Yunho knows he probably looks pathetic, knows that there is a kid over by the counter pointing at him and giggling. Knows that all the other tables are full with couples or families, and that he’s the only person there alone. Sitting at a table by the children’s play area, head bowed, he sighs and continues to nibble on his fries. They were cold. Like his heart.

He’s not the type to frequent fast food joints often. And in those rare occasions he does, he always visits with friends, like everybody else sitting around him—but today is a different kind of day, with a different kind of story he knows all those bratty snickering kids whispering loner and loser would never understand.

Maybe when they would eventually reach adulthood, they would look back and sympathize. They would run a hand through their hair, stressed, and think to themselves, how could I have ever laughed at that man. I now, too, sit here at McDonalds at a family sized table, alone. I finally understand what that man was going through. I think, deep down, he is a hero. He is a metaphor. He symbolizes deep meaning of—

Yunho coughs when a fry goes down the wrong way, and he hurriedly chugs down big gulps of his soda. He supposes that’s what he gets for creating imaginary scenarios just to make himself feel better, and he also supposes that if that is his kind of karma, then he has a pretty ty life. He does, he nods to himself, but is admittedly relieved he didn’t choke.

And by the way, it wasn’t like he wanted a family sized table. He had unfortunately decided to walk through McDonald’s glass doors on a busy Sunday afternoon, and so the place was packed. His timing was so bad that only a large table was available, and at that split moment he wished he had worn a hoodie, just so he could cover his face with the hood somehow and pretend that people weren’t staring.

He knows he could have just ordered at home. He knows. But he had seen a spider crawl under his carpet in the living room, and his ideal fantasy was not really about eating food with the presence of an eight legged beast. So he had pushed a window open, hoping that by the time he would return, the little thing would have miraculously left by himself. He had a bad past with insects, and so it was understandable. He was not a wimp. He was not.

Just thinking about that spider has him shuddering, and wanting to distract himself from its horridly hairy legs, he turns his head to look at the brightly colored children’s play area which was just right beside him. There are tons of kids in there, looking as if they were having the time of their life, and Yunho feels envious. How he wishes he could go back in time, back to the age of—he squints at the sign hung up on the netted wall; ‘Ages 5 to 12 only’—six.

He watches as an adorable little girl with pigtails and pink shoes readies herself to go down an enormous curly slide. She clenches her fists, closing her eyes, whispering what seems like an encouragement to herself, and Yunho smiles immediately, his heart feeling warm. “You can do it,” he mumbles quietly, eyes on the girl who seems rather nervous. There are other kids in a line behind her, tapping their feet and groaning, one even shouting hurry up already! and just when she pushes herself down, Yunho is distracted by someone at the front of the play area.

He blinks.

There is a grown man, seeming almost about his height, removing his shoes at the entrance. Yunho can’t see his face because he’s wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, but he can hear him making noises as he attempts to kick off his obviously tight shoes.

Completely confused and dumbfounded, the fry that Yunho was about to put in his mouth is now in midair, because he’s frozen as he watches the man duck through the entrance after somehow managing to fling off his pair of Converse.

And then, the man sprints. He runs.

“What on—“ he gasps, dropping his chip, absolutely flabbergasted.

He looks around, wondering if anyone was going to do anything about the grown, adult man in the children’s play area, but it seems like he’s the only one who is shocked. As if to everyone else, grown adult men in play areas was a daily, normal occurrence. His eyebrows furrow, watching the man go up a rock climbing wall, and then he tries to convince himself that maybe the man was a parent? Maybe he was trying to get to his kid, to a kid that wouldn’t listen or come down even though they had to leave. Maybe.

Yunho is absolutely mesmerized as he watches the man almost effortlessly climb up the colorful rocks. The kids in the play area are all distracted by him too, their eyes wide. And then to everybody’s amazement, the hooded man suddenly leaps and lands into the second story ball pit. He’s too tall, and so he crouches and begins to crawl through a tube that leads to the third story of the play castle. And then finally, finally, people notice.

“What is that man doing up there!” A woman shrieks, and it seems to catch everyone’s attention. Yunho watches as one of the employees gasp and then a split second later, a security guard is running into the play area. The children inside have mixed reactions, some screaming and beginning to wail, while others gasp and giggle—it was like some Spy movie, where they were after the bad guy. The bad guy in a black hoodie and black pants and— and blond hair.

Yunho blinks a couple of times. The man’s hood had fallen off onto his shoulders, revealing soft looking, shiny blond hair. He doesn’t at all look like what Yunho had expected him to look like. Actually, he kind of looks a little—

“You get down from there sir right now!” The security guard yells, and the whole thing is almost a bit amusing, watching one man in uniform chase after another strange man in a play castle. The security guard actually sprints through a ball pit and it’s one of the funniest things Yunho’s ever seen, but he can’t laugh because he’s too stunned.

Stunned, because the blond haired man suddenly quickly sits himself down at the beginning of a slide, and then everyone gasps as he pushes himself off. They can’t see anything past that, because the slide is one of those covered tube ones (that Yunho’s always been too scared to go into as a kid) and maybe the man should’ve thought about that too, because when he finally lands (after about a good six seconds), he lands right into the angry arms of another guard.

“Get off me!” The blond yells, struggling to get out of the strong grip. The other security guard from earlier meets them at the bottom floor as well after a couple of seconds and then they’re both hauling the man out of the play area. “Dammit! I said get off!”

Everyone watches as he writhes and stumbles trying to yank himself out of their arms, but to no avail. He’s groaning and muttering while he does it, and then Yunho believes his life is truly probably sincerely, absolutely wonderfully cursed because the man meets his gaze, glares and then hisses, actually hisses at him, “What are you looking at?!”

All the blood drains from his face, his heart dropping in fear as he shakes his head, raising his hands up in the air as if he had a gun pointed to his head. “Nothing, no, I’m not—I. Nothing. N-nothing.”

The blond snarls at him, and that’s it, before he’s finally taken out of the building. Yunho watches through the glass doors as the guards let go of their grip, and the man falls to his knees. But as if that split moment of weakness never happened, he picks himself up and shoves one of the guards hard. Everyone gasps, and Yunho actually clutches his heart. The guard looks as if he’s about to raise a fist to land a good punch to a man who deserved it, but the other one stops him, shaking his head. There’s some talk nobody can hear, a couple of mutters and a few points of the finger, and then they come back inside.

And as if the commotion he had just caused wasn’t enough, the blond lifts up his middle finger and points it dramatically at the building with a fierce expression. Yunho can hear some women gasp, a few covering their children’s eyes. And just like that, the man walks off, shoving his hands deep in his pockets, hood back on.


It takes about ten minutes for Yunho to both compose and comfort himself. Compose, because it felt like he just watched some live action movie right before his eyes, and comfort—because that man came dangerously close to probably beating his face in, as well.

He reckons that the man is probably insane, maybe having escaped some asylum. Or he’s just had a bad day or, the most probable answer, he was drunk. Whatever it was, Yunho doesn’t mull on it too much. He’s actually slightly grateful that whatever just happened, happened, because it took his mind away from the reason why he even came to McDonalds.

He’s feeling considerably better by the time he finally throws his rubbish and the few leftover cold fries into the bin, before washing his hands and walking out of the doors. The little girl in the pink shoes and pigtails from earlier gives him a toothy grin when he walks past her and pats her on the head, and it’s completely enough to bring a genuine smile to his face.


Yunho’s apartment isn’t that far off, and so he decides to walk. It’s actually sort of nice, the fresh air and slight breeze on his face. He gets to look at the town’s local park and the cars going by. Plus, it’ll help burn off the fast food he just ate.

He’s in a good mood about five minutes down the road. There’s a girl walking her dog and Yunho gets to pat the adorable thing. When he waves at her and continues on his way, he reckons that all he really needed the whole time was a good walk to shed off all the negativity and depressing mixed emotions.

But then about a minute later, he regrets the decision entirely.

Yunho stops in his tracks, his heart dropping again. That same man, that same insane blond man from earlier—was just over there some steps away from him, sitting on a bench, his head up, staring at the sky. Without wasting a second, Yunho turns around, wanting to get away fast, but then he stumbles on a rock and squeaks.

Apparently his squeak was rather loud, because Yunho can practically feel the man’s eyes land on him.

He’s frozen yet trembling at the same time. And just as he lifts his foot to take a step, the man calls out, “Hey. Turn around.”

Yunho closes his eyes and thanks God for the life he’s lived, thanks him for giving him two chocolate bars in that vending machine last Saturday. It’s been a slightly good journey. He hasn’t gotten himself children or made his own business, but it’s still been an okay life. He turns around, peeks one eye open, and tries to grin, his eyes peeked open slightly.

“You.”

Yunho only manages to take a deep breath before there’s loud, angry footsteps and then his shirt is yanked in both the blond’s hands. He’s shaken like a rag doll, and he knows he could fight back, could defend himself, but he’s too scared. He’s never been in any self-defense or fight or flight situation. He’s paralyzed with fear, and only opens his eyes when the man growls, “You’re the little twerp from earlier who stared!”

Since Yunho figures he has nothing to lose at this point, he stares at the man. And then he realizes that the man is shorter than him, realizes he has slightly feminine facial features, realizes he’s kind of skinny and—

“Why are you calling me little and ‘twerp’ when I’m taller and bigger than you?”

The words slip out before he can stop them, and his arm moves in lightning speed to slap a hand over his mouth. His eyes are wide. The blond’s mouth opens slowly in disbelief and he lets go of the grip he has on Yunho’s t-shirt to cross his arms against his chest and tap his foot against the floor while staring at Yunho with an absolutely offended expression.

“I’m so sorry it was just a curious question I’m serious, I didn’t mean to—“

“Shut it!” The shorter male yells, and all the air leaves Yunho’s lungs as he’s suddenly slammed up against a tree he didn’t even know was there. Sure, the man playing with his life was tinier and rather pretty— but he also had big, toned arms that showed even through the long sleeves of his hoodie. Yunho swallows painfully and closes his eyes, readying himself for any sort of punch.

But seconds pass and it never happens. He risks it, and slowly opens one eye. The man is just squinting menacingly at him, and Yunho hesitates before whispering, “Why—why aren’t you doing something to me?”

“Oh! So you want your face beaten in, is that what you’re saying?!” The man roars and slams him harder against the tree, and Yunho winces in pain, “Huh?! Is that what you want? Huh?! Answer me!”

“No! No, I don’t want my face beaten in, I’m so sorry please don’t hurt me I just—“ Yunho’s rambling, one part of him wanting to fight for his life, and the other part accepting his fate, whatever it was going to be. Maybe a maid. Maybe a foot rest. He honestly has no idea.

“Shut it! You talk too much,” the man hisses, and Yunho stops immediately. It goes back to the blond staring at him again, and Yunho is rather uncomfortable. He looks anywhere but at the big blazing brown eyes and the pretty pouty lips. He knows he’s probably going to hell if he even thinks his probable murderer is attractive. He’s ashamed of himself and looks down at his feet. How could this insane, psychotic man be gorgeous to him? He’s about to end the twenty four years of his life on Earth.

About a minute passes, and Yunho tries again, lifting his head and murmurs, “I—um, if it’s okay with you, I kinda have to get going home. You—you know, chores and all.”

“It’s not okay with me,” the blond says simply. Yunho purses his lips and finds himself nodding. He goes back to staring at his shoes. And then he lifts his head a third time, about to open his mouth, and squeaks when he’s slammed even harder against the tree, “You really wanna get punched don’t you?! You little twerp. Bothers you when I call you that doesn’t it?!”

“No it doesn’t, I am just curious as to why—“

“You wanna know what happens if I hit you?”

Yunho’s eyes widen slightly and he almost croaks, “Wh—what?”

“You’ll leave. You’ll be satisfied, and you’re gonna leave. I give you what you want, and you leave.”

Yunho his head, a little confused, “But I don’t exactly want to be hit. I—I just—“

“You’re gonna leave like everybody else in my life! You’re gonna leave!” The blond screams into his face, and Yunho’s jaw drops when the man suddenly bursts into tears.

He’s—he’s crying.

Yunho’s eyes are as wide as they can possibly get, and the blond removes his grip on the taller male’s shirt to cover his face. He starts to sob into his hands, and Yunho honestly has no idea what to do. What do you do exactly in this kind of situation?

There’s a silence, with the exception of the blond’s sniffles and sobs, and Yunho does what anybody would do—at least he thinks anybody would do—and tentatively places what he hopes is a comforting hand, on the man’s shoulder.

His hand is slapped away immediately, followed by a weak, muffled, “Don’t touch me.”

Yunho flinches, nodding even though the other male can’t see him. And then he watches as the blond turns around and shuffles sadly to the bench he was previously seated on before he trapped an innocent person against a tree.

This—this is his chance to escape. He can actually make a run for it, and his life would be normal again. Go back to the way it was before this day even happened.

And then Yunho realizes he doesn’t want to go back to that all. He doesn’t. He’s kind of tired and fed up of his little routine, expecting and being disappointed. So why not change it up a little. Just this once.

Without thinking about it too much, he slowly walks over and after pausing for a moment, he sits down next to the shorter male. And then there’s a silence.

Yunho looks over at him, and he still has his face buried in his hands. He lifts a hand to scratch the back of his head in awkwardness, and then murmurs, “Seems like—seems like you’re having a bad day.”

“No Sherlock,” comes the slightly irritated, muffled words. Yunho purses his lips and crosses his hands on his lap. So the man next to him wasn’t insane or a drunkard. He was just somebody like Yunho, upset at the world. Sure—he took his anger out on innocent beings by slamming them against a tree, but hey. Different people had different ways to let things go, right?

“I’ve—I’ve been having a bad day too,” he mumbles, biting his lip, “My job application got rejected.”

“,” the blond mutters in response, and slowly lifts his head. He roughly wipes away the tears on his pale face and sniffles once. He then slumps against the back of the bench, crossing his arms against his chest. He looks defeated, and it urges Yunho to go on.

“My childhood bully got the job,” he continues, and the other male turns to look at him, an eyebrow raised, “And it because I tried. You know, put effort into my application. I even dressed up nice for the interview... I was feeling really optimistic. And then. Yeah. The person who made my childhood a living hell got the job I really wanted.”

The blond is quiet. Yunho lets out a sad chuckle, feeling sorry for himself, “That’s why I was at McDonalds. Trying to eat my sorrows away.”

He doesn’t expect the shorter male to explain why exactly he was there too. Why he did what he did. And so he’s not really surprised when he doesn’t get a response back.

So he turns his head forward and watches the cars on the road. In the corner of his eye, he can see the man’s fingers tap against his thigh. And then he speaks.

“Who is your enemy?”

“What?” Yunho looks at him.

“Who is your enemy?” The man repeats, turning to look at him too, and Yunho’s breath hitches. He is a rather beautiful person, despite the fact that he was just crying a moment ago. His eyes are still slightly glistening, and with his lips parted, Yunho can’t remember the last time he saw someone so stunning.

The blond clicks his fingers in front of his face, and Yunho blinks, taken back to ground. “I—uh,” he’s confused as to why he’s asking such a question, “Why?”

“Do you want me to slam you up against that tree again?”

He’s not as scary as he previously was, and Yunho thinks that might be due to the fact that he sort of looks like a sad little kitten now, but he still does not want to test the man.

“Kim—Kim Minho,” he stammers out quickly.

The blond nods, and then questions, “Do you know where he lives?”

“Why would you—“ Yunho shuts up when he gets a cold glare, and obediently answers, “Yes.”

“So would you know if he’s home right now?”

Yunho opens his mouth to again, ask why on earth this man needs to know all of this information, but decides against it, and gives him what he wants, “He’s not at home right now. I think he’s working... a mutual friend of ours told me he works on weekends. I don’t really know why, probably to—“

“Perfect. Come on,” the shorter male suddenly stands up, and because Yunho’s dumbfounded on the bench, he yanks the brunet up and drags him across the pavement.

Yunho stumbles and gasps, “Where are we going?”

“No questions.”


About five minutes later, Yunho finds himself inside a taxi. With the beautiful, slightly swollen eyed blond man besides him. There’s bubblegum pop playing on the radio and everything is terribly awkward. At least for him—because he has no idea where the other male is taking him, and honestly, he has no idea why he hadn’t run the other direction. This man could be taking him to a dungeon for all he knows.

But when he looks at the man’s pitifully sad face, he can’t get himself to leave. But well, right now he doesn’t really have a choice, because he’ll just tumble out into the road if he opens the taxi door.

Along the way, they stop at a fast food drive way. The question why did you go into a children’s play area and go down the slide is on the tip of his tongue the entire time but he holds it back, and holds back the rest of his curiousity too, like why exactly they were purchasing a soda and an ice cream cone.

The ice cream cone is into his hand, and so he tentatively holds it. When he leans down to take a , his wrist is slapped and there’s a hiss, “It’s not for you! Don’t eat it.”

Yunho blushes in embarrassment and nods. The soda isn’t being sipped either, so he supposes there is a reason behind this. And he wonders what could possibly be done with a soda cup and an ice cream cone. Maybe they were going to give it to a random person. Like a social experiment or something—Yunho loves watching those on YouTube.


His thoughts are cut off when he’s asked, “You said the place your bully works in is the NumberO firm in this part of town, right?”

“Yeah, why?” Yunho turns his head.

“Just making sure.”


The ice cream begins to drip over his fingers about a minute later, and he complains about it. In return he gets an uncaring “deal with it” and he sulks. He goes back to thinking about why they even needed an ice cream cone and a soda cup, but all the wondering ends the second the blond tells the taxi to stop, and then Yunho turns his head to the right.

It’s a pet shop, and he smiles. And then the blond gets out, pays the taxi and gestures for Yunho to get out. And so he does, thinking they’re about to have some fun with adorable little puppies and kittens and birds and then he looks up—looks up at the building that is in front of him, and his face pales.

He turns around, about to get into the taxi, but the blond grabs his arm and the vehicle promptly drives away.

“No, no! We are not going in here!” He panics, shrugging the shorter man’s hand off of his arm, “Absolutely not!”

“Calm down!” The blond hisses, “We are already here so we’re not backing out of this!”

Yunho throws his hands in the air, ice cream still dripping over his hands, droplets landing onto the floor and yells, “What is ‘this’?! I don’t want to be apart of whatever you’re going to do!” He shoots a look at the building he just got rejected at and shudders, “I am not stepping in there! The reason I am upset is because of them!”

Yunho knows he’s yelling, but he doesn’t care. He’d rather be slammed up against a tree a hundred more times than enter that darned building ever again. 

“Come on—“ the man pauses, squints and asks, “What is your name?”

“Yunho!” He practically shouts, feeling too anxious at being even near the building. Just yesterday he had walked in, optimistic and hopeful, and had left bitter and disappointed. Basically the story of his life, and this job rejection summarized it all up.

“Come on Yunho!” the blond raises his voice, grabbing his arm again, “Do this with me!”

The taller male groans, “Look—“ he pauses, cocking his head.

“Jaejoong.”

“Look Jaejoong,” he begins, “I will never be optimistic again and it’s thanks to this place right here. I studied numbers all of my life and thought that I could get myself a good decent job, you know, the result of hard work. But nope. Nope. I just realized life doesn’t work that way—what I’m trying to say is you can’t get me into that building. I am not doing this—whatever you want to do, okay?!”

And he realizes it was probably stupid of him to say all of that, act so cocky, as if he would stand by his word, because the second he sees the blond’s eyes b with tears again; his heart breaks.

“Oh god, are you crying?!”

“No, shut up,” Jaejoong hisses, turning away from him. He lifts a hand, probably to wipe away his tears, and the brunet bites his lip.

“I am so sorry. Please don’t cry,” he reaches out a hand to touch Jaejoong’s shoulder, but it gets abruptly smacked away.

The blond shudders, rubbing his face, “I just thought—“ his words are soft, voice tired, “I just thought we could do this. My life is pretty right now, isn’t yours too? I just thought—“

“Okay. Okay, we’re going to do this,” Yunho finds himself nodding, turning the blond around. Jaejoong looks down at his feet and the action is rather adorable. “You lead. Let’s go in. Just stop crying, please. We’re going to do this, okay?”

“Okay,” Jaejoong whispers.


Yunho still has no idea what ‘this’ is. He just knows he genuinely doesn’t want to do it, but Jaejoong’s tears make him go on like a brave soldier. He keeps his head bowed as the shorter male drags him through the large glass doors of one of the biggest accounting firms in the country. He tries not to think about how cool the place is, and how he’s dreamed of working here for years.

Instead, he keeps his eyes on Jaejoong’s soft blond hair as they stop at the front desk. He’s so mesmerized by the soft looking, light locks and the way they almost sparkle in the one ray of sunlight that filters through the slightly cracked window blinds— that he even doesn’t know what the man just murmured to the lady at the desk.

He lets his feet get dragged by Jaejoong once again, through a hallway and then into an elevator. And then out, and then into a hallway again. By the time he’s in hallway number four, he’s depressed and longing to work here all over again.

And then they enter a large room. It’s merely a room where many employees are busy at work, on calls or typing on their computers. Jaejoong pulls him along and looks left and right, going on his tip toes and poking his head around.

Yunho then watches as he taps on a woman’s shoulder and asks her something. He’s too busy not looking anyone in the eye to hear what Jaejoong’s just asked, so when they finally, finally stop at wherever they need to be, he needs a few seconds to process it.

In front of them is Kim Minho, Yunho’s childhood bully, and Jaejoong removes the lid of his soda cup. Yunho has absolutely no time to react before the blond abruptly splashes the drink in the man’s face.

He watches the almost comical sight as the drink soaks the man’s t-shirt, the ice cubes even lunging at his skin. And as everyone gasps, Jaejoong suddenly grabs Yunho’s arm, and forces him to squish the vanilla ice cream over the man’s head. Yunho cringes as the blond smears and rubs it around, Minho frozen with stun, and then Jaejoong quickly pulls back, dropping the cup and now empty cone and grabs Yunho’s hand and yells,

“Run!”

Adrenaline has never hit Yunho so fast. They’re running like there is guards behind them, like they’ve committed a crime, and he can hear Jaejoong laughing when they sprint through the hallways and end up going down the stairs instead of the elevator for whatever reason. Yunho can feel his heart slamming hard against his chest, their footsteps loud once they reach the second floor.

“Find the exit!” Jaejoong squeals, actually squeals, and it’s the first time Yunho’s laughing. He can’t stop, his speed faltering due to his guffawing. Jaejoong’s giggling too, their hands still clasped in a tight grip, and Yunho feels like he’s running on clouds. The only thing he sees is Jaejoong in front of him, his hood flying in the air, his blond locks bouncing up and down, and it’s the best sight Yunho’s ever experienced. It feels surreal.

Jaejoong stumbles but picks himself up, and makes a sharp turn. They somehow end up at an elevator, and with no choice, hurry into it. The blond frantically and repeatedly presses the close button, and miraculously, it ends up with just the two of them in there.

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god—“

Jaejoong hunches over, his hands on his knees as he laughs and pants at the same time.

“What did we just do?! Oh my god Jaejoong I can’t believe we just—“

He’s cut off by the doors opening due to the fact that they only went a floor down. And all over again, Jaejoong grabs his hand and yanks him out and then they’re running through the main lobby in front of everyone, and just like that they’re out, pushing through the same glass doors they came in from.

But Jaejoong doesn’t stop there. He makes sure to duck into another pathway, as if they really need to hide, and then he finally lets go, leaning heavily against a wall, still giggling. Yunho feels like he’s reached the ground again, like he’s back in reality and now he can feel the stickiness of his hands from the ice cream and that his chest kind of hurts.

“I can’t—I can’t believe we did that,” Yunho groans, burying his face in his hands, his heart still racing, legs feeling like jelly. He doesn’t know what to feel. He’s still stunned. “I was wondering where you were taking me, and then it kind of hit me and I was like—“

“I recently had a huge fight with my parents. I got kicked out of the house and had to find a place to stay. And when I went to my friends for comfort, suddenly they were all too busy to help me out.”

Yunho stills, and when he removes his face from his hands, Jaejoong is sitting on the floor, head resting against the brick wall behind him.

“I’m the kind of person who helps anyone out in need. I mean, I know I shouldn’t expect the same from everyone—but it was pretty disappointing. Like... really disappointing.”

Yunho is quiet.

“It feels horrible to know that they just took what they wanted from me. Like I only exist for their needs and wants. And when I—when I’m having a hard time, they’re all gone. I lost everybody important in my life.”

He reckons that Jaejoong is letting everything out in a moment of weakness. Wanting to encourage it, Yunho goes over and sits next to him. This time when he touches the blond’s shoulder, it isn’t swatted away.

“I never got to go to the children’s play area in McDonalds,” he whispers, lips pursed and chin now resting on his knee, “So I figured, you know, at twenty three, I had my chance. I really just for a moment wanted to stop caring.”

And then everything made sense. Yunho frowns. His view of the insane, psychotic man causing a commotion at a fast food joint was now changed completely.

“Did—did you know that one of the security guards ran through a ball pit to get to you?” Yunho mumbles, trying to lighten Jaejoong’s mood, “It was kinda funny.”

“Really?” The blond turns to look at him, a tiny amused smile tugging at his lips.

Beautiful, Yunho thinks, staring back at him. “Yeah. The whole thing was pretty funny. Especially when you flipped the bird at the building.”

“Oh yeah,” Jaejoong chuckles, “And I pushed one of the guards. I really wanted to put my anger out on something, I honestly didn’t care if it would end up with me completely beaten up.”

“So you’re that insane person who does crazy things whenever they’re having a bad day,” Yunho jokes.

Jaejoong makes a noise, denying it, “I’m not like that all the time, I swear. It’s just, I hit an all-time low. I was just sick and tired of it all and... I really felt like I had nothing to lose.”

And before Yunho can say anything else, the blond continues, “but now I have you. Right?”

The brunet’s lips part, and he swallows thickly. Unable to say anything, he just nods shyly, and Jaejoong chuckles, bumping him with his shoulder. And then he gets up, pulling Yunho along with him.

“Come on, I’ll take you home.”

“Oh,” Yunho blinks, “you don’t have to. I’m capable of going home by myself—“

“Shut up. What’s your address?”


About ten minutes later, the taxi they’ve managed to get arrives at Yunho’s apartment building. Jaejoong tells the driver to wait and actually walks Yunho to his place.

“Do you think I’m weak or something? If something happens to me, I can defend mys—“

“Shut up,” Jaejoong says again, and this time his cheeks are slightly red. Yunho wonders if it’s just because the blond wants to spend more time with him, but he shakes the probably delusional thought off.

They reach his apartment door, and Yunho murmurs, “This is me.”

“Kay,” Jaejoong shoves his hands down his pockets, looking as if he was hesitating on something. And then after a short silence, he whispers, looking away, “You—you wanna give me your number?”

“Oh. Um. Yeah,” Yunho nods, feeling his heart skip a beat. He types his number into Jaejoong’s phone and then there’s another silence.

He reckons that he’s made himself a new... friend. That’s probably it, but it’s okay. Friends are good. Yunho can call him whenever he wants to do things that friends do. And talk about… friend things. They—they were friends.

He swallows thickly, about to open his door and finally say goodbye to the blond and their little adventure, when Jaejoong suddenly cups his cheeks and kisses him hard.

Yunho gasps, being pushed against his door. His eyes fall shut, and he immediately wraps his arms around Jaejoong’s rather small waist. The blond makes a noise, flinging his arms around the taller male’s neck. Jaejoong has soft, soft lips and Yunho can’t believe this is all real, that this is actually happening.

When they pull away for air, they press their foreheads together, and Jaejoong breathes softly against his lips.

“I’m... I’m really glad I met you,” the blond murmurs, a shy tinge in his voice.

“Me too,” Yunho whispers, eyes still shut. Jaejoong pecks him once, twice and then thrice before pulling away. Yunho smiles at him, and the smile he gets in return is enough to utterly melt his heart. The blond then leaves, going into the elevator, and the last thing he sees is Jaejoong cutely waving at him before the doors shut.


Yunho doesn’t enter his apartment for several minutes. In fact, he slides down against the closed door and takes a moment to process everything that had just happened. It didn’t even seem like something out of his life—and that was the best part of it.

It was like every horrible, negative occurrence that he was tangled up in for ages happened so it could merely lead him to Jaejoong. And Jaejoong was different. Jaejoong was fun and giggles and adrenaline and everything Yunho didn’t know he secretly craved.

Jaejoong was a pathway to another kind of life—heck, Jaejoong seemed like the sole, brightly lit pathway to happiness, and as Yunho buries his head in his knees, dazed, he reckons that Jaejoong is probably, maybe, definitely the pathway to love, too.