Chapter 002

Though that moment that abruptly ended their short meeting was heavy on his mind for a long time, Chanyeol could not allow it to stick on him like the stormy cloud over its head it was. He had work to do, he always had work to do. And when he wasn’t working he was hanging out with poor Baekhyun who, nowadays, seemed pretty more relaxed or annoying the living days out of Kyungsoo – point was, even though she had not vanished from his thoughts, during the busy days filled with hectic schedules and an also chaotic dorm with eight others, he could not find it in him either the patience or the heart to wonder about her and get depressed.

But, now that promotions for EXODUS had ended, and between the last few concerts of the EXO’lution and his 18 seconds tasks, he found the activities of his days thinning and sometimes when there were time to sleep plenty at night and when Chanyeol was searching for jungle noises on YouTube to fall asleep, he would instead play that song they had listened to together that night when the iv drip hadn’t finished yet and Seung Hwan hyung hadn’t ruined everything.

Managers, for EXO, were the supporting pillars behind the scenes – obviously he hadn’t managed to be mad at hyung for long. He of course understood the assumptions behind his behavior that night… in this field everything could be a deception and one could easily be charmed into them. At least that had been what he claimed. Except Ji Woo…she had never wanted to go to the hospital, she didn’t even ask him for anything and he was pretty sure she would have refused the hospital bedroom to the end if he hadn’t gotten so uncomfortable with their rising bickering, afraid that someone recognized him.

Umin hyung sat abruptly next to him on the large sofa of the living room and Chanyeol blinked, taken aback. It wasn’t that it was weird for that hyung to be here. But it was late and usually he was the first to go to sleep, especially nowadays since he had been exercising a lot (as he always did, when he had free time).

“Hyung…”

It still took him aback that this cute person sitting next to him was older than him by two years instead of being their maknae. Sehun was clearly older-looking than their cute Minseok hyung. He wrinkled his cute nose at Chanyeol’s absentminded scrutiny and the younger snapped his eyes back to focus.

“Hyung, you’re usually asleep at this time…”

“Chanyeol-ah, I didn’t really tell the others about your call in the middle of the night three weeks ago. But I know something happened”

Chanyeol swallowed a lump at the mention of his thought’s subject. And the taller one immediately felt genuinely bad, the mention of it always brought a bitter taste to his mouth. When Chanyeol looked at the small figure to his side who was trying to not compromise his intention by just sitting quietly but whose eyes did not falter, leaned back on the couch, he was reminded again that the older hyung did have that aura about him. Only in the flashing lights would he be mistaken as some cute younger kid, where the lights outshined his cool, sober demeanor.

“I’m not going to insist for you to spill, but I know something happened. I heard HyunKyun hyung call Seung hwan hyung and when he called back a few hours later he didn’t seem happy. Hyun Kyun hyung didn’t tell me anything, but I know he was worried about you since he even made sure you were ok when you got home. And I know you’ve not been your usual loud self. Everyone noticed, you know. I’m just saying, even if you don’t want to talk to me, just talk about it.” Minseok hyung got up and patted his shoulder in a very subtle sincere gesture. “Besides, I have an urge for Teokkbokki. Would you mind making some for your cute hyung?”

Chanyeol scoffed a laugh and got up, not before smiling back at Minseok hyung, proceding to throw an apron on his torso and chuckling that he thought he was the mood killer – to which Minseok shrugged his shoulders and spoke quickly that he had been exercising all morning and sleeping all afternoon and was just craving for something spicy.

“Your face is going to be all swollen up in the morning, hyung”

Chanyeol had thought about saying it with a cheeky smirk over his shoulder but someone had beaten him to it. Looking behind him he found Chen’s mouth corner uplifting slightly and Sehun already claiming a place next to the oldest hyung trying to persuade him to please start gaming on his smartphone as well. Seeing Xiumin hyung getting so much closer to Sehun this past year struck a chord in his heart, because he knew they both were compensating over missing Luhan hyung that much. Sehun even had to deal with Tao’s absence now too.

Chen was about to enter the room when Baekhyun jumped on his back, glasses astray on his nose bridge and a beagle smile on his lips, emphasized by the cap worn backwards.

“Jongdae should just eat some chicken necks!”

Chanyeo laughed loudly and asked if he should make it extra-spicy, suddenly in a good mood in the company of his noisy members.

“Yeah hyung! It’s fine, we don’t have schedules tomorrow!”

Sehun looked backwards over the sofa’s back and beyond the counter that divided the living room and kitchen where Chanyeol was counting the members to achieve perfect ratios and make perfect food, because he had to be so perfect at everything when Jongin entered with hands full of pumpkin extract and a happy laughter in his lips. Baekhyun clapped his hands joyfully and ruffled his hair as the youngest extended his arms.

“No puffy faces!!”

Behind him a solemn Kyungsoo entered the living room, with an obvious swollen face showing he had been thoroughly sleeping and had been thoroughly awaken by the ruckus. He hadn’t spoken a word, his entrance even passing unnoticed by some of the other members as he reached for another apron and started gathering ingredients by Chanyeol’s side.

“Kyungsoo-ah” he didn’t answer and Chanyeol smiled. D.O. would always be D.O., moreover when he was sleepy. “Kyungsoo-ah~~”

“Move.”

 His swollen heart shaped lips moved but his puffy eyes did not meet Chanyeol’s as he shuffled through the drawers and cabinets in search for ingredients and condiments around the tallest form. Some would undoubtedly mistake him for a rude person but to Chanyeol, used to his beatings and strange humor, his actions were actually endearing instead. Besides seeing everyone gathered made his heart all tingly in his chest with the realization of how good life had been for him until now.

Suho hyung and Lay hyung ended up joining last with hushed tones and small comfortable smiles sitting around the low table and chatting freely ignoring the noise that Chen and Jongin were making since the latter wouldn’t let the older take one of the extract packs to D.O. who was clearly needing it. Followed by the maknae saying it would be better if Jongin would just let him because he would probably want to update his SNS with a group picture and D.O. hyung’s face today was probably under some legal ban from appearing in public sites. His cackling voice joined Baekhyun’s loud chortle and Chanyeol could only follow as well. D.O. remained in a state of unawareness or maybe a mix of awareness with total nonchalance.

“Can anyone tell me how I ended up in a double cooking pack with Frodo?”

But Kyungsoo wasn’t so forgiving this time and before he knew it, the bag of frozen teokk hit his head with a loud Tak! as the smaller one got ready to punch him into lowering his head enough to imprison him in a headlock. Chanyeol laughed louder (though he did try to control himself) before starting to run away from his younger friend and asking in gurgles of laughter how he had even managed to hit him on the head and how had he gotten there?

Baekhyun closed the discussion calling him yoshin and at the sight of a fry pan raising in his direction quickly scrambled behind Suho hyung and Lay hyung, laughing like crazy and whining his cutest kkaebsong!

Though Baekhyun and Suho had, after that night asked him a lot about what happened, Chanyeol didn’t disclose it. A little too much, he repeated in his head that it would only be as important in his life as he let it and as such he would not think about it nor be disappointed by the obvious fact that, with the way Seung Hwan hyung had talked to her and his not interfering, she would probably never speak to him again. He ignored the sting that knowledge brought forth, along with the certainty that by now she would surely have already found the number he had inserted in her iPod contact list, sneakily – but had either disregarded it totally or simply erased it and not be bothered by it at all.

Work picked up and though in much smaller quantities now that they weren’t promoting, he miraculously found himself with things to do and places to go. Visiting his parents more, hanging out with his noona a lot (who had started noticing something was off about him as well).

When the fifth week after that episode began, Chanyeol convinced himself that he was just reacting to the fact that it was unbearable to know she had been treated so unfairly when it had been all him convincing her to go to the hospital and hurting her precious hand. And when that thought came others came as well… he remembered the girls saying in a panicky voice to the quiet Ji Woo that she had a contest in three weeks.

Five had passed since then, which meant that the contest had started already.

That night, after an endless day of working on some selected tracks he decided to go to bed early. But not before (ignoring Baekhyun’s sounds as he played his game on his iphone) going over that thought that had rushed through his mind while he was nicking here and there a certain recorded track. She had certainly done well; there was no need to check. Still… That same curiosity that had risen as she had showed old men playing the piano instead of showing off her own skills bubbled inside his stomach. It wouldn’t hurt to check… right? Anyway, he wouldn’t be able to sleep just by laying down and he always did check their performances or the upcoming music video releases or variety shows appearances in the internet until his eyes started to feel heavy.

Tapping her name +piano contest on the Naver search engine, Chanyeol told himself there would be nothing coming up and that there was no need to work himself up. She wouldn’t be that well known, she wouldn’t appear. Probably only information on the sunbaenim with that name who Sehun worshipped would come out.

Young genius pianist Choi Ji Woo breezes through the second round of the Seoul International Music Competition with standing ovation from the judges with her interpretation of Lizst Liebestraum nº 3, Notturno.

 Asia-Pacific International F.Chopin 2013 winner Choi Ji Woo earns critical adoration with her performance in the round two of another of the most prestigious Piano competitions in the nation.

[VIDEO]

Chanyeol swallowed in vain. He knew he had to stop obsessing over the kid. But she was like a whole new world that he wanted to keep unveiling. Biting his lips the big eared man controlled his thumb preventing it from falling on the word video for now. It was wrong to be getting this interested in a girl, he knew it too. He had a tendency to get a little over-fascinated and sometimes that ended up with him crushing on said over-fascinating people. But that hadn’t happened ever since he debuted because he couldn’t afford to crush or even like someone with the ridiculous amounts of public attention that he received and, nonetheless, loved. Thus, Chanyeol had sworn off girls. It wasn’t that he had been in complete celibacy over the years, of course not. There was a romp here and there friends of friends and acquaintances, touches and little hidden kisses – but nothing he had ever hesitated on leaving behind.

But why, why was it that, despite all the pep talk he had just repeated in his head, his heart was beating so strongly at the immobile display image of the video on YouTube of that person in a pure-looking dress that ended a palm before her ankles and