_

yunho hung up his phone for the twentieth time after the rings ended in a voicemail message yet again.

it was now 10pm, seven hours since mingi left, and yunho had to ultimately admit to himself that mingi wasn't coming home tonight.

or maybe ever.

but he refused to believe that that would be the last time he would ever see him. it couldn't be. they were soulmates, right?

he couldn't be alone with these thoughts. he couldn't sit with the thought that he might have lost the only love of his life.

so he decided to call san, who was more than happy to come round and comfort his best friend.

"that doesn't seem like him" san thought aloud after yunho told him his version of events.

"he thinks I blame him for what happened with the shop, but I swear I don't!" yunho explained as his eyes began to shine with unshed tears.

"I know, yun. I know" san comforted his friend.

"what should I do?" yunho questioned desperately, "I have no idea where he would even have gone, what if he isn't safe?"

san watched him with a pained expression, his heart was really hurting for his best friend. "if he's not answering his phone, I guess you just have to wait" san answered after a while. "and I know it's not what you wanna hear but I think we both know where he will have gone"

yunho buried his head in his hands. "it's cold out now though... and what if I wait and wait and he never comes back?!"

san sighed deeply. he tried to imagine how he would feel if he was in this position with wooyoung and realised he'd rather not imagine that at all. "then maybe... shit, I'm sorry, yunho... but maybe it wasn't meant to be"

"don't say that" the taller boy whispered.

"well you know him better than me, what do you think?" san tried.

yunho thought over this for a moment. mingi was genuine and passionate and at one time was head-over-heels for him. there was something special about their relationship. it sounded crazy, but he knew mingi was 'the one' right from the start - to narrow it down, it was actually the moment mingi had told him that sunflowers were his favourite flower too. he just felt something special with the boy with the scarlet hair, and he knew mingi felt the same.

"he has too" yunho simply replied.

_

mingi settled himself down for the night under the giant oak tree, using it's large trunk as protection from the wind. it was a little cool out, but not too bad. nowhere near as cold as he had faced before.

he could have got himself a hotel, yes. but the thought of using yunho's money to pay when he had hurt him so fucking bad - well, he just couldn't do it. plus, it wasn't like he wasn't used to sleeping without a bed.

he would stay here for at least a night, and then try and arrange something elsewhere tomorrow with the last bit of battery he had left in his phone. the phone yunho had purchased for him, his guilty mind added.

truthfully, he had no one to turn to. his only friends were san and wooyoung, and they were technically yunho's friends - it would only be right that they would be comforting him right now instead.

no, mingi could look after himself. he was used to doing that.

it wasn't that he planned never to go back to yunho - I mean, shit, there was no way he could live without ever seeing the boy again - but he had to give yunho time. his words would have hurt the older boy pretty bad, and mingi wanted to give him time to process his feelings.

he didn't expect yunho to take him back, he just wanted to apologise for fucking up the one good thing he had in his life before he left yunho to get on with his.

he owed so much to yunho that he couldn't give him, but he could at least give him the apology he deserved.

_

mingi awoke the next day to the sound of children's voices as they played in the golden leaves which had cascaded to the floor. he sighed heavily, recalling the events of yesterday after the blissful few moments of nothingness upon waking.

feeling for some spare change in his pocket, he figured he kind of needed to eat, so made his way to a local bakery where he could pick up some breakfast. he found it strange not to receive the usual looks he got when he entered any type of similar establishment, but then he remembered that he probably still looked somewhat presentable.

he spent the day moving from bench to bench, walking a little bit, and hopelessly trying to remember contact details of old friends and distant family.

after some time of walking, he stumbled across an old man he recognised from his time on the streets before. he was homeless too - it seemed like he had been for a while.

thinking the guy could use some company aside from the small dog that slept soundly beside him, mingi took himself over to where he was sat against the wall and asked if he could take the space next to him. the guy agreed, and mingi plopped himself down on the ground, the small dog opening one eye to investigate the situation.

the breeze rattled through the air, causing a few stray leaves to swirl momentarily into the air. mingi instinctively wrapped his jacket more tightly around him in response - the temperature had surely dropped as the hours went by.

"turned cold, hasn't it?"

mingi looked up to see the old man addressing him while zipping his own coat tightly shut.

"yeah, it has" he answered in a whisper.

"do you ever stay in the shelter?" the grey-haired male asked, referring to the housing in town for the homeless and vulnerable. mingi knew there was often a lot of trouble in those places, so all through last winter he had braved the cold weather to avoid going there.

"urm, no... no I don't... do you?"

the other male let out a less than healthy splutter of coughing before replying; "it's getting to the time I would usually try and request a bed, my lungs can't deal with the cold any more"

mingi felt incredibly sad for the old man and wished he could do something to help. the unfortunate truth was that there was still a huge stigma around homeless men and women and there wasn't enough help and support out there for them all.

he kind of got lost in his train of thought, mulling over how unfair the world could be at times, so much so that he barely heard when the old man starting talking again.

"...and my wife used to say I was always cold so she'd turn on the central heating even when it was pretty warm outside" he finished, chuckling to himself.

"she sounds like she cared a lot about you" mingi offered.

"oh she sure did" the male agreed. the little dog awoke then, climbing onto his lap and falling straight back to sleep in it's owner's arms. "she was the love of my life. when she died, I fell apart"

"I'm so sorry" mingi replied truthfully.

"that's okay, I kind of went off the rails at the time; I was broken. but now... well I still miss her terribly, but I have my memories of her"

his words reminded mingi of something similar yunho had said about his sister and a he felt a pang of sadness course through him.

"do you have a special lady?" the old man enquired.

mingi let out a soft chuckle, "I have a boyfriend... sort of" came his reply.

"so what are you doing out here?" the male asked, surprised.

"oh...w-well.. we had a fight yesterday"

"and he made you come back out here?!"

"no! no, I made the choice to leave. he actually took me in when I was on the streets before. he's done a lot for me..." mingi trailed off.

the old man stopped to thank a passing woman who threw a couple of spare coins down onto the blanket he was sat on. "what did you fight about?", he then asked.

"well... we didn't really. I mean, he didn't. it was me... I've just been an idiot"

the guy looked away then, just out onto the road, watching nothing in particular. mingi wondered if that would in fact be the end of the conversation, but after a few seconds, he spoke up again.

"I was a businessman" he began, "I was real successful too. but it meant I had to spend a lot of time away from home and I was always working". he now watched the little dog sleeping soundly on his lap. "that's where I was when she died: working. I never got to say goodbye properly, tell her I loved her one last time. by the time I'd finished in my meeting, it was too late"

he finally turned to face mingi and the latter expected there to be tears in his eyes - but there wasn't. there wasn't any readable emotion on his face.

"if you love someone, never hesitate in letting them know" he concluded, his voice melancholic.

"sunflower, sir?"

mingi looked up to the source of the voice that had interrupted them and found a man in perhaps his late thirties holding one of the flowers out for him to take.

"I-I don't have any change" mingi replied, dumbfounded.

the man just smiled politely, "that's okay. you can take it still"

but mingi had already shot up, much to the surprise of both men.

"where are you going?" the old man asked.

mingi took the sunflower in his hand and bowed to the old man in thanks before he began to walk away.

"I'm going to tell my boyfriend that I love him" he answered.

_