Right, I forgot to say... Happy 6k for this book~ Thanks for all the support I've been getting T_T I wouldn't be able to have motivation without you guys *sends rilakkuma hearts* FOREVER, WE ARE YOUNG.

Anyway, you know what I realized? I completely skipped Christmas, New Years and winter break hahaha OOPS. I keep thinking this story is in the summer because basketball reminds me of summer but NO it's in the winter... Stupid me :p

~

Baekhyun curled himself into a ball on the floor, laying on his side as he hugged his knees.

He's noticed that recently, that was one of his favourite positions, no matter how depressing that sounded.

His tears were still going at a consistent flow, only ever stopping when he wiped them with his hands.

He noticed that that room was significantly darker than before, and so he slowly sat up, spotting something that shone on the other side of the room. He recalled the pictures that he dropped and he sighed, standing up and walking over there with small steps.

He picked up the first two groups pictures and smiled when he saw everyone's faces.

Some people were smiling normally while others were goofing off, making ugly faces for all the world to see.

Junmyeon, for example, was trying to act cool by looking at the camera with a light smirk, his credit card held up with his right hand, flashing his expensive bucks. Sehun, on the other hand, was doing some type of aegyo with Xiumin, puffing their cheeks up and making V-Signs. Kyungsoo, Jongin, and Mingyu were smiling normally while Yixing was looking at something behind the camera dazedly.

His eyes wandered to himself and Chanyeol, fighting together with food. The first picture showed Chanyeol's shocked face from when Baekhyun first put ice cream on his cheek, and the second one was of Chanyeol wrapping his hands around Baekhyun's neck all while still getting ice cream on himself because of Baekhyun's hand.

He picked up the two other pictures and saw a solo one with just Baekhyun featuring Chanyeol. Baekhyun sniffled and wiped away his tears once again, looking at it closer.

Have we always looked at each other like that? Baekhyun wondered as he looked at both of their ice cream covered faces. He recalled that at that point, they were declaring a full food fight with smiles on their faces.

It wasn't up to Baekhyun to decide, but he thought that they both looked extremely absorbed in the other, too caught up in the situation to notice that a picture was being taken right in front of them.

Baekhyun bit his lip and looked at the door that had closed minutes ago. How did things become like this?

Dara's words rang through his mind and the ache in his body intensified tenfold, stabbing him ruthlessly.

Everything was the truth. Everything Chanyeol said was true.

He felt like breaking into a fresh round of sobs but held it back, remembering what Dara had said. 'Let him in...'

Baekhyun really didn't know what to do, he was stuck in between listening to Dara, and completely giving up on Chanyeol- hence causing him to fall in between two choices, wanting to choose one before pulling back and reconsidering.

Baekhyun sighed and looked up at the boring ceiling, trying to somehow find help in the barely visible ugly patterns.

What do I do?

I want to give up on him so bad.

Baekhyun clenched onto the pictures in his hand, thinking hard.

He realized that he's never thought this hard in his life because it actually brought a strain to his mind and heart, unlike the times where he forgot an answer in Math.

He looked back at the picture of him and Baekhyun smiling and Baekhyun bit his lip, closing his eyes and trusting his gut feeling.

He knew what he was going to do- what he needed to do.

He took in a breath and opened his eyes, threading his fingers in between the pictures and choosing three, dropping one out of his grasp.

He watched as the picture fell to the ground slowly and landed onto the ground with a small scratching noise, the pictured side facing the ceiling. He took one last fleeting look at it before turning away and walking out of the classroom door with a heavy heart.

Everything of Chanyeol and Baekhyun could stay in that room, but not anywhere else.

He wanted to listen to Dara and let himself fall one more time, but he couldn't.

By tomorrow, he'd try his best to forget about everything he used to feel, even if that seemed impossible.

After all,

it was what Chanyeol wanted, right?

He was going to give up on Chanyeol, and that was for the best.

~

Happy. Happy. Be happy, Byun Baekhyun!

Baekhyun took a breath of the fresh air and walked to his bus stop, trying to bring up his mood before going to school. He knew what his game plan was going to be.

Chanyeol was going to be his friend, and he'd stay his friend for the rest of his life. He was going to slowly get back the pieces Chanyeol took from him, and one day he'd be back to normal and perhaps be giving himself to someone more worth it.

Baekhyun reached the bus stop just in time and stepped on, spotting the familiar figure sitting in their original spot.

Baekhyun walked to his own spot with light steps, plopping down into the seat an aisle away from Chanyeol's. He considered saying good morning, but the giant had his earphones in his ears. Baekhyun suppressed a sigh and turned away, placing his elbow onto the armrest as he leaned his head on his hand, looking out the window.

He saw the snow falling down and he so desperately wanted to get out there and just stand in the weather but here he was, stuck inside the bus, watching the scenery he wanted to be in.

The snow had reminded him of the Christmas he spent with his family. It wasn't anything different than ever, the same fake champagne and Christmas crackers. He remembered wanting to spend it with his basketball team but not being able to, forced to spend it with his boring parents instead.

He understood that his parents were very important people to him, but he had spent around 16-ish years with them so that also meant 16 Christmases. Couldn't he just spend one with someone else?

Baekhyun turned his head and unceremoniously locked eyes with Chanyeol who just looked away after four heartbeats, going back to looking out the window.

Baekhyun smiled, willing himself not to miss the old times where he'd tease Chanyeol for looking at him, reminding himself not to remember when Chanyeol would look at him and smile, forcing himself not to think about the times where Chanyeol would look at him after playing the guitar with Baekhyun singing.

Baekhyun closed his eyes, letting his head lean back and his legs stretch out underneath the seat in front of him. He folded his arms over his stomach and tried thinking about nothing, still going through the process of recycling all of the things he's felt for Chanyeol.

With his eyes closed, he didn't see Chanyeol looking at him—missed the way Chanyeol looked at him longingly; craving his laugh, touch, and attention.

They arrived at the school shortly after and Baekhyun stepped off the bus after Chanyeol, following him into the school. Baekhyun saw Chanyeol's limp and frowned, remembering that it was because of him.

When he saw Chanyeol taking the earphones out of his ears, Baekhyun walked faster until he was beside him, smiling up at him.

"Hi Channie," Baekhyun greeted and Chanyeol looked taken aback.

"Baekhyun..." He looked skeptical, but he didn't want to pass up this moment talking to someone he's been wanting to talk to.

"What were you listening to?" Baekhyun asked and Chanyeol shrugged, looking ahead of him again.

"Some music, I've showed it to you before," he mentioned and Baekhyun ignored the pain he felt and instead laughed.

"Oh right, that music. I didn't get a chance to listen to them more... What were their names again?" He questioned.

"They're—"

"Baekhyun!" Kyungsoo called and caught up to both of them, hooking his arm around Baekhyun's. "Why does it feel like I haven't talked to you in ages?" He wondered and Baekhyun smiled, feeling intensely grateful for Kyungsoo's appearance.

"Because it has been ages, idiot. We need to talk lots more."

Kyungsoo agreed and dove into a conversation, seemingly causing Chanyeol's presence to go to -100 and both of them basically forgot Chanyeol was even there.

Chanyeol didn't really mind, because just hearing Baekhyun talk normally was good enough for him.

The giant didn't understand, and it hurt him much more than he expected. For some reason, his stomach felt like it was being twisted in multiple different ways and he was beginning to feel nauseous.

It felt terrible... It felt worse than if Baekhyun were to scream at him for whatever he did. He didn't even know what he did, for Christ's sake! When Baekhyun had talked to him as if everything was normal, it stabbed Chanyeol straight through his heart, even though it was supposed to make him feel better.

He knew something was wrong, and yet Baekhyun just decided to completely forget about it and try to act as if nothing happened at all- as if the past two or three weeks didn't even pass.

Chanyeol stopped in his tracks and stood there in front of the school doors, trying to recollect his mind.

What did I do?

His brain flashed him multiple choices but he couldn't seem to wrap his mind around any of them because he knew Baekhyun wasn't that stupid.

He tried digging deeper, thinking of multiple situations that could've happened before.

Something hit him when a random student opened the door to the gym and walked inside, the sound of the door closing resonating through his mind.

He had heard that noise that day when he was talking to Dara in the equipment room.

They had both looked out into the gym to see if anyone was there, but when they saw nothing, they just looked at each other quizzically.

Chanyeol shook his head and opened the front door to step inside.

No, it can't be...

And then he remembered that time when Dara and him saw Baekhyun running away from the empty classroom, turning the corner.

He had caught a glimpse of Baekhyun's face, and it had broken his heart to see Baekhyun look so hurt.

No, no, no.

He entered his classroom and spotted Baekhyun sitting there, trying to mask his emotions with a poker face.

That isn't it, right, Baekhyun?

He took his seat and looked at Baekhyun who also caught his eyes, smiling at him with what he knew was a fake smile. He remembered what he had said to Dara, about how Baekhyun was this, and how Baekhyun was that. None of it was the truth, but if he did hear, it would've been too late to do anything.

You didn't hear me, did you?

~

He searched the halls with the little break time he had, trying to find his 'girlfriend.' He spotted her at her locker and he walked up to her, tapping her on the shoulder. "Yes?" She asked and Chanyeol looked at her.

"I need to talk to you..."

She smiled at him and Chanyeol slightly returned it. She followed Chanyeol to his favourite room and they entered, sitting on the window sill.

Chanyeol coughed awkwardly and gnawed on his lip, wondering where to begin.

He decided to just go straight to the point and brought up his courage. "I think Baekhyun might've heard us that one day when we were talking about him in the equipment room, and I think he's really really mad and sad—and I can't stand it when he's sad. I think everything's falling apart, Dara. He just came up to talk to me this morning and he pretended everything was fine, he even went back to calling me Channie."

Dara sighed, and in her mind she knew what Baekhyun had decided. "I don't know anything, Chanyeol..." Dara lied, but she knew she had to if she wanted to support Baekhyun with his choice. "I mean, isn't this your fault? You were the one who said the words."

"Dara, I know it's my fault. That's why I'm coming to you for your help you dumb grandma," Chanyeol stated exasperatedly and Dara shook her head.

"I'm afraid I can't do anything, because I don't really know Baekhyun or how to fix this..." She felt slightly disappointed in Baekhyun for choosing to give up on Chanyeol, but she couldn't blame him. He had two choices, and he just chose the one he thought was for the best—even if Dara knew it wasn't the best choice that he could've chosen.

Chanyeol ran his hands through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. "I don't—what do I do?" He questioned himself and Dara jumped off, landing onto the ground.

"I don't know, Chanyeol, that's really for you to choose, but I think it's better if you give up now."

"What?" Chanyeol asked.

"You heard me, Chanyeol. You should give up," Dara didn't know if this would work, but usually if you told Chanyeol to do one thing, he'd do the other. "I bet he hates you now and wants you to go shove your head up an ass... You can't do anything about it now because you already messed it all up with your stupid self. So you best just walk away and forget it." Chanyeol looked at her, dumbfounded from the stuff he considered shit coming out of her mouth.

"Dara... What are you saying?" Chanyeol asked incredulously, wondering why Dara was thinking like this. He didn't like it one bit.

"You fucked up, basically. And I know he won't come back to you easily so all your chances are basically gone. So shut up, and suck it up," she reprimanded and turned around dramatically, beginning to walk away, worried if Chanyeol actually would react the way he wanted him to.

"You know what, Dara?" She heard from behind her and she smiled to herself. She knew Chanyeol too well. "You can shut the fuck up, because I'm not gonna suck it up. That's two of the things you do."

Dara wiped the smile off of her face and turned around with a hand on her hip. "Oh yeah? So what are you going to do now? Beg for his forgiveness?"

"No," Chanyeol began as he walked up to her, towering over her with an all too familiar grin on his face. "I'm going to earn it."

"And how are you supposed to do that?" She asked, challenging him even if she had to crane her neck to look at him.

"Simple," he started off and backed up a few steps, pointing to himself. "I'm just going to be Park Chanyeol."

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[A/N]

Well here's this chapter! Huhuhu thank you for 6k again~ I love you guys too much, seriously.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and wow, Dara did not come out like I thought she would. I originally planned her to be evil for the rest of the time but haha that idea went down the drain.

How do you guys think Chanyeol is going to solve this? Yeah I don't know either. Kidding, I have a few things up my non-existent sleeves.

Imma go biking so I'll C you guys later!