“So, have you met him, Jung’s son?” The tall and slender woman, Kim Kwang Ja asked his son without looking at him as he was still busy painting his nails.

Heechul smirked in satisfaction, “Of course, mother. He’s gorgeous, indeed.”

However his smirk faded away as he recalled today’s incident. He was still bitter at how Yoochun ran to Jaejoong when he saw the latter fell. Yoochun does seem like a good guy but he didn’t expect Yoochun to know Jaejoong’s name. Do they know each other? Heechul didn’t know but he was sure that his annoying stepbrother may be a threat to his marriage plan and he disliked it so much.

“But mother… That ugly Jaejoong might get in the way.”

Kwang Ja’s eyes changed and he stopped doing his nails. Soon he turned his attention to his son Heechul who was sitting on his bed, looking at his eyes as if begging for some kind of assistance.

“I don’t want to hear you losing to him, Heechul.”

There was a stern voice in his mother’s voice and Heechul knew he needed to handle it himself. With a fake smile, Heechul exited his mother’s room and proceeded to the kitchen where he saw Jaejoong baking and Changmin was just in the dining room, waiting for the cake.

“Yah Kim Jaejoong!” Heechul slammed the dining table hard that Changmin almost jumped out.

“Yah hyung! You shocked me!” Changmin protested at the older but Heechul didn’t seem to care one least bit. Instead, he stepped closer to Jaejoong and grabbed his hair forcefully, causing Jaejoong to wince in pain but still said nothing about it.

“You should stay away from Yoochun, you !”

“It hurts…”

“And do you think I would care?!” Heechul grabbed it even harder, “Don’t get the wrong message just because Yoochun helped you earlier! You know that Yoochun is such a good guy so he will help everyone! And I’m making this clear that Yoochun is getting married to me in a month so don’t dream!”

Releasing his grasp of Jaejoong’s hair, Heechul landed a slap on Jaejoong’s left cheek before going to his own room.

There was silence after Heechul left, and Changmin felt awkward for that. He might be Heechul’s biological brother, but Changmin is not blind enough to differentiate what is wrong and what is right. For sure he has bond with Heechul but Changmin will still feel bad whenever his brother and mother treat Jaejoong harshly. Jaejoong’s also a human after all.

He does pity Jaejoong but there’s one good thing of having a brother as kind as Jaejoong, Changmin will get to eat anything as much as he wants and he likes that.

Changmin got up from his seat and gradually approaches Jaejoong, “Hyung…”

Jaejoong knew that his tears would flow out anytime and he didn’t want Changmin to see it, so he lowered his head and before leaving, he said, “The cake will be ready in five minutes. Please manage yourself, Changmin.”

And Jaejoong ran away to his room which is located in the garden, a modern tree house, to be exact. It’s the tree house his late mother built him when he was little whenever he needs to study. But he never expected he would live there permanently now. Well, Kwang Ja and Heechul are driving him crazy and he can’t stand sharing the same house as them, actually.

He took his guitar and walked to the neighborhood’s garden where he usually spends his night there. He loves the night wind and the sound of it along with his guitar, though he’s still a beginner who makes lots of mistakes.

----- Yunho -----

I don’t know but I couldn’t find myself talking to Yoochun today. Not at all. Of course as we went away from the school, he will start calling me master, asking if I wanted to go somewhere, eat something and so on but I didn’t feel like talking to him at all. Why? Not sure. This isn’t like me. Yoochun is like my childhood friend and since we grew up together, I feel like he’s my own brother. I would always tell him everything I have in mind and now that I’m being like this, I wonder what happened to me.

It was nine already ten in at night but I can’t sleep. Even if I close my eyes, there’s another thing that pops out in my head instead of falling asleep. It’s his face. That pretty boy’s sleeping face.

Oh God what the hell is this?!

This won’t do! I can’t sleep!

Annoyed, I grabbed my jacket and headed outside, searching for some chilling night wind to clear up my mind.

I never knew there would exist such a beautiful garden around this neighborhood. It’s pretty lovely. I inhaled the chilling air yet I stopped moving when I heard a lullaby filling my ears.

Before sunrise, can I take one more glance at your face?

Before leaving, can I say just a few more sincere promises?

Can you give me some more time to lie by your side

To take this scene, your calm face and warm shoulder, and record it in my heart

I was taken aback by the soft voice that sang out my favorite song. I closed my eyes, letting my feet take me to the source of the angelic voice. Just when I thought I was close, I opened my eyes to see the back of a boy, playing his guitar and singing that song.

I smiled and sang along with him.

Sometimes I'm still afraid, of waking up not by your side

Afraid, of not being near you from now on

Maybe I will still, will still, will still be at a loss

From now on without me, will you be

Too lonely?

I could see him startled as he turned to face me. Our eyes met and my eyes widened when I saw him. It’s him. It’s that boy. Kim Jaejoong.

Well I was surprised to see him here. Does he live around here? Anyway I could see he was just as surprised as I am.

“You…”

“Hi…” I awkwardly greeted, and moving closer, “May I sit here?”

He just nodded shyly and I preceded sitting next to him. I could feel him tensing up, perhaps because we’re strangers? Well it’s weird to me as well. I felt the awkwardness but I’m clueless of how to break it.

“Ummm… We’re in the same class, you know…” I said, taking a peek at him while pretending to look straight to the front.

“Um.. Yes, I know. You’re the new student right?”

“Ju.. Park Yunho.” Please remember my name, Jaejoong ssi.

“Oh yea… Umm you live around here? How come you’re here?” He asked without looking at me. He just stared at the guitar in his embrace; probably he was shy and opted to avoid the eye contact with me?

“I’m Yoochun’s driver…” I replied nervously, “So I live around here, in his house to be exact.”

“Oh really?” He immediately turned to look at me, staring at me closely and it made me notice how big his eyes are. They were sparkling like stars in the night. He’s beyond beautiful, indeed.

“Ah… It means we’re neighbors too, then.” He said with a smile before extending his hand, “I’m Kim Jaejoong.”

I gulped as my hand reached for his hand. As I held it, I could feel electricity running throughout my body. Oh what is this feeling? Yah Jung Yunho, get a hold of yourself. You can’t possibly falling for him already, right?

“Ne… Neighbor?” Did I just stutter just now? . I must have looked weird now.

“Yes, our house is just next to Yoochun’s.”

“’Ours’?”

The next thing I saw was him covering his mouth with his eyes widened as if he just leaked out some kind of top secret. My eyes wandered around his face, trying to find some clue.

He bit his lower lip before looking at me. How cute!

“Don’t tell anyone, okay?” He asked in which I replied with a nod, “Actually Heechul and I are step brothers.”

What? Heechul and Jaejoong are stepbrothers? How come I didn’t know about that?

“Heechul wanted to keep it a secret from everyone.” He added, “And I also don’t see why I should let anyone know about it. It doesn’t bring me a good fortune anyway.”

And there was an awkward silence between us. But it was enough for me to see the sorrow in his eyes. I wonder why, but I know we’re not close enough for him to tell everything to me.

I felt like I needed to change the subject and bring up the mood, so I grabbed his guitar and started playing a song and singing.

Finally you take and hold my hand bravely

you say you loved me for a long-long time

I nodded, holding your hand, then we are together

I smiled as I played the guitar and I could see him smiling back. I stopped awhile to ask