The faults in Byun Baekhyun

Chapter 22: Crazy

He helps hold Baekhyun to the nurse's office, and what he will always remember of this night is the way Baekhyun doesn't stop shaking.

"Nurse!" He calls as he bangs on the door heavily, the other arm trying to hold Baekhyun upright. "Nurse, please " Baekhyun is slipping from arms. He re-tries his hold again and bangs again.

Eventually, the nurse steps out and sees the situation of sweating Baekhyun, and she immediately helps carry him inside her office despite Baekhyun's weak struggle against her.

They sit him down on a chair and Chanyeol opens Baekhyun's palm. The nurse stares with wide eyes for a moment, then moves and takes out tweezers.

"Now, I want you to not move, okay?" She says softly. "I want you to stay still as much as possible." She gently holds his hand, in which he tries to pull away weakly. Chanyeol briefly remembers his hatred and distrust of the female race.

"It won't hurt, I swear." She continues, trying to distract Baekhyun from his wound, but from his expression, Chanyeol can tell that he's not listening and just wants to get things over with. As she talks, she takes out one tack, and Baekhyun winces, his small face scrunching up in pain. Then the same thing happens with the second and third tack.

"All done." She says as she puts the tweezers elsewhere, and then starts bandaging the smaller.

"You're very brave." She says, as if speaking to a small child. It's understandable though, because if Chanyeol were to be in Baekhyun's situation, he would've needed to hear those words. "You didn't cry at all."

That's true, Chanyeol realises. Baekhyun had sweated, had called out in pain softly, had even been shaking so violently, but not once had he shed a tear.

If it was Chanyeol, one tack pricking his skin would've sent him wailing his balls out.

Just how brave does he have to be? Just strong does he have to be?

"Thank you." Baekhyun whispers softly. Even his politeness and newfound respect for the nurse has exceeded his hatred for now.

Then once she finishes, she teaches him how to apply the medicine and how not to get an infection. He nods his head slightly but otherwise displays no sign of listening. Then when she's done, she sees them off, standing there as they walk back to their room, worried. Baekhyun walks around like he had scraped his palm instead of being stabbed by pointy little devils.

"Why do you do that?" He asks once they're back in their room.

"What?"

"Act strong." Chanyeol replies. Baekhyun makes it seem like it doesn't hurt, but Chanyeol knows it hurts like fuck because he's sweating again.

"... I don-" He cuts himself off, then stalls for a moment, then turns away.

"You can't show any weakness." He concludes. "Because once you show a small opening of yourself, no matter how small, people will make sure to use their bare hands to tear it into a bigger hole."

"But ... doing that is very hard, isn't it?"

"..." Baekhyun doesn't answer for such a long time that for a moment Chanyeol had thought that he would be ignored. But then he shifts a little, his head falling as he stares at his lap. "... Nothing will be as painful as people ripping you inside out."

Chanyeol sees Baekhyun not move his hand at all, and wince a lot as he prepares to go sleep in the middle of the night.

Chanyeol had made sure to pick every single fucking tack from Baekhyun's bed, because fuck, these people are mental and need a good check-up.