THE HAVEN

TWO

"I wouldn't wanna trade this shitty little place for the world"

TWO

With lots of encouraging words of the boys and a mobile number scribbled onto a piece of paper, he returned back to his normal life.

When he told Johnny about everything, it took him half an hour to calm him down and reassure him that yes, he was okay. That no, nothing bad happened and no, it wasn't his fault for not being in town.

"You're not my guardian, John," he sighed into the phone when he lay on his creaky bed in the darkness. Donghyuk's stomach was growling, but his fridge was empty and out of power again and it wouldn't be bad to save up a little money for emergencies anyway.

"No, but I was scared shitless when you didn't pick up," Johnny said. "For what, eight days?"

"Five actually," Donghyuk corrected.

"Well it felt like eight," Johnny whined. "But for real, you are one lucky motherfucker. In a situation like this... normally you'd been dead meat."

"I know," Donghyuk whispered. "I can't believe they followed me for so long."

"Well I can. Some of them really are monsters."

"Some of them aren't apparently." Donghyuk sat up on his bed and shivered at the cold breeze that hit his skin. He really had to do something about those cracks in the window frame, it was only October now, but it would get really annoying during January and February when the nights were the coldest. You can only get so far with wool blankets and fluffy socks.

"Yeah," Johnny hummed through the phone. "Apparently. But be careful, okay. They could just be pretending to gain your trust, like they did with-"

"My mom, I know," Donghyuk interrupted. His voice was like a harpoon and even he was a little startled at how harsh he could sound.

"I'm sorry, Haechanie, I didn't mean to..." Johnny paused. "I'm just worried about you. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you."

"I know."

"You're gonna be able to sleep tonight?"

"I think so yeah. Work was so annoying today," he groaned. "I'm exhausted."

"Okay then. Good night?"

"Yeah, goodnight, "Donghyuk nodded, even though Johnny couldn't see it. "And don't sound so worried, you big softie. "

The days went on like they used to.
He'd nearly lost his job in the bookstore for not showing up for five days straight and he begged his manager to give him another chance and explained what happened. Maybe the man believed him, maybe he didn't, but the important thing was that he still had a job.

So he kept working his shift in the bookstore during the week and the one in the supermarket on the weekend.
He met up with Johnny sometimes to eat lunch in his break time and usually talked to him on the phone in the evenings.

Mark sent him four messages in the first week, checking in if everything was alright and Donghyuk always replied, updating him and telling him to greet the others.
It was nice to have someone do that for him. It was nice getting messages from someone who cared.

He hadn't had a new number in his contacts in so long. There was Johnny's number and his name with a little green heart emoji next to it that he'd once added when he was in a cheesy mood, but he also didn't want to delete it now, because he got so used to it.
As long as Johnny didn't find out.

And there was the number of one of his aunts, the only person in his family who was somewhat plagued by guilt it seemed.
She sent him modest pay checks once every few months and he wished he didn't nearly cry every time he got them, because he knew she did it out of pure guilt and didn't actually care, but he also didn't have the luxury to be bitter about it, because he needed the money so much and wouldn't know what he'd do without her support.