Chapter Two
The Promises of Nocturne

“I’m going out,” Heechul announced as he stepped into Donghae’s room. He did a quick look around the room and sighed displeased. The entire place was a mess, but right now he didn’t have time to lecture the kid on how to be responsible. “Make sure Kibum does his homework and keep him and Key separated. Start the oven for supper in an hour. Call Hongki and tell him that you’re hiding his puppy in your closet and make him come take it home. I’ll be back later, love you.”

He smirked as Donghae looked up from his phone devastated, clearly having thought that he was being slick bringing that damn dog into the house again. The mutt may be tiny, but he could hear it whining last night and had to go all the way downstairs to let it outside before it pissed in the house.

“You’re so mean, hyung,” Donghae whined as he walked away from the room.

Damn straight I’m mean. How else would I keep this house so clean? Heechul mused to himself haughtily as he grabbed the keys from next to the door and left the house.

As he stepped outside into the cool October afternoon a chill went up his spine and he shivered. The temperature was dropping and the trees were nearly all red and orange. He cringed at the thought that Halloween was coming up and he would have to make Mir a new costume this year. He’d had been going on for two weeks about how he wanted to dress up like Michael Jackson and Heechul would be damned if he didn’t make that kid the best costume in the city.

Then maybe the kids at school would stop being so mean to him.

As he pulled out of the driveway, Heechul thought about his youngest son. He didn’t understand why Mir was shunned the way he was. He wasn’t the least bit strange or even obnoxious. Mir was one of the most polite and well-mannered kids he’d raised. He had the brightest and most optimistic personalities, not to mention how sweet and kind he was. And even though Mir could be childish and naïve, the kid could be so insightful and spout out philosophical nonsense at the right time that always made sense. How anyone could hate or be mean to Mir was completely absurd to Heechul.

Three weeks ago when Key came home from the hospital Mir had spent the day baking cookies and as soon as Key was settled, Mir brought him a plate of warm cookies and a tall class of milk. It was the sweetest gesture but Key had grabbed a cookie and thrown it at Mir and told him to stay the hell away from him. After that Mir had been down in the dumps and in a mood ever since. He always got like that when he someone was being mean to him and it took a lot to boost his confidence back up.

That’s why he was going out that afternoon, he’d made an appointment with Jia to talk about everything that had been going on the past few weeks. Hopefully she could offer some advice to help the boys get over this mood that had settled on the house. With the days so f