The story about Ryeowook and Jongwoon is a very sweet one but it doesn’t end well…

Ryeowook must’ve been around thirteen when he met Jongwoon. He told me that it had been on one of his mom’s annual parties – his mom threw a party every year to celebrate midsummers day – and because his mom had invited all of her boring, old friends, Ryeowook decided to go play with his ball in the corner of the garden.

He kicked the ball against the wooden fence a few times, caught it with his hands and he kept repeating it. It was a nice game but Ryeowook had quickly grown tired of it and decided to give the ball a hard kick. But that had been a wrong move as the ball flew over the fence into the little park that lays behind Ryeowook’s house. Ryeowook had thrown a quick glance over his shoulder and the moment he noticed that his mother wasn’t paying attention, he climbed over the fence so that he could search for his ball.

Ryeowook searched everywhere in the park but he couldn’t find his ball until he saw a boy with his ball in his hand.

He ran as quickly as he could towards the boy but Ryeowook had been a bit timid and he hadn’t dared to take another step, afraid that the boy would hurt him.

The boy on the other hand had only been curious ever since the moment he laid eyes on Ryeowook. Well, it must’ve been a strange sight: you find a ball and a little boy comes after it and stares at it but doesn’t utter a word.

Ryeowook told me that he had felt intimidated that moment. The boy had dark, deep and pitch-black eyes that stared right into his soul and combined with black, ruffled hair and a blank expression, it would’ve made everyone shiver.

Yet it had been those eyes and a warm, soft, velvet voice that ‘lured’ Ryeowook in. “Is this your ball?” The boy had asked him and Ryeowook froze completely only to calm down the next second and to shyly nod.

“Here…” The boy had handed it over to Ryeowook who took it with a silent ‘thank you’. The boy had smiled and had ruffled Ryeowook’s hair after leaving. Which left Ryeowook blushing and wanting for more.

After that, Ryeowook had often wanted to play in the park, which Kyuhyun and I had found annoying at the time. But Ryeowook didn’t give up and played there often just in the hope to catch a glint of the boy.

It took Ryeowook a whole year full of determination to see that boy again. They met again in the park and this time Ryeowook was determined to talk but in the end, he didn’t say a word but instead he learned a lot about the boy. His name was Jongwoon and he was two years older than Ryeowook. Jongwoon had grown since the last time that Ryeowook saw him. Now, Jongwoon was a whole head taller than he was and Ryeowook found it weird to admit but he found him now even more attractive than the last time they met.

And despite the fact that Ryeowook didn’t talk a lot to Jongwoon in the beginning, they became friends. Ryeowook met Jongwoon more often than he met me or Kyuhyun. Maybe that was the reason that I considered Kyuhyun my best friend, despite him being so darn annoying, Ryeowook already had a best friend after all.

When Ryeowook was fifteen, a senior asked him out. And Ryeowook was never the one for saying no so he agreed.

I had talked about it with Jongwoon at the time – we met him after he and Ryeowook ‘officially’ became friends – and he told me that he wasn’t really happy with this turn of events. He had known the senior and he had a bad feeling about all of this.

I had asked him why and with a dark underlying tone in his voice that only he had been able to make, he had answered: “Because he’s always in too deep.”

And Jongwoon had been right. The senior was way deeper into the relationship than Ryeowook was. So when Ryeowook wanted to break up, the senior refused to let Ryeowook go.

He followed Ryeowook everywhere, gave him creepy calls and frequently banged on his door, begging Ryeowook to take him back.

In the end, Jongwoon had enough. He didn’t want the senior to scare Ryeowook anymore and told the senior that he was now Ryeowook’s boyfriend. Ryeowook was baffled, to say the least, but he didn’t object to what Jongwoon was saying and just accepted it with a smile.

And gradually, Jongwoon and Ryeowook seemed to really become a couple, especially now that the senior wasn’t bothering them anymore.

Around the time that Jongwoon and Ryeowook were together for three months, they went to the supermarket. It had been a normal day for them, not one single strange thing had happened. But unbeknownst to them, they had been followed by the senior.

Jongwoon and Ryeowook had been choosing several ingredients for dinner when the senior suddenly decided to show himself.

The senior’s face had been contorted into a crazed look, in his hand he held a black gun and with a manic laugh, he had pointed the gun at Ryeowook.

People around them ran away or ducked away behind stands. The cashiers pressed a button under their registers to alert the police and after that, they left the store together with their customers. Only Jongwoon and Ryeowook didn’t move. Ryeowook was petrified but Jongwoon was afraid that if he made a sudden move that it would trigger the senior to shoot.

But the senior apparently had other thoughts and shot without hesitation. But he didn’t shoot Ryeowook, oh no, he shot the one that Ryeowook loved the most.

Jongwoon’s body shook almost softly from the impact with the bullet. He had looked back to Ryeowook’s face before he looked up to the heavens.

Ryeowook had been trembling like a leaf and he had lost all of his strength when he heard the trigger being pulled.

They had fallen down at the same time but only one of them was alive.

Jongwoon was dead. And we knew that we would never see him alive again.

But apparently, we were wrong.

Jongwoon didn’t turn around towards Ryeowook. He just stood there, watching Hangeng’s face as if the other one could make us disappear. And let’s be honest, Hangeng probably could. It looked like he had the strength and the manpower to make us disappear from this world.

“Jongwoon! Jongwoon, please! Don’t you recognize me anymore?!” Ryeowook kept calling for him and he wanted to walk towards him but Sungmin stopped him.

Finally, Jongwoon turned around to face us. And I took another good look at him. It was Jongwoon but at the same time it was not. Jongwoon had always had a dark vibe around him but also a gentle one but this Jongwoon seemed to be missing the gentle vibe. And this Jongwoon had gained a lot more muscles.

“I don’t know who this Jongwoon is but he is not me. My name is Yesung.” The soft and velvet voice even seemed the same as Jongwoon’s though the voice of this Yesung was colder as if it had never known any warmth.

I knew that Jongwoon had no siblings so this could not be a twin that got into this painting before us. So then who was this Yesung…

I abruptly turned towards Donghae and yanked him closer to me so that I could scream-whisper into his ear: “You drew Yesung, didn’t you. You saw Jongwoon once and drew him which created Yesung.”

I pulled away a bit and studied Donghae’s face. He was lost in thought but he slowly nodded after a while.

“Oh God.” I whispered as I watched Ryeowook’s tearstained face and Yesung’s cold face.

“You need to calm down, Hyukjae.” I heard Donghae whisper to me and I felt his hand softly rubbing my back. “You’re hyperventilating.” He calmly told me.

I hadn’t even noticed. I looked at Donghae, he seemed worried but he was still calm. He calmly breathed in and slowly he exhaled. I followed his breathing pattern and after a few minutes, I calmed down.

Henry who still sat on top of Donghae’s shoulders began to wriggle even more. And Donghae finally put him down on the ground.

Immediately Henry’s little legs began to run to his older brother while he loudly yelled: “Geng! These people are really nice!”

“Nice?” Hangeng asked and his eyes found… Heechul’s?

“Yeah, Mr. Donghae and Mr. Sungmin saved me from the a big, black hole!”

“Mr. Donghae?” Both Hangeng and Yesung repeated after Henry and they simultaneously looked into Donghae’s direction.

“Yep!” Henry happily chirped.

Hangeng sighed audibly and then motioned for his subordinates to lower their bows.

I sent a quick look into Donghae’s direction. He seemed void of any emotion. I wondered if Donghae knew why they all knew his name. It probably had something to do with him being the artist but I wasn’t sure.

“Since you guys saved Henry, I’ll allow most of you to walk into my domain without any restrictions.” Said Hangeng.

“Most of us?” Tiffany inquired with a suspicious expression.

Hangeng nodded curtly. “Yes, I can’t let the nephew of the governor loose in my domain. My people wouldn’t feel safe anymore.”

“What?!” Heechul screamed with a high-pitched voice. “I saved your sorry yesterday night and now you’re going to repay me by treating me like a criminal?!”

Hangeng ignored him and ordered the people behind him: “Tie him up.”

Sungmi