It was the day after. The day which the sky was grey and it was wetter than usual. The raindrops were dripping from the sky like water cascading out from a shower bath, and onto the roof it went.

Chanyeol was asleep until a driblet of cold rain fell on his forehead, while he was lying on his bed, sleeping. The rain felt so icy that he was wide awake, as if he had his face washed on a normal morning when he just had to go to work. He swept the water off his forehead with the back of his hand before he opened his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he basically was staring at the ceiling of his rent house. But everything seemed vague.

He couldn’t see anything without his glasses. So, he picked his glasses on the bedside table and put them on instantly.

He discerned that the ceiling was absorbing rain, and he knew that it would keep on dripping again and again. However he felt the urge to not move from where he was lying, for the comforter that neatly wrapped around his body felt binding himself on his bed and embraced him securely on that cold fresh morning. So he moved his head slightly to the left side of his cosy pillow, thinking that he could snooze for a few more minutes without getting wet.

And a drop of water dripped again, before a minute could even pass. It didn’t hit him on his face, but the tiny drop of rain which dropped on his pillow was audible though he closed his eyes and he felt the raindrop that fell on the fabric dispersed through his thin hair. It was disturbing. He thought that the rain would seep into his pillow and he didn’t want his pillow to be drenched.

I need to get off this bed and fix the ceiling or something, he thought. He turned to the opposite side, and he saw Kyungsoo. He was still lying on the bed sleeping tight.

“Kyungsoo yah,” Chanyeol uttered softly, but the latter was still sleeping. The weather was such a good one, and the raindrops which falling on the roof were such a lullaby, at the same time it sunk Chanyeol’s voice into noises before it could reach Kyungsoo’s ears.

“Kyungsoo yah!” Chanyeol uttered again, but louder. Kyungsoo was awake as he heard that, but he was oblivious. He hummed and ignored.

“The ceiling is leaking, Kyungsoo. Wake up and help me fix it.”

Chanyeol was again, ignored. Instead of being concerned about the situation, Chanyeol rewrapped the loose, white comforter on his body and walked towards the washroom which only two steps further from his bed in that small house, and took a small pail. He removed his pillow and the bedsheet to the side of the bed and placed the pail on the leaking spot.

Problem solved, he thought. He then pushed Kyungsoo slowly towards the wall so that he could sleep on his side. Kyungsoo grumbled but he couldn’t help to continue sleeping. In a minute later Kyungsoo started to feel uneasy, so he woke up from the bed.

“Hyung.” Kyungsoo uttered while feeling bothered. Kyungsoo looked at the digital clock on the bedside table. 1230.

“Wake up,” he said to Chanyeol while rocking his legs and then he arose from the bed. And then he went into the washroom, right when Chanyeol had wakened from bed.

Chanyeol slowly stood up and he moved the furniture (his bed) away from the leak, and then placed the pail on the floor just right above the trickle. He sat on Kyungsoo’s bed and started to think without he even realized it. He scrutinized the room, the wall and the furniture.

When would it all end? When would it be?

He meant his life. The way they live. When will be the day that they could move into a bigger house? When will be the day that they will start to earn more money and live better?

He was thinking while looking at the window, and then focused on the rain that kept on hitting the window. Without he even realized, he walked towards the window and touched the vibrating, cold glass. While he was looking outside of the window, he could only see umbrellas instead of heads of people walking, as he looked down.

Coldness went into his skin, his veins, his heart; he was shivering inside. Perhaps all he ever needed was someone who could give him warmth. Someone who could fill the emptiness, like, parents or a family. Chanyeol thought that it was still early to get married, though.

Chanyeol reached out a guitar and started playing a melody. The melancholy that occupied his heart which he needed to drain away, flowing out through the tip of his fingers and his heart will be calmer that way. The tune was sombre.

The sound of someone flushing the toilet was later audible and Kyungsoo went out of the washroom as following. He moved towards the kitchen; towards the sink and then towards the fridge. He grumbled when he looked inside the fridge.

“We’re out of milk. I told you not to drink too much,” Kyungsoo complained, but Chanyeol kept on plucking the strings. Kyungsoo wasn’t happy. He was the one who bought a bottle of milk yesterday and it was gone in just a night. And they were never out of financial crisis. That was why.

“Hyung, do you hear me?” Kyungsoo uttered softly, when he could see that Chanyeol kept on looking outside the window while plucking out a gloom melody. Kyungsoo stood just before him, but the latter seemed to be so oblivious. Like he was at a different space or time. Kyungsoo knew that his fingers could only pluck whatever he had in heart. He approached him slowly and sat beside him, while placing his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder, leaning.

“Hyung,” he uttered. “Can I buy another bottle?” he kept his voice as low as possible.

Chanyeol gazed at him, “Yes, go ahead,” he said and he pointed to the drawer where he kept his wallet.

Kyungsoo was such an obedient child; he moved towards the drawer and opened it, and took some dollars from the wallet. He went out through the door after he took an umbrella, but Chanyeol didn’t realize that the latter was already gone because his mind was occupied with a lot of thoughts. He was still plucking the strings.

Chanyeol was a music prodigy. He remembered how he could play a song on a piano once he heard it without even looking at the notes, when he was eight. He joined the church choir as the pianist when he was ten, for five years. And then his parents send him to Prague to pursue study in classical music; on that particular year when his parents have extra wealth.

Things turned differently two years after. Chanyeol’s parents died in a traffic accident in Seoul; a friend of his father told him through phone on a night in winter. He had neither siblings nor family since that day, and he couldn’t pay for the school fees anymore though he had the money his parents have left for him.

He was homeless for a year, until one day a generous man picked him up from the streets while he was playing his old guitar. That was when he was seventeen years old. He introduced Chanyeol to his friend who was a hotel manager, so the hotel manager offered him a job in the hotel as a musician. However, his salary was just enough for paying the house rent and something to nibble on every morning. The hotel manager gave him lunch and dinner when there’s only an event going on at the hotel. He got gastritis because he didn’t get enough food into his tummy.

Chanyeol met Kyungsoo when he was playing a cello in a grand wedding dinner, when Kyungsoo was singing. Started from that day he grew his love for Kyungsoo’s voice and they became friends.

Kyungsoo’s voice.

Kyungsoo was an orphan who lived in the church since he was a baby. Someone left him by the door during a rainy night, with his birth certificate and some clothes, and a nun had no other choices than to adopt him. So he worked for the church as a server (choirs, altar boy and such) but the nun who adopted him died when he was twelve. Since that day he needed to move away from the church, earn money for a living, and at times he would sleep on the streets when he couldn’t find a cheap room.

Kyungsoo had had the hardest time in his life. That had made him invincible, smart and very distrustful.

Chanyeol asked Kyungsoo to move into his house, so they lived together since then. While Chanyeol could play music at the hotel (but occasionally) while Kyungsoo could play on the streets and sing at restaurants, night clubs and hotels; he could earn extra sometimes. However, when every time he have extra money, he would spend them on clothes.

No one will look at you nor listen to your song when you’re hideous, Kyungsoo said, every time.

Kyungsoo was super serious with his career; he was as good as a professional singer but no one handed him a contract, maybe yet. That made Kyungsoo grew an interest of perhaps he could travel to Korea and make music. He did a lot of researches about the entertainment industry and searching a way to get there.

Chanyeol was super talented in composing music. That was why their collaboration could make them earn more. However, Kyungsoo thought that if he kept collaborating with Chanyeol, his career will be going nowhere. Yes, the big problem lay on Chanyeol’s big thick spectacles and his grey, old man suit. Chanyeol knew the root of the problem but he couldn’t earn more to buy clothes nor even afford a lasik surgery.

Money should be spent on food, health is important, he thought.

Chanyeol needed to find out how to make more money. He kept on plucking his guitar and quarter of an hour just had passed before he could realize it.

“Chan,” a voice barged into his mind, and he stopped thinking.

“Tao?” he chuckled, as he was feeling quite excited when he saw a man sitting before him. “How can you...” Chanyeol asked while he was looking at the door.

Kyungsoo left the door open again? Oh my goodness.

“That door was wide open so I enter. You seem like so into playing that guitar so I thought that I shouldn’t disturb,” Tao explained.

“Oh,” he chuckled. “So since when did you sit there?”

“Since about five minutes ago,” Tao said.

“What?” Chanyeol laughed out loud. “Means in that five minutes I didn’t realize you’re there?”

“Yeah,” Tao chuckled. “Really, you looked like possessed or something.”

“Oh God,” Chanyeol said. “I’m really sorry.”

“That’s super fine dude, I’m actually longed for the music I haven’t heard for over ten years so I’ve decided to stop and listen first,” Tao smiled. He moved to sit beside Chanyeol, closely.

“Tch,” Chanyeol uttered and grinned widely, and his fingers continued to play on the strings. Tao looked around, scrutinizing every inch of the room, all the cracks and paints that fell off from the wall, and he finally discerned the small pail Chanyeol used to collect the trickle. The water was still dripping.

“Hyung,” Tao voiced out again. “I’m supposed to call you hyung right?” he said again while looking at the ceiling, inhaling some fresh air. Chanyeol stopped playing music and stared at him.

“Yah. You’ve never called me that okay, so don’t act so weird. It’s freaking me out.”

Tao laughed out loud. It was true. They’re really close until calling him hyung was an awkward thing to do.

“Nevermind. That wasn’t my point anyway,” Tao stopped and inhaled softly. “So, for how long you’ve been staying here actually?”

“For a while, I think,” he said without thinking. He was staring at his guitar, at the strings that have stopped vibrating. Tao could ask him again but he stopped when he could felt the faint aura Chanyeol had emitted, so he looked at the wall which stood in front of them. Chanyeol was waiting for the next question or anything, at the other hand actually, so he was quite curious of why he hadn’t say anything. Chanyeol gazed at him from the corner of his eyes with his brows lifted up. Tao discerned that he was being scrutinized by the other, so he looked at his face.

“What?” Tao asked. He chuckled.

“What?” Chanyeol asked again. “I mean, why not you say something?” he laughed.

“Why?” Tao laughed. “Chan, you know...” he laughed again but even loud. He really wanted to say, Chan you look so awful, because he looked so sad and deplorable, unlike the last time he saw the boy; he carried the "happy-virus" along everywhere he went and would always wear anything neater than him, but he swallowed back his words. He laughed while looking at the latter, again, not because he looked so physically funny, but because he was too excited meeting someone who he treasured a lot for more than 10 years. His best friend, forever.

“Whaaat?” Chanyeol asked again after he waited for him to say something, for quite a while.

“You... you stink! Why don’t you take a shower first? You’re so disgusting,” Tao complained.

Chanyeol laughed again. “Is that all?”

“Yeah, stinky giant. Go wash yourself.”

“Yah, mind your words,” Chanyeol uttered while he pointed at him, and crossed his arms on his chest after. “Okay fine,” he said next and he uncovered his limbs, but once he placed his feet on the icy, floor, he went up on the bed again and buried himself in the comforter.

“, that’s freezing cold!” Chanyeol uttered beneath the comforter, and Tao could feel him shivering because the comforter was somehow vibrating. Tao laughed out loud.

“Yah, ppali!” Tao said while spanking on Chanyeol’s .

“Are you going to freeze me to death?” he said, still beneath the whole, white thing.

“Or else, I won’t treat you lunch,” Tao uttered immediately. The latter then peeked through the opening the comforter had made.

“You’re... going to treat me lunch?” Chanyeol asked again, he was laughing. “Seriously?”

Tao nodded.

“But it’s freezing,” he stopped, still rolling on the bed, covered in the comforter like a hibernating mole. “Can we just go out tomorrow?” he pouted.

“No.” Tao said. 

“Aaahhh,” he moaned. “Tomorrow, please?” he pouted again.

“Stop whinging and get your up. Wash, now.” Tao said, like Chanyeol was his own son.

“Fine,” Chanyeol emitted a word and slowly revealed himself which was under the comforter all the time. Revealing himself who was just in a red boxer and a white singlet. Before he could fully arise from the bed, Chanyeol just have time to give forth his icky stinky breath on Tao’s nose.

“Yah quick!” Tao laughed while spanking the others again, as a return. Chanyeol disappeared behind the bathroom door a while after, leaving Tao alone in the room.

Chan, what had happened to you, actually? And Tao was drifted away with his thoughts.

* * *

Hey guys. Sorry that I didn't update a chapter last week. It was a super busy week for me. Please, forgive me. *pouting*

I hope you enjoy this chapter and please comment on the story if possible, upvote if you love it. ^^

Bye for now. Thanks!