Chapter 14

“The sessions aren’t helping.”

“What?”

Baekhyun leaned over his physics schoolwork to grab my pen.

“They’re not helping. I don’t feel any better.”

“Don’t you think it’s too short term to decide?”

“No. They’re not helping.”

I watched him in silent frustration as he scribbled down the answers at the speed of light. Stupid boy. Stupid prodigious who can answer questions with a pen and not worry about making any mistakes.

“Well, why the not?”

He checked-over his work .

“I don’t know. The psychiatrist is treating me like my mental state is made of breakaway glass or something. Also I have to about myself talk a lot. I really hate it.”

He placed his work to the side. No mistakes.

I thought back to the time when I tried to visit him when he had first become depressed. He was asleep, so his mother and I conducted conversation. She told me about Baekhyun’s childhood, but only the nicer aspects. She told me of all the things he wanted to do as a child, but never got to.

From what I remembered, he wanted to go to an animal shelter, and a theme park, and most of all: he wanted to see fireworks.

I cleared my throat.

“Um. Would you like to, uh, go? Go uh, to um, like, a shelter? Not for homeless people, for animals.”

I cringed at my awkward verbal deliverance as my arch nemesis cocked a brow. A small smile played upon his lips.

“Why are you stuttering, loser?”

“Why does your face look like my foot, loser?” I shoot back.

“Your foot must be y as hell, then.”

For some reason that made my cheeks grow hot. Did I have a foot or something?

“Anyways, yeah, you, answer the question.”

Baekhyun leaned back against his wooden chair. His hair flopped into his eyes.

“Tomorrow, ten am. I would pick you up, but I can’t drive.”

A wave of guilt engulfed me.

“That’s okay,” I said quickly, “I’ll be here by ten.”

“Okay. By the way, the way you solved your problem is really inefficientt.”

Baekhyun was leaning over my physics work, examining it upside-down. He was so close that I could smell him. He smelled so...good. Like soap and freshener and something else that I couldn’t identify but appealed to me.

“Are you smelling me?”

“What? No!”

I pushed him away from my physics homework as he stared at me in confusion.

“You wish!”

His confusion quickly melted away to reveal arrogance.

“Do I smell good? Wanna take another whiff?”

“No, you boy!”

He burst into laughter and I could barely keep my face straight. He hadn’t laughed that hard in a very long time.

//

We stood next to each other in front of the animal shelter. I had my hands shoved in the pockets of my grey fleece hoodie. Baekhyun wet his lips in anticipation.

“Ready, frog?” I asked.

He nodded, pushing the glass doors and letting himself in. I could barely keep up with him as he scurried to the front desk and demanded to see the puppies.

Ten minutes later, he was on the linoleum floor cradling a Bolognese and Yorkshire Terrier. They liked him instantly, his cheeks, making him laugh.

I watched them from a distance. How much did I really know about Baekhyun? Up until a few months ago, he was the golden boy, the flawless that everybody loved and I hated. Three month ago, he was the broken boy, with his all of his will diminished, with barely the energy to get out of bed. Two month ago, he was the boy with a traumatic past that he had hidden behind his facade of perfection. Four weeks ago, he was the boy who had such vivid and traumatizing nightmares that he wanted to kill himself.

But now, he was Byun Baekhyun. Happy, like he deserved to be, playing with puppies at a shelter and laughing hard

“Hey, ugly!” He called to me, “wanna hold Bubble?”

I didn’t like dogs.

“Who you callin’ ugly, you woman?”

“You, you middle-aged man. Get over here.”

“Uh, I’d really rather not--”

He set Bubble, the Bolognese in arms. He was a tiny furball of white. I could tell he didn’t really like me because he tried to squirm away.

“Hey, Myunghee, loosen up. You’re really tense, Bubble can sense it.”

“Can he, now?” I muttered under my breath.

I relaxed my shoulders, and Bubble became less nervous. He relaxed too. A few minutes later, he was my face like he did Baekhyun’s.

I hate dogs I hate dogs I hate dogs I chanted in my head. Bubble was starting to get to me. He was undeniably cute.

All of a sudden, I felt liquid trickle along my leg. I looked down, extending my arms and holding Bubble away from me.

The Bolognese had peed. On me.

“Oh my god what the ?” I shrieked.

Baekhyun erupted into a laughing fit as I dropped Bubble by his feet and sprinted toward the ladies’ room.

I hated dogs.

A/N: please dont judge me on the title i really had no idea what to put but it made me laugh out loud omg i am so lame