"Are you leaving already?"

Myungsoo turned, looking back at Sungyeol, who was munching on some cookies that Myungsoo had brought. 

"Well... yeah," Myungsoo replied slowly. 

"But I'm bored," Sungyeol whined, sticking his lower lip out cutely. 

"Then... do you want me to stay?" Myungsoo asked, thinking it was too good to be true.

"Yeah," Sungyeol nodded eagerly. "We can play cards." He held up the pack of playing cards that Myungsoo had brought a couple of days earlier.

"Okay," Myungsoo mumbled, walking back towards the taller boy, who was sitting with his legs crossed on the bed. Myungsoo sat down facing him on the bed. 

"What do you wanna play?" Sungyeol asked. 

"I don't know any card games."

"Really?" Sungyeol stared at Myungsoo with wide eyes.

"Nobody ever taught me," Myungsoo explained, shrugging. 

"Then I'll teach you," Sungyeol grinned, and he immediately commenced explaining various games and talking about which ones were the most fun, and which games he - Sungyeol - didn't like because he always seemed to lose, no matter how well he thought he did. 

"You lost again!" Sungyeol yelled gleefully an hour later, pointing to Myungsoo, who once again stared at all the bad cards he had been given.

"Why does this keep happening to me?" Myungsoo muttered, furrowing his brows in disapproval. "I don't get it."

"You just at playing card games, that's all," Sungyeol replied smugly.

If he were to smile at me like that every time he won, I wouldn't mind losing for the rest of my life, Myungsoo thought, stealing a glance at Sungyeol from behind his playing cards. 

"Wanna play another round?" Sungyeol inquired, a smile still plastered on his face.

"Sure," Myungsoo agreed, answering Sungyeol with a smile of his own. 

-

After Myungsoo had left, Sungyeol stared at the ceiling while lying on his back, thinking about his situation. 

Is it working? Is his resolve to keep me here weakening?

Of course Sungyeol couldn't be sure, but it felt like it. He had noticed that Myungsoo kept giving him treats, games and books, and that he often stayed for a long period of time just to talk with him. 

Maybe he really does feel sorry for me, Sungyeol mused. Maybe he thinks I don't deserve to be locked up like this. Maybe he'll release me soon if I keep it up.

Sungyeol quickly decided that he would indeed keep it up; he would try to be the friend Myungsoo had never had. He would try to treat him just like Myungsoo wanted to be treated: like a normal boy. 

-

"Wanna play a game?" Sungyeol asked, looking at Myungsoo with happy eyes. 

"What kind of game?" Myungsoo inquired hesitantly. 

"I like to call it The Tacos or Pizza Game," Sungyeol grinned. 

"The what?" Myungsoo said, his brows furrowing in obvious confusion. 

"It's easy, really. All you have to do is choose one of the two options I give you," Sungyeol explained. "And the first question is always the same one: tacos or pizza?"

Myungsoo stared at Sungyeol for a minute, before slowly answering, "Pizza..."

"Really?" Sungyeol gasped, clearly surprised. "Why would you choose pizza when you can choose tacos?"

"I've never eaten tacos..." Myungsoo mumbled, looking away. 

"Seriously?" Sungyeol retorted. "Why does it seem like every time you say something, you just shock me more and more?"

"I don't know," Myungsoo said between almost-closed lips. 

"Then you've got to try tacos!" Sungyeol exclaimed suddenly. "You can eat some with me!"

"Where would you get something like that?" Myungsoo asked sceptically, tilting his head to the side. 

"You're gonna bring it, obviously," Sungyeol laughed. "Who else?"

"I don't know what to bring though..." Myungsoo argued, though feebly so. 

"I'll just write a list for you, and then you can bring all the ingredients, and we'll make it together."

"In here?" Myungsoo retorted, looking at Sungyeol with wide eyes.

"You've got any better ideas?" Sungyeol shot back.

"Not really..."

"Then it's a deal."

"What's a deal?"

"That we're making tacos, obviously!" Sungyeol rolled his eyes in mock-exasperation, which made Myungsoo laugh in reply.

"Fine, fine. We'll make tacos," Myungsoo agreed, chuckling as he looked at Sungyeol.

Sungyeol grinned at Myungsoo in return, and Myungsoo couldn't help but notice that when Sungyeol smiled at him like that, the inside of Myungsoo's stomach squirmed just slightly in a not-completely-unlikable way. 

-

That night, Myungsoo went and bought all of the ingredients necessary to make tacos. After carrying it home to the tiny room he had been given by his superiors, he went ahead and chopped up all of the vegetables, just like Sungyeol had instructed. 

Why does the time pass by so quickly when I'm with Sungyeol? 

Myungsoo wished the seconds would go by slower when he was with the other. He knew that Sungyeol wouldn't be next to him forever, and the faster the time went by, the faster Sungyeol would disappear from his life altogether. And Myungsoo didn't want that. 

He knew he was being selfish, but a part of him didn't want Sungyeol to be released. Of course he wanted Sungyeol to be happy, and he knew Sungyeol would never be happy unless he was set free from his confinement. Which was why he felt so torn: he wanted to release Sungyeol, but he didn't want to let him go. He wanted Sungyeol to be happy, but Myungsoo also wanted to be happy himself. 

Myungsoo was rarely happy. He hadn't been happy in years, really. But talking with Sungyeol, being in Sungyeol's presence, that - surprisingly - made Myungsoo happier. 

He felt relieved because he could still feel happiness, but at the same time it concerned him that his newfound source of happiness was the one person who probably disliked him more than any other, and probably also the one person he would never be able to see again after Myungsoo eventually set him free. 

Does that mean I'll never feel happiness again after Sungyeol is gone?

Author's Note: Yeah, I know it's not like totally normal or anything to eat tacos in South Korea... but hey, just ignore that, would you? :P Cause that game is what my friends and I call it, in other words we always start with "tacos or pizza", and so I didn't want to change it, if you know what I mean :P (did the game even make sense to you all? I hope it made sense... it was supposed to make sense, lol) Anyway...

Also, sorry for not posting chapters as often as I'd like to... since I'm graduating this year, school is suuuper stressful and stuff, and my exams are coming up soon D: