The next morning, Jeonghan woke up to a voice, the sound of Mingyu’s voice. Jeonghan opened his eyes to squint at the clock, it was 7:33 in the morning. The sun had barely risen yet. Mingyu sounded like he was outside their room so he couldn’t hear too well what he was saying. After about three more seconds of trying to eavesdrop Jeonghan finally decides to just get up and find him. He got out of bed and took a quick look around their large bedroom, he quickly noticed that the doors to their balcony were cracked open. That must be where Mingyu was, and as he walked across the room to the doors there he found him. Leaning against the railing on the phone, which was on speaker, talking to who he guessed was someone from QM. But judging by what he could now hear from the conversation he might be wrong.

“Who do you think could possibly bail him out hyung?” Mingyu had to be talking to his brother, there’s no one else he called hyung.

“I have no idea Mingyu-ah, as far as the investigation said, as the people associated in dad’s murder were in jail with him.” Mingi’s voice came from the phone, confirming Jeonghan’s thoughts.

“Wait what do you mean were?”

“I just got word that his friends got bailed out too, this morning. They’re all on the loose now.”

“You’ve got to be ing with me hyung.” Mingyu said rubbing his eyes.

“I wish I was. This is the last thing I wanted to have to worry about, again. but I’m especially worried about you. I mean you have Jeonghan and Daejung now, you can’t deal with this.”

“I know, that’s why I need to end this as soon as possible.”

“I’m here for you Mingyu-ah. Anything you need I’ll help you, you know that.”

“I do hyung. Thank you, I don’t know what I’d do without you here to help me. The last thing I want is to get Jeonghan hyung involved in this, especially after last time.”

“This’ll be over soon Mingyu-ah. I gotta go now, but I’ll call you if I hear anything else.”

“Thanks hyung.”

            And just like that the call ended. Leaving Mingyu with his head hung over the railing, taking a deep almost painful sigh. Jeonghan stood at the door watching him for a little while longer before finally walking over to him.

“Good Morning.” Jeonghan said rubbing his back, soothing him, feeling Mingyu relax under his touch.

“Good Morning hyung. I’m guessing I woke you up?” Mingyu sounded guilty, which made Jeonghan’s heart ache a little.

“No, I was about to get up anyway, it’s almost time to wake up Daejung.”

“You heard the part about the others getting bailed out too?”

“Yeah.” Jeonghan sighed.

“I should have known peace wouldn’t last long.” Mingyu let out a breathy laugh, Jeonghan could tell he was irritated, as his back tensed up again.

“We will come out of this Mingyu-ah, you just need to believe it. I believe we will, and I believe in you.”

“But, it’s different this time. We have no idea where he is now, he could be right on top of us and we’d have no idea.” Mingyu turned to Jeonghan, “He attempted to put a kill order out on you, just think of what he’ll do now.”

“Mingyu,” Jeonghan said holding his face, “I need you to have faith okay. I walked with you through thick and thin remember? And I will walk with you through thicker and thinner. I’m not going down easy, if he wants to harm us, he’ll go down too.”

            Jeonghan had a look of fire in his eyes. Mingyu wasn’t surprised, he was always the more aggressive and protective one in the relationship. He hated injustice and fought for what was right. And now that Daejung is in their life now he was even more so. Mingyu was about to respond when a tired little voice hit their ears,

“Daddy, I’m hungry.” Daejung whined, rubbing his tummy.

“Okay sweetheart, I’ll be right down alright, go wait downstairs.” Jeonghan replied, he couldn’t help but smile at Daejung ever growing cuteness.

            Daejung let out a soft groan as he shuffled out of their room, leaving them alone once again. Jeonghan turned back at Mingyu, who still had his eyes in the direction Daejung just walked off to and Jeonghan could tell what he was thinking.

“We’ll be okay Mingyu. We will.” Jeonghan rubbed his thumb over his cheek.

“I love you and Daejung so much.” Mingyu said, sounding as if he was seconds from crying.

“We love you too.” Jeonghan then placed a soft yet meaningful kiss on Mingyu’s lips, “Now let’s go before Daejung faints from starvation.”

            But as the next week went by Mingyu seemed to only be getting worse. Mingyu stayed on the phone, making calls to what seemed like a different person every day. There were nights where Jeonghan would go bed alone. Whenever he came home from work he would only say two words to him and Daejung before retreating to his office. Jeonghan could tell it was bothering Daejung but he felt so helpless. He knew why Mingyu was like this and yet he couldn’t help in anyway. It wasn’t until Saturday, that things took a turn for the worst. Mingyu had gotten a call that morning saying he had to rush to work for a last minute meeting. That was around 10 in the morning, it is now past midnight and Mingyu is still not back yet. Jeonghan hadn’t received a call of any kind from anyone, and he was beyond worried. So he decided to call someone who happens to know everything,

“Hello, Seokmin?”

“Hey Jeonghan hyung.” Seokmin’s voice was raspy, he must have woken him up.

“Sorry for calling so late Seokmin-ah. I just need your help with something.”

“What do you need hyung? Are you okay? You sound upset.” Seokmin now sounded fully awake.

“It’s about Mingyu. He got called into work today but he’s still not home yet. Do you or Hana perhaps know anything about that?”

“Mingyu got called in? I though today was his day off?”

“It is, but he said he had a last minute meeting to go to. I thought it was weird but I just let it go.” Now Jeonghan knew something was up, and he thinks he know why.

“Where do you think he might be?”

“I have an idea but I can’t go about it alone.”

“Just say the word and I’ll be there.”

“Can you come by tomorrow morning? And bring Hana with you.”

“We’ll be there.”

            Jeonghan was hoping by the next morning Mingyu would show up but the space by him in the bed was ice cold. His office was empty and his truck wasn’t outside. It was just him and Daejung. Daejung asked where Mingyu was that morning at breakfast, and it pained Jeonghan to have to lie to him, but the last he needed was Daejung to be worried about something like this. By 9:30, Seokmin and Hana arrived. Hana happily played with Daejung while Jeonghan and Seokmin talked in Mingyu’s office,

“What’s wrong hyung?”

“Lee Minseok and his friends got bailed out of jail.” Jeonghan just blurted it out.

“What!? I didn’t even know they got bail.”

“That makes three of us.”

“So, you think this has something to do with Mingyu being gone yesterday.”

“I know it does, Mingyu would never do something like this for no reason. He has been so stressed about this he hasn’t been sleeping, eating, he’s always been on the phone. But the past week, he just suddenly stopped, went back to normal as if nothing happened. Everything about it just wasn’t right, but I didn’t question it. But this sudden disappearance, it has to be because of Lee Minseok.”

“So you want to go look for him”

“It’s creepy how you read my mind sometimes.” That is exactly what Jeonghan was planning on doing.

“Hyung, we’ve been friends for almost six years, you give me a look and I know what you’re thinking.”

“That’s the truth.” Jeonghan barely had to say a word for Seokmin to be able to know what he wants.

“But where do you think he might even be? I mean as far as I know Mingyu doesn’t have that many friends.”

“His brothers house. I’ve noticed that almost every night he talks to his brother, but I can never hear what they’re talking about. All I know is that they’re clearly up to something.”

“And how can you be so sure? What if they’re just having brotherly conversations, I mean they haven’t talked in a while anyway, not to mention they’ve be practically enemies their whole childhood. Maybe their just trying to take back the years they’ve lost.”

“Seokmin, if they wanted to do that they wouldn’t have waited until Lee Minseok got out of prison. Mingi didn’t even show up to Daejung’s third birthday party. I mean why would it take something like this for them to suddenly want to catch up like old times? You would think that effort would be done regardless.”

“Well, yeah. That’s true, but still even if he is over there we still don’t know exactly why. I just don’t think you should jump to conclusions because you’re lost hyung.”

“I know, but I just need to know.” Jeonghan was desperate.

“Well, have you tried calling him hyung?”

Then Jeonghan’s mind almost exploded, the most obvious thing to do and he hasn’t even thought of doing it. How could he be so stupid? So he whipped out his phone and clicked Mingyu’s number, putting it on speaker. It rang three times before he picked up,

“Hey hyung.” Mingyu sounded so nonchalant, for some reason it made Jeonghan a little pissed.

“Where are you?” Jeonghan didn’t even bother to say hello back.

“I’m at Mingi hyung’s house.” Jeonghan looked up at Seokmin with an ‘I told you so’ look, making Seokmin roll his eyes.

“But why? You said you had a meeting and you just don’t show up for a whole day. Do you know how worried I was? I had to lie to Daejung because I had no idea where you were, and considering what’s happening right now, you just up and disappearing is not what I need right now Mingyu.” Jeonghan was trying his best not to shout, but with every breath he got more angry.

“I’m sorry hyung, I really am. I didn’t plan on staying the night but the truck got a flat tire, so I called Mingi hyung and he gave me a ride to his place. I was going to call you but when I got there I realized it was already past midnight and I left my phone in the truck. And Mingi hyung works the night shift so he didn’t have time to go back and get it for me until morning.”

“Why didn’t you call from Mingi’s phone?”

“Because you don’t like answering unknown numbers, you wouldn’t have picked up.” Mingyu was right, Jeonghan never answers unknown numbers.

“Wait, so you were really at a meeting? At work?” Jeonghan was still skeptical.

“Yeah, it ran late. We were debating the move to go public for like the three hundredth time, these new execs are stubborn. But we finally broke ground today, we should be going public by next month, hopefully.”

“Oh.” Jeonghan believed him, Mingyu has never lied to him before so he knows he’s telling the truth, “Well, when are you coming home?”

“Actually I’m at the door.”

“You are?”

“Dad!”

Jeonghan heard Daejung’s little voice squeal and he clicked off the phone. He walked out of Mingyu’s office with Seokmin behind him and there he was. Mingyu was standing in the front doorway with Daejung in his arms.

“Dad, where were you? You missed giving me a goodnight kiss.” Daejung pouted.

“I’m sorry bud . Dad had a very long meeting, and then I got a flat tire so I had to spend the night at uncle Mingi’s house.” Mingyu said kissing Daejung’s cheeks after.

“Oh, daddy was very worried about you, you know. He was looking very sad.”

“He was?” Guilt was written all over Mingyu’s face.

“Yeah, but I told daddy lots of jokes to make him laugh.”

“That’s very sweet of you Daejung-ah. I guess I can trust you to look after daddy when I’m away for work huh?”

“Yeah, I can do it!”

“Thank you Daejung-ah.”

            Mingyu put Daejung back on the ground and walked over to Jeonghan wrapping his arms around him. Jeonghan breathed him in, unraveling in his warmth. Even though it was only one day he was gone, it felt like forever.

“Don’t you leave again. If you get a flat tire, just call me and I’ll come get you alright.”

“Yes, hyung.”