Part Three—Six Years Earlier….

On the day that they could officially announced they were done with post secondary school after turning in their graduation projects and taken all of the necessary exams they all met up for a drink, per Jaejoong’s request. He had invited Yunho out and Yunho had invited his friends to join him.

They all clustered in the bar with glee.

“How does it feel to be free? Done with school?” Jaejoong asked, smiling as he reached for his alcoholic drink.

Yunho grabbed his and they clinked their tumbler together causing some of the brown liquid to spill over the edge.

“Amazing!” Yunho howled.

“I am not done yet,” Mino, a friend of Jaejoong said with a dejected expression.

Laughing Jaejoong threw his arm around the male’s neck. “It’s okay. You’ll reach this moment too, in...how many more years?” he faced him with a large grin. Waiting for the man’s answer he brought his tumbler to his lips.

He pushed Jaejoong off. “You got jokes.”

“Who told you to become a doctor?” Yunho joked, reaching for food.

“My parents.”Mino actually answered.

“And you decided to obey them, so deal with more years of schooling and more debt to pay.”

“Ah, such an amazing prospect.”

Laughing Jaejoong turned away from his whining friend and chugged down most of his drink. Sighing in pleasure he smiled at Yunho. “In four more years, I hope, I’ll be driving me own car.”

“Me too,” Yunho nodded, chugging down the rest of his drink like Jaejoong did a moment ago.

“The bulk of my first check is going towards buying a car.” Jaejoong raised his tumbler again and they made a toast once more.

“To freedom,” Jaejoong said, raising his tumbler in front of his lips before he downed the rest of it content.

They were still waiting and hoping for replies from the companies that they’d applied to, and were still looking for more places to apply, but they were young, twenty four, hopeful and happy to be done with school.

“You really should...think about going.” Jaejoong looked at a hard faced Yunho. “At least think about it,” he suggested.

Yunho had been invited by his sister to attend her marriage ceremony. He know that he owe it to his baby sister to go, but at the same time he feared seeing his parents whom he hasn't seen since he was eighteen, almost five years ago. His parents found of his uality when they caught him by error kissing his boyfriend in his last year of high school. They fought.

They told him they would never accept him and that he had to change. He was sick and could get help and change. He had been forced to date a girl for a few months. They were happy then, thinking he had ‘gotten better,’ and that they were ‘really happy that he was now healthy and normal.’ The remainder of his senior year was spent in misery as his relationship with his parents grew worse.

The moment he graduated, he moved out of his parents house and ran away to university. He used up all of the small savings he had, literally living off the street, before he found Jaebum and a job and moved in with him. He had not contacted his parents since and didn’t want to. He wasn’t sure he was ready or would ever be ready.

“You know why I have my reservations about going.”

Jaejoong nodded. Yunho had told him everything. “I know, but, she is your sister.”

“I know!” he sighed, raking his fingers through his hair. “Which is why I do not know what to do. I want to go. She is my sister, as you said, but at the same time there is a one hundred percent chance that I’ll see them and will have to talk to them. They refused to accept me, and I cannot change.” They said nothing afterwards.

The soft din of the restaurant surrounded them, the concentrating darkness from outside was beaten by the lit coming from the food place. They let their minds wander.

When Yunho had received the call from his sister, someone he hadn’t talk to for almost a year, though she had always emailed and texted him around the holidays—she probably got his number from Changmin. She had reached out to him, he just had not accepted any of her attempts because she also couldn’t ‘accept his lifestyle.’ It was not a lifestyle. It was a part of who he was. He wanted to ask her if her uality was a lifestyle she chose? If she chose to love the man that she did and was marrying.

After she had informed him of her impending wedding and her dearest wish that he would join them, he had needed someone to talk to, but Changmin and Jaebum were both gone that morning. He spent the whole day at school teaching a crowd of rowdy teenagers, making small convo with the staff while all he wanted to do was leave, go home and talk to someone. He had needed to get everything off his chest, and the person he had initially wanted to talk with was Changmin—the person who knew of his uality and the problems he had with his parents.

Jaejoong pushed some food towards Yunho.

“What?” he looked up, forked out of his quiet internal battle, lifting his eyebrows.

Jaejoong smiled tenderly at him. “There is nothing we can do about it now. Please eat.”

Chuckling he nodded, accepting his affectionate act of feeding him, and used his metal chopsticks to pick up the cooked veggies he had pushed towards him.

Yunho took comfort in the fact that his sister’s wedding was still two months away. He had around eight weeks to think about what he should do. He wanted to go and support her.

His eyes glazed over his food as he thought deeply about his current situation, munching on his food without tasting anything.

“So, how is work?” Jaejoong tried to distract Yunho by talking about mundane stuff such as their work. Swallowing Yunho sighed, “Okay. You?”

They had been working by then for three months. Jaejoong had have to cut his long tresses as a businessman. He missed his length sometimes, but to him it was just hair and a symbol of his youth. He was entering adulthood he told himself when he first saw his short hair in his mirror as he smiled at his handsome reflection. Jaejoong grinned. “It’s okay. I like everyone where I work. I am getting used to the load. Must be tough being a teacher, huh?”

Yunho laughed. “I am still a student teacher, but...yeah. It’s nice.”

Jaejoong shook his head with an amused twist to his lips. “Teens are crazy, though.”

“Nope.” He wagged a finger, closing his eyes briefly as he morphed his lips into a tiny carefree grin, which Jaejoong found y. “You were a crazy teen.” Yunho cracked a genuine smile since they met up that night.

Sticking the tip of his tongue out, Jaejoong in his bottom lip and beamed. “You smiled.”

“What?” Yunho asked, momentarily perplexed.

“You’re smiling. It’s genuine. Feel better?”

Yunho laughed at Jaejoong’s statement.

He cared enough about him, their friendship, to try to elevate his mood and get him to crack a real smile in his time of need. That is what was called real friendship, he thought his body warming up and started to hum with happiness streaming through his veins. He appreciated it. “You’re weird,” he muttered.

“Not weirder than you. You’re the one hanging out with me,” Jaejoong pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

Yunho nodded. “True.”

Yunho hadn’t needed to ask Jaejoong about his familia life to know that his parents still didn’t know about his ual preference and that he would keep it that way. He didn’t blame Jaejoong. He knew of the kind of world they resided in. The type of country and the type of society.

Jaejoong needed a smoke badly.

Sitting down for breakfast, he reminded himself that he was trying to cure himself of his addiction. If he didn't, he could count on dying before his parents. Not a definitive, but a high probability.

Looking at his mother with her soft round cheeks he smiled tenderly. A parent’s worse nightmare watching your precious child die before you. He didn’t want to burden his parents like that.

“Okay, sweets?” His mother asked him, catching him smiling at her with glazed unseeing eyes.

He nodded at the lady and answered her with a smile.

At twenty four, his mother was only in her middle forties while his father was in his middle sixties. They had a large age difference between them.

“That’s good,” she replied turning back to focus on stirring a large pot. “The soup is almost ready. Hungry?”

He nodded. “Yes!”

“That’s my son,” she cooed, beaming down softly her arms continuing to stir the content of the steel pot restlessly.

He watched her back. His mother was a strong, sturdy woman with a soft round middle, stocky short legs. Her beautiful dark hair, which he inherited was still dark and perfect as the day he met her when he was first born. She was still a beauty.

She made small talk as she took the soup out and filled bowls. Jaejoong helped her set the table withy the final addition and sat down to take his breakfast.

His mother’s eyes ran over his face as they awaited his father. “Are you okay?”

He nodded looking up from his phone. He had been checking his texts.

“Really?” she touched the crease formed between his eyebrows. “You look worried about something. I know my son.”

He laughed and grabbed her hand while he winked saying, “I almost forgot.” He dropped a loud smacking kiss on her palm. He loved the ground that his mother walked on.

Her cheeks filled with pleasure. “Whoa, something really happened.”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t lie to you about something this trivial.”

“But you’ve lied to me.”

He shrugged, letting go of her hand as he laughed. “I am only human, after all. It’s not about me, but a friend.”

“A friend, huh?” She raised an eyebrow  “You guys seem awfully closed.”

Chuckling he stated his friend’s pronouns to stop any misunderstandings. “He is a great friend and I’ve grown extremely closed to him over the short course of time we’ve known each other.” He stressed Yunho’s pronouns.

Her tinkling laughter filled the bright kitchen and formed laughing creased around her eyes and cheeks. “You should invited him over.”

“Soon. I will.” He would if he had a reason to, which he probably will never, Jaejoong thought.

“What’s going with him? Can I be told?” She walked out of the kitchen and screamed for her husband to come get breakfast seeing as he wasn’t coming and they needed to eat and get on with their days. “Your son cannot be late to work! He has only been working for a few months now,” she concluded.

Jaejoong smiled at the action. He would miss this, he quickly thought and as rapidly shook his head at the morbid thought. But everyone died and he better get comfortable with cause his parents weren’t getting any younger. His heart grew heavy with his skin becoming a bit cold at the fact.

“It’s nothing...big?”

“Are you sure?” his momma asked, dropping down in a chair. Setting her large brown puppy eyes on him, melting him into a mush. She always knew how to get him talking. He recalled funny instances of his youth.

He truly did love his mother. No other woman, except for his daughters, could and would ever compare.

“Well….I have this friend and he has some issues with his parents, but his sister is getting married and he has been invited and he doesn’t know if he can face his parents.”

“How big are the issues?” She scowled, growing concerned.

“Haven’t talked for five years.”

“Ah, big,” she hummed as they heard her husband’s loud footsteps.

“Good morning,” he said as he slipped into his chair.

“Morning, pop.” Jaejoong smiled at him.

“Finally down? Jaejoong will probably be late. Let’s eat.” She turned and look at her son after her sharp statement to her husband and told him, “Eat up, love.”

Smiling he complied with his father’s laughter slipping in the background. “He still has time.”

His mother shook her head with her eyes softening but didn’t talk to him, instead she focused her attention on her son. “So what does he plan to do?” His mother asked further.

“Who what?”

“Not you, dear,” his mother addressed his father without looking at him as she rearranged Jaejoong’s dishes in front of him him.

“Thank you, ma.” He thanked her with a quick, light smile.

“To go, I hope.”

“Whatever is going on between them, you should tell him that his parents will always love him. No matter what you do Jaejoong, I will always love you. Remember that. I might not like what you have done, but never you.”

He returned her loving smile.

“Isn’t that’s right, dear?” she looked at her husband who was checking his phone for affirmation. “Dear! Phone away during breakfast!”

He guilty looked at her. “Checking the news,” he offered.

“Do it after.”

“It is family time now. Please eat in peace.” She shook her head and tsked. “Technology is taking over our life.”

Jaejoong let out a soft mix between a snort, laugh and a quiet huff. “Ma,” she nodded at her at attention, “please eat too.”

She nodded and started grabbing food.

“I go to work afterwards,” her husband reminded her.

“Still, after. This is family time, as I’ve stated countless of time. Wasting my breath, apparently. So, how was your night?” she asked with a powerful beam.

“I slept right next to you,” Jaejoong's father grumbled making Jaejoong's chortled. He really loved his parents.

His mother stopped teasing his father long enough to tell him, “Please tell your friend what I told you, huh.” He nodded. “ We’re not getting any younger and it is time to starts making amends before it is too late.”

Jaejoong rolled his eyes grabbing food and placing it on his mother's plate. “Ma, you’re not going to die.”

She winked. “I know.”

At least not now, and Jaejoong hoped for a long time.

“Anyways, make sure to remember to tell him what I’ve told you.”

“Yes ma’am,” Jaejoong sniggere and saluted.

Writer’s Note: Is anyone reading this fic? Since I’ve not gotten any comments I’ve been worried that there are no readers, and I am not feeling excited about finishing this fic because of that notion. It’s all written out and I am simply editing the chapters and updating them. I am writing for you guys and because I like to share my yj/jh stories with you guys. If anyone is reading this fic, please drop me a comment so I can know I still have a reader. Thank you! Please enjoy (if anyone is reading this, that is).