The apartment was a mess, it was hard to believe that Yuta's friends had helped him unpack his things when he'd returned to Korea. It wasn't like he was a dirty lazy young man; he was just lacking much will to do anything especially after everything that happened a month ago. Jaehyun was happy with Gayeon and this left Yuta's heart at peace, yet the pain of rejection would definitely remain. Yuta had always been good at hiding his feelings, but in a situation like that, being away was the only option he though was right at the moment, not for Jaehyun, but for himself. He spent quite a lot putting his friends in the foreground, has even wondered many times if it wasn't stupid. Maybe he had thrown his happiness away. As Yuta recalled those moments for the thousandth time, the bell rang forcing him, almost crawling, to slide off the bed and answer the door.

"Good morning sunshine!" Johnny had a smile on his face until he saw Yuta's situation. Quickly he grimaced "Ew!"

"Morning" yawning, he scratched his eyes and entered again with his friend right behind.

"Dude, you killed someone and hid the body inside the house?" covering his nose, Johnny closed the door.

"Something like that."

With the short answer, Johnny stared at him with wide eyes.

"Here lies: Nakamoto Yuta" and he threw himself in the couch with a big sigh of pure frustration.

"With all this whole stench," the tallest leaned down identifying a moldy pizza under the rug "a corpse wouldn't stand a chance, seriously... Is that black mold?"

"I have no idea" his voice was muffled by the cushion.

"Yeah, Yuta, you have no idea?" with an ironic tone, Johnny approached getting the first thing he found on the way "Do you know what black mold does?"

"What?"

"It..." Johnny positioned himself in front of Yuta "KILLS PEOPLE" and so, he slapped the boy on the couch with an unidentified clothe that looked like an old rag.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing now?! Jesus, man!" Yuta showed how disgusted he was every time his face was hit.

"Oh, of course! PUNISHING YOU!" he remained hitting the other's face.

"That's a dirty underwear! Dude put that down!"

"What...?!" Johnny felt his body paralyze and analyzed the fabric in his hand "For God's sake man, who leaves shitted underwear in the living room?! That's so wrong!" and he threw the underwear on Yuta who squirmed by jumping off the couch just not to touch the apparently rotten fabric.

"Don't throw that thing on me!" with a disgusted expression and about to vomit, Yuta retorted "And for your information, there's nothing shitted in here."

"It's your underwear, what are you so disgusted for?!"

"I don't know, it's been so long that it's rotting there."

"You've disappeared for days and that's how I find you? Who've hurt you?"

Yuta stared at him pouting.

"Don't do that" Johnny said "Stop."

"Please help me" Yuta continued pouting.

"First let's fix this beggar-like Nakamoto appearance... Where's the Osaka's Prince?"

"I don't know."

Yuta looked like a child, but deep inside Johnny realized what's his friend was going through.

"He's right there in the bathroom just waiting for you" with a clear and pleasant voice, Johnny took Yuta from behind by his shoulders "Use the soap okay? And shampoo, hair conditioner is really good too, what about you go there and have a chat with them, huh?" and dragged him inside the bathroom.

"Johnny, will you help me?"

"Dude, I don't take men's clothes off."

"Not with that!" Yuta punched his friend's shoulder "The apartment, help me clean the apartment idiot" he rolled his eyes.

"This I can do, but first go take a shower, seriously, you stink like a wild monkey's armpit."

Johnny walked away from the bathroom, letting Yuta take his bath and began to analyze where he would start cleaning that place. There was so much dirt and spoiled food in there, that there weren't enough garbage bags. With a sigh, Johnny decided to go to a nearby convenience store to buy two pairs of rubber gloves and more garbage bags. There was no saint in the world that would make him touch all that stunning dirt with bare hands.

While Johnny was away, Yuta was undressing in the bathroom, the smell was so strong that he didn't know if there was a soap powder with the ability to remove that stench. As soon as his body had been greeted by the warm water, relief had taken hold of his muscles and his skin thanked the way the water was massaging him. It's not necessary to mention that Yuta had a bath of almost an hour of duration, such as he vowed never to remain without bathing for so many days again. Feeling more refreshed, he came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and went to his room to wear something clean, if there was a clean underwear in the drawers. Noticing Johnny's absence, Yuta picked up his cell phone from the layover and accessed his contact list.

"Hey" Johnny picked up with a certain speed.

"Where are you?"

"Buying trash bags."

"Can you buy me some briefs too? I promise to pay you back."

"Man, what the heck? There's no clean underwear in your house?"

"I have just one left. Tomorrow I'm going to need to wear something, I haven't bought a tumble dryer yet, unless you let me wash my briefs in your house."

"There's no way I'll be driving with a rotten bag of dirty laundry in my car. Look, if I were you, I'd throw all those away. I wouldn't have the guts to wear those things again."

"We'll see what can be done... And one more thing."

"What?" he was already frustrated with his friend's requests.

"Thanks, Johnny."

They've been silent for a few seconds.

"Friends, right?" both laughed and hung up.

Yuta was already dressed when Johnny arrived. With a cloth covering his nose, he placed the dirty clothes in a basket dodging the spoiled food and the bottles of scattered soju on the floor. Now with the plastic bags and gloves that Johnny bought, the two finished collecting the garbage. It took a long time for everything to be set in its proper place. The biggest problem was the rug, Yuta knew how expensive it would be to washed it in its current state, yet what was done cannot be undone and he knew it.

They opened the windows and removed the mold from the walls. It was an intense afternoon of cleaning in the apartment, Johnny regretted immensely in having accepted to help. The more he cleaned, more dirt appeared. At least the cockroaches had already been wiped out and, thank God, rats didn't know how to climb walls, otherwise, Yuta would probably be in a hospital now. They barely noticed and the afternoon was already falling, and with it the hunger too was pronounced by the rumbling rumble that Yuta's stomach had made.

"Please, tell me it's not an alien."

With all that Johnny had witnessed in this half day with Yuta, nothing would surprise him anymore.

"I'm hungry" ended up laughing at the other's concern "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday noon."

"So now you're doing hunger strike too?"

Finally, the floor and walls were clean.

"It's not that, I just fell asleep all day."

For his back's happiness, Yuta had finished cleaning the sofa too.

"You realized you were slowly killing yourself, right?"

Johnny put all the garbage bags together and, with Yuta's help, went to store everything they had used to clean the house in the laundry room.

"Do you know how people call who does that?"

"How?" he already knew the answer, but he enjoyed the indignation of the tall one.

"SUICIDAL, YUTA, SUICIDAL."

"Okay, I get it."

Laughing at Johnny's expressions, they both finished cleaning the whole apartment.

"Now, can we eat something for God's sake?"

"What do we have in your fridge to eat? Oh, let's see... NOTHING."

"We could dine out. I'm well scented now; things won't wilt with my presence."

"Yeah, sounds good. They opened a new coffee shop nearby. You'll like it, it has a great menu too. I eat there almost every day, I'm sure it will even brighten you up."

"I was thinking about a fancy place with those desserts I don't even know how to eat."

"Are you kidding me? I take girls to fancy restaurants, I'm not going with you in one. You're crazy, it's going to look like a date."

"We could call Winwin, Doyoung, I don't know. There's no need to be just the two us, idiot. And who the hell would want to go on a date with you?"

"You have no idea... But I'll stick with my plan, you're going to eat in the coffee shop I'm talking about, period."

"And where is that?"

"Just shut up and put your shoes on, respect the elders."

"You know we were born in the same year, don't you?"

"I was born first" and the argument was won.

With a bad feeling, not to mention his unwillingness to leave the apartment, but deemed necessary after a month just existing in there, Yuta sat a little sulkily in the Range Rover seat next to Johnny who, in his own enthusiasm, not even notice.

For the first time, Yuta was glad to realize that his apartment wasn't so close to Jaehyun's neighborhood, avoiding uncomfortable encounters, or worse, to run into Gayeon after the way he acted in front of her. The only thing he felt was an extremely big embarrassment. It took some time to Yuta notice, but when it finally hit him, it was too late.

"Johnny, didn't you say it was a cafe nearby?"

"Yes."

"Then why are we in this car for twenty minutes already?"

"You're so impatient... No need to complain anymore" with a thin smile on his lips, Johnny parked the car.

With his heart in his mouth and almost prone to committing a crime by killing one of his best friends, Yuta stared at Johnny as if he were the greatest traitor in humankind history. From the large window that separated the inside of the coffee shop with the sidewalk, Gayeon wore a white apron cleaning tables with a bright smile on her face. It suited her well, it was as if she knew how to deal with people, or just acted very well. Clutching Johnny's wrist, Yuta shook his head firmly.

"I'm not getting out of the car."

"What are you talking about, get out."

"No, I'm never going into this place again."

"Why not? She misses you, aren't you two friends?"

"Are you crazy? I can't see her; it'll make things worse. Turn the car around and let's get out of here."

"Wait..." finally Johnny got the message "I already imagined that you were dumped, but... Yuta the girl is...!"

"Not another word or I'll kill you right here and right now. Don't test me Johnny boy, don't test me."

"Oh my God..." Johnny looked frustrated as well as surprised. "But when was that?!"

"It doesn't matter, what's over, is over. Jesus, let's just leave before..." as soon as Yuta glanced forward, he noticed Gayeon narrowing her eyes to try to recognize the two boys arguing inside the car "SHIT, SHIT" Yuta never stooped so fast in his entire life; he was writhing in the car seat trying not to let his knees out.

"She saw us! What should I do?!" Johnny seemed so lost that he even forgot how to drive.

"How about starting the car and getting us out of here?" Yuta gave Johnny a deadly look, on his mind he just wanted to make a hole in the ground and disappear.

"Oh my God, Yuta! Yuta, oh my God!"

"Start the fucking car, Johnny!"

"I can't right now!"

"Of course you can!"

"She's coming here!"

"START THE CAR DAMN IT!" Yuta jumped at Johnny's jacket ready to strangle him, as soon as two touches were struck in the car's window.

Yuta felt his body petrify and his blood froze. As soon as Johnny lowered the window, that voice made Yuta feel his heart break again.

"What are you two doing? Don't tell me you're fighting again" she smiled openly.

"We came because... Because we are hungry!" Johnny punched Yuta's arm so he would resume his posture "Right?"

"Yeah, of course" with a pleasant smile, Yuta joined his hands "It has been so many days since I last came here. Why not pay a visit, right Johnny?" turning his attention to Johnny, the angelic smile became Satan's laugh.

"And you'll stay inside the car?" again that smile that pinned Yuta's chest.

In less than ten minutes the two were already sitting inside that coffee shop with a delicious smell of hamburger and chips. And that's exactly what Yuta had ordered, Johnny preferred the extra-large combo of fries with bacon and cheddar. While the silence tortured the tallest, Yuta thanked Gayeon for not starting a conversation due to work. However, with each bite, a released sigh. Johnny felt bad for him, didn't want things to end this way, his real intention was to cheer him up, but it made everything worse.

"Hey" Johnny nudged Yuta's leg with his right foot.

"Hm?" at no moment did Yuta blur his attention from the hamburger in front of him.

Even heartbroken he was starving.

"I'm sorry."

"Forget it, it's okay."

"No, really. I didn't know, I thought you would get excited. You always got excited with her and Jaehyun around. Looking at that angle now, it was obvious, but I didn't realize it."

"This really hurts you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"You wanted to make me forget I was dumped by bringing me exactly to the one who dumped me."

"I'm a terrible friend" then he put the biggest piece of bacon on Yuta's plate.

"You screw things up sometimes Johnny, besides being stupid" with a chuckle he accepted the bacon and ate it after a low laugh "But that's what we like about you. It's okay, I've already forgiven you. There's no friend like you anyways."

"That was the gayest thing anyone could ever say to me in my entire life."

"Shut up" and the two ended up laughing.

Soon after eating, Yuta ordered a blueberry ice cream for dessert and Johnny followed with a banana split. Everything was leading towards a pleasant course, until Gayeon sat with them on her break time. If Yuta wasn't a good actor, it would all be coming out in an extremely forced and uncomfortable way, but even Johnny was impressed by how he managed to hide all his feelings from the girl without even weakening. They made jokes, laughed, finished their ice cream, and only did stall there not to leave the girl alone until her break was over.

"Classes have started over, but I haven't seen you there Yuta. The P.E building is not far from the Arts one. Don't tell me you've been playing hooky?"

"No. The transfer papers were sent from Japan, it took a while, but it got here two days ago. I need to fill out the form confirming that I've gave up engineering and that I'm attending P.E now."

"Wait, what did you say?" she seemed to choke "You were doing engineering?"

"Yeah, I never liked doing that tho, it was my parents who wanted to. But I talked to them and, voila, here I am."

"So, you're going back to college next week?"

"I'll sign the form tomorrow, and on Monday I'll probably start. It seems that they had some problems with another file from a foreign student, so it ended up taking so long, but it's all settled now."

"I was already felling lonely in that place with all that people sexually confused" Johnny sighed.

"Wait, what?" Gayeon's eyes widened.

"Of course, I'm not talking about all of them, for God's sake guys, let's not generalize" Johnny straightened his back "Guys flirted with me a lot while girls only rejected me, most of them because they were lesbians. My future is going to be like the forty-year-old virgin" Johnny lifted his right hand against his face in frustration.

"Alright, alright. I better take this drama queen home before he starts crying and make me depressed too" Yuta stood up calling Johnny to accompany him.

"Okay, in a few hours my shift will be over too. It's already getting dark, so be careful on the way back!" she waved dressing back the apron.

With slower steps, the two of them headed back to the Range Rover and sat in silence staring into nothingness. When Johnny thought he was ready to drive again, he started the car and headed to the road. As they went away, Yuta's muscles relaxed and his breathing failed him, forcing his forehead to rest on his right hand. He closed his eyes to put his mind in place and finally laughed, but that was the saddest laugh Johnny could hear in his life. He wasn't crying, but it was as if tears were streaming down his face.

"You know what? I couldn't stand it any longer" finally, his confession "But it was good in a way.

"You think so?" Johnny was quieter, maybe Yuta needed to vent.

"Locking myself home. Ignoring that the two of them are happy, that it's him and not me just made my heart forget reality... I needed this. You were right. I think I'll be able to get over it now."

"You can't take what doesn't belongs to you, right?"

"Oh, Johnny boy, we are going to be the next forty-year-old virgins" his laughter echoed down the road.

Johnny left Yuta in his apartment and decided to go home, he was tired and needed to resolve family issues. As soon as he walked in, Yuta remembered he forgot to wash the dirty clothes, having only the new briefs Johnny had bought him. Putting it all in a huge basket, he went down by the elevator, thanking God that there was no one inside with him or it would be embarrassing, and headed for the public laundry in the street in front of the building. It would take a long time to wash everything, but in one way or another it had to be done. He set the coins and calmly waited for the machine to do its work. Yuta sat down on the floor leaning on the disconnected washing machines beside him and closed his eyes out of sheer tiredness. He stood there for a few minutes just listening to the sound of the water working, until his silence had been broken by a touch on his cheek, like a nudge.

"Is he dead?" a sweet, childish voice made him open his eyes.

"Charlie! What have I already told you about talking to strangers?" a brown-haired girl took the little girl's hand.

"But I didn't talk to him, I talked to you."

"Okay, so don't get any closer to strangers, can you do this for me?"

"Alright" they both smiled at each other.

"I'm sorry for that, she's just too curious" still smiling, this time for Yuta, the girl stared at his huge basket of clothes "Come on Charlotte, apologize too.

"I'm sorry handsome sir for saying you died" Yuta couldn't contain his laughter.

"What was that, Charlie?"

"It's alright, she's a very clever and polite girl" leaning on his knees, he smiled at the little Charlie, and then his washing machine got his attention.

"Well, we'll leave you with your clothes, apparently there's a lot of work for you yet" she ended up laughing taking her small basket of clothes and Charlotte's hand "Come on, say goodbye to him."

"Goodbye, sir" with a lovely farewell, they walked away.

"Wait, you didn't tell me..." but the two were already gone "Your name."

Yuta had been curious about those two, Charlotte was not a very common name in Korea, which made him even more interested in knowing who they were. He regretted not having asked her name before, but somewhat he felted that this wouldn't be their last meeting. Little did he know it would be much more complicated than that.