Word Count: 1,628

Baekhyun headed out to the studio five minutes before they were supposed to meet but for some reason, Jongdae was already present.

“I thought you said that we were meeting at 12:00. It’s 11:55 right now.”

“I thought I’d just get here early,” Jongdae replied shrugging.

"Also, were't we supposed to meet at your house not mine?"

"Details," he said, waving his hand nonchalantly.

“You’re kind of strange, if you don’t mind me saying so,” Baekhyun said.

“Yep, although I’d prefer it if you called me quirky. It has a nicer ring to it, don’t you think?” Baekhyun laughed in response. It had been such a long time since he had laughed, from after he heard about his parent’s death until he met Jongdae. “Glad I could make you laugh,” he said. “You always looked so sad whenever you passed by.”

“Were you spying on me?”

“In a loose definition of the word,” he replied nonchalantly. “I prefer to call it consistent and persistent people watching.”

“Still sounds moderately stalker-ish,” Baekhyun giggled.

“But without me being a stalker, you wouldn’t have found the joy and treasure that is Kim Jongdae.”

“If I do recall, you’re the one who found me, not the other way around.”

“It resulted in the same thing. Besides, you know you love me.”

“Well I don’t actually know you all that well.”

“Humour me?”

“I do have to admit that you’re really charismatic and kind of cute,” Baekhyun conceded.

“That’s good enough,” Jongdae replied, grinning. “So why don’t we get this show on the road then?” He picked up a bag that Baekhyun hadn’t noticed.

“What’s the bag for?”

“It’s for building these things, although I suppose we’ll be redoing this studio first.”

“I worked on it a little last night. Why don’t you come in and see if this is a good working environment,” Baekhyun said, opening the door. “The actual studio is past the foyer.” The foyer was empty, but Jongdae was happy all the same.

“That’s pretty convenient. We can do business out of the studio instead of trying to sell it out of your house or mine. We’ll already be taken lightly as we’re both eleven. But if we have a studio and all of this stuff, we’ll look kind of professional. It’s about three by seven metres right? That’s enough for a desk with swivel chair. Oh and we’d also need a computer. I’ve got about €3,000 saved up and that should be enough to at last start.”

“I have about €10,000 that I can access at the moment, would that help?”

“That would be absolutely brilliant and I promise that I will pay it back to you and then some.”

“I don’t mind,” Baekhyun said. For some reason, Jongdae’s enthusiasm was contagious. “So why don’t we go into the back studio then?”

“This is impressive. What do you use this for?”

“Well, my parents used to do art in here,” Baekhyun replied slowly.

“Oh... Uh... Sorry...”

“It’s fine. I just miss them. That’s all,” he smiled. “So this is it. It isn’t exactly perfect but I hope it’s something.”

Jongdae looked around the seven by ten metre room in awe. “Jeez Baek. This is amazing.” The far and right walls were covered in pegboards, some of which had art tools already. Underneath the pegboards were cabinets full of who knew what. In the middle of the room was a giant worktable, big enough for someone to lie down on.

“I’m glad you like it,” Baekhyun replied innocently.

“Well I have some basic building stuff, but the stuff you have here is great. Why do you have it anyways?”

“My parents did art occasionally, so we have all of this sculpture, drawing, and painting material. I know a little about it but not very much because... Well... Anyways. Do you think it would be useful?” He looked away, feeling embarrassed that he might be crying in front of his new friend on the second day after they had met.

“Oh Baek...” Jongdae’s bag fell to the ground before he wrapped his arms around the other boy’s tiny shoulders. “It’s okay.”

“It’s fine. Why don’t we change the subject?” Tears dripped from his eyes but his shoulders did not shake. He hugged the other boy back weakly.

“It’s okay to not be okay, okay?” Jongdae held the other boy out at arm’s length. Baekhyun turned away even though Jongdae could definitely see the tears.

“Why don’t we just start working, I think that would be for the best,” he said, hurriedly wiping the tears away.

“Sure...” Jongdae picked up his bag and put it on the table, Baekhyun following behind like a lost puppy.

Not knowing how to transition from Baekhyun’s emotional breakdown to how they were going to work on this, he just started right into the introduction. “So. I had an idea for building mecha. Right now they still look kind of cylindrical and not exactly human, right? Well I think I have a way of getting around that. So you know how humans all have bones and muscles layered in us? I think that if we try and replicate that, it will make them look even more real.”

“How are we going to do that?” Baekhyun asked, nose still sounding a little stuffed.

“I think that if we put ceramic over the titanium, then we will have something we can sculpt better. If we slowly shave away at the ceramic, we'll have much more control than if we were to try and cast a mould. I’m sure that it works for people like Yixing and Chanyeol, but I want to be just a bit better,”

“That’s pretty ambitious of you,,” Baekhyun replied. “Those two are much older than we are. How do you expect us to be able to compete?”

“We still have that imagination thing that adults are always talking about. I think that with my ideas, your skill, and our combined programming skills, we can get ourselves recognised in the world.”

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do to help you,” Baekhyun replied. He was almost relieved that he now had something to do aside from caring for his aunt. It wasn’t that he minded, it was just nice also having something like this to do.

“So you have a laptop right?”

“Yeah. But I didn’t bring it down here. Do you want to come with me back up to my house to go and fetch it?”

“Sure. I only saw your house from the outside. Let’s see what it looks like inside Byun Baekhyun’s house,” he said jovially.

--

The two boys walked up to the house. “Please don’t mind the mess... Sometimes my aunt doesn’t clean up after herself and her friends,” Baekhyun said embarrassedly.

“What? So she basically teats you like a slave or servant or something? Making you do the cooking and shopping? You’re like Cinderella or something,” Jongdae said in disgust.

“I don’t know. I feel bad for making her come here and keep watch over me so I’m really fine with it,” Baekhyun replied. Jongdae pulled a face before they entered the house.

“Wow. It’s nice in here. And it’s just the two of you here?”

“Well it was three of us, but yeah two now.”

“Even for three this seems pretty big.”

“It’s just a kitchen and dining room on the left side, den on the right, and the stairs ahead leading up to three bedrooms.”

“That’s still pretty nice,” Jongdae replied.

“What are you still doing here, I thought you had a friend coming over or something and you’d be out all day,” a tired and slightly irate female voice sounded from the kitchen. All she had was a bed sheet wrapped loosely around her shoulders as she sat at the table tiredly. Her hair was an absolute mess.

“I’m sorry Ms. Kim. I didn’t know you were awake,” Baekhyun apologised.

“Just make sure to be quiet. I still have a guest upstairs but he isn’t up yet.”

“I left breakfast for two in the ice box so that you can heat it up when you’re ready. I promise we’ll just be in and out,” he said quickly before dragging Jongdae up the stairs after him.

Jongdae looked at Baekhyun with a cross between horror and disgust. “What was that?” he whispered when they got to Baekhyun’s room and had closed the door.

“She is usually hungry when she wakes up. Sometimes her companions stay for breakfast sometimes they don’t but it’s better to be safe and make two.”

“Do you realise what she’s doing?”

“I have a faint idea but I’m not really sure about the details...” Jongdae pulled Baekhyun into a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry...”

“I don’t really mind. It’s okay,” Baekhyun replied.

“This is the opposite of okay. Sheesh Baek. Sometime you’re going to have to my house just for the night to get you out of this environment!”

“My aunt doesn’t know how to make the bed or do the dishes or make herself food though...” he replied.

“And that is exactly why you need out of here. You just need one day’s respite. Mayhaps when we have some actual money, we can just hire someone to do it for one day.”

“I suppose so...”

“Well it’s no time to talk about this now. Let’s just get out of here before your aunt’s “guest” wakes up.” Baekhyun nodded and grabbed his laptop off of his bed. Jongdae took in the room, which was about the size of the foyer of their workshop with a bed pushed up against the wall and a desk squeezed in on the other side. He sighed before closing the door behind him and following Baekhyun back out.

The “guest” had not woken up yet, so they were able to sneak back out of the house unnoticed.

A/N: So we have more of an idea of poor abused kid Baekhyun and we see the older brother Jongdae. There will actually be one more chapter in this arc and then we'll dive into the final arc. The story is winding down, I hope you liked the story!

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