It’s on a Thursday when Chanyeol skips his first class. It’s the Thursday two days after Chanyeol hangs out with Jongin in the park.

Chanyeol had really wanted to apologize to Jongin on Wednesday for leaving so soon, but he never saw the other boy around school, not even in literature class, where they worked in pairs and Chanyeol was forced to be alone since his partner was MIA.

However, on Thursday, as Chanyeol’s heading to literature class, he hears his named called by a distinctive voice. He turns around to see Jongin smiling at him from beside a set of lockers, and he curls his finger in a way that says, “Come here.” Chanyeol obliges, and just when he reaches Jongin, the other boy is grabbing his wrist and running to the nearest exit of the building. Chanyeol, in a present state of shock, doesn’t say anything; he just allows Jongin to continue nearly holding his hand in an effort to drag him wherever he wants him. If Jongin keeps nearly holding his hand like that, Chanyeol thinks he wouldn’t ever care where they’re going.

A few minutes (and a near sprint across campus) later, Chanyeol sees that Jongin has taken him to their school’s auditorium, which has multiple practice rooms purely designated to the arts, and seeing as it’s Jongin, one of them definitely has something to do with dance.

Sure enough, Jongin is dragging him through the back entrance of the auditorium claiming, “We wouldn’t want to disturb the drama kids in the middle of rehearsal!” When Jongin has finagled himself and Chanyeol through backstage and down a hallway, he opens the door to a practice room that just so happens to have a large mirror in the front, hardwood flooring, a cloud design on the walls, and four other guys sitting in chairs in the middle of the room.

The bell finally sounds, and Jongin grins at Chanyeol before letting go of his hand and grabbing two chairs for the two of them. Chanyeol just stares after the other boy, because it would be really awkward to look at Jongin’s other friends, and wait did the bell just ring?

Deciding not to continue standing and staring like an idiot, Chanyeol strides after Jongin and whispers, “What are we doing here? Skipping?” His eyes transform into their altered state known as the puppy dog stare.

Jongin smirks and hands a chair to Chanyeol, while placing his empty hand in the small of Chanyeol’s back so as to lead him to the others. “Well, duh. Why else do you think I waited for you before lit.? I assure you that this is much better.”

Jongin’s other friends move their chairs so that, when Jongin and Chanyeol their chairs down beside each other, everyone is in a circle. Once everyone is seated properly, Jongin says, “Hey guys, this is Chanyeol. Chanyeol, this is Taemin,” Jongin points to a darker skinned boy who happens to look rather similar to Jongin, in Chanyeol’s opinion, “You’ve already met Sehun and Zitao, and the one I was telling you about who likes the Ramones, is Yixing.” Jongin points to a boy who looks to be in a complete daze, staring at the ceiling. But, suddenly he chuckles and the deepest dimple Chanyeol has ever seen appears on his face and Chanyeol thinks it’s one of the cutest things he’s ever seen on another guy.

“Okay, now that we all know each other, or whatever, what are you two doing here?” Sehun asks, looking at both Jongin and Chanyeol.

“Well, right now we have lit., which is really a drab because the teacher is almost as annoying as his students. Chanyeol’s the only other worthwhile person in the room, and I couldn’t leave him to suffer in my absence.” Jongin smirks.

“Oh, like you did yesterday?” Chanyeol grins.

“Aw, a few days together and they’re already missing each other, how sweet.” Zitao coos.

“Whatever, Like you’re anyone to talk, Taozi. Five minutes without your precious Sehun and you’re going stir crazy.”

Zitao refutes Jongin’s claims, and they go back and forth for the next few minutes, and all Chanyeol can do is continue to laugh, and laugh. How is it that he’s always laughing in Jongin’s presence?

Chanyeol looks over at the two members of the dance troupe who haven’t said much of anything yet, Yixing and Taemin. Taemin, ironically for a person skipping class, has a textbook in his lap, and he’s working out what appears to be physics problems. Chanyeol doesn’t want to ask him what he’s doing here if he obviously plans to do class work in the first place, but Taemin catches his stare and gently smiles.

“If you’re wondering, I’m doing class work right now because I don’t want to fall behind, and I’m expecting my teacher to give me some form of suspension because I skip so much. Maybe she’ll be more lenient when she sees that I’ve gone the extra mile and started the new chapter. Physics isn’t really hard for me; it’s just the classroom environment doesn’t work for me, or really for any of us in this room, I suppose.” He chuckles, then continues, “Well, I don’t know about you, but certainly for us dancers, hence why we chose the dance practice rooms of all places to hang out, even though I’m sure half of our teachers know this is our first place of refuge.”

Chanyeol sighs contently. “I haven’t experienced anything different from the classroom environment before today, so I didn’t know it was a problem until now that I’m sitting here and I don’t feel so anxious worrying about stupid classmates making stupid remarks.”

Chanyeol adds questioningly, “And, if your teachers know where you are, why don’t they do something?”

Taemin tries to quietly answer Chanyeol’s question, but the rest of the room’s eyes grow wide, (except maybe Jongin’s) at Chanyeol’s statement. “Wait, so you’ve never skipped before, like, ever?” Zitao asks.

“No, this is my-”

“And you’re a junior?” Sehun is perhaps one of the most shocked people in the room, besides Chanyeol who didn’t know not skipping was this big of a deal.

“Yes, but-”

Zitao tries to speak again, but Jongin beats him to it, chuckling. “Guys, lay off. His friends don’t really do this type of stuff, you know? They’re really, well, I don’t know. I don’t know your friends. Describe them for us.”

Chanyeol looks at him nervously, but Jongin nods his head in assurance, smiling. “I don’t really know how to describe them…. I don’t know, really. They go to class on time…” Chanyeol’s voice rises as if he’s asking a question. “Some of them study at lunch, mostly Joonmyun and Minseok because they want to get into a good university. Baek and Dae, especially Baek, live by Carpe Diem, but I guess their idea of seizing the day is quite different from yours.”

“Ah, I see. You’re friends with goody two-shoes, right? However did you meet a person like Jongin, then?” Sehun smirks, and Chanyeol realizes anytime that boy smirks, it’s a bit frightening.

Chanyeol nervously chuckles, prepared to tell the story of their bathroom encounter, but Jongin interrupts him. “One day we were analyzing the book we were reading in lit., and everyone was making stupid comments as per usual, except for me and Chanyeol, and somehow that all blossomed into this glorious friendship we have now.” Jongin grins at Chanyeol, and the latter punches his arm at his hilarious stretching of the truth.

The interrogation of Chanyeol stops for a few moments, with Taemin returning to his physics work and Zitao and Sehun doing, well whatever they were doing before. However, finally Yixing speaks, when he asks, “So wait, you’re friends with Kim Minseok? Isn’t he friends with Luhan? I know Luhan! He’s pretty cool, but I’m probably biased because we’re both from China.” Yixing giggles to himself and turns to his side to unpack his guitar.

Yixing starts strumming a few chords, and then he sings along to whatever song he’s playing. Yixing’s voice is rather melodic, so sweet and captivating. He sings quietly, but with a power that captures Chanyeol’s attention, so much that Jongin nudges him, while smirking, and tells him he may be staring.

“I told you you’d like him,” Jongin whispers in his ear, still smirking.

“You never told me he played guitar!” Chanyeol whispers back.

Yixing looks up from his guitar when he’s finished his song, and everyone gives him a few, quick claps. Yixing bows from his chair, and asks, ‘Chanyeol, do you play?”

Jongin looks over at him slightly surprised when he answers, “Yeah, a little.”

Yixing grins and hands Chanyeol his guitar, telling him to play him something, and he promises next time that he comes to skip with Jongin, there will be two guitars for them. Chanyeol tries to not show how excited he is that Jongin’s group of friends are starting to including them in their little group.

Chanyeol takes the guitar, and asks Yixing if he has a capo. When Yixing hands it to him, Chanyeol puts it on the fourth fret and finger picks something he wrote in his freshman year; he wants to play something bright and uplifting, and the beginning of his freshman year is the epithet for bright and uplifting.

Yixing hums in content when he finishes, but instead of taking his guitar back, he smiles with his dimple protruding, “Can’t you sing us a song?”

Chanyeol looks at him nervously, “What do you want me to sing?”

“Anything you want to sing, Chanyeollie.”

“Um, okay.”

Chanyeol starts to sing “Creep” by Radiohead, Taemin and Yixing nodding their heads to his choice of songs. The other three look a bit clueless, but at least they enjoy his performance. He ends after the first chorus, but Yixing is still not satisfied. “None of these guys play guitar, so it’s quite the pleasure to have another friend who does!” Chanyeol can’t stop his grin now that Yixing has called him his friend. “Taeminnie plays piano, but that’s about it. Play another song! Come on Chanyeollie!”

Chanyeol pretends like he’s annoyed, but his large grin and crinkled eyes give him away that he’s excited to continue playing. “Um, one time my friend Baek sang this and I played guitar, so I guess I’ll sing it now?”

Yixing grins and tells him to continue, and Chanyeol opens the song with, “I do believe all the love you give,” and finger picks along with his voice. Chanyeol doesn’t know if it’s the song, or the lyrics, or the pleasing chord progression, but everyone’s attention is on him completely; Taemin has placed his physics book on the floor, Sehun and Zitao have stopped doing whatever they’ve been doing, and Jongin is staring at him like he’s grown two heads. Chanyeol tries to ignore all their intense gazes, because the last time he played this he messed up the guitar part, and now that he’s singing along, he has double the chance of messing up again.

Chanyeol had to adjust the key before singing, because no way can he hit the notes that Baekhyun can hit, but that doesn’t deter the power in his voice when he sings the chorus, “I will love you and love you and love you. Gonna hold you and hold you and squeeze you.” Yixing is humming along, adding a harmony to his vocals, Taemin’s smiling unlike any smile Chanyeol has seen today, and Sehun and Zitao are being grossly romantic while grinning at him. Just because the lyrics are grossly romantic doesn’t mean you need to be, Chanyeol thinks. He conveniently doesn’t look over at Jongin because he doesn’t think he’s ready to see any reaction from him, whether that be simply smiling, or singing along, or having that look in his eyes Chanyeol subconsciously hopes is there, but is too afraid to look.

Chanyeol closes his eyes and sings the bridge, “You are beautiful beautiful beautiful. Beautiful beautiful beautiful. You are beautiful beautiful beautiful. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.” Yixing now starts singing the actual words instead of just humming, and when Chanyeol finishes the last “beautiful” before the phrase repeats, Yixing sings the next word that Chanyeol has coincidently forgotten: “Girl”. He blushes, and Yixing just grins when he returns to humming the song as before.

Chanyeol keeps his eyes closed throughout the next chorus, and then he leads into the guitar feature, where once again he misses a chord, which causes him to have his usual goofy smile, before he continues on again, as if it never happened. He finishes the song after the guitar bit, and the amount of applause Yixing received earlier goes to shame as Zitao and Sehun stand to give him a standing ovation (the significance of this is demeaned a bit when they wolf whistle while they clap), Taemin gives him words of encouragement and kindness, and Yixing comes to take his guitar back and pressures Chanyeol to stand so that he can give him a hug, claiming, “I have to hug my new guitar buddy! You’re a real person; you exist!”

Lastly, Chanyeol turns to look at Jongin whose face is unreadable; the only emotion visible is the same bemused expression he wears anytime Chanyeol asks him a question he won’t fully answer. Chanyeol whispers, “Was it alright? Your face is making me worry, man.”

Jongin snaps out of his stupor at Chanyeol’s words and grins. “It was really good, Chanyeol. I didn’t know you could play, or sing really. Wow.”

Chanyeol’s still looking at him, because somehow, he’s expecting Jongin to say something else, but he doesn’t. Jongin remains speechless for a few more minutes, until he finally opens his mouth, “Actually-”

The bell rings, and Jongin grabs his bag and runs out the practice room, before he turns around and pokes his head in the door, saying, “I’ll see you guys at practice?” He looks at Chanyeol, and softly says, “I’ll see you around, Chanyeol.”

And where Jongin looked confused before, Chanyeol is the confused one now. Taemin claps him on the shoulder and grins. “Well, congrats, Chanyeol. You’re officially in the group, and in the first day of being in our group, you’ve managed to break Jongin. See you next time!”

The others follow suit so that it’s only Chanyeol left in the practice room of a group that somehow considers him their friend. Chanyeol sighs aloud, wondering if he’s more confused by Jongin’s quick exit or by Taemin’s parting words.

-

Chanyeol would like to say that he never skipped class again and that he returned to the regular, punctual, good student he once was, but then he’d be lying.

The next time he skips is the following Monday after the Thursday when he first skipped.

He hadn’t intended on skipping again, seeing as he didn’t skip on Friday. Friday, Chanyeol had to explain to his friends (during first period, during second period, during lunch, during literature - pretty much all ing day) where he was yesterday during literature class; and, being the great friends Baekhyun and Jongdae are, they told Joonmyun and his other hyungs that he missed his literature class the day before and magically returned before the end of the day, so he had them questioning him as well. He doesn’t know when he became such a good liar (maybe from all the times he said, “Everything’s fine,” when someone asked the arbitrary, “What’s wrong?”), but it certainly came in handy as he was able to think up some putrid excuse of having to stay after in English class. And well, Baekhyun and Jongdae wouldn’t have known otherwise because they ditched him to take Mandarin, so all they did was shrug and continue on with whatever they were talking about before the topic came up.

But, really, he hadn’t intended on skipping again. He was walking down the hallway towards his literature class when he heard Zitao calling his name, which Chanyeol found very strange. He approached the boy, wondering if something was wrong with Jongin, but then he mischievously smiled and said he was sent by Jongin to come, “retrieve Chanyeol from his misery.”

Another near sprint across campus later, Zitao with Chanyeol in tow weaved his way through backstage and down the hallway to enter the dance practice room.

As soon as they enter, all the heads turn to look at them, and upon seeing Zitao and Chanyeol, everyone relaxes.

Taemin, nosed in another textbook, smirks at Chanyeol. “Back so soon? Who knew the rebel life was cut out for you, Channie.”

Chanyeol laughs him off and grabs a chair for himself, as Zitao has taken a seat in Sehun’s lap. When Chanyeol sits down, Yixing grins at him and Chanyeol now sees why: he really did bring a second guitar for Chanyeol, just like he promised.

“Chanyeol-ah, you want to write a song together?” Yixing smiles sweetly, and how could Chanyeol say no to that dimple? Jongin laughs and stands up, moving to the front of the room while saying, “Unlike the rest of you, I’m actually going to practice our routine.”

Zitao, from the crook of Sehun’s neck, yells, “Ya, you do that Jongin!”

And the period skipped goes very much like that, with Yixing and Chanyeol playing guitar, Taemin studying, Zitao and Sehun being gross, and Jongin dancing. Though playing guitar with Yixing was definitely enjoyable, Chanyeol found that his focus traveled past the basic songs he and Yixing were playing, and instead it gravitated to a certain someone who was practicing a dance sequence not very far from him, making him palpable, yet somehow still not touchable.

-

Chanyeol really hadn’t intended on skipping two days in a row, but that happened too.

Nothing much happened that day. Taemin was, of course, studying; Yixing was in a really melancholy mood, and therefore only wanted to play sad songs, so Chanyeol spent the period talking with Zitao (only because Sehun was asleep in the corner) and Jongin about themselves, like Zitao being from China, or Chanyeol’s musical abilities, or how long Jongin’s been dancing. Nothing too exciting.

However, Chanyeol really hadn’t intended on skipping three days in one week, but that happened too.

This time, on Friday, out of the corner of his eye, he sees Taemin leaving the building, assumingly heading to the dance practice room; Chanyeol grins and takes off after him. He pushes the door quickly, rushes down the breezeway, and bumps shoulders with the other boy. Taemin smiles at him; then his usual smirk presents itself. “It’s only third period, Channie. Just couldn’t handle school today?”

Chanyeol chuckles, and follows Taemin’s lead towards the dance practice room. “Well, I saw you were heading this way, so I thought I’d catch up with you. I mean, why not?”

And just like the other two days he’s skipped, everyone is sitting in chairs in a sorta-kinda circle. The four sitting look at the door and laugh when they see Chanyeol; Sehun snorts, “Great, Jongin. You let him skip once, and now you’ve probably flushed his great GPA, wonderful attendance, and potential for valedictorian down the toilet. Some friend you are.”

Chanyeol grabs two chairs and gives one to Taemin who sits beside Yixing; Chanyeol sits beside Jongin in their sorta-kinda circle, and says, “At least it takes eight unexcused absences before you have to appeal for your classes. I highly doubt I’ll miss that many.”

Sehun snickers, “Well, with the rate you’re going….”

Jongin jumps up suddenly, and then turns to Chanyeol excitedly. “Chanyeol-ah, with you being around so much, you should join our dance troupe!” When he sees Chanyeol shaking his head while laughing, Jongin pouts. “No, seriously! Six people would be great, right guys?”

Chanyeol wasn’t really expecting any of the others to agree with Jongin, so he’s genuinely surprised when Taemin closes his textbook and Zitao slides away from Sehun, both suddenly attentive. “Yeollie, we can teach you our latest routine and then you can join!” Zitao happily bounces.

“I think you guys are forgetting-”

“And,” Taemin adds, smirking, “He’s really tall, and has a pretty face. He’ll go over well with the ladies.”

“No, but really I think-”

“Aren’t you involved with band or composition or something? You could even make dance beats with Yixing for us to dance to!” Sehun’s even excited, which is saying something because Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s seen Sehun without a smirk or his “neutral face,” as Jongin calls it.

“Guys,” Chanyeol guffaws, “I think you’re forgetting something. I don’t dance. Never have. I’m probably not any good.”

Yixing stands and places his chair against the back wall. “I’m sure we can fix that in no time!”

Chanyeol sighs; but, as he’s willing to try, he grins at them and moves his chair beside Yixing’s in preparation for his crash course on dancing.

-

As it would turn out, Chanyeol really can’t dance well.

They started teaching Chanyeol at 10:30 or so, and they didn’t stop until their decided lunch break at 12:05, conveniently ten minutes before lunch period started - that way they could get their lunch without fuss from their teachers, or worse, Chanyeol’s friends.

After they took their lunches back to the practice room and began to eat, Chanyeol checked his phone and saw that Baekhyun had sent him a message earlier: Channie, are you here today?

And where, usually, Chanyeol responds rather quickly to Baekhyun’s texts, his phone remains forgotten when they resume their dance practice at 12:40. By 3:35, the end of the school day, all of the dance troupe are drained of energy and declare Chanyeol to be “hopeless at dancing.” Chanyeol feels that maybe he should be a bit sad, but Yixing had said that he should come over to his place some time and help him compose a song, so at least one positive thing came out of more than four hours of dance practice.

Chanyeol leaves the practice room soon after that, saying he’d see all of them later, but he doesn’t think any of them heard him with their focus on dancing and the music blaring.

Chanyeol walks to the student parking lot to find the rest of his friends gathered behind his car. He walks apprehensively towards them, leans against the trunk, and slightly waves. “Um, hi guys? Why are you all around my car?”

No one says anything, until Baekhyun scowls at him. “Where the hell have you been?”

Chanyeol looks at him nervously. “What do you-”

“Cut the bull, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun dramatically sighs. “You know where you’ve been. Why weren’t you in any of your classes today?”

“Um, I went to history and-”

“I don’t give a damn if you went to history. You didn’t go to math or chem or literature, Jongdae didn’t see you in band, you weren’t at lunch, and no one even heard from you so we assumed you weren’t even here today, until we saw your car.” Baekhyun is practically seething with anger.

“I don’t understand why you’re so-”

Baekhyun points his finger at him. “Don’t. Don’t you ask something as stupid as, ‘Why are you so mad at me?’ Why the hell do you think-”

Joonmyun side steps Baekhyun and quietly tells the other boy to calm down. “What Baek is trying to say is, uh, well, we’re worried about you-”

“, I wasn’t trying to say that I was-”

Minseok and Luhan stand beside Baekhyun and manage to quiet him down, before Joonmyun continues. “Yes, we’re worried about you Chan. Who are you hanging around; who, or what, is causing you to not go to your classes? Baek and Dae tell me you haven’t been to literature three days this week! Three days, Chan. You realize that if you miss eight days-”

Chanyeol snappily interrupts. “I’m aware of what happens if I miss that often.”

“Well then, why are you doing it?” Minseok questions.

“Well, um,” Chanyeol doesn’t know what Minseok, or Joonmyun, or Baekhyun said that triggered it, but Chanyeol’s falling into his mind again, bringing up previous experiences and memories before his eyes, and he’s sure he looks like he’s in a daze right now, and well he is. He doesn’t know what’s caused it, but he’s feeling emotionally unstable, like his mind is having an earthquake and unearthing all the things he doesn’t want to think about right now. Like how his-

“Chanyeol-ah? You’re still here? I thought you were-” Zitao’s carefree tone stops as quickly as it came, but it was there long enough to raise Chanyeol from the depths of his own mind.

Minseok, Baekhyun, and the rest of his friends look at the group of five people stealthily approaching their “intervention” of sorts. “Who the hell are you?” Baekhyun snaps.

“We’re Chanyeol’s friends, his good friends.” Sehun snarls, which surprises Chanyeol because he didn’t know that Sehun enjoyed his company enough to call him his “good friend.”

Baekhyun breaks away from Minseok and Luhan and moves closer to the tall, blond boy. “Oh, are you saying we,” He points in the direction of Joonmyun and the rest, “Aren’t his good friends? Who even are you to say that?”

Chanyeol sees Jongin struggle to move Sehun aside, but he does manage to get Sehun to back down, mostly with the calming effects of Zitao. “As someone who knows Chanyeol.” Jongin quietly says, while looking at the ground.

Even Joonmyun seems aggravated by the dance troupe’s arrival. “And we don’t know Chanyeol?”

Jongin looks up at that, and his gaze could cut diamonds. He takes a step forward then another, so that he’s only a foot or two behind Chanyeol; he hears more than sees the rest of the dance troupe doing the same. “Oh, I’m sure you do know ‘Chanyeol,’” Jongin sardonically replies, making sure to emphasize Chanyeol’s name with air quotation marks, “If we’re talking about the happy-go-lucky, always smiling and laughing, Chanyeol. But really, do you know Chanyeol? Because the Chanyeol I know is all those things mixed with considerate, and thoughtful, and intelligent - really, really, intelligent-”

Baekhyun spits out, “We know Chanyeol is smart; you don’t need to-”

“Apparently, I do, Baekhyun because you’re one of the very people in our literature class who ignores Chanyeol’s potential and knowledge of the subject. And don’t you dare deny-”

“What are you even implying? That I don’t notice my friend who sits beside me, not you-”

“Dammit, both of you shut up.” Chanyeol finally says, ushering an amount of silence between the feuding parties. Chanyeol sighs and motions for the dance troupe to come stand beside him in front of his car, so that they’re directly looking at his other friends.

Jongdae clears his throat, and speaks up. “Are you trying to tell us that you’ve replaced us, Chanyeollie? Is that why they’re here?”

“I-I,”

“I see,” Baekhyun loudly sighs, taking his lack of a response as “yes” to Jongdae’s questions. “Let’s get out of here guys.”

Baekhyun walks away and never turns back, although the other four are more reluctant to leave, Jongdae and Joonmyun turning back more than once to see Chanyeol’s eyes full of tears and his puppy dog frown. He sees Joonmyun sigh and try to talk to Baekhyun, but the other blows him off, somehow making Chanyeol even more depressed.

The dance troupe remains silent except for the audible pats on the back he receives from Sehun and Taemin. He feels Jongin wrap an arm around his waist, and Chanyeol nuzzles his head into the crook of Jongin’s shoulder.

Yixing breaks the silence when he turns to face all of them. “I’m sorry all this has happened, Chanyeollie, but I may have a way to make you, and well everyone else, feel better? Come on, let’s all drive to my place and I’ll see what I can do.”

Yixing walks away to his car, and Taemin does the same, Zitao and Sehun in tow. Chanyeol lifts his head and turns to get in his car. “Can I, um, ride with you?” Jongin  asks, looking past his head at some trees.

“Yeah,” Chanyeol slightly smiles, “That’s fine.”

The two get in, and Chanyeol drives over to where Yixing is parked and from there, he and Taemin follow him to his house for what will, according to Yixing, make him feel better.

-

songs mentioned in this chapter:

Chanyeol's bright and uplifting song | Chanyeol singing Creep | Baekhyun and Chanyeol singing/playing Love Song |

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(whoops, I hadn't planned for anther pairing to sneak its way into this fic, but it happened. bless taohun, srsly)