Clack~ 

You hear the snap of a tree branch on the ground and you swiftly hide yourself while trying not to giggle with your hand clasp over your face. Every other day, you wait for the moment where you will hear footsteps on the fallen tree branches in the forest. Whenever you hear the continuous crackle of tree twigs, you hastily run towards the end of the forest to see the person who is the cause behind this melodious and soothing sound. 

Park Chanyeol. 

The gangly, tall, lanky guy whom you have been seeing for the past few weeks. The first time you saw him, you mistakened him for an elf for he has elfen ears that protrude from the side of his head. His eyes were also big, and round, making him look even more mythical. If not for his extremely tall frame, you would have thought he is in the mythical world.

That tall guy is walking through the wood as the wood crackle follows him in a steady, slow pace. You try not to lose sight of him but try to conceal yourself away from him, by swiftly moving from one tree trunk to another as you hide yourself. 

Not like he'll see you anyway. 

Your powers are still too unstable to make yourself be visible. As one of the spirits, who guard the forest, you materialized in this forest and slowly age with the forest. Your duty is one and only thing - to make sure that the forest grow strong and green to prevent misfortune from falling on the forest. The spirits will materialize and disintegrate with time. Old spirits disintegrate into nothingness once their time is up and the younger spirits replace them. You are one of the young ones with unstable power. Younger ones will have to practice to stablize their inner power so that they do not disintegrate at a quick pace. 

That is what you had been doing for the past 100 years - practicing again and again to stabilize yourself, against your own free will, until Park Chanyeol appear. 

You can still remember the day you met him. You were walking through the forest while flicking your fingers and pointing at the tree branches to make them bend into strange shapes when you hear a sweet tune. That tall, lanky guy was playing an instrument on a tree stump. Sunlight was falling on him, which brightened his surrounding and himself. You couldn't tear your eyes away from him as you watched him play his instrument. Later, you found out that what he was playing is called a guitar - from an older spirit who had enough power to disguise herself as a human and enter the world. 

Ever since that day, you had been determined to work hard to meet him and interact with him in person. Until then, you will have to be happy with just looking at him from afar. He cannot interact with you anyway. Your form is far too weak to materialize in his vision. Even if you try, all it will happen is burn yourself from all the heat he radiate as a human. Spirits are far more suspectible to human's heat - so much so that if they are not careful they can burn themselves. 

"Chanyeol..." he calls his name, which is how you learned his name, "You can do this." He speaks to himself as encouragement, a habit that he always does whenever he gets nervous. You never know what he does but you guessed it would be something music-related since he is always playing his guitar and singing. Sometimes, he would talk in a manner that he is reciting but not quite. It is more like fast paced speaking. You don't know what that is but he sings better than he quickly speaks. But your absolute favourite times are those when he speak to himself. His voice is your worst nightmare disguised as day dream. 

He would play his guitar, sing a little, and then leave the forest after he is satisfied with himself. You would always watch him from afar and when he leaves, there is always a vacant space in your heart, which longs to see him again. The days will pass and he will visit the forest again. The cycle repeats itself all over again. Before you know yourself, you are deeply attached to him

~~~

You take a deep breath as you look at him enter the forest. Today, he is wearing an over-sized sapphire blue coat with a dark mustard yellow sweater layered over a white shirt and pants that look quite big on him. He is also donning a large velvet hat that is of a darker shade to his yellow sweater.

Today is the day.  

You take another deep breath and slowly close your eyes to gather all of your energy and stabilize it in the pit of your stomach. You keep looking at your hand to witness it materializing in front of your eyes. It felt surreal and strange at the same time. After some time, you hesitantly touch the tree trunk. It does not go through your body anymore. You feel the rough texture of the tree bark, which feels quite foreign to you but you nearly squeal at the thought of your stronger power. 

Park Chanyeol is walking to his usual spot of the tree stump where he will spend the next few hours playing the guitar and singing. You deliberately walk further away from him since your footsteps can be heard now. The words that your senior had been telling you echo in your head as you shadow Park Chanyeol, 'associating with human is not encouraged.' the fundamental rule that all spirits must follow. Sometimes, rules are meant to be broken right? 

"Ah~!" your ankle got caught in the loop of a tree root and you exclaimed before falling face flat on the ground. "Owh..." you feel pain for the first time in your life. Being in solid form is not as fun as you thought it would be, it's painful. 

You push your arms to get up and a voice is heard, "Are you all right? Are you hurt?" He is looking at yozu with concerned eyes and carefully studying your face. You smile and nod at him while rubbing your face, which feel quite raw from the impact of the fall. His face spread into a smile and you are mesmerized by how gentle and happy it looks. 

His arms reach forward to help you stand up, which cause more pain to you with his body heat but you wince slightly and withold the pain. Afterall, you are the one who is willing to go an extra mile to get to know him. 

"My name is Park Chanyeol," he speaks once both of you settle around that tree stump - him sitting on his usual tree stump and you on another nearby his. "What's yours?" he continues. 

Your mouth open, "I'm..." to tell him your real name but you pause and hesitate to say so. Instead, you smile and close your eyes, determined to lie to play off a story on your own stage. 

A little white lie wouldn't hurt anyone, right? 

[Next Location - London]

~~~