CHAPTER 030: Talk And Remember

          "You should have dropped them off," You tell Chanyeol, "Kris is a bad driver."          "I'm paying him," Chanyeol says and he looks at you longer than usual. "Besides, I wanna stay longer."   You blink at him and then move away, nodding your head and taking a seat on the couch. Chanyeol's eyes follow you.    The tutoring session had come to an end, and Chanyeol refused to leave, which led to the kids not having someone to take them home, which then led to Chanyeol paying Kris 30 bucks to drop off the kids for him.    Eunsul promised to drop off Yixing and Jongdae on the other town where they lived, but she had changed her mind and argued that they needed to wait because she wanted to leave late.           "I wanna go to bed, can you please take me home?" Jongdae argued. Yixing nodded as well, "I have dance practice tomorrow."          "And school!" Jongdae added, "It's only Tuesday, you know."    Eunsul sighed, "It's only ten! We'll leave at midnight."         "Midnight?!" Yixing argued, "Are you crazy?!"         "Okay, fine. How about in 30 minutes?"    Yixing sighed, "Okay."      Now, it has been twenty minutes and all Eunsul is doing is sitting and watching television, while Yixing glares at her direction.          "Take a picture, it will last longer," Eunsul mumbles.   Yixing scoffs, "Why don't you wanna go home?"    Eunsul shrugs, "Home is boring."          "Don't you have family waiting for you?" The boy asks.    You, Jongdae and Chanyeol watch the two argue.          "Listen, pumpkin pie," Eunsul turns to him, "As much as I appreciate how worried you are for me, I really hate giving out personal answers."    Yixing sighs, lying back on the couch and groaning, "I wanna go home."    Eunsul turns to him, "Why do you want to go home so badly? Do you have family waiting for you or something?"    Jongdae stiffens and so does Chanyeol. You don't know why the two get so serious all of a sudden, so you try your best to just watch and not enter the argument despite wanting to yell, "shut up!" to both of them.   Yixing looks at Eunsul with a serious face. "Sadly, no. I don't have family waiting for me, but I have a friend and he's probably really worried."    Eunsul sighs, "Fine." And she stands up, picking up her keys from the coffee table.    Jongdae makes a victory dance and Yixing feels blessed.         "I'm leaving," Eunsul says after the two others wave bye and run towards the car, excited to leave as soon as possible.    You and Chanyeol wave her bye, even if there's a weird feeling on the pit of your stomach at the thought of Chanyeol and you being alone. And Eunsul doesn't help the case either.         "Please don't have ," She mumbles, "Kris is coming soon and it will be horrible if he walks in on you two and grinding on each other on the sofa."    You have your mouth hung open and Chanyeol turns into a statue.    She pats you both on the shoulder and makes her way out, stopping at the door to say, "Don't ruin my OTP!" And then she leaves.            ********************       You and Chanyeol don't talk while you're alone. Instead, you two clean up the mess the kids left. There are papers on the floor and cookie crumbs, as well as juice boxes everywhere.           "What time is it?"           "Eleven," Chanyeol answers, "It's late."            "I wonder when Kris is coming back. He's taking too long. Should I call him? He might be lost."            "When are your parents coming home?" Chanyeol ignores your words.    You are taken a back but nevertheless, you answer.           "They should be here at around midnight and no later than that."            "Okay..." Chanyeol mumbles and he begins to vacuum the floor after he plugs in the machine.    You stand by the coffee table, trying to distract yourself by reading some of your math notes, yet watching Chanyeol from the corner of your eyes. He's still as tall as you remember, with wide shoulders and a nice built of lean muscle. Yet, even if he looks nice, you refuse to admit so.          "You remind me of spaghetti," you blurt out.    Chanyeol turns off the vacuum and looks at you, "What? I remind you of your aunt Betty?"    You snort, "No, I don't have an aunt Betty. I said, you remind me of spaghetti."    Chanyeol narrows his eyes, "That's not nice."         "Why not? Your tall and skinny. You're spaghetti!"    Chanyeol glares at you, "Listen, bubble , Let's not go back to the nicknames, or it will end ugly."           "Just like your face?" You smirk.   Chanyeol chuckles, "Okay, that was a good one, I will admit. Still not nice."           "I'm never nice."           "I know that," Chanyeol crosses his arms, "You once dipped a chilly pepper in chocolate and tricked me into eating it. You knew I hate spicy things, that was horrible."           "You used to shove spoonfuls of apple sauce on my mouth!" You retort with a laugh, "I hated that!"          "Is that really the worse you can think of?" Chanyeol raises a brow.    You move a step closer, dropping your notebook to put all focus on Chanyeol. "You almost witnessed my death."    Chanyeol pauses and frowns, "What?"         "Remember? The peanuts and the cheesecake?"    Chanyeol drops his arms, "Right... That was the worst day of my life."    Your smile falters, "Yeah, mine too. I thought I was gonna die."          "I wouldn't have let you died."           "I know. You cried, though."           "Because I thought you were gonna die."           "Didn't you just say you wouldn't have let me die?"            "But what if you had? Your airways swelled from the allergic reaction. You could have died in minutes."            "Yeol, I didn't die."    Chanyeol is breathing a bit heavy, and that's all at the horrible memory of you dying under his care.            "Someday, I'll return the favor."             "Of?" Chanyeol asks.             "Saving your life, just like you saved mine."            "I didn't save your life, Hana. Paramedics and a doctor did."    You sigh, "I know, but you were there and you held my hand. Thanks."    Chanyeol smiles and you two have moved closer, so it feels comfortable when he suddenly ruffles your hair. You huff and he chuckles.           "Cute," he says.   You push his hand away and fix your hair, groaning a little.    When you look up at Chanyeol, he's looking at you with intense eyes.            "What?" You ask, nervous and unsure, hands still trying to fix the mess he made on your head.    Chanyeol gives out a small smile and then crossed his arms again, in that thinking kind of way, as if he's contemplating something to tell you or not.    At the end, he doesn't tell you. Just smiles at you until you force yourself to move away and find something better to do. "I'll clean the kitchen."    Chanyeol doesn't say anything as you walk away and disappear into the said room.    You begin cleaning the counter to get your mind off Chanyeol, but the cleaning doesn't distract you for long. You begin to wonder if he feels awkward or if he's sad. Awkward because he's here with you and sad because his relationship with the love of his life isn't working out.    You stay in the kitchen for a couple of minutes, wondering if the boy is in pain and if you should console him. When you were hurt, the thing you craved the most was human warmth and just someone to hold you and tell you that it'd be okay, and you wonder if that's what Chanyeol needs but is too afraid to ask.    You notice that it's been too quiet for a while and decide to check out why. You expect to see Chanyeol dazing around in your living room but there's no one there.            "Where did he go...." You mumble to yourself. You look around and he's not there. The first thought is that the tall male left, but when you look out to check out the window, his car is still parked on your driveway.    Maybe he's in the bathroom? Yet, once again, you are proven wrong. All the bathrooms are empty.          "Chanyeol?" You call out, waiting for a response.    There's no answer back so you call him again, even louder, "Chanyeol? Chanyeol!"    There's the sound of steps from upstairs and then Chanyeol's voice is heard, "I'm here!"   You frown, "What are you doing up there?"    Chanyeol pops his face from your room for a second with a small grin. You watch him from the bottom of the stairs with a permanent frown.          "I'm seeing what has changed and what hasn't," he says and then he disappears inside again.    You scoff a laugh and climb up the stairs to see what the giant is really up to. You expect Chanyeol to be laughing at your lame room's wallpaper like he used to do back then, but you see him standing by the balcony.   There's a moment of nostalgia. You begin to recall when Chanyeol would come over often and just stand in the balcony because he liked the view of the other houses, or because the air was nice and fresh and he didn't even have to go outside. You remember how you'd spend most of your time with him there and converse about things that took a lot of space in your min