Sims says: Hello there, dear readers! This chapter will fast forward 8 years and our two ‘heroes’, Jaejoong and Yoochun, are now aged 26 and 24 respectively. (Let’s just skip the fact that they have to do their National Service, *evil laughs.)

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I was eating my chocolate croissant while sipping my to-go black coffee, thinking about how wonderful the day was so far.

When I got out of the house and headed towards the bus stop, my bus arrived. I had a sudden craving for croissants and decided to pop into my favourite café, which was always crowded because it recently became a hot spot due to a university being relocated in that area. Usually, if there were more than 5 or so people in the queue, I would forgo it. However, there were only two people in line today, so I decided to head in to grab my croissant and coffee.

With my food and beverage in tow, I headed to the park 3 streets down from the café, nesting myself under a shady tree, enjoying my ‘tea break-dinner’ as the wind blew lightly in my direction.

Having spotted a loving and elderly couple sitting on the bench a couple of feet in front of me, I opened my messenger bag and pulled out my sketchpad and drawing pencils. Biting onto my croissant and wiping my hands rather hastily on my navy cargo pants, I did a rough sketch of the outlines of the couple, in case they decided to head off.

After sensing that they seemed to be planning to stay to watch the sunset, I then pulled out my watercolour set and began painting the scene before me.

However, after applying a few brushes of paint onto my work, I began to doubt myself.

My mind began to replay the disturbing review I received last week.

In my entire life, I had never received a negative comment about my work. My parents were an exception though, because they were only against my passion in art, but never once did they actually say something along the lines of ‘Your artwork .’

Jaejoong tried to hide the art magazine from me when he bought one on the way home because the famous art critic from London was in town and was at the exhibition where my series of artworks was one of the many on display. We both wanted to find out if the critic had anything to say about my pieces and apparently he did.

‘Was there anything about my works?’ I enquired.

‘Yoochunnie…’ Jaejoong sounded hesitant.

‘Hmm?’

‘You don’t have to care about what he says,’ Jaejoong took the magazine and proceeded into his room.

‘Why not?’ I rushed to grab the magazine from his hands, only to make Jaejoong dodge my incoming attack and slam shut his door.

I was sure there was something Jaejoong was hiding from me.

He wouldn’t act this way if the review didn’t mention anything about me.

It was definitely about me, and something negative as well.

Yunho came back home at around 9.30pm. And an idea struck in my head.

Okay, I bet you’re wondering, what, why and how the hell did Yunho appear in our home?

Allow me to explain.

After completing my art degree, Jaejoong decided for us to move out of our home.

I thought it was a brilliant idea.

Yes, my relationship with my parents now was definitely better than during my elementary and high school days, but it was still somewhat strained. The fact that I was now a freelance artist, only having to churn out works when I’m inspired, made my parents label me as somewhat of a jobless person. I had to agree.

And so, back to the living arrangement story.

Because Jaejoong had a filthy rich connection, which came in the form of the handsome and tall, who was also the future heir to a billion dollar multi-national leisure and lifestyle corporation, in short, his boyfriend of over 10 years - Jung Yunho, we were whisked way into a huge pent house in the heart of Korea, without having to pay a single cent for it.

Yunho was sort of a 'part-time tenant', only coming in during weekends and if lucky, on some Fridays.

I became really good friends with Yunho because he was like another elder brother to me (of course Jaejoong would always hold first place in my heart). Yunho was a very practical and level headed guy, so it was easy to hang around with him. We initially bonded over our mutual love for music and soon found much joy in each other’s company.

Anyway, as I was mentioning much earlier, Yunho came back home at around 9.30pm.

And an idea in me ticked.

‘Can I ask a favour from you?’ I pleaded desperately.

‘Sure,’ Yunho nodded.

‘Promise me that you won’t ever go back on your words, no matter what!’ I shook him vehemently.

‘Yoochun, I promise. Now, stop shaking me.’

‘Good. I want you to retrieve an art magazine from Jaejoong. He escaped and hid it away from me earlier. Be as discreet as possible! Don’t tell him that I’m the one who demands for it. Now go!’ I pushed him towards their shared room.

I crossed my fingers and peeked from the living room as Yunho knocked the door and informed Jaejoong that it was him. He was quickly pulled into the room and the door was then slammed shut and locked.

About 15 minutes later, Yunho appeared from the bedroom with the magazine.

I ran towards him and thanked him before locking myself in my own bedroom.

I took a deep breath and quickly flipped the pages of the magazine.

I found the article.

Outright bizarre…cluttered… surreal and ridiculous…

To sum it all up: My first attempt at surrealism was an epic fail. I’m okay with failing, but just not in front of the biggest art critic in the industry.

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‘Yunho, how could you!’ I fumed, flinging the frying pan into the sink.

‘Calm down, Jae,’ Yunho tried to speak but I signaled to him not to try to reason with me.

‘It’s my fault,’ Yoochunnie appeared in the kitchen with his head down.

I noticed his swollen eyes.

My heart ached.

Yoochunnie had been crying.

‘Come here, my poor Yoochunnie,’ I walked towards him to envelop him in a warm hug.

‘Why did you want to know so badly?’ I frowned.

He rested his head on my left shoulder and I felt tears make contact with my skin. I sighed and patted his back reassuringly.

‘I wa-wanted an expert opinion so badly… but I didn’t know it would be so har-harsh,’ Yoochunnie muttered and then went into another fit of tears.

‘My dear Yoochunnie, don’t let one setback beat you down. Get back up and become an even stronger person, okay?’ I told him.

I could feel Yoochunnie nod as his sobbing became quieter.

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‘Erm… Jae, you’ve got a class to conduct in about 45 minutes,’ Yunho reminded Jaejoong quietly.

‘Shut up! I’m so not talking to you today!’ Jaejoong let go of me and went to prepare for work.

Oh right, Jaejoong’s a high school teacher because he enjoys teaching. His flaming passion for it and endless patience paid off as all the classes he taught so far did extremely well. His track record as a teacher so far was beyond outstanding and just after 2 years in the field, he was promoted to become the Head of Department of English.

‘I’m sorry, Yunho,’ I apologised quietly.

‘I made a promise to you. Honestly though, I think Jaejoong shouldn’t be babysitting you like this. You’re an adult already and yet, he is ever so protective of you.’

I simply nodded.

‘You need to face the real world. And now you’ve finally got a taste of it last night,’ Yunho sighed.

‘I know, Yunho. And again, I’m really sorry.’

‘It’s okay. Jae’s big hearted so he’ll forgive me soon, so don’t worry. He loves me too much to ignore me for too long,’ Yunho winked and I laughed.

‘At least you got Yoochunnie to laugh,’ Jaejoong appeared in his suit and stuffed a bottle into his satchel.

‘You’re welcome,’ Yunho smiled, ‘Do you want me to drive you to work?’

‘No, I want to make you suffer a little longer. I’m going to work now,’Jaejoong walked towards me, then he tiptoed and kissed my forehead.

I smiled warmly at Jaejoong.

‘And you,’ Jaejoong approached Yunho menacingly, ‘are to pick up the dry cleaning, wash the bathrooms and be nice to Yoochunnie while I’m gone. And don’t bother calling or messaging me after work for I will ignore all of them.’

Yunho obediently nodded.

‘Good, then I’m off. See you guys later!’ with that, Jaejoong exited the apartment.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I could only apologise once more to poor Yunho.

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