Days seemed gloomier without Daehyun with him. He lost the light in his life. His only friend. Gone.

But of course, being in 6th grade, he'd most likely get a new friend. 

He had found friends once, but none like Daehyun...

 

One day by the lockers, the prettiest girl in his grade named Yunji came up to Youngjae, who was packing his bag for class. Unbeknownst to Youngjae, that day would be the last day of his social life.

"So you wanna be my boyfriend or something?" Yunji boredly asked the confused Youngjae.

Youngjae furrowed his eyebrows, putting his books into his locker.

"...No... You're the girl who bullied Bjoo..."

Yunji scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Because he's GAY. I'm guessing the same for you? ?" Youngjae's hand froze on his locker door. Some girls crowded behind her and started chuckling along with her. Youngjae grew enraged.

"Stop..."

"Oh, what's that? Are you confessing?" Yunji giggled innocently but her expression quickly turned ice cold. 

"You're disgusting. You won't make any friends now that we know your little secret. We are going to tell everyone about this. You will be ruined." 

One of the girls behind Yunji spit at him, not fazing Youngjae's bewildered expression.

Yunji her heel and walked away with her clique following close behind, some of them still calling Youngjae names and curses.

Youngjae stood there frozen, a crowd of people pass him by, as if he was invisible.

How he wished he was invisible.

 

At home, Yongguk would often be happily accompanied by Himchan. Himchan was basically a mother to Youngjae now. 

Yet Youngjae never told them about what had happened that day. When the subject was brought up about friends or school, he would make up an excuse and walk out the room to cry in his room. 

Where was Daehyun?

Was he just a figure of Youngjae's imagination?

Was he that sad that he had imagined all of it?

 

Himchan, being the motherly hen he was, felt something was wrong and would try to comfort him as much as possible, even though he never knew the reason why Youngjae was always so gloomy. Himchan ended up being that kind shoulder to lean on that Youngjae had always wanted in his life. He had never experienced the love of a mother but Himchan's love felt right. 

It just felt right.

 

Youngjae had experienced it all, the graffitied locker door with derogatory terms sprayed into the surface in bright bold letters, dark purple bruises scattered all over his body lasting for weeks that would fade into a yellowish brown from being cornered by football players, everything has happened to Youngjae.

It had made him turn numb.

All that he felt was numb to him. 

Even the hard punches that would snap his jaw to the side.

He was too used to the physical torture.

And it affected him at home.

He wasn't as cheerful as he used to be, and even his father noticed it. 

He became expressionless, stone faced, heart cold as ice.

All affection was pushed away and rejected, leaving a tearstained Himchan behind in his trail of destruction.

 

It wasn't until a mysterious knock from the front door two years later that Youngjae finally snapped out of his daze.

He lazily slugged over to the door, not even caring to look through the window to check who it was. 

He unlocked the door and cracked it open. 

He squinted at the tall figure at his doorstep.

"Who the hell are you?"