The blond cuddled with his beloved. Nuzzling his neck, still dressed in street clothes and with a cheeky grin, he lightly bit Daniel’s shoulder. He kissed the spot after, blowing hot air over his ear. Seeing the other not responding, he finally pulled him on his back and kissed his lips instead.

“Want to talk about it now?” he tugged at the glaring boy’s hair and placed another kiss.

Daniel shoved him off, dragged the blanket over his head, buried himself underneath it and showed Henry his back. He at his thumb, nibbling his nails, trying his best to ignore Henry. After he saw him act like a savage towards Dongwoo, the brunet almost burst in angry tears before he mumbled a few excuses, put the same fake smile on and brushed the incident as brotherly love. Only after Henry insisted with the whole ‘who is Sungyeol?’ during dinner had he bid them good night and retreated in their shared bedroom.

Henry on the other hand didn’t want to give up, at least, not when he had a vague idea of who Sungyeol could be. Armed with the book he carried all the way to Canada and the bracelet he foolishly stole, he snuggled with his lover and placed them both on the pillow. He then removed the blanket off Daniel’s head and breathed over his neck, his lips softly touching the area.

“Stop,” he heard Daniel murmur, unaware of Henry’s gifts. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he continued, struggling with the blanket, cursing Henry while furiously trying to hide from the world.

The back of his hands hit the mattress, Henry gripping at his wrists.

“We’ll talk tomorrow then,” he kept his composure, despite the fire inside of him burning incense of worry and jealousy, mixing in a smoke Henry inhaled each time Daniel acted weirdly around other men. “Or in two days, in one week, in one month…,” he nuzzled Daniel’s neck again, not wanting to let him go “I’ll wait a year if I have to, a decade or until we’re both in Heaven.”

“Stop acting like that,” the other became smaller in Henry’s arms, tempted to rattle a lie and call it his past. He was too insecure in his memories to tell Henry everything.

“I’m not acting in any way,” his heated breath burned his body “I’ll wait until you want to speak up. Until then, I got your book and bracelet back.”

Daniel’s eyelids shot up. In the same dim light, he saw said objects waiting for him. Henry slowly let go of his lover, vanished from his behind with each silent step outside the bedroom. The moment he closed the door, Daniel battled out of the blanket he so desperately clung to a few minutes before. The book and bracelet ended up at his chest, keeping them close to his heart.

In the darkness, he let his tears fall one last time and swore, swore to everything else he held as dear, not to cry like a fool anymore.

Henry watched him from the door as he placed an apple juice box on the floor.

---

“I’m not saying a thing,” Dongwoo couldn’t get Henry off his head. No matter how much he tried to avoid him, it was impossible that night and sleeping in his car wasn’t a viable option.

“Please~,” the blond used all techniques possible, from enlarging his eyes and hopefully turn in a cute pout rather than a shocked or confused expression. Dongwoo saw all of them as signs to move out already.

“Stop iiit!” he whined and blocked Henry’s face with one of his brother’s thick books. Henry shoved it away and battled his eyelashes. “Jesus Christ, please, just be an again! Stop doing that, I’ll throw up soon!”

“C’mon bro! Speak with me.”

“I am not your bro or hyung or whatever! Oh my God,” he covered his face again with the book, rejecting Henry’s existence in his perfect world. “You’re the guy my brother screws with, nothing more.”

“Hey!” Dongwoo lowered the book at the sudden annoyed tone. Henry was glaring at him, yet failed to look malicious. He was rather charismatic and if not for the blond hair that made him look older than his actual age, Dongwoo could have sword he was sixteen or less. “That’s an ugly way to put it. Have some more respect for our private life.”

“Exactly!” Dongwoo pointed excited at him, placing the book back on the leaning stack. “That’s why I won’t tell you a thing about Sungyeol.”

“What?”

“Respect Niel’s private life!”

Henry groaned as his frown deepened and crested his forehead. He had negative 100 chances of getting something out of Dongwoo.

“Could you at least answer me one question?”

Dongwoo, weary of Henry’s tricks, carefully nodded.

“Ask first, I’ll answer if I want.”

Henry rolled his eyes in exasperation, ruffling his locks.

“Okay, okay,” he agreed, his hand falling from his head to Dongwoo’s shoulder. The guy jumped slightly from the sudden touch, staring at Henry’s darkening gaze. Or maybe it was the light bulb dying on them. “Does he love him?”

“Who?”

“Does Niel still love this Sungyeol? Does this Sungyeol still love Niel? Does he ask of how Niel's doing?”

Dongwoo’s expression grew just as heavy when he replied in a whisper, leaving Henry empty until morning.

---

“Rise and shine!”

Daniel wanted to punch whoever said that. He wanted to punch that person in the wall and invite Junji Ito to write a short horror manga strip. Instead, he flapped his arms and tried to recover the blanket.

“I don’t want to!”

Henry pulled harder. Both stopped only when they heard something tear up. Carefully examining the blanket, they saw the rip and sighed loudly at the same time.

“Well…,”

“Sorry,”

“It’s okay, just,”

“Get up, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You can’t stay in this dark room your entire life.”

“Just try--- YAH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

Henry grabbed Daniel and shoved him up his shoulder.

“Oh God, you’re so heavy,” the blond whined as Daniel protested, slapping his back and almost kicking his lover in the face. He smacked Henry’s . Henry didn’t wince since he was proud of his fat . Daniel could try all he wanted, he wouldn’t let him go until they got inside the shower and scrubbed him well.

Dongwoo, still dazed from sleeping on the living room sofa, rushed to check the commotion.  He watched them from the hallway with his toothbrush in hand, foam around his mouth and a towel in his other hand. When Henry entered the bathroom with Daniel on his shoulder and slammed the door behind, he cried out “I WAS USING THAT!” before cursing the musician and heading to the kitchen sink.

---

“I’m moving,” Dongwoo solemnly announced while having breakfast with the two princes. Daniel had been hiding behind his food the entire hour while Henry was the proudest Dongwoo laid his eyes upon since birth.

In a way, he was thankful.

He was happy to see someone taking better care of Daniel

“Why?” Dongwoo saw the upset look in his brother’s eyes, yet couldn’t really give him an answer. He didn’t want to move out because of the two or even because of something Henry said. He kind of enjoyed their attics and playfulness, even if it tested his patience.

“I’m going home,” Daniel’s eyes lit up in an instant, jubilating from those three words.

“Are you serious?”

Dongwoo nodded, placing his chopsticks away. His brother jolted from his seat straight at Dongwoo’s body, strangling him with an abundance of joy. He laughed, hugging his brother tighter and tighter, before he wrapped his arm around his neck and ruined his perfectly styled hair.

“MAN, TOOK YOU LONG!”

Henry was glad to see them bickering. He was glad to see them annoy each other, glad to see them chuckle at their childish act, glad to see them sharing those precious moments together.

Most of all, he was glad to see Daniel living and breathing, he was glad to see him human again.

“Right, right, right,” he grabbed their bowls to wash, “Niel, get ready for school!”

Daniel let go of Dongwoo and stuck his tongue to Henry.

“Yes, mother dearest!”

---

Donghae woke up as usual. He took his daily walk with his mother, ate with his family before his brother had to rush to the hospital and watched his parents leave for work in the same car. Just as their vehicle turned the corner, Jinyoung appeared before him, bored and tired. He dropped his bag at the entrance, switched his boots for a pair of house shoes and barely dragged his feet to the kitchen.

“Who the heck drank my orange juice?”

Donghae mumbled something, picking an apple from the fruit basket.

“I drank it, problem?”

Jinyoung closed the fridge and took the apple from Donghae, washing it and peeling it. Donghae watched him work, curious mostly on why he was still visiting him.

“That kid,” he cut the apple in equal pieces, munching on one “do you like him?”

“What kid?” Donghae picked one piece too.

“That guy, the guy that’s with Henry,” Jinyoung grabbed another apple and repeated the process.

“Oh, chipmunk?”

“Yeah, whatever, do you like him?”

“As a friend, yes.”

“Why?” Donghae stopped eating the apple pieces. Jinyoung stared at the knife in his hand, no longer in the mood to cut the fruit. “I mean, why not more, why don't you make him yours? If you do that, maybe Henry will come back to me and…,” he put the knife and apple down “maybe then…”

“Why don’t you ing move on already?”

“Because you don’t understand!”

Donghae dropped the piece of apple and couldn’t help laugh. He suddenly became the most clueless man on the planet.

“I understand, Jinyoung, I understand better than any of you.” He watched the younger one play with the apple, spinning it around on the grey plate. “I understand you’re a ing idiot. You used him, what the heck did you expect?”

“I didn’t mean to---”

“There’s no such thing!” Jinyoung stopped playing, avoiding Donghae’s eyes. “You’re despicable. Why the heck have you done that?”

Jinyoung left the words sink in for one minute.

“But why him? Why that kid?”

Donghae changed chairs and got closer to his friend, patting his back.

“You messed it up. Someone had to clean after you.”

“How did you meet him anyway?”

Quick update~ 9 chapters to go.