Chanyeol stepped out of the van, closing the door shut after himself before signalling for the manager to leave. He watched as the van slowly disappeared out of his sight, stuffing his hands in the pocket of the bomber jacket he was wearing before turning to head towards the house. He stopped when he caught the sound of a car approaching and he turned to look down the street just as a car parked itself in the driveway of his neighbour’s house.

Ga Young stepped out from the driver’s seat, dressed in an all-black attire, aside from her silver heels that is. Chanyeol was surprised to see the obvious difference in his childhood friend; the last memory he had of her was on the day he was moving, and Ga Young had cried so badly and clung to him like a koala. Her whole face was red and her eyes were beginning to swollen, and Chanyeol recalled giving her a very, very long hug before entering his parent’s car.

Now, the little girl was a woman with a slim figure and beautiful, jade black hair. Chanyeol liked seeing the older version of Moon Ga Young. It was refreshing, exciting and not to mention, beautiful. But what he loved most was the fact that he could still recognize her eyes – her beautiful, big brown eyes. When he first saw her again in the kitchen, he didn’t recognize her at all, not until he saw those big eyes that would sometimes haunt his dreams.

The feeling he felt when he saw her again was foreign and new, but at the same time familiar and comforting. Chanyeol hated himself for keeping his real identity a secret from her, but after screaming at her the previous day, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

The time will come, he assured himself.

Chanyeol continued to watch the oblivious woman who had rounded the car to grab something from the backseat before locking the car with a single press of the remote. He watched unblinkingly as she gracefully walked to the door of her house, engrossed in watching the way her thick shoulder-length haired swayed with her every move, and only blinked once the door closed behind her thus disappearing from his sight altogether.

Only then did Chanyeol walked further up the path that lead to the stairs at the veranda, and he glanced up at the window on the second flow just as the light , and he knew that she had just gotten into her room. He took his time downstairs in the kitchen after that, and only when he started yawning did Chanyeol climbed up the stairs to his room. He took a quick shower and put on a simple shirt and flannel pants, and again, he glanced at the window across from his that was now dark,

“Good night, bunny,” he whispered to himself before moving to his bed.

***

Ga Young quietly stepped into her neighbours house, knowing that she’s actually a tad bit earlier than usual to do her cleaning duty and she didn’t want to disturb the tired EXO members, if they’re still around that is. But then again, she hadn’t seen the all-too familiar black van arriving earlier this morning so she assumed that the boys were still inside their rooms sleeping.

The first room she went into was the living room, and she was glad that there wasn’t much for her to do aside from rearranging the pillows and the wiping the coffee table so the dust won’t gather on its glass surface like snow. She dusted the TV and everything else on the cabinet before moving onto sweeping the floor. All the while, she made sure she was quiet and careful.

She didn’t want to get into any more troubles after all.

Then, she moved down the stairs to where the renovated basement was and sighed when she saw the mess. It’s obvious that the members spent more time in this part of the house aside from their rooms, and Ga Young spent an hour and a half cleaning, sweeping and dusting the place. She even found some clothes draped over the back of the couch, and she took a whiff before deciding that it’s best to put them into the machine for washing.

Two hours later, she was hanging out the laundry and while doing so, she began humming some songs under her nose. She doesn’t recall the name of the song, but she does know that it was a song by EXO and that it was her favourite so far. Ga Young could only memorize the lyrics from the chorus, so she sang that part a little louder and hummed her way through the rest of the song.

“I thought you weren’t a fan,” a voice said, making her jump and turn around. Her eyes widened a little when she saw Chanyeol leaning by the doorframe of the back door. The guy had a tiny smirk on his lips as he stared at her. “Did you, perhaps, lied to us that day? About not being a fan?”

“No, I wasn’t.” she denied, clearly not liking the accusation. She did, however, dropped her gaze a little because the guy looked like he’s trying to pierce through her with his gaze alone. “I was just listening to some of your songs the other day,” she explained. “And it has been stuck in my head since.”

Chanyeol scoffed at that. “Of course. Our songs are amazing.”

Ga Young couldn’t disagree with that, but she still hated the man’s arrogant tone and expression. “If you say so,” she shrugged and turned back around to do the laundry.

“You don’t like them?”

The sudden question made her turn to him again, and for a second, Ga Young thought she saw a flash of doubt and insecurity in his eyes.

“I didn’t say that,” she said. “I just… haven’t heard all of them.” Chanyeol nodded to himself at that. “That song I was singing… I liked it. It’s my favourite so far.” She didn’t know why she was telling him this, but Chanyeol looked interested so she continued, “But I don’t remember the title. Yet.”

The man stared at her, face void of emotions, and Ga Young felt herself shifting uncomfortable under his stare. Chanyeol then scoffed quietly and shook his head. “I’m not surprised,” he muttered quietly to himself.

“Pardon?”

“I said, it’s called Don’t Go. That song you were singing, I mean.”

“…oh.”

An awkward silence ensued, and Ga Young chewed onto her bottom lip helplessly before slowly turning back to do her work. She could feel Chanyeol’s eyes on her back which made her feel like she’s standing on lava for she couldn’t stand still. Luckily, she was almost done with the laundry and she picked up the now empty laundry basket before turning to walk to the door, wanting to return inside.

But Chanyeol was blocking the way, eyes still staring at her, and Ga Young cleared loudly. He snapped out of his daze and took a few steps back, allowing her to walk pass him before he closed the door.

“Are the others awake?” she asked, straining her neck a little in order to catch any other sounds that would indicate that the others were awake.

“They’re not home,” Chanyeol told her as he walked towards the fixed coffee machine to make himself some caffeine. “We’re the only ones.”

That somehow made Ga Young nervous. “We–We are?” she stammered. “Uh, how come? I don’t think I saw them leaving this morning.”

“Oh, they never did come home last night. They went back to the old dorms and stayed with the M-members.” M-members? Chanyeol glanced over his shoulders and scoffed when he saw the confused look on her face. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

She sighed. I need to ask Doyeon about that, she thought and nodded determinedly to herself. She watched as Chanyeol whipped out some jams from the fridge before putting some bread into the toaster. His movement were familiar, like as if he’s used to doing all these things by himself, but there was something else about him that kept nagging at her, leaving her confused and curious.

When Ga Young realized she was staring, she quickly looked away from the man and sighed quietly to herself. She was about to walk away to start doing other chores when Chanyeol shoved a mug into her hand.

“It’s for drinking, Moon Ga Young.” he said when she gave him a blank look.

“I know that,” she snapped back at him.

“Good then.” She rolled her eyes when she saw the smirk on his face. Chanyeol snorted. “Did you just rolled your eyes at your employer?” he suddenly asked.

Ga Young stilled at that, lips hovering awkwardly at the rim of the mug as she was about to take a sip of the hot beverage. She turned to him and saw the smug look on his face. She cleared and lowered the mug onto the kitchen counter.

“I apologize,” she said with a bow. “I will make sure not to do it again.”

When she excused herself with the excuse of wanting to continue with her chores, Chanyeol let out a loud sigh which made her still again. “Relax, would you? I won’t bite. Get your mug and go sit at the dining table.”

Ga Young frowned in confusion but she didn’t get to ask when the breads suddenly popped out of the toaster, making Chanyeol turn away from her to get them. Wordlessly, she did as she was told and quietly sat on one side of the table in confusion before Chanyeol appeared with a tray. Her confusion increased as he laid the table with the toasts, different kinds of jam, butter and even a bowl of scrambled eggs.

“Eat,” Chanyeol said as he grabbed a blackberry jam for his toast.

Ga Young hesitated at first, but with one glance from the (sort of) intimidating man, she reached for a slice of toast and ate it with butter. The silence was tense and awkward, and she felt slightly uncomfortable as she quietly ate her food across from Chanyeol. The man, on the other hand, seemed so relaxed and it bothered her a little.

“I wanted to apologize for screaming at you the other day,” he suddenly said, surprising her. She lifted her gaze to see him staring at her. “I was wrong to take out my frustration on you.”

She dropped her gaze again. “Oh…” So this is what it’s all about. “It’s fine, I guess,” she told him, chewing onto her bottom lip nervously. “I should’ve paid close attention when my mom gave me that warning so I wouldn’t have made that mistake. I promise to stay away from your room from now on.”

Chanyeol sighed. “It’s fine,” he said which surprised her. “You can come in and do your work. Just… don’t break anything, got it?”

“O–Okay.”

“You can start by dusting my room a little after this,” he said next. “I’m allergic to dust and I don’t want to get sick when I have too much work to do.”

“Ah, okay. I’ll get to it right after I clear up after breakfast,” she promised him.

“It’s fine, I’ll clean the dishes myself. Just take care of my room.”

His tone clearly told her not to argue, so she nodded and quickly finished her food.

***

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Ga Young looked up from folding Chanyeol’s duvet to stare questioningly at the owner who’s leaning against the wall by the bathroom, eyes boring into hers. He had entered the room when she was wiping the desk earlier and continued to loiter around the place as she worked. He kept out of her way though and hardly made a sound, but Ga Young was highly conscious of his eyes watching her every move.

Surprisingly, she didn’t feel at all bothered by it.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were here to work?” he repeated his question.

She shrugged. “You didn’t give me the chance to explain,” she quietly muttered, looking away from him to the duvet.

Chanyeol sighed. “I thought you lied about not being a fan and was actually a erted stalker,” he told her.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t,” he sighed. “I was being harsh towards you, and it was uncalled for. No matter what the reason was.”

Ga Young smiled a little at that. She couldn’t believe that the man was apologizing to her yet again, although she felt that she was at fault as well. Still, it felt nice to hear him apologizing and knowing that he won’t stop her from coming into this room again made her secretly happy.

***

Chanyeol seemed like he was in a good mood that night when the others got back from their respective schedules. They found him in the kitchen, playing his guitar at the dining table with some few papers on the surface, and Baekhyun automatically joined him by singing the words he knew from the new song Chanyeol has been working on for the past month.

“You finished it,” the shorter said as he looked over the composition.

“I had some time to work on the rest today,” Chanyeol said with a satisfied smile.

“You look like you’re in a good mood too,” Sehun pointed out as he took off his jacket and sat across from the elder. “Did something happen?”

“Not really, no.”

“I see that Ga Young-sshi must’ve come for work this morning,” Kyungsoo suddenly said from the kitchen area, head peering inside the fridge.

Chanyeol frowned at that. “What are you talking about? What made you say that?”

Kyungsoo’s head popped up from behind the opened fridge and he has a raised brow directed at him. “The fridge is clean and everything is properly arranged in here,” he pointed out.

“Oh.”

“Why? Why did you think I said that for?”

“Nothing.”

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at his best friend, but Chanyeol had his attention back on his guitar as he began strumming random tunes with the chords. The former glanced at Sehun but the man was busy texting someone on his phone, and Baekhyun leaned forward at the table in curiosity.

“You’ve been on the phone texting the whole day,” he said. “Don’t your fingers get tired from tapping against the screen like that?”

Sehun scoffed. “What are you saying, hyung? You know you just sounded like Suho hyung just now right?”

Chanyeol snorted in agreement.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Right now, I’m the eldest so yes, I was nagging at you like Suho hyung used to. Who have you been texting anyway? Perhaps…” he drawled on with a suspense look on his face and a surprised gasp which made everyone turn to him, even Kyungsoo who had made himself comfortable in the kitchen preparing dinner. “Did you get yourself a girlfriend, Oh Sehun?”

“What?” Chanyeol exclaimed while Kyungsoo merely rolled his eyes and went back to chopping the onions. “Yah, since when?”

“I do not have a girlfriend, hyung.” Sehun sighed. “I was texting a friend. A guy friend.”

“It’s okay if you’re gay too, maknae. You know we’ll always love you no matter what.” Baekhyun said and laughed when Sehun threatened to throw the phone to his face.

“I’m texting Kwang Soo!”

“Who the hell is Kwang Soo?”

Chanyeol let out an ‘ah’ and nodded his head when he recognized the name. Sehun turned to him in confusion at that. “What the hell? You know Kwang Soo too?” he asked.

“He’s Ga Young’s little brother.”

“Yeah, but how’d you know him? You said you don’t know anyone from this neighbourhood.”

Chanyeol froze at that.