"Damnit.. Mingyu, Wonwoo, you two alright?"

"Yeah.."

"That ing kid punched me in the nose!"

S.Coups' sighs were drowned out by the laughter of the boy who fought their efforts to catch him off single-handedly, with Seungkwan watching in astonishment. Still unsure how to process what was unfolding before him, he found himself seeking refuge behind a larger tree while he watched.

"You should know better than to challenge the Leader of the Lost Boys!" Vernon's hollering consumed the canopy above them, drowning out all other sounds as he became caught up in his excitement, running off, abandoning the scene in his victory. Seungkwan felt his heart sink upon realizing that he was now alone with the three punks who were now even more angry, and became alarmed at what that could mean for him.

He looked back at S.Coups, who was now watching him intently, and felt himself paralyzed in terror.He found that horror sink away, albeit slowly, as S.Coups' sighs and gestures for him to come out of hiding began to shake him out of his astonishment. "Relax, kid. We're not here to hurt anyone."

"Speak for yourself," the one named Mingyu threw out, still holding his nose as the other, presumably Wonwoo, rubbed his shoulders as if that would heal his face.

S.Coups' rolled his eyes before focusing his attention on Seungkwan. "Let me guess. Vernon's been trying to get you to join his Lost Boys?"

"N.. No," Seungkwan answered, half-truthfully. Vernon hadn't actually pressured him to accept recruitment; in fact, it had been Seungkwan who suggested it first, on account of not being able to picture life without the energetic boy who into Seungkwan's life.

"He's been helping me with.. He's my friend--"

"So he's just been helping you." S.Coups didn't say anything for a minute. Another exasperated groan escaped his lips. "..Good. I'm sorry, I know this is a weird request, but I need you to come with me."



~

"What am I doing with my life? I'm just going to blindly follow a stranger through the woods now? Is that a sign of how little I value my own safety?"

"Trust me, if I were a bad guy, I'd have been sure to shut you up long ago."

S.Coups brought Seungkwan to a part of the woods he and Vernon had never visited. A large, old-fashioned house was tucked away behind the sturdy trees, with a relatively new-looking car sitting in the driveway. Moving past it warily, Seungkwan followed S.Coups into the house.

If he had thought it looked relatively old on the outside, the inside would have been considered neolithic. Cobwebs lined the corners of each room, and dusty bookshelves and pastel furniture took up most of the space. Seungkwan remained silent, though his face must have given his sentiments away when the older man looked back at him.

"I don't clean often."

"I didn't mean anything by it, Mr. S.Coups--"

"Please, call me Seungcheol. I prefer my actual name."

"Ah, I see--"

"You know, Vernon's a special kid." Seungcheol waited to see if Seungkwan would say anything before explaining himself, grabbing a photobook. "He's always been different, but it took me a long time to actually realize it. All of us are born with gifts which we take for granted, so perhaps it's rare when someone discovers theirs' at an early age. Almost magical."

Seungkwan watched the man leaf through the book before handing it off to him, pointing at a specific image. Kwan took in the picture's details, barely registering its faded appearance. It was then he had to squint, recognizing a familiar background.

"Is this.. the high school?"

"Yep," Seungcheol nodded. "Seoul High School, 1949, at the first graduation ceremony."

Seungkwan found this difficult to accept. The picture itself looked realistic, but that wasn't the problem. The issue was that he recognized a smile in the photo--in fact, that smile had been only inches away from his own only thirty minutes ago. Seungkwan flipped through the book as he began to find Vernon in picture after picture, and though he didn't appear to be acting differently, every picture was incredibly dated. Kwan looked up from the photos, finally taking in the room's atmosphere as he realized that Vernon's face--Seungcheol's face, also--lined the walls with old stylized photographs.

Seungcheol felt the need to interject at that point. "Vernon-- ..Hansol.. He's my son. When he was attending the high school, he was struggling to find his place in the world, and had started to confide in me all of his depressive bouts. Then one day, he started talking about the boy in the window, the star that fell from the sky to save him.

"He said the boy's name was Peter, and that he offered Hansol a place in the sky to shine. At first, imaginary friend aside, I was just happy that Hansol was feeling better; as I grew older, however, I realized he wasn't. I thought it was just a stunted growth, until it wasn't too long before I stopped growing, too, and even regressed for a brief period of time. Whatever sort of mystery curse that Peter jackass of a spirit brought upon our house, he took my child away from me permanently."

Seungkwan remained silent, still in disbelief but unwilling to question the man who was visibly shaking before him. After Seungcheol regained his composure, he looked sternly ahead at Kwan. "Hansol's done a lot of good since he had been cursed, but at the cost of his own sanity. I've tried talking to the other kids over at that damn lot about this as well, but they haven't been able to help him in the same way he’s able to reach out to them as they continue to grow older. To be honest, I've been feeling myself becoming unable to even hold onto the hope of saving him from this life."

"..So you wanted to ask me as your last attempt made to bring him back to you."

Seungcheol made no movement, no comment to confirm. To Seungkwan, he did not need to; the intent was clear. Once again, a darkness began to creep over Seungkwan's body.

That darkness left his eyes in the form of tears.



~

"Hey, you're back! Where'd you go off to?"

Vernon's grin stayed for a brief moment before it started to slip away, standing up from his seat as Seungkwan approached the crew, who were now huddled around a bonfire in the night air, laughing and enjoying their youth. Seungkwan, however, despite making the effort to smile, hadn't fooled Vernon in the slightest, who now had moved to block Seungkwan from entering the circle and exposing himself to the questions that would come. Why do your eyes look like you were crying? Where had you gone for so long? What's in that photo book you're carrying?

"Vern--" Seungkwan caught himself, looking down at the book in his grasp as he steeled his resolve. "Hansol."

The boy before him stiffened up, leering at him. "..Where did you get that name from?"

"Do you recognize it?"

"Yeah, S.Coups calls me that. Did you go with them? Are you a pirate now?"

"Will you let me show you this book? Please?"



~

"I don't believe this. I don't believe you, just like you shouldn't believe that pirate!"

"Hansol, I'm only trying to help you--"

"You didn't come here to help me! I brought you here to help you! Or did you forget?! Just like a pirate to take what he wants, when he wants it."

Seungkwan closed his eyes as he bit into his lower lip, unwilling to cry once again nor watch Hansol return to the Lost Boys by the fire. Instead, Kwan turned away, shakily sighing out his frustrations as he let the book drop to the ground.

That light within him burned now more than ever, but this time it hurt him to think about it. Its flames at his heart, scarring it, and he found himself wishing he had stayed in the darkness. At least there he couldn't feel anything like this. This pain was worse than the pain of nothingness. Pain of loss was beginning to plague his mind.

As he made his return to the bonfire, he overheard shouting just outside of the light from the flames. He briskly walked over to see Jeonghan and Chan arguing, and before he could between the two their bickering had ed into a full-blown bridge-burning session.

"I'm not a baby, Jeonghan! Stop treating me like one!"

"It's not that big of a deal, Chan--"

"It is to me! Vernon doesn't treat me like a baby!"

"Vernon could stand to grow up some himself.."

"I don't know, I think that he's pretty aware of his place in the world. Are you? You're hardly older than me--Get off your ing high horse!"

Jeonghan's mouth opened to stoke the flames further, but it snapped shut instead. Seungkwan realized that might have been the more severe response as the oldest between the three of them walked away into the night. Chan's shoulders heaved as his breaths became heavy with his unbridled fury, those years of pent-up vexations finally being released in so few words.

"Hey, Dino!" Vernon's voice called out, and Seungkwan watched as the sinister aura that Chan had been carrying was replaced with just the opposite as he trotted back to the group, practically oblivious to Seungkwan's presence just behind him.

Once again, he had become a shadow.