isolated incident no. 1
jongin catches chanyeol by the waist, right before he slips and falls on the sweat covered wooden floors of the practice room.
“you okay?” jongin asks, face pressed a little too close for comfort, and chanyeol feels his heartbeat quiver out of control.
“yeah, i’m fine,” chanyeol gasps, feeling jongin’s breath fluttering the fringe on his forehead, and scrambles to upright himself before he passes out from a nervous breakdown.
jongin smiles innocently, oblivious to the inner turmoil chanyeol is battling inside his head, and turns back to grab a water bottle from the benches.
chanyeol silently gapes after his retreating back.
isolated incident no. 2
chanyeol pouts as the rest of his members manage to grab all the gift packages of snacks and goodies before he even has the chance to glance at the carefully packaged, decorative wrappers.
he glares at baekhyun as the traitor opens up a bag of sweet potato crackers, popping a few into his mouth in a gloating manner, and chews obnoxiously with much noise and gusto.
chanyeol considers stomping over to baekhyun and upending the bag in their private toilet just to spite the idiot, when jongin sidles over next to him, sticking out a palmful of little whale-shaped chips under chanyeol’s nose.
“want some?” jongin asks as chanyeol gratefully accepts the proffered snack food.
“thanks” chanyeol smiles as he shoves the lot of it into his mouth, jongin leaning on the dresser beside him and watching sehun surreptitiously pilfer one of luhan’s chocolates out of his back pocket.
“no problem,” jongin replies, grinning in amusement as luhan discovers the sneaking thief and pummels the maknae with a couch cushion.
isolated incident no. 3
chanyeol shuffles in through the front door after law of the jungle filming, absolutely exhausted and wanting nothing more than to plop onto his bed and never move a muscle again for the next fifty years.
the dorm is quiet, junmyeon having sent everyone else to bed hours before so as not to be late for their morning schedule, again, and chanyeol relishes in the silence. he doesn't quite make it back to as far as his room, halting in the living room and opting for curling up on the couch instead.
chanyeol is just on the other side of consciousness, brain shutting down into sleep mode, when jongin carefully tiptoes out of their room.
without a single word, jongin gently gathers the half-conscious chanyeol into his arms and walks him back to his bed, tucking chanyeol in under the comforter before climbing back into bed himself.
“good night hyung,” jongin whispers into the darkness, and chanyeol quickly submerges under a wave of sleep and falls into dreams of golden skin and silly smiles.
the sum of all its parts
each and every one of these separate occurrences accumulate and build up to chanyeol slowly, gradually falling in love with the kindhearted, caring boy to a point that whenever jongin is absent on some individual schedule or other, chanyeol finds himself distracted with never ending thoughts of the missing boy. what’s jongin doing? where is he now? i wonder if he’s eaten anything yet? did he knock out on set again?
but when jongin is there, curled up next to him on the couch and laughing over stupid jokes and going over the ridiculous antics that some member or other got into that day, all is perfect in chanyeol’s happy little bubble.
when jongin smiles, chanyeol’s day brightens just that much, regardless of how down, how weary he might have been mere seconds before.
somewhere along the way, jongin had become chanyeol’s moon and stars, giving him light in a dark and scary place filled with constant stress and pressure for perfection, to live up to the expectations the public demands of them. but as long as jongin is there, chanyeol knows everything will be right with the world.