Yixing’s gaze fell onto a lone figure standing a short distance away from him. An unlikely friend he somehow made in the long 2 years they spent together in a cell.

Was he alone too? Just last night, he had been enthusiastically telling Yixing how his friend Chanyeol was coming to pick him up to drive off into the sunset yada yada (he hadn’t really been listening) but it appeared that his cellmate had been duped. Yixing was vaguely aware of the dull ache in his throat. Why did people make promises if they were only going to break them?

“Baek Hyun,” he called as he approached the other man, casually slinging an arm around his shoulders. “I’m craving for a bowl of kimchi ramen. Join me?”

The disappointment in Baek Hyun’s eyes tugged on Yixing’s heartstrings long after they had left the prison outskirts and found themselves at the nearest ramen shop claiming to have been featured on numerous TV shows. Yixing gestured for the ahjumma to bring them their signature ramen before turning his full attention on the other man.

“Yah, cheer up. Maybe he was caught up at work. I’m sure there’s a good reason why he’s not here,” Yixing tried to say.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

“Don’t nag.”

“Then smile a bit. You are freaking me out,” Yixing told him seriously, before jabbing the other none too lightly on the waist. “Do you want me to threaten you with my aegyo? Are you sure you can handle that? We know how deadly—”

“— I would like to thank my beloved girlfriend for standing by me the past 2 years—”

Wait.

That voice.

“— If not for her, I couldn’t have won this award—”

Wait.

Wasn’t that… Kris?

Yixing released his hands on Baek Hyun and looked up to stare at the television screen on the wall of the restaurant. True enough, Kris was there, onstage, in an impeccable black suit with his hair coiffed neatly to one side and in his hand held the ‘Best Actor’ glass trophy – and the camera cut to a stunning woman smiling proudly at him.

Yixing’s own smile disappeared.

“Who is that?” he mumbled under his breath, unaware that Baek Hyun heard him and was now giving him an uncomfortable look.

“Jessica Jung? Uh… I heard a guard say she and Kris Wu went public about 2 years ago. They just got… engaged.” Baek Hyun rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’m sure he has a reason for that. Don’t jump to conclusions, ok?”

No. How was it possible? Kris couldn’t have gotten a girlfriend – fiancée – Luhan would have told him. Pasting a smile on his face, Yixing nodded in response and struggled to keep his face straight, relieved when the ahjumma returned with their ramen so he didn’t have to reply.

How could Kris be attached 2 years ago? Two years ago was when he got arrested!

He wouldn’t lie to him like that.

Would he?

***

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was for your own good!”

“How is this for my own good?!” Yixing yelled into the phone angrily, his eyes shooting lasers at the computer screen as he opened window after window of news article on “Krisica”. “2 years! For 2 years I’ve been waiting – I don’t believe this.”

“Xing, calm down—”

“NO, Luhan, don’t tell me to calm down. You lied to me. I need to look for him. I need answers.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Xing!” He could hear panic from his best friend’s voice all the way from Beijing. “Why are you setting yourself for heartbreak? Maybe… maybe he doesn’t want to see you anymore. He doesn’t want to be associated with a druggie—”

“ you!” Yixing slammed the phone receiver down shakily and yanked the telephone cord out, throwing the entire phone across the room. He looked at the taped photo above his study desk, of the happy smiley pair in it.

“ you,” he repeated softly, tugging it down from the wall to stare at it. His index finger ran over the faded print, pausing at the other figure. What did Luhan know? He wasn’t the druggie.

Eyebrows furrowed in agitation, Yixing urgently scrolled through his mobile phone’s contact list for Kris and immediately dialed the number. Not in service. No… that was not possible. Kris wouldn’t change his number to avoid him. He probably had a good reason – maybe the fans found his number. He needed to find him.

Scrambling up from his chair, Yixing practically flew out of the apartment in his hurry to catch a cab, forgetting his scarf and a jacket despite the cold December air. It was far more important to see Kris, to get the truth from him – a little breeze wouldn’t kill him.

But when the cab took Yixing to the address he practically had imprinted in his mind, he was stunned that what was before him was not the luxury apartment he came in and out of years ago, but a vacant plot of land.

His eyes stared at the scene before him in shock. Where did the building go? How could it just disappear – it had only been 2 years. Kris couldn’t just vanish into thin air like that. Was Luhan right? Had Kris moved on from him? Yixing sat down on the sidewalk in disbelief, hurt marring his pretty features. Did he offer himself to be the scapegoat for nothing?

***

“Sorry for the short notice,” Yixing said quietly, setting down the last of his luggage on the floor. He cast a quick glance around the messy apartment before pulling his gaze back to the other man.

Baek Hyun shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I live with anyone else anyway,” he said flatly and Yixing could hear the underlying meaning in his voice. If Yixing’s landlord had not kicked him out of the apartment the minute he returned home, perhaps he would have been in a better shape to console Baek Hyun but right now he was just as weary as him to offer much solace.

The two of them spent dinner in silence but neither could each much of the fried chicken they had called to be delivered. Instead, both young men concentrated on drinking the beer that they bought from the convenience store downstairs as though they were competing who could drink the most in the shortest period.

“I robbed a shop because of a stupid dare,” Baek Hyun said suddenly. Yixing’s hand paused in mid-air, still holding onto his 7th can of beer. “He… was supposed to cover for me if the cops came. But he ran off the minute we heard the sirens and left me there.” Yixing’s heart caught in his throat at the hurt across his friend’s face and could not resist leaning over to pull him into a half embrace.

 “We were supposed to debut together,” Yixing said softly, idly drawing circles on Baek Hyun’s arm as he took a long sip of his beer. “Kris and I. We used to say how I’d compose and he’d write lyrics and we’ll make the best idol duo ever…” Yixing scoffed. “This would have been our seventh year of… friendship.”

Baek Hyun tapped the base of his beer can against Yixing’s. “We should start a club,” he slurred. “The Abandoned Sheep.”

A snort escaped Yixing’s nose. “You mean black sheep.”

“Fine. The Abandoned Black Sheep. My code name’s Bacon and yours can be…” Baek Hyun paused, eyes searching around the living room they were sprawled in until he found a packet of potato chips. “Lay.”

“Right. Because I need to get laid.”

Baek Hyun shrugged but the faint smile on his lips didn’t escape Yixing’s eyes despite how drunk he was and how much the room was spinning. “Hey, I’m not judging. I need some action too.”

“Lay it is. You’re the club president, you make the decisions,” Yixing announced loudly, laughter bubbling in his throat. It wasn’t even that funny but, well, he was drunk.

Baek Hyun nodded solemnly. “Screw the s who left us. They have no foresight to see how valuable we are,” he declared and raised his beer can. “Here’s to The Abandoned Black Sheep.

“Here’s to our new lives.”