Chanyeol didn’t know how Baekhyun and Jongdae got enough money, being unemployed and all, but somehow they managed to get Chanyeol a rather nice looking Martin acoustic guitar for an early birthday present. When they gave it to him, they simply said, “We expect a setlist by the end of the year. Get to work, photo boy, and stop taking all those obnoxious pictures of us.” Chanyeol, though completely shocked about their gift, hugged both of them, until Baekhyun punched him in the stomach and told him to stop being gross.

Chanyeol took the guitar home, opened its case, and realized that there weren’t any strings on the guitar, and his friends didn’t think to buy any. Chanyeol sighed, realizing that he obviously wasn’t going to play that day – that day turned into about a week, and that turned into a week and half, and that made him worry about Baekhyun and Jongdae showing up unannounced one day and demanding to hear a cover song that he clearly wouldn’t be able to play.

And that’s why Chanyeol is presently standing in front of the music department’s front doors; he has absolutely no idea how to play guitar, hell, he has no idea how to string his guitar. Better yet, he has no idea where he can buy his strings, or even what strings to buy. Luckily for him, around the school, someone has been advertising free, free, guitar lessons. Though the ad itself looks rather shady in Chanyeol’s opinion, the lessons are sponsored by someone in the music department, so he’s willing to give it a shot. (The ad in question was haphazardly copied, with nearly a fourth of the page blank, and questionable with its poorly drawn guitar beside a chibi person with curly hair and dimples, who was wearing a nirvana tee and showing a peace sign).

Jongdae has a few classes in the department this semester, and he seems to enjoy his professors, so Chanyeol isn’t expecting an awful instructor, maybe just one that’s a bit strange and has an odd taste in design. He called the music department’s head professor to set up an appointment, as the ad suggested, for 4 on the upcoming Tuesday, and here he is at 3:30, thirty minutes in advance, so as to not be the first person. Currently, he’s just standing around, waiting for anyone else to show up.

At 3:50, and no one else has shown up yet, Chanyeol sighs and opens the front door of the music building. With Jongdae’s directions in the back of his mind, he walks down the hallway, takes a left, and knocks on the second classroom on the left. A few seconds go by before a guy who looks far too young to be a professor opens the door, “Hello? Do you need something?”

“Um, hi? I’m Park Chanyeol, I’m here for the guit-”

The other man's eyes grow wide (with surprise? or happiness? ... something?), and he ushers Chanyeol inside by saying, “Come in! You’re a bit early!”

“It’s only ten minutes before-” Chanyeol cuts himself off when he sees that literally no one else is in the classroom except for him and this young professor. He was expecting, with a professor so generously donating his time, more people to be here than this.

“Where is everyone?” Chanyeol asks as he sits his guitar case on the floor and looks around.

“Everyone?” The man tilts his head side to side in confusion.

“Yeah, I mean, don’t you have students who could benefit from this too?”

The other man stares at him for a few seconds before bursting in laughter. Chanyeol thinks that his laugh, though cute in its giggly nature, belongs to someone who maybe isn’t completely sane. Maybe he should have been more suspicious of these lessons, given the ad boasting the stupid looking guitar, before he came.

The other man wipes his eye, for show or to actually remove tears of laughter, Chanyeol doesn’t know. “You’ve got it all wrong. I’m Zhang Yixing, a musical composition major. Not a professor. I’m giving out free guitar lessons as part of my final exam in a course, and also as a good deed to the community. So, pull up a chair and I’ll start teaching you.”

Chanyeol, taking in Zhang Yixing’s appearance, sees that the man is dressed in a faux-denim button down with a silver cross necklace on top, khaki skinny jeans that make his legs go on for miles despite the fact that he’s still considerably shorter than Chanyeol, and classic black high tops to complete the outfit. Chanyeol supposes nothing out of the ordinary could be going on with this Yixing guy; after all, he is a student here, and the music department sponsors his lessons. Chanyeol grabs a chair from against the wall, picks up his guitar case, and places both down across from Yixing, in the middle of the room.

“What type of guitar do you have?” Yixing asks as he’s unpacking his own, along with a lot of supplies Chanyeol didn’t even know existed. He’s heard of picks before, but what’s that bar thing? And, what is he putting on the end of his guitar?

“Uh- It’s a Martin.” Chanyeol quietly says, gently opening the case and revealing his still unstrung Martin acoustic.

“Have you ever played before?” Yixing asks, still not looking up at Chanyeol as he begins tuning his guitar, or at least that’s what Chanyeol assumes he’s doing.

“About that…. No. My guitar isn’t stringed either…” Chanyeol mumbles, looking down at his case.

Yixing finally looks up at that, and when he sees Chanyeol’s hopeless expression and his unstringed guitar, he giggles, quite loudly. “You’re telling me you have a relatively high dollar guitar, and you’ve never played before? Never even strung a guitar?”

“Well, I mean,” Chanyeol defends, “it was a gift from my friends for my birthday, so I didn’t pick it out.”

“Ah, I see.” Yixing hums and places some of his supplies back into his case. “Your friends must really care about you to get you this.” Yixing laughs and shakes his head, making his perfectly swept bangs fall over his eyes and block his vision, until he pushes the hair out of the way. “Why didn’t I have friends like yours when I began playing?”

Yixing walks towards the storage room, and he returns with two guitar stands. “Okay, so let me put my guitar on the stand, and I’ll help you string your guitar.”

“Uh,” Chanyeol nervously adjusts his sideburns, “I don’t have any strings?”

Yixing gently smiles at him. “You’re in luck; I have an extra set.”

Chanyeol, so excited from the idea that he’ll actually be able to play, nearly drops his guitar out of his lap, causing Yixing to turn quickly and look at him with frightened, wide eyes.

“Be careful!” Yixing says when he squats to grab something out of his guitar case, broadcasting his firm, muscular thighs, and Chanyeol gulps and looks away before he starts blushing. Yixing sits down in his chair with a small, square packet in his hand and says, “If you didn’t know, these are strings.” He lifts the small package and continues. “If you’ll put your guitar on the other stand I brought, I’ll teach you how to string your guitar.”

Chanyeol, carefully, does as he’s told and places his guitar on the stand beside Yixing’s. Yixing kneels in front of the guitar and opens the package, revealing much longer strings than Chanyeol ever imagined could fit in such a small packet.

“Okay, so the important thing about stringing a guitar is to look at the chart on the back of the strings,” Yixing holds the package towards Chanyeol and points to the chart, “that way you can make sure you have the right string in the right place. And, you also need to know what string goes where in the first place. Do you know the order of the strings?”

Chanyeol simply shakes his head, and Yixing nods understandingly.

“Okay, well, remember this: the order of the strings is capital E, A, D, G, B, lower case e.” Yixing articulates every letter by speaking with his hands. “Little e represents the smallest string, and the capital E is of course the thickest string. Got it?”

Chanyeol smiles excitedly and sits down on the floor beside Yixing. “Got it. Capital E, A G, D, B, lower case e.”

“Close,” Yixing shakes his head while reading the chart, “but not exact. It’s capital E, A, D, G, B, lower case e. You switched the G and the D.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol mumbles as he looks away, slightly embarrassed.

Yixing looks at him and grins; he points to something on the chart that Chanyeol doesn’t really understand. “The biggest reason I use the chart is because sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the B string and the lower case e string - and I say that from personal experience. One time I put them in the wrong place and didn’t realize until I tried to tune them and broke one of them when it wouldn’t tune properly.”

Chanyeol feels better about his inexperience after hearing that his guitar instructor has made a careless mistake like that before. Knowing that Yixing obviously improved, despite his mistakes, inspires Chanyeol to pay closer detail to the chart, until he gives up when he thinks it’s still too difficult to understand.

Yixing hands him the chart and leans over to grab something near his chair, and Chanyeol averts his eyes so he doesn’t stare at the strip of milky skin caused by Yixing’s shirt rising. When Yixing grabs the object - some spinny device, Chanyeol notices - he says, “Okay, Chanyeol, hand me the capital E string.”

“And that is?” Chanyeol asks, completed bemused by the chart.

“The thickest one.” Yixing says expressionlessly, making Chanyeol embarrassed for the nth time today, and it’s only been a max of fifteen minutes.

“Okay,” Chanyeol says, and he searches through the individually packaged strings until he finds one with a capital E on the plastic packaging. “Yixing, did you know that they tell you which string is which on the wrapping?” Chanyeol enthusiastically grins and hands him the string.

“Aren’t you lucky?” Yixing chuckles, tearing off the plastic surrounding the string. Once he has the string in his hand, Yixing says, “Watch closely. It’s simple, really. First, you take the end without the bead on the end….” Chanyeol accidentally zones Yixing out as he describes the various steps to string a guitar; however, not wanting to be completely inattentive, Chanyeol concentrates on every one of Yixing’s movements in the hopes that he will be able to replicate everything soon.

"Now that we've done that, we lead it through this little hole, which allows us to tune the string." Yixing finishes with a smile.

Yixing looks at Chanyeol and his eyes brighten with excitement, "I know a special trick for this part. When we put it through that hole, some people continually wrap it around this piece," he points to a small knob where the hole is located, "however, I learned that if you wrap it once and bend it backwards, it will allow you to cut more excess string, and your guitar will stay in tune longer! Isn't that great?"

"Yeah, that sounds awesome," Chanyeol looks unsure, "but, why is the string so loose right now?" To emphasize his point, he plucks the string, and it makes a metallic boing sound.

Yixing looks like he wants to say something, but he shakes his head and grins. "That's because we haven't tightened it yet."

"Oh. Why don't we do it now?"

Yixing's eyes grow with disgust and fear. "What? You can't do that! You'll ruin the neck!"

"The neck?"

Yixing runs a hand along the side of the fretboard, "This long part from the body," Yixing slaps a hand below the sound hole, "to the head," he points to the top of the guitar, "is the neck. Kinda looks like a giraffe neck, am I right?"

Chanyeol chuckles at Yixing's analogy. "So, how does tightening the string now ruin the neck?"

Yixing holds a hand out, silently asking for the next string, and when Chanyeol hands him the A string, Yixing nods in approval, making Chanyeol smile widely. "You'd create tension on one part of the neck, and since the tension wouldn't be equal across, it would warp it."

"Oh, okay," Chanyeol watches Yixing repeat the process at double speed, and in about thirty seconds, he is finished and turns to him expectantly. Chanyeol picks up the next string and hands it to Yixing, who shakes his head and smiles. "You've seen me do it twice; you can do it now."

Chanyeol nods and shakily removes the packaging around the string, and with slight hesitation, he repeats the steps he watched Yixing do two times before. After he leads the string through the hole that helps tune it (or something like that), Chanyeol is at a loss at what to do, so he turns to Yixing and resignedly shrugs his shoulders.

"You’ve put it through the hole. So, do the little trick I taught you, and then you're ready for the next string."

Chanyeol successfully strings the string, making Yixing beam and say, "Good job! You finish the last three strings, and I'll work on my music theory assignment. If you need help, just let me know."

Chanyeol waves his hand dismissively and grins before picking up the next string, unwrapping it, and repeating Yixing's steps. After completing the process two more times after that, Chanyeol stands up with his hands behind his back and grabs Yixing's attention by proudly yelling, "I did it! I did it, Yixing!"

Yixing chuckles and puts down his pencil and staff paper before moving over to Chanyeol's guitar and instantly frowning. "Did I do something wrong?"

Yixing sighs in laughter, "Yes. You put the G and little e strings in the opposite spots."

"What? I put them in the right place down here!" Chanyeol dramatically points to the area close to the sound hole before turning to Yixing for his nonexistent approval.

"Yes, you're right," Yixing sweetly smiles, "but, you didn't put them in the right place up here." He points to the tuning knobs.

Chanyeol groans, and Yixing gently pats his knee. "It's a simple fix. I'll do it."

Chanyeol sees Yixing quickly undoing his mistakes and reinserting the strings into their correct places. Once he finishes, he turns to Chanyeol and smiles, "Now all we have to do is tighten and tune them, then you're ready to go. Okay?"

Yixing grabs the spinny tool from where he left it on the floor and quickly turns it around all of the tuning knobs, Chanyeol watching in awe. After he tightens the strings so that they no longer make a boing noise, Yixing points to his guitar case and asks, “Chanyeol, will you get my tuner out?”

Chanyeol crawls over to the other’s guitar case and frowns because Yixing clearly has a lot of supplies. “What does it look like?”

“A black rectangle, with three lights.”

Chanyeol takes it back to him and Yixing pats his shoulder, thanking him. “I’ll tune these for you, so we can get started. But, for future reference, when you use a tuner, you want the green light to light up when you pluck a string.”

Chanyeol nods, and Yixing finishes tuning his guitar and strums all six strings with a smile before handing the guitar back to Chanyeol.

Yixing grabs his own guitar and returns to his seat, Chanyeol sitting down in his chair soon after. "That took a bit longer than I thought, so I'll teach you the basics, and then you'll need to do some homework, okay?" Yixing hums as he quietly plays an indie tune.

"Sure, I can do that!"

"First off, each one of these," Yixing touches the spaces between the lines on the fretboard, "are frets. The first one is called the first fret, the second the second fret, and so on. So, if I were to tell you to put a finger on the second fret of the A string, could you do that?"

Chanyeol bends over his guitar with his tongue sticking out of mouth before he puts his finger down on a string and asks, "Is this right?"

"Yes! Good, you catch on quick!" Yixing lopsidedly grins, "Now I'll teach you your first chord. This is the G major chord. Remember that. Put a finger on the third fret of the big E string, second fret of the A string, and the third fret of the little e string."

"Does it matter which fingers?"

Yixing shrugs noncommittally. "Whatever's comfortable."

"Okay," Chanyeol says as he stares at the fretboard, deep in thought. After a brief silence, Chanyeol whines, "Is this right?"

Yixing shakes his head and giggles, "No, let me help." Yixing puts his guitar back on the stand and squats in front of Chanyeol before he moves Chanyeol's pinky finger over a fret and his middle finger up a string, “Perfect."

Chanyeol blushes, from his contact with Yixing or Yixing’s compliment he doesn't know. "Thanks.... I guess. What now?"

"Strum the strings."

Taking Yixing's advice, he strikes his thumb over the strings, making a blunt, muted sound. Chanyeol pouts and looks helplessly at Yixing.

"Are you pressing down, or just resting your fingers on the strings?"

'Just resting them?"

Yixing has to resist the urge to facepalm. "You have to press down, Chanyeol. And, before you whine, it may sting."

Chanyeol nods, and Yixing can visibly see Chanyeol pushing on the strings. He strums again, this time eliciting a more pleasant sound. His face brightens dramatically and he strums again and again.

“The important thing to watch for when you learn chords is whether the strings are vibrating or not. If you don’t push down completely, they won’t vibrate.” Yixing pulls his phone out of his pocket and quietly gasps at the time. “I believe that’s it for today’s lesson, but before you go, let me give you my number; that way you can text me if you can’t make a lesson, or I’ll text you if I can’t.”

Chanyeol sets his guitar on the stand and pulls out his phone, giving it to Yixing. When Yixing gives it back, he picks up his guitar and plays a rather challenging looking song that gives off an indie vibe, just like the song he played earlier.

Chanyeol, completely intrigued, watches Yixing’s free expression as he plays, as if he’s lost in his own melodies and can’t notice that Chanyeol is still there, watching. All too soon, Yixing breaks the peaceful silence between them when he looks at Chanyeol and tilts his head, “You know you can leave, right?” Yixing pushes some things around within his case and places his guitar in soon after, “I’ll be leaving in a few minutes, but you can go on.”

“Oh, I was just- I- you’re very good at guitar, that’s all,” Chanyeol stammers and hurriedly packs up his stuff.

“Thank you,” Yixing turns and dimples before picking up the stands and walking back to the storage room. “I’ll see you in two days, right?”

“Right,” Chanyeol, after putting immaculate detail into making sure he closed the locks, picks up his case and walks to the door. “See you, Yixing.”

“See you, Chanyeol!” Chanyeol hears as he steps out of the door, and he doesn’t realize until he’s almost to his dorm that he hasn’t stopped grinning.





As soon as he enters his dorm room, only to find it empty, Chanyeol puts his guitar case on his bed and opens his laptop in order to start his “homework.” On his way home, Yixing sent him a text with a list of chords he should know by their next lesson, and for once in his life, Chanyeol doesn’t feel the need to procrastinate, so he googles a chord chart and unpacks his guitar.

Chanyeol attempts the chord Yixing taught him earlier, and when he succeeds, he looks at his text and reads the first chord: Em. Chanyeol looks back at the chart in confusion, and deciding that the chart seems far too difficult, he googles, “Em chord guitar.” He sees a much simpler chart with just the one chord on it, making him smile as he picks up his guitar and attempts to understand the chart.

After staring at it for half a minute, Chanyeol sighs aloud and considers texting Yixing, saying that he doesn’t understand what the charts mean, but his thoughts are interrupted when Jongdae calls him.

“Yeah?” Chanyeol says distractedly, still trying to understand the chord chart.

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol hears Baekhyun’s obnoxious laughter in the background.

“Practicing guitar. You?” He sighs and moves closer to his computer screen, hoping the proximity will increase his understanding.

“We’re five minutes away from your dorm, so we’ll be there soon.”

Chanyeol chuckles and packs up his guitar, cutting his already short practice session even shorter. “Since when do you invite yourselves over?”

Jongdae snorts, “Since you’ve been living there. I’m hanging up; see you soon.”

Before Chanyeol can respond, the call ends, leaving Chanyeol to quickly finish packing up his guitar and to pick up the few pieces of clothing littering the floor. His roommate, Kyungsoo, immaculately cleans his side of the room, so by comparison, Chanyeol’s side looks messy and distraught, even with only a few coke cans on his nightstand or yesterday’s gym shorts on the floor. And though he’s sure his friends wouldn’t mind a mess, he doesn’t want to come off as a slob. (Or, he really doesn’t want to see the supposed wrath of his roommate).

Baekhyun and Jongdae arrive after Chanyeol throws his Red Bull can into the recycling bin; Jongdae has the decency to knock on Chanyeol’s door, but Baekhyun pushes the unlocked door open and announces to Chanyeol’s dorm, “Your majesty awaits.”

“Is that your preferred name these days?” Jongdae jokingly asks as he plops down on Chanyeol’s futon.

“I don’t know. Maybe?” Baekhyun smiles and sits beside Jongdae, and Chanyeol watches his friends’ interactions while shaking his head.

Chanyeol sits in the beanbag near the futon and turns around to face his friends. “So, I just got back from guitar practice around twenty minutes ago.”

“Oh yeah? Can you play us any songs yet?” Jongdae asks as he wraps an arm around Baekhyun’s waist and pulls him closer.

Chanyeol stares at them with a raised eyebrow. “No. I know like, one and a half chords.”

Baekhyun snorts, “How do you know half of a chord?”

Chanyeol presses his lips in mock-aggravation. “Well, I looked at the chord chart and sorta-kinda, not really understood, but I’m like halfway there to getting it.” When he sees Baekhyun and Jongdae’s shared unimpressed expressions, he defends, “I swear! I guess I’ll have to text Yixing for help.”

Baekhyun lifts his eyebrows in a pretend seductive way. “You’ve been to one lesson and already have his digits?”

Chanyeol shakes his head and laughs, while subconsciously hoping that it’s dark enough in his dorm to hide his blush. “No, no, it’s not like that. Yixing is just…. He’s really cool. Like, his calm personality makes you want to have a cup of tea with him while you chat about the potential for world peace.”

Jongdae guffaws and squeezes Baekhyun’s side so much the latter cringes in pain. “Chanyeol, you realize that is a date to someone like Zhang Yixing. I don’t know him that well, but he seems like the type who would plan a first date doing volunteer work.”

“He did say he was giving lessons as part of his final assignment and as a good deed to the community,” Chanyeol mumbles, staring at his hands in his lap.

“See?” Jongdae smirks as he leans forward and removes his arm from around Baekhyun. “Let’s play Mario Kart or something. I’m bored.”

“Okay, but I’m Yoshi!” Chanyeol yells and grabs his Wii controllers from the TV table.

“Whatever. I’ll be Mario, and Jongdae can be my Princess Peach.”

Chanyeol looks over at Baekhyun, surprised at his cheeky words, until he averts his eyes to Jongdae when he replies, “I thought you were the majesty here, not me.”

Baekhyun smiles and grabs two beanbags from the pile against the wall and hands one to Jongdae before sitting down on the other. “We’ll reign the kingdom together.”

Chanyeol squints his eyes in disgust before turning on the Wii and letting the bright animation of Mario Kart entice him to finally beat one of the others.





Two hours into their game, Kyungsoo arrives to his shared dorm, and when he sees Baekhyun and Jongdae side by side, screaming at each other for supposedly cheating, he groans and walks into the living room with a blank stare. “It’s nearly 8, and I have an early class tomorrow, a lot of homework tonight, and you guys are way too loud. I trust that you two can see yourselves out.”

“Kyungsoo, you always speak to me as if we're not friends,” Baekhyun laughs as he pulls Jongdae up from the beanbag.

“Because we’re not,” Kyungsoo crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. “We’re acquaintances who happen to have mutual friends and a class together.”

“Cold,” Jongdae jokingly winces and walks with Baekhyun in tow to the door. “Keep us updated on the Yixing dilemma!”

“There’s nothing to keep you updated about!” Chanyeol yells, only for the response to be a slammed door.

Kyungsoo walks into the kitchen and grabs a bottle of water before entering their shared bedroom and sitting at his desk. Chanyeol follows and sits on his own bed, staring at his guitar. Looking at his roommate, who is opening a chemistry book, Chanyeol asks, “Would it be alright for me to practice guitar? I don’t want to be too loud.”

Kyungsoo turns around and looks at him, chuckling. “No, go right ahead. Your guitar won’t bother me; Baekhyun and Jongdae’s screaming matches bother me.”

Chanyeol nods and smiles before unpacking his guitar again and opening his laptop in hopes that he will understand the chord diagrams with his little break from practicing. Finally, he decides to watch a video on reading the charts, and halfway through the video, Chanyeol releases an excited, “Oh!” and pauses the video, returning to the Em chord chart. He places his fingers in the right places and strums; happy with the sound, he moves onto the next chord on Yixing’s list: C. He pulls up the next chart and learns the chord considerably quicker than Em, and he grins to himself about his rapid progress from three hours ago.

After Em and C, He also learns D and Am, and as he is switching from C to D, he strums too forcefully; suddenly, he hears a popping sound and sees his little e string swinging freely.

Chanyeol mumbles, “Dammit,” at the same time that Kyungsoo asks, “What was that?” Sighing, Chanyeol says, “I broke a string.”

Kyungsoo snorts and continues to write in his notebook. “How long have you been playing? A day? And, you’ve already broken a string. Talent.”

Chanyeol picks up his phone and murmurs, “No one asked for your sass, Kyungsoo.”

Chanyeol opens Yixing’s text about the chords he needs to learn and replies with,I think I broke the little e string.

A few minutes later, during which Chanyeol stares pitifully at his guitar, Yixing sends him a text: You think?

No, i know. it’s broken. 

okay. come by tomorrow and we’ll see if you can put one on yourself.





Two days after he broke his string, and a day after he stopped by the music department to fix his string (where Yixing told him, “You’re going to bankrupt me if you don’t start getting your own strings!”), Chanyeol has his next guitar lesson with Yixing. Once again, he arrives at 3:30, only to wait outside the building for twenty minutes before entering. When Yixing greets him with his coffee travel mug in hand, the combination of Yixing’s sweet smile and his attire (blue flannel over an obscure band tee along with a pair of white jeans that seemingly mold to the contours of Yixing’s sculpted thighs) makes Chanyeol’s heart flutter. He ushers Chanyeol inside and sets a chair in the middle of the room, with Chanyeol doing the same.

“So, how much do you remember?” Yixing asks as he walks to the storage room for stands.

“A lot, actually. I’ve been practicing, too,” Chanyeol says when Yixing returns and hands him a stand.

“Oh really? Show me what you know.”

Taking a deep breath, Chanyeol plays through the list of chords he knows. Though two chords don’t sound completely, Chanyeol keeps his composure as Yixing’s calm demeanor has been rubbing off on him, and once he finishes, he looks at the other for approval. Yixing smiles widely, causing a deep dimple in his right cheek to form. “That was really good Chanyeol! I didn’t know you had learned that much!”

“Well, I did,” Chanyeol chuckles gawkily.

“Now that you know a lot of basic chords, I think it’s time to teach you how to learn any chord, without having to look up the chord chart. And, once you learn that, you can also find minor chords from major chords.”

Chanyeol tilts his head and asks, “How would I do that?”

“Well,” Yixing eyes brighten, and he scoots forward to the edge of his chair in excitement, “the first thing you have to know is that every fret also represents a musical letter.”

“I thought the frets were just called by numbers, like first fret or second fret.”

Yixing nods his head and smiles, “Yes, that’s true, but they also have corresponding letters. Tell me, what’s the thickest string?”

Yixing hardly finishes his question by the time Chanyeol answers, “Capital E string,” which makes Yixing chuckle and beam.

“Good, that’s right! However, if I push down on the first fret of the capital E string, what note is it?”

Chanyeol looks baffled and shakes his head while laughing, “Honestly, no idea.”

“It would be an F. We went up the chromatic scale one half step, because every fret represents a half step, okay? That’s important when we start constructing chords. When we have a major chord, there is a….” Chanyeol’s attention fades as Yixing drones on about music theory that Chanyeol has no hope for ever understanding, so instead of listening diligently, he prefers to nod every few seconds in pretend-comprehension and to watch Yixing vibrantly discuss a topic he so obviously loves.

When Yixing begins talking about major thirds (or was it minor?), he speaks with his hands, as if that would help Chanyeol understand the complexities of music that will forever be over his head. His eyes gloss over with happiness as he talks about the difference between perfect fourths and perfect fifths, and how that somehow affects the chord drastically. His lips quirk as he retells an incident in his freshman music theory class where he incorrectly identified a major diminished seventh chord as a major augmented seventh chord. Even though Chanyeol clearly doesn’t understand what is so funny or tragic about Yixing’s mistake, he laughs with the other boy as if it was the funniest thing in the world, which Chanyeol believes Yixing thinks it is. The longer he talks about the difference between harmonic minors and melodic minors, the longer Chanyeol has staring at Yixing’s protruding collarbones, and every time Yixing leans forward in excitement, he reveals a more pleasing glimpse of his chest because of his baggy band tank top.

Yixing decides to give examples of the differences among the chords that he had talked about a few minutes earlier (Chanyeol swears there’s nearly a thousand of them). All Chanyeol notices is the way Yixing’s long, relaxed fingers bend and curl over the strings, along with the calm aura that surrounds Yixing even when he plays so confidently. When Chanyeol’s eyes connect with Yixing’s, all of Yixing’s other distracting elements diminish from Chanyeol’s attention; he is purely fascinated with the way the light reflects off of his sparkling eyes, as if his eyes are a pristine lake blessed with the twinkles of light from the sun. He mentally frowns when he realizes that maybe he should leave the literary devices to someone like Jongdae, who has taken various poetry classes.

Yixing finishes his music theory lesson and starts fingerpicking a complicated melody, and after a few beats of just guitar, Yixing sings words that Chanyeol doesn’t understand; however, much like Yixing’s musical teachings earlier, he doesn’t need to understand to be entranced by him. Yixing transitions into a new song where he alternates between creating beats on the body of his guitar and strumming chords without a pick. Chanyeol finds it impossible to not stare in awe at Yixing’s raw talent as his voice follows the musical cues from his guitar, and he reaches notes Chanyeol thought only Baekhyun or Jongdae could hit.

Yixing stops playing suddenly and frowns sheepishly, “I’m sorry; sometimes I get a little distracted when I start playing. Where were we?”

When Chanyeol tells Yixing that they were talking about the chords that he needs to learn (because he didn’t retain anything from his lesson other than how talented Yixing is or how stunning his eyes are), Yixing smiles his lopsided grin that makes his dimples appear, and he tells Chanyeol that now they will focus on improving Chanyeol’s technique and speed.

Chanyeol simply nods and dazedly plays, switching chords when Yixing tells him to. Chanyeol’s daze only increases in the last fifteen minutes of class when Yixing decides to play a couple of songs, and Chanyeol finds that all he can do is stare in pure amazement.

The next guitar lesson has Chanyeol arriving at the same time as the previous two, but this time, instead of waiting outside aimlessly for twenty minutes, Chanyeol walks into the music department at 3:35. When Yixing opens the door, Chanyeol sees that he’s dressed in a baggy sweater with the English phrase, “SWEATER WEATHER” printed on the front. Yixing stares at Chanyeol bemusedly, even after he sees Chanyeol standing there with his wide grin pasted on his face. “You realize you’re twenty-five minutes early, right Chanyeol?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol nervously plays with the tails of his plaid button down, “but, I was really looking forward to playing today, so I showed up a bit early. Is that alright?”

Yixing beams and waves a hand, telling Chanyeol to come inside. “That’s perfectly fine. Will you set up a chair for me while I go get stands and my guitar?”

Chanyeol nods and sets his guitar case on the floor; by the time Yixing comes back with his guitar and the stands, Chanyeol is already strumming a simple chord pattern while adding a more percussive sound to the song. Right as he sings the first lyric of the song, Yixing sings along with him, “Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you.”

Chanyeol stops playing and looks up from where he was intensely staring at the fretboard to make sure he didn’t make any mistakes. Yixing moves his hands in a way that tells Chanyeol to continue, and as he picks up in the middle of the verse where he stopped, Yixing joins him in not only singing, but also in playing. Yixing’s voice adds the more high-pitched and nasally aspect needed for the song, whereas Chanyeol’s provides a deep harmony that makes the duet feel smooth. All too soon, Chanyeol finishes the song with the delayed final chord and looks at Yixing, seeking approval, like always. Yixing strums a few chords before looking at Chanyeol with his dimpled smile, “Wonderwall? Really, Chanyeol?”

“Come on,” Chanyeol laughingly defends, “isn’t that one of the most essential songs to learn on guitar?”

“That and Stairway to Heaven. I know a lot of people who said that was their first song they ever played,” Yixing scoffs.

“What was yours?” Chanyeol asks as he mindlessly plucks a few strings.

“I don’t really remember, but I bet you probably wouldn’t know it,” Yixing smugly replies.

“I’m sure you remember,” Chanyeol pouts. “And who says I won’t know it?”

“Me, because I’m pretty sure you won’t know it,” Yixing laughs and starts playing a chord pattern filled percussive slaps and beats.

“Try me,” Chanyeol challenges and leans forward in his seat.

“I’m playing it now, if you haven’t noticed,” Yixing says in rhythm with his strumming.

Chanyeol frowns and focuses heavily on the melody Yixing is playing, and he pouts again when he realizes that he doesn’t know the song, even with Yixing now singing along. Yixing stops after the second chorus and smirks, “You don’t know it, do you?”

Chanyeol places his guitar on its stand and crosses his arms, “No fair; it was in Mandarin.”

Yixing deadpans, “Well, duh.”

“I-I- it- how was I supposed to know?”

“Know what?” Yixing lifts an eyebrow and simpers, “That I’m Chinese, or that my first song was obviously in Chinese? Honestly, I felt like both were quite self-evident.”

“Now I know,” Chanyeol says tonelessly and picks up his guitar again.

“If you’re curious, the song is ‘Pu Tong Peng You’ by David Tao. Anyway, today I’m going to teach you about barre chords. Do you know what they are?”

Chanyeol eagerly nods his head and strums a near-perfect F chord. “Yeah, I was going to learn another song, but I needed an F barre chord, and I looked it up and learned it. It’s not very good yet, but I know what it is.”

Yixing looks at Chanyeol in awe before smiling again. “Wow, you’re way ahead of my lesson plans…. Impressive, Chanyeol! You’re really taking the practice thing to heart.”

“Oh, but of course,” Chanyeol boasts proudly and strums his F chord again, and still one or two strings do not sound perfectly.

“Well, since you already know about barre chords…” Yixing bites his lip in thought, and Chanyeol looks away to prevent himself from blushing. “Do you know that they’re based off of your basic chords?”

“What, do you mean, exactly?” Chanyeol asks as he plucks each string in the chord, looking for the string that isn’t sounding completely.

“If you look at the chord, your index finger is barred across the first fret, but all the fingers after that look like the E major chord, which is one of the basic chords you learned.”

Chanyeol is silent for a few seconds as he looks at his fingers stretched over the strings when suddenly everything clicks. His smile widens as he gasps, “Oh! So, is it the same way with E minor too?”

“Yes,” Yixing says as he looks at Chanyeol with pride. “It’s the same with all your basic chords, most commonly E and A with their respective minors.”

“I think I get it!” Chanyeol exclaims as he tries out Yixing’s newest advice. Sure enough, Chanyeol plays an altered version of the chord he played earlier, and Yixing smiles and nods.

Great! You just played an F minor!” Yixing strums quickly down the fretboard before slapping the sound hole and casually playing another song. “You’re a good bit ahead of my other students, so I won’t teach you much more now. We’ll work on sound quality today, so play your F major chord again.”

He does as he’s told, and after Yixing instructs him to arch his hand more on his barre chords, Chanyeol asks, “So, if you’re from China, what are you doing in Korea?”

Yixing points at Chanyeol’s ring finger and tells him to press down harder. “If you haven’t guessed by now, I really like music-”

“No, really,” Chanyeol playfully snorts.

“Yeah, really. And I really want to get a good start in the music industry, so Korea’s the place to be to do that.”

Chanyeol hums in understanding and strums a new barre chord that Yixing taught him. “If you’re getting your start in Korea, does that mean you’ll sing in Mandarin or Korean?”

Yixing presses his lips in thought before smiling. “Both. Maybe even English. Just depends.”

“What genre?”

“Do I not obviously give off the indie vibe?” Yixing chuckles. “That’s what all my friends tell me, anyway. According to them, I’m either all about the indie vibes, or I’m overly hipster. Sometimes both. Most of the time both, because really, they kinda go hand in hand.”

Seeing the “certified recycled” sticker on Yixing’s travel mug, and the fair-trade teabag tag sticking out of the mug, Chanyeol nods in agreement. “I definitely see where they’re coming from….”

Yixing giggles and takes a sip of his tea. “Now, after I’ve explained it for you.”

“So, maybe I didn’t see your self-proclaimed obvious traits, but I do now, and that’s all that matters, right?” Chanyeol defends.

Yixing rolls his eyes lightheartedly and tells him to strengthen his barre before asking, “What about you? What do you want to do?”

“I want to be a photographer,” Chanyeol beams.

“Wow, that’s really cool! Do you have a specific style you like?”

“Right now, I’m in a macro photography class, which is pretty cool, but I think I want to stick with people, not small insects and flowers.”

Yixing chuckles and asks, “So, like portrait photography?”

“Yeah, something like that.” Chanyeol looks away from Yixing and cheekily adds, “You have to promise me that when you’re famous someday, I’ll be the first person to photograph you and do your album photo-shoot.”

Yixing grins widely and enthusiastically agrees, spiraling them into a conversation over landscape areas and poses appropriate for an indie musician, along with Yixing going into further detail about his musical dreams and why he wants to be a musician in the first place, reasons other than his love for music. Even at 5:10, ten minutes after their lesson ended, the two are still talking about the difference between good lyrics and cliché lyrics. It’s not until Yixing receives a call that he bids Chanyeol farewell with a wave as he packs up his guitar. Chanyeol follows suit and leaves a minute before Yixing, with a relentless grin plastered on his face, much like the first day he met Yixing.





Chanyeol arrives early to the next lesson as well, and fifteen minutes into it, Yixing says while playing a tune softly, “Since you can already play what I had planned, is there anything you feel like you need help with? Do you get pull-offs and hammer ons?”

“Yes, to both your questions.” Chanyeol mumbles. “Though, I don’t need help with anything guitar related. I kinda need advice, and you seem like you’d be good at giving it.”

Yixing nods his head. “I’ve been told that before.”

Chanyeol heaves a sigh and considers saying what’s really on his mind, but he decides to give a buffer question or two to see how Yixing will respond. “One of my best friends doesn’t know what he wants to do in life, so he dabbles in this and dabbles in that. He decided on a film major, but I think he doubts whether he likes it.”

“Okay,” Yixing pauses and looks at the ceiling in thought. “First, we need to be somewhat productive today, so I’ll give you advice between chord drills. Play an F until I tell you to change.” Yixing waits for Chanyeol to start playing, and after seven strums, Yixing says as he lays his head on the body of his guitar, “So, is this friend of yours indecisive?”

Chanyeol messes up his strumming pattern slightly when he starts to speak. “Not exactly. I don’t know, maybe? He swears that he’s not, but that he just doesn’t know what he wants and that he doesn’t want to lessen his choices.”

Yixing lifts an eyebrow, “Isn’t that indecisive?”

“I don’t know; I’m not a dictionary,” Chanyeol titters.

“Change to C now,” Yixing instructs. “When I was younger, maybe seventeen or so, I was in a similar dilemma. Of course I wanted to be a singer-songwriter, but part of me wanted to own a coffee shop, and another part wanted to be a professional chef, and another part wanted to be a choreographer. But, my biggest conflict was between being a musician and working with UNICEF.”

“Wow,” Chanyeol’s eyes widen, “those are pretty big dreams. I didn’t realize how serious you were about ‘doing a good deed for the community.’”

“Yeah, well,” Yixing chuckles, “the point is that I had all those choices, and I couldn’t narrow them down for the longest time. So, my advice to him is: find a way that you can do them all, or at least most of them. Now that I’m on my way to being a musician, it is still possible for me to do charity work and community service like I wanted to do with UNICEF; if I make it big, I can buy a coffee shop or open a five star restaurant, and if I ever decide that I don’t want to make music anymore, I still know how to dance, and maybe my name or music would help me score some work choreographing boy bands.”

Seeing Chanyeol’s speechless expression, Yixing tells him to switch to an E minor and continues, “I think that’s what will bring him the most happiness - the idea that you don’t have to settle, that you can still do everything that you want. Nothing limits you but yourself.”

“But,” Chanyeol argues, “haven’t you ever been told that you can’t always get what you want? Doesn’t that limit you?”

“Perhaps,” Yixing taps his fingers on the side of his guitar, “but even then, it’s not the quote that stops you from achieving what you want; it’s you letting the quote tell you that it isn’t possible. The first step to ending indecisiveness and increasing happiness lies in your hands; I firmly believe that.”

“Maybe you should have added ‘Modern-day Confucius’ to your list of dreams,” Chanyeol laughs and switches to a D, as instructed wordlessly through Yixing’s hand motions.

“Maybe,” Yixing giggles and takes a sip of organic peach green tea from his recycled travel mug. “Did you need any other advice?”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol bites his lip and decides to ask his original question. “My other best friend likes someone but doesn’t know what to do about it.”

Yixing chortles and plays a short fingerpicking pattern. “How many best friends do you have?”

“Just two,” Chanyeol defends.

Yixing hums as he looks around the room and distractedly tells Chanyeol to alternate between Am and F every four strums. “Honestly, he just needs to confess. What’s the worst that the person he likes could do?”

Chanyeol mutters and looks away from Yixing, “Never talk to him again.”

Yixing gives Chanyeol’s answer some thought before shaking his head and smiling. “Maybe. I mean, that’s always a possibility. But, the world isn’t filled with only negativity and rejection; however, one has to search the world to see that. I say it’s at least worth a shot.”

Chanyeol stops playing and looks at Yixing in amazement. “How did you get such a positive view of the world? Or better yet, why?”

Yixing points to Chanyeol’s guitar, silently telling him to continue playing. “Negativity eats away at the soul, and what’s the point? What does being negative get you? Seeing the world in a negative light is not only harmful to your health, but also it isn’t a fair representation of the world. Are there bad people? Absolutely. Will some people reject you and hurt you? Of course. But, only giving those people credit for their bad things doesn’t acknowledge all the good that happens in the world every day, and I’d much rather pay attention to that.”

Chanyeol switches to A minor and asks, “How will that affect my friend’s situation though?”

“I’m not saying that thinking positively will get your friend that special someone, but it will certainly help your friend take the initiative to try, and it will give him the ability to pick himself up if he’s rejected. I don’t really know how to woo someone, but I do know that you can’t truly be with someone without confessing to them, and you can’t live a happy life afterwards if you see the world in such a negative manner.”

Chanyeol nods his head, letting the advice sink in. “Are you sure you’re on the right career path? It’s not too late to do philosophy.”

Yixing snorts, “Yes, I’m sure. If I majored in philosophy, I’d be unemployed.”

Chanyeol guffaws, “What happened to seeing the world in a positive light?”

“Chanyeol, there is a big difference between ignorant optimism and positivity.” Yixing claps his hands in laughter.

“Oh, is there?” Chanyeol creates a funky rhythm as he changes from Am to F, making Yixing giggle. “Tell me more about dancer Yixing and chef Yixing.”

Yixing adds a beat and slap combination to Chanyeol’s rhythm and coquettishly grins, eliciting a blush from Chanyeol. “Fine, only if I get to hear more about photographer Chanyeol.”





Chanyeol is practicing guitar alone a few hours after his lesson with Yixing when Baekhyun storms into his dorm room, surprisingly without Jongdae, and shouts, “You called?”

“Yes,” Chanyeol absentmindedly snorts, attention being on the tab sheets on his laptop, “I called like five minutes after my guitar lesson. Why are you just now getting here?”

Baekhyun dramatically sighs and plops down on Chanyeol’s futon beside him. “Do you know how long it took to get rid of Jongdae? I didn’t know whether you wanted him over here because I asked him if you tried to call, and he said that he didn’t get a call from you. Therefore, cue the next hour and a half of me trying to find an excuse to leave our dorm room.”

“How considerate of you,” Chanyeol scoffs, “but, something tells me you weren’t actively looking to leave your boy- I mean Jongdae.”

“Whatever. Why’d you call me in the first place?” Baekhyun asks as he turns on the TV.

“Because I think I may like my guitar instructor.”

“You think,” Baekhyun repeats and idly watches the music show playing. “And you’re telling me this because?”

“I don’t know,” Chanyeol huffs. “I thought you could listen to me and see if I actually like him or not.”

“Something tells me if I have to listen to you fawn over-” Chanyeol’s persistent glare makes Baekhyun stop talking and give acknowledgement that he’s listening.

“Part of me still only wants to have a cup of tea with him and talk about world peace as friends, and that scenario seems so likely now that I know he wanted to work for UNICEF. I don’t even know what to say, Baek; he’s perfect. Like, he’s good at everything, apparently, and he gives really good advice that I’ll have to pass on to you-”

“What advice could he possibly give that I need-”

“And though our guitar lessons are fun, and having tea with him sounds great, I want something more?”

“Why did you make that sound like a question?” Baekhyun sneers and completely looks away from the TV, “It’s obvious that you like him. Get a grip; ask him out, so I never have to listen to this again.”

Chanyeol shoves Baekhyun shoulder and snickers, “Why don’t you take your own advice?”

Chanyeol sees Baekhyun’s eyes widen with surprise before the other boy turns away and stares at the TV again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”





Chanyeol walks into his guitar lesson at 3:30 with a baggy Christmas-esque sweater rolled up to his elbows and dark wash skinny jeans along with his high-rising Oxford boots - not that he decided to dress particularly nice for anything or anyone. Yixing greets him with his customary smile and even compliments him, “I really like your sweater, Chanyeol!” - which doesn’t make Chanyeol’s heart swoon at all.

As per usual, Yixing tells Chanyeol that he is considerably ahead of his other students, and this time he offers to teach Chanyeol more music theory, since, according to Yixing, he “understood the first lesson so well!” Chanyeol politely declines and says that he’ll take a rain check on the offer, making Yixing’s dimples appear because of his gentle chuckles.

After Yixing asks Chanyeol how his week has been, and if he did anything exciting, Chanyeol softly plays an indie riff on the fifth fret and sneakily asks, “So Yixing, tell me: how would you ask out the girl of your dreams?”

“Why?” Yixing adds chords to Chanyeol’s fingerpicking and laughs, “Well, if you must know, the first thing I’d do is serenade him….” Chanyeol doesn’t hear the next few words because he’s still stuck on the fact that Yixing said him, and his heart certainly doesn’t swoon this time either.

“... What do you think?” Yixing asks, knocking Chanyeol out of his stupor.

“About what?” Chanyeol unintelligently asks.

“Whether an original or cover song is better for serenading.” Yixing giggles and adds an exciting, upbeat rhythm to the chords.

“Seeing as I can’t write songs, I’m going to say a cover song is better, though I’m sure a lot of people would really love an original.”

Yixing hums and nods his head to the inaudible beat. “I wouldn’t stop there though. I’d take him on a date where we could eat gluten free cookies at the cute sweet shop a block from the university, and then we could talk about life and its craziness over a sample of Teavana tea in the mall, and then we’d try on couple outfits at the local thrift store, and of course there would be lots of guitar playing.”

Chanyeol raises his eyebrows in shock at Yixing’s clearly well-thought-out answer and faintly blushes. “Wow…. That’s incredible descriptive. If you’ve obviously thought this far ahead for someone else, how would you like to be asked out?

Yixing shrugs and dimples. “Well, the same way I suppose. All of those things sound really appealing to me.”

Chanyeol snorts and stares at his feet. “Don’t believe in the ‘opposites attract’ thing?”

“I’m breaking the cliché sayings one by one,” Yixing giggles. When he sees Chanyeol’s puzzled gaze, he elaborates, “Remember last lesson? You said, ‘you can’t always get what you want,’ and I debunked that. Here I am debunking this one too.”

With Chanyeol’s continued silence, Yixing continues, “Anyway, it’s not that I don’t believe the statement is true,” Yixing reasons. “If someone is completely different than me, that wouldn’t stop me from dating him, but I’d like to date someone who has the same interests me.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol mumbles, “so, have you found someone with the same interests as you?”

Yixing puffs his lips and shakes his head with a goofy laugh. “Not exactly.”

Chanyeol feels the rapid pounding of his chest, and he chooses to ignore it when he plasters his widest smile and says, “You know, maybe I’m ready for that music theory lesson.”

“Really?” Yixing enthusiastically says, “I really love making people understand music! Let’s start with the Circle of Fourths, and that can help you form chords….” Chanyeol, despite his heart hurting from an unintentional/unknown rejection by Yixing, can’t help but to stare at Yixing’s clearly entranced eyes and bubbly persona. Even though he knows he won’t remember one thing Yixing said, he still nods and smiles accordingly, as if he’s actually listening instead of watching Yixing’s eyes crinkle in joy and excitement after every sentence about sharps and flats.





After his guitar lesson, Chanyeol races to Baekhyun and Jongdae's shared dorm room in hopes that Baekhyun would be there to listen to his woes again, but when Jongdae opens the door with a confused expression while rubbing his eyes, Chanyeol inwardly sighs and supposes that Jongdae will do.

"What are you doing here?" Jongdae slurs.

"I wanted to hangout. Chat and stuff, you know? Is it just you, or is Baek here too?"

Jongdae shakes his head and walks into his dorm, Chanyeol in tow. He points to the kitchen area, silently asking Chanyeol if he wants a snack, and when Chanyeol says, "no," Jongdae mumbles some incoherent words and plops down on a pile of blankets on his couch, making Chanyeol sit on the floor in front of him.

Noticing that Jongdae hasn't moved in nearly a whole minute, Chanyeol whispers, "Jongdae, are you asleep?"

"No," he groans, "but you did wake me up from my precious nap with your incessant knocking and calling my phone."

"Oh, sorry," Chanyeol says, not remotely apologetic.

Jongdae slaps Chanyeol on the back of the head. "And, what exactly did you want to 'chat' about?"

"Do you think Yixing and I are a good match?"

"Not this," Jongdae snorts. "Baekhyun already told me about the time you finally admitted your feelings,” Jongdae dramatically emphasizes with a groan. “And sure, you guys would be great together. Can I go back to sleep?”

“You’re no help,” Chanyeol leans his head back on the couch and Jongdae boredly plays with his hair. “Yixing said he prefers dating guys who are similar to him, and I don’t know if I qualify.” As an afterthought, Chanyeol whispers, “I don’t think he thinks I qualify either.”

“I’m not sure I’m getting what you’re trying to say.”

“What I mean is, do you think I’m…. Hipster enough?” Chanyeol hears Jongdae’s intake of breath only to be exhaled as a hearty chuckle. “Before you laugh, I’m being really serious. Like, he has these lofty, worldly dreams of reaching people of all nations with his music and probably his charity work, and I’m just,” Chanyeol huffs and runs a hand through his bangs, “I’m just Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol can’t see Jongdae, but he assumes the other has one eyebrow curved with a slight grin. “Is being Chanyeol not enough? You drink fair trade coffee these days. You buy cruelty free beauty supplies. Hell, you even drink organic, herbal types of tea while you wonder how you can help the world through photography,” Jongdae takes a pause and flicks Chanyeol on his right temple. “Yes, you’re insufferably hipster, and Yixing has only made you worse. Ask him out.”

Chanyeol turns around to look at Jongdae, eyes full of hope. “Are you serious? You really believe that?”

“Yes, I believe that. You should too with the ridiculous amount of evidence I provided. Now that you’re off your pity party for the day, leave me alone so that I can go back to sleep before Baek gets here.”

Chanyeol stands and looks at Jongdae’s oddly contoured body only halfway covered with blankets by this point. “Whatever. Thanks for the help.”

Chanyeol hears more incoherent mumbles before he walks to the front door and lets himself out, all with an imaginary spring in his walk because of the overwhelming excitement he feels about asking Yixing out at the next lesson.


 

For the first time since he started the guitar lessons with Yixing, Chanyeol is late.

Between having a 1 o’clock class that ended late, and spending more than an hour and a half staring in the mirror at outfit after outfit (before finally choosing a navy blue-themed plaid button-down under a solid white sweater, along with simple khaki skinny jeans and a ragged pair of Converses - he didn’t want to seem like he dressed up for the occasion), Chanyeol realizes that it’s 3:45, and he hasn’t left his dorm room yet. He nearly forgets his guitar in an effort to leave quickly, and by the time he ends up across campus at the music department, it’s already 4:15.

He slows down from his slight jog when he approaches their practice room, and he gently knocks before twisting the handle and opening the door. As he enters the room, he sees Yixing with his guitar in his lap, surrounded by a laptop and various sheets of paper. Chanyeol watches him like a fly on the wall for at least a minute, and during that time all Yixing does is play a fingerpicking pattern or two and hum a few melodies. Just as Chanyeol steps forward in hopes that Yixing will notice his presence, Yixing starts strumming a similar chord progression Chanyeol has heard before, and he assumes that Yixing wrote it himself because now he is singing with his delicately soft voice in Mandarin. All too quickly, his gently-sung lyrics transform into harshly articulated power vocals in English, before calming down again and ending sweetly with a G major barre.

Chanyeol decides to grab a chair while Yixing, still unaware of his presence, looks over his papers, and when he sets the chair down across from Yixing, the other man jumps in slight fear before relaxing and showing his dimpled smile. “Oh, hey Chanyeol. You’re really late. I was almost worried that you forgot!”

Chanyeol nervously fidgets in his seat and unpacks his guitar, “No, I couldn’t forget.”

“Well that’s good!” Yixing places his guitar on his stand so that he can close his laptop and place it along with his papers into his laptop sleeve.

“I’ll get you a stand; then, we can get started. Alright?” Chanyeol simply nods and repeats a mantra silently, mentally preparing himself for what he planned to do next.

Yixing returns less than a minute later with a stand that he places beside his own; he grabs his guitar and sits back down, still smiling, “So, for today, I was thinking that we could-”

“Actually,” Chanyeol interrupts, voice rising in pitch ever so slightly, “I wanted to show you something. Is that alright?”

Seeing Yixing’s nod of approval, Chanyeol plays a few chords to make sure his guitar is in tune before he starts fingerpicking a complicated intro to a song Yixing offhandedly admitted to liking a few lessons ago.

“Deng dai,” Chanyeol smoothly sings in Mandarin as he plays a strumming-slapping rhythm, and though Chanyeol doesn’t notice because he’s pointedly staring at the floor, Yixing’s eyes resemble saucers at Chanyeol’s choice of song.

Chanyeol is sure he has mispronounced a considerable amount of the words because his only help was from Jongdae (who, in Chanyeol’s opinion, says he knows more Mandarin than he really does) the night before, but he hopes Yixing will at least understand the gist of what he’s singing.

Chanyeol forgets the second half of the second verse completely, so he decides to end the song there with the final, resolving chord and a repetition of what Chanyeol knows is the last English line of the song, “I just can't be your friend.”

Chanyeol looks up from where he was staring at his and Yixing’s matching Converses when he hears Yixing clapping and chanting, “Bravo, bravo!” over and over. When he finally stops clapping, Yixing smiles so widely that Chanyeol swears he sees a smaller dimple forming below Yixing’s incredibly prevalent one, “That was so good, Chanyeol! I’m so proud that you’ve learned to play so well! In fact, I’m really honored that I had even the slightest bit to do with that.”

Chanyeol feels his heart sink as he stares at Yixing blankly. “You didn’t realize why I played it?”

Yixing puffs his cheeks in confusion and Chanyeol wants to groan because the other looks so cute with his pouty lips and bemused eyes. “Because you wanted to show me that you can play pretty difficult fingerpicking parts?”

Chanyeol holds back a heavy sigh and bites his lip, “No, Yixing. I didn’t play that to show you how much I’ve improved. I played that to tell you that I like you and want to take you out on a hipster date at the coffee shop where I’ll take a professional grade selca of us, and after that, we’ll stop at a vegan cafe and get something sweet like gluten-free brownies while we talk about world peace, and then we’ll go to the park where we’ll busk and donate the money to UNICEF or something. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”

For the next agonizing thirty seconds wherein Yixing feels the need to play an indie guitar riff, Chanyeol thinks his heart, despite rapidly beating in his chest, has been ripped out and left for dead by the adorable, oblivious, Chinese man in front of him. Yixing ends his riff with two notes in a minor third interval, until he notices the sad resolution and adds, from what Chanyeol can hear, a major chord, which makes the ending sound so much happier. Yixing doesn’t say anything after he finishes his riff, which gives time for Chanyeol to congratulate himself on remembering so much music theory, so as to prevent himself from throwing a pity party from wordlessly being rejected. Just after Chanyeol’s imaginary clap on the back, Yixing says, “I think it depends on the coffee shop in mind. We have to stick to the hipster status quo, meaning no to Starbucks.” Chanyeol wishes he could laugh at Yixing’s obvious attempt to lighten the mood, but he is so amazed by the fact that Yixing is even considering a date with him in the first place.

“I’ll hold you to that professional selca thing. I’m expecting cute polaroids to pin on my wall.”

Chanyeol nods enthusiastically and starts to say something, only for Yixing to continue, “If we’re going to the vegan cafe down the street, that changes things! I really like their lemon raspberry cake.”

Yixing looks from Chanyeol’s guitar to Chanyeol and laughs. “And, if we’re going to busk in the park, leave the singing in Mandarin to me. Your voice is lovely, but your Mandarin is not. Either sing in Korean or don’t sing at all.”

Yixing starts packing up his guitar, and when he notices Chanyeol’s bewildered expression, he asks, “Are we not going now? I’m sure you could miss a day of guitar practice if you can play Pu Tong Peng You with such ease.”

Chanyeol shakes himself out of his slight stupor and grins his teeth-rich smile. When Yixing grabs their stands and takes them to the storage closet, Chanyeol sends a quick message to Jongdae and Baekhyun: success.

Yixing, as Chanyeol now notices, is dressed in a white tank-top with English words on it that he doesn’t want to take the time to understand, along with a dark red and blue-themed plaid shirt laced through the loops of his black skinny jeans and, of course, his and Chanyeol’s matching white Converses. Yixing grins when he sees Chanyeol’s eyes giving him a once-over, and he walks over to Chanyeol and playfully snaps his fingers in front of his eyes, saying, “Come on; if you take too long there won’t be any couples in the park to donate to our cause.”

Chanyeol giggles and proceeds to pack up his stuff and stand. The two of them leave the lesson with their chairs still in the middle of the classroom, but since he assumes that Yixing doesn’t care, Chanyeol doesn’t care either. Chanyeol also finds that he doesn’t care that his phone just vibrated definitely more than two times; besides, it’s not as if he could check his phone if he wanted to, with his guitar in his right hand, and Yixing’s hand in his left.