*Chapter 11;

Baekhyun sensed that Chanyeol was having a difficult time understanding the fatality of the situation since he had never been exposed to street violence before. The last thing he wanted was for Chanyeol to panic, while he had his eyes on the closest thugs, he pushed his brother back a few steps. "Run, Chanyeol," he said again, frustrated that he couldn't say it louder and Chanyeol wasn't budging.

"Run!" he yelled loudly this time, throwing his duffel bag at the nearest perpetrator. To his relief, Chanyeol ran just in time for him to block the bullies' path, giving Chanyeol enough of an advantage over them. He, unfortunately, was caught quickly and shoved to the ground. Baekhyun would have kept screaming for Chanyeol to keep running, but the oxygen escaped his lungs too soon when he took a kick to his diaphragm. His whole body curled up in pain and the agony rose to the top of his throat as more joined in on the beating free-for-all.

Chanyeol stopped running halfway down the block and whisked around again, eyes wide as saucers. A part of him was urging him to escape because he was terrified, because he needed to call for help. Eventually, the part that convinced him Baekhyun needed his help triumphed and he looked around for a weapon. He had no idea what he was doing; all he knew was that Baekhyun was in trouble and he needed him.

"Break a leg?" one of the Jeon-Il boys chuckled once the circle was done beating Baekhyun until he couldn't stand. Then, another pulled out one of his legs, turned it to the side, then waited while the leader raised his wooden club to smash the brittle bone.

When the wooden beam came down on the marrow of his leg, Baekhyun screamed. The bone didn't shatter, but it throbbed and he was sure his kneecap had gone out after the second strike. He squeezed his eyes shut when he saw the wooden stick in his peripheral vision, and there was a loud thunk but no pain.

It all happened so fast that the crowd around him scattered as the one who had been destroying his leg slumped to his knees with blood gushing from his skull. Chanyeol was standing right behind him with an old brick in hand, which he dropped as soon as he realized what he had done.

The Jeon-Il boys dispersed as quickly as they had gathered when a few neighbors started poking their heads out of windows and doors to see what the commotion was about. Some lady had already called the police, and was pulling her kid inside as if the streets were infested with the plague.

Baekhyun scooted away from the unconscious boy and looked back up at Chanyeol who was shaking from head to toe, probably because it now dawned on him that he had hurt another person. "Chanyeol," he stuttered between heavy breaths, "It's okay, get out of here. The police are going to come." He tried to speak in the calmest way he could manage, because he had no idea what would become of this situation, nor if the Jeon-Il boy was dead.

All he knew was that everything was too late once he heard sirens in the distance, and three vehicles pull up into the narrow street with police officers rushing in to arrest the three. The boy in the mustard-yellow uniform was loaded onto a stretcher, he was carried into the back of a police car on account of an injured leg, and Chanyeol was cuffed behind his back. "Don't scare him!" he yelled at the officers as they brutally shoved Chanyeol against the car and searched his pockets.

Chanyeol was terrified, absolutely terrified, but he was shown no mercy as the police pushed his head down into the vehicle and reminded him of his non-existent rights.

"So, what you're saying is that these Jeon-Il boys messed up your leg, and your friend here saved you?"

"Stepbrother," Baekhyun corrected him silently, uncomfortable with the lack of light and breathing space in the interrogation room. It was his first time in one, speaking to just one officer who had a gun strapped to his belt. He couldn't stop shaking his left leg, the one that hadn't been beaten to a meaty pulp, although his right had been set straight with some emergency splints and antibiotic spray.

The officer in front of him, a fat, burly man who was nothing like Kyungsoo, his thumb and flipped through a cream-colored folder which Baekhyun assumed was Chanyeol's file. "The boy from Jeon-Il is in a comatose state, getting stitches done in his skull. His parents are going to file a lawsuit and I'm afraid I can't help with the legal aspect of this case." he mumbled, "Records show here that your stepbrother was held here on account of a stolen item..."

"He turned himself in," Baekhyun said quickly, "He was only trying to save me, officer, he's not violent! He wouldn't hurt a fly!" He realized how silly his rebuttals sounded, when Chanyeol had been found at the scene holding a bloody brick in his hand.

"What if the next time this happens? The next time your stepbrother tries to save you and 'accidentally' ends up killing a man?"

Baekhyun fell silent. He was at a loss for words because no matter how many times he'd try to convince anyone that Chanyeol wasn't violent, people would still doubt him anyway because he was mentally disabled. To them, Chanyeol being the way he was meant that he had no self-control, sense of morality, nor any emotional bearing on the consequences. They doubted Chanyeol, and Baekhyun knew exactly why because he used to doubt Chanyeol too. Used to.

"Nobody says anything about the Jeon-Il boys because they have rich parents, good grades... because they're not different. It doesn't matter to anyone that Chanyeol's the victim because people like you and me just assume he's stupid; they won't even give him a chance..." His vision was misty until the tears finally fell over his lower eyelids and rolled down his cheeks. "I understand, sir," he hiccuped, "This must be justice."

"You can give them a call at this number, Mrs. Byun. We'll take care of the rest, in terms of keeping in contact with the Jeon-Il student."

"Thank you..." the woman sighed, taking a slip of paper that she crumpled in her hand as soon as Baekhyun came out of the spare room. She rushed to him, her eyes puffy from crying, and hugged her son to her chest as tightly as possible. "Thank God you're okay..."

"What about Chanyeol?"

His mother didn't speak for a long time, but Baekhyun's cheek as the tears streamed down her cheeks again. She wiped them away with a handkerchief and tried smiling for her son's sake. "Chanyeol will be okay, sweetheart. The officers need to keep him for a bit longer."

"Why? He didn't do anything wrong!" Baekhyun yelled unintentionally loud, "The stupid police should be questioning all of those Jeon-Il bastards why they were carrying wooden sticks around or why Nam Woohyun got a twisted ankle right before the season's match! They should be questioning why the hell they went to school to learn about justice and honor just to blame it all on an easy target. Why? Because Chanyeol's retarded and that's a crime in this world!" His chest heaved up and down; an officer came around to try and get him to sit, but he pushed the man away with a frustrated scream.

There was a long period of silence that filled the police department until Baekhyun's mother finally coaxed him to leave.

Two hours went by quickly, and Baekhyun saw Chanyeol again. The other boy looked so emotionally scarred that Baekhyun decided to leave him alone on the ride home in a taxi.

He thought everything he needed to say had already been said.

"We can't afford a lawyer, Baekhyun."

Baekhyun and his mother had taken some chairs outside to talk privately while Chanyeol had gone to bed.

"Even if we're assigned a lawyer automatically by court, we'll lose the case. We might be in debt, millions of won," she sighed, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from her purse. When she held one between her fingers with a lighter clasped in the other hand, Baekhyun snatched it away from her with a scowl. The last time he had seen his mother smoke right in front of him was when she confessed that his father had started hitting her, and the last thing Baekhyun wanted to do was to be reminded of more unwanted memories.

"Can't he do community service or something?"

"They're cutting him some slack, sweetheart," her hands fidgeting now that she was deprived of nicotine, "They're not worried about how Chanyeol will compensate for his crime but for what he'll do in the future. They're worried... that Chanyeol's might be too sick to be in our care..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

His mother stared at the purse in her lap for a long time before she pulled out the crumpled piece of paper she had hidden from him at the police station. "They gave us a week."

Baekhyun took the note from her, squinting to try and read the illegible handwriting.

Seoul Psychiatric Institution

A Foster Home for Mentally Disabled Patients

(040-8820-1192)

The more Baekhyun argued with the people who were trying to take Chanyeol away, the more he doubted himself. He felt powerless because he was the only one on Chanyeol's side. Then, he wondered if he could really make a difference, perhaps make everyone believe that their juvenile assumptions about Chanyeol were all wrong and he didn't need to go to a mental institution.

Exhausted and drained, Baekhyun limped into Chanyeol's room where he saw the other boy crumpled on a blanket on the ground. He had no pillow, nor a blanket. It was depressing seeing Chanyeol like this. Being careful not to stir him from his sleep, Baekhyun crouched beside Chanyeol who was on his side, his back facing him.

Chanyeol was still wearing his school uniform, with his long limbs wrapped around himself since his room was drafty and the temperature was dropping as the heat seeped out of the walls.

Baekhyun pulled the sheets up to Chanyeol's shoulders and scooted closer, using his own arm as a pillow. This was his first time sleeping with Chanyeol, and it saddened him to think that the other boy wasn't awake to see.

He closed his eyes, then slowly leaned forward to press a gentle, fleeting kiss to the nape of Chanyeol's neck, where the back of his skull met the top pebble of his spine. He fell asleep shortly after, hoping that there was a God up in the heavens that cared about Chanyeol, too.

He prayed to that God.

'Please, don't let them take my brother away.'