Chapter Text
Jay sighed as he turned off his noisy alarm clock. He then sighed again once he realized that it was his turn to run errands.
Him and his friends came up with the idea to rotate every time it was time to buy groceries or go out to pick up something, since they all lived together. They actually lived in a big house despite the six of them being very young.
Jungwon and Sunoo who were still attending college as they were only nineteen years old. Luckily, their classes were online instead of in person. Although it was very exhausting, it was honestly way easier and the two were thankful.
The backstory of the group’s friendship is pretty crazy. They all went to the same elementary school, yet they all found each other at different times. It’s amazing to think that they’ve stuck together throughout all these years. Even ended up living together.
And even with them living with each other, best believe it gets chaotic sometimes. But they wouldn’t want it to be any other way.
In all seriousness, Jay was stalling. He sighed once more before finally sitting up to start his day. As he walked closer to his bathroom, he seemed to hear some commotion coming from outside his room, meaning only one thing.
Everyone had already woken up before him, like most of the time. And the crazy thing is that he never wakes up that late.
How could they be so productive at a time like this??
Jay thinks as he switches the bathroom light on.
The only thing that made Jay frustrated was the fact that there was a whole list of things to buy. He didn’t like running errands as it is, but when he saw the list Jake had sent him, he audibly groaned.
But by now, he had been used to it. Let’s see how long it would take him to finish since it was still the morning.
Nearly two hours later, Jay was finally able to purchase every single one of the things that was needed. He walked back to his car and placed the three bags in the trunk before closing it and getting in the driver's seat.
The realization had hit that when driving to the market, he’d never played any music because he had been too stressed about the list. So he did that.
It was fine at first really. But Jay was never the type to really pay attention to his surroundings when listening to music. When he was younger, he had to constantly be reminded to do certain things and when he did, he never did them correctly. All because he was listening to music.
Even nowadays, when he’s blasting music in his headphones, he’s always being told to turn it down because everyone else can hear it.
And he’s never regretted something much more.
Only a few minutes away from home, he’s forced to come to an abrupt stop when he spots something on the road, which he was a few seconds away from running over.
He pauses the radio while being surged forward because of the pace he suddenly stopped at. He slowly took a breath before reluctantly looking up. What he thought to be an object, was not at all an object.
He thought about getting out of the car but there had been other cars behind him which were honking. He decided to pull over on the side of the road before finally getting out.
Shutting the door behind him. He turns around, in shock. Not expecting to see a boy. A boy who looked innocent and confused was sitting on the ground, looking around.
Jay slowly walks towards the boy, yet he’s scared himself. It’s as if the boy sensed his presence. Almost as if he knew someone was walking toward him, he started tapping the ground in front of him. Arms sprawled out.
The boy struggles to stand up but by the time he does, Jay is waving his hand in front of him. Trying to get his attention, he snaps his finger in front of his face, “Hello?” He says softly.
“Are you o-” Jay doesn’t even get his question out. Not when the boy reached both of his arms out and started touching him. Jay looked down in confusion when the boy’s hands started patting against Jay's chest. It’s like the boy was in a rush. Patting everywhere on Jay’s body. When suddenly, Jay felt two hands on his face.
The boy was feeling his eyes, his jawline, his forehead, even his lips. Jay slowly removed the boy’s hands from his face before talking. “Seriously.. Are you okay?” His voice was laced with empathy and genuine confusion.
The boy then unexpectedly ripped his hands from Jay’s grip and pulled himself away. His body collided with the concrete once more. He shakes his head and he starts to back away. He was scared . Jay could see the faint tears building up in his eyes.
He rushed towards him, kneeling down before hesitantly bringing the boy into a hug. Whoever this boy was, he was definitely going through something.
The boy tried to fight it. He tried to force himself out of Jay’s grip and started hitting his back, hard . Yet, that didn’t stop Jay from hugging him. Jay started to feel some sort of dampness on his shoulder and he sensed that the boy was now crying. His aggressive movements seemed to slow down.
The fists that were formed behind Jay’s back were now gripping onto his shirt. And Jay held the back of the boy’s neck as he vibrated into his own shoulder. Small noises were coming out. But those noises sounded nothing like your average sniffle or hiccup.
It almost sounded like he was choking on something. Or at least trying to form words. Jay pulled away before looking the boy in the eyes. It took him a second to realize that the boy wasn’t even looking in his direction.
Jay’s eyes traced the direction the boy was looking before turning around, seeing absolutely nothing. Then it hit.
The boy was blind.
The boy seemed to know Jay wasn’t looking at him. His hand was on Jay’s face as he felt the side of his cheek, grabbing his jawline so that Jay’s now looking at him.
That’s when the boy decided to communicate in some type of way. ‘You’re not my grandmother.’ He signed.
You could see the realization in Jay’s eyes. Not only was the boy blind but he was also deaf .
Jay got out of his thoughts once he realized where they were. Cars zoomed past them and often honks were heard from the distance due to traffic. That’s when Jay acted and grabbed the boy’s hand and gently guided him to his car. The only choice the boy had was to just follow in confusion, his eyebrows were furrowed.
Jay helped him get in the passenger’s seat. The boy stumbled a little once Jay had opened the door, but he felt around and eventually recognized the feeling. He managed to sit down successfully, feeling the vibration of the door being shut on his side.
He felt a bit of air coming in on his left side, so he knew that it was Jay getting in. He clicked his seatbelt before leaning over and helping the boy with his.
Jay was kinda scared of having the boy in the front seat because who knows what could happen but at the same time, he needed to keep an eye on him. He started driving, looking and the boy back to back. Who was just fiddling with his fingers while staring into blank space.
About a good ten minutes later, they had finally reached the house. But the boy didn’t have a clue where he was so all Jay could think about from that point on was how his reaction would turn out.
Jay unbuckled his seatbelt before opening the door to get out. Once again, the boy felt that breeze, signaling that it was time for him to get out as well. His hand reached behind him, wandered around until he felt a familiar strap but before he could make the attempt to unbuckle himself, his hand was met with another as he was stopped.
Jay did it for him.
He stumbled a little again, but became steady once he felt Jay’s hand slip around his waist for support. He closed the car door, and the boy had no idea whatsoever where this random guy was taking him, but somehow at the bottom of his heart was a little trust.
With Jay’s hand still around the boy’s waist, he walked to the back of the car. Managing to open the trunk with one hand, he fished the groceries out, before slamming the trunk closed with his elbow.
The boy knew they’d come to a stop once Jay’s hand let go of his waist to grab the key from his back pocket. The boy experimentally reached to his left with one hand and reached out in front of him with his right. Just as he expected, he felt the familiar feeling of keys and a door.
Just then, the door opened and for the last time, the boy felt a breeze of air. The scent of coffee, vanilla and comfort filled the insides of his nostrils. The boy felt Jay’s arm slip around his waist once more before guiding him inside and closing the door behind him. The two walked towards the expensive marble countertop before Jay placed the groceries down.
He led the boy onto the couch and once he sat down, he felt his surroundings. He felt safe. The smell reminded him of his home back in Japan.
Jay quickly went to unbag the groceries and set them all on the table. Just his luck as he starts to hear faint footsteps coming from the hallway. Heeseung is the first one to walk in, with a bowl of noodles in his hand and some chopsticks.
“Took you long eno-” his voice trailed off as he looked to his right. The sound of chopsticks dropping echoed throughout the entire house with a ‘clank’.
“Who’s that?” Heeseung said in a high pitched voice. Slowly turning his neck towards Jay.
“Heeseung?” Jake said, now coming into the living room. “Who’s who..” His voice also trailed off once his eyes landed on the strange blonde headed boy sitting on the couch.
Jake had abruptly stopped walking which caught the rest of his friends off guard. They all bumped into Jake, also eyeing the boy as well.
Jay lifted his head up from one of the lower pantries,
“It’s kind of a long story.”