"I know that its none of my business but...I think that you're doing way too much for him." 

Kyungsoo was just picking up the frame with Jongin's beautiful photo in it right when Suho dropped that comment. He didn't look behind at Suho who stood against the partitions of their cubicles and watched Kyungsoo pack his stuff. He just smiled at the picture as he answered Suho's speculative opinion, "I will do anything and everything for him. He's the only one I have."

"But Kyungsoo, you will have more work to do and it won't get you even half of what you earn today."  

"Money is not a problem, we have enough of it." Kyungsoo was right. The amount of money he had saved till date was more than enough to last them years even if he had left his job entirely. Plus, his rich- father had transferred a small portion of his property in South Korea (which was still a lot) in the name of Kyungsoo before he abandoned them and flew to America. If Kyungsoo was to compromise with his self respect for a while and accept his father's 'charity', then he wouldn't have to worry about working to earn for himself and Jongin for their entire life. Another source could have been his rich and successful mother, but then again, Kyungsoo was not the one to spread his hands in front of someone who had done him and his dearest Jongin so wrong. Not that he needed to as well, he himself earned way more than most people do, so much so that even the half of it surpassed the average. "What we don't have is time. And for me to finally be able to make that for him is the least I could do." 

Suho didn't reply, probably he was too astounded to say anything. He always admired Kyungsoo a lot for his unfathomable love towards his stepbrother, Suho found it way too amazing. 

After a few minutes of observing Kyungsoo keenly pack all of his stuff and witnessing the table with four years of memories getting cleared up, Suho finally spoke up with a gloomy tone, "Hey...I'll miss you." 

Kyungsoo dropped all those many pens he was holding into the box and turned around to find a very sad looking Suho, which was a rare sight for him. All of a sudden Kyungsoo started sympathising for Suho. The man had literally been nothing but the sweetest to Kyungsoo since the very beginning. And Kyungsoo felt really bad for not being able to give anything back to Suho in return of all the patience, understanding, company and comfort. Something hit him and without saying anything Kyungsoo went forward to give a warm hug to Suho, which lied something in between a friendly and a romantic one. It was a big move for Kyungsoo, for the boy was embarrassed to get any type of attention from his colleagues, who were almost strangers to him even after all those years of working under the same roof. Suho was very well aware of that and so the hug meant everything to him despite the fact that Kyungsoo had not said anything back to him, which was quite obvious since Kyungsoo's life was way too complicated for him to miss a one-time date. Their moment was interrupted by a loud and intended sound of throat clearing. Worrying for the person to be a senior employee, Kyungsoo quickly backed up. 

Fortunately or not, it was Baekhyun. The situation created among the three of them was really awkward. Kyungsoo knew that he hadn't told about his three month old friendship and a failed dinner date with Suho to his then best friend, and this fact very well explained the perplexed expression on Baekhyun's face. But Kyungsoo was not stupid enough to feel guilty about it, after all Baekhyun had done worse to him and all of that mattered nothing after he had already broken all the bonds with Baekhyun.

As if he noticed the frown on Kyungsoo's forehead, Baekhyun tried to drive his confusion away for once and got himself ready for the task he had come to do. 

"Kyungsoo, you've been avoiding me since a week now. That's it. We have to talk it out." 

Kyungsoo simply ignored the agitated blonde and returned to finish up his packing. 

"Listen. There's a lot of things that you don't know, that were misinterpreted, you need to...wait, what?" that was when he noticed the big brown carton and a half empty desk, "Why are you packing your stuff? Are you...are you leaving the job?" 

"No. I'll be working from home." 

"But why?" 

"Because I fired Sehun." Kyungsoo answered nonchalantly again while still sorting the numerous pages and files. 

Baekhyun was totally unimpressed by the reply. After a few seconds of looking at Kyungsoo with a disgusted expression he scoffed out loud and said, "You know what? This is everything wrong with you. You're way too possessive and overprotective towards Jongin. He's already doing better, but no, you had to fire that perfect nurse and follow around Jongin yourself like his shadow. I mean...let the boy breathe. You're spoiling his and your own life as well. You need to understand that-" 

Baekhyun was cut off when Kyungsoo smacked the sheets in his hand down on his table, and gave him a dead stare as he spoke, "Have you broken up with Chanyeol yet?" 

"N-No." 

"Then you better keep your mouth shut. Because I would never take any advice regarding Jongin from someone who clearly doesn't give a  about him and who is dating his ing molester." 

Baekhyun was on the verge of breaking into tears. It was for the first time ever that he had heard such harsh words out of Kyungsoo's mouth for him. Hell, it was for the first time ever that he had heard such harsh words out of Kyungsoo's mouth for anyone. And Baekhyun was way too sensitive to take it. Meanwhile, Suho excused himself and left the place because he was feeling very uncomfortable with that conversation going on. 

Out of hurt or out of anger, Baekhyun almost shouted back at Kyungsoo. "You're so mean. Why would you say that? I do care about Jongin a lot." 

Kyungsoo scoffed and sarcastically said, "Yeah, right. I know." 

"No, you don't. You don't know anything. You don't know that what happened between Jongin and Chanyeol that day was a mutual decision. You don't know that it was Jongin who initiated it." 

"What?" Kyungsoo yelled, at this point he had forgotten that he was at work, he was hopping mad. 

"Yes. Jongin accidentally watched in my computer and got excited. When Chanyeol approached him, Jongin imposed himself on Chanyeol and started demanding what he saw in the ." 

Kyungsoo literally had to curl his hands into fists to keep himself from slapping Baekhyun's face in a fit of anger. "Stop talking . ing stop it." 

"I won't. You need to face the truth. And there's nothing to be mad about. Jongin is also a human, he also has desires and fantasies. It is also possible that he was attracted towards Chanyeol and just couldn't control the urge to-" 

This time Baekhyun was silenced by a tight slap on his face. Kyungsoo didn't know at what moment he lost his patience and let his frustration out through such a move. The sound of the slap was so loud that it caught attention of everyone present there. Baekhyun was not the one to get embarrassed easily, but he definitely was hurt. Out of all the reactions from Kyungsoo he could imagine, this one was the least expected one, and so he lost it then and there and started crying. 

"Thank you for the closure. I'll never show you my face again." 

*************************

From Suho's I'll miss you to Baekhyun's I'll never show you my face again, Kyungsoo's brain was occupied with countless thoughts driving him crazy. He just couldn't stop thinking about the events of the same morning. The good and respectful reputation he had gained over years working in the office was totally washed off in a minute. Way less than Jongin, but Kyungsoo too had issues with being social to many people, he hated getting attention or having people judging him, and so he was highly embarrassed. But it was not the only trauma he was going through. He was also feeling very guilty for having slapped Baekhyun in front of everyone, he finally realised that he took it way too far. Kyungsoo didn't know that one day Baekhyun would be added to the same list as Sehun and Chanyeol, and he regretted it a lot. He could still feel a tingling sensation in the hand he hit Baekhyun with, and almost felt like chopping it off. The slap indeed was too much, but that didn't in any way lessen his anger for Baekhyun and the words he used. In his opinion, Baekhyun had accused Jongin of committing such a contemptible act. Of course Chanyeol had brainwashed Baekhyun, but what provoked Kyungsoo was the fact that Baekhyun actually believed that ert without even thinking twice, either he was head over heels for Chanyeol and so bought any explanation to keep him by his side, or he was just stupid enough to get swayed by such ty claim. 

After the events of past week and long conversations and consultations from Jongdae, Kyungsoo could even believe that Jongin did actually get aroused by accidentally coming across a , he would even accept that Jongin did really like Chanyeol, but never in a million years Kyungsoo would believe that someone who is not even able to express himself properly when he's hungry, would voluntarily come forward and induce someone he called 'hyung' into feeling him up. It just didn't make any sense to Kyungsoo. Also, the scene of Chanyeol forcefully grabbing Jongin's jaw while aggressively grinding him was still crystal clear in his memory, which strongly opposed the blame on Jongin. And Kyungsoo's motherly instincts towards Jongin could never bear someone pointing a finger at his precious Jongin. 

Another thing that kept troubling his brain was the allegation of being overprotective towards Jongin. Kyungsoo never knew that his care, concern and affection for Jongin would ever be labeled as possessiveness. He couldn't exactly understand what Baekhyun meant by saying that he would end up ruining his own and Jongin's life due to that behaviour. But if there was even a slightest possibility of truth in that statement, then Kyungsoo would never be able to forgive himself. 

To the point that his brain would explode, Kyungsoo kept thinking about stuff. But the barrier finally broke when he started crying out loud. Even in the toughest situations, Kyungsoo was the one to silently cry in the corner to not get noticed. But at this point of time, the wild outbrust was necessary. With Jongin probably busy playing in his room, Kyungsoo felt comfortable to cry out loud while sitting in the patio next to the wide, empty and quiet backyard. Each drop of tears released some amount of agony, and the loud sobs relieved him from some of the vexations. 

It had been about ten minutes, and Kyungsoo was still crying his eyes, heart and lungs out with his face covered in his palms. Out of nowhere he felt a sudden warmth surrounding him. The sweet scent and lean waist he was bound to hold was enough for him to recognise that it was no one else but Jongin. He stopped his sobbing session right away, and froze in his place on realising that Jongin had seen him in such a miserable situation. He could hold onto Jongin's body and live in that relaxing embrace forever, but he wanted to know the reason of that sudden endearment, so he pulled away. He held both of Jongin's hand and pulled them down, Jongin sat down on his knees next to a dejected and worn out Kyungsoo. 

After gulping the left cries down his throat, Kyungsoo spoke to Jongin in a hoarse voice, "What are you doing sweetie?" 

"Loving you." 

Kyungsoo was rather confused than happy and excited over the sweet reply that Jongin gave. It was because Jongin never said things like that, these clearly were not his words. He couldn't ask Jongin directly about who taught him that, but gladly enough he noticed that Jongin himself was wanting to explain further. So with his face down, Jongin tried his best to speak coherently- 

"Doctor Minseok told me that...if I would l-love you the way you do...then you...you won't cry." 

Upon hearing that, Kyungsoo was moved to tears yet again, but these were happy tears. He chuckled so that Jongin wouldn't get misleaded by those welled up eyes (even though he was shy now and so was not looking at Kyungsoo). Minseok, Jongin's therapist, probably knew about Jongin the most, he had his ways to extract even the most buried emotions out of Jongin which even Kyungsoo was not aware of. All because Jongin really respected him and obeyed him most of the time, and hence the tremendous improvement in his behaviour. 

It was such a rare moment for Kyungsoo and he was not letting go of even a second of it. Jongin was ready to 'love' Kyungsoo, who happily spreaded both his hands to capture all of it. He sat Jongin down beside him and talked to him for more than an hour. There was nothing to distract Jongin now, he had his full attention at Kyungsoo and making him happy again just like Minseok taught him. They talked about Jongin's sessions with his therapist, about Jongdae, Jongin's new projects, the mathematics, the science, new puzzles and everything. Kyungsoo even told Jongin that he would stay at home from that day, to which Jongin responded by being happy and flapping his hands in excitement. All the doubts were gone, all the pain was vanished and now all Kyungsoo could see was a brighter future ahead. He could see himself being happy, and to be able to see Jongin happy just like he was with Sehun. The night had gone to bring a morning full of hope. The world seemed right again. But if someone was wrong, then it was Baekhyun, Kyungsoo was not spoiling Jongin's life, Baekhyun really was wrong...or was he? 

Kyungsoo noticed that Jongin was tired. After a long day with three hours of sessions and another couple of hours of playing in their garden all by himself, the poor boy was exhausted. So after Kyungsoo's insistence he put his head in the elder's lap and closed his eyes to have a short nap before dinner. Kyungsoo used to have a habit of saying his thoughts out loud whenever he was around Jongin, because the latter usually didn't reply. Although he had stopped doing that ever since he discovered Jongin's diary, it would come back at some points. So seeing Jongin almost asleep, Kyungsoo impulsively gave voice to his thoughts-

"Do you think that I'm being possessive for you? Am I overprotective?" 

A few giggles escaped Jongin's mouth, he was awake and he was listening to Kyungsoo. And what followed those melodious giggles were the words he spoke so casually, which Kyungsoo knew that he would remember for life. 

"I'm yours." 

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Hey everyone !! 

This chapter does not involve any big revelation or turn of events, but personally I feel very attached to it. Let me know your thoughts on this one, your comments make me really happy.

Thank you very much for sticking around. Hope you have a nice day! ♡♡