Jun kicked a large stone across the pavement as he made his way home from school, occasionally looking up from his phone at the masses of students walking ahead of him. As he approached the familiar hedges that lined the graveyard, he peered in, wanting to go and sit on the bench next to the church. He always did this after school. After the daily stress of exams and revision, the noisy teenagers and so on. The church was the only place he could relax. Away from everyone.
He slowly opened the tiny wooden gate, as if not to disturb the people that had been buried there, and made his way across the grass to his bench. He sat down, and unplugged his ear phones. The sweet scent of freshly mowed grass wafted past, and Jun could also hear several different birds singing their afternoon songs. He felt strangely at ease here, considering where he was. He had no relatives in the graveyard to visit, and he wasn't religious either, but these facts didn't stop him from coming.
He looked around. Not a soul in sight. Or so he thought.
A rather tall, blonde boy began to walk briskly across the grass from the back entrance of the church, but stopped abruptly when he reached a particularly new looking grave stone.
He stood there for what seemed like minutes, just staring at it.
Jun wondered whether or not to say anything, but decided it was best not to disturb the boy. So instead, he just watched. He watched the boy kneel down in front of the headstone, reaching a hand into his bag. Jun couldn't quite make out what it was that he had in his hands, but he placed it down gently, then proceeded to walk out the back gate once again. The blonde boy walked away so fast that he hadn't even noticed there was someone behind him.
Jun slowly stood, and looked to see if the boy was still there. He wasn't, but Jun still felt a presence, like an imprint had been made inside him. It was a strange feeling, like he immediately wanted to know why the boy was there, who he was.
Shaking these weird thoughts from his head, Jun squinted over to a small red flower that had been placed in a glass, next to the gravestone. He looked in curiosity, even though it was clear why it was there.
Jun thought nothing more of it when he walked home that night. But little did he know how this moment would soon change his whole life. For the better.
The groggy looking weather hesitantly shook Jun from his slumber the next morning. He looked out at the dull clouds and sighed. Looks like he won't be sitting by the church today.
Dragging on his uniform, Jun found himself constantly looking out of his bedroom window, as if he expects someone to be there. He shook his head, then proceeded downstairs to put on his shoes.
The air felt damper than it looked, even though it wasn't raining.
8:18.
That means he has around ten minutes before the bell goes. Jun slipped through the back gate of the church, just as specks of water began to fall. He rushed around the corner as the heavens opened, and dashed into the church without thinking. Luckily, nobody was inside. He slumped down on to a nearby seat, pushing the hair off his face.
Great. Just what he needed. After several minutes, Jun could hear the rain on the tiles above him start to slow, and he walked over to the window. It was still raining, and the glass was foggy, but he could just make out the image of a tall person. After wiping the pane with his sleeve Jun realised who it was. The very same boy from yesterday. He was standing opposite the grave once again, holding the glass with a drenched red flower in it. Jun frowned, 'What does he think he's doing? He's getting soaked!' He thought to himself angrily.
He watched the boy take the flower out of the glass, and retrieve a new one from his bag. He then placed it down and quickly walked out of the gate, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Jun suddenly felt sympathy for this boy, he wanted to ask him what was wrong. But it was too late now, the moment had passed. Jun braced himself, and ran out into the rain once again.
At break time, Jun walked across the playground with his ear phones hanging out of one ear, towards a set of benches that hadn't been occupied. He sat down and looked about, hoping that nobody would disturb him. After all that stressful exam revision, he really didn't feel like hanging around with anyone. He looked up at the sky, it was still grey from the rain earlier on, and mist was starting to form. He sighed. 'School is so boring...'
As he changed the song on his play list, Jun noticed a group of younger kids kicking a ball about not too far away from him. One of them booted it, and it flew across the playground, until it was caught by a rather tall, blonde boy. Jun looked in awe, as he realised who the boy was. He thought it odd, that he kept on seeing this kid wherever he went.
"Hey! Give it back, you unnatural foreigner!" One of the kids shouted. Jun looked about, wondering why there were no teachers about to see this. The blonde kid turned his head in confusion.
"Don't you understand? He said 'give it back'!" The tallest one said, approaching the boy and going to push him. Jun stood up, willing to go over and intervene, but just as his did so, a teacher came rushing over to break it up. The bell started to ring, and Jun saw the boy rushing off into the crowd.
All through maths, that incident was all he could think about. He had only completed three questions and the lesson was almost over. He couldn't help but wonder about that boy. Those kids in his year (he was assuming they were the same age) said he was foreign. But where was he from? Why does he go to the graveyard morning and afternoon? And what-
"JUN! What is the answer to question 16?"
Jun's eyes drifted down to his sheet.
"I'm sorry, what?" He said as a few kids started to chuckle, but the teacher just sighed.
"What is the radius of the circle? Question 16."
Jun's eyes widened. 'What the hell, how am I supposed to know?' He thought.
"Uh..." Fortunately for Jun, the bell went at this exact moment, and the teacher told him to finish the sheet at home. The rest of the day went fairly normally, and Jun went to form with a bag full of homework to do, as always. On his way home, he saw that same group of kids hanging around outside the front gate. They seemed to be waiting for someone, constantly looking around.
"Hey." Jun said calmly, walking over to them. They looked at him in slight fear, but the tallest one didn't seem too intimidated by his hyung.
"What are you hanging around here for? Go home." He said firmly, noticing the blonde haired boy walking briskly out the gate just behind him.
"We aren't doin' anything wrong, so just mind your own, all right?" The 'leader' replied, his tone being slightly rude.
"Look." Jun said, standing closer to the gang, towering over the majority of them.
"I don't want any trouble."
"You started it."
Jun sighed. "But I'd be careful how you behave. It might just come back to bite you in the ass one day." He stated, before glaring at each of them in turn, then slowly walking away in the direction of the church.
As he walked, the mist began to drift down to the ground, making it difficult for Jun to see ahead of him. As he turned to go in, he bumped into a person who was standing right by the small front gate.
"Oh! Sorry." He said, having almost knocked the other person over. It only took a second to realise it was that same blonde haired boy that he keeps on seeing. Jun looked down at his innocent face, and suddenly felt nervous. Like he could finally ask all those questions that had been going on in his mind since yesterday. But he couldn't. He just stared.
"S…sorry." The boy muttered, bowing slightly as he did so. Jun felt his breath shorten. His head was buzzing, but he still didn't say anything. Instead he just nodded, and carried on walking past.
'He was so cute…' He thought. The boy was definitely foreign, and this only increased Jun's curiosity. Where was he from? Who was he? His head was only full with even more questions. But still, a small part of him was content. Happy that he'd finally interacted with this mystery boy.
