Eric tossed and his bed. He felt frustrated. He still remembered the face, the voice, and even the scent. ‘He still smells good, like a baby,’ Eric thought to himself. But when he remembered the look on the boy’s face, Eric felt like crying.

“Kyo…” He muttered, tightly holding a doll to his chest. “I missed you so much…” Tears started falling from his eyes. “Don’t you miss me too?” He wiped the tears away, but they kept on flowing down his cheeks. “Don’t you remember me?” Eric cried his heart out.

After an hour crying, Eric got out of his room. He wanted to have a walk to clear his mind. Besides, if his father saw him staying in the room, he would scold Eric for not mixing around with people. As he was walking at the yard, with a book in his hand, he saw the horse stable. A smile lingered on his face when he walked towards the animals.

“Hey horses.” He greeted. “Mind if I stay here for a while?” Eric looked around the stable to make sure no one else was there. Then he chose a spot near a pillar and sat down on a pile of hay. “This is nice.” He opened his book and started reading. But after a while, his mind wandered off to think about his best friend. He took a deep breath to make the feeling go away, and continued reading the book.

Kyo was walking out of his room when he heard the boy talking. He carefully leaned his ear to the door to listen. He didn’t know why he was curious about the boy.

“Don’t you remember me?” Kyo heard the boy spoke. He sounded so sad.

“Such a crybaby.” Kyo muttered when he heard the boy crying in the room. Kyo then left the house to play with his friends.

An hour later, Kyo returned to his house to take a ball. While he was running back to his friends, he saw the boy at the horse stable. He stopped running and hid behind a tree.

“What is he doing there?” He asked himself. Seeing the boy sat on the ground, reading a book made Kyo confused. “Who reads in the horse stable?” He chuckled and ran to his friends with the ball in his hand. They were happily playing ball in front of Kyo’s house when suddenly one of his friends stopped and tugged his shirt.

“Pilkyo, who is that?” Dongwan asked. Kyo and his other friends turned to look, and saw a boy walking out of the stable.

“My cousin.” Kyo answered and turned away to continue playing. But his friends were still looking at the boy.

“What’s his name? How old is he? Since when did he come? Why didn’t you invite him to play with us?” A smaller boy named Junjin asked, and the others nodded.  Kyo sighed and turned to his friends.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. Since this afternoon. I don’t know. Happy?” Kyo’s quick answers earned laughter from his friends. “What?” They were all still looking at the boy, who was now walking to the garden, with a book in his hand.

“Invite him to play tomorrow. We want to meet him.” Dongwan said, and they all waited for Kyo’s answer. Seeing all eyes were on him, he gave in.

“Fine.” With that, they continued playing ball, ignoring the boy who was reading his book in the garden. When the sun was setting, Kyo’s friends bid goodbye and promised to meet tomorrow. Kyo was running into the house when he saw that boy still in the garden. Kyo could only see his back but he knew the boy was staring at the sunset. He slowly walked closer and hid behind a shrub, waiting for any movement by the boy.

“Kyo…” He heard the boy spoke. Suddenly, his heart felt weird. Unfamiliar images started playing in his mind. He closed his eyes to see well. He saw a small room, a bed, a window, toys, and some story books. He couldn’t figure out the images he was seeing. But his heart somehow felt hurt. He felt sad. He wondered why. “Oh hello.” Kyo was brought back to reality when he heard a voice. He opened his eyes and saw the boy standing in front of him. The boy was smiling.

“Uh hello.” Kyo got up from the ground and fixed his clothes. He glanced at the boy, and the smile still lingered on the latter’s face. “It’s almost dinner time. So better get inside.” Kyo said and started walking to the house. He smiled when the boy followed him home.   

“Boys!” Kyo’s mother greeted them when they entered the front door. “Go wash up. Dinner is starting soon.” Kyo immediately ran upstairs to his room. When he realized the boy didn’t follow him this time, he stopped and looked down.

“Aren’t you going to wash up?” Kyo asked. Surprisingly the boy smiled and started walking upstairs. As the boy got closer, Kyo noticed the book in his hand. His heart was beating fast when he saw the book cover. He wanted to shout, but he didn’t know why. He took a deep breath and looked at the boy who was now standing in front of him, still smiling. The moment Kyo’s eyes landed on the smiling boy’s face, his heart stopped beating. He heard nothing but voices in his head. The voices were so familiar, he felt like crying.

“Kyo?” Kyo snapped out from his imagination and quickly left to his room. He slammed the door shut and slumped onto his bed. Kyo’s head started playing images of the boy since he first saw him earlier that day. He clutched his chest, wondering why he suddenly felt hurt and sad. “Kyo-ya…” The boy called from outside while knocking on the door. Kyo covered his head with a pillow, not wanting to hear the voice anymore. He then started crying. And he didn’t even know why.