CHAPTER NINE

Piano Keys and Paint Brushes

FOLDED PAPER


Chanyeol had finished his story and he turned to Seulmi.

“So as you can see I’m--,” he was caught midway as he saw the girl sitting beside him.

Seulmi sniffed and wiped tears running down her cheeks and turned away from the guy.

“DON’T LOOK AT ME!” she exclaimed.

Seulmi kept wiping away the tears and blocking Chanyeol’s sight.

“You’re not the one who’s supposed to cry!” Chanyeol giggled. “You asked me what was going on, so I told you!” he continued.

“Tch, shut up! It’s not my fault you have such a sad story!” Seulmi scolded. “I didn’t really think that you’d have that kind of problem with your parents.” She sniffed the remaining.

“Well I didn’t know that you’d be affected so much.” Chanyeol smiled.

Seulmi took a deep breath, and spoke “When was the last time you saw your parents?”

Chanyeol held out his fingers as a gesture of counting then gave the answer, “About 6 months?”

“Geez, that long?” Seulmi raised an eyebrow. “Must’ve been real hard.”

Chanyeol nodded and just stared at the sky.

“I can never bear that. I’m too attached to my parents. I think I’d cry like a baby, everyday.”

“I did, at first. But I got used to it.” Chanyeol casually shrugged.

“Pfft, then why were crying a minute ago?” Seulmi teased.

“I guess I just really miss them, especially my Mom. She was the one who always supported me.” The guy explained. Chanyeol inhaled and spoke once more, “And maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t exactly been sure if this is what I have to do just so I can achieve my dream.”

Seulmi simply blinked at the sentence. His voice sounded so hurt, so sincere. He sounded broken.

With a hopeless scratch on the head, Seulmi began. “It’s never bad to pursue your dreams. If it’s what you really want to do with your life and dedicate yourself to.” She looked up at one of the clouds rolling by. “If it’s something that’ll make you happy, you shouldn’t even have second thoughts about it, just go for it.” Seulmi smiled at the sky.

As she gave the speech, she also felt that she was giving it to herself. Talking to herself.

Chanyeol tilted his head and fixed his gaze upon Seulmi who was oddly enough smiling by herself just staring at the sky.

“She’s pretty weird too.” The guy smiled to himself.

Seulmi turned to Chanyeol just to check if his face had at least lightened up. It had. He wore that genuine smile of his again.

“Well that’s more like it!” Seulmi celebrated. “Frowning and crying doesn’t really suit you. You should keep that in mind the next time you decide to cry.” She teased.

Chanyeol chuckled and shook his head. “Remind me again how you are not prone to crying all too easily?”

She rolled her eyes and said, “That’s different.”

“No, it’s not!” Chanyeol claimed.

Seulmi snarled. “I’m gonna go now. It looks like you’re fine now. I’ll be over to my spot on this rooftop.” She got up and dusted herself off.

To her surprise, Chanyeol had gotten up as she had. He took Seulmi’s hand and spoke, “Thank you, Seulmi.”

He turned Seulmi’s hand and opened her palm to place recently made origami of a swan.

“Oh my God! What is that?! It feels wrong! What is it?!” Seulmi panicked because she didn’t know what Chanyeol had just placed in her hand.

“It’s just a paper origami of a swan! Calm down!” Chanyeol giggled.

“A what?! You do this sort of thing?” Seulmi held up the carefully folded paper swan.

Chanyeol only smiled, “Only recently.”

Seulmi stared at the thing in her hand and felt a pat on her shoulder, “I’ll go. You were here first.” And off went Chanyeol.

“When did he do this?” Seulmi wondered in awe of the unsuspecting piece of origami.

She shrugged it off and shoved the delicate paper swan right into the pits of her pocket. Seulmi went back to her sketch.

Another hour went by and she decided to meet back with Hyerin.

Hyerin was in the middle of stretching her arms because of how sleepy she’d gotten in her last class. At the same time, she was upon a yawn.

“Hyerin-ssi!” a male voice shouted from behind.

Hyerin’s eyes widened as she was caught completely off guard. She blinked and turned to see who it was.

“Are you alright now?” Baekhyun worriedly asked.

Hyerin nodded and answered, “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“Are you sure? I’m sorry. It’s just that it was the first time I’d ever made a girl cry. I didn’t know exactly what to do.”

“YOU MADE POOR HYERIN-SSI CRY?!” Chanyeol gave the other a full smack on the head.

Hyerin jumped a little bit, startled.

Baekhyun was rubbing his damaged head, “I really didn’t mean to.”

“Uh, i-it’s alright now. It doesn’t matter.” Hyerin was smiling.

“Yah, where were you, anyway, Yeol?” Baekhyun turned to the taller one.

Chanyeol shifted his gaze and dodged, “I was making paper swans.”

“Again?!”

“Yah, making those cute little things help me a lot. They’re very dear to me.” Chanyeol reflected.

“Cheeseball.” Baekhyun muttered.

Hyerin was just there for the whole thing not knowing what to do or how to get away. “So, I-uh, I have to go.” She uttered.

Chanyeol just stared at Baekhyun and before Hyerin could’ve walked off, Baekhyun spoke once more. “I’m glad you’re okay now.”

Hyerin nodded awkwardly and fled.

 “Where’re you going?” Seulmi had caught up to Hyerin.

Hyerin took in a deep breath and gritted her teeth, “You guys have got to stop startling me!”

Seulmi looked at Hyerin as if she was demented.

“Are you okay?” Seulmi kept her distance. “Are you having another break down? I-I can go.” She was overreacting.

Hyerin cupped her face and just breathed. She turned to Seulmi, smiled, and spoke, “Let’s go.”

“D’you wanna go and eat or something?” Seulmi asked.

Hyerin gave a heavy sigh and replied, “Anything.”

The two of them walked into the cafeteria and browsed through all the food displayed. Hyerin ordered 2 cupcakes and a soda and went ahead of Seulmi while she was still deciding on whether to comply to her self-proclaimed diet or completely ditch it. She eyed the various choices of delicious food. As if a light bulb had gone on, she figured out what she wanted.

Seulmi ordered a full meal of pasta, burger, and mashed potatoes with a large Coke. She reached inside her pocket for the money but instead, she felt a sharp cut from the crumpled paper she had earlier from the incident on the rooftop.

She cussed, pulled the piece of paper out, and dumped it in the trash can.

“Wow, I guess the diet is totally out of the question?” Hyerin said as she was unwrapping her first cupcake.

Seulmi rolled her eyes, “Food is vitamins and nutrients. No human can survive by depriving themselves of it.”

Hyerin only nodded and started on her cupcake. She noticed that her friend was fiddling with her finger. She took a closer look and realized that it was slightly bleeding.

“What happened?” Hyerin asked.

“Tch, paper cut. I had this folded piece of paper in my pocket.”

“How could it have been so sharp?” Hyerin looked at the red line lining down Seulmi’s pale hand.

“I think it’s some type of origami paper.” Seulmi guessed as she was tending to her wound.

“Huh, origami is the artsy type of folding paper, isn’t it?” Hyerin tilted her head.

Seulmi nodded in reply.

“That’s so weird.” Hyerin simply stated and went on with her snack.

Seulmi had finally finished with her injury and faced her friend.

“What’s so weird?”

“That Baekhyun guy and his friend Chanyeol also mentioned the same topic.” Hyerin was now on her second and last cupcake.

“Oooh~ So you’ve been talking to them on your own, have you?” Seulmi wiggled her brows.

Hyerin frowned, “No.”

Seulmi gave a hearty laugh and spoke, “Come on, tell me what happened.”

“It was probably nothing. The guy just said that Chanyeol had this thing with making paper swans. He just said it was something that really helps him in some way.” Hyerin shrugged it off.

Seulmi on the other hand suddenly felt the urge to shove her hand back in her pocket to look for something she had received on the rooftop. She paled.

Both her pockets were empty. She even turned them inside out. Seulmi hadn’t even started on her meal yet.

She faked a laugh and said, “Err, yeah pfft, that is weird! Uh, did he by any chance, I don’t know, say that those folded pieces of paper were important to that Chanyeol guy?” Seulmi felt the sweat and guilt through her body.

“Actually, that was it. He said it helped him go through stuff, I don’t know what but it did seem like a big deal to him. Why?” Hyerin gulped down the soda.

“. I threw it in the trash can.” Was all Seulmi heard in her head. 

“You okay?” Hyerin gazed at her friend.

“Uh yeah. Hehe. If you’ll excuse me, I have to see to something.”

“What? You haven’t touched your food!”

“You eat it! I think you need it more than I do! I’ll call you later!” Seulmi was off to the trash.

She casually scanned using only her eyes, not daring to poke through the trash. To her surprise, the bin was empty. It had been emptied while she was sitting down.

“It’s gone. That paper swan thingy is gone. !”


After several centuries, I had the decency to update because I feel so bad for starting something and not committing to finishing it. I still hope you guys enjoy? Jebaaaaaallllll T_T HAPPY READING :D

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NotAnEmptyUsername
#1
Ngayon ko lang napansin ako lang di mo nirereplyan. Azar ka. -_____- Hahahaha. Update soon authornim!! Grabe kang bruha ka miss na kita. :P
SooRaa
#2
Chapter 11: Update soon.
NotAnEmptyUsername
#3
Chapter 11: Hahahaha shems. Jeje po si authornim. Anywaayyy ang daebak. Lecheeee. Balik feels although medj ako ang nakoconfuse para kay baek kasi may dalawa siyang girlalu na pinaglalaanan ng atensiyon. Hahahaha. Landi kasi ehhh. Huhuhu. Labyouuu. Thank you ng bongga sa update! :D
NotAnEmptyUsername
#4
Authornim, I am now a thousand years old. Please update before I die. Thanks.
Hahahaha. Srsly tho. I'm waiting for some HyeBaek and ChanSeul action. :P
NotAnEmptyUsername
#5
AUTHOR-NIM UPDATEEE! :(((
NotAnEmptyUsername
#6
Chapter 10: Hahahaha. Shet kinilig nanaman ako kay Seulmi at Chanyeol. Kikiligin na sana ako kay Baekhyun eh, kaya lang iniwan nya si Hyerin. :( Huhuhu. But authornim.. please update soon, nae? Like tomorrow! :D Loveyouuuu.
NotAnEmptyUsername
#7
Dude. You have got to update this soon. So nakakabitiiiin. Pero infairview, kinikilig ako. SHET. HAHAHAHA. loveyouforevs. HA? UPDATE NAA HA?
NotAnEmptyUsername
#8
Chapter 9: Dude. Not even a thank you for forcing you to update? :< HAHAHAHA. Anyway, fighting! ^^ Pakitapos to pls. HAHAHAHAHA. Pag sinipag ako, gagawan kita ng GIF. LOOOOL.