So. I fell asleep before I could complete the second update. *KILL ME NOW GUYS.* To make up for it, I've decided to make this update (hopefully) as long, exciting, and heartwrenching, and interesting as possible... *FORGIVE ME, DEAR READERS* Same again, if you enjoy reading this fanfic, pleaseprettypleasewithacherryontop subscribe, comment, and click on the little grey arrow next to the title in the foreword.

"Hey!"

Sungyeol was already waiting for Myungsoo when he dragged his feet out of the building. Once again, Myungsoo wished that his school ended as early as Sungyeol's. School was mundane again, but Myungsoo had found it infinitely difficult to stay awake today, and he'd been rapped on the back of his head twice (once by his literature teacher, once by his math) for nodding off in class. So, life in general, and things were not going his way today at all, and Myungsoo was feeling tired and crabby. And not really in the mood to go on a fun and energy sapping outing with Sungyeol.

He almost wished he'd not sent that text earlier.

Sungyeol (of course) still had undeniable energy, that seemed to originate from an unknown, inexhaustible source deep within him. Myungsoo on the other hand felt even more drained than he did that morning, after a largely sleepless night of pondering over the battered Sungyeol and his bloodied shirt.

And the world didn't seem to be making life any easier for him.

As soon as his bum hit the bench at the bus stop when Myungsoo and Sungyeol reached it (and he'd been so grateful for the rare chance to sit down too--it was usually really crowded, but Myungsoo was a little later today) his bus arrived, so Myungsoo stood up again, and looked over his shoulder at Sungyeol who was trailing behind him, and nodded towards the bus that rolled to a gentle halt in front of them. Myungsoo shut his eyes for a while in exhaustion.

"Bus." he grunted. He didn't have the energy to say anything more.

Sungyeol followed when he boarded the bus, still bobbing about in his usual infuriating way. Myungsoo sighed, but didn't complain this time. The bus was packed, it was as if the people that usually flocked to the bus stop were all aboard the bus already. Fortunately, there were two empty seats left, at the back of the bus, and Myungsoo made a beeline for them. Or tried to.

On his way to those seats, he had to manoeuvre around people standing in the narrow aisle, and he tripped over three pairs of feet, and nearly careered into an old lady seated in one of the seats, but Sungyeol grabbed his elbow in time, and both of them tottered about a little before regaining their balance. They collasped into the seats safely, and Myungsoo slid down in his seat, both mortified and relieved. He shut his eyes, meaning to take a small nap, before they had to squeeze their way through to get off at his stop again.

Sungyeol, it seemed, had other plans.

'Myungsoo." Sungyeol shook his arm after about five minutes. Myungsoo figured the boy got bored with nobody to talk to after a while. Myungsoo groaned in response.

"Shh. Don't talk in my ear." Myungsoo settled down, and closed his eyes, and wished Sungyeol would just let him sleep.

"Myungsoo!" Sungyeol hoarsely whisper-shouted, and for some reason his breath on Myungsoo's ear raised goosebumps on the sleepy boy's neck, and made him shiver a little.

"Stop it..." Myungsoo wearily brought a hand up to Sungyeol's face, and pushed him away from him. Sheesh. Being friends with Sungyeol meant having personal space unrespected.

"I'll tell you a joke." Sungyeol offered. He could sense that his friend wasn't in a good mood, and he tried his best to cheer Myungsoo up.

Myungsoo shook his head, and even waved a hand lazily in the air for emphasis, but Sungyeol didn't listen. Myungsoo hadn't thought he would.

"Why did the mushroom go to the party?" Sungyeol was snorting with laughter already, just thinking of the answer, and he looked at Myungsoo expectantly. When the boy didn't answer, he revealed it himself, barely managing to get the words out between his giggles.

"Because he was a fungi. Get it? A...fun guy..." Sungyeol leaned forward in his seat. He was laughing so bad that Myungsoo couldn't help smiling along as well. He was amused by the faces Sungyeol made, of course, but he couldn't deny the odd glow he felt, when he watched the way Sungyeol's eyes crinkled up into dark half-moons, when his mouth curved upwards in one of the most gummy smiles he'd seen in the course of his life.

After a few more cold jokes, from which Myungsoo got to know stuff like what Mozart was currently working on (decomposing. Har har.), and that the atom was positive he'd lost an electron, Myungsoo's eyelids began to droop again, and he waved Sungyeol to get him to keep quiet (hopefully), and let him get some much-needed rest. But Sungyeol tugged at his shirt again.

"Myungsoo..."

Myungsoo didn't answer. He hoped that if he didn't answer, Sungyeol would finally tire of speaking to him, and give up. Sungyeol was especially persistent today.

"Myungsoo!" Sungyeol's voice was louder this time, and Myungsoo turned away from him, irritated.

"Myungsoo, look!" Sungyeol wrapped his fingers around the side of the boy's head, and turned it, so that when Myungsoo opened his eyes to whack Sungyeol to get him to shut up, he saw the bus stop flashing past outside, and his eyes widened in dismay.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Myungsoo jumped up, and turned his head to watch his stop receed into the distance.

Sungyeol frowned. "I did. You didn't listen."

Myungsoo snorted. Sungyeol had been telling him jokes. He'd been sleepy. He'd not wanted to hear any more jokes. How was he supposed to know Sungyeol was trying to tell him about getting off the bus. He slumped down onto the seat again, and crossed his arms across his chest, and refused to look at Sungyeol. The boy beside him folded his arms too, and stared out of the other window, across the aisle, and didn't speak any more. Myungsoo brought up his forefinger and thumb, to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. The next stop was about 3 kilometres away from his house, and the buses only came at five hour intervals. And they were almost always late. All Myungsoo wanted to do was to collapse onto his own, incredibly comfortable bed and fall asleep.

Myungsoo felt like bashing his head against the window he was seated next to.

They passed the next twenty minutes in silence, before Myungsoo nudged Sungyeol to get up, so that they could both alight at the next nearest stop. Battling his way out of the vehicle, Myungsoo's expression was stormy, and he kept his gaze on the floor, so that he wouldn't trip up anymore.

"So..." Even though he wasn't in any danger of tripping up again, Myungsoo still let his gaze linger on the floor, and he let out a deep breath. He rubbed a hand over his face, and scrubbed at his eyes.

Myungsoo lived on the outskirts of town, and the next bus stop was in the middle of nowhere--well, granted, there was a convenience store next to the bus stop, but it was situated in the countryside, by the sea, and people hardly ever passed there at this time, save for farmers returning home after a day of selling their crops in the city. There wasn't even anyone in sight, except for the old woman dozing inside her store. It would be hard to hitch a ride back, and Myungsoo definitely didn't want to walk three whole kilometres home. He sank down onto the bench, defeated.

"The sea!" Sungyeol's shout was louder than the engine of the bus pulling away from the bus stop. Myungsoo stopped watching the vehicle depart regretfully, and turned to see Sungyeol rush down to the sandy dunes. He looked so excited, pulling off his shoes, socks, hopping about, and flinging them wildly behind him, leaving a trail of footwear and disturbed sand behind him. Myungsoo bit his lip to stop smiling (he was angry, for pete's sake--Sungyeol was the reason why he was stuck here, instead of catching fourty winks in his own bed). Shaking his head as he jogged down the beach after Sungyeol himself, Myungsoo muttered under his breath.

"Jeez. How old are you." Myungsoo hated the mirth that still managed to bubble up in his voice.

Sungyeol whipped around and grinned at him, hair messy in the wind, catching him by surprise. Myungsoo saw how the sea breeze turned Sungyeol's brown hair into a living, wonderfully messy mass that framed his face, and whipped about in little tufts as Sungyeol shook his head to get the hair out of his eyes. Strangely enough, Myungsoo wanted to run his fingers through Sungyeol's tousled brown mop of hair, wanted to test if it was really as soft as it looked. Myungsoo shook his head, to halt his train of thoughts. He'd never been interested in someone else's hair before. This was just...strange.

But it wasn't a bad kind of strange, he decided, as he watched the way Sungyeol's face seemed to light up, and glow in the light of the sun that was sinking below the horizon, as he made his way haphazardly towards the small waves that lapped at their feet.

It wasn't bad at all.

Myungsoo sat down on the beach, and carefully removed his shoes, his socks, making sure that none of the sand got into either. He hated it when that happened--Myungsoo just couldn't stand the tiny gritty pieces rubbing in between his toes, and he couldn't brush them off, because his feet were inaccessible, encased within his shoes.

"Come on." Sungyeol stood knee-height in the water, with the legs of his trousers rolled up till his thighs, and turned back once more, to beckon to Myungsoo impatiently. As he waved his hand in the gesture, small salty droplets dripped off his hand (he'd been trying to the froth on the waves), and caught the sun, glowing bright gold, and dazzled Myungsoo that little bit more. He only blinked when Sungyeol grew tired of waiting, and splashed a handful of seawater in his face, and made him splutter and cough, and look at Sungyeol in mock outrage.

"Aurgh!" Myungsoo gave a high pitched yelp, that made Sungyeol double up in laughter.

"You sound like a girl." Sungyeol taunted, flicking another handful of liquid onto him, and Myungsoo narrowed his eyes.

"Do not."

Myungsoo rushed up, and splashed into ankle-height water, and remembered that he'd forgotten to roll up his pants only when the water soaked the hem. He dashed out again, folded them up, so that they now ended at his knee, and continued with his 'revenge', slapping the water at the boy, and dodging return splashes of water, until they were both soaked and dripping, and their clothes clung to them like a second layer of skin. Myungsoo hunched over, panting, and just knew there was a ridiculously goofy smile on his face, that he didn't even try to hide anymore. Because his mouth didn't seem to be in his control anymore, what with all the smiling, and amount of laughing that rivaled even Sungyeol's.

"Come here!" Myungsoo shouted, storming over to Sungyeol, legs leaving two trails of white foam in his wake. Sungyeol danced out of his reach, long legs churning even more froth in the white-capped water.

"No!" Sungyeol shrieked with laughter, and splashed out of the sea, onto the sand, and ran in crazy, zigzag lines up the beach, Myungsoo following in the same insane pattern. He was sure both of them looked absolutely, stark raving mad. But he was having so much fun, he just didn't care at that moment.

"Yah!"

Myungsoo put on a burst of speed, and reached out to grab Sungyeol's collar, and both of them fell to the ground, play-wrestling, making random kungfu-movie-noises. Sungyeol tried to claw his way on top of him, but Myungsoo caught hold of his shoulders, and flipped them over, and caused both of them to go rolling off across the sand, struggling to get the upper hand. Finally, finally, Myungsoo shoved his shoulder against Sungyeol's chest, and used his arm to pin the boy down. Sungyeol shrieked, and laughed, and Myungsoo only smirked down at him and refused to budge.

"Who's the girl now?" Myungsoo asked smugly. Then stopped. And realised what kind of position they were in, Myungsoo lying on top of Sungyeol, and realised just what his words could mean. He paused, and relaxed his hold a little, which allowed Sungyeol to wriggle out from under him. Both of them flopped onto the sand, panting, exhausted.

"You." Sungyeol still insisted, a cheeky smile on his face, as Myungsoo turned to him and made disbelieving whale noises. Myungsoo could see how sandy they both were--the stuff was in their hair, down their shirts, and he could even see a few small grains on Sungyeol's eyelashes, which he dusted off carefully. He lay back afterwards, looking at the sky overhead, and realised that the sky had turned a deeper shade of blue, and had lost its sunset hint of purple-red. He hadn't realised how much time had passed. If they stayed for much longer, the last bus would come and go without them.

But at that moment, he didn't want to leave. Couldn't be bothered to care. He wanted to stay here with Sungyeol.

Sungyeol's stomach gave a strange gurgle (for a moment, Myungsoo thought Sungyeol had mumbled something unintelligible), and Myungsoo jumped up, to fetch their bags, still left lying where they'd thrown them down, back at the bus stop. He unearthed a few snacks from his bag (Myungsoo's emergency stash of junk food), and shared it with Sungyeol, both of them sitting in the darkness, on Sungyeol's jacket which they'd spread across the sand.

Myungsoo glanced at Sungyeol, his face almost unrecognisable with all the shadows masking it (they were eating in the light of Sungyeol's handphone--the boy refused to eat something he couldn't see).

"You've got a crumb here." Myungsoo pointed to his own face.

"Gone?" Sungyeol's tongue poked out, and around his mouth, but the piece of potato chip stayed out of range of his tongue, but the faces Sungyeol made were so amusing, that Myungsoo choked on the chocolate bar he was munching on. Which made Sungyeol laugh at him instead.

But when Myungsoo's coughs turned into pained gasps, Sungyeol's laughter trailed off. Myungsoo's fingers dug into the sand around them, handfulls of the stuff. His legs moved slowly, uselessly on the ground.

"Again?" Sungyeol whispered, shifting closer to wrap an arm around Myungsoo. This time, the pain was pure agony, and both boys could tell the attacks were slowly--but surely--getting worse. Myungsoo was silent for a while, listening to his own ragged breaths, before he found strength to answer.

"Y-Yeah." Myungsoo coughed out.

The pain swelled in his chest once more, before it slowly released its grip on him, and both of them flopped down onto Sungyeol's blazer. Myungsoo felt all of his exhaustion wash over him once more, and he blinked once, twice wearily. He watched the black sky, adorned with millions (or was it billions?) of stars, each one a fiery ball of fire, out there, somewhere in space. Beside him, Sungyeol breathed out slow and deep, and Myungsoo turned his head slightly to see Sungyeol watching the sky too. Sungyeol pointed his finger upwards.

"The north star."

Myungsoo squinted to see the pin of light Sungyeol's finger indicated at. There were too many stars, all of them tiny pin pricks of light, so Myungsoo couldn't make out which one Sungyeol was refering to. He felt kinda impressed that Sungyeol was able to identify even one of them.

"Really?" Myungsoo's eyes left the stars, to rest on Sungyeol's face. The boy's blazer was soft beneath his cheek. Sungyeol turned his head too, and smiled his trademark gummy smile at Myungsoo.

"I don't know." Sungyeol confessed, and both boys fell silent again, drifting off to sleep, tired out from their romping about earlier.

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Myungsoo only woke up once during the night.

At first, he felt confused, and disoriented, and wondered where he was. But when he turned his head, his cheek brushed against the blazer that he and Sungyeol both slept on. The soft fabric smelled just like Sungyeol, and made him feel safe and warm, and stopped him from panicking, and reminded him where he was.

Beside him, so close that Myungsoo could feel the boy's slow, even breaths on his cheek, Sungyeol slept, and the boy looked more peaceful than Myungsoo had ever seen him. There was no animated expression on his face as usual, and Myungsoo found it the picture of serenity. Sungyeol's fingers had threaded themselves into his hair, getting themselves entangled there, and Myungsoo felt it oddly comforting.

Myungsoo smiled. He was glad they'd ended up at the beach. Here was the ocean, vast, indifferent, unpredictable. A beast that flung itself onto the shore, trying to climb up, tyring to swallow it whole. It never succeeded though, and slipped back down again, at the sand, the rocks, the pebbles, hissing in disappointment. The ocean rose and fell, and Myungsoo could hear it's salty breath where it lapped at the sand. The ocean breathed long before Myungsoo existed. The ocean would continue breathing after Myungsoo's existence disappeared. Here was the never ending night sky, decorated with stars, its jewels. Myungsoo looked up at the stars he couldn't name with heavy eyelids.

The ocean, the stars, soothed Myungsoo strangely enough, and made him feel more peaceful and more whole than he'd done in days. Because they made him feel small, and all his problems insignificant. Infinitesimal.

When he fell back to sleep, it was a dreamless slumber, but for once, Myungsoo didn't feel the need for sweet dreams.

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The next time Myungsoo woke up, it was morning, and the place that Sungyeol provoisly occupied next to him was empty. Myungsoo whipped hsi head from left to right, but the boy was no where in sight.

Just when he was about to lose his head, images of Sungyeol going back into the water, and getting eaten up by a shark flashing through his head, Myungsoo sat up to see Sungyeol making his way down the beach to him, carefully balancing two cup noodles in his hands. Apparently, the boy had woken up early to buy breakfast from the convenience store. Myungsoo smiled his thanks at Sungyeol, and took one of them from Sungyeol when the boy held it out to him. They slurped up the the noodles in comfortable silence, and when they were done, and wiped their mouths on the backs of their now grubby hands, Myungsoo finally decided it was time to leave, and go back home. It was lucky today was a Saturday, because if it had been a school day, both of them would be seriously late.

When they reached the bus stop, Sungyeol turned to him suddenly, and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"I don't have any bus fare."

Myungsoo was about to complain good-naturedly about this, then lend him the money, when he realised the boy had probably spent it on their breakfast, and closed his mouth again, and skipped straight to the lending part, passing Sungyeol a crumpled note.

Afterwards, when they waited for the bus to arrive (not for about another fifteen minutes or so), it was boring, and they had nothing really, to say to each other, and there wasn't anyone or anything else to distract them from wracking their brains to come up with something to talk about. It was one of those silences that stretched onto the point of awkwardness, and called for random heartfelt comments to be said, so that they might form the basis for further communication.

Myungsoo shifted on his seat on the bench in the bus stop. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sungyeol sitting beside him, swinging his legs, and watching for their bus. The silence dragged some more, until Myungsoo felt compelled to say something, anything, to get Sungyeol to start on one of his weird and lengthy rambles, and Myungsoo could just listen, and feel amused.

Myungsoo cleared his throat. Wracked his brain for something to say.

"Sometimes--" Myungsoo confessed, spreading his hands out on his lap and shrugging, "--just sometimes, I feel like an old geezer next to you."

Sungyeol frowned.

"But I'm a whole year older than you." He pointed out the fact sensibly.

Myungsoo tried again. "Well. You're..." he tried to find the right words to describe Sungyeol. "...Young at heart."

Sungyeol's face didn't unscrunch from the frown. "Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" Sungyeol asked, eyebrows raised.

His question made Myungsoo think, and while he was really going to say 'it depends', because it honestly did, Myungsoo could see how self-conscious and small Sungyeol looked when he asked the question, so Myungsoo answered with his heart, instead of his rational head.

"Good. It's a good thing."

And that made Sungyeol laugh in relief, which made Myungsoo smile too. Myungsoo remembered what he really wanted to say.

"Thank you." Myungsoo smiled his best smile for Sungyeol, who looked dazed, then confused.

"Thank you, for letting me go to the beach." Myungsoo smiled once more, then added more softly, "I had fun."

Myungsoo wondered at himself. He had sand in his hair, down his shirt, in his underwear, and even between his toes, stuffed into his socks and his sneakers, so that he couldn't brush the grittiness off.

And Myungsoo still felt happy.

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I'm going to Taiwan tomorrow, and I'm so excited that I can't go to sleep, and I'll DEFINITELY write another update tonight. I ABSOLUTELY PROMISE this time guysssss!!!!! Stay tuned..... <3333