For weeks after he avoided Minjun like the plague. Any time the older boy tried to speak with him, Junho ran off or Chansung and Wooyoung pushed him away. What he could not avoid were the wispy creatures. They truly were everywhere. In the classroom a yellow one loved to flit through his teacher’s hair and a gang of green liked to jump all over students work. Sometimes a white one would flatten itself on paper and lift off with the ink from the notes leaving the paper blank. There was also a magenta one with a penchant for launching itself at piles of paper, sending homework and tests all over the room leaving the teachers to scramble.

At home they liked to torment Junho. They splashed water at him, tripped him as he descended the stairs, and knocked the food out of his chopsticks. By the time he got to school and met up with his friends, he was at his wit’s end.  Sometimes he would pull out his homework and there would be huge blotches of color all over the paper. He tried to show Wooyoung and Chansung but they could not see a thing.

As the weeks went by the torment increased. His friends caught him yelling at the misty trails more than a few times. Although they did not say anything, the looks they gave him were akin to those directed at Minjun. Those made him feel even worse.

Things came to a head one morning about mid-January when Junho snapped at breakfast. A bunch of green wisps decided to play on the food his mom placed on the table. Everywhere they touched turned green and it made him mad. “Yah! Can you stop touching our food? You’re turning it green and you’re making a mess! Just go away!” The wisps stopped and faded away. He then looked to find his parents staring at him worriedly.

“Junho-sweetie is something going on?” She placed her hand softly on his arm.

His ears felt hot and he tried to cover it up, “No nothing.”

His father sent him a pointed look, “Junho this is not nothing. You just yelled at something that wasn’t there. And Wooyoung and Chansung told me you’ve been acting really strange lately. Has the stress from school been getting to you?”

Junho wanted to lie and say yes so they would get off his back but he knew that it wouldn't help. He deflated in his chair and looked at his parents with scared eyes, “Do you remember the flying colors I used to play with as a kid?”

“Oh yes. You made such pretty drawings.” His mom smiled at the memory bit it turned into a frown when she saw her son’s face.

“They are back and they’re everywhere. They circle and dance around people, jump on my homework and even play on my food. They won’t go away.”

His parents share one of those silent conversations married adults tend to use before his father cleared his throat. “We’ll make and an appointment with a doctor today. Go upstairs and rest.”

Junho went to his room but instead of resting he dug in his closest. He was looking for the box that had all the artwork from his childhood. He finally found the box and sat on his futon to open it. Inside were almost forty papers ranging from paintings to drawings with crayons and markers. Every drawing featured at least one wisp. Even those with a house or a flower had a colorful wisp on it. The more detailed pieces looked like childish versions of what Minjun drew. Why did he stop seeing them? Why did they come back? He groaned and flopped back on his bead. Blue, purple, yellow and orange wisps danced on his ceiling creating beautiful swirling patterns. With another groan Junho rolled over and closed his eyes.

*     *     *

Junho’s parents took him to see a psychiatrist. His name was Nichkhun Horvejkul. The man said he came from Thailand and to just call him Khun. Junho was grateful for that because he could never get the foreign man’s name out of this mouth.

He told Khun what he remembered from his childhood and how the colors came back during the last few months. He did not mention Minjun because that seemed like an invasion of privacy. They talked about school, how hard the overly fact based curriculum of Korean schools could be, what teachers annoyed him, and any problems he was having emotionally. It was very comfortable talking to him and a single blue wisp seemed to be in love with the two bonsai trees the psychiatrist kept by his window. They spent nearly three hours talking before Khun finally called Junho’s parents back in.

“These are not hallucinations per say. They seem to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the sensory part of his brain. What he’s seeing is light misinterpreted by his brain.”

“But why did it stop happening when he was younger only to resurface now?” His mother asked as her grip on Junho’s hand tightened.

Khun gave a professional smile, “He’s going through puberty. The chemicals that settle are acting up again. It’s not common but not unheard of either. It will eventually subside on its own but since it seems to be bothering him so much, I will prescribe you a pill that will help balance everything.”

Junho watched as the man wrote something on a blue paper and hand it to his parents. But there was something bothering him about the whole situation, If it is puberty, then why can Minjun see the exact same things?

*     *     *

His mother gave him the first pill after dinner. He was supposed to take one a day with food. At first nothing happened but then the colors slowly started to fade. By the time he went to his room for the night everything was normal. Junho laid back on his futon and looked up at his ceiling. For the first time in months it was blank. There were no colorful tendrils making swirling patterns. It was empty and so was he.

Back at school things were the same. He hung out with his friends like normal, did his school work like normal, but something about his life seemed hollow. Like everything he did was routine with no passion behind it.

One morning after the Lunar New Year break, Junho and his friends walked to school and saw a pair of squirrels fall from a tree. They screeched and attacked the ground as if something was there only to run away. Minjun approached them laughing. He flashed his brilliant smile at Junho, “Did you see that? That was so funny right?”

“What are you talking about weirdo?” Chansung growled as he and Wooyoung placed themselves in front of Junho.

Wooyoung pushed the older boy, “Leave us alone freak.”

Minjun looked in his eyes and whatever he saw there made the strange boy retreat. “I’m sorry. I thought you could see them.”

Junho felt like he was punched in the gut.

*     *     *

The blank routine continued only now Minjun would send him these knowing sad glances that just made him confused. Every so often things would happen and Junho would find himself wondering if it was the wisps or something normal.

 As the emptiness grew he began to distance himself from his friends, sitting by himself or going off somewhere alone. It got to the point where Wooyoung and Chansung stopped asking him to hangout. He spent the two week break between the school years alone in his room. He still came down for meals only to return to the blank walls when he was finished. His parents did not know what to do with him and he refused to talk to Khun again.

When school started up again Junho was alone. Chansung and Wooyoung did not even look at him. It was then that he felt truly empty.

*     *     *

Junho found himself sitting on the edge of the roof with his legs dangling from the ledge. He stared off into space not really paying attention to anything. It was March so the air was still cool and the sky was clear. Clear and empty. Suddenly a pair of warm arms s around his waist. “What are you doing?”

Minjun’s calm voice brought Junho back to earth. “I don’t know.” He didn’t know why he sat on the edge in the cold, why he stopped talking to his friends, why he distanced himself from his family. He just did not know. Minjun gave him a comfortable squeeze and Junho leaned back into him. The warm body behind him felt safe.

“You feel lost don’t you?” Junho nodded.

“You feel empty like something is missing.” Junho nodded again feeling his eyes water.

“They gave you a pill to make the colors go away. To make you normal.” Junho almost choked on a sob. He allowed the older boy to pull him from the ledge and into a tight embrace.

“It's okay to be strange Junho. You’re not alone.”

They stayed connected for the rest of lunch. Junho resting his head on Minjun’s shoulder, and the older boy carding his hand through Junho’s hair as he hummed a soft lullaby. When the bell announce it was time to return to class, Junho was smiling for the first time in almost two months.

*     *     *

He secretly stopped taking the pill and slowly he became happier. The wisps came back keeping their distance but Junho was elated to see them and their colorful antics. He and Minjun took lunch together on the roof every day they could. They shared stories, art and music. Minjun told him about this special art deal his parents got him with an art vendor. Most of his drawings of the wisps were sold in high end art galleries and collections all over the world.

One time Junho shyly showed him a crude representation of what the wisps created on his ceiling. Minjun immediately grabbed his sketchbook and recreated Junho’s work adding a more professional touch. “This is amazing Junho. You should make more and we can do collaboration.”

Junho blushed at the praise and snuggled into his best friend’s open arms.

His parents did not understand his friendship with Minjun or why he stopped hanging around Wooyoung and Chansung. But they let it be because their son finally seemed happy.
School was not so accepting though. Gossip filled the halls about the two strange boys who talked to themselves and had together on the roof. That never happened but once the rumor mill of high school gets going no one can stop it. Fortunately they only had to deal with Mr. Student Vice-President once. Half-way through the semester he approached them and roughly shoved Junho. “Hey freak. Did Panda-boy turn you gay?”

Junho flinched at Taecyeon’s harsh tone but Minjun pulled the younger behind him and glared at the taller boy. He then said something in English that caused Taecyeon to pale and run. When Junho asked what he said Minjun just smiled, “Just the bitter truth he tries to hide from himself and the rest of the world.”

Chansung and Wooyoung were the worst though. With their new friends Jinwoon and Kwon they spent most of their time making Junho’s life miserable. They would mess with his homework, trip him in the halls, and punch him in the locker room. If they saw him with Minjun they would make rude sounds and gestures before calling out hurtful slurs. When that happened, Minjun would pull Junho to the roof and let the younger cry his heart out with the wisps creating a comforting blanket. The colorful creatures, which had come to mean just as much to him as Minjun, made it their mission to cause as much mayhem as possible for the four boys every time they made Junho cry.

Despite the cruelness of his former friends, whenever they sat on the roof Junho was happy. Despite all the hate and fear he felt in school he knew everything was okay. Their situation wasn’t anything like people thought--Minjun kissed Junho’s temple--or maybe it was. Junho truly did not care. It was okay to be strange. As long as he was here in Minjun’s arms they could be strange together.

A/N: I really hope you enjoyed this story. It was my first time writing something like this so i hope it was alright. Leave a comment to let me know what you thought. And a big thank you to everyone who subscribed and/or upvoted. Be sure to check out the rest of the festival.

 the school year was modeled after South Korea's actual school schedule