--- JAEJOONG'S POV ---

When a friend did a great favor for me, I swear I'll never forget it and will always feel indebted to him/her. That was my case with Junsu. I'll never forget that once, he had saved me to the point of sacrificing his own life.

Junsu and I attended the same school, been on the same year and class, but never been close. We really are different from each other. Junsu was the student body president and the class genius, a typical intelligent boy with a good bright future. On the other hand, I am what you call the "bad boy" of the school; always been into street-fights, always been on the office of the principal for nonstop sermon, and always been a pain in the neck for my father.

Yes, you heard it right. My father. My mother died shortly after I was born. Since then, dad became like married to work. He never had time for me. He let my grandmother took care of me. It seemed like he put all the blame on me for my mother's untimely death that's why he never showed any affection towards me. Because of that, when I fully understood my situation, I began to rebel. I wanted my father to notice me, that's why I made everything to make that happen.

But I failed.

He still remained cold and ignoring me. Even when the principal asked me to bring my father with me, even when the principal announced that I will be suspended for a week, he just nodded and never scolded me when we returned home. That night, I cried so hard for the last time for him. I realized that no matter what I do, he'll never treat me as his own child. He'll just raise me as a part of his responsibility. There were times I already wanted to talk to him personally about the problem, but he always tells me he doesn't have a spare time to share.

Yes, that's my dad.

Grandmother often told me that I should just learn to understand him. He just lost the woman he loves, she'll say. But then on my mind I'll ask, "How about me?". I also lost a mother. I even didn't have the chance to glance at her, to remember each feature of her face. It also feels like I lost a father too.

So with that, I set my mind to be engaged in fighting. In that way, I can release my frustrations towards him. And I succeeded, I succeeded on running away with my problem.

Until that day came...

--- (Flashback) ---
9 Years Ago...

"Jaejoong-ah, beware of Jungyon's group, okay? Taemin badly injured one of s and I think they'll take their revenge today." Donghon said through phone. I was still in school and was about to go home when he suddenly called. We have exams for tomorrow and although I rebel, I still study hard for me not to repeat a year. I'm sick of school so I think the best way to go out through it is to just study.

I don't have any friends in school nor girlfriends because of my bad reputation. Boys in our class avoided me because they think I might influence them in doing something bad while the girls stayed away from me because they probably thought I might just beat them. Funny but I thought that was very advantageous for me than being upset. It means I’ll be at peace, alone with myself. I have no girlfriend who will demand for my time and love. In other words, problem-free. Besides, I have no love to give so why bother being close to somebody?

On the first day of our Junior high, I remembered Junsu once talked to me but I just ignored him. He was the only student who was brave enough to interact with me. I don’t usually mind if someone wants to talk to me, but his case was different. He’s smart, disciplined, and a respected student. He’s like my father, so to be honest, I don’t really like his guts. He resembles so much of my father.

“Yah, you belong to Taemin’s gang, right?” I heard someone asked. I looked at him and recognized he’s Jungyon but… he’s not just one, they’re a dozen!

“So? What do you want?” I arrogantly asked although inside me I was already nervous. I tactically glanced secretly to the place we are right now and saw no one but us. No one’s gonna be here to help me, this is my sole fight? Even though you can already call me an expert in fighting despite my young age, I can’t definitely win this one, you know. One against a dozen?!

“So, we need to avenge our member. And fortunately, we found you here, ALONE.” Jungyon said. s brought their pipes out as their armor and started to go near me. Then after a few seconds, our fight started. At first I can throw punches back, but after a several minutes, they started to punch me, kick me, and hit me with the pipes and so on. In short, I was at a disadvantage, I was losing. I was already about to lose my consciousness when someone came and shouted.

“Yah, stop it!” he said. I felt their beatings stopped for a while and looked at the new comer. I weakly opened my eyes and recognized it was Junsu. “W-what are you doing here? L-leave!” I weakly said. But it seems like he doesn’t mind me.

“And who are you?” One of the gangsters asked, pointing the pipe on Junsu. But Junsu just remained still and didn’t even show any sign of nervousness.

“I’m his classmate and I’m here to tell you to stop hurting him. Let’s just talk about this and settle everything without fighting,” He calmly said.

“Yah, do you know that this boy’s gang member hurt one of my members without any reason? We’re here to take our revenge! Sung Ah, In Soo, Dong We, beat him too! Such meddlesome young man…” Jungyon commanded and started to hit the both of us.

“Yah, don’t include him! L-leave him out of this, p-please!” I shouted in between beatings. After several hitting, I saw Jungyon pulled out a huge rock.

“Now, I’m going to hit your head with this!” He said to me and started to lift the rock to start. I just closed my eyes and waited to what will happen next.

“Stop!” I felt someone crushed on me and I saw it was Junsu. He caught the rock that was for me! I saw lots of fresh blood flowing out of his head. Jungyon’s group escaped as we heard the siren of the patrol car. With a weakling body, I started to move and aided Junsu.

“Junsu-yah!” I screamed. His eyes were closed and his pulse was weak. I was so scared I didn’t know what to do. Because of me, his life is now in danger. Because of me, his beautiful future might be at stake. Because of me…

Oh, God, help me!

ON THE HOSPITAL I started to sob while waiting for his parents to arrive. I looked at my bloody shirt and realized the impact of me being a rebel: Junsu now was suffering because of my stubbornness. He lost a lot of blood and is now in coma. Yes, he was in comatose. And I’m really scared. If something bad really happens to him, if he dies… in which I hope won’t happen, I’ll surely blame myself for the rest of my life. It’s my fault, why is he the one suffering?

(After 2 days)

When Junsu’s mom called and said that Junsu has woken up and looking for me, I immediately went to the hospital and hugged him. He laughed at me and told me to stop crying. I didn’t realize but I was actually crying.

“Yah, you’re not the type of person to cry in front of many people, you know.” He said in a teasing manner.

“Yah, it’s your fault. Who told you to save me?”

“Really, Jaejoong-hyung, you’re welcome.” He said sarcastically while grinning.

That day ended with me thanking him a hundred times. That day also started a good friendship between us.
--- (End of Flashback) ---

After that incident, I decided to change myself for the better. I quitted the gang and studied very hard. Junsu and I became very inseparable then. Students weren’t aloof of me anymore. Then, after our highschool graduation, we decided to audition for SM Entertainment and the rest is history.

I have so many things to be thankful for Junsu. He just didn’t save my life; he also opened up my mind and made me realize a lot of things. If not for him, I might be a drug lord right now or a leader of a gang. Well, about my father, Junsu helped me with it too. He advised me a lot until I gained enough strength to talk with my father.

So with that debts in him how can I have the strength to stole the girl that Junsu loves? I owe him a lot. Am I a bad friend for falling in love with the girl she loves? After all the good things he has done for me, I’ll just repay him like this? I didn’t plan all this, but my plan was just to help him get her but I ended up loving her…

I love Miyeon but my friend loves her. What a situation I was in! Miyeon wasn’t that hard to love. Her type is the type that was very rare nowadays. You’ll never find someone as simple and witty as her. She’s smart and very likeable. Man, I was torn between the woman I love and the person I owe too much. If I let my selfish heart rule, I’ll definitely not let Junsu have Miyeon. But… If giving up Miyeon for Junsu will make him happy… So why be a hindrance to it?

Although letting go is not easy…