-CHAPTER 2-

Le Meveilleux

Chanyeol stared at his reflection in the tall mirror, sighing as he tried to once again smoothen out his black dress shirt. Why did he even agree into doing this? Technically, he didn't but he couldn't just abandon Kris and besides, Kyungsoo and Jongin were leaving for a very long time. He should at least bid them good luck on their twenty hour flight.

It was snowing outside, Chanyeol noted. Small, microscopic beads of frozen water fell from the heavens, each looking so different from the other. Before the snow could fall to the ground and get lost in the millions of other snowflakes, Chanyeol hoisted his camera off of the coffee table and walked to his window, opening it up to take another picture for his collection. The shutter went off and a still frame of a single snowflake reflected on the screen in its mid-fall to the street below. Chanyeol smiled at the picture before setting the camera away.

Every day of every winter he's experienced since he bought his first camera he would take a picture of a snowflake and put it in a photo album. It was a tradition, something Chanyeol had picked up on from Dara. Back when she used to love the winter just as much as Chanyeol did.

Chanyeol stopped in his tracks, lips spread apart slightly and his face tense. He closed his eyes, forcing memories of her out of his mind and pushing them back in the dark where they belonged. He was already stressed about this whole party thing and now Dara was coming back into his thoughts? No, he didn't need that addition weight on his shoulders, even though it was always there.

Quickly, without another fix his mind would linger on, Chanyeol grabbed his coat from the clothing rack and put it on swiftly. He grabbed his keys and his phone, and looked around the apartment once more to check for anything he could've forgotten. Did he need a gift? Maybe he should get a gift.

Chanyeol closed the door behind him once again and searched his apartment for something he could give last minute. His eyes settled on his bookcase, the poor shelves filled with dozens of cameras from every era known to man, and photo albums dated by year. Maybe there was a picture somewhere in there he could give - he had more than enough to last a lifetime, the picture wouldn't be missed.

He shuffled over to the binders, thinking to himself when was the last time he had actually seen them. November 2012 could it be? That seemed like a really long time ago now that he thought back to it. Over an entire year since he had last spoken to them face to face. Of course, phone calls and text messages over the past year were mandatory, especially during the holiday season but an entire year? It didn't feel that long ago.

Chanyeol's long, boney fingers skimmed across black spines until they settled on winter 2012. Each of the albums were separated by three months, more specifically the seasons of the years. Though, now with the whole green house effect it felt like November belonged in autumn instead.

Flipping through the pages, Chanyeol was immersed in the pictures. Memories filled his mind as he looked at each picture with great care. One picture dated the second of November was filled with smiles, people laughing and talking alongside a long table in the middle of a garden. Surely it was too cold to have lunch outside but the people in the photograph didn't seems to mind. They were all dressed up in the coats, keeping away the coldness of the wind that blew past, and food was set all across the table, threatening to become cold if not eaten soon enough. There were maybe six of them, including Chanyeol who had taken the picture from the seat at the end of the picture.

Chanyeol found himself smiling bitterly at the picture before moving past it, flicking through the album for a portrait of some kind of the birthday couple. A picture came up, one of Kyungsoo and Jongin sitting under a tree looking up into the falling leaves. Kyungsoo was sat with his back against the hard trunk of the old oak with Jongin sleepily lying down with his head on the elder boy's lap. Chanyeol remembered exactly when and where he had taken the photo; during a stopover at some park halfway down to Busan on the fifteenth. It was supposed to be an early birthday gift but it had turned out more of a disaster than anything.

Chanyeol removed the picture from the plastic casing and searched up a little brown envelope to put it in, writing a little not on the cover.

Happy Birthday

with great wishes

Park Chanyeol

It seemed almost too formal for friends who've known each other for years but it also seemed too rude to write something less. Short and sincere was the best way to go.

Chanyeol glanced at the clock on the cream wall, cursing as he saw the hands tick eight twenty two. He'd miss the buss if he didn't leave now, and be late for something he wasn't even really invited to.

The apartment looked exactly the same as Chanyeol remembered it; a dump. The paint had peeled off the walls, exposing the red bricks that had turned a sickly brown over the years of exposure. The floor was a horrid grey concrete that Jongin never bothered to plaster over with some fake wood, and the furniture in the old apartment molded in every corner, threatening to bite you in the leg with Chlamydia or something equally terrifying. Except now the place was packed with people in close to nothing, dancing, grinding and ing everything that had a pulse. Music blared through the entire building, bass shaking the floor and vibrating up Chanyeol's body, and the smell of pot and alcohol seeped through the barely breathable air.

"Chanyeol!" a deep, booming voice called him over the belting sound systems playing some kind of remix of Katy Perry's new song Dark Horse. Kris shuffled over to Chanyeol, lightly pushing aside the happily drunken women and the overly men. "You're late," he said once he had reached his brother.

Chanyeol fished out his phone and opened his new notes up he found the other day.

I know. Missed the first buss. Sorry.

"It's cool, bro. Let's go say hi." Chanyeol noticed how Kris' words were slurring slightly, and then caught a glimpse of the nearly empty beer bottle clutched in his hand.

Kris pulsed his way through the crowd with Chanyeol hot on his tail. The whole thing was rather disgusting, the sweaty skin that pressed up against Chanyeol's, the alcohol infected breaths that huffed air in tune to the music, and most of all, the feverish faces that smirked up and down his body, checking him out and undressing him with their animalistic eyes. Chanyeol hated parties, every single thing about them. Chanyeol tightened his grip on the brown envelope in his hand, fearing he might drop it and have people stomp over it as the transition to Brittney Spear's Work mixed into the air.

Kris lead the way through the crowd, occasionally stopping to great some people he had missed. It seemed to Chanyeol that Kris was the host instead of the birthday couple but he kept quiet about it. When his older brother had finally stopped stopping for pointless conversations, they walked through the tattered Victorian double doors that Jongin had once said they were 'classy and hobo-chic', and cool air met with Chanyeol's hot skin, creating instant goose bumps.

"Chanyeol." Kyungsoo stood up in a second, flustered and stale looking at Chanyeol with his overly wide eyes, now even wider with shock. He hadn't changed much, Chanyeol noted, just the hair was darker, his natural black haired had grown out and the chestnut brown was long gone. His narrow shoulders had widened as well, something he had tried to achieve for so long. Kyungsoo looked older in general, even though only a year had passed. He looked happier, almost at ease with himself.

Jongin stopped smiling the second Kyungsoo was out of the twin seat, and stood up as well, staring at Kyungsoo before following where the older man's gaze had settled. Upon seeing Chanyeol's tall frame standing on the other side of the low coffee table, his gaze hardened. "What are you doing here?" he asked, voice laced with guarded emotions. A hand found its way around Kyungsoo's waist and secured itself there.

Chanyeol raised his arm and handed the brown envelope to the couple with a respective bow. Maybe it was right to have written in such formal notes. Happy Birthday, he mouthed, though he was sure no words were really uttered. None were ever really voiced.

"Did you invite him?" Jongin asked his boyfriend in a hushed tone, though Chanyeol heard the words perfectly fine.

Kyungsoo shook his head, still dazed as he stared at Chanyeol's awkward frame looking around with hasty eyes to avoid Kyungsoo's.

"Why are you here?" he asked, voice seemingly softer than Jongin's defensive tone.

Chanyeol stood up straight, still holding the envelope forward, and parted his lips as if he were to say something. Instead, he fished out his phone and began typing on the already opened note app.

Kris told me you were leaving. Though I should at least get you a present.

It wasn't the complete truth but what better could he say? That Kris had silently convinced him that he missed his best friend enough to see him on his last day in Korea? Or that he felt sincerely apologetic for walking out a year ago and never returning?

Kyungsoo read the message with flickering eyes, pupils dilating from the intense light of Chanyeol's screen, and looked up with the same owl-like eyes.

"Can you talk?" he asked to Chanyeol's surprise whom shook his head. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

Chanyeol shook his head again, his brows rising just a little in confusion. Was this a normal etiquette people asked at parties?

"Do you still work at the bakery?"

To this Chanyeol nodded, a small smile plastered on his lips. To his surprise, Kyungsoo's heart shaped lips tugged at the edges into a smile as well, warmth vibrating from his eyes.

"Then you should've brought a cake instead," he said, yanking the envelope out of Chanyeol's grasp with a playful tug. The smile on his face grew bigger, yet Jongin didn't look so pleased.

Chanyeol was surprised at how easy that went. He had half expected that Kyungsoo would be in a fit of rage and punch the hell out of him with tiny, strong fists whilst crying hot, angry tears, and he half expected Jongin to have punched him in the face by now. Instead, Chanyeol was pushed into a seat and handed a cool bottle of Budweiser and dragged in a conver