Notorious ⊷ Haechan

40 ⊷ Family

⊷ 40

It threw him off that it was this loud so early in the day. Usually, the mornings at the dorm were quiet, calm. But now, he was surrounded by all this noise. 

He brought a hand up to his eyes, shielding them from the sun rays that shone onto his face. It was nice. Warm. 

But he was tired. 

So he was ready to go back to bed, to keep sleeping despite all the noise. After all, he had been up for quite long last night, patiently waiting for--

"Joon," Taemin said in fear. "I need a bandaid." 

Surprised to hear both, that name and the voice, Haechan forced his eyes open. He lowered his hand, squinting his eyes together at the brightness of the sunlight. He couldn't see the two talking, yet he heard them well. 

An amused sigh slipped past Ji-yoon's lips. "How about you invest in a cooking class or something? If you keep cutting yourself we will run out of bandaids." 

"We are rich, we can buy new ones," Taemin pointed out which earned him a slap from the girl. 

"You can also just try a bit harder not to cut yourself at every given opportunity," she lectured him before changing her mind and telling him to, "Move. I will do the cutting." 

Haechan turned his head so that, instead of looking at the clean white ceiling above, he now got a glimpse at the door, the TV next to it, and the shelf that held all those childhood memories. 

"What do you want me to do then?" Taemin asked. 

Ji-yoon thought about it for a moment ere she offered a task that seemed fairly simple and straightforward. 
"You can make the orange juice." 

Taemin frowned. "But that's just throwing things into a machine and pressing a button," he pointed out.

"Exactly." She smiled at him. "That's the most Taemin proof task I can offer you right now." 

"Whatever." 

I really fell asleep here? 

He pressed his palms into the sofa to push himself up. Turning his body, he leaned against the backrest, turned his head to be able to look over into the kitchen where Taemin and Ji-yoon were busy cooking. 

They were bickering like siblings, laughing effortlessly. It was a little childish but their dynamic was endearing to watch and so he didn't want to- he couldn't interrupt them. 

Because he caught sight of the way Ji-yoon's eyes crinkled in their corners as she smiled widely. Saw how puffy her cheeks got. Noticed how she would always turn her torso just a little bit towards Taemin as they talked even though they weren't looking at each other.  

While he was watching them, he wasn't listening. He noticed their smiles and laughter but the words just passed by him. 

Allowing his eyes to drift away from Ji-yoon, he ended up looking at Taemin instead. From this angle, from where he sat, Taemin didn't seem so far away anymore. He wasn't just the CEO of LTM. He wasn't the owner of this fancy house. He wasn't a former suspect nor a current ally. 

He was just a boy that was spending time with his sister. 

While their life wasn't a string of adventures nor anything the like, with everything going on, with dangers and threats piling up, it was easy to lose sight of the small things. 

At least that's what Haechan thought. He had always been working hard, easily pushing work to the front of his to-do list, making it a priority. 

To Ji-yoon, nothing was more important than her family though.