Chanyeol sat on top of his amp, plucking the strings of his guitar idly. He hummed along harmonizing with the chords which seemed to fill the room with joy.

“You seem happy,” Sehun said the moment he entered the practice room. “Date went well I take it.”

“It was interesting,” Chanyeol replied. “He’s everything and nothing like I thought.”

“That’s--”

The door opened as Kyungsoo pushed it forward into the space. He looked Chanyeol up and down. “Skater boy called you didn’t he.”

Chanyeol’s mouth hung open. He looked over to Sehun. “You told him.”

“No! I did nothing of the sort.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Sehun didn’t tell me anything. That stupid smile is back on your face,” he sighed. “Maybe at least your playing will be back to normal.”

Once Minho arrived, the band began practice. Chanyeol’s phone buzzed in his pocket every so often, but he ignored it. The temptation to pull his phone from his pocket tugged at him, but a glare from Kyungsoo during a song transition struck the thought from his mind. An hour later, when they finally finished, he fished the phone from his pocket and looked at two text messages from Byun Baekhyun, one from his mother, and one from Yoora.  

He ignored the texts from his mom and opened the one from his sister, seeing a response to the text he had sent her before leaving Baekhyun’s. He quickly typed back, ‘Yes,’ and then, he scrolled down to the ones from Baekhyun. His hand hovered over the open button, hesitating ever so slightly. It hadn’t even been twelve hours since Chanyeol had left Baekhyun’s apartment.

“The life of a skater,” Baekhyun had said as he gathered his gear early the next morning and slipped on his shoes. His hair was still mussed, no matter how hard he had tried to tame it, from sleeping curled up next to Chanyeol on the couch, wearing their clothes. They hadn’t finished watching Train to Busan , a movie Baekhyun had objected to multiple times before finally giving in. Instead, they fell asleep on it ten minutes in and had woken up to the menu on repeat. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stay with you longer.”

“It’s alright,” Chanyeol had replied, running a hand through his own sleep-tousled hair, as he made his way toward the door. “I know how it is. I have a practice I need to be at myself.”

“I’m glad,” he said, his smiled reaching his eyes.

As Baekhyun pulled the door shut behind them, their eyes met and Chanyeol couldn’t look away. “We should go, or you’ll really be late,” he said finally. They made their way to Baekhyun’s car and then back to the restaurant from the night before to retrieve Chanyeol’s car.

He sat in his car, watching Baekhyun pull out of the parking lot, and pulled his phone from his pocket. A text from Yoora appearing in the notifications. ‘Chord progression,’ it read, their code for how did it go.  ‘Gloxinia,’ he typed back, their code for love at first sight, and then pocketed the phone.

There had been no promise of contact after Baekhyun drove away and yet, here Chanyeol sat staring down at not one, but two messages.

He opened up the first one. ‘I had a great time last night,’ it read. He stared at the text, rolling the words over in his head and then scrolled down to the second one. ‘Perhaps we can do it again.’ A smile began to cross his face.

He hit reply immediately. ‘Of course. What do you think about jazz?’

‘I don’t actually know, to be honest.’ The text back was almost immediate. Chanyeol smiled at the thought of Baekhyun skating on the ice, phone in hand while Joonmyun yelled at him to put it away.

‘Fair enough. I have an idea. Are you free Saturday night?’ He texted back.

‘I think I could move some things around.’

‘Ok. I’ll pick you up at 9:30 PM.’

‘Ok. See you then.’

Chanyeol smiled at the exchange. Saturday night. Excitement coursed through him and suddenly he found himself wishing away the entire upcoming week. The end of the following week couldn’t come fast enough.