A burden on my shoulder

It all began with Elija sitting alone at the orphanage. It wasn't unusual since the bench he was sitting on was known to be his bench. nobody went to sit beside him since he wants his privacy during this time, but It's not like he didn't have any friends. in fact he always greets each and everyone in the orphanage and starts a chat with them in the morning. he was known as the kind brother. the one who stood beside them even though he wasn't obliged to. nobody in this place ever doubted even for a second how kind and fair he was, and it shows since everyone here respected him in their own way.

But he just likes to stay alone at the end of the day.

The children were laying around laughing to each other about something. Elija looked at them and smiled. It was a wholesome moment. He loved seeing them smile. seeing them empty of worry for what's to come later or how they should look or act made him ecstatic.

counting them out told him that one of the kids were missing.

just when he was about to count back to make sure he didn't miss someone out he sees his friend walk in from outside. you can almost spot the admiration he had for his friend from a mile away.

He didn't question why the nanny let him go outside alone since his friend was the only one allowed to go outside , he was a teenager while the others needed adult supervision with them out side. maybe if the teens were kind enough they would just let the children sneak off with one of them, but they weren't that responsible to do such a thing.

As yoenbuk, Elija's friend, walks in he high fives the kids as he teases them about their height. he has indeed grown taller and he likes to brag about it to make people notice. he looks around for Elija and continues to pat the kids on their heads.

Elija, being aware that he's looking for him, waves his hands. As soon as yoenbuk spots him he starts jogging towards him.

"hey El." they do their own hand shake as yoenbuk sits beside him spreading his shoulders to sit in a comfortable position. he wanted to look cool in front of the other kids witch was ridiculous to Elija because he found him cool eitherway.

"why aren't you hanging out with the children? Is someone bothering you?" he asks knowing Elija can fend off on his own but just making sure. in other words he wanted to see if the self defense lessons he gives Elija are working well with him.

"nah, I just wanted to stay alone but they all behaved like you told them." Elija says. before leaving yoenbuk told them not to give a hard time for the nannies and he was going to play hide and seek with them in return.

Elija was at loss of words at how easy it was to control those children for him. he didn't want him to leave because as soon as he leaves they cry.

He wanted to ask where yoenbuk was going , if it was important enough to leave hurriedly looking worried. he looks at his friend to find a bruise on his face.

"yoenbuk who did this, was it the other teenagers?" worriedly he reaches out to check it only for his hand to be swatted away. an unexpected reaction that made his heart sting a little.

"don't worry about that. Let's talk about something more interesting." he smoothly changes the subject. "look at Annabele, she was having trouble making friends, but after my help she is basically a social butterfly. I mean how amazing am I at this point?" he points at a girl with black hair.

sometimes Elija wonders if he can ever act humble even if he was just kidding he seems too much sometimes.

Elija fails to stop him from changing the subject , he stays quiet thinking, But yoenbuk was smart enough to know how to divert the attention from himself .

" I mean isn't cool when she has the same name as that doll in that one movie. " yoenbuk says laughing refering to the movie Annabele that just came out.

Elija looks beside him in shock "you saw that movie? it just came out."

"uncle Peter took me to the cinema so I can watch it." yoenbuk says as he remembers the day vividly. The man was so kind to the point where you don't even need to ask for what you want. He just had your wish come true like that.

"I wanted to take you with me but you know the man. He would spend his life savings on us and I don't wanna be a burden more than I am." uncle Peter the man he was talking about wanted to adopt yoenbuk for a while and has been befriending him since.

"so, does uncle Peter know that you don't wanna leave the orphanage?" Elija brings up the conversation he'd always wanted to talk about. it was a sensitive subject but they needed to face it.

"yeah, he's been trying to convince me to come with him every since. He says it's ok if I don't wanna be adopted as long as he always gets to see me." yoenbuk says touching the scratch on his face to test if it still hurts .the action went unnoticed by Elija.

"but what if miss von finds out and gets mad at you for putting financial pressure on them." Elija says refering to the money the lady spends each month on the orphans.

"if I leave, no one will take care of my baby brothers and sisters." he ruffled Elija's hair.

Elija gets of his grip and stands up.

"ill take care of them. I'm twelve already and most the kids here get adopted at nine. Most people don't want to adopt teenagers and since I'm going to turn one next year it'll be harder. And I know I don't like responsibility but it's not about what I want to do it's about what I need to do. "

Yoenbuk, who's unfazed looks up and smiles at the passion in his eyes. Elija wanted to help him like his older brother always did to each and every one of them.

" sit down will ya. " Yoenbuk says. As Elija sits down he starts talking again.

" you know what your problem is Elija, it's that we think alike. You and I have many friends but we like to stay alone. you and I like to help others but refuse help from others at the same time you and I like to show off but stay humble and grateful to what we have and so on." he could name a list of thing that they had in common for sure ,but he had a point to prove.

Yoenbuk puts his hand on the boys shoulder. " you know I have this responsibility of the caring brother because I had to. I was the only one responsible enough out of the other teenagers to take that responsibility. But I never said it was easy. In fact it's a burden on my shoulders that I don't want any of you to have. And knowing you and I are similar doesn't help. So I have to stay here. At least until the other teenagers realize that they need to grow up a little. "

Elija looks up to Yoenbuk a little. No I mean to say a lot. He was a fighter. He carried on with his responsibility even though Elija knew he was getting picked on by the other teenagers. he watched him getting hit and did nothing. he watched him getting refered to as a whore by them and he did nothing. he watched them boss him around as a doll and made him miss breakfast and lunch and the only thing Elija could do was give him a portion of food he sneaked off, but how long was he going to watch in silence. he had to do something right? especially knowing that the other teenagers won't ever change.

All Elija wanted was to give him a bright future in return. In the orphanage there is no future. But if uncle Peter actually considered him that much then maybe he should have went with him.

"I respect your decision. But I will handle it Yoenbuk. I'll start by helping miss von and putting the kids to sleep like you do until I'm ready to understand that burden."Elija was determined to say the least.

"you can try but I know you hate kids Elija." Yoenbuk laughs as they both get up to help miss von with the breakfast.

Later that day yoenbuk had a visit from uncle Peter. He always comes to visit him. He bring his daughter Fae along but she usually hangs out with the girls and annoys Elija.

As they sit down on the couch uncles Peter starts to ask questions about yoenbuks day. "well that's rough kid. Did you do what I told you to do with those teenagers?"

"yes." yoenbuk replied. "it doesn't matter any more they think what they're doing is right. Bullying that kid everyday is just horrible but I can't get them to stop." he told uncle peter a kid was getting bullied but in reality he was the kid.

As yoenbuk talks he gets cut off by a phone call from uncle Peter's phone. "what...... Right now. Okay I'm coming don't do it alone." he says as he gets up. "see you later yoenbuk I have to go."

Yoenbuk laughed at the rushed comment uncle Peter gave before leaving and went out.

While yoenbuk was strolling around the hallway he heard some noise. He thought it would be Elija sneaking to the kitchen with Fae but it was coming from someone's room. He approaches the door causally and looks at the hole in the door that the kids have broken the other day.

His eyes widen as he sees illegal substances all around. It was those teenagers yoenbuk realized were named Xavier, Manny and Dolce.

"whose there" one of them says. Yoenbuk backs away from the door the light coming from the door falling on him and disappears as he starts running. He had just seen them consume drugs.

"who is it." one of them says as they open the door.

"oh, shit I knew there was someone. I'm sure of it man." one of them said panicking.

"will you shut up Dolce. I think they're still here. They couldn't have ran away that easily without us spotting them." xavier says looking around.

"I'm sure he was just hallucinating xavier calm down." Manny puts his hands on his shoulders.

Xavier backs Manny against a wall grabbing him by the collar of his neck "and what if it wasn't?" Manny stood silent. They didn't need to say anything. They knew they were screwed and they had to find out who it was.

The next day as dolce, Manny and xavier sit together at a cafe they come to a conclusion. "so all the kids were asleep according to miss Walcott and miss von." Manny says one of the facts. Bags under his eyes as he rubs them continuously.

"but uncle Peter came to visit someone yesterday. It has to be this idiot yoenbuk." xavier says.

"and what if its not?" Manny says repeating xavier's words from earlier.

"I don't know but all I know is that I'd kill whoever it was." xavier says a dark look in his eyes as Dolce stays silent.

Suddenly Dolce sees something. "is that uncle Peter?" he pointed out and they all look in the direction. They all see uncle Peter running around with a small blonde kid. The kid didn't look familiar and it wasn't his kid but that didn't matter to them. He was their ticket out of jail.

They all look at each other in agreement as they approach him.

"hey uncle Peter." Dolce said. Out of the other two he stays out of trouble most the time so he was the only teenager, other than yoenbuk, that he knew very well.

"oh hi Dolce. Have you been doing good at school?" he says as the little boy stands behind him.

"yeah, but I just came to ask. Who was it that you visited at the orphanage sir?" Dolce said looking at the other two to confirm that what he is doing is good and they nod.

"oh. It was yoenbuk of course." the man says as he laughs.

"see I told you." xavier butt's in. "I was betting it was yoenbuk. Anyway we'll be going know." he says as he grabs his friends and moves. "now that I know who it is, you fuckers better stay back when I teach him how to spy on someone correctly."

Meanwhile Elija had no clue that everything was about to go down hill from here as he sat around the with other children eating his own childhood away to dust.