when in rome (do what the romans do)
★Title: When In Rome (Do What The Romans Do)
eexiee ♡
★Pairing: Kyungsoo/Kris, Kyungsoo/Sehun, endgame! Kyungsoo/Chanyeol
★Rating: PG-13
★Length: 2825w
★Author’s notes/Messages for the recipient: i hope you at least made it through it ;n; thank you to all who have been patient with me!!!
★Summary: A road trip around Italy in search of true love makes Kyungsoo realise that maybe love works in ways that can never be comprehended nor conformed.
There are only three things that Kyungsoo can be absolutely sure about:
1) Love will indeed happen at first sight (after all, 55% of the first impression one makes on another person is using the eyes to judge, so really, why not?).
2) True love can, and will be found in Italy, the heart of all romance and its happenings.
3) The above two points will never come true for him if he stays in South Korea for the rest of his life.
His life has been filled with hours flipping through idealistic novels and play transcripts, painting Italian cities vibrant and bright with illustrious word weaving. It's not all glamour and glitter, but it's the idea of adventure, the freedom of being in an unknown city searching for unknown love, that entices him. Kyungsoo, the boy who's lived a life buried in textbooks and examination papers, has had enough. Nothing will come out in the end if he continues living an endless cycle like the many others before him.
They say that you have to allow your dreams to take flight for them to actually happen. Kyungsoo has always made decisions using his head, but it's this one time that he lets it take a backseat and let his heart do what he has always wanted to do.
And this is how Do Kyungsoo, aged twenty-two and a fresh university graduate, ends up booking a flight to Florence, Italy without a return ticket.
///
"Are you really leaving?"
Kyungsoo looks up from where he is sitting, carefully organizing his luggage. Chanyeol's at the door, face long and sulky, draped in the weaved blanket that he had insisted on getting despite the ugly patterns because it was on sale. He's too tall for it, actually -- it barely covers his torso -- but Chanyeol likes it because it's comfy. Kyungsoo knows this because Chanyeol shares it with him when they're sitting side by side on the couch having their usual movie marathons.
Kyungsoo resists the urge to roll his eyes at his best friend, and instead settles for replying, "I'm not leaving for good, Chanyeol. I'll come back when I'm, you know, done with everything."
"And how long will that take?"
"I don't know," he says quietly, "but you know that I've wanted this my whole life. I'm the one who told you to join the school band instead of the student council like your parents had wanted. I advised you to do what makes you happier, so I thought maybe? I could take my own advice as well?"
Chanyeol grows even quieter, which is a sight not rare to Kyungsoo, but it's still unusual all the same. He knows that Chanyeol will understand, just like he has for the many years they've known each other. It isn't a secret to anyone that Kyungsoo wants to try writing out his own romance novel, situated in the heart of Italy, and it won't ever be a secret to Chanyeol. There has been so many nights where the both of them have laid in the same bed, Chanyeol half asleep as Kyungsoo excitedly chatters on about how his love story will play out, well into the night and sometimes even 'til the break of dawn. It doesn't matter how much Chanyeol has actually listened, because in the end he will still nod along and be the supportive best friend he has always been.
Chanyeol doesn't say a word, but throws his blanket right onto Kyungsoo's head. "Bring this along, in case you miss me." Kyungsoo breaks into slight laughter as he pulls the blanket off. He should have known that he had a child as his best friend. "I will, but only if you'll miss me too."
"If you don't call me everyday, I'll assume that you got kidnapped and ring up the police in Italy and South Korea."
And he smiles. "Okay Chanyeol, okay."
///
Chanyeol, not surprisingly, accompanies Kyungsoo to the airport, right up to the gates. But if anything, it's Kyungsoo who's more worried between the two.
"Remember to pay for our rent before the 25th each month. Separate the whites and colours -- remember the last time you forgot, all we had were pink shirts -- and you have to remember to buy groceries! Don't try living off packet ramen the whole time I'm gone."
Chanyeol grins. "Okay mother hen," he says as he turns Kyungsoo around and starts pushing him towards the officers stationed to check the passports and boarding passes, "I can always hobo at Baekhyun's place like I had before we started living together. Stop worrying about me."
His words aren't enough to reassure Kyungsoo, who knits his eyebrows together because without him, Chanyeol would probably be living in a house that closely resembled a dumpster. "Still--"
"Look, you've always wanted this, right? To go to Italy and find your love? So please stop worrying about me, Kyungsoo-ah. Worry about yourself."
It's with much reluctance that Kyungsoo finally waves goodbye. As he queues up behind the many others to get himself into the boarding gate, he looks out of the glass wall and sees Chanyeol still outside, waiting for him to disappear out of sight. He visibly brightens up when he makes eye contact with Kyungsoo, and starts waving again in order to interact without speaking. But it doesn't stop him from mouthing words, and Kyungsoo makes out I miss you.
It's when Kyungsoo's seated down in the plane next to someone he doesn't know that he feels lonely, without anyone to talk to. It's then when he thinks that, he's going to miss Chanyeol too.
///
Any concerns or negative thoughts that he might have had previously dissipates when his plane touches down at Florence Peretola Airport. It is immensely different from Korea, Kyungsoo realises, as he takes a cab down to his hotel somewhere in the city central. Cement statues and medieval buildings cover every square inch of the land. There are no bright lights, no loud music blasting out from various departmental stores. It is peaceful, for most parts, and Kyungsoo settles into the wrinkled cab seat anticipating what might be to come.
He meets Yifan pretty soon after. He paints the scenary overlooking the lake and it's his look of concentration etched upon his sharp features as well as maybe the way his wrist flicks gracefully to paint the final stroke in his work of art that makes Kyungsoo take interest in him. It's almost impossible not to take notice in him, actually, what with his broad stature and confident posture. And Kyungsoo can see why, when he looks up to Kyungsoo shamelessly staring at him and stands up from his tall stool. The artist is at least a head and a half taller than him, but he looks so good.
"Hi, I'm Wu Yifan," he introduces himself, and Kyungsoo is head over heels for the man whose art steals the breath away and spreads it into the heart of the quaint city.
Yifan is sweet, as he had hoped, gentlemanly in all ways possible. When he brings him on a tour around Florence, a place that's been home to him for the last decade, he gently latches his fingers to Kyungsoo's tiny wrist so that he wouldn't fall off the sidewalks. Eventually, this makes way to holding hands. And even though Yifan has really huge palms, Kyungsoo thinks that their palms fit together like a puzzle piece. He likes it.
(Yifan also feels warms against his extremely dry and cold skin.)
Yifan tells him that he goes by the name Kris when he sells his works. On his third day in Florence, he brings him up to his own apartment, where his workspace also lies. It shouldn't come as a surprise to Kyungsoo that his walls aren't white, but splattered with paints of various different colours, never blending together but it still seems like he's living in a work of art in progress. Yifan tells him that he never needs to do rough drafts and sketch of instant inspirations, because his walls are his living masterpieces.
Yifan is Kyungsoo's living masterpiece in the lonely city of Florence, all-so majestic yet in need of warmth and love. Kyungsoo accepts him wholeheartedly; he's always thought that chasing after your passion, no matter how fruitless it may seem, is something admirable and worthy to spark a fire in, after all.
///
("Yifan is really nice, Chanyeol, please don't worry about me."
"You've only known him for a week."
"Chanyeol."
"It's just that suddenly you're falling in love with some guy I can't even take a look at to assess him, and in a foreign city, I can't help but be worried--"
"If anything happens, I will definitely tell you first, okay?")
///
The thing that happens, happens after another two weeks. Yifan presents Kyungsoo with a self-portrait of the latter, and tells him that it's his present goodbye.
It isn't that he didn't love him, Yifan says, but he didn't seem like the one. It breaks Kyungsoo down terribly on the inside -- after all, he had thought he had finally found his fairytale romance -- but he is adamant to keep his emotions in check. They break off fairly amicably, considering the strange suddenness of the whole situation, but Kyungsoo manages to leave and wave Yifan goodbye while holding his head high. He only breaks down when he's thousands of footsteps away from his home, in a place isolated from his ex-lover's gaze.
It may have been a short ride, but it hurts. It fucking hurts.
///
Kyungsoo touches down on Rome with a slightly heavy heart, but mostly with the intention to start anew. He takes his time walking through the ancient city, kicking pebbles and stones along the way. Rome is filled with a historical culture unique and its own, traditions and festivals passed down from multiple generations. As he slowly ushers in the hours spent walking through museum after museum, it snowballs into great satisfaction (and a greater distraction) to his still-healing heart. Kyungsoo has always be enamored by rich origins, and will still continue to be. It's, after all, a road trip for himself. He gets to choose where it steers him.
It's on the fifth day in Rome when Kyungsoo bumps into Sehun. Well, quite literally. The Colosseum is breathtaking from all angles, standing tall and proud despite crumbling columns. Kyungsoo has to back away from it in order to capture the whole Colosseum in a picture, but he hits something soft on his back.
He spins around and sees mystic grey hair and a lean body. Kyungsoo manages to stutter out "I'm so sorry", but the male in front of him merely smiles and offers to take a photo of the Colosseum for him. "I'm a photographer," he merely says.
The photos did turn out nice.
Sehun shows him his dark room, where all his films are kept and photos are developed. It's nice and cosy, in all honesty, and Kyungsoo learns to appreciate the art of photography, even its history. Sehun is interesting in Kyungsoo's eyes, and he likes it when Sehun is ablaze with passion as he talks on and on about the ways to capture the best photos, fiery flames never dissipating. A man with passion is worth so, so much.
Kyungsoo doesn't know when and how they became something more than mere acquaintances, but light touches in the dark room turns into furious lip-on-lip action. Kyungsoo can taste the bitter taste of the cigarettes that Sehun sometimes smoke, but there's something about the way their lips meld together that keeps Kyungsoo wanting for more, savouring for more.
It's just that Sehun isn't perfect, but then again Kyungsoo isn't perfect either. But together, they just might be.
///
("You've hooked up with Sehun?"
"He's a nice guy, Chanyeol."
"You said that for Yifan as well."
"I wasn't lying when I said that Yifan was nice. But would you please be supportive?"
"Just... call me again if anything happens.")
///
Kyungsoo wakes up in his hotel bed with a thick envelope by his side. When he opens it, out pours the many photos that he had taken all around Rome using Sehun's DSLR, each photograph dated using a scrawny handwriting that he recognises as Sehun's.
When he reaches the bottom of the stack, he realises that the last photo is a photo of Sehun, eyes crinkling as he points as something in a distance. Unfortunately, he also realises that this is Sehun's way of saying goodbye.
Tears well up in his eyes because there's simply no way they had went wrong. The day before, they were holding hands tightly in each other's, chatting as they walked down the streets. There was just no way.
He flips the photo to the back, and blurry eyes read the message:
I am like the wind, moving from one place to another, never staying.
There's no place for the winds to settle down. As long as I have countries to visit, photographs to take, I will merely be a part of a cloud that's drifting.
I'm sorry.
It's then that Kyungsoo realises that even if the pictures stay forever, their love won't.
///
("Kyungsoo! You've finally picked up the phone! Are you feeling better? Look, Sehun's an asshole, but--")
("Stop hanging up on me, I know you're upset--")
("DO KYUNGSOO. DON'T MOVE.")
///
When Kyungsoo opens his hotel room door, he doesn't expect to see Chanyeol behind it.
He blinks slowly. "You aren't room service...?"
"Yeah, I'm not. But I've arrived for best friend service." And when Chanyeol walks into his hotel room like he didn't just fly all the way to Rome just for him, luggage and backpack in tow, all he can say is, "You didn't cut your hair."
It's shaggy, but not to the point of messy. Chanyeol looks into the mirror and combs through his mop of hair. "I cut it. Once. Then I kept forgetting."
"You really shouldn't have."
"But you never reminded me."
Kyungsoo shuts up, because he really hadn't. Recently, he's been ignoring the whole world, and Chanyeol isn't an exception.
Chanyeol doesn't mention anything related to his very lackluster love life, and instead settles for plopping down on the king-sized bed, making himself comfortable. It's silent for a couple of moments, but it's the comfortable kind of silence that they've always had, built up from years of rapport support. Kyungsoo looks at Chanyeol, eyes closed, peaceful breathing. They haven't seen each other in months, yet it's like they never separated. It's something Kyungsoo never realised he had wanted, and maybe needed, until he was deprived from it.
"You shouldn't have flown all the way here," he croaks, "I am trash for leaving you alone in our apartment for so long."
He slowly opens his eyes and sits up straight. "It's okay, I wanted to chase my dreams as well."
This is new information. He never knew that Chanyeol had dreams to chase in Italy. "What dreams? How come I never knew about it?"
"When I was fifteen," he starts, "I met my best friend. Who was small and quiet and everything I wasn't. We were like opposites, but he intrigued me. We started talking and the next thing I knew, we became the bestest of friends who were never apart."
"But I wanted more than that. I grew to love him for who he was, and I loved him so much that I became timid. Scared to tell him that I loved him, in fear that he didn't love me back."
"But it's been months and I've seen him go through so many ups and downs, trying to live his life the way he wanted it to. And I thought that maybe, I deserve to try out my dreams just like he did."
"And if he wants to, I can still be his best friend whom he nags at everyday to wake up, whom he confides his deepest secrets to. But just a little more than that."
Kyungsoo stares at Chanyeol, who in turn looks at him straight in the eye. His dark brown orbs swirl with similar fizzes of passion that he had seen in Yifan and Sehun, both young and willing to sacrifice for the sake of their dreams. And here is Park Chanyeol sacrificing his time and money for the sake of his.
Kyungsoo makes up his mind that a person who chases after his dreams, no matter how fruitless they seem, is admirable and worthy to spark a fire in.
///
(It's after that that Kyungsoo realises that his love at first sight had happened long ago, but he was always too blind and engrossed with his idealistic idea of true love to realise.
But at least the realization happened in Italy. That's something he got right.)
★Pairing: Kyungsoo/Kris, Kyungsoo/Sehun, endgame! Kyungsoo/Chanyeol
★Rating: PG-13
★Length: 2825w
★Author’s notes/Messages for the recipient: i hope you at least made it through it ;n; thank you to all who have been patient with me!!!
★Summary: A road trip around Italy in search of true love makes Kyungsoo realise that maybe love works in ways that can never be comprehended nor conformed.
There are only three things that Kyungsoo can be absolutely sure about:
1) Love will indeed happen at first sight (after all, 55% of the first impression one makes on another person is using the eyes to judge, so really, why not?).
2) True love can, and will be found in Italy, the heart of all romance and its happenings.
3) The above two points will never come true for him if he stays in South Korea for the rest of his life.
His life has been filled with hours flipping through idealistic novels and play transcripts, painting Italian cities vibrant and bright with illustrious word weaving. It's not all glamour and glitter, but it's the idea of adventure, the freedom of being in an unknown city searching for unknown love, that entices him. Kyungsoo, the boy who's lived a life buried in textbooks and examination papers, has had enough. Nothing will come out in the end if he continues living an endless cycle like the many others before him.
They say that you have to allow your dreams to take flight for them to actually happen. Kyungsoo has always made decisions using his head, but it's this one time that he lets it take a backseat and let his heart do what he has always wanted to do.
And this is how Do Kyungsoo, aged twenty-two and a fresh university graduate, ends up booking a flight to Florence, Italy without a return ticket.
///
"Are you really leaving?"
Kyungsoo looks up from where he is sitting, carefully organizing his luggage. Chanyeol's at the door, face long and sulky, draped in the weaved blanket that he had insisted on getting despite the ugly patterns because it was on sale. He's too tall for it, actually -- it barely covers his torso -- but Chanyeol likes it because it's comfy. Kyungsoo knows this because Chanyeol shares it with him when they're sitting side by side on the couch having their usual movie marathons.
Kyungsoo resists the urge to roll his eyes at his best friend, and instead settles for replying, "I'm not leaving for good, Chanyeol. I'll come back when I'm, you know, done with everything."
"And how long will that take?"
"I don't know," he says quietly, "but you know that I've wanted this my whole life. I'm the one who told you to join the school band instead of the student council like your parents had wanted. I advised you to do what makes you happier, so I thought maybe? I could take my own advice as well?"
Chanyeol grows even quieter, which is a sight not rare to Kyungsoo, but it's still unusual all the same. He knows that Chanyeol will understand, just like he has for the many years they've known each other. It isn't a secret to anyone that Kyungsoo wants to try writing out his own romance novel, situated in the heart of Italy, and it won't ever be a secret to Chanyeol. There has been so many nights where the both of them have laid in the same bed, Chanyeol half asleep as Kyungsoo excitedly chatters on about how his love story will play out, well into the night and sometimes even 'til the break of dawn. It doesn't matter how much Chanyeol has actually listened, because in the end he will still nod along and be the supportive best friend he has always been.
Chanyeol doesn't say a word, but throws his blanket right onto Kyungsoo's head. "Bring this along, in case you miss me." Kyungsoo breaks into slight laughter as he pulls the blanket off. He should have known that he had a child as his best friend. "I will, but only if you'll miss me too."
"If you don't call me everyday, I'll assume that you got kidnapped and ring up the police in Italy and South Korea."
And he smiles. "Okay Chanyeol, okay."
///
Chanyeol, not surprisingly, accompanies Kyungsoo to the airport, right up to the gates. But if anything, it's Kyungsoo who's more worried between the two.
"Remember to pay for our rent before the 25th each month. Separate the whites and colours -- remember the last time you forgot, all we had were pink shirts -- and you have to remember to buy groceries! Don't try living off packet ramen the whole time I'm gone."
Chanyeol grins. "Okay mother hen," he says as he turns Kyungsoo around and starts pushing him towards the officers stationed to check the passports and boarding passes, "I can always hobo at Baekhyun's place like I had before we started living together. Stop worrying about me."
His words aren't enough to reassure Kyungsoo, who knits his eyebrows together because without him, Chanyeol would probably be living in a house that closely resembled a dumpster. "Still--"
"Look, you've always wanted this, right? To go to Italy and find your love? So please stop worrying about me, Kyungsoo-ah. Worry about yourself."
It's with much reluctance that Kyungsoo finally waves goodbye. As he queues up behind the many others to get himself into the boarding gate, he looks out of the glass wall and sees Chanyeol still outside, waiting for him to disappear out of sight. He visibly brightens up when he makes eye contact with Kyungsoo, and starts waving again in order to interact without speaking. But it doesn't stop him from mouthing words, and Kyungsoo makes out I miss you.
It's when Kyungsoo's seated down in the plane next to someone he doesn't know that he feels lonely, without anyone to talk to. It's then when he thinks that, he's going to miss Chanyeol too.
///
Any concerns or negative thoughts that he might have had previously dissipates when his plane touches down at Florence Peretola Airport. It is immensely different from Korea, Kyungsoo realises, as he takes a cab down to his hotel somewhere in the city central. Cement statues and medieval buildings cover every square inch of the land. There are no bright lights, no loud music blasting out from various departmental stores. It is peaceful, for most parts, and Kyungsoo settles into the wrinkled cab seat anticipating what might be to come.
He meets Yifan pretty soon after. He paints the scenary overlooking the lake and it's his look of concentration etched upon his sharp features as well as maybe the way his wrist flicks gracefully to paint the final stroke in his work of art that makes Kyungsoo take interest in him. It's almost impossible not to take notice in him, actually, what with his broad stature and confident posture. And Kyungsoo can see why, when he looks up to Kyungsoo shamelessly staring at him and stands up from his tall stool. The artist is at least a head and a half taller than him, but he looks so good.
"Hi, I'm Wu Yifan," he introduces himself, and Kyungsoo is head over heels for the man whose art steals the breath away and spreads it into the heart of the quaint city.
Yifan is sweet, as he had hoped, gentlemanly in all ways possible. When he brings him on a tour around Florence, a place that's been home to him for the last decade, he gently latches his fingers to Kyungsoo's tiny wrist so that he wouldn't fall off the sidewalks. Eventually, this makes way to holding hands. And even though Yifan has really huge palms, Kyungsoo thinks that their palms fit together like a puzzle piece. He likes it.
(Yifan also feels warms against his extremely dry and cold skin.)
Yifan tells him that he goes by the name Kris when he sells his works. On his third day in Florence, he brings him up to his own apartment, where his workspace also lies. It shouldn't come as a surprise to Kyungsoo that his walls aren't white, but splattered with paints of various different colours, never blending together but it still seems like he's living in a work of art in progress. Yifan tells him that he never needs to do rough drafts and sketch of instant inspirations, because his walls are his living masterpieces.
Yifan is Kyungsoo's living masterpiece in the lonely city of Florence, all-so majestic yet in need of warmth and love. Kyungsoo accepts him wholeheartedly; he's always thought that chasing after your passion, no matter how fruitless it may seem, is something admirable and worthy to spark a fire in, after all.
///
("Yifan is really nice, Chanyeol, please don't worry about me."
"You've only known him for a week."
"Chanyeol."
"It's just that suddenly you're falling in love with some guy I can't even take a look at to assess him, and in a foreign city, I can't help but be worried--"
"If anything happens, I will definitely tell you first, okay?")
///
The thing that happens, happens after another two weeks. Yifan presents Kyungsoo with a self-portrait of the latter, and tells him that it's his present goodbye.
It isn't that he didn't love him, Yifan says, but he didn't seem like the one. It breaks Kyungsoo down terribly on the inside -- after all, he had thought he had finally found his fairytale romance -- but he is adamant to keep his emotions in check. They break off fairly amicably, considering the strange suddenness of the whole situation, but Kyungsoo manages to leave and wave Yifan goodbye while holding his head high. He only breaks down when he's thousands of footsteps away from his home, in a place isolated from his ex-lover's gaze.
It may have been a short ride, but it hurts. It fucking hurts.
///
Kyungsoo touches down on Rome with a slightly heavy heart, but mostly with the intention to start anew. He takes his time walking through the ancient city, kicking pebbles and stones along the way. Rome is filled with a historical culture unique and its own, traditions and festivals passed down from multiple generations. As he slowly ushers in the hours spent walking through museum after museum, it snowballs into great satisfaction (and a greater distraction) to his still-healing heart. Kyungsoo has always be enamored by rich origins, and will still continue to be. It's, after all, a road trip for himself. He gets to choose where it steers him.
It's on the fifth day in Rome when Kyungsoo bumps into Sehun. Well, quite literally. The Colosseum is breathtaking from all angles, standing tall and proud despite crumbling columns. Kyungsoo has to back away from it in order to capture the whole Colosseum in a picture, but he hits something soft on his back.
He spins around and sees mystic grey hair and a lean body. Kyungsoo manages to stutter out "I'm so sorry", but the male in front of him merely smiles and offers to take a photo of the Colosseum for him. "I'm a photographer," he merely says.
The photos did turn out nice.
Sehun shows him his dark room, where all his films are kept and photos are developed. It's nice and cosy, in all honesty, and Kyungsoo learns to appreciate the art of photography, even its history. Sehun is interesting in Kyungsoo's eyes, and he likes it when Sehun is ablaze with passion as he talks on and on about the ways to capture the best photos, fiery flames never dissipating. A man with passion is worth so, so much.
Kyungsoo doesn't know when and how they became something more than mere acquaintances, but light touches in the dark room turns into furious lip-on-lip action. Kyungsoo can taste the bitter taste of the cigarettes that Sehun sometimes smoke, but there's something about the way their lips meld together that keeps Kyungsoo wanting for more, savouring for more.
It's just that Sehun isn't perfect, but then again Kyungsoo isn't perfect either. But together, they just might be.
///
("You've hooked up with Sehun?"
"He's a nice guy, Chanyeol."
"You said that for Yifan as well."
"I wasn't lying when I said that Yifan was nice. But would you please be supportive?"
"Just... call me again if anything happens.")
///
Kyungsoo wakes up in his hotel bed with a thick envelope by his side. When he opens it, out pours the many photos that he had taken all around Rome using Sehun's DSLR, each photograph dated using a scrawny handwriting that he recognises as Sehun's.
When he reaches the bottom of the stack, he realises that the last photo is a photo of Sehun, eyes crinkling as he points as something in a distance. Unfortunately, he also realises that this is Sehun's way of saying goodbye.
Tears well up in his eyes because there's simply no way they had went wrong. The day before, they were holding hands tightly in each other's, chatting as they walked down the streets. There was just no way.
He flips the photo to the back, and blurry eyes read the message:
I am like the wind, moving from one place to another, never staying.
There's no place for the winds to settle down. As long as I have countries to visit, photographs to take, I will merely be a part of a cloud that's drifting.
I'm sorry.
It's then that Kyungsoo realises that even if the pictures stay forever, their love won't.
///
("Kyungsoo! You've finally picked up the phone! Are you feeling better? Look, Sehun's an asshole, but--")
("Stop hanging up on me, I know you're upset--")
("DO KYUNGSOO. DON'T MOVE.")
///
When Kyungsoo opens his hotel room door, he doesn't expect to see Chanyeol behind it.
He blinks slowly. "You aren't room service...?"
"Yeah, I'm not. But I've arrived for best friend service." And when Chanyeol walks into his hotel room like he didn't just fly all the way to Rome just for him, luggage and backpack in tow, all he can say is, "You didn't cut your hair."
It's shaggy, but not to the point of messy. Chanyeol looks into the mirror and combs through his mop of hair. "I cut it. Once. Then I kept forgetting."
"You really shouldn't have."
"But you never reminded me."
Kyungsoo shuts up, because he really hadn't. Recently, he's been ignoring the whole world, and Chanyeol isn't an exception.
Chanyeol doesn't mention anything related to his very lackluster love life, and instead settles for plopping down on the king-sized bed, making himself comfortable. It's silent for a couple of moments, but it's the comfortable kind of silence that they've always had, built up from years of rapport support. Kyungsoo looks at Chanyeol, eyes closed, peaceful breathing. They haven't seen each other in months, yet it's like they never separated. It's something Kyungsoo never realised he had wanted, and maybe needed, until he was deprived from it.
"You shouldn't have flown all the way here," he croaks, "I am trash for leaving you alone in our apartment for so long."
He slowly opens his eyes and sits up straight. "It's okay, I wanted to chase my dreams as well."
This is new information. He never knew that Chanyeol had dreams to chase in Italy. "What dreams? How come I never knew about it?"
"When I was fifteen," he starts, "I met my best friend. Who was small and quiet and everything I wasn't. We were like opposites, but he intrigued me. We started talking and the next thing I knew, we became the bestest of friends who were never apart."
"But I wanted more than that. I grew to love him for who he was, and I loved him so much that I became timid. Scared to tell him that I loved him, in fear that he didn't love me back."
"But it's been months and I've seen him go through so many ups and downs, trying to live his life the way he wanted it to. And I thought that maybe, I deserve to try out my dreams just like he did."
"And if he wants to, I can still be his best friend whom he nags at everyday to wake up, whom he confides his deepest secrets to. But just a little more than that."
Kyungsoo stares at Chanyeol, who in turn looks at him straight in the eye. His dark brown orbs swirl with similar fizzes of passion that he had seen in Yifan and Sehun, both young and willing to sacrifice for the sake of their dreams. And here is Park Chanyeol sacrificing his time and money for the sake of his.
Kyungsoo makes up his mind that a person who chases after his dreams, no matter how fruitless they seem, is admirable and worthy to spark a fire in.
///
(It's after that that Kyungsoo realises that his love at first sight had happened long ago, but he was always too blind and engrossed with his idealistic idea of true love to realise.
But at least the realization happened in Italy. That's something he got right.)