(Several days later)

For the past eight days, Hyunseung had been freaking out over what he was supposed to wear to Sunggyu and Woohyun’s wedding. It was in just three days now, and Hyunseung couldn’t seem to find anything nice that he could still fit into comfortably.

After getting discharged from the hospital, Hyunseung found out that his food poisoning had been caused by Jaewon. Still, he trusted Junhyung to settle the problem with the gang leader and keep him and Miracle safe. He also trusted Junhyung not to give in, but clearly Junhyung was dead set on doing just that.

For the moment, Hyunseung was preoccupied with trying to wrap a birthday present for the youngest of the employees, Dongwoon. They were intending to go out for a simple lunch celebration, after which Gikwang would follow up and bring Dongwoon out.

Hyunseung let out a frustrated groan and threw the wrapping paper to the corner of the room. It was impossible to wrap the present he and Junhyung had gotten for Dongwoon nicely, for some reason he didn’t even know. It was in a regular rectangular box for heaven’s sake! Hyunseung knew that he wasn’t the best in wrapping a present but it had been twenty minutes already, and he just couldn’t wrap the corners right.

Junhyung glanced up from his computer, having been arranging parts of the song that he had been planning to do with the store employees. Previously it was because he felt that they could sing pretty well, but now it was a farewell gift to Hyunseung. Of course the rest of them had already agreed, but all they knew was that Junhyung wanted to record a song with them. They didn’t know the actual reason.

“What’s wrong?” Junhyung asked upon seeing Hyunseung’s pout.

“This thing is impossible to wrap!” Hyunseung whined.

Junhyung raised an incredulous brow and got up, walking over to sit beside Hyunseung. “It’s just a tiny jewellery box; how hard could it be to wrap?” he questioned. Hyunseung huffed, not bothering to reply. He picked the wrapping paper up from where he’d thrown it and handed it over to his boyfriend who immediately starting wrapping the present.

They’d gotten Dongwoon a silver charm bracelet, a gift that would match well with Doojoon and Yoseob’s – a small pendant meant for the charm bracelet. The four of them had planned it together and to the best of their knowledge, Dongwoon didn’t own a charm bracelet.

It took Junhyung all of three minutes to finish wrapping the small box and Hyunseung gaped openly at the perfectly wrapped present. “How?” he demanded. Junhyung looked at Hyunseung in amusement, wondering if he should voice his opinion.

“Maybe you just at wrapping presents.”

“Yah!”

Junhyung stuck his tongue out childishly at Hyunseung and jumped back into his seat to continue working on the song. He was pretty much done composing it, and had already managed to record his own part. Hyunseung’s parts would probably be recorded next since it was nearly impossible to find a day when all of them were free to record together.

“What’re you doing there?” Hyunseung asked curiously, crawling over to Junhyung and pulling another chair over to sit on. Junhyung moved out of the way so that Hyunseung could see the song lyrics and all, and the pregnant male grinned. He gave Junhyung a big kiss on the lips. “I love the lyrics! Are we supposed to sing this together with the others?” he asked excitedly. Then, noticing the colour-coding, Hyunseung said, “Wait… are those lines mine? Those three short lines?”

Junhyung nodded slowly. “Yeah…? The entire song is in my point of view though. Just. Yeah.”

Hyunseung scrolled down the lyrics and gasped. “I’m not short! We’re like the same height!”

“It just fit!”

Hyunseung hit Junhyung on the arm and huffed again.

“I don’t love the lyrics so much anymore, Junnie. But you don’t have to change them; I know you worked hard on this song. Do you want me to record those lines now?”

“If you want to, I guess…” Junhyung mumbled his reply, worried that Hyunseung was really pissed off with him. He just felt that since the song was dedicated to Hyunseung, the elder shouldn’t have to sing so much.

Hyunseung turned around, already grinning, and Junhyung heaved a sigh of relief.

-----------------------

“Hi!” Hyunseung exclaimed as he walked into the store, smiling brightly at the store’s newest employees, Jokwon and Changmin. Jokwon was Heechul’s junior in high school and was currently looking for a job. Since he lived rather nearby, Heechul decided to hire him. Changmin was just Jokwon’s roommate who was dragged into the job by Jokwon. The two were hired to take over Gikwang and Dongwoon’s places since the two would be pretty busy with school now.

Thankfully, the two had prior experience so Heechul didn’t need any of the other four to guide them too much. Hyunseung didn’t think he’d have the patience to teach them the ropes, especially if he had to wake up early after a night shift.

Junhyung walked in behind Hyunseung, waving a greeting at the two before following his boyfriend into the staff lounge where Doojoon and Yoseob were. The two of them had left earlier to pick up the custom-made charm for Dongwoon and had helped Jokwon and Changmin out. It was nearly lunchtime and the four had to meet Gikwang and Dongwoon at Miss Right, which was pretty near to Konkuk University. Luckily, the two happened to have their lunch period at one as well.

They left after making sure that they had both their presents, deciding to walk over to the restaurant. Throughout the ten-minute walk, Yoseob was constantly talking about how Doojoon’s birthday was in less than a month and pestering his boyfriend for a wish list. The more Yoseob talked about celebrating Doojoon’s birthday, the worse Junhyung felt about having to miss it. He’d leave exactly two days before Doojoon’s birthday.

Hyunseung, on the other hand, seemed to be pretty excited about celebrating his best friend’s birthday as well. He also seemed to think about getting the perfect gift for Junhyung, in a few months’ time, so he began asking Junhyung for a wish list as well.

Well damn, what am I supposed to say? ‘You won’t be able to give me a present anyway’? Junhyung thought, sighing inwardly. By the time it was his birthday, he’d have been gone for over five months. Miracle would also be about a month old by then. Just thinking about it made Junhyung’s heart ache. He didn’t want to think about how depressed Hyunseung was going to be in three and a half weeks.

“You?” Junhyung tried.

Hyunseung rolled his eyes at his boyfriend, crossing his arms. “Really now?”

Junhyung shrugged, earning himself a half-hearted punch on the shoulder. “I’m serious!”

I am too, Junhyung wanted to say. Hyunseung didn’t know that he was leaving, so of course he thought that Junhyung was joking. But really, Junhyung would just want to be with Hyunseung on his birthday – not that he could. He hadn’t a clue how he was supposed to survive just five months, or even five days, without Hyunseung, much less years.

“Just… buy me something you think I’ll need by then. I’m sure to need something, right?” Junhyung pointed out. Hyunseung pouted, punching Junhyung again for good measure. He wanted to get something that Junhyung would like, not just something that he needed. Junhyung was always doing the sweetest things for him and he just wanted to do that in return. Was that so bad?

As if reading his mind, Junhyung sighed and pulled Hyunseung closer to him. “As long as it’s from you, I’ll love it,” Junhyung said truthfully, forcing a smile at the elder. He didn’t think it would hurt so much to say that, but he hadn’t really considered what it would be like after he left. He knew he would miss Hyunseung terribly, but for it to physically hurt? That was something Junhyung never thought he’d ever experience. Well, he also never thought that he’d be obsessed with someone so much that he stalked him.

 “Really?” Hyunseung asked unsurely.

Doojoon turned around to look at the couple. “Yes, he will. Now can you two hurry up?”

“Come on, let’s go before Seob starts screaming at us.”

Hyunseung’s eyes widened at that thought and he nodded, hastening his pace.

---------------------

After placing their orders and singing the birthday song for Dongwoon, the six settled down and began to talk about what they were wearing to Sunggyu and Woohyun’s wedding. It had been nearly a week since Gikwang and Dongwoon had seen the others, having started school just last week. They also never really talked about what they were going to wear, but as Sunggyu and Woohyun’s closer friends they had to wear something more presentable.

Hyunseung groaned at the mention of presentable clothing, gesturing to himself and looking at the others questioningly. “Does it look like I can wear a tux? Or heck, dress pants? My jeans don’t even fit comfortably anymore!” Hyunseung complained. Most of the time, he would just wear sweatpants or pants with elastic waistbands, because he didn’t like feeling that his pants were squishing his belly.

Yoseob nodded in agreement. “I’m worse. My belly is bigger and I was smaller than Hyunseung hyung at the start, before we got pregnant. Do you understand how hard it is for me to find pants to wear? I don’t have anything but sweatpants and Bermuda shorts to wear now, because I literally cannot, and I mean cannot, zip up my jeans,” Yoseob stressed, huffing in annoyance even as he rubbed slow circles on his belly.

“Maybe you guys should get more pants…” Gikwang suggested warily, not wanting to set either of the two pregnancy males off. The few times he’d managed to get Hyunseung or Yoseob mad were not pleasant and he didn’t exactly want to experience that again.

“You think we don’t want to? Maternity pants are expensive, but it’s hard to find sweatpants that are big yet not long,” Yoseob retorted. “I’m a short person who needs big sized sweatpants for work. This isn’t easy for me,” he added. Gikwang shrugged, mumbling about how he at least tried to help.

“Why don’t we buy some clothes for you two then?” Dongwoon suggested, nudging his boyfriend in the rib. Gikwang definitely had the money for it – his uncle owned a hotel and his parents also happened to be higher-ups in a bank.

Gikwang winced and grimaced at Dongwoon. “Yah.”

“No, we can’t accept that! We’ll buy the things on our own,” Hyunseung told them hurriedly. Yoseob nodded, agreeing that it wouldn’t be nice to accept because maternity pants were really expensive. All maternity stuff was expensive.

“Speaking of buying stuff for people, here’s your present,” Doojoon said, handing the small velvet box to Dongwoon. Hyunseung nudged Junhyung, and the younger male took the wrapped present out of its bag before passing it to Dongwoon as well. “They come together,” Doojoon explained.

Dongwoon grinned and thanked the four. “But stop trying to change the subject, guys. I’m serious! You know how people have baby showers? Why don’t we have a separate thing for the pregnant people?” he suggested. “We don’t need to have a grand party or anything; nobody has the time for that now. We can just give you guys stuff that you need!”

“I don’t know…” Yoseob said, looking at Hyunseung. He did complain just a few minutes ago, but he hadn’t been trying to get free stuff. Still, with twins, he knew that he and Doojoon would need to save as much as they could. Hyunseung, on the other hand, just felt bad if he was to accept.

Junhyung suppressed the urge to sigh. It would be good if Gikwang and Dongwoon could buy some clothes for Hyunseung because Junhyung wouldn’t be around to do that soon enough. Sometimes Junhyung wondered why he kept reminding himself about how much time he had left, but then he remembered that Jaewon liked to remind him too. He thought back to when he texted the man, and the reply he’d received.

‘I’ll pass, thank you. Just remember to leave when you have to or you’ll be sorry.’

He didn’t know why Jaewon refused to meet him; it wasn’t as if he could do much to the guy. He was just one person and besides, Jaewon had the upper hand here. Junhyung didn’t want to take any risks with Hyunseung and Miracle by accidentally angering Jaewon.

“Since they want to buy it for you two, just accept. It’s not nice to keep declining someone’s offer,” Junhyung told the two pregnant males. Junhyung felt bad too for making the couple spend on something they shouldn’t have to, but the money he’d saved over the years would have to be spent on Hyunseung and Miracle for the years to come. It was best that he saved more while he could.

“If you say so, then!” Dongwoon exclaimed, smiling at Junhyung.

Junhyung managed to smile genuinely at Dongwoon and Gikwang, silently thanking them for all they’d done for Hyunseung and all they were going to do for him and Miracle. He also silently thanked all the other people who would be taking care of Hyunseung and Miracle for him. It was the least he could do, if he was to leave Hyunseung and Miracle in their care.

Hyunseung shot Junhyung a look, but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he asked, “When are you guys free to record a song?”

If only you knew why I wrote that song, Seung. If only you knew.

This chapter was kinda going nowhere. Yeah I'm sorry for the crappy chapter. And late update is late, because I was so busy with work >< Updates are probably gonna keep being late because my workplace is shorthanded and I keep having to work, PLUS I still have another fic to work on ._. Sorry TT

Well, no matter what I do hope you guys managed to enjoy this chapter. I tried...? :/

Look forward to the next chapter (I might make a short one on WooGyu's wedding? I think? It might be just around 1.5k words, I don't really know) and there's just a couple more till Jun leaves! Dayum. Ok that's all from me now bye! Annyeong~! ^^