Not Intended | CHANBAEK (BOOK I)

The Runaway Groom

Maybe Baekhyun was a really good hide and seek player when he was a child because as hard as Chanyeol tried to find him, the little brunet would not turn up anywhere. Chanyeol figured that Baekhyun was going to the extreme just to avoid him, but by the time two months passed, Chanyeol grew tired and antsy. There were times when he thought that it was no longer worth it, but immediately after, he would mentally slap himself, reminding himself that knights never gave up and Baekhyun was like Rapunzel, but without the hair. He just had to find another way into the prince's tower.

But two months was really a hassle. Chanyeol couldn't just set aside work outside of his home just to look for a runaway groom-to-be. He did, however, move temporarily in the city so he could make Baekhyun one of his top priorities despite not having any lead on the guy.

When Chanyeol tried to hire an investigator, all were willing to work for him at first, but then a few days later, they would all call back, apologizing about how they had to cancel their services for him. The first and second investigators were odd, but by the time the third, fourth, and so on began to cancel on him, Chanyeol figured that a third party obviously didn't want him to find Baekhyun.

Chanyeol carried on with his work, meeting potential investors and signing with different businesses that would provide him the raw materials for his work, but Baekhyun was never far from his mind. Even if Chanyeol wanted to forget, the countless relatives who asked him about his upcoming wedding with the Byuns made it impossible.

Sometimes when he was alone at home--his apartment "home"-- Chanyeol would wonder how many more days he had to cross off from his calendar until Baekhyun was ready to show himself. Two months had gone by and Baekhyun could've done a million things in that time. He could've found someone else if he was the type of guy to move on quickly, which Chanyeol knew he wasn't, but then again, Baekhyun didn't have much of a clean and steady record.

During the night of one of his partner's opening where one of his inventions was a featured asset to the business, Chanyeol had to attend the party. Kris accompanied him as his right hand man, but mainly for the purpose of explaining the company's invention for him because Chanyeol, in all honesty, didn't want to explain again and again what his machine was capable of doing.

In those two months, Mrs. Byun's words about Baekhyun accidentally popping up seemed like complete bullshit that a desperate lover would believe. But at the party, Chanyeol spotted a very small, very brunet, and very annoying face in the crowd with his arms locked with stranger.

At first, he didn't believe that his eyes were seeing correctly until he blinked a few times and heard the laugh that made him want to pull his hair out. Instinctively, Chanyeol eyed the man next to his brunet and immediately a flame of possessiveness and jealousy overcame him.

Not caring about the petty folks who he was "conversing" with along with Kris, Chanyeol pushed everyone in his way off to the side as he quickly paced over to where his fiancé was clinging onto a man that was most definitely not him.

"Baekhyun!"

The loud music drowned out his voice, but the second time that Chanyeol yelled out the name, he was closer to the brunet and when the male lifted his head up and looked back at him, Chanyeol knew that his presence was known.

Chanyeol didn't know what he expected. Maybe Baekhyun was supposed to break down and cry. Ideally, Chanyeol wanted him to run back to him with his arms wide open, crying about how he had made a mistake. However, after living with Baekhyun for enough time, Chanyeol knew that the idiot would do something a little more drastic and uncalled for.

Without warning, Baekhyun spazzed, yelped, and let go of his partner, who may or may not have been his new boyfriend. The thought of the man being Baekhyun's new love interest must have bothered Chanyeol to a breaking point because just as Baekhyun ran away, Chanyeol took the time to grab the man by the collar of his designer suit and push him on the ground. He was just about to punch the man with one of his fists when he caught Baekhyun's figure pause from the corner of his eye.