There are Spring violets under the snow."

 

 

 

Donghae couldn't help but lose hope. It had been a month since he had seen the boy, even though he had visited that bench every day. He didn't know why he wanted to see the boy so much, but as the lake ice hardened even more, and the air grew rigid with cold, the boy was never there. 

 

So when the coldest day of the year came, with blistering gusts of wind and billows of snow stinging skin, protected or not, with icicles cracking falling and clinking together like bells, and with it came the moods of his mother and father, he burrowed into a heavy coat, and tucking his hair and already red ears into a cap, he set off, squeezing his eyes shut against the gales of bitter wind.

 

Hunching down, gloved hands balled into fists and shoved into his coats pockets, Donghae crossed the bare, empty road, unmarked witth the usual ture tracks, and entered into the forest, which was thankfully protected somewhat from the brutal winds of Februray that seemed to Donghae to pass through him like a ghost, and leaving him just as cold.

 

He wouldn't see Hyukjae today, that was sure. No one but Donghae would be out in this weather, and even the schools that closed for the weather. A lot of work places were shut down, the roads deemed unsafe for travel, and a blizzard was predicted to blow in today. The sun was supposed to be high in the sky, and it probably was; Donghae just couldn't see it, just the meek light that shone through the rolling clouds and the whirling snow.

 

It was noon, the first day of February, which was said to be the crulest month of the year. Donghae wondered sometimes if that was true. When the month was cruel, to him, it meant what was happening, not the air temperature or the snow level. If it was early August and a tornado had killed twenty something people on the other side of the world, even though the sun was shining; the birds chirping, it was a cruel month. 

 

Winter was beautiful to him. The pure whiteness, the crystal needles, the frozen air, it was Mother Nature at her finest. But it came with a price, this beautifulness. Cold. There was always something, some catch, and to winter it was cold. 

 

Donghae continued into the woods, veering off at a point that he always did, always heading to the grove before walking the lake, or heading back to the house when it was too cold for him to bare. As he tramped through the snow, stepping high to avoid getting his jeans completely soaked, the wind lessened a bit, just so that he could see ahead of him instead of just blurry, dark skeletons of trees in the white. 

And a flash. Something green, light, the color of spring in the midst of winter. Donghae's mind spun. The green sweatshirt Hyukjae had been wearing, one month ago. As he approached, his heart beating loudly, hope coming back, blood thrumming in his eardrums, he saw the slim figure of Hyukjae folded onto the marble bench, hands clasped like they had been, on January 1st.

 

As Donghae walked closer, struggling to keep the huge smile off his face, his sharp eyes caught on something. Hyukjae had a backpack resting on the bench beside him, a light blue, but that wasn't unusual. What Donghae had saw was a small, clear tube snaking from the half-zipped up bag to Hyukjae's face, and then disappearing down his nostrils. As Hyukjae breathed, large, intentional breaths, the tube hanging free would move something through it, barely visible. 

 

Air. 

 

It was air that was making the tube shiver ever so slightly with Hyukjae's intake of breath, and every breath after. Donghae was sure Hyukjae hadn't had this before. What had happened that was so bad in the space of a month? Donghae had never been comfortable around sick people, never known what to say. He found his feet moving backwards, to make him fade away into the white, before he realized they were.

 

But as he tried to fold into the woods, he saw Hyukjae clearly again. He saw a boy, with hope gone, alone. And he found his feet changing direction this time, moving forward, now purposely making noise to alert Hyukjae of him. And maybe to stop himself from turning back, from being a coward, again. 

 

Hyukjae looked up, his face pale, his muscles tense, but when he saw Donghae trampling through the snow towards him, he relaxed and lifted a skinny hand in a wave. Donghae wondered who Hyukjae had thought he was, before he realized the noise was Donghae. Donghae wondered what this skinny boy in a green sweatshirt in February had gone through, in his life. 

 

Donghae stepped into the clearing, his boats still stepping cleanly into the snow, but here the pile was a little less, and so it was easier to step over to Hyukjae and the bench, with high, deliberate steps to avoid getting his jeans completely soaked. 

 

"Hey," Hyukaje greeted him, a small smile forming on his mouth, but a smile that didn't quite find his eyes. Donghae sat down on the bench, hesitantly, and winced at the cold stone. 

 

"Hi," Donghae said shyly, but said nothing else. The two sat there in silence for maybe a minute, the world completely silent, same as them. Then Hyukjae turned to face the suprised Donghae, a wry smile already twisting his lips. 

 

"You're wondering about the air tank thing, right?" 

 

"Um..." Donghae said ingeniously, fumbling for words but coming up with nothing. In the end he just shut his mouth and looked at Hyukjae. Hyukjae, suprisingly, laughed, a sound that reached Donghae's ears like bells, and shifted again, his hand coming up to touch the the thin, transparent tube before falling to hang off the bench, his wrist at the edge of the cut marble. 

 

"It's fine. I hate it anyway when people pretend it doesn't exist. I mean, I know it's there, they know it's there, but they don't act like it, as if not talking about it will make it go away," Hyukjae told Donghae, who could only nod a little nod. 

 

"I have it because I got some liquid in my lungs, what, two weeks ago?" Hyukjae paused here and thought, his nose scrunched up cutely. 

 

"Yeah, two weeks ago. Anyway, they pumped it out, but they don't know how it got there or anything, and right new my lungs are pretty horrible, so I have to bring this thing," he slapped a hand not so affectively on the bag next to him where the air was coming from. "To breath and stuff and make sure that my lungs don't collapse suddenly and I die." Hyukjae rattled off the life threatening condition and the fact that he could die so easily, it stunned Donghae how it just rolled off his tongue like they were talking about what they had for breakfast. 

 

When Donghae just sat there, Hykujae laughed again, his eyes bright. 

 

"You don't talk much, do you? I think I'm hyper frm all the drugs and stuff that they make me take. By the way, you do come into the woods everyday?" 

 

Donghae shook himself, annoyed at his apparent inability to talk when someone actually did talk to him, which was barely ever. "Yeah, when I can't stand my parents," Donghae said, then realized that in one sentence he hadn't actually answered the question and he had just revealed a big part of his life, but Hykujae didn't seem to notice. 

 

"Oh. Last month, I was bored, so I just started walking around my neighborhood. And then I saw a little path heading off into the woods, and I was wondering where it went, so I followed it and I came to this beautiful lake. Then I explored a bit and found this bench. And then I met you!"

 

Donghae was gratified by the way Hykujae had said 'beautiful lake'. He was uncomfortable with sharing his special place, his place, with anyone, even it was a cute someone. But at least he could trust Hyukjae not to ruin it, not to destroy the only place of beauty in Donghae's life.

 

Donghae just smiled as Hykujae continued his mostly one-sided conversation. 

 

"I love it here. It's so quiet and peaceful, it's like we're in a whole other world like a mile away from the actual world. By the way, do you have a watch?" Donghae nodded, and pulled up his sleeve to reveal the watch that he's had for years, pink rising to his cheeks at the horrible condition of it, but again, Hyukjae didn't notice. Donghae tilted his wrist so Hykujae could read it, the air still up the tube, disappearing into his blood.

 

"Oh. I have to go," Hyukjae said, and Donghae, with a smile that was bigger inside than outside, heard the regret in Hykujae's voice. 

 

Hyukjae stood to go, his boots standing in the same place as they had been when he was sitting, and slung his backpack over one shoulder. He stood there for a second, Donghae still on the bench, his chin tilted up to catch the gaze of the standing boy in front of him. 

 

"Do you think that you can come back here on Sunday?" Hyukjae asked, and Donghae felt a tremor in his heart, happiness or something else he couldn't name. 

 

"Um, yeah, I think so." 

 

"Great," Hykjae said, smiling a huge gummy smile. "Like 12?" 

 

"Sure," Donghae said, bobbing his head. 

 

Hyukaje crinkled his nose again, and with a wave, he said good bye and trampled off into the snow. Donghae kept his eyes on the retreating back of Hyukjae, the brightness of the boy shocking against the colorless white of the world around them, and followed the boy's progress until he had disappeared, wrapped in the snow and the wind and the bitter cold. 

 

 

___________________________________________________________________________________

 

Yay!! Second chapter!!!! Whooooooo!!!!! *dances on table*

 

Mkay. So sorry for taking like a month to update, but I had the start of school and like five other fanfics to juggle, but I'm back now!!! Yay!!!!

 

Soooooooo UPVOTE if you love it, SUBSCRIBE if you like it, COMMENT even if you don't!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Wow. Wow. I did totally not plan that. Did you see that??^^ That was awesome. You guys are awesome. I just had icecream. Icecream is awesome. I'm gonna go watch parodies on Youtube. Which are awesome.

 

Summary: comment. Comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment, comment. 

 

 

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which involves commenting.