Synopsis:

Yunho was lost between the black and white keys while Jaejoong was the one who fell into the koi pond.  And Yoochun?  Yoochun was but a mere spectator.











Yoochun traces his fingers across the printed cover with a fond smile.  The word ‘epoch’ is written in an elegant cursive at the center of the photo album.  Something coils in his stomach as he flips the first page open. The first picture he sees is a fading photograph of two crying babies lying next to each other in an unusually large crib.  The smaller of the two babies held his arm out, hitting the other baby with the rattle on his hand, while both of them erupt in ugly cries.  It was a comical yet endearing sight.


The smile on Yoochun’s face widens.


Yoochun had known Jaejoong ever since forever.  They had lived next to each other all their lives after all.  Their mothers were sisters and had decided to settle next to each other after marriage.  They even planned to get children at the same time (which in Yoochun’s opinion, were ludicrous.  Pfft, women).  However, Yoochun, strong-willed even before birth, decided to pop out early, a few months earlier than his due date, automatically giving him the privilege of being the older between them two.


So, on 31 January 1988 at exactly 2:14 am, a baby boy was born.  3 months later, another followed suit.


Jaejoong, to Yoochun, was like a sibling he never had.  To Yoochun, befriending Jaejoong wasn’t a desire, it was an obligation.  Their parents put them next to each other and just expected them to click.


So just imagine a 3 months old Yoochun sleeping quietly on his crib only to be awoken when he felt something being placed next to him.  It was a baby boy, quite smaller than he was.  Yoochun stared with curious eyes for a while, while their mothers cooed before them.


“Oh, just look at them.  How adorable.”

“Look at him, Yoochunnie.  His name is Jaejoongie.  And he is going to be your friend from now on.”  His mother had said even though she knew Yoochun didn’t understand her.


Yoochun continued staring for a while.  At least until the smaller baby smacked him on the face with a rattle.  It didn’t hurt, but Yoochun was a baby, so he cried.  Jaejoong cried as well, just harder, as though his lung was about to pop out.  So, all attention went to him.


Click.


From then on, his life with the devil’s-spawn that was Kim Jaejoong began. And that was 27 years ago.


The sound of piano keys being pressed haphazardly prompts Yoochun to look up.  The noise comes from their piano room, he guess his housemate must’ve fell into one of his mood swings again.


The melody was harsh for a moment, borderline violent, before it mellows into a wistful and melancholic rhythm.  Yoochun stares into thin air for a couple of seconds upon hearing that familiar composition. 


He gives a furtive glance at the door of the piano room as he exhales heavily.  The unpleasant feeling that has been lingering at the pit of his stomach intensifies as the music proceeds.


Nevertheless, he choose to ignore the burst of nostalgia he feels as he gingerly slides through the pages of the photo album.  His eyes skids past some photos, a few consists of candid shots of him alone, while the others with his parents or Jaejoong.


You can tell that he had been a quiet kid based on those photos alone.  That quiet, mousy Yoochun kid who always hung around at the background, only keeping to himself while other kids ran rampant in mischief.


His thumb stops at one photo of him and his mother.  Tears pool in his eyes, but he holds it in as he focus his blurry eyes on that snap.  His mother was looking at the camera with a wide smile while holding him from behind, while the teary 5-year old Yoochun looks away distractedly, staring dramatically at piece of painting scrunched up on his tiny little hand.  The 5-year old Jaejoong somehow photo-bombed them when half of his body appears at the end of the photo, his eyes crinkling happily as he smiled that gorgeous smile of his while holding a piece of blue crayon that had been snapped in half.


Oh Jaejoong.  Yoochun smiles endearingly at that photo and the bittersweet nostalgia behind it.



Yoochun didn’t know what he did wrong to warrant the hate that Jaejoong harbored towards him. 


“How ugly.  Why is your aero-plane brown, like a poop?” a voice came from behind his shoulder.  Yoochun glanced behind and saw Jaejoong scrunching his face distastefully at his drawing.  Yoochun ignored the little critique and continued drawing.


Occasional shrieks and giggles could be heard since this was a birthday party after all – Yoochun’s mom’s – and all the neighbors nearby along with their kids had been invited.  The drawing that had been keeping Yoochun preoccupied itself was a gift Yoochun plans to give to his mother.


Jaejoong harrumphed, annoyed at being ignored.  He looked around for a while, looking a little lost, before he plopped down next to Yoochun, face still sour.  There was no other choice.  It’s not like he was friends with any other person here except for Yoochun.  His mom was too busy chatting with Yoochun’s mom in the kitchen, and when Jaejoong had clung to her skirt earlier while begging for ice cream, she scolded him and told him to bother Yoochun instead.  So now, here he was.


His curious little eyes fell on Yoochun’s colorful crayon set, and when nosiness kicks in and he leaned in to touch one of the crayons, Yoochun hissed and pushed his hand away, because Yoochun did not wish to be bothered, dammit.


His mother had looked so forlorn these days; his father too, and Yoochun wanted to do his best to make this birthday special for her. 


“You are such a ‘skuge’ !” Jaejoong huffed in disbelief. 


“It’s ‘scrooge’,” Yoochun corrected warily as he colored.  The younger had taken quite a liking to the word ‘scrooge’ lately, especially after he watched ‘A Christmas Carol’ the other day.  It was a pity he still couldn’t pronounce the word properly.


Yoochun leaned back and admired the painting once he finished coloring the airplane.  Great, all he needed to do now is to color the sky.   He picked out a navy blue crayon and used it as a paperweight before he heads over to the toilet to relieve himself, unlike Jaejoong, he was potty-trained.  Heh.


When he was on the way to the toilet, he passed by the kitchen and vaguely heard the conversation between his mother and his aunt that involved, hospital visits, chemo-something and something called cancer.  But then, everything was drowned by the sounds of children’s laughter that were being entertained by a clown in the yard.


‘How do you spell C-H-A-S-T-I-T-Y children?  Do you know what chastity means?’  asked Minnie Mouse, one of the clown’s companions.  The entertainers had been asked to conduct fun activities that were educational for the children.  It was his father's idea.


Yoochun tuned them all out and finished his business in the toilet.  When he got back to his previous spot however, he found something missing.  He looked around. 


Maybe it’s underneath the coloring paper. 


He lifted the paper and found nothing. 


Maybe it rolled off the paper and went under the sofa.  He crouched and peeked underneath the sofa.  There was nothing there, save for particles of dusts, hairs and a couple of coins.


Yoochun was close to crying now.  He was this close to finishing his painting, where on earth had his blue crayon gone to?


“Yoochun-ah, what are you doing there?”  Hearing his mother’s voice automatically made Yoochun cry. 


“I lost my crayon,” he sniffed as he lifted his coloring paper to show to his mother, “-all I need to do is to color the sky, but my blue crayon is gone.” 


Yoochun hardly cried as a kid; unlike a certain Kim Jaejoong, but right now he felt so wronged because that painting had been something he had worked so hard for.  


 He forced himself to swallow the tears, because his father once told him that a man should never cry, but trails of tears made it’s dramatic way off his eyes anyway.


His mother chuckled when she examined the painting.  “Ooooh, is this for me?” Seeing Yoochun crying somehow entertained her, because she’s laughing even louder now.  Or was she crying, because why were there tears coming out from her eyes.  “Our Yoochunnie is a grown up now.  Thank you so much for your gift, mommy will treasure it okay?”


Yoochun looked around, still not giving up on searching for the crayon.


‘Children, do you know what N-E-F-A-R-I-O-U-S means?’ Minnie Mouse had asked from outside.
‘No!’  A group of children answererd.
‘Well nefarious means something that is evil and mean,’ Minnie Mouse exaggerated when she pronounces the word evil, before she added, ‘You know, like a cat!’
‘You mean, like Jaejoong?’ one of the little girls outside had cautiously asked.


Jaejoong, who heard them from inside, huffed in dissatisfaction while Yoochun’s mother chuckled at his reaction. “Oh, Jaejoongie,” she shook her head at the little boy who had been suspiciously quiet and had been staring at them from a short distance.


Yoochun’s father entered the lounge, with an expensive looking camera in hand.  He was in charge of documenting this event, hence had been running around taking pictures and videos for keepsake purposes.


“Oh, you two are here.  Hey, why are you crying?”

“He lost his crayon,” Yoochun’s mother answered on Yoochun’s behalf.

“Oh, it’s just a crayon.  Stop crying.  And, hang on, let me grab a picture of you two.  Smile! “ Mr. Park was referring to his wife and son, but Jaejoong decided to be nosy and placed himself at the very end of viewfinder’s focus with a big smile.

Click.




Yoochun laughs to himself.  The rest of the pictures on that page depicts the two families’ adventure in Lotte World a few months after the birthday party. 


After going through a couple of pages, Yoochun realizes that he hadn’t had any other same-aged friends to take pictures with other than Jaejoong.  Same thing goes to the latter. 


Yoochun had been too much of a recluse to make friends, while Jaejoong prefers to be by himself because that means he gets to get all the attention (Yoochun doesn’t count because he’s so quiet that Jaejoong gets all the attention by default even with Yoochun nearby).


It continues to be that way until a couple of pages later.  Yoochun stops in his motion.  This time, instead of the regular shot of the two children, someone new stood in between them. 


The person stood in between 10-year old Jaejoong and Yoochun in the middle of what seemed to be an outdoor banquet.  That person stared menacingly into the camera, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there, while both Jaejoong and Yoochun almost surreptitiously stared and gaped at him in awe.  That person looked a fair few years older than both Yoochun and Jaejoong, if their difference in height said anything.


The novel feelings Yoochun had gotten when he had first laid his eyes on him reignites. There’s admiration, curiosity and wonder, all swirling within his head at the same time. His heart clenches as he trace a shaky finger on the silhouette of the newcomer.


Those cold almond eyes.  Those sun-kissed skin.  That condescending curl on his lips. 


The tip of Yoochun’s lips curls upwards at that.  Even pictures cannot mask his wild personality. 


Everyone has a turning point on their lives.  Yoochun’s and Jaejoong’s just happens to come early.  In the form of a certain Jung Yunho.




“I am going to marry him,” Jaejoong whispered dreamily as his innocent doe eyes followed every moves that person makes.  Yoochun scoffed at that, but his eyes strangely follows that person as well.


Perhaps feeling their intense gaze at the back of his head, the teen, who had been standing lazily next to a banquet table, glanced at them.  Yoochun immediately looks away while Jaejoong continued staring with a dumb smile on his face. 


That person, as Yoochun had learned, was Jung Yunho, the son of Jung Inho, the owner of the big big house at the end of their street.   


The neighborhood in which Jaejoong and Yoochun had lived in itself is an affluent community, in which only the wealthy ones got to live in.  (Jaejoong’s father himself was a renowned plastic surgeon, while Yoochun’s dad was an accountant at Jung Inho’s company.)


And whilst the Kim’s and the Park’s houses could be considered decent, the Jung’s house at the end of the street was on a whole different level.  With manicured hedges and tall walls, it had been a tradition for the kids on the neighborhood to try to break into the lawn. 


‘Poor kid.  Did you hear?  I heard his parents got divorced some time ago and his mother got the custody.  But now, his mother’s dead and he’s sent back to live with his father,’ Yoochun heard the lady on their table says. 

‘Oh, no wonder I’ve never seen him around.  Poor child, he’s so young.  How old is he again?’

’12 years old.’


So he was only 12?  He was 2 years older than Jaejoong and Yoochun?  Yoochun scrunched his face.  He sure didn’t looks like one.  He looked older, much more mature compared to the other 12-year olds Yoochun had encountered.  Maybe it was his imposing height or something.


Yoochun stealthily trailed his gaze back to the 12 year old Jung son, who seemed to have found great amusement in staring at his shoe.  


“Ah, Park, you’re here!” Yoochun heard someone exclaimed.  It was Jung Inho, his father’s employer.  Yoochun had seen him a couple of times before.


“This must be little Yoohyun,” the old man laughed good-naturedly as he patted Yoochun in the back. 


“It’s Yoochun,” Jaejoong corrected him before any of the elders in the table got to.  The old man raised his brows in surprise at that before he bursts into laughter along with the rest of the grown-ups.  He crouched down to Jaejoong’s level, since the little one was currently seated on a banquet chair.  “And who is this handsome little fella?”


“He’s Jaejoong.  My nephew-“


“Ah yes, the son of Kim Jiho, the plastic surgeon, yes.  The one who fell into the koi pond when he tried to break into my house last summer.  Gave the maids quite a fright,” his tone turned patronizing near the end as he gave Jaejoong a pointed look.


Yoochun fought the urge to laugh at the way Jaejoong looked now.


The old man chuckled good-naturedly at the way Jaejoong blushed while Yoochun’s dad winced.   Jaejoong’s parents were not here which is good cause things would’ve gotten so awkward.  Yoochun’s mom was not here as well, since she was ill and would rather spend the night resting.  Yoochun’s dad on the other hand, didn’t really have a choice.  He couldn’t skip this banquet since his attendance to this banquet was more or less a formal obligation since he still was one of the employees of Jung Inho after all, one of the ones who interacted close to him at that. 


And when he had voiced out his plan to bring Yoochun along with him, Jaejoong had been adamant to be included, so, here they were.


“Um- about that-“ Jaejoong stuttered, “-it was a dare, you see.  The other boys, they-“


“Oh, it’s okay, just don’t do it again, okay?” Jung Inho ruffled Jaejoong’s hair affectionately.  Jaejoong usually would’ve flipped if anybody dared to touch his hair, his mother included, but he was surprisingly submissive this time.


Jung Inho smiled wider before he looked around, searching for someone.  His eyes stopped at the banquet table.  “Yunho!” he called, motioning for the boy to come over.


Jung Inho’s son, or Jung Yunho, looked at their direction with a foul expression on his face, one that he didn’t even bother to hide. 


The smile on Jung Inho’s face faltered dangerously as he struggled to keep his cool in front of the guests.  He gave the teen a warning look. “I said, come here.”


The teen glowered rebelliously, but made his way to the table anyway. 


“What?” he asked the moment he gets there.  All the adults on the table exchanged look at his tone, but nobody said anything.


The expression on Jung Inho’s face remained stormy before he harshly tug on his son’s shoulder to make him stand in front of the elders more politely. 


“These are the children of our neighbors-“ Mr. Jung motioned towards Jaejoong and Yoochun, in which the latter gulped when Yunho turned his menacing glare on them.  “Entertain them, while I steal Mr. Park and Mr. Lee for a while.”


Mr. Jung turned to the silent Mr. Park and Mr. Lee (who shared the table) before he smiled that clipped diplomatical smile of his, “You see, a call from London has just arrived-“


Their voices trailed away as Mr. Jung led the two gentlemen into his house.


The teen makes an annoyed grunt on his throat when his father walked away, looking thoroughly pissed.  Mrs. Lee who was sitting a few chairs away from Yoochun didn’t say a word, and merely observes, presumably gathering juicy details about the teen to be shared with her best friends, Mrs. Moon and Mrs. Kim (Jaejoong’s mother).


Yoochun had the decency to look away while Jaejoong stares at the teen curiously.  Neither of them spoke for while.  Yoochun had never been the one to initiate conversations with strangers, that was usually Jaejoong’s job.  But even the other kept quiet this time, probably intimidated by the teen’s facial expression, who looked like he wants to beat the crap out of someone.


“Oh here you are, Yunho!” a middle-aged man suddenly came out of the blue, carrying a camera around his neck.  Yoochun would learn a few months later that the man was Han ahjussi, Mr. Jung’s chauffer.  “Why are you looking so glum?  This is a party, not a funeral,” he approached Yunho with a warm smile, one a father would give to his children.


“Because he just got scolded,” Jaejoong answered on Yunho’s behalf, before he looked at the teen, as if saying, ‘right?’ 

Yoochun mentally grunted.  That kid had always been too nosy for his own good. 

“He got scolded real bad, I thought ahjussi was going to hit him,” Jaejoong added helpfully.

“You know what?” that was unfortunately the first thing Yoochun heard from Jung Yunho that night, “Why don’t you just shut the hell up and mind your own damn business.”

Jaejoong blinked while Yoochun choke on his own spit as Jung Yunho walked away. 

An awkward silence.

“Wow,” it was Jaejoong.

And for once Yoochun agrees with him.  Wow.


Yunho almost got into trouble with Jung Inho afterwards, because he was supposed to keep an eye on the kids.  Yunho fought back and Yoochun had never thought he’d be scared of anyone that iwas not his mother (or Jaejoong's mother).  


And as Mr. Park dragged the two kids to greet Jung Inho for the last time before they go home, the Jung’s chauffer sidled towards them and directed his camera towards the kids.


Click.




The wistful smile on his lips dissolves.  So is the wonderful feeling that has been stirring at the pit of his stomach.   Because Yoochun knows, that very picture signifies the start of the very eventful years ahead of them.


His fingers traces across a couple of pictures.  Him and his parents during a picnic by the Han river.  Him and a messy Jaejoong at the new ice cream parlor, with a huge chocolate patbingsu on the table between them. Him and Jaejoong under a tree during a school trip.  And finally, 2 pages later, him and Jaejoong during their last day in their elementary school. 


By then, they had been 12 and they no longer sports the childish glow they possesses in the prior pictures.  Somehow, watching himself growing up through the photos gives Yoochun mixed feelings.  He had been a mere baby on the first picture on the album, and then, there he was, all tall and lanky next to the 12 year old Jaejoong. By then, his relationship with Jaejoong had been much much better.  They had learned to put up with each other’s presence and Jaejoong no longer does nasty things behind his back.  Yoochun will kick his ass if he did.  If Yoochun had learned something these past few years, it’d be not to let Jaejoong have things his way.  He’d only get bolder.


Right next to that photo, is the picture of Jaejoong’s and Yoochun’s first day in middle school.  They were standing in front of a school gate with their backs facing the camera but their heads turned around as though someone had called them just when they were about to made their way into the school.    


Yoochun remembered feeling so mature when he had first put on the dark blue uniform.

“Nervous?” Jaejoong whispered from beside Yoochun.


Yoochun scoffed at him, though his face was strained, “You wish.”


“And we’re here boys!” Jaejoong’s dad cajoled as he stopped the car at the entrance of the middle school.  There was a long line of cars behind him, waiting to drop off their kids as well.


“Bye dad.”


“Bye uncle Jiho.”


Jaejoong opened the door and climbed out of the vehicle followed by Yoochun, ignoring his father’s indignant gasp.


“Hang on, children.  I need to take a photo of you two first or your mom will kill me.  Where’s that damn camera again?” Kim Jiho clumsily looked through the drawer compartment of his BMW.


Yoochun wanted to close that door, because forget about the picture dammit, people behind them are already honking.  But he didn’t have the heart to, because his uncle was endearing as he was clumsy.  How he managed to go through intricate procedures every day was just beyond Yoochun.


“Nevermind, dad.  There’s a long line behind you, you’re holding them back,” Jaejoong rolled his eyes before he shuts the door and dragged Yoochun to walk with him. 


Woah.  There were other students entering the gate, and the red-bricked building looked so grand and majestic from his spot that Yoochun felt the urge to pee.  For once, Yoochun was glad he had Jaejoong with him.  At least he was not alone.


“Oh here boys!” a voice called them.


Both Jaejoong and Yoochun turned around and- Click.


Jaejoong’s dad grinned at them from the driver seat and gavethem the thumbs up.  Yoochun laughed at his antics and waved him off.


“My dad is so whipped,” Jaejoong said drily as he watched his dad’s car sliding away.


Yoochun merely nodded.  Yes he was.  Yoochun had never seen a man who feared his wife so much.  Not even his dad.  Well, Yoochun couldn’t blame him.  Out of the 2 Han sisters, he got the loud and boisterous one and-


“Shit,” Jaejoong cursed from beside him.


Yoochun raised an eyebrow at that tone and looked at the direction he’s staring at.  “Oh look, Park Jinhee is also here!” Yoochun teased with a grin.


Park Jinhee was Jaejoong’s self-proclaimed nemesis.  He was also the one who had dared Jaejoong to break into the Jung’s house back then.  And the idiot Jaejoong had said yes when Jinhee had questioned his 'manhood'.


Said Park Jinhee seemed to have noticed their presence as well, when he diverted his eyes from his gang and rests it on Jaejoong.  He raised a cocky eye-brow before he muttered something to his friends that had them staring at Jaejoong as well while laughing.


Jaejoong scowled.  “Perfect.”


“Perfect indeed, Mr. The-one-who-tried-to-break-into-my-house-and-fell-into-my-fish-pond-last-summer,” Yoochun mimicked Jung Inho’s tone.  Argh, Yoochun would never forget that fateful night.  Gave him enough blackmail-material on Jaejoong to last a lifetime.


“Shut up,” Jaejoong pushed him in the shoulder and make his way into the school compound, “-And it was a koi pond, not a fish pond !”


Yoochun shrugged, “Same thing.”



The school was very big, or at least bigger than their elementary school.  The school hour would start in less than an hour and whilst Yoochun prefered to wait it out in the grand hall along with the other first years, Jaejoong went to the toilet (probably to fix his hair).



Whilst Jaejoong was gone, Yoochun sat by himself while the other students buzzed around.  The grand hall was structured like an auditorium and whilst it was big, Yoochun doubt it was big enough to accommodate all the students at once.  Perhaps that was why the First and Second years will have their Monday assembly on the morning while the Third Years on the evening, right before the school ends.  To divide them so they’d have enough space.


Yoochun decided that he likes it here.  Unlike elementary school, their morning assembly would be held indoors.  And it was air-conditioned at that.  At least he know he won’t have to spend the whole time listening to Jaejoong whining about how hot the weather was.   


He spots a few of his female classmates from elementary school on the front row, and smiled back when they waved at him.


The shrill sound of microphone being adjusted along with a small cough took all the attention in the auditorium.  A small balding man was standing on top of a podium while scanning his eyes through the crowd.  The students gradually turned quiet and trained their attention on him.


Satisfied at the silence, the old man nodded his head, “Thank you.”


While the old man spoke, someone made his way towards Yoochun, causing all the students he passed to hiss in annoyance.  


“Jae!  Where the hell had you been?  What took you so long?  Were you lost?”


Jaejoong flashed a mischievous smile.  “No, but I did stumbled upon someone.”


“Who?"


“Jung Yunho.  Rings a bell?”


Yoochun gave his cousin a look.  Jaejoong squirmed beside him, looking so excited, and for once, Yoochun regretted for not being idle enough to join Jaejoong earlier.