That sleepy head… never listens to anything I tell him!

Half a dozen hard bound books fell on his desk right in front of him, only to let him sit up on his seat startled. He was violently woken up from his sleep and he was woken up by none other than his partner.

‘Yixing, you stubborn idiot…’ Sanghyun was already letting his cannon loose while he sat there lazily brushing his already messy hair and yawning away. ‘How many times have I told you to go back home and sleep? You have an apartment that you pay rent every month for just storing your clothes and necessities. You haven’t stayed in that apartment regularly for a month now. Do you want me to kick your every night before I leave?!’

Lost in his own oblivion, Yixing’s eyes opened a bit wider in confusion. His senses were completely knocked out and sleeping on the desk didn’t help his body in any way either. He cracked his back while he took deep breaths when Sanghyun patiently waited till he came back to Earth. After all, being friends and partners for three years should’ve given Sanghyun the necessary wisdom on how to deal with the mystery that is Zhang Yixing.

‘Why are you at it this early in the morning?’ Yixing had finally gathered enough strength to mumble. ‘Why does it even matter where I sleep anyway? I am not the one who needs to look good on TV. As long as you get your beauty sleep, no one is complaining…’ he yawned out the last word.

Sanghyun and Yixing worked for the news channel, SN News. Sanghyun was the TV Correspondent while Yixing was his Cameraperson. These two joined the company together and were paired up by chance. Little did the two expect to get along so well, because now they are almost like blood brothers. This pair was pretty hot with the ladies around because both of them had this godly charm about them. While Yixing took an overdose of the cuteness genes, Sanghyun was all about his superior genes. From head to toe these two men had a variety of charm points and characteristics, that their co-workers cannot simply act normal around them. In fact, their TV station even observed that teenage girls crowd around and watch the 8 o’clock news bulletin that Sanghyun occasionally hosts and only when he hosts.

However, these boys were also fed with an excess of modesty pills. No matter how much someone compliments, they gently deny that they are anywhere near perfect. The ladies even doubted if these two ever look at themselves on a mirror.

‘It is not about looking good on TV!’ Sanghyun almost screamed in frustration. ‘It has, is and always will be about your health. No matter how much of a sincere Sam you are, you cannot simply skip meals and sleep on hardwood desks!!’

‘Oh Mom, I didn’t know…’ Yixing pouted as he stated those words with an immense amount of sarcasm.

‘I will surely kick you tonight if you do not go home after work.’ His voice suddenly got serious and Yixing took note of the cue.

‘Alright, don’t go all ‘soap opera’ on me. I will go home. I don’t understand why you still boss me around so much when you very well know what I am looking into.’

Sanghyun’s face went rigid. A sense of guilt rushed within him but it was soon overshadowed by the concern that he had for Yixing.

‘Dude…no matter what you say, I am dead serious about your health. You need to be strong enough to find her. You need to be okay for her to understand all the things that you are doing okay? Don’t make me send you back to China. So shut up and freshen up. We have the whole day ahead of us. Read up on these books, we are going to interview the author of all these books.’

Blinking violently, Yixing scanned the stack of hardbound books in front of him. He is the kind of guy who passed reading the fifth part of the Harry Potter series just because he felt that it was heavy to carry around. Disbelief soon danced all over his face as he looked up, perplexed at Sanghyun.

‘Are you freakin’ kidding me?’ he stated every single word with clarity so that it hit Sanghyun brain clearly one by one.

‘I know you hate heavy reading or…any kind of reading, but this is our assignment. Come on…Be a sport.’

‘Wait…You are the one who is going to interview him. I will be simply holding the camera, making you look good. Why the hell should I read this crap? And what does this dude write about? ‘How to write gigantic books in 100000 simple ways?’ or something?!’

‘There is absolutely no way on Earth that I am reading all this alone! What the hell are friends are for?’ Sanghyun frowned in disappointment.

‘I am going back to sleep!’ Yixing firmly dismissed his friend’s wishes and fell instantly on top of his desk to sleep again.

‘Oh no you don’t…’

Sanghyun stomped his way to the other side of the desk as he folded the sleeves of his shirt. With the workout craze hitting him hard, Sanghyun was now the owner of the most durable shoulders on this side of the world while Yixing, thanks to his irregular lifestyle was barely making it. Locking his arms around Yixing’s neck, Sanghyun lifted Yixing up with ease. He screamed in pain and cursed violently in Chinese which Sanghyun made no sense of.

‘I am going to seriously kill you one day!’ Yixing screamed in vain. ‘Be careful of what you eat here after!’

‘Oh yeah? I shall feed you the first bite of every meal in this very same style. You know hoe health conscious I am right?’ Sanghyun burst into laughter after a statement that was only amusing to him.

While the laughter and screams of both the men kept echoing around the room, a sweet voice caught their attention.

‘You guys must be crazy…’ dragged Bomi, their colleague, fellow TV Correspondent. Sanghyun immediately put Yixing down and straightened up. He has a thing for her.

‘You realize that only now?’ Yixing was full of sarcasm as he smirked, only to be knocked on the head by Sanghyun.

Glaring at his friend, Yixing silently took his seat again. He will pay later, he thought.

‘What’s up, Bomi? What is new out there?’

She smirked before speaking to him. ‘While you guys are fooling around here, the boss man is pissed at the two of you. Its 8 in the morning and you guys haven’t reported in yet.’

‘Come on…’ Yixing sighed in dismay. ‘This is not the military. He runs this place like an elementary school. Let us be a bunch of rebels that he hates. We don’t care…’

Sanghyun sheepishly smiled in agreement to Yixing’s words. He didn’t want to seem silly in front of her and also didn’t want to let his friend down. God, the world is cruel, he declared to himself.

‘Well, you be your own rebels while he just picks up and gives away the best case of the season to the dork Cho Kangmin, just out of spite.’

‘How big a case can it be for the boss to hand it over to that lost puppy Kangmin?’ Sanghyun sarcastically stated as he smiled at her.

She stepped a bit closer to him, making him hold his breath for a moment. He didn’t want to hit her even with the slightest whiff of air, as he held more control over it and focused on her lips that moved to give him the biggest shock ever. His jaw dropped wide open when he heard what she had to say.

‘The lead detective of the anti-drug trafficking mission was found brutally murdered in her own home.’

~*~*~*~*~

‘Here you go Minsoo…’ Cheolyong handed over one of the chicken burgers he had gotten for the two of them. ‘Thanks to our lovely tourist today, we are having a delicious lunch and finally saved up right on time to pay our rent.’

‘Amen to that…’ Minsoo acknowledged as he took a hearty bite off the burger. With every chew he took, his senses were pleasured in ways he couldn’t describe. This was the first burger they both had in a month. In order to save money, they’ve living off on the combo meal that the small noodle stall next to their apartment provides. The grandpa who owned the store always gave them an extra bowl of soup and vegetables because these two also do some odd jobs around, helping him occasionally.

‘Hyung…’ Minsoo slowly dragged. ‘Have I ever been or am being a burden to you?’

Cheolyong was taken aback by Minsoo’s question. It wasn’t the nature of the question that surprised him but the timing of it. He certainly did not expect Minsoo to have such feelings after five years of being together.

Moving to Seoul to become a rapper was all Cheolyong could talk about at 17. He had just graduated school and he was the only son to his parents. He was always spoiled with immense love from both his parents and always got his way with things. They weren’t going to say no to this either. Despite being a middle class family where both the parents had to work a lot to provide for the entire family, they never showed their sorrow to their son. They always wanted him to be happy. So with a healthy amount of cash and lots of love and support from his parents, the country boy made his way to Seoul. However, reality was not as pleasing as he expected it to be. Numerous auditions with various companies kept happening but the result was never favorable. He was always told off with the same comment ‘You seem to be lacking a little.’  Cheolyong never understood where he was lacking and the people who judged him also did not help him. A year with the same pattern was all it took for Cheolyong to lose all hope.

Initially he blamed his parents. He wanted to let them know how stupid they were to show him only the positives of life and never prepared him for defeat. He didn’t call them for three straight months with the pointless anger filling his life to the brim. That was when he found the two things that changed the view in his life.

During that hopeless period was when he found Underground Rapping and Minsoo. He found them both at the same place and treasured them both equally. When he had lost all hope, thinking that his life was over, he met Minsoo in a much dreadful state than he was. Alone and out in that cruel world, Minsoo was always trapped under the control of the heathens in the society. He was only lucky to have been found by Cheolyong when he did find him and the way he found him. Thinking back to that day, five years ago still made Cheolyong feel glad and Minsoo, extremely guilty. He had been polite enough to take Minsoo in, giving him a place to live and food to eat when he himself wasn’t doing so well. Minsoo was always thankful for the heart and trying hard to somehow repay all that Cheolyong has ever done for him.

‘Yah! Why still stuck in that past? We are doing okay aren’t we?’ Cheolyong was trying hard to keep his spirit as bright as possible while Minsoo knew that he was hurt thinking back to those days when they had nothing else but each other.

‘You didn’t have to take me in at all. You could’ve simply gone back home. You have parents who love you and still support you. You have friends out there in the real world. Your rapping is extremely awesome. I am just dead weight pulling you down…’ Minsoo squeezed the burger in his hand as he let his head hang in shame.

Cheolyong put his arm of Minsoo's shoulders and patted him gently.

‘No matter what you think, I have no regrets. You should also stop selling yourself short. Your rap nowhere else but right next to awesome! You also work extremely hard for our living. So why am the only one who is a saint in your eyes?’

Minsoo swallowed his bite hard. He was anything but a saint or a proper human for that matter, he thought.

‘As long as we stick together and be honest with our intentions…we are always good. Our time will come soon.’

He choked on his burger right then.

He felt so low about what he had done an hour ago and he knew for sure that it will break Cheolyong’s heart when he comes to know about it. He couldn’t digest the fact that he had such high hopes about him while he had just done something that was downright low.

‘Hyung… no matter what, you will try and understand me right?’ he was slowly gathering the courage to come clean. He needed some kind of an assurance though because if he lost this friend, he was genuinely alone. He’d rather die than be alone.

‘Minsoo yah… Are you alright?’ Cheolyong was worried.

Minsoo took a deep breath and released it steadily as looked in front of him, unable to look Cheolyong in the eye as he was about to confess. However, his attention was diverted by a familiar looking person who was a few meters in front of him, hesitantly looking for something all over the place. He understood what she was looking for, which is why he was even more tensed.

Why is she still looking for it?

Following Minsoo’s gaze, Cheolyong tried to find who he was keenly observing then. When he met with the person though, he was excited.

‘Oh look, it’s our friendly tourist!’

Minsoo silently cursed under his breath.