Henry should have stopped at the second bottle of beer, but he couldn’t. After half an hour in which he calmed Daniel down, the violinist hit the groceries. He bought bottles for the entire week to share with the blond, but ended up drinking one alone. The second came without much hassle and the third became a necessity. He just wished he would have gotten some soju too, but he hated the kind they sold in plastic bottles. He could still hear Daniel’s hiccups echoing in his head. He could still feel his warm tears smudged across the back of his palm. He could still taste his swollen lips brush against his. Most of all, he couldn’t shake off the way Daniel became a child in his arms, begging for air and for the pain in his chest to stop.

Henry didn’t understand.

Again, he thought it was something he had done. Daniel only started acting strange the moment he mentioned about leaving.

“Sweet mother of s!” he exclaimed in English when the bottle’s mouth hit his front teeth. He put the bottle back on the bar counter and hid his face inside his hands. He didn’t know who to call. His brother didn’t care, his sister didn’t know and his mother... he didn’t want to call her and then explain why he couldn’t come to visit. It was one of the few weeks when his father wasn’t home and he could go without a problem. Exactly on that he and his brother bet on.

Henry was all alone. He had no one to talk to. The bitter taste of beer was all he wanted. The bottle shook from the phone vibrating nearby. Henry picked the device and answered, moody to the bone. He didn’t check the caller ID, he didn’t check the time. He didn’t check a single thing. The pain battling its way around his body angered him. His brother’s voice simply added to an already about to explode canister of compressed self-hatred.

It’s weird how a warped mind happens to find common details so charming. His brother’s voice didn’t match his boyish face at all. Maybe that’s why, every time they’d talk, the already deep tone become the bottom of the ocean, suave and mysterious. Henry should be proud to have a brother like that, one that could conquer any heart with a few articulated words that would further underline his rich sonority. Or, as the violinist often put it, his ears merely picked out of habit any sound. After all, where would he be without sounds? They shaped his entire life – from the way his father’s orders made him rebel to the way Daniel’s sobs made him fear the future once more.

Henry murmured his disinterest in travelling with his brother. Of course, what came was another exchange of insults between the two. More shouts were then rapidly reduced to whispers as not to wake up the scarred blond. Daniel had been sleeping effortlessly for the past hour. In the end, he decided to cut the discussion and resolve the issue the following day when his nerves would have, hopefully, stretched and no longer felt tense. While Henry tried to finish the bottle of beer, he eyed the fourth in an attempt to convince his intoxicated mind there was absolutely no use to further drown it in alcohol. The phone vibrated again.

Once more, Henry paid no attention to the screen. He only wanted to vent more frustration into the device without facing the consequences. His brother wouldn’t put it to heart anyway. He’d shrug it and leave it for another time. So when Henry screamed “WHAT THE DO YOU WANT?!” in the mobile phone with his fingers clenched on the bottle’s neck, the voice on the other side gave a massive error response from his brain.

“Erm... sorry, should I call later? Niel’s not answering...”

It was far from the grave sentences he heard before. Henry straightened his position on the chair and almost knocked the bottle to the floor. He blurted a few apologized before he finally fixed his eyes on the phone and read Dongwoo’s name aloud.

“Ah, no, no, he’s...” Henry peeked on the hallway. There was no response. “He’s sleeping.”

“Oh... sorry,” there was a long pause between the two. Just as Henry was about to ask if he would like to wake up Daniel and let the two brothers speak, Dongwoo’s hasty breathing made it obvious he’d been holding tears back as well. “Could... could you tell him my place burnt? I mean, everything’s charred inside and.... and I have nowhere to stay.”

Henry saw then the selfish he’d been swimming in, impulsively trying to escape from the, otherwise, clear waters. He sometimes forgets there are several lanes connected with his and those waters can be murkier that his. He also saw a solution – he really didn’t want to leave Daniel, but at the same time, his familial duty wouldn’t let him rest at peace if he didn’t hug his mother one more time. Cruel as it might be, he could use Dongwoo’s tragedy to his advantage.

“Why don’t you come here? I have enough room...” he stopped, unsure if that manipulative side was necessary in that case.

“Ah, no. I mean, I have to pay for the damage and I barely have any money left, so I can’t pay you the rent as well and---”

“I’ll pay everything,” Henry blurted out. “For the damage too, just come here...”

“Excuse me?”

“Daniel...” he smiled softly “Daniel needs you the most.”

---

Jinyoung hates Donghae.

Well, not really, but it was the only excuse he could muster in the cold evening. He hadn’t been home for a while, always taking care of the elder. Yet, that longing, that nostalgia most would feel while away from their comfort zone, was inexistent. Without knowing, Jinyoung moved his circle of trust around Donghae and he felt much safer and confident even in the hospital than back in his room. He tried to move out a couple of times, but lack of any financial stability forced him to return again and again. Sometimes, he’d sneak to Donghae’s house and share the floor with his childhood friend. Those nights were the warmest, for Jinyoung could sleep without nightmares or the fear which came from every single subtle noise.

 At the same time, Jinyoung had a duty when it came to his sister. He had to frequently check on her and, sometimes, phone calls weren’t enough to defeat the sensation which infiltrated his happy thoughts. So when Hara appeared at the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks and watched his sister do the same. Their eyes met for a split second before Hara suddenly tilted his head and avoided Jinyoung’s gaze.

“Are you coming from prep-school?” the man asked as he came closer and inspected his sister’s clothes. There was nothing out of the usual. He wanted touch her head or shoulder, any part of her body would do, to make sure she wasn’t freezing. Hara nodded and further avoided the other. “Then why are you heading out? Shouldn’t you be going the other way around?”

“Dad came home drunk...” she stuttered while she fixed the strap of her bag.

“Do you know Donghae’s address?” Jinyoung suddenly changed the subject. The girl slowly nodded. Jinyoung searched through his wallet and handed Hara some money. “Take a cab there, I’ll meet you later.”

“But...” she grabbed the sum and watched as Jinyoung went pass her with hurried steps. “Wait!” she called. He stopped and turned around. Hara’s fingers clutched to the boy’s arm. “He hit her, it’s really bad this time...” she could barely speak. It was too painful to recount the recent events. “Please don’t go there.”

Jinyoung patted Hara’s shoulder and winked.

“Say hi to the bastard for me,” then left.

Hara would have traded the money in her palm any day with a power. Any would do, as long as she could become the heroine in the story and not Jinyoung. Then again, her life wasn’t a comic book, it was actually too real.

Hara went to search for that cab.

---

Daniel slowly opened his eyes. Cuddled at his chest was a mass of golden locks. Some dark roots were visible, meaning they’d have to be dyed soon again to maintain the shade. Henry mentioned something about returning to his old color, so he didn’t bother to take care of that. The musician switched on his back when he felt Daniel’s fingers slowly caress said locks.

“Dongwoo’s coming later to stay with us...” he announced out of the blue. Daniel didn’t fully comprehend what he meant. Instead, he continued to play with Henry’s hair. It felt weird to have the other caged within his arms and not the other way around like they’d usually do. “So let me enjoy this one last time...”

“...why is he coming here?”

“You like poems, don’t you?”

“...yeah.”

“Tell me one.”

Daniel buried his head in Henry’s locks. His fingertips hovered above his milky skin. He could tell Henry a poem as he wished, but something about their ghostly encounter made him think of Junji Ito’s infamous manga and their twisted scenarios. But, since he lacked the vigor to tell such story, he remembered the second time he met Henry and the way the musician undressed him with a simple look.

“Before I called her name, she was nothing more than a gesture. When I called her name, she came to me and became a flower. Like I called her name, will someone please call my name that suits my light and fragrance?  I, too, long to come to her and become her flower.” Henry kissed his chest before his lips landed on Daniel’s throat. “We all long to be something. You, to me, and I, to you,” Henry brushed their lips together. Daniel’s confident speech turned into whispers “...long to become a gaze that won’t be forgotten.” ^[1]

1 - The Flower by Kim Chun-soo, translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Anne Rashid (taken from this beautiful blog)

OMG I UPDATED O-O ...my eyes are sooo red now, so I haven’t checked for grammar errors and such at all OTL I'll do that after I wake up. I’m so sorry. I hope I can write tomorrow too. My energy had been by the exam vampire aish~ I promise I’ll come with more next time... 

There are 15 of you already, do you know how I feel right now? That’s a huge number of subs for this extremely odd pairing T^T and because I might continue boring you, I’d lower those 100 chapters to just 30-40, depends on chapter length *sighs*

Thank you guys, just thank you >w<

Fun fact about Henry time!
Nicknames: By China Strings: 刘鲜花 (Direct Trans: Liu Fresh Flowers, the romanization of his Chinese name is Liu Xian Hua and Xian Hua can mean fresh flowers in another pronunciation) <--- I know I’m grinning like an idiot, someone slap me now.

...okay, sleep time. /why am I even writing these author notes ugh