BEAUTY (Baekhyun)

*WARNING* Homophobia, verbal abuse and minor child abuse (but nothing too bad...)

10-years-old Baekhyun stood with his PowerPuff Girls backpack on his back, stuff full of random clothes and toys. The side pocket was filled with five ten-dollar bills that the nice elderly lady down the block gave him once a week. He snatched his sketchbook that his art teacher bought for him from off his broken nightstand and held it tightly to his chest. He wasn’t going to let the old man take this from him too. He marched down the stairs; his red puffy eyes alit with determination. He was leaving tonight and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

He peeked into the living room on his way to the front door. He hated the way his father slouched so sloppily in his recliner, days old stains marring his dirty tank top and empty beer bottles surround his feet. He knew that the man wasn’t paying any attention to him as he watched T.V. He knew that he could just slip out unnoticed and the man wouldn’t know the wiser, but he was tired of being unnoticed and ignored.

“I’m leaving,” the boy yelled into the room.

The drunken man blinked slowly from the T.V., “Would you keep it down, you sissy! I’m tryna watch the game! I know that this ain’t for you, but some manly men still like to keep up with their sports.”

Baekhyun nostrils flared as he huffed in anger. He wasn’t a sissy! He marched inside the room and stood in front of his father’s precious T.V. His father was going to notice him. He was going to watch him and see that he was just as tough as any other boy.

“Didn’t you hear me,” Baekhyun yelled, “I said I’m leaving!”

The man sat up in his chair and glared unfocused eyes on Baekhyun, “If you don’t get out of the way, runt, I’m gonna hurt you.”

“I’m not scared of you,” Baekhyun sassed back, “You’re nothing but a bully and Mr. Robinson told me that bullies are nothing to be afraid of.”

“A bully, huh,” the older man laughed, “So what, you saying you can take me down, sissy?”

“I ain’t no sissy,” Baekhyun said.

 His father reached for him, Baekhyun flinching from the approaching hand, “Ain’t no sissy, huh? Stand straight I ain’t gonna hit you, punk!”

He stuck to his word and pulled Baekhyun in by his bag’s shoulder straps, snatching the bag from his shoulders.

“Hey give that back,” Baekhyun called as he reached for the bag.

His father waved it in his face, “Not a sissy, but you got his girly on your back. Who the hell bought this for you anyway?”

“None of your business, old man,” Baekhyun answered.

“None of my business,” the man bellowed, “You live under my roof!”

“I won’t for long,” Baekhyun yelled back, “I’m leaving! Just like Mommy!”

The man laughed darkly before grabbing Baekhyun tightly around his bottom jaw, “Not only a beauty like your mother, but a like her too!”

“Let go of me!”

“Find then,” the man said as he roughly shoved him away, “Leave just like she did. I don’t know where the hell you gonna go!”

“I’m gonna go find Mommy and stay with her!”

Baekhyun’s father laughed loudly this time as he leisurely took a sip from his beer, “Good luck with that, sissy.”

“What do you mean by that,” Baekhyun frowned.

 “I mean she don’t want you! You see she left you here,” the man answered before he shrugged, “I don’t blame her. I don’t want you either. Maybe if you weren’t such a ed up confused sissy, tryna be a girl, she would have taken you with her.”

Baekhyun backed away from the man, his eyes watering, “You just saying that! She does want me! She’ll be back to get me! She promised!”

“Yeah well,” the man said as he shoved Baekhyun so that he was out of the way of the T.V., “She promised me ‘through sickness and health’. You good ole mommy tends to lie.”

“I hate you,” Baekhyun yelled as he ran out of the room and back up to his room.

“Yeah ditto, sissy.”   

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17-years-old Baekhyun stepped into the door, dropping is holographic backpack on the floor with his matching sneakers following it. He let the door slam shut behind him. He heard the answering grunt from the living room and sighed. He knew that he was exceedingly past curfew, but a part of him didn’t care. His father hasn’t for months now.

“Where the hell have you been,” a slurred voice called from the same recliner chair.

“Out,” Baekhyun answered as he went into the kitchen and started to make himself a T.V. dinner.

“Out where?”

Baekhyun his teeth and rolled his eyes, watching with uninterested eyes as he father stumbled to the kitchen. The teenager paid the other no mind as he shuffled around the kitchen, looking for seasonings he could use to make his slop taste better.

“Just out, old man,” Baekhyun answered.

“Who the hell are you talking to, shim?”

“You,” Baekhyun answered back. He wasn’t scared of the man when he was a boy. He isn’t afraid of him now.

“Baekhyun,” the man said in a slur, but the warning was still clear, “Watch how you speak to me, sissy.”

Baekhyun sighed but it didn’t simmer down the anger he could feel bubbling up his throat. Since he started high school, he’s been trying to be nicer to his father. He could tell that the man was getting up in age. The alcohol that he continued to guzzle was beginning to kill him. However, no matter what amount of effort Baekhyun made it was always shut down. He finally ran out of good will. He doesn’t want to try anymore.

“I don’t have to watch anything,” Baekhyun exploded, “I’ve been nothing but kind to you! Not only have I been a good son, but I’ve cooked for you, cleaned for you and you treat me like ! I’m tired of your bull!”

The older man stocked into the kitchen, his hand sweeping over the utensils as he passed before he stopped in front of Baekhyun.

“A good son,” the man growled, “You’ve been nothing but a disappointment since the day you were born! First you come out as a preemie, and then you start dressing up girl dolls and stealing your mom’s clothes. Look at you now; walking around with those drawings and covered in rainbows like being a -up is something to be proud of. You’re the reason your of a mother left! She didn’t know what to do with such a freak! You scared her off!”

“ you,” Baekhyun murmured before he raised his voice and started shouting, “ YOU!!! You’re the reason she left! She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life with a good for nothing drunk. The only reason you hate me so much is because I remind you of her. You act so tough, but we both know that once I’m gone you’ll be forced to live your miserable little life all alone, just like you deserve! I can’t wait to leave you to rot, you miserable sack of !”

Baekhyun’s father grabbed the boy by the collar of his holographic jersey and jerked the younger towards him. He snatched a knife from off the counter and pointed the tip to his son’s throat. He pulled the boy so that his lips were to Baekhyun’s ear and whispered deathly low, the smell of alcohol encompassing the boy’s nose and burning his eyes.

“I’ll tell you this once and only once, boy,” he said, “You will watch your tongue, or I will kill you in this house. Do you understand?”

Baekhyun blinked in shock, swallowing harshly and shuttering as he felt the sharp blade graze along his Adam’s apple when it bobbed. Never in his life has he been so afraid.

“I asked you a question,” the man breathed again, “Do you understand?”

Baekhyun nodded frantically and his father finally backed off. He placed the knife on the counter before grabbing Baekhyun by the jaw with a condescending smirk.

“All the beauty and none of the beast,” the man said, “Just like your mother.”

He stalked out of the kitchen and stumbled to the living room, sitting unceremoniously back into his chair with another beer in his hand. The microwave sounded loudly in the silence and as Baekhyun carried his tray upstairs he finally understood why his mother left, but couldn’t understand for the life of him why she didn’t take him with her.  

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 21-years-old Baekhyun sighed as he walked out of his renting office, another report balled into his closed fist. The blonde didn’t know how, but he somehow managed to convince the landlord to dismiss his father’s disorderly conduct complaint and allow the man to live there to another month. The older man was behaving like a mad man. He screamed on the top of his lungs, bang his cane against the walls, and purposefully destroyed landscape. Baekhyun thought back to the days that he used to act out in order to get his father to notice him and he wondered if maybe it’s come full circle.

He and the other man still hated one another and Baekhyun has learned to keep his distance, even more so after he moved out, but he never completely cut off contact. He’d never abandon the man because he of all people knew what abandonment felt like. They didn’t go out to pubs and didn’t go to ballgames but he did make sure the elder went to his doctor appointments and ate more than microwave dinners. It was more that what the old man ever did for him.

Baekhyun checked his watch as he continued to walk, noting that it was closer to 7:00 than he wanted it to be. The street lights began to flicker on overhead. Baekhyun sighed as he broke into a little jog. He was going to be late. He hit the corner with a little more gusto than he wanted and found his face between someone’s shoulder blades.

“I’m so sorry,” Baekhyun began before he looked up and saw that he ran into the man he was searching for, “Chanyeol!”

“Hey Baekhyun,” the giant answered as he steadied the other, “Are you ok?”

Baekhyun smiled, liking the way the other’s hands completely engulfed his shoulders, “Yeah, I’m fine! So, ready to try some hotdogs!”

“That doesn’t sound really sanitary,” Chanyeol mumbled and Baekhyun laughed at his innocence.

“Probably not,” the blonde agreed, “But it hasn’t killed me yet, so it shouldn’t kill you either.”

“Ok,” the other shrugged, “I’m kinda trusting you on this one.”

“I haven’t let you down yet, have I,” Baekhyun questioned with a confident smirk.

“So don’t start now.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

The two lined up in front of a hotdog cart, the blonde getting one with onions while the giant was given a simple one with ketchup and mustard. They then walked back to the park they met in and took a seat on a beach near the entrance. The sun was on its way down, the old style lanterns now lighting the walkway for late night travelers like themselves. The friends finished their meals in silence, so unlike their other outings. Before either knew it, they were both done with distracted looks on their faces.

“You’re finished,” Baekhyun questioned, “I didn’t even notice. So, how was it?”

Chanyeol flashed a quick smile, “It was delicious.”

The smile instantly faded with the other looking past Baekhyun shoulder once again.

“What’s wrong big guy,” Baekhyun asked with a frown.

“You first,” Chanyeol smiled weakly.

Baekhyun started. He didn’t know that Chanyeol even noticed that something was wrong. Only Minseok ever noticed.

“Just some stuff with my old man,” Baekhyun said with a strained smile of his own, “He’s been driving me crazy, has been for years really.”

“Can’t let that type stuff get to you,” Chanyeol said, “My folks can be quite the asses themselves. Just gotta brush it off, you know?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun nodded, “I know.”

“Easier said than done, right,” Chanyeol said with a smile that told that he understood at least a little of how Baekhyun felt.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun sighed before smiling brightly, “But enough about me, what about you? You’ve been staring over my shoulder the entire time.”

Chanyeol then blushed a pretty pink before looking down shyly, “You caught my staring?”

“It’s ok,” Baekhyun laughed as he good-naturedly patted his knee, “I wasn’t all there either, big guy.”

“No, I – it’s,” Chanyeol began as he nervously tripped over his words, “I wasn’t staring over your shoulder, I was sorta looking at you.”

“What,” Baekhyun asked his own cheeks now flushed.

“I well,” Chanyeol stuttered again, “How do I say this? I don’t know, with the lights and the sunset and you – you’re quite the beauty.”

“What,” Baekhyun asked again completely dumbfounded.

“I,” Chanyeol began before he stopped and said with complete confidence, “You look beautiful. There aren’t many beauties like you where I come from, at least not in my eyes. I just – you look beautiful tonight, Baekhyun.”

“I-,” Baekhyun began before he stopped to swallow back tears, “Thank you. No one’s really said that to me before and meant it.”

“Really,” Chanyeol said confused until a smile brightened up his face, “I guess it’s now my turn to give you something for the first time. I mean it’s nowhere as good as the things you’ve showed me, but-“

“Shhhh,” Baekhyun hushed hin, “This is worth so much more that anything I have to offer you.”

He reached over the bench and gave Chanyeol a kiss on his messy cheek with a soft thank you.

“You’re welcome,” Chanyeol said unsurely.

“Now come here so I can wipe this mess off your face,” Baekhyun said with a wide square grin, “Goodness, you’re a mess.”

As Baekhyun cleaned his messy giant he’s never been more thankful to have inherited his mother’s beauty. He was made to believe that it only brought misfortune but it managed to enrapture the most amazing person he’s ever had the pleasure of meeting. He hasn’t been more proud to be called a beauty before in his life. 

AN: I want to thank you all once again for reading and supporting. It means so much to me. Btw, I was thinking of writing one of these prequel oneshots for both Sehun and Kyungsoo, but their parents will be introduced  next chapter and I didn't want to spoil anything. If you want I can still write them and post them between chapters 8 and 9 if you like. Just let me know in the comment section. (I might just write Sehun's anyway. It's too cute to leave out lol)