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Chanyeol unhinged his mouth to argue, but Baekhyun gave him a look. “I don’t want you gone and I don’t like the idea of us being separated, but if it’s easier on you and your body, then—”

“Baek, at least at the end of the day there’s you,” Chanyeol interrupted. “I might be tired as hell and I might look like hell, but at least I get to come home to you.”

“If you fall asleep driving, then no, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun said in a stern, broken voice. “You won’t. You’d be dead and the next place I’d be seeing you is at the morgue, identifying your body!”

Chanyeol dropped his arms and put his hands on Baekhyun’s shoulders. “Baek—”

“Yeol, I did the math, alright?” Baekhyun said, trying to change the subject from something less morbid. “It’s easier and more convenient than having to check into a hotel over and over again.”

“Baek, I don’t care,” Chanyeol groaned. “If anything, you’re the only one keeping my feet on the ground—keeping me sane. Sleeping at some apartment in the city might mean I get an hour or two more of sleep, but that’d be fucking isolating me from you, damn it!”

“Then let’s sell the house!” Baekhyun said desperately.

Chanyeol looked at him aghast. “What?”

Baekhyun furrowed his brows. “Let’s sell it. Let’s move back to the city. It’ll be—”

“No,” Chanyeol said adamantly. “We’re not selling this house. I got this house for you because it’s perfect for you and what you need.”

“But, Chanyeol—”

“I said no, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol said, giving Baekhyun an apologetic look. “I don’t want you to have to give this up. I don’t want to take you to a place where it’s always about the fast life—the loud hustling and bustling of the city.”

Moments passed before Baekhyun asked, “Then what do you want to do?”

Looking down at him, Chanyeol rubbed the back of his neck before cupping one side of Baekhyun’s cheek. “Fine. We’ll…” He clicked his tongue and heaved a deep breath. “We’ll look for something—but we’re gonna sit down and plan everything out,” he said sharply. “Like, if I’m scheduled to have a busy week, you have to come and visit me at least four times a week to cook for me something. Because I need you, too, Baek. Not just sleep. I need you in bed with me, whether that’s to just go to bed together or to do something more.”

Slowly, Baekhyun nodded, slightly happy that Chanyeol had agreed. “We won’t let distance be a problem. We’ll call—No, I’ll call. I’ll call during your lunch breaks and everything. You have to call me if you decide you want to come home for the night, but as for the weekends, you have to try and come back for at least those two days. Saturday and Sunday, I mean, because I need you, too.”

Catching and interlacing their hands together, Chanyeol relaxed his shoulders. “When do you want to go start looking?”

“Doesn’t everything we do depend around your schedule?” Baekhyun kindly reminded with an attempted smile.

The remark was true. Everything that they did together had to fit with Chanyeol’s schedule. It didn’t used to be. Back in their newly wed period, Chanyeol wasn’t as busy as he used to be and had more room to change his activities at work. Now, it was structured. Some things like meetings and presentations couldn’t be move, and it was very rare for anything else to be rescheduled just because someone wanted a day off with their spouse or lover. Even though things had changed, they had learned how to cope with these strained changes, especially Baekhyun. Chanyeol was slow at noticing, but it was only because he was part of it all. Baekhyun noticed more because he was the one sitting idly, watching his husband go up in rank and leaving him at the beginning.