2. Please Reply

Pink Balloons

Chanyeol came again the next day, and the next, and the next. From that day on, he was always warmly welcomed by the same boy that he'd always look forward to, Byun Baekhyun. He was no longer the mysterious boy who was in his camera, he's the Byun Baekhyun that works at the day care center that was across the street where he lived. It was great, he thought, and he figured that the children weren't so hard to work with after all. Despite all the boogers hanging, screaming, and diaper procedures--it was great, as long as Baekhyun was there to take care of those things. Chanyeol would watch the children at the playground and talk to them casually, play around like the usual. Baekhyun would do all the things Chanyeol couldn't do. For example: Changing their diapers, bringing them to bathroom breaks, feed them with cute snacks he made by hand along with Kyungsoo who happened to work there as well and sing lullabies to help them fall asleep. 

The giant was just an entertainment to the kids and not to mention the two trolls who come to the day care center every single day. Jihoon and Yejun were actually brothers. Well, step-brothers. They both had different parents, Jihoon was adopted by Yejun's single father. Ever since he started working, he began to notice the patterns and procedures of how this place works. Every morning, Yejun and Jihoon's father would drop them off at the back of the small building at 8:30 in the morning. Baekhyun always arrives exactly 10 minutes earlier before the two young boys come. Everything had a specific time. At 8:52 am the center opens, all doors are open welcoming the parents to come and drop their child off. The children were usually about 2-4 years old. With the exception of Yejun who was turning 6 and Jihoon who was still 5, the center was more like a school to them. 

Baekhyun claps his hands three times to get their attention, and in a matter of seconds, all eyes are on the him. His smile glimmered genuinely and every time he spoke, it sounded like a lullaby. Chanyeol sat on a chair next to Baekhyun with a guitar in his hands. He began to pull a couple of strings along with Baekhyun's lessons about the ABC's. 

"A is for?" Baekhyun waits for the children to reply. 

"Apple!" the kids harmonized with their fist up in the air. Yejun mostly screamed it while Jihoon whispered it. The other baby girl named Minhee giggled and mouthed the word slowly, trying to grasp the word with her tongue. 

Chanyeol chuckles and nods again, strumming another note while Baekhyun projects an even higher note. 

"B is for?" 

The children smile, "Baekhyun hyung!"

He chuckles softly and claps his hands with satisfaction. He turns to Chanyeol to see if he was having fun--which he certainly was, especially the fact he gets to hear Baekhyun sing the same songs everyday. Chanyeol never gets tired of it.

At ten, it was their nap time. Chanyeol leaves the children to Baekhyun, who guides each of them to the room. All aligned in a single file line, the children walk into their sleeping mats while getting themselves comfortable. Baekhyun sits right next to the youngest child of the group and begins to tell them a story about a Giant that stole something from a boy. Chanyeol stands by the door and listens to the children's ridiculous questions and Baekhyun's wise answers. In 20 minutes they were all fast asleep and the angel walks out with a grin on his face. 

"Good job, Channie~" he sang his name while at the same time patted him on the back. 

Chanyeol choked on his saliva. 

At eleven, they have play time. On warm days, the children would play outside at the playground down at the town's park. Occasionally, there were picnics planned by Baekhyun.  He used to buy all the food with his own pocket money, but now it was Chanyeol. He had to admit it was costly, he needed to buy ice cream for at least 13 children and Baekhyun needed to pack 20 sandwiches, just in case if Jihoon or the other children wanted more sandwiches. Whatever was left was for the both of them. Chanyeol would cheat by snatching his own sandwich and split it in half for both he and Baekhyun to eat. 

"Baekhyun-ah!" Chanyeol squeaks his name out, "Here, a uhm....a sandwich."

He turns to Chanyeol, appreciating his offer, "Thanks."

They stayed at the park for an extra hour because Chanyeol won't stop playing tag. Baekhyun started to play along when he sees Chanyeol walking over with a suspicious grin on his face. He has a bug and a bug meant fear for Baekhyun. His eyes shot wide and waved a hand to Chanyeol, who continued to walk over. Yejun smiles behind Chanyeol, mouthing "I told him!"

"Yah! Park Chanyeol, keep that thing awa- Oh my gosh! NO!" 

Chanyeol laughs loudly, "Baekhyun? You're scared of these little things?" 

Baekhyun snorts, "Psh, Animal Planet and National Geographic teaches me to be cautious with wild things."

Chanyeol grins darkly, "Well, you better run, Mr. Byun Baekhyun, or else this bug will be give yo-"

Baekhyun dashed away and climbed over the playground ladders. There were fear in his eyes yet a hint of amusement at the same time. Chanyeol's heart skipped a beat as the rays of the sun casted down on Baekhyun's body. Yejun however, cuts his view by throwing mud at his face. 

"I will protect Baekhyun!" he stuck out a tongue and pulls the bottom lid of his eye down. 

In three seconds, he scoops the child in his arms. Baekhyun smiles and throws sticks at the giant, "Let him go!"

All the children came to play along, running widely as the giant's long arms reached for their hands to mark them with something called a 'bug touch'. Something Jihoon calls as he comes and helps Chanyeol capture all the children who were scrambling for their lives. Baekhyun carried a couple of kids in his arms and tucked  them quietly in the slides and gestures them to keep quiet. At the same time, he jumps down the small bridge and grabbed a long stick he found lying on the grass. Wonderful, he thought and grabbed it mindlessly. He sneaks behind the giant who was busy whispering his plans in Jihoon's ear,  the child smiled and giggled mischievously. Baekhyun pokes Chanyeol with the twig. 

"Hey!" 

Baekhyun sticks his tongue out, pulling his bottom eye lid, "Bleh! You'll never catch me!" 

Before Baekhyun could run, Chanyeol gently tugs on his wrist and pulls him towards him, catching the petite boy into a tight embrace. The world suddenly stops and turns silent. Hearts thumping loudly, cheeks becoming hot and red. Chanyeol's arms became tighter as Baekhyun squirms from his overwhelming grip. It took 10 seconds to realize that his fantasy was actually reality.

"Ew!" Yejun shrieks and covers his eyes in disgust. The younger girls giggles and squeals in delight. 

"Mr. Giant fell in love with the boy!" the other child exclaimed. 

Jihoon watches them with an amused grin on his face. Not even saying a word, Chanyeol just stayed with his arms around Baekhyun's waist. Baekhyun's face reddens and Chanyeol stopped breathing. 

"Sorry." was the only thing he said to Baekhyun.

Baekhyun just shook his head slowly, "It's fine." he responded, although his heart didn't stop beating frantically

They both laugh awkwardly and looked at Yejun and Jihoon who held hands and walked over to the field of flowers. Chanyeol glances at Baekhyun's slender fingers. He turned back when he saw the other boy's eyes wandering to him. His heart skipped a beat again. This time, it wasn't just Chanyeol who tried to make up for the awkwardness, Baekhyun was trying too. Chanyeol lets go of Baekhyun.

"Want ice cream? I got a couple of won. Plus, we'll be leaving in about.." Baekhyun pouts as he looks down on his wrist watch.

Chanyeol looks over Baekhyun's shoulder, "In about 3 minutes right?" 

The taller's breath tickles his neck, sending him tingles down his spine. Baekhyun nods and walks over to the ice cream cart that stood next to a bench. It took another 3 minutes to enjoy the chocolate ice cream in the sun and another minute to gather the kids and send them back to the center. They all held hands to link each other and formed into a long chain of children--starting with Baekhyun and all the way down to Chanyeol. It was fun. Surprisingly, itt was fun to work with children. 

It e o'clock and that meant time to go. Yejun and Jihoon were the lasts to leave. Their father thanks them with the same tone on his voice  and the same tone expression all the time. It sometimes sounds like he mumbles in a drunk tone  every single day. Baekhyun had to look up to the man all the time since he was so tall, even taller than Chanyeol. He introduces himself to Chanyeol. His name was Kris.

"Thanks."

Baekhyun bows politely, "It's a pleasure to be with your children." 

It was turning 3 now. The heat has subsided and Baekhyun prepares to go home. Chanyeol does the same and packed his guitar into it's case. He spots his camera laying on the empty plastic child's chair and grabs it. He does the he same process everytime before he takes a picture. He cleans the lenses, focus the camera on Baekhyun, and clicks. He usually catches Baekhyun in a surprised look, a busy or determine expression. The smaller boy doesn't know he took pictures, but when he does, he would force Chanyeol to delete it. 

It turned 4:30, before they walked out of the building with Baekhyun fumbling with his keys like the usual. He has bad aims and it took a minute for Baekhyun to lock the doors single handedly. It became less than 30 seconds, when Chanyeol held Baekhyun's text books and lets him lock the doors with free hands. They bid each other goodbyes and walks the opposite direction. Chanyeol crosses the street and meets with what he now calls home. He doesn't need the keys to open the door, it's always open. Jongin never locks the doors. He could tell Jongin was in there because of the loud music blasting from his room. He's practicing for his audition, he thought and sets his guitar and book bag lazily on the old yellow couch that has returned to it's original spot. 

The music suddenly stops and a tired voice echoed to the kitchen, "Hyung?"

Chanyeol jumps from shock, "Jongin?" he turns to him with a stuffed chocolate bar in his mouth, "What's wrong?"

Jongin jumps down a couple of steps and over the railing, "If I ever get to SM Entertainment...should my stage name be Kai?"

Chanyeol stares at Jongin before he could even comprehend the meaning of Kai. Chanyeol swallows the chocolate forcefully so he could quickly speak to the younger boy, "Uhm...what does it exactly mean?"

Jongin smirks, "Well don't get me started on that. Kai means triumphant in Chinese."

Chanyeol blinks without any knowledge of Chinese, "Who taught you that?" 

"Luhan, he also used to be my dance mentor."

"Luhan also dances?"

Jongin chuckles tiredly, "Well...you can see how he and Sehun get along well."

Chanyeol nods and notes that new information in his brain. There was so many things he needed to learn and so many things he needed to find out about. Such as his friend's origin. Everyone basically knows Chanyeol's life, but he could never learn about another person's life. It's not like he wanted to stalk them, or use their horrible past against them. He just wanted to find a way to advice them like what they would do when he needed to change a few things in his life. They talk for hours before Jongin hops on the wooden chair and begins texting Kyungsoo who answered no later than 10 seconds.

"Hyung is coming back again from the university, he saw Baek too." 

Chanyeol stops gulping his milk and looks at Jongin with interested eyes, "Did he say anything?"

Jongin shook his head and types a quick message to Kyungsoo, "He said he had a great day."

Chanyeol nods and continues to gulp on his milk, "I see."

"What did you guys do anyway? Baekhyun doesn't usually say those things."

Chanyeol shrugs and sets the glass carefully on the sink, "We played with the kids. Sang songs and ate together. Same thing everyday"

He nods and continues to type away, ignoring Chanyeol's existence. Jongin smiles happily each time he hears his notification ring tone ring. Chanyeol notices that those genuine smiles are only reserved to Do Kyungsoo. Who is of course, oblivious to Jongin's feelings. Chanyeol walks to his room and sits on a stool and looks out the window. He sees the beautiful embodied curtains again and It was a white curtain with messily stitched butterflies and balloons and a figure that stands there alone; watching them fly away. Chanyeol looks away from his window and grabs his camera. The pictures he'd taken never failed to make him smile, even on gloomy days where his friends aren't home, busy with their everyday lives. 

 

The days gone by and Jongin practices dancing everyday with a fellow trainee from another entertainment. Kyungsoo is usually at the University down in Seoul, studying culinary arts. He hasn't see the two kids since Baekhyun disappeared. Baekhyun hasn't came back after the day at the park. It scared him, and he wondered what happened to him. He felt weird that he missed him a lot. Even though they hadn't said much to each other, they still exchanged glances and started short sweet conversations. There were gentle touches and laughter. Even though that's all they shared, he oddly felt content. 

Chanyeol sets his camera aside and turns on his desk lamp. The small clock on his desk silently turns 9 pm, and it's time for him to pull out his sketchbook. He pulls out a thick messy sketchbook and starts sketching pictures from his camera. He caught a picture of Yejun who glared at the camera with his arms crossed and cheeks puffed. He also caught Jihoon who was busy watching other children silently.  He had been working on it for the past 3 and a half weeks, almost a month since he started. 

The sounds of the pencil scratching against the paper filled the air. He heard Jongin's heavy footsteps and light laughter as he passes by his closed door and shuts his door loudly. Chanyeol cringes from the loud bang and returns his focus on his sketch. He sniffs and pushes his glasses back up on his nose bridge. There were times his vision would blur and become distorted . Pain would strike from his eyes and last for a couple of hours or even days. He only wore a pair of glasses at home and contacts outside. 

Chanyeol stared out his window again when Jongin quietly knocks on his door. He could hear his muffed voice calling if he was still awake. 

"It's open, Jongin."

"Hyung, Kyungsoo is asking if he could have your number." he looks at his phone and back at Chanyeol, who doesn't look up from his desk. His back was facing Jongin. 

"Oh," he sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets, pulling out an old iphone he had for a while, "Here, I don't remember, so just search it there." 

Jongin gladly grabs it and quickly types both of their numbers into their contacts, "Thanks."

Chanyeol raises his hand, "No problem. "

Before Jongin walked completely out of Chanyeol's room, he looks back, "I didn't know you wore glasses."

Chanyeol chuckles, "I've been."

"Goodnight."

"Night."

Chanyeol hears his door click and he returns to drawing, back into his own world. He stops at 10 and tucks away his supplies into his drawers. He grabs a towel and slings it over his shoulder, walking out to the bathroom. He's out fresh and clean at 10:30. He doesn't go to bed right away. He stares up at the ceiling, letting his memory sink into his brain. Chanyeol enjoyed the silent until his phone rings again. It hasn't rung in a while, it must be Sehun or his other friends that he used to study with at his old university. He doesn't pick it up. Five minutes later, it rings again. 

Chanyeol groans as he stretches his long arms for the phone. He nearly drops his phone, killing half of his soul. Chanyeol squints and lowers the brightness of his phone. 

2 new messages from: Unknown 

Chanyeol reads the first message. 

"Hello? (─‿‿─)"

Chanyeol mumbles to himself and press the second message. 

"Chanyeol-ah~ It's Baekhyun, hurry and answer me!" 

"Baekhyun?" he questions himself and stares at the ceiling. He thought for the next minute and finally realizes it was Baekhyun, the boy who loves children. 

He loosens the grip on his phone, dropping it under his bed. He half shrieks and falls off of bed, hearing another vibration coming from his phone. Chanyeol reaches desperately for his phone and finally meets his precious phone once again. Seeing a new message from Baekhyun, he didn't bother reading the next message being sent to him, he quickly saved his number into his contacts and returns the reply with a casual "Hi."

He waits again, staring at his screen and piercing a hole through it. He waits for his reply. 

"Chanyeollie."

He finally answered. Chanyeol fiddles with the keys on his keyboard, "Baekhyun?"

"I thought you wouldn't answer me."

Chanyeol chuckles and types another sentence, he was sleepy and he didn't know what he typed, but he knew he pressed send, "I miss you." 

Chanyeol stares blankly at his screen. What did he just send? He recieves his reply. 

"I miss you, too." 

 

-------

A/N: What did I just write? It's soooo, phew.

Anyway I hoped you liked it a lot? Thanks to new subbies

Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!
sweetbaozi_02
Editing stories starting 03.16.14 I'll fix all errors as soon as possible.

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
Cocoa10345
#1
Chapter 3: ……… Kai means "open" in Chinese……
veryexotic #2
Chapter 14: Update soon...I really really love your story!
EXOMimin
#3
Chapter 14: u choose Chanyeol and you tell Zitao the truth duhhh xD
thanks for the update author-nim!
EXOMimin
#4
Chapter 13: omg yaaaassss Taoris xD
nothing bad could've happened to Kaisoo... Jongin's fineeeee O.O""""
BUT OMG CHANYEOOOLLLLL DX
ASDFGHJKL UGGH I hope that idiot is okay ;-;
Oyechi
#5
Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Hmmmmm, I smell a possibly hint of TaoRis? xD ahaha

I hope Yeol is okay ;-;
EXOMimin
#6
Chapter 12: TAORIS YEAH? :D
SO BAEKYEOL CAN BE TOGETHER XD
beautinity
#7
Chapter 11: just wanted to say that I truely enjoy reading this story - even though I never comment, do forgive the lazy me, and a thank you for updating < 3
EXOMimin
#8
Chapter 11: Oh and thank you for the update as usual author-nim! :D
EXOMimin
#9
Chapter 11: . . . oh this isn't going to be well OTL
CHANYEOL FIGHTING! BE THE BETTER MAN.
I hope he doesn't do anything rash ><"
Baekhyun needs to set everything straight =.= otherwise he'll lose both of them =.=
this is so frustrating for the feels ;_____; </3
ASDFGHJKL DX
EXOMimin
#10
Chapter 10: /crying
Baekhyun is confusing the eff out of me ;____;
this is hurting my feels DX </3
aigoo ;____;