Staring at the teacups, a drop of tears fell into the leftovers inside it. it was intensely clear for changhyun, the picture of last night when he cried in front of chunji’s door. The moment chanhee left the boy went into the room seeing the floor filled with white platinum feathers.

At the corners were traces of faint scratches and tear stain still perfectly visible on the floor.

Lifting up the cups while his mind still lost, drowned in that scary view, the marble glass dropped on the floor rather effortlessly. Thankfully the café was closed and changhyun was the only one inside the shop, cleaning up before opening. Picking the shards up into his hand, the boy clenched his fist tight as he felt the pain shooting up from his punctured limb.

Pitch dark crimson flowed from the boy’s pale white hand as he held his breath and subsequently his tears. Pain felt good.

Seeing the bright red blood dripping of ricky’s small fragile hands, jonghyun who just walked in, immediately dropped all his bags and ran towards the injured boy. Forcing open changhyun’s fist, jonghyun gritted his teeth when he saw how deep the shards went. Growling at ricky the taller boy grabbed chanhyun and sat the boy down beside the counter. Still glaring bright into changhyun’s eyes.

“what the do you think you’re doing right now YOO CHANGHYUN?!”

Tears finally spilled, ricky bit his lips and definitely kept silence. He can’t let changjo know, no one deserves to know what he was going through. Wiping them away, finally having a good grasp on his composure, ricky snatched his hand away from jonghyun’s clasp and stood up.

“ I was treating your bloody wound, you realize that right?”

“ I … I know jonghyunnah. Thank you but that’s enough”

Jonghyun was left in awe. Still offended by the fact that his kind offer was coldly brushed away with an emotionless thanks. Changjo jumped up from anger and walked furiously towards the shorter boy, snapping changnhyun’s shoulder behind. Making sure that their eyes met, when he saw ricky’s crestfallen face.

“ just let me wrap that up ricky….. you’re bleeding”

“you can go afterwards”

Hesitations spelled bright on changhyun’s step as he sat down and watch jonghyun walked around trying to remember where the emergency box was, occasionally bumping his head on the shelves thanks to his incredible height. And certainly ricky could not help but to smile when he saw how changjo still searched for it while rubbing his head.

Gently pulling ricky’s hand into his own, jonghyun gasped when facing all that blood still heavily flowing out from the wound. Not realizing how his eyes slowly started to change color.

The smell of blood was filling his nostril as changjo held his breath; his sharp senses were going frenzy from changhyun’s blood.  Coughing and exhaling loudly, he tried not to focus on the smell but indeed the smell was pungent and sharp on his throat. And ricky could see it perfectly how jonghyun’s eyes started to change to bright. He’s dying to find out but his scheming mind warned him not to.

“you must really hate blood don’t you. “

“ uhm…. Well it makes me uncomfortable but im fine.. lemme see..”

Changjo’s sweaty palms made ricky giggled as he silently watches the black hair boy struggled trying to properly wrap the wound. Finally wrapped snug, jonghyun stood up and handed ricky his bag and clothes. Changhyun’s understood immediately.

“ im fine okay. A little cut won’t stop me from doing works alright”

“ no it won’t but it will stop the healing. God I can still smell the flesh okay!”

“ go home changhyun, i’ll take care of everything else.”

Jonghyun stared blankly at ricky’s petite shoulder walking out of the café, strangely feeling rather relieved. Time sped through but there were times where changjo’s eyes would linger; realizing and reminding himself that changhyun’s wasn’t there.

His shift ended and exactly like usual he would walk the same road when he saw a familiar figure sitting quietly on a bench beside the fountain. It was already 10 pm. The freezing breeze brushed against his skin harsh and sharp, while he slowly walked closer to see who it was. He smelled the same scent he did hours ago during the early morning.

“yo..yoo cchanghyun!”

“what are you doing here ?!! don’t tell me…”

“yeah, I was here from morning. i…. don’t kn..ow where to go”

Ricky answered so casually it looked like it was something normal. Rather natural to spend time in the freezing below zero breeze all alone. Jonghyun was speechless, so quietly he sat down beside ricky. The air was filled with silence and their faces spelled awkward all over but then…

“ why didn’t you just tell me, you could’ve just stayed there”

“aha… I could I guess. I don’t know, maybe im fine here”

Alone, in the streets and freezing? Jonghyun mind snapped with those thoughts as he struggled to fake a smile because he knew that it wouldn’t help one bit. This boy was lost and jonghyun knew it rather too well.

“ hmm, here. In this below zero weather?”

“ you sure are something yoo changhyun”

The boy smiled along as he just kept his stare locked on the streets. Watching the people pass him by like he was invisible felt nice for ricky, it was calming. But something came up from deep of his scheming mind, a name he missed really bad.

“ say… jonghyun-ah could you maybe… uhm”

“ call me ricky, changjo. I’d like it if you call me with that”

Whereas jonghyun’s eyes were locked on the dark cloudy sky of seoul. Thick and dark, not even a single stars visible but somehow when he heard what ricky told him he could as if see the sky slowly started to gleam.

“ricky… hmm. Its nice”