“I’ve found that no matter what life throws at me, music softens the blow.” - Bryce Anderson

Yongguk

It wasn’t easy when sometimes you had to hide secrets from people especially ones that plague you for quite some time. Yongguk was still outside fidgeting with his phone, contemplating whether or not to go inside and thought back to when he first came to the house.

Its true that he lied about not being here before, because these memories were deep embedded into his mind. But naturally his mind drifts back to that time, where he didn’t want to go.

Yongguk was a young and spry boy, wandering from place to place finding something to eat and at times steal. His parents weren’t always there they had split when he was young, he decided to leave his home knowing that he could never grow up in an environment like that. And so he went so far away, away from who he was and wanting to be someone else entirely.

He walked down a long and dark path and finally looked up and saw a big house, with its multiple windows and vast lawn. He stopped and stared at it longer and harder as though as if time stopped in a split second. And before he knew it, Yongguk was walking over the fence into the lawn and breaking in to steal.

As he quickly took any sort of food he could carry the flickering of lights came on and he froze as he slowly turned around and came face to face with an elder man. He’s around in his mid-thirties wearing a bathrobe.

“You’re hungry aren’t you?” The man in the bathrobe talked as Yongguk stood still not sure if he should respond back.

“What, you’re not speaking? Cat got your tongue eh? I guess thats what happens when you’re hungry and can’t really talk properly.”

Yongguk kept looking back and forth from the doorway to the man in the bathrobe, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Why don’t you call the police or something, anything why are you standing here.” His voice sharp but soft at the same time.

“Why would I? You’re just a child looking for food, a lonely one at that.”

Yongguk stood away from the fridge and looked at the man in the bathrobe it was perplexing, the man not doing anything, saying anything. He stared at him for the few minutes until he spoke again.

“What’s your name?”

“Y-Yongguk.”

“Nice to meet you Yongguk, my name’s Shin Eung.”

Those were memories of the past and right now he was trying to correct the future, by stopping it. The sound of his phone was ringing and he picked it up, answered it “Yes, Hello?”

A few words exchanged with Detective Lee on the other end of the phone and Yongguk with his stern voice and serious expression.

“Alright, I can send it over to the department in an hour.”

“Thank you and like I said be careful.”

“I don’t think I could.” With that their conversation ended he leaned his head on the doorway, proving it to be a very stressful day.

“Are you okay?” Yongguk turned around to come face with Hwa young looking worried and Yongguk shook his head and smiled.

“Of course I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?” He lied, but hopefully she didn’t see right through it.

“Mmm okay, if you say so.” Hwa young turned around and said “Come one, you should eat you must be starving.”

And so he did, it was late into the night but he kept on talking with the rest to keep his spirits up. Everytime he gazed at Hwa young it almost felt like he felt pity on her, something just didn’t feel right.

“Excuse me.” Yongguk bowed and quietly exited from the dining room and walking outside onto the front yard again. The quietness of the night and the moon and stars coming out made it relaxing, refreshing. He breathed in and sat on the steps admiring the endless view.

“So, this is where you slink off when you just don’t want people to find you.” Hwa young appeared and sat down next to him, he chuckled softly.

“Yeah, it must be that I guess sometimes I just want to be alone at times and enjoy the silence around me.” He gestured his hand out and waved across it, his eyes following through.

“Wow, you must have been spacing out pretty obviously today, because if I didn’t know any better something else is on your mind, right?”

He blinked and turned to Hwa young, his expression somewhat confusing whether he’s being serious or actually spacing out.

“You know Hwa young, sometimes there are things I don’t get and you’re one of them.”

“What, me?”

“Yes you, I can’t seem to predict if you’re actually being sarcastic or joking, sad or happy I find you at most confusing.”

Hwa young scoffed “Well excuse me for not trying to be simplistic of a human being, you can talk. Sometimes I don’t know if you’re going to say something deep and thought provoking or just being plain silly.”

“Hey, watch it I like to think that I’m perfectly capable of giving my own opinions without doing anything wrong.”

Then they both suddenly started to laugh understanding that they both are joking around with each other. Hwa young stops laughing and with a serious look asks him a question, “No, but are you really okay? With everything that’s been going on.” Yongguk stops smiling and plainly looks at Hwa young like its gibberish to him.

“Oh stop with that look, I’m being quite serious even though I’ve been through a lot in the past two days you look as though you’ve been fighting for a long time.”

“Why are you fighting back when you could just...let go?” He leaned closer to her as they both started at each other as though as if they’re trying to search for an answer in each other.

“Well, I guess we’re a bunch of idiots then look at each other like we don’t know what to do with ourselves.” Hwa young leaned back away from Yongguk and breathed out a sigh, staring up at the sky.

“You know, my dad used to take me out and look at the stars back in Vancouver, there were a lot of stars, beautiful ones.”

Yongguk leaned back and also looked up to the many stars that occupied the stark, dark night. His mind drifted a little as Hwa young talked on about her and her dad pointing out the various constellations in the sky. His mind wandered to him, when he was around fifteen he showed him too the constellations.

Sometimes he wished he could tell her the truth but one day soon she will, and it’ll be another story that he wished he could wake up from.

“Yongguk I think you need to relax, sometimes you’re far too tense and for a moment just a moment you are allowed to sit back, close your eyes and breathe.” Hwa young laid a hand on his shoulder rubbing to ease the tension. His mind started to drift a little and eventually cleared his mind.

“Much better yeah?”

“Yeah, it feels much better, I can’t help it you know I’m too tense because sometimes I don’t know if I’m okay or if I should be doing something…something...important.” He breathed out slowly, because right there and now it felt like the whole world was spinning.

“Hey.” Hwa young sat back up and stared down to him with soft eyes, “I’m here so are all your members. Mr Yoo, we’re all here for you, I can’t stress it enough that there are people that will support you, question is are you willing to do it?”

His eyes focused on hers and he slowly sat back up just a few inches between each other, face to face. His heartbeat quickened and he didn’t really know what else to say, both of them just staring at each other.

“Because...I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“That everyone will be disappointed in me, because I’m afraid that I’ll make a mistake and everyone will lose faith in me. I’m afraid of falling and stepping back from my mistakes because I don’t want to look back.”

He turned away his fist clenching until another hand laid on his and he looked back up to see Hwa young.

“Hey, come on don’t be that way you can’t possibly say that, because you’re you.” She smiled and he felt her hand grasp onto his a bit tighter.

“Your eyes are of too much pain, you still haven’t let anyone in because you’re still afraid, aren’t you?”

He stopped and looked at Hwa young again, this time very closely because he wasn’t sure if this was the same person he met back in Vancouver. The same one whose smile could light up an entire room. The same person who would laugh at the little things because she wanted to enjoy every second that life had to offer her.

“Are you okay.” He reached out slowly with his hand but stopped suddenly realising what he was doing and retracted his hand back and Hwa young stood still gazing at him.

“S-Sorry.” He stammered and quickly looked up to the sky trying to take his mind off from what he did a few seconds earlier.

“Its okay, you’re tired right? I’m guessing its dead ends for the investigation so far.”

“Yes, well there hasn’t been much progress and with the leads its getting pretty slim.”

“Ah I see.”

Yongguk sighed and stared back up into the stars in the night sky, trying to find a way to reassure her that everything would be alright.

“Hey, you know how about we try something.” Hwa young moved closer to Yongguk and took out a similar music player except the colour was purple.

“Let’s exchange these music players and we’ll each put a song that we like that we’d want to show each other. That way, we can both learn from each other and perhaps find out more about each other.”

“You really love these things don’t you?”

“Ha! That I definitely do, come on it’s a friendly gesture.” Hwa young stood up and offered a hand to Yongguk.

“Come on I think its time to go inside.” Yongguk reached his hand out and as she pulled him up he ended tripping over his foot and stumbling into Hwa Young. They both were surprised and very awkward as they both tried to think of something to say, thankfully someone did.

“What are you guys doing outside? Its getting late I don’t want any of you getting lost, even though I don’t see how you could really…” Mr Yoo’s voice was somewhat faded into both of their hearing as they both looked down and away from each other.

“Uh, I think we should go in then.” Hwa Young said with a somewhat shaky breath and Yongguk nodded.

“Y-Yeah, we should.” They both walked side by side both feeling a bit different as they came out originally.

The bright star shining bright as though as if it wants to be wished on by the right person, because people need wishes.

[A/N] Gah I'm so sorry guys T.T I've been inactive for a few weeks because of school I'm really occupied sometimes but that won't stop me from updating ^^ I'll try and update a little bit more often so please leave comments, share, upvote, subscrive and enjoy~ <3