queens
Run A Little Faster
QUEENS
"Yo!" Baekhyun greets, strolling into Amber's room and throwing his bag onto the floor next to her bed. Amber doesn't look up from her laptop screen, but she does raise her hand to wave at him. "Wassup," she says. From her voice Baekhyun can tell that she's focused on something else, but he appreciates the fact that she's at least trying to be attentive of him. He walks over to the girl's desk and peers inside Qwerty's aquarium to see the fish just awkwardly hovering in the water. He makes kissy faces at it for a few seconds.
"How did that essay go?" the girl asks, still pre-occupied with whatever is going on in her laptop.
"He hasn't graded it yet," Baekhyun replies. He walks towards the girl and sprawls over the bed by her feet, stretching out like a cat. "He's lazier than Tao and Chen combined."
Amber tilts her head at something but doesn't reply to him. Baekhyun spots her earphones lying next to her, still connected to the laptop, and listens in to see what she's listening to. It takes him approximately fifteen seconds to recognize the theme and he frowns when he does.
"Are you listening to Godzilla's soundtrack?" he asks. "What are you doing that would possibly require listening to the music from Godzilla?"
"I'm trying to catch the bad guys," Amber replies, typing something into her computer. "If that's not the right time to listen to this soundtrack, I don't know what is."
"Well, I do admit, it's pretty awesome," Baekhyun says, yawns, and then sits up and wiggles around a little so that he can look at Amber's screen. He sees a website and lots of tiny text. "Are you really trying to catch the bad guys?"
"Yes. I'm trying to find some information on My ," Amber replies.
"My what?"
"Mabeob," Amber explains. "It sounds the same. It's hilarious."
"Oh my God. Imagine their slogan."
"Nobody touches my ."
"My . Protecting you from humans since 1956."
"Where did you get that date?"
"I just thought of it, shut up."
Amber laughs. Just as Baekhyun is about to come up with another genius slogan for My , Amber opens to change the topic. "By the way, I watched Arrow yesterday and you know what? We should totally set up a base. With, like, computers and stuff. And bribe Maeng into giving us these little tiny things you put in your ear that allow you to talk with everyone in your crew when you're in the field. Also, sometimes I feel like the way to catch these guys- Mabeob, I mean- is to go full Winchester mode and hit the road, you know? Follow the leads and all that jazz. The only thing is, we obviously can't go full-on Winchester mode, because that ends up in an apocalypse. And in the biblical sense, too."
"Well duh," Baekhyun rolls his eyes and smiles. "Okay, then where would that base of ours be?"
"Well, turns out abandoned buildings and dance clubs basements aren't good, so why not use the gym's basement?"
"Uh-huh. What about the money? How are we gonna buy all the computers and stuff?"
"Isn't Kai supposed to be rich?"
"Not a CEO-of-a-huge-company rich."
Amber turns to quirk a brow at him. He ducks his head a little.
"Amber, you're not stealing money from big companies," he states, already knowing what she's thinking.
"But they're all rich anyways!" she exclaims with a huff. "And it's for their own security."
"We protect one city. Not the entire Korea."
"Well, if we catch bad guys here, they don't get out to terrorize the rest of the country, therefore we're protecting the entire Korea. You can't argue with that."
"Stop bragging," Baekhyun says, sliding down her bed a little and snuggling closer to her side. He puts his head in the crook of her neck and stares at her laptop screen. "Oh my God. Is that true?" he asks after reading a few paragraphs in a post.
"Which one?"
"The one about the fairy dust."
"I think most of this stuff is real," Amber admits. "There are some shady posts, but most of them are legit. Besides, to get an account here you need to answer a few questions, and some of them are really tricky. You can only answer them if you know that magic is real."
"Wow," Baekhyun gasps. Then he sees that Amber's collarbone is exposed and at the weird angle that she's sitting, it's sticking out of her skin. He leans down to bite at it and Amber squeals and starts slapping him on the head repeatedly.
"Eww, saliva, saliva!" she screams.
"Cover yourself, you ungodly donkey!" Baekhyun replies, ducking away from her slaps.
"Oh, I'm a donkey now? I don't remember evolving from a llama."
"I don't even have a comeback for that."
*
"Byul?" Baekhyun calls as he enters his house. He listens in to hear the girl snoring upstairs, then tries to pick up any other heartbeats, but no one else is home. He makes a face. He goes to Byul's room - his little sister is asleep, snoring, wrapped around in a blanket like a burrito - and he goes back down, digging around his jacket for his phone. He dials his dad and turns on the TV in the meantime.
"What is it?" his dad's voice asks on the other line.
"Why is Byul home alone?" he asks, throwing the remote onto the couch.
"She's a big girl, she can be alone for an hour or two, Baekhyun," his father replies sternly. "I'm working—"
"Dad, she's six," Baek snaps. "It doesn't matter how mature you think she is, she's a child, and she needs attention and care. If you don't have time to be with her, then tell me to stay with her. I will if I'm not at school. And if not, you could've at least called someone and ask them to stay with her. Make her food, or something—"
"You were perfectly fine staying home alone when you were her age," his dad interrupts him. Baekhyun hears some rustling and then his father starts to talk to someone that is not Baekhyun, talking about hours and numbers and names, and Baekhyun rubs his eyes in annoyance. "Listen, son."
"You know what, this is like talking to a wall," Baek butts in. "I know it's like to stay home alone at the age of six and that's exactly why I'm angry that you're doing it to Byul. Hire a nanny. And a cool one, too."
He disconnects, anger boiling inside him. It soothes, though, when he hears bare feet padding down the stairs. He turns on his heel to see Byul wrapped in a blanket. She looks like a king of some sort. Queen, that is. He has two of them in his life right now, he thinks, Amber doing her 'fabulous' pose popping up in his head.
"Milady," he greets, bowing ninety degrees. Byul giggles and curtsies, almost tripping over the blanket. Baekhyun goes over to her and snatches her off her feet and puts her onto his shoulder. "How is my queen feeling?"
"Hungry," Byul says, patting his head.
"To the kitchen, then!"
I definitely mentioned the fact that Baekhyun has a little sister somewhere in RWW, but I realized I never introduced her, so here she is. She's six and cute.
I do realize that the latest chapters were both pretty short, but I hope you don't mind. There might be chapters as short as these if I get an idea and want to tell you about it but not in a very detailed way - I think that's what I wanted to to, initally, with RALF overall. Next two chapters are much longer tho, so stay tuned for the next weekend! :D
Love you glazed donuts <3
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