"Good morning, Mom. I was in the class when you called earlier."

Jungsoo put the coffee he bought from the canteen on the nearby surface where he was sitting right now. His head throbbed badly when he woke up this morning thanks to Donghae being whiny resulting in the three of them unable to sleep until late at night. He needed caffeine to slap him with a surge of consciousness.

"No problem, Son. I'm at the company right now. There's something I need to discuss with the board."

"Is everything fine, Mother?"

"Yes. Don't worry. I just want to ask whether it is okay if I sleepover tonight. I probably arrive there before dinner."

. 

The Grim Reaper was coming to him. He thought he could stall some time to arrange a good speech with plausible reasoning about what happened to his husband. But, his mother was a step ahead of him.

"Oh, and please tell Heechul. No need to prepare anything. I'll buy food."

Jungsoo swallowed a hard lump on his throat, eyes dropping to the ground as a pang of heartache struck him on the mention of his name. He chewed his lower lip, trying to sound compose so that his mother could not sense his uneasiness. It was grueling.

"Sure, Mom. I... I'll tell h-him. I'm hanging up. Gotta catch my next class. Bye, Mother."

He hurriedly threw his phone in his pocket and grabbed his coffee. His mind was a mess in an instant because he knew he was counting down to have his mother surprised, angry, or even brokenhearted. And it was the last thing he wanted to. He speeded his steps to reach the lecturers' office and just when he was about to open the door, someone halted his way.

His eyes widened.

"P-prof. Park?"

He wanted to run away.

"Good morning, Prof. Park."

Jungsoo cast a tight smile and uttered, "Good morning, Mr. Lee."

Sungmin bowed although there was a slight frown on his forehead for he caught Jungsoo looked awful—deep eyebags, chapped lips, frankly not like how this tidy professor used to dress. It suddenly came to him that Heechul was leaving yesterday. He chose not to send his beloved Hyung off because he knew he would certainly have a meltdown if he had gone. And the proof? Someone obviously did right before his eyes.

"What's your business here?"

The professor's question snapped him out of his daydream. Sungmin gained his poise and politely explained, "I'm handing in some documents for the registration of new students."

Jungsoo smiled, unintentionally recalling Heechul did ever tell him about how proud he was that Sungmin managed to go to campus. The smile Heechul had on that day was so healing.

"Is everything okay? Do you need my help? I have ten minutes before my next class."

Sungmin shook his head as he smiled, "I'm fine, Prof. Park. Thank you for the kind offer. No wonder Chullie-hyung—"

Sungmin paused midsentence when he accidentally led the conversation to someone he was unsure the professor wanted to talk about. Reality checked, Jungsoo did not look amused. The older beamed at him awkwardly and rushed to enter the office, obviously avoiding the topic. However, he had something to say to the heartbroken man—something that perhaps could heal a bit of his heartache.

But right now, perhaps it was not the right time.

»»————-　♡　————-««

His sunken eyes swept over the pile of messy sheets on the table with a bunch of empty coffee can. He chugged another can of the dark liquid as he scribbled something on his notebook. The pounding in his head as he had almost zero sleep last night finally took its toll. It pained him but at least by keeping himself busy, he could dodge the urge to entertain his anguish.

"Hyung, can I come in?"

Yesung pushed the door open after receiving a faint affirmation from inside. His gaze immediately landed on his friend whose head was pressed against the table like he needed help to raise it. He approached the unspirited man, carefully avoiding the stuff littering on the floor. He pulled a chair and sat next to his friend yet the latter did not even budge.

"Kyunghoon is checking the studio for our practice. I've got some lunch for you. You need to eat—"

"I've finished my song."

Yesung frowned, "Really?"

Without even lifting his head, Heechul shoved his notebook to his friend. Yesung lingered his gaze to Heechul, wondering what had gotten into his friend for behaving so worrisome like this. He hesitantly took the book and read what was inside. The chords—he'd ever seen it—and the completed lyrics. He dragged his gaze upward to the title and read aloud, "Narcissus?"

The older gave no answer so he knew he needed to look for the answer in the song lyrics. Lyrics-reading never made him nervous. But somehow, he was right now.

Each day passes

But I can’t forget you although our love is over

I’ll think of you tomorrow as well

I can’t erase you but I have to let you go

It was so painful; the devastation, hopelessness, sorrow, everything—Yesung could feel what this song wanted to deliver.

As I held the crying you, I was thinking

Hiding my selfish face

With endlessly sad eyes, goodbye once again

Wait. He slowly grasped where this song led him. He glanced at Heechul and the fact that the latter only stared blankly added his suspicions.

I didn’t expect the times we loved

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