Affectionate

*****

‘You’re such a persistent, always try to force your way to get close to me.

And it scared me how it soon become so comfortable to have you around me.’

Yunho snorted in fury while legs kept walking in a fast speed towards the primary school gate, his head whirling with the things that had just been informed to him.

‘Yunho, Yoohwan told me that Jaejoong got into a trouble at school today. So, he can’t go back early until the teacher meet his guardian. It is better if you go and fetch him now.”

Those were being told to him by Yoochun once he came back from his afternoon class, and found the kid was still not getting home. It was almost a month since Jaejoong started his school. And since the day Yunho felt unease at the thought there was a stranger who accompanied the kid whenever he late to fetch him up, he had ordered Jaejoong to go back with the chauffeurs Mr Park sent to fetch his youngest son.

Today, he had to go to fetch the boy from his school again, and the reason was enough to enrage him at the moment. Probably, the boy got detention as a punishment for the trouble he had caused – that was what Yunho thought.

As he walked into the school office department, Yunho spotted Jaejoong was standing outside of his homeroom teacher’s office.

“What’s the matter here?” He approached the kid who had his head hanging low, didn’t dare to look up at him upon heard his icy-cold voice.

“Oh, you must be his brother, right? I was informed Kim Jaejoong is living with his brother.” The female teacher suddenly came out of her room, inadvertently saving Jaejoong from the scolding as Yunho shifted his attention to her. Yunho noticed it was the same teacher that had helped him to take Jaejoong into his class on his first day of school.

“Yes, I’m Jung Yunho…this boy’s older brother.” Yunho greeted with a slight bow.

“But, you are… Jung?” She asked with a wondering look at the different surname of the two.

“Hmm…I’m his stepbrother actually.”

“Oh, I see…” The teacher nodded and gestured Yunho to come into the office. “It’s good you came. I thought nobody will come to confront what’s this kid had done today.” She said and settled down in her place before asked Yunho to have a seat opposite her.

“May I know what my brother did that causing him to get detention today?” Yunho asked directly.

“First of all, I want you to know, Yunho-ssi. Actually, Jaejoong is a good and smart kid. This is first time he created a trouble with got into a fight with one of his classmates.”

“What? A fight?” Yunho’s eyes widened, his face looked contemplating with the thing that just reached his ears. “Is it serious?”

“Hmm…yes, he had pushed his classmate until the boy fell off from his chair and injured his head.”

Yunho bit his bottom lips, trying to smothering the furriness that was rising into him slowly. “How’s the boy?”

“Don’t worry, he’s fine after he was immediately taken to the infirmary. I’ve already settled it with the boy’s parent too. Here, I just call you to settle about Jaejoong.”

“I’m sorry for the trouble. Seriously, I will take care of him better.” Yunho said while bowed his head apologetically.

“It’s okay, I hope you won’t scold him more because I think he also received a shock about what he had done today. He’s still a kid though, probably, he got his lesson already from today's mistake.” The teacher gave her advice as an adult.

Yunho nodded and bowed his head at her once again while thanking her for settle the case with the other boys’ parent behalf of him. As he walked out of the teacher’s office, he glanced down at Jaejoong who stood outside the room. The kid still didn’t dare to look up at him yet.

“Let’s go home.” Yunho uttered in a tense-controlled voice. During their way back, Yunho felt it was the best to silencing himself, since he knew he would probably explode if he brought up the matter at the moment. But his attempt failed once Jaejoong questioned something.

“Yunnie…a-are you mad?” The kid asked stutteringly. His big, rounded eyes stared up at him, clearly showed his worries and reservations on Yunho’s response.

“What did you expect? Should I feel happy after heard what you did today?” Yunho huffed harshly while kept walking in a big step, as always, letting the kid fastened his steps to catch up with him.

“Joongie sorry, Yunnie… Joongie promise not to do it again.” The boy apologized with tearful eyes.

“Enough with your promises! You always get me into trouble. Can you at least stop adding the mess? I’ve already got a lot of things to deal with, and you’ve just making me feel more distress.” Yunho snarled.

“Yunnie…s-sorry…” Jaejoong’s lips quivered, tears slowly streaming down his rounded cheeks as he blinked. “Joongie will say sorry many times. So…sorry, please don’t be mad at me.” He kept pleading and sobbing; afraid the eldest would walk away and leave him for real like he was told before if he brought a trouble at school. Yunho had ignored the boy in irritation until they reached their place.

*

“Hey, did you scold Jaejoong after you fetched him up at school this morning?” Yoochun asked his friend when they were doing some revision together in his room for their final paper tomorrow. Finally, they were a day close to end their school days.

Yunho who focused in his study, stopped scribbling his worksheet. “Why? Can’t I?” He answered back with a question.

“So, you did uh.” Yoochun sighed.

“What’s wrong? I can’t scold him if he did something wrong or misbehave? You don’t even know what he had done today. It’s not something that will be taken lightly.” Yunho said, feeling discontent.

“Really? What has he done?” Yoochun raised his brows.

“It’s useless to tell you. No matter what, you still love to spoil him.”

Yoochun chuckled at Yunho’s complaint. “I think you’re the one who don’t know a thing about what happened today.”

“What do you mean?” Yunho quirked his head slightly, looking straight at his friend.

Yoochun smiled. “So as I thought…he doesn’t tell you the reason why he got into a fight, or, you didn’t bother to listen? So, which one?”

“What… Did he tell you his reason?”

“Well, technically nope. But I know it from Yoohwan. He told me that the boy whom Jaejoong had pushed down from his chair was mocking him about not having a parent.”

“What?!" The pencil in Yunho's hand dropped on his open book, shocked at what he heard.

“Yup, Yoohwan told me that the boy made fun of Jaejoong doesn’t have anyone that will attend on this coming parent-teacher meeting for him. Even Jaejoong said he has a brother, but that won’t change the fact that he has no parent. He tried to make him stop mocking him, and unintentionally he pushed him off from his seat when the boy tried to fight him. Basically, it was an accident.” Yoochum told Yunho everything he knew from his little brother who was in the same class as the kid.

Seeing his friend suddenly became silent, Yoochun added. “See, even you’re also shocked after hear this thing, uh. You see… Jaejoong is totally an adorable, sweet kid. There’s no way he would doing something like get into a fight blindly and become such disobedient brat.”

Yunho was frozen in his seat before he suddenly stood up and kept all of his things, making Yoochun looked at him questioningly. “Where are you going? We’re still in the middle of our revision for tomorrow paper.”

“I know, I will continue it at home. I just need to make sure Jaejoong has eaten his dinner before he gets to bed.”

“Aww…what a sweet brother you are.” Yoochun chuckled.

“Shut up.” Yunho retorted and hurried back to his place. Actually a guilty feeling for treated Jaejoong coldly this morning was started crawling into him.

Previously, after prepared the dinner, he left to Yoochun’s place without a word, intentionally, letting the kid having it alone. Also, he aware of Jaejoong’s problem of getting sleeps without his presence near him, that also urged him to go back early. Unbeknownst to him, all those things related to the boy had driven him easily feel disquieting and unsettling.

Yunho reached his place and unlocked the door. Once he stepped in, the first thing that caught his eyes was the untouched dinner that he prepared