Baekhyun smiled as he looked back, through the open window at his roommate/best friend, Chanyeol, who was still fast asleep. Baekhyun was amazed. The smallest sound could wake him up, but the taller male was asleep even though the streets were only a few stories below their apartment. He leaned over the railing of the fire escape, holding on tightly.

    “Rush hour.” Baekhyun whispered to himself. Most of the night shift workers were going home for the day. He was jealous. He had to get ready for work in only a few minutes. He mentally slapped himself. He should have not procrastinated and got up on time. He climbed back into the room, closing and locking the window in hopes of blocking out the sounds of the city beneath them.

    Even though Chanyeol was such a heavy sleeper, Baekhyun still was careful not to make any sound as he stepped on the hardwood floor and made his way across the room to his closet to retrieve his uniform, a red shirt with a blue hat that had the name of the pizza place Baekhyun was employed at printed on the front.

    He glanced over at the clock and almost had a heart attack at what he saw. He needed to catch a cab soon in order to get to work on time, and he knew that even if the streets were clear of traffic, he would only be able to arrive a few minutes early. He threw on his uniform and casted his other clothes to the side, not caring where they landed. He intended to pick them up when he got home, but the task was always completed by Chanyeol.

    He tiptoed out of their bedroom, walked quietly down the hall, put on his shoes by the front door, and proceeded to scramble down the hallway towards the staircase, realizing that he left the door open. He huffed and turned around to shut the door completely, and then continued his journey to the front lobby, bounding down the stairs two steps at a time. The elevator would be too slow, he thought, but part of him would rather have waited for it instead of rushing down the stairs and almost twisting his ankle.

    When he made it to the lobby, he ran through it, almost knocking over a vase. The receptionist shot a quick “good morning, Mr. Byun.” but Baekhyun was in a rush and didn’t even glance in her direction as he flung his backpack over his shoulder, crashing through the doors and hailing the next cab that drove by.

    Chanyeol laughed as he looked down at him from the fire escape. He pretended to be asleep, just like he did every morning so he could listen to Baekhyun playing video games before work. He shook his head. He remembered when the small boy used to take everything seriously. Chanyeol was usually the one that was irresponsible and carefree.

    They might as well have swapped personalities. Everyone thought that Baekhyun would be the student that went to college and achieved his dream of being a teacher at his old elementary school, but it turned out that Chanyeol was the one who would chase a more luxurious life and attend university. He abandoned his childish dreams and decided that he wanted to be a lawyer instead, which was ironic, because when he met Baekhyun, he was always barely escaping trouble with the law.

    In fact, Baekhyun was always the one that pulled him back before a fight, threw away his drugs, prevented him from shoplifting, among other things. The most important to Chanyeol, though, is that Baekhyun always helped him with school. It was likely that he would have never graduated if his friend had not spent most of his free time helping him understand what was taught in class, helping him study, and making sure that Chanyeol even showed up to school in the first place by stopping at his house almost every morning.

    Chanyeol chuckled. He remembered how red Baekhyun’s cheeks were the first time he showed up to retrieve Chanyeol from his room, which was a maze of trash, dirty clothes, and unfinished drawings and songs. His mother opened the door for Baekhyun and let him in, showing him where his friends room was. He knocked on the wood with his delicate hands, the one that Chanyeol always loved, and was met with a groan. Two more rounds of banging on the door later, it swung open to reveal a tall, skinny boy in only his boxers.

    When he recovered from the shock of his new friend answering the door in only his underwear, he noticed the stench coming from the room. He barged in and started picking up garbage as he lectured Chanyeol, speaking too fast to be understood.

    “What am I going to do with you? You don’t go to school for a week, and you don’t even bother to call and tell me that you’re okay? And all you were doing the whole time was laying on your bed playing video games all day long, wasn’t it? You didn’t even put a little bit of effort into cleaning? This is disgusting!” Baekhyun raised his voice at Chanyeol, but the boy was only amused.

    It was funny to Chanyeol. Now he was the one that was picking up clothes and cleaning the apartment, and Baekhyun was the one that would play games on his phone as he watched him clean. Chanyeol didn’t mind, though. Baekhyun was paying the rent and the bills. The least he could do was make sure the place looked presentable.

    He actually considered himself lucky. He didn’t have to spend an arm and a leg looking for a place to stay. Baekhyun let him in as soon as he knew that Chanyeol was sleeping in the cheap car that his parents gave him when he turned sixteen.

    “I’m not letting you live like this, Chanyeol. I really don’t mind, you’re my best friend. You’re staying here and that’s final.” Baekhyun was stern with Chanyeol, making sure he drank enough water and ate three meals a day, but as time went on, Chanyeol had adopted the habit of taking care of Baekhyun. Baekhyun became the one that needed motivation, a push to make sure that he was healthy and that he got out.

    Chanyeol smiled. Since the day they had met they had taken care of each other. Almost ten years… and they still had each other. Yes, they got into fights sometimes, but as mature adults they were always able to fix the problem. Baekhyun was precious to him, and Chanyeol was precious to Baekhyun.

    With Baekhyun in a cab heading towards work, and with Chanyeol crawling back through the window to get more sleep, they had the same thought. The day that they met on the first day of school. A memory that they would never forget was the memory of how they first encountered each other.

“Welcome to your first day at school!” The cheery and loud principal had yelled into the microphone, getting no reaction from the students, who, quite frankly couldn't care less about the first day of school. That is, all of them besides Baekhyun, who hated Summer with a passion.

He didn’t understand how someone would rather mess around for two months than learn something new. Sure he didn’t enjoy math very much but he always tried his best in each and every class he was put in. Teachers adored him who always turned his work in on time and never missed a day of sch