Heliostasion 2/3
When Baekhyun woke up it was only half an hour before mother called for breakfast.
He didn’t own a clock, no one in his family did, but he knew with an unexplainable certainty that he was up a few minutes later than the day before. He blinked in the dim twilight of his bedroom and sat up quietly, careful not to wake his older brother as he tiptoed to the small window of their room.
Outside, the day was just awakening and for a moment he squinted his eyes when golden sunrays stretched across the dawning sky to reach for him. Baekhyun let the warm gold caress his face, savoring the peaceful quiet as he bathed in the light of the rising sun. It made him feel awake for some reason, as if the touch of the sun was what cold water and fresh air were to his brother.
During the short summer months waking up was easier to him. But now that summer was over Baekhyun felt the shortening of the days in his soul. It was as if he was an echo of the sun, rising later everyday and falling asleep as soon as it set. His brother, Baekbeom, liked to joke about it and called him his little sundial, but he was the only one in the family who laughed at Baekhyun’s affinity to the sun.
Downstairs, mother was working in the kitchen and he knew by the sound of plates and spoons clattering that she’d call for his brother soon. She didn’t call for him anymore, not since the year he had turned five.
Baekhyun let the sun soak his skin for another second, but turned away from the window with a soft sigh when he heard mother calling for Baekbeom. His brother stirred in his sleep, his mouth pulling into a frown, his lids flickering. By then Baekhyun was already sitting next to his brother’s form, gently poking him awake. He ran his fingertips along Baekbeom’s prominent cheekbones and down the arc of his nose to dip into the dimples that formed when his brother reacted to his touches with a smile. His lips curled upwards like a cat for a second, before they caught Baekhyun’s finger between them. Baekhyun giggled when his brother blinked open his eyes.
“Hi, little baby sun,” Baekbeom greeted him, his voice hoarse from sleep. Baekhyun beamed down at him and helped him up, before he reached for a nearby small basin of water for his older brother to wash up with.
Baekbeom dipped his hands in it and flicked some of the water at Baekhyun’s face, laughing quietly when the younger boy scrunched up his nose. He whined, but the way his older brother laughed had the pout of his lips twisting into a smile as well.
That was when their mother called for Baekbeom again, this time less patient.
“Alright, I’m getting up- grab the water, Baek. Let’s wash up together.”
Even as he said together, Baekhyun knew that his brother would take greater care in cleaning him first instead of himself. Since no one in the household really cared for Baekhyun, Baekbeom had taken it upon himself to shower his younger brother with as much love and care as he could.
“I don’t know why I wash you every morning,” he said as he gently rubbed his washcloth across Baekhyun’s face. “It’s not like you ever get dirty or smell- even though you play outside the whole day.”
Baekhyun frowned at that, thinking of their mother’s stony face whenever he behaved different from what was normal, but before he could hang his head in shame, Baekbeom grabbed his chin and lifted up his face. He smiled down at Baekhyun and bent down to plant a quick kiss on the boy’s forehead. “My wonderful baby bro! Go dress!” He patted Baekhyun’s butt and dipped the cloth in the water to wash up himself.
Baekhyun watched with sad eyes as his older brother reached for his uniform and pulled it on. The fact that Baekbeom went to an imperial college was a blessing for their household, of course, but to Baekhyun it meant daily separation from the one person he loved so much. He reached for his own clothes dejectedly, his fingers clumsy when he tied the ribbons of his shirt.
Baekbeom was quick to notice and turned his younger brother around to help him, an understanding smile on his lips. “Don’t be sad, baby,” he said as he cupped Baekhyun’s face in his warm palms. “As soon as I graduate I’ll find work in the city and I’ll take you with me. Won’t that be nice? But Hyung has to go to school for that, you know that, right?”
Baekhyun closed his eyes and nodded, but he nudged his face against Baekbeom’s palms, begging for affection. His brother hugged him immediately, crooning a little as he cradled the younger. He only let go of Baekhyun when their mother called for the third time. With a sigh he ruffled through Baekhyun’s unusually light hair and bent to grab his books by his bedside. Their weight didn’t hinder him from grabbing Baekhyun’s hand and together they went downstairs to greet their family at the low kitchen table.
As always grandmother was the first to notice them. Her eyes swept over Baekbeom for a second, before they rested on Baekhyun and stayed there. Baekhyun knew the cryptic gleam in her eyes as she watched him, and quickly dropped his gaze, afraid of what else he’d find in the old woman’s face if he looked at her. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she scared him, always had, and out of his family members she was the one he tried to avoid most. There was something in the way she treated him and watched him that had Baekhyun’s hackles rising, as if she knew something that no one else did. It was unnerving and it frightened him. He leaned closer to his brother instinctively and tried to hide behind Baekbeom’s back.
Not for long, though, because as every morning, father was reading the newspaper, frowning at the characters he didn’t know. He looked up at them and reached for Baekbeom to help him read out what he couldn’t. Baekhyun tightened his grip on his brother, but Baekbeom nudged him towards his place at the end of the table with a reassuring smile and then went to their father’s aid.
Baekhyun was quick to sit down at his place, his eyes alternating between staring at his brother and dropping his gaze to his hands on his lap. He could feel eyes on him, but he didn’t dare to look up. He knew it had to be grandmother, since mother was still watching the grain by the hearth. Unlike grandmother, she ignored him for as long as possible, the complete opposite even though the reason for their behavior was the same.
Baekhyun had seen mother’s back tense as soon as he had sat down at the eating place. She didn’t need to see him to know that he was there. Years ago, when she had started to ignore him, Baekhyun had overheard her telling grandmother that she could smell the full bloom of spring and summer in the air whenever Baekhyun entered a room. It must have been the same still, because mother held her breath for a moment, before she forced herself to turn around and look at her sons.
As always, her face was an expressionless mask when her eyes glanced at Baekhyun, but they softened with maternal care as soon as they found Baekbeom. With the steaming pot of porridge in her hands, she was next to her husband in two strides and urged him to let their son eat in peace. Baekhyun watched his family interact like an outsider, a sense of emptiness growing in his chest that only dissolved into nothing when Baekbeom reached out for him and took his hand.
His brother gave him the bowl mother had handed him, a necessity since she wouldn’t hand one to Baekhyun directly. The younger boy squeezed his brother’s hand in wordless gratitude and for the next minutes an almost comfortable silence settled over the family. It was broken the minute Baekbeom reached out to thumb away porridge from Baekhyun’s lips.
“Don’t baby him like that!” Their father reprimanded, and had Baekbeom not held his chin in his hands still, Baekhyun would have flinched from the disapproving tone. “He’s an adult- it’s time we find him work, it won’t do him any good if you keep treating him like that!”
Baekbeom opened his mouth to disagree, but before he could utter a word their mother beat him to it. “The boy stays here!” she spat, and her tone and the way she defied her husband’s words would have been scandalizing had her face not been deathly pale.
Baekhyun crouched lower, curling into himself as he tried to hide from his mother’s dark eyes which were focused on him for once. They didn’t make him feel recognized or loved; they made him feel unwanted, more than usual.
“He stays here!” she repeated, her voice a tad too high and her hands trembling. She looked close to fainting until grandmother reached for her and put a calming hand on her shoulder. Mother flinched as if slapped and quickly averted her eyes from Baekhyun’s helpless ones. She looked at her husband instead, who stared at her with worry on his face. His wife’s determination to keep Baekhyun as isolated as possible was nothing new to him, but the way the mere thought of their youngest mingling with the townspeople was distressing her so much was new- at least to him. Neither Baekbeom nor Baekhyun was surprised, and at the other end of the table grandmother didn’t look like it either.
Mother’s wish to keep Baekhyun in the house- or at least near the house, was exactly the same as Baekbeom’s, albeit for different reasons, and Baekhyun knew this well. While Baekbeom didn’t want his uneducated brother to work himself to death on the fields or as a maid in a different household, mother didn’t care about Baekhyun’s wellbeing. All she wanted was to hide him away so that no one could associate the abomination of her household with her intelligent and promising eldest son and their family name.
“He’s only fifteen. And look at him, dear, he’s skin and bones. It won’t hurt to keep him home for a few more years!” She said nevertheless, playing her part as a worried mother.
Since the day grandmother had made her understand that abandoning Baekhyun in the near forests would only turn things for the worse she had started to ignore him, but also had made sure he was kept unharmed. She had to be his mother, whether she wanted or not, so she did at least the most essential minimum to keep him alive.
Baekhyun hung his head at her words, well aware of their true meaning, and swallowed down the pressure of loneliness that wanted to rise up in his throat. Next to him he heard Baekbeom gritting his teeth and was not surprised when his older brother ended his breakfast abruptly. The older boy pulled Baekhyun up and hastily made him bow to their parents and grandmother, before he grabbed his hand and dragged him out, away from the hurting silence that had followed their mother’s words.
Outside the house, Baekbeom made sure to hug him close for a moment, before he let go and grabbed Baekhyun’s hand again.
“Let’s go,” he muttered as he pulled Baekhyun along, ignoring the confused look the younger gave at him.
Since the day mother had taken him from school, Baekhyun was only allowed to walk until the path from their home met the first fields marking the beginning of downtown. But today Baekbeom pulled him farther, ignoring Baekhyun’s silent protest and then his growing fear.
People would see him, Baekhyun thought full of panic. It wasn’t safe, but Baekbeom didn’t seem to care and dragged him farther up the path, until they left the fields behind and reached the bustling traffic and shops of the main streets.
Almost immediately, Baekhyun felt several eyes on him and tried to hide behind his brother. He wasn’t used to being this exposed anymore, not since elementary school, when people had constantly stared at him and touched his hair and his skin. Baekhyun remembered the painful memories of other children throwing stones at him and pulling on his hair, until strands of it had ripped from his scalp. It made him clutch his brother’s uniform in dread, wondering why Baekbeom was exposing him like this.
Baekhyun only dared to glance at the passing people on their way, never darting his eyes higher than it took to steal a look at the swish of long skirts against the pressed dirt of the streets. People were making way for them, he noticed, avoiding contact with the abnormality Baekbeom was pulling along on his way to school. Baekhyun’s heart sank when he heard the whispers and he hurried to press himself even closer to his brother, wishing himself far away where no one could see him.
His brother pulled him along the shops with determination on his face, though, no thoughts of returning home in his head. But he had a comforting hand on Baekhyun and a reassuring smile on his lips whenever he looked down at his scared brother. Nevertheless, Baekhyun was still fearing for his life when his brother stopped abruptly in front of a sweets shop- only to forget everything the second he realized that Baekbeom was about to buy him candy.
It was the second to last shop just before his brother’s college front gate and Baekhyun’s eyes grew round in wonder as he looked at all the colorful sweets. Rock candy and sweet cakes in every color and form beckoned the young boy closer, jubilant and vivid like spring flowers and smelling just as sweet. Baekhyun felt his lips twitching into the tiniest smile as he took in the countless treats. Baekbeom sometimes brought him a handful of candies when he returned home in the evening, but it had been a long time since Baekhyun had last seen so many piled up on display.
When he managed to tear his eyes away from them to look up at his brother, Baekbeom was watching him with a smile, a bag of sweet cakes already in his hands.
“I got you honey rice cakes- you can eat them while I’m in class, okay baby?”
The younger boy eyed the bag in his brother’s hands before he nodded, but blinked in confusion when Baekbeom pulled him through his college gate and sat him down on a bench behind a line of trees.
Oh, Baekhyun thought, worried. He wasn’t going home.
“I want you to stay here and wait for me, until I finish classes, alright? I’m sorry that I can’t walk you home, but this is...it’s better like this. Hyung doesn’t want you to be alone at home today, okay Baekhyunnie?” Baekbeom handed him the paper bag with the sweet cakes and ruffled his hair.
Baekhyun clutched it in his hands and threw shy glances at the surrounding area. The bench Baekbeom had led him to was near the front gate. It was almost hidden from sight as it sat between two tree lines, one framing the pathway to the college building, and another marking a border for the high school grounds of the neighboring building.
Baekhyun relaxed when he realized how invisible he was and that he’d be okay even when Baekbeom would have to leave for his classes. The thought had him smile up at his older brother and nod with relief, the panic subsiding as he leaned back on the bench.
Baekbeom was looking at him fondly, his long fingers fishing for one of the cakes to pop it into Baekhyun’s mouth. When he bit down on the soft treat, honey burst on his tongue and had him close his eyes in delight. Like this he missed his brother’s eyes softening, but he tilted his head to beam at him when Baekbeom ruffled his hair again.
“Gotta go! Be good, baby, and wait for Hyung! I’ll be back for lunch!”
Baekhyun watched his brother run to his class and waved when Baekbeom turned to look at him with worry all over his face. But Baekhyun was fine. The bench was well hidden from view and secluded. On top of that the small campus was near the familiar, all-consuming forests that surrounded their small town. They had been part of Baekhyun’s life since he’d been born and added to the feeling of security he felt. Baekhyun pulled his legs up to his chest and reached for another cake as he bedded his head on top of his bony knees.
For a while he watched students trickling into the two buildings, some running when the bell started to ring. He felt his eyes growing heavier when the buzz of the main street behind the gate faded into background noise, the rustling of the trees and the chirping of the birds growing louder as he dozed off.
He startled awake in what felt like seconds.
A hand pulled on his hair hard enough to have him fall from the bench face-first, and Baekhyun cried out in panic when he hit the ground. When he turned his body around he heard loud sneers and laughter from above.
Standing in front of him where three high schoolers- prim and proper in their black uniforms, a comparable darkness gleaming in their eyes. Baekhyun whimpered when he recognized them from his elementary school days. It was four years since he had last seen them, but their faces had been a constant in his nightmares up until this day.
Baekhyun stared up at them with wide eyes, desperate to put distance between himself and his bullies, but his arms and legs were numb and shaking, not willing to work as he wanted. They had been scary at age eleven, but now, at fifteen, they towered over Baekhyun’s small form and looked positively terrifying. Baekhyun was so scared that he nearly peed himself.
“If it isn’t our favorite freak,” one laughed when he crouched down on the ground and leaned in to reach for Baekhyun’s hair. With the way he twisted strands of his hair harshly enough to have Baekhyun’s head jerk with the motion, the pained boy knew that this bully, Kim Myungsoo, had been the one to pull him from the bench. “Long time no see. Missed me?”
Out of his three bullies Myungsoo was the youngest, but he was still the one leading the others. Nam Woohyun, the oldest, usually liked to watch and hold Baekhyun in place, while the last one, Lee Sungyeol was the one delivering the beatings. Not that Myungsoo didn’t, but the youngest liked to play games of cat and mouse, and Baekhyun feared those more than the blunt fists Sungyeol beat into him.
“Hey! Did your hair get lighter again?” Myungsoo laughed as he pulled harder on the strands. “Looks almost blonde now- you sure your slut of a mother didn’t sleep with one of the Westerners?”
Baekhyun yelped when his hair was pulled even harder and started screaming when he felt it ripping from his scalp. It hurt so bad that he felt his stomach lurching, but his body was still numb with fear, sprawled out uselessly on the ground the way he fell down. Not for long, though, because Sungyeol crouched down next to his friend and reached for Baekhyun’s arms to twist them brutally behind his back as he forced the small boy up.
Baekhyun whimpered when he was forced to sit. His eyes watered when he saw Woohyun holding his bag with honey cakes. The bully was popping them casually into his mouth, smiling contently as he chewed them and watched his two friends roughing up their favorite victim. Not that they ever did this to other children. Baekhyun knew that he was the only one they ever treated like this.
It was because his hair was too light, his skin too pale, his eyes too wide. It was because his irises sometimes gleamed blue in sunlight, and the way the scent of flowers seemed to cling to him wherever he went. Baekhyun knew all of their reasons to beat fists into his body. They were the reason no one but his brother ever helped him, because everyone in this town silently agreed with his bullies that he was an abomination, a freak.
“Answer him!” Sungyeol sneered as he twisted his arms harder. Baekhyun let out a miserable wail, tears sliding down his cheeks, but his lips only wobbled as he writhed in pain.
“This fucker’s still not talking,” Myungsoo laughed in disbelief as he finally let go of Baekhyun’s hair. Strands of it clung to his hand and the bully grimaced in disgust as he tried to fling it away. “Ew, fuck! Get that shit off me-” He rose his hand only to smack it down on Baekhyun’s face hard enough to have the boy snap sideways. The force of the blow had Baekhyun almost falling on the ground again, but Sungyeol’s hands were like steel around his arms and jerked him up again.
Baekhyun moaned in pain, disgust and panic twisting his stomach violently when he tasted blood on his tongue and realized that his bottom lip had split. He looked up at Myungsoo, but shrank back when he saw that Woohyun had leaned down from where he had sat on the bench. The oldest bully still had Baekhyun’s paper bag of honey cakes in his hands, a small smile playing on his lips as he stared down at the beaten boy.
“Someone got you some nice honey cakes,” he mused, popping one of them into his mouth. “Was it your hyung? He always seemed to love your little ass. Is he fucking you now that you’re older, sweet pea?”
The other two boys laughed at the crude words, but to Baekhyun they were so hurting that he sobbed loudly. It seemed to amuse his abusers, because Myungsoo reached for him and pinched his wet cheeks hard enough to leave bruises. “Awww, look at him. He’s crying so cutely. Did it hurt so much, little baby? When your brother fucked you open the first time?” The boy let go of Baekhyun’s face only to slap it harshly. “Must have been a while ago, huh. You looked like a little slut in elementary school already- I bet he didn’t even feel guilty, you two look nothing alike.”
“Must be the genes,” Sungyeol added snidely. “Since his mother’s a slut for those Westerners!”
Baekhyun squeezed his eyes shut at the boy’s words, hiccuping uncontrollably as more and more tears slid down his cheeks. Sungyeol’s words were the reason why mother hid him away so strictly. Baekhyun’s abnormal appearance had backlashed on her most, as with every year that Baekhyun’s hair had grown lighter and his skin paler people had started to whisper that the youngest child of the Byun household couldn’t be entirely Korean.
Baekhyun’s body was all wrong, and physically he had been the one to receive the brunt of other people's resentment. Mentally, though, his mother had been the one whom Baekhyun’s body had cost most. Shunned from the female collective of their town she had been branded a Westerner’s whore, as low as the scum of their society- only a step above the worst of their kind, Imperialists.
“Actually- did the freak shrink?” Sungyeol wondered as he twisted Baekhyun’s arms in his grasp. The boy’s limbs were like fragile twigs in his hands, both arms just enough in width to compare to one of Sungyeol’s.
Myungsoo leaned in from where he had sat down on the ground, his lips widening in a smirk as he watched Baekhyun tremble in fear. “He looks like a little kid- aren’t you fifteen? Don’t your parents feed you at all?” The bully’s eyes lit up in delight at his own words and his head snapped up to stare portentously at Woohyun, who understood immediately.
“Time to feed you, little slut. Open up wide!” The eldest boy spat, and for a split-second Baekhyun was utterly confused by the words, before Myungsoo’s hands snatched his chin and dug thumbs into his cheeks hard enough to have him open his mouth to scream.
He choked instead when one of Woohyun’s hands fisted the hair at his nape to jerk his head back, the other tilting the paper bag with the cakes until the contents tumbled out of it and onto Baekhyun’s face. Some of it landed on his wet cheeks and bounced off to fall on the ground, but most cakes fell into his forced open mouth, until he choked up.
Baekhyun cried out and desperately jerked his head, sobbing from the sting in his neck and the way Myungsoo dug his fingernails deep into his face to keep him from moving. But the fear of suffocating was bigger than anything else they put him through, and Baekhyun convulsed and trashed around as he finally started to kick with his legs.
With a grunt Woohyun stomped down on Baekhyun’s shins, his smile widening when the boy under him let out a muffled scream. He pinned Baekhyun’s lower body motionless against the ground like this and watched contently as the boy started to jerk uncontrollably in his two friends’ grip
“Stubborn bitch,” Sungyeol hissed as one of his hands let go of Baekhyun’s arms to reach for the boy’s stuffed mouth. He pressed his palm against the rice cakes sticking out from it, pushing them in with another curse, before laughing when Baekhyun arched up in his hold.
“If you don’t swallow them quickly you’re gonna choke and die,” Myungsoo mused, his fingers tightening around Baekhyun’s jaw when the boy tried to jerk away again. The bully tutted and then smiled, thumbing the hot tear tracks on Baekhyun’s pale cheeks. “Or is it because our little baby can’t eat adult food yet?”
Baekhyun choked again when Myungsoo’s fingers tightened to the point of almost breaking his jaw. He squeezed his eyes shut and only felt how Sungyeol took his hand from his mouth. But before he could try to push some of the cakes out of his mouth, Myungsoo leaned in close to whisper against his ear.
“Here, let me help you, Byun. I’ll smash them to mush for you- open up wide!”
Baekhyun blinked his eyes open in panic and stared at the fist Myungsoo raised in front of his face. The utter lack of empathy he saw in the bully’s dark eyes left Baekhyun petrified with horror, and a sudden certainty that this punch to his face would be the last he’d see of the world overcame him.
The sudden certainty of his pending death sent a jolt of terror through his whole body and shook him up like lightning that cut straight through his core. For a moment Baekhyun felt his toes numbing and his scalp prickling. Static crackled in his ears and he felt heat searing through his veins.
The moment Myungsoo’s fist swung downwards, the whole world slowed down to a standstill. Baekhyun saw the bully’s fist coming down in slow motion, but before Myungsoo’s hand was near enough to touch him, actual lightning crashed down from the sky and swallowed up the whole world.
The hands on his body were gone all of a sudden and Baekhyun bent over to spit out the cakes, painful coughs racking his body, but he couldn’t hear a thing through the tinnitus ringing in his brain.
His eyes were tightly shut, tears and snot and spit leaking from all his orifices, but he could smell the acrid stench of static dissolving as the sudden and intense perfume of blooming flowers swallowed up every other scent in the air.
Baekhyun choked again and whimpered, his hands curling into the hard ground. He felt movement under his fingers and flinched, but when he opened his eyes all he saw was blurring white. He blinked, blind and deaf and mute, and the white gave way to gold, warmth bathing his crouching form. Baekhyun knew instinctively that it were sunrays embracing and protecting him.
The scent of flowers grew heavier around him until it was spinning in his head, but Baekhyun found that it was clearing up the confusion and even the tinnitus. Tears dripped from his eyes, and for an entirely confusing moment a vision of summer rain running down his cheeks crossed his mind before he shook it away. It left a weird sense of safety in his head, though, just when the heavy perfume in the air dissolved and the sunlight dimmed down to normality.
When Baekhyun opened his eyes they were sky blue and glancing ahead in silent wonder.
He was curled up on the ground in fetal position. There was no trace of his three bullies, but in their stead hundreds of flowers had grown from the hard ground. Baekhyun raised his head in wonder and felt strands of his hair falling into his face. He furrowed his brows when he saw that they were even lighter than before, his fingers reaching for them, only mildly surprised when he found that his hair had grown longer as well.
When he sat up he felt the tips of it brushing his shoulders, and when he glanced down to fully inspect he saw that it was almost white and with a pinkish hue. Subtly shimmering gold lay over it like dust, and when he looked down at his hands he saw that his skin was shimmering faintly as well.
Baekhyun dug his hands deeper into the ground to support his weight on his arms, but before he could push himself up, sudden movement under his palms had him flinching again. It was the same feeling he’d had when the lightning had consumed all his senses, and he was quick to pull his hands back to his body.
The ground was shifting in front of his eyes like ripples on a water surface. Not a heartbeat later poppies burst wild and beautiful through the ground, their color a vivid red that screamed of liveliness and an eagerness for life.
Baekhyun fell back on his ass in surprise, but when his hands touched the ground to steady himself more flowers burst through the ground, their stems stretching far into the air and leaning towards him as if yearning to be close to him.
Baekhyun jumped to his feet, confusion turning to panic when he saw that the wooden bench had grown into a gigantic tree, covered entirely by flowers. He gasped and turned his gaze to the treelines in front and behind the bench, noticing that the once prim and properly trimmed vegetation had grown wild with countless flowers sticking out from the ankle-high grass. The trees, too, had twisted and grown, their branches stretching towards him as if trying to reach for him.
A shudder went through Baekhyun’s body when that last thought crossed his mind. It scared him as much as it bore down on his soul. Deep inside he knew that something within him was entirely different now- and that his abnormal appearance had changed for the worse again.
What will mother say, he thought, petrified with horror. The thought had his knees weakening and he fell ungracefully on the ground, not even noticing the many flowers stretching themselves to pillow his landing on the ground.
Baekhyun whimpered and pulled his legs to his chest, rocking himself the way he always did since he had been small. He yearned for his brother’s comfort as he cried in misery. Baekbeom would know what to do. He’d pull him into his warm arms and give him one of his hugs that made the whole world go away. Baekbeom would-
Baekhyun abruptly stopped all motion and snapped his eyes wide open. His brother couldn’t see him like this. He couldn’t lose the only person that loved him- he had to-
Hide! Baekhyun screamed inwardly at himself and jumped on his feet in panic, not even noticing that his fear had storm clouds obscuring the sky. He looked around with frantic eyes and saw the near forests, a feeling of relief flooding his whole body when he realized that they would hide him. It would take forever to get home, because he had to walk around the entire town, before the main street leading out of it was frequented less enough for him to cross it, but no one would see him.
Baekhyun almost cried in relief at that thought. Without wasting another moment he ran to the tree border separating the dense forests from the outer campus. He slipped through the invisible border without a sound, never looking back at the flowers stretching themselves yearningly towards him before withering, and never realizing that neither the earsplitting crack of lightning, nor the sudden explosion of Spring and Summer had no one screaming out in fright and wonder.
Only when he was deep in the forest did the sudden Spring sphere that lay like an otherworldly layer upon the human realm, dissolve, and the campus returned to its normal state.
But where Baekhyun had once been forced down by his three bullies, only a handful of honey rice cakes and a dozen of red poppies remained. All four children went missing that day and were never seen again.
✿
The blooming scent of flowers followed Baekhyun into the forests.
Since his early childhood the trees and dense undergrowth had been a place of comfort for him. Especially after mother had taken him away from school and when he had been forbidden to stay in the house, only allowed in when Baekbeom returned home in the evenings.
The evergreen canopy of the century old trees subdued the noises of the town until Baekhyun felt like he was moving in a soundlessly breathing dome of serenity. To most, this thought would have been frightening, but to Baekhyun the presence of the plants around him felt like a gentle embrace. Alone in the forest he felt like every breeze and every rustle of the thousand leaves around him welcomed him home.
Golden sunlight flickered through the trees and flecks of gold danced on his shimmering skin and dotted the soft forest ground. It was as if the sun rays led his way, deeper and deeper into the forest, until all Baekhyun could hear was the voice of nature whispering in the wind.
He walked for hours as if in a trance, his feet leaving footprints of blooming flowers behind. There was something pulling him, leading him along an invisible path, but Baekhyun didn’t realize that. In his head there was a calming sort of emptiness and he trusted his body to walk the way home on itself. But he didn’t understand that to his body home was not the same as to him anymore.
When he passed the invisible barrier leading to the fairy sphere it was as if he woke up from a dream.
He blinked his eyes in confusion as he found himself at the edge of a wide clearing. Springlight was bathing the grass and countless flowers in thick, golden rays and the air was shimmering with the dust of something Baekhyun couldn’t really see, not yet, but somehow feel. The soft spring breeze carried the strangest sounds with it as it caressed the flowers on the grass- flowers of form and color Baekhyun had never seen before.
When he took a step onto the clearing it was as if the plants, the wind, the air- even the light, held their breath in a collective gasp. Baekhyun couldn’t explain it, but something inside of him was certain that every breathing- and even non breathing, elemental thing on the clearing had a soul. Everything was watching him with bated breath and resonated to his existence with overjoyed bliss. As he stepped deeper into the clearing that certainty only grew, and slowly he could see what the slumbering magic in his soul had felt all along.
His gaze flickered, his irises changing color from blue to brown and back to blue again, adjusting to the magic that was fully awakening inside of him. When they finally settled on one blue and one brown eye Baekhyun was able to see the flower spirits shimmering in the air, dancing like petals in the wind that laughed soundlessly in utter bliss. Tree spirits watched him curiously as he walk to the center, their faces unreadable but softening gently when Baekhyun looked at them. Golden sunrays reached for him and caressed his pale face the way they had for years, and Baekhyun understood now that they had always watched out for him, wanting to comfort him.
All this he took in with wonder, but no fear. The same certainty that had made him see what would have been invisible to others also told him that there was nothing he had to be afraid of. All the sadness and pain was now far away and nothing evil would ever touch him again.
Baekhyun smiled and closed his eyes as he walked, letting the spring light guide his way. He breathed in the scent of the flowers and listened to the murmur of the trees, an odd feeling of belonging washing down his spine. Happiness spread warm and beautiful through his veins and the faint shimmer under his skin grew into reflecting light, clear and bright and beautiful.
When he reached the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a sea of gently swaying flowers, he opened his blue eyes and saw the Summerking.
✿
They stared at each other for a while, sky blue sinking into brilliant green, until the crack of sudden lightning and the following roll of thunder made them look up at the sky instead.
Above them a summer storm was swirling the clouds in a languid spiral, but before warm rain could fall down on them, sunrays cut through the blanket of clouds, bringing rainbows with them and warm summerwinds. More flowers bloomed in happiness, their heavy perfume spinning in their heads and beckoning them closer to each other.
Baekhyun was still looking up at the sky in wonder when Chanyeol stepped closer, but a collective sigh of the nature around him had him direct his gaze at the Summerking again, not that he knew who he was looking at.
Baekhyun took an instinctive step back, but in the same moment the flowers surrounding him cried out with their soundless voices. Baekhyun could hear them, and felt them mourning the distance between him and the man on the other end of the clearing.
Uncertain and worried Baekhyun stood still as the man approached. As he watched him, the most weird and contradicting emotions surged through his body and left him confused and unable to react. A part of him was afraid of the nearing man. That frightened part of Baekhyun took in the intimidating height of the man with a shudder. It stared at the man’s broad shoulders and his strong limbs, and it wanted to curl up and hide from the man’s intense green eyes and the raw handsomeness of his face.
Baekhyun swallowed as he watched the wind move the man’s blood red hair. Just then a thick, golden sunray broke through the clouds and highlighted the perfectly sculpted body moving gracefully underneath the man’s clothes, a long linen tunic. The clothing would have looked ridiculous on anyone else, but on this man it seemed oddly fitting- accentuating his carnal sensuality. The way he moved was predatory, danger lurking in the strength of his motion, and Baekhyun felt a thrill of excitement when the man stepped close enough for their shadows to cross.
While the frightened part of Baekhyun was shuddering from nervousness, a bigger part of him was enthralled. The man had finally crossed the clearing and stood in front of him, his eyes consuming Baekhyun’s much smaller form. He was so tall and powerful that it felt threatening to Baekhyun, and intimidated he took another step back. A feeling of loss and pain surged through him at the same moment, and Baekhyun whimpered in distress when his body weakened to the point of his legs almost giving way. He wanted to run and hide, but he also wanted to step as close he could and cling desperately to the man. It was beyond confusing.
But before he could decide what to do, arms reached out for him, hands wrapped around his wrists and he was pulled against a warm chest.
“My Summer Queen,” was whispered from somewhere above him, and Baekhyun blinked numbly before he blushed a deep pink and tried to push against the man’s body.
The man let him break the embrace, but his hands stayed on Baekhyun’s body, as did the wonder and awe in his eyes as he looked down at the small boy. One of the hands let go to reach out for strands of his pink hair, and for a split second Baekhyun flinched as memories of Myungsoo flashed through his mind. But the man’s fingers caressed his locks lovingly before taking a handful of it between his fingers to pull the tips up to his lips.
Baekhyun’s mouth fell open in shock and he stared at the kiss completely stunned. It was only when the man went down on one knee that he shook out of his rigor. Even though he had grown up secluded and isolated, he knew what kind of gesture this was.
He gurgled weakly in his throat and shook his head helplessly, his hands reaching out to stop the man, but all that happened was that his fingers got caught in a tight grip when the man entwined their fingers in a matter of seconds and then pressed their palms together intimately.
Baekhyun felt panic constricting his chest, but before he could make a sound, sudden light shone from his palms and made him gasp instead.
The wind in the clearing suddenly picked up, and from above Baekhyun heard thunder and lightning again. All around the clearing the plants rustled in bursting excitement, and the blooming perfume of the flowers swelled into an unbearable intensity, their collective happiness cloying the air until it was almost impossible to breathe.
Baekhyun whimpered when sudden heat burned in his palms, and when he pulled his hands out of the man’s grip he saw that they were branded with two big stars, beautiful and shining mysteriously, and so familiar.
For an utter inept moment Baekhyun felt overcome with homesickness. Then the pain set in and he yelped and then wailed when the light in his palms grew in intensity. Hands reached out for him again, and this time Baekhyun was so in pain and in need for comfort that he let them grab him willingly.
He was pulled down on the soft grass and into a warm embrace. He squeezed his eyes shut in distress, but the flowers and trees reached out with their voices, telling him that there was nothing to be afraid of. Baekhyun knew with an instinctive certainty that he could trust their voices, and his body relaxed in the man’s hold automatically.
He was rocked gently in the man’s arms, a deep voice humming and vibrating underneath the skin of the warm chest his face was pressed against. Baekhyun’s panic was subdued now, making way to an odd sense of security as he breathed down the scent of summer storms, rain and the sun clinging to the man. It comforted him so much and so entirely that it almost lulled him to sleep, but the soft pulse of pain in his hands kept him conscious and blinking tiredly ahead. His long lashes kept brushing over the man’s warm chest and somehow it felt so intimate that Baekhyun felt his cheeks warming up again.
“Can I see?” The man asked, and Baekhyun knew what he meant without another word. He gave him his hands willingly, even though he didn’t understand why. But the wind sighed loudly in bliss when they touched, and more flowers grew from the grass to join the rejoicing chorus of their sisters.
The man took his hand in his own delicately, his touch so gentle and loving that Baekhyun felt lost for a second. They were turned around, palms up, and he watched the man’s eyes widening in wordless awe.
Time came to a standstill then.
It took a long while for the man to even breathe audibly again, and when he did, warm summer rain started to fall from the sky and onto their embraced forms. When Baekhyun looked down from the sky and into the man’s eyes again he realized that tears were rolling down his handsome face.
The sight left Baekhyun both confused and worried, but a sudden realization had him gasp as he listened to the rain and stared at the tears sliding down the man’s cheeks. Somehow- even though that was absurd- this man’s sadness was the reason for the summer rain.
His thoughts, or maybe his astonishment, must have been obvious on his face, because in the next moment the rain stopped as the man chuckled, one of his hands letting go of Baekhyun’s hand to cup one of the his pale cheeks instead.
“I am the Summerking,” the man murmured, his eyes looking down at Baekhyun full of adoration and love. The Summerking stroked his thumb along Baekhyun’s jaw line, the touch incredibly intimate and so so loving. “And you, my sweet, are my Spring Bride- but how is that possible?”
Baekhyun tilted his head in confusion, the motion pressing his face against the warm hand cupping it. But it felt good to be this close to this man, the Summerking, even though the closeness to him awakened a strange feeling of loss and melancholy in Baekhyun.
Somewhere along the way to the center of the clearing he had left behind something impossibly important, a memory perhaps, of someone else whose warm arms and gentle hugs had made him feel so loved. But no matter how much Baekhyun tried to remember, all he felt was a sense of emptiness where before a loving memory had been- only that he wasn’t even sure if it really was a lost memory, or just a feeling.
He sighed, and this barely audible sound was enough to snap the Summerking out of his awe. The man let go of Baekhyun and rose to his feet, but before Baekhyun could follow, he had already bent down and picked the boy up from the ground.
Baekhyun gasped and was quick to wrap his arms around the Summerking’s neck as he was carried across the clearing, farther into the direction of the unknown. But there was nothing inside of Baekhyun that wanted to protest. If anything, he wanted to stay in the Summerking’s arms for as long as he could, all thoughts of fear and confusion fading from his mind with every step the man took towards the fairy realm. Not even the unexplainable sense of loss had him doubting what he wanted anymore, because there was a truth echoing in his head, a sentence that was repeated in the wind and the trees and the flowers as the man carried him away from everything he knew.
This was the Summerking and he was his Spring Bride, even though he had no idea what that meant.
✿
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