Youngjae was woken up by the sharp sound of his alarm clock. Reaching from under the warm cover he knocked the clock to the floor, waking himself completely up by the banging noise. He yawned and stretched his arms, frowning as he prepared his eyes to be met by the morning sun. After slowly opening them he fluttered his lashes, pulling his cover up to the bottom of his eyes, trying to make his brain function.
Sighing, he laid like this for a little longer in his bed.
Looking at the white ceiling above him, he imagined the places where he’d rather be at this very moment. The number of choices was uncounted as he would rather be anywhere else in the world but where he actually was. He was stuck here for at least a little while longer though.

He wished he could stay wrapped up in his covers, drowning in his soft pillow for the rest of the day but he knew that would never happen as he heard his mom calling his name from the other side of the door. It was a clear sign to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast and without an excuse go to school. He dragged his half sleeping body from underneath the covers being mercilessly attacked by the cold air of his room. In the same time this helped him to wake up completely and get dressed in his school uniform faster than usual.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror, fixing his bleached hair, encouraging himself with the phrase he chanted every school morning for the last 4 years.

‘’Just a little bit more.’’

Nodding in approval, he decided that today he’ll try to have a good day.
After finally leaving his room, he was greeted by his mother's breakfast and a good morning note. She was already gone as she had to start work on the other side of Seoul early in the morning.

After eating, it was time to leave and off he was, locking the sweet home doors behind him.

He walked down the familiar streets which lead him every single morning to the place he hated the most. He hated many things in his life but there was nothing he hated as passionately as he hated his high school.

He tried to forget about the destination as he drowned out his thoughts with his favourite songs playing on his phone. After a while of walking he reached a bridge and stopped.
He never stopped on his way to school because he knew if he did he wouldn’t continue his way to the motherland of teenage torture.
But this time he had to do so. Looking at the rising stairs he recalled the night from a few days ago. This was the first time he was here after the weird encounter, given that he stayed home sick for a few days to avoid school.
Whatever happened still puzzled his mind. It made no sense but questioning the event now was useless since he would probably never see the other boy again. After that night he made sure to look at the newspapers for any news of a boy taking his own life but there were none. It was a relief because even though the other denied, Youngjae was sure the boys intention that night was to jump.

He escalated towards the top and his brain were able to recall the night to the last bit. He could still see him standing there, half way up the rail, hanging dangerously over the edge.
He stopped for a second at the spot, peeking at the wildly driving cars underneath him. Thinking how someone would want to take his life this way was sending shivers down his spine so he picked up his pace and walked on, minding his own business.

The street he walked was empty and cold as he could smell winter on the door steps. Because of the cold wind he wrapped his arms around his body to keep it warm but at that moment he stopped in his tracks. He lifted his head in confusion and looked back at the side street where he sworn he saw the familiar figure. For a moment he glimpsed the brown hair and the pale skin of a standing man but as he looked again the figure was not there.
Blinking a few times to clear his eyes, he made sure that the stranger was not there.  He wasn't.
Not only was he damaged goods but now he was even imagining and seeing things. He must have been on the verge of madness. Shaking his head he pushed away the discriminating picture madness and continued his journey to his school.

Reaching the gates of his private school he sighed again, tightly grabbing his backpack, lowering his head and entering through the gates of hell. His plan was to keep low and just survive the last few months he had left in the hell hole. After finishing, he could run away and never return to this dark pit of Seoul.
His plan of being invisible was actually working quite well. He didn’t really have friends, only the few people he occasionally talked to when no one was around. It didn’t bother him, being alone most of the time but of course he didn’t want a life like this when he first entered this school. A life of an outcast was chosen for him by the other students and this meant everyone would either avoid him or bully him to no end.
And this is pretty much why he hated the building surrounding him and why he wished so many times to see the school in fire upon arrival, in viciously raging flames. However, thinking of it, fire was the buildings friend as it was already hell, so his wish was already dismissed.
 

This morning was no different from any other. The white walls were still holding him captive in its sharp claws and he was again trying to demolish the place with his mind and imagination, while waiting for the classes to start.
After nothing happened to the room, he rolled his eyes and looked out the window.
He could see the school court and a number of students walking around, however again something caught his sight. Brown hair. There it was. There he was.
He half stood up to get a better sight but the teacher who was already lecturing without Youngjae noticing his presence yelled at him.

‘’Yoo Youngjae, why aren’t you listening?! Sit down right now!’’

Youngjae snapped out, apologising to the teacher while scanning the annoyed faces whispering obscure things while watching him sit down.
Though when the teacher turned around the boy looked out the window again, yet to his dismay this time the brown haired boy was nowhere to be seen. Disappearing into thin air as if he never existed.

‘’Am I really going mad?’’ Youngjae debated over this thought for the whole day, in the end almost reaching the conclusion of being a madman in the making. These occupied his mind for the rest of the day, somehow making his lonely day to pass by quicker.

As the bell of the last period rang, declaring that it was time for everyone to escape the underworld, this was the time Youngjae dreaded the most. Considering how much he hated it here, it should only be logical for him to be over the moon after the last ring but he wasn’t.

Somehow after the school ended and he was granted his freedom from hell, for a few hours he entered the world of demons who escaped hell to meet him and make his life even more miserable.

He walked down the street away from the school gates. He knew what waited for him a few blocks further. At this point he was not even trying to avoid it. He just wanted to get it over with as always. He couldn’t run away so finishing his business off as fast as possible seemed as the best solution.
He reached the dreaded corner already hearing the voices of the demons hiding in the shadows of the dark small alley. Sighing, he stopped once he stepped in the sight of the hungry red eyes.

‘’Yaah, Youngjae!’’ a rather too familiar voice called.

‘’Where have you been the last few days you basterd?’’ another voice groaned as Youngjae made his way towards his torturers.

‘’Sick.’’ He mumbled not looking up at the piercing eyes.

The group laughed at him and one of them roughly ruffled his hair.

‘’Owwww, poor baby got sick, but I bet your memory still works well right?’’

The blond nodded stiffly.

‘’You’re such a good .’’ The owner of the third voice grabbed his hair and pushed him to the wall, while one of the other boys took away his bag.

Youngjae now closed his eyes tightly shut. He knew what was coming and fighting against was just useless. Somehow in the past years at some point he got used to it or he just accepted is as a daily routine in his life, as there was no way he would win against them so he waited for the punches and pain to come to his fragile body every single day.

But today even though expected, they didn’t come. By this time on a normal day, he would already be laying on the floor, curled up in a ball trying to protect vital organs of his fragile body, bleeding excessively from the split skin.
Now he was still standing and he didn’t feel anything touch his skin. After he realised something must have been wrong he slowly opened one of his eyes, peeking at the demons, however the sight before his eyes brought him back into reality.

Now he could hear the yells and screams of pain coming from the boys who used to torture him on the daily basis of the last 4 years. Bright red blood was dropping violently from the gashed wounds.  

One of the boys was lying on the floor, trying to get up; the second was in a flight position not really knowing what to do as the blood from his forehead blurred his vision and the third one was in the grasp of their sudden attacker.

It didn’t take long for Youngjae to recognise the brown hair he kept on seeing the whole day, pretty much everywhere he looked at. He gasped as his saviour pushed the boy he choked to the wall next to him. The other boy slid down and one of his friends grabbed him and started to drag him away from the alley.
In the next few seconds the demons or better frightened beaten up boys were gone from Youngjae’s sight. However at this point he couldn’t care less about their whereabouts or their probably already existing revenge plan, at this moment he could only focus on the panting boy in front of his eyes.

It was the boy from the bridge. This time he was sure. He had the same brown hair pulled down over one of his eye and he had the same pale skin which somehow glowed in the night’s street lamps on the bridge.

‘’Y-you?!’’ Youngjae stuttered still in shock.

The other now looked at him nodding a hello in the blond boys’ direction.

‘’Wh-what are you doing here?!’’ he asked without a second thought. He didn’t want to be as direct as he was because he didn’t know him but he had too many questions overloading his brain.

‘’Asking questions rather than saying thank you? I see.’’ The other raised a brow.

‘’Oh… I guess you’re right. Thank you; but what are you doing here?!’’ the younger pursued.

Daehyun rolled his eyes but answered.

‘’I was just walking by and saw some kids trying to beat someone up and I decided to help.’’

Youngjae eyed him, trying to verify if it was possible.
It was but he just couldn’t be satisfied with that answer. It was all just to weird.

‘’I don’t believe you!’’ he crossed his arms.

‘’You really are ungrateful aren’t you?!’’ even though it was directed to the boy, Youngjae was sure the older was more like talking to himself.

‘’Ungrateful? I’m just creeped out to see you everywh...’’ he cut his sentence. This was not something he was planning to say as he wasn’t sure if he really saw the other or not. Admitting he was going mad was really not his priority at the moment.

‘’Now you even see me everywhere huh?’’ the other chuckled which made the younger blush in embarrassment.

‘’Whatever...’’ He groaned, now annoyed by the others presence.
‘’Just don’t pop up like that again and ugh… I don’t know, leave me alone.’’ He ranted and took his bag, getting ready to leave. Somehow the other managed to piss him off in a matter of seconds.

He turned around, now ready to get away, when he was again stopped.

‘’Daehyun.’’

‘’What? I’m not…’’ though before he could finish he was again cut off.

‘’I know. My name is Daehyun.’’

‘’Oh.Yeah... I’m Youngjae.’’ He wasn’t sure why he told him his name. It's not like he was planning to see the boy again but out of politeness and even gratitude for saving him he introduced himself to the other. Though he didn’t know he would regret doing so later. Youngjae nodded at the silence flowting between them as he didn’t know what else to say and since the other didn’t say anything else as well, he slowly walked away, turning a few times to see Daehyun standing motionlessly on the same spot.

Daehyun was watching the younger boy awkwardly walking away, turning a few times before the corner of the alley and disappearing behind the bricked wall and his sight. He smirked and wiped off the blood and some dirt from his cheek.

‘’Youngjae.’’ He whispered to himself.

‘’Youngjae, don’t say your goodbyes so soon as I haven’t paid off my debt just yet.’’
 

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Lol what is this chapter xD 

Yeah, I hoped you enjoyed it, even though nothing much happened... 

Feedback and comments are welcomed and you all should have a really nice day!!! <33