Unexpected Events ¦ Chanbaek

The Exhibition

A/N: The first scenes of this chapter might be a little too descriptive for some readers because I wrote them the way I experienced my grief after Jonghyun had passed away which includes stuff like skipping meals and worse, so if you're not comfortable with that please skip everything until the next A/N.

It was unbearable to be awake, so I tried to find some peace in sleep but as expected I was haunted by nightmares which had me waking up crying, bathed in sweat and screaming. Gladly I was able to take a few dreamless naps every now and then. Everytime I woke up from them, I was hoping to feel at least a tiny little bit better but the pain only kept getting worse as the hours passed. At some point the aching pain in my chest had gotten so overwhelming that if I had to describe it, I would say it felt as if my heart was actually bleeding from being stabbed a trillion times.

I called in sick for the rest of the month, turned off my phone and all other electronic devices and spent most of the time lying in bed and staring at the wall that was plastered in photos of Baekhyun and EXO. When I wasn't staring at my wall, crying or throwing up, I was usually sleeping. I couldn't remember when I had last eaten or taken a shower. About a week after Baekhyun's passing, I found myself walking to the bathroom to go to the toilet. While I was washing my hands, I took a look in the mirror and almost screeched from how much my own appearance scared me. My skin was pale, I had dark circles under my eyes and it seemed like I had lost lots of weight. "Oh god...", I whispered to myself. "This needs to stop. Man up, Chanyeol. You can't go to the exhibition looking like this. You have two weeks left to gain back a little weight and look healthy again. You can do this."

And with that I walked back to my bedroom to put on a casual outfit consisting of sweatpants, a hoodie, sneakers and a beanie to cover up my skinny body and greasy hair and left my apartment to go grocery shopping. I needed to buy food, so that I could finally eat something. Once I arrived at the nearest supermarket, I bought everything I needed for the next few days: bread, rice, noodles, vegetables, water, cereal, milk, fruits, some chocolate and a few more things. Back at home, I started cooking. As the food was finally ready, I didn't feel like eating at all. I felt as if I had to throw up again just from the smell of it. Not because I was a bad cook, but because I really didn't want to eat. That's how depressed I was. I just couldn't eat. But I forced myself to eat. It made me feel horrible but I had to keep myself healthy despite my grief.

This process went on for about five more days. It was hard but after a while I could finally get myself to eat normally and take regular showers again. I slowly got stronger again and for a while I thought I'm doing better. But, oh, was I wrong. I found myself breaking down crying again and again. I was wondering if this pain would forever haunt me. After thinking about it for a long time, I came to the conclusion that the pain after losing someone you loved will always stay the same, you just learn to live with it over time.

A/N: Dear sensitive reader, it is safe to continue reading from here on.

The day of the exhibition came much faster than I wanted it to come. On the morning of April 17th I wasn't even sure anymore whether I really wanted to go or not. In the end I decided to go.

Around 12pm I arrived at the venue where the exhibition was set to take place at. Many fans were already gathered in front of the venue, waiting in line. The exhibition hall was set to open at 1pm, so I decided to join the other fans and waited patiently until I could finally enter the exhibition. The staff only allowed groups of 100 people to enter at a time, so whenever people left the exhibition hall the staff allowed a few new people in, making sure there aren't more than 100 people inside. 3 hours had passed since my arrival when I was finally allowed to enter the exhibition.

The whole hall was bathed in silver light, creating a mysterious atmosphere. The walls were filled with beautiful portraits of Baekhyun and pictures of Baekhyun with the other members. I felt a pang in my chest when I saw him smiling in all these photos. He was such a bright and cheerful person. I took a few photos with my camera which I had brought with me and continued making my way through the huge exhibition hall. Only a second after I had decided that I had seen everything and wanted to go back home, I halted my steps. I saw a few life-size cardboard standees of the members standing in the corner and decided to go a little closer to take a photo of them. I was about to leave when I overheard the conversation of a teenage girl with a staff. The girl asked to buy some stuff from the exhibition, the man said something, she handed him money, he nodded while counting the money the girl gave him and then she walked off with a Sehun standee. I looked after her until she was out of sight and decided to walk up to the staff. Maybe this was my chance to bring a proper souvenir home.

As I stood in front of the staff, I cleared my throat. "Uhm... Excuse me?" "Hm?" The man hummed without looking up. "I... Uhm... I overheard your conversation with the girl a moment ago. Can I buy one of the standees too, please?", I asked. "As long as you don't say you want a Sehun standee too, you can. We only have the standees left that are standing here." I checked to make sure the standee I wanted was still there and looked back at the man. "No, I'd like to have a Baekhyun standee, please." The man hummed while turning around to the standees. "There's more than one Baekhyun standee left... Almost no one wanted a Baekhyun standee this time. Probably because most of the fans can't look at it without crying after this tragedy.", the man mumbled. "So... From which era would you like your standee to be?", he asked while turning around. "Hm... If possible, Power era, please." The man hummed again while getting a standee from the back. "There you go. That's 80000₩ then." I gave him the money and thanked him while bowing before I walked towards the exit.

I got a few weird looks as I walked home with my Baekhyun standee but I didn't care. I was happy that I had bought it.

I had totally lost track of time, so I was surprised that the sun had already set when I arrived at home. I made my way to my bedroom, laid the standee on my bed and walked back to the bathroom to get ready for bed. After I had changed into my pyjamas, brushed my teeth and washed my face I walked back to the bedroom, pulled the covers back and got into bed.

"Maybe I can finally sleep better tonight.", I thought before drifting off to sleep with a smile on my face.

A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter was different from my usual chapters. I haven't written anything in so long that I think my way of writing kind of changed a bit. I hope you liked the chapter anyways. Also sorry for not updating anything in months.