I prayed. More correctly, I uttered mix of prayer and expletive and groan of desperation. Yunho glanced at me amusedly which made me sputtering more nonsense because I was annoyed.

“I’m in the sitting room.” I quickly answered Changmin. I turned to Yunho. “You sure you ready for this?” I whispered uneasily.

“I am.”

“If you change –”

“Never.”

“But –”

“Yuri, who are you talking to?” Changmin appeared in the doorjamb. His jacket was discarded and the sleeves of his shirt rolled to his elbows.

Silence filled the room as his eyes landed on Yunho. I watched my brother’s face in apprehension. When the first sign of disbelief appeared, I jumped to my feet. It changed into displeasure, and then furyreplaced swiftly.

“What the hell Yuri?”

“I – I can explain.” I quickly went to my brother’s side and grasped his arm as if it was my life line. “Let’s sit down first.”

“Get him out of here.” Changmin growled like a beast.

“No.” I tried not to flinch under the ferocity my brother’s glare. “You have to listen to him first. Please.”

“Yuri.” He growled again.

“I promise you’re not gonna regret this.” I rushed. “If later you still don’t believe him, he won’t bother us ever again.” I looked to Yunho. “Right?”

Yunho glared at me in return. What the hell? I saved his and he glared at me? “You promised, rightYunho?”

He nodded curtly, clearly displeased with the situation. I pulled Changmin to the chair across from Yunho and pushed down at his shoulder when he resisted. After few contemplations, I stayed close to my brother just in case he had the urge to do something violence. I nodded to Yunho to start talking.

Changmin stayed silent during Yunho’s explanation. It was a miracle really, especially when Yunho mentioned how horrible the girl my brother used to love. I had expected him to defend the girl’s honor. I saw a sign of peace when the anger left Changmin’s body and quietly I put my arm around my brother’s shoulder in support. When Yunho done talking, Changmin had gone still while staring at his clasped hands. 

I stared back a forth between the two men, worrying of what might happen next. My breath hitched when my brother suddenly lifted his head. His eyes weretrained on Yunho and for several seconds, he just stared at his former best friend. My heart ached for them. I could tell my brother regretted that he never confronted Yunho about this. I rubbed his stiff shoulder in silent support.

“I believe you.”

My jaw dropped to my lap. Well, not exactly. That was just figure of speech. Back to my brother, he stared at Yunho with remorse it tore my heart apart. And thankfully ran smoothly. I had expected a punch or five because men did not slap each other. Anyway, I continued rubbing my brother’s shoulder as he made amends with his best friend.

“I always knew that she manipulated me. But when I was with her, she could make me forget for a while, and that was enough to make me hope that someday she would change. May