“Two scoops of mint chocolate chip,” Kyungsoo says, sliding a ten over the counter.

“You really don’t have to,” Minseok insists.

“I can spend my first upgraded paycheck how I want to,” Kyungsoo declares, and Minseok breaks into a smile.

“My dear Soo is all grown up,” he coos, slinging an arm over his shoulder, and Kyungsoo is too flustered to shake him off.

“Hey, Soo?” Chanyeol waves the ten in his face from behind the counter. “You want change, or do I get to keep the extra?”

“Don’t call me that,” Kyungsoo begins, “And keep it. But play us something nice while we’re eating.”

“You’re not my boss,” Chanyeol whines, handing him two scoops in a cone. He hangs his striped apron up anyways, practically skipping over to the small upright piano nestled in the corner of the ice cream parlor.

Minseok sits across from Kyungsoo in one of the booths as Chanyeol fills the shop with music, at his cone.

“Do you want some? Your favorite is also mint chocolate chip, right?”

“It’s for you,” Kyungsoo says, shaking his head.

“C’mon,” Minseok wiggles his eyebrows, holding out the cone, and Kyungsoo relents.

“Do you think you’re gonna stay forever?” Minseok asks out of the blue one day.

“Huh?” Kyungsoo stops chasing chickens, hands still outstretched as he turns to look at Minseok.

“We can’t stay in this place forever, right? There’s so much more out there, Soo.”

“..There’s a lot here too.”

Minseok smiles at him but his eyes are unfocused, thinking of the future.

“You think so?”

“I know so. Besides,” Kyungsoo says, biting his lip and wiping his hands off, “We’ve got each other.”

“I hear Sehun and Jongin are planning to go to Seoul for college,” Minseok blurts.

“What?” Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow. “Traitors!”

Minseok throws his head back and laughs.

“I know, right? Going before their hyungs, those cheeky brats. They’re lucky they don’t have a place to look after.”

Kyungsoo sits down next to Minseok on a couple of overturned buckets, making himself comfortable. The sun is halfway down the hill already when Minseok speaks up again.

“Remember that time I broke my leg chasing Tan down the hill?”

“Your old dog,” Kyungsoo murmurs. “Yeah, I remember.”

“You took care of me so well,” Minseok sighs. “You could be a doctor one day, Soo.”

Kyungsoo’s cheeks flush with praise and he looks down at his hands. They’re rough and calloused from farmwork, and they were the hands of a worker, not of a doctor in some high-end practice.

“Yeah, right,” he chuckles.

“I’m serious,” Minseok emphasizes. “You could do something great with your life instead of staying stuck in this rut,” he says, and it almost seems like he’s really talking to himself. “You don’t have to live this life. You could be happy.”

“Minseok.”

Minseok turns to meet Kyungsoo’s eyes and his shoulders drop. Kyungsoo smiles at him reassuringly and reaches a hand up to swipe a trail of dirt away from his cheek.

“I am happy.”

Junmyeon is the first to leave. He meets someone online, a wealthy Chinese businessman, and within the year they get engaged. When Kyungsoo asks how many times they’ve met in real life, Junmyeon flushes pink and looks down at his ring.

“Once a month,” he says. “But it’s love.”

Kyungsoo thinks its money, but Minseok tells him to keep his thoughts to himself unless he wants to upset his former boss.

They’re invited to the wedding. It’s local, but the the reception is in the city and Minseok is thrilled.

Sitting in uncomfortable plastic chairs, Kyungsoo looks at Junmyeon’s fancy tuxedo and thinks that it doesn’t suit him. He wonders if Yifan, Kris, or whichever name he was introduced as, has ever seen Junmyeon covered in dirt, shirt tied around his waist and mud caked onto heavy boots. He wonders if he’s ever seen him with his hair matted to his forehead, sweat rolling down his back, wonders if Junmyeon had ever shown him or if he had neatly cleaned away that part of himself. He wonders if he’s ever seen a genuine smile on Junmyeon’s face, watched his eyes twinkle, or heard the awful sound Junmyeon calls a laugh.

“He looks happy,” Minseok whispers when he leans over.

Kyungsoo watches Junmyeon kiss his husband, hanging onto him as if his life depended on it, sees the way he presses himself into him like an anchor, and claps along politely with everyone when he’s scooped up and carried like a princess all the way to the sleek black car waiting for him at the side of the road.

“It doesn’t suit him.”

Junmyeon only comes back to visit once, within the first year of the marriage. He’s cleaned up now and Kyungsoo almost doesn’t recognize him, but when he does he thinks Junmyeon could fit perfectly into the cookie-cutter mold of a trophy husband. His hair is styled, he’s wearing an expensive looking shirt, and his teeth look whiter when he smiles and brings out a name-branded wallet.

“How was your shopping experience?” Kyungsoo says smoothly, scanning the store’s most expensive items.

“You don’t have to be so formal with me,” Junmyeon laughs, stiff and nervous, sounding almost like a plead. “I’m not your boss anymore, remember?”

“Why are you back?” It comes out harsher than Kyungsoo intended.

Junmyeon quiets down immediately.

“We’re moving back to China,” he says in a small voice, one that Kyungsoo hasn’t heard before. “I convinced Yifan to let me come back one more time before we left.”

“You speak Chinese now?”

“Bits and pieces,” he shakes his head. “Yifan’s been teaching me, and he says I’ll pick it up better once we actually start living there.”

“I see.” Kyungsoo finishes bagging the groceries. “Junmyeon?”

“Yes?”

“Are you happy?”

Junmyeon’s expression falls so fast Kyungsoo thinks for a split second that he might be seeing things. He acts like he wasn’t expecting the question, credit card still between his fingers and eyes wide. He opens his mouth as Yifan rounds the corner, stepping beside him with a bottle of expensive rose wine dangling between in his hands.

“One more,” he winks, setting the bottle down.

Junmyeon closes his mouth, swiping the card with a practiced hand.

“Have a nice day,” Kyungsoo says, and Junmyeon gives him a tight smile.

Kyungsoo watches him carefully as he walks out the automatic doors, footsteps matching Yifan’s. Once they leave, he realizes Junmyeon left his copy of the receipt on the counter. He picks it up and reads the words scribbled on it in a haste.

“Dear Kyungsoo, it’s good to be back. As for happiness, I’m still waiting.”

Kyungsoo crumples the note and tosses it in the trash.