I'M SORRY FOR THE WAIT!
but heey, Teen Top's "No. 1" album is out and probably hept you guise busy anyway. ;)
 

After spilling everything out, he hadn't impressed the leader. Instead, he had made him upset and earned a few hits. Though not from C.A.P, but from another guy. And those hits were merely classified as punches, as the guy hit the same spot three times. It was horrible, even worse than the time he got beaten up on the party. That guy... got muscles in places Ricky had no idea it was even possible to have.

An hour later, were Ricky kicked out of the night club, with a broken lip, a bruised face and a difficulty in breathing. He stumbled forward and let out silent sobs. He couldn't understand how one could be so incredibly stupid to even go there. The only thing he could do now, and what he should've done a long time ago, was to come clean about everything and tell L.Joe the truth. Knowing L.Joe... he would probably be mad, but he would understand. He loved Ricky and something like this wouldn't stop that. Or at least, that's what Ricky hoped.

Before he ran off to L.Joe's, Ricky steered his steps to the building his grandmother lived in. He pushed the elevator door open and stepped inside. He pressed the third button and in a huge amount of air and blew it out shakily as he caught the sight of his own reflection in rectangular mirror beside the buttons. And what he saw, made him gulp. It wasn't just his lips that bled, but the left eyebrow as well. And the bruises were... huge.

Just as he was about to push the button down, the doors opened and his grandmother stood by the door, wearing a warm, navy blue coat and a black knitted scarf wrapped around her neck. On her gray hair rested a black matching hat with navy blue details.
Her first expression looked tiresome, as if she was a little annoyed over something. Perhaps, she had forgot to buy something in the grocery store? But as she saw Ricky, that expression exploded into tons of emotions and she let out a heart-breaking scream. The fear, the sorrow and pain displayed on the woman's wrinkled face and she placed her both hands on top of , her eyes wide open in pure shock.

“R-R-Ricky!”, she stuttered and carefully, stretched out one hand to him. “M-m-my ba-baby... w-what happened t-to you?”.
“Halmeoni...”, Ricky whispered and fell to the floor. “Help me”. His eyes fluttered close and he fell to the floor.

When Ricky woke up, he was placed on a soft mattress with a pillow underneath his head and a thin duvet on top of his body. His body ached in an extreme way, making it impossible for him to move any part of his body. Not the mention the pain and constant aching inside of his head. He had never suffered from headaches before, but now, he could relate to the ones that did often get them. It was dark and warm, wherever he was. He couldn't remember where he had went after getting beaten up, which was frustrating.
Once again, did tears fill his eyes and painfully rolled down on either side of his face. He hated it when people self-pitied themselves, but couldn't help but doing it to himself. Why did every bad thing happen to him? What had he done to deserve this?

“Yes, Byunghun-ah. Ricky is here with me. We both tired ourselves out, and so he fell asleep. Yes, I said that too, but you know Ricky, such a stubborn kid. Hahaha, ah yeah, I will tell him that. Mm. Arasso. Bye then”.

The husky, familiar voice brought ease in Ricky and he let out a breath of relief. He was at his grandmother's place. At least, he didn't have to worry about that anymore.

Ricky stared at the direction where the sound of his grandmother's voice had come from, and caught the glimpse of a small streak of light from the half-open door. He wondered what his grandmother had said to L.Joe, and he hoped that she hadn't said anything... stupid, like the truth.

The door opened and the lights flicked on, revealing the chubby, short figure of his grandmother. Wearing a peach colored turtle neck sweater and a pink apron over that.

“I'm making chicken soup”, she said with an emotionless voice. “Get up”. With that, she spun around and quickly left the room to probably set the table.
Ricky grunted as he tried to push himself up, but every time he did, it felt as if his ribs were tearing apart and small, small pieces of his bone shattered into his stomach. Very painful, in other words.
After his sixth try, he managed to get up on his knees, and from then on, he didn't endure a lot of pain as he only had to get up using his knees. He reached for a small desk to support himself as he got up on his feet.
He wrapped the duvet around his body and took baby steps outside the room. As he did, the strong aroma of green tea and soup hit him and a small smile formed his lips. It had been a while since he had had tea; especially the one made by his precious grandmother. Soup too had been a long time since Ricky had had it. Or more honestly speaking, he had never tasted his grandmother's soup. The only time he had eaten the food she had made, was Christmas eve. And he doubted she had done all of that food by herself.

“Here, let me help you sit down”, she said and stretched out her arms at Ricky and gently pulled him down on the floor. She then sat down beside him and grabbed the spoon. “I don't know if you'll like this... I added a little of everything I had”, she mumbled and dipped the spoon inside the yellow, oily soup and then held it a few centimeters away from her face and blew softly, cooling it down slightly.
“H-halmeoni”, Ricky whined. “I can do that my-”, before he could finish his sentence, had she shoved the spoon inside his mouth. The warm, soup almost scalding his tongue. He hissed and quickly swallowed it down, the hot soup burning down his throat.
“YAH! THAT'S HOT!”, Ricky exclaimed and widened his eyes in anger. His grandmother just rolled his eyes and got up on her feet.
“Suit yourself. Eat and drink up”, she sighed and reached for a strawberry red half-done scarf and began to knit. Her fast movements with her fingers were amazing, you could barely see her fingers!

Ricky let out a “tsk” sound before digging in, blowing until it wasn't scalding hot. And despite his grandmother's concern about the flavor, it was delicious. Probably the best chicken soup Ricky had ever eaten. Busy eating, he didn't catch the glances his grandmother sent him, both concerned but also proud ones. Glances she never would admit she had taken on him.

“Thank you for the food. It was the best!”, Ricky said and gave his grandmother a thumbs up after making sure not one drop of soup was left over in the bowl. Yes, he had it clean just like a starving dog.
His grandmother let out a sigh of relief and looked at him through her rounded, small glasses. “Will you tell me what happened earlier over a cup of tea?”.
Ricky felt the same lump inside his throat and he swallowed nervously to sink it down. “Oh... y-y-yeah, s-su-sure”.
The woman nodded and rose up from the floor, a soft and low “Aigoo..”, leaving her lips as it took all of her strength to get up from it. She then walked over to the kitchen and took out a tea-pot and two, jade green cups with shiny, slightly lighter green flowers at the bottom of them. 

Ricky watched as the lady poured the hot liquid into the cups. He somehow felt a sudden feeling of fascination inside of him at the sight of the tea that left the tea-pot. He didn't realize how funny he must look until his grandmother cleared . He gave her a meekly smile, but straightened his back and reached out his hands for one of the cups.

“Your mother called”, his grandmother suddenly said, her voice tired.
Ricky felt how his muscles tensed up, but instead of meeting her eyes, he grasped the cup and didn't mind that the cup was burning his fingers nor the signal it gave him of it's hotness. He had a small sip of the tea and cursed himself for being ignorant.
“Is that so”, Ricky then said with an empty voice and quickly put the cup back on the table. “Did she... have anything interesting to say?”.
In his head, he imagined his grandmother's expression when picking up the old-fashioned phone. Her eyes wide and the only words that came out of were profanities. He could also imagine his mother's reaction to this; giggling, smirking and putting her one leg on top of the other, feeling completely satisfied.

“This and that”, she replied bluntly and stared directly at Ricky. “She called you too, didn't she?”.
At some point, Ricky made up his mind to keep everything to himself. So, instead of telling his grandmother the truth, he shook his head.
“No... she didn't”, he muttered. “I don't think there's ever been a time where she cared about me”.
His grandmother's face fell and she grabbed Ricky's both hands and gently rubbed her thumbs on top of his soft, small hands.
“Lies”, she hissed, but not hostilely, but heart-broken. As if she had seen right through him and wanted to ease his pain. “She did call you. And she does care about you. She just... doesn't show it very well”.
Somehow, that was all it took for Ricky to let his guard down and the tears that had been stuck in his throat, made their way out. Slowly, they rolled down his cheeks. His grandmother scooted closer to him and embraced him. For the first time ever, did Ricky cry in his grandmother's arms. And even though that woman was tough and seemed rough on the outside, her inside was just as vulnerable as Ricky's.
She patted Ricky softly on his back and shushed at him in a comforting way. Unlike other people, she didn't tell Ricky to stop cry and that was what triggered the tears even more. As he cried, he felt his body ache and he trembled underneath his grandmother's arms. He knew he was weak, but that didn't seem to fit with her opinion, which somehow felt relieving.

After an hour, had he revealed everything. About the worries for him and L.Joe, what his mother had asked for him to do, her threat... everything. Even things that wasn't really big, such as his hate for P.E and the exciting news that Baekhyun had passed the audition and was going to Seoul to fulfill his dream. And all that talking had drained the energy out of him completely, which once again had made his grandmother to help him to the guestroom to sleep. Before Ricky had fallen asleep, had he asked for his grandmother not to tell L.Joe about anything. It was the very least thing he needed right now. She had agreed to keep shut, but that Ricky should tell him. That if it was love, he wouldn't judge Ricky.

Early in the morning, did Ricky wake up feeling nauseous. He quickly got up from the matress and ran to the toilet and threw up everything that had been inside of his small tummy. His hands convulsively grabbed the toilet seat. He had never puked that much in his whole lfe and he hated doing it as well.
Over and over again did his body tense as more vomit filled his mouth. As time passed by, there was nothing inside Ricky that could come out, which made his stomach writhe in pain.
Tears blurred his sight as he for the last time threw up. Feeling completely empty, did Ricky pant for air and he fell to the floor. He wondered what could've made him that sick, but dropped that thought when suddenly familiar voices was heard from outside.

“Thank you for coming here so quickly... I know it's early and everything, but I needed your help”, said the voice Ricky knew for sure belonged to his grandmother.
“No, no, don't worry about that, halmeoni. I was up hours ago anyway”, said another wich had a soft klang to it, a typical female voice that Ricky would've recognize anywhere.
“Yeah. And like... I was with her. For the... first time”, another voice said, nervously chuckling. “Don't get the wrong idea! Eunhee helped me study for a test!”.

Oh no, Ricky thought and rolled his eyes. Eunhee and Kai...

“Ow! Why did you hit me?”, Kai exclaimed suddenly, earning a chuckle from Eunhee and an annoyed “aigoo” from his grandmother.
“For saying such stupid things, you deserve to be hit”, his grandmother sighed. “Wait here. I will go look for him. And remember, you can't tell anyone about this”.
“Don't worry, halmeoni, we won't. It will be our secret”.