CHAPTER 2

Why don’t you ever pick up my calls?  Make it to my room by 8:30 today. If you don’t come like last time, I’ll have to reach you through the Headmaster.

“Hey hot stuff, stop texting your girlfriend and help us out a little, yeah?” Luhan, the vocal of EXO, grunts as he aids Suho in disassembling the stand for his keyboard. Eight marks the end of band practice, and Chanyeol wonders if he should listen to the voice in his inbox as he tucks his phone back into his pocket. It’s not the first time she’s sent a threat, and he knows it’s not the first time she’s sent it with the intention of actually doing what she’s blackmailed to do so he chooses the wiser decision. It’s best to keep her calm lest she do something they’ll both regret.

“Gotta be out of here by 8:25 so don’t expect much,” the guitarist says, sighing as he hoists his prized guitar on his back and reaches down to turn the Fender amplifier off. Heaving with a single arm, he carries it backstage where the rest of their equipment stays. Kris, his best friend and also the drummer, drapes a cloth over his drum set for safe measure.

“Visiting a girl?” teases Luhan, smirking as Zitao, their bass player, zips up his instrument. “I heard no one was making rounds in the East Wing today since they have some sort of meeting. Yoona called me over.”

“Dude, do you know how gross that is? She looks like you, I swear. So if you guys have , it’ll be like siblings ing each other,” Suho comments, to which Zitao cringes. Luhan glares at him but doesn’t say anything back.

“Chanyeol, you can leave first,” Zitao tells him, adjusting the straps on his bass case as he kicks stray microphone wires to the side. “I’ll clean up.”

“You sure?” he asks, and Zitao nods.

“You guys can leave too,” the bass player adds as he nudges his head at Luhan, Suho, and Kris. “I want to stay behind anyway.”

“Sorry about today, Tao. I’ll help you out next time, yeah?” Chanyeol promises, and the other members pump their friend's fist before gathering their stuff to leave. When they all separate ways, Chanyeol takes out his phone.

On my way.

By the time he gets to his homeroom, it’s only 8:20PM. He despises being early, but for some reason, he always ends up being just that; no fashionably late, no jerk in the house, just prim and proper Park Chanyeol that never really faded from his system. Grandmother taught him a little too well, he thinks; she's always told him to be gentle.

“How is your grandmother?” Mrs. Kwon asks then, coincidentally. Chanyeol makes his way into the seat across the homeroom teacher’s desk and doesn't respond to her question.

Instead, he says, “I have to be in the dorm building by 9:30, you know that, right?”

Mrs. Kwon gives him an adult look, one that doesn't suit her. “You seem to forget that I’m a teacher sometimes. Just because your grandmother and I are friends doesn’t mean I don’t work for this school, Park Chanyeol,” she says, “We’ll figure something out if anybody asks.”

“Alright,” Chanyeol says, sighing. “Why did you call me in today?”

At this, Mrs. Kwon raises an eyebrow, but Chanyeol doesn’t reply with the answer he already knows. “Your grades, Chanyeol. You have to start coming to class.”

The grade talk. The school talk. The I’m-not-your-mother-but-I’m-the-closest-to-it talk. Talk, talk, talk. “Tests account for over three-quarters of our grade and I'm smart enough to ace them; I can manage.”

“I’m not talking about your abilities, Chanyeol. I just want you to be here.”

“For what? I’ll just sleep the whole time,” the teenager almost growls in frustration. A thin line sets across his forehead because Mrs. Kwon doesn't know anything about him yet she has always acted like she does. Okay, Chanyeol reasons: she knows about his family situation, and okay, she knows that he has some sort of conflict going on that prevents him from staying in the same room as some of his peers. She knows something’s up, but she doesn’t know the details, and that is exactly what gets Chanyeol angry when she starts to tell him what to do.

“The teachers talk about you,” Mrs. Kwon responds, voice dropping to a whisper. “And the rumors get more ridiculous by the day. Chanyeol, I just need you to stay in school; if not for you, then for your grandmother. You know she already has a handful to worry about.”

Exhaling deeply, Chanyeol turns away.

“I know I’m not your mother,” she continues, “But your grandmother relies on me to take care of you here and I don’t want to let her down. Can't I ask at least that much from you?”

He’s not a mean guy, not a like they say. There are moments when he wants to go home to his grandmother and tell her that one day she won’t have to worry so much and moments when he wants to stop Sehun from bullying people and moments when he wants to spend the day out in the park to play music for laughing children; it’s just that he’s never willing to be soft. He does have a heart though, one that makes the scowl on his face fade just slightly when he sees Mrs. Kwon try so hard to meet both ends.

“I just have to get the assignments in, don’t I? If I keep my grade up, I don’t have to come to class,” Chanyeol reasons, looking down at the floor.

“Chanyeol,” Mrs. Kwon presses.

“I’m not,” he sighs, closing his eyes and frowning, “I'm not going to come to class. This is the most you’ll get out of me, and I’m sorry about that. But I will keep my grades up, so don’t worry.”

Without waiting for an answer, Chanyeol stands, slings his guitar bag over his shoulder, and leaves. He travels through the hallways, down the stairs, across the campus, then up the dorm buildings. Through the corridors he weaves, enters the wooden door to his room, then crashes headfirst into his bed without taking off his shoes. It’s only 8:45, but he wants to sleep. He never does homework and doesn’t know if he’s ready to start either, but he will worry about that in the morning. For now, he is going to erase the world.

Kris steps into the dorm approximately five minutes before room check and sighs when he sees his lanky best friend sprawled across his bed with his uniform still on. Silently, he pulls off Chanyeol’s shoes, places them by the door, and puts his blanket over him. Unlike his roommate, Kris is not a genius so he must finish his homework and study for tests before he falls asleep. The younger never so much as opens a book in Kris’ presence anymore, though it used to be much different back in elementary and middle school. A lot of the mini details that make up Chanyeol had been different before Sehun changed, and although the guitarist says he hates people who mess themselves up due to poor choices, Kris can’t help but think that Chanyeol is much the same. There had been a time when Chanyeol was the one to push him on his bike at seven in the morning because Kris wouldn’t budge otherwise, times when Sehun had been the youngest between the three of them and also the most innocent, the most annoying but also the most adored. There had been times before this one, fading Polaroid pictures taped onto school lockers and Friday night basketball rounds and Sunday bullting homework through the phone. But they are but memories now, and Kris opens his advanced chemistry textbook with a nostalgic lump in his throat. He will wake Chanyeol up at eleven when he will fold his studies so that the younger can change and brush his teeth. For now, he will let the tired soul rest.

To Baekhyun, the free hour after lunch is the most enjoyable time of day. Today, he is on cleanup duty for the last thirty minutes, an undesired job to many, but Baekhyun thinks otherwise. It’s not particularly the responsibility itself that he savors, but more so the memories that cling onto the walls of that very hall he is assigned to mop. It reminds him of the worse part, in which Sehun had tripped in with his delinquent friend, Chen, to knock him over and spill his locker's contents on the ground. There were also head shoves and crude yelling, and the cold tiles of the floor... But it also reminds him of the better half, the time when Chanyeol first truly stepped into his life, one and a half years ago on that very day.

“Baekhyun, are you coming?”

Shaking his head, the younger replies, “No, I’ll just wait here. I want a little bit of fresh air before I leave for cleanup duty.”

“Alright, I’ll try to be as quick as possible, okay?” Yixing says, walking backward towards the stairs.

“No, take your time, hyung. You shouldn't rush through important things,” he reassures with a smile. With that, Yixing leaves to climb up the steps to his physics teacher’s room to discuss a project grade and Baekhyun is left alone at the doors of the brick building. Taking a deep breath, he lets his feet lead him to the patch of grass a few feet away, the back of his uniform brushing against the thick vines clinging to the walls of the building. There is a hedge no one bothers to look at beside the perimeters and Baekhyun eyes it as he blows air into his cheeks. Summer is here now, the humid air indicating its arrival with every piece of skin Baekhyun has exposed, and it’s suffocating. Baekhyun plays with the blades of grass under his feet as he waits for his friend.

When he thinks about it, many things have changed since his first year at the high school his parents had been so proud to send him to. He’s here on a scholarship just like Yixing, and it’s just as hard as the rumors say, but he rather enjoys it. Baekhyun struggles to work under pressure and burdensome situations, but he is a glass half-full kind of person; aims to be anyway. A smile makes its gentle way across his face as he lets the broad leaves of the ivies slither under his long, slim fingers, its features almost like that of a girl’s with no wrinkles or tears on pale skin.

As Baekhyun is admiring the simplicity of the moment, suddenly, calmly, he hears a melody that he recognizes. He knows the sound of the instrument it comes from, too, knows who the one playing it is. Curiously, he turns his body in the direction of the soft string plucks, which seems to be beyond the thick hedge — somewhere nobody in Uijeongbu High goes to or talks about. Heart racing, Baekhyun follows the wall of green to its end and peeks around the corner, carefully watching his footsteps. He’s never really been to this side of campus before, not even if he has a class in the building Yixing is in. There are two entrances and exits to each building, but little to no students frequent this particular back one; even Baekhyun and Yixing had used it for the first time in three years today and only so because the dining hall’s back exit was close by.

And that's when he sees him. Park Chanyeol. It’s Chanyeol, back turned towards him as he immerses himself in the notes lilting out of his guitar; Chanyeol, the one everyone assumes is missing during school hours when in reality, he stays just there. As if he’s discovered a secret, Baekhyun swallows and turns away. Leaning against the hedge, he lets the guitar notes and ivy leaves tickle him alike as he quietly listens to Chanyeol play, bites down on his lips when the guitarist starts to hum. And then in five minutes, the show is over because Baekhyun is afraid he will make a sound, and he darts away back to his spot where Yixing expects him, heart pounding loudly in his chest as the song replays in his head while he waits.

It’s in moments like these that Baekhyun grows confused of his feelings, this urge to tell Chanyeol how much he admires his talent but to run away so far that he will not be able to see the guitarist anymore. He’s come to terms that he is drawn to this other male, a that is his own and that he should not like. It's no mystery what his eyes are searching for every morning when he settles into his desk, why his heart beats erratically whenever the giant does come to class for exams. He knows he is afraid to approach Chanyeol not because of his reputation or the girls that circumscribe him wherever he goes, or even his cold demeanor, but because he is terrified of himself. Baekhyun lives alone on the moon and he knows that if and when someone sees him peering over the surface of unknown galaxy, he will become a curse.

And he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to live with that.

Silently eyeing his watch, Chanyeol sighs. His stomach grumbles to announce the tick of half past noon, the whole school’s lunch time; it’s an everyday thought when he realizes he hasn’t had anything to eat since he's woken up. Most days, he sneaks to the back of the dining hall to whisper to one of the lunch ladies to hand him food secretly so that he won’t have to walk through where his classmates surely are, but today he is lazy. Falling on his back with a minuscule grunt, Chanyeol stares up at the same light blue hues he watches every day. Then, with a lethargic hand, he calls Kris.

“Hello?” Kris picks up within the first three rings. He always has his phone on him even though students aren't permitted to keep them on during school hours.

“Hey Kris,” Chanyeol says back, fingers picking at the dirt and green under him. “Just wanted to ask you for a favor.”

“What is it?” his friend asks in response, mouth full with what sounds like a crunchy salad. He has a strange diet, that Kris. Chanyeol wonders how they’ve grown to be almost the same height when all Kris eats are vegetables and nuts.

“Can you pick up the assignments for all my classes? The classwork and homework and everything else.”

“Uh… you’re kidding, right?” Kris says, slowly chewing his lettuce and bits of crouton. “Why?”

Blinking up at the foamy whites of the clouds, Chanyeol replies, “I don’t know, maybe so I can get them done? Mrs. Kwon would not stop nagging yesterday.”

“Goddamn Chanyeol; just visit class for once, will you? You know, like the student you are? I am not getting those papers for you. If you really wanted to get your work done, you would come to class.”

With that, his supportive yet unsupportive best friend hangs up and Chanyeol throws his phone on the ground with a loud groan. , he thinks, but he knows Kris is only saying it for his own good. The drummer knows better than anyone else why Chanyeol refuses to go to class, though the older is long past the event while Chanyeol still suspends in the aftermath, hating himself, hating much of everything. Sitting up with an irked slant of eyebrows, the unwilling senior reaches for his guitar. Lunch is over so everyone will be stretching out across the campus, vacating the hallways. He decides then that his schedule will be this: every hour after lunch, he will collect the half-day’s work, then come back the next day to collect the later half from the day before. That way, he will be able to avoid pupils and also complete the assignments he has neglected until now.

Heaving his guitar like always, Chanyeol stands up to find Mrs. Kwon. Despite doing nothing all day, he is constantly worn out. Today is not any different.

It’s not a surprise, really, when there is a messy trail of chocolate milk flooding down the hallway in a pitiful river. It’s always there in one form or another, pooled by the lockers or creating a stream down the classroom doors; and it’s always Sehun who does it, right before Baekhyun starts his duty. He’s not exactly subtle about this, making a mess just for Baekhyun to clean up, because he often lingers a few minutes with his best friend, Chen, at his side, snickering as he kicks the empty cartons in all directions just to make a show. There’s no clear reason as to why Baekhyun is the constant target of this delinquent duo, but he deals with it anyway because does not want to worry anybody, especially not himself.

At least he has style, Baekhyun thinks as he dunks the heavy mop into the yellow bucket; he’s artistic with his messy trail. They’re in all kinds of zigzags, a funny sort of path that isn’t quite supposed to be one but simply is. Gripping the lever, Baekhyun squeezes out the excess water.

Usually, it doesn’t take him long to mop the hallway. It’s not an overly lengthy distance, not too hard of a task either. Dragging wet along the waxed tiles, Baekhyun eyes the lockers to his right. Some days, there is a small envelope taped onto Chanyeol’s blue one, ranging of varying colors and matching stickers. Today, this envelope is dangling from a single corner from a heavy, weighted bulge in the paper pocket, threatening to fall. Blinking curiously, Baekhyun drags his mop over to the wall and leans it against the adjacent locker, checking down the hallways on both ends before bending just slightly to level his eyes with the printed words.

To: Chanyeol ♥

It must be one of this fans, Baekhyun thinks as always. It’s a mystery how the girls from the East Wing break in to leave Chanyeol gifts and letters on his locker, or how they know which is his in the first place. Baekhyun himself only knows because of the time Sehun and Chen had tried to shred up the guitarist’s textbooks, the day they’d started to notice him around school. Otherwise, Chanyeol never really needs his locker and so consequently never shows up around it.

Eyeing the envelope, Baekhyun uprights himself again, ready to continue mopping the remaining half of the hallway when the last bits of the tape on the letter detach from the metal locker. The startled student makes a small noise as he fumbles with the descending letter in an attempt to catch it, tangled fingers and a choked breath escaping him when it flitters down. He has slow reflexes, but somehow he manages to grab the colorful edge and bring it in roughly just in time for the contents of the fan mail to spill over the lips of pink. He watches in horror as a small bottle of what sounds like pills drops out, something that looks like a miniature Advil container but with the label scraped off, anonymous contents jingling inside. In staggered alarm, he picks it up and raises himself with wide eyes, Chanyeol’s private possessions unintentionally in his hands. Frozen in fear, Baekhyun stands still with uncertainty of what to do as his heart pulses loudly, firmly in his ears.

It's then that somebody pounces on him.

  Author's Notes  

So... this is really different from before, isn't it? Hahaha;; I'm really sorry about the slow updates (as usual) but I do have exams coming up so I don't know when the next chapter will be up. Not to mention that I have the epilogue of Forevermore to write;__; I hope everyone understands. Anyway, thank you so much for reading! I will be back as soon as I can~ ♥