Life moves fast. As much as you can, learn from your history, you have to move forward. -Eddie Vedder

at age 8, Baekhyun was what people would expect from a boy his age. His jeans ripped at his knees and patched countless times by a cursing mother, proudly showing off every baby tooth he lost. Pneumonia hit hard for a child like that, always climbing trees and taking a quick way down (yes, falling), but not physically. Trapped inside his room, chained to his bed by a crippling cough and dizzying fever, Baekhyun felt like he would go mad.

He'd read every comic he owned, had his brother sneak him some that weren't fit for his age, begged his mother for a handheld gaming console he never got. It was by pure chance his father forgot his book about Greek history on Baekhyun's nightstand, that Baekhyun discovered a world outside his bedroom window that he was able to reach. An entire universe filled with legends and stories far beyond anything he could ever read in a comic book. He was smitten, read through the trials of Hercules in a matter of hours. And ever since, Byun Baekhyun changed.

He climbed trees and imagined them to be Mangroves in a jungle, imagined his tree house to be an an ancient temple, hidden in the desert.

Baekhyun was bright eyed, ready to conquer the world when he entered high school, skipping out of parties to study and take summer classes. Although his family was more than financially stable, Baekhyun wanted to get into college because he deserved it. None of the heroes in the old stories he loved so much ever had anything handed to them, after all. years blurred together for him, his high school years flying by and by the time he took his first steps up the stairs of his college of choice, he realized that he had missed out on something important. 

as he watched the other students mingle, already making friends before they had even unpacked their suitcases, he couldn't help but notice, that conversation and socializing didn't come natural for him. surrounded by humans - who had no idea of his omega status of wolf heritage - there were no limitations. Right? he could be himself around them without getting shunned for being a "loud" omega, woudln't have to bare his throat like he saw his father do countless times whenever his mother got angry. 

But for baekhyun, it was easier said, than done. He had buried himself in books and history channel shows so deeply, breaking free from them felt like trying to break through a layer of ice atop of a frozen lake. 

It wasn't him who bridged the distance, but the boy living across the hallway, loud and obnoxious like baekhyun used to be as a child, leaving him no choice but to tag along to parties and lunch gatherings. Slowly making friends, in the end. And like that, he found himself falling in love for the first time.

she was pretty, in a traditional sense. Like the painting of a royal concubine displayed in a musem. And she was cruel like one as well. She flickered in and out of baekhyun's life like the overhead light in the dorm bathroom in the morning, the color from baekhyun's mind and painting over it in the colors a storm. and even though he knew she was destroying him, he loved her deeply. loved her for her laughter, her mindless chatter over the phone at three am when she was drunk and he was squinting at the clock on his nightstand. when she left him, byun baekhyun changed for the second time. He'd learned his lesson after hearing her say: "You are just so soft, baekhyun. i need someone who's able to stand up for themselves."

And stand up, baekhyun did.