“I'll be here tomorrow. 5pm. Your teacher, JongIn.”

When he arrived in front of the door with a silver key dangling on a polished chain in his hand, his eyes found the creased note stuck between the door. Just skimming through it, he situated it in his back pocket negligently. Who is JongIn? Who's teacher? Discarding the thoughts, YiXing dropped onto the chair behind the counter irritated, having to do this solo. KyungSoo is relishing himself somewhere else and he's fixed here in the company of timbre. Considering that he didn't go places often, YiXing grown inquisitive of it.

The entire day was a wreck. YiXing had literally implored to keep the shop closed for today and let him stay home, however his dad stated that it would be capricious and irresponsible not recognizing his son was entirely drained. The wedding of the obliterated aunty and the party after, with his dad and other men savouring their soju and women buzzing about the newest gossips relating to everyone and everything.

He hastily drank half a bottle of the alcohol too, yet uninterested in the small talk he headed to the other room. There, a group of girls sat around in a circle including his cousin QiaoHui. He liked her company a lot and began to remember all the times they spent together when they were five. They spent most of the time learning instruments, he played the piano and she played the flute. Now, she was one of the popular girls at school, which made him proud thought he wasn't close to her. She had grown into a beautiful and astute girl with a cheery smile and glistening eyes.

It felt awkward encircled by girls as they talked about boys and boy-bands and school and hairstyles. QiaoHui attempted to include him in the conversation, she asked a lot of questions and YiXing played along with it. He talked about the shop and the theatre, about Incheon in general. Secretly, he might have embellished the stories, nevertheless kept them absorbed in the descriptions.

Two hours later they were still chatting about random things that the girls thought of, which included shamelessly questioning YiXing about boys. They were oblivious of the similarity between them. The difference was, he already had a boyfriend, while they were searching for one.

The hands of the clocks were turning 2am when the chatter diminished. The girls left, leaving only him and QiaoHui in the room. She patted his shoulder and whispered.

“I know you have a boyfriend. Your mother told me by accident. But don't worry, I won't tell anybody.” She grinned and gave a reassuring hug. She inevitably was wonderful character.

Only after all that, YiXing was eventually released and allowed to sleep. Too late to stay conscious today.

It was one of those times KyungSoo was strikingly grateful to his parents for the enforced additional English lessons. 'White Horse' was enigmatic and with every turning page he was revealing something new. Abnormally, he read slowly, re-reading some pages over and over. Memorializing some of the lines on sticky notes and adding to the already considerable collection hidden in his drawer.

“How do you file a restraining order against sadness?”

“Please don't' ask me how I feel about it. If I had to pick a word, I'd say homicidal.”

Those two lingered in his mind for no evident reason. With each sentence images formed in his head, he began to sympathize with the main characters and gained familiarity with their characteristics. He was entirely engrossed and the night passed in a blink of an eye.

KyungSoo opened his eyes to witness that the sun was still far in the east. His brother was deep in sleep. Since he remained after-hours yesterday, they haven't managed to see each other in the evening; KyungSoo was resting in his room, captivated by the new book, while SeungSoo was too tired to bring himself and greet him, just flattened onto the bed and fell asleep shortly.

“Kyungie, what are you doing here so early?” It was 6.14am. Insomnia was the protagonist and antagonist of his nights and he learned to call her his best friend. Answering with a brief 'nothing' he chased his brother back to sleep, seeing how atrocious he appeared with those drooping bags underneath the half-opened eyes. Obediently, SeungSoo crawled back into his room. The older one had a few days off this week, meaning he would rest at last.

Insomniac and workaholic. They weren't contrasting, indeed both were truly overpowered by obsessions.

His mother had successfully shook him awake. Already afternoon. It was typical for him to be the last one to wake up, with a vast gap between the waking hours of the rest of his and his family. JongIn was always kind of tired.

Something was extraordinary about today. JongIn bounced around the house, from kitchen to living room, from bedroom to office.

“Son, did something happen? You look unusually happy today.” Her smile was filled with content when her desiring knowledge eyes met his moon-shaped eye smile. I'm going to see someone later. He's a cashier in the music shop down the road and he asked me to teach him sign language. It's funny, he calls it silent language. The eager to meet the boy made the day more fascinating, JongIn was gaining a friend.

The amount of gesticulation her son did astonished her as mostly, he would keep his answers short, up to five words when she counted sometimes. She smiled to herself furtively, seeing that something had changed in him and thanking the unknown cashier that caused that change.

“What's his name?” An ordinary question, yet JongIn stopped halfway in his doings, occupying himself in thought. Struggling to admit, he didn't know his name. I don't know. He needed to ask, to know, incapable to wait for the hour five to appear on the clock. Something about this was thrilling, although he, himself was not aware of the way he kept smiling the whole time.

His mother dropped the topic, shaking her head skeptically at the answer. He should have known, even out of politeness.

“Are you doing to go dancing today?” JongIn jolted his head. Maybe next time. She understood her son was not ready, it was the tenth time he said that. Delayed the moment and deceived himself with excuses: no time, too tired, meeting someone. She knew the reason, the accident. Never tried confronting him.

“Hyung, where are we doing?” After another hour of sleep, SeungSoo came down for breakfast. Half an hour later, they were ready to go with a meager suitcase cramped with things.

“Jeju Island. It'll be hot this week, so I thought we could have some days off to relax. Don't you think we deserve some rest?” KyungSoo's eyes grew in size until reaching the limit. Unable to contain his euphoria, he started clapping his hands. He loved swimming and beaches and he's never been in Jeju. He embraced his brother and thanked him repeatedly. They got into the car.

“Wait, hyung. When are we coming back? I need to tell Lay.”

“Thursday.”

It was already three o'clock. Today were auditions for a musical in the theatre. No time.

Not a sole soul visited the shop today, everyone showed to abandon their inside musical monster and just get on with their monotonous lives. Lay sat behind the counter, half sleeping and staring at the door at the same time, hoping for someone to just come in, to at least have the sense that he had a reason to open the shop today.

His boyfriend haven't called yet to say where he's going or if he's coming back tomorrow to work, otherwise he would have to find some help. It would be impossible for him stay here all the time. MinSeok's unavailable, BaekHyun and Chen are going performances and he doesn't seem to have anyone else on mind.

Like a saviour, the bell rang and an average height, light-haired boy entered, tightly squeezing a cellphone in his hand.

“You're Zhang YiXing, right? Have you seen baoz-... Kim MinSeok anywhere?” Fluent Chinese was spoken, the boy stared at Lay expecting an answer. He was flustered by the sudden use of his mother tongue and name.

“Yes and no, I haven't. Did something happen?” The boy's smile retreated and he glanced over at his phone pressing a sequence of numbers. He bowed his head and walked out, leaving disturbed Lay inside with a bunch of thoughts going around his head. Who was that?

It was 4:49pm and JongIn wandered aimlessly around the dance studio, all lessons had finished and he peaked inside for a little while, having a look around the place he once was able to call second-home. Now it became an overwhelming place where all the memories came rushing back and right here,SeHun was in front of JongIn, dancing their last routine in perfect timing with a poker face and flawless posture. And JongIn would replay that in his head, their mischievous dance battles and new moves they both thought of to add to the performance. They never got to finish it and JongIn never wanted it to be finished because without SeHun it wasn't the same. That dance was nothing without him and it meant nothing more than a sequence of choreographed moves.

The mirrors were glaring at him, showing a reflection he didn't recognize. Where was Kim JongIn? How did he got replaced with this lifeless, sorrow thing that was now gazing back at him?

The time was in hurry today and he had to leave to meet the unnamed boy who wanted to learn silence. Somehow, the images of SeHun got interchanged with a more joyful thought of seeing the boy. He was just a stranger he met a week ago, yet the thought of him made him smile for no apparent reason. JongIn couldn't understand himself anymore .

'Open', the sign read. A person on the other side was just shutting the door, when JongIn knocked in the last second and welcomed himself in.

“Sorry, we're already closing.” Not finding the cashier he got lost as he couldn't communicate with the other boy and desperately waved his hand signaling the other one to stop. He then continued to take out the pocket-size notebook along with a pencil sealed to it.

I'm looking for the cashier. He scribbled down in hurry and handed the notebook to the boy.

“Oh, wait. You left a note here yesterday? He's not here today, but I will tell him you visited, ok?” JongIn nodded. He was nice, however wasn't the person JongIn expected to see. He didn't read the note.

They ended the conversation there and seeing that the other boy left him at the entrance and began cleaning the place. JongIn scribbled something on the paper and come up to him, tapping him on the shoulder.

Do you need any help? The boy refused at first, although then said that if he surely wanted to, he could stack the CDs together, what JongIn got going right away. He had utterly nothing to do and this was always something.

“He is going to be back on Thursday, if you were wondering.” Embarrassingly, he also told him he needs help at the shop.

Abruptly remembering something, JongIn jotted on the paper. What is his name?

“Do KyungSoo.”

JongIn also got to know his name, Zhang YiXing.

Maybe I can work here for the week? It took him a while of contemplating this idea, though JongIn handed him the note without a second thought and YiXing agreed haltingly because he still didn't know him well and the shop would mostly be left with him only. Yet JongIn's first impression decided for him. They settled that he will come here 7am the next day, ready to be left alone with the responsibilities. YiXing had shopping to do with his mother, a new suit.

They closed the shop twenty minutes later. JongIn's house was the opposite to where YiXing was heading, despite that he swung around and stepped in the same direction as him. It would be nice to visit LuHan.

The reticence that spread between them was ticklish. YiXing felt awkward, used to KyungSoo walking beside him. JongIn couldn't stand either,although it was something natural for him. Tell me something about KyungSoo. It was unexpected and even JongIn himself couldn't stop wondering why that particular question was now visible on the note. YiXing too, didn't know what to answer but he smiled only at the thought of him.

“I don't know what to tell you. He likes to sing, and draw and spends hours on the internet. Sometimes I catch him dancing after hours when he thinks no one is looking. He's funny, but sad. I mean, his smile never reaches his eyes. I really don't know why I'm telling you all this. It's just that, you seem friendly.” YiXing sealed his mouth right away, finding that he said too much.KyungSoo would slay him if he knew he was talking about him with a stranger. JongIn narrowed his eyes, deeply thinking about his words. Never reaches his eyes.

Isn't that what LuHan used to tell him? What his mother told him? That his smile never quite reached the eyes. KyungSoo and JongIn, he found those two quite similar. It worried him, and intrigued.

“Why did you ask?” I don't know. JongIn shook his head as YiXing read another note. He kept each of them in his back pocket and it was deliberately reaching its capacity.

“You're strange.” YiXing laughed in hope that JongIn wouldn't take it seriously. In a relief, JongIn giggled back hitting him lightly. How do know you him?”

“Oh, he's my b... Best friend.” He stammered and added that his house is on the next turn.

“Well, see you tomorrow.” See you.

The combination of bewilderment and exhilaration mixed in JongIn's mind. What was it?

YiXing was a likeable person and starting to like KyungSoo, even though he didn't even know him. The thing was, they were so similar, at least that's what he thought. He pondered why he called him sad, all this time he saw him smiling and awkwardly trying to talk to him.

Even SeHun once told him that, at the moment when they were having their best time. When they were the most happy. They were sitting in the dance studio, tired and sweaty from the fast choreography and SeHun was staring intensively at him. JongIn didn't understand those words by them.

“You know, sometimes when you smile, it doesn't quite reach you eyes.”