Chanyeol filled his days with getting back to being physically active, such as working out again and still going to his medical appointments with Dr. Kim Minseok. By December, a couple of weeks after his 28th birthday, Chanyeol was ready for laser surgery, just as his doctor had predicted. Family and friends, including Seolhee and her boyfriend, gathered to have a little celebration, sending off Chanyeol with lots of luck and love. Then the big day had arrived. He was nervous, but at the same time, ecstatic.

After it was over, he was confined for one night for observation. Seeing that there were no immediate complications, he was released the next day to go home for bed rest. Still, Chanyeol’s eyes felt sensitive to intense colors that he opted to wear his protective glasses from time to time.

On January the following year, he was already attending meetings back in Seomse’s headquarters. His mother was still acting as CEO on his behalf but he was participating more and more on the decision making process and signing off important documents and contracts as he once did. No one would be able to tell the temporary handicap that Chanyeol had undergone by the way he was slowly but surely readapting to his life, as if nothing even happened.

In his spare time, he went to his studio and continued to compose the music first for the song he had been writing. Having recovered his sight had helped him tremendously, as he could now use the music composing software that had been his favorite pastime, before the accident. He hired a studio engineer, a Japanese migrant named Arata Mackenyu, who was a talented, young Youtuber who covered songs as a side job.

“So, hyung, when are you going to be my guest on my Youtube channel? There’s a #TagYourBoss trend going around and I promised my followers that I would get to it soon,” Mackenyu asked one day in LOEY PRODUCTIONS, as they worked on some remixes for up and coming artists.

Chanyeol only clucked his tongue irritably, focusing on his task, and hoping to finish his song lyrics before he got too occupied with his Seomse responsibilities. “Who said I would agree?”

“C’mon, hyung!” The younger one whined. “I have about a quarter of a million subscribers already and you’re very good-looking so the video would definitely boost up my viewership!” He put an arm around the older one. “You never know, you might even get a girlfriend through my channel.”

Chanyeol rolled his eyes and shrugged out of the younger one’s grasp. He simply let Mackenyu assume that he was too busy for a relationship—and he literally was.

“How about a selca, then?” Mackenyu suggested instead, getting his phone ready.

“After that, will you stop goofing off so we can get actual work done?”

“Yes, sir!” Mackenyu grinned and comfortably leaned close to Chanyeol again, as Chanyeol scrunched up his face and put up a peace sign.

The younger one studied the produced selca in satisfaction and told Chanyeol, “If this photo doesn’t acquire at least a million requests for the #TagYourBoss video, then I don’t know what will.”

“Do NOT put my picture in any of your videos!” Chanyeol reprimanded in exasperation. “Now get to work!”

April rolled around, and Chanyeol finally—finally—had completed the song lyrics, which he entitled, “What If”, when he presented the piece to Mackenyu.

“This is daebak, hyung,” Mackenyu enthused, as he tapped his foot in tune with the raw file. “Should we record a demo?”

Chanyeol bit his lower lip thoughtfully. “I do have half a demo for this, actually.”

Mackenyu raised an eyebrow in puzzlement as Chanyeol produced a small, compact mp3 player, which the older one synced with a bluetooth speaker and then it played.

“Hmm… nice,” Mackenyu complimented, leaning back in his chair and closed his eyes, as a rich, velvety voice blessed both their ears. “This isn’t you, though. Who sang this?”

“A… friend of mine.”

“Why does he sound familiar?” Mackenyu’s forehead crumpled in concentration, his eyes still closed as the brief, yet angelic song played on a loop.

Chanyeol clutched his chest, startled, when Mackenyu suddenly jumped up from his seat and took out his laptop from his backpack.

He cautiously went to a seat next to the young studio engineer, who was now searching fervently something on Youtube.

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol asked, peering into Mackenyu’s screen.

“There!” Mackenyu exclaimed triumphantly, an elated grin on his handsome face. “Your singer sounds exactly like this guy!”

Mackenyu had typed Singing Soldiers on the search box and the first video that came up had an impressive 2 million views.

And it was only uploaded three days ago.

“This has been going viral, like it popped up on my Facebook page first, and then on my Instagram, Twitter... snippets of it everywhere!  This is a 30 minute clip, and there were some very talented soldiers in the army, and n