Love Again | Baekhyun

15 | Missed Calls

Everyone raised their glasses and cheered, taking a swig of their alcoholic drinks together.

It was past 6 pm, Baekhyun's second mini album—Delight—had just officially been released. But the release itself wasn't what they were celebrating. It was the fact that the album had surpassed 732,297 preorders, making it the most preordered album by a soloist in South Korean history.

Not everyone that worked on the album could come, but there were still a few of them gathered in that Korean family-style restaurant. To comply with the physical distancing rules, they divided into three tables. The four present producers and composers were in one table, Kwang Ji and the rest of EXO's managers in another, while Baekhyun sat with the remaining EXO members that weren't in the military.

Everyone's chatter filled the little separated area their tables were in, waiters and waitresses occasionally coming to take extra orders.

Baekhyun had put on a smile and chuckled along as some of the team called out to him from across tables, congratulating and celebrating. But Chanyeol, Sehun, and Jongin could see through the facade.

"You're on a different level hyung, seriously." Sehun said with a tone of disbelief, Chanyeol and Jongin nodding and nudging Baekhyun's shoulder in support.

"Breaking a record like that.. It's crazy, I don't even have words right now." Jongin chimed in enthusiastically, "Did you preorder half of it yourself?!"

"Yah, I bet NCT preordered 100k of it, he's been collecting them like pokemons." Chanyeol added, grinning widely when Jongin and Sehun collectively bursted out in a fit of laughters and chirped in agreement.

Baekhyun smiled slightly, shaking his head. "That's stupid, NCT wouldn't preorder. They would just steal the albums from our stock warehouse." He said casually, earning loud cackles from Chanyeol and Jongin. Sehun was too distracted to laugh again as he reached his chopsticks over towards the jokbal and stuffed his mouth with it.

Surrounded by celebrations after achieving such a big success, Baekhyun was somewhat quiet and disinterested, though he still flawlessly blended in with the conversation and cracked jokes as usual. But after knowing each other for so long, the EXO members could tell something was off.

"Hold on, I'm gonna go pay in advance before one of the managers beat me to it." Baekhyun said suddenly in the middle of their meal, getting up from the table and walking over to the cashier.

The three guys had their eyes trained on him as he walked away.

"Hyung, go talk to him." Sehun said in a hushed voice, nudging Chanyeol's shoulder hastily.

"Yah, why me? You go talk to him." Chanyeol whispered back, swatting Sehun's hands off his shoulder.

"No way." Sehun muttered.

"Do you guys really think he's being like this because of the girlfriend you told me about?" Jongin asked, leaning in closely and keeping his voice low. "Sounds like they haven't known each other that long, though."

Chanyeol shook his head, "It's definitely about Sarang." All three of them were watching Baekhyun when he seemed to finish paying and started to walk back to their table. Chanyeol cursed under his breath, "Aish, this is supposed to be Junmyeon hyung's job."

"Why aren't you guys eating?" Baekhyun asked as he sat back down, looking around at them suspiciously huddled together. The three subtly dispersed themselves again, trying to act natural as both maknaes shot encouraging glances at Chanyeol.

Chanyeol cleared his throat, "Baekhyunie, you've been kind of down lately.. Are you still upset about Sarang?"

Baekhyun's expression, which had been a mask of ease and nonchalance before, immediately turned sour. He looked at Chanyeol while flexing his jaw, "Really? You're gonna bring her up right now?"