Kyungsoo hates Baekhyun so ing much. He’s not a morning person, so when Baekhyun called him at 7AM with a pleading voice begged him to cover for his outdoor activity, Kyungsoo just wanted to kill him. But being a good friend, he still agreed and dragged himself outside on Sunday morning.

Right now he’s standing in the local park, surrounded by cheerful laughters of children, noisy conversations between parents and deafening yelling noises from the staffs preparing for the event. Kyungsoo remembers this one, “Sing for children” is a voluntary event held every May around Seoul to begin the summer festival. This year their university volunteered to be the organiser and Baekhyun is one of the main singers for the whole event. It’s extremely important to Baekhyun, as he said “it will give me lots of bonus points to aim for the scholarship”. But with Kyungsoo being here today, he knows Baekhyun screwed things up.

“There you are! You don’t know how much I love you right now”, Kyungsoo is attacked by a bear hug. Baekhyun beams at him and his eyes are full of gratefulness.

“Cut it off Baekhyun. You should be thankful that I haven’t killed you for calling me at 7 ing AM”, Kyungsoo shrugs him off. “And what’s with your hoarse voice?”

“I’ll explain later. Right now you have to go, it’s about to start.”

Baekhyun holds Kyungsoo’s wrist and they rush to the backstage. They worm their way through busy crowd, until they spot a really tall guy waving at them. He’s doing something with his guitar, Kyungsoo doesn’t know, but his professional (and long) fingers catch Kyungsoo’s attention.

“Kyungsoo, this is Chanyeol. Chanyeol, Kyungsoo. He’ll cover me up until my throat is fine again.”

“Hi, I’m Chanyeol. Nice to meet you. Sorry I can’t greet you properly right now.”

“It means he can’t shake your hands”, Baekhyun adds. “He always believes it’s a gentleman’s gesture.”

“That’s OK”, Kyungsoo gives him a soft smile. “Nice to meet you too, I’m Kyungsoo, friend of this dork.”

Baekhyun whines, but his hoarse voice makes him sound like a sick goat. Chanyeol explains briefly their performance, since they don’t have much time left. At the beginning everybody will sing some cheerful children songs, “they are all simple and familiar, you don’t have to worry”, then at the end Kyungsoo will sing Let’s go on a vacation with Chanyeol playing guitar.

“You got it?”

“Yeah”, Kyungsoo quickly answers, then glares at Baekhyun, “you own me this Baek, get ready to be my servant.”

“No problem your Highness.”

*

Kyungsoo is not really nervous. He has performed a few times before, so he has some sort of experience. Both he and Baekhyun are studying Music major, focusing on vocal, performances like this will be a big help for their future. Besides they are all children songs, he has nothing to worry about. The event is joyful, watching all the kids clapping and singing along with them makes Kyungsoo happy.

“Everyone is having a great time, aren’t you? Can I have a round of applause please? Thank you, thank you…”

Kyungsoo recognizes this guy. Junmyeon, a familiar face of almost all events of their school as MC. He’s quite good looking, friendly to everyone, and knows how to talk (except for some lame dad jokes). His voice is calming and inspirable too, Kyungsoo finds it quite enjoying.

“Please welcome, our last performance, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo, with Let’s go on a vacation.”

Kyungsoo calmly walks on stage, bows to the audience as they clap for them. He watches Chanyeol preparing for his guitar, and he begins to sing once the other is ready.

His heart beats fast. It’s his time now.

*

“That was…wow. Your voice was amazing.”

Chanyeol looks at him with admirable eyes. Kyungsoo blushes a little, he doesn’t really get used to be praised, even though Baekhyun has done it a million times.

“Thanks. You were amazing too.”

“I know you can do it. You saved my life Soo.” Baekhyun runs towards him out of nowhere, proudly ruffs his hair like a father attending his kid’s first stage. Kyungsoo sends him death glare.

“As I said, I can’t sing until my throat is normal again, so please Soo help me with the upcoming performances too.”

“Alright.”

Baekhyun beams so hard, then pulls Kyungsoo into a tight hug.

“I’ll buy you lunch. Chanyeol you’re coming?”

Chanyeol slightly shakes his head. “Maybe next time. I have a date with my parents today, haven’t seen them for a while.”

“OK. Let’s go Kyungsoo, I’m starving. Bye Yeol.”

“Have fun”, Chanyeol nods at Baekhyun, then rises his hand toward Kyungsoo, “Proper greeting. I’m looking forward to our next performance.”

Kyungsoo smiles as he takes the offer. Chanyeol’s big hand completely hovers Kyungsoo’s tiny one. Kyungsoo feels the chill running through his spines, and he looks at Chanyeol with a shock expression. He immediately pulls out. Realising what he has done, Kyungsoo mumbles a small sorry.

Baekhyun gives him weird look.

And Chanyeol is confused.

*

“You saw something about Chanyeol’s future didn’t you?”

Baekhyun asks after they finished their double-sized burgers. Kyungsoo nods as he takes a sip of his favorite drink. He has nothing to hide from the other, Baekhyun knows him so well.

“Tell me about it.”

“Can’t. It was so blur, I couldn’t figure it out.”

“But you were terrified.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t answer, just continues to enjoy his milk tea. He has a secret, a really really big one. It’s a rare talent, being able to see the future. His relatives are envy of him, they said he should cherish it. But Kyungsoo hates it, he sees it as a curse more than a gift. No one doesn’t know, that he only can see tragic things, like accidents, bankrupt, divorce, or even death. In his family, this is bizarre. He rarely saw happy events, the only time that he can remember is when he saw Misun – his lovely cousin gave birth to a healthy boy. He could see it clearly, even describe how her child looked like. He loves Misun, cause she was the one who played with him and protected him since they were babies. From time to time, he slowly finds out how this works. The more he being close to someone, the more he can see the future clearly. He hasn’t figured how to calculate the time precisely, but he knows he only can see the future within two years. It’s okay, he doesn’t want to see more anyway.

Besides his parents, only Baekhyun knows about this. Maybe it’s because he’s the only close friend that Kyungsoo has, but still he trusts him. At first Baekhyun was surprised and didn’t believe him, until one day Kyungsoo told him about his father. It was two years ago, when they were freshmen, Kyungsoo held Baekhyun’s hands seeking for some warmth in freezing winter day, that he saw Baekhyun crying besides his father being unconcious and covered with blood. He was terrified, but didn’t dare to tell Baekhyun. He didn’t even know when would this happen, how could he tell him about this?

After a week battling with himself, he decided to tell him. It was not surprising that Baekhyun was furious, telling it was bull and “how dare you say such thing like that”. Kyungsoo was sad, but totally understood. No one wanted to hear tragic thing about their beloved, not to mention out of sudden like this.

Two days later, Baekhyun called him, crying and saying sorry, for not listening to him, for calling him an . Kyungsoo jolted up from his seat, constantly asked him what happened. Turned out Baekhyun’s father got into a car accident, just a few meters away from where Baekhyun was standing. Thank God he was fine, but Kyungsoo didn’t feel relieved at all.

It made Kyungsoo feel awful, he just brought bad news to people. So he avoided his only friend, tried to crawl back to his own shell and bear the loneliness for the rest of his life.

Unexpectedly, Baekhyun acted like nothing happened, waited for him to walk to class together every morning as usual, chatted happily even when Kyungsoo refused to respond. He didn’t understand, after such horrible incident, why did Baekhyun still want to meet him? Was this some kind of torture he had to suffer?

Once again, Baekhyun did his best to suppress the guilt building inside Kyungsoo. He couldn’t count how many times Baekhyun persuaded him, that it wasn’t his fault, that he was the one who should be thankful cause Kyungsoo tried to warn him beforehand.

And to be honest, he was thankful, to have a friend like Baekhyun.

Sometimes Baekhyun was curious, he tried to hold Kyungsoo’s hands with a hope of Kyungsoo would say something to him. One time Baekhyun desperatedly wanted to know if he’d pass the exam, he spent the whole afternoon just to hold Kyungsoo’s hands to ‘activate’ his power. Kyungsoo smiled in defeat, he had to tell Baekhyun for a zillion times, that he couldn’t see anything, but that idiot didn’t give up.

This morning, he saw one too. Which involved him and Chanyeol, someone he only met for three hours. It was really rude of him, pulling away like that, but he couldn’t help it. The scene was freaking him out.

He lied to Baekhyun. It was so vivid that Kyungsoo could even remember particularly.

Usually he wouldn’t want to care. Chanyeol is just a stranger, he’s not even close to be called ‘aquaintance’. But the scene, it made him curious. That night, Kyungsoo finds himself wanting to know more.

***

Kyungsoo meets Chanyeol again every Sunday for the upcoming performances. Chanyeol always gives him a big smile, then asks him about random things. Kyungsoo still feels a little bit guilty about that incident, but doesn’t dare to bring it up. They’re busy preparing by themselves, Chanyeol testing his guitar and Kyungsoo relaxing his throat, until Baekhyun arrives and breaks the silence. Kyungsoo has to admit, he’s sometimes jealous of Baekhyun, of his sense of humor and how his talk goes smoothly without making others feel uncomfortable. When they first met, it was Baekhyun who determined to stick with Kyungsoo, break his shell and slowly gain his trust. He had no idea why Baekhyun chose to be friend with him, while he was surrounded by many cool people. Baekhyun is loud and annoying, but he’s also a great friend, a trustworthy one. He drags Kyungsoo to every places meeting other students, surprisingly all of them are really nice and keep in touch with him often. Kyungsoo is thankful. He doesn’t know how to deal with people if Baekhyun isn’t around.

Evenly Kyungsoo starts to hang out with Baekhyun’s Beagle line more. Besides Chanyeol, he also meets Jongdae – a really nice guy with mischievous laugh. He’s noisy too, actually all three of them are, but Kyungsoo somehow has soft spot for this guy. They like to , until Kyungsoo knocks them down with his powerful jujitsu. But Kyungsoo doesn’t mind, he laughs a lot, and that’s what matters. He has a great time being with them.

Especially with Chanyeol.

That giant dude is like his secret soulmate. They match with each other in almost everything, even Kyungsoo himself was surprised, from choosing the same seafood-with-extra-cheese-and-hot-chili-sauce kind of pizza to black-from-head-to-toe fashion. Chanyeol, despite his goofy grin and clumsy long limbs, has an incredible passion for music. And it makes them two become even closer. Though Baekhyun is his bestfriend, but in music he seems to be bond with Jongdae more, their voices amazingly fit with each other, which leads to Chanyeol gradually sharing about his passion with Kyungsoo. He soon finds out that Chanyeol can play any kind of music, from upbeat dance mixtape to melodic love songs. When he talks about music, his eyes shine brightly with joy and determination, not to mention about his genuine smile, Kyungsoo never feels bored admiring.

***

“Come on Soo, at least give us a smile?”

Kyungsoo pouts harder. He doesn’t want to say goodbye at all, especially to his favorite seniors Minseok and Yixing hyung. They’re one-year older than him, and they are the few ones that being close to Kyungsoo since his first year. Back to the days before he met Baekhyun, Kyungsoo was really timid, only spoke when someone talked to him first. Minseok hyung was in the same vocal class with him, and they were paired to have duo vocal practice. Kyungsoo used to be very unconfident, always thought he was not good enough. Minseok hyung, being a sweet and caring person, patiently made Kyungsoo believe in himself more, and his confidence on stage right now, mostly thanks to the older. He even invited Kyungsoo to join his team, with Yixing hyung from dance class, a kind-hearted and talented person who was born to play music. There’s a tradition in Music block, every students have their own squad, to have fun with music and sometimes, compete with others. Jamming session has always been Kyungsoo’s happiest time. Every Saturday afternoon, in a small practice room, just three of them, surrounded by smoothing melodies, with music sheets scattered on the floor, guitars and pianos were always ready for another sudden round. But now, with their graduation only a month away, Kyungsoo has to say goodbye to them.

“You know we really love you, and we don’t want to leave either”, Yixing smiles fondly, then pulls the younger into a tight hug. Kyungsoo slumps in his embrace, feeling the gentle pat on his back.

“Let’s go to our favorite takoyaki stand, my treat.”

Minseok laughs as he rubs Kyungsoo’s smooth hair. They start to walk out of the building, a red glaze beautifully spreads out the whole area as the sun slowly sets behind the horizon.

*

Kyungsoo is nervous. Senior year is coming, which means a lot of performances, competitions, scholarships and job opportunities are waiting for them. It’s literally a decisive year to find a spot in music industry. Singers, producers, dancers, composers…all those hopeful dreams are becoming clearer than ever. Without a team is obviously a disadvantage when participating in competitions, where a lot of talent finders attend and choose the most suitable one for their companies. Kyungsoo has to find someone, quick, or else he will miss a lot of opportunities.

The first person that pops in his mind is Chanyeol. He remembered Chanyeol once said he was finding someone to practice his guitar skill, and they’ve done a pretty excellent collab in summer music festival, so why not? Without hesitation, Kyungsoo grabs his phone and calls the giant. He hopes Chanyeol will say yes.

*

Kyungsoo enters the practice room finding Chanyeol’s already there, busily plugging his guitar. He looks super serious, which makes Kyungsoo smile a bit.

“Oh hey”.

The giant turns around and gives him a big smile. Kyungsoo smiles back, opens his backpack and pulls out some music sheets. Chanyeol sits down next to him, guitar on his thigh, and his eyes wander around. A sudden awkward silence fills in the air. Kyungsoo doesn’t know why, but his mouth becomes dry and words stuck in his throat. Chanyeol, like always, speaks up first.

“So…how did you and others usually start? Picked a song first or just freely played something? Usually I chose the first song pop in my head, then everyone took turn.”

“Sounds really fun. Here you only have me, it must be very boring to you…”

“Don’t say that”, Chanyeol slightly frowns. “I’d reject if I didn’t like it. But I’m here now, so you must be pretty awesome.”

Kyungsoo laughs, looking at Chanyeol’s goofy grin. He relaxes a bit, fingers playing with the hem of his shirt.

“Usually Yixing hyung would play some of his favorite songs, if we knew it then we’d sing along.”

“Yixing hyung? You mean Zhang Yixing hyung from class A13? The one has cute dimple?”

“Yeah”, Kyungsoo looks at Chanyeol, surprised, “You know him too?”

“We were in the same guitar class. It’s pretty funny when we have so many common friends but had never seen each other before.”

Kyungsoo smiles a bit, then hands the giant some music sheets.

“Okay, back to business. I wanna try this song, but if you don’t like it we can find something else.”

“Love yourself? You like Justin Beiber?”

“His songs are pretty good. What do you think?”

“Let me try.”

Chanyeol adverts his gaze to the sheet, a serious expression appears on his face. He tries a few notes, constantly asks Kyungsoo whether the tone is suitable or not. Meanwhile Kyungsoo warms up, tries to get the right tone to begin the song.

“Wanna try the first part?”

Kyungsoo nods. When the first notes are played, and Kyungsoo catches the right time to sing along, he knows calling Chanyeol is the best decision he made.

to be continued...