Underwater || BBH

35. Secrets from the Grave

C H A E Y E O N G

"What exactly are you doing?" I ask Sehun as he was concentrating very hard on trying to stack glass cups up in a tower, yes, glass cups that are very fragile.

"He thinks he can build a higher tower than me." Chanyeol replied from beside the younger male.

There was a shift between myself and Chanyeol, it was only small, like a small chip in a windshield. When left untreated it grows and turns into crack that's capable of shattering any moment, when patched up, the chip is no longer there.

We were on talking terms obviously, but it was like we were both watching what words fell out of our mouths, like we were walking on eggshells. I need to fix this, whatever this is, just another move I need to make, and it's one I need to make soon. I miss him and our friendship, were the closest amongst all of us, now I feel like we are worlds apart.

"Do you have to do it with my expensive glasses that are meant for the patrons?" I reply, taking and moving the nearby glasses away from the two that are ready to test my patience tonight.

"Chaeeeee!" Sehun whined as he dragged out my name, Chanyeol smirking beside him.

"If you want to play towers with cups, you can use these." I reach underneath the bar, feeling for the plastic before grabbing a hold and putting the bright red cups on the counter. "That way I don't have to explain to Baekhyun why majority of the glasses are smashed."

The shiny red cups had been sitting underneath the bar for about a year, we used them Christmas, when we closed for the night and had our own little Christmas party. A few months before Baekhyun came back from Busan and my life changed dramatically.

"Then our towers will be fragile, they could fall over at any second." Chanyeol tried to reason with me, even using his round puppy dog eyes to try and get the glass cups back.

"No, Yeol." I brush the fallen bangs out of his eyes, something I always do. "I'm not having both Yixing and Baekhyun on me about letting you get away with things. Those puppy dog eyes don't work on me anymore."

"Oh no, Chaeyeong is using her soft voice." Jongin joins us at the bar, I pour his peach and vodka and hand it to him with a half smile. "What did you do?"

"She's afraid we'll break the glasses if we use them to see who can build the tallest tower." Sehun explains to Jongin.

"As she should." Baekhyun walks up from behind Jongin, resting his forearms against his shoulders, arms falling in front of him. "I not spending more money on glassware after Chae dropped and smashed 30 of them two months ago."

It was true, I did in fact, smash 30 glasses. I was cleaning up one night and thought it was a smart idea to keep piling glasses into the carry bin. Baekhyun offered to take to for me, saying that 'I could drop it', but I refused, telling him 'I could handle it' but ending up tripping over my own two feet and smashing the glasses everywhere. Baekhyun laughed out a simple 'I told you so' before giving me a bone crushing hug, still laughing.

I throw Baek a vulgar gesture with a smile behind it before pouring him an iced water and handing it over to him. "Yixing is going to close up tonight, I want to show you something." Baekhyun says before putting the glass with condensation clouding it, up to his lips.

I felt a sense of Déjà vu hit me, Baekhyun's words threw me back in time. When he would pull me early from work so we could go get street food or to go spend a few extra minutes at the river bench, even just driving around the empty street of the early morning, watching the sun rise.

Both Baekhyun and Jongin left to go back to their respected area, Jongin's seat was replaced by Taemin as he sat down, hair in his usual style, no suit this time. "Good evening, Chaeyeong."