“Chanyeol! Psst!”

Chanyeol stirred on his sleep, hearing the whisper from outside his window and the sound of knocks on his window. He was never a heavy sleeper, and he hated that fact, because now he could always hear Baekhyun, his best friend, waking him up from outside.

Chanyeol rubbed his eyes with his little chubby hand, and let out a little cute groan before he finally smiled to his best friend who was jumping up and down because he was too short to be able to see Chanyeol from out of his room.

He threw away his thick blanket and got down from his bed, slightly jumping because his bed was still a little too high for his not-so-small body. He approached the window, and opened it quietly, “Baek? What are you doing? It’s midnight already,” he said as he leaned his body toward the window, shivering a bit because of the chilly night wind.

His best friend pulled his lips into a big smile, that kind of smile which always made Chanyeol’s stomach flipped and little Chanyeol still didn’t know what it meant.

“Do you want to build a bonfire? I have marshmallow,” Baekhyun lifted up a transparent plastic filled with a lot of puffy white things in it.

Chanyeol leaned closer to see the thing, and his eyes turned wide, “wow, it looks delicious.”

“It is! Come on, Yeol. Let’s build the bonfire, so we could eat it,” the older kid said excitedly as his eyes sparkled.

Chanyeol’s face turned rather worried, “Can we eat it without burning it, Baek? It’s dangerous to play with fire.”

Baekhyun whined, “noooo, where’s the fun it? Hurry up, Chanyeol, hurry up!”

“I don’t know,” Chanyeol shrugged, showing his confused face “Our parents probably will be really mad at us.”

“We’re nine already.”

“We’re only nine, Baekkie.”

“But—“ Baekhyun made a pout with his mouth, and slowly pulled his lips downward, making a face that he perfectly knew that it will make Chanyeol’s heart melt and soften.

And it did. Chanyeol would never be able to refuse Baekhyun’s wish if he pulled a face like that. Never. And this time, it succeeded for the thousand times.

“Ugh, okay, okay. Let me get my jacket first,” Chanyeol finally said.

Baekhyun’s face beamed brightly. Chanyeol thought it shone brighter than the moon tonight. “Yes! I really love you, Chanyeol. You’re the best.”

Chanyeol turned around to hide his red face. He didn’t even know why his face became warm all of the sudden. Chanyeol took his coat in his drawer and put it on. He took a glance to look at Baekhyun if he was wearing a scarf, but, because Baekhyun was too short, Chanyeol can’t see him. So, he thought that maybe Baekhyun already wore it, and he took the scarf and put it on his own neck.

He approached the window back, and he saw Baekhyun was already gone, waiting him at the yard. Chanyeol jumped out of his window, and ran with his fatty feet.

Baekhyun was arranging some of wood sticks into a pile of sticks, “why aren’t you wearing sandals?” he asked as soon as he saw Chanyeol’s bare feet. The younger kid was just looking at his feet dumbly and grinning mischevously. Baekhyun sighed, “what if your feet got hurt?”

Chanyeol shook his head, “I won’t. I promise.”

Baekhyun gave him a look, “you better keep your promise. I don’t want you to get hurt, and we can’t play together.”

Chanyeol showed him a full-of-teeth smile, but Baekhyun already turned his head away. The thought of Baekhyun didn’t want him to get hurt sent a warm feeling to his heart. Chanyeol didn’t want Baekhyun to get hurt either because...well, because it meant Chanyeol can’t play with Baekhyun if his bestfriend was hurt. Yeah, because of that.

“Do you bring a lighter?” Baekhyun asked.

Chanyeol shook his head.

Baekhyun chuckled, “I figured. Lucky I brought mine.”

“Baekkie, do you really want to do this? I have a bad feeling about this.”

“What could possibly happen?” Baekhyun started to click his lighter. “Your parents wake up? Your house burns down? You and I get burned?”

“Don’t say that. Promise me that we won’t get hurt. You won’t get hurt.”

“We won’t, Yeollie. I won’t let it happen.”

Chanyeol didn’t tear his gaze from the smaller kid who was squatting in front of him, cutely trying to lit up his little lighter. However, because of the strong wind tonight, he had a hard time to light it up.

Chanyeol noticed that his best friend was shivering under his thin layer of pajamas and jacket. The boy didn’t even wear a scarf. So little Chanyeol squatted beside the shivering boy, and wrapped his chubby hand around him.

“Why are you doing?” Baekhyun asked when he realized that Chanyeol’s hand wrapped his shoulder. “I can’t move my hand, Yeollie.”

A little embarrassed, Chanyeol pull his hand again, “but you’re trembling.”

“I’m okay,” Baekhyun said as he tried to light the bonfire again.

Chanyeol was turning his lips into an adorable pout. He hated it when Baekhyun was lying. His best friend always said that he was okay even though he actually wasn’t.

The bigger boy sighed in defeat, “at least, wear my scarf,” he said as he took his scarf from around his neck and put it around Baekhyun’s neck, and made sure that it was well adjusted so Baekhyun wouldn’t be shivering anymore.

Baekhyun let out a giggle and faced his best friend, “but then you’ll be the one who will get cold.”

Chanyeol wasn’t sure if right now Baekhyun was smiling or not because his mouth was covered by Chanyeol’s scarf. But his eyes were turning into a beautiful shape of crescent, and it was one thing that Chanyeol really liked about Baekhyun. His eye-smile. They were too beautiful for their own good.

“I have a thick layer of fat. I won’t get cold,” Chanyeol noted absently, his mind was still struck by Baekhyun’s pretty eye smile.

Baekhyun scoffed, “yeah, you’re right. I even doubt the wind will get through the first layer of your skin.”

Ordinary kid would cry if they heard a statement like that, but not with Chanyeol. He didn’t even take it as an offense, because he knew that his best friend was sassy like that. And Chanyeol loved him that way. Well, he meant like. Chanyeol liked him that way.

“Oh, finally!”

Chanyeol’s was pulled out from his trance when he heard Baekhyun’s happy squeal since the fire began to light up. Watching his best friend did a gesture of fanning to be able to make the fire bigger, Chanyeol chuckled as he got closer to him, “here, let me do it. You prepare the marshmallow, Baek.”

Baekhyun was contemplating whether he should give Chanyeol the work, but after a while he saw the bigger boy doing a good job, he just backed away, picking the some marshmallows and sticked it to some wood sticks he could find.

“I don’t know that you’re good with fire. If I knew I’d let you do it since the beginning and I wouldn’t tire myself,” Baekhyun teased.

Chanyeol didn’t seem to catch what Baekhyun said as he was too focused on his job, making the fire bigger. So, Baekhyun pouted and puffed his cheeks which resembled the marshmallow he was holding. He didn’t like it when Chanyeol ignored him, not even one bit. Chanyeol was his only best friend, and will forever be his best friend. And number one rule for best friend was to never ignore your best friend.

“Chanyeol!”

“Huh?” Chanyeol responded absent-mindedly, his concentration was still on the bonfire.

“You’re ignoring me.”

Chanyeol stopped his movement, turned his head, and found his best friend was burning hole with his gaze toward him. Chanyeol perfectly knew one thing that Baekhyun totally hated; being ignored. “Baek, I’m sorry. I’m just too—“

“You promised me you’ll never ignore me. Ever,” Baekhyun whined cutely, and in the time like this Chanyeol wondered which one of them was older.

“I didn’t mean it. If I didn’t put my concentration on, it’ll be dangerous for the both of us. Uh, Baek?” Chanyeol stopped his reasoning when the boy beside him covered his mouth with his hand, and his body shook. “Are you...are you crying?”

Baekhyun felt a pair of hand landed on his shoulder, and he heard a faint sound of ‘are you mad at me?’ from his best friend. He bit his lips to suppress the smile before he looked up and he was welcomed by the guilty look of Chanyeol’s chubby face. “I’m not crying,” Baekhyun grinned. “I did it, right? You fell on my trap.”

Chanyeol blinked, “I...I thought you were...”

 “Your face is funny,” Baekhyun interrupted and started giggling, oblivious to Chanyeol’s watered eyes.

“I thought you were crying,” Chanyeol whimpered.

Baekhyun opened his mouth to say something but immediately shut it again because now his big best friend started to tearing up, “Ch—Chanyeol? I—why are you crying?”

Chanyeol turned away, not letting Baekhyun saw his tears fell from his eyes, “I’m not crying.”

“You’re crying,” Baekhyun put down his stick of marshmallow and yanked Chanyeol’s shoulder, “Chanyeol.”

Now that Baekhyun saw there was a line of tear on his best friend’s face, his face turned white and he abruptly hugged Chanyeol, “I’m sorry, Yeollie. Please don’t cry.”

Chanyeol continued his whimper, and there was a sound of sniffles in between. “You know I hate it when you were crying,” the younger boy said. “I don’t want you to cry because of me, Baekkie.”

“Didn’t I say I was joking? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pulled a prank on you like that. I’m sorry, please don’t cry, Chanyeollie,” Now Baekhyun also felt like crying. He didn’t want Chanyeol to cry either. “Stop crying or I’ll cry too.”

Chanyeol snapped his head up, and pulled out from Baekhyun’s hug. “No! You can’t cry!” he shot a glare to Baekhyun albeit his own face was wet with tears.

Baekhyun was this close to cry, but seeing Chanyeol’s sincere eyes, telling him not to cry, Baekhyun could only curle his lips in delight. His best friend was so precious. “Then, you too. You can’t cry.”

Chanyeol tried to clean his tears and snot, and when he did, he hiccupped a little as he tried to show his smile, “Okay, I stopped. Now, you can’t cry. I never want you to cry.”

In an instant, Baekhyun gave him a glowing smile which made Chanyeol literally squinted his eyes, because the smile itself was so dazzling. And the fact that there was a bonfire in front of them wasn’t helping either.

“Good boy,” Baekhyun lightly tapped Chanyeol’s head since their little cute drama had ended. His focus was now on his marshmallows again. He was just about to put his marshmallow to the fire when he realized the fire still wasn’t big enough. “Err, Yeollie? It’s not big enough.”

Chanyeol had completely shifted into his usual self, forgetting that he just cried a second ago. “But Baek, it’s dangerous if it’s too big.”

Baekhyun sighed, “But how can we burn the marshmallows if the fire is only like this.”

Chanyeol looked at the bonfire. The fire wasn’t too small in his opinion, and it can be used to cook the marshmallow. It had the potential to get bigger, but just like he said before, it will be too dangerous. He didn’t want something bad happen.

“But Baek—“

Before Chanyeol even finished his protest, his best friend already stood up on his feet and approached the bonfire. Chanyeol widened his eyes when he saw Baekhyun leaned his body toward the fire, wanting to blow the fire with his mouth in order to make it bigger. But what made Chanyeol hurriedly jumped was the fact that the scarf which Baekhyun wore was too long and the edge of it touched the fire.

In a record time, the fire rapidly crept up the scarf, and Chanyeol’s heartbeat stopped when the fire almost got to the neck part.

It went by in a blink of eye. Chanyeol couldn’t really comprehend what was happening. He shouted to Baekhyun, resulting the smaller boy also shouted in fear over the fact that his neck was in danger because the fire already ate his scarf, Chanyeol’s scarf. Chanyeol ran to him, trying to help. But Baekhyun was too panic.

It was a mess. Before finally Baekhyun could take the scarf off, but he kept on screaming as his neck was burned. Chanyeol couldn’t move to help his best friend who lied on the dirt, screaming and crying in pain.

The next thing Chanyeol knew, his parents came out from their house. Their faces were covered with worried and horrified expression. Everything went by too fast. Baekhyun’s parents came. The ambulance came. The sound of scream and cry was here and there.

When the situation was gone down a little bit at the hospital, Chanyeol just realized that he was crying really hard all along. His parents and Baekhyun’s parents didn’t yell t him. They kept calming him down and saying reassuring words to Chanyeol even though he knew this was his fault. All of this was his fault.

Chanyeol didn’t know how long he had been crying until he was finally fell asleep in his tears, and he was woken up when the doctors and nurses came out from the emergency room. He didn’t really know what happened. He just heard the word ‘fine’ and ‘okay’ and Baekhyun’s mother cried which Chanyeol realized as crying in relief.

Just then Chanyeol knew that Baekhyun was fine. He was just about to join Mrs. Byun to cry in happiness when he heard one of the doctor’s words.

“But the burn on his neck will leave a scar, and we doubt it that the scar could wear off. Burn scar takes forever to heal.”

Chanyeol cried again. This time was followed with a painful struck in his heart.

As if Chanyeol’s world hadn’t crushed enough, his doctor spoke again.

“And there is the possibility that Baekhyun wouldn’t remember the accident as the emotional result from the shock. It usually happened with kids.”

It meant Baekhyun wouldn’t remember the cause of his burn. Baekhyun wouldn’t remember that he asked Chanyeol to build a bonfire. Baekhyun wouldn’t remember that Chanyeol agreed.

And that was where Chanyeol’s fault laid. If he didn’t wake up from his sleep, if he didn’t open the window, if he didn’t let Baekhyun’s cute pout took over him, if he didn’t agree to Baekhyun’s request, if he wasn’t too weak from all the things about Baekhyun, if he didn’t give Baekhyun’s his scarf, if his body wasn’t too big and he could move fast to help his best friend, if he didn’t scared of fire...all of this, this wouldn’t be happen.

Chanyeol didn’t know if it was a curse or a bless that Baekhyun would have a partial amnesia over his accident.

But one thing that little Chanyeol knew was the fact that he would make sure that this kind of thing won’t happen again to his Baekhyun. He won’t let Baekhyun hurt even just from a paper cut. He was willing to do anything, anything if it meant his best friend was saved from any harm.

And that meant, Chanyeol should stay away from Baekhyun. And he will just watch and protect him from afar.

note:

this is sort of like a prologue

and thank you for subscribing and upvoting even though I hadn't post any chapter. now the first chapter was up, what do you think? ;;) hope you enjoy kids!chanbaek