When Heechul sees Leeteuk again, the sun is shining brightly and they are much, much older. Years had passed and Heechul can only remember fuzzily the way Leeteuk speak or the way Leeteuk laugh but when he sees him again, everything just rushes back.

There isn't any explosion of sound or any sudden boom of colours but Heechul sees Leeteuk's back and finally he can breathe with ease again.

He calls him Leeteuk, but the man doesn't turn, and there is a pang in his chest when he realizes that Leeteuk is no longer using that name and has not been using it for more than a decade now. So he calls him correctly, the word Jungsoo rolling effortlessly from his tongue and Leeteuk, no, Jungsoo, finally turns around.

For a second, Heechul worries that Jungsoo doesn't recognize him, that Jungsoo might have forgotten but Jungso takes one look at him and he smiles. His eyes crinkles as he smiles that smile that made his face light up with pure joy and Heechul sighs in relief.

If Heechul is thirty years younger, he would have run and hug the heck out of Jungsoo.

But they had aged. He looks at Jungsoo and realizes how time had passed. He stares at what used to be smooth skin is now decorated with wrinkles and what used to be hair styled and dyed many colours had changed into a head full of short grey hair. Self conciously, he tugs his hat, adjusting it to hide his dyed hair away as he hobbles closer, cane thudding heavily on the ground.

"Heechul-ah," his voice is different but familiar and when Jungsoo reaches out with a hand, Heechul takes it only to feel it toughened by life and time. Jungsoo is both different yet the same and Heechul cannot find his voice because this is not his Jungsoo but it is his Jungsoo at the same time.

"You found me," Jungsoo says warmly and Heechul cannot do anything else besides nodding dumbly

"Found you."

"Are you alone?" Heechul doesn't miss the way Jungsoo looks at the car parked at the mouth of the gravelled road as if hoping for more people to come out and Heechul thinks back in regret when he outright denied Donghae's request to follow. Guiltily, he nods. Jungsoo face falls slightly and Heechul feels bad for him but then he shrugs, nonchalant, as if he is used to being disappointed and pulls Heechul towards a small modest house at the end of the road.

Naturally, Heechul follows, like what he did in his twenties and thirties but couldn't in his forties and fifties. They walk side by side, Jungsoo's calloused hand warm and heavy in Heechul's grasp. Their walk on the uneven ground is a teeny bit painful for Heechul but Jungsoo makes everything better, always had and always will.

Jungsoo's steps are slower now and his tone had mellowed even more and it takes him some time to remember words and names but Jungsoo still chatters away, asking about Sungmin's first granddaughter (who is utterly adorable), Shindong's chicken franchise (it was touch and go for a while but the business is recovering), Siwon's retirement (he is bored and keeps bugging everyone in the group chat) and other little things about everyone that crosses his mind. Heechul realizes then that he is the only one who doesn't keep in touch with Jungsoo, the only one to drop Jungsoo like a hot coal and never looked back.

Back then, he had made himself stop thinking about Jungsoo because thinking, talking and contacting Jungsoo would have made him a lo