[Phuwin]

"Pond."

"Hmm?"

"If you were Joong right now, what would you feel?" Phuwin looks at Pond who is sitting beside him at the dining table, waiting for Joong and Dunk to join them for dinner. Pond looks up from his phone and gives his full attention to his omega.

"You want to understand Joong?"

It's not like he wants to understand Joong. But it's more like he wants to understand alpha in general. He saw how Joong's eyes changed when he heard that Pond can smell Joong's omega now and sure thing he never saw that side of Joong Archen. He looked so mad and Phuwin didn't understand the reason why.

Why would he be mad at something he can't control?

"If you were the only one who could smell my pheromone and one day you lost that ability to be the only one who could do that? Are you going mad too?"

Pond looks at his eyes for a while as if searching for something there, seems like he found it because he smiles. "Yes."

Phuwin frowns. "Why? You can't control something like that?"

"Phu, if you see me too close with another omegas, what do you feel?" Phuwin doesn't understand why Pond is answering his question with another question. But he tries to be patient and answer the question.

"Depends. If you are too close and have unnecessary intimate physical contact with another omegas, I'm so gonna be mad at you." For real, why would his alpha do that?

"Ok, but what if I only sit side by side with an omega in the class. What do you feel?" Phuwin doesn't understand why Pond keeps giving him questions.

"It's normal, isn't it? I should feel normal about it."

Pond smiles and touches Phuwin's hand. He holds the hand and cares for it softly. "But we can't, Phu. We can't feel normal whenever we see our omega closes with another alpha."

"Huh?"

"The thing about alpha is, whenever we fall into an omega, our world is revolving around them. Our omega become our center of the world, everything that they do and feel is so important to us. We want to keep our omega from danger, so our protective demeanor comes out naturally. As our love grows deeper and deeper, our obsession is growing in that same direction as our loves. We have this sickly obsession with our omega and even though it's not good, we can't control it. That obsession easily turns into possessiveness."

Phuwin tries to understand Pond's explanation and he still isn't sure if he can understand an alpha's feelings.

"We want to be with our omega, we want to always see them, touch them, talk to them. We want them to be for only ourselves. Our basic instinct can tell us to just lock our omega in our territory so other alpha can't see, talk, or touch them. That's the deepness of our possessiveness."

That's scary to be honest. If one day Pond tries to lock him up in the apartment so Phuwin can't get out to the world again, he might consider breaking up with him.

"But we are also human, right? We know what is wrong and what is right. We know that it is wrong so we don't do what our instinct tells us to. But if something triggers our possessiveness for our omega, we can't really control ourselves. That's the hardest part of being an alpha."

Phuwin looks at Pond's eyes and he can see the loving gaze there.

"So back to your question, in Joong's case he can't control why suddenly i can smell his omega's scent but he also can't control the possessiveness inside him. Dunk is his omega and he had the privilege to be the only one who could smell him. You know how great the omega's pheromone is affecting us right? And now it might be felt like he had shared part of what is his to other alphas."

Phuwin suddenly remembers how Pond's act whenever he releases his pheromone. He looks away from Pond's loving gaze.

"I believe Joong is going crazy upstairs. His mind is going crazy. I just hope he still can have some sense of not doing something that he will regret later."

Phuwin looks at his hand that is still in Pond's hold. Pond's explanation is crystal clear and the youngest one suddenly feels bad for the alphas.

"Pond, if one day something triggers your possessiveness for me, don't press it by yourself, ok?" He looks at Pond again and his face is serious. "Talk to me, so we can solve that together."

Pond's gaze becomes sweeter and sweeter and Phuwin is just glad that a very loving and sweet alpha like Pond is his mate. Even though sometimes he acted too silly for his liking, he still loves him nonetheless.

Pond looks at his lips and he comes closer to kiss it, Phuwin is already closing his eyes when he hears someone walking down the stairs and when he opens up his eyes again he sees Pond rolling his eyes in disappointment.

Phuwin throws his eyes to Joong and Dunk, he expects to see some tension between them because of this afternoon's event, but he sees none of it. They look so normal, still clingy by the way they walk hand in hand to the dining table, but from the expression on their face, everything looks so normal.

"Ugh damn i'm so hungry." Joong opens his mouth when he sees food in front of him.

"You cooked this, Phu?" He looks at Phuwin in an expectant manner.

Phuwin also tries to act normal. "Nope, too lazy. I asked the housekeeper to cook for us and they already left us this evening."

Dunk nods and takes a seat in front of Phuwin. "Smell goods."

This is weird. The way Joong looks at Pond is also normal. Pond in his sides also tries to act as if nothing happens. So Phuwin also needs to do that.

Maybe Joong and Dunk already talked about it when they were in their room because they took so long to finally join them at the dining table.

They start their dinner peacefully until Pond asks Joong to join him to do some dance covers of Pond's favorite Korean boy band's new song. Dunk is lit up by the information and now he digs this information to the core. His mate shares the story of Joong and he became the best dancer in the university in a very proud manner. Phuwin is only rolling his eyes.

While eating and chatting, Phuwin silently observes how Joong and Dunk act toward each other. There is no space between them and Joong keeps touching either Dunk's hands or waist. And in return, Dunk also secretly looks at his boyfriend.

"Ok! How about we play a game since what a trip without alcohol?"

Pond is suggesting a truth or dare game but to make it more spicy, when someone is chosen to be the victim of the game, his partner needs to take a glass of wine before choosing which one between truth or dare. And when the chosen one doesn't do the "dare" or answer the "truth" his partner needs to drink one more glass.

"You only make a way for us to keep drinking." Phuwin comments on Pond's game rule and Pond only smiles sweetly to him.

"It sounds fun! I'm in." Dunk says excitedly while walking towards the kitchen bar to bring bottles of wine, Joong is following him in the behind to help him.

"We can spin this empty wine bottle on the table to pick the chosen one." Dunk suggests and both Pond and Phuwin agree at the suggestion.

"Ok, let's go." The older one places the empty wine bottle on the center of the table and spins it, after spinning for a while, the end of the bottle points on... Pond Naravit.

"Ow? I was the one who suggested this game and why I'm first to be choosed!" Pond tries to complain but Joong quickly gives Phuwin a glass of wine. Phuwin knows that Pond doesn't like the idea of him drinking but he can't do anything because he was the one who suggested this game.

Phuwin gladly accepts the glass from Joong and drinks it right away. He likes beer more, but sometimes he adores the bitterness in wine after he drinks it. Pond is looking at him while he is drinking his wine and Phuwin raises his eyebrow at him when he finishes it.

"Truth or dare?" He asks Pond while smirking, somehow he knows that Pond will choose 'truth'. There is Joong here, that man tends to have a very crazy idea if he chooses 'dare'.

"Truth."

Bingo.

Phuwin looks at Joong and Dunk who look at each other as if signaling who is the one who will ask the question. In the end, it's Joong. Of course, the naughty Joong Archen. Phuwin doesn't like the smile on his face right now.

"If you can cosplay something while having sex, what do you want Phuwin to be?"

This bastard, Joong!

"OI!" Phuwin looks at Joong as if he wants to kill him and the man only shrugs his shoulders and laughs while placing his hands on Dunk's shoulder. Dunk also looks at Phuwin's boyfriend in an anticipating manner.

Pond looks flustered and Phuwin knows the man doesn't want to answer the question so Phuwin reaches for another glass of wine and almost drinks it but Pond's deep voice interrupts him.

"Teacher."

There is a loud gasp on the other side of the table and Joong claps his hand in satisfaction. "I always know you have 'thing' for smart people!"

Phuwin can't believe what he heard and he really wants to know everything inside his boyfriend's head. He wants to know his boyfriend's wildest imagination of him. Pond is looking anywhere but Phuwin and the way his ears are getting redder makes Phuwin wonder what he is thinking right now.

"Next!" Phuwin spins the empty wine bottle to continue the game.

This time the bottle chose Joong.

HA!

Time for revenge.

Dunk drinks his glass of wine while smiling as if he waits his turn to drink. "You like to drink, huh?" Joong asks this question to his boyfriend and his boyfriend only replies it with smiles.

"Be careful, Joong. Dunk likes drinking but he easily gets drunk. Good for your advantage though, he clings a lot if he's tipsy." Pond warns Joong and Dunk quickly says no.

"I'm not!"

"How do you know that? Have you seen it before?" Joong's eyes are starting to get darker and Phuwin doesn't want this night to have another alpha tension between Joong and Pond. He gets enough of it.

Pond nods. "On prom night in our high school days."

"Ok, choose one, truth or dare, Joong?" Phuwin tries to distract the alphas and it works. Joong sighs and moves his body closer to Dunk as if he can't get any closer.

"Dare."

Typical Joong.

Phuwin has an idea.

"Joong, i command you to kiss..." The way his eyes lit up, Phuwin knows that Joong is expecting him to say his omega's name. They are people who can easily kiss each other in public and Phuwin doesn't want to give Joong an easy challenge. He wants revenge so he says this name instead.

"Pond."

His alpha's name.

Pond looks at him in disbelief and Phuwin only smiles sweetly at him. This is so fun! Phuwin is fine with Pond kissing Joong. They both hate it so much, that's why it can be fun.

"What the hell?! NO!" Joong first reacts to the command and Dunk laughs hard beside him.

Dunk lifts his hands in the air and gives Phuwin a high touch. "Good job, Phu."

This time Joong looks at his omega's face in a shocking manner. "Babe, why are you liking the idea of me kissing another guy?"

"Because you hate the idea of kissing Pond."

That's it. Dunk's way of thinking is just the same as Phuwin.

"Ew.. this is disgusting." Pond exclaims and Joong throws a hand at him.

"I also don't want it!"

Dunk looks at the bickering duo and smiles, he reaches for another glass of wine and knows what he should do next because there is no way his alpha wants to kiss another alpha even though it's only for a game. Joong looks at Dunk's direction and sighs.

He stands up and reaches for Pond's collar, he makes the other alphas stand up too and it flashes so fast but Phuwin sees them kissing! It's not a kiss but more like... a peck, but the reaction after it is so huge.

Both Pond and Joong shout cursing words so loudly while wiping their mouths roughly. "Oh my God, I can't believe I kissed Pond! DAMN IT!"

"Your mouth tastes disgusting, Joong!" Ponds shouts loudly.

Dunk laughs so hard until his face turns red, he seems like this game so much. Phuwin is also laughing hard because this is too hilarious.

"NEXT!" Joong spins the bottle of wine and this time it directs at Phuwin.

Oh shit.

There is a fire in Joong's eyes and Phuwin is frightened to guess what is in Joong's mind right now.

"Truth or dare you little one?" He asks Phuwin eagerly after Pond drinks his wine. Phuwin is confused. If he chooses truth, this bastard might ask about his and Pond's private sex life and he doesn't really want to talk about it, but if he chooses dare... he's afraid he can't handle Joong's crazy idea.

But there is no chance of him asking Phuwin to kiss Dunk. He won't challenge him to do that, he wants Dunk's lips just for him and Phuwin knows it. So.. he chooses dare.

"Dare."

Joong claps his hand again in satisfaction. "Baby." Joong looks at Dunk and Phuwin cringes at the pet name. "You want Phu to do something?"

Dunk only shakes his head prettily and Phuwin comes to realize how different he and Dunk act in front of their lovers, in public . Joong's eyes are back at him and Phuwin knows he regrets choosing dare.

He just knows it.

"Sit in Pond's lap for an hour and whenever you call him, call him 'Love' ."

What the hell?

Phuwin looks at Joong angrily, he can't believe what he heard before. Joong definitely knows that Phuwin hates skinship, in public . He doesn't mind if he and Pond are in private, he also has his clingy sides. But in public? Meh. Nope. They are so different about this.

He doesn't want to do that. But his heart hurts when he sees Pond looking down and already searches for his wine. He almost drinks it right away without asking Phuwin if he wants to do the challenge or not.

Pond looks down and for once Phuwin starts to think, if he hurts Pond all this time by acting this way?

Is Pond thinking that Phuwin hates touching him in public? It's not that he hates touching his alpha, it just... he doesn't prefer to do it in public.

Ugh.

Phuwin moves his body and he knows he gives his mate full surprise when his butt touches his lap. Pond looks at him in disbelief and Phuwin kisses his lips short to assure him that he doesn't hate the idea of them touching in public at all. "Don't drink your wine, love."

Pond is shocked, Phuwin is deadly embarrassed. He wants to die and his heart beats so crazily inside his ribcage.

Joong is shouting again like an annoying kid in your neighborhood and Dunk claps his hand happily.

"I NEED TO RECORD THIS! THIS IS AMAZING!" That annoying kid is still shouting and starts to search for his phone and Phuwin gives him a deadly stare.

Don't you dare.

Joong puts down his phone again and Dunk in his side continues the game and this time, as if the world is fair to them, it lands on Dunk, the only one who hasn't picked up yet.

Joong drinks his wine easily.

"Truth or dare?" If Pond is a computer, he is still in his not responding mode because of what Phuwin did before so Phuwin takes the wheel to ask for the lovebirds in front of them.

"Truth." Dunk is afraid of the 'dare', Phuwin nods knowingly.

"Ok, truth. Tell me, when is your first kiss and who is that?" Somehow Phuwin knew that Dunk's first sex was Joong from the way Dunk prepared his heat poorly till Joong needed to call him to ask. But he wasn't sure about his first kiss, so he asked that. He wants to see Joong's reaction to it.

Joong looks so interested in it because his body's direction is full on Dunk's side right now, ignoring Phuwin who is still sitting on Pond's lap and Pond who is still not responding.

"Ugh." Dunk looks flustered.

"Don't tell your first kiss also with Joong?" Phuwin asks in disbelief. How lucky that bastard Joong is if that's the case! Even Phuwin's first sex and first kiss wasn't with Pond.

"No." Dunk looks at Joong rather conflicted about how to tell this. "It was my roommate in Germany and it happened a year ago."

"Tell me more about that." Joong asks, totally ignoring the existence of Pond and Phuwin here.

Phuwin loves to see the drama, hehe.

"His name is Daniel, we were drinking together in our place, and I was drunk.. "Dunk looks at Joong, feeling nervous from his own story. "So I kissed him."

"I told you, he gets so clingy when he is drunk." Pond is finally speaking up again.

"Is he an alpha?" Joong asks more.

"Yes, but he doesn't know that I'm an omega." Dunk explains and Joong only nods.

"Ok."

Joong looks at Phuwin and shouts, "Ok! Next round!"

Phuwin kinda gets disappointed that Joong only reacted that way, he wants to see more. Now, he feels evil in his own way.

The game continues and there are so many weird challenges and too private truths that are spilled on the table. After this, they four hold on to each other's weaknesses, Phuwin makes a mental note to always be friends with Joong and Dunk because he spilled too much this night. This is crazy, five bottles of wine are already gone and they were all tipsy except for Dunk. Whenever Joong was picked, Joong drank the wine right away, forbade his boyfriend to take another glass. Phuwin knows that he doesn't want Dunk's drunk side shown in front of him and Pond. That protective bastard!

"Ugh, it's gone." Pond looks at his glass and shows disappointment of the lack of alcohol on their table.

"Where is the wine's storage, Pond? I can take it." Dunk offers himself to look for another batch of alcohol.

"Below this house, there is a basement to store old and good wine. You can take another two bottles." Pond points at the stair to take Dunk to the basement and Dunk nods.

Before he goes, Joong holds his arm and asks if he wants Joong to accompany him to the basement. But Dunk refuses, saying he can do it himself, he won't be tripped on the stairs since he ain't drunk yet like three other people in this house.

Phuwin is now clinged into Pond's body and is too drunk to notice that Dunk isn't coming back yet from the basement.

And thirty minutes have passed.

***

[Trigger warning : this part might not suits all of you, mention of panic attack, murder, hallucination and graphic description of heavy topic]

***

[Dunk]

They are all wasted.

Dunk laughs at the chaotic moments he just experienced before. It was a mess but he loves it. He loves the dynamic of his friends and his boyfriend. It feels like these four are made to be each other's companions. It fits perfectly and they make a great picture together.

Dunk is glad that he came back to this country and met them.

He walks downstairs to the colder and darker side of this house. He rarely went to the basement, he doesn't even know if his parent's big house has a basement. He is finally on the lower side of this house and he sees a wood's door not too far from the end of the staircase. He walks there carefully and opens the door.

The cold air hits him like no other and he tightens his knitted cardigan. And is this supposed to be this dark in the basement? There is still a light but it's so dimly lit but he can see a lot of wine placed in a rack and he carefully picks which wine to choose so he walks farther into the room.

The air was weird, it's cold but also humid, the air giving him uneasy feelings. He doesn't notice that he walks until the very end of the racks until he sees the more spacious area of this room to place some boxes.

Dunk instinct tells him to quickly leave this room because suddenly he feels dizzy. He randomly picks two bottles of wine that were placed at the end of the rack and starts to walk away when suddenly he hears a very familiar sound.

TUK TUK TUK

CLANGGGG

Dunk drops the bottle of wine on his hands and falls down. He doesn't know if the glass shards are hurting his body or not because he suddenly feels numb.

TUK TUK TUK

The humidity and the coldness choke him and the sounds that are produced by something repeatedly knocking on the other things makes him can't breathe. His world suddenly spinning and he feels so cold and terrified by something he can't really understand what.

"He will kill us this time, Phi!"

"No, he won't. I will protect you no matter what."

"Stupid, you should protect yourself first."

TUK TUK TUK

"He is there...... right behind this door."

What is this?

What is this time?

There are three little kids panicking about something and the fear in their eyes is so vivid. Dunk somehow knows the feelings and it's terrifying him so bad right now.

The three little kids...

Isn't it him, his brother, and a little kid that he saw in the forest before?

TUK TUK TUK

The sounds are getting louder and Dunk is shaking. Dunk wants to run from this place but it feels like he is locked up by someone here so he can't run away. He tries to think logically but his body freezes. He looks everywhere to search for the source of the sounds.

When he finally finds it, it's only the sound of branches knocking on the glass window from the wind. He looks at the window, the only source of light in this place and...

He cries.

"It's been so long since we saw the light, we are all gonna die in this cold basement."

It was his twin brother's voice.

"Why aren't they saving us? It's been seven days, we only survived from dog's foods that man gave us and tap water that tastes like hell."

"We can't wait for our parents to save us, we need to save ourself, one more day we're here we gonna lost him."

It was his voice and Dunk wonders who is this little kid that Dunk tries his very best to save.

"How is his condition?" His brother asked him again.

"He isn't awake from his sleep, last night he got convulsions from the high fever. I'm so worried about him, Dao."

"And you aren't worrying about us? You should worry about yourself too, your wounds aren't looking too great."

What wounds?

"I really have no idea why that man did this to us. If he wanted money, he wouldn't torture us this bad. Our parents and this child's parents will kill him if they see our current state. And the fact he locked us for seven days already in the middle of nowhere, what is his motive? We don't even know where we are right now."

Dunk's heart drops.

From his long lost memories... Was he and his brother getting kidnaped before?

"You're right. We were kidnapped in the cold and dark basement for a total of ten days."

Dunk opens his eyes in shock when he hears his brother's voice. This time, it's not from his mind. It sounds so clearly behind him. He looks back and his body freezes in his spot when he sees Dao there... looking at him, coldly.

Older version of Dao.

Dao's face is the same as his face.

He looks at Dao's body and he can't breathe, suddenly the world is trying to drown him. His head is so hurt but the pain in his heart can kill him anytime soon. It is so painful he doesn't know how to be alive anymore at this sight of his older twin brother.

"Dao." He calls for his brother with tears in his eyes.

His brother still looks at him coldly as if he hates his little brother so much.

"Why do you leave me alone, brother? The man wasn't the one who killed me."

Dunk feels a loud pang on his chest and he sees only the darkness in front of him.

It's me.

"You are the one who killed me."

Dunk opens his eyes in horror, the pain on Dao's eyes are so vivid to his memories and he wants to scream at how terrified he is right now. He is terrified to finally understand that maybe... his brother didn't die because of natural illness but maybe he contributed something to his death.

"What did I do to you?" He asks again, trembling .

His brother laughs at him, mockingly. "Is it that easy for you? All this time, you run from your guiltiness by forgetting my existence."

Dunk looks below and he really can't bear the pain on his chest right now, it really feels like he is drowning and he can't breathe. He also can't move his body, is this how it feels to be punished by someone?

The way his body reacts and his heart feels, Dunk knows they remembers. But his mind, a very vital part of his body, doesn't remember clearly what happened to his and Dao's past. It all scattered like messy puzzle pieces.

"Dao..."

Dunk looks at Dao in sorrow and pain.

"Where is your leg?"

Dao doesn't answer his question again, he becomes quiet and Dunk can see how his face becomes paler and paler. How his eyes turn dark and there is bloodshot from his eyes and Dunk's cant hold it anymore.

He can't move his body so all he can do is just scream.

Somebody, somebody please save me.

Somebody please take this pain, I can't bear it anymore.

I can't breathe, it's so hard to breathe.

I'm gonna die...

"DUNK!"

From his blurry eyes he sees someone is running toward him, his face is so worried and he looks like he sees death already by his brown eyes that now lands on Dunk's eyes.

Those familiar brown eyes.

Does the little kid who was kidnapped with him and Dao also have the same brown eyes?

He smelled those sweet notes of pear, and bergamot with dark and intense woody notes, the same scent that came from that little kid he saved before. Oh! So the kid is already growing up. He is here in front of him.

He is alive.

Dunk cries getting harder but in some weird ways, now he can finally breathe again.

The kid is saved.

The kid is alive.

"Nong, you're alive." Dunk tries to reach on this kid's face and he smiles.

"Your fever has gone down, right?"

And the next thing, everything turns dark.

He may follow Dao's step into the afterlife to repent of his sin to his brother, there .

***

[Joong]

It felt like Joong was facing death himself.

It terrified him.

When he came down to the basement and saw Dunk on the cold floor kneeling helplessly with his hands full of blood (seemed like he was hurt by the bottle wine's shards around him), Joong felt like he was facing death. He was so panicked and terrified by the idea of Dunk's getting hurt.

But when he looked at his eyes and saw how empty it was, it was hurting him more than anything.

Dunk looked at him but he couldn't remember him as if he was long gone in his own maze and couldn't get back to him. It was almost the same as what happened to him in the forest, but this time it was way deeper and Dunk was gone farther.

Joong tried to call him again and again but he gave him no response and Joong was so afraid, he hugged him tight, but Dunk still couldn't respond to him.

When he hugged his omega, Joong noticed that the man wasn't breathing and Joong's world suddenly turned cold.

What was bothering his omega? What did he remember? What was he seeing?

He wanted to know all of it so Dunk didn't need to bear the pain alone.

He was in so much pain. He looked like he was dying.

Joong looked at his eyes again, begging him to start breathing. When his eyes landed on Joong's eyes there was something shifting in him and he was finally breathing again.

"Nong, you're alive."

What?

"Your fever has gone down, right?"

What is he talking about?

Dunk reaches to his cheek and smiles. His smiles were so different from any other smiles that Joong had seen from him before. It was full of relieveness and gratitude. As if he was thanking someone for being alive.

"Dunk?"

The next thing, Dunk collapsed into his embrace.

Joong lifted his body and brought him to their room, he was so panicked and couldn't think straight. Pond and Phuwin had already wasted on the dining room so they didn't notice something happened to Dunk in the basement, but Joong noticed that. Because his omega hadn't come back for so long, that made him look up for him in the basement and found him in this state.

Right now, Dunk is lying on their bed. Joong was already taking care of his wounds on his hand. His face is still showing him the pain but Joong doesn't know what to do to remove it. Should he call Dunk's doctor? Is he this sick? Joong is dead worried and he can't breathe properly when he sees Dunk is in pain.

Joong moves his body from the bed to search for his phone when suddenly he feels someone grab his hands so tight and when he looks back he sees Dunk is crying in his sleep.

"Don't go."

Dunk calls for him in his sleep and his lover's voice is so weak, Joong's heart aching when he hears that.

"I'm not going anywhere, baby. I'm here."

All night, Joong is only lying down beside Dunk and observing how his face changes in his sleep. It's already 4AM and he is still showing the same pain and sorrow in his sleep. What does his omega bear in his heart until he can break this much?

"Baby, what is in your heart that makes you suffer this much?" Joong cries while still holding into Dunk's hand. "Can you just give the pain to me, I want to take all your pain and sorrow. All your saddest days and your hurtful memories."

Joong's mind is going back to what happened in that damn bathroom this afternoon and his heart breaks more.

"Coming back to me, please. I promise I won't hurt you again."

Dunk opens his eyes when the sun is already up in the sky, it's almost their time to go home. He called Pond and Phuwin to wait for them because Dunk is sick and they have visited their room repeatedly since this morning to check up on their friend.

"You didn't sleep last night." It's the first thing he says when he looks at Joong and somehow his care for him breaks his heart more. How can someone who is sleeping with so much pain worries about his lack of sleep the moment he opens up his eyes.

"Dunk, what is it? What are you feeling right now? Do you want to share it with me?" Joong wants to ask this in the forest but he held himself because Dunk looked like he didn't want to tell him anything. But this time, he needs to ask.

Dunk gives him a faint smile.

He doesn't want to tell.

"Is it something from your past that keeps haunting you?"

Dunk looks at him and the pain on his eyes are back so Joong shuts his mouth. He knows the answer without him answering it.

Dunk is suffering from something from his past that he isn't ready to tell him yet.

So what can Joong do?

All he can do is wait for him to open up because he can't ever force Dunk to do anything.

Joong pulls Dunk into another hug and this time Dunk is hugging him back.

"I'm always here for you whenever you are ready to talk about it."

The wayback road is way quieter than before. Considering Dunk's condition, all of them keep silent and Pond just drives his car peacefully. Dunk on the other hand keeps looking out of the window in the back seat with Joong that is always holding his hand.

Dunk looks so lost in his thoughts and Joong really wants to know what is on his mind.

Pond and Phuwin drive him and Dunk back to their apartment's building and Joong is confused when he sees a lot of men in suits waiting for them in front of their building.

"Who are they?" Phuwin is voicing his thoughts. He just asks it without really expecting an answer.

"They are my parent's men." To his surprise, Dunk answers that question.

"You know them?" Joong asks.

Dunk releases his hand from Joong's grip and nods. "I do."

He looks different, Dunk who is like his ray of sunshine suddenly feels so cold. His eyes show him nothing and Joong really hates to see that. This makes him realize that he still doesn't know everything about Dunk Natachai.

"Should we drive back?" Pond asks Dunk with a worried voice. "You two can stay in our apartment for a while."

Dunk shakes his head. "No."

Then his omega opens his door and steps outside to the men who are waiting for him. Joong follows him and quickly walks side by side with him.

"Khun Dunk, your mother commands us to bring you home." One of the men talks directly to Dunk when they see him walk to them.

Dunk smiles bitterly and before Joong can't comprehend what is happening, Dunk pulls him close and kisses his lips, the kiss is so deep and this kiss is breaking his heart for the reasons he doesn't know.

Joong knows there are so many eyes surrounding them right now, most of them are shocked by how Joong and Dunk just easily kiss in front of them. But Joong doesn't care, he just wants to feel Dunk because somehow, in his heart, it tells him that Dunk is saying goodbye to him with this kiss.

Dunk pulls out from the kiss and his eyes look at him with so many feelings he tries to tell him in a very short time.

"Joong, I love you." Dunk reaches to his cheek and smiles. He smiles so beautifully Joong wants to save it in his heart forever.

"That's the only thing that is true."

Joong doesn't understand the meaning behind Dunk's words. It is so fast happening in front of him how Dunk is walking away from him with those men surrounding him. He gives his last look to Joong before going inside one of his fancy cars.

Dunk disappears from him and Joong's heart breaks once again.

That time, Joong doesn't know that it will be the last time he sees Dunk Natachai.

To Be Continued

***

Before we already tasted the fluffy, funny, and spicy era. Now we're officially entering the angst era of this story, what do you think about this chapter?

And before you ask, the cliffhanger from previous chapter whether they did it or not, i was intentionally left it as mystery per now. so you will find out the answer in the chapters ahead hehehe

Talking about chapters ahead, i was making a poll on my twitter account (@ jeinace) this morning regarding the release date of this story. Due to holiday season, i probably can't write start from 22 December till 5 January 2024 that makes me go into a short hiatus. but before that, i can write two more chapters (if tomorrow i can write smoothly), i was asking should i :
A. just post it and make it as a fast update this week but no more updates until Jan 2024, or
B. Post it once a week in every Monday
the poll showed me that option A is the winner so here i am giving you fast update hehe

so that's it, i'm giving you an early Merry Christmas for everyone who celebrates it and early Happy New Year 2024 for all of us! See you in the next chapter, stay healthy dear all readers~

Update 21/12/2023 : Bad news! I couldn't finish the next chapter today (i promised to give you two chapters bfr the short hiatus). My period's cramp is killing me, i couldn't think. Sorry 😭

So see you next year, guys! 👋

#DeepandAbidingJDAU