Twilight | ATEEZ

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Three days. That's how long Hongjoong has spent coming over to Yeosang's early in the morning and leaving late at night. Yeosang's parents had called him at the end of day one saying that they will be going to visit his grandparents and if he wanted to come, but Yeosang kindly declined. While they were going to spend that visiting time looking back fondly on the memories of Eunsang, Yeosang will be here in Eunsang's old room with Hongjoong sifting through everything that Eunsang ever touched.

Hongjoong hasn't gotten to read the diary entries that first caused Yeosang to call him over here yet, Yeosang saying how he wanted to look for other things before he would be able to manage going through that diary again.

Yeosang hasn't been sleeping, Hongjoong knows that. He's offered to stay over each night, but Yeosang declines it every time. With each step that Yeosang takes towards letting Hongjoong in completely, he takes another step back at the end of every night. One thing that Hongjoong has noticed, however, is that Yeosang hasn't reached for one ounce of alcohol while he's been over.

Not once.

It confuses Hongjoong because he knows that if this were him, he would need the alcohol to cope with everything he knows Yeosang must be going through, but he's so happy at the same time to see the one he loves so much actually clear-minded.

Or... As clear-minded he can be through all of this.

"I-" Yeosang starts but bites his lip as if contemplating actually handing the journal over, but he settles that internal conflict quickly when he holds out the diary to Hongjoong, "I want you to read this now, Joong..."

"Are you sure, my love?" Hongjoong takes the journal and scoots over to be side by side with Yeosang, looking up into his breathtaking brown eyes. It's already late into the third night right now, and this is normally the time that Yeosang sends Hongjoong back to his own home.

Yeosang nods through a yawn, flickering his eyes from Hongjoong's and Eunsang's diary.

Hongjoong mirrors Yeosang's yawn and opens the diary to the first entry, reading it wordlessly, apart from a few gasps as he reads through a few of them. He was planning on waiting until the end to make any comments, especially since whenever he looked over at Yeosang, his baby's eyes were completely glossed over with tears that wanted to fall.

"I don't like the way your brother describes this Lee Minhee guy..." Hongjoong says with a frown, rechecking the date and age that Eunsang was when he wrote these. He knows that Yeosang is ten years younger, so that helps him frame the year that these events took place. Something about that name sparks a knowing feeling within Hongjoong.

He knows that name.

Lee Minhee. Lee Minhee. Lee Minhee.

That's the name of Lee Minho's elder brother, isn't it? Professor Lee, the microbiology teacher. He's one of Twilight's alumni, too. Hongjoong's heard Seonghwa talk about the Lee family frequently, and has even spoken to him about them when they were considering Lee Minho to join Twilight just like his elder brother.

"I think that," Hongjoong clears his throat, his thoughts starting to swarm, "This guy that was dating Eunsang's crush is the same Lee Minhee that's a professor at our school. The club, the year, it all aligns up with the age-frame for Professor Lee. He's a long-time alumni of Twilight and... and I think that we have some questions that we need to ask him, baby."

Yeosang's eyes search Hongjoong's for any sign of falsity in his words, knowing he wouldn't find any, but he has to be sure. This is his brother's death they're talking about.