Chapter Three
The Promises of Nocturne

As he sat on the porch steps staring out at the falling leaves, Key couldn’t help but think about how lonely he was. The people inside, gathered together in the living room watching a movie together were not his family. All the belongings in the room upstairs, the clothes on his back, none of it was his. At sixteen years old there was nothing that hurt more than knowing that he had absolutely nothing in the world. He could do without silly little trinkets and clothing, but the fact that he had no one to call his own was heartbreaking and lonely.

The soft echoes of laughter trickled from the open window and showed off the happiness and love that these people shared, and he tried to remember back to the beginning of the summer when he might have had a chance to be a part of it. But he had messed up one too many times and apparently that condemned him to a life of being an outsider imposing on a family that no longer accepted or wanted him around. Part of him knew that when the case worker from Child Protection Services informed him that he would be living with Heechul from now on that things would not be normal for a very long time and if he was honest with himself he knew that in the end it really was his own fault for being so mean to everyone.

That still didn’t mean his feelings weren’t hurt and he wasn’t lonely. Heechul was trying to help but it didn’t feel the same. He’d seen the way Heechul would hug Mir tight and tell him that he loved him, the way he would sit at the kitchen table for hours with Donghae while he struggled with his schooling, and the way he would take care of Kibum when he fell apart. It was genuine with them but every time Heechul would come up to talk to him it just didn’t feel the same.

“Oh, it’s Key.”

The quiet voice broke through the stillness of the night like a piece of glass shattering. Key jumped slightly and looked up, broken from his melancholic musings. The sun had finally gone down a darkness settled over the trees in a comforting way but there was just enough light coming from the house that he could see Kibum walking towards him. Key scoot over so he wasn’t blocking the way so Kibum could go past but instead the dark haired boy came to a halt in front of him. Key looked up almost timidly and wandered if he should go back inside the house before Heechul had a coronary that they were spending a few seconds together without him hovering over.

“I thought you were in the house,” Key said eventually, not breaking eye contact. There was something about Kibum that made him feel kind of uneasy, as if he’d gained this newfound aura to him and at any moment might snap. “You didn’t come down for dinner; Heechul thought you might have been asleep.”

He didn’t like the way Kibum smiled at him. It wasn’t the shy and reserved smile that would occasionally break out or even a cocky smirk he would wear when teasing his brothers, but rather it seemed almost secretive and it made Key wander where exactly he’d been and what he’d been doing. Not to mention, how he even left the house without Heechul realizing it since they were almost joined at the hip.

“Have you ever read the book Crank?” Kibum asked suddenly, tilting his head to the side curiously. Key gave him a strange look and shook his head, thinking that he really was one of the weirdest people he’d ever met. “I didn’t think so but you really should. You might find it…enlightening.”

“Thanks but I’m not much of a reader,” Key replied slowly as he stood up and brushed off his jeans to