The next morning, it could be at least felt some of the lightness of the evening.

Jisung woke up and his world turned for a moment, but fortunately that quickly passed again.

Minho had cuddled up on him from behind and put his arm around him while Chan lay facing him in front of him.

Jisung had to grin, he didn't really notice that Chan and Changbin had followed them to bed. Actually, he didn't even know how he got to bed anymore.

Jisung leaned forward and kissed Chan gently, who opened his eyes sleepily.

"Good Morning Little One"

"Good morning grandpa"

Chan leaned forward grinning and now kissed Jisung on his own initiative.

"What was that for?" Jisung asked in amazement.

"I'm just happy that you're in a good mood!"

Smiling, they snuggled up to each other.

Chan knew exactly that Jisung's good mood wouldn't last all day. They would have to go to Minho's work in the afternoon to make their statements. And he was already dreading it.

"Do we want to get up and make breakfast? I think after yesterday's feast, we could all need something to eat," Chan finally said and sat up.

"Good idea. Although I think I need a glass of water and some painkillers first."

Chan shook his head and pulled the younger out of bed.

Once they arrived in the living room, they stopped in surprise.

"Was that us?" Jisung looked around in amazement, but couldn't remember having caused such chaos.

"Looks like that... all right, so let's clean up first. Go get your painkillers and I'll start here."

Jisung went to the bathroom and looked for the painkillers in the closet. After a while, he had found them, swallowed two and then returned to Chan.

He had already done some work and cleaned up a lot. Jisung helped him put the rest away and then they set out to make breakfast for everyone.

Pancakes were a not very traditional breakfast in Korea, but they still loved it.

Chan set out to make the dough while Jisung cleared away the glasses and empty soju bottles of their party.

After that, he sat down on the kitchen counter and watched Chan make pancakes.

Chan carefully filled the next ladle of dough into the pan, stood in front of Jisung and pulled it to himself.

He kissed him gently.

But something about the kiss surprised Jisung. Especially since Chan usually did not seek so open for physical contact with him.

"What's going on, honey?" he finally asked after Chan broke away from him again.

Chan looked at him sadly and buried his hand in the velvety black hair of the younger.

"I- you know.. it's all my fault... If I hadn't let you home that evening, none of this would have happened... I'm so incredibly sorry!"

Jisung looked at him astonished. He had never thought of blaming Chan for the incident.

"It's not your fault! I don't blame you and you shouldn't either!"

Now he gently pulled Chan to himself and kissed him. But he also felt tears dripping on his legs. Worried, he broke away from Chan and looked at him.

"Please stop crying..."

He gently wiped the tears from Chan's face and the elder leaned against him for a moment. Until they both reached the biting smell of burnts.

Cursing, Chan tore the pan off the stove while Jisung opened the window.

Minho and Chan came running into the kitchen worried and looked at the picture that offered them in amazement.

"What are you doing here?"

Jisung had to grin.

"Channie is trying to make pancakes. But I think he needs a little more practice."

Chan threw a tea towel at him laughing and threw the burnt pancake in the trash can.

Minho went to Jisung and pulled the younger one into his arms.

"Good morning, baby! How are you? How is your head?"

Suffering, Jisung leaned his head against Minho's shoulder.

"Very bad! Someone should have stopped me from drinking so much soju!" he said laughing, looked up and kissed Minho.

He stroked his hair out of the younger's forehead with a smile.

"I would have liked to stop you, but I was afraid you and Binnie would have thrown me to the sharks!"

"Hmm possible..."

While Chan finished the last pancakes, the other three set the table.

A short time later, Chan brought a big mountain of pancakes.

After that, they had to get ready to go to Minho's work to make their statements.

None of them were looking forward to it. Especially since there had still been no reaction to the newspaper article. So they didn't know what Minho would expect. In the worst case, he would be arrested directly after making his statement.

The mood was depressed and nothing really felt about the good mood anymore.

The mood in the car was even more tense. Minho had been banished from Chan on to the back seat. Because despite the gunshot wound in his shoulder, he had wanted to sit at the steering wheel.

So Jisung and Minho sat in the back while Changbin sat next to Chan. Normally he would have teased Minho with it, but no one was courageous to jokes.

The way to the headquarters passed far too quickly. And since they had not driven with Minho's car, they couldn't even park in the underground car park, but had to park in the visitor parking lots.

There were not nearly as many reporters in front of the entrance of the headquarters as in front of the hospital, but enough to land on the next front page.

Minho lead them into the building as quickly as possible.

He had to leave them alone at the interrogation rooms, because he was not allowed to be there. And he couldn't really afford to get any more trouble.

Chan was allowed to accompany Jisung as an assist while Minho and Changbin made their statements at the same time.

Jisung was happy that the recordings of his injuries had already been taken in the hospital. So he still had to tell what had happened, but at least he didn't have to give himself the nakedness of having to undress.

Nevertheless, it was hard to have to go through all this again. He would have liked to have Minho with him, but he had no choice but to crush Chan's hand.

But Chan endured it silently. He knew that there was nothing against the pain and the mental torment that had suffered Jisung.

Minho sat opposite his superior and would have preferred to jump out of the window or walk through the NIS practice course 20 times in a row than sitting opposite his boss.

"Agent Lee, I don't have to explain to you that you acted stupidly and irresponsibly! You were incredibly lucky that nothing worse happened!"

Minho would have liked to say something about his defense, but he preferred to leave it. He nodded and lowered his head.

"Furthermore, it has now turned out that they secretly have a relationship with a man. You may well be aware that under military criminal law, this is usually punished with prison!"

Minho nodded again and his nails drilled into the palms of his hands.

"Are you lucky that your fiancé is a fairly well-known idol and we can't afford to fall into disrepute...! Your relationship is allowed and if you are not here on time at 6am after the six weeks of sick leave, I transferred you to garbage collection!"

Minho took a deep breath and hardly dared to look up. He wasn't even sure if he had understood correctly what his supervisor had just said.

"Leave my office! NOW!"

Without hesitation, Minho jumped up, bowed deeply and then left the office as quickly as he could.

Chan was the last one to make his statement, but fortunately Minho was there to hug the trembling Jisung.

According to Chan statement, they drove home exhausted. It was far too late for lunch and to early for dinner. But none of them were hungry anyway.

So they snuggled up in bed together and actually just wanted to leave this day behind them as quickly as possible.

꧁ ⸺ ♥ ⸺ ꧂