Jonghyun walked down the rioted street. Walls stained with ink forming letters that formed into revolutionary messages. It all looked beautiful in its own way, but if Jonghyun told the truth, he didn’t care about the riots at all. Neither did he care about the “civil war” which basically was a bunch (okay quite a lot) of people running around wanting the rulers of the country to give the country and people more freedom.

Problem was that the people of the country were divided into two, those who wanted new rulers , the “peace fighters” as they liked to call themselves and those who were happy with the current system and wanted it to stay, also known as “keepers.” There also were a few people who didn’t fit into neither of these two categories, people like Jonghyun. People who didn’t care, people who wanted to live their lives without war. There weren’t many people like Jonghyun, most of these people decided mind their own business and were hard to come by because of this.

Jonghyun stepped inside the small laundromat he used quite often. No one came here and the sound of the spinning coming from the washing machines was calm and rhythmic. It didn’t go in the wrong pace, that’s how Jonghyun wanted his life to be, calm and rhythmic. He threw his clothes inside the machine he usually used and inserted the coins it required to be used. He sat down on the bench  that was seated on the opposite wall and stared into the mix of water, clothes and liquified washing powder.

The door of the laundromat was opened and slammed shut and Jonghyun snapped out of his daze. A, rather handsome, man about the same age as him, had stepped inside the small space provided to wash your clothes in. The man had blood stains all over his clothes, Jonghyun wanted to throw up, he hated blood.

The man took off his jacket and folded it neatly on the bench next to Jonghyun, then he stripped out of all his clothes except his underwear. He threw his clothes into the washing machine next to Jonghyun’s and reached for his jacket. He fumbled around and tried to find something in the pockets.

    “You must be joking,” the man sighed and turned his eyes towards Jonghyun’s. “You don’t happen to have a few coins on you? I’m all out.” Jonghyun was so shocked that he simply reached for his pocket and handed the man a few coins. The man inserted them in the machine and the familiar sound of spinning started.

When the man had reached to insert the coins was when Jonghyun noticed it, he had a multicoloured bracelet around his wrist. He was a peace fighter. Keepers had navy blue as their “colour” and Jonghyun felt stupid for not noticing earlier, it was the only thing the man was wearing! (With an exception of his underwear.)

    “Thank you, so what’s your name?” the man said as he sat down. Jonghyun almost choked, how could this stranger act so friendly towards him.

    “I wouldn’t act so friendly with a stranger in times like this, you don’t even know if I’m a keeper or a peace fighter,” Jonghyun muttered back.

    “My name is Kibum, and I don’t care what you are, you were friendly when you gave me coins, that’s all I care about,” the man, or Kibum, said as he played with the wristband around his wrist.

Jonghyun studied Kibum, he started from his hands. His hands were beautiful and his fingers were fairly long. His arms were toned and his skin was fair. His hair had been bleached blonde and was styled in a messy way, or maybe it had been messed up. Kibum had narrow eyes which mediated a certain kind of kindness.

    “Jonghyun,” Jonghyun let out after a short time which was filled with silence. Kibum seemed to think about the name for a while before he answered.

    “I know you are not a keeper,” Kibum answered simply. Just as Jonghyun was about to ask how he had known, Kibum opened his mouth to reply. “You don’t have anything navy blue on you, neither did you check on which side I was when I walked in.” Jonghyun understood, it was really a matter of life and death regarding which side you were on. He was usually left alone or then he would lie about his side if someone bothered him. About navy blue, Kibum was right, he was wearing a pair of black jeans with a white t-shirt alongside with a wine red jacket. Navy blue was very important for keepers.

    “I don’t understand, if you are not a keeper, why are you not a peace fighter? You’re not wearing a bracelet,” Jonghyun looked down at his wrists, neither of them had the multicoloured wristband around them.

“To make it simple, I don’t care,” Jonghyun answered and turned to look at the half man next to him. Kibum seemed to be shocked, of what Jonghyun had understood about the other man, he must have been involved in the fights a lot.

“How can you not? It’s like letting them win!” Kibum seemed upset. Jonghyun sighed, he never really had had to explain himself.

“That’s exactly what a keeper would say too,” Jonghyun sighed. “You see, I just want it to end, whatever ‘side’ wins, I don’t give a , I want my old life back.”

Kibum seemed to think for a while. He looked really concerned, Jonghyun took the time to study Kibum’s body once more, he was really good looking.

    “Let me guess, something happened, you gave up, and now you are here trying to wash your clothes like you would if that something wouldn’t have happened,” Kibum’s guess was scarily close to reality. Jonghyun never spoke about it and was shocked. How could this stranger know?

    “That’s a good guess, pretty close to what happened,” Jonghyun looked down at his knees, he hated to think about what had happened.

    “What was that something?” Kibum asked as Jonghyun took a deep breath. Jonghyun had seen it coming. He hadn’t told anyone, so why not tell this stranger, the past couldn’t be changed.

    “When everything started, my father took it very seriously, my mother had passed away long ago, and he wanted to fight for peace. He left me alone, he vanished. It would have been okay if the story would end here, but no. He took it as far as dying for peace. I was walking home from school, and I heard the distant echoes of a riot, I heard gunshots, and wished it wasn’t my dad. I had been looking for him for some while, and after the riot calmed down I went to look at the bodies. I had done it with every riot, checking every dead body making sure it wasn’t my dad. As I saw him dead, I gave up, fighting for peace would be useless, revenge isn’t right, I just want it all to stop,” Jonghyun felt tears forming and he cursed to himself, he couldn’t cry here.

    “I kind of get why you think like that, but why don’t you join one side? And help them to win you know,” Kibum suggested, after listening to Jonghyun’s story.

    “You don’t get it, I don’t care, even if I helped, I doubt it would be useful, and in the end I would end up dying,” Jonghyun regretted telling Kibum all of this. Kibum was a peace fighter and didn’t seem to want to throw away his views on the war for a while. He saw everything from a peace fighter's perspective and wouldn’t understand what Jonghyun meant.

Jonghyun’s machine beeped signaling that his clothes were washed and he moved out them and put them inside a the dryer below the washing machine, he was interrupted by Kibum as he was about to put in the coins to start the drying.

    “Wait! Can you wait for my clothes, it will be cheaper if they dry the same time,” Jonghyun sighed, that meant he would have to spend more time with Kibum. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to, but he was about to cry even more and he just wanted to go home. He just nodded in response and sat down waiting for Kibum’s machine to be ready.

    “So what do you do? You can’t sit home and wait for this to be over the whole day?” Kibum tried tried to change the subject, Jonghyun was clearly upset.

    “I have a part time job, at the coffee shop down the street, I originally wrote for the newspaper, but you know, it was put paper down because of the war so that flopped,” Jonghyun laughed at himself, everything sounded so sad. He was actually quite happy. “What do you do? It’s not like there’s riots that pay you, so how do you survive?”

Kibum smiled, it was a smile Jonghyun hadn’t seen before, on anyone. A smile hiding something big.

    “I don’t do anything, I studied at a university, but riots destroyed it, the dorms are still ok so I have somewhere to live and I’m using my savings on food, it won’t last for long so I don’t know what to do when I’m out of money,” Kibum hated being a dropout against his own will. He wanted an education so he could learn more, help the world and make peace.

Kibum’s washing machine beeped and he moved his clothes into the dryer, while Jonghyun turned it on. Jonghyun had completely forgot about the fact that Kibum was almost , when Jonghyun accidentally touched Kibum’s abs. Jonghyun felt his cheeks heat up and he quickly turned around. He could hear Kibum giggle behind himself.

Jonghyun didn’t have time to protest before he was turned around and his lips were crashed into Kibum’s. He couldn’t deny the fact that he had secretly wished he would get to kiss Kibum, so he kissed Kibum back. Kibum smiled into the kiss, it was a good kiss.

As Jonghyun pulled away both boys stared at each other in awe before looking down and laughing silently. The dryer beeped and Kibum opened it and started getting dressed. Jonghyun was a little bit disappointed, one, because Kibum was getting dressed, and two, their time here would end soon.

When Kibum was done getting dressed and Jonghyun had put his clothes into the bag Kibum broke the silence.

    “How about you tell me where this coffee shop you work at it, so I know where to not take you on a date,” he smiled shyly at Jonghyun, who felt like he was going to die.

    “Umm, it’s the one down the street, at the corner of the street,” Jonghyun answered, trying to hide the excitement in his voice.

    “I’ll come pick you up after you have finished tomorrow then, what time do you want me to come?” Kibum was happy Jonghyun hadn’t denied his request to take him on a date.

    “7 p.m., if that’s alright for you,” Jonghyun said unable to hide his smile. Kibum walked towards the door and before stepping out he turned around and looked at Jonghyun.

    “I’ll be there,” Kibum winked before walking out.

Jonghyun just stood there. Did he really have a date tomorrow, with a peace fighter? Everything felt unreal, was this all a dream? Had he really kissed Kibum. Jonghyun shook his head in an effort to clean his head from all thoughts, but failed. He was really going on a date, with a really cute peace fighter.