*Chapter 4;

"Byun Baekhyun, get up, you're going to be late for school!"

Baekhyun twisted the sheets over his head and groaned, rolling himself in a toasty burrito so his mother wouldn't snatch the blanket away. With a groggy expression, he poked his head out from the top of the sheets and glanced at the digital clock on his lamp drawer, the green lights blinking six in the morning. "Moooom," he whined, "I still have an hour to sleep!"

Stubbornness ran in the family, so Baekhyun's mother was not in the mood to take her son's sass so early in the morning. In ways that Baekhyun would call domestic abuse, his mother had him up and pushed into the restroom with his uniform and some towels. Baekhyun, still half-asleep, mumbled incoherently under his breath and stepped into the bathtub for his morning shower, only to remember that he had left Chanyeol's piss-soaked pants in there the previous morning. The musky stench wafted up to his nostrils and woke him up instantly, like he had been smacked across the head with no warning whatsoever.

Piss-soaked pants tossed aside, Baekhyun showered in a foul mood and stepped out of the restroom clad in his uniform sticking to his skin. Chanyeol was right at the door when he left, dressed in a familiar uniform that...

"Mom, is Chanyeol wearing my spare uniform?!" he yelled loud enough for his mother to hear, wherever she was.

Chanyeol answered him by shaking his head with that dumb grin on his face again, pointing to a sunny-yellow plaque on his plate that didn't have a name engraved on it yet. He was also sporting a new backpack, the expensive brand that Baekhyun had wanted since his first year of high school. 

"No, sweetie," his mother finally came around, tucking some paperwork under her arm and the back of Chanyeol's hair, "Chanyeol's going to school with you. He's in your homeroom class, I had it arranged with the principal."

"Wait, what? Mom!" Baekhyun groaned, "My friends are going to make fun of me if he's there!"

"Baekhyun." she scolded with a stern gaze Baekhyun felt small under, and he knew immediately that he would have to accept it as it was. Chanyeol was going to school with him, and there was nothing he could do about it. Glaring at his too-eager stepbrother, Baekhyun sat down on the sofa's arm and watched his busy mother dart this way and that to prepare for a school meeting.

"He'll be taking special classes after homeroom, so you don't need to worry about taking care of him until after school."

"But I have soccer practice!"

"Take Chanyeol with you, I'm sure the sweetheart can sit on the bleachers and watch," she smiled, patting Chanyeol's shoulder encouragingly, "Isn't that right, Chanyeol?"

Chanyeol nodded ecstatically.

Baekhyun propped an elbow on one knee and his chin on his open palm, bloating his cheeks with air. "What are you looking at, stupid?" he scowled at Chanyeol for no reason, simply because he couldn't find any positive reason to be cheerful about bringing his retarded brother to school, the one place he was actually freed from his obligations as Chanyeol's caretaker. His own mom couldn't understand his distress, and asking for sympathy from an idiot was just dumb on his part.

"Park Chanyeol, you better listen to me this time when I say not to act like you know me," Baekhyun whispered to the other boy outside of the principal's office where his mother was discussing Chanyeol's school plans with the board of education, jabbing the taller boy in his ribcage. He turned back to the window, wondering what the adults were discussing that needed to be addressed for half an hour. Whatever it was, it sounded serious judging from the solemn expression on his mother's face.

Chanyeol, not knowing anything, peeked over Baekhyun's shoulder and was pushed back.

Baekhyun slipped the toe of his sneakers into the crevice of the door, pushing it open slightly just so he could eavesdrop (or try to).

"It's a little difficult to tell if the special education classes will be enough for Chanyeol at the moment, Mrs. Byun. He's had no prior education whatsoever, just years of home-schooling we have no written records of."

"Please, director, Chanyeol's never been to a public school, and he was so happy wearing the uniform..."

"Yes, I understand. It grieves me to inform you that Chanyeol's current intelligence level is comparable to that of a second grader. Even the special education program we offer won't do him much good..."

"At least allow him to stay in school for a week. It would mean the world to him."

Baekhyun couldn't listen anymore. He pulled away and almost bumped his back against Chanyeol's front in the process.

Judging from Chanyeol's clueless expression, it didn't seem like he had heard anything, nor could he understand the gravity of the situation if he had eavesdropped. That was what broke his heart the most: the fact Chanyeol didn't understand anything and always stood there with that stupid grin on his face.

Baekhyun whisked around and stormed down the hallway without waiting for his mother, and Chanyeol just stared, unable to follow him for fear of upsetting Baekhyun again.

"Hey, did you hear? That new kid, Chanyeol, in our homeroom class? He's taking special education, and they say he's dumber than a second grader." a classmate bickered.

"I wonder if he starts twitching like a retard, like this," Jongin laughed, mimicking an eye twitch and a brief spasm, "Sehun told me he tripped over his own two feet at lunch and spilled food all over himself!"

Baekhyun had his head turned away from his friends, his face stuffed in a Naruto manga, particularly on a page he had read at least a hundred times over by now, his glare boring holes into the printed words. The more his classmates taunted his stepbrother and spoke ill of Chanyeol, the more it bothered him.

He didn't say anything to them, but gathered his things and left the classroom when the last bell rang.

His cheeks were flushed red from embarrassment.

"Baekhyun!" Jongin grinned, wrapping an arm around Baekhyun's droopy shoulders from behind, "Way to go, leaving without me. You know there's practice today and coach is actually considering cutting you from the team if you don't show up to this one too, right?"

Baekhyun dragged his duffel bag along and nodded. His feet felt heavier than usual as he approached the field. His thoughts were just filled with Chanyeol that he had no room to think of anything else. Even practice was a chore, and so were his friends when they tried to initiate small talk. His teammates (most of them were his friends) were gathered on one end of the grassy lawn already, jogging in place to warm-up. For once, he was the only one not dressed for the session, so he had to find a dry patch of grass to sit on to pull up his socks and slip into his soccer cleats.

If there was some way to bury himself a hundred feet below ground level, he would have done so in a heartbeat because the worst of his nightmares was coming true and approaching him with a goofy grin. Chanyeol was waving at him from across the field, and it didn't take perfect vision for Baekhyun to notice what a mess he was.

"Who's he waving to?" Jongin sneered, bending up from his windmill exercises to stare at the one person who came to watch the soccer team practice.

"Don't know," Minseok laughed, tapping Baekhyun's shoulder, "I think he's waving at you. You know him?"

Baekhyun pretended like he didn't exist for a second or two before pretending got too obvious, and he stood up, dusting off his soccer shorts. "I have no idea," he snorted, "First time I saw him." He tossed a soccer ball in one hand, nervously chuckling with his posse of friends when Chanyeol approached them, holding out a piece of paper to Baekhyun.

It was the writing assignment Chanyeol had completed at school. On the top, '95%' was written in red marker, and next to it a smiley sticker. Even his name was written correctly in the box where it belonged. "Baekhyun." Chanyeol beamed, expecting Baekhyun to take it, to tell him he did a good job, to say they were going out for ice cream after school to celebrate.

"Hey, didn't you say your stepdad had a son?" Jongdae smirked, "Is he your stepbrother?"

Baekhyun's fist trembled at his side.

"Wait, no way, this retard's Byun Baekhyun's stepbrother?" another laughed and a few other voices joined in until Baekhyun was surrounded by cackling and howling. The heat rose to the tips of his ears until he finally burst.

"Get the hell away from me!" Baekhyun screamed at Chanyeol, "I'm sick of you ruining my life! I wish you were never born and I wish you'd just leave me alone because you're a worthless piece of trash that can't do anything by himself! You're so stupid and that's all you'll ever be, so get the hell away from me and don't ever come back!" He crumpled up the piece of paper and stomped on it angrily with his spiked cleats, trampling it into the sodden soil.

When Chanyeol didn't budge, he shoved him back so hard his friends had to restrain him on either side.

There was a thick silence that swallowed everyone until Baekhyun heard the coach blow his whistle. His friends dispersed one by one until it was just him and Chanyeol standing face-to-face.

"I don't want you in my life," Baekhyun seethed with venom laced in his voice.

Slowly, Chanyeol took a few steps backwards and turned away, his head hung and shoulders hunched. Baekhyun saw one arm reaching up to wipe some stray tears from his face, but that was all he saw before he turned away to catch up with the rest of his teammates.

That night, Chanyeol didn't come home.

Author's Note: Wow, so many subscribers! @__@ Thank you so much for your endearing support and wonderful comments! I've had this chapter outlined for a while and after several attempts at fleshing it out, I've finally finished this chapter to thank you all for all the attention Baby's Breath is receiving now! I'm going to try and get around to responding to some of the comments, although I really appreciate every one of you that do because it really inspires me to write faster, longer, and better chapters!

Thank you again! ^^