Heechul was hard to keep up with. He was obviously used to running away from his mother, and the thought saddened me. When we turned the corner, I looked back again to see Heechul’s mom being held back by Ji-San and fighting hard. Ji-San had a look of desperation that said, ‘Go!’ like she could sense my hesitation.

We ran to a nearby park and caught our breath by some trees. “You run fast.” I said between breaths.

Heechul nodded, not seeming all too winded. “Happens at least once every week or so. Usually I sleep with the homeless when that happens. I’ve actually become good friends with some of them.”

“You’re not sleeping under a bridge-“

“Subway.”

“Whatever. You’ve not going to be homeless tonight.”

“Let me guess… You’re going to invite me over.”

“Hell yeah I am, and Ji-San, too.”

“That’s ‘Noona’ to you, and she won’t be able to. She only leaves the house to go grocery shopping – which she usually leaves to me because people ask questions to girls with bruises. Not so much guys. Anyway, other than that, she works as a nurse at a minute clinic which is good when I get banged up. Luckily that doesn’t happen too often, but she protects me when she can.”

“Heechul?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re bleeding.” Heechul looked down at his shoulder and groaned. “Don’t worry, it’s not too much farther to my house and we’ll take care of it.”

“I can do it myself, but it’s easier when Noona does it.”

“Don’t worry, I can patch you up.” Heechul smiled and we bang walking to my house.