A/N (orange_one): I wonder why he named his chapter when I didn't name mine and no one said we would name them and just wtf. 
Well hi! XD Lol, I have nothing to say in fact XD Just... The delay has a reason and I hope you can understand. And also, you all (including me) should be thankful that LeeSangmin's bro is as awesome as he is or we wouldn't have this chapter (because I'm retarded =.=)! 

Enjoy ~~

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Chapter 2: Mother and the Garden

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Sunggyu’s long, peaceful and more than anything perfect nap, which is one of the activities he really treasures and spends a lot of time doing, is forcefully, and he himself would use the word ‘brutally’, interrupted by the evil sound of his cell phone ringtone. The device is somewhere hidden in the depths of his super comfy bed and the last thing Sunggyu wants to do is to look for it.

“Someone – “he calls half-heartedly, his eyes still closed. “Someone pick it up!”

He tries to ignore the fact he lives alone.

“I’m busy, someone, hurry up.”

Sadly, ‘someone’ seems to be rebelling the day and Sunggyu involuntarily opens his eyes, closes them again, and decides to search without looking. His eyes don’t like the sudden impact of the sun light.

He throws his arms in random directions; not really trying but the sound of his phone slowly starts to irritate him. The sound is freaking annoying, alright? Sungyeol put it there not so long ago, saying he was sure Sunggyu will love it; though he was pretty sure Sungyeol knew he would hate it since he liked to be the bane of Sunggyu’s existence (he took an advantage of Sunggyu, because he knew his hyung wouldn’t know how to change the ringtone back). Sunggyu was never really good with electronics, but he never really needed it in the first place. His fingers finally find the cold object under his pillow and he lies on his side and puts the phone on his free ear, so he doesn’t have to hold it.

“Yeah?” He asks with sleepy voice, mewing in fact.

“Aah, GyuGyu!”

Oh. His mother.

She sounds as if it was a surprise her son, who she was calling, actually picked up and her high pitched voice with a slight lisp comes out unnecessarily loud.  Sunggyu’s brows meet in annoyance over the sudden, loud intrusion even though he’s glad his mother sounds lively as ever. “Yes, mom?” He asks, his eyes already closing again.

“How’s my baby doing?”

“I’m fine, mom, thanks,” Sunggyu says with a small smile and starts to massage his forehead.

“I don’t mean you, how old are you for God’s sake?” She says and Sunggyu can see her rolling her eyes dramatically and he mimics along with her, knowing where that crazy woman is heading. “I mean my jewel, my precious, my garden.”

 The garden… What should he say, that he hates it to death and had only stepped there once so he could check out his supposed gardener? Certainly not. The thought of rebelling is very short; Sunggyu’s a good child, so he knows how to lie a bit (only a bit and only over phone, because in person he gets red and it’s just obvious). But for the sake of peace with his mother Sunggyu has some hidden expressions about gardens to impress her. Though when the moment comes, the second, where all the absurdly hard work with Google (it says people even get awards for well-kept gardens and stuff. Sunggyu does not understand) would pay off, he’s speechless, his mind flooded with whole different images he got the last time he was outside (flashes of the shirtless gardener).
Sunggyu blushes slightly. Practically the only thing he’s been doing lately is hiding clumsily by the window and watching his new, actually not new at all, gardener doing all those boring activities a garden needs, and yeah, they suddenly don’t seem so boring at all.

“Gyu?”

“Oh, yeah, mum,” he mumbles, waving his hand around his face in attempt to scare the thoughts of the gardener away.  “The garden’s doing fine! Really, everything looks healthy and vibrant. I mean, all the dirt and flowers and grass make me so happy! It’s so nice.”

“Oh! I’m glad then!” She exclaims with relief, ignoring the real meaning of Sunggyu’s words. “I actually have a request for you, dear.” Now, that sounds dangerous. Sunggyu truly hopes it has nothing to do with the family business, because no, he already said he doesn’t want to be involved with father’s company at all, because his life is art. Speaking of art, Sunggyu’s mind gives him as if painted image of his gardener’s body because what would you call a piece of art if not that stomach? He shakes his head again and clears his throat with a light cough.

“What might that be?”

“It’s actually…” her voice trails off and Sunggyu can see her in his mind looking around to assure no one’s listening. “Don’t tell this your father, okay? I’ll talk to him about the company matter again for you…” Sunggyu’s brows meet again and he begins to suspect his mother actually wants him to do something illegal. His voice’s a bit shaky when he speaks up again and asks what the ‘request’ really is.

“I want you to enlarge my baby. Make it bigger, more beautiful, interesting, attractive, exotic, I don’t know, whatever!” Her voice shakes with excitement and she gets painfully loud.

“Okay mom,” it’s not like he has a choice and if this will prevent his father from complaining about his wasted life, even though those are just big words – his father loves him just as his mother does. “So what do you want? A green house? Horses? Benches or a potato field?”

She laughs a bit but it soon turns into a frightened incoherent whisper, which Sunggyu doesn’t even understand and he picks up only ‘whatever you want’ and ‘as soon as possible’. Then the connection dies.

Sunggyu really likes his mother, she’s an awesome person but no one’s perfect. She used to spoil him and his younger brother a lot though and the father decided to step in and made her find something else to play with. Unfortunately for Sunggyu, who was the only one suffering with her decision, she found herself entranced by gardens; plants, grass, flowers, the whole ordeal.

Sunggyu groans, calling for someone to help him down the bed and he slowly shifts around, blindly stumbling towards the door. What is this mess so early in the morning? He personally should take care of the garden? Just... How? It’s not mentally, physically, any way possible for Sunggyu to do such a thing and not especially when he needs to come up with the idea alone. That can have just disastrous end and he doesn’t even bother to hide that fact. He would use the grounds to build a library or atelier for painting or a big cage to keep Sungyeol in (honestly it probably wouldn’t be useful knowing the taller boy). Anything.

His sweet mother probably expects him to make it into a tropical green house. Maybe he should ask help from the gardener; it’s his job after all, isn’t it? But... That’s not that easy either; that would mean to speak with him and Sunggyu isn’t completely sure he’s capable of doing that without ridiculing himself even more. Sunggyu isn’t good at dealing with people, unless he knows them well and he’s exceptionally bad at dealing with hot people who overflow with confidence.

Sunggyu shuffles down the stairs and he feels like he’s on the way for months already before finally reaching the kitchen. He enters the modern-styled room with only one eye opened, yawning.

“Anyone, I need brea-”he screeches loudly when he gets the shock of his life. His kitchen has become a nest for a wild animal…Commonly known as Lee Sungyeol. The tall, lanky man sits on clean, expensive mahogany wood dining table, munching on Sunggyu’s favourite cereal, the freaking chocolate Lucky Charms – and stares at Sunggyu with a bored I’ve-been-waiting-for-you look. He sits with his back perfectly straight, long legs crossed and if he didn’t have a yellow bowl and big red spoon in his hands, he would look to be meditating. Sungyeol nods slightly to Sunggyu, as if giving permission to enter his own kitchen.
 
“What are you doing here again?!” Sunggyu says, practically freaking out even with a completely sleepy voice.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” if it didn’t mean to lift one hand, Sunggyu would facepalm. “I knew you’d come searching for my advice and services.”
“Sungyeol please, you know that I can put up with a lot of things, but not eating my chocolate Lucky Charms,” Sunggyu groans, ignoring Sungyeol’s portrayal of a Byzantine monk.

“In this hour, I can sense all your worries and – “ he stops for a moment to gulp down another spoon full of cereal and continues with his mouth full. “ – and all your responsibilities and duties and... All your erted thoughts, which I will skip.” Sunggyu gets red slightly and shifts his weight from one leg to the other, eyeing Sungyeol desperately.

“Come down the table this instant, Lee Sungyeol,” he orders and Sungyeol only keeps staring, his eyes glowing mysteriously.

“I can predict your future, my dear,” he says with a dreamy voice. “Another man will come to your life.”
“What… Another?” Sunggyu gapes and then shakes his head violently. “I mean, get down and stop this!” Sungyeol blinks a few times and the mysterious mist disappears from his eyes.

“Oh, hyung,” he says as if surprised to see him. “You’re here?”

“Just stop. You’re creepy and I’m scared,” Sunggyu complains and finally takes his seat by the table, resting his face in his palms.

“What’s wrong, hyung? You’re usually all lethargic and dazed in the morning but I feel a pure desperation from you now,” Sungyeol says and leans closer, his nose almost touching Sunggyu’s. “Tell me about your burden, child.”

“I’m not a child, Sungyeol, especially not to you! And keep some distance for God’s sake!” Sunggyu says dramatically and Sungyeol nods, bumping their noses together completely before leaning away.

“Sure, sure, Gyu, you’re a big boy,” Sungyeol says, still nodding. “Now tell me what these negative feelings are for? My pure soul can’t stand the darkness.”

“I’m – “ Sunggyu sighs and Sungyeol cuts in.

“Let me guess, alright? Your mother? The garden? Your mother and the garden?” Sungyeol says with an excited smile and Sunggyu’s jaw drops a bit.

“How would you...?” Sunggyu gapes.

“I’m right, huh,” Sungyeol yawns.

“She wants me to make it more extravagant, add some special touches to it,” Sunggyu groans. Why he is even surprised Sungyeol knows everything? Why he is even surprised Sungyeol keep popping into his house every day even after changing the locks how many ever times? Sunggyu really doesn’t know.
 
“So?” Sungyeol asks as his face falls with boredom. “There’s no challenge in it at all!”

“I have to think of something myself! Myself!! It’s tiring to think about that and I have no idea what to do with a garden,” Sunggyu complains again and then, looking at Sungyeol’s face, an idea comes.

The real reason why Sungyeol is always around, even though he’s around too much, is that he’s something like Sunggyu’s secretary; to help him with maintaining the house, the bills, food, services and such. In fact, he does everything, because Sunggyu has no idea how these things work. And he happily lives oblivious to real life and real world problems.

“Sungyeollie?” Sunggyu asks and eyes the other male innocently, pouting cutely.

“Gosh, what? You want me to do it? You want me to rearrange the garden?” Sungyeol asks with roll of his eyes. Sunggyu thinks he doesn’t even need to speak, because the guy simply reads in his mind as he pleases.

“You know how it would end if it really was me doing it, right?” Sunggyu asks; there’s no point in denying, he knows he doesn’t have skills for that.

“Moonscape,” Sungyeol says curtly and Sunggyu can’t even look hurt. It’s true. “So what do you want?”

“I don’t know and I honestly don’t care. She just wants it to be more extravagant, so I think I can give you free hand in that. I must approve it first though,” that is the main point, because without supervision Sungyeol is capable of building his own Disneyland right then and there, under Sunggyu’s windows. And he can’t allow that.

“No problem,” Sungyeol exclaims, suddenly interested. He has a free hand after all. “But what about Yeol-cave...” He mumbles the last part only for him and luckily, Sunggyu doesn’t hear him. “I might need to hire a landscape artists though. I’ll ask you now, if you want to choose one. Now that I know how erted you in fact are, you want to choose the other yourself, right?”

It comes out almost innocently as if it’s a normal question you would ask your employer and as if you don’t insult him at all. Maybe Sungyeol’s way of thinking really doesn’t know he shouldn’t have done that, because certainly Sunggyu’s way of thinking has only one solution; another of his thick art-related books lands on top of Sungyeol’s head.

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Sunggyu covers every part of his body with clothes, including his head and hands; he simply ignores the fact that it’s currently summer, freaking hot as hell summer. Avoiding direct contact with the outside is more important than his comfort, especially when this time there’s no one to save him from the evil of the outdoors. Sunggyu made sure there’s no one in the garden; especially not the gardener, whose name he has forgotten.

He looks around with a scrunched nose; all around him there’s the sound of insects and the smell of soil and the dirt and meh. But if he wasn’t biased, he’d say the garden actually looks quite nice. At least compared to its previous state, when his mother was taking care of it in purely her way; zero knowledge of plants, great enthusiasm.

“Maybe something like a castle?” Sunggyu jumps surprised when he hears Sungyeol’s voice right next to his ear, his breath brushing against his cheek. That guy is unbelievable, how is he able to get so close without getting noticed?

“I told you to keep distance, Sungyeol,” Sunggyu barks and pushes Sungyeol away with all his might, the eyes of the taller man boring into his nose, for some reason. “And no, definitely not a castle. It’s not that big here anyway.” Sunggyu eyes all the flowerbeds which are closest to the street and he slowly moves his gaze to the part in the back. There’s actually quite a lot of space for anything he can come up with.

“Then what about a hedge labyrinth?” Sungyeol asks again, excited. “That would be so cool, come on, Sunggyu, don’t be a grandpa.” Sunggyu decides he doesn’t even need to comment on that and turns his back to the taller guy, ignoring him. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to give him this matter to handle. Sunggyu’s eyes land on a spot which gives him a strange feeling and pink colour dusts his cheeks, when he remembers this was the place he first spoke with his gardener. He’s lucky because he doesn’t work today, Sunggyu has a bad feeling he really made fool of himself last time, just like he predicted. He isn’t very sure of what expression he has left on the taller, extremely y man and for some reason it leaves him nervous. Speaking with him, Sunggyu felt like he used a different language; he didn’t get what he was talking about at all. Still he would listen to that voice again, if he got the chance. Of course, Sunggyu thinks it’s completely because of his artistic spirit. There’s only one thing he’s sure about his gardener; he‘s a piece of art.

“What about a kennel? But we’d appreciate if you got a leash to start out with.” Another, new voice speaks up and Sunggyu turns to meet the gazes of his neighbours Hoya and Dongwoo. Both are glaring and Sunggyu takes a step back, realising there’s the white, barking thing practically slobbering in Dongwoo’s hands. “Sunggyu-sshi, it’s getting embarrassing even for us but we really don’t appreciate this animal ruining our garden. We don’t know how to tell you any other way. Don’t make us call police.”

Even in the life-endangering situation (the dog), Sunggyu can’t help to roll his eyes. “I told you the dog isn’t mine!” They both give him absolutely identical sceptic look and sigh. “Just please, this time really, keep it here.”

Once again, the monster is released and once again, it runs in Sunggyu’s direction right away. Sunggyu squeaks rather unmanly and backs up even more, though he’s saved immediately by Sungyeol, who obviously finds the thing cute or something. He jumps at its side and they both start rolling on their backs, legs flying in the air. Sunggyu asks himself if Sungyeol has added the ability to speak with animals to his long list of talents.

“I see you’re making your employees crawl on the dirty ground now,” another, freaking another, new voice comes from the street and Sungjong looks at Sunggyu with judging eyes. “I applaud you.”

“No!” Sunggyu exclaims. “Obviously it’s not like that!” Sungjong gives him doubtful I-don’t-believe-you-at-all look and steps closer, observing the garden. “Today without your boyfriend?”

“I told you it’s not like that!” Sunggyu says desperately, trying to prevent Sungjong from jumping to conclusions. “I just tripped over and fell on him and that’s how we ended up in that position.”

“And while on top of him, he looked like he wanted to your face off and you looked as if you were staring at a holy deity. Save the excuses, Sunggyu-sshi and be happy you finally found someone,” Sungjong’s attempt to look strict disappears when his natural curiosity takes over. “So what’s his name? And how did you meet? Is it a romantic employer-employee relationship? Did he ask you out or was it you? And how long have you been together already?”

Sunggyu rolls his eyes and he notices a slight headache invading his forehead. “I already told you he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Oh, please, I’m not blind, I have a sense for these things,” Sungjong gives him a sparkling smile and he his fringe in a diva-like gesture. “You can’t hide it from me.”

Even though Sunggyu knows he shouldn’t take Sungjong lightly, because the guy is capable of anything, he resigns. For one day, it’s too much on him. So many things started to happen around him, when just a week ago, everything was perfectly calm and without problems. Suddenly, there’s some shirtless guy in his garden, he needs to construct something extravagant in the garden, dogs of doom invade his territory and that everything attracts attention from the least convenient people. And all of that doesn’t even include Sungyeol’s daily invasions and shenanigans.

“There’s nothing to hide and I really don’t feel like talking with you in the first place,” Sunggyu tries to look strict and cold, which looks more than anything just cute but he’s not aware of that, so he doesn’t understand the tamed expression on Sungjong’s face. “I have work, so can you leave?”

Sungjong shrugs and turns to leave. Sunggyu meanwhile looks around; Sungyeol’s busy with the fluffy thing of death and won’t be much of help anymore. He sighs, actually lost about what he should do with all this. He could ask the gardener when he gets back, that already crossed his mind, but no, that would be the last option. Sunggyu has enough of looking like an idiot, at least for now.

“Oh, by the way,” Sungjong stops and turns with a kick of his leg. “You call this garden? Without a rock lined pond with a waterfall?” Sungjong does the ‘hmp!’ sound only girls do and shahs-shays as he finally leaves. Sunggyu smiles widely, actually liking the idea more than anything. A pond. Why not? That won’t mean more flowers and maybe even a cut down on insects. That’s actually perfect and it would be a big enough project to make it look he really tried. Apart from having the worst timing and worst assumptions, Sungjong was actually a huge help.

“Sungyeol!” Sunggyu calls with a determined voice and a victorious smile invades his face. “It’s decided.” Sungyeol stops rolling around and still lying on his back looks at Sunggyu with tilted head and wide eyes, mouth hanging opened. “What’s decided?”

“We’ll build a pond, lined with rock and a waterfall… Even put some nice koi in it!” Sunggyu announces with growing satisfaction. “Well, not we. Hire another guy, I don’t care about that, and as soon as possible, start with it.”

A large pond with a rock waterfall and Japanese koi?

That needs another strong, young male with a talent for landscape.

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Ugh, okay, so I hope it wasn't that bad ~