This might have been a wrong idea. But after all, Jiho had lost his ability to choose. 
So here he was, pressing on the door bell and praying quietly for a bit more time. 

When Jaehyo eventually opened the door, Jiho just smiled gingerly, handing over a dirty grey blanket. (Or maybe the blanket was white, or bright pink, for that matter. Frankly, Jaehyo was never taught to differentiate the colours.)

The blanket, however, was clearly used to hide a heart. A fresh heart, snatched out of someone's chest not long ago. For some reason, Jaehyo liked the thumping sound that hearts made, even though his own circulatory organ had always stayed silent. "Yours is made out of granite", Jiho used to joke half-bitterly. 

"Finally," Jaehyo dropped instead of 'hello'. "Sounds good. And," he sniffed the air for a brief second, "smells good." 

Jiho sighed, blaming himself for expecting something else. This was already good enough. Jaehyo was standing there, right in front of him. He gained a bit of weight since the last time Jiho saw him, but that only added to his beauty; Jiho had a desire to cup his face, to kiss his soft jawline, to touch the corners of his huge eyes. 

You are not allowed to approach a stone-hearted. Never. 

They stayed silent for another minute. Jaehyo examined the heart while Jiho examined Jaehyo. For once, Jaehyo seemed content - he even managed a tiny smile. 

What if he will invite me in, Jiho thought. I did a good job. I deserved this. What if the granite melts?

"This is perfect. The warmest I have ever seen. Where did you even get it from? It smells as if it's just pure love." 

The irony: being able to smell love but not feel it. Hearts like this were the hardest to find, but they were Jaehyo's favourites, and Jiho would do anything to make Jaehyo happy. 

Albeit Jiho sometimes wondered whether Jaehyo knew what 'happy' meant at all. 

"Well then, if you don't mind, I am going to bed. Good night." 

I don't mind, Jiho repeated silently, feeling his hopes being crashed once again. 

"Sure. Good night," he answered, slowly turning around. He would be just fine. He couldn't show it. And anyway, he couldn't act like his life depended on this.

---

Jiho coughed as soon as he heard the sound of a door being shut. Fresh red drops mixed with already existing wine-coloured spots on the porch. Perhaps he overestimated himself: he didn't even have enough energy for a single step forward.  

Thinking of Jaehyo made falling less painful. Jaehyo had this extraordinary talent of making everything relatively bearable without putting any effort into it. His smile, or at least his imaginary smile, had it all. 

Jiho had about ten seconds to consider his existence one last time. Some said that he shouldn't have followed orders. Others - that he was stupid enough to fall in love with a stone-hearted boy. People like him will never love you back, they repeated with a cunning smile. But in his final moments, Jiho realised that everything had its meaning. He was fortunate enough to experience such an overwhelming feeling; unrequited and painful, but absolutely mind-blowing, it came at a cost.

And Jaehyo's porch, after all, wasn't the worst place for a quick death from blood loss. 

---

The next day, when Jaehyo was about to leave the house, he found Jiho's corpse with a dark red hole on the left side. Which was a shame, really. Jiho was always bringing very nice hearts. 

Who knew that Jiho's best heart would be obtained from his own chest.