Kyong gathered his things while humming a song. It was a song his mother used to sing to him and his brother back in China while they helped her with cooking. His mother loved cooking and also was very good at it. She even had her own small restaurant. Most of the time Kyong always noticed that she was using this talent of hers to escape from reality; mostly from his second husband. Kyong's mother and stepfather were not the 'in love' type of people, they looked more like strangers living in the same household. That's why his mother gave all her attention to her kids and cooking. 

A warm smile appeared on Kyong's face as he stepped out of the hospital. His headphone connected to his phone, silently murmuring his mother's favorite song while listening to the voice recording she sent before Kyong arriving Korea, just in case his little son might miss her voice.

And she was very right.

Kyong missed his mother so much that every time he cooks, he automatically starts to sing the song, sometimes with tears in his eyes.

He fixed his coat and rubbed his hands to each other to warm himself up as he turned the corner to his house. He cursed at himself once again for not wearing a scarf and closed the voice recording before taking his headphones down.

"Finally!"

Kyong screamed in fear as someone suddenly yelled. He quickly looked up, only to see Xander standing on the pathway.

Kyong widened his eyes. "W-what the... Xan?!"

"Hi." Xander smiled. He was wearing a long coat with warm gloves on his hands. His scarf was closing half of his mouth, but still not being able to hide his reddened cheeks and nose. In his hands, he was holding two big bags.

"How... how did you even..."

"Father in a big place. Remember?"

Both of them smiled, but it was not long. Xander suddenly winced when he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. Kyong quickly got closer to him in concern. "Xan? Are you okay?"

Xander put his hand on the gate of the garden and placed his other hand on his stomach. He rubbed it as he took a deep breath. "I don't know. I was waiting for some time, so maybe it's because of the cold weather?"

Kyong panicked and quickly opened the door. "Then come inside."

After everything was done and Xander felt a little better, they got into the 'kitchen', which was actually nothing more than a couple countertops.

Kyong was living in a small studio apartment, which was way easier for him since he just come home to sleep and eat. He spent most of his time in the hospital, so this looked like a win-win situation for him. Plus, he found the opportunity to save money and send half of it to his family in China. They were not struggling, but since his stepfather was not really useful, Kyong felt the need to help them, just in case.

Xander sat on a countertop while Kyong opened the bags, his eyes grew with shock when he saw the bags were filled with food up to the brim. Ingredients for meals, drinks, desserts, snacks... From food items to even non-food items, such as a set of chopsticks, cups, and lunchboxes. And these were only half of it, it was just the first bag!

Kyong quickly closed the bag and shook his head as no. "I cannot accept these!"

Xander tilted his head to the left and closed his phone, giving his attention to Kyong and his panicked face. "Why?"

"Xander, what were you thinking? I cannot even finish these in a year! Please take them back. I cannot accept, this is too much." He never received anything like this, so he didn't even know the right way to decline it!

"Just take them. As a gift."

Kyong sighed and dropped his head, but something made him suddenly feel uncomfortable.

Very uncomfortable.

He knitted his eyebrows and lifted his head. Xander watched him in confusion as Kyong looked around his tiny little house, and moved his head to the curious-looking boy in front of him and the expensive clothes he was wearing. Then, he looked at his own clothes, which were quite cheap.

All of a sudden, his stomach twisted with an uneasy feeling. He looked at Xander with a hint of anger, but mostly,  disappointment in his eyes, which shocked him. "I am doing fine on my own, if that's what you are trying to imply. I'm not charity work."

When he realized what the older one was trying to tell, Xander suddenly felt furious. He widened his eyes and jumped down from the counter. "I was just trying to be nice since you told me you haven't been here for long and I thought maybe you didn't know many places to buy different ingredients." He took out a can of a drink and a box of pre-made sushi. "I always see you drink this one in the hospital but it's more expensive there than it is in supermarkets. And the convenience foods in this neighborhood sucks, so I just want to get you the ones I think are tasty because I want you to eat delicious food and take care of yourself!" He slammed the things in his hand on the counter and turned to Kyong with furious eyes. "I was just trying to help! Are you even aware of what you are accusing me of right now?!"

Kyong suddenly snapped out of it and realized what he said. He closed his mouth with his hand and looked at Xander with an apologetic look. "Oh God... I am so sorry, I really didn't mean to accuse you of such a rude thing." He sat on the stool and sighed, which slowly made Xander calm down as well. "I'm very sorry. I am not used to this, and where I grow up, people tend to think about someone and try to help them only when they pity them."

Xander sat beside him and placed his hand on the older one's leg. "I'm sorry for suddenly outbursting like that as well. I really don't know why I did that..." He calmly rubbed his leg and looked at his face with a sad smile. "Your neighborhood you said, are they bad people?"

Kyong's puppy face was back as he put his hand on top of Xander's and rubbed it while thinking. "Not really, but they were not the nicest either. They helped my family a lot when my father passed away, at least that's what my mom says. But then again, it was because they pitied my mom..." He looked at Xander's eyes and smiled softly. "I should have known that you were just trying to help and want what's good for me. Thank you."

Xander smiled as well and squeezed his hand. "No problem." When Kyong showed his gummy smile as always, Xander couldn't help himself but touch his cheek. He placed his other hand on his cheek and smiled with him. "You're cute, you know."

Kyong felt his ears burning. "W-what? No~" He tried to hide how flustered he was.

Xander silently smiled but once again, it was for a really short time. He slowly turned his back to Kyong in the kitchen, who had focused on cooking anyway, and went to the couch, then shrank in the couch he just sat as another wave of pain hit him. "Did something I ate is causing this..?"  he thought to himself.

Thinking it might go away if he stopped overthinking, he pulled his legs to himself and silently waited for this to be over.

(...)

Hwan closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again and continuing to watch outside of his room. His window was nearly the only thing that kept him connected to the outside world. Sure, his nurses sometimes took him outside to have some fresh air, but other than that, he hasn't been outside of the hospital for years.

He had been staying in this exact same room for more than 5 years, the way he turned out is pretty normal when you take that into account. 

He looked down and sighed silently before turning his head to the boy sitting on the chair. His nearly closing eyes with a tired expression made Hwan turn his body towards him and watch him with a little smile. Joo-Won looked like a sleepy baby, if you left him like that for a few minutes, he might just fall asleep like that! Joo-Won closed his eyes and stayed like that for some time until he slowly opened them again.

Hwan patted his shoulder, which made poor Joo-Won jump in fear. "Oh, sorry." Hwan watched Joo-Won as he calmed himself and put his hand on his heart, which was racing because of the sudden voice. "You should head back. It's pretty late."

"What about you?"

Hwan looked at him with a slightly curious face. "Hm?"

"You should get some sleep too."

"I don't really sleep."

Silence.

"Then I won't either."

Hwan raised one of his eyebrows. "Wha-"

But before he could even finish, Joo-Won quickly got up and got out of the room, walking weirdly because he was still sleepy. Hwan just blinked a few times before turning his head to the window once again, not having a clue about what just happened. He continued to watch the stars and the cloudy sky.

The night sky always mesmerized him, never failing to make Hwan feel slightly better every time. You see, he was a-

"I'm back!"

Hwan turned to the door again, a mild annoyance in his face this time. Joo-Won was holding two cups of coffee in his hands and a small bag. He looked way more awake than he was a minute ago or something. He sat down on the chair once again and put the coffees on the side table. He opened the bag and took out a slice of cheesecake in a box, which he opened and placed beside the coffees. "I thought you might like it. And I bought Americano, Kyong told me you liked it."

"You use Kyong as a spy?"

"Pffft! Whaaaat! Nononono! Nooooooo-" His voice faded as he saw the annoyed and slightly irritated expression on Hwan's face. "I just asked this one I swear."

Hwan rolled his eyes and nodded, taking the coffee and drinking it.

"Soooo... Since we will be here for some time, why don't we just... Use this time to get to know each other?"

Hwan put down his coffee and looked at Joo-Won. "Do I have another choice?"

"Nope! What about an icebreaker? We will reveal a fact about ourselves. Okay?" Joo-Won asked with his puppy smile.

Hwan huffed and signaled him to start.

"Okay then! Hm... I really, really love cooking. I started it when I was 8. Whenever I feel sad, angry, excited, actually whenever I feel an emotion, I cook something."

"Wow. Interesting."

Silence...

"Your... your turn."

"Oh, uh... I thought if I stay silent enough maybe you would forget about me."

"Nope you are still here and I am all ears."

Hwan sighed and looked around, thinking about what to say since he didn't remember too much, and the things that he did remember were... not really fun memories. "Okay... I was actually born with violet eyes."

"What?! You are kidding right now."

"No for real. Doctors explained that it was a rare case for babies to be born with violet eyes, but not impossible. They only stayed like that for a few weeks before changing to dark brown."

"Oh wow... This is so interesting!"

Hwan smiled and took a sip of his coffee. "Your turn." Maybe this game was not such a bad idea after all.

"I used to play the violin, but got too bored of it and decided to drop it."

Hwan laughed. "I used to play guitar, but haven't even touched it for 6 years or so."

Joo-Won laughed too.

"Your turn."

"Okay. Hm... I used to live in Japan for a while. I even had a foreign boyfriend." When Joo-Won realized what he just said, he widened his eyes and cursed himself.

"Foreign? Boyfriend? Tell me more."

Seeing Hwan interested for the first time, Joo-Won couldn't help but continue even though that was not what he planned. At all.

"His name was Yukio. His father was Chinese while his mother was Japanese. We met in Japan when I was there for the first years of high school and dated for two and a half years. After that, we continued our relationship from a long distance since I needed to come back to Korea. That's it." Even talking about him and saying his name out loud made Joo-Won feel sick. He took a deep breath and blinked a few times, hoping he won't talk more.

But surprisingly, Hwan was even more interested. He never had the chance to date someone, let alone a foreign boy. So, he was curious. 

Hwan couldn't help but laugh wryly as Joo-Won was taking a sip of his coffee. "Ugh, long-distance relationship? Even I know they never work. What happened, you got bored of him too and broke up or something?"

Joo-Won stopped for a few seconds with his cup in his mouth. Probably for the first time, Joo-Won felt uneasy around Hwan. "No. Just... Don't say things like that. Please."

Hwan rolled his eyes, not even realizing how tense Joo-Won looked. "Why? Was it a rough break-up? Was he the one who broke up with you? He probably-"

Suddenly, Joo-Won put his cup on the side table, with a little pressure to make noise and make Hwan stop talking. He didn't even feel the boiling coffee dripping onto his hand because of his force. "He died, Hwan. He... died."

Only then did he realize the burning sensation on his hand, and pulled his hand to himself. He lifted his head, only to see Hwan's shocked face. His eyes widened, his smile dropping because of shock. He was feeling so guilty that he just wanted to die at that moment.

And this only increased when Joo-Won's eyes started to tear up and his voice cracked. "He... um...  He was too pure for this... cruel world, maybe even a bit different. And people used this against him, which led him to suicide."

"I... I am so sorry..."

Joo-Won nodded, but stopped when he noticed that Hwan was scraping his hand. He smiled softly and gently placed his hand on top of his. When Hwan looked into his eyes with a small surprise, Joo-Won smiled at him sadly. "Remember what you told me? You couldn't know. Just try not to jump into assumptions the next time... And also, I like talking about him. It helps me to remember that not all humans are disgusting." He softly caressed the top of Hwan's hand with his thumb. "Don't blame yourself, okay?"

Hwan just nodded in silence, still blaming himself for bringing up the subject again even though Joo-Won stopped talking.

The rest of the night passed in silence and ended with Hwan eventually falling asleep towards morning while watching the view out of the small window. Joo-Won watched the sleeping boy, smiling sadly and caressing his hand for the last time before getting up and silently walking out of the room.