Lee Heeseung is ten, and scared out his wits as the numerous possibilities of his stupid sister roaming off and ending up very much dead in the process race through his mind. As if the summer heat in Korea wasn't unbearable enough.

He tries to act calm. Tries. Keyword to be noted.

The boy staggers through the long corridor of his grandparents' home at the outskirts of Seoul, searching for the meat-eating he had for a sibling. He hopes she's with you, who was left alone with the two Lee siblings for the day as your shopaholic mothers planned a day-long hangout together.

Heeseung truly prayed it was just the case and he would find you getting blown away by her constant blabbering with the most believable act of silent interest on board. You were one in a million for being able to take his sister seriously without taking her seriously at all.

Must've come from your dad, he thinks.

But when Heeseung does find you, he finds you in the same position you were in from the moment your mum left. Seated on the floor of his grandparents' living room, nose buried in a book. Laughing to yourself. 

Your name rolls out of his tongue in a way more awkward than he had thought, stopping you immediately. His face goes as red as yours and he can't help but want to apologise. 

But of course, Lee Heeseung doesn't. 

He decides to act like nothing ever happened as there was a problem bigger than his stupidity on the plate.

You shoot him a glance that is something in between a murderous glare and a genuine look of confusion. Heeseung doesn't care, because either of the two translated to the fact that he was dumb.

"Uh," he scratches the back of his neck. "Have you seen…"

"No."

You were too damn smart.

"I thought she was with you," he explains himself. And it seemed harder than when he does it with his mum or Miss. Kane.

You nod. 

"She wasn't. "

And he nods.

He was shrinking in front of a literal 7 year old. So yes, Heeseung also wanted to die. Well, he was still a little too young for that, so instead, Lee Heeseung thought about the earth eating him alive.

The 10 year old almost jumps when he finds you abruptly get on your own two feet, casually jumping up and down a little possibly to get rid of the soreness before making your way towards him. The yellow and white checkered dress you were wearing flowed along, and it was almost satisfying. And in the meantime, Heeseung also realises you were, indeed, extraordinarily tall- already just a head shorter than him.

And it scared him even more, if he was being completely honest with himself. Heeseung wasn't the bravest with tall girls.

"I think we need to find her," you said in your longest sentence yet, and Heeseung was old and aware enough to sense the urgency of it.

"That…we do." He didn't know why he grinned like a fucking idiot now, of all times.

Your lip, that was just peacefully (and proportionately) closed into a simple, unbothered line, seemed to bend downwards, by a certain degree, and he realised that it was a frown. 

Damn him.

You scoff and it sounds almost identical to his mum's, and walk right past him. Heeseung felt like you were in charge of taking care of the Lees than he were of keeping the 3 year olds in line.

"Do you think she roamed off?" You now stand on the long corridor as he finds himself unmoved in the living area.

Could be a possibility. He wants to say. But Heeseung doesn't, of course. He was a fucking coward. And there was no helping it.

He opens his mouth to speak, very sure that nothing would be coming out. And somehow he was a thousand percent sure that you did, too. Which very much scientifically explained your following actions in order: not even waiting for the former to speak, turn on your heels and rush out- leaving him to process a set of words "follow me".

Heeseung stands there in a daze. A knot forms in his stomach and undoes itself on its own. And when he is finally back on the ground from his existential crisis, he dashes out as well- hoping he didn't lose you as well.

The rest was nothing less than a fever dream. Nothing more, he wanted to think. When he'd finally found you, he'd found you halfway through the investigation. Three out of five rooms checked, no casualties, every single thing in place. 

The only audible sentence he'd directed at you was a simple question. "Can I check the remaining rooms for you?"

And you had nodded. Your face red from all the running and heat outside.

And so he did. Or at least, tried to. For the nth time.

Heeseung was triumphantly on his way to the fifth and last room, the one at the farthest end of his grandparents' modernised hanok, he heard you yell from inside.

Lee Heeseung was a competitive soul. And falling far, far behind a child three years younger would've crushed his freshly brewing potion of pubescent fragile male ego if, one, the world wasn't ending (alternatively, his sister was missing) or two, any of the kids left in his care were either missing or in the danger of being dead. 

His feet, now filled with a life of their own and not his, pull Heeseung's lanky form into the room with themselves. He finds you inside right beside the entrance, disgusted. 

"Hey!" He almost screams in the heat of the moment. 

"Keep it down!" You whisper yell at him, messily squeezing his hand. Heeseung shuts up immediately. He might not know a lot of things, but the boy did know a few gestures and what they translated to.

He lowers his head. "What happened?" The 10 year old whispers into your ear. He sees you jerk in surprise, visibly jumping away from him. Heeseung, as flabbergasted as you were, wanted to ask if he should apologise. 

Turns out he didn't need to. Because you regain your composure as fast as you lost it.

"That," you reply in a low tone. 

And that is when it catches Lee Heeseung's attention. A form, too familiar, curled up on the floor, its back turned on your face. He draws closer and almost bursts into a fit of laughter.

The youngest Lee shifts in her sleep, making incompressible conversations in the happy dream she was having. The fear tightening Heeseung's heart dissipates, and he lets out a sigh of relief. He hadn't lost his sister after all.

Perhaps he was too relieved. So relieved to notice that you had quietly left the room and were back from a little quest of your own already.

"She's sleeping," you state the obvious. You must've really thought he was too dumb for even that.

"Mhm."

He feels something gently brush against his shoulder for a brief moment. The sensation was that of a feather touching his skin. Heeseung  stops to think if it was your finger, but yet again, it was pretty impossible. 

You kneel down right beside him, flustered. 

"I think we should let her sleep," you tell him, quietly slipping a cushion you had found somewhere in the house.

You were too old for a 7 year old, Heeseung realises at the moment. 

And so, all he could do was nod.

Your lips press into a thin line at that, as awkward as the boy was. "Good."

The 10 year old chuckles at your attempt at a smile. Heeseung slowly positions himself against the cedar wood closet in the room and sits back, arms scattering at his side and stretching his legs wide.

He taps on the floor, gesturing to you to take a seat too. You look at him,  unsure. It translated to "would you be okay?", Heeseung figured. 

So he smiles wide, reassuring you that it indeed, would be.

You make yourself comfortable right next to him, with a decent gap between the two of you- and drown yourself in the pages of the book you were reading yet again.

He lets himself get lost in an ocean of thoughts. The boy collects his knees onto his chest and drapes his arms over them so that he could successfully bury his reddening cheeks inside.

"Thank you," he lets out, knowing all too well that you were too lost in your own world to hear that. 

Lee Heeseung was only ten, when the illogical yet very familiar warmth blooming in his stomach like a flower made him realise, 

You were growing up faster than him.

NOTE.  Ogs know what's up 😎