“Maths is a wonderful thing class! Don’t you feel the rush and excitement when—”

Here goes Mr. Andrew talking about the majesty that is math. Chanyeol sighs - he’s tired, he barely got a wink of sleep last night and if he could say so himself, Baekhyun looks the same. 

“When people say that English is the universal language of Science it’s infuriating! Maths is! I-”

GOD, DOES THIS MAN HAVE A MATH ?

Chanyeol’s head is pounding, it feels as if his brain decided to learn Irish tap dancing. Tap dancing is lovely, don’t get him wrong but now is just not the right time. 

Chanyeol decides that there is no point fighting this extreme headache so he leans forward trying to take in everything Mr. Andrew is trying to say, “Don’t you think linear equations are lovely? I mean rearranging numbers to find the answer just feels so right, don’t you all agree?”

Silence. Mr. Andrew only smiles.

“Once you make maths your best friend, you can never go wrong-”

The scream of the bell makes Chanyeol feel like banging his head on the floor.

The whole class fleets including Chanyeol and Baekhyun who have to hold on to each other in order to not trip. Fatigue is an understatement. 

“When do you want to go to the library?” Baekhyun’s under eyes are no joke right now, Chanyeol shifts uncomfortably because it looks like a pair of golf balls staring into his soul.

+

“Okay so what do we search for?” Chanyeol sits down on the wooden chair next to Baekhyun’s. 

The library is empty, except for that one guy who’s sitting three chairs away from them, using a computer. Now the computers are a whole different story; slow.

Chanyeol’s eyes are focused on the screen when Baekhyun starts typing:

Famous Hidden Deaths

The loading speed is horrible, but after a few minutes the first result pops up: 

10 people rumoured to be alive after death

The cursor hovers over the link for a few seconds before he hears a frustrated sigh coming from Baekhyun. The boy’s hand releases the mouse as he stares down at his lap, his eyebrows are knit together and his breathing is slower than usual. 

“What’s wrong?” Chanyeol hesitantly places a hand on the boy’s knee as an act of comfort. Baekhyun only shakes his head. 

“This isn’t it,” the latter mumbles out, his voice is harsh and rough and it sort of reminds Chanyeol of the texture of rock candy. 

“It’s alright, we can try again anoth-” 

“Hey both of you!” A friendly voice buzzed from behind them and it makes Baekhyun immediately close the tab they were on. 

The voice turns out to be Kyungsoo’s brother, what was his name? Right, Eric. Chanyeol doesn’t know why, but somehow, this guy looks familiar.

Eric’s eyes trail over Chanyeol’s hand which is on Baekhyun’s knee and he gives both of them a knowing look, making Chanyeol immediately put his hand inside his pocket. Where it belongs. 

“Don’t be shy guys, I know how it’s like… young love. It’s great isn’t it? Both of you should really be feeding each othe-” 

“ERIC LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE, WILL YOU?” Kyungsoo’s voice makes the three of them jump. Eric only smiles. 

“Look at them, adorable! Just, adorable!” 

The librarian frowns and hits a ruler on her desk making all four of them look down in embarrassment. 

“Eric, they, I mean, we are busy now,” Kyungsoo whispers, sending a not-so-subtle glare at the boy standing in front of him.  

“Alright, but do me a favour? Make them, well… entwine?” Eric smirks, sending a wink at Chanyeol before scurrying off towards the main entrance of the library. 

Chanyeol lets out a breath that he didn’t even realise he was holding in. 

“Sorry about that, again.” Kyungsoo is still glaring at the library door just in case if his brother decides to barge in again. 

Chanyeol nods but Baekhyun disregards everything Kyungsoo just said and shoves the piece of paper in front of the latter’s face, “Do you have any clue what this means?”

Kyungsoo, in shock, takes the paper from the boy, his eyes running through it over and over again before he finally his head to the side, “Be it far lines hide them? The rave of his death?” 

Baekhyun huffs in what seems like frustration and runs a hand through his hair. Chanyeol can definitely understand what’s going on in the smaller’s head right now: Nobody knows this! The secret may be lost forever!

“You look distressed?” Kyungsoo asks, his face as stoic as it usually is but this time Chanyeol can tell that he has sympathy for Baekhyun. Rare occurrence. 

“I just, don’t know what this means?” Baekhyun leans his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder, his eyes are closed too and his face sparkles with lack of vigour. 

“It’s perfectly fine, it’ll hit us soon,” Chanyeol can only lean his head on Baekhyun’s, hoping the latter can feel his sincerity. Kyungsoo only shows the face of confusion - lack of interest, if anything. 

“I have no idea what you are trying to find, but the only advice I can give you is to look at this from a wider angle.” 

+

The first years beside Chanyeol chatter with so much life and excitement, almost as if they took way too much sugar. He can't help not listening to their conversation because they talk with such a volume it's almost hard to think. 

“You know there are so many fake paintings in the library?” 

“Yea, I heard about our former principal’s love for art,” The girl sounds sad, her voice turns softer upon mentioning the old principal. 

Chanyeol only sighs and looks down at the science notes he’s doing. He’s in the dining hall, taking a break since Kyungsoo and Baekhyun both have classes now. 

It’s been a few days since the incident in the library occurred, and still whatever it is that is suppose to hit them, has not hit them yet. They’ve tried almost everything, they asked their Literature teacher, they looked through books, heck, Baekhyun even called up his family to ask about it. 

Nothing. 

Chanyeol writes down the sentence again on the top right corner of his notebook, staring at it for a long moment before he sighs. He’s pretty convinced that Baekhyun’s uncle wouldn’t have just left a meaningless message on the window. 

He gives up after a while, as he starts writing more notes on science. Chanyeol chuckles when he remembers Mr. Andrew’s speech on how mathematics was the universal language of science. That man is odd. 

“Don’t you think linear equations are lovely? I mean rearranging numbers to find the answer just feels so right, don’t you all agree?”

Chanyeol can’t help but feel amused whenever he-

Chanyeol stops writing all of the sudden, his face becomes unusually pale and he can feel the blood flowing in his body suddenly becoming cold. 

Rearranging numbers to find the answer. 

That’s it. 

Chanyeol flips to the next page and writes the message, which takes up half of the page:  

Be it far, lines hide them,

O, The Rave of his death!

Chanyeol feels absolutely stupid, because he should’ve known all this time, that this sentence is absolutely meaningless. The principal created an anagram, for Baekhyun to rearrange, just like how he numbered the letters of that story book. 

Chanyeol works on it for a good ten minutes before he slowly but surely writes: 

Behind the frame it lies, 

The Head of The Savior! 

Chanyeol can feel his heart rate increasing, as he jumps out from his chair and rushes to Baekhyun and Kyungsoo’s classroom. 

The way his bones tense up makes him almost trip. 

+

Chanyeol paces in front of the classroom, looking as though he has just murdered a man. His face looks endlessly panicked, with a hint of seriousness laced in it. He feels like his gut could combust any moment now, and when the bell rings it makes it worse. 

He doesn’t know whether this feeling is excitement or nervousness.

When Baekhyun and Kyungsoo walk out, their faces look serious too, “Chanyeol we need to tell you something.”

Chanyeol wants to voice his discovery, but nods anyway. 

“It’s about this pendant.” 

Baekhyun takes out the golden apple pendant from his pocket, all while looking at Kyungsoo waiting for him to explain. 

“That pendant could very blatantly symbolise immortality."

+

The three boys are seated on the floor in a circle, Kyungsoo being the main focus of the group, holding the book he’s been reading for the past two weeks. 

Greek Mythology and Ancient Legends.

The doe-eyed boy flips through the pages, not even having the leisure to breathe. He stops on a page, it has a big ‘Chapter 56’ typed on top of it. Under that, there is a picture of a man Chanyeol recognises as Hercules killing some sort of monster. 

“It’s a hydra.” Kyungsoo says as he points at the creature trapped underneath Hercules’s knee. Hercules is holding some sort of big wooden bat and his face looks absolutely ferocious. 

“Why is he killing that poor, oversized lizard?” Chanyeol his head to the side. Kyungsoo huffs with an ‘are-you-serious’ undertone. 

“Actually, he is at The Garden of the Hesperides. The only place in the world that has the key to immortality.” 

Baekhyun and Chanyeol share a moment before they look back at Kyungsoo who looks more excited than a child with candy, “The hydra protects the fruit of immortality, or better known as the golden apples of the garden of the Hesperides.”

Silence, so Kyungsoo continues, “Hesperides, are nymphs, special kinds of nymphs, to be exact. They are known as the nymphs of the evening, and usually they exist three at a time.”

Kyungsoo flips the page to reveal another picture, this time a circular one - there appears to be a huge tree with golden apples hanging off of it and under the tree there are three women, who seem to be asleep, the one in the middle though, had a huge snake wrapped around her stomach. 

“The nymphs protecting the apples.” Kyungsoo smiles as he runs a finger over the snake.  

“Alright, I don’t get it, what does this have anything to do with Baekhyun’s uncle?” Chanyeol surprises himself when his voice comes out harsher than usual. Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to hold it against him though, he looks content enough his book. 

“Actually I suspect that he’s trying to tell us the location of the Garden,” the latter looks absolutely in love, Chanyeol can actually see hearts in his eyes. 

“But, it’s fictional right? I mean, nymphs?” 

Kyungsoo looks offended, something in his face just snapped, “They are absolutely not! I live and breathe greek history, the day I hear one more person say mythology instead of history I will slaughter them.”

The boy looks absolutely livid, his eyes burn like wildfire. Chanyeol can’t help but feel bad. 

“And now we have proof that it’s real,” Kyungsoo looks at Baekhyun who has been quiet this whole time. The latter looks down, as if suddenly shy almost, regretful. 

“Are you saying Baekhyun’s uncle is a nymph?” 

Kyungsoo, yet again looks offended, “No, nymphs are females, but..”

“They had perfectly fine ovums which could sustain life,” Kyungsoo now smiles at Baekhyun, the most sincere smile he has ever put on, ever. 

Chanyeol watches as Baekhyun’s head slowly tilts upwards, the latter’s eyelashes flutter with what seem like sadness. It’s odd that Chanyeol finds Baekhyun beautiful at this angle, but he doesn’t care at the moment. The boy, looks shattered for some reason. 

Chanyeol suddenly feels a light switch on in his head:

If nymph’s blood runs in his family that means—

Oh. My God.

“You finally understand don’t you?” Baekhyun sighs out as if he knew all along. 

Baekhyun’s sudden outburst surprises the two other boys, especially Chanyeol who is still in a state of shock. Chanyeol finds it hard to believe that Baekhyun could have the blood of something so mystical. It’s amazing.

“Does your mother know that she is… you know?” Chanyeol’s mind is racing with questions, his thoughts all the sudden feel foggy and unclear, resembling water vapour on glass. 

“No, she doesn’t. I don’t think she does,” Baekhyun looks at Kyungsoo and his eyes plead for him to explain everything to Chanyeol. 

“You see Chanyeol, even after the nymphs became extinct because they weren’t actually immortal, they still needed to pass the secret location of the garden on, so, before they died, they would pass the secret on to one child of the family. The one they trust the most.”

Chanyeol nods attentively, because this is one of those times Kyungsoo is actually making an effort to talk to him, “And for Baekhyun’s Grandmother, it was his uncle. Your uncle doesn’t have kids does he?” 

Baekhyun nods solemnly. 

Kyungsoo looks at Baekhyun with pure adoration as he carefully holds one of the boy’s hands, “You are the heir of the secret and now, all you have to do is find it.” 

Chanyeol clears his throat quietly, not wanting to ruin the little moment Kyungsoo is having, “But why didn’t the nymphs eat the apples themselves, you know, so they could protect the secret forever?”

Kyungsoo snaps his head towards Chanyeol’s direction, his eyes seeping through Chanyeol’s soul, “Of course they did, but people hunted them down and killed them thinking that they were impure and used magic to create floods and droughts. Some also killed them because they never wanted to reveal the location of the apples. Sometimes I wonder why they were the ones that got hurt, after all, we are the most impure.”

Sorry for the lateness TTTT Do enjoy! ^^