The next day, Soobin drowsily opened his eyes, the sunlight peeking through the curtains made him aware of the knowledge that it was morning and he had awoken in his bed. He looked down at himself and realized that he was wearing his exact clothes from the day before, they were dirty with a few smears of mud and short grass was stuck to the hem of his pants. He was even wearing his dirty shoes in bed and was disgusted at himself for not having cleaned himself up before bed.
He sat up and looked down at himself in confusion, wondering why he had gone to bed in such a state. The memories of the day before flooded his mind: the bullies, the hill, mum, dad, his birthday and his wish. He didn't remember anything after having made his wish, he might've been crying, he didn't know well, his head felt foggy. Soobin wondered what had happened, he didn't remember much after he had sung happy birthday to himself, and he especially didn't remember coming home.
His mind riddled with questions, Soobin got up and cleaned himself up, going downstairs to the kitchen, to grab some breakfast. As per usual, his mum and step-dad gave a casual nod at his "good morning" and Soobin made his way out the house with an apple at hand.
Plugging his earphones in, Soobin walked around aimlessly. Soobin missed his old neighborhood, the streets where he was raised, the place he had lived in until his mum and dad, both, made the decision to finally get a divorce. Soobin had a park he really used to like, it used to be a few blocks away from his old home and now that school was out and he didn't have anything to do, his heart really longed to be back to the park, back in that time when life wasn't as empty.
Realizing that he didn't have anything much he had to do anyway, Soobin got on the subway and decided to check out how the park from his childhood looked today.
Getting off at the designated station, Soobin started making his way towards the park, trying to seek help from Google Maps but miserably failing. Soobin soon came to a trisection which seemed to be close by his old neighborhood. Confused, he stopped, unknown of which path to take.
Just as Soobin was about to test his luck out by choosing any of the two paths, he noticed a boy walking down the street, coming to his direction. The boy seemed to have blue hair, which caught Soobin's attention, and he decided to ask the boy for help with directions.
"Hey, do you think you help me? I'm looking for one specific park around the area and I'm having a bit of a trouble finding it."
"Oh, hello! I don't think I'll be much of a help but since I too am looking to kill some time, we can perhaps look for it together," the boy spoke with delight and by the look of his smile, he seemed to be having a jolly well of a time in his life.
"No no, it's alright, I can find it myself," Soobin felt as though he was being a bother to the happy stranger. He would've been a damper to the stranger's cheerful attitude anyway.
"Oh c'mon, there's no need to be hesitant!"
"Oh I couldn't possibly trouble a stranger like this," Soobin flashed a sincere smile. Soobin wanted to further tell the stranger that he would've preferred some time alone but something about the stranger's kind smiles was alluring Soobin and spending some time with another didn't sound like such a bad idea anymore.
"So you won't be a friend to me on a lonely day such as this one? What a waste, the weather's finally looking up too," the blue-haired boy said with a small pout on his face, eyes all on Soobin's.
Soobin looked at the blue-haired boy, unknowingly making eye contact with the shorter's gray eyes, maybe it was something in his eyes, maybe Soobin no longer wanted to be off alone, but with a soft smile, Soobin replied, 'Well, we could hang out then, I guess." "He must have foreign descent to have such pale eyes," Soobin thought to himself.
"Anyway, nice to meet you, I'm Soobin."
"Nice to meet you too! I'm Yeonjun."