Chapter eighteen - "Never let go."

"Jaejoongie?"

"Hmm."

The pretty boy was watching the courtyard of their school without really paying attention to all the children who were running and chatting happily in front of his eyes. Jaejoongie was a bit sad, because he couldn't be with his Yunnie at the afternoon recess. The older boy had to get some books with Yoochun at the demand of their teacher. And he had to make a trip to their school library for a while. However, the two boys were able to do butterfly kisses before Yunho had to run with Yoochun to do their assignment. And since then, the younger boy was sulking in his corner with Junsu accompanying him.

"You're quiet." The chubby boy said quietly while looking at his chocolate bread made by his Heechul appa this morning.

Jaejoongie turned his eyes to look at Junsu. And the little boy sighed. "Yunnie is not here with me..."

"I know. He has something to do. You can't help it." Junsu said, holding the half of his bread out to the other boy, who shook his head slightly while saying he wasn't hungry. "My Heechul appa is good when it comes to baking and cooking. You don't know what you miss." The chubby boy added with a smile. "He works as a cook. But he wants to open his own shop. He says he prefers cakes and breads better."

"Another time." Jaejoongie said quietly while pouting the absence of his matched partner.

Since his mama was hospitalized, his papa didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to him. His papa had to be at his mama's bedside while looking after baby Taemin. The little boy of ten had his grandparents who were always there for him. But, the person he needed the most for the time being was his Receiver. And now, he missed his Yunnie a lot. He wanted to curl in the arms of the older boy for comfort.

"Did you give the plushy car you buy for your little brother?"

The other day at the mall, Jaejoongie was in dilemma while choosing a stuffed toy for his baby brother. He was looking for a plushy bear but his eyes had caught a plushy red car. He found it so lovely that he wanted it for his baby Taemin. However, he couldn't let go of the plushy bear. Because his Yunnie had said that baby Taemin would love it.

Finally, he bought the plushy red car, because his Yunnie had said that what Jaejoong liked his baby brother would like it too.

"I gave it to papa. But papa said that baby Taemin will not have it yet. Because he is in an incubator for awhile. He is too small and the toy will make him sick if he didn't gain a lot of strength."

"He will love it."

"Was it better if I chose the plushy bear?" Jaejoongie asked, tilting his head a bit on his left with a frown on his face.

"I don't think so." Changmin said suddenly. The taller boy was sitting in the wooden bench with the two of them since the beginning. He was reading a book while listening to their conversation. "Your baby brother is a bit fragile and no matter what you give him he will still be sick. The environment around us is dangerous for him. That's why doctors had put him in an incubator to help him gain his strength before letting him go."

"Are you sure? Yunnie said that you aren't really smart." The pretty boy said turning his eyes toward his friend.

"Yunho is a stupid boy." Changmin replied a bit offended.

"Hey! My Yunnie is smarter than you!" Jaejoongie felt offended with a pout on his lips and crossed his arms over his chest. "He knows a lot of things than you. I will not talk to you. And you are just a giraffe." The pretty pouty boy added wanting to have the last word.

Changmin rolled up his eyes. He knew better that he shouldn't have said bad things about Jaejoongie's matched partner if he didn't want this pretty boy sulking at him for a few days and made his Receiver angry.

"Okay! I'm stupid than your Yunnie but smarter than that big forehead. You feel better?"

Jaejoongie nodded. And Junsu giggled at the two friends' squabble.

"Don't laugh!" Jaejoong and Changmin said in unison while turning their eyes to the other boy. And Junsu could only burst into laughter at their sulking face.

Changmin stomped away from the wooden bench and was walking toward his matched partner Min-Min who was playing with Junsu's matched partner.

"I go find Yunnie." A sulking Jaejoongie said, standing up from the bench in turn and walked away from his new friend.

"Wait! I go with you." Junsu ran to the other boy. "Sorry if I offended you. But I like being with all of you." The boy added quietly. "In my former school, no one wanted to be friend with me. Because I have two men as my appas."

"They are idiots." Jaejoongie forgot his sulking mood and returned to befriend with the other boy.

"I think that too. I'm not better than them. But I'm a good boy to be friend with." Junsu said with a smile.

"I confirm."

"Can I ask you something?"

Jaejoongie nodded while entering the school building. He looked at his left and at his right with a frown. And Junsu knew that the boy was trying to remember the way to the school library. Since he knew Kim Jaejoong, the boy wasn't really good with the sense of direction. It was always his matched partner or others who made sure that the boy followed them wherever they were.

"We have to go there." Junsu said, pointing his finger at their right.

"Oh... You're right!" And Jaejoongie walked to the direction Junsu had pointed with the other boy next to him. "What did you want to ask?"

"Well... You like your matched partner a lot, right?"

"I don't like him."

Junsu was a bit surprised by Jaejoong's answer. How could the other boy behave so lovely with his Receiver if he didn't like him a bit?

"But I love him a lot." Jaejoongie added with a smile painting on his pretty face. "People don't think good about us being matched partners because we are two boys. But I will never change my Yunnie for another matched partner. Never." The boy nodded with confidence.

Jaejoong was conscious of what life had given him in the person of his matched partner. The boy had thought a lot since he witnessed his papa's distress those last days with his mama being hospitalized for her bad condition after giving birth to his baby brother. And, he didn't want to lose his Receiver one day because of other people's opinion. He was a boy so he didn't care. His Yunnie was a mixed blood so he didn't care. Because, he had someone who will always love him and never leave him.

At his friend's words, Junsu nodded with a smile on his chubby face. He wasn't wrong to think that those two boys were good together. The love he felt when he saw the boy Jung Yunho looking at the other boy was the same Jaejoong had for him when Junsu looked at the boy at this moment.

And he felt pity toward his Heechul appa and Hangeng appa not knowing this blissful feeling to have purely someone who would be their strength as their happiness in the person of their matched partner. Even if, the other was another man. Where his appas were lacking that those two boys had?

"There!" Junsu added taking Jaejoong's hand to mount the stairs in their left. "You aren't good with direction." The boy laughed softly.

"No! Yunnie says that I mustn't go anywhere without him or one of our friends." Jaejoong stated while going up on the stairs. "Min-Min is always with me. "

The two boys got up at the right floor and walked toward the school library while chatting happily. But in their way, on the corner of the corridor, they were stopped by a group of boys with Jang Geun-Suk heading them.

"Well! Well! What we have here?" The boy said with a not so good smile on his lips. "Two girly boys holding their hands happily."

"What do you want?" Junsu asked, stepping in front of Jaejoong. The boy knew about the Jang Geun-Suk boy who always bully his friend. Changmin was the one who had told him about Jaejoong's hair incident a month ago.

"Oh! The girly new boy has the gut to talk back." Geun-Suk laughed, and his friends followed his every move. "You don't know what I can do to you! I cut his hair once. I can do it to you too." He said, yanking a lock of the chubby boy making the latter wince.

"You're really an evil." Jaejoongie said, pulling the hand of the bully boy from his friend's hair.

And the boy laughed again.

"You know." Junsu added quietly. "You're anger toward Jaejoong is not sane. You're jealous of Yunho hyung only because you want to be in his place. To be Jaejoongie's matched partner."

"Don't joke! Who wants to have that girly boy as his matched partner?" The Geun-Suk boy shouted. "That monster is nothing compared to me. He doesn't have his place in our country. We must kill him. Or better making him a show in the zoo."

Jaejoong didn't like it. The last time that Jang Geun-Suk had mocked his matched partner and called him the monster's bride. Now he insulted his Yunnie and wanted to kill him, or made him a show for people to point at him.

"My matched partner is not a monster for people to say bad things or kill him. He is better than you. You're a little brat who can't do anything without your papa. You're a shame for your papa who is someone people look up for having an important job in our country." Jaejoong said angrily, stepping in front of Junsu wanting to protect the other boy.

"How dare you call me brat girly boy?!" Geun-Suk yelled.

"You call my matched partner monster. I can call you brat! Here brat! Brat! Brat!" Jaejoong shouted out loud the surname he gave to the bully boy, not fearing him anymore. He wasn't a weak boy. He would stand for his matched partner. His Yunnie.

The bully boy saw red and seized Jaejoong by his collar. He dragged the pretty boy into an empty room, then shoved him against a bookcase, making Jaejoong wince at the pain on his back.

"Don't!" Junsu shouted following them in the room. He was horrified at what the other boy would do to his friend. "You are really a stupid brat!" The chubby boy went to help his friend to stand up.

"Shut up!" the Geun-Suk boy screamed at Junsu and pointed his finger toward those two boys who were glaring at him. "You don't know what I can do to you!"

"You don't know what my Yunnie will do to you." Jaejoongie shouted back. "You all call him monster. You will know what a monster can do. And I won't stop him. I will let him give you a good beating."

"That monster? What will he do to me?" He took out a little swiss-army-knife from the pocket of his trouser with a sadistic smile on his face. "What can he do against this?"

"You're insane." Junsu stood in front of Jaejoong. "Why are you like that? Have you a good reason to hate Jung Yunho and bully his matched partner?"

"I don't have any reason to hate them. They are what our society can't stand to have. They are an abomination."

"Geun-Suk... I think you go too far." One of his friend said. "We were okay to bully them. But not like that. You want to hurt him badly."

"Shut up! I'm the son of the Prime Minister and no one must go against me. Not even that girly boy and his monster of matched partner."

"Last time was a bit too much... But this time... you go too far." Another one of his friends added with a panicking voice.

"Chicken! If you don't have the guts to be here and watch a good show go away!" The bully boy yelled and took Junsu by his collar, then yanked the boy away.

"You're insane." Junsu said, landing in the arms of one of the Jang Geun-Suk boy who was holding him while shaking his head from left to right, saying that it was no used for them to convince the other boy, because he would never listen to them.

"Your monster of matched partner will find you disgusting with scars on your pretty face." The son of the Prime Minister said, walking toward the pretty boy pointing the blade of his knife to the boy.

"You call my Receiver monster. But the monster is you." Jaejoongie said, stepping back and bumped his back into the bookcase behind him. "And my Yunnie will never find me disgusting. With scars or not." The pretty boy said confidently.

"Jaejoong... don't make him more angry than he is..." Junsu tried to go to his friend, but the boy behind him was pulling him back, not wanting him to be another victim of his friend.

"Yeah don't make me angry than I am now!" The Geun Suk boy said with a odd smile, grabbing the collar of Jaejoong and putting the blade on his cheek.

"No!" Junsu screamed.

When the bully boy was nearly scratching the pale skin of the pretty boy's cheek someone had gripped his wrist and pushed him away from the one he was bullying. And he received a kick on his stomach which made him fall on the floor, losing the knife in his fall and bumping his head on the foot of the desk at his right.

"I did say to never go near my Jaejoongie!" shouted an angry Yunho who had run to his matched partner when one of the friends of that Jang Geun-Suk went to inform him about that boy cornering his Jaejoongie in a room, adding that the boy intended to hurt badly his matched partner. "You really want to die." He added, kicking the boy over and over again.

"Damn! Monster!"

The bully boy stood up and jumped on the other boy, trashing his fists toward Jaejoong's Receiver. While Yunho dodged all the blows the best he could. And he returned the bully boy's every punch by a punch, letting no respite to the Jang Geun-Suk boy.

"I will kill you for trying to hurt my Jaejoongie." Yunho said angrily, pinning the other boy to the ground.

"It's me who will kill you." The Geun-Suk boy gritted angrily through his teeth and tried to yank away the boy who was punching him hard on the right side of his chest. "Argh!!" He yelled, pulling Yunho away by a kick on his stomach desperately. The bully boy grabbed the knife which was not far away from him in his misery and ran to the pretty boy.

"Jaejoongie!" Yoochun who was there since the beginning screamed when he saw Geun-Suk going to Yunho's Supplier.

"No!" Junsu tried to protect his friend by holding him in his arms while Jaejoong shriveled on the floor with his eyes shut tightly, waiting to feel the pain of the knife on him.

But what happened after was not expected by anyone in the room, and not even by the bully boy himself who in his anger didn't think much about his own acts. They all saw blood dropping on the floor and a horrid scream was heard from the poor pretty boy who was panicking to see his matched partner hurt so badly.

Yunho had run to prevent the other boy to hurt his Jaejoongie and ended up getting the on his face. There was a long cut under his left eye and blood was flowing profusely from the scratch. But it wasn't something that would stop him to kick and punch the other boy.

"Nooo! Yunnie!" Jaejoongie screamed, wanting to go to his matched partner who was bleeding by the cut the other boy had done to him on his face, but Yoochun and Junsu prevented him to go to Yunho when the latter was bludgeoned the Geun-Suk boy to death with all the strength he had.

"Jaejoongie no." Yoochun held the crying pretty boy in his arms.

"But... Yunnie... my Yunnie... blood... hurt..." Jaejoongie sobbed, seeing his Receiver punching the other boy tirelessly with his left eye closed and filled with blood.

"I said don't go near my Jaejoongie." Yunho hissed, not caring about the pain from the cut under his left eye. He didn't even care about the blood on the left side of his face. Kicking and punching the other boy wasn't enough. What the eleven years old boy wanted right now was to kill that boy who in his cowardice, knowing he would never win against him, had tried to stab his Supplier.

"Argh... Stop..." The Jang Geun-Suk boy screamed his pain and tried to protect his face from the other boy's punches with his arms.

Some of the Geun-Suk boy's friends got scared when the boy they called monster had gripped the knife and lifted it to hurt the boy underneath him. One of them left the room to call the teachers, while Yoochun ran to his friend, preventing him to do something he would regret later.

"Yunho! Don't!" Yoochun wrapped his arms around his friend and try to pry him away from the poor injured boy.

"He wanted to hurt my Jaejoongie!" Yunho shouted angrily, struggling to free from his friend's arms. "How dare he wants to cut my Joongie?!"

"Yunho! He isn't worth it. You should never be the bad one in this story. But if you wound him with that knife, you let everyone the right to see you as a real monster." Yoochun pushed his friend away from the wailing boy on the floor.

"He is the monster not me!" Yunho shouted back and slid away from the hands of his friend. He could not let the other boy go without him paying for all the pain he had done to his matched partner.

"Yunho! No!"

But, Yunho was pulling away from the Prime Minister's son by a teacher who tried to contain the boy from going to hurt the other boy with another teacher's help, making the boy drop the knife he was holding. And two other teachers were looking after the crying bully boy who was lying on the floor, broken by all the blows he had received from the boy that everyone in their school called monster. While Yoochun was feeling relieved that someone had stopped his hurting friend by doing something inevitable. The boy looked up at Jaejoong who was a crying mess in the arms of Junsu. The latter wasn't better than the pretty boy.

"Yu...Yunnie." A crying Jaejoongie had succeeded to escape from Junsu's arms and ran to his matched partner. He held Yunho tight in his arms. "Yunnie... Yunnie..." He said between two sobs. The pretty boy burst into tears seeing his matched partner's left face filled with blood.

"I'm okay Joongie." Yunho murmured, still having his left eye closed.

The younger boy lifted his hand to his matched partner's face, but stopped his movement fearing to aggravate the wound under his Yunnie's left eye.

"I'm okay baby Joongie." Yunho whispered into his Jaejoongie's ear. But the latter didn't stop shedding tears for the other boy, making his self choke on his tears and everyone thought the little boy was going to have a panic attack. "Don't cry. Don't cry." He added slowly, pressing his lips on his Supplier's lips again and again. His way to comfort his little matched partner.

Jaejoongie wailed at the way his Receiver looked at him with a smile on his lips and his left eye closed because of the pain causing by the cut under his eye.

"Everything will be alright." The teacher near them said, trying to soothe the younger boy's pain by rubbing small circles on the back of the boy. The man looked at the other injured boy and shook his head, knowing that the boy lying on the floor was the one at fault.

Everyone knew who was at fault. But, due to his status, they could not do anything against the boy. And all the teachers were feeling helpless at the view of this scene.

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Yesterday night, Na-Young had stopped breathing for a while, making Won-Bin's heart stop beating the same amount of time and seeing his life collapsing under his feet at the thought of losing his wife at that moment.

The man was looking haggard and his eyes were fixed on his wife, who now was sleeping soundly on her hospital bed with all those machines connected to her, indicating that her heart was still working and an oxygen mask which provided her the air she needed.  

But for how long.

"We're sorry Mr. Kim. We had succeeded to make her come to live. However, your wife had stopped breathing a bit too long. Her body was deprived of air for so long that we don't know in which state she