Jin hated his life. And he hated it more now that he was in this place.

He turned to his friend, Namjoon. “Why are we here again?” he prompted.

The other boy rolled his eyes. “Your dumb got caught shoplifting. So now we have to volunteer at an orphanage as punishment.” He sniffed distastefully before turning to look ahead once more.

Wordlessly, the two hiked up the stone path to the small building.They passed children kicking around a dirtied soccer ball with grins hinting at their lips. Cackles of glee escaped their mouths whenever a child kicked the ball to another.

To his left, Jin spied a lone teenage boy sitting beneath the canopy of a tree with his nose buried deep within a fresh book. He seemed to devour the words on the page as he stared at it with enough intensity to set fire to an entire forest. A bemused chuckle left Jin’s lips, and he felt his ears ring with the quiet sound. It had been a while since he’d laughed genuinely.

When they arrived, the two were greeted with twinkling eyes from the head of the orphanage and told to befriend the children for the day. And as simple as that, they were released into the wilderness of children and teenagers. Jin found himself looking around awkwardly while Namjoon abandoned the mission and went to snooze under the warm sun. He felt shy when he walked up to the group of seven kids he saw before with the ball.

“Can... I play with you guys?” Jin felt stupid saying those words aloud. It was as if he was a kid, too.

After an awkward beat of silence had passed, an older girl, seemingly the leader of the pack spoke up, “Okay.” She replied simply and the group nodded their heads in agreement.

It soon turned out that Jin was rubbish with the ball. He couldn’t kick it straight, nor could he trap it with his feet. The boy was always sent scrambling to get the object, evoking laughter from the children. Even Namjoon took time from his wasteful life to snort at his lack of skills from across the grass field. And during one of his many trips to retrieve the ball, Jin almost ran over a female.

Flustered, the poor girl, pushed her bangs from her eyes before regaining her composure and cursing Jin out for being an idiot. Jin only stood still, awestruck by the radiant beauty flowing from her short hair down to her plain white sneakers. When the rage had finally died from her black eyes, the girl let out a melodious laugh. “You’re that guy who can’t kick a ball.”

At her teasing, Jin felt his ears turn red hot, and he looked away embarrassed.

“It’s okay; not everyone’s athletic. You’ll get used to their energy when you volunteer more.” She said, her tone a bit more serious. The girl strained on her tippy toes. “The kids are waiting, you know. Here--” The ball was taken from Jin’s hands. “--I’ll teach you how to handle a ball, okay?” With quick strides, she left Jin in the dust.

The rest of the day was spent teaching the latter the “proper” way to kick a ball. For the first time in his life, Jin found himself enjoying the company of others. The kids didn’t pressure him into doing things like smoking or shoplifting. So when the next week came and Namjoon ditched, Jin found himself kicking a soccer ball around and getting to know the kid he had first seen reading a book under the tree. And when the time came for him to stop volunteering, Jin found himself still visiting.

The kids became his angels and so did the girl who had left him slack-jawed at their first meeting. Somehow, he was in over his head, in love, once again, with life.