Sorry this took so long to update. I went to Busan last week and then this past week I've been sick, I even lost my voice this morning. But I didn't lose my abality to write, so without further ado here's the next chapter.

The rest of the morning passed pretty slowly. Jiyong tried to shake off the feeling of Seunghyun's eyes; because he knew the older man kept stealing glances. He kept thinking about the inevitable conversation that they would have and it made his stomach start twisting into knots. Deep down he knew that they needed to talk about what happened all those years ago, and if he was honest with himself he desperately wanted to know what Seunghyun had to say. Maybe it was the look in his eyes or the way he spoke to him, but Jiyong had the feeling that whatever the older man had to say it would tear open the wound that he had been trying to heal for 6 years; whether it was something good or bad.

But should I take the risk? Would it be worth the pain to finally get some closure?

All this indecision was just creating a headache for him. He set down the fishing pole against the edge of the boat; holding the handle with his feet as brought his hands up to relieve the tension in his temples. The wind blew threw his hair, creating a nice change to the warmth of the sun. He felt the boat rocking back and forth; the lake's waters splashed up against the sides.

At first the wind felt nice mixed sound of the water but after a couple minutes passed the movement of the boat and Jiyong's confused mind were churning his stomach in ways that would soon become a problem if he didn't get back on land.

"Hey Pops... Don't you think the waters are getting a little choppy?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking that actually. It's funny, the weather didn't say anything about high winds. Maybe we should start heading back."

His grandfather spoke to him but didn't actually look at him, and he was kind of grateful for that fact because he was sure his face would give it away that he wasn't feeling good.

"Alright boys lets get a move on then. Seunghyun can you pass the tackle kit?"

Jiyong's grandfather reeled in his line and unhooked his special flashy bait and hooks while Seunghyun took care of his pole. Jiyong on the other hand tried to focus on anything other than the swirling in his head and the constant back flips that his stomach would do every time the boat rocked.

"Jiyong can you hand me your pole?" Seunghyun asked. The younger man's back was to him and he could see that he was hunched over but he did not give any response. "Jiyong, your pole," again nothing.

He shifted and scooted closer to Jiyong and he noticed that he was folded into himself more as he got closer. He lowered his voice as he brought a hand to place on the younger man's shoulder, "Hey Jiyong... you ok?"

Jiyong jumped at the touch. "Seunghyun, just stop moving will you. I'm not feeling to well all of a sudden. And you're making the boat rock." Another wave hit the boat and Jiyong let out a small groan as he hugged himself tighter.

"Are you getting sea sick?"

"I don't know... maybe..." More wind and waves moved the boat again. "Probably... yes..."

Seunghyun squeezed Jiyong shoulder letting him know that he understood. "Sir..." the older man tried to get Jiyong's grandfather's attention, and when the elder turned around he could tell something wasn't right.

"Jiyong, are you alright son?"

Seunghyun spoke before Jiyong could. "I think the waves are making him sea sick. We should head back."

The elder looked at his grandson and saw the way he was holding himself. "Ok then, Seunghyun would you mind steering, we'll probably get to the shore faster if you do it."

"Sure thing." He stood up, trying not to move the boat anymore than he had too and moved to the back. However it still caused movement and Jiyong moved his fishing pole to the middle of the boat and then stretched across the bench seat that he had been sitting on.

Seeing the younger man's discomfort, Seunghyun quickly started up the motor and drove the boat across the lake, back to shore.

~

As soon as he could Jiyong jumped out of the boat and made his way to the truck. He threw himself down and relished the fact that earth had stopped moving beneath his feet, but he still needed to make his head stop spinning. He heard his grandfather and Seunghyun fixing up the boat to the truck and once they were done they made their way to the cab of the vehicle.

"Jiyong, you feelin any better?" The elder man asked as he climbed into the driver’s seat.

"No..." Jiyong moaned and he heard the other door creak open.

"Jiyong, do you want to sit by the window for the trip back?" Seunghyun asked.

Jiyong slowly sat up and saw that the older man was looking at him with concern written all over his face. It made his stomach cartwheel 10 more times, which did nothing to help the situation. But nevertheless he took him up on his offer and scooted out of the cab to let the Seunghyun climb in. Jiyong's grandfather started up the truck as Jiyong was closing the door and then they were off making their way back home.

A couple time the truck hit a bump in the road and Jiyong tried every time to keep silent as the motion made him woozy, but still a sound would always be heard by Seunghyun who was pressed up against him. Jiyong tried leaning his face against the cool glass of the window, trying to relieve the stuffiness that engulfed him but the only thing that seemed to calm him down was to put his head in between his legs.

Seunghyun watched as Jiyong went through all this discomfort and it hurt his heart to see him in so much pain. He waited for a while after Jiyong had leaned forward, thinking that the younger man had fallen asleep, and raised his hand to rest in the center of Jiyong's back. Slowly he started rubbing circles, trying to ease any kind of pain in the younger man that he could.

~

It was just past 9 p.m. on a Thursday night and Seunghyun pulled in to the driveway. He turned off his truck, killing the yellow glow of the lights reflecting onto the garage door and let out a yawn. It had been a long day at the hardware store because of a new shipment of wire and he was beat from unloading and organizing it all. But at least he finished and he wouldn't have to deal with it tomorrow.

Taking a deep breath he opened the door and got out, feeling the sticky, hot summer air blow over him. A sudden flash of light caught his attention off to his right and he turned to find the source. The Lee's living room light had and that’s when a sudden thought hit him.

"... Jiyong came into town 3 days ago."

He berated himself and thought that since he would be busy with work tomorrow, and it looked like they were still up, he would go say his welcome.

Walking up to the front door, he thought about what happened last year when he and Jiyong had their biggest fight yet. Not that he could really blame him. Seunghyun remembered that he was acting like a 15 year old all summer long, and it wasn't fair to one of his best friends. Hopefully this summer he could make it up to him, after all they were now both in high school and another year had passed. Hopefully they could move beyond childish arguments and enjoy the summer like they used too.

Knocking on the door, Seunghyun waited and after a few minutes he heard the knob turn and the door open.

"Oh Seunghyun?" Mrs. Lee stared at him in surprise. "Dear is something the matter?"

"No ma'am, I was just coming over to say hello to Jiyong. I heard he just got to town. I've been real busy with work this week so I haven't been able to say hello until now."

"Oh honey, that's really sweet but Jiyong's not feeling well at the moment. Something at dinner upset his stomach and he's been sick a few times. Maybe if you come back tomorrow you can see him."

"Grandma... do you have any ginger ale?"

Seunghyun heard a boy's voice call from somewhere inside the house. He could hear how miserable Jiyong was.

"Sorry sweetie we don't," the older woman called back. And Seunghyun heard a groan.

"Ma'am I think we have some over at our house. I'll go grab some and bring it to him, if that's alright," Seunghyun offered. It was the least he could to for ignoring his friend for the past couple days.

"Seunghyun that would be great. I'll leave the door unlocked and you just let yourself in, ok?"

He nodded and turned to run over to his house. Saying a brief hello to his mother and father he made his way into the kitchen and grabbed a couple cans of ginger ale, and ran back over to the house.

Knowing the Lee's house like his own, he quickly found Jiyong in the spare bedroom that was always his every summer that he came. When he entered the younger man jolted up in surprise.

"Seunghyun! What are you doing here?"

"Well I came over to say hello, but I heard you were sick," he held out the cans of soda so Jiyong could see, "Welcome back. Sorry that I didn't come over sooner I got a summer job... and I'm sorry you're not feelin well."

Jiyong quirked his lips in the only smile he could muster and took one of the cans form his friend. But just was he was about to pop the tab open his stomach churned and he jumped from the bed, heading toward the bathroom.

Seunghyun followed him, making sure that he would be ok, however as soon as he made it to the door he heard the boy getting sick to his stomach once again. Walking over, he kneeled down beside him and patted his back, knowing that he liked it when his mother would do the same thing to him when he was sick. He felt the boy's trembling form as the sickness left his body over and over, and he just stayed, rubbing circles.

After he was done, Jiyong leaned up against the wall. His face red, eyes puffy, forehead sweating, and he took deep breaths trying to get oxygen back in his lungs.

Seunghyun stood up, grabbed a wash cloth and wetted it, then brought it to the boys face, knowing that the coolness would be a welcome relief.

Jiyong huffed out what was supposed to be a laugh, but his throat hurt too much for that and he sounded more in pain than anything else. "So far this is turning out to be a wonderful summer..."

Seunghyun chuckled and patted the sweat from the boy's brow. "Well I hope you get better soon... cause I wanna have a fun summer... together."

The only sound in the bathroom was Jiyong's heavy breathing that echoed off the walls. The boys stared at each other.

"You have snot running out of your nose..." Seunghyun said and busted out laughing.

Jiyong groaned and wiped his nose and then hit the older boy with the same hand.

"Dude that's gross!"

"You're such an man! You try puking your guts out and see if your face doesn't look like crap!"

Both boys calmed down from laughing and Jiyong tried to stand up but Seunghyun was there to help him when he stumbled.

"Let’s get you back to bed," he said as he shuffled the younger boy towards his bedroom. "Drink the ginger ale and I'll see you later, ok?". The boy nodded. "Feel better, Jiyong."

~

Jiyong felt what the older man had been doing most of the drive back home but he was still feeling like to really care. And to be honest it actually felt good, the constant motion on his back kept him grounded as the world around him spun. But he wouldn't admit that to Seunghyun.

He could tell they had made it back to the house when the warmth of the older man's hand left his back and moved to his shoulder.

"Jiyong wake up. We're back home."

He pretended he was still asleep and slowly moved, making sure that Seunghyun would think he was waking up.

"How are you feeling?"

Rubbing his eyes he said, "Better," and got out of the truck.

"Jiyong," his grandfather called, "help take the fishing rods back to the garage and then you can go inside and rest. Seunghyun and I will take care of the boat."

He nodded and moved to grab the rods from the bed of the truck, but Seunghyun reached out and grabbed them first.

"Jiyong remember... you said that we would talk."

He gulped, as he felt the older man staring at him, waiting for an answer.

"Yeah ok..." he relented. "Meet me on the porch in half an hour." Better to just rip the badge off, right? He thought.

"Thanks," Seunghyun said and handed the poles to him. Jiyong looked up and faced him. He could feel the heat rush to his cheeks and then the older man turned to help out his grandfather with the boat.

As Jiyong made his way back from the garage to the side of the house he saw another truck pulling up. It took him a second to recognize the older man getting out of the vehicle because there was distress written all over his face, but Seunghyun answered the question of who the man was for him.

"Dad's what wrong?"

"Ah, Seunghyun. I'm so glad you're back. Mr. William's had a fence problem and some of his cattle got loose. Could you grab the 4 wheeler and help me and some other guys wrangle the rest up?"

Seunghyun looked to Jiyong for a split second. "Yeah, sure thing. Let me just help Mr. Lee with the boat and I'll head over."

"Oh don't worry about the boat son," Jiyong's grandfather said. "Go on. They need your help more than I do."

"Ok..." Seunghyun agreed.

"But wait... the Misses was supposed to have dinner ready for us for when we got back. Let me see if it’s ready and you can have a bite to eat before you leave," the elder man said as he made his way inside.

"I'm gonna head on back over," Seunghyun's dad spoke up again. "We've caught a mother and her calf but we think 6 more cattle are still loose."

"Alright, I'll be over soon."

His father nodded and turned to Jiyong, saying hello before he climbed back in his truck and left.

"Jiyong look..." Seunghyun spoke up before the Mr. Lee could come back outside. "Just wait for like... 2 hours and I swear I'll be back and then we can talk, ok? The cows couldn't have wandered too far."

Jiyong debated on whether or not this was a sign that they shouldn't be having this conversation and when he was just about to voice this new found thought he heard himself saying the exact opposite, "Yeah... I'll wait."

Seunghyun smiled, "Great."

He heard the side door open again and out came his grandfather carrying a sandwich in a bag in one hand a can of coke in the other.

"Here ya go. Now you better get going."

"Thanks, sir." Seunghyun took the sandwich and then looked one last time to Jiyong before he made his way over to his house.

~

Almost 5 hours later Seunghyun pulled up to his house on his 4 wheeler absolutly exhausted. It had been hell trying to find the last of the cattle and it turned out that the cow was in the complete opposite direction then they thought.

But no matter how exhausted he was the only thing he could think about was getting over to Jiyong. Jumping off the small vehicle, he adjusted his baseball cap and walked over to the lit up porch.

He saw the lighting bugs and heard the crickets that played the soundtrack of summer nights as he walked. He took off the flannel shirt that hung open, leaving him in only a plain white t-shirt, and used it to wipe the sweat off his face as he opened the screen door.

He saw Jiyong sitting on the porch swing and just when he was about to apologize for being so late, did he notice that the younger man was asleep. He was curled up in a light blanket with glasses on the verge of falling off his nose as a book was loosely held in his hand.

Seunghyun's heart started racing. The soft glow from the porch light made the younger man's skin glow, as if the light itself was coming from beneath his skin. The sight tickled memories of a handful of summer mornings where he woke up to almost the exact same sight. He noticed the defined angles of Jiyong's face, seeing just how much he had changed over the years. A slight stubble showed itself on his chin and it made Seunghyun think for the second time that day of how much Jiyong had grown into a man.

And he still knows how take my breath away.

Before he could stop himself, he moved closer to the sleeping man, brushing the bangs out of his eyes and whispered," Please... please don't hate me for what happened back then. I can't take it if you hate me any longer… I just want my best friend back..."

Jiyong stirred in his sleep and in so doing he dropped his book. The sound of the book hitting the ground startled him out of his sleep and when he opened his eyes he blinked a few times in Seunghyun’s direction.

"Seunghyun?" he croaked out, sleep still present in his throat.

"Yeah I'm here. Sorry it took so long."

Jiyong took off the black rimmed glasses and rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"

"A little past 10. We had trouble finding the last 2 cattle."

"Mmm," Jiyong hummed.

"I'm so sorry it took so long."

" 's ok... do you still want to talk?"

He could see how worn out the younger man was and even though he was the one who pushed all day for them to talk he decided that it would be better for both of them to rest and talk tomorrow.

"Look it’s been a long day for both of us so let’s just call it a night and we can talk tomorrow, alright?"

Jiyong paused and looked to him and then said, "Yeah sure..."

He was too tired to fight the issue, like Seunghyun had said it had been a long day, so he just gathered up his stuff and made his way to the side door. However the older man reached out and stopped him before he could go inside.

"Jiyong..."

He turned and faced him. "What?"

Seunghyun tugged on his arm and pulled him into a hug. "I'm just glad you finally came back."

Before Jiyong had time to process feeling the warmth of the older man wrapped around him, the warmth left and he heard the screen door open and close; leaving him alone on the porch.

I plan on making the next chpater just completely flashbacks so you all know more of their past history.  *dundundun*