cold | junhao

一

His bare feet pad along the concrete, the heat within the stone burning at his soles. Sand rubs between his toes, gradually falling away as he ventures further from the ocean.

The sun burns at his back, but Minghao welcomes the feeling.

But then only minutes later, the fickle sea winds swoop in and wrap their long tendrils around him. Minghao pauses for a moment and thanks the gods that he brought a hoodie with him - despite it being a bright summer day when he left home.

The temperature continues to plummet, to the point where it's hardly realistic, and Minghao's body twists as he tries to pull the garment over his hair.

Finally, he tugs it down and pulls the hood over his head. He can already feel his skin burning, and the tickly prickly sensation creeping up and down his arms as he lifts them to pull at the strings. His pace quickens.

By now he's used to the odd glances. No one else is wearing a hoodie in this heat, and especially not with the hood up - but sea wind is ruthless and brutal and one of the many reason's Minghao wants to move away from this town. He would be long gone, if only his parents let him.

He catches the cold stares and questioning frowns but jogs straight past them, slipping his shoes on as he goes.

He'd only gone down to the beach to take some photos for this stupid school project he has to do. Thankfully, his house isn't too far away, so Minghao makes it home before the cold has a chance to really catch up to him.

He walks through the front door, and is greeted by silence. As always. In the vast, looming house he's only ever been able to hear his own thoughts. No other voices have ever graced the corridors, and only his shoes line the wall by the door.

It would be lonely - and it used to be - but Minghao eventually found other ways to fill the emptiness.

He runs into his kitchen and straight through it - making sure the thermostat is on high as he does, and enters a second room. This one doesn't have a sofa, or a bed, or even a television. Instead, the floor is littered with colourful objects that Minghao has to push aside so he can sit down without getting one stuck up his ass.

Immediately, he hears the pattering of small paws and one by one, three kittens appear, all bounding over to him and jumping straight onto his lap. Giggles escape Minghao's mouth and he plays with them endlessly, "Hey babies," he beams. "Sorry I had to leave you, I've been working on stuff for school." The smallest of the three claws at his hoodie, begging to be picked up. "You must be hungry," he says to her, stroking the light ginger fur. "You've been eating so well, haven't you Mei?" The kitten mews quietly.

Seconds, later, Minghao feels a pinch on his hand. He glances down to see a tabby cat with its jaws secured over his hand. "Shizi, that hurt... have your teeth started growing in?" He gently opens the little cat's mouth to indeed see the beginnings of teeth poking through his gums. "That was quick, they shouldn't be growing for at least another month."

He places a sweet kiss on the top of their heads before prying them off him and setting them down on their blankets. "Where's your sister, huh? I need to check her paw." He can imagine that they answer him, and turns to a bed that was only placed there yesterday. A bundle of blankets is piled on top, but Minghao can still see an ear peeking through.

"Lulu-" he sings softly, picking up the blankets one by one with immense care, until the last one reveals a sleeping dog. Although Minghao guesses she's almost two years old, she still acts like a tiny little puppy. He bundles the dog up into his arms and walks over to a metal table in the far corner. As he sets her down, Lulu's eyes open and she lets out the cutest yawn.

"Morning, puppy," he whispers, running his hand through the fur on her stomach. "How you feeling? Does it hurt?" Being so careful not to harm her, Minghao gently takes hold of Lulu's front paw and squeezes it. When the dog yelps out in pain, he apologises and gives her a treat from the top shelf before carrying on.

He hopes that wrapping her paw in a thick bandage will help enough, as he doesn't have the supplies for a proper cast.

"Not much longer love, there's a tick I missed last night." His voice is so quiet that you wouldn't be able to hear it if you weren't right next to him. Lulu whimpers and drops her head to the counter, but lets Minghao finish helping her.

Once he's done and Lulu is back in her bed, Minghao lets out a huge yawn, sending his arms stretching above his head and hoodie riding up. It's not late at night or anything - in fact, it's still the afternoon - but he didn't sleep last night... or the night before that really.

And yet, only minutes later Minghao is back outside and braving the hardly cold winds. He's buried himself like Lulu had been earlier in multiple layers of clothing, even pulling a fleecy neck warmer over his head.

He fails to notice the oncoming storm.

Black clouds rumble above his head but his headphones are too tight over his ears to hear the occasional booming, and instead of rain he registers the clouds simply as it getting dark. Besides, he says to himself, there's still stuff I have to do. But still, why does it have to be so cold? Isn't it supposed to be summer right now?

It is, but unfortunately even summers don't always take pity on Minghao.

He's almost at the shop he's aiming for when the rain starts to fall.

A wave of panic rushes through him. He forgot to pull the warm material over his face, but it's too late as he tries to now. Minghao can feel the icy water running over his face and down his neck as the skies open up and cry out, instantly freezing him to the core.

Where the water trails, it leaves a scalding burn in its wake, and Minghao isn't given warning before his throat closes up and his ability to breathe is ripped away from him. He stumbles forward.

A lamppost catches him and he grips onto it for dear life, but eventually he can't even hold himself up and slowly slips to the ground.

He collapses and sits in the rain, trying with everything he has to stay conscious.