Chapter Text
Wedding D - 0
“Best wishes, I guess?”
The only thing Chanyeol can do is to make a face at his friend, Yixing, as the man shuts the door behind him. An audible sigh escapes his lips as he sits in front of his mirror and stares at his own reflection boredly.
Who would have thought that a little lie would turn out this grand? He just wanted the second highest position of the company to himself and marrying his mortal enemy is out of the picture. But here he is, dressed in his black suit, hair dyed back to black and is styled up in a comma, and is very, very anxious.
“Stop making that face, man. It’s your wedding today but you look like you’re attending your own funeral.” Xing, as he usually calls him, chides as he, too, sits on a couch behind him.
“I wished this was my funeral, indeed.” He sighs for the second time since his friend entered his room. “Where’s Junmyeon, by the way?”
Yixing shakes his head and leans on his seat. “He went to see your groom and told me to go check up on you. He’s afraid you’ll turn into a runaway groom by the end of this day if no one will come and watch you.”
What if he runs away?
But he’ll lose the position to either Baekhyun or Sejoo. And he doesn’t want that. So scraping the little idea he had in his mind following Yixing's statement, he slumps back to his chair and sighs for the third time.
“Chanyeol, stop sighing. Besides, it’s about time you settle down. You will be hitting two birds with one stone on this.”
And in turn he snorts at his friend . “If there’s someone who needs to settle down between us two in this room, it’s you, Xing. Practice what you preach, yeah?”
But Yixing only chuckles as the man tries to throw a pillow at him. "Don't you dare!" He warns.
“Where’s the lucky man?" a cheerful call interrupts from a rather awkward man wearing a gray plaid three-piece suit. According to him, he’s on 40’s-look for this ceremony that made both Chanyeol and Yixing shrug in unison resignation.
“You lucky, lucky man! Baekhyun is so gorgeous! If I’m not your friend and knows the history that goes way back between you two, I’ll snatch him right away. Damn, you won on this, Yeol! I’m beyond envious,” Junmyeon overreacts as he splats Yixing’s arm that’s resting on the armrest and sits on it, himself. Then continues to spurt endless praises towards his groom. Unfortunately.
Again, Chanyeol and Yixing can only sigh in surrender.
“You’re the only one excited about this, Jun. Stop faking it, we won’t make it.” Chanyeol says glumly. He peers at his wristwatch and sighs again for the nth time now knowing that in a matter of minutes, it will be his end.
“Stop feeling like a loser, Yeol. Why do you massively hate the man so much?” Asks Junmyeon in sheer curiosity.
The question itself made the whole room convert into a frozen one. He has been friends with the two since time immemorial but never did he really talk about Baekhyun with them. What for? He's an enemy.
Good thing, everyone was saved when a maiden in uniform knocked on the door and opened it curtly.“The ceremony is starting in ten minutes. May I ask the groom to please standby outside the west wing of the hall for your entrance. Thank you.”
The interruption whisked the tension away like there’s no taboo question asked. Still, only Junmyeon happily jumps from where he is sitting as he smooths the invisible wrinkles on his expensive jacket suit. “This is it,Yeol! Congratulations and best wishes,” he says, pinching Yixing’s jacket suit arm as they walk backwards. “We’ll go ahead and see you at the hall.”
Before the door swings close, Yixing peaks at the door frame and adds, “you still have a chance to run away. Don’t worry about Jun—ow!” Chanyeol still hears his friend's hisses from Junmyeon’s hit before it completely fades away and he's back alone inside the room.
The time has come.
Chanyeol inhales deeply and stands from his seat. There's really no going back now. And for the last time, he stares at his reflection and exhales, grabbing all the strength he has left to last the day.
“For the CEO-ship.” He says with a burning fire in his eyes leaving the door of his room ajar as he marches down towards his final destiny.
***
Chanyeol arches his eyebrow as he hears the intro of the infamous Presley song playing on the grand piano, accompanied by the solemn strums of the violinist on her instrument. He internally scoffs as he walks down the aisle thinking their friends had topped the notch in preparing everything for this fictional wedding. Neither he nor Baekhyun cared about the preparations. It was all them. This explains why Junmyeon is over the moon today.
And to play his part, he smiles without even meeting the eyes of anyone in the room. Besides, the majority of them were the company executives and business partners. In fact, he didn’t even invite anyone but the two men waiting for him at the end of the aisle. That’s how small he wants the audience to be but their parents just have to make everything on a larger scale.
With buckled knees, he successfully reaches his designated position beside his two best men. With Junmyeon just a heartbeat away from tears, and Yixing patting him on the shoulder as they all face the closed door.
And just as the song reaches the second chorus, the double-panel door swings open where his enemy, now his groom , enters with a ray of sunlight behind him. Baekhyun is wearing an identical tuxedo as him, his raven hair parted in half and is looking very, very alike...what Junmyeon had said.
His gaze meets the man’s eyes and Chanyeol just automatically gulps. He admits Baekhyun looks different than all those times he had seen the man so far.
And as the song continuously envelops the whole place in solemnity and sanctity, Chanyeol can’t help getting lost in the moment. He momentarily forgets that this was just a make-believe and that he is here with an ulterior motive, actually they both do .
If not for Baekhyun’s discreet jab on his side, Chanyeol won’t notice his outright staring towards the former.
And in a snap, the magic vanishes and he is reminded again why they are here in the first place. And as the song ends, he reaches for Baekhyun’s hand and they both face the priest who will officiate their ceremony.
“Is this really necessary?” he hears the smaller whispers as he gestures to their entwined hands.
“Are you saying I wanted to hold your hand with mine? Quit dreaming, Byun.” He replies, insulted.
“Eyes on me, gentlemen. Allow me a few moments of your precious time. And after this, you both have each other for the rest of your lives.” the officiate teases earning them collective chuckles from the audience behind. But neither of them felt the same, and instead, they just both grin fakely as a part of the act.
And when it starts, the ceremony feels like eternity for Chanyeol. Their still intertwined hands are getting clammy after every minute that both can just grit harder from waiting. And he can only breathe loosely when it’s time for their no-sweat vow. They opted for the traditional one instead of composing fictions in front of their audience. That way, they won’t be needing too much pretense.
“Do you, Baekhyun Byun, take Chanyeol Park to be your wedded husband, to cherish in love and in friendship, in strength and in weakness, in success and in disappointment, to love him faithfully, today, tomorrow, and for as long as the two of you shall live?”
“I do.” Baekhyun boredly replies.
Standing in front of the man at arm’s length, he clearly sees Baekhyun internally gagging at his response. He can’t help arching his eyebrow at the outright insult but nevertheless grins lopsidedly.
Two can play the game.
So when it’s his turn to answer, he took a long time to speak. Baekhyun's warning eyes made him feel victorious. “I do,” he says in a long drawl, wanting to add ‘not’ just to agitate his groom further but stops himself before it comes out of his mouth.
Just a little bit more, he constantly chants to himself as the ceremony reaches the end. Chanyeol swears he will never do this tedious process again. It was the longest hour of his life. And it is not even worthy of anything.
“Now that Chanyeol Park and Baekhyun Byun have given themselves to each other by the promises they have exchanged, I pronounce them spouses for life.“
Fucking finally! Chanyeol rejoices as the officiate pronounces the end of the ceremony.
“You may now kiss,” he adds and the ongoing celebration inside Chanyeol dies down realizing the hardest part of today’s show is yet to come.
Hoots and chants from the audience erupt and as he looks at Baekhyun, his chest beats erratically. It even went louder and crazier when the man smiled, challenging him to a silent battle. And even with a storm inside him, he won't let this man win against him.
So he steps closer as he slowly snakes his arm around Baekhyun’s waist. Being this close with the man made Chanyeol learn a few things. One, Baekhyun’s dark eyes sparkle even with no sunlight reflecting on it. And two, he smells of everything strawberries and vanilla. It's quite...addicting.
His momentary distracted state prolonged the agony both have been feeling since the start of this whole fiasco, making Baekhyun do the move as he pulls him by the nape, their lips ghosting each other’s. The cheers around them grew louder, sending them both in the high of their adrenaline. Neither of them fails to notice who closed the distance.
Their lips touch, sealing whatever contract they signed up to in an irrevocable validity.
And so, how does the saying go? ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend?’ But in this case, Chanyeol and Baekhyun have to be fake husbands.