[I'm a slowpoke... >.>  Sorry <3 ]

He was tired today. Kyungsoo was dead tired. 

Everybody in the office noticed it, secretly watching the male with eyes full of curiosity. He was the centre of attention as he passed by in the hallways, and even when he sat beside his desk. Not that it surprised him - he has been here only two days, but already understood his co-workers in the law firm loved to talk.

Actually, talking wasn't the right word to describe those annoying stares of theirs, and the nosy whispers. It was nothing else but irritating gossip.

And what's worse, everybody seemed to be particularly interested not in anyone else, but the "owl-eyed", "beautiful" Kyungsoo, whose face was always "suspiciously full of exhaustion". Exhaustion that came from not having rested properly since he left the States, but, of course, Kyungsoo saw no need to explain that to the gossipers whatsoever. So soon, he was hearing stories about himself flowing around in the office, that either made him laugh bitterly at their stupidness, or sigh in utter despair.

For example, there was that one, that Kangjun told him about. It almost made Kyungsoo spit out his morning coffee when he heard it.

Apparently, or more like according to his co-workers, Kyungsoo was working as a very expensive and georgeous on nights, flying to nearby countries every other night with rich businessmen. Only insanely rich ones, of course. Someone of that beauty was not going to waste his time on any small fries, right? 

Yeah, right.

Or that other one, which was given birth in the administration office, telling that he had a famous idol boyfriend, whom he could only meet when the sun was down, and that's why he had no time for sleeping. Kyungsoo was spending his nights in a.. better way.

Seriously, Kyungsoo's life in gossips was so much more interesting than it was like for the man himself. In reality, his tiredness was mostly caused by nothing else, but innocent jetlag and unpeaceful dreams. It probably just showed on the outside more, than it should have.

Maybe it was because of his pale white skin, but the dark circles appeared real quick on his face too, in a matter of two days, and showed on Kyungsoo much worse than it did on other people. They were painted in an ugly greyish black colour, right above his cheekbones and under his eyes. Combining the fairness of his skin, and the darkness of the eyebags, the sharp contrast made Kyungsoo look pretty much dead. Which led to thinking that the cause was more serious than insomnia, although it really wasn't.

But to be honest, Kyungsoo did feel pretty much dead.

It has been three days, and three nights of torn, shredded sleep for him. His plane landed a lot of time ago, yet Kyungsoo was still suffering from jetlag nevertheless. Hopelessly, he kept falling asleep on weird hours, felt lively at nights, and never felt like he slept enough in the mornings.

And the aftermath of all that was that the memories he was brushing and hiding away so well for these past few years, found a way to resurface in his mind again.

Memories of his highschool years now haunted him in his sleep. In the forms of husky laughter, chocolate eyes, and full lips.

So that Saturday evening, when Kyungsoo's head fell on the pillow unconsciously, he knew what was going to happen already. He knew that as soon as he closes his eyes, he will see Jongin. He will relive the time he spent with him again. And having already lost the fight of resistance, Kyungsoo wasn't even trying to fight it anymore. 

He just gave in.

Since the day they've met in the classroom, Kyungsoo had spent almost all of his time together with his new acquaintance. They spent the classes, the breaks, and sometimes their entire afternoons together. 

Although Kyungsoo kind of liked Jongin's company, he was not the one to initiate that. Strangely enough, that person was Jongin. Since the first day, he has been unbelievably attached to Kyungsoo, always finding little topics to make him speak up and asking millions of questions to keep the conversation going. He was asking Kyungsoo almost everything - from the colour of the balloons they will need for their school festival to Kyungsoo's favourite animal. Everything and anything to let him talk.

Even if he was quite shy and not used to that kind of overly intense attention, Kyungsoo didn't mind it. Jongin's question actually made him feel somehow important. As if someone actually cared about what kind of a person he was, too.

As weeks of them being friends passed, Kyungsoo started to notice a certain change in Jongin's behaviour. In the beginning of their friendship, the taller boy would usually keep a polite distance between himself and Kyungsoo as they talked, and avoid touching the shorter boy if it wasn't completely necessary. But when Kyungsoo gradually warmed up to him over the weeks, when he stopped stuttering and relaxed around the taller, Jongin suddenly started to be a bit more bold.

Everyday, when the two of them met by the gates of school, the first thing Jongin would do was give Kyungsoo a sleepy greeting grin. Then, not missing out on even one morning, the taller would reach out his hand to ruffle the big-eyed boy's hair affectionately. His long fingers would gently make a mess out of Kyungsoo's black locks, and then, accompanied by an amused chuckle of the culprit, they would disappear. Kyungsoo would pout at his messed up hair, and try to fix them slightly. And while he would be occupied with that, Jongin would usually grab Kyungsoo's backpack out of the wide-eyed boy's hands, and stroll away towards the school. Mostly while casually whistling some cheery tune. And so, like a strange ritual, all those three acts of the taller would be acted out every single morning without exceptions.

Then, after the two of them reached their classroom, Jongin would place Kyungsoo's backpack on the table beside his, and plop to his own seat. If Kyungsoo would try to move elsewhere, all he would receive would be a threatful growl, indicating that there was no other option for him but to stay. Classmates (mostly the ones forced to change their seats) were all quite annoyed by this unexpected friendship between one of the hottest students around, and the "freak", but never dared to actually say anything, because Jongin gave off quite a strong aura in the class. His word was law.

So with the attention and care of the latter, Kyungsoo was no longer the loner of their class. He was now always accompanied by either Jongin, Chanyeol or the third person by their lunch table, Luhan. Everybody knew that Kyungsoo was under the protection of Jongin (who made it quite clear by shoving the guy who called Kyungsoo "freak" onto the floor like it was nothing), so nobody dared to mock him anymore.

In lots of ways, Kyungsoo's life was turning for the better.

One day, he was sitting by the lunch table with Chanyeol and Luhan sitting across from him, and unpacking his lunch. Kyungsoo was never fond of the canteen food, he rather packed himself a bit something he made before classes and took it to school. That way he was sure that his food was always fresh, and (since he was a great cook), tasty.

"What you're eating today, Kyungie?" Luhan asked, staring at Kyungsoo's pale hands, that were slowly unpacking a sandwich. "Damn, that looks great."

"It's a sandwich. Do you want some, hyung?" Kyungsoo immediately asked, reaching out his hand with a triangle-shaped sandwich to Luhan, who quickly shook his pretty head with a laugh.

"I'm just asking, Kyungie. Stop being so innocent and adorable, for God's sake."

"I-I'm not, hyung." Kyungsoo sat back onto the bench, embarassed, and raised the sandwich to his lips.

"Where's Jongin though?" Luhan asked him with a teasing smile, that quirked blond eyebrow of his not promising any good.

"I-I don't know?."

"I thought he would be already glued to your back by now, but look, he isn't. Fancy that, huh."

"Oh just shut up for once, hyung." 

Kyungsoo was about to turn around and greet Jongin. But suddenly, he felt someone's hand brush his side and out of nowhere, Jongin's cheek brushed against his. Holding onto Kyungsoo's waist loosely by one hand, Jongin had leaned over his shoulder, and slowly took a bite of the sandwich Kyungsoo was holding up to eat. His plump lips were all Kyungsoo saw as almost half of his sandwich was being stolen, and when Jongin pulled away, munching on that robbed bite, Kyungsoo's face lit up in all shades of red. 

"Oh dear." Luhan chuckled as he noticed that.

"Hyung, how many times have I told you not to bully the prez when I'm not around." Jongin asked irately, as he threw his backpack onto the bench and took his seat beside the blushing Kyungsoo. "I swear, one more time-"

"And what?" Luhan challenged. "What will you do to me, Jonginnie? "

"Let's just say you don't want to know." Jongin said as he grabbed Kyungsoo's bottle of juice and opened the cap to take a sip. "Hey, Yeollie. Whatcha you doing there?"

Chanyeol, who was silently writing something in his notebook while everyone chatted, rose his head and looked at Jongin. 

"You're late. And I'm working on that song you sent me last night." 

"Sorry."

"Song? What song?" Luhan perked up at the taller's words. "Show that paper to me, Yeollie!"

"It's not finished yet."

"Who cares? If Jongin sent it to you, it's one hundred percent about Kyung-"

"Shut up, hyung!" Jongin roared as he threw a napkin at Luhan to emphasize his annoyance at the older. "You're such an idiot, seriously."

"I'm the idiot?" Luhan scoffed mockingly. "Excuse me, but I'm not the one who doesn't dare to con-"

Jongin's expression only was enough to shut Luhan up in the middle of that ruinous word. Only God knows what Jongin would have done to him, if he would have spilled out his biggest secret.

With all of this happening around him, Kyungsoo was unaware of anything and just  having a personal dilemma. He was staring at his sandwich shyly for a while now. Jongin, Kim Jongin, had just taken a bite out of that sandwich. Is it okay for him to eat the sandwich that Jongin's lips touched? Wouldn't that be...too.. bold?.. And wouldn't that be an indirect ki-

Kyungsoo's face was once again red all over from that thought only.

Should he just give it all to Jongin?.

"Eat, prez." as if hearing his thoughts, Jongin encouraged him. " You're so tiny I almost can't see you. If you would have eaten more when you were a kid, you would have probably grown taller than you are now."

Kyungsoo pouted sadly at the thought, and Jongin instantly regretted his words. Seeing Kyungsoo sad because of him was not something Jongin could do.

"No no no, you are perfect as you are, prez." he quickly pleaded, eyes wide in worry, and pushed the opened juice bottle back towards Kyungsoo. "Don't be like this, I'm sorry, prez. Here, drink some juice."

"If you didn't steal half of his food every single day, maybe he wouldn't be so tiny?" Luhan interposed, while well aware that he was not making the situation any better. "By the way, Kyungie, pass me by that juice, would you?"

Kyungsoo reached out for the bottle Jongin just gave back to him, but it was snatched right away from his hand by the same, but very dissatisfied looking Jongin.

"Get your own." he growled at Luhan, and placed the bottle back in front of Kyungsoo.

It would've seemed that Luhan should have been mad, or at least annoyed at his rudeness. But as his eyes locked with Jongin's irritated ones, Luhan did nothing but smirk proudly at the taller. He knew how to piss the other off.

"I should probably go." he stood up then, lazily picking up his backpack. "And hey, Jonginnie."

Jongin, who was now handing Kyungsoo a napkin he didn't even ask for, looked at him without any interest.

"When you're jealous of someone you are crushing on secretly," Luhan emphasized the last word as he took a step back, and smiled like a devil. "At least don't make it so obvious. It's painful to watch."

Before Jongin could jump up and land a furious punch straight into his face, Luhan scurried off while giggling like a maniac.

"I hate that guy." Jongin murmured under his nose, fists clenching.

His eyes slowly got back to Kyungsoo. He never held his gaze away from the smaller one for long.

Waking up at that point of the dream, Kyungsoo's mind sleepily wondered. Was that the moment he started to fall for Jongin? When he told him he was perfect just as he was?

He wondered, if those words were enough to encourage Kyungsoo to make a decision that led him to this. A broken heart, unending and desperate loneliness, and worst of all, constant longing of a person that could never be his. 

A person who never loved him in the first place.

But whom Kyungsoo still loved hopelessly, even after Jongin broke his heart, and even after long, empty five years without him. Even if it was hurtful, Kyungsoo's heart still fluttered everytime his thoughts lingered on the image of those chocolaty eyes and plump lips he loved so much. That deep voice, long, slender fingers that were always playing with his hair..  And the feathery kisses Jongin showered him with, together with promises of love and trust, that were never held..

Kyungsoo hated himself for thinking this way. He hated that part of his heart that still hoped to see Jongin because he still loved him. He was hurt and torn, his heart was shattered to pieces, but why is he still dreaming of the person whose fault it all was? Why can't he stop himself from feeling all of this love, when the heart that's broken and suffering is his? Kyungsoo didn't know, and it was terrify