It was a Sunday somewhere in early March when Minseok woke up on his couch. It wasn’t very unusual, really. It had become a habit that he, Luhan and Yixing would sit and talk way into the night on Saturdays, so he always came home late. Most days, he was so tired that he didn’t even bother to go to his bed like a proper human. He just dropped down on the very comfortable couch.

Minseok woke up slowly. He slipped in and out of a comatose-like state a few times, waking up and then starting to dream again. But then, suddenly, his brain was just enough awake to realize where he was. And Minseok opened up his eyes wide, realizing where he was. Damnit, he had actually planned to sleep in his bed last night! Sleeping on the couch wasn’t all perks, and it often left him with marks. This made him bolt up, running to the bathroom. He had slept with his face down, and had now a questionable couch-fabric mark on his left cheek. He studied it. Great. He'd planned to go post some letters to his family in the post-office today, but wondered if he should, now that he looked like a complete moron. He decided to eat breakfast first, and then, if the mark was gone, eventually go out.

As Minseok sat down in the kitchen with his food, he sighed. This apartment was way too big for him. It even had a guest-bedroom, which Minseok found completely unnecessary. He had like five friends combined, and everyone of them had their own place to sleep. But his parents were paying for this, and even though he'd told them that he did just as well on his own and didn't need this, they had insisted. All this was way too... Everything for him. Too big. Too noticable. Too much. There were a couple of paintings on the walls. A living room big enough to have two couches, a table and a tv, with still enough space to move freely around. A student wasn't supposed to live this way. A student was supposed to strive to earn enough money to eat, while balancing work and school. But his parents didn't understand.

Okay, so they had a little money. Well, more than a little. However, Minseok didn't want to live his life, depending on them. That's why he worked at the coffee shop. He bought his own clothes, food and other necessary items with that money. At least, it made him feel a little independent.

Minseok slowly ate his breakfast. It was very simple today - some cereal that had been standing on the kitchen counter for ages already. The clock on the wall told him that it was only ten past eleven in the morning, and that stupid post-office didn't open until one o'clock. He still had three hours to spend on God-knows-what.

So he wandered aimlessly around for a while. Went in and out of all the rooms. He almost walked out on the balcony, but just as he was going to open the door, he realized that a small storm was raging outside. So he'd have to bring an umbrella today. If it was something Minseok hated, it was getting wet.

The clock slowly ticked away, until it in the end became a quarter to one. Minseok decided that it was a fitting time to go out - he would be home again in less than forty-five minutes. So he put on his shoes and jacket, and grabbed a red umbrella that he earlier had thrown in the hallway to not forget it. And then he headed out, into the small rainstorm outside.

When Minseok had posted his letters, he began to walk home in the rain. And as he slowly wandered, he wondered, for the ‘nth time, how Luhan was doing. It had been nagging in the back of his head for quite a while. Had that gang tracked him up again? What was he doing at the moment? As he thought of him he felt a small tingling in his fingertips, which were numb from holding his umbrella. He shook off the weird feeling, and concentrated on holding his umbrella in an angle that sheltered him from most of the rain.

As he walked he stared at the ground, and didn't notice any of the things happening around him. This, in the end, almost made him crash into an old lady.

"Oh my - I'm really sorry!" he exclaimed as the old lady sent him an evil stare. So Minseok decided to be more careful about his surroundings, after all. And he started to notice all these little things. The way people came and went. All the little shops. On the other side of the street, an old man was getting help from a high schooler over the road. A boy with his head down was sitting on a bench without an umbrella, getting soaked to the bone. His wet hair stuck to his face, and even from this side of the street, Minseok could see that the boy was shivering. It was a little bit weird though. It almost looked like someone he knew. The jacket seemed familiar, as well. And then the boy raised his head, and Minseok realized who it was.

"Luhan!" he exclaimed loudly and ran over the busy street without a second thought. He was probably almost killed by a car twice or so, but didn't care much now. What was Luhan doing there?!

As Minseok shouted his name, Luhan looked up, seemingly surprised by the older, dashing over the road like crazy.

"Minseok!" he said, taken aback. And as fast as Minseok reached Luhan, he sat down beside him, not caring if his pants got wet by the soaked bench. He then put his umbrella over the two of them, securing that Luhan didn't get anymore drenched than he already was. And Minseok noticed that he’d been sitting here for quite a while already – there wasn’t a dry spot on him.

"Oh my - Luhan, what are you doing here?!" Minseok asked worried. And he really was. Seeing Luhan like this, he wondered if everything was okay. Luhan was, after all, special to him. To be honest, not even Lay could compare to the feeling Minseok got in the pit of his stomach when he met Luhan. It was weird. Did Minseok's brain think that Luhan was this special? Why? He couldn't wrap his mind around it at all.

Luhan looked down, and then up at Minseok again. And Minseok saw a deep sorrow in his eyes. Something had happened. Something big.

"Luhan, do you want to tell me?" he asked, more softly this time. But Luhan shook his head.

"No," he said, straightening up and putting on a brave front. "It's okay." And Minseok decided to let it be, until Luhan wanted to tell him himself. Minseok hated people pushing him to say things he really didn’t want to say, so he didn’t push other people either. It was all up to them to decide, in the end. That was at least Minseok’ opinion. So they just sat there for a couple of minutes, silent. It wasn’t an awkward silence, though. It was a comforting silence, which gave them time to think.

But the wouldn’t be thinking for long, before they were on the run, once again.

Everything changed when Minseok heard someone shout from the other side of the road, blended together with other noises from the street. He didn't really care much about it – he often heard shouting. But Luhan's head bolted up, alerted.

"Oh no," he whispered, and drew the umbrella down in front of their faces. "It's them. They know I'm here. They'll..." He didn't complete his sentence. Minseok heard people running against them, and he knew who Luhan was talking about. They hadn’t been talking about it since the night they met, but he still understood. The not-so-Italian gang. On impulse, he stood up, and took Luhans hand. He folded his umbrella together, and saw the gang running towards them. It was the same people who had chased Luhan that night. So he had been right, after all.

"Fast!" Minseok whispered loudly. "Come with me!" He drew Luhan after him, and ran down the street. Luhan seemed a little bit confused at first, but quickly got into running after a couple of meters. He didn't ask where they were going. And he didn't ask why Minseok was doing it. They just ran for their lives.

They ran to the only place Minseok could think about. His home.

Minseok's apartment was at the top, with a nice view. He quite liked that view. However, this was the last thing he thought about as they ran up to his apartment. It would have been quicker to take the elevator, but Minseok was afraid that the gang would somehow destroy the mechanism and stop the whole thing. And then they would be stuck with no way out. So they took the stairs, which was much longer and much more tiring. At the top, he had to stop for a few seconds to catch his breath, and so did Luhan. But below, even though it was far below, they heard a big ruckus and a lot of noises. The gang had followed them in.

And Minseok wondered what the hell he was doing. He'd just lured some extremely dangerous guys into the apartment-complex. Where he lived. He was now telling the whole underground gang-system that Kim Minseok, 24, was their enemy, and that he had no problems showing them his home. How stupid was it possible to become?! This had to be on a whole new level. Until this day, he had even had problems asking how much things cost in a store. Now, he was luring gang-members into his home.

As Minseok thought all these things, he quickly found his keys in the pocket on his jacket, and walked over to his apartment. It was only three doors on this floor, and he owned the one on the far right.

"Quickly, get in!" he whispered to Luhan as he unlocked his door and got in himself. Luhan wasn't far behind him, and as soon as Minseok closed the door, he locked it with the three different locks on his door. He usually just bothered with one. But this was crisis, and even three locks didn't seem like enough.

As Minseok sunk tired down on the floor while leaning on the now almost bolted door, Luhan sat down beside him. They were still breathing heavily, and none of them had still really grasped exactly what had happened.

After half a minute, Minseok forced himself up, and walked through the hallway to a little screen on the wall in the living room. Outside all the apartments it was built in a CCTV, which was connected with the little screen. With the help of this, one could see who was on the door. And right now, Minseok watched intensely after the evil looking guys. It had been a wise choice to stand up just then to look out, because only seconds after, they ran into sight. Everything was supposed to be soundproof, but Luhan and Minseok could still hear the guys outside. As Minseok watched the CCTV, he noticed that one of them held a baseball bat.

"Are you serious?!" Minseok exclaimed under his breath.

Luhan stood up, and walked over to him. "What is it?" he asked, leaning on Minseok's shoulder. Minseok felt a weird heat on the place where Luhan touched him, but he ignored it.

"Those morons... They brought weapons!" he answered Luhan. Luhan leant further over Minseok's shoulder, and they watched the CCTV together.

"Oh my... I'm so sorry." Luhan shook his head and sunk together on the floor. "I should never have brought you into this. Now they won't leave you alone until they get what they want. I should leave." his voice cracked halfway through.

Minseok turned away from the screen and sat down beside Luhan.

"No, Luhan..." It became quiet for a while, as Minseok tried to find the right words. "I want to help you in any way I can. I don't care if some gang finds my home. I'll find a way to make them leave. Luhan, for some reason - I don't know - You're precious, okay?" At this point, he shook his head slightly. "Wow, this sounds even more cheesy as I say it. But honestly. Just stay here until we figure something out, okay?" His words usually didn't say what he wanted them to, but somehow, he managed to express himself this time. He stumbled quite a lot along the way, but something in Luhan's eyes made Minseok sure that the boy opposite of him understood.

Luhan looked like he wanted to object, but didn't say anything. Instead, a low, rumbling sound made it's way through the air.

Minseok squinted. "Luhan, what did you eat today?" He asked suspiciously. Luhan avoided his gaze, as he muttered a small "nothing,"

This made Minseok stand up, and he dragged Luhan into the kitchen, which was connected to the living room.

The lights were turned off in all rooms except the hallway and living room, but as Minseok walked into the kitchen, he could still see the contours of everything inside. With the light from the living room, he could make out the faint white and silvery colours of most of the things inside the kitchen. For a few seconds he fumbled to find the light-switch, but soon found it and turned it on.

"So," Minseok turned to Luhan, who was right behind. "What do you want to eat?"

Luhan looked unsure, and then shook his head. "Whatever is easy to make." he replied. Minseok wanted to make something more complicated, but as he knew Luhan would only feel troubled, he threw some of the leftovers in his fridge together. Then he sat down, and put on plates for the two of them.

As they ate, they tried to forget the guys outside, and talked about normal things like nothing happened.

But still, in the back of his mind, Minseok wondered what he should do. "Have you tried to call the police?" he asked Luhan in the end, when their conversation dropped dead.

Luhan shook his head. "Even if they arrest ten people, there will be another hundred waiting for me. I'm better off running from ten, not to talk about a hundred." He sighed. And Minseok understood perfectly, it was how those gangs worked. There was no way out, if you were in. He silently cursed Luhan's brother in his mind.

And then, it became silent again. This was all that gang's and Luhan's brother's fault. If not for them, Luhan could've had a normal school-life. His parents would be okay, wherever they were at the moment. It was all so messed up.