Ryeowook

“Wookie!”

Leeteeuk smiles wide the minute he opens the door. He gives me a tight brotherly hug and ruffles my hair, eyes twinkling in the sunlight as he looks down at me. Leeteuk always has been an elder brother figure for me and I know that I can always rely on him if I needed anything. But I never trouble him with any of my family problems knowing that he doesn’t deserve to be involved in all of this. I feel sorry for him having to get involved in this now but at the same time, I’m thankful that he had found and saved my brother last night.

Leeteuk invites both Kyuhyun and I into his house and tells us that Henry is still asleep. He tells us to take a seat first and serves us coffee and a few freshly baked cinnamon rolls which I know is Henry’s favourite dessert. I remembered baking them for him before I moving to America all the time and how our parents would get mad at me for making a mess in the kitchen. Once Leeteuk serves us everything, he takes a seat on the couch, opposite of us since Kyuhyun and I are seated together.   

Leeteuk clears his throat all of a sudden looking between Kyuhyun and I. “Henry told me that you got eloped.”

I instantly sit up straighter, feeling him observing the both of us closely. “Oh right! Hyung, this is my husband, Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun, this is Leeteuk hyung. Henry and I often visit his café back when we were young.”

Kyuhyun bows, “Nice to meet you.”

“When Henry told me that you got eloped I honestly didn’t believe it. I’ve never seen you bring any man other than Sungmin into my café and we all know how Sungmin and you are just best friends.”

I gesture my hands at Kyuhyun. “Kyuhyun’s actually Sungmin’s boss and that’s how I came to know him.”

“Ah, small world isn’t it?” Leeteuk smiles, sipping onto his drink although his eyes are still looking at the both of us doubtfully. “But it’s nice that you’re happy together. Congratulations.”

Small world, indeed. Leeteuk must have forgotten this but the first time I met Kyuhyun was in his own café. Thankfully, Kyuhyun must not be a regular in Leeteuk’s café or he would have recognized him in an instant.

“Thank you.” I thank him. “By the way hyung, can I see Henry?”

“Oh sure but make sure you don’t wake him up alright?”

Leeteuk leads to me one of the room and I follow behind him. Kyuhyun isn’t following me and I silently thank god for that. The last thing I need is Kyuhyun seeing my reaction when I see how badly bruised my brother is. Leeteuk opens the door and I thank him again, walking into the room where my brother is all cuddled up on a bed, a grey blanket all tangled over his legs. He’s wearing an oversized hoodie, covering half his face. I softly move the hoodie away and my breath hitches. Oh Henry.

Half of his face is bruised badly with a few long cuts while the other has another healing bruise (thanks to Kyuhyun). His new bruise looks bad though, even worse than the one Kyuhyun had given him. There’s also dried blood marks on his lips and nose and I squeeze my eyes. If I had told him that I’d helped him, if I didn’t drive him to walk away being mad at me, would he still have ended up in this condition? If I just told him that I would help him last night, I bet none of this would have happened.

“From what I observe and correct me if I’m wrong since I’ve only been introduced to this whole sibling drama like just yesterday is that you save his the minute he gets into things. That’s the reason he keeps getting into trouble, you know.”

Damn him. Damn Kyuhyun for being so awfully straight-forward. He didn’t even sugar-coat his words, he just gives it to me straight and hits me straight in my feels. And I hate him for that. Worst, I hate how his every word is actually true.

How could Henry just get in trouble the minute he walks out from one? Yes, he must be annoyed and mad at me last night but he would have stayed away from trouble if he knew that no one was going to save him. But no, this kid just decides to get into a fight with men thrice his size after walking away from almost getting caught! And here I am deciding to save his sorry yet again. Dammit. Cho Kyuhyun has a point. I shake my head and touch my brother’s cheeks softly.

“Maybe he’s right.” I whisper. “Mianhe Henry ah.”

I get up from the seat and head out of the room, shutting the door behind me softly rejoining my fake husband and Leeteuk in the living room. Kyuhyun holds out his hands with means of support and without thinking, I join hands with him. He pulls me down to the seat and his hands sneaks around my waist, as he down into my eyes.

“How bad is it?” Kyuhyun asks, sincerely sounding like he’s concerned too.

“Bad, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen those types of bruises on him.” Trust me… I’ve seen worst before.

“Wookie,” Leeteuk suddenly interrupts us. “Did Henry tell you about…  About his gambling incident?”

I take a deep breath. “Yes, he did.”

I can feel Kyuhyun secretly squeezing our joined hands and I bet he’s curious of it too. I really wish he wasn’t here right now. Everything’s just ten times harder with him being here, witnessing this whole stupid drama.

“Listen Wook, if you don’t have the money, I can help pay about half of it. I don’t have that much but I’ll try to-”

“No!” I shout, a little too loudly. Dammit, I have to stop doing that too. “Hyung no, really, you shouldn’t. It’s alright. I can do it, hyung. I’ll pay for it.”

“But Ryeowook, didn’t you just bail him out with two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars just the other day? Where are you going to get the money now, Wookie?”

That’s weird. I don’t remember telling Leeteuk anything about it. The only person who ever knows about my problems with Henry is Sungmin and I really just rather keep it that way. I feel Kyuhyun’s hands slipping out of mine as he clears his throat.

“I can handle it, hyungnim.” Kyuhyun says, voice laced with determination.

Leeteuk looks over at Kyuhyun, his worried lines on his face slowly disappearing. “Will you?”

“I will.” Kyuhyun nods. “He’s my family too now.”

Leeteuk lips softly turns to a faint smile. “Yes, he is. Please take care of him.”

I don’t like this. I don’t like Kyuhyun and Leeteuk getting involved in my family’s affair. I turn to look at Kyuhyun hoping he’d get a clue that he’s no way going to pay for anything but he doesn’t look back at me and I’m only ending up looking like an idiot staring at his fake husband. Annoyed, I turn my attention back to Leeteuk.

“Hyung, has Henry been staying here with you?” I ask, suspicious.

Leeteuk smiles sadly. “Yes, Wook, he has. He didn’t want anyone to know. He’s been staying here for about three weeks now.”

I run my hand through my hair, not knowing how I should respond to that. “But I gave him my apartment…”

“Oh yes, he told me that. But he doesn’t like living alone. Before this, he was living with some of his friends but when some of them got caught for possessing drugs, everyone left the house and found their own places. Henry came to me one night asking if he could stay.”

“I don’t get it. Why couldn’t he have just called me and asked if he could stay with me instead?”

Leeteuk sighs. “He must not have wanted to burden you.”

I chuckle bitterly. Now that must be the first time I’ve ever heard anyone ever saying that to me. And I didn’t laugh because I find it funny or amusing. I laughed because oh, how stupid have I been. I’ve seen the way Henry and Leeteuk talk and I’m always curious of their relationship but deep down, I guess I already knew that Henry spends more time with Leeteuk. So of course, it’s not surprising when I find out that Henry has been staying with Leeteuk all this time rather than me.

“He must spend a lot of time with you, doesn’t he, hyung?” I ask with a bitter feeling in my heart.

Leeteuk opens his mouth to answer but before he could, a familiar voice interrupts us. “Yes, I do.”

Leeteuk, Kyuhyun and I turn towards the direction of the voice and there he is, my brother leaning against the door, face all bruised and his thin body covered in his oversized hoodie. He doesn’t look too happy to see me and when his eyes travels to Kyuhyun, he narrows them. He walks over to the living room and takes a seat next to Leeteuk.

“What are you doing here, hyung?” He asks, voice unhappy.

 “I called him over, Henry ah. I didn’t want him to worry about where you’ve been.” Leeteuk pats Henry’s shoulder softly. “Are you hungry? Do you want me to make you something?”

“No need for that, hyungnim.” Kyuhyun stops him. “We’re actually thinking of taking him out to eat.”

My head turns to Kyuhyun so fast, I ever hear it cracking. Oh god. What does Kyuhyun have up his sleeve? Both Henry and Leeteuk (and me) looks shock, not expecting that we offer to bring Henry out to eat and Henry