“baekhyun-“

“no.”

cruel. jongin’s mouth dumbly hangs open as he stares at his (poor excuse of a) best friend, disbelief written all over his expression. inhuman. for jongin hadn’t even uttered a word of his request and rejection was stomped on his face roughly like that. betrayal. because jongin trusted him, he trusted baekhyun – and this is the poor treatment he receives.

“i didn’t even say anything.” jongin defended himself and his dignity, eyeing the other with a quite offended expression as baekhyun leaned back against the cafeteria chair, eyes set on the oversized screen of his mobile phone while his thumbs tapped quickly on it.

“you said my name with the grossest sweet tone i know, which also happens to be the tone you use when you’re about to ask me to do some sort of favor you don’t want to do yourself.” baekhyun says quickly and shortly and bluntly just like that, still not raising his gaze from the message box. “so, no.”

if one were to look up the definition of ‘disbelief’ in the dictionary, surely jongin’s face right now would be imprinted on the book’s old pages. he stared, and stared, and stared – but baekhyun didn’t even blink and jongin ended up huffing something along the lines of ‘head’ under his breath, before pulling a chair and sitting next to the other. he was determined.

“look- okay, so, my parents will be out for the night, right?”

baekhyun hums in disinterest.

“and i’m supposed to look out for my little brother.”

“mhmm.”

“but it’s also a good opportunity to spend the evening with kyungsoo, so we can, you know.”

“ew.”

“so i kinda need someone to look out for my brother until i come back home.”

baekhyun snorts and jongin can feel hope slipping away from his fingers. disgrace. disaster. dishonour.

“i’ll buy you pudding.” the taller says quickly, one last hopeful attempt with his one last resource. pudding is the key to baekhyun’s heart, no matter what or the occasion. promises of nice, clear pudding flan has saved jongin many times.
though, something tells him his luck fail and fate will laugh at him this time.

after all, baekhyun hates children.

“nu-uh, not falling for that again.” baekhyun quickly shakes his head just like jongin had expected, causing the younger to whine pitifully. “byun baekhyun does not babysit. not even if you buy me the entire chanel summer collection.”

“c’mooon.” jongin resembled a whiny child whose parents refuse to give candy and it leaves baekhyun wondering who was the actual kid in his house. he didn’t know jongin’s brother, but if he only he were a mini version of his best friend, then baekhyun was completely out of it. “he’s an angel. no, i mean it- really. he talks very softly and he doesn’t throw fits.” jongin continued with his attempts at persuading baekhyun, giving off his best puppy eyes that were being successfully ignored. “you order him something and he does it. you don’t have to tell him to brush his teeth after dinner, he does it alone.”

baekhyun lifts an eyebrow as he finally forces his gaze away from the bright screen, giving the taller a judging look. to trust or not to trust, that was the question.
lying about his brother’s behavior to lure baekhyun into thinking babysitting him would be an easy task was something jongin was most likely to do, for baekhyun has learnt, sadly the hard way, that the other isn’t the most honest friend out there.

(although baekhyun doesn’t quite get a saying on this one. he isn’t better at all in terms of truth and honesty.)

they eye each other for a long while, while in which baekhyun clearly is not impressed and jongin is this close to getting on his knees and begging, when finally, a light bulb sparkles up in his mind and he quickly utters hopeful words, “he likes spider-man too.”

baekhyun stops the thumb tapping, looks back up at jongin, bites on his longer lip and stares. don’t give up. don’t give up. don’t give up.

“…what was that about buying me pudding?”

regret.

the word is written all over baekhyun in invisible but strong ink, marked permanently on his skin for the night the moment he finds himself alone with the kid at jongin’s house. jongin has just left, having in fact closed the front door about fifteen seconds ago – seconds enough for the fake smile of baekhyun’s to disappear and instead be replaced by intense glaring.

the little boy (“his name is sehun, try not to make him cry” were jongin’s words about twenty minutes ago) was standing about a meter away from him, eyeing baekhyun with a curious gaze. his eyes were so shiny baekhyun wondered if the boy got himself a whole starry nightsky trapped in those brown orbs, which bothered him. baekhyun’s intention behind the glaring was precisely to scare off the kid, to maybe have him run to his bedroom and stay there for the following hours until jongin decides to return from doing god knows what with his boyfriend. it was his proof plan with children, one that never fails.

until now, apparently, because sehun did not flinch. he didn’t even seem to get the hint of baekhyun’s look, confirmed the moment a smile grew on his lips and baekhyun just knew he was doomed. “do you want to see my bugs collection?”

baekhyun’s brows form two small wrinkles in his forehead and he crunches up his nose, giving the much smaller boy an odd look. “that’s disgusting.”

“they aren’t real bugs.” sehun replies with a casual shrug, not exactly offended but rather reassuring baekhyun of this fact, as if the other actually even bothered with the information. “it’s plastic. real bugs are creepy and they’re ugly like jongin. but these are cool.”

baekhyun merely hums. his children hatred spoke louder than his humour this day, otherwise he would have to admit sehun’s words had their charm. everyone loves to hear a best friend’s siblings talk bad about them. “i really don’t care.”

sehun blinks and baekhyun is hopeful he might have actually offended the kid this time, yet against all odds and crushing baekhyun’s said hope, the younger shrugs and smiles once again. “i’ll show you anyway.”

and off he ran towards his bedroom, leaving behind a quite dumbfounded baekhyun.

“and this one is a ladybug. its real name is very difficult and weird.“ sehun proudly explained, putting the plastic figure of said horrendous creature on baekhyun’s lap. they both sat on the living room’s rug now, baekhyun’s back against the couch as he eyed in disgust how sehun chose to put every bug he’s talked about on top of him.
and note, sehun truly has a big collection.

“this zoo of gross insects on my lap is really starting to bug me.” he mumbles more towards himself than to sehun, gaze down on the figures. the plastic was clear, but it was detailed nevertheless and it sent shivers down his spine. he made a mental note to demand a one-year worth supply of pudding flan from jongin just because of this.

“was that a pun?” sehun raises his curious gaze to eye baekhyun and the formed is taken aback for mere seconds, as he hadn’t even intended to go such way – though it was amusing nevertheless how sehun picked that up.
he still refused to let it show, though.

“you know what a pun is?” he replied with a question of his own instead, brow raising as he momentarily forgot about the bugs on his lap and instead leaned more comfortably against the cushion.

“jongin makes them all the time. he’s really annoying.” sehun innocently replied, looking back down to try to decide which insect to talk about next. he was halfway through his collection, and baekhyun just wanted to go home.

said wish was still far from granted though, given as it was merely five pm and the sun wasn’t even setting yet. sehun seemed excited about his collection nevertheless, going on and on about this and that bug with that heavy lisp of his. baekhyun didn’t want to ask about it, because he may be mean, but he’s not plain rude, but that lisp was bothering him.
sehun talked and talked and baekhyun only understood about a quarter of it.

“look, kid, i can barely understand what you say.” strike not being rude, byun baekhyun is indeed pretty rude and pretty blunt above all, holding no fear in his words as he says them face-to-face right in the moment. sehun interrupts his on-going speech about grasshoppers and why they’re important, and for once, he might look a little offended.

“you shouldn’t say that. it’s rude.” little sehun has his lower lip jutting out in a protesting pout as he furrows his brows almost cutely at baekhyun, who had his turn of being offended now.

he didn’t react to it with a pout though but rather with an amused huff out of disbelief, eyebrows raising high in his forehead. he has been called rude by a lot, lot of persons – but never an eight-years old one. he shall count this as his one achievement of the day. “well excuse me.” he says in a not very sorry at all tone, and although the sarcasm was obvious, sehun accepts the ‘apology’ either way and seems quite content again, returning to his grasshopper speech.

this kid really had to be something else, baekhyun told himself.

handling sehun was proving itself to be easier than expected and baekhyun didn’t know if he was surprised at himself or surprised with the kid. jongin had been, in fact, pretty honest back at the school cafeteria. sehun was calm and nice, he didn’t make stupid questions and he didn’t scream. he didn’t force baekhyun into playing either, although he insisted, but if baekhyun proved himself to be too much of a douche to engage in playing with miniature cars, then sehun would just quietly and contently play by himself.

babysitting him wasn’t being a bothersome, annoying task and baekhyun wasn’t sure how to deal with this.

even when baekhyun was a hundred and ten percent sure trouble was about to come, it didn’t. when sehun tripped and fell, bringing along the lego castle he had so proudly been building, baekhyun expected it all – he expected screaming, tears and ugly sobbing, but none of that came.

instead sehun simply attempted to stand up, and although sadness was clear in his teary gaze as he eyed his destroyed work, no tear actually fell from his eyes.

“hey, hey- are you alright?” baekhyun quickly hurried over, having been lying on the couch and watching the third harry potter movie passing on tv while sehun was entertained on his own. he grabbed a gentle hold of the boy’s arms and helped him back up on his feet, while sehun rubbed his curled fist against his left eye and sniffled almost cutely.

“it’s okay.. i’m fine.” sehun muttered in that tiny, soft and accented with heavy lisp voice of his, lower lip once again pouting out adorably like that. baekhyun wasn’t sure why, or how, but his heart felt heavy at the sight of a sad sehun.
he told himself it was only because ever since he stepped foot in that house, sehun has smiled at him despite baekhyun’s constant attempts at making the child leave him alone.

“you hurt yourself.” baekhyun points out with a hint of worry, holding sehun’s wrist as he eyed the light scraping on the other’s tiny palm. it was nothing big, and surely nothing that hurt more than a little sting and burn, but it worried baekhyun nevertheless. sehun was about to say something, perhaps reassure baekhyun once again he was alright, but baekhyun simply muttered a ‘come here’ and picked the light boy up for the first time.

sehun didn’t complain nor flinch as baekhyun cleaned his palm under water, merely watching the actions with curious eyes. baekhyun himself wasn’t quite sure what he was doing, but all he told himself was that the only reason behind being careful of sehun was so that he wouldn’t have jongin having the indecency of complaining on him later on.

“it really doesn’t hurt.” sehun reassured once more, still eyeing baekhyun’s actions as the other now dried his little hands with a towel. baekhyun didn’t reply, merely to stop himself from muttering ‘shush’, and sehun looked back up at him. those shiny eyes of his still bothered baekhyun, for he could swear the kid could read right through his mind with such (pretty) doe brown eyes. “are you worried?”

the question earned a frown on baekhyun’s face, one out of protest and almost offense as the question rang through his head. maybe, was the answer at the tip of baekhyun’s tongue, the answer true to the feeling akin to worry he could be having right now. though that meant weakness, that meant admitting that maybe, maybe, this child was growing on baekhyun. but was byun baekhyun ever going to admit such thing outloud?

“no.” he replied instead, brows furrowing together and lips pressing in a thin line as he merely concentrated on his current job.

sehun eyed him, eyed him for a short while – and smiled. “i think you are.”

the hours were running and shortly after dinner came bedtime; the time baekhyun had been longing for the entire day, and the time that now, so close to arrive, wasn’t as desired anymore.
sehun had been calm the entire day, even with the lego accident, and baekhyun just couldn’t find reasons to dislike the kid as much as he did earlier that day.

he sat in the boy’s small bed while he awaited sehun getting ready to go to sleep (jongin was once again right when he said sehun just went brush his teeth and everything without being told), finally taking a look around. his room was child-like, as expected, with shelves of toys and colour books. he had some posters too of varied movies and cartoons, though the one that caught baekhyun’s attention most was the spider-man poster he had right beside his bed. he recalls jongin’s words from earlier when he mentioned sehun liking spider-man, which had actually been the reason baekhyun ended up agreeing on this, and now he regrets not bringing the subject up earlier.

sehun soon came back and baekhyun was more than amused to see the little boy’s pajamas were actually spider-man themed, earning a smile on his lips. sehun must have noticed this, because he stopped, looked down at his pajama shirt, and smiled up at baekhyun. “do you like spider-man, too?”

“yeah.” baekhyun replies with a shrug of shoulder, clearing his throat a little. the oh so cool image he had built up was slowly crumbling down, mainly because this topic was a weakness of his.

and because baekhyun doesn’t have anyone to share his spidey thoughts with, because jongin .

“he’s my hero!” sehun proudly states, cheeky smile big on his lips as he climbs up on the bed and sits in front of baekhyun, folding his legs. “i think he’s the coolest super-hero of them all.”

baekhyun’s small smile grew into a bigger one at this, the topic being too much of his interest to just brush sehun off like he has done each and every single time that afternoon. “i know, right?” he laughs shortly as he sits back more comfortably, folded legs just the same and hands holding onto his ankles. “i mean, the other super-heroes are so old. what’s appealing about that?”

nothing appealing about men that could be their father in tight spandex, that’s for sure.

sehun probably didn’t quite understand what was exactly baekhyun’s definition of appealing right here, but he smiled nevertheless and went along with it. “i think they’re boring. spider-man is funny.”

“and sassy.” baekhyun points out as he raises a finger proudly, grin painting his face. “the sass is important. that’s what makes him stand out so much.”
now, baekhyun never thought his partner for spider-man discussions would be an eight-years old kid, but for some reason, that didn’t seem to be so bad right now.

for some reason, this felt fun.

“jongin likes captain america so he doesn’t talk to me about spidey.” sehun commented then, momentary pout adorning his lips before a smile took its place once again. “you’re cooler than jongin. i like you!”

baekhyun would be lying if he said sehun’s words didn’t warm his heart, and although he was taken aback by them, he brushed them apart and concentrated only on the first sentence. partly because he didn’t know how to reply, and maybe because he didn’t know how to feel about it. “jongin is a loser, he goes against me too when it comes to spidey.” he shrugs casually, lazy smile on his lips. “but now we’re two against one, so next time he picks on you, just throw this fact at his face.”

sehun brought his hands to his face to muffle his laughing, smile big on his lips in a way that had baekhyun chuckling as well, merely because he never thought a child could be this adorable. sehun was innocent and sweet and fun, and baekhyun could inwardly admit he was having fun.

“maybe we can watch spider-man one day.” sehun suggests, big smile on his lips and eyes so full of hope that even if baekhyun wanted to (which he didn’t, a feeling he surprised himself with), he couldn’t have said no.

“sure.” he replies with another shrug. the smile on sehun’s lips is so big, it made everything worth it.

but sehun was tired and it was visible he was fighting sleep, especially by the way he bit back a yawn and the way he brought his hand to rub his sleepy eyes. he looked at baekhyun, expecting, eager to continue their conversation; but as much as baekhyun would have liked to continue their spider-man talk, he knew they shouldn’t go past sehun’s bedtime.

“c’mon, bug boy. time for bed.”

sehun chuckled at the nickname, and allowed baekhyun to pick him up and tuck him in bed.

when he was sure sehun had fallen asleep and when baekhyun was getting ready to stand up and quietly leave the room, he felt sehun’s tiny hand tug at his sleeve. he turned, faced with the child eyeing him through tired eyes and a lazy smile.

“will you come back to play again?”

baekhyun eyed him, eyed the smile and eyed the hope in his eyes. he thought, thought of their afternoon together and of their exciting conversation about spider-man.
and he knew, he knew if it were any other kid in the world he would say no, or perhaps lie and not mean his words – but to surprise himself, and against all odds, byun baekhyun replied the reply he never thought he would give.

“of course.”