There were loud giggles that morning as kids ran around an old tree in the middle of a backyard. Upon hearing the noise, Jungsoo instantly stood up from the couch and peeped through the window.

“Hey,” he went out from the backdoor and approached the children who were chasing each other around the tree “hey kids!” he tried to get their attention.

“You’re IT!” the children kept on running and ignored Jungsoo’s presense.

Normally, Jungsoo likes children. He often played with children when he visits his mom at the province.

But this time, he wasn’t in the mood to play with them. Not while they’re near that tree.

“Who wants some juice box?” Jungsoo held out a pack of juice in front of the running children.

They instantly turned their attention to him and smiled sweetly.

“I WANT ONE!” the children shouted in unison.

“Okay I’ll give one to each of you,” Jungsso said “and then you have to go home. Deal?”

“DEAAAAL!” they answered happily.

It was the third time this week that children entered the backyard. Jungsoo kept on forgetting to lock the little door on the fence so he couldn’t blame anyone. The children in the neighborhood loved the place because Jungsoo kept it clean and cozy.

Jungsoo went back inside the house and heard that the phone was ringing.

“Hello?” he said as he picked up the receiver from the wall.

“Hello honey?” the voice of an old woman came from the other line “where have you been? I’ve been trying to call…”

“Oh, I’m sorry mom,” he apologized “I must’ve been out in the backyard while you were calling.”

“Honey,” his mom’s voice sounded sad “I hope you could stop spending hours alone in the yard…”

“It’s not that mom,” Jungsoo chuckled “there were kids and I gave them some juice box.”

“Aw that’s so sweet of you honey. Well I just called to remind you again of the things there in the house,”

“I know mom,” he gave another chuckle.

“There are some faulty wirings there, when are you planning on having them fixed?”

“Maybe next week after our major exams,”

“Okay, good luck with your exams honey and stay healthy alright?”

“Yes mom,” Jungsoo said with a nod.

He went outside after the phone call and approached the little door on the fence. He smiled to himself upon remembering the days when he would run through that door. Jungsoo stooped down, pulled a little key dangling in his necklace, and locked it. When he stood up, he saw the house at the other side of the fence. That house that he knew all too well, as if it was an extension of his own home. The new owners of that house repainted the walls and re-shingled the roof so it looked different. But in Jungsoo’s eyes, he always expected a chubby little boy to run from the back door calling out his name.

“Teukieeee let’s play!!!” the voice of that chubby boy always echoed in his mind after all those years.

One Saturday morning, Jungsoo went to the grocery to buy some food for lunch. He felt both gloomy yet hopeful that day.

It was the day when his best friend left fifteen years ago.

He made pasta and watched TV to distract himself from the memories that kept on bugging him that day. Time flew and it was nearly sunset. He scanned through the channels to find something interesting to watch. Music channel. Cartoons. News about a plane crash. Famous soccer team won again. History channel.

In the middle of his pointless channel scanning, Jungsoo heard a rustle outside. At first he ignored it thinking it was just the wind causing some noise, but then the rustles sounded louder.

He reluctantly stood up from the couch, went to the window, and partly peeped through the curtains.

“Hey!” he immediately shouted when he saw a figure of a man at the backyard.

Jungsoo opened the window pane.

“Hey! You!” he shouted to get the attention of the man outside.

He couldn’t see who it was because the man was facing the other way. But he took note that the man had a big build of a body, wore a hoodie and a cap.

Ignoring the fact that it was getting dark outside, Jungsoo placed down his bowl of pasta then strode outside the backyard. He noticed that the man was circling the tree at the middle of the yard. And then the man stooped down and started poking the ground with a stick. Jungsoo panicked.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing!!?” he shouted when he got near the stranger.

“Oh hi there,” the stranger took a glimpse at Jungsoo then stooped down again “I’m looking for something.”

“You have no business here,” Jungsoo did his best to sound intimidating because the stranger was bigger than him “leave.”

The stranger ignored him and continued on what he was doing.

“Hey I said leave!”

“When did you become a grumpy old man?” the stranger chuckled, still looking down the ground.

There was something in that stranger that made Jungsoo felt weird, but he couldn’t explain what.

He ignored that weird feeling and focused on the fact that a stranger was messing around his tree.

“I’m not in the mood for this,” Jungsoo coldly said “leave now or I’ll call the police.”

The stranger ignored him.

“I’m serious,” Jungsoo said with a more threatening voice “how did you get in here in the first place?”

The stranger turned his head towards the small door at the fence.

“I locked that.” Jungsoo bossily said.

The stranger stood up and faced Jungsoo with a smile. He then pulled out a small key dangling from a necklace.

“KANGIN?”

Still wide-eyed and dumbfounded, Jungsoo stayed on his spot. He wanted to run towards the smiling raccoon and hug him tight until he gets all purple, but he felt quite intimidated. He never imagined that Kangin would grow up to be that handsome muscular guy.

As if reading his thoughts, Kangin smiled and beckoned him for a hug.

“Come on Teukie, don’t be shy,” Kangin said when he saw his best friend’s cheeks turn redder than a tomato.

For fifteen years, Jungsoo hasn’t heard anyone call him “Teukie”. Hearing it again, he felt an unexplainable joy in his heart.

Teukie ran in the arms of his best friend and hugged him tight. It was like being pulled back to the past where he would cuddle the chubby Kangin because he’s so “fluffy” as Teukie said. Kangin wasn’t too chubby anymore but Teukie was glad he still felt like a huge teddy bear!

“I missed you so much Teukie…” Kangin said in Teukie’s ears as he hugged him back equally tight.

Teukie’s words were muffled coz his face was dug deep in Kangin’s shoulder but the raccoon just figured he said “I missed you too” or something like that.

“There’s so much I want to ask you,” Teukie said as he finally let go “come on, let’s go inside—“ he tugged on Kangin’s arms.

“Let’s just stay here for a while,” Kangin held Teuk’s hand and gently led him under the tree. Their tree.

They sat on the grass like they used to. Kangin kept his eyes on Teuk with a heart-melting smile. Teuk couldn’t help but to look away to hide his tomato-red face.

“Why are you all red Teukie?” Kangin asked with a laugh as he tried to make Teuk look at him “I don’t remember you having an allergy or something!”

“Shut up Kangin,” was all Teuk could say, but the truth is he couldn’t also explain why he suddenly felt shy around his best friend.

There were no awkwardness between them. It was like they were never separated for a decade and a half. The two boys were laughing heartedly, talking about random things, and even threatened to wrestle each other again despite the fact that they were adults already!

“When did you get back?” Teuk asked, leaning his head on Kangin’s broad shoulder.

“Just this morning,” Kangin answered, absentmindedly Teuk’s hair “had a rough time in the plane…”

There was a long silence as they enjoyed the presence of each other.

“I’m so sorry Teukie,” Kangin said “I’m sorry for making you wait too long…”

Teuk didn’t say anything back. He just sighed.

“I was afraid that I would come back here… and you’d be gone…”

“The truth is, I wanted to leave,” Teuk finally said, looking up at Kangin “but you promised you’d come back, so I stayed.”

Kangin smiled down at Teuk and his hair for the last time. He slid his hand and cupped Teuk’s cheeks. Kangin leaned in closer and gently kissed Teuk’s lips.

“S-sorry—“ Kangin immediately said as he pulled away, feeling quite surprised about what he just did.

“Shut up,” Teuk said as he pulled Kangin back for another kiss. This time more intimate that showed their longing for each other.

“Youngwoon…” Teuk said, calling Kangin by his real name for the first time “you won’t leave me again… right?”

“”I won’t Jungsoo…” Kangin replied, their faces only inches away from each other “I won’t.”

When the night was going deep, Teuk fell asleep in Kangin’s arms. The cold breeze woke him up after a few hours. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. He was all alone. Teuk frowned.

“Kangin?” he called out.

There was no answer.

Maybe he went inside, Teuk thought to himself.

When he stood up, the wind blew hard and a newspaper found its way to his foot. Teuk stooped down and picked it up. The headline was an article about a plane crash that happened that morning. Teuk frowned as he read that the plane came from Korea and that there were no survivors.

In an instant, he remembered seeing that new on TV that morning… and Kangin’s statement also echoed in his mind.

“When did you get back?”

“Just this morning… had a rough time in the plane…”

Could it be? But it all felt… real.

With his mind being drowned in too many questions, Teuk slowly walked towards the house, feeling all tired and very much confused. He went inside and slumped on the couch without even bothering to turn off the TV he left since morning. Teuk felt his eyelids feeling heavy again and after a while he fell asleep.

“Teukie!!! TEUKIE!” loud shouts and rough shakes woke Teuk up instantly.

Suddenly Teuk coughed and coughed and his lungs felt tight. It took a while before he took in the surroundings.

FIRE.

Thick smoke covered everything and the curtains were slowly devoured by flames. In the middle of the bizarre situation, there was Kangin’s face in front of him, looking extremely worried and panicky.

“TEUKIE COME ON! WE HAVE TO GET OUT!” Kangin shouted as he shook Teuk again.

“AM I DEAD??” Teuk asked as he pulled himself up and coughed a lot.

“WE’LL BOTH BE DEAD IF YOU KEEP ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS!” Kangin shouted in frustration as he pulled Teuk’s arms and tried to find a safe way out.

“B-BUT… THE PLANE CRASH…” Teuk continued as they stumbled to get to the nearest door “Y-YOU SAID—“

Kangin ignored Teuk and carried on pulling him to the door. They coughed like crazy when they stumbled out the backyard. In just a few minutes, the firemen came.

Teuk stayed under the tree and watched as Kangin talked to the authorities.

“Are you alright?” Kangin gently asked when he came back to Teuk.

Teuk was still in a state of shock, not knowing what was real or not.

“Hey!” Kangin snapped “what’s wrong?”

Teuk looked at the house, or at least what was left of it, and then stared at Kangin again. He held out his hand placed it on Kangin’s check, making sure if he was hallucinating or what.

“Teukie, get a grip,” Kangin chuckled and held Teuk’s hand “we’ll fix the house back like nothing happened.”

“You’re really here, right?” Teuk finally asked “I mean, you’re not d-dead or anything…”

“I don’t know what’s gotten in to you,” Kangin laughed “a few hours ago you were kissing me like crazy… and now you’re suddenly asking if I’m dead.”

Teuk’s cheeks burned red again as he remembered that intimate kiss they shared.

“I think you watched too many TV while I was gone,” Kangin said, patting Teuk’s tomato cheeks “and speaking of that, they said that faulty wirings started the fire.”

Teuk bit his lip hard and suddenly felt guilty for being too lazy to get that fixed. My mom’s gonna freak out when she hears about this, he thought.

“I left for a while to stretch my legs and when I got back you went inside the house. There was a subtle explosion when I reached the door and suddenly there was fire around the place…”

Teuk scratched the back of his head and smiled at the ground, feeling extremely guilty and stupid all of the sudden.

“I won’t ever leave you Teukie,” Kangin said meeting Teuk’s gaze “who knows what stupid things you get yourself into when I’m not around.”

“HEEEY!” Teuk smacked the back of Kangin’s head.

And the two boys chased and wrestled each other like they always did back then.

This is the continuation of BACK THEN.

I never had an intention of writing a sequel to that but you guys requested so here it is :)

BACK THEN was about little Teukie and little Kangin being the best of friends and then suddenly being held apart from each other.

The continuation takes a different mood because 15 years passed already ^^,

P.S. Sorry if it's crappy. I really couldn't think of a story to continue it plus I don't have time to proofread or stuff. Actually my sister proofreads for me. But I'm at the office right now and she's at school so there. If you see some wrong spellings or something, just laugh quietly okay? >:)