*Chapter 1;

", I'm late!"

It was seven ten in the morning. The bus had already passed their neighborhood ten minutes ago and the first bell was going to ring in twenty minutes, which gave Baekhyun barely enough time to get ready and sprint to school. He was undeniably, hopelessly, absolutely tardy, and he had nobody to blame but himself.

He kicked back his covers hastily and swung both legs over the side of his bed, a string of profanities leaving his lips like a magazine of bullets. A rather loud "!" left him when his toes caught underneath some dead weight lying on the ground, and, losing his balance, Baekhyun teetered in awkward strides to stand on his two feet again. Then, he remembered. Chanyeol, his stepbrother, was sleeping right beside his bed again, not in the spare room like he was told to.

It was inconvenient, to say the least. Baekhyun would always "forget" that Chanyeol had a habit of slipping into his room late at night on account of nightmares, and trip over him. Honestly, Baekhyun had more bruises on his knees from falling in his own bedroom than playing soccer.

Yet, no matter how much he wanted the dumb giant to stay out of his room, his mother never stood for him saying anything mean to Chanyeol. She was always on Chanyeol's side to the point where Baekhyun found himself questioning whose parent she really was, always defending him whenever he was clearly in the wrong. Sure, it was terrible that Chanyeol had just recently lost his dad and was being forced to move in with an like him, but Baekhyun begged to differ. In this situation, he was the victim having to cope with a retard nipping at his heel.

Because, having a mentally disabled stepbrother (who wasn't really related to him) was like the same thing as having a permanent zit growing on the middle of his forehead. Chanyeol wasn't something he could hide, after all.

"Mom! Chanyeol's sleeping in my room again!" he screamed, only to realize that his mom was gone; she had taken up a waitress job somewhere else to support all three of them now. Ugh.

Just one addition to their family had changed lots of things for Baekhyun. He didn't think having a stepbrother would be so bad at first, until he found out that Chanyeol had the intelligence level of a child and needed constant supervision so he wouldn't stick a fork in an electrical outlet or drown himself somehow. However, their family wasn't financially stable enough to hire a nanny, nor did Baekhyun have the time to babysit some doofus while he had classes and soccer practice to attend. The entrance exams were coming up in mid-November, and it was September already.

If he couldn't study and get into a good college, it was all Chanyeol's fault.

By the time Baekhyun was downstairs and rummaging through the fridge for something to eat, he saw Chanyeol slipping out of his bedroom with his hair looking like an animal had made a nest of it. "Hey, Chanyeol, I don't have time to make you anything right now, so eat this, all right?" Baekhyun set an apple on the counter while he made himself a ham sandwich.

It wasn't like Chanyeol had the brain capacity to argue about whether he wanted an apple or a sandwich.

He was too busy gathering his school supplies to notice anything odd about Chanyeol, but when his stepbrother started walking towards him and leaving behind a trail of liquid, Baekhyun mentally screamed. "You pissed your pants again?!" he groaned, "Those are my soccer training pants!" Now, he noticed that there was a dark patch of urine running down the gray (and expensive) piece of clothing. It was borderline cute when kids wet their pants, but a grown man unable to control his own bladder? Disgusting!

Baekhyun could imagine it now. His homeroom teacher would nag about how he needed to arrive early to class, and the only excuse he'd have would be that he was changing his stepbrother's pants.

Chanyeol was clueless like always, staring down at his soiled pants and back up at Baekhyun with an expression that looked apologetic. "Sorry, Baekhyun, I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to..." he stuttered, while dropping his pants in the middle of the living room.

Baekhyun screeched and held one hand over his face, turning it away in mild disgust. "Jesus Christ, put some pants on!" he wailed, tossing Chanyeol a pink apron hung over the oven handle while he, like the mature, responsible stepbrother he was, picked up his dripping pants and dumped it in the bathtub. While he was inside, he snatched up Chanyeol's glasses next to the toothbrushes and stood on his toes to slip the frames on the other boy's nose. On top of being stupid, Chanyeol had bad eyesight, too, and some nervous disease that caused twitching in both eyes. Chanyeol was just a mess.

Belatedly, Baekhyun tossed his stepbrother a new pair of boxers and hung a lanyard over Chanyeol's neck like it was just one of his morning routines. At the end of the lanyard was an old cellphone, with nothing but calling and texting functions. The only contacts Chanyeol had on the phone were him and his mother. They had taken away Chanyeol's privilege of calling the police after he called one time, only to ask them where Baekhyun was.

"What's my number?" he thought it would be best to ask, just in case Chanyeol was too dumb to understand how speed dials worked.

"030-8729-3004" Chanyeol answered with a bright grin. It was the only thing he actually had memorized, since he didn't know their address, nor anything else that had more than three numbers in it.

"Good, if you need anything, just call. Don't call me during class, though." he said as he slipped his sneakers on, carrying another duffel bag that carried all of his sports equipment. It was five minutes past the first bell and he hadn't even started walking yet. Chanyeol had become more like a liability to him, but it wasn't like he could tell his teachers that he had a retarded stepbrother he needed to take care of. It was embarrassing.

"Bye, Baekhyun!"

Baekhyun glanced up at the sight of Chanyeol, dumbly waving to him with an overly happy grin on his face. He only managed a fake smile and closed the door to hurry to school.

There weren't many streets or busy areas in a small city like Jeonju, since the area was known best for its countryside scenes and tiny towns. There were hardly any apartments either, just a collection of houses that were at least a billion years old. The drafty house Baekhyun lived in had been his grandparents' place, handed down to their generation when their family couldn't afford the fancy apartments in Seoul anymore. Baekhyun had transferred school at least four times now, but he actually liked the school he attended now. The uniforms were nice and they had a good soccer program.

It was why Baekhyun tried out and got picked as varsity team captain. So yes, he was one of the "popular" kids that enjoyed their title a bit too much. He was one of those kids everyone assumed was rich and had esteemed parents simply because he was from Seoul.

Arriving on campus thirty minutes past the bell, Baekhyun was nothing less than cheeky when he came through the back of the classroom. Most eyes turned to him, and the teacher, dismayed, marked him as tardy as he sat near the window behind a friend. The two exchanged low-fives, and it was obvious that some girls were gossiping, swooning, even, as Baekhyun took his seat, fashionably late.

"Sorry, ssaem," he raised a hand slightly, as if to pardon himself, "I overslept."

That was always Baekhyun's excuse because it was the most probable. It wasn't like he'd go into detail about how his stepbrother tried making him toast and ended up burning half the kitchen, nor how he had to dress him because said stepbrother peed in his own pants. Shrugging it off with a million-watt smile, Baekhyun was more relieved than he let off when the teacher turned back to the chalkboard and continued jotting down math problems.

"Hey, Baekhyun!" Jongdae grinned, wrapping an arm around his friend's shoulders from behind, "Can I come over tonight? I need some help on my math homework, and I know you understand this stuff."

"Uh... I've got some things to do at night."

"Really? Bummer. So, when can I come over then?"

"Wait," Baekhyun held up a finger as he pulled out his cellphone from his bag. Unsurprisingly, he had thirty-two missed calls. He assumed at least an seven eighths of them were from Chanyeol, the other few from his mother asking about Chanyeol. Then, suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide. "Did I... leave the front door unlocked?"

"I don't know," Jongdae rubbed the back of his neck, "Why are you asking me that?"

In his hurry to leave the house, Baekhyun couldn't remember if he had locked the door from the outside. Soccer practice was in half an hour, which wouldn't give him nearly enough time to check if Chanyeol hadn't wandered outside. Quickly, he thumbed in his Chanyeol's number (it was on speed dial) and hoped to hear some good news to his catastrophic day. 'Please be at home... please be at home...'