(About a week later)

Sungjong waited patiently for the officer in charge to attend to him, standing at the counter and scrolling through his phone for pictures of Ilhoon. The premature baby’s condition was finally beginning to stabilise slightly. He was opening his eyes more now, although he still slept most of the day away, and the doctors were talking about moving him over to an open crib. His lungs were developing well and he could maintain his temperature outside the incubator well, too.

The first time Hyunseung carried his baby boy was one that nobody would forget. It’d been so emotional for everyone, because they’d all been hoping and praying that Ilhoon would grow up healthily, get out of the NICU as soon as possible.

“Lee Sungjong,” an officer called out. Sungjong looked up, keeping his phone and smiling at the man.

“May I go in now?”

“Yeah, you have an hour,” the officer told him, leading him into one of the visiting rooms that Sungjong had become rather acquainted with recently. Thanking the officer, Sungjong settled down into a chair and hummed to himself as he waited for Junhyung.

Less than a minute later, the door on the opposite side of the room opened and another officer entered with Junhyung. Sungjong looked at his hyung sadly, noticing how haggard he looked and how much thinner he’d become. Junhyung had been losing quite a bit of weight ever since he’d been put behind bars. It hadn’t been that noticeable at first, but the difference was beginning to become more apparent as the weeks passed by.

“Sungjong, it’s so good to see you again. I was getting worried when nobody came in the last two weeks,” Junhyung greeted with a tired smile. Sungjong forced a smile back; it was hard to be happy when Junhyung looked so exhausted. What did they even make prisoners do in here that made them look so haggard?

“Things were a little… hectic, I guess,” Sungjong explained, for lack of a better word. “I think pictures will help you understand what I mean.” Pulling his phone out again, Sungjong opened his photo gallery and handed the phone over to Junhyung. The elder frowned slightly at first, before realisation dawned upon him as he looked through the pictures.

“Seungie gave birth? Isn’t it too early?” Junhyung questioned, obviously worried.

“Well, actually he went into premature labour because his mother looked him up and his blood pressure spiked. That was on October 4^th by the way. Ilhoon’s doing fine and it looks like he can get out of the NICU earlier than expected,” Sungjong informed him.

Junhyung exhaled in relief, taking another look through the photos. His features softened as he stopped at the picture of Hyunseung holding Ilhoon, and he couldn’t help but feel proud of his boyfriend and son for doing so well. He was going to have to do something about Mrs. Jang though, when he gets out of prison. Nobody got away with hurting Hyunseung, not on his watch.

“Your son is an angel, hyung,” Sungjong chuckled. “Literally, I mean. His birthday is 1004.”

Junhyung smiled and nodded. “It is, isn’t it? Thanks Sungjong-ah. I owe you guys so much.”

Sungjong rolled his eyes, waving the elder off. “You say that literally every time anyone visits you. We know that you’re thankful, but stop thanking us every single time.”

Sighing in defeat, Junhyung said, “Alright, fine. I’ll try to stop. Is Seung doing well?”

“He’d be better if you were around,” Sungjong pointed out honestly. “But yeah, he’s recovering well and should be going home today, actually.”

“I wish I was there to help.”

“We wish you were, too.”

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

Back at the hospital, Hyunseung sneezed and shuddered slightly as he packed his stuff.

“Is someone talking bad about me?” he questioned, looking at Geurim and Doojoon and narrowing his eyes at them. Both of them looked back at him innocently, having been cleaning the room up for Hyunseung silently. “Never mind.”

Flopping back onto the bed, Hyunseung yawned and looked around the room that he’d stayed in for the past two weeks. He was definitely glad to be out of the hospital, but it’d be better if he could bring Ilhoon back home with him. Still, his premature son was in the NICU and there was nothing much he could do. The doctors had, however, said that Ilhoon was catching up a lot faster than other preemies and could probably be moved to an open crib by November.

“Oppa, are you done staring into space? We’re heading home,” Geurim told him impatiently.

Hyunseung looked at her and rolled his eyes slightly. What was she so impatient about in the first place? “Yes umma, I’m done. Let’s go,” he replied sassily, earning himself a gasp and a smack on the shoulder from his sister.

“I’m not like her, am I?”

“Honestly, sometimes you are. It’s the genes,” Hyunseung shrugged. Doojoon stared at the bickering duo and sighed, picking up Hyunseung’s bag and walking to the door. He just wanted to get home already. Yoseob had woken up with some backache and he didn’t want to leave his pregnant boyfriend at home alone for too long.

“I’m leaving!” Doojoon shouted, knowing that he had the last say because he was the only one that could drive and had a car. The siblings shut up immediately, giving each other looks all the way down to the car park. Doojoon sighed once more because both of them were over twenty already; how childish could siblings get? He and his sister hardly argued in the past, and they definitely don’t argue now that she’s migrated overseas.

The entire drive back home was silent. Hyunseung was, as usual, deep in thought about how he was going to raise Ilhoon. Was he going to continue working at the store or actually become a full-time choreographer like he’d dreamed? If he worked full-time, would Ilhoon feel lonely and unloved? His dad had promised to take care of Ilhoon for him, but Ilhoon was his son and he couldn’t be leaving him alone every weekday. Geurim, on the other hand, was texting away and Doojoon focused on driving, glad that the two weren’t bickering like they had been earlier.

By the time the three arrived back at the apartment building, it was about lunchtime and they planned on dropping Hyunseung’s stuff off before going for lunch with Yoseob. That was the plan, but then they went to pick Yoseob up and all plans for kimchi spaghetti were thrown right out the window.

“…Seobie, are you alright?” Doojoon asked upon walking into his house. His boyfriend was sweating and curled up on the couch, wincing visibly and resting a hand on his stomach. Yoseob looked up, biting his lower lip and shaking his head while whimpering.

“I think I’m in labour.”

“What’s going on?” Hyunseung asked, trying to look over Doojoon’s shoulder. He immediately realised that Yoseob was in pain and pushed past his best friend who seemed to be frozen. Sitting down beside Yoseob, Hyunseung questioned, “Why didn’t you call us?”

“I wanted you to at least get your stuff home before it was my turn to go to the hospital.”

“Any idea how far apart your contractions are? How long they are?” Hyunseung questioned. He didn’t have any experience with labour, of course, since Ilhoon was more than a month premature. He didn’t give birth to his son naturally, either, because it was a do-or-die situation. He had, however, read enough books with Junhyung to know about labour contractions.

“About five minutes…” Yoseob started, but stopped mid-sentence as a contraction hit him. He bit down on his lips hard, and grabbed onto Hyunseung’s arm instinctively. The elder timed the contractions mentally, trying to be as accurate as possible.

“Five minutes apart and about ninety seconds long. We’re heading to the hospital now,” Hyunseung ordered, staring at Doojoon who was still rooted to his spot. Hyunseung rolled his eyes and called for Geurim, asking her to help Yoseob up and get him to the lift. On the way out, Hyunseung kicked Doojoon in the shin because he was blocking the doorway, and only then did the man snap out of his frozen state and rush to the lift.

“Oh my god. Oh my god my babies are going to be born today,” Doojoon hyperventilated. Yoseob smacked his boyfriend on the back of the head, telling Geurim that he’d be fine walking on his own. She reluctantly let go of him and hurriedly took her phone out to call the hospital, while Hyunseung continued to support Yoseob just in case another contraction came.

They made it to the car just as the next contraction hit, and Yoseob nearly fell had Hyunseung not been holding him up. The elder winced, feeling his stitches tear slightly. They stayed outside the car for the duration of the contraction, Yoseob only being able to move once it was over. The moment everyone was in the car and the doors were locked, Doojoon sped off back to the hospital.

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

There was a wheelchair and a team of nurses waiting for Yoseob when they arrived at the A&E. Yoseob was helped onto the wheelchair and immediately brought to the delivery room. Hyunseung and Doojoon followed him in while Geurim said that she’d inform their friends.

The doctor began timing Yoseob’s contractions, asking him when the labour pains started and so on. Doojoon’s eyes widened more and more as Yoseob answered the questions, because come on, his boyfriend had been in labour since 5am in the morning and didn’t tell him? It’s been more than seven hours now, and Yoseob had been suffering silently because Doojoon had to go out.

“Just push whenever you feel like it,” the doctor told Yoseob after another contraction passed. The pregnant male nodded, taking in a few deep breaths to get ready for the next contraction. Doojoon was clearly still in shock, so it was up to Hyunseung to reassure Yoseob that everything was going to be fine and that his baby girls would be healthy and well.

In the midst of Hyunseung talking, Yoseob screamed and his grip on Doojoon’s hand tightened so much that the latter thought his blood circulation was going to be cut. “GET HER OUT OF ME! GET HER OUT!” Yoseob kept screaming repeatedly. Then he relaxed abruptly and a baby’s cries were heard. A tired smile made its way onto Yoseob’s face as the doctor handed him his baby girl and asked him what her name was.

“Jihyun. Yoon Jihyun.”

The doctor nodded with a smile. “Take a rest and spend some time with Jihyun. I’ll be handling some paper work before coming back,” he said before excusing himself. Hyunseung smiled down at the baby girl who stopped crying the moment Yoseob held her to his chest. The nurse put a blanket over the new-born and Yoseob wrapped her up as best as he could.

“Doojoonie, say hi to Jihyun,” Yoseob murmured, looking at his boyfriend and rolling his eyes upon noticing that he was still in shock. He let go of Doojoon’s hand and opted to smack the elder on the head once more. How long was a grown man going to be in shock because his boyfriend was in labour? “Yoon Doojoon, can you snap out of it?”

Blinking, Doojoon looked at the bundle in Yoseob’s arms that was their baby girl. Smiling slowly, he kissed Yoseob on the forehead before mumbling, “She’s beautiful, just like her sister would’ve been. I’m sure she’s looking over our baby girls. I am so proud of you, Yang Yoseob.”

Hyunseung sighed inwardly, wishing once again that Junhyung was here with him. He moved slightly, wincing and looking down at his stomach. He cursed when he saw a patch of blood staining his white shirt and cleared his throat, breaking the couple’s moment with their daughter. “I’m just going to, um, get this stitched back up and wait outside,” he told them, gesturing to his torn stitches.

Yoseob looked at Hyunseung apologetically, knowing that he was the one who tore Hyunseung’s stitches. “Sorry hyung. I didn’t mean to…” Yoseob apologised with a pout. Hyunseung waved the younger off, going over to one of the nurses and asking her for help to get him stitched up. He didn’t mention that he couldn’t bear seeing them as one happy family, while he had to raise Ilhoon alone. He didn’t have to say it out loud though – his expression said it all.

After Hyunseung’s stomach was stitched properly again, he sat outside with Geurim. Both of them didn’t talk much because Yoseob was screaming his head off once more, and the cries of another baby were heard. Geurim was so busy texting away while Hyunseung was caught up in his own depressing thoughts.

It wasn’t long later that Yoseob was transferred to a ward while the two baby girls were brought to the neonatal ward. Doojoon came out of the delivery room looking all giddy and happy and Hyunseung wanted to slap his friend for being an insensitive douche. It wasn’t wrong to be happy about the birth of your twins, but it wasn’t very nice to show that much affection in front of him. He wanted so badly to be happy for them and he was, but it’d be nice if he, Junhyung and Ilhoon could be a perfect family like them.

Geurim looked up from her phone, noticing her brother’s sad expression and patting him on the shoulder with a small smile. “Oppa, don’t be all upset. Junhyung will be back someday. He promised, didn’t he?” she asked.

“He did imply that he’d be back but… he legit promised never to leave and where’s he now?” Hyunseung mumbled bitterly. Geurim frowned because she couldn’t really dispute that fact. Junhyung did promise Hyunseung that he wouldn’t leave. Even if it had been a white lie, a promise was a promise and Junhyung broke it.

“You know he did it to protect you.”

Hyunseung sighed, nodding and trying not to cry. He felt like it was all karma. Had he not stolen Junhyung from Hara, Jaewon wouldn’t have tried to kill him and Junhyung wouldn’t have had to leave. People said karma was a , and Hyunseung truly understood why now.

It’s my fault Junnie left. I guess there’s nothing for me to complain about then.

Despite thinking that way, Hyunseung still couldn’t stop the overwhelming heartache that would come whenever he thought of Junhyung.

I just wanted to speed things up a little, get on with the story and make Junhyung's return come faster, so the twins are born!

In case some of you didn't get what Doojoon said about 'Jihyun's sister', he was referring to the baby that Yoseob lost when he was 18 (although the baby technically was genderless since it was so small, I like to think of it as a girl but don't ask me why lol. It just seemed appropriate)

The next chapter should have a timeskip, I'm not sure how long it'll be but I'm not going to talk about Ilhoon being discharged and all. I'm just gonna skip to the next milestone (or I might skip a few milestones, idk)

That's all from me for now, don't expect an update from me next week because I'll be in NEW ZEALAND~! Yup but maybe expect an update the week after that

Ok bye guys. Annyeong~! ^^