Donghyuck, true to his word, did spend his time reading books all day, lying down on the bed as he held the book above him, ignoring how tired his arms were getting. 

He was so engrossed in his reading for what must have been at least two hours that he almost missed someone knocking on the door, calling out his name. 

Disoriented from reality a bit, Donghyuck set his book down beside him and sat up, rubbing his eyes from staring at pages for too long. “What happened?” he yelled, yawning. 

He heard someone ask, “May I come in?” 

Oh, right, the superhuman. 

Donghyuck nodded for a second before realizing that Mark wasn’t in the room with him. “Yeah, go ahead,” he said, yawning again. 

The door opened slowly, Mark poking in his head. “I think your older brother is worried about you,” he said quietly, as if Johnny were to hear them. “Are you okay?”

“I mean-” Donghyuck picked up his book and waved it. “I told him I was reading. I don’t know when he interpreted that to be miserable, but he has issues, I think.”

Mark didn’t say anything for a few seconds, merely blinking in response. “Are you miserable?” he asked finally. 

Donghyuck glared at him. “Uh, what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. “Don’t tell me I look miserable.”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just-” Mark scratched the back of his neck, cheeks flustered. “I mean, your brother must know you better, it’s why I’m asking.” 

Oh. That makes sense, Donghyuck supposed. “Well, he acts like he knows me,” Donghyuck insisted. “Johnny is such an oddball, don’t listen to him. He worries about the dumbest stuff.”

Mark nodded in understanding. The fact that he probably hasn’t even been alive for probably more than one month, Donghyuck assumed, yet showed more emotion than Doyoung was really interesting-

Hey, no wonder things have been feeling weird lately. Doyoung wasn’t around to forced him to do aegyo. 

He would take that tortue over this any day. 

“You know what?” Donghyuck said, standing up from the bed. “I am miserable, all because Johnny decided to panic over nothing. So I was being choked to death by you, big deal.”

Mark frowned. “Excuse me, I did what?”

“You tried to murder me?” Donghyuck reminded him. “Do you… really not remember?”

Mark remained quiet, and for a split second Donghyuck wondered if he accidentally made the robot - sorry, superhuman - short circuit (that’s the mechanical version of having an existential crisis, right?) until Mark spoke again. 

“I was created for good,” Mark said finally. “By the royal scientist Jung Jaehyun. I don’t understand why I would be controlled for harm.”

“Wait, why would you be controlled?” Donghyuck asked him. “That’s- that’s creepy, not gonna lie.”
 

He didn’t know how much he could tell Donghyuck. “It’s just the way I was made,” Mark explained. “But when I am controlled, those memories are stored in the control panel, which your brother ripped out of me.”

Blame Johnny for being an idiot. “Yeah, that might be a bummer,” Donghyuck agreed. “So… you can’t tell me why you wanted to murder me.”

“Unfortunately,” Mark finished. “And whatever it was… I really do apologize.”

Donghyuck shrugged. If it weren’t for Mark for trying to kill him twice, Johnny wouldn’t have overreacted and taken him practically to the other side of the whole entire world. (Or, to the countryside, whatever.) “Eh, bad people exist,” he said. “And it’s not like your lying, I’ve seen the wires in your eyes. Hey, doesn’t that hurt, by the way?”

Mark shook his head. “No, my cells were grown around it,” he explained. “They’re a part of me, so my immune system doesn’t detect them to be dangerous.”

“Sounds creepy,” Donghyuck said. “Not to sound like an idiot, but I don’t really know much about engineering, only from these kits Johnny would bring me every now and then, but they’re, like, basic compared to, I don’t know, creating a whole human from scratch.”

“It is a complicated process,” Mark said, fighting the urge to laugh. “But… I like to believe that a lot of things are possible.”

Donghyuck thought of his parents, remembering the apple roses his mother used to make him. “Most things, anyways,” he muttered. 

He didn’t hear Mark say anything, so he looked up, only to notice Mark stepping closer to him. “I hope you don’t continue to be miserable,” he said quietly. “I don’t like seeing you like this.”

Donghyuck rolled his eyes at first. This Mark person… thing… superhuman… was just as weird as his brother. 

However, he couldn’t help but appreciate the gesture, even if it was essentially meaningless. “Thanks, Mark,” he said. “That means a lot.”

***

“Today is a new day, Chen Le!” Yangyang said excitedly, clapping his hands together. “We should try to find more worms.”

Today, Xiaojun asked them if they could spend an hour or so picking any ripe vegetables in his garden, so that’s what they were going to do. Yangyang, however, clearly had different plans. 

“I don’t think you should move the soil around too much,” Chen Le said, trying to think of all of the wisdom he heard grandmothers in the markets say to each other over the years. “The roots are, well, rooted in the ground and you might move it.”

Yangyang made an exaggerated sad face. “I really wanted to see a worm today,” he mumbled.

“Yangyang, it’s gardening, we’re bound to see a worm at one point.” Chen Le grabbed one of the woven baskets that they had grabbed to put in the vegetables and handed it to Yangyang. “Come on, we get stuff to pick.”

“Promise that we’ll see a worm?” Yangyang asked him, putting the basket on his head. 

Chen Le sighed. “Yes, Yangyang, I promise we’ll see a worm,” he told his best friend. 

“Ooh, ooh, what if we see PRINCE HENDERY TODAY?!” Yangyang yelled, skipping around with the basket covering his eyes. “He’s so cool-”

Normally, Chen Le would deny it, saying it was already unlikely for them to have meant any royals in their life once, much less twice, but considering how he’s already seen Prince Jisung twice… now that was insane and honestly a bit creepy. 

“Yangyang, you can’t even see with the basket on your head,” Chen Le pointed out.

Yangyang turned to stare at him - well, it would have been staring if he could see Chen Le. “I actually like this basket on my head, thank you very much,” he said. “Plus, I look really rad in it.”

Figuring Yangyang wasn’t going to take the basket off his head, Chen Le grabbed two more, one for him to use and one for Yangyang to not use as a hat. “It is made out of bamboo,” Chen Le said. “You do have a point.”

“That’s cause I’m smart,” Yangyang said, skipping to where the tomato plants were, watching the ground beneath him to figure out where to go. “Man, I don’t remember the last time I’ve had any bamboo shoots.”

Chen Le walked behind him slowly, taking his time. “Me neither,” he said as well. “Though maybe soon we can buy a few with our gold coins.”

“And maybe have a pet worm!” Yangyang said, picking up speed, as he was really desperate to see a worm. “Man, I love worms.” 

At that moment, Chen Le could see a man approaching Yangyang, waving at him, all dressed in fancy clothing, and although he looked familiar, he couldn’t exactly pinpoint it, but he swore, if it was another royal-

Yangyang, still having the basket on his head, unintentionally changed his direction and was now sprinting towards the man, not knowing the guy was there. “-and I’m going to name my pet worm Eleven- !”

Chen Le picked up his pace but was too late to warn Yangyang, who now fell over the stranger, the two falling down together on the ground, and now that Chen Le was a bit closer, he could see that the man was- oh, hell no-

Prince Hendery, aka the prince of the China Kingdom, was now on the floor, Yangyang on top of him, basket still on his head and with no clue of what just happened.

Yangyang lifted his basket-covered head from Hendery’s chest, staring down. “I think I’m going to faint-”

Hendery slowly took the basket off of Yangyang’s head, now meeting his eyes. “I would really appreciate it if you didn’t faint right now,” he said, brushing a strand of Yangyang’s hair away from his face. 

When their eyes met, Yangyang froze, gripping tightly onto Hendery’s shirt. To be fair, Yangyang was on top of him- oh my god, he was on top of him-

“Yangyang!” The two of them turned their heads to see Chen Le running up to them, out of breath. “And you! Again?! Are you and Prince Jisung trying to murder us or something-"

“No, no! I just- I just came to say hello!” Hendery said, trying to defend himself. “And I was sure the fellow under the basket was Yangyang-”

Yangyang stared at the ground in front of him. “I’m either dreaming or I’m really going to faint-”

“Please don’t, I would hate to see you injured,” Hendery said, still beneath him. 

“I think- oh my god, I’m so sorry, your highness!” Yangyang said, scrambling to get off of Hendery. “I really didn’t mean to fall on you, I just- I couldn’t see-”

“No, you’re perfectly fine!” Hendery said, looking dejected when Yangyang got off him. “It was my fault, I saw you and I knew you had a basket on your head- oh, speaking off which-” Hendery managed to get himself up, hands smothering over his pants as he tried to dust off any dirt off them (not that it mattered, there were permanent grass stains on them.) “Are you busy at the moment?”

Yangyang picked up the fallen basket on the ground and held it closer to his chest, glancing behind him to see a confused Chen Le before speaking up. “I- me and my best friend were going to go pick up tomatoes!” he said, bowing down, refusing to look at Hendery in the eye. He couldn’t help but steal a peak, though. “And I wanted to find some worms.” 

Hendery tilted his head, confused. “Worms, you say?”

Chen Le had no idea what type of tension was going on between Yangyang and Hendery, thinking Yangyang’s inner fanboy was just having an existential crisis, so he decided to help ease some of the tension. “Yangyang and I are helping someone do gardening, Prince Hendery,” Chen Le explained. “It’s how we planned to spend our morning.”

Hendery nodded in understanding. “Sure, I- I mean, gardening is wonderful, a necessary hobby,” he said, muttering to himself. “Mind if I help?”

***

“Hey, hey, hey, Taeyong, where are you going?” Jaehyun said. “Taeyong!” 

Taeyong had run into the smaller room and was just about to close the door on Jaehyun when the latter managed to reach the door. “Sir,  please leave me alone.”

“Wait, Taeyong, calm down-” Jaehyun insisted, entering the room with Taeyong and closing the door behind them. “Look, I’m- I’m sorry, okay?”

“Sorry about what?” Taeyong mumbled, covering his stomach with his arms. 

Jaehyun had never seen Taeyong this visibly upset. “I didn’t mean to, I guess, what’s the word… look, I know it’s not excusable, I know I’m and I know eating isn’t really on my mind,” he explained, “but you really don’t have to worry about me.”

Taeyong looked away. “But I do worry about you,” he mumbled. “And you don’t get that."

Now Jaehyun was getting curious, despite being taken aback. “What do you mean worry?” he asked him, making his voice quieter to not provoke Taeyong. “Worry about what?”

Taeyong didn’t say anything, rubbing his hands over his arms. 

…. “Taeyong?” Jaehyun asked again. 

“I’m worried about losing you,” Taeyong said finally. “Lee-eun makes threats to you and- and then we have to think about what will happen to you when the royal family finds out about the situation and then your health and I- I just can’t, Jung Jaehyun.”

Jaehyun nodded, scratching the back of his head. “Taeyong,” he said after a few seconds of silence. “I didn’t put you here on this Earth to serve me or to worry about me, I just-”

“It’s not because you created me,” Taeyong whispered. “It’s not. I just love you, Jaehyun and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

I just love you, Jaehyun.

Jaehyun didn’t look at Taeyong, instead, stepping forward to grab his hand slowly. “Say that again,” Jaehyun whispered. 

Taeyong looked up to look at him. “Say what again?” 

“The I love you part,” Jaehyun said, feeling how fast his heart was beating in his chest. “That you mean it.”

He looked up to see Taeyong stare at him, confused. “Why wouldn’t I mean I love you?” Taeyong asked softly. 

Jaehyun pulled Taeyong’s hand closer to him, leaning in. “I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “I just don’t want to doubt it.”

Taeyong stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking again. “I love you,” he repeated. “And… I think I’m always going to worry-”

At that point, Jaehyun kept leaning in forward, and Taeyong had a feeling he knew what Jaehyun was going to do since he always heard Jaemin tell him and Renjun stories involving romance, but it was still different when it was happening to you.

He instinctively closed his eyes when Jaehyun was a good three inches away from him, and he softly felt a pair of lips on his own.

Taeyong leaned in as well, instantly feeling the kiss deepen, and he didn’t open his eyes when he felt Jaehyun pull away slowly, his intense hearing allowing him to hear how fast their heart rates have increased-

The door of the room slammed open. “SIR, I’M BURNING THE PASTA!” Jaemin yelled at the two. “SIR- Woah, what?”

Both Jaehyun and Taeyong widened their eyes and pulled away, startled by the sudden intruder. 

Renjun appeared behind Jaemin. “I told him it wasn’t burning and he’s not listening to me,” he said. “I think dinner will be ready in ten, we should probably set the table.”