Head and heart light, stomach warm from the delicious honey hotteok he’d eaten earlier, Jongin walked along the street—eyes on his quarry. Watery sunshine peeked around the edges of the ice blue balloon as it drifted above him—in view but always just out of reach. It was so pretty—the exact same shade as the bubblegum blue cotton candy sold by the ahjumma in Yeuido Park.

Then Jongin shivered as a small gust of wind bit at his skin. He'd been following the balloon for a while now and abruptly, his feet stopped moving as he realized his mother’s warm hand was no longer wrapped around his. The chilly air of early spring settled on his cheeks, and the drizzle landed softly on his nose, making his skin prickle. The ice blue balloon floated along unnoticed as Jongin's eyes darted about in search of something that was a completely different color.

What if. . .?

He closed his eyes as a certain sense of dread crept through his limbs, and he turned around, whispering Please be there, please be there. But no matter how hard he looked, there was no sign of the yellow raincoat with the big hood. No sign at all. Fingers trembling, he gripped the edges off his hood—the same canary yellow as his friend’s because their ummas had bought them identical plastic raincoats from Dongdaemun—and pulled it as far down over his face as he could.

The light rain continued to fall, raindrops hitting the sidewalk steadily. And try as hard as he could, Jongin couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks. How would he find his umma? How would he find Suho hyung? What if no one found him before it turned dark? He looked up, and from under his hood, he could see the sky turning an intimidating shade of gray.

Should he backtrack and look for them or should he stay where he was? He wanted to try searching for them but his could hear his mother’s voice saying very clearly, Remember, Jonginnie, if we get separated just stay where you are. Do you understand? Stay where you are and I’ll find you. You too, Suho. And they had both nodded their heads solemnly as they took big bites of the honey hotteok they were eating out of plain white paper cups.

He knew he should wait but what if. . .what if? And then it was all too much for him. Tears already threatening to escape, Jongin sat down on a nearby bench and then he stopped trying to hold back the tears. Where was Suho hyung? He wanted Suho hyung. Suho hyung always gave him his favorite Binggrae banana milk and it always made everything okay again. But Suho hyung wasn't here and his umma wasn't here and there was no banana milk and he'd never see any of them again, Jongin thought as he rocked on the wood surface of the bench, crying as quietly as he could. He barely even noticed the discomfort as his jeans got soaked through. Around him, the rain fell in delicate curtains, making him feel even more miserable. He'd given up wiping the salty tracks off his cheeks minutes ago, because fresh tears just kept trickling down to wet them again anyway.

"It's okay, Jonginnie, don’t cry." An arm suddenly settled around his shoulders—an arm covered in canary yellow plastic.

“Hyung!” Relief flooded Jongin’s bones at the familiar voice and he was so glad his hyung had found him that he threw himself into the other boy’s embrace—their lips colliding by accident as Jongin crushed himself against Suho hyung. There was a brief look of surprise on Suho hyung’s face but he didn’t draw back or remove his arms, and Jongin forgot to be embarrassed and just clung to him as hard as he could, his face smushed into wet yellow plastic.

“You okay?” He asked as he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed the tears and the rain off Jongin’s face.

“I couldn’t see you and Umma anywhere. I was s-s-scared,” Jongin rubbed the moisture from his eyes with the back of his fist, bottom lip quivering.

“I’m here now, Jonginnie, don’t cry,” Suho hyung said kindly and that made Jongin cry even harder because what if he hadn’t found him?

“I’m trying but it’s not working,” Jongin said as he sobbed in his arms.

“Hush now,” the older boy said as he leaned forward and angled his head downwards so their rain-sprinkled foreheads and noses touched. “Shhh,” he took Jongin’s hand in his and squeezed it and finally, after a few more minutes of wheezy sobs, his best friend’s little brother stopped crying.

“Do you want some banana milk?” Suho hyung asked, their noses still touching.

“Yes.”

“Let’s go then,” he took Jongin’s hand in his larger one and led him to a stall a little further down the street so they could buy the Binggrae banana milk Jongin always craved from the nice ahjussi. And he didn’t even complain when Jongin held his hand in a viselike grip—hanging on to it like he would be cut adrift and lost forever if his hyung let go of his hand.

Armed with two bottles of yellow liquid that wasn’t much paler than their raincoats, they made their way back to the same bench where Suho hyung had found Jongin crying. Carefully, Suho hyung inserted the skinny blue straw into the plastic bottle before passing it to Jongin. Then he did the same for himself and they sat, side by side, sipping the milk. They were quiet for a while so there was nothing but the sound of traffic going by, the hurried footsteps of pedestrians, and slurping noises.

As Jongin swung his legs and sipped on his milk, Suho hyung started telling him about the episode of Digimon he’d missed because Umma had taken him to the dentist. Suho hyung’s calm, clear voice was soothing and Jongin liked that he always made time to talk to him even though he was three years younger; he wasn’t like Minho hyung who always called Jongin a brat and told him to ggeojyeo.

The sweetness of banana milk swimming on his tongue, Jongin stared at their linked hands as Suho hyung talked about Digimon. And he knew that even though Umma hadn’t found them yet, he was safe. Suho hyung was here. . .so he was safe.

a/n: for those of you who have read firefly sukai, I hope you enjoyed visiting with kid!Jongin and kid!Suho. Did you catch all the banana milk and Digimon references? ^^ For readers who haven’t read Back to You, I hope you’ll give it a try as it is my personal favorite of all the fics I’ve written.

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