Present:

The blond boy opened his eyes on a gray ceiling. It took him a few minutes to remember where he was. In front of him he found a dark haired boy sleeping soundlessly. Holding his hand, Heechul was sitting on the ground, his head leaning on the sofa where Leeteuk was sleeping on. The blond boy smiled at how his friend could be so cute. Heechul would always pretend to be so tough when in reality he would stay up the whole night to take care of a friend. Leeteuk was going to try getting up without disturbing the boy when Hangeng appeared at the door.

“So that’s where he was…”

He came in the room with a blanket in his hands and put it on Heechul’s back. Then seeing Leeteuk awake he made a head movement, telling the blond boy to follow him. Leeteuk succeeded in getting up without waking the other boy and followed Hangeng outside. He realized that he was in one of the spare rooms of the warehouse. Heechul and Hangeng had spent the last year transforming their former gang hole into dorms for street kids that didn’t have any other place to go. Now they had many rooms, a big living room, dancing rooms and a kitchen that was big enough to welcome 20 people at least. Leeteuk followed the Chinese boy to the kitchen and sat at the bar while the other one went to put some water to boil.

“How long was I asleep?”

“The whole day…”

Leeteuk nodded. Even if he did sleep the whole day he was still feeling exhausted, like if someone had beaten his whole body up… Hangeng started cooking something and both boys stayed silent. Leeteuk didn’t quite understand why the boy wanted him to follow him, he just thought that maybe he was jealous of finding his boyfriend clinging on someone else like this… but Hangeng knew Heechul, and he knew Leeteuk would never consider him more than a friend. A few minutes later, of Hangeng ignoring him, the Chinese boy took a bowl and put the ramyun he was cooking in it, just to hand it to Leeteuk. The eldest looked at the bowl, surprised.

“You should eat something.” Hangeng simply said.

Leeteuk accepted the food and started eating with appetite. The other boy sat on the counter in front of him and just kept staring.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Leeteuk asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you don’t like me…”

Hangeng crossed his arms.

“It’s not that I don’t like you… It’s just that I don’t trust you. You’re not a bad person, you’re just really bad in protecting the people that love you and put their faith on you.”

“Always so blunt…” Leeteuk had a bitter laugh. “But I guess you’re right… I’m unable to protect the people I love…”

Leeteuk stopped eating; he had a sudden lump in his throat and a knot in his stomach. Hangeng felt a little bit guilty to have said that, but on the other hand he was known to always say what he thought. That’s why he only hesitated a moment before asking.

“What do you plan on doing now?”

Leeteuk threw him a questioning look.

“About Minha.”

“So Hyukjae told you…” the blond boy had a sad smile. “He really confides in you and respects you.”

“Because I give him reasons to.”

“You’re right…”

Hangeng got up and went closer to the other boy.

“Jung Soo, I’m not here to compete with you about who’s the best hyung. You’re his real brother and he loves and respects you more than you could imagine. Now, we were friends one day, just know that I’m here if you need it, that’s all.”

Leeteuk was completely surprised. First it was one of the first times he heard Hangeng talk that much, and second, he was unexpectedly supportive.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do…” he said looking down. “She doesn’t remember me…”

Looking at his surprised expression, Leeteuk guessed that Eunhyuk hadn’t let out this small detail.

“Donghae told me they think she forgot everything that could be a little traumatic, like her accident.”

“You mean she completely forgot your existence? That would mean that you…”

“I am the traumatic event…” Leeteuk cut him.

Hangeng frowned.

“I don’t think it’s that easy… I know you two had a complicated relationship, but I remember how much you loved each other. She couldn’t have forgotten everything like that.”

Leeteuk nodded. A few days now, that he discovered that Minha was still alive and that she had forgotten about him. Since then he had spent all his time at the warehouse with Heechul, unable to decide whether he should go to the hospital to see her or not. He had thought a lot about the why… why would she forget him of all people? Of course he had been dead curious about a bunch of other things like, where was she during all this time? How was she living? Was she happy and well? He wanted to be able to do like Eunhyuk and take her in his arms. But he couldn’t… because for her, he was a stranger. They’d talked a lot with Donghae, and Leeteuk came with this hypothesis.

“Us being together behind Hyukjae’s back was killing her, so she probably shut me out of her memory.”

“Her betrayal would be the cause of her memory loss?”

“It’s obvious…”

He was convinced of it.

“But why would she have forgotten even the time when you first met?” asked Hangeng.

That, Leeteuk didn’t have an answer for. The only thing he knew for sure was that it hurt. It hurt so much… He thought he had lost her forever, and now that the person he loved most in this world was back he couldn’t even be with her. It was torture… Tears came up in his eyes but he tried hard to contain them, he wasn’t going to cry in front of Hangeng.

Seeing his despair, the Chinese boy sighed.

“You don’t know how lucky you are…”

“What is lucky about it?!”

“You are given a second ch