When the morning light poured through the curtainless window, Mir was still sitting awake in his room. He had his knees pulled up to his chest and his face buried in them; the same position he’d been in for several hours. It wasn’t even comfortable to sit that way, his back hurt from the bend in his spine and then there were the bruises and cuts from his beating last night. But he didn’t want to move, he didn’t want to see anymore; so he kept his face buried in his knees where he couldn’t see a thing. He felt a little safer this way. If he couldn’t see, then it couldn’t be real, and if it wasn’t real then it didn’t happen.

The pain from all his injuries had only intensified once the initial shock had worn off and the stinging achiness was almost unbearable. But there was nothing Mir could do except for endure it and pray that his parents wouldn’t keep him locked up long, or that Joon had heard his prayers and would come rescue him soon.

Joon leaned against his elbow on the table that he where he was sitting at the university library. The bright, happy sunlight and good weather from this morning had disappeared completely and now the sky was filled with grey clouds that brought endless showers of rain and a drop in the temperature. He sighed and watched as raindrops splattered against the window that he was staring out currently.

He knew that he should be studying for the test that he had tomorrow, but his mind was a million miles away at the moment; Joon couldn’t stop thinking about Mir. It had been over twenty-four hours since he had seen the younger boy and he was a little worried. He knew from the landlord, who had checked the security camera footage, that Mir had indeed gone to his own home last night. Joon couldn’t begin to comprehend why Mir would do that when he had told him to stay with him. Why would he go back to such a dangerous, unstable home when Joon offered him protection?

When Joon had left for school this morning, Mir had not appeared to walk with him as they did on a daily basis. Because of this, Joon was suspecting the worst: Mir’s parents had hurt him again. But that was stating the obvious, of course.

“Are you actually going to work or are you just going to sit there and sulk like a two year old?” Seungho asked him. Joon glanced over at his friend in surprise; he’d almost forgotten that Seungho was sitting across from him.

“Sorry, I was just thinking about Mir,” Joon responded, turning his attention back to his class notes. He had to start over now since he’d been so distracted that he’d lost his place.

“Why?” Seungho asked him curiously. He knew all about the situation going on since Joon tended to tell him everything.

“It’s just, I told him I would protect him from his parents but I don’t think I can,” Joon told him somberly, flipping back to the beginning of his notebook.

“Of course you can’t, Joon, don’t be stupid. That boy needs something more than a friend to help him. Unless you are willing to take him away from that place then you should just stay away from him. You shouldn’t get his hopes up by saying something