You nod, walk over, and sit beside him. You make sure that you and Daehyun are separated by the right amount of space - close, but not suggestively close - until you look up and stare at the stars. For a few minutes, you spend a part of the night like that, you staring at the sky and Daehyun staring at it with you, holding his lollipop and not bothering to say a word. Feeling awkward with the silence, you clear your throat and turn to look at him.

“So, you … like lollipops?” You ask nicely. He gives you a side-glance.

“Not really,” he admits. “They just had some at the principal’s office.”

“Oh,” you reply, his words not really registering until you’ve been given more time to ponder over them. “Wait,” you say, giving him a confused look. “What were you doing at the principal’s office?”

“I got called in,” he shrugs casually. 

“Did you … ” hesitantly, you venture, “Did you do something?”

“Besides being me? No,” he attempts to joke. “I got called in for violating the dress code.”

You look at his clothes. He’s still wearing the uniform, and it doesn’t look like he’s done anything to tamper with it. The tie is done right, the shirt is tucked in, and no buttons are left undone. “Uh … I don’t see how … “

He heaves an exaggerated sigh. “Well. My hair, see?” he moves his head side to side, as if to illustrate the importance of this fact. His hair is a silky, ghostly color of white underneath the moon’s shine.  ”Apparently the principal thought I was in a gang, or something, for dying my hair like this. And he doesn’t understand why I dyed it, and why don’t I just dye it back?”

“That’s stupid,” you scoff, trying to sympathize with him. Curiosity takes over, and you your head questioningly. “But … that’s obviously not your hair color, so - “

“No, it’s not,” he laughs, throwing a smile to the black sky. “I dunno, I just … decided to dye it one day. For my own personal gain.” He doesn’t clarify his reasons but merely leans back. “I guess … it was my way of saying something. My way of rebelling. But I’ve grown to like it.” A reminiscent smile plays at his lips. “Don’t you?”

You wonder what you could possibly say in reply, but you’re saved the trouble when he continues to talk, proving that his question had been rhetorical.

“But I told him I’m not in a gang, or anything of the sort, and I’ll keep this hair, if I’m still allowed. And he couldn’t really say no to me. I mean … this is my hair. And I’m on here with a scholarship, so … “

“How is that, anyway?” you say, suddenly interested. “I mean … why here? You like this school or something?”

“Yeah,” he says, giving you a small smile. Something inside your heart moves, but you ignore it for the time being. “It’s the best school in the area. Anybody would want to come here, and I always did, but I was never allowed to try for it until this year.”

“How come?”

“My parents,” he says simply, and you immediately understand. “That’s why I’m living alone, see? I worked hard for the entrance exams, and I passed. I got a full scholarship … but the school I want to go to is three hours from my hometown. But this is the best school, and my parents wanted the best for me, so they agreed to let me come, as long as I’d be okay living by myself. And I’ve been living by myself since the beginning of summer.” He stares wistfully at the stars. “It’s not that bad. If anything, this place is better than my own home. And I actually really like it here. My parents send me allowance and all, to help me out, but I try not to spend it unless I really need to. And even if it gets cold here sometimes, or if this place just naturally attracts flies … I really like it here.” He turns to you, as if subtly trying to prove something. “A lot.”

The words hang in the air between you, as if yearning for you to misunderstand their meaning or take apart its definition. You gulp nervously - although why you’re nervous, you’re not sure - and look away from Daehyun’s steady, silent gaze.

“So,” you say, your voice sounding strange to your ears, “do you … miss home?”

“I miss my friends, my family, yeah.” He laughs abruptly, the sound ringing in the still air. “I have a friend with hair just like mine. Blond? He’s like my big brother. He’s crazy. But he’s the best.” He heaves a sigh of contentment before turning back to you. “And you? You miss … where you used to live?”

You do. You want to tell him you miss comfortability, and familiarity. You miss your status at school, and how high you had felt when people had come up to you, yearning to be your right hand. You miss not having to clean the house, or desperately looking for money. And you miss your dad, even if he’s a jerk. Being asked this question by Daehyun himself gets you choked up for some reason. It reminds you all that you’re missing, and all the things you might not have ever again, and it makes you feel really, really small. You don’t want to get lachrymose, so you clear your throat, an act that serves as a way for you to maintain your composure. “Uh … yeah,” you say, vaguely. “I do. Um. I guess … I should tell you the full story, huh?” You’re not comfortable with it, but what else can you do? You’d rather have Daehyun hear the truth than the misconstrued information through the gossip that revolves around the school. “I used to live … well, my dad, um. You might have heard of him. He’s the CEO of this huge company, and that place recently got bankrupt. And my dad has … gambling problems.” You take a deep breath and continue. “So I just came home one day, and … found a note, saying this is my new home, and … that’s pretty much it. I don’t know where my dad is. He says he’s trying to get a new job and pay off his debts, but, I doubt that,” you say bitterly. “Anyway. It’s not … it’s not that bad. I guess.”

“You don’t have to lie, you know,” Daehyun comments, earning a surprised look from you. “I saw,” he adds, giving you a funny look, “that Louis Vitton suitcase you were carrying around that time in the city. You were probably used to luxury, yeah?” He says it so cleanly, so openly, that he doesn’t convey you as a stuck up person, and it really makes you happy to know that he doesn’t think of you that way. “So this place isn’t like home, and it might never be home to you. But I think you’ll find that the meaning of home is relative. Really … ‘home’, or ‘friendship’ … it’s what you make of it.  You think this way about something, and that’s how it is. Don’t mind what other people think. At least,” he says, his voice changing (is he embarrassed?) “That’s what I think.”

You watch him for a bit, at this quietly strong boy with strange hair and deep, piercing eyes, and you smile, genuinely smile, for the second time in a day.  Daehyun notices this and grins back at you, a beautiful grin that wrenches your heart in a way that you never thought it could. And you realize, at that moment, underneath those glittering stars and in that dirty, barren street, that you like this boy. This weird, unpredictable, and extremely kind boy. Maybe, for now, it’s a like that equals respect. But maybe sometime, in the future, something else will bloom, too. Something like affection. Infatuation. And maybe more than that.

But just thinking about it gets you frazzled with yourself, so you let Daehyun pick up the conversation again, since you’re afraid you won’t be able to.

“Is the blanket I gave you okay?” he asks. 

“Yeah.” You actually haven’t used it yet. But maybe tonight, you will. Daehyun stands up, stretching his arms and yawning. You stand up with him and wait for him to continue.

“I’m going to bed,” he states. He turns to you, his eyes sparkling. “Wait for me tomorrow, ‘kay? I wanna walk with you to school.”

You bite back a smile. “Okay. Night.”

“Yeah, night,” he smiles, and you watch as he retreats into his house, closing the door quietly behind him. 

You return to your own house and collapse on your uncomfortable bed, burying your face in the featherless pillow. After lying there for a moment, you grab the blanket Daehyun had given you and cautiously wrap it around you. It’s warm, and the smell of Daehyun surrounds your senses. You snuggle into the blanket and close your eyes, giddy with an excitement you haven’t felt in a long, long time. 

So far, it’s been one of the best days you’ve ever had.