It was around a 3 hour drive before the 2 boys arrived at the pink palace, their new home.

The journey seemed to last forever, at least to youngjae, Daehyun was sleeping  the whole drive, Daehyun was always doing work, or sleeping always putting youngjae second place, that’s the reason they were moving, for that big promotion for work, clearly the only thing he cares about at the minute.

There is no time for youngjae in a 9 till 5 job.

 But he still loved Daehyun, the Daehyun he’d been with since high school, the Daehyun he shared his first kiss with, the Daehyun he couldn’t not love.

The younger boy stepped out the car and brushed down his denim blue jeans whilst adjusting the sleeves of his mustard jumper.

“So this is home” he mumbled staring up at a sign that read pink palace, established 1950, in front of a grand building around 3 stories high with pink bricks building it up against the dull grey sky, everything felt dull for youngjae, probably because his boyfriend would rather focus on work then on him.

“Hey Daehyun” he muttered as he opened the car door to the passenger side, the older boy was fast asleep, his laptop placed on his black jeans and his brown brogues kicked under the seat.

His eyes slowly opened, looking around at the grey surroundings, his brown iris looking right into youngjaes 

“Can you start unpacking please, i need to finish preparing this speech for work”, obviously the first thing he thinks about is work, he didn’t even mention the fact that youngjae styled his short brown hair slightly differently today, he probably didn’t even notice. There was not even a slight hint of happiness considering they’d bought there first house together, it was just miserable.

“Okay... I’ll just go unpack, at least your not treating me like a child for once” Youngjae muttered under his breath, he didn’t hate Daehyun, he just hated the way he was being treated, he is 23 now, he may be the younger of the two but he isn’t a child.

—

It had been 2 long hours since they arrived, Daehyun was still on the phone to work, but at least he was in the house, not like most days where he’d spend all his time in the office so youngjae barely saw him.

He looked over at the older boy, he loved the way his hair fell on his forehead when he was stressed, and the little mole under his left eye which was even more accentuated with the tired bags under his eyes.

“Daehyun, do you want to go explore, i heard there’s this old well outside, we can go make a wish together” 

“Youngjae, I’m busy, you know that, sorry, go explore yourself” Daehyun was being dismissive of him again, and that’s what hurt youngjae the most, he was a struggling artist, dating a business man, and sometimes all he wanted was someone to appreciate his work, to appreciate him, but that isn’t what Daehyun gave him.

The younger boy kicked his feet in his yellow wellies as he walked out the shabby white door from the kitchen, it opened with a squeak which was soon silenced by the echo of the door slam, “fine then, I’ll find the well myself, maybe I can wish for you to actually appreciate me for once”.

The sky was still grey, dull like a storm was coming the clouds covering the muted sun leaving a dark shadow over the colourless ground.

The younger boy climbed up a muddy hill the overgrown bushes tickling his leg as the thorns lightly pricked his ankles.

He walked over to the edge of the hilltop, the pink place against the skyline, like a sombre painting. The air was full of noises the crickets in the grass around him and a crow in the trunk of the tree.

As he was looking at the picturesque view he felt a rubbing on his feet his attention immediately turned to the ground he was standing on to see a cat as dark as the grey sky, it’s green eyes staring up into youngjaes brown eyes.

“Hey kitty, you must live round here, me too, I just moved here today” he moved his hand slowly down the cats back as it arched with his soft movement. The cat purred back at him as youngjae smiled back at it.

A bright flash appeared behind them and as youngjae looked to the source of the light he saw a boy around his age speeding down the hill in his skateboard the torch waving in his hand.

“Woah” Youngjae looked to the boy who was now in front of him.

“Hi, I’m junhong, you must’ve just moved into the pink palace, I lived there when I was younger, it’s pretty creepy” the boy looked down to youngjae his curly brown hair blowing in the wind as he picked up his skateboard.

“How do you know I just moved in” Youngjae asked the younger boy looking up at his face, 

“The news spreads quickly, you see I live just up that hill but I come here often, that’s my cat your ” 

“Oh I’m sorry, the cat came up to me, hey do you know where a well is, I read about one and wanted to find it” youngjae asked the younger boy

“You’re sitting on it” 

“Oh, hah I didn’t even realise, maybe that’s what the cat was showing me... thanks”

“No it’s fine just watch out around here, you never know what could happen” 

“I’m youngjae by the way”

“Nice to meet you youngjae, I better go now, i hear mum calling me”and with that the younger boy picked up the cat and ran back up the hill, the sound of a bell ringing quietly in the distance, “why do I need to watch out” he muttered to himself before stepping up off the well, covered over with wooden planks, it seemed to be keeping something out.

He slowly stood up still in confusion and brushed off his denim jeans as he made his way back down the hill.

As he got to the house he could see the car was gone “of course he’s out”, he walked up the wooden steps creaking underneath him as he opened the kitchen door and walked over to the table, to reveal a note written on the back of a shopping list the paper slightly crumpled 

-I’ve gone out, make yourself dinner, we can have breakfast together before work tomorrow-

“Again...” Youngjae said through a sigh, as he opened up the freezer to take out his second microwave meal of the day.

He carried over the hot plate to the room with their only sofa in, there wasn’t even a television, just his paintings that didn’t get sold piled up against the walls.

He sat his meal down on the coffee table as he looked over to the only part of the room not piled with paintings, the outline of a door was visible, not a human sized door though, he sat up slowly to take a closer look,”it’s locked”, he stood up from the ground and took a slight jog over to the draw of keys, the key  was black and differently shaped to the others, he went back to the little door and unlocked it, it creaked as it opened to reveal more bricks, “of course it’s nothing” he spoke softly as he went back to put the key away leaving the door open.

—

It was around an hour later when youngjae woke up from the sofa to find Daehyun sitting across from him, on his laptop, working,his brown eyes showing the reflection of the bright screen in front of him, the brown eyes that youngjae fell in love with, “Oh youngjae, there was this package outside for you, it doesn’t even have our address on” 

He took the package from Daehyun, it was rapped in newspaper from years ago and had his name written in scrawny writing across the front,

The package was heavy and tied up with a bit of string like a present on a Victorian Christmas morning, he undid the wrapper slowly opening it to reveal a doll, a doll with his mustard jumper, and his brown hair, and his yellow wellies, it was identical to him, aside from the buttons where his eyes should be,

“Daehyun, did you make this” he looked up to the older boy who just glanced over at him,

“No, just go to bed, you’ve had a long day, I’ll be up soon” 

He stood up putting the wrapper of the package down where he was sitting and walked up the creaky wooden steps to their bedroom at the top of the house, the doll still in his hand.

The room was dark only filled with a double bed and the 2 suitcases he’d brought up earlier, with a chair facing the bed against the window with the sheer lace curtains, he missed what him and Daehyun used to do on days like this, they didn’t have time for movie nights anymore or cuddles on the bed that would usually lead to something extra, he missed their flat and their old neighbours, they weren’t like mr bang on the house above them or Mr Kim and moon downstairs, it was lonely without his old friends.

He stepped into the right side of the double bed, placing the doll on the chair next by the window taking off his top and throwing over to his suitcase, he wanted to cry but he couldn’t, the man he loved was downstairs and maybe he wasn’t the same as he was but he was still the man he fell in love with, he always will be.

—

He wasn’t sleeping long till he awoke from the tiny squeak of a mouse, the patter of its feet ran across the floor tempting youngjae to go follow it, he hurriedly got up and started following the mouse down the stairs, he swung from the banister skipping the last two steps as he jumped onto the floor slipping slightly on the old brown carpet, changing back into a sprint, the mouse led him to the little door in the room full of paintings but this time the door was open to reveal not just bricks. 

In front of his eyes was a long tunnel, with no end visible yet, it was purple like the colour of the sofa he had fell asleep on just a few hours ago, he crawled through, feeling more like a child then Daehyun had ever made him feel.

The tunnel was long but he kept on going till at last he could see a creak of light from what seemed to be another little door, maybe he just went in a circle, maybe this was all just a dream.

The little door at the end of the tunnel opened to exhibit what seemed to be the room he was just in, only this time his paintings weren’t on the floor, they were placed up on the wall above the fire place, the painting of him and Daehyun right in the centre of the room, it looked like how he had wanted it to look.

He stepped out onto the wooden floor that would’ve been creaky only this it wasn’t and the purple sofa wasn’t dusty, the velvet looked brand new, everything looked better.

He got a strong smell coming from the room next door, someone was cooking lobster, his favourite meal.

He slowly walked over to the kitchen being cautious of his surroundings and watching every step he made in his old grey slippers.

The kitchen was warm from the heat of the stove the smell of the lobster radiating through the whole house, he glanced up to see who was cooking, a tall figure was standing there, “Daehyun, what are you doing here this late” 

“Youngjae, dinners nearly ready, it’s your favourite” the older boy looked to him a smile growing on his face.

“You’re not Daehyun... are you, he doesn’t have b-buttons”

“Don’t be silly youngjae, I’m the other Daehyun” the buttons shone against the light from the kitchen, it felt as if he was being stared at right into his soul, maybe that’s what the buttons were for.

“Go sit down, dinners ready”

Youngjae sat down at the wooden table, the same table Daehyun had left him a note on. 

“You look as cute as a button today, you did your hair differently this morning” the other Daehyun spoke softly staring into Youngjae’s brown eyes.

“How did you-“ his hand reached up to touch the hair, that’s what he wanted Daehyun to notice but he was to caught up with work to tell.

—

He finished the meal that the other Daehyun had prepared him, and he already felt better here, the other Daehyun listened to how his day went and how his paintings were coming along, the other Daehyun 

Appreciated him.

“You look tired” the other Daehyun spoke as he stared at youngjae who let out a yawn stretching back his arms in his oversized yellow hoodie, lying back against the brown chair slipping slightly from the cushion underneath him.

“I’ll take you up to bed” the other Daehyun walked over to him helping him get up his chair and lifting him up into a bridal style carry.

“I love you” the other Daehyun whispered into youngjaes rosy cheek as he placed him down onto their king size bed put a flower on his pillow next to him waiting as the younger boy to slowly drifted to sleep.