3rd Person (Just a reminder)

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Even though Youngsaeng and Hyunjoong seemed to be pretty close at first, they suddenly grew apart. No one knew why. It was their little secret.

"Hey, hyung," Hyungjun started, grabbing onto Youngsaeng's arm when he saw his hyung pass Hyunjoong without a greeting even while Hyunjoong was trying to talk to him. "Why aren't you even talking to him anymore?"

Youngsaeng simply shrugged. "There's nothing to talk about."

"But you didn't even say hi to him!" Hyungjun remarked.

The older boy turned and started to walk away again with a cold expression. "It's my choice if I want to greet him or not."

The brunette furrowed his eyebrows and scratched the back of his head in puzzlement. What really happened?

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A Week Before

"Youngsaeng! Do you want to go my house today?" Hyunjoong called from the door when lunch had started.

The younger boy looked up from his desk and smiled with a nod. "Yeah, okay!"

After school, Youngsaeng followed Hyunjoong to his giant mansion, in which he owned since his family was incredibly wealthy, and entered, in absolute awe of all the decoration and the shine of the polished floors.

"What are you staring at?" Hyunjoong chuckled. "You've been here before. How can you still be so amazed?"

"This mansion always seems become more magnificent everytime I come," Youngsaeng told him, taking off his shoes at the front door. "So what're we going to do today?"

"I don't know," Hyunjoong bluntly replied.

Youngsaeng paused for a second and then asked him. "Why am I here then?"

The older boy just shrugged. "I was thinking of playing of video games again but we do that every time so it's getting boring. Do you want to go swimming?"

"But I don't have--"

"I'll let you borrow mine," Hyunjoong cut him off. "I have quite a few pairs."

He let Youngsaeng pick out the swimming shorts from his wardrobe and the two went down to the swimming pool of the mansion. It was incredibly large. Youngsaeng's mouth gaped open in shock.

"I haven't shown you the swimming pool before?" Hyunjoong asked in confusion, trying to remember if he did.

"This is definitely my first time seeing it," Youngsaeng said and took a step forward but felt his foot slide forward without warning and a second later, he fell to the ground with a sudden sound of a crash following his fall.

"What was--" Hyunjoong started and gasped loudly.

Youngsaeng turned and saw that a porcelain pot from a stand table had fallen and crashed on the ground, shattered.

"Oh my--" Youngsaeng started as he hurriedly got up. "I'm so sorry! My hand must've hit that when I fell! I didn't know, I'm really sorry! I'll buy another one for you! How much did it cost?"

Hyunjoong looked at him. "You think you would actually be able to buy this for me? It was my mom's favorite pot!"

"I'm sorry! I'll pay you back!" Youngsaeng exclaimed worriedly as he was bowing up and down, almost about to cry.

"My mom bought it for about 2 500 000 000 won (about 1 300 000 dollars)," Hyunjoong said sternly. "How do you think you're going to be able to pay that back?"

"2 500 000 000 won??? Just for a single pot???" Youngsaeng yelled in extreme surprise.

"That's how special it is," Hyunjoong told him. "And now you broke it... I wonder how you're going to pay me back..."

Youngsaeng gulped and looked down at his feet in shame, a lump of guilt stuck in his throat. "I'm sorry... I'll pay you back somehow... I promise."

He heard Hyunjoong gasp again and look up. The older boy had an evil grin on his face. Youngsaeng didn't know what to say.

"You know..." he heard Hyunjoong start again. "My mother's been continuously bombarding me with blind dates and offers to arrange marriage..."

"What does that have to do with this?" Youngsaeng asked in puzzlement, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I want her to stop," Hyunjoong explained. "So why don't you become my girlfriend and we can show her that I have someone I love already so she'll stop."

"But... I don't love you and you don't love me," the shorter boy commented. "I can't do this. And what's with this boy and boy relationship? I doubt your mother will even accept that."

"If you become my fake girlfriend," the older boy said. "I will subtract a large amount of money every time you act something out with me in front of my mother or do something for me. That way, your debt will soon be paid off, right?"

Youngsaeng's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "I don't want your money, hyung! I can think of a way to pay off this debt myself! I don't need to become your boyfriend! Anyways, lying to your own mother is bad enough!"

"Do you know how annoying that old hag is? Every day, she's giving me picture of rich and hideous girls and telling me to decide on one of them! She's asking me to get married when I enter university! That's insane!"

"Old hag? Did you just call your mother an old hag?"

"She is an old hag!" Hyunjoong argued loudly. "All she cares about is the company. She's never done anything, she's never cared for me, she's never done ANYTHING for me!"

"YOU'RE LUCKY YOU EVEN HAVE A MOTHER!" Youngsaeng screamed in fury, his face red in anger but he immediately covered his mouth after he realized what he had just revealed.

Hyunjoong stared at him, speechless. Youngsaeng got back his composure and looked down at the ground, calming down. "I'm leaving," he quietly spoke as he turned and walked away. After putting back the swimming shorts, in which he ended up not using, he exited the mansion and left.

End of Flashback

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Youngsaeng couldn't care less about Hyunjoong's problems now. What he was worried about now was that he had basically told Hyunjoong that he didn't have a mother. He wanted to keep that a secret so that people wouldn't look down on him.

"Hey, look!" his classmate shouted to the others. "It's Heo Youngsaeng! The abandoned child!"

Everyone crowded around the tiny Youngsaeng, laughing and giggling at him. A few even kicked and punched him. He fell to the ground, hiding his head under his arms to not take any damage to his head.

"Stop it!" a yell came from outside the crowd.

The kids turned and saw someone walking towards them.

"It's the devil girl!" they all whispered urgently as they ran away.

Youngsaeng saw a girl a little older than him approach him. She kneeled down to become eye level with him.

"Are you okay?" she murmured gently, being careful to not frighten him. "You're such a brave child. You're not even crying after getting beat up like this..."

Youngsaeng gazed into her eyes. "I can't cry... It will make Mommy and Daddy sad..."

The girl chuckled a little and wrapped her arms around him, comforting him and letting him forget the pain. "Youngsaeng-ah... You're this small yet you already know how to hold back your tears. That's really amazing though your mother wouldn't be happy to see you getting bullied like this."

"Really?" Youngsaeng echoed slowly.

The young girl nodded. "Even I have to cry at times when I feel really sad but you know, it's okay to cry when you feel pain.

Youngsaeng sighed at the memory. He leaned on the windowsill, breathing in the fresh air wafting into the school from the forest outside of the fences of his highschool. From the corner, he saw someone join him at the windowsill. He looked up to see Hyunjoong. Almost immediately, he turned and started to walk away but a hand grabbed his arm. Youngsaeng stopped but didn't turn around.

"Let go," he demanded.

"No," Hyunjoong's firm voice came.

"Let go right now," Youngsaeng repeated.

"I won't," the older boy said again.

"I said let me go!" Youngsaeng yelled as he turned around and forcefully ripped his arm out of the tight grip.

The two faced each other. Youngsaeng glared up at the taller boy.

"Youngsaeng," Hyunjoong started. "Let me--"

"There's nothing to explain!" Youngsaeng shouted at him, already knowing what he was going to say. "I don't want to see you!"

"Youngsaeng!" Hyunjoong exclaimed as the boy his heel and ran away down the hall. 

"Damn it," Hyunjoong growled, face palming himself and sliding down the wall.

"Excuse me," a voice came from above him.

He looked up to see a familiar face.

"Are you Kim Hyunjoong?" the boy standing above asked him.

He nodded. "You're Kim Hyungjun, right?"

"Neh," the brunette replied. "Since you know I'm Youngsaeng hyung's friend, can you explain to me why hyung is so upset? He barely even talks to me now! He's not usually like this."

"Nothing happened between us," Hyunjoong lied, looking away out the window.

"You're obviously lying," Hyungjun told him. "Hyung's never been like this before. Only after he met you, did he become so upset. It must be because of you. You did something, didn't you?"

The older boy huffed and started to walk down the hall, gesturing Hyungjun to follow him. "Let's go somewhere else to talk. Some place where no one can eavesdrop."

The two climbed up the stairs and Hyunjoong led the Hyungjun to the roof. They went into the shadows and sat against the wall.

"So what happened?" Hyungjun immediately asked.

"Well... I'm not exactly sure why Youngsaeng got so pissed off at me. He rarely ever looks at me."

"Start from the beginning," Hyungjun directed.

"He got angry at me a week ago when I invited him to go to my house," Hyunjoong spoke. "We got into an argument and I called my mother an 'old hag' and he got angry at me saying that I was lucky to even have a mother. And then he left." He had taken out the part where he had requested Youngsaeng to become his boyfriend.

Hyungjun sighed miserably, putting his head on his knees. "How could you...?"

"How could I... what?"

"Hyung probably doesn't want me to tell you about his personal life but I think it'd be best for both of you if you understood him better," Hyungjun started.

"You're going to tell me his past?"

Hyungjun didn't reply and started. "Hyung's mother passed away when he was only an infant. A few months later, his father abandoned him in front of an orphanage and he was taken in. But his life didn't get any better for as he grew up, he was continuously bullied at the orphanage for being an abandoned child."

"Oh... That's horrible..." Hyunjoong whispered in shock.

"When he was about 4 years old, a new girl was taken in by the orphanage. She was a little older than him. Her parents were both dead due to an accident and none of the family members wanted her so she was the same as hyung. She comforted of hyung and took care of him at the orphanage but then she left, one day, because her grandfather went to get her."

"What happened to Youngsaeng?"

"He--"

"Ya!" a voice came from above them.

Hyungjun stopped and they both looked up to see Youngsaeng looking down at them.

"Hyung!" Hyungjun exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing up there?"

"You two sure are noisy," Youngsaeng remarked as he jumped off the building and landed firmly on the ground in front of them. "I was trying to take a nap and your chattering disturbed me. Just what were you talking about?"

The two looked at each other. It seemed as if Youngsaeng hadn't heard them.

"N-nothing!" Hyunjoong stammered. "We were just... talking about high school crushes and stuff like that."

Youngsaeng narrowed his eyes at them and then relaxed. "Well, that sounds fun."

Hyungjun nodded. "Anyways... Hyunjoong hyung has something to say to you so I'm going to leave you two alone, alright?"

"Arasseo," Youngsaeng replied and watched as his dongsaeng left the roof.

He was about to leave, too when Hyunjoong pulled him back.

"What do you want?" Youngsaeng exclaimed in frustration. "I already said that I didn't want to see you!"

"Just listen to me!" Hyunjoong commanded and pushed Youngsaeng against the wall, not letting him escape.

Youngsaeng squirmed in his grasp but it was futile. "Let go..."

"Please... Just this once..." Hyunjoong pleaded and let go of the younger boy. "Listen to me. I didn't know that you didn't have a mother. I'm sorry. I know it's my fault. I took you for granted. I didn't consider your feelings. I treated you like a joke. I'm really sorry, okay?"

Youngsaeng huffed and looked away. "What do you really want?"

"Well... Other than wanting you to forgive me... I also wanted to talk about that relationship request."

"I told you already! I'm not doing it!" Youngsaeng told him.

"I really need your help. Please... My mother is really starting to arrange marriages for me. I deny them but she thinks she's doing the best for me. Please, I really don't want to get married to someone I don't even love. Can you just pretend to be my girlfriend when we're in front of her? Just for a while until she believes that I really don't want to get married."

"Just for a while?"

"Yeah! Only a little while. Everytime you do something for me, I'll decrease your debt until it goes to zero and then, we don't need to do it anymore. And also..."

"And what?"

"And... if you agree to do this," Hyunjoong started with a grin and dug into his pocket, pulling out a small silver plate with a red collar attached to it. "You get HJ's collar back."

"What type of trade is that?" Youngsaeng exclaimed in fury. "How can you do that? You know that I wanted that collar and now you're using it against me?"

"Please... Just this once!" Hyunjoong begged with puppy eyes.

"Wait... This means I have to dress up as a girl, don't I?" Youngsaeng asked suspiciously.

Hyunjoong nodded. "Yeah, that's right. Come on... please!!!!"

Youngsaeng held his hand out and sighed. "Give me the collar."

"Does that mean you agree?"

"Just give it!"

Hyunjoong dropped it in Youngsaeng's palm and squealed in happiness, jumping up and down in joy, knowing that Youngsaeng had accepted. Youngsaeng watched him and was suddenly reminded of the time when he accepted Hachi as an adopted pet from HJ and how happy he was.

'How nostalgic,' he thought, looking down at the collar and clutching it in his hand.

Only for a little. He just had to endure it for a little while and then he would be free.