🍀 [Round 4] #491 (SD1) - Just Turn Off the Light for Today 🍀

[seokmonsters]

 

 

Notes:

Warning: Mention of panic attacks. And um, overused words of cute. Sorry in advance XD

 

a.n.: Thanks to the prompter for this lovely prompt! It might not do justice, but I hope you'd enjoy it. And special thanks to Bunny, The Awesome Monster~

 

 

Chanyeol was rushing to catch his breath after he missed the bus he was supposed to take. He felt ridiculous because he missed it even after he ran to the bus stop pushing through the cold weather, thinking he could still catch it if he was quick enough. The bus stop got no seat left and he felt even more stupid because apparently he was the only one who was desperate enough to run when the odd clearly said that he’d definitely miss it rather than just gave up and wait for the next one. Now his legs were giving out and he had to wait ten more minutes until the next bus to the university, and then he had to run again to the class or he’d miss the attendance call. Damn it.

 

He leaned on the pole, trying to steadily pulling himself together, counting on the minutes, and feeling the sweat started to pierce the coldness onto his own skin. Ah, what a way to start the day. His shivering was startled when he saw someone walking leisurely towards the bus stop and it was his next-door neighbor. His cute next-door neighbor. Wrapped in a big grey fluffy padded jacket, drowning his small figure into the warm comfort, green knitted scarf around his neck hiding the lower half of his face, black tuft of hair was let down without any wild strands perfectly out of the way. And it was only at the edge of autumn.

 

He was so cute and small.

 

Chanyeol’s trouble of breathing was now replaced with him forgetting to exhale. He didn’t even know his name, but from the tag on the mailbox, he was probably a Kim. He could be Kim Cutie for all Chanyeol knew.

 

Chanyeol needed to stop staring or he’d come off as a creep. Chanyeol made himself small, as small as his giant body could pull. Ah, hand phone! He could pretend to be busy with his phone so that nobody would start trying to talk to his awkward bum.

 

From the corner of his eyes, he could make out Kim Cutie yawning his sleepiness away. And then he shivered in the slightest movement, his small hands appeared like a set of balled paws peeking out from the big jacket. That was so goddamn cute.

 

Chanyeol stopped himself from cooing out loud, lest he’d blow his cover—not really a cover, his giant self was just standing there, Kim Cutie just didn’t pay much attention to his surrounding, his sleepy eyes were absently looking ahead, lips pursing in a slight pout. So cute.

 

The bus was coming and Chanyeol broke out of his reverie to quickly alight it. Ah, so Kim Cutie didn’t take this bus. That was alright, even though Chanyeol still pouted his disappointment away. He chose to stand in the middle to look out of the window, just so that he could bid Kim Cutie his silent goodbye until he’d be out of view.

 

It wasn’t much, but Chanyeol felt like his mood was lifting up, at least just a little bit.

 

Kim Cutie did that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so stressful, Chanyeol still was having trouble navigating everything to his proper normalcy. It was weird but him moving in to a closer place from his university made his usual estimation of timing all messed up. He had been late to class thrice, and that baffled Jongdae the most. His guess was that change had never been his strong suit.

 

Besides all that, he wasn’t really having trouble about any other thing at all. At least for know. He already knew he was going to be a dead meat right when the exam season started. And it was like, in a week. But he already knew what he needed to prepare for that fateful period. Kyungsoo’s notes, Jongdae’s patience to teach him anything he was confused of, good food, good sleep, good mood. He should be fine.

 

Yeah, right.

 

Everything was so stressful, he couldn’t even try to stuff anything in anymore. Jongdae was still being the most patient friend ever, telling him what he needed to remember and practice as much as he could, but Chanyeol still wanted to cry.

 

He was alone in his apartment, music on, but then decided after a few songs later he probably would learn better in silence. He thought he already remembered things, but he was still stuttering about few things. It was crazy, but he knew he could do this if he would at least trying to hold onto his sanity.

 

Light rain began to trickle outside, Chanyeol didn’t really mind it as it was constant and not distracting at all. So he just continue to go back to his notes and solve another problem. He was startled when the first lightning began to struck, lighting up the darkness outside of his window, followed by a loud thunder.

 

He sighed. It was not like he was afraid of any storm—as long as he was safe inside his house. He was just worried about everybody who was in the middle of their way home, or all the dogs and kittens who cowered under the table thinking if by doing that could at least drown the loud noises. He wished for all of the people’s well-being amidst the storm, because he knew that all would get through this in the end.

 

Now that his mind was astray, he decided he should take a little break. He already got a hang of some of the formulas anyway. He could already recall and figure out what he needed to use without looking at his notes anymore. It was all going to be fine. He just needed to adjust himself a little bit more.

 

The storm was getting bigger and bigger, the thunders were almost as if catching each other in a race and the heavy drizzles were the constant cheer on the sidelines.

 

And then Chanyeol was getting a little anxious again. What if it rained all night long—it was almost 1 AM, so there were like hours to go before dawn break, and judging by the rain density and the likeness of it going on for a long time, it was kind of scary.

 

What if the city flooded?! Then they probably wouldn’t have an exam in eight hours! But then again his effort would just be a fruitful of waste. He didn’t want that.

 

 

 

A doorbell sounded breaking through the pitter-patter of the rain, and Chanyeol thought it was his doorbell. He looked up to the clock on the wall, the hands were showing one past six and he wondered who was crazy enough to decide they could visit someone at such time. His mind was planted with suspicion and anxiety, so he was thinking about not answering the door so that the mysterious person outside could take a hint that it wasn’t proper to be a guest at freaking 1 AM.

 

But what if the other one outside his door was Jongdae? Or Kyungsoo? They might be on their way of going back home from the library and then it rained so hard they decided to seek shelter. Well, in that case he needed to provide them! He didn’t want his friends to get sick and had to take a make-up exam!

 

He opened the door and it wasn’t either Jongdae or Kyungsoo.

 

A small hand was up to give another knock to the door, a very frightened boy was standing still, hair in messy waves, eyes wary with fear.

 

Kim Cutie.

 

Chanyeol blinked. There was another hit of loud thunder and he saw that Kim Cutie was cowering visibly. “Um.”

 

Chanyeol could tell that Kim was so close to tears but he was holding himself back, putting up a braver face—as braver as he could conjure amidst his widening fearful eyes. Now that Chanyeol saw him this close, face to face, the boy’s eyes were similar like the ones cats had. Cute. But it looked so scared. Aww, no.

 

“Uh,” Chanyeol tried again.

 

“Hi, I’m sorry. I thought nobody was home but,” he took a deep calming breath—didn’t seem like working much, though, so he went on. “But it is really scary out there and I don’t know what to do with all of—all of this. But now it seemed so ridiculous, I know it’s late, and. But there’s too much loud noises, and it rained so heavily, like everything is going to fall down. I can’t, I can’t focus. I need to...”

 

And then it hit him.

 

Oh, shit.

 

Kim was shivering in his petrified state. His eyes were in rapid wild movement, his breathing wasn’t calm at all, there was a few catch here and there as he was speaking, and Kim was screeching out a really close tear.

 

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay. I know it will. Hey,” Chanyeol held him at arms length, hands on Kim's either sides, a gentle calming touch in hopes it would help the smaller man. “It’s gonna be alright. Okay?” Chanyeol nodded an assuring smile to him.

 

Kim nodded slowly, controlling his breathing a little bit more. He didn’t speak again, only gasps of inhale and exhale, but now Chanyeol know it started to be working.

 

“I feel like I need to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Park Chanyeol. You could call me Park, you could call me Chanyeol, you could call me Park Chanyeol but it’ll be too handful,” he broke out a soft laughter for his unfunny attempt of trying to distract the man. “My friends call me Yeol too, and I swear my sister’s dog calls me as so too. But more like a Yeol!,” he imitated a barking yowl sound.

 

His next-door neighbor broke out a very small smile. There you go.

 

When it feels like the small man looked more of in one piece, Chanyeol invited him for tea. He made sure to tell the other that he could refuse if he wanted to go back to his own apartment, but Chanyeol told him he was going to check up on him every once in a while anyway because it looked like the storm was not going to calm down at least for another while.

 

The smaller man visibly contemplated everything, but in the end, a shy nod was his final decision.

 

Chanyeol told him where to put his shoes, assuring him that him locking the door was for their safety from outside world and that his neighbor could bolt anytime he wanted if Chanyeol was as much as being shady. He was not a shady person, he emphasized for the seventh time. He was just a student who was up this late to study for the exam tomorrow.

 

The smaller man followed the homeowner to the kitchen, sitting tightly when Chanyeol was heating up some water for the tea. The storm was still raging outside so Chanyeol went out of his way to distract his neighbor. Chatting him up a little bit, talking about anything, not really expecting the other to put his own two cents about Chanyeol’s ramble. Chanyeol sheepishly apologized for being such a talker.

 

“Minseok,” his neighbor said in shy voice. “Kim Minseok. My name.”

 

Chanyeol beamed, teeth and all. “Ah, so that’s your name. That’s a really cute name!”

 

Minseok blinked before breaking out a shy grin of his own. “Thank you, Chanyeol. I’m sorry for troubling you this late at night,” he mumbled, hands gripping the small cup of warm tea. His hands were steadier now, Chanyeol noticed.

 

“It’s okay! I’m sorry for not greeting you properly before this even though we are next-door neighbors, like it has been a month since I moved in here. But I’m actually really awkward about socializing to new people—I really am! You just didn’t catch me in a bad time tonight,” Chanyeol defended when Minseok gave him a questioning look.

 

The smaller man smiled easily now. Chanyeol was glad on top of everything.

 

They chatted a bit more, more like Chanyeol rambled about the things he saw the other day, pulling Minseok into more calming state despite the unending storm. It wasn’t too loud outside now that Chanyeol produced as much noise inside too. The pattering rain, the howling wind, the thunder, all just blended to be some kind of background noise, something to not be minded at all.

 

“Are you cold?” Chanyeol asked.

 

Minseok raised his eyebrows. Chanyeol just left him quickly and came back as quicker after pulling a handful of big fluffy blankets. He called from the living room asking Minseok to come over. The man quickly put both of their cups away in the sink before striding over to Chanyeol.

 

The tall man was building a fort for both of them, pulling all kinds of furniture to surround it. A makeshift shelter, big enough for a giant of a man and a small pocket-sized man. Minseok helped him to make sure the blanket stayed steadily, and Chanyeol pulled up two big pillows from his cabinet, gave one of them to Minseok.

 

“Aah! I always wanted to do this with someone else,” Chanyeol sighed in content of his work.

 

“You’ve never done this before?” Minseok asked, eyes curiously wide and cute.

 

“I do it all the time whenever I’m bored. Sometimes if my friends were over, I’d ask them if they wanted to make one. But Kyungsoo doesn’t like this as much as I am and Jongdae is just too lazy and more comfortable as a bum to just sprawl on the floor,” Chanyeol said.

 

Minseok's mouth was opened with understanding 'ahh' and started to get comfortable beside Chanyeol. They sat down side by side.

 

Suddenly everything went dark right after came the low howl of electricity running out. Minseok let out a choked whine, a sign of his distress coming back. A flash of lightning gave an instant brightness over them and Chanyeol could make up a form of a curled up Minseok trying to hold himself together.

 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Don’t worry. It’s safer this way. They are preventing further damage of stuff being fried because of the lightning. We’re here, we’re safe, don’t worry. I’m here,” Chanyeol tried to comfort the other man.

 

By the sound of it Minseok might start crying—or he already had, probably only slightly because he was trying hard to hold back.

 

“Don’t worry. Don’t worry, I’m here,” Chanyeol started again with rubbing a few gentle strokes on Minseok’s shivering side. It must’ve been so tough on him. Chanyeol repeated some more of his words while continuously showed Minseok that he really was there with him.

 

Minseok steadied himself as best as he could. It took time, because everything was so silent, only the sound of rain and loud thunders rushing each other and they couldn’t see anything saved from some occasional flashes, but it was giving Minseok more anxiety because that just meant that there would be another loud boom of the sky splitting after that instant lightning.

 

“Do you think we should get an emergency light?” Chanyeol asked slowly.

 

Minseok didn’t answer with his voice but Chanyeol felt that the squeeze from the small hand on his was Minseok’s way of telling him to just stay. So the taller man nodded his understanding okay. He waited for some other minutes, making sure everything was of comfort enough for Minseok.

 

Still holding his hand, Chanyeol lied down on the floor, it was a spacious fort he made so he didn’t have to worry that they would hit anything in the darkness. In fact, Chanyeol had adjusted his sight a bit and could make out what was around him. Minseok followed suit to lie down beside him after another deep breath.

 

“Are you feeling better now?” Chanyeol asked, hands rubbing a comforting circle on Minseok’s. Their striking size difference made Chanyeol want to protect him even more.

 

Assuring nod was his answer, more likely for himself too because then he remembered it was dark and Chanyeol might not see it. ”Yes,” he squeaked. A beat of silence, but his breathing was steady and it was enough for Chanyeol’s relief. “It’s because of you. Thank you, Chanyeollie,” He mumbled.

 

“Yay! I’m glad,” his voice came up scratchier than he intended to be. Maybe he was getting the sleep to catch on to him.

 

“Don’t you need to go to sleep? You have an exam tomorrow after all,” Minseok asked him softly.

 

“Yeah. But like if the rain didn’t let up till morning I hope they cancelled it. Even though I also wish they wouldn’t. I studied for this after all. Besides I’d also hate to prolong my exam period so,” he replied.

 

“You’re right. I think you’re gonna be fine. I hope you’ll be,” Minseok told him, sincere and positivity sounded so great from his sleepy voice.

 

“Really, you think so?”

 

“Of course.”

 

Chanyeol grinned. He knew that Minseok couldn’t see it, but he still felt happy about that. They stilled themselves in another silence, but calmer now. It seemed like the serenity becoming their lullaby that readied themselves to sleep.

 

“Good night, Chanyeollie,” he heard the man mumbled.

 

“’night.”

 

 

 

 

 

A loud alarm from Chanyeol’s room was waking the tall man slumbering in the living room. It seemed like the storm had passed and Chanyeol felt really warm. He always set the alarm early, but he felt like he had rejuvenated even more as if he took longer hours of sleep. And it was really warm.

 

Huh.

 

He felt a weight when he tried to shift and then when he opened his eyes, he was greeted with Kim Cutie—Kim Minseok sleeping calmly. Chanyeol was glad to see him this calm. The storm was really bad last night but he was glad his attempt to take the man’s mind out of it was working.

 

Also, it seemed like they ended up cuddling.

 

Chanyeol didn’t exactly know what the protocol in here. Should he wake him up and letting him know that somehow Minseok ended up in Chanyeol’s arm? Or should he just pretend to be sleeping so that he wouldn’t look like a creep of staring at his cute neighbor sleeping in his arm? But what if Minseok had to do something in the morning? He didn’t want the man to be late for anything!

 

Minseok stirred up and Chanyeol was holding his breath. He decided to let the man wake up on his own because apparently Minseok was pulling himself back to his consciousness.

 

Well, the man blushed when he realized where his place was, and proceed to profusely apologize to the taller man. Chanyeol let out a hearty laughter that he didn’t mind it the slightest. The taller greeted him a Good morning which replied by a mumbled Hey, um, good morning to you too.

 

“Before you leave, let’s have breakfast together. It’s still early and I don’t have to go to Uni in like three hours,” Chanyeol requested.

 

Minseok nodded and started getting up to tidy up the living room. Chanyeol went to the bathroom to wash his face and then to the kitchen to start on the breakfast. It seemed like the blackout was over when they were sleeping because Chanyeol could feel his fridge already started to get cold again. He decided to make toasts with sunny-side eggs and sausages.

 

“Do you usually drink coffee in the morning?” Minseok asked.

 

“Um, sometimes, but I don’t think I could make some. I don’t make good coffee and I don’t have anything to make right now,” Chanyeol said.

 

“It’s okay. I’ll be right back, real quick,” Minseok smiled before bolting out of the door.

 

“Where are you going?” Chanyeol said in an unintended yell. He was answered with silence. He pouted but he held onto Minseok’s words about him coming back quickly.

 

True enough, right when Chanyeol putting everything into two plates, Minseok came back with two cups of coffee in his hands, making sure nothing spilled.

 

“It’s the least I could do,” Minseok said sheepishly.

 

Chanyeol was happy when he saw Minseok smiling easily, albeit still shyly. They had breakfast while talking in between. It took awhile for Minseok to adjust, but now that the storm was over, they both felt much lighter. Minseok was chattier in the morning, he enunciated his words animatedly and he was just so cute and expressive with his eyes. Also, he really did make a great coffee.

 

“Wait, you’re a hyung?” Chanyeol asked when Minseok launched a short story about his work.

 

“I guess? I mean, I graduated college last year,” Minseok said.

 

“But you look so young! I can’t believe I’ve been talking to you as if you’re younger than me. I feel like an asshole,” Chanyeol lamented.

 

“It’s okay. I don’t really mind. You should speak comfortably to me, it’s not like we have that huge of age difference anyway,” Minseok shrugged with the warmest smile.

 

Chanyeol nodded with a little bit of a hang on his head. Minseok assured him it was fine. They talked a bit more and Chanyeol felt weightless.

 

Minseok needed to go to work in an hour and Chanyeol needed to go to his exam in two hours. Chanyeol said he didn’t like to be rushed that was why he was up so early. Besides it could give him time to review over once more. Minseok told him he would do great and that he’d be cheering for the younger man.

 

They parted ways with a shy warm hug from Minseok. He was so small in Chanyeol’s hold and the tall man felt flutter in his stomach.

 

“I guess I’ll see you later, hyung,” Chanyeol muttered.

 

“I will. Good luck with the exam, Chanyeollie,” Minseok said before waving and going out of the door.

 

The way Minseokie-hyung called his name was so cute! Gosh.

 

 

 

A burnt out barely alive Chanyeol was staggering his way to home. Jongdae told him he was being a drama queen, because he knew Chanyeol did well on his exam that morning.

 

“What? I can’t react as if a huge burden had been lifted up out of my shoulders?” the tall man told his friends.

 

Both Jongdae and Kyungsoo tsk-ed him and punched his shoulders before leaving him be.

 

When he opened the door to his apartment, there was a piece of paper on the floor and he picked it up. On it, was written with a cute handwriting of numbers and the name of Kim Minseok. Chanyeol smiled widely to himself.

 

After saving the number into his phone, he squealed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At least his exam period was over now. And that would mean winter break. Chanyeol was in his last year so he couldn’t be too relaxed about everything, he had a thesis to be finished by the next semester after all.

 

But for now, winter break.

 

 

 

He hit the doorbell with his elbow, a big extra blanket in hand and a bagful of snacks on the other. Minseok greeted him with wide eyes and wide surprised smile, raising his eyebrows at the choice of junk food.

 

“Hyung, I’m allowed to eat unhealthily tonight. I got a free pass because I just finished the term,” Chanyeol whined. His dimple appeared when he tightened his lips.

 

“Did you do a good job, though?”

 

“Of course! Your first quest tonight is to praise me,” Chanyeol said, toeing off his slippers.

 

Minseok’s apartment was so immaculate, like there wasn’t even a speck of dust lying around. The unit was similar to Chanyeol’s, but the way he placed things made the house looked more spacious. It was as if he could see sparkles in some corners of the place.

 

His big strides were interrupted with Minseok stopped suddenly in front of him, reaching up to ruffle his curly dark brown hair. Chanyeol blinked in his flustered sense, he was pretty sure his big ears were betraying him by being redly warm. Minseok giggled at the tall man and started to fix up the apartment. Not that it needed to be more fixed.

 

Chanyeol launched easily into conversation with Minseok. It was baffling to think that he used to be too scared to initiate any kind of conversation to his own next-door neighbor before that night of the storm. He used to think that Minseok was somewhat unapproachable, maybe because he was shy—Chanyeol was too, but he could be really shameless sometimes and Minseok thought that it was endearing— but after getting to know him he now didn’t know any words to describe Minseok other than warm. Not to mention cuddly.

 

The weather was calmer nowadays, though the temperature was dropped so much, and apparently it was going to be the first snowfall soon. So Chanyeol wasn’t worried about Minseok getting scared by any storm anymore, even then he would always be welcomed by Chanyeol, any time, any hours. If anything, with this kind of weather, he could see Minseok bundled up in thick fluffy clothing again, being all cute as much as hiding half of his face with beanie and scarf, walking to the bus stop alone (sometimes together with with Chanyeol if he saw him going out of the apartment), gripping his own sleeves of his sweater or hiding his fists altogether.

 

It was very comfortable, hanging out with Minseok. The older man was so considerate about everything. He never got any other attack after that one stormy night, and that it was a good thing Minseok had started to open up a little bit more because he trusted Chanyeol so much. They texted each other almost every day before Minseok scolded him to get back to studying for his remaining exams. When Chanyeol got too dizzy and in dire need of slowing down, he was always welcomed at Minseok’s place, the older man gave him all the comfort he needed, lightly joking around and Chanyeol would feel like he had gained his strength back.

 

They decided to play Scrabble that night, both of them failed to spell correct words every once in a while and having to check the dictionary every time to see if the words they put existed. If Chanyeol got his words wrong, Minseok got to pull his ears (something that Minseok had been wanting to do all the time); if it was Minseok who got it wrong, Chanyeol would pinch his cheeks (Minseok’s cheeks always looked so fluffy, Chanyeol loved to put his hand on the softness). Chanyeol won by tiny difference because Minseok had to cut his score after getting letters with big number and failed to use them in the end. He sulkily admit his defeat and Chanyeol suggested moving on to watch movies.

 

They shouted ‘action’ and ‘superhero’ at the same time and laughed at the similar thinking. They decided to watch the recent box office they hadn’t had the time to catch on before.

 

Chanyeol opened his wide arms and Minseok joined. And Minseok was so cuddly, it was already confirmed. Chanyeol mumbled as so to the older man and Minseok just held him tighter, a wide blanket over them.

 

“Hyung,” Chanyeol started and Minseok hummed. “Could we count this as a date night? I mean, even though we didn’t plan this ahead before, but this is nice too. And I think I like it,” he rambled shyly.

 

Minseok shifted and looked up to him, his cat-like eyes had this glint over them. “Really? You think so?” the smaller man asked. Chanyeol nodded. “Should we try that? Dating?”

 

“Um, only if you wanna.”

 

“Then, I could kiss you now?”

 

Chanyeol’s heart was pounding with both nervousness and excitement, it felt funny but overall it was a good feeling. He nodded his answer, closing his eyes slowly and then he felt a pair of soft lips on his. And so he smiled into the kiss because it felt really comfortable and nice and calming and warm. It was all he was feeling every time he held Minseok in his arms but this one seemed even hundreds, thousands times nicer, more intimate now that they both confirmed what the other felt about them.

 

“Hyung, it tastes like potato chips,” Chanyeol giggled. Minseok’s balled up small fist hitting him slightly for that, joining in the laughter before silencing it with another kiss. And another.

 

They had to rewind the movie back for the long interruption. Chanyeol tried to concentrate and ease up his giddiness but failed miserably and ended up grinning the whole time the villain attacked the heroes on the screen.

 

Minseok held him tighter for that too because he was thinking about how Chanyeol said Minseok was cute all the time even though the older man knew the giant was much more adorable in any sense.

 

A blurt out of nowhere was breaking out their absent-mindedness amidst the forgotten movie playing in front of them.

 

“We should get some pizza, hyung! See if we could see if it’ll taste like pizza too.”

 

“Oh my God, Park Chanyeol!”