Kibum wiped the tear that managed to escape Kevin's eye, despite his efforts to hold it back in.

"Baby, don't cry. I'll be back." Kibum whispered softly, giving a light peck on Kevin's forehead.

Wrapping his arms tightly around the older man, Kevin let out a soft cry. Kibum returned the embrace, patting Kevin's back gently. Pulling away after a few moments, Kibum put on his helmet and gave Kevin an assuring smile. He turned away and never did look back once. The sole of his boots thumped against the wooden floor, his back view slowly fading into the background.

From that day on, Kevin waited everyday upon his return, patiently sitting on the stairs of his front porch. With a subtle smile, he gazed expectantly at the front gate, hoping a familiar figure would walk through it. His left hand clutched tightly onto a silver ring with Kibum’s name engraved on. Occasionally, he would examine the ring meticulously and it would seem like Kibum never left. It was as though Kibum would return in a flash.

One week turned into a month, a month turned into two and soon, six months flew past. Regardless rain or shine, Kevin still sat on the very same pouch, waiting and expecting, his hand clutching onto the ring ever so tightly. Sometimes he would pace around the porch, singing the chirpiest song he knows; sometimes he would gaze idly at the cloud, making out what it resembles; sometimes he would accidentally doze off while leaning against the pillar of the porch, a smile still intact.
"Kevin, it's been six months, I'm not cursing him but, don't you think-" Dongho's comment got cut off by Kevin midway.

"Nonsense, he promised me, he will be back, I just know it." Kevin replied calmly, not a trace of emotion detected from his face.

Dongho turned to Soohyun who shrugged and answered, "Let him be." It seemed like hope was the only thing that kept Kevin alive, and Soohyun wasn’t about to smash it into smithereens.

Like always, Kevin sat patiently at the porch, waiting. Then, a mailman came, stopping before the gate.

"A letter from the military." The mailman announced. Kevin took the letter as he thanked the mailman before returning back to the rustic white porch, not once reading the letter.

"Open the letter." Dongho commanded.

Kevin refused, simply stating that it was not important. Dongho repeated himself, only to be ignored by Kevin. Frustrated, Dongho snatched the letter away from Kevin and roughly ripped it open. Dongho read out the contents of the letter, despite Kevin's pleads against it.

Finally, all the supressed emotions within Kevin broke lose. He fell to the floor as he yelled in disbelief. The tears he held back for the past 7 months broke the barrier of control, relentlessly cascading down Kevin's cheeks.

"It cannot be, it isn’t possible." Kevin repeatedly mumbled to himself, shaking his head furiously.

Walking over hurriedly, Dongho hugged Kevin as a futile attempt to calm him down. "Out of the thousands that go to war only a hundred returns, hyung." Dongho said softly, pressing Kevin's head against his shoulder.

"He is the hundred that will return, he promised. Kibum will never break his promise. This is just a joke, right? This is just a bad dream, just a bad dream." Kevin forced his words out with the tears that were choking him.

"Yeah hyung, he will be back. Someday, just someday." Dongho comforted. A white lie was just what Kevin needed right now. The ring slipped out of Kevin’s hand and onto the pathway, making a light clang when it did. Like the hope he had safeguarded for so long, it melted away, bringing Kevin back to see what was left behind.

"He's worth it." Kevin would always say, but if only the wait had a definite date.

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Note: Just a short one shot I thought of kekeke. I'm always making Kibum leave, Idek why.