10080 | chanbaek

이십삼

Chanyeol was distant. He didn't know how to act, despite the fact that Baekhyun had only requested for him to pretend. How do you act to pretend? It was a cycle that had no answers.

Breakfast went a little rocky, but Baekhyun tried, making Chanyeol feel like he needed to try also. Luna had made coffee. Baekhyun requested Chanyeol's coffee to be black. Then he requested milk with his. And when Chanyeol gave him a look, Baekhyun grinned at him and sheepishly shrugged.

"I still remember," he said. Then he opened his mouth, wanting to tell Chanyeol that every so often he would review the things of what he liked so he wouldn't forget. But in the end, he closed his mouth and hid behind a smile.

________________________________________

"There's a tree that's not too far from here, Chanyeol," Baekhyun said when Luna was cleaning up their breakfast.

"What do you want to do with a tree?"

For a moment, Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a blank look before softly looking at him. "I want to carve something."

In that moment, it clicked in Chanyeol's head. He remembered Baekhyun's old hobby of writing their initials in the bark of trees, saying that it'd be there for the entire world to see. Chanyeol frowned. "Baek—"

"Let's go, Chanyeol."

"Don't do this."

Baekhyun couldn't catch himself. His smile faltered for a visible split second. "We're only pretending, remember?"

The key word was "pretend". Chanyeol didn't know why Baekhyun wanted to do something so cruel as to pretend when they both knew nothing that was happening was actually real. He could see how everything was hurting the petite brunet. But still, it was only for a week and it was Baekhyun's one condition for signing the papers. It was the most Chanyeol could do, so in the end, he nodded.

"Okay."