silver lining ⇢ chensung

quatre

dusk was approaching as the hue of the skies above slowly faded from azure to a tangerine-yellow gradient, the sun setting slowly down the horizon.

the streets of probably some obscure place quite a while away from the main cities, filled with people congregated together in a sort of huge insular neighbourhood who has probably no clue on what is happening to their urban counterparts, is not where jisung and chenle expected to end up in, yet it was quite a welcome change.

catching his breath, jisung paced slowly with subtle caution, scanning the noisy place filled with happily chattering folk, old and young alike. chenle, on the other hand, was optimistic as always, clutching jisung's arm as he looked at the sights, his jaw wide open as happiness bubbled up inside him.

looks like he did make the right choice— to leave and never come back.

"this is place is so cool!" chenle chirped out, almost jumping in happiness reminiscent of that of a 5-year-old's. the orange hue of the fading sun gave the whole neighbourhood a warm feeling that he had not felt in a long time, and the only memory he had was when he was a small child, when his parents took him outside for supposedly the last time he would ever see.

well, that idea was now thrown out the window since it's definitely not going to be the last time he is going to witness the evening of the outside world. fuck whatever ideologies they might have, he isn't going to believe any of it now.

chenle came out of his thoughts as the creepy void like things started to haunt his vision once again, but he tried his best to not pay attention as he glanced at his friend, who was now checking something in...a rectangular device that he usually saw with a lot of the creepy men guarding his previous home.

"what's that?" he tilted his head to lean on his shoulder as he queried, pointing at the device.

jisung was initially confused by the sudden question but he had to stop himself from doing anything without thinking for once. "uh...this is a phone. you use it for a lot of things, but for now, we're using this to find our way to the airport."

"ooh, so it can work like a map?" chenle supplied, his eyes lit up in curiosity.

"yeah...and it looks like we have a long way to go," jisung sighed dejectedly as he looked at the distance estimate— which is over a hundred kilometres away and might take them weeks on end to reach their destination by walking and the occasional running. looking back at the ball of sunshine, he forced out a small smile, still having a slight sliver of hope in his heart. "i guess we could just rest here for the time-being...i really can't feel my legs."

before either of them could do anything, a yell stopped them in their tracks.

and this was a time where jisung really cannot afford to waste any time thinking, as he bolted out of the street, pulling a baffled chenle along with him.

the noise of two boys running around the neighbourhood at a speed that can only be considered to be of criminal suspicion was more than enough for some of the passersby to take notice. they decided to chase them as well, they really did not want any hooligans stealing from their place.

chenle lagged behind jisung, his legs giving up as he was almost about to fall down and screech them both into a complete halt. another strong hand grasped chenle's, which ended up making them both tumble down on the floor. jisung recoiled as fast as he could from the sheer panic that was flowing through his veins, staying still as he felt small under the folk's eyes.

his voice now broken and hopeless, tears started to fall down as he begged the people to let them go, repressed memories coming back to haunt him once again. "p-please...let us go...i swear, we didn't steal anything, i'm so sorry for causing such a mess, please forgive me—"