BLACKENED

The walk home wasn't bad, aside from the stars starting to reveal themselves, and the sunlight hiding away. This was usually a bad sign for Yeonjun, and his superstitions, believing in creatures that lurk in the night. He didn't enjoy the stories his parents shared with him as a kid, even though he knew they were just to make sure he came home early every day.

The group had dispersed about halfway through the walk, each guy heading to their respective home base. Yeonjun lived the furthest away, leaving him to walk alone. Those superstitions began plaguing him, whispering into his head, but he ignored them. There'd be no four-armed homeless woman coming to snatch him up to eat, there'd be no giant demon birds there to swoop him away. It was just him, his phone, and the street.

His senses peaked when he spotted a guy dressed in all black, hood pulled up, and a mask over his face. He felt an odd, but familiar feeling about this guy, but didn't dare test it. In the city, there's one unspoken rule; never stare at a stranger. He took a glance and looked back at his phone. The stranger did the same, and went about minding his own business, walking towards the place Yeonjun came from.

He stopped at the gas station across the road from the school, and changed back into his regular clothes, grabbing a box of sour candy and heading home. His thoughts were fixed on the diner, the spray painting, the entire ordeal. He wants to relive it again.

It only took one knock on the door for his dad to unlock it.

"Enjoy your day?" His dad asked in his signature monotone voice, locking the door behind Yeonjun. Yeonjun replied with a nod, and a small smile.

"I think I'm gonna ace that test, dad," he said, heading up the stairs to his room. Once he closed his bedroom door, he quickly put the clothes in his dirty laundry basket, and pulled his books out from under the sheets. His focus now was to actually study, to actually do his right tasks.

He passed out somewhere between two hours of studying, and texting Soobin. He woke up to his alarm, his phone screen on, and a bunch of wrinkled notes and dog-eared textbook pages. He wasn't feeling too tired, though his legs were a little sore from the walking the night before.

He begrudgingly got up and dressed, putting his books into his backpack, and checking the time. To his dismay, he was late, but oddly enough, his own parents didn't even try to wake him up. He went downstairs to grab some food, and was shocked to find the kitchen empty.

"Mom? Dad? I'm late!" He called out, checking his phone again. Soobin had texted the group chat. They were going to meet up for another outing, and maybe hit up the train station again for some more painting.

The time tag caught Yeonjun's attention. It was 9 in the morning, on a Saturday. Both of his parents were out of town for the weekend on a business trip. It was the rare occasion that Yeonjun had actual freedom.

He replied, "Totally down for it! Maybe we can do some things tonight and tomorrow too? My parents aren't gonna be back until Monday evening."

He was expecting some reactions, but not for everyone to spam the chat with party emojis. He took it as an agreement.

"See you guys at noon? Gonna pick you guys up in the car," Soobin replied.

Soobin's mom was an old coworker of Yeonjun's parents, and an absolute saint. She let Soobin drive the family's truck occasionally, and usually funded some of the peaceful outings, such as movie-going, skating, or beach days. She never told a thing to his parents about the others, and usually covered up for them when there were slip-ups.

Yeonjun made himself some food, spending the time planning a new picture. He got some inspiration from the stories from the boy scouts, and watched a few of the music videos by Namjoon. It highlighted some of the fun adventures, showing clips of the city, of their endeavors and rebellion. This could be that weekend, the weekend that changes his life.

He quickly pulled out his phone, and sent a text to the group.

"We should do a midnight run too, since my parents aren't gonna be home. No one's ever out past 10 anyways," he sent the message, not really expecting an immediate reply.

Within two minutes, Beomgyu replied with a "YES!" and Kai said "Don't fall asleep on us then, oldie."

It seemed they were down to terrorise the town at night. Finally, it was his time to live.

Finally, it was around 11:30, and he heard a truck pull into his driveway. The beep of the horn alerted him, and let him know it was Soobin here to grab him. He grabbed his backpack and got in, sitting in the passenger seat of the truck. Joyriding sounded great right now, he knew they'd probably kill some time before picking everyone else up.

They cruised along the suburban streets, enjoying the moment by yelling at unsuspecting pedestrians. When the suburbs ended, and the city streets began to reveal themselves, they cranked the music on blast, and belted out to the tunes. They killed about an hour, just riding the seaside streets, jamming out to the CDs Soobin owned since 2008.

When they pulled into Beomgyu's driveway, he was waiting on the front deck with Kai, both of them ready for another round. They quickly bounced to their feet and climbed into the back of the truck, tossing their bags through the back window and into the seats. Now all that was left was to pick up Taehyun, who didn't live too far from Beomgyu. It took about five minutes to reach Taehyun's house, and they honked, the two in the back yelling for Taehyun. This was their trademark, being loud, being free.

"Hey!" Taehyun quickly left the house, running to the bed of the truck, repeating the same process the others did, tossing his bag into the back seat, and sitting in the bed. Soobin turned the music up, and they were on their way. The five of them cracked jokes at the top of their voices, earning looks from strangers they passed by on the road. Yeonjun forgot about the stress of school, but he remembers the last thing he heard from Jungkook before he graduated.

He remembered that night, it was the night of the graduation. Yeonjun was there to support Jungkook despite his parents disapproval. Jungkook had the others there, and for the first time, Yeonjun met the boy scouts without risking getting in trouble. Jungkook was overwhelmed by the six, and pulled Yeonjun aside. He placed a hand on his shoulder, and with a toothy grin, said to him, "Remember to enjoy your school life, because it's the last bit of youth and fun you'll ever really have. Defy your parents or whatever, it'll make you live and learn, Yeonnie."

He smiled at the memory, looking out the window, at the passing city buildings in the distance. They were close already, the drive definitely being faster than the walk, at least for Yeonjun.

They parked behind the station, and made their way up and into the building, bags filled with paint and snacks. They pushed the creaking doors open, releasing the smell of the paint from the previous night.

"Did we close the door last night?" Taehyun asked, looking back at it as everyone else walked forward.

"I'm sure one of us did, I don't remember," Kai said, heading for the bathroom to finish that glorious piece he and Beomgyu were working on.

"Don't think too much on it, they probably sent an officer here or something. It isn't a privately owned property, so it isn't illegal," Yeonjun assured Taehyun, opening Soobin's backpack to get more paint.

Soobin walked his way to the ticket booth for round two of 'defacing capitalism' as he likes to describe it. Taehyun went back to his flower fields, to possibly paint more beautiful works.

Yeonjun made his way towards the back wall, and froze in place. The mural of the burning house had been painted over with black lettering. The phrase "Can you see me?" written nearly ten times, all over the painting. He felt off about this, his stomach churned, and he went to find the others.

He pushed the door to the men's restroom open, and found it empty, the walls still colored and intact with Kai and Beomgyu's art. He heard the two in the next room over, in the women's restroom, laughing and listening to music on their bluetooth speaker. He went to leave but something caught the corner of his eye. He saw a black mass from underneath the stalls, and he pushed the door open.

His eyes widened to see Min Yoongi, one of the older boy scouts asleep on the floor in there. He nudged him with his foot, trying to wake him up.

"Yoongi? Yoongi, wake up," He insisted, continuing the nudging. Yoongi let out a groan and opened his eyes, looking up at Yeonjun.

"... Jungkook was right, you guys were coming back, huh?" Yoongi said in a low, tired voice.

"What do you mean?" Yeonjun asked, his brows tilting in confusion.

"Jungkook came here last night but couldn't find you guys, he said he saw you in here," Yoongi explained, gesturing around, "he means in the art. I think I walked by you last night, I don't really know."

"Jungkook came here?" Yeonjun asked again, crossing his arms.

"Well, he is the one who showed you this place, he just wanted to see what you guys did with it," Yoongi snickered a little bit, "Though… about that one mural, I didn't feel good about that one. Jungkook must've done the writing on it, I didn't get here until about half an hour after he texted me."

"Yeonjun, who you talking to?" Beomgyu interrupted, opening the door of the stall.

"Hey! Privacy! This is a bathroom!" Yeonjun shouted, a smile forming, "Well, Beom, this is Yoongi, one of the boy scouts."

Beomgyu's eyes lit up, and he visibly got excited.

"You're kidding, right?! Yoongi?! I love your music!"

"Oh, thanks, I haven't written many songs recently, been a little more busy with the guys, mostly trying to find Yeonjun here," Yoongi gestured, "we just wanted a little reunion. I see you've made some new friends!"

"I've made a lot of new friends, they're all inspired by you guys," Yeonjun replied, gesturing to Beomgyu, "he's a huge 'fan' of everyone."

"I can see that, well, want me to invite the others, and we can all go grab some lunch? We're all excited to see little Yeonjun after nearly four years, Jungkook will be stoked," Yoongi said, already texting the others.

"Totally! I'm sure the guys will like the surprise, don't you Beom?" Yeonjun questioned, looking at Beomgyu, who nodded.