As the bed across from him remained untouched despite the activity in the room, it took a little less than half a day for the news of Baekhyun's death to settle into Chanyeol's core and as promised, Jongin was there with him rather than for him through every step of it. Sadness, self-blame, anger, a sprinkle of envy that D.O. had survived and his best friend hadn't, self-hatred for thinking that, depressed ambivalence, the few nights when he would wake up screaming and Jongin would come take a seat by his head and hold his hand even after the weeping stopped...

The death affected all of them, but despite this, Chanyeol's body continued to heal, and much to their relief, so did D.O.'s. It helped greatly to know that their effort had saved a life. In another week, Chanyeol was well enough to be discharged, and D.O. was moved to a single-person room to continue his recovery.

"Welcome back," Junmyeon said upon Chanyeol opening the door back to his apartment. It had taken three people in a taxi to carry back all of the farewell presents the nurses had given to him. His reputation as a natural charmer clearly wasn't in danger.

The apartment hadn't been touched by its occupants since that day nearly three weeks prior when Jongin had forced Chanyeol from the room. The latter gave a sad smile when he saw the disheveled sheets on his friend's bed. 'It looks just like he's coming home later.' That smile turned into a happier one when he looked toward the absolute mess of sheets on his own bed, remembering the days before the hospital.

"You still never told me."

"Told you what?"

"Why you didn't come here on your own."

"Oh..." Chanyeol looked over toward D.O., who looked back at him with supportive eyes. "I, um... Without..." he trailed off, not sure at all how to say it. "I didn't know what I was living for anymore... Without the lab... Without you... Living just didn't make sense after I felt like I'd..."

He looked over to the bed across from him.

With or without Jongin, he was more than ready to keep living now, but naturally, he preferred one of those over the other.

"You know... With all of Dr. Kim's recent developments in the lab, we are a bit understaffed at the moment... And if you would... like to... reapply for your former position-!?"

As Chanyeol's eyes got wider and brighter, Jongin trailed off before being lifted his second Chanyeol-brand rib splitting hug.

"YESYESYESYESYES THAAANK YOOOU- Wait, did you say 'reapply'!?"

"YES!" Jongin retorted indignantly as he tried to squirm his way free.

"Whaaat, why do I have to reapply!?" he immediately dropped the man, staring at him indigantly. "You know my credentials!"

"Don't make me fire you again before you start, boy!" Chanyeol earned himself a smack on the arm.

Grinning, Junmyeon tiptoed out of the room as the two continued their lovers' quarrel.

"You're so mean!"

"You're a klutz."

"You're haughty!"

"You're an idiot."

"You're a !"

"You're...!"

As the doctor struggled to come up with an insult, Chanyeol pulled him in by the shoulders and pressed their foreheads together.

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"You... The Doctor will..."

He then noticed that Junmyeon was gone. That bastard.

Chanyeol pulled him in closer until their lips met.

They'd been far too shy to kiss save for that one day at the hospital. Subtle skinship had been feeding the need for contact, but it could only do much for so long, and that limit had been passed long ago.

"How'd you manage to do this to me?" Jongin murmured after pulling away.

"Hm?"

"I never had a romantic thought in my life until I met you."

Chanyeol thought for a moment, then grinned. "Well, when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, one of them has to give in, right? I guess I really didn't want to be the one."

A light knock on the door interrupted them just as Chanyeol was about to pull him back in, but instead he let go so Jongin could open it to reveal the blushing face of the eldest of the twins at the door. Their own faces grew red as they wondered how much of their conversation she'd heard.

She didn't make it known, however. "Welcome back, Mr. Park. I heard from my sister that you'd returned, and I wanted to let you know that you had a visitor come by earlier. I told her you hadn't arrived yet and directed her toward your place of work."

"Her?" Chanyeol couldn't think of any females who knew where he lived.

"I believe she was your sister."

"Like I said, I won't make you go in, but let's walk and talk."

Chanyeol made his bare agreement known by speeding up by an incredibly small fraction from his very leisurely walking pace. It had been hell convincing Chanyeol to even leave his apartment knowing that his sister was waiting for him at work, but Jongin had managed it, along with convincing the other to finally reveal the story of his own unfavorable past.

"...A few years ago, there was a girl... Sandara Park. I thought I would marry her. Everyone called her an ice queen, but I saw her as a flower who would open only for me. But her family was of ignoble blood, and my family is old money. Keeping up appearances is the most important thing in the world to them. So she and I made plans to elope; the only person we told was my sister. The night we were going to leave..."

Chanyeol stopped walking about halfway across the bridge and took a deep breath.

"I went to where we were going to meet, and she'd been killed. My sister had told our parents, and..."

He turned to look out over the water before closing his eyes, and Jongin rested a hand on his shoulder as he tried to regain his composure.

"I left home after that. I don't know why she wants to see me after so many years, but I don't really care to find out."

"It wouldn't have been impossible for her to learn of your illness," Jongin suggested.

"How, though?"

"Let's keep walking and you can ask her yourself.”

Chanyeol was silent for a moment before agreeing.

She looked just like he would have with a second X rather than a Y chromosome. The same strong but beautiful eyebrows, larger but still mischievous doe eyes, and unique ears, though hers were less prominent and were tucked conspicuously under medium-length hair that was less red that her brother's.

Also unlike him, she was bursting-at-the-seams pregnant.

"Chanyeol!" Her eyes lit up as she saw her brother.

He nodded back as a courtesy. "Yoora."

She waddled excitedly to where he and Jongin had just exited the stairwell. “I’m Yoora Park, Chanyeol’s older sister. You must be Dr. Jongin.”

“A pleasure,” he said as he took the hand she offered him.

Chanyeol glared. “Yoora-“

“How are you feeling? Have you recovered? You look so thin! Were you eating well before this? Of course you were; you’ve gotten even taller!” She grabbed him by the forearms and made an effort to turn him back and forth so she could inspect him from all angles, but he pulled away.

“What do you want?” he asked, refusing to make eye contact.

Yoora’s face fell. “…I missed you, and I heard you were sick…”

“How did you hear.”

“From my Baozi, how else?”

“Who?”

“Xiumin…”

“…”

“He’s my husband, remember?”

Chanyeol’s eyebrows were furrowed. “No. Should I?”

“Didn't he tell you? We were married nearly a year ago. Anyway, no matter. I came to see if you’re okay and- hey!”

She hustled as fast as she could after Chanyeol, who was striding toward the lab door at full pace. She managed to grab his arm, but he yanked it away from her.

“I don’t have anything to talk with you about, and I certainly don’t want to stress out a pregnant woman. If this is about mom and dad, tell them I’m fine, and that I don't have anything to speak with them about, either.”

“You don’t have to talk, just listen!”

“I’m not in the mood. I’ve got enough, what with my best friend just having died, and getting back to work, without you suddenly reappearing after getting the love of my life killed.”

He had just meant it for emphasis, to hurt Yoora enough to make her leave. It had been a difficult time, and there would always be a corner of his heart reserved for Dara, but he had picked up the pieces long ago and moved on while healing them. He immediately regretted that he hadn’t thought about the other person listening.

His expression changed from annoyed to worried as he glanced momentarily at Jongin, but the younger’s face remained stable as ever.

“Chanyeol, I’m sorry,” Yoora said. “I know sorry will never be enough, and I would do anything to have you back as my baby brother, but you have to let me know what else it is that I can do. You don’t have to take me back all at once, or even ever forgive me. I just want a line of communication between us. Because these babies are going to need all the help they can get with grandparents like theirs. I want them to be free to be who they want, not who their blood ‘says’ they should be.”

Chanyeol relaxed his stance a bit.

“’These’ babies?”

“Twins,” she murmured. “Anyway, back then… I was selfish, and… I just didn’t want you to leave. You had her, but I didn’t have anyone but you. I had no idea Mom and Dad would go to such an extreme… I never wanted what happened to happen. But please. If you can’t do it for me, do it so that these two won’t have to live the same tragedy.”

Perhaps it was that his emotions had been on-edge for the past week, but something about what Yoora said struck a significantly deeper chord with Chanyeol than it should have. He could see his life story being replayed under the influence of two sets of all-powerful figures, and something about it all caused tears to well in his eyes. He thought of Yoora, all alone with no one to support her after he left, forced to become only what their parents wanted her to become. He thought of Jongin, who lost his loving mother and sisters to a terrible, abusive father. And he thought of Baekhyun. The next day the members of the Kim Laboratory and Jongdae would be escorting his body back to his home village, where he was sure his mother and brother hadn’t stopped weeping since receiving word of his loss.

“This world is so ed up…” he managed to get out before breaking down into sobs.

He didn’t protest when Yoora reached her arms up to pull him down into a hug.

“I know.”

“Doctor, I… I wanted to ask you about something.”

Jongin had been relatively quiet the entire day, but that was nothing unusual for a busy research day. With the microscope upgraded once again, they had made progress into discovering the cause of rapid death in cases like Baekhyun’s, and that it had nothing to do with the plague itself. Junmyeon had already returned home for the day; while he was treating the three plague patients, he had refused to go home in fear of infecting his wife or their children, and he was keen on making up the lost time with her. Advice had been given to him by Chanyeol and Jongdae not to get her pregnant again so quickly this time.

While wrapping up their work for the day, Chanyeol had brought up the question.

“Hm?” Jongin replied.

“I want to know… If perhaps you’re not too busy today, would you like to… go get dinner, or…?”

Jongin reached to return some reagents to their place on the top shelf.

“Frankly, I don’t know if that’s the best idea…”

“Oh, I promise that we’d be inconspicuous, or if you’re really concerned, I could just make-“

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Jongin gave a shallow sigh before continuing. “I don’t know if it’s the best idea for us to pursue anything.”

Chanyeol’s heart began to feel heavier and heavier. “Oh…” he managed to squeak out. “How come?”

Jongin didn’t say anything for a few moments before he finally calmed his nerves enough to explain. “The way you described Dara earlier today…”

Chanyeol immediately remembered that he had entirely forgotten to reconcile that point with Jongin. He came over to face him directly, man-to-man, and waited for the other man to look up from his cleaning before continuing. “Doctor, I am so sorry about that. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. It doesn’t sound much better to say that I was just putting it that way to hurt Yoora, but that’s entirely what it was. At the time, I thought that I wanted to die if I couldn’t be with Dara. There’s only one other person in this world who’s made me feel the same way, and it’s you. So please forgive me for that stupid oversight. I lost track of myself and I hurt you during an attempt to hurt someone else. Please don’t factor that in when considering me, because I love you so m-“

Chanyeol slapped a hand over his mouth when he realized he had just said the L-word. “Sorry, Doctor…” he mumbled.

He heard the Doctor mumble something under his breath.

“Hm?”

“Jongin.”

Chanyeol still wasn’t following, and his face showed it.

“If we’re going to be together, it’s only proper if you called me by my first name.”

Chanyeol’s jaw dropped before it spread horizontally into the biggest smile Jongin had seen in his life.

“NO HUGGING!”

By proclaiming it before he saw movement, Jongin had managed to catch Chanyeol in mid-attack. The hug-happy man’s arms went slack with disappointment.

“But I wanna hug my Jonginnie.”

“I said you could call me Jongin, not some silly pet name.”

“But Innie suits you!”

“So it’s Innie now?”

“Yes!”

“No.”

“Yah-huh!”

“Do you want to be fired again?”

“Depends, do you want me to become a house-boyfriend? Because I love cooking for you.”

"...Where are we going for dinner anyway?"

"I'll tell you once you let me hug you."

“You’re insufferable!”

“You’re handsome~!”

Jongin managed to give a frustrated groan while at the same time hiding his wide grin from Chanyeol as the laboratory door shut behind them.

Little shoutout to kewll_beans's very first comment in having Chanyeol and Jongin call each other a klutz and a meaniepoo respectively ;)

This chapter was hard to write because I have issues.

My real name is Dara (pronounced like Sarah though,) and of course my only celebrity crush since I was like 13 has to go and have a celebrity crush with that nickname.

Next chapter will probably be the last unless I think of something else I wanna add, but I want to write a bonus chapter, maybe two. We'll talk about it next chapter ;)