Hung Up On The Stars • ChenJi

two

When they reached the green bushes in the park, Jaemin excuses himself for the restroom asking Jisung to wait near the swing. Handling all the eatables with him felt like a huge responsibility for the lad and he was certain that it was quite easy to do so. Mumbling random sounds of a song only himself and the universe know in existence, he seats himself on the bench looking at the vermillion evening sky.

The eternal red in the upper infinity beautifies the look of the time sending all the birds to their homeland and waking up all the bats to continue their routine voyage. He closed his eyes for a second and opened them again making him arrive at a thought process. His memory is filled with the irritating and irksome sayings by his grandmother in all chances possible which drives him crazy. She wouldn't miss an opportunity to be unsatisfied with the two brothers in the family and he thought how the only person who probably didn't mind her presence in their house was their father.

Being a typical mother-in-law, she always chided his mother and overworking her, and stressing out unnecessarily for the most stupid things in the world to reside. "Hate" is a strong word for such a small boy but Jisung is certain he possesses that towards his grandmother.

"Hi" A male voice suspends his thoughts suddenly.

He is surprised but greets the boy anyway. Upon further scrutinization, Jisung reduces that it's the same boy in the bus and now he can focus on more of his features. His face is more round compared to Jisung's and the brown top contrasted the bright cream pants. Jisung was almost on the verge of losing his shit once again remembering the incident but controlled his mischief as the situation was inappropriate to do so.

"Can I sit here?" He asks.

"Yeah, sure."

He smiles and sits beside him and instinctively pulls out a lollipop handing it over to Jisung.

"I don't have money. I can't buy this." Jisung says with mixed confusion and astonishment.

"I am not selling this. This is like- like what? What is that word?" Suddenly his accent comes out heavy and the last part was something uttered to himself in a foreign language pushing Jisung into more confusion.

"Gift? Is that what you wanna say?" He asks to guess.

"I think so, but, just t-take it."

"I don't take things from people I don't know." Jisung halts away.

"I am a small kid like you, why would I kidnap you?"

"I don't know? My mother says not to take so I ain't taking."

Heaving a loud sigh, the small boy composes himself, "Okay, my name is Zhong Chenle. Call me Chenle and what's yours?"

"Zhing what?"

"Just Chenle."

"Chenlai"

"CHENLE" He shouts now getting frustrated.

"Chenle," jisung says and he is glad that he has pronounced it properly, "I am Jisung Park."

"Park Jisung?"

"Park Jisung, yes."

"Look, we aren't strangers now. Take this." Chenle (jisung replays in his mind) gives the lollipop again to him and this time Jisung takes it.

"Why do you have such a different name?" Jisung asks, taking out the wrapper and pressing it into his mouth.

"I am from China. We came here because of father. And I don't know anybody here. You seemed kinda cool so I wanted to be a company."

Jisung takes time to register all the heavy accent, weird name, and foreign language but is also very surprised at the unusual compliment. His ears redden.

"Thank you."

"But why so glum chum?"

"Oh," Jisung thinks about what he was thinking moments before. He hated being home as it gave a sense of being constricted and controlled. He hated it. Hated everything about this.

"What?"

"My grandmother," he looks up to Chenle, "She scolds. Everybody. She scolds a lot."

Chenle hums in consideration savoring the sweet candy in his mouth and within a second of silence, he says, "Does she have hair?"

"Eh? I mean, she has. Kinda like grey ones."

Chenle smiles at that thought, "Then don't worry. Since she is old, it's not a problem. I heard those old people die soon so your grandma will die too."

Not seeing it as a negative or a dark thought, Jisung appreciates his mindset and gives him a thumb up a hand to which he returns the same. When their fingers collide, spontaneously they do the thumb fight, and Jisung giggles when Chenle groans upon his defeat in the game.

Meantime, Jaemin comes back from the washroom and the boys trace their path by themselves. However, the lollipop taste still filled his mouth with its sweetness and the warmth of the smile he pulled up from the moment continued back home.

****

It was another day, like any other "tomorrow" of the "yesterday" and Jisung made his way to school watching all the pupils in a similar colored uniform and he dreams of when he becomes elder enough to walk to school all by himself independent of anybody else. Scouring for all the benches in the classroom, he finds all of them either occupied or reserved for somebody else. Jisung feels sad over not making any friends and henceforth, carrying the bag weight on his shoulder, a frown on his lips, and his legs to a corner bench, he folds his legs and sits there.

"Good Morning Class," Ms. Krystal announces, and the whole class sing songs the greeting, and later calls a student from outside the door. Before Jisung entirely processes the student's features, the woman announces, "this boy is a transfer student from China and his name is-"

"Chenle?" Jisung thinks to himself. He was very surprised but on the happier side. He smiles at the deja vu of the moments and notices him sitting right next to the teacher's vision for guidance because that's a what foreign transfer student is comfortable for.

Lunchtime comes sooner or that's what Jisung thinks almost after losing all his appetite and not hungry for the food anymore. While he jogged in the breaks Chenle caught his figure and both stopped with the others' presence.

"Let's have lunch?" Jisung, this time volunteers.

Both sat in Jisung's place and chatted about bizarre things only eight-year-olds would talk about. Both of them seemed to enjoy their company by themselves, not having many people to wander and prude in their matters, just by themselves, exchanging phrases continuously in Korean and English to facilitate easy communication. When it got too difficult, they just used charades to explain each other resulting in a burst of giggles and jokes only they would comprehend.

~tbc~