One Last Time

Chapter 1

Chanyeol and Baekhyun were inseparable. Since the first time they met, they instantly clicked. Both loud, obnoxious little boys, they had fun pranking the neighborhood children and making random little jokes that only made sense to one another. They were never not smiling or laughing, and if you found one of them, you found the other. They were together 24/7, and nothing could change that.

To each other, they were Channie and Baekkie, Baekkie and Channie. The two who were never apart; the infamous breakfast duo; the two who loved each other more than anything or anybody else.

But then they grew up.

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Now, one is still the happy, boisterous little boy that he was and will be at young, but the other is just a cold, empty shell of who he once was. Trying to make this friendship last, the one never gives up. He still tries to prank all the other kids with the other, but the latter just isn't with it anymore. Instead, he stays locked up in his room, secluded from the rest of the world, just praying, hoping that maybe someday, everything will be back to the way it once was. Back to the time when he was a little ball of sunshine, and he didn't understand why, or more rather who made his family, not so much of a family anymore.

After his futile attempts at bringing his friend out of depression, he finally got tired, and stopped trying. The two of them slowly but surely got further apart; the distance now more than one could see past. The happy, boisterous young boy never had a smile that completely reached his eyes anymore, but no one ever noticed. The older boy, life filled with fake laughter and forced smiles, fell deeper and deeper into the abyss that was his depression with the knowledge that another person dear to him had been lost, and probably never found.

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Now, as adults, the two rarely ever talk anymore. They would be lucky to have contact with the other every other month, but no one ever anticipated the time anymore.

The crazy, always joking kid turned into an office worker; slaving over his computer day in and day out, working 14 hours a day at minimum, barely making it through his dull, boring day. The only high peak in his day is having a small chat with his next-cubicle-over neighbor when they both coincidentally head to the break room for a quick snack.

"Hey Chanyeol,"

"Yeah Soo?"

"Don't you have any other friends than just at the office?"

"...I did, Soo. I used to have one really good one."

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The older, significantly more depressed child succumbed to his depression many times; round trips to the hospital for blood loss, excess painkillers in his system, broken and twisted ankles from too much pressure of landing on the ground, anything, anything to take him out of his misery. But now, as an adult, he works out in a bar, where he is watched constantly by older coworker, and currently only friend, Minseok.

As of late, Baekhyun had been getting headaches every once in a while, but only brushing them off as the consequences of working at a loud bar with live musical performances every night. But when they got worse, Minseok was getting worried.