LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 14: Family <3
Everyone forgot to breathe for a moment, after seeing Ji-hun out and about with full energy and a fresh mood. It usually took two people to wake him up, and even then he used to wake all pouty, on a relatively normal day. So it was highly shocking that he was suddenly awake, almost past midnight; with such a cheerful face.
Hyeon somehow managed to gather his wits the earliest of all, and asked "Ji-hun, why are you awake kiddo? Aren't you supposed to be asleep at this time of night? You have a practice session early in the morning tomorrow, and you will be whining that you don't want to get up because you want more sleep. Then why are you roaming here when you should be doing just that?"
Ji-hun's face fell all of a sudden, all his excitement vanishing after seeing Hyeon scold him. He forgot everything about the dream, and the only thought in his mind was that they might hate him now and would send him away. He turned on his heels as quickly as he could, and started to rush towards his room again. He shouted behind himself, his deep voice shaking, "I will behave now, please don't send me away! I promise I will be a good boy." He entered his room and they all heard a bang on the door as he locked himself inside again.
Kaoru had started to run behind him without thinking twice; Dae Jung, Chang Min and Ho-jin also realised that the storm had arrived again and they dashed towards his room. As for Hyeon, he was still standing there thinking why he always ended up making a mess of everything. 'He had just wanted to protect him and now he was the reason for the pain his little brother was experiencing. He had unknowingly triggered his insecurities at such a vulnerable time. He looked towards his other bandmates. Letting out a deep sigh, he admitted to himself that they were not just his bandmates, but his family- his entire world, and he would do everything to protect his family. After all, they were the reason he was still alive, especially Ji-hun.'
He had to rectify his mistake, and he knew Ji-hun was not going to open the door so easily, so he had to opt for the second option. A faint smile appeared on his face as he grabbed his jacket and walked out of the room, towards the second entrance of the bungalow.
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Dae Jung and Ho-jin were shouting for Ji-hun to open the door. Dae Jung looked like he was on the verge of crying, knowing that his best friend might be crying inside the room, all by himself. It was not his fault that he always did things out of the box! The world really didn't deserve a kind hearted person like him, who always ended up getting exploited by everybody and still didn't stop himself from helping others. He shouted again, "Ji-hun, please open the door. Hyeon hyung didn't mean to hurt you and he was not scolding you!"
Ho-jin shouted along with Dae Jung "Yes hyung, please open the door! Nobody is going to send you away, it was all a misunderstanding. Please...open the door, hyung!" After this, a drop of tear fell from Ho-jin's eye, and Dae Jung's eyes also joined his little brother in this, and the maknaes started crying. Chang Min looked at the two of them, and asked Kaoru to take them to their rooms as they also needed to sleep; but if things continued this way, nobody was going to get any sleep that night.
Kaoru wanted to revolt as he didn't want to leave his brother alone in the locked room either, but he knew that Chang Min's statement was correct. All of them needed to sleep, so that they could wake up the next day for the early morning schedule, and keep the manager away from finding out about this topic. Otherwise, if he got wind of this, things would definitely not go right.
He hugged both of them at once, trying to pull them up from the ground. The pair had been sitting on the cold hard ground, crying as if they had committed the biggest sin in the world and now there was no hope of mercy. Kaoru tried with all his might, but realised that it wasn't a great idea to lift two of his muscular babies at the same time. He had to remind himself that they might be just like his kids to him, but they were not actual kids anymore for sure- they were well-built grown men. He was still struggling to pull them up, when Ho-jin yanked himself free, stood up and shouted "Hyung, open the door now, or I will break it!"
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Within a minute, Hyeon was standing right below the window of J's room. He smiled at the memory of him sneaking out with his baby brother Ji-hun, an actual teenager at the time. He used to take him out at night time to buy him ice cream, when he was under the supervision of their manager and had been following a strict diet. According to their manager, he needed to have a muscular body to be an idol and an actor as well. He shook his head to extract himself from the memory, and quickly climbed onto the balcony next to him. He then jumped into the next balcony, leading him to the second doorway to Ji-hun's room.
Through the window, he glimpsed the red face of Ji-hun, who had been crying; and Hyeon's heart flinched, as if someone had punched him hard. He walked inside the room, looking directly at Ji-hun- as if this boy, who he had come to love as his own brother, would disappear if Hyeon even so much as shifted his eyes on something else for a second. He noticed Ji-hun standing up and wiping his own tears, he fastened his pace to cross the room in three leaps, and hugged him tightly.
"I am sorry, Ji-hun. Hyung didn't want to scare or scold you, hyung is just stupid like that. Please just forgive me...will you?"
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Nitya decided to go back to sleep, as it was still 1 o'clock. She was amazed at how she could have woken up so quickly, even after having such a lengthy dream. She then jerked all thoughts about the dream from her mind, rationalising with herself that the dream might have been triggered by her subconscious because she was stressed about something, or maybe she had fallen asleep thinking about Suro's trip.
'Yes, that must have been why she was dreaming of missing a flight or getting hurt. But one of her biggest fears was to miss her train, not flight! Moreover, she didn't even have a passport yet; and how could she miss a flight, she would never travel alone because her brothers won't let her! So there was no chance of this dream becoming a reality.'
She dozed off again, thinking about the dream...
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"Why is he not picking up the phone, doesn't he know that I get scared when he does not take the call? It's not like I call him all day long...we only talk at particular times of the day, then why is his phone off at this time?!"
She was very anxious, trying to reach him repeatedly even after getting the same reply. "Okay fine, this is the last try…" she said to herself. The call connected this time.
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