The loud, powerful sound of the big organ flowed through the small church. The tones were heavy and every each of them souded like a grieving person's groaning.
No one said a word or ever let go of their strained faces, all facing the altar where a big, white coffin, covered with flowers standed. So the priest made a gesture, raising her arm towards the ceiling as the tones of the organ died into complete silence.
She started reading from her thick book which she held in her other hand.
"From the ground you have come and to the ground you shall return for your loyality to God, the time has come for you to become one with him in heaven once again for you have not sinned and always kept your words towards our lord." The priest looked out over the crowd before comtinuing her session. "All these faces, familliar and close, we shall all remember you."
She closed her book.
"Rest in peace, Chae Michael."
Hyungwon looked down at the floor from his church-bench at the first row, he couldn't look at his father's coffin as it standed there as a reminder of how his time had been short and that things could've been better between them. He held Minhyuk's hand is his left hand and Kihyun in his right one.
Both of them looked with sadness at their surrounding and not least at Hyungwon himself who had done his best to dress up for his father's funeral.
Kihyun started combing Hyungwon's clean and shiny hair for the 8th time during the cermony even though he had helped him getting ready just two hours earlier.
He was very OCD about everything and Hyungwon had just laughed quietly when he re-tied his black tie over and over again even though Kihyun himself hadn't even got pants on yet. They sure made mean jokes about each other a lot but when it came to its peak, they loved each other a lot just like father and son and that moment froze time for both of them.
The sun had been searching its way through the closed open windows while the fai t curtains had slowly flown by being blown by the early spring's breeze mixing the sound of their humble laughters with the birds chirping.
The feeling had left once they entered the church where all the familiar faces surrounded Hyungwon. Practically the whole village was there and they all patted him on the shoulder as they met him. It was uncomfortable.
Now he just sat there at the first row to watch the coffin being carried out of the local while tugging on his long, silky suit's sleeves out of nervousity caused by who knows.
Kihyun patted his shoulder with his tiny hand and smiled mildly at him as a comfort. He tried to smile back but someone else wasn't as humble.
Minhyuk, with a straight face, observed the bear-like man, carrying one of the coffin's edges.
Their eyes met but were unreadable. Minhyuk just gave a thumb up. "Good job, you're strong carrying that coffin." He whispered and Shownu cracked his seal-like smile as a response.
Suddenly, another pair of eyes caught Shownu's glance.
Kihyun carefully observed him with his narrow, dark eyes, holding his chin high as the shameless person he was but did nothing more but looked away, leading the train, carrying the coffin continue its travel out through the gigantic port.
As the majority of the assembly left one by one, the church got peacefully quiet, only Minhyuk, Hyungwon and Kihyun was left, sitting at the first row, bathing in the afternoon's sunlight that searched its way through the huge windows. They closed their eyes and suddenly, no problems could be remembered. It was perfect.
The moment only lasted for five minutes, interupted by the Kihyun feeling the responsibility of taking care of these two, younger boys as he rose from his seat.
"We should get out of here, isn't the weather getting a bit gloomy?"
Hyungwon nodded quietly and grabbed Minhyuk's hand who didn't protest.
"Let's go!" Kihyun said with a happy tone that could be stamped "fake" miles away, pulling both of the two boys out of the local, leaving it in complete silence.
Though something had been left.
There at the front-row laid Kihyun's jacket left behind.