Ryeowook ran.

From the gate and across the park, Ryeowook ran faster than what his personal abilities allowed him, only to get to the dorms before his already drenching figure could catch some pretty bad cold. The huge raindrops discouraged pretty much everyone to fight the tropical tempest, it made the students all the more lazy and wanting only to enjoy the warmth of the university halls, their own dorm rooms.

With the same intent, Ryeowook's face lit up in a quick smile as he saw the entrance doors getting closer and acloser step by step.

A little bit more, Wookie...

"We're almost there!" a rich, velvety voice snapped him out of his victorious thoughts. Ryeowook felt his own waist being entoured in a wet, supportive embrace, his whole body still running even without any brain impulse to tell him so. In fact, he only wanted to stop right there and then, to see exactly who was accompanying him to the dorms in that improvised race against the bad weather.

He was released as soon as his feet had reached the first steps of the threshold and, with face lit in bewilderment, Ryeowook cast his eyes down to the figure crouching to catch some breath back.

The figure straightened his back and stood up, still keeping a hand over his heart in a massaging motion: "Oh, I'm getting old..." his voice rasped, lips stretching in a wide smile as he turned to Ryeowook and showed his trademark smiling eyes which made the petite man's heart tumble down in a deep well of discomfort.

"J-Jongwoon?" Ryeowook's lips trembled as a blow of warm breath misted into colder one at the mention of that name "Ehm, Professor Kim... You shouldn't be seen here" he blushed after realizing he had just called him by his first name.

"I know. I'm just trying to find some shelter before going home" Jongwoon goofily answered, his hand scratching the back of his head in embarrassment "Actually, I just found out that some thugs have messed with my car and it's totally torn into useless pieces"

"A-are you okay?" Ryeowook's intention of keeping off the man had just totally faltered. He found himself worriedly approaching Jongwoon and even grasping his wet coat sleeve to convey his sincere concern.

"Yes, don't worry. I'm fine. I wasn't there when the fact occurred" Jongwoon looked down at the small hand whose pressure was making him feel strangely happy, strangely warm. Ryeowook noticed the reaction and immediately retracted his arm, nervously playing with his own fingers, but it was too late...the touch was already imprinted in fire on his skin.

"Okay then. I'm going" Ryeowook quickly tried to greet him one last time before recalling that he was incredibly enraged at the man. But, how could he when Jongwoon wasn't giving him any mean to keep his anger? The man was keeping his incredibly stoic composure, he was gifting Ryeowook of heartwarming smiles, deep glances, sweet words...

"Wait" it was Jongwoon now grabbing Ryeowook's sleeve and following him inside the hall.

Ryeowook threw him a bad glance as if he wanted to admonish him and tell him: Not here, you dumb. Don't be obvious and touch me here!

"What?"

"Can I come to your room?" Jongwoon shyly asked and Ryeowook felt like wanting to be falling in a deep hole without the chance to emerge back to the light from it.

"I don't think it would be wise" Ryeowook scrolled his arm off Jongwoon's touch and hugged himself in a shielding motion "I'm waiting for a guest to come and visit me. Plus, you're a teacher and you shouldn't be seen going to a student's room"

"Is it the man from the other day?" Jongwoon smiled again "Is he your new boyfriend?"

"Yes!" Ryeowook blurted out at the speed of light, feeling blood rushing to color his cheeks in scarlet red "Well...no" he corrected himself "Maybe?" he let out a small laugh at the end and wanted so bad to slap himself to push away such uncertainties from his mouth. It wasn't nice to be looking that wavering in front of your ex-lover "It's none of your business, anyway" he decided to end the argument that way and simply walked away.

"I just need to dry my clothes and call the insurance office, I won't disturb you" Jongwoon kept Ryeowook's pace and walked at his side "Please..." he begged while the petite man was visibly fighting against his beating heart that told him to give Jongwoon full permission.

He decided to keep silent then, forcing himself in a corner of perpetual limbo.

Because if he had given his permission, Ryeowook would have felt guilty for still feeling that strongly influenced by Jongwoon's presence; but if he had declined the request, he would have felt bad with himself for leaving Jongwoon in full troubles. His silence was the best option to answer Jongwoon's wish without giving too much of his misleading intentions out in full light.

The two reached Ryeowook's room luckily unnoticed, except for a couple of discreet glances thrown by students who were either going back to their own rooms or walking off to another area of the commonly shared building. Ryeowook felt like a thief for escorting Jongwoon, he felt bad when realizing he was wrongly giving Jongwoon a new reason to latch some sort of a relationship again, he felt even worse when his mind caressed the hypothesis of actually going back together as a couple and for that he dumbly smiled at the thought.

"You can use the bathroom and shower in the meanwhile. There are some clean towels next to the sink. I'll be hanging your clothes, hopefully they will dry quickly" Ryeowook's heart skipped a beat when Jongwoon smiled and tipped his head in a nod, before disappearing behind the bathroom door.

The crashing noise of the open tap was confusing Ryeowook. 

How did he end up having Jongwoon taking a shower right under the same roof as his...after all those years...

He intently stared at Kyuhyun's text appeared some seconds before on his cellphone screen: "I am fighting the rain to be there on time. Wait for me, okay?" but Ryeowook voluntarily ignored it. His heart was too stuffed with memories of a happy past, it ached, drowning in rushing blood as it lively pumped against his ribcage. Jongwoon was his all, while Ryeowook... he was...

...just a fill in whenever Jongwoon was far away from home.

Would that be enough? Now, would that be enough to throw away hatred and suspicion and scars of a past based on a chain of lies?

Ryeowook gasped in startled fear.

The bathroom door clicked open, the yellow color of the light inside cast a shadow on the floor and Jongwoon walked out of it with a towel around his hips, and another on his wet hair. Ryeowook tried to avert his eyes from the man's figure, but he found it too difficult a task to do when Jongwoon - despite not being in his eyes - was yet again in his mind, troubling him and whatever other thing he still wanted to do in his own room.

He quickly walked to the kitchen corner and set a boiler for some warm tea, fiddling with two cups from a rather high shelf. Tiptoeing to get them, when he descended on his full weight again, Ryeowook's back bumped into Jongwoon's body, which soon caged him into a back-hug: "You okay? Do you want some help?" Jongwoon's voice came from somewhere near his ears, as Ryeowook realized that Jongwoon's lips were brushing against his cheek and were printing light kisses on his boiling hot skin.

"N-no, thanks" Ryeowook fumbled with his words, he pushed his left elbow backwards and tried to send Jongwoon away.

"You sure?" Jongwoon questioned again "It's pretty high there, I could help you reach the shelf and..."

"Oh, please!" annoyed, Ryeowook blurted out, rolling his eyes as he found Jongwoon's words strangely funny "You've always been pretty useless at this stuff, Jongwoon. You're not as tall as..." Kyuhyun

Ryeowook held his tongue and prevented that name to slip out of his mouth, conscious not to disclose too many details as per whom could slowly get the part that once was Jongwoon's.

"...as whom? Did you want to say his name?" Jongwoon's hands furtively slipped under Ryeowook's damp jacket, running on the curves of his hips until they reached his pounding chest, where they rested to test just how quickly Ryeowook's heart could beat.

"Jongwoon...you don't understand" Ryeowook heavily exhaled, already falling hard for the other man's tricks "Let me go first, then we can talk. You're here for that, right? You said you wanted to have a chat with me"

"Yes, I do" Jongwoon slowly nodded as he took his hands out of Ryeowook's clothes and gently spun the frozen body, so that Ryeowook was leaning against the small counter and facing the half older man "I want to talk to you, I want to tell you that you can stop looking for someone who could replace me, because I'm back and willing to stay in your life as the only one who will treat you like a little prince. Ryeowook, you see, I'm begging you...for the love you've once born towards me and for the same feeling that you are so stubbrnly relinquishing right now"

"I am definitely not giving up to sometihng that doesn't even exist in my mind right now" Ryeowook wanted to sound serious and reject every argument that crossed Jongwoon's mind, but he involuntarily squeaked as the man's hands brushed over his most sensitive parts "And...I'd like you to take your hands off me!" he tried to regain a bit of composure and sound somehow stern and autoritary about his decisions, but Jongwoon's soft hands were something he had long forgotten.

"What if I don't comply to your orders, little prince?" Jongwoon gently smiled, totally amused by Ryeowook's rebellious behavior.

"Jongwoon, you can't simply come here to my room and act all nice after what you've done to me. Don't you see what actors from romance movies do?" Ryeowook sighed and rolled his eyes, feeling already lost before Jongwoon's overpowering acts. In fact he squirmed and had to grip the man's shoulders hard for support when Jongwoon, after turning him again like a docile puppet doll, had pushed him to sit on the kitchen counter.

"You're right, I should definitely learn from the movies you like so much" Jongwoon held him tight on his hips, trapping one of Ryeowook's swinging legs in his to prevent him from wriggling further more. Ryeowook didn't move. If all, he slipped his hands from Jongwoon's shoulders lower until they were peacefully rested on his lightly muscly arms.

"So...this is the moment in which the ex-boyfriend tackles his still loved one and forces him to hear what he has to say, if I'm not wrong" Jongwoon kept on smiling, looking deep in thought from time to time only to make his act more believable.

"Are you sure you didn't just lie to me about the car? I mean...we could have chosen another place to talk if you only asked me, instead of you coming here with an excuse. Oh, sorry...I forgot you are the one who actually likes to lie!" with narrowed eyes, Ryeowook lectured him.

"Be careful... I'm older than you" the other one winked as his hands on Ryeowook's hips used a bit more pressure to pull him closer.

"But not any wiser..." Ryeowook looked down at how uncomfortably he was being held by his ex-lover.

"Touché" Jongwoon let out a small laugh, forced to release his grip because Ryeowook was once again pushing his hands away "Okay. Now, listen. When you found out about my family, I was undergoing a tough time. My wife was just dicovered being pregnant again and she was fighting a bad kind of leukemia. It was either her or the child..."

Ryeowook gasped, a lot saddened by the news. Jongwoon grasped the light of sadness conveyed with a glassy sparkle in Ryeowook's eyes and exploited the moment in order to keep going with his explanation. Maybe...only maybe, was he walking down the right road.

"Luckily she managed to get treated on time and our second born is healthier than what doctors had first expected. However, those days when I had to fly back and forth to Boston, I couldn't not think of you, left behind by a horrible partner like me"

"You forgot to add...uhm...undeserving, lying bastard" Ryeowook quickly corrected him with a feverish smile. His breath was now quicker than before, his forehead unexplicably hotter and his sight blurry, but he couldn't get the reason behind that sudden change.

"Sure, everything you want me to be sweetie" Jongwoon nodded, thinking the better of contradict Ryeowook right when he looked more likely to be hearing him out "Anyway... I was constantly thinking about you, about the times we used to spend together, our dates, the songs we used to compose for each other, our travels around the country. You were the source of my happiness and not even once I had to face worries or concerns if you were by my side. That's when I realized I was falling out of love with my wife and turning to love you more than anything else with each single passing day. But...how could I tell her that the man she loved was actually having an affair with another man? Tell me, Ryeowook. How?"

"I...don't know" shyly, Ryeowook's voice blurted with a cough of his hoarse throat "But I would have preferred to know the truth from the very beginning, instead of being put at the other end of an extremely long wait...until..." he stopped, startled by the stupid reaction he was dealing with. Warm tears had decided to escape his stingy eyes and they were now streaking his soft, cherry red cheeks in two parallel stripes of invisible, salty water.

Jongwoon cupped Ryeowook's cheeks, tilting his head backwards so to be faced by those sad, crying eyes: "You still love me, don't you?" he softly asked, lips pursed in a tight line as he waited for any kind of signal to come from Ryeowook: a rejection, an admission...

Ryeowook tried so hard to avert his eyes, but Jongwoon's deep glance was so difficult to ignore, he looked hurt and hopeful at the same time, so Ryeowook simply bore his stare without even blinking once. He sighed at the end, admitting: "I think I love him, now. But if you were to ask me this same question five or six days ago, I would hesitate yes, but nonetheless I'd tell you that...I still loved you"

Jongwoon froze. His mouth was dry and he tried to either his lips or click his tongue to get any sort of reaction from his own petrified body, but the truth was that deception was so heavy to bear and it weighed on his shoulders like thousands stones thrown with unimaginable violence at his back.

"So...that guy...he conquered my little prince. He caught the most beautiful flower of the garden. How?" Jongwoon tried to stay still and strong, but his wavering voice betrayed his emotion. He wasn't ready to let go once again.

"Kyuhyun?" Ryeowook smiled at the mention of his name, even his eyes softened and it was heartbreaking to see him smiling that bright, while silently crying still "He doesn't know it yet. He's still...he's still courting me but I plan to tell him soon. He's wonderful, though he hasn't realized it yet" he strangled a chuckle as he thought of Kyuhyun's sweetness, of his neverending will to surprise him, to keep on trying, at last...his confession.

"If he's better than me, then I will let you go without remorse" Jongwoon placed his forehead against Ryeowook's, before dipping a bit closer to his face, until his lips were softly brushing aganst Ryeowook's.

The younger man was caught unready when Jongwoon's lips touched his. He muffled a gasp against the older man's mouth, then stilled. With eyes wide open, Ryeowook directed his hands on Jongwoon's arms, digging his nails there into the soft flesh to manifest all that sudden surprise that had invested him. He moaned, softly, as he unvoluntarily melted in the kiss. 

It was so sweet...being hold once again by the biggest love of your life, being showered in affection after fighting the scars of deception. But it was also incredibly bitter. Because it was no other than Jongwoon himself standing there in front of him, believing that a couple of moves or the same, old words could buy Ryeowook yet again...not when his mind was flying elsewhere.

At that mute cellphone vibrating in his own jeans pocket, probably wet, but full of life when conveying another little message, another call coming from the only person he had gladly accepted into