“You okay, ____?” Yunho asks, giving me a one armed hug as we walk to our gate the next morning.

“Yeah.” I wipe at my eyes, trying not to cry as I look back to where Tyler and Daniel had disappeared behind the crowds. “I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll see them again soon,” Changmin adds, gently touching my arm as he comes to my other side.

I smile up at them, grateful I at least still have the five of them. When we reach our gate, I drop my bag and take the chair beside Yoochun with a sigh. “So tired. Did you sleep well, oppa?”

He glances at me and nods.

“Good,” I smile, closing my eyes and resting my head on his shoulder.

His body stiffens almost imperceptibly before relaxing again. A little while he nudges my shoulder. “_____, we’re getting on now.”

I yawn and lean down to grab my bag. “Okay.”

Yoochun looks at me with a slight frown, making me frown back.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing,” he replies, shaking his head and walking away.

    With a shrug, I quickly fall into step behind him, Junsu, and Jaejoong. As we begin making our way down the plane’s aisle, I double check my phone’s off. I look up and stop in confusion, making Changmin accidentally bump into me.

“Mianhae,” I apologize, quickly sitting beside Jaejoong, who looks up at me with equal confusion.

    I glance across the wide aisle at Yoochun, who’s either deliberately avoiding my eyes or just doing a very good job of it from his seat beside Junsu. I don’t understand. Every time we traveled together, we sit side by side. It was a given, or so I thought.

Changmin and Yunho exchange looks before continuing towards their own seats.

“Did something happen between you two?” Jaejoong asks quietly, his eyes going between the two of us.

“The only thing I’ve said to him this morning is ‘Did you sleep well?’,” I shrug, trying to think of anything else I could’ve done to upset him. “He wasn’t acting strange or anything earlier; he’s always quiet in the morning. What about last night? Did anything happen after you all left?”

Jaejoong shakes his head. “No. No disagreements, nothing like that. He was quieter than usual, but we all were because we’re all tired after this week.”

I frown, shaking my head. “Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe he just wanted to sit with Junsu this time.”

“Maybe.”

I put on a smile. “I’ll check on him when we land. Until then, I shouldn’t worry, right?”

He gives me a reassuring smile in response. “Right. At least you get to talk to me.”

“True. I think I’ll take a nap for a little while first though.”

“All right.” He pats his shoulder. “Feel free to use this.”

“But Yoochun said you’re bony,” I tease.

Jaejoong rolls his eyes. “Fine. Don’t accept my offer.”

Chuckling, I close my eyes and let my head drop to his shoulder, hoping everything will prove all right when I wake up.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Junsu.”

“Yeah?” he replies absently, looking out the window expanse of blue beneath them.

“...Can you be jealous of a friend?”

Junsu glances at Yoochun with a slightly bewildered expression. “What?”

Yoochun keeps his eyes on his hands. “Before, when you were just friends with Yejin, how did you feel when she was dating someone else?”

“Someone else?”

“Yeah.”

Junsu raises his eyebrows and quickly glances over to _____. “Are you talking about-”

“Shh,” Yoochun quickly hushes him, his eyes darting around. Quietly, he adds, “Who else?”

“Why?” His eyes widen. “You like _____?”


“I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not sure, but...”

“But?” Junsu prods.

“But I kept having these weird feelings. This whole week, whenever we were with Julian, he and _____ were always touching each other...and I didn’t like it. I hated she was paying more attention to him than me even though it was probably because they hadn’t seen each other in a long time.”

“Well, you are use to having her basically to yourself.”

“And then when we were at the club, I got mad that another guy tried to dance with her. When we danced together, it just felt right,” Yoochun shrugs, finally meeting Junsu’s eyes.

“Okay. That kind of sounds like you like her. When I still wasn’t sure if I liked Yejin, sometimes when she went on a date, I’d find myself thinking of ways to get her away from them to be with me. If we went out, I made sure she was close by even though she can take care of herself.”

“And then there was last night,” he continues.

Junsu frowns, trying to remember anything significant. “What happened?”

Yoochun runs a hand through his hair. “You know how we had to go back to the house because I forgot my phone?”

“Yes,” he answers slowly.

“When I went back in, I saw them sitting outside together and..._____ was kissing Julian.”

Junsu’s eyes threaten to bug out of his head. “They kissed? Wow... So are they together?”

Yoochun shrugs. “I don’t know. All I know is, when I saw that, it felt like my heart stopped. I wanted to yank her away from him, but I couldn’t move. _____’s my friend. I shouldn’t have felt that way.”

“And Yejin was mine before we started dating,” he points out. “You can fall for a friend.”

“That’d be too weird,” he immediately replies. “It shouldn’t be any of my business who she kisses. I’m still with Jaehwa, kinda, and I still love her. You can’t be in love with two people at the same time.”

“You can in a way,” Junsu answers slowly. “There’s friend love and romantic love, but romantic love should only be one person. You just have to figure out how you really feel about both of them.”

“Like that’ll be easy. Even if I do like ____, do you think she’d feel the same way about me?”

Junsu gives him a small smile. “What happened to the ‘Just go for it’ you were giving me when I was trying to decide to tell Yejin?”

“Flew right out the window,” Yoochun chuckles. “Mianhae about that. It’s a lot harder than I thought.”

“Welcome to my problem,” he laughs. Still smiling, but in a serious tone, Junsu adds, “Just spend some more with both of them and seriously think about it.”

Yoochun nods. “Do you think _____’s ever thought of me that way?”

Junsu follows eyes to ____ again, considering it before shrugging. “Maybe. You are a great guy, not that I’m biased at all.”

“Thanks, chingu,” he smiles, bumping Junsu with his elbow. His smile falters a little. “But what if she is with Julian now?”

“Then there’s nothing you can do,” he replies matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry about that till you figure out what’s really going on between you and Jaehwa though. Have you even heard from her recently?”

“Some on and off texting. I can’t really tell how’s she’s feeling.”

“Oh. Hopefully you all will figure it out soon.” A thought suddenly pops into Junsu’s head. “Oh! Isn’t ____’s birthday soon?”

“Three weeks, I think,” Yoochun says, looking thoughtful. “How’d you know?”

“Yejin mentioned it when I called her last night. She wanted to know if we were doing anything for her.”

He smiles. “I haven’t planned anything yet, but I actually got her birthday present while we were here.”

“What? When? What’d you get her?” Junsu asks, bouncing in his seat a little.

“You’ll have to wait and see.”

“Just tell me,” he pouts, poking Yoochun’s side.

Yoochun tries to flinch away. “It’s in my luggage so I can’t show you.”

“Fine. We’ll have to start figuring out what to do for her soon though so we can try to get a free evening or something and Yejin’ll want to be in on it too.”

“Do you think we should talk to her best friend too? She’s mentioned her a couple times; I think her name’s Ayako.”

“Sounds good.”

“Maybe we can get Yejin to call her,” Yoochun says, already thinking of and discarding several ideas.

“Yejin...”

“Yeah. Just so it’d be less strange for her. Getting a random phone call from a guy she doesn’t know, you know.”

“Yejin!” Junsu says again, his smile widening.

Yoochun gives him a strange look. “Yeah, Yejin would be the one calling.”

He shakes his head. “No, no, I know that. I mean Yejin can ask her for you!”

“Junsu, that was kind of my entire point.”

Junsu rolls his eyes. “I know. What I mean is, Yejin can ask _____ to figure out how she feels about you and about the kiss. Just like _____ asked Yejin to find out for me. Then you can know for sure if she’s dating Julian or not. It’s perfect, right?”

“Wouldn’t that give me away?” Yoochun asks doubtfully.

“Yejin’s smart enough to do it in a way that _____ won’t think about it twice,” Junsu assures his friend. “Want me to ask her to do it?”

He shakes his head. “Not yet at least.”

“Okay. Let me know if you change your mind. I’m sure Yejin won’t mind helping you at.”

+++++++++++++++

“Why does Yoochun oppa have to be so stupid?” Yejin groans frustratedly, dropping her head into her hands as she sits at my kitchen counter a few days after we’d gotten back from the U.S.

Ayako nods in agreement from her seat beside Yejin. “The whole acting possessive in the club, ignoring you on the plane then acting like nothing happened; there’s no other explanation for him being so bipolar towards you. He has to like you.”

“I don’t know,” I sigh, idly playing with my spoon. “There’re plenty of other reasons he could’ve been acting like that that don’t involve him liking me at all. I’ve barely been able to talk to him since we got back since they’ve been so busy again.”

Yejin sighs too. “I know. It’s the same thing with me and Junsu. We talk every night, but I haven’t seen him in ages.”

“At least you two have guys,” Ayako pouts. “I’d rather be missing someone than have no one at all.”

Yejin’s head suddenly pops back up, her eyes wide. “Unnie! I almost forgot! How could you not tell us about that?”


“Tell you about what?” I frown, completely confused.

“Getting kissed!”

“Getting what?” Ayako squeaks, looking at me with shocked and slightly accusing eyes. “Who kissed you? When?”

I feel a sudden sinking of my stomach. “How-...how did you know about that?”

“Why?” Yejin asks, suddenly looking worried.

“Because no one else was there...and I didn’t tell anyone.”

“Who kissed you?” Ayako demands. “Was it Yoochun?”

“It was Julian,” I reply quietly. “He kissed me the night before we left after he told me he liked me. But I don’t understand; the guys had already left.”

“They had to go back so Yoochun could get his phone,” Yejin contradicts.

“Oh no.” I drop my head into my hands, my head reeling as it makes the connections between this realization and Yoochun’s behavior. “He must’ve seen. No, no, no.”

Ayako’s voice breaks into my self-berating. “Did you kiss Julian back?

“Huh?”


“Did you kiss Julian back?” she repeats.

“No,” I answer, shaking my head. “I didn’t feel the same way he did.”

“Then don’t worry about it. It’s not like you were cheating on Yoochun and if you say you  didn’t kiss Julian back, you obviously aren’t dating him, so there’s nothing really wrong. If nothing else, maybe it gave Yoochun the kick he needed to realize he likes you.”

“That might be true,” Yejin adds tentatively. “Junsu said he can Jaehwa are only kind of talking. I don’t think he was supposedly to let slip Yoochun had seen the kiss though.”

Ayako claps her hands and leans back with a satisfied smile. “See? Yoochun wouldn’t have mentioned it if he hadn’t been upset by it. Now Yejin just has to casually mention to Junsu that you and Julian aren’t together and he’ll tell Yoochun and then Yoochun’ll realize this is his chance to seize the destiny that is you and him.”

“You really do read too many manga,” I chuckle, feeling a little better. “I highly doubt he’s going to have a sudden epiphany after all this time.”

“Yah! Leave me and fantasies alone! I’m psychic, remember? I know things.”

“Unnie, you’re crazy,” Yejin laughs, hugging Ayako. “I’ll do what you said though so maybe we can help _____ unnie.”

“Speaking of helping _____, is everything lining up for our certain favorite someone’s birthday that’s coming up?” Ayako asks with an evil grin.

“You’re seriously going to keep teasing me by talking about this right in front of me?” I sigh, grateful these two goofballs are here to distract me.

“It’s more fun this way, right, Yejin?”

“It is,” Yejin giggles. “She’ll forgive us right away anyway.”

“You’re lucky I like you two,” I laugh. "I hope you aren't doing anything extravagent. I don't want you to go to much trouble just for me."

“Like? You love us. Just like we love you and you love Yoochun,” Ayako coos, giggling at my glare. "We're going to make it an awesome birthday, you wait and see. Seriously though, _____, just because Yoochun saw what happened, don’t think about it too much, because I know you will. Somethings just happen and sometimes luck’s really working in your favor.”

“I know. I just wish luck would stop being so indirect and actually show results.”

“Lady Luck is a fickle mistress,” she shrugs.

“It’ll turn out all right,” Yejin assures me with a sweet smile.

=====================

Annyeong lovelies! Mianhae for being gone so long again... (^^;). But here's a double update to try to make up for it! I'm back from Italy and on break so although the whole two weeks-to-update seems to be becoming a habit, I'll be better about updating weekly. Also, I'm very sorry if this story is boring or dragging as it seems to be from your comments; I tend to take too much time to build up the story and write to subtly I guess. I promise to try better from now on so as to not disappoint you all. Anyway, if you'd like to see my pictures they're here and my blog here. Be happy and safe as the holidays come up and enjoy your breaks and family time, arasso? Saranghae and thank you for sticking around with this pabo of a writer.

nar12345: Hopefully. Life is too precious to be wasted, but I don't think she necessarily is. She has a life outside of Yoochun where's she happy...but we shall see.

Champions27: Yes, the poor kid did, but at least she was nice&honest about it.

yellow14: *hugs* thanks, dongsaeng-ah.

the3wishes_t3w: Merry Christmas to you too. ^^ He was jealous...

hazel_marie13: Your answers are here, lovely. Mianhae for updating late!

EhaaKevin: Well, she didn't feel the same way....He was jealous and he's getting there, slowly...

chocoenvelope: He's working on it. Well, two/fifths of the guys know, though I'll doubt it'll stay away from the other three long.

Mionyu: It's ok and I hope you're feeling better. I think he's beginning to realize it without her telling him. Ke ke, think a Hispanic Julien Kang and yes, it is good.

WhiteAutumn_x: I miss you too! Thanks for your support! Yeah, I'd have to agree with you there.

Poison: Thanks, I hope I do too! No, not really. Jaehwa's still got her own little plan going on...but you'll see soon.

Jun_KOI_Mi: I don't know about a move, but he may be getting closer to realizing.

turtle_chan: Really? Why? It was a very good brother moment. Chunnie's getting there. Thanks!

Doitworth: Chunnie's slowly figuring it out, kinda. I don't know about masterpiece, but thanks for the compliment.^^

MewNikkiChan: Stupid boys. I'd love for him to kiss her too, but he is still with Jaehwa...another stupid person. Saranghae!

PurpleangelSJ: This is very true. Good thing love's patient, right? Nado saranghae! ^^