Changmin's Apartment

Changmin was lounging in his house with a glass of wine when he received a call. It was one of his rare day-offs, and he knew that Yunho liked to give him the privacy that he needed unless it was an emergency. When he looked at the caller, he had to groan as he reached out to answer it, knowing that not doing so would just prolong the disturbance.

With just one click, someone spoke before he could greet them.

“Would you mind enlightening me why all of a sudden, Jaejoong-hyung gained a part-timer named Jung Jaehyun, which is the same name Yoonoh chose when he changed names?”

“Well hello to you too, Yoochun-hyung.” Changmin replied monotonously the moment he heard Yoochun on the phone. “How was your anniversary vacation?”

“Hello too, Changminnie!” Junsu’s voice said on the other line. “And don’t change the subject. Not this time.”

Changmin groaned. He expected Junsu and Yoochun to find out immediately, considering that Yoochun helped him change Jaehyun’s name and other necessary information. He just hopes Jaejoong hasn’t caught on yet. Even then, Jaehyun would have already notified Changmin no matter what and would already prepare to move out when needed the moment he notices something.

“Woojae thought of this himself, I just helped him make sure his father does not know. Don’t blame me.” he replied.

“So you’re telling me that even Yunho-hyung has no idea what he has been doing since August?!” Junsu shrieked, making Changmin wince and distance his phone away from his ear to recover.

“Nope.” Changmin said, popping the last syllable. “I would love to tell you more about what happened, but for now, it’s a good thing you rang me up.” Changmin said before anyone on the other line could protest.

“What is it?” Junsu asked him, knowing that they were not going to get anything from Changmin just yet until after he got his words across.

“We met with Sooyoung-sshi the other day. Apparently, they found out that Woojae was at NCT College.” Changmin started. “They were worried enough to start looking for him because of Hyunjoong.”

Only silence can be heard on the other line as Changmin gave them the time to digest the information.

“What does he want now?” Yoochun wondered.

The younger man leaned on his chair and sighed. “It’s not just what, there’s also who. And you and I both know that we can guess it right the first time.”

Yoochun and Junsu were silent, knowing that Changmin was right. If there was something that they knew, it was that Kim Hyunjoong was uselessly aiming to get a man that was already spoken for.

Hyunjoong was also the reason why Jaejoong found out that Yunho is the leader of the Gwangju Jung Group sooner than he had planned.

“Hasn’t he ruined Jaejoong-hyung’s life enough?” Junsu shrieked in frustration, making Changmin wince. “If I ever see him come close to Jaejoong-hyung I swear I will feed him to the dogs. He counted himself lucky when he did that while we were away.”

“For now, from what Sooyoung-sshi has, Hyunjoong is laying low for a while. It seems that he’s looking for Jaehyun, and he hasn’t had much luck in that department.” Changmin told them. “Yunho-hyung decided it is better to stay quiet and pretend that he’s unbothered about Hyunjoong trying to dismantle his allies. We’ve already talked to the Nakamoto and Osaki clans with Yuta and Shotaro, and they will deal with the traitors soon enough. As for Jaehyun’s location...he also chose not to know.”

“Why though? Did they have a fight?” Junsu asked. “It’s not normal for him not to send out his men for maximum security after what happened last time…”

“That’s exactly the reason why they fought, but Woojae took it to a new level that he was cut off.” Changmin shared. “For now, Taeyong and the rest of his squad are forbidden to meet up with him now that we know that he was somehow traced to NCT College, and would investigate all students if necessary. I did the same, and he’s already aware of the measures. I just wish he’d be okay all by himself.”

“Going by the situation, you’re right, Jaehyun is safer out of your radar. I just hope that if he is exposed, he knows how to handle things.” Yoochun said with a sigh.

Changmin grimaced at the thought of Jaehyun, wondering if he is well. “At this point, hyung, we just have to trust the children.”

“Well, you can’t trust Jaehyun for the next few days though. He has the flu.” Junsu commented, which caught the youngest off-guard.

“What?!” Changmin shot up from his seat.

He never worried about Jaehyun being able to take care of himself, but if there’s one thing he knows about a sick Jaehyun was that…

He was a disaster walking when sick.

Running his hand through his hair, he made a mental note to send someone to watch over him, and it was definitely not going to be not just Lee Taeyong.

…

The next day at six in the morning, Jaehyun still felt like hell had descended in his head.

This is going to need doctor intervention.

And that would mean taking a taxi to the hospital.

It took ten minutes of staring at the ceiling before he found the strength to get up from his bed, albeit slowly. When he went to go outside, there was something at the back of his head telling him that there were people outside that are not Eunwoo and his co-worker friends.

His survival instincts kicked in, and pulling one of his many guns that he kept around his apartment, he took the one on the dresser, and decided to listen to what was happening outside, ignoring the pounding headache he was having due to his flu.

When he heard footsteps coming towards his room however, Jaehyun decided to get back under the covers and pretended to sleep, gun still in hand.

Sure, it caused more pain in his head, but he was pretty good at pretending to be asleep (especially when he was trying to ignore people).

As expected, the door creaked open slowly, careful not to ‘wake’ him up.

Jaehyun kept his eyes shut until he felt a hand coming close to his head.

Instantly, Jaehyun grabbed the hand that was about to touch him and twisted it, bringing a light body in turn to lie down on his bed. Jaehyun maneuvered in a way that he was on top of his intruder and his gun pointed directly in the person’s forehead. He focused his eyes to pin a glare on the person who tried to touch him, only for him to think whether or not he was hallucinating.

Below him lay his boyfriend who looked every bit as beautiful as the last time he had seen him, albeit looking at him with an annoyed face.

“You had better not be planning on blowing my brains off because I tried to touch you.” he said sternly.

Jaehyun, still in a daze and still doubting his flu-muddled head, gaped at his boyfriend’s face, “Yong? Is it really you?”

Taeyong sighed and replied, “Do you know any other gorgeous human being?” he asked with a cheeky smile.

The younger one tried to laugh, but in the middle of it, his headache started to hit him. “Ow…” he muttered as he got off of Taeyong and retracted his gun from his head.

Sighing, Taeyong got up the moment Jaehyun crawled back in his bed feeling worse than he did a minute ago.

“You idiot. Don’t push yourself when you’re sick, honestly.” Taeyong chided.

“Why...how…?” Jaehyun tried to ask.

“Bàba told us to come check on you, and he was right, you need a lot of help.” a new voice said at the doorway.

“Winwin?!” His outburst only made things worse.

Winwin only gave him a raised brow, “Don’t worry, we’re the only ones who know where you live. I already called the doctor and we'll be dragging you to the hospital.” he stated.

“Really Jaehyun, you really should have contacted us or Changmin-sshi if you got sick.” Taeyong told him.

“I thought you were ordered not to get into contact with me because of the near-breach at NCT?” Jaehyun wondered.

Winwin sighed, “Bàba removed the restriction just for the two of us, saying they figured out what happened in NCT and we left it at that.” he informed him as he sat at the foot of the bed. “They didn’t go into further details. It’s an adult thing I guess.”

“There they go again.” Jaehyun muttered as he went back under the covers. “How long have you been here?”

“An hour ago or so.” Taeyong answered. “I already got started in preparing a light breakfast for you.”

“Thanks.” Jaehyun muttered. “Did anyone else come over?”

“Were you expecting company even though you’re sick?” Taeyong wondered.

Jaehyun hummed in reply. “Eunwoo lives just a floor below me and texted me that he might check up on me before he heads to our workplace…” he shared.

Taeyong carded his fingers though Jaehyun’s hair as he spoke, “Sleep a little more. We’ll greet him at the door when he arrives.”

“Yong, no messing with my civilian friends.” he reminded him.

“You have little faith.” Taeyong said as he stood from the bed and left the room with Winwin. Jaehyun needed to sleep a few hours more.

…

When Jaehyun’s door closed, Taeyong and Winwin decided to just brew some coffee while they watched the house and wait for Jaehyun’s so-called neighbor.

“I was only in China for a semester, and he goes around flipping all of Uncle Yunho’s switches and gets disowned. Unbelievable.” he muttered in his coffee.

“I can’t guess why Uncle Yunho would do such a thing. Sure they have been in arguments before, but not this bad.” Taeyong threw in.

“This wouldn’t have ended up this way had one of them swallowed their pride, but like father like son I guess.” Winwin muttered. “The adults are being irresponsible with Jaehyun at the moment. I wonder if it had something to do with…”

“With what, Winwin?” Taeyong said.

“With Jae’s other parent.” Winwin told him. “Remember when I about you looking like his other dad, Jaejoong?”

Taeyong nodded. “But you said that he and Uncle Yunho had been divorced since Jaehyun was five. It’s been more than a decade. What’s going on now?”

“There are things that the adults are not telling us, and the only thing to do is to find out for ourselves.” Winwin said. “But going back, I think he brought up to his dad that he wants to meet him after all these years. You really can’t blame Jaehyun for wanting to meet him and his little brother again.”

“Then why didn’t he allow him?” Taeyong wondered.

“Safety reasons.” Winwin said, “At least that was what Bàba said.”

“Adults.” Taeyong said with a small laugh.

…

“Hyung, for goodness sake, we’re taking care of a sick person, not a hospitalized one.” Eunwoo said as he looked at MJ with a basket of fruits and food ready to be eaten by the recipient.

It was already eight in the morning, and he was about to go up and check on Jaehyun if he’s still alive or if he needed help with getting to the nearest hospital.

MJ showed up at his doorstep with Moonbin and their boss, Jaejoong, dropped them off at the entrance to look for a parking space.

“You saw how pale he was yesterday. He needs to eat fruits and a lot of fluids. I’m worried as this was his first time living alone, he may not take care of himself properly as a sick person.”

When he said that, Eunwoo saw his boyfriend was carrying ten liters of distilled water--on MJ’s orders.

“I can tell.” he commented. “Should we wait for Boss JJ or…?”

“Appa said we can go ahead. Parking here is a nightmare in the morning and it will take him a while to find a good spot.”

Sighing in defeat, Eunwoo ended up joining the two of them at the elevator with Eunwoo having a tumbler of chicken soup in hand, knowing that Jaehyun will be too sick to even cook himself a meal.

“Do you think he might be strong enough to get to the door to greet us?” Moonbin wondered.

Eunwoo took out his phone with the note app open, “Jaehyun gave me the code last night after you and Boss JJ left for the night just in case.”

For some reason, a pout made its way to Moonbin’s face. He had to laugh a little as he and the rest knew that Moonbin was a little attached to Jaehyun along with JinJin since they were the shop pack mules.

“If you ask him, he might give you the code.” Eunwoo nudged Moonbin as they all exited the elevator and made their way to the apartment.

But before Eunwoo could get half of the code in, the door suddenly opened.

At that moment, they all thought that Jaehyun had woken up early and had heard the pressing and decided to get to the door, but to their surprise, they were greeted by a familiar face.

Not that they had met in person familiar per se, but he had a striking resemblance to someone they had seen somewhere.

Seemingly having picked up their startled reactions, the young man that greeted them smiled and welcomed them.

“You must be Jaehyunnie’s friends from work. I’m Taeyong. Come in.” he said.

The three were too dumbfounded to even protest and just went to the living room, where another unknown person was sitting on the table organizing some of Jaehyun’s stuff that was thrown around and murmuring in Mandarin.

When he heard them approach, the Chinese young man greeted them in perfect Korean, “Hello. I’m Winwin, one of Jaehyun’s friends.”

“Jaehyunnie said only one was coming up to check on him. He didn’t tell us that he was expecting more guests.” Taeyong said with a smile as he helped MJ to place the fruit basket on the dining table.

“We decided to check up on him since he didn’t look so good when we left yesterday. He had a high fever and we figured he might need a lift to the hospital.” MJ said. “I’m Kim Myungjun, by the way, but you can call me MJ.” he introduced.

“I’m Jaehyun’s downstairs neighbor, Cha Eunwoo.” Eunwoo introduced himself.

“I’m Kim Moonbin, my Appa is Jaehyun-hyung’s employer.” Moonbin introduced himself while observing the reactions of his older brother’s friend and boyfriend to see if they recognized the name.

As expected, their eyes tell him that they were trying to recall where they had heard the name before.

‘I have a feeling Jae-hyung will be in a lot of trouble later…’

And the fact that his Appa was just parking the car and is on his way up here…

There will be trouble, but this time, it was towards the one sleeping in his room like a baby.

“Make yourselves comfortable, the baby is still sleeping. He was feeling a little bit better when we arrived, but that was two hours ago.”

“That’s a relief. When we saw him yesterday, he looked as pale as a ghost.” Eunwoo said with a sigh. “He was so beaten up by his back classes that he collapsed right after he submitted everything.”

“That sounds like Jaehyun alright.” Winwin said with a sigh. “We hadn’t seen him in months, but I’d like to know, is he doing alright alone?”

“He’s doing fine at work. Boss JJ was happy that we got extra hands, and he learns fast.” MJ complimented. “Especially with the emergency wedding arrangements we had to do for one of the boss’ friends.”

“Not to mention the things he does with the others when the boss is not looking.” Eunwoo added.

“Really? Tell us more.” Taeyong encouraged them to share the things Jaehyun had been up to since he left.

…

When Jaehyun next woke up, it was already eight in the morning, and he was woken up by the sound of laughter in his room.

From the voices, it looks like MJ had tagged along with Eunwoo, and he could swear he heard Moonbin’s laugh too.

Winwin was going to kill him once he realizes who Moonbin really is.

But he still can live for a few more days since he is currently sick. Maybe.

Feeling a little better after resting again, he got up but felt a little cold, so he dragged his duvet with him as he walked barefoot outside to hear MJ go on about one of his adventures in the shop.

“...and then Jaehyun had to bear listening to the customer for an hour saying that he needed this girl to say yes to dating him by making sure the bouquet looked romantic enough.”

No one seemed to notice him opening his door ajar since they were too engrossed in MJ’s story, so he decided to make his presence known before he spilled what came next.

“Spoiler alert, he was still dumped despite having a beautiful bouquet.” he told them, announcing his presence.

Everyone looked in his direction and assessed him from head to toe if he was alright now.

“How are you feeling now?” Moonbin asked.

“Better than...two hours ago. But I think I still need a doctor.” Jaehyun told them.

“We’ll drive you to the hospital after breakfast then.” Taeyong said as he directed him to sit on the chair beside Moonbin for him to relax in and Jaehyun did so while dragging his duvet. He was still feeling cold despite the normal temperature, which is something he expected as a sick person.

Taeyong then proceeded to head to his kitchen with Winwin to lay out the breakfast he had prepared alongside whatever his co-workers brought him this morning.

“We didn’t know you had company over today,” Moonbin told Jaehyun.

The older shrugged, “I only realized they were here when I woke up at six in the morning. I was surprised they checked up on me too.”

He had been wondering who might have tipped of his Uncle Changmin that he was sick that would warrant him to send in Winwin and Taeyong to his place, which was supposed to be a secret, but with how things are going both in his end and in the underground, some secrets needed to be told for his safety and health in this case. He just hopes that his Uncle will contact him on what has been happening now that he lifted the no contact ban he imposed on his friends and squad.

Clearly a lot has been going on if two of the most capable young men of his generation were sent to watch over him.

“So, they don’t…?” Moonbin whispered at him.

Deciphering what his little brother was trying to say, the older one shook his head, “Not a clue...unless…”

“Appa is here and might be on his way up…” he whispered.

Oh he was definitely going to get an earful today. “Great. Not only am I sick, I will get an earful…” he muttered.

Moonbin snickered a bit, imagining what will happen once Jaehyun gets scolded by his boyfriend and childhood friend.

MJ pulled out the first aid kit and went to him to check his temperature.

“Do you still feel sore anywhere?” MJ asked as he pointed the thermometer to his forehead.

“I feel dizzy if I move my head too fast.” he told him.

“That’s normal for a flu.” MJ replied and looked at the temperature, “Hmm...seem to have gone down a bit. 38.7.” he told him.

Jaehyun groaned and leaned on the backrest, “Hospital it is then.”

“You overexerted yourself.” Eunwoo said. “Professor Lee was more than happy to give you an extension to ease up your workload and you refused.”

“And have the others tell me that I’m getting special favors when you guys were not even allowed to have the extensions?” Jaehyun countered.

“We are regular students, you were a transferee with good grades and a good work ethic who is unfortunate enough to take back classes because you hadn’t taken them yet in your old school. The professors understand, surprisingly enough.”

Jaehyun was stubborn, he knew that, and Eunwoo was right, he did push himself too much these past few days, wanting to challenge himself by finishing everything with the same timeframe as his classmates.

When he had first applied for transfer, the college admin had recommended he just take the back classes during the summer, but Jaehyun, knowing that it would be a miracle for him to even last until then, was skeptical and decided to just take all the back classes on top of his regular classes.

Eunwoo said it was a miracle that Jaehyun still manages to study and work at all during the day, and now it has come to bite him in the back.

“I guess I shouldn’t have pushed myself so much.” Jaeyun said with a groan. “I hadn’t been sick in so long.”

“And now your streak has been broken.” Winwin said as he looked at the temperature check that MJ did. “Can you get up to the table for breakfast? Leave the duvet.”

Jaehyun pouted and reluctantly shed his comfortable duvet cocoon and went to the table where Taeyong had already set the table to fit all of them as he has a habit in cooking big batches. Seems like Taeyong and Winwin went to the morning market before coming to his apartment as he remembered having his pantry low in supplies.

“Wow, the spread is amazing for breakfast.” Moonbin mused as they all sat down with Jaehyun at the far end of the rectangular table as he is the sick one.

“You should see him cook in our shared house. Imagine cooking for a gaggle of college kids.” Jaehyun praised his boyfriend.

“No flirting on the table Woojae.” Winwin told him.

There were a lot of things that Jaehyun missed, and Taeyong’s cooking is one of them. The moment he took the first bite, he felt like coming back home to the shared house with his friends around him, bickering as usual.

“Wow, the kimchi stew is wonderful!” Eunwoo complimented.

“Thank you. The boys always love it when I do it.” Taeyong said, basking in the praise.

“Now I know why Jaehyun-hyung is so smitten.” Moonbin said while glancing at Jaehyun who nodded unashamedly.

“Oh? He told you about me?” Taeyong teased as he glanced back at his eating boyfriend. He hasn't introduced himself as Jaehyun’s boyfriend so it was surprising they knew him at first glance.

“When did he not? He told us one time that he misses you every time he handles red rose bouquets.” MJ spilled.

“Hyung!” Jaehyun uttered after swallowing his food (lest his boyfriend glare at him for bad table manners).

“And when he showed his picture for the first time, I could tell that he was so smug about dating you.” Moonbin added.

“A simp even from here. Not surprising, Jung Jaehyun.” Winwin teased.

“Stop it.” Jaehyun pleaded.

Eunwoo was about to add up to his embarrassment when the doorbell rang.

“Oh, that must be Boss JJ.” MJ said as they all turned to look at the corridor leading to the front door.

“I’ll get it.” Moonbin said as he put down his utensils and walked towards the door to let his father in.

“Speaking of Boss JJ, now that I’ve seen you up close, you do resemble him quite a bit.” Eunwoo pointed out. “We thought it was only a photo angle, but now…”

Taeyong raised a brow at that. Someone who looks like him? Now, he knows he was born the pretty boy in his family, but to find out that someone older had the same features as him piqued his curiosity.

“Really? That’s interesting.” Taeyong could only utter as they all heard the door open and the conversation between father and son.

“Parking took too long?” Moonbin asked.

“It did. I had to fight someone for a space but other than that, everything is fine.” another man’s voice replied.

“Does Jaehyun have company?”

“Yeah, his boyfriend and his friend came over when they found out he was sick.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful.”

Both Winwin and Taeyong tried to stretch their necks to try and take a look at Jaehyun’s boss, only for their eyes to widen at the sight of the blond haired man who looked VERY familiar.

This man was the one on the family portrait in the Jung residence when Jaehyun and his younger brother were still young, and to Yunho and Jaehyun, it was the most important piece in the entire residence.

In front of them was the ex-husband of Jung Yunho. And considering that Moonbin called him Appa…

Jaehyun looked straight at the corridor when he felt his boyfriend and childhood friend look at him with questioning looks. He ignored them for a time and tried to stand up to greet Jaejoong but the man motioned them all to stay seated.

“How are you feeling now, Jaehyun?”

“I’m feeling a bit better, but I still need a hospital consultation to be sure,” he told him.

“That’s good. Here, I brought you some food that you can reheat when you want to, it can last up to at least three days in the fridge and have it heated up in the microwave or stove.” he said as he placed the bag he was carrying at the kitchen countertop upon seeing the spread in the breakfast table.

“Have a seat Boss, my boyfriend made a feast for my guests.” Jaehyun added as he glanced at his boyfriend who had decided a few seconds ago to lecture him when the three of them are alone in the house again.

“Oh, thank you.”

Jaehyun, without even looking at his friend and boyfriend, knew he was going to be in so much trouble.

Surprisingly, he didn’t feel so scared at all.

After the generic ‘how are you feeling’ question from Jaejoong, they all resumed eating and Winwin, Taeyong and Jaejoong exchanged greetings.

Jaejoong had introduced himself as Jaehyun’s boss, and has shared that he runs a flower shop that his son and the rest of them are working at. He also shared that Jaehyun had been under his employment since the beginning of the semester and had been working diligently ever since.

“Looks like you’ve been working hard all this time, Jaehyunnie.” Taeyong said as he tucked a strand of the said person’s hair at the back of his ear after slouching a bit to take a bite of his meal.

“You think so?” Jaehyun asked with a small smile.

“Yes, but you are still entitled to a scolding for neglecting your health.” Taeyong replied with a smile that even Jaehyun found to be laced with annoyance.

That caused Jaehyun to pout and continue eating while the others laughed at his expense.

Unfortunately, breakfast had to end, as Jaejoong and the rest had a store to open.

“Are you sure you three will be fine going to the hospital?” Jaejoong asked them worriedly.

Taeyong and Winwin nodded as they saw Jaehyun drag himself back on bed after breakfast and drank his medicine. They let him lie down for one or two hours more before heading to the hospital that Winwin booked an appointment to.

“We came here by car, so we will be alright in driving him to his appointment.” Winwin explained.

Accepting that the young men have everything together, Jaejoong conceded. “If you need anything at all, and if Jaehyun needs a few more days of rest, let me know.”

“We will.” Taeyong said, “And Jaejoong-sshi, thank you so much for watching over Jaehyun while he was alone.”

A bright smile graced Jaejoong's face, “You’re welcome. I treat Jaehyun as one of my own. It’s the least I could do.” he said before he bid goodbye to the two of them and left the house with the others.

When they left the apartment, Moonbin was already anticipating that his older brother would get an earful from them. He was careful not to let them know that he knows, and it was better that way.

…

“Alright Jung Yoonoh, you have a lot of explaining to do.”

Winwin said as he and Taeyong sat on either side of Jaehyun’s bed, both giving him the look of disappointment.

Jaehyun knew it was coming, but he didn’t really expect them to ask him two hours after he slept and the guests left.

“What’s there to explain? You two saw how Appa doesn’t even know who I am.” he said with a sigh as he curled to his side.

“So this is the reason why Uncle Yunho disowned you in his office?” Winwin asked him.

“Not really. He doesn’t even know I sought Appa out.” Jaehyun explained. “I told him I wanted my security to be lessened, and he said no, so I lost my temper and used Appa and Binnie as ammo. Below the belt, I know, but getting disowned is the only way for me to see Appa and Binnie again, even if Dad doesn’t know.”

Taeyong and Winwin exchanged looks.

For the longest time, they knew that Jaehyun was hiding his desire in seeing his Appa again, even just once, but his dad would always refuse, saying it was for security purposes, and part of the divorce settlement was for their party to never seek Jaejoong and Moonbin out under any circumstances. Mutual friends who are both in the underground and civilians are asked not to mention each other to the other party unless asked.

It was an arrangement that puzzled even them, and the ones suffering are the ones who put them up on the divorce papers specially, not really anticipating that maybe, the children would want to see each other and their other parent as they grew older.

Taeyong can’t relate since he still has a complete family even if they were in the mafia, but Winwin can.

His mother was a civilian that had a fling with his Dad while on a mission to China. It was a sort of whirlwind romance that didn’t end in a relationship, but it did end up with Winwin being born. Up until he was six, he had never met his Bàba until his parents met again due to family alliances.

Having separated parents not only took a toll at the parents themselves, but the children as well. Winwin had long accepted that his parents would never marry each other, but they were at least civil enough not to cause a feud and to have joint custody of him while growing up.

“Jaehyun. You would go this far to meet your Appa again even if he doesn’t know who you are?” Taeyong asked him. When he received a small nod, he sighed. “Look, we don’t blame you for wanting to see your Appa again, but why go through all this?”

“Because if I told Dad that I want to see him, then he would just flat out refuse.” Jaehyun replied. “And if I introduced myself to Appa, I don’t think he would appreciate having even a speck of mafia-related things or people back in his life when it was the cause of the divorce in the first place.”

Winwin and Taeyong read between the lines. He was afraid that because Jaehyun himself was so deep in the mafia, that his Appa would reject him outright. It was better to be near him as a stranger than away from him and be resented when he tried to get near.

It was a deception that Jaehyun was willing to throw himself on just so he could have a few months with his Appa, even if he didn’t know he was there.

“And how long do you intend to play the part-timer?” Winwin asked him. “You can’t hide forever, Jaehyun. Once you’re done in college, you will be needed back.”

Jaehyun knew that. He knew that what he has right now has an expiry date, he just didn’t know when. It was never an if.

“Once he finds out, I’ll leave.” Jaehyun declared. “I’ll leave to give them the freedom and peace of mind that I won’t be back…” he muttered. “No one wants the mafia at their doorstep after tasting freedom anyway…”

“Jae…” Taeyong cooed as he ran his hands through his hair.

Winwin could do nothing but sigh in defeat. This was a disaster waiting to happen, but he would be damned if he couldn’t help Jaehyun ease the fall.

“I understand,” he said as he stood up. “You made up your mind, so we can’t interfere with that now.”

“Thanks, Win.” Jaehyun replied.

“Oh don’t thank me. I’m still upset that you and Bàba kept this from me, me, your cousin in all but blood! I am offended.” he half-joked. He smiled when he saw Jaehyun smile as well. “Now, get up and get ready, it’s time for us to drive you to your doctor’s appointment.”

“Fine.” Jaehyun replied cheekily as he was helped by Taeyong to stand up, ready to head to their appointment.

TBC