The Tells of a Different Childhood

10. First Interest

His head was on a swivel as he looked left to right, trying to find the person he was looking for. It was about fifteen minutes from being late as shit, and after waking up for a glass of water. He realized something that was rather important.

Ijin was gone.

Even after he wondered around the living quarters, trying to find out just where the hell the teen went. He couldn't find him.

He knew that Ijin had to be on the base since it was just him and his shoes that were missing. He knew for a fact that Ijin had at least a few belongings that he wouldn't leave behind, so he wasn't too concerned about Ijin ditching them.

He was just concerned that he couldn't find the kid.

At all.

After 20 minutes of trying to find him and failing, he ceded and woke up the three men Ijin was closest to. They would probably have at least an idea of where he was.

Ji-Hoon was the only one that woke up properly to at least give him an idea of where Ijin could be.

"Ijin?" the man said as he rubbed at his eye, clearly he was trying to stay awake as he thought about the question," Did you check-" A large yawn cut him off,"-check the roof?"

He blinked in surprise," The roof?"

Ji-Hoon nodded his head, his eyes blinking blearily as he said," yeah. He told us that he likes watching the stars last week."

He had to resist the urge to blink in surprise again.

Ijin, the robot of a teenager that had yet to regain a normal range of emotions, liked watching the stars?

"Ok," He was almost speechless," I'll go check. Thanks." Ji-Hoon hummed before he rolled over onto his side.

The major thought over the piece of information.

It had been a struggle to reintroduce Ijin to a normal world again. It had been ridiculously hard.

Ijin didn't have any complaints, nor did he have any requests. It was like trying to speak to a semi-sentient wall at times. It was a problem when they were trying to figure out something that he might like, only for him to respond that it was adequate. It had taken them ages to find out that Ijin really liked stir-frys in particular, and that was only after they had to convince him for almost ten minutes to just go ahead and order something for himself.

It had taken even longer for Ijin to admit that he was in pain when he was.

That one time the kid jostled his healing ribs to the point where he even had to take a few minutes to recenter himself? Ijin had refused to say that it hurt (sweat was dripping down his face and the major swore to that day that he had even lost some color) and kept on repeating that he was 'fine' and that it was not limiting his range of movement.

The best they got was a strangled hiss of pain and a glare (one of the first emotions they had seen) from him when the Major poked Ijins ribs to make a point. They had yet to make Ijin understand that sometimes, he needed to admit that he was in pain for treatment and that it was not a sign of weakness if he did so.

So the fact that Ijin had admitted that he liked doing something, it was a surprise.

He opened the door to the roof, shivering at the slight wind chill that encompassed his body.

Not the best idea to go out in shorts and a t-shirt as one might predict.

"Ijin?" his voice was loud, the wind slightly taking away his voice as he did so. It was empty as he called out for Ijins names, trying to find the teenager.

A head dropped down into his field of vision.

He had to hold in his shriek.

"Yes?"

He sputtered, Ijin was hanging over the ledge. His upper body was hanging off, his hair falling towards the ground as Ijins hands and lower body kept him on top of the building. He was tilting his head to the side, a certain light to his eyes that he had never seen before.

"What are you doing up there?!"

Ijin hummed before he flipped over, his hands holding firmly onto the building so he could lower himself slowly," I was watching the stars. This is the highest point on the building."

The Major just blinked at him.

It was weird that Ijin was doing such a pastime, well it was weird compared to the stuff he usually did.

But he could tell that Ijin had more of a relaxed energy, a tension had left his shoulders. It even looked like he had the remnants of a smile on his face.

"I didn't know you like the stars."

He got a nod," Yes," Ijin's voice softened just a bit as he craned his head to look up at the night sky. The Major looked up at the sky as well.

Due to their position away from the city, there was not a lot of light pollution affecting the stars. Although there was some light pollution from the base's lights, it was still rather easy to see the stars.

"The stars were the only things that stayed constant in my life."

As heartbreaking as it sounded.

It sounded about right.

The stars almost never changed, the only time they changed was when it was a different season, or when the cloud got in the way.

Out of anything in Grian, anything, the stars would have been the only thing that rarely changed.

"Do you know the constellations?"

Nevertheless, the Major was happy to see that Ijin had at least one interest.

"No," Ijin's still kept on looking at the sky, his eyes tracing the little patterns that he knew," Han-Gyeok is teaching me them. Its nice to know their names and stories."

The Major nodded his head in understanding, the stars were beautiful, and they were more interesting to look at once he learned the constellations and the ancient stories behind them.

"Has he told you about the southern constellations?"

Ijin's head snapped to look at him, confusion in his face as he scrunched up his eyebrows in that minute way of his," Southern constellations?"

Before he could clarify, he saw the teenager connect the dots. It was obvious that Ijin had understood how the position of the earth affected the seasons, but he had never thought that the southern hemisphere would have different constellations.

"No. Do you know them?"

That had to be the first time he had seen Ijin show a flicker of eagerness in the two months he's been with them after he saved their asses.

He smiled.
"we can learn them together."

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Ijin: [Picture of Ijin on a rooftop. A selfie with a small smile as the main focus was the dark background. A bright star was in the very center of the picture.]: I saw it first.

Old Man Major: I'M NOT EVEN IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE!! THERE'S NO NORTH STAR!!

Old Man Major: [Picture of a constellation]: The best I got is Musica today.

Ijin: You still lose.

Ijin: Loser.

Old Man Major: I don't know how.

Old Man Major: But I'm going to make you eat those words.

Ijin: :)