three. phantom of the opera
1900+ words

The reason behind Sehun agreeing to follow Chanyeol’s suggestion and actually follow him, in a warm summer night, to the abandoned small opera house that for so long and by so many mouths had been labeled as hunted, is still a mystery to be unveiled by Sehun himself. That and the actual verdict behind the terrible myth that surrounds the place. Something Chanyeol made sure to drag him and Baekhyun along to discover.

“It’s fine. I don’t believe it, do you? I guess we’ll have to see for ourselves, huh?” Chanyeol had said before entering the building while Sehun shakily and unsure looked around and above him in check for any “ghosts” that could sneak up and play tricks on him. So Chanyeol isn’t a believer, Chanyeol makes front to Indiana jones in this type of thing anyway, and Baekhyun doesn’t seem fazed either but Sehun believes. He tries not to but Sehun is gullible and young and everything impresses him at a certain point. Once, when he was merely twelve, Chanyeol had told him that dragons actually existed but that only the tiny kind has made it through the years of evolution and even had showed him a google picture of it and had convinced Sehun they even breathed fire. The story was too nicely plotted that Sehun fell for it without realizing. But Sehun would’ve fallen for less. Just like now. It’s only a tale, only something grandparents used to tell their grandkids to make the small town seem the more interesting to their eyes. Sehun never heard it from his grandparents but he surely heard it from Chanyeol ever since young and now there he is trapped, lost and alone without either of his two best friends nearby. He wants to believe Chanyeol planned it all and will appear any time soon but as time ticks he realizes no one is coming for him. He starts to feel scared. It’s dark and it’s dusty and the creaks the old wood makes under his feet are really creepy. He doesn’t like this; he doesn’t like this at all.

When he starts to feel panic and fear overwhelming him he starts to run, bumping every now and then and he even falls, knees and hands on the hard floor unsettling the dust from it. He cries. He didn’t mean to and he feels embarrassed but he does, thick water drops falling down his cheeks and consequently to the floor. He’s truly terrified and he doesn’t know where to turn to, to find the exit. It takes him a bit but when he’s calmer he sits back on his heels and wipes off his tears with the back of his hands. And it’s then he notices a crack with light coming from it. Hope fills him so he gets up and runs towards it.

He gets surprised to see that it’s actually a curtain instead of a wall when finally getting close. He moves it aside to pass through it and is confronted by a vast center stage with a beautiful grand piano on the side, the seemingly infinite rows of wine colored chairs in front of it and spot lights pointing directly at the center. Everything so alive in contrast with the rest of the building. It’s almost unreal. Sehun steps inside and takes in the marvelous sight surrounding of him. He goes by the piano and plays a couple keys just to listen to the acoustic. It’s truly amazing. Everything feels amazing, almost magical. Warm and comfort replace the dreadful fear he was experiencing just moments ago. He looks around and for a moment he wished Chanyeol and Baekhyun were there to see it. He wonders if they got there, if they found the same as him. He has half a heart to go and find out but something draws him in, something makes him stay and not want to leave.

He plays another key. B flat.

“Do you have the skills of a pianist?” A deep voice speaks making Sehun jerk his neck to the side in surprise. He was about to jump and scream but the boy, the, oh so beautiful boy, sits down sets to him by the piano, suddenly so close. It’s like his chest erupts and something inside Sehun bursts into flames. Fireworks maybe, it sure feels like it to Sehun. Hundreds, no, millions little firecrackers firing at the same time inside his chest. The beautiful boy is looking at him attentively with dark expectant eyes and Sehun gets caught in them. He wants to say something, to ask something, to originate words that make sentences but his mouth goes dry and agape and then the boy is smiling at him. Eyes becoming pretty crescents and his perfect plump lips curving upwards just slightly. “You seem surprised.” He says.

“Huh, I, huh…hum…” Is all Sehun can mutter and it has the boy smiling more brightly at him and for a second Sehun doesn’t mind being vocabulary useless if it means to see that gorgeous smile directed at him.

“Do you play?” The boy asks turning to face the piano. “What’s your name?” He seems shy but he’s calm and he’s smiling and Sehun can’t get enough of it.

“Se-Sehun, I’m Sehun.” He blurts out. The boy looks at him again and Sehun tenses again not having noticed he had gotten relieved that the boy had looked away for instances before.

“Sehun.” The boy says carefully and slowly as if testing it on his lips and Sehun never liked his name as much as he does now, especially played by the boy’s beautiful voice. “I like you Sehun.” He finishes and Sehun’s heart is restless and frantic and he can feel himself warm all over and actually falling head over heels over someone he doesn’t even know. Someone that doesn’t even feel real.

“What’s your name?” He asks instead.

“Kai. I’m Kai.” The other responds and scooches closer to Sehun and leans, being merely inches away from his face. Sehun tilts his head back a bit in surprise. He doesn’t know what to expect but he isn’t scared, just apprehensive. “Do you like me Sehun?” Sehun hesitates so Kai draws back shyly and seemingly regretful. He looks down at the keys of the piano and plays a set. A minor. “Could you love me? Do you think you could love me? Love someone like me?” He says softly fondling his fingertips over the white keys ever so slightly as the sound dissipates. Sehun feels puzzled. He feels confused and nervous and excited and somewhat love struck by the boy in front of him, all of it jammed up inside his chest and he doesn’t know what to answer. Kai looks at him again, glassy and expectant eyes intent on his.

“I…” He wants to say something, he truly does.

“You couldn’t. No one could love someone like me.” Kai interrupts, looking down again, before Sehun could find any words suitable enough.

“Why do you say that?”

“I’m not worthy.” His fingers play another chord, B minor.

“That’s not true. Everyone deserves love.” Sehun says, naively, in hopes of any sorts of reassurance. He wants to touch him, he wants to comfort him and do something but he can’t move, his hands tightly gripping the edge of the bench he’s sitting on.

“Only I’m not. I don’t deserve it.” Kai presses the piano keys messily, contradicting the perfect ones he had played previously, and gets up, looking upset, stumping towards the side exit of the stage so Sehun gets up right behind him and follows.

“Wait Kai!” He pleads and Kai halts, mid stage, before cutting the rest of his way.

“Love me and I’ll stay.” He turns around slowly. “Stay with me and love me, Sehun, forever.” His eyes are dark and glistened by unfallen tears looking straight into Sehun’s soul and Sehun falls, deeply. He inclines forward, stepping to meet Kai and Kai meets him halfway and they’re found again only a couple inches from each other and this time, this time Sehun leans and Kai catches his lips in a chaste needy kiss. It’s warm and simple but Sehun feels a hurricane of feelings jolting through him. He’s undeniably fascinated and completely amazed by the beautiful boy before him. He never felt in love before but maybe, just maybe this is what falling in love feels like. Like magic. Like laws of gravity don’t exist and he could float in midair.

It’s Kai that breaks it, looking deeply into Sehun’s eyes again and smiling just like before. Sehun readies to lean again when an electronic sound resonates into the silence. Kai gets surprised and he steps back, wide eyed and afraid.

“I have to go.” He says while Sehun tries to pull his phone out of his pocket.

“No it’s fine, it’s just probably-” And when he looks up again Kai is gone. Sehun looks around, letting his phone ring and die out as he looks for Kai. He gets out the stage and stumbles into dusty ways again calling out for the boy but with no avail. He doesn’t know where he is or where he went. Sehun is confused and his heart starts to beat faster with fear again. He needs to see Kai again. He needs to tell him…he needs to tell him he loves him. He needs to say it. He needs to let him know he’s loved.

But halfway through his search he finds the exit and almost has half a mind to go back inside and continue to try to find him but Chanyeol calls him out. He grips his phone hard and looks behind him, taking a last look inside, before stepping towards his friends.

“Where were you? You just got lost? What took you so long? And why didn’t you answer your phone?” Chanyeol bombards the second Sehun reaches them.

“I was just…I was…” Sehun stumbles through his words. He can still feel the warmness of Kai’s lips against his. Chanyeol a brow in expectation. “I was at the front stage…it was so beautiful so I stayed there…”

“Another bunch of dust and spider webs if you ask me.” Chanyeol shrugs. “And the myth remains a myth after all, I didn’t find anything weird.”

“But the stage…it was- there was light and there was a piano and a boy…” He retaliates.

“Sehun, there was no one inside beside us and everything was dark.” Baekhyun speaks and his words make Sehun shiver. He’s confused, even more than before and he doesn’t understand how they could’ve missed that. How they could’ve missed the beauty, how they could’ve missed Kai. Sehun is sure he isn’t crazy and he was most certainly not dreaming. It was all too vivid and real, everything all the way from the lights to Kai’s lips on his.

“No, but the boy, he was real…” He ekes jerking his head once back and forth between his friends and the main door. He wants his friends to believe him. He can’t and he won’t accept what happened as a fruit of his imagination.

“Nice one, I almost fell for that. God Sehun you’re getting good.” He fist pumps Sehun’s shoulder.  “Is that your payback?” Chanyeol creaks through a chuckle.

“But-”

“Yeah, yeah…show’s over Sehunie. Let’s go home.” Chanyeol pats Sehun’s shoulder dragging him out to the opposite way of the opera house. Sehun takes a last quick glance from above his shoulder and something seems to break inside him when he looks forward again. He wants to go back. He has to go back. It feels like part of his soul got trapped and lost inside those walls. He never felt this way and with so, he promised himself to go back the next day.

i've seen phantom of the opera, i don't remember the story and i didn't want to make this even related anyway so...huh...yeah...i hope you like it ^^