Chanyeol arrived at Jindo Island on a Monday. He ended up spending the next day, a Tuesday, fishing with Kyungsoo at the pier.

Now it was Friday, and Chanyeol had been mostly holed up in his room since Wednesday, in an effort to attempt to produce at least one new song.

Chanyeol had gone through files of his drafts and old unused samples that never made the cut to be put into a song. Chanyeol was trying to see if he could work on those and use it to make a full song, but he wasn’t too enthusiastic either when he listened again to his old samples and snippets.

Chanyeol wanted something new and something fresh so actually going back to refer to his old work seemed counterproductive to his goal.

Looking back at it, Chanyeol also realized how his artistic style and preferences had changed so much since then. He was certainly not the same producer as he was from a few years ago, either for the good or bad reasons.

Abandoning his plan to hopefully work on an old sample, Chanyeol worked from scratch to create something original, from the moment he woke up in the morning until the time he was ready to go to bed at night.

Chanyeol only left his room to eat, grab a drink and use the toilet. In the past five days he had been there on Jindo Island, Chanyeol probably only showered three times the most. He had been too busy to even bother to take the time to shower.

In the past five days, Chanyeol hadn’t seen much of Kyungsoo and Jongin either. When he woke up in the morning, Kyungsoo had gone out to the dock and Jongin was at school already. He would not see the two brothers for the rest of the day until evening time when they invited him to have dinner with them.

After dinner, Chanyeol would quickly excuse himself to go back to his room and resume working straight away. Since that Tuesday where they went fishing together at the pier, Chanyeol hadn’t had the opportunity to sit down and have a proper conversation with Kyungsoo.

On that same Friday morning, Chanyeol had fallen back into his usual routine of waking up at eight-thirty in the morning after waking up a bit later than usual during the first few days he was at his new home.

The first thing Chanyeol thought of that morning while he was laying in bed, was of this catchy tune he had somehow come up with and was trying to hum, so he wouldn’t forget it.

Chanyeol grabbed his phone on the pillow beside him and recorded himself humming the tune before religiously checking his Instagram. Chanyeol actually felt impatient and when he grabbed his phone to record the tune, all he wanted was to get it over with because he couldn’t wait to check his Instagram notifications.

For now, he had stopped posting anything on Instagram although he had re-enabled comments on his posts the night before. Before he went to bed the previous night, Chanyeol had been eager to see what kind of comments he would get when he checked Instagram that morning.

Chanyeol kind of expected it and he couldn’t say he was disappointed either when he found some people commenting on his posts calling him a plagiarizer.

Although some people commented about being happy that he had re-enabled comments and still supported him with nice words, Chanyeol’s mood was quickly dampened and he found it hard to focus on the positivity with such lingering negativity directed at him.  

Chanyeol knew it was fully his fault and his self-imposed exile on Jindo Island was essentially a way for him to punish himself for what he had done.

Chanyeol skipped breakfast that morning and quickly got out of bed to begin working on the tune he had recorded himself humming in bed earlier on.

He had to prove the entire Korean music industry that he wasn’t just a rusty plagiarizer whose brain and well of creativity had run dry. And that he was still this same person known as LOEY, who poured his soul into his music simply because he loved doing what he did.

Although Chanyeol realized his faults and the mistakes he made, he still found it hard to pinpoint how he had regressed into this lazy, effortless plagiarizer. He still loved the act of making music but somehow, he lost a reason and purpose to it.

After importing the file from his phone onto his computer, Chanyeol immediately began to make an electronic version out of it on his computer’s producing software.

Chanyeol felt like his mind was flourishing and that it was just easy for him to fall back into the routine, as he continued to modify this short seven seconds long snippet, adding drum and snare beats into the tune.

So far, it was going well and sounded like a good intro or instrumental verse to an electronic or dance song, something he didn’t usually produce but could work with quite well too.

Those genres were popular and did rather well on the charts too so Chanyeol was confident that this could be the track that would probably redeem himself in the eyes of the public. At the moment, that was all his goals were, which was public approval. 

But that sudden burst of blossoming ideas which seamlessly flowed into each other was soon ended with the realization that Chanyeol didn’t know how to proceed further than this seven or so seconds he had composed in less than three-quarters of an hour.

Chanyeol began to panic and grew restless that he was hit by the wall of writer’s block again, just when things were going well and seemed to be looking up.

Chanyeol couldn’t believe he was wrong when he thought he was already alright. It made him stop to rethink everything he knew and even doubt himself somewhat. Did he still really have what it took to become a music producer in such a competitive, oversaturated market? Had he lost his “touch” somewhere over the past ten years?

Whatever it was, it seemed to be like that now.

Hunched over the desk with his computer set up in front of him, Chanyeol subconsciously squinted his eyes as he tried hard to think of something he swore he was supposed to remember.

Chanyeol just knew it was important but yet he couldn’t recall what it exactly was. This was allegedly supposed to help him in composing some new music, which was his main priority at the time.

Chanyeol went “Oh!” sitting up straight in his chair like he was shocked by electricity when he finally remembered what it exactly was.

Several nights ago he had found Kyungsoo singing a rendition of an old popular trot song. Despite the rendition technically being the wrong version of the song, Chanyeol was actually enthused at how blissful and at ease with the manner in which Kyungsoo had sung it.

It had actually inspired Chanyeol to try out new methods and techniques in his songwriting, employing styles he had rarely done before all in the effort of making something fresh and new.

How he wished to have a similar level of elation that Kyungsoo did, even when supposedly singing a song wrongly for years. To Chanyeol, music and composing it always had to be “right”.

Chanyeol looked at the time on the taskbar of his computer and saw that it was already a few minutes past eleven in the morning.

Kyungsoo left the house very early in the morning, at least an hour before the time Chanyeol routinely woke up at.

Seeing how many hours had passed since the current time and when Kyungsoo left home, Chanyeol didn’t know if Kyungsoo would still be at the dock or if he had gone out to sea already.

In fact, Chanyeol didn’t even know if Kyungsoo would be going out to sea that day. He wasn’t sure what fishermen did in a day other than catch fish.

Chanyeol wasn’t really sure what to do but he just knew he had to take charge and take action over some parts of his life which he believed he still had under control.

Right there and then, Chanyeol decided he needed to go out and find Kyungsoo, in order to ask the fishermen to sing for him again. Chanyeol badly felt like he needed to hear Kyungsoo’s wrong rendition of “No Matter What” by Park Sang Cheol, in order for him to feel inspired and motivated the same way he had been that night.

Kyungsoo didn’t have a cell phone so there was no way to contact him. The only way Chanyeol could think of to find Kyungsoo at the time was to go down to the dock, and hope that Kyungsoo hadn’t gone out to sea yet.

Chanyeol could have waited until Kyungsoo returned home in the evening but there was at least six to seven hours before then. Chanyeol thought that was too long of a time for him.

Chanyeol didn’t like to wait; he was just so used to the concept of instant gratification like when he would literally refresh his Instagram every other minute after posting a new picture or video, so he could see the new comments and likes he had accumulated.

Furthermore, he had been on Jindo Island for five days now and had made almost no progress, minus that seven seconds clip he had made in less than an hour that day.

Chanyeol didn’t like to waste time especially when he was so used to a fast-paced industry where new songs were continuously produced and pumped out daily in such a manner. Sitting around idly and letting time pass without doing anything was almost akin to letting himself being swallowed by the void, where he would slowly lose popularity and relevancy by the second.

Chanyeol quickly undressed from the sleeping clothes he had been wearing since that morning and threw on the nearest t-shirt and pair of trousers he could find lying nearby.

Then, Chanyeol ran out of the door, grabbing the keys to the house on the desk before he left. He slid the door shut back in the frame but was too much in a haste to lock it.

Chanyeol expected to see Jongin’s bicycle leaning on the wall outside the house, but it wasn’t there that morning. Jongin had used it to go to school that day.

That did change Chanyeol’s plans a bit but he didn’t let it stop him. Chanyeol bent down to the ground to tie his shoelaces properly, fastening it tight and secure before he broke out into a run down the straight road between the rice fields and farmlands, which would bring him all the way down to the dock.

The last time Chanyeol had been running this hard was when he was in the army not more than three years ago. He hadn’t been exercising or working out much since then, and he certainly felt that and his age slowly creeping up to him.

Chanyeol was still in his early thirties but he felt a lot older now when he started to tire out not halfway down the road.  His legs were beginning to feel numb and tingly, his waist was aching and his breath was coming out heavy, uneven and labored.

Chanyeol did stop for a minute or two at the side of the road, leaning against a lamp post or a fence that bordered some farms from the roadside, before continuing his run down to the dock.

There were no cars or vehicles that passed by him throughout the entire time he was running down the road, so there was no option to flag one down and hitchhike all the way to the dock.

He was certainly sweating heavily now from all that running and the July heat. His shirt and trousers were wet from perspiration, feeling like he had just slipped into his clothes while still wet from a shower.

Chanyeol even debated if Kyungsoo would still be there at the dock this time of the day and if he was just troubling himself by coming out this far. Fishermen were known for leaving out to sea very early in the morning, after all.

After a point when he felt like he couldn’t run anymore but was still able to continue about his journey, Chanyeol walked instead and passed by a house with a Jindo dog in the fence barking at him as he passed by.

Chanyeol was glad to see this dog leashed in the compound, meaning it couldn’t come out and chase him like the dog he saw the other day. Chanyeol made a funny face at the dog before continuing about his way.

Fortunately for Chanyeol, the road towards the dock actually sloped down at a small angle because of the slightly mountainous terrain that leveled out towards the shore.

It was easier for him to run like this, although coming back would be harder when he had to climb back up against gravity. He would just deal with it later on, once he had gotten this agenda over with first.

When Chanyeol was able to see the shop buildings near the dock in his sight, he sped up his walking pace but not fast enough to break into a run because he didn’t think he had the energy for that anymore.

Chanyeol kept his head low and avoided eye-contact with anyone passing by or in the shops that might recognize him. He had been acquainted with some of the townsfolk over the past few days thanks to Kyungsoo and now wasn’t the time to stop and have a conversation with them.

Chanyeol did acknowledge their friendliness, and that was good, but he had more pressing matters at the moment.

Chanyeol jogged the rest of the way to the dock, having regained some energy and his breath from the walk he had taken after the sprint.

From a distance, Chanyeol could already see Kyungsoo’s fishing boat docked at its usual spot, second to last down the row. There were also fewer boats docked there that morning so it was easier to find Kyungsoo’s boat.

Except for this time, Kyungsoo’s boat was reversing and leaving the dock, most likely to go out to sea.

Seeing this, Chanyeol was immediately alarmed and from jogging, he dashed into a sprint down towards the end of the dock.

“Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol yelled out at the top of his voice, against the sea breeze that blew over the water and towards land, flailing his arms in the windy air as he ran even faster to catch Kyungsoo’s attention.

Kyungsoo was in the wheelhouse on his boat, his attention fully focused on maneuvering the boat out of the dock, having to be careful to avoid colliding with the other boats.

The engine was in reverse transmission and humming very loudly, on top of the sounds waves and water lapping up against the boat and being stirred by the driveshaft and propellers.

It wasn’t really Kyungsoo’s fault for not seeing or hearing Chanyeol initially.

“Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol continued to yell, rushing down the concrete-covered dock, running even faster the further down and closer