Chapter 2

It was only the first week of summer vacation and already Sehun was bored out of his mind. It was too hot to go play, the beach was crowded with tourists and there was nothing good on TV. Sehun took a walk into the markets just to have something to look at, but he found Jamie, Marcus, Devin and Jonah. They were without the older boy from yesterday and Sehun wanted to approach them and ask if they wanted to hang out, but the second they spotted him they started to howl and bark. Sehun his heel and darted away, praying that they hadn’t seen him crying. He didn’t understand why they had to be so mean. He ran to Mister Hu’s house and found him in the midst of feeding his chickens. Mister Hu said that eleven year old boys were often hard to understand, but Sehun was eleven himself and he didn’t behave the way they did.

Left with nothing to do, Sehun decided to go home, make a sandwich and bring it into the woods for an impromptu picnic. Kris was already at work and Grandma was asleep, so Sehun left her a note before he went back out. He hiked a few hundred feet into the woods, coming to rest at his favorite tree stump. He loved it because it was in a fairly concealed part of the forest and sometimes animals would walk right up to him.

As Sehun started to eat, he heard a rustle from somewhere behind him and turned around, looking for the source.

“Hello? Are you a deer?” He called softly, peering between the bushes. He thought he saw something move and crouched low to the ground, peering between the shrubs. “Come on out, I won’t hurt you,” Sehun cooed. He broke off a piece of his sandwich and threw it where he’d seen the shadow. The piece sat there for two seconds, then a hand—a human hand—darted out and snatched it up.

“Holy mother,” Sehun squeaked. He flinched and crossed himself because he’d taken a deity’s name in vain. But still, there was a person hiding in the bushes!

“Are you a spirit?” Sehun asked. He heard another rustle and the shadow moved again. This time Sehun could make out arms and legs, but not a face. It couldn’t have been a spirit, he decided. Spirits didn’t rustle. “It’s okay, you can come out,” Sehun encouraged. “Are you playing?”

The person moved closer, finally poking out from the undergrowth. Sehun could see that it was a boy, a young one—probably around his own age. He was absolutely filthy, from his skin to his torn up shirt, and he smelled. Whoever he was, he had been in the woods for a very, very long time.

The boy was staring at Sehun’s sandwich, and he realized with a jolt that the child must have been starving. Sehun broke off a larger piece of his sandwich and held it out. “Want some more?” He asked.

The boy inched closer, stopping a few feet from Sehun. His eyes flicked back and forth between the food and Sehun’s face. Sehun tossed the bit of sandwich a few inches closer, but the boy would still have to come pretty close to get it.

The child looked up at Sehun, down at the food, and then quickly darted forward and snatched it up. He practically inhaled the sandwich even though it had dirt on it. As he ate Sehun reached out slowly, just managing to touch the boy’s hair before he sprang back, eyes wide and fearful.

“It’s alright,” Sehun whispered, withdrawing his hand. “I won’t hurt you. Are you still hungry?”

He held out the rest of the sandwich and the boy grabbed for it, but Sehun jerked his hand back. “You have to come closer,” he said slowly.

The boy hesitated but his hunger won out. He inched closer on all fours, seemingly ready to run at a moment’s notice. He wasn’t wearing any shoes and his feet looked all scratched up. When he got close enough to touch, Sehun let him have the food. The boy didn’t even bother to dart away, eating right where he was. Sehun covered his mouth and nose with his shirt to block the smell, and he reached out to pet the boy’s hair once more. The boy flinched but kept eating.

“Don’t be scared,” Sehun said calmly. “I won’t hurt you. Why are you out here? Where’s your family?” But he knew this boy didn’t have a family. He wouldn’t be so hungry and dirty if he did. Already he was nearly done with the sandwich. “Never mind,” Sehun said firmly. “You can come back to my family.” He uncovered his face and grabbed the boy’s hand, startling him. The child tugged his hand back, almost to see if it was even possible to break Sehun’s grip, but he was too weak to do so.

Sehun stood up, pulling the boy with him. “Come on, let’s go to my house,” he encouraged, pulling on the boy’s arm. The boy looked up at him with wide eyes, still wary. “Come on,” Sehun said more insistently, “I have more food. Food, eat!”

Finally the boy allowed himself to be guided through the woods, eyes darting about anywhere but Sehun’s face. Sehun’s heart hammered in his chest, half with nerves and half with excitement. They broke out of the woods and into Sehun’s backyard. He tugged the boy up the back steps and dug his key out of his pocket, never once letting go of the boy’s hand. When he got the door open Sehun tried to pull the boy inside, but he resisted.

“Come on,” Sehun grunted, tugging harder. The boy tugged back, digging his heels into the deck. “I’ll feed you,” Sehun promised.

The boy stopped pulling back suddenly and the two of them tumbled inside. Sehun used the momentum and shock to tug the boy halfway upstairs before he started to resist again.

“I know the kitchen is that way,” Sehun panted, pulling as hard as he could. “But you need a bath first!”

It was another five minutes of struggle to get the boy into the bathroom. Sehun would have used the downstairs one, but he didn’t want to wake grandma up. Once they were finally in the bathroom with the door shut and locked, Sehun plugged the drain and the faucet, making sure the water wasn’t too hot. Then he turned to the task at hand.

“Alright, get undressed.”

The boy stood there, blinking at Sehun.

“Do you understand English?” Sehun huffed. “Can you talk?”

Still the boy didn’t move. Sehun sighed and tugged the boy’s shirt off, getting halfway before the boy literally growled at him and pushed him away.

“Hey!” Sehun cried, whacking the boy lightly on the arm. “Don’t growl at me, and don’t push, it’s rude!” The boy looked startled and didn’t complain when Sehun went back to pulling his shirt of. “Now you do the rest,” he said firmly.

Finally he managed to get the child out of everything but his underwear, which he stubbornly refused to take off, but Sehun was fine with that. He made the boy get in the bathtub, and then he had to take moment to think of how to get this done. No matter what, this was going to get messy.

He used nearly half a bar of soap to get the grime off the boy’s skin, most of it went to his feet. Sehun wound up scrubbing them for nearly ten minutes, trying to get the dirt off. Then he had to drain the tub because the water was almost brown. Luckily the shower head was detachable, so Sehun pulled that down and made the boy tip his head back so he could wet his hair. It was hard because his hair was so knotted that Sehun couldn’t even run his fingers through it. He wound up having to brush it before he could wash it, and when the boy whimpered in pain Sehun found himself having to cut out some of the larger knots. After five washes with Sehun’s shampoo, the boy’s hair was soft, clean and knot free.

Exhausted, Sehun grabbed a towel and helped the boy dry off. “Auwe,” Sehun sighed as he dried the boy’s hair. “You’re a lot of work my friend.” But then he grinned widely and giggled, because he had a friend now!

Sehun wrapped the towel around his new friend and pushed him into his bedroom, where he went on the search for clothes. He found underwear he hadn’t really worn before, a pair of jeans and an old shirt that was too small for him but looked like it would fit his new friend. Sehun then pulled the boy back to the bathroom and pushed him in with the clothes.

“Get dressed,” He ordered, miming putting on clothes. “I’ll wait out here.”

After a few minutes Sehun heard the toilet flush and the boy came out all dressed. Sehun was relieved to know that this kid could at least work a toilet by himself. Sehun grabbed the dirty clothes from the corner of the bathroom and carried them downstairs, the boy following him closely. He put the clothes in a garbage bag and threw them out the back door with the rest of the trash.

“Now we can eat,” Sehun said happily. He set the boy up at the table while he made bibimbap. When he put it down in front of the boy, he tried to eat it with his hands.

“Not like that!” Sehun cried, pulling the bowl away. “You’ll get all dirty again!” So he spoon fed the boy, which worked out because he was so hungry he probably would have made himself sick eating too fast.

“So my name is Sehun,” Sehun explained with the boy chewed his food. “I’m eleven, and I was adopted from Korea when I was a year old. What about you?”

The boy didn’t answer.

“What’s your name?” Sehun tried. Still no answer.

“Well you need a name,” Sehun huffed. He looked the boy over thoughtfully. It was hard to tell his ethnicity—he had dark skin and black hair, dark, narrow eyes and a slim face. He could have been Polynesian, but he could have been Korean or Japanese or maybe even Thai. He could have been all of the above for all Sehun knew.

“Hmm,” Sehun said thoughtfully, feeding the boy another spoonful. “You’re wild, so you should have a wild name…” He thought hard for a few more seconds before it hit him. “Kai!” It was perfect—short, strong and it meant Ocean. The ocean was wild, but it could be calm too, like the boy was right now.

“Okay then,” Sehun said brightly. “You’re Kai now, got it?” He pushed the bowl to the side, making Kai focus on him. “I’m Sehun,” he said slowly, pointing to himself. “You’re Kai.”

Kai blinked at him and cocked his head to the side like a puppy. Sehun squealed. “You’re so cute!” He cried, ruffling Kai’s hair. Kai’s lips turned up slightly—his first smile. Sehun rewarded him with more food.

“We’re going to be best friends,” Sehun promised. “You can stay with me and sleep in my room, and you can come to soccer with me and I’ll teach you how to play, and maybe I’ll teach you how to talk too. It’ll be perfect, you’ll see!”

Sehun forgot to factor in his brother and grandma when he said that last part LOL