The rest of the morning passed quickly. The noisy house became quiet after the workers left for the orange grove, and soon there were only a few occasional sounds coming from the rest of the house. 

Baekhyun sat alone on one of the sofas in the living area as the sunlight streamed down onto the pair of pants he was working on. He was having difficulty trying to patch where a seam had split at the crotch. He wrestled with it for a while, and in his frustration the orphan managed to stab his finger with the needle and he hissed in pain. His finger wasn’t bleeding but he decided he needed a little break. 

He carefully tucked the needle into the material to not lose it, then set the pants to the side and went over to the kitchen area to get a drink of water and calm his nerves. Baekhyun looked through the window as he stood at the sink, drinking the cool liquid. He could see the clothesline outside was already loaded with a few sheets, and Junmyeon came into view lugging another heavy basket of wet items to hang. Baekhyun put his mug down in the sink and dashed out the side door towards the struggling man.

The orphan grabbed the other side of the basket. “Here! Let me help..” 

Junmyeon gave a grateful smile. “Thank you little one… I always have such a time with these sheets and blankets!” 

They put the basket down on a grassy area next to one of the clothes poles and together began to pull one of the damp sheets out to hang up on the line. Baekhyun followed Junmyeon’s lead and stretched up to thread the corner of the sheet over the clothesline then pulled down and brought it folded in half over the line. 

Junmyeon looked down at the orphan’s feet. “I’m sorry we haven’t given you any shoes yet. Your feet are so small I doubt we would have any to fit you..”  He added clothes pins at the corners of the sheet to secure it and then went over to pull another wet item from the basket. 

“That’s ok. This grass is soft and my feet are tough anyway. Don’t worry about it.” The orphan looked down and wiggled his toes as he spoke.

“No..” Junmyeon grunted as he flung a smaller blanket over the clothes line. “We need to get you some soon so you can be used to them before the cold weather sets in…”

Baekhyun wasn’t sure what to think of this, so he decided to change the subject. “Um.. do you know much about what they do with the old fruit?” he asked as they leaned down to get the next damp sheet. 

Junmyeon straightened up abruptly from the basket. “Are you still hungry? I told you to tell me if you wanted anything. We have fruit if you want some. You don’t have to eat the old stuff. It’s ok, you know..” 

Baekhyun giggled. “No.. No, I'm fine. Really. I just had an idea, that’s all.”

“An idea? About the old fruit?” the older man asked with a smile, leaning to get the other corner of the sheet the orphan was trying to wrangle out of the basket.

“Yeah.. Um. You probably know I stayed in the shack at the edge of the orange grove for a few days before I came here, right?” 

Junmyeon nodded as Baekhyun continued. “When I was at the shack in the grove, I ate some of the oranges that had fallen on the ground. But they were small and damaged so I figured it would be ok.” he explained while also trying to validate his past decisions.

“Well, you had to eat to survive, so it makes sense.” The older man’s motherly nature was back

Baekhyun smiled as he handed Junmyeon some clothes pins. “Well, I had this idea. After I peeled the oranges, I left the skins in a pile and even as they dried out they had a nice smell. And then with the curry, when I helped with peeling the apples, the skins still smelled really nice even after they were drying out.”

Junmyeon nodded as he secured the sheet on the line with the clothes pins. “Yes. I could see where they would probably smell nice. So.. are you thinking about doing something with all these skins?”

“Well, I have the old material from my bag that I carried as I traveled. It’s a thin material but still very strong.” Baekhyun leaned over and began helping to get the final sheet out of the basket as he continued to tentatively explain. “I was thinking I could use it to make little pouches to put the fruit skins into. The smell is still nice for days after the fruit is peeled. So the pouches of skins woul