Beyond Us [Bangchan] [Finished]

Chapter 58

We sat in the car in complete silence for ten minutes straight. I didn't know what to bring up first, what we would do, where we were going, or how we felt about all this. In the meantime, Chan taped on his phone at light speed.

I mean... I could tell how Chan was feeling about it, but I bet he had more than a couple of things in mind.

I tried to remember a time when someone had said something about how to deal with Chan in that state, but I couldn't remember.

In an almost desperate scream for help, I took out my phone to text Felix and ask how to talk to Chan when he was angry but when I moved, he turned to me and we met eyes. He was super serious, which made me feel a bit nervous.

"Would you mind staying here tonight?" I shook my head.

"But why?" He sighed.

"Just to make sure nobody follows you home".

"Ah, ok". I nodded and sent a text to my grandma telling her we had changed plans and I was staying out that night.

After some small talk, the car changed directions and we headed to the hotel I would be staying at after some detours. Chan tagged along while I checked in and left my things in the room.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?" He asked for the second time. I studied his face for a minute before answering.

"I mean... it's not like I don't want to but, are you in the mood?" It seemed he finally realized he was still tense. Chan took a deep breath looking down and stroking the back of his neck before looking up at me again.

"I'm gonna stay", he said taking off his bag. "If they catch us,  it won't be any news anyway. Am I wrong?" He smiled and I stopped feeling that dense air coming from him.

"Want to hear some of my bad jokes?" He giggled.

"Save them for later".

Neither of us mentioned a single word about what was happening that night, after all, and this thought came way after the shock at the airport, there was nothing we could do at the moment. So, we stayed up looking at the photos we took that weekend, cuddling and making out.

The next morning, Chan woke me up early. There was nothing sweeter than Chan waking you up, he was so soft! We didn't have enough time to have breakfast together but we chatted a bit while getting ready to go out.

He mentioned he was having a meeting first thing in the morning, and awkwardly asked my stance on what was going on. Of course, there could be negative consequences getting our relationship public but I wasn't against it. I thought it was bound to happen sooner or later anyway. The only things I cared about were my face not being on the internet, because I knew how nasty some haters could be, and Chan's and Stray Kids' interests. 

"Don't worry too much and just do what you gotta do", I told Chan before parting ways.

"I'll do what I must", he said with a tender smile. 

Up to some point, I didn't like leaving everything up to him because even if he didn't say it, he was stressed. But there was not much room for me to do something either. So I just went to the office trying to stay cool about it and waited for news.

But man, Chan really liked to spice things up. He had shared some photos we took in Japan early that day, probably before waking me up. They were mainly photos of him and the beach, I recognized the photo I had taken him at McDonald's, but the next one I felt was a subtle shout-out to their fans. It was from the ramen store, the table set for the two of us and you could see my pink phone in a corner.

"Why do you like to play with fire?" I thought thinking about Chan.

The last one was a photo he said he didn't like but I loved it. It was the last one I would have expected to see there. It was all blurry but you could see Channie's bright smile, I took that one while we fought over the phone because he had gotten shy after I complimented him way too much, according to him.

I kinda got what Chan was thinking but it was like adding fuel to the fire. The comment section was crazy, I stopped myself from reading any further for sanity because, oddly enough, I only could focus on the bad ones.

The morning flew by once I got myself to work. Things at the office were rather lively because we were preparing for an event so it was easy to distract yourself. We were getting our things to go out for lunch since my boss had invited us all when I got a text from Chan.

"Are you at work? Did you have lunch already?" 

"I am! My boss invited us all for lunch now though, so I'm going out. Why? Do you miss me already?" He laughed.

"I miss you way too much", the one laughing embarrassed was me now.

"Liar. Is everything ok?"

"Everything's fine. I'm going to have lunch with Hyunjin and then we have practice".

"Oh! I don't hear that often".

"Right? And I almost had to convince him".

"Then go before he changes his mind".

"Mia, we're leaving!" I lifted my face and saw everyone at the door.

"Coming!" I grabbed my purse and followed the group.

For the first time since I got there, I talked with my coworkers properly. They were a playful bunch, nothing like I expected to be honest. It was quite refreshing.

In the afternoon, I went straight home worrying that my grandma would be angry because I was out for too many days. But no, she was lazily watering the garden. I helped her with what she had left and went inside to eat some fruit.

We were making dinner when my phone buzzed. Something had been shared on the group's Instagram account.

Chan had shared something on Instagram again. I quickly checked it out knowing what it might be.

There was an official notice from the company regards our relationship and what happened at the airport. Damn, reading the whole thing made me nervous. It confirmed that Chan and I had been dating for around a year, and asked the fans to be understanding and support him, but it also condemned violating our privacy and announced the company was going to take legal action. Did I believe it? Not really but I could give them a chance.

I went to Chan's feed just to see if he had to share the same thing on his account when I saw a new post. It was a handwritten letter, A HANDWRITTEN LETTER APOLOGIZING. I read it once and I was perplexed, I read it twice and I was mad. Why was he apologizing? Who the heck told him he had to apologize? Why were they like that? I still couldn't believe my eyes, weren't they supposed to play by their own rules?

"Did something happen?" Asked my grandma seeing I didn't let go of my phone.

"Yeah", I replied as I called Chan. But he wasn't picking up, and I was grateful later because after talking things out with my grandma I cooled down and realized I almost made a mistake.

They obviously tried hard to change the game, but there were things they couldn't help. This was one of them. And I was most likely being too selfish, but it hurt me the fact that Chan was apologizing for being with me. I felt wrong.