“Hey, Earth to Yoochun. You there?”

Jaejoong’s voice breaks through Yoochun’s thoughts, making him jump. “What?”

“I said, are you there?” he asks, sitting down beside him on the bed. “You’ve been spacier than usual the past two days. Is anything wrong?”

“It’s...nothing.”

“Hey, Yoochun hyung,” Changmin calls as he comes in the room. “Do you know if something happened to _____ noona’s phone? I called her yesterday morning, but she hasn’t called back. It’s not like her.”

Jaejoong notices the flash of uneasiness cross Yoochun’s face. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?” Yoochun asks, glancing at him.

“Did something happen to _____?”

“Nothing happened to her...”

“But something did happen,” Changmin says decisively after examining Yoochun. Sitting on the coffee table in front of him, he folds his arms. “Spill it.”
Yoochun looks between his two friends and sighs. “When you all were at the reshoot the other day, _____ came by because Junsu had forgotten a game at Yejin’s place. We hung out, watching some movies and eating dinner. Then she had to go, but it was raining so we were waiting together by the door. I started feeling lonely again and some of it just spilled out and..._____....she kissed me.”

“Yeah!” someone happily shouts from the hallway.

    The three of them look in time to see a smiling Junsu come running into the room to flop onto the couch beside Yoochun, followed by an amused looking Yunho who sits on Jaejoong’s other side.

“She did it!” Junsu laughs. “I knew it would work.”

“What would work?” Yoochun asks, frowning.

“My plan,” he answers smugly. “That was actually Yejin’s game; she just asked ____ to bring it here because you were here by yourself. She loved you, you kinda loved her so boom! Perfect confession opportunity!”

“Way to not tell the rest of us,” Yunho chuckles. “We’ve only been waiting like forever.”

“Wait a second,” Yoochun says, throwing his hands up. Looking around at the others’ unsurprised faces, he slowly asks, “You all knew ____ felt that way? The entire time?”

“I only found out a month or so ago,” Junsu chirps with an apologetic shrug while the other three nod.

“And none of you felt the need to clue me in?”

“How could we? You were either infatuated with or dating that woman,” Changmin reminds him. “If we’d told you, do you think you would’ve been able to deal with that in way that wouldn’t have hurt noona?”

“Too late for that,” he mumbles.

“What?” Junsu asks, taken aback. “What’d you do?”

“I was so surprised I’m not sure how I did anything. All I could think was why she chose me. I don’t deserve her...and I told her I was sorry-”

“That’s like the worse thing you can say to a girl,” Jaejoong comments, shaking his head. “Especially one that just confessed to you.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Yoochun says frustratedly, his fingers tightening around each other.

“You really are an pabo, just saying,” Changmin says. “Have you talked to her since then?”

“I took me all day yesterday to work up the courage to call her to try, but she’s not answering. I’m not surprised though. You should have seen her face afterwards; it was like I killed a puppy in front of her. She told me to forget about it and ran away before I could say anything else- Ow! what the-” Yoochun looks up behind him in surprise, rubbing the stinging part of his ear.

“Dude, are you really this stupid?” Junsu asks incredulously. “You have legs! You should’ve chased after her!”

He opens his mouth for an angry retort but his face quickly falls as he realizes Junsu was right. With a sigh, he drops his head into his hands. “You’re right. I should’ve. But what do I now since she won’t answer me?”

“Go to her apartment of course,” Yunho sensibly answers, glancing at the clock. “It’s too late now, but we only have practice tomorrow so you can go during our midday break.”

“Before you go though, you should try to figure out how you feel about her. It’s only fair to _____,” Jaejoong tells him. “....Do you know?”

Yoochun takes a few minutes to answer. “I-...I’m not sure. After things between me and J-Jaehwa got rocky and our trip to America, I started feeling different towards ______. I'm definitely over Jaehwa. I think I might love ______, but I don’t know.”

“Well, only one way to find out,” Junsu says.

“What’s that?”

“Kiss her.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Changmin warns Yoochun. “Only kiss her if she’s not mad or it comes at the right moment.”

“Guys, Yoochun’s a big boy,” Yunho says, hushing them. “He knows better than to waste a second chance....or a third...or a fourth...”

“We get the idea,” Jaejoong chuckles as he covers Yunho’s mouth. “It’s going to be awkward, but you two just need to talk things out. It’s not like you barely know each other and neither of you are going anywhere.”

“Stupid door.”

    Yoochun passes the door to _____’s apartment for the umpteenth time as he paces up and down the hall the next afternoon, trying to get himself to knock. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see _____ again. He was just scared of what would happen once he walked through that door. Depending on _____ and himself, he could lose a friend or gain a love. Both aspects are equally frightening.

Finally, Yoochun scolds himself into stopping in front of the door and knocking. When there’s no answer, he softly calls, “_____. It’s me, Yoochun.”

    As he knocks again, the door shifts, surprising him. Taking a deep breath, he pushes it all the way open, calling her name again. What he sees stops him in his tracks.

    The apartment is empty, only odd pieces of furniture remaining. Yoochun’s footsteps sound abnormally loud as he walks all the in, his mind still trying to comprehend it. All the pictures, the books, the odds and ends that made this place _______’s were gone. A sinking feeling in his stomach makes him call her again, louder.  Again, there’s no answer. The feeling grows as he hurries to the bedroom door to push it open as well. Empty as well.

“No,” he murmurs. “She wouldn’t have.”

The deserted apartment fails to deny him, instead seeming to confirm his fear with its silence.

    Turning around, he runs out, his hand fumbling for his phone. Quickly punching the speed dial, Yoochun doesn’t have long to wait before an overly cheery voice tells him the number he is trying to reach is unavailable. A thousand reasons flash through his head as he tries to think of where else to look for her. She can’t be gone. _____ was his best friend, the one who could always make him smile, the one who took care of him, the one he was suddenly realizing....

    Her work. Maybe she’ll be at work. His fingers shaking as dials information for the address, he keeps running. By the time he finds her office building, his heart seems to be thudding through his chest, but he doesn’t stop.

“Where’s ______’s office?” Yoochun asks, gasping for breath as he rushes into the agency’s lobby.

The alarmed looking secretary points down a hallway to her left. “Down there, third on the left, but-”

He doesn’t give her time to finish. Yoochun runs down the hall, ing the door open. “_____!”

Only a cold, empty office greets him, completely stripped of any personal items. Just like the apartment.

He slumps against the doorframe, at a complete loss. She wouldn’t...

“Yoochun-ssi?”

With desperate eyes, he whips around to find Ayako standing there with curious but guarded eyes. Striding over to her, Yoochun grips her arms. “Ayako, where’s _____?”

She raises an eyebrow. “Why should I tell you? If I remember right, you were the one who sent her away.”

“I know; I know I screwed up, but I need to know where she is. She won’t answer her phone and her apartment’s empty and now so is her office. Where is _____, Ayako? Where is she?”

“She’s gone.”

Yoochun feels his heart drop to his feet. “What? Where?”

“You still haven’t given me a good reason to tell you.”

“I...I was-I am...I’m wasting time! Where is she?”

Ayako studies him a few more seconds. “She went to Japan.”

“Japan?! Where in Japan?”

“She said... something about Araihama.”

“Araihama...” he whispers, abruptly spinning around and sprinting back down the hall.

“Wait! You didn’t let me-” Ayako calls, trying to run after him, but he’s already gone. With a half frustrated, half relieved sigh, she starts walking back to her won office.

“What was that all about? And who was that?”

She turns to look at a still very confused secretary. “Don’t worry about it. It’s what should happen.”

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

So I'm suffering from the insomnia of talking to friends on the other side of the world and decided to go ahead and give this to y'all. Hope you enjoy it...well, if not enjoy at least look forward to what happens next.

Doitworth: We shall see. I promise to update within the week. ^^

ljolson: It was too sudden for him, I think.

yellow14: Aw, please don't cry!

ankeaenkeli: I think it's a mix of courage and stupidity; that's what it felt like when I confessed. Ke ke, I think Junsu's especially mad at him.

nar12345: eaxactly. i think she just wanted to get it out there so he could at least be thinking about it.

minnie6002: Aw, I'm sorry you're having a bad time, but I'm glad this helped you. Well, Chunnie did just find out so he needed some time to wrap his head around the idea...

turtle_chan: We shall see and it's actually been almost a month since the Jaehwa fiasco so....

Jun_KOI_Mi: Indeed on both accounts.

MivlaShun: Just a few more to go! ^^

hazelmarie_13: Kinda. But yes, we shall see. ^^

PurpleangelSJ: Yes, I hope it will be too. Thanks! <3

ChinkyKayla: Maybe. Dang, I understand since a similar thing happened to me too. Be strong. ^^

Poison: You couldn't help it and it did have to come out eventually. Aigoo, I'm sorry I made you cry! But I'll make you smile again, promise!

leejinkioppa: Aw, thank you! ^^ Yes, we'll see.

White_Autumnx: Mianhae! And thank you! <3 你也说中文！ 真的吗！太棒！^^