It rained that day.

Big black clouds stained the sky, although the weather forecast foresaw a rather sunny and windy October morning. For the raven-haired boy, however, it didn’t make such big difference. He briefly looked at his still sleeping roommate and sighed.

“You’ll be late” exclaimed tiredly, pushing his shoulder a bit “The breakfast is ready, just go to wash. I’m going first” said, returning to the little kitchen. The other guy was mumbling something, but his words were still unclear because of the sudden awakening.

“It’s raining, don’t forget to take your umbrella” kept saying the boy, grabbing his red one in a hand and going out. He soon reached the bus stop and noticed that only a few people were standing there with him. The rain was stronger now, after all. Not everyone was willing to leave the warmth of their comfortable homes just yet. The boy stared, with vacant eyes, the street before him, waiting. There was no reason to let his mind wander on thoughts.

He was fine.

It was something he knew for a long time, so it wasn’t a surprise. He was prepared. He just had to shut off his brain and concentrate on something else. He had to keep functioning.
Drops of rain were hitting the red cotton surface and he breathed in the fresh, scented air.

“Jaejoong!”

A voice calling his name made him turn his gaze toward its source. A guy was running toward him, carefully trying to not slip on the wet asphalt.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” asked, trying to catch his breath and adjusting his still messy hair.

Jaejoong didn’t reply and just directed his sight on the street again.

“Where are you going?”

“Are you still hungover?” Finally said “We have lesson”

The other guy looked at him with a worried light in his eyes. He clenched his palm around the umbrella before speaking again.

“We could just rest today. You don’t have to-”

“I want to” cut it short Jaejoong, spotting the arriving bus at a distance “You can stay at home, Yoochun-ah, but I want to go” added.

Yoochun followed him as soon as the guy entered and sat next to him, in silence. As he was about to talk again, the other guy looked out the window, in a clear attempt to escape every type of conversation. Yoochun sighed and put his head to rest on the other’s shoulder.

The travel was longer than usual as there was more traffic, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. They were used to each other silences and chats in the same ways. And it was obvious, as they knew each other since they were 5 and rarely spent time apart in the last 18 years together, growing just as close as brothers.
It happened sometimes, that people would mistake them for lovers too. Obviously, they didn’t say anything openly, but their body language suggested so. Although it was common in South Korea to be affectionate toward people of the same , sometimes, people couldn’t understand how two adult men could show that much affection and skinship in public. As for the duo, they just didn’t care about such groundless and funny rumours.

As soon as the bus stopped for the 4th time, Jaejoong stepped outside, followed by Yoochun. They walked toward the university side by side, their umbrellas up. Yoochun opened his mouth, but closed it again, looking on the ground. He was actually feeling hopeless and didn’t know what to say to make his brother feel better. And it was the first time that something like that happened; he could always find words or gestures to make Jaejoong smile. But now, he knew it was too much hard and no words could have lightened his face.

“Jae-!” he exclaimed at the end of his thoughts, while Jaejoong was about to enter the magnificent building. The guy turned toward him and attempted a fake smile, but he was too tired to make it.

“Don’t worry, ok?” said “I’m just fine”

Yoochun nodded, blown out, and then, both of them headed toward the Basic Design lesson. The class was half-empty and Jaejoong sighed of relief, as he didn’t like when the room was too much crowded. He felt suffocated.

He wondered, however, why he was still feeling that way, despite the lack of students.

“Guys!” A boy, a little shorter than him, came running toward them, an uncertain smile on his face. “I thought...”

“Good morning, Junsu” said Yoochun, making a “no” movement with his head when the shorter guy looked at him. “Let’s go sitting there, it’s the best spot” said, pointing toward the first row on the left.

Yoochun sat between the other two and tried to send silent messages to Junsu, while Jaejoong was taking his notebook and pencils. He kept talking with Junsu also after the professor entered in the class and started his lesson.

‘Why did Jae come?’ wrote Junsu on his notebook, pretending to take notes of what the professor was explaining.

‘I have no idea… He just needs to not think about it’

‘Pushing himself isn’t good either. He needs time for himself... Don’t you think so?’

‘I don’t know anymore’ Yoochun pushed the tip of the pencil harder on the paper ‘I’ll ing kill him“

Junsu looked at him and his lips moved to form the words “calm down”, before writing again.

‘You already hit him. He will probably still have bruises on his face’

‘Like I care! If he appears again in front of me I’ll seriously gift him a nice trip to the hospital!’

‘That’s the last thin