He sat up straight in his bed as soon as the thought started to take form in his mind. He always had the earliest classes, as well as he had had the earliest shifts. So why was Luhan up already? He knew the younger loved sleeping in, not to mention wake up as late as he could. And as he recalled, there were no important dates around this time either. He always remembered them – but there were no happenings about now, he was sure.

Minseok got out of bed, checking his phone on the nightstand. The clock showed that it was only 6.10 a.m., ten minutes to his alarm would kick in. He yawned and stretched as he walked into the bathroom, trying to completely wake up. His brain still told him to sleep another hour, though his common sense told him he had to go to class. The rays of early morning sun shone through the light curtains, making the dust in the air shine as he the lights. The mirror was still foggy and the air was humid and hot, signalizing that someone had used the room not too long ago.

Minseok splashed some water in his face, and studied his wet face in the mirror. He had never really been bothered by acne or had had any skin problems during his younger teenage years, and that had followed him into his grown up life (or post-teens, as Yixing called it. He still didn’t think Minseok looked like an adult). Minseok sighed. It was like his face had stopped maturing at some point, giving him eternal chubby cheeks. When he had mentioned this though, Jongdae had been shaking his head. “You should be happy, stupid. Both you and Luhan look like you’ve found the fountain of youth.” He had then proceeded about how their children would probably stay seventeen forever, and Yixing had to remind him that it was biologically impossible for same- couples to have children together.

Minseok slapped his cheeks to completely wake up, before taking a shower to get rid of the cotton-like state his head seemed to be in. But when he walked into the kitchen, fully awake and ready for the day, Luhan didn’t seem to be in the house at all. He walked around and shouted his name just to be sure, but there was no reply. When he saw Luhan’s usual, worn-out All Stars gone though, he confirmed his guess. As he returned to the kitchen he tried to shake the uneasy feeling off. Yes, of course he loved Luhan. He had stopped trying to tell himself otherwise ages ago. But they still had two separate lives, though they lived together. They went to different universities, and majored in different things. Minseok felt stupid becoming concerned because of Luhan leaving so early in the morning without a note, so he ignored his worry instead. They were the same age, and they could both take care of themselves very well. As much as Minseok would like to think so, they didn’t share everything with each other and both had secrets that they would most likely hide for as long as they could. A lifetime, if possible. Luhan knew his parents weren’t poor, but Minseok hadn’t told him exactly who they were either. He was afraid of scaring him away, so all Luhan knew for now was that Minseok didn’t exactly miss the life he had left.

And Minseok knew Luhan hid things, as well. He never asked him because he knew it made the younger uncomfortable, though he every so often found it curious, Luhan’s past life that he seemed to know nothing about. Beyond the surface of the calm, loving Luhan he knew there were a lot of dark secrets hidden. Because of all the things he had experienced he had seen a lot, so much could Minseok guess. He just wasn’t sure if he wanted to know anything else about it. Of course, he had been told a little bit. How Luhan had played cat-and-mouse with the gang all over Seoul for 48 hours straight. How he had seen one of them being shot in the head. Luhan also had nightmares, where he would sleep talk. Mostly, he screamed. But sometimes, Minseok would hear how he pleaded or muttered to himself, living the memories he was so urgently trying to forget all over again. And if there were worse things out there than what he already knew, Minseok decided he was better off not knowing.

Breakfast ended up being cornflakes that eventually turned soggy when he forgot to eat them, lost in thought. His gaze was fixed on an empty spot in the air, and he didn’t realize he was spacing out until his phone started vibrating, signalizing an incoming message. He then got ready to go to school, and closed the door to the apartment with a low ‘click!’. And somehow, as he pushed the down-button on the elevator, he knew that things weren’t going to be the same when he came home. Maybe it was just a wild guess, but he felt it in his gut and he had learnt not to ignore than feeling a long time ago.

Minseok went so Seoul National University. It was the only university his mother had accepted him ever getting into, and so it had happened. The façade screamed prestigious. Even the entrance told people that this wasn’t some university, it was the university. It was so obvious it almost seemed ridiculous.

“Hey, Minseok!” a known voice shouted as an arm was slung around his neck when he walked through the outdoor-area to get to his classroom. He recognized the voice instantly. It was Oh Sehun, one of his juniors. He was really amusing and entertaining, so they usually hung out though they didn't really meet up after school.

“Oh, hi Sehun,” Minseok replied, smiling. Then he realized something was missing around the tall, blonde boy. “Why aren’t you with Tao? I thought you always came together,” Tao was Sehun’s absolute best friend. They acted like they were one soul in two bodies, and Minseok found them fun to be around.

Sehun pouted at Minseok’s question. “He caught a cold!” he complained. “I can’t believe it!” He sighed as they made their way across campus and into one of the buildings, where their classes were held. Quickly, they jump-walked up the stairs to the third floor.

“Say hi from me, then. Make him some soup and tend to him really well, okay?”

“Sure, hyung!” Sehun grinned before he said goodbye and went into one of the classrooms.

The hours passed slowly. Every now and then he would be visited by a more and more bored Sehun, who seemed to lose interest in his classes when there was no Tao around. And when he finally was done with his last class, the clock had passed four. As he walked out of the school gates he wondered if he should just head straight home, but somehow he didn’t really feel like. Luhan still had classes at this time, so there was no one there anyways. Today, he felt like… he honestly felt like getting the Advanced Business-assignment done. He had procrastinated doing it for over two weeks already, and he decided it was better to get it over and done with. Maybe he’d start acting like the student he was, and do his homework on a café. Yes, that seemed like a good start.

It had been an hour, and Minseok had still not started his essay on ‘Stock changes in the International markets between 2009 and 2011’.  He knew he should have ages ago, but right now he was on his third cup of coffee without even having touched his bag with his books. Instead, he ended up looking at the window and out on the street. Strangers were rushing by, all on their way somewhere. Home, work, stores… there were infinite possibilities. All Minseok knew that he was also walking somewhere, he just didn’t know where as of now. When he looked at his friends, they all seemed to know what they wanted to do with their lives. Heck, even Sehun knew (though his dream of becoming a dragon slayer was a little bit far-fetched).

Of course, he knew where he would end up. His environment since childhood had made that very clear. He just didn’t know which road he would chose to get there, or even which road lead there. It was kind of ridiculous, to be honest. He hadn’t even thought about what he wanted to do with his life. He had joined the coffee shop on a whim, when he saw they were hiring. But had he thought further than that? Minseok realized how much he had lived in the moment, without sparing a thought about the next day. Now that change had come, what was his plan? He just couldn’t see himself walk the path his parents had paved out for him, because he knew what he wanted most in this world couldn’t be combined with it.

His third cappuccino was forgotten and had long since stopped damping, as he continued looking out the window. As it turned cold he watched the cloudy and grey sky darken until it in the end became too heavy and rain poured down on the anonymous people on the street, hitting the autumn pavements. He honestly didn’t hate rain like most people did, and the autumn rain was no different. He actually liked it, as long as he wasn’t getting cold and drenched outside himself. Minseok liked sitting inside with a cup of coffee, watching as the sky poured down all it bore. He felt warmer, that way. He thought it was amusing, watching the umbrellas people owned as they passed. He though they showed people’s differences, from black to bright pink ones. Maybe that was what Minseok had missed when he moved out. Differences.

Suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder, and he jumped at the sudden and unexpected approach. He quickly turned around, to stare right into the face of one of the waitresses that worked there. She looked at him with wide eyes, surprised and scared at his react.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “You didn’t move for twenty minutes, so I was worried something had happened…”

‘yeah, worried I was dead,’ Minseok completed the sentence in his head. Drinking the rest of his coffee, he paid the bill and walked out. So he hadn’t been able to do any homework, after all.

Messing around in his bag after an umbrella, he walked down the street in the drizzling rain. He didn’t care to bring up his hood because he would have a protective layer over him in a matter of seconds anyways, and small droplets fell into his hair making it wet little by little. He passed the post office he used to go to when he posted mail to his brother, and walked the familiar way home. The busy streets soon became more open, and instead of it being packed with business people it now had small families and old people walking on it. But there was another reason Minseok liked this place so much, especially when it was like this outside. It was because of a certain boy, on a certain bench, in a certain, similar weather. It was near this place, half a year earlier, that Minseok had seen Luhan sitting in the rain and they had run from the gang that had chased after them. It had been that day Luhan finally had opened himself to Minseok, as cliché as it sounded.

As he walked, he looked around. Even though he was on his way home and couldn’t wait to come into the warmth his apartment offered him, he suddenly didn’t feel like. It wasn’t that something was holding him back, but rather that he wanted to stay out for a little while longer. He had no idea why, really. He usually preferred sitting on the dry side of the protective layer of a glass-window, rather than actually being outside. Maybe it was the humid air, bleak colours or the rain that made an even drumming sound against his umbrella. Nonetheless, he decided to wander for a little while longer.

Afterwards Minseok realized that he originally had decided to wander as in walk around, but in the end two minutes passed before he sat down on a green-painted bench under a couple of trees that were losing their colours quickly.  Last time he was here it had also been raining, though the opposite time of the year. At that time he hadn’t cared that his pants got wet when he sat down, like now. He made sure to brush at least some of the water off, even though his jacket became wet instead, and the bench still wasn’t very dry. In contradiction to the last time, he wasn’t in a hurry either. He sat down with a light sigh, looking around him. Though the seasons were always changing, this place never seemed to. He walked here several times a week, and there was something about the steadiness of it all Minseok really liked.

He must have sat there for at least ten minutes, taking everything around him. Studying faces just to forget them seconds later, the life that passed by him in an unclear blur. Shouldn’t he have been a part of that, as well?

He wouldn’t have noticed the boy that ran past him if not for the recognizable, deep green colour of his jacket. He was wearing a cream white scarf that hid the lower part of his face, and when he ran past Minseok used half a minute to assure himself he was correct. It was like his eyes instantly knew the facial features, but his brain just couldn’t register it. But as he watched the green-clad boy disappear down the street, and more importantly – when he saw the suspiciously well-known thugs running down the same path seconds later, his brain put together the pieces so they fit into the puzzle. He quickly stood up in shock, his umbrella falling out of his hand. Securing his bag so he was sure it wouldn’t fall off as he ran, he quickly set down after the people he knew too well. The umbrella was all forgotten, the rain out of his thoughts completely.

Luhan was running again, and this time Minseok would catch him.

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