+ forty

Taeyeon ended up not submitting the pictures to the media.

Baekhyun had been relieved when he didn't because the fans already didn't like Narda very much, after all the drama of the previous year in which it had been thought that she was a sasaeng. He just knew they would take Taeyeon's side because the pictures didn't look good. Of course, what logical person would have taken Narda's side? Or who would have given her the benefit of the doubt?

She was just a girl teaching in Korea. Taeyeon was a kpop idol known by everyone and loved by all. People would first side with her before giving it a second thought.

But in the end, they remained just scenarios in his mind. Taeyeon had chosen to stay quiet and discarded the physical copies she had of the pictures. A few days after his live video, an envelope was slid under his door at the dorms when he was gone at practices. When he returned, he saw it and picked it up. It was something to him from Taeyeon. 

A little present, as a token of my apologies. I hope you can forgive me for being so selfish. -Tae

It had been written out in her neat handwriting and underneath the letter was a small memory card taped to the sheet of paper. It was probably the very same one where she had the pictures stores, and she was giving it to him to destroy. There was no guarantee that she hadn't just made copies elsewhere. But Baekhyun would trust her. He knew there would be no reason for her to send the letter and the card if she didn't know that it was the only existing copy. They hadn't even been very triggering photos. But in the kpop world, anything could lead to a dating rumor.

Time went by surprisingly quickly and before any of them knew it, it was time to travel to the Unites States for their American leg of Exoplanet 2. Baekhyun had been especially excited about visiting a certain city because he knew it was where his beloved Narda lived. He had been especially whiny about asking the managers to make her city a stop of their tour. But it hadn't taken so much convincing, since Los Angeles was a popular city to go to and they knew they had many kpop fans there. 

He had heard from Narda that she had been going to school already, and that she was doing quite well in her classes. Baekhyun didn't know how he would do it, but he had already promised that he would attend her graduation on May ninth of that year. Narda had assured that it was okay if he couldn't make it. But he really wanted to be there. He assured her it would be during a short break they'd have anyway. All he had scheduled during that time was filming for his role in the upcoming drama Moon Lovers. But he didn't have very many scenes, and he could slip away from rehearsals and filming for a few days.

In those few weeks, SM Entertainment had announced that Chanyeol would be releasing a mini album. The company had allowed him to produce the songs he had been writing (for Narda, no less) and compile them into an album. It was set to be released a month after their comeback in June, but the album name and the track list had been released already. Heaven, Hellfire. The theme was the contrast between falling in love, feeling like being in heaven, and being heartbroken, which was compared to hell fire.

One of his tracks had been released on SM Station, for the fans to get a feel of what his album would be like. The song was called A History in Your Hands, and held lyrics like, "At least say you'll stay one more night. I promise not to touch you, be sure of that. There is something I haven't confessed; every single one of my problems is named like you. And if you don't want to say where I went wrong, remember I have forgiven you many times. But in exchange, you simply say: I'm sorry, I don't love you. And you leave with our story in your hands." The moment Narda heard the song and heard the lyrics, she knew it was about her and she wondered if he still felt that way.

She had been talking to him recently and she knew that he had met someone. But perhaps it was too soon to say he was over her already. It was too much to ask for, after he had loved her for so long. He couldn't just one day decide to forget what he felt for her.

With just one day before the concert, Narda had gone to school like any other day. She would get back home around six in the afternoon and she walked in through the back door to the kitchen, slinging her bag off her shoulder and placing it in one of the chairs. As she looked up, she was taken by surprise and almost found herself losing her balance when a bunch of voices shouted at her happily, "Surprise!"

Narda's eyes widened in shock and she stumbled back a step. Baekhyun took a step forward and was the first to greet her with a hug. He missed her so much and had been waiting weeks to hold her like that. Then one by one, each of the boys hugged her until the last one walked up, which was Chanyeol. Even Florencia had traveled with them. She was going to be performing as their opening act on their American tour, since SM thought her popularity would grow even bigger in the Americas. Then she had a duet with Jongdae during the middle of the concert.

"Hey Guti." He greeted her with a smile. "I hope you don't mind us dropping by like this."

She gave a shake of her head. "I'm so glad you guys are here. But...how did you find out where I lived?"

Chanyeol gave an innocent shrug of his shoulders. Then Narda's brother stepped forward with a grin on his lips. "My boy texted me and said they wanted to surprise you. So I sent him our address." That confirmed with Narda that the two still talked and were still good friends, after having met just once. If she knew her brother, he was still probably hoping that the two would get back together, even though there was no chance of that in Narda's eyes.

"I'm sorry we ate all your food." Baekhyun apologized sheepishly.

When they arrived, they had just gotten off a twelve hour flight, and they were starving. Narda's mother offered to cook and she made a full meal for the members of EXO who ate like they hadn't had food in years. All of them could safely confirm that after that, they were lovers of Mexican food. 

Kyungsoo said with a smile, "I swear I would never leave if I didn't have business in Korea."

Narda knew well that cooking was one of his hobbies and she made a mental note to teach him a bunch of Mexican recipes for him to try back home.

Everyone broke off into their own little side conversations when Narda stood by Chanyeol, both of them feeling a bit awkward. She looked up at him, a small smile forming on her lips as she began to speak. "I listened to your song on SM Station the other day." She mentioned and then waited for his reaction.

He seemed to instantly go red in the face. "Yeah?"

She gave a nod of her head, a sigh escaping her lips. "I thought it was a great song. Does it still hurt, Chan?"

He bit down on his lip nervously, and she had her answer there. Even if he met someone else, the pain wouldn't completely go away for a while. It was too soon to think about that. "Sometimes it still hurts. But I try not to think about it."

Baekhyun walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning his chin on her shoulder. "I missed you, baby." He said in a cute voice, and Narda turned in his arms to face him.

"I missed you too." She replied with a smile that she couldn't contain, though she tried not to do anything that might hurt Chanyeol's feelings. The inner wounds were still fresh and it might hurt him to see them together, even if he didn't want it to.

They stayed at her house until it was around nine at night, talking about everything, and Narda introduced all of them to her family. Her parents seemed to like them and her mother thought they were all absolutely charming. Florencia and Narda mostly had to translate everything that was being said. Then Junmyeon was the one who announced that it was time to head to their hotel. They were staying at the Roosevelt, an old, but beautiful hotel in Hollywood which was known to have housed many famous actors back in the day. Now it was a famous tourist attraction because it was believed to be haunted. 

Narda whispered to Baekhyun, "Have you boys told Jun that the Roosevelt is haunted?"

"Wait. Haunted?" Junmyeon went pale with worry.

"Surprise!" Baekhyun shouted in his face with a grin.

"We're going ghost hunting apparently, as one of our tourgram segments. The managers thought it would be fun." Minseok announced with a shrug of his shoulders. He didn't get scared easily and didn't really believe in ghosts. He was going to get his amusement out of watching Chanyeol and Baekhyun taking everything seriously, and Junmyeon probably screaming every three seconds.

"Wanna come?" Baekhyun offered to her, wiggling his eyebrows.

Narda beamed with excitement. "Oh my God, yes."

They booked the most haunted rooms in the hotel and split into teams. Narda, her brother Aldair, and Oriana had joined the ghost hunting party, which made the groups a little bigger. Still, Narda was left in the end, paired up with only Baekhyun. She thought that it had all been planned from the beginning to get them both alone, together.

A few segments were filmed for their tour documentary with Baekhyun being alone in all of the shots, since the managers didn't want any drama to be started if Narda appeared in the videos. Then they went back to one of the rooms to spend some time with the other members, her brother, and Oriana. Luckily, the other members informed them that Junmyeon didn't pass out or even scream bloody murder. He was just permanently attached at the arm with the maknae who was laughing his face off the entire time. 

They ordered room service, watched a few movies and then they each retired to their rooms for the night. Narda and Baekhyun went back to their own room together.

As they reached the door and opened it, stepping inside, Baekhyun gave her a kiss on the lips, something he had been refraining to do in front of her parents. Narda had explained to him long ago that in her culture, showing too much PDA in front of one's parents was disrespectful. Narda was moved by the fact that he had remembered that.

Their kisses continued, turning more heated and urgent as he backed her into the bed. She leaned back and fell onto it, biting down on her lip as he waited for him to make the next move. He climbed over her, the mattress dipping beneath their weight and his lips attacked her neck, nipping and kissing, leaving a hot trail wherever his lips touched her. 

"Tell me if you want me to stop." He panted heavily between kisses.

But she shook her head, sure of herself, despite the heat of the moment. "I want this, Baek. I know you're the one person I want to be with."

She was nervous. But she knew it was what she wanted.  

Narda Gutierrez Lozano wasn't just his sasaeng anymore. She was his.

-

the final update for this story and then the epilogue. so narda and baek finally got together in the end and even got a little bit of that good good. i don't do smut, otherwise i would have written one from the start. plus, i prefer writing like that. very subtle, vague, giving the imagination a chance to work.

thank you all loads for reading this story and supporting it. you don't know how much i appreciate it and how much it has mean to me.

coming up next is the epilogue. so stay tuned for that.

-clary