Sewoon placed his guitar into his room and sighed deeply. He did not want to burst out and get hit by Youngmin. He really didn’t want to.

But it was the only way to cover the mistake he had made.

Leaning his head against the wall, the boy sighed again.

A soft knock was heard after a while.

The door was being opened and Mr. Hwang’s face was seen.

The young teacher looked at his student and pulled the boy into a hug.

“They told me, you needed some space. Sewoon-ah. Don’t call me Mr. Hwang now. Talk to me, as the Hyung you know.”

“Minhyun-hyung… You know, I don’t want to call you that way.”

“But Howon would kill me, if he’d see you calling me like that.

“Howon is dead.” Sewoon turned around and his eyes had turned wet. “Howon died because of me, Hyung. Why can’t you understand it?

I killed him!”

A short break was followed after this. Minhyun looked at the boy in his arms. The younger brother of his childhood friend.

- Minhyun’s flashback -

I was studying in my small apartment far away from Busan, in Seoul.

After graduating from High School and leaving Busan I decided to become a teacher. The orphanage I had lived in gave me the desire to help children on their way into the future.

It wasn’t a special day at all. I was facing the usual stress I faced during exam period. These exams would be the last exams of my life, because if I passed, I’d be officially a teacher.

While studying my phone rang. I raised an eyebrow and looked at it. To my surprise I did not know the number calling me.

“Hwang Minhyun here, who is talking?”, I said.

“Hyung, it’s me, Howon.” My eyes widened as I heard the voice of my old friend from busan. We both grew up in the same orphanage but he was several years younger. Still, we befriended and had kept in touch ever since I left. Usually he called me from the official orphanage phone.

“Howon-ah, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you calling from the usual phone?”, I wondered. “Listen Hyung, I cannot tell you a lot. All I need to do now, is ask you for a huge favor. If anything happens to me and Sewoon is left alone, will you take care of him? If he ever comes to you and asks for help, will you treat him like a sibling?”

My eyes widened. I knew his little brother pretty well. Sewoon was a cheerful guy, that stayed close to Youngmin, Donghyun and Jaehwan. We all could tell that one day he and Jaehwan would become a couple, but this didn’t matter right now. The request Howon asked me sounded ridiculous and scaring at the same time.

“Howon-ah. Is everything okay? Like what is supposed to happen?”

“Hyung, I am just asking in case. If anything happens to me, I need to know that Sewoon has a place to run to. I can’t tell you why I am scared, so please don’t interrogate me. All I need to know, is that he will have someone to look after him. Of course, the other boys will do that, but he needs a father. All these years this has been me, but who take that role, when I am gone? Listen, I love him with all my heart, so please promise me, that you will do this.”

I could hear him trying to hide his tears. So I did not interrogate anymore, even though I wanted to so badly. Looking back from now, maybe I should have.

“Howon, don’t worry. I will. If necessary I will take care of him, just like you have all the years. He won’t be alone.”

Howon sighed in relief. “Thank you, Hyung, so much. I will never forgive you for that. I need to finish the call now. Never forget, I love you.” I didn’t get the chance to say anything back when the call disconnected. Looking at my phone I couldn’t help but feel that something bad was going to happen really soon.

Nothing happened the following weeks. Well, I passed all my exams and officially became a teacher. From time to time I kept thinking about the phone call with Howon, but forgot about it the next minute because I was getting busy with starting to work.

It was on a rainy night, eight months after the call with Howon, that something happened.

I was watching TV and it was around 2 am when my door rang. Wondering who it might be, I opened the door, only to be greeted by the view of an entirely wet and tired looking Sewoon. He hold onto his guitar tightly and the once happy eyes were staring at me with such a lifeless expression I will never forget in my life.

“Howon… Dead… Six months ago… He said… If… If… I need help... you… You will be… “, the boy did not even manage to finish the sentence when he fainted into my arms. Luck was on his side and the case of his guitar was really well made so the instrument did not break. I touched his forehead. It was burning terribly.

Time had come to stick to my words and take care of him.

While treating Sewoon, I saw a trail of blood along his thighs.

What in God’s name had happened?

-End of flashback-

The young teacher never got an answer to this question. Because Sewoon never talked about how he made it from Busan to Seoul. He never told the older, why there was blood on his thighs.

To sum it up, the only thing Sewoon had told the older was the following:

1. Howon had died during a fire in the orphanage
2. Apparently it had been the young boy’s fault.
3. Sewoon couldn’t live in Busan anymore.
4. He didn’t want to see any of his childhood friends again

Minhyun had found a way for Sewoon to live in Seoul and attend school, like a normal teenager. The school had a special program for people with a poor background. This provided free education and living. Minhyun only had to come up for the boy’s food and some other expenses. But he never blamed Sewoon for those additional expenses. Having promised Howon to take care of his brother, Minhyun was kind of happy being able to stick to his words.

“You didn’t kill him, Sewoon-ah. Stop saying this. You know, you are making it so hard for me, to help you. When will you start opening up? When you came to find me, a different boy than whom I used to know was standing in front of my door.

Sewoon-ah. Howon wouldn’t want you to be suffering that much on your own. He asked me to take care of you, because he wanted you to have someone as close to a father as possible. I know, I am not them.

I am neither Howon nor your Dad. But can’t you let me know a little bit about your feelings? So I can maybe help you just a bit?”

Sewoon did not answer the request.

“Lee Sewoon is dead, Hyung. He died with Lee Howon… I go by the name of Jung Sewoon now.”
 

“Sewoon, there must have been something different, that has changed you… Remember the night you came to me? I never asked you about it, but I remember clearly the red trail of blood along your thigh. Can’t you tell me what has happened?”

When the blood on his thigh was mentioned, the boy started shaking terribly. Of course he remembered what happened the day he ran away. How could he forget? It was the 2^nd worst day out of his life.

He pushed the teacher away.

Staring at him with a cold expression he made his way to the door. “Nothing. Shouldn’t we go to class now, Saem?”

The day passed by without any bigger incidents. Euiwoong, Gwanghyun and Hyunbin rushed over to the boy when he walked into the classroom and hugged him tightly. The brown haired boy smiled lightly before assuring them, he was alright. But he wasn’t. He was far from being alright.

The three Busan boys tried to talk to him, but his friends made sure they did not get close to him.

And honestly, Sewoon was really thankful for this.

The day had been way too hard for the young boy.

All he wanted to do, was go home and burry himself in his bed.

Little did he know that one big event would happen that day.

Usually new students would be introduced at the beginning of the day.

So everyone was confused when the teacher announced the following during the last class.

“I know guys, we just got three new transfer students, and honestly I don’t know either why we are getting all the new students. But our class is the smallest, so we need to deal with it.

Our new transfer student is from Busan as well. As always, be kind to him and make sure he feels welcomed in our class.

Kang Dongho? Please enter the classroom.”

The name was more than enough for Sewoon to begin shivering. While sending his prayer out into the sky for it not to be THAT Kang Dongho, he had already entered the classroom.

And of course, it was him.

The transfer student looked around the room and spotted Sewoon, Donghyun, Youngmin and Jaehwan.

“Hello, my name is Kang Dongho. Some might know me and one of them will never be able to forget me. Please take care of me.”
He bowed and stared at Sewoon.
And Sewoon wanted to hide so badly. He held tightly on Gwanghyun who sat next to him.
Why now? Wasn’t his life a mess already?

A.N: Yes, I know Howon aka Hoya from Infinite is older than Minhyun but let’s keep it like that for the sake of the story ;)
In addition to that some might hate me because of the newest character but he is actually one of the main side characters from the start
He needed to be introduced in this chapter, since next one will be kind of wild…
As always, comments and subs are loved!!
Let me know what you think about it!!
P.S Mae, I know you are watching/reading