I fell asleep slowly that night, somewhat haunted by that boy’s presence. Tosunnies whines at the foot of my bed were the only thing that reminded me of where I was. I still couldn’t shake Ren’s appearance from my mind. Perhaps I needed sleep, and so I slept, but when I woke the next morning, I felt the same way.

            I woke to the smell of bacon frying in the kitchen and my father standing at the small camp stove next to Baekho as they were deep in chat. I didn’t mind them, though. I followed my path through the screen door, Tosunnie followed, happy to have been released from the cabin. The very first thing he did was run to Aron, and then to Rensunnie. As far as I could tell, they were getting along great.

            I sat across the picnic table from Minhyun. I could tell he hadn’t gotten much sleep, and I would have asked him if anything was wrong if my Dad hadn’t erupted from the door with the hot plate of bacon and tossed it down like it was the last thing he’d ever do. I blew on the still sizzling food before picking a single piece up and breaking it in half. I ate one half myself, and left the other on the ground for the dogs. I couldn’t choose between resting my head on the table top or looking for Aron. After thinking a bit and agreeing with myself that he wouldn’t have anything interesting going on, I chose to stay there. I faced the bacon, it’s scent trailing to my nose. I plucked another piece from the plate and carefully set it in my mouth. After several minutes of that, I sat up and glanced around. With nothing better to do, I figured it would be right to visit the creek again.

            No one followed me. I didn’t expect them to. I was half surprised that Tosunnie wasn’t at my feet, though. Again, the twigs cracked beneath my feet, and there were only two sounds I could hear over that: the rushing of the water and the pleads of my mother to come back. I would have ignored them if she didn’t sound so helpless. I could only imagine what she needed from me. Why Aron couldn’t take care of it, I don’t know.

---

            I spent the rest of the day until nightfall on the ground next to the fire ring. I couldn’t be bothered to go off on my own, as Mom would call me back inside every five minutes. I couldn’t see why she couldn’t just finish the cleaning with Aron, why didn’t he have to leave his room? He was acting a lot like I usually did. I smiled to myself in hopes that the reason he locked himself up was because Kaeun was paying him no attention.

            When the sun dipped just below the horizon, I stepped into the forest, taking the usual trek. I walked faster this time, and took a seat on the same log I had the night before. Sure enough, as I glanced around, his blonde hair caught the moonlight and I recognized him. When he lifted his head and his eyes met mine, my heart skipped a beat. I wasn’t sure what clicked in my mind when he looked at me. The night before, I’d thought that maybe the wind has caught me the wrong way or something, but seeing him again told me otherwise. We looked back and forth at each other for several long moments before I stood. He followed my lead.

            When I reached him on the other side of the creek, he smiled. Again, it sent shivers through me. I loved the feeling I got when I felt his eyes creeping across me even when I wasn’t looking. It was almost as if I could feel him watching me as I sat down in the sand.

            “Hey.”

            I nodded, pulling my knees to my chest and looking at my feet. I needed not have exchanged words for him to know that I was nervous. It was clear. That could have been seen from miles away. “Hey.”

            He sat next to me now, leaning back onto his hands as casually as he could. “JR, right?”

            “Right.”

            My breath was caught in my throat and he could tell. He flashed his teeth in a grin and playfully smacked my knee. “Ease up.” he told me. I wished I could.

            For some reason, being only feet from him felt just like being feet from God or something. That would explain a lot of things, to be honest. Everything about him seemed to have been carved by angels. I wish I was exaggerating. Nothing about him, as far as I could see, could have happened by chance. But I was getting ahead of myself. I honestly wished there was another way to describe him, but there wasn’t. I searched the many words and phrases that I had bundled in the back of my mind for something else to say that didn’t depict him as some other-worldly creature, but it just didn’t seem possible. There was nothing else that I could say that would accurately portray him aside from the fact that his eyes were as brown as chocolate kisses and his pure white hair was something only the Gods could dream up.

            When he touched me again after another exchange of words, my mind was flooded with those thoughts again.

            “JR, can you hear me?” he waved a hand in front of my face. “I asked you, what kind of music do you like?”

            “Oh, uh,” I almost stuttered. I thought on the topic of music for a few more seconds before stating the name of the one and only group that could come to my mind now. “SHINee. They’re my favourite.”

            I could tell that he almost imploded at the mention of the favourite group that we’d shared. I didn’t find anything awkward about anything else that he said, aside from the mention of how he thought I’d looked similar to Jonghyun.

            “I remember when I’d first listened to SHINee.” he went on. I was expecting a story. “I was living in the States when,”

            I had to cut him off, for the sake of knowing what in the world he was doing there. “What were you doing in the States?”

            “I lived there for a while. I never really paid attention to Korean things until she showed me SHINHWA. From there, I found SHINee and I knew that I had to come back here.”

            I wasn’t sure that I’d wanted to know why he’d moved or come back, but I watched as he talked, and as he talked he smiled wider, and I couldn’t help but smile back. I took it upon myself to take a hand to him softly when his speech had become so out of control that I could tell he wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying. When I did, it was instantly silent and I shook again. He glanced at me quickly and I was the first to turn away. My heart was beating ten times faster than it usually had when I felt his palm against the top of my hand as I sat it in the sand beside me. He drug his knees to his chest and hugged them close to himself.

            I was unsure of what to do with myself. I shifted my body a couple of times before choosing the best position, though just when I did was when I heard my mother’s voice call through the trees. The sound was distant, and I would have ignored it if his head hadn’t sprung up as he pulled his hand away. I half-frowned to myself when I’d decided that I had to make my leave for the night.

            I looked to him again and he smiled, standing in the very same spot I’d found him in.

            “Let’s meet here tomorrow?” I suggested. The look he gave me sufficed as a nod. I turned, crossing the creek and climbing back up the tiniest hill and into the trees.

            My hands were in the pockets of my jacket as I stared at my feet. I couldn’t wipe the childish smile from my face as I approached the cabin. Minhyun and Kaeun sat on the steps watching the two dogs that still would not leave each other alone. They stood as Tosunnie turned to me, her tail wagging high above his head as I approached him. Rensunnie took his leave into the front of the SUV. The brother and sister lazily nodded to me as they followed him. It was obvious that they were tired.

            The truck rolled away as the screen door of the cabin closed. Aron was sitting at the breakfast table with a small notebook and pen as I walked into the kitchen. He looked up from his writing only to ask me why my lips were curled the way they were. He knew something, but I’m sure he didn’t know the half of it.

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