Yongguk was fourteen years old when his two years younger friend Jiho handed a boy over to him. It was more than a little odd, especially with the way Jiho looked pleadingly at Yongguk.

“This is Zelo,” he said. “I don’t know how old he is. I don’t know his real name. I found him on the street. I wanted to take care of him, but it’s getting impossible to hide him… Take care of him for me, hyung, please.”

Yongguk stared at Jiho. Then he stared at the boy whose shoulders Jiho’s hands rested on. Zelo was blonde —most likely Jiho’s work — and clearly too skinny to be healthy. His brown eyes were dark and held a look that was most definitely too serious for his age.

“I… I don’t know.”

Yongguk was only fourteen, but he lived in an apartment in Seoul with his twenty-one year old cousin Heechul since his parents had disowned him after he came out of the closet. Heechul had, in a rare moment of kindness, taken Yongguk under his wings and offered him food, education and a roof over his head.

“Please,” Jiho pleaded again, puppy eyes accompanying him this time. The boy, Zelo, stayed still, watching Yongguk’s every move. There was something odd about him.

“You found him in the street?” Yongguk asked, just to make sure.

“Yes, I told you so! He was crying and hurt and I don’t know, I just wanted to protect him!” Jiho replied impatiently. Yongguk still wasn’t convinced.

“If you’re worried about Heechul-sshi finding out, don’t. Zelo doesn’t speak and he’s very obedient, right Z?” Jiho continued, looking down at the blonde head leveled with his chest. Zelo didn’t look up, didn’t nod nor shake his head. He didn’t give any sign whatsoever that Jiho had heard him. Yongguk wondered briefly if Zelo was deaf, but he doubted it. Maybe he was mute.

“Okay then,” he finally agreed, somewhat grumpily. “But Heechul will find out anyway, you know.”

Jiho grinned and straightened his arms, forcing Zelo to take a few steps into Yongguk’s and Heechul’s apartment.

“Thank you, hyung!”

Then he turned Zelo to face himself.

“Be a good boy now, Zelo-ah. Don’t be afraid of Yongguk, he might look a little intimidating, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Be a good boy and hyung will come back for you soon!” he said, enveloping Zelo in a quick hug the boy did not respond to before straightening up, leaving the apartment with another thank you.

A lonely tear made its way down Zelo’s pale cheek, but neither the boy nor Yongguk paid any heed to it. The boy, because he did not care about such things and Yongguk because he had more pressing matters to attend to.

“So you’re going to live with me and Heechul-hyung, huh,” he said. Zelo turned to him, watching him with cautious eyes. It made Yongguk’s skin crawled.

“Heechul-hyung is my cousin. He’s a bit crazy and may seem unkind, but he is not. He’s not home often and when he is, he will most likely have his fling of the moment with him. Make sure not to disturb them while in their room, okay?”

Zelo did nothing but look at him, but Yongguk decided he didn’t need any confirmation and gave a small nod of his own.

“Great. You and I can share my bedroom, but I’ll have to ask Heechul-hyung if he has any extra beds. You can make yourself comfortable while I call him, okay?”

Yongguk did not wait for the response he knew wouldn’t come before he went off in search of the phone.

“Hello?” Heechul said, slightly out of breath as he answered. Yongguk grimaced.

“Hi, hyung! I just wanted to know if we have any extra beds?” he asked, peeking into the living room where Zelo had sat down on the couch.

“Umm yeah, why?” Heechul replied. Yongguk paused, hesitant as what to say. Heechul would find out about Zelo sooner or later — probably sooner — because even if he wasn’t home a lot, he was a master of figuring things.

“It’s complicated, I’ll tell you when you come home,” was what he settled for. For a moment, Heechul was completely silenced. Yongguk wondered if he’d stunned him. If he had, he was really skilled. No one he knew had ever managed to stun the great Kim Heechul into silence before.

“It’s in the attic. I’ll be home in a few hours,” Heechul finally said before a click in Yongguk’s ear told him the older boy had hung up. He sighed and went into the living room. Zelo was still sitting on the couch, motionless, staring emptily at the wall. It felt a bit weird.

“Hyung said we have an extra bed in the attic. You can come with me to get it down or stay here, it’s your choice,” Yongguk told the boy. Zelo did not move.

It wasn’t until Yongguk was halfway up the stairs that he realized Zelo had chosen to follow him, quickly and quietly like a shadow. At first he thought the boy might help him with the rather big, heavy extra bed, but no. Zelo merely followed him, silently watching, burning holes into Yongguk’s skin with his dark eyes. Yongguk didn’t ask for help either, because he was afraid the boy’s thin arms would break in half lest he try to carry something too heavy.

Once back in the apartment, Yongguk sneaked into Heechul’s bedroom and took out some clean sheets. Luckily, he managed to locate the correct cupboard quickly. He’d rather not linger too long in Heechul’s bedroom, nor rummage around too much — as his cousin was rather fond of , one never knew what to find in there. Yongguk shuddered at the mere thought.

“Do you want to help me?” he called out to Zelo, who’d once more situated himself on the couch. He, stupidly enough, half expected Zelo to reply, or at least move to help him.

The blonde boy did neither and Yongguk set to work by himself. When he finished, he dropped down on the opposite end of the couch from Zelo and turned the TV on. The thought of asking Zelo what he liked to watch crossed his mind, but he quickly brushed it off.

When Heechul came home about two hours later, Yongguk had slid into a half-lying position and was almost asleep while Zelo was in the exact same position with his back straight and dark eyes staring at the wall rather than the TV.

“Hyung!” Yongguk called out once he realized it must be Heechul who’d opened the door. He pulled himself off the couch and went to greet his cousin with a small effort.

“So,” Heechul said, staring Yongguk down as he took off his coat. “Tell me now.”

Yongguk sighed, but nonetheless retold the events of the day, squirming a little as he did so. Yongguk usually wasn’t nervous, but Heechul had an odd way with people. Yongguk wondered if it would work with Zelo, too, make him talk or something.

Heechul’s eyebrows had nearly disappeared into his hairline once Yongguk was finished talking.

“Where is he?” he asked then, surprisingly calm about the whole thing.

“Zelo!” Yongguk called out, hoping the boy was really as obedient as Jiho had said.

He was. Quiet as a shadow, Zelo appeared by Yongguk’s side when the older called for him. First he looked at Yongguk with an inquiring gaze, but he moved it to Heechul once Yongguk nodded to him.

Heechul looked… shocked. His eyes were wide and his lips slightly parted. Yongguk thought that maybe he recognized Zelo. The boy showed no signs of recognition whatsoever, but Yongguk hadn’t expected him to either.

“So you’re Zelo, huh?” Heechul asked finally, clearly expecting an answer.

“He doesn’t speak, hyung,” Yongguk answered in the boy’s place. Heechul raised one eyebrow and briefly shifted his gaze to Yongguk before looking back at Zelo.

“You’ll speak to me, understood?” he said. Zelo remained quiet, as Yongguk knew he would. Heechul took a step closer.

“I said speak, boy!” he yelled. Zelo didn’t move, except for his eyes which followed Heechul’s every movement.

Zelo didn’t even look away when Heechul raised his hand and let it fall back onto Zelo’s cheek with a smack sound. His head turned with the force, but he showed no reaction other than that.

“What are you doing!” Yongguk yelled. For the first time in his life, he stood up against his cousin as he pushed him backwards, away from Zelo, and stepped in between them to work as protection. It was there, the strong urge to protect the boy that Jiho had spoken of. Yongguk just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it.

“What are you doing, defending a boy you don’t know!” Heechul growled back. Yongguk was about to say something when he noticed Zelo trying to sneak away.

“No!” he yelled, briefly seeing the surprised look on Heechul’s face before pushing past him, catching Zelo around the waist before he could exit the apartment.

“Don’t go,” he said, pulling Zelo close. “Don’t go, please. I’ll protect you, okay? You don’t have to be scared,” he muttered in Zelo’s ear. The boy had stiffened when Yongguk grabbed him, but gradually relaxed as Yongguk showed no signs of letting him go.

“Stay. I’ll take care of you,” Yongguk repeated. Behind him, Heechul sighed in defeat.

“Okay. Whatever. I guess a mute boy won’t make much sound,” he said. Neither Zelo nor Yongguk said anything as the teen pulled the boy back into the apartment, making sure to seat him on the couch once more before turning back to Heechul with a smile gracing his lips.

“Thanks, hyung!” he said, enveloping Heechul in a hug and surprising both himself and his cousin.

Heechul and Yongguk cooked a quick dinner which was consumed in deafening silence until Heechul’s phone rang and he engaged in a loud conversation with someone called Hankyung. There were a lot of dirty jokes Heechul probably didn’t think Yongguk would pick up involved in that conversation. Yongguk figured this Hankyung was his current boyfriend.

“See?” Yongguk whispered, nudging Zelo’s ribs when Heechul looked away.

“Crazy,” he said, moving his finger in a circular motion at his temple. Zelo, of course, said nothing, but Yongguk thought he could see the hint of laughter in his eyes. It made him prouder than maybe he should’ve been.

Later, Heechul dug out a spare toothbrush from a cupboard Yongguk barely had known was there and gave it to Zelo. From there, Yongguk took over and he made sure Zelo showered while he fetched a towel for him and helped him into a pair of his old pajamas once he was dried off. He thought he could hear a small sound of held back laughter when he towel dried the boy’s hair and made it stand in all kinds of weird directions, but he said nothing about it.

Zelo’s eyes held a look that said he was a lot more comfortable now than when Jiho had first come with him when Yongguk carefully tucked him into bed and placed a kiss on his forehead.

“Sleep tight, Zelo-ah,” he murmured. Zelo’s hand found its way to his wrist and took a firm grip on it. Yongguk frowned for a moment before he grinned.

“Ah, you want me to stay? No worries, I’ll just get ready and then I’m going to bed, too,” he said, poking Zelo in the ribs.

For some reason, he wanted this boy to be safe and happy. He quickly showered, brushed his teeth and changed into the old t-shirt and pajama pants he used for sleeping before slipping into bed. Zelo had been sitting up when he returned into the room, watching him as he changed into his sleeping clothes. Once he was in bed, Zelo reached his hand out, somewhat hesitantly. Yongguk grabbed it without hesitation and sent a smile Zelo’s way. Again, he thought he saw something shift in Zelo’s eyes, something akin to laughter, a smile… happiness, maybe.

Yongguk dreamt of hidden smiles and silent sentences until his alarm clock rang and rudely woke him up. Zelo was already asleep, sitting upright in his bed while looking at him with those deer eyes of his. Yongguk stared back in silence for a few minutes before he sighed.

“You’ll follow me to school,” he decided and he thought, again, that he saw the flash of a smile in Zelo’s eyes.

The teacher, Mrs. Park, was not happy when Yongguk brought a blonde kid to class. Eventually, he managed to convince her that Zelo was his orphanage cousin who’d just managed to find him again and that he needed him. Mrs. Park gave in with a sigh and wrote a note for the other teachers so they would allow Zelo to follow Yongguk around.

What Yongguk didn’t know was that he wasn’t too far from the truth.

“Who’s the kid, really?” Yoseob, Yongguk’s classmate, asked through a mouthful of half-chewed food at lunch. Yongguk grimaced but said nothing.

“Dunno,” Yongguk said, shrugging. “Jiho brought him yesterday. I promised to take care of him.”

Yoseob stared at Zelo for a moment. Zelo stared back. Yoseob laughed and shrugged it off. This, Yongguk thought with a grin, is why Yang Yoseob is my best friend. That and that he, too, was gay and the two of them were outcasts more or less.

Yoseob tried to engage Zelo in conversation a few times, but gave up when all Zelo would do was look at him, sometimes with his head tilted or that glint in his eyes. To Yongguk, those little things spoke a million things, but it seemed he was the only one who understood it.

“So you like Yoseob, huh,” he said after the fourth time, when Yoseob let out a loud, frustrated sound and threw his hands up in defeat.

“Um, what? How’d you tell?” Yoseob asked, curiosity instantly piqued. Yongguk chuckled.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, shrugging. “It’s something with his eyes…”

He reached his hand forward to brush the bangs away from Zelo’s eyes. The boy blinked up at him, brown eyes slightly wider than usual. At that moment, they were silent as they watched Yongguk watch him.

Yongguk broke it with a smile.

“Yoseob is a nice guy,” he told Zelo. “He’s… Special. But not like Heechul-hyung.”

He’d succeeded in eliciting another eye-laugh from Zelo and his own grin widened as Yoseob giggled next to them.

“You guys are so weird! All three of you!” he said. Yongguk punched his arm.

“And you aren’t?” he retorted, one eyebrow raised. Yoseob only laughed harder, shaking his head.

Zelo went straight to his place on the couch when they came home, but Yongguk called him back into the kitchen. When Zelo appeared, Yongguk just looked at him for a few moments, smile playing in the corners of his lips.

“Come on, you live here too now,” he said. “So make yourself at home. Take something from the fridge if you’re hungry. Watch TV or play games if you’re bored. There’s a laptop in my room, you can borrow that unless I need to do homework. Heechul has video games hidden somewhere, too, I’ll ask him when he comes home.”

For another moment, Zelo continued staring at Yongguk. He didn’t move, didn’t speak. Yongguk even doubted he was breathing for a moment.

Then, there it was, the tiniest of nods. Yongguk only barely managed to keep himself from doing a crazy victory dance and most likely hurt himself in the process. Instead he settled for watching like a stupidly proud parent as Zelo moved over to open the fridge and peer into it. Finally, he settled on a carrot. Odd choice, Yongguk thought, but didn’t comment on it.

~~

Jiho came to visit a week later. He gave Zelo a hug the boy did not respond to and spent twenty minutes talking to silence. Yongguk thought it was amusing to watch the way Zelo watched Jiho, how his eyes sometimes changed and the different, tiny tilts of his head.

“Do you notice it, too?” Yongguk asked once Jiho finally fell silent. Jiho whipped his head around so quickly Yongguk could almost hear it crack and he grimaced.

“Notice what?” he asked. Yongguk grinned.

“The way his eyes speak. And the way he moves his head,” he said, gesturing towards Zelo. “It’s like another language… I just haven’t learnt it yet.”

Jiho and Zelo both stared at him, both boys’ eyes wide.

“No,” Jiho said finally. “Not really. Sometimes I think I can see something, but…”

He turned to look at Zelo, who was still staring at Yongguk. Something akin to dread was showing in his eyes. Was he afraid that Yongguk could understand him?

“Zelo-ah,” Jiho said softly and Zelo turned back to him. “Don’t forget me, okay?”

Zelo tilted his head a few millimeters to the side and continued looking at Jiho with a blank expression. Poor Jiho, he looked like he was about to cry.

“He won’t,” Yongguk said. “I’ll make sure of it.”

Jiho wouldn’t leave until they’d taken pictures. One of only Zelo, that he could keep for himself, two of himself with Zelo — one for himself to keep, the other for Zelo — and even more with all three of them.

He only just missed Heechul, who came home surprisingly early. A man Yongguk did not recognize was following him.

“This is Hankyung,” Heechul introduced him. “He’s from China. Be nice to him, boys.”

Yongguk nodded obediently while Zelo averted his gaze to the floor. It seemed to be enough of a submissive move for Heechul to accept it.

“Anyway, we are going to the mall!” Heechul announced. Yongguk’s eyes widened and Zelo’s head snapped up. Yongguk only just restrained himself from laughing.

“Oh come on. Zelo can’t go around in your old clothes for forever. Come on, let’s go!”

It turned out Hankyung was really nice, even if his Korean wasn’t too good. He and Yongguk were often made to wait while Heechul picked out clothes for Zelo and forced the poor boy to try them on. After two hours, it was evident Zelo was exhausted, but only Yongguk seemed to notice.

“Hyung,” Yongguk said. “Zelo needs a break.”

Heechul paid him no heed, but Hankyung threw him a glance and a reassuring smile. Somehow he managed to convince Heechul to go into next café they passed.

It was a cozy little café, with several armchairs and couches. They chose one in the corner which Zelo collapsed on and promptly fell asleep. Yongguk decided not to bother him, even as he was bored to death having to watch Heechul be sickeningly, out-of-character romantic with Hankyung.

Eventually Zelo woke up, but he was still too tired to walk properly on his own so he and Yongguk ended up walking a few meters behind Heechul and Hankyung, the smaller of the two leaning heavily against Yongguk. Yongguk made sure he didn’t trip on anything and safely guided him through the sea of people.

Eventually, he realized Zelo needed to sleep some more.

“Hyung!” he called out. Heechul stopped, spun on his heel and faced Yongguk with a rather annoyed expression. It used to make Yongguk gulp, but now that he had someone else to think of… Not so much.

“We need to go home. We can shop more some other day. Zelo is really exhausted. Please, let’s just go home?”

Heechul looked like he was about to protest, but Hankyung put a hand on his shoulder. Heechul’s mouth closed and he looked between the begging Yongguk and the half asleep Zelo.

“Okay. Tomorrow. I’ll pick you up after school,” he decided before they headed home.

Zelo continued to be half asleep as Yongguk brushed his teeth and helped him into his new, blue pajamas before tucking him into bed. The thought that he was only pretending did cross his mind, but he quickly brushed it off when Zelo fell asleep in a split second.

He went back into the bathroom to take a shower himself and was treated with a very unwanted moment of seeing Heechul devour Hankyung on the couch in the living room as he passed through it.

“Hyungs,” he called. Heechul grunted in response, but did not disconnect from Hankyung. “Watch out so Zelo doesn’t see you.”

“Isn’t he asleep?” Hankyung pulled away from Heechul long enough to ask. Yongguk shrugged.

“Right now, yes. Most likely not next time,” he replied before disappearing into the bathroom and making quick work of getting ready.

When he went back out, it seemed Hankyung and Heechul had moved things along into the bedroom, which Yongguk was very thankful for.

Zelo’s hand, seemingly on autopilot, reached out for his own when he crept into bed. Yongguk gladly accepted it and held it tight, making sure not to let go.

It seemed that Zelo’s very being pushed all the right mother hen instinct buttons that Yongguk hadn’t even known he had, but it wasn’t like he cared.

Right now, he only cared for Zelo.