_

"good morning"

when mingi had opened his eyes the following morning and awoken to the sight of yunho peacefully sleeping next to him, he thought he must have done something right in life.

"good morning" yunho croaked, but it was soon followed by a more audible moan of pain. "shit", he cursed under his breath.

"are you in pain?" mingi asked with a furrowed brow.

yunho nodded. mingi remembered his first time too, and the next morning was always pretty uncomfortable. he reached out to stroke the other boy's hair, a worried smile on his face.

"it was worth it though" yunho soon quipped, "damn, it was worth it"

mingi chuckled, "I'm glad you think so. I was worried you would wake up and regret it"

yunho removed the younger boy's hand from his head and held onto it, crossing his fingers through mingi's. "I don't regret it. you're very special to me, mingi. I've never felt how I feel about anyone else before"

"me neither" mingi replied, struggling to contain the happiness he felt at yunho's words. the two males continued gazing happily at one another for a few more seconds before they were interrupted by the abrupt ringing of yunho's phone.

mingi turned onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, planning to pull the other in for a cuddle when he finished speaking.

"oh really?... yeah, okay... yeah I'll be down soon... no don't worry... okay, see you soon"

as yunho put down his phone, mingi immediately noticed his change in demeanour. "what is it?" he enquired.

"mingi, uh.." he scratched the back of his head nervously, "that was san, he told me wooyoung had seen youngjo hanging around the store early this morning"

mingi felt his heart drop. he hadn't heard anything from his ex-boyfriend for a couple of weeks now and had naively thought the problem might just go away.

"I know it's gonna be hard for you but we have to keep going in to the shop. we have to show him that we're not afraid of him, do you understand?"

mingi nodded uncertainly, all the while feeling sick to his stomach. "don't leave me alone in there..."

"I would never - not again. and we have san and wooyoung looking out for us too, yeah?" yunho could see that mingi didn't look completely convinced. "you don't have to worry about anything while you have me, okay? I'll never let anything bad happen to you"

_

so the two boys made the short journey to the shop less than an hour later. the whole car journey, yunho had intermittently reached over to place his hand on mingi's thigh to comfort him - and everytime the younger boy had glanced over at his hyung, he allowed himself to momentarily believe everything would be okay. yunho would make everything okay.

but the sight they were met with when they arrived at eden caused all mingi's fears to come flooding back.

the glass of the front door to the shop was completely smashed. the hole wasn't big enough for someone to get through, and so yunho wasn't led to believe someone was trying to break in. clearly someone just wanted to cause some damage. they wanted to psych them out.

"he did this" mingi predicted, "he must have - it isn't a coincidence that san and wooyoung saw him hanging around here earlier"

yunho sighed sadly, "I think so too" he added as he went to pick up the broken pieces of glass from the floor.

"let me do that!" mingi immediately offered, not wanting yunho to cut himself. his own hands, he didn't care so much about.

yunho unlocked the door and scoured the room to check nothing else was out of place. thankfully, it wasn't. "I'm calling the police" he announced.

mingi simply hid his head in shame as he finished picking up the broken glass. this was all his fault: if he hadn't walked into yunho's life then this wouldn't have happened. he couldn't forgive himself from bringing trouble to his hyung.

"yeah, yeah... the glass is gone now but... yeah the door... damaged, I'll need a new one for sure" mingi heard yunho speak frantically into the phone and felt the guilt set in further with every word.

he crossed the room to put the shards of glass into the bin as yunho finished on the phone. "mingi, you should have worn gloves. or used a brush! I'm sorry, I wasn't concentrating, I didn't expect you to do that"

"it's okay" mingi shrugged.

yunho bobbed himself down to try and see into mingi's eyes. he could always read his emotions that way: mingi said everything with his eyes. "are you okay?"

"me? yeah! yeah..." he trailed off, "...I'm so sorry, yunho"

"what are you sorry for? don't be silly, huh? you have nothing to be sorry for" he comforted as he placed a hand under mingi's chin forcing him to raise it.

"this wouldn't have happened if I wasn't here-"

"-stop right there. youngjo could break every single one of my windows if it meant I'd have you in my life"

mingi felt his heart begin to pound. he had never had someone care about him as much as yunho did - and although he felt unworthy, it was still a heart-stopping feeling.

"the police are on their way, so we just keep the shop closed until they get here and then we carry on as normal. I have all the shops and their contents insured so I can get the door fixed, no problem" the older boy smiled. he must have been feeling pretty shitty - his beautiful shop had been damaged - but mingi could tell he was trying to act like everything was alright for his sake.

"don't worry, okay? everything will be fine"

_

the police came soon after and took a statement from both boys. they had explained that they had an idea of who they thought it was and why, and the police had taken the details down.

by this point, san had obviously noticed the police car outside the shop and came over to see what was going on. yunho was still making his statement so he went over to speak to mingi who was waiting behind the counter.

"what happened?" he asked worriedly.

"we aren't totally sure, but I think youngjo..."

"shit" san cursed, "what is his problem?!" san never got mad, so to speak, but mingi could feel the passion in his words for his friend and his beloved business.

"it's my fault" mingi spoke, reflecting what he believed san would be thinking. he had warned yunho about the effects of having him around on his business.

"no it isn't. it isn't anybody's except the person who did it. don't beat yourself up about it" san smiled softly.

"yunho has every right to be angry at me..."

"yunho won't be angry at you!" san chuckled, "I don't think you know how special you are to him"

mingi glanced over to yunho who was now smiling and joking with the officer. he looked unreal. even under stress, his face was radiant and his eyes glistened.

"he talks about you a lot you know" san continued.

"he does?"

san hummed a reply. "he's never been in a serious relationship before - uh, I mean, not that you guys... - well anyway, what I'm trying to say is; I've never seen him like this before. how he speaks about you... yeah, I was starting to think it would never happen"

"I want us to be together" mingi replied bravely. he felt braver telling this to san than he would telling it to yunho.

san chuckled again, "yeah. well, pretend I didn't say this but," he hesitated for a second as he too looked over to where his dear friend was stood by the window, "I think he might want that too"

_

a/n: thank you so much for all the lovely comments and messages so far. I always try to reply to messages bcos it truly means a lot to me, so if you do have any feedback you want to share with me, feel free to drop me a message ♡