Before he and Baekhyun leave the classroom, Chanyeol sends Jongin a quick apologetic text for their tardiness. He takes Baekhyun's hand and leads him out of the class, slipping his phone into his pocket once he receives Jongin's quick reply of 'sure its ok but get here fast!! u guys r missing all the fun!!!'

“If you want to go home or anything just let me know, okay?” Chanyeol says gently, and Baekhyun presses his face against his shoulder in response. They're walking down a busy hallway now, and Chanyeol feels an odd sense of pride at the looks the other students are shooting in his direction. He pulls Baekhyun closer against himself and they head together like that towards the exit overlooking the quad, which is just as busy, people huddled in groups across the schools grounds, bundled in bulky jackets and thick scarves.

He's just about to take out his phone to call and ask Jongin where exactly he and Kyungsoo are when he hears a yell and turns in time to see Kyungsoo and (for some unknown reason) a shirtless Jongin waving them over happily. There's a crowd of girls clearly itching to swarm around Jongin – he's always been the popular one of the three of them – and Chanyeol's heart swells with affection when he sees a huge, hand painted banner reading “SAVE THE FIREFLIES!!!” suspended between two trees.

“Do you see that, Baekkie?” Chanyeol asks, shaking Baekhyun's wrist until he looks up. A huge grin spreads across his face almost immediately, and Chanyeol thinks his heart is going to burst at this point.

“Guys,” He says once they're close enough to be heard. Kyungsoo beams at him, and Jongin sticks his tongue out from where he's currently chatting with the group of girls. “This is amazing,” he gestures with his free hand to the banner and the little table set up with a couple clipboards and a bunch of pens. “But why isn't Jongin wearing a shirt?”

Kyungsoo's cheeks burn up at this. “Well,” He explains in a low voice. “We contacted the construction company and the government and they agreed to postpone the concreting if we get 2000 signatures on top of the ones from the residents in your village, and for a while we weren't very successful, but since Jongin took his shirt off,” he pauses and glances over to Jongin, who is loudly bargaining with the girls by offering them one pat of his abs for their signatures on the petition. By the sounds of their high-pitched squeals, it's an extremely effective marketing tactic. “People haven't stopped signing up, we're halfway there already. We didn't even bring enough charts so we had to send Sehun off to print some more.”

“He seems cold,” Chanyeol says, laughing. “You should have asked me to pick him up a coffee.”

“I was going to, but then we got your text and...” He looks pointedly at Baekhyun, who, Chanyeol just realizes, is staring at Jongin with his lips slightly parted and eyes wide. Chanyeol clears his throat loudly to absolutely no effect, and Kyungsoo chuckles at him. “Is he ok?”

“He seems to be now,” Chanyeol mumbles. “Thanks to you guys.”

“This is the least we could do,” Kyungsoo says. Chanyeol wants to rebut that, wants to tell Kyungsoo exactly how much this means to him, but Kyungsoo is no longer paying attention – he's joined Baekhyun in staring at Jongin's exposed abdominals.

He looks down sadly and pats at his own pathetic tummy, wishing he hadn't eaten so much the past few weeks.

“Aaaayyyyyyyyyyyy,” Jongin says loudly, strutting over to them once he manages to finally shake the girls off, passing the clipboard in his hands off to Kyungsoo, who proudly holds it up to Chanyeol. 20 new names, addresses and signatures to add to the pile. “Man if this dance thing doesn't work out, I should just make a living being the y beast that I am,” he says, fanning himself lazily with his hand. Chanyeol would laugh at the motion (mostly because he can see the goosebumps from the cold all over Jongin's arms and torso), but Baekhyun's eyes seem to be following every one of Jongin's moves, and so he pouts instead. Curse his genes for not making him nearly as attractive as his friend.

“Your boyfriend thinks I'm hot,” Jongin murmurs in a teasing, sing-song voice, leaning close enough that only Chanyeol can hear him, before he tugs Baekhyun out of Chanyeol's grip and wraps an arm around his shoulder, dragging him away before he can even process the situation let alone prevent it. He looks back at Chanyeol desperately, but Chanyeol just sighs and gives him a weak smile, hoping that whatever Jongin has planned doesn't result in him losing his crush to one of his best friends.

He feels a little helpless as he watches Jongin walk in a big circle around them, waving other students in the direction of their banner, his grip around Baekhyun's shoulder still as tight as ever.

“What a jerk,” he laments to Kyungsoo. “I don't care about signatures, why did he have to take his shirt off, and why is he touching my Baekkie with his bare skin? Does he have no shame? I'm going to punch him in the balls - ”

“I don't think you have anything to worry about,” Kyungsoo chuckles. “All Jongin has are his ego and his abs, but I've never seen anyone look at someone the way Baekhyun looks at you.”

“You think?” Chanyeol asks quietly, voice hopeful.

“Yeah. I'd bet everything I own that he likes you. A lot.”

“Mmmmn,” Chanyeol says thoughtfully. He spends the next few moments watching Baekhyun, who seems to be attempting to pry himself out of Jongin's grip, covering his face with his hands, looking incredibly embarrassed at whatever Jongin is saying in his ear. “Sometimes I have that feeling too. You know... the look, you said? The way he looks at me reminds me of the way you look at Jongin.”

Kyungsoo gasps and immediately turns red at this. Chanyeol laughs loudly and ruffles the back of his hair.

“You're so predictable, 'soo.” He says, voice full of endearment. “I have no idea what Jongin feels but I really would like to see you two together. I always thought you had good chemistry.” He pauses and waits for a response, but one clearly isn't going to come – Kyungsoo has taken a leaf from Baekhyun's book and has buried his face into his hands to hide his blush. “You should tell him.”

“Yeah right,” Kyungsoo mumbles into his hands. “I'd rather die. Why don't you say something to Baekhyun if you think it's so easy?”

“Because I don't think he's ready,” Chanyeol says honestly. “And just because he may like me doesn't mean he wants to be with me.”

“Don't be stupid,” Kyungsoo says, lowering his hands so he can raise his eyebrows. “He probably needs you more than anything right now to get out of whatever flunk it is he's in.”

“Then I'll be there for him,” Chanyeol says firmly. “But I refuse to make him feel the pressure of being in a relationship when that could make it even worse. If he wants to be with me, I'm sure he'll say something when he's ready.”

“What if he doesn't? What will you do?”

“Then I'll tell him how I feel. One day. Eventually.” He bites down on his lip in thought. “Maybe I'll do it when the fireflies fly. If they do. That seems like a perfect time for it, don't you think?”

Kyungsoo doesn't look so sure, but he doesn't press the matter any further. They stand in silence after that, both looking around desperately for some kind of distraction. One appears in the form of Sehun, who's staggering over to them, arms laden with what seems to be a whole ton of new signature charts and even more clipboards to add to the table. Kyungsoo rushes forward to help him, and Chanyeol decides then that he should probably rescue Baekhyun, whose whines of protest from behind his hands can probably be heard by everyone across campus.

Chanyeol thinks he has a million and one things to be happy about today, despite the little episode in the music room. Baekhyun seems to be opening up to him more now, bit by bit, and also, for the first time in the weeks that it has been since he'd first seen that poster, he's finally allowing himself to really, truly believe that they could do it. They really could save that river.

-

yet another apology for taking so long T___T 

guys I'm sorry!!!

I'm working hard on lots of other things, I hope you understand!! 

also the exo for sichuan charity project I hosted ended up raising $3,360 canadian dollars. 

I'm really proud of it and everyone involved so thank you T___T