Chapter 5 (1/1)

--CHAPTER 5“Baekhyun.”Baekhyun continued to stare into space.“Baekhyun!” his friend’s voice sounded a little louder, but not loud enough to disturb the class.Quickly, Baekhyun was pulled from his reveries and he turned to his right to see Minseok looking at him with a slight pout.“Are you even paying attention?” Minseok whispered with his hand cupped to his cheek.Baekhyun nodded to reassure his classmate, but it wasn’t true. For a while now, all Baekhyun could think about was what he and Chanyeol had spoken of the day before.“There’s a beast and I think it has something to do with you, Baek,” Chanyeol had said. He described to Baekhyun that he was from another world—maybe a dimension, but he wasn’t sure—and back there, things were different from where Baekhyun lived. He said that compared to Baekhyun’s world, much happened more strangely. Baekhyun couldn’t quite tell how to interpret that, or any of the information Chanyeol was giving him, for that matter, but he listened. He had listened since he was beginning to remember.Baekhyun remembered the great feeling of nearly being consumed by a creature he was too afraid to face, and from what he heard Chanyeol saying about a loud roar, and through the sound he heard in his darling ears, and now from what he was recalling from his nine year old year, Baekhyun was starting to believe Chanyeol. Maybe any average person would have considered Chanyeol crazy or estranged, but Baekhyun didn’t. He had read enough books to be able to believe a story like this, no matter how outlandish it could have been.After Chanyeol had explained that he would possibly need Baekhyun’s help back in his world—though Baekhyun didn’t know how since he looked at himself as slightly helpless—he suddenly cringed and told Baekhyun that he needed to leave. He said that he would be back again, though, and that Baekhyun shouldn’t wait too much, and Chanyeol whipped a small object from his pocket and in a flash, he was gone.That was his compass, Baekhyun told himself after he watched Chanyeol’s departure and now he fully remembered the strange, yet intriguing place Chanyeol had taken him when he was nine. He remembered a beast, and now he was sure that it existed.But Baekhyun still wondered: what would Chanyeol need with a frail person like him back in his world? Now Baekhyun sat in his psychology class next to his friend Minseok, thinking on this and not paying attention to the information Professor Leeteuk was relaying to the students.Once the class was dismissed, Baekhyun walked down the tier of steps that held the desks the students sat at, and he saw his teacher looking back at him.“Baekhyun,” Leeteuk beckoned toward his brown haired student, and Baekhyun walked over.Baekhyun tilted his head and widened his eyes to show his teacher that he was wondering what he had to say.Leeteuk smiled and then said, “I noticed that you were spacing out today.”The brown haired student’s shoulders slouched and his gaze averted away from his teacher. He was showing some guilt.“You know,” Leeteuk began again, “when someone spaces out, it means they have a lot on their mind.” As Leeteuk said this, he noticed that Baekhyun’s head fell and his brows knotted in a thinking expression. “Is there anything on your mind?”Baekhyun knew that there was much he was thinking about, but he figured that his situation was a bit out of the ordinary. He wanted to tell his caring Professor, but he didn’t know exactly how to put it. Since they were standing next to the chalk board by Leeteuk’s desk, Baekhyun’s brown eyes glanced over to notice a piece of chalk and he quickly retrieved it and started to write on the board.Leeteuk’s eyes widened at Baekhyun’s swift action. “Oh, you do have much to say?” His face showed an expression of interest that was genuine.In a quick motion and some flicks of his wrist as he wrote fervently, Baekhyun was able to procure the question in chalk, “Have you ever felt strangely nervous about something?”“Hm?” Leeteuk elegantly tilted his head to read the question as Baekhyun stepped to the side to reveal it. He then looked at Baekhyun and with a thoughtful look, said, “Well…” he paused and then looked downward. “I think everyone has.” It appeared he was speaking from personal experience from the way his eyes fell and his expression flattened.Baekhyun looked toward Leeteuk’s expression intently. He hadn’t ever really seen this man’s face become so solemn so quickly before. Now he was curious, though he didn’t want to seem nosy.Leeteuk then noticed how Baekhyun was looking at him and he smiled nervously. “Let’s just say that I have a friend named Heechul…” he then chuckled under his breath and with his left arm, he balanced the elbow of his right arm into the crevice he made between his left arm and abdomen and began tapping the fingers of his right hand on his chin. “Heechul really made me feel nervous one time, Baekhyun.” He looked directly into Baekhyun’s eyes. “I’ve never told anyone else this before…” a small breath of air escaped his lips as he said this. “You know those people who can do that to you?”Baekhyun nodded, though he wasn’t exactly sure since he hardly interacted with anyone, but he supposed the feeling he recently received around Chanyeol when Chanyeol had his hands on his chest could have been synonymous with what Leeteuk was speaking of.“I feel as though…” Leeteuk’s eyes began to look into the distance and his voice became light and airy. “I feel like that there are those who make us feel nervous and maybe they’re why we feel nervous about certain situations…” He paused and said nothing, but then it looked as though he suddenly came back to reality and his vibrant brown eyes turned to crescents as he grinned at Baekhyun. “I’m sorry, Baekhyun. I’m reminiscing now… I don’t think I helped much.”Baekhyun put his hands up and shook his head. He reached for the chalk and quickly wrote out, “No, you did help me, Professor.”“Okay,” Leeteuk giggled as his eyes closed. “It is my job to help my students anyway. Isn’t it?” He then furrowed his brows playfully. “What else would I be getting paid for then?”Gently, Baekhyun cupped his hand to his lips and smiled, showing that he was laughing at his teacher’s humor. He then wrote on the chalk board, “I think I’ll be going now.”Leeteuk nodded. “All right.” He saw Baekhyun cutely wave to him and he graciously waved back. Then, as Baekhyun turned to leave, Professor Leeteuk held his hand out and burst out, “Oh! Wait, Baekhyun!” Baekhyun turned and looked over his shoulder at his teacher. “If something is making you feel nervous, it doesn’t really mean it’s a bad thing, okay?”Baekhyun nodded just once and then walked out. When he stepped out of the classroom and gently closed the door behind himself, he instantly remembered that he totally forgot about Minseok. “Minseok!” he gasped in his mind. He then began to walk swiftly toward the dormitory where he assumed Minseok would be by now, and soon his skinny legs broke out into a jog. Baekhyun felt badly now about not remembering that his one friend had wanted to walk back with him to the dorms tonight and study with him once they were back there, but he had been thinking about so many other things that it totally slipped his mind.As he ran, he started to hear a ringing within his ears. At first, he ignored it since he wanted to get back to his friend as quickly as possible. But even though he tried to block it out, it continued to progress and it soon became unbearable. Baekhyun recognized the sound was that which he established a name for recently when speaking with Chanyeol—the sound of the beast. It roared in his eardrums and reverberated its sound within the confines of his ears and it gradually became too much and in a fast, involuntary motion, Baekhyun fell to his knees on the pavement and pressed his hands to his ears. He bared his teeth and clenched his eyes shut—shaking his head gently. If he could whimper, he would because the roaring was painful for him to listen to and as soon as it started he wanted it to cease.“Baekhyun?!” Baekhyun could vaguely hear someone asking his name desperately. He managed to open his right eye and look upward. He saw that it was Minseok. “Are you okay?” Minseok worriedly asked as he knelt down in front of Baekhyun.Slowly, Baekhyun removed his hands from his ears and as he fully opened both of his eyes, he nodded.“Geez, you’ve been scaring me these past few days…” Minseok’s round face showed a great expression of concern toward Baekhyun and his hands rested near his chest. “First you ran into the pole and now you’re on your knees on the ground!”“There’s no need to worry,” Baekhyun signed. “I’ve only been a little out of sorts…” his hands fell to his sides after he signed this.Minseok looked to his friend warily. “Is it class? Is that why you talked to Professor Leeteuk?”Baekhyun knew that wasn’t the truth, but he nodded in response to Minseok’s question anyway.“Ah,” Minseok balled his hands into fists and placed them on his hips. “That’s why we need to study together!”“Of course,” Baekhyun moved his fingers. He smiled to his charming friend. Then the two of them stood up from the pavement and Baekhyun whipped his hands off against the jeans on his thighs.Minseok pushed his upper lip outward and lifted a brow as he looked to his friend. “You still want to study?” He wasn’t sure if Baekhyun was truly in the mindset for something like studying.Baekhyun nodded. “You bet,” he enthusiastically signed to Minseok. They then walked together back to the dorm with Minseok explaining the concepts that Professor Leeteuk had taught them earlier in the day. Baekhyun was only half listening.*~*~*~*“Chanyeol! You seriously need to get that kid here if you honestly think he can help us!” Jongdae shielded his head with his arms as he slinked away with his partner in crime. He was carrying a basket in his arm that was filled with half eaten foods.Chanyeol sighed and knocked a rock away that was about to hit him in the head with the back of his hand. “Yeah, I know… I know…”Now that the beast had been coming around more often (mostly due to Chanyeol deciding to get to the forest with Jongdae the other day, though they really shouldn’t have since it is a bit off limits), the two were noticing that they had been faced with its peril more and more. At first, Chanyeol figured that if they stayed out of that area near the forest, they’d be able to avoid the beast. The problem for them was that Chanyeol’s hypothesis was turning out to be flawed.“What is that thing, anyway? You won’t tell me…” Jongdae puffed his cheeks and he then scowled at Chanyeol. He was in a heated mood since now the beast’s roars were so loud that it was crumbling the rock walls and boulders that surrounded the area Chanyeol and Jongdae were in now and it was causing rock debris to fall on their heads. Jongdae was especially bothered by this since he decided to go on a picnic with Chanyeol on this day to the rock façade that was laid outside of the city, but apparently that couldn’t have happened since a monster decided to be noisy.“We’ll go for another picnic again once we’re not being followed around by this guy anymore, okay?” Chanyeol tried to reassure his friend, but he only looked like a fool as a rock hit him in the head and he yelped, “Ow!” while making a childish face.Jongdae sighed quite loudly. “Whatever. Maybe I shouldn’t have planned a picnic when I knew you should have been going to retrieve that kid.”As of now, Chanyeol had informed Jongdae of Baekhyun and how he felt that he had a connection to the beast and that he was the one who could fix it. This only led Jongdae to believe how Chanyeol had really known why there was a beast at all, but Chanyeol would just shrug and say he didn’t know.The roar came loudly and through a mist that was spread across the dirt ground, Chanyeol and Jongdae could see the silhouette of something large. They didn’t have time to focus on this since all they were trying to do was protect their heads from falling stones.“Are you going to go soon?” Jongdae asked with an annoyed tone. They were now exiting the rock façade and were making way toward the city again and they noticed how the beast’s roaring was becoming softer and more distanced and it pleased them. Soon it was only a peep in the distance and it eventually vanished.“I am,” Chanyeol replied. Their steps became slower and more leisurely as they travelled on the green trail toward the city they could see on the horizon. “Would you want to come with me, Jongdae?”Jongdae adjusted the basket from their ruined picnic in his arm by lifting the handle and raising it up over his forearm and carrying it by the bend in his arm. “No, not really,” he said quite plainly. “I’ll just let you fix the problem only you know about.” He lifted his nose in the air pretentiously—the way he held his head along with how he carried the basket truly made him look like a conceited older woman.“Hm…” Chanyeol glanced at Jongdae and then slumped his shoulders. He knew he was being secretive about the beast and everything that correlated with it, but the thing was that he wasn’t too sure on all of the details about it. For some reason, he felt that it was important and had much to do with himself, but how was he supposed to explain this odd theory to his friend without being too aware of it? Chanyeol surely didn’t know, so he decided to keep his usually loud mouth shut.After they walked for some moments without saying anything, Chanyeol decided to see if he could have cheered his peeved friend by asking, “Should I go to get Baekhyun now?” He smiled brightly and expectantly as he asked this, making him look like he anticipated the best answer out of Jongdae’s reply.“Do whatever you want,” Jongdae continued with his sneer. “I’m going to go finish this food where I’m not being howled at by an enormous entity of some form.”The food sounded very appealing to Chanyeol who had quite the appetite, but he knew that he would have to face his responsibilities sooner than later. Even if in the past he and Jongdae were commonly known as a duo that didn’t care about responsibilities and all, Chanyeol was slowly realizing that things started depending on people following their obligations. Right now, Baekhyun was his obligation and in all honesty, that didn’t bother him at all.“I’m going to leave now, then,” Chanyeol said while a breeze blew by and tussled his wavy hair over his forehead and wide eyes.“Yeah, okay,” Jongdae said shortly—it looked like he was already taking part in consuming some of the leftover food from their picnic since crumbs flew from his mouth as he spoke.Then the breeze ended and Chanyeol grabbed his compass. “See you, Jongdae.”The other simply nodded and continued to walk down the path.Chanyeol used his home-made compass and left the area—he was gone in one large flash.“That guy, I swear,” Jongdae mumbled knowingly about how Chanyeol had disappeared without even having to look back and watch it happen.A/N: I have fun writing Chen lolI'll try to update as much as I can u3u