10080 [(ChanBaek/BaekYeol Fanfiction) (Originally Written By EXObubz)]

Chapter 1 (Part 2)

“Fine” perfectly described their situation, but fine only lasted a while. For weeks their arrangement turned out okay. After finding an apartment for Chanyeol when he didn’t feel like he could safely go home, they put their plan into effect. On nights when Chanyeol decided to stay in the city, Baekhyun—if he could—would quickly prepare some food, take a fairly long ride on the subway, and then a cab just to go give Chanyeol his dinner. He always made sure that the food tasted just right and that it was something Chanyeol was probably craving, which he had developed a sixth sense for after being married for nearly two years.

Chanyeol tried to go home on the weekends like they had arranged, but he found that exhaustion would just devour him by the end of the week and wouldn’t allow him the well-being enough to do so. So, after many attempts and a few successful tries, Baekhyun smiled at him and told him that it was alright to stay in city and that he didn’t need to strain himself just to go home. At first Chanyeol was hesitant in accepting Baekhyun’s kind gesture, but in the end he began staying the weekends in the city. And even though the apartment was supposed to be used for those difficult moments when he couldn’t get himself home, Chanyeol began to use it frequently each week until it’d been months since he last stepped foot on the property he had gotten for the two of them. In a way, their little haven was blurred in his memory, replaced by the practical function that the large one bedroom apartment in the city had to offer: convenience.

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On Baekhyun’s part, he began to frequent the apartment less and less due to the deadline of his first book. He would take the time and try to reach Chanyeol by phone or video call when he could, but like everything else, those moments declined in numbers also. When Chanyeol was working at the office, Baekhyun was sleeping after writing and planning until the break of dawn when he would finally collapse on his bed alone. 

And in the rarity of those moments when Baekhyun would have luck on his side when calling his husband, their conversations were always brief and generic. Overtime, it had gotten bland with the casual and usual questions of “How have you been?” and “Have you eaten yet?” The calls were always kept brief because of the simple fact they both knew how one or the other either needed to go to sleep or go to work.

One night as Baekhyun lied alone in their bed with nothing to look at, but the full moon glowing past the window and the soft waving of the thin curtains, he thought about their decision. He contemplated about what was happening. He felt a rift between them. Distance was not a kind factor, but nor was it an impossible feat to overcome. The fact that they rarely saw each other in person wasn’t a very big factor. To him, it was more. Distance didn’t matter because even if they were living under the same roof, the situation still wouldn’t change. Both of them would still be too busy for each other. It’d be the same situation, but with different circumstances.

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Back in college, Baekhyun held an interest in different languages. One of the things he’d often do to Chanyeol was leave him messages in foreign languages that he knew his business-minded boyfriend would have no idea how to read. To him, that was the fun part; watching Chanyeol do work in deciphering his message.

Baekhyun always made sure to keep his messages simple, but meaningful. Often times, they were just “I love you” notes. Chanyeol, despite looking and acting like a cold-shouldered brute, would always write back the words, but in Korean, the language that the both of them shared.

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One of the things that Baekhyun picked up in his many days of following Chanyeol around the library was an interest in binary codes. As Chanyeol would sit and look through stacks and stacks of reference books for an upcoming test or quiz in one of his classes, Baekhyun would look over the shoulders of other students, observing them as he usually did since he was more of an observer than a doer. It wasn’t until he looked over one student’s book that his interest was caught by the amount of ones and zeros on the page.

The student was writing in a language Baekhyun recognized, but their eyes were glued to the book. It took a moment for him to realize that they were translating the numbers. No matter how much he stared, Baekhyun couldn’t figure out how the hell they were getting letters from what looked like a random arrangement of the first two positive numbers—though one could argue that zero is neutral.

It was then that Baekhyun stepped back and ran back to where Chanyeol sat. Then he quickly asked his knowledgeable boyfriend what he just saw, to which Chanyeol answered with his usual face, “It’s binary code, Baek.”

Binary.

Binary was simple, yet secretive to a point where only a few of the general public could understand. Not only that, but it had some sort of “cool” factor to it that drew Baekhyun in. Cracking a large smile, Baekhyun thanked Chanyeol, quickly kissing his bookworm boyfriend before wandering around the library in search of something that would teach him the art of Binary.

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In their early days together as a married couple, back in their tiny apartment, the two of them would dedicate Saturdays to movies. Some days they would watch romantic comedies and other days, they would watch a dramatic family movie that would leave one of them—most of the time, Baekhyun—in tears.

In times like those, Chanyeol would pet Baekhyun’s head and tell him not to cry, that it was just a movie, and that crying wouldn’t change anything about what just happened. To that, Baekhyun would huff and argue, challenging Chanyeol by asking him whether or not it was wrong to wish for a different outcome. Chanyeol would always answer, telling him that there was no point in wanting a different ending because the movie was done and there was nothing changing it. Baekhyun would proceed to call him an insensitive brute, to which Chanyeol would ignore the remark, lean over, and kiss Baekhyun’s movie-induced tears away.

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Once Baekhyun’s first book was published, he finally felt free. He felt as if he could finally go visit Chanyeol and visit him, but with the success that came with its publication, a full schedule also ensued. The one night that Baekhyun went to visit Chanyeol, it was spent with general talk. Baekhyun still said “I love you” and Chanyeol also, but it didn’t have the same warmth dripping from the words like it used to way back when.

And when they made love that night, there was a need, but all the while, it felt forced. Both of them felt it. They felt the rift between them. There was a fear between them that they sought to fill up by making love like they used to, but there was no helping it. Chanyeol was tired. Baekhyun was tired. But, they still put up the effort to feel something despite craving sleep and rest over a lustful night with each other.

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Board games were something that they used to enjoy on Friday nights. When Chanyeol would come home at around six, Baekhyun would prepare dinner and pick out a game board to play with. After eating, brushing their teeth, and a little bit of heated play, they would take out the game and begin. Sometimes there were stakes. One time, they played Monopoly. Every time Chanyeol would buy out one of Baekhyun’s properties, the smaller guy had to take something off. Chanyeol—being the business major—always played tactfully and would have Baekhyun stark naked within the first thirty minutes of the game.

Their board game nights would never last long. The creaking of the bed would always last longer than their games. And when they finished, Chanyeol would whisper, “I win.” Baekhyun would smirk, pull them closer and shake his head.

“No. I won,” he’d say, kissing Chanyeol deeply. “You’re mine. Forever.”

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“I’ve got a book sign event this weekend, Yeol,” Baekhyun said, smiling into the webcam.

Chanyeol returned him a tired smile. “Really, now. Your book’s doing good?”

Nodding, Baekhyun grinned. “Yeah, it’s pretty high up on the charts for new authors. I’m really happy about that.”

“Congratulations, Baek.”

“Thanks, Yeol.” There was an elongated silence following them for a second. “So, will you come? Please?”

Opening his mouth, Chanyeol hesitated. He knew that he most likely wouldn’t be able to go so he didn’t know why he said, “Sure.”

Beyond Chanyeol’s notice, Baekhyun’s eyes lit up. “Buy a book! I’ll sign it for you!” he joked. Then he glanced down at the time. “Ah, I have to go now,” Baekhyun said, yawning.

Chanyeol bit down the urge to yawn also. “Alright. Bye.”

“Bye,” Baekhyun said, nodding. “Oh, are you coming home this weekend?”

“Baek, I—”

Hiding behind a smile, Baekhyun waved him off. “It’s okay! I already knew the answer, so you don’t need to say anything. I understand…You should come back some time, though. I planted some nice flowers out in the yard.” Seeing Chanyeol’s face, Baekhyun knew that his husband didn’t know how to respond to that. Feeling like he was making his husband feel bad, Baekhyun picked up his mood, even if it strained his face. “I’ll take photos for you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Bye, Chanyeol. I love you.”

Chanyeol took a moment. “Bye, Baek.”

Baekhyun waited for the “I love you” part that would usually ensue, but after two seconds, he nodded and signed out. He reasoned that Chanyeol was just too tired to remember; he was too tired to remember those three simple words.

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Baekhyun had the habit of carving on trees. Back when Chanyeol usually had the weekends off, they’d leave their apartment and go to the park. That was where Baekhyun would use a sharp object to carve their initials into the wood. Chanyeol would keep on the lookout, worried that some sort of authority figure would arrest his whimsical husband for damaging a tree, even if he was doing it for love.

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At the signing event, a crowd of people showed up, but no matter how much Baekhyun craned his head, he couldn’t see his giant anywhere. Figuring that perhaps he was running a little bit late, Baekhyun went on with his day, signing happily for fans and curious onlookers who were interested in getting a book signed by a possibly famous individual. He had hoped and he held Chanyeol’s promise to heart, but as the crowd died down and Chanyeol was still nowhere to be seen, Baekhyun’s heart felt a little empty.

He knew he shouldn’t have taken it to heart. Chanyeol was busy, he knew that. But he also knew that Chanyeol didn’t make promises he knew he couldn’t keep, yet he still told him that he’d be there.

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The next time they video called, Baekhyun didn’t try to appear like he was happy, because he wasn’t. “Upset” was the word, but he didn’t want to lash out because Chanyeol was busy. He had an excuse not to go to some stupid book signing. But it wasn’t just a “stupid” book signing to Baekhyun. It was his first and he wanted Chanyeol to be there, but he wasn’t, and that was that.

Chanyeol was too tired to see what was wrong. He had apologized, but Baekhyun’s mood didn’t seem to lighten up despite the fact that he had said it was okay. In turn, it irritated Chanyeol, making him cut their call short and call it a night.

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