here always

chapter nine

Hyunjin gasped out a silent scream. He had fallen asleep in a very awkward position at the desk with his back aching from crouching that long and his body cold with sweat. That dream or whatever Hyunjin saw slightly threatened a few tears to fall and mix with his sweat.

He vaguely remembered going to Minho's with suspicion and returning with advice. Put yourself in his shoes, Minho had said. And to put himself in Seungmin's shoes, Hyunjin was just looking around (correction: nosing into his friend's business) inside the younger's room.

Seungmin kept a perfectly cleaned and decorated room, it looked straight out a minimalistic interior designing catalog. And as Hyunjin was just checking through the stacks and stacks of books on art perspectives, he found a battered journal with stars and moon stickers peeling off and extra pages stuck in it.

Of course, Seungmin maintained diaries. Nothing 'dear diary' kind but a sort of place to relive the events of the day.

Any feeling of guilt that Hyunjin had initially for invading his friend's privacy vanished as he realized Seungmin already told him everything. From the time he accidentally deleted his first ever digital art work and failed his evaluation to the awards he won in vocal classes, Hyunjin's either been through it with Seungmin or heard it first hand from the said boy.

Seungmin didn't write down his thoughts for every single day of the year. He just wrote whenever he didn't feel too tired or lazy. So the dates and events were jumbled up.

There was almost nothing in that he never knew about until he started flipping into the more older and yellow pages. There was a clear tear along the binder that indicated that a paper once attached here, was torn off.

Hyunjin didn't think of it much. It was probably a very bad memory for Seungmin to keep holding onto, so he must have decided to rip it off.

They were also more crumpled sheets that had been taped along the margin to make sure it stayed binded and Hyunjin could barely make past the squiggly handwriting to read about their first encounter.

Indeed, Seungmin did change his life for the best. His usual routines and specifically fixed timing were all long forgotten when the younger boy brought some more color into his life.

His need to be picture perfect disappeared, because Seungmin never judged Hyunjin for his looks. He helped Hyunjin sneak out for the dance academy tryouts– Hyunjin's first ever rebellious act.

And that was when Hyunjin had fallen into a short nap as he dreamed of the stars he drew and the boy with a toothless smile who was his sky.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

After reminiscing over the bittersweet memory, Hyunjin again came back to square one– no leads. He leaned on the only window in Seungmin's room as the cold gave his burning head some relief. He felt some sort of nostalgic comfort at the thought of the first time meeting Seungmin. He had made sure to remember the boy's name to find him again. But nearly couldn't as he didn't know much about the other.

Close to breaking down, he retired back to that old library and lo behold, there was Seungmin, front-teeth missing, huge glasses and all. He nearly forgot they were just acquaintances but ran and crashed into Seungmin's arms.

Seungmin just laughed at that and hugged him back.

"Don't worry I am not going anywhere. My aunt literally works here" Again he smiled at Hyunjin who was mumbling about not knowing where he lived.

"I don't know my address well but you can always find me here. I will be here always, like the warm gust of wind during harsh nights."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I'm here, always.

Hyunjin's mind replied furiously.

And I'll be there with you.