“Wake up, son.”

Baekhyun stirred awake when somebody held his shoulder and shook it lightly. His body felt stiff, must be because he slept for long hours. He was sure that he fell asleep around 10 last night. And now the sun was already high, and Baekhyun wondered when was the last time he got a really good sleep? He can’t remember. It was difficult to have a good sleep when all you heard while sleeping was the sound of cars honking loudly on the street.

“Dad?” Baekhyun rubbed eyes. “What’s up?” his throat felt dry. It was a bit hard to make his voice sound normal.

His father already dressed with clothes Baekhyun knew as his work uniform. It was a matching blue shirt and pants. “Wash, and meet me outside,” he ordered.

Baekhyun frowned, feeling a little upset that he was being forcefully awakened while he was having a good sleep. But Baekhyun never argued his father’s word. None of his family dared to do the opposite of the head of the family had said. So Baekhyun woke up groggily,yawning non-stop as he got up, took his towel that he placed at the desk last night, got out of his room, and entered the bathroom.

Warm water washed his skin through the top of his head to his toes. He let out a whimper of satisfaction as he enjoyed the fresh warm water.

His mood was definitely better than yesterday. Baekhyun felt a lot better and lighter. For now, he couldn’t feel the tug that had been hanging in his heart for quite some times. If it was already gone in just a spare of one night he was here, then good. Baekhyun thought he probably should really spend the rest of his life here.

What should he do today? Going around the village? Meet his old friends?

Baekhyun turned the shower faucet off and the water quickly stopped hitting his skin. He dried himself with the towel and put on his clothes.

When he went out of the shower, he could hear the clanking sound of steels from the kitchen. Putting his wet towel around his neck, Baekhyun went into the kitchen. His mother was there, as he expected, washing the dishes. Probably she and his dad already had a breakfast before him.

“Wanna have some toasts before you leave?” his mother asked him. She was still washing her dishes.

Baekhyun snapped his head up, surprised that his mother was aware that he was here, despite the fact that her eyes were glued to the sink since the beginning he entered the kitchen. “Uhm, no, thanks, Mom. Is Dad taking me somewhere?”

His mom still hadn’t spared him a glance, “I think so”

Baekhyun stood quietly for a moment, looking around his small house for a sign of his father. He was nowhere in seen, possibly outside waiting for him. Baekhyun put his attention back to his mother. “Did you tell him that I quit my job?”

His mother put the last plate to the rack and dried his hand into his apron. Baekhyun could already tell from her expression that he was right. His parents must had had a talk about him last night.

“Yeah,” his mother nodded, and her eyes looked so soft when she was looking at him. “I also told him that you’re staying here again.”

Baekhyun held the urge to sigh, to show a sign feeling dejected over the fact that the subject about him quitting his job would be brought up again. This time was probably worse since it was his father.

Baekhyun broke his gaze with his mother. His hands fell to his side as he turned around, and said “I’m going,” to his mother before he left the kitchen, going out of the house.

He found his father wiping up the car’s windows. They weren’t even dirty. But he still wiped it anyway.

“Dad,” Baekhyun called him.

His father looked up. Baekhyun could see that his father was growing impatient waiting for him. He looked like he wanted to yell at Baekhyun, instead he just threw away the rag and said,“You ready?”

Baekhyun nodded as he approached him, “Where are we going?”

“Just get inside the car,” his father said and got in the car.

Baekhyun did as he told so. He took the seat beside his father and buckled his seatbelt. It wasn’t really necessary to use seatbelts in this village since it was always just small roads here. His father didn’t even use his seatbelt. Baekhyun might just so used to live in Seoul.

His father started to drive out of the garage and left the house. Baekhyun took a look at the window and absorbed everything surround him. Their area was just a small area dominated with grass field. It wasn’t that this village was totally rural. In the center of village, there were everything they needed. School, supermarket, traditional market, gas station, police station, restaurants, basketball and tennis court, and some convenience store. This village only didn’t have a hospital, but there were still some doctors who opened services for the people. They should go to the nearest small city next to this village if they wanted to go to the hospital or any big institutions.

Baekhyun really didn’t know where his father would take him. He wouldn’t throw him away, right?

“Are you mad at me?” Baekhyun suddenly felt a little paranoid.

His father frowned, “Why would I mad at you?”

Baekhyun never could really tell if his father was angry or not because his face was always the same everytime. Baekhyun his lips, “For quitting my job. For wasting such a good opportunity.”

Baekhyun waited for his father’s answer, but his father only asked him back. “How long have you worked there?”

He didn’t expect his father will ask him that, “At Seoul newspaper? 3 years.”

“That’s a big number,” his father said.

Baekhyun had to agree. He spent three years to dedicate his life to that company. He put out all he had the first two years he worked there. Until he was being promoted to become a senior journalist in a record time.

“Your mom said you’re not happy with your job,” his father continued. “What’s wrong with your three years?”

Baekhyun sighed, “It’s tiring, dad. Living in the city where you always have to be fast, tough, and smart everytime. You’re not allowed to have a flaw.” Thinking back about his last few days in the city, Baekhyun suddenly felt the tug in his heart was back. “I don’t know. I think I’m just tired and stressed out.”

Baekhyun drew a long and deep breath. The car slowly entered the capital of the village. Baekhyun’s attention was now glued to the sight outside. There were some places that Baekhyun had never seen before. He felt the excitement to visit every place in this area again. He also could see many people here. He missed this place so much.

“Your mom said your boyfriend was cheating on you,” his father said, drawing Baekhyun’s attention back to him.

Baekhyun chuckled, “Mom really told you everything, didn’t she?”

“You used to be like your mom, Baekhyun. Chatty and bubbly. And now you’re more and more becoming like me,” his father said flatly.

Baekhyun bit his lip, “It’s not a bad thing, right? Becoming like you.”

“You’re the one who knows the answer.”

Hearing his father’s answer, Baekhyun fell silent and just stared up ahead. The road gradually became empty again. They were leaving the center of village.

“Where are you taking me?” Baekhyun asked.

“I’m taking you nowhere. I’m going to the factory, and I bring you because I thought you need someone to talk to,” his father answered.

“You drive me just to talk to me?”

“I saw you yesterday, and you were being all gloomy. So I guessed you need to let it all out, Son.  You want to stop here?” his father slowed the car a bit. They almost arrived at his factory at the end of the road. It was really quiet here rather than the area they just passed a few moments ago.

Baekhyun looked around, “You’re just going to drop me here? It was far from home, Dad.”

“You could use a walk to think.” By the time he said that, his father had completely stopped the car. He looked at his son, “Have a good day, Son.”

Baekhyun let out a long sigh, “You too, Dad.” And he opened the door and got out of the car.

Baekhyun watched his father go, leaving him alone at the side of the empty road, before he and his car finally left Baekhyun’s sight as it made a right turn. He sighed and reluctantly turned around. Not sure if it was the right way he should take to go home.

Before he knew it, he bumped into someone and stumbled backward. For several seconds, Baekhyun didn’t move and just covered his hurting nose that bumped hard into this stranger in front of him.

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun muttered, still not looking up, making sure that his nose didn’t break or bleed.

“Are you okay?” Baekhyun heard a familiar voice from the person before him. It was the voice he had been dreaming last night. The voice which he perfectly knew only one person had it in this world.

He looked up and opened his mouth in disbelief that Chanyeol really stood in front of him right now. Baekhyun put his hand covering his nose down. It didn’t hurt anymore now after he saw Chanyeol.

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun said a little unsteady.

“Are you okay?” Chanyeol repeated. This time he took one step closer to Baekhyun. A look of concern was planted on his face.

Baekhyun nodded and tried to maintain his experession as much as possible. “What are you doing here?”

Chanyeol seemed hesitant to answer, “I was just walking around here when I saw you get off of your car.”

Baekhyun squinted his eyes because Chanyeol’s weird answer. But he decided to shrug it off. Instead, he took a good look of Chanyeol. Yesterday, he didn’t get a chance to really talk and see him in a full posture like this. Chanyeol was indeed very tall, and Baekhyun felt a little embarrassed because he must look like a kid compare to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol was wearing a casual short and t-shirt. And his face...his face was just as handsome as yesterday.

“So,” Chanyeol began to talk again. And his voice always got Baekhyun. “Where were you going?”

Baekhyun snickered, “I’m not going anywhere, actually. I’m...I think I’m going home.”

Chanyeol stared at him, and Baekhyun had to hold the urge to look away because his gaze was just too deep and intense. Was that how Chanyeol always look at people?

“Do you want to walk together?” Chanyeol offered. “I’m also just about to go home.”

Baekhyun nodded, “Yeah, sure.” Then the both of them walked side by side. They walked in silent for  a while until Baekhyun couldn’t hold the silence anymore. “Why aren’t you at school?”

“It’s weekend,” Chanyeol laughed.

This was the first time he heard him laughed, and Baekhyun almost couldn’t contain himself. “Right, I forgot,” he awkwardly scratched his hair.

As they walked side by side, Baekhyun stared at the boy beside him out of the corner of his eyes. It was really obvious even without much observation that Chanyeol was one foot taller than him. Baekhyun didn’t even reach his ear. Baekhyun wanted to snort, feeling dejected that a teenage boy was way more taller than him.

But that kid being extremely tall was probably the only thing that Baekhyun was pissed off about. Because Chanyeol was...he didn’t want to sound cheesy but Chanyeol was one of the finest human beings he had ever met. Chanyeol was handsome, really handsome. His haircut was perfectly shaping his beautiful jaws. Chanyeol didn’t even wear revealing clothes but Baekhyun could already tell that he had “enchanting” body.

Baekhyun shook his head subtly. He had to stop think so innappropriate about the kid. He cleared his throat, as he turned to look at Chanyeol, “So you’re really eighteen?”

Chanyeol stared back at him, “Yeah, why?”

Baekhyun tilted his head a little, “You really don’t seem like it. You know...your posture, your voice.”

“I get that a lot,” Chanyeol snickered, and Baekhyun noticed that the boy had a dimple when he smiled. Can he be more perfect than this?

Baekhyun tore his gaze. He can’t afford to have Chanyeol saw him drooling over him. “You drove me yesterday, though,” Baekhyun said without look at him. “Do you even have a license, Chanyeol?”

He laughed again. Baekhyun had thought that Chanyeol was a serious person, turned out he wasn’t. He laughed really easily, and Baekhyun just wanted to laugh along with him.

“I probably a bit rebellious but I would never put anyone’s life in danger, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol said. “Yes, I have a license.”

Baekhyun nodded, “Sorry, I just...want to make sure. ‘Cause I don’t have a license, you know.” He didn’t really know why he asked about that matter in the first place, anyway. He just ran out of topic to talk. “And I don’t know why I’m telling you that.”

Baekhyun lowered his head, feeling embarrassed. But although he was looking down, Baekhyun could feel that, beside him, Chanyeol was still staring at him. And Baekhyun was torned between dreading and not wanting to look back at him.

“I would love to hear everything you tell me, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol said.

At that, Baekhyun looked up at the younger boy, and he was sure that his face was now as  red as the tomato because of the statement.

This kid, Baekhyun thought, how dare he played with his feeling.

“I...There’s nothing I could tell you about,” Baekhyun said quietly as he looked upfront again. The road was getting wider now as they slowly arrived at the middle of the town that Baekhyun and his dad had passed by earlier.

Chanyeol smiled, and the sight was pretty endearing for Baekhyun. “Everyone’s always has something to tell. I’m sure you have a lot of stories. Especially you just cameback from the city.”

Baekhyun threw an awkward laugh, “You seriously think that I have stories because I was from the city?”

“Well, you’re a writer. So...”

“I’m not a writer, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun cut him off. “I’m a journalist.”

Chanyeol nodded, seemed like he was feeling satisfied. “Okay, we can start from there. So, you’re a journalist?”

They kept on walking. Slowly at first, but as the topic about his job rose, Baekhyun started to fasten his walk, matching up with his heartbeat. He didn’t know if it was a good decision to tell the boy. Of all stories he had, why this one should be asked by him? Baekhyun didn’t want to sound lame in front of him.

“I...Well, I was a newspaper journalist,” Baekhyun started, and threw the much taller boy a glance, making sure if Chanyeol will really listen to him, before he continued, “it’s Daily Seoul newspaper.”

“I already knew about that,” Chanyeol said. “Mrs.Byun loves to talk about you sometimes.”

Baekhyun blinked, “how much do you know about me?”

Baekhyun didn’t miss how deep Chanyeol’s voice was when he hummed, thinking. “Uhm, pretty much the basics.”

“It’s not fair how you already know me. Meanwhile, I only know that you’re eighteen years old and we’re from the same almamater,” Baekhyun protested. “And your house is at the end of the road. That’s it.”

“Aren’t those the basics, too?” Chanyeol asked.

“But I’m sure you know more about me than I know about you.”

Chanyeol pursed his lips, trying to hide his wide grin, “So you wanted to know more about me?”

“W—what? No, it’s...I just think it’s unfair, okay?” Baekhyun stuttered.

Chanyeol laughed, “if you wanted to know that much, you could just ask me, Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun shouldn’t have affected by that kind of tease. It was lame and old. But somehow, he felt like a teenage girl, being teased by his crush, and he felt like butterflies playing inside his stomach.

Baekhyun was too busy maintaining his heartbeat that he didn’t realize that they had arrived at the town’s center. There were some people wandering around, entering or exciting shops. Baekhyun knew some of them, mostly elderly people, while he couldn’t really recognized the youngsters face.

Baekhyun sighed. He was really getting old.

“Do you want to look around here first?” Chanyeol asked, pulling Baekhyun out from his trance. “The last time you came here was one year ago, right?”

Baekhyun looked around the street, inspecting it. There were some new places that caught his attention and he wanted to go there. But he thought he could do it later. There was some business that he should handle right now.

“Nah, I have plenty of time to do that later,” Baekhyun finally answered.

Chanyeol’s brows flickered, “Oh? You’re staying here for a while?”

“I’m staying here for a quite long time.”

Baekhyun could see from the corner of his eyes that the younger boy was confused and dying to ask him. He seemed contemplating but in the end he only asked, “So you’re just going to go home now?”

Baekhyun heaved a subtle relieved sigh, feeling grateful that Chanyeol didn’t ask him any further. “I think I’m going to my Noona’s cafe first,” Baekhyun smiled to him. “You wanna come?”

He didn’t know where did he got the gut to invite the boy. It somehow just came out from his mouth, and Baekhyun just didn’t want to part with him yet.

Plus, Baekhyun was glad that he asked him to come, because the expression plastered on Chanyeol’s face was definitely worth the shameless invitation he just asked. This was the first time Baekhyun witnessed Chanyeol being flustered. His lips were parted and his eyes were so round. He looked cute, and Baekhyun strangely liked it.

“Sure,” Chanyeol returned the smile. His smile was so big and bright.

Baekhyun giggled, “Why do you look so happy, huh?”

Chanyeol hadn’t stopped smiling, “because I am happy. I didn’t expect that you’re going to invite me.”

A sudden emotion burst through Baekhyun. It was so long since the last time someone said that he had made them happy. And this kid... Chanyeol was happy just because he asked him to come with him.

Baekhyun had forgotten how nice it felt to make someone happy. Seeing Chanyeol happy was nice.

That moment, Baekhyun thought that he wanted to keep making Chanyeol smiled. Because Chanyeol’s smile made him happy.

And happiness was everything he wanted right now.