Touchdown (2/2)

"Yeah, auntie," Jongdae pipes in, putting his chin on her shoulder and bats his eyelashes. "With Baekhyun gone, I can be your son-substitute."

Baekhyun scoffs. His mother hits his head. "Ow, I haven't even left yet but you're already replacing me with Jongdae? Unbelievable," he sighs.

In turn, Jongdae flicks his forehead and says, "Idiot, me and auntie will suffer together while you're gone."

"Awww, should I be touched my darling best friend is—Ow, ow. Okay stop hitting me!"

"Baekhyun, that's not how I raised you to be," his mom says, smiling beautifully next to him even with her hand raised, threatening to hit Baekhyun square in the head again. Jongdae laughs for the nth time.

"You know, I'm really going to miss you," he says truthfully. "So you should come back over, I don't know, break. Spring break, summer break, Christmas break, weekend—"

"If I had the money I'll even come back for the weekends for you two," Baekhyun says, shaking his head. He looks at them fondly, even though Jongdae's head is a nuisance to the eyes with his bright as sunshine Despicable Me minion cap.

"But you know your uncle can—"

"Mom, it's okay, there's always Skype and Facebook. Jongdae will set it up for you," Baekhyun insists. "How am I supposed to grow independent if you keep babying me?" he jokes.

"Baekhyun," his mother says, caressing his face, "I don't know why you want to leave so badly, but I'm trusting your reasons."

"I told you there's no specific reasons," Baekhyun says, burden of guilt clumping in his chest. His mother doesn't look convinced, but she nods. "Tell Uncle Chaehyun that I'll miss him. And that he should smile more often."

"You know he's not exactly the bubbliest type." His mother rolls her eyes. "Unlike your late father," she whispers wistfully.

"Dad's in a happy place," Baekhyun says. Jongdae awkwardly excuses himself to get them drinks because "The substitute son will cry if you go on".

The clock finally strikes 6:45pm and they announce Baekhyun's flight. Jongdae throws a fit at the announcer and mutters stupid insults for ruining the last minutes Baekhyun will be in Korea for a long time.

"I was just getting drinks and now you're leaving," Jongdae says, exhaling sadly. An arm around Baekhyun, he gives his head a quick ruffle. Baekhyun tells him off and adds a quick, "You talk as if you're never going to see me again."

"I'm not sure when you're planning to come back." Jongdae grimaces. "If you even plan on going back," he mutters to himself.

His mother ticks her tongue, watching them bicker. "You two are inseparable. It's a pity you're not going together. Oh, what about Chanyeol?" she asks on their way to the gates. "Ah, he was supposed to come but his friend is throwing a moving away party."

Baekhyun tries not to let his face fall. Jongdae whistles a lackluster mocking melody. "I already said my goodbyes," he lies efficiently. It's always been easy to lie about Chanyeol, but never in his face. "He needs to take care of you, Mom."

She smiles fondly, petting his head. "He's a pretty good boy. Are you ready to go?"

"I might come running back home," he says weakly, sadly fiddling with his bag. He tightens his hold on the straps and kisses his mother's cheek. "I'll call you when I get to Beijing."

"Okay," she says, hugging him tight. "I'll miss you."

After Jongdae's insistent "I need a power hug that'll last for four years", Baekhyun finally turns to go and gives the two most important people in his life one last affectionate glance.

"I'll come back soon," he says, but in his heart he knows it's a lie.

-

"Chanyeol? What are you doing here?" Baekhyun's mother asks, quite surprised to see Chanyeol walking out of the airport. Jongdae's already left a few minutes ago and she's just waiting for the driver to pick her up. "It's a pity you didn't see Baekhyun leave."

"I did," Chanyeol says, smiling slightly. His eyes look distracted as he drapes an arm around Mrs. Park. "Come on, Aunt. I'll take you home."

-

The air is cold when the plane touches down in Beijing. Baekhyun shivers, looking around as he scans desperately for the guy sent by the university to fetch him. He already got his things from the luggage carousel and the rest were most likely going to be sent in packages after a few days.

His phone had unfortunately died on him during the moment he opened it ("Damn Jongdae for taking so much selcas," he curses) and his charger is somewhere stuck underneath his stack of clothes in his baggage. He feels quite incompetent despite learning Chinese for three years in high school and only gets to ask simple questions on the annoyed security guard next to him.

Sighing, he tries to remember the address and contemplates on taking a cab to the dorms instead. He stands up, distracted, and doesn't notice the forgotten passport falling from his lap.

Hauling a cab is hard when you have a line of old natives looking strangely at him as he tries to communicate with his basic Chinese. It's obvious that he's a foreigner, and they take advantage of this fact and steals every cab available. Baekhyun lets out a huff and almost feels like strangling himself.

"Byun Baekhyun," someone taps his shoulder and if Baekhyun hadn't been frustrated he would have asked gently how that person knew his name. Instead, he snaps and says, "What the hell?"

When he looks back he gets a sight of long locks of blonde hair and a 6-ft guy towering over him. A pale face, sharp and yet gentle eyes, a tall nose and a pretty small mouth. Baekhyun feels himself flush. "Oh," he says and the guy waves his passport in front of him.

"Having troubles looking for a cab?" His Korean sounds sharp, but nevertheless understandable. "Where are you going?"

This stranger is too nice, Baekhyun thinks, and too handsome. His face must have looked so stupid as he tries and says, "My phone died and I can't get my way back to where I'm supposed to go. I couldn't find the guy I'm meeting—Lu Han, dude with brunette hair, I think—so yeah," he ends lamely, embarrassed.

Amused, the guy holds out his hand and gives him his passport. "Do you trust strangers that easily?" he asks. Baekhyun nods dumbfounded, smiling shyly. "I know exactly who you're talking about," he says and smiles, gums and all. Baekhyun finds it endearing.

"I'm Kris Wu," he says charmingly, making Baekhyun's heart skip a beat. "And I'll take you home."

finally an update! ~2.4k words and a new pairing. thank you for subscribing!