Chapter seventeen - "Struggle."

Yunho was watching his matched partner who was chatting with his new friend, Kim Junsu and their other friends a few steps from him. The boy felt a bit lonely, but to see a smile on his Supplier's face was better to have him pouting sadly all days. It was not something bad either to have a pouting Jaejoongie flanking at his side. However, the boy of eleven preferred to see his little partner with a smile and behaving like he was before that incident with that Jang Geun-Suk boy.  

Their altercation a month ago had ended up with a status quo. None of them was expelled from the school. Thank to Yoochun's grandfather who had spoken up for the wellbeing of his grandson to finish elementary school with all his friends at his sides. As for the Jang Geun-Suk boy, being the son of the Prime Minister was a good asset for the child to pass through all the blames of his acts.

It was unfair, but it was life.

And now, Yunho was thankful that the others were distracting Jaejoong from his worry for his mama who, after giving birth to her second child, had to stay under observation for a while. Her physical condition wasn't good and wasn't bad either. But there was a risk that his Jaejoongie lost his mother.

The boy of eleven had heard his parents talking about the difficulty to have a second child for every woman in their country. That was the reason his mother never wanted another child, fearing to face the worst. And Jung Ji-Sub never forced her to give him an heir for the Jung family. The man was satisfied with having only Yunho as his child.

"Aaah! Cold!" Yoochun said suddenly when a cold breeze blew on the little group. "You feel lonely." The boy looked at his friend who was sitting at his right.

Yunho turned his eyes to look at Yoochun who was grinning at him like always. "No."

"Don't lie. You would love to have a clinging Jaejoongie sitting next to you than to have him flit around from flower to flower."

The young boy sighed with desperation at his best friend's language. How could an eleven years old boy have this rich vocabulary? His grandfather. Yoochun really looked like an old man with his manners and all.

"You are really old for an eleven years old boy." Changmin said suddenly looking up from his book. The younger boy was trying to hold his book with his gloved hands.

Yoochun sighed and looked at his little friend in age not in height. "You don't know what life has in store for us in the near future. So, being mature is what a human being could have for good to stand against life itself."

"And what will happen in your life if not to have everything?" Changmin asked, narrowing his eyes while looking at his older friend.

"Well..." Yoochun said, jutting his lips and tapping the tip of his forefinger on its. "...it will help me to deal with Gyu-Ri. She's a wild girl, you know." He added in a low voice, not wanting his Receiver  to hear him.

"If she knows how you describe her, noona will kill you." The younger boys shook his head.

"She can't. She needs me the most in her life." Yoochun grinned referring at their tie, making Changmin roll up his eyes and Yunho shake his head slightly.

The three boys returned to their occupation with Yoochun who always had something to say every now and then, with his status of an aristocrat boy. The boy was strange for their classmates with his adult language that only Yunho could tolerate since they knew each other.

As for Changmin, he could care less about Yoochun's strange demeanor as long as his Supplier, Min-Jeong felt the need to have him as a friend among her circle of friends.

Charity...

Changmin nodded and laughed softly at the word which described his tolerance to the other boy, making Yoochun furrow his brows and Yunho shake his head again from right to left thinking that all his friends were strange.

"What are you thinking Idiot Stick?"

"Now I'm not a giraffe anymore but an Idiot Stick. Don't call me with that name BIG FOREHEAD." The younger boy stressed the two last words.

"It's you who call yourself Idiot Stick!"

"You..." Changmin hissed while Yoochun stuck out his tongue. "Don't want to talk with you. And why must we sit on the cold grass by this cold weather? I want to stay in the school building. I want to stay in a warm place." He complained.

"Because it's recess stupid boy." Yoochun said, curling up in his duffle-coat at another cool breeze. "And too bad! I like to have some conversation with you. You are funny to talk with and you have some neurons that no other than Yunho has in this school."

"I must be grateful for you to take your time to have a conversation with a commoner like me my Prince." Changmin said sarcastically, fixing his beanie on his head.

"You're right! You must be grateful for me being friend with you." Yoochun grinned from ear to ear.

"Want me to do reverence too?"

"I would like it my beloved servant!"

"You see this?" Changmin asked, showing his gloved fist.

"Coward!" Yoochun said standing up from the grass, and ran away to secure his cute little from Changmin's outburst.

Yunho was watching his two friends with a smile. Yoochun was tempting Changmin with everything he could find to say to the younger boy, while the latter was running after the older boy cursing and kicking him from time to time.

Meanwhile, Jaejoongie was relating the night of his little brother's birth which came as a surprise two days ago. Because the little girl they all expected since the beginning of his mama's pregnancy turned to be a little boy that his parents let him name Taemin.

"Mama was screaming like papa was doing bad things to her." Jaejoongie said while moving his hands frantically. "She cried like this... It hurt! It hurt like hell. Won-Bin... do something... It hurts like hell..." The little boy was mimicking his mother with every intake of air she also did, while Junsu and his Supplier were nodding with Min-Min and Gyu-Ri, finding it was the best they could do for distracting the other boy from thinking too much about his mother's condition. "And papa was like... Darling everything will be alright... We need to go to the hospital." He played his father very well, with a panic face. "And suddenly... mama said the water broke!" Jaejoongie said it with a grimace, while Yunho was smiling at his matched partner with an adoring smile on his lips.  

It seemed that his Joongie was trying to relate everything even what were his parents like that night. Yunho was there that night, and he had felt that something wasn't right when the baby had decided to come into their lives.

"And papa panicked again. He ran everywhere in our house shouting Oh god! Oh god! The baby's due is planned in two months not now until grandpa threw a cushion on his head and said Call the hospital! You're a buffoon! How did you manage the arrival of Joongie?" The little boy of ten said with a big and hoarse voice. "But pappy said not long after We were there to help him too!" Jaejoongie was shaking his head from left to right mimicking his pappy Hyun-Jun while crossing his arms over his chest. "After that we were in an ambulance driving to the hospital. And at the hospital, doctors and nurses were running in our direction and took mama away with papa next to her."

Jaejoongie stepped down and sit on the laps of his Yunnie, curling into his Receiver's arms. The little boy wasn't stupid. He knew that everyone was trying to distract him from his mother's bad condition. Since she was admitted into the hospital two days ago, he saw her only once. They only let him see his baby brother through the window of the nursery. Baby Taemin was put in an incubator for his own good, because the baby was born two months prematurely.

"We were all waiting in the waiting room with Yunnie and his papa and mama. It was long. Veeeryyy loooong. I thing I fell asleep in my Yunnie's arms." Jaejoong said throwing his hands in the air like he was upset from the long wait. And Yunho nodded while holding his Supplier tight in his arms by his waist. "A doctor with a nurse said that I have a baby brother not a baby girl."

"You're okay with a baby brother?" Junsu asked, tilting his head on his right.

"I'm okay with a baby boy. But mama isn't well. She has to stay at the hospital for a long time..." Jaejoongie added sadly, clutching his matched partner's coat.

"Your mama will be alright." Gyu-Ri said quietly with a smile.

"Yeah! She will be fine." Min-Jeong added, trying to adjust her wool scarf around her neck while sticking again Gyu-Ri for some warmth from the other girl.

The little boy nodded and turned to bury his face on his Yunnie's chest.

"Joongie. Don't worry. Your mama will come back with baby Taemin soon."

"I know." The little boy added, holding his matched partner tight in his arms. "Mama will be alright. Mama said that too. And Yunnie said that too. It's... It's just how can a doctor be wrong about the baby?" Jaejoongie replied with a pout, not wanting to worry his matched partner. Changing the topic was the best he could do for now. "Now, Joongie must go change the plushy doll I bought with Yunnie and papa for the baby." He threw his head back a bit with a plaint growl, letting his chin against his Receiver's chest. "Baby Taemin don't need a doll. He's a boy. What can I buy for him now? A car toy is too dangerous for him. He's too tiny to have a toy like that."

"A stuffed bear?" Junsu demanded quietly.

"Hmm... is he going to like it?" Jaejoongie asked his Reicever for his opinion.

"He will." Yunho answered with a smile.

"Okay! We can all go buy it after our classes end." Jaejoongie said with a smile, taking out his cell phone from the pocket of his wool reefer jacket and tried to find a specific number with Yunho's help. "Yunnie! It's cold!" He whined, slamming his teeth with exaggeration.

"I know." The older boy did the same as his matched partner, making the other giggling at his behavior. "It's recess. And even if we stay in the school building, teachers would want us to be here."

"I want Summer." But Jaejoongie shook his head seconds later and said, "..Summer is not good. Yunnie will be sick. And I don't want you to be sick."

"We can't help it." Yunho pressed his lips on his Joongie's forehead tenderly.

Jaejoongie sighed and pressed a few butterfly kisses on his Yunnie's lips for comfort.

"You... you want Junsu and I go with you too?" Junsu's matched partner, Hyo-Rim asked, surprised to see those two boys kissing in front of everyone. She had seen once Junsu's parents kissing for their Power transfer. But it was by inadvertence.

"Yes! Why?" Jaejoongie asked, turning to look at the new girl with a puzzled look.

"She's a bit surprised that you want us to go along with you while we just know each other for only a few days." Junsu answered quietly.

Hyo-Rim nodded at her Receiver's words. She found the other boy too friendly toward her and Junsu. The little girl made many friends in her class, but they didn't invite her to go somewhere or in their house for a play since Junsu and her had entered their new school. Her friends only talked to her in classes and sometimes in recesses. And when they knew that her matched partner's parents were two men, some of them had lost interest to have her as a friend. Some of them had even said bad words about her matched partner.

"Oh!" Jaejoongie nodded. "But we're friends and Yoochun had said that friends must stick together. And we have same trend cell phone." He showed his white devise with a smile.

"Jaejoongie is the most friendly child boy in this world." Yoochun said, laying on the grass after running a good mile with Changmin in tow. He was trying to catch his breath and threw his beanie and scarf toward his matched partner.

"Defeated?" Changmin asked, bending a bit while catching his breath.

"Time out!" Yoochun added.

"I win!"

"In your dream."

"Yooc