Something was fishy and looking at Hyukjae´s blank stare, I knew he felt the same. When Hyukjae masked his emotions, he had a reason for it and it only supported warnings my own intuition was sporting.

“You were right, Leeteuk,” the headmaster slowly arrived to us with his hands clasped behind his back. His big statue was slowly swaying from left to right as his age didn´t give him a chance to walk faster. “This kid is ambitious.” The principal stopped next to Hyukjae. I stood protectively right behind the boy, prepared for anything. There was no reason for my action but it didn´t make me any less alarmed.

“I little presumptuous, don´t you think songsaeng-nim?” Jungsu asked rhetorically. My friend had to be careful in these situations. Officially he was the highest rank in this building but the older police men and school stuff were showing their dominance in every situation they could. And Park Jungsu could neither submit nor ignore them. His diplomatic skills were the main reason he was chosen for his position.

“But he does have the potential to make it far,” the principal immediately countered. The battle for dominance was happening this year in the cafeteria, huh. It´s like that every time these two have to meet. What I didn´t like was that the ball in their match was this time playing Hyukjae. And the Fairy wasn´t in his best condition today.

“That´s definitely true but he also have the potential to get too far,” Jungsu said and glared at the headmaster. This wasn´t good. Unintentionally my friend was turning against Hyukjae as the principal started siding with the boy.

“I will make sure that Hyukjae gets well prepared for the future that´s ahead of him,” the oldest in the room patted Hyukjae´s back and the blonde flinched. Imbecile! Doesn´t he know that it´s uncomfortable to touch the wings?!

Once the hand was away, I stepped even closer so my chest was against Hyukjae´s back. The blonde got startled again and glanced over his shoulder. But when he realised it was just me, he turned back and even leaned backwards a little. I pushed my hands into my pockets so I wouldn´t be tempted to his hair or do something to calm the boy down. The situation wasn´t appropriate and there were many witnesses too. I had to hold back and hope that at least closing the space between us would help.

“That future you are talking about is my responsibility, though,” Jungsu said firmly. Now that was bad news. The headmaster was ready to counter him again and probably worsen the situation when Hyukjae took another risk and spoke up.

“Although I would prefer my future to be in my own hands, I will of course do my very best to meet the expectations of both of my teachers,” the blonde then bowed deeply to Jungsu and the principal. The higher ups were both stunned and pleased by the statement that next only followed hollow phrases about working hard and studying well. I let out a long sigh, that was a close call. Again.

Soon the crowd had to disperse as we had to go to the gymnasium and watch the long expected freak show, or talent show if you prefer the official term. Hyukjae stayed with me because, indeed, he wasn´t allowed to participate in the program. But it was apparent that he preferred sitting next to me on the uncomfortable wooden chair and chatting about TV shows instead of stupidly dancing on the stage dressed in something flamboyant.

“If Seunggi was here he would sing on the stage, he was much better than the kid over there,” Hyukjae gestured to a squirrel in front of us holding a mic, “it´s a pity he-“

A little brake in Hyukjae´s speech made me glance at him. He shook his blonde hair and finished the sentence. “He moved back home.”

It almost broke my heart hearing him say that. Even in this moment Hyukjae had to think of who might be listening and had to pretend he ate the lie they told him. He had to act as if he was happy for his friend that returned home when in reality the boy died just a couple of hours ago. I knew Hyukjae would have it hard to find friends here and was surprised that he managed to befriend somebody so quickly. But the ubiquitous bad luck of his had to strike again. Out of all the kids in here, the next victim had to be Hyukjae´s only friend.

“At home he can finally find his peace,” I said and used the fact that the part for the audience was dim-lit, almost dark. I took my hand out of my pocket and ran my fingers through Hyukjae´s soft hair. It was very short at the back now and felt funny. It made me smile a little.

“Mm,” Hyukjae hummed. I didn´t know if it was a reaction to my consolation or to the but it sounded pleased.

“Hyung? You didn´t bring me anything?” He suddenly asked me and looked at me expectantly.

“Bring you something? Like what? You have everything in here and I´m not Santa,” I answered and rolled my eyes.

“Like really? You didn´t bring anything? So stingy,” Hyukjae retorted and in protest turned to watch the show. He was pouting and blowing his cheeks. I only chuckled. In times like these I could feel the rare childishness from him and it made me feel like everything wasn´t lost yet. Hyukjae was still a teenager and nothing less.

“By the way,” I poked his cheek, “what´s with the hairstyle?”

“Well, it was hard to manage when it was too long and after I was busted that my knee injury wasn´t that serious, I started doing some sports and the shorter cut was better. You don´t like it? Does it look stupid?” Hyukjae started raking his hair with his fingers and moving various strands of hair from one side to another. And I thought that a nerd like Hyukjae wouldn´t care for appearance. But he did bleach his hair and never wore anything I offered him from my waredrobe.

“No, it looks cute on you,” I answered and Hyukjae frowned. Cute wasn´t probably the word he wanted to hear but that´s exactly the reason I used it. “I like it.”

“Okay,” Hyukjae stopped sulking at that and smiled a little. I guess he also likes hearing some prises.

The show ended fast as we amused ourselves by chatting. We couldn´t talk about anything regarding the school, Hyukjae´s friend or the cases I was working at. Yes, just like you´ve guessed, Hyukjae was right with his tip and we were now working on two separate cases. One was almost finished while the other was far from the conclusion.

Soon I was standing at the door and giving Hyukjae my goodbyes. Most of the cars were already gone, only few remained including Jungsu´s white turned black Maserati. The director had to officialy say his thanks for the invitation and all that bureaucratic stuff, in fact it the festival was just a pretext for an inspection from the ASC. Hyukjae looked honestly sad that the day was ending and I had to put some effort to make him talk to me.

When Jungsu finally arrived, we both wished Hyukjae good luck and walked to the car. I was waiting for the very last moment and then pretended to remember something. I climbed out of the passenger seat and opened the trunk. I took two bags from it, one paper bag and one plastic. I gestured for Hyukjae to come and take it. When he was in front of me and about to touch the bags, I opened my arms and hugged him instead. Hyukjae didn´t protest and pushed himself even closer to me. He grabbed my red coat and buried his face into the crook of my neck. He asked me something totally unexpected and instead of answering I kissed his temple. After that of course I felt too embarrassed and ended up pushing the bags hard against his tummy. Hyukjae fell on the ground and I in the meantime ran back to the car and told Jungsu to step on it. For the rest of the drive I kept repeating Hyukjae´s words.

“Hyung, I´m not disappearing so come back for me even if it had to take years, okay?”

Asa! A little fluff for you all after all those sad happenings. I hope that everything makes sense for you already (except for the things I haven´t revealed yet of course). :) I want the story to be mysterious, not confusing so let me know, if I didn´t explain something properly or made a mistake. EunHae comeback is just around the corner, yahoo. :D Take care everyone and have a nice evening (day for the other timezones) - PandaHero