It was raining. He wasn’t sure how long it’s been raining for, but it was cold.

                Soonyoung’s mother had told him to stay here in this exact spot, on the corner of a street he didn’t know, until she came back. It wasn’t raining when she left. He was pretty sure. But maybe it was. It’s been raining for a long time.

                He was sitting on the curb because his feet were getting sore. He had wanted to go under the roof of the building he was next to, just so he wouldn’t get wet, but he was afraid that his mother would come back and punish him for not staying in that exact spot. And Soonyoung’s bruises were just starting to turn yellow.

                His sandals were all wet now, and they made funny noises when he pressed his foot down. His toes were all red. Why? His hands were too. And they were shaking. He was shaking. Suddenly he realized how cold he was. How long was he this cold?

                Where was his mom? He was crying now, and he didn’t know why.

                “Hey, are you okay?”

                There was a boy talking to him. He had an umbrella. Why would a boy have a Hello Kitty umbrella? His lips were moving, but Soonyoung couldn’t hear what he was saying. The boy had a grass stain on his knee. His lips were moving more urgently now, but they were getting blurred. The world swayed. Soonyoung still couldn’t hear anything.

                The boy was reaching for him now. Soonyoung was getting picked up. He tried to fight off the older boy, trying to tell him he couldn’t leave that exact spot. If he left, he would get more bruises. His bruises just started to turn yellow. He was sure his mom would be right back. But the boy was stronger than Soonyoung. The boy was running now, taking him away from that spot. He started crying again.

                The world turned black, but at least the boy’s body was warm.

                Sweat pearled along Soonyoung’s hairline. His eyes opened for a brief moment, but as he found no light to lock onto, he shut them tightly. A mind throbbing migraine was beginning to set in. Soonyoung pressed the palms of his hands to his temples, extending his fingers out. He groaned in pain.

                This wasn’t the first time Soonyoung had dreamt about his mother leaving him.And he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. In reality, the dream didn’t seem all that harsh, but when Soonyoung was sleeping it was. He went back to those moments, how much it hurt when he realized he’d never see her again; even if it was a benefit for him.She was his entire world, even though drugs were hers. He loved her, although she didn’t deserve it. And even though he couldn’t really remember her face, the pain felt fresh every time.

                Soonyoung sat up slowly, letting his head fall to the side. Looking at the time, Soonyoung read 1:47 off the clock. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew how these nights worked. Once he had the dream, he couldn’t get out of it until the next night. It would reoccur and replay, waking him up every hour. He would rather not go through the cycle more than once. But what was he going to do at ten to two in the morning?

                Quietly, Soonyoung got out of bed and travelled into the kitchen for some Advil and cold water. He pulled himself up onto the counter, resting his head back on the cupboards behind him. At a time like this, he never wanted to wait for Kris. He didn’t want to trouble his hyung with childish things like nightmares.Besides, how would he help anyways?

                Sleeping wasn’t really something Soonyoung was familiar with since school started for him. He would shut his eyes, but his mind would race a track all night.

                The first thing he’d always think of was Keo. How her eyes were soft and her smile was always so bright. He liked her small thin lips and how she wore powdery makeup to cover her two or three acne scars she complained about constantly. That was another thing he liked; her complaining. The way she was too lazy to reach for something then nagged him to fetch it for her (which he complied without hesitation). Keo really was a lot for Soonyoung to think and she never failed to occupy his mind for a few hours every night.

                But following every thought of Keo was Dominik. Soonyoung tried to like him for Keo’s sake, he really did. He didn’t want her to have to choose between the two of them because of him, but it seemed Dominik had something different in mind.

                Soonyoung was never mindful of anyone other than Keo. He walked to school with Keo after knocking on her window early in the morning several times before making it a daily routine.She always complained whenever he appeared at her window, even though at some point she left it unlocked for him.He walked her home after school and stayed over for a few hours until her parents came home from work. Maybe he was setting himself up for Dominik to hate him, by spending so much time with Keo, but he didn’t notice in the moment.

                “Soonyoung, stop.” Keo said hiding her face. Soonyoung smiled, pulling away her hand and continued looking at her.

                Dominik rolled his eyes and his nostrils flared. “What are you looking at anyways?” He tried to hide the annoyance in his voice for the hundredth time today. Soonyoung didn’t leave Keo and him alone for one minute.

                The older boy smiled, resting his head on his hands, sitting across from Keo. “You know you have small black freckles in the colour of your eye.”

                Keo pulled her hair away from her face, blinking subconsciously. This made Soonyoung’s heart flutter. Dominik was not impressed.

                “Let me see.” His rough hands closed around Keo’s jaw turning her head to face him. Keo playfully closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “Nope don’t see it.” Dominik said without a care if the dots were actually visible or not.

                Soonyoung frowned. “That’s because her eyes were closed. Here.” Gently ,Soonyoung pushed Keo’s bangs from her forehead turning her slightly to face Dominik. She continued to look at Soonyoung until her face burned red with embarrassment.

                Dominik’s eyes narrowed, flickering with badly concealed anger. Keo put her hands on top of Soonyoung’s that were on her face, returning them back to him. “I think that’s enough, Soonyoung.” Keo knew very well that Dominik would beat Soonyoung to a pulp if she didn’t intervene.

                Soonyoung tried his hardest to tolerate Dominik. It seemed like every time he’d show him an aspect of Keo that should be admired, Dominik would retort with a rude comment or hit him. Really Soonyoung shouldn’t lose sleep over a jerk like him, but he was more afraid Keo would be hurt than anything. He didn’t know if he could watch anymore people he loved get hurt after growing up with in the institute.

                It had been a couple months since Soonyoung’s last nightmare. He really didn’t know why he called it a nightmare, because he wasn’t all that scared of his mother leaving him anymore. He began to think he was more scared of what happened after. The institute was not a fun place, anyone could tell you that.

                He didn’t let the memories of the institute sink in for too long before shaking his head. “I need air,” he said to himself wiping his tired eyes. Soonyoung shrugged on his jacket and boots and began to shuffle outside aimlessly. His feet were taking him places without him caring where they took him. He simply needed to clear his mind.

                Having walked over two hours, Soonyoung was standing at the end of Keo’s street. He was still unconscious of his actions, even after dragging his body up the side of the roof and knocking on her window. His body was doing it as if it were second nature.He didn’t come back to his senses until Keo rolled open her window.

                “What the hell are you doing here?” she mumbled irritably. “It’s almost five o’clock in the morning, school starts in three hours.”

                Soonyoung crossed his legs sitting on a heavy slant. He really didn’t know what he was doing here either. He supposed his mind brought him for some comforting. Just seeing Keo with her messy bed hair and ruffled pajamas made him feel better.

                “Are you going to come inside or what?” Keo murmured to him, dragging her feet back to bed.

                Soonyoung nodded, slipping in through her window after removing the screen and discarding it on the floor. He shut the window behind him, took off his shoes and put them and his jacket in the corner he reserved just for this reason.He sat quietly on the ground at the foot of Keo’s bed. Keo’s short hair was pulled back in a vibrant green headband and her face was clear of anything to hide her natural beauty. She yawned with her eyes closed sitting looking down on Soonyoung from the elevation of her bed.

                “So what’s up?” she asked blinking hazily. Soonyoung smiled on the inside, too exhausted to pull that smile on his face. “There is something up right? Because if you walked all the way here and knocked on my window for nothing, I swear I will kill you.” Her voice was somewhat serious through her sleepiness, but Soonyoung could tell she was joking.

                “So what’s up?” She repeated. Soonyoung turned around so his back was against the end of the bed and he tilted back looking at Keo upside down. How was it that she could still look beautiful at this hour?

                Soonyoung could feel Keo’s hands slid into his hair, combing through it like it was the most natural thing in the world. “What do you do when you have a bad dream and you can’t fall back asleep?” Soonyoung closed his eyes, feeling Keo’s comforting touch.

                Keo stopped for a moment to tap her chin with her index finger. She hummed nodding her head.“I haven’t had a bad dream in a long time, but I remember when I was younger, my mom used to sing this little song to me about colours and I’d forget all about whatever the dream was.” The corners of Soonyoung’s mouth dipped up. “She’s cheesy like that. What is your mom like?”

                Soonyoung pulled his crossed legs close to him running a hand up and down his calf. “I don’t have a mom.” The way he spoke was so soft and bland, it was almost scary. His facial expression was at ease and Keo couldn’t have felt any more regret for asking in that moment.

                “I’m sorry.” She half whispered retracting her hands from Soonyoung’s hair. His eyes fluttered open and looked unchanged from before, like Soonyoung wasn’t bothered at all.

                “Don’t be, you would have found out eventually. It’s really no big deal.”

                No big deal.

                Keo was stunned. Not having a mother in her books was a big deal. You had no one to love and care for you, to cuddle you and comfort you when you were upset. She couldn’t imagine what she would be like without her mother in her life.She wondered what had happened to Soonyoung to make such a thing come across as no big deal, but couldn’t bring herself to ask. She didn’t want to trouble him more.

                Soonyoung climbed onto the bed and continued talking with Keo until they had to prepare for school. In that time, Keo had found out a lot of things about Soonyoung that she hadn’t known before.There was so much she didn’t know about him, and she tried not to talk much. She talked all the time about irrelevant things, never once really asking about him. So she listened to every word he said.

                Not only did Soonyoung not have a mother, he didn’t have any family except for Kris and those at the institute who he called his brothers. Soonyoung seemed very okay while talking about his lack of parental guidance through his earlier life, which amazed Keo. He had battled rough encounters with bullies at school – which seemed unbelievable due to his naive perspective on life – and even had the opportunity to meet the previous emperor of Japan’s great granddaughter for a special occasion he would not specify.

                Things that were important to her seemed to be the least important things to Soonyoung. Keo wanted to submerge herself in his stories and learn more and more about him. When her alarm went off, she didn’t want to get up. She wanted to stay like this, listening to the life Soonyoung had not even three months ago.

                She wanted Soonyoung to trust her with everything, but she didn’t know she was already on the right path.

A/N: More updates to come! I wrote for about three hours yesterday and have a lot in store for this story!