He was walking with his hands on the pockets of his hoodie, aware of the strange silence that surrounded him. He had just delivered the package of the day. He’d feel odd whenever this part of his job showed up again but there was nothing he could do about it. He needed this job to survive in the messed up world he was born in.

When he heard stories about how the world was 20 years ago, he couldn’t believe it was the same Planet Earth where he lived. People talked about blue skies with white clouds and a bright sun in the day and a weak but beautiful moon with amazing stars during the night. It sounded so ridiculous and unbelievable but he hated it the most because he’d have liked to live in that world as well. He’d have liked to wake up because of that beautiful sunshine his mother used to talk about, instead of the sound of thunderstorms every morning.

After The Wave that attacked the Planet Earth 16 years ago, the sky was only orange in the day and dark gray in the night. He hated the fact that the ‘sky blue’ colour had that name because there was no such thing as a ‘blue sky’.

The bus station was just two blocks away when his phone ringed on his pocket. He didn’t want to take it out at that place but he would not usually get calls in the middle of the night so this one should be important.

“Hel-” he couldn’t even finish talking because of a trembling and desperate voice at the other side of the phone.

“Min, how long will it take you to get home? I need you here urgently.” It was Wonwoo. Usually, he wouldn’t be worried or bothered by anything. He’d take every situation very calmly and that would piss Mingyu off but that’d also help him to control his emotions in stressing circumstances. So this time, it must’ve been an important situation.

“I haven’t even boarded the bus, what’s going on?”

“I can’t tell you this through the phone. Someone might hear us. Let’s meet there in 15 minutes. Don’t be late.”

“Wait, Wonwoo! Jeon Wonwoo! What’s going on? Hyung!”

The thing Mingyu hated the most was when people didn’t give explanations. That’s why he hated what happened to the planet: because no one knew exactly what happened. Some scientists said a star exploded near to the Earth and the echo of its explosion created the strange phenomenon that made the sky change its colours, the sun disappear completely and all sort of different animal species to extinct.

Even the technology before The Wave worked differently than nowadays, because all the antennas collapsed even though the spatial satellites still worked perfectly, so scientists had to create new technology for phones, television, home appliances, etc. Even if machines like launders, freezers, blenders or such didn’t have anything to do with antennas or satellites, unexplainably, even those were affected by the changes The Wave produced.

And just like he hated the word ‘unexplainably’, he hated that Wonwoo had cut the call in a matter of nothing, without explaining anything. Wonwoo even knew how much Mingyu hated this yet he dared to do it now.

What could it be about? Mingyu hadn’t done anything to be scolded about but even if he did, Wonwoo wouldn’t call him with that shaky voice and tell him to meet somewhere else than their place. Whatever the reason was and whatever Wonwoo had to say, Mingyu would have three times more things to scold him about.

The place Wonwoo told him was the park they first met at, 7 years ago. Mingyu was only 9 back then and his mother had just passed away. He was coming home from the memorial, where only 3 people attended and didn’t even care about a boy living by his own after the death of his mother. Mingyu was crying hidden behind the slide because he was scared of going back to a lonely house where only memories of his mother would remain. He didn’t even know how to cook and that scared him more. He thought he was going to die of starvation in a matter of days.

But in the middle of all that mess, some boy suddenly sat in front of him. Mingyu had his head hidden between his arms and legs when he felt the presence of someone next to him. The boy turned out to be just one year older and another orphan like him, but different to Mingyu, the boy didn’t even meet his parents. He was raised in an orphanage and he had escaped a year ago.

Mingyu asked him how did he live alone by himself when he was just his age and he couldn’t think of anything like that. Wonwoo told him he learnt how to do all those things in the orphanage because ever since he was 5, he had planned of running away from that deadly place.

Wonwoo was everything Mingyu knew besides his mom. He never had friends when he was a kid because his mother always told him not to trust anyone and just trust her. She also said she’d never leave him alone, but she failed this promise. So Mingyu decided to trust his all to Wonwoo this time, since he looked reliable like his mother and Mingyu felt secure around him.

Wonwoo didn’t take care of Mingyu, they both took care of each other, since they were almost the same age. Wonwoo would teach Mingyu how to cook or do the house chores, and Mingyu would tell Wonwoo all the stories his mom told him about how the world was before and they would comment how it was impossible to be this way. The bound between Wonwoo and Mingyu was beyond a normal friendship and they’d feel satisfied to be everything for each other.

This is what Mingyu thought about on the way to meet Wonwoo, which made him smile brightly. He usually would be quite excited to come to this park, especially if Wonwoo called him for it because that meant Wonwoo also considered this place especial for them.

But when Mingyu got to the park, Wonwoo was nowhere to be seen, which was weird. Whenever he appointed Mingyu somewhere, Wonwoo would be the first to get to the place so this time it worried him.

“Aish, why does he tell me not to be late when he’s gonna come later.” Mingyu mumbled while sitting on a bench.

Minutes passed and Wonwoo still hadn’t arrived yet. This was getting even weirder and it made Mingyu worried for real now. He stood up from the bench and started looked around in the park. Maybe Wonwoo was hiding somewhere. He looked in the merry-go-round, the jungle gym, near the seesaw, the slide, the swing and the monkey bars but there was no trace of Wonwoo anywhere. This was getting even stranger and Mingyu was starting to have a bad feeling about this. He took his phone and dialed Wonwoo but the phone was turned off.

That was it. Mingyu completely lost it now. Wonwoo would’ve never been late and he would never turn off his phone, even more so when he was appointed to meet Mingyu. Something was off and he didn’t like it. Wonwoo would tell Mingyu to calm down first before losing control of himself but this time it was a weird situation and he couldn’t just stay calmed now.

But he didn’t know what to do either. If he left the park, what if Wonwoo came back to look for him but Mingyu missed it? But if he stayed in the park, what if some gangsters had come for Wonwoo and took him somewhere? Or what if Wonwoo had passed out somewhere on the way to meet Mingyu? He couldn’t leave the park but he couldn’t just stay there. He had to do something and it had to be done now.

Mingyu decided to calm down first. He went to the slide and looked at the corner where he met Wonwoo for the first time. He squatted down and sat with his back rested on the slide. He didn’t remember when was the last time he tried to sit in this place but had grown too tall now and his legs barely fit the space there anymore.

But he felt secured. He felt like Wonwoo would appear at any time and everything would go back to its place. So he hid his face between his long legs and arms and decided to wait a few minutes there.

About 10 minutes passed when Mingyu saw a white thing buried in the ground next to his foot. It looked like a note so he moved the sand with his foot and took the note to him.

It was a letter with Wonwoo’s handwriting.

hi~ here's the first chapter ^^ i hope you enjoyed it and recommend it to others too haha. please leave comments and upvote my story if you like it. thanks everyone for reading ♥