The front door of Minwoo's flat was open, so Kevin cautiously let himself inside. Minwoo was nowhere in sight, but Kevin could hear strange noises coming from behind a closed door. He didn't know what was inside that room, since Minwoo had not yet allowed him to enter. He took a seat in the kitchen and waited.

Minwoo appeared not long after, bursting from the door with his hands full of loose paper. He put it away before Kevin could get a good look, but it appeared to be sheet music.

"Are you writing music?"

Minwoo grumbled something as he went to the fridge. "I'm trying to. Well, I have a bit of a project I'm working on."

"Can I hear it?"

"No. It's incomplete."

"Can I hear it when it's finished?"

Minwoo shook his head. "It will never be finished." He poured himself a drink. "I want Hyungsik to work with me, but he won't."

"Why not?"

"He hasn't given me any reason. He says he just doesn't feel like it."

"Why don't you ask someone else to sing with you?"

"Because Hyungsik is my only chance of making it big. Ever since he disappeared from the entertainment scene he's picked up this online cult following. They all seem to think he's some sort of recluse genius. And even outside of those weirdos, people are really curious about him. If he made a comeback, that would be big news."

Minwoo finished his drink and Kevin tapped his hands together.

"I went to see Hyungsik today."

Minwoo's eyes widened. "And? How was he? Did he tell you why he quit music?"

Kevin shook his head. "He didn't tell me anything. But..."

"But?"

"But I think I know why he quit. It doesn't have anything to do with the army, or well... not really."

Minwoo waited for him to continue and Kevin could feel his face getting hot.

"I don't know if I can tell you. He swore me to secrecy many years ago."

Minwoo continued to stare at him, so Kevin gave in.

"Did he ever tell you about someone called Song Hansu?"

"No, don't think so. Who's that?"

Kevin got up and went over to his suitcase. From the inside zip pocket he produced an envelope which he handed to Minwoo. Minwoo examined it with a blank face, turning it over in his hand.

"It's an envelope addressed to someone called Song Hansu. In Hyungsik's handwriting. Is this it? Does this explain the reason he gave up music?"

Minwoo was about to open the envelope, but Kevin cried out to stop him.

"It's never been opened."

"So you've never read it?"

"No, I've never read it."

"Well then..." Minwoo looked at the envelope, then back at Kevin. "Then how do you know that this will tell us why Hyungsik quit music?"

"Because it's not what's in the letter that's important, it--"

Minwoo tore open the envelope. He held the letter above his head, so that Kevin could not pull it away. He only read the first few lines of it before he put it down again.

"This is a love letter... Are you telling me Hyungsik gave up music for love? A broken heart? Wait a minute--" Minwoo looked at the letter again. "Song Hansu is a man's name, isn't it?"

Kevin nodded gravely. "Song Hansu was a soldier, at least he was when Hyungsik met him. This is going back a while, before he enlisted..."

Minwoo folded the letter without reading the rest of it. He put it back in the envelope. "A soldier, hey? I have a lot of questions, but mostly I want to know why do you have this letter?"
 

Kevin had first met Song Hansu four years ago, in a café with Hyungsik.

Kevin was the only person that Hyungsik had ever told about Hansu. He guessed that half the reason Hyungsik had told him was logistical: he needed a cover, someone that could help him with his plans to visit Hansu, but the other half was purely confessional. Hyungsik was certain that he had fallen in love - for the first time ever - and that he would never feel this way about anyone else, and a feeling so great was too much for one person to hold in.

"It was like I was asleep before I met him," Hyungsik told Kevin as they waited together in the café. "I don't know how exactly, but everything's changed. The world just doesn't look the same anymore, songs don't sound the same anymore."

He was jittery and he kept picking up the condiments and putting them back in difference places.

Kevin was there because he had to be there; it was the only way Hyungsik would be able to meet his friend without needing to tell his manager, or anybody. It had to be secret, because Hansu was in the army and he was no ordinary sort of friend.

Kevin put his hand over Hyungsik's to guide him away from the condiments. He was dangerously close to spilling something.

"I haven't see him in a while," Hyungsik murmured, "and now I'm a little nervous."

Kevin was nervous too, but probably for a different reason.

Hyungsik jumped out of his seat the moment Song Hansu came into the cafe. Kevin stood up too, because he was curious to see this guy he had heard so much about.

Song Hansu was ordinary, so ordinary looking that Kevin almost felt offended. He had a flat, oval head, and heavy double lidded eyes that seemed to sweep slowly across the room. He stood out in the cafe because of his uniform, but Kevin would not have been able to pick him from a group of soldiers.

He sat down at the table next to Hyungsik, so that they were both facing Kevin. Hansu flicked his eyes between Kevin and Hyungsik. To Hyungsik, he asked: "Is this your manager?"

"No, I'm Kevin," Kevin replied, a bit too loudly. He quickly readjusted to their surroundings and then felt a little embarrassed for being offended.

"I"m sorry," Hansu said, in a perfectly diplomatic voice, "I don't really follow popular music or tabloids. You're Hyungsik's friend."

Hyungsik had met Hansu while filming a television show. Before then, Hansu had never heard of him either. Hansu's ignorance of pop culture made him seem charming to Hyungsik, a quaint and wholesome country boy. It was also refreshing to meet someone who had no prior knowledge about him. To Hansu, Hyungsik had confessed that he often found his own fame to be stressful and confusing.

Throughout their café meeting - in which Kevin filled the role of awkward third wheel - Hansu spoke very little. He also ate very little, which wasn't a big deal given that Hyungsik ate enough for two people. Hyungsik did most of the talking, and Hansu rarely took his eyes off him, and Kevin rarely took his eyes off Hansu.

Kevin scrutinised every part of Hansu's ordinary body; his thin grey hands that often tapped on his pocket where he kept a cigarette box, his thin lips that betrayed no expression, his heavy and bored eyes - what part of him did Hyungsik find attractive?

"How long is your leave?" Hyungsik asked.

"A week. I'm leaving for the farm first thing tomorrow."

"Let's go to the singing room tonight. I won't keep you late." Hyungsik took Hansu's hand, and looked towards Kevin as if asking for permission. Kevin would have to come too, of course.

Kevin didn't mind. Noraebang usually meant listening to Hyungsik work his way through the discography of Park Hyosin, but he was okay with that.

But on this night, Kevin did not survive for long. Something about the way that Hyungsik sang Snow Flower seemed so intimate, and he did not feel that he had the right to be there. He excused himself to go to the bathroom, and he never came back. He spent the rest of the night sitting by the front desk of the noraebang, playing on his phone to relieve the boredom and most of all, the difficult to understand pain in his heart.

He told none of this to Minwoo, of course.

After that night, Kevin did not see Hansu again. Not long after, Hyungsik would also enlist for military service (Hansu only had a few months remaining to serve). Overcome by loneliness in the first month of his service, Hyungsik wrote Hansu a letter.
 

"So why do you have this letter?"

Kevin sighed. "Hyungsik gave it to me. I went to visit him not long after he enlisted and he gave it to me then. I was meant to deliver it for him. The military always checks parcels and letters going in and out so it was safer for me to put it into his hands myself."

"But you never did."

Kevin shook his head slowly. His terrible shame had now been revealed, and in a way, he was relieved to get it off his chest.

"I couldn't have," he said, "I couldn't let it go any further. This kind of relationship... for a celebrity it's risky, but for a soldier it's illegal."

"So you let Hyungsik believe that the love of his life had rejected him?"

Kevin's face started to get hot, and he was propelled by a surge of anger.

"It wasn't the love of his life! Hyungsik was infatuated - he couldn't see that Song Hansu was just some dull, chain smoking nobody who was only interested in Hyungsik for his money."

"Did he ever ask Hyungsik for money?"

"Not directly, but he was always talking about how his mother was ill and their farm was struggling, and you know what Hyungsik's like..."

Minwoo was silent for a few moments, his fingers arched and tapping together as he looked to the ceiling. At last he said, "I would have done the same thing..."

Kevin sighed with relief.

"...if I was his manager, but I'm his friend! Kevin, we're his friends! And he told you his secret and gave you this letter because you were the hyung he trusted the most - and you betrayed him."

"I didn't think it would turn out like this. I thought he would just get over it quickly, and move on with his life."

"But instead you ruined him."

Kevin's anger returned to the surface. "He was putting himself in danger. He was putting all of us in danger. I did this because I wanted to save his career - I didn't know that he would go and throw it all away himself." He jumped out of his seat, but as soon as his eyes met with Minwoo's his anger fell like a crumpled piece of paper. "I screwed up. It's all my fault." He picked up the envelope from the table. "I'll go sort it out with him."

"No, no, no!" Minwoo pulled the envelope back. "You can't tell him. He'll be even more upset if he knows that you back stabbed him."

"Then what should I do?"

"I don't know. Find some way to cheer him up." Minwoo stood up from the table. "Excuse me, I have to go work on my project."

He returned to his secret room and closed the door behind him.