Chapter 1:

I felt a small tug on the sleeve of my shirt. I peeked through one of my eyelids and saw his familiar figure kneeling down before me. He shook my shoulders gently.

“Maki, wake up.” I could faintly hear him call my name. I slowly rose up from the ground and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands. I looked outside through the shattered windows and noticed that it was still dark out. I wonder why he's up so early?

I shivered when I felt a cold gust of wind brush upon my cheeks. Instinctively, I blew warm air through my hands and cupped my cheeks to keep myself warm.

He noticed what I was doing and immediately mimicked what I did. He blew warm air into his hands and placed them on top of my hands. My cheeks turned bright pink from the closeness of our faces. He didn’t seem to notice since my face was already red from the nippy air.

“Feel better?” he asked grinning at me.

I nodded my head shyly. He slowly let go of my hands and rose from the ground. I soon realized what was going on when I saw him shove his sketchbook in to his old tattered duffel bag.

“Are we bolting again?”

He nodded his head.

“They found out what we were up to so we have to vamoose someplace else.” He said giving me one of his lavish smiles that would always catch me off guard.

With that said I stood up from the ground and began helping him pack. Ever since we ran away from the orphanage we never had a permanent home. We never stayed in one place for more than four months. Everywhere we go rumors about us would arise and people would eventually suspect us of committing theft or fraud.

Well almost all of it was true anyway. When we are hard up on money we would always result to such immoral acts. As much as we knew it was wrong, it was the only way to survive.

This time we only stayed at this town for about two and a half weeks. This was the shortest period of time we’ve stayed at one place. I’m actually relieved we are leaving because I don't really like the people who lived in this town.

Everyone was snobby and conceited, especially our neighbors the Michaels. They were an old couple in their early 70s living together by themselves in a two story brick house three houses down from our apartment. Every time I would pass by their house I would always see them on their porch giving me disgusted looks as if I have leprosy or something.

I always wanted to go up to them and give them a piece of my mind but my conscience always held me back. Plus I knew oppa would scold me for doing such a foolish and disrespectful act towards the elderly. He believes that the reason they act like that was because they’re lonely and their family have not visited them in a long time. He told me to be more understanding of their situation, so I just ignored them.

After packing our stuff we headed down the raggedy stairs and out into the streets. I looked back one last time and whispered a silent goodbye to the old apartment.

Even though we only stayed there for a short period time I still considered it a special home. I’ve always considered anything with walls and roofs to be a special home because we rarely had a place to sleep in. Whenever we're on a rush or if we can't find any place to sleep in, we would often sleep on the benches of the parks using newspapers as blankets. That's why I'm always grateful whenever we find a room we could spend the night in. To others this place may seem like just another squatter but for us it’s a place that we can go back to whenever we need a place to escape.

Suddenly I felt him slip his cold rough hand into mine. Without letting go of each other we turned our backs and began walking away.

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With our faces buried underneath our scarves and beanie hats we sat silently on a bench waiting for the next bus to arrive. It was freezing cold so my face was buried beneath my scarf and my benie hat. I pulled my scarf up all the way to my nose bridge to prevent my cheeks from becoming lumps of frozen flesh.

I wonder where we’re going this time. 

I let out a soft sigh. As air is released from my nose, I could feel the heat of my breath transferring from my scarf to my face. Ahh that felt good. I began blowing more warm air into my scarf. 

Well, wherever it is I hope it’s somewhere warmer than this town. I'm tired of winter.

We continued to remain silent. I continued to stare down at my black and white converse while he continued to stare off ahead. I kicked off the half inch of snow that has settled on my shoes. I then shifted my gaze towards his direction and then across the white field of snow where he has been passionately staring at.

I squinted my eyes to see if there was anything there at all. All I saw was a gray dead tree with one of its branch dangling from the side. I wonder what could be so special about that tree that he kept staring at it.

An hour had passed and we were still waiting for the bus to arrive. We’ve only sat there for an hour but I felt like we’ve sat there forever. Throughout the whole time I’ve tried to keep myself awake, but it was very difficult to do. Doing nothing for an hour along with the cold weather can put people to sleep.

I shivered when I felt cold air sneak through my scarf.

Ugh, I feel like the cold is eating me up.

My body felt groggy and my eyes felt heavy. It’s becoming really difficult for me to keep my eyes open. Soon, the muscle over my eyes finally gave up and they shut completely. I was still awake but I sat there with my eyes closed.

Another half an hour passed and I’m starting to fall into deep sleep. My body has felt heavy. I can’t keep myself sitting upright anymore. Soon, I could feel my whole body shift towards my right. Before my body could land anywhere I fell unconscious.  

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A/N: Hey everyone! I hope the first chapter wasn't too boring :P Anyway tell me what you think. Does it sound interesting?

Please leave a comment, I really do appreciate every bits of 2cents. Thanks! :)