" Mother, I-I I'm sorry please let him go!" Baekhyun stammered, he fell on his knees and rubbed his hands vigoriously, begging his drunken mother to stop torturing his little brother, Sehun. Baekhyun lived with his alcoholic mother and little brother Sehun, their father died from lung cancer five years ago, leaving their mother to spiral into a downfall. Tortures were common, almost every night the two brothers would get tortured by their mother in one way or another. Sometimes, Baekhyun wondered why he was still living, but he lived only for the sake of his little brother, Sehun who he loved dearly.

Sehun was three years younger than Baekhyun, he had a slightly deformed left foot from birth, he walked with a limp which led to clumsiness, he would often accidentally break a kitchen plate or he would fall flat on his face causing his mother to be enraged. One Sunday night, Sehun was carrying a bowl of spicy ramen when he accidentally tripped and fell, causing the bowl to shatter and a huge mess on the living room floor. His mother was drunk from drinking bottles of soju, laying on the couch, her eyes were sunken, her breath reeked of alcohol and empty bottles of soju were scattered around the floor. His mother got up and turned to Sehun with blood-shot eyes, she mumbled something to herself and clumsily dragged herself to the storeroom, she came out of the storeroom with a baseball bat and ordered Sehun to come.

Frightened, Sehun limped towards his mother and fell on his knees, trembling. He breathed heavily and sweated profusely. Before he could plead, his mother swung the baseball bat to his back, Sehun screamed from the excruciating pain and begged his mother to stop as she continue to beat Sehun.

" P-Please I'm sorry, Mother! I didn't mean to!" Sehun cried as tears uncontrollably streamed down his crimson, hot cheeks.

"YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING! IF ONLY YOU WEREN'T BORN I WOULD HAVE HAD A NORMAL LIFE!" His mother screamed, beating him violently." DO YOU KNOW HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE? YOU ALWAYS GIVE ME TROUBLE! MAYBE...MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE ABANDONED YOU IN A RUBBISH DUMP!"

" Mother! Stop it!" 

Mother stopped beating Sehun and turned back to see Baekhyun, who stared at her with frightened eyes, his body was slightly trembling and tears welled up. Baekhyun has yet again witnessed another torture from their mother. It was common that she tortured the two of them but they were still frightened and tramuatized from every beating she gave.

" YOU LITTLE PEST! ARE YOU PLANNING ON GETTING BEATEN UP TOO?" His mother shrieked as she pointing at Sehun who was lying on the floor, bloodied and bruised.

"P-Please let Sehun go! I beg you!" Baekhyun pleaded. " I should get beaten up for not taking care of him properly." 

" Really? I'm amazed that you'll actually sacrifice your dear life for a disabled child." HIs mother snickered, she slowly walked towards Baekhyun and gave him a tight slap.

*SLAP*

Baekhyun collasped onto the floor, covering his injured cheek. His mother started kicking him violently causing Baekhyun to curl up and sob quietly as he allowed his mother to torture him for a long, ten minutes.

" Isn't this satisfying?" His mother cackled, she turned to Sehun who stood there, shakened.

" Take your little brother to his room." She whispered into Baekhyun's ear before she sloppily walked towards the couch and collasped, passing out.

"Hyung, I'm so sorry." Sehun limped towards his brother who laid on the floor, bruised and bloodied." I'm so terrible!"

" It's not your fault." Baekhyun smiled weakly as he slowly stood up." We better treat our injuries before we go to school."

" B-But we can't go to school." Sehun protested." People will jeer at us."

" We'll wear long sweaters so we can cover up our bruises, now let's try and get some sleep." Baekhyun said gently as he limped towards the bedroom.

---

The next morning, many students stared at Baekhyun and Sehun with disgust as they walked along the corridor towards their classrooms. Being really poor, Baekhyun and Sehun wore tattered and discoloured clothes which were considered "unfashionable", their brusied faces didn't help at all, causing them to look like "freaks".

" What's with their clothes? Can't they afford to get new ones?" One student snickered.

" Did they get involved in fight? Are they part of a gang?" Another sneered.

" Freaks! they look like pieces of that don't belong here!"

Baekhyun and Sehun tried to ignore the gossips but it was really hard not to ignore them, they were the "freaks" of the entire school. It was hard not being the center of attention everytime they walked pass the corridor.

" I'll see you later at lunch." Baekhyun smiled and waved at Sehun as he walked in another direction towards his classroom.

" See you, Hyung."

Baekhyun entered the classroom timidly, he tried his best to hide his bruised face but it didn't really help when Jongin, one of the popular kids at school noticed his bruised face and started sneering causing a commotion.

" Hey, pipspeak! What happened to your face? Did you get into a fight with a gang?" He laughed hysterically, pointing to his bruised face. He walked towards Baekhyun and pulled up his sleeves, showing more bruises and dried up wounds." He must be a real fighter! No wonder your clothes are so tattered, you little shouldn't be fighting with gangs."

" I-I-I didn't fight with anybody! Please leave me alone!" Baekhyun stuttered.

" Hey, face why not we have a one to one battle after school and see who's the real champion?" Jongin snickered, causing the entire class to cheer with many classmates hollering and clapping eagerly.

" What's the commotion about?" A deep voice shouted sternly, causing the class to be silent. It was Mr Kim Joonmyeon, one fo the strictest teacher at school, he often had a studious look, he wore circle-rimmed black glasses and he rarely smiled.

" Jongin, Baekhyun back to your seats!" He boomed.

Both of them nodded and returned to their seats.

" Baekhyun, what happened to your face?" Mr Kim asked with a concerned voice." Did you see a doctor?"

" It's nothing, Sir. I fell down and injured myself." Baekhyun lied.

" It's a lie." Jongin who sat behind him muttered under his breath and smirked.

" Class, I would like to introduce a new student, he just  transferred from another high school and I want you to treat him nicely as a classmate."

A tall, handsome guy entered the classroom and stood infront of the classroom with a kind smile. He had neatly combed ebony hair and big, round eyes. His skin was clear and as pale as white porcelain, he was dressed in a Tommy Hilfger sweater and Levi jeans, he wore black converse sneakers and carried a brown MCM backpack. He bowed slightly and flashed a toothy grin,showing his white, porcelain teeth. 

" He must be some arrogant, rich kid who wants to bully me." Baekhyun mumbled to himself.

" My name is Park Chanyeol, I'm very happy to be here and I hope you would treat me well." Chanyeol saidgently and turned to stare at Baekhyun who was looking down, doodling on his notebook.

" I hope we will all get along."

" There's an empty seat beside Baekhyun, you can sit over there." Mr Kim said.

" Sure, thank you Mr Kim." Chanyeol quietly sat down beside Baekhyun, he turned to Baekhyun and flashed a kind smile.

" I'm Chanyeol, what's your name?" He said softly.

"B-Baekhyun." Baekhyun mumbled. 

" Shall we be friends?"

"F-Friends?" Baekhyun stuttered, he was really stunned that Chanyeol would actually ask him to be his friend. Nobody has ever asked him to his friend except him, he was so used to having no friends he didn't mind being alone at all.

"S-Sure."

" We can talk more during lunch break." Chanyeol grinned at him as Mr Kim started taking out his lecture materials and started the lesson.

"S-Sure, why not?"

Baekhyun couldn't fully trust Chanyeol, what if he was pretending? He seemed way too sweet and kind and he was from a rich family. He was nothing compared to Chanyeol, he was poor, broken and he really didn't have anything!

Was Chanyeol pretending? or was it genuine?