Chapter 2 – the first goodbye of many

2012

“And she is always so nice! Not even a bit show-off. If I didn’t know better I would say I embarrassed her –”

Baekhyun crossed the room again and again in front of his bandmate and best friend, Chanyeol whose head started to become dizzy. They were staying in their dorm after the slightly older boy’s lesson. He came home excited every single time. Kim Taeyeon was a role model for him since forever and now his dreams were finally come true: to meet her, to talk to her, to study from her. And everything was way better than he'd imagined. She was even more perfect than he had already thought.

“Can you stop moving for a minute, please? I might throw up if you continue walking,” his fellow bandmate groaned and laid down between the pillows of their shared room.

Sometimes it was difficult for him to be roommates with a bubbly kid like Baekhyun. At first, it was an award-winning idea to put them together because they were so similar: noisy, fun-loving but kind-hearted guys. They became best friends easily but they both had moments of quiet and peace. If the other disturbed them during one of these times, a little catastrophe happened. They had quite a few arguments about nonsense little things but nothing serious and they made up almost immediately.

“You can’t understand! She is –” Baekhyun sat down beside him wearing that damn dreaming look on his face.

“Beautiful, genius, perfect? Yeah, I know. I met her,” the tall rapper cut him off with a little amusement and a bit of annoyance in his voice. The all-day long training made him tired, his muscles hurt and he was sure he could fall asleep right there. But again, Baekhyun was too wide awake.

“You met her? When? Why? And why didn’t you tell me? I am your bestiest best friend just in case you forgot. How can you hide something this huge from me?”

“Will you shut up so I can answer?” Chanyeol hissed at him but couldn’t stop smiling. Times like this his friend seemed even more childish than him. He shook his head, gathered his thoughts and explained:  “You know, I was modelling before and I tried some acting too. Two years ago, I was casted in one of her music videos… I mean SNSD. The Genie’s Japanese version.”

Baekhyun felt his face fall. He was surprised because he had never imagined that. In fact, it was his fault, he should have been more observant about his friend’s carrier.

“Really? I didn’t know. I’m gonna check this as soon as possible but… How was it?” and then again after his shock, he was just a fanboy. The singer was curious about everything concerning Taeyeon.

“I already told you what I think: Girl’s Generation is a really professional group. They are all talented and hardworking. I was only a clumsy trainee but they were nice to me,” the younger told him but it wasn’t enough for Baekhyun. He wanted to know the whole story so after a while Chanyeol gave up pretending to be sleeping. He sighed and started to tell the old tale in detail.

“Once upon a time, there was this boy named Chanyeol –”

“Aish… Don’t be stupid, Yeol!” Now, his friend seemed a little irritated too, but a laugher escaped his mouth. The storyteller didn’t mind the interruption and loved to tease his bandmate.

“You started. Where was I? Oh, yes. Our handsome protagonist went to an audition…”

Days came and went. Rehearsing, shooting and sleeping followed each other in the same pattern. Finally, in January the countdown started: there was no more hiding in the shadows. Their debut time was fixed at the end of the month so they had to be ready. Of course, everyone was nervous so Baekhyun found the company of Taeyeon very refreshing and peaceful. He could break off the treadwheel while he was with her. He prepared for their next lesson as it was one of the many because he didn’t know it wa