Chapter 2

The foreheads came together. Not a word was uttered. Only the breaths were heard, and the fingers trapped in the skins were felt.

"Promise you'll never leave me again." Hayoon asked. It was her desperation crying out. But he understood that he could not and should not ask JaeHwa for something in such a way. After all, they were nothing more than friends.

But JaeHwa nodded without delay. I wasn't lying about that answer. He never wanted to leave Hayoon or stop kissing Hayoon. Never.

They smiled together, as if they were in love.

Hayoon stood up and raised her hand for JaeHwa to take. The older one gladly accepted, walked to the bedroom door and as soon as it opened, he found those many pairs of eyes guided towards him.

"'You were making out, weren't you?" YoonHa scolded in denial. "Damn it, and we're here, waiting to eat."

JaeHwa laughed, but walked over to the sofa, sitting next to Hayoon.

"Yoonie, help me here, please." YoonJin called. The eldest went without protest, he seemed to obey YoonJin well, never contradicting or responding.

Everyone went to the kitchen too. As the marble island only supported four benches, they would have to get somewhere else to eat.

"I'll get your food." Hayoon warned JaeHwa, smiling as before leaving.

"'Are you having a thing?' YoonHa returned, handing a glass of Juice to JaeHwa and leaving another one beside it, in the center of the glass, for Hayoon.

"I don't know." JaeHwa answered sincerely.

YoonHa nodded. He was brusque, he didn't know how to demonstrate his real interest. But he watched JaeHwa's face for a few seconds and looked away, asking quickly and quietly:

"Are you well?"

JaeHwa smiled and nodded. He understood how his friend was closed and seemed to be ashamed to show whatever the feeling was.

"I'm fine, Yoonie." he mocked, making his friend roll his eyes.

"See if you eat everything, morô?" YoonHa got up to go back to the kitchen.

JaeHwa again nodded. He saw Hayoon return with a huge plate full of food. She looked at him in disbelief.

"It's to eat everything!" He dictated, even before he heard anything else.

JaeHwa looked at the youngest's plate and frowned. It was almost empty.

"And why don't you eat right too?" He asked, still frowning.

"Uh, but I'm doing this." Hayoon stared at him. Jae Hwa denied it.

"Come on, Park Hayoon! Stop being a hypocrite." Jeon reached for the chopsticks resting on the plate's corner and organized them in his fingers, then looking for the biggest piece of meat there and taking it to Hayoon's plate. "Eat." ordered.

Hayoon's eyebrows rose, but he was unable to deny it. He smiled and looked for the piece of meat, still being watched by JaeHwa and ate it without claiming.

They ate in partial silence. Only, for a few times, Minsun talked in a simple and dispersed way with YoonHa and YoonJin. Taeil kept quiet and always attentive. He felt fear and anger every time his eyes landed on JaeHwa.

After all, that wasn't the first time he'd seen his best friend's body hurt by a man who felt free to do such a thing. You promised to protect him the first time, and you failed miserably. He blamed himself in the end.

After dinner, everyone talked peacefully. JaeHwa even called Sunjin, who had no idea of his condition or what happened, and spoke wistfully and sweetly to the man who filled him with peace and familiar feelings.

He heard the man say that he had already finished the small work on the roof of the building and that everything was ready to receive the puppies again. JaeHwa, for a brief moment, felt his heart break at having to give them back. But he was immensely happy to know that they would all stay close to the old man and, with full certainty, would bring joy back to him.

He returned to the room with Hayoon's help again. The house was already quiet, Namsun and YoonJin were sleeping in the living room and YoonHa had invited the other two to sleep with her, since according to him, the king bed would shelter them better, but only for that, of course.

He saw Hayoon undress, wearing a wide and long shirt that belonged to her. He appreciated the image, it was divine.

Fluffy lay down at the foot of the bed, also too familiar with the house that wasn't hers, and fell asleep rather quickly.

"You can't stare at me like that every time." Hayoon dictated going to bed. Her uncovered legs awakened something strong inside JaeHwa, which made him not control the way he looked at the other.

"I'm sorry." he laughed breathlessly, seeing Park enter the same cover as himself.

Hayoon held back from burning with sheer embarrassment.

"I need to take care of you." he dictated looking for the ointment that Taeil had applied earlier. "Have you taken the pill yet?"

Jeon nodded, removing the blanket and showing his body covered only by his underwear.

Hayoon could get lost just there. Okay, he got a little lost, he was really attractive and well-designed, but the purple marks made the charm of the whole moment lose. All he could see was how much JaeHwa needed his care.

He stopped next to JaeHwa's legs, the place that had the least marks, just a few, on the sides of his thighs that evidenced the purpose that made Hayoon sick. He passed the ointment over the soft dermis with such delicacy. Jeon's eyes were unable to stop focusing on the other's face, so focused on taking care of what the other had hurt.

Hayoon sighed as Him noticed a few more marks on her pale inner thighs and hurriedly covered them with the medicine. The flowers drawn on Jeon's legs seemed to lose their charm, when they probably should have drawn more attention than those bad marks.

It crept up the abdomen, spreading to the sides of the waist. Those were extremely strong, so purple they were scary.

Hayoon looked into JaeHwa's eyes and imagined how much the brunette had suffered when he received that into his body.

It was a sin and a big one, to mistreat someone like that.

He innocently climbed onto the other's groin and concentrated on rubbing the ointment over his chest. It had a subtle mark, but it was remarkably bitten. Hayoon took a deep breath when he touched her to cover her with the ointment and looked into JaeHwa's eyes when him finished.

"Thank you for taking care of me." Jeon whispered, completely attached to the other.

Hayoon denied it, him wouldn't accept any thanks, after all, him was there, doing all that by sheer will.

He got up just to wash his hand and turned off the light in the bathroom, leaving the room in shadow again, walking towards Jeon.

"You should wear something." Hayoon dictated as him went back under the blanket, laying down there.

"I usually sleep naked, it's too much to be in my underwear."

Park's laugh came low.

"I just don't ask to take it back because I don't trust you."

"Oh yes?" JaeHwa laughed." And why?"

"Because the last time we slept together, you urged me to fuck you."

"Come on, Park... You fucked me because you felt like it too. After all, who was having a hard-on and rubbing my ass, uh?"

Hayoon denied, hugging the other without any resentment for doing so.

"We're just going to sleep, okay? Tomorrow you need to go to the doctor."

"You don't have to go with me. I already feel bad for making you all worry about me and waste an entire day just to be here with me."

"We're not doing this for the sake of it, Jae. We like you, we want to see you well."

JaeHwa got closer to Hayoon and fitted himself on the other's thighs, leaving his between his.

"I like Jae. Sounds like...someone special."

"You are special." Hayoon smiled closely, kissing him on the nose.

"Hayoon... Will you forgive me if something bad happens again?"

"Like this?" Hayoon frowned.

"I said I wouldn't fall in love, but maybe I lied."

Hayoon laughed breathlessly, kissing the other's lips this time.

"Maybe I lied too. But that's not a bad thing, Jae."

"It's too bad, because I'm going to run away. One way or another, I always run away. I'm afraid of hurting myself even more."

Hayoon denied, weakly, feeling the heat that the bigger body exhaled and feeling at home. JaeHwa made him feel at home.

"I won't let you get away." he said sincerely, in a laughing tone, but he saw the other deny it.

"There's someone behind me, Hayoon." JaeHwa said." and I won't let him hurt you either."

"Behind you? Who?"

JaeHwa just denied more.

"You don't need to know, I just know that he's still after me and will always be. He's a bad person, capable of doing a lot of harm."

"I don't care. I just won't let them do anything bad to you again. I'll protect you, okay?"

JaeHwa didn't dare say anything further. Even though he was afraid of suffering, of making Hayoon suffer with the evil of others, he felt good when he realized how true those words sounded.

He rested in Hayoon's arms that night and could be sure it had been the best night's sleep ever. It was too good to rest while her heart felt at peace.

At least a little.