somewhere only we know | huang renjun

009 | touché.

!touché.

               "I HAVE A CONFESSION," i said, glancing up nervously to the boy walking beside me. it was a tuesday morning, which had marked exactly two weeks since he had moved in next door. since then, we had created a walking routine to go back and forth from school that would make it appear as if we were merely strangers to anyone who might see us together. it was quite simple, really. i'd start walking from my gate at 7:58, he'd start walking from his at 8:01, and i'd stop and wait for him at the picnic table about a hundred meters down from each of our houses so we could walk the rest of the route together. so far, it had worked perfectly fine.

in reality, we were nowhere near strangers anymore. in only a matter of a couple of weeks, this bright and confident face called renjun had somehow managed to become the closest friend i'd ever had. i guess it wasn't hard for him to gain that title, but it felt pretty nifty to have someone i felt could really stick by me. and of course, i'd do the same for him.

"and what's that?" he asked, returning the eye contact.

"i owe you a porcelain casserole dish."

i watched his eyebrows furrow while his mind ticked over for a minute before remembering our first interaction, in which, he had gifted me what i'm sure would have been a delicious meal for a wednesday night's dinner. honestly speaking, i felt bad to leave it until now to bring it up again.

"oh, that old thing? that's not much of a confession," he chuckled. "it's fine, you can just sneak it outside your fence or something and i'll pick it up tonight after school," he offered. "we haven't had to use it since i lent it to you."

i stared at him, scrunching my nose slightly. perhaps i needed to be more straight-forward.

"no, i mean, i owe you one as in i need to buy you a new one," i admitted.

"oh," he replied. this time i knew he understood. "what happened?"

"well..." my voice faded off, finding it hard to explain. i motioned with my hands, as if to drop an imaginary dish onto the concrete in front of us. he began to nod slowly as i tried to mimic a pathetic impression of a cracking sound to replicate the dish breaking, to which i looked back up at him with two raised eyebrows and a helpless 'forgive me?' smile.

he laughed, lifting his arm to ruffle the hair on the top of my head playfully. "don't worry about it," he reassured. "i don't think my mom has even noticed that it's gone."

"hey!" i said, ducking myself down to get away from his hand, which was pulling strands out of my ponytail. "you're ruining my hair!" i ran a couple steps ahead of him, feeling the now knotted top of my head with my palm and scoffing knowing i'd have to redo it.

"you ruined my porcelain dish!" he argued back through laughter.

"touché," i scowled back at him.

"it was my most prized dish we had in our whole kitchen," he teased. "my great, great, great grandfather gave that to me when i was a small boy, and said-"

"shut up," i cut him off with a grin, finding it harder to contain my laughter despite my annoyance.

once i had re-tied my hair, renjun ran forward and caught up to me, lifting his arm up to place around my shoulder. as soon i felt his hand touch my arm, my carefree thoughts were contaminated with yells from my father about never having anything to do with the boy who walked beside me. renjun spoke, but his voice ran through one ear and out the other, my mind unable to process his words. instead, my head had suddenly become full with yells and screams and hands that wanted to hurt me. i wanted to push him away, but at the same time i needed him to stay right where he was. i had talked so much to him about wanting to ignore my father's rule; maybe this time i would.

"y/n? did you hear me?"

i was shaken out of my thoughts with an interruption of my vision, which was caused by renjun's hand going up and down past my eyes to re-grab my attention.

"huh?" i hummed, moving my head to look up at him.

"i said i was just joking. it's not a big deal," he assured me with a smile.

"oh," i shook off, breaking the eye contact. "yeah, i know that," i replied with a weak chuckle, trying to get rid of the awkwardness i had just created.

"you alright?" he checked with a concerned look. i looked back up at him, letting my smile reform.

fuck it, i thought. he's not going to take renjun away from me too.

i leant into the boy's shoulder and pulled his hand down to have his arm sit more securely round my neck, still holding on to his soft fingers. taking a breath, i smiled up at him. "i'm much more than alright, junnie."