The Little Things

If it was possible to feel comfortable and uptight at the same time this was definitely one of those times. Although, if Ewon thought about it hard enough he would realize that that could be said about almost every moment he spent with Mookyul.

The taller man had grabbed onto Ewon's hand without a care in the world as they walked through the flooded streets; his logic must have been that if he didn't look at other people then they probably weren't looking at him. It was the wrong sort of logic but it was purely Mookyul's way of thinking also.

Ewon continued to stare in front of himself as he walked; cheeks burning red. Far ahead he noted a familiar face amongst the thick sea of strangers. The expression on this person's face was terribly sad though, and the more he thought about it the more he realized that something was off; even if he didn't quite know what that something was.

As the person walked towards them, he confirmed his suspicions. "Jiho..." He voiced his realization.

"You want to have Jiho for dinner?" Mookyul asked in an attempt to show his lover how much he hadn't been listening, raising a sceptical eyebrow as he glanced at him.

Ewon realized to what extent he had zoned out of his conversation with Mookyul but his mind was still on the man ahead. The blond wasn't sure if it was done purposely but the smaller man seemed to have glanced up from the ground, and then taken a sharp right. Was Ewon being avoided, he wondered.

"Jiho!" He let go of Mookyul's hand promptly and ran to where he was sure the other had disappeared to. In the alleyway Jiho's back was to Ewon, prompting him to call out to him.

Jiho only meekly glanced back, in his hand he gripped his phone firmly.

"I haven't seen you in a few weeks." Ewon informed him. He stepped closer but Jiho turned just a bit. "Have you been avoiding me?"

The last time the two had talked all seemed well. They had gone shopping and had a really good time too. After that things had gone a bit quiet and Ewon passed it off as Jiho being busy with his single life.

"No, not at all." Jiho faked a sweet laugh. "Why would you think that?"

Ewon approached hurriedly and turned Jiho around to look at him, seeing the most horrible thing he'd ever seen in his entire life. A great injustice.

Jiho's eye was red and watery, easily to blame of the bruising and swelling that surrounded it. One of his lips was swollen and at being seen in this state he lowered his head timidly as his body trembled. Proud Jiho Shin was reduced to someone who looked like he, aside from having been hit by a car, had something to be ashamed of.

"Jiho...how did..."

"Don't touch it, idiot." Jiho snapped, pulling himself so far that his back hit the cold stone wall of the alley.

"What are you doing?" Mookyul asked, monotonously. All he did was see Ewon staring at the other; when he looked to see what he was staring at he admitted to himself that he wasn't too surprised.

Jiho growled, though it must have hurt to even do so, and then snapped at the two of them before he attempted to walk off, "What am I? A zoo exhibit? Stop staring!"

Ewon grabbed hard onto Jiho's hand before he could leave, "Where are you going with your face like that?"

"Home!"

Again, Jiho pulled away and Ewon turned to his partner, "Mookyul!"

"Let the kid do what he wants." Mookyul mumbled, fidgeting with his lighter.

Ewon's lips turned into a scowl and he shoved Mookyul as he stormed past him, merely angering the beast. Though he didn't care. Whatever Jiho actually was to him he didn't actually care; all he knew was that he needed someone right now.

He chased the man, he was thankful he hadn't made it too far, and then latched onto his waist to pull him aside. "Come with us."

"I'll sort it out on my own."

"It looks really really bad." Ewon pointed out. By now he was almost sure that it looked like it was getting worse.

"Thanks." The man hit him on top of his head with his fist, then turned to look away, "Really, I'll sort it on my own."

Ewon wondered...and then realized. "Is this about Mookyul? Is that why you won't..." Before he would even let Jiho answer he tugged Mookyul in their direction, "It's okay if Jiho comes over for a while, right?"

Both of the businessman's eyebrows shot up and then he waved his lover off, "Leave him alone."

"Alright," Ewon released a sigh of defeat and then turned back to Jiho. "Let's go back to your place, okay? Just you and me."

"What?" From then on Mookyul just about dragged the other two back to his place. No. He didn't trust his lover alone with his ex and with comforting in between them; absolutely not.

Back at Mookyul's place Ewon had might as well pulled the medicine cabinet off the bathroom wall; he had taken almost everything out of it after all. He barely knew where to start as after Jiho pealed off his jacket he was met with more bruising on one of his arms.

Mookyul pressed an icepack against Jiho's cheek quickly, alarming him as much as hurting him enough that he hissed and pulled away promptly. Ewon gave Mookyul a nasty look, causing him to resign himself and find something else to do for a while.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Do I look like I want to talk about it?" Although he seemed like he had intended more bite in that rebuke, he was weak and tired, obviously upset.

"It might do you good." Ewon held the others face in place as, with some regret, he pressed the icepack back onto it.

"I can't tell you any more than what you already guessed." Jiho buried his cheek further into the cold but turned his gaze to look elsewhere. "It's over now so it's not a problem."

"Not a problem? Jiho, you should go to the police."

"You're naive if you think they'll even listen to me about this."

Plucking the blanket off the back of the couch Ewon continued to watch his ex-lover closely before he draped it over his shaking legs. "How about some tea?"

"I'll be leaving; you don't have to..."

"No you're not. Stay a while."

"Why?"

"Because I'm worried about you and it will make me feel better if you're here?" He tried with a very very nervous smile. He really had never been very good at convincing Jiho into doing anything he didn't want to do.

"What do you think I'm going to do? Jump off my balcony?"

"No, nothing like that but... Can you please stay without me having to beg?"

Jiho pulled his legs up onto the couch and went silent. Had Jiho Shin really just give in?

Ewon stood up and ran down the hall, startling Mookyul as he pushed open the door, "I'm going to tell Jiho to spend the night, okay?"

"What? Why?"

"What do you mean 'why?'? You don't seriously want me to send him out, do you?"

"I don't get why you brought him here in the first place, to be honest!"

Ewon sat on the bed and gave Mookyul his back, "Jiho...has done a lot for us..."

"Us?"

"If you really don't think that Jiho has done anything for us then don't bother but I'm not throwing him out on his own; it's going to take a lot to get him to stay so it would be nice if you helped." Ewon went to leave but couldn't resist looking back at his lover. Mookyul would have been a fool to say he didn't see that Ewon was feeling hurt and Mookyul never played the fool in anything. "If..." He shook his head. "Never mind." He released a heavy exhale. "Can you order dinner? Whatever you want is fine."

He made some tea for Jiho and himself and then went to sit on the couch beside him. It seemed like Jiho was really tired but there was still the vulnerable yet proud part of him that forced him to sit up promptly once Ewon's eyes were on him.

"Mookyul is ordering some dinner; you can stay the night too."

"Why do you have me here?"

"You're not talking about it."

"Why do I need to talk about it?"

"Maybe...it'll help."

"Doubtful."

Ewon chewed on his bottom lip; debating with himself and trying hard to decide what to do... He had to be careful... "You weren't with him long, right?"

"No."

"Was he always..."

"No." Jiho shook his head promptly, "I'm not answering your damn questions anymore!"

"Fine, fine," he raised his hands quickly, signifying defeat; he knew a little better than to try to piss Jiho off. "Mookyul is ordering dinner... Are you hungry?"

His answer contradicted how much he felt the need to devour when the food arrived.

Mookyul was a bit surprised; even when they spent hours at a time together he didn't eat that much.

The couple shared glances but didn't say much when Jiho went to the bathroom and didn't come out for a while. Ewon's anger began to boil over as it turned into hurt at Mookyul's uncaring attitude towards the entire situation.

"He'll be alright." Ewon told himself, tempted to hang around outside the bathroom. Tearing the closet apart in the process, he wrestled the extra quilt and pillows out of the small space and then over to the large couch in the living room.

"What are you doing?" Jiho asked, standing behind him.

"You need something to sleep with."

"I'm not spending the night."

"It's late; you shouldn't walk home alone at this hour."

"I'll take a taxi."

Ewon gripped Jiho's shoulders, "Stay? Just one night?" He asked this with as much honest pleading in his eyes as he could muster, knowing that Jiho wouldn't resist. In his head, he had deemed it for his own good anyway.

Almost without even realizing he was doing it Jiho settled back down on the couch, curling up in a corner of it. He went to rest his face in his hand but winced sharply upon touching his bruised cheek, forgetting it was there from under the cream that helped to numb it.

"You look really really tired, Jiho." Ewon whispered, almost with disbelief, as he sat down beside him and observed him closely. "Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor? I could tell Mook-…"

"I don't need to see a doctor." Jiho wriggled about under the quilt, and fluffed two pillows under his head, "I just need some sleep."

"Before bed do you want me to make you some tea?" Ewon rushed to ask but after waiting patiently for a moment for an answer it seemed that other had already gone to sleep.

Ewon stood up and tiptoed away, sighing with defeat as he considered giving in for the night. He stopped in the doorway of his bedroom and looked down the hall once more; he saw Jiho sit back up, watching as his head sunk forward to rest in his hands again. "Jiho's avoiding talking to me." Ewon sighed, closing the door behind himself as he let himself complain to his lover.

"I would too if I were him."

The blond had gotten far too tired to even glare at the other, instead he collapsed on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "How could someone do that to him?"

It was a delayed reaction due to his deep thinking but a moment after he felt the other's lips on his chest Ewon jumped off the bed and began beating the other with a pillow, "Would you be freakin' serious for just one freakin' minute?" He tired himself out, and upon dropping his exhausted arms he caught sight of Mookyul's fierce glare from under his dishevelled dark hair. He…sort of regretted doing that now.

Still, for some unknown reason, Mookyul just rolled over and gave his lover his back; saying and doing nothing else.

"What do you care anyway?" Ewon continued to say, obviously making the situation worse. "You've hit him too. No wonder he didn't want to come here."

"He used me!"

"And you didn't use him?" Ewon asked, snapping his head to look back. "Didn't you?"

"You mustn't think very highly of your friend if you think he's the type that's just got to be used by someone."

Ewon flung the pillow at the man who, somehow, seemed to have the talent for twisting his words around. "That's not what I meant!"

Mookyul sat up, "You think that Jiho is just the type that's going to be used. Admit it; that is how you see him, and that's how you'll always see him."

"I didn't use him!"

"And I didn't either!"

Ewon blinked repeatedly. It seemed like he was being…honest. "Did you really like Jiho?"

"Before you came along."

"Oh." He had never given this any thought.

"But then you came along, and he pointed out that I was all part of some twisted plan to pay you back and now, to be quite honest, I don't give a damn."

Ewon crawled across the bed, "You don't really mean that, do you? After all he did…"

"I'm aware of what he did."

Ewon picked up some clean clothes and, as usual so as not to arouse the beast, he went to the bathroom to change for bed. "I've never seen him like this; even after everything, even after I hurt him, even after you hurt him, after everything, he was always so proud."

"Seems like someone finally cut him down to his tiny size."

"You're too mean to him; even if he hurt you…it's too much."

The older man groaned and rolled over onto his stomach, burying an ear into his pillow to at least shut out half of his boyfriend's talking. Neither one seemed in the mood to say or do anything; Mookyul just pretended to sleep and Ewon stared at the ceiling.

"Don't you ever regret what we did to each other?"

"No."

"That's really blunt."

"How can I regret what turned out well?"

"It didn't turn out very well for Jiho."

"Two out of three."

Ewon rolled over and found himself latching onto Mookyul's wide back, pulling an arm around him, "I'm worried about him." He propped his head to rest it on his arm and watched with drooping eyelids as he entwined their fingers together, their rings resting side by side. "What am I going to do?" He asked with a small sense of defeat in his tone. "I can't just let this go."

A short pang of discomfort fluttered in Mookyul's chest and he found himself unconsciously squeezing the other's hand with some sort of unspoken support. He rolled over and nestled the boy into his chest, running soft kisses along his skin.

And even if Ewon wouldn't normally give in, especially not under these circumstances, not with his friend just down the hall, he let Mookyul sweep him away. Just for a little while; is what he told himself.

Mookyul crept out of bed after watching his lover doze off, no longer seeming too troubled for the time being. He grabbed two apples from the centre of the unused dining table, and picked up an ice pack from the freezer, crunching into one of the apples. He seemed to have surprised the boy, but he wasn't surprised at all upon seeing him awake; actually, he expected it.

"Come to gloat?"

"I didn't realize it was an option." Mookyul tossed the apple into Jiho's hands and while he was preoccupied catching it he promptly pressed the cold material back to his face. "Keep it there or it'll get worse." He vaguely heard him ask how it could possibly get worse but he felt no need to answer him. "So how long has it been like this?"

"Why do you care all of a sudden?"

"I don't, but Ewon does."

"I'll tell him you were a good boyfriend then, but we don't have to go through this…"

"Maybe he wouldn't know the truth but I would. So tell me, how long has this been going on?"

"A few months."

"And? Why didn't you leave before?"

"Couldn't."

Even if Mookyul deemed that one of the stupidest replies he'd ever gotten, he let it slide simply for Jiho's sake; why he took pity on him, he wasn't even sure. "How bad is it?"

"Are you blind now?"

"You know that I'm talking about the parts that Ewon and I can't see."

"It's fine."

Mookyul, as straightforward as he is, leaned forward and pressed the tips of his fingers into the side of his torso, pulling back upon he hearing him cry out.

"You're awful!" Jiho accused hoarsely, dubbed over and protecting the pained area.

"You're a liar." Mookyul countered. "But I can't say I'm surprised now."

Jiho smirked, "So that's why…" He laughed a bit and then sat back, looking up at him with the real Jiho's determination, "You want to hit me again for that time, huh?"

"That man really has driven you mad." Mookyul hissed.

"That's why you're here, right? You can do it, you know? Like this it's not like Ewon will notice the difference in the morning and probably I won't either."

"You've really lost it." Mookyul said, realizing the extent of the damage as Jiho stood up and closed in on him.

"Just hit me already!" Jiho argued, shoving Mookyul hard in the chest to taunt him. "After what I did I deserve it!"

Mookyul grabbed the younger boy by the wrists, holding them tightly in front of himself and keeping him in place, "Do you realize that if I hit you I could kill you?"

"Listening to Ewon now, are you?"

"I was wrong back then, alright? It's not to say that you weren't but…no matter what you did I wouldn't have done this to you." Jiho knew exactly what he meant once he felt the cool air touch the bruises on his stomach, his hiss beckoning the man to pull the hem of his shirt back down. "This is not someone that is hurt; this is someone that is angry!"

"I hurt you?"

"This isn't about you and me; this is about him; there's nothing in the world you could have done to make him do this to you."

"You don't know…"

"I know enough!"

"There's nothing in the world you could have done."

Jiho dropped himself back down onto the sofa, sinking his fingers into his hair and burying his face in his arms, "It was me."

"Definitely not you."

"But..."

Mookyul gripped his shoulder hard, the stinging pain getting Jiho's full attention, "Lie down before you hurt yourself more."

Jiho's arms protected his stomach as he lay down, rolling onto his side. He released a low groan, burying his mouth in his arm to muffle it as best he could.

"I'm calling Sangchul; he'll take you to the hospital." He sat down beside him and held him in place just as he was about to protest. "For all we know there could be internal bleeding."

"It's not that bad."

"You don't know that." He made the call quickly, apologizing lowly to his most loyal colleague for calling at that time of night. "He'll be here within the hour." He looked down and inspected the pile of mess; had he not been in a perfectly sober and fit state, he would have challenged himself to believe that this was certainly not the attitude of Jiho Shin. His face was clearly crumpled and washed with the translucent liquid of sobbing tears as the aching torso twitched with shuddering breaths.

To be honest, no matter how hurt or angry Mookyul had ever been at him, he'd never wished this on Jiho. He never would have. To watch Jiho Shin like this…made him think that this was anyone else in the world.

"Did you kick Jiho out or something?" Ewon asked, stomping into Mookyul's office furiously. "He must've left in a hurry last night and he's not answering his phone anymore!"

Mookyul popped the cigarette back into his mouth and, slamming his chair behind himself, he stood up and stormed past his lover, "Sangchul," he called to the loyal man sitting on the couch, "come find me once this idiot is gone."

"Hey!" Ewon snapped after Mookyul, ready to go running after him.

"Leave it alone, Ewon." Sangchul calmly said.

"He keeps treating Jiho like crap; who knows where he is now?"

"He's at my place, Ewon." Sangchul sighed and wiped at his eyes. "Mookyul called me last night, asked me to take Jiho to the hospital; they released him a few hours later on the condition someone kept an eye on him for a few hours."

"How..."

"He'll be fine; he had some breakfast and then went to rest again but he should be fine. A mild concussion, scrapes and bruises that look more harmful than they are but with rest he'll be fine."

"Yeah?" Ewon wanted to be happy, he just could be. "Mookyul really..."

"He tried to help out but there wasn't much he could do."

The blond dropped himself down onto the couch, "I shouldn't have done that..."

"Mookyul...he tries to do these things quite rarely but...you need to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"I'm..." He pounded his head into a pillow, "He won't let go of this for a while."

"Just go and talk to him."

Ewon sighed and dragged his feet all the way to the quiet cafe in the basement, "I didn't..."

"Think?" Mookyul interrupted, lifting his cup of coffee to his lips.

"I didn't realize..." Ewon sat down on Mookyul's lap and wrapped his arms around his neck. "I'm...really sorry." Mookyul released a disgruntled sound. "What you did was really sweet... It was good too; you convinced him to go to the hospital and he really needed to."

Mookyul groaned softly but otherwise remained quiet.

Ewon kissed the corner of his mouth, pouty as he tried to get Mookyul to give him some attention. "I'm...sorry, okay? What else can I say?"

"I suppose there's nothing." Subconsciously Mookyul wrapped his arm tighter around Ewon's small waist. "As long as you're not worrying anymore."

"It's Jiho... He still...means a lot... It looks like he does to you too."

"Like you said; he did something for us."

"How much do you still like him?" Ewon was undeniably curious, and smirking a bit.

The older man glared, "Enough to tolerate him."

Ewon chuckled and clung more to his partner but he knew more than anyone else how his boyfriend felt about the man. He shared a long deep kiss with him, triggering that little something inside the beast that he did so easily.

"Sangchul, you'll look after Jiho for me, right? I don't think he wants to put up with me right now so I..."

Ewon had caught the older man on the way out of the office after another long day so he felt a bit bad for troubling him with this all of a sudden, but he worried about Jiho too much to let it go without saying.

"Just..."

"I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, Ewon," Sangchul gave him a sweet smirk, "but don't worry too much; I'm sure he'll see you tomorrow."

"You think so?"

"Just give him a call in the morning."

"I will."

Ewon smiled a bit to himself and then shuffled away to meet Mookyul, busy in his office. "I'm really sorry…about how I treated you earlier; I really shouldn't have assumed…"

"You can drop it now. It doesn't matter." Mookyul leaned down and kissed Ewon quickly, "You'll make it up to me later anyway."

Ewon smiled feebly; he knew he would like the idea of what Mookyul was implying…it's just that Mookyul exaggerated with everything. That was the only thing that made it all a bad thing… A very bad thing. Damn Mookyul for loving everything in excess.

The younger boy curled up in his side a bit, inhaling his cigarette-tinted scent; he was reminded of all the little things that made living and loving Mookyul…interesting to say the least. Also, with a small and gentle reminder that Mookyul really did try hard for them, even if he rarely let it show. Just the little things that made everything…right.