Sunlight filtered into the room, waking Joonmyun. The dark haired boy sat up in his bed with a groan, and checked his phone. 7:00 am. It was much too early for his liking, but he promised Kyungsoo he would go to school today. Even though he couldn’t be called a good person, he still didn’t really like to break promises, which is why he rarely made any. Kyungsoo was an exception though.

Yawning, he dragged himself to the washroom and cleaned up before messily throwing on his uniform. He didn’t care that his shirt wasn’t buttoned nicely, or that his tie was crooked. At least his bangs were gelled up cleanly and out of his face. He hated it when hair got in his face. After throwing together a breakfast of toast and jam, he packed his bag and opened the front door. As he expected, Kyungsoo was standing outside with a stupid grin on his face.

“Good morning!” Kyungsoo greeted his friend cheerfully.

“Hi,” Joonmyun replied, emotionless. He locked the door behind him before heading down the street, Kyungsoo happily following behind.

“So how was your night?” Kyungsoo said, catching up with his friend. He was like a ball of sunshine, compared to his raincloud of a friend.

“Eh.” Joonmyun answered. He put one earbud in and left the other out, so at least it looked like he was paying attention to Kyungsoo, even though it was likely that he was going to zone out after a while.

The pair walked along their usual path to school, Kyungsoo talking about random things while Joonmyun replied with “oh,” or “sure,” whenever Kyungsoo asked for an opinion or some indication that the former was listening. Although Joonmyun looked indifferent or annoyed, he liked Kyungsoo’s company. He wondered why the other boy always followed him around though.

Suddenly, Kyungsoo stopped walking. Joonmyun didn’t notice his friend had stopped walking until he was a few meters ahead. He turned and raised an eyebrow, taking his earbud out. He felt a slight sense of dread, as Kyungsoo’s usual grin had disappeared and was now filled with worry.

“My parents are coming to town,” Kyungsoo said slowly. “I haven’t seen my dad for 2 years, and I’m really excited.” His expression betrayed his words, as it was anything but excited. He took something in the shape of a credit card out of his pocket and fiddled with it while staring at his feet. “My dad’s coming to Korea finally, and mom is coming back from Australia too…” He trailed off.

Joonmyun frowned. “Okay?” That probably wasn’t the best thing to say in this situation, but he didn’t know what else to say. He knew there was something wrong with Kyungsoo, but he had no idea how to approach him. He instantly felt terrible when he saw Kyungsoo’s shoulders slump dejectedly.

The smaller boy held out the card. “This is the key to my parent’s hotel room. Take it.”

“Why are you giving me this?” Joonmyun asked.

Kyungsoo took Joonmyun’s hand and placed the key in his hand and gave him a small smile. “Just take it. Trust me.”

A wave of worry washed over Joonmyun. He nodded slowly without a word and slipped the card into his wallet so he wouldn’t lose it. They continued their walk to school, but in silence. Joonmyun glanced at the other boy every so often, who seemed to be deep in thought. It wasn’t in his place to pry, but he hoped that everything would be okay.

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Chen ducked under the caution tape, showing his detective badge to the policemen who tried to stop him. The air reeked of blood and gunpowder, the red stains seeping past the white lines that marked the positions of dead bodies. He assumed the forensics team had already been there. He spotted Tao with his father a few meters away, discussing something.

“Good afternoon,” Chen greeted the head police officer with a bow, and nodded at Tao, who was also dressed in police gear. Tao looked like a younger version of his father. They both wore harsh, stiff expressions and had the same lean, muscular build. Chen had been working with them for some time now, and learned that jokes were not appreciated.

Tao’s father nodded at the detective and handed him a folder. “Here are the files of the people who were murdered, as well as a list of suspects. I trust that you will find out who the criminals are.” It was just like him to skip the formalities and get straight to the point.

Chen took the folder and smirked as he looked through the files. He recognized a few of the suspects, they were usually included whenever he had a case to crack. He had also caught a few, found their hiding locations and such, but the field work was not his expertise. He usually left that for Tao and his father.

The detective politely excused himself and headed back to his office. This wasn’t a full time job or anything, and a lot of crime was swept under the rug, especially those concerning large corporations. He felt sorry for Luhan, Yixing, and Joonmyun. They were probably being forced to stay silent about a lot of things. On the bright side, it meant less work for him.

After a long day at work, he decided to head to Minseok’s house. He stopped by a dimsum shop to pick up some of Minseok’s favourite buns before continuing on his way. Chen regretted lashing out at his friend, even though he was angry that Minseok had said those things about him. The one person he thought knew him best, would blatantly pick out the part of his life that he wanted to forget.

There was no one to answer the door when he arrived, so Chen let himself in. Of course, he found his friend lying face down on the bed, unmoving, but most definitely awake. “Yo,” Chen said, tapping on the door frame. “I brought pork buns.”

Without getting up, Minseok pointed to door. Chen raised an eyebrow in annoyance and set the food on Minseok’s desk before grabbing the boy by the wrist and pulling him up. Minseok yelped in pain and surprise, pulling his arm back. Chen felt something wet and sticky on his hand and let go in confusion. When he looked at his hand, it was stained red with fresh blood. He also just noticed the red smears on Minseok’s bed sheets.

Minseok shuffled away from Chen, and started fumbling through his drawer for bandages, even though there was no point in covering up his mistakes now that they were out in the open. Suddenly, he felt someone grab him by the shoulders and throw him against the wall. He was met with angry, worry-filled eyes that were so intense he had to look away.

“You promised you wouldn’t do it again.” Chen voice was quiet but laced with anger. “You promised,” he repeated.

Minseok had indeed promised. A few years back, after he broke his leg, the only thing that could alleviate the pain in his heart was watching himself bleed. Faint scars of self-inflicted wounds still ran up his forearms, reminding him every day of his shattered dreams. A sudden wave of anger washed over Minseok. “Yeah, I did,” he said. “So what?”

Chen pushed Minseok into the wall harder, causing the latter to flinch. “So what?” he hissed. “You broke our promise. What more reason do you need?”

Minseok turned his head away. He knew it was his fault for acting out of line. “What else am I supposed to do? I hate my life. I hate everything. My parents don’t love me, my siblings don’t care about me. I don’t have anything.” He felt tears stinging in his eyes, and he swallowed hard to fight them down. He scoffed. “Then again, how can anyone like me when I can’t even like myself?”

Suddenly, Chen’s grip loosened, his arms falling to his sides. He hung his head, shoulders slumped. This was the first time Minseok saw him so defeated. “Chen?” he asked quietly.

“I like you.”

The shorter boy was taken aback. “E-Excuse me?” He wasn’t sure he heard right.

“I like you,” Chen repeated. His gaze was intense, and full of determination. “I’m sorry for what I said that night. I know it’s hard for you, with your family and all. It just hurts me so much to hear you say that you hate yourself, and when you hurt yourself like that, I really can’t take it.” Chen sighed, looking down. His expression was suddenly sad. “You’re the only one I have, the only one I really care about. I don’t want to lose you too.”

Minseok was speechless. He never would have thought that his best friend would feel that way towards him. Sure, they had “benefits”, but that was really just for fun. He had no idea their relationship would go deeper than that. Involuntarily, he stepped forward. His arms moved on his own, and wrapped around Chen’s waist. He rested his chin on Chen’s shoulder. Minseok felt Chen return the embrace, squeezing him tightly. “I’m sorry too,” Minseok said as he felt Chen’s shoulders shake, his tears wetting his shirt. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. You’re the most important person to me.”

Right now, Minseok wasn’t sure if what he felt for Chen was anything deeper than a good friend. However, somehow he knew, over time, he would grow to like him too.

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A/N: Sorry I had to move the order of the chapters cause I messed up HAHAHA