(11) GENESIS

Warm orange skies engulf Kyungsoo in a careful embrace; not too loose to drop him, but also not too tight to break him, either. It’s warm and soft, and he’s not sure if it’s just him, but the smell of smoke and dirt lingers on his nose. His dry lips stick together, slowly separating when he eventually has to force them to, but his mouth is too numb to move, and his throat is too hesitant to speak. His wrist tingles, pulse beating violently against a bright glare that he can't make out. When he opens his eyes, his mind searches and searches for something to say when he sees a familiar face painted with golden lights and dark eyes, and he’s a little sad, even if he doesn’t know why.

He watches in silence at the boy before him, whose lips don’t do as much as twitch. His dark hair hangs over his eyebrows and he looks straight ahead, sweat lightly gleaming off his smooth neck until his skin is swallowed by the black that hangs off his shoulders. The grass ruffles under his steps, and soon the grass is replaced by stone, and as he steps up onto porch steps, Kyungsoo is slowly set onto the rough floor. It’s a bit uncomfortable, but the sleepiness that weighs his body down won’t let him move, so he keeps his eyes on the person above him, instead.

He’s a bit more clear this time, standing under the porch light and staring at Kyungsoo with gentle eyes, but Kyungsoo still can’t connect the dots. Rather, there are no dots to connect. He’s completely blank. He wants to say something when the boy’s hand reaches out to run his fingers through Kyungsoo’s messy hair, thumb brushing across the small tears that trickle down his cheeks, and the stranger lets out a small laugh and shows a weak smile. Kyungsoo can’t return it, though, because he doesn’t know why he’s laughing. He doesn’t know him. He doesn’t even know why he started crying, because his expression shows nothing and there is nothing. He can’t think of anything, and no matter how hard he tries, his face still remains dead and he’s still crying.

He can’t help but feel sad.

With a final, long eye-locking gaze, the boy stands up, straightens his shiny leather jacket and knocks on the front door of the house. When Kyungsoo blinks again, the boy is gone, and he falls asleep hypnotized by the dangling yellow light above him.

--

The next time he comes to, he’s in a bed in an unfamiliar bedroom with bandages on his arms and under his right eye. He’s a bit sore, bones cracking with every motion he makes, and he surpasses a yawn when he stretches his arms above his head. He turns his head to the left, then to the right, but there isn’t anything to really take note of. This room was simple and blue and white and brown. Red oak wood made up most of the furniture, and it was coated with designs of blue and tan fabric.

There was that feeling again. That feeling that made him dizzy. That feeling that put pounds on his poor brain, but even if he’s feeling feverish, he’s not exactly sure why. It drowns him a little, tugging at his chest, and there’s a panic- but then it’s gone before the memory could resurface. Within a second, the rush is gone, and he’s left with nothing. It leaves him confused, as if trying to remember a dream that he suddenly could not bring himself to remember. He gives up after a while.

Swinging his feet off the bed, he lets himself slide off the sheeting onto the cold floor. When he stands, he’s a little wobbly, but he makes his way towards one of the dressers across the room before he stops at the sight of something in the corner of his eye.

‘Who the hell is that?’ he thinks to himself, walking up to the figure before him. When he notices it walk towards him at the exact same time, he squints a little before mentally slapping himself in the face because the boy in the mirror before him was him.

His features matured from the last he remembers, and if he’s not mistaken, he also feels a bit taller. His gaze shifts downwards to his clothes, and he finds himself clad in a white shirt and navy blue pajama pants. Looking up again, he touches his face a little, still amazed at his grown features until he decides to tear away from the mirror before he had gotten stuck there.

Kyungsoo looks back to the window because he had forgotten to check if it were morning, and seeing as the light peered through the blinds with such great force, he determines that it’s a little later than morning. Opening the bedroom door slowly, he peeks his head out into the hallway and looks both ways before heading down towards the right where voices converse together.

When he steps foot into the living room, he finds a boy around his age and a woman a bit older talking to each other, their voices arguing about something too quiet to him to hear. When they notice his presence, the two of them immediately hush up and welcome him- or well, the woman did.

“You’re finally awake! Oh, whoop, where’s my manners. My name is Sunny, but can call me sis, okay?”

The boy across from her scoffed before leaning back in his chair, forcing the front two legs up in the air as he spoke. “Sis? More like old lady. What are you, a e?”

Sunny gasped before kicking her feet forward, letting the boy’s chair tip until he almost toppled back. He managed to latch on to the table before he had gone down, but even then the woman was kicking at his shins for being so rude. “I’m not trying to date him, you brat! And I’m not that old” She slapped his knee, to which he yelped and frowned. “Anyways, what’s your name?”

Kyungsoo let his eyes fall down onto his lap where his hands were, kneading the silk fabric of his pajama pants before glancing up at the other boy as he glowered about being kicked so much. The boy’s slanted eyes squinted as he rested his chin on his palm, leaning back and forth as his light brown hair swayed along with him. “Well? I’m not going to tell you what it is, so just be out with it!”

“K-Kyungsoo! Do Kyungsoo, I think…” He mumbled, letting his hair fall over his eyes as he kept his them glued to his feet. Kyungsoo’s a little uneasy with the sudden odd environment, not to mention that he just suddenly appeared. He prayed deep down that neither of the two would ask anymore questions, but to his dismay, the boy did.

“So? You’re not going to explain why you were outside of my house this morning? I swear, I almost tripped when I came back...” The boy glared hard into Kyungsoo’s entire being, words so sharp that it gave him the shivers.

Sunny nudged the boy’s leg with her foot before looking over at Kyungsoo who was too scared to speak. “You don’t have to tell us now, but it’s good that you at least told us your name. Oh yeah, and by the way…”

Both boys turned to look at Sunny, who already scooted her chair back before getting up and reaching out to the boy’s side of the table. “You didn’t tell me you went outside, you brat!”

Kyungsoo watched with wide eyes as she grabbed at the boy’s ears and yanked outwards without mercy. He yelped, words of apology spilling out of his mouth at such a high speed that it didn’t even sound human. With one final tug, the boy’s ears drooped down, and Kyungsoo stifles a laugh at how red his lobes flushed.

“What, you think this is funny? How would you like it then?” Kyungsoo had no time to move out of the way before the boy went in to grab his ears. He let out small screeches as he tugged and pinched. “Take this, damn it!”

Kyungsoo looked over at Sunny for help as his ears burned from the squeezing and tugging, only crying more internally as she just smiled. “It’s good to see you two getting along!”

The boy continued to twist Kyungsoo’s earlobes as he talked back to Sunny, clearly voicing his displeasure with the new person in the house. “I don’t understand why I have to share a room with him, though… I mean, why can’t we just do rock paper scissors to decide whose room he’ll stay in?”

Sunny sighed before holding her own fist up towards the boy, waiting for him as he pried a hand off one of Kyungsoo’s ears to play.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!”

There was a small pause before Sunny’s lips curled up into a small smirk. “Well, if you need me I’ll be in my room. Don’t forget to show Kyungsoo around, okay?” She skipped out from the room as the boy gave one last hard yank before letting him go, crossing his arms and letting out a tired huff.

By giving Kyungsoo the chance to let his ears cool down, he managed to take a better look at the house in detail. The layout was simple. It was only a one story house with two rooms down the hallway with another main room as their kitchen and living room area. The kitchen didn’t have much, but next to the door was a large cabinet full of sporting goods such as tennis rackets, soccer balls, almost any kind of sporting good you could name.

“Sunny really likes sports, so she always goes out and stuff to go and play with her friends.” The boy muttered as Kyungsoo eyed out the gold trophies lining the top most part of the shelf. “She was pretty good, but for some reason she dropped out and decided to work at a daycare... how stupid.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Kyungsoo had his head slightly tilted in a way that showed he didn’t understand the boy’s reasoning. Sure, kids could be a handful sometimes, but having a job at a daycare wasn’t that bad.

The boy wandered into the kitchen before pouring himself a cup of coffee, throwing Kyungsoo a glance before sighing and getting him a cup as well, taking both cups back to the living room table. He said his thanks and took the warm cup into his hands, frowning at the way his stomach churned at the sight of the steam wisps leaving the drink.

“Don’t like coffee?” Kyungsoo shook his head and inhaled the bitter scent, letting his body relax as it went into his lungs. It wasn’t a bad thing and honestly seemed appetizing, but for some reason, he didn’t want the drink anywhere near his lips at this time.

“I like it, I think…”

He set the cup down onto the table and watched the other boy drink his coffee instead, settling for just absorbing the scenery outside the windows if anything. The green fields and blue skies looked almost storybook like.

“So you barely know your own name and don’t remember your likes and dislikes. Tell me, are you like, naturally this indecisive?” The boy took another sip of his coffee before following as Kyungsoo did and setting it atop the wooden table.

Kyungsoo furrows his eyebrows, keeping his eyes on the steaming coffee. “...I don’t remember,” he confesses. “...Sorry.”

The boy only presses his lips together, nodding his head. “...It’s okay, I guess. You’re not the only one.”

Kyungsoo looks back up at his words. “There’s more?” he asks, and the other nods his head.

“I was like that, believe it or not. I came here two years ago without  any idea of where I was and why I was here. I only knew my name…” he pauses. “There’s another guy like us here, too. He visits sometimes, I guess…” the boy leans on his hand, frowning a little bit. Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow.

“You never did tell me your name…” he says. The other lets out a small laugh.

“My name is Byun Baekhyun.”

--

The two of them got to know each other after an awkward game of 21 questions, becoming a little more friendlier as they talked. It wasn’t because the two of them had nothing to speak about, but the way that they described everything either made an “aha!” moment or would be strikingly similar for the both of them.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter