Chase

Next day, when everyone goes to the beach, Jinki pulls his friends to walk slower till there is some distance between the rest of the group and the three of them. Gwiboon raises her brows quizzically but waits patiently till the rest are out of hearing range. Taemin has his elbow hooked with Minjung and is chatting animatedly with her. A protesting Jaejoong is being pulled forward by Yunho’s tight grip on his hand.

“I plan to move to Japan for college and take over my father’s business there,” Jinki breaks his silence when Jonghyun begins to fidget.

“What? You can’t mean that?” Jonghyun squawks. He raps his knuckle on Jinki’s temple, “Knock, knock, are you there Jinki’s sleeping brain?”

“Dino, think about it and you will realize I am stating the best option,” Jinki explains, his eyes not leaving Minjung’s back. “I have thought about it all night, and this is the best solution.”

Gwiboon interrupts before Jonghyun can speak, “Jingles, why don’t you tell us the problem first?” Jonghyun nods many times in agreement. He hooks his arm with Jinki’s and slows his steps even more. Gwiboon moves to walk in a similar fashion on Jinki’s other side.

Jinki sighs and his voice drops many octaves to be barely audible, “Don’t you see what is happening in front of us? My father and Minjung’s father. They love each other. They have loved each other all their lives. Now, that they have found that love again, it is only right that they spend their lives together. As one.”

For once, Jonghyun and Gwiboon remain silent, giving Jinki the opportunity to continue his explanation. “My heart beats faster every time I see her. I feel as if I will explode with happiness when she smiles, even if her smiles are not for me. I lose all control over my feelings and thoughts when I am around her. Can’t you see, Jonghyun, I cannot be here. I can’t be around her and stay sane. Japan is the only solution.”

“Minjung is not immune to you,” Gwiboon speaks on her friend’s behalf.

“You cannot give up just as Minjung is about to accept your love, Jinki,” Jonghyun encourages his friend.

Jinki remains quiet for a few moments and then sighs deeply. He looks up to see the sky darkening and few brighter stars beginning to twinkle. He watches Minjung laugh with his brother and sighs again, “I am not giving up on her. I don’t want my father to be alone anymore. He has given his youth to live his life according to others. Its time he begins to live for himself. If they marry, I will not only have a stepfather but also Minjung as my stepsister. I can’t be here and not be with her. Japan is the safest option for now. I won’t be in anyone’s way.”

“And you think Uncle Yun will let you just go?” Jonghyun shakes his head at his friend’s simple mindedness. Gwiboon pokes her finger into Jinki’s cheek hoping to bring him back to reality.

“He will be too busy with Minjung’s father to even notice that I am gone,” Jinki smiles self depreciatingly. “I won’t have to worry about Taemin either. He has gelled well with Minjung and she will take care of him.”

“What about the school bullies? You went against your nature to develop a bad boy image in school to scare the boys who pick on Tae. What do you think will happen when they know you are in another country?” Gwiboon pokes Jinki’s cheek again.

“Uncle Jae is there now,” Jinki looks at the man he is thinking about and sees him trying to extricate himself from his father’s grip. Both men had continuously bickered since meeting the day before. Jinki looks at both his friends and chuckles humorlessly, “Are you forgetting the original bad boy of our school? One glare from him and no one will dare to even lift a finger against baby Tae. He will strengthen up Tae in a way that Dad and I have not been able to.”

Gwiboon snorts, “Who in their right mind will be scared of a gay man? Our baby Tae will get bullied even more.”

Jonghyun is more serious and thinks differently, “What makes you think they will marry? Uncle Yun is living in the past here. Once we are home, and he is back into his business, his pursuit of Uncle Jae will end. Even twenty seven years on, our society has yet to accept same-gender relationships. His business will suffer.”

“Sweetheart, you are assuming that Uncle Jae will accept Uncle Yun back in his life,” Gwiboon smiles at her boyfriend. “He has been hurting all these years. You cannot expect to him forget all his years of suffering and accept Uncle Yun with a smile. We can’t even begin to imagine his pain when Jinki’s parents began dating.”

“He is not always the smartest nut when it comes to emotions,” Jonghyun laughs watching Yunho struggling to keep Jaejoong by his side and the slightly shorter man swatting and kicking him. “Look even now he has not learnt his lesson. Why doesn’t anyone explain to him that he is going about wrong in wooing Uncle Jae?”

“You are right, what Uncle Yun needs to give is flowers and gifts and space. Sticking like glue to Uncle Jae is absolutely the wrong way,” Gwiboon smiles softly at Jonghyun.

Jinki takes a deep breath and exhales it out to calm his churning emotions. He leaves his friends and jogs over to his father. Gently, Jinki takes Yunho’s left hand in his own, effectively removing it from Jaejoong’s arm. When Jaejoong smiles appreciatively at him, Jinki bows his head in acknowledgement and pulls his father to walk with him and his friends. He turns to Gwiboon and motions to his father, “Here he is. Tell him how to win over Minjung’s father. Tae and I want a ring on his finger, and be able to call him our stepfather before we leave for home.”

Jonghyun looks sharply at Jinki but the latter chooses to ignore his friend’s silent concern. Hoping to talk sense into Jinki at a later and more private time, Jonghyun joins Gwiboon in helping the older man win over the man he loves.

“Don’t crowd him Uncle Yun,” Gwiboon’s first suggestion is met with a frown from Yunho. Jonghyun does not give him a chance to protest, “You gave him twenty seven years of space and now you are not even letting him breathe on his own. You are behaving like a bully.” Yunho sputters in denial.

“You want to win him over, Dad, not scare him away,” Jinki backs up his friends. “Listen to us and follow what Gwiboon and Jonghyun say. Otherwise, you will go back home empty handed and still single.”

Yunho looks at all three and sighs in defeat, “He refuses to believe me when I say I love him.”

Gwiboon looks at him incredulously, “After stomping all over his heart, back in school, what else do you expect? You almost ruined his life and you want him to gush all over you just because you decided now to proclaim your love for him? You are lucky he has only thrown a few punches and kicks your way.” Yunho squirms uncomfortably at the young girl’s rebuke. “You need to court him properly to make up for your bad behavior.” Yunho silently nods.

“Don’t force him to walk with you. Invite him to walk by your side. If he allows you to hold his hand, do it, otherwise respect his wishes and just walk beside him,” Jonghyun suggested.

Gwiboon sends him a winning smile and Jonghyun loses his thoughts for a few moments. She takes up while he gazes at her, “Slowly try to hold just one finger first, that too after sometime of walking without touching. If he permits that then gradually move on to offering your hand to him. It’s his choice to accept or not. Respect his decision. Do not cling to him or force him.”

Yunho again nods and whispers to himself, “Ask to walk with me. No touching. Then finger holding. Then offering my hand. Respect. Space.” Then he looks at Jaejoong walking with Taemin and Minjung, and laughing at something they said. Yunho looks back at the teens by his and wails loudly, “But I want to kiss him.” Jaejoong looks back at him and glares, before turning to pay attention to the kids again.

The kids advising Yunho feel like kicking him, but control themselves when Yunho squeals like an overexcited child, “Ooh, do you see how lovely his eyes are? He is so y when he glares at me. I love my wild Jae.” The three teens sigh and look at each other before fixing their eyes at the older man.

It is Jonghyun who speaks first, “You have your entire life to love his wild side. But you need to appeal to his emotional side if you want to get together with him.”

When Yunho’s eyes glaze over, imagining a wild Jaejoong, Gwiboon scolds her boyfriend, “Don’t put ideas into his head. We want him to gain self-control, not lose it altogether and molest poor Uncle Jae.”

Jonghyun retorts right back, “What do you think he has been doing since he saw him again?”

Jinki directs the conversation back to the original point, “Dad, all these years when you thought of meeting him again, what did want to say to him? How did you think of apologizing?”

Yunho tears his eyes away from Jaejoong and looks seriously at Jinki, “You are not offended that I love a man?”

Jinki smiles in understanding at his father and shakes his head, “No. Tae and I just want you to be happy. If you are happy with him, so be it. It will take some getting used to, because we don’t know anyone who is gay. But we don’t mind, as long as he loves you back just as much as you love him.”

Yunho wraps one arm around Jinki and hugs him to his side, “Thanks. I worried a lot last night. I don’t want to lose you and Tae, but neither can I let Jae walk away from me again.”

Jinki assures him softly, “You won’t lose us, Dad. We will help you. So how did you think of apologizing?”

Yunho keeps his eyes fixed on Jaejoong as he explains to his son, “I thought of many different ways to get him back. Ask him out for dinner, then go for a walk down the river side and confess to him. Show him the ring I have never taken off. Give him my diaries in which I have shared my life with him. I had no address to send letters to so I wrote to him in my diaries. I always felt that if he read my feelings for him over the years, he would know I never stopped loving him.”

The three friends exclaim in unison, “Aha! That’s it!” Then they deflate equally quickly. Gwiboon is despondent, “But you don’t have all your diaries with you here.”

Yunho pats her head lovingly, “Why wouldn’t I? I digitalized them some years ago. They are all in my laptop. Recently, I began voice recording them, instead of writing.”

“Can we have them, Dad?” Jinki looks at his friends and they have the same idea.

“Can we give them to Uncle Jae?” Jonghyun confirms.

Yunho thinks for a moment and then nods. “My laptop will recognize your thumbprint, Jinki. Password is 19860126. In F drive, look for the folder titled ‘Dear Jae’.”

Gwiboon laughs giddily, “Tomorrow morning ask him out for a couple dinner, then take him for a moonlight walk on the beach.”

Jonghyun smiles goofily, “Don’t forget to buy a ring sometime during the day. A midnight proposal will be hard to resist.”

“Ooh sweetheart, is that how you plan to propose to me,” Gwiboon looks at him with stars shining in her eyes.

Jonghyun winks at her, “Now I will have to plan something different.”

Yunho quietly asks his son, “Are you sure, Jinki? Think clearly. Once you give him the diaries, there will be no turning back. Here, amongst friends, it is different. Society, still, will not accept us together.”

“We will find a way, Dad. You have Tae, me and all our friends with you this time. We will find a way to make it happen. I can see your friends already plotting and planning strategies,” Jinki smiles reassuringly at his father. He suppresses the pain stinging his heart at the thought of losing Minjung forever. He had spent the entire night struggling with his dilemma. By day break he had reached his decision of giving up his love for Minjung for his father’s happiness. After all, Jinki had thought, his love was one sided with only his heart involved. He couldn’t even begin to compare his love for Minjung with the love shared by their fathers all their lives.

Gwiboon pushes Yunho forward, “Go and ask him to walk with you. Remember to respect his decision. Give him space and be patient.”

In the hotel, the three teens download into a flash drive the folder holding Yunho’s deepest emotions. They later hand it to Jaejoong to read before sleeping. When Jaejoong questions them about the contents, they tell him to figure it out by himself after going through the entire folder.