When term starts again, Chanyeol finds he has less and less free time, and though it’s a struggle to balance the fireflies with his workload, he still manages to make his way to the coop every day. More often than not he has his workbooks with him, and if he doesn’t, he’s very distracted by the melodies creating themselves in his head, thoughts whirring as he tries to make them stick long enough that he’ll be able to write them down as soon as he can get to a pen and paper.

There are some days he wishes he could be more with it. Fall is fast approaching, and this means the most important event in their firefly efforts is coming up, and because of this, it’s clear that Baekhyun is a little more than nervous. He’s becoming more reserved again, the quiet moments that were slowly beginning to be filled with tentative conversations have switched back to complete silence, but Chanyeol finds that rather than Baekhyun pushing him away, he’s clinging on even tighter. That’s the only thing stopping him from being too worried about his friend. He’s sure that once they complete their task, and it goes well, Baekhyun will go back to being his at least somewhat happy self.

And if he doesn’t, well, it’s up to Chanyeol to make it happen, some way or the other.

They had initially decided on the first of October to be the day they released the larvae into the river, but as the last week of September approaches, they’re forced to come to the conclusion that the weather is becoming too cold too fast to put it off that long. Chanyeol, personally, has no issues with it; he knows if they push it, the larvae would have a tougher time climatizing themselves for the winter, but he knows Baekhyun is worried that something might go wrong anyway.

What if the river isn’t clean enough yet? What if a typhoon washes them away? What if, after being fed all this time, they don’t know how to find food of their own?

He’d confessed these worries late evening on the last day of summer, and Chanyeol wasn’t sure how to console him, so he just gave Baekhyun the biggest, warmest smile he could muster and then assured him that they’d be fine—they didn’t need to be taught things like humans do, every one of their actions is programmed into their head from birth. Baekhyun hadn’t seemed very reassured at the time, but in the days following, Chanyeol hasn’t missed the smile that’s slowly starting to brighten his features again.

-

On the morning of September 25^th, Chanyeol and Baekhyun make their way slowly across the village from the elementary school to the river, both carrying a bucket in each hand, slightly unsteady on their feet as they struggle to keep the water from sloshing around too much.

Chanyeol has a music exam later that day, so they’d been forced to wake at the crack of dawn to make sure he could catch his bus in time. He’d done everything possible to get ready before he and Baekhyun met up, but he’s really starting to regret his decision to bring everything along with him—his guitar is just an added weight on his back, and it’s making the trek down the long stretch of gravel road even more tantalizing than he could have imagined.

When they finally reach the river bank, Chanyeol drops sets his buckets down a little more roughly than he intended, causing Baekhyun to shoot him a cute little glare through his long bangs. He smiles in apology and then shrugs the straps of his guitar case off his shoulders, setting that down with a little more care. He yawns, wide and unabashed, as he slips his feet out of his shoes and then wriggles his toes about in the cool grass. He comes so often, but it’s always such a surprise at how utterly relaxed and happy he is here—especially when Baekhyun is with him.

Baekhyun clears his throat and Chanyeol nods at the unspoken command. He picks his buckets up again and makes his way over to where Baekhyun is standing, still holding onto his own, but shoes abandoned in the grass behind him. They creep together as close as they can get to the water without stepping in, and then they kneel against one of the larger rocks separating the grass from the stream, and set their buckets down beside them.

“Are you ready?” Chanyeol asks quietly, and Baekhyun bites down on his bottom lip before he gives one hesitant nod. Chanyeol reaches over and squeezes his hand lightly before he reaches into one of the buckets and scoops a few of the larvae into his fingers.

He places them gently down in a mini cove created out of a formation of pebbles right near the edge. They immediately start to move about, a couple of them escaping through the gap in the rocks and into the main river. Baekhyun hasn’t touched his own larvae yet; he’s watching Chanyeol’s, a sad little smile on his lips.

“They look like they’re happy, don’t they?” Chanyeol asks, nudging him. Baekhyun loses his balance and has to stop himself from toppling over into the grass with his right hand, which he ends up wiping on Chanyeol’s jeans to get rid of the mud. “Hey, I’ve got an exam later!” Chanyeol groans, but he’s not being entirely serious. He doesn’t remember a single day since he started at the university that he didn’t have at least a bit of dirt on his outfit.

Baekhyun grins deviously at him before turning away and beginning to place his own larvae into the water. They work at it for at least an hour, moving up and down the river bank, sure to spread the little bugs out as far as possible.

“All done,” Chanyeol all but moans after he has finally emptied his buckets. He takes a seat on the patch of grass next to his guitar, and it’s a few moments before Baekhyun joins him, wading through the river and slipping his feet into his shoes before he makes his way over.

Chanyeol feels his stomach squirm in worry when he sees that Baekhyun’s smile has disappeared again, and he’s looking just as stressed as he did before.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Chanyeol asks slowly, and Baekhyun shakes his head, swallowing thick as he hugs his knees to his chest and then rests his chin on them. “That went alright, didn’t it? They seemed to like the water—”

“It’s not that, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun breathes out, and Chanyeol frowns.

“What is it, then?” Baekhyun shakes his head again and closes his eyes. For a few moments, Chanyeol can hear nothing but the soft breeze and the sound of the bird chirping in distant trees, and he takes a few deep, shuddering breaths, waiting patiently for Baekhyun to collect himself.

“It’s just that—” he starts eventually, but then pauses, evidently thinking that was a little too soon. He rubs at his eyes and then shakes his bangs back down so they’re covering them again. “It’s just that we have nothing to do for the fireflies now, except wait.”

“Mhm,” Chanyeol nods happily. “Wait and hope. Until next summer, when they hopefully start flying.”

Baekhyun buries his face into his palms then and Chanyeol realizes he may have missed the point completely. He shuffles closer and tugs on Baekhyun’s wrists so that his face is showing again. There’s something in Baekhyun’s expression that Chanyeol has never once seen before in his friend, a look of helplessness and fear and such pure sadness that it tugs harshly at Chanyeol’s heartstrings.

“Hey, Baekkie, cheer up,” he says, his voice threateningly close to breaking. “Why are you so sad?”

It takes Baekhyun a while to meet his eyes. When their gazes finally lock, Chanyeol takes one of Baekhyun’s hands into his and then raises his free one into the empty space between their faces. He does the sign Baekhyun taught him weeks ago, the one he’d been practicing every night ever since, but still had no inkling as to what it means.

He thinks he did the right thing—Baekhyun pushes his hand away and sniffles loudly, but it’s only a few more seconds after that until he’s talking again.

“I’m sad because now you don’t have a reason to come see me anymore, not until next june.”

A whole new type of discomfort appears in Chanyeol’s stomach at these words. Half of him wants to pull Baekhyun close and never let go, and the other half kind of wants to kiss him right there. It’s quite a dangerous combination, he thinks, as he does a weird sort of lunge and ends up with both his hands on Baekhyun’s chest.

He passes off the weird movement by shoving Baekhyun lightly and forcing out a laugh. “Don’t be silly,” he says, voice thick, and Baekhyun peers up at him hopefully. “I don’t need a reason to come see you. You’re my friend, right?”

-

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey I should be writing my serenade challenge but I wrote this instead :(

its been a while, sorry about that :( writing is tough, especially for this one, because I'm trying to maintain a feeling? here and it's kind of taxing

but anyway

I hope people around still like this 

buh

okay

see you sooooooooon