Minseok never believed in love.

He never thought of it as something important in life, he never thought it was such of a big deal as everyone around him seemed to make it seem like. He had never felt his heart beat fast as if it was ready to burst within his chest. He had never felt his palms sweat and he had never experienced the huge amount of nervousness like others seemed to show when they looked at the person they loved. He had never lost appetite and he had never thought for days a particular person either.

The theory of love seemed unreachable for him only because he didn’t believe in it.

Instead, he preferred to follow his family’s tradition; marry a woman whose father was wealthy, use the money for new investments, raise a family. It was something Minseok never hated, unlike his friends who kept on telling him that without real feelings, he would not feel happy with his wife.

Ever.

But that was plain nonsense to Minseok’s ears. In whole reality, his family had already found a future wife for him and as soon as he finished his studies in university, he would marry the woman and start his life from there.

His friends, however, approached the whole idea in pure distaste and Minseok had to promise them that if he was unhappy, he would break off the marriage on his own. Little did they know that Minseok was already happy with his life; it was simple yet at the same time so perfect for him.

Those thoughts would often haunt him when he was alone and as much as he wanted to prove to them that he was happy, his tries were always futile in front of their eyes.

Those thoughts haunted him the night after his date with his wife-to-be as well. After dropping the younger girl at her house, Minseok drove his expensive sports car down the streets to head home. It was Saturday but he still had some essays to finish even if it was already so late in the day—it was like that every weekend anyways.

The streets still had a couple cars moving but no whatsoever person walked down the pavements, the street lights were also unusually dim. He wasn’t sure what was going on but even if it was past midnight, the lack of common traffic made him feel uneasy. Particularly when he wasn’t in a rundown neighborhood.

At some random moment the street light shut down and the only source of light was the car’s flickering light. Minseok leaned ahead, a frown over his eyes to concentrate on the road, his insides a bit terrified by the display of his car. And just as suddenly as the street was drown in darkness, the lights switched back on, a figure on the right side of the road moving so fast in front of him.

Without wasting time, Minseok’s foot hit the brakes, the wheels of the car screeching loudly beneath him. His hands moved the wheel frantically in attempts to avoid whoever had decided to cross the road running, his eyes wide in fear. The vehicle drifted on the road, shifting as if it was out of control. Even with so fast reflexes, Minseok felt a bump on the side of the passenger’s door, the plastic of the car echoing till his ears.

By the time the car came to a stop, his eyes were so wide all the while his brain was trying to register everything; the stranger, the brakes, the bump, the accident altogether. It seemed to him like something surreal and as much as he would have preferred to stay in place till the scene was discovered, Minseok dashed out of the car, leaving the door open and circling around the vehicle, his eyes searching in a wild frenzy for the stranger.

And he found him.

A figure with rugged clothing lay on the dark road with it’s back turned up, the head facing the opposite direction. A pang of immediate regret and sudden panic filled Minseok’s every vein and his feet glued to one spot. His eyes did not leave the figure, the realization hitting him only then.

He had killed someone.

He was too young to be able to do something like that! He was still too young to go to jail! He hadn’t lived his life yet either. It was all a nightmare, a horrible one at that.

Minseok’s breath hitched in his throat when he heard a light groan, one hand of the figure’s pushing the concrete to move. Suddenly, all hopes that he hadn’t actually killed a human being returned. Minseok stormed to aid, kneeling and stretching his hands to hold on the body which somehow still moved.

“Oh my God, let me get you to a hospital!” Minseok exclaimed, his hands holding on the person’s arm.

A pained hiss came from the stranger and they turned their head to glare at him. But the eyes’ anger vanished quickly after and instead, the stranger stared at him.

The stranger was a boy, no doubt. His hair was a mess of an interesting shade between dark blonde and light brown. From what Minseok could see, the boy’s characteristics gave him the appearance of a very young age but he couldn’t be less than 17—he was quite tall.

“I’m so sorry!” His eyebrows arched in worry. He didn’t want this to happen. It was not something he would have wished to happen—ever. “Can you move?”

“I’m fine.” The answer was so calm that Minseok started doubting the whole situation. He watched at the person used one hand to sit up slowly but carefully, Minseok’s arms stretched out to help him.

“I should call an ambulance! Is your hand broken? Is something broken? How are you feeling? Where is the pain? Your arm—“

An eerie laugh left the other’s lips, leaving Minseok staring at him in question. His eyes inspected the other for any harm must have faced but he couldn’t see much; his clothes were too stained already with dark spots. From what he could make out, though, it was his arm that hurt him when he touched it.

“How can you laugh?!” Minseok asked in disbelief and the other shook his head.

“I would prefer you to get me out of here instead of getting me to the hospital.”

To that Minseok agreed eagerly. It wasn’t only that he wanted to pick the stranger off the cold and hard ground, he could also fool him into bringing him to the hospital without his knowledge.

“Not the hospital.” The stranger told him as he had passed his good arm over Minseok’s shoulder, walking slowly to the passenger’s seat with his help—the stranger was actually taller than him.

The brunette gulped, his eyes looking away as he stopped a bit in his tracks. “I wasn’t planning…” He started walking again, hoping for the other to not refuse his ride. The taller only huffed lightly as a response.

With the stranger placed in the seat, Minseok entered the car as well, starting the engine and driving off. The silence which lingered was heavy and as many times as Minseok stole worried glances at the person, the other didn’t seem to be in any kind of pain. At least not one that he expressed.

Is he trying to look tough? I almost freaking ran him over with a car!

Minseok’s eyes caught a small tug on the dark blonde’s lips and he wasn’t even sure why it was there.

Despite everything the stranger said, Minseok dragged him to the first hospital in search for random tests and whatnot to make sure the person would live. At first, the blonde would whine and argue but after Minseok showed him he would have none of that, he obeyed his orders word by word.

That was how Minseok had ended in the waiting room while the blonde was behind the emergency doors. He couldn’t but worry about the other. He was young, he shouldn’t suffer by anything life-changing. He shouldn’t have been hit by his car in the first place. But as good Minseok’s reflexes were, he could do close to nothing when the blonde suddenly popped out and rushed towards the road.

He tried to avoid him; he truly did. And not succeeding only drowned him in self-hatred.

The doors seemed to be closed for ever and in the end, the doctor who came out of it said that the boy would be alright. He would just have to stay overnight in case something showed up. The doctor didn’t refrain from saying that even after such a night, the blonde did not want to move legally against him. Which in a sense, disappointed Minseok.

With the doctor’s advice to leave and let the other rest, Minseok left the hospital and headed back home. But when he lay on the bed, he promised to return back to the blonde’s side in the morning.

But the boy was nowhere to be found.

Not even the doctors remembered him and even if he tried to describe him, no one seemed to be enlightened even one bit.

But this can’t be a dream…

The bumps on the side of his car were a pretty good proof that it was not a mere nightmare. But the whole situation felt just odd.

It was the determination which made Minseok storm into the same door he had seen the doctor walk out from the previous night, the yells of the nurses and doctors too distant for him to mind them. The door flung open and the brunette rushed to the neatly-made bed, his eyes scanning every