[2001]

Strangers in the night

Jung Yunho is barely fifteen-years-old, something more than kid, but in spite of his young age he is already a man of principles.
He was born catholic and follows the values he was taught as strongly and deeply as he follows his passions.
He listens to his parents well enough and if we pretend not to count that time he told them to screw off, that he wouldn’t have applied for law school, but that he would have followed his dream instead, he never argues with them.
He helps the other trainees with their dances, despite knowing that those same guys are the ones that could take his place in the final evaluations. He knows his dancing is all he can rely on, but still, looking at the shutter teenagers crying out their tears in the empty training rooms, he cannot stop himself from helping.
He also doesn’t smoke more than a few cigarettes per week as well as he doesn’t drink more than a few beers the nights they’re strong enough to crash into some pubs.
He doesn’t do drugs either.
He doesn’t sleep around.
And for sure, he doesn’t fall in love.
Love is actually the last thing he wishes for at the moment. It isn’t what he wants, neither what he needs: he wants fame and he needs to work hard for that, day and night. Period.

Jung Yunho, however, is just a fifteen-years-old boy dreaming the big life while sleeping under the bridges in the freezing nights of Seoul and doesn’t know that love isn’t something you can control. He doesn’t know that love happens unexpectedly, that it comes without warnings and catches you startled, unprepared, helplessly lost in a new hurricane of feelings.

And that’s exactly what happens one night around the half of November, when the sky is already dark but still let you notice the little snowflakes raining down on the city.
He’s with his friend Junsu and they’re getting out of the SM building after another full day of practise. He’s tired and worn out and wants nothing more than laying down on the hostel bed and sleeping through the night. However, as soon as they walk beyond their favourite ramen shop, they suddenly hear a scream breaking the silence of the night. They turn and run and stop right in front of a group of people: there are five of them, dressed in black, with caps and backpacks and all those gangster stuff, and for a moment Yunho thinks of running away. But then he hears that scream again and notices another figure hidden between the taller ones, dressed in white and covered in snowflakes.
And Yunho suddenly can’t breath.
He doesn’t know why, but he cannot stop looking at that ethereal face, at those unnatural big eyes folded in a fierce expression that doesn’t seem to belong to them. He stares at those lips, red and full on the guy’s silky complexion, at his black hair melting together with the colours of the night.
Junsu is pulling his shirt, telling him that it’s better that they go away, that they cannot risk getting in troubles, but Yunho doesn’t hear him, all he can think about is the small teen fighting in the circle with his fists closed and his voice high. He’s talking about some idol group he doesn’t want people to insult and Yunho almost finds hilarius how he’s willing to risk getting beaten up to protect someone that doesn’t even know he exists. The kid has values, he somehow concludes. And maybe it’s exactly because he has them and because Yunho is a man of principles that he cannot help himself from getting by his side and facing the big group.

“What do you want kid?” one of the guys ask seeing him join the circle.

“Just let him go” he says, placing a hand in front of him in a protecting way, and speaking with a confidence he doesn’t feel confident about. “He wasn’t serious. And it’s late. Just let us go” he adds then. However, he doesn’t look a day over fifteen himself and he is well aware that there is no way the others are letting them go away without a fight.

“Look, another kiddo playing wild” one of them replies, laughing.
“We’re gonna have a full meal tonight” another one adds.

Yunho analyses the situation carefully but it doesn’t take a genius to realise that they don’t stand a chance. They overnumber them by three people, not to mention that they are older, and bigger, and stronger for sure. He quickly sends a glance through the background, spotting Junsu hidden behind a building nearby, praying him to just run away.

Yunho had already thought about that: he’s fast and less equipped and he probably knows the neighbourhood better than they do, but what he doesn’t know is if the guy can run and he can’t solve the equation without that small detail.

As soon as he notices the others talking between them, joking about their skinny appearances and about how they should beat them up, he dares to ask. It’s their only chance anyway.

“Can you run?” he whispers, ghosting his hand over his chest and registering the guy’s incredible warmth.

The small contact doesn’t seem to bother him as he slightly turns his head, raising his gaze so that he can meet Yunho’s in the least suspicious way.
“I can” he whispers in reply, his voice soft against the cold weather.
Which actually turns out to be the most suspicious one.

“What are you talking about freak?” the one who appears to be the leader states, getting closer and closer until Yunho decides it’s their moment and hopes his taekwondoo lessons will show some results as he kicks one of the guys beside him, opening them a way. He also hopes the surprise element will give them some advantage.

“Now!”

Yunho runs with every strenght left in his body and speeds among the dark alleys hoping someone is watching them from above and decides to give them some luck.
He turns behind only once, just to see if the guy can actually run and he’s slighlty amused to find him right behind him. What he didn’t expect, however, is to notice that the others aren’t far behind either.
He starts thinking wild again; he knows they cannot run forever, but they can’t confront them either.

He suddenly comes to a solution as soon as they cross one of the main streets and end up in some secondary ones. He knows there’s a small convenience store there which happens to have an even smaller backyard you can enter from the outside without too many difficulties. He decides to go for it and right after they turn into the said street, he slows down enough to grab the guy’s wrist, pulling him closer and sneaking together inside the microscopic place; they should have enough advantage for their sudden disappearance not to seem too unrealistic.

Yunho quickly aligns the guy’s body with his, so that their figures manage to remain hidden by the garbage bins near the entrance, and covers the guy’s mouth with his hand so that his surprised gulps will not be heard. His breath his hot against his fingers and he suddenly feels something warm growing inside his stomach, but he blames it on the run and the fear of getting discovered.

They hear the group approaching, cursing and kicking, and then they can hear their voices slowly fading away, but some minutes still pass before Yunho decides that they are safe and lowers his worried gaze from the streets to the guy’s face again. Now that they are so close he notices things he hadn’t before, like that mole on his left cheek, his way too long eyelashes or that small birthmark right under his chin. He is wandering among those beautiful little details when he feels a slight movement under his hand and realises the guy is looking back at him, smiling, and now his eyes are smaller and a little squeezed, and his cheeks stretched with a faint dimple decoring one of them.

Yunho doesn’t know what’s happening, he doesn’t know how to call that feeling that’s growing inside of him, he doesn’t know how to name that sense of warmth and peacefulness he suddenly feels on his heart. What he knows, however, is that a storm of butterflies is eating his stomach alive and he swears he can feel them one by one as they make their way to his chest and then go further and reach his arms and legs, just to go further again and melt with his toes and fingers too.

Yunho doesn’t know what to say, neither what to do, so he just decides to move his hand away and go for a “Hey”, followed shortly by a random “What’s your name?”, hoping not to sound too dumb.

The guy chuckles and raises a hand covering his smile and Yunho would just like to tell him not to cover it, that he looks so precious, shining in the darkness of the night, but he strangely refrains himself from doing so.

“Jaejoong” he answers soon after, “Kim Jaejoong”.
“What’s yours?”

Yunho realises his voice is amazing too: sweet and a little hoarse from all the screaming, but yet so incredibly melodic. And right then Yunho also knows that he’s gone. He knows that that’s a name he won’t easily forget, he knows that that’s a guy he won’t easily let go of.
Yunho is a man of principles, but in that moment he doesn’t deny himself from falling in love. He welcomes the feelings, instead, because somehow he is completely sure that Kim Jaejoong will be worth it.

“Yunho” he answers, finally smiling too, “Jung Yunho”

***

Yunho has never believed in fate, but as he enters the SM building some days after, and finds Jaejoong sat on the floor of one of the training room, leg crossed listening to some music, he starts questioning all his values again.

He stops on his place for several minutes, unable to move or think, completely mesmerized by the figure in front of him, before slowly crossing the room and sliding down beside him.

“Hey” he greets.

Jaejoong is obviously surprised and as he raises his eyes to check who it is, Yunho swears he can see stars inside them. A smile suddenly breaks on his face as he recognizes him.

“Hey” he answers back, his voice a little bit too high.

For some reasons they do not talk about what were the chances of meeting again, most of all in one of the biggest music companies in the country; they just let it go and focus, instead, on the sounds of their racing heartbeats so strangely on rhythm, on the smell of sweat and energy drinks now so weirdly romantic as well as on that familiar chemistry they feel floating between them.

“Can I borrow one?” Yunho then asks, pointing to the earphones both still in the other’s ears.

“Sure” Jaejoong chuckles in response, offering the small object.

And as he takes it from his hand and slowly brings it to his ear, laying back against the wall and a little to the other’s side, shoulders touching and knees brushing lightly, Yunho suddenly thinks that it did turn out so right, for strangers in the night.