[CONTENTID1]                   [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Kyungsoo tossed and turned in his bed for the umpteenth time in five minutes.

He kicked off his bed covers, frustrated, and swung his legs out of bed. It took a few wobbly steps before he was awake enough to be self-aware of what he was doing, and changed into his school uniform. His uniform was slightly rougher than he would wear it at school; his collar was upturned and his shirt was untucked. But there wasn’t a teacher to tell him otherwise – so what was the problem?

He left the apartment without telling Seohyun where he was going, or that he was leaving at all. She was probably still asleep anyways. If she woke up and realised that he wasn’t there, she knew that he was too cowardly to go anywhere where he was in the possibility of danger.

It only took about ten minutes before he reached the park – his place of hiding; a place of solitude. During an ungodly hour such as this, no one would have the guts to go out in the freezing cold this early in the morning. Only Kyungsoo was insane enough to do such a thing.

He settled himself on an empty bench by a large field and hung his head low as he curled up his body into a protective bubble. While refreshing walks such as these would provide the perfect opportunity to think and contemplate over your thoughts and get them out of your system, Kyungsoo used the time in the opposite way.

When Kyungsoo went out to the park, he liked to sit in silence without any bothersome thoughts to disturb him. Unstirring tranquillity. Almost as if he didn’t exist. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the sound of chirping birds, and the soft rustling of trees, but a high-pitched whine disrupted his peace.

Kyungsoo opened one eye sluggishly and looked up to where the noise was coming from.

“Come on, hyung, let’s go right,” a young child insisted, tugging on the coat of a tall high school student.

The student sighed, taking one of his earphones out. “Taeoh, we always go that way, don’t you want to go left for a change?”

“No,” Taeoh retorted stubbornly. “Look, Sungwoo and his friends are going over there to play football!”

Kyungsoo looked over to where the boy was pointing, and saw some kids around the same age – who seemingly appeared out of nowhere – kicking a vividly-coloured, shiny football to each other. It must have been a present because it looked relatively new. Kids were so spoiled these days, Kyungsoo thought to himself.

“Aish, you’re always talking about Sungwoo these days,” the student grumbled. “What’s wrong with Jongin hyung, huh?”

At the mention of that name, Kyungsoo jerked his head towards the student and recognised his familiar tanned skin and soft, brown tufts of hair being messed up by the wind. It was definitely Jongin, Kyungsoo thought, and he started to panic. He felt incredibly self-conscious and began to fix his hair, his shirt, his tie; everything.

“You don’t play football,” Taeoh scowled, puffing out his cheeks in annoyance.

Jongin pouted and let go of the boy’s hand cautiously. He then hid them under his armpits to keep them warm under his coat.

“Fine, we’ll go to see Sungwoo,” he muttered dejectedly, “but only for a few minutes, okay?”

“Okay!” the little one beamed, immediately running off to the spot where the boys were kicking the football around.

Jongin ran after him, worried that he might trip over and hurt himself. Eventhough the boy seemed to know the way perfectly and purposefully avoided any hazardous tree roots, Jongin still acted as if he was running towards a meat grinder.

Kyungsoo couldn’t hear what Jongin was saying to the boys – they were too far away – but he guessed that he was most likely telling them to be safe and not to play too roughly or unfairly.

Jongin must have seen Kyungsoo when they briefly made eye contact. Then he jogged over to the bench where Kyungsoo was sitting. He smiled earnestly at him and asked politely if he could sit next to him to supervise the children. Kyungsoo simply nodded and twitched his lips weakly.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” Jongin said casually, “do you come here often?”

“Not really,” Kyungsoo replied, kicking a nearby rock, “but it’s nice here.”

Jongin nodded. “