The Greatest ✓

ten

❀ [TEN] ❀

For the first time ever, Baekhyun and I got into a real fight. We argued a lot, but it was over small and meaningless things and we never stayed mad at each other for long. This time, it was different. I kept waking up the curtains on his windows being closed, he was ignoring my text messages and he even avoiding me at university. Things were like that almost for an entire month before fate suddenly brought us together again. 

At first glance, it seemed like a regular gloomy morning at university, but the air was filled with tension. Students were squirming in their seats and counting down the minutes until something that was about to change our lives forever. Yoohyeon and her friends, finally managed to pull off their plans and organize an actual protest. Students were preparing to riot - for themselves and for others. Especially those who were right before graduation and terrified that even after years of hard work, they wouldn't manage to find a job. 

A minute before the protest, an announcement echoed through the university speakers: '' Kim Botong and Byun Baekhyun! The police is requesting students Kim Botong and Byun Baekhyun to show up in front of the humanities building! '' 

I hate that stupid speaker.

Our very last post on the B&B website was about the students that decided to rebel against the system and I had a strong feeling that the police was looking for us because of that. They were trying to find those who were vandalizing the university with graffiti and posters. 

I was hiding my face behind my binder, holding my breath and waiting. The professor was calling my name and telling me to move, but I purposely ignored him until the clock finally struck noon. That was when every student in the large lecture room, pulled out their bunny masked, placed it on their face and started screaming. '' We are people! Not robots! Stop treating us like we aren't humans! Our hopes and dreams and emotions matter more than the score on our exams! ''

Someone threw a smoke bomb through the opened window, I got down on my knees and started crawling towards the exit. I almost made it out, when a police officer suddenly stepped in the lecture room and looked around before he pointed in my direction. I cringed when I recognized Kim Junmyeon and started looking for a different way of escape. 

Before I could do something stupid like jump out the window and test my luck with surviving a fall from the first floor, another masked student barged in the lecture room and punched the cop. I blinked with surprise, then I took the bunny mask that he was holding in his hand and placed it on my face. After another moment of hesitation, I grabbed his outstretched hand and let him pull me on my feet.

I didn't think that he'd actually come to save me. Not after everything that happened. But he did. Baekhyun always knew when I needed him.

We didn't make it very far before we got cornered by a group of cops that were called to take care of the chaos at our campus. I was standing behind Baekhyun, looking around and trying to think of what to do when another masked person came to our rescue. This time it was Kevin Moon, holding two baseball bats and preparing to throw them at us. Somehow, the first one actually reached its target and landed in Baekhyun's hands but something went very wrong when he threw the second. 

I tried to grab it, but it hit me in the head instead and instantly knocked me out. I half expected to wake up in an overnight holding cell again, but instead, I found myself on one of the beds in the nearest emergency room. There were some other familiar students around me, but the only one that I cared about was Baekhyun, who was arguing with a nurse that was trying to get him to leave. '' You want me to leave and call Nantes' mother instead? You must be insane! How dare you even suggest that when her father died in this very hospital and her mother replaced their broken family for a new one?! '' 

He must be really worried if he's oversharing information like this.

'' Yah! Baekhyun! '' I called out and slowly sat up. I clenched my teeth when I felt a sharp pain in my head. '' Stop being dramatic and get back here! ''

Baekhyun gasped when he saw me sitting up and poking the bandages that were wrapped around my forehead. The nurse sighed in defeat, realising that she was wasting her time and decided to leave us alone. He returned to my bed and handed me his phone, along with headphones. '' I know that you're scared of hospitals, so I brought you this. ''

I wanted to go home right away, but the nurses refused to let me leave until the next day. That was how I found myself spending the night at the ER. It was somewhere around two in the morning, I was sitting in the waiting room with Baekhyun and silently sipping chocolate milk, when he suddenly began: '' There's something that I have to tell you. I'm going to leave and it's going to happen a lot earlier than it was supposed to. '' 

'' I... Okay. '' 

'' Ask me to stay, Nantes. Please. Ask me to stay and I will, '' he mumbled, put his hands on my cheeks and forced me to look into his eyes. '' All I see is you. All I always saw was you. If you ask me to stay, I won't go anywhere. '' 

'' I can't ask you to give up everything for me. '' 

'' But I would. '' 

'' I know, '' I whispered and forced myself to smile, even if all I wanted to do was cry. I couldn't imagine existing without him, but I still couldn't ask him to give up on finding a better life in America. I loved him, so I had to let him go. '' I'm glad that I met you. I'm glad that we became business partners. '' 

'' From now on, you're gonna have to call Kevin or someone else to come and help you when you'll be in trouble. He will be there for you. I'm sure of it. '' All of a sudden, he pulled me in a hug and I buried my face in his shirt. '' I don't know how you're gonna survive. ''

'' Me neither, '' I silently admitted and slowly raised my head. There was still something that I wanted to do before he'd leave. In the shadows of the empty waiting room at the hospital, my lips gently touched his.

I can't believe that when I finally gathered the courage to kiss him, it was to say goodbye.

Weeks later, I was laying on the rooftop of the Moon apartment building and watching the clouds, when I spotted a plane that just rose from the ground and soared on the clear blue sky. I slowly raised my hand, as if it would be that easy to catch it and stop it from leaving.

Once I lowered my hand again, the plane already disappeared between the clouds.