Where are you? Where are you? 

Chanyeol repeated it to himself as he half-ran around the backstage. He was frantic. He wasn't aware of the curious looks the people were throwing his way but if ever he was he wouldn't have cared. All he knew was that he needed to find him.

There were only a few times he was thankful that he was freakishly tall and this was one of them. He craned his already long neck, anxiously surveying the faces of the people in the area. There was a lot of running around going on--some of the performers were preparing themselves for the stage while some were just getting back from performing. A lot of shouting was happening, too, from a harried looking student who was giving the others’ cues.

"Chanyeol? What are you doing here?" Chanyeol saw Kyungsoo walking towards him. The taller boy heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, a familiar face.

"Kyungsoo! I just... I need your help. I need... I need to--"

"Calm down. What is it?" Kyungsoo asked worriedly.

"I need to find--" Chanyeol wasn't able finish what he was about to say for he felt the air around him shift. He knew he was near. He could feel it in the sudden pounding of his heart. His eyes anxiously scanned the place.

"Baekhyun-ge!"

Chanyeol froze as he heard the name being called. He slowly turned towards the sound, nervous as he was never before. Then he saw him.

He was as slightly built as he remembered from earlier. His skin was fair against the glittery copper hues of his jacket. His straight hair, a dark brownish color. And his beautiful eyes were crinkling in the corners and was accompanied by the sweetest smile this side of the earth.

Chanyeol dazedly stepped towards him but stopped in horror as his angel launched himself to a tall black-haired boy who embraced him in return and spun him in his arms with a laugh.

"You were great, gege."

"I was awesome." His angel said jokingly and hugged the taller boy tighter.

Chanyeol couldn't take it anymore. He stumbled towards the exit not hearing Kyungsoo calling his name.

He blindly returned to his seat in the audience where he sat oblivious to everything around him. He wanted to lock himself in his room and cry. He finally saw the one he was looking for but he found him a little too late.

"Do you want me to hold your hand?" Jongin teasingly asked Chanyeol who was slumped in the sofa next to him, remembering a day not too long ago when Chanyeol asked him the same thing when he was depressed during his and Kyungsoo's fight. They were in Jongin and Kyungsoo's dorm. All of their friends were also present to celebrate Kyungsoo's long awaited public performance.

"Yes." Chanyeol answered and grabbed a hold of Jongin's hand.

"Yah!" Jongin quickly snatched his hand back. "I was just joking, man. What's wrong with you?"

Chanyeol just faced him with haunted eyes and sighed.

"Seriously, we're all having fun and here you are sulking. What's wrong?"

Chanyeol looked at his friends laughing and talking with each other. There was Sehun and Luhan by the speakers playfully arguing what music to play. Kyungsoo was talking to Yixing and Joonmyeon-ahjussi, as Jongin calls him, and there in the corner was the harried looking student, Jongdae, resting his head on the shoulders of Minseok.

Everyone around him was relaxed and happy. Everything seemed so normal. It’s because nobody knew. The most earth shattering thing happened to Chanyeol today but the world just continued in its normal spin. His heart is a barren wasteland. His life an empty space. And... and where was all these metaphors coming from anyway? He sighed again.

"What's with all that sighing?" Kyungsoo asked as he sat beside Jongin and held hands with him. "You've got me worried since you ran from backstage. What was it you needed to find?"

Chanyeol wondered how he can ever explain. How does he tell them that he fell in love within a few paltry seconds of seeing him and having his heart broken not five minutes after?

How does he explain how right it felt to listen to him sing and feel complete for the first time?

"I just... it was nothing." Chanyeol moved to stand. "I'm sorry guys. I need to go."

"But we haven't eaten yet." Kyungsoo said.

"And he cooked pasta." Jongin added.

"Next time, I promise. I'm just kind of tired today. And I have practice early morning." It was actually a day off for trainees tomorrow but he wanted to be alone.

"Okay." Kyungsoo sounded disappointed and Chanyeol felt sorry about that. But he was too depressed and he doesn't want to drag the others down.

"I'll just call you guys." He said and stood up to wave goodbye to the others. He got puzzled looks because he was never one to leave early but his friends just smiled at him thinking that a life of a trainee is hard so they let him get away with it.

The sky probably felt the same way as him cause it was dark and gloomy when he got outside. It was nearing six in the evening and the air was quite colder than usual. But no amount of huddling into his jacket can save him from the fat drops of rain that started to fall not long into his walk home. A few seconds later, it poured.

Great, Chanyeol thought as he ran. Just great.

Baekhyun was looking worriedly at his watch. Kyungsoo said that the get together was at five but he's now almost fifty minutes late. It was Zitao's fault. Zitao and his poor sense of direction.

He wanted to change clothes before going to the party so he went with him to their hotel. They were staying there for the meantime until they could find a dorm when school opens next semester.

They always get curious looks whenever they introduce themselves as brothers. It doesn't help too when Zitao uses their chinese surname Huwang instead of their registered Korean one which was Byun. But he really couldn't blame people for thinking otherwise because he and his brother don't look anything alike. Well, that was because Baekhyun was adopted. Or more accurately put, he was a stray boy whom Zitao picked up from the beach one afternoon four years ago.

He had no memories of what happened before or how he got there. When he opened his eyes, he saw a dark haired boy peering curiously at him and poking his cheeks to see if he was alive. Then the boy just said, "Gege."

Zitao pulled him up and dragged him home to his grandma. The kind old lady was curious to know who he was. All Baekhyun could tell her was his name. Somehow that's the only thing he knows. She clucked her tongue at how he was covered in sand and ordered him to take a bath while she ordered Zitao to fetch some clean clothes. She was bossy but she was also sweet.

Baekhyun learned that the family just migrated from a place called China. And together with Zitao's parents they decided to settle down in Jeju. Baekhyun felt out of place in the midst of the small family but upon hearing that he has nowhere to go, they decided to adopt him. Baekhyun cried when they first called him Byun Baekhyun. He felt that he belonged.

Baekhyun sighed as he felt the cold air bite into his uncovered hands. He slipped them into his hoodie and walked faster as he felt the first few drops of what might become a full fledged downpour.

He would have set out for Kyungsoo's dorm earlier if it weren't for Zitao getting them lost in the city. His younger brother insisted that he knew the way back to the hotel but as the older of the two he should've known better. They spent the greater part of an hour walking around in circles until at last Baekhyun got over his shyness and asked for directions.

Zitao scowled at him and said that asking for directions from strangers was a sign of weakness. Baekhyun just rolled his eyes at him and his weird wushu logic. He told him it was getting late and they were both hungry giving Zitao his more practical teenage boy logic.

But it was still time wasted and he was worried that his new found friends would take his tardiness badly. Joonmyeon-hyung, a family friend, introduced him to Kyungsoo about a month ago. He was also the one who convinced his mom to let Baekhyun enter college here in the city to pursue a course in Voice. He was grateful to his hyung when he recommended him to sing Kyungsoo's song. He was so nervous earlier on stage but it was worth it to hear the audience cheer and clap for him.

A loud thunder broke through the silence of the pathway and then came the deluge Baekhyun was expecting. He looked around for cover but he was walking through an open park and there was none in sight. So he bowed his head against the rain and ran.

"This couldn't get any worse." Baekhyun thought but immediately regretted thinking it because saying things like that, as grandma used to say, is like courting more trouble.

But as life usually goes, trouble still caught him in the form of a head on collision with a solid figure which turned out not to be that solid because Baekhyun suddenly fell sprawled above it. Then he found himself face to face with a boy who looked as bewildered as he felt.

With an impossibly deep voice the boy stuttered. "B-byun Baekhyun?"

He couldn't believe that his angel was in his arms.

Chanyeol thought that minus the hard pavement against his back and the cold rain he was currently drowning in, this must be what heaven felt like. He tucked Baekhyun's head in the crook of his neck and hugged him tightly. He closed his eyes. He never wanted to let go.

"Uh." Baekhyun muttered against his collarbone. Chanyeol was awakened from the spell he was in and finally realized what he was doing. He screamed.

Baekhyun screamed, too when Chanyeol abruptly sat up and threw him away from his chest.

"I'm sorry! Sorry!" Chanyeol was horrified with what he did. He immediately knelt close to Baekhyun to check for damages. "I'm sorry!"

Chanyeol saw the smaller boy wince when he tried to sit up. He probably hit his backside hard. He wanted to die with mortification. "I'm sorry!"

But Baekhyun just smiled at him, which was difficult since the rain was hitting them hard and they could barely keep their eyes open. "It's okay. If we could just get-"

"Yeah, we should get out of this rain!" Chanyeol quickly stood up and helped Baekhyun to his feet, trembling a little as he touched the other boy's arm. He immediately let go and turned around to look for shelter. None was immediately near but he remembered there's a bus stop not too far from where they were. "Follow me!"

Chanyeol started running but when he looked back he saw Baekhyun was falling behind. He turned back and caught one of Baekhyun's hands in his so they can run together. He tried not to feel anything with the connection and just focused on getting to the stop as soon as possible.

He finally saw the roofed shelter and ran faster towards it tagging Baekhyun along. It was a relief to be finally out of the rain although he was already soaked and his teeth were chattering from the cold. He shook his head a little to get the water out from his hair. He looked down beside him at the shorter boy and he was mortified some more when he saw him looking at their still linked hands. What's wrong with you? Chanyeol berated himself as forced his hand to let go of Baekhyun. Again.

"I'm sorry. I'm not usually a ert... No, I mean. I'm not really a ert! I don't do that... hugging people in the rain. I don't do it even if there's no rain. Not that I don't want to hug you...I do, but..." Chanyeol turned wide eyed at what he realized was coming out of his mouth. "I'm sorry. You can call the police now."

Chanyeol was surprised that the boy just laughed at him. His tension eased a little with the sound.

"Don't worry. Even if I wanted to that, I couldn't possibly do it with this." Baekhyun held up his soaked cell phone. Chanyeol remembered his own phone and fished it out of his pocket. It was as drenched as him.

"Well, you can't use this either." Chanyeol muttered.

"So it's decided. We won't call the police." The short boy smiled winsomely, his bangs plastered to his face and his clothes dripping. Chanyeol forgot that he was cold as warmth seeped through him starting from the vicinity of his heart.

He became aware that he was staring again as Baekhyun's smile seemed to falter. So he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"You're so short." Chanyeol felt his face redden. Stupid.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it."

"No, don't apologize. I'm... Don't mind me. There's nothing wrong with being short. It's completely normal." Stop talking already.

There was an awkward silence as Chanyeol stared at his feet, willing the earth to open up and swallow him whole.

"You're so tall."

He was surprised to hear Baekhyun talk. "Um, I can't help it either."

"Zitao says otherwise. He kept on forcing me to drink milk even though everybody knows it won't work."

Baekhyun spoke of Zitao with so much affection that Chanyeol felt that twinge in his chest. Was Zitao the dark-haired boy?

He felt gloomy again. He didn't notice that his mood lightened while talking to Baekhyun but being reminded that his angel belonged to somebody else just about made him, at that moment, the saddest person in the world.

Baekhyun felt the tall boy withdraw from him. Did he say something wrong?

He opened his mouth to speak just to get him to talk again but then they were distracted by a bus that stopped in front if them.

"Uhm, I have to go." The tall boy scrambled towards the entrance of the vehicle. Baekhyun wanted to stop him from leaving. He felt panic as he saw the boy move away from him.

Don't! He wanted to tell him but he already went inside the bus and left even before Baekhyun was able to take a step forward.

"I don't even know your name." Baekhyun said as he watched the bus disappear from sight. He felt deflated and more lost than ever.

But the boy knew him. He knows his name. He felt his heart clutch when the boy spoke it. Who are you?

He was dumbfounded when the tall guy pulled him close earlier and held on tight. But he was more surprised at himself because it never crossed his mind to pull away. At the crook of his neck, he felt... at home.

It was weird how it was so right to stay there in his arms even if the raindrops were pounding at his back and he knew that staying in the cold will have him end up with flu. He didn't even flinch when the boy caught his hand and pulled him across the park. He was a stranger, yes. But Baekhyun felt that he's known him all his life.

He was so tall. And he looks awkward in his own skin. His eye twitches when he smiles and he stutters with every other sentence that was spoken. He was a big mass of nerves and it seems he can never stay still. Baekhyun thought he was perfect.

It doesn't matter though if Baekhyun thought he was perfect or otherwise because he already lost him. He sighed and glared at his feet, reprimanding them at how slow they were. Just then he saw a flash of something near his right foot. He bent to pick it up and upon further inspection saw that it was a necklace with an angel pendant. It was beautiful with its small glass wings and silver body.

"Were you his?" He spoke to the little angel. "I'm sorry. It seemed that you lost him, too."

Baekhyun held the necklace securely in his hand and sat at the bench watching the rain pour down. It may take a while before it lets up so he can go to Kyungsoo's. He looks again at the pendant in his hand.

"What do we do? We may never find him again." Baekhyun felt sad. "But don't worry, until we do, I’ll take care of you."