He saw Jonghyun, who was holding onto the blue mat at that time, probably going to roll out the mat on the red carpet before Jinki came in abruptly. There was a surprised look on the singer, and Jinki couldn't find any words, like before, to say. His eyes could only shift around awkwardly, mumbling under his breath about how stupid he was before turning to leave. There was a sudden warmth securing around his wrist, and he lifted his head to see Jonghyun. The singer had a slight welcoming smile as he took slow steps backwards, leading Jinki to where the mat was left lying on the floor. Jinki was standing in the middle of the church again, and he could only smile when Jonghyun released his wrist, smiling too, after knowing that Jinki wasn't going to leave anymore. They stood there for a few minutes, just smiling at each other while thinking of what to do.

Suddenly Jonghyun's face looked like he found something that they could do, and Jinki's troubled look on what they should do was wiped away with a light smile. He saw Jonghyun walking over to the bench that was free of dust, carrying the bag that seemed heavy up. And as Jonghyun did that, Jinki decided that he shouldn't just stand here like a woodblock. He rolled out the checkered mat, ping his bag and took the container which had the soup that Kibum couldn't finish earlier out. He was actually intending to finish it when he reached home, but he guessed food did taste better when you share. He removed the cover, and looked up to see Jonghyun's surprise look. Did he dislike crab soup or something? Or worse, was he allergic to seafood? 

Jinki's racing mind was soothed when Jonghyun laughed, and soon, Jinki laughed along, after realizing what Jonghyun took out from his bag. 

Jonghyun also brought containers of food out, and it almost looked like they were actually out on a picnic after laying the food out properly on the mat. It really did look like it could make a proper meal, since they have soup, along with three other dishes. Jinki could only smile at how he was actually eating here, with Jonghyun when he was probably supposed to be home, sleeping after finishing the crab soup alone. But like he said, food always tasted greater when you shared. 

They weren't just eating silently throughout the whole meal. Jinki chuckled when Jonghyun was searching for the name of the shop which sells the crab soup on the container, only to be surprised when Jinki pointed to himself, gesturing that he made it. And Jinki was surprised too, at how Jonghyun always managed to understand his clumsy and make-no-sense hand signs. It was kind of amazing, how they managed to communicate without words, but with actions and mostly, smiling. 

The next fifteen minutes, they spent their time finishing the food, and Jinki laughed at how Jonghyun groaned, knowing that he was saying something about the fullness. And after putting the containers away, they lay on their stomachs on the mat, with Jonghyun's sketchbook flipped open. There were a lot of songs written in there, and Jonghyun was singing them one by one to Jinki. And as he sang, sometimes he tried to explain the story behind the song, Jinki assume, but he spoke in Korean in the end, when he knew Jinki wasn't going to mind if he didn't understand. Jinki looked at Jonghyun, always having the slight smile on his face as Jonghyun sang with his soothing voice. Sometimes when explaining, Jonghyun looked really proud and happy, but at other times he looked really upset and regretful. At those times, Jinki found himself patting Jonghyun's back lightly. 

Jinki laughed when he found out how 'great' Jonghyun's drawing was. They had flipped to the last few pages of Jonghyun's sketchbook, to find that it was full of doodling. There was doodling of people that looked extremely hilarious, and random animals that Jinki could barely tell the identity of due to the rough drawing. Jinki then found himself with a pen soon, attempting to draw Jonghyun while they laughed when Jinki's drawing wasn't all that great either. His drawing was how a teenage girl would draw, you would probably praise that it's very cute but you wouldn't say it's gorgeous. Jinki could only manage to draw a chibi Jonghyun out, which made the singer laugh at how big the eyes were. Jinki felt amazed at himself, regarding how he could manage to make up what Jonghyun was trying to say. He soon snapped out of his thoughts when Jonghyun started drawing again, and his odd instincts told him that he was the one that Jonghyun was drawing. 

Jinki was right.

It made him laugh unstoppably when he realized how Jonghyun tried to emphasize on the bright smile Jinki had. The singer added the sparkling effect, as if his smile was shining. Jonghyun, as if embarrassed of his own drawing, tried to deny that it was Jinki. The singer even named the drawing Onew instead of Jinki, causing the university student to laugh even harder at Jonghyun. 

Jinki pointed to himself as he smiled brightly, "Onew." He then paused for a little, thinking about the name that Jonghyun just gave to the drawing. Jonghyun took the moment of silence to write the word 'Onew' onto the sketchbook, and drew a plate of tofu next to it. Jinki could immediately tell the definition of the word Onew, and Jinki found himself destroying the peaceful moment when he drew a mini-sized dinosaur next to the plate of tofu, causing both of them to laugh uncontrollably. 
 

-
 

Jonghyun's warm hand was holding onto Jinki's cold one as they ran for the last bus. It was very late, but there might still be a bus. They ran past the pond, and Jinki could feel Jonghyun tightening the grip on his hand when the university student nearly slipped. They smiled at each other briefly before continue running like it was nobody business. As they ran, Jinki remembered the moment when they finished packing and were about to go until Jonghyun saw the time, too surprised to even think. Jonghyun grabbed Jinki's hand just like that, and they ran out of the church, through the small woods, and past the pretty pond. Their hands were firmly held together, and Jinki didn't know what to think about that. 

Jinki smiled when Jonghyun scratched his cheek apologetically, realizing his watch was spoiled and that the time was lagging behind by two hours. They made a pointless run for a bus that would never come, but Jinki wasn't a little bit annoyed. It was fun, when he managed to not fall through all that running. In the end, they resorted to wait for a cab. They stood by the road silently, not saying anything as their hands remained tightly held. His hand was warm, and it was sweating a little due to all that running before. Jinki could only laugh when a cab was finally in sight after twenty minutes, and Jonghyun stuck his hand which was holding Jinki's tightly out to flag the cab, causing Jinki to stumble a little. Jonghyun's surprised and apologetic look weren't helping Jinki to stop his laughter. 

Jinki turned to look at the car window, and saw Jonghyun who was already waving him goodbye. Jinki smiled slightly as he waved back, wondering why Jonghyun was not getting into the cab together since they were both heading back. Perhaps they weren't living in the same direction, Jinki assumed as he noticed how Jonghyun's waving figure couldn't be seen anymore while the car moved. It was then he stopped waving his hand, and noticed it was the same hand that Jonghyun held tightly earlier. 

He closed his right hand tightly as he smiled unknowingly. 
 

Jinki opened the door, and saw Kibum wearing sports clothing, which he rarely did. And something told him that he knew exactly why, if it was the same compared to years ago. He smiled sheepishly when Kibum saw him, and glared at him with a where-the-hell-have-you-been look. 

"Where the hell have you been, Lee Jinki! You left earlier than me and I reached home earlier-"

"W-Wait, Kibum." Jinki tried to confirm if his thoughts earlier were correct or not. He prayed silently in his heart, praying that he was incorrect and Kibum was just being special tonight. "The clothes you are wearing..."

"Coffee rush, you are right. Don't wait anymore, you're coming with me. Change into something that you can run or bounce in, go!" Kibum looked too annoyed to explain why the coffee rush incident occurred as he pushed Jinki into the room.

Jinki had complicated feelings then. He didn't know to jump for joy that he hadn't gotten shot to death by Kibum for returning home so late, or to roll around the floor gloomily for that terrible thing that was going to occur later on. 
 

-
 

"Why did it happened?" 

Jinki tried to catch up with his breath as he ran side by side with Kibum who clearly looked annoyed, after running for about one kilometer. Both of them didn't excel in sports, and to even survive after running for one kilometer was a miracle to both of them. Jinki couldn't believe that he was running in the late night when the sun was almost coming out already and with two of his best friends. It was as if they were back to the past.


"I swear that I'm going to anti that brand of coffee Minho is endorsing," Kibum rolled his eyes. "He had a shooting earlier, for the advertisement for that damn coffee, and apparently he drank lots of it and-"

"Coffee rush, I know." 

Jinki shook his head in disbelief as he watched how far his friend Minho was from him and Kibum. Coffee rush... How long had it been since it happened? There were times when Minho couldn't sleep at all, and dragged both Kibum and him out to run around the whole neighborhood for two to three kilometers before bringing them to play a few rounds of basketball. Jinki and Kibum both named it the terrible coffee rush. The caffeine effect seemed to triple when it was Minho who was drinking it, much to Kibum's annoyance. Jinki would find hell approaching whenever Minho drank coffee, because in the middle of the night Kibum and him would change into sports clothes and run when they didn't enjoy sports at all. But it was all for the sake of Minho, who would sleep soundly after all the activities. 

"Being your friend for so many years, I can only say I hate it when you drink that stinking coffee!" 

Minho only turned and smiled before turning back to continue running again. Kibum ruffled his hair in annoyance when he saw his tall friend turning his back on him. Jinki laughed, noticing an interesting fact.

"Kibum ah, you can still shout that loudly, not bad!"

Jinki never ran that fast in his life before when Kibum started to whack his back with the wet towel he brought along.
 

-
 

It was useless to play basketball when Minho was here. Even if Kibum and Jinki teamed together, they couldn't score more than three points. Yes, they were that pathetic when it came to sports, which they dread so much. Jinki could clearly tell that Minho was enjoying playing basketball out here while Kibum was so annoyed that he could kill a tiger. Jinki could only feel his stamina being completely drained off as he tried to snatch the ball away from Minho, even if he knew it was futile.

Down the hoop, Minho scored again.

Kibum sat on the rough floor, feeling his stamina completely drained. Jinki chuckled at that sight. There were times when Kibum told him over the phone about how tired and drained he was whenever Minho drank more than 2 cups of coffee, and times when Kibum said that he was going to exterminate all the coffee in Minho's sight. Jinki picked up the basketball that rolled to his side, and saw the actor walk to pull Kibum up.

"You caused me to chase after a damn ball like a frantic chicken! Choi Minho!" 

Minho laughed as Kibum shook his arm off, and sat together with his ex-classmate. Jinki seated himself beside Minho, and poked Kibum's ankle lightly with his shoe, laughing when the tired man responded by glaring. 

"Don't irritate me, I can seriously feed you to the crocodiles. And Lee Jinki! Did you meet him again or something? You took so long to come home!"

Jinki's smile stiffened at that sudden question, and noticed Minho's curious stare.

"Him?"

Jinki wondered which question to answer first as he could only grin awkwardly at two of his best friends while holding onto the basketball tightly. Kibum, as if he had already gotten the answer, nodded understandingly as he wiped his face with a towel. Kibum exhaled loudly as he threw the towel on Minho's face, announcing loudly that it was time for story-telling time. Kibum laughed at how Jinki was lying on the floor, dying of embarrassment as Minho listened to what was all this about concentratedly. Jinki thought he could die when Kibum even told Minho about the album he bought, and the person on the poster that was pasted on the wall was exactly the person Jinki met. 

"What?" Minho tried to hold back a laughter, adding despair to Jinki's undying embarrassment. "Does our Jinki like him?"

Jinki widened in his eyes in surprise as Kibum started to laugh uncontrollably, clutching his stomach tightly while Minho chuckled at both of his friends' reactions. Jinki nudged Kibum's arm as Kibum joked about how grand Jinki's wedding was going to be. Minho still gave a thumbs up to Kibum's statement, which made both of them laughed even harder. Jinki almost thought both of his friends were going crazy, laughing so loudly at the basketball court when the sun was rising. 

"Minho ah, our Jinki is getting married!" 

God, they were really crazy. 
 

He found it extremely hard to concentrate during the lectures on Monday. His eyelids weighed like rocks and he couldn't even get a single word that the lecturer was saying into his mind. He found himself laughing at how exhausted Kibum was the day before, he found himself squealing softly in embarrassment at Minho's reaction, and lastly, smiling like a fool when he looked at his right hand, being reminded of Jonghyun. 

At home, he laughed at how Kibum fussed over the clothes he designed, altering every small details that Jinki thought was not necessary. But Jinki knew nothing about designing, so he just shrug while poking lightly at Kibum's glasses which were finally brought to light after so long, to Kibum's annoyance. It was then he found himself listening to Jonghyun's songs more as he did his university notes, till the extent that even Kibum could hum one of Jonghyun's songs. Both Kibum and he shared a table, as they did their own separate stuff. Jinki did his university work, while Kibum, the perfectionist, designed the clothes for the new season. 

He was almost too busy to notice that Minho had been overseas for four days already. When both Jinki and Kibum were at the table, they brought up the funny moments during college which caused both of them to laugh so hard that they couldn't sit still. Jonghyun was brought up at times, when Kibum found the scratching sound of pencil against the paper too annoying. Then, he would laugh at how Jinki choked on his saliva due to the surprise. Kibum, at times, raised an eyebrow at how Jinki would smile like a fool whenever he looked at his hands, especially his right hand. 

On Saturday, both of them gave each other a supporting pat on the back before laughing. Their long Saturday was spent by watching all the dramas Minho acted in, going online to watch the commercials that included Minho. Sometimes, Jinki would find the clothes Minho wearing so familiar, only to be knocked on the head when he realized it was from Kibum's shop. They, of course, didn't forget to webcam with Minho which caused so much laughter when Jinki accidentally fell off the chair. 
 

-

It was late in the night, and Jinki slept through the time that he and Jonghyun met during the last few times. He took a nap during the evening, only to wake up when Kibum nudged him, asking if he was going to meet Jonghyun or not. He was glad that Kibum woke him up, since through the week, there was times when he looked forward to Sunday. And that it finally reached, he actually overslept. Jinki mentally hit himself for that as he pushed open the door.

He blinked in surprised when he saw Jonghyun lying on the blue mat, asleep. He closed the door lightly, afraid that the creaking sound might wake the singer up. As he stood beside Jonghyun who was sleeping, he noticed something placed on the empty space beside the bench which Jonghyun always placed his bag. Jinki walked to the bench out of curiosity, and saw a dozen of big sized bottles filled with plain water there, along with a broom, a packet of wiping cloth, a portable vacuum cleaner and a red bucket. Was the singer intending to clean up the church tonight? Jinki took the packet of cloths up as he walked towards Jonghyun, and noticed how exhausted the singer looked. He smiled worriedly before looking at the packet of wiping cloths, with the bottles of plain water and broom. 

He guessed a little cleaning wouldn't hurt. 

Jinki poured water into the red bucket, and dipped the wiping cloth into the water before cleaning the benches, wiped the stained glass windows detailedly with them. He almost thought that he had transformed into Kibum, and chuckled softly at himself. With the broom and the mini vacuum cleaner's help, the church was soon clean of dust, not exactly though, but at least the church was clean. Jinki smiled at how cute the portable vacuum cleaner was, as he used it to clear the dust on the red carpet. He was glad that the vacuum cleaner had a silent motor, it wouldn't wake Jonghyun up when he reached the carpet which neared the blue mat. 

As he kept all the cleaning materials, he went back to the bench which he assumed was Jonghyun's favorite spot. He remembered he noticed some carvings there, but was too concentrated on cleaning to take a second glance at it. After looking at it, he noticed there was indeed, carvings there. Musical notes were carved there, and it wasn't just many. There were so many of it carved there, and Jinki wondered what they were for. 

"... Thanks," 

Jinki looked up in surprise, and saw Jonghyun looking at him very gratefully. It took Jinki for a moment or so to realize what was Jonghyun actually thanking him about. He smiled as Jonghyun thanked him again, and stopped when he realized Jinki was looking at the carvings. Jonghyun went silent for a moment, before frowning. He looked trouble, and Jinki shifted when Jonghyun took the seat beside him. The singer tried to explain in details what exactly was the carvings about, but apparently he failed to when Jinki only could stare at him, confused. There was a long awkward silence until Jonghyun's eyes lit up. 

"Jinki," The singer thought hard on what to say next. "... Book, Juliette. Book!"

He immediately knew what Jonghyun tried to explain to him. The book, Jinki read it before. He wasn't surprised that he knew, since he loved reading books. He remembered the male lead character of the novel would always carve his house's wooden wall of what was on his mind the most that day. And of course, Jonghyun's house walls wouldn't be made of wood, right? Jinki grinned brightly as he nodded, and both of them laughed at the way they understood each other. It crossed Jinki's mind for a moment, for why Jonghyun knew about that book when it was in English, only to laugh even harder at his stupidity when he realized there were a lot of versions of that book, since it was so popular.
 

-
 

As they stood by the streets to wait for a cab, Jinki thought of the passion Jonghyun held for music and smiled.

He loved music too. 
 

The next week, Kibum was busy choosing fabrics and was always at the sewing machine. Jinki picked up the book "Juliette" again, and could only smile sweetly when Minho asked him for the reason why he was picking the book up again. Kibum was too busy to even know what was happening around him since he had to prepare and choose the fabrics for the clothes he designed, and Minho pulled Jinki to rehearse his drama lines with, even if the university student was too busy reading the book. Minho was casually saying how he would wear Kibum's new clothes to the gatherings and ceremonies and spread the word that Kim Kibum's shop is awesome. Kibum took his word for it, and Jinki chuckled at how surprised Minho looked. 

"You're the bestest friend that I have ever had," 

Minho mumbled sarcastically as Kibum tried to check if the clothes he made were going to suit the actor. Kibum just laughed at how that was payback time for his damned coffee rush.
 

-
 

On Sunday morning, Kibum was already proudly showing Jinki and Minho some of the clothes that were completed already. Jinki was surprised to find that one of the clothes was made to fit Jonghyun's frame, and Kibum just explained in annoyance that he made this particular outfit while listening to Jinki singing to Jonghyun's songs. Jinki packed the outfit into his bag, and laughed when Kibum said he didn't like that particular outfit, so it was fine to give it to Jonghyun. Jinki could only widen his eyes in embarrassment when Minho asked if it was bribery for Jonghyun to treat Jinki better. 

Jinki spent the afternoon and evening watching all the music videos of Jonghyun, and realized Jonghyun debuted not too long ago. He smiled at how charismatic Jonghyun looked when singing, and he changed into a shy person when it was time for him to introduce himself and his songs. Kibum laughed at how Jinki could only watch videos of Jonghyun that were english subbed, while Jinki pouted at how Kibum and Minho were too busy these days to teach him Korean.

That night, Jinki went to the church, humming his favorite song of Jonghyun. It was slow-paced, yet soothing. He didn't understand a single word in it, but he could feel something when he listened to the song. He could only laugh at his own stupidity as he opened the door, noticing that the blue mat wasn't there, Jonghyun wasn't there. 

Jinki's smile faded disappointedly.

He took small steps in the church, and widened his eyes in surprise when Jonghyun jumped out from hiding behind the door. 

"Boo!" 

Jonghyun grinned cheekily as he shoved a bouquet of petunias into Jinki's hands. Jinki could only gape at what was before him, the pretty little bouquet that he was holding, and the bright smile that Jonghyun had on him. Jinki could only smile like a silly fool when Jonghyun ruffled his hair as usual, and Jinki felt his cheeks burning slightly as he continued to look at the petunias. 

Was it normal if he said that his heart skipped a beat?
 

- T B C -

A/N: I'll reply to the comments now! Thanks for all the precious comments ;-; I'll really appreciate them a lot. <3