park residence | son residence | wenyeol's residence

Seungwan was four when she met Chanyeol for the first time. He was two years older, missing one of his front teeth and had this weird obsession towards anything that breathed or had fur. Despite all that, he had cool toys and during the short time that she was there, he taught her how to ride a bike but that lesson was cut short when Seungwan fell and scraped her knee.

She was eight when she met him for the second time. He had all his teeth but he was a lot rounder than how she last remembered him and he wore these horrible circle glasses which pushed out his large ears even more. There was something off about this meeting because she left with a ring dangling around her neck and Seungwan remembers how heavy and ominous she felt driving away from the Park’s estate that evening.

When Seungwan returns to South Korea two years later, everything behind these meetings to the ring around her neck finally makes sense and there’s nothing she likes about it. Glancing up from her fingers in her lap to her parents, Seungwan is in complete disbelief at the words that come out of their mouths: arranged marriage.

It’s the ing 21st century, Seungwan thinks to herself. How are arranged marriages still a thing?

She wants to hate Chanyeol. So when she sees him again for the third time in her life later that evening, Seungwan tries to nitpick everything about him. He’s not very cheerful this time around but she isn’t either so she figures he also was told about their impending fate in probably ten years time.

While their parents giggled over expensive wine and cheese, Chanyeol and Seungwan sat in silence on the marble steps leading to the Parks’ grand entryway. She picks at the hole in her stocking as Chanyeol played with his shoelaces, neither knowing what to do about anything. Sighing, Seungwan glances up to the sky and she’s genuinely surprised to see stars in Seoul. The Parks’ estate must be far enough away from the city for the stars to finally shine through.

“I have a telescope.”

Seungwan looks to Chanyeol who is also gazing up towards the night sky.

“Do you want to give it a try?”

Seungwan notices the differences in his room compared to the last time she was here. Most of his toys have been cleared out but there are the few that are still laying around. He leads her to the large window on the opposite end of the room and pulls back the heavy curtain to reveal the expensive telescope. Seungwan watches curiously as he steps forward towards it, does some tinkering as he looks into it then turns back to her, motioning for her to join him. He likes the smile that spreads across her face when she peers in. It makes him feel like he’s accomplished something although he doesn’t exactly know what.

“Do you like astronomy or something?” Seungwan suddenly asks him.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “Not at all. I took it from my dad’s office since it was just sitting there and decided to entertain myself with it.”

Seungwan nods and that marks the end of their conversation so Chanyeol leaves to entertain himself with some other toy.

When she’s finally done looking at the stars, Seungwan immediately searches for Chanyeol and she finds him seated on a loveseat, struggling with a rubik’s cube.

“Whoa, do you know how to do it?”

With his eyes glued on the colorful cube, Chanyeol shakes his head. “No, but that won’t stop me from trying.”

Seungwan snorts quietly as she slides onto the spot next to him. “Apparently there’s certain algorithms to solve it.”

Chanyeol responds with a grunt while Seungwan scans his room. Her eyes notice a thin white pamphlet lying awkwardly on a shelf and for some odd reason, something tells her to go pick it up. A few seconds later, Seungwan comes diving back onto the loveseat with the pamphlet shoved towards Chanyeol’s face. Groaning, he leans back just enough to read it: How To Solve A Rubik's cube.

“Left — Dude, I said left!”

“This is left!”

Seungwan looks at the cube then at the pamphlet then back to the cube. “Oh. I meant my left.”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes as he silently rearranges the cube again. “Okay, what next?”

“Left,” she replies and he hesitates. “Your left.”

They’re so concentrated on the rubik’s cube, neither notices their parents entering the room until Mrs. Son calls out for her daughter. Seungwan looks up first while Chanyeol groans at the cube in his hands.

“Time to go home, Seungwan.”

Seungwan looks from her mother to Chanyeol and the unsolved rubik's cube in his hands. “Wait, ten more minutes. We’re almost done with this.”

Mrs. Park steps forward with a sigh. “Yeol-ah, Seungwan has to leave now. They have an early flight tomorrow.”

“Wait, Mom. Ten more minutes,” he grumbles as Seungwan pouts at him. She scoots in closer to him so she can try to figure out where they went wrong. Ignoring their parents, Seungwan dips her nose back into the pamphlet.

“Wait.” She places a hand on top of Chanyeol’s to stop him from furthering tinkering with the cube. “Try this one.” Seungwan diverts his eyes to the last paragraph on the page with her finger. Taking his time, Chanyeol slowly follows the directions and their eyes widen when they realize it’s working. Turning to one another with excited gazes, they old their breaths as Chanyeol slides the cube into place, making all the sides uniform in color.

“We did it!” Seungwan squeals as they exchange a proud high five before Chanyeol tosses his hands into the air.

The two Mrs. turn to one another at the door with soft smiles. It’s nice to see them getting along on their own which will make hopefully it easier for everyone in the future.

Chanyeol gifts the completed cube to Seungwan but before she can leave, he makes her promise that she won’t mess it up and in the simplest way, their friend ship begins just like that.

Seungwan continues to visit every summer and each trip gets longer and longer. They always start out with Chanyeol showing her all the cool things he has hoarded over the year and ends with them looking at stars from his balcony. Seungwan quickly comes acquainted with his friends and after a dumb initiation ceremony consisting of a nasty mixture of coke and fish sauce, she officially becomes a part of the “wolf pack”.

On sunny days, he teaches her how to play the guitar at the fountain in his backyard while on rainy days, they spend it marathoning movies in his in-home theater. It’s always an adventure when they’re together and it’s effortless until the year of Seungwan’s sixteenth birthday when Chanyeol comes to visit her in Vancouver.

Seated on a bench with her guitar in her lap, Seungwan looks up to Chanyeol who’s seated on the other bench in front of her and catches him quickly turning away. His ears burn a bright red and she furrows her brows curiously at him.

“Are you sick?”

Chanyeol glances at her. “What?”

Seungwan motions to her ears before pointing to his. “Your ears, they’re as red as a tomato. Is it possible to get sunburn there?”

He coughs loudly and startles her. “I-it’s nothing.”

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Chanyeol sets his guitar down and tugs at his white t-shirt that is sticking to his skin. “It’s so hot out, let’s do something else.”

“Okay.” Seungwan proceeds to slide her own guitar off her lap. “What do you want to do?”

Squinting towards the sun, Chanyeol spins his head back to Seungwan when an idea pops into his head. “You wanna go swimming?”

Chanyeol is first to finish changing and dashes right into the pool to cool himself off instead of waiting for Seungwan. He was so busy enjoying himself, he didn’t notice Seungwan calling for him until something light bounces off his face. Startled, Chanyeol flinches and sinks into the water. For a second he struggles but eventually recovers and resurfaces to see Seungwan struggling to blow up an inflatable swan.

He coughs loudly. “I almost died just now.”

She ignores him and Chanyeol rolls his eyes as he makes his way out of the pool to help her. He simply places his hand out and Seungwan passes the inflatable over to him before scooting over so he could take a seat. Taking a hard look at it, Chanyeol turns to Seungwan.

“I’m going to be dead by the time I finish blowing this…” He sighs. “Don’t you have a pump?”

Seungwan nods. “Yeah but this is more fun, isn’t it?”

After receiving no reaction besides deadpan eyes, Seungwan heaves a sigh and points to the box where the pump was still in. When Chanyeol finishes pumping up the inflatable, his heart nearly stops when he looks up to find Seungwan stripping off her clothes down to her two piece swimsuit. He tries really, really hard not to but out of nature, his eyes goes straight to her chest and Chanyeol wonders where all of that suddenly came from. When Seungwan turns to check on Chanyeol, she notices him quickly looking away again and she sighs.

“Are you done?”

Chanyeol kicks the swan over to her after he plugs it closed and Seungwan smiles before setting it down in the water. He silently watches her jump on and kick herself away from the edge with a wide grin. For the first time in a very long time, his eyes travel to the ring dangling around her neck and the weight of his matching one around his neck suddenly makes his stomach flop in foreign ways. After another second, it dawns on him just how much they’ve grown and now his heart acts along with his stomach.

“Are you not swimming?”

Chanyeol shakes away his thoughts and turns back to Seungwan who has floated back to the edge near him. She eyes him curiously before cupping a handful of water to splash at him.

“Yah,” he groans as she snickers.

“You’re already all wet,” Seungwan points out. “Stop whining like a kid.”

He suddenly breaks into a mischievous smirk and Seungwan knows that look all too well. With her shorter legs, she tries as quickly as possible to paddle herself away from him as he calmly slides into the pool towards her.

“Don’t you dare!”

She squeals when Chanyeol swims over to grab the floaty and purposely shakes it to scare her.

“I wanna get on too!” He whines as she tries to kick him away.

“If you get on here, it’s going to tip over!” Seungwan screams when Chanyeol attempts to climb on which only tilts her more towards the water. “Here, push me over to the side and you can get on.”

He pushes her and the floaty to the nearest edge and heaves himself out of the water again onto the edge. Just as he’s about to step onto the inflatable, Seungwan kicks away and he slips but not before bouncing onto the floaty and knocking her off in the process.

“Yah!” Seungwan coughs as she splashes water at Chanyeol who’s laughing his head off. “You’re horrible.”

“You’re supposed to get wet when you swim,” he retorts and reaches out to pull the swan towards them. “Here.” He reaches out for Seungwan and she grabs onto his arm to lead her back before he helps her get back onto the inflatable.

While Seungwan sits comfortably on top, Chanyeol starts paddling his legs to push her around the pool. Every once in awhile, he would purposely tug on the end of the pool to scare her and she squeals every single time.

They mindlessly play in the water and take turns riding the inflatable until sundown. As the sky darkened, everything around them started slowing down as well. Lying comfortably on the swan that was just big enough for the both of them, neither says a word as they watched the stars appear in the darkening sky over them. One reason is because they’re both too exhausted and second, it’s because they’re suddenly realizing how close they’re lying next to one another while more than half .

Chanyeol turns to look at Seungwan first who pretends like she doesn’t notice when in reality, it’s hard not to notice when he’s literally so close. While she continues to watch the stars twinkle in the sky, Chanyeol continues gazing at her in a horrible attempt to figure out what this weird feeling in his stomach was because it only happens when he’s around her.

After the longest time, Seungwan finally brings her attention to him and she’s surprised he didn’t turn away like all those other times. She silently eyes him curiously as her chest begins to grow hot. Her eyes drop slightly and she knows he’s looking at the ring around her neck which causes her to look down at his too. When Seungwan glances up again, he’s still looking at her but his gaze is focused on something else other than her eyes and she knows exactly what’s caught his attention which makes her heart beat erratically against her chest.

His eyes flicker up for the slightest second, as if he was asking for permission from her. When she doesn’t say or do anything, he begins leaning in and Seungwan watches him silently while she holds her breath. Just as his nose is about to brush against her’s, Seungwan quietly gasps for air and slightly slides away towards the edge of the inflatable. He hesitates seeing her move away but the look in her eyes are telling him something else so after a long second, Seungwan clenches her eyelids closed which grants Chanyeol permission once again. The beating of his heart is in his ears as his lips get closer and closer to hers but before they touch, the inflatable suddenly tips over and sends them both tumbling into the water.

When Chanyeol resurfaces, the first thing he sees is Seungwan who notices him a second later. Their eyes meet and it turns them both into ice for a second. When Chanyeol proceeds towards her, Seungwan pushes herself away and quickly starts towards the edge of the pool.

“I’m going to head in.”

Before she can push herself up, Chanyeol quickly grabs her wrist. “Wait.”

Slowly, Seungwan turns around to face him again but she keeps her eyes low and away from his warm gaze that is currently stirring up some nonsense inside her belly. Chanyeol takes a step forward and Seungwan notices that if he takes one more, he’ll be right up against her. Seungwan gives in finally when he places a gentle hand on her arm and tilts her head up to look at him. He’s still looking at her in that warm yet unsettling way but there’s a glint of determination this time. Chanyeol leans in again and Seungwan aborts all plans of shying away. He’s quicker this time around and soon enough his lips are against hers. It feels like fireworks are exploding inside of her and even though it’s just a short kiss, it leaves Seungwan a little lightheaded.

When it ends, neither can look at one another. After some seconds of just awkwardly standing in the water, Seungwan finally pushes him away to make room for her to get up. He watches in silence as she grabs a towel from the chair to wrap around her before dashing inside, leaving him alone in the pool outside. That’s the last he sees of Seungwan for the night until the following morning at breakfast.

She has her nose in a book when he comes down and per usual, her parents are already out of the house tending to their businesses. Unlike every other morning, there’s no greeting and she just continues with her toast in silence, pretending he’s not there. Chanyeol doesn’t know how long they sit for but during it, he finds it hard to chew and he begins to wonder if he went too far.

“I can’t send you to the airport.”

Chanyeol nearly choked when she finally spoke.

“Irene wants to meet up for lunch,” Seungwan continues quickly. “I’m sorry.”

He quickly shakes his head. “No, don’t sweat it. Your friends must miss you since you’ve been keeping me company for two weeks.” He swallows but it’s hard has it goes down his throat. “It’s just the airport, you don’t need to go with me.”

With that said, Seungwan nods and their conversation comes to an end.

A few hours later, Seungwan’s face is unreadable when she descends from the second floor to Chanyeol and his luggage by the front door. He looks up when he hears her coming down the stairs and manages to shoot her a small smile.

“I guess I’ll see you next summer?” He says it as if they don’t know it’s a definite thing.

Seungwan nods. “Yeah.”

His smile grows slightly. “Should I come again or will you come?”

She crinkles her nose cutely and he chuckles quietly. “You can come, I’m tired of flying.”

Chanyeol laughs. “Alright.” He reaches out to pat her head gently like he always does before he leaves. “Then, Oppa’s leaving.”

She nods with pursed lips but as his hand drops from her head, Seungwan grabs it and her action not only surprises him but her as well. After a split moment of hesitation, Seungwan opens her arms up for a hug and he chuckles before pulling her in.

“Have a safe flight.”

Chanyeol holds her close and tight against him. He already wishes it was next summer. When he pulls away, he pats her head again which makes her chuckle.

“I know you’re lying about Irene, but I’ll let it pass.” He pinches her nose and she instantly kicks him in the shin. He groans in pain and she shoots him a deceiving smile.

“It was my first kiss.” With that off her chest, Seungwan sticks her tongue out at him and darts back up the stairs as Chanyeol continuously calls out to her in pain.

“IT WAS MINE TOO!”

Unfortunately, Chanyeol doesn’t come the following summer or the summer after that due to his mandatory military enlistment. When Chanyeol returns from his service, Seungwan is already away, about to start her freshman year of college. For the next four summers after that, they keep up through social media, occasional skype sessions and weekly letters but unfortunately nothing beyond that.

Suddenly six years have past and Seungwan grins as she searches for her family in the crowd of the hundreds who have come to watch their loved one graduate. Her heart drops when she spots Chanyeol and because he’s so tall, he towers over everyone. He walks towards her with broad, dependable shoulders, a smile on his face and a bouquet of wildflowers in his hands.

“Congratulations,” he says with a proud smile as he slides the flowers into her hands.

He steps right over to her side and Seungwan refuses to take her eyes off of him, more like she can’t. Due to school, she hasn’t been paying much attention to Chanyeol and she couldn’t attend his graduation earlier in the year due to the many conferences she had to attend but she can’t help but wonder where the awkward kid suddenly went.

“You’re giving our parents