"Chanyeol! Chanyeol!" Fans and media screamed his name as his company SUV pulled up outside the TV studio. Chanyeol played his part as he smiled and waved to them as he got out the car. He leaned in and grabbed his old guitar and slipped his head through the strap so it hung across his back. He held his hand out and smiled reassuringly and Baekhyun grasped it tight and instantly felt better. He stepped carefully out of the big vehicle with Chanyeol's attentive assistance and squinted in the flash of a thousand cameras.

Chanyeol put his arm reassuringly around his shoulder and pulled him close to his big body protectively. "Just smile and give them a quick wave." He whispered and Baekhyun smiled nervously at the crowd. He lifted his hand in a quick gesture before Chanyeol pulled him even closer and they began to walk into the building. "That was kind of scary." Baekhyun whispered as they entered the backstage area and Chanyeol laughed. "You get used to it. Lots of things are scary. It doesn't mean they arent' worth doing!" A pink flush crept across Baekhyun's cheeks as he remembered the night before.

He knew Chanyeol understood that better than anyone. He was about to go out onto a sound stage and lay his most private emotions bare for the world to see. Suho had all but given up trying to get him to tow the line and Chanyeol was going to perform a new song for the first time. He had written it before Baekhyun came to him but had finished it off this morning and he knew it was amazing. It was authentic and honest and real. And as he squeezed Baekhyun's beautiful white hand in his he couldn't help but admire the sparkle of the fine diamond banded ring Baekhyun had let him put there that afternoon. It was perfect.

——-

"Hey!" Chanyeol looked around to see where the sound was coming from and laughed when Baekhyun dropped lightly to the ground from above. He had continued their childhood habit of hanging out in the branches of the huge willow tree behind the nursery even though he was sixteen and at the age when childish things should be making way for more mature mannerisms. 

Baekhyun was still short and small, light and agile, and Chanyeol silently envied his friend's fine build. He had grown about eight inches in the last few months and his big hands and big feet and took up space he wasn't used to. He felt cumbersome, like he needed too much room, like he was a walking crash test dummy knocking into anything and everygthing he went too close to. He had to laugh as he imagined himself trying to lift his ungainly limbs and haul his suddenly big body into the branches of the tree. "What's so funny?" Baekhyun asked and Chanyeol just waved it off. "Nothing." He said as Baekhyun sank to the ground and Chanyeol sat next to him.

"Here." He said and handed his friend a can of Coke and opened the other for himself. They quickly downed the cold cans of soft drink before they had a chance to get hot and flat. It was late summer and the heat in the middle of the day was thick and heavy all around them. The shade of the tree was a welcome respite and they lay in the sparse grass and fallen leaves covering the ground like a soft cool carpet.

Baekhyun covered his eyes with his forearm and  Chanyeol lay next to him and for a long time no one spoke. Chanyeol rolled onto his side and watched the rise and fall of Baekhyun's chest and wondered if his friend had fallen asleep. Baekhyun moved his arm and saw Chanyeol staring at him and laughed at his weird friend's habit of eyeing him intensely. He was used to it now and he rolled towards him. "Yeol, where do you think we'll be in ten years?" he asked. "Do you think we'll still be here in this ty town? Do you think we'll be married with kids and jobs and boring adult lives?" 

He rolled back onto his back and stared up at the little patches of blue peeping through the thick leaves of the tree as it blew in the barely there breeze. "I think you'll be rich and famous! And I'll probably just be stuck here in this town doing the same old things." His eyes stared off into the future as the dappled sunlight flickered across his face and he was shaken from his musings by Chanyeol's suddenly loud laugh. "Baek can't we just lay here and forget the world?" he said and Baekhyun smiled to himself as he relaxed and closed his eyes again.

Baekhyun looked over and silently admired his friend. He was so envious of his new and suddenly broad physique. Baekhyun now always felt  small and plain next to Chanyeol who was tall and manly and so grown up looking. He wondered what kind of man Chanyeol would become. He knew he would go on to be something special, someone wonderful, Baekhyun always knew that one day he would have to share Chanyeol with the world despite the other wanting to pretend it didn't exist.

"Do you think we'll still be close like this?" Baekhyun asked and Chanyeol looked at him in surprise. "Of course we will Baek." He reached out and grabbed the smaller's soft white hand and squeezed it tight in his big warm grip. His fingers were thick and calloused from his constant plucking at the strings and he admired the contrast between their hands. 

He rubbed the back of Baekhyun's hand with his thumb and felt the smaller grip tighter and he wondered where they would be in ten years. He knew they would still be close, Chanyeol knew nothing would come between them, and he hoped they would be even closer. He hoped that somehow in the next ten years he would find the courage to confess his love and make Baekhyun his. Sing him love songs, build him a beautiful home near the creek, put a ring on his finger and tell the world how much he loved him. 

It was the only thing he really wanted and he couldn't imagine a future without Baekhyun at the centre.

—

Baekhyun stood side stage and when Chanyeol sang he got chills. He had been so worried about everything but now that he was here and it was happening it all felt so right. Somehow, despite the many bumps along the road, he had known all along it would lead him here. He turned his hand over and the flash of a thin band of diamonds lit up in his eyes. Chanyeol was right about that too. He thought he didn't need them but he thought wrong. There could be a place in his life for the easy, for the beautiful and the comfortable, things didn't always have to be so hard.

Chanyeol had known it all along. Chanyeol had always known what was best for Baekhyun even when he didn't know himself. It was time to let him show Baekhyun how to be happy.

He was ready to be happy. It was time to start over.