Author’s Note:

First, apologies for putting up things here again.

On to the note, I just wanted to let everyone know that there’s a lot of implied scenes that transpired on this chapter. So, I’ll just let your imagination do their thing.

Next, fair warning that I’m not quite sure how well I put up things here (blame my poor heart). But all these things needed to happen on this chapter.

Here you go!

Chapter 6 Kite

There was a burst of light so white that it blinded Yunhyeong. He closed his eyes tightly and when he dared to open it again, he was in the past.

He saw his younger self back to the time before it all started.

He was sobbing under the tree, with his chin on his grubby knees. He just lost his kite at that time, the one that his sister gave to him on his birthday. It all happened so fast, one minute he was soaring with his kite in happiness, but a sudden gust of wind snapped the strings and took it away, leaving him alone as his tears shrouded his vision.

The sound of his crying was interrupted by a shout at a distance. A small figure came running towards him. Yunhyeong saw his younger self look up wiping his tears with the back of his hand. He felt his heart skipped a beat as he watched a smile blossomed on his younger self’s dirty face. Turning, he saw a disheveled looking Hanbin beaming at him holding the kite he thought was already gone.

Suddenly, the warmth of the image faded in the haziness of morning light as Yunhyeong’s eyes flutter back to reality.

He got up, his still heavy eyes scanned his room until it met a pair of stern eyes watching him.

Hanbin did not look happy.

“What time did you get back?”

Yunhyeong blinked at him. “Uh, what?”

Hanbin closed his eyes for a second and exhaled. “I said, what time did you get back?”

Yunhyeong paused in the middle of yawning when he heard the hard tone on Hanbin’s voice. It only took a snap of a finger and the fond recollection of his dream was replaced by the vivid image of last night. The deluge of memory came rushing in, that made Yunhyeong suddenly wanted to curl up and sleep again.

“Hyung!”

Flinching back to life, Yunhyeong looked at Hanbin confusedly and rubbed his eyes. “Around one I guess, ” he shrugged. “Why are you in my room—,” he glanced at his clock, “—eight in the morning?”

If Hanbin heard Yunhyeong, he chose to ignore him. Instead, his eyes narrowed even more. “What did you do at Junhoe’s to stay that late?”

“Oh, we played video games,” Yunhyeong answered casually. He stood up and stretched a bit, disregarding the still suspicious stare of his dongsaeng. “What’s with the interrogation?”

Silence was the only response that Yunhyeong received. He gave Hanbin one last look before dismissing it off and went to fix his bed.

“I waited for you last night.”

I know.

Yunhyeong lied. He went home with Jinhwan last night. His hyung, knowing exactly that he did not want Hanbin to see him looking like a mess, was kind enough to act as a distraction to give him the opportunity to slip back in to the safety of his room.

Swallowing up the familiar tightness starting to emerge again after remembering the events the night before, he glanced amusedly at Hanbin, “Why?”

“I was worried.” Hanbin pouted, averting his gaze. “You weren’t answering your phone.”

Yunhyeong laughed. “You sound like my mother,” he gave his blanket one final fold before placing it back neatly atop of his bed, “Nothing happened, see? I’m safe. You have nothing to worry about.”

Lifting his head up, Hanbin stared at him with an unreadable expression on his face.

Yunhyeong suddenly felt conscious under the scrutiny. “What?”

The silence stretched longer than Yunhyeong preferred until finally, a growling stomach broke it off.

Yunhyeong was the first to laugh. It took a few seconds before Hanbin joined him with an embarrassed smile.

“Let’s stop with the questions, ok?” Yunhyeong approached Hanbin with a pat on the head. “C’mon, let’s have breakfast. I’ll make something quick,” he said, tugging on Hanbin’s arm.

Despite the groan from the other party, Yunhyeong dragged Hanbin out of his room to the kitchen.

They made some small talks as Yunhyeong began preparing a simple meal. Few moments passed by and they both went silent. But it was comfortable this time, something that had not transpired between him and Hanbin for a while. In short fleeting seconds, it reminded Yunhyeong of how the things were like before but were immediately reminded how it was so different now.

Everything had already changed the moment you felt that way.

You were right hyung.

Everything that Jinhwan said has been burned in Yunhyeong’s mind. Even with that, however, he could not still decide. He threw a quick glance at Hanbin, who was trying hard not to fall asleep on the kitchen island, before shutting his thoughts and willed himself to concentrate on making breakfast.

It did not take too long when Yunhyeong was done and the two of them busied themselves with the food.

“Hyung,” Hanbin called out to Yunhyeong as he finished his sandwich.

Without looking at Hanbin, Yunhyeong mumbled a soft, “Hmm?”

“The freshmen rep sent me a message. They wanted to meet up again on Wednesday to finalize the music for the festival.”

Even before Hanbin could finish the sentence, Yunhyeong already knew what this will be all about, again.

It was like a déjá vu.

But this time, Yunhyeong wanted things to end differently as he clearly remembered one of the things Jinhwan had told him the night before.

He glanced up and gave Hanbin an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry Hanbin-a, I can’t come with you this time.”

Hanbin was about to argue but Yunhyeong abruptly stood up.

“Can you do the dishes?” He asked as he put his things to the sink. “I have some errands to do.”

When Yunhyeong saw Hanbin’s confused expression, he approached him with a feeble smile.

“Thanks,” he said. He gave Hanbin one final squeeze on the shoulder and walked out of the kitchen before Hanbin could say anything else.

I don’t want to see you like this again. So, whatever your decision, please, please do not put yourself again in a situation that you know will just hurt you.

I won’t, hyung.

***

By the time Wednesday came, Hanbin was finally certain that Yunhyeong was hiding something from him.

He started to keep a close eye to his hyung after his outright refusal when he was about to ask if Yunhyeong could come with him to the meeting with the freshmen again. An odd feeling struck him at that moment, with how his hyung smiled at him and lightly squeezed his shoulder then walk away.

When he tried to open up the topic again, at that point Hanbin was still insistent on making his hyung to agree, Yunhyeong told him that he had some important thing to do on that day.

“I already told you no,” Yunhyeong gave him an exasperated look.

Hanbin was unfazed. “Then tell me why?”

“I --,” Yunhyeong averted his gaze, “--I have some important things to do that day, okay?”

“What important things?”