*Flashback*

“-- Han, hurry-- they’ve almost caught up to us,” A voice croaks urgently, as the leaves on the ground rustle beneath the two souls' sprinting feet.

The night was dark and still, the stars had already planted themselves into their special ground that we call the sky. They twinkled and helped light up a path down onto Earth, supporting and guiding lost souls.

Tonight was not like any other, two frantic souls running through the misty, foggy night in search for shelter. Somewhere they could hide momentarily, before the goons that were chasing them catch up.

The taller boy pulls the shorter one by the wrist roughly, the latter standing behind him as he peeps through the tree bark to see if there was anyone near by.

“Hey--I’m not-””
“Shh, Han, keep quiet. It's possible they can be close to us. Come closer-”
“L-let go, it stings-”
“Han, stop twisting my arm along with yours, is this the way you repa-”

The thick, awkward atmosphere crumbles the second a loud vibrating sound echoes throughout the forest.

♪ Will you stay by my side? Will you promise me? If I let go of your hand, you’ll fly away and break. I’m scared, scared, scared of that ♪

The taller boy’s phone springs to life in his denim jacket pocket, almost softly cursing with a “ho, not now”, still holding onto the younger and more fragile boy. He huffs as he attempts to quickly grab his cellphone, which only resulted in toughening his hold on his friend.

“Ow,” A soft yet urgent grunt is heard from the shorter male.
“Ah, sorry,” He replies once again loosening his grip, turning to squint at his phone. The bright light momentarily blinding him before-
“Han?--” He asks in astonishment looking from his phone to the figure beside him. The light dazzles his eyes more than what he expects. He grunts, his eyes finally readjusting a moment later, only to see he has answered the call.

“Hello? Han, why the hell are you calling me when you're here- hold on, of course, his phone must have dropped-,” The taller boy stops babbling on and pauses to take the phone away from his ear. He double takes, because it was actually his best friend’s number that he had received a call from. He loosens his grip on his friend beside him, and whispers a soft, “strange, I guess you dropped your phone” before placing the phone back to his earlobe. “Erm, sorry. Who is this and why do you have my best friend’s phone?”

A short and eerie silence responds. He assumes the phone was cut, before he hears a chuckle, rough and short. He could identify that laugh anywhere, at any time, it was defi-

“Seungcheol, what on earth are you going on about?”

“Han? What the f-f…, why are you calling me when you're right here?”

In the background, the shorter boy was squirming full on now trying to get away from the hold that he had grown stronger over time. “Let go,” was repeated over and over again, since the start of the conversation.

“Seungcheol, what in the heavens are you going on about? I just got married?” Came the response, curt and direct.

Seungcheol felt his knees go weak as his heart sank.

This was not how the day was supposed to go. Junghan was not meant to be married. He was supposed to be the groom that ran away and Seungcheol was supposed to be his savior.

It was wrong. It was all wrong. Because he now stood gripping onto a soul, who has new problems now thanks to Seungcheol.

Ignoring the pain in his heart, slowly rising, he turns to look -more like a perplexed glare- at the small boy. Phone slowly slipping from his ear, the voice gets drowned into the night, the owls setting a musical theme in exchange.

The moonlight shines through the tree branches they stand under and he finally, finally, gets a proper look at the boy. The boy was wearing a black tuxedo, ed, showing his white shirt that was tightly fitted around his torso, hugging his body and framing his petite figure perfectly. On his back, a guitar case hung, clinging on for dear life. The boy shrugs his shoulders lazily and it slips back into place. No wonder it felt like he was pulling Junghan along and not this petite and delicate boy instead. Seungcheol’s eyes trails up his body to settle on his face. He has a round face that makes him look young, baby faced, with his small mono eyelids, a cute button nose and thin lips. To say the boy took his breath away would be an understatement.

Seungcheol blinks and shakes his head, making sure he wasn’t going crazy or dreaming this situation up altogether. When the boy remains still and unmoving, Seungcheol sighs softly and places the phone to his ear.

“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t Han?” asked Seungcheol as he gazed at the stranger in front of him.

“I already told you I was the wrong person… but why the hell were you speaking to Han hyung?!”

“You know Han?”

“Ye-”

“Yah!” A voice shrills through the thick air. The duo instantly jumped apart as they realized how close they had become during all the confusion. Seungcheol looked down at his phone that he was still holding and realized that, to his horror, he had accidentally put the call on speaker.

“Now, if you two lovebirds are done. Coups, I need you to help my friend get to safety. Ji, I’m sorry I can’t be there, but Coupsy-boy here can take you in for a while. Trust me in this, okay? I’ll ring back later, got to go! Bye,”

Seungcheol’s mouth was agape, opening and closing as if he were a fish out of water. The silence remained in the air until the other person had ended the call.

“What just happened?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Why did you let me drag you all the way here? All you had to say was ‘I’m not who you think you are’, that could have prevented all this from happening,”

“Well I’m sorry Mr.-know-it-all, but in case you haven't realised, you didn't even stop to listen to me. Not even once,” The younger scoffs in sarcasm.

Seungcheol attempts refute, but he realizes that he’s actually right. “Okay...You got me there,” replies Seungcheol as he holds back a nervous laugh. He scratches the nape of his neck as he looks at the boys eyes. His gaze is soft and curious.

He’s snapped out of his thoughts by an outside voice. “There they are!” Seungcheol’s eyes enlarge comically as he hears the goons from earlier. For the second time that night, he pulls the younger by the arm and drags him along. They run as fast as they possibly could against the brutal strong winds. The air felt as if it were bashing in rebellion against their bodies.

“Ah, please loosen your grip?” The stranger asks, shaking their intertwined hand. Seungcheol obliges, but continues to pull him along. They find a truck standstill around the first corner out of the forest. Seungcheol pulls the younger behind him, both ducking behind a bin truck.

They hear the patter of hurried footsteps, “They can’t have gone far, keep searching!” Seungcheol breathes a deep, ragged breath, stopping when he feels the younger boy press against his chest.

“Please, don’t let them find us,” He whispers, gripping tightly onto Seungcheol’s shirt. “I… I have my reasons, please help me,”

Seungcheol sighs again, but this time he places a hand on the boy’s shoulders and pulls him in, patting his shoulders in an awkward manner.

“Don’t take advantage,” Is all he hears, mumbled into his shirt, before he gets distracted by the sound of an ignition. WIthout even thinking twice about the threat the boy had piped out at him, Seungcheol pulls them both up, peeking over the bin. There was nothing in sight except the truck, which had started to flash its indicators, ready to move.

“Quick!” Seungcheol says, as quirks his head towards the truck.

“Huh?”

“Quickly, get on. Here I’ll help lif-”

“Don’t take advantage. Seriously, I have my guitar and I won’t be afraid to use it,”

Seungcheol laughs, dry with an edge of worry, throwing his hands up in the air. “I won’t even touch you!”

The boy nods, satisfied with Seungcheol’s answer and tries to pry himself onto the truck. He attempts a few times before he looks at Seungcheol. Seungcheol laughs, gets up onto the truck first -effortlessly nonetheless- and offers his hand. The boy rolls his eyes and looks back to see Seungcheol beaming and grinning ear to ear. He huffs, but takes his hand and feels himself being hauled up. They crawl inside the back of the truck and sit down side by side, on top of the haystacks.

Seungcheol stretches and hits his shoulders where he feels a slight strain just as the truck begins to move.

God, was this going to be one long ride from hell.

Thanks Alana Unnie, Rashandra Unnie and Lizz my Soul Twin! Tess thanks for the gif set! Thanks for reading, commenting, subbing and upvoting! See you on the next chapter!!

XOXO,
Abi