Every so often, a rarity that had only occurred perhaps once or twice in Yunho’s lifetime, he met a person he simply connected with.

            Yunho had always been a bit introverted. He preferred spending time alone, or, if he was forced to attend parties or any kind of social gathering, with just one or two people at his side, a few close friends to alleviate the boredom of such an event. While he did have friends whose company he enjoyed on occasion, though nowadays his friend base had been pretty much reduced to nothing but Yoochun, he simply liked being alone more often than the average person did.

            But when he did meet someone like that, someone who he could just talk to without a single hesitation, where the words simply flew from his mouth as they discovered even more they had in common, more they had to talk about, the feeling was almost indescribable.

            “Are you serious? That’s my favorite movie!” Jessica said, clapping her hands together in front of her face as they walked out of their weekly meeting, a meeting through which they had spent the entire duration talking, as usual.

            “Really?” Yunho said in surprise.

            “Yes! The ending was perfect.”

            “Oh I completely agree.” Yunho chimed in. “It was bittersweet. He managed to win, but – “

            “Completely destroyed his humanity in the process?” Jessica interrupted.

            “Exactly.” Yunho responded with a smile, a smile that was returned with an even brighter one from Jessica.

            It may have been a rarity that he met someone he connected with from the very start – but that’s not to say that it was impossible.

            And, needless to say, he quite liked the feeling.

            “Yunho, is something wrong? You keep looking around.”

            Yunho felt his heart leap into his throat, chest tightening as he became aware of what exactly it was that he had been doing. He hadn’t even noticed.

            But she was right. He had been looking up and down the hallway, searching the corridors with an eagerness he wasn’t even aware that he was capable of.

            And he knew what he had been looking for.

            He was looking for the boy who was always there, the boy who seemed to never leave his mind, or his sight, for that matter.

            And what terrified him most is that he hadn’t even realized he had been doing it.

            Jaejoong had somehow wormed his way into his subconscious. Ignoring him was no longer an option. Evading him was no longer an option.

            He was always just there.

            “O-oh, nothing’s wrong.” Yunho said, scratching his head uncomfortably as he looked for an excuse, any excuse that sounded reasonable enough. But he couldn’t come up with a single one. “W-where do you live?” He blurted, eager to change the subject.

            “Pretty close to here.” She responded, luckily not picking up on Yunho’s strange behavior and even stranger tone. “On the east side of town. Next to that weird furniture store.” She said, scrunching her nose up as she described it. Yunho knew exactly the store she was talking about. The place was an eyesore, a rundown and shady building with even shadier business practices.

            “We live close by.” Yunho said, nearly kicking himself for sounding like such a fool. “We should carpool.” He suggested rather arbitrarily, more of a last ditch effort to make his random comments seem like they had a purpose.

            Jessica’s eyes lit up. “That’s a good idea!” She exclaimed. Yunho smiled. He loved how expressive her face was, how much her eyes changed with every word she uttered, whether she actually noticed it or not. And if she didn’t notice, that somehow made it even cuter. “I’ll text you my address later?”

            Yunho nodded, smiling one last time before saying their goodbyes.

            Somehow his little slip up had turned out for the better. This way, he would be able to see her gorgeous face first thing in the morning – an opportunity hundreds of guys would probably kill for.

            But he didn’t feel happy. As he sat there, gripping at the steering wheel and trying to settle the thunderous pounds of his heart in his chest, happiness was the last thing he felt.

            Because while he was in school talking to the most gorgeous girl he had probably ever met, he wasn’t even looking at her. As he spoke with the first person he had made a true connection with for the first time in years, he was looking for him. His eyes were searching for his stare, searching for the face that had become ever-present in his mind.

            And he hadn’t even been aware.

            It seemed his routine without the boy was a thing of the past. A new routine had been created. A new one had taken over. And this time, it included him.

            Brick by brick, stone by stone. His walls were crumbling like they were barely even there.

            And the more he saw this kid, the faster they would fall.

            And that simply couldn’t happen.

            He sighed loudly as he walked into his apartment and saw Yoochun drinking a beer on the couch. He was not in the mood for whatever nonsense Yoochun had in store that particular day.

            “I thought you had a job now.” He snapped, voice laced with frustration. He wasn’t actually angry with Yoochun, or, angrier with him than the usual. He just didn’t have the patience to speak to him at that moment.

            “No, I’m working later.” Yoochun said without even taking his eyes off of the television. Yunho raised an eyebrow, but decided against questioning it. Truth was, Yoochun had been working rather strange hours since he had started his job. He’d usually disappear late into the night and stumble back in sometime in the early morning. Now normally this in itself would be grounds for suspicion, but Yunho truly didn’t care enough to concern himself with the absurd hours Yoochun worked. Whatever job Yoochun had must have been strange, but, as long as he paid rent on time, Yunho didn’t mind.

            “Your friend is hilarious.” Yoochun said, slightly in a daze as he stared mindlessly at the TV screen, eyes glazed over at whatever images he was so fixated on.

            Yunho felt his heart flutter in his chest. It was a brief feeling, but it was entirely unwelcome, only serving to confirm the fear he felt deep in the pit of his stomach. “What do you mean?” Yunho asked, voice slightly shaky from nerves.

            For some reason he just knew, without a doubt in his mind, that whatever answer Yoochun had for him would be a bad one.

            “He’s in the bathroom now.” Yoochun said. He let a light laugh bubble from his throat, eyes squinting as he smiled, as if suddenly remembering something. “He’s really weird. So funny…” He said, the syllables rolling lazily from his tongue.

            “Who?” Yunho asked, voice dripping with panic. Yoochun continued to laugh, ignoring the obvious urgency in Yunho’s tone. “Yoochun.” He hissed, grabbing his shoulders and looking him directly in the eye in an attempt to try and remove any distraction from Yoochun’s most likely drug-addled brain. “What are you talking about?”

            And Yoochun could do nothing but laugh, each one grating Yunho’s ears more than the last. “Funny, so funny.” He said again.

            Yunho shook his shoulders repeatedly, urging him to just explain just what, or rather who, he was talking about. But even through his desperate pleas and shouts, he knew it was futile.

            Yoochun wouldn’t tell him a thing. He was too drunk, or high, or both to give him a legitimate answer.

            And truthfully, Yunho didn’t need one.

            Because as much as he pretended that he was clueless, that the burning feeling in his stomach has for some unwarranted and completely unrelated reason, he already knew.

            As he heard the click of the door unlocking down the hall, he knew who would emerge.

            Wherever Yunho went, he was always right behind him.

            “How did you get my address.” Yunho hissed the moment Jaejoong revealed himself in front of him. The words hung heavy in the cramped apartment, the atmosphere almost stifling as he waited for Jaejoong to speak.

            Jaejoong shut the door slowly, calmly, as if Yunho hadn’t even spoken to him at all, let alone in the harsh, commanding tone that he had mastered around the younger boy.

            He could feel his entire body stiffen, blood pounding through his veins and fear rushing through his body like a waterfall.

            Any hope of distance, any hope of keeping him away, had been completely shattered in one fell swoop.

            Because the boy he had been trying to avoid, the boy who he’d been pushing away since the moment he had met him, was actually in his house.

            Jaejoong stared at him with blank eyes, shrugging his shoulders like it was the most normal thing in the world for him to just be standing there. “From the teacher directory.” He said calmly.

            “I thought that wasn’t available to students.” Yunho said.

            “It’s not.” Jaejoong admitted. He gazed upward at Yunho’s eyes, his stare making Yunho’s fingertips pulse at his sides. “I stole it.” He stated plainly. Yunho could do nothing but blink at the boy, completely at a loss as to how to approach this situation, how to calmly address someone who had done something this bizarre with absolutely zero remorse.

            “Why?” Yunho asked, immediately regretting it after the words were already out in the open. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t need to know. It wasn’t important.

            The only thing that was important was getting him away.

            “I wanted to see you.”

            Yunho wasn’t quite sure what emotion it was that surged through his body in such a powerful rush. But whatever it was, it made his heart thunder in his chest, his blood turn to ice as it slowed and probably stopped in his veins.

            “Oh, man.” Yoochun said, peering over the couch like a child, eyes curved upward as he smiled. “This is gonna be good.”

            “Yoochun, shut the up.” Yunho snapped. He turned back around to face the dark-eyed boy before him, who hadn’t stopped staring at him for a moment. “Look, kid, you can’t be here.”

            “Why not?”

            Yunho gritted his teeth together at the innocence that hung on the boy’s every word. Did he truly not know? Did he truly think it was acceptable to just walk into someone’s house like this? 

            “You can’t just show up wherever you want. You can’t just do whatever you want.” Yunho stomped over to the door, opening it up and gesturing toward the hallway. “Get out.” He demanded.

            Yunho had always tried to remain impersonal with the boy. He very rarely called him by name, and if he did, it was always due to a slip of the tongue, or a brief lapse in attention. He demanded that the boy call him Mr. Jung, something standard for all teachers, of course, but something he knew he really would only enforce this strictly when it came to the boy. He kept conversation to a minimum, which was usually quite easy, since the boy preferred silent staring to any form of communication.

            But having him here, in probably the most personal place he could imagine, destroyed the plan of indifference that he had wanted to maintain at all times.

            Jaejoong looked at him, eyes narrowing slightly and arms folding stubbornly across his chest as they always did.

            “No.”

            Yoochun made a strange noise from his position on the couch, something that sounded a bit like a cross between a strangled laugh and a gasp. He watched on intently with a grin plastered to his face, a look of enjoyment that Yunho wanted to remove anyway he knew how.

            “What do you mean ‘no’?” Yunho hissed. “This isn’t a negotiation. This isn’t up to you. Get. Out.”

            The silence that settled between the two of them didn’t really feel like a silence at all. With the screaming voice in the back of his head and the nearly audible tension between the two of them, if Yunho didn’t know any better, he would have thought that the room was in chaos.

            “I don’t want to.” Jaejoong finally said, eyes glaring at Yunho’s own.

            “What did I tell you?” Yoochun giggled, throwing himself backward on the couch. “This kid’s hilarious.”

            “This isn’t funny, Yoochun. Shut the hell up for once.” Yunho snapped. It was a bit harsh, but Yunho knew Yoochun wouldn’t remember it after he came down from whatever kind of high he was on.

            “I’m not leaving.” Jaejoong said sternly.

            “Let him stay! I like him! I want to talk to him!” Yoochun yelled, rolling and tossing himself around on the couch.

            Yunho let his eyes travel from a hysterical Yoochun to a defiant Jaejoong, jumping back and forth as his anger grew by the second and settled deep inside his bones, so deep he was sure nothing would calm him down at this point.

            He knew he was making a horrible decision. He knew that after giving him this kind of invitation, he would never get rid of him. Insisting that the kid leave him alone had made him cling to him this much, and he knew it would only make matters worse if he allowed it.

            He knew all of these things. They were obvious.

            But he didn’t really know why he said what he said next.

            He slammed the door shut, yelling over his shoulder as he stormed into the kitchen. “Sit there with Yoochun, and don’t talk to me.”

            It’s funny how Jaejoong, the most stubborn and needlessly defiant person he had ever met, did exactly what he was told as long as it meant being able to remain close to Yunho. His eyes softened and he immediately took a seat on the couch next to a laughing Yoochun.

            Yunho’s stomach burned with that now all too familiar feeling, the pain coursing through his entire body as he attempted to prepare dinner with shaky fingers.

            He could barely focus. He could barely think.

            The boy was in his house.

            The boy he wanted nothing to do with, the boy he had just decided to avoid at all costs, was standing just feet away from him, the farthest away he could get in his cramped apartment.

            He could hear the occasional laugh from Yoochun who was no doubt finding humor in something not even remotely funny. And, if he strained his ears, something he found himself inadvertently doing, he could hear the faint whispers of Jaejoong’s gentle voice.

            It surprised him that Jaejoong was speaking so much to Yoochun. Jaejoong very rarely even spoke to Yunho himself.

            And there was something about that that Yunho just hated.

            He wasn’t sure why, and even if he dwelled on it, something he did not want to spend a single second doing, he probably wouldn’t be able to figure out.

            “Dinner’s ready.” He called, voice flat and understandably angry. Yoochun poked his head into the kitchen.

            “Yunho. I just got a call from work. I have to go.”

            Yunho’s hands tightened into fists at his sides. He had meant it when he said that he didn’t care about the bizarre hours that Yoochun worked. As long as he brought money for rent, he didn’t mind.

            He never realized that they would actually matter for once.

            “Yoochun, no. You cannot leave me alone with him.”

            Yoochun laughed, clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation he was leaving Yunho in. “Oh come on.” He said, his voice entirely too playful for Yunho’s current bitter mood. “He’s hilarious.”

            “Do not leave, Yoochun.” Yunho said, pointing a harsh finger in his direction. “I mean this. Don’t you dare.”

            “Sorry, Yunho!” He said with a giggle. “Have fun! See you later!” Yoochun whirled out of the kitchen and left Yunho standing there alone. Normally, Yunho would be concerned about Yoochun going out in public in his less than coherent state. But at the moment, the only thing he could think about was the harm he was going to inflict on the man the moment he came home.

            “!” He hissed, throwing a serving spoon against the wall in frustration.

            He was alone.

            In his apartment.

            With the boy he had sworn to ignore.

            The boy who was now apparently following him everywhere.

            The boy that made his stomach burn with a feeling he couldn’t make sense of, whose beauty was unparalleled with anyone he’d ever seen.

            “Yunho?” He heard a gentle voice call through the crack of the door. The boy revealed himself slowly, until he was standing in the middle of Yunho’s kitchen. “Are you okay? I heard a noise.”

            “I-I told you not to talk to me.” Yunho snapped.

            He couldn’t hear his voice now. His gentle voice that burned him more than that feeling in the pit of his stomach, that rang in his head louder than the voice in the back of his mind that screamed at him to push the boy right out of his house and never speak to him again.

            “I’m sorry.” Jaejoong said, eyes soft and low.

            Don’t apologize.

            Don’t look at me like that.

            “Are you hungry? I made food.” Yunho said, eager to just remove that look in Jaejoong’s eyes. It made another feeling spread itself along his skin – a feeling of pity.

            Jaejoong nodded silently.

            “Sit.” Yunho demanded.

            He watched Jaejoong carefully at the table, eyes lighting up as he took a bite. “It’s…good.” He said. His voice sounded surprised, yet no less gentle than it always was. “I didn’t think someone like you could cook.”

            Yunho scoffed, but said nothing more on the matter.

            He wanted to keep conversation to a minimum.

            Perhaps he could still cling to his indifference, if just a little while longer.

            “What else can you do?” Jaejoong asked.

            Yunho glared at the boy, completely baffled by his words. “What the hell kind of question is that?”

            Jaejoong played with his bowl and placed his spoon between his full lips. He looked a bit dazed, but his cheeks were tinged pink, not from embarrassment, but from joy.

            He looked like he was lost in his own bliss.

            “I want to learn more about you.” He said, a slight smile tugging at his lips.

            Yunho felt his heart pounding against his ribs, so powerfully he thought they would just snap down the center.

            This kid wouldn’t just remove whatever sense of normalcy he had created for himself.

            He would destroy it.

            “Why?” Yunho asked. Yunho wasn’t used to someone being this interested in him. He was used to general apathy in regards to his presence. No one particularly cared what he did or what he said. He just wasn’t important.

            Having someone this invested in him just confused him.

            And for the life of him, he just couldn’t figure out why.

            “Why?” The boy said, eyes darting toward the ceiling as he thought. “I just do.” He admitted. Yunho frowned. The only thing he wanted from the boy was an answer for his fascination.

            But it seemed his stubbornness wouldn’t allow him even that.

            “Can I sleep over?”

            “No.”

            “Please?”

            After more than a month at this, Yunho was pretty sure he had it figured out.

            No matter what he said, no matter what he did, Jaejoong wouldn’t budge. Arguing was useless. Protesting was even more so.

            Jaejoong wasn’t just included in this new routine.

            He dictated it.

            “You sleep on the couch.” He hissed. “Got it?”

            Jaejoong nodded, black hair shifting in front of his face as he did. “Thank you…” He whispered.

            Once in a blue moon, Yunho met someone he could just talk to. Words flew like wind from his mouth, similarities discovered like treasures buried in the earth. The connection is obvious, the sparks overwhelming.

            But meeting someone like that worked both ways.

            As rare as it was to meet someone he just connected with, it was just as rare to meet someone that no matter what, he thought he’d never get along with. The kind of person that for whatever reason, awkwardness, or, in this case, a kind of hatred, made that person impossible to talk to.

            Jaejoong was one of those people.

            And whatever connection they had, some kind of one-sided fascination that perhaps neither could explain, wouldn’t end there. That much was obvious.

            It wouldn’t end until the walls that were already breaking were gone, until Jaejoong infiltrated his defenses – or whatever was left at them.

            Brick by brick.

            Stone by stone.

            Piece by piece until nothing but dust remained.   

--------------------------

A/N- Hiiii alllll

Sorry if this chap is bad or weird but SHINee's comeback is doing strange things to my brain.... I tried T T

Ummm I don't have a lot to say this A/N

I guess Yunho and Jae are having a slumber party, huh? How cute! 

BYE!

-Gelisi