Heechul drops the plate onto the floor, staring blankly at the wall as the sound of the plate shattering barely reaches his ears. Something...doesn’t feel right. Something is amiss. He glances at the large, flashing red blocks on the stove and realize Han Geng has been gone for over an hour. The police have warned Korean citizens not to be out late at night. He ignores Zhou Mi’s frantic rambling in Chinese in favor of walking to the front door. He counts the pairs of shoes…there’s only thirteen. He immigrates quickly to the living room where Leeteuk and the rest are.

“Teukie, is Han Kyung not back yet? It has been over an hour.”

The room goes silent at the realization. Heechul can feel the panic thicken in his chest before he’s practically suffocating in it. Leeteuk’s eyes widen at Heechul’s horror stricken face. A warning flashes on the screen about being out too late. Han Kyung…he isn’t back! Oh god, he isn’t back! Heechul sprints to the front door and manages to yank the door open before it’s slammed closed again. Heechul finds Leeteuk up against the door panting.

“Move Leeteuk,” Heechul growls; his hand twitches on the knob of the door.

Leeteuk frantically shakes his head and glances at the living room doorway. Everyone is piled on top of each other, watching the exchange with concern. Most of them look like they’re about to cry while Eunhyuk, Donghae, and Henry already have silent tears trailing down their cheeks.

“Damn it, move Jungsoo!” Heechul yells, raising his hand to strike Leeteuk across the face.

“No Heechul!”

Heechul is vaguely aware of someone moving in front of Leeteuk, but before he process who it is, he has already striked them across the face and onto the floor.

Heechul freezes at the familiar cry. His eyes travel down and he sees Henry sprawled on the floor, a dazed looked on his face.

“Henry!” Sungmin sobs, sliding next to the boy.

Heechul moves forward, but Sungmin twists around and snarls, his upper lip curled to bare his teeth at the elder in a sneer.

“Sungmin! Take Henry upstairs!” Leeteuk orders, giving Sungmin a disapproving look.

Sungmin backs down and carries Henry to his room, Kyuhyun following. Leeteuk looks at Heechul and observes the tears streaming down his face and dripping off his nose.

“Heechul,” this time it is Hongki speaking.

Heechul’s head snaps on its own accord and he’s rushing into Hongki’s open arms.

“He’s still out there Hongki! Something happened to him!” Heechul sobs into Hongki’s neck; his arms tighten around his waist for a purchase of comfort.

He can’t help but imagine the worse. He can’t help but imagine Han Kyung’s body being drained of blood, the limbs being ripped out of the sockets, his face…Heechul’s sobs get louder at the thought of the look on his face. He remembers the description of Henry’s grandparents and feels his dinner crawling up his throat. Heechul pushes away and runs to the guest bathroom, throwing himself down next to the toilet and promptly releasing his stomach’s contents into it. The smell invades his senses and he heaves again, squeezing his eyes shut. Someone pulls his hair back and rubs soothing circles on his back. He turns to thank the man, but shoves his face back inside the toilet, coughing after the action.

He finally feels like he’s done and sits with his back against the wall. Hongki’s face is in front of his, tucking a few strands with his hand.

“Thanks,” his voice is raspy, the acid burning his throat.

“Teukie hyung, can you get some water?” Hongki calls over his shoulder with his gaze still trained on Heechul’s pale face.

“The Kim Heechul finally looks horrible,” Hongki teases, trying to loosen up the mood.

Heechul scowls and flips him off before closing his eyes.

“Kim Heechul never looks horrible,” he pouts, taking a swig of water before spitting it into the toilet and flushing.

Hongki laughs and pats his shoulder.

Sungmin thinks that if Leeteuk hadn’t stopped him with orders, Heechul’s face might not be intact. He studies the bruise on Henry’s cheek, his finger tips lightly tracing the outline where the discoloration begins. Henry whimpers and Sungmin scowls, retracting his hand. Heechul’s face defiantly wouldn’t be intact. It scares Sungmin how much he cares for the boy. Sure, brothers love each other, but this…this couldn’t be just brotherly love. Maybe motherly…maybe a lover. He shakes his head and focuses back on Henry. The boy is still a little dazed from the strike implemented by his “Umma”.

To see hands on his Henry drives him slowly insane to the part where he’s clawing at his skin in order to not just grab them by the neck and strangle them. He tried to help, he really did! All it did was hurt Henry even more. He could never forgive himself for not doing better.

“Henry-ah, are you excited moving in with us?! I can’t believe you’ll be rooming with me! Kyuhyun can get a little boring at times,” Sungmin rambles on, ignoring Kyuhyun’s indignant cry from across the room.

“I’m not boring!” Sungmin scoffs and raises a pointed eyebrow at the laptop on his bed. “Starcraft is not boring hyung! You just don’t see all of its glory! Maybe you should learn so I can beat you,” Kyuhyun smirks, catching the pillow thrown in his direction.

Henry watches the playful interaction with envy. He never had brothers or sisters to play with. He only had his taifu, which had to be cut short of course. Sungmin catches Henry’s eye and smiles.

“I’m really excited hyung! Thank you guys for letting me stay,” Henry bows much to Sungmin’s dislike.

“Guys, get changed for bed, it’s ten o’clock. Yah! Kyuhyun, get off the computer!” Kibum narrows his eyes as Kyuhyun sticks out his tongue.

“Hyung is only jealous I beat him,” Kyuhyun taunted. Kibum fumes while Henry and Sungmin snicker at the duo.

“Henry-ah, lets get dressed!” Sungmin is already taking off his top, not noticing the blush readily creeping onto Henry’s cheeks.

He momentarily forgets about the pain in all of his excitement and slowly pulls off his shirt in embarrassment. The shirt is still over his head when fingers are on his torso, earning a squeak from the surprised boy. The shirt is torn off and met with furious eyes. Sungmin is holding him by the abdomen, trying his hardest not to squeeze the boy.

“What is this?” he whispers, fingers gazing the darkening bruises decorating Henry’s body in the worst fashion.

The words catch in Henry’s throat as it constricts. He can’t speak, he can’t breathe, his eyes start to blur as the tears build up. Sungmin’s grip tightens until his fingers dig into the skin painfully, almost breaking the skin. Henry winces in pain, but says nothing.

“Sungmin, you’re hurting him,” Kyuhyun jumps from the bed and tries to pull Sungmin’s arms away.

Sungmin quickly lets go and lets the tears flow.

“Yah! I asked you what these were! Who gave them to you?!” Sungmin yells and turns before starting to pace.

“Seungho did this to me,” Henry whispers, his head is bowed with the tears dripping off his nose.

He gasps in surprise when he’s roughly pulled into a hug, his neck suddenly wet when someone presses their face into it.

“Hyung-“

“I’m sorry Henry. I’m sorry hyung couldn’t protect you,” Sungmin sobs into his neck.

How could he have NOT noticed this?! Was he that stupid?! He let his best friend get beat up by that kid and he didn’t even have a clue. His chest constricts as he opens his eyes and sees the bruises along his collarbone and chest. How could someone, being only nine nonetheless, have done this to a kid?!

“Hyung, don’t be like this,” Henry’s voice is hoarse and his lip starts to bleed from biting it.

More arms join and Henry can’t help the cry from his lips. He forces his arms to respond to both Kyuhyun’s and Sungmin’s hugs and wonders if this is what it feels like to have someone care for you.

Sungmin feels his leg go slowly go numb from putting all of his weight on it for a long period of time. Where was this kid; it’s been thirty minutes after school! From next to him, he could hear Kyuhyun blast spaceships or something like that on his game as his foot tapped on the wall. Henry had stayed home from school because of Heechul’s worrying about stress and stuff like that. This was the perfect moment to get his revenge for Henry with him gone. All that was missing was the devil. Speak of the devil.

“Hyung,” Kyuhyun warns, glancing up from his game to give him a stern look despite being younger.

“Kyuhyun,” Sungmin rolls his eyes and pushes off the wall, starting his walk over to Seungho.

“Don’t do anything stupid!” Kyuhyun yells, but Sungmin is already half way across the courtyard, waving off his concern.

“Yah, Yang Seungho! Come here!” Sungmin calls, jogging up to the boy now.

“Neh, hyung?” Seungho looks up from his under eyelids giving off a tired and annoyed aurora.

This furthers to anger Sungmin and Seungho finds himself pushed against the wall, two hands on his collar.

“You brat, you hurt Henry didn’t you? You’re the cause of all those bruises on his chest! AREN’T YOU?!” Sungmin screams, slamming him back against the wall.

He wanted to hear Seungho say it so he had a reason for kicking in his teeth.

“Answer me!” A hard slap echoes throughout the courtyard as Seungho falls to the ground.

Sungmin can hear Kyuhyun yell from across the courtyard and what sounds like him running over. Sungmin doesn’t really care though. He watched as Seungho gets up, a hand on his cheek and disbelief written all over his face. Sungmin scowls and swings his foots up to Seungho’s jaws. Hands claw at Sungmin’s arm, tugging him away from the boy. Sungmin rips his arm free and crouches down next to Seungho.

“Come on hyung, you’ve done enough,” Kyuhyun begs, looking around frantically in case any teachers were near.

Sungmin ignores the boy and pulls Seungho’s face close to his.

“Don’t you evertouch Henry again or the rest of those baby teeth will be shoved down your throat,” the threat isn’t much, but it still has Seungho whimpering and pressed up against the wall in fear.

Sungmin’s read to bust heads as he watches Heechul concern over Henry and his wounds. He can’t believe it! Seungho freaking beat him up…again! He thought that kick would’ve put some sense into his skull but apparently it only made the boy more stupid or suicidal – they both mean the same thing in this situation. He bites his lip and walks up to Henry while Heechul rushes to the bathroom in search of the first-aid kit.

“Hyung, you talked to him didn’t you,” Henry whispers, looking up at Sungmin with tear filled eyes.

Sungmin looks away guiltily and nods his head.

“Why?”

“Family stick up for each other.”

Heechul sat on the stairs, staring down the hallways, at a particular door. He wanted to go in there, but after seeing Sungmin like that…Yes, THE Kim Heechul was scared of Lee Sungmin. Have you SEEN Heechul’s muscles? No? Point proven.

Come on Heechul! Just go in there! Stop being a wimp!Heechul pushed off the floor and made his way over to Henry’s room. He stuck his head and found the trio all awake.

“Hyung!” Henry smiled and sat up much to Sungmin’s disapproval.

Heechul smiles sadly at the boy and made his way inside to the foot of Henry’s bed.

“Can I talk to Henry…alone?” Heechul raises an eyebrow as Sungmin bares his teeth for the second time in a less that an hour at the older.

“Sungmin-hyung, please?” Henry pleads, placing his hand over Sungmin’s. Sungmin looks down at the boy and melts at his pout.

“Come on Kyu,” Sungmin mutters, stomping out the room.

“…supposed to be his hyung so act like it and get your act together” Heechul couldn’t help but think of Han Geng’s words in this situation at the moment. He was right; he didn’t need to be scaring the kids, he needed to be there in their time of need. It was Henry and the rest first, him last. Heechul sighed as he watched Kyuhyun nervously leave the room, the silence quickly taking over.

“Henry…I’m sorry. Is your cheek alright?” Heechul whispers, kneeling down beside the bed and brushing the bruise softly.

“It’s okay hyung, I shouldn’t have jumped in, but I didn’t want to see Leeteuk-hyung hurt for trying to protect you. Is hyung okay?”

Heechul doesn’t know if he’s talking about Leeteuk or him, but that doesn’t matter. He pulls Henry into his chest and squeezes.

“Hyung’s fine. Oh Henry,” Heechul whispers, smoothing down Henry’s hair before placing a kiss on his forehead.

Heechul moves to get up and leave but Henry grabs his hand.

“Can you sleep with me?”

“Aren’t you a little too old for this Henry?” Heechul chuckles, but is already moving to lay beside Henry.

The situation seems all too familiar as he pulls Henry into his arms. He knows what’s coming next.

“Hyung?”

“Yes Henry?”

“I’m going to miss Han Geng-gege,” the truth comes out along with tears from both sides. Heechul tightens his hold on Henry and bites his lip.

“I will too Henry-ah. I will too.”

“I’ll always come back for you.”

A/N: So short. T.T I wanted to get SOMETHING up. I'm having the most horrible writers block ever. Doesn't help that I've been sick for the past week. Guys, I'm gonna put this on hiatus. I wanna try something new and maybe finish this story before I post anything else up. Spring Break is here for me so I'll be able to think. But, besides that, thank you to darexvyn, M3IQ1heartSUJU, Michiru097, and skull boy for commenting. Thank you to Sarahdoll for commenting and subscribing! Welcome to The Other Boy! ^.^

Thanks loves and please bear with me! I'll try to come back as soon as possible! MWAH. Bye loves~!