*Chapter 28;

Coming home with Chanyeol felt a little surreal. It seemed like years since they had seen each other, maybe even decades, but those years had only been months and Baekhyun was exaggerating.

On the ride home, Baekhyun's mother treated them to black bean noodles and Jongin, of course, was invited for the meal. The four of them sat in one booth and Baekhyun sat across from Chanyeol and beside Jongin. It was a little silly to think so, but after all that had happened, he felt the happiest sharing a meal with his... dare he say, family in the old Chinese restaurant he went to on "big occasions" like post-soccer tournaments and celebrations.

Black bean noodles was the same thing to a poor man as steak was to a rich man, but Baekhyun hadn't had any in a while because his mother had told him eating outside was a waste of money.

He smiled at Chanyeol while they ate, kind of hoping he would look up every now and then and kind of liking how Chanyeol was now, digging into his food like a starved dog. It was hard not to laugh when Chanyeol raised his head and showed the lower half of his face messily caked with the sauce.

Baekhyun didn't stop him though.

"Eat a lot, okay? You must be really hungry," he chuckled and laid a slice of pickled radish on top of Chanyeol's noodles with a shy albeit brotherly smile.

Jongin muttered when he saw this, elbowing Baekhyun with a wry grin. "Now that you're head over heels for your brother, you've forgotten all about me, huh? Where's my radish! Mrs. Byun, can you believe your son?"

Chanyeol seemed to have understood Jongin's banter because he was the one laughing the loudest at the table.

When they were finally home, Chanyeol was the first to step inside like a curious puppy adjusting to its new surroundings. Everything was more or less the same except Chanyeol's room which had been refurnished into a separate study room for Baekhyun. Chanyeol's luggage still needed to be shipped from the institution which was why Baekhyun's mother told the boys to share a room until the luggage would arrive.

Baekhyun was surprisingly okay with that.

Due to his mother throwing a little hissy fit that men shouldn't sleep on the same bed together with their hormones raging and whatnot (whatever that meant), Chanyeol had to sleep on the floor.

Baekhyun would have helped him lay the blankets down, but his busted legs kept him immobile for the most part and falling on it earlier had really intensified the pain.

Chanyeol took care of everything on his own though, preparing his bed, putting on his pajamas, and even helping Baekhyun get into his when he was having trouble with his pants. He even brought a bowl and his toothbrush over so Baekhyun wouldn't have to go to the restroom to get washed up, too.

Baekhyun wanted to talk to Chanyeol a bit longer but his mother called lights out and the two were shut in darkness for a while, until the glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling shone. He tried falling asleep but the fact that Chanyeol was now physically there with him was exciting and he couldn't afford to lose a minute. After a few minutes, he turned around and saw Chanyeol's head sticking up from the edge of the bed, beady eyes just staring at him sleep.

He yelped. "God! Don't scare me like that!" he whined, pushing himself up on his elbows.

Chanyeol folded his arms on the edge of Baekhyun's bed and smiled widely.

"Baekhyunnie?"

Baekhyun his side and looked at Chanyeol, murmuring sleepily. "Yeah?"

Chanyeol just smiled for a long time.

"You can't just call me and not say anything." Baekhyun huffed, only complaining as much as he did to cover up the fact he was blushing a dark pink from his cheeks to the tip of his ears. He blamed it on the fact he had never been good at making eye contact and having someone just stare at him for no reason. He pushed Chanyeol's forehead back and sighed. "Go to sleep." when really he meant "Let's talk some more."

They talked for so long Baekhyun lost track of time until he glanced at his phone and saw that it was three in the morning. His eyes were red and he was fighting the urge to sleep, if only to talk to Chanyeol just a few minutes longer.

He was surprised there could be so many things to talk about yet none of the things they discussed were really important in subject matter. They talked about if the animals in zoos probably missed their homes, how pineapples were grown, what they were going to do tomorrow, and why girls painted their nails. Everything Chanyeol asked, Baekhyun had an answer to. He found himself asking some questions himself and was delightfully surprised to hear Chanyeol answering them to the best of his knowledge.

Like he'd ask "why do you think snails are so slow?" and Chanyeol would answer "maybe they don't want time to pass by so fast" and that was a lot more logical than any answer he had ever gotten.

Another half hour passed and Baekhyun couldn't take staying up any longer than he had, so he slipped down carefully and nudged Chanyeol to the side to slip into the sheets with him. The spot he now occupied was pleasantly warm and he didn't realize how much he had missed this until he was living in the moment, with Chanyeol's body warming up his side.

He his side and tucked his hands under his head, trying to ignore the pain that was shooting up his knees despite the fact that he took the prescribed painkillers before bed. As long as the stitches were still in, the doctors guaranteed pain for the next few months, if not a constant burn for the rest of his life if he used his legs too much.

"We won't get to play soccer anymore." Baekhyun said with an apologetic smile, closing his eyes half because he was sleepy and half because he didn't want to be caught holding back his tears.

"That's okay." Chanyeol said.

"Aren't you embarrassed that I'm like this? That I won't get to play with you or anything? I'm going to be on a wheelchair for years, they said I might not be able to run ever again."

Chanyeol shook his head.

Baekhyun would have said something, but within seconds he heard Chanyeol snoring and remembered he was scarily narcoleptic. He wasn't sure how he managed to do it, but Chanyeol had the eerie power to fall asleep within seconds anywhere and anytime. Smiling, he tried going to sleep again. Chanyeol was probably oblivious but Baekhyun had learned something new, something profound.

No matter what, Chanyeol would always love him because it didn't matter what people were like on the outside as long as they were good on the inside. Being handicapped and wheelchair-bound wouldn't change who he was, just like how a low IQ hadn't stopped Chanyeol from being everything he wanted to be: a decent human being.

He could have been missing both legs and had one eye and Chanyeol would have still loved him just the same.

Perhaps it was true that the most innocent people saw the world differently, that they could see the human soul clearly whereas people who looked for superficial things beyond that couldn't see it at all and always got caught up wanting something else.

Baekhyun sighed and felt relatively at ease. From their angle on the floor, he saw the moonlight peeking through the blinds and casting a lovely glow on Chanyeol's face. When he was asleep, he looked so peaceful. Without his curly brown hair, he almost looked more mature. The short hair really emphasized the sharp contours of his face despite how boyish he looked overall and showed more of those "Dumbo" ears Baekhyun so liked to flick every now and then.

He smiled and wished all of this wasn't a dream, or if it was, he wished he would never wake up.

But he did a few hours later to the sound of crashing and laughter.

He really thought everything was a dream when he stirred awake and sat up slowly to see a whole band of his friends from the soccer team filling his room, nearly throwing everything off their appropriate places and making a mess. Of course, this sort of thing was normal when there were a bunch of boys let loose in an enclosed space, but why the hell were they there?!

Jongin plopped down next to him and Baekhyun would have been glad to see him had he not just seen him yesterday. "Hey! We got a surprise for ya, so wake up, Sleeping Beauty!" he grinned, grabbing Baekhyun's face to kiss his cheek with a loud 'pop'.

"Gross!" Baekhyun grumbled and pushed Jongin away, trying to ask why everyone was here. Had he missed a memo or were they just extremely glad to see him?

"We missed you!" Sehun bawled, throwing his arms around Baekhyun and kissing his cheek as well.

Then there was Jongdae and Minseok and...

"Chanyeol!" Baekhyun screamed when Chanyeol followed his friends and covered his face in kisses. He blushed brightly, trying to wipe the color from his face even if he felt gross and violated by a bunch of stinky guys.

Chanyeol grinned, obviously excited for no reason because he also had no idea why everyone was suddenly in Baekhyun's room or why they brought gifts like flowers and snacks. He supposed it was because they were their friends and that's what friends did.

When everything finally settled down, Jongin clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention. The boys stopped showering both Chanyeol and Baekhyun in gifts to carefully load Baekhyun onto his wheelchair, then pushed him out to the living room without explaining what they had planned. Even Chanyeol was following in a daze.

"We kinda got our hands dirty and made somethin' for ya guys," Jongin smiled sheepishly, pulling the curtains back to reveal the lavish backyard of their house, completely filled with bushes of Baby's Breath flowers and roses aplenty. There was even a little pond dug out with fishes swimming in circles. It was evident how much hard labor had gone into building this garden since their backyard had been nothing but a trash pile when he last saw it, which was why Baekhyun's mother had placed a curtain in front of the glass door. All the debris and rusty tools were gone, replaced by a flourishing garden of flowers atop a bed of grass.

Chanyeol had his face pressed to the glass and Baekhyun just stared at the sight before him in awe.

"How..." he whispered, "How did you guys...?"

"We heard about the flower shop that got closed down and decided to do a little exploring, found a little secret garden with Chanyeol's picket on it. The place was going to be torn down and remodeled anyway, we thought we'd carry the garden over to a safer spot." Jongin explained, wrapping an arm around Sehun's shoulders. "I mainly supervised, aren't ya proud of me?"

Baekhyun's eyes glistened with tears and he choked out a warbled "thank you, guys" despite how excited Chanyeol seemed seeing his babies somewhere closer to home.

"Ahaha, look, Baekkie's crying! Someone catch this on camera!" Jongin howled and the boys whipped out their cellphones to record this golden moment.

The only person who didn't find the joke funny was Chanyeol who tried covering Baekhyun up. "Stop being mean to Baekhyun!" he pouted, lightly pushing Jongin who had his cellphone right against Baekhyun's face away. In the end, it was all for good fun and Chanyeol and Baekhyun turned to the garden again, amazed by its beauty.

He turned his head to the others and smiled. "Thank you," Baekhyun said again. "Do you mind if I have a few minutes alone with Chanyeol? I need to tell him something."

His friends willingly left the room for the two of them, but Baekhyun didn't say anything until they were in the garden, the curtains shut behind them. Surrounded by pretty white picket fences with only the endless sky above them, Baekhyun truly felt they were in their own world.

When he opened his mouth, everything was lost in translation.

Author's Note: Hey guys! Wow, three chapters straight really does all the energy out of you, especially if you're updating them on a few hours of sleep. X__X ;; Just to let you guys know, the next chapter will be the last. However! To thank you guys for subscribing and commenting thus far, I've decided to run a small giveaway. The prize isn't much but it's something! If you'd like to participate in the free giveaway, direct yourselves here!