A/N : Unbetad hence, forgive the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. This was getting way too long. I had to somehow stop myself. I hope you enjoy. Please leave comments down below and upvotes. Let me know your views. I'd really appreciate it! ^.^

“ that alien!” Chanyeol swore for the nth time that morning as he continued to channel his violent anger and spite on every unlucky pebble that lay on the tracks on Chanyeol’s way to school.

“Bro.. ”, Choi Tae Joon began, rubbing his temples

and “..ing Stop!”, Lee Jong Hyun ended it for him, 

as Zico sighed, rolling his eyes at Chanyeol whose childish tantrums would see no end every time it concerned their old neighbor, Byun Baekhyun.

Chanyeol only let out a low primal growl as he continued abusing every pebble he found on the track.

———————————————————————————————————

It was recess. Four hours had passed since the three boys witnessed Chanyeol fuming once again over Byun Baekhyun that morning. 

It wasn’t a surprise since hating Baekhyun was a part of Chanyeol’s daily rituals. Wake up —> think about Baekhyun’s demise, brush teeth —> plot Baekhyun’s demise, shower —> laugh thinking about Baekhyun slipping on the bathroom tiles and dying, have breakfast —> inwardly chuckle thinking about Baekhyun choking on the bread and dying, leave home —> wishing when he comes back from school his mother FINAL-ING-LY gives him the much-awaited news of Byun Baekhyun’s demise.

But today’s events were a clear indication of the fact that Chanyeol had met his father on his way out. Mr. Park worked nightshifts. He usually got back home after Chanyeol left for school and left home before Chanyeol got back from school. Chanyeol purposely avoided all contact with him but sometimes he’d leave his office early and end up getting back home before Chanyeol left. Those were the days Chanyeol hated Baekhyun 10x more than usual. 

The Parks and Byuns were family friends. Their fathers work in the same company and they both work night shifts together. They have been friends since elementary school. Everyone in their small town knew each other but Mr. Park and Mr. Byun were what people usually call “best friends”. Everything in their lives was perfectly in sync. They grew up together, graduated together, started working together, got married to their beautiful wives on the same day in the same church, together, had their first child the same year, decided to get their first children married to each other since Mr. Byun had a boy and Mr. Park had a girl, they had their second child the same year as well. Everything was perfect.

* It was all perfect but Baekhyun began speaking at the age of 3 months and Chanyeol could barely hold his head straight. It was all perfect but Baekhyun was already reading ancient literature and astrophysics at the age of 4 and Chanyeol was struggling to hold his pencil right. It was all perfect when the word spread about Baekhyun being a child prodigy as he designed a car engine that could run on energy drawn from vacuum in the backyard of his house with scrap materials at the age of 7 and Chanyeol was still struggling to remember the multiplication table of the first 9 digits. 

It was all perfect until one fine day a helicopter landed on the open fields of their small town for the first time in its history and a few suited white men stepped out of it heading straight for the Byun’s worn out old house where they spent an hour discussing something with the elder Byuns and as they stepped out holding a luggage bag that Mr. Byun generally carried on his short trips out of town, much to everyone’s surprise Byun Baekhyun followed them into their helicopter and left for what people later found out was a special school of ‘gifted children’ in the States, becoming the first person in town to ever go abroad or even ride a helicopter for that matter.

Park Chanyeol had always felt small next to Byun Baekhyun ever since they shared cradles but that day he felt absolutely non-existent when he stared at the helicopter in the horizon with dreamy eyes and said that he wanted to fly in a helicopter and go where Baekhyun was going but his father said, “you’re too dumb for that, son” and his sister laughed at him while his mother looked liked she pitied him as they went back home, leaving him in the midst of the vast expanse of harvested crops, feeling worthless, hopeless, meaningless and betrayed. Most of all, he felt lonely. He didn’t know why, but nothing was perfect ever since.

What he did know though, was that he absolutely loathed and despised Byun Baekhyun’s very existence.  If the ‘Child Prodigy’ didn’t exist, Chanyeol’s life would’ve be a ton -ing- better. 

However, that day on the crop-field, in the midst of his inner turmoil and tear-blurred vision he missed the sad smile and silent tears of a petite boy waving at him from inside the helicopter for what would be the last time they would meet in ten years.

——————————————————————————————————

“Do you think he knows?” Jong Hyun whispered from across the lunch table barely audible enough for Tae Joon.

“He’d have internally combusted by now if he did.” Tae Joon hissed.

Chanyeol sitting next to Jong Hyun, was busy huffing-puffing and grumbling incoherently while violently poking and smashing the green peas on his plate.

“Then what’s with him?” Jong Hyun’s whisper might have been a little too loud for his own good for Chanyeol had heard him now, was fuming and glaring at him, preparing himself for the rant and poor Zico just wanted to eat in peace for the love of the meat on his plate!

“What’s with me? WHAT’S WITH M-” Chanyeol’s large hand slammed on their lunch table loud enough to silence the entire cafeteria in one go. All eyes were on the four handsome male students who were the centre of attention of all of the school’s population anyways and yet they could feel everyone’s burning gazes stinging their skin like they’ve never gotten used to it. “I SAW THE OLD MAN ON MY WAY OUT THIS MORNING AND HE STILL ING HAS THAT SAME LOOK ON HIS FACE HE DID THAT DAY TEN YEARS AGO! HE STILL ING THINKS HE CREATED A WORTHLESS PIECE OF THE I WANT TO ING STRANGLE THEM ALL TO DEATH!” and the next moment Chanyeol was stomping out of the exit leaving his friends to deal with the embarrassment that followed as the entire food court erupted into whispers and giggles, most of them being girls talking about how hot Chanyeol looked when he was mad and that he should do it more often.

“Listen,” Zico doesn’t usually speak so when he does, everyone pays attention. That and also, he’s funny. He took a deep breath before continuing in all seriousness. “I just want to eat my meat in peace.”

“Bro, that sounds so wrong.” Jong Hyun shuddered.

“Look,” Zico picked a piece of meat from his plate with his chopsticks and brought it close to Jong Hyun’s face, “you can use this in the nurse’s office if they run out of ice.” He ate it afterwards and added, “cold meat tastes like dead meat.” before wincing as he swallowed.

“All this just because he saw his Dad’s face this morning? tard has it all in his head. We’ve met his Dad several times. Poor ol’ man has no such ‘look’ on his face that the idiot talks about.” Tae Joon shook his head dejectedly.

“Now you see,” Zico gestured for the other two to come closer and continued, “imagine, Baekhyun was here. Back in town.” He let it sink in and when it did both Jong Hyun and Tae Joon gasped in sync, a look of horror marring their handsome features. “Exactly.” Zico leaned back on his seat, rubbing his belly and burping in satisfaction.

———————————————————————————————————

Byun Baekhyun was coming back home. After ten years of studying abroad, partaking in several scientific researches towards the advancement of mankind in the field of medical and space sciences, gaining himself a quadruple Ph.D, several awards, becoming a renowned world leader and strangely a icon too (I mean who isn’t attracted to handsome, hygienic, sane, smart people?), Byun Baekhyun was finally coming back home after ten years with an important project that involved changing his hometown into a smart city that entirely ran on alternate energy sources. No longer would they have to work so hard in their fields and mines all day. Most, if not all work would be done by A.I. and the town would have its local data-centers and top-notch security on both physical and virtual levels. Smart Schools would be set up for children of all ages and elders would be educated on basic living standards with current technology. The entire project was single-handedly funded by Byun Baekhyun’s company. 

Yes, he was rich. 

It was the talk of the town since the last three weeks when the word first reached the town, however, this word never reached Park Chanyeol for the whole town was aware of his hostile mental attitude towards the elder male, including the Byuns and people were afraid Chanyeol would say or do something that would make Baekhyun change his mind about his return since everybody knew the kind of effect Chanyeol had on Baekhyun. 

Everybody but Chanyeol. 

Chanyeol was too dumb to notice and too young to remember. 

______________________________________________________________________

It was a Sunday morning. What the was all the commotion about? Chanyeol rubbed his sandy eyes and ruffled his bed hair, squinting as he adjusted to the morning light. His alarm clock read 7 AM. He peeped out of his window spotting a huge crowd of reporters outside the Byun’s residence. It wasn’t the first time this had happened. Every time Baekhyun did something ‘remarkable’ somewhere around the world, a bunch of journalists would show up at the doorstep of the Byun’s residence that was now a mansion, to interview his family. Funny thing though was how they asked the same questions every time, “How do you feel about your son’s recent achievement?” being the most common and then proceeding to the regulars - “Please advice the children around the world on how to be more like your son!”, “Is Baekhyun currently single?”, “Are all members of your family geniuses or did you have anyone in your ancestral history who was a genius too?”… blah blah…

Chanyeol rolled his eyes, battling the urge to pick up whatever his hands could grab and throw them at the reporters as he shut his window with a loud bang and slipped back into his covers to get a few more hours of sleep before his friends would show up to drag him to watch a local basketball game this evening in a neighbouring town. 

As expected his friends did show up sooner than he expected, to drag him to the local basketball game in the neighbouring town that they had been talking about all evening yesterday. “What’s the hurry? There’s still time!”, he yelled as they impatiently poked his sloth to speed up with unlocking his bicycle and getting it on the road because they wanted to be seated in the front row. 

On his way out, he didn’t fail to notice how the reporters were still outside the Byun residency and also what looked like a Porsche parked somewhere inside the gates. He figured that’s what the fuss was about. Baekhyun probably gifted his family a new car that arrived earlier today and these jobless reporters and some people of his town were here to get a desperate glimpse of it.

He set his feet on the bicycle pedal and positioned himself to push forward when, “Baekhyun!” yelled one of the repoters, “Baekhyun, please give us some more details about the project to transform your hometown!” “Baekhyun!” another yelled, “How does it feel coming back home after ten years?” “Baekhyun!” and it kept coming.

Chanyeol felt the ground slip from under his feet. He stood paralyzed, his head a little dizzy and mouth agape, listlessly staring at the road he was supposed to take, the road his friends had already set themselves on and were paddling as fast as they possibly could, in order to attend some godforsaken local basketball game. He stared at their backs disappearing into the horizon without really registering anything in particular. His heart was beating so loud he was afraid he’d pop a blood vessel. Baekhyun was here. He was back in town. Back in his house. Diagonally opposite Chanyeol’s house. The person his entire life had been centered around since he first came into existence, whom he thought he would never meet again, whom he’d rather be dead than meet again, was back in his life. He was failing to comprehend the situation and figure how to react despite him playing this scene in his head multiple times for ten whole years.

“If he comes back, I will kill him with my own bare hands.” had been the ultimate goal of the teenager’s life for the last ten years. It’s not that he had changed his mind. Nor was he a . No. Absolutely, not. He just needed to catch his breath for a second and bring his heart rate down to normal. Yes. That’s exactly the reason he abandoned his bicycle outside the Byun’s gates, dashed into his house and was currently curled up under his duvet unaware of the sweat beads covering his forehead.

“This is just a dream.” he whispered to himself, “A ing nightmare. Just go back to sleep Chanyeol. When you wake up tomorrow morning, all of this will be gone. This is just in your head. Go back to sleep.”, he kept chanting to himself like a mantra that he believed would change his reality. Eventually, he did however manage to fall asleep.

The best thing about not being smart is to be able to forget things easily. Chanyeol woke up the next morning, clueless as to why, how and when he fell asleep. So, he resumed his daily rituals. Wake up —> think about Baekhyun’s-

…

Holy Sh*t

He scuffled to his feet and dashed out of his house halting right outside the Byun’s gates. Much to his relief, there were no reporters. There was no Porche. There was no trace of Byun Baekhyun either. He sighed, scratching his nape as he dragged his feet back to his room, then his bathroom and brush his teeth —> plot Baekhyun’s demise…

——————————————————————————————————

“Bro, where were you last evening? The Tarzans won man!”

“They didn’t just win, the match was ing savage! They legit butchered their opponents!”

And Tae Joon and Jong Hyun continued discussing the basketball match with stars in their eyes the rest of their way to school while Zico munched on his extra cheese corndogs and Chanyeol kept kicking every pebble that dared come in his way.

———————————————————————————————————

The announcement said that they had a special guest coming over for a lecture today and all students were requested to take their seats in the main hall. Chanyeol wanted to bunk but Tae Joon was curious,  Jong Hyun liked the velvet seats in the main hall because “they are so comfortable to sleep in, dude!” and Zico was too bored to take sides or think so he let himself be dragged by Tae Joon and Chanyeol had no choice but to follow.

For the next twenty minutes all faculty and staff seemed to be slowly coming in and filling up the front seats and all student council members were busy setting up the stage and tables, bringing in water bottles and bouquets and making other necessary arrangements to welcome the special guest. Slowly reporters began occupying the empty spaces in hall with their mics, recorders and cameras and Chanyeol couldn’t help but wonder what all the fuss was about. 

Then it happened. They introduced a certain someone followed by a huge round of applause but Chanyeol couldn’t hear or see anything after, not because the entire hall was pin-drop-silenced and all lights were out except for the one illuminating the ethereal male at the podium on the dais getting ready to address his audience but because he was internally spazzing and visibly breaking into cold sweat. He was too far gone to notice his friends uncomfortably shifting in their seats next to him and side-eyeing him. He was so mad he could feel the tip of his ears fuming as he huffed bouts of hot air through his flared-up nostrils. His jaws hurt from clenching them so tight and his eyeballs might fall out of their sockets any moment now, thanks to all the glares he was shooting in the petite male’s direction. 

He wanted to get up and leave the hall but he knew all exits were closed. He felt Zico elbow him, whispering something in the lines of “hold your horses” but Baekhyun was on stage, talking about his plans to change their town and lecturing people almost his own age about success and knowledge like he was so much better than them. Like he was so much better than Park Chanyeol. Because Park Chanyeol was “too dumb for that”. Park Chanyeol was “too dumb” only because a Byun Baekhyun existed who was “too ing smart”.

And then there was absolute silence. Byun Baekhyun had stopped his speech midway and was staring at him. Why was he staring at him? He looked around and everyone was staring at him. He felt a tug at his sleeve from a Tae Joon who was trying to disappear into his seat for some reason with a Jong Hyun next to him who had already passed out, drooling from one corner of his mouth and… had he always been this taller than them?

“Do you have something you’d like to share?” 

Baekhyun’s voice brought his attention back to the stage. The elder’s voice had gotten heavier since the last time they spoke with each other ten years ago but it still felt like pure wild honey running through his fingers. Wait. Was he talking to Chanyeol? Why would Chanyeol have anything to share with Byun Baekhyun? Doesn’t Byun Baekhyun already have everything and more? Chanyeol’s dumbfounded expression might have spoken louder than his sealed lips because,

“I’m sorry, you abruptly stood up so I thought you wanted to say something”, came the polished male’s polite response. 

Was Byun Baekhyun blushing? Wait. Who stood up? Chanyeol took another look around the hall and realised he was standing erect on both feet, fists balled, chest heaving, jaw clenched and nostrils flared, with a Tae Joon and Zico in their seats on either side of him, hiding their faces and pretending to not know him. How he wished he could do the same right now because this was beyond embarrassing but there was no going back now so he figured he might as well man up and ‘share’ his thoughts with their hono