“Why are you still reading that?”

Henry ignored his brother. Giving him attention would have shocked Soohyun more than the usual cold shoulder he regarded as Henry’s way to annoy him. Fixing the travelling pillow better, he closed his eyes and ignored Henry back.

Their flight to Seoul could be as boring as ever if not for them talking out their heavenly week, yet Henry suddenly switched to a state of absence. Glasses fixed over his nose and the same ending words made him breathless, still unsure whether he should return the book to Daniel or confront him about it.

Those last days, he had searched every library and bookstore for something similar, asked around for the author and feverishly tried to find any other copy available online.

There were none.

Whoever wrote the book was a ghost or printed it himself. As the nice lady from one of the bookstores explained, making a single copy could be pretty expensive since most publishing houses out there ordered in bulk for discounts. Unless the author knew someone in the industry or owned a perfectly functioning printing machine, it was impossible for him to order one copy without paying a lot and she couldn't understand why anybody would want that.

From the way it ended, Henry believed that person had gone through extreme lengths to produce a single book for a single person.

He touched the smooth page. Anger built up from every sentence his finger brushed over, tempting him to shred it to pieces.

Henry wasn’t brave enough to do it. Instead, he closed the book with shaking hands and stuffed it in is bag, wrapping his arms around it and sighing loudly. He leaned against the chair and stared outside the glass separating him from the white cotton candy like clouds.

“I want more…,” he confessed through the silence, making his brother flinch slightly and gaze half-asleep at the blond.

“More what?” Henry turned to face him, glasses still over his eyes as he tiredly smiled at the elder.

“More out of life.”

Soohyun struggled to take the pillow away only to hit Henry’s head.

“Why are you telling me? Stop talking, go and get it!” the blond grabbed the pillow from his brother and hit him back, grumbling about horrible manners and lack of brotherhood love.

“Sheesh, did you have to do that?”

---

Daniel thought he had another of those weird dreams in which a kaleidoscope of memories shattered and escaped in the real world, mixing what he knew with his rich imagination to create monsters.

From a distant land, on top of a floating island shrouded in a thick smoke, he could hear somebody calling out his name. The voice felt familiar in his ears, creating turbulences over the clear water he walked on, getting closer and closer to the island. At first, he stepped lightly, only to run until he coughed winded from the effort. Attempting a jump, he tried to crawl up the island. When he almost got there, he slipped.

He fell deep inside the ocean. Bubbles of oxygen left his mouth as he struggled to get back to the surface. Currents pushed him down every time.

“The happened here?”

He recognized the voice filtered through the water. He recognized it well. With the newly discovered energy, he swam back, his legs pushing strongly against gravity. Just as his fingers were about to break through the wet barrier and touch the air outside, everything turned black.

Minutes later, Daniel’s eyelids flickered and allowed his eyes to focus on the living room’s ceiling. He got up from the sofa, almost stumbled over the coffee table and followed the noises from the tiny hallway. His image consisted only of shapes and colors as he ventured further and hit his forehead against Henry’s back.

He loosely hugged him, taking in the strong scent of freshly picked flowers.

“Hey,” the other turned around and pushed him against the wall. Lips touched lightly before Henry greeted him back.

“Did you paint the bathroom door?” came his first concern, oblivious to the fact that his lover barely got out of dreamland just to welcome Henry back.

“Errr,” the brunet could barely see any of Henry’s features, still in the middle of adjusting to the sudden wakeup call “it’s a really long story.”

“You know I love you, right?” he blurted out, forcefully kissing Daniel’s lips “You know I’ll do anything for you, right?”

The brunet closed his eyes, trying hard not to grin like a fool through every touch.

“Yes, yes~” the puppy Henry he adored came back when he needed him most, so he believed his words to be true.

He tried for the second time to see the blond.

Only it wasn’t him.

It wasn’t Henry.

Daniel punched the stranger off him. The home they shared transformed in the same underwater environment, the stranger tugging at his clothes and limbs, forcing him deeper where sunrays couldn’t reach them. He opened his mouth to scream, only more oxygen leaving his lungs.

The stranger became a shadow creature, engulfing Daniel and telling him his name.

That was all he could hear – his name.

---

The blanket he went to sleep with ended up on Dongwoo. From the way he battled the nightmare with his entire body, it was a miracle he didn’t roll off the sofa and crush his brother. Disoriented, his throat told him to get a drink from the kitchen. Letting the water run, he took a big gulp directly from the tap, Daniel wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist, hearing the front door unlock and the lights from the front turning on.

Daniel hurried to check the sound, sure he was back where he belonged and not in the creature's lair. His heart raced once more when he saw the blond take his shoes off and lift his eyes to meet Daniel’s.

Despite the cold floor under his bare feet, he didn’t stop until he was sure the one he hugged was indeed Henry. From the way his arms remained in the air and a surprised laughter filled the entire house, Daniel knew it was him.

“I’m back~~~” Henry cupped Daniel’s head and left a long kiss over his forehead. His thumbs caressed his cheeks, leaning in for another kiss.

Not speaking, Daniel fumbled with Henry’s belt, dragging him away from the entrance and inside the dark kitchen. His waist hit the bar, touching everything around until he found one of the bar stools and hopped on it. His legs locked Henry close to him, breathing harder and harder through each kiss.

“It’s really you, right?” he mustered over Henry’s neck, feeling the blond breathe over his shoulder.

“Yeah, who else?” the answer came absentmindedly. Henry returned to Daniel’s lips, pampering them with every occasion. He found himself on the verge of giggling from the way Daniel tickled him while working with his shirt. Eyes shut tight and his mouth trailing down from Daniel’s chin to his throat and over his chest, the only one noticing the lights suddenly was the slight whimpering brunet.

He smacked Henry over the head, earning him a low groan and sharp glares. He blinked, blinded for a split second. He was sure none of them could have turned the lights on.

Daniel smacked him again, pointing like a madman behind him.

Finally, the blond did as instructed, gaping at the wide-eyed man in front of them.

“No…,” Dongwoo covered his eyes with one hand, waving the other in desperation. “I haven’t seen a thing, absolutely not.” He peeked between fingers, still not sure if he had fully woken up or not. Finally, he dared watch them in all their glory, Daniel at his lower lip in shame and Henry having the most comedic expression he had ever witnessed since birth. “Do I need to know?”

---

Two hours and three big ramyun cups later, Dongwoo avoided both while slurping on his last noodles.

After years, Daniel finally came clean and told his brother about his preference in men. It took Dongwoo five minutes to close back his mouth and speak coherently again. It took him five more minutes to stop crying, blaming himself for everything. Both Henry and Daniel had no idea what he talked about, continuously patting his back and trying to comfort the big baby. They then had to wait ten minutes until Dongwoo rambled on and on about all the moments Daniel had seen him or when they shared beds and cuddled together and even when they held hands in public. They had done many other things no normal boys should do, attached to one another in every possible way.

After that, he screamed about the kiss and apologized again.

Henry stared long at Daniel who slapped his brother back to his senses, saying it meant nothing. Either way, Henry let the two argue some more while he prepared them some ramyun, starving from the long flight and a good occasion to collect his thoughts. He couldn’t be jealous. It was something innocent, right?

So why was he boiling harder than the water used to prepare their meal?

Back at the table, each almost done, Henry was still fuming and sending nasty looks at the melancholic Dongwoo.

“You two are related, right?” he questioned, rudely pointing his chopsticks from one brother to the other.

“Actually,” Daniel placed his own pair on the table “we’re not sure anymore. We’ll need a DNA test, but it’s expensive.”

“I’ll pay for it,” Henry puffed proudly his chest, revealing his perfect row of white teeth and thinking it was the only way he could sleep from then on.

“Like a poor musician could pay for it…” Dongwoo mumbled with his face inside the cup, sipping the last bit of the soup.

He never sent him the bank account because he could never believe the one that took his brother’s heart happened to be loaded. Instead, he waited to have a one on one talk. Given the situation, it was impossible at that point without later complaining at Daniel about his poor choices in men.

Then again, it wasn’t his place to speak about it. After all, he did have many short relationships with insane women, calmer but not as normal as they pretended to be women and the various hues of perky s he only wanted to touch once in a while, despite the girls’ horrible personalities.

He had a poor judgment when it came to letting people stay by his side. He was glad the only one he never was wrong about had been Daniel with his then constant pouting.

Then it suddenly hit him - how many relationships has Daniel had since they've known each other?

Dongwoo entered a trance, staring blankly at the wall.

“By the way,” Daniel suddenly scooted closer to Henry and placed his chin over Henry's shoulder, battling his eyelashes in an attempt to seem irresistibly adorable “…we kind of broke the bathroom door.”

“What…?”

Dongwoo snapped out of catatonic state and launched himself over the coffee table. He separated the two, their attics too much of a dreadful sight.

“Get a ing room!” 

Quick update~ thank you for reading ^^