Not far away, something else is happening to a certain someone being mentioned a lot.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

The bell that signalled the end of the day soon arrived. No one though wanted to leave school just as bad as Sungyeol. The male was packing all his things as fast he could, he cursed when his book hit the fall because he knocked it over. He had no clue as to why he wanted to get far away from school. All he knew was that he couldn’t cope listening to what everyone was talking about. The main question for him is: Why does Sungyeol actually care? Maybe he was just tired. Really tired.

Bending down to reach to fallen book, Sungyeol hit his head on the desk. He groaned and stood quickly after grabbing his book. Sungyeol roughly stuffed his book into his bag and headed for the door, walking quickly. Just before he got out of the door someone had called his name. The boy turned to see who it was. The teacher smiled and gestured for him to come to her desk. In his head he groaned. His plan was to leave quickly and get far away. Now he has to stay to talk to the teacher.

“Yes”

“I need you to give me the piece of work you never gave in and also...” Sungyeol stopped focusing on what she was saying and his eyes wondered to the window, where he could see students flowing and most likely talking about the somewhat ‘hot’ topic. “You got it Sungyeol?” He snapped out of it and looked at his teacher. All Sungyeol did was nod and pretend like he heard what she had said to him. The teacher finally dismissed Sungyeol and waved him off.

Sungyeol felt somehow relieved to make it past the crowd in the corridor. The boy had to push his way past just to get to his locker. Sungyeol felt like banging his head on the locker because he wasn’t able to find his keys. Frustrated, he lightly punched the front of his locker; he was definitely going to be late going home.

Now, the reason which was making Sungyeol hurry is that his dad would freak out at him if he showed up late. He scavenged through his school bag and pockets. ‘Why do bad things always happen to me?’ Sungyeol thought, still not being able to his keys which mysteriously disappeared.

Just like that boy.

Sungyeol was over thinking about his keys going missing. The boy’s thoughts were disrupted by hands grabbing his shoulders. He yelped and elbowed the person straightaway without looking at them. “Ouch!” The person said. Sungyeol paused and zoned out. The voice belonged to Woohyun; Sungyeol didn’t have to look to know it belonged to his friend. “You know that hurt” Woohyun ended up poking his friend back to reality.

“Oh... uh, sorry”

“Apology accepted, let’s go” Woohyun tugged at his friends school blazer, signalling that he wanted to leave now.

“I can’t find my keys” Sungyeol whined.

“Was there anything important in your locker?”

“I don’t think so...” Sungyeol said, he was unsure and couldn’t remember if anything was in his locker. He frowned and started walking down the corridor to the entrance of the school. The two got outside and a feeling came across Sungyeol. It was like something he needed was in his locker. Of course, the boy kept quiet and tried to let the thought slip from his mind. Unfortunately, it stayed in his mind even when they were a few roads off the music store.

Woohyun did most the talking as to him, Sungyeol didn’t seem like he was in the mood, that or he was actually thinking really hard. The shorter boy even talked about Kim Sunggyu, but he was sure Sungyeol didn’t hear.

When they arrived at the store they saw Mr. Lee talking to the customer about which guitar would fit the music piece. Sungyeol took his seat at the desk and began babbling on about random things, for some reason his eyes remained focused on one particular place. The entrance. Woohyun thought he was waiting for someone, when he tried to think that someone could be Myungsoo, he instantly pushed it away.

It had been a long evening for Sungyeol after Woohyun left; apparently Sungyeol had been boring to the customers. When he read things out it came out monotone and half the time he wasn’t looking at what they were pointing to or looking at them. His facial expression was gloomy compared to his usual happy expression. Even to the customers, it was like he was waiting for someone to show up at the entrance.

One person was unhappy with the way Sungyeol was acting in the store. That was of course his dad. Mr. Lee got tired of seeing his son bore into people souls. It made him furious when Sungyeol didn’t look at him whilst he was talking to him about listening and actually paying attention. After Mr. Lee had went on about being considerate and listening, Sungyeol was silently filling the customer papers out. His dad was carefully watching every word he wrote on the paper, it made Sungyeol so uncomfortable. When Sungyeol made a small mistake and it wasn’t even that visible, Sungyeol’s dad made him fill out the paper again.

“Sungyeol” Another paper slammed on the desk and Sungyeol sighed. “Why? Are you not happy filling out sheets over and over again?”

Sungyeol met his dad’s gaze and he gave his dad a somewhat uninterested look. “Of course I am” His dad just shook his head at Sungyeol and he motioned for him to leave and go to his room. The tall boy slammed his pen on the desk, rolled his eyes and walked upstairs. He could hear his dad huff angrily. But he didn’t seem to care.

When Sungyeol got to his room he slammed the door not caring if his dad heard the door slam. He got to his bed and flopped down on it. Sungyeol felt his phone buzz so he pouted thinking it was Woohyun. He opened the message and it was from a random number. “Midnight” He said reading the message out loud. “It’s probably spam messages”.

He grabbed his pillow and buried his face in it. Then he shot up “What my teacher say?” He groaned “Oh well...”

It felt so lonely and by 11 he heard his dad lock up the shop and switch all the lights off. Sungyeol was having a hard time sleeping and Woohyun wasn’t helping with that, the boy kept messaging with smiley faces and when Sungyeol was almost asleep so he didn’t reply, Woohyun texted ‘Reply to me Yeol’. The vibration and light managed to keep Sungyeol up until when it was about to turn 12. He finally was asleep but his phone buzzed again causing him to shoot up. “Go away Woohyun” he said sleepily.

Sungyeol checked who it was and the same number that texted him ‘midnight’ texted again. He looked at the time and it was 12 when the new message sent. “Awake?” he read out again, Sungyeol the bedside lamp and looked around the room. He saw nothing in the rooms and the curtains were shut tight. He walked to the window and checked if anything was outside, Sungyeol held in his breath and let out a quiet scream when he heard his phone buzz.

He picked up his phone and the anonymous number texted him again. “Your room is quiet” Sungyeol got a chair and pushed it under the door handle so no one could come in. After that he sealed the window with books, he even used elastic bands to tie the handles together. When he thought about sleeping, he arranged his pillows and teddy bears to act as a fortress and he hid under the blankets.

But then when he shut his eyes the thought of him overreacting about something as stupid as this made him pinch himself. Even if he was thinking like that he didn’t dare to move a muscle from where he was.

Sungyeol managed to hear his dad go into the bathroom and minutes later flush, after that he heard the door close. He mentally slapped himself across the face for being such a coward.

Sungyeol woke up to the sound of loud banging on his door “Come in!” After more banging he remembered that there was a chair in front of the door. He quickly got up, knocking the fortress down and moved the chair from the door. He slowly opened the door to reveal no one. “Hello?”

“Sungyeol, hurry up and get ready” He heard his dad yell from the kitchen. Obediently he did as he was told. Sometimes he wanted to go to school so he wouldn’t have to work in the music store, but sadly it was a day where only teachers could come in to school and do whatever they have to do. This allows Sungyeol to work in the music store for the whole day.

After he got ready for the day, Sungyeol walked as slow as he could down the stairs, which was until he heard Woohyun talking to his dad already. Woohyun wanted to work at the store so he could be with his friend but Sungyeol’s dad said he wasn’t going to pay him. However, Woohyun still wanted to and Mr. Lee said he’d think about it.

Sungyeol couldn’t be bothered to eat breakfast so he straightaway sat at the front desk in the music store with Woohyun and the two started talking.

Mr. Lee went to get something from the shops to make as a snack so it was just Sungyeol and Woohyun. Two people walked in to the music store and a tall man wearing a suit walked towards them with a beautiful woman in a dress. They had been followed by a few reporters but some didn’t come in, they waited outside. “May we um... help you?” Sungyeol asked. The woman placed something on the desk so it was facing them. It was a picture.

Sungyeol’s eyes widened a bit when he saw the picture. It was of Kim Myungsoo. “My son went missing yesterday and we haven’t been able to find him, have you perhaps seen him?” The female asked.

“No ma’am”

“Are you lying?” Sungyeol was taken aback by that.

“No ma’am I haven’t seen him since he um... visited...” When Sungyeol mentioned that Myungsoo visited, the lady and man stared at each other in shock.

“Myungsoo visited?” The dad said he clearly looked unhappy about that. “How many times has he come?”

“Um... twice sir”

They turned to each other “Our Myungsoo disobeyed us to come see this filthy place” The lady nodded, Sungyeol couldn’t stand when people insulted the store, his dad, Woohyun or himself.

“Sir, ma’am, it’s rude to come in to someone’s territory and are you trying to insult my store?” Woohyun just turned around and pretended to be a customer.

“Why would my son come here?”

“Because he did so let him be. Shouldn’t you focus on finding him rather than being angry? Just saying, your parenting skills are bad” Sungyeol looked for Woohyun and saw him motion him to not do that. Sungyeol looked at the time and quickly pointed to the door. “You should leave if you’re done, in fact... just go” He smiled and waved them off before talking to a customer that was waiting.

Myungsoo’s parents seemed shocked and disgusted at the boy’s manners, however Sungyeol didn’t care. The two left along with the other random people that just followed them. Woohyun started laughing behind the piano, until Sungyeol’s dad came back in.

“Did that couple come in?” Mr. Lee seemed panicking. Sungyeol nodded a bit suspicious. When did his dad care about people coming in? “What did they say to you?” of course Sungyeol would tell the truth to his dad because his lying is terrible, he tries to practise lying.

“Why do you need to know?”

“Tell me. Stop being stubborn and act like a man, not a child” Mr. Lee demanded, Sungyeol knew where this was going to go, he just wished that it was upstairs where no one could see and hear. Woohyun just sighed, sometimes he’d be there during the quarrel and once it was going to lead into a mess. Luckily he was there to try stop it. It wasn’t Sungyeol’s fault, his dad always brought up things that were bound to make an argument start. Woohyun decided to try do something productive in the shop while the two had their argument. Maybe he could help the customers.

“Let’s not start something here” Sungyeol said, he clearly didn’t want anyone to hear but it seemed like his dad wasn’t listening.

“No here is fine. Are you a man or a child?”

“I don’t know, I’m not past the ‘man’ age and I’m past the ‘child’ age so... Teen?”

“It’s not a joke; you can’t live life as if it’s a joke”

“My life isn’t a joke. I’m not the one who’s holding grudges against people for like 17 years. I’m not the type of person who won’t remind their child about their mum or at least tell them how they left”

“Sungyeol, you act like you’re mental and as if you have problems” Mt. Lee’s voice boomed across the music store causing everybody else to glance and even a few watched.

“You act like a grumpy old man who can’t afford to give love to his son” Sungyeol glared at him. “Oh wait. You are.” He growled at his dad.

“Lee Sungyeol!” Mr. Lee raised his voice and now many customers were watching. “She didn’t leave she was murdered”

Sungyeol felt his eyes water but he tried to hold it in. “You always lie, why should I believe you”

“You don’t have to believe me. Your mother wouldn’t look at you; you’d be a disgrace to her”

 “No, you would be. I hate you so much because I’ve wanted us to be a happy, loving family and all you can do is tell lies and hide yourself from me. I hate you”

Sungyeol ran up the stairs, leaving his dad. The boy had warm tears streaming down his cheeks. He quickly opened the door to his room. When he got inside he slammed the door behind him and locking it. He placed a chair so that no one could open it from the outside.

That’s when Sungyeol left because he couldn’t be bothered with that anymore. He tried so hard but his dad couldn’t see it. It was like his actions were invisible to his dad. Sungyeol decided to text Woohyun to leave since he wasn’t going to come down. After Woohyun said ‘Okay’ followed with a smiley face.

Sungyeol lay in his bed thinking about things, he was in his deep thoughts which made more small tears form and flow down his cheeks. For some reason they wouldn’t stop but Sungyeol let them continue because he hasn’t cried since a while. Every now and then he needs to let some tears out. He let the water slide down his cheeks making them tear stained but he needed this right now. Just maybe he could fall asleep and wake up for it to all be a dream. However he couldn’t get to sleep, he was wide awake and looking at things on his phone. The blue light from his phone made it impossible for him to fall asleep. That and the tears that flowed down.

Out of nowhere, Sungyeol could hear someone grunting outside and the noise seemed like it was coming closer to the window. Sungyeol shot up, sniffing. He grabbed a baseball bat that Woohyun got him for his birthday. Slowly Sungyeol stepped closer to the window, he was going to close it but he was too scared. It’s like the times when flies come in and he wants to open the window but he just can’t because he’s too scared.

When Sungyeol got the the window edge he saw a hand grab onto the window sill, somebody was trying to climb up and get in. Sungyeol held in his breath and raised his bat up high. Dark brown fluffy hair had started to appear at level with the hand. The boy with the bat couldn’t take any more steps forwards, towards the window. He finally saw the other hand get placed down and more of the fluffy hair was exposed. Sungyeol shut his eyes tight.

When he opened his eyes he found a pair staring at him, the person had frozen for a minute. They had gotten quite far since his head was fully shown, however it was covered with some material. The pair of eyes belonged to a boy in his school uniform. Sungyeol could only see his hair when the boy jumped in, he raised the bat in front of him. The boy ripped off his ‘mask’ and Sungyeol dropped the bat.

It was Kim Myungsoo.

Sungyeol gaped at him and stared. Myungsoo was covered in cuts, bruises and what even seemed like a stab wound was on his right arm. He dusted some dirt off his blazer and stared back at Sungyeol. Honestly he didn’t expect to land in this room at a time like this. Myungsoo sighed and ran a hand through his fluffy hair, slightly making it messy.

“What the” Sungyeol started.

“Uh” Myungsoo said, it was kind of awkward since he came through the window. Just then Sungyeol took his phone and unlocked it. Myungsoo took it as he was going to call someone about him being there so he snatched the phone and pushed Sungyeol roughly on the bed. He pinned the taller boy like at and stared hard at him.

Sungyeol could feel his cheeks burning and he knew he was the only one who thought it was getting hotter in the room.  He tried to move but Myungsoo seemed to have more strength then him. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Myungsoo beat him to it. “You can’t tell anyone” He swallowed “At least for a few days”

“W-Why?”

“Just please... one favour and then I promise you” The boy on top looked serious and he was keeping a hard stare, so was Sungyeol. “I won’t bother you again and you’ll never have to see me again” Myungsoo’s expression in his eyes showed he meant every word. He hated how he could only get Sungyeol’s help, the same boy who he threw paint on. The same boy that he thought was hiding behind a tree.

The one person he could almost ‘hate’.

 “Fine” Sungyeol shut his eyes tight again so he wouldn’t be looking into Myungsoo’s intense gaze. “But first you have to explain”

When Myungsoo rolled his eyes Sungyeol felt like punching him in the face because he should be grateful that he was actually going to be a good person and help him. Just as Myungsoo was going to say something, Sungyeol gestured for him to get off him. After understanding the gesture, Myungsoo got off of the taller boy and sat facing him. The boy who sat in front of him held up a finger and grabbed two of his teddy bears. He held them both and sat comfortably.

It was cute how he snuggled with the bears, but Myungsoo wanted to slap himself for thinking like that. He really was going to start hating Sungyeol. More than he could imagine.

The feeling though was mutual as Sungyeol hated how he admitted to himself that when Myungsoo messed his hair up, it looked so fine, he looked fine. But his cancelled that by thinking everyone looks good.

“It’s a long story” Myungsoo said.

“Summarise it then”

“I got kidnapped” A bear hit him in the face and he saw Sungyeol roll his eyes. “I did”

Then Sungyeol pouted.

Myungsoo couldn’t stop himself when he leaned over and touched his pouty lips with his thumb. He only realised and snapped out of it after the action was done. He quickly retracted his hand and wiped it on his trousers. Sungyeol was still shocked as he blinked a few times before looking at him. “You had something there and it was annoying me” There was nothing there.

Sungyeol raised his hand and wiped his lips as if something horrid had touched it. “You don’t need to explain, just change... I’ll set up your bed”

“I don’t have spare clothes” It hit Sungyeol that of course Myungsoo wouldn’t have spare clothes.

“You could... like...” Sungyeol grabbed a pair of light blue pyjamas which had small cats on them. He threw it at Myungsoo and unfortunately he caught it. Sungyeol took a pair of yellow heart pyjamas for himself and left the room going to go change. Myungsoo stared at Sungyeol’s back when he was walking off and as soon as the door was closed, he started to take off his uniform. Luckily, he had finished changing when Sungyeol came back in.

Without a word Sungyeol took out a mattress from under his bed and placed it in the space next to his bed, it was the only space in the room. “Why is your room so small?” Myungsoo asked, he was smirking and Sungyeol didn’t have to look back to know he was.

“Not everyone lives in massive houses. If you want to stay, I suggest you don’t talk about wealth” Sungyeol continued to set up his bed by placing pillows, a quilt and a small teddy bear. He wondered for a while if he should really put a teddy bear even if he didn’t quite find Myungsoo as a friend. After a few seconds of thinking he knew Myungsoo was watching him so he left the bear exactly where it was. He stepped off into it little space in his room. The bed was done. Sungyeol crawled into his own bed and switched off the lamp on the bedside table.

Sungyeol heard the shuffling of Myungsoo’s cover and he took it as Myungsoo got went into the bed on the floor.

Myungsoo lay facing the ceiling thinking. Honestly, recently he had been thinking way too much. He knew that he’d have to go back to his own house, to his parents and family, but when he thought of that he just wanted to stay away from his parents for a few days at least. He closed his eyes but thoughts off what happened to him earlier and yesterday replayed. Myungsoo had a feeling he wasn’t going to sleep just yet. His closed eyes making it seem like he was asleep.

The taller boy, who faced the ceiling like Myungsoo, was thinking hard too. Sungyeol remembered how he said to Myungsoo that he was going to make his life like hell, now the boy was letting him sleep in his room. He heard his phone buzz from the other side of the room. To get to his phone he would need to jump, crawl or take a big step over Myungsoo. He thought about leaving his phone alone but he became curious of who was texting him late at night. Curiosity won over him as he lifted the covers off of himself, slowly. He tried to do a big step but it wouldn’t stretch that far. The boy didn’t need to try jumping over Myungsoo. If his big step wouldn’t go over the ‘sleeping’ boy, then how will his jump get far?

 Sungyeol slowly got on his knees and decided that he was going to crawl over Myungsoo in order to get his phone. He was trying to be as quiet as he could, in order to not wake Myungsoo up. He managed to get on top of Myungsoo, hovering over, but that wasn’t at all what he was aiming to do. Sungyeol wasn’t planning to end up being pulled somehow directly on Myungsoo. It wasn’t until he realised that Myungsoo’s hand was the thing that pulled him down.

Myungsoo had pulled him closer.

Sungyeol’s face was probably as red as a tomato; he was so thankful that Myungsoo wouldn’t be able to see.

Myungsoo had only meant for it to be a prank but he regretted it as soon as he felt Sungyeol’s cheek on his own lips. There was a mixed feeling that shot through him and he couldn’t comprehend what it was. The feeling was confusing him and he didn’t want to like the feeling. At least in the morning Sungyeol wouldn’t know it was his lips that touched his cheek. Myungsoo kept still and hated how it was lasting for long. The feeling wasn’t going and it was starting to scare him. He’s straight and he wants to keep it that way, but why does it seem like it’s going to change.

The boy on top was shocked and the sensation that was on his cheek made him bounce up after a while. He quickly scrambled into his bed and faced the wall. Sungyeol touched his cheek where something had touched it. He closed his eyes with his face stilling burning.

“Goodnight M-Myungsoo” Sungyeol whispered so the boy wouldn’t hear him.