30 — A TIME FOR CONTEMPLATION

2 days break means a lot for them, especially for the brothers.

—

"mom, can you please drive me somewhere tomorrow? there's something i need to do."

"oh my, you want to go to your friend's house, sweetie?"

".. something like that."

"ah, that's great." the woman clasps both of her hands happily. "what, is it for a group project? or have you simply found a group of friends you enjoy being with?"

"it's for a funeral."

".. oh."

the next few days for them has been surprisingly quiet, a defined contrast than the first three days of school eunsang has taken a part of. the three older hyungs haven't been visiting much often— seungwoo has been wrecked upon several homeworks that was left unnoticed because of the busy days he had before, and wooseok has been busy with.. whatever he's doing. seungyoun on the other hand decides to ignore his actual responsibilities and runs off to school instead as he finds hanging around with his dongsaengs a nicer thing to do than to answer love calls from companies he's supposed to take care of.

eunsang's finally more open with junho now he's exposed to his powers, and junho seems to be more fond of that because he's been smiling more often. dongpyo starts to tolerate eunsang's existence, even if that means he still leaves one or two snarky remarks if he still got the chance, but none of them were really taken personally. there were times when dongpyo really spreads out genuine hatred towards eunsang, but he knows for sure this wasn't it.

hangyul and dohyon as expected didn't come to school for obvious reasons. yohan has been quieter than usual, probably because deep inside him he's involuntarily concerned of hangyul after what had happened, so the discomfort and guilt still runs through him. eunsang just hopes that everything will go back to normal, so that at least they won't be going through life without being engulfed by guilt that wasn't supposed to be theirs.

eunsang starts to regret telling his mother about the funeral, because it seems like the woman's more 'enthusiastic' than he is. she didn't only drop him off at the hospital, she decides to join him instead. there was nothing he could do to stop her, she seems to be able to get away with everything.

the woman closes the car door, fixing her knee-length rainbow dress. she sighs. "yikes, we should've had gone through the shortcut, the traffic was horrible."

".. or you should've had hurried on your makeup, we could've had gotten away with the traffic if it wasn't for you."

his mother shoots him a look. "boys go left,"

eunsang groans.

"finish my sentence, sweetheart." she commands him. "boys go left,"

"because girls are always right." eunsang says half heartedly. "okay, okay i get it."

"good, because if you question my makeup priorities once again i might as well dye your hair green for next year— oh, look!" she points to someone across the road, waving her hand.

eunsang turns around to see who she was waving to. "oh that's not—"

"he is!"

"no, it's not!"

"don't be silly, i could recognize him quite easily!"

"you better get your eyes checked because—"

"dongpyo, sweetheart!" his mother grabs the other boy's hand a little bit too excitedly, moving them around. "i'm so glad to finally meet you in person!"

dongpyo looks as puzzled as eunsang. he raises his eyebrow. "uh, thanks.. who are you again?"

"i'm your mother's friend, your mrs son's son right?" she grins widely. "we're apparently at the same group, xigma boys goes to snu. she's the group coordinator and she really gives out great tips!"

"well, on behalf of my mother i must say i'm glad that you find her tips.. useful."

mrs lee grabs eunsang's hand. "hey, it's your friend here! you better say hello to him. oh wait stand there, i'll take a picture."

eunsang awkwardly stands beside dongpyo, feeling extremely humiliated having to go through all of this just because of one fatal mistake of asking his mother to drop him off.

"hey, stand closer! you look like you hate each other if you keep posing like that." her mother gestures at him as she prepares her phone camera.

eunsang takes a few steps closer to dongpyo, his legs shifting awkwardly. dongpyo doesn't seem to care one bit, he proceeds to pose for the picture without any confined looks. mrs lee takes several photos, most of which were just the same pose.

"oh, that's perfect. i'm going to send this to your mother asap," mrs lee tells dongpyo cheerfully. "mom's not coming today?"

dongpyo shakes his head. "she's busy taking care of dad's opening ceremony for the new branch."

"ah, a business woman, i must say that i admire her." she glances at her watch. "oh my, it's almost past lunchtime! we better give our condolences before the burial ceremony, let's go boys!"

the woman goes in front of them, giving eunsang and dongpyo enough space to whisper without her listening. dongpyo turns to him with a dislike look on his face. "why is she here?"

"i don't know, she just wanted to!"

"is she going to a funeral or a pride parade, why is she dressed up like that?"

"my mom likes being extra okay? stop questioning her and her strange fashion sense."

when they reach the building they were first greeted by hangyul and dohyon at the front door, them in traditional hanbok clothing as they welcome the guests. hangyul's eyes look as if he hasn't slept for centuries, whereas dohyon's red cheeks look a bit bland than usual. they visit the casket to show their condolences before they end up going to the waiting room to meet the other people.

most of the gang are there, including junho who looks like he was in the process of fitting into the certain group. the boy certainly looks happier the moment he catches the sight of eunsang. eunsang immediately takes the sit next to him, with his mother automatically sits on the other chair beside eunsang.

"eunsang-ah, you're here." junho says with a relieved smile.

"how are you? how's hangyul?"

"he's.. forgiving. i think dohyon's having a hard time accepting it though, i do understand why he feels like that."

so apparently the surveillance camera that junho broke before they had gotten into hangyul's house captured a footage of the two men in suits that they met earlier, the ones who got injured and ran for their life. it was enough evidence to be brought to the police, but somehow they had another problem: one of the men was injured, receiving an electric shock by junho when the boy was in full lightning mode, leaving burns all over his face. though junho did not leave any proof, the sight of the man getting almost burnt to death is quite a strange sight itself, and it could potentially put junho in danger. that's why the case wasn't investigated any longer, because in order to solve who they were, they need to solve what they were running away from, and that could somehow mean everything needs to be centered around junho and his powers, that's not a situation they would like to be in.

hangyul quickly agrees with the situation as he knows the danger to be exposed of his powers even if it is just to a small amount of people, but dohyon doesn't seem too intrigued by the idea. he was still full of hatred, full of distress after losing his mother, of course he thinks the murderer deserves harder treatment than what they did to her. knowing that they weren't able to track the people for the sake of a boy he isn't quite familiar of doesn't seem to be a great offer to him.

and so they all chatted regularly, with wooseok and seungwoo pouring soju bottles as they did so. hyeongjun definitely looks tearyeyed as this is the first funeral he has been in and the atmosphere is too heartbreaking for him to handle, and minhee's just there trying to calm him down. seungyoun has been distinctively quiet, the grief atmosphere has definitely got in his nerves. yohan goes around the room passing out tissues and offering people coffee, basically making himself useful as he wasn't one to sit down and stay at the same place for a long time. mrs lee taps on eunsang's shoulder, telling him to look at the man she's pointing at.

"look at him, he's so cool right?"

the man she was referring to was tall, had blonde hair and cat eyes. he was wearing a simple black suit that looked quite expensive, and his shoes are polished clean to the point it's reflective. he doesn't look any older than wooseok and seungyoun, yet his aura seems indulging without him actually having to do anything.

"who's that?" eunsang asks.

"only the coolest kid under 25 in the world," she speaks out. "and probably the richest in korea. he holds tons of major medical companies that were given down to him from his late mother, and he only graduated highschool last year!"

"how is that possible?"

"that's what i thought too, but it seems like they trust him completely because he's given the ceo title so easily without having to do anything." she coos. "he's your father's main boss, if you're wondering. the one who owns the hospital dad is working in."

junho clasps his hand into a fist. "that's him. that's the guy."

"what guy?"

"the blonde man i saw that day before i collapsed."

knowing that both were referring to the same man, eunsang immediately takes control. "mom, who is he? what's his name?"

"no one knows his real name, but he usually goes by a stage name he uses for himself." she tells him. "his name is kang daniel."

—

there's a lot of u who previously predicted that i'm going to add by9, but unfortunately i won't be focusing on that plot. the boys will perhaps get cameos later on, though!!

i'm thinking of doing something when this book reaches 50k reads.. perhaps a q&a session with the boys(+author..? ^.^) or a special flashback chapter starring the hyungline (seungseokyeon, 99liners)?? it's up to you guys to decide ~

175 votes for next chap~

- yuehwa