“You’ve got to come back, Myungsoo.”

“I-I can’t.”

“Please.” The other begged.

Myungsoo chewed on his lower lip. We wanted to go back. To see the other. To apologise. But he was a total coward. He was scared about how the other was going to see him. To see those scared look in his eyes that had haunted his mind every single night.

“He really misses you. It’s been a week.”

“I miss him too.” He whispered.

“Please come back.”

Myungsoo opened his mouth to reply however was halted by a sweet, melodious voice, “I-Is that Myungsoo?” A soft, timid voice asked in the distance.

His breath hitched as he heard the voice of the male he had craved to see for the past week, “D-Don’t tell him.” He whispered.

“Myu-”

“No!”

He heard a disappointed sigh before he heard an uncomfortable ‘No.’

“Is he coming back?” He heard Sungyeol ask in hope.

“N-No, not today.” Dongwoo replied.

“Why not? I thought he said that he would come back. He promised that he would be there for me.” Although Myungsoo wasn’t there, he could picture the other devastated, his lips quivering in disappointment.

The phone was snatched away from his hands, and thrown across the room.

“Wha- Woohyun!”

“Just go!” He yelled in anger. “Go!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Stop wallowing in self-pity. You’re hurting not only you, but all of them. You think you were smart to leave him with a someone he had met once for a week while you slept all day on my bed? You call him. Act like you care. But you can’t even be a man and go over there and apologise. You’re throwing your problems on everyone around you, and you don’t even notice anyone else’s problems. You’re selfish, Myungsoo.” He huffed in frustration, as his voice cracked, “I bet you didn’t even know that me and Sunggyu dated. We dated for 2 weeks, Myungsoo. Two fricken weeks, before breaking up because of you. You didn’t even understand how Dongwoo is so homesick that Hoya has to hug him until he falls asleep. You didn’t even know how broken Sungyeol was. You know what? I visited him two days ago, and you know how disappointed and broken he looked, when he found out that knock on the door wasn’t you? Do you know how much emotion his eyes showed, as he wished that it was you who had visited him that day and not me? You didn’t even know…. that his psychiatrist…” He trailed off, as Myungsoo saw tears threatening to seep out. “You didn’t even know that he died.” He whispered.

Myungsoo’s eyes widened in shock, “S-Sungjong?” He whispered.

“He was the one who helped with my depression. He was the one who told me to follow my dreams. I always thought that he was the happiest guy in the world. I always thought that he was perfect. But he had the most problems. The problems that were so evil that it drove him to kill himself.”

“W-What happened?” He stuttered, shocked by the sudden revelation.

Woohyun dryly laughed, as though not hearing the other. He was obviously in his own world now, “To think that the guy I deemed as perfect, suffered from all kinds of mental illnesses. To think that the guy who’s job was to help being overcome their depression, their trauma, their anxiety, suffered from them all. To think that I could have noticed and helped him.”

Woohyun collapsed on the floor, as the realisation that his best friend had died hit him, “How did I not realise? I met him only 2 weeks ago, and he looked perfectly fine. He used to tell me things I thought were ridiculous. Things like how he could sometimes see the patients that had passed away. Things like how he was haunted by all the people he couldn’t save. I thought he was just joking so that we could have a good laugh. I didn’t think that he was actually screaming help.”

Myungsoo couldn’t do anything but to put his hand awkwardly on his back to reassure the other. He saw him flinch slightly from the sudden contact, as he was brought back to reality. “Please go see Sungyeol. Please apologise. I don’t want you to regret what might happen to him. I don’t want you to be oblivious like me. Please, just look after him.”

~

He let out a small puff, blowing a strand of hair away from his face, as he continued to read the picture story book that Hoya had bought for him, after his infinite questions about love.

It was about a pretty girl who was treated badly by her mother and her sisters. They would force her to do things that she didn’t want to do, but she was very kind, so she did them to make her mother happy, but he mother was never happy.

One day, there was a party. A party that was so grand that every girl was to be invited to. She really wanted to go to, however her mother forbade her to. She cried for hours, before a magical fairy appeared and looked after her, and made her look all pretty for the party. However, there was only one rule, and that was that she had to be home by 12 o’clock midnight. She attended the party, where she met a very handsome prince.

A prince that was so charmed by her beauty, and a prince that was so kind and polite to her. She too had fallen in love; however, their blossoming love was cut short by the clock that had indicated that it was midnight. She ran away from the party, accidentally leaving her shoe in the process. She ran all the way home, as her pretty clothes magically dissipated into her raggy, dirty gown.

The prince was in love, but all that he had from the girl he loved was a slipper. However a slipper was all that he needed, to gather all the ladies in town, and have them try the slipper, but to no avail. Not a single girl could fit this slipper. He soon arrived to a small cottage. A cottage that was occupied by a mother and her two daughters. Those were the only girls left in the town, so it had to be one of these girls, however it wasn’t. almost giving up, he heard a loud thump, and asked out of curiosity who else lived in this small cottage.

The mother lied, stating that there was no other, but he did not believe them. He wandered around the house, seeing a locked attic. He forced it open, only to find a poor, dirty looking girl. Although she was covered in dirt, and her face was miserable, he could see the beauty inside of her. He politely asked her to try to shoe on, and to his happiness, it was a perfect match. They had finally found each other, and got married soon after.

He loved the story. He felt that he could strongly relate to the novel. He was obviously the girl, who was forced to do things that he did not want. He was sure that Sungjong, and Dongwoo were his fair godmothers. The ones who had made him feel better about who he was. And of course, Myungsoo was his prince. The one who had saved him and protected him from everyone. Even though it was obvious that his master wasn’t in love with him, like how the prince was in love with the girl, he had still protected him from the evil ‘mother and sisters’.

Saying this, he was almost convinced that the midnight curfew was what had happened to him a week ago, because after, the prince would go search for her. Just like how his prince would come back to him. He was sure of it. He was almost certain, that he would come back.

Right?

His lips quivered involuntarily.

Please. He begged.

They didn’t have to be like the story that he read. He didn’t want much. His prince didn’t have to fall in love with him. They didn’t have to get married at the end. He just wanted him to find him, and to be together again, just like before.

That was all he wanted. He sighed, as he closed the book, before opening it back to the first page and rereading the story. He loved the story so much. He loved imagining himself in the shoes of the girl. He slid off the couch and laid comfortably on his stomach on the floor, as he started reading the first page.

A quiet knock. A knock that was so quiet that it would have been left unheard if the house wasn’t silent like how it was at the moment. His ears twitched at the sound that broke the silence, and his eyes instantly looked at the couple in the kitchen who both looked confused. They were obviously not expecting any visitors.

He saw Dongwoo furrow his brows before walking curiously to the door.

Uninterested, his eyes adverted back to the book, staring at the images beneath the large words, as he tried to picture himself as the girl.

His thoughts were cut short, and his heart began to beat faster. Strange but nice things began to happen, as he heard Dongwoo’s gasp of shock.

“Myungsoo?”

His ears perked up, and his head snapped to the door, as he scurried off the ground to see if his ears had heard correctly.

Curiously, but slowly, he shuffled towards the door, his head tilted forward, as he became excited at who might be at the door.

He held tightly onto his book, as nervously anticipated, if the person he wanted to see was actually there.

“Myungsoo?” He heard himself say once a few metres away from the door.

Dongwoo turned around in shock, and he saw his master fall to his knees with his head dropped down.

He was shocked, his eyes widened as he looked at Dongwoo for help. It was a gesture that he had always done when he was being punished. Was the other asking him to punish him?

“I’m so sorry, Sungyeol.” His master continuously whispered.

His heart was beating quickly as he didn’t know what he should do. He didn’t want his master to bow in front of him. He wasn’t supposed to. It was supposed to be the other way around.

“Myungsoo.” He whispered.

It had finally hit him that his master had come back for him. All his wishes and prayers had finally been granted. But how could he show his gratefulness, when his master wasn’t even looking at him?

He frowned as he remembered Hoya once say that he loved to hug Dongwoo every time he had come home from a long day out.

Cautiously, he took steps towards his master, seeing his master look lower to the ground as though in shame.

Why would he feel shamed?

He knelt down in front of him, so that they were now the same height, before leaning down for a hug. A hug that was so innocent, but full of love. A hug that showed the other how much he had missed him.

He felt the other tense slightly, before breaking down into tears.

~

Myungsoo couldn’t take it anymore. The small gesture that had meant so much to him. Myungsoo hugged him back tightly, as though never wanted to let him go. His head was buried in Sungyeol’s should as his tears stained that area. He mumbled continuous ‘sorry’s’ and asked for forgiveness, however he could feel that the other had held no such grudge against him at all. That had made him even more guilty. He had never deserved someone like him.

Silence soon grew between the two, and they continued to hug, not caring about Dongwoo who was crying at the scene, Hoya who smiled fondly, or the strangers outside who saw them through the door that was still wide open.

“I missed you.” Myungsoo whispered after a while. “So much.”

“Me too.” Sungyeol replied, “B-But I knew you would come back.”

The hug loosened, and Myungsoo sniffed, as he looked at the other, still in proximity. “You did?”

The other nodded, “Because you promised that you wouldn’t leave me.”

He let out a teary smile at the innocent man in front of him, “I’m so sorry, Sungyeol.”

“I was good, while you were gone.” He replied gently, as they continued to embrace.

Yayyy Myungsoo finally returned!!! ^-^ Happy April Fools guys :D Hope you guys have tricked more people than you have been tricked by people :D But it's totally fine, this chapter was not a joke at all xD Myungsoo actually does return home and Sungjong does die, wait what. I knoww I'm terrible, but I just thought that it fitted the scenario

Please forgive me and any other future character deaths that may happen. I mean, not that I've planned anymore but things change >~< Please let me know how you think of this chapter anyways.

Till next time! Stay safe and well ^-^