Monday - Two weeks after

Sungmin had just taken his seat into his classroom when an overly familiar voice called his name with a slightly insecure tone. Some of his classmates looked curiously at the door along with Sungmin. Standing there was Youngwoon waving at him with a notebook. Sungmin took in a breath and stood up going to the door to see what the older boy wanted.

“Youngwoon-ssi?” he called back, but, as he stood in front of his crush, Sungmin noticed something in the way Youngwoon was staring straight at him.

“Kyuhyun forgot his math notebook at my place yesterday, can you please give it back to him?” Youngwoon asked with a much more secure tone, he was smiling like usual, his tone was polite as if he was talking to someone he knew but someone that was not part of his close friends, Sungmin knew that tone very well, he also knew that glint in the older boy’s eyes. The glint of no recognition.

Sungmin’s heart ached at acknowledging that Youngwoon had truly forgotten him again. The previous week, whenever they had talked, Sungmin could tell that Youngwoon was trying to act like he couldn’t remember the week they dated, but right there, there was no effort, there was no misjudgment. Sungmin became nothing to Youngwoon again.

“Sungmin-ssi, are you ok?” Youngwoon asked startling Sungmin. The younger noticed that he had just kept on staring, so he faked a smile and picked up the notebook from his hand. “I’ll hand it back to him, no worries.” He replied before bowing slightly and giving his back to Youngwoon.

“Thank you.” Youngwoon mumbled after him, confused. Sungmin acted way too strangely, as if he had been hurt by something Youngwoon did or said. Youngwoon kept on looking at Sungmin as he walked to his desk and sat down, pulling his own notebook and then proceeding to check his homework with Kyuhyun’s.

The younger knew he was being watched, but he forced himself not to look back, to act as if nothing was wrong, to pass Youngwoon the impression that his presence there meant nothing. He shouldn’t get so affected, he shouldn’t make Youngwoon wonder. Kyuhyun had told him the past week that they were trying to help Youngwoon fulfill his request, that they would make Youngwoon believe that the reason why he couldn’t remember Sungmin was a side effect of him forgetting his closest friends, the previous week they had not been alone at the same place, Sungmin had always been around the ones Youngwoon would also forget. Sungmin was just someone that was always close by but not a friend.

Once Youngwoon left his classroom door, Sungmin breathed a sigh of relief and pain. That would be Youngwoon’s first memory of Sungmin, the younger understood. He must have looked really stupid.

A few minutes later Kyuhyun got to class, greeting his classmates cheerily but he frowned slightly as he saw Sungmin staring on nothing. “Hyung?” Kyuhyun called, putting a hand on Sungmin’s shoulder and shaking the older boy slightly. Sungmin didn’t look back, he just reached the math notebook to him with a blank expression, mumbling ever so slowly. “He really doesn’t remember me. He looked at me as if I was a stranger. Last week I already felt awful because I could tell that he was trying to act as if he didn’t know me, but now I feel empty.” Sungmin had told him softly.

Kyuhyun didn’t want to sound mean, but the words slipped past his lips way too easily. “That’s what you wanted. He did what you told him to do.”  Sungmin almost broke down crying and that had alarmed Kyuhyun. “I did the right thing, right? My feelings won’t cause him trouble anymore, right?.” Sungmin retorted with a small pained smile, and Kyuhyun felt like telling Sungmin everything, but he held back, the two of them needed another shock of reality. One that hopefully would bring them back together. “Only time will tell if you did the right thing, hyung.”

On the other hand, Youngwoon couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was something wrong. When he entered his classroom Jongwoon was already there staring at nothing while listening to something, so Youngwoon walked up to him and snatched one of the earplugs so the older boy would hear him. “Hyung, don’t I have one more friend that I should remember?” he asked lowly as to not let his other classmates overhear him. Jongwoon frowned. “What are you talking about?” he asked feeling slightly nervous but trying to sound as normally oblivious as he could.

Youngwoon sat on his desk and leaned closer. “Isn’t Lee Sungmin-ssi a close friend of ours?” he asked and Jongwoon frowned, that was a tricky question and he knew his friend was trying to trick him into answering what he wanted to hear, his intuition over péople trying to trick his brain was a hell of a problem, since it got highly developed after he lost his memory.

“He is a close friend to Kyuhyun.” Jongwoon answered with a tone he hoped was disinterested enough, but his answer didn’t seem to put Youngwoon’s mind to rest. Yet he didn’t ask Jongwoon further, instead he waited till Heechul got into class to ask him the very same question without Jongwoon noticing.

Heechul also noticed that there was something bigger behind the innocent question, and he was also not fooled. “Sungmin is Kyu’s best friend, but he is not as close to us. I think Sungmin is not close to anybody else, though everybody likes him.” Youngwoon frowned, once again not satisfied with the answer. The hurt in the younger’s eyes was haunting him somehow. He let it go though, because he didn’t feel like questioning Seoyeon, after all, the younger boy was her crush, she would just probably whine that he was not close enough to her.

At lunch break though, Youngwoon felt fairly surprised as he saw Kyuhyun walking along with Sungmin, the two of them were talking and Sungmin was smiling brightly, he was laughing over something Kyuhyun had told him. When Kyuhyun saw him, he waved cheerily. “Hyung!” Youngwoon waved back and was surprised that Sungmin looked at him still smiling happily. The impression he got from that morning, that he had somehow hurt the younger, was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, Kyu. Sungmin-ssi.” He greeted as the two friends got closer. Sungmin just bowed as Kyuhyun replied. “Hyung, where is Jongwoon hyung?” the question got Youngwoon a little by surprise. “He is inside, he said today they sell your favorite dessert, he got in to make sure he gets two for you.” He replied but his words just made Kyuhyun grin and rush inside the canteen.

Youngwoon sighed and mumbled to himself. “That’s what I get for waiting for him.” he had already turned to get into the canteen when he noticed Sungmin had not moved so he looked back. “Are you not coming?” he asked but the younger shook his head raising a lunch box. “I am kidnapping Kyuhyun and Jongwoon hyung today. I spoke to our music teacher earlier and got permission to use the music room A for rehearsal during lunch break.”

“Ah really?” Youngwoon answered feeling once again strange. “Then have a good rehearsal.” He added before he turned around to get his lunch. When he got to the line Kyuhyun was pulling Jongwoon with him. “See you later, hyung!” Kyuhyun waved at him and out of sight they went.

A few minutes later Youngwoon sat in front of Heechul on their usual table. “Why do I have the feeling this week started way too weirdly?” he asked his older friend who nonchalantly answered, “Because you are paranoid.” A second later Heechul went completely stiff because Jungsoo sat beside him while Seoyeon sat beside Youngwoon. “Where are the love birds?” she asked before taking a first bite of her food.

Heechul collected himself and replied before Youngwoon could. “Singing by the trees.” Seoyeon made a face at him whereas Jungsoo laughed slightly because it was highly amusing to see people teasing his twin sister.

“They are going to rehearse for the school festival during lunch break.” Youngwoon answered his only female friend and resumed eating.

There was a moment of silence at the table as Seoyeon and Heechul seemed to engage in a battle stare while they ate. “Can you two stop? You are scaring me.” Jungsoo suddenly stated to which Heechul blushed whereas Seoyeon looked at her twin brother in surprise, but then she shot quite expertly. “What? I am practicing telepathy with my future brother in law.” Youngwoon laughed as both Heechul and Jungsoo blushed and choked at the comment.

“What were you discussing about?” Youngwoon asked quite amused. Seoyeon shrugged. “That we should stalk our love birds of course. Can Kyuhyun actually sing?” she asked as she had never heard the younger singing before. Heechul smirked. “Prepare to be amazed.” He shot back already standing up.

The other three left the table following him and they sneaked to the garden, they walked slowly till they reached the windows for the music room on the first floor and peered through it. Kyuhyun and Jongwoon were still eating dessert but Sungmin was already on the piano, the melody he was playing was slow and beautiful, Sungmin’s voice along made it a pleasant surprise to both Youngwoon and Seoyeon.

“… I longed for it even more. Is this love? I want you feel just like me. Is this fate? I want you feel the same about me. I look at your back until you disappear. Already I am longing for your smile.” Sungmin was singing with a soft sad smile. Youngwoon stared at him, at his half side profile, the ways his head was lowered with his eyes closed as he flawlessly played the piano while singing. “Are there times when you feel afraid? That when you wake up from a long sleep, this would all be just a dream? Do you stay up all night praying without others knowing?” Youngwoon felt a strange ache in his heart as he listened to those words, somehow it seemed that Sungmin was truly in pain. “What do you think I feel? Are you happy? I want you feel just like me. Are you happy? I want you feel the same about me? Are you thankful like me for every single day? The days we breathe together. The days that will come and everything.” Sungmin opened his eyes and stared blankly at the piano keys. “Do you know it will be bright because you are with me? Do you know how much I think about you? Do you know how much I love you?  I always love you.” Youngwoon frowned because somehow those words, those last words felt so empty in his ears.

“Sungmin’s voice is heaven.” Seoyeon commented and Youngwoon looked at her, she was staring at Sungmin also, her eyes had a strange glint of admiration. “That was really nice, he composed that?” Jungsoo asked amazed. “That’s Lee Sungmin for you.” Heechul commented and Youngwoon frowned at the proud tone in the older male’s voice.

Suddenly Sungmin started to play the piano again, they were expecting him to sing again but instead it was Jongwoon. “My friends say that I’ve started to laugh or smile more. My friends say that I have a lot more secret. To be honest I’m cherishing them.” Jongwoon sang while reading the lyrics from a paper, beside him Kyuhyun continued. “You are special person to me. All the songs and love stories exist for us. What do you think I feel?”Jongwoon picked up. “Is this love?” Kyuhyun sang back “I want you feel just like me.” Jongwoon picked up again “Is this fate?” Kyuhyun sang the reply. “I want you feel the same about me.”

At that point Sungmin stopped. “No you two got a tempo wrong. Again.” And he started to play from the beginning again. The couple seemed to agree because they didn’t complain and just started all over. For the rest of the break they kept trying to get the tempo right, but sometimes they would mess up either by singing before they should, or after or even messing up with the English parts of the song.

There was something Youngwoon noticed though, when the couple got to sing the parts they had heard Sungmin singing when they arrived, Youngwoon could feel the difference. When Jongwoon and Kyuhyun sang it the song sounded lighter, sounded happy. Youngwoon could feel the reciprocated love dripping from those words, what felt empty coming from Sungmin, felt overflowing mutual emotions coming from Jongwoon and Kyuhyun.

The first bell announcing the end of lunch break rang. Youngwoon, Heechul, Seoyeon and Jungsoo hid under the window sill as the three friends inside the music room prepared themselves to go back to class. Youngwoon stayed a moment behind as he still looked up once he heard the door being open, but he saw that only Kyuhyun and Jongwoon had left. Sungmin stayed behind a moment still playing the piano, but it was another song he was playing, it was another melody.

“You aren’t sick, are you? I’m very worried. Though you must be happy, I will pray for you. Remember, even when you meet someone else, that I was once by your side.” Sungmin sang sadly and Youngwoon felt a strange ache in his heart. Suddenly he felt someone pulling him by his shirt. It was Heechul.

For the rest of his classes Youngwoon kept thinking back at his encounters with Sungmin and he once again felt that there was something wrong. It had been useless asking Jongwoon and Heechul so he went for the next best thing, that would probably be the best one: Kyuhyun.

Youngwoon didn’t approach the topic first thing after they arrived at the library, instead he reviewed Kyuhyun’s homework and passed on to the younger a new set of questions for him to answer. When Kyuhyun turned the first page of questions, Youngwoon decided he had waited enough. “Kyu.” He called softly, the younger hummed but didn’t look up from his writing. “Is Sungmin-ssi ok? I got the impression that he is somehow sad.”

Kyuhyun didn’t look from his papers, he had been expecting Youngwoon to question him as Jongwoon had already warned him that Youngwoon kept questioning things about Sungmin all day.

“He is not. He is sad.” The younger replied with a slightly uninterested tone, as if he wanted to pass the point he didn’t want to talk about it. Youngwoon frowned. “You know, this morning, I had the impression that I had hurt him, but I don’t even know why… is he really not my friend?”

At that question Kyuhyun looked up. “Hyung, Sungmin’s problem is very much personal, it’s something I cannot talk about with others, but I am sure that soon enough he will get better.” The younger answered using Sungmin’s family problems as coverage. He had feared that Youngwoon would need more pushes to pay attention to Sungmin, but at that moment he was glad it was not the case. Youngwoon would watch over.

“Personal? Could it be unrequited love?” Youngwoon asked somehow out of the blue. It was something Kyuhyun was so not expecting, that the younger frowned. “Now why would you ask that?” he asked surprised.

Youngwoon felt embarrassed. “We overheard the rehearsal…” he admitted and Kyuhyun just kept staring at his older friend. “The song he composed, when he sang it, it felt so sad, it sounded very unrequited, different when you sang with Jongwoon, your feelings were pouring from it.” Youngwoon tried to explain his point.

Kyuhyun shook his head slightly amazed. “Sungmin hyung, is facing some problems at home. Don’t beat yourself with it, hyung.” And, saying that, he went back to his math problems. Youngwoon pouted at the younger. Somehow he couldn’t buy it. How come Kyuhyun had a best friend he was not friends with? Something was fishy.