I know it isn’t typically normal of me to do linked chapters, or chapters that happen in the same time period but I did find it necessary to have a continuation of the chapter 5 so all the events in this chapter occur on the same day. Oh and thank you to keirakei for subscribing. I would also thank all of my subscribers and all the people who have left comments. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

~

    “They are perfect. Guess I totally underestimated you, Sunggyu,” Howon teased, looking at the bouquet in Sunggyu’s hands. “Woohyun must be rubbing off on you because the Sunggyu I know definitely has questionable tastes.”

    “Well if I had such questionable tastes than why didn’t you ask Woohyun to help you instead of me,” Sunggyu glared at Howon, his lower lip jutting out slightly.

    “Oh come on, don’t be like this. I was only joking,” after some consideration Howon added, “love.” Which rewarded him with an eye roll from Sunggyu.

    “I have more than enough grease in my life from Woohyun, don’t even start going down that road,” Sunggyu half heartedly nagged, receiving a chuckle from Howon.

    “Well I figured you appreciated grease, guess not then,” Howon said, not expecting an explanation.

    “Grease from Woohyun is different than grease from you, plus there is only so much grease a person can handle in a lifetime,” Sunggyu retorted. “So, do you approve of the wedding bands I sent you?”

    “Honestly, they are totally your style but I feel like they need some more sparkle for him to like them,” Howon responded. “Do you know what kind of a venue Woohyun would want to get married in? Plus how are you gonna keep a marriage a surprise?”

    “Oh I talked to Woohyun’s parents already, they are going to have a couple of his bulkier cousins dress in black and wear masks. Those cousins will then kidnap him and bring him to the wedding venue,” Sunggyu answered, getting a sarcastic nothing-could-go-wrong-with-that-plan look from Howon. “Don’t give me that look Howon. Why do you think I asked you for help, I figured you could help me avoid all disasters,” Sunggyu shot him pleading eyes and Howon caved.

    “Fine, but how are we even going to get through my proposal plans while trying to work out the enormity of flaws that this plan has,” Howon’s exasperation showed in his voice and Sunggyu tried not to look offended.

    “My plan wasn’t that bad,” the older whined and before Howon could reply with his own snide remark, “don’t worry about your proposal to Dongwoo. You have me to help you, I am sure we can pull it off perfectly.” Sunggyu confidently stated, his smugness giving way to a whimper when Howon shot him a dark it-better-be-or-else look. That was approximately when Sunggyu’s phone rang, the song “Mental Breaker” breaking through their banter. Sunggyu scrambled to find the device that was lost somewhere in Howon’s bed, his bag, or underneath where Howon was lying down, needless to say he didn’t find the device in time.

    “I guess you are busy with your schedule and stuff so I just wanted to let you know that I have been transferred to Yongin and I will be crashing with Dongwoo while I am there so yeah. Good luck on your schedule, I love you,” Howon couldn’t help but let out a slightly broken sigh as he heard the amount of love the message contained nor could he ignore how Sunggyu searched for his phone even more frantically after the voicemail. How long had it been since he and Dongwoo where like that? How long had it been since their conversations just happened without a cause? He must have let his thoughts blind him for a second, because when he refocused he was in Sunggyu’s warm embrace and words of comfort were in the air. He didn’t shed his tears and attempted to joke until his pain disappeared, and someone understandingly listened and replied but never broke their embrace. The replies were never too loud for Howon to handle, and yet again something felt to right. A throbbing mind making it hard to find out the origin of the words, a hesitant heart confusing him further.

~

    It had been an hour, an hour since he had lashed out at Sungyeol. Like always Myungsoo had fled the scene, but this time there was no Woohyun to fix the wounded Sungyeol. Myungsoo himself knew how the time had been spent. The first forty minutes had only been Sungyeol struggling to breathe, trying to regain his composure after receiving a beating as bad as he had. The next ten had been what Myungsoo can assume was Sungyeol trying to get up, Myungsoo could hear the heart wrenching thud of body against floor, followed by a whimper whenever Myungsoo assumes he fell on a wound. After that there was only silence, and it was so quiet Myungsoo didn’t even have a single reason to believe the other was still alive. The final thought of him actually killing Sungyeol, that was what pulled Myungsoo out of his self pity at the situation and gave him the courage to leave his bedroom and found himself in the living room.

    “Soo,” Myungsoo heard the weakness in Sungyeol’s voice but more than that he heard the fear there. The fear that he never wanted to hear. His belt was where he had dropped it, right next to Sungyeol’s shirt and jeans. The taller boy was on the floor, it was clear that he had slipped and fallen backward on his last try to get up and given up. The belt’s marks leaving red in their wake on Sungyeol’s pale torso and long legs. Sungyeol made another attempt to get up, and this time when his legs gave out beneath him he felt someone supporting him instead of the cold tiled floor. “Sorry,” Sungyeol murmured, trying to pull away from Myungsoo and stand by himself.

Myungsoo only tightened his grip around Sungyeol’s waist, trying to ignore how Sungyeol’s body stiffened upon him touching it. Trying to ignore the glint of hurt that left in his chest because he knew he deserved to feel more pain for everything that he had done to Sungyeol. “Let me clean you up,” he offered. Leading the other to the bathroom and sitting him down so that Myungsoo could find the first aid supplies. When he returned to Sungyeol so that he could begin to apply salve to his wounds the scars on his bodies caught Myungsoo’s attention. Could I have done all this, no it can’t be, Myungsoo drew in a sharp breath. His hand finding it’s way to Sungyeol’s biggest scar, starting at the right side of his chest all the way to above his belly button. Myungsoo could feel the shudder that raked itself through Sungyeol’s body at the feather light touches on the scar and the belt marks that criss crossed over it.

Sungyeol could sense the self loathing by Myungsoo’s stiffened back and didn’t want Myungsoo to take blame for this so he made the confession he believed would put the Myungsoo at ease. Yet Myungsoo would rather have believed that this was all his doing rather than hear the answer Sungyeol told him. “That not Soo fault, Sungyeol’s mommy fault,” Sungyeol murmured it quietly, and he didn’t know what he had done wrong or why Myungsoo was retching on the bathroom floor.

~

“Woohyun,” Dongwoo opened the door to find his closest friend on the doorstep just as he promised he would be. His face was tear streaked and Woohyun looked taken aback by his appearance. Before he could invite the other in, break down in joy, or even take in another breath, he felt Woohyun’s arms around him. He heard the lock click of his door and could only assume that Woohyun had kicked the door shut. Woohyun left his luggage in the living room shifting position so that Dongwoo was in his arms and carried the older bridal style into the bedroom before gently placing him on the bed. Dongwoo’s sobbing into his shirt the whole way, the older made place for Woohyun in the bed and Woohyun gladly slipped in. He played with Dongwoo’s hair and sang to Dongwoo softly until the older had calmed down. “What time is it?”

Woohyun let out a slight chuckle at the question but reached for the phone that was still in his back pocket, he was too busy comforting Dongwoo to take off anything extra, “It is six thirty.”

“, I asked people I found had a relation to Lee Sungyeol to come at forty five, I lied to Sunjong that I knew nothing,” with that Dongwoo was out of the bed and in the bathroom trying to tidy himself up. Woohyun decided to help the other out and make himself look a slight bit presentable and walked into the bathroom himself. RIght as Woohyun finished running a comb through Dongwoo’s hair as the other was buttoning up the shirt he had changed into the doorbell rang.

“I’ll go get it, you can finish taking care of your hair and then come out,” Woohyun assured, running to the door while doing the last button on his shirt and opening the door. He was greeted by a boy with large doe eyes and a tall, slim figure. The boy also had chubby cheeks and his eyes were the same soft shade of brown that Sungyeol’s were and even though their facial structures were completely different Woohyun could see a slight semblance in those features. That’s when another boy cleared his throat, and stepped behind the taller one wrapping his arm around the first boy’s waist.

“If you called us here to ogle at my husband then we are leaving,” the shorter male growled.

“Byunghun, don’t overreact. Plus, this is the first time we have heard of Sungyeol in years, don’t you worry about him? He was the only one to accept us after all and I did really feel as if he was our child did you not?” the tall boy asked, a slight pout on his face.

“It isn’t that Chanhee, you know that I love Sungyeol too. It’s just with how careful the Kim’s are with things I can’t help but feel a slight bit paranoid,” and almost as if just realizing the risk that his husband brought up, they both scanned their surroundings quickly with fear in their eyes. By this time, Dongwoo had joined Woohyun at the door and wrapped his hands around the younger’s waist as a thank you for coming gesture.

“Here, me and Byunghun don’t want to risk getting caught so this is all we were going to give you anyway. If anyone asks we were never here,” a leather bound diary was pushed into Woohyun’s hands. “How is Sungyeol?” Chanhee asked the question hesitant.

“He is with someone he loves,” was the only answer Woohyun could think off that would put their mind at ease. It seemed like a better thing to say than “he is with someone who beats him up every now and then”.

“I have provided a number in their, after this whole mess clears up let us see him again, please we beg of you,” Byunghun echoed the last part of Chanhee’s request before they both took a glance around them and ran until they could no longer be seen, Woohyun and Dongwoo not missing their fingers threading together. Woohyun only then realized how big of a mess Dongwoo had gotten himself in and they both closed the door quickly. Dongwoo and Woohyun wasted no time in opening the book to find a cute title “Sungyeol’s Thoughts On Sungyeol’s Day”. If only they knew what it was about they probably would have never read it.