Seven Lifetimes (A CHANBAEK FF)

Preface

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It was their first lifetime when Byun Baekhyun met Park Chanyeol.

He was Baekhyun's first love. Chanyeol was a twenty-seven-year old musician who produced music for SMEnt, an entertainment company. Baekhyun was the company's head makeup artist, and sometimes, after the both of them developed a special friendship, the latter would help Chanyeol with his songs as his co-lyricist.

Chanyeol was an ideal guy. In fact, Baekhyun believed that if he were to debut as an idol under SM Entertainment, Chanyeol would even surpass the highest-paid idol with his voice and outgoing personality.

Especially with his looks.

Of course, it was part of being human. Having an interest to someone because of their looks, or how someone appeared to a person the first (or second) time they met. Baekhyun didn't deny how Chanyeol's strong features---his sharp jaw, big eyes, plump limps and even his unusually pointy ears---captured his eyes the moment they met one day in the latter's studio on SMEnt. Baekhyun already worked for 3 years on the company when Chanyeol was scouted by the CEO himself, stealing the him from a competitor in the US. Apparently, Chanyeol was at the point where he didn't want to settle anywhere but Korea. He was immediately appointed as SM's newest music producer after signing a contract. And then Baekhyun met him there, sitting on a chair and familiarizing himself with his new studio the company had given him, smiling as if he was a child living in his own world. Baekhyun suddenly fell in love.

But didn't end there. There was always more than a person's looks. There was more than Park Chanyeol's looks. Baekhyun knew that. He did not stop there; stuck on that day where he fell in love with just Chanyeol's appearance. Baekhyun continued to sail on and looked beyond what Chanyeol's face could offer. He overlooked it, especially when he realized how he wanted to have the man as his as he saw Chanyeol's every side. Chanyeol was approachable and kind as what everybody knew. But he was also the Chanyeol who was sometimes grumpy and impatient. He was also the Chanyeol who slept with half-open eyes and drooled in his sleep. He was the Chanyeol who was also childish at times and only Baekhyun was able to handle him because he was the only one who witnessed all that. Baekhyun was the only one who looked at Chanyeol beyond his face and his tall figure. He was the only one who knew him like that.

Almost everyone in the company, even the fandoms of SM's artists, wanted Chanyeol. He was famous even for a music producer, and everybody wanted a piece of him. Everybody adored him as if he was more than the bunch of idols the company offered. He was talented, social and he even possessed good personality. And he was very, very, beautiful.

He wasn't handsome, like how everybody saw him. But beautiful. He was beautiful in so many ways in Baekhyun's eyes. He was beautiful when he smiled. He was beautiful when he laughed. He was beautiful when he got frustrated. Or when he hummed to music. He was even beautiful when he couldn't think of any good lyrics to put on his songs anymore.

And especially, he was beautiful when he let Baekhyun see all his weaknesses.

The first person who opened my heart is you, Baekhyun-hyung.

It was as if Chanyeol uttered those words yesterday. Or a minute ago. Or a few seconds before Baekhyun repeated that line in his head. Baekhyun could still remember how Chanyeol told him that. He could still remember how Chanyeol held him by the shoulders that night, those words slipping through his full red lips. Baekhyun could still remember how Chanyeol's orbs shined while Baekhyun looked back at him in the crystal of his very own eyes.

Baekhyun could still remember.

Baekhyun could only place a gentle hand on the back of his head when he woke up. His vision was a bit blurry and he could feel his body as if it was being carried by the silent wind of the chilly morning despite him lying on the floor.

Once his vision got better, he got a better look at where he was.

Baekhyun wasn't sure, but the place looked like a small apartment with a minimal amount of furnitures. It was designed in a Korean traditional way, starting with how most of the furnitures were made to be used while sitting on the floor, to how there were sliding wooden doors separating the only three rooms inside. Baekhyun didn't know but as he scanned the place he was in, his chest felt heavier.

He suddenly woke up somewhere, inside someone's house, not knowing anything about how he got there. Or even what happened yesterday.

Baekhyun noticed the slightly opened door nearby and got a hold of what looked like a bedroom inside. Trying to carry his own weight, he stood up from his position and carefully walked towards it as he also figured out how to balance himself. He couldn't move properly. His body felt so much foreign. Baekhyun was feeling so much lighter... and different.

Step by step, Baekhyun learned how to walk with ease. His body felt so strange. Even his walk was different. It wasn't like that before---it was so much different than how he tried to walk all his life. But Baekhyun needed answers. He set aside the discomfort his body was telling him and slid open the door. Baekhyun inhaled. It seemed like forever before the sun's rays reached the empty bedroom. Slowly in Baekhyun's eyes, he saw how the room lit as light crawled in the small space he was in. With a beating heart, Baekhyun swept his eyes around.

Nothing was familiar.

Several pictures were displayed almost everywhere inside the room. It was all with unfamiliar faces, smiling under different occassions as they looked at the camera. For some reason, Baekhyun felt like those eyes stared right through his soul. Everything remained unfamiliar. Baekhyun let out his breath.

There was a picture sitting on the bedside table that took his attention. Immediately learning how to carry on with his lighter body, Baekhyun half-ran beside the bed where the picture was located.

It was a photo of a boy---a chubby one, wearing a yellow shirt with a glasses--holding an innocent hamster. The boy wasn't smiling at all, a small frown was present on his face. Despite the frown, the picture showed no signs that the boy was unhappy. It seemed like he was only focused on holding the hamster tight enough by his hands so that it won't escape his grasp. He was looking at the camera and Baekhyun thought that maybe, the kid wasn't really sad at all.

Just like how a very precious, innocent boy should be.

Baekhyun didn't know where the pang from his heart came from. It was so sudden; his hand immediately took hold of his chest when the pain suddenly took place. It was so sudden and so fast that Baekhyun wasn't even able to tend to his pain when it ended as sudden as it occurred.

Baekhyun wasn't sure about the pain, but he was sure that he felt it as soon as he realized that something was so achingly familiar with the boy in the picture. Baekhyun's eyes widened.

It was Chanyeol. The boy in the picture was Baekhyun's first and only love, Park Chanyeol.

And everything in Baekhyun's mind fell into place when he realized that.

Why was Baekhyun there? Where is he? Who is he? Why is this happening? Where was he last night? What happened last night? What happened and what did he do on the last few days? On the last few weeks? Last few years?

Everything suddenly didn't make sense.

Baekhyun began panicking, cursing himself for only realizing things now. He wasn't even aware if he was really awake or not. He cannot remember anything. He was even unsure what he was doing waking up on somebody else's living room floor, unconscious.

Baekhyun was holding onto his hair locks, frustrated, when he heard the door slide.

Baekhyun's body tensed when the door slid open, revealing a tall guy. That was when he saw Park Chanyeol, with a much younger face and much thinner body, wearing glasses and a backpack. He was dressed in his school uniform. Baekhyun's eyes landed on the nametag on Chanyeol's chest.

Lee Yeol, it read.

It was the second lifetime when Baekhyun met Lee Yeol.

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