“So how was taking care of my favorite nieces?” grinned Donghae the moment he saw Kyuhyun stepping into their apartment.

Kyuhyun laughed, looking at his boyfriend with amusement. “Good evening to you too, Hae. But you do realize they’re not your real nieces, right? No matter how much Heechul hyung tries to convince you that you’re his little lost and found brother.”

“That’s cute of him though.”

“Yup, if only he stopped telling me how much I have corrupted you, maybe I would have considered your point of view on it,” murmured Kyuhyun into Donghae’s neck where he rested his head, seeking for some kind of comfort. Because of what exactly, he did not know.

Donghae ruffled his hair with a short laugh, gave him a light peck and headed to the kitchen where, Kyuhyun noticed, there was a weird smell coming from. Something like burnt… cheese? Oh no. No, no, no…

“Look, I made you dinner today!”

Uh.

“Thank you Hae, I was starving. How come you had time to make it though? I thought you had classes till the very end today?” Kyuhyun asked, eyeing the ‘dish’ in front of him warily.

It wasn’t any surprise that the lasagna (or at least Kyuhyun supposed it was one) at his plate looked as if it had a very long and very painful experiences in its, undoubtedly adventurous, life. Donghae had never been a good cook and usually he admitted and acknowledged it himself, more often than not opting for ordering a take-out from their favorite restaurant if Kyuhyun wasn’t at home long enough to prepare something eatable.

There were times though, like this evening, that Donghae knew his boyfriend wouldn’t be home any time soon and when he would, he’d be hungry and too tired to spend another hour in a kitchen. And therefore Donghae, being the perfect partner he was, willed to make something himself. Kyuhyun learned to recognize his intentions and hidden meaning behind this act a good couple of years ago, and he didn’t have a heart to complain or reject the meals.

“Actually the last group called in that only half of them would come, so Hyukkie said he could handle it by himself,” Donghae grinned. “I was going to help you out with the girls but then I passed the market and thought that hey, we hadn’t eaten lasagna for a long time, why don’t I make one?”

Kyuhyun chuckled. It was so like Donghae.

“It’s great Hae,” he praised after taking a bite and not finding himself under the table. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Kyu?”

“Hm?”

“If you aren’t too tired then maybe we could…” Donghae bit his lower lip and looked down. “Uh… you know…”

Kyuhyun smirked suggestively and put his hands on the elder’s thigh, caressing it lightly. “Sure thing baby. But is the table good enough of a place?”

He laughed upon hearing Donghae’s high shriek. “YAH! You erted boyfriend! I meant a movie today, a movie!”

“Movie sounds great, Hae.” He grinned after calming down and kissed Donghae’s cheek. “Let’s go.”

This was a good idea, he told himself when they sat together on a couch and Donghae started the film. He’ll have something to focus on instead of dwelling on what in dear heavens made him think it was wise to open the old matters yet again, like he’s been doing ever since he left Heechul and Hangeng’s house. Why did he decide to speak about it? Well, he reasoned with himself, it was for the girls to go to sleep. That’s the only reason. Of course it was.

Yet, Kyuhyun couldn’t quite convince himself, which he thought was pathetic. Who in their mind can’t convince their own consciousness about something they are sure of?

He shouldn’t have done that. He should have closed the doors to the sisters’ room, wait for them to fall asleep and go home. He should have let Sungmin go just as he had promised him and himself six years ago. He shouldn’t have thought that after so much time he’ll manage to speak or think about him so easily. Maybe if he did, he wouldn’t be sitting on a couch with a man he loves and a man that loves him, thinking about events he had been so sure he wouldn’t think about ever again.

He realized something was off when he felt Donghae’s finger touching his wet cheek, gently as ever.

Wait, why was his cheek wet? Kyuhyun looked around the dark room, the TV turned off. Uh? When did the movie end? He groaned internally as he realized he had no idea what was it even about.

God no, he was supposed to stop thinking for the time being, not immerse himself in thoughts so much he didn’t even remember a single scene of the movie!

“Kyu…?” Donghae’s worried face came into his blurred vision. “Why are you… What happened?”

Stupid tears. When did they start flowing? He cleared his throat, trying to think of something to say. “I… I’m sorry Hae. I think I’ll just go to sleep. Too tired.”

Way to go Cho Kyuhyun, he thought, annoyed at himself when he noticed the hurt expression Donghae failed to hide in time.

“Of course,” the elder smiled understandingly. “Jangmi can get anyone exhausted, you don’t have to tell me. I’ll join you in a few then.”

Kyuhyun nodded and went to their bedroom. He didn’t hear Donghae coming in, didn’t feel him covering his body, didn’t see the worry apparent in his eyes.

He dreamt of Sungmin that night.

“WHAT?!” Screamed Kyuhyun two weeks later, making few people in expensive suits look at him with resentment. He was currently on a lunch break in the company he worked for when he made the mistake of answering his phone without looking at the ID of the caller.

Bowing apologetically towards the men he lowered his voice. “No. No, no, no, no way. Not again. I’m… I’m busy! The work has been hell recently, I…”

“Come on, Kyu” said the voice on the other side of his cell. “I know you’re not, your boss is on vacation, he wouldn’t have noticed if you went to Bahamas and back.”

“But I’m… I’m a bad influence for them! You said so yourself!”

“Yeah, but for some… weird and unexplainable reason they took a liking to you. And we’re taking Seungdal with us, so you won’t have to worry about changing diapers again.”

As if it was any consolation, thought Kyuhyun bitterly.

“I can’t.” He stated firmly. “I promised Hae to stay with him tonight.”

“Tsk, you’re such a bad liar for a trade consultant. I talked to Donghae already, he said he’s going to be busy with Hyukkie anyway.”

“Heechul.” Kyuhyun said in a warning tone. Hyukjae was never the right topic to about. Kyuhyun wouldn’t ever admit it to anyone, even less so to himself, but deep inside he was too afraid that Donghae will finally realize Kyuhyun’s not worth him and go back to the dancer, to take that stupid nickname lightly.

“Oh okay, okay don’t worry. You know he only loves you, God only knows why…” Heechul mumbled the last part quietly but not enough for Kyuhyun not to hear it. “Anyway. Don’t be like that, Kyuhyun-ah, Jangmi really wants to see her ‘oppa’ again and we have no one else to ask. You’re our last resort.”

“I… I didn’t work my off learning to do a degree to become a freaking babysitter!”

“Yeah yeah,” Kyuhyun had totally no problem with imagining his hyung shaking his hand dismissively at that. “Oh look who we have here! Jangmi sweetheart, do you want to talk to Kyuhyun oppa for a second?”

“Oh no, don’t you dare Kim Heechul. Don’t you even think of doing it or else—“

“Oppa!” Jangmi’s loud voice cut through his threat. “I heard you were coming to us again! When will you be here? What time exactly? I can’t wait to see you!”

Kyuhyun furrowed his eyebrows. She sounded suspiciously too cute and bubbly for the Jangmi he had come to know. “Well, hi there. Uhm, actually I…”

“We made you cookies! Me and appa; he said you really liked the chocolate ones.”

“That’s… nice of you, but—“

“See you at eight then, oppa! Bye!”

Before he could say anything else, the girl hung up, that little dodger. Why did he suddenly have a mental image of Jangmi high-fiving her umma, both with wicked smiles on their faces? Kyuhyun shook his head.

Well he didn’t have a choice now, did he.

When Hangeng finally managed to drag Heechul out of their house (“They are going to be alright Chullie, they did survive last time he was here.” “But it was different, this time it’s going to be the whole long night! What if Kyuhyun eats them and then escape to the North Pole?” “Trust me, Jangmi would have pacified him first and Hanbyeol would make sure he suffer enough before calling us.” “…true.”) Kyuhyun found himself in a scarily familiar situation with two girls staring at him with huge eyes, obviously waiting for something while he had absolutely freaking NO idea what to do with himself. And maybe he was a little afraid as well.

But just a little.

“So… TV?” He asked hopefully.

Jangmi’s eyes widened. “Yeah! I have a new movie somewhere in my—Ow!” She looked at her sister with a pout forming on her lips. “Why did you—ah! Right…”

Hanbyeol wore an angel-like expression and calmly tucked a strand of her long hair behind her ear like she didn’t just smack her younger sister’s arm, all the while smiling beautifully at Kyuhyun, who only grew more and more suspicious. Something was very wrong here and he didn’t like it one bit.

“Actually, uncle, we are a little tired, we… we had a long day today,” the girl used the phrase which Kyuhyun recognized as the one being used by Hangeng every time he tried to talk the Chinese into going out of his house for once. “So we’d like to rather, uh, go to bed.”

“Well…” the man paused to think but he couldn’t actually find anything wrong with her request. It was all the better for him, right? “I suppose it’s alright. Hop into your beds then!” He finally smiled as he said so, his conscience calm and relieved that nothing bad had happened as of yet and it certainly didn’t look like it would.

Hanbyeol grabbed Jangmi’s hand as they nodded and skipped upstairs to their shared room. Kyuhyun chuckled at their cute childlike behavior. Why had he been so scared anyways? They’re little girls after all, not some monsters.

“Ready to sleep?”

The older of the siblings looked at Kyuhyun’s head peeking to check if everything’s alright and turn off the lamps as she shook her head slightly. A frown immediately appeared on the man’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I think… I think Jangmi can’t sleep like that.”

“Uh? What do you mean, isn’t she already…” He stopped as he noticed that only a pair of wide eyes could be seen from under the starry blanket, the rest of Jangmi’s body covered thoroughly. Kyuhyun sighed. “She watched another one of her scary movies, didn’t she.”

Hanbyeol nodded and crossed her little fingers for the plan she had come up with to work. She was a smart girl for a six year old, she had noticed her uncle’s weird behavior when he had been leaving their room two weeks ago and she had sensed that he won’t be willing to tell them the rest of his beautiful story so easily. Therefore, she had to… Slightly help him to make his decision.

On their favor of course.

“What now?” Kyuhyun stepped in the room, closing the door behind him and Hanbyeol let out a breath of relief. She wasn’t Kim Heechul’s daughter for nothing after all.

“Appa is always able to coo her into sleep after those horrors…”

Kyuhyun rubbed his nape with worry.

“Yes but.” He so much didn’t want to call Hangeng and interrupt their time, making Heechul dislike him even more. “What does he do exactly?”

“I told you last time, uncle.” Hanbyeol looked at him deliberately. “He tells us stories.”

Kyuhyun stared at her, knowing exactly what she meant. He then threw a glance at the girl hidden under her thick blanket. He didn’t want her to have nightmares, right? Not on his watch. Not ever.

“Can you tell us the rest of the one you started last time, uncle?”

Could he? He had been trying to forget his mistake of ever starting it for the past two weeks, with no effect, so maybe he should just throw the rest of it out of his system to become peaceful again? And if so, then why not to the girls?

But. He had promised. To himself.

And to Sungmin, too, even if the other had no idea that he did.

“Pleaseee?”

He had a whole night. And the day after, he’ll just begin trying to forget it all over again, from the very start. All in all, it was a beautiful story. Only with a sad ending.

“Uncle…?”

At last, it was Jangmi’s trembling voice whispering a soft “Oppa?” that pulled the last string. He had nothing more to lose. Maybe he’ll finally manage to convince himself that the whole chain of events from six years ago didn’t actually happen. That it was his weird imagination that made it all up.

“Okay,” he smiled, suddenly calm when he decided to just voice out what he had been keeping to himself for the long years. “Get comfortable though. It’s going to take a pretty long time of our night together you know.” Kyuhyun seated himself on the very same chair he had sat last time he had been here and fell into his thoughts for a short while. “Where did I stop earlier?”

Hanbyeol exchanged victorious looks with her sister.

“When that Sungmin person told you he was an angel!” They said together, enthusiasm apparent in their eyes.

Kyuhyun chuckled. “Yeah, he told me indeed. I was stupid enough to not believe a word at that time though…”

No more travelling via Polish Trains! No more! Stopping for two hours only to tell the passengers that they have to get out and find another way of reaching their destination? Seriously? Like... SERIOUSLY?! What kind of institution does something like that?!

I'm cold, wet and exhausted. Gimme some hot tea, good book, a blanket and nobody gets hurt!

Anyway, I know most of you didn't like this chapter but it was kind of necessary, so... well, deal with it ;p (besides, I myself quite like it, kkk) And I promise the next one is going to be more fun (with definitely more Sungmin in it) :D

~love, cold, wet and tired puppysauruss ''^-^v