Distant Daylight || Yunho (A Treasure Tale)

First Days, First Fights

Within the first twenty four hours of living at the orphanage, Yunho discerned how the system worked.

He and Gunho had been placed with the "undesirable" children for some reason. Boys with murdered parents, or abrasive personalities, or disorders or disabilities, or anger issues, or... well, there were some boys that Yunho wasn't sure why they were in that room at all. They seemed fine.

One such boy was their bed neighbour. He graciously leaned over and shook Yunho awake from the top of his bunk when the caretaker woman came in and blew her whistle.

All the others had jumped out of bed and snapped to attention but Yunho and Gunho were deep asleep and, had it not been for the help of their bed neighbour, would have remained so.

Yunho quickly learned that the orphanage's strict discipline applied only when their caretakers' eyes were on them. The children were obediently seen and not heard throughout the entirety of their room inspections and morning lessons. Meals were spent in quiet conversation and so were any supervised recreational activities.

As soon as the eyes were gone, the real orphans came out.

Their bed neighbour showed them how to make their beds and where to put their things, however few they had. Yunho saw this as a kindness and latched on.

Most of the others in their room ignored Yunho and Gunho for the first week.

Eventually their bed neighbour— whose name Yunho had never been confident enough to ask— turned to them one day at lunch and told them to stop following him around.

"Listen, new blood," he whispered. "You can't just attach yourselves to me. I'm not even supposed to be in your room, and I'll be getting out of here soon. Find someone else to bother."

"Why?"

The first words Gunho had spoken to anyone other than Yunho since arriving.

Their bed neighbour looked surprised to hear him, but shook himself out of it and answered the question.

"Well, I'm going to be adopted."

That ended the conversation then and there.

Yunho wasn't sure why this perfectly adoptable boy had been in their room either, but now that he was moving out, they would have to fend for themselves.

It didn't help that there were a few hours a day when he and Gunho had to be separated. He had fought the caretakers as much as he dared on the matter, but Gunho was younger and he had to play with his age group in recreation time.

He rarely spoke about it, or anything really, but Yunho didn't like having him out of his sight.

"Yunho!"

Gunho leaned over in the middle of their lesson and Yunho's heart rate shot up.

"Shh, you'll be punished."

"But, hyung," Gunho pouted up at him and continued. "I have a question."

Yunho risked a glance at him and pursed his lips. If they got caught whispering, they were in trouble. Trouble of what degree, Yunho wasn't sure, but he didn't want to try his luck just now.

"Fine. Make it quick."

Gunho made a face that Yunho couldn't quite identify as a smile but it was brighter than he'd seen him in the past week, and that was worth all the trouble in the world.

"Why can't we be adopted?"

Yunho's jaw hit the floor, and he vaguely registered a strangled noise escape his throat. The boy sitting in front of him turned around and glared at the disturbance.