(E) Chapter 8                                                                           After that morning, everything redeemed itself to normal. The sun rose and everyone hoped that it was a happy ending the moment Tao had eaten his food and could be able to communicate with everyone in full sentences. Kai was happy, of course. He hid it from Tao, constantly saying that he was about to let Kris pull the trigger when everyone knew that he would have jumped in front of the gun if it really happened.   Kris and Baekyoung were outside, the sun rays on their faces as they struggled to put up a fence by the materials they found in the shed. The many fire wood and iron nets could be useful, that was what Kris said when he saw it. The two being the smartest had to find a way to make a defense barrier in case. You can never be safe enough, who knew what would happen if they were invaded? Baekyoung pushed his sweat away, his neck glistening from the sweat that had escaped his pores. Kris who saw this threw him a towel, Baekyoung accepting it to wipe off the perspiration. “Were you not good in things hands on?” Kris asked, lifting another wooden plank and steadying it. Baekyoung grabbed it, making it balance on the ground before Kris pushed away some of the soil, bringing down the hammer with force. “I did Design and Technology in Highschool, learned about things using workshop skills but they basic. Forgot all about them… I have been cooped up in my bedroom with my textbooks and calculator for two years now.” “Tsk… You weren’t a nerd, were you?” Kris asked, shaking his head disapprovingly. “People are supposed to experience things to learn. A protected child is a weak one.”  He glanced over to the house and Baekyoung raised an eyebrow. “Are you talking about Baekhyun?” “You’ve got to do something with him.” Kris started, moving to the next one and using one hand to hold it up high. Baekyoung grabbed it while Kris fumbled with the hammer. “My brother is a smart kid.” Baekyoung began defensively but cleared his throat when Kris looked at him.   “What can smarts do when there is a possibility of being feasted by creatures?” The police man hammered it down once more, stopping to wipe away drops of sweat. “Too much of something isn’t good. Remember that a snake’s poison can be a vaccine when given a little, venomous when there’s a lot.” Baekyoung listened. He never really thought of it seriously until this infection grew viral days ago. It had been five days and he hated to admit it but Baekhyun seemed to be a burden to the rest. Chen was good since he was obedient but his brother- Kris saw the look on Baekyoung's face and chuckled, a hand going to his shirt to take it off showing off his top. He threw the shirt over his shoulder, bending down more to continue with his work. “Take off your shirt, we have a long way to go.” Baekyoung nodded, his hands going towards the edge of his shirt just to pull it over his head with a grunt, his upper body already glistening. He laid the shirt on the ledge that was already hammered down, continuing with the fence with Kris.   Luhan was in the kitchen, as he had insisted that he was good in cooking. They had put him in order of lunch. In all actuality, Kai and Luhan had gone through a small quarrel. Kai had said he wanted good food for Tao and Luhan answered that with the amount of food around, good food was easily made. This made Kai answer that he did not trust Luhan with anything but a fork and spoon. This had angered the deer-like boy, making him defend himself saying with such force that he was the “masters of all masters” in cooking. Kai responded to this by smirking and leading Tao upstairs making Luhan forget all feelings of sympathy for the boy. He was holding a pan and deciding to make fried egg rolls, squeezing in almost half a bottle of oil onto the pan. He frowned wondering if he needed more oil, squinting as if he was measuring it by eyesight before adding just a teeny bit more and dropping the eggs onto the pan.   Without taking out the shells.   Luhan hummed a song in his head that did not have any lyrics, kind of going along with the song “Labooshkika Labooshkikoo”. It was heavy rock metal and mixed with a little of jazz. Luhan slid across the floor with a smooth body wave, shaking the pan repeatedly with every beat he thought through, the radio in his head overflowing his body with energy. As his body vibrated under the influence of mental music, he gave a pop of his hips and an “Ow!”. Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson had taken over his body and his eyes closed while he gave a crazy little tap dance around the kitchen, holding the pan when it should be placed on the stove. “Zommmmmmmmmmmmbieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” Luhan screeched suddenly on top of his lungs, flinging the pan and yelping when the egg fell splat onto his face, making him sputter out egg yolk and broken egg shells. He croaked a mumble of help, running towards the stove to put the pan on the burning fire. The oil on the pan rumbled and Luhan danced on one to two legs, bouncing up and down in panic. The oil sizzled on the pan, going onto different directions and piercing his skin making him yack out even more like a violent chicken.   “MOTHERER!” Luhan sputtered out flustered with his face red from frustration. His own stupidity and lack of skills in cooking was agitating him more and more that he did not notice that the fire from the stove had made old newspapers beside it catch flames. The deer eyes boy finally cracked an eye open, squinting when the flames had started to rise little by little. “Oh… no. Oh no.. Oh no my Xiang Xin… Wait no, that’s my mother’s name.” Luhan gasped as the fumes began to go up his nose. “HELP! Guys, HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!”   The pounding footsteps from outside made Luhan turn to see a both top Kris and Baekyoung with panic, both of them hurrying over. Kris ran to the stove putting it off and using his shirt that was laid on his shoulder to slap it on the burning area making the flames die down while Baekyoung grabbed the windows and pushed them open to make the fumes escape. Luhan was on the ground, rolling around like a pig in mud and choking on his own spit as Kris went over to pull him up, Baekyoung pulling a chair out for him to sit on it. “What the , man.” Kris slapped Luhans head making fall off the chair. “What the is this?” His eyes frowned upon the cooking mess that was laid right before his eyes. “I was trying to cook with my master skills!” Luhan fired back defensively, Kris’ eyebrows crunched up together as he pointed in disbelief. “You mean cook eggs with egg shells?” “Eggs shells are delicious!” “Have you tried it?” Baekyoung asked, looking back from the sink, already scrubbing the pan clean before handing a chunk of egg shell to Luhan. “Tried it? Psssh…..” Luhan grabbed it from Baekyoung’s hand and popped it into his mouth with confidence. He chewed onto it with a smug look on his face until- “Hukk… Hukkk…. Hukk…” He coughed repeated, his body convulsed forward and Kris grabbed a glass of water, handing it over to him, shaking his head. “Don’t be a jackass, Luhan. Baekyoung will cook, you ruined perfectly good eggs.” “I can do it.” Luhan insisted once more and Baekyoung smiled, motioning him over. “Good, because I’m making you do it.”   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   "You've never told me about your parents other than the fact that you left the house for university." Baekhyun suddenly said, peeking from behind the paper that he was holding up making Chen's voice pause. The two were sitting in the third bedroom with the doors closed, the sun streaming through the window. Kris had given them charcoal that he found on the shed and stacks of working paper that were old enough to be yellow and had printed letters on it. It was in a different language though, so they could not read what the squiggly lines were. Baekhyun and Chen then decided to spend some time together in the room while the others busied themselves with different things around the house.
Chen cleared his throat, the roughness of his voice coming back. All this time he had tried to keep himself busy as to not think and backtrack into the past but the way Baekhyun asked him made him feel that he was obligated to explain. 
"We're not th