Chapter 7 | BONUS Ii

"Come here, you piece of trash! We will make sure to find you, you can count on us!”

Stumbling over his own legs, the young boy barged into the closest doors that were not locked. Looking around, he examined the room. What greeted him were piles of books all over the floors, reminding him of an old cabinet where teachers kept their spare books and the boy used to clean them up. It looked exactly the same, with the exception that this room was bigger; way bigger.

Making his way through the discarded books, Seungri made sure not to tumble over any of those. He was in no mood to clean the mess up. With a silent huff, the boy jumped over one extremely precarious stack of books. Reaching up to push his glasses up by the bridge of his nose, Seungri’s left leg gave up and he stumbled. The last thing he noticed before he hit the ground was the sandiness cover of the book with the Rose of Sharon on top of it.

“Are you alright?”

Seungri glanced up only to see rather a tall boy offering him a hand. With a shy nod, the boy accepted the help and crawled back onto his feet. Quickly dusting his pants, Seungri bowed in gratitude. The tall boy only tapped his shoulder, getting lost in the labyrinth of the shelves, yelling something to the silence.

Looking around, Seungri spotted some tables which were actually not covered with books. With a deep breath, he stepped into the labyrinth, leaving his things behind, resting next to the vacant chair.

Seungri did not hate libraries, but he did not fancy them either. Also, this one did not even look like a proper library. It looked abandoned, clusters of dust covering nearly every shelf. It was probably only a room for scrap books. That made Seungri wonder why there was the boy that helped him earlier. It was not like he could find here books for a school project. But the same went for Seungri himself. He was not going to ask questions since he did not want to be questioned.

The reason for him hiding in an old library was embarrassing as it was even without getting blown into enormous extent since the kid looked popular. What Seungri noticed was that he was kind of handsome, sporting deep brown eyes and hair that was hitting his neck. It was for sure he would torture him just like those idiots from earlier, laughing on his specks and shirt that was too big for a kid his age.

Running his fingertips over the backs of the various books, Seungri did not bother to read the titles. He might be nerd, but he did not like reading. For him, books were only stories that came from the depths of a writer’s mind, something they did not made real. And he hated when people dwelled on dreams. Those who chose to live in imaginations were weak.

Just when he was thinking about how he would sneak out of the library, rather a short boy appeared in front of him. They both froze, not even a blink of an eye could be noticed. Without thinking, Seungri his heel, running out of the room, forgetting about his belongings.

* * *

“Ji, you don’t even know his name! He is a complete stranger. Why to bother with returning his stuff? He could as well come and pick them up himself. It was him who left them in the storage.”

Seunghyun frowned, not liking the idea of the younger boy. He was more than obsessed with returning the backpack to the kid who invaded their sanctuary. That was the true name for the old storage room. They killed off their afternoons by rummaging through thousands and thousands of old books no one was reading anymore, exchanging their opinions. It was their world and the kid was trespassing.

“Hyung, it does not feel right. It wasn’t like he forgot his bag for no reason…” blushing, Jiyong ducked his head, running his hand through his white locks. He refused dying them back to black. If he was considered different, he also wanted a unique appearance. Ever since he left home, he kept his hair bright yellow, sometimes even white.

Seunghyun stood up from the table, pacing in front of the younger boy. They were sitting in the vestibule, occupying two seats on one of the rounded couches. Seunghyun truly hated this place, since all the students were passing by them, not forgetting to throw the young boy a hateful glare here and there, few of them even daring to spit at him. In situations like this, everything Seunghyun could think of was kicking their sorry asses and leaving them on the pavement. But it was the calming touch of Jiyong what held him back from ending their lives.

“So we are now waiting for a kid whose name you don’t know just to return an empty backpack..?” Seunghyun looked at the younger, bemused: “Ji, we got to go home. I am starving…”

Jiyong smiled up at his hyung adorably, recognizing the whiny kid in him asking for word. He liked when Seunghyun behaved like a little kid. It allowed him to take care of the giant without feeling like an absolute weirdo. As twisted as it might sound, he enjoyed the little colds Seunghyun used to catch throughout the year. The elder loved resting his head on Jiyong’ lap, napping and Jiyong was killing the time by brushing his hair.

“I do not know hyung. I just want to return it.”

With a huff, Jiyong stood up, stretching a little in order to give some relief to his tensed muscles. Seunghyun reached for him, squeezing his shoulder encouragingly as he pushed him out of the door to the schoolyard. They could rest under a tree and still have a great view of the leaving students.

Nearing their favorite spot, Seunghyun took the backpacks from Jiyong, waiting for him to sit down. The sun was slowly getting down, painting red spots on the grass. The garden was beautiful at this day time. The trees, majestically reaching their long twigs towards the sky were painting shadows, allowing the living creatures a kind of haven from the burning sun in the summer and freezing snow in the winter.

Letting his eyes wander, Seunghyun noticed a faint silhouette in the crown of the tree nearby. It was a boy, his legs dangling from the twig, not being able to resist the gravitation. From his position and with his bad sight, Seunghyun could make out the mop of black messy hair and something white, probably the boy’s shirt.

“Ji, where are my glasses?” Seunghyun nudged the younger boy, knowing he was the one cleaning up after his mess. Sometimes, he felt guilty for being such disorderly person, but then he remembered how boring it was to keep all the things at its place.

Reaching over Seunghyun to reach the blue bag, Jiyong lied down onto Seunghyun’s legs. His back was hurting, unable to save him from colliding with the warmth underneath him and he huffed, ping the bag quickly. With a silent ‘sorry’, Jiyong handed the glasses to Seunghyun, straightening himself as quick as possible. Ignoring the quizzical gaze the elder was giving him, he pointed at the glasses in Seunghyun’s hand, implying for him to put them on.

Chuckling silently, the elder obliged, looking at the target. And for his big surprise, the boy was still there. He was leaning onto the bark, his face not facing them, but his eyes followed their every move. With a moment for recognition, Seunghyun put two and two together; waving at the boy from yesterday, but his glasses somehow disappeared. Seungri did not acknowledge Seunghyun; instead, he clutched the red backpack to his chest, looking at the sunset.

“Ji, I think we should go home.” Seunghyun rubbed the younger’s arm, bringing him to lean on him. He could feel the goosebumps on his skin and did not like it at all. The younger had been constantly cold those days, worrying the elder to the point when he snapped, wrapping him in all the blankets and pillows he could find around the house, turning Jiyong into a maxi burrito.

Smiling at the man, Jiyong nodded, giving up on his childish dwell. Humming to himself, Jiyong scrambled onto his feet. His bum was hurting from sitting on the cold ground and he rubbed it, blushing when he found Seunghyun staring at him. The elder pinched his cheek and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, leading him towards the gate, taunting him about his frozen .

Jiyong was about to hit the elder when something heavy hit the ground and Jiyong run towards the whining pile of clothes on the ground, straightening the crying boy. His face was dirty and wet with tears, scrunched up in grimace. He was clutching his left hand, unable to move even when Jiyong tried to get him up.

“Hey, are you alright? Does anything hurt? Should we go to the nurse? Or hospital?” Brushing the wet hair from the boy’s face, Jiyong cupped his face, forcing the sobbing boy to look at him. Jiyong gasped in surprise, seeing the little kid that ran away when he saw him at the storage.

Ushering him to his feet and brushing his clothes from the mud, Jiyong propped the boy, not knowing what to do. Panicking he turned his head to search for Seunghyun: “Hyung, he needs help!” Without waiting for response, Jiyong got into motion, walking towards the gates, murmuring solacing words to the boy’s ear and smiling, encouraging him.

“Here, I will take him.”

Jiyong watched as Seunghyun picked up the boy. He noticed how fragile and small the teen indeed was. He must have been a junior student. And obviously did not weigh much, but for Jiyong, he was still heavy.

Grabbing the bags from the ground, Jiyong ran after the man, trying to catch up with his long strides. Not minding the pupils staring at them, Jiyong sprinted towards the doors, holding them open for Seunghyun to get in without problems.

Checking on the boy, Jiyong glanced up at Seunghyun, worry clearly written on his face. “He fainted. We have to get him a medical help, hyung.”.

Even Seunghyun himself was starting to worry about the boy’s health. Without complaining, he ran up the stairs towards the nurse’s. He waited for Jiyong to open the doors for him, rushing in as soon as possible. He laid the boy onto the bed, retrieving to get the nurse or at least someone capable of treating the boy’s wounds.

With a sigh, Jiyong plopped down onto the bed, drying the boy’s cheeks from tears. He was still sobbing from sleep and Jiyong did not want to wake him up. It was better if he was not going to remember anything the other day. He did not want the young boy to endure such pain.