When I open my eyes, your face floats up first
If I can’t see you, I can’t take it

G.R.8.U - VIXX

“Urgh…,” Chanyeol grunted as his hand groping around in his bed, searching for his phone; the origin of the annoying alarm that woken him up. He found it under one of his pillow, and he opened his right eye, checking on clock on his phone.  It’s 10 o’clock in the morning now, and Chanyeol wished to sleep more since he had slept late in the morning pulling last desperate effort on his assignment, but there’s a message from his sister, so Chanyeol rubbed his eyes and fully opened them, groggily reading his sister’s message. 

He squinted his eyes, trying his best to read the message with blurry mind, and he managed to understand that his sister asked when he would went home. Chanyeol typed in a short answer of ‘Tomorrow’ before he rolled around and sprawled across his small double-bed; or big single-bed, whatever suits.

The flat was new; he’s been living alone since high school in a boarding house and he moved into this flat after he was accepted in the college; his parents decided he needed his own place now. He remembered his sister about bringing girls to his flat and their mother sending him disapproving look but his father only pat his back, saying, ‘I trust you’. And after a few months, the only girl that spent the night there was Bomi.

Chanyeol turned his head to the side, staring with a long feeling at the other side of the bed; which was the side Bomi used before. He still remembered the picture of Bomi lying beside him, giving him an awkward smile when he opened his eyes that morning.

The only sound he could hear was his own breath, low and steady, and Chanyeol lifted his phone above his face. He opened the image gallery and soon was welcomed by the photo of him and Bomi on the second night of their vacation to the beach; taken after dinner with the pinwheels they bought. There were several photos of them, and the last one was Bomi, alone, pouting her cheeks in a cute way. Chanyeol frowned when he remembered Bomi and the two of them, splashing water to each other in the beach and the two of them, walking together playing with the pinwheels and the two of them, joking around in the car and the two of them, eating ddukbokki and the two of them, in this bed and the two of them, that moment when he pulled her closer for a kiss and-

One, two, thr-

-he growled in frustration to his pillow as he tossed and turned and kicked around in his bed.

Chanyeol abruptly stopped and let out a loud sigh.

Chanyeol thought he was falling in love.          

“Well of course you’re in love, I thought this was already decided weeks ago,” was Baekhyun’s reaction when Chanyeol told him about his fear a few days ago while they’re working on their assignments. They tried to finish it before Chanyeol went home, because after Chanyeol came back they already have plans for EXO’s practice and performance.

“But this is different,” Chanyeol retorted. He wished it didn’t but it did. He only felt it once and honestly it didn’t end well, and he had a bad premonition that this time his heart would take it worse than before if it turned bad.

“How,” Baekhyun asked mindlessly, his long fingers punching numbers on the calculator, eyes fixed to the papers.

Chanyeol made muffled gargling sounds, his face buried in the table. 

Baekhyun simply raised his eyebrows, not even looking away from his work, “Nope, not speaking alien language.”

“Baek!” Chanyeol whined, looking desperate and could win over any abandoned dogs for the best sad puppy eyes. But Baekhyun didn’t look at him. So Chanyeol bang his forehead repeatedly to the table.

“What- You make the table’s shaking- I mean- Can you stop- CHAN- Seriously- OKAY WHAT?!” finally Baekhyun slammed down his calculator and looked up to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol still had his face buried to the table when he mumbled, “I think… I think it’s Park Jiyeon’s level.”

Baekhyun stiffened and cringed upon hearing that name. “… Oh, okay,” he pressed his lips together, furrowing his eyebrows. “Well, that’s bad. Or not? Umm. But… I don’t think Bomi-ah anything like that witch. What? It’s true!” he shouted when Chanyeol groaned. “I really don’t understand how you could still like her after what she did.”

“It’s Park Jiyeon,” Chanyeol mumbled.

Baekhyun sighed and put his hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder. “Like I said, Bomi-ah is nothing like her, and I am absolutely, positively sure, that it won’t end like Park Jiyeon’s case. Okay? Now can we please get back to these damn shear forces on the god-damn beam?”

“… okay,” was Chanyeol’s weak reply when he straightened his back, but really, his mind was full of Bomi, and the thought of Park Jiyeon and her smile and his broken heart made him scared of his feelings for Bomi.

And the feelings still scared him that morning when he ate his late breakfast, a bowl of cereal, in front of the TV.

Chanyeol was biting his spoon, making a mental list of the things he should do before went home tomorrow. Obviously, packing, but he pushed it to the last thing on the list because he’s too lazy and what is packing when he could jump on the train right now with only his wallet and his phone. He, miraculously, had finished their assignment last night even though the summer break hadn’t finished yet, so good-bye to academic things. He biked with Sehun two days ago, and had dinner with Jongin before, so it’s cool with the members too. The laundry? Done. The food? Meh, there’s nothing on the refrigerator anyway. Any other friend he wanted to meet?

Chanyeol resisted the urge to flip the coffee table in front of him, because, why kidding himself, of course there was.

He chewed on his lower lips as he stared on his own phone. Want to meet up? Let’s grab a cup of coffee? Or lunch? Do you want to talk about how nice is the weather today? Do you want to go out with me- Wait what? Chanyeol frowned at his own thoughts.

He sighed and mindlessly browsing through his messages with Bomi, and jumped on his couch when he read one particular message – about their photos at the beach, and EXO’s demo songs Chanyeol promised her.

After several minutes trying to type the perfect combination of words that Chanyeol hoped would sound casual, he threw his fist up in the air after reading Bomi’s reply.

From: Chibi

Sure, just come over, I’m doing nothing at home. Do you want to eat lunch at our place?

Bomi checked their refrigerator and tapped her cheek, measuring their side-dishes, wondering if they had enough portions for three people; or four, since Bomi ate a lot; or five, since Chanyeol ate a lot too.

“What are you doing?” Seyeon asked, drinking from her brown, bear-face painted mug. “You can’t possibly still hungry?”

Bomi glanced to her side before answering, “Chanyeol’s coming over.” She could see from the corner of her eyes that Seyeon slowly putting down her mug. “He wants to copy the photos from the beach…,” Bomi straightened her back and closed the refrigerator, “… and he wants me to take a listen to EXO’s demo songs.”

Seyeon scoffed. “Of course.”

Bomi rolled her eyes because of Seyeon and her sarcasms – Seyeon was unpopular between the girls because she was popular between the boys, and Bomi wasn’t sure whether Seyeon was always like that or it was some kind of defense-mechanism. “He really does.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Seyeon followed Bomi to her room. “He hasn’t asked you out yet?” Bomi lied down in her bed and Seyeon, too.

“Why he has to ask me out?” Bomi asked, making pouty faces alongside her angry-bird doll.

Seyeon glanced at her and smirked. “Because… hmm, I don’t know, he almost kissed you at the lodge and failed miserably?”

It took a few seconds before Bomi’s eyes widened and sat up. “WHAT? YOU… You saw that?” she whispered, embarrassed.

“Me, Jongin, and, oh yes, Kyungsoo, actually.”

“Oppa- Kyungsoo too?” Bomi slumped back and covered her face with the angry-bird doll. She cried and whined and screamed under it.

“You still call him Oppa? You should stop that, what if you slipped in front of Chanyeol?”

Bomi went quiet, and then she peeked on Seyeon from under the doll. “… Did he say something? Or… what’s his reaction?”

Seyeon raised her eyebrows. “Kyungsoo? I don’t know, I went to you after that.” She ruffled Bomi’s hair when she saw her expression. “He still cares about you… That, I know for sure.”

Bomi went back to cover her face, but Seyeon could hear her mumbling a soft reply of, “I know.”

Bomi just finished taking a bath when Chanyeol arrived. She was dressed in a simple baby pink T-Shirt and dark shorts, and she opened the door to the glasses-wearing, hooded Chanyeol.
 

“Hey!” Bomi shot him a smile, letting him in. “You’re wearing glasses now?” she asked while Chanyeol untied his shoes.

“Ah, sometimes, my eyes are rather sensitive…,” Chanyeol answered nervously, ignoring the fact that his heart did this weird thing like jumping out of his body; something ticked his nose and he tried to rub it away, but the scent lingered. It smelt like…

“Come on in!” Bomi walked pass him to her room, and Chanyeol could see her hair was still wet.

“… strawberry?” he mumbled to himself, recognizing the scent that came from Bomi.

“Ugh.”

Chanyeol startled and looked up to Seyeon, standing in the middle of living room, giving him the most judging stare ever.

Chanyeol swallowed. “Did I… Did I say that out loud?”

“ert,” Seyeon whispered before disappearing into her own room.

Chanyeol sighed deeply, making a mess of his hair by scratching it in frustration. He sighed again and saw around the house in wonder, before he followed Bomi to, Oh, her room.

Bomi’s room was rather packed because of, Oh, queen-sized bed, that took almost half of the room, facing her desk, where Bomi was sitting, opening her laptop in the table. There were windows in front of the desk and on the wall opposite of the door, with pink curtains and there were cabinets with a lot of frames and decorations. The summer’s breeze came into the room from the opened windows, and there’s a soft scent in the air, something that made Chanyeol’s brain froze for a second because it was somewhat comforting and familiar. It’s Bomi’s scent…, he thought, and no, it’s not the strawberry thing from her shampoo, it’s something else.  

Chanyeol wet his lips and walked to the cabinet and picked up one frame, which shows Bomi hugging a guy on the neck from the back; she laughed happily while the other guy just somewhat smirked. “My brother,” Bomi explained when she saw what picture Chanyeol was looking at. Chanyeol looked down again at the picture, and he thought they didn’t look very much alike apart from their brownish hair color. “I know, we don’t look alike,” Bomi grinned, as if she could read Chanyeol’s mind.

“I look very much like my sister,” Chanyeol said without being asked, putting back the frame and moved on to the next one. “Big eyes, big ears.”  

“Oh, you have one?” now Bomi was fully turned her body towards Chanyeol in her seat.

“Yeah, she’s three years older. She wants to be an announcer,” Chanyeol picked up the family pictures of Bomi, comparing Bomi’s face with her parents. “She’s beautiful, and since we look alike, that means I’m good-looking too?” he chuckled at his own words.

Bomi nodded in agreement, “That’s true, you’re handsome,” Bomi said casually, turning back to facing her laptop, missing the part where Chanyeol lost grip of the frame in his hand and almost smashed it to the ground.

Chanyeol cleared his throat, trying to focus his mind into the next frame. It was Bomi with several girls in the cheerleader uniform, and he remembered her story of her being a cheerleader in high school. “Oh, you went to all-female high school?” he asked.

“Umm,” Bomi answered, turned her head slightly and smiled.

“Then…,” Chanyeol stopped as he picked up the last picture of another crowd, there were different kinds of uniform and they carried flower bouquets and diplomas, making peace signs in elated expressions. He turned the picture to Bomi with curious eyes – he recognized Bomi and Seyeon in the pictures but he couldn’t figure out what’s the story, it couldn’t be her high school friends, there were boys in the picture too.   

“Ah, that’s my junior high’s friends. We gathered on our high school’s graduation day.”

“Aaaah,” Chanyeol nodded his head. His eyes landed on the face of the guy next to Bomi, who had his arm wrapped around her shoulder. Is this his boyfriend? Chanyeol made mental note to ask Kyungsoo about this.

“Do you bring your floppy disk?” Bomi asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Chanyeol put down the frame and opened his bag. He gave her his floppy disk and squatted down next to Bomi, resting his arm on the chair’s head. “The EXO’s songs are in there too, you can copy them… if you want.”

“Of course I want it! You’ve been bragging about the songs,” Bomi clicked the mouse several times, copying the songs from Chanyeol’s floppy disk into her laptop.

“Hey, I want to see the pictures,” Chanyeol inched closer to Bomi. “Do I look good? I think there’s one where I do somersault?”

They browsed through the pictures together – most of the pictures are from the first day before Minah sprained her ankle, and then pictures from the first night when they drinking, then the second night where they bought fireworks and played in the lodge’s backyard; the scene was similar to one where they browsed through EXO’s performance’s photos in the bus to Chanyeol’s place. Chanyeol always had comment for every picture, mumbling things and praising the way Bomi took the pictures.

“This one! Will be my desktop wallpaper,” Chanyeol decided with satisfied tone after staring quite some time at the picture of EXO making a pyramid in the beach – Chanyeol, Jongin, and Sehun on the base, Suho and Baekhyun on the second layer, and Kyungsoo grinned foolishly on the top, trying to keep his balance on  Suho’s and Baekhyun’s back.

“Not this one?” Bomi showed the next picture, where the pyramid collapsed and all of them had comical expressions.

“Oh, you’re right, this one was even better!” Chanyeol burst into a big laugh, clapping like a seal while his eyes making a twitch.

Bomi glanced at him and couldn’t help to laugh along, because Chanyeol’s laugh was like that, it’s contagious. There’s a reason why Bomi changed his name into ‘Happy Virus’ in her phone; and that’s exactly that smile, that precious laugh.

Chanyeol noticed her stare and raised his eyebrows in between his laugh, asking her what’s wrong, but Bomi only shook her head, keeping her smile and her thought.

They continued to browse the pictures, until the photos started to reach their second night.

“Oh, Baek!”  Chanyeol exclaimed when he saw the photo of his best friend as the main focus of the photo – they must be looking at the photos Minah taken – looking better after a day of hung over. “Ha, that’s me in the back! Huh, what am I doing?” he tilted his head at his own photo, seemingly distracted at something. “I was looking at... Oh.”  He shut his mouth immediately, but not that fast cause Bomi heard him and she looked closely to the photo, only to realize Chanyeol’s object of stare was herself, standing a feet away from Chanyeol, talking with Jongin.

Bomi felt heat creeping up into her cheeks and her ears.

They fell into an awkward silence, one where Bomi shifted in her seat and Chanyeol cleared his throat, rubbing his nose.

After Chanyeol’s attempt to kiss her – and honestly speaking, Bomi’s attempt to let him – they went back to the lodge and after some unnatural laughter that several pitches higher, they didn’t talk about it, continued with the night as if there’s nothing happened.

Chanyeol felt his mouth went dry, but the sound in the back of his head urged him to speak, say anything, anything at all, like ‘I like your shampoo’s smell.’ Oh wow that sounded so ert maybe a small ‘You look very cute in pink, it goes well with your skin’s color, do you know that pink is my mother’s favorite color?’ Damn-it Park Chanyeol, less creepy, more normal!

But before Chanyeol could say anything to ruin his image more, Seyeon’s head popped in. “Tsk, I hope I’m interrupting something when I don’t hear anything,” she clucked and ignored Bomi’s protesting stare at her. “I need to go out for a while, you want me to buy you anything?”

“No, thank you,” Bomi shook her head.

“And you,” Seyeon moved her eyes to Chanyeol.

“I don’t need anything,” Chanyeol said dumbly, blinking his big eyes.

Seyeon rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t asking you... I’ll be going for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes,” she emphasized on the ‘fifteen minutes’, purposely dragging each syllables. “Don’t try to do anything while I’m gone,” she narrowed her eyes at Chanyeol, and the boy let out an awkward laugh.

When Seyeon left, Bomi turned her head to Chanyeol and Chanyeol glanced at her, and they looked into each other.

Suddenly both of them burst into laughter for nothing in particular – Chanyeol’s loud laugh and Bomi’s loud giggle into one.

Seyeon in the front door could hear them and she shook her head, mumbling, “… I don’t want to hear their children’s laugh…”

Minah was strolling alongside the river, hunting pictures of the scenery and candid pictures of people. So far she took pictures of mostly, couples, and she frowned when she realized this fact, checking over her pictures. She looked around, and she pouted, noticing that indeed, there were a lot of couples there, ranging from kids to elders.

“Even 10 years old has better love story than me…,” Minah sighed, pouting more as she saw two kids walking hand in hand. She took out her phone and checked it, no messages whatsoever. She put it back to her pocket, unknowingly sighing even deeper. Baekhyun really had her hanging; never be the one to text first, but always responded very well, too well, when Minah texted him.

She continued her walk, until from a far she saw something that caught her interest. It was a guy, broad back facing Minah, playing with his dog; a very cute brown poodle. The guy tilted his head to the side, and his poodle followed his action, and from the distance Minah could hear his laughter.

The scene moved her, and soon Minah was taking pictures of the poodle and the owner. Suddenly the poodle looked at her direction, and started to run at her.

Minah put down her camera and squatted down, welcoming the poodle in her embrace.

“Aaaah, you’re so cuuuteeee,” Minah took the poodle and hug it.

Footsteps came closer, and Minah was about to look up to greet the poodle’s owner, when she heard a voice.

“Huh. It’s you.”

Minah narrowed his eyes. “You,” she glared at Jongin when she realized who it was.

“Let my dog go, you strangle it,” Jongin snorted.

“I do not!” Minah yelled at him. Then she turned to the poodle in her embrace. “This cutie pie is yours? Aaaw, I pity you, for having a demon as your owner.” She put on sympathetic face for the poodle.

Jongin scoffed. “Monggu, come here,” he called to his dog.

Monggu turned it head to Jongin, but did nothing, comfortable in Minah’s arms.

“Monggu…,” Jongin tapped his left foot, impatient. “Come here.”

“See? Monggu-yah, you like me better, right? That’s right…,” Minah played with Monggu, swinging it around.

Jongin sighed, getting annoyed. “Monggu-yah…,” he made a sad face and pretended to cry. Seeing it’s owner’s cry, Monggu struggled from Minah’s hug, running to Jongin. Jongin grinned widely, welcomed him into his own embrace. Then Jongin noticed Minah’s stare.

Minah looked struck and dumbfounded with Jongin’s aegyo.

“… Monggu only comes to me if I do that,” Jongin explained in a rather defensive tone to cover his embarrassment.

Minah chuckled. “What’s that…” She stood up and started to check the newly taken pictures of Monggu.

Jongin put Monggu down and rub his neck, still embarrassed. He glanced at Minah and saw the picture in Minah’s camera. “Hey, you’re taking pictures of Monggu and me? You have to pay, you know, my pictures don’t come for free.”

Minah scrunched up her nose. “Meh, then I’ll just erase your pics.”

“Ah, wait, wait,” Jongin inched closer, “Let me see it.” He looked down to Minah’s camera over her shoulder. “… Huh, it looks nice?”

“Why you sound surprised?!” Minah snapped, noticing Jongin’s tone.

Jongin ignored the protest. He took out his phone. “Give me your number, send me those pictures later.”

Minah made a face at Jongin, but she gave him her number anyway. Jongin was about to put his phone back to his pocket when Minah when the girl squealed at his phone.

“What?” Jongin looked back at his phone to check what made Minah squealed. It was his wallpaper, a photo of him playing the drum during EXO’s last performance. “I look cool, right?” he said smugly to Minah. He was indeed looking very cool in that picture, the way the stage light shone on him, and even the drips of sweat on his forehead and his arms, but mostly his expression, passion and pure enjoyment written in there.

“… That’s…,” Minah looked at the picture then to Jongin, “… I was the one who take it.”

Jongin blinked. Then, “What? It’s you? It’s not Bomi?” He got the photos from Chanyeol, who got it from Bomi, so he simply assumed that the picture was taken by Bomi.

“No… Yeah, I’m pretty sure I was the one who took it. If you look cool in it, it’s because I’m good, not because you’re cool,” she faked a smile at the boy.

Jongin stared at Minah. “I’ll change my wallpaper,” he mumbled, looked down to his phone to change his wallpaper.

“What?! Wow, you’re so rude, you know that?”

“Talking about rude… You haven’t apologized to Kyungsoo, have you?” Jongin scoffed.

“Why should I?” Minah went back to her stubbornness. “You said you know the story about Bomi and Kyungsoo, how could you still on his side? Kyungsoo dated another girl FIVE DAYS after he broke up with Bomi!”

“That girl was just a rebound! Kyungsoo still liked Bomi at that time.”

“And, what, that’s supposed to make Bomi happy? Isn’t that only made it worse?” Minah glared at Jongin.

Jongin fell silent. “… okay, you’re right, that’s not very wise of Kyungsoo…,” then he added when he saw Minah’s victory face, “BUT, Kyungsoo is a nice man, and Bomi already forgave him! Besides, you actually like him, don’t you, admit it,” he mocked her, remembering Bomi’s story about Minah.

Minah blushed in an instant. “W-What? WHO TOLD YOU?! It’ Seyeon, isn’t it? That girl!”

Jongin raised his eyebrows. “Actually, it’s Bomi. See, she’s on my side. With Kyungsoo, too,” he couldn’t resist the urge to stick out his tongue at Minah, no matter how childish it was. Luckily, Minah stuck out her tongue too, equally childish in this game.

“I don’t like him anymore!” Minah shook her head. “Baekhyunnie is a better singer than him!”

“Yeah… whatever you say,” Jongin squatted down to put the leash on Monggu’s neck.

“I really don’t! I really like Baekhyunnie!” Minah shouted, stomping her feet. Jongin nodded mindlessly. Minah narrowed her eyes at Jongin, puffing her cheeks in anger. “… Whatever! I’m going home!”

Jongin didn’t even spare her a look; only give her a dismissal with his wave.

“… hey,” Minah turned around when she heard Jongin’s voice, several steps after she went away. Jongin was already standing, holding Monggu’s leash in one hand, another hand in his pocket. “… How was your ankle?”

“… It’s healed,” Minah replied shortly, a little bit taken aback with Jongin’s sudden question.

“Hmm. Good,” Jongin nodded. “Okay. See you around.” His mouth twitched a little, but it’s not reached a smile, before Jongin his heels, walking away from Minah.

“Huh? Ah, see you!” Minah shouted at Jongin’s back, and this time the boy waved his hand without looking back. “… YOU THINK YOU LOOK COOL LIKE THAT?!” she shouted louder, and she could swear Jongin cracked into a laughter.  

“I’m home…,” Seyeon announced herself when she got back into her house. She could hear Bomi’s reply from the kitchen, so she went there. She found Bomi in her own apron, and Chanyeol, using her apron, doing what looks like cooking.

Chanyeol turned his head when she came in, and he grinned, pointing at the apron on him, “I hope you don’t mind I borrow your apron.”

“Just don’t make it dirty,” she put down her groceries on the kitchen’s table. “What are you doing?”

“We’re making the super delicious, secret recipe of Park Chanyeol’s Kimchi-Noodle Pancake!” Chanyeol announced, proudly. He glanced at Bomi, “Come on, put it more!” he urged her to pour more of spicy ramen’s seasoning into the dish.

“Seriously?” Bomi looked at Chanyeol, doubtful. “We’re not going to be poisoned by this dish, right?”

“Hey! I’ve been living alone successfully for three years, okay?” Chanyeol flicked his fingers to Bomi’s forehead.

“Aaw!” Bomi rubbed her forehead. “Yeah, I know, but look at you, you turn out to be a mutant with abnormal height..., really, what did you eat?”

“Well, then, it’s more reason to trust me, right? Cause it looks like you need the mutant’s food to grow more,” Chanyeol stepped out to Bomi’s back, bend down a little to put his chin at the top of Bomi’s head, “See, even to do this I need to bend down.” He grinned, showing his perfect white teeth to Bomi.

“Woah, so cocky,” Bomi elbowed him and Chanyeol only laughed, standing still in his place; chest to Bomi’s back.

“I’m still here, you know,” Seyeon tried to remind them.

Chanyeol immediately moved away, but he and Bomi soon engrossed back in the cooking, a little bit arguing about the amount of the ingredients.

Seyeon watched the interactions between the two, and unknowingly, she let out a deep sigh. She glanced at her vibrating phone which flashing the name Joonmyeon on the screen and she stared at it for a while, before pressing the reject button. 

For new subsribers, THANK YOU, and for all you, I sincerely want to thank you for giving this fanfic a chance, to read it, because I know that Chanmi/Kyungmi wasn't very popular. Drop a comment, don't be silent readers! :)

By the way, I found this edit on tumblr, it's so cuteeee :3 credit to iheartexopink @tumblr.

Lastly, if you haven't already, try read a fanfic that I really, really like, Catch Taemin If Your Can by myjonginnie, starring Taemin/Jongin/Soojung/Chanyeol/Jinri, pairing: every possible pairing you can think of out of the five, seriosly, every. possible. pairing. - I love messed up, tangled relationship. Do you have any fav fiction? Please tell me~