“Yunnie…You promised me… you would never cry alone…” whispered Jaejoong.

Without even thinking, Yunho pulled his shoulder away from Jaejoong’s touch. With a look of pure heartbreak and confusion, Jaejoong simply just stared at his beloved brother in shock. Pulling his shaking outstretched hand from Yunho’s direction and laying it gently on his heart, Jaejoong lowered his eyes and sighed deeply. Yunho’s tears slowly began to subside after a few moments and he let out a hoarse sigh as he looked out over Seoul’s beautiful skyline.

“You promised me that you would never leave Me.” scoffed Yunho “And yet, here we are.”

“I’ve always known that there were many things left unsaid and undone between us, but even so…” said Yunho as he trailed off for a moment.

“You were the one person in this world that I trusted the most and the person I wanted to see, every moment of every day. To me, you weren’t just a brother, a friend, or a band mate. You were my other half. The one I loved above all others, even myself.” confessed Yunho.

“I believed that we would be together all of our lives. My dream was that we would get married to beautifully kind women, have children, and live side by side for the rest of our days; happily and without fear or regret.  Always together, till the very end. But…,” continued Yunho “I guess the fates had other plans for us.”

“Yunnie…” cried Jaejoong softly.

Reaching out once more, Jaejoong laid his delicate shaking hand on Yunho’s shoulder and hoped that he would not pull away again. As Jaejoong’s handed landed softly, Yunho turned his eyes to his dearest friend and flashed a soft smile. At the sight of that ever recognizable smile, Jaejoong, unable to contain the longing that had been welling up inside him for over four years, suddenly and forcefully wrapped his arms around Yunho and hugged him as if his very existence depended on it.

Yunho, shocked by Jaejoong’s sudden behavior, was thrown back for a moment. Sitting there with his arms dangling by his sides, he closed his eyes and took in the moment that he had dreamed of for so long. They were together again. As Jaejoong’s loving arms continued to hold him tightly, all those precious memories of their lives together began to rush back to him, he became a washed with a sense of serenity, and quickly became lost in the embrace.

“I… I’ve missed you…” cried Jaejoong “My… Yunnie.”

As Jaejoong’s heartbroken cry pierced Yunho’s heart like an arrow from heaven, he could no longer hold back his heart wrenching desire to hold his beloved bother. He reached out his strong arms and wrapped them around Jaejoong’s waist, pulled him in close, and hugged him tightly as endless tears flowed down his face once more.

“I’ve missed you too Jae.” cried Yunho as he buried his head in Jaejoong’s neck and sobbed quietly.

Holding each other once again, after four years of pain, anger, fear, loneliness, and utter heartbreak, the two friends became lost in the moment.  The day they had been hoping and praying for, had finally come, and for the first time in a long time, they were happy again. They were together again. Unmindful of their current situation or surroundings, Yunho and Jaejoong held each other tightly, fearing that if they let go, they would somehow disappear from this world or they would wake up from an ever-familiar dream. A washed with a feeling of serenity, they let their guard down for the moment, and relished their mutual happiness. Never once thinking of anyone but one another they both thought, at that moment, that they wouldn’t care if the whole world burned down around them. They were together again.

Unbeknownst to them, a very real danger was making its way to the rooftop.

As Yunho let out a contented sigh, he was suddenly pulled out of his dream-like state by the sound of the rooftop door slowly creaking open and the sound of very familiar voices. Yunho’s head shot up from Jaejoong’s shoulder at the recognition of the sound. Without blinking an eye, Yunho bolted to his feet, grabbed Jaejoong by the hand and dragged him quickly across the gravel-covered rooftop towards the large industrial-sized air-conditioning unit near the back corner of the roof. Darting behind the mammoth machine, Yunho pulled Jaejoong down on his knees forcibly. Quickly covering Jaejoong’s mouth with his hand, Yunho shook his head no and stared at him with a panicked look as the heard the rooftop door swing fully open and crash against the wall with a loud bang.

Yunho slowly peaked around the corner and saw two of the Chairman’s henchmen, his body guards, frantically scanning the rooftop.

“Where the hell could they have gone?” questioned one of the guards “We have to find them!”

“I don’t know!” answered the second guard “It’s bad enough that the brat got away. If we don’t find the little troll, the Chairman will have our heads on a silver platter before the night is out.”

As the guard turned to glance in the direction of their hiding spot, Yunho quickly snapped his head back from their line of sight. Turning to look at Jaejoong, Yunho flashed a petrified look, reached down for Jaejoong’s hand, and squeezed it. Raising his other hand to his own lips to sign to Jaejoong to be quiet, Yunho slowly turned to peak again at the guards.

As the anxiousness began to swell inside them both, Yunho noticed that Jaejoong’s hand, along with his whole body, had started to quake with fear at the realization that they could be caught. He squeezed Jaejoong’s delicate hand tightly, trying to reassure him that everything would be alright, as he intently watched the two guards search the rooftop.

The guards began to work their way closer to the two friends hiding spot causing Yunho’s fear to grow exponentially.  “We can’t get caught.” thought Yunho as he continued to stare at the two men. “If we do…” cried Yunho in his mind “The Chairman will kill Jae for sure.”  The thoughts of what the Chairman would do to Jaejoong, if they got caught, flashed across Yunho’s mind and tore at his heart. Quickly shaking away those horrifying thoughts, he frantically began scanning the rooftop for some sort of escape route but found none. They were trapped.

The closer the two guards got the higher Yunho sense of urgency to flee grew.  He knew that there was no way out of it. He knew they were going to get caught. What could he do? He knew that he had to protect Jaejoong at all costs! Anger began to replace the overwhelming fear in his heart as he thought again about his beloved brother being in danger. Anger then turned to courage, as he decided in the blink of an eye to go on the offensive. “I can rush them. If I get the jump on them, we can get out here.” thought Yunho as he pulled himself up from the ground into a squatting position and let go of Jaejoong’s hand. “I can do this! I have to, to protect Jae!” exclaimed Yunho in his head.

At the moment Yunho was going to pounce, he felt Jaejoong quickly grab his arm and pull him to stop. Looking back at him, he saw that Jaejoong was softly shaking his head no. Raising his hand towards Yunho, Jaejoong signed to him to stop and then raised his hand to his ear as if to say, listen. The sound that he was hinting at finally reached Yunho’s ears as he heard the faint sound of a cellphone ringing.

“Hello?” said one guard “Yes Chairman?”

Yunho glanced around the corner again to see that the guard had stopped a mere ten feet from where he and Jaejoong were hiding.

“Yes Sir… No Sir… Sorry Sir…Very well Sir.” said the guard in a submissive voice.

“The Chairman has ordered us to go the troll’s house, and wait for him and the little brat to return.” said the guard as he hung up the phone.

With that, the two men quickly turned and headed for the door. As they heard the rooftop door slam shut, Yunho and Jaejoong sighed in relief. Still apprehensive that is was some kind of ploy to lure them out of hiding, Yunho slowly stood up and peaked over the top of the air-conditioning unit searching for any lingering signs of the two men.  Realizing that the coast was clear, he stood up and smiled.

“It looks like the coast is clear.” exhaled Yunho “We’re safe for now.”

“Safe?” questioned Jaejoong as he stood up “None of us are safe.”

“No matter where we go or what we do, the Chairman will always find us.” moaned Jaejoong despairingly.

“Don’t worry!” answered Yunho “I will always protect you, all of you, till my very last breathe!”

As Yunho uttered those words, he slowly turned to looked at Jaejoong when, without warning, he suddenly felt the sting of his best friends fist hitting him in the face. Yunho hit the ground hard and smacked his head on the gravel-covered floor. The impact was so hard, as if the force that put him there had been summoned up by the wrath of some god, that Yunho cut a big gash on his forehead. Dazed and bleeding, Yunho shook his head trying to regain his senses, and slowly pushed his shaking upper body up from the floor. Looking at Jaejoong with absolute disbelief at what he had just experienced, he felt the pain from his head throb violently. The pain, so severe, combine with his shock cause him to begin to cry uncontrollably. 

“Why....WHY?” begged Yunho in a frightened and confused tone as he looked at his most beloved friend.

“LIAR!”