The next time Chanyeol sees Baekhyun is the following Saturday, at the river he may or may not have spent the better part of two hours waiting near, perched on the freshly cut grass of the bank, using his new music textbooks from school to block the afternoon sun rather than to study like he'd planned to, just in the hopes that Baekhyun would show up at some point in the day. And he's not let down - Baekhyun turns up around three, blue bucket in one hand and a pair of oversized yellow rubber gloves in the other. 

His hair is a little neater today, but that's probably because he hasn't been out long enough to mess it up just yet. Chanyeol thinks he prefers it messy, but it's nice to actually see his eyes for once. Small and droopy, dark and expressive. He's really quite a pretty boy under that oversized navy coat and tuft of brown hair.

"My uncle told me you're raising fireflies," He says, before Baekhyun even has a chance to take his shoes and socks off. "He says you asked him for firefly larvae. He also told me they need to eat snails so I knew it was you right away."

Baekhyun frowns as he tugs on his laces and Chanyeol beams at him, shuffling closer and taking a seat right next to him. 

"I find that really neat. Can you show me them sometime?"

It's obvious his interest is a surprise, but Baekhyun tries to hide it. He starts tying his shoe laces back up and Chanyeol feels this jolt of disappointment in the pit of his stomach, which goes away as soon as Baekhyun presses the bucket into his hand and pulls Chanyeol up by his sleeve. 

His plea to follow is silent but Chanyeol understands and allows Baekhyun to lead him back to the village. It's not a short walk, so Chanyeol tries to fill the void with small talk, answering his own questions when Baekhyun's only response is the usual silence. He tells Baekhyun about school, about his friends and family, even mentions how it would be cool if he could introduce Baekhyun to them sometime, because they all joke about how he doesn't have any friends from the village. He’d prefer not to tell them about Grandpa Suho, Chanyeol’s senior from high school, because Junmyeon (being his real name) more recently seems to prefer to spend his time with the elderly people at the Home in the next village, leaving poor Chanyeol to fend for himself.

When they reach the outskirts of the village, Baekhyun sets off at a run, Chanyeol not realizing the grip is still on his sleeve until he's being pulled along, bucket swinging dangerously from his free hand. Baekhyun's surprisingly fast, and even with his long limbs, Chanyeol is having trouble keeping up, flailing more than he runs, laughing, embarrassed, when Baekhyun turns to give him annoyed look for slowing them down. 

He's set everything up just outside the elementary school grounds, Chanyeol's eyes widen when he sees the little wooden table, obviously hand crafted very recently, with a small tap constantly running water into the left side of it, filling up whatever disappears into the drain on the right. The larvae, which sort of remind Chanyeol of dirty maggots, are moving masses at the bottom of eight separate compartments, looking disgusting and fascinating all at once. 

"Did you build this?" He asks, running his fingers along the plastic lining the insides of the table. Baekhyun shakes his head and then wanders over to a second blue bucket, dragging it over and then fishing a pair of chopsticks from the inside pocket of his jacket. He hands them to Chanyeol and then points to the bucket, and Chanyeol peers into it, making a face when he sees the snails falling over each other at the bottom. 

"You want me to feed them?" He asks, and Baekhyun nods eagerly, nudging him closer. Chanyeol reaches into the bucket and pulls out one of the snails, using the chopsticks to place it carefully into the closest compartment. 

The larvae automatically move towards it, and Chanyeol turns away, slightly disgusted and a little upset. Baekhyun gives him a curious look and he shrugs, glancing forlornly at the table before turning back. 

"It's sad," he says softly. "That the snails have to die. But I guess that's the circle of life, right?" Baekhyun bites down on his bottom lip and then takes the chopsticks, his soft, pretty hands tugging them from Chanyeol's grip. He continues the job, putting a single snail in each compartment, before turning to give Chanyeol a tiny smile, reaching out and giving his hand a sympathetic squeeze. 

He pulls him back to the table and let’s go, only to clap his own two hands together and close his eyes in prayer. Chanyeol would join in, but he’s too busy staring at the way Baekhyun’s long eyelashes flutter against his cheeks, the way his thin lips have curved down and his eyebrows have furrowed in thought. When he opens his eyes again, Chanyeol looks away, cheeks suddenly warm.

-

“Encyclopedia of Bugs, eh?” Chanyeol uses his index finger to push up his glasses as his two best friends, Kyungsoo and Jongin, slide into the seats opposite him at his cramped table at the back of the school library, both immediately reaching for the books strewn haphazardly across it. It’s Jongin that ends up with the giant, leather bound, dusty volume that is packed full of information on bugs from all over the world, and he pokes out his tongue, smirking as Chanyeol lunges across the table in a failed attempt to grab it. “Thinking of changing majors?”

“Totally,” Chanyeol starts gathering together the mess to make more room for his friends, who still seem a little shell shocked at the prospect that Park Chanyeol wanted to meet them in the library of all places, somewhere he only ever goes if he’s absolutely desperate.

“But really, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo sounds rather concerned. “Why do you have a million books about bugs?”

“Hm,” Chanyeol shrugs. “Looking up information. For stuff.”

“Stuff? Like?” Jongin inquires, looking up from the task of pulling his lunch out of his over-filled backpack.

“None of your business,” Chanyeol tilts his head to the left and then reaches for another book, flicking through it until he finds the section about fireflies, grinning wide when he sees that this one has many pages on the topic – more informative than the rest of the ones he’s read through. “Ooh, did you know that fireflies glow even in their larval form?”

“No, I can’t say I did –”

“Well it’s cool, right? Like instead of a mating call to other fireflies, it’s a warning sign to predators… Because apparently firefly larvae can be incredibly toxic to – ”

“No offense, Chanyeol, but we really don’t care,” Jongin snaps, cutting him off, and Chanyeol pouts over at Kyungsoo, feeling rather betrayed when Kyungsoo doesn’t try to deny it. “What’s with the sudden bug obsession, really?”

“It’s nothing. It’s just. I met someone from my village, and—” Chanyeol rolls his eyes when Jongin makes an obnoxious cooing sound and nudges Kyungsoo in the ribs. “And he’s trying to raise fireflies and probably needs help so I figured I could research them and, you know, help him.”

“I could think of a million different, and potentially more fulfilling, uses for your free time,” Kyungsoo says honestly and Jongin hums in agreement. “But that actually sounds kind of interesting. I’ve never seen fireflies before,”

“I haven’t, either,” Chanyeol says sadly. “That’s why I hope Baekhyun – that’s him, by the way – succeeds. That’s why I want to help so badly.”

“I haven’t seen them and I couldn’t care less about it, either,” Jongin grumbles as he packs up his backpack and throws it over his shoulder, sliding out of his seat without any hesitation. “You guys can continue fawning over glowing bugs, I’m going to go do cool people things like dance and flirt with that high school kid who lurks my studio.”

“Go forth, coolest e,” Kyungsoo sends Jongin off with a half-hearted wave. Chanyeol jumps out of his seat, grabbing hold of one of the hanging straps of Jongin’s bag to stop him from leaving.

“I’ll only give you permission to be cool if you lend me your laptop,” he says, rather desperately, and Jongin rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t say no, and that causes Chanyeol to beam widely at him. Chanyeol usually hates using computers, but he knows he needs the internet if he wants to get any further in his firefly research.

“You’re the bestest friend ever, Jonginnie,” He says happily and Jongin just rolls his eyes as he s the laptop case into his arms.

“Yeah, whatever. Just don’t try breaking into my locked files, this time.”

-

I'm literally leaving for work in like 30 seconds so I dont have time to get rid of the spaces between paragraphs

omg tho ;; thank you all for readinggg <3 

there is another pair in this, maybe two, but since they dont come in till much later, I won't tag them or tell you who they are :3 theyre not that significant, just something to look forward to!