Blood Brothers II Chapter 3
(A/N: After surviving two very odd Super Junior dreams--one where Kangin beat me with a bag of peanut m&m's after I told him to stop making fun of Hangeng for being Chinese and another where I was an elf with Sungmin and we had a horse named Siwon and a hound named Donghae and we fought orcs that turned out to be construction workers--I have finished the next chapter. Yeah...happier moments in this one. :) Oh I do love YeWook, so there is a nice bit of it in this chapter as well. :)
Title: Blood Brothers II
Pairing: KyuTeukChul, HanChul, YeWook, EunHae, SiChulfriendship, possible SungMi (Is that the name for Zhou Mi x Sungmin pairing?) possible other pairings in the future.
Rating: M
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Genre: romance, action, thriller
Summary: The cycle of revenge is never-ending, unless someone learns to forgive.
Chapter 2 ---- Chapter 4
---
Yesung had thought about the possible reasons that Ryeowook would want to head to the hospital and they’d ranged from ‘brother with acute appendicitis’ to ‘cousin with a broken leg’ with ‘something could be wrong with Ryeowook’ somewhere in between. He knew that if he’d just hacked into Ryeowook’s personal files like he’d wanted to at the beginning of his interest in the boy, he’d probably know the answer. But he’d been too much of a law-abiding citizen to use his computer skills for evil so he was left confused and curious as they walked into the building.
He didn’t know if Ryeowook wanted him to follow or not but he hadn’t told him to leave, so he trailed behind him obediently, reading the signs they passed.
After three floors Yesung found himself standing in front of a door numbered 305. He glanced up at the sign on the nurse desk a yard or so away.
They were in the cancer ward.
Yesung swallowed, looking uncomfortable as Ryeowook knocked and then entered.
“Wookie!”
“Umma, why are you here so late?”
Yesung slipped in behind the younger boy, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible as he watched the interaction between mother and son. He immediately noticed that Ryeowook took after his mother. In fact, if Ryeowook was a girl, Yesung figured he would look just like her.
She was hugging her son, fussing over his jacket and tie and taking the briefcase out of his hands and placing it on the table beside the hospital bed. She looked pale and thin and a little weak, but she was up and walking and lively.
Yesung glanced at the bed.
At first Yesung thought the man was Ryeowook’s grandfather. He looked old and tired and weak, and his eyes fluttered open before closing again, even as he smiled softly. He was hooked up to several IVs and there was an oxygen mask around his face.
“Appa.” Ryeowook greeted, and his voice sounded strained, “Are you feeling better?”
Appa? How could this old man be Ryeowook’s father? Yesung looked him over again. The wrinkles covering his face look like they’d come all in a short period of time, and his graying hair was thin and balding. His eyes-when opened-were weary of the world and held only a faint spark of vitality.
Yesung felt even more uncomfortable, and he took a step back, ready to leave the room and let Ryeowook speak with his parents in private. He bumped against the door on his way out, however, and all three turned to look at him.
Ryeowook seemed to notice him for the first time and frowned, but his mother smiled softly, “Ryeowook, who is this?”
Ryeowook didn’t look as if he quite knew how to explain. Yesung bowed hurriedly to the two elders, “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself when I came in. I’m Kim Jongwoon, a colleague of Ryeowook-ssi.”
“Oh?” His mother smiled softly, looking to her son and back to Yesung. “I see. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I’m sorry to have intruded. I’ll wait outside.” Yesung bowed again, hastily, and hurried out of the room, barely avoiding a collision with the nurse heading inside with a tray of medications and a bowl of fruit.
He stood awkwardly in the hallway, looking from one end to the other and avoiding the curious glances of nurses and patients alike. He knew that he didn’t know Ryeowook well enough to be meeting his parents like this-let alone visiting his dying father in a hospital. Was this the reason Ryeowook was always so uptight? The hospital bills were probably expensive, and Yumyeong Industries didn’t pay him as much as they should have.
Yesung had finally decided to head downstairs and drive home when the door opened and Ryeowook stepped out. The two stared at one another for a moment.
“My father fell asleep.” Ryeowook mumbled as a way of explanation.
“I’m sorry.” It was all Yesung could think to say.
“I don’t want your pity.” Ryeowook snapped in defense, bristling and bitter.
Yesung shrugged, “Then I won’ give it. Do you want to go and get something to eat? You look hungry.”
Ryeowook stared at him for a few moments before he seemed to deflate, turning back into the exhausted, overworked and underpaid secretary that Yesung knew him as. He nodded, “…ok…”
---
When Siwon got home that night, he went through the tasks he’d performed every night since he was seven without thinking about them. He went to his mother’s room and kissed her goodnight, then went down to the kitchen and grabbed a glass and the milk carton and poured himself a cup.
Tonight, however, he didn’t go upstairs after draining the glass in a few gulps to take a shower. He simply leaned against the counter in the deserted kitchen and stared down at the half-empty glass of milk.
Kangin and Sungmin knew that he’d operated on Kim Heechul.
He swallowed, pushing the glass with his index finger. It slid a few centimeters on the marble countertop and the milk inside sloshed from one side of the glass to the other, threatening to spill over the top.
Yes, he’d saved Heechul’s life. When the Chinese men had come in, screaming at him in Mandarin-that he thankfully understood-he’d looked at Xi Che-Heechul-and recognized his hyung from so long ago. Having a photographic memory made it difficult to forget anyone, especially his favorite hyung.
And how could he have said no when that hyung was dying in front of him?
Siwon quickly assessed the situation, seeing the gaping, bloody hole in Heechul’s chest. “Get me a stretcher. Hurry!” He snapped at one of the nurses. He looked to the Chinese man that had carried him in-not the younger one that was crying and sobbing in incoherent Mandarin-but the tall one that seemed the most calm out of the two. “What blood type is he?”
There was another man with them, but he looked like he was breaking down. He was trying to comfort the sobbing boy-in Korean, he didn’t seem to speak Chinese-but tears were falling down his own cheeks and Siwon knew that he wasn’t going to be of any help from this point onward.
“AB.”
Siwon nodded, “We’re taking him in for surgery.” He paused, noticing that the tall Chinese man was holding his side. “You should get looked at as well.”
“Xi Che first.” The tall man snapped out, gritting his teeth to hide his pain.
Xi Che? Wasn’t that the name of Leeteuk’s girlfriend? Gam Xi Che? But this was Heechul. Kim Heechul. Siwon had known it in an instant. He was still trying to get over the shock of seeing his hyung-bleeding out in front of his very eyes-and trying to act like a professional doctor to save said hyung.
He simply smiled softly in that calming way of his. “I’ll do the surgery myself. He’s in good hands.” Then he turned away and headed toward the room where they were prepping Heechul for surgery.
He’d never gotten an answer as to why his Heechul hyung was there. He’d spent hours-he didn’t remember how many-in surgery and had come out exhausted. At some point between shifts and after signing off that Heechul was stable, the Chinese men-and the one Korean boy-disappeared with his hyung before he had a chance to speak with him.
At first, after the incident, he’d figured that it wasn’t Kim Heechul at all. He’d probably just been so hopeful over the past few years that he’d seen a resemblance and immediately suspected it was him. Then he’d learned of the betrayal, of Yumyeong Industry’s destruction, and he’d put two and two together.
He’d realized the voice in the confessional had been Heechul’s. Kim Heechul was Gam Xi Che. His hyung had made Leeteuk hyung and Kyuhyun fall in love with him and had then crushed their hearts.
His hyung was alive. He’d kept him alive…and his hyung had wanted revenge.
He simply didn’t know why.
Siwon grabbed his glass of milk and finished it off, letting out a sigh as he made no move to leave the kitchen. If he was going to get to the bottom of this, he was going to have to look into his father’s suicide.
But if he found out where Kim Heechul was, the reason behind the revenge…would he tell the others? What if it was something bad? What if Kim Heechul was a bad person? Or worse, what if Leeteuk and Kyuhyun’s-and his-father’s were bad people? What then?
Kangin and Sungmin would want to hurt his hyung, wouldn’t they? They would want revenge for Leeteuk and Kyuhyun.
Siwon couldn’t let them hurt his hyung.
Not when he’d finally found him alive again.
He would, however, get to the bottom of this.
---
The classroom was silent, save for the scribbling of pens and the shuffling of paper. Heechul continued scanning the essay in front of him, not looking up at the class as they continued taking their pop quiz.
From the disparaged groans and disbelieving looks he’d gotten from the students while passing out the quiz, he figured that most of them thought he’d been kidding about it. Well, they were in for a rude awakening. Kim Heechul did not joke about pop quizzes.
He did, however, take a sickening joy out of watching young, promising students tremble in fear at the thought of what he could pull on them. In the classroom Kim Heechul was king…and he was a very unpredictable one. He rather enjoyed that part.
But he was getting slightly fed up with the general populace of the classroom.
After grading several of the papers the night before-Zhou Mi had dragged him out of the office and into bed before he could get halfway through-he’d realized that the students weren’t taking this as seriously as he’d thought.
He’d agreed to teach this course-despite that it was advanced and he wasn’t certain if he could do it as an associate professor-because he was passionate about literature and figured that the students taking his class would be as well.
Three fourths of the students that were there came to look at his ass. Of the fourth left, half of them believed that they could get by with just being smart and bullshitting what they didn’t know because it had worked in the past.
If people thought Kim Heechul was a frightening businessman, he was an even more demanding and intimidating professor.
He didn’t look up from the essay he was grading as he spoke. “If you keep looking over at Chen Li Juan, Wong Hong Hui, I will take it as cheating rather than shameless flirting. We aren’t in high school anymore. You can confess your undying love and/or lust later.”
The soft murmurings from a few feet away paused, and there was the sound of mocking laughter from the other students before the silence resumed. Heechul went back to his papers, skimming a few lines. The paper he was grading had been written the night before, he could tell. He stared down at the typed sentences through half-lidded eyes.
Some students thought they could make a paper look like it had been well planned out and written, but professors had an innate ability to spot these things. They could also spot plagiarism, bullshitting, and the difference between a 1” and 1 1/3” margin without using a ruler.
The scribbling of pens brought him out of his thoughts. A second later he was distracted again, leaning back in his seat as he remembered another time he’d heard pen against paper.
“What are you doing?” Heechul poked his head around the corner of the house and stared at the boy sitting next to the koi pond. “Ya, I asked you a question.”
Siwon blinked, looking up at the older boy. A bright smile spread from ear to ear as he watched him come closer. “Hyung!”
Heechul sat down on a large rock beside Siwon, looking pointedly at the pad of paper and pencil in Siwon’s hands. “So what are you doing?”
“I wanted to draw a picture for my mom. It's her birthday tomorrow.” Siwon nodded enthusiastically, “And the koi fish in this pond are her favorite. Do you like them hyung?” he held out his sketch proudly.
“What are those? Tumors?”
“They’re fins!”
Heechul scoffed, but looked the picture over thoughtfully, “The fish are just swimming around on a piece of paper.”
“Well I can’t draw the water. It’s clear.” Siwon protested.
Heechul grabbed the sketchpad and began scribbling away madly. “You can make the ripples, and the edges of the pond. And you can shade.”
“Shade?”
“See? It makes the water look darker in certain places so that the fish don’t look like they’re swimming around on paper.”
“Wow hyung, you’re really good!” Siwon grinned brightly, “Hyung is the best!”
“I am, aren’t I?”
Heechul smirked to himself before looking down at the paper he’d been grading in horror. There was now a koi fish doodled in red ink swimming across the edge of the paper and part of the concluding paragraph. “Shit.” He cursed softly in Korean before clearing his throat. What was he going to do now? The student would probably think something-especially if it was a girl.
He quickly scanned the last few lines before writing in a comment. I drew this fish to make something about this paper worthwhile to look at. Next time try to actually read the works you’re supposed to be summarizing. There, a painful and cruel remark to offset the pretty doddle. Heechul turned to another essay, thoroughly pleased with himself.
Destroying the hopes and dreams of young, promising students was his favorite part of being a teacher.
That and because he loved literature…but mostly the power. Heechul sat back in his chair and continued to scan the classroom for cheaters, smiling to himself and drinking his cinnamon dolce latte along the way.
---
“Hyuuuuuung,” Kyuhyun whined, face pressed against the desk as he stared balefully at the man sitting beside him. “Can we please go and eat?”
“Kyuhyun-ah, look over the files one more time. Then we’ll have Kangin order out for us.”
Kyuhyun groaned, “Nothing is going to change since the last time I stared at those numbers, hyung. Yumyeong is going bankrupt and we don’t have the necessary funds to revive it. We should just give up.”
“This is our fathers’ company. We can’t just let it go. There are people who need these jobs, Kyuhyun.” Leeteuk sighed, reaching out and ruffling the younger man’s hair. Kyuhyun lifted a hand to smack him away but it was halfhearted and Kyuhyun simply closed his eyes with an annoyed sigh.
Leeteuk went back to skimming the files.
“Hyuuuuuuuuuuung.”
Leeteuk sighed, “What?”
“What are we going to do if we can’t get a sponsor?” Kyuhyun whispered, “We won’t have to fire everyone, will we?”
Leeteuk looked from Kyuhyun to Ryeowook, who was sitting at a computer desk a few feet away. The young secretary looked up and met Leeteuk’s gaze before quickly looking back down at his work. Leeteuk smiled to himself. “I have enough money in my personal account to pay the workers for two more months.”
“I probably have some too,” Kyuhyun looked happy to be able to contribute. “I can look into my accounts-”
“Save that money.” Leeteuk murmured, scanning his computer screen. “We may need to use it for bribes.” He didn’t like the idea of using brides at all, but he knew that it was needed if they were going to keep the company afloat.
“Um.”
Both Kyuhyun and Leeteuk turned at the sound of Ryeowook’s voice. The secretary cleared his throat and continued, “Why don’t you use the emergency funds?”
“What? We don’t have an emergency fund account.”
“But money was just transferred into it last night.” Ryeowook looked at them in confusion. “Every month there’s been a deposit.”
“What are you talking about?” Kyuhyun had stood up from where he’d been slouched over the desk. He eyed Ryeowook warily, “Show me the account.”
Ryeowook nodded, looking confused and a little nervous as he opened up an account file on the computer and turned the screen for Kyuhyun and Leeteuk to survey. Kyuhyun’s eyes skimmed the report, “There’s enough money to help hold up the company for the rest of the year.”
Leeteuk stared at the numbers on the screen as hope bubbled up inside him. With this money he would be able to save the company. Even if it wasn’t enough to get them out of bankruptcy, it would pay for the workers’ wages for the rest of the year, allowing Leeteuk to use any money the company earned to keep it going.
Someone had saved their company. But who could it have been?
“Do you know anyone that can hack into the account and find its source, Ryeowook-ssi?” Kyuhyun asked. His curiosity was just as bad as Leeteuk’s, and insatiable. Who would be giving them this much money? He had to know.
Ryeowook paused. “…yes, I can get someone to come in within an hour.”
---
“Where’s gege?” Henry asked, looking around the apartment expectantly. He placed his violin case against the umbrella stand and headed further into the living room.
“At school,” Hangeng answered, watching as Zhou Mi mixed himself a drink at their bar.
Henry sighed, sitting down on the couch, “Zhou Mi gege, make me something.”
“You’re too young.” Hangeng protested.
“Alright.” Zhou Mi agreed, looking over Henry’s head to meet Hangeng’s gaze. He winked and Hangeng relaxed, nodding sullenly as Henry cheered.
“Has gege been doing ok lately?” Henry finally asked as Zhou Mi placed a colorful drink in front of him.
“He’s recovering well, and he has a follow up appointment tomorrow.” Zhou Mi answered, “But he still won’t take his pain medication without a fight.”
“We should get him to the house. Mama can make him take his pills.” Henry smiled cheerfully before taking a sip of his drink. He paused, turning to Zhou Mi with a pout, “There’s no alcohol in here!”
Zhou Mi smiled apologetically over the rim of his scotch glass before he looked down at the creature scuttling across the sleeve of his jacket. He then let out a high-pitched scream as he leapt backwards, throwing off his jacket and almost toppling over the back of the couch. “A spider!”
“Spider?” Henry wrinkled his nose in disgust, but his reaction was minor compared to Zhou Mi’s flailing.
Hangeng sighed, rolling up his newspaper and heading for Zhou Mi’s discarded jacket to see the small creature crawling out from under the sleeve. He did away with it quickly, looking up at Zhou Mi with an amused smile, “It’s gone.”
Zhou Mi cleared his throat, looking sheepish and trying to hide his embarrassment. He didn't know quite when his fear of spiders and other many-legged creatures had begun. He did know one thing, however. From before he could remember, Heechul and Hangeng had always been protecting him from spiders.
“Seasonings, it’s just a spider!” Heechul huffed, staring down at the rather large arachnid moving across the back porch. He continued sipping his lemonade, cooling himself with the makeshift fan he’d folded out of a piece of construction paper.
“Get it away! Get it away!” Young Zhou Mi was near tears as he hid behind the shorter boy.
Heechul let out an exasperated sigh as he placed his lemonade down on the porch and took a step toward the eight-legged menace. “Baby, it’s not that bad. Really, just step on it like this-” He slammed his sandaled foot down atop the spider and there was a moment of silence before millions of baby spiders began pouring out from beneath his foot. “Oh fuck, it had an egg sac! HANNIE SAVE US!”
Hangeng came running out of the house to see Heechul throwing his shoe across the yard, dancing around the porch as he tried to avoid the small invaders. Zhou Mi let out a girlish scream and was leaping up onto the porch swing to escape.
Hangeng acted quickly, grabbing a can from near the door. “I have the bug spray!”
“GET IT GET IT!” Heechul ordered, pulling off his pants, “Ack, they’re on me!” He danced around the yard in his boxers, scrambling over to the swing where Zhou Mi was seeking refuge.
“It’s coming toward me! Save me ge!” And Zhou Mi began climbing up Heechul as if he were a pole. Unfortunately he was a short, non-muscular pole and they both fell off the back of the swing. Heechul smacked his head against the wooden boards and groaned, feeling the gangling weight of Zhou Mi atop him.
The sound of Hangeng spraying the baby spiders with the bug killer was the only sound other than his own labored breathing before Zhou Mi came to his senses and scrambled off of him, “Ge! Are you alright?”
“I think my head is bleeding…”
“AH! The spiders can smell blood from a mile away and will follow the scent to suck out all your insides! No wait, it’s not blood they can smell, but fear! Yeah, fear! They’re coming for us ge!”
---
Yesung had been ecstatic at getting a phone call from Ryeowook. He’d felt that they’d become closer since the hospital incident and then the date afterwards-it was a date, no matter what anyone said. They went out to eat, just two boys. It was a date.
He was sorely disappointed, however, when Ryeowook informed him that he needed him to come into the office to look over a file. Ryeowook was too innocent to make ‘looking over a file’ a sexual innuendo so that meant this was work related business only.
He arrived at Yumyeong not long after he’d gotten the call. No one even checked his I.D. as he walked through the front doors. He figured that since he was always there everyone just assumed he was a normal employee.
He found Ryeowook and the two directors’ sons crowded around a computer screen. The three looked up when he entered and he gave a stony nod, a smile unable to come to his lips. He figured that the other two didn’t want to see him smiling anyway. He felt awkward in the presence of the directors’ sons. The eldest seemed alright-calm and he smiled. The younger boy looked angry and annoyed and made the room feel tense.
Yesung simply cleared his throat, “Ryeowook-ssi said there was something you wanted me to look at?”
“Come over here and hack into this file. We want you to track the money to its original source.”
Yesung nodded, heading to the desk they were all standing around-the younger one, Cho Kyuhyun, was sitting in the chair-and looked at the file they were pointing to. “A bank transaction?”
“Can you do it or not?” Kyuhyun snapped.
“Kyuhyun-ah.” Leeteuk reprimanded, giving him a disapproving look. Kyuhyun huffed but made no other comment as Yesung leaned over and began typing away madly.
Kyuhyun stared impatiently at the back of Yesung’s head, drumming his fingers on the desk. Leeteuk grabbed his hand to still it, pursing his lips and sending him a warning look. Kyuhyun pouted and merely continued to stare.
Ryeowook watched Yesung’s fingers skimming the keyboard. They were long and thin, slender. Skilled as they darted up and down . Ryeowook suddenly felt a blush rise to his cheeks and he wasn’t even certain why. He coughed into his hand just as Yesung spoke.
“ I found it. Whoever created this account didn’t want it to be found. All the safeguards and firewalls…I’m still not certain if I tripped something or not. They may have been alerted to what I was doing.”
“Well, who is the account wired to?” Kyuhyun grunted, trying to see around Yesung’s hair.
Yesung stared at the account number. Shit. He hurriedly tried to cover the name up-and maybe delete the information altogether-as discreetly as possible but Kyuhyun had shoved him aside before he could do so and was staring at the file.
“A Lee Donghae…”
---
(A/N: That spider scene comes from a personal experience. It's not a pleasant site. True facts. >.>)
Title: Blood Brothers II
Pairing: KyuTeukChul, HanChul, YeWook, EunHae, SiChulfriendship, possible SungMi (Is that the name for Zhou Mi x Sungmin pairing?) possible other pairings in the future.
Rating: M
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Genre: romance, action, thriller
Summary: The cycle of revenge is never-ending, unless someone learns to forgive.
Chapter 2 ---- Chapter 4
---
Yesung had thought about the possible reasons that Ryeowook would want to head to the hospital and they’d ranged from ‘brother with acute appendicitis’ to ‘cousin with a broken leg’ with ‘something could be wrong with Ryeowook’ somewhere in between. He knew that if he’d just hacked into Ryeowook’s personal files like he’d wanted to at the beginning of his interest in the boy, he’d probably know the answer. But he’d been too much of a law-abiding citizen to use his computer skills for evil so he was left confused and curious as they walked into the building.
He didn’t know if Ryeowook wanted him to follow or not but he hadn’t told him to leave, so he trailed behind him obediently, reading the signs they passed.
After three floors Yesung found himself standing in front of a door numbered 305. He glanced up at the sign on the nurse desk a yard or so away.
They were in the cancer ward.
Yesung swallowed, looking uncomfortable as Ryeowook knocked and then entered.
“Wookie!”
“Umma, why are you here so late?”
Yesung slipped in behind the younger boy, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible as he watched the interaction between mother and son. He immediately noticed that Ryeowook took after his mother. In fact, if Ryeowook was a girl, Yesung figured he would look just like her.
She was hugging her son, fussing over his jacket and tie and taking the briefcase out of his hands and placing it on the table beside the hospital bed. She looked pale and thin and a little weak, but she was up and walking and lively.
Yesung glanced at the bed.
At first Yesung thought the man was Ryeowook’s grandfather. He looked old and tired and weak, and his eyes fluttered open before closing again, even as he smiled softly. He was hooked up to several IVs and there was an oxygen mask around his face.
“Appa.” Ryeowook greeted, and his voice sounded strained, “Are you feeling better?”
Appa? How could this old man be Ryeowook’s father? Yesung looked him over again. The wrinkles covering his face look like they’d come all in a short period of time, and his graying hair was thin and balding. His eyes-when opened-were weary of the world and held only a faint spark of vitality.
Yesung felt even more uncomfortable, and he took a step back, ready to leave the room and let Ryeowook speak with his parents in private. He bumped against the door on his way out, however, and all three turned to look at him.
Ryeowook seemed to notice him for the first time and frowned, but his mother smiled softly, “Ryeowook, who is this?”
Ryeowook didn’t look as if he quite knew how to explain. Yesung bowed hurriedly to the two elders, “I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself when I came in. I’m Kim Jongwoon, a colleague of Ryeowook-ssi.”
“Oh?” His mother smiled softly, looking to her son and back to Yesung. “I see. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I’m sorry to have intruded. I’ll wait outside.” Yesung bowed again, hastily, and hurried out of the room, barely avoiding a collision with the nurse heading inside with a tray of medications and a bowl of fruit.
He stood awkwardly in the hallway, looking from one end to the other and avoiding the curious glances of nurses and patients alike. He knew that he didn’t know Ryeowook well enough to be meeting his parents like this-let alone visiting his dying father in a hospital. Was this the reason Ryeowook was always so uptight? The hospital bills were probably expensive, and Yumyeong Industries didn’t pay him as much as they should have.
Yesung had finally decided to head downstairs and drive home when the door opened and Ryeowook stepped out. The two stared at one another for a moment.
“My father fell asleep.” Ryeowook mumbled as a way of explanation.
“I’m sorry.” It was all Yesung could think to say.
“I don’t want your pity.” Ryeowook snapped in defense, bristling and bitter.
Yesung shrugged, “Then I won’ give it. Do you want to go and get something to eat? You look hungry.”
Ryeowook stared at him for a few moments before he seemed to deflate, turning back into the exhausted, overworked and underpaid secretary that Yesung knew him as. He nodded, “…ok…”
---
When Siwon got home that night, he went through the tasks he’d performed every night since he was seven without thinking about them. He went to his mother’s room and kissed her goodnight, then went down to the kitchen and grabbed a glass and the milk carton and poured himself a cup.
Tonight, however, he didn’t go upstairs after draining the glass in a few gulps to take a shower. He simply leaned against the counter in the deserted kitchen and stared down at the half-empty glass of milk.
Kangin and Sungmin knew that he’d operated on Kim Heechul.
He swallowed, pushing the glass with his index finger. It slid a few centimeters on the marble countertop and the milk inside sloshed from one side of the glass to the other, threatening to spill over the top.
Yes, he’d saved Heechul’s life. When the Chinese men had come in, screaming at him in Mandarin-that he thankfully understood-he’d looked at Xi Che-Heechul-and recognized his hyung from so long ago. Having a photographic memory made it difficult to forget anyone, especially his favorite hyung.
And how could he have said no when that hyung was dying in front of him?
Siwon quickly assessed the situation, seeing the gaping, bloody hole in Heechul’s chest. “Get me a stretcher. Hurry!” He snapped at one of the nurses. He looked to the Chinese man that had carried him in-not the younger one that was crying and sobbing in incoherent Mandarin-but the tall one that seemed the most calm out of the two. “What blood type is he?”
There was another man with them, but he looked like he was breaking down. He was trying to comfort the sobbing boy-in Korean, he didn’t seem to speak Chinese-but tears were falling down his own cheeks and Siwon knew that he wasn’t going to be of any help from this point onward.
“AB.”
Siwon nodded, “We’re taking him in for surgery.” He paused, noticing that the tall Chinese man was holding his side. “You should get looked at as well.”
“Xi Che first.” The tall man snapped out, gritting his teeth to hide his pain.
Xi Che? Wasn’t that the name of Leeteuk’s girlfriend? Gam Xi Che? But this was Heechul. Kim Heechul. Siwon had known it in an instant. He was still trying to get over the shock of seeing his hyung-bleeding out in front of his very eyes-and trying to act like a professional doctor to save said hyung.
He simply smiled softly in that calming way of his. “I’ll do the surgery myself. He’s in good hands.” Then he turned away and headed toward the room where they were prepping Heechul for surgery.
He’d never gotten an answer as to why his Heechul hyung was there. He’d spent hours-he didn’t remember how many-in surgery and had come out exhausted. At some point between shifts and after signing off that Heechul was stable, the Chinese men-and the one Korean boy-disappeared with his hyung before he had a chance to speak with him.
At first, after the incident, he’d figured that it wasn’t Kim Heechul at all. He’d probably just been so hopeful over the past few years that he’d seen a resemblance and immediately suspected it was him. Then he’d learned of the betrayal, of Yumyeong Industry’s destruction, and he’d put two and two together.
He’d realized the voice in the confessional had been Heechul’s. Kim Heechul was Gam Xi Che. His hyung had made Leeteuk hyung and Kyuhyun fall in love with him and had then crushed their hearts.
His hyung was alive. He’d kept him alive…and his hyung had wanted revenge.
He simply didn’t know why.
Siwon grabbed his glass of milk and finished it off, letting out a sigh as he made no move to leave the kitchen. If he was going to get to the bottom of this, he was going to have to look into his father’s suicide.
But if he found out where Kim Heechul was, the reason behind the revenge…would he tell the others? What if it was something bad? What if Kim Heechul was a bad person? Or worse, what if Leeteuk and Kyuhyun’s-and his-father’s were bad people? What then?
Kangin and Sungmin would want to hurt his hyung, wouldn’t they? They would want revenge for Leeteuk and Kyuhyun.
Siwon couldn’t let them hurt his hyung.
Not when he’d finally found him alive again.
He would, however, get to the bottom of this.
---
The classroom was silent, save for the scribbling of pens and the shuffling of paper. Heechul continued scanning the essay in front of him, not looking up at the class as they continued taking their pop quiz.
From the disparaged groans and disbelieving looks he’d gotten from the students while passing out the quiz, he figured that most of them thought he’d been kidding about it. Well, they were in for a rude awakening. Kim Heechul did not joke about pop quizzes.
He did, however, take a sickening joy out of watching young, promising students tremble in fear at the thought of what he could pull on them. In the classroom Kim Heechul was king…and he was a very unpredictable one. He rather enjoyed that part.
But he was getting slightly fed up with the general populace of the classroom.
After grading several of the papers the night before-Zhou Mi had dragged him out of the office and into bed before he could get halfway through-he’d realized that the students weren’t taking this as seriously as he’d thought.
He’d agreed to teach this course-despite that it was advanced and he wasn’t certain if he could do it as an associate professor-because he was passionate about literature and figured that the students taking his class would be as well.
Three fourths of the students that were there came to look at his ass. Of the fourth left, half of them believed that they could get by with just being smart and bullshitting what they didn’t know because it had worked in the past.
If people thought Kim Heechul was a frightening businessman, he was an even more demanding and intimidating professor.
He didn’t look up from the essay he was grading as he spoke. “If you keep looking over at Chen Li Juan, Wong Hong Hui, I will take it as cheating rather than shameless flirting. We aren’t in high school anymore. You can confess your undying love and/or lust later.”
The soft murmurings from a few feet away paused, and there was the sound of mocking laughter from the other students before the silence resumed. Heechul went back to his papers, skimming a few lines. The paper he was grading had been written the night before, he could tell. He stared down at the typed sentences through half-lidded eyes.
Some students thought they could make a paper look like it had been well planned out and written, but professors had an innate ability to spot these things. They could also spot plagiarism, bullshitting, and the difference between a 1” and 1 1/3” margin without using a ruler.
The scribbling of pens brought him out of his thoughts. A second later he was distracted again, leaning back in his seat as he remembered another time he’d heard pen against paper.
“What are you doing?” Heechul poked his head around the corner of the house and stared at the boy sitting next to the koi pond. “Ya, I asked you a question.”
Siwon blinked, looking up at the older boy. A bright smile spread from ear to ear as he watched him come closer. “Hyung!”
Heechul sat down on a large rock beside Siwon, looking pointedly at the pad of paper and pencil in Siwon’s hands. “So what are you doing?”
“I wanted to draw a picture for my mom. It's her birthday tomorrow.” Siwon nodded enthusiastically, “And the koi fish in this pond are her favorite. Do you like them hyung?” he held out his sketch proudly.
“What are those? Tumors?”
“They’re fins!”
Heechul scoffed, but looked the picture over thoughtfully, “The fish are just swimming around on a piece of paper.”
“Well I can’t draw the water. It’s clear.” Siwon protested.
Heechul grabbed the sketchpad and began scribbling away madly. “You can make the ripples, and the edges of the pond. And you can shade.”
“Shade?”
“See? It makes the water look darker in certain places so that the fish don’t look like they’re swimming around on paper.”
“Wow hyung, you’re really good!” Siwon grinned brightly, “Hyung is the best!”
“I am, aren’t I?”
Heechul smirked to himself before looking down at the paper he’d been grading in horror. There was now a koi fish doodled in red ink swimming across the edge of the paper and part of the concluding paragraph. “Shit.” He cursed softly in Korean before clearing his throat. What was he going to do now? The student would probably think something-especially if it was a girl.
He quickly scanned the last few lines before writing in a comment. I drew this fish to make something about this paper worthwhile to look at. Next time try to actually read the works you’re supposed to be summarizing. There, a painful and cruel remark to offset the pretty doddle. Heechul turned to another essay, thoroughly pleased with himself.
Destroying the hopes and dreams of young, promising students was his favorite part of being a teacher.
That and because he loved literature…but mostly the power. Heechul sat back in his chair and continued to scan the classroom for cheaters, smiling to himself and drinking his cinnamon dolce latte along the way.
---
“Hyuuuuuung,” Kyuhyun whined, face pressed against the desk as he stared balefully at the man sitting beside him. “Can we please go and eat?”
“Kyuhyun-ah, look over the files one more time. Then we’ll have Kangin order out for us.”
Kyuhyun groaned, “Nothing is going to change since the last time I stared at those numbers, hyung. Yumyeong is going bankrupt and we don’t have the necessary funds to revive it. We should just give up.”
“This is our fathers’ company. We can’t just let it go. There are people who need these jobs, Kyuhyun.” Leeteuk sighed, reaching out and ruffling the younger man’s hair. Kyuhyun lifted a hand to smack him away but it was halfhearted and Kyuhyun simply closed his eyes with an annoyed sigh.
Leeteuk went back to skimming the files.
“Hyuuuuuuuuuuung.”
Leeteuk sighed, “What?”
“What are we going to do if we can’t get a sponsor?” Kyuhyun whispered, “We won’t have to fire everyone, will we?”
Leeteuk looked from Kyuhyun to Ryeowook, who was sitting at a computer desk a few feet away. The young secretary looked up and met Leeteuk’s gaze before quickly looking back down at his work. Leeteuk smiled to himself. “I have enough money in my personal account to pay the workers for two more months.”
“I probably have some too,” Kyuhyun looked happy to be able to contribute. “I can look into my accounts-”
“Save that money.” Leeteuk murmured, scanning his computer screen. “We may need to use it for bribes.” He didn’t like the idea of using brides at all, but he knew that it was needed if they were going to keep the company afloat.
“Um.”
Both Kyuhyun and Leeteuk turned at the sound of Ryeowook’s voice. The secretary cleared his throat and continued, “Why don’t you use the emergency funds?”
“What? We don’t have an emergency fund account.”
“But money was just transferred into it last night.” Ryeowook looked at them in confusion. “Every month there’s been a deposit.”
“What are you talking about?” Kyuhyun had stood up from where he’d been slouched over the desk. He eyed Ryeowook warily, “Show me the account.”
Ryeowook nodded, looking confused and a little nervous as he opened up an account file on the computer and turned the screen for Kyuhyun and Leeteuk to survey. Kyuhyun’s eyes skimmed the report, “There’s enough money to help hold up the company for the rest of the year.”
Leeteuk stared at the numbers on the screen as hope bubbled up inside him. With this money he would be able to save the company. Even if it wasn’t enough to get them out of bankruptcy, it would pay for the workers’ wages for the rest of the year, allowing Leeteuk to use any money the company earned to keep it going.
Someone had saved their company. But who could it have been?
“Do you know anyone that can hack into the account and find its source, Ryeowook-ssi?” Kyuhyun asked. His curiosity was just as bad as Leeteuk’s, and insatiable. Who would be giving them this much money? He had to know.
Ryeowook paused. “…yes, I can get someone to come in within an hour.”
---
“Where’s gege?” Henry asked, looking around the apartment expectantly. He placed his violin case against the umbrella stand and headed further into the living room.
“At school,” Hangeng answered, watching as Zhou Mi mixed himself a drink at their bar.
Henry sighed, sitting down on the couch, “Zhou Mi gege, make me something.”
“You’re too young.” Hangeng protested.
“Alright.” Zhou Mi agreed, looking over Henry’s head to meet Hangeng’s gaze. He winked and Hangeng relaxed, nodding sullenly as Henry cheered.
“Has gege been doing ok lately?” Henry finally asked as Zhou Mi placed a colorful drink in front of him.
“He’s recovering well, and he has a follow up appointment tomorrow.” Zhou Mi answered, “But he still won’t take his pain medication without a fight.”
“We should get him to the house. Mama can make him take his pills.” Henry smiled cheerfully before taking a sip of his drink. He paused, turning to Zhou Mi with a pout, “There’s no alcohol in here!”
Zhou Mi smiled apologetically over the rim of his scotch glass before he looked down at the creature scuttling across the sleeve of his jacket. He then let out a high-pitched scream as he leapt backwards, throwing off his jacket and almost toppling over the back of the couch. “A spider!”
“Spider?” Henry wrinkled his nose in disgust, but his reaction was minor compared to Zhou Mi’s flailing.
Hangeng sighed, rolling up his newspaper and heading for Zhou Mi’s discarded jacket to see the small creature crawling out from under the sleeve. He did away with it quickly, looking up at Zhou Mi with an amused smile, “It’s gone.”
Zhou Mi cleared his throat, looking sheepish and trying to hide his embarrassment. He didn't know quite when his fear of spiders and other many-legged creatures had begun. He did know one thing, however. From before he could remember, Heechul and Hangeng had always been protecting him from spiders.
“Seasonings, it’s just a spider!” Heechul huffed, staring down at the rather large arachnid moving across the back porch. He continued sipping his lemonade, cooling himself with the makeshift fan he’d folded out of a piece of construction paper.
“Get it away! Get it away!” Young Zhou Mi was near tears as he hid behind the shorter boy.
Heechul let out an exasperated sigh as he placed his lemonade down on the porch and took a step toward the eight-legged menace. “Baby, it’s not that bad. Really, just step on it like this-” He slammed his sandaled foot down atop the spider and there was a moment of silence before millions of baby spiders began pouring out from beneath his foot. “Oh fuck, it had an egg sac! HANNIE SAVE US!”
Hangeng came running out of the house to see Heechul throwing his shoe across the yard, dancing around the porch as he tried to avoid the small invaders. Zhou Mi let out a girlish scream and was leaping up onto the porch swing to escape.
Hangeng acted quickly, grabbing a can from near the door. “I have the bug spray!”
“GET IT GET IT!” Heechul ordered, pulling off his pants, “Ack, they’re on me!” He danced around the yard in his boxers, scrambling over to the swing where Zhou Mi was seeking refuge.
“It’s coming toward me! Save me ge!” And Zhou Mi began climbing up Heechul as if he were a pole. Unfortunately he was a short, non-muscular pole and they both fell off the back of the swing. Heechul smacked his head against the wooden boards and groaned, feeling the gangling weight of Zhou Mi atop him.
The sound of Hangeng spraying the baby spiders with the bug killer was the only sound other than his own labored breathing before Zhou Mi came to his senses and scrambled off of him, “Ge! Are you alright?”
“I think my head is bleeding…”
“AH! The spiders can smell blood from a mile away and will follow the scent to suck out all your insides! No wait, it’s not blood they can smell, but fear! Yeah, fear! They’re coming for us ge!”
---
Yesung had been ecstatic at getting a phone call from Ryeowook. He’d felt that they’d become closer since the hospital incident and then the date afterwards-it was a date, no matter what anyone said. They went out to eat, just two boys. It was a date.
He was sorely disappointed, however, when Ryeowook informed him that he needed him to come into the office to look over a file. Ryeowook was too innocent to make ‘looking over a file’ a sexual innuendo so that meant this was work related business only.
He arrived at Yumyeong not long after he’d gotten the call. No one even checked his I.D. as he walked through the front doors. He figured that since he was always there everyone just assumed he was a normal employee.
He found Ryeowook and the two directors’ sons crowded around a computer screen. The three looked up when he entered and he gave a stony nod, a smile unable to come to his lips. He figured that the other two didn’t want to see him smiling anyway. He felt awkward in the presence of the directors’ sons. The eldest seemed alright-calm and he smiled. The younger boy looked angry and annoyed and made the room feel tense.
Yesung simply cleared his throat, “Ryeowook-ssi said there was something you wanted me to look at?”
“Come over here and hack into this file. We want you to track the money to its original source.”
Yesung nodded, heading to the desk they were all standing around-the younger one, Cho Kyuhyun, was sitting in the chair-and looked at the file they were pointing to. “A bank transaction?”
“Can you do it or not?” Kyuhyun snapped.
“Kyuhyun-ah.” Leeteuk reprimanded, giving him a disapproving look. Kyuhyun huffed but made no other comment as Yesung leaned over and began typing away madly.
Kyuhyun stared impatiently at the back of Yesung’s head, drumming his fingers on the desk. Leeteuk grabbed his hand to still it, pursing his lips and sending him a warning look. Kyuhyun pouted and merely continued to stare.
Ryeowook watched Yesung’s fingers skimming the keyboard. They were long and thin, slender. Skilled as they darted up and down . Ryeowook suddenly felt a blush rise to his cheeks and he wasn’t even certain why. He coughed into his hand just as Yesung spoke.
“ I found it. Whoever created this account didn’t want it to be found. All the safeguards and firewalls…I’m still not certain if I tripped something or not. They may have been alerted to what I was doing.”
“Well, who is the account wired to?” Kyuhyun grunted, trying to see around Yesung’s hair.
Yesung stared at the account number. Shit. He hurriedly tried to cover the name up-and maybe delete the information altogether-as discreetly as possible but Kyuhyun had shoved him aside before he could do so and was staring at the file.
“A Lee Donghae…”
---
(A/N: That spider scene comes from a personal experience. It's not a pleasant site. True facts. >.>)