Family Longing
The Days of Caffeine and Candy Kisses
“I can’t believe they’re switching up the dance practices too!” Kikwang said incredulously as he dropped onto the floor and sprawled out.
Yoseob dropped down beside him, one hand reaching out to flop onto the other boy’s stomach and pat gently. “At least we’re still together!”
“Yeah, because having the two of you alternate between spazzing out and arguing like a married couple isn’t distracting at all.”
Yoseob glowered at Doojoon. “You’re just mad because I beat you in vocal.”
“It wasn’t a competition!”
Junhyung smirked as he took a sip of water from his bottle, watching the two glare at each other. He’d sat down in one of the chairs off to the side in the practice room when they’d been allowed a break. Their instructor was discussing something with a manager near the doorway, and as the hushed tones grew a little louder the young rapper turned to look. It didn’t sound pleasant.
“Yoseob, could you come here please?”
At the sound of his name, the hyper teen got to his feet. He nearly tripped over Kikwang when his friend stuck a leg up playfully to block him, but after a few moments of giggling and playful swatting and kicking, he managed to get past him and head for the door. He was still smiling when he reached the two adults. “Yes sunbae nim?”
The instructor seemed hesitant to say anything, so the manager took charge. “You need to call home right now.”
“Eh?”
“Call home.”
Yoseob frowned as the manager left without saying anything else, looking confused. Was he supposed to make a delivery after he was done at the company? “O..kay..”
Doojoon found himself turning his head to watch his partner, eyes following Yoseob’s progress across the room. The normally hyper boy seemed confused as he pulled a phone from his backpack and made a call. Once Doojoon heard “umma”, he stopped paying attention, figuring it was just the usual family stuff everyone dealt with.
“What?!”
That got his attention. Doojoon snapped his head around, frowning at Yoseob’s back. Beside him, Kikwang was off the floor in a heartbeat, shoes squeaking on the floor in his haste to get to his friend. He put a hand on Yoseob’s shoulder and the taller boy leaned into the touch without hesitation.
“Is he okay?!” Yoseob asked, voice shaking as fear started to thread into it. He only waited a brief moment for an answer before he interrupted his mother. “I’m on my way. Right now.”
The second he hung up the phone, he shoved it into his pocket and started shoving things into his backpack, pulling zippers rapidly and fumbling to fasten his jacket buttons. He slung his bag over both shoulders and was halfway across the room before he realized that Kikwang had beat him to the door and stood waiting with his own backpack and jacket. “What are you-”
“Let’s go. If we hurry we can catch the next bus.”
The two friends were out the door before their instructor could say anything.
“Hope everything is okay,” Doojoon said quietly as he turned to look at Junhyung. He frowned. “What are you doing?”
Junhyung didn’t even look up as he laced his shoes back up, his backpack ready and waiting in the chair beside him. “Going to Yoseob’s. You coming?”
Their instructor watched in silence, completely forgotten as the remaining two boys grabbed their things and hurried out. When the two were far enough down the hall, he shut the practice room door and left. The boys hadn’t even been together for a day in their dance and vocal lessons, but it seemed they had a bond just the same. Interesting..
---
“You’re sure you’re okay?” Yoseob asked doubtfully as he watched his mother help ease his father down into a chair. By the time he and Kikwang had gotten to his family’s restaurant, everything had calmed down. His father had fallen while retrieving something in the storeroom, and several boxes had landed on him in the process. Other than a sprained ankle and several nasty looking bruises on his chest and arms, though, he was in good condition. It still didn’t help Yoseob feel any better.
“I’m fine,” his father reassured him, amused exasperation starting to show in his tone. He smiled and patted his wife’s hand on his shoulder. “Calm down.”
Yoseob frowned, still unsure whether he wanted to really believe that or not. He didn’t say anything against it, though. Instead he turned his gaze onto the interior of the family’s business. It was after the dinner rush by this point, so at least he didn’t need to worry about his parents trying to hurry food out right after the fall.
“Kikwang, you didn’t need to come all the way out here with Yoseob. Shouldn’t you be at practice too?” Yoseob’s mother scolded the shorter boy gently, but even as she spoke she was ushering her son’s friend to a nearby seat. “Sit down and eat. You both must be starving! I’ll get something made up.”
Yoseob didn’t sit right away, caught up in watching his mother and father work in the kitchen. Even with a sprained ankle, his father was moving around, pulling down ingredients while his wife set up a stool for him to sit on. They moved with the ease of a happily married couple who had years together, some filled with the curve balls that life tossed out.
He felt a little of his tension ebb as his father tugged his mom down for a quick peck on the forehead. Those displays of affection had once embarrassed him, but with how often he was away from home as a trainee now, he found that he was starting to miss them.
The door at the front of the restaurant opened, and Yoseob a reflex he’d developed early in childhood. Being the son of the owners meant he was always listening for that door and expecting to be put to work any time.
He wasn’t expecting to see Yoon Doojoon standing there.
“Hey, you left so fast we got worried,” Junhyung explained in his deep voice. He edge his way into view from behind Doojoon and walked over to Yoseob, putting a hand on his shoulder. His eyes drifted to Kikwang sipping water at a table, then beyond, taking in his parents and the careful way Yoseob’s father moved around in the kitchen. “Is your Dad okay?”
Yoseob’s eyes jumped from Doojoon to Junhyung. “How did you know it was my Dad?”
Junhyung just smiled and shook his head, patting his shoulder once before he made his way over to Kikwang and sat down beside him. That left Yoseob to turn his attention back onto the tall boy standing near the door, hands shoved in his pockets as he looked uncertainly at Yoseob.
The silence between the two was uncomfortable. Yoseob stood there awkwardly until he couldn’t stand it any longer. “So you guys were worried?”
Doojoon looked startled but wound up nodding in confirmation. “Well, you took off so fast… It was more Junhyung than… I mean he knew where you and Kikwang…”
“Yoseob, who are these two young men?”
"Oh, sorry Mom. That's Yong Junhyung and this is Yoon Doojoon. They're trainees, too."
As his mother set a couple of bowls down in front of Kikwang and Junhyung, she smiled and got a good look at the two newcomers. She was used to seeing Kikwang, but these other two friends her son had brought in were completely new to her. Her gaze traveled over Junhyung’s smooth, slightly rounded features to the tall boy standing near the door. “Oh goodness, you’re a tall one! Yoseob, don’t make him stand there, invite him to sit!”
Yoseob laughed and rubbed the back of his head. “Oh, yeah! Sorry! Come sit down, Doojoonie!”
“It’s Doojoon.”
“Mhm…Okay,” Yoseob was already distracted. Thanks to his mother’s interruption, the awkward moment was already forgotten. He’d followed her into the kitchen and now floated back and forth between his parents, taking bowls and pots alternately. Occasionally his mother would pat his hand or cheek and say something that made him and his father laugh.
Doojoon wandered over to the two boys who were already seated and devouring food, sinking into a seat across from Junhyung. “So what happened? Why’d you two run off?”
Kikwang looked up at him, chopsticks picking through the meat piled on a plate between him and Junhyung. “Huh? Oh…” He his lips. “His dad fell in the back room. He’s okay, but when Yoseob’s mom called she was pretty freaked out.”
“No wonder he was so pale,” Junhyung mused as he dipped a piece of meat into a small sauce dish. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so serious.”
While the other two lapsed back into a comfortable silence and resumed eating, Doojoon kept his attention on the boy in the kitchen. It had worried him, truthfully. Junhyung had been right to claim that both of them had worried. As much as Yoseob could irritate him, that hyperactivity was endearing. It was probably what got him friends so easily. To see him so panicked had been… well, Doojoon wasn’t sure how he’d describe that, but he definitely hadn’t liked it.
Eventually Yoseob joined them at their table with food for himself and Doojoon, and his mother brought out more for all of them just in case. Kikwang promptly dug in, but Junhyung admitted a full stomach and after looking at the time, had bid them all goodnight. Kikwang was next, giving Yoseob’s mother a hug on his way out the door.
Finally, Doojoon stood up to go. He thanked Yoseob’s parents profusely for dinner, trying several times to offer what little money he had on him in payment. When he was at last shooed out the door by a laughing Mrs. Yang, he realized that it was quite some time after dusk. He sighed and pulled out his phone to check the time, glancing back through the windows of the restaurant absently. His gaze wound up drawn back again in seconds.
Yoseob had taken over in the kitchen, cleaning up while his parents closed out the register and cleaned all the tables. From the looks of it, Yoseob made quick work of washing the dishes and cleaning the floor. Before long it was his turn to be shooed out the front door with the promise that they’d be home before long and a nagging order from his mother to shower and get some rest. Yoseob was still laughing when she locked him out, but to Doojoon’s surprise, the teen didn’t leave right away.
For ten minutes the dark haired teen stood in front of the tiny restaurant’s front windows, staring in at his parents. His gaze was both loving and wistful at the same time, the tiniest of smiles curving his mouth at the corners. Several times, he looked as if he was getting ready to move, to walk away from the little place and let his parents have some time to themselves. Each time, he’d lift one foot, then shift back into his spot. He looked content to stay and soak up the sight of his parents, while also appearing torn and longing.
Doojoon had never seen him look so at peace, or so lonely.
Finally, Yoseob turned and walked away, head bowed pensively. Doojoon stood in the shadows near the restaurant until he could no longer see him, then turned himself in the direction of home.
Caffeine & Candy Kisses is essentially the prequel to WIB, but about Dooseob instead of Junseung. I've gotten a lot of questions about that..
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