CHAPTER 36: CHANNIE! LET'S TAKE HIM TO THE HOSPITAL!

One month had passed and some things changed. Everyone could tell that a month was like a short period of time but not to a certain Jung Daehyun. He sighed for the umpteenth times that day. He took another look at Jongup’s photo on his phone’s screen before he tossed it in his locker. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and was greeted with a pair of tired yet determined eyes. He briefly closed them before he took another deep breath in and opened his eyes back. He formed a smile and fixed his bow before making his way to his one-month working place. He already had been working as a waiter in one of Yifan’s friends’ hotel, thanks to Luhan who eventually helped him find another job.

It was not that he had stopped being Jongup’s bodyguard. In fact, he actually took another job in order to support his now increasing expenses. He was grateful that his request to have Taehyung forever in his life was approved by the social service without much difficulty despite the fact that he was a single father and barely afford to support himself. Again, he was grateful for having Luhan and Yifan who would always be there for him and helped him out. They were the ones who had helped him to get Taehyung and made him forget about Jongup for a while. Yes, Jongup was different now and Daehyun could only observe without saying any words. 

It happened so sudden that Daehyun himself was confused as to what was happening. If he was not mistaken, their happiness together or so he thought it was… only lasted for two weeks. It was Monday, the day he always wanted to reach the Moon’s house as early as possible because he missed the Moon baby for the fact that they did not meet for two freaking days. Jongup’s smile that would always greet his morning had always made him forget his problems. Unfortunately, the smile he had been waiting for was no longer plastered on the magnae’s face. He thought Jongup was tired because he stayed up late at night to study, and he also thought his assumption was right as the Moon baby suddenly wanted to sit at the back instead of next to him like he always did with the reason he wanted to take a nap before they reached their university.

Daehyun did not mind at all since he cared for Jongup, but he started to feel something was not right when the latter seemed to talk less with him, or he would talk when needed. He was not as friendly and cheerful as before. At university, Jongup seemed to immerse himself into studying. Not that he did not do that before, but it was surely weird when he suddenly stuck his nose into his book when they were having their lunch together and of course, by sticking his nose meant no talking even when they were free to do so. Daehyun thought it was normal and perhaps it was the magnae’s way to prepare for his upcoming finals. But when the sudden change turned into days and the following week, Daehyun was confused. To make the situation worst, Jongup started to make distant with him and Daehyun would always found his next seat inside the car empty. The Moon baby started to sit at the back and closed his eyes right after he hopped into the car.

Daehyun was confused. He was more than curious as to why Jongup was behaving like this. He overworked his brain to remember if he had done anything wrong to make the latter this cold but he knew his curiosity would be left unanswered as he did not even open his mouth to ask. He started to take another job and Taehyung would always be next to him every night as the procedure only took him a few days to settle. He felt sorry for Taehyung as he could only see his father before he went to nursery and if he was lucky enough, he would see his father when the latter fetched him up at Luhan’s house every night. What else could he do?

He wanted to spend more time with Taehyung but he just could not because he had to work hard in order to support the bills, Baekhyun’s college fee and daily pocket money (Baekhyun always refused to take it as he himself took a part-time job to make some money but say, Daehyun was being a responsible brother here and stubbornly put the money into Baekhyun’s hand), grandma’s medicine and surgery cost (Daehyun tried to save as much as possible in order to collect a great sum of money so that grandma would not suffer for a long time), Taehyung’s needs (new clothes and stationaries) and his nursery fee (Daehyun wanted the best for his son), their daily expenses for food and all… and last but not least, his medicine that he needed to take every day for his disease. He was tired for doing two jobs a day, not to mention in that state of health but he never complained and did it while he was still able to do, while his body was able to move him to do so.

Disease… yes, he went back to the hospital to take the full result of his test. To his dismay, it was a serious disease that was known as Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy or in simple English terms, a disease where the heart muscle thickened, most commonly at the septum between the ventricle and below the aortic valve which let to stiffening of the walls of heart and abnormal aortic and mitral heart valve function. He was diagnosed based on his medical history and as far as he could remember, his family did not have this disease ran in their bloods and say, he was all healthy and way from high blood pressure so the cause was unknown. He was restrained to make himself tired and could not do heavy exercise which would pressure his heart. He could not care less about it, he really needed to work and earn more money. Eye bags started to form yet nobody knew his state of health as he kept it a secret. And he started to wear BB cream to cover up his eye bags and perhaps… his disease.

It broke Daehyun’s heart… when a smart looking guy, not to mention looked kinda rich with those fashionable outfit and well-style hair appeared before him and squeezed his Jongup in a tight hug and claimed the latter as his Uppie. He then knew the guy that goes by the name of Richard Park Chanyeol when they had a handshake for the first time and Chanyeol told Daehyun to take a good care of his Uppie because obviously, Uppie was always precious to Chanyeol.

Daehyun assumed Jongup already had a boyfriend who was studying far away from Korea and it all seemed to make sense with Jongup’s change of behavior. His boyfriend was back and Daehyun knew he should stop hoping or dreaming that Jongup would be his. But he just could not and gave himself time to slowly forget his feelings for the Moon baby. It hurt a lot, but he thanked God that he had other things to be taken care of and he sometimes would forget his broken heart and worked diligently.

Since that I’m-Uppie’s-Chanyeol introduction day, Chanyeol would send Jongup to the university by his BMW superbike and Daehyun would always have a hard time to follow them with the car. He felt his heart being torn apart every time he had to witness such a lovey dovey scene of the Chanyeol-Jongup couple that he finally decided to take his medicine when they reached the university instead of at home like he did before he knew Chanyeol. And he thanked God too for he did not have heart attack or that he passed out while driving and upon arriving at university to witness the couple returning hugs and kisses to each other. Daehyun eventually found himself to stop trying to talk to Jongup either.

Daehyun received an invitation to Yongguk’s and Himchan’s wedding. He was reluctant to come to the wedding when the thought of he had to witness another lovey dovey scene of Chanyeol-Jongup couple crossed his mind, but he promised the soon-to-be married couple that he would come. They were nice to him and he should be kind too to celebrate their happy day which came once in a lifetime. Luhan insisted that he wanted Daehyun to look the best at BangHim’s wedding and he helped the latter to find the suitable suit for him.

When the said day came, Daehyun went alone as Yifan was out of Korea again for his business and Luhan had to take care of Jimin who had fever and the hyung was kind enough to take care of Taehyung while he was attending the wedding. Taehyung was okay to be left with Luhan as he treated the boy lovingly and motherly thatshe wanted to have his mother back. Luhan was more than happier that he was Taehyung’s god mother and the five-year-old boy called him Mommy.

Daehyun sat himself at the end of the last third row to witness the BangHim couple exchanging their vows and sealed it with a kiss. Kyungsoo had asked him to sit next to him and Jongin but it was too close to the Chanyeol-Jongup couple that he had to turn down the request and remained seated far from them. He was fine all along until the reception. His eyes suddenly met with Jongup’s, though they were quite far from one another, he could tell he had missed the beautiful eyes that he did not realize he was staring at the Moon baby without blinking. He snapped from his trance when Chanyeol suddenly came and pecked Jongup’s lips that made the latter to flinch in surprise and turned his gaze away from looking at Daehyun, playfully hit the older before he was dragged to somewhere else until they were out of Daehyun’s sight. He could feel his heart was shattering into tiny pieces for witnessing that short scene and the sudden chest pain made it harder for Daehyun to breathe normally. He quickly left his spot and went to the restroom. It was time for him to take his medicine.

Daehyun snapped from his trail of thoughts when the bell that indicating the food was already made and he quickly took his steps to put it into a tray before he went to place the order on the right table. After he wished the customer ‘enjoy your food, miss’, he was about to retreat himself to the kitchen when he felt his wrist being held. He stopped his track and turned to look at the one who was stopping him. He frowned as he felt he had met this person, or to be exact this pretty lady before but to his dismay, his brain was not functioning well at the moment.

“I’m sorry. If I’m not mistaken, you attended the Bang’s wedding, right?”

“Y-Yes, I did. And you are...?”

“Can you remember me? I was the one who accidentally spilt orange juice on your suit.” Daehyun’s eyes widened when he remembered the person before him and he formed his smile.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m such a forgetful person sometimes. I’m Daehyun, sorry I was not able to greet you properly at the wedding.”

“It’s okay. I’m Jieun. Song Jieun.” She outstretched her hand to Daehyun who gladly took it.

Ever since he saw Daehyun and his wife at hospital, Jongup had been silent all the way back home and Chanyeol had not say much either. They went straight to their respective bedroom and only met when it was time for dinner. It was a little strange that Jongup did not eat much and quickly excused himself to leave once he had finished his food. Everyone noticed his change of attitude but decided to give Jongup space before they pestered themselves around the Moon baby. Jongup occupied his mind with his homework and assignments. When he was taking a break for staring too long at his notebook screen, he led himself to lie down at the nearest couch. His eyes immediately landed on the huge Olaf plushie that was placed next to the couch. Tears threatened to fall as he let his mind wandered back to his sweet moments with Daehyun and then to the scene he had witnessed at hospital.

He was happy when he got to spend his time with Daehyun. Those two weeks were meaningful to him. They were closer than before and he could say Kyungsoo sometimes made excuses that he wanted to find his Jongin just to give them their time alone. He would blush whenever their eyes met in such a close gap, hands unconsciously intertwined when they were out of the class and would bump into other students who were going to use the class. Daehyun was there to block anyone who was in rush to go to class and bumped into them. He felt safe to be in Daehyun’s arm, even if it was for a short time. He would always want to do something for Daehyun and thus, Daehyun would receive any kind of food the next morning when he arrived. He would give reasons that it was a leftover and such a waste if they threw it away.

His mind flew back to the scene at the hospital. Right, he could no longer think of Daehyun more than just his bodyguard. Daehyun was someone else’s husband… someone else’s father. He should stop thinking about a certain someone named Jung Daehyun. It broke his heart… it was his first time ever to feel this way. He felt the love… he felt the care… he felt the comfortable warmth radiating from Dae