A pitiful sigh and a head landing on his shoulder pulled Sungmins attention away from the tv, he glanced down at the figure next to him, which so happened to be his best friend Ryeowook. He smiled lightly and gave the smaller man a comforting squeeze before returning his attention back to his programme.

A few minutes later he felt his friend shuffling about and in seconds his head was in his lap, a dramatic sigh escaping the younger mans’ lips. A little alarmed Sungmin went to push the younger male off, but peering down at his face he could see tears in his eyes as he stared blankly at the tv. Sungmin instantly changed his mind, Wookie really wasn’t himself since Yesung enlisted in the army, becoming more and more depressed as time went on. Removing his gaze he instead focussed on his boyfriend across the room. Kyuhyun was watching them carefully, almost warning them, Sungmin stiffened under the glare, what could he do? He couldn’t exactly push Ryeowook off, he was down enough as it was, but he didn’t want to upset and anger his own boyfriend either.

Sighing, Sungmin moved a little, pulling Ryeowook up as he did so. “Wanna go for a walk?” he asked gently, sensing Ryeowook might feel better after opening up and talking about it, and hoping Kyuhyun would feel better knowing he no longer had Ryeowook in his lap. A timid nod came as a reply. Sungmin smiled comfortingly as he pulled them both to their feet, escorting them towards the door to put on their jackets. As Ryeowook bent down to tie his laces, Sungmin quickly gestured to Kyuhyun that they were going to get some fresh air, Kyuhyun just rolled his eyes and focused back on the tv.

“You ready?” Ryeowook small voice pulled Sungmin back, he nodded in reply as they both left the room.

They walked along to the park area and sat down on a small wooden bench under the trees. The light spring breeze was refreshing in the evening light and Sungmin relaxed a little as he felt it wash over him. He pulled Ryeowook closer to him, letting the younger man place his head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for some time, both a little unsure of what to say. Ryeowook fiddling with a small string bracelet around his thin wrist soon grabbed Sungmins attention. The bracelet was obviously carefully handcrafted and from the way Ryeowook seemed so attached it could have only been made by one person…

“Yesung?”

Ryewook looked shocked for a few seconds, before he followed Sungmins stare to his wrist where his fiddling quickly stopped. He chuckled a little to himself at his own actions. “I didn’t even know I was doing that!”

Sungmin smiled sweetly in reply, he never really thought of Yesung as the romantic kind; foolish, idiotic, downright strange were definitely more suitable attributes, romantic, not so much. But this, well this was definitely sweet.

“There’s 24 beads” Ryeowook continued shyly as he began to twist the colourful beads around. “One for each month he is away...” He raised his arm up a little in the sunset sky, twisting it around so he could view the full garment “there’s a lot of them…”.

 Sungmin reached up and gently started to untie the knotted string, holding Ryeowooks arm firm when the younger man began to protest. A look of horror began to spread across the youngers face as Sungmin started to slip some beads off.

“Hey! Stop it Min! W-What are you doing?”

“Just give me two seconds”

“Give it back!”

“Trust me with this Wookie, just trust me.”

Ryeowook sulked back and he reluctantly watched Sungmin destroy his beloved gift.

“Hold your hand out” Ryeowook did just that and Sungmin placed three beads into his hand before tieing the bracelet back up and around his friends wrist. “21 months to go” Sungmin beamed matter of factly.

“It feels lighter right?” Ryeowook slowly nodded. “As every month passes you can take off a bead, as you feel the bracelet get lighter, so will the burden on your heart as the time you’ve left to wait shortens.”  

Ryeowook was genuinely touched, he smiled up at his friend and whispered a soft “thank you.”

Sungmin just nodded, raising to his feet and pulled his friend up. “Come on, it’s getting cold and we have a busy day tomorrow.”

Ryeowook followed him back to their dorm feeling a load off his shoulders, he was no longer dreading the coming months the way he had been. He was still going to miss his other half like you wouldn’t believe, but Sungmin had helped him put another spin on it and if he was honest with himself, he kind of felt excited about watching the months count down.