Everything is warm and fuzzy.

Everything is perfect.

Sunlight streams in through the curtains, turning his surroundings into a bright orange glow. 

Chanyeol turns around lazily in his blankets. His eyelids feel heavy, and everything around him seems to be part of a surreal, blurry dream.

From where Chanyeol is, he sees a figure lying down beside him, wrapped up in a thick layer of blanket. Somehow, for reasons Chanyeol can't fathom, he feels a sudden urge to shift closer, to wrap his arms around the figure, to join the figure underneath the blanket.

The figure lets out a soft, muffled murmur, and Chanyeol finds himself smiling out of his own accord. 

The thumping of his own heart becomes louder, and it is the only thing Chanyeol hears as he slides even closer to the figure. He feels something surging up from deep within him, filling him up like the way ink dissolves in water, or the way light flows freely into a dark room.

It travels all the way to the tip of his fingers. Chanyeol reaches over and touches the fabric of the blanket, as if it could soothe the overwhelming feeling that was threatening to overwhelm him. Eventually he wraps a firm arm around the figure, pressing himself as close as he could, heartbeat quickening as the figure stirs under his hold.

It's okay, I'm here to protect you now...

The blanketed lump shifts to reveal a mop of soft, brown hair that seems so strangely familiar...

"Chanyeol-ah! It's time for school!"

Chanyeol jolts awake at the sound of his mum's call from the living room. 

What was that dream?

He fumbles around for his digital clock, fingers catching onto nothing but thin air during the first few tries. His fingers eventually closes around his clock during the 4th try, and he lifts the clock in front of his eyes, rubbing his eyes groggily as he does so.

8.57am. Which is almost 9am... Which means...

"! I'm late!" Chanyeol curses as he leaps out of his bed, throwing the covers away. "Mum! Why didn't you wake me??"

Chanyeol sees his mum walk into the room, left hand holding a cup containing a warm drink of some sort, and her wavy short hair sticking in all directions.

"Oh, I just woke up too..." She yawns as if reiterate her point, and Chanyeol slaps his palm against his forehead. So much for having a muddlehead as a mother.

After the fastest 10 minutes ever, Chanyeol runs out of the house in big, hurried leaps, holding a piece of half-eaten toast in one hand and his school file in the other.

He doesn't forget to wave to Auntie Byun, who waves back at him from her front porch.

He doesn't like it when his band members about Baekhyun.

It's a normal day after band practice at Jinki's house. 

He's just zipping up his backpack and guitar case and getting ready to leave when he hears Kibum's taunting voice floating into his ear.

"Ooooh, Chanyeollie is going to visit his dear Baekhyunnie again?" Kibum snorts at his own comment, and Jonghyun just grins stupidly from behind his shoulder. Kibum sighs and picks at his fingernails, his voice mimicking that of a lovestruck teenage girl. "Can't even spend a second without him, oooh how sweet..."

"How sweet..." Jonghyun echoes, and starts cackling a millisecond after Kibum does.

"I still don't get it... What's so good about the toddler?" Jinki appears from the kitchen, his hand holding a bowl of crisps. 

Kibum leaps over the sofa to where Jinki was, and grabs a bunch of crisps from the bowl. "Your obsession with Baekhyun is crazy. Why would someone even hang out with a two-year-old baby?" The crisps crunch under Kibum's teeth. 

Jonghyun takes some of the crisps from Kibum's hands. "Yeah. Why would they?" He pops the crisps into his mouth.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

"Babies are so lame." Kibum drawls, putting more crisps into his mouth while Jonghyun just nods in agreement. "They can't do anything for themselves, and they just cry all the time."

But you were once a baby too, Chanyeol wants to retort, but the words get lodged up in his throat as Kibum's judging stare pierces into his soul.

"Hanging out with a baby isn't even fun." Jinki says through a mouthful of chips. "What do you even do when you are with Baekhyun?"

 "Exactly!" Kibum exclaims, turning around to high five Jinki. "What do you even do there? Wipe off drool from his ugly face?" Kibum sneers. 

Crunch. Crunch.

"Well, actually, I should stop talking. You wouldn't want to miss any precious hang-out time with Baekhyunnie, wouldn't you?" The bowl of crisps is getting emptier and emptier by the second. "Tell the creature we said hi."

Crunch.

He feels the anger boil within him, slow and bubbling.

"You are not allowed to insult him like that."

The voice that comes out of Chanyeol is cold and dangerous, unrecognisable even to his own ears. His fists are balled up by his sides, nails digging harshly into his palm, and even though he isn't looking at them, he knows that his knuckles are turning white at the moment. 

Kibum lets out an amused snort. "What do you mean by 'allowed'? Does that creature even belong to you?"

He isn't sure what happens next, he only remembers the arenaline pumping through him and Kibum's obnoxious laughter coming to an abrupt stop as he lands a punch onto Kibum's face.

"Park Chanyeol, the principal would like to speak to you." The teacher annnounces. 

Chanyeol feels his entire being turn cold immediately. 

He feels all pairs of eyes in the classroom being trained onto him in that same instant. 

"Do I go now?" Chanyeol's feels like something is lodged in his throat, but he manages to get those words out anyway. He meets his teacher's eyes for a fleeting moment--Miss Kim, his favourite teacher--and he doesn't know what he sees. Disappointment? Confusion? Anger? 

Miss Kim nods her head without saying anything, and Chanyeol knows that the inevitable has come.

Of course. Of course it would happen. Kim Kibum isn't one who would keep quiet about things. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if half the school population already knew, from Kibum's whining abilities and extensive network of friends. Oh, the large, purpling bruise surrounding Kibum's left eye probably didn't help either. 

The dread sinks into the pit of his stomach. With slow, forced movements, Chanyeol rises from his seat, and takes a few stiff steps towards the classroom door.

"He's screwed." He hears someone whisper.

Yes, yes I am, Chanyeol thinks, as he walks past Miss Kim's unreadable expression, out of the classroom door and into the corridor leading to the principal's office.

It gets worse when he sees his mother already seated in the principal's office when he arrives. 

It's so painfully obvious that his mother doesn't belong there, with her wicked curly hair and dresses that are too embarassing and flowery to be worn outside of home. But there she is, sitting across from where he's standing, her face a mixture of worry, disbelief and confusion. Chanyeol shifts his eyes away from his mum's face. He doesn't want to see that now.

"Ah, there he is." A sharp, unpleasant female voice speaks, and Chanyeol immediately recognises it as Kibum's mother's voice. He jerks his head back up in the direction of the voice. Kibum's mother scowling, middle-aged woman, her black hair swept up into a neat bun, donned in a dress shirt and a pencil skirt. She's much more fashionable than his own mum, and from what he can see, it's obvious that there is a stark contrast between the two women sitting in the room.

Beside the scowling woman is the scowling son himself. Kibum eyes Chanyeol with disgust, the blue-black around his eye more prominent than ever. Chanyeol doesn't feel a single bit sorry for Kibum though--he kind of deserved it anyway.

He's just afraid of the consequences he will have to face.

The disappointment from his parents.

From his teachers.

From Auntie and Uncle Byun, even.

He is a good kid, he swears. Chanyeol hasn't had a single discipline record before in his entire life. 

But the disappoving look from the principal he was recieving right now meant that things are going to change.

"Chanyeol-ah..." 

Chanyeol ignores his mum. He doesn't want to know what she has to say.

It's over.

"Chanyeol-ah, look at me..."

Chanyeol feels the hard work, all those years of hard work, trying to be a good student, trying to perfect his school records, go down the drain. 

"Chanyeol-ah, don't ignore me."

I'm a disappointment.

It wasn't like Chanyeol didn't try to defend himself. "He insulted Baekhyun!" Chanyeol had protested angrily. To which Kibum had scoffed "He's just a two-year old kid! Why would someone get so worked up over a baby?" and the principal had politely questioned "Of what relation does Baekhyun have to you, Chanyeol?"

Chanyeol didn't have an answer to both of those questions.

His mother tried to explain to the principal. "Baekhyun is my friend's son... Yes, he is only two years old... No, Baekhyun means a lot to Chanyeol, you see, they have known each other ever since Baekhyun was born, and Chanyeol goes over often to play with him... No, they are not brothers... You don't need to be blood related to be close to each other sir, I have been good friends with Baekhyun's mother since high school, and naturally, our sons became close..."

Needless to say, Chanyeol's mum lost the argument. "Is that two-year-old kid enough a reason for my son to get punched? For my son to suffer such injuries? Whatever it is, this young man needs to be punished for his act of violence. He needs to compensate for the injuries my poor son has suffered!"

Which may be the reason why Chanyeol now has a black mark on his previously pristine discipline record and weeks of detention to go through.

I'm stupid. I'm impulsive. I'm a failure.

I've let my parents down.

When he reaches home, Chanyeol makes a beeline for his room, disregarding the concerned looks from his parents thrown his way.

Chanyeol shuts himself in his own room and curls up underneath the comfort of him own blankets.

He ignores the incessant knocking on the door, the callings of "Chanyeol-ah..." from his mother. He blocks everything out and tries not to let the tears fall, because he's not supposed to cry. He's supposed to be strong.

The knocking on his doors stop after some time, and Chanyeol feels relief. He doesn't want to face anybody right now.

However, not long after, he feels the door creak open, and familiar, pitter-pattering footsteps...

"Channie-hyung!" The familiar cry resounds in his room. The footsteps approach him, but Chanyeol makes no move to acknowledge it. 

For the first time in his life, Chanyeol doesn't want to see Baekhyun.

"Channie-hyung play with Teddy!" He hears the footsteps stop and feels tiny fingers prod him through the blanket. "Teddy wants to play too!"

Chanyeol groans. "Baek... stop." He doesn't want to play with Baekhyun now, because he doesn't know what he is thinking now, his mind is a jumbled mess of emotions right now, and Chanyeol feels his thoughts slipping out of control...

"Channie-hyu--"

"I said stop!" Chanyeol violently throws back the blankets, and he sees Baekhyun jump in shock, his right arm half-stretched towards him. 

"... No play?" Baekhyun manages in a tiny, hesitant voice, a voice that he has never used with Chanyeol before. Chanyeol feels a twinge of guilt as he sees Baekhyun's hurt and confused face, but his anger gets the better of him and his thoughts start to spiral out of control again, and suddenly he blames every single thing on Baekhyun, because without Baekhyun, he wouldn't get laughed at by his bandmates, he wouldn't have picked a fight with Kibum, and everything wouldn't have happened...

"It's all your fault!" Chanyeol exclaims in a fit of childish anger. "Nothing would have happened if it weren't for you!"

Chanyeol can't seem to stop the words from tumbling out from his mouth. "It's all your fault that my bandmates laughed at me. It's your fault that I fought with Kibum. It's your fault that I got punished!"

He stops because tears are welling up in Baekhyun's eyes, and then it drips down Baekhyun's perfect, chubby cheeks. Baekhyun's lips tremble and then he starts to sob loudly, the teddy that Chanyeol had given him for his birthday clasped tightly in his arms. The sight of Baekhyun crying is heartbreaking, to say the least, and Chanyeol wants to reach over to wipe off those tears flowing down his cheeks, get rid of Baekhyun's broken sobbing, and hug Baekhyun tight and tell him that he didn't mean it, he didn't mean any of it...

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was a bad day..." Out of nowhere, Auntie Byun appears (Was she watching the entire time?) and scoops the crying Baekhyun into her arms. She backs out of the door quickly, softly cajoling the crying baby, gently patting his hair.

The guilt hits Chanyeol then, and before Chanyeol can do anything, Auntie Byun disappears, and the crying sounds of Baekhyun gets softer and softer. 

(But it never really disappears, because Baekhyun and Chanyeol are neighbours, and Chanyeol still hears Baekhyun crying even as he reaches home.)

I actually updated yes kill me now

Sorry for the super long wait its been like, 6 months??? i'm a bad bad author

and omg where are all these subs coming from i have 388 subs now??? from updating nothing??? i don't deserve this T___T

for all the subs i have out there, sorry bcos i really at updating ugh don't say i didn't warn you :'(

and to all those that comment... <33333 i love you all so much

and to the 41 upvoters... :') you guys are too nice <33

also, this is not yet proofread sorry :(

oh, if you want an idea of what baby baek would look like...

look at this adorable piece of askld;fdjkal;f

and bonus young!chanyeol