Chanyeol was woken up by the sun, streaming light into his room.

 

It was the third day of the trip already, and fortunately, it was warm.

 

In his shared room with Sehun, he was the first one up, and getting ready. Sehun was still snoring softly, from his bed. The sun shone directly onto his eyelids, even more than it did for Chanyeol, so technically, he should have been wide awake too. It wouldn’t take him long though.

 

Chanyeol’s legs felt like jelly. All the walking they did the day before caught up to him, as he stumbled around the room getting his stuff together.

Today, he was planning to wear one of the nicer outfits he’d packed, in hopes of impressing someone, also known as Baekhyun.

So far, Baekhyun seemed to like him, so it would make it easier.

 

Chanyeol was seriously hurt after Jenny. He liked being cool, and having people admire him, and when she put him down like that, it was embarrassing to say the least. He never wanted to be seen as mean, it just boosted his self esteem when he was ‘popular.’

When he had first met his roommates, they had all treated him like the ‘cool guy they hung out with’, but after a while, they became his best friends and they saw right through him. They realized how weird he was - in a good way-- and how he was pretty much as cool as a can of beans.

 

Baekhyun was different. He’d only just met Chanyeol. Sure, he already found out about Chanyeol’s geeky-ness, but that was only because he had felt comfortable enough to tell him, and before he knew it, he was telling him a lot of things he would have never told a stranger. For some reason, Chanyeol felt like he could tell Baekhyun anything.

 

After he sang his song on stage, Baekhyun looked impressed. Or at least, the most impressed out of the eleven other people in the audience.

For those reasons, Chanyeol wanted to impress him further.

 

The only thing that would come out of it was becoming Baekhyun’s friend, and maybe they wouldn’t talk anymore after the trip ended, but it would be fun nonetheless.

 

His thirst for attention was bad, and he knew that, but he didn’t feel like fixing it anytime in the near future.

 

 

Setting his idea in place, he sat down in front of his little bedside table and pulled out the mirror he used to style his hair.

By that time, Sehun started to wake up, groaning at the light in his eyes.

 

As his roommate got up to close the curtains, Chanyeol finished by giving his hair one final adjustment and leaving grumpy Sehun alone in the room.

 

 

On the main floor, Chanyeol didn’t see anyone in the living room. Kai and Kyungsoo were in the kitchen, laughing about something, when Chanyeol walked in.

 

“Hey, guys. Where is everyone? Are they all still sleeping?” He asked them.

 

“Oh god no. They’re all outside getting the boats ready. You should see them.” Kai said, indicating to the glass patio door with his spatula.

 

“Boats?”

 

Kai nodded. “You should go ask them what we’re doing.” He said, redirecting his attention back to the pan he was using his spatula for.

Kyungsoo was behind Kai, carefully supervising what he was doing. He was quiet, Chanyeol noticed, but he seemed to be warming up to Kai.

 

 

Emerging outside, he saw Tao carrying a red kayak down through the trees at the edge of the yard. Lay was behind him, grabbing a second one, and disappearing down the path right after him.

 

He approached Suho, who was in the process of picking up his own kayak from the little row by the trees.

 

“What are you guys doing?” He asked. Suho looked up, adjusting his hold on his kayak.

 

“We’re bringing the boats down to the beach. That’s where everyone else is.”

 

“Woah, wait. Beach?!” Chanyeol practically shouted.

 

If there was one thing he loved more than sci-fi, it was sand, as weird as it was.

 

Without hesitation, Chanyeol grabbed a kayak off the grass and raced into the trees.

 

“Which way?” He called to Suho.

 

“Just follow the path!” He yelled back.

 

Chanyeol hopped down through the trees, following the path that went downhill, in a zigzag, until he reached the start of the beach.

 

The beach was a lot smaller than he’d imagined. It seemed to be the same length as the yard.

 

The sun glinted off the clear water, beating down on the hot sand.

 

Xiumin and Luhan were sitting in a small speedboat, tied to a dock on the far right side of the beach. Everyone else was setting their kayaks down somewhere on the sand, along with towels.

 

Chanyeol walked up to the boat. A rope was tied to the end of the boat let to a tube, currently placed beside Luhan on the seat.

 

“Xiumin!” He called, as he approached. “Where the hell did the boat come from?!”

 

Xiumin and Luhan laughed. “It was already here!” He called back. “You didn’t even know about the path or the beach, did you?”

 

“Nope.”He climbed in beside them in the boat. “What are we gonna do with it?” He asked.

 

“Were going tubing.” Xiumin informed him. “And kayaking.” Luhan added. “And you’d better go. So far the only people who want to tube, are Baekhyun, Kris and Tao.”

 

“Ya, I’m down.”

 

“Great. Just get Sehun down here.” Xiumin said.

 

Chanyeol nodded, and went back up the path to the house, where Sehun was probably still in his pyjamas.

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

The waves on the lake rocked the boat as they sped around on the water.

 

Sehun was at an advantage. He didn’t get sick on boats, or scared whatsoever, but it looked like both Xiumin and Kyungsoo were either going to pass out or throw up, or both.

 

He sat near the back of the boat beside Kris, watching Baekhyun and Chanyeol bounce on and off the water on the tube.

Luhan was already on the boat when he got there. He sat far on the other side, near the wheel, conveniently the furthest he could get from Sehun.

 

As much as he wished Luhan would explain to him why he was acting so mean, he knew that confronting him here where everyone could hear, would be embarrassing.

 

Understanding him was impossible. The last time Sehun had seen or talked to Luhan was when he had slammed the door in his face. Luhan had been the one who had dumped Sehun, leaving him with no idea why. The last of his high school years, had been spent trying to get over Luhan, seeing as he wouldn’t so much as his acknowledge his presence. He could still remember how it felt. He used to believe Luhan was going to be with him forever, like a soulmate.They were perfect together. Dating him had been the best time of his life, and he was impossibly happy, until suddenly the one person he trusted most in the world broke his heart and left him no explanation. It felt like every time he thought about it, his heart would break all over again.

 

Seeing Luhan at the house had been both a dream and a nightmare. His heart flipped when he saw who it was. At that moment, it took everything he had not to run up and throw his arms around him, and ask the millions of questions that had been left in his head for years. But, he didn’t. The approach he wanted to take was to not scare off Luhan, but also keep him close enough to eventually talk to him before they left.

Interrupting him from his thoughts, was a sudden jolt, as the speedboat came to a stop, and Tao and Lay went to pull Baekhyun and Chanyeol back in.

 

Chanyeol’s hair was drenched, and his face was red, decorated with a huge smile. Baekhyun looked like he had just seen a ghost, and was equally as soaked as Chanyeol. Silently, he took a seat next to Kris, breathing heavily. “Baek, you okay?” Chanyeol asked, laughing at the older boy. Baekhyun nodded, and his face broke into a half-smile.

That was the first he had ever heard Chanyeol call him ‘Baek’.

 

“Am I  next?” Kris asked.

 

“Go ahead,” Xiumin said. “Who are you going with?”

 

Kris looked puzzled. “I don’t know. Who wants to go with me?”

He looked around the boat.

 

Then, Xiumin turned to Tao.

 

“How about you, Tao?” He asked. “I know you really wanted to go.”

 

Sehun watched, as Tao’s went from fear, to anger, to blank, in the few moments after Xiumin suggested it.

 

“Sure.” It sounded like he was saying it through clenched teeth. “I don’t see why not.”

 

Sehun turned to Kris. His friend’s expression was weird. Reluctantly, he stood up, and followed Tao to climb onto the tube.

 

Once they had settled into position, the boat sped off again. Once Tao and Kris were out of sight, Xiumin opened a compartment by the seat underneath him and pulled out a little cooler.

 

“So,” He said, mischievously. “Who wants lunch?”

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

Kris had a hard time keeping his mouth shut. Especially around Tao.

 

They stepped onto the tube, and sat down. Tao slipped once, grabbing onto Kris’s arm for balance before abruptly letting go, once he realized.

 

Kris knew he had pissed Tao off. It was rude of him to call Tao a , even if he didn’t mean for his thoughts to come out that way. He just felt weird talking to someone he had originally thought was nice, and then found out was part of something that he thought bad of.

Tao didn’t seem like the stereotypical fraternity boy but then again, Kris had barely gotten to know him.

 

The entire time he sat beside him on the tube, Tao didn’t speak. He didn’t look angry though either. He just ignored Kris the entire time, occasionally screaming when they hit a wave.

 

Kris was just beginning to disregard his thoughts about Tao as they rode on the tube, when the boat slowed to a stop.

 

Immediately, Kris thought something was going on. Their turn wasn’t nearly as long as Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s.

 

As he awkwardly waited in silence with Tao, they waited for someone to come pull them in, but no one came.

 

After a while, Kris finally decided to do something.

 

“Hey! What’s going on?!” He yelled, startling Tao.

 

Then, Xiumin’s head popped up in the distance.

 

“Oh hey!” He yelled back. “Were just having lunch! Just give us, like, ten minutes!”

Kris could hear laughter from behind him. “Are you kidding me?!” He yelled back.

 

“What the hell, man?!” Tao began yelling too. “What are we supposed to do?!”

 

More people walked up beside Xiumin, into their sight.

 

“Go swimming!” Sehun yelled.

Tao grunted.

 

“Or you could, like, make out!…” Suho yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth.

More laughter came from the boat.

“Screw you!” Kris yelled back. “I hope you fall off the boat!”

 

Then, all the people disappeared to the other side of the boat.

 

“Hey, wait!” Tao shouted.

 

Kris sighed. They would just have to wait.

 

The silence was the most uncomfortable thing imaginable.

Instead of holding onto the tube’s handles, Kris found himself absentmindedly playing with his fingers.

 

 

“...You know, that was really mean.” Tao spoke, after what seemed like eternity. “What you said.”

Kris looked up, bewildered. “What?”

 

Tao looked over at him, scowling. “What you said. You called me a ? Remember?”

 

Kris was hoping to avoid this. He really didn’t feel like apologizing. Tao seemed really smug, and He didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of winning whatever they had going on.

 

He held his gaze. One thing he noticed, was that Tao wasn’t cute when he was angry. There was a big difference between the smiling Tao Kris had seen on the first day, and the Tao that faced him now.

His face was contorted with annoyance.

 

“Look, I admit, it was kind of mean, calling you a .” Kris started. Tao raised an eyebrow. “But I’m not going to apologize for my opinion on fraternities.”

 

Tao scoffed. “You have a pretty aggressive way of expressing your opinions.”

 

“Well, I don’t expect everyone to like them, that’s why they’re called ‘personal opinions’.” Kris shot.

 

Tao huffed in frustration. “I’m not criticizing what you think. I could care less what you think, even if you are talking about some of my friends, but the point, is that you insulted me. You should at least apologize for that.”

 

Kris rolled his eyes.

 

“You’re acting like a five year old.” Tao said. Kris gaped at him.

 

“That, right there, is the expression of a five year old.” Tao continued. Kris glared.

 

“Why would I apologize to you, huh? Why should I?” Kris demanded.

 

“Because it’s the right thing to do when you insult someone!” Tao’s voice raised alarmingly.

 

“Well then you apologize for calling me a five year old!” Kris mimicked Tao’s voice.

 

“You insulted me first, so you apologize first!” Tao yelled.  

 

“Now who’s the five year old, huh?” Kris spat.

 

Tao let out a disbelieving laugh. “You don’t have an ounce of maturity in your body do you?” He said. “And since we’re throwing around insults, you’re an ! But then again, that’s not an insult. That’s just an observation.”

 

Whatever line Kris had, Tao had just crossed it.

 

In anger, Kris grabbed the top buckle of Tao’s life-jacket, yanking him forward, until their faces were inches apart. “You take that back.” He growled.

 

Kris kept his eyes glued to Tao’s, unblinking. Then, as if automatically, his eyes travelled down, from his eyes, to his nose, coming to rest on his lips. Tao’s lips were full, and pink, dotted with drops of water, that were still all over his face and soaked in his hair. His mouth hung slightly open, in mild shock, and Kris couldn’t help but think that if either of them moved even a small amount forward, they would probably end up kissing. A small blush crept it’s way to Kris’s cheeks.

 

Embarrassed at the sudden thoughts, he snapped his eyes back up to Tao’s, only to see that Tao’s own eyes were angled down in a similar way. Kris’s eyes widened. Using the other boy’s distraction to his advantage, Kris snuck one last glance at his lips. Tao’s cheeks were also a little red, but that could have just been because of the wind and the water that had hit them a few minutes prior.

Kris couldn’t bear it. He hastily let go of Tao’s jacket, shoving him away.

 

He looked down to his fingers, that had somehow begun fiddling with themselves again.

 

“I’m sorry I called you a .” He said quietly, but loud enough for Tao to hear.

 

At first, he thought Tao wouldn’t say anything, but eventually he did.

 

“I’m sorry I called you an .” He said.

 

Silence hung over them for a number of minutes, until Xiumin’s voice came again from the distant boat.

 

“Okay, we can go!” He yelled.

 

“No, that’s fine! Just bring us in!” Kris yelled back.

 

They stuck with their silence, as the other boys pulled in the tube, and Tao immediately climbed off, with Kris close behind.

 

For the rest of the boat ride, they sat opposite each other, not so much as looking at each other once.

 

------------------------------------------

 

When tubing ended, the next thing started. Kayaking. Which Baekhyun happened to love.

 

He’d only been kayaking a couple of times, but still, he missed it.

 

He had been among the few people who got into their kayaks successfully without falling out.

 

In fact, by the time he had gotten sufficiently far from shore, Lay was still flailing around in the shallow water, trying to position himself the right way.

 

 

While enjoying the scenery, Baekhyun heard the soft sound of someone paddling towards him.

 

Following the sound came Chanyeol, swiftly pulling up next to him.

 

“Hey,” He said, flashing a bright smile.

 

He was happy to see Chanyeol. Earlier, they'd gone tubing. Baekhyun went for the first time, while Chanyeol had said he’d gone so many times, he lost count. The experience had been both terrifying and ridiculously fun at the same time, and he didn't regret it.

 

The most fun part, was seeing Chanyeol laughing and shrieking as they bounced all over the waves, desperately hanging on to the handles. Of course, he looked hilarious and adorable to Baekhyun, but he pushed any ‘cute’ related thoughts out of his head.

 

“Hey,” Baekhyun replied, trying to smile at him the way he had.

 

“What's up?” Chanyeol asked.

 

“I'm just kayaking. What about you?”

Chanyeol chuckled. Baekhyun praised himself for making him laugh.

 

“That's funny,” Chanyeol said, in mock astonishment. “I’m kayaking too.” Baekhyun laughed too, but couldn't help but cringe at how cheesy that was.

 

“So, have you ever been kayaking before?” He asked.

 

“No actually. This is the first time.” Chanyeol answered.

 

“Really? You seem to be pretty good at it.”

 

Chanyeol smiled. “Says you,” He said. “You're halfway across the lake! I almost paddled my arms off trying to catch up.”

 

Baekhyun blushed. The idea of Chanyeol trying so hard to get to him seemed kind of cute. He reminded himself that he didn't want to develop any feelings toward Chanyeol and pushed any aspect of crushing away.

 

“So, is there anything else you do well that I would never guess?” Chanyeol asked, smirking playfully.

 

“... I can play the piano…?” Baekhyun said, reluctantly. Truthfully, he was good at a lot more things. He'd even been told that his voice was ‘amazing’ but piano was one thing he was sure Chanyeol couldn't make him demonstrate, because there weren't any pianos nearby.

 

“Really? I play too. Have you ever entered a competition or music festival or something?”

 

“Uh, no. Have you?”

 

“Yeah, a few times.”

 

Of course. Baekhyun mentally slapped himself. He should have known that Chanyeol would be like this. For all he knew he was a master at all kinds of instruments. He would just have to accept the fact that he stood in the presence of mr. prodigy, and he was boring compared to him.

 

“Do you play anything else?” He asked, bracing himself.

 

Chanyeol’s face lit up.

 

“I play the guitar, the drums and I compose a lot of my own stuff.”

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Yeah, why?” Chanyeol asked.

Baekhyun didn’t know what to say.

 

“...If you don’t make it big one day, I’ll be really surprised.”

Chanyeol blushed.

 

“Really? You think I’ll make it?” He asked.

 

“Duh.”

 

Chanyeol smiled shyly, while Baekhyun chuckled at him.

 

“What about you? Do you have any other talents besides piano?” Chanyeol asked.

 

Baekhyun shook his head. “There’s not very much to talk about in terms of talents, for me.”

 

“I don’t believe you.” Chanyeol said. Baekhyun looked up, in surprise.

After an awkward few seconds, Chanyeol pressed further.

 

“Come on, you’re the mysterious Baekhyun! You’ve got to have something you’re hiding.”

Again, Baekhyun shook his head.

 

“You’re sure you can’t even sing?” Chanyeol asked.

 

“...Well,”

 

Baekhyun still didn’t really want to tell him about his voice, so he just kept it simple.

 

“I’m okay, I guess.” He said, quietly.

 

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter