**thank you hatsu my goddess for this wonderful poster, this chapter's for you <3

“Yah, shortie!”

Baekhyun stopped abruptly in his tracks, shut his eyes and let out a tiny yet frightened sigh. He knew who that voice belonged to. Kris, the ultimate school bully. Every single day, the same thing would happen. Kris and his gang would extort him out of his lunch money, or sometimes his lunch itself if his mom prepared some for him that day. It wasn’t because Kris or his gang was poor and hungry, they were filthy rich. They did it out of sheer fun and laughter.

It was sadistic, really. Baekhyun was tired of being stepped upon, but he was far too afraid to do anything. He was small sized, soft spoken and pretty much friendless, so going up against them and standing up for himself wasn’t exactly an option.

“Yah, I called you, why aren’t you facing me?” Kris taunted, poking Baekhyun’s right shoulder. Baekhyun turned and timidly raised his head to meet Kris’ eyes.

“I don’t think you need us to tell you what to do, do you?” One of Kris’ friends, Tao, called from the back with a smirk on his face. Without a choice, Baekhyun reached his hand into his bag and pulled out the lunch his mom prepared for him that day. A set of kimbap.

Baekhyun groaned inwardly. Kimbap was his favorite. His family ran a small bakery, and things weren’t going too well for them at all. Their bakery was located right under their tiny apartment in an old, secluded neighborhood. Not many people pass by that place nowadays, thus the only people who would patronize their store were the elderly living in the area.

Today must have been one of their better days for his mom to be able to prepare such a dish for him. To even be able to enjoy kimbap was a privilege for him, and here he was, giving it all away to people who wouldn’t even appreciate it.

“Kimbap. Food for the poor.” Kris laughed and snatched it away from Baekhyun’s shaking hands. “They do smell pretty good though.” He pried open the container and popped one into his mouth and smirked, chewing.

Oh okay, this is the first time he actually ate the fo-

Kris dropped the entire container on the sandy playground floor, its contents spilling out and chuckled. “But not good enough.” And with that, they proceeded on to their next unfortunate target.

Tears lined Baekhyun’s eyes, but they wouldn’t fall. He was hurt, but he was simply too used to this. Being bullied. Being treated as scum. This was what 9 year old Byun Baekhyun had to live with every single day, aside from the better ones where they were too busy beating up some other kid to mess with him.

He could have told an adult, his parents, his teachers, anyone that had the power to help him, but he knew if he did, things were just going to get worse, and he was right. It was a miracle that this school, though not extremely prestigious, accepted him on a scholarship. It wasn’t because he was extremely smart, but it was, in fact, because he was a child protégé. His fingers could create the most beautiful music known to men. Though his family was too poor to own a piano, every day after school he would spend hours practicing in the school’s music room. The only condition he had for his free education was that he wins competitions for the school, and he could not disappoint.

Besides, he loved playing the piano. The music room was the only place he could truly be alone and at peace. For a nine year old, Baekhyun sure knew a lot.

He knelt down and began picking up the pieces that were the least dirty and blew on it, dusting the sand away. He was hungry.

But just before he was going to pop that piece of kimbap into his mouth, he heard a voice.

Don’t eat that, you’ll fall really sick and have really painful stomach aches!

Baekhyun’s eyes widened and looked around frantically, but there was no one. He frowned to himself and looked at the piece of kimbap.

“It does look pretty inedible now…” He said out loud to no one in particular and heaved a sigh, picked up his belongings and headed for the music room. But before he left the playground, he scanned the vicinity once more, but still he could not see anyone.

Baekhyun shrugged and spun round, walking the familiar steps to the music room.

“What a pretty voice.”

--

Baekhyun pushed open the glass door and entered the family’s bakery. The bell hung on the door sounded, announcing his arrival.

“Appa, omma, I’m home!”

A young but tired looking lady appeared from behind the kitchen door. She smiled ever so slightly, wiped her hands on her apron and spread her arms, motioning Baekhyun for a hug.

“Baekhyun-ah~ How was school?” Baekhyun paused in thought for a moment. School was horrible for the most part. But then he remembered the pretty voice, one that was itched deeply in his memory for reasons he himself did not know.

“School was pretty good.” He giggled.

“That’s good. Now, why don’t you go up to your room and do your homework? Appa and I have to get back to work.” His mother smiled and nudged him up the stairs.

“Okay okay!” Baekhyun clambered upwards playfully, and his mother only sighed when he was out of sight. Returning to her work station, she began to tear.

“Baekhyun seemed happier today, honey. Whatever will happen when he finds out that we will have to move away? Baekhyun loves his school, I don’t know what will happen when he realizes that he can no longer attend Daehan Elementary. We simply won’t be able to afford the transport fees if we were to move to your parent’s place in the countryside.”

Baekhyun’s father stopped kneading the dough to look up at his wife. The bakery went up for mortgage a few years back because they needed the extra cash to jump start their business but never did they expect that the business would do this badly. They were unable to make the mortgage payments, and a foreclosure was to take place, leaving them to be evicted from their homes before Baekhyun could complete his elementary education.

“We’ll figure something out honey. Don’t worry.”

Little did they know that little Baekhyun was hungry due to his earlier run in with Kris and had decided to return downstairs for some bread to eat, and unfortunately overheard their conversation. He did not understand why, but what he understood was that he was not going to be able to attend his current school anymore, and therefore taken away from his first love, his piano.

Baekhyun was confused, but he was more afraid than he was baffled. He did not want to leave his piano.

Little Baekhyun ran back up to his room, shut the door, and started to sob, and soon he fell asleep with tear stained cheeks. He felt a light gust of wind that caressed his cheeks, but his eyelids refused to open as he drifted off to dreamland.

Little child, don’t cry anymore. All will be well.

--

Weeks passed and Baekhyun’s parents still did not speak much of their predicament in front of their son, but Baekhyun knew albeit still not understanding why. Kris and his gang made it a point to pick on him every alternate day of the week. Things got slightly worse as the days passed by. Kris was no longer satisfied just by extorting the little money and food from his fellow schoolmates.

Baekhyun started to get beaten up, and he could not retaliate.

It started from little shoves, pushing him on the ground and stepping on his belongings, but today was not a good day for Kris. He was upset for whatever reason, and the fact that Baekhyun had forgotten to bring his lunch and his lunch money did not please him either.

“Don’t try to bluff us. You forgot? That’s a lame excuse.” Howls of laughter erupted from behind.

“I’m not kidding, you can check my bag if you want.” Baekhyun retorted a little too loudly than he planned.

“What, are you challenging me now?” Kris growled a little, and backed him up against the wall.

“I’m not challenging you.”

“Oh yeah? Then what ARE you doing?” He taunted, jabbing his shoulders.

“I’m not doing anything.” Baekhyun whispered, tears starting to form in his eyes.

“Hah, look at the boy cry! Do you need your mommy now? Where is she? Busy baking?” Tao jeered from the back.

A nerve snapped. “Don’t talk about my mother!” He shouted, and regretted almost nearly after. Kris raised a clenched fist. Baekhyun gasped slightly and shut his eyes tight, bracing for impact.

But nothing came. All he heard was the shuffling of feet, and by the time he gathered enough strength to open his eyes, they were gone. He cocked his head in confusion, albeit relieved. He was afraid to run into them again. He wanted to escape. There was only one place at school where no one would bother him.

Baekhyun brushed his pants and picked up his backpack, but something caught his attention from the corner of his eye before he left. He frowned a little as he bent down to pick up the foreign object. His fingertips felt like they were jolted with energy as he brushed his fingertips lightly over the light, white relatively large feather. It was too large to be of a bird’s, not one that was from Seoul at least.

Baekhyun stepped out into the sunlight, holding the feather. It was so white, so pure that it nearly sparkled in the sun. It was the most beautiful thing Baekhyun had ever seen.

He carefully placed the feather in a clear folder and arranged it in his backpack, careful not to destroy it, and cautiously yet joyfully skipped his way to his haven.

I’m glad you like it, child.

a/n: hello my dear readers!!! welcome to my 5th fic~ in case you're one of the few subscribers that subcribed when i put up the foreword waaaaaay back last nov, i'm so sorry for the wait T____T and i hope you noticed i changed the tittle a little! i actually never planned to write this any time soon omg slaps self but i wanted to write fastforward today and i realized i'm stuck. at the last chapter. wtf. who the hell gets stuck at the last chapter?!?!?!??!?!? so i decided to take a break and write something else first, maybe it would give me some inspiration to finally finish up fastforward. pls forgive me T____T

i hope you enjoy reading this. i have a feeling this will be way longer than a threeshot, seeing how i'm chopping my chapters up right from the start. maybe i'll do a double update???? <3 love y'all