Mark kicked a pebble on the side of the road and shoved his hands into his pockets.

It was 10 p.m. but Mark didn’t want to go inside. His mind was racing with thoughts and he knew that if he tried to sleep like this, he would only end up more frustrated than he already was.

Mark had always known that Jackson and Youra were close. It was obvious, the three of them used to spend almost every waking moment together in high school and still spent a lot of time together.

He knew rationally that seeing the two of them together laughing at the basketball court, with Youra in Jackson’s arms, was not supposed to make him angry like this.

But the idea that Jackson and Youra had had spent moments together, shared inside jokes and secrets without him angered him for some reason.

Perhaps it was because he had always considered himself to be the guy closest to Youra, considering how they had grown up together and knew almost everything there was to know about each other.

And for the past few weeks, Mark had been feeling uneasy whenever he saw Youra and Jackson together. He had never noticed until now just how much skin ship they seemed to share.

But then again, he should have known. Both of them were avid fans of skin ship.

The way they acted around each other, if he didn’t know any better, he would have thought they were dating.

-

Were they?

Mark shook his head and kicked another pebble down the road.

Whether they are or not, shouldn’t matter to him anyway.

And with that, he walked inside his house, trying to convince himself that if he thought that over and over again in his head, perhaps he would be able to fall asleep tonight.

-

Youra woke up the next morning with a pounding headache.

The events of last night run through her mind and she buried herself back into her covers.

She heard a chime from her phone and groaned.

 Seemed like some of her anger had hung on from last night, making her irritable.

She picked up her phone reluctantly and looked at the message she had just gotten.

KNJ: Hey, you up for meeting up again?

CY: Uh sure. Wait, lemme guess, you miss me too much, huh?

KNJ: You could say that.

CY: You’re being oddly cryptic today. Anyway, what time?

KNJ: Same time, same place.

CY: Cool, see you there ig.

Namjoon didn’t reply, which Youra found weird but didn’t end up giving much thought to. She was just happy she had something to look forward to by the end of the day.

She got out of bed and walked over to her bathroom to take a cold shower. She had been taking a lot of cold showers after her sister had passed. She found them oddly cleansing, like she was waking herself up completely, getting rid of all the nightmares she had had the night before.

She wished it was that easy though, to get rid of all of her nightmares, all her grief, all her anger and everything that seemed to be holding her back from life. She wished she could step out of the shower and be able to go through the rest of her day as if nothing had happened.

But she knew that was impossible.

-

Time flied and it was finally 5 p.m. Youra walked down the muddy path she was once extremely familiar with, once again. Only this time, she wasn’t met by the boy she had grown accustomed to seeing by the swing set. Instead, she was met by a boy who seemed younger and shorter than Namjoon.

She squinted at the boy and rubbed her eyes, this couldn’t possibly be happening. Maybe her eyesight was finally failing her like Jackson often said would happen one day ever since she started wearing reading glasses in class.

The boy didn’t notice her until she was standing right in front of him and he flinched on noticing another person’s presence.

He got up from the swing he was sitting on, which happened to be her swing, and stared at her.

Was this the girl hyung was talking about?

He figured he could confirm that for himself.

“Um hi, are you moonchild by any chance?”

Youra blinked at the boy. There was only person who called her that. This was starting to get concerning.

“Um yes, and you are?”

He extended out a hand and Youra was instantly reminded of Namjoon. This was similar to how he had introduced himself. She extended her hand as well and gave his a firm shake. “I’m Namjoon hyung’s little brother, V.”

So that’s why he looked familiar!

“Oh, Taehyung-ssi. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Taehyung chuckled. “Is that so? I hope only good things.”

She smiled reassuringly. “Of course.”

They stood around in uncomfortable silence for a while before Youra cleared . “So do you have any idea where your hyung is? He said he would be here by 5.”

Taehyung shook his head and put his hands in his pockets. “That’s what he told me too. It’s weird, I’ve never been to this area before.”

Youra chuckled. “This is where I met your hyung almost every night in high school.”

“Really? Were you guys dating or something?”

Youra put her hands up and shook her head, with a laugh. “Oh no, no. Namjoon and I didn’t come here for what you’re thinking. We’re just friends. The story as to how we met is a bit of a random one actually.”

He looked at his watch and back at Youra before smiling slightly. “If you’ll tell me, I don’t mind listening.”

Taehyung moved away from her swing and offered it to her as he sat down on the swing next to her, taking Namjoon’s spot.

If only he knew he was offering her what she had already considered to be hers, she thought.

She recounted how they had first met, about how he had scared the living daylights out of her that night and then the conversation naturally progressed to other stories about Namjoon, with the occasional questioning of where he could be.

Youra noticed that Taehyung was a lot like his older brother. Sure, he wasn’t as talkative as his brother was, neither was he as philosophical, but he had the same charm as Namjoon did. Both boys seemed to be lost in their own little world and they both made you wonder just what was going on in that head of theirs.

Taehyung also had the same grin as his brother did, one that always seemed to make Youra smile as well.

It was a pity he didn’t have his brother’s dimples.

But what he did have were the most fascinating eyes.

Youra had never given much thought to looking at people’s eyes before. The most common eye colour in Korea was brown and almost everyone Youra knew had brown eyes, but Taehyung’s seemed to be a different shade of brown, a much darker one as opposed to the medium shades she had grown accustomed to.

She found it a bit disconcerting as to how distracted she could get just by looking at someone’s eyes.

Taehyung cleared his throat as silence surrounded them yet again. He wasn’t surprised, he barely knew anything about the girl sitting in front of him, except for her name and the fact that she was friends with his brother.

He recognised her as soon as he met her though. He had gone to the same high school as she and Namjoon had, Seoul National, and he had on occasion, seen her. He had mainly only seen her around at school because of his friend though, Park Jimin, who used to have somewhat of a fleeting crush on her, despite being 2 years younger.

Looking at her now though, he could see why he liked her, Youra was actually quite pretty. And she had a sweet smile that Taehyung often found himself staring at before blushing and looking away.

However, he had noticed that she seemed much happier back when she was in high school, as opposed to now. Her smile now seemed to carry a tinge of sadness, almost as though she wished to smile wider but was restraining herself.

The rest of the evening passed by pretty quick and as Youra walked back home at 8 o’clock, somewhat confused and disappointed, a question ran through her mind, which she knew was running through Taehyung’s head as well.

Where on Earth was Namjoon?

-

Youra opened the door to her house with her keys and only barely remembered to close the door behind her. She was too busy wondering what could have possibly happened to Namjoon. This was so unlike him, to talk about meeting up but not be there. And what was weirder was the fact that his younger brother was there, but not him.

She took out her phone and saw that Namjoon had texted her. Hoping for some sort of explanation as to why he couldn’t come, she quickly opened her messages.

KNJ: Hey, I’m sorry I couldn’t come today. Did you meet my brother though?

CY: Yeah, I did. But why weren’t you there? It was so awkward.

KNJ:  Again, I’m sorry about that. Listen, I think I might be heading back to Ilsan again.

CY: You’re going back to Ilsan again?? Already? You just got here, didn’t you? Joon, is everything okay?

KNJ: Yeah, everything’s okay.  But could you do me a favour?

CY: What is it?

KNJ: My brother’s gonna be staying in Seoul alone for a while. So I was wondering if you could sort of keep him company while he’s here.

CY: Oh, so that’s why Taehyung was at the park today. How long will he be staying here for?

KNJ: A few weeks at most, but I’m not sure. He’s debating on whether he should stay or move to Daegu, apparently ther