*****

To Chanyeol, swimming was a stress reliever. School was a huge pressure for him and his life in general wasn't helping at all. Thus, swimming worked like his escape. He enjoyed it so much. After school, Chanyeol would always drop by at the school's library to finish his tasks that were possible to be done in a few hours, although sometimes, he would oversleep and the library keeper had to wake him up only to get Chanyeol's drools on the book, --and sometimes books.

After he had finished the tasks that most of the time weren't actually finished, usually at 5 PM, he would spend the time to swim in the school's swimming pool since he couldn't afford the bills to a satisfying pool outside the school.

He had signed himself in the school's swimming club to get an easier access to the school's pool.

He remembered that day, when he accidentally messed up with ZiTao who had no idea about how to speak proper Korean, and Yifan, a Chinese senior who ended up being Chanyeol's friend, helped to cease their quarrel. The trio soon became friends, but ZiTao had to go back to China because it was where he belong.

Yifan was the one who told Chanyeol about the school's swimming club, if not, he would have no idea that the club existed.

The club was fun, Chanyeol thought. There were only 7 people in it. Sehun, Jongin, Jongdae, Joonmyeon,  Minseok, Yifan, and himself. By joinning the club, he had to be active in some swimming tournaments to represent the school but that was not a burden at all. They would usually practice together on Fridays at 5 PM, right after Chanyeol's library routine. Tournament trainings were a different case though, they would practice the whole week.

When the club members left, Chanyeol would still be swimming, sometimes accompanied by Yifan for about 2 minutes before he got bored and left. Yifan had always been that impatient type of person.

On a certain day, Chanyeol had forgotten many things,  including his swimsuit. He had never shown his forgetful side before. He did not want to blame it on the boy he met the previous night, but he could not forget his beautiful smile. Not even anything about him.

Chanyeol was packing his bags, that night. He had done his swimming routine and he was about to leave before the corner of his eyes caught a silhouette. His heart pounded because usually, he would leave the school without anyone behind. Securities were exceptions, though. He had always been the giant coward, so the presence of the silhouette was not something he looked forward to.

Right after his failed attempt on running away, he found out that the silhouette was Baekhyun's shadow.

Baekhyun wasn't his actual friend but they had exchanged names and did small talks back then. He mentally faced palm himself for having the thought of Baekhyun was a ghost.

So Chanyeol decided to greet him and earned a smile he hadn't seen for so long. That time, his heart pounded and he asked himself why was it pounding again when he had known that Baekhyun wasn't a ghost.

Day by day passed and Yifan had been teasing Chanyeol about how he looked too happy. Chanyeol knew that he was happy but he wasn't sure of what was the cause. He had convinced himself that Baekhyun wasn't the cause.

More days passed and Chanyeol had been trying to make a delicious pancake because Baekhyun loves pancakes. Instead of doing his tasks, he, with the help of Yifan, would search pancake recipes. Yifan wasn't actually much of a help because then again, he got bored easily and ended up playing games on Chanyeol's phone until it ran out of battery and Chanyeol had to borrow the library keeper's charger.

He woke up 40 minutes earlier for his 6th attempt on making pancakes for Baekhyun.

The previous day, he had told Yifan to stay overnight in his house and help him with the pancakes the next morning, but Yifan refused. His rejection reason was the fact that Chanyeol was in love and that it would not be the same if Yifan helped him with the pancakes. Chanyeol could only sigh and walk away which made his attempt on hiding his pinkish cheeks succeed. He was too embarrassed to admit his own feelings.

His 30 minutes of war with pancake dough was worth it, finally. He had to throw some over-cooked ones, though, but that didn't matter.

The next 5 minutes were spent to clean himself up and get ready to school while 10 minutes later he was already at school.

6 attempts of pancake-making means this was his 6th time arriving at school at 6.30 AM. Usually he would arrive at 7AM when class started at 7.15.

He walked through the gate, the corridors, the classes, until he found another door to the school's backyard. There he found a familiar figure sitting on a bench, alone. He walked closer, a wide smile had already been plastered on his face since the pancake was neatly packed in one of the box he had decorated a few days ago by himself, accompanied by Yifan who didn't help.

A simple 'hey' from Chanyeol made Baekhyun put away his headphones and smiled with that smile Chanyeol had remembered without even trying.

Baekhyun was writing a song, as usual. It was his own project --or mission, he liked calling it that way to make it seem cooler. Chanyeol would always pretend that he was an enemy to Baekhyun and he had to fail Baekhyun's so-called mission. They would both laugh at Chanyeol's comical action and Chanyeol had to make sure his face didn't turn too pink.

This time, Chanyeol's way of 'failing' the mission was by giving a box of bomb. Baekhyun pretended that he was the patriotic man that would say things like he would be okay if he got killed but only after he had finished the mission. Chanyeol ended up giggling as he pulled out his box of pancakes. Baekhyun was a bit surprised since he didn't expect that Chanyeol had prepared the 'bomb'.

Chanyeol was so nervous because Baekhyun was holding the box, examining it. Baekhyun's 'wow' surprised him.

The box was painted red and added with some purple ornaments made by Chanyeol and inspired by the internet. Red and purple were Baekhyun's favorite color and it took time for Chanyeol to notice that, because most of Baekhyun's things weren't red nor purple, but he once said that purple and red would be a great combination of color and Chanyeol noted that in his mind.

Seconds after seconds, the box of pancakes turned to an empty box. Chanyeol was more than thankful because Baekhyun liked the pancakes, he requested him to bring some more next time and even thought of making pancakes together. Baekhyun's pretending-to-explode reaction to his first bite of Chanyeol's pancake made Chanyeol shivered because he thought that Baekhyun didn't like it. That day, another thing changed.

To them, a pancake is a bomb and the word bomb would always remind them of pancakes.

The bell soon rang and they went to their own classes. Jongdae, his classmate, realized that he had never seen Chanyeol's frown lately so he jokingly punched Chanyeol and announced the whole class about Chanyeol's happy virus that might be contagious.

If only he had the courage to tell the whole world that Baekhyun was the happy virus that made him this happy.

The time that he would usually spend after school in the library were a lot more productive now with Baekhyun as his private tutor. Baekhyun didn't really like the library because the lamps there were not neon white but yellow-ish. By that, they decided to move to the swimming pool instead. Most of the time, Yifan, as the kind senior he had always been, would also help by telling both of them which part of each lesson that were important so they would not waste time on learning useless things. Yifan would jokingly slung his arm around Baekhyun's shoulder and Chanyeol would always glare at him, Yifan would stuck out his tongue and blame Chanyeol for not having the courage to sit next to Baekhyun.

Lessons given by Baekhyun were never boring. He would sometime sing songs that were mostly unrecognizable to Chanyeol's ears.  But as more days were spent with Baekhyun, he could manage to sing along. It amazed him how the songs were all composed by Baekhyun himself.

But everything about Baekhyun amazed him.

Chanyeol had invited Baekhyun to his apartment. Yifan was also invited but he refused and it was obvious.

They thought of making pancakes but Chanyeol didn't remember to prepare the ingredients.

Baekhyun's eyes were glued to the guitar placed on top of Chanyeol's bed and the owner realized. He took it and handed it to Baekhyun. He then requested a song for Baekhyun to play with the guitar. 'Peterpan' was the title. It was one of the songs composed by Baekhyun --his favorite.

His second favorite song composed by Baekhyun was titled as 'Baby Don't Cry'. Yixing, Baekhyun's friend that he managed to befriend with, participated in making the lyrics since it was Baekhyun's first ever song and he had not mastered in lyric-making.

Baekhyun taught him how to play Peterpan and Baby Don't Cry with the guitar. He had actually mastered guitar since his primary school days because music was something he enjoyed besides swimming, but Chanyeol didn't have the need to tell Baekhyun how good his guitar skill was because he could not be happier every time their fingers brushed against each other. He wanted to hold those hands forever.

Days to weeks and weeks to months, Chanyeol and Baekhyun were almost done composing their song. Yifan jokingly told them to title the song as "Wu Yifan", which was his full name, so the world could see the bond between Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Yifan. They laughed at how not-funny-but-funny it was.

'Lucky' turned out to be the title although they argued a bit. Baekhyun wanted the title to be something more unique but Chanyeol said 'Lucky' was fine.

The process of making the song was more than fun, it defined happiness. Chanyeol got to see Baekhyun's notebook filled with music notations, lyrics, combinations of both, finished songs, and the unfinished ones too. Baekhyun gave 3 pages at the other end of the book for their random doodles.

On a Friday, Baekhyun brought his swimsuit to swim with the swimming club members. Since there was Baekhyun, the 8 of them decided to play water volley ball with Sehun who ended up not playing because he always got hit by the volley ball although it didn't really pain him.

Since Sehun's team lost, they had to treat the opposing team which was not Chanyeol's nor Baekhyun's team.

A little argument happened between the 8 --they were always this childish when it comes to food (and mostly everything).

Despite that, Chanyeol could see that Baekhyun was happy and that made himself happier. The way Baekhyun laugh quietly at the club members' childish quarrel, the way Baekhyun rub his hands against each other to make himself feel warm, the way Baekhyun helped Sehun pronouncing letter S, the way Baekhyun leaned his head on Chanyeol's shoulders because he got tired of laughing, the way Baekhyun laughed itself --it was like every bit of the world was helping him to fall for Baekhyun even more. He couldn't and wouldn't stop it. He loved Baekhyun and he wanted to love Baekhyun forever.

Like the deal they had made earlier, Sehun's team were supposed to pay the bill. Unfortunately, they all ate too much before calculating the sum of money Sehun's team had at that moment. Jongdae jokingly told them to perform and earn money but Joonmyeon, was kind enough to pay although he was one of the opposing team who were supposed to be treated.

In return, Joonmyeon asked his opposite team to perform something memorable in the street restaurant they were eating at. Sehun sighed because he knew he was not good in performing. Minseok suggested to make a little flashmob and Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Sehun agreed.

So they began.

Jinagabeorin~

Eorin Sijeoren~

Pungseon eul tago~

Naraganeun yeppeun kkumdo kkueotji~

The performance itself went well but it didn't turn out to be a flashmob because nobody jumped in and dance along other than Joonmyeon, Jongin, and Jongdae. Yifan didn't join because Joonmyeon wanted him to record the moment.

Too bad Yifan had ended the recording right after they finished performing because people actually appreciated their performance by giving applauses --and that was something worth remembering.

After the 8 of them bid farewell, Chanyeol and Baekhyun was still together because Chanyeol said he would be responsible if Baekhyun got scolded for going home too late.

Baekhyun thanked Chanyeol for today, his face, gestures, and everything showed sincerity.

Chanyeol thanked Baekhyun back --not just for today, but for every single day they had spent together. He wanted to hug Baekhyun and tell him how much he was thankful and how the little things had changed because of Baekhyun and how his thought got halted because Baekhyun was hugging him.

Nothing was stiffer than him, if that was possible. Baekhyun's arms were wrapped around him, his head was on his shoulder.

He felt Baekhyun's hair on his cheeks and Baekhyun defined warmth. Chanyeol was struggling to hug Baekhyun back because he was just that stiff.

Before he managed to hug him, Baekhyun had unwrapped his arms around Chanyeol and Chanyeol felt a bit of regret. Or a lot --he didn't even know anymore.

They continued walking to Baekhyun's house and Chanyeol was still as stiff as before.

When they reached the front door of Baekhyun's house, he was reliefed that Baekhyun's parents were not home yet so they didn't have to worry about them scolding Baekhyun. Chanyeol, still in his stiff mode, thanked him again and got a smile in return. After Baekhyun closed the door, Chanyeol was still there.

In seconds, Chanyeol knocked Baekhyun's front door again, ignoring the existence of the doorbell, and as soon as Baekhyun opened it, Chanyeol hugged him.

He buried his face in Baekhyun's shoulder and he mentally screamed 'I love you, Baekhyun. I love you so much, you don't understand. I love you now, I want to love you the next day, and the next, next day, and in any day in the future. I love you', he wanted to cry because he didn't have the courage to say it out loud. He didn't even know why he was this weak. He knew that he was braver than this.

Graduation hats slowly fills the afternoon sky. Chanyeol grins ear to ear, eyes glued on the floating hats. Jongdae is jumping next to him, screaming incoherently, Chanyeol thinks Jongdae looks happier than everyone else. "I made it, Yeol!" He exclaims.

Jongdae was that kid who didn't pay attention to the lessons, but since his will of graduating and going to his dream university was surprisingly big, he tried his best, he prepared everything for the exams, he tried harder than anyone else, Chanyeol noticed. No wonder he is the happiest now.

"Are you guys going to treat me?" The familiar voice steals both Jongdae and Chanyeol's attention. "Just asking." Chanyeol is sure that Yifan had graduated high school 2 years ago, together with Minseok. Chanyeol is also sure that Yifan left the country and stayed in USA for education purpose.

"Why are you here?" Chanyeol asks, earning a chuckle from Yifan. "And we're not going to treat you!" Jongdae adds with a laugh. Chanyeol laughs along and punches Yifan's arms jokingly, "We missed you," he says, smiling ear to ear. "I am missed by many people." Yifan says before they laugh together.

"We would like Byun Baekhyun to go on stage and--"

"Have you told him?" Chanyeol is silenced. He hasn't. He wanted to. But he couldn't. He is not even sure if he can or if he will be able to tell. "Not yet," Jongdae answers, Yifan sighs. "You are wasting your time, Chanyeol." Yifan's voice is never more serious than this, Chanyeol realizes. "Tell him. Today. I came all the way here for this."

Chanyeol wants to argue, but he finds himself eager to tell Baekhyun.

"Now, Chanyeol." Yifan whispers, loud enough for Chanyeol to hear, as he pushes Chanyeol nearby the stage.

"Hello, B-Baekhyun." Chanyeol greets, Baekhyun can see anxiety on his face. Yifan and Jongdae who is hiding somewhere around there mentally facepalm themselves. "I want--" Realization hit him hard as he says, "Baekhyun doesn't like flowers!" He then runs away to prevent himself for further embarrassmet, although running like that is already an embarrassing embarrassment. Baekhyun smiles knowingly.

"Now, Chanyeol." Jongdae gestures, Yifan is now ready with binoculars. "Chanyeol!" Baekhyun turns out to greet Chanyeol first. "Why did you run away?" Baekhyun laughs, Chanyeol has always been that comical. "I-- I just want to-- Bombs. Pancake! Pancake!" Baekhyun laughs again, Yifan and Jongdae --for the umpteenth time, facepalm themselves. Chanyeol opens his box filled with pancakes that Jongdae bought earlier for this confession purpose. "You made these?" Baekhyun asks, he is about to take one of the pancakes. "N-no. Chanyeol-- I mean, Jong-- Oh, God." Chanyeol has forgotten if he had ever been this embarrassing before.

After 4 more attempts which includes balloons, cotton candies and Jongin's dog who bit Chanyeol's shoelace, pulled it and Chanyeol fell, "You're so funny today." Baekhyun says. Jongdae, Yifan, Jongin and Monggu, Jongin's dog who joins late, they're all there. "He is this funny because of you, Baek." Yifan says, as he laughs and punches Chanyeol's arms.

Baekhyun laughs. Chanyeol blushes.

"Come on, Chanyeol. I'm going to make you satisfied," Baekhyun stands up and pulls Chanyeol with him. The rest of them stays there, their whispers and laughs are very audible to Chanyeol.

"Turn around. Wait. 2 minutes." Baekhyun gestures. He pulled Chanyeol to the school's pool while the rest of them are waiting somewhere in the field which are located not so far from the pool.

Chanyeol is anxious.

Familiar music fills the air as the colorful Christmas tree lights suddenly illuminates his surrounding. It's not even Christmas.