“So I found this interesting text on my phone this morning,” Donghae said casually as he and Kibum walked down the sidewalk into town. It was later that afternoon and they were on their way to go meet up with Mir since he’d be getting out of school soon. Heechul deemed it okay for Kibum to go since he was feeling a lot better than usual.

“Really? Interesting,” Kibum said off-handedly, playing it cool. A grin tugged at his lips but he bit his lip so he didn’t give himself away. For all Donghae knew, Heechul could have sent that message. He had no proof it was Kibum anyways.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t happen to know who sent it, would you?” Donghae said, giving him a look. Kibum shrugged innocently and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jacket. It was pretty cold out and it was supposed to snow a bit later tonight.

“No idea. Perhaps there’s a ghost in the house, you should talk to hyung about it,” He said seriously, glancing up at the grey clouds that were hiding the sun.

“Kibum! You’re so infuriating! That’s embarrassing! Omo, Hyuk won’t even answer my texts,” Donghae whined loudly, pouting slightly. Kibum glanced over at him and shrugged carelessly.

“Well maybe you should call him? I mean after all, you did blurt out that you loved him and then hung up the phone, and then that text message! Poor Eunhyuk is probably so confused,” He tutted softly. Donghae glared over at him and smacked his arm.

“You’re mean! Just wait, Kibum, you still have a date with Tiffany on Friday and I’m going to get you back,” He said, declaring warm.

“Have fun with that, because there’s nothing you can do to embarrass me because I don’t even like Tiffany like that and neither does she. In fact, I’m pretty positive she’s only doing this to spy on her friend Jessica and her boyfriend. But hey, if you want to try then feel free. I look forward to it,” Kibum replied with a smirk.

Donghae huffed in annoyance and crossed his arms; there was no way he was going to give this up. But still, he found it amusing and cute that Kibum had done that. Kibum was being really playful today ever since he’d woken up a little while ago. Donghae was really relieved that Heechul’s medicine had worked and that Kibum was feeling better. But Heechul had warned him that while the physical essence may have degraded, Kibum was still pretty depressed and they had to make sure to take things slowly so they didn’t push him into a relapse. But still, it was interesting to see this side of Kibum. Donghae really liked it, but most of all he was just happy that Kibum felt better.

After walking in silence for a few minutes, Donghae glanced at Kibum who suddenly moved closer to him and linked their arms together. He was about to ask what was wrong but then he saw that they were at the school and there was a lot of people; Kibum didn’t like being around people. Donghae smiled at him and patted his arm comfortingly. He was about to tell Kibum not to be scared, but before he could open his mouth a sudden force threw him backwards onto the pavement.

“DONGHAE, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!” Mir yelled loudly, causing a lot of people to look at them weirdly. Donghae pushed Mir off and stood up, brushing his pants off.

“MIR you don’t need to YELL!” He said loudly. Mir laughed merrily and hugged him tightly, but pulled away quickly so he could hug Kibum as well.

“I missed you too, Kibum! Did you miss me?” he asked hopefully. Kibum looked him in the eyes and nodded slightly and that gesture made Mir’s face light up happily.

“I did miss you,” Kibum said softly. Mir smiled and intertwined their hands together contently and they all began to walk away from the school grounds. Along the way, Mir brought back up the subject that they were just talking about, complete irony.

“So Hyukkie called me this morning before school and told me some very interesting things. You told him that you love him? Donghae, I’m really sorry but Eunhyuk just can’t return your feelings because we’re married. He sounded really happy and excited, but embarrassed, and he never got like that when I tell him how much I love him!” Mir exclaimed, completely in disbelief that his husband would cheat on him in such a rude way.

“So? You’re not even legally married, Mir, and besides Eunhyuk is my boyfriend so I can tell him that I love him if I want,” Donghae said haughtily, crossing his arms. Mir stopped walking, making Kibum halt as well, and stared over at Donghae with wide eyes.

“What? Boyfriend? Since when? You think I would allow this sort of nonsense? That’s it, Donghae, we’re going to court! I’m suing your for unlawful rudeness! And I’m getting a restraining order on you! Kibum, did you know anything about this?” Mir demanded, looking Kibum in the eyes.

“Me? Of course not,” Kibum lied easily, smirking at the look of shock on Donghae’s face.

“HE DID TOO! It was his fault to begin with! He told me to! Kibum you are such a liar! Ughhh, you jerk,” Donghae ranted as they walked into town together. However, the other two just ignored him and walked hand in hand contently.

“You’re such a good boyfriend, Kibum! I’m so glad I dumped Donghae for you! Of course, my one true love with always be Eunhyuk, but you’re second in my heart! I love you!” Mir babbled on happily. Kibum just rolled his eyes and kept his mouth shut, listening to them argue back and forth over Eunhyuk.

They just wandered aimlessly around town, blowing time away and goofing around. After an hour or so, Kibum suddenly just really wanted to go back home. But he couldn’t just leave now; he knew Donghae and Mir wanted to stay out longer. But he wanted to be with Heechul again…

“Hey! I forgot, we have to go to the library ‘cause I need to find another dumb book to read for school,” Mir said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.

“Okay, I guess we can go there now. I’m cold anyways,” Donghae said, turning the corner to the street they were walking on. Kibum smiled softly when they reached the old library and went inside. Now he could check out a bunch of books and have something to do at home, because unlike Donghae and Mir, he would rather read a book than watch a movie.

“What book should I get? I hate reading, it’s so boring,” Mir said as they strolled through the giant building.

“Tuck Everlasting is a good book, so is Dracula. Or if you like romance novels you should read The Notebook or The Last Song,” Kibum informed him as they walked into a random aisle of books. Donghae and Mir both looked at him strangely, wandering why in the world he would know so many book titles.

“I want to read about aliens,” Mir decided, looking through the shelves for something that would catch his interest.

“Alien books are for kids, there’s like none for adults,” Kibum informed him, causing Donghae to laugh quietly.

“Well I’m not an adult, I’m just Mir,” Mir said defiantly.

“Okay, just Mir, then you should read…no, really, there aren’t any alien books. Sorry,” Kibum said, smiling slightly. Mir huffed and continued walking on and Donghae followed him. Kibum stayed behind to find something for himself to read.

After choosing a book called Water for Elephants, Kibum walked through the library in search for Donghae and Mir. It didn’t take long for him to find the two, because they were in the kid area playing with the puppet theater. He sighed and closed his eyes for a minute, Please, please, tell me these two are not my brothers…nope, they are. Damn.

“And how old are we turning this year?” he said softly. Mir and Donghae ceased their childish actions and stared at him for a few seconds.

“Four,” They said in unison, going back to their fun. Kibum rolled his eyes and went over to one of the seats and made himself comfortable to read his book, since it didn’t seem like the two were planning on leaving anytime soon.

For about an hour he sat there contently reading, occasionally looking up to see Mir and Donghae still playing happily like children, which they definitely were at heart. He was also counting down the time until they would get bored and decide to go home, which he hoped was soon. He’d been away from Heechul long enough and wanted to go back, but he’d wait until they were ready. He didn’t want to ruin their fun. Unfortunately, it wasn’t him that ended up ruining the day…

“Isn’t he that boy who found his dead sister?” A voice whispered from somewhere hidden in the shelves.

That one sentence diverted the attention of all three of them and they all became very silent. Donghae looked around confusedly, trying to find the person who said it.

“Found his sister? No, he killed her is what I heard. He’s got to be dangerous, mentally unstable or something because he was in the nuthouse,” Another voice said quietly.

Kibum had heard enough. He stood up from the chair, letting the book drop out of his grasp, and quickly walked away, ignoring the voices of Donghae and Mir calling after him. He pushed through front doors and his eyes began to water up and his insides were twisting with the feeling of guilt.

Even after so long, except it was really only a few months, people were still blaming him. And after all the convincing he’d done with himself and the help of Heechul, Kibum was starting to let go of those feelings that it was his fault, but what just happened brought the shame back and memories fresh and vivid in his mind, replaying over and over like a movie on repeat.

He had barely made a distance when Donghae and Mir had caught up with him. Mir grabbed Kibum’s hand to make him stop walking and turned him around to face them. He looked away; hiding his tear filled eyes under his hair, and pulled his arm away.

“Kibum, what’s wrong?” Donghae asked softly, wondering what had upset his brother in such a little amount of time. But he got no answer, Kibum kept his mouth shut as endless tears streamed down his face.

“Come on, Hae, let’s just go home,” Mir said, reaching for Kibum’s hands again. This tim