Chapter 5 - Walk

Hyungwon was definitely sensitive when it came to those drugs, I was wondering if he had ever even been drunk before. One moment he would talk to me like before, not very cheerful and maybe mixed with a bit of teasing, and just a second later he'd grin and sway our intertwined hands back and forth without any reason. I can't say which was harder: Seeing him on the drug I hadn't been wanting to spread any further or having to suppress a chuckle every time he got childish or made a stupid comment.

“Look, the stars are coming out!”, he shouted and I directed my gaze towards the cloudy sky, barely able to even make out one of said shining dots.

“Oh, yes. It's been a while since we saw them, hasn't it?” I played along, but had to turn around when he stopped with a frown. “Chae Hyung-”

“Shh.” He tilted his head a bit to the side before dragging me into a side alley without letting go of my hand.

“Hey, wh-what-”

“Quiet”, he hissed and pressed me against his chest while pulling both our hoods over our heads. “There are officials coming.”

Once the momentary shock his words caused subsided I drew a breath to put it off as his imagination, but when I listened closely, I could hear a vehicle coming closer at an incredible speed. And there weren't any Koreans driving cars in this area anymore. Hyungwon was right. Anyone who was in the military officials' way would have been run over without a moment of consideration. Not to mention the fact that there was a curfew from ten at night to five in the morning and we would probably have been shot if they missed us with their tires.

“They don't usually come here”, I mumbled against his chest when the car drove past, only now noticing how close we were standing and hurried to distance myself from him just to be stopped by a hand still holding mine. When I looked at him in wonder, his eyes looked empty. “Why are you holding onto it? I can tell you're not cold anymore.”

“I don't know, you tell me.”

“Then it's just the flower clouding your mind”, I sighed, carefully freeing my hand and walking towards the main street again. “Like I said, it's rare to have them pass through this area, something must have happened in the main city.”

“It must be the riot from last week.” I frowned and turned to look at him, but he just shrugged. “Reading newspapers is all I can do at work.” Hyungwon then hurried to keep up with me and removed my hood. “Your sugar hair is treacherous at night, you should take the subway paths next week or they'll spot you if they come by again.”

I was caught off guard and blinked a few times before frowning. “My what?”

“Your hair. It looks like white sugar”, he explained with a grin as if it was the most obvious thing on earth and reached out for my hand, but I pulled it away, not missing out on the way his smile slid off his face.

Why was he being like this, it wasn't just him being childish, this was worse. “W-we're here”, I muttered, pointing at the small, derelict house and Hyungwon was back to grinning while he followed me to the door. When I unlocked it, I walked straight into the living room and said something like 'we have a visitor', to find Jooheon frowning at me from his armchair.

“Visitor? You didn't bring some kid from Seventeen here, did you?”

“Well, n-not exactly. Look, it's hard to explain, but he is not like the others, I'm just trying to help him.”

“Oh, you're early.” Wonho came down the stairs and judging by the fact that he was shirtless and had his hair drip with water he had just taken a shower. His gaze fell on my company. “Why, hello there, handsome, who are you?”

I felt Hyungwon's fingernails claw into my back as he swallowed followed by a rattling breath. “U-uhm...” When I turned my head to glance at him, his pupils widened and shrunk again as if they were unable to focus.

“That's Hyungwon. Hyung, could you please put some clothes on?”

“This is the maximum of what you'll get to see tonight.”

“Sure”, I sighed and suppressed a smirk. Wonho would always flirt with everything on two legs, but I figured he wouldn't actually do anything to us; he loved us too much. “However”, I got back to the main issue, “he has only had a few drops, but it looks like his body doesn't take it well”, I explained and Wonho raised an eyebrow, saying what I thought out loud:

“Or maybe a bit too well.” I told my guest to stay where he was before forming a small circle with Jooheon and Wonho in the living room. “So, you brought some high guy to our house. Do I want to know the exact reason?”, the latter asked and my eyes darted to Hyungwon who was spacing out in the hallway.

“I'm trying to help him. He's not completely high, he's somewhere in between and I didn't want him to have more of the stuff. You can see what a few drops did to him already.”

“And you bring him to us to keep him away from the flowers? I don't know if you have already noticed and I'm sorry to break it to you, but without us The Clan wouldn't even exist. We're the reason for all of this”, Jooheon hissed through clenched teeth. “Why are you always trying to save the world? You're really-”

“I'm not!”, I replied in frustration. “I'm not trying to save the world. But he is. And that's why I have to protect him.”

Jooheon let out a short laugh in disbelief. “Incredible. So many years and you still manage to surprise me.”

“Look, I know you're pissed, but-”

“Pissed? I'm not pissed, Minhyuk. I'm outright mad.”

“Uhm, guys?”, Wonho mumbled, but Jooheon didn't stop there.

“You're walking around handing out drugs and still say that you want to protect him from them. Tell me more about that, it seems to be a new kind of logic.”

“Guys!” Jooheon shot Wonho a glare and I squinted at him who just pointed at the hallway. “He just collapsed.”

My eyes widened as I spun around to find Hyungwon lying on the ground in a position that looked really uncomfortable. Just when I ran up to him the front door opened and Shownu came in, letting his gaze linger on the guy on the ground for a moment before looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

“I-I can explain.”

Again I described the situation to our oldest housemate who maintained silence and a blank face until the end. Wonho had helped me get Hyungwon to one of our sofas before and the passed out guy was now lying behind me with a smile on his lips. Feeling more nervous with every second of silence that passed I started fiddling with the straps of my hoodie when Shownu finally spoke up.

“Fine, let him stay for now.”

Jooheon almost fell from his chair. “Wait, what?! Minhyuk just brought a complete stranger to our house and you-”

“Do we have much of a choice?”, Shownu interrupted him, but Jooheon just nodded as a matter of course.

“Sure. We could leave him outside. Someone will find him sooner or later and-”

“Lee Jooheon.” Everybody stopped breathing when he said his surname. “The last time I checked we weren't some cold-hearted s. Did I miss out on something?”

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