Chapter 13 – Fight or flight?

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Past

Minho threw his phone against the wall with frustration when he heard the automated message for the fourth time informing him that Jinri's phone was turned off.

What had he done? Why was he so stupid! Why didn't he take that letter out of his shirt pocket? And why the hell he didn't discuss this with Jinri when he found out about the offer? He was stupid! But what was he going to do now? They wanted him to train in a minor league team. It was his dream. It was everything Minho wanted ever since he was a little boy.

But now part of him didn't care, he loved Jinri and the thought of leaving her, the thought of her hurting, tore Minho up inside. He let out a frustrated growl and punched the living room wall, which wasn't the best plan considering it was a brick wall but he needed to vent.

"What did that wall ever do to you?" A male voice questioned. Minho turned around to see Jonghyun standing at the front door. "I hope you don't mind me letting myself in, the door was open."

Minho shook his hand trying to shake out the pain that was rippling through it and seeing Jonghyun the pain just doubled but it was coming from the inside. "It's okay." He said lowly.

Jonghyun glanced down at Minho's hand and frowned. "Obviously it's not. Your hand is bleeding."

Minho's eyes drifted down to his left hand, looking over his torn knuckles, warm blood starting to run between his fingers. He chuckled bitterly. "Yeah guess I hit it a little too hard."

Jonghyun sighed and he walked towards Minho, grabbing his injured hand and dragging him into the kitchen. Jonghyun made quick work of cleaning up Minho's knuckles and then bandaging it up. "What the hell did you do to yourself Minho? You should be on cloud nine now, not trying to knock down a wall with your bare hands. If you want to renovate, at least buy the place first and even then might be better to use tools."

Jonghyun had been with Minho when the coach handed him the letter from his friend, Joseph. Jonghyun had been over the moon for him since then, he loved the game and was the big fan of it but he wasn't a diehard like Minho. Minho had convinced Jonghyun not to tell his family, explaining that he wanted time to think about what he was going to do before he told everyone about it. But actually Minho just wanted to make sure Jinri found out from him and not her brother because he knew this decision could mean big changes for him, for his relationship with her and he just needed time to process it but eventually it was like he screw thing up.

Minho let out a defeated sigh. "I am, Jonghyun. This opportunity means a lot to me. It's just…."

"It's just what?" Probed Jonghyun, frowning.

Minho looked at his friend before glancing away and started to explain, "What you said the other month was right. I was seeing a girl, we have been together for the past six months. I kept the letter to myself and she found it. She flipped out because I kept it from her and she….ended things this morning. I went after her, spending over an hour trying to find her. I've been trying to call her all day but she won't answer."

"So I'm guessing that's why you missed practice today and even wanted to break the hard wall earlier just because of her?" Confirmed Jonghyun and Minho nodded. He raised an eyebrow. "Wait, I just don't get why she had to end thing between you two. Both of you can still try….you know, long distance relationship."

Minho gazed at Jonghyun. "Our relationship is complicated Jonghyun. It's not as easy as you thought. Something that I can't explain you." He ran his hand through his hair out of depression.

Jonghyun nodded his head in understanding, if Minho wasn't ready to tell him, he wasn't going to push him either. He sighed. "Well Minho, then all I can say is that you have a choice to make, a tough one at that I guess. You've got to decide whether she's worth giving up a chance of a lifetime for, or more to the point whether or not, if you did stay and thing between you two would get any better, considerably that you said it was complicated."

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Present

Jinri's head pounded as she searched the medicine cabinet in the bathroom for anything that would cure her thumping headache. She had drank in the past more than once but she had never had a hang over this bad before. She was suffered with it ever since Minho had woken her up at this noon and it felt like there was a rock band playing drum in her head.

As her hand clasped around the box of pain killers, Jinri began to remember an event between her and Minho. Some of the things that Minho had said at the beach were true. There was a part of her that she had kept dormant since he left. Jinri could put blame that she was no longer taking photographs on the fact that she became a full time single mother and a full time worker but actually that wasn't entirely true. Jinri loved photography and if she really wanted it, she would have found a way to keep taking pictures. Even when it came to photos of Hannah, she was in most of them and never behind the camera. All her memories of photography were tied with memories of Minho and she knew part of her wanted to bury those memories with her camera equipment in the box at the back of her old wardrobe.

Her mind then drifted to what had nearly happened today that she nearly kissed him. Jinri still couldn't believe how close she was to kissing Minho, being at the place where they got together, where they spent a lot of their time together just seemed to bring all those old feeling back to the surface. If her fingers hadn't brushed over her engagement ring that moment, Jinri probably wouldn't have stopped herself and ended up making a huge mistake.

She was engaged to Jeahyun, they were getting married in six days, he had proposed, giving her a promising ring and that she had given him her word that she would marry him. It didn't matter that she was confused right now, as soon as Minho went back to England, everything would be back to normal.

Jinri decided to stop thinking about it and her mind switched to a phone call with her mother earlier, she told her that Hannah was begging to stay for dinner, the little girl always loved spending time with her grandparents and if none of them said yes to her, she would be sulked for a good few hours without talking to someone. Jinri agreed with a smile, imagined the sullen, pouty face of her own daughter's if she said no. She told her mother she would come by also this evening.

So now Jinri had a few more hours to kill and she really didn't know what she was going to do with herself alone in the house. Hannah was always such a handful that Jinri barely had time to think, let alone do anything for herself. She had done all the cleaning the morning before the party last night, all the chores were also done and afternoon TV wasn't anything to enjoy about.

Her eyes then landed on the canisters of film she had taken early and a grin spread across her face as something registered in her head.

After a quick trip to the camera store, Jinri managed to set up a make shift darkroom in the store room. She still had all her old equipment so once the room was set up enough, Jinri made a quick work of developing the photos she took. The first roll wasn't really much to brag about, the focus was a little off but by the time she started on the second roll of film, Jinri was starting to get to see her old style of work, the way she used to set up her shots to show some depth and movement in the water of the sea.

Sulli was just hanging up the last one to dry when she heard the front door open and firm footsteps walking around the house.

"Jinri?"

Jinri heard Jaehyun's voice called out. "I'm in the storage room!" She replied.

Jinri opened the curtains and switched off the red light bulb she had been using, taking a closer look at the photos she had been developing.

The door opened quickly and Jinri heard Jaehyun cough behind her. "Urgh Jinri, what the hell have you been doing in here?"

Jinri turned around, realizing that Jaehyun was most likely not used to the fumes from the chemicals she used on developing photo. She wiped off her hands and strode towards him, giving him a hug. "Oppa, I'm just developing some photos."

Jaehyun pushed back a little, a confused look on his face. "Photos?"

Jinri nodded, smiling. "Yeah you remember I told you I used to take photos when I was younger."

"Yeah." Replied Jaehyun, still confusion wasn't faded away from his feature. "I remember you told me you used to do it not that you still do. I haven't seen you even take a photo in the time I've known you."

Jinri faded her smile a little and she shrugged her shoulders. "It's nothing. I just got inspired today."

Jaehyun glanced over her shoulder, his eyes scanned over the pictures she hung. "These are nice."

Nice? Okay, they weren't exactly good enough to put up at a gallery but Jinri thought they at least deserved better than just nice. She frowned. "You don't like them?"

Jaehyun sighed. "It's not that, it's just in three years you've not been interested in photography and now all of a sudden you've started again. But it's a good hobby for you if that's what you want to do."

By then Jinri totally lost all her smile when he said the word 'hobby'. She had never thought of her work that way, five years ago photography was her life. She loved it that all everywhere she went, she never failed to carry her camera with her and the thought of only picking it up once in a while for just a little bit of fun made her feel a little ill. She didn't know if she could just take photos as a hobby, she just didn't think her heart would allow her to.

Jaehyun brushed his hand over her cheek. "Hey Jinri, are you okay?"

Jinri gave him a small reassuring smile. "Yeah I'm okay, just zoned out for a minute. Right, I'm going to go to my parents' place for dinner, do you want to come?"

"I wish I could babe but I have a dinner with a client tonight. Well, I just came by to give you something." Explained Jaehyun.

Jinri frowned. "Give me what?"

A childish grin spread across his face as he grabbed her hand. "Come with me." Jaehyun pulled Jinri towards the lounge room and once they reached there he extended his hand towards the couch. "Tada!"

Jinri looked at the couch and then back at Jaehyun, a confused look on her face. "Umm yeah, my couch is just kind of pretty but it's nothing special."

Jaehyun looked over at the empty couch and groaned. "Damn it! It was just here earlier." He strode into the lounge room and started looking under the couch, around the back of it.

"Oppa, what are you--" Jinri was about to ask what he was doing when she heard a small whining behind her. She spun around and her heart melted when her eyes landed on a white fluffy puppy, its little tail wagging excitedly behind it, its head cocked to the side and a little red bow tied around its neck.

"There you are!" Jaehyun came behind Jinri as he exclaimed. He knelt on the ground and clapped his hand, the little puppy came barreling towards him. Jaehyun scooped up the puppy and cradled it as he stood back up in front of Jinri. "I promised you to buy you a puppy, didn't I?"

Jinri's mouth dropped as she thought back to New Year’s Eve. She was just seriously kidding when she said he had to buy her a puppy. "Oppa, I don't know what to say. Well you do know I was just only kidding that night, right?"

Jaehyun place