-Fireflies' Love- (A JiKyu Fanfiction)

二: From Bizarre to Absurd

Jihoon walked out to a crowd of people. The area where he lived wasn't as rich as the rest of Seoul. People around were either middle or low class people. Most of the men were shopkeepers, retail sellers or even unemployed. The ladies were mostly housewives. People like them tend to stay outside, for no business at all. And when they see anything out of the ordinary, they like to make a fuss about it.

Jihoon made way through the crowd. Yes, he was already late for his classes, but his curious mind and somewhat guilty conscience asked to see if it was about the weird boy or not. He got to the centre soon, and as expected, it was the barefooted rich boy in his nightwear talking to a middle aged woman.

"He's crazy!" Jihoon heard a young man say, "Bet he came out of some mental institution."

"What happened?" He asked, although he could guess what. And when the man filled him in about the address issue, Jihoon knew the boy needed help.

His help.

So he walked to the apparent thief, took his hand and said, "It's okay, Kim! You won."

Everyone, including the boy in his hold looked at him in confusion.

"What? He's my friend." Jihoon said to the curious audience, "It was a dare."

"God! I was about to call the police!" Uttered someone from the crowd, "You're too much, Jihoon!"

Jihoon paid no heed to the rush of complaints from the crowd. He ended the show, a potentially juicy gossip. It's only natural that people would come at him. It didn't matter, honestly. What did was the fact that the Kim boy was out of his mind.

Jihoon brought the boy all the way to his small room again. Ditching his classes, he unlocked the door, welcomed his peace disrupter inside. Closing the door, he let go of the boy's hand, and sat down on the bed in utter confusion.

"A thank you instead of that awful look would be nice!" He said to the boy with fluffy cheeks and a very prominent pout.

"Why did you help me?" Asked the boy instead. Jihoon stared in disbelief, "Yah! Be happy that I did, huh? Or else you'd be thrown into some mental asylum."

"How many times do I have to say this? I'm not crazy!" The boy spoke aloud. Jihoon held the middle of his brows in response. This Kim guy was giving him huge anxiety.

"Alright. Fine." He took a deep breath, "I get it. You're- normal. Okay? So, tell me, Kim-"

"Junkyu."

"Right. Junkyu. Okay. Tell me, Junkyu, why would you give me the wrong address?"

"I did not give you the wrong address." Said the boy named Junkyu. Even he looked tired of repeating the same thing.

"You do realize that you're lying, right?" Jihoon said, "What you said belongs to this apartment. This is the reason everyone thinks you're crazy!"

"Listen." Started Junkyu, "I know it sounds crazy. But I know where I live. Why would I lie when I know you want to send me home? I wanna go back home too!"

"Then be honest with me!" Jihoon said, "If there's anyone who can and will help you, it's me."

"I'm being honest, trust me! I've lived my entire life in 122, Seolleung street of Gangnam. I didn't forget."

Jihoon sighed in frustration. Junkyu didn't seem to lie intentionally. He must have a serious problem, and pushing him wouldn't be a wise thing to do. So, he took a different approach.

"Alright. Let's- talk about something else. So... Um... This morning, how did you get in my room?"

"Well I woke up to a very uncomfortable bed. And when I tried to move, I bumped with your luggage. That's when I realized I'm not in my room but yours." Junkyu said. From the way Jihoon looked, he could tell the owner of the room did not believe him. With a sigh, he continued, "I know, no one in his right mind would believe me, but I'm telling the truth. I panicked. I don't know you, your room or anything about this whole area! For a second I thought that maybe I'm in the past or something, so I went to see the date but you don't even have a calendar in your room."