After the Darkness, the Dawn

Interlude: Chanyeol

Junmyeon walks through the front door to the studio, carefully carrying a hot cup of fresh tea, and all the ladies, young and old, both inside and outside the studio, immediately perk up. He's here almost every day now, and it seems word had gotten around about the taekwondo studio's new handsome and charming son-in-law, and everyone in the neighborhood had decided to come down and get a look at Chorong's new model boyfriend. Chanyeol has no idea where that rumour came from but here it was to stay. The small crowd gathers daily outside the studio, and Chanyeol finds himself needing to set some ground rules and refusing to let anyone who wasn't a student come in. To Junmyeon's credit, he pays very little attention to his fans, merely bowing and waving back politely when they greet him, oblivious to it all, focused entirely on heading to the office in the back where Chorong sits, trying to crunch through their accounts and make sure all the bills are being paid and that their clients, in turn, were getting billed. He knocks shyly on her door and lights up when she smiles at him, waving him in, and he gently closes the door behind him. Chanyeol can still see through the large glass window, as can the students, and it takes everything in him to supress his eyeroll when Junmyeon quickly lean in as he hands Chorong her tea to plant a kiss on her cheek. His male students groan and scoff, but the girls clump together in that way girls do, giggling and squealing to each other at the display of affection.

"He's taken," Heesung helpfully reminds the girls only for them to roll their eyes at him.

"Yeah, we know, doesn't mean we can't appreciate him," Hyewon parries back.

"Hey, focus!" Chanyeol sternly reminds all of them, and they quickly return to their practice.

It's not that he doesn't like the guy, he does. He really does. If they had met as friends at school, while he was doing his service, or even Sehun introducing them as a friend of a friend, they could've gotten along quite well. But that's not how it went. And it's not as if he doesn't want his noona to date, he does, after all he was the one who pushed her to go on the blind date. Chorong had been a massive homebody for the better part of the last three years and he just wanted her to go out and have some fun. Maybe dip her toe in the dating pool, see what was out there, and eventually, after a few years of careful consideration, settle down with a reliable guy, someone strong who would be sure to take care of and look after her. His dad was no longer here to screen the boyfriends after all, and Chanyeol took it upon himself as his duty to watch over her and make sure she wasn't lured in by a mere pretty face. Unfortunately, it seems that's exactly what happened.

Again, he doesn't hate the guy. In fact, he's great. Kind, caring, considerate, generous, and dashingly good looking too, loathe as he is to admit it. Those are all great characteristics for a lifelong partner, and he watches, half his attention focused on the sparring in front of him, half on the two lovebirds snickering intimately in the office, as Junmyeon looks on lovingly while Chorong talks, squeezing her shoulders to get her to destress from her paperwork. They seem unaware that everyone could very well see everything they were doing, holding hands over the table as they flirt, as if unable to stay apart, and Chanyeol swears, if they lock lips, he was stomping over there to break it up immediately. There are kids here after all, grown high school kids, but kids nonetheless.

No, the issue Chanyeol had was that Junmyeon, in his eyes, was weak. Mentally, physically, he was too delicate, fragile, like one of the many ornamental vases Chanyeol had broken as a child. Pretty to look at, impossible to handle. Granted, he's not expecting Chorong to date a pro-wrestler, but he wanted someone for his sister who was strong, if not physically then at least personality wise, someone who could take charge in moments of chaos and trouble, who can confront situations head on and is not afraid nor hesitant to do so. Because he knows his sister, and she'd step up if the situation demanded it. After all, she'd done so before, when their parents died, giving up school, on her dream of being a doctor at a university she'd studied so hard to get into, to come home and take care of him. Teenage Chanyeol had been immature and hot-headed and weak, and were he a better brother, if he had only toughed it out those last few months until he graduated, until she graduated, then she wouldn't be stuck here with him. She wouldn't have had to make such heavy sacrifices for him. Teenage Chanyeol had been selfish too, signing up for his service immediately out of high school without telling her, without discussing it, and he'd run off for two years, away from this house and the burdening memories of much happier times, leaving his sister to suffocate and grieve all alone within the confines of its walls. They were siblings, his mother used to say whenever they had fought as kids, through thick and thin, they've only got each other. He'd never understood those words until the funeral, standing next to his sister who'd handled everything, everything, so he didn't have to, looking numb and tired and weighted down by the world at only 20. She'd tried to hold his hand at one point during the service, but he'd pulled away. He'd thought at the time that she had been trying to comfort him. He realises now, in hindsight, that it was perhaps her who'd been trying to seek some comfort from him in that moment.

He'd had a lot of time to think in the military, and with each thought and self-reflection, the more shameful and guilt ridden he'd felt. It had not been a fun two years, but even so, he had been reluctant to leave the army on his last day. It was, to him, better than staying at home and having to confront the loss of his parents. It was better than going home, now that it was over, and having to face the justified anger his noona must surely have felt for being abandoned like that by the only person left in the world who was supposed to have her back, no matter what. It was better than going back to find out she'd already moved on without him. His train arrived that afternoon at two. He had dragged his feet around town and didn't actually step down the familiar streets to his childhood home until three in the morning. He'd braced himself to come home to an empty place, cold and unwelcoming, but he'd been greeted instead by the warm glow of the living room lamp and the lingering smell of a home cooked meal, three full courses squeezed onto their old and tiny dinner table, gone cold by the time he got there as Chorong was hunched over the edge of the table, asleep, waiting on him. The house had not changed, still just as cramped and messy and small as the day he'd left it, and she'd bolted upright when he'd called out to her hesitantly from the doorway. "Noona?"

"Chanyeol?" She'd stood up, stumbling a bit. "Where were you? The foods all gone cold," she scolded, as if no time had passed and he'd merely stayed out late with friends. Not waiting on an answer, she'd rushed over to him, taking his bag and luggage from his shoulders. "How are you? Are you okay? You must be tired," she'd said in one breath, scanning him at the same time, taking him in. "You must be hungry too. I pulled out and washed your clothes, they're on your bed, why don't you shower first, and I'll reheat dinner, okay? I made your favorite, pork cutlets."

He'd cried then, big tears, wailing unrestrainedly like he hadn't done since he was eight and sprained his ankle falling off his bike. And just like then, his big sister had pulled him into a comforting hug, patting soothing strokes up and down his back. "I'm home noona," he'd said in between tears and hiccups, hugging her back. "I'm sorry I took so long to come home."

"What are you apologizing for? I'm just glad you are home," she'd laughed softly, holding him tighter. "Welcome home," she'd said after a beat, and he'd cried harder.

The cutlets were their mother's old recipe, a favorite of his that he had been sure he'd never taste again now that she was gone, and while it was overcooked and tasted nothing like their mother's, it was still the best meal he'd had in a long, long while.

Back in the present, Chanyeol watches as the couple continues to flirt shamelessly which was ridiculous because what is there to flirt about? They were already dating.

"Quit scowling," Bomi reminds him with a smirk as she slides up beside him. "Your sister complex is showing."

"I do not-!" he starts before remembering where he was and lowering his voice. "I do not have a sister-complex," he whispers back furiously. "Is it so much to ask that they don't make out in public?"

"Oh please, they're holding hands in a private office," Bomi points out, "and you sooooo have a sister complex. All I remember as a kid was you trailing behind us all the time yelling 'Noona! Noona!'," she squeaks in a poor imitation of Chanyeol as a kid. "And then in high school "Noona!'," she grunts, this time lowering her voice three octaves.

"Oh, shut up," Chanyeol bites back only to immediately backtrack when Bomi narrows her eyes at him, briefly forgetting the fact that Bomi can still beat him up on a good day. "Uh, I mean, could you please kindly shut it? Thank you?"

Bomi rolls her eyes, turning back to the lovebirds as Junmyeon blows on the tea to cool it before he hands it back for Chorong to drink, gazing adoringly at her as she sips it. "Just admit it, he's a great catch. Chorong couldn't have found a better guy."

Not true, Chanyeol thinks, though he doesn't say it out loud. Bomi would for sure spill to Chorong and he didn't need that happening. It's not as if he was going to dictate who his noona could see, not like she'd let him without a serious fight, but he didn't approve. His noona needed someone who she could lean on, and Junmyeon, for all his qualities, was not that. Not with the flighty, looking over his shoulder, nervous hamster-in-a-cage energy that he exudes constantly in public, though it has gotten better as of late. Junmyeon was a great guy, Chanyeol was willing to admit that, but great was not the best, and for Chanyeol, his noona only deserved the best of the best, period.