Before you guys start reading, I would like to clarify that, the kid Kim Joonmyeon in this story is not Suho. I just want to clear that fact. Enjoy reading:)

Shrieks and laughter could be heard coming out from a double-story house located at the outskirt of Seoul, Korea. There were a few boys playing soccer at the lawn while some children preferred to stay inside the house to play board games or just indulging themselves in some games they had created to play with their friends. While the place was buzzing with the children’s loud screaming of joy, two tall figures stood out in the tiny bunch.

                One of the obvious figures was known as Zelo, a stage name he had received after submitting himself into the music industry while the other male was called Bang Yongguk. The two of them were enjoying a tag game inside the orphanage that they had been doing volunteer work even before they turned into celebrities. At first, it was Yongguk who had found the place and had been working there throughout his youth but when he met Zelo, the younger male was interested in volunteer work as much as he does.

                Due to their common interest in music and the volunteer work, the oldest and the youngest member of the band, B.A.P was able to create a strong bond between them. Through Zelo’s eyes, Yongguk was someone he respected tremendously.

                “You can’t catch me,” said Yongguk as he glided through the small children, pretending to run away. The kids giggled and ran after him, wanting to catch him. At that time, a cute 4 year old girl had accidentally tripped over one of the toys trucks laying around on the floor as a small thud was heard followed along with the girl’s cry.

                The room which was previously filled with laughter came to a halt as Yongguk’s smile faltered away. He ran towards the small girl and took her in his arms. “Sumi-ahh…” his deep voice calling out the girl’s name, “Who did this to you? Our poor Sumi,” he rocked the girl back and forth as he continued on with the baby talk, “Show me who did this to you.”

                A tear dropped from the corner of her eyes as her trembling small fingers pointed towards the toy truck, “He made me fall,” Sumi pouted and buried her face in Yongguk’s chest.

                “Oppa will scold him later okay?” Yongguk whispered in Sumi’s ear as the child nodded.

                To lighten up the atmosphere, Zelo went out of the room and re-entered seconds later, shouting, “Now, who is up for some candies?”

                Immediately, the surrounding brightened up as Sumi jumped out of Yongguk’s arm, forgetting about the incident. She ran along with the rest of the kids, swarming towards Zelo who had candies in his hands. Yongguk chuckled at Sumi’s eagerness and was about to stand up and join them when his eyes had espied on a certain boy, sitting quietly at the corner of the room.

                Yongguk’s gaze fell upon the boy and when their eyes met, the boy seemed flabbergasted as he looked away. With a smile, Yongguk made his way towards the boy. “Hey, buddy, what’s your name?” Yongguk settled down beside the boy on the floor and his eyes caught the pieces of papers and crayons scattered around him.

                Kim Joonmyeon, 7 years old, he is a new addition to our orphanage and he has cerebral palsy. His right side is weaker than his left side and his right arm is rigid. Due to that, he has a brace for his right legs, resulting in his bouncy walking manners. He can’t run and his speech can be unclear at some point. Also, he has trouble in writing and drawing. He is now receiving physical, speech and occupational therapy, Yongguk remembered the caretaker’s words clearly but despite that, he had asked the boy for his name to kick-start a conversation.

                “Kim Joonmyeon,” the boy mumbled.

                “Well, then, Joonmyeon,” Yongguk’s smile widened, “Don’t you want to have some candies?”

                The child expressed a look of sorrow as he hung his head low. A frown was forming on his face while Yongguk twisted his mouth, trying to think of a way to open up the boy’s heart. “What have you been doing?” he tried to spark another conversation with the boy as he grabbed one of the crayons on the floor. “Been drawing?”

                This time, the boy did not say a word but had only nodded.

                “You draw quite well Joonmyeon,” Yongguk commented when he saw the drawings laying around beside Joonmyeon.

                “I’m horrible at it,” Joonmyeon’s lips started trembling, fresh tears pooled at the corner of his eyes, “I watch the others draw and liked it. I thought about giving it a try but I can’t draw properly,” the boy sniffled as his words were starting to sound incoherent due to lump forming at the back of his throat.

                Drawing and writing would be a hard task for a special child like Joonmyeon and Yongguk knew that. The older male silently watched Joonmyeon who was staring at the other kids who were busy playing. Joonmyeon was a 7 year old boy and has no parents to support him. Having a fragile body and low self-esteem, Joonmyeon needed warmth, but no one was there to keep him away from the cold world.

                Moving closer towards the boy, Yongguk patted his back and said in a consoling voice, “Don’t cry okay? How about, I’ll teach you how to draw?” Joonmyeon’s body perked up in excitement as his glossy eyes stared at Yongguk. “Would you like that Joonmyeon?” Yongguk asked again and this time, he knew he had caught the boy’s attention.

                “Can you teach me how to draw a bear?” Joonmyeon asked.

                “Sure,” Yongguk nodded and grabbed a piece of paper, “Why not?” he ruffled the boy’s hair. And with that, the two males had huddled up together around the piece of white paper while Yongguk started to draw a grizzly bear.  

                “Can I try?” Joonmyeon said the moment Yongguk finished drawing the bear.

                “Sure, go ahead,” Yongguk passed the brown crayon to Joonmyeon.

                His hands shakily took the crayon from Yongguk and with his tongue slightly sticking out, Joonmyeon tried to draw again.  Yongguk watched the small boy drawing the outline of a bear as he felt something tugged at his heart. Maybe the way Joonmyeon’s hands were trembling badly while drawing or the fact that Joonmyeon was trying so hard to achieve something so that he could just fit in.

                Tuck!

                The sound of the crayon breaking into two was heard. Yongguk was pulled away from his deep rumination and saw that Joonmyeon was staring at the broken crayon in his hand. “It broke,” an incoherent sound came out from Joonmyeon’s mouth and Yongguk leaned in to hear as he asked the boy to reiterate on what he had said but Yongguk was left hanging when Joonmyeon did not give a single reply.

                Since his face was facing down, Yongguk was not able to see Joonmyeon clearly, and so, he bent down a little bit more, Yongguk’s head almost touching the ground, “Are you-” he was about to ask the child when he saw a drop of tear landed on the piece of paper before Joonmyeon.

                A minute passed by and another drop of tear could be seen on the paper.

                “Joonmyeonnie,” Yongguk whispered, his big hands placed on the boy’s sad shoulder as he turned Joonmyeon towards him. “Why are you crying?”he asked Joonmyeon who already had tears running down his cheeks. Yongguk wiped away the tears and then asked softly, “Are you mad at hyung?”

                Joonmyeon shook his head.

                “Then, tell me what’s wrong. Hyung will help you.”

                “I broke the crayon,” Joonmyeon sniffled.

                “It was an accident, Joonmyeon-ahh.”

                “But it happens all the time,” Joonmyeon cried, “I-I-I can’t control my hands. Sometimes it shakes too much that I would break almost all the crayons I use,” he sobbed.

                Looking at the sight of the crying boy had made Yongguk felt terrible for not being able to do anything. He cradled the boy carefully and hugged him. “Hyung will help you. You’ll grow up to be an excellent artist and be able to use the crayons without breaking it.”

                “How?” the boy asked in tears.

                “Hyung will show you,” Yongguk looked at Joonmyeon, “Only if you stop crying.”

                With much effort, Joonmyeon tried to stop his running tears. His cries were tamed to small sobs and eventually had been narrowed into cute hiccups. Yongguk flashed a fatherly smile and tousled Joonmyeon’s head. “Feeling better now?” Yongguk asked.

                Joonmyeon nodded.

                However, Yongguk waggled his index finger in disapproval. “You have to tell me whether you’re feeling better or not.” It was Yongguk’s way of guiding Joonmyeon to talk more in order to improve his speech.

                “Yes, hyung,” Joonmyeon’s cute accent came out and again, Yongguk could not help himself from ruffling the boy’s hair, feeling proud with his achievement.

                Before they started drawing again, Yongguk took the broken crayon from the little boy’s hand. Using a clean wet tissue, Yongguk carefully erased all the brown traces of crayon sticking on the boy’s hand. And at the same time, Joonmyeon watched Yongguk. His heart was swelling with joy. Joonmyeon could not understand why he was feeling happy but the momentarily contentment was something he would treasure for a long time. That small gesture of cleaning his hand made Joonmyeon experience the feeling of a child who has a father to take care of him.

                Then, Yongguk grabbed another crayon and held it out toward Joonmyeon but the child stared at it with eyes filled with fear. Joonmyeon was scared about breaking more crayons and that fear was stopping him from trying. He was afraid of trying given that he knew he would only be a burden to others.

However, he felt Yongguk’s warm hand wrapped around his at that moment.

Joonmyeon looked up to see Yongguk staring at him with kind eyes.  

“Hyung will help you, don’t be scared,” Yongguk stated in a comforting tone.

With that, Yongguk slipped a new crayon into Joonmyeon’s hand and held onto his hand, guiding him to draw another bear on a fresh sheet. Yongguk held onto Joonmyeon’s hand to prevent it from shaking too much. “Do you think I will be able to do this by myself soon?” Joonmyeon suddenly asked.

“Of course you can,” Yongguk optimistically said, “You have me to help you out. I’m a decent painter.”

Joonmyeon stared at Yongguk’s drawings. To say that he was a good painter, the bear resembled more of a cat or was it a dog?

“Do you doubt me?” Yongguk’s right brow rose.

                “Maybe,” Joonmyeon shrugged.

                “Yah, you have to trust hyung in this,” Yongguk pretended to be mad as Joonmyeon chuckled at the older male’s act. Seeing Joonmyeon’s smile had made Yongguk relieved again as he patted the boy’s head while saying, “You should always keep smiling like that,” and then added playfully while waggling his brow, “Girls would surely fall for you.”

                This had made Joonmyeon giggled more. His body shook but this time was not because of the crying, but because he was laughing too much. Yongguk laughed along as the two of them continued on with their drawings. Time passed by as the number of sheets of paper that had been drawn on increased.

                “Okay, I think that’s enough for today,” Yongguk said after they had finished practicing on drawing several animals.

 Joonmyeon nodded and smiled.

                It was unbelievable for Yongguk. He had somehow opened the heart of this little boy. The smile plastered on Joonmyeon’s face was the real trophy Yongguk had won. Winning an award at a music festival could not triumph the feeling of victory he was going through at that time. Is this why people want kids?

“Joonmyeon-ahh,” he caressed the boy’s hair, “You have to live a long healthy life alright? No matter what happens, you must live the life you love,” Yongguk gave Joonmyeon a piece of advice.

                As expected, the 7 year old boy could not understand Yongguk’s words. So, he tilted his head towards Yongguk and asked, “Hyung, what does, ‘Live the life you love’ means?”

                After thinking about it for a while, Yongguk said, “It means, you have to cherish every moment in your life. Be grateful since you are given the chance to live another day, surrounded with people who cares for you.”

                “Cares for me?” Joonmyeon muttered, his voice became quieter.

                “Hey, I love you. Junhee noona, your caretaker loves you dearly too,” Yongguk stated as his eyes darted across the room searching for someone- to be more specific- a special someone. Yongguk’s gaze settled on a figure and a smile found its way up to settle down on his face.

                “Hyung,” Joonmyeon called, “Do you like Junhee noona?”

                “Huh?” Yongguk almost chocked on his own saliva.

                “You make this weird smiley face whenever you see her,” Joonmyeon said as Yongguk’s ears started to turn red.

                “Yah, you should focus on your drawings,” Yongguk stuttered.

                The two of them settled into a deep silence for a while before Joonmyeon spoke out again, “Hyung.”

                Yongguk chuckled when the boy called him for tenth time that day.

                “Are you going to come back here?”

                Sadness lingered around Yongguk’s heart when he heard Joonmyeon asking him in such a small and timid voice. It was as if the little boy was scared that Yongguk was never coming back, scared of being left alone all over again. “Of course I’m coming back,” Yongguk turned towards Joonmyeon and rubbed his shoulders, “I’ll come by here every single week. I promise you that.”

                “Really?” Joonmyeon mumbled with doubt.

                Yongguk sighed. Joonmyeon was never going to trust his words and he had to search for something to persuade the boy. He has to let Joonmyeon know that he was someone Joonmyeon could trust. Someone who would never leave him in the dark. “Wait here alright?” Yongguk stood up and raced out of the orphanage.

                Joonmyeon watched Yongguk’s swift movements coming in and out of the place in perplexity. He wondered what the older male had in stored for him and sighed. Is he just another liar? Joonmyeon heard a whisper at the corner of his heart but shook it off. Another set of denial was about to attack his poor heart when Yongguk suddenly came in with a toy in his hand and huge smile pasted on his face, revealing his pearly white teeth and pink gums. “I got something for you,” Yongguk stated in his usual deep voice.

                “What is it?” Joonmyeon’s eyes glimmered at the mention of a present.

                “This,” Yongguk held out a plush toy. The toy was called Tigger- a cartoon character from the show Winnie the Pooh.

                “I can keep this?” Joonmyeon looked at Yongguk feeling excited.

                “I’m giving it to you Joonmyeon-ahh,” Yongguk beamed, “It may look old but it had been my companion since I was a kid. It was the only toy I had when I was your age. My family was not well-off and couldn’t afford to buy me a lot of toys.”

                “Now, you’re giving it to me?” Joonmyeon asked.

                Yongguk nodded. “It’s my way of promising you that I will visit you as much as I can.”

                Nothing came out of Joonmyeon’s mouth at that time. No words would be able to express his true feelings of joyous. He felt loved and comforted. He felt happy and optimistic. It was as if he had found out that the world was on his side again, giving him another opportunity to love his life. “Hyung,” he called out for Yongguk again, “Thank you,” his lips trembled, “Thank you,” he reiterated in a whisper.

                “No problem kiddo,” Yongguk patted Joonmyeon’s small shoulder, “We’ll get through this.”      

Well, how do you guys like this one-shot?

My friend durian2003 had given me this scenario. Her request said: "The interactions between Bang Yong Guk and a young physically challenged child at an orphanage" Those were her exact words.... I got two more of her scenarios that I have to finish><

Comments are loved^_^