When Jonghyun sneaked into his house that morning, he hoped that no one would catch him and held him there for longer than he had intended. He simply wanted to take a quick shower and changed into a fresh T-shirt and a pair of jeans before heading back to the hospital. Jinki had mentioned about not getting any more day-off from his office and his landlady would accompany Jongki in his place. That could not be happening! Jonghyun failed to understand why Jinki didn’t ask him for a favor. If it was for Jongki, he would skip work for as long as the child is hospitalized. For his case, working was merely a formality. He could opt to lay down on the bed all day if he wanted to. His mother spoiled him too much to force him to devote his youth on something that wasn’t his passion.

Just when he was ready to get back to where his car was, his mother and fiancée decided to walk out of his mother’s guest room and laid their eyes on him.

“Honey!” his fiancée threw herself on his arm and engulfed him in a tight hug. “Are you okay? I heard from mother that you got into a car accident and didn’t want anyone come to see you at the hospital. Do you know how much I worry about you?”

“As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.” Jonghyun really didn’t have time to do some sweet talk with his fiancée. “And mom, can I skip work until Jongki get discharged from hospital? Jinki hyung can’t be there for him because of his work, I don’t want to leave him alone.” Jonghyun added, now facing his mother with a pleading look that got his mother melted.

“Sure, you can baby. I see you get more attached to this child day by day. That makes me want to visit him someday, if it’s okay with him.”

“I can go with you! It’ll get boring to look after a kid alone.”

“I’m fine with myself, Junghee, and I don’t think Jongki will enjoy your company.” His answer obviously irritated the girl as she didn’t bother to hold her frown and was practically glaring at Jonghyun.

“Alright, if you can handle him on your own then I may have to spend my time on some other important thing –“

“Yeah, like meet up with your small socialite group and talk about some branded stuff to buy regardless how unnecessary it is.” Junghee’s face turned red as she tried to hold herself in front of Jonghyun’s mother. “Even though I’m so busy taking care of a child, I never forget your schedule every Thursday afternoon. After all, I get messages for all the things you buy with my card. You better get going now or you’ll be late.”

Junghee didn’t speak any words but smiled a little to Jonghyun’s mother as she excused herself. When Junghee was on a good distant from them, Jonghyun’s mother turned to face him with a stern look as if she warned him for what he had done.

“What? I’m just telling the truth.”

“More like you’re sending her away for your own good. When will you start to treat her right?” Jonghyun didn’t miss her mother dramatic sigh when she said that.

“You know I’m done with her. She’s still holding on to this couple game because you and dad support her. It’s up to you if you enjoy it but I’m not playing it anymore. It should be me asking you when you guys are going to accept that your son is no longer feel anything for that girl and let her go. What’s so good about her that you two hold onto her this tight?”

“Jonghyun, we aren’t arguing about this matter again, at least not now.” His mother lifted her hand and rubbed on her forehead. “Back to the child, Jinki’s child, how is he doing?”

“He’s getting better.” She noticed the sudden change on his son’s tone when they talked about Jongki. Jonghyun went on and on about how Jongki was a bright child that could bring a joy to the people around him and how Jonghyun was sure Jongki would be strong enough to go through the medication. She could see how Jonghyun had fallen for the child and it was making her happy and curious at the same time. It was rare to see his son so agitated on something. It made her wonder how endearing the kid was in reality. “I’ll tell you if he’s ready to meet you, okay? You can cook for him too! Or bring him some dolls because he likes them.” Jonghyun grinned as he finished his long lecture about Jongki.

“I’m happy that he is doing well and praying for his fast recovery. It must be unpleasant for a young child to be kept in a hospital room.”

“I think the same, Mom. That’s why I don’t want him to spend his time alone at our boring hospital room. I shall be going now. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

“Say hi for him and Jinki for me, will you?”

“Sure. I’ll also tell them you’re very concerned with Jongki’s health. See you later, Mom.” Jonghyun pressed a kiss on his mother cheek before walking out of the house. Talking with his mother was always eased his mind. His steps were light and his drive was smooth and he arrived at the hospital with an optimistic heart that everything would go well on his part.

Firstly, he was heading toward Dr. Kim’s room. He got someone to send him his file in case there was something he could use against the doctor if he refused to cooperate. He knocked at the door once before he was told to come in.

Kibum, who wasn’t expecting the visit, awkwardly greeted him with a polite bow and requested him to take a seat.

“I know you must be a little surprised to see me here. I can read it on your face.”

“I suppose you’re here for Jongki. I may be a doctor here but I advise you to see the doctor in charge of him for updates on his condition.”

“You’re almost right. Unfortunately, I’m not coming here to ask you about his health progress.” That made Kibum frown. “From the last time you visited him, I can tell you’re pretty close with Jongki and Jinki. I don’t know what’s there between you and Jinki so I’d appreciate it if you let me know.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand your meaning.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes when he heard that. “I want to know how long you’ve known them.”

“Why would you like to know that?”

“Because I want to.”

There was a slight pause before Jonghyun sat up right and glared to Kibum as he was getting impatient with this conversation. “Listen doc, Jinki was –“ he paused at his choice of word then continued, “he was my best friend at high school before he was gone in one damn morning with no words. Then we met again because I hit his child and wow, he has a child now! I’ve been trying to dig what happened to him these past four years but to no avail. And then there you came into picture. If I can’t get Jinki to spill everything out for me then you have to. Now if you’d be kind as in telling me what you know right this instant, I can go back to the lonely Jongki in his room sooner.”

The first thing Kibum did after Jonghyun had done was staring blankly at him and took a good 30 seconds before recovered from the shock.

“If you really want to know then you better ask the person himself. I’m not in the position to tell you anything as it is against my code of conduct as –“

“Think about code of conduct later when I cut off all the medical treatment for your brother. Maybe you can find a better hospital for him.” Jonghyun’s tone was sharp because he clearly didn’t enjoy it when the doctor played hard to get. That effectively silenced the young doctor in front of him. “Now I want to hear about Jinki and Jongki from you.”

“I met Jinki around four years ago,” Jonghyun smiled when Kibum started his storytelling. “Jongki hadn’t born yet at the time. I’ve been Jongki’s personal doctor ever since he was born. Before that, I was one of the doctors in charge for Jinki’s case. He was undergoing a special treatment here for about three months or so. We became friends during that moment.”

“He was our patient? Was he sick?” There was a glint of anxiety on his tone as he talked about it. He was wondering what kind of disease the older suffered that he had to go through a special treatment.

“I’m not sure how to explain this to you,” Kibum was hesitating for a moment, thinking of words that could be easily accepted by the man in front of him. “His case is a rare case, the first in our hospital. As you might have noticed, or maybe not, Jongki’s mother is nowhere to be seen.”

Jonghyun nodded in approval and he signaled to the doctor to continue.

“He has no mother. It was Jinki himself who bore him. I know male pregnancy is something the society labeled as abnormal. Some perhaps do not believe in such thing but it happened on Jinki. It’s a miracle yet a curse at the same time because it’s something that endangers both Jinki and Jongki. Fortunately, they survived. It was a hard and painful process for Jinki, though. He got hospitalized on the eighth month. Jongki was born premature and Jinki had to stay in the hospital for the next three months because of his unstable post-delivery condition. All of the treatment he received cost a lot and he didn’t have much money with him. We proposed to the hospital to take him at no cost as he could be our subject of research. In the end, we couldn’t win the deal but were able to get the hospital cut down a huge amount from the total payment he had to bear. However, it was still quite expensive for him so I offered him some helps by lending him some money. The worst part was that there was no one with him that time. No friends, no family, the only one who visited him from time to time was his neighbor and also the owner of the place he rent to live. You must have met her. If I’m not wrong she’s in Jongki’s room right now.”

Kibum couldn’t read the expression on Jonghyun face after telling him the truth about Jinki’s life. Kibum understood that this story would be too much to take for common people like Jonghyun. But he hoped that Jonghyun wouldn’t look down on Jinki after knowing the truth.

“If you’re really his friend, I hope you don’t see him differently after knowing this. Jinki has had enough trouble for raising a child on his own. If anything, he really needs more people to give him mental support right now. He works so hard to give Jongki a decent life while trying to pay his debt, which worries me so much because his pregnancy kind of harmed his internal organs. He needs to live a healthy life if he wishes to see Jongki grow.”

“Can you please stop for a moment?” Jonghyun whispered. “Please.”

Kibum sighed. He had expected this coming. He rose from his seat to get the man a glass of water. Jonghyun received the glass but couldn’t even take a sip as his mind was fully occupied by one question. Just one question,

Where were I when Jinki hyung needed me the most?

“May I ask one more question?”

Kibum nodded.

“If Jinki hyung was pregnant and it worked the same like how woman gets pregnant, then he must have done it with another man, right?”

Kibum nodded again.

“Do you know who he is? Do you know who Jongki’s father is? Have you ever met him?”

“Unfortunately, Jinki never tell me and I’ve never met him too.”

Should I put a warning of slight!mpreg on the foreword? *worries*

Some people do not like mpreg story, but this story doesn't focus on it, the mpreg part is just like that in this chapter.

anyway, I need SM to upload the video Minho has recorded as soon as possible, why it takes so long? X(