Sungmin walked sleepily into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. He checked the clock that was on the wall. It read 7:45. He had enough time to cook breakfast for the entire house so he got down to business.
He was just about ready to put the food on the table when a large thump sounded from outside the kitchen door. He stuck his head out to see Junsu laughing his head off and Yoochun lying on the floor with Minwoong beside him.
“What happened?” Sungmin answered, helping Yoochun and Minwoong up. Junsu was laughing too hard to form a coherent sentence.
“I was walking up the stairs and then somebody comes careening down the other side and crashes into me!” Yoochun glared at Minwoong.
“That isn’t how it happened at all. I was walking calmly down the stairs and then this bull comes charging up and crashes into me and we both fall!” Minwoong glared right back at Yoochun who nearly started to laugh because no matter how hard he tries, Minwoong cannot give a serious glare.
“Actually,” Junsu began, beginning to recover from his laughing spell, “Minwoong was looking in one direction and Yoochun in the other and they both collided. You should have seen your face!” Junsu began to laugh again, pointing at Yoochun.
“Thanks, Su. It’s nice to know how much you care for me,” Yoochun pouted.
“You know I love you, Chunnie,” Junsu wrapped his arms around Yoochun.
“Thank heavens for that,” Yoochun pressed a kiss to the side of Junsu’s head.
“Ahh, that was priceless. Anyways, we need to get to bed. You need your beauty sleep because you have none!” Junsu snickered. He broke away from his lover and tugged Yoochun away up the stairs.
“You’re so mean to me, Su,” Yoochun complained good-naturedly.
“But you love me that way,” Junsu could be heard replying. Sungmin smiled at the words.
“Is breakfast ready?” Minwoong asked excitedly, ignoring the couple. Sungmin nodded. He led the way into the kitchen and handed Minwoong a plate of waffles. The younger man dug hungrily into the food. Sungmin watched him eat the food with an expression of awe. The waffles were gone in the space of two minutes. Minwoong then reached for some of Sungmin’s food.
“Hungry much?” Sungmin teased.
“Hey, I’m a growing boy. I need these foods,” Minwoong replied, his mouth stuffed so the answer came out sounding more like this. “Ey, Mm a gr-ing boy. I eed deese oods.”
“I see,” Sungmin replied, finally starting to eat his own waffles which had been diminished by three (there were five on each plate). Kyuhyun walked into the kitchen and immediately went to Sungmin.
“Morning, Minnie,” Kyuhyun kissed Sungmin gently. Sungmin smiled back at him.
“Morning, Kyu. Breakfast is ready,” Sungmin gestured to the food. Kyuhyun grabbed a plate and sat down with them.
“You two are so cute,” Minwoong cooed, pointing his fork between the two of them. Kyuhyun smiled at Sungmin.
“Sungmin’s the cute one, not me,” Kyuhyun replied, taking a bite of the waffle.
“Kyuhyun’s the good-looking one,” Sungmin smiled and leaned against Kyuhyun’s shoulder. Kyuhyun wrapped his arm around Sungmin’s body and held out a piece of waffle for him to eat. Sungmin took it and ate the waffle while smiling at Kyuhyun.
“EEEEEE!!!!!!!” A loud squeal erupted from the other side of the table. Kyuhyun and Sungmin looked towards Minwoong (who they completely forgot about) and stared at him. He had the most ridiculous grin on his face and was pointing at the two of them. Yunho and Jaejoong walked into the kitchen and looked at the squealing boy.
“What happened?” Yunho asked. It seemed to become a popular question in the house. Minwoong continued to point at them.
“It’s rude to point, Minwoongie,” Jaejoong said, pulling Minwoong’s hand down.
“But Jae-umma! They look so adorable together!” Minwoong squealed again. Yunho sighed and was about to talk but the arrival of Changmin ended that.
“What is with the squealing?” Changmin asked, sitting down and immediately beginning to eat, the answer to his question taking second place to food.
“He likes looking at Kyuhyun and Sungmin’s cuteness,” Jaejoong replied, taking his own plate of waffles.
“I apologize for him,” Changmin ducked as Minwoong aimed a blow at his head.
“Yah, I’m not that bad!”
“That’s what you think.”
Sungmin laughed at their antics. Watching a fight between Minwoong and Changmin was like watching a comedy routine. It was utterly hilarious even if you didn’t get half of what they were talking about. Kyuhyun was trying to muffle his laughter by putting his hand over his mouth and pretending to cough.
Jaejoong had lost interest in the discussion and was adding random things on top of his waffles. Strawberries, blueberries, little rice bits and some cereal that nobody knew the age of. Sungmin watched as he ate all of this and then proceeded to feed Yunho.
Minwoong and Changmin were still bickering and Sungmin got up out of his chair. Kyuhyun looked at him, confused and Sungmin kissed him gently.
“I’m going to check the mail,” Sungmin told him. Kyuhyun’s eyes widened in understanding.
“Do you want me to come with you?” He asked, ready to get up and go.
“I would like that,” Sungmin smiled. He took Kyuhyun’s hand and led him towards the front hall. Kyuhyun squeezed Sungmin’s hand gently, letting him know of his support. Sungmin let go of his hand and bent down to retrieve the letters. He sorted through them and breathed a gentle sigh of relief when there was no black letter or white unmarked one.
“Looks like they haven’t sent anything today. Just bills for us,” Kyuhyun smiled. Sungmin nodded. He was about to put the envelopes down when something poked him. He looked down to see something green sticking out of one of the envelopes. He turned it over to see what it said on the front. It was addressed to him and Kyuhyun.
“Kyuhyun, look at this,” Sungmin showed his husband the green point that was poking out of the envelope. He began to open it to see what was inside but Kyuhyun stopped him.
“Don’t open it. It could be something dangerous. We should get the police to look at it,” Kyuhyun took the letter from Sungmin and brought it into the kitchen.
“What do you have there?” Minwoong asked, bounding over to take a look.
“There’s something inside here. I thought that maybe you guys could take a look at it,” Kyuhyun put the letter on the table. Yunho picked up the letter carefully. Jaejoong slipped on a pair of plastic gloves that he pulled from somewhere. Changmin cleared a space on the table.
Yunho opened the letter and Jaejoong reached inside. He pulled out an orange flower with a light green stem and then a long green stem with little white flowers growing along the top half. Jaejoong looked at Yunho, confused and then proceeded to take out a dark purple flower on a long stem and finally, a reddish pink flower along with a piece of paper.
“What does the paper say?” Changmin asked, looking at the four flowers on the table. Jaejoong turned the paper around and began to read.
“Monkshood there is monkshood. Use monkshood. The motive behind the actions is calendula. White hyacinth. Cyclamen,” Jaejoong looked up. “What does that mean?”
“Do I have another code to crack?!” Minwoong cheered.
“Maybe we should put the flowers in the order they appear. We might learn something,” Changmin suggested. They immediately arranged the flowers in the order that they came.
“How will that help me crack the code? That did nothing!” Minwoong said.
“We don’t even know if it’s a code yet, Minwoongie. Be patient,” Yunho replied. Sungmin stared at the flowers. He felt like he should know what the message should mean.
“What’s with the flowers?” Kyuhyun asked. “Whoever this was should just have written down the names.”
“Maybe the person put the names of the flowers in place of something else,” Jaejoong mused. It clicked. Sungmin gasped. He now understood but he was afraid of his understanding.
“Kyuhyun…” Sungmin began slowly, “what do these flowers mean?”
“Is it a code?” Minwoong asked.
“It’s one that Kyuhyun can solve,” Sungmin replied. Kyuhyun moved forwards and took a look.
“Well, the first one, monkshood can mean three things: beware, a deadly enemy is close and caution,” Kyuhyun trailed off as he looked at the other flowers. Sungmin gestured for him to continue.
“Keep going Kyuhyun,” Minwoong urged, excited that he was learning a code that he had never heard of before.
“Minnie, it’s a warning,” Kyuhyun spoke, his tone low. Sungmin’s eyes widened as he watched Kyuhyun arranged the flowers.
“What-?”
“It’s a warning. See, look. It means beware, enemy and caution right? Well look at the first sentence. Monkshood, there is monkshood. Replace that with the meanings and you get ‘Beware, there is a deadly enemy close’. The next one is ‘Use caution’. The calendula means jealousy so look, instead of ‘The motive behind the actions is calendula’, it becomes ‘The motive behind the actions is jealousy’.”
“So what do the others mean?” Yunho asked.
“The white hyacinth means ‘I’ll pray for you’ or good luck. The cyclamen means goodbye or end. So put all those meanings into the message and you get ‘Beware, there is a deadly enemy close. Use caution. The motive behind the actions is jealousy. Good luck or I’ll pray for you. Goodbye,” Kyuhyun finished. There was silence.
“Kyu…” Sungmin began.
“Don’t worry. This is someone who wants to help us.”
“It’s not that. It’s how they knew,” Sungmin spoke softly.
“What do you mean?”
“You told me once that you needed flowers to look at in order to know the meaning. You only ever told me that when we were at home on our anniversary two months ago,” Sungmin bit his lip. Kyuhyun stared at him.
“You’re right. I only did ever tell you that when we were at home,” Kyuhyun replied slowly.
“Does that mean they have some way of hearing you?” Minwoong asked.
“I don’t know. I really hope not,” Kyuhyun ran a hand through his hair.
“Let’s just be careful of what we say from now on, okay?” Yunho said, smoothing out the letter.
“Yes, we’ll choose our words with caution. Where did you tell Sungmin about that? Can you remember?” Jaejoong asked. Kyuhyun looked around.
“We were sitting in the dining room and eating dinner and Sungmin asked me how I remembered all the meanings of the flowers. I told him I memorised the shape, colour, texture and blossom of the flower and I needed to see a flower in order to give the meaning. If you just give me a piece of paper with the word ‘hibiscus’ on it, I won’t be able to tell you what it means.”
“Well then, we’ll be careful of what we say in the dining room,” Changmin decided.
“You must teach me this code of flowers. I’ve never heard of it before,” Minwoong told Kyuhyun.
~₴~≠~₴~≠~
“I think you should hire police protection, security guards, guard dogs, watchmen, a few army people and maybe build a moat around your house and fill it with alligators,” Ryeowook suggested to Sungmin.
“That would be great, Ryeowookie but you would never come to visit. You’re afraid of alligators,” Sungmin smiled. He was working at the flower shop and he felt grateful to all the flowers. It was the plants which had carried the message of warning to him and Kyuhyun.
“Well these alligators would be nice ones.”
“How can they be nice if they need to guard Kyuhyun and me? You’re also afraid of dogs, Ryeowook,” Sungmin reminded him.
“Well the dogs and alligators will be nice to me and Yesung but they won’t trust anyone else,” Ryeowook finalized.
“What about Teukie-umma and Kangin-appa? And what if Heechul and Hankyung want to visit? You know Heechul will throw a fit.”
“Okay fine! Just get security guards, watchmen, a few army people and police protection.”
“We already have police protection and they’re doing a good job of protecting us,” Sungmin smiled. He could feel Jaejoong’s untroubled presence off to the left of him. It was amazing how well Jaejoong managed to hide. Kyuhyun mentioned multiple times that he forgot Yunho was there, only to be surprised when he showed himself randomly. He knew that he was lucky to have these people in his life.
~₴~≠~₴~≠~
Sungmin heard the letter flap open and close. Night hadn’t fallen yet so Junsu and Yoochun were still asleep. He debated running to the window to see who had dropped the letter off but felt too afraid to. Instead, he waited for a few minutes before he went into the front hall.
He looked at the black letter and opened it. It had gotten to a point where he was no longer afraid of opening the letter and reading it. Now he was afraid of them mentioning something to do with Kyuhyun.
So you aren’t being sent away after all. Pity, it’s sometimes fun to go on a wild bunny chase. Well, that would have added some excitement into our game but it turns out we’ll just have to trap you in your little burrow. I look forward to it.
He dropped the letter on the ground. How did they know he wasn’t going to be sent away? How did they know that he was even going to be sent away in the first place? Sungmin felt scared. If they knew where he was, they knew where Kyuhyun was…and Jaejoong…and Yunho…and Minwoong, Changmin, Yoochun and Junsu. He heard the front door open and turned to see Kyuhyun walking through.
“Where’s Yunho?” Sungmin asked, unable to think of the proper hello. Kyuhyun gestured at the door.
“He’ll be coming in a minute. He pops up moments later to show that he wasn’t following me all the time. He comes through the back door,” Kyuhyun explained. Sungmin blinked. He hadn’t even known there was a back door.
“We have a back door?”
“Let’s just say that he created one.”
“Oh. When he gets back, I have something to show him and Jaejoong. Here, look at it,” Sungmin held out the silver paper to Kyuhyun who took it and read it. His eyes opened wide and Sungmin nodded.
“Was this just from today?” Kyuhyun asked. Sungmin nodded.
“It came a few minutes ago. Did you see anyone running away on your trip back?”
“No. I didn’t see anyone.”
“If they know this what else do they know?”
“I’m not certain. Oh, Yunho-hyung’s coming now,” Kyuhyun pointed in the direction of the kitchen. Sungmin turned to see Yunho walking out while eating strawberries.
“Yunho! Can you come here for a second?” Sungmin asked.
“What is it, Sungmin-hyung?” Yunho asked, finishing off his last strawberry.
“We got this letter today and look at what it says,” Sungmin handed the paper to Yunho. The tracker frowned as he read over the paper.
“And this came just today?” Yunho asked, looking at the opposite side of the page in case there was anything there. Sungmin nodded.
“Yeah, should we get Jaejoong-hyung?” Kyuhyun asked.
“Jaejoong! Could you come down here for a minute please?” Yunho called. Jaejoong poked his head around the living room door.
“Yes, Yunho?”
“Oh, there you are. Come, we’ve got a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Look at this letter, it was delivered today,” Yunho handed the letter to Jaejoong. The second tracker read the words on the silver paper, his eyes narrowing.
“That isn’t a good sign.”
“So what do we do about it?” Kyuhyun asked.
“Where were you when you talked about this?” Jaejoong asked, taking note of the surroundings.
“I don’t remember. It was either in the living room, the front hall or the kitchen,” Sungmin replied.
“Then we’ll be extra careful around those areas. We can’t afford to let them know what we’re doing,” Jaejoong said determinedly. Sungmin nodded.
“And if that isn’t enough?” Kyuhyun asked. Jaejoong stared at the wall before answering.
“Then we’re probably going to have to move immediately. This isn’t something that we can brush off. It’s serious. Right now, it’s do or die,” Jaejoong answered. Sungmin swallowed. Everything would be okay, all he had to do was remain calm.
It will be fine. Jaejoong and Yunho will take care of everything. I trust them.
~₴~≠~₴~≠~
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