It was a Tuesday morning and Suzy kept on glancing at Sungjong, with a smile on her face.

   “What?” her friend began. “What do you want now?”

   She crouched, and rested her chin on his desk. “Have you any plans on the twentieth?”

   Sungjong paused for a moment to think, and he shook his head no.

   “Then that’s great!” Suzy sat up straight clapped her hands together. “Can you come with us, then? We’ll be going somewhere.”

   “And where is this place, exactly?”

   A playful grin graced her lips. “You’ll see. I’ll just text you.”

   Sungjong smirked. From the very beginning, he was right: no day was ever dull with Suzy around.

<:>

   “This will be your first Christmas without your family around, huh?” Woohyun asked Sunggyu. The former’s flat was already renovated, and he moved out of Sunggyu’s place. Nevertheless, on solitary winter nights, he would welcome himself back and stay for hours.

   Sunggyu lazily shifted the channels with the remote, only to stop upon seeing a familiar variety show.

   “You’re my family,” he pointed out.

   The younger one smirked. “You’re so greasy.”

   “And you’re saying you aren’t?” the other pointed out.

   “I’m sorry,” Woohyun raised his hands in surrender. “I was thinking of bringing you and Jieun to my place to celebrate. It’s somewhere near Brighton.”

   “Will it be okay?” Sunggyu asked.

   “You’re my family,” he echoed, grinning.

   “Rascal,” the older one remarked.

   “Bet you like it,” Woohyun purred, and this earned him a hard punch on the shoulder. Soon, the show was long forgotten, and the sound that filled the place was their laughter which resonated their longing for their own country.

<:>

   Daehyun was jumping up and down while Myungsoo rang the doorbell of the Bae household. Ever since Suzy’s birthday, going to their house became a good change of pace for the brothers. Whenever they were there, Myungsoo would forget about his problems and sadness. That included the shaky relationship between his father and his new wife, along with his yearning for his own mother.

   The door was opened by Suzy, and she beamed at the two. “Come on in,” she said. “It’s really cold.”

   Myungsoo helped in removing Daehyun’s coat. In a blink of an eye the boy was already embracing Suzy. “I missed you, Sunshine noona!”

   “I missed you, too,” she replied with a warm chortle. She glanced at Myungsoo, who was smiling quietly to himself. “My mom prepared some hot chocolate in the kitchen. Let’s go there first.”

   Suzy took the coats Myungsoo was holding and proceeded to hang it on the hook glued on one of their walls.

   Daehyun took a look around, and asked, “Where’s Sang Moon hyung?”

   “He’s buying something with my dad,” Suzy answered. “They’ll return shortly.”

   “Myungsoo-yah, Daehyun-ah, we have some warm drinks over here!” Mrs. Bae cried with that musical voice of hers.

   “Yes!” the three chorused, and they walked into the kitchen, where she was waiting.

   “Myungsoo, do you have any place to go over the holidays?”

   He paused, wondering if he should lie or not. Finally, he opted for the latter. “I’m not really sure, Auntie. If Daehyun stays with me, then I could bring him out somewhere nice. But if he isn’t, then I’ll just stay at home.”

   “Then will you celebrate with us?” Mrs. Bae inquired with a warm smile. “It would be nice to have the both of you here.”

   Before he could even realize it, big, salty tears began to emerge from his eyes. Myungsoo had to place the cup he was holding down on the table, and in a gentle pace, Daehyun turned around only to stand on his chair to his older brother’s hair. Suzy held herself back. She bit her lower lip to stop herself from crying with him. Mrs. Bae, on the other hand, approached the crying Myungsoo to give him a tight embrace—the kind of embrace that people would be sure of that they were there, and that they could be seen.

   “I-I’m s-s-sorry,” he stuttered. “It’s just…I c-can’t help it…”

   “Shh,” Mrs. Bae consoled. “You’ve been having a difficult time, haven’t you, Myungsoo-yah? It’s okay now. You can cry it all out.”

   And so he did. In the quiet kitchen which smelled of warm chocolate and love, the young man sobbed his heart out. Mrs. Bae’s shoulder grew damp, but she didn’t seem to care. Wiping the tears away from her eyes, Suzy reached out for Myungsoo, and she held him by the hand. She gripped him firmly, and it was strong enough to let him know that she was there.

   With Daehyun his hair, Mrs. Bae hugging him and Suzy holding his hand, the warmth was too much for Myungsoo his heart finally caved in. It cracked open in such a beautiful way that the new love he felt started to overflow inside of him.

   And he wondered what took him so long. But it didn’t matter anymore. Because he was home.

<:>

   Mr. Bae and Sang Moon arrived home much later. The Bae siblings began to play with Daehyun in the living room while the couple stayed with Myungsoo in the kitchen.

   “Are you free on the twentieth, Myungsoo?” Mr. Bae asked.

   “Yes,” he politely answered.

   The older one smiled. “Then will it be okay for you to be with us on that day?”

   “May I ask what the occasion is?”

   “Of course,” he said, smiling. “We’re participating in a charity being held by Sunggyu’s orphanage. This year, several organizations—with the help of the government—were able to raise enough money to house a good number of homeless people. It would be good if the ones you were helping in the subway station got involved. The winter today is really bitter.”

   Myungsoo’s head began to spin. He thought about Ai, his grandfather and the others in the subway station. He knew that he couldn’t continue on supporting them with the resources he had. Once again, he was thankful for the Bae family.

   “Uncle,” he began. “How can I help?”

<:>

   The London sky was dark and dreary by the time Sunggyu stepped out of the company building. Woohyun was sick at that time, and so he had to commute alone, considering that he couldn’t drive his junior’s car. Out of habit, he would look to his side whenever he reached the pavement. A bus stop was there, and it was usually empty.

   Usually.

   Sunggyu froze upon seeing Jieun, being surrounded by three foreign men. It felt like history was repeating itself all over again. He remembered how, during his freshman year in university, he pulled out a girl from that kind of situation by pretending to be her boyfriend.

   Was that where it all began, Sunggyu wondered. Sunye?

   Without giving it a second thought he ran towards them, and casually placed his arm on her shoulders. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” he said, while staring at the men icily. “Let’s go.”

   He smelled the faint scent of liquor coming from them. Slowly, they walked away from the danger. When they were finally out of sight, he let go of her and Jieun breathed out a sigh of relief.

   “Thank you for helping me, Sunggyu.”

   “You shouldn’t even be out alone at this time,” he said. “Especially when you’re a woman and a foreigner.”

   “There’s no helping it,” was all she gave as a reply.

   Sunggyu scoffed.

   “You were pretty casual about it, though,” Jieun remarked. She looked at him. “As if it wasn’t your first time.”

   “Because it wasn’t,” he truthfully replied. “I did it before.”

   “With whom?”

   “My girlfriend.”

   Jieun nodded away. “I bet she misses you.”

   “I think I miss her more than she misses me.”

   “Why?”

   Sunggyu shoved his hands into his coat’s pockets. “We’re in a long-distance relationship, after all.”

   The two took a turn, and he said again, “If you ride the tube, will you still reach your destination?”

   “Yes.”

   “Let’s ride together, then.”

   Jieun smiled a little. “My boyfriend and I are in a long-distance relationship, too. But it’s something that neither plane nor car can ever recover.”

   Sunggyu stayed quiet.

   “I may be wrong, but I feel like we’re in the same boat. The people we’re talking about now…are corpses, aren’t they?”

   He looked up at the sky, and he wondered if Sunye was staring back at him.

<:>

   “You’re the best, hyung,” Woohyun croaked, upon seeing the tray carrying a bowl of hot porridge and water on the surface of his drawer.

   “What are brothers for?” he replied. “Now, sit up.”

   Sunggyu helped him up, and with a grunt the younger one was able to lean against the headboard. “I hate being sick,” he remarked.

   “So get well soon,” he replied. He took the bowl, scooped a spoonful of porridge and let it cool down before feeding it to Woohyun.

   “How’s Jieun?” he finally asked.

   “You seem to look for her frequently.”

   “Well…”

   “You like her?” Sunggyu straightforwardly inquired.

   With this the younger one let out a hearty cough, and the other could only chuckle. “She was in a cinch earlier, but I helped her out.”

   “What kind of cinch?”

   “So, get well soon,” he simply repeated. “So you could protect her.”

   “You have a way of avoiding the questions being thrown at you,” Woohyun commented.

   “It’s vital for our profession,” Sunggyu said.

   “That’s a nice way of describing equivocation.”

   Sunggyu smirked, and didn’t reply anymore.

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."
- James 1:27