He needs to bring it up.

 

Yunho knows he does.

 

Two days ago he’d gotten a phone call telling him that he’d gotten in as a trainee for S.M. Entertainment. They would watch his progress and further on decide if they were going to let him sign a contract. He’d been so ecstatic that he’d spent the next two days smiling so hard it felt like his cheeks were going to split in two. He prayed for the boy, Changmin, who helped him get home. They raised karaoke bar and bar until they’d both had a reasonable amount of coin in their pockets. The goodbye was awkward and Changmin had been grumpy the whole time, but Yunho was still thankful.

 

He’d told Jihye, his little sister, in confidence. She had congratulated him at first, but then given him a serious look and said, “you know dad’s not going to say yes, right?”

 

Yunho… well, he knew it was going to be a challenge. From the moment he decided he wanted to audition, he knew the biggest obstacle for this all was to get his father’s blessings. His mother wouldn’t exactly be happy with it, but she wouldn’t stop him, either. She just wouldn’t support him and secretly wish he would give it up.

 

He’s sitting at the dinner table with his family when he takes a large breath and puts down his spoon. “Father, Mum, I’ve got something to tell you.”

 

Jihye gives him a deliberate look, wide eyed, and kicks him under the table. “Oppa,” she hisses quietly between her teeth.

 

Yunho ignores her.

 

“I went to audition at S.M. entertainment, and I’ve been accepted as a trainee.” Yunho doesn’t look up from the middle of the table. It’s not that he’s scared, he’s just trying to keep himself calm and balanced.

 

His father puts down his bowl and folds his hands together. “That’s in Seoul.”

 

Yunho nods and resists the urge to toy with his hands and bite his lip. “Yes, sir. I promise I won’t let my grades fall. If they do, you can pull me out right away. I’ll only go to Seoul during the holidays to train. I’ll make my own money, I’ll make it on my own, so please let me at least try.”

 

His father shakes his head and picks his spoon back up. “Don’t expect any help from us.”

 

Yunho grins behind his hand, because that’s the closest he’s going to get to a yes.

 

 

---

 

 

The weather slips from autumn to winter, and Changmin spends his first December alone.

 

It’s lonelier than he thought it would be.

 

The loneliness he’d felt before that could do nothing to match the sting of the winter wind that kept him up, shivering until two in the morning before he could finally force himself to sleep. The station got colder and colder, and the barrier around his heart froze along with the sidewalks.

 

Changmin had always heard that firsts without something were the hardest, and he really understands it when he spends his first the first Christmas by himself. There’s no presents, no heater, no contact with anyone but himself and the subway walls. He begs for a few coins, and passing strangers seeing a kid so alone on Christmas day shoot him looks of sympathy and he ends up making around fifteen thousand won. He knows he should save the money and buy himself something practical, but he feels so alone and frustrated and so close to tears that he decides to indulge. He finds one of the rare open shops on Christmas day and orders the cheapest hot dish he can find, but it warms him from the inside and makes him feel that much better.

 

Changmin sees Hyunwoo that night at the subway station and he smiles. Hyunwoo is his only real friend in the homeless community that hangs around the station. Most were much older in this area, in their thirties and forties, and Changmin was too intimidated to try strike up conversation with any of them, and none seemed inclined to take them under their wing, either. They were working hard enough to support themselves, they didn’t have room to care about a lost boy with nowhere to go.

 

Hyunwoo is different. He had approached Changmin and they had struck up a conversation just after the boy Changmin had met, Yunho, had left. Hyunwoo is sixteen, four years older than himself, and he’s told Changmin that he’s a schizophrenic and his parents kicked him out of home. Changmin told Hyunwoo that he can relate, because he also was kicked out.

 

He leaves out the reason.

 

They sleep huddled side by side on Christmas night, part because they’re lonely, part because it’s so cold their hands are turning blue. Changmin’s just grateful to have someone next to him for once.

 

They share food, share company, share stories until they’re laughing so hard there are stitches in their sides. Changmin is very fond of the tall boy with black hair chopped messily in chunks like he’d hacked scissors in there without a care. His eyes are wide and bright, and a little wild in the way they dart from spot to spot.

 

 

They spend Changmin’s birthday together, and Hyunwoo gives him a backrub that Changmin will remember for the rest of his life because it was so superb.

 

Hyunwoo leaves when the summer’s nearing, and Changmin never gets to even ask where he’s going before he doesn’t comes back. Changmin fears the worst, but Seoul is a big city and he’s just a boy, so there’s no way for him to know. He spends the night Hyunwoo disappears holding back tears.

 

 

Changmin sees Hyunwoo again at the end of the same summer he left. He looks wilder than before, his eyes darting in all directions, and there’s a burn mark scarred around his neck and his left arm hangs limply at its side. He approaches Changmin, stumbling, and his eyes are wide and scared. He hugs Changmin as soon as he’s close enough, and even though Changmin wants to recoil on instinct, he stays still and lets it happen. Hyunwoo only wraps one arm around, and Changmin tries to peer at the other. It looks like he’s lost function of it.

 

“What happened to your arm?” he asks, still being squeezed tight.

 

Hyunwoo shrinks back and his hand is shaking as he pulls up his sleeve. There’s a jagged scar, wide and spanning from the middle of his elbow to his wrist. Changmin feels sick just looking at it. “Did you know over forty percent of schizophrenics try to kill themselves? They k-kept saying that, that he would save me, Christ would, but I’m still not…” he trails off and stares at something behind Changmin. He shakes his head and tries to smile at Changmin, but it comes out as a grimace.

 

Changmin doesn’t know what else to do but smile back. The burn mark on his throat suddenly makes a lot more sense, now.

 

Hyunwoo screams in his sleep. He screams, and when he wakes up, he screams some more. Eventually, he’s chased out from the subway by the others for distracting their sleep and peace. Changmin follows, because Hyunwoo is all he has at the moment. Hyunwoo was the first person he counted on to be by his side when he needed it—but he realises now it’s a foolish dream to hope Hyunwoo will stay by his side. The older boy needs help, and all Changmin can do is watch as he screams and claws at his skin. He can’t even send him to a hospital, because there’s nothing he can do with an empty wallet. For the first time, he doesn’t just feel sad for being homeless and poor, he feels resentful. He hates the fact that everyone else gets to go back home at the end of the day. He hates that people have money to afford things like shelter, food, and treatment.

 

The horrifying fact strikes Changmin that were he ever to get sick, there would be no way to fix it.

 

Changmin’s a lot smaller than Hyunwoo, but some nights he has to use all the energy he has to hold Hyunwoo to the floor so he won’t crack his head on the pavement and die. It’s terrifying, and the more Hyunwoo sinks into his illness, the more he feels alone.

 

Hyunwoo becomes the furthest thing to a constant in his life. He appears and disappears at the click of his fingers. Sometimes he comes back looking fresher and more awake, and other time he can barely walk in a straight line or think to look ahead. Changmin resolves that one day, when he has the power, he’ll make it okay. One day when he has money and a roof like every other person in this damn city, he’ll do everything in his power to help Hyunwoo. Changmin starts out small.

He picks up a job sweeping floors, and when the snow starts falling, he picks up a job in the early hours of the morning, before anyone’s awake, and he throws sand on the snow to stop it from being slippery. It’s horrible, and his coat is so thin that he spends the whole time shivering, lips blue, but he endures. He can’t give Hyunwoo a home with the pathetic amounts of money he earns, but he can feed him. Hyunwoo disappears two weeks into the winter, and Changmin doesn’t know when he’ll come back. He keeps working, keeps it together, because even if he doesn’t have Hyunwoo here to motivate him, he has to live.

 

 

---

 

 

Yunho’s knee deep in snow and sweating in his coat despite the freezing weather when he catches a glimpse of a lanky, black haired teen who looks kind of familiar. He narrows his eyes—his eyesight isn’t great but when he wears his glasses to work they just end up getting fogged up snowed on. The figure comes closer and Yunho can see he’s also carrying a pack of sand on his back. He squints twice as hard and gasps when the kid gets closer.

 

He can’t believe his eyes, but right in from of him is Changmin.

 

It’s been a year since he’d last seen the boy, and he almost can’t believe he’s running into him again.

 

“Hey,” Yunho shouts, “Changmin!”

 

The kid whips around, surprised, and his eyes fall on Yunho. His mouth drops open in surprise.

 

“Hey, aren’t you that Gwangju hyung that got mugged?”

 

Well, Yunho thinks there are better ways to be remembered, but. “That’s the one. Yunho, remember?”

 

He nods and actually kind of seems genuinely glad to see him. He waddles in the snow until they’re within reach of each other. Changmin grins.

 

“Come on another trip to Seoul, huh?”

 

The kid’s still rude as ever, but a certain fondness spreads through Yunho’s chest. He doesn’t really know anyone else here, and even though it was a year ago, it’s still nice to see and talk to a familiar face. Seoul is cold and lonely, and it’s not quite that Yunho hates it, he’s just… feeling lost.

 

It doesn’t help that he has nowhere to sleep at the moment and he’s taking refuge under bridges and on park benches. Yunho’s mastered the art of sleeping on park benches and not getting cold. If you twist your legs so and cross your arms, palms underneath your armpits, and then curl into a ball it’s not too difficult to handle.

 

“Yeah. I’m staying here for now. Are you still…?” Yunho’s words die in his lips, because he’s not sure if Changmin will get offended.

 

He doesn’t and just smiles. “Homeless? Yeah.”

 

Yunho smiles, half twisted. It’s not really genuine, more of a parody. “Guess we’re in the same boat then.”

 

Changmin’s head jerks up and his eyebrows furrow together. He looks really ing sad. “What? What happened?”

 

Yunho blows his fringe out of his face. “Decided to follow my dreams. Dad was all ‘well I’m not going to support you’ and I said ‘that’s fine’. So, here I am.”

“Oh. That really , man.” He sounds really genuine about it, too.

 

Yunho shrugs. “I guess, but it is my choice. I mean it’s not as if anyone’s forcing me to throw sand at snow at four in the morning. I can go home if I want to, but there’s something I want to do.”

 

“Still,” Changmin mumbles, playing with the hem of his beaten up jacket. “.”

 

Yunho takes a really good look at him. His face is still round as ever, but his scrawny body has filled out a bit. He’s even got a hint of muscles building in his arms. He still looks younger than his actual age, though.

 

“You look… good though. I mean, healthier.”

 

Changmin shrugs. “I’m old enough to work now, so. I can’t exactly afford a roof over my head by shovelling and salting snow, but I have enough to eat.”

 

“That’s good. I’m glad.” Yunho feels this pressure lift from his chest. He hardly even knows the kid, but knowing he’s fairing a bit better than when Yunho last saw him makes him relieved.

 

There’s a bit of an awkward silence where Changmin looks like he wants to say something, and Yunho waits.

 

Changmin apparently finally grows a pair and asks, “So where are you sleeping?”

 

Yunho shrugs. “Wherever is close, I guess. Like, around the Han River, and Cheongdam park.”

 

Changmin bristles and shakes his head. “You shouldn’t sleep around there. It can be dangerous. And it’s freezing. Do you even have anything to sleep in? Look, I can take you to where I sleep. It’s a lot warmer and a hell of a lot safer.”

 

“No, its okay, you don’t have to. I’m taking Hapkido so I can defend myself if I need to.”

 

Changmin rolls his eyes. “How are you going to defend yourself if you’re asleep and alone? Seriously, how have you survived so far?”

 

Yunho colours a bit. Yeah, this is definitely the Changmin he remembers. “Shut up.”

 

“What time do you get off work?”

 

“Um,” Yunho says cocking his head to the side. “At around seven.”

 

“Great. I finish at basically the same time so—you know Cheongdam station?”

 

“Yeah.” It’s not too far from where he works in the early mornings.

 

“After you’ve finished, go there and I’ll meet you at the main entrance. Just wait outside, I might be a bit later, but.”

 

“I don’t have anything else to do for a while,” Yunho says.

 

Changmin adjusts the sack of sand on his back and holds out his hand.

 

A bit startled, Yunho shakes it. Changmin grins wide and says, “nice to meet you again.”

 

“Yeah,” Yunho mumbles, “you too.”

 

Changmin waves and bounces off into the darkness.

 

Yunho’s stomach is doing these funny flips and he feels sick.

 

 

They meet at the station and find a place to sit. Changmin feels Yunho’s eyes on him, and he tries to ignore him but then finally snaps and asks, “what are you looking at?”

 

“Just… why are you being so nice to me? I mean, I’m practically a stranger.”

 

Changmin shrugs, but the truth is he’s a bit lonely.

 

No, that’s a gross understatement. He’s ing miserable and isolated. He’s being living with the company of addicts and Hyunwoo, whom he loves, but he can’t exactly have a decent conversation with the majority of them time. He’s so starved for any sort of normal interaction that he feels like he’s wilting. He’s made acquaintances, sure, but they’ve all either moved away or found jobs and gotten on with their lives. But Changmin is still here, and he’s still got nowhere to go, and no idea where to go from this point onwards.

 

He’s normally never this friendly or helpful, but for some reason Yunho gives him this feeling of comfort. The first time they’d met, Yunho and him had snarled and jabbed at one another, but he didn’t forget about him even after they parted. The memories of lifting the couches in the karaoke rooms and scrabbling for change from under machines are ones he’s strangely fond of. They’d only stayed together for three days, but Changmin still feels warm.

 

“I don’t know.” Changmin lies. “You just seem nice, I guess?”

 

“Wow. I’m shocked.” Yunho does in fact genuinely look surprised. “I kind of thought you hated me.”

 

Changmin throws a punch at Yunho’s leg, and Yunho cries out in surprise. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like you, either. It’s probably just a guilt thing so don’t feel special or anything.”

 

“Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine,” Yunho grumbles, rubbing his leg.

 

Changmin gives him a burst of laughter.

 

 

---

 

 

 

Changmin is woken one night by the sound of scuffling feet and singing.

 

“God,” Changmin whines. “What the hell are you doing?”

 

He manages to crack an eye open, and he realises Yunho is singing and dancing. Involuntarily, Changmin lets out a snort of laughter. This makes Yunho pause, and he looks down at Changmin, offended.

 

“No it’s just—“ Changmin bursts into peals of laughter, sleep still clouding his mind.

 

“Am I that bad?” Yunho asks. He looks kind of worried now, and Changmin does feel kind of bad, but he can’t stop himself from laughing.

 

“N-no,” he manages through the bubbles of laughter. “It’s just so weirdto be up at—“ he glances around—“god knows what time in the morning, singing and dancing. The rest of the world’s still asleep, and you—“ Changmin laughs again. He’s not even sure why it’s that funny, but he’s pretty sure it’s got something to do with the small amount of sleep he’s had.

 

After that, Changmin likes to watch Yunho dance. He gives him ‘pointers’ which are more thinly veiled insults, but it’s all good natured and he knows Yunho knows this. He amazed at the way Yunho moves to imaginary beats in his head. While he’s excellent technically, not that Changmin is exactly a dancing critique, but he’s not blind either, Yunho just radiates life. Changmin could see from a mile away how happy dancing makes Yunho, and it warms him from the inside out. The winter wind doesn’t feel as cold when Yunho’s around.

 

For the first time in his life, Changmin kind of feels like dancing.

 

“We should see if we can get a music players. Like one of those CD things. People throw them out all the time during garbage collection, so I’m sure if we looked hard enough we could find one. It’s probably hard to dance with no music, right?”

 

Yunho pauses after a spin and grabs his knees, puffing. “It’s kind of weird without it. I can sing it myself and get into the rhythm, but it gets tiring doing both.” Yunho looks at Changmin and then quirks a brow. “Say, Changmin.”

 

“Oh god. What is it?”

 

“You wouldn’t be able to sing for me, would you?”

 

Changmin’s eyes almost bulge out of his skull. “You want me to sing?”

 

“Just a few lines. Pretty please? It’ll help me out soooo much!”

 

Yunho starts looking at him with these horrible puppy eyes that kind of slaughter some of the coldness around Changmin’s heart. It’s really unfair.

 

“If I sing for you,” Changmin says, already regretting this decision. “It doesn’t leave this place. And you won’t ever mention it again. And, it’s just a one off thing because I happen to be feeling generous today.”

 

Yunho nods then laughs. “Is it really that bad?”

 

Changmin ignores him and starts clicking his fingers, finding a rhythm then starting to sing a few lines of H.O.T’s We Are the Future. He stops when he realised Yunho isn’t listening and Changmin feels like his whole body is burning red with embarrassment.

 

Yunho’s looking down at him with wide eyes.

 

“What?” Changmin snaps, defensive.

 

“Do you actually have any idea how good you are?”

 

Changmin crosses his arms. “Don’t tease me.”

 

“I’m not!” Yunho exclaims. “I’m serious, you’re actually really, really good. Sing again, sing again!”

 

Changmin stretches out his leg and kicks Yunho’s shin.

 

“Ah! What was that for?!”

 

“Felt like it.”

 

Yunho grumbles and goes back to dancing in the silence.

 

It doesn’t stop him from asking Changmin to sing again the next day. And the day after that. And the one after that…

 

Yunho has so many bruises on his shin’s he’s surprised he can still walk.

 

But finally Changmin cracks and sings for him again. It’s like angels are descending from the heavens, and okay, Yunho thinks he’s being a tad over dramatic, but he really does love Changmin’s voice.

 

Once he finally gets the boy to sing though, he never stops. He turns into a walking jukebox, except instead of feeding the machine money, you give it food and it sings.

 

Yunho’s definitely not complaining.

 

 

Changmin picks at the ground, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth one night. His brow is furrowed and he lets the silence hang between them. Yunho pesters him to just spit it out until Changmin shoots up after a few moments, startling Yunho, and says, “can you teach me how to dance?”

 

Yunho doesn’t ever let him forget he asked, and no matter how much Changmin grumbles, he forces him to join anyway.

 

They form an unspoken agreement. When the nights are so cold and the concrete is stealing the heat from their bones, Yunho drags Changmin up and forces him to sing, white wisps of breath making him look like some kind of fairy in the dark.

 

Yunho dances and warms himself, and then pulls a grumbling Changmin up who always complains, ‘no, stop, I don’t like dancing’, and whines about Yunho being too enthusiastic for his own good.

But when they eventually collapse into a heap and their limbs are aching and sore, Yunho can see Changmin smile behind his hand.

 

Yunho raps and practices that, while Changmin usually sings the other parts. He has an attempt at rapping, but it’s so pitiful he gives it up within minutes.

 

 

---

 

 

 

 

Changmin and Yunho spend Christmas together.

 

It’s freezing and Changmin thinks it might snow, which would be nice and romantic, or whatever, if he actually had a home. As it is, he’s just freezing his off. He guesses he should be grateful to have Yunho with him, because he’s snuggled up to his side and was shivering so much he practically wrapped around Changmin like an octopus.

 

Even though Changmin hates contact, he deals with it because he’s just as freezing. The tips of his fingers are turning blue.

 

“This is not quite how I envisioned spending Christmas,” Yunho confesses.

 

“What do you usually do on Christmas?”

 

“Hmm,” Yunho closes his eyes, almost able to smell the taste of Christmas at his home. “We light up the fireplace and open presents there. Mum usually makes some kind of hot chocolate for us, and she and dad drink ‘special juice’. They try to be sneaky about it, but I know they put something ridiculously strong in there. It’s the only way they could be so cheerful while listening to those god awful Christmas songs. Then we all sit down for lunch, and call our family and friends over, and my mums obsessed with turkeys for some reason, so there’s always one of those. Oh, and gingerbread men for desert, too. We used to try make houses, but after this one time… yeah, we just stick to the little things now.”

 

Yunho glances at Changmin and sees that the younger has his eyes closed when he listens. A small smile he thinks Changmin doesn’t even know is there is playing on his lips, and Yunho thinks he must be imagining it.

 

“Hey, Changmin?” Yunho seems uncertain. “How… how long have you been homeless?”

 

Changmin thinks Christmas day is an awfully bad day to discuss this point of topic, but he’s freezing and needs something to keep his mind stimulated. “Since I was twelve. When you met me for the first time, I’d been homeless for about three months.”

 

“I’m not allowed to ask why, am I?”

 

He shakes his head. “No, you’re not. And I’m not even allowed to get angry at you because it’s Christmas.”

 

Yunho smiles and leans impossibly closer.

 

 

They spend Christmas day in a shopping mall, hopping between heaters and trying on all different kinds of ugly clothes and hats.

 

“How do I look?” Changmin says, coming out of the change room in a blue shiny suit with sequins decorating the collar.

 

Yunho bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, you have to take a look at yourself.” He grabs Changmin by the wrist and drags him in front of the mirror, standing behind the younger and pushing him forward. “You’re so handsome,” Yunho teases.

 

Changmin guffaws and does a little spin.

 

“Wait, wait,” Yunho says, skipping away and scanning through the rack of hats. He picks up a hideously purple one with a feather sticking out the side and walks back to Changmin, trying to keep his laughter in so hard that he ends up wobbling a bit.

 

The shopkeeper is glaring at him with her beady little eyes, but Yunho decides that it’s Christmas so it doesn’t matter anyway.

 

She’s obviously just missing the Christmas cheer.

 

Yunho shoves the hat on top of Changmin’s head to complete the outfit. “Oh my god. You should model for Vogue.”

 

Changmin pulls a pose that has Yunho on his knees, laughing so hard he starts crying.

 

 

“Wait here,” Changmin tells him with a cheeky smirk, pushing Yunho down on a bench in the middle of the food court.

 

‘Where are you going?’ Yunho wants to ask, but Changmin’s already raced off at dangerous speeds. He sits and twiddles with his fingers, wondering if maybe Changmin’s decided to play some joke on him because it has been almost twenty minutes and he’s still not back. He’s just about to get up and start searching himself when he catches the thirteen year old bouncing back with a big grin on his face and two cups in his hands.

 

“Here,” he says, handing on of the cups to Yunho. “I got you a hot chocolate, I’m sorry I don’t really know what you like.”

 

Yunho’s mouth is already watering. “No. No, I love hot chocolate. Thank you.”

 

Changmin smiles so sweetly Yunho thinks he’s going to explode.

 

Yunho takes a big gulp and it burns his tongue and throat, but he doesn’t really care. It’s the best thing he’s tasted in a long while. Something clicks in his head and he takes the cup away from his lips and eyes it suspiciously. “But you said you didn’t have any money.”

 

Changmin opens his eyes wide and takes a long, deliberate sip.

 

“Did you…” Yunho’s mouth hangs open. “Did you steal these?”

 

Changmin smirks and says, “it’s Christmas.”

 

Yunho can’t find it in himself to argue with that.

 

 

Yunho’s almost bursting with excitement.

 

He can’t wait to give Changmin his Christmas present. It’s not like it was expensive or particularly fancy, but he saved up the tiny amounts of money he could scramble from his part time jobs that he didn’t use on food and necessities.

 

It’s a maroon beanie that’s soft incredibly warm on the inside. Yunho had gone all out and spent a very reasonable amount of money to make sure he could get the best quality he could afford. He wanted it to be something that Changmin could keep him warm for next Winter, and the one after that.

 

Changmin picks up on his excitement and laughs. “What are you all happy about?”

 

“Nothing,” Yunho says too quickly.

 

Changmin gives him an odd look but drops the question.

 

They’re sitting just outside the station’s entrance on a wall, and under the cover of the roof because a light smatter of snow started floating down.

 

Changmin’s got his blanket out of his bag and wrapped around him like a cocoon.

 

Yunho leans forward and tucks it around his neck tighter. Changmin smiles and blushes, burrowing deeper into his burrito of blankets. Yunho laughs and ruffles the younger’s hair.

 

“I kind of—“ Yunho stutters, embarrassed. “Kind of got you something. For Christmas.” He rummages in his bag and pulls out the beanie, wrapped horrifically in some gaudy brown, yellow, and green wrapping paper. Yunho thinks it’s probably one of the ugliest things he’s ever seen, but it was on sale.

 

Changmin looks at him with wide eyes. “But…”

 

“You got me hot chocolate, remember?” Yunho reminds him, practically shoving the packet in his face.

 

He didn’t have any sticky tape, so he just wrapped it around until it stayed.

 

Changmin rips into the paper hungrily and pulls out the maroon beanie. Yunho thinks he can almost see stars in Changmin’s eyes.

 

Changmin doesn’t say thank you, but he pulls the beanie on within a moment and tucks his nose into his blanket.

 

Yunho can still see his smile from a mile away, though.

 

 

---

 

 

Yunho spends all day at the S.M. building, training, then spends his nights being a waiter at a local restaurant. They give him this lovely clean uniform that he asks them to keep, and they’re even so kind to wash it for him.

 

Changmin spends the early mornings with Yunho throwing sand on the snow, then the day waiting for Yunho to get back so he can go to sleep with an easy mind. During the day, if he’s feeling good enough and it’s not raining nor snowing, he picks up bottles from the streets and collects them in plastic shopping bags. When he’s carrying as much as he feels he can manage, or it’s not too far off from getting dark (and the sun hides behind the horizon early during these cold winter days), he turns the bottles in for small change.

 

They don’t see each other a whole lot except for when they sleep and when they work together, but even when they work, more often than not they have to split into different areas. When they do work together though, Changmin has the time of his life. Amidst the ing they throw at each other, he finds out that Yunho is actually really quite funny. It’s not in the way he speaks (even though Changmin does find his Gwangju accent pretty hilarious), it’s just him in general that makes him laugh.

 

Yunho is so clumsy Changmin can hardly believe his eyes. He trips of everything and nothing, and his body never seems to co-operate with his mind. Changmin can’t be bothered holding back his laughter to save Yunho’s pride.

 

When he walks, he takes up the same amount of space three people would. He weaves left and right and bumps into people’s shoulders, apologising profusely, then doing it again two minutes later. Changmin thinks the man is truly unique.

 

He really does like spending time with Yunho, although he will never admit it out loud, the man’s company makes him feel warm inside.

 

That’s why, when Yunho tells him he’s going home, he pouts for the rest of the day.

 

 

It’s almost the middle of January when Yunho brings it up.

 

“I’m going home tomorrow,” Yunho says, and Changmin feels his chest split in two.

 

“Oh.” It’s all he can say, and he thinks he might cry if he says anything else.

 

“I’ll be back in June when it’s the holidays again. I promise.”

 

Changmin kind of wants to beg Yunho to bring him with, but it’s too much to ask. Far too much. So he bites his tongue and smiles. “Bring me something nice when you come back here.”

 

“I’ll get you a nice birthday present.”

 

 

Yunho comes back in April when he’s got a week off with a CD player. “You can use it with headphones, and it can play music,” Yunho proudly exclaims.

 

Changmin uses it so much that the brand name printed on scrubs off under his fingers.