Following the Broken Road Back to You

Part 2

The first animals to be fed were the chickens and it gave Baekhyun that slight hope that feeding the animals was just as easy as he initially thought it'd be. Chanyeol gave him a bucket full of feed and instructed him to scoop it out with his hands and throw it on the ground at various places.

"You're not going to give me gloves?"

Chanyeol had given him a blank stare. "This job doesn't require gloves."

"You know, I hand model sometimes," Baekhyun had argued. "I don't want anything that'll—"

"Believe me," his ex smoothly interrupted, "I wouldn't be giving you this job without gloves if it was hazardous to your well-being. I know you're just here temporarily."

That shut the brunette up, and once he did, Chanyeol left him alone to grab the things they needed to feed the horses. In his quiet time alone, Baekhyun found the small pleasure of being chased by the chickens, enjoying the attention that they gave him. He, for a moment, felt like a mother hen.

Once the buckets were completely empty, he closed the pen and stood outside, craning his head around to search for Chanyeol. The second he began looking for the giant, Chanyeol finally made an appearance, coming from around a corner driving a dirty and mud-faced truck.

"Come on. Get in so we can get the horses their hay."

Baekhyun made no response as he hurried to the passenger seat, making squish-like noises as he padded away. He opened the door to the old vehicle and jumped inside. Before he could even put on the seatbelt, Chanyeol tossed him over a new pair of gloves with rubber grips stronger than steel (or so the tag claimed).

"This is the job you'll need gloves for."

Glancing at Chanyeol's hands, Baekhyun asked, "Why aren't you wearing anything?"

"Because I'm not the model here," Chanyeol replied.

The latter couldn't tell whether to take the comment as a genuine concern or a mockery of his profession, so Baekhyun made the judgment to keep quiet. They drove off the Byun's property and Baekhyun was thrown in a loop.

"Why're we leaving?" he asked.

"To get hay," Chanyeol answered curtly. Baekhyun took the answer and left it at that with silence following. However, after a short while, Chanyeol took in a deep breath and explained further on. "Your father buys from Junmyeon who owns land two farms over. Every week or so, he goes and buys a few bales. He says it's the best, but I think it's because of proximity since Junmyeon has his own to feed his horse breeding business."

"Oh, okay," Baekhyun said softly, moving his attention out the window. "I didn't know that. I thought dad had his own hay."

"Used to, I don't know if you've noticed, but your family's land isn't as big as it used to be. Your dad doesn't have the land to do that anymore."

"Things change, I suppose," Baekhyun said quietly. "Like this truck."

"What about the truck."

There was something in Chanyeol's voice that warned Baekhyun to be careful, but he couldn't quite understand why, so he continued on.

"I didn't know my dad bought this old thing. He told me he bought a new truck a few months ago in a phone conversation. When he said new, I thought he really meant new--"

"This isn't your dad's." Chanyeol looked over at him. "It's mine."

Baekhyun gaped. "Oh."

Suddenly, the realization slowly sank in and the truck came back to his memories. When Chanyeol turned eighteen, he had saved enough money to pay for at least half of the used vehicle's worth since his father promised to meet him halfway if he could manage to do so. Baekhyun had been so happy to share his then-boyfriend's joy when the giant pulled up at his house. Drawing his eyes to the dash board, Baekhyun traced his fingers on a scratch mark that should've been apparent to him the minute he settled on his seat. He would've remembered that it was him who made that mark. In the heat of the moment, he had taken Chanyeol's keys when they fought at nineteen and, in an effort to spite the boy who loved his car dearly, took a key, dragging it across the light gray dashboard, engraving it with his anger.