"I raise the masts and I’m carried by the wind oh
Put the water’s roughening surface to sleep"

C H A P T E R 6: BLACK PEARL

It was Kyungsoo’s first weekend at the academy; he had two full days to himself to do whatever he wanted. The students are allowed to leave the campus and go wherever they want as long as they get permission from one of portal supervisors and are back in time. Saturdays where also the day the choir club had their meetings and where Kyungsoo was currently headed.

With their flyer in hand he carefully read the area they were in and happily made way in that direction. Part of him wanted to ask Chanyeol for directions on how to get there but he had head the other boy play his guitar into deep into the night and figured he would be tired and still asleep. So Kyungsoo opted to go alone.

After crossing several sidewalks and passing several buildings (occasionally avoiding teens on skateboards) he found an old beat up looking place. It was a small building hidden away in one of the obscure corners of the campus. In fact, Kyungsoo doubted he was even in the right place until he saw the colorful sign on the door which read: Choir Club / Saturdays 10:00am-11:00am

And on a closer inspection he heard muffled voices coming from the other side of the door. Feeling a bit nervous Kyungsoo balled his hand into a fist and knocked gently on the door with his knuckles. Shuffling his feet slightly as he waited for an answer.

Across the wood he could hear the shouts of several people yelling “door!” and then someone’s quick footsteps approaching. After a series of clinks the door pulled back to reveal a boy around his height who opened his mouth for what Kyungsoo presumed to be a greeting but the other seemed to of got the words stuck in his throat and instead only gave Kyungsoo a flabbergasted stare.

Kyungsoo quirked a brow at the other, feeling a bit embarrassed by the staring. Seriously, it felt like everyone in this school had a staring problem at times. After a series of incoherent noises leaving the other boys mouth and a few awkward laughs from Kyungsoo’s part a familiar head peeked out of the other boy’s shoulders.

Baekhyun took one look at the doe-eyed boy and immediately broke out into a smile. “Kyungsoo!” He greeted happily, pushing the stranger who answered the door aside in favor of letting the short boy in. Wrapping his arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulder he led him into the building.

“Sorry about Chen, he gets weird around attractive people. Anyway you’re here for the choir club right?”

Kyungsoo nodded blushing at the compliment and let himself be dragged across a hallway, the other boy, Chen as he was called, trailed behind them eyes boring holes in the back of Kyungsoo’s head but he always glanced away every time the shorter boy tried peeking over his shoulder to catch him in the act.

“Great!” Beakhyun replied as they entered a nice looking room with various couches and musical instruments all around. There were a couple of other students hanging out but they all ignored what they were doing in favor of looking towards the new comer. “Actually, a lot of our main members graduated recently so our clubs been in danger of getting shut down if we don’t get more members soon. You showing up at the doorstep is seriously something out of a movie.”

Baekhyun then mumbled something that sounded like “a romance movie hopefully” but Kyungsoo gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed he had just misheard. Observing the room more carefully, the shorter boy realized how empty the classroom was. As he looked around he caught eyes with another familiar figure.

“Joonmyeon Hyung!” Kyungsoo said happily as the older came over with a big grin on his face, ignoring the glares of the two other boys beside Kyungsoo. “Hey Kyungsoo, I didn’t know you had an interest in singing! But as Baekhyun mentioned we are in need of more members so you joined at a perfect time!”

The older boy enveloped the shorter in a soft hug which Kyungsoo blushed at but reciprocated, feeling very welcomed by everyone.

“Why don’t you show us what you can do?” A voice spoke up from the short boys side, surprised Kyungsoo quickly turned his face towards the direction of the noise only to find it was Chen to spoke. Although he immediately coughed into his fist and looked away when Kyungsoo turned to glance at him but the shy smile that over took his face when Kyungsoo replied with, “Well, ok sure why not.” Was enough for Kyungsoo to forget about his previous blundering. He had a cute smile, it almost reminded him of a camel in a weird sort of way.

The others quickly began to encourage him and Joonmyeon led him to a little makeshift stage in the front of the room where a microphone was plugged in. The other students in the club quickly came closer and took up the seats in front. Baekhyun, Chen and Joonmyeon seemed the most excited however as they remained standing looking like they wanted to clap even before Kyungsoo started.

The doe-eyed boy clutched the microphone a bit too tightly, the pressure of preforming in front of crowd (no matter how small) creeping up on him. Clearing his thought a bit he introduced himself shyly in the mic. Cringing when he heard his voice echo around the room as it came out of the speakers. The group of fanboys in the front only gave him thumbs and mouthed fighting to him.

Feeling a bit more reassured Kyungsoo spoke up with more confidence as he announced his song. He figured his best bet was to sing in English for that extra wow factor and brought up the lyrics to Open Arms in his mind. He had trouble recalling the rest of the song but he figured just singing the beginning would be good in enough.

Fighting off a wave of stage fright he began to sing looking at no one in particular focusing more on keeping his voice steady and pronouncing the words right. The room was silent as his soft voice danced around the room, Kyungsoo gripped the microphone even tighter as he finished off the song’s intro, adding a little more spice than usual to try and show off his nonexistent vocal range.

There was silence for a few more seconds before the entire room burst out in claps and cheers. Kyungsoo felt his face grow red from the praise and bashfully thanked and bowed to everyone waving off the compliments halfheartedly. Since he had to go through the pressure of singing in front of everyone, Baekhyun the groups self-proclaimed president decided that they would all take turns singing as well, to not make Kyungsoo feel singled out (or so he claimed).

Feeling more relaxed and comfortable in the choir room, the shorter boy took a seat next to Chen and happily watched as the other students took turns going up and singing. Clapping and humming along to everyone’s songs. He was beginning feel like choir club is something he would definitely look forward to every week.

____

Hours later once the sun’s settled and Kyungsoo’s back in his lonely dorm room does he fully let it sink in how much his life has changed.

In literally less than a month he discovers the supernatural that he is a supernatural and suddenly he’s going to a school chalk full of them. It’s crazy and scarily overwhelming and the doe eyed boy isn’t sure how he’s managed to stay calm all this time.

Its nights like these that make him want to leave the room, go outside for some fresh air to clear his mind. A pair of glowing eyes from the day before wander into his thoughts, a handsome tan face is looking back at him. Strong arms holding him tightly, but those eyes, those yellow orbs that are looking right through him-

Kyungsoo shakes his head and makes up his mind. With one fluid swoop he puts on his hoodie and grabs his phone, heading towards the door.

He’s already climbed down a flight of stairs and on his way out of the building when he hears his name being called from across the room. Turning around he’s met with Chanyeol’s familiar lanky tall frame, his messy hair hidden underneath a hoodie, he’s not wearing his glasses and Kyungsoo can see his brown orbs clearly. They’re…quite pretty actually, they don’t look like a typical brown in fact if Kyungsoo looks closer it almost seems as if hazel and reddish flecks are dancing around in the taller boy’s irises.

“Hey Soo!” Chanyeol greets, sounding a little breathless, as if he had just run down a flight of stairs as well. The taller male gives him his signature eye squinted smile and catches up to him easily with a few stride of his long legs.

“Out for a nightly stroll I see, mind if I join?” Chanyeol asks, looking like he already knew the answer by the way he opened the door for Kyungsoo.

The shorter male just shrugged out a “Sure why not” before walking alongside the taller male as they strolled outside onto the campus ground. Chanyeol immediately starts rambling to him about whatever little things happened to him that day like how a squirrel stole a handful of his corn nuts or how he put on his shoes in the wrong feet and walked around like that for most of the day without noticing.

Kyungsoo is only half paying attention as his eyes keep glancing towards the path to the library, the path that led him to the cheeky fountain and the mysterious boy. He wonders if the boy will be there again.

Chanyeol seems to notice Kyungsoo’s absentmindedness and promptly stops talking, choosing to observe the shorter male instead. They are walking aimlessly around the dorm building, slow footsteps and light breathing. The crickets chirp around them and the moon casts a pretty glow through the cracks of the trees. Kyungsoo’s skin is milky white and his hair a deep onyx a high contrast to the pink of his full lips. Even his eyes are giant pools of black, never ending; they remind Chanyeol of space or of coals.

Kyungsoo glances at his companion and notices the other’s come to a halt. Curious as to why he suddenly stopped Kyungsoo quirks his eyebrow in a wordless question but the other only stares.

It’s an awful lot like their first meeting actually.

Chanyeol’s gaze is heavy and unfaltering, sending shivers down the shorter males’ spine. The taller takes a step forward but Kyungsoo is locked in place, he feels immobilized.

They’re close now, really close that Kyungsoo can feel the heat emitting off the boy. It warms his body to the bone but yet Kyungsoo shudders anyway.

Chanyeol tugs one of his hands out of his pocket and reaches towards Kyungsoo’s face, pressing his palm gently on the doe eyed boy’s cheek. His face stings where Chanyeol cupped it, his large hands are incredibly hot more so than the shorter boy had originally thought.

“What are you?” The taller male finally murmurs after a spell of silence. His soft eyes trailing across Kyungsoo’s face taking in his features from their close distance.

I could ask you the same thing Kyungsoo silently replies, bringing his hand up to rest it on Chanyeols wrist, grazing his fingertips over the heated flesh. Wincing slightly as the contact burned him.

Chanyeols eyes widened and he immediately withdrew his hand noting the red mark on Kyungsoo’s cheek in the vague shape of a handprint.

“Oh my god, im so sorry. I-I” Chanyeol takes a step back and Kyungsoo breaks out of the trance as well.

“No it’s ok im-” Kyungsoo starts but Chanyeol is already turning away, eyes wide with fear but Kyungsoo can’t figure out of what.  The taller male quickly retreats, turning a corner at the building where Kyungsoo’s eyes couldn’t follow him.

“I’m fine.” The shorter boy whispers to no one and brings one of his hands to his burned cheek, pressing against the flesh softly. It stung but nowhere near as bad as watching Chanyeol walk away from him. Kyungsoo treks back to his dorm confused and sad and doesn't notice a pair of familiar glowing yellow eyes observing him from a distance.

A U T H O R S N O T E

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Hope you guys liked the update! I have spring break next week so yay free time!

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