Chanyeol is not stupid, or so he likes to reassure himself. Baekhyun knows him as a tall man that switches between business and play with no effort. He likes to imagine two buttons in Chanyeol's head. There's a grey and battered one with a worn label that reads "work". The second one is a fresh silver that shines and sparkles, and it's label is a crisp "fun" with bolded letters. He only ever sees a frown of focus or a smile of uninhibited joy; there is no middle ground. Coming to Japan wasn't a pathway to see a new mature Chanyeol with a variety of healthy adult emotions, Baekhyun soon learned, as something about the "oohs" and "aahs" and "mmms" didn't seem quite real. They seemed fake and staged, and so since Baekhyun has decided that showing false emotions is foolish, he has decided that Chanyeol is dumb as well.

Chanyeol is no idiot though. Every move he makes is carefully calculated, even the faces he makes while walking down the streets of Tokyo and Seoul. The pleading eyes he makes to Baekhyun when he attempts to convince him to try a foreign dessert, the wide grin that appears when he stares in awe at the shrines and preserved temples, and the slow claps at the end of intricate performances are all planned to a point. His mindset is protection, safety, a way to survive and thrive. In his life so far he had only faltered once. Only when he let his lust and emotions get the best of him, had he acted "out of character". Baekhyun believed that it was one of the few times where Chanyeol was "smart", while the man in question has always left the event out of mind. It is at an event of performance and dance where Chanyeol fails to plan his actions.

"Eh, I hate things like this," Baekhyun mumbled, tipping a glass of juice against his lips.

Chanyeol furrowed his eyebrows. "I thought you loved theatre stuff."

The shorter waved his hand. "Well of course I do. This is dancing though. You know I'm not a dancer."

"I am though," Chanyeol snickers under his breath at the elbow of his friend that jabs into his side.

"The day you dance an A plus worthy piece is the day I give up my writing career."

"You have no writing career, Baek."

"Shut it, Yeol."

Chanyeol doesn't fail to notice Baekhyun's glances at the thin strip of light coming from between the stage and a door, where a hallway filled with awaiting performers stands. Of those performers, a majority are geisha. Chanyeol watches carefully, as he'd been doing since the pair arrived, and he scoffs at the thought of Baekhyun being seriously head over heels in love with a woman who's job is to create illusions and entertainment. Despite most who wouldn't have, Chanyeol took his friend's drunk and exaggerated confession seriously, and while knowing that the exact words muttered were childish for his partner's taste, he knew they essentially spoke the truth. It disgusted Chanyeol, who only saw weakness in such quick infatuation. Who was he to judge though, having fallen for his friend over a summer. Anything of the past stayed put to the younger business man, and recent love had only been his discovery of mochi.

The taller watches absentmindedly at the performance, yet his eyes stay glued to the stage. If showing that I am bored by art like this, but I am respectful enough to keep my mind on what's ahead of me for the sake of my business, they'll know that making business with us is a worth while deal, as I am an ideal partner. Chanyeol side eyes the face of Ando Masanobu and Terada Takuya who are seated beside him, and he smirks in satisfaction at the approving look of the ambassador and CEO. For a moment Chanyeol rolls his eyes when he sees Baekhyun lean forward, eyes wide and smile open in amazement as Taeyeon and Sanako take the stage. Chanyeol gathers that their dance is something about flowers, or maybe water; he isn't quite sure, and he doesn't really care. When he gets ear of the amateur maiko performance about the changing clouds, Chanyeol can't help but inwardly groan. If it means a further deal with Lantern Industries, then it's worth it to him.

Maiko after maiko step on stage, each in a different shade of blue, all with delicate specks and wisps of white adorned on the fabric. Suzume is the last to step on stage, but is the first and center of the group. Her kimono is a pastel blue, a sky with thin and airy snow colored cotton. It flutters behind her with each step, like wave after wave in a small pond after a stone had been thrown. The flowers and charms in her raven hair are centered with turquoise and blue calcite, and the pearls that run down strings beside her cheeks are like a waterfall from the deepest area of heaven. Her lips are still crimson, her eyes are still lined in black, and her skin is still ghostly white, but the thin ribbon of peachy pink skin peaking from her hairline and driving down the nape of her neck coupled with her pale fingers are new temptations that every man in the room close in on.

Chanyeol is no exception, as he finds himself sitting on the edge of his seat watching with great wonder as the girls dance on. He doesn't know why, and he knows that when she looks into the crowd, she isn't looking to him, but he knows that her eyes and broad smile have almost captured him. Chanyeol loathes Suzume for a moment, with her plush lips and adorably blinking bright eyes, but he eventually realizes that he's too far gone. He feels himself crumbling under the mere presence of a girl who has only lived sixteen years. Eight years... he thinks, breathing slowly as the dancing goes on.

"I'm eight years ahead..."

Baekhyun briefly glances at his friend. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing..." Chanyeol shakes his head, waving off the option of being open to questions. Baekhyun knows this, and in response he shrugs and turns back to the performing.

Chanyeol is not stupid, or so he likes to reassure himself. When he turned twelve, the ten year streak of being number one in every one of his classes began. At the young age of twenty two, he began a revolutionary company with his best friend that eventually changed the lives of people in millions of places. At twenty three, he was richer than beyond his wildest dreams, living a life of high success and happiness. At twenty four he became engaged to a beautiful and intelligent young woman, and in a few months he traveled to Japan, the first time he had ever left his home country. Chanyeol is not stupid, or so he likes to reassure himself, even after knowing he has become moonstruck over a girl eight years behind him while he himself is engaged.

Chanyeol is not stupid, or so he likes to reassure himself. He stands up, applauding so furiously his hands grow red, after Suzume's performance. He didn't know that the hotel room next to his had just been taken by Sooyoung, and that the same woman is seated behind him in a row far from his view.

She narrowed her eyes slowly.