I growled internally as he pinned me with large eyes, smiling cutely. It was not going to be like this. He couldn’t just disappear from my life without a hint to where he was going, then come back two months later and expect for everything to be normal, for me to fawn all over him.

“Baekhyunnie,” He giggled, making himself comfortable on the bed beside me, “Tell me a bedtime story.” He stared up at me with wide eyes, mimicking the childish tone that he always did when he wanted something out of me. ‘No, not this time, Park Chanyeol.’

I made a face and faked a yawn. “Sorry, Yeollie, I’m kind of tired right now,” I said, closing my eyes immediately. Silence followed and I took a chance, peeking through my eyelashes. It was the wrong move, I decided, when my eyes landed on his beautifully pouting face. I let out a groan. “Alright, alright,” I sighed, adjusting myself into a perfect story-telling position and letting the taller boy curl into my side like he was a five year old.

‘Why did I even agree to let you sleep over?’ I thought, but there was no anger behind the words, no, not even annoyance. Earlier today when the boy had asked me out of the blue if he could spend the night at my place, I leapt at the chance. He’d been gone for two months and I wasn’t willing to let him go any time soon.

I hummed, trying to think of a good bedtime story. My mind cycled through all the classic ones, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, but I knew none of them would please him. He wanted fire breathing dragons, not pretty princesses. Finally, I settled on just making one up as I went along.

“Once upon a time,” I began, and immediately a childish look of wonder crossed over his innocent face. “There was a prince named Park Chanyeol,” He scrunched his nose, swatting my side playfully. “He was a very pretty boy, the prettiest in all the land.”

“Hey! I’m handsome,” He objected with a pout.

I smiled at him fondly, taking in his appearance. It was true, he was handsome, but some of his features allowed his face to lean more towards the beautiful side. His dark brown hair was long enough to curl around his jawline, his wide and shining eyes sparkled with happiness and light. His fair skin and dark pink, pouty lips contrasted sharply on his soft face, making him quite the beauty in our group of friends.

In fact, now that I stared at him more closely, it seemed that he had grown much more stunning over the course of his disappearance. His once captivating features were now enchanting and striking, and he seemed lit from head to toe with an unearthly glow.

“Baekhyunnie,” He whined, making me realized that I had paused in my storytelling.

“Sorry,” I quickly apologized, clearing my throat to begin anew. “Okay, so one day, the beautiful Park Chanyeol-“

“Handsome!” He corrected.

“The handsome Park Chanyeol went missing.” I watched his reactions very carefully, noting the way he guiltily averted his eyes.

“All his loyal subjects searched far and wide for the prince, but he was nowhere to be found. His most loyal subject of all, the Knight Baekhyun, grew very sad. Days passed, then weeks, and everyone worried that something terrible had happened to Chanyeol. You see, the prince lived alone, with no parents to take care of him.”

“Doesn’t that make him a king?” Chanyeol teased, although from the way his brows were furrowed, I could tell he wasn’t in a very jovial mood after hearing the beginning of my story.

“No, because he was still too young,” I responded, sticking my tongue out. “Anyways, after two months, all the knights were having a meeting at the round table-“

“Round table?”

“I don’t know, I read it in a book,” I let out a sigh; he sure was interrupting me a lot.

“Oh,” He muttered, picking at the loose threads on my blanket.

“So like I was saying, they were all seated at the round table, when all of a sudden, the doors opened and the missing prince himself, Park Chanyeol, entered the room.” I thought back to earlier today; my friends and I had been in the cafeteria eating our lunch, when our long absent friend took a seat next to me, as if he’d appeared out of thin air. He hadn’t answered any questions about where he had gone, instead, he inquired about our summer and how we were doing.

“All the knights were amazed,” I said, wrapping an arm protectively around his shoulders. “They thought he would be gone forever.” Although our group of friends consisted of six people, Chanyeol and I included, the two of us were the closest, and his disappearance had affected me the most. “They all tried to figure out where he’d gone, but he wouldn’t tell them. To the knights, it sounded like witchcraft.”

Chanyeol huffed, not appreciating my story at all. “Baekhyunnie, I don’t like this story,” He whined, tugging at my shirt. “Tell me another one, like Cinderella or something.”

I eyed him skeptically, but the way he stared at me pleadingly, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth, caused me to sigh and relent. The boy could ask anything of me and I would agree. “Okay then,” I said, unable to keep from smiling when he grinned like a pleased child and curled against me again. “Once upon a time, there was a girl who lived with her father in a nice house.”

Chanyeol’s fingers played with mine and I let my mind wander to thoughts of his warmth against my side. It didn’t matter where he went, I decided, I didn’t need to know. As long as he never left me again, I would be happy.