° tied to you - haechan

° chapter twenty seven

[Monday, 07:12]

Donghyuck sat at the dining table, watching steam rise from the food in front of him. All three of the boys did that as they waited for the lady to come and join them. A warm bowl of soup, egg rolls, some fruits cut up on the side and various hot drinks laid out in pristine ceramics along the centre of the table. It was a fraction less than it usually was but it wasn't bothering anyone. Maybe it was the chill in the air as winter came around but food like this seemed to be the most comforting and became a standard in the Lee household. It was silent, as usual, but Donghyuck had noticed that the last few days didn't feel so tense. His mother was taking things easy, Minjun had learned to eat in silence but in a way he didn't feel silenced or he would yap everyone's ears off but Donghyuck never once saw his father sneer or roll his eyes. It had felt like there was a negative energy surrounding them in the last few months, they had never been so troubled before and all of that was slowly starting to fade. Things seemed to be going smooth, there was a flow that wasn't being interrupted and the peace that Donghyuck was used to had restored itself.

A thought had occurred to him occasionally, one that he didn't like but maybe, food wasn't getting lodged in a non-existent crevice of his food-pipe because he had cleared the air between him and his soulmate. He was very quick to shut the thought down but knowing nothing was going to happen and that he got to keep the life he was used to was a relief. He wasn't so bothered by it all any longer.

"So," Jeonghwa broke the silence, immediately grabbing everyone's attention, "We need to find outfits for the event this Sunday."
"An event?"
"Yes, Boram eonni's son's congratulatory party. He finished his residency and is a qualified Doctor now."
"That's a week away, you should've said earlier! Do you know how much I have to do?"

Donghyuck set his fork down on the table, feeling his food go down painfully slowly. Jeonghwa caught on to the way his son tensed up, eyes flicking over to her husband for a fraction of a second for help. Though he hadn't looked up in time, it was more in his favour to not interfere.

"She told us a month ago. There's a colour scheme - black, gold, formal. We're expected there at 7pm, it will go on till 11pm. Minjun doesn't have to be there but you do. Luckily for you, there's no formal dance so you don't have to scavenge around for a plus one."
His lips very slightly curved upwards at his own joke, straightening his face again in a split second before looking up at his son, "Don't have a go at her when you forgot."

Donghyuck's mind was already at work, rearranging his time around his tutoring, group meetings and now, this party. All the small details flew right past him - the way his dad calmly explained the situation, the fact that he was defending his wife, how she wasn't so surprised by it, how he remembered what she had told him. All of this stuff was bound to change his brain chemistry but instead, it was going completely unnoticed.

See, Donghyuck wasn't panicking nor was all his emotions flooding out of his body leaving him feeling completely empty, that in itself meant he was in a better place mentally than he was two months ago when his soulmate had ruined his exams but since then, anything that he could do to keep his grades up, he was going to do. Going to a ball or celebrating the win of some rich kid who probably killed a few people along the way to get where they are now wasn't on the list. It wasn't even the four hours on a Sunday night that bugged him, it was the fact that it meant hours of trying on tuxedos that looked the same in every department store in the district, so more than four hours are wasted.
Though he had been in this lifestyle long enough to know there was no way out.