. It was safer this way for everyone involved.

Upon arriving at the apartment, everything appeared to be in order. Tae Suk had not been back after leaving the flower shop in a rage earlier that day, but Baekhyun knew that his absence was too good to last which was why he was in such a hurry. Just because the man had been gone for some time didn’t mean that he had abandoned his home completely. His clothes, his hygiene products, and his electronics were all still there- that, and the apartment was in Tae Suk’s name. Baekhyun had no grounds to call it his own.

Moving quickly, Baekhyun headed into the bedroom to pack up his few belongings. Really, all he had to take with him were some clothes that he could live in. He didn’t have much to his name. There weren’t any money or jewels hidden away and no family heirlooms seeing as he’d been kicked out of his home by his parents for his sexuality. There was nothing he could say that he really needed except the basic survival necessities, and what little money he did have was tucked away at the bank, so it didn’t require physical removal.

Though, truthfully, he did have to break into Tae Suk’s briefcase with a butcher knife in order to retrieve his debit card. The control over his money had been how it had all started. Tae Suk had called him immature for spending his hard-earned cash on a new bag and had told Baekhyun that he would ‘hang onto it’ for him until he was ‘ready’ to be responsible. That day never came.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Baekhyun was snapped back into the present by a large hand grabbing a fistful of his hair roughly, yanking him up from his kneeling position beside the bed. He quickly shoved the card into his pocket before he was thrown down and collided with the wall, the impact of his head against the hard material making him see stars. “Y-you’re back,” he breathed, pushing himself up only to receive a rough kick to his chest, the blow hitting a particularly nasty bruise left from earlier in the day.

“This is my house,” there was no longer any warmth in Tae Suk’s eyes. Once, before all of this, he had tried to pretend to care for Baekhyun. The smaller man could still remember a time when things weren’t this bad, but now he knew as he stared up into the cold, black, darkness of his expression that those times were gone never to come back, and living in the past would only mean that he would die there as well. “What? Not happy to see me?” he sneered.

Finally, Baekhyun pushed himself up to his feet, trying to ignore the pounding in his ears. “It’s alright,” he managed to keep his breathing even and calm. “You won’t have to deal with me any longer, Tae Suk. I’m leaving,” the words that came out of his mouth surprised him with their firmness and honesty. Never before had he thought he would have the courage to confront his boyfriend- the man he’d once loved- and tell him that it was over.

Tae Suk, too, must have been surprised, for the look on his face was one of wide eyes and bewilderment. “What?”

Baekhyun inched towards the door at the tone of his voice. He could hear the infliction of rage as it began to dawn on him exactly what the boy was saying.

“You fucking bitch. You’re leaving me?!” His voice was raised, and before he could lunge at him again, Baekhyun ran. He scrambled over himself, trying to force his legs to work, but they didn’t seem to want to move properly. He grabbed his suitcase by the door, and just as he’d opened it, he was pressed against it so hard that the door slammed shut and the wind was knocked out of him. He could feel the sickening crunch in his chest as his ribs cracked from the pressure.

His cheek throbbed from the impact, but he was given no reprieve. He was slammed against the door again. “It’s him isn’t it?! Isn’t it?!” Tae Suk was screaming so loudly now that Baekhyun prayed that their neighbors would call the cops. Even if the man somehow got out of this, at least he would be taken to a safe place, somewhere that hopefully Tae Suk would never find him again.

“I-It’s not. Tae Suk, please. Let me go,” he choked out, his eyes shutting tightly as tears began to fall from the corners of his eyes.

“Don’t lie to me! I know he fucked you!”

Baekhyun cried out as his arm was twisted behind his back, and a soundless scream fell from his lips as it was jerked harshly upwards with another crunch to follow. White, hot pain flowed through his arm. All he could do was gasp and shake his head, silently begging Tae Suk to finish his assault quickly so that he could leave.

“You aren’t even denying it,” Tae Suk snarled and, finally pulled back. Baekhyun sobbed as he reached for the suitcase again. Every bone in his body ached, even though his adrenaline was pumping through his veins wildly. “Fucking whore. I won’t let you disgrace me like this.” There was a deafening silence as the larger man moved to take Baekhyun’s hand with a gentle calmness that was by far more dangerous than any of his outbursts thus far. “No one is going to miss you. Not even him.”

Baekhyun screamed and fell backwards, trying his best to jerk away, but was quickly silenced as he was knocked upside the head with a nearby porcelain lamp. His vision blurred- all he could see was stars. He could hear the sound of the vase shattering as it connected with the hardwood flooring. He groaned and tried to push his body up to crawl away, though he could not see where he was going, but a sharp stab of pain in his hand had him immediately recoiling back. A sharp piece of the lamp embedded deep in his hand, and blood gushed freely from the wound.

“Tae Suk! Please! Please stop!” he pleaded, turning to block another blow with his forearm which caused him to fall back on the sharp pieces. He could feel them digging in mercilessly into his soft flesh and breaking the skin there. “You’re going to kill me!” he screamed at the man, but the pain did not stop.

He was jerked up by the collar of his shirt and lifted so that he was face to face with the man. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he said in such a serious tone that Baekhyun knew that he was not exaggerating.

He was going to kill him.

Baekhyun sobbed out and tried to wrench himself away, kicking and screaming until he felt something sharp and tight wrap around his neck. He felt a sickening crack in his neck, and then he couldn’t breathe. He clawed and struggled despite the last of his strength beginning to leave him.

The coil of the lamp began to dig into his neck, drawing blood to the surface as it cut into the tender skin. Tears poured down his cheeks as he mouthed to Tae Suk, begging for his life to be spared. But, it was futile, the wire continued to dig in deeper until Baekhyun’s body began to seize and thrash with the desperation for air. His lungs contracted painfully in his ribcage and he felt sick to his stomach. Blood rushed into his ears, and his head pounded to the loud rhythm of his heart.

His vision began to blur once more, and then everything was over. His muscles slowly began to relax as he began to fade.

He had always imagined dying to be a peaceful affair, something that would happen to him naturally as he got older and had time to accept his impending fate. But this- this was not fate, and he found himself terribly afraid. All he wanted was to live. He may not have had much to live for- his flower shop didn’t make much money, the man he’d spent his entire adolescence with hated him enough to end his life, and the man he loved was marrying someone else. He had no friends, he was all alone, and yet he wanted to live, to fight for another day to make it better than the last.

The grip he had on Tae Suk’s hands began to relax, and he slumped back, eyes closed. Just as he did, he fell to the ground with a resounding thud, and then there was a sickening crack. Baekhyun felt Tae Suk’s weight lift off from his body, the coil unraveling. His lungs expanded powerfully, forcing oxygen deep inside at a painful rate. He sputtered and choked as he heaved and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor.

His vision began to fade back into view. He would have spoken, but his voice was gone, and he touched the front of his throat only to find a sticky wetness there. When he pulled back, he saw that the tips of his fingers were coated a dark red with his own blood. He would have groaned, but even that hurt.

He just began to try to push himself up, but he was far too dizzy, and the oxygen hadn’t yet seemed to return to his arms and legs, leaving him completely uncoordinated.

“You stay the fuck away from him!” a voice rang in his ears, pushing past the rushing of blood that consumed his thoughts. “Or I promise that you will never see the light of day again! Do you hear me, you fucking piece of shit!?”

Baekhyun knew that voice.

He glanced up only to see Chanyeol standing there over Tae Suk’s broken frame. Blood gushed from a wound on his head and marks on his arms where he had obviously attempted to defend himself. Baekhyun had never seen the man cower before, but there he was, curled back and snarling at Chanyeol like some kind of caged animal. Before he could agree to any terms, Chanyeol used the paperweight in his hand and brought it crashing down on the back of his neck.

Baekhyun covered his mouth with his hands in a silent scream. He felt like he would be sick again. Chanyeol turned to face him, breathing heavily. There was nothing left to say. He grabbed the long-forgotten suitcase and Baekhyun’s wrist, trying to pull him along until the smaller boy let out a broken, whispered cry that had Chanyeol watching him with an alarmed expression. That was when they both realized that the wrist was twisted in an unnatural position.

Chanyeol cursed under his breath and gently helped Baekhyun up, hurrying him down the hall of his small apartment complex while trying to avoid too much unwanted attention from the neighbors. Some of them poked their heads out of the doors, others stayed inside with their windows and doors shut, but thought Chanyeol seemed to be aware of them, Baekhyun could barely see the floor in front of him. He could only let Chanyeol help him along.

And when they got in the car, Baekhyun found that the sleep that had evaded him at Tae Suk’s hands was slowly taking over him. The last thing he heard was Chanyeol’s screams fading into the distance. “Baekhyun! Baekhyun, wake up!”

÷

It had been just over a week since the incident. Tae Suk had been arrested on assault and battery charges. Because Seoul did not recognize their romantic relationship, there was no chance of filing for domestic abuse. Chanyeol had only been let off on his charges because of Baekhyun’s testimony as well as his father who had surprisingly come to his son’s defense. Granted, Baekhyun didn’t think that Chanyeol’s father understood that his son had been romantically linked with Baekhyun. If he had, then the story may have turned out very differently.

After his stint in the hospital, Baekhyun had been faced with the fact that he had nowhere to go and no one to whom to turn. Chanyeol couldn’t afford to let him stay with him, and Baekhyun understood.

Despite the fact the man had saved his life, it didn’t change anything between them. He was still to take a seat at the head of his father’s company, and he couldn’t allow any rumors of his romantic relations with another man to circulate.

However, that didn’t mean that he had left Baekhyun out in the cold. A kind man by the name of Kim Joonmyun, a former classmate of Chanyeol’s, had offered to let Baekhyun stay with him in his apartment. While he had never met the man before, and he wasn’t entirely sure he trusted him, it was better than the alternative of being alone on the streets, and so he accepted. Chanyeol arranged for him to be taken there by taxi, and when he arrived, he was immediately greeted by a man no taller than himself with the kindest eyes he had ever seen.

Joonmyun hadn’t just agreed to give Baekhyun a comfortable place to rest, he took to actively taking care of him. He fluffed his pillows, brought him food, and made sure he was given books to read and adequate television programming to keep him entertained. It had taken no time at all for Baekhyun to warm up to him which was a feat in itself considering how wary Baekhyun had always been of people and how paranoid he was now.

The week had been spent in absolute silence as Baekhyun’s voice began to return to him, but by the second week, he was able to hold small conversations though his voice broke and shook when he spoke. “You don’t have to do this,” he had told the man as he came from his tray of food in the evening. “It’s enough that you let me stay here.”

Joonmyun just shook his head with that same gentle smile on his face. “It’s no trouble, really. I just want to make sure that you get better. You are a very important person to Chanyeol.”

Before he could ask what he meant by that, the man had already left the room, and he pushed the thought from his mind for fear that dwelling on it would make him wish for the impossible to happen.

The next few weeks were spent regaining his strength. By the third week, he was up and moving around in the apartment, helping out with simple chores. Joonmyun tried to keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn’t overexert himself and reopen the deeper wounds.

Chanyeol visited often, always coming by with some of Baekhyun’s favorite dark chocolates or some bubble tea from the little cafe near his flower shop. The flower shop was the only thing Baekhyun could say that he truly missed, but he was in no condition to return with the shape he was in. Chanyeol promised him that it was still in good hands. He had made the monthly rent deposit and closed everything up with a small notice sign so that there would be no confusion as to why the shop was not opening. Baekhyun promised him that he would pay him back for everything- him and Joonmyun both- as soon as he got back on his feet, but both assured him not to worry himself over it.

“Truth be told, I have more money than royalty,” Joonmyun had said offhandedly during one of their brief arguments when Baekhyun insisted that he could not blindly accept their charity. Baekhyun opened his mouth to say something, but Chanyeol shook his head.

“No, he’s telling the truth.”

The conversation had made Baekhyun seriously wonder who it was he was dealing with, but Joonmyun had smiled mysteriously and told him that it was better he didn’t know, and Chanyeol had agreed that it was better for all of them if they didn’t discuss Joonmyun’s heritage.

Later, he would come to find out that Joonmyun’s family was involved in many secret dealings that took place in the depths of Seoul’s government, but that was another story for another time. All he needed to know about Joonmyun at the moment was how kind and compassionate he was towards someone he hardly knew.

It was as if he had found the brother he’d never had in the older boy, and he found himself lamenting the fact that he would eventually be leaving the home and returning a life of solitude. In truth, it wouldn’t be horribly different from when he was staying with Tae Suk only he would no longer have to fear a beating should he stay out too late or speak out of turn.

He had never known how deeply in fear he had been living until he had been pulled out of it.

÷

More months passed, and Baekhyun was still in the care of Kim Joonmyun which, in itself, was a blessing. He had tried, several times, to move out on his own, but each time he came back to the fact he didn’t have the money, and he hadn’t had the time to save any extra cash due to being unable to work.

Chanyeol was continuing to pay the rent on his store’s lease which had been a wonderful gesture at first, but no Baekhyun couldn’t help but feel sick to his stomach with all of the debt he owed. No matter how many times he was told it was being given to him, time with Tae Suk had taught him that nothing came without a cost.

Today marked his first day back at the lonesome shop. It was dusty and many of the flowers had wilted. He immediately began to take inventory and place orders for the things he would need to clean up. So many beautiful flowers had wilted in his absence that it pained his heart and brought tears to his eyes.

For many people, they were just flowers, but to Baekhyun, they were so much more than that. He had an affinity to them- a way of speaking to them so that they would flourish and grow under his touch. It was his talent, one he carried with great pride. No flower had ever died under his touch until now. With every pot he cleaned out, with every dried stem that hit the bottom of the bucket, Baekhyun felt a little piece of his soul tossed out with it. His chest physically hurt, and he had to stop, taking a seat behind the counter as he buried his face into his well-manicured hands and heaved a small sob.

Every doubt he had ever had about himself began to surface in the cruelest of ways. If he had just left his boyfriend- his ex-boyfriend- sooner, he would have saved his shop, if he had never fallen in love the first time, he would still have his family. If he had just done things differently, he wouldn’t be suffering as he was now.

His head hung, his eyes downcast, Baekhyun sat at the dimly lit table, staring down at the dried stem of what had once been a beautiful water lily. He had bought it as a small seedling from a girl trying to raise money for some school trip. No one else had seen its potential but him- her other flowers had been in full bloom, gorgeous and vibrant, but he had gone for the wilting water lily, taking it back to his shop and carefully nursing it to health. It was his flower, one that he never intended to sell or use in any of his designs. Now, he’d forgotten all about it, and now it was gone.

“Baekhyun?”

Baekhyun’s head snapped up, and he coughed in surprise. His fingers busied themselves in rubbing at his red, tear-stained eyes. “Chanyeol, what are you doing here?” he said, feigning annoyance to cover up his own embarrassment. Even after everything they had been through, Baekhyun couldn’t expect Chanyeol to understand why he was crying over flowers.

“I came to see if you needed any help. I’m really sorry…” he stopped a few feet from where Baekhyun sat and watched him hesitantly.

“Sorry for what? This isn’t your fault,” Baekhyun gave a short laugh.

“You hired me, and I let you down. I tried to take care of them. I did,” Chanyeol insisted. “But the flowers, they don’t respond to me like they do to you. You said it yourself, I kill them just by looking at them.”

The words made Baekhyun want to smile with the truth they carried. Early on, he had discovered that Chanyeol was terrible at caring for plants. He could do everything Baekhyun told him to do, and it would still wilt under his touch. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so painstakingly obvious by all of the dead flowers with which he was now surrounded.

“I did manage to save one of them,” Chanyeol spoke again after a moment of silence. “I know it doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things, but-“

He didn’t have a chance to complete his sentence. Baekhyun had already stood up and was moving over to him, quickly reaching out to take the small pot from him. His eyes were wide in surprise with what he saw. There, springing up from the soil was a vibrant green stem, and at the end of the stem was a tiny blossom- a beautiful, vibrant red rosebud smiling up at him.

“Chanyeol, this is…” he braved a look up at him, finding an unreadable expression on his face. “Thank you. This means so much to me,” if he hadn’t exhausted all of his tears on his self-pity, he would have begun crying tears of joy in that moment.

“I want you to be happy, Baekhyun.” A large, firm hand clasped his frail shoulder, as the other extended so that Baekhyun could take the pot gingerly from him. The smaller boy held it carefully in both of his hands, but his eyes didn’t move from watching the man who had just brought him one of the greatest gifts for which he could have asked.

“Don’t worry about me,” Baekhyun shook his head. “I am happy. I still have my shop- it can use some work, but it’s not all lost,” he put on a brave face. “I have Joonmyun giving me a place to stay until I can afford the down-payment on an apartment. I have…” he stopped as he almost said ‘you’ before he realized that it wouldn’t be entirely true. He thought back to the day, so many months before, when he had overheard Chanyeol speaking with his wife-to-be about his work at the shop.

“You have me,” Chanyeol finished for him.

But rather than the comfort Chanyeol likely hoped that his words would bring, there was only coldness, an ice that propelled Baekhyun back so that he wouldn’t be burned from its touch. He shirked away from the hand that gripped his shoulder and retreated behind the counter.

“Thank you… really…” Baekhyun began, choosing his words carefully, putting up the same polite front he had the first day Chanyeol had met him. “I do appreciate everything you’ve done for me. But this is where it ends, isn’t it?” Despite Chanyeol’s words to him that day, speaking of the fact he’d never leave, Baekhyun couldn’t believe it to be true. He still had his duties in the world to perform.

Chanyeol’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Baekhyun, I don’t understand-“

“-Please,” Baekhyun begged him before realizing how desperate he sounded. If he was to do this right, then he couldn’t let Chanyeol know how much this was affecting him, too. “It’s better this way, isn’t it? For both of us.”

“Of course it’s not,” Chanyeol stepped forward again, and Baekhyun shrank back, intimidated by his presence. It wasn’t a fear that he felt when Tae Suk was near, a fear of being physically hurt and cornered. It was much worse than that- a suffocating fear of being emotionally destroyed by the one man who was holding him together by the thinnest of threads. If Chanyeol would only leave now, it would be easier. Baekhyun could pretend that everything was returning to the way that it should be, that Chanyeol had served his purpose in his life by saving it.

“Yes, it is. You have helped me in more ways than you can possibly image, but I believe that I am beyond your help now. I can live happily like this…” Chanyeol was standing beside him now, and Baekhyun had nowhere else to run. “Chanyeol, I’m begging you,” he said hoarsely as those same, broad hands came to cup his soft cheeks. “I can’t take this. I can’t-“

Thin, chapped lips met his own in a beautiful moment of passion. The kiss was light and chaste, nothing like what he had experienced from that night in the bar. The pad of Chanyeol’s thumb gently rolled over the crest of his cheekbone, wiping away the tears that were pooling there as Baekhyun’s final defenses crumbled and he succumbed to the man he had grown to cherish and love.

“Please,” Baekhyun whispered hoarsely as Chanyeol pulled back. “I’m scared…”

“You don’t have to be scared anymore. I’m right here with you. Remember?”

“But what about your-“

“I’ll take care of it. Okay? I’m not going anywhere. I want to be with you. I love you.”

And as Chanyeol pulled him in for another kiss, Baekhyun realized that the tears wetting his cheeks weren’t just his own.

÷

As expected, Chanyeol’s family had not taken the news well that he had broken off his engagement. Baekhyun had not been allowed to stand by his side as he delivered the news, seeing as he was not directly involved in any of their lives, and Chanyeol had thought it was best that he not be dragged into it in the event there was backlash. Baekhyun had been through too much pain and suffering this past year for Chanyeol to want to add more to it when it could be helped- and backlash, there was.

It was difficult to get approved for a loan to make the down-payment on an apartment due to the banks freezing when they found out who Chanyeol was. Sometimes, when they went out at night, Chanyeol said that he could tell that they were being followed, making it impossible for them to have even the slightest bit of freedom. Scathing voice-mails and letters were sent until Joonmyun intervened, throwing his own prestige around to get the harassment to cease.

Chanyeol had moved in to Joonmyun’s place as well. The man seemed rather happy to have the couple around, and Baekhyun had grown to realize through their interactions that he probably was. Joonmyun was a very lonely man, one who had lost his great love in high school when the girl had moved back to her homeland in China. His friends consisted of Chanyeol and now Baekhyun, which Baekhyun thought as strange until Chanyeol explained that their other friends from high school had all but dropped contact with them or tried to use them for monetary and societal gain as soon as their identities were discovered. It was with this knowledge that Baekhyun began to open up to Joonmyun more, no longer feeling the awkwardness of owing him something. He realized that Joonmyun didn’t need his money in return; he needed his friendship.

Everything was beginning to calm now that the weeks dragged on into months once more. Baekhyun was slowly beginning to get back on his feet, but he could not afford to pay Chanyeol for his help in the flower shop. Even so, after work, Chanyeol would drop by to help him clean up and put away stock for the day. He’d bring him coffee in the morning on his way to work as he used to do and hug him as he whispered words of encouragement into his hair. And each day, Baekhyun felt a little more confident, a little more resolution in his series of unfortunate events.

Today, Chanyeol had the day off, and despite Baekhyun’s insistence that he go back to Joonmyun’s and get some rest, the man was there, helping him stock the new vases that had come in. Of course, Chanyeol’s version of helping was almost dropping the most expensive item, causing Baekhyun to nearly have a heart attack. Not to mention the way he stumbled over his too long legs, his apron becoming caked in dirt as it spilled from the pot back onto his body. But, the smile he wore on his face was enough to make Baekhyun’s otherwise dull and tiring day all the worthwhile.

The bell to the front door rang clearly, cutting through the momentary silence, and a set of footfalls could be heard, heels clicking in clear, brisk steps.

“I’ve got it. You clean up,” Baekhyun told Chanyeol who was in no state to greet a customer seeing that he was now covered in dirt. Before Chanyeol could protest, Baekhyun gave him a nudge towards the washroom and made his way around the front desk to greet the woman.

“Welcome to B. Blossom,” he gave a short bow. “I’m the owner, Byun Baekhyun. How may I help you-“ he froze in his words as he stared up at one of the two people he hoped never to see again.

“You!”

Baekhyun took a step back immediately as the woman advanced on him. “Ah, Miss Bae, so good to see you again…” the words came out far more sincere than he thought they would, seeing as he didn’t think he’d be able to even attempt to feign politeness.

“You… you… bitch!” she screamed. Baekhyun wondered just how many times he’d be called that word- it had already lost all meaning to him. “How dare you embarrass me like this!? Do you even know who I am?!” her voice was so loud that there was no way Chanyeol could not avoid hearing her which meant Baekhyun would be able to save some face.

Chanyeol had already come to his aid twice in his battles, and he refused to rely on his knight in shining armor a third time when he knew very well he had the strength to handle it himself.

“Yes, you are Bae Hyoyun of the Bae Corporation,” Baekhyun’s head snapped to the side as he was smacked and he had a fleeting thought at how little it hurt compared to everything he had been through. “Well, at least one of us still has manners,” he rubbed his jaw as he turned to face the seething girl.

“This… This is all your fault. My Chanyeollie and I were happy together before you interfered. I don’t know what you did to him, but you should know that-“

“I didn’t do anything to him,” Baekhyun interrupted, feeling confident to stand up for himself in his own battles now. “If you recall, he was the one who volunteered to work with me to pay for all of the flowers you ruined. If anything, it is your own fault for chasing him away,” he couldn’t help but take some sick satisfaction at her gaping stare. “It may be hard for you to believe, but I didn’t cast some sort of magical spell on him or actively pursue him. And yet, here we are, happy together.”

The woman, Hyoyun, regained her composure slowly, her eyes narrowing into tiny slits as she stared the man in front of her down. “You won’t win him. He’s mine.”

“He belongs to no one. He can be with whoever he wishes,” Baekhyun said with the sweetest smile he could. “Unfortunately, that person isn’t you.”

She looked as if she had been slapped which was all too well for Baekhyun seeing as she had physically hit him. “Now, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You’ve already destroyed my flowers once, you’ve physically assaulted me, and you’re harassing my worker. If I see you again, I will call Mr. Kim Joonmyun and let him know what you’ve been up to.”

The threat of police may have been useless against such a powerful family, but at the mention of a name that carried more weight than her own, she paled, and Baekhyun knew he had her cornered. “Don’t worry. You’ll recover and find a man just as shallow as you are. It’s better this way,” Baekhyun escorted her out and practically closed the door on her as he did.

“Baekhyun?”

The man froze at the voice. He turned to see a smiling Chanyeol staring back at him. “You did that… for me?”

“It wasn’t much,” Baekhyun insisted haughtily. “Don’t make this isn’t a bigger deal than it really is, okay? I don’t need you blubbering all over me.”

Before he could further protest, Chanyeol’s long arms wrapped around his small frame and pulled him into a tight hug. “It means a lot to me that you would stand up for me, though. I mean, I was worried that she would come here and that I would have to…”

Baekhyun snorted. “Idiot,” he rubbed his lover’s back comfortingly, but even he couldn’t stop the smile that was slowly overcoming his expression. Things were back to normal. “Come on, we still have a lot to finish before we can go home,” even though he was protesting the affection, the truth was that he enjoyed it- perhaps a little too much. Seeing Chanyeol stare at him with those large brown eyes made him want to push him against the desk and kiss him, and he couldn’t allow himself to get that far off track from his work.

“Awee, I’m hungry! Can’t we take a lunch break?” Chaneyol grabbed Baekhyun from behind around the waist as they reached the florist’s workdesk. Before he could respond, those plump, kissable lips were starting to plant small kisses down his neck.

“Ya!” Baekhyun swatted Chanyeol’s roaming hands with a rolled up newspaper.

÷

The time had finally come. Baekhyun and Chanyeol had recently begun speaking of moving out together rather than separately. Chanyeol said that he didn’t like the idea of Baekhyun all alone, and Baekhyun didn’t like the idea of not being with Chanyeol. Living in the same place together, even if they had only just started sharing a room, had spoiled Baekhyun a bit, and he was no longer content to just see him when he came by the flower shop.

Joonmyun had been sad at first, sadder than Baekhyun had expected. He’d tried to give them reasons to stay, and he’d tried to reason that it simply wasn’t economical for them. He’d been so persuasive that Baekhyun had almost changed his mind, and he might have if not for Chanyeol’s resolve that they needed to find a place to truly call their own. And so he left the apartment hunting up to him. Baekhyun hadn’t chosen the first place he’d lived, it had belonged to the man whose name he dared not speak, and he didn’t feel qualified to choose the next place, either.

Chanyeol involved him, which was more than he could say for his past experience. He showed him the pictures and arranged viewings that they both could attend, and then they would talk together about what they liked or didn’t like. The first apartment they’d both really liked, someone else had made the deposit before they had the chance, and after that, it seemed to be one after the other that they couldn’t agree on. It was more frustrating than Baekhyun remembered, but it was only because he actually had to go through the heartache of actually wanting a property this time.

“I’ll go make us some hot chocolate,” Baekhyun rubbed his eyes sleepily as he tore them away from Chanyeol’s computer. They had been staring at apartments all evening, trying to find something within their price range that was actually attractive. Chanyeol seemed to be pickier than Baekhyun, but he had been used to living in the luxuries they currently experienced. Even Baekhyun had to admit that he wished they could afford something as beautiful as Joonmyun’s place, though he thought that he might enjoy something just a little more homely for his own peace of mind.

“Okay, I’m going to e-mail them about this one, then,” Chanyeol adjusted his glasses before clicking on the link that would open the site up for him to type the letter

“Alright,” It was funny, but Baekhyun had never known that he had to wear glasses to read until they started to live together, and he supposed that it was a scary thing, even now, to know that he was moving in with Chanyeol and there were things he still didn’t know about him. They were still learning each other’s likes, dislikes, little habits, and small quirks. But Baekhyun wasn’t going to let that scare him off as many people would, for he realized that even if he got annoyed with him, even if he got angry with him, he still loved him at the end of the day, and there was no one else he’d rather come home to.

Rounding into the kitchen, he half-expected to see Joonmyun sitting at the table with his tablet and some tea, but instead he saw a shirtless, bronze-skinned boy busily brewing a kettle with a look of pure concentration.

“Excuse me…” Baekhyun began, but though his voice was soft, it wasn’t enough to keep the young man from being startled. “I’m sorry,” he apologized.

“Oh, uhh… you must be one of the roommates,” the boy said sheepishly, eyes cast down. He looked like he thought to cover himself, but then thought better of it and allowed his arms to dangle at his sides awkwardly.

“I guess?” Baekhyun decided that staring was not the most polite thing in the world, no matter how inhumanly attractive the guy was. He busied himself by going to the cabinets to get the cocoa and sugar and mixing the powder himself. He never did like the pre-packaged stuff. Before he could continue polite, though possible strained conversation with the stranger, an equally disheveled Joonmyun appeared in the doorway.
“Jongin, do you need help finding the teacups-“ he stopped when he saw Baekhyun giving him a knowing look, and he couldn’t help but grin sheepishly. “Oh, Baekhyun, I thought you and Chanyeol would be asleep by now.”

“Apparently,” Baekhyun grinned despite himself while Jongin stood there, looking curiously between the two of them.

“Ah ha ha ha,” Joonmyun rubbed the back of his neck before regaining his composure. “Umm, right. Baekhyun, this is Jongin. I told you about my new intern at the company, didn’t I?”

“You told him about me?”

Joonmyun was smiling brighter than Baekhyun had ever seen him smile. “How could I not?”

“Ugh, gag me,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “You’re fucking your employee, Joonmyun. Really?”

“Oh, that’s low, coming from you especially,” there was no malice in his voice.

Baekhyun choked, and Joonmyun laughed. Jongin, for his part, just folded his arms and pouted a bit. “Well, at least Chanyeol isn’t still in high school,” he retorted when he could find the proper comeback which felt like ages in his jumbled mind but was in reality only seconds.

“Hey, mister! For your information, I just graduated!”

Despite his indignation and the fact he’d called Baekhyun “mister”, Baekhyun couldn’t help but find it funny that the boy was just as young as he looked. Joonmyun had several good years on him. He’d never really pegged Joonmyun as the type to go for such young men, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

“You act like a grandpa, so it makes sense he wants someone young to “keep him young”.” Baekhyun teased a bit.

“Don’t listen to him,” Joonmyun told Jongin. “I’m just as young as the day I finished high school.”

“Such a grandpa thing to say,” a new voice added to the mixture could only mean that Chanyeol had pulled himself out of bed to find out what was taking Baekhyun so long. “Hey, I’m Chanyeol,” he greeted Jongin with a playful grin.

Apparently another stranger added to the mixture was enough to send the boy’s face buried in his hands in embarrassment. “Joonmyun, you said that no one would be here!”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Chanyeol had the same alarmed expression on his face he carried when he knew he’d gone too far when teasing Baekhyun. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to embarrass you… it’s just not every day that our Joonmyun brings someone home. To be honest, I don’t know of the last time he did.”

Joonmyun shot Chanyeol a look that was somehow both thanking him and telling him to shut up at the same time. Baekhyun was always pretty impressed by his variety of ‘motherly’ looks. “I think the tea is ready,” he put an arm around Jongin’s waist and smiled a bit. “Let’s take it back to my room, shall we?”

Jongin nodded and pulled away silently, smiling a bit and bowing quickly as he passed Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“He’s pretty damn cute,” Baekhyun spoke up while Joonmyun finished preparing the tray.

“Thanks,” despite the fact he was now a bit calmer, it was impossible to not see the sly smile that crossed Joonmyun’s face as he said the word. “He is, isn’t he?” And then he, too, cleared out the kitchen, leaving Baekhyun standing there with Chanyeol as he waited on the milk to warm over the stove.

“Not as cute as you, though,” Chanyeol’s large body slid behind Baekhyun, and he rested his chin on his shoulder as he watched the man stir in the chocolate-sugar powder.

“I’d hope not,” Baekhyun smiled a little to himself. “I want you to think I’m the cutest.”

“I do,” Baekhyun turned the stove off and poured the hot chocolate into mugs for them both, but before he could pick his own up to cool it, Chanyeol was sweeping him off his feet, bridal style, and carrying him back to their shared room.

“Chanyeol! What are you doing?! Put me down! The hot chocolate is going to get cold!”

“Sorry, but I’m in the mood for something a little sweeter tonight.”

Baekhyun weighed the decision between being with Chanyeol and nursing a warm cup of hot cocoa and decided that he didn’t mind this at all.

÷

The past week had been spent moving into their new place. The first night, they had slept on some pallets on the floor before deciding that they definitely needed a mattress. The second night, they had slept on the mattress they had purchased earlier in the day. Their furniture delivery ran late, and it wasn’t until late in the evening on Friday that they had put the last of the chairs together. Of course, most of the day had been figuring out how the furniture actually went together and putting the chair pieces together upside down.

“No one should ever let us move together on our own again,” Baekhyun muttered to himself as he toweled off his wet hair and slid into bed, completely naked, beside the man he loved. “Next time, we hire someone.”

Chanyeol propped himself up on an elbow and turned to face him. “Aww, but I had fun!”

Of course he did, Baekhyun sighed and pulled the covers up to his neck. “Can you turn the heat on?”

Without complaint, Chanyeol did just that. Baekhyun smiled to himself and closed his eyes. It had been a long time since he had felt so at ease and happy with his life. As he returned, Baekhyun grabbed Chanyeol and started to snuggle against him, causing the boy to cry out in alarm. “Cold hands! Cold hands!”

Baekhyun laughed and buried his face against the other man’s neck. “Mm, I am cold, and you are so warm,” he ignored the protests and nuzzled up against him until Chanyeol’s protesting stopped and he could feel the warmth fill his extremities. He closed his eyes, ready to settle in and doze off when a rush of warm air covered the shell of his ear, sending him leaping back. “Y-Ya!”

“Revenge,” Chanyeol smirked and rolled over so that his larger body was covering Baekhyun’s.

“You’re so mean to me, you know that? Trying to freeze me, blowing in my ear…”

“Who cooked you dinner and drew you that bath, hmm?” Chanyeol took the opportunity of Baekhyun’s shock to lean down and kiss him deeply, pulling him up by his lower back to press their bodies together. His soft, pink tongue traced the line of Baekhyun’s lips teasingly until the smaller boy parted them, inviting him inside.

Baekhyun’s slender arms looped around Chanyeol’s neck and pulled him down, deepening the kiss in a way that left them both breathless as they pulled back. He panted a bit, staring up at Chanyeol only to find the cheekiest grin plastered across his face.

But Baekhyun was no longer in the mood to laugh. He leaned up again, capturing Chanyeol’s mouth in a bruising kiss, a deep moan rumbling in his throat. Chaneyol’s hands were already beginning to roam to cup his pert ass and pull them so that their groins touched and heated under the delicious friction their bodies created.

“I really want to fuck you hard right now,” Chanyeol broke the kiss, gazing at Baekhyun with a fiery intensity. “So hard that you can’t move in the morning, and I have to bring you breakfast in bed.”

The words caused Baekhyun’s groin to tighten and another, louder moan to be heard in the room. “Chanyeol, when you say things like that…”

“You’re so beautiful after you’ve showered, and you smell so nice,” Chanyeol kissed his way down Baekhyun’s neck, his hands moving down his perfectly thick thighs and resting under his knees to hike his legs up around his waist. “Like roses and lavender.”

“Stop being so cheesy,” Baekhyun tightened his fingers in Chanyeol’s hair, trying to ignore the fluttering in his chest at the stupid compliments Chanyeol gave him. They really were cheesy, but they were also sincere and heartfelt, and Baekhyun was only half-heartedly protesting. He loved the way Chanyeol spoke to him and made him feel safe and wanted.

Chanyeol seemed to know what he was thinking because the next words out of his mouth were “But you like it when I’m cheesy.” And Baekhyun did.

He let his head tip back slowly to expose the soft flesh of his neck for Chanyeol’s taking, a soft sigh escaping his parted lips. “Do I really taste that good?” He asked as Chanyeol kissed wetly up his shoulder to his jaw, cupping his face and tilting it away to suck at the skin there.

“The best,” was the response he received. Chanyeol gripped his hips tighter and rocked fully down against him, each roll of his hips slow and sensual. “You’re so responsive tonight,” he chuckled, trailing the same hand that had been gripping his jaw down his chest and abdomen. It came to rest around his half-hard cock, pumping it slowly as he pressed him back onto the mattress. His knee pushed Baekhyun’s legs further apart so that he could bend more fully over him, his other hand moving between his thick, pale thighs to stroke the soft skin there.

Baekhyun moaned and tensed under his touch, his own hands trailing down the warm expanse of Chanyeol’s back before he cupped his bottom and pulled him down closer, his hips rocking up of their own accord in an effort to increase the friction. “How do you want me?” he purred before grabbing Chanyeol’s cock in a tight, firm grip. Unlike Chanyeol’s hands, his were softer, more delicate, and his fingers quicker and more nimble.

“Just like this,” Chanyeol responded, lips parting as Baekhyun’s hands worked over him.

“You’re already this hard from touching me?” Baekhyun asked in slight surprise. Chanyeol grunted. He let his fingers dip lower, circling the puckered muscle of Baekhyun’s entrance with two slick fingers. Baekhyun froze as he felt the all too familiar sensation of the fingers pushing inside him, stretching him slowly. “Ch-Chanyeol…” he stammered the name.

His own, delicate thumb swirled along the reddened head and pushed against the slit. “You look delicious. I want to taste you.” He gasped out, a third finger working its way slowly inside him.

“Please. Oh fuck, Chanyeol. It feels so good when you stretch me open like that.” Chanyeol curled them expertly along his inner walls, stroking them as they squeezed and tightened around him. There was a soft ‘aha’ as the tip brushed across a small walnut-sized bundle of nerves which had Baekhyun crying out with the pleasure of the dull ache in his stomach.

Before he could regain his composure to continue showering Chanyeol in affection, the taller man grabbed him and rolled him over, hoisting a surprisingly strong arm under Baekhyun’s lithe waist to hoist him up. “Chanyeol, what are you..?”

He didn’t really need to question it. Chanyeol’s long, pink tongue brushed across his hyper-sensitive hole and licked across the opening. Baekhyun couldn’t quite pin-point his emotion, but it was somewhere between heaven and awkwardness. “You really don’t have t-“ he cried out again, face pressing down onto the pillow. He could feel the upward curve of Chanyeol’s lips on his backside and knew the other man was smirking without a care.

Chanyeol’s lips and tongue were wet and warm and lavished his entrance in attention it had never quite known. Baekhyun trembled, feeling dizzy and weak, as he tried to fully regain his senses. But his lover’s open mouthed kisses around one of the most sensitive, forbidden parts of himself was driving him wild. “Now this…this tastes amazing,” Baekhyun blushed at the words and screamed out as his tongue wiggled deep inside him.

His hard cock bounced against his stomach, smearing precum across his abdomen with each roll of his hips. He fucked himself back onto Chanyeol’s tongue, loving the way the warm, wet muscle slid over his sensitive opening and lathered it up with spit. Chanyeol’s open-mouth kisses and licks were becoming more eager, and his hands moved up to hold Baekhyun into place as his hips began to jerk with each orgasm that rifled through his small body. He chanted Chanyeol’s name and clawed at the sheets, trying to ground himself, but all he could see was stars and he felt as if he was floating through the air.

Chanyeol pumped him through his orgasm and sat up a bit, still holding Baekhyun down with his hand so that he could move to mount him from behind. “Wow, you’re so open after all of that, I could just slide in,” Baekhyun felt the tip of Chanyeol’s cock press against the ringed muscle, and suddenly everything came crashing back down. “Just hold still. I’m going to fuck you now…”

Baekhyun did as he was told, trying to hide his fear. If Chanyeol was going in raw, it was going to hurt. He tensed without realizing it and cried out just as the other man began to push inside. It didn’t feel dry, though. In his moment of confusion, he relaxed just enough for a particularly sharp thrust to send Chanyeol’s cock buried deep inside his body. He screamed and threw his head back, his body shaking from the sudden intrusion. But, he realized, Chanyeol must have applied the lube when he was half-passed out from Chanyeol bringing him to such an intense orgasm.

He groaned softly and tried to push himself onto all fours, but Chanyeol kept him pressed firmly against the mattress. “Chanyeol, p-please don’t tease,” Baekhyun begged softly, just as Chanyeol pulled out only to slam back into him so hard that his fingers twisted the already abused sheets, his toes curled under, and he screamed.

Chanyeol found a quick, powerful rhythm to fall into, leaving Baekhyun at his mercy. “Please, Chanyeol. Please. It’s so good… You’re so good at this. Your cock is so big, it fills me up like no oth-“ he bit back the rest of the word as his entire body moved a couple of inches forward with yet another hard thrust of Chanyeol’s hips.

“You’re so beautiful when you’re begging for it,” Chanyeol pitched his hips particularly sharply inside him, and Baekhyun screamed again. “I-I need it. I need you. Please make me come again. Please…”If he could have started to grind his hips against the mattress under himself, he would have, but Chanyeol’s weight kept him from receiving his own sexual gratification at his own whims.

“I know you want it so bad, don’t you?” Baekhyun cried out in frustration as Chanyeol’s frantic thrusting slowed into a nice, steady rocking motion. He twisted his head, gazing back at Chanyeol with a challenging look which only made the other man chuckle. “Relax, Baekhyun. You know I’ll take care of you,” another sharp lilt of his hips and he was fucking Baekhyun down into the mattress with an unmatched ferocity.

It was frantic, quick, and uncontrolled the way Chanyeol’s hips drove against Baekhyun’s soft backside and thighs. Baekhyun bit against the pillow and sobbed out as his second orgasm hit him hard. “Ch-Chanyeol!!” he screamed the man’s name as his body began to seize up and shake in what was one of the biggest orgasms he’d had in a very long time. Chanyeol’s hand moved from its position on Baekhyun’s lower back to his neck and jaw so that he could grab the boy and turn him into a bruising kiss.

And then Chanyeol’s hips stilled, and Baekhyun could feel it as he began to release inside him. He groaned softly and closed his eyes, taking it all in. When he opened them, they stung of wetness, and Baekhyun realized that he had tears in his eyes due to the overwhelming feelings his orgasms had left him with. “Chanyeol…” he whispered as they broke apart. “Mmm… You’re so amazing, Baekhyun. You feel so good… so fucking good.”

Chanyeol slowly lowered his body weight to cover the smaller boy so that they could lie together without Chanyeol having to pull out. But, after a moment, he pulled off and flopped down beside him, collecting Baekhyun in his arms and holding him close to his chest.

They stayed there, lying with each other in silence. Baekhyun felt each rise and fall of Chanyeol’s chest and the little huffs of air against the top of his head. Only when the breathing became deep and even did he realize that Chanyeol had fallen asleep. He couldn’t help but smile and tilts his head up, kissing the man’s lips chastely, a whirlwind of emotion overwhelming him with the force of a typhoon. And that’s when he finally allowed himself to speak the forbidden words.

“I love you, Park Chanyeol.”

÷

Today was a cold, rainy day in November. A single, red rose sat high on a window-sill overlooking the bustling city of Seoul. The clouds rolled and rumbled high in the sky, casting dark shadows over the streets below.

Today, nothing could cast a shadow on Byun Baekhyun. As he prepared to open up the shop for the morning, he was swept into his boyfriend’s arms and a kiss planted firmly on his lips. “What was that for?” he laughed, trying unsuccessfully to wriggle out of his grasp. It seemed that every day, Chanyeol was getting stronger. It was either that, or Baekhyun was getting weaker, but due to the fact Chanyeol was no longer as awkwardly lanky as he once had been, Baekhyun placed his bets on the former.

“What do you mean ‘what was that for’? Don’t you know what day it is?” Chanyeol was grinning at him, that stupid infectious grin that made him fall head-over-heels in love for the man.

“November 22nd. Why?” The exasperated sigh from Chanyeol’s mouth was far too dramatic for Baekhyun’s tastes, and he hit the man’s shoulder playfully. “Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“It’s been a year since I started working here.”

Realization slowly began to dawn on Baekhyun, and he smiled. “Yeah, it has been… what a crazy year, too.” Baekhyun had never imagined that he would find his life so full and so worth living. He looped his arms around the other’s neck and held him there, enjoying the feeling of being close. Just as he shut his eyes, he felt a tap on his shoulder which had him opening them only to be faced with a morning cup of coffee.

As he took it with a smile, something fell onto his fingers.

A ring.

There weren’t any words for the elation he felt, but somehow he managed a small “Yes” as hee laughed and kissed Chanyeol again, pulling him down to his level so that he could show the man just how many ways he can say ‘yes’.

Their relationship will never be perfect. There will always be things that Chanyeol does that drives Baekhyun crazy, and Chanyeol won’t always understand why Baekhyun is so particular and picky when it comes to his daily chores. There are scars that each of them carry that will never truly fade, even with time.

But the love they have for each other has blossomed like the late-blooming rose in the summer.

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