“Ah, finally! I am starving!” JB proclaimed.

Him and his best friend, Jinyoung, settled down at a table for two with their trays of food. JB had not properly talked to Jinyoung since the start of the summer break, for the two could only contact via their mobile phones as JB went on a trip to Japan. It was a new school term, and despite his hatred for school and lessons, he was glad to see Jinyoung again.

The silver-haired boy pushed his thick glasses up his nose bridge before diving into his food as though he had not eaten for days. He chomped on his steak greedily, making noises when his cutlery hit the plate carelessly.

“Jinyoung ah, I had so much fun in Japan. You should’ve been there when I went to tour the Studio Ghibli museum…” JB raved on and on about the visit with his mouth full, speaking of his film-making fantasies with unintelligible jargon, wanting to fill his best friend in on his trip to the neighbouring country. However, Jinyoung did not seem to pay attention to his friend. JB cocked his head and searched his friend’s face to grasp an understanding of the situation.

Jinyoung was playing with his food with his fork, twirling the baked potato in circles, so many times the cheese sauce that once glistened on the potato was spread all over the plate.

JB scratched his head confusedly. Am I that boring?

“Jinyoung ah? There was this crazy guitar sale I saw and I got you a new guitar!”

JB exclaimed his fabricated lie to gain Jinyoung’s attention. To his wonderment, the raven-haired boy had no response. He simply started stabbing his poor potato with the fork.  

“Uh Jinyoung? You’re freaking me out. Do you need me to teach you how to eat your pathetic potato?”

JB averted his attention to Jinyoung’s plate and used his own cutlery to cut the potato into a bite-sized morsel, before stuffing it up Jinyoung’s agape mouth.

“PFFFFFT *cough cough* WHAT ARE YOU DOING IM JAE BUM?” Jinyoung’s face almost turned green when he choked on the food and he lashed out, voice charged with exasperation.

“You’re asking me what I’m doing? What are YOU doing?” Jaebum looked at Jinyoung incredulously and tried to keep his cool. Something was wrong with Jinyoung today.

Jinyoung wondered why he was acting like that as well. He was usually attentive and patient with JB’s rambling, and he usually had a great appetite, but he was the complete opposite today. He could not focus on both JB and his food, as he was thinking about a certain red head – Mark.

Mark, Mark, Mark. That was all he could think of then. He looked back on the past hour spent with the boy and recalled his pretty smile. At the thought of Mark’s happy expression, he himself started smiling.

JB was dumbfounded. After waving his finger impatiently in front of Jinyoung’s eyes to catch his attention without avail, he gave up and let out a weary sigh before gobbling up the remains of his food.

Mark stumbled into the music practice room and then he sat down heavily in the easy chair, seemed almost to fall into it. After enclosing himself in the empty room, he could breathe more easily. Everything that happened to him in that one short hour seemed surreal. He had his very first wardrobe disaster in front of a boy who messed with his emotions and that very boy touched his hand, complimented him, and gave him his hoodie!

It all felt like a midsummer night’s dream and Mark knew he liked it, but he was also afraid of it.

He could not understand why he reacted so differently to Jinyoung and JB. He figured he was nervous to meet new people, proven by his helpless stuttering when it came to communicating with both boys. But he had not deciphered the countless experiences of his heart racing when it came to Jinyoung.

He expected feeling shy and anxious with new people, but nobody warned him about the flames shooting up to his cheeks and a spell that prevented blinking. Nobody warned him that his heart’s safety was at risk. Also, he did not prepare for the rollercoaster of emotions, from feeling as though he was at the top of the world when Jinyoung offered his hoodie, to crashing hard into the ground when he walked away with JB.

It was because this dream was so unpredictable that Mark did not dare to fall into it; he was scared he would never be able to wake up from it.

Mark shook his head to clear his thoughts and picked up the cello lying in the lonely corner of the room. Sweeping off the dust from the old instrument with his long fingers, he positioned the cello between his legs and leaned the fingerboard on his shoulder. Slightly shaking, he gripped the bow with his right hand and drew it across the strings.

A rich, deep sound reverberated against the walls of the small room. As fingers pressed into the metal strings and the thin, pale wrist maneuvered the bow, the cello sang a bittersweet melody. The red head closed his eyes slowly and let the music wash his fears away. He was at peace at that moment and he wanted this peace to last.

~~~~~

Jinyoung spent almost his entire day in the school cafeteria because he had to work on a research paper. He preferred not to go to the library as the silence and frigidness made him feel confined and uncomfortable. He spun his pen and flipped the pages of the reference book listlessly. It had been almost eight hours.

He sipped at his caramel macchiato – that had turned cold long ago – and scanned the sea of faces in the cafeteria. Crowds came and went every hour; every time a new batch of hungry students arrive, Jinyoung found himself skimming the crowd for a boy with red hair. Unfortunately, that boy had yet to arrive.

Jinyoung fidgeted restlessly in his seat. Less people are walking into the cafeteria as the sun sank below the horizon with a sigh, reflecting his exact emotions. He stifled a yawn and rubbed his bleary eyes; it was time to go.

Jinyoung spotted the kitchen ladies in the cafeteria preparing to pack up as well, and he rushed to the counter spontaneously, just in time to grab the last sandwich. With that, he jogged to the main entrance of the school gate.

He did not leave the school, not yet. Jinyoung leaned against the school gate and tilted his head towards the foyer every now and then. He was waiting for Mark. He had not appeared in the cafeteria for the entire day, and Jinyoung worked out that he probably had not eaten for the entire day, which worried Jinyoung greatly. Taking a deep breath, he fought down fresh feelings of panic and steeled himself to wait patiently.

Mark looked at his overused fingers where blisters were threatening to form. He had been practising his cello for the entire day without knowing, and had most likely missed a few lectures but he did not bother about that. He felt much better emotionally after spending alone time with his instrument, but he was now so physically exhausted that he could feel the weariness in his bones.

While standing up to leave, the hunger pangs hit him. He skipped breakfast and forgot to have lunch and he was starving. Knowing the cafeteria had long closed, he could only sigh tiredly and head home for dinner. Numbed with hunger and exhaustion, Mark trudged towards the school gate.

“Wha…?”

Mark tripped over something and fell face down.

Ugh, second fall of the day.

“Now, who do we have here?” A raspy voice rang in Mark’s ears as he felt himself being pulled up to his feet.

The burly guy had sinister eyes that gleamed in the darkness. He snatched Mark by the collar and brought him closer, so close that his nose touched Mark’s.

“Well, well, well. Are you new here? You’re soooooooo pretty.” The bigger boy drawled menacingly, his putrid warm breath sent Mark’s stomach churning.

The poor weaker boy was immobilised with fear, his body stiffened and beads of perspiration formed on his forehead while his hands became clammy.

“Let’s have some fun, shall we?”

Mark felt strong hands grappling his neck and he attempted to break free from the grip but his legs were weak from fear and he could do nothing against his attacker with little strength from his day of starvation. The assailant growled disgustingly as he engulfed Mark with his big arms and buried his face in the pale neck. Mark could feel tears forming in his eyes as he felt rough lips brushing across his neck, trailing up to his cheek.

The attacker began to assault Mark more aggressively, biting down on Mark’s neck, which caused him to let out a strangled cry.

“Stop! Please… stop, please!”

~~~~~

Jinyoung was about to give up and leave the school when he heard a strangled cry coming for the direction of the lockers. Instinctively, he darted towards that direction without a second thought, heart palpitating and praying that the scream was not Mark’s.

To his horror, he saw a glint of red peeking beneath a huge guy and whimpers like that of an abused child. Despite the large size of the aggressor, Jinyoung launched his own body towards him and dealt a powerful punch right on his nose. Using all his strength, Jinyoung pushed the stunned guy away from the trembling figure, causing him to trip over the ledge and collapse with a loud thud. In a flash, Jinyoung grabbed the traumatised boy by his wrist and bolted as fast as he could out of the school.

When the two stopped to catch their breath, Jinyoung hurriedly lifted the boy’s face to check if he was alright, his heart sinking when he saw that the boy was indeed Mark. Mark shrunk away from Jinyoung’s touch and tears began to flow freely down his bruised cheeks. When he cried there was a rawness to it, like the pain was still an open wound. His knees buckled and he landed on his knees, body shaking. The sobs were stifled at first as he attempted to hide his grief, then, overcome by the wave of his emotions, he broke down entirely.

“Hey, it’s okay Mark. I’m here. It’s me, Jinyoung. You’ll be okay, I promise, you’ll be okay…” Jinyoung said so gently and softly it came out as a cautious whisper. The boy in front of him was so fragile he did not dare to touch him, despite his great longing to pull him into a warm hug to comfort him. Jinyoung’s heart ached terribly, and his face etched in sorrow when he saw the painful expression on Mark. He was not the one who so unfortunately got assaulted, yet the amount of pain he felt was equivalent to the victim’s; he never felt like he wanted to take care of someone this badly in his life.

After minutes of assurance from Jinyoung’s soft words, Mark started to calm down a little. He wiped his tears with Jinyoung’s hoodie and stood up with the help of Jinyoung. He muttered his thanks and began to stumble away from Jinyoung, only to be stopped by the boy’s arm.

“Wait, let me bring you to the clinic.”

Without having a chance to reject the offer, Mark was dragged along, albeit much gentler this time, by Jinyoung to the nearest clinic.

Jinyoung gazed wistfully at the plastered boy as they sat shoulder to shoulder at a bench outside the clinic. He so badly wanted to reach out to touch the boy’s wound lightly, like his mother would when he hurt himself, and give it a peck to kiss the pain away. But, seeing how Mark was still shivering from his agonising experience, the last thing he wanted was for him to cower away from his touch.

Jinyoung opened up his backpack and took out the sandwich he bought for Mark, carefully placing it in his cold hands.

“Don’t deny me.” Jinyoung insisted firmly before Mark could reject him once again. The boy looked at him gratefully and opened the plastic wrapper. When Mark caught a whiff of the aroma of the sandwich, he remembered how empty his stomach was and munched on the sandwich, chewing quickly.

Jinyoung instantly felt more relieved. He gave a small smile and watched the red head polish off his food.

As the moon crept up the dark sky, Jinyoung helped Mark up from the bench.

“It’s late. I should walk you home, Mark.”

“Um, it’s okay Jinyoung. I’d rather go home alone, my house isn’t that far away.”

“But you just –”

Mark pushed Jinyoung’s arm away lightly, and shook his head. He was thankful for Jinyoung but he wanted to spend some time alone after that horrible experience, and he did not want Mr. Park to worry about him if he saw a friend escorting him home. Most of all, he did not want Jinyoung to see that he lived alone, not yet.

“Are you sure?” Jinyoung creased his eyebrows and asked worriedly.

“Yes, I’m sure. Um, thank you so much for just now, Jinyoung.” Mark replied and gave his best reassuring look. Jinyoung, knowing not to push Mark’s decisions, especially right now, agreed reluctantly. Mark turned to leave, but Jinyoung stopped him once again. He pulled out his mobile phone and handed it to Mark.

“Give me your number. I want to make sure you reach home safely if I don’t get to walk you home.”

Mark nodded and smiled as he entered his number in Jinyoung’s contacts. It was heart-warming for Jinyoung to care for him and he was glad Jinyoung was the one who saved him from the attacker back in school.

With that, they waved goodbye and headed home separately.

Within minutes, Mark’s mobile phone sounded.

Mark, despite being absolutely frazzled from the long day, broke into a heartened smile and walked with light steps back home.

♥♥♥

Hello readers! I hope the wait isn't too long! I spent a fair amount of time on this chapter and I am quite proud of it. Do tell me if it's easy to follow and if the character development is to your liking. I spent one day planning out the rough plot for the other chapters and I'm quite excited for their relationship to develop! Poor Mark was attacked (I'm sorry!), but of course, Jinyoung would be there for him. 

I really really really hope you guys like my story so far. Thanks for the subs and thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them! :):) I apologise for any typos! I will check through my story later; now, I have other things to do. :( 

And omg can I just say, our boys are doing so well on live shows and their music video for Stop Stop It is absolutely amazing! I spent more time rewatching the MV than I should have. Let's pray they win some music shows this time round. ^~^