“Happy Birthday to you.” Minwoo , Junjin and Hyesung end the last verse of the song as Hyesung marches out from the kitchen with a large bowl of seaweed soup for the birthday man.

Dongwan’s grin is filled with peppiness when Hyesung places the bowl in front of him. He breathes in deeply the aroma of the soup before raising his head to Hyesung. “I am actually afraid to drink this. You added at least a bottle of sesame oil didn’t you?”

“Not that much!” Hyesung protests.

“Jin, come over and help me taste it!” Dongwan laughs, scoping a spoonful of soup. The younger man immediately obeys and Dongwan carefully feeds him while his eyes turn into two crescent moons fix on Junjin’s face. A twinge of jealousy hits Hyesung at the sight.

“I’ll get three more bowls.” He says and turns back to the kitchen. Deep down he knows there is absolutely no reason to be jealous of the pair. He knows better than anyone where Junjin’s heart belongs. Yet he cannot control his own heart.

“I’ll help Hyesung hyung!” Junjin announces quickly and runs after Hyesung. Minwoo turns over to the birthday man whose eyes still linger affectionately on the back of the other two men.

“I am happy for you.” Minwoo says. Dongwan turns over with an air of amusement twinkling beneath his irises.

“For getting a year older?” Dongwan asks and guffaws loudly. Minwoo laughs too.

“For taking the first step walking out of the past.”

Dongwan stops laughing instantly. “I didn’t.” He tells Minwoo. After ruminating over how he should explain to his best friend, Dongwan points to his left chest, “Eric will forever be here.”

Minwoo frowns. He knows the reason Dongwan had refused to admit his feelings for Hyesung earlier. Dongwan doesn’t want Hyesung to become just a substitute of Eric Mun. Why did Dongwan change his mind and accept the journalist now if Eric is still so strongly residing in his heart?

“I can’t heal from the wound Eric gave me, but Hyesung can.” Dongwan replies to Minwoo’s unvoiced question. He turns his head back to the entrance of the kitchen. “He can be happy again.”

Minwoo looks tenderly at his friend who has always been living his life for other people. For Junjin, Eric and now Hyesung…

***

“Hyung…” Junjin stands behind Hyesung, observing the evident unhappiness emitting from the actions of the older man. “I’ve known Dongwan hyung since young. He was the one that watched me grow up.”

A pang of guilt hit Hyesung. He lowers his head and exhales. “I’m sorry Jin…” He murmurs.

“You don’t have to be.” Junjin replies. It is not the first time someone is affected by his relationship with Dongwan hyung. Everyone in school knew Dongwan’s extra affection for him. Friends like Minwoo would think Dongwan has taken him under his wings, but for people who liked Dongwan the way Eric and Hyesung did, Junjin is a natural eyesore. “Dongwan is like a dad,” Junjin laughs. “Sometimes I am scared of his nagging, but he is definitely the one that grooms me to be who I am today.”

“He must be proud of you now.” Hyesung turns over, the corner of his lips lift sincerely for Junjin.

“I don’t know about that, but he is definitely proud of my height,” Junjin laughs. “I used to be smaller in size in primary school. I once grumble to Dongwan hyung about getting laugh at by a female classmate and he advised me to drink 2 litres of milk every day. I really believed him and did that. Too bad he didn’t try it on himself.”

Hyesung chuckles at the story. He never knew that side of Dongwan. “Dongwan must have felt like a mother bird watching you grow up.” At this moment, the said man enters the kitchen.

“I wanted to come in and help but it seems like I am the topic for gossip here. What mother bird? I don’t want to be a bird.”

“Don’t regret what you say,” Hyesung points his index finger at Dongwan as cautionary. “I’ll adopt Jin then,” Hyesung pulls Junjin nearer to him making the man of his affection laughs.

Hyesung can really be happy, Dongwan thought to himself comfortingly.

***

In another part of Seoul, Eric seats alone in his living room. It is not coincidental that he is drinking seaweed soup, although the man would like to think it is. He lies to himself every year on this date. He tells himself he just have craving for the particular soup which also happens to be something for Korean birthday tradition. But it is really his heart craving for the birthday man.

A tiny drop of tears falls into his soup. It is harder for him to pretend this year, especially with the information Hyesung delivered to him 2 weeks ago.

“If I am still your most important person, why didn’t you leave with me?” He asks aloud in agony, as if Dongwan will appear and answer him. “Why didn’t you understand the pain that is devouring me?”

Eric was an orphan. The only thing his parent left for him was his beloved younger brother. His life and emotions had been revolving only around Andy, that is until he met Dongwan in the cadet school. Whenever some potential family visited the orphanage, Eric would always try his best to make Andy shines, to make Andy “the right child” for the family. He spent his entire childhood trying to make life better for his brother. But every time he was disappointed because Andy never failed to be sent back to the orphanage after he was supposedly adopted. Eric later discovered Andy was misbehaving on purpose so that he can reunite with Eric. He stopped trying to find Andy another family from that day onwards and swore to himself he will work hard to keep the the two of them together forever. He joined the cadet school because that was the fastest route to a stable income. He made himself Andy’s legal guardian once he is of age. Yet, his dream of staying together with his beloved brother was stolen too soon. Andy died too young.

Why couldn’t Dongwan understand his pain of losing Andy? Why couldn’t Dongwan understand his hatred towards those thieves that took Andy?

Eric turns and sees the paper he records Hyesung’s similarity to Dongwan; the one he read out to Hyesung when he kidnapped the journalist. He has wasted too much time seeking his own happiness and stalling Andy’s revenge. Now he should complete what he started five years ago.

“Andy…” Eric whispers, shutting his eyes.

He had many chances to take the life of the last thief, but he cannot just do that. He has too many questions he wanted to interrogate the man.

I am sorry for missing so long. Anyway, do you still ship the same couple after this chapter *wink wink*?