It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. In this case, one of Jeongin's bracket fell from his tooth and everyone was looking for that tiny object. Not to mention that Jeongin had multiple mood swings ever since his latest visit to the dentist.

It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, the thought repeated in the fallen bracket's mind like a broken CD.  The bracket stayed still, not even thinking about running away, although the bracket was the one getting hurt. Press F for respect.

"Found it!" Seungmin cheered while picking up the tiny object to the sky. The feeling of achievement rushed through his spine as he lifted the object. Jeongin's tears started falling down when he saw Seungmin walking up to him with his beloved bracket.

Chan had properly dismissed the party before somebody else got hurt. Most of them decided to stay in their rooms, some others were too bored as they switched on the television to watch The Twilight Saga which they would regret later. However, life is already full of regret, so there's nothing wrong to watch a very poorly produced movie.

Jisung and his roommates were busy watching Changbin as he played Doki Doki Literature Club from the moment Minho caught him playing in secret. Jisung, though, had been spacing out ever since Chan told him about his mother being alive somewhere.

"Daddy, where's Mommy?" Jisung peeked his head inside of Jumin's office because he couldn't find his mother.

Jumin put him on his lap. "Jisung, your mom..." he said breathlessly, somehow couldn't seem to finish his sentence.

"My mom what?" Jisung wouldn't let Jumin slide an excuse, he wanted the truth.

However, Jumin was acting suspiciously weird. This was the first time he saw his own father failed to keep his composure. His breath sounded unsteady, he even feared that Jumin had an asthma attack.

Jumin's eyes widened. "I don't know, Jisung. I don't know!" Unbuttoning the first two buttons on his shirt, he let his head fell on the table, basically slamming it harshly. Jisung quickly jumped off his lap to prevent further damage that Jumin might caused.

The little boy had no idea what on earth was happening. Even the sight of his father losing himself scared him so much, he continued to step backwards. His legs were trembling in fear.

The Jumin he knew always have everything under control. The Jumin he knew always have an answer to every question. The Jumin he knew loves his wife more than anything in the world, even Jisung.

For years he managed to overcome Jumin's cold nature because deep inside, he knew that Jumin loves the person he also loves so much: his mother. Nonetheless, his image began to change vividly in this particular moment. Everything he did was contradictory.

It took Jumin a while to compose himself. "Jisung, have you seen Elizabeth the 3rd? I really need her right now."

"Out of all the things you could've said and done, but you still choose that stupid cat? How pathetic." Jisung shot him a glare. His eyes looked dead, not a sparkle was seen, only pure hatred.

"I apologize, you remind me of her—"

"SHUT UP! I don't need you anymore, Jumin Han. Just play with that cat of yours." This was the first time he addressed Jumin with his real name. Coldly he said, "That cat is the spawn of devil."

Before things could've gotten worse, he was escorted out by this guy who addressed himself as Mr. Cha. Jisung didn't know much about that man except that he's the youngest worker in the Han's mansion and that he was specifically handpicked by his own mother to work there for reasons.

The memories he'd been trying to erase kept coming back at him. He hated that memory. He hated it a lot. Those words he had spoken echoed in his head.

He felt guilty; absolutely, extremely, exceptionally guilty, ergo his heart had finally found peace at the moment he decided to let his mother go.

The blonde felt like crying. There's nothing he desired more at this stage but to pour his tears out. There were shoulders that he could lean on, there were ears that would listen to him without guilt-tripping the sad boy, and there were hands to lead him out of the dark alleyway.

He's not alone, yet he refused to accept all the helping hands because the fear of being a burden was far greater than the fear of having the past repeated again.

"Changbin, who's your DDLC bias?" Minho tilted his head as he saw Changbin who kept fiddling with his laptop after getting a bad ending.

Wiping his sweat, he muttered, "Yuri."

"Didn't she just stab herself to death?"

"I'm saving her now! Wait for me, Yuri!" Changbin screamed to his laptop.

Minho had a shock expression on his face. He never knew this side of Changbin existed, but other side was actually his real side. The true Changbin had always been attached to his 2D girlfriend.

Felix butted in, "What about Sayori?"

"She's good too, but I don't like her poem."

They all seemed happy together while Jisung was having a mental breakdown. Some part of him was jealous, some other was happy to see them happy.

To be honest, he wanted to tell Minho. He wanted to pour his feelings out, especially when they promised each other to be open. And here he was, hiding all the shits to himself.

He shamelessly failed to swallow his own words.

┉┉

From the other side of the room, Chunhua was experiencing an existential crisis. Today's her first day of period and she forgot to bring her purse filled with female's necessity.

"Fuck you, Satan's sacrificial waterfall!" She cursed underneath her breath, "you damn hell's public wave pool."

Exactly five minutes ago, Walmart excused herself out with Jiwoo to buy the things they need for making tomorrow's breakfast. Now, she blamed herself for letting Walmart go.

She tried calling Walmart and Jiwoo several times only to realize that they didn't bring their mobile phones with them. Punching her forehead to the pillow, she mentally cursed them for being too reckless.

"Sorry," she muttered lightly before she began unpacking Walmart's suitcase, searching for any menstrual related item but to no avail.

Chunhua suddenly remembered that Walmart has hormonal issues and that her cycle lasts for more than 100 days. Last year she only bleed one time when it's supposed to happen every month.

Sighing, she had no choice. She had to ask the boys. Nevertheless, things didn't go as well as she would've predicted.

"Minho-hyung, can you buy me pads?"

"I don't know. Can I?"

"Jeongin, can you buy me pads?"

"What's that?"

"Seungmin, can you buy me pads?"

"You're on your period?"

"Yes." She put on a hopeful face.

"And that's on period."

"Hyunjin, can you buy me pads?"

"I'm kinda busy. Can you hold it for two more hours?"

"Chan-hyung, can you buy me pads?"

"Look on the bright side! At least you're not pregnant."

"I WISH MEN HAVE PERIOD TOO, GODDAMNIT."

She thought she would've died at this moment until she's met with Jisung: her true savior.

"Jisung, can you buy me pads?"

"Sure." Nodding, Jisung hurriedly grabbed his wallet. "What size is your pussy?"

"Uhh... I'll text you the details." A shade of red started to appear on her cheeks. At this point, Chunhua knew that her cause of death would most likely be embarrassment.

Chunhua hastily ran to the bathroom the moment she felt blood running down her womanhood. Jisung took this sign as her goodbye, therefore he put on his luxurious Gucci coat and left the cottage.

Out of nowhere, a hand held tightly to his left wrist.

"Min—Felix?" The blonde stood there, startled upon mistaking his best friend for his boyfriend.

Without words, Felix put his arm around Jisung's shoulder. Usually the latter would protest with having people's hand on his Gucci, yet he stayed silent because it's Lee Felix.

"What's the beef? You've been acting meatloaf lately." They walked together over and underneath the white snow.

"Is it that noticeable?" Currently, Jisung felt like burying his body alive.

Felix let out a satisfied laugh. "My freckles can smell the unthinkable. Even feelings," he mused, still holding onto that principle of the mighty freckles of Felix. He named them Felicia.

Giving up, Jisung let his tongues rolled out the words like river. Chan's words, his concerns, the possibilities. He told him everything.

"Did Minho know this?" was the question that first came to his mind.

Shaking his head, he answered, "Nope."

"Why?"

"Bro, his parents are dead," he exclaimed, "how do you expect me to keep blabbering non stop about my mom's condition and being sad about it when his parents are dead?"

"So that's why you chose me?"

"Yes," he admitted.

Smiling, Felix pinched Jisung's frozen butt-cheeks all of the sudden, then spiked it afterwards. "Cheer up, Bro. It's still a possibility. You can't 100% trust Chan's eyesight, he once mistook me as Kim Chaewon."

Jisung flinched when he felt Felix's hand grazing on his buttocks. "Mother trucker, dude, that hurt like a butt-cheek on a stick."

"Like I said, it's a mere possibility," he emphasized the word 'possibility'. "Besides, isn't it a good that your mom is alive?"

"She's not—"

"It's a hypothetical question," Felix emphasized, "now back to the question."

"Well yes, but..." Thinking about restarting his life made him dizzy. "I don't want the past to repeat again. I'm afraid my dad can't handle the situation."

They were really engrossed with their conversation, they nearly forgot to buy pads for Chunhua. Thank goodness, they saw an advertisement regarding the product they're about to purchase. Amazingly, they did not feel embarrassed about buying pads, though many girls are still embarrassed to bring their feminine products to the cashier.

They exited the store peacefully. "Well..." Felix trailed off. "You and your father don't necessarily have to change drastically. You only need to adjust with your mom's sudden presence. After all, life is about adjusting. You can't expect everything to happen as you please. Life is shit and all we can do is getting used to the smell of people's shit."

"You're quite of a talker, aren't you?" Jisung teased while juggling the pads he just bought.

"I've experienced the unexpected too, y'know?" Felix wiggled his eyebrows. "You probably don't know that I had a cousin."

"So?" He couldn't find any correlation between Felix's cousin and his mother.

Felix took Jisung's question as his cue to story-tell. "She's about a month older than me, but she acted like a fucking banana. She taught me the ways to be a joke and here am I now."

Jisung was somewhat interested in the story. "Woah, you should've introduced me to her."

"I wish I could." Felix laughed, stating, "but she's dead. She died two years ago during a surgery."

Jisung began to regret his words. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Nah, it's fine. Her death was kinda predictable since she kept going to the hospital because she had Friedreich's ataxia and she's proud of it... You know, because it sounds cooler than cancer."

The latter had no idea on how to respond to that.

"She had already predicted her death before the surgery happened." Felix's mind traveled back to the old memories. "Before she was about to undergo her surgery, she specifically wanted to talk to me for the last time."

"What were her final words?"

"You won't believe this..." He chuckled before continuing. "She told me to clear her browsing history."

"Wow, that's... wow." Felix watched as Jisung's eyes widened, and then his expression morphed into an ambivalent smile.

Felix continued, "I thought that I could accept her death wholeheartedly. However, as days went by, everything became heavier as I had lost half of me." Tears began to form slowly on his eyes. "I realized how many things I should've done with her when she's still alive. I regret so many things, thus she kept coming to my dreams."

"You're so strong," Jisung commented, gently stroking Felix's cold hair.

"What's dead can't be revived. I know that well, therefore I tried my best to adjust with the situation. I keep moving forward." He glanced at the blonde, smiling. "And then I met you; a true blessing that I want to protect for the rest of my life, so that I don't have to regret a single thing when we're separated."

"Felix, I—" He pulled the boy to his embrace, sending warmth within each touch they shared.

Throughout their life, they've laughed, cried, fought, getting back together again, and many more. Although Felix said that he's glad to met Jisung, the other felt more grateful to have Felix by his side. Besides, he wouldn't have met Minho without Felix's help. Moreover, all the great things he'd experienced wouldn't have happened without Felix's support. They were two matching puzzles from the start.

"They say death brings new life, it gives meaning to our life. For me personally, it brings me closer to you."

Jisung was basically tangling on Felix's body due to heavy crying. Who knew a meme boy like Felix would be such an emotional, yet inspiring person?

Felix took a deep breath, fogs escaping from his mouth as he exhaled the burden. "Let's say that your mother is alive. It means that you have absolutely nothing to worry about because everyone's already close to you. That's why death won't be necessary anymore."

But still, his insides were hurting. He gotta admit that his mother neglected and betrayed her family.

Silence.

"Hey, Felix." He let himself go from their shared hugs.

"What?"

"Does it always feel like this?" Jisung swallowed. "Or does it get better?"

"I'm not gonna baby you and lie to you," he replied softly, truthfully. "It always hurts. But you'll eventually get used to it."

They could've spent the entire night talking and crying outside if the call from Chunhua didn't interfere with their intimate moment. Still, priorities come first, thus they sprinted their way back to the cottage.

"Everything will be okay." Felix wouldn't stop repeating that one sentence to calm the other boy. Those words came out like a spell, then all of a sudden, the atmosphere turned lighter.

A big, gummy smile was plastered on Jisung's face. "I love you so much, but no homo."

With that being said, the two laughed happily. It was a beautiful night well spent with a beautiful person by his side.

"Jisung, please remember that you're someone's reason to smile," Felix explained, "because you are a joke."

"I—"

Felix cut him off. "You're a joke, I'm a joke too. In fact, life is a joke, so take it easy. No pressure, man. We're men."

"We're men." Again, Felix's words felt like spell to him. It wasn't a bad thing, though.

Jisung knocked on the front door many times in annoyance due to the cold that's starting to bug him each minutes.

Jisung was glad he had accepted Chunhua's demand. Without spending another second, he kissed his best friend on the lips. No, more like giving him a light peck to show his gratitude. Felix did the same thing to him, then whispered "No homo" as usual. They failed to realize that the door was wide open.

Minho was bewildered with the sight in front of him as he opened the door. He just stood there, utterly frozen, before they retreated their gazes away.

"Uhh..." Minho chuckled awkwardly. "Chunhua has been waiting for you guys."

┉┉