Chapter 32

"Soju?" Suho asks.

"I don't want to use it to forget my problems,"

"Your girl problem," He puts a small smile on his face as he looks at me.

"Girl problem," We both laugh. I haven't felt this lighter for a while.

"For what we all know, you are always the one in control when drunk," He pulls me from the floor, "Let's get a drink. It's almost 11:30. I don't think anyone will recognize us,"

We take a walk to the nearest drinking vendor. To my surprise, most of them were there. Chan Yeol, Sehun, Chen, Kyung So and Kai. All of them were sitting at a round table with no one else other than an old woman, the owner, inside.

"Hyung," Sehun steps closer and hugs me, "It's been a long time since I've seen this bright smile of yours,"

"Me too," Kai joins. Gosh! I even forgot I have babies to take care of.

"Okay, okay, I miss you too. Now can you go back to your seats before I turn back to how I was?" I hug them back. These kids can be too annoying. I laugh to myself that they rely on me most of the time.

"Just promise us you won't be like that again," Sehun looks at me, his hands caressing my face. God!

"Okay! I promise, now get off me. And don't," I remove his hands from my face, "You dare touch my face," I warn.

"Hyung, thank you for coming back. Honestly, we were all tired of taking care of them," Chan Yeol seems relieved.

"And we got one more surprise," Kyung So calmly adds. We all look at the door which exposes Baek Hyun.

"Wow,"

"Ahh," Sehun rolls his eyes.

"The double trouble is here," Kai murmurs.

"Hello everyone!" He excitedly greets us. In no time he runs to us all and pulls us in a big tight hug, "I miss you all so much," He almost cries. My dear brother.

He looks a little bolder than the last time we said goodbye to each other. It must have been hard to do all those military activities without us.

"We miss you too, idiot," Chan Yeol laughs.

"It was so hard without you guys,"

"Of course, you must have had a hard time! You had no one to nag," Loey rolls his eyes.

"Speaking of that," He starts chasing Chan Yeol for no reason. The combination of these two makes it always a disaster. All of us laugh when Loey hides behind everyone. I mean, how can the giant bro hide because of Baek Hyun? This is one of the most precious times ever, knowing that we can always count on each other and we've got each other.

Moonlight, let's say Anahi, was not wrong. I am surrounded by great people. My family and my brothers, all make me think of her.

She once told me that she is surrounded by toxic people. I wonder how they are treating her. Have they found out about us? What exactly are they doing to her? One thing I know for sure is she isn't happy. I just hope that by the time I reach her, her heart won't have turned into stone. Anahi, I promise you. Whatever it takes, I will find you.

"There we go," Sehun nags.

"We are not letting you do this again!" Chen sits me on one of the chairs.

"Why do I feel like I am missing something?" Baek Hyun pants as he sits on the chair. The dude's got more energy than ever.

"Can you stop it? You will be told when the time is right!" Chen hisses, gritting his teeth.

"I want to know now!" We all know how he is. He will not stop until we all tell him what is going on.

"I knew he'd come with a unique disaster," Kai rolls his eyes.

I close my eyes. I can't keep them in darkness. They have to know. They are my brothers. Xiumin, you can do this. I open my eyes at the realization that they are trying to keep each other quiet, thinking something bad is happening inside my head, probably. Well, this is it.

"I fell in love... With a woman," They all look at me, like 'what Bro?' "But she wasn't mine to keep," I smile.

"But why isn't she yours to keep? I mean, isn't she beautiful? She must have some feelings for you too! Aren't you..."

"Ajumaa, a round of soju for all of us please!" Chan Yeol asks. I know how it sounds. Everyone agreed to drink soju instead of talking about this, especially because Baek Hyun might make things worse than they are.

I guess they were all afraid I might turn back to how I was or maybe they don't want to talk about it because they can still through the burning sensation in my chest. I just smile and accept my bottle of soju when it comes.

Baek Hyun could be right. She and I had feelings for each other. I still have them. I am quite sure she has them too. So why should a good-for-nothing husband try to separate her from her happiness? God! I must be going crazy.

"Cheers," Baek Hyun makes a toast, "To me for safely coming back home from hell,"

"For us being next," Kai looks disappointed, and so is Sehun. They are the only ones that haven't gone to the military yet. It must be so hard for them. I could see how nervous they got every time one of us came from there. It's like they wished to run away.

"For more years of OT9," Chan Yeol says.

"To our brother, Lay's success," Chen nods as he says.

"To more years of brotherhood," Kai.

"To our brothers who could not join us on this new path," Sehun says, thinking while smiling, "To their success," the hardest moments of our group were seeing them leaving us behind, one by one. It felt lonely without them. We still miss them. I still miss them. Silence conquers their memories.

"Cheers to the little memories that are inside our hearts," D.o smiles.

"We will be one again, one day, right? Haven't we made this promise before? Or have we forgotten about that?" Baek Hyun cheers up.

"If we miss them so much we should hurry and make a toast to them," He sobs.

"Wait, was he about to cry? The Baek Hyun we know?" Loey's eyes could pop out at any second. Can't he really understand that this is one of those moments, where jokes should be aside?

"I don't blame him much for that though," Sehun also sobs. This happens every we talk about them. One of us would struggle a little too hard to keep himself from shedding tears. Now Sehun can't seem to hold it. He was the most depressed when Luhan left. It's affecting him until now. Poor him.

"Cheers," Suho raises his glass.

"Cheers," And we all do the same.

The old lady comes with a big bowl filled with teokbokki and places them on the table, "Today feels like you could use this delicious meal. For your own good," She whispers, "I make the best teok bokki around,"

"But we didn't ord..." Chen makes Baek Hyun swallow a liquid of soju.

"Thank you ajuma," He smiles.

"Poor your hearts out. No one will hear you guys anyways," she shouts as she goes outside.

Sehun keeps looking at his brother as he keeps thinking about her. Should he tell them about it? The question keeps hanging around his head. Maybe he should, but anyway,

"I too," He takes a deep breath, "am seeing someone," All of them almost spit the food they were chewing, others choking hard at what he has just said.

"What?!" All of them look at Sehun. Chan Yeol's eyes would definitely be the first ones to pop out of their sockets.

"Just what was really happening when I was gone?" Baek Hyun looks at Sehun and Xiumin, back and forth.