Hannamdong UN Village [EXO's Byun Baekhyun]

Chapter 27: So Far Away

Everything was the same.

Yet it wasn't.

Yes, Baekhyun made more time to stay in after the tour was over, and yes, Haru was glad he did.

They went through everything together day by day, and Haru didn't have anymore wishes.

Haru would smile when Baekhyun teased her all day on a day off, bring her warm tea when she was crammed up with her writing, complain, but begrudgingly getting up when it was his turn for laundry, and everything felt okay, like it should.

She was happy. They were back. But when everything was dark and quiet, when Baekhyun was sleeping and she was all alone, Haru lost her mind.

It was hard for her when she found herself waking up in the middle of the night, in Baekhyun's arms, warm, but feeling extremely unsafe - something she had never felt before in such a position.

The darkened room felt darker than ever, and the midnight silence crept to her. She had never felt so afraid, especially within Baekhyun's reach, it was everything that shouldn't have been. The more she closed her eyes, the more tired she got - but she was nowhere close to sleep. Haru's thoughts went astray to a dark abyss, and she silently cried on her pillow. Everything felt wrong.

She wasn't supposed to feel that way. She loved Baekhyun, and nobody had ever made her feel safer than he. He had done absolutely no faults to her, and had been the most amazing person. Under the night, with barely any moonlight peeking through the window, Haru's eyes traced on the shadows of Baekhyun, breathing up and down, and so at peace.

Guilt burned her from the inside out as she felt out of place beside him. Because if she was insecure, even within his reach, that would mean that he was not enough. But Baekhyun was, and she knew, more than enough. He was all of her. Tears wet her side of the pillow as she stayed the stillest she could be.

When she least expected it, she was relieved of her insecurity when Baekhyun woke up without warning. He had stirred and open his eyes slowly. She wiped her tears away and faced him with a smile. His subtle movements as he stirred for some reasons, let Haru go of the burden she'd felt stacking on her shoulders. He stretched and looked at her once more, realizing that she was looking right back at him.

"Haru? You awake?"

And just like that, her ghosts were gone.

His groggy voice felt like some sort of reassurance, and for a few seconds, she was safe again. She let go of the breath she didn't know she had been holding, and ever so swiftly, Haru smiled. "Yeah, I think I heard something and woke up, but I'll go back to sleep. You should too," she lied in a whisper, her fingers reaching out to his cheeks and tracing over the treasure she so dearly loved.

Baekhyun didn't have a reason to doubt her. He smiled in return and pulled her closer, one hand on her back and the other on the crown of her head. He hummed a tune, somehow being able to be perfectly get the notes right even if the huskiness of his voice showed how he was obviously half-asleep, and Haru slept to his small lullaby in his arms like everything was okay again.

But a couple days later, she would be in the same position, questioning every single thing she'd done wrong.

"Something's wrong," she said one day to herself.

Baekhyun was out  the company, and she was typing her novel at home, alone.

Maybe it had been the words she had been typing, or maybe it had been her past mistakes, or maybe she had simply let the stove on or something. Haru froze and simply said to herself, "Something's wrong."

She stood up from her seat, closed her laptop and went outside - that was her very first instinct (after checking if that the stove was indeed off).

She walked out of the house, into the streets, and she kept walking. She was in her slippers, and nothing but her shirt and shorts, but something felt terribly wrong. Her feet walked themselves to her publishing company, and she simply stared into the building.

"What am I doing here?" she asked herself.

Pitying herself.

Haru held her head, thought that she really should get herself straightened up. Suddenly the chill of December shocked her bones. It was as if they had been creeping in from the moment she stepped out of the house, and she had blocked the cold like nobody's business and went walking. Now that she'd lost that unexplainable shield, she wrapped her arms around herself, and the stares of many pierced through her like the cold had just did.

"Haru?"

She turned to the voice, a familiar low voice that felt like a sudden savior. The silhouette of Kim Taehyung was seen as he was stepping out of the building, his eyes squinting to focus on confirming the identity of the familiar figure in shirt, shorts and slippers in the middle of winter.

When Kim Taehyung realized who it was, his eyes grew big, and he ran (he swore he had never ran so fast in his life), and his coat off his shoulders quickly and unto Haru's.

"Fuck, its freezing, what are you doing?"

He was fumbling over her, activating heat packs and shoving them unto her cheeks and hands, all why pushing both of them into a nearby store.

Haru simply looked at him, allowing him to drag her inside, shivering.

"I don't know," she said, her voice low, unsure, and broken.

Her voice cracked, and it was all it took for her to break down, not even able to cry, because she was cold and frozen.

Kim Taehyung had led her to a clothing store, where the clerk, who was guiding a customer, panicked when she saw Haru, and was kind enough to hurry and cover he with the products nearby.

"Call 911!"

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