Dear Mr. Marcus D'Artagnan: The last Chapter
Title: Dear Mr. Marcus D'Artagnan
Rating: G
Pairing: KyuMin,
Genre: Fluff, Romance
Summary: Sungmin thought he would be forever stuck in an orphanage until this certain man came and decided to send him to college. Inspired from the classic tale, Daddy Long Legs, Sungmin takes over the life of a young college boy who writes to his "sponsor" to talk about his experiences and the new things he's been encountering.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
Disclaimer: The story isn't own by me, though I did edit some part of the story. I hope you would still be able to enjoy it though! Thank you for reading! <3
24th July
Dearest Daddy-Long-Legs,
Isn't it fun to work-or don't you ever do it? It's especially fun when your kind of work is the thing you'd rather do more than anything else in the world. I've been writing as fast as my pen would go every day this summer, and my only quarrel with life is that the days aren't long enough to write all the beautiful and valuable and entertaining thoughts I'm thinking.
I've finished the second draft of my book and am going to begin the third tomorrow morning at half-past seven. It's the most amazing you ever saw-it is, truly. I think of nothing else. I can barely wait in the morning to eat before beginning; then I write and write and write till suddenly I'm so tired that I'm limp all over. Then I go out with Colin (the new sheep dog) and romp through the fields and get a fresh supply of ideas for the next day. It's the most amazing book you ever saw-Oh, pardon-I said that before.
You don't think me conceited, do you, Daddy dear?
I'm not, really, only just now I'm in the enthusiastic stage. Maybe later on I'll get cold and critical and sniffy. No, I'm sure I won't! This time I've written a real book. Just wait till you see it.
I'll try for a minute to talk about something else. I never told you, did I, that Amasai and Carrie got married last May? They are still working here, but so far as I can see it has spoiled them both. She used to laugh when he tramped in mud or dropped ashes on the floor, but now-you should hear her scold! And she doesn't curl her hair any longer. Amasai, who used to be so obliging about beating rugs and carrying wood, grumbles if you suggest such a thing. Also his neckties are quite dingy-black and brown, where they used to be scarlet and purple. I've determined never to marry. It's a deteriorating process, evidently.
There isn't much of any farm news. The animals are all in the best of health. The pigs are unusually fat, the cows seem contented and the hens are laying well. Are you interested in poultry? If so, let me recommend that invaluable little work, 200 Eggs per Hen per Year. I am thinking of starting an incubator next spring and raising broilers. You see I'm settled at Lock Willow permanently. I have decided to stay until I've written 114 novels like Anthony Trollope's mother. Then I shall have completed my life work and can retire and travel.
Mr. Lee, Hyukjae’s father spent last Sunday with us. Fried chicken and ice-cream for dinner, both of which he appeared to appreciate. I was awfully glad to see him; he brought a momentary reminder that the world at large exists. Poor Kangin for he is having a hard time peddling his bonds. The 'Farmers' National' at the Corners wouldn't have anything to do with them in spite of the fact that they pay six per cent. interest and sometimes seven. I think he'll end up by going home to Worcester and taking a job in his father's factory. He's too open and confiding and kind-hearted ever to make a successful financier. But to be the manager of a flourishing overall factory is a very desirable position, don't you think? Just now he turns up his nose at overalls, but he'll come to them.
I hope you appreciate the fact that this is a long letter from a person with writer's cramp. But I still love you, Daddy dear, and I'm very happy. With beautiful scenery all about, and lots to eat and a comfortable four-post bed and a ream of blank paper and a pint of ink-what more does one want in the world?
Yours as always,
Min
PS. The postman arrives with some more news. We are to expect Master Kyuhyun on Friday next to spend a week. That's a very pleasant prospect-only I am afraid my poor book will suffer. Master Kyuhyun is very demanding.
27th August
Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
Where are you, I wonder?
I never know what part of the world you are in, but I hope you're not in New York during this awful weather. I hope you're on a mountain peak (but not in Switzerland; somewhere nearer) looking at the snow and thinking about me. Please be thinking about me. I'm quite lonely and I want to be thought about. Oh, Daddy, I wish I knew you! Then when we were unhappy we could cheer each other up.
I don't think I can stand much more of Lock Willow. I'm thinking of moving. Hyukjae is going to do settlement work in Boston next winter. Don't you think it would be nice for me to go with him, then we could have a studio together? I would write while he SETTLED and we could be together in the evenings. Evenings are very long when there's no one but the Semples and Carrie and Amasai to talk to. I know in advance that you won't like my studio idea. I can read your letter now:
'Mr. Lee Sungmin
I prefer that you remain at Lock Willow.
‘Yours truly,
Mr. Marcus D’Artagnan
But truly, Daddy, I think I shall have to go to Boston. I can't stay here. If something doesn't happen soon, I shall throw myself into the silo pit out of sheer desperation.
Mercy! but it's hot. All the grass is burnt up and the brooks are dry and the roads are dusty. It hasn't rained for weeks and weeks.
This letter sounds as though I had hydrophobia, but I haven't. I just want some family.
Goodbye, my dearest Daddy.
I wish I knew you.
Min
____
Dear Min,
It just might happen.
Sincerely,
Mr. D’Artagnan
____
LOCK WILLOW,
19th September
Dear Daddy,
Something has happened and I need advice. I need it from you, and from nobody else in the world. Wouldn't it be possible for me to see you? It's so much easier to talk than to write; and I'm afraid someone might open the letter. Min
PS. I'm very unhappy.
____
Dear Min,
Please let me know what has been troubling you? Please forgive me if this letter is late. I have been ill the past few days.
Sincerely,
Mr. D’Artagnan
____
LOCK WILLOW, 3rd October
Dear Mr Marcus D’Artagnan,
Your note written in your own hand-and a pretty wobbly hand!-came this morning. I am so sorry that you have been ill; I wouldn't have bothered you with my affairs if I had known. Yes, I will tell you the trouble, but it's sort of complicated to write, and VERY PRIVATE. Please don't keep this letter, but burn it.
Before I begin-here's a cheque for one thousand dollars. It seems funny, doesn't it, for me to be sending a cheque to you? Where do you think I got it?
I've sold my story. It's going to be published serially in seven parts, and then in a book! You might think I'd be wild with joy, but I'm not. I'm entirely apathetic. Of course I'm glad to begin paying you-I owe you over two thousand more. It's coming in instalments. Now don't be horrid, please, about taking it, because it makes me happy to return it. I owe you a great deal more than the mere money, and the rest I will continue to pay all my life in gratitude and affection.
And now, about the other thing; please give me your most worldly advice, whether you think I'll like it or not.
You know that I've always had a very special feeling towards you; you sort of represented my whole family; but you won't mind, will you, if I tell you that I have a very much more special feeling for another man? You can probably guess without much trouble who he is. I suspect that my letters have been very full of Master Kyuhyun for a very long time.
I wish I could make you understand what he is like and how entirely companionable we are. We think the same about everything-I am afraid I have a tendency to make over my ideas to match his! But he is almost always right; he ought to be, you know, for he has nine years' start of me. In other ways, though, he's just an overgrown boy, and he does need looking after-he hasn't any sense about wearing rubbers when it rains. He and I always think the same things are funny, and that is such a lot; it's dreadful when two people's senses of humour are antagonistic. I don't believe there's any bridging that gulf!
And he is-Oh, well! He is just himself, and I miss him, and miss him, and miss him. The whole world seems empty and aching. I hate the moonlight because it's beautiful and he isn't here to see it with me. But maybe you've loved somebody, too, and you know? If you have, I don't need to explain; if you haven't, I can't explain.
Anyway, that's the way I feel-and I've refused to say yes when he asked me if I like him.
I didn't tell him why; I was just dumb and miserable. I couldn't think of anything to say. And now he has gone away imagining that I want to be with Kangin-I don't in the least, I wouldn't think of being with Kangin; he isn't grown up enough. But Master Kyuhyun and I got into a dreadful muddle of misunderstanding and we both hurt each other's feelings. The reason I sent him away was not because I didn't care for him, but because I cared for him so much. I was afraid he would regret it in the future-and I couldn't stand that! It didn't seem right for a person of my lack of antecedents to be part into any such family as his. I never told him about the orphan asylum, and I hated to explain that I didn't know who I was. I may be DREADFUL, you know. And his family are proud-and I'm proud, too!
Also, I felt sort of bound to you. After having been educated to be a writer, I must at least try to be one; it would scarcely be fair to accept your education and then go off and not use it. But now that I am going to be able to pay back the money, I feel that I have partially discharged that debt-besides, I suppose I could keep on being a writer even if I did marry. The two professions are not necessarily exclusive.
I've been thinking very hard about it. Of course he is a Socialist, and he has unconventional ideas; maybe he wouldn't mind being with a proletariat so much as some men might. Perhaps when two people are exactly in accord, and always happy when together and lonely when apart, they ought not to let anything in the world stand between them. Of course I WANT to believe that! But I'd like to get your unemotional opinion. You probably belong to a Family also, and will look at it from a worldly point of view and not just a sympathetic, human point of view-so you see how brave I am to lay it before you.
Suppose I go to him and explain that the trouble isn't Kangin, but the Park Jung Soo Home-would that be a dreadful thing for me to do? It would take a great deal of courage. I'd almost rather be miserable for the rest of my life.
This happened nearly two months ago; I haven't heard a word from him since he was here. I was just getting sort of acclimated to the feeling of a broken heart, when a letter came from Donghae that stirred me all up again. He said-very casually-that 'Uncle Kyuhyun' had been caught out all night in a storm when he was hunting in Canada, and had been ill ever since with pneumonia. And I never knew it. I was feeling hurt because he had just disappeared into blankness without a word. I think he's pretty unhappy, and I know I am!
What seems to you the right thing for me to do?
Min
____
Dear Min,
I hope this won’t come off as a touble, but will it be too much to ask you to meet in person, soon? If it’s okay I plan for us to meet at half-past four the next Wednesday Afternoon. Do you think you would be able to find the way in New York? The address is at the back of the envelope.
Hoping you would say yes,
Mr. D’Artagnan
____
6th October
Dearest Mr. Marcus,
Yes, certainly I'll come-at half-past four next Wednesday afternoon. Of COURSE I can find the way. I've been in New York three times and am not quite a baby. I can't believe that I am really going to see you-I've been just THINKING you so long that it hardly seems as though you are a tangible flesh-and-blood person.
You are awfully good, to bother yourself with me, when you're not strong. Take care and don't catch cold. These fall rains are very damp.
Affectionately,
Min
PS. I've just had an awful thought. Have you a butler? I'm afraid of butlers, and if one opens the door I shall faint upon the step. What can I say to him? You didn't tell me your name. Shall I ask for Mr. D’Artagnan?
Sungmin went tumbling around the bed all night, thinking, imagining about what could happen between him and Mr. Marcus later that day. He wasn’t able to eat much of his breakfast and his hands almost shaking from anxiety. He has been waiting all his life for this.
To meet someone that matters to him.
He woke up early to drive 5 miles to the station and everything he passed by seemed wonderful. He knew that after that day, everything would change. He will never come back at Lock Willow as the same person again. That day could turn out to be the most wonderful day that could ever happen. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be the other way around. The sun came up the right way, the air, the leaves... everything was full of promise.
Finally, he reached the house on Madison Avenue.
It looked so big and brown and a bit intimidating that he didn’t want to go in. To ready himself, he walked around the block to calm himself down. After walking around the area for the 4th time, he bit his lip, took a deep breath and finally rang the bell.
After a few seconds, it opened up and showed a butler who has such a gentle face and could look like someone’s father. Sungmin somehow calmed down and smiled.
“Is this Mr Lee?” the butler asked.
“Yes,” Sungmin answered politely. He kept thinking if he should ask for Mr Marcus but the butler already opened the door wide so he can go in.
As Sungmin got inside, the butler lead him to the drawing room and was asked to stay there. He saw a chair but wouldn’t dare to sit. He can’t help himself. A few seconds from now he’ll finally see him. When the door opened, he almost jumped from surprise but somehow his heart fell when he saw it was the butler again. Sungmin was instructed to step up into the library and he was very happy to oblige. Excitedly, he followed the butler and tried to contain himself.
“He's been very ill. This is the first day he's been allowed to sit up. You'll not stay long enough to excite him?” the butler asked.
“I will make sure, Sir.”
Then the butler knocked and said, “Mr. Lee,” and opened the door for him. Sungmin nodded and went inside.
The soft light of the afternoon sun came in from the windows and lit up the whole room nicely. It was a very sombre, magnificent, man’s sort of room. Then right near the fireplace was a big easy chair and a shining tea table with a smaller chair beside it. Then he saw a pair of feet propped up by pillows and rug over his knees. Sungmin’s heart beat so fast he thought it would jump right out of his chest. As he opened his mouth to talk, the man started to rose up, a bit shaky at first, then steadied himself by the back of the chair and looked at Sungmin without a word.
Sungmin’s eyes widened and it felt like the world stopped moving.
“Master Kyuhyun?”
Kyuhyun laughed softly.
“D-did Mr. Marcus invited you here? To see me?”
Kyuhyun then just smiled and walked his way onto his guest. Sungmin was stuck. He didn’t know if he should move? Or think it was a joke or should he smile because the love of his life is standing right in front of him? So many emotions rushed over to him and his mind can’t decide which one he should cater first. Until Kyuhyun held out his arms and hugged Sungmin tightly.
“Dear little Sungmin, couldn't you guess that I was Daddy-Long-Legs?”
And that was when Sungmin’s mind had finally decided which emotion his whole body should dwell on.
Happiness.
Rating: G
Pairing: KyuMin,
Genre: Fluff, Romance
Summary: Sungmin thought he would be forever stuck in an orphanage until this certain man came and decided to send him to college. Inspired from the classic tale, Daddy Long Legs, Sungmin takes over the life of a young college boy who writes to his "sponsor" to talk about his experiences and the new things he's been encountering.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7
Disclaimer: The story isn't own by me, though I did edit some part of the story. I hope you would still be able to enjoy it though! Thank you for reading! <3
24th July
Dearest Daddy-Long-Legs,
Isn't it fun to work-or don't you ever do it? It's especially fun when your kind of work is the thing you'd rather do more than anything else in the world. I've been writing as fast as my pen would go every day this summer, and my only quarrel with life is that the days aren't long enough to write all the beautiful and valuable and entertaining thoughts I'm thinking.
I've finished the second draft of my book and am going to begin the third tomorrow morning at half-past seven. It's the most amazing you ever saw-it is, truly. I think of nothing else. I can barely wait in the morning to eat before beginning; then I write and write and write till suddenly I'm so tired that I'm limp all over. Then I go out with Colin (the new sheep dog) and romp through the fields and get a fresh supply of ideas for the next day. It's the most amazing book you ever saw-Oh, pardon-I said that before.
You don't think me conceited, do you, Daddy dear?
I'm not, really, only just now I'm in the enthusiastic stage. Maybe later on I'll get cold and critical and sniffy. No, I'm sure I won't! This time I've written a real book. Just wait till you see it.
I'll try for a minute to talk about something else. I never told you, did I, that Amasai and Carrie got married last May? They are still working here, but so far as I can see it has spoiled them both. She used to laugh when he tramped in mud or dropped ashes on the floor, but now-you should hear her scold! And she doesn't curl her hair any longer. Amasai, who used to be so obliging about beating rugs and carrying wood, grumbles if you suggest such a thing. Also his neckties are quite dingy-black and brown, where they used to be scarlet and purple. I've determined never to marry. It's a deteriorating process, evidently.
There isn't much of any farm news. The animals are all in the best of health. The pigs are unusually fat, the cows seem contented and the hens are laying well. Are you interested in poultry? If so, let me recommend that invaluable little work, 200 Eggs per Hen per Year. I am thinking of starting an incubator next spring and raising broilers. You see I'm settled at Lock Willow permanently. I have decided to stay until I've written 114 novels like Anthony Trollope's mother. Then I shall have completed my life work and can retire and travel.
Mr. Lee, Hyukjae’s father spent last Sunday with us. Fried chicken and ice-cream for dinner, both of which he appeared to appreciate. I was awfully glad to see him; he brought a momentary reminder that the world at large exists. Poor Kangin for he is having a hard time peddling his bonds. The 'Farmers' National' at the Corners wouldn't have anything to do with them in spite of the fact that they pay six per cent. interest and sometimes seven. I think he'll end up by going home to Worcester and taking a job in his father's factory. He's too open and confiding and kind-hearted ever to make a successful financier. But to be the manager of a flourishing overall factory is a very desirable position, don't you think? Just now he turns up his nose at overalls, but he'll come to them.
I hope you appreciate the fact that this is a long letter from a person with writer's cramp. But I still love you, Daddy dear, and I'm very happy. With beautiful scenery all about, and lots to eat and a comfortable four-post bed and a ream of blank paper and a pint of ink-what more does one want in the world?
Yours as always,
Min
PS. The postman arrives with some more news. We are to expect Master Kyuhyun on Friday next to spend a week. That's a very pleasant prospect-only I am afraid my poor book will suffer. Master Kyuhyun is very demanding.
27th August
Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
Where are you, I wonder?
I never know what part of the world you are in, but I hope you're not in New York during this awful weather. I hope you're on a mountain peak (but not in Switzerland; somewhere nearer) looking at the snow and thinking about me. Please be thinking about me. I'm quite lonely and I want to be thought about. Oh, Daddy, I wish I knew you! Then when we were unhappy we could cheer each other up.
I don't think I can stand much more of Lock Willow. I'm thinking of moving. Hyukjae is going to do settlement work in Boston next winter. Don't you think it would be nice for me to go with him, then we could have a studio together? I would write while he SETTLED and we could be together in the evenings. Evenings are very long when there's no one but the Semples and Carrie and Amasai to talk to. I know in advance that you won't like my studio idea. I can read your letter now:
'Mr. Lee Sungmin
I prefer that you remain at Lock Willow.
‘Yours truly,
Mr. Marcus D’Artagnan
But truly, Daddy, I think I shall have to go to Boston. I can't stay here. If something doesn't happen soon, I shall throw myself into the silo pit out of sheer desperation.
Mercy! but it's hot. All the grass is burnt up and the brooks are dry and the roads are dusty. It hasn't rained for weeks and weeks.
This letter sounds as though I had hydrophobia, but I haven't. I just want some family.
Goodbye, my dearest Daddy.
I wish I knew you.
Min
____
Dear Min,
It just might happen.
Sincerely,
Mr. D’Artagnan
____
LOCK WILLOW,
19th September
Dear Daddy,
Something has happened and I need advice. I need it from you, and from nobody else in the world. Wouldn't it be possible for me to see you? It's so much easier to talk than to write; and I'm afraid someone might open the letter. Min
PS. I'm very unhappy.
____
Dear Min,
Please let me know what has been troubling you? Please forgive me if this letter is late. I have been ill the past few days.
Sincerely,
Mr. D’Artagnan
____
LOCK WILLOW, 3rd October
Dear Mr Marcus D’Artagnan,
Your note written in your own hand-and a pretty wobbly hand!-came this morning. I am so sorry that you have been ill; I wouldn't have bothered you with my affairs if I had known. Yes, I will tell you the trouble, but it's sort of complicated to write, and VERY PRIVATE. Please don't keep this letter, but burn it.
Before I begin-here's a cheque for one thousand dollars. It seems funny, doesn't it, for me to be sending a cheque to you? Where do you think I got it?
I've sold my story. It's going to be published serially in seven parts, and then in a book! You might think I'd be wild with joy, but I'm not. I'm entirely apathetic. Of course I'm glad to begin paying you-I owe you over two thousand more. It's coming in instalments. Now don't be horrid, please, about taking it, because it makes me happy to return it. I owe you a great deal more than the mere money, and the rest I will continue to pay all my life in gratitude and affection.
And now, about the other thing; please give me your most worldly advice, whether you think I'll like it or not.
You know that I've always had a very special feeling towards you; you sort of represented my whole family; but you won't mind, will you, if I tell you that I have a very much more special feeling for another man? You can probably guess without much trouble who he is. I suspect that my letters have been very full of Master Kyuhyun for a very long time.
I wish I could make you understand what he is like and how entirely companionable we are. We think the same about everything-I am afraid I have a tendency to make over my ideas to match his! But he is almost always right; he ought to be, you know, for he has nine years' start of me. In other ways, though, he's just an overgrown boy, and he does need looking after-he hasn't any sense about wearing rubbers when it rains. He and I always think the same things are funny, and that is such a lot; it's dreadful when two people's senses of humour are antagonistic. I don't believe there's any bridging that gulf!
And he is-Oh, well! He is just himself, and I miss him, and miss him, and miss him. The whole world seems empty and aching. I hate the moonlight because it's beautiful and he isn't here to see it with me. But maybe you've loved somebody, too, and you know? If you have, I don't need to explain; if you haven't, I can't explain.
Anyway, that's the way I feel-and I've refused to say yes when he asked me if I like him.
I didn't tell him why; I was just dumb and miserable. I couldn't think of anything to say. And now he has gone away imagining that I want to be with Kangin-I don't in the least, I wouldn't think of being with Kangin; he isn't grown up enough. But Master Kyuhyun and I got into a dreadful muddle of misunderstanding and we both hurt each other's feelings. The reason I sent him away was not because I didn't care for him, but because I cared for him so much. I was afraid he would regret it in the future-and I couldn't stand that! It didn't seem right for a person of my lack of antecedents to be part into any such family as his. I never told him about the orphan asylum, and I hated to explain that I didn't know who I was. I may be DREADFUL, you know. And his family are proud-and I'm proud, too!
Also, I felt sort of bound to you. After having been educated to be a writer, I must at least try to be one; it would scarcely be fair to accept your education and then go off and not use it. But now that I am going to be able to pay back the money, I feel that I have partially discharged that debt-besides, I suppose I could keep on being a writer even if I did marry. The two professions are not necessarily exclusive.
I've been thinking very hard about it. Of course he is a Socialist, and he has unconventional ideas; maybe he wouldn't mind being with a proletariat so much as some men might. Perhaps when two people are exactly in accord, and always happy when together and lonely when apart, they ought not to let anything in the world stand between them. Of course I WANT to believe that! But I'd like to get your unemotional opinion. You probably belong to a Family also, and will look at it from a worldly point of view and not just a sympathetic, human point of view-so you see how brave I am to lay it before you.
Suppose I go to him and explain that the trouble isn't Kangin, but the Park Jung Soo Home-would that be a dreadful thing for me to do? It would take a great deal of courage. I'd almost rather be miserable for the rest of my life.
This happened nearly two months ago; I haven't heard a word from him since he was here. I was just getting sort of acclimated to the feeling of a broken heart, when a letter came from Donghae that stirred me all up again. He said-very casually-that 'Uncle Kyuhyun' had been caught out all night in a storm when he was hunting in Canada, and had been ill ever since with pneumonia. And I never knew it. I was feeling hurt because he had just disappeared into blankness without a word. I think he's pretty unhappy, and I know I am!
What seems to you the right thing for me to do?
Min
____
Dear Min,
I hope this won’t come off as a touble, but will it be too much to ask you to meet in person, soon? If it’s okay I plan for us to meet at half-past four the next Wednesday Afternoon. Do you think you would be able to find the way in New York? The address is at the back of the envelope.
Hoping you would say yes,
Mr. D’Artagnan
____
6th October
Dearest Mr. Marcus,
Yes, certainly I'll come-at half-past four next Wednesday afternoon. Of COURSE I can find the way. I've been in New York three times and am not quite a baby. I can't believe that I am really going to see you-I've been just THINKING you so long that it hardly seems as though you are a tangible flesh-and-blood person.
You are awfully good, to bother yourself with me, when you're not strong. Take care and don't catch cold. These fall rains are very damp.
Affectionately,
Min
PS. I've just had an awful thought. Have you a butler? I'm afraid of butlers, and if one opens the door I shall faint upon the step. What can I say to him? You didn't tell me your name. Shall I ask for Mr. D’Artagnan?
Sungmin went tumbling around the bed all night, thinking, imagining about what could happen between him and Mr. Marcus later that day. He wasn’t able to eat much of his breakfast and his hands almost shaking from anxiety. He has been waiting all his life for this.
To meet someone that matters to him.
He woke up early to drive 5 miles to the station and everything he passed by seemed wonderful. He knew that after that day, everything would change. He will never come back at Lock Willow as the same person again. That day could turn out to be the most wonderful day that could ever happen. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be the other way around. The sun came up the right way, the air, the leaves... everything was full of promise.
Finally, he reached the house on Madison Avenue.
It looked so big and brown and a bit intimidating that he didn’t want to go in. To ready himself, he walked around the block to calm himself down. After walking around the area for the 4th time, he bit his lip, took a deep breath and finally rang the bell.
After a few seconds, it opened up and showed a butler who has such a gentle face and could look like someone’s father. Sungmin somehow calmed down and smiled.
“Is this Mr Lee?” the butler asked.
“Yes,” Sungmin answered politely. He kept thinking if he should ask for Mr Marcus but the butler already opened the door wide so he can go in.
As Sungmin got inside, the butler lead him to the drawing room and was asked to stay there. He saw a chair but wouldn’t dare to sit. He can’t help himself. A few seconds from now he’ll finally see him. When the door opened, he almost jumped from surprise but somehow his heart fell when he saw it was the butler again. Sungmin was instructed to step up into the library and he was very happy to oblige. Excitedly, he followed the butler and tried to contain himself.
“He's been very ill. This is the first day he's been allowed to sit up. You'll not stay long enough to excite him?” the butler asked.
“I will make sure, Sir.”
Then the butler knocked and said, “Mr. Lee,” and opened the door for him. Sungmin nodded and went inside.
The soft light of the afternoon sun came in from the windows and lit up the whole room nicely. It was a very sombre, magnificent, man’s sort of room. Then right near the fireplace was a big easy chair and a shining tea table with a smaller chair beside it. Then he saw a pair of feet propped up by pillows and rug over his knees. Sungmin’s heart beat so fast he thought it would jump right out of his chest. As he opened his mouth to talk, the man started to rose up, a bit shaky at first, then steadied himself by the back of the chair and looked at Sungmin without a word.
Sungmin’s eyes widened and it felt like the world stopped moving.
“Master Kyuhyun?”
Kyuhyun laughed softly.
“D-did Mr. Marcus invited you here? To see me?”
Kyuhyun then just smiled and walked his way onto his guest. Sungmin was stuck. He didn’t know if he should move? Or think it was a joke or should he smile because the love of his life is standing right in front of him? So many emotions rushed over to him and his mind can’t decide which one he should cater first. Until Kyuhyun held out his arms and hugged Sungmin tightly.
“Dear little Sungmin, couldn't you guess that I was Daddy-Long-Legs?”
And that was when Sungmin’s mind had finally decided which emotion his whole body should dwell on.
Happiness.