[Fic] Someone Like You - 2/11
Title: Someone Like You
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: R
Pairings: Henry/Donghae (with Tablo/Eunhyuk)
Genre: AU. Angst. Romance.
Summary: Five years ago, Donghae failed to escape his Uncle Lee's crime organization and disappeared from Henry's life. But when Donghae has to kidnap Henry to keep him safe, it is still Uncle Lee that stands in the way of them ever having a normal life.
This is a follow up to For Always (QMi, SiHan, HenHae). One can be read without the other, but it does include more detail of the HenHae background and story. :)
***
Chapter One ** Chapter Two ** Chapter Three
***
A/N: A wee visit to QMi in this first scene, so skip just over that scene if that's not your cup of tea. <3
***
Five Hours Earlier
***
Henry’s family had given him all sorts of trouble about his twice-yearly trips to Korea. Not trouble, he supposed, as much as it was concern. When was he going to get over that boy he dated. Clearly he didn’t want Henry around. He’d heard it all.
It didn’t sway him.
But this time he was determined to do something he had neglected to do almost every time he had been back. Visit Kyuhyun.
He wondered what kind of a response he should expect. He hadn’t seen Kyuhyun in...how many years? It was easy to tell himself that he shouldn’t go to see anyone from Soulmate. After all, all he’d really been only part time help, right? Which was true. But Kyuhyun and Ryeowook had also been his friends. He wasn’t that much younger than them, really. They had helped him as much as they’d been able to. But the longer he went without stopping by, the harder it was. Cutting off even email contact out of guilt.
He steeled himself as the apartment door opened, and wondered for a moment if he’d arrived at the wrong door. The man in front of him was dressed like Kyuhyun. He had Kyuhyun’s “Yes?” expression. And yet... There was a small chattering girl in pigtails clutched in one arm. In the other, a boy of about the same age with a sticky fist clutching Kyuhyun’s hair. No, it really was Kyuhyun.
“Henry?” Kyuhyun asked in disbelief. “Henry!”
He stepped forward as though to hug Henry before he realized he still had both kids in his arms.
“Zhou Mi!” Kyuhyun called behind him.
“What’d they do now, Kui Xian?” came a familiar voice. Zhou Mi, not much changed, appeared, staring with interest for a long moment. “Ah! Henry!”
“Come in!” Kyuhyun said, stepping back and trying to hand off the children, twins Henry was assuming due to their sizes, to Zhou Mi. The little girl went with pleasure, while the little boy, still holding Kyuhyun’s hair, clung like a burr. Kyuhyun sighed and patted the child’s back. Still it gave him an arm free to hug Henry, and it felt...nostalgic. It had been way too long.
Kyuhyun smiled, closing the door and leading them all into the kitchen. Henry perched on a chair as Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi sat as well.
“It’s been... How long has it been? A few years? Before we got the babies...” Kyuhyun was looking at Zhou Mi for confirmation of that statement. “And they’re not babies any more. How have you been?”
“Good,” Henry said. I spent the last few years looking for Donghae... “I finished school. I thought... I needed to come say hello. How have you been? You have kids! How are Hankyung and Siwon?”
Anything to get the questions away from himself.
“Hankyung and Siwon are great. Hankyung was getting empty nest syndrome about the time Yunjoong turned three, but they held off.” Kyuhyun smirked at Zhou Mi. “And we’ve been good, too. All four of us.”
Kyuhyun said it a bit ironically, as though the number four was a number he’d never expected to utter.
“Are they twins? When did you get them?”
“They were about six months when they came home with us. And they’re almost three now. They are twins, though. The social worker wanted to split them up, thinking no one would ever take them both together. And then Zhou Mi walked in oozing charm and good will... We thought we’d be waiting for a while, and somehow it was us and two babies not long after.”
Zhou Mi nodded. “Well. On a trial basis. We kept them unofficially for two months, and then formally adopted them. They made us take classes before we could take them home”
Henry couldn’t imagine. “Wow. That sounds like it was hard. Two babies.”
“Luckily there are two of us... Good thing they weren’t triplets!” Zhou Mi said, laughing.
Kyuhyun made a horrified face at the thought, but cuddled the little boy closer. “He knew that if he didn’t get two at once, we might’ve only ever have one.”
“Kui Xian.”
“Zhou Mi.”
Both were said in the same mock-censuring tone, even if what they had for each other were smiles.
Kyuhyun seemed to catch Henry staring at their rings.
“Siwon... He set the bar so high. Zhou Mi felt obligated. Hankyung got his after a day.”
“At least a couple of months,” Zhou Mi corrected.
“Yeah, yeah. Zhou Mi couldn’t be one-upped. He got these for the anniversary of our first date.”
And Kyuhyun sounded very proud of that, too.
“He remembered when your first date was?”
“Zhou Mi? He marks up a calendar at the start of every year with birthdays and events. Our first date that year was marked with a big red circle along with the day we met. I’m kind of shocked he doesn’t mark every time we...”
“Kui Xian.”
Kyuhyun stared at him. “What? What did you think I was going to say? Every time we go on a date.”
Zhou Mi looked unconvinced by this and it made Henry laugh.
One of the children began to fuss, and Zhou Mi stood. “Time for naps. I’ll go put them down while you chat, Kui Xian.”
The soft sounds of Zhou Mi speaking and singing to the children filtered through as Kyuhyun set a steaming cup on the table for him.
“Are you still searching for Donghae?” Kyuhyun asked.
He thought Kyuhyun would know. Ryeowook had diligently written, sending him updates of the store. Henry had stopped checking that email after a while, which was clearly why he hadn’t known about the children.
“I am.”
“I always kind of keep an eye open when someone comes into the shop,” Kyuhyun said, threading his fingers together. “I hope... I hope you’re able to find some resolution there. We miss you, you know. Will you come by the store and see Ryeowook? He worried when you stopped answering his letters. He’d love to see you.”
“Of course... I miss you guys, too. That was... I was really happy there.” There, and with Donghae.
He felt lighter as he walked away, promising to see them again before he left. Zhou Mi stood behind Kyuhyun as they waved goodbye, and Henry was glad to see it. He’d been there to see them dance around each other, until they finally connected. They were proof that love existed and endured. They were raising a family together, and unless Henry was quite deaf and dumb, still in love with each other.
He was turning the corner of the stairwell leading up to his hotel room, when he felt the hand on his arm. He sensed the danger. But by then... It was too late.
***
The panic was overwhelming. Henry had never felt the urge to fight back as he had right in that moment, with hands around his arms stopping him, and scowling faces.
Was he going to die?
And then darkness.
***
For an abstract second, he thought he had died, because in front of him was standing the person he’d searched so long for.
Donghae.
***
When Donghae came into the room the next morning, not saying anything to each other even when they woke, he had someone else with him. A taller, thinner man about the same age as they were, who put on a happy smile.
“Hi, I’m Eunhyuk,” he said, not approaching as though Henry would spring at him or something. “I’m Donghae’s...” he paused, quailing at Donghae’s glare. “His friend.”
What had he been about to say, Henry wondered. His lover? His partner in crime? Whatever it was, Donghae didn’t want it said.
“I’m Henry,” he said finally, deciding that holding his silence wasn’t a protest he was willing to make. “I’m Donghae’s prisoner.”
Eunhyuk snorted in laughter while Donghae just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Donghae wishes he had a prisoner like you all the time... You hungry? I have some breakfast made.”
Henry felt the beginnings of a smile touch his face. This Eunhyuk at least seemed nice. If he really found he had to get away, maybe that’d be useful.
“He can’t leave this room,” Donghae said, causing both of their heads to swivel toward him.
“Just for breakfast...?” Eunhyuk asked. Wheedled, more.
“We talked about this,” Donghae hissed, shoving at his shoulder.
Eunhyuk stared blandly at Donghae, then at Henry. “Really? You looked for this? Fine. I’ll bring some food in.” He tossed a barb back at Donghae. “And you can cook from now on, if you plan on having room service.”
“How long do you plan on keeping me here,” Henry asked as the door closed behind Eunhyuk.
“Until I can be sure when you disappear, I won’t ever see you again,” Donghae said, his back to Henry. Thankfully unable to see Henry’s face. “So I won’t ever hear any more jokes about being so sweet that my lovers can’t give me up. I could hand you a ticket to Canada today, if I thought you’d stay there. So you get to be my “guest” a little longer.”
He hated the sarcasm that he heard in Donghae’s voice. His guest, right. Clearly one that was unwanted, whether Henry would have it any other way or not. He kind of wanted to be the one to try, and cursed his insecurity. If Donghae was giving him even an inch, just something he could cling to and work from.
“So can I at least call my family?” he ventured.
“Maybe in a couple of days,” Donghae said, finally turning back. “If you behave.”
“Or what, you’ll spank me?” Behave? Like some kind of out of control kid? So maybe he’d gone against Donghae’s wishes in looking for him, but he didn’t see how he deserved that.
Henry almost thought he imagined the smirk on Donghae’s face when he said, “You don’t want to know.”
“Breakfast!” Eunhyuk called, pushing in through the door. Henry sat on the floor near the bed with his food, while the other two sat nearer the door.
Donghae’s laugh rolled at something Eunhyuk had said as they ate, and in that moment he looked so happy, so familiar to the mental images Henry had harbored that it was startling to him. The ugly bite of jealousy that followed on its heels, that Donghae could laugh for Eunhyuk like that when all he had for Henry was sullenness and bitterness. It wasn’t the reunion he’d expected. He hadn’t really expected that they would fall into each others arms, or... He’d got through a hundred scenarios in his head. Donghae who had moved on to loving someone else, Donghae who was a hardened, irretrievable criminal, Donghae who was anything else.
For every hopeless scenario he conjured, there was one where Donghae was contrite, and they worked together to find some middle ground of respect and trust and... He had never gotten over Donghae. Maybe he was obsessed like his mother kept telling him. Maybe he was. But every time he came back, walked the streets they had been on together, visited the beach they had gone to... He knew Donghae was still there, somewhere in Seoul. Every time, he found someone who’d seen him once, found a place he had been or a place his uncle owned.
How could he have given up? Knowing the danger to Donghae, wondering what he could have done to help.
Maybe him staying away had been the help Donghae had desired.
The thing he was most struck by was the question... If all Donghae was looking to do had been accomplished, would Donghae ever have come to look for him? Would he have felt as though he could have?
Donghae glanced at him, his grin fading slightly, contemplating Henry. No, when he saw that look, he didn’t think Donghae ever would have. And if Henry had found him after his uncle had fallen, when Donghae would have faded into the countryside perhaps, he would never have even had a shot.
And he needed that chance.
“Hey, hey!” they heard through the door, startling all of them. “Anyone home?”
“Come in!” Donghae called at the same time that Eunhyuk was muttering, “Damn it!”
A man walked in that Henry had seen before. An instigator of wild goose chases he had been on. A man he had found because of his supposed connection to Donghae. The police officer who had once been his informant. And apparently working with Donghae now. A man who was totally unsurprised to see him sitting there, even as he nodded at Henry.
“Hey guys. Oh, breakfast, huh? Have any extra?”
As Tablo sat down in the chair along the wall, Eunhyuk stood, walking out without a word. He’d barely known the man twenty minutes and it was just strange. And strange, in a situation like this, made him determined. Where not knowing meant maybe danger, even if Donghae looked unconcerned.
“Why’d Eunhyuk go?” Henry asked.
“Oh...he and Tablo don’t really get along very well,” Donghae explained, not turning toward Henry, but clearly enjoying himself, not holding back. And obviously knowing that Henry knew exactly who Tablo was. “He feels awkward around Tablo.”
The seemingly easygoing Eunhyuk not getting along with someone? “Really?”
“Awkward is better. It’s not that we don’t get along,” Tablo said. “It’s more like he shot me.”
Henry blinked. That had been the very last thing he’d been expecting to hear, and it was no wonder that his eyes darted between Tablo and Donghae for explanation. How many people went around getting shot? “What?”
“It was an accident, when Eunhyuk got knocked down with a loaded gun, and it barely scraped you,” Donghae said, still speaking toward Tablo.
“It was enough to get him a few months of gun safety lessons. That’s not really why he doesn’t want to be around me, though.”
“Tablo’s been trying to get in his pants ever since. Even got Uncle Lee’s permission,” Donghae explained. “Tablo uses insult as seduction.”
“I’m not insulting!” Tablo laughed.
Henry could hear the skepticism in Donghae’s voice. “‘Sleep with me to make it up to me.’ That’s not insulting?”
“Flattering maybe?”
“Not to a hopeless romantic.”
“Would you be flattered, Henry?” Tablo asked.
Would he sleep with Donghae to make something up to him? The answer came too quickly, so he went in the opposite way. “Um. Not so much.”
“Of course you’d agree with your boyfriend,” Tablo said, standing as though he were exasperated.
“He’s not-”
“We’re not-”
Donghae and Henry both stopped, prompting Tablo to laugh. “Right, guys. Totally convincing. I’m going to go bug Eunhyuk. Come up with a better excuse.”
Donghae scowled after him. “Ignore him. He’s annoying.”
Henry’s hand tightened on his tea cup. He’d be glad to ignore Tablo. If only Donghae wasn’t ignoring him.
***
Eunhyuk avoided the questing fingers, that ran down his arm. It wasn’t like he hadn’t known they were coming. Tablo who seemed to have an innate ability to find out wherever he went in the arguably small house. It made him feel boxed in, that he really didn’t have any way to escape. Locking himself in the bathroom only had so many uses.
“Stop,” he protested, pushing at Tablo’s arm.
“Still haven’t changed your mind?” Tablo teased.
“Let’s see. Give in to your stupid teasing, or keep working to get free? No, I haven’t changed my mind. Stop with your stupid games.”
“The two aren’t exclusive,” Tablo pointed out.
“It is for me. I don’t need this. Especially with Donghae trying to pretend he’s not all moony over his little “Mochi” coming back to him.”
“Mochi?” Tablo laughed and Eunhyuk’s stomach clenched at the sound. “Cute. I can see why Donghae is attached.”
“Don’t let Donghae hear you say that.”
“Looking out for me? Would you miss me if he did me in?” Tablo pressed.
The words escaped him before he could pull them back. “Talk about wishful thinking.”
But he felt his mouth twitch at the exaggeratedly crestfallen look on Tablo’s face. He really wanted to at least dislike the man after all the harassment. But he couldn’t help but wish he was wanted, something more than this pretend interest in his body.
Sometimes he thought Tablo really didn’t want him, and was just doing this to get some kind of perverse amusement out of it. He’d considered responding positively just once, just to see if Tablo would back away in horror. But the potential embarrassment of rejection, or worse acceptance and trying to explain that he hadn’t been serious kept him from doing that. He didn’t need to give Tablo any more fuel.
It had all started after the shooting. Long after, in fact, when Tablo had been granted a rare audience with Uncle Lee, and Eunhyuk had been ordered to attend.
“You’ve been good to the family, and got shot because of it,” Uncle Lee told Tablo. “How can we make it up to you?”
“I want Eunhyuk.”
Eunhyuk’s head shot up. “What?”
Uncle Lee’s eyebrows were high in surprise as well. “As your compensation? Or do you mean to punish him yourself? You’re sure?”
“I know he’s your nephew, sir,” Tablo said diplomatically, dragging Eunhyuk to his feet. “I guess I ought to try him out first.”
Tablo was kissing him, he thought dimly. And people were shouting with laughter around them.
“You’re supposed to be kissing me,” Tablo complained almost under his breath, and pressed their lips together again.
His mouth opened against Tablo’s before he could think to stop it. It should have froze him. The hands on his face, the body pressing close.
It was only when his fingers gripped the hem of Tablo’s shirt that he realized that he had leaned in, as though he didn’t want it to stop.
All those teases, the times he had pushed Tablo away before he could touch, get anywhere near to close... It hadn’t been the guilt. It hadn’t been that he hadn’t wanted to face rejection or test Tablo’s resolve. It had only been because there was just one name he’d whispered at night.
You put a bullet in me, Tablo’s secret smiles seemed to say. Make it up to me.
It had been some kind of an accident. The fake “dirty” cop and the crime lord’s nephew. They were not any kind of match. Now that Tablo had finally got what he had been angling after, he could point that mismatch out here and now, in front of everyone and all the humiliation he had been expecting would be complete. He wouldn’t have to turn away Tablo’s advances again.
He flushed hotly at the sound he made as the kiss ended, Tablo’s eyes on his lips.
“Yeah, I’m sure I want him,” Tablo said.
They stared at each other in silence as laughter echoed around them.
“Have it your way,” Uncle Lee said. “Keep him in line, Eunhyuk. I guess we can count on you... You’ve already shot him once!”
He could see the shuttered amusement in Tablo’s eyes. Ha, got you Hyukjae.
The sick feeling was really anger, he told himself. Tablo really didn’t want him after all. It was all a stupid joke. His uncle had all but given him to Tablo because of his stupid trigger finger and a mostly healed scrape. And he couldn’t get the taste of Tablo out of his mouth.
Not that anything really had come of it since then. Though Tablo seemed to consider Eunhyuk “his,” his advances were easily turned away. He just had to hold out just a little bit longer. Tablo would lose interest, and it would all be okay. So in a way, he was grateful for Donghae bringing his ex home. It gave Eunhyuk something different to worry about.
***
“Get dressed,” Donghae ordered.
Henry merely raised his eyebrows from where he was on the bed, reading a book Eunhyuk had brought him. The door was locked, sometimes, it seemed. He really hadn’t tried to test the door, even if he had been trapped in the room for four days. After his first initial bout of anger and frustration, he’d realized that this was quite a stroke of luck. Donghae was right here. Sleeping in the room with him, eating with him. It was better than any situation he could have conjured, where he had three minutes at most to try and convince Donghae to give him a chance... To talk to him.
Because four days or not, Donghae hadn’t been talking to him. Henry was right to the point of doing something drastic.
“Dressed?” he questioned, as Donghae threw clothes onto the bed.
“Uncle Lee requests our presence,” Donghae said. “So let’s get going.”
“Hey...those are my clothes!”
“Yeah, I went to your hotel room and got them,” Donghae said offhand, as though it were totally normal. “You won’t be staying there any more anyway.”
“I don’t... You didn’t... How did you get in?”
Donghae laughed. “I had your key, remember? Front desk didn’t care, didn’t know who checked in much less who checked out.”
It was almost terrifying, the thought that someone could be taken, disappeared, just that easily. Had Donghae been someone with bad intentions, Henry could be dead, buried somewhere, and his parents would never even know. But Donghae, despite his closed expressions and unwillingness to rise to Henry’s conversation or taunts, was still Donghae. There had been some fear that Donghae had given up, that he had decided that a life of crime was easier than working to end it. But he had heard Donghae and Eunhyuk whispering.
And Tablo’s presence as well spoke to it. Tablo, as a police officer, had been helping Donghae to gather information after they met. Maybe it was possible Donghae had lied to him back then and he had never been good.
But Henry knew beyond even a shadow of a doubt that that wasn’t true. That Donghae’s smiling eyes hid nothing like that from him. Even if he was still waiting for them to smile at him again.
“So he wants to see me since you’ve got me back again?” Henry asked, pulling his jeans on.
He saw Donghae’s feet freeze. “Back ag- Oh. Yeah. Wants to get a look at you that’s not just in a picture, I guess. We have to play it that way, that I wanted you back. When we’re there, you’ve got to, without question, follow what I’m doing, what I’m saying. You don’t get to argue. If you argue you put your life in danger, and the validity of this whole farce.”
“I can follow instructions. You think I ever wanted to compromise that?”
“You going to see him like this means you’re going to have to stay.” Donghae stopped in front of him. “You may have to stay till the end this time. I don’t know if it would be safe for you to try and go, now that you’re tied to me again.”
His stomach shifted as he met Donghae’s eyes. “Okay.”
“That’s all it is,” Donghae said tersely. “We act for Uncle Lee, and that’s all it is. When we’re here, there’s nothing. We’ll have to figure out how we’re going to work this. But we’ll do that after. We’ve got to go now.”
Donghae turned, walking away and muttering, “Okay? Okay?” almost under his breath.
***
Author: Coley Merrin
Rating: R
Pairings: Henry/Donghae (with Tablo/Eunhyuk)
Genre: AU. Angst. Romance.
Summary: Five years ago, Donghae failed to escape his Uncle Lee's crime organization and disappeared from Henry's life. But when Donghae has to kidnap Henry to keep him safe, it is still Uncle Lee that stands in the way of them ever having a normal life.
This is a follow up to For Always (QMi, SiHan, HenHae). One can be read without the other, but it does include more detail of the HenHae background and story. :)
***
Chapter One ** Chapter Two ** Chapter Three
***
A/N: A wee visit to QMi in this first scene, so skip just over that scene if that's not your cup of tea. <3
***
Five Hours Earlier
***
Henry’s family had given him all sorts of trouble about his twice-yearly trips to Korea. Not trouble, he supposed, as much as it was concern. When was he going to get over that boy he dated. Clearly he didn’t want Henry around. He’d heard it all.
It didn’t sway him.
But this time he was determined to do something he had neglected to do almost every time he had been back. Visit Kyuhyun.
He wondered what kind of a response he should expect. He hadn’t seen Kyuhyun in...how many years? It was easy to tell himself that he shouldn’t go to see anyone from Soulmate. After all, all he’d really been only part time help, right? Which was true. But Kyuhyun and Ryeowook had also been his friends. He wasn’t that much younger than them, really. They had helped him as much as they’d been able to. But the longer he went without stopping by, the harder it was. Cutting off even email contact out of guilt.
He steeled himself as the apartment door opened, and wondered for a moment if he’d arrived at the wrong door. The man in front of him was dressed like Kyuhyun. He had Kyuhyun’s “Yes?” expression. And yet... There was a small chattering girl in pigtails clutched in one arm. In the other, a boy of about the same age with a sticky fist clutching Kyuhyun’s hair. No, it really was Kyuhyun.
“Henry?” Kyuhyun asked in disbelief. “Henry!”
He stepped forward as though to hug Henry before he realized he still had both kids in his arms.
“Zhou Mi!” Kyuhyun called behind him.
“What’d they do now, Kui Xian?” came a familiar voice. Zhou Mi, not much changed, appeared, staring with interest for a long moment. “Ah! Henry!”
“Come in!” Kyuhyun said, stepping back and trying to hand off the children, twins Henry was assuming due to their sizes, to Zhou Mi. The little girl went with pleasure, while the little boy, still holding Kyuhyun’s hair, clung like a burr. Kyuhyun sighed and patted the child’s back. Still it gave him an arm free to hug Henry, and it felt...nostalgic. It had been way too long.
Kyuhyun smiled, closing the door and leading them all into the kitchen. Henry perched on a chair as Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi sat as well.
“It’s been... How long has it been? A few years? Before we got the babies...” Kyuhyun was looking at Zhou Mi for confirmation of that statement. “And they’re not babies any more. How have you been?”
“Good,” Henry said. I spent the last few years looking for Donghae... “I finished school. I thought... I needed to come say hello. How have you been? You have kids! How are Hankyung and Siwon?”
Anything to get the questions away from himself.
“Hankyung and Siwon are great. Hankyung was getting empty nest syndrome about the time Yunjoong turned three, but they held off.” Kyuhyun smirked at Zhou Mi. “And we’ve been good, too. All four of us.”
Kyuhyun said it a bit ironically, as though the number four was a number he’d never expected to utter.
“Are they twins? When did you get them?”
“They were about six months when they came home with us. And they’re almost three now. They are twins, though. The social worker wanted to split them up, thinking no one would ever take them both together. And then Zhou Mi walked in oozing charm and good will... We thought we’d be waiting for a while, and somehow it was us and two babies not long after.”
Zhou Mi nodded. “Well. On a trial basis. We kept them unofficially for two months, and then formally adopted them. They made us take classes before we could take them home”
Henry couldn’t imagine. “Wow. That sounds like it was hard. Two babies.”
“Luckily there are two of us... Good thing they weren’t triplets!” Zhou Mi said, laughing.
Kyuhyun made a horrified face at the thought, but cuddled the little boy closer. “He knew that if he didn’t get two at once, we might’ve only ever have one.”
“Kui Xian.”
“Zhou Mi.”
Both were said in the same mock-censuring tone, even if what they had for each other were smiles.
Kyuhyun seemed to catch Henry staring at their rings.
“Siwon... He set the bar so high. Zhou Mi felt obligated. Hankyung got his after a day.”
“At least a couple of months,” Zhou Mi corrected.
“Yeah, yeah. Zhou Mi couldn’t be one-upped. He got these for the anniversary of our first date.”
And Kyuhyun sounded very proud of that, too.
“He remembered when your first date was?”
“Zhou Mi? He marks up a calendar at the start of every year with birthdays and events. Our first date that year was marked with a big red circle along with the day we met. I’m kind of shocked he doesn’t mark every time we...”
“Kui Xian.”
Kyuhyun stared at him. “What? What did you think I was going to say? Every time we go on a date.”
Zhou Mi looked unconvinced by this and it made Henry laugh.
One of the children began to fuss, and Zhou Mi stood. “Time for naps. I’ll go put them down while you chat, Kui Xian.”
The soft sounds of Zhou Mi speaking and singing to the children filtered through as Kyuhyun set a steaming cup on the table for him.
“Are you still searching for Donghae?” Kyuhyun asked.
He thought Kyuhyun would know. Ryeowook had diligently written, sending him updates of the store. Henry had stopped checking that email after a while, which was clearly why he hadn’t known about the children.
“I am.”
“I always kind of keep an eye open when someone comes into the shop,” Kyuhyun said, threading his fingers together. “I hope... I hope you’re able to find some resolution there. We miss you, you know. Will you come by the store and see Ryeowook? He worried when you stopped answering his letters. He’d love to see you.”
“Of course... I miss you guys, too. That was... I was really happy there.” There, and with Donghae.
He felt lighter as he walked away, promising to see them again before he left. Zhou Mi stood behind Kyuhyun as they waved goodbye, and Henry was glad to see it. He’d been there to see them dance around each other, until they finally connected. They were proof that love existed and endured. They were raising a family together, and unless Henry was quite deaf and dumb, still in love with each other.
He was turning the corner of the stairwell leading up to his hotel room, when he felt the hand on his arm. He sensed the danger. But by then... It was too late.
***
The panic was overwhelming. Henry had never felt the urge to fight back as he had right in that moment, with hands around his arms stopping him, and scowling faces.
Was he going to die?
And then darkness.
***
For an abstract second, he thought he had died, because in front of him was standing the person he’d searched so long for.
Donghae.
***
When Donghae came into the room the next morning, not saying anything to each other even when they woke, he had someone else with him. A taller, thinner man about the same age as they were, who put on a happy smile.
“Hi, I’m Eunhyuk,” he said, not approaching as though Henry would spring at him or something. “I’m Donghae’s...” he paused, quailing at Donghae’s glare. “His friend.”
What had he been about to say, Henry wondered. His lover? His partner in crime? Whatever it was, Donghae didn’t want it said.
“I’m Henry,” he said finally, deciding that holding his silence wasn’t a protest he was willing to make. “I’m Donghae’s prisoner.”
Eunhyuk snorted in laughter while Donghae just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Donghae wishes he had a prisoner like you all the time... You hungry? I have some breakfast made.”
Henry felt the beginnings of a smile touch his face. This Eunhyuk at least seemed nice. If he really found he had to get away, maybe that’d be useful.
“He can’t leave this room,” Donghae said, causing both of their heads to swivel toward him.
“Just for breakfast...?” Eunhyuk asked. Wheedled, more.
“We talked about this,” Donghae hissed, shoving at his shoulder.
Eunhyuk stared blandly at Donghae, then at Henry. “Really? You looked for this? Fine. I’ll bring some food in.” He tossed a barb back at Donghae. “And you can cook from now on, if you plan on having room service.”
“How long do you plan on keeping me here,” Henry asked as the door closed behind Eunhyuk.
“Until I can be sure when you disappear, I won’t ever see you again,” Donghae said, his back to Henry. Thankfully unable to see Henry’s face. “So I won’t ever hear any more jokes about being so sweet that my lovers can’t give me up. I could hand you a ticket to Canada today, if I thought you’d stay there. So you get to be my “guest” a little longer.”
He hated the sarcasm that he heard in Donghae’s voice. His guest, right. Clearly one that was unwanted, whether Henry would have it any other way or not. He kind of wanted to be the one to try, and cursed his insecurity. If Donghae was giving him even an inch, just something he could cling to and work from.
“So can I at least call my family?” he ventured.
“Maybe in a couple of days,” Donghae said, finally turning back. “If you behave.”
“Or what, you’ll spank me?” Behave? Like some kind of out of control kid? So maybe he’d gone against Donghae’s wishes in looking for him, but he didn’t see how he deserved that.
Henry almost thought he imagined the smirk on Donghae’s face when he said, “You don’t want to know.”
“Breakfast!” Eunhyuk called, pushing in through the door. Henry sat on the floor near the bed with his food, while the other two sat nearer the door.
Donghae’s laugh rolled at something Eunhyuk had said as they ate, and in that moment he looked so happy, so familiar to the mental images Henry had harbored that it was startling to him. The ugly bite of jealousy that followed on its heels, that Donghae could laugh for Eunhyuk like that when all he had for Henry was sullenness and bitterness. It wasn’t the reunion he’d expected. He hadn’t really expected that they would fall into each others arms, or... He’d got through a hundred scenarios in his head. Donghae who had moved on to loving someone else, Donghae who was a hardened, irretrievable criminal, Donghae who was anything else.
For every hopeless scenario he conjured, there was one where Donghae was contrite, and they worked together to find some middle ground of respect and trust and... He had never gotten over Donghae. Maybe he was obsessed like his mother kept telling him. Maybe he was. But every time he came back, walked the streets they had been on together, visited the beach they had gone to... He knew Donghae was still there, somewhere in Seoul. Every time, he found someone who’d seen him once, found a place he had been or a place his uncle owned.
How could he have given up? Knowing the danger to Donghae, wondering what he could have done to help.
Maybe him staying away had been the help Donghae had desired.
The thing he was most struck by was the question... If all Donghae was looking to do had been accomplished, would Donghae ever have come to look for him? Would he have felt as though he could have?
Donghae glanced at him, his grin fading slightly, contemplating Henry. No, when he saw that look, he didn’t think Donghae ever would have. And if Henry had found him after his uncle had fallen, when Donghae would have faded into the countryside perhaps, he would never have even had a shot.
And he needed that chance.
“Hey, hey!” they heard through the door, startling all of them. “Anyone home?”
“Come in!” Donghae called at the same time that Eunhyuk was muttering, “Damn it!”
A man walked in that Henry had seen before. An instigator of wild goose chases he had been on. A man he had found because of his supposed connection to Donghae. The police officer who had once been his informant. And apparently working with Donghae now. A man who was totally unsurprised to see him sitting there, even as he nodded at Henry.
“Hey guys. Oh, breakfast, huh? Have any extra?”
As Tablo sat down in the chair along the wall, Eunhyuk stood, walking out without a word. He’d barely known the man twenty minutes and it was just strange. And strange, in a situation like this, made him determined. Where not knowing meant maybe danger, even if Donghae looked unconcerned.
“Why’d Eunhyuk go?” Henry asked.
“Oh...he and Tablo don’t really get along very well,” Donghae explained, not turning toward Henry, but clearly enjoying himself, not holding back. And obviously knowing that Henry knew exactly who Tablo was. “He feels awkward around Tablo.”
The seemingly easygoing Eunhyuk not getting along with someone? “Really?”
“Awkward is better. It’s not that we don’t get along,” Tablo said. “It’s more like he shot me.”
Henry blinked. That had been the very last thing he’d been expecting to hear, and it was no wonder that his eyes darted between Tablo and Donghae for explanation. How many people went around getting shot? “What?”
“It was an accident, when Eunhyuk got knocked down with a loaded gun, and it barely scraped you,” Donghae said, still speaking toward Tablo.
“It was enough to get him a few months of gun safety lessons. That’s not really why he doesn’t want to be around me, though.”
“Tablo’s been trying to get in his pants ever since. Even got Uncle Lee’s permission,” Donghae explained. “Tablo uses insult as seduction.”
“I’m not insulting!” Tablo laughed.
Henry could hear the skepticism in Donghae’s voice. “‘Sleep with me to make it up to me.’ That’s not insulting?”
“Flattering maybe?”
“Not to a hopeless romantic.”
“Would you be flattered, Henry?” Tablo asked.
Would he sleep with Donghae to make something up to him? The answer came too quickly, so he went in the opposite way. “Um. Not so much.”
“Of course you’d agree with your boyfriend,” Tablo said, standing as though he were exasperated.
“He’s not-”
“We’re not-”
Donghae and Henry both stopped, prompting Tablo to laugh. “Right, guys. Totally convincing. I’m going to go bug Eunhyuk. Come up with a better excuse.”
Donghae scowled after him. “Ignore him. He’s annoying.”
Henry’s hand tightened on his tea cup. He’d be glad to ignore Tablo. If only Donghae wasn’t ignoring him.
***
Eunhyuk avoided the questing fingers, that ran down his arm. It wasn’t like he hadn’t known they were coming. Tablo who seemed to have an innate ability to find out wherever he went in the arguably small house. It made him feel boxed in, that he really didn’t have any way to escape. Locking himself in the bathroom only had so many uses.
“Stop,” he protested, pushing at Tablo’s arm.
“Still haven’t changed your mind?” Tablo teased.
“Let’s see. Give in to your stupid teasing, or keep working to get free? No, I haven’t changed my mind. Stop with your stupid games.”
“The two aren’t exclusive,” Tablo pointed out.
“It is for me. I don’t need this. Especially with Donghae trying to pretend he’s not all moony over his little “Mochi” coming back to him.”
“Mochi?” Tablo laughed and Eunhyuk’s stomach clenched at the sound. “Cute. I can see why Donghae is attached.”
“Don’t let Donghae hear you say that.”
“Looking out for me? Would you miss me if he did me in?” Tablo pressed.
The words escaped him before he could pull them back. “Talk about wishful thinking.”
But he felt his mouth twitch at the exaggeratedly crestfallen look on Tablo’s face. He really wanted to at least dislike the man after all the harassment. But he couldn’t help but wish he was wanted, something more than this pretend interest in his body.
Sometimes he thought Tablo really didn’t want him, and was just doing this to get some kind of perverse amusement out of it. He’d considered responding positively just once, just to see if Tablo would back away in horror. But the potential embarrassment of rejection, or worse acceptance and trying to explain that he hadn’t been serious kept him from doing that. He didn’t need to give Tablo any more fuel.
It had all started after the shooting. Long after, in fact, when Tablo had been granted a rare audience with Uncle Lee, and Eunhyuk had been ordered to attend.
“You’ve been good to the family, and got shot because of it,” Uncle Lee told Tablo. “How can we make it up to you?”
“I want Eunhyuk.”
Eunhyuk’s head shot up. “What?”
Uncle Lee’s eyebrows were high in surprise as well. “As your compensation? Or do you mean to punish him yourself? You’re sure?”
“I know he’s your nephew, sir,” Tablo said diplomatically, dragging Eunhyuk to his feet. “I guess I ought to try him out first.”
Tablo was kissing him, he thought dimly. And people were shouting with laughter around them.
“You’re supposed to be kissing me,” Tablo complained almost under his breath, and pressed their lips together again.
His mouth opened against Tablo’s before he could think to stop it. It should have froze him. The hands on his face, the body pressing close.
It was only when his fingers gripped the hem of Tablo’s shirt that he realized that he had leaned in, as though he didn’t want it to stop.
All those teases, the times he had pushed Tablo away before he could touch, get anywhere near to close... It hadn’t been the guilt. It hadn’t been that he hadn’t wanted to face rejection or test Tablo’s resolve. It had only been because there was just one name he’d whispered at night.
You put a bullet in me, Tablo’s secret smiles seemed to say. Make it up to me.
It had been some kind of an accident. The fake “dirty” cop and the crime lord’s nephew. They were not any kind of match. Now that Tablo had finally got what he had been angling after, he could point that mismatch out here and now, in front of everyone and all the humiliation he had been expecting would be complete. He wouldn’t have to turn away Tablo’s advances again.
He flushed hotly at the sound he made as the kiss ended, Tablo’s eyes on his lips.
“Yeah, I’m sure I want him,” Tablo said.
They stared at each other in silence as laughter echoed around them.
“Have it your way,” Uncle Lee said. “Keep him in line, Eunhyuk. I guess we can count on you... You’ve already shot him once!”
He could see the shuttered amusement in Tablo’s eyes. Ha, got you Hyukjae.
The sick feeling was really anger, he told himself. Tablo really didn’t want him after all. It was all a stupid joke. His uncle had all but given him to Tablo because of his stupid trigger finger and a mostly healed scrape. And he couldn’t get the taste of Tablo out of his mouth.
Not that anything really had come of it since then. Though Tablo seemed to consider Eunhyuk “his,” his advances were easily turned away. He just had to hold out just a little bit longer. Tablo would lose interest, and it would all be okay. So in a way, he was grateful for Donghae bringing his ex home. It gave Eunhyuk something different to worry about.
***
“Get dressed,” Donghae ordered.
Henry merely raised his eyebrows from where he was on the bed, reading a book Eunhyuk had brought him. The door was locked, sometimes, it seemed. He really hadn’t tried to test the door, even if he had been trapped in the room for four days. After his first initial bout of anger and frustration, he’d realized that this was quite a stroke of luck. Donghae was right here. Sleeping in the room with him, eating with him. It was better than any situation he could have conjured, where he had three minutes at most to try and convince Donghae to give him a chance... To talk to him.
Because four days or not, Donghae hadn’t been talking to him. Henry was right to the point of doing something drastic.
“Dressed?” he questioned, as Donghae threw clothes onto the bed.
“Uncle Lee requests our presence,” Donghae said. “So let’s get going.”
“Hey...those are my clothes!”
“Yeah, I went to your hotel room and got them,” Donghae said offhand, as though it were totally normal. “You won’t be staying there any more anyway.”
“I don’t... You didn’t... How did you get in?”
Donghae laughed. “I had your key, remember? Front desk didn’t care, didn’t know who checked in much less who checked out.”
It was almost terrifying, the thought that someone could be taken, disappeared, just that easily. Had Donghae been someone with bad intentions, Henry could be dead, buried somewhere, and his parents would never even know. But Donghae, despite his closed expressions and unwillingness to rise to Henry’s conversation or taunts, was still Donghae. There had been some fear that Donghae had given up, that he had decided that a life of crime was easier than working to end it. But he had heard Donghae and Eunhyuk whispering.
And Tablo’s presence as well spoke to it. Tablo, as a police officer, had been helping Donghae to gather information after they met. Maybe it was possible Donghae had lied to him back then and he had never been good.
But Henry knew beyond even a shadow of a doubt that that wasn’t true. That Donghae’s smiling eyes hid nothing like that from him. Even if he was still waiting for them to smile at him again.
“So he wants to see me since you’ve got me back again?” Henry asked, pulling his jeans on.
He saw Donghae’s feet freeze. “Back ag- Oh. Yeah. Wants to get a look at you that’s not just in a picture, I guess. We have to play it that way, that I wanted you back. When we’re there, you’ve got to, without question, follow what I’m doing, what I’m saying. You don’t get to argue. If you argue you put your life in danger, and the validity of this whole farce.”
“I can follow instructions. You think I ever wanted to compromise that?”
“You going to see him like this means you’re going to have to stay.” Donghae stopped in front of him. “You may have to stay till the end this time. I don’t know if it would be safe for you to try and go, now that you’re tied to me again.”
His stomach shifted as he met Donghae’s eyes. “Okay.”
“That’s all it is,” Donghae said tersely. “We act for Uncle Lee, and that’s all it is. When we’re here, there’s nothing. We’ll have to figure out how we’re going to work this. But we’ll do that after. We’ve got to go now.”
Donghae turned, walking away and muttering, “Okay? Okay?” almost under his breath.
***