“Here Hongbin, have some of my sweet and sour pork.” Wonshik pushed his lunch over to the younger boy with the forlorn expression. “It’s your favorite.”

            “Want some tea, Hongbin?” Jaehwan asked. “It’ll cool you down.”

            Hongbin simply sighed barely registering his friends’ acts of generosity. His heart was broken, he was broken. After weeks of searching, the results were still negative in finding his favorite maknae. It was a cloudy day. The four older boys brought Hongbin to the picnic area of the local park in hopes of cheering him up, but things were not in their favor.

            “C’mon, Bin, you have to eat something,” Hakyeon spoke up. “School starts again tomorrow. I don’t want you to get sick on the first day of the new trimester.”

            “What’s the point,” Hongbin mumbled. “I can’t go to school without Hyuk.”

            The rest of the group fell silent, returning to their meals. It had been over a month since Sanghyuk disappeared and the police officially called off the search after turning up zero results. Taekwoon had told them the young boy had gone into the forest but after searching up and down, they had found no trace that the child had even stepped foot within the tree’s perimeter.

            Taekwoon watched Hongbin solemnly. He felt guilty for sending Hyuk into the forest alone. If he had known this would happen, he would’ve forsaken his homework and followed the maknae. He may have been able to save his life.

            “Hongbin?”

            Hongbin looked up at the sound of his name passing the older boy’s lips.

            Taekwoon had called for Hongbin, but he didn’t know what to tell him. “You should eat.”

            Hongbin clenched his fist, his anger filled eyes locked with Taekwoon.

            “Eat your food Hongbin,” Taekwoon spoke again before silently taking a bite of his own.

            Hongbin stood enraged, flipping food in his action. “You have no right to command me, you flake! Not when it's your fault Hyuk is gone.”

            “Hongbin calm down!” Hakyeon grabbed Hongbin’s wrist. “You have to stop blaming Taekwoon!”

            “Let go of me, Hyung!” Hongbin thrashed about. “He deserves to suffer! He killed Hyuk! If he had just gone with him-”

            “Taekwoon hyung was busy!” Jaehwan argued on the older boy’s behalf. “He’s always busy. There's no way he could have gone with Hyuk.”

            “Shut up Jaehwan!” Hongbin yelled, shedding honorifics in favor of anger.

            “Hongbin, stop! You need to calm down right now!”

            “No!” Hongbin screamed, causing Hakyeon to flinch. “I’m not listening to you. I'm not listening to anyone! Taekwoon sent Hyuk off to his death, but I'm going to go find him!”

            Hongbin roughly pushed Hakyeon to the ground before he attempted to run away. Jaehwan quickly reached out, grabbing the child by his wrist.

            “Hongbin no! The police already looked for him! You can’t find him by yourself!”

            “I'm not going to live without him!” Hongbin screamed and before Jaehwan could react, Hongbin’s small, hard fist made contact with the older boy’s jaw.”

            “Jaehwan!” Hakyeon ran to the fallen boy’s side. Tears fell from Jaehwan’s eyes, mixing with the blood and saliva leaking from the corner of his lips.

            Jaehwan began to cry into Hakyeon’s shirt. Hongbin turned away, still angry yet remorseful. “I’m going to go look for Hyuk.”

            “Hongbin, don’t!” Wonshik yelled before chasing after the child. Hakyeon held Jaehwan as he cried so Taekwoon knew it was up to him to stop Hongbin. He was about to give chase when he heard a familiar car horn.

            “Taekwoon, it’s time to go! You’re late for tutoring!” The man in the black Hyundai Equus called out to his young son.

            “But father! I have to go after Hongbin!” Taekwoon shouted in response.

            “What you have to do is get into a decent university. No son of mine is squandering their potential for a group of hoodlums.”

            “They’re not hoodlums, they’re my friends.” Taekwoon mumbled.

            “What did you say?!” The stern man projected, shaking Taekwoon down to his bones.

            “N-nothing... sir.” Taekwoon replied.

            “Good, now get in this car. We are already three minutes late!”

            Taekwoon wiped a tear from his eye before walking over to the black sedan and climbing into the back seat. He glanced out the tinted window only to see Jaehwan crying into Hakyeon’s chest, while the latter only glared off in his direction. Taekwoon could see the disapproval in the older boy’s eyes, the bitter betrayal Hakyeon felt at his dismissal.

            Taekwoon was the only one from the group at school the following morning. He learned that Wonshik had been hospitalized from the collapse of muscle strength he suffered mid-run, which caused him to lose consciousness. Most likely, Ravi had caused the cataplexy episode to ensure Wonshik would not stop Hongbin.

            Jaehwan and Hakyeon, unfortunately, had discovered their fallen friend hours later, and the sight traumatized their fragile minds. Hongbin was dead. The two boys found the poor child’s corpse, mangled and torn nearly beyond recognition by some unknown creature. Just the sight of it caused the two boys to fall into shock and they were sentenced to intense therapy for several years.

            Taekwoon was conscience-stricken. One of his friends was dead, and two more of them were mortified. He could have prevented this. He could have saved them all. He could’ve have stopped Hongbin from running to his doom, if only he had stood up to his father.

            Taekwoon sat down his diary as he pulled a blue and gray t-shirt over his head. The sun had yet to break over the horizon so he had but an hour to prepare and leave the house before his father awoke. Taekwoon quickly pulled on the socks he had prepared and slid both journals into the backpack he had set aside earlier that morning.

            He adjusted his hair in his bedroom mirror before doing one last quick check of his summer homework. Once again, he had foregone sleep in favor of finishing his assignments before daybreak. What was more important now was spending his last day of vacation with his close friends.

            Taekwoon exited the house as silently as possible and ran towards the bicycle he had parked on the side of his home. After, climbing on, he rode off, backpack jingling with the sound of his plans for the day.

            “Hakyeon! Hakyeon!”

            A tired boy walked to his window, rubbing the crusts from the corners of his eyes as the sun broke over the horizon. Hakyeon slid open the glass plane, blinked rapidly to adjust his vision before gazing down at the cat-eyed adolescent he had grown to call a best friend.

            “Jung Taekwoon, do you have any idea what time it is?” Hakyeon scolded, ignoring his exhaustion in favor of scolding the younger boy.

            “It’s a quarter past five,” Taekwoon answered. “May I come in?”

            Hakyeon groaned. It was far too early for visitors. If it was anyone other than Taekwoon, be would have thrown his shoes to get rid of him. But considering Taekwoon must have gone through a lot of trouble to get here at the crack of dawn, Hakyeon decided to invite him in.

            “Gimme a minute.”

            After several minutes, Hakyeon and Taekwoon were seated on the floor of the living room in Hakyeon’s two-bedroom condo. Hakyeon’s mother had stepped out early for work So the boys had the house to themselves.

            Taekwoon placed his heavy backpack between the two boys and ped the top, allowing Hakyeon to peer inside. Hakyeon’s eyes brightened with delight upon seeing the treasure hidden in the Nylon sack.

            “Taekwoon, where’d you get all this?” Hakyeon asked, sticking his hand inside to fiddle with the tiny pieces of metal.

            “I saved a lot,” Taekwoon answered. “And I sold a few things.”

            “You sold your stuff?” Hakyeon questioned.

            “It’s worth it. Today’s the last day of summer, and I want us all to have the best day ever.”

            Hakyeon smiled, once again dipping his hand into the backpack and pulling out a handful of coins, before letting them fall back inside. “So what do you have in mind?”

            Taekwoon crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall. “Arcade, lunch, bookstore? I think there’s a new Cipher Peaks out today and I know Hyuk and Hongbin will want to be the first to read it.”

            Hakyeon giggled. “Yeah. Those two gumshoes love that series so much. They’re inseparable when reading together.”

            Taekwoon smiled. “They’re inseparable period.”

            Hakyeon glanced up at Taekwoon. “They really care about each other, don’t they?”

            Taekwoon nodded before glancing out the window, the skies were slowly clouding up, overcasting the early morning sky, as it was in his first life. ‘More than you’ll ever know.’

            Nine o'clock, the gates to the local arcade opened and six boys entered the den of flashing lights and 16-bit sounds. Jaehwan and Wonshik rushed in, taking claim of their favorite games while Sanghyuk immediately took hold of Hongbin’s wrist and dragged him to one of many co-op games the two would play throughout the day. Taekwoon followed while Hakyeon brought up the rear, grudgingly walking off the pain inflicted on him by his friends.

            Hakyeon’s friends were not morning people, so when he and Taekwoon arrived for them at the crack of dawn, one by one, the four youngest assaulted him with miscellaneous items, including toys, shoes and a text book. It was only after the attacks that they learned the early outing was Taekwoon’s idea, rather than Hakyeon’s, but no one was willing to punish their normally stoic friend.

            Skee ball, Streetfighter, Buck Hunter, Wheel of Fortune, Area 51. Game by game and coin by coin, the six children played to their hearts’ content. It was half past noon when Taekwoon noticed a faint growling in his stomach. It only made sense, considering the child had foregone breakfast to execute his escapade. It was past the normal lunching hour, so Taekwoon decided to take it upon himself to gather the boys for lunch.

            “Guys, it’s time to go.” Taekwoon announced just loud enough for the other boys to hear. Jaehwan was first to hear him and wandered over to the older boy after exchanging an armful of tickets for a rubber ball. Hakyeon and Wonshik came over after the later conquered the former in a game of arcade basketball. Now Taekwoon needed to find the two youngest.

            After about five minutes, Taekwoon found the two boys leaning over a game of Street Fighter. Hyuk was cheering while Hongbin looked deep in concentration.

            “High score! High score! High score!”

            “Time to go,” Hakyeon announced.

            “But Hyung,” Sanghyuk whined, “Binnie’s about to hit the high score. He’s been playing for like an hour.”

            “High score?” Jaehwan asked, repeatedly bouncing his new rubber ball, much to Taekwoon’s discontent.

            Taekwoon sighed, trying his best to ignore Jaehwan before returning his attention to Hongbin. “You’re gonna hurt you vision if you keep playing like that.”

            “Just, a little more,” Hongbin announced as he focused on the game.

            “You can do it Bin!” Jaehwan cheered, causing Taekwoon to snatch the ball from the air in front of the playful child.

            “That’s enough of that.” Taekwoon pocketed Jaehwan’s ball causing to latter to let out a small pout.

            Hakyeon decided to take action regarding the maknae line. He began to lightly poke at the gamer’s side, distracting him. Hongbin laughed, tucking in his side to get out of the elder’s range, while keeping his hands glues to the joystick. Hakyeon continued to tease the him until he not only let go of the game but fell into the machine. Hongbin watched as the slight tilt of the device caused the screen to go black and his character fade away.

            “What?!” Hongbin shouted. “No, no, no!” He jiggled the joystick several times, banging on the screen as the system rebooted itself, but instead of Hongbin’s saved game, all that greeted the child was an error message of ones and zeros.

01010010 01100101 01100010 01101111 01101111 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01010011 01110100 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110100 01000110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01000001 01101100 01110000 01101000 01100001 00101110 00100000 01000001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01110110 01101001 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100000 01100100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100101 01101110 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110011 01110100 00101110 00100000 01001100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100111 01100001 01101101 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100010