The leaves were dancing again, grazing against their hair as Autumn made it swirl all around them. They were smiling too, once more. This time, he was the one leaning on. He leaned on the smaller with his right hand clamped tight between the latter’s. Occasionally, drops of heartbreak would run down his nose but he would wipe them away. Lee Joe on the other hands looked entirely calm; locking his eyes on the street as he watched the world move passed them.

They sat just beside the road, on a rusty bench right in front of a bookstore. The smell of carbon and smoke was painfully pungent, concentrated more each time a vehicle drove by. Lee Joe was quiet; breathing gradually became labor. “Hey Lee, are you alright?” Autumn sat up, looking into the smaller’s clouded eyes. The latter gently lit up, smiling from his eyes as he ran his hand through Autumn’s glossy hair. The way his fingers passed right through and how smooth they were on his fingertips made his heart dance with a sweet symphony. He had always wanted to it, running his hand on the latter’s hair. “I’ve never been better.” Those words made all his blood rush to his cheeks, burning and fluttering from the depths of his stomach; Autumn never felt so alive.

“Look at that child, Au.” Lee Joe pointed at a walking child amongst the busy street, all alone carrying a guitar strapped to his back. He looked like he was six or seven. Barely a kid yet, but the child was brave with passion burning in his eyes. Lee Joe envied him, his youth, and his future. A blank canvas yet to be written, he thought. For that child, nothing was yet decided. “Who is he?” Autumn asked, uninterested as worries grew inside him. Lee Joe was getting pale. “He’s my student. Well, ex-student actually. He writes wonderfully you know but he loved music, I guess he is on his way to his lessons. There an audition soon.”

Autumn finally looked.

Lee Joe was right, that child was gleaming bright within the packed street. The jumpy stride and unyielding confidence made him look as if the road was his to walk. He had pitch black, glossy hair and they grazed just above his eyebrows. For a child, he was fearless. The two couldn’t help but to adore him, smiling as they stared into his fading back in the crowd. “He is strong, his parents died you know. And he inherited millions but somehow, he was thrown into an orphanage. I told him that it was wrong, they were wrong but he smiled at me and said.”

“My family took away my money not my future. Shouldn’t I be thankful?” Lee Joe stared at his fingers; they were a shade of pale blue. He hated them, they were frail and they looked so sick, so dead to his eyes. However, it was because he couldn’t realize what that child had a long time ago. He despised the fate for taking away everything he had. He should’ve realized what he got back instead of hating on what he lost.

If he knew what that kid knew, he would have hold onto Autumn better and loved his sister better. He would have made more memories.

“You were just like him, Lee.” Autumn mumbled, taking the latter’s hands and massaging them as they gradually looked warmer. “13 years ago, you were just like that child. But you were gleaming because of hope and innocence. That is why; I fell for you and your dreams. They were kind and selfless.” Autumn pecked his hands, a long, loving kiss on each fingers.

“Don’t worry, you were much brighter. Just like how you see me, I see you glistening with life and warmth.”

“That is why; I fell in love with you. A god fell in love with you.” Autumn insisted, looking into the smaller’s eyes and once again, like he did the first time, filling it with love and hopes. “Don’t ever let that go.” He whispered.

•

The current of people suddenly paused as they heard a screeching tires noise on the road as a haunting, loud thud followed.  There were gasps and screams, filling the road while men and women started to swarm along the sides of the two-way lane.

“Oh god, poor child.”

“Call an ambulance!!! Please!”

“I… I …… SWEAR! I DIDN’T SEE HIM!! I SWEAR!!”

“Murderer!! “

“Get him to the sides now!! Please, move away!”

“What a tragedy…”

“Oh my…”

They gasped and they screamed, eyes entirely locked on the child as a man lifted him up and brought him to the sidewalk. His pretty, orange sweater was drenched in crimson and black tar as his head soaked in blood. The dangling, lifeless right limb made them all gag as the bone poked right through his flesh all broken and chapped. His right hand was torn apart. The child was barely breathing as his insides ruptured with injuries and cuts, drowning him inside out.

Autumn was speechless. It was a nightmare that neither of them could predict, they were so convinced of his bright future and there he was bleeding to death. Lee Joe covered his mouth in silence as his whole body trembled, he could barely see the child from their bench but it was as if he could smell the foul stench of death. “Jonghyun…” Autumn turned around, facing the smaller as he looked into the latter’s eyes, entirely confused. “What?”

“His name is Jonghyun. I remember now, its….” He froze while terror filled his eyes. Autumn scooted closer; desperately rubbing the smaller’s back. Lee Joe was not breathing. No, he was incapable of doing so. “Breathe dear, breathe.” Autumn reminded the young man, looking into his eyes and trying to hold him together. But Lee Joe did not improve at all, he kept shaking as his mouth opened wide, gasping vainly for air. “Please Lee, breathe…” Autumn was stuck. There was no way he could attract any attention, human could never see him and as much as he tried, it was useless. Only Lee Joe could.

“Ss..Save him Au… sa..ve… th…at…chi..ld…” Autumn’s eyes widened as his brows furrowed in an unexplainable manner. Inside, he could feel his guts knotting in a disturbing way as he shook his head side to side. No, he thought. Just no - whatever that was left in him, he wanted to use it for Lee Joe. The one he would save was Lee Joe.

“Hey…i.. I’m…f..fine. plea…se…. sa…v..vve…. that…child…A.a.”

“Au.” Lee Joe sat straight, trembling all over but determined. He was not dying – he convinced. He was even smiling as he raised his tremor-plagued hands to Autumn’s cheeks and rubbed them gently, again convincing the latter that it was alright. “He…n..nne..needs…t.he” the coughing had halted his words, as it jabbed right from his chest to his face. He could feel his own fingers numbing to the pain and losing its senses. “He…ne…needs…to…au….audi..tion” He giggled weakly, satisfied that his message was delivered. “Please….”

Autumn stood up slowly. His mind was blank as he looked at the boy he loved choking on mere air, so frail and weak. Mortality was ruthless, he figured. But Lee Joe’s request somehow showed him once more the power of compassion, proving that one’s soul was definitely eternal.  He turned around and stepped away, pain resonating from deep within his stomach and surfacing up his eyes.

After a moment, he was choking too. He sobbed and wailed as he walked away knowing that he was leaving Lee Joe to die on that bench.

There were endless tears, wetness streaming down his face as he made way to another soul that was invited by death. He looked at Jonghyun, seeing the child and listening. Indeed the young, fearless boy was calling for help.

“Help me….” the child breathed. Autumn took a moment and stood still. His mind still failing to register that behind him, within just a few steps, Lee Joe too was on the brink of death.

“Help.”