‘I lost my phone' Hyesung announced the moment he stepped into the apartment looking like he’d been freshly mauled by a bear. 

He had promised to call. He had also promised to be here at least half a day earlier and Dongwan, clearly, was pissed. At least he had been. His anger deflated after he heard Hyesung’s voice and now he was just glad that the other had made it back home in one piece.

Besides, losing one's phone was a legitimate reason for not calling.

‘Ok’ he nodded and glanced at Junjin sitting beside him. He hadn't even as much as greeted Hyesung.

Something felt off about this. Something was really wrong with their youngest one’s behavior lately. But did he have any rights to judge? His own life was a mess.

He had arrived home yesterday, all sober and full of regrets, and Hyesung had not been home. Even worse, Junjin had not been home either. He had answered his phone this time but only to tell him not to worry and that he would be back soon.

Which was pretty suspicious considering that Junjin had nowhere to go and nothing to do. He had even made Dongwan promised to not tell Hyesung about any of this so now it literally made him go crazy just thinking about it.

What in the seven hells was Junjin hiding from him? And where had he been and what's with that attitude?

So far, Dongwan had gotten none the wiser and Junjin refused to explain. Considering all that, should he really keep it a secret?

‘Wait,' Dongwan could feel his resolve of silence slipping as Hyesung glared at him.

'What?'

But then there was Junjin and his puppy eyes.

'Uh. You- you- losing your phone is... heartbreaking, of course...' he took a full breath seeing as now he had to confront their undisclosed leader wanted he that or not, 'but don’t you have some explaining to do?’

Hyesung’s clothes were muddy and overall dirty and if Dongwan didn't know any better he'd guess he'd been hunting wild boar. With bare hands. All night long. Definitely not gone to a recreational fishing trip with a millionaire.

Hyesung pinned him with a long and hard stare before a strict 'No'. And with simply that he went to the bathroom and didn't come out of it until an hour later.

Both Junjin and Dongwan were still sitting at the table pondering over all the possibilities of what exactly could have happened because there was never anything better to do.

Plopping beside Junjin , Hyesung declared that it had been the ‘Worst trip ever’ and 'We can seriously call this mission off because me and Eric are never going to get together. Ever’

Having stated that he looked at what Junjin and Dongwan were drinking. Finding it as unimpressive as ever he went to boil the kettle and make some tea for himself.

Dongwan sat there confused, Junjin looked guilty.

Engulfed in the usual silence each reconciled over their miserable existence.

Dongwan was first to speak.

‘But Minwoo wants to go on a date. He keeps texting and calling me. What should I do?  Call it off just because you have issues?’

His tone wasn’t pleasant, it came out harsher than he had expected, surprising him. They never had problems like this, not with Hyesung. If anyone, Dongwan was usually the one to mess things up and now, that one time he had done everything right, Hyesung kept messing up. This felt like an insult.

'And considering that we have spent all our money on this where are we going to live? Or eat? What about the money for Junjin’s medicine? Both of my jobs barely cover half of it and not like you can just go and start working, Hyesung’

Was he going too far? Too out of line? But he was so angry.

Junjin looked over at Dongwan, then Hyesung and bit his lip, sure that all of this was his fault. If not for him they wouldn’t have to live like this, running and hiding and stealing.

‘Shut up, Wan, alright?' Hyesung bit back, his tone no less insulting, 'if you feel like this is such a bother why don’t you just leave?’

Junjin squeezed his eyes shut trying to pretend that this was not happening. Quarreling was bad. These two quarreling was tragic.

‘What the ’ Dongwan narrowed his eyes in a warning, ‘Does it look like it’s a bother to me?’

‘Yes’

Hyesung got up to pour some more water in his cup, the remote taste of tea long gone. Dongwan looked at Junjin as if trying to get an agreement that Hyesung was overdramatizing things but received no response. Not sure who he was angry at anymore he stood up and went over to where Hyesung was. This time his voice came out soft, almost too quiet to hear. 

‘You really think that?’

Hyesung stubbornly kept to the counter, adding some new leaves to the water and observing how the black ink from them seeped into the water. He didn't say anything for a while before replying with an even softer ‘no’ and turning away from him. Before anything else could be said he went back to the table.

Dongwan sighed, now standing there awkwardly.

They hadn’t had a serious disagreement like this in a long time, the last one being when they decided to make Eric Mun their next target. He had told Hyesung it was too dangerous, too much to risk but he had insisted, telling him that if they pulled it off they could stop doing this altogether. It had been tempting.  Well, too tempting altogether and now they were in trouble because obviously they couldn’t pull it off.

‘I don’t think that. I just-’ Hyesung looked bleak (-er than usual) when he sat down, rubbing his forehead and unhappily assessing some strands of his damp hair, ‘I’m just- confused? Eric's seriously weird. And I lost my phone and there's no money to buy a new one. I'm in a bad mood, that’s all’

That it was. Always like that, always the same. All those problems and no one to blame them on.

Dongwan nodded not because he agreed but because this was a good opportunity to bury the battle axe and proclaim another truce in their never-ending war.

‘Then should I call Minwoo, or what?’

‘You should’

Junjin enthusiastic nodded at Hyesung's suggestion thus positively showing some signs of life and maybe Dongwan was just over thinking this all. Maybe he needed some more sleep and less coffee mixed with energy drinks and maybe he wouldn't have all these thoughts in his head.

‘But then, you should also call Eric. Ask him out’

‘Call how? I told you I lost my phone’

'Right'

They both looked somewhat at loss and Dongwan went over to sit beside Hyesung and ponder over this new challenge. Both of them didn’t have to think for long when the answer came in the form of Junjin’s awkward cough. They turned to look at him and an idea was formed instantly.

‘I’ll take Junjin's’

At what Junjin’s face became pale and his eyes started  darting from Hyesung to Dongwan. The brilliant piece of information he had just heard made him agitated. If he disagreed, Hyesung would want to know the reason but if he agreed, he couldn't call Andy anymore.

‘Yeah, well, but it’s- it’s broken’ he settled on lying, his eyes automatically turning to the ground, his hands starting to clench his shirt. Hyesung furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and looked at Dongwan. Not knowing how to explain Junjin’s weird behavior Dongwan resorted to the same tactic as him.

‘Riiiight. I forgot. Junjin told me before that it's broken and I promised to bring it to repair. Ha. Stupid me’

He laughed awkwardly but felt more like crying when Hyesung shot him another questioning glare. He avoided it by pretending that his tea had turned into a threat to humanity that needed to discard immediately.

To his great pleasure Hyesung let it go.

‘Fine. Then you  call Eric'

To his great displeasure Dongwan had to agree.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about the idea of playing the matchmaker but luck had never been on his side so he may as well.

---

Minwoo looked over the table at Eric who was discussing things with his assistant. Things which included preparations for their upcoming meeting with their potential investors. Important things, apparently.

‘Yes, yes, he is somewhere close’

And then there was he, Minwoo, talking on his phone and completely ignoring these important things.

Eric shot him a look of disbelief but Minwoo just motioned for him to stop talking while trying to shoo the disturbing assistant away. Completely in shock at his friend's disrespect Eric mumbled a quick  ‘we’ll finish later’ before he dismissed the man. Having done that, he turned to the shorter, one of his eyebrows shooting up.

Why was Minwoo talking about him with Dongwan? Or at least he believed it to be Dongwan from Minwoo’s inadequate squealing when he had looked at the phone's screen before picking it up.

‘Oh, really? I’m sorry to hear that’ Minwoo laughed, now all of sudden having forgotten about Eric. He proceed to slide one of the folders sitting on his table towards the other man in attempt to distract him but that worked exactly as well as one would expect.

‘Don’t I know!’ Minwoo laughed, shaking his head, ‘yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. It's the same with Eric’

‘What about me?’ the taller mouthed, waiting for an answer which never came.

This was bullcrap.

Minwoo was bullcrap.

Annoyed, he rolled his eyes one too many times before returning to looking at the papers his assistant had left him. There was no use in talking to Minwoo because Minwoo was a .

Collecting all his attention and directing it at a particularly long and boring report Eric started reading it, slowly getting engrossed in his work, letting the other’s annoying voice drift in the background. He was starting to feel like he could actually get some work done today when a sudden tap on his shoulder startled him.

‘Hyesung’ Minwoo commented as he pressed his phone in the other's hands and Eric gawked at him in confusion. In response Minwoo motioned for him to put the receiver to his ear.

‘He lost his phone and now is calling you from Dongwan’s’ he explained when his charades had failed.

'Then why didn't you just say so?’ Eric wondered before putting the phone to his ear.

‘I'm listening’

An exaggerated sight followed by a grunt awaited him.

‘Finally. I’ve been waiting for you for hours. What took you so long?’

Despite the nagging, the absurdity of the whole situation put a smile on Eric's face.

‘Hours? It only took me a minute at best. Don’t complain’

But Hyesung did. He kept complaining until he was making no sense and only succeeded at annoying Eric. There really seemed to be no middle ground with this guy.

Eric sat back in his chair, turning around twice in annoyance, wondering why did he even have to put up with this until finally there was a ‘sorry’ and then silence.

Had the other just apologized? His eyebrows shot way up into his hairline, him having forgotten what to say from the unexpected turn of events.

‘Uh- wait, no. There’s no need to- you know’ 

And Minwoo smiling at his little stutter was embarrassing. Eric turned away from him quickly, all of sudden not willing to share their conversation. It felt private, too intimate.

'What now?!' Hyesung practically shouted in the receiver, positively contributing to Eric's hearing loss in the future, ‘you want or don’t want me to apologize, then? Can you make up your-ouch!’ it sounded like something interrupted him on the other side of the line and when his voice returner it was much calmer, ‘I mean, what I wanted to say with that, appearently, was if you have time tomorrow?’ 

There was the meeting. He needed to go over reports. He had promised to visit Andy so-

‘Yeah, sure’

‘Sure?’

‘Sure’ 

He turned to look at Minwoo but regretted it immediately. The other’s face was pulled into a smug grin as if knew something that he didn’t know.

‘Then let’s meet at the arts centre at eight’

And without Eric having a chance to reply the other hung up.

‘You look like he just proposed to you’ Minwoo sneered at his friend's baffled face and took his phone back, pouting when he realized the conversation had ended. He would have to call Dongwan later.

‘Not quite’ Eric muttered, trying to calm his beating heart down.

Interesting.

Minwoo put the phone down, resting one hand on his palm. 

‘ok, sure, I figured as much but’ and he smirked, ‘I have not seen Eric Mun take so much from anybody in years’

Which was-

'Uh, no. That's not really-'

But actually- 

Eric took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes trying to buy himself more time.

Ok. It was the truth. He didn’t know what to answer as there was no logical way to explain this. Worst of all, he didn’t even mind. Maybe it was because Hyesung was one of the rare people who treated him like an actual human being to begin with- but then again…

‘I accidentally broke his phone’ Eric admitted. He didn’t know what he had expected but Minwoo looked at him with such disappointment as if he had murdered a kitten.

‘You broke his phone? Why?’ 

‘No, I didn't break it. It was, well, it was ... accidentally?’

‘Right. And why didn’t you get him a new one?’ 

‘Because-' why did Minwoo have to ask so many questions? It all had made sense it Eric's mind before. 

'Ok, you see. It’s still with me'

'Right'

'And I will give it back to him as soon as I get it repaired'

'Ok'

'But for now I hid it and didn't tell him anything. Simple as that’

Simple for sure. Eric had lost his mind. Minwoo scratched his head, sure that he had heard a lot in his life but this still managed to take the cake.

‘So, you broke and then stole his phone?’ because it sure sounded like that. 

Despaired, Eric shook his head before stopped and, after having thought about it, shook his head in agreement.

‘I think I’m about done with you’ Minwoo put his hands up, surrendering to the insanity. It's as if Eric had aged ten years backward and become a hormonal teenager. 

Even the man himself seemed confused about his own behaviour.

'It made more sense when I thought about it but now it seems crazy. It's not like I didn't have good reason for doing this, though'

'Oh yeah?' Minwoo inspected his nails, wondering if maybe he should get them manicured. Would that impress Dongwan? Doubtfully.

'Tell, tell'

'-I was too scared to give it back to him?’ 

tbc

A/N: Oh wow. This thing updated. Who knew...