The wind blew through Lean's hair, and electricity ran through his skin as he felt the firm arm that was perfectly fitted around Leanse's waist. Heat rushed to his face.
"What's happening?"
"What the hell is going on?"
"Attention seeker!"
"He dares!"
The whispers hit him all at once.
Leansei tore himself out of the hold, straightened his blazer with shaking hands, and kept his eyes down. Because if he looked up, they would see his cheeks. Because if he looked up, he would have to look at those blue, mercurial eyes again.
' What the hell is he thinking? This is humiliating'
"You should tell your fans not to run into people," he said, voice tight. "It's an inconvenience." He put weight on the word. Fans.
Xerchin didn't answer. He just stood there, expressionless, staring at Leansei like he was trying to read something written under his skin. The silence stretched until it hurt.
"Idiot." And then he walked away. Leansei stood there, stunned.
' What? What kind of — What did I expect from a crosswalk arrogant bastard? ' The thought slipped out before he could catch it.
"Arrogant crosswalk bastard." A hand seized the back of his collar. He was yanked backward. This rendered Leansei unable to walk away. Xerchin was behind him now. Pretty close.
"W-what-let me go!-- " Leansei flinched when he felt the blue-eyed guy's presence behind him.
Close enough that Leansei could feel the heat of him through the fabric of his uniform. Close enough to smell it again-that same clean scent from the ship. Mint and something expensive and cold
Leansei twisted and threw an elbow. Xerchin caught his wrist in midair, easily, like he'd been expecting it.
The guy stopped behind Lean's back and leant his head forward near Lean's side cheeks.
"What did you call me?" His voice was low and calm. The kind of calm that came before something broke.
Leansei didn't think. "Bastard." He drove his heel down on Xerchin's foot and bolted. He ran until his lungs burned. Until the noise of the campus fell away and he was standing in front of an abandoned building, hands on his knees, gasping.
"Weird bastard," he muttered, while catching his breath.
He leaned against the wall. Who was that guy? The presence alone was enough to make you want to disappear. The stare could strip you bare and yet there was something familiar in the way he held Leansei. Like he'd done it before.
Leaves moved over the concrete. Birds moved in the big tree by the wall. Leanse walked to it. Lay down on the grass. The wind moved through his hair. For the first time in his life, he wasn't thinking about money or work or the next bill. He was just lying there. Peaceful.
He thought to himself that even just once just once, he wanted to enjoy this freedom and enjoyable life. He wants to try living Kean's life, even just for once.
' Will that be known as selfishness?'
"Nice breeze, isn't it?" Leansei shot sat up when he heard a familiar voice. It was Revin, who was leaning against the wall while twirling a leaf between his fingers and that half-healed bruise on his mouth.
Leansei looked away as he remembered the punch he had given him. Lean tried to avoided eye contact as Revin stared into Leansei's eyes.
"I don't regret punching you," he said, rubbing grass between his fingers. "It wasn't right to sneak up like that. But... sorry. I shouldn't have hit you."
Revin didn't move. "I don't mind." A pause. "But why don't you know who I am?"
Leansei froze. Right, Kean would know him.
He doesn't know that Kean is known by many people, but he has a terrible relationship with everyone. Lean wondered if Kean had friends or true friends, but he also knew he may not have one.
"I can't remember anyone," he said. "I have amnesia."
Revin tilted his head. "Is that so? Then when did you learn to punch like that?" Leansei was caught up. He doesn't know that this guy was very observant or that he really knew Kean that much.
"Doesn't everyone know how to punch?" Leansei said, sarcastic.
Revin's eyes narrowed. "In that case, are you-" Leansei immediately stood up when the bell rang.
The bell cut him off. "Oh. Class," Leansei said, standing too fast. "Gotta go."
He walked quickly and Revin followed behind, running after him.. "Hey, wait up."
.
A few hours had passed, Leansei tried to concentrate on the lectures. The looks and glances he received from the students in his classroom, particularly Revin's stares, irritated him as the hours elapsed.
Leansei stretches his arms while walking to the parking lot. When the classes ended in the afternoon, he immediately ran away and hid from Revin. He almost got to meet the blue murcial eyes again. Leansei really tried his best not to get seen by that weird bastard.
' Well, I survived. Who said I couldn't survive this day? ' Leansei said, with overconfidence in his thoughts.
But that's just what he thought that he'd made it. Someone clamped over his mouth and tightly gripped his arm as he walked through the parking lot towards the narrow street. Leansei was yanked backward before he even saw them.
He tried to struggle, but he was thrashed to the ground hard. He felt the pain shot up through his ribs as he glance around. Its an alleyway with brick walls, drain drip in the alley, smell of cigarettes and wet concrete.
It was a group of troublesome students. There are a total of six guys who are in sloppy uniforms, shirts untucked, ties loose, smoking, and laughing. In the center, sitting on a wooden crate, a guy with a cigarette hanging from his mouth like he owned the air.
"Well, well," the guy on the crate said, blowing smoke. "What do we have here?"
"Boss," the one who'd grabbed him said. "He doesn't remember anyone." A voice from a guy who abducted him a while ago.
The "boss" flicked his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it while smirking at Leansei. But he just looked at him blankly.
Leansei couldn't care less if they beat him for a valid reason, but if he was beaten for nothing, he wouldn't bow.
The leader of the group walks toward Lean's and leveled his gaze as Grabbed a fistful of Leansei's hair and forced his head up. "What is that disgusting look?" He spat. "You don't have the right to look at me like that!" A fist strike in to Lean's stomach again, he doubled over. He coughed blood and spit it onto the pavement.
"Who are you?" His voice was flat and cold. The guy laughed. Dragged a hand down his own neck. "You don't remember? What the fuck is this?" He said in disbelief yet in amusement.
Leansei wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Then tell me what I did. Give me a valid reason."
The leader was in beguiled as he shot glance to his face down to his body. Who has messy hair, 2 button down from his shirt, exposing his fair collarbone. The guy winced, "Fuck..shit." He whispered.
"You don't get to talk to the boss like that!"
A boot to his back. He went to his knees. Hands on the ground to keep from falling.
The boss stood over him. "Fine. You disgusting shit.Let me help you remember." He grabbed Leansei's collar and hauled him up. "And as for beating you? It's just my hobby. You look pathetic and imagine one of the Ferech's son—"
Leansei clenched his fist and glared at the guy. "Then, die." A ghastly voice from Lean as his fist strike the guy's jaw and give a kick to the stomach that folded the guy in half and a flying kick to the face that sent him flying off the crate.
The leader hit the ground. "Get up," Lean said to the boss on the ground. The guy did slowly with a blood on his mouth. Leansei didn't give him time to get up his knees and hit his face harder than the last one. The guy didn't rise up right away as he was knocked down instantly. Leansei glances at the five guys, who are startled and looking at each other by seeing the scene firsthand.
"Who the hell is he?"
"Is that really Kean?"
"Shit! Help our boss! "
"Give him a beating!"
Five of them moved at once. He didn't wait. Leansei clenched his jaw and shrugged off his blazer to prepare for the attack. Years of work. Years of being the smallest guy in rooms full of men who wanted to take what he had. Kean's body was soft. But Leansei's instincts weren't.
He managed to block all their punches and attacks. With great timing, He caught the wrist, and drove his foot into the second guy's stomach. Leansei caught his arm, wrenched it back. but someone hit him with a wooden stick. The wood cracked against his ribs.
Leansei went down as he groaned in pain bloomed white-hot. He looked back and it was about to hit him again, he rolled before the stick came down again and kicked out the third guy's chest as he held yanked the stick from its hands and pulled it towards him, then he kicked the third guy's jaw upwardly.
He stood up, but he was distracted when a boot hit his stomach and causing him slammed him into wall. Leansei continued fighting with the two guys left. As their attack continues to hit Lean's back and stomach, he coughs up blood. They weren't aiming for his face. They knew who he was.
Leansei answered with his fists. He got to kick their faces and stomachs, but he sensed Kean's weakness and fragility. He could feel that his body was reaching its limit. He was unable to stand due to the short stamina that Kean's body had.
Kean's body was frail, sickly, build for boardrooms, not alleys. His lungs were burning. His legs were shaking. There was nothing left. He leaned against the wall to stay upright.
' I thought I was done with this.' Leansei thought that he wouldn't be able to experience this again, but here he is again fighting and getting beaten by people.
He'd told himself that when he took the second job. When he stopped going to the gym behind the market. He'd told himself he was done being the kid who fought because he had nothing else. His body—his body— had been steel. Hours of work. Miles on a bike. Fists that didn't quit. He'd earned every bruise. Kean's body hadn't earned any of this and yet it was the one taking it.
He thought Kean was living his life with freedom and enjoyment, but deep down he was being bullied and beaten by the deliquents group. The thought hit him harder than the stick.
Was this why?
Was this why he ended up in an accident?
Because at home they ignored him.
Because at school they beat him.
Because even with money and a name, he was still prey.
He also believes that if Kean's life before the incident had been this miserable, Leansei would understand Kean's despondent lifestyle. Lean can feel that Kean's body is weak and frail. He could feel that Kean was prone to sickness, and that made his body flimsy.
It was totally different from Lean's body and life. Leansei was used to being beaten in gang fights. During fights, his fists were made of steel. His body was strong enough, with over-average stamina. He never backs down in fights, but he stopped getting involved in fights when his parents died. He started working and at the same time, going to school. That has made his life purely miserable since then.
Leansei worked hard with multiple part-time jobs so as not to die of starvation. He worked hard for the expenses and debts his father left before he died. He couldn't enjoy life like other people. All he did was go to school in the morning, earn money after class until past midnight, and cycle.
Considering he never got to enjoy it since he was born, but in Kean's life, it is not really good either. He may have had a stable financial life with a perfect family, a wealthy life, and attended a prestigious school, but he was treated like shit both at school and at home. He was bullied and beaten by people who knew him.
Kean and Leansei's lives are purely miserable, but Leansei still believes that Kean's life is much more good than his. But he can't simply take Kean's life and enjoy it.
He may enjoy this way of life, but Kean's soul may still be somewhere, or their life may had been swapped.
Leansei was bearing the pain as he looked at the boys who were knocked down on the ground. Leansei tried to stand on his feet, enduring the pain in his body. He grabbed his bag as he slowly walked towards the exit of the narrow street tilted. Each step was heavier than the last. Numbness crawled up his legs. His consciousness is betraying him.
'No. Not here. Not like this.' His knees buckled. The ground came up to meet him. His eyes were slowly closing as he felt coldness of the damped ground.
"Damn this body."
He did everything he could to stand, but his body was weak from lack of stamina and numb from the pain. Leansei gradually closes his eyes. But then he saw a pair of shoes in front of him, black and polished. He tried to look at him and lift his head, but his vision blurred and couldn't.
He tried to reach him, but he was losing consciousness. All he thought before being swallowed by darkness was the same presence he felt back then and the same scent mint, cold and expensive. The same one from crosswalk, and from the ship that he was avoiding.
The last thing Leansei thought before the dark took him was: I wanted to stay away from him.