Frost Tree
All Over Again
5 Frost Tree
Chanyeol walked into the green house with a flustered look. He had never seen so much greenery in one room before. Chanyeol had agreed to meet Baekhyun at the Gorg Greenhouse, located about one mile away from school.
He eyed the plum tree as he walked down the aisle of fruit trees. It wasn't long before Baekhyun arrived with a loud thud. That seemed to be the door he loudly shut as he entered.
"Chanyeol! I'm here!" Baekhyun skidded over to him, almost knocking down a plum tree. Chanyeol gritted his teeth.
"Why do we have to meet here? Why couldn't you just get an apple seed?" Chanyeol looked tired as he said all of this to Baekhyun. Baekhyun, apparently not getting the memo of what Chanyeol was trying to say, walked around the greenhouse freely.
"Hello there!" A skinny, pale, old woman, who seemed to work there, walked over to them. She smiled as she looked at Baekhyun.
But as her eyes moved towards Chanyeol, her smile faded a bit. "I know you! You came in a long time ago with that tall gentlemen!"
Chanyeol didn't recall any 'young gentlemen.' Unless it was-
"How is he doing? He was so polite to me the last time he came. He gave me his grocery..." The woman's smile was too big to put into words. Chanyeol held back. He couldn't tell her; not when she was this happy.
Chanyeol gave a small cough and looked at Baekhyun, who was standing behind the lady. Baekhyun swiftly turned around and pretended to look at the trees around him, but Chanyeol knew he was listening and looking at Chanyeol's face before. Baekhyun knew something was wrong with Chanyeol, but he wasn't going to talk about it here.
"So? How is he?" The woman asked Chanyeol again. "I just wanted to thank him."
Chanyeol couldn't hold it in anymore. "He's..." He choked on the word he was about to say, "gone."
Baekhyun didn't need to look over at him to know that Chanyeol had gulped down that word. 'Gone' was what he had just said. Baekhyun quickly grabbed a packet of seeds and walked up to the woman, handing her the money.
She didn't seem to notice Baekhyun, because she look at Chanyeol concerningly. "Gone..? What do you mean gone?"
"Ahjumma! Here's the money! Let's go Chanyeol!" Baekhyun pushed the money into the lady's hand and then pulled Chanyeol by the arm.
"Hey, you bought the wrong seed!" Chanyeol looked flustered by it.
"Who cares? Are you all right? You looked a bit pale back there." Baekhyun's fingers crawled up to Chanyeol's shoulder.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Chanyeol continued eyeing the packet of seeds.
"If I'm not mistaken, you said we were going to plant apple seeds!" Chanyeol raised his voice a bit louder.
Baekhyun stared at the packet of seeds he was holding.
"Sorry, I was in a rush to...save you." Baekhyun took a quick glance at Chanyeol and continued looking at the packet of seeds.
"Whatever, let's just...go..." Chanyeol shoved his hands into his leather jacket's pockets and walked on.
"I'll go back and trade it for the apple seeds if you want." Baekhyun tailed Chanyeol, which was very hard to do, considering the fact that the snow was falling quickly by now. Baekhyun lifted his hands right on Chanyeol's shoulder and rubbed off the snow that settled on it.
"It's all right." With that, Chanyeol was quiet the whole walk.
"My house is over here." Baekhyun grabbed on the Chanyeol's arm to steer him around the corners.
As they reached Baekhyun's house, he reached into his pockets to take out the packet of seeds.
"I don't think it'll grow in the snow..." Baekhyun murmered. Chanyeol grabbed the packets of seeds and read the back nistructions out loud.
"Must grow in natural climate. Any other climate will result unexpectedly." Chanyeol threw the packet back to Baekhyun.
"Just grow it." Chanyeol walked out.
"What should we call our tree?" Baekhyun called out after him.
Chanyeol paused. Naming a tree. It was something he used to do with another 'young gentlemen.' The way it used to be. He was a record player all over agin. He would always rewind the past and not move forward.
Stop thinking about him, he would tell himself over and over again. It was no use. Kris was his first real friend.
They planted that tree together. They checked on it day after day. They cared for it. They watered it.The only things they didn't get to do together was name the tree, and see the tree fully grown.
Chanyeol tried swallowing the lump that was forming in his throat but that did no good. Tears formed into big clouds in his eyes, and dropping rapidly. He tried sniffing quietly, but it apparantly wasn't quiet enough.
author's note
»I was distracted while writing this chapter. Sorry for the crappiness ):
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