Chapter One

Suburbia

Today is probably the worst day that ever happened in ten years of Seungcheol’s life. She had promised, his mother did. That it will be the last time he has to transfer school, and it was seven months ago. Now, when he manages to make friends with his new friends at school, he has to leave yet again for the third time in three years. He understands that his father’s work requires them to move from one place to another, but Seungcheol just hate this place the most. It is a small town on the countryside which he never heard the name of. He likes the city better, he likes to play around his late neighborhood without having to be concerned of getting attack by a wild boar or something. “At least we don’t have to worry about Seungcheol being kidnapped ” and so his mother explained.

Somehow the trip to their new home is much more boring than he expected to be. The road was quite bumpy, and he doesn’t like to sit for five hours long in the car. “When are we going to arrive?” He glances outside the window . “Soon, dear” his mother replies short. She actually loving the idea of them moving to the town, big city is not a good place for a child to grow up, apparently she thought so. His father is driving the car faster, knowing that the sun almost reaches the horizon and he wants them to arrive before dark. The car pulls over on a certain road not far from the main road. It’s 6 pm when they reached what Seungcheol guess as their new house. A two story house painted in light brown, steel fences around the yard. His mother makes a squeal when she saw a small gazebo in the corner of the house, surrounded with grapes plants creeping around the wooden cabin.

“Where’s my room?” Seungcheol finally decides to ask before his parents get busy with moving things into the house. “Upstairs, sweetheart” His mother replies between her instruction as some people moves her tea pots collection. He walks up the stairs, wondering which hallway he should pick, and he choose to walk left. He walks past a room that has a king sized bed, boxes already settled on the floor with books, shoes, and clothes mark on the sides, those are his brother’s belonging. He walks further to the end of the hallway, the door makes a cracking sounds as he pushed the knob, he struggles to find the switch on the walls only to find the light bulb wasn’t even installed, he pushes open the window and the silver light from the outside seeping in. There’s already a single bed in the middle of the room, a desk and book shelf near the window, and a big cupboard across the bathroom. He sits there, on his bed, looking around his new room between the dim.
Creak

He sweeps his head outside the window. Both curiosity and fear fills in, call him paranoid, but Seungcheol hates ghosts, and someone, or something might have been offended with his coming on the room. Who knows? Slowly he peeks out the open window, looking around to find the source of the noise.

And his eyes finally met those dark orbs. They are like a bottomless abyss that Seungcheol prays he will never fall into, but somehow their gravity finally attract him to stare longer. There’s a boy, sitting below his window, both hands hugging his knees. His black hair is covered in a hood of his oversized worn off jacket. He flinches as Seungcheol cranes his neck further to take a full glance of the boy. “Hello? Who are you?”

The boy hesitates, biting his bottom lip. “I’m Seungcheol, who are you?” Seungcheol repeats.

“Je-Jeonghan” Seungcheol smiles. “Is it okay if i come down to you, Jeonghan?” Seungcheol takes the silence Jeonghan gives him as a yes as he sprints downstairs, giving his mother ‘i’ll walk around’ excuse. Jeonghan still there, but this time standing up near the apple tree.

“Hey, do you live around here?” The other boy mumbles softly “no”, Seungcheol walks closer, making Jeonghan squeezes himself further towards the tree. He seems to be uncomfortable with Seungcheol’s sudden movement, but still manages to keep his composure. “I just moved here” Jeonghan hesitantly accept his handshake.

Seungcheol observes that Jeonghan is shorter from him by a few centimeters, and is really skinny for a boy . His knees is covered in dirt and scratches, some of the dried off blood taints his pale legs. His thin lips pressed into a line, eyes wanders on the ground for God knows what makes Jeonghan attracted to stare at it instead. “So-sorry” Jeonghan pulls his hand from Seungcheol.

“For?”

“Getting into your yard” Seungcheol smiles at the sudden apology. “It’s okay, what are you doing here anyway?”

“I’m looking for a cat” Jeonghan fiddles with his fingers, gaze still on the ground. “Yours?”
“No,.... my friend’s” Jeonghan must be an angel that he is willing to look for someone else’s cat up until late. Those wounds seems to be new, Jeonghan must have hurt himself while looking for the cat.
“It’s late already, you should go home and continue tomorrow” Seungcheol remembers his mother freaks out when he comes home late, and every mother will surely react the some way when their children hasn’t come home. Jeonghan’s parent’s too. “yes”
His eyes fall, both in disappointment and sadness, and Seungcheol doesn’t like it.

“What about i help you search for the cat tomorrow?”

For the first time, Jeonghan eventually takes an initiative to look at Seungcheol’s eyes rather than the ground. “You will?”

Seungcheol nods, “I still have few days off before school starting, i can help you” the smile is worth the offers. Because Jeonghan can get a helping hand, and Seungcheol thinks Jeonghan can be his friend. It’s a win for both of them.
“See you tomorrow then?” Seungcheol doesn’t want to sounds rude, but he just want Jeonghan to get home quickly so his parents won’t be worry.

“Yes,see you tomorrow,Seungcheol” and Jeonghan disappears behind the back door. Eventually waving his oversize sleeves covered hand.

~~~
Seungcheol finds the new neighborhood to be really quiet. There’s no honking sounds of morning rush, and everybody just seems to like greeting each others. The new maid of the house, Mrs. Kim has started working since today, and she is the first person to kindly greet him as soon as he arrived on the kitchen for breakfast. The house is still busy, this going to take at least three days to make his mom satisfied with all the furniture’s arrangement. He’s going to be all alone. “Can i go playing outside today?”

“With who?” his mom asks. But then she realizes something “Ah-right. Go, have fun and be careful”

He realizes his stupidity of not asking Jeonghan when and where to meet. Jeonghan probably going to come here, right? But when?
He waited for a good two hours at the staircase, waiting for a certain boy to appear on the front gate, but the day has passed midday and the boy he’s waiting for is yet on the sight. “I thought you said you will play outside?” the kind Mrs. Kim appears, shovel and gloves on both hands. “This is outside”

“But you’re not playing”

She is right, none of the wait is fun. Maybe he should’ve just ditch Jeonghan and play alone somewhere. “There’s a park down the road, there might be something there for your interest” and so he follows Mrs. Kim’s suggestion, dragging his feet down the road. The park is huge, there is a swing set, a slide and a wooden castle for him to play in the corner, he can run or maybe roll along the huge field if he wants to-apparently he doesn’t want to do that- , all the place for himself.

Not until he notices a specific maroon jacket on the balcony of the wooden castle. He climbs carefully, afraid that the old structure would collapse if he grips on the railings too hard. “You didn’t come”
Startled seem to be a very natural reaction to Seungcheol’s presence as Jeonghan falls on his back and looks up at Seungcheol. “Jeonghan, what happened?”
The pale boy is still wearing the same attire, the same blood and bruises still painting his delicate skin. “You didn’t come home last night?” Seungcheol feels like talking to himself because the latter shuts his lips tight at every question. Maybe Jeonghan doesn’t want to talk about it, Seungcheol thought. And Jeonghan is grateful because Seungcheol doesn’t ask any further. They stay quiet for fifteen minutes, with Seungcheol occasionally glance at the other boy.

“I was waiting for you since this morning” Seungcheol decides to break the silence “Sorry”
Jeonghan’s face is as white as a sheet of paper, as if the blood doesn’t reach his head, shivering under the broad day light. He tugs on Jeonghan’s shoulder lightly, the later just smiles “You’re sick”

“No,i’m fine”

This time Seungcheol boldly put his hand on Jeonghan’s forehead “you’re burning!”
“I’m fine”
Jeonghan is either stubborn or simply idiot to insist that he’s fine. Seungcheol understands Jeonghan doesn’t want to come home, he just doesn’t understand why. “Come with me, then”
Those doe eyes like staring in surprise, but then looks away. “No,i- i will go home”
Seungcheol just doesn’t understand Jeonghan. He even prevent him with all his might when Seungcheol insist of taking Jeonghan home, reasoning that his house is far. Seungcheol offers him to take him by car, he’s sure his father wouldn’t mind to give his son’s new friend a ride few blocks away, but Jeonghan still refuses. “It’s okay,i can go home on my own”

“See you tomorrow, then?” and Jeonghan nods. The picture of Jeonghan’s fragile frame disappears from Seungcheol’s sight lingers on his mind even until dinner. “How was your day? meet some good friends around?”

“His name is Jeonghan,but he doesn’t live around here”
“Where does he live then?”

Seungcheol doesn’t know where Jeonghan lives, he doesn’t even know his age, nor where he is schooling or simply his first name. Seungcheol doesn’t know about Jeonghan. Not except his name and how Jeonghan can be a very mysterious. And as the days pass, Jeonghan doesn’t come around the neighborhood, even when Seungcheol wait on top of the wood castle’s balcony until evening, he never come. His break is now over and he has to start going to school. Seungcheol doesn’t know why Jeonghan’s name slips through his lips when he and Taehyung, his new seatmate, sits under the cherry blossom tree in between their P.E class. “Never heard of,is he a senior?”

“I don’t know, i only know his name”
Ever since that day,Taehyung then started to about Jeonghan,Seungcheol’s first love, and literally spreading the words at the girls who are having their eyes on the city boy transfer student. Days turn into months, and the thought of Jeonghan has slipped to the back at Seungcheol’s head as he makes a lot of friends both in school and neighborhood. Somehow he’s not frowning over their moving again, and his parents are happy with that. Years has passed in a blink of an eye and Seungcheol is twelve now, and he’s preparing to a junior high soon . Elementary is fun, he has a lot of friends, thanks to the social butterfly Taehyung who literally drags him around. His grade is slowly topping the list, second place this time. Summer break is around the corner, and Seungcheol is excited of their parent’s plan of paying a visit to his grandfather in the city. Seungcheol misses the city and his old friends.

When the summer comes, His father yet once again has to cancel the vacation because of a sudden business trip to Europe and his mother is going to have a conference in the next town for a week. His mother eventually suggests him to spend the break at his brother’s place, but no, Seungcheol turns down the idea.

The boredom leads his feet again to the park down the road. The park seems to be much smaller compared to the last time he’s here. Maybe because Seungcheol is growing bigger. The wood castle is still there, exactly looks like Seungcheol imagine to become. He wants to climb up, but afraid that his current body wouldn’t fit the place again. So he just sits on the swing, both long limbs dragged around the ground since the swing is too low for him. He looks up at the balcony, slowly recalling the image of small boy in a maroon jacket curling on the corner.
Wondering how the other boy is doing after all the year. He also wonders when he stopped asking his neighborhood’s friends about Jeonghan. Maybe because no one knows him, that’s why Seungcheol gave up, that’s why he should give up. Because the other boy might be doing the same thing, giving up on Seungcheol.

~~~

 Hey~ It's been ages since the last time I write something, and also my first time writing a boy x boy couple so it's kind of awkward (hide) but I couldn't resist the temptation of shipping this cute couple! 

This story is inspired by the beautiful Troye Sivan and his amazing album and of course  by jeongcheol couple. Have a listen to the album guys, and the mv oh my God, I'm crying buckets. 

Last but not least,  thank you for reading, please do leave somecomments, either request or critic are welcomed! (but please go easy on me T_T).

With love,

Deerchoding ~