I was seriously running out of breath so I had stopped and fallen straight to the floor. I took off my jacket before placing it on the floor. I wanted to lay down on the floor, but I didn’t since we were in the middle of a sidewalk in some part of Seoul. My chest kept going up and down, and I could feel my sweat running down my face. It was disgusting. 

     “We did it! I told you!” I lifted my hands and stared at them before nodding my head. I would have to say that was the most I had run in my entire life of living. “Okay, get up. We need to go buy some rice cakes!” And with that, Daehyun grabbed me by the arm (I grabbed my jacket before I would forget about it) before lifting me up quickly. From then on, we walked and walked until we found one of those food stands. Daehyun stopped in his tracks and looked at me with a smile. “Do you have money?” 

     “No,” I replied and furrowed my eyebrows. “Why…?”

     “I don’t know if I have enough for the both of us…”

     “Oh…then get it for yourself,” I concluded and Daehyun simply agreed before scampering over to the stand. I waited with my arms on my hips and stared at the concrete floor since I had nothing better else to do. I could spot a trail of ants with tiny pieces of food on their backs and I couldn’t help, but smile.

     Then realization hit me.

     I ditched. I ditched for the first time. A part of me was telling me I did a good job, but another part was telling me I had done bad. Real bad. At that point, the only thing filling my mind up was the question: What were my parents going to do? Surely, the school would call my mom since they knew her very well, and she specifically ordered that if I ever did anything bad, to call her right away. I knew to never do anything bad, but what I had just done was more than bad. No, this was worst than bad. This was breaking school rules and breaking my mom’s rules.

     But…I actually was glad I did it. Yeah, I knew I was going to get slapped and get everything taken away, but I didn’t care. I chose to break the rules and I’m glad with what I did. Just the thought that I was doing something fun made me forget about the consequences it would lead to in the end. 

     Daehyun had come back and we continued walking to who-knows-where.

     “Want some?” He shoved the rice cake in front of my lips and I shook my head quickly. “Aw, c’mon! It’s good! Don’t worry, I don’t have rabies or anything like that!” The only thing that was annoying me at the moment was his chewing while he was speaking. The rice cake was still on my lips and I had no choice, but to take a small bite. I chewed and chewed and it was rather soft and yummy. I stared at the rice cake in Daehyun’s hand before my lips and leaning forward to take another bite. “Yah!” I rolled my eyes at Daehyun before taking in the delicious taste of the rice cake. “You know, you could’ve just asked!” 

     “No,” I bluntly said, looking at Daehyun. 

     “So what do you want to do?” 

     We were walking through the semi-crowded area when my eyes averted to a small clothing store. From the looks of it, it was mostly filled with girl clothes and plainly pink everywhere. I scrunched up my face from the view of that girl store. “You want to go there?” I looked at Daehyun before shaking my head vigorously. 

     “No. It’s filled with a bunch of girl stuff,” I replied which made Daehyun roll his eyes.

     “Whatever,” he said before smirking and walking over to the store (it was literally called “Pretty in Pink” in English from what I had understood). I sighed in disbelief and followed right after, taking a few glances here and there in case people would question me. Right when I had opened the door, I didn’t see Daehyun anywhere except for a bunch of woman looking around, some even staring at me questionably. I continued looking for Daehyun when a random girl (she looked like she was in her early to mid twenties) walked up to me with an awkward smile on her face. 

     “Do you need help with anything?”

     “Uh, no. It’s okay,” I awkwardly said because I wasn’t going to tell her, “No, but I’m looking for my friend because he suddenly disappeared here.” She replied with an “okay” and left right after. I simply continued searching for the stupid kid whom I called as my friend. 

     During the small amount of time I was searching for Daehyun, I had gotten distracted with all the girly accessories on the side tables. There were so many things! Bracelets, headbands, necklaces, rings, earrings, hats, sunglasses, and purses! I picked one of the bracelets up and analyzed it before putting it on my wrist. I then took my hand out to see how it looked and I felt stupid. What the hell was I doing? I shook my head before taking the bracelet off and placing it back on the table. I continued looking around the store when I randomly heard a whisper near the dressing rooms. I looked around me in case the whisper was for someone else, but when no one responded to it, I took a glance at the dressing room. The whisper was heard again and I was on the verge of walking in. Could I enter, though? I mean, I was a guy and this was a girl store so…? 

     “Youngjae-ah! Psss!” I widened my eyes at the sight of Daehyun’s head popping out from one of the dressing rooms. I looked around once again before quickly walking over to the dressing room. I glared at Daehyun, pushed him in order to go inside the dressing room and closed it right after. 

     “What the hell are you doing?” 

     “Do you like this? I think this fits me pretty well.” Daehyun had taken a step back and I analyzed him with widened eyes. He was wearing a pink, short skirt with light pink ruffles under it and a pink tank top. Along with that, he had a small tiara on top of his head which read “Princess”. He twirled two times and tried to do aegyo before I shook my head in disbelief. “Don’t I fit this? Although the skirt is pretty uncomfortable,” he said while fixing the skirt. 

     “Why did you try on girl clothes?”

     “Because it looked fun! But, I have to say that putting it on is hard.”

     “Daehyun…” I lifted a finger and opened my mouth, but closed it right after and letting out a sigh.

     “Want to try it? Here, I picked out something for you,” Daehyun said as he threw a pink skirt similar to his at me. I stared at the skirt and threw it back at him.

     “I’m not going to try this on! Daehyun, we could get in trouble! Hurry up and change back!” Instead of listening to me, Daehyun shook his head and walked pass me before opening the door a little. 

     “Dare me to walk around the store like this?” I opened my mouth really wide and slammed my hand on my forehead. 

     “No! Daehyun, close the door and change back to your uniform!”

     “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’, then!” And with that, he fully opened the door and began walking out of the dressing room section to the main area. I shook my head in disbelief, but followed after to see what the people’s reactions were going to be. Daehyun began walking around, bare-footed, while smiling and waving at every customer in the store. He even began to talk in a girlish voice which left some customers to look disgusted and leave the store. I couldn’t help, but let out a loud laugh at the girl, who asked if I needed assistance, at her expression upon looking at Daehyun. She looked as if she had seen a monster or something! “Don’t I look so pretty?” Daehyun had randomly asked a woman who was furrowing her eyebrows. “Hm? I guess you don’t think so!” He left and carried on to another random customer when a pair of girls (they probably worked there) grabbed onto his arms before dragging him out of the store. I widened my eyes at the scene and quickly grabbed Daehyun’s clothes in the dressing room before dashing out of the store where Daehyun was laughing like a hyena. He clutched onto his stomach and began walking very wobbly which caused some people to stare. I bowed at them for the immaturity of Daehyun and grabbed onto his arm before walking to some place where he could change back into his clothes. 

     When we did find a place (the restroom in a random coffee shop) I dragged Daehyun in the restroom. 

     “Hurry up and change! We have to give the clothes back!” Daehyun was still laughing, but not as loud as when he got kicked out of the store. He tried nodding his head and I shoved his clothes at him. I waited for him to finish and during the time I was, I couldn’t help, but let out a small chuckle. The thought that Daehyun actually had the guts to walk around the store in girls clothes, bare-footed, was astonishing. The most I could do was dance to a girl song, and I couldn’t even dance to the whole song. I hated to admit it, but Daehyun deserved a round of applause for being this courageous.

     “Okay, I’m done,” Daehyun blurted out as the stall door opened. He handed me the girl clothes and I shook my head before letting out a sigh. 

     “Okay, I’m going to go back to the store and apologize for your actions,” I sternly said while glaring at Daehyun. I wasn’t actually mad or anything; I just wanted to see what Daehyun would do. He had let out a small chuckle and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. 

     We walked out of the coffee shop and went back to the store where I told Daehyun to stay outside. “They’re not going to want to see you so just stay here,” I said to which Daehyun simply shrugged his shoulders. I entered the store and the two girls who kicked Daehyun out walked over to me, glaring.

     “Yes?” I awkwardly looked down at the tiled, pink floor before looking back up and handing the folded clothes back to them.

     “I’m sorry about my friend’s immature behavior,” I stated, “He was being stupid and I promise he will never do that again.” The two girls looked at each other before taking the pair of clothes and nodding their heads.

     “Just never bring him back here,” one of them said as the other left to put the clothes away. “Actually, never come back here.” Wow, harsh. I nodded my head and the girl walked away. I left the store right after and told Daehyun everything. He scoffed at my conversation with the two girls before looking at the store and sticking up his middle finger.

     “ those girls,” he said and I quickly grabbed his hand so no one would see what he did. However, I think those two girls had seen and, to be honest, I had hoped they did. 

—————

     By the time we knew it, school had already ended, but I didn’t know why I was thinking about that. Daehyun and I were simply walking around a quiet street when a loud squeal was heard from him. He grabbed onto my arm before dragging me to who-knows-where.

     Well, that who-knows-where was actually the park that was a few meters away from where we were walking. Daehyun had let go of my arm and began running to the monkey bars. He swung back and forth despite the fact that he was too tall and had to lift his legs up. I let out a small laugh before spotting a pair of swings on the side and walking over to them. I sat on one of them and grabbed the metal chains before slightly moving my legs on the ground. I continued doing so while looking down at my feet. 

     Most kids are able to play around and laugh with their friends whether it be at each other’s houses or in a playground. They get to have so much fun that once they slowly grow up, they never forget about it. And then when someone asks them, “What was your childhood like?” all they have to answer is with a simple, “It was really fun! I loved it!” 

     But, that doesn’t work for me. Someone could ask me the same exact question and I’ll honestly answer them with, “The worst childhood ever.” Then, they would look at me as if they pitied me and I would simply ignore it. 

     I was so lost into my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed someone sitting next to the empty swing beside me. Of course it was Daehyun. 

     “What are you thinking about?”

     “Nothing,” I lied to which Daehyun had let out an “Ayyy~” 

     “No, really, what are you thinking about?”

     “I’m serious,” I said as I averted my eyes to him. “I’m not thinking about anything.” Daehyun didn’t say anything after that, but I knew he wasn’t going to believe me. It was quiet for a few minutes. It was the afternoon, and there was literally no one at the playground except for a young couple sitting on one of the benches. However, it felt as though me and Daehyun were the only people there. 

     I then asked a question out of the blue. 

     “What was your childhood like?” I was curious. Daehyun had let out a small chuckle before swinging back and forth slowly. 

     “It was nothing special, to be honest. I was just an annoying, troublesome kid wanting to get everyones attention.” I slowly nodded my head. I wanted to know more, though.

     “Did you enjoy your childhood, though?”

     “Yeah, I guess,” Daehyun replied. “Like I said, there was nothing special about it. It was like any other childhood.” He looked at me and tilted his head to the side. I was hoping he wasn’t going to ask the same question. Please, please, please…

     “What about you? What was your childhood like?” Damn it.

     “Well,” I started before letting out a small chuckle. “it wasn’t like everyone else’s, that’s for sure.”

     “What do you mean?”

     “I never got to play around with other kids or go to their houses. It was literally like how I’m living right now. My childhood was very boring just how it is right now.” It literally was, actually. You could say my life had never changed. 

     At that point, I slowly began to stop moving my feet. 

     “That’s not true,” Daehyun blurted out which caused me to tilt my head to the side.

     “What do you mean?” He stopped swinging back and forth before looking at me with a smile. 

     “Sure, you’re childhood , but I don’t think your life at the moment. Yeah, you couldn’t play and whatnot, but think about it.” Daehyun leaned forward a little. “You have to at least say that your life right now is not like your childhood.” I seriously did not understand what he was telling me so I furrowed my eyebrows. Daehyun rolled his eyes at my stupidity and began to swing back and forth. “Hello, Youngjae-ah! What are you doing at this exact moment?” 

     “I’m sitting on a swing, talking to you,” I replied, still not understanding what Daehyun was trying to tell me.

     “Okay, and what did you do a few hours ago?”

     “We had gone to a store and got kicked out because of you,” I said. 

     “Okay, and before that?”

     “We…ate rice cakes.”

     “And before that?”

     “We…ditched.” 

     “Bingo!” Daehyun stopped swinging and pointed a finger at me. I was still confused. He got off the swing before standing in front of me and grabbed onto the chains. He leaned over a little which made me back away a little. Daehyun smirked. “Now tell me. All the things we did today…did you ever do that before?” I shook my head slowly when it hit me. 

     “Wait,” I said as I furrowed my eyebrows at Daehyun to which he simply nodded his head. “I still don’t know what you’re trying to tell me…”

     “Youngjae-ah! I am trying to tell you that your current life at the moment is not boring! As in your life at this moment, in this time, is way more fun than your childhood and just anything of your past!” Oh…so that was what he was referring to this whole time. “Don’t tell me you did not have fun trying to jump over the school gates while a hoard of teachers were coming after us?” It was scary at first.

     “It…was fun…actually…” 

     “My point exactly,” Daehyun said before letting go of the chains and walking back to his swing. 

     Daehyun was actually right. Would I have ever ditched school? Well, I didn’t have any experience and I didn’t even know about ditching during my kid days (I still didn’t even know to this day). But, I ditched today for the first time ever. But…this wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Daehyun. Because of Daehyun, I got to experience ditching school, getting kicked out of a girl store, eating rice cakes, and simply sitting on a swing! If I hadn’t met Daehyun, I honestly would have been sitting in my chair, listening to the teacher talking and simply hating my life even more than what I already did. This was all Daehyun’s doing, and I honestly enjoyed every bit of it. 

     Daehyun was swinging really high while blurting out random words for the heck of it. I my dry lips and looked down at my feet. I didn’t want to do what I was going to do, but I needed to. Hell, I think I wanted to. And so I took in a deep breath before letting it out. I looked over at Daehyun and gulped. 

     “Thank you.” Upon hearing this, Daehyun stopped his swinging and stared at me in bewilderment. My grip on the chains had tightened and my lips felt as if they were about to bleed from the way I was biting down on them. Maybe it was a bad idea to tell Daehyun, after all.

     “You’re welcome, but I don’t know why you’re telling me this,” he said as he chuckled. I don’t know why, but I had let out a sigh in relief. I guess since he didn’t think I was crazy for saying that…maybe? Sometimes I didn’t understand myself.

     “I’m saying it because…” How could I word it out? I wasn’t so good in these type of things. “I’m saying it because…you showed me a few things that I probably wouldn’t have ever tried if…if I had never met…you…” Oh God, I said it and I sounded as if I was in one of those romantic movies where the girl confesses her love to the guy. “So…thank you…” 

     Daehyun hadn’t said anything and I actually thought he was thinking I was being weird. Did I word it out really bad to the point where he couldn’t say anything? This was, after all, the first time I had thanked someone sincerely. 

     “No problem,” Daehyun said, smiling blissfully. 

     After that, we continued swinging while laughing over nothing in particular. 

—————

     It was beginning to get dark when Daehyun and I decided we were going to take a break from the swings to sit on a random, wooden bench. The sun was slowly setting and I knew my parents were going to be home soon, but at that moment I honestly didn’t care. I was already going to get in trouble for ditching so what did it matter if I came home late? 

     I had my hands under my thighs and I was swinging my legs back and forth. Daehyun had his hands in the back of his head with his eyes closed. It was quiet between us, but it didn’t feel awkward at all. I was looking at my feet when a thought caught me off guard. I glanced over at Daehyun who still had his eyes closed. Now that I was thinking about it, I had never closely analyzed his face. I guess now was my chance. I slowly and quietly leaned forward, not too close, though or else Daehyun would surely notice something strange around him. The last thing I would ever want would be Daehyun noticing me looking at his face. 

     His face was rather round, but long at the same time…? His cheeks looked very squish able and I had the urge to touch them. Along with that, his nose was simply a nose and I noticed he had severe bags under his eyes. He probably hadn’t been getting enough sleep. The one thing that stood out to me the most was his lips. They were rather plump and pink. They just stood out to me and I was curious as to how they felt. Wait…not as if I wanted to kiss Daehyun! But, more like how it would feel having plump lips because, well, mine were rather thin and unappealing unlike his. 

     “What are doing?” I jolted from the sudden voice of Daehyun’s and quickly moved away from his space. “Were you attracted by my y looks?” Oh, God. I had scoffed at his statement before shaking my head.

     “Hell, no.”

     “Well, it looked like that,” he stated while smirking and pointing a finger at me. I just rolled my eyes at him.

     “You think too highly of yourself,” I said.

     “But, that doesn’t change the fact that you were admiring my face,” he said.

     “Okay, whatever,” I concluded because I didn’t want to discuss about this anymore. Then I remembered as to what I was going to ask Daehyun before I had gotten distracted by his facial features. “I heard you went through hardcore depression a few years ago.” Wait to go, Youngjae! You just trespassed onto Daehyun’s personal life! Now he’s going to think you’re those type of people who gossip! But…I did want to know about his status three years ago. Based on what Kyungsoo had told me, it felt as though Daehyun was going through a difficult time. After that conversation with Kyungsoo, I never intended to ask Daehyun about it because that would be too rude of me when we barely knew each other. But, I think now was a good time to ask him because, well, we were somewhat good friends and curiosity was killing me at the moment. 

     Daehyun looked over at me, but kept silent. At that moment, I regretted what I had said.

     “I mean…I just…you’re so loud and talkative so…hearing that you went through depression…just surprised me…” I felt as though the atmosphere between us had gotten awkward. “I mean…if you don’t want to talk about it then I’m tot—“ 

     “Who told you about that?” At the sound of his voice, I didn’t know if Daehyun was annoyed or just plainly asking with no emotion in him. I was feeling very nervous and began fumbling with my hands because I didn’t know what to do with them at the moment.

     “Uh…um…K-Kyungsoo…” Was he going to do something to Kyungsoo? I had hoped he wouldn’t. 

     “Wow, such a nosey person,” he said while shaking his head before pointing at me with a smirk. “You’re also nosey!” At that moment, I didn’t know what to do because, well, Daehyun didn’t seem disturbed about the fact that I had just asked him about his past. He let out a small laugh before looking down at the space between us. “But, yeah. It’s true…about my depression.” I wanted to ask so many questions, but I restrained myself from doing so and let Daehyun talk. “It was a problem involving my parents and I just couldn’t handle it. I’m an only child so they would always involve me in their problems, expecting me to do something about it. But what could I do? I was only a 15-year-old boy barely knowing about the outside world. I didn’t know what to tell them when it came to their problems. It was so annoying and I just wanted to leave and forget about everything.”

     “Then school began to be a problem for me. Back then I wasn’t so sociable; I actually hated when people would come up to me because I always felt like they were pitying me. They would always ask me, ‘Oh, are you feeling well?’ like ‘No, I am not feeling well. And you’re making it worse by asking me that.’ I wouldn’t answer them with that, but that’s what I always felt in the inside. Then people began to get creeped out of me. I thought it was so stupid because they didn’t even know me to predict that I was a scary person. Plus, I never even did anything to make them think of me that way. But, I didn’t give a about other people so I simply minded my own business.”

     “I don’t know if Kyungsoo told you this, but I think he did; about me trying to commit suicide?” I nodded my head slowly to which Daehyun chuckled a little. “That wasn’t true.” Now, this had shocked me. “That boy who tried to commit suicide, but got saved by some other guy…yeah, that was someone else, but the whole school thought it was me since the boy supposedly looked like me.” Daehyun had lifted both of his hands and quoted the last three words. “It annoyed me when there was those people who did know it wasn’t me, but still started the rumors that it was me who tried to commit suicide.”

     “What happened to the boy who tried to commit suicide?” 

     “He ended up disappearing and no one knew what had happened to him. Hell, no one even knew it was him since they all thought it was me.” It was just so much information, yet I hadn’t known about anything and I was attending the school. I furrowed my eyebrows.

     “And the whole cutting yourself? Was that false?” Daehyun widened his eyes at my questions before nodding his head.

     “I went through depression, but I didn’t go to the extreme,” he replied. “What else did Kyungsoo tell you?” I tried to remember all the things Kyungsoo had told me about Daehyun.

     “You drink and smoke,” I said, looking at Daehyun. At the sound of that, he began to laugh. I simply scrunched up my face because I wasn’t understanding him at all. When Daehyun had calmed down, he looked at me.

     “Are you serious with me? He told you that?”

     “Yes. Is it true?”

     “The drinking part is correct, but the smoking is a no. I never liked cigarettes or anything regarding that stuff. It grosses me out.”

     “But, you drink?” I was learning so much about Daehyun, I didn’t know if I could handle anymore. Daehyun nonchalantly nodded his head before shrugging his shoulders. This had me open my mouth really wide. 

     “Don’t worry, Youngjae-ah! I’m not an alcoholic! It’s just at random times when I am in the mood to drink a can of beer,” he stated with a smile. 

     “You still drink, though!”

     “Wow, you sound like my mother from another planet or something!”

     “Alcohol is bad for you!”

     “Well, I heard that wine is good for the heart so I don’t know what to tell you,” he retorted.

     “I’m not talking about wine!”

     “But, technically, wine is an alcohol beverage so you basically are including wine because you stated alcohol.”

     “Don’t go all smart on me!” He was annoying the hell out of me with his wine information! Daehyun then had begun to laugh which got me more pissed off than ever. “Stop laughing!”

     “It’s just so funny!” And at that moment, I pounced on Daehyun and tried to “choke” him while he simply continued laughing his off. 

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Hey my fellow readers! Are you guys still liking this story? Bcuz I'm sort of not...JK! I serioulsy love writing this story! It's just I have a lot of trouble ACTUALLY writing it OTL Anyway, this is actually the longest chapter I've written and it is for an apology of "I'm sorry for not updating daily" and also because I needed to fit all of what I wrote into this chapter since the next chapter was for some other events that I will not speak of! So yes, I might MIGHT update later tonight since I started chapter 15 yesterday or tomorrow. Idk, yet OTL Lolzz I really enjoyed writing this chapter although it took a while to come up for the things they were going to do. Oh! Idk why I'm adding this, but I have loved Deadmau5 (idk if you guys know him) since he released his >Album Title Goes Here< album and like during the time I was writing this chapter, I was going over his previous album which is "For Lack of a Better Name" and there is this song called "Strobe" and OMG FML THAT SONG IS AMAZING! I literally kept listening to that while writing this chapter! XD Actually, I was listening to Deadmau5 in general, but mostly that song lolzz If you guys are curious (probably not, but I'll still put it XD) here is "Strobe" and "Animal Rights" (because I love this freaking song too and I want to spread my love for Deadmau5! XD) Okay, I'm done! Enjoy the chapter and Deadmau5 and dsahgdfg! Bye-bye! ^^