Minho his bed one more time. It had passed three hours since he talked to Kibum on the phone and he still couldn’t sleep. The simple possibility of not being able to see him again made his heart ache. Minho tightened his grip around the sheets to will himself not to cry again. He had shed too many tears already and it was enough. Kibum promised him he was going to come back.

The hardest thing, till now, had been telling Jonghyun about what happened. His brother didn’t believe him at first but when he realized that what Minho was saying was true he started crying. Minho had to calm down the kids that were bewildered from seeing their uncle that way and send them to their room. When they were alone, Jonghyun threw himself at Minho and grabbed his shirt, balling his fists and cried on his chest.

He kept asking Minho questions, for which he had no answers. “Why did he leave?” or “Why didn’t he tell me?” were the ones he kept repeating and Minho could only rock him back and front on his arms until he was too tired to cry anymore and fell asleep. When Minho was sure that Jonghyun wouldn’t wake up, he pulled a few pillows he had on his couch and slipped them under his brother’s head, so that he could sleep more comfortably. He had returned to his room and that led him to the situation he was in.

Without a trace of sleep.

He sighed and his side only to hear the door to his bedroom being slowly opened. Minho squinted his eyes but then he gave up and switched on the lap he had on his bedside table, which gave enough light for him to recognize his daughter.

“Soo Jin?” He called and she ran to his bed, crawling on top of him. “What’s wrong, princess?”

“Why are you crying? Why was Jongie crying too?”

Minho ran his fingers through her hair and heard her sigh. “Baby, there’s something I need to tell you. I was going to wait until morning but I guess I can tell you now.” He kissed her forehead. “You know how Kibum wasn’t from this planet, right? Well, now he had to return home.”

“But he’ll come back, won’t he? He has to!” She exclaimed, getting on her knees. “He has to, right, appa?”

“I wish I could be sure that he’s coming back.” Minho sighed, pulling her into his arms again. “But he promised me he would try. Try until he find a way to get back to us. We just have to be patient.”

“Then we’ll wait.” She said, still pressed against his chest. “We’ll wait, appa, and then he can come live with us. I want him to be our other appa.”

“I would like that too, princess.”

“I’m sure Kibum appa will like our idea, you know?”

Minho hummed in response and continued to comb her hair with his fingers and soon after the little girl was soundly asleep on his chest. He smiled, kissing the top of her head and pulled the covers to them, covering her until he could find a more comfortable position for the both of them.

He wished he could be like her and fall asleep easily like that but his mind didn’t stop to give him a rest until the first lights of day were appearing on the horizon. Minho let his head fall against the bed headboard and fell asleep that way just as the sun was rising.

However, he didn’t have much sleep, because early in the morning Minki appeared in his bedroom and climbed his bed until he was almost above him.

“Appa, wake up.” He whispered on his ear. “It’s late. Soo Jin is here sleeping with you, uncle Jongie doesn’t talk to me and I have nothing to do.”

Minho looked at the clock that was in the table next to the bed. “Minki, it’s 9am, it’s not late. Come here.” He said, moving to the side leaving some space for Minki to sit between him and Soo Jin. “Now try to sleep a little more.”

Minki did as he was told to but as soon as Minho closed his eyes again, his phone started to ring, which startled him and made him get up in a second.

“Hello?” He said, still trying to open his eyes.

“Hm, hello?” A voice answered. “It’s Taemin. From de café, you know…”

“Oh. Why are you calling? Anything happened?”

“No, well… I was wondering if we can meet, I wanted to talk to you about, hm-“

“Sure.” Minho interrupted, looking at his kids, both sleeping now. “I just need to find someone to stay with Soo Jin and Minki, I’m not sure if my brother can do it. I’ll ask him anyway.”

“Okay, I’m at the café right now… What about after lunch? Can you come here and then we go somewhere?”

“Yes, it sounds good. See you after lunch then.”

**

During lunch, Minho tried to convince Jonghyun to stay in the living room with the kids, telling him that he had something to do and that it was too late to find someone who could take care of them. It wasn’t easy to convince him since he wanted to stay locked in his room, alone and without anything to do. However, after a while, Soo Jin and Minki managed to persuade him and he accepted to stay in the couch, watching TV with them.

After that, Minho warned the kids to not bother their uncle and to behave while he wasn’t home, and walked towards the café to meet Taemin. He was already waiting for him and both of them decided to go to a quiet place to talk.

“So…” Taemin started, nervous. “You already know about what happened last night, right?”

“Yeah, I…. Yes, I know.”

“Did he call you?” For some reason, Taemin thought that it would be easier to talk without referring Kibum’s name.

“He did but we didn’t have much time to talk.” Minho was looking at the ground and his voice wasn’t more than a whisper. “Did you talk to him?”

“Yeah, before he called you, he called me. I think he was afraid to tell you but, at the same time, he was afraid that he didn’t had the time to talk to you.”

“Why did he call you? Sorry, I don’t want to be rude, but-”

“No, that’s okay, I understand. As you might know, I’m in love with him.” Taemin said, making Minho look at him, which made him continue to talk. “But you really don’t need to worry. I know how much he loves you and how happy he is with you and I wouldn’t dare to take that away from him.” He smiled a little, trying not to be uncomfortable. “You remember that day when you find out that we was a demon?” Minho nodded, encouraging him to continue. “At that time, he was already afraid of the day he had to leave. So I made him promise me that he would tell me when that day arrived. I didn’t want him to be alone when he left… That’s why he called me.”

“I didn’t know any of this.”

“I hope you know how special you were for him.” The younger said, noticing that the other was feeling bad. “I wish I could be in your place.”

“I feel the same about him, believe me.” Minho felt that he least he could do for Taemin was promising him that he loves Kibum as much as he loves him. At that moment, he felt sorry for Taemin, because he couldn’t even imagine how bad it would be to see Kibum with other person but him.

“I do.” Key’s friend said, followed by a silence that wasn’t as awkward as he imagined it could be. “He asked me to tell you something before hanging up.”

“What?”

“He wanted you to know that you and your children were the best thing that happened to him. He was very grateful because you taught him how to love and to care for other people. He kept begging me to tell you…”

“I appreciate what you’re doing and I’m really happy to know that but… Let’s not talk about this now. I’m sure he’s trying to comeback and, in less time than we expect, he’ll be back.”

“I hope so.” Taemin smiled, trying to believe his words. “I kind of miss him already.”

“Me too. And my brother is devastated. Jinki didn’t call him, I was the one who told him about everything and he’s not reacting well.”

“Anything you need… You, your brother or your children… Just tell me and I’ll see what can I do to help you.”

“Oh, thank you so much. You’re a great friend, Taemin.”

“I need to go back to the café now, I just wanted to tell you what Key asked me to. It’s not something you should tell on the phone, I think.”

Minho nodded and they walked in silence feeling grateful for having each other to talk. Taemin seemed to understand his feelings since he was in a similar situation.

Here's the new chapter! And sooner than any of us had thought, right? I just finished it and I wanted to post it right away since you had to wait so much last time. I hope you like it! The story is already reaching its end. More two or three chapters!

See you next time ^^,