Sometimes, when the forecast predicts sunny skies, the weather, unpredictable as ever, finds a way to bring a rainstorm.

And sometimes, when one thinks that things are finally starting to look up...

They get worse.

Substantially.

Chan had surpassed anger at this point. He was beginning to believe he'd reached apathy, the way things had been going for him lately.

Call him selfish, but it was starting to take every ounce of self-restraint within him to not tell even his closest friends to leave him the hell alone, especially over their usual trivial bullshit that usually wouldn't bother him in the slightest.

He'd barely slept for the past week. Even trying his hardest to focus on schoolwork and drown out endless worried thoughts and theories, Felix haunted his brain like his own conscience.
His poor, naive Felix, out there abandoned in the world alone, and he couldn't even do so much as help.

Or, well... he wasn't alone, after all.

To be completely and brutally honest, that fact almost pissed Chan off more.

Because no one existed in the world that knew Felix better than him. Chan knew him by the sound of his footsteps, and the scent of his floral shampoo, and the stupid emojis he used in every text message. He knew the exact look that flashed across Felix's dark eyes when he was mortifyingly embarrassed, and the nervous smile he gained when flustered.

Who the hell did this other guy think he was?

Chan didn't care what Jeongin said,
he was going to find the boy, no matter what. It was beginning to seem like he was the only one who truly gave a damn anymore about bringing Felix home—he'd even felt Jisung begin to slip away as of late, through a series of frantic calls and text messages that only increased in tension.

Minho had been growing distant recently. In any other situation, Chan would've cared. He would have sat Jisung down and let him have a long cuddle and rant night, but that was the last thing on his mind right now.

Minho had left their little detective-work groupchat. So what? Whatever. Chan wasn't exactly surprised... after all, Felix was his and Jisung's friend, not Minho's.
He found the news unsurprising, but to Jisung, it was the end of the world.

Chan could physically feel himself reaching his wit's end.

When he'd spent his nights in tears, losing his mind over whether or not his closest and dearest friend was dead somewhere in a ditch, Jisung had been the optimist—a shining ray of hope in the most grim of situations.

But now? He felt like he was watching the world move on without him.
Jisung seemed more upset by Minho backing out from their adventures than he did by the very reason they were doing all this in the first place.

And god, was Chan so exhausted.
He'd been carrying on alone, investigating, checking up at the Lees' house, searching for anything he could get his hands on, only to come up empty every time.

He was alone.

Maybe not physically, but mentally.
Felix had left him. Jisung was still around, but the smallest crack was beginning to form and Chan could feel it. He could feel it expanding with every little inch it grew, and he could see where this would end: with Chan stranded at the ledge of the canyon, and Jisung far away on the other side with the rest of the crowd...

With everyone else that had moved on. The traitors. The ones who had given up.

Chan had visited the Lee household today, only to find neither of the parents present as per usual.
Felix's aunt had been the one to answer the door each time, just as she'd answered the phone call that day in the car.

The distaste in her eyes was evident every time Chan asked her the smallest of questions. All he'd managed to get out of her so far was that she was "house-sitting" for the Lees while they were out of town.
Out of town for what? She wouldn't say.

It frustrated him. Jisung frustrated him. Really, this whole damn situation frustrated him, and there was no one he could talk to about it who would understand.

On this lovely evening, Chan took a painkiller to numb the deadly headache that had overtaken his foggy brain, and laid back in his desk chair, typing a response text to one of Jisung's daily complaints.

Minho hadn't been responding again, and this was Chan's last fucking straw.
He was going to text Minho, give him a piece of his mind, and tell him to man up and talk to Jisung so the kid wouldn't be blowing up Chan's DMs at all hours of the night.

Yet the message wouldn't send.

With a sinking feeling, Chan realized the boy must have blocked his number.

Great, he thought. How convenient.

He figured the boy had been too lazy to block him on instagram, and Chan navigated lazily to Minho's profile, finding it sitting there just as he'd remembered.

Chan couldn't help but shake his head. It felt almost idiotic, messaging this account. A hundred-thousand followers strong and so-clearly curated by his rich family, a barrage of professionally taken photos of Minho were spread across the front page, each one with an expensive watch or finely-tailored suit on display.
This was nothing like the Minho he knew. He was confident that half of the other rich kids posing with the boy in his pictures likely weren't friends with him at all.

And yet... as Chan scrolled down through Minho's instagram, basically boredom-stalking him now, one certain feature caught his eye—that is, a recurring presence in the photos unrivaled by any other person.

Nearly one in every two or three photos, Minho's arm was slung around the shoulders of a slightly-taller boy, dressed equally as fancy but looking far less confident in front of the camera. Minho seemed much closer to this kid, whoever he was, and to be honest, it piqued Chan's curiosity. The photos with this boy had been so frequent, yet all but vanished a year ago, judging by the dates.

Chan clicked on a picture. Minho sat next to the other boy at a table in some expensive-looking cafe, both adorned in matching brown sweaters that certainly had to be a luxury brand.
The boy's account was tagged right on his wire-framed glasses, and Chan tapped on the username, figuring, why the hell not?

And honestly, it took him a second to process.

His name was written in the bio, above numerous brand tags and links to this and that. Hwang Hyunjin, the display read, next to a little flower symbol. A link to something along the lines of 'Hwang Business Group...' was directly next, a quite blatant display of wealth if you were to ask Chan.

But that name.

It felt too familiar. Chan's brain reminded him at once that... ah, of course, wasn't Hyunjin the same name as the person Jeongin had mentioned? The one who—

Chan's train of thought jolted to a stop.

Almost mindlessly, he scrolled to check the date of the last photo posted. It was way over a year prior, with complete silence since then.

With a sickening feeling beginning to bloom in his chest, Chan did the only thing he knew how. If this kid really was from a rich family, surely the media would have some answers for him?

The silence felt thick in his room as he waited for his query to load. The longest few seconds of his life passed, with a simple search of the boy's name into Google displayed on his screen.

'Business group heir, Hwang Hyunjin, still missing. Family doubles reward...'

Chan had almost no idea what to think. Article after article popped up, each delving into details of their fervent search for the vanished boy. Offers of thousands-worth in cash appeared. Local news reports declared the situation as hopeless.

Everything clicked into place.

"Holy shit..." Chan breathed out, standing up from his seat as if he'd been summoned to a mission. "Shit! How do I... Where should I...?"

The image of Minho's strangely avoidant and nonchalant tone in the car days earlier mocked him.
No fucking wonder Minho had suddenly gone AWOL.

He had to call Jisung.
He fumbled to navigate to his contacts and put his jacket on at the same time, shakily pressing call and waiting as the dial tone rang out.

"Yeah?" Jisung's strangely frantic voice for the hour came through. "What is it? Did you find out why Minho's being so—"

"I'm coming to your place. Be ready," Chan stated, shoving his sneakers on as fast as humanly possible.

"Huh? What did you just say?"

"I'm coming over. Get up and get ready, we need to talk." Chan's serious tone must have worked, because immediately sounds of rustling and hurried movement came from the other end.

"What's going on? Did you find out something?"

"Just wait. I'll be there in like twenty minutes," Chan replied, before briskly hanging up and throwing his bag over his shoulder.

He didn't care how late it was— things were getting done whether Jisung liked it or not.

Because this was the only way to bring Felix home.

Felix hadn't thought of home, on the other hand, for a long time now.

Truth be told, he was beginning to consider himself a bit insane when it came to his rationality as of late.
Ever since that late-night talk he'd had with Hyunjin days prior, the anxious weight he felt in his chest at the mere thought of home seemed to have lifted.

It was okay to miss his friends. It was okay to miss his parents, and he'd spent so long pretending that he didn't that it had begun to eat away at him inside.

Admitting it out loud felt nice.

"...Felix?" Hyunjin's gentle voice brought his mind back to earth. "Hey? Do you want to take a break?"

And just like that, Felix's attention was fully back. "No! No, I'm good," he confirmed, adjusting the blanket atop them for a moment.

The elder gave a little hum at this, before swiftly turning the page of the novel in his hands.

Long story short, Felix had finally given in to his boyfriend's constant convincing and whining, and finally agreed to read a novel with him, under two conditions:
One being that it was a shorter novel, and the other being that Hyunjin had to accompany him during the experience.

Naturally, Hyunjin had no qualms with either request.

He'd done his best to set the correct mood—whatever the hell that meant—for it too. Warm drinks in mugs sat on the bedside table, even with little scented candles scattered around. Felix didn't know why on earth he needed an ambiance just to read a damn book, but he wasn't about to complain.

"Oh, we've gotten to this part," Felix could hear the smirk in Hyunjin's voice. "This should be fun."

He didn't care what Hyunjin could be referring to; nothing contained within the novel could possibly be as flustering as the feeling of the elder's soft breathing against his neck, or the way he could feel every laugh in this position.

The elder's idea of accompanying Felix during the read consisted of hugging the boy like a damn koala the whole time, with the blonde sat in between his legs and leaned back up against him. Something that Felix would have loved in any other circumstance.

"I wasn't done with that page," Felix watched as Hyunjin—who was the one actually holding the book in front of them both—began turning the page too early.

"Read faster," Hyunjin snickered, "Or I'll have to start narrating this to you like an audiobook."

"You know you could just let me hold the book?"

"What would I do that for?"

Felix only sighed, letting himself relax against the elder. Hyunjin rested his chin upon the younger's shoulder, and Felix took that as an opportunity to turn the page back himself.

"Actually, I think I should read these paragraphs," Hyunjin murmured. "Care for a quick podcast?" he asked, and just the mere question made Felix giggle.

"Go ahead," he said, blissfully unaware of the evil look on the other's face.

A pause. Hyunjin trailed his fingers across the page before beginning to speak.

"It is quite true," Hyunjin read the dialogue printed in deep black, "that I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man usually gives to a friend."

Felix blinked, a bit thrown off by this sort of speech coming from such an old novel. "Hah, this sounds kind of—"

Hyunjin hushed him gently, and continued on, each word sounding a bit more serious than the last.

"From the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me." His voice was scarily close to Felix's ear now, and just quiet enough to grasp his full attention.

"I adored you madly, extravagantly, absurdly. I was jealous of every one to whom you spoke," he delved into a whisper. "I wanted to have you all to myself. I was only happy when I was with you."

The blonde felt incredibly small all of a sudden, and incredibly warm. "Um, hey, this is getting..."

"I dream of nothing but you. My whole being yearns for yours, Felix," he spoke, and at once, Felix's eyes glanced to the page.

"That's not in the novel," he stated, then felt his breath leave him alongside the soft feeling of a kiss upon his neck.

"It's all true," Hyunjin murmured, leaving a second light kiss upon the blonde's shoulder. "Wilde may have written the words, but I'm living them."

Felix didn't know what to say to this. "The dramatics..." he responded, joking tone masking how flustered he truly felt. "You better not make Yoojung's vows sound like this."

"Why?" Hyunjin hummed. "Jealous?"

"Absolutely not. I'm saving her from you and your flowery language."

All Hyunjin could do was laugh. "You like it. Shut up."

And Felix protested, in that same half-whiny tone that the elder had heard a million times, that hating-to-admit-that-he-agrees sort of feeling obvious from both the smile on his face and the bite in his words.

A soft knock resounded on the door, and the mock argument ceased.

"Yes?" Hyunjin called out first. The younger turned his attention to the book in front of them, mentally checking out from the conversation as Hyunjin answered the door.

There was a sort of... weird hesitance, and then, a second knock. "Hyunjin? Are you busy?"a girl's voice resounded, quite recognizably Sookyung's.

Hyunjin shared a quick glance with Felix.

"No," Felix whispered, smiling at the fact that the elder even bothered to check in, a silent offer in his eyes to lie about it. "Let her in. She'll keep bothering you if it's important."

"No, it's fine!" Hyunjin called out towards the door. "Come in!"

The door flung open, and Sookyung stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. "Hyunjin. We need to talk, I swear to god it's getting—"

She stopped dead in her tracks, leaving the rest of the sentence to the imagination as her gaze landed on Felix, cuddled up to the elder in silence.

"Ahhh..." Sookyung glanced around. "Hi Felix." She smiled, and the air instantly felt thick for some reason.

"Hi," he replied, suddenly aware of the uncomfortable look he was being given. "You okay?"

"Yeah!" her response was curt. "Didn't know you were here," she added, before her voice drifted into a mumble of "then again, why wouldn't he be..."more to herself than the room.

"Can I steal Hyunjin for a moment?" she asked, sending him the briefest of looks.

Once again, the pause felt a little too awkward. "Um,  sure?" Felix sat forward, freeing himself from the elder's hold. "Return him in one piece at least," he joked, the smallest attempt to ease the strange discomfort he felt under her gaze.

"It'll only be a minute," she laughed. The smile never seemed to reach her eyes.

Hyunjin rather reluctantly climbed out of bed and pulled himself off of the blonde, though his hands lingered gently on the boy's shoulders even as he stood. "Whatever this is about, it better be important," he spoke as he followed the girl out to the hallway. "I finally got him to read."

Felix's loud laugh at that statement rang out, and then—silence, as the two shut the door behind them.

Now alone in the hallway, Sookyung's smile dropped. "We're going to my room." She wasted no time in getting to the point. "When I said we need to talk, I meant it."

The mere tone of her words sent the boy's thoughts spiraling. "What?" he asked, following in her hurried footsteps. "What is this about?"

He received no answer until the two reached her room. Sookyung shut her door with an unusual intensity, even checking up and down the hall first to make sure it truly was empty.

"I can't stop it anymore," were the first words out of her mouth.  "Does Felix know? Because if you haven't told him already, he's gonna find out. Soon."

It took Hyunjin a bewildered moment for his brain to figure out what it even was that the girl was referring to. "Ah," was all he said at first. "About... the reward?"

Sookyung's expression said she'd expected this response. She took a seat on her bed with a sigh, only burying her face in her hands for a moment.

"They've doubled it." She gave the male a grave look. "I was able to keep it quiet before, but the more news comes out about it, the harder it is to stop word from spreading. I've heard people talking about it in the halls."

Hyunjin didn't know what to say, and in turn, remained dead silent. What was he even supposed to do about this sort of thing? Panic? Start packing his things and evacuate?

"And you..." Hyunjin leaned gently against the girl's desk. "You genuinely think someone would turn me in?"

The stare Sookyung gave him could've killed a man.

"I just...!" the boy struggled to form a coherent defense for himself. "You know how hard running away is. And I like it here! Most importantly, Felix likes it here!"

"You liking it here doesn't make you safe," Sookyung stated, her words devoid of any sugar coating. "None of us are truly safe. Ever. That's just how life is, and you happen to be valuable enough that people can and will see you as an opportunity for their safety."

Hyunjin couldn't even argue. "But... Yoojung and Doyeon?" he tried softly. "Their wedding? How can I leave? And how can I drag Felix away from all of it?"

At the mention of their friends, Sookyung's gaze went soft. "I know," she said. "Yoojung and Felix have gotten close, huh? Funny how these things happen."

"God, right," Hyunjin laughed despite the situation. "My almost-past-fiancée and my future one."

The two just shared a smile for a moment, as if both reminiscing on this happy life that they'd become so entrenched in, an oasis apart from the real world.

Finally, Sookyung leaned back on her palms. "You care about Felix a lot." She wore the same caring grin of a friend giving a wedding speech. "It's nice to hear. I've seen tons of couples break under this sort of pressure."

Hyunjin couldn't help but wince at this comment. "Well, damn. Don't speak anything into existence."

Sookyung only hummed in reply, absentmindedly tapping her fingers against her sheets. "So you haven't told him?"

All at once, he felt guilty.

"I will," Hyunjin insisted, running a hand through his hair. "I swear I was going to already, but then, y'know, all of the wedding stuff started happening, and..."

"It's still your choice," Sookyung insisted, reminding him of what she'd been saying from the very beginning. "But where we are now, it's either you tell him, or he finds out some other way. One of those seems more preferable to me."

With these options laid out, the right path was clear, yet Hyunjin still couldn't bring himself to accept it. He wandered over to the girl's chair and sat, letting his body sink into it.

"I just don't want to make him leave," Hyunjin repeated, and the look he received in return was indecipherable.

"You keep saying that," Sookyung stated. "You don't want to make him leave. Then don't." Then, with more hesitance, she added, "You can leave. You don't have to bring him with you."

One could've heard a pin drop at that moment. As soon as the words had left her mouth, she seemed to know she'd made a mistake just from how long it took the boy to even process these words.

"Are you being fucking serious? How can you even—"

"Then bring him!" Sookyung cut the male off. "I don't know how I can help you here! You don't want to stay because you might get caught. You don't want to leave because you might upset your boyfriend. Honestly, my suggestion wasn't that unreasonable!"

"I can't leave him here," Hyunjin crossed his arms. "Impossible. He goes where I go, and vice versa."

"Then bring him with you. As much as all of us love you two, we'd understand," the girl declared, as if stating her final stance on the topic. "It's the smart option, and I'm sure Felix would be fine."

"I mean— yeah, he'd be fine, but..." Hyunjin simply took a long breath, and leaned back for a moment, gazing at the ceiling as he gathered his thoughts.

"You don't understand," he spoke in a quieter tone than before. "He's already given up so much for me."

Sookyung glanced towards the clock. "Because he loves you," she said, and the tiniest smile formed on the male's face.

"Loving me shouldn't mean he has to give up things," Hyunjin remarked, almost laughing bitterly at himself. "I used to be rich. I should be giving him the world right now."

"Love isn't about material goods and we both know that," Sookyung lightly scolded. "And we both know that Felix isn't the type to dwell on that either."

"He's an angel," Hyunjin agreed. "And I'm selfish. I want him all to myself when he needs others to thrive."

"Ask him how he feels about it," Sookyung encouraged softly. "If he says he'll be fine leaving with you, trust him on it."

The boy sighed. "I know he'd be lying."

"Then let him lie. You're allowed to be selfish for your own safety, and it's his choice to follow you."

Hyunjin cracked a grin at this. "Oh wise Sookyung, what would I ever do without you?"

"Honestly, this whole place would be in shambles," she shook her head. "You're so welcome for the advice, by the way," she stood up, wandering over towards her door as if to signal that their chat had come to an end.

Hyunjin playfully elbowed her in the arm for this comment.

Just before they exited the room, Sookyung grabbed the boy's wrist, stopping him for one last brief moment.

"Hey," she spoke gently, putting both hands on the boy's shoulders. "Keep yourself safe okay? I'm being harsh about it because I care."

He understood. Hyunjin gave a little nod, and the smaller girl pulled him into a tight hug, which, for once, he gratefully returned.

It was nice finally having a family of some sort. And it was painful that these sort of moments only seemed to come about when Hyunjin was about to lose it.

Sookyung walked him back to his room. No small talk took place at all—everything they'd discussed still weighed heavily on their minds.

So when Hyunjin slipped back into his bedroom, slightly more weary than when he'd left, the sight of Felix sitting on their bed, nose in a book, brought a relieved smile to his face.

"What's this? Is my baby reading?" he asked with an annoying grin as he waltzed in, grabbing the younger's attention.

He swore a man could get addicted to that bright smile that washed over Felix's face every time. "No!" Felix shut the book, but it was too late. The elder was already sprinting over to the bed and basically tackling Felix, who burst out into giggles under his hold.

"I saw it!" Hyunjin's smile mimicked the delighted one on his lover's face. "You can't hide it from me!"

"I so can!" Felix's laughter overshadowed his retorts. "And why were you gone for so long, eh? You and Sookyung hiding something from me?"

Felix was still grinning, those doe eyes crinkled up in laughter, so Hyunjin knew that the comment was a total, baseless joke. Yet he felt his body run cold at it. As if he'd been caught.

"Absolutely," he played along, knowing that to react too strongly would be to screw himself over. "We met up to discuss my proposal plans. I was thinking about—"

"No no no!" Felix squeaked at this, covering his ears with his hands. "Don't tell me! I know you're just kidding but leave it a surprise!"

And Hyunjin fell in love all over again. With this poor boy who definitely didn't deserve to be wanted by selfish, scared Hyunjin.

The two eventually found themselves laid down, tangled up in each other as usual, conversations kept in a quiet, content murmur. With a hand stroking Felix's blonde hair, Hyunjin forced himself to speak up.

"Hey," he mumbled against the younger's hair. "There's something I wanna talk to you about tomorrow."

Felix hummed in acknowledgement. "Bad? Or good?" his voice was sleepy, and Hyunjin couldn't bear to disrupt his peace while in such a sweet state.

"Fine," he lied. "Nothing to worry about. It can wait until morning," he smiled.

"...Good," Felix returned, eyes closed, and the elder could tell he was losing him to slumber already.

"Night Lix," Hyunjin spoke after a while, voice hushed. "I love you."

And Felix only smiled, too far gone for words.

It was late. The moon was high in the sky, and Hyunjin pulled the blanket over his lover, as if nothing else mattered in the world.