Chanyeol was six years old when his father came home from a business-trip in Sweden. His father had bought a teddy bear from the brand ‘Bukowski’ as a birthday-gift from his only son.

The teddy-bear had dark and smooth fur, deep blue eyes, a gentle smile and a white ribbon in satin around its neck. Chanyeol named that teddy-bear ‘Channie’ as a shorter name of his own name.

Channie slept in Chanyeol’s bed every night, he protected his owner from bad dreams. And when it was time to start school; Channie followed Chanyeol on the first day.

The other students looked at Chanyeol, who always was carrying the teddy-bear under his arm. He spoke to the teddy-bear and took care of it. And he never forgot Channie at home. Channie hated to be alone at home.

-

Chanyeol didn’t have any friends. But he was happy anyways, as long as he had Channie and the other students were nice to him he didn’t need any.

“Look, how weird he is. Talking to that teddy-bear and not to normal people” a girl in Chanyeol’s class would say when Chanyeol wasn’t hearing.

Baekhyun would always send a gaze and thought to Chanyeol as he thought that there wasn’t any weird with having a plushy-friend. Baekhyun had them as well, but he never told the others as he listened to them speaking to Chanyeol.

At that time, he was too scared to defend someone.

-

Teddy-bears got ‘childish’ sometime around ten years old. But Chanyeol didn’t stop bringing Channie to the school. The thing Chanyeol felt for Channie was something called unconditional love. He would always love Channie.

The boys could tease Chanyeol. Calling him ‘kiddo’, but Chanyeol didn’t listen to them. He was the kind of person who didn’t care what other people thought of him.

But they reached the edge once they took Channie away from Chanyeol.

Baekhyun found Chanyeol crying inside the classroom on a break.

“What’s wrong?” Baekhyun asked.

Chanyeol looked at Baekhyun and turned around. He knew that Baekhyun was friends with those kind of guys.

“They took him” he sobbed. His eyes were red-shot and his eyes were runny. “Channie…”

“Who’s Channie? Your teddy-bear?” Baekhyun asked.

Chanyeol nodded and dried his tears.

Baekhyun got mad. He hated his friends for being so mean to Chanyeol. He walked straight towards his group of friends, who he saw was holding Channie and played with him.

“Really funny guys” Baekhyun pretended to laugh. “Kidnapping an innocent teddy-bear, what are you? Five?”

After that he took the teddy-bear away from the guy’s hands and walked straight back to Chanyeol.

“Don’t care about those idiots again, if they are mean to you. Just tell me okay? They are all scared of me so they can’t be mean to me.” Baekhyun said as he handed the teddy-bear back to Chanyeol.

-

The following day, Baekhyun brought his own teddy-bear to the school. On the lunch-break, he went to the usual place where Chanyeol always was. Behind the gym.

“Hi” Baekhyun said and chuckled at Chanyeol’s reaction with making a small jump. “Is everything alright today?”

Chanyeol nodded and looked at the teddy-bear in Baekhyun’s hand. “What’s his name?”

“He doesn’t have one yet. Will you help me to give him one?”

Chanyeol smiled and nodded. He waved to Baekhyun to get closer to him and the two began to play together with the teddy-bears.

-

When he started high school, Chanyeol didn’t play with Channie during the breaks. But Channie always followed him to school. He sat in his bag, which Chanyeol always had in his locker. Whenever he was nervous he would look at Channie and smile, Channie made him feel safe.

-

On Chanyeol’s thirteenth birthday, Baekhyun followed Chanyeol home after school. Once they stepped inside the house they got greeted by Chanyeol’s mother and father and a cake.

“This is Baekhyun, he’s my friend in school” Chanyeol smiled towards Baekhyun.

Baekhyun bowed towards Chanyeol’s parents and followed Chanyeol to his room. He looked at Chanyeol as he picked Channie up from his bag and placed him on the bed. On the dark-blue pillow.

“It feels like he’s keeping the nightmares away” Chanyeol blushed when he saw that Baekhyun was looking at Channie.

Baekhyun nodded, he knew exactly how it felt.

-

One day, when Chanyeol is fifteen, he forgets Channie at home. It’s an unforgivable experience, but it somehow felt good. Baekhyun was there and protected Chanyeol, just like Channie always had done.

-

When Chanyeol turned sixteen, Chanyeol’s mother threw Channie away.

“He was dirty, broken and you’re too old for teddy-bears” his mother explained.

But Chanyeol didn’t listen. He screamed and cried when he locked himself up in his room. He hated hid mother for throwing Channie away. She didn’t know how it felt. To not have anyone to lean her back against. Channie had been his best friend.

-

Baekhyun visited Chanyeol that day. He was the only one Chanyeol allowed to step inside the room-

“She threw Channie away” Chanyeol muttered. “He was my only best friend”

Baekhyun took Chanyeol’s hand and looked deep inside Chanyeol’s dark and big eyes. “Can I be your only best friend now?”

-

On Chanyeol’s eighteenth birthday, he celebrated it with Baekhyun on a café close to Baekhyun’s house. Baekhyun had bought milkshake and a chocolate cake for Chanyeol. He had also prepared a gift for him.

Chanyeol’s eyes widened as Baekhyun handed Chanyeol the big package. “Here you go” Baekhyun smiled.

Chanyeol didn’t waste any time on opening it and as soon as the package was fully unwrapped the eyes of Chanyeol widened. Inside the package were two teddy-bears of the brand ‘Bukowski’ lying.

One light brown and one white. They both had a white ribbon in silk tied around their neck. On each end of the ribbon was something embroidered, ‘Chanyeol’ on the brown bear and ‘Baekhyun’ on the white bear.

Chanyeol’s eyes got tear. “Thank you… thank you so much” He got up and hugged his best friend.

Baekhyun kissed Chanyeol on the cheek and the two boys laughed for a while before they continued with their cakes.