Without a Heart; chapter 2
C H A P T E R 02
“I told you I haven't decided…”
Jay paced up and down in the living room of the house, the phone to his ear, still with his black-rimmed reading glasses over his dark, ominous eyes. He let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his forehead with his free hand.
“It’s a better idea to talk about this with Eunjung when she comes back,” he told the person on the other line. “What do you want me to do, sign the papers before she gets back? Yeah, exactly. You’re the lawyer here, aren’t you? Call up her lawyer and talk it through and make sure Eunjung understands. Yeah, my main priority is what happens to Minho, don’t forget that.” Jay empathized it by waving his finger at an invisible person in front of him. He heaved another sigh. “Yeah. Okay, we’ll take care of that later. I’ll call you after I look at the papers. See you soon.”
Jay brought the phone back in front of him and pressed to hang up. He stopped in front of the sofa and placed a hand on the armrest, putting his body weight onto it. Pocketing the phone again after a moment to gather up his mind, Jay took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes.
Could a phone call drain a person of so much energy? He glanced up at the calendar.
March 8th. It would only be a few more days before he could see his son again. Compared to the 5 weeks that felt like an eternity, Jay could endure a few days knowing by the end of it he could hold his little boy in his arms.
A faint beeping noise coming from upstairs suddenly caught Jay’s attention. He frowned, as there wasn’t supposed to be anyone else home at this time. Cautiously he set down his glasses on the coffee table and headed up the staircase with the intention of going straight to Kyuhyun’s room.
It was normal for strange noises to come from within Kyuhyun’s room. He had about a billion and one video games that he bought over the years, as well as keeping the ones from childhood, and Kyuhyun liked to perform his textbook experiments inside the house, no matter how wild and dangerous it was. However, after long and intimidating talk with his older brothers, he decided to move some of his experiments outside.
Perhaps Kyuhyun had been gaming in the morning before class and lost track of time, forgetting to turn the computer off. This happened many times before, Jay was amused that Kyuhyun had time to save his checkpoint and say goodbye to his online friends before leaving for class.
Reaching the bedroom door, Jay placed his hand on the handle while peering in through the small crack. He pushed the creaking door open gently, the beeping noise now accompanied with several other artificial sounds. Since the door was located beside the bed and opposite the side of the room where Kyuhyun’s computer was set, the person at the computer would only be aware of someone at the door if they heard the creaking sound. Jay opened the door to find his brother’s back facing towards him with his shoulders scrunched up and his headphone intact, in the midst of a gaming battle and not hearing him come in at all.
Jay stood at the door for a few moments, watching Kyuhyun play so carefreely. He dropped his gaze down to his foot and cleared his throat loudly. At the sound, Kyuhyun flinched, looked over his shoulder to see Jay. He was met with a wry smile, which he acknowledged and then turned back to his game. Jay stood awkwardly by himself for a few moments.
“You’re home early,” he said in a dry voice. Kyuhyun nodded nonchalantly. “How was the lecture?”
“It was okay,” Kyuhyun said absentmindedly. There was a beat. “Oh, I got my paper back.” He waved his hand over to his study desk beside the computer. “Nailed it.” Jay went over and picked it up to read it.
“I see,” he muttered, flicking through the pages. It was quite impressive but Jay didn’t show it, knowing exactly too well of the dangers of feeding Kyuhyun’s ego. He set the paper down again without a second glance, watching the game silently.
“Didn’t you say you and Donghae were going to be doing something today?” Jay said after a while. He knew Kyuhyun had reacted when he missed a shot. “You remember you told me about it, right?”
“He hasn’t come yet,” Kyuhyun replied.
“Why not?”
“He’s still in class.”
Jay stared down at Kyuhyun with a raised eyebrow.
“Then why are you home?” he asked.
“The professor kicked me out,” Kyuhyun shrugged, like it was no big deal.
“WHAT?”
Without warning, Jay abruptly pulled Kyuhyun’s chair away from the computer, causing it to spin and crash into the opposite wall. Kyuhyun’s head was still hooked up with his headphone, was jerked back and almost fell off the chair together. He automatically grabbed it to stop it from snapping, stumbling onto his feet. He stood up with a shocked face.
“Hyung, what the hell?!” he said incredulously. Jay’s outraged expression didn’t change.
“What did you do this time to get you kicked out?!” he exclaimed. Kyuhyun shrugged again, scratching the back of his neck.
“So I was checking my email on my phone," he mumbled. “He caught me and sent me out.” Kyuhyun raised his hands defensively when Jay took a step forward. “Hyung, I told you, this professor’s a jerk! He always picks on me!”
“Aishhhh…” Jay sighed, facepalming. He looked at Kyuhyun in dismay. “Honestly, this household is going through too much already and you skip class like it’s nothing.”
“But my grades are good,” Kyuhyun insisted. “Isn’t that the whole point?” Jay didn’t answer and just shook his head. He threw his hand in the air and left the room, leaving Kyuhyun feeling guilty.
Although rebellious and carefree, Kyuhyun did have a strong bond with his family and, even if he would never admit it, he wanted to make them proud of him. Their parents had passed away and left each son a large amount of inheritance money. Heechul had put it aside and not touched it, Jay had invested it into his kid’s education fee, while Kyuhyun decided to continue on in college with a strange and unique subject change. To keep it short, it was a risky decision on Kyuhyun’s part because he was more or less gambling away his inheritance on something that might not ensure him a job. Although this was what he wanted to do and he had their support and blessing, Kyuhyun felt sorry towards his brother, as well as his late parents, so he did try his best despite not seeming to. Knowing that both Jay and Heechul were currently having a hard time, Kyuhyun had tried go to class regularly for their sake.
It wasn’t as if he wasn’t trying, it was just he felt out of place with his brothers. Heechul and Jay were both like their father, sensible and proud, while Kyuhyun was like their mother, laid back and carefree. He didn’t like following the rules if he already had his own way of achieving the end result, even though it got him into trouble most of the time.
Kyuhyun pushed the chair back in front of his desk and collapsed onto it, reluctantly closing the window of his game. He stared at the blank monitor with a grim expression, his hand still lingering over the mouse.
The room was quiet for a few long minutes.
“Ah, to hell with this,” he muttered, leaping back over at his desk.
He hooked his headphone set back on and resumed his game.
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Sunmi opened the front door of the house and stepped inside, immediately throwing aside her heavy backpack. She let out a content sigh and stretched up her arms to relieve her sore shoulders as she kicked off her shoes. Sohee, who followed behind closed the door, also removing her shoes and bag. Her face was scrunched in a confused frown.
“Let’s go through it one more time,” she began. Sunmi gathered the shoes and set them to one side. Sohee fixed up her ponytail again as they went into the kitchen. “Why did they change the name of the café?”
Sunmi went over to the fridge and took out a carton of milk.
“Market strategy,” she said in a matter-of-factly voice. Sohee sat down at the table and shook her head when Sunmi glanced over at her to ask if she wanted some before pouring herself a glass. “It’s not like anyone’s going to notice.”
Sohee chuckled humorlessly.
“Yeah, the name was only changed yesterday and so many customers are coming in thinking it just opened.”
“That’s good,” Sunmi said happily. She went over and sat next to her. “That means we’ll get paid more.” She took a glorious swig of milk, leaving a white ring around her smiling lips. Sohee giggled at her and reached over to wipe the milk off.
“Still…” Sohee sighed, leaning back on her chair. “The name Coffee House sounds like such a downgrade from Coffee Palace. She rested her hands on the back of her head and stared at the ceiling, reminiscing. “Coffee House.” She tried it on for size. “Coffee House, Coffee House…” Sunmi also stared dreamily up at the ceiling, her head on her fist.
“It kinda feels like a new job,” she muttered. Her eyes darted to her cousin and she smiled mischievously. “…except with the same uniforms, the same boss, the same services, the same pay…” They both feel into a fit of giggles and Sohee pushed her with her elbow. She then sighed again, dropping her head onto the table with a loud groan.
“Awwwwww, my shift is starting in half an hour…” she breathed. “And I’m tired just thinking about it.”
Sohee and Sunmi had been doing part time work at the local café for the last year. Originally, the café was named Coffee Palace and was quite a catch for about a month into its career, only to be overshadowed when several other coffee joints began opening around the area. The two cousins had joined the employee circle 4 months after their customer decline, so the work wasn’t too hard. The café had gone through a change of management (the manager got fired for being sloppy), so it was renamed Coffee House and had an entirely different marketing scheme. When it was reopened over the weekend, the customer service exploded, with more people coming in to eat than Sohee and Sunmi had ever seen before. Usually, they’d take turns serving a single customer who would pop in every 20 minutes, but now they were taking orders nonstop. It was a new experience for them.
“Sunmi yah, Sohee yah, help me with these groceries!” they heard Sunmi's mother shout from the front door. Sunmi automatically jumped to her feet and charged out to help, while Sohee took a moment. She placed her hand on her back to prevent any sudden movements or jolts and slowly stood up from the chair. By the time she was about to turn to go out, Sunmi appeared holding two heavy-looking grocery bags in each hand. She went past Sohee as the aunt came in, a stony expression on her face as she saw Sohee.
“I called you both,” she said coolly. “Don’t make Sunmi do all the housework.”
“I’m sorry,” Sohee replied in a monotone. The aunt just brushed past her and collapsed on a chair.
“I take you in and put a roof over your head, at least have the decency to help around the house,” she muttered, although her tone softened a little this time. Sunmi packed the last of the groceries into the cupboard, then went over and wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders from behind.
“Ah, omma, don’t be so hard on Sohee,” she chided. “She’s not feeling well.” She looked at Sohee, who was standing with her hands clasped in front of her. Sunmi gave her a sad, sympathetic smile.
“Don’t forget the appointment at the hospital for your checkup this week,” the aunt said, still looking disapprovingly at Sohee. “How’s the new medication doing? Are you still getting those phantom pains or whatever they’re called?”
Sohee subconsciously placed her hand over her scars.
“It’s fine now,” she lied. The aunt seemed disappointed at her reply.
“That’s too bad,” she murmured, getting up again. “The other pills were a lot cheaper.” She got up and went to start dinner, not even glancing once at her niece.
Sensing tension, Sunmi stared wide-eyed from her mother over to her cousin, who bit down hard and abruptly turned towards her bedroom. Sunmi let out a forced laugh and hurried after Sohee, linking her arm with hers.
“She’s just joking,” she said reassuringly. “Don’t feel bad.”
Sohee just smiled stiffly.
For what it was worth, Sohee did respect her aunt. She did feel a certain amount of gratitude for taking her in. Even though it was natural for a mother to be closer to her own daughter, Sohee always had the feeling that her aunt was never particularly fond of her even before her father’s death. After Sohee’s mother passed away even before her 4th birthday, she never had much of a maternal figure to rely on. Despite her hot temper, Sohee couldn’t bring herself to voice her opinion as everything her aunt said was true; she did provide a roof over her head and she was her guardian, so maybe it was wiser to just swallow her words to avoid anymore unnecessary hostility.
Sohee exhaled and shook off her thoughts.
She leaned past her pillow for the pile of fresh clothes her aunt had left for her, picking up her work uniform. She glanced down at her school uniform, and was disgusted to find that a small cluster of rice had been left near her v-neck collar. She muttered to herself as she scrapped it off. Hearing a clatter above her, Sohee stared upwards to find that Sunmi had climbed onto her top bunk and was watching her with a lollipop in her mouth. Sohee raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t you have a dentist appointment soon?” she asked. Sunmi sucked the lollipop a few more times then pulled it out with a pop.
“It’s sugar-free,” she said, smiling innocently. She held it out to Sohee. “Wanna try? It’s really good, tastes just like the real thing.” Sunmi suddenly winced and clutched her jaw. Sohee swiped the lollipop and licked it. She started laughing.
“It is sugar, silly,” she chuckled, handing it back to the now suspicious Sunmi. “I think all he’s going to do after drilling out your cavities is tell you to stop falling asleep with these things in your mouth.”
Sunmi just shrugged and plopped it back in her mouth. She frowned as she watched Sohee carefully undress, avoiding having to bend or move her waist. It was a few tense seconds before Sunmi couldn’t stand watching anymore. She spat out the lollipop and jumped down from the bunk bed.
“I think we should apply it one more time before you go to work,” she said, taking Sohee’s arm and leading her towards the corner near the mirror. Sohee shook her head and gently tried to push away.
“I’m okay,” she said firmly. Sunmi wasn’t listening; she kneeled down and reached for a tub of cream under the bed. Sohee shook her head again. “I only have a little left, I want to save it for tomorrow.”
“We’ll buy some more when it’s used up,” Sunmi said simply, setting the tub aside for a moment. She helped Sohee take her sweater off. “Don’t worry, no matter what my mom says, you should use your medication when you need to.” She unbuttoned Sohee’s blouse to reveal a thick layer of bandages wrapped loosely around her torso. Sunmi frowned and shook her head. “Look, you didn’t even do it properly this morning…”
Unlike her mother, Sunmi had always been close to Sohee. Since they were the same age, they bonded well since before they could even walk. Sunmi was the exact opposite of Sohee, having a calm and serene personality, very tolerant and considerate in times of crisis. The fire caused a great impact in the cousins’ relationship, as Sunmi absolutely hated seeing anyone she loved be in any kind of pain. She would usually cover up her worries with a smile that calmed everyone, and was the sole peacemaker in the household.
These days, she became increasingly aware of Sohee’s condition. She was the only other person at home and at school who knew how serious it was.
Sohee finally gave in and obeyed her cousin’s order and took off her clothes. Sunmi helped pull off the worn, blackened bandages with great care, hoping not to hurt her.
Sohee clenched her teeth as the fabric scraped across her scars, not understanding why she was even feeling pain from 3 year old wounds. Sunmi had closed the blinds, causing the room to fall into a dark silence, where Sohee finally was able to remove the thoughts she had in the day and free her mind. A cold, tingly pain lit her body as Sunmi applied the medication cream to the scars, who did it with sealed lips and a grim expression. Sohee tried hard to not make a sound, not to let her cousin know how much her touch was hurting, how much it was burning. She stiffened her body as much as she could, biting down hard on her lower lip. She squeezed shut her eyes.
The new medication wasn’t working at all. Her body was reacting the wrong way. The scars had started to bleed.
“Turn around, Sohee yah,” Sunmi told her. Her expression darkened as she came around to the back. “Aigoo…”
She started wrapping the bandages slowly around Sohee’s body, holding it firmly and close to the skin to seal away the scar tissue. The soft, cottony material stuck onto her skin, causing a stingy sensation of warmth, taking away the coldness of the cream. When she finished, Sunmi stood back up to find Sohee holding her breath with tears in her eyes.
She was crying without even realizing. Sunmi laughed softly and cupped her face in her hands.
“Just rest a little, okay?” she said in a soft, soothing whisper. She stroked her hair to calm her. “I’m sure the manager won't mind if you're just a few minutes late today.” Sohee nodded indifferently. Sunmi smiled sadly and wiped away a stray tear with her thumb.
“It’s okay now.”
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Yeeun yawned loudly.
“Ahh, my makeup,” she murmured to herself, gently touching the side of her eyes. She gazed around at her two colleagues. Both were tired and sullen.
After the success of getting raw photos of the site, they had gone back to the firm to register them for the project. In doing so, there was a tonne of new tasks that needed to be done, to which Heechul dove right into. He had lowered himself over his desk, his eyes darting from side to side of each of the 320 papers, his back arching up in an angle that made him look like an old man. Even from not seeing his face, it was clear that Heechul’s face had aged much from just this morning. Jaejoong sat in his desk next to him, his sleeves rolled up and his tie loosened, having made 3 phone calls without even hanging up once. When he finally slammed the phone down, his body once again fell limp. Heechul, on the other hand, threw down the paper violently.
“It’s not right!” he shouted hotly. “Aishh, now I have to go all the way back to Busan for another goddamn validation!” He collapsed onto his desk, his face in his hands. Jaejoong and Yeeun exchanged a grim look, Yeeun went over to Heechul and placed her hands on his shoulders as he tried to gather his mind.
“Oppa, you're so tense today,” she cooed, massaging his neck. “Why don’t you relax a little?” Heechul let out a long sigh. “Do you want me to make you feel better?” Yeeun leaned down and rested her chin on his shoulder. “Do you want me to kiss you?” Heechul, although hot and bothered, only pushed her off with a soft humorless laugh.
“Not in a million years,” he told her. Yeeun pretended to be offended and stood back up with crossed arms.
“Suit yourself,” she said with a huff. She fixed up her hair again, then turned around to an exhausted Jaejoong and gave him a warm smile. She picked up her purse and fumbled through it.
“Why don’t you two go home and rest while I go to Busan to get those papers validated?” she suggested. Heechul gazed up, his expression brighter than before.
“Really?” he blurted. Yeeun beamed and nodded confidently. She glanced between her two colleagues.
“I don’t like my men looking so old and worn.” She extended her hand over to Jaejoong and gently stroked his hair. He sighed and his lips curved up in a content smile, taking in her touch like a puppy. “I don’t even think I’ve seen you eat anything today.”
“Actually, I am feeling a little hungry,” Jaejoong remarked, sitting up again. “I feel like cake.”
Yeeun mouthed some words to him and winked. She looked back to Heechul, who had now turned away from his desk. He seemed very tired with large eyebags under his eyes, but he refused to show it. She bent down again, leaning over close with a teasing smile.
“I have something that will make you feel better,” she singsonged. Taking his hand, she placed two tickets in his palm. Before he could read them, Jaejoong got up and swiped them off him. His eyes widened in awe.
“Wow, tickets to the Doosan Bears baseball match?” He stared at Yeeun with a dropped jaw. “How did you get such good tickets?” Yeeun shrugged and pulled her purse up on her shoulder.
“That guard ahjussi gave them to me. A good luck gift for my modeling career.” She grabbed the papers she needed, winked again and blew them both a kiss. “See you boys tomorrow.”
And then she left.
“That woman is unbelievable,” Jaejoong said, still dumbstruck by the tickets in his hands. He flipped them over, finding a phone number and home address written on the back of one of them. He let out a scoffing laugh. “Unbelievable...”
Heechul didn’t respond, gathering all the notes on his desk and putting them into a folder. Jaejoong quickly whipped the tickets into his pockets and stood up. He pulled off his tie.
“You want to go eat?” he asked.
Heechul ignored him again.
“Junho just faxed me the blueprints from the boss, we could talk about that.”
Still no answer. Jaejoong sighed with defeat and rubbed his hands together.
“Okay,” he said, acknowledging what was going on. “I get it. You’re not feeling well today. It’s cool.”
Heechul packed his things into his bag and zipped it up. He rounded over to Jaejoong, but just reached for a booklet beside him without even giving eye contact.
“I’ll get my USB at home,” he muttered. “I’m leaving my bike here and taking my car.”
“You do that,” Jaejoong said positively, rubbing the back of his neck. Heechul turned away and started walking, leaving his best friend hanging behind awkwardly.
“I’ll come pick you up at your house,” Jaejoong called after him. He cupped his hands around his mouth as Heechul disappeared out of the office. “We’re going to eat! Bring cash!!”
But at that point he was shouting at thin air. Even if Heechul was still in the room, Jaejoong didn’t expect a response, or even any signs of showing a reaction. He exhaled and placed his hands on his hips.
This wasn’t anything new, Heechul’s… period of anti-socialism. Jaejoong was used to it, and so was Yeeun, but anyone who hadn’t known Heechul for more than 2 years would think he was rude, arrogant and snobbish. That wasn’t the case, and rather than feel offended by it, Jaejoong and Yeeun allowed Heechul to put them through this treatment until the period ended.
Usually sometime before mid-April. After that, the guilt of their mistreatment would result in three weeks worth of free drinks.
Heechul’s thermometer level had been at 0 degrees for the past 2 weeks. It had been 0 degrees up to the moment Yeeun left the room, after that it suddenly went down to -10 degrees, where he turned ice-cold right in front of Jaejoong’s eyes for no reason. Jaejoong glanced back at Heechul’s desk, wondering what could have triggered the effect. In an instant he noticed the small calendar album set against the wall.
He picked it up and sadly ran his fingers across the word “March”.
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Heechul didn’t part his lips once on the way home. No thoughts ran through his mind, his chest felt numb despite the throbbing of his heart. Echoing loudly, the feeling was only of the sound of each heartbeat, echoing through his rib cage.
He wasn’t sure how fast he was driving. His foot was pressing down hard on the pedal, and his hands clutched the wheel so hard that it felt like they would bleed. A vague, familiar sight appeared at a distance and Heechul quickly blinked his eyes, realizing he had arrived home after what seemed like a few seconds. He slammed on the brakes so abruptly that he lunged, his head buckling forward dangerously, the seatbelt grasping at his body painfully as his entire body heaved with the weight of the world.
Heechul didn’t move, the world spinning around him. He placed his hand on his head as he slowly lifted it up, coming out of his day-long trance. He panted, the blood rushing to his head again as his vision cleared. He pushed himself back onto his seat, his head leaned back and staring at the car roof, feeling so fatigued and nauseated. His eyes automatically fell on the star-shaped dangler hanging on the car mirror.
A surge of anger overtook Heechul’s senses as he watched it sway from side to side. He grabbed it and ripped it off, at the same time unbuckling himself and opening the door. The dangler in his fist, Heechul stepped out of the car and threw it with all his might into the sky, releasing with it his remaining strength.
As he watched it fly away, a sense of serenity settled in, making him feel a little at ease. He leaned onto the car door for a while with his hands in his pocket. A bitter taste started to rise in his mouth.
Why couldn’t his mind think straight, even when he tried pushing those thoughts away? Everything he touched seemed to make him feel angry today, even the air he breathed into his lungs seemed as if it were devouring his insides.
He felt so stupid that he couldn’t let this feeling go, no matter what he tried.
Heechul clenched his teeth and walked slowly, step by step, across the grass that brushed at his trousers. He sighed to himself and looked back up at the sky, the sun shining down into his eyes.
Unexpectedly in this calming moment, his foot suddenly caught on something on the grass, and before he knew it, it pulled him from under his feet and whisked him up into the air.
“AAARRRGGGHH!!!” Heechul screamed. It felt as if the earth had swallowed him, something painful slamming into both sides of his body and entangling his arms and legs. He coughed and frantically waved away the dust and leaves. When everything settled, he realized he was caught in some sort of net hanging from the tree in his front yard with his arms and legs unable to move. Panicking, he looked wildly around. Glancing down, he saw that he was probably 10 feet in the air, and a few seconds later, two young men appeared from behind the tree.
Both holding notepads and pens, they peered up at him like a couple of children at a science fair. Heechul didn’t need to double-checked to know who the two people were.
“Wouldn’t a werewolf be able to scratch a hole through the net?” one of them asked the other. The other scribbled something down and shook his head.
“No, the material is made to resist the sharp claws,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“Really? What did you use? Silk?”
“Nylon.”
“Very nice.”
Heechul panted like a wild animal, the more he moved the more tangled he became, his rage piling up more and more.
“KYUHYUN, LET ME DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Hyung-nim!” one of them called out. It wasn’t Kyuhyun. “Don’t move or else you’ll become more tangled!!” They drew closer under him, and he was able to distinguish who was who.
“Donghae hyung,” Kyuhyun warned, looking worried now that he could see Heechul’s face. “Don’t tease him. Let’s just get him down.”
Both Kyuhyun and Donghae placed down their notepads on the grass and went over to the trunk of the tree and carefully unraveled the rope. Heechul, meanwhile, was starting to go crazy, struggling to pull free despite Donghae’s warning. Kyuhyun bit his lip, feeling guilty as he knew Heechul was severely claustrophobic in situations like this, but he hadn’t expected his brother to react so violently. The net slowly began to lower towards the ground.
“Heechul hyung, calm down!” Donghae exclaimed. His hand accidentally slipped, causing a rope burn as well as Heechul crashing down 3 feet onto the ground. Kyuhyun let out a shocked gasp and the two rushed over to Heechul.
“Hyung, are you alright?” He reached for Heechul’s arm to pull him to his feet, but Heechul ripped his arm away, staring at the two friends in disgust.
“What the hell are you trying to do?!” he lashed out. Heechul staggered and groaned, having hurt his shoulder in the fall. He glared intensely at Kyuhyun, then at Donghae, causing them both to shrink back.
“We were just testing out a method they used in the Middle Ages to catching werewolves,” Kyuhyun explained. “We’ve got an exam on it next week.”
“Wouldn’t reading a book about it be enough?!” Heechul snapped, not softening at all at their terrified expressions. He clutched his sore back and shoulder. “Ahhh, you almost killed me…”
Lee Donghae was no stranger to Heechul or the Kim family. He had been Kyuhyun’s friend since middle school, and had taken the same interests as him over the years. Unlike Kyuhyun, Donghae had his sights set on becoming a university lecturer after graduating from his course, hoping to extend his studies abroad to Princeton someday. But even with this ambition in mind, it didn’t take away the unique and quirky bond he had with Kyuhyun and their love for strange experiments.
Their family members were regular test subjects for their antics. Whether it was slipping a weird substance into their food that rendered them unconscious for 4 hours while the panic-stricken duo frantically tried to figure out what to do (without getting the police involved), to setting up physical traps on their unsuspecting victims to fall into when coming home from work. It was pretty extreme in some cases, as Kyuhyun and Donghae weren’t exactly sure what the outcome would be, even one time landing Jay in the ER with a broken leg.
But all those times, their families took it as good-natured fun and never exploded with anger at them before.
Heechul shoved Kyuhyun aside and stormed towards the house. Kyuhyun looked on with concern, while Donghae couldn’t shake himself of the shock from seeing Heechul’s unexpected reaction. He tugged Kyuhyun’s sleeve.
“Kyuhyun ah, did we go too far this time?” he asked in a hushed voice. Kyuhyun shook his head.
“It’s not because of that,” he reassured him. “Let’s just go and take notes from the textbook.” He pulled his best friend along as he forwarded back to the house. Donghae still seemed uncertain. Usually, he and Heechul were almost as close as he was with Kyuhyun. He had never seen Heechul lose his temper like this before.
Kyuhyun pushed Donghae inside first and closed the door behind them. Still fascinated, Donghae carefully watched Heechul from a distance into as he searched around his work desk for the USB. Kyuhyun noticed.
“Don’t bother him today,” he mouthed, in case Heechul could hear them. The room was unusually quiet. “He’s not himself.”
“He almost broke one of his teeth the last time we tried something, and he wasn’t nearly this scary,” Donghae whispered back, shielding his mouth.
“Yeah, well, he’s sensitive around this time of year.”
“Why?”
“He thinks about Boa nuna.”
“You mean that ex-girlfriend who left for Japan 2 days before White Day?”
“…Yeah.”
While the two friends whispered among themselves as they headed to Kyuhyun’s room, they weren’t aware that Heechul could hear them. He purposely banged his drawer closed harder than he had to, even though he knew the anger in his heart wasn’t directed at them. But their words, as innocent as they were intended to be, they pierced into him like pieces of jagged glass.
No, this had to stop. Why, why wouldn’t it just stop?
He pocketed the USB and dusted his hands, pushing the drawer shut in a swift movement, almost closing it onto his fingers, but he didn’t pay attention.
Heechul saw Jaejoong’s car arrived outside the window, honking the horn loudly, calling him, even sticking his hand out the window to wave. Heechul bit into the side of his cheek.
Truthfully, he didn’t feel like going out to eat. He didn’t feel like doing anything other than get his work finalized for the night and not waste time like he did. As the circles under his eyes had grown darker, Heechul sank into a state where even an hour would be wasting precious work time. In that hour, he could travel from Seoul to Incheon and back, getting a dozen or so errands done. He didn’t sleep as often as he had adapted to working while fatigued, and a part of him didn’t completely trust his colleagues to get the job done as quickly as he knew he could.
But today his mind was messed up. He felt he would go crazy if he locked himself in this room. Yeeun had assured him that she would take care of the business in Busan, and he admitted to himself that Yeeun had never let him down before.
He had to leave the room or else he’d go mad.
“KIM HEECHUL!!” Jaejoong’s voice screamed along with a series of loud beeps.
Heechul sighed and gave in. He picked up his backpack and headed out to meet Jaejoong.
“Took you long enough,” Jaejoong said in a slightly annoyed voice. Heechul chuckled softly at his best friend’s good nature and hopped into the passenger’s seat. Once ready, Jaejoong steered the car out onto the main road.
Neither of them spoke for the first 2 minutes. Jaejoong took a chance and threw a glance over at Heechul at a red light, only to find him looking through his notes again. Jaejoong sighed frustrated.
“Do you really have to keep going through those papers?” he asked, unable to mask his irritation. Heechul didn’t answer yet again, and Jaejoong was forced to look back at the road as the light turned green.
Heechul did look up when Jaejoong didn’t make a right turn.
“Where are we going?” he muttered suspiciously, setting down his notes into his bag. Jaejoong laughed; a bit too forcefully.
“What, we can't go someplace different for a change?” he said, his voice a higher pitch than usual. Heechul’s deadpan stare turned towards the driver, a bad feeling rising in the pit of his stomach. Jaejoong refused to wither under his burning gaze, clearing his throat loudly.
“Aigoo!” he exclaimed as they halted a little. “The traffic sure sucks here!”
“What did you do?” Heechul asked, now looking out the window.
“Nothing!” Jaejoong insisted. “I just feel like some cake. Since Bo Peep is still closed, I figured we could go to a café. There’s a new one I want to check out. It’s called Coffee House, just opened yesterday.” Heechul frowned.
“Coffee House,” he mumbled to himself. “Never heard of it before.” He shuffled against his seat, finally putting his bag of notes aside. He looked questionably over at the driver. “But what’s wrong with the Cheesecake Shop we’ve been going to for the last 5 weeks? The one at the right turn you missed?”
Jaejoong didn’t answer straight away, taking a few moments to lick his dry lips.
“You remember that girl I met last Wednesday?” he piped after a while.
“Which one?”
“About 170cm, long dyed brown hair, single eyelid…”
“No. But go on.”
“Well… I found out she’s a waitress at the Cheesecake Shop.”
Heechul closed his eyes and covered his face with his hand.
“Yah, I’m doing this for your own good!” Jaejoong said agitatedly. “After that incident at the pizza place last time, you should be thanking me!!”
“Thanking you?!” Heechul laughed incredulously, hitting his arm. “That was your fault!”
“Why are you complaining? It’s not as if you liked going there either. You only like eating at Bo Peep.”
“I’m really getting sick of not being able to go to places because of you. Jaejoong ah, why do you keep hitting on the waitresses at every place we go to?”
“Okay, I’ll stop talking to the waitresses.”
“Didn’t you learn enough after what happened with Yeeun?”
Jaejoong turned to face Heechul very suddenly with a threatening raised finger.
“I did not know she was going to be working with us!” he stressed. Heechul just smirked and crossed his arms, looking out at the road in front of them. Jaejoong went back to the wheel.
“And admit it,” he said sneeringly, stealing another glance. “If you had been the one to have gone up to her that night, you’d be in the same position as me.”
“Yeah, right,” Heechul scoffed.
“You thought Yeeun was attractive.”
“I did not.”
“Yeah, you did. I still remember everything you said that night.”
“Shut up.”
“You said you liked her eyes. You said they were pure and that you liked that in a girl.”
“Whatever. You’re the one who hooked up with her in the end, not me. There are only so many places in town we’re still allowed to go to without having one of your girlfriends tamper with our food.”
Jaejoong again silenced. The light turned green.
“Let’s just go eat,” he said with a resigning sigh.
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CHARACTERS INTRODUCED
Donghae (Super Junior)