My Baker's Dozen

20

Joshua's POV

"I'm going out for a walk if anyone wants to join me!" I yelled into the house, and I waited for a second to see if anyone was going to respond. Chan came out just as I was about to open the door, and he grabbed his shoes.

"May I join you?" He asked, and I nodded before he put his shoes on and grabbed a coat.

"Anybody else coming?" I asked, but nobody else responded. Taking that as our cue to leave, I opened the door and the two of us walked out into the brisk air. A few leaves had started to scatter themselves onto the ground, but the trees still have the majority of their leaves still attached.

"So, how have you been, Chan?" I asked once we were a decent distance away from the house, and he shrugged.

"I'm doing okay. School loves to keep my stress levels to the max and it's hard when people whisper behind you. But you know, I'm happy Samuel has been added to the family and Minseo Noona is here for a bit." He kicked around a stone at his feet, and I watched him while trying to digest everything he told me.

"What kind of whisperings?" I asked, and Chan accidently kicked his stone away so he had nothing to play with.

"I'm not really sure. I hear them say things about how quiet I am, how I have so many brothers. I think one day someone said something about Mom, but I don't remember. It's not awful." He said, and I frowned. It's not fair that we all have some sort of memory of our Mom, but all Chan gets are borrowed memories.

"Do you need your hyungs to intervene? We're really good at that." I offered, but he just shook his head.

"It's okay, I'm used to it by now. How have you been?" I noticed the change in topics to steer me away from himself, but I didn't want to push it.

"People honestly just suck. That one kid I tutored told practically the whole school about my wrist, so I definitely understand the whispers." I quickly ranted, and Chan looked up at me.

"He really did that?" Chan sort of whispered it even though there was no one around. Like he was too surprised to speak properly.

"Yeah. Even the Chinas heard it in the hallway." I said, and Channie frowned.

"That's very mean of him. How did Minghao hyung react to that?" He inquired, and I smiled at the memory.

"He got very defensive, and so did Hansol. But Jeonghan hyung helped me brush them off." I recounted, and Chan nodded slowly.

"Do we have a destination for our walk?" He asked, and I pulled out some money I had been saving up.

"I'm going to try and find the... what was it called?"

"Petroleum jelly?"

"Yeah, that. I want to find that." I said, a little embarrassed I had forgotten the name of what I was looking for.

"Why don't you just ask Appa?" Chan questioned, and I immediately started shaking my head.

"He has enough to worry about without me adding into that. Have you noticed how he gets practically no sleep?" I mentioned, and Chan sighed.

"Yeah, feel bad." He mumbled, and I felt as though there was more behind those three words than I could see. I put my right arm around Chan's shoulders, and he smiled at me.

"We've grown up, haven't we hyung." Chan voiced, and I nodded with a sad smile.

"We have. But I want you to stay little for a lot longer than I could, okay?" I demanded teasingly, but I meant it with all of my soul. I grew up so my brothers could stay little, but now they are growing up too.

"I'll try, hyung. Just don't get too old on us." He joked, nudging me playfully, and I laughed.

"No promises, Channie."