Sunggyu trudged to his destination with heavy steps. He couldn’t shake off the heavy feeling within him. He was wondering if his decision was right.

‘Would finding the old man really help?’ He began to question himself.

Then, he finally arrived at the location, the central of the town; the place where Myungsoo punched the teacher. Sunggyu wondered if he would find clues here.

“Sorry,” Sunggyu approached an old lady. “Have you seen the old cobbler who used to work around here?”

The old lady pondered for a while before replying, “You mean the one who plays the guitar from time to time?”

Sunggyu’s face lit up. He remembered that Sungyeol had mentioned how the old man was unemployed and would time to time go around performing, hoping to earn some money.

“Yes! Do you know where is he now?” Sunggyu asked excitedly. The whole morning he had spent looking for the old man and finally, somebody knew about him.

“Oh. I don’t really know that old chap but I heard he moves from towns to towns. He doesn’t live around here so maybe he had left Yeonsu City already,” The old lady kindly told Sunggyu what she knew.

Sunggyu’s face fell again. So that was it? The old man might have left? Then, Sunggyu no longer had any clues.

The old lady noticed Sunggyu’s disappointed expression and continued, “Well, nobody really knows about him because he doesn’t live around this area. It would be quite hard to look for him. But if you’re really insistent, I suggest you go to Jungang road. He tends to go that part of the city more often.”

“Really?” Sunggyu’s eyes widened.

“I don’t really know about him so I can’t say for sure. But if it’s really important, I think you can check out that area. There’ll be more clues there,” The old lady smiled at Sunggyu.

“Thank you auntie, thank you so much,” Sunggyu thanked the old lady profusely.

Sunggyu watched the old lady continued on her way. He smiled. Surely, if there is a will, there will be a way. The old lady had shown him that.

Now, with renewed confidence, he went on his way to Jungang road. After a few steps, Sunggyu stopped.

He mentally chided himself.

‘Where the hell was this Jungang road?’ He didn’t know the way around the countryside at all.

Sunggyu sighed before taking out his phone and dialing a number.

~

“One more Vodka,” Sungyeol told the bartender, swinging his glass over his head.

Myungsoo, who was sitting beside him, sighed.

“Why are you trying to get yourself drunk? I should be the angry one,” Myungsoo chided his friend.

Sungyeol put his head down on the bar. He was feeling a little giddy from the alcohol.

“You think Woohyun’s mad?” Sungyeol asked his friend.

Myungsoo shrugged and took the Vodka the bartender made from his friend. Then, he downed it before replying, “I don’t know what’s going on in Woohyun’s mind but, of course, he’s mad.”

“You didn’t see the look on his face just now when the rotten teacher told him?” Myungsoo questioned his friend.

“Ahhh” Sungyeol ruffled his hair. He was feeling so frustrated now.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have told him?” Sungyeol thought out loud.

Myungsoo snorted. “If you had had your brain with you, you would have known never to trust anybody, especially teachers. What’s the use of saying it now?” Myungsoo told his friend coldly.

“If you are seriously repentant, don’t talk about it anymore. It’ll be bad if Woohyun came back from the toilet and heard this,” Myungsoo offered his advice.

“Ahhh! Why did Woohyun and Hoya go to the toilet together anyway? Are they gay or….?!” Sungyeol shouted loudly.

“Mffff” Myungsoo immediately covered Sungyeol’s mouth. “You crazy little choding! If Woohyun heard you, you are so super dead!” Myungsoo scolded his friend loudly.

“This is why I shouldn’t have given you alcohol!” Myungsoo chided himself.

“MMmmmm” Sungyeol struggled to break free of Myungsoo’s grasp.

“Why did you tell the rotten teacher anyway?” curiosity overcame Myungsoo and he asked.

He released Sungyeol and the choding gasped for breath.

He considered Myungsoo’s question for a while.

“I’m tired of all this I guess…” Sungyeol muttered softly.

“Huh?” Myungsoo wasn’t sure if he heard correctly.

“I’m tired of not being able to trust anybody. I’m tired of being accused of all the time. I’m tired of being like this,” Sungyeol confessed, his tone serious and sincere.

Myungsoo was startled momentarily. He hadn’t expected his friend to suddenly become so serious.

 “What can we do? We’re stuck in this cycle of not trusting and not being trusted. There’s no escape,” Myungsoo sat down beside his friend and added on.

“I’m fine with it, because at the very least, I trust in you and Woohyun. But what about Woohyun?” Sungyeol asked.

Myungsoo looked at his friend and blinked. He didn’t know that his friend had this serious side of him. Still, Myungsoo understood what Sungyeol meant.

“I feel like I’m always relying on Woohyun. Woohyun is always like that, being trusted and depended on. He always has to look out for us, making sure that we don’t get into trouble and don’t get cheated. Yet, he can’t really trust in anybody. Isn’t that actually really really hard?” Sungyeol blabbered on.

Myungsoo chuckled. His friend was talking nonsense, but somewhere in there, he understood what his friend was trying to say.

“I just want Woohyun to be able to trust someone. Someone who can be beside Woohyun at all times, allowing him to whine and complain. I want someone to be there for Woohyun like how he had always been there for us,” Sungyeol smiled.

Myungsoo turned to his friend and asked, “So you think that the rotten teacher is the one?” He snorted in disbelief.

“I don’t know, Myung. But in that teacher, I can feel something too; the same kind of something that I can feel from Woohyun, but in a different way,” Sungyeol looked his friend deeply in the eyes and said.

“You’re drunk,” Myungsoo simply turned away. He didn’t want to pursue this topic any longer.

“But I wonder how he is now. Yesterday, he came back in drenched clothing and today, he seemed a little pale and weak. I wonder if he’s fine.” Sungyeol took a sip from his newly ordered Vodka.

“Stop drinking. You’re so drunk that you don’t even know who you are talking about,” Myungsoo took the Vodka from his friend and drank it again.

“You disgusting thief! Get one yourself!” Sungyeol tried to snatch the glass from Myungsoo and the two engaged in a heated quarrel.

At the side of the bar, a person leaned on the wall, having an unreadable expression.

A hand was placed on the shoulder of the person.

“If you were going to eavesdrop, don’t block the road at least,” Another figure joked.

“They really think a lot about you, Hyunnie. You’re being loved,” The figure told the person.

Woohyun didn’t even change his expression.

“If you were going to regret it, then don’t be so mean in the first place!” The figure patted Woohyun on the shoulder.

Then, a text message reached the cell phone of the figure. He read the message and smiled.

“I got news on him,” The figure told his best friend.

Woohyun jolted up, trying hard not to seem so alarmed.

Then, Woohyun’s text notification rang as well.

“I’ve sent it to you. Whether you want to look at it or now, is your choice,” The figure patted his best friend’s shoulder one more time before leaving the bar.

Woohyun took out his phone from his pocket and stared at the home page: A message

Without reading it, Woohyun put his phone back into his pocket and walked to his two friends who were still in their childish quarrel about the Vodka.

~

“Hmmm…. According to Dongwoo, if I walk straight, I would be able to reach Jungang… Oh! There it is!” Sunggyu ran up to the sign that wrote Jungang Road, and pointed left.

Surprisingly for Sunggyu, Jungang Road was rather far out, on the east of Yeonsu City. Sunggyu hadn’t expected Yeonsu City to be that big.

After walking a long distance in the hot sun of the mid-afternoon, Sunggyu was worn out and a little dizzy. Still, he couldn’t stop now.

He continued on and saw many small shops situated along the road. He also saw some buskers who were performing. As the place was near a popular tourist destination, many tourists would walk along this road. Here would indeed be a profitable place.

This time, Sunggyu was sure he had arrived at the right place.

He went up to an old man playing a guitar by the road, and dropped in some coins. Then, he asked the old man, “Sorry, but do you know a busker who used to work as a cobbler at Yeonsu City?”

The old man scratched his head and shook them.

Sunggyu added in more coins into the old man’s box and continued, “The one that always wear a white singlet with dark blue plants?”

The old man thought for a while and replied, “All of the buskers look like that.”

Sunggyu frowned and continued thinking of ways to describe the old busker. However, it was hard to know anything about a random busker and his information was also limited.

“I think he has a huge mole around his cheek here,” Sunggyu offered his last description.

“You mean Old Jeon?” The old man finally seemed to understand.

“Yes! I do believe so! Do you know him?” Sunggyu let out an elated and relieved expression.

“Do I know him? All of us know him!” Another old uncle who was beside Sunggyu and the old man overheard the two’s conversation and shouted.

Sunggyu let out a confused expression.

“I think that guy struck the lottery one month ago!” The old uncle related the incident to Sunggyu.

“Huh?” Sunggyu was a little lost.

“He just said that he earned enough money and went back to his old town in Nori,” The old man told Sunggyu.

 “Nori?” Sunggyu

“It’s quite far from here. Though, you can take a shuttle bus from Jungang Road. It’s all the way in the countryside on the South side of Yeonsu City. If you hurry and catch the shuttle bus leaving in an hour, you might be able to reach Nori at night,” The old man patiently told Sunggyu.

“OH okay, thank you so much! I’ll be on my way now. Really, thank you so much,” Sunggyu bowed 90 degrees to the two old men.

Then, he ran over to Jungang Road. If he missed the bus, it would take another 2 hours.

~

“hyun… Woohyun…” Myungsoo continued calling Woohyun who was in a daze.

This was weird. Woohyun was never so out of the sorts like this before.

“Nam Woohyun!” Myungsoo shouted loudly and Woohyun was jolted back into reality.

“Huh?” Woohyun immediately asked.

“What’s wrong with you? You’re never like this,” Myungsoo told his friend.

“Is it because Sungyeol is too heavy? I can carry him instead,” Myungsoo suggested to carry the drunk choding.

“No, it’s fine. I was just thinking about some stuff,” Woohyun adjusted Sungyeol who was sleeping soundly on his back and carried on walking.

Myungsoo gave Woohyun a worried look.

“Looks like it’s going to rain, huh?” Myungsoo looked up at the grey, overcast skies and commented.

Woohyun’s eyes immediately went up. Indeed, he could hear the rumblings of thunder and smell the scent of rain.

Something tugged onto Woohyun’s heart but he shrugged it off.

The two stood outside of Sungyeol’s house and waited patiently. The door opened and revealed Sungyeol’s worried mother. Myungsoo and Woohyun immediately greeted her. She went over to the three immediately.

“Aigoo, why did this dummy drink so much?” She scolded Sungyeol, who was deep in sleep.

“Auntie, we would be going then,” Myungsoo told Sungyeol’s mother politely.

Just when the two was about to leave, Sungyeol’s mother stopped them. “Oh, what should I do? I have a late night shift today and can’t take care of this dummy,” She told Myungsoo and Woohyun.

“Don’t worry Auntie, we’ll…” Woohyun opened his mouth but was interrupted by Myungsoo.

“Auntie, I’ll stay over and look after Sungyeol!” Myungsoo declared.

Sungyeol’s mother’s face lit up and she smiled warmly. “Thank you so much! Here, come in then,” She showed them in.

“Myungsoo?!” Woohyun looked at his friend with a puzzled expression.

“Don’t worry. I’ll look after Sungyeol. You go back and rest. You don’t look well today anyway,” Myungsoo ordered and shut the door in Woohyun’s face.

Woohyun stayed at the front door of Sungyeol’s house for a while before he turned away. He looked at the dark skies once again. Unable to shrug off the worry, Woohyun dashed back home. On his way, he checked his mobile phone for the unread message.

~

Torrents of rain poured down heavily on the cemented roads. Streaks of lightning flashed and cut across the skies. Rumblings of thunder accompanied the strong prevailing winds. It was a terrible storm.

Sunggyu dashed forward in this heavy rainstorm.

‘Ahh! So unlucky! Caught in the rain two days in a row!’ Sunggyu thought to himself.

However, he had no choice. The shuttle bus he was on to Nori town suddenly broke down. The bus driver had advised him to go to the nearest bus stop and wait for the next bus. However, on his way, the rain suddenly came down heavily and mercilessly.

“Ahhh!” Sunggyu finally reached the shelter of the bus stop.

He was soaking wet and freezing. He was feeling so weak and tired. Yesterday, he couldn’t get a good sleep and today, he was out walking the whole day. He felt so feeble and without energy. To add on, the headaches he was getting the whole day was making him feel so terrible now.

He watched the landslide of rain which didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Suddenly, he felt his vision blurring up and his forehead burning up. Along the road, he saw a bright light approaching him.

‘Was that the bus?’ He thought and stood up from the bench at the bus stop.

The moment he stood up, he felt his blood from his brain draining and his energy dissipating.

Then, he fell to the cold, hard ground.

It wasn’t before long when he felt himself being picked up by warm strong arms.

Author's note: erm, wow the preparing of the touching scene took longer than i thought so ppl looking for woogyu, it'll b next chap! I'll update it today again! erm, then tmr, i'll update another two more? hehhehe mass updating cause i'll b away the day after tmr till like three days later. >< so no updates during the period. n it's also bc of everyone's comments n subscription!! i feel so motivated now!! hahahas im really glad that u all liked this fic! please continue commenting n liking it! i'll see u guys again later when i update chap 11! look forward to it. 

P.S. yes, ppl the last part is really hu u guys think it is ^^