“Tteokbokki?”
Dry leaves and twigs crackled under his weight.
“Come on, Tteokbokki!”
Baekhyun knew that Tteokbokki was a smart dog. He would have eventually managed to find his 
way back home and he would have found him on his bed chewing some of his t-shirts. But the fact
that he was in a forest, an unknown and potentially dangerous place, was a little unsettling for Tteokbokki's human. What would have happened if he had been caught in something, if he had fallen into a pit? The very idea gave him the chills and therefore he kept calling and looking for his dog up and down.
He came to a small clearing covered with shiny green grass and surrounded by tall trees and, if he 
hadn't been so concerned about his puppy, he would have stopped to observe the landscape.
“Tteokbokki? Please, come back here!”
There was a faint rustle behind the trees and Baekhyun turned quickly expecting to find his dog in 
front of him, but there was nothing there. Sighing, he turned around again and started to move. 
The same rustling sound made its way again into the open space and this time it was followed by a little giggle.
“That's not funny, I have no time for your jokes,” replied Baekhyun with annoyance to whoever was 
that damn kid who was trying to scare him in a situation like that.
The first thing he saw coming from behind the trunk of one of the trees was an ear. Not an ordinary 
ear, but an oddly pointed one, like the ones that could be seen in fantasy movies. Then a strand of pale hair followed and finally a smiling and curious face peeped from behind the trunk.
“Did you lose something?” asked the guy still hidden behind the tree.
“My dog. In case you were trying to scare me, I'll let you know that I'm not in the mood right now.” He 
returned to his research.
“Is it a small and blond dog?”
Baekhyun instantly turned his whole body toward the boy who now had his full attention. “That's 
right, have you seen him?” he asked with hope in its voice.
The boy came out of his hiding place and Baekhyun blocked a little astonished.
He was very tall, around 6'1, and quite lanky. His fine and straight caramel hair came to brush the top of his neck and his two bizarre pointed ears were poking through his locks. He had a fine and sharp face, with two large almond-shaped eyes which peered at him carefully. But it was his outfit that impressed Baekhyun the most. He was wearing a white shirt made of a very light fabric and with a deep neckline on the front. It was gold-trimmed and finished in two slightly puffed sleeves. A tight 
pair of brown-red pants enveloped his long legs and a golden band was wrapped around his waist. Around his neck, he had a necklace ending in a ring to which two red feathers were attached.
If he hadn't been so curious to know whether the stranger had really got a glimpse of his beloved 
Tteokbokki, he would have surely about his choice of clothing.
“He walked past here, he went west,” said the strange guy holding his hands intertwined in front of him.
West? “And which way…?” Baekhyun's sense of direction was certainly not the best, especially 
not when he was surrounded by trees whose tops covered the sky.
The boy chuckled amused and pointed to a spot over his right shoulder. Baekhyun was about to 
run in that direction and mutter a 'Thank you', when the other boy interrupted him.
“You don't have to chase him, I can make him come here. Anyways, you'll never be able to reach him.”
“Make him come here? What…?”
With a blink, he grabbed the feathers of his necklace and in a second Tteokbokki appeared from 
behind a moss-covered boulder. The stocky corgi approached his human waggling his tail and Baekhyun's jaw almost dropped to the ground. He bent down to his dog's back and lifted his 
head. “How the hell did you do that?”
The boy shrugged. “Me and animals get along pretty well.”
“You... You touched that necklace of yours and Tteokbokki appeared instantly. Is it some sort of 
dog whistle?” He stood up and started to approach the feathers as if to check if they hid a trick 
inside.
The boy took a step back and grabbed his necklace protectively. “It's not a whistle, they're just 
normal feathers. Can't you see?” He waved the feathers in front of the other's face as if he were 
stupid, then he knelt beside the little dog who had settled quietly on the grass. He scratched his
head and in response the puppy his hand.
“You have a beautiful dog, you know?” He smiled and waved his fingers strangely near the 
animal's ear. In that moment, a small daisy materialized out of nowhere among Tteokbokki's hair.
Baekhyun's eyes widened and he nearly fell to the ground pulling back. He looked from the flower 
to the boy and then back to the flower. It was not there before, he swore he saw it appearing 
suddenly.
“What are you?” His voice was trembling and he wore a shocked expression on his face.
The boy stepped away from the dog putting his hands up in the air. “What did I do?”
Baekhyun pointed at the daisy sticking up above the dog's ear. “Where did you get that out from? How did you make that flower sprout out of nowhere?”
The boy approached him. “Calm down, it's just a flower. It's not like I made a tree grow up on your 
dog's head.”
Baekhyun's distraught expression didn't leave his face. They stared at each other for a few 
seconds, two conflicting emotions met: shock on one side and confusion on the other.
At that point, the other boy seemed to understand what was going on, as he opened his mouth and let 
out a long and understanding “ah”. His huge, crooked smile made its way again onto his face and 
he walked over. He held out his hand friendly and said, “Nice to meet you, I'm Chanyeol and I'm a 
wood nymph.”
At that, Baekhyun fainted.

He didn't know why he collapsed. It was probably because of the fear for the almost loss of 
Tteokbokki, the shock of seeing flowers coming out of nowhere and the heat. With that final 
announcement, he had lost consciousness and had found himself face to the ground.
He woke up under the shadow of a tree, not far from where he had fallen a few minutes ago, and 
found the strange guy's worried face looking at him.
“Thanks to Pan you're not dead!” he sighed in relief. “You scared me, you fell like a stone!”
Baekhyun straightened himself with his head still spinning. He looked around trying to remember 
what had happened and when he laid his eyes on the figure beside him, he quickly backed away.
“You are a fairy!” he exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at him for the second time.
The 'fairy' rolled his eyes and uttered a tortured noise. “I'm not a fairy, I'm a nymph! And my name 
is Chanyeol.”
Baekhyun kept staring at him without any sign of vitality and at that Chanyeol raised his hand and 
let another flower grow among his fingers. Then life seemed to flow back into the boy's tiny body, 
who got on his feet and disappeared among the trees.
“Where are you going?” Chanyeol shouted to be heard.
“I need time.”

He returned after half an hour spent thinking behind a bush and he was finally ready to face the 
boy without the fear of passing out again.
He found him in the same spot where he had left him. He was making Tteokbokki play with an 
acorn which had probably come out of nowhere. When he noticed his presence, he stopped 
bothering the dog and stood up. “I'm sorry if I scared you, I realized I've overdone it a bit.” He looked 
genuinely sorry. “I didn't think that being in front of a nymph could be so upsetting to you.” He 
looked down and began kicking the dead leaves with his feet which, only now Baekhyun noticed, 
were bare. “I'm not used to humans, so sometimes I can get a little impulsive.”
“Let me try to understand.” Baekhyun came forward and sat down. He stared at the forest thinking. 
Chanyeol sat behind him. “You're a nymph.”
Chanyeol nodded.
“You can make flowers, trees and bushes grow out of your fingers.”
“I can even do it with my nose,” he said enthusiastically as if it were his personal pride. He shook his nose and this time a dandelion grew in the middle of the meadow.
“What else can you do? I mean, what kind of creature are you? Are there others like you around?” 
Baekhyun turned to look at him.
Chanyeol stretched out his legs and leaned with his arms backwards. “I do lots of things. I talk to animals, control water, limit the growth of trees. I take care of the forest.” He leaned 
forward and curled his back grabbing his necklace and playing with the feathers. “But I'm always 
alone. There are many other nymphs like me in the forest, but each one of them has their own area to 
control and we don't see each other very often.” He looked sideways at Baekhyun. “That's why I was watching you before. I rarely see people going around here.”
“I'm sorry,” said Baekhyun, he was honestly sorry. He didn't want to experiment how it was like to live completely alone.
“Oh, don't worry.” Chanyeol looked up at the trees towering above their heads. “The forest 
keeps me company. I take care of it and in return it takes care of me. It provides me food, water, a 
place to sleep and sometimes it also gifts me with some new clothes,” he chuckled.
Baekhyun found himself smiling while admiring the unconditional love that Chanyeol felt for his little corner of forest.
“You'll come back to see me, won't you?” the nymph asked shifting his focus on the boy next to 
him. Baekhyun found himself nodding automatically.
Chanyeol smiled and thought that, at last, he finally had the chance to find the friend he had always 
dreamt of.

Weeks went by and Baekhyun came back to the forest almost every day to visit Chanyeol. At first, it was a bit hard to get used to the fact that his new friend had the power to manipulate nature at his will, but it only took a small amount of time to start liking the way he made the ground flourish when he wanted. Sometimes he brought Tteokbokki with him, strictly on a leash, as he seemed to very much enjoy the nymph's company. They played together throwing him acorns which continued to appear magically on Chanyeol's palm, and had laughed more than once when the fat corgi had launched himself into the pond to reach their makeshift ball. Chanyeol showed Baekhyun every corner of his little piece of forest, taught him how to climb trees and how to differentiate poisonous mushrooms from edible ones. It felt like being back in the boyscout group, but, despite that, the time spent with Chanyeol turned to be the most precious of his days.

Baekhyun, limping slightly, dragged himself to the open space where he always used to meet with his friend. In an effort to try one of the paths that Chanyeol had shown him some days before, he had tripped while trying to jump from rock to rock to cross a small river. Now he found himself with a sore ankle and his jeans completely soaked.
“Hi, Baek!”
Baekhyun looked up in the direction of the voice and found himself in front of Chanyeol, who was 
hanging from a tree.
“What are you doing up there?” he asked sheltering his eyes from the sun with one hand.
“I was looking for you, you weren't coming.” He was hanging by the arms from two nearby branches with his his feet placed on the trunk. A normal person would have taken a huge effort to keep up with such a position, but Chanyeol was perched on the tree as if he was comfortably sat in an armchair. Despite his slim figure, Baekhyun was amazed by how much the boy could actually be strong and agile when it came to climbing trees or jumping from one bank of a stream to the other.
“I had a little accident.” Baekhyun sat on the ground uncovering his slightly bleeding ankle.
Chanyeol immediately jumped down from the tree and knelt to check the wound. He felt his ankle 
thoughtfully and murmured, “It's not broken nor dislocated, you only took a blow.” He traced the 
bleeding cut with his finger. “I got this.” He disappeared for a few seconds in between the 
branches and came back carrying leaves of some strange plant. He rested a small pile on the 
cut and laid one of his hands on it while the other one reached the feathered necklace. When he was finished, he removed the leaves and Baekhyun saw that the wound had disappeared. He looked at his friend in disbelief and the other just smiled and shrugged. “Anything is possible with a little bit of kindness and the forest's help.”
Baekhyun smiled back and rubbed his ankle which had now almost completely stopped hurting.
“You're all dirty, what did you do?” Chanyeol asked, pointing at his mud-covered clothes.
“I slipped into the river and struggled to come out, as you can see.” He looked at his white t-shirt, 
now almost brown, and made an expression that sparked a laugh at the nymph at his side. “Don't 
laugh at me! I'm not the only one who's covered in mud.” He pointed at Chanyeol's hands and knees smeared with dirt.
He looked at him and stood up. He grabbed one of Baekhyun's hand and helped him up, being 
careful not to let him move his weight on the sore ankle. “You're right, let's go wash up.”
They reached the pond located near Chanyeol's favourite tree. It was small, clear, lined with 
smooth rocks and little pink flowers.
Without warning, Chanyeol began to untie the band at his waist. Baekhyun thought that he would 
have eventually stopped, but when he grabbed the hem of his shirt to take it off, that was the time to 
stop him. “Hey hey, what are you doing?”
Chanyeol stopped with half of his shirt still on. “I'm undressing, why?”
“You know, we humans don't usually take our clothes off in front of each other. We only do it if 
we're really close,” he explained.
“Oh...” He looked embarrassed. He put his shirt in place. “I'm sorry, I didn't think you people were 
so prudish.”
“We can still wash up together, but I'd prefer if we both kept our clothes on,” Baekhyun tried to 
keep it light with a smile.
They went into the water both dressed and took the opportunity to wash the mud away from their 
clothes. When Baekhyun had finished, he crawled back onto the shore and sat on a rock, while 
Chanyeol remained floating in the water with his face toward the sky.
The sun's rays were piercing through the leaves and so the centre of the pond was shining 
intensely. The nymph was resting directly under the light beam. While wringing his jet black hair, 
Baekhyun's hands stopped involuntarily and stared at the boy's face lit by the sun. He had never looked at Chanyeol's face carefully, but this time he paused to gaze at its details. 
The shadow that his wet eyelashes projected on his cheeks, the curve of his nose, the eye movement behind his closed eyelids, the profile of his lips. He could glimpse the shape of his body through the wet clothes, the contour of his chest and abdomen clearly visible under his white shirt. He found himself thinking about things he had never believed he could have imagined. He wondered how it would have felt like to trace the curves of his body with his fingers, to his biceps, to catch his scent of musk and fresh grass. He lost himself thinking about his lips, the sweetness that they should have possessed, the flavour that would have freed him from all of his worries.
He stopped right before reaching a point of no return. He woke up from his thoughts and straightened his back moving his eyes on the rock beneath him.
What was happening to him?

They grew close more and more. Days passed quickly, too quickly. Time spent together never seemed to be enough, and when the moment to say goodbye came, a great sense of emptiness plagued both of their hearts.
They saw each other every day. Most of the time in the forest, others Chanyeol had even entered 
through the window in Baekhyun's bedroom, impatient to spend some time with him. Needless to 
say, the latter had been scared to death to see the nymph sitting comfortably on his bed waiting for him. Not only because he would have never imagined to find him in his room, but also because if his mother had entered, who knows what she would have thought seeing that kid with pointed ears and bizarre clothing.
Speaking of Baekhyun's mother, the woman began to get suspicious to see her son spending half of his day out and then coming home covered in dirt. We know that mothers' sixth sense in infallible, and therefore Ms. Byun had known immediately that his son had found someone special.
She persisted for a week to meet him and eventually Baekhyun gave up. He fixed Chanyeol at his 
best giving him his clothes to wear and trying to cover his pointed ears as much as possibile with 
his caramel strands. With jeans and a blue sweater, he almost looked like an ordinary human being.
“Don't start talking about trees, flowers and things like that, alright?” Baekhyun warned him shortly before crossing the threshold of his house. Once inside, Ms. Byun caught Chanyeol instantly in a hug.
That evening was strangely normal. They dined together and talked of this and that. Chanyeol was 
really good at not exaggerating in his stories of the forest, he only merely mentioned his passion for 
gardening. Seeing his mother and his friend getting along so well, Baekhyun smiled and watched the special beauty of the nymph who, in human clothes, was awkwardly trying to hold a pair of chopsticks.
He felt really happy.

A couple of weeks after the pond incident, they were both on the top of Chanyeol's favourite tree. 
The nymph had used his powers to grow more branches that could support their weight and now, 
beneath them, extended a platform made of braided fronds.
It was evening and the sky glowed with billions of stars. Lying on the branches, Baekhyun stared 
in wonder at the sight above his head. Although he lived in a small town near the forest, evening lights didn't allow the vision of the stars very well. From that spot, however, he could watch all the constellations he wanted. Chanyeol showed him the most important and famous ones, and Baekhyun listened carefully at his explanations. He spoke of the infinity of the universe and the beauty of nature, of how it was all perfectly balanced and self-sustaining.
After that day at the lake, each time Chanyeol dwelt on his speeches on the world, Baekhyun couldn't help but notice the beauty in his face and, especially now, illuminated by the moonlight, he looked even more stunning.
The nymph turned to him continuing his speech, but Baekhyun wasn't listening to a word of what he was saying. And when Chanyeol's hand slipped on the other boy's stomach, perhaps by chance, perhaps intentionally, he also stopped breathing. They stayed in that position, lying next to each other, for what seemed like hours before Baekhyun found the courage to ask something that had haunted him for a long time.
“Chanyeol, have you ever been in love?”
He seemed to think for a few seconds. “I am in love. With the forest, with my home.”
He should have expected that.
“I know that. I mean with a person. Has there ever been any nymph who made your heart beat fast?” 
Deep down he hoped he would have answered negatively.
Chanyeol smiled. “It doesn't work like that here. We are born from the love of the earth, water and 
flowers. Our race doesn't need the love between two people, only the one for our Mother Nature. That's the only kind of love I've ever felt.” He paused for a moment and seemed to sigh. “But sometimes I see couples who hide here in the forest and they seem so happy. They sit beneath the shadow of a tree and kiss. Is this how you call it, isn't it?”
Baekhyun nodded.
“You know,” he went on, sitting up. Baekhyun followed suit. “Sometimes I get jealous of their 
feelings. I want to know what it is like to feel something like that for a person.” He twisted his 
necklace. “Do you know it? How does it feel like?” he asked his friend by his side.
“I'm not sure.” He looked at his face. “I've never felt such strong feelings.”
Chanyeol shifted his gaze on his knees and seemed to think for a moment, then he looked back at 
Baekhyun with his big brown eyes. “And kissing? Do you know how it feels like to kiss someone?”
A strange feeling ran through his stomach and a weak thought flashed in the back of his mind. He had already kissed in his life, and he had also liked it, but he had never thought deeply about the feelings he had experienced. At that time, under the stars and isolated from the rest of the world, a strange courage seized the boy.
“Do you want to know how it feels like to kiss someone?”
Chanyeol nodded and Baekhyun approached him. “Do you want to try?”
The nymph opened his mouth as to say something, but no sound came out. Baekhyun was getting closer. Every millimetre less between them became a bit more of his self-esteem that increased. When they were a little less than two centimetres away from each other, Chanyeol spoke. “Isn't it something that only a boy and a girl can do?” he asked in a faint voice.
Baekhyun smiled at that innocent question. “No,” he whispered on his mouth. “You can kiss whoever you want.” And with that, the space between them got wiped out and their lips found each other.
It was simple yet explosive.
Having no idea what to do, Chanyeol's lips were tightly shut and didn't have the slightest intention to move. But when he felt his partner's ones activating, he tried to imitate his as much as possible. 
He decided to open his mouth and to give Baekhyun's tongue the freedom to search for his.
They kissed for minutes, maybe hours, they didn't know. The only knew that they found 
themselves once again lying on the wooden platform, branches creaking slightly under the weight of their kisses and their feelings, and kept on caressing, brushing, discovering each other, until nothing else was important anymore except from themselves.

“Baek?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think we will ever be able to feel the same things of those people kissing in the forest?”
“I think so.”
“You and I?”
“You and I.”