“that has got to be the most boring class ever, hands down,” chanyeol gripes to baekhyun as they head out from their organic chemistry lecture hall. chanyeol shifts his guitar over his shoulder as he walks out the door, careful not to damage his baby by scraping it against the grainy surface of the brick building.

"do you even know what the topic of today’s lecture was?” baekhyun raises a brow, hitching up his backpack more comfortably on his back and tucking his thumbs into the straps. “you passed out the moment the professor turned on the power point.”

“i do too,” chanyeol says automatically, gently nudging baekhyun to the side. “we were learning about atoms, and bonds, and things?” chanyeol trails off with a slight furrow to his brow, racking his brain for any memories of what the professor had talked about in the last two hours.

“yeah, really paying attention,” baekhyun snorts, walking a few steps ahead of his best friend as chanyeol stops moving completely. “what are you doing?” baekhyun glances over his shoulder when he realizes he’s alone, chanyeol a few paces behind staring off into the clouds with a glazed expression. “hello? earth to chanyeol?”

"what?” chanyeol blinks as he snaps back to attention, looking at baekhyun with a confused, dazed expression.

“you okay buddy?” baekhyun turns back around, making his way towards his lost best friend. “you left me for a second there.”

“i hear something,” chanyeol replies in a dreamy voice, as if partially not present in the here and now as he glances around baekhyun, searching in the distance for the source of the heavenly composition of notes and sounds drifting into his ears.

he trails off after the sound of the music, baekhyun calling behind about having discussion section next, he’ll see him back at the dorms.

chanyeol waves vaguely before returning his full attention to the task at hand, following the soft, faint melody as it gets louder and louder the closer he gets.

turning the corner of the art history building, chanyeol comes upon a slight boy with dainty features sitting under the shade of a giant pine tree, light brown fringe falling over his eyes as he strums almost drunkenly on his guitar, so into the sound of his own music that he doesn’t even realize that someone has been staring for the past five minutes.

chanyeol watches captivated as the boy sways from side to side, gentle fingers gliding across the strings as he plays out his own beautiful, almost melancholy rendition of “river flows in you.”

chanyeol almost feels like he’s drowning in the sound of the boy’s music, unconsciously stepping closer and closer until he’s only three steps away. chanyeol’s heart stutters a beat or two, swallowing hard as the boy licks his lips, a single dimple sinking into his skin before disappearing as he continues to play with his eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks.

without even noticing that he’d consciously made any decisions to do so, chanyeol settles down on the grass across from the boy, pulling his guitar onto his lap and playing out a harmony that weaves perfectly with the chords of the other’s melody, unifying in the air to form a whole other, exquisite sound that helps soothe the quivering butterflies in chanyeol’s stomach.

as their song drifts to a close, the boy opens his heavy lids, smiling gently at chanyeol as he holds out a hand with his elbow resting on his guitar.

“i’m yixing,” the boy introduces, and chanyeol can’t help but continue to gaze blankly at the little indentation of yixing’s dimple curving beside his mouth. “and you are?”

“i’m sorry. i’m chanyeol,” he coughs awkwardly, embarrassed that he’d been caught blatantly staring. he quickly takes yixing’s proffered hand, smiling shyly as he compliments on the other’s guitar-work. “you play really well, by the way. i’m sorry i didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“oh no,” yixing shakes his head, and chanyeol tries with much difficulty to concentrate on his words and not that sinfully adorable dimple. “i think we play really well together. we should do it again some time.”

"yeah, i’d really like that,” chanyeol replies breathlessly as yixing gets up onto his bare feet, offering his hand and helping pull chanyeol onto his own sneakered feet.

“well, i gotta get going now. i have lit soon,” yixing tilts his head to the side, and chanyeol can’t help but think cute puppies and bunnies and rainbows and sunshine. “i’ll see you around?”

“bye,” chanyeol says dumbly as yixing turns around, briefly glancing over his shoulder to smile one more time before heading off to class, gently swinging his guitar hanging by his side.

chanyeol sighs, turning around as well as he walks in the other direction to head back to his dorm where he’ll wait for baekhyun to arrive back so he can squeal over the sweet cuteness that is yixing until their neighbors come pummeling at their door to shut the hell up before they go complaining to the ra about noise violations.