The first thing about the teenagers that Chan noticed was that one looked scared and the other looked hysterical. The man just looked exhausted. Chan and Soonyoung had peeked over the banister of the stairs when they heard Seungcheol open the door, careful to stay out of sight. They couldn’t hear the conversation well but it appeared to be serious. Jihoon stood off to the side of the door, looking apprehensively at the newcomers.

They were all dressed warmly- it was getting closer to winter every day- but it was obvious that they were cold, the man held the boys close to him and had seemed to have given them his winter accessories as he had no hat or scarf. The non-hysterical boy was pressed fairly close to the man and he loosely held the other boy’s arm. He seemed more nervous than the others, he kept glancing around and putting his head down. The other boy was- for lack of better terms- a mess. He was crying, if you could call it that, his face was frozen in an awful expression; his cheeks were splotched with an angry red; and he had tears and snot wiped all over his face. Chan could hear his strange sobbing noises from inside the house, and he had to admit, he was slightly impressed with the volume.

Seungcheol beckoned the trio into the house and closed the door. Jihoon didn’t move, choosing to slightly lean away from the crying boy who happened to be the closest to him. Chan was snapped from his thoughts as his mother pulled him away from the edge. Seungcheol was coming up the stairs, Chan could tell by the heavy footsteps. Once he reached the landing he walked straight past them to the desk by the basement door and began rummaging through the drawers. He found what he needed after a moment- a plain folder clipped shut- and turned back toward the stairs. Only then did he seem to realize Soonyoung and Chan were standing there.

“You can come down stairs if you’d like, these people are on our side,” Seungcheol told them before continuing down into the main room.

Chan was unaware that he belonged to a “side” at all, but disregarded this fact in favor of calming his curiosity. He grabbed his mother’s arm and began pulling him toward the stairs, Soonyoung followed easily, for he too was very curious. The two quietly made their way to the back of the main room, standing next to the stone fireplace. The first to notice them was the man, whose eyes flashed slightly when he saw them, he was holding the file that Seungcheol had brought down. Jihoon followed his trail of vision to where Soonyoung and Chan were standing. The man turned back to his companions as Jihoon made his way across the room to them.

“What’s going on Jihoon, who are they?” Soonyoung was worried that the peace he’d finally found for himself and his son was in danger. “Seungcheol said they were ‘on our side’, what does that mean?”

Jihoon still seemed a bit disturbed by the visitors so it took him a few seconds to answer.

“The man is named Jisoo, I know that much. I have no idea who the kids are.” Jihoon bit his fingernail and looked anxiously at his husband, “Seungcheol knows him from when they were younger.”

Chan took the time while the adults were talking to fully study the new people. The crying boy was even louder downstairs, which was making it difficult for Soonyoung and Jihoon to speak quietly. Chan noticed that he didn’t look scared, and he didn’t seem to be fully present, he’d had absolutely no reaction to anything going on around him. The other boy was much different. For one, he looked terrified; for two, he looked… different. Chan had no issue with people from other places in the world, he knew they weren’t any better or worse than him; but some people didn’t think like that, they thought people from other places were evil by default, so Chan could understand why he looked scared. It would only take one bad person to see him and get upset that he was different for things to get ugly.

The man- Jisoo, as Chan had been informed- looked incredibly tired, worse than Seungcheol had the night Chan arrived at the house. Stress and sleepless nights reflected perfectly on his face. He seemed to be finishing his conversation with Seungcheol, which caused great distress to the boy attached to his arm. He finally let go of the crying boy- who he’d apparently been holding up because he immediately plopped down onto the floor- and held tighter to Jisoo. Jisoo hugged him tightly and whispered something to him. The boy nodded and Jisoo pulled away, smoothed his hair gently, and bent down next to crying boy. He hugged him as well before standing, saying something to Seungcheol and departing from the house.

Chan thought this was a very bizarre scene, but didn’t really care. He was starting to get hungry, and hunger held his attention better than mysterious strangers. He did what he usually did when things got weird, he looked to his mother for guidance. Soonyoung was at a loss, as was Jihoon. Neither of them wanted to be responsible adults at that moment. This left Seungcheol to figure out what to do on his own. He looked at the crying boy and then back at the other boy. He looked up at Jihoon with a clear plea for help in his eyes. Jihoon didn’t move, not an inch.

“So… what are your names?” he asked the quiet boy.

“I’m Hansol, and I don’t know what his name is.” He gestured at the boy on the floor.

“You don’t know his name?” Hansol shook his head, “Then why was he with you guys?” Seungcheol didn’t sound accusatory, only curious.

Hansol looked down at the ground.

“We found him.”

“You… found him” Seungcheol didn’t seem to be comprehending what was being told to him. Hansol nodded. Chan noted that he was big on nonverbal cues.

“Just… on the road” Seungcheol stated. Hansol nodded.

“Was he like this?” Seungcheol gestured at his shaking form.

Hansol didn’t answer immediately, he studied the boy on the floor with sadness, almost pity, in his eyes.

“Yes and no” Hansol started. Seungcheol nodded along to his words and gestured for him to continue.

“Jisoo and I were making our way here when we heard people shouting and pushing each other. We heard a few gunshots and the crowd scattered very quickly.” He stopped once again, and Chan was rapidly becoming interested, if not a bit afraid of what the end of the story would hold.

“Jisoo told me to stay back while he went to check if anyone had been hurt. Almost everyone had left except for a few soldiers who were stationed on the road. I saw a body on the ground, with someone else next to it, but I wasn’t close enough to tell what happened. I walked over to where Jisoo was and I saw a woman bleeding on the ground, he” he gestured at the boy on the floor “was next to her. At first he was just sitting there, but then this happened.”

The room sat in a heavy silence, stunned by the story.

“I think that was his mom or something” Hansol’s final sentence struck home with Chan. He couldn’t imagine a life without his mother, especially if he watched him die on the side of the road. Chan’s thoughts were interrupted by his mother pulling him into his arms. There were small tears in Soonyoung’s eyes as he cradled Chan to his chest.

Jihoon was the first to break the atmosphere. He crossed the room to where the boy was on the floor. He seemed hesitant, like he didn’t know what to do, but he crouched down next to him. He stared at him for a second before taking his arm gently and attempting to move him across the room to the sofa. It took a few seconds to get the boy off the ground, but once he started walking he went easily. Jihoon sat him on the sofa and looked at the other people in the room for assistance, apparently finished with what he was capable of.

Seungcheol moved in again, but tried a slightly different approach. He sat down next to the boy and tried to get his attention.

“Um… hello, I’m Seungcheol, and I guess I’ll be taking care of you now.” His words got no reaction, the boy continued to stare at the wall in front of him. Jihoon got up off the chair he’d sat down on and wordlessly hurried up the stairs. Hansol was still standing in the middle of the room awkwardly.

Soonyoung refused to let go of his son and was quietly crying into his hair. Chan clutched his mother tightly, and let a few tears of his own escape. He’d had nightmares before where his mother died, and he was left alone to face the world without a family. Every time he woke up from one of those he held onto his mother until he fell back asleep, thanking his lucky stars that it was only a dream. Chan pitied the boy on the couch and hoped he would be okay soon.

Jihoon returned with a tray in his hands. The tray had a teapot and several teacups on it, he wordlessly poured a cup of tea for every person in the room and attempted to distribute them but was met with several barriers. Soonyoung and Chan refused to let go of each other, and Soonyoung wasn’t even looking up to see that Jihoon was offering him anything in the first place. The boy on the couch wasn’t responsive to any action thus far, and Hansol was still halfway across the room. The only person who accepted the tea readily was Seungcheol. Jihoon set out to get the boy on the couch to accept his tea.         

Seungcheol looked at Hansol before setting his own teacup down and grabbing another one. He placed it on the table in front of the couch. He beckoned Hansol over to him and sat him down next the other boy.

“Do you want some tea, Hansol?” he asked.

Hansol looked at Seungcheol with a surprised expression.

“Really?” he asked with a small voice.

Seungcheol laughed a bit and smiled at him affectionately.

“Of course”

Hansol smiled widely at him and accepted the tea from the table.

“Thank you very much, for the tea and for letting us stay here” Hansol said happily, he seemed much more comfortable.

“It’s no problem, we already have some extended guests” Seungcheol pointed at Soonyoung and Chan who were just beginning to break apart. Soonyoung walked to the table and grabbed two cups of tea before sitting himself and Chan down on some armchairs in the corner of the room.

Jihoon was having no luck with the boy, but Hansol turned to him and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Now that he was feeling less awkward Hansol seemed like a different person. He gently pulled on the boy next to him so his head was resting on his shoulder. He put his arm around him and held him close while he cried. Surprisingly, this finally garnered an action from the boy, he curled one of his hand into Hansol’s jacket and held tightly. Hansol smiled at the action before addressing Seungcheol once again.

“I feel really bad for him, he wasn‘t doing anything wrong when it happened.”

Chan figured he was talking about the incident on the road, he listened carefully from his spot next to his mother.

“I hope he doesn’t stay like this” Hansol looked at the boy, who had closed his eyes and started to calm down.

“He’s probably tired himself out, lets lay him on the couch and let him sleep” Jihoon told Hansol quietly.

Hansol gently dislodged the boy from his side and laid him down.

“I can stay with him if you want me to.” Hansol offered a bit shyly.

Jihoon smiled slightly, “That’d be great”

At this time the small gathering broke up, Soonyoung and Chan went off the wash up before bed and Jihoon went to take the dishes to the kitchen.

When they got to the basement Soonyoung decided to discuss the situation.

“That was eventful” he said.

“It sure was,” Chan responded, “I don’t know how to feel”

“Hansol seems nice, and he seems to be about your age, you should be friends.” Soonyoung was happy that people Chan’s age were around, now he’d have friends and wouldn’t be lonely.

“I’m worried about the other boy,” Chan looked at his mother with a sad look in his eyes, “will he be okay?”