Minho didn’t begin to suspect that anything was wrong with Jinki until another two lunch dates had passed and been canceled.  Left feeling both concerned and frustrated, he bypassed calling Jinki all together, and after driving Taemin to the last of his after school study sessions, detoured directly to Jinki’s. It was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays meant days off for Jinki, and if he wasn’t interested in spending them with Minho, then Minho wanted to know what exactly the day was going towards.

The person who opened Jinki’s door was certainly not Jinki. 

Minho blinked wide eyed as he demanded, “Who are you?”

The dark haired man standing across from Minho gripped the door more tightly. “Who are you?”

“I asked you first!” Minho could feel his heart just about beating out of his chest.

“Listen here,” the man started, taking a threatening step forward.

Suddenly, Jinki’s voice called out, “Joon, who’s at the door?”

This wasn’t what it looked like. There was no way it was what it looked like. Desperately Minho searched for a reason that would explain Jinki’s avoidance, the appearance of a strange man in his apartment and all the other worrisome things running through his head at the moment.

“Minho?” Jinki asked, ducking under the man at the door’s arm. “What are you doing here?”

Angrily, and unable to help himself, Minho asked, “Who’s that?”

Jinki was confused for a moment, then his own face filled with anger. “Why are you speaking to me like this?”

The man Minho was unfamiliar with looked too damn smug. And the look on his face had Minho pressing forward, wanting to know, “Why is he here? Who is he?”

“I don’t think I have to explain these things to you,” Jinki said, arms crossed defensively. “Not when you’re going to speak to me with that tone and act like a jealous boyfriend.”

The man next to Jinki barked out a laugh and asked, “This is the boyfriend? Onew, he’s not your type at all.”

“How would you know his type?” Minho snapped. His fingers had curled into fists and it was taking all of his self control to stay in place. 

“Joon,” Jinki said, pushing the man further into the apartment. “Go inside, please. You’re not helping.”

The man, Joon, laughed again, going along easily enough. “He’s like an angry puppy, Onew. This is too much.”

Jinki closed the door forcefully behind him and stepped fully out into the hallway.

“Well?” Minho asked, more frustrated than angry now.

“Well what?” Jinki huffed out. “How dare you come over here and make these demands. You have no right.”

Minho wondered, “I have no right? You’re my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend,” Jinki agreed, “but not my parent. Who are you to do this?”

“You stopped calling me,” Minho accused. “If I want to talk to you, I have to call you, and you don’t even take my calls all the time. We don’t go out anymore, or have lunch together, and Taemin asked me today if you were avoiding us all. If there’s a problem talk to me, but how dare you think I don’t have a right to come over here and get angry seeing some guy in your apartment.”

“Some guy?” Jinki pulled roughly at his hair, spinning on heel to walk a short distance before turning back. “You …”  He made a frustrated sound.

“Who is that?”

Jinki pointed viciously at his closed door. “That’s Joon. Lee Joon. He’s my cousin.”

Minho’s head cocked, caught off guard. “Cousin?”

“Yes!” Jinki marched his way back to Minho’s side. “My cousin. Not a new boyfriend. Not someone I’m sleeping with. Not anything but family.”

Minho frowned as Jinki spoke. Family? That didn’t make much more sense than the idea that Jinki would be cheating on him. Jinki had been pretty forthcoming that he didn’t have any family left. At least no family that he knew about, and this Joon guy seemed to be very familiar with Jinki.

Jinki continued, “I haven’t seen him in almost six months. Joon lives in Hong Kong and he doesn’t get to come home to Seoul all that often. It’s special when he comes to visit.”

“You couldn’t tell me this?”

Jinki’s mouth snapped shut.

“Why not?” Minho asked.  “I called and called and called, and all you had to do was say that someone important to you was in town. You didn’t have to hide this from me. I’m not--”

“The jealous type?” Jinki cut him off. “This begs to differ. I can’t … I can’t be with someone who’s going to act like this, Minho. The aggression. The jealousy.”

The threat wasn’t lost on Minho, but he pushed past his fear to challenge, “I can’t be with someone who wants to keep things from me. Especially things that aren’t worth keeping. Did you think I wouldn’t want you to spend time with him? That I would try to keep you apart?  I would never do something like that to you, Jinki. I know what family means to you. How could you think this about me?”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Jinki braced a hand against the nearby wall and leaned heavily on it.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Slowly, Jinki explained, “Because you’ve never had to fight to have someone care about you.”

“I don’t understand.” Minho’s head was spinning and he was scared. “Tell me. Just talk to me.”

Jinki made for the door. “I have to go.”

“No. Jinki.” Minho moved fast, catching Jinki’s arm and swinging him closer. “I can’t let you walk away from me this angry.”

“Hey!” The door popped open a second later and Joon came storming out, pushing Minho away from Jinki expertly. “What do you think you’re doing? Let go of him.”

“Stay out of this,” Minho snapped, recovering his feet. 

“Onew,” Joon asked, holding Jinki by the shoulders, “you should have told me your boyfriend liked to pull you around like this. I’d have taken care of him when I opened the door.”

“I would never hurt him!” Minho ground out, shooting forward.

“Stop it!” Jink shouted, more angry than Minho had ever seen him. Gone was his adorable, good natured mood. Instead Minho could see he was face to face with a very dangerous situation, one that was quickly spiraling out of control. “Both of you knock it off! Joon, don’t say stuff like that. Minho is not that type of person. And Minho, it seems like you just came over here to cause trouble. If that’s the case, you should leave now and maybe not come back.”

Joon’s feet slid apart in a distinctly defensive position and he assured Jinki, “I won’t let anyone pull you around like that. Cousin, don’t ask me to step aside for something like that.”

Jinki pushed Joon towards the door once more, asking, “Do you try to hold Mir’s hand like this, too?” He didn’t wait for an answer before demanding, “Go inside and don’t come out. I mean it. If you do I’ll kick you out for good.”

Jinki slammed the door viciously and kept his back turned to Minho as they stood in silence.

Finally Minho dared to ask, “Can you at least tell me why you wouldn’t mention your cousin was in town? He obviously is a very special person to you. I would have understood. Jinki … I’m sorry if you didn’t think I would understand. I don’t want you to think I’m that kind of person.”

“He is special to me,” Jinki admitted. “The most important person to me in my life, Minho. Can you understand? He’s my version of your Taemin, or Key. He’s my family.”

“Then why?”

“I just …” Jinki turned, pressing his back against the door. “I wanted to keep him to myself for a little.”

“Huh?” Minho took a careful and deliberate step towards Jinki, not wanting to startle him. “Talk to me. Explain that.”

Eyes to the ground, Jinki said, “Sometimes it’s hard for me to let go of my insecurities. It’s not like I thought you would take him from me, but I just … I wanted him for myself. I wanted to be selfish for a minute.”

Minho bent forward to rest his hands on his knees, his head dipping down. “I get it.” He really did, now that he put more thought into both Jinki’s past and his current actions. Jinki was bubbly and wonderfully happy, so much that sometimes Minho forgot about how he’d grown up. But there was no mistaking that Jinki carried some scars from the time he’d spend crammed into a tiny boy’s home with too many warm bodies and too little love to go around. If this Joon was so important to Jinki, of course he’d wanted to protect their relationship, even from non-threats. 

“I was going to tell you.”

Nodding once, Minho took a final step towards Jinki and enfolded him in a light hug. “I believe you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Minho pressed his temple against Jinki’s. “I’m sorry, too. I overreacted. I was a fool. Can you forgive me?”

After another wave of apologies and several deep breaths, Jinki said, “He’s only been in Seoul a handful of times since we left the boy’s home. His coming here is important, and he’s only going to stay for a couple of weeks. I know we had a bad start, but I’d like us all to get along. It was important for you that I get along with Taemin and Key, and it’s important to me that you get along with Joon.”

Minho gave Jinki a skeptical look. “After what just happened? Unlikely.”

Jinki forced a laugh. “I’m determined to get someone else to like Joon other than Mir.”

“Who’s Mir?”

“It’s not important,” Jinki said dismissively. “ I know I’ve kind of been isolating myself from you, and you didn’t deserve not to know why. Will you give me a chance?”

In disbelief Minho asked, “How could you even think that? Did you miss the part where I told you I’m in love with you?  I was wrong to come over here so angry and so aggressive. I know that was wrong and I’m truly sorry for it, but I reacted the way I did because I care so much for you. Do you understand that?”

“There’s nothing romantic about a possessive boyfriend,” Jinki told him firmly. “But we were both wrong, and I think we can put this behind us.”

“Can we try lunch again?” Minho posed. “All three of us, maybe? I don’t mind bring Joon with us, if he’s that important to you.”

Jinki shook his head and Minho felt his heart fall until Jinki said, “I was thinking we could go just the two of us. Joon has some business tomorrow, so maybe we could meet and actually try talking to each other. I don’t want us to fall apart. Joon is important to me, but so are you. Can we do that?”

“My heart feels lighter,” Minho revealed as they prepared to part. 

“Minho,” Jinki breathed out.  

“I won’t kiss you,” Minho promised, offering his hand in a half wave. “I want to, but we were angry with each other, and it would feel out of place.”

“I could kiss you instead,” Jinki offered, hand on the door handle behind him. “You seem to do a lot of the kissing. I should try to catch up.”

Gently, Minho shook his head and took a step back. “I only want to kiss you when my head is clear. Tomorrow.”

In the too hot afternoon Minho exited Jinki’s building, both relieved and feeling like he’d let his emotions get away from him in a way that made him feel ashamed.  The more he thought about it, the more he was thankful that Jinki hadn’t broken up with him on the spot. He’d acted irrationally and like an idiot.

“Hey, Choi!”

Minho stopped, spinning to see Joon jogging the distance between them. When he was close enough that Minho didn’t have to shout, he asked, “How do you know my name?”

“I looked you up,” Joon said, his tone arrogant and his walk more of a swagger. “When I heard my Onew was giving some poor loser a try, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t a threat.”

“And what exactly did you find out?”

Joon shrugged. “You don’t really care what I think, Choi.”

“No,” Minho agreed, “but I love Jinki, which means I’ll probably end up having to deal with you. So I’ll ask you, what do you want?”

A dangerous glint settled into Joon’s eyes as he nodded back towards Jinki’s building. “Don’t ever grab Onew like that again. Don’t raise your voice to him. Don’t ever act in a threatening way.”

“You’re speaking nonsense,” Minho said, momentarily distracted as the high collar on Joon’s shirt shifted, revealing a splash of color on his neck. “But is this the part where you tell me if I hurt him, you’ll hurt me?”

Voice even, Joon said, “If you hurt him, I’ll kill you.”

Minho’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a powerful threat.” He could see the color better now. It was a tattoo, and it looked like a phoenix. The realization had his stomach flipping over on itself.  “Maybe I should be warning you not to hurt him.”

Joon laughed, “I’m not the bad guy here. I loved Onew when you were still earning how to tie your shoes.”

“You love him?” Minho gave him a knowing stare. “Or you’re in love with him?”

The tone of the laugh that came from Joon told Minho immediately he’d missed the mark. For as much as Joon was a mystery, it was now abundantly clear that he wasn’t in love with Jinki. At least not in the way that Minho was.

“Not even close, Choi.”

Was Joon going to try and threaten him off now? He seemed the sort. Minho beat him to the punch saying, “You won’t be able to scare me off. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Believe it or not, you’re not the first guy to say that to me about Onew.”

“I’ll be the last.”

Joon gave a chuckle. “You keep telling yourself that.” With an insincere parting he started jogging back to the apartment, leaving Minho alone.

“Can I call in a favor?” Minho asked Jonghyun quietly as they ate a late dinner with Kibum and Taemin later that night.

“What kind of favor?” Jonghyun was careful to keep his voice equally as quiet as Taemin tried to convince Kibum to order a second round of deserts mere feet away.

Minho said, “I need your help getting some information on someone. He’s a Korean citizen, but he hasn’t been living in this country for a while. I also don’t think the name he’s going by is his birth name.”

“Is this some routine curiosity, or for a case?”

Minho was hesitant to say much, at least until he was more sure, but he told Jonghyun, “It’s not for a case. There’s … this guy, Jinki says he’s his cousin, but the guy gives me a bad vibe.”

“Cousin.” Jonghyun looked thoughtful. “Key told me Onew doesn’t have any family.”

“He doesn’t,” Minho bit out roughly. “And I’m pretty sure I saw a very distinct looking phoenix tattoo on his neck earlier today. Coupled with the fact that he lives in Hong Kong, I think you know what I’m afraid might be the case.”

Jonghyun told him, “Unfortunately there is no law prohibiting awful neck tattoos, Minho. You know that. And even if he is triad, Minho, he obviously passed through customs without any problems. What will knowing for sure prove? It isn’t likely that this is something Onew doesn’t already know about his cousin.”

“So I’m supposed to just ignore the signs and my gut feeling, and not look into this guy? The guy who’s spending a lot of time around my boyfriend? My too trusting boyfriend? Jonghyun, if you thought someone was a threat to Taemin or Kibum, would you just let it go?”

“Okay,” Jonghyun gave in, his shoulders falling. “But you should know, I don’t advise this. If you get caught looking into someone that Onew cares about, he’s not going to be happy with you. Scratch that, Key and Taemin aren’t going to be happy with you either, and I’d be more scared of them, if I were you.”

As Taemin and Kibum were clearly at the end of their argument, Minho mumbled to Jonghyun, “I know what a triad tattoo looks like, and I don’t like him coming out of the woodwork right after those suspicious things started happening to Jinki. The others can get mad at me for all I care, but I’m not taking a chance with the person I love.”

“I want you to understand,” Jonghyun told Minho emphatically, “if this gets back to Key I’m throwing you in front of me and I’m running as fast as I can. I will not hesitate to sacrifice you.”

Minho let out a low chuckle. “I can deal with that.”

“Remember it.”