Time had a funny way of operating. It has a tendency to feel like too short a duration when things are going great. While when things are dreadful, it tends to drag on forever. This was exactly the problem in Kibum’s case. He thought that the pain of rejection and the humiliation will heal in time. The longing should have faded by now.

Kibum wasn’t so lucky. Time wasn’t on his side and Minho never left his mind. Why this obsession over an army man, Kibum asked himself countless times a day. And the more he thought of it, the more he realized that there was no single reason that he liked the other. It was many things (his heart-warming smiles, his selfless nature, his childish competitiveness, the list is endless) combined together to form this one feeling that could not be expressed in simple words. ‘Love’ came very close to the definition, though.

Kibum missed Minho so much that he felt like a piece of him was being ripped away for every moment he didn’t see the other. He wondered if Minho hated him now, if he ever regretted doing what he did at the beach the other day, if he even thought of Kibum. Kibum was at a point now, that he wouldn’t mind going back to the squabbling pair they used to be just so that he could see the other.

Life went on no matter what and with his grandmother to take care of, Kibum couldn’t let himself drown in his own misery and slack off. She had been coughing more and more lately and when Kibum asked if she was taking all her medications, she said that she was. Then, she proceeded to convince him not to worry. How could he not worry? She is the only family he had, after all. To make all matters worse, Kibum hasn’t seen Jonghyun for almost two weeks when before, Jonghyun used to shadow Kibum around everywhere.

Was it just Kibum or was everyone suddenly choosing to give Kibum a terrible time?

~~~~~

“Here, Kibum-goon. That is the full payment for all the rice sacks,” the white-haired merchant said, passing a small stack of notes to Kibum. He then smiled kindly before walking away to his bullock cart where all of the rice sacks Kibum had packed for selling were arranged. Kibum watched the old man disappear out of sight in the cart pulled by cows.

Kibum counted and recounted the money in his hands. It was only a fraction of what he usually made, thanks to the military (oh right, military is a taboo topic now because of a certain someone.) It should be enough to get a new set of his grandmother’s prescribed medicines, though. He noticed that the medicine she took for her weak heart was already running out. No matter how poor they are and how much they are struggling without money, Kibum always made sure that his grandmother had regular check-ups at the clinic in town. When he found out just last year that her heart was losing strength and she would need certain medications to keep it beating normally, Kibum had immediately rearranged the priority of his monthly expenses to give importance to that particular medication.

He looked solemnly at the cash in his hands, thinking of how he had worked to get it. Thinking of who helped him get it (why does everything end up being related to that wide-eyed army man!) The money from selling the dried seafood had gained enough to run the household. It was really funny how Kibum managed to take care of everything important with the little amount that he earned. Kibum laughed humorlessly to himself.

“Have you finally lost it, Kibum?” came that voice Kibum hadn’t heard for over two weeks. Kibum prepared a very terrifying scowl before looking up at the other. But what he saw made his scowl very ineffective.

A man Kibum has never seen before in his life stood beside Jonghyun. He was quite handsome with child-like features, but Kibum could tell he was much older than himself by the mature look in his eyes. He seemed quite fit and yet, he was a little too slim to be described as muscular. All in all, this guy looked like someone that is hard to decipher with his contradicting features.

“Kibum, meet Jinki-hyung. Hyung, this is Kibum,” Jonghyun introduced informally, beaming like he had just been to the moon and back.

Kibum blinked dumbly for a few seconds before realizing who this Jinki person was. This was Jonghyun’s ‘hyung’, the one that he talked about endlessly. The one that never failed to make his best friend smile like a fool. Even now, Jonghyun was wearing a stupid grin. Jinki, on the other hand, smiled meekly at Kibum as he bowed slightly to greet him. Kibum bowed a full right angle in respect.

“Kibum-shii, it’s really nice to meet you finally. Jonghyun never fails to mention you in letters. I have heard a lot about you,” he said, somewhat indifferently but still very politely. Kibum doesn’t know why, but he felt very unsettled around this man. Like he could not trust the man. He knows it’s not fair to judge by someone’s appearance but he couldn’t help it.

“Nice to meet you too. Jonghyun hyung talks about you constantly to me as well,” Kibum replied truthfully. Jinki let out a small chortle and reached out to ruffle Jonghyun’s hair a little. Jonghyun visibly blushed, much to Kibum’s shock, and looked down shyly.

“Always the talkative one, isn’t he? Sometimes to a point that it gets a little irritating…” Jinki joked. Kibum agreed whole-heartedly to this although it was meant as a joke.

“Hyung…,” Jonghyun whined and Kibum almost faked gagging on instinct. But then he remembered that Jinki was standing there and held himself back to avoid making a fool out of himself.

“Where have you been all this while, hyung?! You never came to visit me at all over the past two weeks,” Kibum said, attracting Jonghyun’s full attention to him with his angry tone. Jonghyun fidgeted on his feet guiltily but surprisingly it was Jinki that answered Kibum’s question.

“I’m sorry, Kibum-shii. I’m afraid I am to blame for this. I have been keeping him busy for the past couple of weeks. Needed to get reacquainted with the place here and Jonghyun became my willing tour guide,”

“Yeah, hyung has finally left the army. He’s gonna be here for a while. A loooong while, I hope,” Jonghyun said, eyeing Jinki. Why was he acting so immature today?

“Why did you leave the army?” Kibum asked curiously.

“Just small matters. The Japanese are cruel and the British is doing nothing about it. So I left…” was his inadequate answer to Kibum’s question. Kibum doesn’t know why but he just couldn’t bring himself to fully trust this man. He just seemed to be hiding something and Kibum had a natural instinct in detecting these kinds of things.

“Speaking of which, Kibum I need to speak in private with you,” Jonghyun said seriously. The 180 degree change in Jonghyun’s tone came as a shock to Kibum.

Kibum let Jonghyun drag him to the back of the house. By then, Kibum was dying of curiousity to know what the other had to say.

“Okay, Kibum. This is very important. You should be able to guess how important this is if I am being forced to keep it a secret from Jinki hyung…” Jonghyun began.

“Yeah, yeah! Go on…” Kibum said impatiently.

“The Japanese General visited my father a week ago. He asked my father to sign a treaty to hand over the village to them peacefully. The man even threatened to wage war if my father didn’t comply. All of this happened in secrecy with only a few villagers knowing this matter,” Jonghyun told him. Kibum was appalled by this news. It was the British in the past and now it’s the Japanese who have come to disrupt the peace in the village. Why couldn’t Kibum be left out of the loop about information on things like this? But then again, it was he that was dying to know in the first place.

“What happened then?” Kibum asked.

“Of course, my father refused to adamantly. But there’s a new problem now. The Japanese now suspect that we have made an alliance with the British, which he have actually, to be so courageous about going against them. The fate of our village now depends solely on the British army’s plans because if the Japanese were to find out of our alliance, then I’m sure things would only turn out even worse for us. It’s already bad enough that my father has pissed off the Japanese General….”

Kibum stayed quiet with only one thing running on his mind. As reluctant as he was to admit this, but Jonghyun was right about them being dependent on the British army. What he wanted to know is what they had planned to save this village. He addressed this out loud to Jonghyun.

“They have a plan, it seems. According to Minho’s explanation, everything seems to already be in pl-“

“Wait! Who?”

“Huh? Minho?”

“Wait, what is he- when did he-“ Kibum couldn’t find the right words, his brain still caught up on the sudden mention of the name.

“Minho came to my house last…. Wednesday, I think. You didn’t know? He would have had to pass this place to get to town from the forest. I thought he must have already come to see you…” Jonghyun sounded just as confused as Kibum was.

Did he hate Kibum enough to actually avoid him? What did he ever do wrong to the other besides falling stupidly head over heels for him? Kibum felt all the frustration he had kept bottled up over the past weeks boil over.

“Are you okay, Kibum?” Jonghyun asked, looking concerned. It must be Kibum’s red face that was worrying the older.

“I’m fine. Go on with whatever you were saying,” Kibum said, gritting his teeth.

“O-okay… Well, he said that the army has already set its plan at work. We should be able to protect ourselves against any attacks. If there are no attacks, then the British army is planning to strike first because they already have teams placed in most villages just like ours…”

“Why are you telling me all this, hyung? I didn’t need to know all this,” Not about the army and what its people were doing. Especially, not that specific one.

“The reason I’m telling you all of this is to remind you to be careful. You are the only other person who knows about the whereabouts of the British army besides us. Don’t come to my house and if possible, stay out of town too. It’s for your own safety…” Jonghyun finished, looking solemn.

Kibum knew that helping the army was going to end badly for him one day. Well, what do you know? He was right.

“Okay… At least, you had the thought of keeping me safe. Unlike some other people who obviously have more access to informations like this and yet, decided to leave me out of the loop on purpose,” Kibum said, adding silently to himself, “He probably wanted me to get hurt.”

“Did something happen between you two again? Why are you guys always bickering like a married couple?” Jonghyun asked, looking truly baffled.

That comparison was the last straw for Kibum. He never wanted to speak of Minho again. He won’t even think about the other anymore. It’s a promise that he was making to himself for own his own sanity’s sake. Why bother about someone who doesn’t have the courtesy to do the same for you?

While Kibum was busy making this internal decision, Jonghyun was already getting ready to leave with his hyung. With a heavy heart to send off the only company he has had in two weeks, Kibum waved the older two goodbye.

CRASH!!

All of a sudden, a loud sound of things clattering on the floor inside Kibum’s house filled the silent fields. Kibum froze for a second, his mind going blank. Then, reality caught up to him. He began running towards his house, fearing the worst.

His fears were proven right.

Laying unconscious on the kitchen floor, surrounded by scattered pots and pans, was his grandmother.

(A/N) Hi guys!! It's been sooooo long and I have missed AFF and my subscribers and writing and reading!!!!!!!! I MISSED AFF A LOOOOT!!! It's sad that I barely have time to keep up with my shining boys... :( But, of course I still make time for my boys and of course you guys (Jongtae scandal, anyone? hehehe... ;D )

So after days of typing a little by little, I have come up with this chapter!! I honestly don't know what to say about it except that it's to build the plot more than anything else. And Jinki making a suspicious entry into the story.... 

So comment away people!! Thank you so much to those who congratulated me!! Welcome new subsribers and welcome back my dear old subscribers!!! I shall be updating again this weekend....

Thank you for reading and being so patient guys!!!! <3

@lostmytrinhofthought~ I'm glad you liked it and that you felt exactly like how I wanted my readers to feel!!! :D Thank you for commenting!!

@jess_mmam~ 'My BumBum' is very cute indeed... Hahahaha.... I was actually worried about what people thought of how their relationship is progressing so I'm glad you gave me a feedback on that...Thank you so much for commenting!!!

@hardkoreluv~ Awww.... Thank you for saying that!!! And no, you don't sound like stalker :) I'm going to Germany... (I've just begun learning the language and boy is it hard!!!) Thank you for commenting...

@keybummie_~ My dear faithful commentor, I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter! I truly am! Thank you for commenting (as always...)!!!

@triana~ Welcome my new subscriber! Me too!! I love historical stories but for some odd reason I hate the history subject I learned at school.... I'm weird, I know... Hehehe... Thank you for commenting and please keep reading!!

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