Through the rest of October, Chanyeol worked on remastering the four songs he had composed and planned to show to his executives back in Seoul. On top of that, Chanyeol was also fulfilling his promise to attempt to make a new school song for Jindo High School, the only high school on the island and within the entire Jindo County.

Chanyeol had less than two weeks left on Jindo and knowing that he didn’t have much time left on the island, he made sure to properly divide his time between working on his music and spending time outside with the people he had to leave soon.

Chanyeol always knew that the day when he had to leave would come eventually. That was definite and had been set in stone from the moment he made the decision to move to Jindo.

He had never planned to stay on the island permanently as his life and entire career was in Seoul. When Chanyeol had first arrived there on Jindo, all he wanted to do was just to get it over with as soon as possible and go home with new songs he had composed over the months he was there.

However, Chanyeol discovered something he had never expected to while there on Jindo and that was the experiences and people he would have never gotten to come across had he just stayed holed up in the concrete jungle of Seoul.

It had been a blessing in disguise to Chanyeol, the silver lining in the cloud that was looming over the uncertainty that was his life following the plagiarizing scandal.

For the most part, running away to Jindo sure did help him hide from the public and all the clout on top of finding new musical inspiration; all those being his original intentions to being there in the first place.

Chanyeol just didn’t expect to feel sad, a bit reluctant and dare he might say heavy-hearted to leave the island in less than two weeks time.

On days when he was alone at home with Kyungsoo out at sea and Jongin away at school, Chanyeol made sure to use the time to work on his music. So, he could spend more time with them when they were around.

There was always more time and even better resources and facilities to work on his music while he was in Seoul. However, the people here and the experiences on Jindo were something he would never be able to recreate there. And now, Chanyeol realized that truth.

Late on a Friday afternoon, less than a week away from his expected departure date from Jindo, Chanyeol finally completed the school song he had promised to compose for Jongin’s high school.

It had only taken Chanyeol two weeks at most to get the song done as he didn’t have to worry about marketability or how “mainstream” the song needed to be. Chanyeol just needed to make sure that he was able to properly reflect on the school’s motto and identity, visualizing it in the song.

Chanyeol burned the song onto a CD, making sure the instrumental and the official track was both on it too. He also printed out a page of the lyrics and sheet notes he had come up with, noting that the school could change it as they pleased.

Chanyeol would be leaving on Thursday of the next week and before then; he wanted to submit the song to the school through Jongin. Chanyeol wanted to make sure everything was taken care of prior to his leaving.

Without hesitation, Chanyeol left his room where he saw Jongin sitting in the living room on his phone and still in his school uniform.

“Good, you’re home,” Chanyeol exclaimed, handing Jongin the CD in its plastic sleeve, “I finished the school song. You can go submit this to your teacher now.”

“-Oh but it’s the weekend already and the school is closed. It’ll have to be done on Monday,” Jongin mentioned.

“Okay, then just give it to your teacher on Monday,” Chanyeol mentioned.

“Why don’t we go together on Monday to send the song in?” Jongin suggested, “I mean…you basically wrote the whole thing and I’m just the middle man. I think the teachers in charge of the song competition would like to see you in person in that case.”

“Sure,” Chanyeol agreed almost immediately, “I guess I can do that but I don’t know the way to the school nor do I know the buildings to get around.”

“Umm…I’ll arrange something with Kyungsoo-hyung so he can send you there in the afternoon. Since the teachers might not be free too in the morning until lunchtime. Lunchtime starts at 12.10 in the afternoon so you should come around that time,” Jongin informed, “I can meet you up at the school gates or something and then we’ll go see the teachers together.”

“Alright, that sounds fine by me. So, we’re on for Monday?” Chanyeol asked to clarify.

“Yeah, Monday it is. I’ll let Kyungsoo-hyung know when he comes home in a bit,” Jongin added.  

“Okay, let me know if there’s anything else,” Chanyeol told, before returning back to his room and waiting for Kyungsoo to return home so they could finally have dinner.

Jongin was staying over at Kyungsoo’s house for the weekends and had excused himself to go to sleep earlier than usual that night, saying that he was tired out by homework and the abundance of school activities as of late.

That was something Chanyeol could certainly relate to. He had been a student once, even though that was quite a while ago. Frankly, all he could remember from his life as a student were the all-nighters before an exam, rushing to complete an assignment, the gallons of coffee had he consumed in the process and the following feeling of fatigue because he had messed up his sleeping schedule.

Because, when it came to his career as a music producer, Chanyeol never rushed things and actually made sure his working schedule was well spaced out and planned for beforehand. Personally, Chanyeol didn’t believe in rushing his music because that would mean taking a hit on quality in favor of speed.

At half past ten at night, Jongin was sleeping comfortably and almost snoring on the spare futon in Kyungsoo’s room. Chanyeol found Kyungsoo carrying a pail from the wet kitchen and towards the porch, where the front sliding doors were open to reveal the cool and quiet night atmosphere outside.

“You’re still awake,” Kyungsoo commented, slipping his feet into some sandals before carrying the pail out from the porch and into the small front yard, illuminated by the lightings from the house and in the porch.

“Yeah, I’m not going to sleep so soon. I got bored so I wanted to see what you were up to,” Chanyeol replied, sitting on the porch with his legs crossed.

Kyungsoo placed the pail on the ground, in front of the clothing line, before bending over to pick up something inside, that turned out to be Jongin’s still wet school uniform.

“Were you washing Jongin’s clothes?” Chanyeol asked the obvious.

“Yeah, it’ll be dry by Monday. If I don’t do it for him, he’ll forget about it,” Kyungsoo stated, twisting the uniform to drip off the water before hanging it up on the line, securing the clothing with plastic pegs.

“Since I’ve started living here, I have never seen you use the washing machine. You always wash your clothes by hand. I feel like I’m the only person at home who uses it,” Chanyeol casually reminded.

“Oh, I know how to use a washing machine,” Kyungsoo expressed, hanging up Jongin’s second set of shirt uniform, “I just feel comfortable doing things the old way.”

“Then, why did you buy a washing machine in the first place? It looks pretty new to me too,” Chanyeol voiced out.

“It was for you actually,” Kyungsoo revealed, straightening out the wrinkles on the uniform that had been hung up, “Before I put up the spare room for rent, I bought the washing machine and had an internet connection set up for the new renter’s convenience. My dad told me it would likely be someone from the city looking for a country experience, so I had to make sure my house had the facilities someone from the city would be used to. There’s no laundry service on the island, you know.”

“I see,” Chanyeol nodded, “I didn’t know that. I thought you just had internet because Jongin often came by and needed to use it.”

“Well, he was part of the reason too. He was saying something about how his phone bills would be cheaper if I had internet here,” Kyungsoo shrugged, picking up the pail and going back under the porch where Chanyeol was seated at. Kyungsoo then joined Chanyeol, sitting under the porch in the cool late October night.

“You’re a nice older brother,” Chanyeol complimented with a grin, “I’m the younger child between me and my sister so I’m not really sure how it’s like to be the older sibling.”

“Is there a difference at all other than just being older? Isn’t it the responsibility of us adults to guide and watch over the younger people until they are capable?” Kyungsoo pursed his lips at the thought, fiddling around with the handle of the pail he had placed on the floor beside him.

“Well, according to research, there is,” Chanyeol added, “Since you have quite decent internet here, maybe you could save up for a cheap smartphone or a computer for you to look up at stuff on the internet. Trust me, you’ll never get bored with it. There’s always stuff to do and look at. You could even talk with other fishermen like you and discuss fishing spots and new fishing gear, I guess?”

“Ah, I’m not sure if I’ll have the time for it because most of the time I’m out at sea and we don’t get internet connection out there,” Kyungsoo told, “I don’t want it to go waste.”

“Well…” Chanyeol dragged out on the syllable, “If you had a phone or a computer, we’d be able to contact each other easier once I’m back in Seoul?”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo too realized, his face dropping a bit at the reminder of having to part with Chanyeol soon, “…I suppose that you’re right.”

“Yeah, you should really get one. I can even buy it for you if you want,” Chanyeol encouraged, “Jongin is here to teach you how to use it too if you can’t figure it out.”

“Oh, no,” Kyungsoo turned down, “You don’t have to buy anything for me. I mean, I’m already charging you rent to stay here. Since we’ve gotten to know each other, I don’t feel it’s appropriate that I make you pay to live here. I wish I could return all that three months of rent you paid in advance but I used it to buy advance credit for diesel for my boat.”

“Don’t worry,” Chanyeol tried to assure, taking Kyungsoo’s hands into his own, “-some phones are expensive but there’s tons of variety now. We can get you a simple and cheap one that works just fine. It won’t even cost more than 200,000 won. If you want, I can buy it in Seoul where it’s cheaper and have it mailed to you here.”

“That’s nice but I’d still feel bad for it,” Kyungsoo was still hesitant, unable to look directly into Chanyeol’s eyes for long.

“You don’t have to feel bad for it,” Chanyeol clarified gently, his voice as soft as his expression, moving his hands from Kyungsoo’s to touch the side of the latter’s face and rub his cheek, “I’ll do anything for you.”

“Why are you like this. It makes it so hard for me to say no to you,” Kyungsoo sighed, half-smiling, loosening up a little as he buried his head on Chanyeol’s shoulder with one hand still intertwined to each other.

“It’s alright,” Chanyeol chuckled a bit, hugging Kyungsoo at the back of the latter’s head, looking up at the lights on the porch. Chanyeol wished he could always stay like this.

Kyungsoo usually took Tuesdays off but decided to have the next Monday off instead. As he was technically self-employed and worked for nobody but himself, Kyungsoo had the liberty on when he decided to work.

Jongin had left for school several hours earlier and had promised to meet Kyungsoo and Chanyeol at the school gates around half past noon during lunch break.

Chanyeol had worried that the school wouldn’t let him in because he wasn’t a student nor was he an alumnus of the school like Kyungsoo was. However, he was assured by both Kyungsoo and Jongin that the school only had one security guard who let almost anyone in because nothing ever happened on the island.

Kyungsoo and Chanyeol arrived at least ten to fifteen minutes earlier than they were expected to. They were free that day and didn’t have much to do prior to that anyway.

The school’s security guard easily let Kyungsoo and Chanyeol in without any questions, even tipping his hat and greeting them a good afternoon.

As promised, Jongin was waiting there and he guided both of them through the schoolyard where Chanyeol saw some students playing basketball or just hanging around the compound during lunch break.

The school was a bit smaller than the ones Chanyeol had seen in Seoul and the building was slightly older too but it was certainly livelier than the ones on Gwanmaedo, where the only schools had closed down because they simply lacked the students to study there.

“How many students do you have in your school?” Chanyeol asked as he passed by a classroom, walking down the hallway with Jongin and Kyungsoo, on the way to meet the teacher in charge of the competition.

“Three to four hundred,” Jongin answered, estimating.

“Well, that’s more than what I expected,” Chanyeol replied