The night air is still and the moon’s sliver light casts a serene glow over a small clearing in a dense forest. The small pond in the middle of the clearing simmers with the light of the moon as a school of fish make ripples in the water.

A young boy lies near the edge of the pond with feet dipped an inch in the cool water. The sudden rustle of leaves alert him and he sits up abruptly turning his head towards the direction of the noise.

“Who’s there?” Unlike his initial distraught state his voice comes out calm and almost demanding with his face set in a straight expression.

The boy stands on his feet with a cautious stance as the stranger draws closer. His breathing stills in expectation and a little dread as the stranger emerges from the shadows. The moon’s light casts an almost ethereal glow upon the stranger’s golden robes.

“Who are you?” The boy half whispers.

The stranger takes a few more steps forward until he towers over the petite boy and the boy stares up at his face in surprise. The smaller observes the stranger’s face which is quite child like with flaming crimson hair.

“I am Chanyeol.” The deep voice of the taller startles the smaller boy a little. He feels the hair on the back of his neck rise, wether from fear or excitement he didn’t know.

“And you are?” The boy contemplates wether he should give his name or not, but decides it’d be rather rude not to as the stranger- Chanyeol had introduced himself.

“Kyungsoo, my name is Kyungsoo.” He introduces himself hand clenching over his silver and sky blue robes a little in a fit of nerves.

Chanyeol seems to notice and takes a few steps backward creating a little distance between them. “I mean no harm, Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo smiles up at Chanyeol and the other does the same until both their expressions are of confusion and panic as there is a blaring rumble in the background.

Kyungsoo wakes up sweating and distraught on his bed. After he calms his racing heart, he tries to steady himself in a sitting position. He reaches for the night stand and turns on the small lamp. The rustle of leaves catches his attention and he turns to face the window which was oddly open. He gets up and swiftly closes the window and locks it for good measure.

“I swear I closed it when it started raining this evening.” He tells himself gripping the lime coloured curtain. He looks out at the darkness, a street lamp in the distance being the only source of light. Kyungsoo draws the curtain shutting the outside world away from view and goes back to bed, losing himself to a dreamless sleep.

Kyungsoo wakes up that morning to the sound of rain pelting on his window. He hears a muffled rumble and sighs, feeling disappointed since he won’t be able to make his usual trip to the hilltop with a thunder storm outside. He contemplates staying in bed but decides against it and gets up.

Kyungsoo slips out of his shirt and grabs his toothbrush blindly squeezing a tube of paste on it. He brushes his teeth still feeling a bit drowsy and grips the sink looking up at his reflection in the mirror. He lets out a gasp, jaw slacked and toothbrush hanging from his mouth. He quickly rinses his mouth and frowns at what he sees in the mirror. He looks down at his birth mark in disbelief.

“What in the world…?” Kyungsoo murmurs his pink birth mark. The crescent shaped birth mark he had on the left side of his chest seemed to have sprouted branches. Maybe it was a skin infection or something. He should probably tell his mother about it and they could get it checked out.  

Kyungsoo walks into the kitchen scratching his birth mark.  His mother turns away from the stove and smiles at him. “Good morning, honey.”

“Morning, mom…” He smiles sheepishly while plopping himself on his usual seat. He watches her back as she turns away to focus on cooking. “Mom?”

“Yes, honey?” She takes out two plates from the overhead cabinet and puts freshly made pancakes on them.

“My birthmark grew branches.” Kyungsoo fires point blank. Mrs Do stares at him with a questioning expression, not understanding him. “What?” 

Kyungsoo sighs and lifts up his shirt, enough to show her what he meant. It doesn’t take seconds before Mrs Do is rushing towards him and fussing over the birthmark that had apparently sprouted branches. She holds his face between her palms and looks at him in concern. “Does it hurt? Oh God! We should go see your aunt this instant! Wait here, I’ll get my purse.”

Kyungsoo stares blankly at his mother’s back as she disappears up the stairs. “I haven’t even eaten…” He promptly gets up, walks over to the kitchen island, folds the pancake and proceeds to eat it.

Kyungsoo squirms uncomfortably as his aunt pokes at his chest with gloved fingers. She chuckles at his reaction and sits up straight turning away to talk to his mother.

“Seems like a normal skin allergy. Nothing abnormal so you can rest easy.” His aunt says as she hands Mrs Do a prescription slip. The two women talk animatedly for a while and Kyungsoo perks up at the mention of his cousin.

“What about Joonmyeon hyung?” He couldn’t help but sound excited. Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo were close as children. They still got along pretty well as they grew older considering the former was three years older and they had different friends.

“Ah…” His aunt chuckles and turns to him. “He’s coming back in two weeks. It was supposed to be a surprise but don’t tell him you know.” She winked at him and Kyungsoo grinned. He had missed his cousin in the past eleven months he hadn’t seen him.

The rain had stopped when Kyungsoo and his mother left the clinic. Kyungsoo walked behind his mother wheeling a shopping cart. Mrs Do had remembered she needed to get some things for dinner later that night since Sehun’s family was coming over for dinner. He hummed and looked around the meat section as Mrs Do went off to try samples.

“Chicken… Chicken…” He muttered like a mantra observing the different kinds and parts they had on display. He picked out the usual his mother got and put it in the cart mindlessly wheeling it around only to run over someone’s foot with it.

“Oh my God! I’m sorry- I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you… no- I mean, I wasn’t looking.” Kyungsoo felt so sorry and he couldn’t stop stuttering out every word growing more panicked with each passing second.

“It’s alright. I’m not hurt.” A deep voice brought Kyungsoo out of his little panic attack. He blinked up at the stranger and widened his eyes. Bright eyes were looking back at him with a warm smile.

Kyungsoo felt like he had seen him somewhere. “Have we met before?”

The taller males eyes widened a bit and he smiled softly bringing his hand to rest against Kyungsoo’s cheek. “Do… Do you remember?”

“I…” Kyungsoo felt like something was lodged against the back of his mind, preventing him from remembering the man before him. The man’s eyes turned sorrowful, looking at him, waiting. Kyungsoo felt his heart break a little at the expression he was making as he stared into his eyes.

“Kyungsoo!” He snapped out of the stare as he heard his mother’s voice calling. He turned back and the man was no longer there.  He sighed and quickly rushed to his mother’s side.

Kyungsoo helps set the dinner table with Sehun who grudgingly sets down the silverware with a wan look.

“What’s got you looking so sour today?” Kyungsoo asks after setting down the last plate. The latter mutters something under his breath which Kyungsoo couldn’t quite catch. “What?”

“Tell you after dinner…” Sehun says as everyone starts to gather. Kyungsoo just rolls his eyes and goes to help his mother bring out the food.

“Food looks amazing, you’ve outdid yourself.” Mrs Oh compliments her friend.

“I agree it looks delicious.” Mr Oh agrees with his wife and Mrs Do thanks them both before sitting down.

Kyungsoo takes the empty seat beside Minseok and the older smiles at him in a friendly manner. He returns the smile and sharply turns away as he feels someone kick him under the table. He glares at Sehun and kicks back. The latter yelps and Mr Do glances at him.

“Something wrong, Sehun?” He smiles sheepishly and shakes his head ‘no’.

Kyungsoo smirks and he hears Minseok quietly chuckle beside him. He feels a bit embarrassed and stares down at his food. He did use to have a very ‘very’ tiny crush on Minseok and may or may not have followed Joonmyeon around since the older two were close friends.

After dinner Kyungsoo and Sehun are stuck with doing the dishes courtesy of Mr Do.

“So, mind telling me about your mood earlier?” Kyungsoo starts thinking it the best time to bring it up.

Sehun visibly deflates a litter further from his already sunken shoulders while drying the dishes. “Remember that thing I had going at the library?”

Kyungsoo lets out a hum of acknowledgement remembering the cute part time librarian Sehun had a crush on and had been trying to court. “Well, I just found out today that she already has someone.”

“Oh.” Kyungsoo turns to Sehun with a sympathetic look.

“And it just so happens that the guy is hot as and I can’t even contest with that since he’s a senior in college it seems.” Sehun rambles pout forming on his thin pinkish lips.

Kyungsoo wants to interject what going to college has anything to do with the competition but stays his mouth. “My romance ended before it even started.” Sehun laments and Kyungsoo pats his back after drying his hands.

“You’ll find someone better.” He tries to comfort his friend as best as possible.

Sehun hugs him and they both waddle out the back door having grown accustomed to walking around awkwardly attached to each other. Minseok who had walked in to get some water sees them leave and curiously follows them with his eyes.

Kyungsoo and Sehun both sit down under the evergreen near the pond leaning on each other. “You know, Kyungsoo?”

“What, Sehun?”

“I’m going to marry you if I don’t find anyone and then we can be gross with each other for the rest of our life together.” Kyungsoo makes a face at Sehun. “Ew, what?”

Sehun pinches his cheeks. “Don’t make that face! I’m serous if I don’t find anyone I’ll just marry you!” Kyungsoo tries to swat his hands away. “Then we can have cute adopted children, one girl and one boy.” Sehun tries to sound serious but it’s clear he’s about to burst into laughter.

“No! I refuse!” Kyungsoo screams melodramatically. They both tumble down on the grass laughing.

Kyungsoo giggles and stares at the sky feeling his cheeks hurt from laughing too hard. Sehun’s no better as he massages his cheeks lying beside him. They both fall into a comfortable silence and stare up at the starry sky. Kyungsoo closes his eyes sighing contently.

Sehun points at the crescent moon up in the sky. “Looks like your birthmark, Soo.”

“Hm?” He opens his eyes and observes the moon. He’s reminded of the morning, his birthmark and then the stranger he met at the grocery store.

Kyungsoo’s eyes glaze over as he stares up at the moon. He remembers golden robes shining under the moonlight, of flaming crimson hair and bright eyes, eyes from the morning that were staring at him filled with sorrow.

Kyungsoo gasps and sits up, head reeling from the onslaught of vivid yet vague memories. Sehun sits up and stares at Kyungsoo in concern. “Soo, what’s wrong?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t hear him hands coming to fist his hair. His entire body shakes and his breathing grows ragged. “Soo? Kyungsoo!?” Sehun starts to panic and holds Kyungsoo in his arms screaming for the rest of the family inside.

“C-Chan…” A choked sob leaves Kyungsoo’s lips as his body shakes under Sehun’s hold. His hands clutch his chest letting go of his hair and he lets out a sorrowful wail.

“C-Chanyeol…” Sehun widens his eyes at the foreign name leaving Kyungsoo’s lips.

“Oh… Chanyeol…” Tears stream down his face and the last thing he sees before blacking out is his father’s concerned face through his blurred vision. 

Hi, my lazy self is back. I got together the plot, FINALLY. 

I've been writing longer chapters for this fic and maybe I'm going a tad slow but hey, not really changing anything. 

And I still can't believe so many people subscribed! I love you guys <3

Enjoy the read and comment! /whispers/lateupdatessorryaboutthat/hides/