The Aftereffects | chanbaek

Submission To The Past

April 18, 2018

It was back to reality - back to a tenuous routine. Three days with him, and that's all it took to shake Byun Baekhyun's once perfectly constructed world. And the aftereffects of those whispered, half-asleep words still rung in his ears.

"I think I'm falling in love with you."

He couldn't decide if he was happy Chanyeol had partially confessed to him, or if he should run the other way.

Commitment was a dangerous word for Baekhyun, that was long since foreign to his life. And he was afraid to admit the truth to himself - that he may possibly be falling in love too. It was terrifying. He didn't want to be ruined. Not again.

He didn't want to fall in love with another monster.

--

Baekhyun was metaphorically up to his eyeballs in business proposals, scheduled meetings, and his juggled hours spent planning Oh Sehun's debut and all the things that came with it.

And he had only been back to work for one day.

Sighing heavily, he shoved away from his desk and rubbed soothing circles on his temples. He was too stressed. His head too full of work; too full of his amazing weekend; too full of a relationship he was afraid of pursuing.

He needed courage - a liquid courage.

So turning back to his desk, he pulled out his little key to unlock the hidden compartment in his desk drawer to pull out a decently sized bottle of vodka. This for sure wasn't his proudest moment, but as he used one of the plastic cups he got from the water dispenser and filled it to the brim, he didn't much care.

By his second cupful, he was giddy and laughing senselessly at the painting hanging on his wall. He gathered his papers together, shuffling them all together before stuffing them randomly and disorderly into a file, which would have made the sober Baekhyun extremely angry and slappy.

Then picking up his phone he paged his secretary.

She answered right away and Baekhyun didn't even give her a chance to speak before he was saying, "I need you to cancel all my meetings for the day. I have other, much more important business to attend to." And then he hung up, disregarding her words of, "But you have meetings with important CEO's today, Mr. Byun."

Baekhyun shuffled around his room, tripping over his feet as he "straightened" his desk, when actually he was knocking things over. He just giggled and softly murmured, "Shh, don't tell, Baekhyun," before giggling some more and locking his office behind him.

Baekhyun smacked his cheeks lightly, trying to appear not drunk off his ass as he zigzagged down the hallway to Luhan's desk.

He practically tripped into his cubical, landing on his butt with another giggle. Luhan glanced up from his computer screen, and when he saw his boss, his jaw dropped as he quietly hissed, "Oh my God! Mr. Byun, are you drunk!?"

Baekhyun giggled again and held a finger up to his lips as he said, "Shhh, don't let Kyungsoo know." Another giggle. "Lulu, can you do me a huggeee favor? Pretty pleasseee!"

Luhan pursed his lips and muttered, "That depends on what it is?"

"I just need you to drive me somewhere. I'll pay for your cab fair back to the company, just.... Pleasseee!" Baekhyun pleaded.

Luhan sighed and stood up from his desk as he said, "Aish! Fine! Where are we going, Mr. Byun?"

Baekhyun clapped happily and jumped unsteadily to his feet as he cried, "Drinking! I want to go drinking!"

---

"Mr. Byun, do you really think this is a good idea?" Luhan asked once he had pulled up to the outside of a club. "We should be at work and it's only noon! We shouldn't be at a club! And why is this place even open so earlier?"

Baekhyun just ignored him as he pushed his door open and shrugged out of his suit jacket, throwing it back into his car and leaving him in just his slacks and white button-up that he rolled the sleeves on.

"Mr. Byun, please, what are we doing here?" Luhan asked as he ran after Baekhyun.

Baekhyun paused with his hand on the door, peering over his shoulder at Luhan as he said, "I'm here to forget something, so if you want to leave you can. All I wanted was the ride, Luhan," Baekhyun said bluntly before pushing open the door.

---

Baekhyun was on his fourth shot glass and quickly making his way to his fifth when a man slide into the stool beside his. He was handsome, Baekhyun had to admit, but not as handsome as Chanyeol - which annoyed him.

He had come here to forget about Chanyeol, but he was still managing to sneak his way in.

Frowning in frustration, Baekhyun turned to face the stranger and asked, "Would you dance with me? And I know, it's fucking noon, but I'm having internally drama and I would really appreciate it."

The stranger glanced sideways at Baekhyun, and looked him up and down before he agreed. So they danced, and somewhere between the swaying of their hips and the neck kisses, Baekhyun was being yanked away, which was soon followed by a sharp slap across his face.

"What the hell is wrong with you!? How could you leave work to go clubbing!? And at noon for God's sake! I swear, Byun Baekhyun, if you fuck your life up again, I am not helping you!"

Baekhyun blinked, his eyes blurry and unfocused as he muttered, "K-Kyung-soo, is that you?" Then he giggled. "Who sent you? You're like an overprotective mom." He laughed again.

"You know, I should just leave you here, but if I do...." Kyungsoo trailed off as memories of the past filled his head. He shook them away and quickly said, "No, I will not let that happen again. So Baekhyun, come on, we're leaving."

Kyungsoo helped to lead him from the club, and then he shoved him into the backseat before hopping in the driver's seat. He took him home and put him to bed, and he made a bowl of hangover soup and left it in the fridge with a sticky note. And before he left, he placed aspirin on Baekhyun's bedside table with a glass of water before leaving his apartment.

He didn't want that to be his new routine, and he promised, as soon as he could, he would go to Baekhyun's house tomorrow and confront him.

Word count: 1,088