As anyone would when faced with a half-wild person still in his sleepwear, the students stare at Jaejoong as he tears past them. They’re obviously whispering to each other, yet Jaejoong hears nothing; his ears are so filled with the sound of blood rushing through them that the world around him becomes a movie on silent. It never occurred to him that the school would be where he’d end up, but once the gates come into sight he realises that’s the only logical place to go. After all, it’s where Yunho is.

And as history as shown, wherever Yunho is, so Jaejoong will be.

He hasn’t the faintest idea of Yunho’s schedule, but the thread draws him towards one of the biology labs, and he’s about to throw himself in, when the door is flung open, and rather than barging into a class of shocked students, he falls into Yunho’s arms. Arms that sweep him up in a fierce hug, so loving Jaejoong could weep, so all-encompassing it feels like nothing will ever hurt him again.  Jaejoong sighs with relief, and just like that, all memories about Changmin, about Yunho killing his father, about Yoochun, they all fade away and are replaced by the sheer brightness of Yunho, because all that is in his past, and Yunho, the Yunho that is currently hugging him so tightly that it feels like he’ll never let go, that Yunho is his now and his future.

“I’m sorry,” Yunho mumbles into his hair. “I’m sorry.”

Sorry for what? For killing his father? For leaving him with Changmin? It’s not clear. But it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore but the fact that Yunho’s by his side, and all at once, Jaejoong realises that’s all he ever needed. Come with me, he begs inside his head. He doesn’t know to where, or how they’re going to get there. But at the back of his mind, he knows that Changmin will not give up on whatever sick game he’s playing, and will hound them to the ends of the earth if that’s what he decided amused him. And if they were to outrun him, they had to start now.

“I know,” Yunho responds, his voice taking on a soothing tone, trying to calm Jaejoong down. “Relax, Joongie. I’ve taken care of everything.” Lifting his head up, he shouts a quick “class dismissed” at the astonished students gazing wide-eyed at the entirely compromising position Yunho was in with his student, and then fluidly lifts Jaejoong up into his arms as if he’d been practicing for that moment his whole life. “Hang on tight,” he instructs Jaejoong. “It’ll be faster this way.” When Jaejoong obeys, arms coming around Yunho’s neck, Yunho starts moving, and at a speed that in the Olympics would definitely get him hauled up for steroid use, navigates the school corridors and the patches of students lounging about. Jaejoong thinks he’s heading for the school gates, and nearly jumps out of Yunho’s arms when he realises they’re standing on the roof.

“It’ll take some time for Changmin to track this,” Yunho explains as he pauses, one foot balanced against the railing. “He’s not going to think of looking at the roofs first, and now with Averian I can counter some of his powers. We’ll be safe. We’ll be safe, I swear it.”

Jaejoong initially thought that Yunho’s eyes were like dried blood. Now, he sees that it isn’t true. They are the dregs of red wine at the bottom of the glass after a dinner by the candlelight. They are the red leaves that gently drift down in autumn and fill the world with colour. They are as beautiful as the rest of him. I know, he thinks. I trust you. And then, unbidden, the thought rises, that this is more than knowledge, more than trust.

I love you.

The light that bursts into Yunho’s eyes is enough to outshine all the fireworks of the New Year. And that, something wary lingers there, a smudge of—not doubt, but worry. “Do you understand what this means? You’re mine. You’ll stay with me for the rest of your life. Changmin has wanted you too long to stop now; we’ll spend the rest of time running from him. Are you alright with that? Always fleeing, always moving around. You’ll never have a semblance of a normal life again. You can never see your foster parents again. No wife, no children, nothing. I…I don’t want you to be unhappy. If you don’t want to, say the word and I’ll let you go right now. Changmin in his own way loves you; he will forgive you if you go back…I don’t want to deprive you of anything you want—” Yunho’s voice is abruptly cut off when Jaejoong presses a soft kiss to his neck. I’ve decided. I have you. And that is enough. That will always be enough. 

It’s true, the idea of never seeing the parents who had raised him as their own again saddens him, and there’s a special spot in his heart that Changmin will always occupy that he can’t carve out even if he took a knife to his chest. But if this was the price for being with Yunho, then he would pay it. Over and over again, as many times as it took for them to be happy.

Yunho laughs, a sound that’s half-bewildered and half broken, as if the sheer idea of such joy was something he no longer thought was available to him and the re-emergence of its presence is more than he can bear. “I’ll make you happy. All the days of my life, I’ll make you happy.” 

He gives one graceful bound, and with that he’s standing on the railings, only a thin strip of his shoes in contact with the iron surface. And yet, despite the precarious position, and that as far as he can tell Yunho is planning parkour his way to another building almost 40 metres away, Jaejoong isn’t afraid.

"Are you ready?" Yunho asks.

The answer couldn't have been easier.

Yunho bends his knees, and leaps off the roof.

Note: Guys, I am so, so sorry for abandoning this story for so long. There's just been a lot of problems, and some lapses in my interest, but I promise I will finish this story. I already have a ending in mind, it's just a matter of getting to it. Thank you to new readers, and for the ones who've been with me since the start, I am so grateful to you for staying with me despite the long wait. You have no idea how much that means.