Never Again    “Kyuhyun! Where have you.. you.. you are bleeding.” Hyukjae finished his sentence.   The other 4 people in the room looked up from whatever they were doing and found Kyuhyun staring at them rather dazed. He was indeed bleeding. One bloody nose, some blood coming from a cut in his forehead, and an eye that looked pretty soar, and which will probably end up as a black eye the next morning. Yep, he had been beaten up again.   Kyuhyun noticed his 5 friends looking at him worried, and Kyuhyun smiled a little shameful. He hated it if his friends saw him this way. It was rather ‘pride-crushing’, if Kyuhyun could give it a name.   “Did you see who did it?” Youngwoon asked, grabbing his coat from a chair, “I will pay them a little visit.”   “I didn’t see them clearly.” Kyuhyun answered while shrugging to make it seem as if he didn’t really care.   Actually, he did see them. And Kyuhyun doubted if it could have been any more clear. He saw it in full HD really. It was Kibum, Kibum and his friends. It was always Kibum and his friends. But Kyuhyun didn’t want Youngwoon’s help. It would only make things worse.   Youngwoon sighed and took off his coat again, before plopping down on the couch. Kyuhyun didn’t have much time to feel relieved about the fact that Youngwoon wasn’t going to make things worse, because just a second later, Jungsu came rushing over with some band-aid, a wet towel, and a worried look on his face. He started inspecting Kyuhyun everywhere, and concluded that Kyuhyun was fine, and that only his head was injured.   “Hyung, I’m fine!” Kyuhyun said, struggling against Jungsu’s attempt to put band-aids all over him. Donghae was laughing loudly at the sight, while the other 3 people in the room ignored the whole happening. They were used to Jungsu being overly worried about Kyuhyun.   Kyuhyun ended up with his forehead covered in band-aids, which was really not needed, compared to the little cut that his head was having. But Jungsu seemed satisfied, and Kyuhyun didn’t dare to take off anything since it might re-start the whole process.   “Use my sunglasses to hide your black eye tomorrow at school.” Heechul said, before throwing his precious sunglasses to Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun caught it and looked at it confused. The last time that Kyuhyun almost accidently sat on the glasses, which were lying stupidly enough on the couch, Heechul flipped and gave a 2 hour lecture about that you had to look at the spot you were planning to sit, before actually sitting on it.   Kyuhyun was not the only one being caught by surprise by Heechul’s sudden good deed, his other friends gasped as soon as Heechul threw over his sunglasses. They all stared at Heechul with huge eyes of surprise, and Heechul grinned as soon as he noticed.   “What?” he asked, “I have 5 similar ones of those, I can miss one for a few days.”   Everyone blinked a few times before all hell broke loose.   “YA!”, “YOU DO?!”, “Why do you always lecture us if we even come close to the thing?!”, “Are you serious?”, “Why am I still friends with you?”, “Just 5?”.   Heechul ignored all of his friends and walked to the fridge to get Kyuhyun something cold to put on his eye to prevent it from swelling even more. As Heechul gave the self-made icepack to Kyuhyun, Kyuhyun looked at Heechul with thankful eyes. Heechul was never too affectionate, so stuff like this was something to be really thankful for. Heechul nodded, as if he accepted Kyuhyun’s ‘thank you’, and sat down on his place again.   Soon, the 6 friends started playing games on the playstation 3 they had bought for their hangout-place a few weeks ago. Kyuhyun was the best at gaming, and Heechul often got cranky if he lost again. So this once, just this once, Kyuhyun decided to go soft on Heechul.     --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫-------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫--------------------------------------------------------------     The next day, school had gone well for Kyuhyun. At the first class Kyuhyun had, the teacher told him to take off the sunglasses that he was wearing, but when he did, the teacher saw Kyuhyun’s black eye and she had told him to keep it on and informed the other teachers. Therefore, Kyuhyun was allowed to wear the sunglasses at school the whole day.   The only less happy happening of the day was that Kibum, who was part of Kyuhyun’s class, had seen Kyuhyun’s black eye as well. He had been smirking at Kyuhyun the whole day and kept imitating to the others in the class how he had punched Kyuhyun in the face, and how Kyuhyun had out after. The whole class laughed, but Kyuhyun had learned to ignore Kibum and his other classmates and therefore was not affected too much because of it.   Two hours ago, Youngwoon had texted Kyuhyun that they (Youngwoon, Heechul, Jungsu, Hyukjae and Donghae) had finished their class and would wait for Kyuhyun to walk to the clubhouse (their hangout place, they named it clubhouse for the sake of it) together. Kyuhyun is the only one of the friends-group who is in an other class, and because he still had 2 hours of lessons to go, he texted back that they could just leave for the clubhouse already, he would be fine. Youngwoon had objected at first, but Kyuhyun assured him that he had never gotten beaten up two days in a row before, so there was really nothing to worry about. Youngwoon eventually gave in, and that is how Kyuhyun ended up walking alone towards the clubhouse, through this seems-to-never-end type of alley.   It is a really small alley, people are ought to walk after each other, because it is impossible for 2 people to walk next to each other. The 500 meter long alley is surrounded by bushes and, if someone has to pass you, the only thing you can do is end up in those bushes.   Sudden rushed footsteps behind him caught Kyuhyun’s attention when he was about halfway into the alley. But before he had the chance to look behind him to see who it was, or to step aside so the rushed person could pass him, he got pushed aside roughly, making him fall in these huge stringing nettle plants.   The boy who had pushed Kyuhyun aside, looked at him for a few seconds before laughing and running away. Kyuhyun didn’t see his face well, but the laugh unmistakably belonged to Kibum.   “Are you alright?” A boy asked, suddenly appearing into Kyuhyun’s field of view.   Kyuhyun, who was still lying on the nettle plants, shifted in his spot a little before struggling himself out of there.   “None of your concern.” He answered bluntly after standing up again. He felt rather ashamed being seen like this, he did not like his friends seeing him like this, but he didn’t like strangers seeing him like this either. And besides, he had never seen this dude before, and the dude had probably never seen him before either. So why would he bother being worried about Kyuhyun?   The boy just smiled at Kyuhyun’s comment, and his gaze went to Kyuhyun’s arm, which was covered in small white swellings because of the nettles.   “You should put some vinegar on that, it helps.”   “Vinegar?” Kyuhyun mumbled, forgetting to be blunt and stared at the swellings, which miraculously suddenly started to hurt as if his body just noticed the swellings as well.   “Yeah, it really gives a great feeling of relieve, I know all about it.” The boy smiled, “Anyway, I’m sorry for my friend’s behavior. He has some.. issues.”   Kyuhyun stared at the boy rather confusedly. This person was friends with Kibum?   “I hope the vinegar helps.” The boy suddenly said, before turning away from Kyuhyun, “ I’ll be going now, see you around!” And with that, he ran after Kibum, who was actually already long gone.   “Wait! What is your name?” Kyuhyun shouted after the boy, but he didn’t hear him.   Kyuhyun sighed. Normally if Kyuhyun got hurt in public, people would just laugh at him and continue their business, not caring about Kyuhyun at all. This was the first time someone other than his friends had bothered with him, so knowing a name would have been nice.     --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫-------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫--------------------------------------------------------------     “Hyung, do we have vinegar?” Kyuhyun asked Youngwoon, as soon as he arrived at the clubhouse. Youngwoon was sitting on the couch, reading some magazine, and was not looking up from it while answering to Kyuhyun.   “What do you need vinegar for?”   Kyuhyun sighed. Youngwoon would always interrogate him before helping. It would have been much easier if Kyuhyun could have just asked Jungsu, but he, unfortunately, wasn’t around. Just like his other friends actually. Which was rather strange, considering the fact that the 6 friends always met at the clubhouse after school time. But Kyuhyun could ask where the others were later, right now he needed some vinegar.   “I fell in some nettles.” He answered, hoping that Youngwoon would believe Kyuhyun would be clumsy enough to fall in some nettles all by himself.   Youngwoon now did turn his gaze to Kyuhyun and pulled up one eyebrow at Kyuhyun’s explanation. After thinking it over for a few seconds and after seeing Kyuhyun’s arm, which was now red and white all over, he stood up. He walked to a cabinet and grabbed a bottle of vinegar and a cloth.   “You are lucky Jungsu insisted on buying this, just in case any one of us would be attacked by some nettle plant.” He said, while throwing the bottle and cloth to Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun giggled softly and could already see Jungsu worrying over a walking nettle plant running after his friends.   Youngwoon sat back down to continue reading his magazine and completely blocked himself from everything around him again.   Kyuhyun averted his gaze away from Youngwoon and started to soak the cloth with the vinegar. He was rather skeptic about the vinegar-helps-against-the-pain-from-nettle-plant-stings, but according to Youngwoon’s words, Jungsu also agreed on the fact that vinegar helps. So it was worth a shot. Besides, Kyuhyun doubted that it could get any worse than this anyway.   He putted the vinegar-drenched cloth against his arm, but at first it didn’t do anything. Kyuhyun instantly believed that his friends and that strange boy had pulled a prank on him, but suddenly his arm started to hurt a little less. Not completely painless, but it sure did feel relieving, just like the boy had said, ‘it really gives a great feeling of relieve’.   So alright, it hadn’t been a joke. Kyuhyun made a mental note to himself to thank the strange boy the next time he saw him. Though, he guessed that the chances of him meeting the boy 1 on 1 again would be near 0%. He was, after all, Kibum’s friend. And Kyuhyun knew better than to come near Kibum. But he could worry about that later, right now he needed to take care of his arm, so that his parents wouldn’t ask him stuff later when he gets home. Or that Jungsu wouldn’t act like a mother again when he gets back at the clubhouse..   “Where are the others?” Kyuhyun, who suddenly remembered that his other friends were missing, asked Youngwoon, who seemed obviously irritated by getting disturbed. The latter sighed loudly before putting his magazine down.   “Looking for you. Jungsu got worried because you weren’t back yet, so they went looking for you.”   Kyuhyun’s eyes instantly widened. Why would they be looking for him? If they were really this worried, they could have just picked him up from school earlier.   “I’m just 10 minutes later than usual! And shouldn’t someone call them that I’m here already?”   Youngwoon shrugged and picked up his magazine again.   “You call them, I’m busy.”   Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and looked for his cell phone to call his friends. ‘Lazy Youngwoon’, Kyuhyun thought, while wondered if Youngwoon even liked being in their presence. He had been like this more often lately, not caring about his friends any longer.     --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫-------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫--------------------------------------------------------------     For a week, things went smoothly for Kyuhyun. Kibum didn’t look Kyuhyun up to do him harm, and Kyuhyun, as well as his 5 friends, were happily surprised by this. For the first time in 1,5 years, Kyuhyun felt safe on his own again. He didn’t feel like he had to look back every 2 minutes anymore, he didn’t feel like someone could throw something to his head any minute.   Maybe the strange boy had something to do with this. Maybe that boy had felt sorry for Kyuhyun and had decided to talk to his friend Kibum to convince him to stop it all. If only Kyuhyun had met this boy 1,5 years ago, when Kibum first started to physically harm him, things would have been so much easier for him.   “The fridge is empty again!” Hyukjae shouted from inside the fridge on a Tuesday afternoon. Well not completely inside offcourse, only his head.   “Ah, but I’m hungry!” Donghae whined, rubbing his belly to show that he was being serious.   “Who’s turn is it to buy the provisions?” Youngwoon asked with a serious tone, staring at Heechul suspiciously.   “Not mine.” Heechul said shrugging, not feeling uncomfortable under Youngwoon’s stare at all.   Suddenly everyone in the clubhouse stared at Heechul, knowing that it was his turn for a long time already, but somehow he always managed to get someone else to go to the store for him.   “I’m not buying.” Heechul said, but on this kind of tone that it made clear that discussing about it would be useless.   “I’ll go..” Jungsu sighed, standing up and dragging himself to the door. Obviously trying to get some sympathy, but no-one was responding. Once he reached the door, he turned around and showed his saddest face possible. Kyuhyun laughed. He had to go to the store to get some stuff for his parents anyway, but it was fun to torture Jungsu for a little.   “It’s alright hyung, I’ll go. I need to buy something for my parents anyway.”   Jungsu’s face instantly lightened up and he ran back to the couch, jumped on his seat next to Youngwoon and earning a deadly glare from the latter because of the disturbing.     --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫-------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫--------------------------------------------------------------     The store wasn’t that far away. About 15 minutes on foot if you used the shortcut through some alleys. The way to the store, Kyuhyun took the long road though, which took about 25 minutes. He loved walking, and since he had all the time in the world, he wasn’t as hungry as Hyukjae or Donghae, he had no reason to take the shortcut just yet.   After finding all the stuff he needed, including the stuff his parents needed, Kyuhyun paid with money from the clubhouse-money-jar before heading back outside. Since he also bought ice creams, it was better to take the shortcut back to the clubhouse, to reach the freezer as soon as possible.   Kyuhyun started walking through some of the alleys and stared to the ground, because, well, pavers could be really interesting. Suddenly a pair of feet appeared in Kyuhyun’s view.   “Well, well, if it isn’t Kyuhyun.” The owner of the feet said, and Kyuhyun looked up. He came face to face with Kibum. Slightly standing behind Kibum were his 2 friends, Siwon and Han Geng.   All 3 of them smirked at Kyuhyun, and Kyuhyun tried to ignore them and walked to the side, trying to get passed them. But Kibum wasn’t going to let him go that easily, he kept blocking Kyuhyun’s way, and when Kyuhyun decided to turn back and just take the long road home, he found Han Geng standing behind him. How he got there, Kyuhyun didn’t know.   “What do you want?“ Kyuhyun asked, turning back to face Kibum again. Kibum was kind of the ‘leader’, so Kyuhyun figured he should just avert his words towards him.   Kyuhyun felt slightly sad that the strange boy wasn’t around. And somehow he felt less safe too, knowing that the boy wasn’t there. If the boy had indeed stopped Kibum from harming Kyuhyun, and Kibum hadn’t agreed to it, but just listened to make his friend happy, Kyuhyun might be in big trouble now Kibum’s friend wasn’t around.   Kibum didn’t answer. He just signed something to Han Geng, who was still standing behind Kyuhyun, and Kyuhyun suddenly got grabbed firmly from behind.   What exactly happened after this, Kyuhyun didn’t really notice. Kibum had threateningly stepped forward and started to punch Kyuhyun in the stomach multiple times. A while later, Han Geng released him from the iron grip and Kyuhyun fell on the ground.   A few more kicks on all kinds of places, and one hard kick against his head and everything faded to black.   When Kyuhyun got back to his senses, he was lying on his back. Someone was hanging over him, but his eyes still didn’t work properly and his view was still vague, causing him to be unable to tell who it was. Kyuhyun blinked a few times and his sight slowly improved.   “Welcome back to planet earth.” The person hanging over Kyuhyun said, and Kyuhyun recognized the voice, but he couldn’t really remember to whom it belonged. The person soon left Kyuhyun’s view and Kyuhyun decided it was time to try to sit up. He couldn’t just lie on the ground forever.   As soon as Kyuhyun moved, he could feel pain spreading through his entire body. He tasted blood in his mouth, he felt sour everywhere, and he had the biggest headache possible. He leaned against the wall for a little, not able to sit on his own strength yet, and finally he was able to recognize the person’s face. It was the boy again. Kibum’s friend.   The boy had taken place on the floor as well. Sitting against the wall across from Kyuhyun and stared at him.   “You should really start to get up for yourself.” The boy stated, sighing while inspecting Kyuhyun with his eyes to make sure he wasn’t bleeding to death or something.   “I thought you told him to stop this.” Kyuhyun answered irritated. He should start to get up for himself? Did this boy had any idea how hard that was? And how was him getting up for himself going to stop Kibum and his 2 friends from beating the hell out of Kyuhyun? It was 3 against one, the world just doesn’t work that way.   “This is not my battle to fight.” The boy answered calmly.   “Seriously..” Kyuhyun mumbled inaudible, and started to search for his phone to call one of his friends to pick him up. He didn’t really know how long he had been knock-out, but he didn’t want his friends to be worried too much. And knowing Jungsu, he would be looking for Kyuhyun all over the city already.. or better said, all over the country.   As he felt inside his pocket, he felt that his phone was no longer there. That would mean that it either had fallen out while he was being.. harmed, or Kibum had taken the phone with him. Kyuhyun hoped it was the first and started to crawl all over the alley in search of his phone.   The shopping goods were all over the floor, and it sure didn’t make the search easier. And next to that, Kyuhyun felt dizzy, his head hurt like crazy, and his view still wasn’t optimal. After crawling around for a little, and searching everywhere he could, he still didn’t find his phone. Kyuhyun felt like crying really.. This really wasn’t his day. His feeling of being safe everywhere again had been crushed completely.   Kyuhyun fell down on his back in the middle of the street, completely defeated, while his tears started to flow. He couldn’t take it anymore, he just needed to let his frustrations out now. He was in an almost always empty alley anyway, no-one would see him. Well except for the boy who was with him, but Kyuhyun didn’t really care.   The boy had been sitting on the same spot the whole time while Kyuhyun had been looking for his phone. He had watched Kyuhyun crawling all over the place, moving all the shopping goods, looking behind things, in every corner. Except on the one place where the phone was. The boy knew where it was, because he had seen it being kicked away by Han Geng earlier. He just wanted to give Kyuhyun the feeling of accomplishing something if he would find it. He just hadn’t thought of the fact that Kyuhyun might be unable to find it and would completely break down because of it.   He stood up and walked to the pile of clothes a little bit further away. The pile of clothes with Kyuhyun in it.   “Your phone..” the boy said, clearing his throat to get Kyuhyun’s attention, “it’s under the dumpster.”   He pointed at the large dumpster, and Kyuhyun instantly turned around and crawled to the dumpster. He laid down flat on his stomach and peeked underneath. His phone was indeed under the dumpster. With a little effort, Kyuhyun was able to grab it and smiled happily. As a kid getting a lollypop from its mother.   “Thanks..” Kyuhyun mumbled to the boy, who smiled just as happy as Kyuhyun did. Kyuhyun then called Jungsu, who miraculously hadn’t looked for him yet, and Jungsu said he would be there in 10 minutes.   “So your name is Kyuhyun.” The strange boy said, as soon as Kyuhyun ended the phone call. For a moment, Kyuhyun felt as if the boy had read his mind or something, but then he suddenly remembered that he had said his name during the phone call, to explain who he was. Jungsu had this kind of fear that he would give his personal information to strangers or something. Let’s just say that you always had to explain who you were when calling Jungsu, just in case someone stole your phone and called him to get his secret information.   Kyuhyun nodded to the boy, he didn’t really know what else to respond. His name, after all, was indeed Kyuhyun. Cho Kyuhyun to be exact, but the boy didn’t need to know his full name.   “My name is Jongwoon, Kim Jongwoon.” The boy smiled, and Kyuhyun unwillingly smiled back. His face didn’t do what he wanted it to do, he didn’t want to smile. The boy had been no help to Kyuhyun what so ever. Well, except for the tip on the vinegar.. And helping to find his phone. Other than that he had been no help.   “Look.. I’m sorry..” Jongwoon continued, and Kyuhyun stared at him, curious about what he was going to say, what he was sorry for. “Kibum… He won’t listen to me if I tell him to leave you alone.”   “Aren’t you his friend?” Kyuhyun wondered out loud, and the boy stared at the ground sadly.   “I.. guess..”   Kyuhyun suddenly noticed that Jongwoon had bruises on his arms as well. Would Kibum be bad to him too? Kyuhyun stood up from his place and walked towards Jongwoon, but this one backed off.   “You’re hurt.” Kyuhyun said, trying to explain why he walked over. The boy instantly had lost his sad face and had his usual smile plastered on his face again.   “Not as badly as you.” He said, and Kyuhyun suddenly remembered he was having pain everywhere.   “If Kibum is-“ Kyuhyun started, but noises from behind him stopped him from talking. Jungsu was screaming for him, trying to find him, obviously overly worried again as usual.   “You’ll be fine now.” Jongwoon suddenly said, smiling at Kyuhyun as if he was relieved that Kyuhyun was being picked up already. “I’ll be going.”   “Kyuhyun!” Kyuhyun heard Jungsu yelling for him clearly now, and he looked behind him. Jungsu was running towards him. Kyuhyun looked forward again, to say his goodbye to Jongwoon, but the latter had already disappeared.   Kyuhyun felt rather disappointed that Jongwoon was already gone, finding it strange that, even though Jongwoon hadn’t really done anything for Kyuhyun, he had felt safe having him around nevertheless. Now that he was gone, Kyuhyun felt a little empty inside.   But as soon as Jungsu arrived near Kyuhyun, and started to hug him, and inspect him as he usually did, Kyuhyun forgot that he was feeling empty and followed Jungsu back to the clubhouse.     --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫-------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------♫♪♫♪♫--------------------------------------------------------------     It has been 4 days since Kibum and his friends had beaten up Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun’s wounds were starting to heal up pretty well, though, the doctor had said that he had been lucky to still be alive. If they had kicked him on the wrong places, or just a little harder, he might have been in much worse state.   Strangely enough, Kibum hadn’t showed up at school ever since. From what Kyuhyun had heard from his friends, Siwon hadn’t been to school either. Han Geng however, was still barging around in the school hallways, Kyuhyun had seen him. He hadn’t told his friends though, because Youngwoon might end up killing Han Geng, and that wasn’t what Kyuhyun wanted to happen. He might hate Kibum, Han Geng and Siwon, but doing back to them what they did to him is just not Kyuhyun’s style. That would make him and his friends just as bad as Kibum and his friends.   Kyuhyun had ended yet another successful and peaceful school day and planned to game for the rest of the remaining afternoon. He went straight to the clubhouse and opened the door, finding someone standing in the middle of the main room.   “What are you doing here?” Kyuhyun asked as soon as he recognized who the person was.   He had expected the clubhouse to be empty, because his friends were not done yet at school. However, Jongwoon was standing right there, in the middle of the room, staring around.   “Checking on you, wanted to see how you were doing.” Jongwoon answered calmly, still looking around, not missing any detail from the room. As soon as Jongwoon slightly turned his face towards Kyuhyun, the latter noticed that Jongwoon had a black eye. But it seemed as if it was a few days old already, and Kyuhyun didn’t really wanted to start about it. It was nothing of his concern.   Kyuhyun walked to the couch and dumped his schoolbag on there. He took of his coat and walked straight towards the fridge to get something to drink. It was a pretty warm day, and even though Kyuhyun still had some other unanswered questions left for Jongwoon as well, his thirst was worse than his curiosity.   “Do you want some?” Kyuhyun asked Jongwoon, showing the bottle of juice to him. Jongwoon shook his head and Kyuhyun returned to the couch with 2 cups of juice anyway. The boy needed to drink, it was way to warm to say no to a drink.   Kyuhyun signaled to Jongwoon for him to sit down anywhere, and Jongwoon picked the one seat that Kyuhyun didn’t expect him to take. And that was the seat furthest away from Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun stared at him a little insulted, but Jongwoon just smiled his usual smile, probably trying to show that he meant no harm in sitting that far away what so ever.   “So.. how did you get in?” Kyuhyun asked.   It was remarkable really. The only door of the small house had been locked, and it still was when Kyuhyun came at the clubhouse. All the windows are still closed and intact, so Jongwoon didn’t get inside like that either.. And other then digging a hole and coming through the floor, there weren’t any other options.   “Door.” Jongwoon answered while pointing at it, and Kyuhyun was about to open his mouth in protest when he continued with a sneaky smile, “I have my ways.”   So, he had picked the lock. Well it was not the best lock on earth, not really burglarproof, so that sounded realistic. It was just strange that Jongwoon had locked the door behind him again after coming in.   “So…” Jongwoon started, “how are you doing?”   “Fine, fine..” Kyuhyun said while nodding.   “Good..”   “… Yeah..”   An awkward silence soon took over, and after what felt like 15 minutes Kyuhyun really didn’t know where else to look at anymore. He probably saw every spot in the room more than 100 times already. Why didn’t Jongwoon just leave? Well, maybe Kyuhyun hadn’t really been the best conversation-partner either. So he decided to just ask a quick question and then to gently show Jongwoon the exit.   “So.. How is Kibum doing? Haven’t