How My Brother And I Kidnapped An Assassin

16. Cues

"Do you want me to help you wash dishes?" Donghyuck asked Xiaojun, standing next to him in the kitchen. The latter was scrubbing intensely at a pot that was used for frying some vegetables. "I already cleaned the table."

Xiaojun shook his head. He had come back inside after seeing that two different princes from two different kingdoms were on his porch, and the last thing he wanted was to ridicule himself outside. "Don't worry, I'm good," he said, grabbing another handful of homemade soap. "You can, uh, how would your brother say it... chill."

Donghyuck wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Please don't use slang with him, that's weird."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Xiaojun said, rolling his eyes while smiling. "Look, just do me a favor and get Kun for me, I guess, but yeah, feel free to do whatever, especially with Mark. He looks like he needs a friend."

Donghyuck turned around to see Mark in the living room, staring out the window. The superhuman robot cyborg whatever thing... damn, he didn't have a past or memory like the rest of them.

"Mark's cool," Donghyuck said, which was true; he liked hanging out with the superhuman. "He's nice and I can finally tell someone my jokes without them getting worried."

"You can what now-" Xiaojun set the pot down and turned to look at Donghyuck, who was already skipping away, arms behind his back. "I- this generation, I swear...."

Donghyuck made his way to the living room, whistling at Mark. "Yo, do you see outside, it's almost getting dark! We go outside and catch fireflies."

Mark turned to face Donghyuck once he realized the latter was speaking to him. "Oh, hey."

"You know, for someone who's supposed to be a superhuman, you have bad social cues," Donghyuck said, picking up a small glass jar that he had prepared earlier. It had a lid with holes on it so that the fireflies could live.

"That was a problem with the four of us," Mark mentioned. "If I recall correctly. Model R bit J- the assistant."

"Oh, wow, now I have to be wary of the teeth now, don't I?" Donghyuck held the glass jar above his head. "I'd be more scared of someone biting metal."

Donghyuck skipped his way back towards the kitchen, grabbing his jacket that he had left on the table with his free hand, still holding the glass jar. "Xiaojun, Mark and I are going to go outside-"

"DO NOT go outside," Xiaojun interrupted him, immediately turning around. He still had a plate with soap in his hands. "I am begging you, do not-"

"Uh... okay..." Donghyuck said slowly, stepping out of the kitchen backwards slowly. "Are you afraid I'm going to get murdered or something-"

Xiaojun bit his lip, turning back around to finish the dishes. "Yeah. That."

Donghyuck sighed, heading back into the living room. "Forget about the fireflies," he muttered, sitting next to Mark on the sofa. He tossed the glass jar from one hand to another, his jacket now forgotten besides him. "Might call it a night."

Mark blinked a couple of times. He heard what Xiaojun told Donghyuck in the kitchen, but the latter pulled a complete 180 on his sudden change of mood.

"What do you want to know about fireflies?" Mark asked him suddenly, not knowing how to change his mood. Jaehyun didn't teach him enough about this.

Donghyuck raised an eye. "Do you have, like, an encyclopedia about them in your head?"

"Uh... I mean, the royal scientist put a huge database of information in my infrastructure," Mark explained slowly, wondering if it was an insult. "But his assistant Jaemin found fireflies fascinating and would ramble about it while conducting tests on me-"