Two: Misleading appearance.

Changmin stepped in into the small diner of his childhood friend with so much wrapped around him as the weather had dropped down a few temperatures below zero since a few days ago with snow covering all the big city of Seoul for the happiness of the children, and the annoyance of the grown up people who found it hard to do their daily routing with this too much snow around. Even him, the man had to take a shovel and dig away those amass of snowflakes in front of his shop. At least, it was good to live just above his shop as he did not have to take a drive from his house to his work place.

The clockmaker frowned at the sight of the not faired man he deemed as the best cook in this planet but at that something he could define as the latter's lover standing behind the counter trying to cook something in a hot pot.

"Oh no! Not you!" He grunted as the man walked to stop in front of the counter. "Where is your fairy lover gone?"

"Welcome to Cassiopeia!" Yunho said as he turned to face the comer with his most commercial smile while stretching his arms out without paying attention to the crabby grandpa unfolded with so much layers of warm garments.

"Welcome to hell!" Changmin's voice corrected, beaming through his woollen knitting cowl wrapped around his neck, hiding half of his face.

"He doesn't know how to make eggs and ham." Taemin, the teenage boy sitting at the counter, let out with disappointment as he showed his plate with two sunny upside down eggs who looked like crumbled eggs and the few slices of ham could be passed for some charcoals.

"Last time he poisoned me with his cold tofu marinated in arsenic!" The man tksed as he undressed himself from his long brown coat and warm handmade snood.

"You two are so dramatic." Yunho snorted as he put a glass of Maehwasoo, some Korean plum wine, for his friend.

"At least you know what I want to drink." The clockmaker nodded as he brought the glass of wine to his nostrils, inhaling the soft fruity fragrant coming from the liquor.

"You have your own habit." The other man smiled, returning his attention to the pot on the stove. Yunho was trying to cook some spicy pork stew for his lover. And since a while, he was following every steps of the recipe Jaejoong had left for him.

"Of course." Changmin nodded quietly with a small smile. "Do you have some cherry wine in your storage?" He asked as he took place next to the teenage boy who was trying to digest his lunch. A simple meal which seemed to be some weapons of mass destruction for their stomachs.

"I get that for you later." The wine merchant nodded with a smile as he knew very well who loved to drink cherry wine. Not Changmin but Maki, his late wife. And every time they saw each other, the other man always asked for that kind of wine even though the clockmaker did not drink the liquor, finding it too sweet for his taste.

"Thank you." He said as he brought the glass to his lips, sipping a few drops of the soft yellow liquor. He wasn't fond of wine or alcohol in general. But, sometimes, it could be a very good friend at time he needed company.

"You should not be drinking so much alcohol at this hour of the day." The boy sitting at his right said quietly, looking at him with so much sympathy.

"It's a story of grownups don't try to understand." Changmin grunted as he rolled up his eyes annoyingly. He never wanted to be seen as some weakling in the eyes of others after the death of his wife. Mostly making others feeling pity for him.

"I may be just a teenager. But I know things that even you, grownups don't know." Taemin snorted. "You all act almighty but when you have to face some common troubles, you all scurry away like the coward you are."

"I didn't know that even toddlers can have a lot on their plates." The tall man snickered as he put the glass still full of the plum wine on the counter, not having the heart to drink the smoothed and strong liquor.

"Don't mock." The teenage boy chided.

Changmin nodded as he was looking at the poor boy for a while. He knew a few about this boy who spent most of his time annoying his good friend for almost five months, since his friend had caught the boy kicking the offering statue placed next to the sliding screen doors of his lover's wine shop. And he was always amazed at how Jaejoong was calm listening to that troublemaker's inner turmoil as well as all the troubles his costumers had in their lives.

That man had talent and patience. But above all, that pretty faired man had a soft and warm presence which made people feel at ease. It was always like that since they were children. And that kind character of him had always put Yunho, even him Changmin, into the defensive. They always protected the child faired boy since they knew each other from others who would want to take advantage of him.

"Yeah! Yeah! You did good little one." The clockmaker added as he patted the boy's head nonchalantly.

"You're a pain in the ." Taemin let out as he yanked away the man's hand. "Tell Jaejoong hyung that I was there." The teenager huffed before he walked away from the diner, sliding angrily the screen door behind him for who wanted to know what was his mood at this moment.

"You did it again." Yunho shook his head as he was leaning against the counter, looking at his friend with a smile painting on his lips. "You have to let go of that sarcastic side of you. If it's not now surely one day..."

"Don't try to be like your lover. You aren't this sensitive to begin with. You're the kind of man who punches and kicks before knowing the whole story." Changmin scowled.

"Crabby like ever." The other man muttered annoyingly at his friend's behaviour. "Rice and omelette?" Yunho suggested quietly.

"Hopefully, I won't eat egg shells in your omelette. And what are you trying to cook there?" He asked as he pointed his finger at the pot on the stove.

"I cook the best omelette in this world." Yunho chided before turning his back to his childhood friend and worked onto beating some eggs in a bowl. "And this is a spicy pork stew." He added answering his friend's inquiry.

"Looking at how the ham has become charcoal... I hope you won't burn this establishment just by cooking some eggs. You will ruin your best friend's business." Changmin let out as he was looking at the plate next to him. "And why are you here? Should you be standing behind your own counter in your wine shop at the down of the street, displaying your commercial smile to your drunkard costumers?"

"It's closed now. And they're not drunkards but passionate."

"Suit yourself!" Changmin snorted. "And how do you make the end every month if you put a close mark on your door every time Jaejoong needs to be away from his business?"

"None of your concern." Yunho poured the beating eggs into the sizzling pan and nodded with a satisfied smile on his lips at the sight of the yellow milky liquid taking form under the warm of the pan, letting out this typical smell of egg floating in the air. "Speaking of business, what happen to yours?"

"Nothing much. People nowadays swear only by those new disposable clocks or wristwatches. I don't have much to do."

Yunho nodded as he did not even feel guilty at owning one of those easy products that people could throw away with no feeling attached into it. However, he was raised in a traditional family who like old and traditional objects with history behind.

"Recently when I passed by your shop, the light's been off."

"It's a waste of energy."

The wine merchant chuckled as he shook his head at his friend's response. Typical of Shim Changmin. The man always found the best replica to get his interlocutor speechless.

"I'd scream in fright if I poked my head in and saw you scowling out at me from the dark."

The two men in the diner turned their attention to the man standing at the feet of the front gate of the cooking house, harbouring an amused smile on his lips. Jaejoong who was swaddled into a big soft lilac puffa coat with a red scarf wrapping around his neck and a black beanie with snowflakes scattered here and there covering his head was back from his errand with a bag of grocery in his left hand. And of course, his lover boy ran to him and got the bag from his hand as Yunho helped him into the warm room.

"Are you cold?" The latter asked softly.

"Very cold! It's a day for doing nothing only rolling into a warm comforter."

"Let's do that later."

"You two seem joyous today. Did you have a good last night?" Changmin snorted as he rolled up his eyes at the couple being this mushy. Then, he turned to look at the pan above the fire. "Hey? Jung? Are you trying to burn an omelette? I don't even know you can burn one in your life."

Yunho sniffed annoyingly before he returned to the stove and turned off the burner before putting the omelette on a plate in a haste, while Jaejoong laughed softly at Changmin's acerbic replica.

"You're awful." The wine trader let out as he put the omelette in front of his friend. Then, he walked towards the rice cooker and served a bowl of rice for the latter. "Here your lunch. Eat it up and go do your work!" Yunho let out annoyingly.

Changmin shook his head as he was pocking onto the omelette with his chopsticks, one of his brow lifted at the sight of the brown trace on what should be a soft and well made omelette. "You did burn the omelette after all."

"If you don't want it, give it back!" Yunho grunted, ready to take the plate away from his friend.

"It's food! I won't waste it."

"Of course." The other man scoffed.

The faired man said nothing as he was enjoying this little bickering between his lover and his best friend. Jaejoong just took his time to undress himself from his down jacket. Then, he threw away his long scarf and beanie anywhere in the dining room before walking towards the stove. He put onto his floral apron and worked quickly onto making a soft tofu stew for Changmin with the two men watching him with soft smile.

The boiling broth was filling the air with its fragrant odour. The sound of the knife chopping some green onion and tofu was reverberating in the room like a background music in those culinary show they could see on the screen of their television. The sound of the spoon stirring into the pot was not cringe-making, on the contrary it sounded like a soft melody to their ears. And the soft humming coming from the pale man made their hearts in peace as a few memories flooded from their common past.

"Here!" Jaejoong put two bowls of tofu stew on the counter for the two important men in his life.

Yunho smiled as he took the warm small bowl in his hands, inhaling the smell of this tofu stew near his nostrils. It reminded him of the time when the three of them had spent most of their childhood time at Jaejoong's house watching some kid cartoons of their epoch, filling their mouths with some kimchi pancakes made by his lover's mother. Very spicy if he could say so. But it was the best time of their lives. A time where they only thought of how to enjoy their days with no worries.

They were only three innocent boys who did not ask a lot from life.

"I like it." The man let out softly. And Jaejoong grinned at his lover.

"There's nothing you hate from your fairy lover." Changmin butted into this pink-ish filled love aura coming from the pair of lovers.

"And you don't hate his cooking either." Yunho said back.

"I did say many time that he is the best cook in this world."

"Flattery isn't going to give you more food."

"Alright you two!" Jaejoong chided with a laugh. "Yunho-yah! Sit and eat before you return to your shop." He added as he put a bowl of rice for his lover on the counter. Then, he returned to stand in front of his stove, making another omelette for the two of them as well as supervising the spicy pork stew Yunho was cooking in his absence.

And not long after, the rustling of one of the sliding screen doors echoed into their ears, making the three friends be aware of the arriving of a costumer. The three men set their eyes to the newcomer, a woman who was well-dressed in her warm garments making her being seen as someone doing very great in her life but the perfume floating around her left this cheap feeling of a poor woman trying to appear for who she was not.

"I didn't know there was something like that here." The woman in her late twenty let out as she was looking around, judging the small diner like she was judging a three-star restaurant at the street of Gangnam-gu through her glossy dark sunglasses. "Small. Very small." She nodded while twisting her nose. For some men they would find this trait from a femme fatale very cute. But for them, she seemed more like a hoity-toity person, like I'm too good for this kind of place. "Do you have some good meal to offer to someone like me?" She said hauntingly, turning her attention to the three men.

Changmin wanted to say something but Jaejoong just smiled and walked towards the woman with the latter looking at him from head to toes. She was judging him and, it was not the first time the opposite gender looked at the man as if he was their most worst enemy.

"You sure don't look ordinary." She scoffed, envying the soft strawberry blond hair of the man as well as his petite waist. Something every woman would love to have.

"Welcome to Cassiopeia." The pretty man clad in a pair of dark blue skinny denim and a soft cotton red striped Canadian shirt covering with a soft floral apron said with his most beautiful smile. "Take a seat and I will make something good for you."

"And I don't even have the choice to choose what I want to eat." She let out annoyingly.

"This is the rule of my diner." Jaejoong let out, still smiling. Of course, the people coming here could choose what they wanted to eat. But, sometimes, surprising them with dishes they did not expect could be the best way to initiate a conversation.

"Alright! I don't have a lot of time to argue. You have to know that a woman like me doesn't eat something heavy. I have a diet to follow." She let out as she chose to sit on one of the tables in the middle of the room, putting her large and trendy handbag on the surface table. But soon she took it away with a frown, fearing for the state of her precious purse.

"Of course." Jaejoong said softly as he returned behind the counter.

Yunho and Changmin said nothing as the two men were still watching the woman taking a small bag from her purse. Then, she took out a pocket mirror and looked at her own reflection, checking at her already well made makeup. And if it was necessary, she put some retouches on her well made rosy lips. A flashy red one.

"Narcissistic much." Changmin let out in a low voice as he turned his back to the woman.

"I won't say otherwise." Yunho nodded. "That's why I never really like girls to begin with."

"No wonder you end with a girly man!"

The two friends returned to their meal quietly, savouring the soft tofu stew and the well cooked omelette, while Jaejoong was cutting delicately a morsel of cod fish before dipping it into a beaten egg and smoothing the fish with some flour and crumble bread.

"Can I have some drink?" The woman asked a loud as she was now brushing her slender fingers through her soft brown light hair. And not long after, she found the beautiful man near her with a glass of a brown liq