At first, I had had my doubts about Chanyeol. I mean, the first time we met, he openly admitted to having pet ferrets. That's usually one of those things you admit to after you've known someone for... at least six months. At the earliest. In fact, I'm not sure that if I was the owner of pet ferrets, I would ever admit to them. I might not even tell my future spouse I owned ferrets. I would hide them in a closet somewhere in the house, or maybe the guest bathroom, and take them out and play with them when my spouse was at work. Then, I might start breeding them and selling them online. I would own a ferret black market in my own house, and my spouse would never know. 

This way of thinking is probably the primary reason that I do not own ferrets. Chanyeol probably owns ferrets because he loves them dearly, and cares for them, and that in itself is admirable. And although I find ferrets mildly gross and creepy (no offense to all the ferrets out there, I'm sure most of you are lovely), Chanyeol does not think that way. In Canada, most of my friends would brag about how cute their dogs and cats were, and I just have to be accepting that Chanyeol dotes on his pets the same way my friends doted on theirs. 

Now that I had been in school a week or so, Chanyeol and I were sitting together on the subway every single day. We even had a preffered side to sit on. Mostly, I just listened to Chanyeol talk to me about his classes, or what was going on with his family, or literally anything in the world. Chanyeol could chatter on for hours. About anything. And unless you made it completely obvious that you had something to say, he probably wouldn't even notice you tried to get a word in otherwise. 

And although this trait seems like it would be rather annoying (and trust me, on some occasions it absolutely was), it could also be endearing. When I got out from classes in the afternoons, I felt dead to the world. Korean school is a lot more intense than Canadian school ever was, I discovered, and although I really appreciated the education I was getting and understood a majority of the lessons fairly well, it was definitely a change. So after a very stressful day of classes, it was nice being able to have an interaction into which I could put in minimal effort. Chanyeol, quirky as he was, was a blessing in disguise for me. 

For example, he was currently chatting to me about some Korean variety show called "Show Me the Money", which, as far as I could tell, was an American Idol-esque competition for rap. He was talking about his favorite current contestant, Giriboy. "His music is usually not like what he's doing in the show," Chanyeol prattled on. "Usually he does slower, more emotional stuff. I feel like he's being pressured into pretending to be this hardcore rapper, when that's not what he is at all! I wish he would be more himself, stylistically. Maybe that way he'd have a better chance of advancing in the competition. Have you heard any of his stuff?"

I shook my head. "No, who is he?"

"His name is Giriboy. Right now he's mainly underground, but he's released one or two EPs. He's got some pretty good lyrics." Chanyeol took out his phone and slipped an earbud into my ear. "Do you typically listen to rap?"

I shook my head again. "No, not really. I was more of a pop kind of girl. I have heard some kpop, though. I did my research before moving here." 

"You're in for a treat!" Chanyeol clapped his large hands together and then opened up the music on his phone. He stopped on a song called "Camp".  "Maybe you can also show me music that you like! We can trade."

Then, he started to play me the song. I listened, easing back into my seat. This was even easier than holding a conversation.

"Open up your eyes and look at the sunset on the sea that’s so red.
It looks like your cheeks... I try to kiss you."

Right away, I noticed that this song was slightly romantic. I looked at Chanyeol out of the side of my eyes, and noticed that he was staring intently at me. Maybe I was overreacting. Chanyeol gets very excited about things, I thought, maybe he was just so excited to hear my reaction to the song that he was watching my facial expressions. I went back to paying attention. 

"We’ve got to dance so that the music will never stop.
We’ve got to keep cooking so that the fire will never go out.
We’ve got to keep talking so that the conversation would never end."

I listened to the whole song, and then gave Chanyeol his earbuds back. "I liked it."

"Did you?" Chanyeol asked, tucking his phone and earbuds back in his jacket pocket. "That's how I feel when I'm with you, sometimes."

I crinkled my eyebrows. "Like we're camping?"

Chanyeol laughed. "No, the part where he says that they've got to keep talking so that the conversation won't end. I don't know, Hannah, it's just that when I'm talking to you, I feel sometimes like I never want to stop."

"Aw, thank you Chanyeol," I said, ruffling his hair. "I really appreciate having a friend like you around, especially since I'm new here."

"You can count on me for anything," Chanyeol said sincerely, grabbing a hold of my hand. My heart suddenly started beating a thousand times faster. "I mean it, Hannah, if you ever need anything, I'm here for you." 

The subway came to a slow, and Chanyeol looked up. "Unfortunately, it looks like this is my stop. I'll see you tomorrow!" He got up and skipped off the subway, giving me a wink right before he exited. 

I sat there shell-shocked. Could Chanyeol be my secret admirer after all?

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who as subscribed, and thank you for two comments! <3 I really appreciate your support so I wrote a longer chapter than usual. I will try to update as frequently as I can as long as it doesn't affect my schoolwork. I am aiming for once a day. Ambitious, right? ;) 

Also, this is completely irrelevant to everything, but if you'd like to, you can follow me on Tumblr! My username is "rainbowhyuna". I follow back everyone and feel free to message me! I love to talk. 

Have wonderful days everyone!