The Dark Blood

11

Things were now in motion. Class would start in about ten minutes and Ali was walking aroung her room, trying to calm down her mind. The book was large and hard to hide, without even mentioning smuggling it across a hallway that Mrs. Bawden watched over friquently. Ali sat down on her bed, just to get up again and walk to her door. It was now time and Ali stepped outside.

Almost praying she walked forwards with faked confidence. Ali glansed back and saw Mrs. Bawden sitting on the other end, just like she had feared. Shutting her eyes tightly for a second, she continued walking. Ali was holding the book tigtly against her chest and it was like she could feel her heartbeat trough it. She locked her eyes to Namjoons open door and everything seemed to go faster. Surpressing the urge to look back once again, Ali reached the door. For her luck, Namjoon was standing right behind it and quickly grabbed the book that she shoved to him. 

It was important to keep walking like nothing happened, she reminded herself and headed towards the stairs, while resisting the need to glanse at Mrs. Bawden and run as fast as she could. She was safe for now.

***

The strong wind played with Jimins hair as he walked past Aldermeres yard. It felt cold and made his eyes water a little. He didn't have much time, but Jimin had felt the need to escape the suffocating invironment for even a moment by taking a walk outside. 

He was following the fence to the left and walked on the soft grass. Jimin faintly remembered a town being somewhere futher away there but couldn't be sure it that had just been a dream or not. Jimin had been inside of these fences almost his entire life and the idea of being free and able to walk wherever you wanted to felt funny but fascinating to him, almost insane. He wondered what normal children were doing. They propably went to an actual school and had hobbies of their own. It was hard to imagine. Jimin had always wanted a hobby but the options were extremely limited here. He could read, maybe garden a little if he was lucky, but none of these things seemed interesting to him.

The wind once again blew powerfully towards him, almost pushing him backwards. A lot of leaves came with it and they bounced around on the ground. Jimin walked closer to the fence that he had walked along with and looked at the other side. There was a small forest and he could see a little bit of a path somewhere there. He hadn't yet had the chance to talk to Taehyung, which weighted heavy on Jimins chest. He had totally seemed afraid of him during breakfast.

A distant noise in the forest caught Jimins attention. He froze instantly and stared directly towards where he thought it was coming from and even held his breath, just trying to hear better. He could see something red approaching him and it made him nervous, he had no idea what the outside world was like or what animals they had. He started thinking about running back inside before realising that he was secured by a few meter tall iron fence and nothing could get to him. 

Jimin saw a boy about his age walking past holding things in his hands. The realisation made him widen his eyes and he grabbed the fence. Oh how lucky he had been. Jimin had never seen anyone from the outside.

"Hi!" he yelled, desperate to not let this moment to go to waste.

The boy turned around in a sharp motion and took a step back. He looked at Jimin, who was gripping the fence and took another cautious step further away from him.

A sudden strong wind blew again and for the outsider boys bad luck, it spread all of the thin papers he was holding around. The wind carried a few of them all the way to Jimin, who had been worried of the stranger running away from him.

Jimin started picking up the papers inside the fence. A bright blue colour catched his eye and he looked at one of them. It was a beautiful painting of the sea. Jimin stared at the waves and all of the different shades of blue, he had never thought it could look so pretty. He looked at the boy, who was picking up all the papers from the other side in panic. They were only about five meters apart from each other and they could clearly see each other. He had blond hair and a lot of freckles all over his cheeks. The blondie stood up straight and looked straight at Jimin and they made eye contact.

"These are really pretty," Jimin said and put forth his hand to give the painting back to him.

The outside boy shrugged his shoulders and carefully stepped closer to the fence. Now that Jimin could really see him, he could tell how scared the other boy was. His eyes were measuring him carefully, almost like he was looking for signs of danger in Jimin. Jimin slowly squatted down and laid the papers to the other side through the gab of the fence and stepped backwards. The blondie realised the nice gesture and guickly grabbed his property back.

"Thank you," he mumbled, avoiding looking at him.

"You're welcome," Jimin answered.

They stared at each other silently for a little while, both amazed of the other.