Jongin dried his face and looked at himself in the mirror. His beard was gone. His hair was freshly washed. He could sense the smell of soap that filled the bathroom. Jongin felt clean, maybe even a bit relaxed. Suho was right. Soo would want him to take care of himself. The smaller one used to say, the worse you felt, the better you need to dress up yourself.

Letting his body fall on the bed, Jongin felt how his eyelids became heavier with every second. He groaned, for his feet were killing him. He was searching the wood down the river the whole day by foot. Never in his life had Jongin walked so much. He had taken Suho's advice and came home, took a shower, and got some rest, but he hadn't given up on looking for Soo.

Jongin didn't realise when he had fallen asleep. Maybe he was just too tired. As he was woken up by his ring tone, it was already morning. The sunlight was so blinding, Jongin covered up his eyes with his arm, trying not to be ripped away from his sleep. Half-awake, half asleep, he asked himself whether it was worth it to answer the phone yet in one split second he remembered it could be about Soo. And he was right.

"They found a corpse," the voice on the phone said. In one blink, all the tiredness was gone. Jongin jumped up and gathered all his stuff, heading to the morgue.

Jongin walked through the hallway, following the assistant who was leading the way. Jongin understood why they sent someone to guide him for this building was a maze. There were so many corridors and they all seemed randomly placed. The lack of signposts wasn't helping either. They were in the basement, thus there were neither windows nor a slight sunlight. However, darkness and its cold fitted this place well. Even the air seemed to be colder than outside, and it smelled like sanitizer. It smelled like death. Although death was a common part of his life, Jongin felt uncomfortable in this place.

"We're here," said the assistant as he asked Jongin to wait at the door and went in to inform the doctor. It didn't take long until a short man stood before him. He was barely 1,65m tall and as skinny as a skeleton. His face was heavily wrinkled, and his skin was pale as if he hadn't seen the sun for his entire life. His hair was fully grey that parts of his scalp were visible. The man looked like death itself.

"Good morning, Mr. Choi" greeted the doctor with a high pitched voice that didn't fit his appearance a bit, and Jongin did his best not to laugh.

"Good morning," he replied.

"Please come in," the man said, and Jongin entered the room. Immediately, he noticed the body on the table, covered with a white sheet. It was so soaked that the fabric stuck to it. The gang leader didn't realise he had stopped walking.

"Is that the body they found?" Jongin asked. The doctor nodded.

"I should warn you. He was in the water for a very long time which means it won't be a nice view."

Jongin gulped. It wasn't the first time for him to see a dead body, but he had never felt this way before. It was hard to breathe, and his legs were shaking.

"Ready?" The old man asked, hands holding the fabric. Jongin nodded, and the doctor pulled aside the sheet. Jongin clenched his teeth by the sight of the body. The skin-color was a mix of blue, green, and grey. A musty smell penetrated in his nose. The person on the table was wearing a white shirt, navy blue jeans, and black chucks. The white shirt had almost turned mud brown. Some green leafs stuck in his shoes. The left pant leg was ripped, and Jongin could see a deep cut under the jeans. On his left ring finger, this person was wearing Soo's wedding ring, the only ring in the whole world that matched his for they were a batch production.

"No, this wasn't Soo. This couldn't be Soo," he told himself.

"Is that him?" The doctor asked, and Jongin froze. He had to admit, this person wore the same cloths as Soo did when he fell down the cliff. The height and even the body build was the same. Still, Jongin rejected to believe that this was his Soo.

"Show me his face," the leader demanded.

"Are you sure? You don't want to remember him this way," warned the old man.

"Show me his face," insisted Jongin.

"As you wish," replied the doctor before fully pulled the sheet off the body. Jongin gasped at the sight in front of him. The face was as swollen as the rest of the body. The nose was broken and almost cut off till the point it was only linked to the face by the last string of skin. Even the skin looked like it was about to fall apart. The old man was right. This face was in an unrecognizable condition.

Jongin's eyes wandered automatically to the body's forehead. His heart skipped a beat as he noticed the cut over the right eyebrow, a deep cut that now appeared much bigger and deeper due to the water. This person was indeed in the river for a very long time, Jongin could tell.

Every logically part of his mind told him this man lying on the metal table was Soo. Still, something in him, may it be his instinct or his wishful thinking, told him that it wasn't Soo.

"Is that Byun Baekhyun?" the doctor asked one more time after Jongin kept silent for a long moment.

"Yes, that's him," answered Jongin before turning around, leaving that cold, sticky room.

The old man watched another heartbroken person leaving this place, something that was his daily routine.

"At least you were loved," said the doctor to the young man on his table before covering him up again.

His hand tensed up for a second as a loud bang surprised him. The door flung open and Jongin was back. With one hand, Jongin held the door open, so he could talk to the doctor without entering that room again.

"When can I take him home?" The gang leader asked.

"Whenever you want," answered the doctor.

After arranging "Baekhyun's" return, Jongin got back in his car, and the first thing he did was calling Dr. Song.

"I need you to run a DNA test for me," said Jongin.

"I'll get you that DNA sample." He told his family doctor as she said she needed a DNA sample to compare. In contrast to what he said to the old man that reminded him too much of death, Jongin doubted that body was Soo. Yet, there was one thing he knew for sure, if Soo was out there and alive, he would be safe if Byun Baekhyun's uncle and Jongin's father, the most dangerous men of Korea, believed Byun Baekhyun were dead. The only thing Jongin could do to protect Soo was to make the world think Byun Baekhyun were gone. However, for himself, he had to prove that Soo was alive, and wherever the smaller one was. He'd find him.

Jongin smashed the glass on the floor after he emptied the wine in one slug. He had hoped the alcohol would help him to calm down, but it didn't work. The gang leader had been looking for Soo's DNA the whole day and he found nothing, no hair on the hairbrush, no toothbrush, no used mug or anything else that could have contained the smaller one's DNA. Not even fingerprints were left. Who would even think of wiping everything they had touched?

Jongin had to admit how clever Soo was, but Soo miscalculated something. If removing all of his DNA and fingerprints, making it impossible for Jongin to run a test, was supposed to convince Jongin that the body they found was Soo, then smaller one had underestimated the gang leader. If anything, it rather proved to Jongin that Soo was still alive. A fake death that was so perfectly staged, Jongin wouldn't expect less from his husband.

Jongin abruptly stood up as he regained his motivation. In the course of his over-eagerness, he knocked over the bottle. The red wine dropped from the table and landed on the white floor. The red liquid looked so much like blood dropping, so much it reminded Jongin of something.

---

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jongin asked, looking over Soo's shoulder. The smaller one was trying to open a wine bottle, but something seemed to trouble him.

"It jammed," answered Soo through clenched teeth as he pulled harder on the bottle screw that was dug into the wooden cork. Still, the cork didn't seem to move an inch.

"Damn it," cursed Soo, putting even more force on it. The smaller one couldn't imagine the wooden cork to split in the middle, causing the screw to jump out all of sudden.

"Ouch," screamed Soo as the sharp end slashed his finger and blood dropped on the table. In shock, Soo threw the bottle screw aside. They both heard the metal hit the floor, yet the last thing they cared about at that moment was where the screw had landed. Jongin would never have thought that little troublesome thing could be so important one day.

---

"It might be the only object with Soo's DNA on it," Jongin thought and ducked down to look under the kitchen counter. The gap was small but still big enough for a bottle screw to get inside. The gang leader grabbed his phone, using it as a flash lamp to light up the dark gap between the floor and the counter.

Finally, there it was... the bottle screw. Jongin's face lit up like he just found a treasure. Soo was good. He was great, but even he made mistakes. Jongin looked in every kitchen drawer for a pair of gloves. As he found them, the gang leader squashed his arm the tiny gap under the counter to reach for the screw and by the third try, he succeeded. Placing it on the table, Jongin removed the gloves to text Dr. Song.

"Ok, I'll test it, but I can't promise anything. This isn't CSI." The doctor replied.

Jongin clicked his fingernails against the table, and the speed seemed to increase with every second. His eyes were focused on the door as if he were afraid he would waste a second to open it. As he heard the bell, he literally jumped.

"The result? Is him?" Jongin asked the same second he opened the door, talking so fast he slurred.

"Hello, Jongin," greeted Dr. Song, "let's talk inside."

Only by her voice, Jongin could already tell she got bad news.

"No," he refused to believe even before she got the chance to say anything.

"He's not dead," Jongin murmured.

"I'm sorry, Jongin. The DNA matched. It's him." The doctor said. Jongin clenched his teeth.

"The test must be wrong. It can't be," Jongin shook his head.

"We double-checked."

"Tests can be manipulated. Samples can be switched."

"No, not this time, I had an eye on the sample every second. It's impossible to manipulate anything," said Dr. Song.

"Also," she paused to take a deep breathe, "we checked the fingerprints on it as well. Even the fingerprints matched the one of the body. And..."

"What?" Jongin asked impatiently.

"You told me you used gloves when you found it?"

"Yes."

"So you haven't touched it after Baekhyun cut his fingers with it?"

"No, I haven't touched it after that accident. Why are you asking?"

"Jongin, we also found your fingerprint on it."

"Mine?" Jongin's hope drained away.

"Yes, if the bottle screw was placed there after Baekhyun disappeared, your fingerprint wouldn't be on it. There were only two kinds of fingerprints on it, yours and the one that matched the body." Dr. Song explained.

"You can repeat the tests. You can let someone else do it, but the result won't change," she added, "Jongin, it's him. I'm sorry. He is dead."

"He is dead."

Dr. Song's words repeated in Jongin's head like the echo in a haunted house. The room began to spin. Jongin tried to best to stand upright. Since that moment he felt like being in a bubble. Days had passed, but he couldn't tell how many. People had come to see him, but he couldn't recall what they said. He couldn't even remember what he had done all day, maybe nothing. It felt like he had done nothing... Until Jongin heard noises coming from Soo's old room, the leader grabbed his gun and carefully approached the room.

He opened the door, aimed it at the person in there, and shouted.

"Who are you?"

"Mr. Kim," the man shouted back in shock as he saw the weapon being pointed at him.

"It's me," the man took off his hat to show his face. Jongin immediately recognized him, Jungkook.

"What are you doing in here?" The gang leader asked, still not lowering his gun.

"Mr. Byun asked me to move the lavender inside for they wouldn't survive the winter," the bodyguard explained.

"He asked you to?" Jongin repeated.

"Yes, he did it before...," the younger didn't know to finish his sentence, "it was the last thing he asked me to do."

Jongin froze for a second before slowly lowering his gun.

"You can bring them in my room," Jongin told the guard.

Soo loved those flowers. Maybe that was why it was somehow comforting to have those violet flowers in his room.

"Why are some of them dying already?" Jongin asked as the man place the last pot in his room.

"Flowers wilt, Sir. That's what they do." Jungkook answered. Jongin couldn't help but see meanings in everything that happened around him, and everything was about Soo. Every song on the radio was about Soo, every cloud that passed by looked like the smaller one, and even now, it's like the other man was talking Soo.

"Can I help you with something else?" The younger asked, waking Jongin up from his daydreaming.

"No, you can leave. Thank you."

Jungkook bowed to his boss and turned to the exit, but before he walked away, he reminded Jongin of something.

"Sir, flowers wilt but when spring comes, they'll bloom again."

By that Jungkook left, leaving Jongin alone, wondering if spring would ever come again.

Baekhyun lowered his cap and pulled up his mask, hiding his face the best he could. He bit on his lower lip as he laid a bouquet of lavender on a grave, next to a bouquet of pink lilies that was as fresh as they were just picked.

Jongin did a great job, choosing the gravestone. It had a small golden pair of wings above the name and a short quote underneath.

"The prettiest flower is now in God's care," it was as simple as his brother would have liked it.

"Byun Baekhyun," he mumbled his own name that was engraved on the stone. It was surreal to see his name on it. It was surreal to be dead to the world.

Baekhyun wondered who would visit his grave. Who would remember him? Who would miss him? Byun Baekhyun wasn't a person he could be proud of but thanked Kyungsoo he had gotten a second chance. This time he'd be someone better.

A sudden breeze slightly moved the lily petals, revealing a card under the flowers. Curiously, Baekhyun picked it up. It was only a simple white card which wasn't much bigger than a postcard. It wasn't printed, but Baekhyun could feel the high quality just by holding it. The paper was thick and smooth, and it smelled like sandalwood. Only two sentences, written in dark blue ink, were on the card, but Baekhyun could tell how carefully the writer must have been.

"I promise to love you till the end. I did it till yours, and I'll do it till mine."

Baekhyun blinked, holding back the tears that were threatening to fall. He immediately knew who wrote those sentences. In another world, Kyungsoo and Jongin would have been a perfect couple. They got married by mistake, but maybe it was fate. The thought of his brother being loved unconventionally as the younger deserved comforted Baekhyun a bit.

Putting back the card, Baekhyun was about to leave as a familiar voice surprised him.

"Byun Baekhyun?" The person behind him called, and as a reflex, he turned around.

Baekhyun widened his eyes as he recognized the man.

Kim Jongin.

And Baekhyun realised he got caught.

AN: I'm sorry I didn't reply to comments on the last chapter. I couldn't do it without spoilers, so yeah. I hope you liked this chapter.