JaeJoong didn't care for the coldness and wetness he was running through, his body shivering and damped because of the rain but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his chest. His tears were streaming down his cheeks when he ran home, ran into the warmth only his mother could give him. It hurt him so much to see the faces of his friends pale with shock, but it hurt him even more to see YunHo staring at him like this.

It pained him so much that YunHo would be disgusted at him, pained him so much that the one whom his heart belonged to would push him away. Yes, JaeJoong loved his cousin, more than anything else. He didn't know why nor how it happened but he fell for YunHo every day a little bit more. He was confused and ashamed of himself for feeling like this for his cousin, and above all a male, but he couldn't deny that he loved to be hugged by YunHo, to be rescued by him whenever something happened and to see YunHo's face shining with smiles and laughter. He loved the sparkle in YunHo's chocolate-brown eyes whenever he laughed, the reason why he fell even deeper for him.

“JaeJoong. Oh my god, what happened?” he was greeted by his mother as soon as his drenched self reached his home. He broke down in the embrace of his mother, not able to say or do anything except for crying and clinging onto her.

“Jae, oh god, please. Tell me what happened. JaeJoong, please,” JangLi chanted with tears in her eyes as she held onto her trembling and crying son, the display hurting her so much. It took her minutes to get JaeJoong under the shower, warming him with the warm liquid and towelling his hair dry. She tried desperately to get JaeJoong to tell her what happened. But until the darkness of the night it was to no avail.

Under pained cries and choked out words JaeJoong told her what happened, her heart clenching at the pain her beloved son had to go through. She held him throughout the night, embracing him with her arms until he fell asleep due to exhaustion.

*

YunHo was lying on his bed, facing the ceiling with a serious expression on his face. He was thinking about the incident this morning. But it wasn't what his mother had told them about JaeJoong, no. It was the pained and crushed expression on JaeJoong's face that hurt him so much.

He sighed deeply, closing his eyes for the split of a second and the first thing he saw were the tears glistening in JaeJoong's beautiful blue eyes and his trembling lips. He hated it so much to see JaeJoong crying ever since they first had met. He loved it when JaeJoong was smiling, his mouth covered with his hand and his eyes sparkling. He didn't care that JaeJoong's parents were brother and sister. He wouldn't even care when they would be witches, aliens or whatever as long as he could see JaeJoong smiling. It wasn't like he had chosen his parents and gave himself this life. Therefore he couldn't understand his mother. He gladly would choose another mother when he could but that was just wishful thinking.

“YunHo?” he was addressed after hours of thinking, his eyes falling onto his worried looking twin brother.

“Do you think he's okay?” YooChun asked his brother and roommate, bringing himself to do so after hours of staring at YunHo and pondering for himself over JaeJoong and what his mother had told them. He knew that YunHo felt more for JaeJoong than just friendship and he himself saw JaeJoong more as a friend than a distant relative, too. It even wasn't like he was against YunHo's feelings, no, because he himself had fallen for a male as well a long time ago.

“I don't know, Chun. I don't know,” YunHo replied softly, hoping that JaeJoong was okay but his aching heart told him otherwise.

YunHo hoped that JaeJoong would come to school on Monday, but to his and his friends' misfortune JaeJoong didn't show up. He was away from school for at least two weeks after the incident that YooChun, JunSu , ChangMin and YunHo were worried about him. They would've gone to JaeJoong's home a lot earlier but they assumed that he maybe didn't want to see them. But after those painful and lonely weeks without JaeJoong's laughter all four of them made their way towards JaeJoong's home.

JangLi's eyes widened at the sight of her son's cherished friends standing in front of her, the worry plastered on their faces causing her to tear up. She gestured for the young males to come inside and guided them into the living room.

“Is- Is JaeJoong here?” JunSu asked softly, hesitating with his words as he stared with worried eyes at the elder woman. JangLi nodded, palming her face as she broke down in front of the young men that were surrounding her.

“I-I don't know what to do. He's not eating nor speaking. He's just sitting on his bed and cries,” she said under hiccups and sniffing, ChangMin trying to comfort her. “I'm worried that he might get sicker the more days he spends without eating,” she cried, the tears staining her reddened face.

“H-he's sick?” YooChun asked, looking worriedly at YunHo who jumped up the second he had heard what JaeJoong's mother was saying and sprinted up towards JaeJoong's bedroom.

*

JaeJoong's teary and puffy eyes were staring down onto the small-sized tiger YunHo once had given him as he sat lifelessly on his bed.

“It will take away your tears so that you can smile again,” YunHo said with a smile, shoving the small-sized tiger into JaeJoong's arms.

“Liar,” JaeJoong mumbled when he remembered the family gathering where he first had met YunHo. He snuggled his teary face into the orange yet slightly yellow stuffed animal, the tears flowing even more than subsiding. The tiger obviously failed in its task.

He looked up from the tiger as the door of his bedroom was swiftly opened, his blurry eyes falling onto YunHo who rushed towards him immediately.

“Y-yunHo,” he whispered, his tears spilling even more.

“Idiot. You're such an idiot,” YunHo said as he cupped JaeJoong's face, wiping away the spilled tears. He grabbed the small-sized tiger in JaeJoong's lap as his eyes fell on it, holding it up into JaeJoong's face and pushed the black plastic nose against the tip of JaeJoong's.

“You shouldn't cry but smile,” YunHo whispered when he stared into JaeJoong's with tears glistening eyes before the latter flung his arms around YunHo's neck and cried into the crook of it.

“Hyung,” JunSu mumbled as he joined them in their hug, burying his own teary face into the black hair of JaeJoong. YooChun stood weeping at the door frame, being held by ChangMin who smiled at the display in front of him. He wanted to cry but, unlike his hyungs, he wasn't that much of a crybaby.

JangLi watched the young men surrounding her son with teary eyes and a genuine smile on her lips. JaeJoong had truly found friends that would love him no matter what. She knew that they would overcome every obstacle as long as they stayed together.