Dara paced outside the room, biting her lip. The doctor and nurse had been in there with Byunghee for more than twenty minutes, and no one was coming out to tell her anything.

When she was about to barge into the room, the nurse came out.

“He’s stable now; you may go in and see him, but please, do not disturb him, he needs rest. We’ll have him here overnight to check on his progress,” she said, and Dara sighed in relief. She bowed to the nurse and went inside the room.

Byunghee was propped up on pillows, playing on his phone. The doctor nodded at Dara and left them. She closed the curtain around Byunghee’s bed and sat next to him.

“What did they say?” she asked him, as he paused his game.

“That you brought me right on time,” he replied. “If we had taken much longer my throat could have closed up, and I would have suffocated.”

“So, you’ll be alright, then?” Dara breathed in relief.

“Yeah. Thanks for bringing me here.”

“Byunghee!” someone called from the door.

“Here!”

A couple of seconds after, the curtain was drawn to reveal a girl, a worried look on her face, and a young boy, biting his lip anxiously.

“You must be Hyojin and Cheolyong,” Dara said, when the pair walked to the other side of the bed. “I was the one who called you. I’m Dara.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you, Dara-ssi,” the girl, Hyojin, said. “Thank you for helping Byunghee.”

“I’m glad I could help.”

Hyojin turned to Byunghee and slapped his arm.

“That’s for worrying me! How could you not tell your friend you are allergic to fur?”

“I forgot! Don’t hit me again!”

Dara’s phone rang in that moment, and she used it as an excuse to get away from the bantering couple.

“Hello?” she said, closing the door behind her.

“Dara-noona?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Seungho stared at the sleeping boy next to him, and the cat curled up on his lap. He sighed, rubbing his head.

What’s wrong with me?

Sanghyun had cried for a while in Seungho’s arms, apologizing over and over again for the mishap with Byunghee. It didn’t matter how many times Seungho told him it was no one’s fault, the boy kept blaming himself.

It didn’t help that his heart was beating painfully in his chest the whole time.

Why wasn’t Dara calling?

Tapping his foot impatiently, he grabbed his phone and dialed Byunghee’s number. It rang three times, before it got answered.

“What?” his friend’s sleepy voice greeted him.

“What, you say? I’m dying with worry over here and you don’t even think of calling me?” Seungho snapped at Byunghee.

“Sorry, Seungho. I was too busy getting yelled at by Hyojin and Cheolyong, for not telling Sanghyun about my allergies.” Seungho could almost see Byunghee rolling his eyes.

“Are you okay, though?”

“Yeah, the doctor said I got here right on time. All thanks to Dara. They’ll keep me here until tomorrow just to make sure I don’t die over the night.”

“Not funny.”

“What crawled up your and died there?”

“Is Dara still there?”

“Huh? No she left like two hours ago. She got a call and left. Why?”

“Because she hasn’t returned home and I’m babysitting her brother.”

“Aww. Seungho doesn’t want to be with Sanghyunnie anymore?”

“What are you talking about? I’m tired and I can’t sleep on a freaking couch!”

“Uh-huh. Whatever you say, man. Listen, I gotta go, or I’m gonna wake up Mir, and you know how that kid gets when he’s woken up before his eight hours of beauty sleep are over.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Seungho hung up the phone and looked at Sanghyun again, sleeping peacefully on the couch.

Where did she go?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Dara ran across the airport, her phone tightly clutched in her hand.

Gate F-4.

After searching around for a while, she finally found him sitting at the food court, one floor above, looking absolutely bored. She ran up the escalator, dodging people as she went.

“Hey,” she said, breathlessly, once she reached his table.

“Oh, hi, noona,” he said, getting up and bowing to her. “Thanks for coming.”

“Did you wait for long?”

“Not much. Customs clearance takes a lot of time.”

“Alright. Let’s go, then.”

He grabbed his suitcase and backpack, and followed Dara to her car.

“Why didn’t you call before?” she asked as they walked.

“I—I wasn’t sure if I should,” he replied.

“Why not? Look, whatever happened with you and my brother—”

“Please don’t tell him I’m back.”

“But he’s your best friend! He should know!”

“Noona, please.”

They reached Dara’s car, and he stood there, unmoving.

“Can’t you just tell me what happened?”

“No.”

“Lee Changsun! You better tell me what happened with my brother right now or I won’t take you home.”

Joon stared at her for a long moment, and then, bowing down his head, he said, “Alright, then, I’ll take a taxi.”

“Joonie!” Dara exclaimed, when he turned around and walked away from her, pulling his suitcases behind him. “Joonie, wait! I’ll stop asking, okay? I just don’t like this.”

Joon turned back to the car, giving her a sad smile.

“I don’t like it , either.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“So, what happened? You were supposed to be gone for three months?”

Joon blushed under his sunglasses and turned away to look out the car window.

“Joonie?”

“There was an... uh—accident,” he said, still not looking at her.

“What kind of accident?” Dara asked, trying to not look away from the road. “What happened?”

“I—I broke my nose while doing a stunt,” he said, taking his sunglasses off, very slowly. “They are going to film Rain hyung’s scenes while I recover.”

“So, you’re going back?” Dara asked with a pout.

“Yeah, in a couple of weeks.”

Dara sighed. She had hoped Joon wouldn’t have to leave again. She wanted to see her little brothers be friends again.

“Well, it’s good to have you back.”

“Thanks, noona.”

Dara took the opportunity to look at Joon when she had to stop at a red light.

There were dark circles under his eyes, that made him look tired and sick, but there wsa something odd about the whole look of his face. She snickered when she realized what it was.

“Did... did you get a nose job?” she asked.

“I told you! I broke my nose!” Joon exclaimed. “It was really bad, so I had to get surgery!”

“So now you have a fake nose?” Dara said, laughing harder.

“It’s not fake!” Joon said, and poked his nose, moving it in different directions. “See, it’s real! They only fixed the broken bone.”

Dara continued to laugh. The light turned green.

“Michael Jackson!” she .

“YAH! Can you focus more on your driving and less on your mocking me? I don’t wanna die in a car accident.”

“You’re so easy to rile up, Joon,” Dara said, as she turned the corner to Joon’s apartment building, her laughter dying down.

“Call me if you need anything, okay?” she told him, as he got out of the car.

“I will. Thanks again, noona.”

She watched him until he got into the building, and sighed.

What happened with those two?

Sighing, she drove off, her thoughts still on Joon and Sanghyun.

When she finally arrived home, it was past two in the morning and she felt like dying on the spot.

Slowly, she took off her shoes, and went to the stairs. When she reached the second floor, she turned to look down at the living room, and saw her brother and Seungho asleep on the couch, Dadoong curled up in between them. Smiling slightly, she went to the linen closet and got a blanket.

Padding barefoot downstairs, she went to the boys and covered them with the blanket, and had to refrain herself from giggling loudly when Sanghyun snuggled closer to Seungho.

Silently, she went up to her bedroom and threw herself on her bed, sighing happily. She was asleep in seconds.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Seungho woke up to the sound of a loud beep. Groaning, he opened his eyes, and tried to move to find his phone, but a heavy weight was pressing down on his chest. He looked down, and saw Sanghyun—and his cat—curled up on his chest, sleeping peacefully. He felt a weird, tightening feeling in his chest, and decided to ignore his phone, since he couldn’t bring himself to wake up the boy.

He stayed there, unmoving, barely breathing, watching Sanghyun sleep.

Twenty minutes after he woke up, Sanghyun stirred in his sleep. Seungho quickly shut his eyes, a second before Sanghyun opened his. He felt the boy shift on top of him for a bit, and then que moved away quickly away. Seungho imagined Sanghyun was blushing at the awkward position then had ended in. Dadoong had also woken up, at the same time as his owner, and was now padding over Seungho’s chest. He decided this was the best moment to pretend he was just waking up.

He opened his eyes slowly, and sat up, rubbing his neck. It hurt from the awkward position he had fallen asleep in.

“Hyung?”

Seungho turned to look at Sanghyun. His cheeks were tinged pink and he was avoiding Seungho’s eyes.

“Yeah?”

Sanghyun shook his head, and got up.

“Do you want some breakfast?”

“Sure.”

Sanghyun disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Seungho feeling awkward. He saw his phone lying on the floor, and took it. He turned off his alarm and looked around the living room. There was also a blanket, and Seungho frowned at it.

Where did that come from?

Dara came down the stairs, looking half asleep.

“Oh, Seungho-ssi, I didn’t know you were here,” she said, rubbing her eyes.

“Yeah, I feel asleep while we waited for you.”

“Sorry about that, I had a... an emergency.”

“It’s okay.”

“Where’s my brother?”

“In the kitchen.”

“Okay. I’ll go help him. You’ll stay for breakfast, right?”

“Yeah.”

Dara went to the kitchen to help her brother (“Noona go away! You’re going to ruin it!”), while Seungho freshened up on the bathroom.

He rubbed his face, and looked at himself in the mirror. Oddly enough, his ever-present dark circles were barely noticeable.

Wow, a miracle.

There was a knock on the door, and he jumped, startled.

“Hyung? Breakfast’s ready,” Sanghyun called from the other side.

“I’ll be right out!”

He put a hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating like crazy inside his ribcage.

What is wrong with me? Maybe I’m going crazy.

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and went down to the dining room, where Dara and Sanghyun were already waiting for him.

Ehh, sorry for the super late update. I didn't have access to my computer for the last couple of weeks since I had my finals and I didn't really had time for anything TT__TT. I'm still waiting for the results of my Microeconomics exam, which was terrible btw, and I'm trying to distract myself by writing and posting this.

Sooo, Joonie's back! I kinda missed him hehehe. Who else missed him? Was this chappie too angsty?? I tried to balance it with Seungho being all confused, and that fluffy seungdoong moment, while they slept but... I'm not sure. Sorry if this was lame.

Now, I go back to bite my nails off waiting for my exam result. waaaahh

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Until next time~~!