.

"Sehun.. " his skin became greyed, his mouth hung with lips slightly parted and his eyes were as wide as they could stretch. "What the... how the hell did u get in? " he was not expecting Aleck to come and specially late at night like this and suddenly show up in an empty room he left for a minute.

"Your Window" Aleck shrugged like it was the most common thing to do.

"How did you even know where i was?"

"It's a small town sehun everyone knowns everything, specially the new kid "

"This is breaking and entering"

"We need to talk" Aleck demanded ignoring sehun, folding both arms over his chest.

"No we don't, get the out"

"Listen to me, i left because... " His shoulders got hunched together like he was trying to disappear inside himself.

"I don't care" His fuse simmered and fizzed like a firework in a chill autumn breeze. He doesn't want to hear anything Aleck has to say to him. He had made him believe he was dead, he might as well be dead to him for real.

Aleck’s hand swiftly grabbed sehun's wrist, "Sehun plea.... "

Sehun cut him off and jerked free of his grasp "I don't care"

"MY PARENTS DIED SEHUN, THAT'S WHY--" He yelled fists clenched and fixed Sehun with his eyes that were narrowed, rigid, cold, hard. His holler reverberated in sehun' ears like a clap of thunder.

"I... "As the full realisation, and the consequence of his earlier and now action toward Aleck, finally sank in to the pit of his stomach stirred. "Aleck, i am so sorry" Regret washed over him like the long slow waves on a shallow beach.

"Yeah," he says, saddened. "Me too." He dropped his gaze to the floor and hooked his thumbs into his worn jeans.

"How did it happen?" It made sehun shudder as a freezing cold wind would wake someone. His blood ran cold and a bead of sweat dripped down his face.

"Car accident" The sadness in his eyes shown that he didn't want to talk about it but he doesn’t hesitate with his answer.

An awkward silence fell over them. The silence made sehun's blood as cold as the autumnal air. There was nothing he could say or do that could make up for the words he spat out and the punches he threw at Aleck.

"How is avery? " sehun finally broke the awkward silence sitting down at the corner of the bed.

"She is great, really great. She is one of the reasons we are handling all of this pretty well. " Aleck ran his hand through his close cropped hair three times in quick succession and fixed sehun in a stare that spoke pain.

"I wish i could see her... "

"You will" he mumbled "she is out of town for a while. She will be so happy when she sees you" and added after a while.

"Who are you living with now? "

"Avery and my brother"

"Your brother? " sehun inquired brows knitted together.

"Yes my brother who studied abroad, the brother you never meet until earlier today"

"The jerk in the woods was your brother? " sehun's eyes went wide
Aleck nooded, eyes on the ground like he was trying to avoid sehun's eyes.

Another heavy silence settled over them, thicker then the uneasy tension in the atmosphere.

"So what brings you here? " he began, his attempt to keep things light already waning.

his mouth went almost too dry to speak. He nodded like an idiot and then croak out. "Visiting my grandmother"

"That's nice"

"I wish i could say the same" he mumbled under his breath.

"Sehun? " he said softly. "I know i should have said something when i left, but i--"

"Sorry for punching you"

"You hit like a girl" he said and then despite the rising tension in his voice, he snickered. Suddenly Sehun started laughing and snorted , staring at him and Aleck suddenly bursts out laughing. With each surge of laughter, they both release some of the tension that has built between them.

"I better go, it's late" Aleck said after a few minutes of laughter.

"Yeah" he mumbled under his breath disappointed. he rolled his eyes to the window and half bit his lip.

*************
Sehun pulled up his duvet and rolled toward the other side of the bed. He tossed and turned but he couldn't find the right position. A lingering haze of sleep sat somewhere at the back of his mind but was too far away to reach it. He didn't understand it, the pillows were fluffed, the temperature in the room was perfect but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't sleep. The night wore on, thoughts tumbled through his mind in rapid succession. He was clouded in his thoughts about what had happened today. He couldn't stop feeling bad for Aleck. Icy discomfort blossomed in his chest and made it difficult for him to breathe. At that moment, he knew this was going to be a long night.

walking to the kitchen, he poured himself a glass of milk. He walked out to the patio, lit the lights on the porch and sat down. It was one of those quiet and pleasant nights, when you can hear nature's symphony. He leaned back on his chair and stared at the sky with it's beautiful gazillion stars.

Footsteps echoed sharply around the deserted square ground in the dark night. The approaching footstep