The Letter

Missed Chances

Chanyeol woke up feeling happier. It took a minute to render why that was, and when he realized that last night was definitely not a subconscious-mind induced dream, he cracked a smile even before he opened his eyes.

Wanting to feel Baekhyun—silently assuming that they had moved away from each other in their sleep—Chanyeol reached to the front of him without breaking his eyes open. He felt around for a second, expecting to find Baekhyun's body, but when his fingers felt nothing, but cold sheets. Chanyeol's eyes immediately snapped wide open.

Instantaneously, he scrambled to sit up on the bed. Whipping his head all around, Chanyeol looked at both sides of him, searching for Baekhyun, but like his hands, his eyes came up short of anything, because Baekhyun wasn't there. He wasn't on the bed where he was supposed to be.

Chanyeol quickly questioned why he was alone. Did he mistake last night for something real? Shaking his head, Chanyeol locked his jaw as he threw the covers away and stalked across the room to quickly dress himself. As he pulled drawers and doors open, he knew that last night happened. It wasn't a dream and it wasn't a trick of his imagination. Baekhyun was there and now, he wasn't, again.

Harshly, Chanyeol pulled open his bedroom door, stomping out all irritated about having been left behind again. He brashly checked the extra guest bedroom, but like he expected, Baekhyun wasn't in there. He checked the bathroom before quickly making his way to the main living area.

"Baek!?" Chanyeol looked around and he listened for a while, though the only feedback he got was silence.

Cursing—with ruffled hair and an unwashed face—Chanyeol passed by the open kitchen, walked through the living room, and headed for the door. He didn't know where he was going. Chanyeol just had one function in mind at that moment and that was to find Baekhyun.

Chanyeol didn't have to search for long. The moment he wretched the door open, he almost walked right into Baekhyun, who was standing right outside of it with his head down and his hands on his hips.

"Baek."

Looking up, Baekhyun gave him a confused look. "Going somewhere?" he asked, sounding a little tired.

"Where'd you go?" Chanyeol asked, deeming that it was more important than Baekhyun's question.

Bending down, Baekhyun picked up multiple grocery bags that Chanyeol had failed to notice. "The store since you apparently don't eat. There was nothing in your refrigerator, but frozen food and energy drinks."

Chanyeol let out a sigh as he opened the door more and moved out of the way. "Couldn't you have left me a note? At least?"

"Why?" Baekhyun asked as he shuffled his way past Chanyeol, carrying the goods.

Noticing that they were weighing Baekhyun down, Chanyeol groaned in irritation over the fact that Baekhyun was trying to carry all the bags at once. He leaned forward and snatched the bags from one of Baekhyun's hands.

"Because," Chanyeol started, "I woke up alone and you were gone—and you could've just asked me to carry these, you know."

Baekhyun quirked his lips as he followed Chanyeol to the kitchen. "It's not like I got on a plane and left the country again—"

Chanyeol stopped walking and turned around to face Baekhyun. "If you ever pull that fucking stunt again, Byun Baekhyun, I will force every damn plane to fly to right back around, and I will personally pull you out of whatever aircraft you decide to board." Chanyeol paused. "Then I'm placing you under permanent house arrest, because, damn it, Baek, I won't be able to handle another game of hide and seek with you."