Following the Broken Road Back to You

Part 7

 As Baekhyun entered the chicken pen to feed the chickens as usual, he watched all the birds exit out of their house to eat. All except one.

In the very back of the house, he noticed one lying on the ground. Once he dumped all the feed on the ground, he dropped the bucket and walked closer, peering into the house until his eyes focused and he froze.

He screamed.

In the chicken's house was a gray scaled snake, big enough to strike fear in Baekhyun's heart. It was clear to him that the chicken was dead.

Quickly grabbing his bucket, he ran out of the pen with the intention of searching for help, but suddenly, he hit something. A second later, he felt arms around him and it took a staggering second to realize he had just ran into Chanyeol.

"What happened!?"

"I—" Baekhyun couldn't speak. He didn't run that far, but he was breathless, probably from the panic he felt. "There's—Yeol, in the—"

"Speak clearly!" Chanyeol snapped, but it was clear that he was immensely worried. He held Baekhyun's shoulders and pushed him far away enough to look over him. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

"A snake," the brunette managed to stutter out.

"A snake!?" Baekhyun could see the muscles in the man's jaw tighten. "Were you bit?"

Blinking, Baekhyun tried to think. Was he bit? Of course not! But the chicken probably was. "No," he said, shaking his head. "I wasn't."

It was apparent in Chanyeol's features that he was relieved to hear the news. Baekhyun forced himself not to think about it too much.

"Where's the snake? Show me where you saw the snake, Baek."

Nodding, Baekhyun held onto Chanyeol's hand and pulled him back to the chicken's area, jabbing his finger straight at the house. "In there. You see it?"

"Where?" Chanyeol asked, squinting.

"In the back!" Baekhyun opened the pen's gates and pulled him in. "See? The dead one in there? It's white. Oh, Yeol, it's so sad, but how're you going to get that thing out of there?"

Craning his head, Chanyeol frowned. "I see it... It doesn't seem like it's poisonous. Probably just killed it by striking at it. I can see some blood on the ground..." He paused, thinking about his options. Then he let out a sigh, pulling his hand from Baekhyun's hold. "Go get a shovel."

"Okay."

Baekhyun immediately complied. He left the pen and ran to the storage house, quick to jumble through all the tools hanging on the side of the walls until he found a heavy iron shovel. Then he sprinted back to Chanyeol, careful not to slip and fall. His jeans would've suffered.

When he got back to the scene, he was terrified of what he saw. Right in front of him, Chanyeol was dragging the snake by its tail. They were out of the chicken pen and out in the open field. The snake, in its fury, was making every attempt to bite Chanyeol, but with every strike, the giant dodged.

"Are you fucking crazy!?" Baekhyun shrieked, hugging the shovel in his possession. "What the fuck are you doing!? You're going to get bit!"

"Give me the shovel!" When Baekhyun moved as though he was about to toss it, Chanyeol snapped at him. "I said give it to me, not throw it! Come here! I won't let it bite you!"

Baekhyun trusted him and quickly moved by his side. Once Chanyeol had a good grip on the shovel's staff, he waited for the perfect opportunity then slammed his boot's heel on the snake's head. Lifting the shovel's end, he stroke it at its spine multiple times until the head became displaced. Then, just to be sure that he had cut through the snake's flesh, Chanyeol used the shovel's end to push the body away.

Chanyeol stepped back and handed Baekhyun the bloody shovel, which he held in slight horror. "You killed it..."

"I had to."

"But why?"

Turning his head towards the brunette, Chanyeol gave him an incredulous look. "Didn't you want me to kill it?"

"I-I don't know!" Baekhyun exclaimed. "I didn't think you'd... I just..."

Tired, Chanyeol's chest heaved. "Well, like I said I had to. Whether or not it was poisonous, we couldn't have a snake around killing live chickens. It could've come back if I let it go, and I didn't want that thing around you. You're the last person I know who can deal with a snake."

"They're just scary."

"They can be if you've never dealt with them." Chanyeol gave him a long hard look before asking, "Are you sure you're alright? Didn't lie to me about being bit, did you?"

"I didn't," Baekhyun replied back adamantly. "And what do you care? You'd probably love it if I were bit by a snake. A poisonous one at that!"

Rolling his eyes, Chanyeol scoffed as he approached Baekhyun, closing the distance between them. "If I would've wanted you hurt in any way, I wouldn't have run out the barn so fast that I accidentally hit the door and injured myself just to get to you." He raised his left arm to show Baekhyun the patch of blood beginning to seep out from the wounds inflicted by the rough door's edges. "But if I'd known that the snake wasn't even moving, just trying to eat its kill, I probably wouldn't have been so terrified for you."

It was supposed to be a joke, but it fell short of its humoristic goal. Baekhyun glared at him, but nonetheless, took him by his arm. "I think my mother has an aid kit in the kitchen somewhere."

"It's actually under the sink in the bathroom downstairs."

"Do you want me to help you or not?" Baekhyun shot back.

"Honey, you wouldn't be helping me at all if you didn't know where to find the things that you needed," Chanyeol told him.

Scoffing, Baekhyun's lips drew into a thin line. "Whatever. Let's go."

"Lead the way."

--

Chanyeol's physique was something to be admired. It truly was.

From the ground, Baekhyun watched as Chanyeol diligently fixed the chicken house, occasionally handing the giant a nail or taking a cracked piece of wood from him and tossing it aside. Although Chanyeol kept going on and on about how running the farm was to be Baekhyun's own duty, he usually did the harder physical work for some reason.

Baekhyun figured it was because the man pitied him. If that was the reason, fine. He'd let Chanyeol whack away every nail. It wasn't like he really wanted to be up there, fixing a house for chickens to pop eggs in.

Shielding his eyes from the sun, Baekhyun found himself bored. He knew he couldn't just walk away. Chanyeol had the habit of throwing certain requests like "Give me that hammer" or "Hand me the drill" and Baekhyun didn't know when those were going to happen. He'd also rather avoid the lecture.

There was some guilt in doing absolutely nothing. Chanyeol only took half credit for everything so Baekhyun's parents were under the impression that their son was doing a fabulous job being the handy man he wasn't.

Thinking back to the old days, Baekhyun figured that perhaps it made sense. Chanyeol always took the fall for the brunette's faults and gave credit to him in times when he was the least deserving.

Baekhyun softly laughed to himself thinking back to the time when Chanyeol baked the sweetest cookies he had ever tasted. And when Chanyeol took a bite out of the brunette's batch, he gagged so hard he cried. Their teacher came around to take a taste, and Chanyeol saw from the look of sixteen year old Baekhyun's face that the latter was feeling pretty awful about his baking skills.

Doing what any good friend would do, he switched their plates. Chanyeol went home with a low C for trying, and Baekhyun was asked for the recipe, which Chanyeol gave to him, too.

There was also another time when—

"Did you hear me?"

Baekhyun blinked. "Huh?"

"I said hold the ladder. I'm coming down."

"Oh." Reaching forward, Baekhyun held on to the ladder and waited until both of Chanyeol's feet were on the ground. "Finished?"

"Yeah. It'll hold up for a really long time."

"Great."

Holding out the tool box for Baekhyun to take, Chanyeol said, "Can you take this back to the barn? I'll take the ladder."

"Maybe I can carry the ladder?"

Chanyeol looked at him and laughed. "I don't think so. Now come on."

Taking the box into his hands, Baekhyun frowned. "I'm going to have to do things on my own once you're out of here, you know."

"Right, but not today," Chanyeol said, fixing the ladder down to its standard form. "I'm responsible for you while I'm still here. How am I going to explain to your father if you get hurt? I'd feel guilty, too. So I'd rather you pick up heavy things when I'm gone so I won't be held accountable."

The brunette huffed. "You're only thinking about yourself, then."

"Liability is important."

"Hn."

--

-

"Why is this so sudden..."

"Is it really sudden? It's been fourteen months since I've seen you. We rarely talk anymore because I'm so busy. Plus with all my traveling, there're always time differences."

"Those are excuses, Baek."

"No, they're not. I'm—"

"Tell me the real reason why you want to break our engagement. I don't want your lies or your excuses. I hate when you dance around the subject because why can't you just get to the point—"

"I met somebody else." 

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