- So did you miss the both of us or just him?

A rather short but radiant boy looking slightly older but much brighter than anyone in the room steps forward from behind Sungjong and lightly punches Myungsoo’s chest with a teasing grin and knowing eyes.

- Hyung, I meant… the both of you, of course.

Myungsoo catches the older boy’s hands in his own and awkwardly shakes them up in the air trying to demonstrate some sort of reassurance with the addition of a sloppy grin. But his eyes betray him anyway. They are still set on a certain tall but frail figure standing too close to the door for Myungsoo’s liking. And before he knows it, his mouth betrays him too.

- You’re about to leave again, aren’t you?

The tall boy abruptly shoots up his head, big doe eyes looking into Myungsoo’s deep brown orbs for the first time since their union, momentary confusion etched on his face before realisation slowly seeps into his mind. But before he gets to deny the suspicion, his brother whose hands still loosely stuck in Myungsoo’s speaks up for him. In a much calmer but firmer tone of voice than what he thinks his own voice would come out to be.

- No, Myungsoo. We’re staying this time.

And that was all it take for the nearly suffocating tension to dissipate and be replaced by fresh relief. Myungsoo drops the hands of his older friend to take two long strides towards the shy boy looking somewhat hesitant by the door and envelop him in a big warm hug without a warning. A gasp is let out from his friend’s O-shaped mouth and Sungjong’s staring at him with widening shocked eyes. But Myungsoo could not care less right now as a familiar scent welcomes his nose when it brushes past a smooth nape.

- Sungyeol, you still smell of coffee buns.

He whispers almost lovingly with tightly shut eyes, trembling hands around the fragile frame. And as if on cue, the lithe body in-between his arms immediately relaxes and leans onto his big arms. A bony hand carefully lifts up and finally goes into Myungsoo’s mess of hair to ruffle it with hesitant affection.

- I’m back. Myungsoo, I’m back.

- You knew him since he was 5?!

Sungjong’s shrill voice once again shakes the small coffee shop out of its serenity for the third time since they settled down on this table. The first time was when he found out about Sungyeol being two years older despite his baby face and rather childish behaviours, such as playing with the hem of his shirt or randomly yelling when he passed by familiar places where “me and Myungsoo used to play hide and seek”. Then came the second time when the tactile Dongwoo, the oldest boy of them all, playfully lifted Sungjong up by the waist to put him onto a chair by the window when he took more than ten minutes just to decide where to sit. “No one, and I mean no one, touches my body freely like that, hyung.” The stern look in his eyes and unnessarily taut tone of voice successfully scared Dongwoo off, which explains why right now he still doesn’t dare to look straight at Sungjong as he replies to the boy’s early question, or rather, outburst.

- Yeah, he went to the same kindergarten as Sungyeol.

- So you two met there?

Sungjong turned his attention to Myungsoo, who’s sitting next to him with his eyes still staring holes into Sungyeol’s face making the tall boy feeling uneasy in the process. He hasn’t spoken one single word every since they came here but settled for watching Sungyeol’s every move instead. And when he finally does…

- You’ve become so pretty now.

- That doesn’t answer my quest--- Wait a minute, did you just call him pretty?

The petite diva widens his eyes in pure shock, voice surprisngly low and hands shaking Myungsoo’s shoulder to make the boy look at him, to which Myungsoo only calmly replies with a simple “Yeah.” And then he iimmediately goes back to studying Sungyeol’s features. Muting out Sungjong’s loud shriek and Dongwoo’s violent coughs after choking on his water, the calm boy props his chin on his intertwined hands and looks at his childhood friend with even much more intensity than before. Furrowing his eyebrowns at something odd he’s just noticed, Myungsoo spoke again.

- Hey, why are you blushing so hard?

And that was it. Sungyeol abruptly stands up with hands up covering his entire face and runs towards the exit door almost tripping over his awkwardly long legs on the way as Myungsoo instinctively paces after him, one hand reaching out to grasp his friend’s wrist.

- You said you’ll stay!!

- Yes, I’m staying but… ugh, I still can’t see you now!

The last part of the sentence and the thickness in his voice caught Myungsoo off guard and before the shorter boy knew it, his hand was pried off by gentle but trembling fingers. And he is left, yet again.

Inside the coffee shop, Sungjong worriedly watches Myungsoo standing still and looking completely lost at the front door. He turns to Dongwoo with a confused look and urges the boy the tell him what the hell is going on, to which he only receives a soft chuckle and pat on the head as a reply.

“They’ll be alright. After all, this is what I bring Yeol back for.”

_______________

Sungyeol briskly walks back to his aprtment, eyes never leaving the ground, except for when he crosses the streets. He isn’t sure what he is feeling any more. His mind is a jumble of thoughts and his heart is beating so fast for a moment, he doubts its ability to stay inside his ribcage for any longer. He thought this would be easier. It has been five years. Things should have changed by now. But no, nothing has. The playground, the Americano, Myungsoo’s house, Myungsoo’s scent, Myungsoo’s eyes, Myungsoo’s eyes and Myungsoo’s effects on him. Nothing has changed.

Laughing bitterly at the thought, Sungyeol looks up at the sky feeling completely at sea as a flash of old memories suddenly bring his feet to a stop. As he leans on a tree just outside the playground to catch the breath that he’s been holding for so long, Sungyeol lets his mind wander back into the old time.

Even as a kid, Myungsoo wore black clothes and stoic face to school. He was energetic in a way, but more unpredictable than anything. There were days he refused to go out playing no matter what and there were days the teachers had to call in his parents just to persuade their son to climb down a tree or stop swinging by himself. Despite all that, everyone was undeniably fond of the boy because even as a kid, Myungsoo was kind, much kinder than anyone else Sungyeol had come to know through his childhood. They met for the first time on a rainy day and in a rather heroic setting. When Sungyeol, with a slip of fingers, let his balloon fly up and got caught in the dense foliage of the oldest tree in their kindergarten, Myungsoo happened to be the only one who cared. It was raining hard and all the kids were herded inside with the exception of Sungyeol who, no matter how many times he got pulled in by a teacher, kept running out to stand under the tree, looking up at his dear balloon while crying his eyes out. Only when the teachers told him they would call his parents in did Sungyeol start to walk in. But as he dragged his feet inside defeatedly, he felt a sudden breeze past his shaking shoulders and when the poor little boy turned around, the only thing he saw was a short but strong looking boy swiftly climbed up the tree. All the teachers were freaking out and they started calling his name loudly. “Myungsoo! Myungsoo! Come back down! That’s dangerous! Myungsoo!”. But said boy only slightly turned his head towards their direction to give them all a determined look before continuing to climb even higher, hands almost reaching the balloon cord. Everyone held their breath watching Myungsoo and Sungyeol just stood there, letting the rain soak through thin layers of clothes, quietly chanting the brave boy’s name in his head until he successfully grasped the cord and wriggled the balloon out of the jumble of leaves. He got down even faster than when he climed up. With a big grin on his face, tiny eyes blinking nonstop because of the heavy rain pouring down his small round face, one hand incessantly brushing his while the other was stretching out towards Sungyeol’s direction with the balloon cord messily wrapped around two fingers. “Here, I got your balloon down for you.” And that was probably the most vivid memory Sungyeol has of his childhood.

They quickly became friends afterwards. And on the day when they both graduated from kindergarten to go to elementary school and became what Myungsoo’s dad used to call “small adults”, Sungyeol proudly labeled the other boy as his “best friend” in front of his big brother, Dongwoo as the older came to pick him up, to which Myungsoo only nodded cockily as if it was the best honour in the whole world. So they spent 5 more years of being inseparable and closer than any other pair of best friends could be, before puberty hit each of the boy and presented them with new found troubles. Myungsoo started to get confessions from girls in his school and Sungyeol started to realise his crush on somebody. Myungsoo thought it was ridiculous because no matter how good looking and cool they thought he was, he was only 12 then and did they serious expect a 12 year-old to date them? Sungyeol thought his problem was ridiculous too because no matter how good looking and kind he thought his best friend was, it was just absurd to suddenly have feelings like this for Myungsoo. So he did the only thing he could think of. He hid it from everyone. He hid it so well that after a while, he thought maybe what he was feeling for Myungsoo wasn't that strong after all and this just a phase which he would be over soon. That was what he believed for a long while, even after his father told him that his family had to move to somewhere miles away from their current house. But reality soon crashed down on him as his brother nudged his elbow and asked him in a careful voice:

- What about Myungsoo?

And then it hit him. Hard. He was going to be away from Myungsoo. And suddenly there was this sheering pain piercing through his heart making him unable to stand. It hurt so much. But then it hurt even more when Sungyeol realised this wasn’t just a phase and that he loved him. Really, really loved him.

---

A/N: So yeah, screw that "one week one update" promise lol I couldn't take my precious nap this afternoon and this is my way of relieving the frustration. Here's an update ^o^ Up until this point, things seem rather cliche and slow-paced, don't they? But hopefully, it'll get more eventful from now on...