“I don’t get why you are so hung up on this boy.” Jongdae complains as he watches Baekhyun run from store to store. He could practically see the tail wagging in between his legs as he runs. “I get that he’s kinda hot, but his brother honestly looks waaaay better-”

“Sh!” Baekhyun presses a finger to his mouth as he looks into a store window. All of a sudden he’s jumping up and down and shaking Jongdae’s arm. “Can we go in here? Can we? Can we? Can we? Please? Please?”

Baekhyun begins to give him his best puppy eyes and pouty mouth and Jongdae knows that he knows he can’t say no to that. He sighs and looks at the window. ‘Golden Bakery’ is written in gold cursive letters on the window and Jongdae sighs again. A bakery. That’s just what he needs. He just needs Baekhyun to have sugar in his system.

Even still he mumbles an okay and Baekhyun rushes inside the store with a smile larger than the universe. He follows after him with heavy steps and a weeping wallet.

Jongdae enters and a small bell rings out. A boy walks out from behind the curtain with a smile. Baekhyun is already listing off all of the pastries he wants and Jongdae is trying his hardest to keep up when the boy walks over with a tray of tiny pastries.

“Some samples if you’d like,” he offers the tray and Baekhyun eagerly takes one. Although he doesn’t eat it, instead he shoves it into Jongdae’s mouth. Jongdae is in the middle of possibly choking when Baekhyun takes one for himself and savors his bite.

The boy watches with fearful eyes as Jongdae pounds his chest as he forces down the treat with some difficulty.

“Wah! This is really good! What is it?” Baekhyun asks, not caring to check on Jongdae. The boy blinks at Baekhyun and slowly nods.

“It’s a fruit tart. At least a mini version of it,” he mumbles and readjusts the tray in his hands, trying to not let his concern show too much for the coughing Jongdae. “Would you like to buy some?”

Baekhyun squeals and turns to tug on Jongdae’s cloak. “We gotta! We gotta get some! Please!”

Jongdae groans and looks at the boy, who only gives him a shrug. For someone who worked in the bakery, they didn't want to get involved in whatever was going on between these two. Even if it did cost him a sale.

“We'll take two,” Jongdae mumbles and Baekhyun smushes a kiss into Jongdae's cheek. He wipes away the leftover saliva with a frown, “The things I do for you.”

“You know you love me,” Baekhyun chirps as he follows after the worker boy.

“And you know it too well,” Jongdae mutters under his breath. He digs into his bag for the leather bag he calls his wallet when the tanned boy, Jongin, barges into the bakery.

“Kyungsoo hyung I made things worse!” he shouts, but then stops to pick up a bun off of one of the tables. He brings it over to the counter and then collapses onto his knees. “Sehun won't come out from our room again!”

The worker boy, Kyungsoo, looks at Baekhyun and Jongdae apologetically. He stops boxing up the tarts to tap Jongin’s shoulder. “Come on stand.” Jongin looks up and it seems as if he was about to cry.

“What if he hates me now?!”

“He would have hated you for a lot of things besides what you made him do today. He probably would've started hating you when you stuck a beetle down his back when you two were ten. Calm down,” Kyungsoo coaxes Jongin to stand, sighing when Jongin doesn't budge from his spot on the floor.

“He hates me. I won't be his favorite brother anymore,” Jongin sniffles and Kyungsoo turns to the pair.

“I'm sorry about this. I'll just box this and you can be on your way,” Kyungsoo immediately got to work on finishing his task, ignoring the sniffles of Jongin at his feet.

Jongdae eyes Jongin in the floor and turns to Baekhyun, who is already looking at him. “What do you think of this Dae?”

Jongdae raises an eyebrow at him. “About what? That kid? I already told you, whatever happens in this village is not our concern. What happens in the village, stays in the village. Don't be such a busy body Baek.”

Baekhyun's shoulders slump as he watched Jongdae hand over the money to Kyungsoo. He takes a look at Jongin who seems to have stopped wallowing in sadness and is now looking at Baekhyun.

“You look awfully familiar…” Jongin mumbles and gets a smack in the head by Kyungsoo.

“It’s rude to stare Jongin,” Kyungsoo scolds. He turns to them and hands the box over with a small smile. “I apologize for his behavior.”

“I can apologize for myself hyung,” Jongin whines. He stands up from the ground, but doesn't take his eyes off of Baekhyun who shrinks into himself and brings his hood down to shade his eyes.

Jongdae slowly moved his hand to his belt, feeling for his knife holster when Jongin begins to squint at Baekhyun. He freezes when Jongin suddenly snaps his fingers and points at Baekhyun. “You're that traveler that was with Sehun earlier!”

“M-Me?” Baekhyun stutters out as he points at himself. He looks at Jongdae who looks at him with wide eyes and Baekhyun begins to nod frantically. “Y-Yeah! That's me..aha..”

Jongin nods his head, content on figuring out what was bugging him. Kyungsoo on the other hand was slightly confused, but didn't question anything. He figures it's probably better to just leave it. He sighs and picks up the bun that Jongin had placed on the counter. “Do you want to buy this? Or do you want to continue crying to yourself?”

“I'll do both,” Jongin says as he takes out some money. He places whatever he had in his pocket on the counter and smiles at Kyungsoo's glare. “Keep the change?”

Kyungsoo sighs, but slides the money into his apron pocket without another word. He gets a small brown paper bag from under the counter and places the bun in it. “Do you want to keep talking or what?”

“I do, but why are you two still here?” Jongin asks as he points at Baekhyun and Jongdae. He blinks as he watches the two glance at each other.

Jongdae politely smiles and opens his mouth to explain, but is rudely interrupted by Baekhyun. “We wanted to ask about Sehun!”

Jongdae looks at Baekhyun with a strained smile and wide eyes, tilting his head in a questioning manner. Baekhyun gulps, but doesn't back down.

Jongin frowns in confusion. “What do you want to know about Sehun? Did he do something to you in the forest or something? Because if he did then I'll be having a major talk-”

Baekhyun frantically waves his hands around to stop Jongin from talking, not wanting him to get the wrong idea or anything. “No no no. It's just that the village people don't seem to take a liking to him and I was just a bit curious as he didn't seem like someone people would just dislike. Especially in such open terms considering all the gossip and talking…”

Baekhyun drifts off when he sees Jongin look at Kyungsoo with a sorrowful look on his face. Kyungsoo touches his arm in comfort, turning to look at the two.

“The situation with Sehun is something that isn't really talked about. It's just something that was just kind of embedded into people's heads from the start,” he takes a quick glance at Jongin, who doesn't seem to want to talk. Kyungsoo’s shoulders slump, but he doesn't stop talking. “It's probably best if you didn't pry any further. I apologize.”

Kyungsoo bows his head in apology while Jongin stares blankly at the ground, unmoving.

Baekhyun wants to pry, but Jongdae stops him with a wave of his hand. Baekhyun dejectedly looks away while Jongdae bows to the two. “Thank you for your time. We apologize the topic we brought up caused any discomfort.”

Kyungsoo waves his hands in dismissal. “You didn't do anything wrong. It was only pure curiosity after all. Nothing to blame you for.”

Even still, Jongdae bows his head and nods goodbye to them, dragging Baekhyun behind him by the elbow.

As Jongdae dragged Baekhyun away from the bakery; he couldn't help but look back through the window for one last glance. Regret filling his chest when he sees Jongin bury his face in his hands as Kyungsoo goes to hug him.

Baekhyun pokes the fruit tart with his fork with a sigh. “I feel bad now.”

Jongdae glances at him through the mirror before turning his attention back to drying his hair with his towel. “I don't blame you. Whatever happened with that kid has caused some major disruption to the village. Well more specifically his family.”

He tossed the form into the table and leans his chair back on its two back legs, hands grasping the edge of the table to keep his balance. “I wonder what though. I know that within a small village like this, word spreads fast, but what did he do for the entire village to hate him so much?”

“There's a lot of things,” Jongdae says as he sits in the chair across from Baekhyun. He sets his chair back onto all four of its legs with a thump and leans his forearms on the table. “Just think of anything that can ruin your reputation and there's your answer.”

Baekhyun thinks as he stares into the boring pattern of the grains in the table. He looks up at Jongdae who is cutting into the tart with the fork Baekhyun tossed away. “I can only think of murder.”

Jongdae hums and eat the strawberry he had on the fork. “Murder is an option, but he'd probably would've been dead by now if he did commit murder.”

“Not if he was a kid,” Baekhyun says, taking the fork from Jongdae to pick at the tart.

Jongdae scoffs and looks at Baekhyun as if he was stupid. “And why would a kid kill someone? Even though I may think that kid is not the sharpest tool in the shed, I don't think he's stupid enough to murder someone.”

“Neither do I, but…” Baekhyun trails off as he pokes at a blueberry.

“But it's the only logical answer you can think of,” Jongdae finished for him. Baekhyun nods and eats the blueberry. Jongdae lets out a breath and pulls his chair closer to the table. “Well there's also stealing. Deception. Assault. ion.”

“ion?!” Baekhyun practically shrieks. Jongdae sighs and nods. Baekhyun shrinks in his seat as he timidly pokes at the crust of the tart. “What makes you think ion…”

“ion isn’t the most noble job one person can do,” Jongdae explains with a wave of his hand. “It does make sense however.”

“But he looks like he’s barely eighteen!” Baekhyun drops the fork on the plate and pushes the tart toward Jongdae, not feeling an appetite anymore. “Child ion?”

Jongdae shrugs and takes the fork to cut a small bite size piece for himself. “Like I said, these are only possibilities.” He sticks the fork in his mouth, but doesn’t take out the fork as he thinks for a second. When he has his thoughts sorted out, he takes the fork from his mouth to point at Baekhyun. “Why are you so curious about this? You heard from that bakery boy. Don’t pry.”

Baekhyun whines and stomps his feet like a little child. “Aren’t you interested? Being told not to pry makes me want to pry even  more!”

“You are such a busy body,” Jongdae complains and tosses the fork on the plate. He stands and picks up the various clothing already littering their floor. “Don’t poke your nose into matters that don’t concern you. You are just going to get yourself into trouble. You almost got in trouble with that Jongin boy earlier. He almost recognized you!”

“But he didn’t!” Baekhyun argues as he points a finger at Jongdae. Jongdae rolls his eyes and stuffs the clothes into the first bag he picked up from the dresser.

“Fact is that he almost did. It might not take him long to truly figure out why he thought he recognized you,” Jongdae counters. “We can’t have your identity getting out there.”

Baekhyun pouts and when he turns his head, he could see his reflection in the mirror. He tilts his head and watches as his reflection follows. He watches Jongdae in the reflection as he cleans up the mess they’ve made in just a few hours.

“I still want to know why they’re acting like that towards him.”

Jongdae groans as he stands up from kneeling next to the bed. “Really? Why? Give me a legitimate reason why you want to know so badly. Don’t give me ‘he’s cute’ or ‘he’s handsome’ because those are not real reasons.”

Baekhyun turns his chair to face Jongdae properly and stares at him with conviction. Jongdae stares back without a second thought, his stance on the situation not wavering.

Baekhyun takes a deep breath before speaking. “It’s just unfair at how they’re treating him. He doesn’t seem to be protesting to what they say and I think that’s just sad. He doesn’t even seem to care at all and that’s making it kinda sad you know. Like he’s just kind of accepted this fate of never being accepted by the people around him. I don’t know him. I don’t know why they act like that toward him, but I don’t want to stand around and watch this happen.”

“And do you think you can change the entire village’s opinion within two weeks?” Jongdae asks as he puts a hand on his hip. “Baekhyun you have power, but you do not have the power to change people’s opinions on something. Sometimes when there’s a system for something, you can’t change it just like that.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t try,” Baekhyun reasons. “Please Dae. I know you don’t like this either.”

Jongdae refuses to look Baekhyun in the eyes. He knows his resistance is going to crack once he looks into those eyes. He can’t let Baekhyun win this one. Despite the nobler side of Jongdae screaming at him to just say yes and help Baekhyun in his task of helping the boy, he knows he’s going to get smacked for not obeying orders. He’s already allowing an extra two days for them to stay when he knows they should be spending those two days heading back to the capital.

“Dae,” Baekhyun whines, but Jongdae doesn’t even flinch at the nickname. Baekhyun pouts and stomps his foot. “Come on! You can’t let him be subjected to this! You know how it feels to be outcasted, what makes you think you can’t help him?”

That makes Jongdae snap his head toward Baekhyun, Baekhyun flinches back when he’s met with Jongdae’s hardened stare.

“You don’t think I don’t know?” Baekhyun shakes his head, but it’s futile. “I want to help him. I truly do. But Baekhyun there’s no way we can help him the way you helped me. We can’t just take him to the capital and train him to be a knight or a soldier or a bodyguard. The boy has a family and we have no right to take him away from it. It worked with me because I had no family to leave behind. Do not think for a second that I don’t want to help him because I do. But there’s little to be done when the entire village is dead set on hating the poor boy.”

Jongdae walks past Baekhyun, leaving no more room for discussion. A heavy stone of regret sits in the pit of Baekhyun’s stomach as he looks over his shoulder to see Jongdae buried under the bed covers. He looks out the window and sees the small black figures of birds dotting the orange sky as the sun sets.

Baekhyun stands and dims the lantern on the side table next to Jongdae’s bed until the room is only lit by the darkening skies. He crosses the small distance between their beds and settles under his covers, allowing a restless sleep to take over him.

A/N: There are moments where I realize I’m going to have to take the SAT in March and probably again in the summer and I’m gonna have to fill out college apps and-you know what I do when those thoughts arise? I do some research, then decide to lay on the ground for a good ten or so minutes. Then I get up and write to make myself feel better. Enjoy the work of my procrastination when I began to take in reality. Reality makes me wanna laugh and cry, you guys help me.

WELL ENOUGH OF MY SELF WALLOWING. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Oh and don’t worry it probably might not get any better from here :D