Chapter 5

"I'm home," Leo announced the moment he has stepped inside his house. He removed his shoes and arranged it just as what his mother had taught him.

"Excuse me for intruding!" His excited lifelong friend said, following behind him. Leo sent him glares, but N only giggled and imitated his actions: took off his shoes and then set them aside next to Leo's neatly.

Right after that, they heard heavy footsteps coming their way and all of a sudden, one of Leo's sisters was in front of them. "Taekwoon brought someone home!" She exclaimed enthusiastically when she saw another boy just behind her brother. As usual, Leo just rolled his eyes. He already knew what was coming right after that and soon, as he expected, his second sister was in the hall with them too. Sometimes Leo would wonder if his sisters were secretly training to be ninjas whenever he was in school. But then again, the idea was just too ridiculous. They just get too excited with whatever Leo does especially if it involved another person.

"Hello!" N greeted both of Leo's sisters who kept on buzzing about something (or about him) by themselves. "I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm Cha Hakyeon. People call me N for short. I'm Leo's lifelong friend!" He explained and bowed down in front of them politely.

"See! I told you!" One of them said to her sister with an impish grin spread across her face. "You owe me~"

Leo sighed and grabbed N's wrist to take him to his bedroom. He did not want to deal with his sisters at that moment especially since N was visiting as a guest. He just needed to explain to his lifelong friend how he had been for the years that they have spent apart and nothing more – "N-ah! Did you know that Taekwoon always talked about you? He never talked much before you became friends!" One of Leo's sisters shouted while they were going up the staircase. Leo groaned and pushed N forward because his sister's statement made the latter do that unusually creepy-happy face that he always used to do. N wanted to say something to them yet was unable to because of his lifelong friend's piercing glare. He also almost tripped, but because Leo was right behind him, he got his right footing back in an instant. "Oh! And he had his first kiss! Did he tell you about that because –" Leo shoved N inside his room and shut the door close immediately after N gasped upon hearing the news.

His lifelong friend displayed a teasing smirk after Leo had locked the door. "You had your first kiss, Leo?" He asked right off the bat. "Tell me! Tell me about it! Was she pretty? Do you still like her? Tell –"

"It's none of your business," Leo muttered as he silently picked up the crumpled papers next to the bin. He had been trying to write poetry – lyrics – for quite some now, but none of them had been good enough to his standards. "I heard that you've been writing letters to me... After you left, I moved to America. I didn't get them..."

N fell silent, forcing Leo to halt his cleaning job. "Oh..." N whispered. "Is that so?" He pursed his lips for a moment, but the second after, he beamed at him. "It doesn't matter~ We can catch up now since you're finally back!"

Leo nodded and sat next to his lifelong friend on the floor. "Sanghyuk... He should study at my school," He told him, recalling the prominent red string that he saw was