the reappearance (the light is back on)

---

Chanyeol's phone buzzes, interrupting his concentration. He groans as he stretches forwards to answer his phone, muscles aching.

He had spent an entire day hunched over his desk, looking over documents on top of documents on top of documents. It was ridiculously tiring. How many hours of sleep had he gotten this week? God, he has no clue. 

"Hello?" he answers, not caring to mask the exhaustion in his voice.

"Hyung," the caller, Sehun, answers urgently. "I have news."

"Good or bad?" 

"Good, I guess." 

Chanyeol leans back against his chair, loosening his tie and breathes out a sigh. "What is it?"

"Jongin is back." 

That name - he hadn't heard it in almost four years. Kim Jongin. He reels a little at the news, before asking, "When? Where?" 

"An hour ago. Incheon Airport." 

Chanyeol in a breath, and mutters, "That er." Then he shakes his head and laughs in disbelief, "God, he just disappears for four years and doesn't even bother to tell me that he's back?"

Sehun doesn't reply, so Chanyeol stands up, straightens his suit, and asks, "Where is he now?"

"A hotel. Actually," there's a pause, and there is the sound of shuffling, before Sehun's voice comes through the line again, "I'll head over to where you are right now, and let's go there together." 

"Sure," Chanyeol says. 

The line goes dead, and Chanyeol collapses in his chair again, groaning. 

This was going to be a long day. 

The knock on his office door takes Chanyeol's attention away from the piles of papers that are piled up on his desk. Sehun stands by the door, impatiently swinging the car keys around on his finger.

"Let's go," he says. 

Chanyeol sets the pen down and yawns. "Let's go," he repeats. It's late — the offices have emptied, so the footsteps echo along the polished floor as they make their way to the parking lot. "Jongin," Chanyeol says, rolling that name around on his tongue. 

"Kim Jongin," Sehun agrees.

"Wow," Chanyeol shakes his head incredulously. "I can't wrap my mind around this." 

Nobody knew where the Kim's youngest son went. For four years, it had been a question quietly whispered among them. 

The eldest Kim son had taken the place as the CEO of Kim Entertainment and Co. after the original founder retired. The current CEO, despite his inexperience, was good at what he did and did not disappoint, meaning that he had successfully secured himself a position as the youngest official head of one of Korea's biggest corporations. 

So Jongin, after he had gone MIA and his brother inherited the position, was forgotten to the public. 

After all, the youngest son was never fond of attention. He was extraordinarily talented — this Sehun and Chanyeol and Yifan and Junmyeon and everybody who truly knew him could attest to — but he never did anything that would make this talent known. 

And, for him to return to Seoul so suddenly, Chanyeol did not know what it meant. 

"We're here," Sehun announces, rolling up in front of a classy modern hotel. 

They are silent the entire elevator ride up to Jongin's floor except for the humming of the elevator, but as they approach the door to his room, Sehun breaches the quiet. 

"What if he doesn't let us in?" the question lingers in the air for a second, dripping of insecurities.

At times like this, Chanyeol realises how young Sehun is. How vulnerable and prone to breaking. 

(Sometimes, being prone to breaking is okay. Chanyeol is not prone to breaking because he has broken many times. He has pieced himself better many times and knows to avoid the sharp things that will cut him again. He is jealous - just a little bit - because being prone to breaking means you haven't broken yet.) 

But the door opens. 

And the world still shatters. 

--- 

Kim Jongin was tall, brown hair curling around his eyes, face sculpted. He is everything that Chanyeol remembers, but the way that he holds himself has matured. In a way, Chanyeol supposes that everyone has changed quite a bit during the four years that Kim Jongin had disappeared, including himself. 

For example, he couldn't decide right now if he wanted to punch the guy or to hug him, and he had never considered himself a particularly indecisive person. 

Jongin is staring wide-eyed at the pair before him, and he almost looks as though he wants to grab the door and slam it in their faces, but now, Chanyeol can't be sure. In the past, the Kim heir had been so easy to read. All his emotions, thoughts, opinions—they were written on his face, printed in his eyes. 

And yet, now, the man before him is a stranger. 

Sehun is the first to speak, a weak hyung tumbling out of his mouth like baby birds still learning how to fly. 

"Hyung," Sehun repeats. He shakes his head, and then laughs, before he launches himself onto the older man. "God, you're finally back!"

Jongin's hands are still by his side, before a small smile curls on his face, and he pats Sehun's back, albeit a bit awkwardly. 

"I'm back," he agrees.

Sehun grins and peels himself off of Jongin. And then suddenly, his grin slides off his face and is replaced by a frown. "Why didn't you contact us? Where the were you? How could you just leave suddenly? Do you know how hard we tried to find you? Why were you gone for so long? I thought we were friends! You could have trusted us! Why didn't you tell us anything?" 

It's a barrage of questions, overflowing with pain and betrayal. 

Sehun and Jongin had been close, after all. They were nearly the same age, and they both bonded over a lot of different things, becoming one of the inseparable pairs. If there was Sehun, there would be Jongin not far behind. And if there was Jongin, you could expect to see Sehun as well. It was like a package deal. 

And one day, it was just Oh Sehun. He had spent weeks and months upon months searching for his best friend, but to no avail. 

Now, once again in front of his friend, all the hurt and insecurities spill out onto the pavement. 

Jongin looks shocked, and then he schools his expression back into a neutral one, but Chanyeol still catches a glimpse of pain. The Kim heir simply steps back and opens the door wider for them, gesturing at the hallway for them to enter. 

"Come in," he says. "It's a long story." 

He pours them two cups of water, and then settles himself on a chair as Chanyeol and Sehun seat themselves on the sofa opposite him. 

"Where were you?" Chanyeol asks.

"Barcelona. A few trips to Milan, London, and Paris, but mostly Barcelona." 

"Why were you gone for so long?" 

"Business stuff, mostly. I also got a major in music!" 

Both Chanyeol and Sehun can tell that Jongin is avoiding the questions, coming up with different ways to evade telling the truth, so they press further. "Why are you back?" Sehun asks. 

"Well," he pauses, considering. "My brother called me back. He said there's a position in the company that I can take over now. And plus," he adds, "I missed... home." 

Sehun's expression turned cold, and Chanyeol can almost feel the Oh heir's emotions of hurt and betrayal hit him like a t