Make Myself A Legacy (Another Stray Kids Member)

Love, Care, and All Not Out of Duty (With NCT)

In a world full of alarms, alerts, and noises, what does a phone call stand against them all? To put it bluntly, it meant a lot more than the other man-made noises. Through a phone call, the news could be delivered. Whether it be one that would squeeze you from the inside and make you desperately find the words to say and feel something. Or it is a phone call that has been expected forever yet always so anxious and praying to receive it. A phone call that sometimes keeps hold of the promises of not being strangers.

"Leon hyung, I need your help."

There are so many people in this world that need another person's help. It could be the help wherein your knees have to scrape through rough patches to save a life or a few. It could be the help wherein an embrace and share of warmth is the only thing asked for but leaving your shirt stained and heart strained with the question, did one help enough? Not all help is death threatening but some are life-sustaining. Others don't lie in those lines but they matter as much. Most especially when some of the most independent people one knows asks for it.

It might have not demanded him to be a soldier at the front line, trying to be a hero. But Leon acted as if he was entering a battlefield and household at the same time. Both are very different yet both hold the same possibility of chaos yet a possibility. Although, none were even similar to where he was going. Instead, he is going to another building that held talent and kept it within reach. Kept the talent as a variable one could control.

He was going to SM Entertainment.

Ash needed his help.

So he prepared himself as best he could. Equipped with all necessities. A water bottle, comfortable clothing that would make him just blend right in, shoes that his feet would pad and stomp over, and himself. The need for making and teaching choreography.

On my way.

He wasn't allowed to let his skin meet the sun, and let his feet scrape the roads he once always took. No, he must be in a vehicle that would keep his body kept cool, that he was contained and where other variables of a place he once always conquered, outside, weren't allowed to be met because of the pandemic. The sun his skin refused to accept defeat now had to pause their game and meet when the match was approved to be played.

This same pandemic is one of the reasons that he was so distant from his other friends and family. There was always a question of why did it turn out like this? Why is it so unfair? For he could see his second home yet never step foot on the land of his first. His family, although close, had a bigger distance than his feet could bridge. It now required him support, rope to bridge, because he wasn't enough to forge and keep the fire of familial love alive. He wasn't drowning in his own thoughts over this internal crisis. For even the ones he held and he helped grow up, had admitted that they had a distance.

Sacrifices.

The prices people pay. But it would all be worth it in the end. There are still gains and blessings even in the strain of string. The stains of red, not enough to be like the color of cherries, yet similar to one of the blushes. Embarrassment wasn't the cause of its coating but hope, to hold on even in this travesty.

"Just call when you need to be picked up."

He hoped that the words from his managers weren't just out of duty but care. He really wished because he was losing grip of the people who he cared about. He was straining to keep them in reach, with his hands practically around the world. But maybe if he does let go for a minute, someone would embrace him even as he let go. One of the people who did that once upon a time was the boy he'd see face to face after months of the clock taking revolutions. Ash.

Even as performances passed by, personas were tried on stage, he would never forget the younger boy's face. The face he found that was made to have lips upturned. To have a shine in the dark obs, that could resemble pride. Something that has not changed drastically though but was getting there. The boy didn't stand out from the legends that walked the same hall. But he was worth the second look. He was worth introducing yourself. He might have grown up but he was the boy that Leon would always look after. Even if their times do not align.