Pororo and Eddy. Were the character suits Bomi and Chanyeol had fit into for the Kindergartener’s field day, respectively. 

It was a sunny Monday, and Chanyeol’s first experience inside a fluffy character suit couldn’t have been richer. 

The kids on his team were at first noticeably disappointed that their team mascot was Eddy, the sub-character of the cartoon series. Twinkling, hopeful eyes gazed over at the fluffy Pororo with longing, and Bomi teased Chanyeol to no end, bumping him with that fluffy elbow, patting his back, waving to the kids on his team with vigorous fluffy hands. 

But the Eddy team proved to be a group of dangerously competitive kids. With adorably wild and ferocious screams of cheer, the Eddy team consistently outplayed the Pororo team in four out of six field day games. 

The Eddy suit had turned out to be a little short on Chanyeol. So his head squished into the top layer between the fox’s giant ears, and the pointy mass sticking up from the suit was inevitable. Thankfully, the kids weren’t tall enough to see too much of the spot. Whenever he and Bomi earned a few cooling breaks, she would help him out of that fluffy helmet, only to burst out laughing at his matted, bird-nest hair-do under the tight suit. 

Just around 2o’clock, the field day came to an end, with the Eddy team having claimed the final victory. Pororo made a great show of boo-ing Eddy in the face, even as each of the kids on the Eddy team came up to their teachers to receive a medal necklace.

“How do you do this, Bomi,” Chanyeol heaved as Bomi pulled the fox head off of him for the last time. His hair was grossly stuck all over his head, his chest, back, and underarms were raining sweat, and he dangerously felt that if he didn’t free the rest of his body from the stuffy, fluffy suit in the next few minutes, he would permanently become this huge fox for good. 

“Oh quit your complaining. It wasn’t that bad. You’ll be surprised how used to it the next time,” She turned him around and began to undo the sticky straps on his fake overalls with her own yellow-gloved, fingerless fingers. Chanyeol couldn’t believe how she did it. She and the Pororo suit were one. 

“Are you suggesting that you already have another gig for me?” Chanyeol really hoped he didn’t smell as bad as he was sticky. 

“Unfortunately, no, but I’ll get back to you on it, Eddy,” Without even telling him she’d finished undoing the straps, she circled in front of Chanyeol and began shoving him out of the suit, his balance flailing. 

It took a good bit of shoving and pulling and struggling for his legs to become free. Once they did, Chanyeol about collapsed to the ground, his pores soaking up sweet oxygen in the small kindergarten workroom. 

“Okay, it’s your turn,” Bomi turned and waited expectantly in her bright blue and yellow penguin body. Looking up at her with hands on his knees, Chanyeol just couldn’t help himself from the kind of thoughts a guy his age has to have during moments as these. He heaved some good breaths, allowing himself just a few more seconds of staring at the back of Bomi’s neck, where her ponytail lay slightly to her left, surprisingly neat. Luckily, the reality of the fluffy, blue and yellow penguin suit at the bottom of the neckline helped Chanyeol shake himself out of it pretty quickly. He grabbed a tissue and dabbed away a little bit of sweat from her neck before he started on her suit straps. 

“That tickles!” Bomi slapped his hand away with her signature, white-teeth smile, gesturing for him to hurry it up with her suit. 

Chuckling the entire time, Chanyeol obliged in the ungraceful separation of the penguin and Bomi. Then, they stretched their free limbs out in large, exaggerated movements, before arranging the suits as neatly as possible in a corner of the room. 

“I’m surprised you’re not sulking still, seeing as how my team squashed yours,” Chanyeol jabbed as they sat waiting for the teachers to return from sending kids home. 

“They’re just a bunch of kids! It doesn’t even matter. What matters is that the kids liked me a whole lot more than they did you!” 

“If I was shorter, I could’ve fit the Pororo costume. They only liked you because you were Pororo.” 

“Well who told you to be so tall, huh?” 

Chanyeol threw his hands up in defeat, hiding a smile as he turned away from Bomi’s mischief laden expression. 

As they received their day’s pay and left the kindergarten, They bickered on, Chanyeol complained about how lifeless his limbs had become after that tiring ordeal, and rubbed in the fact that he had off from the noodle shop that evening, while Bomi had to go in for her cashier shift. 

“What are you gonna do since you have off?” 

Chanyeol in a deep breath, a heaviness coming on in his chest. “I’m finally gonna go explain myself to my friends. I’ve been dragging it out way too long. I bet they’re… so pissed at me.” 

Bomi patted him on the upper arm in a half sincere, half mocking gesture. 

“Yeah, it’s all your fault for being a bad friend. But I’m sure they’ll understand.” 

Chanyeol should have kept on straight when Bomi turned a corner for the noodle shop, but he continued nonchalant footsteps right next to her, earning a quizzical eyebrow. 

“I’ll walk you to the noodle shop and say hi to the guys,” he remarked cooly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. 

“Are you sure you’re not just coming for a free bowl of noodles?” Bomi was all suspicious glares and smirks. 

“Bingo.” 

There was no hope of wiping off the stupid, silly grin on his face. First, because his hands were full, and second, because it just couldn’t go away, not even with a good soap scrubbing.

Since they were preparing for a rush of dinner customers, Mrs. Ho couldn’t pack up any noodles for him, but she had insisted that Chanyeol take a bag of sodas. It was the best peace offering he could’ve hoped to have on his way to the Lee’s instruments shop, and reassured him with a right bit of hope. 

But the grin on his face was what actually made his footsteps so light and his limbs wholly recovered from the field day earlier. Even with the guitar on his shoulder and the bag of sodas weighing him down, he felt like a single snowflake off of Olaf’s white coat. 

After a hearty bowl of noodles at the shop, right before he’d left Bomi behind the counter, he’d responded to a cheeky “bye” by surprising her with a hug. He’d grabbed her before she could get behind the counter, and felt her against himself. She’d felt little and fragile, but warm, warming him hot and red all the way up to the tips of his ears and his head. And even if it had been for the tiniest bit of a second, Chanyeol had felt like a man. Where the hell the courage had come from, he had no idea. 

She had just about blown up at him, but he’d tailed it out of there right on mark. He had no idea how to deal with it come the next time he saw Bomi, but for now, Chanyeol had no regrets. 

“Hi Mr. Lee! Long time no see! Would you care for a soda?” Chanyeol offered Hongki’s father a coke from his peace-offering bag. Mr. Lee took it without a word, just nodding and waving him off to the back of the shop where the guys were strumming away some unintelligible chords. 

Chanyeol stalked up toward the large speakers section, grinning sheepishly. It felt good to be back at the shop. As old and musty as it was a place, it was still something like a second home of music and friends to him. Especially the back section near the large speakers. Where Hongki sat cross legged on the floor surrounded by sheets of scribbled in music, and Kyunghwan sat in his rackety chair near the display window with his base. 

“Park Chan-nim has returned!” Chanyeol laid his guitar ceremoniously against a large set of speakers, and held up his peace-offering bag with an outstretched arm. 

The two looked up at him with passive expressions. 

“Guys want some soda? I brought plenty,” He handed Hongki the bag. 

“You get these for free now, dude? At your new part time job?” Kyunghwan popped open an orange Fanta. “That you never told us about, that is.” 

Chanyeol rubbed his head, sitting across from Hongki.

“Yeah, sorry about that… It all happened too fast and then I just got super busy trying to get used to having a job, that I kept pushing back telling you guys. But… here I am now! Back to band business.” 

Hongki set the soda bag aside from the music sheets and shook his head. 

“Dude, I don’t know if it’s that simple… Kilwoo was beyond pissed when he told us he saw you… It’s not just about that part time job. I mean why would we care if you have a part time job or not?”

Chanyeol felt a little uneasy in his gut, bearing the low, uncertain gazes of his longtime friends. It was in some way worse than the scrutinizing first scan at a job interview. 

“Kilwoo had some nice plans for us as a band, Chanyeol. Wasn’t that what we all wanted? To actually go around playing gigs as a band, and have fun doing music? But suddenly, apparently your plans have changed. Without telling us, or consulting us, or anything. And, you’ve made new friends, ones good enough to ignore your old ones,” Hongki’s voice was distant, full of regret. 

Kyunghwan sat up from his chair, a similar air of disappointment in his usually easy-going tone. 

“Honestly, I don't really know how Kilwoo feels, because I haven’t been friends with you as long as he has, Channie. But he started talking about finding a new bandmate, leaving you out of our spring break plans… I for one really don’t want that. This band is supposed to be the four of us.” 

Chanyeol gaped at his friends as the reality of his mistakes rose up in his chest, along with that sort of panic that comes, when important things are in danger of falling apart. 

“Kilwoo… he’s not serious, right..? Guys, I know I screwed up bad… I’m really sorry. I haven’t changed, really! I’m not… you know… getting a… new set of friends. It’s just one… new friend… just one! Man…” 

He ran a hand over his face, frustration making him heated in his winter coat. He’d never meant things to go this far.

“Chanyeol, Kilwoo might have actually been serious,” Hongki said quietly, “He went out earlier, saying something about knowing a guy with some guitar experience…” 

The way his friends regarded him, as if their old friend Chanyeol had shed off his skin to be replaced by some stranger, made Chanyeol’s resolve crumble. He had expected to offer his friends a few drinks and apologies, in return for a few laughs and teases. He’d been horribly wrong. 

“What… what did I do… that was so wrong?” He asked the guys with a sigh. 

Kyunghwan and Hongki exchanged uncomfortable glances, shrugging. 

“I think we’ve been so used to doing nothing between the four of us all the time, that when you started going off doing other things, it just broke the order. Big time. And we, especially Kilwoo, just saw it as betrayal,” Kyunghwan pointed out between sips of soda, tone softening a little. 

Hongki fumbled with the music around him, then handed Chanyeol a few of the sheets. 

“A few new songs Kilwoo’s been wanting to try out. I think it’s best if you talked to him up front, Chan.” 

Chanyeol nodded, the queasiness refusing to subside from his gut. How soon could he talk to Kilwoo face to face, set things right? 

He didn’t have to think too far. He began to realize, that he’d become more bolder of a person in the last few weeks. Whether he was growing up, or it was some influence from his job search, or even Bomi, it didn’t matter. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d called Kilwoo on the phone. But dial, he did. 

“Kim Kil, it’s Park Chan. I’m at the shop with the guys. We need to talk.” 

“Just tell us the truth, Chanyeol. You’re whipped for that girl and you can’t see straight past getting her out of her clothes. You’re a guy! We’re all guys! It’s in our nature.”

Kilwoo had shattered the limit with that obscenity. The rage poured out from Chanyeol before he could help it. 

“How the hell would you know, Kilwoo? There’s nothing in that big head of yours except you and your precious music! You’ve always been a selfish bastard, and always will be! So you’re mad because I’m not doing things the way you want me to. You think a new boss is pulling my strings, and you can’t handle it. Guess what? Not everyone is like you! Bomi doesn’t control me, she doesn’t order me around, she doesn’t try to use me like you do! You’re the one who’s been playing me all these years!” 

Chanyeol towered over Kilwoo, inches away from his face. He’d never confronted his best friend like this before. He was beginning to scare himself, the way his rage had overtaken him so suddenly. 

But before he could calm down, Kilwoo shot out, punching him square in the left side of his face. 

“Then leave!”

Kilwoo’s voice had escalated to a full on shout. 

“Get out of here, and go skipping with your little girlfriend somewhere else! We don’t need you!”

Chanyeol had stumbled backward a few steps, his body twisted from the impact, but the first thing to recover was his right arm, lashing out in a wide motion of instinct and fire. He hit Kilwoo closer to his ear, the contact burning his knuckles. 

“Are you two crazy..?” Hongki began, but was cut short. 

“What’s going on here?!” Mr. Lee had stalked up to them, wide eyes and prominent veins. “Get out of here before you damage anything! All of you!” 

The hatred in Kilwoo’s eyes pierced Chanyeol through and through. His friend broke their eye contact first, rushing out without a glance at any of them. 

Chanyeol was left there, frozen, until Kyunghwan and Hongki ushered his stiff body out.