locked [chanbaek and kaisoo]

Chapter 24

Days and days after that evening, Baekhyun had been doing great. Both at work, and in his life in general.

At work, he was trying to do his best to help Chanyeol and Jongin with research on the case, although nobody put any responsibilities on him after the last meeting. Baekhyun took it upon himself to go around the office and talk to the employees, trying to learn more about what the mood in the company was like. Baekhyun took this seriously, and listened to every single word carefully, marking it in his notebook for further review of Chanyeol and Jongin. The two leaders were actually really grateful for Baekhyun's initiative to help, when Haeun allowed him not to.

At the same time, Baekhyun was also dutifully fullfiling the deal he made with Chanyeol's father. About three days after he and Chanyeol started dating, Baekhyun received a message from Yixing, inviting him to visit the vocal practice room for his first training. He went, and on the contrary from his expectations, the practice was actually quite okay. Yixing was a nice, friendly, and encouraging vocal trainer, and not arrogant at all, as opposed to Chanyeol's father. He and Baekhyun got along great, and after that first practice got out of the way, the rest went along great as well.

Baekhyun knew, that the reason behind his good mood these days, and unending motivation to work and do things, was thanks to nobody else but Chanyeol. It might have sounded cheesy, and very sappy, and a bit pathetic as well, but heck, he didn't care. Baekhyun just got himself a boyfriend whom he couldn't help but adore more and more with every passing day. He was just so utterly happy. No bad emotions made it past his wall of joy. And if anything bad happened, he would always think of the last moment he spent together with Chanyeol, and the warmth from the sole memory would push away any negativity without a single effort.

Baekhyun had never felt anything as powerful as this. No person ever made him feel this... attached.

"I'm not entirely sure what we're doing here, Baekhyun," Yixing complained one day, after another practice of theirs was nearing the end, and Baekhyun's throat was beginning to swell from all the singing. Baekhyun leaned back on the sand-colored wall, leaving the earphones he just wore hang on the music stand loosely. He threw Yixing a questioning look.

"I have nothing else to teach you. You're a talent as it is. Just drop that marketing stuff and get your ass here for me to make an album out of, would you?"

Baekhyun chuckled at his whining.

"Even if I do debut, Yixing hyung, you know how it goes in PKO. One song for the solo artist to debut with, and if it goes bad, he's reconsidered. Potentially added to some soon-to-debut boy group as a member, too."

"That won't happen with you. People will love your voice."

"So you think," Baekhyun shook his head. "But it's business in here, isn't it? The CEO won't debut me without being one hundred percent sure, that I'm ready in all the ways imaginable. Isn't this the reason why this company is so successful? Because you pick your artists for debuting so carefully?"

Yixing shrugged, seemingly not in the mood to think that deep.

"That might be the case, however not with you, Baekhyun. I've heard all the artists in this company perform, you know? Every single one of them. And there are really some great vocals there, I don't deny. But nobody has a voice like yours, this feeling of music, this perfection just carved into them. Without all this training, you were already perfect. And this is why the CEO doesn't want to let you go, Baekhyun; he sees what you can do, and he wants that. He wants your voice to create the brand of his company, and to be its, how to say, signature mark."

Baekhyun's smile faltered.

"It's a pity that I don't really want to be his signature mark."