The Man I Like Might Be A Delinquent - 6. Chapter 6

Part 6

I Can't Stop Thinking About You

The pain meds Axel prescribed were quite helpful. Jeha adjusted the arm sling on his right shoulder and nodded when Ryan adjusted his suit jacket to cover his left arm. Ryan secured the suit's coat on his shoulder with a concealed pin, holding the coat in place.

It looked like a fashion choice, but if anyone looked too closely, they would wonder why Jeha protected his left arm.

"This works for the meeting with the Spaniard," Ryan said. "Your family meeting will be another case. We may have to find a long coat. Otherwise, they will realize you have suffered an injury."

Jeha nodded, thinking about Axel.

Had the doctor reached home okay? Would he call the inspectors anyway? Would Axel agree to see him again?

"Dr. Graysen is safe in his apartment," Ryan said, reading his thoughts. "His schedule in the hospital has him off until this weekend. He resumes work on Monday. We'll keep watch over him until we have managed the troubles we're facing."

"I didn't ask about his schedule," Jeha said.

"You sure are thinking about him," Ryan said, pointing to where Jeha was stroking the fabric of his sling. "It's okay, you know."

Jeha ignored his commentary and focused on the task at hand.

"Call Pa," Jeha said. "The faster he understands our plans, the better. Then we can cross to the Anastasia Grand and open a room. That's where we'll have the conference call with the Spaniard."

"Aren't you worried about security?" Ryan asked.

"Not at that hotel," Jeha said. "The Crown Prince frequents the place with his husband, Prince Logan. The security is top-level. No one will cause trouble unless they want to deal with the kingdom's highest security levels."

"Alright, as long as you feel safe," Ryan said, then turned Jeha's laptop on.

They were in the sitting area outside Jeha's bedroom.

Jeha sat in a comfortable armchair, wearing a pale blue shirt, a black suit jacket, and matching trousers. Ryan helped him brush his hair into its styled cut. He looked pretty put together, with no sign of pain.

Yisu answered the call immediately.

"Jeha," Yisu said, smiling at him. "Your Mom wants to say hello. She says you haven't talked to her in three days, and she has been worried."

Jeha smiled as Maria's face filled the screen.

"Are you eating well?" Maria asked in greeting.

"Yes. Ryan just took away the morning tray," Jeha said.

"What did you have for breakfast?" Maria asked, testing him.

"The usual scrambled eggs, bananas, and a bowl of cinnamon oatmeal. Ryan pushed a glass of orange juice on me."

"That's good," Maria said. "Remember our lunch date next Sunday."

"I remember," Jeha said.

"I love you. I'm off to meet friends at the spa. Be good."

"Mm," Jeha said, watching as his mother kissed Yisu's right cheek and waved at him before leaving Yisu's office.

They sat silently, waiting until the office door closed, and Yisu heard Maria's heels fade away. When Yisu was sure Maria had gone, he leaned in as though he could enter the screen.

"How bad is it?" Yisu asked. "Ryan said you were unconscious for two days."

"It is a flesh wound," Jeha said, patting his left arm over his suit jacket. "My doctor was thorough. There is no infection, and the wounds are recovering well."

"Have Dr. Raff look at it again," Yisu said. "Let's avoid any hidden dangers."

"Dr. Raff will find me tonight," Jeha said. "Where is Moon?"

"He is staying with your grand uncle, Tae Wook. Moon went to complain that you mistreated him," Yisu said. "Uncle Tae Wook is going to make things difficult for you. Prepare to counter their bullshit when you meet them."

"What did the Inspector General say?"

"You need samples of rapture to convict Moon," Yisu said. "Do you have any?"

"No," Jeha said. "But we can get them."

Jeha glanced at Ryan, who was standing a few feet away.

Ryan came around so that Yisu could see him.

"Moon wants to meet Airam," Ryan said. "He will have to bring his product to show his potential buyer. We are hoping to come up with a better deal for Airam."

"Plan it," Yisu said. "Don't involve Jeha, but allow the inspectors to capture Moon with the evidence. We will not have another chance to manage this problem. Jeha is going to be busy with the company. I don't want this same issue to follow him."

"I'll plan it well," Ryan promised.

"Jeha, convince Airam to work with us," Yisu said.

"He'll want something in return," Jeha said.

Yisu sat in silence for a minute, then sighed.

"I have one thing he wants. Tell him I will introduce him to Keta Inc.'s Shin."

Jeha's eyes widened at the mention of the big boss who ruled the underground black market in the Kingdom of Aeras. Every country had dark business underground, and almost always, there was a head of this deadly world. Keta Inc. was one such organization with a vast network spanning several Asian and European countries. Shin was the rumored head of the elusive hidden market.

No one knew what he looked like.

Jeha had once tried to discover, and the highest he had gotten up the command chain was meeting Keta Inc.'s General Counsel.

Jeha wanted to know how Yisu knew Shin and why they had a relationship enough to make an introduction.

"Don't ask for details; I can't give them to you," Yisu said.

"An introduction to Shin may cost you a precious connection," Jeha said.

"I've done little for you through this fight, Jeha. Wuga Group is already difficult for me to manage. I'm leaving it to you, which means you'll be busy. So, removing Moon's issue is the best gift I can think of giving you. Besides, once I introduce Airam to Shin, I won't have to worry about Airam pestering me for favors anymore," Yisu said.

Jeha nodded and smiled at his father.

"Dad, don't worry so much. Do what you need to do, I'll make it work," Jeha said.

"I know," Yisu said. "Now, move out from the unfinished building. You've stayed there too long. Enter the Anastasia Grand. I'm more comfortable with their security measures."

"I'll get it done today," Ryan promised.

"Good man. Once you're free of Moon, we'll take you to the hospital for a thorough checkup. Your mother may be looking for a blind date for you. She's meeting her friends at the Lotus Teahouse. I can't save you from her."

"Oh no," Jeha sighed, then thought of Axel. "What if I have someone?"

"Then, bring him to the house," Yisu said. "Put me out of my misery. Maria thinks if we let you find your lifelong partner, you will end up alone. Hurry up and bring her a potential partner for her to back."

"I'll work on it," Jeha said.

"Call me when you finish with your Grand Uncle Tae Wook," Yisu said.

"I will," Jeha said, then exchanged a few words of goodbye before he ended the call.

Once the screen turned black, Jeha sat back in the armchair, sweating with the effort. The conversation had taken much more out of him than he expected.

"Axel was right when he insisted on rest," Jeha said. "I'm exhausted."

"I'll let you rest," Ryan said. "We'll drive into the Anastasia Grand's parking lot in thirty."

"Thanks, Ryan," Jeha said, accepting the glass of water Ryan handed him.

Ryan hurried out, leaving Jeha alone.

Jeha drank his water, and his thoughts returned to Axel once again.

I wonder what he's doing, Jeha thought as he closed his eyes.

****

Axel ate cereal in his apartment, showered, and slept for fourteen hours before waking up. When he opened his eyes, he sat on his bed rubbing his eyes, expecting to see Ryan looking for him at his bedroom door.

The expectation faded when he saw his closed bedroom door. He was home. Alone. No one had invaded to get medical help. The disappointment in his chest was surprising.

Axel got out of bed and focused on having a good day off. It would be his first since he arrived home four days ago from that mad week. He only had Friday and the weekend of his hard-earned week off; staying by Jeha's side had taken up half of his time.

Pushing thoughts of Jeha aside, Axel cleaned up and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He retrieved his phone from his backpack in the living room and went to the kitchen to make coffee and boil eggs for breakfast.

Axel checked his notifications as he waited for the eggs to boil and the coffee to finish. He had missed calls from his dad and mom, one from his best friend, Clarence, and a final one from Dr. Brown, his mentor.

Axel decided to call Dr. Brown first.

"Finally surfaced," Dr. Brown said in a teasing tone. "Are you alert?"

"Yes. Sorry, I misplaced my phone."

"No need to explain. You deserve time off after the weeks you have had. I was calling to confirm your readiness for next week," Dr. Brown said. "The hospital's board received all your exam results showing you're state-certified. The Wuga Cardiothoracic department will be conducting its final evaluations for the position on the team. I hope you come out of these next two weeks on top. Dr. Raff and I, we're rooting for you."

"Thank you so much for your support, Dr. Brown," Axel said.

"Rest and study. See you on Monday."

Axel ended the call and let out a relieved sigh. He had waited so long for this evaluation that it felt like a dream to be at the finish line. The coffee finished brewing, and he poured himself a cup and dialed Clarence.

Clarence was his childhood best friend who lived in the penthouse on the highest floor of his building.

"Now you find your phone," Clarence said with a yawn. "I stopped by your apartment on Wednesday night. You weren't there. I thought you said you had days off. What happened to let me know when you're around? Did you go out alone? And what happened to your apartment? It's filled with furniture. I thought I entered the wrong place."

"Mom's work," Axel said.

"Did you get laid good?" Clarence asked. "He must have been good to keep you occupied for two days straight."

Axel thought about Jeha and smiled.

"He kept me occupied but not in the way you're thinking," Axel said with a smile.

"What's that note in your voice? Are you wanting to cuddle with him?" Clarence asked with an excited giggle.

"Stop that," Axel said. "We're not like that."

"So you say, but your voice sounds different when you talk about him," Clarence said. "I want to meet him."

"Can't," Axel said.

"Why not?"

"I don't even know if I'll see him again," Axel said.

"So, you do want to see him again."

"Clarence," Axel started.

"Alright, I'll stop teasing you. Why is your lock different? My key is not working," Clarence said.

"I forgot."

Axel remembered that Simon and James had spent a few minutes replacing the lock on his front door. Simon had said the people who came to get him that first day had broken his old lock. He needed to give his mom and Clarence a new key.

Axel left the kitchen carrying his mug of coffee and went to open the door for Clarence.

Clarence stood on his welcome mat with a questioning look, and his unusable key held up.

"It's a long story," Axel said, ushering him in. He closed the door and picked up the new keys on the small table by the door. "Take one."

"I have all day to listen to the long story," Clarence said as he exchanged his keys.

Axel leaned on the wall and took in Clarence this morning.

Clarence was his longtime best friend. They grew up in the same neighborhood, and Clarence lived across the street from Axel. Their lives intertwined through grade school, high school, and college.

While Axel pursued medicine, Clarence focused on technology. Clarence graduated first and started a company that developed online games. The games were popular and had netted Clarence a more than comfortable lifestyle. Axel celebrated Clarence's financial success because his best friend more than deserved it.

Clarence finished with the keys, and Axel held his mug of coffee up to keep from splashing coffee on Clarence, who threw himself at Axel for a tight hug.

"Morning," Axel said, smiling as the scent of the sweet apple perfume Clarence always wore wrapped around him, too.

Axel still remembered the first time Clarence fell in love with the scent. They were in ninth grade, accompanying Clarence's older sister to the mall, when she entered a perfume store. Clarence tested a few bottles and declared that the sweet apple made his spirit shine.

Axel went with it, but Clarence had a bitter fight with his older sister over his choices.

Later, when they were in their junior year in high school, Clarence decided he loved it best when he was wearing pretty clothes. He started buying feminine trousers, tops, skirts, and dresses. He even went to Axel's Halloween party dressed as a Harajuku girl.

Axel never saw the problem with Clarence's choices, but Claire, Clarence's big sister, cut him off and instigated their parents into a heartbreaking fight. Claire refused to call Clarence her brother because he liked wearing girl's clothes. Her treatment broke Clarence's heart, and he decided to move out.

Clarence lived with Axel's family until their high school graduation. Then, they roomed together through university.

Clarence started his business and gained success. He bought the penthouse in the building where Axel rented his apartment.

When Axel was home, Clarence usually came downstairs to spend time together or to convince Axel to go upstairs for a Netflix marathon. On weekends, they went out to gay clubs together when they needed to let out some steam.

"You always smell so good," Clarence said, letting go of Axel. He swiped Axel's coffee mug from him and entered deeper into Axel's apartment.

"Your mom is so extra," Clarence declared as he went to sit on one of the brand-new armchairs in the living room. "She woke up one morning and decided to pack your place with stuff."

"She is creating extra work for the cleaners," Axel decided as he took in the furnished living room.

His mother had added a rug under the coffee table and three comfortable armchairs, replacing his old couch with a new comfortable one. She had also added vases on stands in the corners and a bookshelf where his medical books stood in neat progression.

"I love it," Clarence said with an approving nod. "Where is the television?"

"Still don't have one," Axel said, heading to the kitchen.

"Old man," Clarence sighed, getting up from the chair and racing after him.

The beads on his wrists jingled with every step he took.

Today, Clarence wore a short gray dress with dark tights and colorful clogs that had passed through a serious glitter party. Clarence had grown his dark hair long to his butt. It was free and wild today.

"What are you cooking?" Clarence asked.

"Eggs."

Clarence moved to the kitchen range and peered at the boiling water in the pot.

"Axel, how long have the eggs been on?"

"Since I walked into the kitchen."

"Which was when?" Clarence asked, turning off the fire. He moved around Axel's kitchen like a pro, having helped Axel avert multiple culinary crises since they were twelve.

"Uh, when I called you," Axel said, getting another mug for a fresh cup of coffee. "No, maybe before when I was talking to my mentor."

"Glad you love such hard-boiled eggs. Sit at the kitchen table. I'll make breakfast today. You tell me about this person you don't want to discuss."

"What about him?"

"What is his name?"

Axel frowned as he sat at the kitchen table, holding his mug. He was not sure he could share Jeha's name. What if it got Jeha in trouble? Should he mention they had met? What if the people who shot Jeha came looking for him?

"Doesn't he have one?" Clarence asked as he rescued Axel's hard-boiled eggs and placed them in a small bowl to cool.

"Not ready to share it," Axel said.

"Where did you meet?"

"The hospital during a full moon night," Axel said, smiling at the memory. "He saw me puking my guts out."

"So, he saw you on a horrible day and didn't mind seeing you again. Ten points for stranger cutie," Clarence said. "Then?"

"Then, we had a strange meeting after," Axel said, thinking about Jeha bleeding out in a small clinic, taking care of him, and then staying with him for two days.

He helped Jeha's security team, and after all that, Jeha put him in a car and sent him away.

No messages, no calls.

Over a day had passed, and Jeha was still maintaining radio silence. Had Jeha gotten his wound checked? Did he take his meds on time? Was he monitoring his temperature? What if he got another fever and wasn't monitoring it?

Axel sighed and looked up to find Clarence watching him.

"Can I meet him?" Clarence asked, his eyes wide with excitement. "I've never seen you think about someone so much. Let me meet him."

Axel chuckled and sipped his coffee.

"I want to meet him too, but I can't. We went our separate ways yesterday."

"Uh huh," Clarence said, frowning at him. "Were you nosy and asked him many questions about his life?"

Axel made a face and continued to drink his coffee.

"What have we talked about before?" Clarence said. "How long are you going to stay single, my little Axel? You insist on knowing everything about your new boyfriends, making them uncomfortable."

"Better to know where I stand with someone before I start a relationship with them," Axel said.

Come to think of it, Jeha had been quite forthcoming with him, to the point of sharing his family tree with him. He knew quite a lot about Jeha's family.

"Axel?"

He looked up from his mug to find Clarence staring at him on the other side of the coffee table.

"What?"

"I called you like three times," Clarence said. "You're preoccupied, baby. This man must have touched you somewhere good."

"Oh, quit it," Axel said with a frown.

He had not even kissed the man, just treated his wounds and worried about him dying from a high fever. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Axel drank the last of his coffee.

"Wanna go out later?" Axel asked as Clarence returned to the kitchen range. He watched Clarence take four slices of brown bread from the bread box and toss them into the four-slice-toaster. Then Clarence took out the chopping board and a knife.

"Do you have to work today?" Clarence asked. "I hate it when you have to leave because you got a call."

"I don't have to work," Axel said.

"Okay, let's go out," Clarence said, pointing to a basket filled with fruit in the corner of the counter. "Honeydew or pawpaw?"

"Honeydew," Axel said. "I can help you slice it while you finish with the toast and the eggs."

"Such a hero," Clarence said with a grin. He brought the chopping board and the knife to the kitchen table. Washing the honeydew, he handed it to Axel and returned to the toaster. "Since you're so undecided about this guy, let's go out tonight to clear your mind. See if you can find a fast date. Maybe it will help you forget that guy you won't talk about."

I don't want to forget him, Axel thought as he focused on slicing the honeydew. I want to know when I can see him again.

****