*flashback memory*

"...so there's this big ruckus at our agency lately..." Eunhyuk was completely dragged into his overexcited explanation, as he gesticulated, waving hands in mid-air, trying to lit even the tiniest bit of curiosity in his two friends, who sat right before him.

They were sitting at a café in Myeongdong district, patiently waiting for a fourth person to show up to their meeting.

"Hey! Are you even trying to follow along, you two?" Eunhyuk complained, snorting with lips slightly parted, as he sunk, quite decived, in his silver metal chair. On the wooden platform patio next to the shop's main entrance, under big colorful striped sunshades, people of various age and backgrounds were enjoying a relaxing and particularly sunny mid-afternoon in that unusual spring day.

Giving up on his attempts to bring back to reality his way too busy friends, he simply grabbed his orange juice glass and began drinking with the help of a straw, looking at the two men deeply immersed into their own business.

Yesung, who sat right in front of Eunhyuk, was the elder among their group and often acted as the wisest, despite his true dorky nature which came up pretty often, driving the guys terribly nuts sometimes. He worked as a lawyer for a quite known firm of the Korean capital, and every time they gathered together to spend good time as friends, he never failed at showing off how much busy he was due to his neverending list of appointments or rich aquaintainces and connections, and therefore had to thouroughly check his working schedule through his phone pretty much every single minute.

Even on that moment he was comfortably sitting on his chair, folding legs and fixing his black-framed eyeglasses on his nose, casually flipping his black wavy bangs from his forehead with his fingers, while he checked his incoming e-mails, umperceptibly nodding by himself.

Eunhyuk moved his wondering gaze from him to the man sitting on Yesung's side.

Cho Kyuhyun. Opposite to Yesung, he was the youngest in the group, and despite his age he was considered to be an absolute genius. Working as an architect, he managed to graduate earlier than his actual plans and always showed the inclination to reach perfection in pretty much everything he achieved. He was tall, he had fair milky white skin, wavy light brown hair that was naturally messy but still looked at its best even without much effort, big dark eyes that reflected his snarky, selfish, and slightly evil true soul. Even if he wasn't really as evil as everyone depicted him. It was just that he had always been carefree when it came to live his life, and therefore developed a unique way to face reality surrounding him by shielding himself with making fun of others first. Yesung, who was his childhood friend and senior, knew him better than anybody else and could swear that, well hidden under layers and layers of harshness, there was a little child locked within Kyuhyun, eager to come up to light and play around.

The boy was pretty focused with checking some sketches and drafts from a clear folder full of papers, and attentively landed the sharp point of a grey pencil on the fragile paper, to take notes and make corrections to measures for a new building his own company was working hard on those days. 

"You...are...boring!" a voice from not so far away told them, stressing every word as it approached the trio and took a seat next to Eunhyuk "Always bent on your important paperwork! Enjoy life for once!"

The young men all looked up at once and welcomed the fourth friend at their table with quite wide smiles, the widest being Eunhyuk's, who leaned to his left and hugged the new arrived man.

Kyuhyun brought his pencil to his lips and began teasingly biting the end point, while looking at the two affectionately hugging. He rolled his eyes and sighed: "Do you always have to display your love this way?"

Eunhyuk grimaced, pretty scoured by Kyuhyun's words: "What does this have to do with you? Always nagging about us! Make yourself a girlfriend and learn how to be nicer to people!"  

Yesung gulped. He had finally moved his eyes from the little phone's screen and looked carefully at Kyuhyun's reaction, who was by then used to his friends' reproaches and quitted making a big deal about it. Upon hearing that Eunhyuk had proposed to Donghae, the one who had just reached them, Eunhyuk's boyfriend from a lifetime, Kyuhyun learned how not to care about the two men's lovingly gestures, which he couldn't really stand, and proudly defended his status as a stubborn single soul, telling them that a person like him, busy with work, successful among both women and men, well off and with an outstanding brain, could live even without finding true love.

Donghae couldn't help but smile and let Eunhyuk take his hand into his, looking with his eyes for the waitress to call. A nice young girl in a neat white and black uniform promptly showed up and took note of the latte Donghae politely asked for.

He leaned towards Eunhyuk and fixed his fiancé's blond bangs with a smile that was aimed to melt his heart. Eunhyuk responded with one of his typical gummy smile and chuckled, as he was telling him that the two busy workers before them didn't really understand anything of the news he tried to deliver prior to his arrival. 

"What's so important about a famous pianist being temporary hired by the label you two are currently working for?" Kyuhyun asked, resuming his screening of the paperwork he was checking earlier and not lifting his eyes, even to look at Eunhyuk's startled frowning expression. He was a genius after all...and Eunhyuk always forgot to take note of that. The blond man was so sure that neither of them were paying him any attention while speaking, but even though Kyuhyun wasn't looking directly at him, that didn't mean that what his friend was talking about wasn't worthy of being listened to. 

"It's not just a simple famous pianist! He's a prodigy!" Donghae told him "He's been living and working in France for the past ten years, I heard that many famous conservatories and theatres abroad would like to hire him as a professional, but he likes to tour the world and prefers short-time collaborations instead!"

"And so?" Kyuhyun carefully drew a line on the paper, connecting two walls on the project draft and erasing another one, which was to be apparently eliminated from the final plan "I guess he's just a worker like everyone of us!" he bit his lips due to the high amount of focus applied.

"If he's truly that worldwide known then, why haven't we heard anything about him coming to Seoul?" Yesung butted in, finally setting aside his phone on the circular wooden table "I mean...streets would be covered in posters!"

"Wait, I'll show you a video from his latest concert!" Donghae fiddled with his jeans pocket and took out his phone. He intently typed on the research engine the name of this famous musician and selected a video from youtube among tons of others. Every single one of them counted fairly more than a few million views and they were flooded by comments from users, praising him in high admiration.

"That's him!" Donghae placed the electronic device on the table and pushed it right under Kyuhyun's nose. Yesung leaned over his best friend's shoulder to take a peek as well.

Donghae and Eunhyuk had already checked the same video quite a few times, but they couldn't hide the high anticipation that affected them, since the music label where they both worked as dancers and renowned choreographers (and where they met and fell in love) had been granted the privilege to offer one of their musicians the chance for a collaboration stage with the pianist.

Despite the high quality of the video itself, Kyuhyun and Yesung couldn't see any of the facial features of the pianist, as the latter one was intently pressing the piano's ivory white and plastic black keys and bent over the keyboard while reaching for the furthest notes. He sat on the stage, pitch black darkness surrounded him and would have even probably drowned him if not for the round flashing white spotlight placed right above his head. 

The sweet and overwhelming feeling the pianist could convey while playing Chopin's most famous Nocturne seemed as warm as a human embrace and wound both the two friends, who didn't know how to hide their delighted surprise while listening to the intense music coming from the speakers. They both felt strong shivers down their spines. However, Kyuhyun couldn't really imagine that his shivers would have multiplied as soon as the pianist concluded his piece and, as usual, stood up to face the clapping public and bow to greet them and accept their compliments.

When the camera did a close up on his radiant face, Kyuhyun recognized in him a familiar person...way too familiar according to him...

He could just recognize him over a million different people: those straight brown hair were styled a bit differently and displayed a long hair fringe cut in a diagonal way from right to left and ended up covering much of his forehead; those bright dark almond-shaped eyes that knew how to smile in their own unique way even when the owner was still and didn't show any facial expression or reaction; those soft cheeks tinted of a light shade of pink, and the sharp yet perfect cheekbones that conducted lower on his jawline, until this rejoined at the point of his chin; plump rosy lips closed in a curved line as he was smiling, satisfied with his performance; and, finally, that thin neck shiny wet by some droplets of sweat that ran down along some visible tensed veins and hid themselves under the white shirt collar.

"I am glad to introduce you Kim Ryeowook!" Donghae exclaimed as he put away his phone and looked at the two of them, anticipating their opinions...even though Kyuhyun didn't really need any of Donghae's introductions, at least not anymore...

---ooo---

Kyuhyun's Pov

...so you're back...without even saying anything to the people who once cared for you... - Kyuhyun scribbled nonsense on the thin paper with a pencil, he was quietly sitting alone at his desk, in his office, the CEO's office.

I didn't even know you actually escaped from Korea! - his scribbles and doodles got messier as he pressed the point of the pencil with much more strength on the paper, till it broke with a click sound, leaving thin metallic grey powder all over the project plans.

Pathetic! That's the only word I can think of at the moment...you are back, and you happen to be working with my friends, in their same agency...what's this supposed to mean? - he let the pencil slip out of his grip and furiously slapped with both hands against the smooth surface of the huge expensive mahogany desk, looking extremely pissed of by the thought. He looked around and carelessly checked every corner of the silent room. Outside, some of his subordinate workers were walking back and forth to arrange things for an upcoming meeting. Their seemingly hurried voices reached his ears as a distant whine. He clucked his tongue in his closed mouth to let a small "tsk" out soon after, closing eyes and half-sneering. And why I'm here spending my whole working day thinking of your showing up into my life after what happened ten years ago!

He slapped again his hands on the desk, this time hitting the paperwork as he tried his very best to keep on focusing on numbers, measures and drawings. Even a maths' genius like him had flaws...sometimes... I must be checking this stupid planimetry before the set up meeting at 4pm, and still, I'm here thinking of you, Kim Ryeowook, the only person I'd gladly avoid for the rest of my life! The only person I swore I'd have never even heard about! Wait...is this even possible? I mean are you really showing up in my life again?

A week had passed since when he discovered about Ryeowook's arrival in Korea, but still the thought tormented him. Kyuhyun lifted his eyes from the drawings once again and stopped to fix them at an uncertain point into the void; he vigorously shook his head then, desperately trying to set that stupid thought as furthest as possible from his mind: No, that's not the case...he'll just tutor some new singer from the agency Eunhyuk and Donghae are currently working for...this doesn't mean that I might be able to bump into him! Absolutely not! Seoul is quite big after all, it's one of the world's biggest cities, there's not a chance of us bumping again into each other...what I'm worrying about? That's it! Kyuhyun, stop it, you idiot!  he lightly slapped his face with both hands, widening eyes as the received hit felt heavier than expected. You've just thought of forcing yourself not to think about him, then why are you so obsessed with the fear of meeting him again? Oh, is this even to be considered a fear? Am I scared? Probably I am...probably, I'd kill him, if I ever happened to see him close to me...I'd never forgive him for what he had done: to me, to my family...to Ahra...

Kyuhyun landed his gaze on a silver frame placed on the upper right corner of his desk, where there was a portrait of a young lady who looked exactly like him. His features softened and the young man even gently smiled, as his fingers laid on the cold glass and brushed some dust away from the girl's face. "I miss you, noona...I am missing you more than ever, you know? You probably know..." he looked up at the ceiling, pretending to be looking at the wide sky above, instead though.

Ahra, the girl in the picture was smiling at him and never ceased to do so, as long as her younger brother kept treasuring that picture more than anything else and talked to her from time to time...like long gone times: those memories from childhood that could never be relived again and were forever locked in Kyuhyun's mind...just like that cursed day...

---ooo---

Ryeowook's Pov

It was 4pm of a quiet afternoon and Kim Ryeowook, the worldwide skilled and famous pianist, sat on a stone step facing the wide open-spaced soccer courtyard. Behind him the massive towering building that once was his middle and high school: the place where he learned everything he could affirm to know until that day. He sat totally undisturbed, except for some children in their uniforms still playing around the site. He had just crossed his arms and placed them on his knees, leaning forward and sighing from time to time, his eyes wandering around, further on from where he was, recalling the past and what had happened right in front of that school building. 

...and once again here I am...on that very same damn spot! Who would have thought it possible that I'd be back in Korea like this? 

He slightly smiled at the sight of a pretty 4-year-old girl uncertainly trying to run somewhere on the field, a bit lower from the high step he sat on. She had straight black hair that arrived to her shoulders and wore pink. Someone, most surely her mother, ran after her, calling the girl by her name and stretching out an arm to catch her back, slowly putting almost all her weight onto her knees as she lowered her balance and kept it at the same level of her daughter's.

She did that too back then...she stretched her arm out to me and pulled me on her side, screaming my name louder and louder...I was a fool for believing that I'd have had an easy time abroad, while struggling with the efforts to erase this painful memory from my heart and from my mind...I was so wrong...

Some teardrops fell from his eyes and rolled on his cheeks, wetting his features and falling on the ground, as he lowered his head and placed his forehead on his arms, hiding his face in the small empty round hole created by that position. Those tears fell even more numerous and darkened the grey stone, leaving some small dots here and there. Ryeowook left his head to the orange sky only to catch a deep breath. He placed his right hand on his chest, just on the left spot where his heart was, and pressed with his fingers on the brownish jacket he was wearing, feeling the fingertips and his nails slowly sinking into the fabric, with the aim of reaching for his own flesh, as if that was the only thing to be done to relieve that stinging sensation of unbearable pain that even brought him to grit teeth and shut his eyes in front of the limpid sky.

Just half an hour earlier, he passed by the main hall of the building, and stopped to take a look at a portrait hung there inside. The picture was the one of a young girl, probably aged around 20, brightly smiling above a black writing stating "In memory of Cho Ahra".

On that moment, Ryeowook felt his jacket pocket vibrating. He quickly wiped his tears away with the back of both hands and hurried to take a look at the just arrived text message.

"Ryeowook-ssi, I wanted to confirm with you the dinner tonight at our house later at 9pm. We'll be waiting for you!"

He looked at the sender's name and read "Lee Hyukjae" at the very top of the screen. He sighed again, feeling so down to attend a surprise dinner with people he barely knew, but he guessed he had to accept the invitation and try to push away that uncomfortable feeling of distress once for all: spending a different evening once in a while could also be a pretty interesting source of fun, after all...

...he simply didn't know that the same text message had been read in that very same moment by another person somewhere else in the crowded Seoul...