A Color of His Own (COMPLETED)

Part 12: Orange Balloon

"Jinyoung ah, look there's a balloon stuck over there!", Jinyoung heard a squeaking voice. It was Mark hyung's voice, Jinyoung could remember clearly. Mark's voice was high pitched when he was younger. It was unlike what he sounded like now.

"Where?", Jinyoung asked. Wow, his voice was also high pitched, very cute.

Jinyoung looked up to the blue sky, it was so blue and bright. Jinyoung had to blink several times because it was so dazzling.

Jinyoung could hear people were chatting around him, clanking and clicking from the eating utensils and glasses could be heard. He was at a party. Men and women were wearing colorful dresses. Some were standing, some were walking, some were dancing. Jinyoung couldn't take his eyes off of those beautiful dresses. He walked passed through the guest, enjoying the fabric of their dresses carressed his skin. Jinyoung felt like he was walking on a sea of colors and petterns. A lady wore a neon pink hat so big it covered her  whole head, Jinyoung couldn't hold his laughter.

"There!", Mark pointed with his tiny finger, Jinyoung followed the direction. Mark was right, there was an orange balloon stuck between branches of a tree a bit far from the crowd.

"It looked so lonely, other ballons have already flown away!", Mark squeaked again, "poor ballon".

Suddenly Jinyoung felt sadness filling his chest,

"Go and save it!", Mark said.

"How?".

"Climb the tree and free the balloon. You're good at it, aren't you Jinyoungie? You lived in a village".

"I..I'm", Jinyoung hesitate, the tree looked big and tall, "but it looks so high".

"Do it, I'll let you be my little brother if you can free that balloon".

Happiness sparked inside of Jinyoung's heart. Mark was finally acknowledging him. All he had to do was freeing the balloon. Jinyoung couldn't believe himself. He would climb up to a tree and he's going to save the balloon. Jinyoung felt like a grown up already.

"Come on, what are you waiting for. You can't let the ballon stuck there alone. Don't you want to be my dongsaeng?". 

"Okay. I'll free the balloon then!".

Jinyoung smiled wide when he reached the branch where the balloon was stuck. The tree was tall, but easy to climb. It had a lot of branches, Jinyoung could easily reached the top, he felt a bit afraid, but confident. Beside, he had his hyung to support him. Mark was also good at climbing trees, he could follow Jinyoung's step fast enough.

It was windy, Jinyoung could feel wind breeze carressing his skin. Jinyoung could smell the scent of fresh leaves, it was nice.

"The balloon!", Mark pointed. The wind blew the ballon, there's a pointy branch near the balloon, if they didn't free the balloon faster, it would be pierced and popped.

Jinyoung's heart raced. He moved faster to get closer to the balloon. Then he heard a crack. Jinyoung lost his step and he fell down. Jinyoung closed his eyes.

"Jinyoung ah!", a man was shouting, Jinyoung open his eyes again to see the adult Mark was holding his hands. Jinyoung clutched to the big hand for his dear life. He peeked down, the ground was so far down. If he didn't hold on to Mark he would fall down for sure.

"H..hyung", Jinyoung felt scared, he started to cry, "help me".

"Jinyoung ah", Mark called his name once. Jinyoung trusted him. But then Jinyoung could feel the grip loosen.

Jinyoung looked up, he could no longer see Mark's face. But he could see the balloon instead. The balloon flew away, it was freed. The ballon would go where the other balloons went. It wouldn't be alone anymore. And he was Mark's dongsaeng now.