Dlbn: Hello, everyone! Welcome to another super late update. Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out Tuesday so don't expect to hear from me for a while ^^"

Nbld: We'll try and keep on schedule. Other people want to use the PS4, you know.

Dlbn: *hisses*

Nbld: Go finish DDD before it's too late.

Dlbn: *runs off*

Nbld: Sigh…

Disclaimer: Everything canon to Killing Stalking is property of Koogi. I make NO money off this.

Disclaimer: Kyung is the name I picked to give Choker Boy, also property of Koogi.

000

SEVEN YEARS LATER

Somewhere between being miserable that Sangwoo wasn't there and trying to find other ways to occupy his time, Bum managed to become friends with a boy in town that went to a different elementary school but ended up in his homeroom in seventh grade. Yang Seungbae was a good friend, but he was nothing like Sangwoo. He didn't come over during the summer, barely associated with Bum outside of classes and maybe lunch. He was too busy with his best friend, Kyung, to be outside-of-school-friends with the ravenette. Not that Bum minded. The only person he cared to hang out with outside of classes was Sangwoo, but it had been almost a decade since they saw one another last. Bum wondered what he looked like all grown up, what he was like. Did he still do the two-personality thing like he did as kids? Did he still like getting dirty and playing rough with friends? Did he still like the swings and grape popsicles? Did he think of Bum? Did he forget him? He knew that he'd never know, and it was unsettling. Auntie had said that it was like the Ohs had dropped off the face of the earth. She had tried to call Sangwoo's school a few times after the first summer he didn't come to visit to see about his attendance, but they had said they couldn't tell that information to someone over the phone, and only Sangwoo's parents in person. Bum stopped going to her house for dinner the year he accepted Sangwoo wasn't coming anymore. Going there was too painful of a memory for him. Long nights of sending messages through the windows and days riding bikes around town and down the big hills, memories of promises they made every summer and cool places Auntie took them to plagued both his sleeping and waking mind. Once uncle learned that Sangwoo wasn't going to come around and ask questions anymore, he had no qualms against beating the tar out of his nephew for even the smallest transgressions, like not putting enough salt in the soup. No one at school cared enough to ask, not even Seungbae and Kyung. He was still bullied and teased at school, though it was dulled a bit if Seungbae was around, since he had a personal zero tolerance policy for bullying.

When high school came around, and people started dating, Bum started feeling left out. Even Seungbae and Kyung had come out of the closet after showing up at homecoming holding hands in freshman year. Yet Bum was left alone without a friend, let alone a love interest. A few girls had confessed to him, but they all turned out to be elaborate plots to tease him more, so he stopped listening after a while. A couple guys had tried too, and Bum immediately shot them down, knowing that was just another trick, too.

Jieun and Eun were still inseparable, joining the cheerleading squad together and sitting together in almost every class. Dongyu and Seok were still their friends as well, though Jieun's joking about Dongryu's weight didn't wane as they got older and he joined the football team to bulk up. They rarely gave Bum the time of day, unless Jieun wanted to try to use him for something or he somehow humiliated himself in class and she was there to witness it.

Bum didn't go to school social events, and despite his coach's prodding to join the track team, he adamantly refused because Uncle said no and threatened to beat him to the brink of death if he ever asked again. Granny started making excuses for his uncle, doing whatever she could to get Bum to just accept his fate as his uncle's personal punching bag and to forgive him for hurting him, when he was in middle school. The youngest Yoon tried to ignore her, but when she said that it had to be done because Bum just didn't listen, he started to resent her. He was only six when his uncle started assaulting him. How did any six-year-old deserve that? How was any of this his fault? He'd realized that Sangwoo had been right and that his uncle was a drunk in sixth grade, when his uncle started using him as a personal butler to bring him and his buddies beer from the fridge when they had card night at the Yoon residence.

For the most part, he kept to himself outside of Seungbae and Kyung unless he was forced into a group for a project or on a team for gym class. He always changed in the bathrooms attached to the boys' locker rooms so no one would see his injuries from his uncle and his rather pathetically skinny frame. That started some rumors that he was changing there so he wouldn't get turned on by the other boys in the locker room, and some that he was born a girl and didn't want anyone to know. He ignored them for the most part, though it did sting when a certain f-word with three letters was tossed his way. He wasn't exactly certain what he preferred, but a part of him was pretty sure the only person he'd ever felt differently for was Sangwoo. But they were best friends, and he didn't even know Sangwoo anymore, much less what gender he preferred. Then again, Seungbae and Kyung were best friends and look where they ended up. But that was because they both felt the same. Unless he saw Sangwoo again by some miracle, he'd never know if he had a crush on his friend or if it was reciprocated if he did. But still, the word was terrible, and he knew it hurt his classroom friends to hear it.

000

Getting a transfer student in the middle of the school year was such a strange event in the area that it raised eyebrows and threw about rumors that spread faster than wildfires. Bum tried to pay no mind to it, even when he spotted Jieun and her crew with an unfamiliar face framed by dyed blonde hair and a black undercut. Downcast chocolate brown eyes seemed familiar, as did the smile on his face when he laughed at something Jieun said. But that was impossible, there was no way that Bum knew him. The ravenette looked down and moved out of the way so the group could pass. Jieun had her hands around the new man's bicep. Bum could have groaned if he didn't mind people staring at him. Looks like she'd already found someone to sink her claws into. As the day went on, Bum realized he didn't have any classes with the new kid, but he did see him with Jieun and her group at lunch, so that was probably the only time they'd see one another that wasn't just passing in the halls.

"See the new kid yet?" Kyung wondered.

"Yeah." Bum replied. "Jieun's already attached to him."

"Poor bastard." Seungbae commented.

"Seung!" Kyung scolded.

Bum giggled. "He's not wrong, though."

"I know, but still!"

"Didn't she just break up with that one guy? Chul?"

"Yeah, a couple weeks ago, I think. He was complaining in the locker room, saying she gave it up for him a lot and now he had to go back to his hand."

"Gross." Bum complained.

"Keep things like that to yourself when you hear them, please." Seungbae adjusted his glasses.

"Hey, if my poor, innocent ears have to suffer, so do yours!"

"There's not a damn thing innocent about you."

"I could say the same for you! Only innocent one here is Bum."

"W-What…?" Bum sat back a little. "Innocent? Me? What do you mean innocent?"

"If I have to explain, then you proved my point." Kyung pat Bum on the head. "Innocent little Bum."

"Shut up." Bum slapped his hand away as the new kid passed with Jieun.

She laughed out of nowhere. "You're so funny!" She told him.

"I...didn't say anything…" He gave the trio a small smile as they passed, shrugging about Jieun.

Bum shrugged back, not sure why he felt the need to do so.

"I feel bad for him already." Kyung stated. "Poor thing has no idea what he's getting into."

Neither did Bum.