”Hey give me my moomintroll back!” a small squeaky voice came out of Chanyeol’s mouth as he tried to reach out for his new plush toy that now could be found in Baekhyun’s sticky fingers.

”I’ll give it back if you can reach it.” Baekhyun laughed and lifted the toy even higher even though Chanyeol was already on his tiptoes. You could se ethe tears that were forming in his eyes, but Baekhyun never cared if he made the boy cry. It was just hilarious to watch as Chanyeol’s face swelled twice it’s size and his cheeks grew all pink.

”I’m going to tell the teacher you’re bullying me again!” Chanyeol kept screaming, which made the older boy laugh even louder. He had never heard such an unmasculine voice before.
Baekhyun’s amusement was cut out shortly when the teacher called out his name and informed that his mother had come to get him back home.

”Here, have your stupid moomintroll…” Baekhyun muttered, throwing the plush toy somewhere on the corner of the room, having a one last look of Chanyeol stumbling to get the toy back before disappearing out of the room.

Playing tag was something that Chanyeol hated the most. Of course he was good at it and knew how to play, but it was Baekhyun, who made him hate the game so much.
The older one always loved to attack Chanyeol when it was his turn to tag people. He always either pushed too hard or knocked the younger one to the ground, always by accident of course. Chanyeol got both mental and physical bruises from the game and hated the way no one ever seemed to notice it.

”You gotta run faster or grow stronger…” people would say and that’s what Chanyeol promised to do.

One time Chanyeol woke up to the feeling of someone poking him every corner of his face. Slowly stirring up from sleep Chanyeol opened his eyes only to find Baekhyun’s nose attached to his own.
”You snore idiot.” The boy laughed and kept poking Chanyeol on the chin.
”No I don’t. You snore!” He squeaked and tried to reach out for his blanket to hide under and ignore the older one but only in vain…

”Then you snore louder,” Baekhyun kept a tight hold of the blanket and stared the younger one now more angrily. ”You snore so loud they can hear it in space…”
”Stop bullying me Baekhyun!” Chanyeol groaned and lifted up his upper body only to poke the boy straight in the eye, which made Baekhyun wail loudly, waking up everyone around them.

It didn’t take more than a second for a teacher to get into the room like she was running on hot embers.
”What is going on in here?” She asked worriedly while patting Baekhyun on the back.

”It was Chanyeol! He poked me in the eye!” The younger boy had never seen such a look on a teacher’s face before. It was pure shock.

”Why on earth would you do something like that Park Chanyeol? Apologize immediatelly!”
Chanyeol would have never wanted to do such thing. It was Baekhyun who was poking him in the first place and when he tried to explain the situation, the teacher would hear any of the nonsense and insisted Chanyeol to apologize with even higher pitch.

Baekhyun’s face was twisted in ugly looking grin when the younger one apologized for poking him in the eye.

The next time the group were practising art, Chanyeol was almost losing his nerves. The group were divided into pairs and they were supposed to paint a scenery with acrylic paints. Chanyeol was very pleased to get Kyungsoo as his partner. Although the boy never said a word, he was very nice of a person and respected Chanyeols ideas for the painting and so they begun to shape all sorts of flowers in the paper.

”What are you drawing?” Chanyeol heard a very familiar voice coming right next to him. Baekhyun had appeared between the pair and now leaned his elbows on the table, staring at the painting with bored look on his face.
”Flowers? That’s stupid,” He sighed and twisted his head to see the painting from other perspective, probably trying to look more professional.
”Or maybe it is a hotballoon on the sky…” Before anyone could react, Baekhyun had splashed his brush with blue color on the corner of the paper leaving a big, nasty spot on the white background.

”Hey! Stop it!” Chanyeol yelled and tried to cover the paper with his arms. He should have stopped Baekhyun instead, because in under a second, Baekhyun had splashed the same brush in Chanyeol’s face twice leaving the same sort of spots in his cheek.

”Baekhyun go away…” Kyungsoo mumbled and stared the boy with a murderous look.
’Hmph’ was the only thing the older one let out his mouth before fleeing from the scene.

”Look what he did…” Chanyeol cried and tried to sweep the color of his face without any effort.
”It’s okay, nothing that a paint can’t fix.” Kyungsoo smiled and continued whatever he was supposed to do.

”I hate Baekhyun. I just hate him…”
”Well I think he likes you. He wouldn’t be bullying you if that wasn’t the case.”

Kyungsoo left Chanyeol wondering that for the rest of the day while he, on the other hand, left his parents wonder where did he get so much paint in his face.

Chanyeol was silently humming, while tapping the bucket full of sand with his little shovel. He was playing alone on the sandbox, trying to create even some kind of sandcastle. He had already made four towers and was just about to make the fifth when Baekhyun walked right next to him sniggering loudly.

”What is that?” He asked and sat right next to the boy, who prayed to be left alone.

”It’s a sandcastle, if you haven’t seen one before.”
”Oh I have. The ones I’ve seen just looked more cool. Yours looks just stupid.”
”Leave me alone…”

”Do you even have windows in there?”
”Not yet. Now go away…”

”A window fits just right here.” Baekhyun said and sticked his finger in one of the towers, making half of the sand fall off.
”Now look what you did!”

”It was already broken.” Baekhyun tried to explain and turned to look the younger one.
”No it wasn’t! You broke it.”
”No I didn’t…” Baekhyun pouted and was just about to poke the rest of the sand off when Chanyeol grabbed a hold of his sleeve.

”Why you have to keep bullying me? I already asked you to leave me alone.” Chanyeol looked angry. Something that Baekhyun had never seen before.
”Is it because you like me?” Chanyeol’s question made Baekhyun blush harder than ever.

”No! You disgust me!” The older one suddenly jumped up, kicked the sandcastle and ran away from the scene, face red as a tomato.

Chanyeol regretted asking Baekhyun, if he liked him, because now the teasing was a nonstop thing. If Baekhyun didn’t steal his plush toys, he was throwing food on him. All the teachers seemed to notice this and when the situation escalated into the point of a fist-fight, Chanyeol’s parents decided to transfer the boy into different pre-school, leaving Byun Baekhyun to wonder where did the boy disappear.

It was the first semester of high school when Baekhyun laid eyes on Chanyeol the next time.
The younger one wasn’t the same boy anymore. He was tall… Maybe too tall even. And when he opened his mouth, the squeaky voiced boy was no more present. It was like Chanyeol had spend all his energy to grow muscles, height and oh well… vocal cords.

Baekhyun wouldn’t have recognized the boy unless they would have ended up in the same class and the teacher would have kept a roll call.
On that 45 minute-class, their eyes met 45 times. Every one minute and only for two small seconds.

When the bell finally rang to inform the students for the 15 minute break, Baekhyun jumped up from his seat and walked to Chanyeol, who looked like he’d have done the same if Baekhyun hadn’t done it first.

Greeting each other felt awkward, but somehow familiar.
”Are you the one who made my life a living hell in the pre-school?” Chanyeol laughed and Baekhyun gasped silently for the deep voice before nodding with a slight blush on his cheeks.

”I want to apologize for that. I now know I was being a complete back then.”
”No problem. I’ve almost forgotten about it,” Chanyeol’s smile was wide and so bright it almost blinded Baekhyun. He wished he’d have seen it before but was happy to see it now.

”Besides the fact that you caused me mental health problems for like 5 years, I’m pretty okay now.”
”R-really? I… I didn’t know. Gosh I…” Baekhyun felt a sting on his heart. He didn’t know what to do or say. Did he really do something so horrible?

”I’m just joking Baekyun.” Seeing the horrified look on the older one’s face made Chanyeol beam even brighter.

”Oh, phew… You got me. I was afraid I’d have to buy you like, the lunch for the next 3 years or something to make it up to you.”
”Nah don’t worry. Just buy my lunch for this year and we’re good.”

Baekhyun realized that Chanyeol had grown into a sarcastic arse, but it didn’t make him any more annoying.

”Deal. I think I owe you that one…”

In a matter of time the couple sort of got glued together. No one could say if they were friends or more than that, but one thing was sure; they were inseparable wherever they went.

And Baekhyun had never grown out from that bullying phase, but Chanyeol had indeed learn to grow stronger. Besides waking up to feel Baekhyun poking im on the cheeks felt now like a dream come true.