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“So, how’s the verdict?”
Seokmin rolled his eyes when Mingyu asked Junhui the question after he told them that he just got fired from his work this morning and they were talking about hiring him to their newly opened business.
“Gyu, what we have is a bakery, not a nursery.”
Seokmin punched Jun’s right arm, but he was quick to dodge him so he just chanted a curse in his mind that their business will go down with him if he won’t get a work tomorrow. He is that desperate to look for a job that he will bring anything as a sacrifice.
Resigning earlier this morning was not on his to-do list this week but he have got no choice when his boss was seen harassing one of his workmates and the managers just laughed it off like, what the hell? A person just got bullied in front of many people as there was an event happening at the time, but the bosses looked like they were in a comedy show, almost crying while laughing their asses off.
“I’m not used to you having that serious face every time I enter this household.”
Everyone looked at Jisoo when he entered the place and Seokmin almost run in a rush when he saw him all soaked in water from head to toe like he had just done taking a bath but forgot to remove his clothes and has so many bruises all over his face.
“Tell me this is not your father’s doing.” Seokmin said with teeth almost crushing by too much grinding, hands clenching like one word from Jisoo’s mouth that it indeed came from his father will land his fist to the person’s face automatically.
“What’s your joke for today?” Jisoo said while flashing his dashing smile.
You can almost hear Mingyu and Junhui’s sigh like they already expected that sentence from Jisoo.
It was always like that.
Jisoo bolting inside their apartment always has bruises or fresh cuts, soaked from either water or worst, blood, alarming the three of them and waking Seokmin’s rage every time towards his father, but the former will just remove his shoes quietly, gently put it on the rack then casually taking a sit like those marks from the beating is just normal.
For Jisoo, it is normal.
But for Seokmin? It was displeasing.
Seokmin sighed.
“What’s the hardest tea to swallow?”
Not even finished with the punchline but a smile already appears on Jisoo’s angelic face even though covered with swelling in some parts plus a black eye on the right, it was still so satisfying to see that the cruelty couldn’t remove its genuine features.
“What?”
“Reali-tea.”
It was not even the best joke Jisoo will hear but guess what? He laughed like a mad man already found its first meal of the day that will suffice all his hunger for a month.
Junhui was already seated on the sofa where Jisoo is currently holding his stomach for too much laughing and decided to advise him to visit a psychiatrist as a joke which made the latter cackle more, so Junhui shook his head while a little form of smile is already making its way to his mouth.
Mingyu, on the other hand, get inside their room then a box of emergency kit was seen on his hand once he got out.
Everything that is happening in front of Seokmin is like a routine.
The way Junhui will be with Jisoo while coping with his undeniably genuine laugh after he dropped those jokes and the way Mingyu immediately walk into their room to get the kit and attend to the younger’s bruises, everything seems normal.
But Seokmin will always treat each day as something he would touch differently and take it to his hands to mold into different style for days.
He is that kind of person who will always want to serve justice if he saw someone being treated with anomaly.
“What do you mean talk to police, Seokie?” Junhui seriously said.
This is another day which Jisoo came home with another injury. He slept almost after entering the apartment but thankfully, Mingyu was able to notice him almost fell from the doorstep, so they were able to catch him before Jisoo hit his head on the floor.
“The other day, you were suggesting talking to his father then now, you’re resorting to talk to the cops?”
They both looked at Seokmin like he had grown another head at the back of his neck. The idea was that absurd knowing that Jisoo’s father was the chief on their local municipal jail.
“What else do we have to do?” Everyone can hear the frustration from Seokmin’s voice. “I’m so tired seeing him endure his pain from physical abuse every day.”
“Can’t you see him?” Seokmin pointed at Jisoo who was peacefully catching bugs and butterflies in his sleep. “His weight was reducing day by day. I can almost see his bones through his wounded arms, Junhui.”
“Seokmin, we can’t do that.”
“Why? Just why we can’t do that? I don’t understand.” If desperation was a person, it is Seokmin now while pleading for an explanation.
“Seokmin, Jisoo is the one who keeps on requesting to be abused every day.”
“Hello!”
The bakery was very busy now as they were celebrating its first anniversary. Junhui and Mingyu prepared a program to be hosted by Seungkwan, their high school friend.
“Oh, Jisoo.” Junhui smiled when he saw that Jisoo was neat.
Clean. No bruises. No injuries. No black eye. Lips hydrated. Clothes dry and completely ironed. Cuts healed from past experiences.
Jisoo’s eyes roamed around the kitchen as he was one of the visitors who have the privilege to just get inside without a security tailing them around the establishment, well, owner’s friends’ perks.
Mingyu saw him and immediately grasped that he was looking for someone. “He will not be coming today too.”
The smile was still visible on Jisoo’s lips, but it had vanished on his eyes.
Gone the excitement he was feeling this morning that he will hear Seokmin’s daddy jokes again like the first time.
Well, he should be used to it by now. It was already nearing ten months when Seokmin suddenly decided to become a bubble that popped out of nowhere and leave all of them without any assurance of getting back.
“Here, eat.” Junhui placed a plate with two spanish bread paired with a hot coffee, which was his favorite combo he learned from Seokmin. “Tsk, stop looking at your food like he is there, Jisoo.”
Ten months when Seokmin vanished, nine months when they stopped saying his name like it’s a curse word.
Spanish bread tastes like sweet honey, hot coffee burning Jisoo’s tongue and the bitterness of it stayed on his throat. Mind wandering where the person of his questions could be at this moment.
Jisoo took the last bite of the bread, eyes still roaming around the place while the invited guests at tonight’s private celebration as the public version was done this morning were clapping their hands because of what MC Kwan was saying, he glanced at the dark part past through the window where only streetlights could see.
And there, he saw a silhouette of a man which he had memorized a long time ago from the moment they become each other’s companion through jokes and the laughter combination. He whispers the name of the person who never left a part of his brain to be remembered every hour and every minute and even every second.
“Seokmin.”
It sounded like a plead than a whisper on his ears. It was like it was his heart who shouted it for him and not his mouth who was used to talk from the moment he was born.
The people inside the venue halted when Jisoo suddenly stands up, no other words came out from his mouth, eyes still staring at the man outside behind the tree where only a minimum of light could reach.
Of course, he’ll know the love of his life in just one glance even though he was covered by the dark like his world the past months.
No need a clear view. The connection between them was enough for him to notice that the person in the shadow was in pain watching them partying when back then, he was the one leading the loudness of every celebration.
MC Kwan distracted the crowd to get their attention back to the program while Jisoo started walking without removing his gaze to the man who he had a personal staring contest with as the latter decided not to back down as well.
The longing is so loud that he started tearing. He felt his heart shattering like those months he spent making it whole was disregarded and completely ignored. Or maybe he wasn’t able to fix it at all.
Seeing the man in his dreams for months of imagination in pain is so unbearable now as his emotions was suppressed for the longest time starting when the man decided to hide—it was now demanding to be felt like it is fighting for its own justice.
Mingyu tried to stop him but one look from the eyes of the person who feels like half of him died when the other person disappeared suddenly, he knows that Jisoo cannot be stopped from approaching Seokmin who had become a fugitive when his father died.
“Here’s the key. Car is parked at the very end of the parking lot. Please, take care.” Junhui suddenly appeared behind Jisoo. The latter quietly accepted the car keys and nod to acknowledge their kindness and support. He can feel himself shaking. Excitement? No. But because the words he kept for months asking where Seokmin was had gone is now finally finding a way to be out of its existence.
One look to where Seokmin was still standing, Jisoo knows he understood what he meant. Again, connection.
‘follow me to the parking lot’
After discreetly opening the car door at the backseat, Jisoo silently enters the driver’s seat. He doesn’t want to get attention from anyone that he will drive with someone sitting in the passenger seat as he avoids driving with anyone at all.
Seokmin follows.
It was eerily quiet on the way to the apartment. Apartment that was once owned by Mingyu, Junhui, and Seokmin but was replaced by Mingyu, Junhui, and Jisoo.
Breathing can be clearly heard inside between the two like it was their words hiding in the basement for too long but still needed to be hidden as it would only ruin the quality of oxygen, they’re both breathing at the same time.
It was that crucial for both of them to be together.
Not so many changes can be seen inside the apartment. It was still almost the same from when Seokmin left the things he contributed to make the house a home. He was the one who made things so capable of living when Mingyu and Junhui was struggling to find themselves to live way back.
“It was Junhui who wanted everything inside this house to stay the same.” Jisoo said like he read what’s on Seokmin’s mind the moment they stepped inside.
“I stayed in your room.”
Seokmin finally looked at Jisoo.
“Why?”
Oh, how Jisoo missed that soft voice that was comforting him back then but now sends hundreds of knives through his chest because of how lonely it sounds.
First word and it is already killing Jisoo, how he will go asking the questions he kept on his mind without breaking after hearing Seokmin talk then?
But as of the moment he just wanted to shout at Seokmin because of the question the latter just asked after knowing where he is currently staying.
After knowing he stayed in his father’s accused murderer.
“Jisoo...”
“Stop.”
“You have to understand.”
“No, I don’t.” Seokmin started walking to get closer to Jisoo. “You were not even in the scene where he got stabbed, Seokmin.”
“How would you know that?”
One step.
Of course, Jisoo would know since it was him who were at the scene that time where the Chief was stabbed.
“I was the one who were with him that time, Jisoo.”
Two steps.
Jisoo wanted to scream his deny because of the lies coming out from Seokmin’s lips.
“We had conversation that will support the reporter’s claim. We agreed to meet that day, that time when he was found dead.”
Three steps.
It was him who have a conversation with the Chief to meet that day as he has finally decided to break their curse of being with him to stop the abuse with his mother.
“You were with Mingyu shopping at the waltermart to restock needs in the bakery, Jisoo.”
And then Jisoo flipped. A liquid he hardly stops to form from the moment he saw the man in the dark earlier hiding his presence to keep himself safe from everyone’s sight. He let his tears flow like it was the only way his hurt can be justified.
“No. Those were my alibi not yours, Seokmin. How could you switch our testimonies during the interrogation?”
Last step and Seokmin stopped from walking. Already in front of Jisoo who is now bare with his soul crying like a child who got robbed of a candy.
“I was supposed to take the blame and not you Seokmin. I was supposed to be in jail to make ourselves free from this painful road we did not even chose to walk on.”
Tears streamed when they both foresee what could happen if things have changed to what it was supposed to be.
“I am the one deserving to pay for life consequences and not you.” Jisoo wailed.
The time when Seokmin was arrested because of the report from someone anonymous that Chief Officer Hong was found lifeless.
He was arrested as he was one of the people who would have motive to commit the said crime, he once tried to convict the Chief by abusing his own wife and son, but claims got denied. What can he do? The Chief was a powerful opponent after all as he was the leader inside the police office and has connection, but they should know that Jisoo too.
“You refer to her as life consequence, Jisoo.” Seokmin said after some time of Jisoo shouting.
“You saw her do that, right?” Seokmin said whispering like no one should know. Like it was supposed to remain as their little secret.
With the fact lingering the painful space between them. Jisoo diverted his eyes from Seokmin’s powerful gaze and said,
“My mother was supposed to be the one arrested. Not me and not even you Seokmin.”
It was another day full of hope that Jisoo would successfully live after taking the punches and tortures his father supposed to give to his mother.
At the background you can hear how Jisoo’s mother was screaming, pleading to stop the Chief from throwing the bucket on his head after pouring the water full of fish stinks on him.
“I can’t believe that you’re just kneeling in front of me earlier to spare your mother from my wrath but here you are, still have the guts to face me eye to eye.” The Chief smirked and threw the bucket near Jisoo that almost hit him, but he did not flinch. He is that used to be thrown with anything so he just stands up straight in front of his mother like a soldier who will protect her.
“Tsk, why am I even wasting my time here. Adopting you two are the biggest mistake I did in my life.” As if it was Jisoo and his mother’s fault that the Chief adopted them way back when his biological father died. Even the people around them was confused by the fact that both will be living with the Chief knowing the rage he has for his family —for Jisoo’s family.
Maybe it was envy? That Jisoo’s father can get anything he would want while the Chief needed to sacrifice a lot to get the smallest thing in his wish list.
Maybe it was because Jisoo’s mother that supposed to be the Chief’s fiancé if not for his brother who was as mischievous as he is.
Others just shrugged it off as they live with the reason of maybe the Chief wanted to repent his sins to his deceased brother by keeping the two under his roof.
Everything he was experiencing at the hands of the Chief was just a collateral damage between the undying battle of the two brothers.
“Did you guys know,” Seokmin said with his hand caressing his chin like he was thinking something deep.
“What?” Mingyu said while busy watering the cornstarch to start baking. “I’m sensing this as another corny punchline but go ahead.”
Junhui laugh while Jisoo smiled anticipating Seokmin’s next words. He always does.
“How did I know that my girlfriend thought I was invading her privacy?”
At first Jisoo was shocked. He has a girlfriend? —he thought. But then,
“She wrote it in her diary.”
Junhui almost threw the egg at Seokmin while Mingyu was ready to pour the remaining flour on Jisoo’s head when he laughs so loud after realizing the joke.
“Wow, the reason why Seokie always have the guts to joke around is because you always laugh at them.”
Mingyu’s right but what can he do? He loves all Seokmin’s punchlines.
Well, he loves Seokmin, period.
“Baby, are you sure?”
Jisoo nodded to assure Seokmin one time he visited their apartment with bruises all over his arms and cheeks. He smiled upon hearing the latter’s voice so soft that it could melt him in an instant.
He loves it when Seokmin shows affection whenever he was hurt, or how Seokmin will look at him fondly after reserving a joke he searched online from the page that entitles 300 Corny Dad Jokes that Will Make Anyone Laugh and Groan.
Jisoo never felt so important that a person will make an effort to make him laugh and think about breathing the next day to hear another sentence from the internet searched solely for him.
Mingyu and Junhui wasn’t on the house.
And Jisoo found himself kissing Seokmin after he thought of how undeserving he is of Seokmin’s care.
He loves it when Seokmin always, like always kiss his worries away.
“Why would you do that, Seokmin?”
“Why would I not, Jisoo?” Seokmin said, “You know that I will burn everyone who takes your laughter away.”
The argument between the two makes the room temperature higher even though the air-condition was on its lowest level. But for Seokmin, the only cold he’s feeling right now is the metallic thing encircling his wrist that was tugged on his back. He was cuffed.
Two of them went to interrogation.
One was proven guilty.
That was from ten months ago.
“Seokmin,”
Seokmin diverted his glance when Jisoo started to fall on his knees while eyes crying a river looking so devastated. He knew what the situation was would be when the former was guided out from interrogation room, hands tied in cuffs, cops telling them they would hold Seokmin and that he could hire an attorney that will defend him during court trials.
“You don’t have to do this.” Jisoo plead.
“I have to.” Seokmin answered with eyes full of fondness while Jisoo’s looking up to him. “I love you.”
Of course, he does.
Jisoo never heard Seokmin told him that, but he knew.
Three words, eight letters, that he never thought he will hear in this lifetime—not even from his mother who he defended his whole life said that to him.
That phrase whom Jisoo longs to hear his whole life, even though Seokmin never told him directly, he felt that whenever they hug, kiss, and shared a tangled bed countless of times already. Of how Seokmin cared for him, of how Seokmin always wants to fight the Chief even if it would compromise his safety, of how Seokmin took care of his insecurities from having a happy and complete family, of how Seokmin always cook him food as he could tell that Jisoo did not consume any for the day, of how Seokmin always notice how he struggle to give out a smile on his face and tell them he was fine.
Of how Seokmin was always ready to hug him all bruised and painted with blood from the maltreatment.
“You have to remember that I will always be your walls that protect you from anything no matter what storm tries to ruin you, Jisoo.”
With not enough time to comprehend what Seokmin said, Jisoo already felt the soft pair of lips crashing into his.
They have been separated for months but the kiss was slow and passionate like both of them was feeling the moment of being together again after a long time. How the movement was slow is like how both of them patiently waited months after months without the assurance of touching each other again when the time comes the world already sided with them.
Jisoo knew that they still have puzzles to solve from what happened why they were deprived of being together, but his mind is focus on how ecstatic the feeling is of Seokmin being inside him again after a long time.
No cops finding the culprit.
No wanted person inside their apartment.
Just Jisoo and Seokmin being each other’s feast to compensate their hunger of being apart for months.
“I love you.”
And Jisoo answered, “I love you too.” Even if he really doesn’t know what it meant at this point, he just answered.
Kiss after kiss. Moans after moans.
Both sated after the heated moments.
But both must still face the issue after the night of being free from the world’s cruelty.
“Where is Seokmin, Jisoo?”
He remained silent. Mingyu had been asking him about Seokmin’s whereabouts.
Seokmin is gone the moment Jisoo opened his eyes after the night they shared, but this time, his heart was calm.
Jisoo sighed and looked over Mingyu where Junhui was seated and drinking his morning coffee while reading the book he is currently obsessed with, “Why don’t you ask your husband, Mingyu?”
It looks like Junhui already expected that the attention will be on him, he just looks at Mingyu who’s currently throwing him daggers with his eyes full of confusion and irritation and maybe, concern included, but the former just calmy sips on his coffee, closed the book on his hand after putting a bookmark and said,
“He was staying in the basement of the bakery.”
Jisoo should’ve known that Junhui will never abandon Seokmin as easy as that.
The night he called the two because Seokmin was staying in the jail for the trial, Junhui was as calm as ocean in the midnight when they reached the police office after the emergency was called.
He should’ve known that Junhui will never abandon Seokmin.
As easy as that.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Contrary to what Jisoo is showing with the calm façade, his voice sounds betrayal.
“Seokmin told me to keep it a secret.” Junhui said after finishing his cup of coffee like what they are talking is just another page in a newspaper they are sharing a copy.
“You could’ve told me, Junhui.”
“How would I tell you that when you can’t even tell the police your mother’s whereabout to make Seokmin clean from the wanted list, Jisoo?”
And that made Jisoo shut up.
Silence enveloped the three of them in the sala.
Oh, he got distracted for a moment—Jisoo thought.
And then Junhui decided to break the silence, “Are you having fun with your mother’s freedom now that the Chief was dead and Seokmin was the one being chased by the authority, Jisoo?”
“You saw Seokmin can do anything for you that you made him the secret recipe from what you were cooking to achieve the freedom you wanted.”
Ah, after all it was all about him protecting his mother at all costs.
All the jokes point on Seokmin now, will Jisoo still laugh at them?