Chapter Text
‘Baek! Baek! Baek!’ Jongdae yelled, tearing down the corridor, hardly pausing to notice the disgruntled faces of the nurses he passed by.
‘Baekhyun, there’s a new boy!’ Jongdae cried excitedly, barrelling into his best friend’s room.
Baekhyun was sat on his bed, a large book spread out on the navy blue covers in front of him. Jongdae didn’t like Baekhyun’s books because they never had any pictures; or writing. In fact Baekhyun’s book was blank except for the strange bumps on the pages; how boring.
Baekhyun turned to the sound of Jongdae’s voice, blank eyes moving, unfocused, around the room. ‘Really?’ he asked excitedly, then paused casting Jongdae a suspicious look ‘you’re not fibbing?’ Baekhyun was far too aware of Jongdae’s tendency to tell exaggerated stories when he got restless.
Jongdae shook his head adamantly ‘nu-uh, I heard Nurse Amber talking about it. Let’s go see him Baek, come on.’
‘Ok, let’s go,’ Baekhyun grinned eagerly, closing his book; He blew a short whistle ‘come on yeollie!’
From his basket at the end of Baekhyun’s bed, Chanyeol raised his head and yawned, the chocolate-coated Labrador puppy quickly jumping to his feet and bounding over to Baekhyun.
The two boys hurried down the corridor, slippers squeaking on the polished floors; Chanyeol dutifully tugging Baekhyun around the wheelchairs and transport beds that Jongdae (in his excitement) forgot to point out.
Sure enough at the end of the corridor a new nameplate had been added to the door. Jongdae paused to sound out the unfamiliar name.
He reached forward and knocked on the door, three times just to be sure they were heard.
From inside came a muffled reply ‘go away.’
Of course to Jongdae and Baekhyun, this meant come on in.
The room was fairly empty and impersonalised, with the smell of ‘un-used room’ – a mixture of sanitizer and floor polish – still lingering.
The bed, which was pretty much the only thing in the room save a large black suitcase, had been fitted with a brand new star trek duvet cover, black with spaceships all over it. Underneath the cover was a large bump.
Jongdae whispered a quick description to Baekhyun (whose mouth opened in awe at the cool duvet) then he approached the bed.
With all the subtly that a 7 year old can possess Jongdae grabbed the covers and yanked them.
The bump let out a disgruntled ‘hey!’ trying to pull the covers back but to no avail.
Both Jongdae and Baekhyun clambered onto the bed, looking at the boy sat in front of them.
He had rosy pink cheeks and huge round eyes; that were currently filling with tears.
‘I’m Jongdae,’ Jongdae grinned, staring at the new kid ‘and this is Baekhyun, what’s your name?’
Instead of answering the boy started crying.
Baekhyun patted around until he found Jongdae’s leg and slapped it hard ‘stupid, you scared him,’ he scolded ‘don’t cry, whenever I’m sad I just cuddle Chanyeol and he makes it all better, my mummy says he’s a happy virus.’
The sobbing boy wiped his eyes ‘w-who’s that?’
‘Chanyeol, here boy,’ Baekhyun called. Chanyeol bounded onto the bed, tail wagging happily at the prospect of meeting new people ‘you can pet him if you want, he won’t bite.’ Baekhyun assured.
Jongdae, who had been staring at Baekhyun in betrayal, turned to the boy and nodded ‘yer, Chanyeol’s a big softie.’
Cautiously the boy reached out and let his fingers slide over Chanyeol’s fluffy back; settling down between Baekhyun and the boy, Chanyeol was practically vibrating, tail thumping in delight.
‘Such a silly dog.’ Baekhyun cooed, scratching under Chanyeol’s chin. The boy laughed, tears all dried, although he was still sniffling a bit.
‘Hi,’ he said softly ‘I’m Kyungsoo.’