After Jun got everything off his chest and promised to help Jeonghan when he needed it, the days continued to pass lightheartedly. Children being children, playing when they want to play, sleeping when they need to sleep, eating whenever they feel hungry. Seungcheol happily watched over them whenever he could, but while he stays with them, he also notices a few changes. No, it's not just the children growing up and liking different things, it's not Jihoon and Wonwoo studying new topics before school. 

Glancing at Jeonghan from time to time, he couldn't help feeling unfamiliar. Well, he can't say he knew Jeonghan as much as Joshua, since they only got acquainted due to circumstances, but they've seen each other quite often after he joined them. Seungcheol's eyes strayed away from him, looking at Seungkwan pulling Hansol up and prancing around to the opening of a kids show, then drifted back unconsciously to Jeonghan. 

What was it? After that day with Jun, or was it before that? Did something happen when Joshua was with Jeonghan alone? Searching through his memories, Seungcheol was pretty sure something happened from the day the news hit the public, to the day Jun came with an explanation. 

Looking at Jeonghan cradling an energetic Chan, the smile on his lips made Seungcheol curious. "Chan seems to enjoy rolling around in your arms." Seungcheol said.

"Yea, I get that feeling too. He keeps trying to turn around so I put him down, but he whines so I don't know what he was anymore." Jeonghan answered, chuckling. He pokes Chan's cheek with his free hand, which get immediately grabbed by said baby. "Hey!" Chan squeaked.  "Okay, okay, I won't poke your soft cheeks anymore."

"You seem much happier." Seungcheol added. He can see Jeonghan's mood has improved, though he doesn't know why exactly, but the change is good. "It makes me and the others happy that you're getting better too."

"Really? I don't think I changed much." Jeonghan said as he touched his own face, as if checking that he himself was actually smiling. "It's all thanks to Joshua." He confessed.

Seungcheol waited patiently, not hurrying him. If Jeonghan wanted to share, then he could at his own pace.

Letting Chan play with his hands, Jeonghan's smile softened into a slight grin. "We had a long talk a few days before, then right before me and him joined you all to talk, we had a conversation. I think I really needed it."

"What I'm going through, there isn't a lot of people who could relate to and really understand. And I know, I wasn't looking for him to understand and know how to comfort me. In fact, if he had tried to comfort me, I wouldn't have accepted his company.

Instead, he told me a story. I might not have the right to hear it, since I can't even look him in the eyes and apologize, but it was about himself.

He told me, when he was living in America, his daily life was pretty free. His parents didn't stop him from doing what he wanted, but that also meant that they didn't really care."

Seungcheol recognized the story. Joshua told him once over drinks, what happened in America, during the times that Seungcheol wasn't there. There were several versions of the story, depending on how he interpreted his experiences; his interpretations changing as he grew older, as he learned more about life.

Just like now, looking back at how Joshua had reacted to Seungcheol's arrangement with Jeonghan, Seungcheol thought it was pretty childish. He had tried to get Joshua to see Jeonghan again, arranging the meet up and letting them see each other. He knew Joshua was impulsive with his words then, but he should have known better than to interfere. Relationships could only be mended by the people involved, not outside parties.

"He said that he was so free that he didn't really know what to do. Start a business? Go to school? He had the money and freedom to do so. But he couldn't decide. What he did know, was that he liked someone. That someone was me. He told me that liking me was what shackled him. Even if he wanted to go elsewhere, he'd find himself finding me. 

I couldn't help myself and stopped him, I asked him if he didn't like that feeling, of being tied down. But he answered me, that he didn't hate it, that he was excited for the new feeling. This feeling of not knowing anything else, just one thing. He's been appealing to me how much he cherishes me, but I still can't answer him."

Different from all the aggressive acts that Joshua had displayed at the beginning of their reunion, Joshua matured a bit. He also finds how he handled things childish, and a little embarrassed by them.

"I then asked him why he likes me, when I'm like this. A stone sunken at the bottom of the ocean, being pushed by the waves this way and that, carved and ground away by my surroundings. I wondered how he could like me, when I'm so dull and easy to manipulate. Joshua told me that he liked me for me. And I couldn't understand. 

He said to me, that I would understand what he sees in time. Instead he asked me what I didn't like about myself. I listed a lot of things. He rejected all of them. If I really thought I had those traits, then I needed to fix them, he told me. 

Right before that meeting, he came to me again, asking if I thought it over. And I did. I told him I was going to change. All he did was smile."

And he said he'd like me no matter how I would change. Jeonghan held the words back. He felt that it was for him to hear only, and was a bit selfish. 

"So I will change, first with letting the past go, and developing myself for my present and my future."

"I'm happy you came to a conclusion." Seungcheol said with a smile. "He's good for you, you know."

"Yea, so I'll improve myself, so that I can be worthy of him." 

Seeing him wanting to become better, Seungcheol didn't say that Joshua wouldn't mind at all. "I hope you'll see what he sees in you soon."