There is always a certain melody that starts the moment our hearts beat. Thumping its way to provide blood throughout our bodies. But sometimes, people hear more than just the usual thumping that booms from our chest. Those people hear this pleasant melody that pulls them closer to each other as if notes magically appear between to connect their gap into a song that binds them for life. Such a melody is called a Soul song.

 

No matter the tune, it has always been a beautiful melody that only two people share. No matter how much others listen, they will never hear what they aren’t meant to. And thus, people started listening. Hoping that one day they’ll hear that certain melody that would bind them into a happy composition.

 

Chanyeol has always had a great affinity for music. A prodigy of his generation where musical notes naturally found themselves drawn to him. Music has always been what he made best and yet he’s never felt satisfied no matter how many compositions he’s made.

 

No matter how many melodies he manages to conjure, there was still something missing. It wasn’t just a note but a melody that plagued his mind and continuously played even after years of when he last heard it. He said that he heard it many years ago when he was but a child.

 

Born into a loving family, he was raised as the most precious child by his parents alongside his sister. And though his parents were loving and pure with their intentions of helping him reach his dreams in life, the hard truth behind the life of a musician was something that he didn’t anticipate.

 

It was a ruthless world where musicians fought by the use of their music and it ate him bit by bit. As a known prodigy, high expectations were on his shoulders and heavy pressure suffocated him. His usual world filled with love and care was tainted with the gripping horrendous reality that the world will never spare you unless you have something to offer it. 

 

He was a strong lad, filled with hope and an abundance of smiles. But sometimes, there are those moments when he looks for an escape. An escape where the chains of reality couldn’t reach him, which, in his case, was a garden maze that he found behind the musical institution where he grew up.

 

It was one of those nasty days where he just wanted to be alone and release all the burden he carried, so he headed there and that’s when he heard it. A solemn melody that brought tears into his eyes. It was sad yet it blossomed satisfying feeling inside his heart. Listening to it was the most soothing thing in the whole world and since then, he was determined to lay it into notes to produce it for others to hear.

 

Years. It took him countless years but no matter how many awards and compliments he received; he couldn’t remake the sound that he has always wanted to make.

 

So when he heard that very same melody while helping his friend in the music institution he grew up in, he was determined to know where it originated from. He wanted to find out what the notes were and how they managed such a perfect melody. 

 

How did they make it?

What was their inspiration?

What instrument was it?

 

Although he tried his best to look for an instrument or a sound system where the melody came from, he never found one.

 

Instead, he found this rather small man who seems to have come from the high heavens with his milky white skin that angels probably paled in comparison to. His beauty was unexplainable and mere words were never enough to describe him. He watched as the guy smiled with perfectly heart-shaped lips that complimented his starry eyes.

 

Moments like this become hazy in Chanyeol’s mind and then he loses his focus and his instincts of knowing the reasons behind his questions override everything in his system.

 

“Uhm… Excuse me…” The other man uttered, stepping away from the giant that had hovered over him. At that moment, Chanyeol realized that his face was already inches away from the smaller and his mind just froze at the sudden realization.

 

Beautiful dark orbs looked questioningly at Chanyeol. Though the taller didn’t hear words come out of the smaller’s lips, he knew that he was probably freaking out about what just happened.

 

Seeing the other’s reaction, Chanyeol’s mind scolded him for forgetting to give the man his personal space, a bad habit he’s always been known for when his curiosity enters its peak. He’s always been one who would cross boundaries to discover the answer to his questions. Piecing it together wasn’t enough. He needed to know what each piece was, and he needed to know what the whole picture looked like. In this case, he needed to know how the smaller was able to produce such a magical melody that drives Chanyeol’s heart into a crazy fit of comfortable yearning.

 

“S-sorry… You…” Words seemed far off from Chanyeol’s mind, at that moment, because all he could think about was the melody that came from the heavenly being that stood in front of him. His tongue was tied, and he couldn’t even pull his gaze away from the beauty that shone in front of him.

 

“You’re gorgeous.” Chanyeol finally pressed as he stared at the other man whose eyes seemed to shimmer when he chuckled into laughter. Even with his furrowed brows and that awkward look in his face, Chanyeol couldn’t help but feel mesmerized at the sight. Even the way the smaller laughed sounded so heavenly in Chanyeol’s ears that he couldn’t help but wonder.

 

Was he still alive or has he finally succumbed to insanity?

Has he gone mad and finally ascended into heaven?

 

The questions tickled his mind, but he was, in fact, curious about the sound that came from the smaller man who simply his head to leave him be.

 

But Chanyeol’s hand was faster than the man legs, it moved towards the other’s shoulder to stop him from leaving. There was a split second where Chanyeol feared for his life but the words that finally left his lips made the other curious.

 

“Do you… hear that sound?” Chanyeol questioned and the other guy nodded. 

 

They were in a musical institution; therefore, sound may be an understatement. For every room and every place in that institution, there was sound. Instruments were played, voices were heard and throughout the place; along the corridors, the hallways, and the rooms, there was a sound.

 

“No… That-That melody… It… It’s coming from you...” The other man’s eyes pondered for a moment. Eyes widening a bit as if questioning the taller’s motive upon asking that question.

 

Chanyeol watched as the guy closed his eyes as if listening to something other than the sound that emanated around that institution.

 

Chanyeol swore, that at that very moment, there was silence and the only melody he could hear was the sound that came from the man who stood before him. With his eyes shut close, he felt as if the man was inviting him. To do what? He wasn’t sure. But standing there with his eyes closed and looking like a perfect sculpture, Chanyeol couldn’t help but feel a greater pull from him. Like a magnetic force attracting his hand and body to the heavenly being in front of him.

 

Just as his hand reached out, inches away from touching the other man’s cheek, the smaller’s eyes opened with a glimmer that knocked Chanyeol off his feet. The smile that spread across his face meant that he heard the same thing Chanyeol did, or at least that’s what he hoped happened.

 

“You… I can hear your Soul Song.”

 

 

--- 

 

 

They started with their names, which were mere words for others, but for them, it sounded like promises of forever. Each syllable slid into their tongue like it’s been in their vocabulary since the moment they knew how to breathe.

 

Chanyeol’s first courting was one that he will never forget. The way his eyes lit up whenever he saw Kyungsoo with a smile. The name would slip out of his lips like it was a chant that brought harmony inside his chest and no amount of noise was loud enough or horrible enough to scratch that melody out of his memory.

 

Kyungsoo, at first, didn’t embrace the idea of dating. What more of spending an eternity with someone just because of a melody that was unique to the two of them. But Chanyeol’s sincerity was true and though he still questioned the point of soulmates, he couldn’t deny that continuously seeing Chanyeol’s smile was something he’d like to have in his life.

 

Dates became moments that the two treasured, like his baby teeth that his mother saved from the first fallen one to the last. He valued memories just as much as the keepsakes that remind him of it.

 

He loved the times when Kyungsoo would smile at him when he did something silly or the times when he receives pinches from the smaller because he started teasing him about things that make no sense. Kyungsoo’s continuous mood swings were also something that Chanyeol valued and more than anything, he loved the smaller more each day for it.

 

In Chanyeol’s eyes, Kyungsoo himself was a keepsake he would much like to keep forever.

 

Thus, after the numerous amounts of time they shared, words of affection soon left their lips like nature’s natural course. Like a blossomed flower from a seed planted deep within. 

 

“I love you Kyungsoo-ya.” A smile. Chanyeol could never say his partner’s name without a smidge of excitement that jumps inside his chest like a rhythm that he just couldn’t stop, even though he would never ask it to. The voice inside Chanyeol’s head kept telling him that Kyungsoo was the one and he never did doubt it. Knowing more about Kyungsoo, he realized that despite Soul songs binding people’s souls together the people involved still needed to work hard to create a working relationship where both would be happy.

 

“I love you Chanyeol… So much.” Kyungsoo’s confession was the best thing Chanyeol heard in his entire life. 

 

And even though they were just words, hearing the evidence of what each other felt was something that sounded just as good as the melody that they heard from their partner’s soul. Words carried more evidence than others realize, and the most evident proof is a comforting melody that resonated from within. A beautiful sound that brought smiles into their lips.

 

And as a known prodigy, the founding of his soulmate had bloomed his talent into its peak where he managed to create music that pushed people to sympathize with him and feel emotions that mere words could never symbolize.

 

But even after all the fame and the people that praised him for his continuous hard work and effort, he couldn’t even begin to relax.

 

Despite touching people’s lives with his music, he wanted those people to hear what he heard. He wanted them to listen to the beauty of his muse. He wanted them to hear the perfection that was his soulmate.

 

But with his growing addiction to let others hear what he heard, he started to lose parts of himself that he didn’t know he could. 

 

And before long… He lost more than just his love for the art he had always loved.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

The melody that he once sought after, became a piece of relaxing music he came home to. He loved it even more so, for each waking moment of his life was spent seeing the most beautiful being laying down beside him. And even though they’ve spent every passing moment together, Chanyeol will never tire of listening to his lover’s melody. If anything, he loves pulli