Year Eight

“Okay,” Yoora announced in a loud voice, appearing in the doorway to the living room in a thunder of footsteps.

“Wei Lin is nearly here,” she continued.

Chanyeol’s heartbeat seemed to pound in his ears. His hands were clammy and he couldn’t, for the life of him, stop the grin that was spreading across his lips.

“Now remember,” Yoora spoke, looking at each member of her family individually. She glared at Chanyeol for a particularly long time. “Nobody mention her ex-boyfriend.”

Mr. and Mrs. Park agreed immediately.

“Poor thing,” Mrs. Park uttered, sympathetically. “Cheating on her after being in a relationship for nearly two years. Shame on him.”

Mr. Park nodded sagely. “Love just isn’t the same these days,” he tutted.

Yoora turned steely eyes on her younger brother. “Park Chanyeol, if you bully Wei Lin about this —”

“I won’t!” Chanyeol interrupted, sounding extremely indignant. “I’m not evil,” he muttered.

Yoora rolled her eyes, looking like she wanted to go off on a rant but the doorbell rang just then and she perked up, forgetting about Chanyeol to instead dash to answer the front door.

“Li Wei Lin!” Yoora’s ecstatic voice echoed down the hall, followed by melodious laughter that caused Chanyeol to in a breath suddenly.

The two girls walked into the living room, Yoora chattering excitedly.

Chanyeol observed Wei Lin carefully. He hadn’t seen her in two years, after all.

She was still pretty and pale, her dark hair cascading down her back gracefully. But her deep brown eyes didn’t hold the usual glimmer in them. Her smiles seemed just a bit distracted.

Chanyeol hid his own displeased frown. Did her cheater ex-boyfriend really affect her that much?

The thought made Chanyeol uneasy.

“Oh, Park Chanyeol,” Wei Lin paused in front of him, giving him a smile. “Merry Christmas.”

Chanyeol smiled back automatically. “Merry Christmas, Li Wei Lin,” he greeted softly.

“We missed you so much last year,” Yoora piped up, her voice loud. “Chanyeol couldn’t stop asking about where you’d disappeared off to.”

Yoora winced after she realized what she’d said. By mentioning Wei Lin’s absence last year, she had unwittingly reminded the Chinese girl about her previous Christmas at her then boyfriend’s house.

“I-I mean,” Yoora tried to do damage control when she notice the slight dip in Wei Lin’s smile.

“Did you get my present?” Chanyeol interrupted, partly to distract Wei Lin and change the topic, and partly because he was genuinely curious.

Yoora shot her younger brother a relieved grin. “I’ll go help mom set up the table,” she rushed away, mentally chastising herself for the slip up.

The next day, Mr. and Mrs. Park left the three kids at home and went to meet up with some friends instead.

Chanyeol finished packing his bag and straightened up. He would be leaving to his apartment closer to his office that night since his week long leave from work would be ending in a couple days.

Yoora had moved back into the house since she was now working as a news anchor at KBS TV and wanted to take care of her parents.

“When is Wei Lin leaving?” Chanyeol wondered to himself. “I’ll go ask. Maybe I can drop her to her house,” he decided.

He exited his bedroom and walked across the hall to the guest room. He knocked and waited politely for the girl to open the door.

A minute passed and just when Chanyeol was starting to think she wasn’t in, the door swung open.

Wei Lin blinked at him in surprised. “Oh, Chanyeol,” she gaped.

Chanyeol fought the frown off his face. He could see the slight redness her eyes, the light tear tracks on her cheeks.

The thought of Wei Lin in tears made Chanyeol’s heart clench. The last time he’d seen her cry, it had been his fault and the guilt had eaten away at him. This time though, he thought he had a good idea why she’d been crying, and it made him furious.

“Did you want something?” she asked, awkwardly when all Chanyeol did was stare at her face quite intensely.

Chanyeol blushed. “Ah, I just - I was wondering whether you wanted a ride back to your apartment. I’m leaving later tonight.”

Wei Lin pursed her lips in thought and then nodded. “Sure, I was planning on leaving in the evening too.”

Chanyeol smiled, rows of pearly white on full display.

“I’ll miss you,” Yoora cooed into Wei Lin’s shoulder as the two hugged each other. “Keep in touch okay?”

Wei Lin smiled and nodded, squeezing Yoora’s hand one last time before she picked up her small duffle bag.

Chanyeol quickly took it from her. “I got it,” he gave her a sweet smile before placing the bag in the back seat of his car.

“Drive safe, Chanyeol,” Mr. Park patted his back.

“Make sure you two eat healthy, okay? Don’t let the semester stress you out,” Mrs. Park added.

Wei Lin smiled, touched by the Park household’s generosity and how they made her feel like one of them.

“Yes, we will,” she promised, waving good bye to the three as she climbed into the passenger seat.

Chanyeol blushed at Wei Lin addressing them together as ‘we’ then berated himself for letting his thoughts run wild. He followed her and shut the door behind him.

The biting winds were suddenly silenced and Wei Lin settled back into the warmth of her seat as Chanyeol started up the car and carefully drove onto the street.

Chanyeol fiddled with the radio dial with one hand, keeping his eyes focused on the road.

“How’ve you been?” he asked, a little awkwardly.

He settled on a channel playing soft ballads and set the volume to a level high enough to be heard but not as loud as to drown out their conversation.

Wei Lin gazed silently at her glove-covered hands for a moment before letting a deep sigh of exhaustion slip past her lips.

“Tired,” she admitted. “This year has just been so… exhausting.”

Chanyeol felt the sudden urge to comfort her. To tell her that her ex-boyfriend was an idiot and he didn’t deserve the tears she shed for him.

But he held back and simply tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

The ride to Wei Lin’s apartment passed in silence. The ballads on the radio still crooned softly in the background.

“Just turn right at the light, it’s the first building,” Wei Lin pointed out once they’d neared her apartment building.

Chanyeol did as she asked while she fumbled in her bag for the keys.

He pulled up by the curb and switched his gear to ‘P.’

Wei Lin had managed to find her keys by then and she looked up, presumably to bid Chanyeol a good night but the boy simply gawked at her keys.

“Y-You actually kept it,” he muttered in awe, noticing the whale keychain he’d gifted to her so many years ago.

Wei Lin furrowed her brows and looked down at the key chain before shooting him a mild look.

“Of course,” she replied, loftily. “It was a gift after all.”

Chanyeol blushed, feeling a twinge of guilt yet again.

“Anyway,” she continued before the silence could get awkward. “Thanks for the ride Chanyeol.”

She made to open the car door and step out but Chanyeol quickly darted a hand out to grab her arm.

She gave him a confused look and Chanyeol swallowed, gathering his nerves.

“Do you,” he paused, taking in her expression. “Do you want to get coffee tomorrow?”

Wei Lin blinked. That was the last thing she’d expected Chanyeol to say.

“I-I mean, we have a couple days before your university starts up again,” he rushed to explain. “I just thought we could hang out,” he paused. “You know, like friends do.”

Wei Lin continued to give him an indecipherable look before a small grin spread across her lips.

“Alright,” she accepted. “Pick me up at 4:00 pm.”

Chanyeol blinked then smiled wide, his expression adorable enough to make her giggle.