“I’m going shopping!” Leeteuk called loudly from the living room, knowing that his roommates would find him if he even so much as mentioned food.

                Heechul’s head suddenly popped around the corner.  “I don’t care what you get but if you’re making kimchi do NOT let Kangin convince you to make it with daikon.  I swear it’s like he doesn’t understand they’re different dishes.”

                Leeteuk smiled understandingly.  As soon as Heechul’s head had vanished back around the corner, Kangin entered the living room from the other direction.

                “Are you going all the way to the grocery store?” he asked, glancing poignantly at his watch.  It was already late.

                “No, I’m just running down to the convenience place around the block, I shouldn’t take too long.”

                Nodding, Kangin said, “Okay, in that case we’re low on ramen.”  He started to walk away toward the kitchen, stopped, turned back around and said, “Oh, and if you’re making kimchi I don’t think we have any daikon.  Not that the corner store would probably have that.”

                Leeteuk’s mouth twitched and he nodded, not saying a word.

                Leeteuk studied the back of the bag of sugar in his hand, contrasting the price with the other brand next to it on the shelf.  It wasn’t that he really needed to care about the price, he just liked the deliberateness of shopping for bargains.  The bell above the door rang as someone else entered the convenience store.  He glanced up quickly as a force of habit but didn’t see anyone there.  Whoever it was must have been blocked by the shelves.  He returned to the task at hand and put the sugar back, selecting the other brand and putting it into the basket he’d hooked over his arm.

                The basket was already pressing down heavily so he shifted it into his other hand, rubbing the red mark on his arm against his side.  The store was quiet save for the hum of the fridges that lined the far wall.  It was a strange hour to be out shopping, but Leeteuk liked to take walks at random.  The apartment had been more hectic since Heechul had first come to live with them four months ago.

                The three had settled comfortably into the added chaos which just made the lonely afternoons seem extra quiet.  Kangin had gotten himself a position doing paperwork at a law firm which kept him busy most days, though the hours were flexible.  Heechul was still in pursuit of a job.  To his benefit he did go out searching a lot, but even when he’d been offered a position he’d insisted it wasn’t the right fit.  Leeteuk had yet to get to the bottom of this strange phenomenon, but in the meantime, he was left alone most afternoons.

                Instead of going and running errands when he was alone, though, he often waited into later in the night when the others had returned.  He couldn’t say why he did it, but it was entirely possible he didn’t like being the only one waiting for someone to come home.  It was nice to not always be the one staying behind.

                  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the shout interrupted Leeteuk’s thoughts.  The exclamation was quickly followed by the sounds of a commotion.   Startled, Leeteuk craned over the shelves to see what was happening.  He spotted the shopkeeper who looked like he was struggling with a figure Leeteuk couldn’t quite make out.

                Unsure of what to do, Leeteuk cautiously headed toward the front of the store, wondering if there was something he could do to help.  Heart beating against his chest, he placed his basket on the ground and approached the scuffle.  He stopped in surprise as he realized the shop owner wasn’t in any danger and certainly didn’t need any help. 

                The shopkeeper, who clearly had the upper hand, was glaring angrily down at a boy with overlong brown hair who he had grabbed by the wrist.  A terrified expression was frozen on the boy’s face, a face that Leeteuk vaguely recognized.

                As he watched, he saw the shopkeeper raising his hand in the air threateningly.  The boy cringed and before Leeteuk knew what he was doing a, “Hey!” escaped his lips. 

                The boy and the shopkeeper both froze in position, looking over at him.

“What’s going on?” Leeteuk asked as he approached the two figures, moving slowly so he wouldn’t startle either of them.

                Leeteuk wasn’t exactly a regular, but the shopkeeper recognized him well enough and so he freely explained, “Caught this punk trying to steal from my store again.  No respect whatsoever.  It’s a complete disgrace.  Parents these days don’t know how to discipline their children.”

                Passing his gaze from the shopkeeper to the terrified child he was towering over, Leeteuk felt a flash of anger.  The boy met his eyes and recoiled slightly thinking the look was directed toward him.  Pity replaced anger as Leeteuk looked over the unkempt boy in the fraying gray sweatshirt.  Feeling compelled, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.

                “How much?” he asked the man.

                The shopkeeper seemed stunned.  “What?”

                “I mean how much was what he was trying to take?”

                Stuttering, the shopkeeper said, “W-well, I don’t know, he hadn’t actually taken—.”

                Leeteuk pulled out 3500 won and shoved it into the shopkeeper’s open hand.  “Take it,” he said, using one hand to return his wallet to his pocket and the other to gently take the boy’s arm and pull him out of the surprised shopkeeper’s grip.  Instead of resisting like he’d expected, the boy actually clung to Leeteuk, hiding behind him and refusing to let go of his arm. 

                Turning to meet the boy’s liquid brown eyes, Leeteuk felt a surge of protectiveness which caused him to turn back to the open-mouthed shopkeeper to finish, “And you should be ashamed for threatening a child.  I don’t think I’ll be bringing my business here anymore” 

                Without another word, he turned around and ushered the boy in front of him out of the shop, leaving his full basket on the floor. 

                The boy continued to cling to Leeteuk as they emerged from the shop into the brisk night air. When they had gone a ways down the sidewalk, the blonde stopped and managed to gently extract the small hand from his arm.  Holding the boy at arm’s length and kneeling down in front of him on the pavement he studied the small frame more closely.  The boy seemed to be considering him equally. 

He was probably around 12 or so.  His brown hair was knotted and tangled but in such a way that it almost looked purposeful.  His gray sweatshirt was two sizes too big and fraying at all the seams, especially at the sleeves which he was pulling down over his hands to combat the cold.  There were holes in the knees of his jeans and his shoes were practically falling apart.  Feeling an uncontrollable well of pity rising inside of him, he once more met the boy’s eyes and kindly greeted, “My name’s Leeteuk.”

                  The boy answered shyly but without hesitation, “I’m Donghae.”

                Never breaking eye contact, Leeteuk pulled his phone out of his pocket, asking, “Alright, Donghae, who should I call?”

                The boy’s eyes widened, his mouth hanging open.

                Elaborating, Leeteuk said, “Parents? Grandparents?  Legal guardians?”

                The boy, Donghae, just shook his head, sending his hair flying. 

                “I have to call somebody,” the man gently explained, knowing it was his duty to make sure the child got home safe.  “It’s freezing.  How can I get in touch with your parents?”

                Suddenly, Donghae looked down at his shoes.  “They’re dead.”

                The matter-of-fact sorrow in the boy’s voice pulled at Leeteuk’s heart and he quickly forgot about the cellphone in his hand.  “Who do you live with then?” he wondered.

                Donghae simply shrugged.

                It only took Leeteuk a moment to realize the kid was probably living on the streets.  He exhaled heavily and rubbed a hand against his forehead, trying not to imagine how the kid had managed to survive on his own.  Looking around uncertainly like he hoped someone would appear and tell him what to do, Leeteuk turned back to Donghae and saw how his cheeks were blotchy and pink from the cold.

What was he supposed to do now?  He could call the police, but that seemed rash.  He couldn’t just leave him though, could he?  Maybe there was nothing more he could do, but he knew in that moment that he was at least going to try. 

                “Listen, Donghae,” he began, the boy didn’t resist as he gently took his arm and pointed out across the city, “my apartment is just two blocks that way.”  The boy stood on his tiptoes and squinted like he might have been able to see the building on the horizon. 

                Leeteuk waited until Donghae looked back at him then continued, “Now, if you don’t feel comfortable that’s fine, but if you want you could come back there with me and we don’t even have to go inside we can stay on the porch or,” he realized he was rambling but the last thing he wanted was his intentions being misunderstood.  He just couldn’t stand to leave him out there on his own.   He realized this was probably insane but he needed more time to figure out what the right thing to do was.  “But if you want,” he continued, “we could get something to eat and it’d be warm and. . .”

                Leeteuk trailed off in surprised when Donghae took his hand, stopping the words that were spilling nervously out of the man’s mouth.  “Alright,” the boy said with a hint of cheerfulness.

                Unable to keep a small smile off of his face at Donghae’s quick trust, Leeteuk stood.  “Okay,” he said, half to Donghae and half to himself.  “We’ll just go then, yeah?”  He looked down at the top of Donghae’s head for confirmation.

                The boy looked up and nodded, his eyes bright.  Deep down Leeteuk knew he never wanted to disappoint those trusting eyes. 

                Without another word, the strange pair headed down the street.

A/N  It's been far too long!  I've had a bit of a stressful week with trying to figure out my schedule for next year and the "end of the year homework crunch" so thank you for waiting so long for me to update! 

So, YES Donghae is our first new character!  What do you think?  And if you're still waiting for your bias etc. this time around there won't be 12 chapters inbetween character introductions, I promise, haha.  Although I feel like I should warn you again that I plan to split this main story into two parts (just so it's easier to swallow) so if the person you're looking for isn't mentioned in my character list they're probably not going to show up until the "sequel".  (It's the same story, but I'm just making it two parts for convenience). 

And also, I just noticed that this is chapter 13 and we just introduced our first new character of the original 13 since the first chapter!  The only thing that would make this better would be having 15 subscribers.  XD  BUT we just got 400 views so again, THANK YOU ALL!    Comment, subscribe, read, enjoy and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH :'D XD