October 4th, 1995.

In a hospital room, a woman laid in a bed, screaming out of the top of her lungs, wishing that her voice would diminish the pain she felt. There were many people around her, but at the same time she felt very alone, in a place where no one could save her from. Voices told her to breath, and so she breathed, then they told her to push, and she pushed. Scream after scream, her effort paid off, and suddenly all the sounds in the room disappeared. She no longer screamed, and no one told her what to do anymore. And in mist the lull of silence, a simple sound started growing louder in her ears. Her baby was crying.

Tears rolled off her eyes. The emotions overruled her; her exhaustion, her happiness. It all pushed out of her body into salty droplets, and she cried in relief. It was done, she had done it.

“Look, it’s your baby.”

The nurse talked to her, bringing out the screaming baby boy, who wriggled in her arms, as if he wished to be somewhere else. The woman’s vision was blurred by the water in her eyes, but even so, her baby was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

“My little angel.”

She said as she reached for him. The nurse brought him close, letting the baby rest against her chest. And then his cries softened out into huffs, until he stopped completely, laying still, calm and quiet, and just breathing softly. The woman cried, feeling that little bundle of life press down on her, already depending on her support to keep in place.

He was her baby, her angel; his nickname didn’t come out only from the coincidence of the date, but because of the fact that he was actually a blessing sent from heaven to her. And even though as a newborn, he was completely in need of her to survive, she felt that he had already saved her life, just by simply existing. She wasn’t alone anymore.

January 31st, 2000. 5 Years Old.

A white blanket of snow covered all of the suburban houses, but still children could be seen outside, playing in the cold, messing around with that magical white thing that had fallen onto their properties.

Jeonghan was covered in hefty clothes from head to toe; the boy was properly protected, so he could happily roll around in the snow. And he did, he played around, picking it up, jumping around, and making forms in it. His cheeks were bright red from the cold and the exercise, and a bright smile was displayed on his face. He was having fun.

“Where’s my angel?”

A sweet voice called out, and he started jumping around, turning to the house’s front door and seeing his mother standing there, waiting for him to go to her. He ran at top speed, crashing onto her legs with a loud giggle, holding on tightly.

“Come on, let’s go inside and drink some hot chocolate.”

She said, and the boy cheered, jumping around and leaving little flecks of snow – which had attached themselves to his clothing – through the floor as he walked inside.

His mother had placed two steaming mugs on the coffee table in front of the couch, and the boy moved to it straight away, excited for the sweet beverage. But his mother snuck up behind him, pulling him up into the air before he managed to reach it.

“But first, snuggles!”

She screamed, and fell back onto the couch with him tightly close to her body. She proceeded to start squeezing him and kissing him repeatedly, and Jeonghan laughed loudly, squiggling around in her hold and trying to kiss her too, wanting to engage in the snuggle fest.

October 4th, 2004. 9 Years Old.

Night had reached the suburban neighborhood long ago, and most houses didn’t have any lights on, making the street quite dim and cold looking; but still, a young boy moved out of his front door, making no sounds as he left his dark house. He walked with care across his yard, moving into the one from the house next-door to the left. The night was absolutely silent, and he could hear his own breathing and his steps as he walked.

He turned around and looked up to the windows of the neighboring house, seeing that the darkness was also within them. But that didn’t stop him. He reached his hand into his pocket, taking out a few small pebbles he had collected during the day, and taking them onto his right hand one by one, he started throwing them onto the 2nd floor window, the one to the furthest left, hitting his mark perfectly.

He did it a few times, getting nervous every time he heard the small click of the pebble hitting the glass. And eventually, just as he wished, he saw a dim light coming on, and a second later a shadow of a boy neared the window.

Jisoo opened up his bedroom’s window, looking down at the boy who was on his yard.

“Jeonghan?”

He called out in a whisper, loud enough to be heard, but not so loud that he would wake up his sleeping parents.

“Come down.”

Jeonghan whispered back to the boy, waving his hand as he motioned for the boy to move. But Jisoo didn’t, he continued to hang his head out of the window and look down at him with a confused expression.

“It’s past bed time.”

The young boy innocently said, as if that wasn’t already a pretty obvious fact.

“I know, but just come down for a bit.”

Jeonghan responded, and he saw that Jisoo still hesitated, so he decided to use the phrase which he knew would force the boy to go to him.

“It’s my birthday! I want to eat cookies with you, come down.”

He raised his voice a little bit more, making Jisoo look around nervously, but after another moment of hesitation, the boy finally agreed. Jisoo sneaked out of his window, resting in the small bit of roof that prodded out of the house, and then made his way to the tree that was right by it. The large tree rested partially onto the house’s roof, and had plenty of sturdy branches that allowed the boy to make a safe way down.

He then walked over to his friend, still in his house slippers and pajamas, but he was greeted with a happy smile, and a large packet of cookies.

The two boys sat out on the curb in front of their houses, talking softly and stuffing their faces with the night snack. But a sudden flash of brightness came on behind them; the porch lights from Jeonghan’s house had come on. They immediately knew they’d be in trouble, and they turned around with guilty and scared faces, seeing Jeonghan’s mother come out of the house.

“Jeonghan!”

She called out, sounding mad and worried, but at the same time already softening up, as she was just relieved to see him so close.

“Sorry!”

The boy immediately said, and he got up, slowly walking towards her.

“I just wanted to eat cookies with Jisoo!”

Jeonghan explained, stopping a little far away from her, since he still felt scared of the scolding that was about to come his way.

“Couldn’t you have done that in the morning? Why in the middle of the night?”

His mother asked, starting to chuckle. She knew she had to be stern with him, but it was difficult to be mad when he had such a cute explanation for his antic. And still with a smile on her face, she looked over at the boy who carefully walked behind her son, partially hiding himself behind his friend.

“Do your parents know that you’re out here, Jisoo?”

She asked, and the boy shook his head. He seemed far more remorseful than Jeonghan, and she could see that he was rather frightened.

“Well, go back in before they get worried.”

She thought about ringing the doorbell to Jisoo’s house and telling his parents what had happened, but that had been such an innocent escape, that she felt it could be mentioned some other time. She just observed the boy running back through his yard, starting to climb the tree. She felt quite tense and nervous, but she relaxed once the boy was on the roof, and then back into his window.

She then turned to deal with her offspring, who was looking at her with a sheepish smile, already begging for her forgiveness through his eyes. She laughed at him once more, reaching out her arm and pulling him tight into a half-hug, making him walk to the front door with her.

“How did you even get out anyway? I’m pretty sure I locked the door.”

She mentioned while chuckling, wondering how her son had managed to escape their house so easily, since they had no trees to climb like Jisoo did. But the boy only sweetly laughed at her, not willing to divulge his secret. But his silence only brought on an attack from her, and mid-way through heavily tickling him, using laughter as a distraction, she snatched back the house keys from his pocket, coming out triumphant.

July 26th, 2009. 14 Years Old.

Jeonghan sighed loudly, his boredom and annoyance being very clear on his face. He was sat still on the dining room table, leaning his head against his hand and glaring at the open textbooks and notebooks in front of him. He wasn’t touching them, or flipping the pages, he wasn’t even reading them; he was just angrily staring at the text, losing patience with each passing second.

“So? How’s it going?”

His mother sweetly asked, coming in from the kitchen to check in on him, moving towards her son. But Jeonghan wasn’t in the mood to deal with her; he simply grunted and pushed the books away.

“What’s wrong?”

The woman then asked, sounding concerned.

“Ugh, I can’t do this. It’s impossible!”

The boy complained, his eyebrows fully furrowed as he continued to glare at the open pages. He crossed his arms and slouched on the chair, feeling frustrated.

“Of course you can do it, my angel. You’re smart! Let me see, I’ll help you.”

The woman moved closer to him, resting her arm around his shoulder as she tried to look at his homework, wanting to assist him, but the boy nudged her away almost immediately.

“Moom~! You’re smothering me, go away!”

The boy whined with a disgusted face, using his hands to push and shoo away his mother.

She frowned at him, unpleased with his words, and he could foresee the argument that was about to come, so he talked over it before she even had a chance to complain.

“I’m going to study at Jisoo’s house!”

He angrily told her, getting up and messily gathering his books, moving out with heavy steps.

“Yoon Jeonghan!”

She called out in her stern tone, the tone that urged him to stop and come back to her, but the boy didn’t, he just moved out of the house, leaving the woman alone to call out his name one more time, before she gave up on the fight and let him go.

September 5th, 2012. 16 Years Old.

Jeonghan and Jisoo were on their way back from school, stopping quickly at a convenience store to buy some snacks. And while waiting around in line, the two talked casually, but as the subject expanded, Jeonghan started getting more agitated.

“I mean, it’s so unfair! She feels like she can boss me around however she likes!”

Jeonghan was frustrated that his mother had vetoed him going out with their friend that night, and the order to return straight home after school was upsetting to him.

“Well, my parents didn’t let me go tonight either, but that’s no reason to get so upset.”

Jisoo responded, trying to get his friend to calm down, but it was already too late for that.

“That’s not the point. The problem is not tonight, the problem is every day! Ugh, I’m so pissed off at her!”

The boy uncontrollably moved his body, stomping the floor to contain his sudden need to smash something. His anger was fueling him, and his mother was his focus.

“You should cut her some slack, Jeonghan. Being a single parent is difficult; your mother is trying her best.”

Jisoo tried to defend the woman, but it was again to no use, and Jeonghan was in his own world with his thoughts, and carrying out the conversation in his head without the need for Jisoo to reply to him.

“Ah, I don’t care. She’s so busy working two jobs that I bet she wouldn’t even notice if I went out with the guys or not. I bet she wouldn’t even notice if I didn’t go back home at all today!”

Jeonghan mentioned in a snarky attitude, and he was so busy with his own aggravated emotions that he didn’t even see the concerned expression on his friend’s face. But one thing he did see, and that was the boy in front of them.

Jeonghan noticed that the other boy seemed to have looked back, as if he was listening to their conversation, and that caught his attention. He was about to get mad about it – as that was his standard mood at that moment – but he took a second to look at the boy properly, and he was instantly distracted. The muscles of that other boy’s arm and back were very well defined, and he wasn’t in a school uniform, despite looking to be about the same age as them. He looked cool; he carried a pack of cigarettes, which he casually placed on top of the counter, as it was his turn with the cashier.

“She works hard so you can have food on the ta-”

Jisoo was trying to refute what Jeonghan had just said, but the boy raised his hand close to his face, stopping him all together. Jeonghan didn’t want to listen to Jisoo, he wanted to pay attention to what was happening in front of them.

“ID?”

The cashier asked, gazing suspiciously at the boy. Jeonghan looked around, finding a glass surface where he could see a good reflection of the boy’s face. As he had expected, the boy was attractive, there was no doubt about it, and Jeonghan felt very interested.

“This is fake.”

The cashier then said, placing the given ID back on the counter.

“No it’s not, that’s-”

The boy was about to defend himself, but the cashier spoke loudly over him.

“Listen Choi Seungcheol, if that’s even your real name, I don’t sell cigarettes to underage kids, so don’t even try to argue with me, go find another shop that will do that for you, because I don’t want that responsibility.”

The cashier simply said, taking the pack away from the counter in a preventive manner, so that Seungcheol couldn’t swipe it on his way out.

The boy didn’t stick around; he just annoyingly clicked his tongue at the man and started moving out. On his way, he made sure to properly turn around to take a look at Jeonghan, and since the boy had been observing him, their eyes met.

A smirk appeared on Seungcheol’s lips, and the boy walked while looking back for a few steps, staring right at Jeonghan and not letting their eyes blink away. Jeonghan felt his heart starting to beat faster, feeling that Seungcheol’s gaze was definitely messing up with his mind, in a pleasurable and addictive way.

And then suddenly, just like that, Seungcheol turned around and went away, without a single word, leaving the boy in an absent state of confusion.

“Jeonghan.”

Jisoo called out, and the boy left the sudden trance that Seungcheol had left him in, turning to see Jisoo pointing at the counter, motioning for him to place his items down so they could pay for it.

September 8th, 2012.

On their way back from school, Jeonghan and Jisoo strolled around the neighborhoods to make their path longer, per Jeonghan’s request. They talked and joked around, like usual, and nothing was wrong.

But as they passed by a certain street, there was a group of hooligan-like people, all moving lazing in the opposite direction the boys were, and leaving behind a trail of smoke from the cigarettes they were smoking; those people distracted them. Jisoo wished to just be quiet and look away, so they could pass by unnoticed, but Jeonghan wasn’t shy about staring at the many faces in that group with curiosity.

 And it was then that Jeonghan recognized a face, one he had only seen once, but he had safely stored it in his memory. And the boy seemed to recognize him too.

“Hey.”

Seungcheol greeted with a playful smile, seeming quite glad to see him. But as Jeonghan stopped to respond, he felt the incessant need to look behind, wondering if Seungcheol wasn’t just talking to someone else. But with a lack of other people around, he turned back and pointed at himself.

“Me?”

He boldly asked, not feeling shy to engage. He felt Jisoo hold onto his arm, and he noticed that his friend didn’t like those people, and wanted to move away, but Jeonghan ignored him.

“Yeah, you. I saw you around the other day; you seemed like an interesting person.”

Seungcheol said with a charming smile, tilting his head as he simply could not stop staring at Jeonghan’s face; and the boy smiled back, feeling attracted to the bad boy in front of him, and not being scared to show it.

“I’m pretty sure the interesting one is you.”

Jeonghan responded, and Seungcheol chuckled.

“Well, why don’t we talk and find out who’s