┊L u c k y┊

After the end of the period, Baekhyun fled up the stairs and to the band room. With the aid of Jongdae, he found no difficulties in finding the room. When he arrived, he heard the sound of music from a distance, the sound of someone’s talking and stifles shriek of laughter proceeding from persons present in the room. Baekhyun passed the doorway. Sometimes he peeked into the open window and surveyed Chanyeol’s face but he didn’t see him anywhere, causing the amount of doubt as to whether he stopped at the wrong room or not? In fact, he’s probably gambling on right now, but he knows he has nothing to lose by simply waiting. He exhaled a long deep breath; he could have just step inside and searching for the boy, as if he was brave enough to do so.

“Found anything interesting?” Baekhyun heard some unusual voice talking before him. With much difficulty, he turned. There stood two boys almost in his age or probably younger scanning him up and down with their menacing glares, smirking down at him as they heard his loud gasp.

“Hey kid, what do you think you’re doing?” Gruffly, the tanned skin boy demanded. Baekhyun looked up meeting his eyes and as he observed the one who spoke to him looked less harmful than the other but his words was nearly as sharp as knife.

 Much to his dismay, he felt incredible tension and anxiety that now his true intention has somewhat turned out to be irrelevant. He was scare in his own wits, even the soothing melody of the guitar also failed to calm his poor heart.

Baekhyun swallowed utterly distracted by their furtive, daring glances. “I-I come here to meet s-someone. I’m pretty sure this is the right room. I was just looking for him.”

“You mean looking for him by peeking outside like a stalker? Unknown guest are not invited to be here. This is not kind of open party for you to play around. ”

 “Err… Maybe you could let me in because actually I- I need to see Park Chanyeol.”

“And who are you?” Tapping his foot impatiently as Jongin asked, somehow they found his reasoning aren’t convincing enough. Baekhyun was devastated on telling the truth because he knew it leads to nowhere and there was no possible ways they going to let him in in any second.

As further silence ensued in between following by the annoying huffed as they almost sounds tired by his endless waiting, Baekhyun finally managed to say in a quiet voice. “Byun Baekhyun.”

“Baek-hyun?”  Sehun’s eyebrows furrowed together registering Baekhyun’s face. Later, shaking his head as he thought Chanyeol is likewise a fine looking young boy with perfectly handsome features would not ridiculously befriended someone so ordinary looking like the shorter boy.

Then they hovering over Baekhyun and their action, nevertheless, making him felt intimidated with their presence. Baekhyun wondered why all Chanyeol’s friend was so tall. He was nearly freaked out when Jongin bend down to his level and spoke in a tone that almost dangerously low into his ear. “For what purpose?”

“No, wait a minute!” The younger boy interrupted their heated conversation. Just before he could counter-attack, Jongin was dragged aside.

“Jongin, we can’t let him see Chanyeol hyung! We don’t even know him, how come you just let him pass? Don’t be so stupid!” Sehun said hastily, rejecting Jongin’s advances. He was quite worried to be honest; there are a lot of unpredictable consequences they have to face if Jongin allowed the stranger to meet Chanyeol. Perhaps Baekhyun was acting out or perhaps he has this unhealthy obsession with Chanyeol. Sehun just wanted to make sure Chanyeol is not harm or violated in any way.

“What are you worrying about? I was just asking him things!”Jongin sneered.

“Get rid of him. We don’t need him to be here.” Sehun spoke graciously, spreading his hand out to push Jongin towards Baekhyun again. “Palli!”

“Okay…Okay I got it.”

“Baekhyun-shi I’m sorry, you’re not permitted to meet him. Whatever your reason is, you can just tell us straight away and we will let him know.” Jongin stated matter-of-factly, rather than making a request of it.

“I want to see him because I have something very important to give him, and that’s all! If he doesn’t want to accept it, I won’t try to make him. Now, will you take me to him?” Baekhyun pleaded.

Jongin shook his head, insisted. “Perhaps, you can just give it to us and we will sort it out for you. He won’t accept it freely anyway.”

“Yeah. How about you trash out the meeting plan after we send him your gift?” Sehun’s voice sounded faintly harsh. “That way you can leave the place unnoticed and we can call it a day. Okay?”

“I prefer to meet him in person. Not that I’m complaining.” He bravely said yet no lesser firm in his refusal.

“Who do you think you are? Smart-.” Sehun exploded. But then Jongin seemed to hesitate, to reconsider. “We can’t move with you blocking our path. Now back off if you want this door opened.”

Sehun did not stop the tanned boy as he did not have time to make a careful circulated decision as Jongin motioned for Baekhyun to back off, to back away from the door. Baekhyun did not hesitate. Jongin then inserted the key, probing with small precise movement. He opened the door quickly and stepped gingerly inside.

“Yo Park Chan! Someone’s looking for you!” Jongin screamed out the name upon entering after which they heard the voice from the inside ask, “Who is it?”

Sehun answered, “Some random kid on the block!” added the last part and shrugged as they saw Chanyeol nearing. “He looks like wanted to confess his love though, stuttering and all…..”

Instantly the room got quiet and everyone turned to look at him. Baekhyun’s face heated up as he met the shocked looks of three other people in the room. Then after a moment, Sehun walked approaching the crowd to greet them. With the tension out of the way, the practice room returned to its normal state uncontrollable chaos as everyone suited up in their practice gear.

And it took Baekhyun forever to say brief hello to the boy in front of him. “—uh— Hi! Do you remember me? I’m Byun Baekhyun, the boy from last night.”

Chanyeol looked very puzzled as he spoke of things he seemed couldn’t piece together. Only after few moments did he realized what Baekhyun actually saying. “Ah…Of course I remember you! How did you found me?”

“Yeah! We’re curious too!” Jongin grinned widely and flung his right arm over Chanyeol’s shoulder which instantly Chanyeol pushed his hand, Jongin pouted as he staggered few steps back from the strong impact. Baekhyun looked over at Jongin. He was very unusual boy, he thought.

 “I’m sorry, he’s always like that. Please don’t mind him.” Chanyeol said apologetically finding his eyes and he can feel his cheeks burning red with embarrassment.

Without looking up meeting those beautiful eyes, Baekhyun say bashfully, “Can I talk to you privately in a minute?”

The world seems to stop moving when their eyes had set upon him. Then, laughter ensued followed by sinister words. “Woah that’s the way to shove us. Who do you think you’re?” Sehun voice spiked with sarcasm. He walked over to them and leaning himself against the wall. Jongin glared at the figure menacingly.

“Sush Sehun! Don’t make a scene.” He said while Sehun just scoffed and stared mutely at them.

After a moment, Jongin had his eyes landed at the awkward couple once again. “Hyung, he wants to meet you. I don’t want him to tag along with us so I told him he can’t. I know I should have told you first, but he kept on pushing me. Now deal with him yourself.” Jongin chided, now more amused than annoyed. “Let’s go Sehun, we’re late.” Patting on the younger’s back, Jongin pushed Sehun to walk out together.

“I forgot! Your little Taeminnie waiting for you at home. ” Sehun grinned suddenly, unfolding his arms.

“Don’t start.” Jongin hissed “Don’t make fun of me if you value your life.”

“What are you so uptight about? Look, if you feel needed to vent out your frustration about Taemin hyung, at least give me fair warning so I can pull over in time.” Sehun merely grunted in response.

“Very funny.”

 Baekhyun couldn’t understand the point of the heated conversation and he knew it was not his business to know anyway. His eyes diverted at Chanyeol. The tall boy was seen laughing, showing his perfectly white teeth like there’s something rather exciting watching the childish fight. Baekhyun was mesmerized with the warm sight.

“So….What’s the reason of your visit? What brings you here Baekhyun-shi?” Chanyeol asked, his voice deep and his hands on his hips.

“Oh…yes.....” Baekhyun answered shakily, snapping out of his trance. “I’m sorry…I just…I.”  He couldn’t come out with the words to tell Chanyeol his motives as he still can see from the corner of his eyes, the taller boy had sending him a suspicious glance. Suddenly, he became extremely nervous. “I have something to give you…” Taking a deep breath, he looked back down reaching into his bag pack and delved into his notes. Thumbing through a thick disorganized paper, Baekhyun squinted and blinked, searching and searching until he stopped, his eyes widened and grin creased his lips. “Found it!”

“Here!” He pulled out the music sheet and handed it to him. Chanyeol grabbed the piece without hesitation. “On your way back home, you dropped one of your music sheets. I thought of returning it back to you.”

Chanyeol inspected the music sheet in his hand. He shook his head slowly. “You know what, I don’t think I can use it anymore, might as well you throw it away.” He met Baekhyun’s eyes with a flat stare.

“But why?” Baekhyun frowned.

“Because it was torn.” Reading the sad expression, Chanyeol deliberately purred the words. “And the worst part is, what I’ve written is not legible anymore. You see, it was stained with something. I couldn’t even read almost half of the words.”

Baekhyun felt tears welling up in his eyes as he retracted his hand to examine it. The edges are tattered and smudges of dirt lined the creases of the paper. The black ink spotted faded and, in some parts stained. Ironically, Baekhyun couldn’t even tell what it is exactly. “I take care of it so much, how could this happen? I didn’t do this on purpose…I swear!” He said, biting his lips in a total shutdown.

“Well, I don’t judge people…But the evidence is there and you’re the last keeper.”

“I’m so sorry! Let me fix this. Please give me one more day and by tomorrow I will give it back to you.” Trying to come up with a solution, instead of agreeing Chanyeol just stood there dumbly.

“You really think you can make it look as finely as how you collected it last night? You can’t simply brush over the stain, you know. It wouldn’t work. ” Chanyeol loves to play along with the bad idea. He would love to see those teary eyes again as he looked at the shorter boy.

“I…..” His words trailed off and the darkened expression stormed in. 

“Let’s get it straight, Baekhyun-shi. Will you do what I ask? Are you willing to obey my command no matter the cost?”

“Huh?”

“Do you understand what at stake here, Baekhyun-shi?”  Chanyeol sighed. “I said, since you’ve made it bad, you will have to do whatever I ask you to do.”

Baekhyun break out in hives when he hears ‘commitment’. “W-what?”

“Today, in front of the school gate at 6.00 p.m, sharp! I want you to be there.” Chanyeol said, ready to take his leave.

“B-but…”

Chanyeol shook his head. “No buts. If you don’t want me to get mad, you will do as I said. Make sure you’re on time!”  

“You must come, okay. Promise me!”

He then started walking straight towards his band with his hand extended as he pointed his finger at him stating, “Seriously you must come. No excuses.”

“And don’t be late!”

Baekhyun was thinking about it, and there was something in his mind, but all he did was blink and watch the figure. “Wait, Chanyeol-shi. I don’t think I can go!” before he could even muster his own protest, Chanyeol already making his way inside.

He stared at the missing figure for a longest time, finding hard to collect his thought and articulate them.

“What am I going to do now?” He whispered solemnly. The pain from the previous accident still struck him immensely and he doesn’t think he could walk any longer. Despite his swollen ankle, he was still contemplating. Maybe he should consider doing it anyway because he didn’t want to make the boy angrier than he already was.

♫ ♬ ♪ ♩

By the time Chanyeol finished practicing; he got into the separate way, walked himself to the school gate as he promised earlier. He waited and around 6.20 p.m, Baekhyun still did not come. At first he had thought he might not have seen the shorter boy as yet, so he took a quick detour, turning back suddenly. Chanyeol was becoming so eager watching students walking pass him one by one. He even tried scanning the exact face among the crowd, unfortunately he didn’t found the one he’s looking for. Finally after almost minutes of the torturous wait, Baekhyun arrived with guilt imprinted on his face, probably feeling bad for his lateness.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry making you waits for so long. I have urgent matter to solve, that’s why I’m late.”

“Baekhyun-shi. You’re half hour late for your first date!” Chanyeol told him, half grumbling.

“D-date?” Baekhyun repeated the word in shock, it was as if he was having difficulty hearing the word.

“Let’s not wasting our time anymore. Let’s go!” Chanyeol instantly cut him off, rushed over him and took a hold of his hand making Bakhyun flustered with the sudden move.

“To where?”

“Aish. You’re asking too much!”

Chanyeol tagged him along without any further opposition, kept a tight grip on his fingers and leading the way towards the bus station.

“.” Baekhyun says under his breath.

“You all right?” comes Chanyeol’s lilting voice.

“I’m fine, thanks. But c-can you slow down a bit? You’re moving too fast.” In his agony the words slipped out without his consent. Baekhyun praying Chanyeol wouldn’t at least catch his pained expression. He does his best to overcome the pain, pushing himself as hard as he can.

The taller boy lifted his right hand free, ignoring the warmth that spread from their touch. “Okay, come on.”

Baekhyun reluctantly nodded. His adrenaline has kicked in and as he walks, his feet seem too far away to be trusted. He let Chanyeol walked ahead. He can’t tell if he’s walking weirdly slow or at normal pace, worrying with each step that his foot won’t hit a solid ground and he says nothing as he started walking as calmly as he can.

They took a 20 minutes bus ride to the mall located at the center of the town and along the ride they were sitting together side by side with Chanyeol looking out of the window, drowning in his own little thoughts and Baekhyun sometimes sneakily gazing over him. The silence was defeating and for Baekhyun, it wasn’t comforting at all. Probably because he is now sitting with one of the most wanted guitarist of Paran High or probably because he have this huge crush on Chanyeol that makes him even more impossible not to feel the speedy impulse of his own heartbeats.

For the first time, Baekhyun didn’t feel lost around the taller boy and gratefully entered the music store.  Apparently, the store is not so big and it was strangely quiet. He realized it was completely s