People sometimes leave this world but always leave something behind. Little things you don’t even notice: faces on photos, luggage, rings…Nothing can be forgotten forever, and what you can remember, you can return it back as well.

Every morning Yoochun was looking in the mirror and felt that there, in the reflection, was someone else. Someone - who was the complete opposite of him. Someone he definitely knew, but forgot somehow. But whenever Yoochun blinked, this feeling was immediately disappearing and he continued living his black and white life.

It was literally black and white – the whole world was just like this, black or white. Yoochun had black hair, black eyes, gray skin. The apartment had white walls and black furniture. Even the sky in their world was either black at night or white – at a day. And it was completely familiar, though Yoochun was always feeling uncomfortable and only black and white keys of piano seemed somewhat real. For some reason he was afraid to touch it for past three years, even though he wasn’t sure if he ever played on it. Furthermore weird things happened sometimes. For example, there were often coming empty messages on his phone; from no one and from nowhere. Only once, in one of these messages suddenly appeared a letter “Y”, but after this incident the messages have disappeared altogether.

Yoochun shook his head and started to get ready for work. On his ordinary, even boring work in typography where there were endless, slightly rough white sheets and black letters, folding in lines, pages and later in books.

Opening a closet, he couldn’t decide what to wear, even though there wasn’t that much of a choice. There was a line of sneakers – black sneakers. Closet was full of shirts, t-shirts, polo-shirts – they were all white. Jackets, sweaters and pullovers – black; jeans-black. All in  all there are no big options.

Examining himself in the mirror hanging in a hallway, a thought crossed Yoochun’s mind: maybe change a profession? Try to find something he really enjoyed. Sell cell-phones perhaps, compose music - he even had a piano- or begin to travel the world.  

All of a sudden, bright flash blinded Yoochun. It was something dazzling, but definitely not white and definitely not black or even grey. It disappeared quickly and in Yoochun’s mind appeared a bright smile and with no doubt – a familiar one. Wrist watch vibrated and pulled the guy out of thought, reminding that he was late for work.

***

All day long Yoochun was feeling a strange longing and melancholy. He tried to revive memories of the morning incident, but as soon as he began to think about it his head was aching unbearably. So he chose to focus on work instead and continued to monitor the printing of new books.

After his shift Yoochun wearily strode back home, thinking how to spend another boring evening in complete loneliness. Once he was home, he was greeted by a whining Harang asking for a walk. Not closing the door Yoochun let the dog out, who immediately run out the apartment with a loud bark. Yoochun grabbed the collar from shelve, because Harang never listened to him.

Entire evening Yoochun spent in the playground, drinking colorless beer and looking at the pitch black sky with stars looking like scattered white grain. They weren’t twinkling or shining, they just were there.

By the time guy emptied the bottle, his fingers already became really cold. He called his dog, which of course did not bother to listen. After catching the rebellious dog and adjusting a collar Yoochun went back home. In fact, he wasn’t that eager to get in his apartment. There hardly existed a place where he would rather be in this stupid black and white world.

Light breeze blew and the leaves on the trees rustled, but Yoochun thought he heard not just rustle:

-“Yoochunaaah”- as if someone whispered in his ear – “I will come for you”- But second later he was pretty sure that it was just his imagination. Phone ringed in his pocket: an empty message, again.

-“I’m really going crazy; I need some sleep. Harang stop tugging me!”

When he was finally at home Yoochun threw shoes at the entrance - though, usually he would carefully place them beside the other ones-, threw jacket on a small chair in the hallway. He removed jeans, sweater and shirt and threw them into a corner of bedroom and then lazily shuffled to the bathroom. Strange feeling engulfed him. It appeared to him as though the air wasn’t enough for him, as if it was partially out the apartment. Yoochun could feel a slight breeze but he wasn’t going to check the windows; he was already breathing with difficulty.

Squeezing a little toothpaste on the brush Yoochun started to brush his teeth. Suddenly, a bright flash of light blinded him for the second time this day and Yoochun fell to the floor, shutting his eyes and mumbling with mouth full of toothpaste:

-“Whaf ish thish? I canf shee anyshing,”- right at that moment he heard a strange sound similar to the one when someone torn a fabric near him and the light behind his closed eyelids felt very bright.

-“Yoochun? are you alright?” – sounded voice very close to him.

Yoochun jerked his body but he was too afraid to open his eyes.

-“Who’s there? What’s going on? God, am I blind?”- he stammered worriedly and spat toothpaste on the ground where he was sprawled awkwardly, clad only in briefs.

-“Damn it, I was told there’s a little chance that you’ll remember me. Ugh, what a weird world! How could you manage to live here for three years? Oh, you’re meeting me in underwear, missed me much? If I knew I would have come earlier”- high pitched male voice was saying following with laugh. Yoochun was sure no one talked with a voice like this in his world; here everyone talked with considerably low and dull tone. Yet, he was having a feeling that he knew this strange laughter all his life.

-“Three years? No, I’ve lived here all my life” – said confused Yoochun still not opening his eyes and trying to stand up, but bright light was still there.

-“Bull. Only three years; try to remember your childhood or school time. First date? You probably remember only granny Park, right? By the way, how’s she?” – Someone’s hands gently wrapped around him and helped him to stand – “Open your eyes, don’t be afraid; or else we’ll be stuck here half an hour and we have very little time.”

Yoochun timidly opened his eyes and jumped back from a guy standing beside him. He was different. Completely different.

-“Don’t scare, it’s called color. There’s everything like this in our world; here, look” – and this weird guy pointed at a mirror, or to be exact to the place where it was. Now there was a big gaping hole looking like picture cutted with blade and reminding window. There you could see a field, forest not far from it, city looming on the horizon and a sun rising above it, whereas in Yoochun’s world was still night. And it was all different. Not black, not white and not grey. Completely different. 

-“Yoochun we must hurry. I have been opening passage all day long to check if you returned home. Our world is much stronger than this and hence the air disappears from here. They will notice! Come on, we need to go back. Oh My God! Look at my hair! It was bright red, now it’s pale-think, though it’s good either way. But, damn it, I’m losing colors in this ing world, uuhhm!” – grumbled the guy, helping Yoochun back to his feet -“Come on, uhhm”- and not waiting for the reaction from stunned Yoochun the ‘bright stranger’ nudged him to passage and then pushed him, making him roll down the grass which was kind of….not gray.

-“Hey! It’s not fair, maybe I don’t want to be here” – angrily shouted Yoochun – “Junsu! You are such an !!” – he continued to swear, obviously not noticing particular details.

-“Moron! Two breathes of a normal air and you already remember my name?!!!!! However, as far as I know, you won’t remember everything.” – Junsu kneeled in front of a hole and began to ‘sew up’ the hole between two worlds with a dagger.

-“Wait! There’s Harang!” – Yoochun jumped on his feet, but instantly fell on his knees; he was a little bit dizzy from the abundance of the oxygen.

-“God, he hasn’t run away from you?” – Leaning in the hole Junsu whistled and called loudly – “Harang, boy, come here!”

-“What a fool. That fractious dog won’t come running this easy.” – Yoochun knew his dog. Still , surprisingly enough, dog jumped over the gap and sniffed the grass curiously.

-“Good boy” – Junsu patted the dog on the head – “He had never listened to you” – stated Junsu, finishing closing the passage – “Oh, Xiahki certainly will be very happy.”

-“Xiahki” – quietly repeated Yoochun and in his mind appeared the image of a beautiful, white and fluffy dog.

When the hole was closed Junsu returned dagger back in its sheath and put it in a backpack. He sat next to Yoochun and looked at him worriedly:

-“Are you all right?”

-“ My mind is a mess, I don’t understand what is happening. And why do I want to hug you so much? It feels like I’ve known you for five minutes, yet at the same time all my life. “

-“You know me all your life. Well, at least most part of it. Long story cut short, we met at school and were friends till graduation. Then I went to study in college in another state, but returned very soon, when realized that I couldn’t be without you. I confessed my feelings to you. You, like complete idiot, suggested to runaway and I couldn’t refuse you, of course. We’ve dated for a few years and were totally happy until you, , decided to visit your granny at a wrong timing. You idiot! I’m still angry at you!!!”

-“ We were together?! ” – Yoochun exclaimed, slightly crawling away from a guy sitting nearby.

-“Ok, go on, yell again: ‘Ugh, ! OMG, mommy’ and then you will have to apologize for the stupid jokes I already know in advance” – Junsu rolled his eyes and sighed – “You don’t like something? Yes, I’m gay. And you were the one, three years ago.”

Yoochun frowned – he wasn’t joking. At first he tried to remember something, but his head was blank. And then listening to his own feelings, he realized that, basically, he doesn’t feel any disgust. He still wants to hug Junsu, even pinch a little bit and run his fingers up his hair.

-“Everything’s  okay. So why….Oh, look my hand is no longer gray; uh, I don’t know what it’s called. Color? You said so right? I don’t know it.”

-“Yeah-yeah, it’s all right. You’ll breathe some air, then we’ll eat and you’ll absorb it all. I’ll teach you colors. God, Yoochun, I’m so glad I got you from there!” – Junsu could no longer restrain himself. He reached Yoochun for a kiss, not considering how will react the other guy. Gently touching his lips, Junsu smiled – he waited so long for this. Carefully grazing and caressing Yoochun’s skin, Junsu pulled him closer, afraid to scare the guy away. Yoochun forgot all his doubts and gladly responded to the kiss. He then abruptly dropped Junsu on the grass, hovering over him.

-“Muscle memory, Su”- smirked Yoochun.

-“Oh, so now you even remember my nickname?!” – Junsu stared at still ‘another’ Yoochun, who was quickly turning into ‘his own’, as though breathing in old habits along with air.

***

-”How all this happened?” – Yoochun interested while sitting down and holding Junsu by the waist, pulling him closer – “Have you lost your weight? I think you used to be more…pinchable.”

-“You try to run around for three years.”- Junsu complained and then started to tell the story – “So, how all this happened? Well , listen. There lived seven billion people on the earth, but number of population was constantly growing and then years later, it has increased up to fifteen. This threatened a global catastrophe for humanity, because there was less and less space for living, despite new resources and other developments. The leaders of different countries gathered together and began to think that something should be done about this. Fortunately, it appeared that scientist have been researching regarding this problem and revealed the existence of a parallel world and the possibility to travel from one world to another. It’s almost same, only it’s blank – in terms of people. There is grass, forests, seas, oceans, animals, but no people. It’s like an extra pocket. So that, there, in parallel world, in your world – cities familiar to ours were built and in order to avoid problems with misunderstandings they were called conversely. For example, in our world, there is the city New York and in yours…”

-“York New” – interrupted Yoochun.

-“Yeah, that’s right. And so people peacefully occupied the two world continuing living on the same planet but on the different surfaces. Naturally, one government couldn’t govern the two countries at the same time. Therefore, in a parallel world was created their own government. People freely moved from one world to another, called each other, wrote letters and visited each others. But at some point the relationship between the governments of two worlds worsened. War was brewing and from our side it was decided to immediately close all the portals” – narrated Junsu and observed Yoochun as he was recovering his colors. When Junsu dragged Yoochun out of that world he was only in his briefs and now shivers run down his skin. But Yoochun seemed oblivious to it, absorbing the world around him, and for Junsu half- Yoochun was pure joy.

-“How I ended up in that world and why is it black and white while yours is colorful, if, like you said, they are similar? , it’s getting cold” – Yoochun shivered and pulled Junsu closer getting warmth from his body.

-“It turned out that this parallel world was like a draft and without ours it loses its colors. When the parallel world was discovered, there were made many passages and portals and color poured there through them and painted everything. After the interaction has been ceased, the color gradually disappeared. Without the air and products from our world, the black and white people’s memory of their past life was erased. Scientists still haven’t figured out why. The travel from one world to another is prohibited and strictly monitored. It’s like a border. 

Granny Park was transported to a parallel world while we stayed here. On the eve of a fateful decision to close the borders, you went to see her and get her to move in with us. And then the portals were closed. And you was stuck there” – Junsu covered his face; his voice broke a little and his body was shaking from memories – “When I realized what had happened, I thought that I would go crazy. I will remember that Sunday for too long. Though, as you can see, I didn’t give up. Three years I was searching the ways to get you out of there…”

With each word Yoochun hugged Junsu gentler. Living in black and white world he had no idea, that there was someone, who is willing to go through non-existent wall, break all laws and go ahead to his goal till the very end. Two and a half years ago died Yoochun’s granny. But he was glad that he spent last six months of her life near the old woman, even though remaining two and a half year he lived with the feeling of absolute desperation. Black-and-white world dulled his desire to fight and erased all memories, but one look at Junsu was returning everything. He was recovering not only memories, but also desires, feelings and dormant talent.

-“…I tried to send you messages from our world, but apparently they’ve never reached you. I even tried to reach to you by mirrors; god, I still can’t believe I agreed to do this, but they told me that through them I can find the person I needed. Then I found another way. I have studied the history of parallel worlds and learned the name of a researcher, who started it all. As it turned out, it was so long ago that now lives the fifth generation of his descendants. I was afraid that they would be in your world, but fortunately, no. When I found a great-grandson, it was a young man, who had no idea what he possessed and what a strong artifact is this dagger. He refused to sell it or just give it to me. So I simply borrowed it for a while…”

-“Su, my right Su, stole the dagger?!” – Yoochun couldn’t help but joke at the guy in his embrace.

-“Oh, shut up, will ya?!! I won’t remind you that you kidnapped me from my home, so just shut up”- replied Junsu.

-“I hadn’t kidnapped. You agreed to run away with me!!” – retorted Yoochun.

-“Look, your memories are returning. Remembered colors?” – Asked Junsu and Yoochun shook his head in answer.

-“So, I took the dagger, did everything like the old books are saying. But you, damn it, weren’t home all the time. Thank goodness you still lived in your grandma’s house, or I would have had to stay in your world and I could forgot everything if it was for too long. I would have forgotten not only my bright home, but you too. And my search would have lost its meaning. But I would have done it anyway. Once I located your grandma’s house, I compared it to our world. I was waiting you whole day. You returned to dawn and I took you out of there and we breathe the same air again. I think your color has recovered enough; it’s time to dress you up and feed you. I don’t think someone will notice that you’re slightly gray. Good, that I brought spare clothes.” 

Yoochun looked at himself; his skin was almost the same color Junsu had, but slightly darker.

-“What is the name of the color of skin?” – asked Yoochun

-“Honestly, I have no idea” – Junsu smiled and pulled the jeans, shirt, sneakers and cap out of bag.

-“Oh, my favorite cap, ‘New Your Yankees’; they’re still playing?”

-“Of course” – Junsu answered watching his colorful Yoochun.

-“So now you have the pale-pink colored hair?” – Questions were thrown at Junsu – “Is pale-pink a color? Roses are of pale-pink too? What color is the sky? A grass? Oh and meat?! I want colorful meat! I hope it’s not of the same color as the grass or it’ll be really weird.”

-“ Gosh, I haven't thought that black and white world would made you so talkative!” – Junsu exclaimed, rising to his feet and running down the hill towards the road, where there was parked a car. He whistled at Harang, who was playing nearby, beckoning to himself.

-“Hey! Wait for me, duckbutt!” – Yoochun ran after Junsu.

-“Damn, I was hoping you won’t remember at least this!!!” – Junsu shouted, laughing loudly. He was thinking that now everything will be fine. They are together and anything else is no longer important.

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T/N: it was a little while since I've translated last and accomodating anew to the translating process was really tiring, plus my laptop is broken now and I had to use my little laptop and write down the translation in notebook which is really uncomfortable...I usually type translated text in word document and never write in notebook and now when i had to do it, i realized just how much times it takes, but I'm glad I've posted this one shot....When I read it I knew that I had to translate it...I really like Junsu's character and when I was translating and then typing the parts, where he retelled Yoochun their story I really cried; Junsu surely have gone through a lot of hardships and I'm glad he never gave up! Comments are very much appreciated ^.^v I hope you'll like this one-shot as much I do...