Smother

The not-so stranger was perched on the railing, legs dangling off the edge and an umbrella over his head. The umbrella was a permanence, and so were his black clothes.

There was rain falling over Jinhwan, even though the skies were clear and there weren’t clouds looming anywhere. He had long decided that things didn’t make as much sense around here, and that the person beside him, although a stranger, was not an enemy.

A skewed smile faintly danced across the stranger’s face as he hummed a sad tune, and Jinhwan just watched him out of the corner of his eye.

And really, there wasn’t enough reason to come here because things were going well: There were awkward times, but Jinhwan could bear hanging out with his old friends. Hanbin had stopped making a move on him, and he could bear walking through every day even though his bullies never stopped. But the rooftop in his dreams was a place he liked to frequent, not to do anything or talk about things, but just…be, like now.

He had grown a heart for this place, and he liked that it could be his personal haven even though there was nothing exceptional about it. He liked that no one else had access to this place, that there wasn’t another soul out there except for him and this stranger, who wasn’t exactly welcome but had seemed to make this place his home, and truthfully, Jinhwan didn’t mind. The rooftop always made him feel like it was the only place on Earth, or a different planet entirely. Here, he could forget about the things that bothered him.

Moreover, Jinhwan liked that the almost-stranger had stayed through both good times and bad even though he still couldn’t decide if any of this was real, or if it was just a figment of his unconscious imagination.

He had always wanted to know the guy, but something about the silence that always surrounded them kept him from doing so. Not to mention that the stranger never really told him anything about himself. If he had nothing to say, he didn’t say a word.

It was weird because the semester was ending, yet the homeroom teacher called for a change in their seating arrangement. However, Jinhwan didn’t have to leave his window seat. Their homeroom teacher didn’t even call for his name and it made him feel invisible. He liked that to some extent, liked that his teacher was consistent in ignoring him, liked that he wasn’t called so people didn’t have to stare more than they already did. The joy was short-lived though when Seunghoon was assigned to the seat behind him, and Mino to his right, almost strategically.

Jinhwan couldn’t respond when Mino sent him a knowing smile after the teacher left for their break. It left him feeling cold everywhere, being in the faux warmth of the two. He couldn’t have cared less if it was anyone else because no one else had gone to the extent of touching him, but these two were different. They were two-faced. They made their presence known, made sure to make Jinhwan feel small whenever they were within an arm’s length.

When Jinhwan saw Hongseok walking to him, he felt a bit relieved because he knew that Mino and Seunghoon wouldn’t do anything silly around others, like that one time Hongseok saved Jinhwan by calling him. Jinhwan still couldn’t imagine what would have taken place had no one came to check on him; he didn’t want to.

“You’re coming with me to the library,” Hongseok announced as soon as he knew that he got Jinhwan’s full attention.

“Actually, no.” There was a hand on Jinhwan’s shoulder that no one saw coming and it wasn’t Hongseok’s. It was Mino, and Jinhwan knew without looking that Seunghoon had inched closer to him, too.

Hongseok looked confused and so Seunghoon answered the unspoken question.

“We’re going to treat him to lunch.”

Hongseok turned to him for confirmation.

Jinhwan wanted to say no, but Mino’s firm grip on his shoulder tightened and it became clear that he had no say in this.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Lunch was better than expected. Once Jinhwan got used to the firm grip around his arm, he found that it wasn’t all that bad. The two low-key manhandled him, but since there were a lot of eyes in the cafeteria, they didn’t do anything past that. In fact, Mino really did buy him his lunch like he previously mentioned.

Jinhwan could see his friends from where he was seated, and they were aware of his presence, too, seeing as how all their heads were turned to his direction.

A hand landed on Jinhwan’s thigh and Mino cracked a joke that that the former didn’t hear. Seunghoon laughed though, seemingly impressed, and so Jinhwan mimicked the reaction. If there was one thing he didn’t want, it was for his friends to worry about him.

He could get used to this. Mino was touchy while Seunghoon was somewhat indifferent: Jinhwan had observed. They weren’t mean and they hadn’t thrown jabs on his uality, something he expected to happen.

He didn’t know how to feel though, didn’t know what