Chapter Text
What if love was right there in front of you - you just couldn’t see it ?
***
Chanyeol was glad he met Haru that morning because he was a bit down after having to leave his old best friend, Jihoon. He couldn’t see Chanyeol any more.
But Chanyeol knew that having to leave his best friends was all part of his job. It was not a very nice part, but he looked for a positive side in everything,so the way he saw it is, if he didn’t have to leave his best friends then he wouldn’t be able to make new ones. Making new friends was Chanyeol’s favourite part of the job.
Chanyeol left Jihoons house behind and started walking, and for absolutely no reason at all he took the first left, and then after taking few random turns he ended up beside a housing estate called Gardenia Lane.
There were lots of children playing on the road, cycling, chasing, enjoying hopscotch, and loads of other stuff. One could hear the sounds of delighted screams and laughter coming from them. As much as they seemed really nice and all, Chanyeol just wasn’t drawn to them. He couldn’t just make friends with anyone. That’s not what his job was about.
After observing the people for a while Chanyeol sat down on the garden wall of the last house and began to think if he had made a mistake coming to this street, he was usually very good at choosing places.
Chanyeol spun on his backside to face the house behind the garden wall. There was no action in this garden so he sat and studied the house. It had two storeys and a garage with an expensive car parked outside that glistened in the sun. The house had blooming fuchsia climbing up the wall, It looked pretty.
Just as Chanyeol was studying the face of the front door, it opened and was slammed shut rather loudly and angrily by a boy who came running outside. He had a big red fire engine in his right hand and a police car in his left hand. Chanyeol loved red fire engines; they were his favourite.
Anyway, the little boy started crashing his fire engine against his police car and making all these noises with his mouth. It’s fun pretending to do things that don’t usually happen in real life.
The boy rammed the police car into the red fire engine and the head fireman, who was clinging to the ladder slid off. Which made Chanyeol laugh out loud and the boy looked up.
He actually looked at him. Right into Chanyeol’s eyes.
“Hey” Chanyeol said, nervously clearing his throat and shifting from one foot to the other.
“Hi” the boy replied, fixing the fireman back onto the ladder.
“What’s your name?’ Chanyeol asked, kicking his foot against the wall in front of him.
The boy stared at him for a while, looked him up and down as though trying to decide whether to tell him his name or not.
Finally he spoke. “My name’s Haru. What’s yours?”
Chanyeol shoved his hands deep into his pockets, he said, “Chanyeol”
“Hi, Chanyeol” he smiled. He had no front teeth.
“Hi, Haru” Chanyeol smiled back.
“I like your fire engine. My old best friend Jihoon used to have one just like it and we used to play with it all the time.
“Do you want to come and play?” He raised his eyebrows questioningly.
Chanyeol grinned. “Of course. Playing is my favourite!” and he joined the boy on the grass.
“What age are you?’ Haru looked at him suspiciously. “You look like you’re the same age as my uncle” he frowned, “and my uncle doesn’t like to play with my fire engine”
Chanyeol shrugged. “Well, then your uncle is a boring old gnirob!’
“A gnirob!” Haru giggled “What’s a gnirob?”
“Someone who’s boring,’ Chanyeol said, scrunching his nose up and saying the word like it was a disease.
He liked saying words backwards; it was like inventing his own language.
“That friend that you mentioned,who is he?” Haru asked
“Kim Jihoon is his name” Chanyeol smiled remembering how much fun he had playing with him.
Haru’s eyes lit up “He is in my class in school”
Then it clicked to Chanyeol why he felt a sense of familiarity when he saw Haru.
“Oh yes I used to see you everyday when I went to school with jihoon “
Haru narrowed his eyes, “Well I didn’t see you there.”
Chanyeol started laughing. “Well, of course, you didn’t see me silly, “ He said matter-of-factly.
***
Baekhyun tried to calm himself again. He was missing an important meeting right now. Haru’s nanny had finally taken a leave for a long trip after 6 years of working. The stand-in babysitter he hired didn’t show up, of course.
Being Haru’s nanny came with a lot of baggage. Then again, so did being Haru’s adoptive parent.
Sighing he walked down to his kitchen. Baekhyun’s tired eyes squinted in the brightness of the room, the spotless kitchen gleamed. He headed straight to the espresso machine. His saviour.
Opening the kitchen cabinet he took out a beige cup, after making sure everything was in place he closed it. Baekhyun liked it that way.
He breathed in the rich aroma of his steaming espresso and immediately felt revived. Looking out of the window he pictured his sister, Areum somewhere enjoying her life, believing that she was free.
Baekhyun’s father was quite older than his mother, he was enthralled by her mysterious wild ways. So they had gotten married. At 18 his mother had him. But it turned out that Baekhyun ’s mother couldn’t be tamed in a sleepy small town. A crying baby drove her further away and she started to go missing for days.
Baekhyun started to look after himself since young. At age 8 his mother had another child. Areum, his sister. The child didn’t offer the freedom their mother craved so one day she left and never came back, and Areum became Baekhyun's responsibility. His cold brooding father had no interest in the child who had drove his wife away.
Areum grew up to be independent, wild and free and followed the same pattern as her mother who she hadn’t even seen. Baekhyun kept losing sight of her until she gave birth to a baby. Nobody knew who the father was.
Just like their mother Areum didn’t care much about the baby. Hence Baekhyun had to take responsibility of Haru.
Areum had visited once to ask for some money. She had absolutely no connection towards her own son not even a flicker of recognition. Since then Baekhyun had decided that he would never have children of his own because he refused to raise anyone again.
Now at age 29, Baekhyun was living with Haru in a house that he loved and bought himself.
He had loved before and had been loved until the reality came crashing in. Having to take care of his nephew had sent his love away and he never dated anyone since then. Baekhyun had learnt to have control on his feelings.
His train of thoughts were broken hearing the front door banging shut and the patter of little feet running down the hall.
“Haru ?”
“Yah?” Haru asked innocently.
“Yes, not yeah okay” Baekhyun corrected him. “And what are you doing ?”
“Me and Chanyeol are playing the computer”
“It’s Chanyeol and I” Baekhyun corrected Haru as he picked up his phone to check a message.
Seeing his uncle distracted with his phone Haru ran back to his playroom.
“Hold on a minute” Baekhyun shouted as he suddenly registered what his nephew had just told him.
He raced down the hallway to Haru’s playroom, he peeked to see Haru sitting on the floor, eyes glued to the TV.
“Who is Chanyeol?” Baekhyun asked stepping inside the room.
“He is my friend” the boy replied, not moving his eyes from the animated cartoon on the screen.
“Haru you know you are supposed to ask me before bringing someone home. Where is he?” Baekhyun questioned. He hoped this friend would be better than the last little evil boy who had painted on his walls with marker.
“Over there” Haru pointed to the direction of the window.
Baekhyun walked towards the window and looked at the front garden. Empty. He frowned “Is your friend hiding somewhere?”
Haru finally moved his eyes from the TV and pointed to the beanbag near Baekhyun's feet.
“He is right there” face crinkling in confusion.
Baekhyun's eye's widened, “Where?”
“Beside you on the beanbag” Haru’s voice had gotten louder with anxiety.
Baekhyun followed his gaze. Haru stood up and started at the blue coloured beanbag as if wishing his friend to appear.
Baekhyun leaned to Haru’s eye level, “There is no one else but you and me in the room” he whispered softly. Hoping that the saying it quietly would be easier for him.
Haru’s cheeks flushed. He stood in the centre of the room looking helpless. Baekhyun's heart hurt, he silently begged for him to not be like his mother. Because the world of fantasy would just steal him away.
Finally Haru exploded, staring into space, demanded, “Chanyeol , say something to him!”
“Do you not see him? Haru repeated more angrily “Why don’t u see him?”
“OK, OK!” Baekhyun tried not to panic. He couldn’t see him and his brain refused to pretend.
Haru shrugged and continued to watch the television.
“Let’s have some pizza okay?”
All the parenting manual that he had read weren’t helping his situation. Baekhyun knew he was letting Haru down.
“Chanyeol said he would like some too. Pizza is his favourite” Haru said.
“Oh” Baekhyun gulped helplessly.
“Thanks” Haru replied to his uncle and gave a thumbs up to the direction of the beanbag.
Baekhyun backed out of the playroom, and stared at the closed door wondering what to do?
The sudden ringing of his phone startled him, it was his assistant Eunji. Baekhyun hoped that she had managed to reschedule the meeting he had missed.
As Baekhyun was about to finish the call he heard Haru laughing and talking to himself inside the playroom.
“Eunji, do you know any shrink?” Baekhyun asked “Haru has started imagining friends..”
Inside the playroom, Chanyeol rolled his eyes. He had heard Baekhyun on the phone. Since he started his job parents had been calling him that and it bothered him. Because there wasn’t anything imaginary about him whatsoever.
They just couldn’t see him.