Breathing in to steady himself, Heechul patted the sides of his faces and then rolled his shoulders, carefully adjusting his appearance before reaching for the door handle.  The door squeaked as it slowly opened into the apartment.  Heechul cringed, wondering if the door had always made that noise or had just decided to start in order to mess with him.  Creeping as gracefully as he could in his slightly off balance state, he headed toward the light calling to him from the living room.

                Something came swinging in his direction.  Jerking out of the way, he barely avoided the broom handle that stopped inches from his face.  Eyes wide and heart beating rapid fire, he looked up at the person wielding the broom.

                “Holy , Yesung,” he exclaimed, as the younger man came into focus.

                “Sorry,” he said in surprise as he lowered the broom.

Eyeing the object, Heechul wondered,

                “What were you gonna do, sweep me to death?” 

                “No, I was going to hit you repeatedly with the handle.” 

                Heechul knew better than to think Yesung was pretending to be overly literal.  He moved past the strange young man into the living room, bizarrely trying to dust off his jacket, only to become unbalanced and practically sit down on the couch-side table.            

                Tilting his head, Yesung asked, “Are you drunk?”

                Looking left and right a little too dramatically, Heechul asked in a low voice, “That depends.  Who else is awake?” 

                “Just me.”   It apparently hadn’t occurred to Heechul how late it was.

                “Then hells yeah!”  His laugh turned into a slight hiccup as he spread his arms emphatically.

                Yesung looked over his shoulder, unimpressed by Heechul’s current state and asked casually, “Where’s Kangin?”

                “I have no idea,” Heechul grinned, almost knocking the stack of coasters off of the table as he tried to stand back up properly.

                He then spent the next several moments working his way over to the couch.  Yesung watched him struggle to coordinate himself until he managed to collapse onto the cushions.  Then, Yesung followed after him, leaning the broom against the arm chair which he then carefully positioned himself on.  They sat in silence for a moment, with Heechul staring at nothing and Yesung blinking steadily at him, until Heechul turned his head and asked in a sing song voice,

                “So how was your night, hm?”

                “I feel like that’s something I should be asking you,” Yesung countered with his odd, half-formed smile.

                 “I will tell you…when I remember,” Heechul said in a funny staccato voice.

                “Like you don’t remember where Kangin is?”

                Heechul picked up a hand and let it fall heavily against his head.  He repeated this action a few times and then let his hand fall back to his side. “I think I left him talking to that one horse.”

                Biting his lip and looking up at the ceiling, oblivious to the look Yesung was giving him, Heechul mused, “She was prob’ly ‘eally pretty, but too much tee’h.” His words came out muffled as he was trying to communicate while still biting his lip.

                “Did you walk back, then?” 

                “Maybe?” Heechul answered with a questioning note.  In the following silence, he seemed to recover his senses a little and explained, “He has the car, he’ll be fine.”  Repositioning himself so he wasn’t in such a crumpled state, Heechul asked again, “How was your night?”

                “I don’t think I’m ever playing Monopoly again,” Yesung said with a haunted look in his eyes, “That game…is evil.” 

                Heechul laughed a little more than necessary and joked, “You need to loosen up Yesung, Monopoly is like…the most beautiful, popular, stunning game ever.  I bet you regret not coming with us, I almost regret not playin’ ‘Nopoly.”

                “No, actually,” Yesung said with a smile, “I actually—had a really good time here.  I like being here…a lot.” 

                “See!  You don’t miss warehouse-ing and forge-ificating and whatever else it is you used to do,” Heechul proclaimed, slipping in his attempts at sounding sober.

                “I do miss it,” Yesung said more to himself than to Heechul who was busy pulling away a loose thread on his shirt sleeve, “I didn’t need anyone’s help, surviving on your own can be kind of addicting, but I don’t want to go back.  Well—”

                 “What?” Heechul asked, catching only the final hesitation in Yesung’s words.

                “There’s really no way for me to go back,” he reiterated, “. . . but I left something…” he met Heechul’s eyes and seeing the haziness in them he laughed a little at himself.  “Nevermind.”

                “Oh come on,” Heechul whined falling gracelessly across the couch onto his stomach. He somehow managed to end up with his head resting on his chin and swung his feet like a school girl as he asked, “Pretty please?”

                Simultaneously amused and disturbed, Yesung explained embarrassedly, “It’s stupid.  I just never got to get my parents’ wedding rings.” 

                “What do you need those for?” Heechul demanded. “Are you getting married?  Oh my gosh,” he looked around and then said in a panicked whisper, “are we getting married?!”

                  “No,” Yesung said in a much less surprised voice than one might have expected.  “But when I first decided to start my business, you know I had to sell everything and work a lot to get enough money, but those rings are the only things I didn’t pawn, even if they were worth a lot.”

                “Why not?” Heechul asked, not understanding this sentimentality Yesung seemed to have toward his parents.

                “Because they were worth the most to me.” 

                Heechul continued to swing his feet back and forth as he considered this and then said, “Well, I would have sold them and saved myself the trouble.”

                “I know,” Yesung said, nodding slightly as he met Heechul’s eyes directly.

                Feeling like his soul was being searched, Heechul flipped himself back into a sitting position.  He did so at just the right moment, as he registered some movement in his peripherals. 

                Twisting around, he caught sight of someone’s head disappearing back around the corner. 

                “Donghae,” he sang, flashing Yesung a smile and gesturing toward the hallway. 

                The sound of hurrying footsteps alerted him to the fact that he had been right.  He and Yesung waited until they heard a door clicking shut quietly and then Heechul gave a happy, exaggerated sigh and moved himself into a technically upright position.  “Does anyone sleep in this house?  I think I’m going to bed now.  Don’t stay up too much longer.  You don’t want to be up when Kangin comes home.”  Heechul snickered to himself the whole way out of the room and down the hallway.  As the noise became increasingly ominous, Yesung became very nervous all of a sudden and scurried off to his room one door down from Heechul’s.

…

                Leeteuk stared in confusion for a moment at the plastic horse mask stuck on the end of the broom handle before shaking his head and moving them both into the small closet inside the kitchen.  He had no clue what had happened in his apartment after he’d gone to bed last night and frankly, he did not want to know.

                He heard heavy footsteps and knew without turning around that it was Kangin.  “Good morning,” he greeted cheerfully, already knowing and relishing in the fact that Kangin would not appreciate his chipper-ness if he’d gone out last night. 

                His greeting was met with a string of annoyed noises which sounded an awful lot like a wounded bear.  Spinning around, he smiled at the sight of Kangin slumping into a chair.  The larger man buried his head in his arms and Leeteuk teased,

                “Not like it was in our college days, huh?  Face it, Kangin, you’re already too old for this.” 

                “Am not,” Kangin growled. 

                Taking this as a challenge, Leeteuk turned toward the cabinets and started riffling around noisily with the pots and pans. 

                “In that case,” he shouted above the din, “I guess you’ll be in the mood for a Western style breakfast today, huh?  We can have eggs and bacon and…”

                Kangin made a noise of complaint and Leeteuk stopped.  “What’s that?” 

                The larger man lifted his head out of his arms and glared at the blonde.  “When I can gather the will to move again, I am going to kill you.”

                A serious note entered Leeteuk’s voice as he ignored Kangin’s threat.

 “I don’t care if you go out drinking with Heechul, but if you do, don’t get this drunk, okay?” 

Admittedly looking a little ashamed, Kangin mumbled something about being an adult so Leeteuk countered,

“Did you drive home like this?”

                Kangin’s lack of an answer was answer enough. 

                Leeteuk opened his mouth, prepared to lecture his roommate more when Donghae shuffled into the room. 

                “Morning hyungs,” he said over a yawn.  He rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. 

                “You look tired,” Leeteuk said, quickly shifting gears from his conversation with Kangin.  “I thought you went to bed early last night?”

                “I did.”

                Not sure if Donghae was lying or not, Leeteuk turned back around and rummaged through the  cabinets much more quietly, hoping that Donghae might not notice that Kangin had a particularly nasty hangover if he didn’t aggravate it any more.

                “Kangin, hyung,” he heard the boy asking as he pulled out a chair and sat down.  “Can I go for a walk today?” 

                “Where?”

                “To the store.”

                “Excuse me,” Leeteuk said, turning around, “but I’m right here.  Why are you only asking him?”

                “Cause you’ll just say no.”

                Leeteuk choked on a laugh at Donghae’s frank answer and Kangin chastised him, “You’re just encouraging him when you laugh like that.” 

                “Are you saying that I can go for a walk?” Donghae asked in confusion after a few moments.

                “Sure,” Leeteuk said, to spite Kangin and to prove he was the cooler hyung.  “We can both go.  I need to drop off some work—”

                “No, just me,” Donghae corrected quickly and a little too loudly.

                Kangin winced and Leeteuk stopped and put the pot in his hand back down.  After a moment they both turned their eyes on Donghae. 

                “Why alone?”

                The boy shrugged and his brown hair almost touched his shoulders as he did so.  Leeteuk made a mental note that he needed another haircut as Donghae explained, “I just…I want to go alone.” 

                “Absolutely not.” 

                “Why not?” Donghae whined.

                “Because we said so,” Kangin said on Leeteuk’s behalf.

                “That’s a terrible reason,” Donghae complained.  His eyes were wide in an urgent way and Leeteuk realized that that was probably his angry face though he looked more startled than upset.  It then occurred to Leeteuk that he’d never seen Donghae actually angry.

                “Excuse me,” he said, realizing that he couldn’t let Donghae get away with talking back like that.  If Kangin was going to support him he should at least return the favor.  “We’re in charge and we’re saying we don’t want you wandering around the streets on your own.” 

                “Why not?  I did it for a whole year.” 

                “Because you live with us now and you have to follow our rules,” Kangin said.

                Donghae clawed at his hair in frustration and then exclaimed, “You guys sound like you’re married.  It’s so annoying.  You’re not my parents.  You don’t get to tell me what to do.”  He then pushed violently out of his chair and stormed out of the room. 

                Leeteuk started to call after him but stopped when he saw Kangin shaking his head.  He was rubbing his temples but his voice was level when he said, “Just let him go.”

                “He’s never been like this,” Leeteuk said with a fretful look in his eyes.

                “Then he’s well overdue.  I’m surprised we had it so easy for so long.” 

                “Are we being stupid?”

                “Leeteuk, he’s twelve.  I’m not letting him wander around on the street ‘cause he’s twelve and he’s reacting like this ‘cause he’s twelve.  Don’t take it to heart.” 

                “I guess,” he sighed, trying to turn back to making breakfast.  After a few moments of standing there staring at the cooking supplies, he asked, “Oh, and have you seen Heechul, by the way?” 

                “He’s probably still sleeping it off,” Kangin said with humor.  “Last night was…interesting.”

                “Care to explain the horse head in the closet?”

                Kangin looked up startled at Leeteuk and then quickly grabbed the newspaper and excused himself.  “I’m just…going to go read in the other room…”

….

                Yesung heard a knock on his door and answered, “Come in,” from where he sat on the floor flipping through an old magazine. 

                He was only slightly surprised to see it was Donghae who walked in, looking downtrodden.  The boy walked over and sat down on the edge of his bed.  Yesung waited expectantly and was rewarded when Donghae spoke: 

                “Yesung, where did you used to live?”

                Feeling incredibly self-conscious, Yesung cleared his throat and said, “Um, I’d really rather not talk about that, Donghae.”

                “But, I just mean what part of town.  What’s so wrong with that?”

                Flicking his eyes toward the open door, Yesung said in a quiet voice, “Donghae, I’m really not supposed to talk about any of that with you, okay?”

                “But why not?” Donghae whined in frustration.

                “Because.”

 “You still owe me one from that Monopoly game, you know.”

                “Why do you want to know anyway?”

                Donghae sighed and scooted off the bed.  “Never mind,” he said, heading once more out the door.

…

                The breeze tangled through Heechul’s hair and breathing it in, he relished in his own enjoyment of it.

Heechul had escaped the night without even so much as a slight headache.  The truth was, he hadn’t been very drunk at all last night.  He blamed Leeteuk, but once he’d gone out, he hadn’t had the urge to drink himself into a state of non-existance like in the old days.  Most of the previous night had been an act.  He knew Yesung would talk more to a Heechul that would forget everything by tomorrow than the normal Heechul. 

Smiling at the upbeat cadence of his walk, he recalled that Kangin had had no such qualms.  That’s why he’d decided to go home first.  He had admittedly been just drunk enough not to realize that it was probably not the best idea to leave the big guy out there to drive himself home, but he wasn’t going to  pull him away from the pretty, pretty ladies.

                He looked up and saw the backs of the large warehouses he’d gone out to find.  Yesung might not have been able to go back, but there was no reason he couldn’t.  As he emerged onto the broken concrete field in the center of the circle of metal buildings, his heart beat quickened and he felt a burst of excitement.

                Life had been fairly tame for him over the past several months.  It was sort of invigorating to get reacquainted with a sense of danger.  Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he then strode confidently over toward the warehouse dead ahead.

                The metal door was harder to open this time as if it had swelled on its hinges.  The squeaking noise it made echoed in the cavernous space.  It was dark and Heechul wrinkled his nose at the dusty smell in the air.  Pretending like the big empty space wasn’t creepy, he held his head high and walked over to the pillar at the back of the room, flicking the switch up so that the row of dim florescent lights flickered into life.        

                The lights emitted a dull hum and a strange feeling settled into Heechul’s stomach as he looked at the tables where Yesung had once done the majority of his work.  There were still supplies spread out like they were waiting for his return. 

                “Yeah, well he isn’t coming back,” he found himself muttering at them. 

                Then he turned his attention toward the back of the building and a small area closed off against the back wall.  The large windows were covered completely by venetian blinds.  That was where Yesung would have left the rings. 

                Heechul walked over and opened the light door and walked inside to the sound of the blinds hitting against the small window in the door.  He flicked on the light and looked around the room.  It wasn’t very big, just large enough for a twin bed and a bureau.  He felt odd looking at the bed, which Yesung hadn’t even bothered to make the day he’d gone out from the warehouse for the last time.  It was odd, like the whole building was waiting for its owner to come back. 

                Wasting no more time, he walked over to the bureau and started riffling around, finding nothing but a bunch of socks.  He repeated this action to each of the four drawers but found nothing.  Turning around with his hands on his hips he scolded to no one, “Come on, Yesung, what the heck did you do with them?”

                He stopped and looked at the bed and figuring it was worth a shot, he lifted the mattress, revealing nothing but the box spring.  He was about to give up when he let the mattress fall and heard a slight pinging of metal.  Frowning, Heechul lifted the pillow and found two gold rings on a silver chain.  Rolling his eyes at Yesung’s sentimentality, Heechul grabbed the object and stuffed it into his pocket. 

In the next moment, he was hurrying quickly out of the warehouse, feeling both accomplished and a little freaked out.  He flicked off both sets of lights and made it out the door just as the florescent ones died down for the last time. 

                Emerging into the breezy day, Heechul brushed his hair out of his eyes and walked with nervous determination, feeling like the rings hidden away in his pocket would somehow draw attention to him.  Someone was definitely watching him. 

                He was too afraid to pause and find out, but he could sense eyes fixed on him from somewhere unseen.  Suddenly the edge of adventure didn’t seem as fun.  He headed toward a side alleyway and broke into a light jog hoping to lose the feeling.  It lingered with him even as he left the warehouses behind him. 

                A car’s engine growled into life as Heechul passed by, but he was too focused on getting as far away from the warehouses as possible to notice as it pulled out of its parking spot behind him.

….

                With deep regret for having to get up, Kangin reached the phone by the third ring and answered with an un-amused tone:  “Yes?”

                A clipped and official voice responded, “Hello, this is the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department calling for Park Leeteuk.  May we speak to him please?”

                Kangin felt a pit forming in his stomach.  He looked across the room and saw Leeteuk sitting in the kitchen.  As if sensing the urgency in his roommate’s stare, Leeteuk got up slowly.  He could read the combination of emotions on Kangin’s face, and it was setting his own nerves on edge.

                “Uh, yes,” Kangin managed to respond to the phone, his mouth dry, “one moment please.” 

                Lowering the phone from his ear and covering the receiver he said to Leeteuk in as calm a voice as he could muster:  “It’s the police.” 

                A flash of dread washed over Leeteuk.  His mind jumped to all sorts of horrifying conclusions.  Why were they calling for him?  Who wasn’t home?  What was wrong?

He jumped a mile as the door opened and he turned to see Heechul walking into the apartment. He stopped under the joint stare he was getting from his roommates, looking weirdly guilty.  

                “What?” he wondered in a concerned tone.

                A twinge of relief made Leeteuk’s shoulders sag as he realized at least everyone was home, but he could imagine a hundred other reasons the police were calling and it terrified him.  Kangin suddenly remembered the phone in his hand and held it out to Leeteuk, putting a supporting hand on his friend’s back.  “Maybe it’s just about Yesung,” he said as he placed the phone in his hand.   

                Practically shaking, Leeteuk lifted the phone to his ear.  Confused but certain that something bad was happening, Heechul stayed quiet and came into the living room. 

                “Um…this is Park Leeteuk speaking,” he said, putting a hand to his red blonde hair to stop his head from spinning. 

                “Ah, hello,” the extremely official voice said, “are you the brother of Park Donghae.” 

                Leeteuk felt like acid had been poured from his heart down into his stomach.  He looked up with wide eyes at Kangin and mouthed, “Donghae,” causing Kangin’s eyes to widen in alarm.  Leeteuk turned his attention back to the phone. 

                “Y-yes,” he swallowed hard and cleared his throat, “Yes, sorry, I am.” 

                Heechul suddenly reappeared in the room before anyone noticed he was missing.  He looked alarmed returning a moment later to say in a low, worried voice, “He’s not in his room.” 

                The police had begun talking once more and Leeteuk held his breath as they said, “Yes, well, we have him down at the station here.  Your brother was caught trying to steal from one of the local convenience stores.  We need you to come down to the station and pick him up.”   

                Leeteuk sat down hard in the armchair, a hand over his mouth, overwhelmed with simultaneously relief and horror.

                Kangin gave him a look and he nodded reassuringly breathing out to release the build-up of emotion causing his hand to shake. 

                “Of course,” he remembered to say to the officer, “I can’t—I didn’t even know he was out of the house…I’ll be there…I’ll be right there. I—”

                 He would have stuttered on except that he heard the dial tone and realized he’d been hung up on.

                “What happened,” Kangin demanded immediately. 

                “Donghae was caught stealing,” Leeteuk said in a small, dead-even tone.  It felt like every nerve in his body was vibrating. 

                “He what?!” 

                “What was he doing out of the house on his own?” Heechul asked, trying not to sound accusing.

                “We thought he was in his room,” Leeteuk said in the same even tone. 

                Kangin turned away shaking his head.  After a moment he turned and looked at Heechul, “And where were you?”

                “I was—”

                “Oh my gosh,” Leeteuk interrupted.  “What am I doing sitting here?”  He suddenly needed to move, to do something, to go get Donghae, to see him, to yell at him for leaving, to hug him because he was okay. “I thought this was about the papers.  I thought…Do I need to bring the papers?” Leeteuk asked, feeling again extremely angry at Donghae.  What if the police figured out that he wasn’t really his brother?  What had he been thinking?  How had he not noticed him slip out?

                “No,” Heechul reassured him, “You just have to show up and apologize and they’ll probably let him off with a warning.  They’ll just look at you funny if you bring his birth certificate.”

                Taking a few moments to consider this, Leeteuk began nodding, breathing as deeply as he could.  “Okay.  Alright, just show up?  Oh God, guys what was he thinking?”

                “Ask him when you see him,” Kangin advised, trying to get Leeteuk to focus.  “Everything is fine, right?  He’s okay, they just want you to pick him up.”  Seeing the emotional wreck that his friend was, Kangin asked, “Do you want me to go with you?”

                “No,” he sighed, “No that would just be suspicious.  They asked for me, I’ll go.” 

                “Do you need me to drive?”

                “No,” Leeteuk said, shaking his head as he walked over to the door and slipped on his shoes.  “I’m…I’ll be back,” and with that he walked out the door, leaving Kangin and Heechul to stare at each other in silent conversation over what had just transpired.

A/N  Hello old friends and new subscribers!

I took a while with this one (Sorry) :/  But hey, I got it out at least. 
I'm in a rush to go shopping for my brother's birthday (shhh! don't tell him ;) ) so this will be a quick author's note.

There will be the resolution of a lot of story line stuff in the next chapter and then in the one after that:  new character!!  And then there will be two chapters and then TWO new characters, so the pace should pick up hopefully. 

OH and as always feel free to ask questions if this is confusing. XD

Comment if you would like to comment, Subscribe if you want to get alerts for my sporadic updates. And "I'll be back!"  (sorry, 2PM is on my itunes right now... XD )

P.S. sorry if there are typos.  Only got to edit once really fast.  XD <3  LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH <3