It is late at night. The dark sky shows many stars and a bright shining moon.

A little village with a few houses. There aren't many people living there. Therefore almost everyone knows everyone living there.

Besides the cold wind, which blow between the little trees and bushes, it was completely silent. Nobody is outside at night, at a cold stormy night like this.

Except two persons.

_______

A boy is playing in the deep snow.
He looks like a little child, trying to built a snowman with the sparkling white snow. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Well, if you ignore the little details, which are destroying the the innocense of the peaceful situation.

A boy is playing in the deep snow.
He isn't wearing something except for a T-shirt and damaged shorts. He also isn't wearing any shoes or socks, it doesn't seem to bother him though.

He begins to roll the snow in a small ball, until it's getting bigger and bigger. After a few more minutes he created a snowman not taller than himself. A smile is getting onto his face. He's proud of his snowman.
To complete the sight, he searches for some little rocks and sticks, which he carefully placed at the snowmans face and body.

The smile on the face of the little boy fades away slightly after finishing the snowman. It's still deep in the night and it doesn't seem to get morning soon.

Of course he thinks about sleeping or resting for a little bit, but he can't just lay down on the snow and fall asleep.
But he can't go home either.
He's not allowed to.

_____

At the same time, another boy is laying down on his bed. Yet again, he can't sleep. Deep in thoughts he's looking outside the window next to his bed. He decides to open the window a little to breath the fresh air from outside.

it didn't last long after the boy shuts the window and cuddle himself in his warm blanket. He doesn't expect it would be that cold.
But the boy stand up from his bed and plans to go outside after all. He's searching his closet for a warm sweater and a jacket. He opens his door slowly, not wanting to cause any loud noises and wake up his parents.

After he manage to go outside he takes a deep breath. He takes a step forward in the snow and is surprised by how deep his foot sink in the snow. The boy slowly walks forward through the snow and looks up at the beautiful night sky.

He doesn't even know where he is going, cause of the snow, he can't see the way. But as long as he doesn't leave the village he would keep walking in one direction.

The dark haired boy is, again, taking by surprise. This time even more, when he sees another boy in the distance. He walks towards him and with every step he takes forward he can see the boy more clearly.

The boy seems smaller than himself, but still the same age. He is standing next to a snowman, which the taller boy thinks, the other one built. The strangest thing wasn't, that the boy is outside at a time like this nor that he built a snowman in the middle of a field. It's the fact, that the smaller boy isn't wearing any winter clothes. Not even a jacket or at least shoes.

The boy doesn't thinks to know the other boy, who doesn't seem to notice him yet.

He decides to walk to the boy and talk to him. He can't help it but to feel a little concerned about the health of the other boy.

After the dark haired boy walks over to the other one he finally notice him and turns around. Unecpectedly with a shock expression.

,,Hey! Ah...Did you built this snowman?" The boy asks with a calm tone in his voice.

The smaller boy picks a quick look at the snowman next to him before nodding. He keeps on looking at the ground. Doesn't dare to look the other boy in the face.

,,My name is Shuichi Saihara. Why.. are you outside at night?" The boy named Shuichi asks again, afraid that the other boy could just run away like a shy animal.

There is a little moment silence between them before the smaller boy looks up for the first time.

,,I-I'm playing... with the snow.." He quietly mumbles almost impossible for Shuichi to hear. He blame the coldness.

,,Aren't you freezing? It's pretty cold and you.. not wearing anything warm." Shuichi keeps asking and take a closer look at the smaller boy in front of him.

Thanks to the dim light of the moon he can see the pale skin of the boy. Short purple hair and damaged clothes. Defenetly with which you shouldn't be playing in the snow.
It remain silent again without an answer from the short boy. Shuichi tries to start a conversaition again.

,,Can you tell me your name?"
He asks again, hoping for an answer.

The purplish haired boy said somethong, but way too quiet for Shuichi to hear.
,,What did you say?"

,,Call me Kokichi!"
The smaller boy says again, this time a little louder than before.

,,Why are you outside at night..?"
Kokichi asks while looking around.

,,Well, I just decided to have a nightwalk. I didn't expect someone else to be awake as well." He answers honestly with a smile.

Kokichi seems somehow a little reliefed. At first he thought Shuichi could be a police or something similar.

Much to Shuichis confusion the smaller boy just continue to build things out of snow. He's shaking his head and watches the strange boy.

,,Even if it seems, you have fun, you should go home. You'll get sick and don't have enough sleep for tomorrow if you spend the whole night outside." Shuichi tries to convince the boy to go home.

He doesn't know why, but he don't want the smaller boy to get sick.
He only know him for maybe ten minutes by now. So why is he so concerned about him?

Almost as expected, Kokichi doesn't answer. Shuichi let out a sigh and makes himself confortable on the snow. He starts to ask some random questions and hopes that he get to know the other boy at least a little better.

,,How old are you?"

,,Why did I never meet you before?"

,,Do your parents know about this"

,,On which school are you?"

The only thing after each question he gets are silence or a weird look on the others face. He is sure he even saw him flinch at one of the questions.

,,You know, you don't have to stay with me, right? You can go home, I'll be fine."

The quiet voice of Kokichi speaks to Shuichi without looking at him directly.

It surprised Shuichi at first, since it was the first complete sentence the other boy said to him. But he doesn't understand though. Why doesn't he bother at all, playing in the snow all alone in the middle of the night? And now he wants him to go?

,,I can't just leave you here. Or do you actually want me to go?" Shuichi says with a confused face.

,,You just can leave me be. Like I said I'm fine. Besides it's a cold night and you should go home." Kokichi says without looking. ,,Don't waste your time on me." He quietly adds, unaudible for the taller boy to hear.

,,Well, same for you." The dark haired boy says with a questioning tone in his voice, although it was a statement. Shuichi doesn't understand anything now. Why would the smaller boy care about Shuichi, but not about himself?

Kokichi gets nervous at the last sentence from Shuichi. He just wants him to leave him alone and never meet him again. It was a big coincidence that they met in the first place, so why would he even wants to stay with him?

,,Hey, are you okay?" A voice brings him back into the present. ,,Sure." He answer quick.

,,So?" The taller boy asks, getting a confused look from the other. ,,So what?"

,,I'm going home, when you're going home as well. I don't want you to get sick or something. Even if I don't know you." Shuichi tells his condition and tries to look the other boy in the eyes, unsuccessful though.

,,Fine." Kokichi says with a clear voice. If thats the only condition for him to finally leave him alone, he would just go in the opposite direction of Shuichi until he couldn't see him anymore. Then he would come back and continue.

,,Okay! We'll maybe meet again, so, goodbye for now." Shuichi says, glad that the other boy would go home. Even though he is sceptical about that. But he has a plan.

Both of the boys begin to walk home. At least Kokichi pretend to do so. Shuichi actually walks in the direction of his home, but stops in his tracks to turn around.

He sees the smaller boy walking in the other direction he was going. Whatever, Shuichi slowly walks back to where he first met the boy. He tries to hide behind  a bush though. When his theory is right, then the other boy would come back, instead of going home.

And Shuichi was right. After he had thought about that, Kokichi comes back and sits down on the snow.
When he seems to be deep in thoughts, Shuichi decides to come out of his hiding and confront the other boy.

,,Didn't you say you would go home?"

Kokichi flinches at the sudden voice and looks in the direction of the voice, just to see Shuichi again. He secretly rolls his eyes when he sees the taller boy again.

,,Well, You said you would go home as well, didn't you?" He said in annoyance.

,,Mmh, seems both of us lied about that part." The other boy says with both, blame and guilty in his voice.

,,So, why didn't you go home but scared me instead?" Kokichi asks as if it was completely normal, that he didn't go home, still a bit annoyed.

,,I had a feeling that you wouldn't go home, so I came back to check. And I was right, so what about you?"

,,Mmh? What about me?" He plays clueless and hopes that the other would stop asking. But at the same time he already thinks about an excuse.

,,Why didn't you go home?" Shuichi asks clear and serious.

The purplish haired boy is getting nervous and looks somewhere else than at Saihara. ,,Uuhh...I was..because..ah because I wanted to continue...playing?"

Shuichi narrows his eyebrows and looks doubtful at the smaller boy. When he looks closer at the boy, Shuichi can see that he is shivering.

,,Are you cold?" He asks with worry in his voice. He couldn't know the shivering is because of nervousness and fear, not because of the coldness.

,,No..I'm fine! I told you many times already." The smaller boy says, not even trying to hide his annoyance towards Shuichi.

Shuichi, whatever, doesn't even think about to stop just yet. So he tries again, starting a conversation without the other blocking him.

,,Aren't you shivering? You really should-" ,,Shut up! Listen, I see NO reason why I should listen to you or tell you anything about me! So shut the fuck up and leave me alone, 'cause you PISS ME OF!"

Kokichi cuts the taller boy off midsentence and yells at him. He didn't really mean to yell at him like that, but he completely lost his temper at this point.

-1965 words and I remember liking this story. It would have continued with the back story of Kokishi. His parents don't like him and kick
Him out of the house as punishment when he did things wrong.
Thanks for reading