Chanyeol woke with a start. He felt sweat trickiling down his back and he sits up in his bed with a deep sigh, again? This was the fifth time this week. He sighs again bringing his hands up to his face and holding his face in them, it was starting to take a toll on him.

Chanyeol reaches next to him to grab his phone off his bedside table, he checks the time. 7:00 am, it's time he got ready to head over to Jeongsuk's place. He scrolls through his contacts before tapping on Sehun's number, the phone rings a couple times before he picks up,

"what up, Chan?" he asks

"can you pick me up some coffee before you come to Jeongsuk's?" he asks getting up to go rummage through his closet.

"nightmares again?" he asks knowingly.

Chanyeol was silent for a while throwing some clothes out on the bed "yeah" he says simply. He knows Sehun won't ask for the details and he's greatful that his friend is so understanding. 

"alright, will do" he says then hangs up. 

Chanyeol throws his phone on the bed and gets dressed, it was a simple attire, some Blue Jeans that were ripped in the knees and a plain white T-shirt. He slipped on his boots before making his way out of his room not forgetting to pocket his phone. 

But as soon as he leaves his room he hears yelling. 

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOOD FOR?!" it was the angry, booming voice of his father and Chanyeol was already running quickly down the steps. 

He turns the corner into the living room, it was scarce save for a sofa and a wooden table, also there was a lone, dusty bookshelf that sat in the corner of the room. Chanyeol saw his father standing over the crumpled form of his stepmother and he quickly springs into action as his father raises a fist in the air ready to bring it down. 

He grabs at his fathers broad, bulky shoulders trying to pull him back,

"Don't!" he shouts but his father wasn't listening. 

"YOU THINK YOU CAN AROUND ALL NIGHT AND THEN COME SLEEP IN THE SAME BED AS ME!?" he yells 

Chanyeol continues to pull at him,  it his father was having none of it. "LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARD!" he shouts at Chanyeol swinging his fist behind him and connecting with Chanyeol's jaw. 

He goes sprawling to the floor, pain shooting through the side of his face, his father now turned to him "YOU SHOULD ING STAY OUT OF GROWN UPS BUSINESS" he yells in Chanyeol's face bringing a fist down into his side.

Chanyeol grunts at the pain and force "LEARN SOME ING MANNERS" he keeps yelling, laying another punch in Chanyeol's stomach to which he curls in on himself coughing.

This wasn't a new occurance, stuff like this has been happening since he's been living with his father, he would lose his temper and take it out on either him or his stepmother. Nothing ever pleased him, he would just drink until he was too drunk to remember who we were  but then put on a facade for the whole town to see, no one knows what he's really like, no one knows he's a monster ready to tear you to shreds at any moment.

Chanyeol tries to get up, this is not how he thought his morning would start off, but what was new? Nothing good ever came his way. He felt a kick to his back and he falls face first into the wood floor, he feels a foot rest on his back, pinning him there. 

"you want my attention that bad?" Chanyeol can hear the sneer in his voice "well then I'll give it to you".

There was sudden pressure on his back and then a blinding pain as his father steps on him putting all his weight behind it. Chanyeol released a loud, exasperated yell as his stomach presses hard into the wood floor, his ribs feeling as if they'll break.

"stop" a soft voice come from behind them. It was his stepmother who had grabbed onto his fathers leg, she hated seeing the poor boy get beat up, always worse than before.

His father momentarily stops stepping on him and Chanyeol takes the opportunity to push his foot off and roll away landing on his back with a wince. He was was breathing heavily and he felt sore all over, he slumps an arm across his stomach and the other over his face. 

"both of you are the same, two pieces of " his father growls 

Chanyeol hears his footsteps retreat out of the living room and he releases a sigh of relief. When will this stop? How much more can he take? How much more can they both take? Suddenly images flash before him and his chest starts aching, was this his punishment? Was this what he deserved?

He feels a hand on his and he flinches thinking it was his father and winces at the pain from the sudden movement. "don't move, it's okay" he hears his stepmothers soothing voice fall over him. 

Chanyeol removes his arm from over his eyes to look at her, there were purple bruises all over her once flawless skin and a deep sadness in her eyes that Chanyeol wishes he could remove or just take it from her and embed it in himself, after all this was his fault wasn't it?

"I'm sorry" he chokes out hoarsly "I'm so sorry" 

He didn't know what he was apologizing for. He didn't know if he was apologizing to her for being in this state so many times and her having to tend to him despite her bruises and injuries or if he was apologizing for the fact that this was his fault, he just felt like he needed to apologize and soon there were tears spilling over his eyes. He feels her hand caress his face, wiping away the tears. He feels her slowly pull him into her lap and Chanyeol grunts, closing his eyes,

"it'll all be okay" she says softly brushing his hair and if Chanyeol tried hard enough he could imagine they were her hands, how she used to do this when he felt sad or stressed. 

Neither of them believed these words, but they both found comfort in them hoping and wishing they could be true. 

------------

"here you go" Sehun hands him the hot coffee.

"thanks" Chanyeol takes it and despite the sun's rising heat over the horizon he basks in the hotness of the drink. 

Chanyeol had lead the horses out of the barn to stretch their legs, all four of them. Lilly, Casket, Roman, and Marbles.

"so whats on the agenda today?" Sehun asks taking a sip of his tea. Sehun loved tea, he says it's better than coffee in all aspects but Chanyeol could argue otherwise. 

"well, we've got to shave the sheep, feed the pigs, let the cows out for some exercise and start fixing that bench" he informs

Sehun groans at the sound of so much work. He only started working here because he needed a job and because his best friend was too, he didn't know being a farm hand was such hard work all the time.

Chanyeol chuckles at his friends laziness "come on let's get to it" 

They let the horses run off as they go over to the pig pen in the barn,

"these, guys always stink" Sehun comments "what so good about rolling around in mud?" 

Sehun picks up on of the large buckets that were already filled with slop and enters the pen.

"if I recall correctly, when we were in fifth grade, you read that mud exfoliates the skin and when it rained you rolled around in a puddle of mud" Chanyeol says pouring the contents of the bucket in the feeder

"you did to!?" he exclaims 

"only because you pulled my arm and made me fall in, we both got in trouble that day" Chanyeol recalls.

Although he kept it to himself that his father whipped him with his belt that evening and proceeded to tie him upside down to the tree in their backyard for hours, getting soaked by the rain. Something about how filth shouldn't be allowed in his house and that if he loved rain so much he could stay outside in it. He caught a bad cold after that,

"all I'm saying is, don't judge the pigs if you did the same thing" he finishes. 

Unexpectedly Chanyeol's foot gets caught on one of the stalls and the bucket slips from his grasp,

"look at you being a clutz" Sehun says walking up.

He bends down to pick up the bucket but pain shots through his sore side and aching back and he groans.

Sehun turns around "what's wrong?" he asks placing the bucket back in its spot before coming back 

He waves him off "nothing" he says trying to hid the fact that he was holding his side. He picks up the bucket fighting back another groan but he couldn't help the wince that his body did. 

"Chanyeol, are you hurt?" Sehun sound concerned now

"no I'm fine, honestly" Chanyeol pushes out a smile as he stands up straight. "see? I just hit my side on the stall gate"

Sehun huffs "you're always so clumsy, I don't know what girls see in you" he flicks Chanyeol's forehead playfully.

"come on we have sheep to shave" he turns around and continues walking down the barn to the sheep pen.

Chanyeol frowns at his predicament, his back aching more at the abrupt way he stood up, this is not the time to be showing pain, he follows Sehun after placing his bucket down.

As they bring the sheep's outside, Chanyeol hears the angry clucking of chickens coming from his right. He looks over to see what they were going on about and saw the boy roaming around the masses. What was he doing in the chicken pen, again? Chanyeol couldn't help but chuckle remembering how startled the boy got last night. 

"hey, Sehun!" he shouts to the boy far ahead.

He turns around surprised to see that Chanyeol was not close behind him,

"what are you doing!?" he calls back 

Chanyeol looked from the boy, who was clearly struggling back to Sehun 

"can you take the sheep's the rest of the way? I have something to take care off" he says.

He could see the puzzled look from Sehun all the way from where he stood, but he just shrugs and continues to lead the sheep, thank goodness because Chanyeol didn't know what he would've told him, he himself didn't even know why he was going over there but he turned around anyways making his way to the chicken coop area.