Cold air filled my lungs, leaving my mouth in a huff of fog barely a second later and disappeared into the morning air and for a moment, I let myself listen to the sound of heavy waves crashing against the shore in the distance. The sky was grey swirl of overcast clouds and the trees surrounding the house blurred together in an endless dust brown, the same color of the leaves that scattered the ground and covered every bit of what once was green. Those leaves crunched under my feet as I stepped off the front porch and walked my way to the pick-up truck that sat parked a little ways from the half fallen barn that was no longer used for its intended purpose.

   The loud creak of the hinges on the truck door no longer made me cringe, as I’d heard the sound too many time before. I slid inside the cabin and started the old engine after several attempts, the radio bid me a good morning with the song playing on the station that I’d left on the day before.

   Autumns’ were always like this, here, in the nameless parts of the world.

   I passed no one on the road the entire eight mile drive into the town that sat on the coast, south of the farm house that was my whole inheritance of my parents’ passing. The town was small, to say the least, no more than a few hundred inhabitants, but the cabins on the beach were beautiful and rented out to tourists year in and out. Most of the families were loggers or farmers but there were several people, here and there, that worked in town, like me.

   The sound of the gravel under my tires drowned out the radio as I pulled into the lot and parked in the same spot I always did, just behind the gas station.

   “Morning, Sunshine~” A cocky familiar voice welcomed me the second I opened the car door and as I closed it with an obnoxiously loud, creaking thud, I looked up to see my best friend leaning against the side of the building while he took a long drag from a cigarette. He exhaled the white smoke. “You really should get a new car. How old is that thing now, a hundred?”

   “It’s not that old.” I grumbled, looking back at my truck. I loved that truck. It was reliable, sturdy, and I spent my childhood sitting next to my dad while he drove that truck. Something my idiot friend would never understand.

   “Dude,” He said as he tossed his cigarette and followed me inside the gas station that we kept up together. “It’s from before we were born. That’s old.”

   “We were born in ’89, Taec . . . that’s not old.” I retorted.

   I could practically hear Taecyeon roll his eyes behind me “It is for a car.” He mumbled and walked past me to take up his usual place behind the counter. Not bothering to argue any further, I went over to the counter by the window and put on the pot of coffee, just like I did every morning, before grabbing sweet bun off the counter and slipping my baseball cap on and disappearing through the workshop doors in the back of the building. It was the slow pattern of my life, my comfort zone, you could call it. There was nothing else.

   There was no one else.

The sun was well hidden behind the late afternoon clouds by the time I left the gas station, beginning the lonely drive back home. Taec’s mom had brought lunch for the both of us and sent me home with a plate for dinner. She was a kind woman; her smile reminded me of my own mother.

   Memories flashed through my mind, summers spent working the farm in blistering heat, a rainy day spent inside while my mother baked my birthday cake. Before long, I pulled up in the rocky driveway littered with red and brown speckles of leaves. The house looked empty and abandoned in this light, and I couldn’t help but think about how Taecyeon suggested I repaint the place the last time he had visited. Maybe he was right, but I was holding on to something, some fleeting piece of a better part of my life.

   I got out of the car and made the walk to the house. It was warmer than this morning, but windier. The breeze from the ocean was usually stopped by woods but in the fall, once all the leaves dropped, the wind was killer, rustling up wisps of leaves in tiny clusters that ran across the empty back yard.

   As I unlocked the door, I heard a stumbling sound around the other side of the house and reached inside to grab the baseball bat that I kept by the threshold. My heart was pounding. I held the bat up, ready to swing, and took slow steps around the edge of the house.

   My eyes widened when I saw him.

   His hands and knees were covered in mud. He was small, fragile looking, with pale skin that was stretched over his completely body. His light brown hair settled in curls on his dirty face and his dark eyes looked wearily at me, like a startled animal. He couldn’t have been much older than twenty. I dropped the bat and stared for a moment, my eyes lingering on his ness before I looked back at his face as to not be rude. “A-Are you alright?” I asked him but he just looked at me blankly, as if he didn’t understand.

   “Um . . . Are you okay?” I tried asking in English but he still didn’t seem to understand. “Do you speak?”

   Finally, he nodded. But that was it.

   “So you just don’t want to speak to me.” I mumbled to myself and then found my eyes glancing down at his exposed body yet again. I quickly turned away this time, pulling the flannel shirt I was wearing off and holding it out to him. “H-Here . . . Why don’t you cover yourself with this, and then . . . come inside?”

   Why was I letting this stranger into my home? I asked myself but received no answer. I just felt like it was what I was supposed to do.

   The stranger stared at the shirt in my hand before reluctantly taking it and looking at it skeptically. He then started to put his arms through the sleeves of the shirt and I rushed forward to stop him. “Not that way.” I reached out to him but he jerked back and I dropped my hands. “I’m not gonna hurt you . . . I just wanted to show you.”

   When he seemed to relax a little, I reached out again and slowly took the shirt from him, taking the sleeves and wrapping them around his waist to tie them, letting the back of the shirt act as a covering for his more private areas. My cheeks were burning red as I accidentally brushed his soft skin lightly, but he didn’t seem to care at all, nor did he refrain from staring at me. The look in his eyes reminded me of a child, seeing something for the very first time.

   I stepped back when I was done and nodded. “That’s better.” I tried to smile but his face was emotionless and I immediately felt discouraged and just motioned towards the house. “This way, please.” I started walking to the house and then I heard that same stumbling and looked back to see him leaning against the house and nearly crawling through the leaves, dragging his feet like he couldn’t walk. I rushed forward just before he fell on the ground and caught him.

   “Are your legs hurt?” I asked frantically, lifting his weight in my arms. He shook his head and I was about to ask if he was serious, but that same look in his eyes told me that he most definitely wasn’t joking. So I carried him.

   Pushing the front door open with my foot and closing it with a light kick, I slipped my shoes off and carried him up the creaky stairs into the bathroom. “Whatever’s wrong with you, we can figure it out after a nice bath, how’s that sound?” I glanced at him but his eyes were literally everywhere but on me. He looked around as I took him to the bathroom and sat him down on the closed toilet seat. I ran the bath water and plugged the drain, grabbing a couple towels from the closet and looking at him shyly. “Y-You don’t need help . . . cleaning up, do you?”

   He took a moment to understand but when he did, he shook his head and relief washed over me. I helped him stand and make the few shaky steps to the bathtub, lifting him and setting him inside gently before taking the flannel shirt away from his waist and forcing my eyes to stay up. He was shorter than me and tilted his head to look me in the eyes. “Do you have a name?”

   At first, he seemed reluctant again, as if he was debating on what to say, but eventually his plump lips parted and in the softest, deepest voice, he spoke. “Junho.”

   “I’m Nichkhun.” I said, and that was the first time I saw his blinding smile.

A/N: Aigoo...this didn't turn out how I planned...BUT it's really early in the morning and I'm tired and I'm sure it'll be better after I update, which will most likely be soon <3333 Sorry for any typos, I'll fix it later on in the morning after I've slept~