"Do you promise to keep this a secret?"

Barely above a whisper.

"Of course I'll keep it a secret."

Nonchalant tone.

"Promise promise?"

Urgent tone.

"Yes I promise promise."

Rolling eyes.

"Promise until the day you die?"

More pressing tone.

"How many times do I have to say yes?"

Breathless laugh.

"Because this secret is really important to me!"

Serious tone.

"Okay, I promise 'til the day I die that your secret will remain behind my closed mouth."

Serious tone.

"Well, here goes nothing... I-"

He slapped his phone off of his nightstand before waking up, more grumpy than usual. He takes in a deep, shaky breath, his heart beating too quickly as it felt like his lungs were getting crushed by some random invisible force out there.

He hated it.

He glances over to his phone that was lying face down onto the floor and still vibrating with a persistent ringing noise coming from it, a sigh leaving his mouth as he throws his blanket off before walking over to pick up his phone. As expected, there was a new crack engraved deep into the screen, distorting the image even further with all over the other cracks and scratches that came from various reasons.

Nonchalantly, he throws his phone onto his bed after turning the alarm off before heading to get himself ready for the day. When he puts on his uniform's blazer as the finishing touch after shoving his phone into the pocket of his trousers, he felt a foreign object, making him reach further into his pocket before pulling out a familiar vibrant pink-wrapped traditionnel bonbon.

Oh.

He tosses the traditionnel bonbon onto his desk where other forms of candy wrapped in obnoxiously bright wrappers were laying half-hazardly on. He heads downstairs and spots a yellow sticky note on the fridge.

Sorry Minhyun, we had to leave early again for a business trip so umma couldn't prepare any food for you... I hope you don't mind preparing your own food again for two weeks...
~ With lots of love, umma and appa

Minhyun lets out yet another sigh as he takes the sticky note and crumples it before tossing it into the trash. He didn't want to bother with trying to fix a meal what with his appetite already being nonexistent for too many years now and was forced to head back upstairs before grabbing a few traditionnel bobons from his desk, plopping one into his mouth before shoving the rest into his pocket.

Minhyun stares at the vibrant pink wrapper before indifferently crumpling it up and shoving it into his pocket before finally choosing to head to the hell-hole.

He gave up on wondering why that boy even does this after it became as much as a routine as his beatings.

By the time that Minhyun reaches the gate of the school, he sees that a fight had already broke out with the teachers uselessly trying to break up the fight. He could catch small peaks from the crowd of the usual duo fighting.

Stupid nicknames like 'S-something' and 'Junior-something'... he rolls his eyes before beginning to head for the building as he now had the advantage of avoiding the main bully in his life. He's suddenly shoved into the side of the locker as laughing grows more distant.

Well, he did say main bully, not all of his bullies.

Minhyun lets out a small hiss as his arm now ached from the impact along with the side of his head. He knew that it would leave more bruises on him but he had to get to class to continue this stupid life of his.

And as expected, the day went on bitterly.

Vulgar words carved into his desk.

Shoving and beatings.

Deragatory terms and teasings.

The usual.

The only thing that he would ever be greatly in such a crappy school would be his safe haven; yes, his and no one else's. That was the abandoned music room where the lack of funding for the charter school meant for boys couldn't maintain a salary for a music program along with consistent pay for the previous music teacher. No one bothered to go into it since it was essentially forgotten to the school's history except- obviously- Minhyun. This was the place where he could have peace to himself and not need to bother with anyone else and their judging.

He could just be himself.

Maybe he would've smiled at such a thought if the smile hadn't been beaten out of him two years ago.

He opened the door and was shocked for once to see those people in his haven, completely forgetting about the basketball and the broken window. Minhyun lacked the reflex to close the door as the main reason why he suffered came stalking over with a fresh bruise on his cheek but a cocky smirk on his lips.

"Well well well, look who came," he smirked before grabbing Minhyun's collar.

He hated how his gaze drifted to that person in the back who stared at him emotionessly.

"Hey, look at me when I'm talking."

He couldn't help but let his gaze drift back to him after a roll of the eyes.

"So this is where you've been hiding out. Should've figured that out sooner considering that you're that kinda person."

If Minhyun didn't meet gazes with the person who stabbed him in the back two years ago, maybe he wouldn't have had the audacity to spit in his face.

"Why are you crying?"

Concerned tone.

"B-B-Because my dog..."

Sobbing.

"Oh... h-hey, how about we give him a funeral?"

Suggestion.

"Y-You'd help...?"

Helpless tone.

"Yeah! We can bury him in my backyard. My mom plants a lot of flowers so we can give as many as you want."

Affirmative tone.

"O-Okay..."

Sniffle.

Warm hands.

A broken cough was forced out of him as something dribbled down his cheek from his lips. The taste of iron had grown dull to his tastebuds by now so he was barely able to realize that it was the taste of blood and that there was a cut somewhere on the inside of his cheek. Although his gaze was somewhat blurry, he could finally see that he was curled up on the cold ground with too many bruises that numbed his body in too many areas.

Minhyun barely had the strength to try to look up when he heard the music that was blasting but somewhat muffled and saw that blond boy crouched down and looking dully at him with a lollipop in his mouth.

He was too weak to bite out a remark before he heard a new voice.

"Why don't you end your suffering?"