SAFE HAVEN I

CHAPTER 12: APOLOGIES

“You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”

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It was a normal day where the teacher asked her students for a recitation. It's time for the happy virus to answer a simple question. And a part of it was that he wanted Baekhyun to see how he'd been reviewing his notes to impress him.

He was so excited because he and his mother reviewed last night about alphabets and basic number additions and he's confident that he can answer the questions at this time without a doubt.

"Okay, Chanyeol," The teacher witnessed how Chanyeol was so excited when he stood up with his hands in the air flailing to catch the attention of his teacher. "Here!" The unusually tall elf enthusiastically spoke and stood up. The teacher just chuckled because of his high energy and cuteness.

"So Chanyeol, if your mother gave you 20 chocolate bars in a basket and you ate 15 chocolate bars out of it. What will you have?" The teacher asked. It's just a simple subtraction and he expects the latter to answer it correctly.

"Oh! I'll have diabetes?" Chanyeol answered confidently without second thoughts. The room was silenced for a moment before loud laughs filled the air. They laughed as if it was the dumbest joke in the world. Well, maybe it is because even his midget best friend is laughing hard and clutching his stomach.

He felt pained, embarrassed, he wouldn't mind if everyone is laughing at him but then he saw Baekhyun is also laughing. That's when his heart cracked little by little.

Our elf just a bit down his lower lip and sat. The teacher chuckled because of Chanyeol's answer. Chanyeol is not dumb, okay...maybe he's just dumb at mathematics.

"Okay, is Chanyeol's answer correct? Baekhyun?" The teacher called the cute little midget beside Chanyeol who has teary eyes because of laughing.

"No ma'am. Umm...I think it's subtraction so, umm..20 chocolate bars minus 15 chocolate bars is umm..equal to 15? I guess...20 minus 15...Ma'am, it's 5 chocolate bars left." Baekhyun fiddled with his fingers trying to count but end up with ten because he has only ten fingers to count, and so he just smiled sheepishly and hides his hands behind his back.

And that's when Chanyeol held his head low in his desk and muffled his silent embarrassment. It hurts him that Baekhyun didn't agree with his answer. On the other hand, Baekhyun noticed Chanyeol's silence. The puppy tilted his head to look over the elf's face just to see that the latter have wet eyes.

"C-Chanyeol is mad? No. You shouldn't! Heft, it's just a joke...Sorry. Sorry...Shh...Stop now. Baekhyun is going to be sad seeing Chanyeol feel sad..." The little midget rubbed Chanyeol's back as he soothed him. He was now worried as he looked around to know if somebody is looking in their direction.

"Y-You just laughed at me. I-I thought we're best friends. You sided with them instead of me. You don't love me!" Instead of answering, Baekhyun wrapped his tiny arms on the sides of Chanyeol who was currently pouting. His eyes show sadness with his eyes welling in tears. He wiped the latter's face with his sky blue towel to dry up the tears.

"Channie...I laughed because it's funny. Who even told you that answer?" Baekhyun smiled. He's still hugging and rubbing the latter's back. He was used to Chanyeol's dramatic demeanor. He admits that he felt guilty because he's always the reason why Chanyeol cries but he just can't help to laugh at times like this. Because he's just a freaking kid enjoying a funny joke.