My little Youngjae

Pass

Youngjae had been wandering around for hours now. His feet were so sore they felt as if he was stepping on needles every time he took another step. It almost felt like he was running forever!

He wasn't familiar with the place because it wasn't 'in' his neighborhood. He never really left their neighborhood apart from school and malls or the city in general, however, this place didn't look like it was even near the City at all. It was sort of somewhere in the outskirts. It was dark all over and there seemed to be a lot of plants in the area, making it scarier than it should have been.

He was scared now but most definitely not as scared as he was back with what happened with Himchan. He thinks he won't be having hot chocolate for awhile. Way to get off the trauma.
He should have just listened to Daehyun. None of this would have happened if he went home when the eldest first asked him to.

Wiping the tears off of his cheeks, he thought about how he'll tell everyone what happened. Undoubtedly, he would get chided but that was the least of his problems right now. What will they do about Himchan? At the moment, Youngjae opted he won't be talking to anybody outside his family and Daehyun any time soon. He never wanted anything close to that, happening again.

Wrapping his small arms around himself because the cold was seriously starting to crawl to him, he forced his feet to run even further. Why did it feel like he was running in circles?

Fortunately enough, he wasn't really running in circles, and he could see the way to his neighborhood.
Setting a foot towards the path, he told himself that he'd want to forget everything that happened right after he left Daehyun's house. It was a memory he wanted to throw away, well not until he tells the others about it at least, because he couldn't just not do anything about it. What if Himchan came after him again?
The thought itself made him shudder.

He hasn't been feeling well since he left that underground... it felt like he was missing something or may have forgotten a thing or two. Maybe it was his Mickey bag.

Well, he can get a new one, right?

Dashing through the pavement, eyes still wet with tears, he spotted another figure headed his way.

But unlike before, he wasn't scared anymore. He felt like crying a lot again, but for a totally different reason.
If anything, he's beyond relieved.

"Daehyunnie..."

He stood quivering in front of his best friend who seemed quite dazed and was unusually all dirty, wearing torn pajamas and was barefooted.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you...
I should have known you we're only trying to look out for me. Look where my stupid self got me."

He hanged his head low in shame but comically raised it back up upon hearing the lack of response. Daehyun must be so mad at him. Fuming, and writhing in his anger in silence.

But that wasn't the case at all.

He was instead greeted with a face full of tears and worry. But on top of that, Daehyun refused to fully face him for whatever reason.

" Daehyun?"

They had eye contact for a brief moment and Youngjae furrowed his brows at Daehyun's distorted face.

"I-I shouldn't stop here... why am I even stopping in the first place?" Daehyun said, more to himself and walked forward, not stopping for another glance.

"Huh?"
Youngjae dumbly asked before he chuckled to himself, following beside Daehyun before he spoke up loudly.

"Oh Daehyunnie.. always finding a way not to let others see him cry. Come on, already~ It's not that bad to cry~"

He carried on, smiling beside Daehyun as they walked side by side. However, his patience was slowly wearing off, seeing as Daehyun payed no heed to him at all, instead, finding the road forward more entertaining to watch.

Studying Daehyun's face though.. he looked like he's had a rough night. Well not as rough as his night had been at least.

"Daehyu-" He got cut down again by Daehyun's soft sobs. He didn't even know if he was still playing it or not but from the looks of it.. it was serious.

"Where could you be?.." Daehyun stopped walking and instead plopped down the grass bed beside the road, defeated. Youngjae followed suit and wandered off what he was looking for.. whatever it was, it must've been extremely important for him to break down like this.

"Where are you, Youngjae?!" He hollered and Youngjae visibly shook, startled and confused. Whatever bluff Daehyun was trying to pull was not funny anymore. It was never funny in the first place.

"W-What are you- talking about? I'm right here!" He shouted in response but was a bit taken aback when Daehyun stood to his feet and started running once more.

" Daehyun, wait!" He ran after the him, feeling numbness all over again.. must be from all the running.

Miraculously, he managed to catch up with his best friend who was gasping for air when he deemed himself lacking the stamina.

"Daehyun, quit it! It's not funny anymore! Quit trying to run away from me!"

Indeed Daehyun didn't run away from him anymore, just like what he'd asked.

But what happened next was the ultimate slap to his brain.

Daehyun ran through him.