YELLOW | yj x bg

☀︎ thirty four.

—hueningkai

"Three, two, one - Ready or not, here I come!" Beomyu sings in his dilly-dally voice as his soft footfalls on the floor warn the rest of us that one by one, he's going to sniff us out like a mother hen sniffs out her chicks from the rest of the lot.

I don't bother trying to hide the cheesy smile that spreads across my lips, knowing that there's nobody around to see me in my hiding place. All of us are too old to play Hide and Seek now, but since it's his birthday— we'll play it for his sake.

For his happiness.

The weekends are a time he hates the most, and for good reason: It's when he's forced to stay indoors with his disaster of a mother without having anything like school being on his distraction list.

So, to avoid making him lose half of the mind he still has left, the five of us meet up together - no matter the circumstances that may come up out of the blue - to do anything at all to get his mind off of things that eat him alive.

It's just a bonus that it's his birthday today.

We want to do whatever we can to bring a smile to his face, which is an easy feat, to tell you the truth. We'll bend over backwards to make him happy, even if it means reconnecting with our inner child again.

"Found you!" He squeals excitedly as the ruffle of curtains broke through the air, and a grunt that Taehyun made to pretend to be annoyed.

"Seriously, Taehyun? Is that the best place you can hide? Behind the curtains?" I hear Beomgyu say, laughing at Taehyun's feigned stupidity.

Taehyun laughs along, although in a forced manner. Because in reality, if Taehyun put his true wits to this test and took this game seriously, he would have hidden in a place so secret it would take hours to find him. But when it comes to Beomgyu, he's willing to put aside his smart-assiness and let Beomgyu win easily.

Beomgyu moves onto his next target as I get enveloped in my thoughts once again.

I like to be his caretaker, because that's what he was for me when my legs were injured and I was reduced to a ragdoll that others could punch, drag around, carry over their backs, or help - depending on their mood.

My heart drops as I remember what all he did for me in those times.

He would go through the cafetaria line again to get me a tray, even if it meant he didn't get enough time to finish his whole lunch. He'd carry my bag everywhere and drop me to every class, even if it meant being late on his own. He'd stay put beside me in PE classes just so that I have someone to talk to while the rest of the class does 10 laps around the field (although something tells me he only used it as an excuse so he could rest under the shade instead of burning in the blaring sun)

Although I hate to admit it, oftentimes I would let my selfishness consume me and get annoyed if Beomgyu was absent on even one day out of a hundred.

But now that I think about it, if only I knew what hell Beomgyu was going through at home, I would have forced myself to gain a deeper sense of sympathy for him rather than getting irritated about how I won't have my personal guardsman throughout the day.

"What the hell, Soobin? Don't tell me you're hiding under the bed!" Beomgyu says disbelievingly as he marches into the bedroom. I hear something like tickling and a thud sound before Soobin gets up and dusts himself off, his forehead a light red from bumping his head against the floorboard.