HyukJae POV

„We’re still alive!“ I yelled, completely exhausted after the tiring descent and threw my arms in the air triumphantly. Next to me, I heard someone trying to laugh as quietly as possible. Not with much success, unfortunately.
When I turned back to the younger man, he pressed his lips together but the corner of his lips were still wrinkling, hinting at a suppressed smile. The moment our eyes met, he burst into loud laughter.

„That’s not very nice“ I said and crossed my arms in a mock outrage.
“I’m sorry” DongHae apologized and put a hand on my shoulder reassuringly. I stared at it, astonished. While I tried to appear as cool as possible on the outside, I was cheering on the inside. Today truly seemed to be my lucky day.

The younger man smiled at me one more time before turning away and walking towards the train station. I stared after him with a wide grin on my face. As he had walked away a few more meters, he turned back to me, his brow furrowed.
“Aren’t you coming with me?” he shouted at me, which prompted me to finally leg it and close the gap between us.

I walked next to him with a wide smile on my face. Even though none of us was speaking, the mood was quite comfortable. He seemed to feel the same way, because when I looked at him fleetingly, I noticed that his facial expression seemed relaxed and... even somewhat happy.

The sun had reached the horizon by now. It wouldn’t be long until it’d be setting behind the mountain we just conquered. A look at my watch also told me that it was just shy of six o’clock. So we had more than enough time until our train was to depart at seven thirty.

An uncomfortable noise suddenly reached my ears and my stomach clenched painfully. I stopped, embarrassed, and held my belly. I was hungry. I had been starving for a few minutes now. As I had planned to eat on the train on our way home, I haven't told the younger man beside me about it. But now that we were back in the city and had passed a number of delicious smelling takeaway stores already, my stomach seemed to rebel against my initial plan.

“Looks like you’re hungry. I know where to find the best Mandu’s in the entire world. We are in the very near vicinity of the restaurant, too. What do you think? Should we go?”, the brunette asked, smiling. I bashfully looked at the man standing just a few steps ahead of me and ended up nodding.
Even though I just ate Mandu’s the night before, I felt an incredible hunger for these dumplings filled with deliciousness. They were supposed to be the best Mandu’s in the world (according to DongHae) after all. This sounded way too tempting. The thought of this delicious meal alone made my mouth water.

DongHae lifted his arm and pointed at a small shop only a few meters away from us. Big letters hanging over a door, as well as a signboard on the street were spelling out the words 'Mister Mandu'. A picture with steaming dumplings was featured right next to it.
This sight alone made my stomach growl loudly once more, which made the younger man giggle softly and got him to walk towards the restaurant.

I hurried after him. With each step that brought us closer to the restaurant, my hunger grew as well as my anticipation for the hot food. I was going through all the different Mandus I would be able to order at the restaurant inside my head, when I suddenly noticed a small boy running past me.
He headed directly towards DongHae. When he had reached the brunette, he used both his legs to leap of the floor and was holding onto DongHae’s back only a few moments later.

„Henry! I told you that these are bad manners! Leave that young man alone!” I heard a very wheezing voice yell behind me. When I turned around, I saw a young and rather lanky man with unusually bright hair and a head red from exhaustion walk towards us. The man carried several bags with groceries that seemed to be quite heavy.

The boy called Henry didn’t seem to be too impressed by his shouting. He clasped his arms around DongHae joyously and smiled happily. DongHae didn’t seem to mind the young child hanging onto him in the least. Smiling widely, he turned around and put a gentle hand on his head.

„Henry, you know that I…“ the man broke off in the middle of the sentence and then dropped the four heavy bags onto the street. A clattering was heard, but the young man didn’t seem to mind. His eyes were focused directly on DongHae.
„Hello JeongSu Hyung” said DongHae, amusement in his voice, and offered the newcomer such a bright and happy smile that it made me borderline jealous.
I watched both DongHae and the stranger intently. A wide smile was showing the stranger’s face now, too.

„DongHae-yah!” he suddenly shouted, opened his arms and engulfed the brunette in his arms. The younger man happily responded and put his head on the slightly taller man’s shoulder.
The child called Henry didn’t seem to like the fact that he didn’t get any attention and suddenly put himself between them and forced them apart. Pouting, he looked up to DongHae. The brunette smiled and bent down to hug him too and to lift him up.

„Spoiled brat“, I heard JeongSu murmur with a smile while he put his hand through Henry’s hair.
The boy didn’t seem to like that and he ended up glaring at the older one insultingly and stuck out his tongue at him. The older man ignored it with a smile and turned to DongHae: “Since when have you been back? Why haven’t you called beforehand? I would’ve come and picked you up from the station!”

„We’ve been here for a few hours. I wanted to see Appa and DongHwa Hyung again and tell them how I was doing. We then came here directly afterwards” DongHae said with a grin. The man with the name JeongSu looked at him with a furrowed brow.

“We? Did you bring one of your new friends from Seoul here?” the bright haired man said excitedly and focused his attention on me.

I bowed politely and wanted to introduce me, but he was quicker.
„Are you SungMin or RyeoWook? DongHae told me so much about his friends that I’m so glad to finally meet one of you!”
„Neither of those” I said, smiling bashfully.
„I’m Lee HyukJae. DongHae and I have been living together for a short while now.“

The older man started at me, blinking rapidly before turning to DongHae.
„You’re living together? You never even told me that you’ve moved!”
DongHae only nodded slightly and threw me a fleeting glance before putting his smile back on and asking if another person, yet unknown to me, was around. JeongSu nodded avidly, picked his grocery bags back up and began to push DongHae and Henry towards the restaurant. He also mentioned me to follow.

Inside the restaurant, the delicious smell of roasted meat and steamed vegetables was overwhelming. I closed my eyes out of pleasure and inhaled the unbelievably awesome smells. I was in heaven. Now I only needed to make sure that a small piece of this heaven found its way into my stomach.

The restaurant was packed with people, there were barely any tables free. A good sing. It meant that the food here had to be good. If it weren’t so, the shop would be empty and the owner of the restaurant would have to make way for another person who would then do whatever he wanted with the eatery.

As soon as we entered the restaurant we were pilot