(n.) something that can make you forget

grief or suffering

Word Count : 4757 | not yet edited 

It all happens in just a matter of a few seconds.

One second, Baekhyun reaches his hand out to nudge Chanyeol’s arm and get his attention to the scene but instead something else happens.

The next, Chanyeol is running towards the child so he can move him away from a big patch of ice that he’s just about to slip onto.

Everything seems fine but by the next second, Chanyeol has already slipped on the ice and ends up falling backwards onto the back of his head and shoulder.

Baekhyun’s eyes go wide and his body goes into a high level of panic-mode. It’s almost as if he’s lost control of his body when he ends up sprinting to the other and shouting.

“Chanyeol!”

Maybe it hasn’t been a few seconds, because the time it takes for Baekhyun to run from his previous spot to where Chanyeol is feels like hours. He just doesn’t want the other injured or hurt; as if those two don’t have the same meaning. Even if the slip appears to be an innocent and minor one to any other person that just happens to casually pass by, the elder doesn’t fail to see how Chanyeol’s elbow couldn’t even stop his shoulder from hitting the ground. This small detail seems to be the trigger of the thoughts that harshly barge into Baekhyun’s mind; making him think unlike those passers-by. Baekhyun thinks of all the dreadful possibilities as to how injured the other is.

He quickly kneels down near the other, he just hopes, prays, that the other isn’t injured.

“Chanyeol… Chanyeol...” He repeats as lightly shakes the lying figure. Chanyeol appears to be conscious, as his eyes are shut forcefully. He’s definitely, without doubt, in pain.

He gets no reply.

“Oh my god. -Nononono.” He looks for any trace of blood and, thankfully, doesn’t find any.

“Chan-”

“I-I’m okay.” Chanyeol grunts as he tries to push himself up until he’s propped up on his elbows, “The k-kid..”

Right on signal, Baekhyun scans their surrounding and sees the figure of a lady and a small child, presumably the pair he’s looking for.

“He-they left. He looked fine. You pushed him right on time but Chanyeol his mother-he could have been alright. She would’ve stopped him. Why do you have to get yourself-”

Chanyeol then grunts even more as he tries to stand up, but to no avail.

“Chanyeol you’re clearly hurt! You have to- you can’t… How far is your home? Do you think you need an ambulance. Where are you hurting? Your shoulder, your ba-” The elder continues to ramble on as he lightly scans the other’s body with his hands, quickly removing them the second he realizes it’s quite an inappropriate act.

Chanyeol lightly chuckles, cut off by a grunt… the pain in his body not allowing it.

“I’m okay. Please don’t freak out.” He lightly grabs Baekhyun’s hand, “Can you just help me a bit?”

“No-no, of course.” With that, Baekhyun helps the other get up and once they’re up, Baekhyun starts asking more questions, “Are you sure you don’t need an ambulance? I-I, you can’t just… please.”

“Baek… there’s no need to worry. Maybe my back and shoulder hurts a bit, but I’m okay,” Chanyeol grabs his own shoulder and rolls it to calm Baekhyun down, to assure him that he’s okay, but as soon as he does, a shock of pain surges through his upper body. He doubles over in pain.

Baekhyun freaks out even more.

“Wait! My-my apartment! It’s just a few blocks from here! You can stay… I mean I can help you and you clearly can’t travel back in th-this state. Please.” Baekhyun admits that it’s a bit weird to ask someone you’ve just met a few days back if they’d like to stay over at your house. However, in this situation, Baekhyun can’t help but insist. He just doesn’t want to see the other hurt.

“I couldn’t ever- no, no. I don’t want to be of any inconvenience.”

“No. I insist… And besides, you did take me to your house.”

“That’s because you were in need of my help.”

“And this situation is any different?”

Baekhyun receives no reply but the defeated look on Chanyeol’s face, and so he nods his head towards the path in front of them; to which, Chanyeol starts walking on.

Occasionally throughout this walk, the two banter whenever Chanyeol begins limping and slowing down. He tries to assure the other that he feels okay but Baekhyun ends up lightly supporting him as he walks; Baekhyun’s hand lightly wrapped around his back, barely touching him but enough so that he protects Chanyeol from losing balance.

Baekhyun would’ve felt freaked out by how he’s this close to the other this early in their acquaintance, but he guesses this is just something else that means something different because of the current situation.

Another thing that pops into Baekhyun’s mind is how the lady, presumably a mother, and child left immediately after what had happened. He wonders why and how they could leave without any form of an apology… without any sign of remorse. The mother engrossed her attention towards the conversation she was having on her phone and the child engrossed his attention towards the excitement that came from the bits of snow and ice on the ground. So, from that, Baekhyun infers that the child possibly never had the opportunity to play out in the snow before, or maybe the mother never really took time to teach him the necessary precautions. Then again, he tries to not let his slight anger get the best of him and make him judge them, just because he really isn’t one to judge. He doesn’t know anything about them, apart from how they look or small details from their actions; which really is zilch.

Maybe he’s just over-analyzing but it’s all he can do when the person he doesn’t want to see hurt is hurting.

After quite the difficult, energy-consuming journey, a few minutes pass and they finally enter the apartment’s lobby, where they meet the doorman.

“Welcome sir, Mr. Oh has... made his way up… already.” The doorman slows down his words as he sees Baekhyun accompanied by Chanyeol. He exchanges a few questioning looks with Baekhyun, considering the fact he hasn’t seen anyone within such close proximity to him, except for one person… and that person is better off left unnamed. Nevertheless, the doorman brushes it off and continues on with his job, not forgetting to put on a smile.

Chanyeol then slightly bows to the doorman, despite being in pain, along with Baekhyun. He notices this gesture, it makes his heart swell just a bit.

“Have a good night, Sir,” The doorman bows to them both, “and to you too, Sir.” They both reply with the same.

And with that, they make their way onto the elevator heading up to the apartment’s floor.

When they reach Baekhyun’s apartment door, the elder momentarily lets go of Chanyeol so that he can fish out his keys.

He can hear the soft murmur from the TV accompanied by the occasional soft giggles, the sound that is a close equivalent to what a soft lullaby is to a innocent baby.

Baekhyun realizes that giggle wouldn’t belong to Sehun, it’d belong to, none other than, Luhan.

Upon figuring out the situation on the other side of the door, Baekhyun feels bad for having to interrupt one of nights that his best friend could actually dedicate towards something other than work, something that makes him happy. Not to mention he also takes up space that Luhan could be in every day, as he lives in Sehun’s apartment.

It’s times like these he feels guilty for being such a heavy anchor in Sehun’s life, one that’s keeping him away from reaching the shore.

Nonetheless, he does what he does best and simply goes on with turning the knob. When he opens the door, Luhan turns his attention away from the television to glance towards their direction.

“Sehun-ah…” He taps Sehun’s shoulder, to which he mutters a what and then turns around.

“Oh, hey- What the f-… why is Chanyeol walking like that?” Sehun asks as he gets up with Luhan.

“Have you always lived with Baek- I mean, Baekhyun?” Chanyeol now sits in front of Sehun, a zip-lock bag full of ice on his shoulder, as the younger fishes through his first-aid kit, trying to look for the right supplies for Chanyeol’s hurt shoulder and back. He bought the kit when Baekhyun had first moved in; he figured that living with a second person meant that he should probably double up his precautions… especially when that person is as clumsy as Baekhyun.

Upon hearing the other’s question, he looks over to the said male, who is sitting in the living room with Luhan as the elder suggested that Sehun should take care of Chanyeol. He had agreed mainly because he knew how nervous Baekhyun gets around people with injuries. Even with his suggestion set and done, Sehun notices how Baekhyun looks over to check on them every other second or so; his eyes full of worry, concern and… guilt. Is that a tint of admiration he sees?

“Has he told you that you can call him ‘Baek’?”

“Ah… well, yes,” Sehun notices that Chanyeol’s overall aura has tensed up very much in contrast to how he was in the cafe earlier, he doesn’t keep direct eye contact when needed either. Could it be because Chanyeol sees that they live together? Sehun plans on finding out. “but I’m not… I wasn’t sure if I could call him that when talking to you…”

“He moved in a few months ago,” Sehun still keeps his eyes on fishing throughout the first-aid kit, “and you can call him that around me.” He looks up when saying that and notices Chanyeol becoming looser. Mhm, it was definitely that. He lightly shakes his head, amused.

“Are you bleeding anywhere?”

“No, I don’t think so... Anyway, why did he?” Chanyeol asks carefully, he doesn’t want impolitely invade anyone’s privacy, “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Just needed a place to stay.” Sehun shrugs.

Chanyeol nods, eyes wandering around.

The aura of their side of the area soothes into a more comfortable silence; a dash of awkward remaining.

A minute or two pass and Sehun finally finds the heat wraps and medicated rolls. He begins to take them out when he suddenly brings up a question…

“He hasn’t always been this way but… I know right now he’s being a bit difficult, isn’t he?”

“Baek?”

Sehun nods.

“No, no not at all. He’s... I guess I wouldn’t call it that. He’s just scared… hurt?” Chanyeol turns his head a bit to glance at Baekhyun.

“I do admit though, Baek was a totally different person than he is now, when I met him, but he sort of snapped out of that…” he continues, “He’s definitely something… but definitely not difficult.”

“Something you can handle?”

“Something I want to handle.”

Sehun then notices how Chanyeol looks at him as he answers and he himself loosens up. It’s not one of lust or selfish greed… it’s instead, coincidentally, one very similar to that of Baekhyun’s way of looking at Chanye