“Son, get up! I heard your alarm clock ring 10 minutes ago!” Kyungsoo’s mother knocks gently on his bedroom door.

“-bit m’re,” Kyungsoo mumbles against his stuffed Gabumon, tightening his hold on the doll that was half his size while struggling to dive further under the comforter.

“Don't make me drag you out of there,” his mother lightly warns.

After merely three minutes she appears again, this time entering the room. “Kyungsoo-yah, Saturday…” She announces as a type of incentive for the boy to comply and because of the lack of response, she tries again. “Get up!” The bump on the bed doesn't move so the woman resorts to her secret weapon for situations like this: throwing the blankets back and grabbing the boy by his leg then pulling him out of bed into the floor. A low thud against the soft carpet signals her success.

“Noooooooo…” Even then he doesn’t move, keeping his tight hold on the doll.

“Saturday, come on son. Breakfast is on the table,” she utters while exiting the room. Kyungsoo defeated, numbly gets up and follows after her in the direction of the kitchen where his mother is by now at the table, eating. The television is already so he eats leisurely, letting his body slowly get used to the start of a new morning.

Although Saturdays are better than weekdays, he still has classes and Kyungsoo isn’t very enthusiastic about classes in general. However, tomorrow is Sunday and that is enough to bring a big smile to his face. He has new Digimon cards that he can barely wait to show Sehun. He will be so jealous!

After eating, he prepares his bag for the swimming classes and sees some more cartoons on the TV until his mother calls him saying it’s time to leave. He will only be back home after the afternoon music lessons and he bets that by then he will be tired enough to just play a few games on his PlayStation and sleep until the next day.

Sunday afternoon arrives, the most wanted part of the day of the entire week, and Kyungsoo can’t say he isn’t super ready for it: homework done, neat and tidy bedroom, warm jacked already put on (it’s been really cold outside lately) and new Digimon cards in his hand. That’s exactly why he finds himself at his front door neighbour’s, asking if their son Joonmyeon can come with him to the park today.

Joonmyeon can’t, something about three difficult tests in the next week. Ouch. Thank God, Kyungsoo doesn’t have those. Joonmyeon is three years older than him, so his classes are much harder.

They have been front door neighbours since forever. When they were younger and their height was a lot different, Joonmyeon always played Kyungsoo’s favourite game, in which the latter couldn’t touch the floor with his feet, so Joonmyeon carried him around everywhere. Most of the time Kyungsoo believed he could actually fly. The older boy also learned how to read faster than all his other classmates and with just six years old he would read all the stories Kyungsoo asked him to, charming the younger boy with his wisdom. But now Kyungsoo was almost as tall as him and knew how to read so they played different games, usually at the park or when they slept at each other’s houses.

Actually, before he completed eight years old, his mother wouldn’t let him go by himself to the park, Joonmyeon was always the one that would take him. Nowadays his parents decided that he was old enough to go alone if he wanted to, which is exactly what he is doing, crossing the street carefully.

The park is, in fact, on the other side of the street from his apartment complex, slightly to the left, but Kyungsoo can still see it from his bedroom window, which just increases extensively his desire to spend every single day playing there. The playground offers many types of rides like slides, seesaws, swings, a jungle gym, spinning chairs and many others. Besides, the park also has an extra area supplemented by a fountain with water jets (that just work in the summer) and a separate area with trees and fluffy grass, great for their Digimon card battles. Kyungsoo swears it’s the best place to be, even in ice cold weather.

“Kyungsoo is here!” The boy in question hears a familiar voice shouting and then sees two of his favourite friends of the park running excitedly in his direction, so he hurries his pace to meet them half way.

“Hi, guys,” he smiles cheerfully and not even a beat later rushes out what he’s been dying to voice since last Tuesday. “Sehun-ah, my mum bought me new cards!” Sehun’s reaction doesn’t disappoint him a bit though, raising his eyebrows and opening his mouth in surprise, readily focusing all of his attention on Kyungsoo.

“Really? Anything good? Anything to exchange with me? Let me see, let me see! Me and Jongdae were already playing.” A lean and lithe boy, a bit taller than Kyungsoo but equally devoted to the Digimon cause, enthusiastically demands while guiding them back to the spot the other two were previously occupying on the grass.

“I also have new cards, Kyungsoo-yah, now I can play without borrowing any!” Jongdae, the other boy adds proudly. He had the brightest personality of the three, with a recent interest in their card games. Therefore he was still building his collection.

“Wow, that’s awesome Jongdae-yah. Are they any good, Sehun-ah?”

“Yeah, some. He doesn’t have many repeated ones to exchange though.” A better specialist than Jongdae, Sehun answers while going through Kyungsoo’s new cards. Shortly after that he adds, sporting a betrayed expression. “You lucky rascal. You got Angemon! Do you know for how long I’ve been after that one?!”

“I know right? He’s so pretty.” Kyungsoo coos at his new favourite card, giving it dreamy eyes. “I bet I’m going to win every game today!”

“Ohh, you want to bring chocolates to that bet?” Ever the opportunist, Jongdae challenges, though he is probably not going to win many games against the other two more experienced friends.

Kyungsoo, already expecting this course of the conversation, shows him his chocolate cookies, wiggling his eyebrows. “How many this time?”

Jongdae takes in the stash of each boy, making a mischievous smile (probably imagining himself eating all the sweets) before deciding on the amount of five candies per game. He and Sehun start to collect the cards from their previous unfinished match while at the same time Kyungsoo goes to say hi to some of his other friends that are currently playing on the bigger slide.

They start playing immediately after and Kyungsoo was so absorbed that it took him nine full games – with five victories in his name (two thanks to his new precious Angemon), three victories for Sehun and one for Jongdae – to notice the abandoned boy siting in the spinning chairs.

Three games later, the boy was still in the same position so Kyungsoo decides to ask, and because frequently Jongdae was more attentive, he turns to him. “The boy in the chairs was already there when we started playing?”

Jongdae was fully concentrated hence the confused look he gives as an answer, then it seems to click something in his head and he tries to use words this time. “Yes. He’s been there since I came. First he was at the swings but then the others tussled him to the other side and that’s why he is on the chairs.”

“Why?”

“Hum… I don’t know,” Jongdae was trying to multitask so his words were coming out slow but at a steady pace, the frown on his mouth making his face look funny.

At the end of their thirteenth game, Sehun announces that he needs to go home a little earlier and the boys bid their goodbyes to the tallest of the group. Kyungsoo knew that Jongdae preferred the playground to the cards so he easily agrees to go on the swings next. That’s when his eyes catch a glimpse of the same boy from before.

Kyungsoo’s body was moving even before his mind decided that maybe he could help the new kid integrate in the playground’s environment. He gives a hand signal to Jongdae for him to understand where he was going and crosses the playground in the direction of the spinning chairs, sitting on the exact opposite one to the boy.

The spinning chairs weren’t that big, with just six chairs, so he could still see him clearly. High cheekbones, skeletal face with greasy hair and a deep moss green coloured jacket that appeared a bit light for last week’s weather, welcomed his eyes. Maybe he could understand now what the others problem with this boy was, if Kyungsoo were to be honest he seems scary.

The other stares at him as if waiting for Kyungsoo to express his intentions, so he instantly out louds greetings. “Hi, I’m Do Kyungsoo. What’s your name?” He offers a smile too. Maybe it could convince the other of his good intentions.

Although looking genuinely surprised, the boy doesn’t hesitate to answer. “I’m Jongin,” finished with a couple of blinks in Kyungsoo’s way.

“…Jongin?” Kyungsoo nods his head and repeats the name in a paced way as an incentive for the boy to finish his presentation.

“Just Jongin,” some more blinks.

“Without a family name?” Kyungsoo incredulous voice and confused face are perhaps too much because the boy sinks a bit in the chair he is occupying and diverts his eyes to the floor.

“Just Jongin.” The boy, Jongin now, confirms with a gloomy voice.

Kyungsoo furrows his eyebrows in concentration and his brain promptly starts to conjure many possibilities for the missing family name information, being very unusual for someone to not want to give theirs. He knew Sehun’s and Jongdae’s family names and they didn’t even meet outside the park.

Maybe it’s not that he doesn’t want to tell me, maybe it’s that he can’t, he thinks.

And inspired by fantasy stories that were currently jumping in his mind Kyungsoo tries to find a good explanation. He could be running away from the police because his parents are run away princes from another country! If that was the case, it would be very awesome for Kyungsoo to meet such a person. No, his name is Korean… It can’t be. Maybe they are running away from the mafia. Yeah, that should be it! The movies on television always show that the mafia is very powerful and dangerous. Everyone should be running away from them.

Reassured with his deduction, Kyungsoo feels much more sympathetic towards the boy, so he makes a new effort to put him at ease and invite him to play with them. “I’m from ’94, in which year were you born?”

Jongin looks up, directly at Kyungsoo eyes, before answering, “In ’94.”

“Eh? Really? That’s awesome, so we are friends.” As an afterthought, he adds, “You look older though.”

“You think? It’s the first time someone tells me that.” Jongin sounds proud of himself as if he had taken Kyungsoo’s words as a compliment. Now he appears to be very receptive of the interaction between the two and his facial features look more relaxed, less scary, and focused on the other boy’s words.

Kyungsoo, loving the attention, sticks out his lip in thought and adds, “But I really think so. You look the same age as my front door neighbour and he is three years older than me.”

Meanwhile he verifies if Jongin is well seated on the chair before he starts spinning it. Jongin helps, with his hands grabbing the centre bars and pushing with what seems to be all his strength and lets out the first smile Kyungsoo has seen from him until the moment.

After several minutes of spinning and laughing, the boys let the chairs slow down and Kyungsoo takes this opportunity to ask, "Do you come here often, Jongin-ah?”

“Uh, I have been here since last week? I think. What day is it today?”

“Sunday. You don’t know the week days?” Kyungsoo asks incredulously.

“I know them! I’m just kind of lost in which day we are.”

“Hum…” Kyungsoo is a bit doubtful of the other. He knows that some of the students with worse grades in his class don’t know how to tell apart the week days. But, he continues, “I just come on Sundays and I have never see you before.”

“Ahh, I wasn’t here last Sunday, then. I’m new in this area.”

Kyungsoo already had figured that out and was just waiting for the other to admit it. “You want to play on the bigger slide, now?” He suggests, having had enough of the chairs and with Jongdae waving at him from the slide.

Jongin seems conflicted by that proposal and gives a long look to the other kids playing in the further rides before answering hesitantly that yes, he wants to. Both get out of the spinning chairs and Jongin, being closer to the centre of the playground where the bigger slide was, waits shyly for the other to join him.

Now that Kyungsoo can see him upright, he notices that Jongin has the same height as him and Jongdae, perhaps was a bit larger but it could be the jacket too, and that his clothes were really dirty.

With each step he took closer to the boy, a weird repulsive stinking scent was becoming more intense until Kyungsoo was standing right next to him and a little too late understood that it came from Jongin himself. “Ewwwww. You smell so bad, Jongin-ah!” He grimaces while covering his nose with his jacket’s sleeve. It was definitely the worst odour Kyungsoo had ever witnessed a person have, like sour food, filthy alleys and pee all combined to created something completely disgusting.

“It’s because I can’t bathe.” Jongin defends himself weakly, fumbling with his feet in a haste to put some distance between him and the other boy.

“Why can’t you take a bath?” Kyungsoo interrogates at the same time as he attempts to uncover his nose. He takes notice of the other boy’s miserable expression and initiates mouth breathing instead of nose to get closer to Jongin again, feeling guilty by his outburst.

“I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

“Ohh.” Most likely it has something to do with running away from the mafia, like a disguise ploy to not be discovered, but Jongin also doesn’t appear to like his disguise and that’s why he is sad. “Okay,” he finishes, looking around for hidden policemen. Although he doesn’t see any it doesn’t mean they aren’t nearby. Oh, very clever, all the strategy, if Kyungsoo may say so.

Regardless the horrible odour, it doesn’t mean Jongin can’t play with them. After all it wasn’t his fault (he blamed the mafia members). So Kyungsoo brings Jongin along to the slide where Jongdae was playing and introduces them. Jongdae, forever the cheerful one – despite pulling a face at the smell – welcomes Jongin enthusiastically and together they climb the big slide to slide back down in funny positions.

After the slide, they go play in the jungle gym. Shockingly, Jongin was a skilled climber exceeding even their ball of energy, Jongdae (Sehun would be so amazed if he was there). In one of the times Jongin and Kyungsoo reach the top together, another kid appears out of nowhere and in his rush to climb pushes Kyungsoo. To his luck, Jongin is fast in grabbing his arms and pulling him to a safer direction or he would have fallen. Jongdae discretely pushes the kid out of the jungle gym as retaliation and the boys laugh seeing the startled look on the other’s face before he flees to the small slide.

They were all having a great time (Jongin was surprisingly nice and went along with every game they invented) when Jongdae draws Kyungsoo’s attention to the two girls that from time to time were throwing their shoes at Jongin (the pauses being the time they took to recover their shoes back). How didn’t he notice that before? He saw them hit his head and back a couple of times – in addition to Jongin lack of response to being hit – before irritably stepping forward and talking them down of it.

“He is too smelly to be here, Kyungsoo-oppa. Why are you playing with him?” One of the girls argues back.

“I can smell him from over here oppa, and he is almost on the other side.” The other adds.

Usually these girls were very nice and Kyungsoo had played with them before. That’s why he wasn’t understanding their problem with Jongin, the boy had be nothing but pleasant with everyone (namely him and Jongdae) even if he had a horrible odour. They were the ones playing with him, so why did it matter to the others?

As the older between him and the girls, he attempts to solve the problem in a responsible way, copying some of Joonmyeon’s typical polite words and smiling a lot, even without much progress. He sees Jongdae sending him a hopeless expression about the girls’ behaviour and Jongin’s dark eyes attentively on him.

In the end, it was the girls’ mothers that saved him from further effort, taking them home. Kyungsoo turns back to his friends to find Jongdae gathering his belongings. “It’s really late already! My mum is going to nag me until Wednesday about being late for dinner,” the boy complains, saying goodbye to the other two and running in his home direction.

Kyungsoo looks at the wristwatch his father had offered him last year with the intention of helping him knowing the right hours to come back from the park, and realizes that time is over for him too.

“I also have to go, Jongin-ah. Is getting late…”

“You can only come back on Sunday, right?” Jongin probes anxiously.

“That’s right,” Kyungsoo’s surprise easily showing on his face at the words. He didn’t expect the other to recall that information. “I have classes on all the other days and my parents only let me come on Sunday.”

By now, Kyungsoo was getting used to Jongin’s timid ways of voicing his opinions, so he patiently waits for the reply he knows it’s coming. “If next Sunday I was here, would you play with me again?”

“Of course I would! You could meet my other best friend, Sehun. We will play Digimon battles but other things too. We can play with you.”

“What game is that?” Jongin curiously inquires, while watching Kyungsoo collecting the greatest amount of candies he has ever seen a kid have.

“You don’t know?! Is just the best game of all times! I will show you. I can even bring my extra deck for you to play with. I used to lend it to Jongdae but now he has enough cards of his own.” The attention that he receives from Jongin is too alluring for someone like Kyungsoo. He likes above all to be heard and to be spoken to devotedly.

If Kyungsoo likes to be alone sometimes, playing on his PlayStation or creating a new world in his imagination for him to rule, he also likes to be with his friends and when that happens he wants to be given full attention. And here is Jongin giving him exactly what he loves, without knowing him for long. Even the smile that he is giving Kyungsoo draws him closer (smell long forgotten with the mouth breathing tactic).

They part ways with the promise of meeting next Sunday. Kyungsoo walks fast to his apartment complex because the weather cooled down awfully. The moment he was going to introduce his door’s lock code, Joonmyeon steps out of his apartment looking completely worn-out. He is wearing his grey pullover, meaning he didn’t stop studying until now – Joonmyeon believed that if he studied with his grey pullover he would remember everything better, (problem: the pullover was already one size below his current, so really soon it would be an impossible mission to put it on).

“Hi, Kyungsoo-yah. Are you coming back from the park?”

“Yeah, I just arrived. Are you ready for all that tests you are going to have?” Kyungsoo grimaces at the word “tests”, because ew and walks over to the older boy to help maintain the speech in a low voice in order to not disturb other neighbours.

“I think so, but I have to revise my notes before sleeping. Listen, I’m sorry I couldn’t go with you today. Next week, at the usual time?”

Thoughts of next week immediately flooded his mind with Jongin. He was super excited for a new opportunity to meet the mysterious boy, maybe he could even discover more about the mafia situation. “It’s okay, Joonmyeon-ah. I had a lot of fun today!”

“You should call me hyung, Kyungsoo.” Never ever since Kyungsoo was a little boy had he called him hyung, and if at first it could be looked at as young’s misperception, now it was plain defiance.

“I don’t feel like it~” the younger singsongs, at the same time he inserts his door’s lock code and enters his house.

Joonmyeon sighs, it was a lost cause to try.