Youngjae tucked his face into his folded arms. He couldn't believe how negligent he had been to have forgotten to hide the ingredients needed to make an Eclair. Not to mention his fault in failing to remember to remove an entire row of cookbooks from his bookshelf.

He would have to tell Jaebum that only people really, truly, madly in love could do with one another.

Youngjae looked down at his hand, flexing his fingers as he perused over the lines that marked his skin. He wouldn't even be able to hold someone's hand without feeling overwhelmed by the touch—the warmth. The last time he held anyone's hand was as a high schooler and even then, he understood that holding Yezi's hand would be uncomparable to holding the hand of someone whom you were attracted to.

Youngjae sat up and pulled the first pen he saw from his Rilakkuma-shaped pen holder. After digging through his bag for his notebook, he flipped open to a blank page and started scribbling down everything that came to mind.

The minutes hummed along and soon enough, Youngjae lost himself to the movements of sliding his hand along the smooth paper.

Up, down. Scratch, that. Left, right.

"I think it's safe to assume you're not a Mathmeclin."

Youngjae shot up, letting the pen drop from his hand and fall onto the paper with a barely audible thunk. He looked up to see Yugyeom smiling down at him, the pink tint that tinged his cheeks yesterday still there now. Youngjae smiled back.

The Mathmeclins were the school's junior-level math team. They won plenty of awards and held a fair amount of recognition throughout the town but the only reason Youngjae knew about them was because they had once wanted to use Mrs. Lim's Pomeranian as the mascot for last year's memorabilia and team wear.

Youngjae followed Yugyeom's finger to an area on the paper where he had written down something oddly electrifying:

2+2=Fish

Youngjae stared at the paper with furrowed eyebrows. The phrase must have come from his subconscious because there was no possibility that he had chosen to write down such a nonsensical thing.

Youngjae read over the phrase time and time again until the black lines began to blur into light shadows. The last time he gave in to believing that reality could be anything like what his imagination conjured up, had happened so long ago that he couldn't remember when that carefree mentality of his had disappeared in the first place.

"I think you might be here to spy on me," Youngjae teased. He looked over at Yugyeom who sat with his legs outstretched and his arms folded over his stomach.

Yugyeom had chosen the workspace directly in front of Youngjae's despite the bed of empty workstations around. Even though Youngjae knew the feeling should have been drowned the moment it surfaced, he couldn't help but enjoy the warmth Yugyeom brought. The conservatory was calm and quiet but at the price of desolation. Now it would be anything but lonely.

Yugyeom froze, a look of shock widening over his face with each passing breath. "How did you know," he whispered.

Youngjae dared not move a muscle. He could be just as good an actor.

Yugyeom burst into laughter. "Not to be self-degrading or anything, but I'm as normal as they come. Besides-" He looked around precariously. He leaned forward in his seat. "Why stalk someone when you can win their heart over."

Youngjae's heart skipped a beat. The image of Jaebum zipped through his mind.

"Much more pleasurable, if you ask me."

Youngjae gave a small smile that didn't go unnoticed by Yugyeom.

"We should get to work."

"Ah, right." Yugyeom scrambled to his feet before quickly seating himself back down. "I think I'll stay here and do my work."

Youngjae gave him a quick nod before pulling open his drawer. He picked up a pair of gloves and piled in all the other materials needed to conduct today's portion of his research into a white bucket. Before moving on, he stopped and watched a hunched-over Yugyeom franctically writing down something. The muscles in his shoulders twitched. Youngjae hurried on deeper into the greenery.

Moments later, Youngjae turned back, ready to retrieve the pair of clips he forgot. He stepped into viewing distance of his desk and stopped. His lab coat laid flat on his desk and from what he could see, not a single crease marked its folded form. Youngjae never ironed his clothes. But that's not what propelled him to stop.

Yugyeom was standing on his desk.

Youngjae didn't want to intrude so he slowly backed up. He was but a few steps away from shielding his body from view with the evergreens when Yugyeom flipped his head around.

"Youngjae-" He slipped. Youngjae watched in horror as Yugyeom tumbled to the ground. He landed flat on his bottom and didn't have time to utter a single word before Youngjae was at his side.

"Are you alright?" Worry creased his countenance.

Yugyeom threw his right hand up but quickly dropped it when a jolt of pain shot up his back. He tried to soften his pained expression. "Don't worry about me. I've gone through worse."

"We're talking about the present. Not the future or the past. I want to know if anything is wrong right now."

Surprised at the sudden ferocity, Yugyeom looked straight at Youngjae but his expression was unreadable. Yugyeom followed his gaze and winced. The pavement was splattered with red from the wound on his palm.

"Can you move over to the desk?"

Yugyeom nodded. Youngjae stood and headed over to his own desk. He pulled a mini bottle of alcohol from the fourth drawer. He hated to think he would have to clean Yugyeom's fresh wound with alcohol but he didn't have any hydrogen peroxide on hand. He headed back over to Yugyeom who had managed to prop himself up against the desk with only two grunts.

"Really. It's okay. You have work to do."

"I'll treat the wound."

Yugyeom gave in. He handed his hand over to Youngjae and immediately looked away. An angry gash ran down the length of his palm to his thumb.

"It's going to hurt but hold in there, okay?"

Yugyeom nodded, squeezing his eyes shut as he waited for the alcohol to sear his senses into oblivion.

He swallowed thickly as the pain started to subside. "Aren't you going to ask me what I was doing?"

Youngjae looked up at Yugyeom to  see if he was being teased. Yugyeom's bottom lip quivered. "Not unless you would like to talk about it."

Youngjae disappeared. Not long afterwards, he returned with a large bandage in hand. A baby elephant was printed in the middle alongside a butterfly that floated above its trunk.

Yugyeom smiled.

"Before you say anything, these were the only bandages I could find when I went to the store," Youngjae said.

Yugyeom raised his good hand up. "Hey, I didn't say anything."

Youngjae finished fastening the other end to Yugyeom's skin. He then grabbed the roll of clear tape by his knees.

"What's the tape for?" Yugyeom asked.

"I'm wrapping it around your thumb so that the bandage doesn't peel up. You are going to be using this hand, aren't you?"

Yugyeom nibbled on the inside of his cheek. He didn't know whether Youngjae was being erse or not. "Well, I-"

"Not tonight and not until it starts to heal. This hand is off limits."

Youngjae's cell phone rang. He finished securing the tape to the bandage before sliding his phone from out of his back pocket. "Don't touch," Youngjae said as he lifted the phone to his ear.

If it weren't for the Caller ID function, the soft giggle on the other end would have given enough indication to know who it was. " 'Don't touch.' " A soft chuckle. "Am I interrupting 2Jae's play time?"

"We are not-"

"Okay, okay. Hear me out. Because I've got amazing news!"

Youngjae sighed. "I could have been in class, Yezi."

"But you aren't and that's what matters. Now, guess what?"

"Wait a second, Yezi," Youngjae said. He lowered the phone. "Does it hurt anywhere?"

Yugyeom shook his head. He pointed at Youngjae's phone before pulling his hand up to his ear. "Take the call. I'll be fine."

Youngjae raised the phone back up to his ear and was immediately assaulted by Yezi's complaint.

"Young man! Who is that? I know that wasn't Jaebum. You know, he'll be really upset when he hears about this."

"Yezi," Youngjae warned.

She laughed. "Okay, okay. Since you don't want to guess, I'll just give you the answer." A stream of broken sounds meant to resemble a drumroll erupted from Yezi's mouth. Youngjae cringed as he waited for the noises to die down. "We're going to have a welcoming ceremony for the international students!"

Youngjae pulled the phone back and eyed it with a skeptical eye before pulling it back up to his ear.

"Are they here now?"

"Ah! Details when I see you later. Bye!"

A thin silence carried over into Youngjae's ears. He shook his head as he turned his phone off. A group of international students here? In town?

Youngjae heard Yugyeom groaning. He whirled around to see him sliding up the side of the desk. Without a moment of deliberation, he hurried over to his side.

"Are you sure it doesn't hurt anywhere?"

"I'm sorry. This could have all been avoided if I had just asked you."

Youngjae felt a prickle run over his spine. A lot of things can be solved by talking it over but when your emotions run rampant, that specific solution is the last thing to come to mind.

"I really didn't want to bother you. Look at me, thinking I can do everything and anything." Yugyeom laughed a hoarse, dry laugh. Youngjae sympathized with his situation.

"Don't blame yourself. It does no one any good." Youngjae helped him into the chair. "So, is it safe to assume Mr. Park didn't explain things to you?"

Yugyeom bit back a grin that managed to escape anyways in a flourish of pearly white teeth and thin, pink lips. "He was in such a hurry. But he did say that I would find someone who could help me."

Youngjae frowned.

"Of course, I really didn't want to say anything. I know you have your own work to do and yeah, well, I'm sorry."

Youngjae felt his heart constrict. Even now, years after the fire that destro