The more time we spent together, the more I let myself loosen up beside Chanyeol.

It was so easy to talk to him about almost everything, small wonder why I soon found myself talking to him about the divorce of my parents. He was the second person (the first was Soonyoung) to say that he was proud of me for staying strong and not letting myself fall into the depths of self-hatred and blaming myself for the whole situation to cope with their divorce. I didn’t know that he knew about such horrific things! I initially thought that he lived in a perfect pink bubble world and he didn’t let any negativity in. I couldn’t have been more wrong. He saw the hidden part of the world, the one that we wouldn’t like to involve in our every-day conversations but he decided to choose positivity and happiness over groom and hopelessness. He didn’t have an easy life either – he used to be bullied in elementary school for his baby cheeks and rounded glasses and he had a difficult time adjusting to the constant mockery – but he used song writing and playing the drums as a way to handle his overflowing emotions.

Clearly, I realised that he wasn’t even that annoying. He was more like… you know, a bit eccentric. By this I mean that he could talk a bit too much and about things that I didn’t even get - mostly about music which I wasn’t an expert of –, therefore he could have been speaking Chinese, I wouldn’t have understood him better. It was a whole new world to me. Yet, as much as I was fond of writing, he adored music like no one else. It was a part of him; it was the blood that was rushing through his veins; it was his crazily beating heart that couldn’t be pacified; it was the sultry fire that was glistening in his russet-brown eyes. It was his soul, his mind and his body.

He was a form of music. That kind that started as something unexpected; it was a fragile voice that echoed through an abandoned desert. As time went by, it turned into something rather magical; like the flowers blooming after the most terrific storm of the year that left nothing else but the mere flower itself. Then, it became a bit mysterious; it was like he was trying to dissolve into the shadows and become one with darkness. Yet again, I realised that it was only the facade. There was so much more to him and a lifetime of listening to the melody of his life wouldn’t be sufficient to fully get to know him.

He was a phenomena himself. Not only did I witness when he started screaming at the top of his lungs when he got a move wrong for the tenth time already but I was also there when he burst into laughter a moment later and started turning on his side on the floor, his childish giggle filling the slightly awkward silence of the room. He was predictably unpredictable. Whenever I thought that I knew what he was going to say, how he was going to react, he did the opposite. There was so much sides to him, it was a challenge to keep up with all of them. Whereas, I was eager to get to know them all.

Additionally, with his new sides, his dance skills also improved a lot. I was flabbergasted when he showed up at our practice one day and perfectly memorised his parts which we had discussed the day before, without making any mistakes. I repeat – without any mistakes!

“You know, you are not even that bad of a dancer,” I admitted casually while I let myself slide down to sit on the floor, Chanyeol following my actions.

It was the last practice before our performance on Monday and I think it was time I admitted that I had changed my mind concerning his dance skills.

“Oh really?” he raised his eyebrows in question, his eyes filled with doubt. I may have said things to him that I didn’t think through but why would I joke about his dance skills? It was the first time that I really complimented him for his efforts and although I had initially reckoned that it would be hard to tell him how I felt, it didn’t turn out as embarrassing as I thought that it would be.

“Thanks,” he shot me a gentle yet tired smile. His weariness was written all over his face thanks to those three hours that we had spent practising. It was definitely a tiring one but we were closer than ever to the day of our performance.

“I’ve never asked you but it always crossed my mind when I saw you dancing,” I started reluctantly while I was trying to gather up my courage to ask the question. The question that I had been dying to ask since day 1. The question whose answer would probably even piqued Soonyoung’s curiosity. “How did you end up at Soonyoung’s classes? You didn’t replace Jungkook because he has some business to do, did you?”

“Oh no, it was a mere coincidence.” he stretche