“Mom! Mom! Mom!”

“Great game! Good job, TaekWoonie!”

“Yeah! Mom! Mom! Guess what?!”

“Hold still. Your shoes are untying themselves.”

“Mom! There’s a new student in class this year! He’s from… um… Changwon!”

“Oh? That’s sounds nice.”

“Yeah! But he wasn’t looking at us, and I couldn’t hear him at all.”

“Aw, it sounds like he’s shy. Be nice to him, TaekWoon.”

“You wanna be a singer?”

“Y-yeah…”

Who’s this kid? Who was this kid to be so secretive about something like this? TaekWoon crossed his arms. He thought this new kid was just a nerd, just another guy from out of town who studied well and did blank else, studied well to get into college, graduate, and be a no-name in a whatever-job.

“That’s cool!”

“Eh? It is?” This was not the reaction TaekWoon was expecting from the nerd.

This is the new age. One does not simply keep such awesome stuff like huge dreams to himself. TaekWoon would have to fix this kid before he hurts himself in the big city.

“My family, though…” HakYeon muttered. TaekWoon plopped himself back into his seat before the new kid continued. “My dad doesn’t think it’s a solid goal to go for. It’s only something certain people can achieve, so I shouldn’t waste my time on that and just work to something that will for sure be a secure career that could support my fam – ”

“How old does he think we are, anyway?” TaekWoon interjected flatly. “We’re in elementary school. Does he think you’re gonna marry off as soon as we graduate elementary school? He’s weird. Your dad’s weird.”

“He’s not weird!” HakYeon exclaimed. “He’s just um… realistic. I think that’s what my nuna said. Anyway, my hyung thinks the same thing, too.”

“What a bunch of old men. I think you should do it. Get started now so by the time you’re old enough, you’ll be super talented, so talented that your whole family will say it’s a waste if you don’t try to be a singer!”

HakYeon scoffed at the desktop. “I’m not talented at all, though.”

“Prove it, then! Get up and sing, you depressing piece of charcoal!”

“Mom! Mom! Mom?!”

TaekWoon’s mother’s voice rang out from somewhere near the living room. “I’m in here, TaekWoonie.”

He continued to shout as he approached. “Mom! I brought my friend over. We’re studying, okay?!”

“Eh? You brought someone over? But the house is a mess…”

“It is not.” TaekWoon finally spotted his mother, stopping short and causing HakYeon to bump into his backpack. “We’re going to my room. This is HakYeon.”

“Nice to meet you.” HakYeon bowed politely.

TaekWoon’s mother quickly shuffled away a stack of magazines she had been sorting and smiled back. “It’s nice to meet you, too. Do you want anything to drink? Eat? Why don’t you two sit down and have a snack first?”

TaekWoon never said no to food.

Finally the two were situated on the floor of TaekWoon’s room, futon neatly folded to the side. TaekWoon had stolen away more snacks.

“There’s Mom, Dad, my three older sisters, and me,” TaekWoon explained.

“Ooh, really? I have two older sisters and one older brother.”

“Do they all still live at home?”

“My brother doesn’t; he’s in college now.”

“Wait, what was with this question again…?”

“Mom! Mom!” TaekWoon slipped in the entryway. “Mom?!”

“I’m in here, TaekWoonie.”

He stumbled on wet socks toward her voice. “Mom, can I use the phone?! I need to call someone!”

“Sure, honey.” She stopped short at the sight of her only son. “TaekWoon, you’re sopping wet! What were you doing?!”

“We played in the snow! I need to make a phone call!”

“Not until you take a warm bath! You might catch a cold!”

“Moooooooooooooooomm!!!”

One fussy, warm bath later, TaekWoon was swiftly dialing a number into the phone while rubbing at the water in his ears.

“Hello?” a woman answered.

“Hello? Is this Mrs. Jeon? This is Jung TaekWoon. I’m friends with HakYeon in school. Can I talk to him?”

He didn’t realize how quickly he had spoken until he heard the surprise in HakYeon’s mother’s voice. “Oh. He’s sick, though. Let me see if he’s awake.”

He’s sick? TaekWoon shifted his weight to his other leg as he heard shuffling on the other side of the phone. Murmured words were exchanged, and more shuffling ensued before TaekWoon could hear HakYeon on the other side of the phone.

“Hullo?” HakYeon’s slurred voice sounded scratchy through the earpiece.

TaekWoon wasn’t even quite sure what he was calling about, so he decided to shout. “YAH CHA HAKYEON! Where were you?! Why weren’t you in school today?!”

“I’m sick, TaekWoon-ah.” His mother just said that.

“Eh? Seriously? But the performance test is next week.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been working on it nonstop for the last few weeks, and I haven’t slept much. And it’s cold out. So I caught a cold.”

For all of the good grades HakYeon chugged out, he sounded about as smart as TaekWoon seemed when he bombed all of his tests for a soccer tournament. “Good job. Well, you missed too much today. You’ll never make it all up.”

“Eh?! Why?! What did we do?” A complete nerd.

TaekWoon rubbed at his ears again. “Well, first of all, it’s snowing. So we played outside for a while. And second of all, it’s my birthday. So we ate a lot – ”

“EHHH?!” TaekWoon flinched away from HakYeon’s sudden screech. “You didn’t tell me it was your birthday!”

“But our birthdays are written on the calendar at the very front of the classroom. It’s kinda hard to miss. But like I said, you’ll never be able to make it up.”

It’s not like TaekWoon was really expecting anything out of his friends for his birthday. He wasn’t the type to constantly remind people to give him special treatment. He was ecstatic enough that one teacher decided to call quits on the day’s lesson to play in the snow in honor of his birthday. But TaekWoon wasn’t aloof enough to feel a bit disappointed in the fact that his friend hadn’t seemed to have noticed it.

He did, however, realize it had been silent on the phone for a while. “Hello? HakYeon-hyung?”

“Well, I’ll just have to get you a present that’ll far surpass any present anyone ever got you. It’ll be so awesome you’ll forget your birthday is already past.”

TaekWoon could hear HakYeon’s voice waver over the phone. The ice and snow outside seemed to seep through the nooks and crannies of his house and sink into his toes.

You know that moment when you were just playing around, but then you screwed up hardcore, and you seriously didn’t mean it?

Yeah.

“Yah! Wait up! HakYeon-hyung!”

HakYeon had quickly shuffled out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang, and of course the teacher would hold TaekWoon back to tell him he did a good job on his science project. She already told him that. What a waste of time. He needed to catch up to HakYeon.

TaekWoon huffed when he finally caught up, the air tight and thin in his chest. “Hey.”

HakYeon sniffed and didn’t look up. “Hey.”

“So, uh… You’re not sick anymore?”

“Ah, no. I’m fine. I’ll be able to do the test tomorrow, at least.”

“That’s cool!” TaekWoon exclaimed, trying to be a bit cheerful. “I can’t wait to see it! Are your parents gonna come see?”

HakYeon stumbled. “No. My dad works, and… no.”

Of course not. You already knew the answer to that. That was a stupid question. You are impressive, Jung TaekWoon.

The silence was stretching for too long. “So… did you see my project?”

“Er… No, I didn’t really get to see it.”

You are impressive. TaekWoon wanted to bury himself in the snow and sludge on the sidewalk. It was because of your own poison tongue, ya jerk. “Yeah, that’s right.”

Cue silence.

“Here!”

It was the first thing that came to mind, the only thing in his hands that could be offered. HakYeon stared at the peace offering like it was an alien. TaekWoon figured his reasoning was alien enough.

“What is that?” HakYeon asked.

“It’s… my banana milk. I didn’t drink it during lunch, so you can have it.”

He continued to stare. “I’ve never had it before.”

“It’s good. You can have it, though.”

He shoved the bottle into HakYeon’s hand. Again, HakYeon stared as if he’d never seen packaged beverages before, but he sighed and pulled off the top.

“Why didn’t you drink it, though?”

“I just forgot about it.”

HakYeon smacked his lips. “Oh. Ooh. But this is good.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” HakYeon downed the rest of it. “Wah. That was good!”

Finally, HakYeon didn’t look like the world was crushing him. TaekWoon smacked HakYeon on the shoulder. “Well, I gotta go home. It’s cold. You can’t catch a cold again, either. ‘Bye.”

“Dad?”

TaekWoon’s father looked up from the book he was reading, spotting his only son in the doorway of his bedroom. Usually the kid was always running rampant through the house, shouting for the women of the family to fuss with him, so his quiet appearance was a surprise.

“Oh, TaekWoon. Do you need something?”

“Um…” TaekWoon scuffed at the floor with his foot. “Tomorrow… Are you doing anything?”

“Aside from work? No.”

“Ah, right…”

The father eyeballed his son. “Why?”

TaekWoon pursed his parrot lips a bit. “Well, I was wondering if you could maybe help…” He trailed off, the rest of his sentence fading inaudible.

“TaekWoon, speak properly.”

“I wondered if tomorrow – ” TaekWoon had started with his normal, loud voice but suddenly halted, reverting back to a mumble. “ – if maybe you or Mom or anyone could come up to school…”

“Is it for the project? I thought that was today.”

He shook his head wildly. “No. That was today, but that’s not it. Tomorrow is for the guys who didn’t do the science project.”

The father searched upward to jog his memory. “Ah, the ones who would perform instead. Are you doing both, then?”

Again, TaekWoon shook his head. “No. It’s my friend, HakYeon… His is tomorrow, but his family isn’t coming, so I wondered if… maybe…”

His words faded away again, but TaekWoon’s eyes lifted up, casting a hopeful gaze to his father. The parent considered for a brief moment.

“Have you already asked your mother?”

“Not yet.”

“What time would we need to be there?”

TaekWoon’s expression was lifting. “Um… about two, I think.”

His father considered again. “I can probably get off early. Check with your mother. And see what time we need to be there.”

“Okay! Thanks!” TaekWoon surely would have given himself whiplash from how swiftly he spun himself around, but he stopped himself again. “Ah… um…”

The father was all set on resuming his reading, but he looked up again at his son. “What?”

That apprehensive expression returned. “Um… Dad… Am I… a mean person?”

“After the request you just asked of me?” His father scoffed. “Hardly. What makes you think so?”

“Um… I… think I was mean to my friend today…”

“How so?”

“I kinda…” Trailed off again.

“TaekWoon. Come stand here, and speak to me properly.”

TaekWoon dragged his feet to stand in front of his father. He folded the book closed and set it aside, moving his attention to his son.

“Now, what did you do to make you think you’re a mean person?” he asked TaekWoon steadily.

TaekWoon wouldn’t look up. “I was just… teasing him, saying he’s dark so he’d make my project melt…”

His father let that settle. “TaekWoon, why would you say such a thing?”

“I don’t know…”

“Do you think that was right?”

“No, sir.”

“Did I raise you to treat other people like that?”

“No, sir.”

“Do you understand the words you’ve said now?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you apologize for what you said?”

TaekWoon opened his mouth to speak, froze, and then shut his mouth, shaking his head but nodding right after.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I gave him my banana milk.”

The father had no response to that. Seeing how TaekWoon was ashamedly staring at his toes, the father sat back in his chair. “Now, go ask your mother about tomorrow. And then go to your room and think on what you did.”

TaekWoon jumped out of his seat as soon as the encore was over.

“HakYeon! Yah!”

“Oh, TaekWoon-ah!”

The two friends met amidst the crowd in the school gymnasium. The space was already bustling with families and teachers lumbering about, trying to find spots to stand and chat.

“Yah, TaekWoonie, don’t stand in the middle of the aisle,” his mother chided.

He quickly sidestepped into a row of chairs. HakYeon suddenly noticed the appearance of his friend’s family – minus the eldest sister, since she had class to attend.

“Er, how come your family’s here?” HakYeon asked, a bit bewildered.

TaekWoon hesitated. He had no reason. “Um, well, I figured you’d probably want someone in the audience. Or something.”

His friend stared for a second, before a grin wormed its way onto his face. “Heh? So you told your family to come along, too? You’re so weird.” The grin melted off as HakYeon’s eyes roamed behind TaekWoon’s family. “Nuna…?”

TaekWoon turned just as a blur launched herself at HakYeon. “Wah, our cutie HakYeonnie!”

“Ow! Get off me! What are you doing here?! Mom and Dad, too?”

TaekWoon suddenly realized the two adults who were following closely behind HakYeon’s older sister were their parents. He remembered seeing his mom a few times before.

HakYeon’s mother sighed. “Well, the teacher had to tell us about the performance since you didn’t tell us when it was.”

“Eh? Eh?” HakYeon was still in the midst of shoving his sister away. “So… But then…”

The parents of both sons were already introducing themselves, the stern-faced fathers giving each other manly bows and the sisters comparing each other’s fashions. In the muck of it all, HakYeon turned to TaekWoon with a bright smile on his impish face.

“You’re what?”

There was ice forming in TaekWoon’s chest. He could have easily blamed it on the still-chilly weather that hadn’t yet converted to Spring.

“My family is moving back to Changwon after this school year is up.”

The two were situated in the hallway during lunch break again. TaekWoon had taken to bringing two bottles of banana milk each day; one for himself, one for anyone else who wanted it.

“Why?”

“My dad’s job is just being fickle. They said they had a position for him up here in Seoul, but then they never got anyone to replace him back in Changwon, and he’s pretty much an extra body up here, so…”

That’s so stupid. Why did they even bother with the transfer in the first place? TaekWoon could feel the words pushing to burst from his lips, but he couldn’t speak. He’d taught himself not to speak. But HakYeon just knew.

“Yeah, it was a waste of time. But my family just goes where the money flows.”

It’s not because of school, was it? The performance? It surely wasn’t your grades.

“It wasn’t anything to do with me or school. I mean, I have two sisters and a brother, and they had their own mess with school. But my brother’s in college, and he takes care of himself.”

… well, you’re not gonna be that far away. There’s still the internet.

“Yeah, there’s still e-mail and phones.”

The two lulled into silence – or rather, HakYeon stopped answering unspoken questions. Finally, TaekWoon spoke up for himself again.

“Were you… still planning on auditioning?”

HakYeon hesitated for a beat. “I… I want to. I will. When the time comes, I will.”

“I mean, I like singing, too, but I like soccer better, but if I couldn’t do soccer, I’d definitely wanna be a singer.”

TaekWoon barely had to reach to touch the underside of the stairwell as the group tromped their way to the basement. He felt the slightest bit of claustrophobia.

“And down here is one of our practice rooms,” the company employee continued in his monotonous tone. “There’s the dance area as well as numerous individual practice rooms.”

The door swung open to a brightly lit studio, mirrored walls reflecting the group’s apprehensive expressions. TaekWoon saw as a few trainees skipped forward, eager to see the fresh meat.

“Here are some of our current trainees,” the rep droned. “Here we have – ”

“JUNG TAEKWOON?!”

TaekWoon almost felt himself twitch at the sudden eruption of noise. The source was from some kid with an obnoxiously long neck who stood a bit taller than the rest of the crowd. His face, though…

“You’re Jung TaekWoon, right?!” the giraffe rambled. “We went to elementary school for a year! Right?!”

That’s who his face reminded TaekWoon of. “… ah. HakYeon.”

The rep looked between the two. “Oh, you’re old friends, then?”

“So how come you’re here? I thought you’d be in the national team, soccer, something something. Right?”

“Mm…”

The two were casually strolling along the city sidewalks, TaekWoon staring at nothing in particular, and HakYeon staring at TaekWoon.

“After middle school… I couldn’t,” TaekWoon replied.

“Why?”

They passed a coffee shop. TaekWoon caught the reflection of himself in the window. I got injured playing soccer, so…

“Ahh, I see… That’s too bad. But your injury is okay now, right?”

TaekWoon nodded, his hawk eyes suddenly trained on a cat high above. Would it come down if TaekWoon beckoned to it?

“Ah! And since you can’t do soccer, you decided to be a singer!”

Nerd. TaekWoon bopped HakYeon on the head.

“Wah… It’s been, what… nine years? Ten years? Ah, are you still bad at math?”

HakYeon was losing weight.

And he wasn’t losing weight in a good way.

The youths were making their own ruckus in the waiting room, enthusiastically passing time before they had to be on standby. JaeHwan couldn’t sit still, and since JaeHwan couldn’t sit still, SangHyuk really couldn’t still which brought HongBin in to play, and WonShik was trying to be a voice of reason since the eldest two did nothing to stop them. TaekWoon had parked himself by the edible goods the fans had bought for them, but HakYeon was sitting listlessly to the side, head propped on one hand as he watched the kids and their antics. TaekWoon watched for a bit before he decided to sit by HakYeon, still holding a box of food.

HakYeon didn’t react, strangely enough. TaekWoon glared until the leader looked up.

Eat something.

“Hm?” HakYeon looked at the box in TaekWoon’s hands. “No, thanks. I’m fine.”

HakYeon. Eat. Something.

“I’m fine, TaekWoonie,” he insisted. “I ate something earlier, so I’m good.”

Lies. The group had been all together since the early morning, and HakYeon definitely hadn’t eaten anything. Before TaekWoon could interject with another glare, HakYeon was called over by their manager. He quickly got up to attend to whatever business was needed of him.

For a bit, the ruckus found its way over to the sofa TaekWoon was sitting at. JaeHwan grabbed at the food, but HongBin scolded and nagged until the group whirlwind found some other corner of the waiting room to terrorize. TaekWoon was alone with his food again.

But not for long. HakYeon plopped himself back on the sofa soon after, heaving a deep sigh. TaekWoon looked down at him.

You okay?

“I’m tired. Sleepy.”

HakYeon decided to shift all of his weight into TaekWoon’s side in an attempt to cuddle against the human body pillow, but the silent giant responded with a knuckle to the giraffe’s scalp. HakYeon yelped and pulled away, laughing, but he reverted back to his listless pose with a sigh, an elbow on the sofa’s armrest and his head upon his hand.

TaekWoon stood to rummage through their goodies again. At some point during their natural disaster, the kids had raided the pile and made a huge mess, but TaekWoon found what he was looking for.

“Here.”

TaekWoon yanked HakYeon’s hand up and shoved a bottle of banana milk into his palm. HakYeon stared at it then glanced up at TaekWoon, a silly grin on his face. TaekWoon returned it with a glare.

Eat something, too.

He turned to head to the restroom.

A/N: YAYYYYYYY FINISHED!!! Well, I certainly hope y'all enjoyed ^^ Thanks for stalking me to this other half. Who knows what their families are like, so I just made up stuff. How do you fatherly figure idk lol. In any case, I need to work on my certification and someday get back to Gege... Leave me pretty comments >3< I love you all~