Yunho swears that newspapers these days are stupid because they are written by stupid people and filled with stupid stories. He read the gossip columns and they talked about how Changmin passed out in his own exhibition and there was blood and Changmin was probably on drugs or having a serious illness. Seriously, on drugs? How can those stupid people spread the news like that? And, having a serious illness? Yunho has to prepare himself for some calls from Changmin’s family if they read it too.

He sighs and turns the paper. He reads any interesting headlines. And, one headline with a big picture of someone he’s very familiar with surely catches his attention.

Former Mayor of Seoul  is being checked by Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption.

“Hyung?”

Yunho looks to the entrance of his kitchen and forces a smile to sleepy Changmin. “H-hey! You’re up.” He folds the newspaper with trembling hands and stands up from his seat. “How are you feeling?” he asks while pouring some hot tea that he prepared for Changmin to a mug.

“Fine,” Changmin answers quietly and sits down.

“You’re telling the truth?”

“Yeah. Well, a little tired and that’s all.” He rubs his neck as Yunho puts down the mugs.

Yunho walks back to the sink to wash his own glass and last night’s dishes when Junsu and Jaejoong were visiting them. He doesn’t want Changmin to notice that Yunho is worrying about something because Changmin will make him spill everything out while Yunho doesn’t want to stress him more with his own problem.

“Hyung, I want to go home. Can I go home?”

“Yeah, sure, Changmin-ah. I’m sorry but I have something to do today, so maybe I’ll drive you tomorrow,” he says without turning around.

“I can get a cab and you don’t really have to let me stay in here anymore. I can take care myself,” Changmin says. He sips his tea slowly and pulls the newspaper in front of him.

“I know you can. Just-“ Yunho sighs for a while and turns around, “Just make it easy for your hyungs, okay?”

“I’m sorry-“

“No!” Yunho looks up and stares at Changmin with worries, “That’s not what I mean! Whatever you’re thinking right now is definitely not what I mean! It’s just…” Yunho sighs again and before he can talk again, Changmin cuts him.

“Hyung, your grandfather…” Changmin points at the newspaper and Yunho curses himself for not hiding it better. “I’m sorry,” Changmin mumbles as he reads the news.

Yunho turns around and continues the dishes again. “I know. I’m sorry too.”

Changmin looks up at the bitterness in Yunho’s voice. “I-I’ll stay here alone. I’ll be fine, hyung. Just go check whatever you need to check.”

Yunho turns off the water and dries his hands. He keeps rubbing it with the soft fabric although it is already dried. He just needs a little time to think. After a while, he finally turns around and looks at Changmin softly. “Will you be okay?”

“Yeah!” Changmin smiles, “I can watch a movie and I’m sure Yoochun hyung will come today.”

“I thought he flew to Hong Kong this morning?” Yunho frowns.

Changmin shrugs. “He told me he canceled his flight because he has stomach flu.”

“And…you expect him to come in that condition?”

“Hyung,” Changmin shakes his head in a pretending disbelief, “when did Yoochun hyung ever get stomach flu?”

“Ah~ when he skipped classes to date with that Jessica girl in high school, right?” Yunho nods, “I’ll call him.” Yunho pulls his phone out of his jeans as he walks out of the kitchen.

“Yunho hyung,”

Yunho turns around without taking his sight off of the screen of his phone. “What is it?”

“Can you tell Yoochun hyung to take my painting set in my studio on his way here, please?”

Yunho looks up and stares at Changmin for a while. Then, Yunho smiles.

…

Yoochun locks his car and gets inside Changmin’s studio. In times where there are no exhibitions, Changmin’s studio is only a small building with three big rooms and connection doors between each room fill with Changmin’s personal favorites. His own creation or other people’s. The people who work for Changmin already know Yoochun, so they greet him politely and let him walk pass through those rooms to get to the back side of the building.

There is a small garden that separates the exhibition building with Changmin’s private room. The room is messy. There are unfinished paintings on every corner and a few fabrics with colorful paints. Brushes and paints are everywhere. The room is Changmin’s private space, so nobody dares to touch anything in the room. Except Yoochun or anybody that receives an order from Changmin to grab something from the room.

“Hey, hey! What are you doing here?! It’s Mr. Shim’s studio!”

Yoochun hears a yell when he takes a bag full of brushes and paints along with a few canvases with several sizes. Yoochun smirks at the girl that yells at him without looking at her. She must be new, he thinks.

“Don’t you know who I am?” he asks while checking on things inside the bag. He’s not a painter but he has a friend that declares painting as his life so he knows exactly what Changmin needs. Beside, Changmin already prepared an emergency painting set in a bag. In case, he needs other people to grab it for him.

When Yoochun is done checking, he looks to the door and he is shock by the sight that stands there. The girl gasps too, but her expression doesn’t last long.

“Of course, I know you,” she says quietly, with a little cynical in her voice.

Yoochun smirks. “And, I know you too.”

The girl stomps her feet to the ground a little and talks to herself, sounding upset. “I should’ve known Changmin oppa is this close with him.”

“Well, where were you? Changmin, I, and my other three friends are like the hottest bachelors in Seoul ever since we were born,” he teases. But, then he remembers something about the girl. “You should follow the news about your own country wherever you are.”

“I was busy at school,” she defends herself and glares at him.

“And, what are you? A psychologist, isn’t it? Why are you working for Changmin?” Changmin smiles teasingly when he looks at her appearance from head to toe.

“I love arts, okay?” she defends herself, again, and Yoochun chuckles. “Let me ask you again. What are you doing here, Yoochun-shi?”

Yoochun laughs lightly. Still with the formality, isn’t she?  “Changmin asked me to take his painting set.”

She fidgets with her fingers, indicating that she wants to ask about something but too cocky to do that to Yoochun. “H-how is he? He doesn’t answer my- our calls.”

Yoochun shrugs. “His phone died. He…is fine.”

“Is he in his place now?”

“No. He is in one of ours,” he says softly. For the first time after five minutes meeting her, they don’t exchange snobbery but only gloomy stares. When Yoochun realizes that, he snorts. “And, you can’t know where,” he says as he starts walking pass her.

“What should I say if other people ask where he is? Or if his family calls?” she asks while watching him walk away.

Yoochun stop and turns around. “Just tell them he’s away for a while. Somewhere. Alaska, Iceland, I don’t care. Just make it as far as you can. And, his family? The four of us will be the first four people they call when they look for him and we can handle it. Trust me. It’s been like that since we were kids. So, don’t worry.”

Yoochun starts walking again when he hears her saying something quietly. He stops at his track and turns around again. “What did you say?”

“You know our parents set us up, right? And, you’re supposed to ask me out…?” she looks at him in the eyes.

Yoochun shakes his head. “Now is not a good time to talk about it.”

“There will be no good time. If we are going to turn it down, we have to turn it down now. Well, are you?”

Yoochun looks at her and studies her expression for a while. “I am. I think it’s stupid.”

She shrugs. “You’re 27-“

“I think I know my own age. Don’t try to teach me any-“

“I wanna do this.”

“What?” Yoochun is too shocked that he drops the canvas and the bag. The brushes are shattered all over the floor. “.” He bents down to take everything as fast as he can.

“Don’t curse,” she says as she bents down in front of him and helps him.

When they’re finished tidying the painting sets, Yoochun looks at her. “What do you mean you want to do this?”

“I mean, I want to do this. This whole arranged thing. Don’t you?”

“I don’t!”

“Don’t you feel bad for them? For your parents?! Oh, of course not! Because you’re just some snob rich kid who gets everything he wants ever since he was a baby and thinks that he can do whatever he thinks right.” She stands up and starts walking away.

“Hey! What’s with the angry tone? And, I’m not some snob rich kid like you said, okay?!” he yells, catching attention from some of the workers there. When Yoochun hears whispers, he glares at them and yells “What are you all looking at?!” and they all runs, leaving the two of them.

“Oh, please! You all are! Jung Yunho and Kim Jaejoong became the most talented in their areas because they have families that are all important people in this country. Kim Junsu didn’t even have to shed a sweat to be a vice president because he basically owns that company and he’s proud of that?!” she snorts, “And, even Changmin-shi! The nicest among the four of you! He’s just like you. Snob kid th-“

She stops when Yoochun drops the painting set and walks toward her. He comes close to her face and she doesn’t step back although she’s pretty scared too.

“You can call me snob, I can put up with that. You can call Yunho and Jaejoong as the people who use their families’ popularity because they are used to the ugly words people say behind their backs in their areas. Or you can tell Junsu that he doesn’t do to get to his place now. But, never ever say a single bad word about Changmin or I’ll hunt you down and I’ll make sure your family is going down with you too.” He stops for a while and stares intently that she looks away, feeling ashamed of the words she said and scared of what Yoochun’s going to do next.

Yoochun voice becomes low, sounds dangerous. “You’re right. Sometimes, we use our families’ popularity to get what we want. But, when you think you know us that you can judge us like God, you should be ashamed. You don’t know what we have been through. You don’t know how far Yunho and Junsu went to get their degrees and tried to prove themselves that they’re good at what they’re doing, but people still look at them with their family backgrounds in addition. Or, how Jaejoong works his off with seven sets of photo shoots in a day and he has to fly to Paris on the next day and then to Tokyo right after he finished the photo shoot in Paris. It’s like hell for him but he does what he loves. Like I do what I love and that is to fly. Or, how Changmin loves painting and there are so many dreams he wants to reach, but-“

There is hesitation in Yoochun’s voice that makes her looks back to him. She sees sadness and grief in Yoochun. And, tears that are threatened to fall down. She tries to swallow the lump of guilt in his throat.

“But, then he got diagnosed with something- something that no one expected. Not the four of us.” He backs down a little and still looks at her with sorrow. “He is going to lose his dreams. So many dreams. What are you going to do if you’re him? What are you going to do if you become like us, four people who declare themselves as his big brothers and can do nothing to make the pain go away?”

She takes a step forward. “Diagnosed? With what? Yoochun-shi?”

Yoochun walks back to where the painting set lays. He grabs it and stands straight before looking at her in the eyes. “So, when you think you are having the worst problem in the world, think again. Think all over again. Because, people like us, people that you think are the luckiest in the world, are probably going through things like you or even worst. Things that are threatening to take away you dreams. And, when you think you don’t have any dream, what else you should hang on to?”

Before Yoochun walks away, he gives her one last soft smile that she’ll remember forever. “I’ll see you, Lee Nara.”

…

Yoochun opens the front door of Yunho’s apartment with the spare key that Yunho left in the receptionist. He hears the sound of TV, cooking channel, Changmin’s favorite. He closes the door and locks it before walks to the kitchen.

“Changmin-ah, I brought you your painting set and something from your favorite Chinese restaurant.” Yoochun calls from the kitchen. And when no one answers, he goes to the living room to find an empty couch with a loud TV. He takes the remote and turns it off. “Changmin?” he calls again.

And, finally, he finds Changmin in Yunho’s guest room, sleeping with blanket covering his body. Yoochun laughs a little. He walks closer to him and sits on the empty space next to Changmin.

“Min, it’s already past lunchtime. Are you hungry?” he asks softly.

Changmin stirs a little in his sleep but he doesn’t wake up.

“Hey, brat, wake up. Your favorite hyung is here and he is so tired from buying you so many foods. If you don’t wake up, I’ll call Junsu and let him have it all.” He shakes Changmin a little.

Changmin opens his left eye and Yoochun smiles at the adorableness. “You’re so noisy, hyung.”

“Yah,” Yoochun scolds him but he can’t use hard tone, “I tired myself out for you to be mocked? I’ll never buy you food, Min, and I’ll make sure Jaejoong will be on my side.”

“Yeah, right,” Changmin says as he turns his back on Yoochun. “Can we sleep a little more, please? 30 more minutes. And, you should sleep too, hyung. It’s really good,” Changmin slurs because sleep has taken him away again.

Yoochun chuckles. He finally decides to sleep too. He settles himself as close as he can to Changmin. Feeling the heat comes out from his body and his smell. He’s going to miss Changmin if he can’t make it. A tear finally escape from the corner of his eyes.

I'm sorry if it's not good enough.................I started writing this like two hours ago because it's been a long time since the last time I updated this story. I actually wanted to tell you about Yunho too but it'll become more complicated and my mind's not working well anymore because it's almost 2am in my place and I have chemistry in five hours. Oh God, I need to sleep! Good bye!

*comments and new subscribers are very very very verrrrrrryyyyyy welcomed. I LOVE YOU ALL <3