Crimson | Hyunjin centric fanfic

The

"Mom, why can't I go outside?"

    "We've been over this before, Jinnie. You're different from the other kids. They won't like you."

    "What makes me so different? How come you never tell me? I just want friends."

~~~

    Hyunjin stared out his bedroom window watching as a group of kids his age played across the street. He watched as they playfully shoved each other, their laughter flooding through his open window. The noise grew to be too much to bear. He slammed his window shut and closed the shades, redirecting his attention to his laptop, convinced they were trying to taunt him.   

    He had been homeschooled since an incident in elementary school that his mom refused to talk to him about. Since an accident that happened a few weeks prior, he couldn't remember much of his past. Whenever he asked, his mom always told him he never had friends but he knew that was a lie. The one memory he held onto was one of a black-haired boy that looked like a puppy. They had definitely been friends.

    "I feel like my heads gonna explode," Hyunjin complained, hoping his mom could hear him. "I hope you don't mind if I take a break."

    Closing his laptop, he flopped down on his bed, covering his ears with his pillow, blocking out the remnants of the kids playing. Couldn't they play somewhere else? He grabbed his headphones, replacing the pillow with music that flowed pleasantly through his ears.

    He grabbed his tablet and stylus off his nightstand and began drawing. He wanted to try traditional art, but he couldn't have paper or pencils. It was too risky. His entire room was injury-proofed to the max. For as long as he could remember, his mom practically had him wrapped up in bubble wrap.

    The confines of his home had become his entire world. On the occasion when he was allowed outside, he had to wear a ridiculous amount of protective gear. His mom wouldn't even allow him to dance anymore after he fell and scraped his knee. She never told him the reason why, but she made it clear that he wasn't allowed to bleed.

    "What are you working on, Jinnie?" His mom asked, peeking her head into the room.

    He quickly attempted to hide his tablet, but she was faster. She snatched the tablet away and scanned the partially finished drawing he had been working on for days. He had drawn the first person that came to mind; the boy from his childhood that looked like a puppy. It was a cute drawing if one ignored the disturbingly detailed streams of crimson blood that covered his body. Hyunjin had never seen blood before, so he wondered why he knew what it looked like.

    "Hyunjin, what is this?" His mom demanded, her face pale. "Who is this boy?"

    "He was my friend. I'm sorry for the drawing, I know how much you hate the color red."

    His mom stood by his bed in silence, staring at the drawing with both morbid fascination and disgust. She took a deep breath, turning off his tablet and placing it back on the nightstand.

    "Jinnie, look," She began, now seeming hesitant to continue after seeing what he had drawn. "I enrolled you in a high school nearby. I know how much you've been wanting to go to a normal school and make friends. I've told the school about your...condition, and they are willing to make accommodations for you. Promise me you won't cause any trouble."

    "I promise!" Hyunjin cried, jumping out of bed and pulling his mom into a tight embrace.

    "Kids at your age can be mean. Promise you won't engage in any fights." Once again, he promised.

    He would be enrolled in school the following week, all of the teachers promising to keep him safe. As he picked out his outfit days early, he wondered what condition he had that set him apart from other kids. It wasn't a problem with his blood clotting. That's all his mom would tell him.

    Even though his mom assured him that no one at his school would know him, he couldn't help but fantasize about the puppy-faced boy being in his class. He was the only thing he could recall from a childhood that had been stolen from his memory.

    All the questions he had suppressed for years came bursting forward again like a dam in his mind had been broken.

    "Don't ignore me this time. What 'accident' happened to me when I was younger?"

    His mom sighed, her expression pained. "Jinnie...you died."