Empty Sheets
Title: Empty Sheets
Pairing: Banghim
Rating: Mature
Foreword: Yongguk came back from the war, but there was something missing.
I wrote this for a fic exchange but they never posted anything, so in order to keep them from stealing my work I'm posting it here.
When Yongguk went off to the war he had only promised Himchan one thing. He hadn’t promised to come home alive - even though Himchan had sobbed and begged him to just promise that - but instead he had promised to come home in one piece. He hadn’t been able to keep that promise though.
He’d been at dinner with his parents when he got the call. Yongguk wasn’t supposed to be home for six more months so he wasn’t expecting to hear anything from him. So when he got a phone call from Natasha in between the first course and the second course he nearly threw up in his mouth. Hearing from a member of Yongguk’s family could only mean one thing. He started sobbing so hard that his mother had to answer the phone for him. Yongguk wasn’t allowed to be dead. He had to be alive.
He sobbed as his mother ushered him into the car and drove him to where Yongguk was. He begged her not to take him. There was no way he could survive seeing Yongguk’s lifeless body torn to shreds by bullets or ripped apart by a bomb. He didn’t need to see the body. He didn’t.
When he wasn’t dragged to the morgue he was able to calm down long enough for his mother to explain to him that Yongguk hadn’t died. He was pushed into the hospital room without any information but he could tell something was wrong just from how the blanket fell over his boyfriend’s body.
“It was a kid.” Himchan looked up when he heard Yongguk’s sister’s voice from the corner of the room. “They strapped a bomb to his chest and he blew up Yongguk’s vehicle.” She looked over at her brother, frowning at him slightly. “They got him stabilised over there and sent him home for recovery. They said he’ll have a prosthetic in three months.”
“Prosthetic…?” Himchan whimpered slightly at the word, sitting down in the free seat near his boyfriend.
Natasha sighed, looking at Himchan with disdain. “Yes, Himchan. A prosthetic to replace that leg that got blown to shit.”
The room felt like it was closing in around Himchan as he took another glance at his boyfriend. It had been obvious from the first glance that Yongguk hadn't been in one piece but he hadn't wanted to believe it either. He reached over to pull the blankets off of the sleeping man and felt another round of sobs build up in his chest when he saw that his boyfriend was, in fact, missing his leg.
It took a week for Yongguk to wake up again. He was high on pain medication, but the doctors said he was probably still hurting, and Himchan knew he would be humiliated at the things the nurses had been doing for him if he ever found out.
The doctors had warned Himchan that his boyfriend would be grumpy when he woke up, but he hadn’t been expecting him to say “go the fuck back to Korea…” when he opened his eyes and saw Himchan sitting next to him.
“We’re in Korea, Yongguk.” He reached out to pet his boyfriend’s head softly, trying his hardest not to be upset with the way he had just been spoken to by his lover. “You got sent back.” He didn’t want to mention the bomb in fear of giving the soldier flashbacks, but it didn’t seem like he knew what was going on. “Do you remember what happened?” His fingers wrapped around Yongguk’s hand as he waited for a response, he didn’t want his boyfriend to remember but he didn’t know if it would be worse for Yongguk not to know why he suddenly had one leg.
He shot a glare in Himchan’s direction. "Got blown to fucking hell. Fucking kid in the road, the fucking driver didn’t want to run him over.” Himchan couldn’t understand what was so wrong about not wanting to run over a child, but it was obviously something that pissed his boyfriend off. “Hope he took shrapnel to the cock.”
He didn’t know about the status of any of the other passengers in the car, but Himchan had to tell himself that Yongguk didn’t realise how serious the situation had been. He wouldn’t have wished serious harm on another human.
“Do you understand what’s going on Guk?”
“What the fuck are you talking about Himchan. Stop being so fucking cryptic or shut the fuck up.”
It was the medicine talking, Himchan told himself as he fought back the tears in his eyes. Yongguk would never have spoken to him like that, no matter what had happened. He frowned a bit as he grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, tightening his grip so Yongguk couldn’t pull away. “You got hurt in the explosion, Yongguk. You had to come home because of it.” He gave Yongguk a few seconds to let the information sink in but when he still seemed just as pissed off as before Himchan sighed. “You lost your leg, Guk…”
The panicked look on Yongguk’s face told Himchan that he understood what was being said, and for that Himchan was more than thankful. That meant there hadn’t been any brain damage in the explosion he told himself as Yongguk’s hand shot down to touch the spot his leg should have been. “The fuck did they cut it off for?” Yongguk didn’t usually swear this much and Himchan was having a hard time comprehending the changes in his generally docile boyfriend. “Did you fucking let them do this?”
Before Himchan could come up with an appropriate response Yongguk’s sister had stormed across the room and smacked her brother in the face. “I don’t care if you’re injured, you will not be a jackass Bang Yongguk. Why would Himchan let them take your fucking leg, asshole? What do you think happens when you get blown up?”
Himchan had expected for Yongguk to stay in the hospital for a significant period of time after he had woken up from his surgery, but after two weeks Himchan was already trying to figure out how to get Yongguk up to their third story apartment. Yongguk had started cursing him out when he had tried to push the wheelchair into the elevator and Himchan wasn’t sure what other options they really had. “What do you want me to do Yongguk?”
“Let me walk.” The elder male crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at his boyfriend.
Of course that was what he wanted. “You can’t walk right now, Babe. You can once your prosthetic comes in though.” He smiled softly at Yongguk, they could easily get use to this new life as long as they both tried. Himchan was putting forth all the effort he could, Yongguk just needed to try a little bit and they would be fine.
“I really don’t have time for this shit, Himchan. Either let me walk or take me back to the army base.”
Himchan sighed softly, Yongguk couldn’t do either of those things and he didn’t feel like explaining it to him again. He knew, from experience, that he would fall over if he tried to walk and he was also painfully aware of the medical discharge he would soon be receiving. “Alright, up the elevator it is then.” He smiled and got up so he could wheel Yongguk into the elevator, more than thankful that the hospital had taught him how to strap his boyfriend into the chair to prevent escape.
He tried to block out the sounds of Yongguk cursing his very existence as they rode the elevator. It seemed that he was going to get a lot of practice at blocking out cruel things coming from his lover’s mouth, but that didn’t meant there wasn’t hope that it would stop. “Does this fucking look like walking, Himchan?”
“It looks I’m walking.” He shrugged his shoulders as he leaned forward to type in the code to their door, making a mental note to make sure Yongguk remembered it just in case he broke out of their apartment. Though, as an after thought he decided he should probably just prevent the door from opening on the inside as well so Yongguk didn’t leave and fall down the stairs trying to walk. “I got some new furniture while you were away, Dad figured we could use some new stuff so it was a birthday present to both of us.”
“Can’t even fucking buy furniture without your fucking dad?”
“Neither of us is really making a lot of money right now, Yongguk…”
“And whose fault is that?” He spat back, slapping Himchan’s hands off of his chair so he could wheel himself into their apartment.
Himchan had to bite his lip to hold back a comment about how it was, in fact, Yongguk’s fault they were barely making rent. Himchan certainly hadn’t been the one to quit a high paying job to go get himself blown up in some country of which he couldn’t even pronounce the name. “It was just a gift, Babe.”
“You’re a fucking daddy’s boy, Himchan.”
Yeah, Himchan figured, he was.
“Is he still being a jackass?” Himchan’s best friend asked when he stopped by the younger man’s shop after dropping Yongguk off at physical therapy.
Himchan weakly slapped at his friend’s hand, “Don’t talk about him that way, Daehyunnie. He’s just having a hard time. He lost a leg.” Two months had past and Yongguk was able to walk on his prosthetic without help, but even that hadn’t made him stop yelling at Himchan for everything he did. “I don’t know if I can deal with it much longer though.”
The younger man’s boyfriend brought over two cups of tea and smiled reassuringly at Himchan. “He’s being a chicken shit, Himchan.” Daehyun patted his boyfriend’s backside before leaning in closer to the eldest male. “I will beat him with his own leg if he doesn’t stop.”
Himchan was trying his hardest to make things work with Yongguk. He cleaned up after him, he fed him, and he paid every bill because Yongguk made even less than nothing now that he was on disability. Yongguk couldn’t have cared less though it seemed. His only interests included criticising every single thing Himchan did. The younger male couldn’t even fold laundry without a complaint from his boyfriend, but he carried on in hopes that it would all be okay soon.
“You’ve got a job interview today, Babe.” Himchan pulled the blankets down so he could help his boyfriend into his wheelchair for a bath. “Let me get you into the bathtub so you can fix yourself up.” He sat down on the bed and carefully wrapped his arms around the elder male, he didn’t mind doing this for Yongguk and would much rather it was him helping than having a stranger do it for them.
Yongguk threw his elbow out, hitting Himchan in the chest. “I don’t want to take a fucking bath, Himchan.” As the younger male tried to recover from the first hit Yongguk tore himself away from his boyfriend’s hold. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
Things couldn’t carry on as they were, Himchan sighed and ran his hand down his face. This just couldn’t work anymore. “Well you can’t fucking take shower because you can’t take your leg in there. You can’t even get to the fucking bathroom without me so either you let me take you to get in the fucking bathtub or I’ll just fucking leave you here and you can smell and piss on yourself all day.” He slapped Yongguk’s hand when the older male reached out for him. “You know what? Fucking deal with it yourself. You obviously think I’m a fucking idiot and that you don’t fucking need me.”
He ignored Yongguk’s protests as he grabbed his jacket and stormed out of their bedroom. He didn’t have to put up with that, regardless of how disabled his boyfriend was he still deserved respect. He slammed the door to their bedroom shut and leaned back against it to slide down to the floor. It took everything he had not to start sobbing on the floor, but he knew he couldn’t let Yongguk hear that. He couldn’t let his boyfriend win.
There was a loud thud from the bedroom and even though Himchan knew exactly what it was he didn’t run to Yongguk’s side. The elder male needed to learn his lesson or he would continue treating Himchan like garbage. It was better this way, Himchan was sure of it.
It wasn’t until Himchan heard his boyfriend start crying in their bedroom that he gave in and got up to run to his boyfriend’s side. As he had expected the elder male was lying on the floor after falling out of their bed. He had his face hidden in his hands and Himchan felt a bit guilty just from the amount of shame Yongguk seemed to be feeling.
He crouched down next to Yongguk and carefully wrapped his arms around his waist as he usually did. It didn’t matter if his boyfriend started cursing at him again he just needed to get Yongguk into his chair or back into bed. “Hey Gukkie… I’m here for you…”
The elder male nodded his head and grabbed onto Himchan’s shirt. Protests seemed to be far from Yongguk’s mind as he hid his face against his boyfriend’s shirt. “Thank you Himchannie…”
It wasn’t much, but it was the most he’d gotten since Yongguk came home from the war. It was the nicest thing he had ever heard in his life.
After falling out of bed it seemed as though Yongguk had pulled himself together. He let Himchan help him up in the mornings and had actually started behaving like a productive member of society. He had been working for Himchan’s father - living under the constant glare of Mr Kim for the way he had treated his boyfriend for those months after his return - and had started hanging out with other disabled soldiers on Thursday evenings.
“We’re going out with Daehyunnie tonight Yongguk.” It wasn’t that the younger male had forgiven Yongguk anymore than Himchan’s father had, but it was time to reintroduce Yongguk into the world of socialisation. He couldn’t just hide himself away with other soldiers for the rest of his life. “Jonguppie wanted to see all of us so we’re going.” He sat down next to his boyfriend, leaning over to press a kiss to his lips.
After a few moments Yongguk nodded his head, there really was no reason to protest because Himchan would have taken him anyway. “Daehyun wants to beat me with my leg. I guess I deserve that though.” He sighed and patted Himchan’s thigh before standing up. He still struggled slightly and had to hold onto the couch the entire way up, but Himchan couldn’t have been more proud of his lover. “Why does he even want to see me?”
“Because you’re mine.” Himchan got up and wrapped his arms around Yongguk’s waist. He loved this man more than anything. “You know Jongup adores you, Yongguk.” He patted his backside gently and started nudging his boyfriend towards the door. “Remember, you’re still on pain killers, you can’t have any alcohol.”
“You can’t have any either because you’re driving.” Himchan could hear the pout in Yongguk’s voice as he reached forward to open the door. It wasn’t as though Yongguk had been a good driver before he’d lost his leg anyway.
The ride to the pub was just like things use to be, the two chatted about the future and Yongguk was disgustingly cheesy. It was as thought the previous couple of months hadn’t happened at all. “You know we’re going to get married one day, right Himchan? I’m going to start saving and then we’re going to go off to London or something and get married.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just pay the bills first.”
“We can.” He eased himself out of the car once they had parked in front of the pub, and even though Himchan could tell he was still slightly nervous about socialising he walked over to the driver’s side and opened the door for him.
Himchan got out of the car an immediately wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist. They hadn’t been out since before Yongguk had been deployed over a year earlier. “Are you ready for this?” He asked, walking slowly to make sure Yongguk wouldn’t lose his footing or step on some sort of obstacle.
Yongguk nodded his head as he tightened his grip on the younger male. Himchan pushed the front door open, telling Yongguk that they could leave whenever he decided he was no longer comfortable. He hadn’t even expected their friends to be there yet, but the second they stepped in the door he saw Jongup stand up from his table and start clapping.
He looked around the pub trying to figure out what he was clapping for, noticing that Yongguk appeared just as confused as he did, and then one by one the customers in the restaurant stood up and joined in with Jongup. He bit down on his lip and tightened his grip on Yongguk in an attempt to hold back tears. When he looked up he saw Yongguk wipe his cheek, but before he could react Jongup came and tugged the two of them to the table. “Welcome back Hyung.”
Pairing: Banghim
Rating: Mature
Foreword: Yongguk came back from the war, but there was something missing.
I wrote this for a fic exchange but they never posted anything, so in order to keep them from stealing my work I'm posting it here.
When Yongguk went off to the war he had only promised Himchan one thing. He hadn’t promised to come home alive - even though Himchan had sobbed and begged him to just promise that - but instead he had promised to come home in one piece. He hadn’t been able to keep that promise though.
He’d been at dinner with his parents when he got the call. Yongguk wasn’t supposed to be home for six more months so he wasn’t expecting to hear anything from him. So when he got a phone call from Natasha in between the first course and the second course he nearly threw up in his mouth. Hearing from a member of Yongguk’s family could only mean one thing. He started sobbing so hard that his mother had to answer the phone for him. Yongguk wasn’t allowed to be dead. He had to be alive.
He sobbed as his mother ushered him into the car and drove him to where Yongguk was. He begged her not to take him. There was no way he could survive seeing Yongguk’s lifeless body torn to shreds by bullets or ripped apart by a bomb. He didn’t need to see the body. He didn’t.
When he wasn’t dragged to the morgue he was able to calm down long enough for his mother to explain to him that Yongguk hadn’t died. He was pushed into the hospital room without any information but he could tell something was wrong just from how the blanket fell over his boyfriend’s body.
“It was a kid.” Himchan looked up when he heard Yongguk’s sister’s voice from the corner of the room. “They strapped a bomb to his chest and he blew up Yongguk’s vehicle.” She looked over at her brother, frowning at him slightly. “They got him stabilised over there and sent him home for recovery. They said he’ll have a prosthetic in three months.”
“Prosthetic…?” Himchan whimpered slightly at the word, sitting down in the free seat near his boyfriend.
Natasha sighed, looking at Himchan with disdain. “Yes, Himchan. A prosthetic to replace that leg that got blown to shit.”
The room felt like it was closing in around Himchan as he took another glance at his boyfriend. It had been obvious from the first glance that Yongguk hadn't been in one piece but he hadn't wanted to believe it either. He reached over to pull the blankets off of the sleeping man and felt another round of sobs build up in his chest when he saw that his boyfriend was, in fact, missing his leg.
It took a week for Yongguk to wake up again. He was high on pain medication, but the doctors said he was probably still hurting, and Himchan knew he would be humiliated at the things the nurses had been doing for him if he ever found out.
The doctors had warned Himchan that his boyfriend would be grumpy when he woke up, but he hadn’t been expecting him to say “go the fuck back to Korea…” when he opened his eyes and saw Himchan sitting next to him.
“We’re in Korea, Yongguk.” He reached out to pet his boyfriend’s head softly, trying his hardest not to be upset with the way he had just been spoken to by his lover. “You got sent back.” He didn’t want to mention the bomb in fear of giving the soldier flashbacks, but it didn’t seem like he knew what was going on. “Do you remember what happened?” His fingers wrapped around Yongguk’s hand as he waited for a response, he didn’t want his boyfriend to remember but he didn’t know if it would be worse for Yongguk not to know why he suddenly had one leg.
He shot a glare in Himchan’s direction. "Got blown to fucking hell. Fucking kid in the road, the fucking driver didn’t want to run him over.” Himchan couldn’t understand what was so wrong about not wanting to run over a child, but it was obviously something that pissed his boyfriend off. “Hope he took shrapnel to the cock.”
He didn’t know about the status of any of the other passengers in the car, but Himchan had to tell himself that Yongguk didn’t realise how serious the situation had been. He wouldn’t have wished serious harm on another human.
“Do you understand what’s going on Guk?”
“What the fuck are you talking about Himchan. Stop being so fucking cryptic or shut the fuck up.”
It was the medicine talking, Himchan told himself as he fought back the tears in his eyes. Yongguk would never have spoken to him like that, no matter what had happened. He frowned a bit as he grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, tightening his grip so Yongguk couldn’t pull away. “You got hurt in the explosion, Yongguk. You had to come home because of it.” He gave Yongguk a few seconds to let the information sink in but when he still seemed just as pissed off as before Himchan sighed. “You lost your leg, Guk…”
The panicked look on Yongguk’s face told Himchan that he understood what was being said, and for that Himchan was more than thankful. That meant there hadn’t been any brain damage in the explosion he told himself as Yongguk’s hand shot down to touch the spot his leg should have been. “The fuck did they cut it off for?” Yongguk didn’t usually swear this much and Himchan was having a hard time comprehending the changes in his generally docile boyfriend. “Did you fucking let them do this?”
Before Himchan could come up with an appropriate response Yongguk’s sister had stormed across the room and smacked her brother in the face. “I don’t care if you’re injured, you will not be a jackass Bang Yongguk. Why would Himchan let them take your fucking leg, asshole? What do you think happens when you get blown up?”
Himchan had expected for Yongguk to stay in the hospital for a significant period of time after he had woken up from his surgery, but after two weeks Himchan was already trying to figure out how to get Yongguk up to their third story apartment. Yongguk had started cursing him out when he had tried to push the wheelchair into the elevator and Himchan wasn’t sure what other options they really had. “What do you want me to do Yongguk?”
“Let me walk.” The elder male crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at his boyfriend.
Of course that was what he wanted. “You can’t walk right now, Babe. You can once your prosthetic comes in though.” He smiled softly at Yongguk, they could easily get use to this new life as long as they both tried. Himchan was putting forth all the effort he could, Yongguk just needed to try a little bit and they would be fine.
“I really don’t have time for this shit, Himchan. Either let me walk or take me back to the army base.”
Himchan sighed softly, Yongguk couldn’t do either of those things and he didn’t feel like explaining it to him again. He knew, from experience, that he would fall over if he tried to walk and he was also painfully aware of the medical discharge he would soon be receiving. “Alright, up the elevator it is then.” He smiled and got up so he could wheel Yongguk into the elevator, more than thankful that the hospital had taught him how to strap his boyfriend into the chair to prevent escape.
He tried to block out the sounds of Yongguk cursing his very existence as they rode the elevator. It seemed that he was going to get a lot of practice at blocking out cruel things coming from his lover’s mouth, but that didn’t meant there wasn’t hope that it would stop. “Does this fucking look like walking, Himchan?”
“It looks I’m walking.” He shrugged his shoulders as he leaned forward to type in the code to their door, making a mental note to make sure Yongguk remembered it just in case he broke out of their apartment. Though, as an after thought he decided he should probably just prevent the door from opening on the inside as well so Yongguk didn’t leave and fall down the stairs trying to walk. “I got some new furniture while you were away, Dad figured we could use some new stuff so it was a birthday present to both of us.”
“Can’t even fucking buy furniture without your fucking dad?”
“Neither of us is really making a lot of money right now, Yongguk…”
“And whose fault is that?” He spat back, slapping Himchan’s hands off of his chair so he could wheel himself into their apartment.
Himchan had to bite his lip to hold back a comment about how it was, in fact, Yongguk’s fault they were barely making rent. Himchan certainly hadn’t been the one to quit a high paying job to go get himself blown up in some country of which he couldn’t even pronounce the name. “It was just a gift, Babe.”
“You’re a fucking daddy’s boy, Himchan.”
Yeah, Himchan figured, he was.
“Is he still being a jackass?” Himchan’s best friend asked when he stopped by the younger man’s shop after dropping Yongguk off at physical therapy.
Himchan weakly slapped at his friend’s hand, “Don’t talk about him that way, Daehyunnie. He’s just having a hard time. He lost a leg.” Two months had past and Yongguk was able to walk on his prosthetic without help, but even that hadn’t made him stop yelling at Himchan for everything he did. “I don’t know if I can deal with it much longer though.”
The younger man’s boyfriend brought over two cups of tea and smiled reassuringly at Himchan. “He’s being a chicken shit, Himchan.” Daehyun patted his boyfriend’s backside before leaning in closer to the eldest male. “I will beat him with his own leg if he doesn’t stop.”
Himchan was trying his hardest to make things work with Yongguk. He cleaned up after him, he fed him, and he paid every bill because Yongguk made even less than nothing now that he was on disability. Yongguk couldn’t have cared less though it seemed. His only interests included criticising every single thing Himchan did. The younger male couldn’t even fold laundry without a complaint from his boyfriend, but he carried on in hopes that it would all be okay soon.
“You’ve got a job interview today, Babe.” Himchan pulled the blankets down so he could help his boyfriend into his wheelchair for a bath. “Let me get you into the bathtub so you can fix yourself up.” He sat down on the bed and carefully wrapped his arms around the elder male, he didn’t mind doing this for Yongguk and would much rather it was him helping than having a stranger do it for them.
Yongguk threw his elbow out, hitting Himchan in the chest. “I don’t want to take a fucking bath, Himchan.” As the younger male tried to recover from the first hit Yongguk tore himself away from his boyfriend’s hold. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
Things couldn’t carry on as they were, Himchan sighed and ran his hand down his face. This just couldn’t work anymore. “Well you can’t fucking take shower because you can’t take your leg in there. You can’t even get to the fucking bathroom without me so either you let me take you to get in the fucking bathtub or I’ll just fucking leave you here and you can smell and piss on yourself all day.” He slapped Yongguk’s hand when the older male reached out for him. “You know what? Fucking deal with it yourself. You obviously think I’m a fucking idiot and that you don’t fucking need me.”
He ignored Yongguk’s protests as he grabbed his jacket and stormed out of their bedroom. He didn’t have to put up with that, regardless of how disabled his boyfriend was he still deserved respect. He slammed the door to their bedroom shut and leaned back against it to slide down to the floor. It took everything he had not to start sobbing on the floor, but he knew he couldn’t let Yongguk hear that. He couldn’t let his boyfriend win.
There was a loud thud from the bedroom and even though Himchan knew exactly what it was he didn’t run to Yongguk’s side. The elder male needed to learn his lesson or he would continue treating Himchan like garbage. It was better this way, Himchan was sure of it.
It wasn’t until Himchan heard his boyfriend start crying in their bedroom that he gave in and got up to run to his boyfriend’s side. As he had expected the elder male was lying on the floor after falling out of their bed. He had his face hidden in his hands and Himchan felt a bit guilty just from the amount of shame Yongguk seemed to be feeling.
He crouched down next to Yongguk and carefully wrapped his arms around his waist as he usually did. It didn’t matter if his boyfriend started cursing at him again he just needed to get Yongguk into his chair or back into bed. “Hey Gukkie… I’m here for you…”
The elder male nodded his head and grabbed onto Himchan’s shirt. Protests seemed to be far from Yongguk’s mind as he hid his face against his boyfriend’s shirt. “Thank you Himchannie…”
It wasn’t much, but it was the most he’d gotten since Yongguk came home from the war. It was the nicest thing he had ever heard in his life.
After falling out of bed it seemed as though Yongguk had pulled himself together. He let Himchan help him up in the mornings and had actually started behaving like a productive member of society. He had been working for Himchan’s father - living under the constant glare of Mr Kim for the way he had treated his boyfriend for those months after his return - and had started hanging out with other disabled soldiers on Thursday evenings.
“We’re going out with Daehyunnie tonight Yongguk.” It wasn’t that the younger male had forgiven Yongguk anymore than Himchan’s father had, but it was time to reintroduce Yongguk into the world of socialisation. He couldn’t just hide himself away with other soldiers for the rest of his life. “Jonguppie wanted to see all of us so we’re going.” He sat down next to his boyfriend, leaning over to press a kiss to his lips.
After a few moments Yongguk nodded his head, there really was no reason to protest because Himchan would have taken him anyway. “Daehyun wants to beat me with my leg. I guess I deserve that though.” He sighed and patted Himchan’s thigh before standing up. He still struggled slightly and had to hold onto the couch the entire way up, but Himchan couldn’t have been more proud of his lover. “Why does he even want to see me?”
“Because you’re mine.” Himchan got up and wrapped his arms around Yongguk’s waist. He loved this man more than anything. “You know Jongup adores you, Yongguk.” He patted his backside gently and started nudging his boyfriend towards the door. “Remember, you’re still on pain killers, you can’t have any alcohol.”
“You can’t have any either because you’re driving.” Himchan could hear the pout in Yongguk’s voice as he reached forward to open the door. It wasn’t as though Yongguk had been a good driver before he’d lost his leg anyway.
The ride to the pub was just like things use to be, the two chatted about the future and Yongguk was disgustingly cheesy. It was as thought the previous couple of months hadn’t happened at all. “You know we’re going to get married one day, right Himchan? I’m going to start saving and then we’re going to go off to London or something and get married.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just pay the bills first.”
“We can.” He eased himself out of the car once they had parked in front of the pub, and even though Himchan could tell he was still slightly nervous about socialising he walked over to the driver’s side and opened the door for him.
Himchan got out of the car an immediately wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist. They hadn’t been out since before Yongguk had been deployed over a year earlier. “Are you ready for this?” He asked, walking slowly to make sure Yongguk wouldn’t lose his footing or step on some sort of obstacle.
Yongguk nodded his head as he tightened his grip on the younger male. Himchan pushed the front door open, telling Yongguk that they could leave whenever he decided he was no longer comfortable. He hadn’t even expected their friends to be there yet, but the second they stepped in the door he saw Jongup stand up from his table and start clapping.
He looked around the pub trying to figure out what he was clapping for, noticing that Yongguk appeared just as confused as he did, and then one by one the customers in the restaurant stood up and joined in with Jongup. He bit down on his lip and tightened his grip on Yongguk in an attempt to hold back tears. When he looked up he saw Yongguk wipe his cheek, but before he could react Jongup came and tugged the two of them to the table. “Welcome back Hyung.”