It’s yet another day of being home alone, while Kyungsoo works with his pots at the museum. Chanyeol sits alone in his office, fiddling around with the high-tech equipment and musical instruments in the room. He notices a cabinet full of tapes, CDs and DVDs, before he notices something out of the ordinary, stacked above the tower of CDs.
He is ready to be surprised, but he definitely isn’t ready for this surprise. It is a videotape, as in a VHS tape to be played on a VCR player. Slapped onto the VHS cover is a sticker that reads, ‘Happy Birthday, Chanyeol’ and nothing else. Chanyeol is surprised to know that he actually owns an old-school VHS player, before inserting it into the machine and switches on the TV.
From the moment he clicks play, he has lost all things to expect. Chanyeol yelps when he watches herself onscreen, still in bed on a sleepy Sunday morning. The picture is deliriously grainy, and the sound is effectively edited out, because onscreen TV-Chanyeol is rousing, yawning and stretching but the sounds are muted. Except for the added New-Orleans-jazzy background track and a woman’s voice crooning about lost loves and crushed hopes, giving the whole thing a feel of an anachronistic 1920’s silent movie.
Chanyeol will ask Kyungsoo later about this— and Kyungsoo will tell him that it was shot on New Year’s Day, with Kyungsoo barging in with his brand new video camera that Chanyeol had bought for him – Kyungsoo was the one who took this footage. Kyungsoo had tugged on the sleeve of TV-Chanyeol’s arm and asked him to stay because this was meant to be funny. Chanyeol had stayed, and the first thing he said was –
‘Kyungsoo.’
The scene then cut to the wintry view taken from their flat’s windowsill, Baekhyun, Jongin and Sehun were out playing in the snow; and they were throwing snowballs at each other.
The sound is back on. Chanyeol is onscreen again, his face smiling up to the camera, his nose a little tad too Rudolph-y – and Kyungsoo will tell him that it’s because it was cold that day and he hadn’t felt very well. TV-Chanyeol had looked at Kyungsoo – not at the camera, but up at Kyungsoo, and he’d said his name again.
Chanyeol smiles as he watches the footage. He absentmindedly says Kyungsoo’s name – to no one in particular, to savour the way Kyungsoo’s name tastes on his tongue, as he stresses on every syllable. The sound of it lingers, entangled with the sound of Kyungsoo’s deep chuckles on the television.
‘Chanyeol,’ TV-Kyungsoo said in return, and Chanyeol’s attention snaps back to the scenes onscreen.
The camera angle shifted to focus on Chanyeol’s bedside table. His lyrics notebook was on it; turned to a page of full of illegible lyrics. Chanyeol laughs as he watches the television and tries to read the handwriting, because he still scrawls like that. Chanyeol hears TV-Kyungsoo’s hearty laughter as he tried to decipher Chanyeol’s writing. The camera zoomed in on the handwriting before panning out again, and focused on Chanyeol’s face instead.
The video randomly cuts to a snowman Kyungsoo had built, then the grey skies, then some leafless pine trees. Chanyeol laughing, but not speaking. Kyungsoo in the kitchen making minced pie.
After several random scenes and snippets from Jean Cocteau’s movies thrown in transition, Chanyeol finally appeared again on screen.
“So Park Chanyeol-sshi, tell the fans a bit about yourself,” Kyungsoo had inquired in an awful imitation of a TV presenter. The shot was purely Chanyeol, his boyish charms and the wrinkled folds at the corner of his eyes when he tipped his head back and laughed.
“Hi,” TV-Chanyeol blushed, “I’m Park Chanyeol,” he began sheepishly. He tugged at his hair, making them stand up in spikes. In this light, his black hair looked almost blue.
“How is married life treating you?” Kyungsoo had prodded.
“It is good,” he blinked into the camera as if asking Kyungsoo, ‘what do you want to know?’
Then he had reached out to touch Kyungsoo’s hand; Kyungsoo’s warm, milky-coloured skin against Chanyeol’s cold, trembling fingers. Chanyeol’s other hand had gently went to the camera, pulling it away from Kyungsoo – wobbly shots of the ceiling, their shoes, before the camera finally steadied – their entwined hands at Kyungsoo’s lap; tightly held together.
The last shot had Chanyeol leaning towards the camera, his hand presumably reaching down to switch the camera off.
But the next scene currently on TV was a different one. It was Kyungsoo, on the sofa, reading a book.
Le Petit Prince.
“On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux,” Kyungsoo read out loud on screen, before he looked up at the camera and said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
The stars, the night sky, the crescent moon, rain.