Changmin had it all planned out, more like it worked out on its own. Instead of waiting for the man or going to retrieve him he was just going to leave. Besides what is the meaning of a pinky promise after you’ve turned twelve. When the class bell rang signaling the end of another school day, Changmin was out of his seat and at the door before the others had even finished packing their bags.

               Yunho had seen the lie in the younger man’s eye when he made the promise. That kid was so easy to read. He felt like he had been blessed when his teacher had a mental breakdown and fled class 5 minutes before the bell. The story behind that is long, drawn out, and to tell the truth even Yunho doesn’t really know what’s so bad about asking what salami is made of. Instead of sitting in awe like his classmates, he was out the door. He remembered the general direction in which Changmin had gone but it still took him a couple of minutes to find the boy’s classroom. Yunho peered into the window to see Changmin chatting a little with a student next to him. Changmin must have said something funny because the young girl giggled and Changmin handed her a notebook. The bell rang and Changmin was the first out of his seat. It surprised Yunho how fast the boy was. Yunho knew Changmin was trying to escape before Yunho could make it to his class, so he decided to play with the boy. Yunho quickly escaped to the indent where the drinking fountains were and watched the younger man pass by before following.

           Changmin had made it; he walked down the stairs happily and saw Victoria and the others waiting for him at the bottom. They waved at him and he waved back but it wasn’t long before he noticed that their eyes weren’t on him anymore. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned back to see Yunho not too far behind him. Changmin let out an audible groan before making his way to Victoria’s side, shoving Yunho away when the older male tried to stand beside him.

               “Changmin,” Victoria said after turning the males face to look at him. “Stop being rude.” She grabbed Changmin’s wrist and pulled him to stand on the other side of her. He looked up to see Yunho smirk before snarling. “I hope you got to all your classes ok, I know from experience Changmin can be a pain to deal with when he doesn’t want to do something.” She whispered into Yunho’s ear covering the side of with her hand.

                  “I got to my classes just fine, heck, Changmin even said I could walk home with him today, didn’t you Changmin?” Yunho said smiling slyly Changmin was great at lying, but if there was anyone, anyone in the world, who could see through one of his lies it was Victoria. Changmin sighed knowing there was no longer any hope of getting out of this one.

                  “Yeah.” He gritted out before walking away to Junsu Jaejoong and Yoochun, too angry about the defeat he had been forced to accept.

                  “Dear lord, I don’t know what type of trouble he put you through but sorry.” Victoria said watching as Changmin approached Jaejoong and immediately started whining about something to the eldest boy.

            “No prob,”

          “I suggest we start heading home soon, c’mon.” She walked over to Changmin and tugged on his sleeve, at first Changmin ignored simply tugging his sleeve from her grip, but the slap to the back of the head couldn’t possibly be ignored. He turned around frowning.

          “We’re going home.” Victoria said waving to her friends.

          “You two want a ride? Junsu’s got soccer practice till five so we have room for you.” Yoochun said wrapping an arm around Jaejoong’s waist while. Victoria declined, they all said their good-byes, see you laters, and shut the ups, before the three walked outside and headed home. A normal walk home only took about 20 minutes for Victoria and Changmin, Yunho’s about 25 minutes. He was shocked to see that they actually only lived a couple blocks apart from each other.

          “I live in the Blackwood apartment building not too far from here.” Victoria awed in knowing, Changmin was watching the sidewalk.

          “We pass that way whenever we’re headed to Jaejoong and Junsu’s home. Yoochun lived pretty close too.” Victoria said unlatching the gate to that stood in front of the modern two-story house. She leaned on the gate, while the sulky Changmin just walked straight past the two.

          “Well Changmin’s safe would you like me to walk you to your place?” Yunho said leaning against the fence opposite Victoria.

          “This is my place.”  Noticing the discomfort in Yunho’s eyes she continued, “My parents are out of time for the next couple of weeks so-” Victoria was interrupted by a call from the door.

          “Victoria nuna, Omma said you should come in the house…OW!” Changmin yelled reacting to the shoe that had just landed in the middle of his back. “She said bring Yunho too.” He grounded out, Before Victoria could respond, Yunho skipped over to the door Changmin was still standing in and wrapped his arms around the younger man’s waist. Changmin blushed slightly before punching the older man in the chest. It took only a moment but Victoria saw it and even she wasn’t sure of the feeling she was having. She followed the two into the house Changmin calling to his sisters and Yunho clutching his chest. They made their way to the living room where Victoria escorted Yunho to sit on the chair but frowned when the older male went to sit beside Changmin on the couch.  Before the tension in the room began to fester Ae Cha appeared in the door.

          “Tori, Omma said to-” She stopped mid sentence when she saw the stranger sitting on the couch. “Oh hello, Tori, who is your friend?” Ae Cha asked moving to stand besides Victoria.

          “He’s Changmin’s friend.” Victoria snarled uncharacteristically. Ae Cha sensed the elder female’s worsening mode and moved to her brother on the other side of the room, a comic book in his hand.

          “Hello, my name is Ae Cha, Changinnie’s sister. You are?”

          “Jung Yunho,” He said standing an taking the younger girls hand, “Changmin and Victoria’s friend.” Just then Ae Sook entered the room, the stoic expression on her face never faltering.

          “Yunho-Shi, this is Ae Sook, my twin sister.”

          “Nice to meet you, Jung Yunho.” He offered his hand to the younger girl but she just looked at it for a moment before moving out of the man’s way. Twins?!?!?! Ae Sook walked over to Changmin and tapped him on the shoulder. What caught Yunho’s attention was that she was using sign language to talk to him. Whatever she said must have been hilarious because Changmin broke into a laughing fit and the girl herself cracked a small smile. She sat down beside him and began reading the comic book with him.

          “What was that?” Yunho asked, Ae Cha looked at him in surprise, and confusion.

          “Sign language?” She questioned in mock sarcasm.

          “No I mean why?” This time the question shook everyone in the room. Except Changmin who was deeply involved in his book. The room was silent and something about the fact that they were all looking at him as if he were some type of Alien creature had him looking for an escape route. The front door in always an option but Victoria’s sitting right next to the exit. THE WINDOW, we’re only on the first-.  His thoughts were cut short by a simple answer that although not expected wasn’t shocking either.

          “He’s deaf,” Ae Sook dead-panned, “You really couldn’t tell?”

          “Well-“

          “His speech usually gives it away. Or the fact that he doesn’t respond when you call his name.”

          “I guess you could say, I’ve never been one to notice what is right in front of my face” The room went silent again, as if the very walls were contemplating the possibility of him not realizing Changmin’s inability to hear.

          “I guess,” Victoria said. The room visibly relaxed at that. “Where is aunty?”

          “OMMA!!” Ae Cha called making everyone in the room cringe. Not even five seconds later the curvaceous figure came around the corner.

          “What happened?!” She said eying the room to see if anything was out of place. “Who are you?” Victoria stood up to introduce Yunho this time.

          “This is Yunho, a friend from school.” He and the woman exchanged greetings before her eyes fell on Changmin. She quickly stepped across the room and hit him lightly on the shoulder. Changmin looked up surprised.

          “Changmin, this is not how we treat company,” She said grabbing the book from his hands and laying it under her arm. “You don’t just curl up with a book and ignore them.” She said before turning back to Yunho.

          “Dinner will begin once Appa gets home, how about staying with us?” She offered.

          “I can’t,” Yunho declined. “My omma would be thoroughly pissed if I went home full. I should probably be heading home now anyway.”

          “Are you sure, there is always enough for 3-4 extra people anyway, Changmin’s got the appetite of 10 food deprived lions.”

          “I’m sure,” He said standing and gathering his bags from the floor beside the couch.

          “Well come back any time understood?” She said turning to Changmin telling him to his guest out of the house, stopping him mid protest with a glare that was known to have the power to stop the earth’s rotation.

          “Understood.” He said following Victoria and Changmin out.         Victoria halted at the door and pushed Changmin to see Yunho to the gate. When they made it to the front gate Yunho stopped Changmin.

          “I don’t know what I did to make you dislike me but I really hope we can get over this.” Yunho said holding the gate open. “You seem like an interesting person and I’d really like to be your friend.” When he didn’t get a response Yunho walked out the gate and closed it.

          “I don’t dislike you,” Yunho turned around to see Changmin grinning. “You just annoy me is all.”

          “See you at school tomorrow.” Yunho said leaning back over the gate.

          “Whatever.” Was Changmin’s simple reply, before he turned and sauntered back into the house.

           Yunho skipped the rest of the way home. He Ran up the stairs of his apartment faster than he ever has before. He opened the door to…an empty apartment. That’s right; no one was going to be there. The apartment was filled with the bare minimum, un-packed boxes still taking up his living room space.  He sat down at the small bar and pressed play on his voicemail; most of the messages were from his mother asking whether he had made it into his new apartment okay. If he needed her to bring him some food, I’ll call her back later, a couple were from his landlord… One from his brother. He played the voicemail with hope…nope, not an apology. Just talking about how appalled he was by Yunho, how glad he was that Yunho had chosen to leave. Yunho played that message over 20 times that day. 

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The next Chapter will be all Yunho's past.