Joy was a sound, he thought. No. He knew Joy was a sound and he knew exactly what it sounded like. It sounded like his laugh. Not the soft, happy-for-the-camera chuckle, but his honest to God, bent at the waist, laugh. 

God, how he missed his laugh. 

He hadn't been completely devoid of this Joy thing while Han Geng was out. No, there were watered-down versions of it everywhere. But they were only a lacking mockery of what it really was. Of course, just as every sound has a physical source, Joy had an image that worked just as well. 

Yup--his smile. 

As lopsided and goofy as it was at times, it melted him from the inside out until he felt like crying, only to end up laughing so hard he really did cry. Remembering it now brought back that melting feeling, still. Only once melted, the temperature would rise again until his heart was on fire, the hot tears like boiling salt water on his cold, listless face. 

But as much as it burnt him up inside, it still meant everything to know he still smiled. Be it for the camera, the fans, a new special someone, or even himself, as long as he smiled, the burns were surely managable. So he made Geng promise. He made him promise to keep smiling. 

Keeping a sharp eye out for anything, literally anything at all, from the grinning memory that was Han Geng, he was, in the mildest terms, surprised to find he'd been in America and had performed a dance tribute. His chest suddenly became too small and his heart pounded against the tight cage his ribs had made as his lungs failed at taking in a full breath. With ridiculously shaking hands, he clicked play on the video and watch the dancer smile with his entire body as he moved across the stage. 

The camera zoomed in onto his face, and despite the relatively poor quality, a genuine grin was evident. Insides melting again behind a locked door, he cried until he laughed (at himself). He picked up his phone and used a number he'd only stared at before as it would sit in the Call Now? box. His fingers slipped across the keypad, buttons wet from tears. 

He must have pressed Send at least three times too many with his stuttering thumb, the alert ER: Message Already Delivered flashing on his screen. Geng's reply came the fastest it ever had, and Heechul dropped his phone in the scramble to open the device as quickly as prying fingers would allow. 

'Love you, too :)' 

It was a gentle heat this time, spreading from his gradually relaxing chest to the rest of him, settling in his cheeks as his phone notified him of an incoming call.

_______

uh...ta-da~? :D 

These little stories weren't anything special, but there after Geng left SJ I wrote half-angsty Hanchul like it was my job.