Another chapter in less than 24 hours! Enjoy <3

Jonghyun was angry that night. He was so infuriated that he couldn’t form any proper words, his body went motionless as the rage took over him. He didn’t get it. Why was everything with Jinki had to turn out like this? And why did it bother him so much? He didn’t even make much effort to look for his hyung when he went missing. Why did it matter now?

He glanced at the clock and heaved a sigh; it was 5 in the morning and he hadn’t gotten any sleep yet. He raised from his seat and took a final glance on the sleeping man on the couch before stepping out of the room. On his drive to home, Jonghyun tried to shrug any thought about Jinki off his mind, thinking if he should brought a homemade breakfast for Jongki. Maybe he could wake his mother and made her prepare some foods for him and Jongki. He smiled at the picture of Jongki eating his mother cook on his mind. So when he stopped in front of his house, he rushed to his mother’s bedroom and knocked three times and impatiently waited for her to answer the door.

“Oh God, baby, what are you doing? You almost wake your dad up.” She kept her voice low; afraid she might interrupt her husband’s slumber. She knew very well the man wouldn’t appreciate it when anyone disturbed his sleep.

“I know you’re going to wake up and open the door,” Jonghyun grinned. His mother carefully closed the door behind her before facing her son again. “Cook me breakfast.”

“Honey, we have breakfast at 7.”

“But I can’t wait until 7! I want to return to the hospital before they send Jongki’s meal in.”

“Don’t tell me you want me to cook for Jongki too?”

She knew the answer right away when she saw Jonghyun’s grin got wider and sillier. Sometimes she wondered from whom he inherited that goofy face from. She paced to the kitchen with Jonghyun tailing behind her. She headed straight to the fridge, retrieving the ingredients she needed. On the other hand, Jonghyun sat on one of the chairs and rested his head on the table as he silently watched over his mother.

“I’m making sandwich, is that okay with you?”

“Yeah,” he murmured.

There was a break when Jonghyun felt the silence was consoling and for a moment, he was at ease.

“What is it now?” his mother asked him with that motherly tone he always heard coming from her whenever he messed up with his life.

“Nothing, Mom.”

“If it’s nothing, you wouldn’t knock on my door around this hour, asking me to prepare breakfast.”

“I think it will be good for Jongki to eat homemade breakfast. Hospital foods .”

“Ah, you’re really fond of him, aren’t you?” Her mother giggled. “I want to meet him so badly but my schedule is getting on my way. Why don’t you take a picture of him for me dear?”

“Oh, you’re right!”

She almost laughed at the way his son got excited on her request.

“Why it never cross my mind to take a picture of him?”

“Because you’re too occupied with your thought about Jinki to come up with a simple idea of taking pictures with Jongki.”

“Jinki hyung is just being difficult and I hate it.”

“Maybe it’s something too private to share, even with his friends. Has he told anyone else?”

“What’s so private that he can’t tell me? I tell him everything! I don’t think he has told anyone yet. Minho and Taemin would have told me if they found Jinki hyung first.”

“You can't wish for him to do the same as you, darling.”

“That’s why I make our doctor tell me everything he knows.”

She came to a halt to turn around and looked at his son. Her face must had already told him what she tried to say because Jonghyun continued to his mother.

“You know, I manage to find out that Jinki was one of our patients so I went to the doctor in charge and made him tell me everything.”

“Isn’t it against –“

“Oh God, seriously, why everyone cares about of conduct? I make him tell me no matter what.”

“And how did you do that?”

Jonghyun hesitated for a moment seeing how serious his mother was, “Well, I did a little research and his brother is admitted to our hospital so I threatened him I would kick his brother out if he didn’t tell me about Jinki. Of course he gave up; no other hospital has the same advance technology to support his brother’s life like we do.”

“Jonghyun! I never teach you to use someone else’s life –“

“I know, Mom, I know” Jonghyun cut her off. “At least I know what happened to him. Jongki doesn’t have a mother, you know. I thought she died, but I was wrong. There was no mother in the first place; Jinki himself was pregnant with Jongki. I know it sounds confusing and all but it’s real. I had a hard time believing this too but it really happened to Jinki, mom.”

She didn’t say anything. She was back on making the sandwiches. Jonghyun didn’t push her though. He knew this wasn’t the topic everyone would favor. He just wanted to share with his mother.

“Jinki hyung was having a really hard time, Mom. And I wasn’t there for him.”

“I wonder who did that to hyung. I want to punch him on the face. Like, how could he leave hyung alone with his child?!”

“If I’m being persistent, hyung will tell me, right?”

Even though his mother didn’t answer him back, he knew she was listening. This was far better than keeping that thoughts bottled up inside of him.

“Here, hurry go back to Jongki and make sure that child eats a lot.” His mother patted his head tenderly. “And be good to Junghee. She told me you ignore her calls. I’m afraid she’ll tell your dad and you know trouble is coming to you if he knows.”

Jinki hadn’t left yet when Jonghyun returned to the hospital. He didn’t miss the meal-box on one of his hands, thinking that Jonghyun must have gone home earlier this morning.

“Jongki-ah, look what Uncle Jonghyun brings you!” Jonghyun opened the box, revealing a bunch of sandwiches inside. “My mom prepares this for us.”

“Uncle’s mom?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

“Ahh, you’re so cute. Uncle will tell her later that you thank her. Now, let’s eat!” Jonghyun took one and grunted at the amount of vegetables inside the sandwich. “Ugh, she always puts so many veggies in my sandwich.” Jonghyun started to take them out of his sandwich.

“Jongki hates veggies too. They taste like yuck.” Jongki grimaced to express how he disliked vegetables which brought smiles upon his uncle’s face.

“I’ll take them out for you too.”

“No, Jongki-ah, you’re going to eat them too. They’re good for you body.” Jinki scolded from the corner of the room, as he struggled to tie his shoes.

Jongki pouted but Jonghyun soon whispered to him, “Uncle will still throw them away for Jongki” and high-fived with the kid.

“You shouldn’t teach children to throw away foods that are good for them just because they don’t like it, Jonghyun.”

“But hyung, you shouldn’t force them to eat something they don’t want to.”

“I’m not arguing with you about this, Jonghyun.”

“Here, Jongki-ah, uncle has cleaned them up for you.” Jonghyun handed Jongki a piece which Jongki devoured happily. “See, you should let them eat foods that make them happy!”

Jinki stood up, couldn’t believe what Jonghyun had done to Jongki. “Just for this once, I let you spoil him.” Jonghyun didn’t reply as he was busy munching on his sandwich.

“When we’re home, you’re not throwing away your vegetables, do you hear me?”

“Jongki will be a good boy if Appa don’t give me veggies.”

“You will be a good boy and still eat them, Jongki. Because I let you off this time, you’ll be a good boy for today, right?”

Jongki nodded right away. Jinki kissed his cheek before going off, didn’t forget to thank Jonghyun despite their cold war yesterday night.