On the weekends, Seungkwan had a very minimal schedule. He's not a terrible student, and therefore so long as he completes the homework he's acquired accordingly, he's able to roam freely about until Monday. For the moment, he was spending time alone at the park near his house, swinging back and forth on the swing set as he used to when he was younger.

It almost felt like a tacky anime, and the cringeworthiness of the entire scenario formed a macabre smirk upon his face. His tongue dances along his upper row of teeth as he in, leering at the ground as he lost himself in thought.

He almost felt trapped in a repetitive cycle at this point. He would get time to himself, without distractions like school or friends, and suddenly he would feel as though he were nothing more than a hollow shell of a human. What was he living for outside of these daily chores? Where was his future taking him? Where did he want it to lead?

The answer to every question that presented itself in his mind was emptiness. Vacancy. He found himself engulfed in less and less understanding of what everyone around him seemed to have a grasp of.

"What is Boo Seungkwan?"

Was he a student? Was he a friend? A comedian, who charmed his peers with his wit and self-deprecating style? A boisterous voice that made itself known to the world when all else fell silent? Nothing clicked where it should. If nothing else, he could only claim to be one thing--

"A lost boy."

His head jerked up to glance at the all-too-familiar-lately smile greeting him from the next swing over. This time, however, he had become so entrenched in his own swallowing muck of thought that he offered no expression in return; oddly enough, this seemed to empower the cheer emanating from Vernon as he repeated himself.

"You look like one of my lost boys--or at least before I found them."

"..What does that even mean?"

"Oh!" Vernon kicked forward as he exclaimed, letting the swing carry him back before being flung forward, floating through the air to land gracefully on his feet. It was almost magical how effortlessly he had made it look. Seungkwan would have had respect for the performance, had he not been entirely over feelings of any sort at the time. "I hadn't explained myself before. I'm Vernon!"

"I know that already."

"But you didn't!"

Kwan's leers went unnoticed as Vernon turned away from him, walking carefully up the slope of the slide as he continued. "I'm a bird!"

"And I'm a rock."

"Don't say that; you haven't fallen that far yet!"

Seungkwan rolled his eyes, not quite sure what that comment was supposed to mean. Despite how it came off, Vernon didn't exactly seem like the type to fling insults as readily as Kwan himself normally was. He remained quiet instead, letting Vernon carry on.

"My special job is to put stars back into the sky!"

"That sounds like a tough job," Kwan replied dully.

"It is!" Upon reaching the top of the slide, Vernon then leapt unto the railing, a good two-to-three feet higher in elevation, causing Seungkwan's heart to race in concern for the others' safety. Vernon, however, held his balance well, smiling all the while as he spun back around to face his elder. "Stars that lose their light can be pretty heavy. That's why it takes the light from other stars, such as myself, to re-ignite that fire within them."

"I thought you said you were a bird!"

Vernon leapt down, startling Seungkwan enough that he rose from his seat. "I'm a lot of things--a bird, a star, a fairy."

Seungkwan was more than ready to fire a sharp-witted remark about his beliefs when Vernon's stare into his eyes rendered him speechless once again. "You're a lot of different things, too, y'know."

His attention suddenly found itself reverted back toward the ground in blank disinterest once again. There was a short pause before he found himself speaking against his will. "If I'm so many things, why don't I know what I am?"

That emptiness was slowly returning to cloak his shoulders in its embrace. As if a black hole were opening beneath him, he felt himself grow heavier and heavier until he was nothing but a burden upon the earth, creating a crater with his mere disturbance.

It was then that he found his hand within the fold of another, and that unfamiliar spark that warmed his heart a few days before had re-entered his body, raising him from his doom.

Looking up hesitantly, mouth agape, he found a look of compassion greeting him. Those same innocent eyes met his', but they held a different sort of innocence. This was an innocence not born anew into the world, but one that was reclaimed from it--one that was able to cleanse itself of the impurities of mortality.

Seungkwan found himself looking at Vernon's lips stretching, invitingly, as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Do you want to be my lost boy?"



~

With Vernon leading him by hand, Seungkwan found himself in an abandoned lot adjacent to a large area of unpopulated forestry. Grass and weeds, indistinguishable from one another, broke through the cement to accept their freedom from confinement with their own clenched hands. Random debris littered the location, and Kwan found himself less and less interested in sticking around. Before he could speak out in disdain, Vernon whooped out, his voice carrying far, echoing against the nearby buildings.

Almost instantly, other voices joined him in chorus, and Seungkwan found himself latching onto his guide involuntarily, though the other seemed to pay no mind, beaming as he looked ahead while several figures made their approach. Vernon took this moment to introduce the new faces as they moved to welcome the newcomer into their domain.

"These are my lost boys! That tall one is DK.. That's Joshua, The8.. Jun's over there, don't let him get to you.. And those are the twins, Woozi and Hoshi (even though they're twins, they're really different from each other).. Everyone! This is.. Uh.."

Seungkwan took this as his time to properly introduce himself. "I'm Boo Seungkwan.. My, uh.. My high school isn't actually that far from here.." He had a couple more things he thought of saying, but found himself caught in a stupor as the others exchanged glances. They appeared uneasy, and Seungkwan found himself wondering if it was because of him. That shallow sensation began to creep into his stomach once more, and his grip unintentionally tightened on Vernon's hand.

"Oh! Hey, guys," Vernon chided. "Seungkwan's visiting for a little bit, okay? Be nice! I'm gonna show him around!" With that, Vernon dragged Seungkwan away from the group of onlookers and into the wooded area outside the lot. He looked back, laughing, and for a brief moment, Seungkwan was able to join him, though he wasn't quite sure why.