Two months after…

Byunghee looked up when he heard the bell chimed by the door of the small café and a smile tugged on his lips when his eyes met with the newcomer. Byunghee chuckled as the other approached him closer.

          "What's so funny?" Seungho frowned as he pulled the chair in front of Byunghee. A pout adored his pillow lips when Byunghee's laughter just got louder.

          "Ani… It's just weird to see you in full uniform." Byunghee managed after his laughter calmed down slightly.

          "I'm officially assigned for my position now. It took damn lots of procedure." Seungho shrugged. "Where are the others?"

          "Changsun and Sanghyun went to music bank. Sangbae is debuting today, you see."

          Seungho's brow rose high at the new information from Byunghee. "Why didn't I hear anything about this? And Hajin? I thought you would bring him today."

          Byunghee shrugged, taking a sip of his five grain latte drink which he had getting addicted to these days. A drink that Cheolyong used to force him to try. Only now he tried and he liked it. "You have been busy with your promotion, Chief." Byunghee playfully salute. Since a month ago, Seungho was getting busier and it was difficult for him to take care of Hajin so the others agree to take turn however Byunghee had been the one taking Hajin under the care until today when Sanghyun appeared at his doorsteps with food and toys for Hajin and asked Byunghee to borrow the little kid for the day. "Oh yea, I let Sanghyun bring Hajin with him."

          Seungho laughed. "I felt like I haven't seen you guys for such a long time. Hajin too. He hasn't been asking?"

          "40 days to be exact." Byunghee's voice slightly broke. A long time had passed since Cheolyong had left them. Yet, there were no remains for them to properly bury their beloved maknae. Byunghee shook his head. "Hajin asked a lot of questions I can't answer." Byunghee hung his head low, heart aching at the thought of the orphan, Hajin, who was under their care now. He was determined to take care of Cheolyong's nephew. He never want the child to feel alone. He never want the child to live with only sad memories just like Cheolyong. And the same goes to the other three. They treat Hajin like their own family.

          Seungho cleared his throat and tried to change the direction of their conversation. "Have you seen the news by the way?"

          "What news?"

          "North president have been assassinated last night. It seemed like a really well planned assasination."

          "What?" Byunghee squeaked. "By who?" His heart beat quickened. What did he expect? To hear that Cheolyong was back from the death and killed the North president?

          "They never identify the perpetuator. They said he was alone. A man. There are rumors that said it was the current president. He was a best friend of my superior. And I have been listening to that story of their friendship since I work under him. Amazingly, it sounded almost like our story." Seungho smiled bitterly. "Maybe my superior felt strongly for his friend just as we did to… Cheolyong… I can understand his need to save the North agent. Because I feel the exact same thing for Cheolyong. But I failed."

          Byunghee frowned and gently held Seungho's hand across the table they were sitting at. "It's not your fault." He reminded. "It's his choice. Jinwoon told us so, remember."

          Seungho nodded. "Yea… I guess I can't save someone who don't want to be saved."

          Byunghee smiled tenderly and patted Seungho's hand before retreating back, leaning into his seat. "Speaking of Jinwoon, what did your superior said?"

          "They sent two people to watch over him but you know him. Always so rebellious, making me worried unnecessarily. Even just yesterday he escaped out of the watch and only return at night. None of them know where he went to. Aigoo… I don't want the NIS think he's having something under his sleeves. His tie with North had long severed." Seungho explained. "You don't have to worry. Nothing will happen to him. Oh… Neither to Jinki." Seungho rolled his eyes. "Otherwise Changsun won't leave me alone if I kept Jinki behind the bars."

          "It's all good then."

          "And… I… Jinwoon told me that Cheolyong and him and their family never work for North."

          "What does that mean?"

          "They work for the current North president. They work for Jiman, against North."

          "And…"

          "And Jiman is not exactly opposing South. Him and South go way back after all."

          Byunghee smiled. "I knew it… When he didn't answer my question directly, I knew where he stood."

          Their moment of silence was interrupted by a text message that came almost at the same time for both Seungho and Byunghee.

          "Sanghyun text me." Seungho told.

          "Changsun text me-"

          Both of them abruptly stopped and their widened eyes met as their mouth opened with united shout of,

          "THEY LOST HAJIN?"

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MBLAQ had been officially disbanded. The group leader had been reported to choose a more private lifestyle and had terminate the contract with the company while the group maknae was announced dead due to unfortunate gas explosion of one of the apartment building reporter claimed was Cheolyong's newly bought house while the other left three will continue with their own solo career. With respect from the entertainment side, no one tried to find out what happened to Seungho nor tried to dig further into the sudden unfortunate death of MBLAQ maknae.

          Sangbae sighed and put aside the tablet he was holding on while reading. The end of the group he was once pouring his passion into. MBLAQ… Ironically, it was the start of his own group. His eyes went all over the waiting room as he watched the other group members resting after their debut song performance and playing with each other.

          Their manager came inside with a few large boxes, disrupting the motion in the room. Every pair of eyes following the manager, sparkling when they realized the boxes were for them from their fans before all of the boys huddling around the manager and the boxes, cheering excitedly.

          "Sangbae hyung? Aren't you coming?" Heojun was suddenly there beside him, surprising the madtown leader a bit.

          "I'm not really in the mood." Sangbae offered a small smile as he let his thought drift away again but was pulled back to reality when he felt weight on his laps. Why did he even thought Heojun would leave him alone just because he said so.

          "When we're upset, fans will be our source of energy. Trust me, hyung." Heojun clapped onto Sangbae's shoulder and tilted his head slightly, encouraging Sangbae to open the box he had put onto Sangbae's laps.

          With a heavy sigh and slow motion, Sangbae moved the box from his laps onto the table in front of him. He stood up and started to open the box, rummaging through the box with a frown that slowly smoothen at the cute gifts from his fans. Some gifts even made him chuckle until his hand reached one particular gift. And as it was finally in his palm, his heart thundering.

          It was a water bottle that instead of containing water, the inside were filled with confetti or rather shredded colored paper and there was poorly attached cup handle on the side.

          "Eh? What is that?" Heojun who had been loyally sitting next to Sangbae, raised his brow at the weird gift.

          Sangbae remained quiet for a good minute before a large smile broke out across his face. "It's a trophy. A daesang trophy." He answered with a smile so big, it almost creeped Heojun out and even weirder when Heojun kind of caught the next sentence he believed wasn't meant for him to hear fall out of Sangbae's lips. "A trophy for the best out of the best." He frowned slightly. "I wonder which of them send this…" He mumbled to himself but decided to just contact all four men one by one later as he indulged back into the memory he treasured until now.

######################

Flashback

It wasn't even two weeks after Jihoon had announced that MBLAQ will be debuting and all five of them had just finished their song recording. They went to dance practice as usual and continue to practice until late in the night without a break. Just thinking that they would finally be debuting, all of these five young men didn't feel tired at all. All in their mind was to do their best and to give their all.

          Cheolyong was the one to flop down on the floor first with a wide smile and heavy breath. "I like this song already." Cheolyong commented, referring to their debut song.

          Sangbae immediately went to sit next to his friend and nodded. "It's addicting."

          Changsun went towards the table at the side of the room and took a water bottle, gulping half of it down before replying to the two youngest, "We're just being brainwashed."

          Seungho and Byunghee both laughed at that comment and nodded in agreement.

          "Well, we might…" Cheolyong mused. "I mean, we heard it every single day. I swear I can hear Oh Yeah while I'm sleeping."

          "Hey, it's still a nice song. We might win a rookie award, who knows." Sangbae clicked his tongue, nudging his elbow on Cheolyong's arm. "We should prepare a speech!" He shot up suddenly and went running to Changsun, snatching away now the empty bottle in Changsun's hand. He held it like a trophy and started his two way monologue. "And now, I announced the rookie award goes to the most charming, handsome and talented bunch of five chic members of a boy band we all love…" To help Sangbae, Cheolyong made a drumming sound followed by Changsun while sharing silly smile. "MBLAQ!!!"

          Even Seungho and Byunghee were cheering now despite the childish play. And Seungho even walked up to Sangbae giving a look to other three that made the left three scrambled behind the leader in a line with excited grin.

          "Here is your winning trophy." Sangbae presented the water bottle to Seungho and continued, "Let's hear a short speech from the winner." And he went jogged to take place beside Cheolyong, immediately engaged in a small joke just between them the maknaes and giggling together.

          "Ehem… Yes, I would like to thanks Jihoon hyung for guiding us, giving us this chance, and to our family and friends for supporting us and most importantly to our beloved fans for always believing in us and stay by our side. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you. Thousands word of thanks won't even described how grateful we are." Seungho turned to the other four. "Boys…" He called and all of them nodded to him. "1, 2, 3." And they bowed with loud united,

          "THANK YOU!"

          They only stood up from their 90 degrees bow when they heard sound of hands clapping only to get similar blush on their face once they saw Jihoon standing by the door to the practice room with teasing smile on his face.

          "So, you already prepare a speech for a winning award. Wow, what a confidence." Jihoon teased. "Or is that more like arrogance?" He rose his brows.

          "Well, it's not arrogance if we did have talent for it." Seungho mumbled but shrank down when Jihoon moved closer to him and took the water bottle from his hold.

          Jihoon watched the bottle, spinning it around for a while before handing it back to Seungho. "You sound like a real champion there." He ruffled Seungho's hair, missing the teasing snicker from the younger four as they watched their oldest brother and leader being pampered by Jihoon like a cute little maknae.

          Of course Cheolyong and Sangbae who were the maknae-line would enjoy the view most.

          "We will be the winner and gain the real trophy." Seungho said confidently.

          "I wish no different."

          Cheolyong interrupted the moment by snatching the empty bottle from Seungho. "And while waiting for that moment, I'll turn this into a temporary trophy so that each time we see this, we won't forget this promise, right Sangbae?"

          Sangbae bounced and nodded, immediately leaning on Cheolyong's side with his arm around Cheolyong's neck. "Let's make this a real trophy."

          Which wasn't much with their completely non-creative hands. But it was their first trophy either way.

########################

Sangbae's long walk on his memory lane was interrupted yet again by Heojun who this time showed him his phone which was screaming for answer. He didn't get to answer the call in time when the door burst opened and came in Changsun looking worried.

          "Sangbae! Why won't you asnwer my call?! Hajin is missing!" Changsun shouted panickily.

          Sangbae jumped up from his seat. "WHAT? HOW DID THAT HAPPENED?"

          "We got separated when the music bank ended. Sangbae! What do I do?" Changsun was close to tears.

          "Okay, hyung calmed down. Let's go to the security room and asked them to announce it through speaker and maybe we can check on the CCTV. Where's Sanghyun?"

          "He's looking for him around the building."

          Sangbae nodded and turned to the other members of MADTOWN. "Can you guys help me?"

          "Of course. You don't have to ask." Heojun offered a kind smile. "Let's go guys." He beckoned the others and they filed out of the room in search for the little kid while Sangbae and Changsun headed to the security room on the ground floor of this building.

          "Let's split up." Heojun announced and took his own initiative to search over the third floor. He looked around the hallway, calling for the little Hajin hoping he would recognized the little boy because unlike Sangbae, he was not a close acquintance to MBLAQ boys and hence Hajin. He only knew what the news told them. About MBLAQ disbandment, Seungho's retirement from entertainment world and Cheolyong's unfortunate death in fire.

          Heojun's step slowed down when he rounded a corner and saw a small boy sitting on the resting bench next to a drink vendor machine and he squinted his eyes. The little boy was enjoying a cone of ice-cream and by his side sat a man. From this far, he couldn't make out the identity of the mysterious man sitting side by side with the little boy, not to mention the man have a gray cap on and a large sunglasses that cover his small oval face.

          He damn sure look familiar though…

          "Hajin-ah?" Heojun called out and the small boy looked up from his ice-cream, as well as the mysterious man sitting next to the boy. "Ya… Changsun uncle was worried to death looking for you." Heojun nagged as he stepped closer while the man stood up and helped Hajin down the bench with a smile decorating his lips. "Hello… I'm sorry, but who are you?" Heojun asked politely to the man, his eyes trailed on the burnt scar over the male's nape and when he looked down, the scar cover the dorsum of the male's hand. Who knows where else on the scar covering the otherwise smooth-looking skin under those clothes.

          "Samchoon (uncle) bought me this ice-cream." Hajin piped up easily.

          The male nodded once in respect to Heojun and left Heojun's question unanswered and crouched down to level his eyes with Hajin. He made a small cute wave and Hajin leaned in so he could whisper something.

          Whatever that he whispered made Hajin pouted for a moment before a smile spread across his face again. "Promise?" The male nodded and complied with a permanent smile on his lips when Hajin asked him to make a pinky promise. The male tilted his head slightly and tapped on his cheek which then later became the spot where Hajin left a peck with a loud "Mmuah" followed with silent chuckles from the mysterious man.

The cute interaction made even Heojun smiled adoringly.

          The male stood up again, facing Heojun and bowed politely before turning around and walked away after waving to Hajin.

          "Bye Samchoon!" Hajin waved back excitedly and turned to Heojun with his cute sparkling eyes.

          "Who was that, Hajin-ah? Which Samchoon?" Heojun asked, taking Hajin's hand and texted Sangbae to tell the leader that he had found the little boy.

          "Who else? My Samchoon of course." Hajin answered simply and proceeded to sing Pororo's songs, ignoring Heojun all the way back to MADTOWN resting room.