“To think that the small fry I hired on the side had managed to get you to my office, Jung Yunho.” The mischievous smile of Kim Sooyoung was enough to keep Yunho and Changmin on edge as they entered her office. “Have a seat. We have much to discuss.”

“We do indeed.” Yunho replied as he sat across from him, but Changmin stayed standing, but one motion from Sooyoung was enough for him to join Yunho beside him as well.

In his life, it was rare for Jung Yunho to completely hate people that he had encountered in his life.

Most of them, he had already disposed of, or had cut off, and some, he tolerated until he can no longer see any reason to keep them by his side and in his social circle.

It was even rarer for Jung Yunho to fear someone, especially when he has been acclaimed as one of the most powerful mafia bosses in the country.

Such fear was directed at the Eight Lady Kims of the Gongju Kim Group, most intimately known to himself and his family as Jaejoong’s eight older sisters.

The Gongju Kim Group was a relatively small group that did not deal with the normal matters of the underworld. What they were good at acquiring was something that can make or break an individual in their world, and it could even lead to a group’s destruction: knowledge.

The Eight Lady Kims, headed by the eldest, Kim Yoosoon, who is already a woman with grown sons around his age, is the current head of the family after their parents retired. Jaejoong had to be barely ten years old by the time she took over.

Even though the Gongju Kim Group were Jaejoong’s family, he has been cut off by them in terms of their involvement in the underworld.

From a very young age, Jaejoong had decided not to be in the family business and to make a path for himself.

That was why when he met Jaejoong and decided to do a basic background check on him, he didn’t realize that the Eight Lady Kims were more than capable of warping and producing fabricated information about their younger brother in order to make sure that no connection to them will ever be found, unless Jaejoong was the one who will be revealing it.

Jaejoong did not like the fact that his family is doing such a thing, and his sisters are following the family business, but it was not his place. The Gongju Kim Group is one of the oldest groups in the country, and they keep a low profile about their vast network by making it look like a middle-sized group.

But for the upper echelons of South Korea’s underground, they were as dangerous as the Gwangju Jungs as no one really knows how much power and influence they were holding.

The only thing that Kim Jaejoong could do at that time was to cut off all involvement he had with his sisters by the time he was old enough to understand his family circumstances.

His sisters could not contact him unless it was for emergency or family-oriented purposes, and would only go and see the entire family on special occasions as a dutiful son should do. Other than that, Jaejoong did not want anything to do with the family business at all.

But still, the eight sisters still love their little brother to the point of protecting him from the shadows, which would mean making sure that any traces of the Gongju Kim in Jaejoong’s information files were erased.

Yunho mused that Jaejoong must have not expected to do such a thing for the second time, and this time, he had done it to him.

But then, he wasn’t one to complain seeing as he was the one who was at fault in not coming clean towards him before their marriage.

And that was the catalyst that led him to become a divorced single father.

Now he sat with Changmin at the office of the Gongju Kim Group and in front of his youngest ex-sister-in-law.

It would be an understatement if Yunho said that he was nervous about this meeting. He was expecting that they would give the order of shoot to scare the moment he set foot on Gongju, but to his surprise, nothing happened. For now.

Gongju was the seat of the Eight Lady Kims, and like any powerful organization with intelligence as their forte, they have eyes and ears everywhere.

“Your little intruder in NCT College was enough of a message for you to invite me to talk. You had someone infiltrate and gather information about my son.” Yunho replied to her.

“Oh, that. I heard that he was recently found in a psychiatric hospital with no memory of the past few days.” Sooyoung hummed, “The work of D&E, as expected.”

“I don’t want to be rude, but I would prefer if you cut to the chase. Why send a novice on Yoonoh?” Yunho asked, making sure that he is using Jaehyun’s old name.

“Simple. You wouldn’t answer our inquiries about him as his aunts, so we had to find out what has been going on with him by ourselves.” Sooyoung stated. “Gifts and letters are sent every year, and yet, no reply other than a thank you card.”

Yunho raised a brow, “The divorce agreement states that no other contact beyond that will be made, and Yoonoh’s information will not be updated by you by the time the divorce has been finalized. We even agreed not to mention your existence as his eight aunts with the risk of Yoonoh finding out about what you do. You and your sisters decided on that by assisting Jaejoong on drafting the said divorce papers.”

As much as he hated being reminded of the day of the divorce, and the details that went with it, he had to recall it in order to keep his message across that Yoonoh is off limits, especially to the most powerful intelligence group in the country. It was also for the safety of the boys and Jaejoong that they do not maintain any records in case of treason within their ranks.

“Not in this case, Yunho.” Sooyoung stated.

Changmin raised a brow, “What do you mean, Sooyoung-sshi?”

Sooyoung sighed as he handed them her tablet that she had kept open by the time she welcomed the two of them in her office. “Within the divorce agreement, we agreed on something in case something happens, did we not?”

Yunho accepted the tablet that was handed to him and skimmed through the information that was on the screen. Sooyoung gave them a moment to take in the brief information she had on it, hoping that it will make things very clear for them.

From the widening of their eyes until they were replaced by enraged ones, Sooyoung knew that it got her message across. “This information is exactly the reason why we need Yoonoh’s location and to ensure that no one else will be able to know where he is and what he looks like.”

Placing the tablet down at the table between them, Yunho replied, “To think that this will escalate this way…” he muttered. “But you don’t have to worry about Yoonoh’s location. He is perfectly good where he is right now.”

From the look on Sooyoung’s face, she was not satisfied with Yunho’s answer, “We traced him to NCT. Do you really think that he would not be found there when we have?”

That was when Changmin’s smile appeared, surprising Sooyoung. She had acknowledged that Shim Changmin always had the necessary information that he could bring to Yunho using his vast connections that is on par with them. To see him looking like that would mean…

“And we are assuring you, Yoonoh is safe where he is now. Where no one other than a select few know about.” Changmin told her.

Sooyoung, not really believing what Changmin was saying, looked at Yunho, looking for a confirmation. “Yunho, where is my nephew?”

Yunho looked at Changmin in silent conversation. It was always something that they found amusing regarding the bond between the two of them that went beyond master and subordinate, to the point where they could be called brothers in all but blood.

After a few seconds of eye contact, Yunho looked back at Sooyoung, “All I can say is...I don’t know.”

“...what?” Sooyoung let out, not believing what she was saying. “Jung Yunho, I swear, we had an agreement on paper that you would tell us where Yoonoh is in case something happens and is threatening his life! We let you pass ten years ago when you did not inform us immediately of an attempted assassination since they barely reached him, but this time, we have traitors who may be feeding information to our enemies by using the allies!”

“And I’m telling you now, Sooyoung-noona, I don’t know.” Yunho clarified. “And that kind of knowledge is the best way to deter them from ever attempting to harm my son again. For the past ten years, only a handful of people had ever seen him after the last attempt. Do you really think I will not expect this a second or a third time?” Yunho asked her. “My son is safer out of everyone’s radars, including mine.”

“And you agreed with this logic?” Sooyoung asked Changmin.

The man in question only raised his hands, “Well, yes. I agree that he is safer out of our radar.” he told her. “And it’s better that way, trust me.”

“You...actually told Yoonoh to run and hide? What the hell Jung Yunho!” Sooyoung said. “There is nothing more important than keeping family members safe, and to do that, we need to know where they are! How could you?”

“Because I am his father, and I know more than anyone else that he is safer out of our world. You did that with Jaejoong, and if you’re telling me that my method is wrong by sneaking him out of our world, then you can call yourself and your family hypocrites.” Yunho said sternly. “You may be his aunts, but I am his father. Whatever I deem is safe for him, the better.”

With a groan, Sooyoung could only lean on her seat and stared at the pair. “You’re not making it any easier on all of us to move forward. We need to ensure that our movements will not affect him in the long run.”

“You can make your move without involving Yoonoh. He’s already twenty and has made his decision about this. After all, you managed to keep to yourselves for the past ten years, what’s the next few months?” Yunho told them.

“What if I tell you that it involves Jaejoong? Will this change your mind?”

“Why are you involving Jaejoong in all of this? You clearly have been keeping him off the family business the moment he became a teenager.” Yunho growled, mad that his ex-sister-in-law was using his ex-husband for information.

“Because, Yunho, the suspected mastermind is someone who will definitely do anything to destroy you and to have Jaejoong to himself, even if it means eliminating the ‘extra baggages.’”

At that statement, the room turned cold as Siberia upon processing the information.

There was only one man that would ever try to destroy Yunho for good and to have Jaejoong all to himself.

He was the reason they had to divorce in the first place, and Yunho, ever since then, had cursed his existence since the day he realized that he had lingering eyes on Jaejoong even during their marriage.

“Kim Hyunjoong...” Yunho growled.

…

Jaehyun’s Apartment

Jaehyun woke up with a heavy head and body.

He figured it was because he had been pulling a lot of all-nighters this week since he was taking extra pre-requisite classes that Eunwoo and the rest of his batchmates had already taken the previous year.

Their professors decided to simultaneously torture their students with reports and paper reports within the same week, and Jaehyun had to go left and right from his school work in his regular to his extra classes. He could have asked for an extension on the extra classes, but that would be asking for too much, and his pride won’t allow it. If there was a task that he is given, he would always make sure not to half- it and to submit it before the deadline each and every time.

His dad taught him to finish what he was given, and he always lived by his teachings, no matter how much of an old man it makes him sometimes.

When he had submitted all of his reports yesterday without a hitch, the moment he got home from work, he immediately crashed on his bed.

Now a few hours later, Jaehyun could feel the heaviness of his body and surprisingly, he was feeling a little dizzy. Groaning in slight pain, he looked at his phone to see the time. He was supposed to meet his friends at eight at the nearby diner…

His eyes widened at the time and the numerous texts and missed calls from his friends. “What? How could it be ten already?” Jaehyun groaned as he sprang from his bed and immediately regretted it. The moment he got up, his dizziness worsened complete with a heavy pounding in his head. “Ow…” he groaned. “I have to get ready and meet them. Hopefully they won’t get angry…”

As soon as he said that, the doorbell rang, which made Jaehyun’s head pound even more.

“I’m coming…” he replied as he went to his front door, only to find Eunwoo and the others standing outside.

“What happened to you?” Eunwoo let out as soon as they got a good look at Jaehyun who was really worse for wear.

“Good morning to you too.” Jaehyun replied. “I’m sorry I slept in, give me a few minutes to get ready and…”

“OH NO YOU DON’T MISTER.” MJ shrieked and pulled Jaehyun back inside and dragged him back to bed.

The others did not protest MJ dragging him, and for good reason.

“You’re pale, warm to the touch, and I don’t have to touch your forehead to know you have a fever.” the eldest stated and tucked him into the covers. “Eunwoo, get his temperature, Rocky, find his first aid kit and see if you can find some medicine, JinJin and Moonbin, heat up the breakfast we bought for him, and Sanha, adjust the temperature and boot up the humidifier that I saw at the living room. Now.”

At the rare commanding voice of Kim Myungjun, everyone stiffened and saluted at the eldest and began scrambling around Jaehyun’s apartment.

The said apartment owner could only groan under the sheets while everyone took care of him. There was no use resisting.

For the first time in years, Jaehyun was sick.

…

“39.4 degrees celsius. You have a high fever.” he told the bedridden Jaehyun.

“‘M sorry...we were supposed to go to the dance studio today…” Jaehyun groaned as he looked at Eunwoo apologetically.

MJ left his bedside after eating and is now preparing a basin of ice cold water by raiding his freezer for the ice cubes while grabbing a wet towel, JinJin and Moonbin were at the kitchen cleaning up the utensils after Jaehyun ate the food that they bought that was supposed to be for his late breakfast, Rocky was rummaging through the first aid kit finding medicine, while Sanha was re-adjusting the temperature of the entire apartment to make him comfortable, and at the same time, gearing up the humidifier after looking for an extension cord.

Jaehyun remembered how his childhood friends would also kick up this kind of fuss, and the younger ones would always be banned from seeing him by Taeyong and Doyoung, saying that they may catch his cold, and would always end up with them whining until Yuta manages to distract them to help out to get Jaehyun better faster.

“There’s no need to be sorry, dimple boy.” MJ assured him. “What you need to do now is to get better. We were worried when you didn’t show up at the diner since you always show up on time during work.”

“Thank you…” Jaehyun managed to mumble before groaning in pain as he moved his aching body. It didn’t help that his head was throbbing too.

Eunwoo looked at him with a disapproving look, “No sudden movements, Jaehyun. You have the flu, and the only way to get rid of it is a lot of bed rest, meds and fluids.”

“Yes Mom.” Jaehyun managed to joke as Eunwoo exited his room to join the others.

Jaehyun was about to apologize for bothering all of them, but he had to hold his tongue. His friends had already said that everything was fine and not to apologize, so he did what he had to do. He snuggled in his bed and sunk in his comforter to make himself comfortable.

Within a few moments, Jaehyun was asleep.

MJ, who was wringing the wet towel to put on his forehead, smiled as he noticed Jaehyun’s light snores as he slept. Placing the cold towel on his forehead, he fixed Jaehyun’s comforter before heading out of the bedroom, making sure that the door was just ajar in case Jaehyun would need some help.

“Well, how is he?” JinJin asked.

“Slept as fast as he was told to. He looks worse for wear.” MJ told them.

“He must have pushed himself too much these past few days. “ Moonbin said. “Didn’t the two of you just got out of a hellish reporting week?” he asked his boyfriend.

Eunwoo sighed and sat on one of the couches, “Yeah, but Jaehyun has it harder since he’s taking some required classes that he needs to advance to fourth year. There are some pre-requisite classes that he needs here that he hasn’t gotten in NCT.”

“So he’s losing sleep and no one ever caught up that he was getting stressed.” Moonbin said with a sigh. “He’ll be fine with some bedrest, right?”

MJ nodded. “Did you tell Boss JJ?”

Moonbin nodded. “He was worried, but I told him not to and that we’d be taking care of him for a while. He’ll try to stop by after meeting my uncles at the airport.”

“We should get going and cook him dinner and prepare his meds before we leave then.” Eunwoo stated, “Knowing Jaehyun, he wouldn’t like us to loiter around and worry about him.”

“His place is fully stocked, I checked.” Sanha pointed at Jaehyun’s pantry that was just across the stove.

“Then we’ll just make him some light food and we can leave him for the day. It won’t do if he panics and apologizes again for inconveniencing us.” JinJin said.

It had been obvious that Jaehyun was wary of strangers in his personal space, even in front of his friends. There are times that he is a bit hostile when it comes to his personal effects like his phone or his other gadgets, like his privacy always takes priority with him.

From the beginning, it had always struck them that Jaehyun was not used to working, and the fact that he came from expensive private schools according to his resume, it was a wonder why he wanted to keep things private.

No one had really known Jaehyun’s complete background, and he liked to keep it that way. It made him grateful that he was making friends because he is the way he is rather than what his family name and background has.

Without much protest, they assisted MJ in preparing a simple light chicken soup for Jaehyun after acquainting himself with the said owner’s kitchen.

Moonbin was taking care of tidying up for Jaehyun after seeing the stuff that he had lying on the couch involved some change of clothes, boxes of pairs of sneakers, a duffel bag, and at least two filled water bottles. He must have forgotten to finalize getting ready for their supposed dance studio day, or had left it for the actual day instead. Knowing the fact that he had school matters to attend to, it was understandable. From the checklist that he has, he had been looking forward to it.

‘It reminds me of Appa when we’re packing. It was always so last minute…’ he thought fondly.

As he stored the stuff back to its rightful places, he realized that the sneakers and the clothes needed to be returned to Jaehyun’s room. Knowing that has a sick person, they’re dead to the world while sleeping, Moonbin went in the room and started returning his things one by one.

It only took him a few minutes, and Moonbin had to thank every god out there that Jaehyun was a very tidy man.

Before he exited the room however, he noticed something from the corner of his eye. At the windowsill, was a small desk with a familiar teddy bear and bunny stuffed toys leaning towards each other, and behind them, was a red telephone booth. It was encased in a glass dome music box with a black veneer base. The music box also has the cute windup lever shaped like a balloon and its string.

Moonbin had seen that music box before.

‘In Appa’s office…’

It was in Jaejoong’s office at home that he had always seen that music box as a kid, placed at the right side of his wide office table just beside their old family photo of fourteen years ago. And it has been sitting there ever since they moved into the penthouse.

Seeing this in Jaehyun’s room made Moonbin’s heart and head race. There was only one thing that he can deduce from the discovery of the dome music box.

But that was just a ridiculous notion.

“Now this is just stupid. There may be hundreds of it for sale on the internet…” he grumbled and turned to leave.

“Ugh...Moon...bin…?”

Moonbin was startled at being called by Jaehyun’s groggy voice.

Turning towards the older, he saw that Jaehyun was still lying down straight, careful not to let the wet towel fall from his forehead as he nudged his head a bit to look at Moonbin directly.

“Hey Jae-hyung, I was just putting away the stuff you had lying around in your living room.” he said as he approached Jaehyun and sat at the foot of the bed.

Jaehyun laughed weakly, “Thanks. What’s the clanging sound outside? Are they raiding my kitchen?”

“They’re preparing a light meal for you when your fever goes down enough to eat later.” Moonbin told him.

“I can’t thank you guys enough. You’re all lifesavers.” Jaehyun replied. “If it was me, I’d be pushing myself too hard and I’d just collapse on the side of the street and waking up in a hospital only for my Dad, Uncle, boyfriend and friends telling me that I’m a complete idiot that should have stayed in bed and asked for meds…”

“Precise, but yeah, I get your point.” Moonbin replied. “When was the last time you got sick?”

“I’ve never been sick since I hit puberty. When I do... it’s not usually a good sign.” when he tried to move, he groaned, “Oh my body aches all over…”

Moonbin helped him on his side while taking off the wet towel that is now warm, “That’s not a fever then, it’s the flu. And it takes a few days to get out of your system.” he diagnosed.

“I’ll call a doctor if it doesn’t get better by tomorrow... “ Jaehyun said. “Would you mind getting something for me?”

“Uh...sure?”

“Can you get that glass dome music box and set it on my bedside?” he said as he nudged his head a little bit to indicate which bedside table he should put it.

Not asking any more questions on a sick person, he obliged, carefully setting down the music box he was staring at earlier.

“Can you wind it up as much as you can? It always makes me sleep when I have a fever.” Jaehyun requested. “Before I turned thirteen, I often came down with a fever, and my Dad would always play that music box for me to get better...it was originally his, but when I always asked it, he just gave it to me for keeps…”

Amused at the story, Moonbin let out, “You’re certainly more talkative than normal.”

“Call it a side effect on getting sick. Can you please…?”

“Oh, sorry, sure.” Moonbin said as he wound up the music box.

As he did, Jaehyun spoke again, “It was only one of two custom-made glass dome music box that my Dad made with my Appa...and it even has that cute song that they loved to sing to me when I was younger, and they continued to sing it to me and my...younger brother after he was born…”

At that point, Moonbin released the windup lever, but his eyes never left the item, not wanting to look at Jaehyun as he spoke.

“I can even remember the lyrics by heart…” Jaehyun said as he started to softly sing along to the slow tune of a very familiar childhood song.

During my past childhood, I dreamt a beautiful dream

about riding a balloon and flying

If a yellow balloon flies in the sky,

My heart remembers beautiful memories

It was only until that point that Jaehyun stopped singing, but the music box kept on playing the slow lullaby version of the song.

The next thing he knew, Jaehyun was back to sleeping, but this time, there was a smile on his face.

Overwhelmed, Moonbin could only do one thing.

Carefully getting up from the bed and exiting the room, it was just in time for him to be seen by JinJin who asked him to buy some things from the nearby supermarket. Agreeing automatically, he took the list from JinJin and went out of the apartment building as fast as he could by walking.

Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, Moonbin proceeded to gather and organize his thoughts.

Jung Jaehyun came out of the blue and had integrated himself not only in their workplace, but to their group of friends.

He was a son of a divorced couple, and was separated from his little brother in the process.

He now lives alone after his father cut him off because of an argument that involved the said divorce.

He was curiously close with his Aunt Boa, who tends to do so only if they had met several times.

He has the glass dome music box with a bear, bunny and a telephone booth that his dad gave him.

His Appa has the same thing in his office, often playing the song he knew by heart.

It was a custom-made piece, made for only two people.

The song on the music box was a song that was made for them, and them alone.

His mind was whirring around so much that he had to stop at the stairs midway, piecing each clue together in his mind.

Out of all the clues that he has gotten, there was only one conclusion.

Moonbin didn’t realize that he was crying until he noticed that his eyes went blurry after staring at the ground.

Yoonoh has found them.

And he was now Jung Jaehyun.

His big brother has found them.

“Yoonoh-hyung…” Moonbin let out and clenched his teeth. “You found us…”

TBC