It's a chilly day in mid-winter when 19-year-old Park Chanyeol finds himself walking along the edge of the forest, the short cut from the local market to his house. He planned initially to go the long way – the farmer that owns the land full of the thick snow he's trudging through always gives him a look full of distaste whenever he's caught, but in the hour he spent scouring the shelves for the ingredients his mother had listed in his tiny, leather-bound notebook, the air around him suddenly got a little more nippy, and a fresh layer of snow has started to fall from the vast grey skies, and he thinks it's best that he gets home as quickly as possible.

He lets his grocery bags slide down his forearms as he raises his hands to breathe hot air into his palms, sighing as he rubs them together and wishes he thought to bring his gloves along. The short cut still takes a good half hour, and he's only about a quarter of the way home. 

He continues along the pathway carved by dozens of feet that have traveled the same way he's going, pauses only to place his grocery bags on the other side of the boundary fence before he hops over it himself, disturbing the fresh snow around him as he lands. 

He makes a little detour as he approaches the river, simply because it's something he never gets sick of seeing. It's a pathetic excuse for a river, but it's not quite small enough to be considered a stream or a creek. It is, however, the primary water source for their tiny village, so Chanyeol thinks it deserves the name with more majesty for working so hard to keep them all alive.

He's a little surprised to see a figure hunched over on the river bank, his small stature rather obvious even from this distance. Chanyeol slows to a stop and just watches, as the boy – who he realizes, isn't even wearing a jacket – stands up and stretches his arms as high as they'll go, rocking back on the heels of his feet before making his way along the river bank, without even sparing a glance back at the curly haired giant a few dozen paces behind him. 

When the boy turns down a path and out of sight, Chanyeol shrugs and continues on his journey home, thinking a bit about how he'd have liked to offer the stranger his jacket if he'd been given the chance.

He doesn't make the connection until years into their relationship, but this is the first glance he gets of the one he'll fall in love with in the coming seasons, a boy named Byun Baekhyun who manages to steal his breath away with something as simple as his smile. 

-

It’s spring now, Chanyeol likes to pass his time at the river, perched on the bank with his feet in the cool water, making his own waves as he splashes around, eagerly basking in the last moments of his freedom until he has to go back to university and resume his studies.

It’s a little out of the way, so usually he’s alone, but he’s surprised to see another person when he gets there one morning, shoes already long forgotten a few hundred meters away, back in the field. He takes a seat on one of the larger rocks overlooking the small waterfall and watches, curious, as the stranger—a boy of about 170-something centimeters, with thick brown hair that looks almost a little too long, completely covering his eyes as he bends over the water, fishing through it with his hands as if he’s searching for something.

He straightens up, beaming wide as he holds up a black stone-like thing up to the sun, inspecting it for something unknown to Chanyeol, who’s too far to see it clearly. He seems to be pleased with his find, since he tosses it into a little blue bucket perched in between two rocks to his left.

He makes to turn and continue his search, still oblivious to the fact that he’s being watched, but he seems to make a wrong step, and Chanyeol can only witness it as his body twists awkwardly and he lands with a loud splash. Chanyeol’s ready to get up from his spot and help, but the boy just pushes himself up with ease and continues fishing around for his stone things.

Chanyeol can’t suppress a laugh when the boy turns around and he’s treated to a full view of his backside, covered halfway down his thighs in dark brown mud, sopping wet from being drenched. The boy snaps up and turns to look at him, horrified, as Chanyeol doubles over, trying to stifle his giggles.

“S-sorry,” Chanyeol gasps out, flailing his hands around. The boy stares at him, eyes wide, as he blindly shuffles to the side to pick up his bucket. “You just. You have mud all over your , by the way.”

The boy opens and closes his mouth, flinching when Chanyeol hops off his perch and pads through the shallow water. He peers into the bucket, making a face when he realizes this boy isn’t collecting stones at all—those are snails, living snails, moving about in the water that has collected at the bottom of it.

“That’s kinda gross, you know,” he points out, and the boy shrugs, moving his bucket away so Chanyeol can no longer see into it. He doesn’t say anything as he turns, giving Chanyeol a weird look over his shoulder before he makes his way down the river, stopping a ways down to continue his quest.

Chanyeol doesn’t try to interrupt him anymore, just smiles a bit and takes his seat again, thoroughly enjoying the feel of the cool water against his bare feet. Ah, spring is definitely the best.

-

Chanyeol’s uncle comes over for dinner that evening. He talks about his fishing business as usual, but Chanyeol doesn’t really pay attention or care until he makes a mention of a young boy from their village paying a visit to the port.

“He asked me if we had any firefly larvae,” his uncle says between gulps of beer, half his focus on the soccer game playing on the tiny TV in the living room. “I figured why not, since my river is too polluted to store them in anyway and honestly it’s just a burden to deal with them every year.”

“Isn't our river too polluted too? I haven’t seen fireflies since I was a teenager,” Chanyeol’s mother wonders thoughtfully as she piles everyone’s plates with second helpings of rice. “Since me and Chanyeol’s father were still in high school,”

Chanyeol hums around his chopsticks, shrugging because he’s never seen the fireflies before. His mother used to tell him stories about them as a child, but ever since the car factory was built a few towns away, the idea of seeing the fireflies in their little river has just become a far away dream.

“I doubt he’ll be able to do it,” his uncle continues. “It’s a nice idea, but he’d have to change the environment. That’s impossible. Also, just getting the larvae to turn into pupa is ridiculously complicated—I’m surprised they even manage to do it alone in nature, some places,”

“Why, what do you have to do?” Chanyeol asks, interested.

“Well as larva they need to be kept at a constant temperature. Cool, running water. If you’re raising them yourself you have to feed them snails, because they need a lot of energy to survive. I actually don’t know all that much, the larvae usually just die once summer hits…”

Chanyeol’s thoughts automatically direct him to the river boy, bent over in the water, running his hands along the rocks at the bottom and occasionally stopping to toss a snail into his little blue bucket, a triumphant grin on his face.

“The boy who came from the village… What did he look like?” He asks, trying to fight back a smile at the memory. “Because I saw a boy fishing for snails in the river this morning, I think he’s new because I’ve never seen him before… and he didn’t say anything to me when I talked to him. It was weird.”

“He introduced himself as Baekhyun.” His uncle explains. “A tiny thing. Brown messy hair, big coat?”

“That’s him!” Chanyeol exclaims excitedly. “So that’s what he’s doing, huh? Raising fireflies…”

There’s a weird sort of innocence about the boy—Baekhyun, that makes Chanyeol hope he’ll succeed on his little quest, regardless of what his mother and uncle say about it being impossible.

-

okay well, here's the first part of my birthday present for Chanyeol.

And also for Vanessa <3 since she's been here from the start for me. 

I started this in August.... hhaha, it'll be nice to have it complete soon!

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the first part!!! thank you for reading