Thanks everyone for hanging in there with me.  This has been hard to write as I know the key points I need to get out onto the screen but need some transitional chapters.  I feel bad because I left Yunho on the floor bleeding for over a month.  Good thing this is only fiction.  I'm already working on the next chapter in my head, so I hope to deliver more rather quickly (for me).  Your reviews and subscriptions keep me going!

Chapter 12

Yunho lay in bed staring up at the ceiling only able to remain calm because of Changmin’s steady breathing.  No matter how tired he felt, the nagging thought in his head wouldn’t let him be.  He glanced over to the alarm clock.  Twelve-twenty.  Yunho sighed heavily.  Maybe some warm milk would help.

He padded his way down the hall toward the kitchen without even realizing a light was on somewhere close by.  It wasn’t until he had the milk in his hand and closed the refrigerator door that he discovered a person was sitting in the living room.  Quietly he headed over to see who it was.

Jaejoong had fallen asleep while reading a manga.  He was half laying, half sitting, head tilted precariously crooked to the side.  The book was held up by a knee that at any moment might shift causing it to fall. 

Yunho spent no time considering what needed to be done. As a born leader, natural instinct kicked in.  Within moments he had the book on the coffee table, a pillow under Jae’s head and a blanket draped over the elder man.  Knowing the feelings they had once had for each other had lessened during the schism didn’t diminish the way he would to continue to care for the man he had considered his hyung, his confidant and his better half for nearly a decade.  A few rocky years apart would never change that.

He turned the light off, went to the kitchen and put the milk back in the fridge.  He had everything he needed now to rest easy.  Everything except a light to see where he was going.

“YEOW!”

It wasn’t until his foot snagged a chair, throwing it into his path causing him to trip over it and land face first into the floor before he decided he needed to keep the racket down as not to wake anybody. Unfortunately, by then it was too late.  Jaejoong leaped off the couch banging his own shins on the coffee table, letting out a shriek to rival the leader’s.

“What was that?” Yoochun shook Junsu awake.

The dolphin pushed his best friend aside and tried to go back to sleep.

“Su, wake up!”  Yoochun was relentless with his shaking.

“Will everyone keep it down?  I’m trying to sleep!”  Changmin yelled.  “Yunho, make them shut up!”

Suddenly it was quite…too quiet – as if everyone was listening intently.

Jaejoong sat on the couch holding his throbbing shins.  “Yoochun-ah!”  He whined like a drama queen.  “Yoochun-ah, bring me some ice!”

The bedroom light was on faster than Junsu could wake and join his hyung on the quest to rescue Jaejoong from what promised to be nothing more than a bump or bruise.

“Chun-ah, help me,” he whined plaintively.

Light switches illuminated their path down the hall and toward the land of crocodile tears.  But what they saw and what they heard didn’t match.  The figure on the floor was on his knees, sitting on his heels, rocking slightly with his face in his hand.  From somewhere slightly farther away and off to the side, Jae’s voice pierced the night again.

Both Yoochun and Junsu dashed down the hallway to the figure.  Junsu was the first to notice the spots on the floor.

“Pi!”

Yoochun crouched down next to the leader, wrapping his arms around his shoulders to support him.

Yunho leaned in to the middle child’s embrace, slowly moving his hands away from his face.  They were bloody, which shocked Yoochun.

“Junsu, get me some towels.”

The JYJ maknae was half way between the two leaders when he suddenly turned toward the cupboards.  He rummaged through drawers until clean dish towels were found.  He tossed a handful to Yoochun and went for the freezer.  Either way, one of the two injured men would need an ice pack. 

Jaejoong held his shins gingerly, content in knowing the other two-thirds of JYJ were about to tend to him.  The Four-D young man was oblivious to the commotion in the kitchen.  He anticipated Junsu would sit on the couch next to him and administer the towel wrapped ice to his injured legs.

Instead, Junsu returned to Yoochun’s side.

“Can you stand,” Yoochun asked Yunho.

“Of course I can’t,” Jaejoong said exasperatedly.

Yunho didn’t respond immediately.  His blood covered hands were held out to the sides as Chun tried to gently wipe his face.   “Anbi.”

The fact that his nose was bleeding and his lip was split make Yunho’s new found satori somewhat comical. Junsu forcefully held back a snicker as Yoochun bit his lower lip.

“Lean back so we can see the damage.”

Yunho leaned against Yoochun as Junsu help him straighten his legs.

“Yah! What about me?”  Jaejoong hobbled over to where the rest of JYJ had congregated on the kitchen floor.  “Mwo?”

Before anyone could get another word out, a very irate Changmin stomped down the hall, fists balled and prepared to knock some sense into whomever was making so much noise!  He stopped short, not prepared to find two backs and three heads bent over something on the floor.  “How many of you does it take to clean up a mess?!”

No one wanted to step away from tending to the leader, but someone had to run interference before the maknae blew his stack and added to the panic they were already trying to hide.  Jaejoong had taken one look at Yunho’s state and was crying.  He looked over to Yoochun, who, surprisingly, was not weeping uncontrollably.  Junsu was also calm, but no match for Changmin.  It was as if Yoochun and Junsu had a sixth sense when it came to Jaejoong.  Junsu switched places with Yoochun, who got up as quickly as he could and blocked the maknae’s forward progress.

Changmin was quickly enveloped into a rib-crushing hug – something he hated on many levels, but not because of who was delivering the touchy-feelies.  Yoochun quickly realized that the youngest member of TVXQ had blossomed into a formidable opponent.  He was easily pushed aside in favor of finding out what was going on.  Yoochun grabbed him from behind.

“Hyung…”

Hyung?!?  Changmin furrowed his brow, turning on his heels to face Yoochun.  “You never call me hyung.  What’s going on?  Where’s Yunho?”

Yoochun hung on to him with all his might.  “He’s gonna be alright.”

But Changmin didn’t hear him.  He saw a body being tended to on the floor, bloody hands, and Jaejoong’s back with Junsu facing him and holding a towel over someone’s face.  If Yoochun was holding him  back, and they were in front of him…it meant –

Changmin broke free, rushing over to Jaejoong. 

Poor Jaejoong only heard the scramble of feet before he was mercilessly pushed aside.

Yunho couldn’t see what was happening, but he suspected the maknae stumbled upon what probably looked like something it wasn’t.  Had he moved the towel away only seconds earlier, he would have seen a terrified set of eyes, staring down at him with a gigantic paw coming at his chest. 

In a way Changmin had placed his hand over the leader’s heart to make sure it was still beating before even asking what had happened.  Reaching over to check his carotid artery seemed too macabre, and he knew Yunho hated having his neck touched.

Now they were sleep wrinkled face to swollen and bloodied face.  If he could have, Yunho would have laughed at the expression Changmin was giving him.  But even thinking about twitching his lips into a grin stung.  Instead he sort of laugh-snorted, which was probably worse.

The maknae stood up so quickly, it scared the four other men in the room.  “Which one of you hit him?” He spun around pointing his finger.    He knew the only one capable of throwing a decent punch was Yoochun, but he couldn’t discount the fact that there was a chair also splayed on the floor.  Could Jaejoong have done this?  He’s got some crazy upper body strength.  Junsu was the only one not suspect in this melee.  There was no way he’d lay a finger, fist or chair on Yunho.  He didn’t have the moral fortitude to cause another person harm.

“Why are you looking at us like that,” Jaejoong glared back at Changmin.

“Nevermind,” he dropped to his knees daring to take a closer look at his leader.

“Gwenchana,” Yunho tried to smile, but was pre-empted by the maknae performing a cursory dental exam.  Yunho slapped his hand away to avoid any additional pain.  He had swiped his tongue across his teeth shortly after falling, and he knew they were intact.

“You’re face is a mess,” Changmin said lightly.

“This from a man who once drew my skeleton with a scarred face.”  He reached out his hand for help up.

“How else was anyone supposed to know it was you?” Changmin obliged, purposefully blocking Yoochun and Jaejoong from helping.

The leader slumped against him slightly, a wave a nausea passing through him.

“Hyung?” Changmin pulled him away enough to check his face again.

“Maybe I should lay down for a bit.”

The maknae hoisted him on his back, bringing Yunho to their room.  Yoochun made a side trip to the bathroom to get supplies to clean the leader up.  Junsu refreshed his ice packs while Jaejoong tried to follow.  Changmin crossed the threshold, hooking the door closed with his foot.

“Min-ah, that was mean!”  Jaejoong and Yunho yelled in unison.

“I don’t care, hyung.” Changmin said as he gently lifted Yunho onto his bed.

“My nose started bleeding again,” he said wiping the back of his hand across his face.

“I’m coming in,” Junsu called out before entering.  He was the only one not pissed that the maknae for excluded them.

Changmin glared up at the gentle dolphin, noting he was carrying needed supplies to help the leader.

“How did you do so much damage to yourself?”  Junsu’s question was more or less asked to distract Yunho while he cleaned away the blood.

“I had help,” Yunho mumbled.

“Were you and hyung fighting?”

Yunho pushed Junsu’s hand aside so he could speak.  “I wish I could say that we were.  It’d be less embarrassing.”

“There’s something more embarrassing than being hit by Jaejoong hyung?”  Changmin thought hard about what that could be.

“Did you see another ghost?” Junsu’s eyes were wide with disbelief.

“Ani,” Yunho patted the innocent’s hand condescendingly.  “I tripped over a chair.”

That did it!  Junsu couldn’t believe the great Jung Yunho could succumb to the likes of a kitchen chair.  His lips spread into a teeth baring grin.  I was followed almost immediately by a snort of laughter that erupted into a full blown eu kyang kyang.

Changmin pushed the JYJ maknae, trying to give him his scariest Voldemin look.  However, he failed miserably as a fit of snickers pushed past his lips.  Soon they were both rolling on the floor howling, leaving Yunho utterly humiliated.

On the other side of the door, Yoochun and Jaejoong heard the maknaes cackling.  Either they were torturing the leader or what they thought was hilarity was really hysterics of a different nature.  Unable to contain their curiosity any further, they burst through the door ready for anything.

Yoochun instantly started giggled, further irritating Yunho.  It was Jaejoong who started scolding the boys before his attention was drawn to the nearly unrecognizable leader.

“You better keep ice on your face for a while.”  Jae took the cold compress out of Junsu’s hand and gently placed it on Yunho’s nose.

“Mirror,” Yunho ordered.

Changmin continued to laugh, holding his stomach as if an alien was trying to break out.  “Hyung, at least wait until morning.”  He fell back, trying not to laugh.

“This is not funny!”

“Yeah, what if he wakes up in the morning and looks like Quasimodo?”  Yoochun just couldn’t resist adding his interpretation.

Yunho was saved from further ridicule by the front door opening.  All five members were too scared to do much more than stare wide-eyed into the hallway.  Footsteps echoed through the kitchen and then up the corridor.  Seconds later their manager was in the doorway, a look of pure relief on his face.

He quickly extracted his cell phone and placed a call.

“What are you doing here?”  Jaejoong puffed himself up, ready for a war of wills.

“I came to check up on the five of you.”

“At one o’clock in the morning?”

“Yunho-ssi, gwenchayo?”  He walked passed Jaejoong concerned that what had been reported was much worse than what really was.

“Neh.”

The manager shook his head in disappointment.  “Aniyo.  It’s probably looks worse than it is,” he spoke into the phone.  “Neh, his face.  Neh…neh.”  He closed the phone, slipping it into his jacket pocket before addressing them.

“Yunho-ssi, Sooman-ssi wants me to take you to the emergency room and have you checked out.”

Just hearing Lee Sooman’s name made everyone shudder – Yunho especially.  Once he knew who issued the order, there was no sense in arguing.  TVXQ may be the gods of K-pop, but Sooman was the titan who created the gods.  As for Yunho and Changmin, what he said was law.

Changmin jumped to his feet.  “I’m going with you.”

“Aniyo.  You’re to stay here,” the manager warned.

“At least let me carrying him to the car.”  Changmin had already positioned himself for Yunho to get on his back.

“Just to the car.  They you all need to go back to bed.  You’ve got schedules to keep.”