*Chapter 14;

"This is how you write your name. Byun... Baek... Hyun. See, easy, right?"

"Wow, Chanyeol, you're so smart!"

A young Baekhyun with both of his front teeth missing grinned at Chanyeol, who was also on his stomach. The patio they were lying on was warm from the morning rays. They were both back from school and Chanyeol had come over to help Baekhyun with his homework, which required him to spell out his name in the dotted blue squares. Chanyeol had already learned how to write a few months before Baekhyun; in fact, he was the brightest boy in the class who always went out of his way to teach his classmates.

Baekhyun pushed himself onto his elbows and sniffed, snot dribbling down his philtrum as he watched Chanyeol write his name on the open notebook. He munched into his sandwich, the ham slipping out of the two slices of wheat bread.

"I think you should be a teacher, Chanyeol, you would be the most smartical teacher in the whole world, I think," Baekhyun mumbled with a mouthful of ham, cheese, lettuce, and wheat.

Chanyeol only smiled in response, but there was more meaning to that one smile than any word could convey because Baekhyun had planted a seed more precious than anything else in Chanyeol's golden heart, a seed that would take time to blossom into a beautiful flower.

He had given him hope.

While all the students were rushing into school at the last minute, Baekhyun had woven past them just in time for the gates to close. It wasn't his first time ditching class, but it was definitely one in a few. He just wasn't looking forward to facing school so soon because his heart felt heavy for some reason. He thought if he entered the classroom with his leg in its current condition, he would feel the need to vomit. Not because he wasn't feeling physically well, but because he couldn't handle the aftermath of the incident.

He couldn't handle his classmates gossiping about who-hit-who and placing bets on what would happen to either Baekhyun or Chanyeol now. He didn't want to hear his coach nagging about finding replacements for the upcoming tournament which he had already been withdrawn from. Most of all, he didn't want to face the fact that time was moving too quickly for him now. It was terrifying, and although Baekhyun had been taught not to run away from his problems, he couldn't help it.

For once, there was a nightmare that was chasing him down a very narrow corridor, and he couldn't hide. It seemed like everybody knew how to get rid of it but him, so he ran. (He didn't really run, since his leg was in bad shape.)

Baekhyun hadn't gone very far from the campus when he saw another student in the same uniform. Not a huge surprise, since the rate of delinquents skipping class and doing who-knows-what during class hours had skyrocketed recently. Even the police had given up on them, comparing students to "rat infestations" that had taken over the city. Locking up one didn't make a significant difference so they couldn't be bothered anymore.

That was why the police had just flippantly decided to send Chanyeol away to a mental hospital since they didn't want any more work from another trouble-making kid who wasn't worth their time.

He hadn't even noticed how far his train of thought was going until he was close to the other Hye-Seong student. Thankfully (or not thankfully, he couldn't tell), it was Zitao.

"I heard about your brother," he said calmly.

Baekhyun opened his mouth to speak, although no words came close to sounding appropriate, so he nodded instead. Perhaps he was just getting over the initial shock of hearing Zitao speak in Korean for the first time, since he had been under the impression that the transfer student couldn't speak anything but Chinese.

"I had a brother, too," Zitao said, lighting up a cigarette after searching the streets for any signs of the neighborhood police, "I was part of a gang in my district. Not a big one, just a small unit of delinquents that thought they could rule the world by running a city."

Baekhyun stood still, not quite understanding why Zitao was suddenly telling him his life story on their second formal meeting. It was certainly not the most common way to start a conversation.

"We did some pretty... bad things," the exchange student mumbled while kicking over a pile of crates to use as a seat. "My brother was like the kid. Your brother. Never did anything bad in his life; he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." he said, "One day I messed up really bad and he happened to be out looking for me, to tell me to come back home. When he found out I was in a scrape, he turned himself in."

After a brief pause, Baekhyun looked up at Zitao with a dejected expression on his face. "What does that have to do with me?"

"It doesn't have anything to do with you," Zitao replied with a small smirk on his face, like he knew something Baekhyun didn't. He was like the Chesire cat with questions to the answers. "I was just telling you a story." He flicked the extinguished of his cigarette and crushed the nicotine powder with the heel of his sneakers. "My brother's why I'm here, not behind bars. I told myself I'd never raise a fist to anyone ever again, but I did, with you," he stood up again and dusted himself off, "Don't make the same mistake I did by running away from your problems."

Zitao stretched like a cat after its afternoon nap, now heading towards the school. "Oi, let's go back to school." he called over his shoulder, and, after a while of contemplation, Baekhyun followed him.

"What's wrong with you? You didn't even eat your beansprouts, I thought you liked them," Baekhyun said to Chanyeol on their way home from school, opening up Chanyeol's bento, layer by layer, "You just ate all the sausages."

"I was in... ah... detention... so I couldn't eat everything."

"Detention? What for?"

"Late... I was waiting for Baekhyun," Chanyeol grinned, almost as if he was proud to admit it.

Baekhyun smacked the back of his head, but inside, maybe he was just a little glad.

"Baekhyun, this is hard..." Chanyeol whined, his hair angrily, "I don't want to do this anymore."

Baekhyun, who had carried all of his things out to the living room to study with Chanyeol, looked up from his history textbook. "Just write a few more sentences, I'll help you if you don't understand something," he said, idly scratching the bottom of his foot.

"No, I don't want to!"

Baekhyun was surprised when the docile Chanyeol had the nerve to hurl his book across the table so it skidded off the edge and fell with a 'flop' on the floor. He calmly picked it up. A pink note fell out. Cautiously, Baekhyun unfolded the crumpled sheet and read a handwritten letter clearly printed in the principal's handwriting. It was a letter of withdrawal. "Chanyeol..."

"The teacher said I couldn't go to school anymore..." he sniffed, "I-I didn't do anything wrong..."

Baekhyun crumpled up the note in his hand and pretended as if nothing had happened. He pushed the notebook towards Chanyeol again and closed the other male's fingers around a pencil. "If you do your homework, the teacher will change her mind, she'll let you stay in school, I'll talk to her, I promise..." He didn't know what he was saying, but he was pressing the lead into the notebook now, forcing Chanyeol's hand to write out a sentence that was foggy in his head.

"No!"

"Chanyeol!"

"No, Baekhyun!"

Chanyeol was prying himself away from Baekhyun now, both their eyes glazed with newly-forming tears.

"Listen to me, Chanyeol! If you don't write, they're going to take you away! Don't you understand, idiot!" Baekhyun yelled, his hands into the collar of the other male's uniform until they were face-to-face. He was trembling so hard because he was nervous and had no idea what to say, but he didn't really need to think before the words poured from his lips. He had no time to waste. He was already years too late. "I... I was the one who ruined your life, and everyday that I spent trying to make up for it, the wall... the wall was too high. You wanted to be a teacher, and I ruined that for you! How could I live with myself when I'm the one who gets to go to school and you... you... you're... like this..." his fingers shook uncontrollably, and his tears finally fell past his lower eyelids, dripping down his cheeks until they splattered on Chanyeol's blank, yellow nametag.

He ducked his head and sobbed loudly until it hurt to breathe. "It's not fair... They're taking you away now that I found a hole in the wall... it's not fair..." Baekhyun cried, burying himself into Chanyeol's embrace. He was rambling now, trying to say everything on his mind at once until the words that left him actually sounded like a cluster of jumbled words. "You don't remember anything."

"I remember Byun Baekhyun." Chanyeol's voice was surprisingly warm and calm, tilting Baekhyun's wet face to lean their foreheads together until they barely touched. "I remember Byun Baekhyun, my brother, my... best friend." he smiled, "Even... Even if I don't remember how to... write... I can still remember..."

He tapped the center of his own chest gently.

"Here."