RED

The Fifth Chapter

The sun goes down, the stars come out.

And people, they forget that the sun is also a star, and that the stars have their own light as well. They are just further away, but the important thing is that - they have light. Such was the hope for them. They were alive in the dark. There was no immediate sunrise, however there were little stars - and stars meant hope, and light, and it should not be forgotten that the night was followed by the day.

The sun would rise for them too, just not yet.

But that was okay, because they had each other to keep the cold of the night away.

"...Chanyeol, do you even know anything about constellations?" Baekhyun asked, turning his head to the side where his lover was glaring into the telescope. The artist had recently developed a love for constellations and the sky after going to this art exhibition where he saw these beautiful paintings of the galaxy and stuff like that.

"Of course I do. I'm just not able to recognize them..." He said helplessly and Baekhyun laughed at his antics, "Shh, stop laughing. There's too much red around when you laugh. It's blocking the stars."

"You said you loved the red."

"I do," Even when they were teasing each other, Chanyeol never joked about their love or passed scandalous comments. With Heechul, it was spicy...but with Chanyeol, it was wholesome.

The artist had recently told Baekhyun about his condition. One day, when Chanyeol had a panic attack after Baekhyun had played a really horrible mashup of weird instrumental songs, the archer had confronted him about it, and Chanyeol had shyly revealed many things -

"I - uhm," He scratched his head, "I have this thing known as...synesthesia."

Baekhyun hadn't heard a lot about that. He just knew it was something nerve-related, "And that is?"

"When, like, two of your senses work together, you know? Oh wait, you don't. So basically, I have Chromesthesia, so when I hear sounds, I see colours."

"That's...cool."

"It's overwhelming, because everything has a different colour. So when you play one song with many elements, I see the colours of every instrument differently, and the colours are fixed. There are colours that I don't like, and some colours and sounds give me headaches," He said all of this in a single breath.

Baekhyun blinked at him, "That's...complex. Nevermind."

Chanyeol laughed, "Yeah, I guess. Many times, when I liked people or wanted to get to know them better, I had to hold myself back, because I didn't like their colour. I am not really fond of my colour either, or at least I wasn't..." A lot had changed after they had started dating, including their mental health. The therapy that both of them were getting helped them too. Baekhyun had already known that Chanyeol had a very low self-esteem and he tried boosting the other's morale up, while still keeping himself happy - and that was kind of his fault. He was too much of a perfectionist, thought too much about everything and everybody, let it all pile up.

But now, he was getting better.

"Do you like my colour?" Baekhyun asked curiously, "What's my colour?"

Chanyeol smiled, and it was one of those - 'you have no idea how much I love you' smiles, where his eyes lit up in adoration and care. Baekhyun loved those smiles on him.

"I love your colour, loved it even when I kinda hated you. Even when I was young, your colour was the brightest thing in my life. I think it still is. One of the most meaningful things ever."