The vigorous downpour raged outcast as Hyukjae’s windshield wipers continued to motion repeatedly, failing uselessly in swiping off a layer of sheen rain before another rolled in just as quickly as it was rubbed off.

Great.

Hyukjae thought better of himself than to go down to Jongwoon’s station before the blast cleared, however, the blonde had been waiting for answers since the day he had met the little darling named Donghae.

Hyukjae wanted answers, and he wanted them now. 

Aside from that, Jongwoon’s tone on the line came out as quick and deliberate, something fairly rare in their friendship.

In hindsight, he had carried a peacefully sleeping Donghae over to lay on his mattress before closing all of the blinds, leaving silently and praying that the brunette wouldn’t wake up sooner than he return home.

Hyukjae knew that if that situation were to happen, hell would break loose.

The light of his life would be reduced to a mass of shivers and tears pooling around the rims of the younger’s eyes.

That was one sight that Hyukjae swore broke his heart every time he thought about it, even now as he sped threateningly down to the location of Jongwoon’s work, tires almost squealing in the muddles of streams on the ground.

Hyukjae tried to calm his racing heart, willing himself to breathe slowly and evenly as even more alarm dispersed throughout his system.

Questions swam agile in his mind, not stopping at all to give him a shred of sanity;

What had Jongwoon been so serious about?

Was Donghae in trouble?

Would Donghae be taken away from me?

Is something about to happen to us?

If something were to happen to us, would I still be able to provide for my Donghae?

My Donghae.

Hyukjae almost slammed his breaks down in astonishment, now apprehensive at how long he had been referring to the younger as that, and from where had it even originated from?

My Donghae.

It took a moment for the blonde to recollect his thoughts, distress plaguing his mind at how insanely close he had gotten to Donghae in such a short amount of time.

It’s wrong, Hyukjae thought, hands gripping around the wheel in a vice hold as he drove impossibly faster down the winding roads.

Donghae isn’t mine.

Donghae can never be mine.

My feelings for Donghae aren’t real.

I’m just too damned lonely these days, and Donghae is nothing but a mere friend.

Again, Hyukjae snapped, almost hitting himself in irritation as he commenced the plunking down of his emotions, sending him straight back to square one; telling himself he loved Donghae, only to get close enough to push himself away.

Hyukjae exhaled, the words “mere friend” not setting well within his stomach.

Donghae meant more to him than that, but the closed four walls of a whitewashed society told him that what he was doing was completely repulsive.

Feelings for another man?

Surely Hyukjae had told himself he wouldn’t give a care about what others thought, but thinking about the foreboding misfortune leading a homoual life with Donghae in Korea could bring-

It was too much for him to even think about dragging Donghae down with him.

Donghae deserved more than disgusted stares whenever he and the blonde would hold hands.

Donghae deserved more than comments about his “retardation” and “debilitating uality” that Hyukjae heard more than once behind their backs.

Making Donghae his would only complicate things further, and it was selfish of him to even fathom that Donghae would even want Hyukjae as his partner in life.

Too many fishes were swimming in Hyukjae’s head, only frightening him even more as he reached towards the passenger’s seat for his cell phone, automatically dialing the number 1 for his best friend’s speed dial.

A few rings were all it took for Jongwoon to pick up, pressing his ear against the line as his bored voice rang out,

“I knew you would drive out in the rain even when I told you not to. It’s all for the safety of your boyfriend, I suppose?”

“I’m nearing the station. Shut up.” Hyukjae muttered through his hand-held as he turned the next street and parked his vehicle in the front of the formed building, making sure his car was between the vertical white lines.

◊

“Okay. So. Well. I don’t know in what order to present anything to you, so I’m just going to go in the order that things presented themselves to me.” Jongwoon clarified, clearing his throat from the other side of the mahogany desk.

Hyukjae sat directly across from him, hands warmed around the cup of coffee his best friend had offered shortly after his arrival.

“Where’s our little angel, Hyuk?” the black headed male inquired about Donghae curiously, sending a knowing smirk.

“At home. Asleep.” Hyukjae replied rather rashly, awkward eye contact soon emerged as he glanced over beyond the other side at Jongwoon, a playful smirk still lingering over the older’s lips.

Jongwoon took the hint, clear as day that Hyukjae was jumpy at what type of news might cross over about the person that meant the most to him.

The older was not stupid.

He could see it in the way Hyukjae smiled at Donghae.

He could see it in the way Hyukjae held Donghae’s hand in a hush-hush manner, as if any prying eyes would damage the privacy in their budding relationship.

Most of all, Jongwoon could see it in the way Hyukjae held Donghae in his arms and pressed soft kisses to his cheek when he slept, just like the night of Hiroshima’s paper cranes.

By then, Hyukjae had probably thought the older had been asleep. 

However, he had been wrong to assume so, as on Jongwoon’s spot on the carpet that evening, he could see the blonde’s affectionate fingers caressing Donghae’s back as he slept. Hyukjae’s eyes were lit only by the fading moonlight as they expressed nothing but the purest form of emotion Jongwoon had ever seen on his best friend before.

Love.

Hyukjae had fallen so deliriously in love with Donghae, it was beginning to get crazy.

Through all this madness, Jongwoon was also able to see something inside Donghae too that he knew could only register as reciprocated feelings.

Donghae smiled the brightest for Hyukjae.

Donghae laughed the most for Hyukjae.

It was Donghae who held Hyukjae’s hand first the majority of the time.

On top of that, Donghae never wanted Hyukjae to go anywhere without him, as if he were scared something critical could happen to the blonde, regardless of knowing the fact that Hyukjae kept himself in a monotonous safe box-it was the only way he knew how to live.

As the seasons changed and months periled by, Jongwoon began to see Hyukjae transform.

Sure he was still the same old Hyukjae, crinkled smile with blonde hair and all- but adding Donghae to the mix created a ripple in Hyukjae’s personality.

Hyukjae began to smile again, because Donghae was the light of his days. Everything Hyukjae had ever wanted had been Donghae.

He knew that the blonde was just too afraid to admit it to himself.

Jongwoon brushed off his tranced state, expression turning transparent as professionalism seeped through his features once again.

“There have been security cameras the department of surveillance had dug up of Donghae, riding three different busses time stamped the day before you found him.”

Jongwoon then removed three glossed over full sized pictures from a manila papered envelope, images taken from a CCTV recording late at night, a few hours before the transit system stopped running.

Hyukjae’s eyebrows furrowed, analyzing the pictures over and over again, seeing Donghae sitting there with the clothes he had found the younger in, looking just as exhausted as he was the day after-the afternoon in which Hyukjae had found him.

That’s Donghae alright, Hyukjae thought as he ran a finger over the brunette in the image before pulling his hand away.

“It’s been traced from Mokpo, in case you were wondering.” Jongwoon smiled sympathetically, removing the images from sight and gingerly placing them back into the envelope.

Hyukae watched nimble fingers hold a string and wrap it around the seal for a moment before Jongwoon continued,

“This next one is quite a heap of a predicament, so I’d appreciate it if you really followed me on this one, Hyukjae.”

The blonde perked up, eyes solely on Jongwoon’s before the older went on,

“His name is Lee Donghae. He has been a missing person for seven years. Both his parents and brother have died from arson, and the attacker has never been found. By now, he’s already 20 years old. Donghae is the only survivor, but it had previously been thought that his body had just never been found.”

Hyukjae’s mind was reeling with another set of confusing questions that seemingly had no end or no real answer. The blonde’s thoughts were barely coherent as he turned over the possibilities of phrasing in his head, only to be met with half finished inquiries before another flitted through his mind.

So wait was-

There’s a brother-

So a family-

Donghae has a family-

How could he never-

Was the attacker-

The chaser did-

More and more of these incomplete and defective half-questions skittered through his mind, as Hyukjae struggled to click everything together inside of him.

“Look at me Hyuk,” Jongwoon pressed a face of pure concern as he held one of the blonde’s hands in his own, passing over a documented piece of paper with an X and a line at the bottom of the page.

“For Donghae, I need you to sign this. It’s a statement claiming the picture on the left right there-“ Jongwoon pointed a reluctant finger to the side of the paper in which the brunette’s face had been, “the picture on here, is Donghae. Also, that you, Lee Hyukjae, are the one who found him and that he is no longer a missing person.”

Hyukjae nodded, tentatively placing the tip of a borrowed pen on the line of the marked spot and scribbling his name down in cursive, like he’d done thousands of times before at his office.

“Now Hyukjae, I need you to understand that the next thing I’m about to disclose to you is confidential information. It cannot be shared with anyone, and it would be preferred if Donghae didn’t catch wind of this. You’ll see why in a second.” Jongwoon concluded as he pulled another envelope out of the desk drawer beneath him and set it carefully onto the table.

Unwrapping the string and holding the images out, Hyukjae nearly gasped in surprise as he came face to face with the fresh bruises that adorned Donghae’s beautiful honey skin the first few days they had known each other.

“This was the state Donghae was in when you found him.” Jongwoon clarified, as if Hyukjae needed reassurance that what he was seeing was really what he was seeing.

“Do you remember Dr. Choi Siwon?”

Hyukjae nodded diligently.

“He said he had made a stupid mistake on his part as a doctor. As he faxed me these images exactly yesterday, he wrote a lengthy email explaining that he had overlooked a few things during Donghae’s examination.”

Hyukjae remembered that day in his mind, the flashing memory of the time when he still didn’t know that Donghae couldn’t speak. The brunette clung to him for dear life, almost tearing at the seams from his ill plight.

“Those bruises weren’t only from pneumonia’s notorious side-effects of purple contusions.”

“Jongwoon I-“ Hyukjae uneasily interrupted, almost holding onto his best friend and case investigator’s hand tighter as his eyes began to close, fearing but albeit knowing where this conversation was leading.

“Some of those bruises were marks from bashes and even whipping, they don’t appear to be self-inflicted, but delivered by another person. However, there were nicks on his arm that proved Hae had been self-inflicting.”

Jongwoon pulled out a picture of Donghae’s arm a few months back when the blonde and brunette had just met.

Hyukjae became lifeless as the reality set in and his heartbeat began to spiral out of control.

“Siwon knew this for a bit, Hyukjae. He wanted to break the news to you as soon as possible, but in the compulsion and emergency of the whole situation, you didn’t leave a phone number. Much less an e-mail address. You scribbled your name, paid, and left.”

Stress.

Stress all but swallowed Hyukjae up in its deep, menacing arms.

Worry lacing its poison through Hyukjae’s veins as he thought of Donghae grabbing razor blades, pencils, scissors -anything- in order to harm his precious self.

If Donghae was hurting, why didn’t he tell me?

“Dr. Choi is not a stupid doctor.” Jongwoon clarified. “Before assuming anything, he had taken pictures of Donghae’s injuries while he asked for a private moment with him. Choi sent the reports down to the investigative unit of the hospital, unsure whether to diagnose it himself. Although, quick confirmation of the unit only solidified his findings.”

Hyukjae vaguely recalled the solemn expression on Siwon’s face as he assessed Donghae carefully that day.

“Dr. Choi could only treat what he knew he could confirm at that moment legally. Pneumonia and a high fever.”

The blonde didn’t know how to respond at this point, choosing no response as the best response for now.

Everything had hit him so fast like a moving train.

He had begged for answers since the beginning, and now that he had gotten them, he didn’t know how to even react to them.

“Please promise me this,” Jongwoon finished up, hand still enlaced into Hyukjae’s own,

“Don’t let Donghae out of your sight. Please don’t let him go, because he needs you the most, Hyukjae.”

Donghae needs me the most.

◊

Creaking the front door open just enough to peer through and stick half of his head in, Hyukjae crept inside and shut it slowly behind him.

Immediately, the door to his bedroom opened and a sweet, adorable brunette had been in his arms in an instant.

Hyukjae immediately engulfed the younger into himself, face burying deep within the brunette’s head, inhaling his scent for the millionth time as he pondered over everything he now knew now about Donghae.

A warm, fresh teardrop began to sneak its way down the blonde’s cheek as he exhaled shakily.

Donghae’s eyes were pooling with tears, wondering why Hyukjae had just left him, but knowing full well the other part of his distress was caused by one fact.

Donghae was starting to remember.
 

A/N: Just finished reading Target 149 by Adriatic today! ヾ(。◕ฺ∀◕ฺ)ノ

http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/233533/target-149-kyumin

It's well worth a read if you're also into Kyumin, guise. 

Please accept my apology on some of the odd spacing in this update. AFF changed its layout and I don't even know what the heck is going on when this site is fixing things that aren't even broken. (▰︶︹︺▰)