+ twenty five

It was morning and Baekhyun still hadn't gotten back to the dorms. Or maybe--Chanyeol thought--Baekhyun was still mad at him and decided to spend the night in the empty room. It wasn't something out of the ordinary. Whenever they had company on their floor, or whenever any of the members got into arguments with their room mate--which didn't happen too often--they would use the empty room to sleep in. It was the dorm that once belonged to Yifan and Tao so long ago. Now Yifan, Tao, and even Lu Han were no longer part of their group. 

Chanyeol thought Baekhyun was sleeping there. But he found that he was wrong when he heard Junmyeon knocking on his door again, asking if he had heard anything from their vocalist. Like when he and Kyungsoo went missing, he started quickly creating a flyer on his phone and went down the lobby where there was a copy machine in the security office. 

Chanyeol went about his day normally, as though nothing had happened. He had breakfast in the lounge with the other members while Junmyeon asked everyone if they saw or heard from Baekhyun. Then he got in the shower and changed for his daily schedules, which included dance practices and vocal rehearsals. Then he would go across the street to spend some time with Guti while she had breakfast. She normally tried to get him to eat, but he had started to gain weight since he started dating her because she always tried to feed him whenever she saw him. Nowadays he would eat before going to see her. She would usually have lunch ready for him to take to practices or other schedules anyway.

As he crossed the street, he got his key out to the apartment building. Narda had talked to the apartment building's manager to get an extra key made for him. Once knowing that it was for EXO's Chanyeol, the manager agreed, on the condition that the Kpop idol would give his daughter a personalized autograph. Chanyeol thought it was a good price to pay for being able to go in and out of his girlfriend's apartment whenever he wanted. 

He unlocked the front doors and casually walked into the building, scrolling through his instagram newsfeed. 

He didn't follow a lot of people, so he was quickly able to find Narda's posts whenever she uploaded something. She mostly put up pictures of her with Nari, or of the things she ate which she found interesting. Of the late she was posting pictures from her football practice. They had allowed her onto the team and were very lenient with her schedules because they knew she needed early mornings off due to her job as a primary school teacher. There were no pictures of her with Chanyeol on her page, which slightly dismayed him. But he knew that she wanted to keep their relationship a secret from the fans and the media. 

People already didn't like her because she was a known Baekhyun sasaeng. She didn't want his fans thinking that she was only dating Chanyeol for his fame, or to get close to his best friend.

There was one picture on his feed that caught his attention straight away. It was a sponsored post from Allkpop, which came up at the top of his screen. At first, he almost quickly dismissed the low quality paparazzi photo. But upon realizing he knew who the person was, he decided to take a closer look. In the picture was his friend Baekhyun, it was a collage of two pictures side by side. One of them was taken at night, while the other was taken in the morning. Someone had been following him when he left the dorm building the previous night. 

The caption underneath read: EXO's Byun Baekhyun spotted going into an apartment building last night, and leaving it this morning. Is he cheating on his girlfriend, SNSD's Kim Taeyeon?

In the background of the picture, Chanyeol squinted his eyes to get a closer look at the apartment building that could be seen. 

Anger quickly bubbled within him when he saw that it was the apartment building across from the dorms. It was where Narda lived with her friend Nari. He also knew that Nari and Kyungsoo had been out late that night, leaving Guti at the apartment by herself. It would have been the perfect opportunity for Baekhyun to go see her.

He went up to Narda's floor and knocked on her apartment door. He had the keys to her apartment, but he didn't like to impose on her like that. Instead he waited until his girlfriend came to the door. She smiled brightly at him and got on her tiptoes to greet him with a sweet peck on the lips. "Hey mi amor." She said to him, not even suspecting what he had in hid hands. The article was still open, showing on his phone screen and he dodged her affections, turning his head to the side. On his face was a look that lacked any emotion--lips formed into a tight line.

She was quick to notice there was something wrong and she grabbed his hand, which he quickly pulled back out of her reach. 

Narda frowned at that. "What's wrong, Chan?"

He followed behind her, entering the apartment, since he didn't want anyone else to hear their private matters. She closed the door behind him and both went to sit on the couch. He looked down at the phone in his hand, the backlight was off and when he unlocked it, the article was there yet again, mocking him. He raised the phone up in front of her, for her to see what he was upset about. 

As her eyes scanned over the article, he said to her, his deep voice deeper than normal and full of hurt. "You were with Baekhyun last night."

Narda felt her heart drop. 

The article claimed that Baekhyun had been spotted entering the apartment building at night, and leaving in the early morning. She knew exactly what it looked like to her boyfriend, and she understood why he was upset. There was evidence of his best friend entering and leaving the building. She, Nari, and Florencia were the only three women they knew who lived there. He wasn't going to see Nari or Florencia, that much was obvious to Chanyeol. Neither one of them was interested in Baekhyun and had boyfriends of their own.

The only person it made sense that he would be visiting was Guti, and they both knew it. 

She quickly took his hand in hers and tried to explain herself. "Amor, he was here last night. But--"

That was all Chanyeol needed to hear to instantly be filled with negative thoughts. He felt betrayed by Baekhyun, who was his best friend and had assured him he would back off Narda. He felt betrayed by her too, thinking that she was seeing Baekhyun behind his back. He was angry, and he was hurt. There was no time for explanations as he shot up from his place on the living room couch.

"Guti," He started angrily, yet his eyes were glazed over with tears because no matter what, he loved her and didn't want to lose her. It hurt more coming from her because yes, Baekhyun was his friend, and he loved her too. He could have expected something like this from Baekhyun. But he was in love with Guti, and could never fathom the thought of her doing something like this. "People who hurt you will continue to hurt you. Why won't you understand that he doesn't deserve you?" With a huff, he finally added, "I'm gonna go over there and teach him a lesson."

The EXO member made his way towards the door with determination. "Don't!"

Just like Baekhyun had done to him in the dorms long ago, when he was going to sneak out of the building to see Narda, she did the same to him. She took a running start and jumped onto his back, tackling him onto the ground. She was lighter than him, but she had taken him by surprise. 

"You're not going anywhere until you hear me out." She told him, leaning all her weight onto his back.

It only served to annoy him even more. But he wasn't annoyed at her. All his annoyance was aimed at Byun Baekhyun. "Why are you trying to defend him?" He whined from beneath her, trying to flip her over to take the higher ground. But she was able to keep him pinned on the carpet floor of the living room. It was a martial arts technique she had learned from Sun, who she was good friends with too, only they didn't spend as much time together because of the Baby Lips member's busy schedule.

"Just listen." She said firmly.

But he struggled underneath her even more until he was able to flip her over onto her back, with him on top of her. He had easily pinned her underneath him with her arms at her sides. Now she was the one who was annoyed, seeing herself poweless. 

"Get off me, Chan." She huffed in annoyance.

"Tell me what you were going to say first." He demanded, still fired up. He was going to hear her out and then decide if he wanted to start a fight with Baekhyun in the dorms.

She sighed in frustration, but began to explain to him, since he was at least willing to listen to her. "He came here last night, drunk off his ass. I didn't want to send him away like that, when he looked like he couldn't even stand. So I let him sleep here. Only sleep. I asked him to leave this morning when I woke up. Nothing happened. So you can stop being a jealous boyfriend. But if you think I would do something like that to you, then you don't know me and you are highly mistaken." He could see her annoyance at him growing with every word that left her lips. "What kind of person do you think I am, Park Chanyeol? Hm?"

Her question quickly grew some guilt in his conscience. 

"Aish, Guti..." He said, pushing himself off her and sitting beside her on the floor. Now he couldn't look at her, and his anger had died down. He knew he had been wrong for judging her before hearing what she had to say.

"No, tell me what you think of me. I want to know how my boyfriend sees me." She demanded, not even close to letting the subject drop now, and getting on her knees to crawl closer to him.

She cupped his face in her hands and forced him to look at her.

"Its not you I don't trust." He admitted with a sigh after a moment of still averting her gaze.

"Then what is it?" She wondered.

"Its him." He continued, with him referring to Baekhyun. "I know he still likes you and I know you want nothing to do with him. But I'm just scared that you two will fix things and there will be no more room for me in your life." He was like a small child, despite being a whole foot taller than her, full of worries and fear. He just loved her so much and was terrified of losing her. Narda understood that. 

She easily climbed onto his lap and pressed her lips to his, placing her arms around him. This time, he accepted her kisses invitingly, not turning his head away like he had earlier. 

"I don't want you and Byun fighting because of me." She said softly, her lip jutting out into a pout when she pulled away from him.

"That's up to him." Chanyeol replied, going in for another kiss.

He was hooked on her, always craving her attention.

Taking him by surprise, she brought her index finger to his chest and poked him. Hard. Her demeanor changed in a matter of seconds, turning from sweet and sultry to threatening. "And don't you ever doubt me again."

"I'm sorry, jagi." He apologized.

-

a quick unedited chapter because im going to my aunt's house for a bit. im so fucking tired. but i went black friday shopping and it was nice because i got a bunch of really nice clothes and only paid about 100$ for about 300$ worth of stuff.

my mom got really good deals though. some skirts that she really likes are worth about 40$ each and she got a bunch of them for like 4$ each.

anyway, i hope you all like this new chapter.

thank you.

-clary