"You are mine and only mine. All rights reserved."
You thought you knew him. From inside out. More than anyone else in the whole world.
Oh, how you were wrong...
"It's scary what a smile can hide. "
...
(Turn on the media for an immersive reading experience.)
7-year-old Raven sat on the swing of the old playground. She often came here when the voices came to haunt her. The voices... it would whisper words of malice into her ears, it would tell her to listen and follow them. And often it sounded an awful lot like him.
He would come. He would come to find her.
He always did.
No stop Raven. He is dead.
He is not coming back.
The rational part of her brain would tell her but as usual, she shut them down.
"You got kicked out of the house too?"
A curious young voice snapped her out of her thoughts. There stood a boy, around her age, smiling at her.
"Huh?"
"Me too. I couldn't keep my hands off of the dumplings that were meant for the guests."
Raven stared at the strange boy, puzzled as he took the swing beside her. Noticing her stare he smiles. "What's your name?"
Raven wondered whether she should reply. Her mom had taught her the Universal stranger danger lessons but the boy looked nowhere near the definition of danger.
"Raven, " She replied, quickly averting her gaze.
"Raven? Like the crow?" The boy asked, scrunching his nose in question.
"No, Ravens are different. They are larger and have longer life spans." She explained with slight annoyance.
"It's still a crow," The boy replied dismissing her explanation with a shrug as if the huge piece of information she just shared did not mean a thing. This boy was stupid.
Raven noticed that he was wearing a bright yellow onesie that stood out even on an overcast day and her curious eyes couldn't keep off of it.
"It looks nice, isn't it?" The boy had noticed her gaze.
"What is it supposed to be?"
"A baby chick," he replied cheerfully, pulling the hood over his head.
"Hey, I just realized we're both birds. Crow," He said pointing a little finger at her then back at himself. "Chick."
Raven didn't find his discovery interesting. Her revelation of differences between a crow and a raven was far more interesting and relevant.
"We'll make a perfect duo. Wanna be friends?" He asks out of the blue, holding his hand out, the silver bracelet he was wearing dangling from his wrist. He was smiling at her expectantly.
A friend? Raven had never had one of those. How did it feel to be one? She wanted to know. Reluctantly, she placed her hands in his and his smile brightened 10 fold.
"Fine but don't call me a crow."
"Alright then, what do you want to be?"
"Baby chick and... Mama bird?"
"Mam bird? Cool!" He replied, shaking her hands enthusiastically and Raven scrunched her nose in distaste but secretly she found herself smiling.
He got up from the swing dusting of his yellow onesie.
"I'll see you again, then." He said with a slight wave before he took off running.
"Wait- WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"
Raven called out to the retreating figure and soon he hollered back a reply.
"PARK JIMIN"
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