“What have I done in my previous life to deserve such suffering from above?” Doyoung groaned loudly. He threw his lifeless body on his bed while his mind lists all of the possible bad things he had done to be in this situation right now.

 

“Do you need us to help you with that? Because I have a few things I can think of to say.” Taeyong replied, his head resting on Jaehyun’s lap. They are both situated on Doyoung’s couch, letting the bunny looking male mope in his bedroom.

 

“This is not to be taken lightly, hyung.” Jaehyun scolded his boyfriend.

 

“What, I was just lightening up the mood!” The older protested. “And Dr. Kim Dongyoung, you need to decide now.”

 

“How the heck am I going to decide when the only consolation you can offer is to mock me?” Doyoung buried his face to his pillow, heaving a sigh.

 

This is not the way Doyoung wanted to spend his weekend morning.

 

In fact, Doyoung’s Saturday was going pretty well earlier that day.

 

He slept a good six hours without interruptions, finished encoding the grades of his graduate school students, and had cream cheese bread for breakfast. Nothing can ever beat his love for cream cheese bread. Well, dark humoured sitcoms and the smell of old books are strong contenders to that.

 

All will change when the mailman handed him a cream coloured envelope while eating his cream cheese bread.

 

In the generation where you can send written stuff in the Internet, Doyoung was genuinely curious of what would be the contents of the envelope. He then proceeded to his counter to put down his bread, wash his hands and open the envelope.

 

An identical cream coloured card is inside. Intricate designs can be seen all around the card and a pearl embellishment gave the piece of cardboard an elegant feel. Flipping the card open, he took one look from the name and he immediately dropped the card on the counter.

 

“You are cordially invited to the wedding of Qian Kun and Chittaphon Leechaiyakul this coming November 15^th, year 2017.”

 

Memories flooded Doyoung’s now alert mind, filling his senses with hurt, humiliation and anger all surging into one big lump of hatred at the pit of his stomach.

 

It’s been years since he felt this intense feeling of wrath and it’s already making Doyoung woozy. The thought of seeing Qian Kun again after everything he had done to him is making his blood boil.

 

Taeyong chose the right time to call to pop Doyoung’s bubble of thought.

 

“Hey, the guys were thinking if we could go to-”

 

“Hyung. K-Kun… Kun sent me an invitation… To his wedding n-next week…” His voice cracked and he didn’t mean to. The invitation sprawled on his granite counter stared at him and he felt his chest tightened.

 

He heard a quick discussion between Jaehyun and Taeyong from the other line before the older told him to stay put in his apartment and they’ll be there in fifteen minutes.

 

The first thing Taeyong did when Doyoung opened the door was hug him. The younger felt as if he could cry right there and then. Taeyong was there during the course of his bad relationship with Kun and he knows how he ed up Doyoung.

 

Jaehyun went to the kitchen to make tea while Taeyong guide Doyoung to the couch. Doyoung calmed down and starts to take small sips from the mug before he started talking. “S-sorry for breaking down like that.”

 

“Oh, Doyoungie. It’s alright.” Taeyong said softly. Jaehyun gave him the invitation and the elder’s face turned sour the moment his eyes caught Kun’s name.

 

“Qian Kun… His name sounds familiar- Oh! I think I know him, hyung! He is this brilliant Chinese scholar but self-absorbed in the Master’s of Business and Administration. Our professors liked him but everyone, including Sicheng, hates him. He only talks about how he knows everything in the class, aces the tests and brags about it how easy the exams were. And Sicheng is a good man. He never hates anything or anyone.” Jaehyun recalled, sitting down next to Doyoung, his hand gently rubbing down on his back. “But I wasn’t aware you were a thing. No one told me about it.”

 

“It’s because I never thought of it as something important in our group, to be quite honest. But yeah… He did a lot of damage to me and I won’t get into the details.” Doyoung said, his thumb gliding on the side of the mug.

 

Taeyong sighed, putting the invitation on the coffee table. It hurts to see Doyoung distraught because of the same jerk again. “You don’t need to go. You can throw the stupid thing to the trash and forget about the whole thing.”

 

“Hyung, you can’t just decide for Doyoung hyung like that. What if this has meaning? What if the universe is telling Doyoung hyung something?” Jaehyun butted in. “Doyoung hyung, aren’t you still angry at this bastard? Maybe this is the universe’s way for you to confront that anger after a long time!”

 

Taeyong stared at him before speaking. “I didn’t know you can speak psychology to a doctor of psychology, Jaehyun ah. And you have a point. But what if Doyoung is not ready yet? I know it has crossed his mind to go but you have no idea what things he did to him.”

 

“Excuse me, but I am right here! Don’t talk as if I am not in front of you two.” He turned his head to the youngest. “And yes, Jaehyun. I am still mad at him but I am scared to do anything about it. I never want to see his smug face again. Then this appeared… Ugh, it’s too early for this .” Doyoung stood up and body slams his bed.

 

Jaehyun lifted Taeyong’s head from his lap before trudging to Doyoung’s bedroom. He sat by his feet and patted his bum. “You know hyung, you can always take someone to this thing. Show him you’re fine now. I am not sure what his motive is but not showing would only prove you’re too caught up in the past. At least, to me, it would look like you’re running away from an opportunity to have closure and move the on.”

 

“Again, Jung Jaehyun, I know those already. And thank you for verbalising my thoughts. I-I’m just… Well, first off, who am I bringing? As you already know, I don’t have a boyfriend or anything close to that.” Doyoung sat up, hugging his pillow to his chest.

 

“You should go with Youngho, Doyoung ah!” Taeyong shouted from the living room.

 

“Oh, that’s perfect! You can take Youngho hyung with you! Both of you are single and you guys have been close for a while now. Ever since his drunken mistake last year.” Jaehyun nodded with a smile, his dimple showing.

 

Doyoung tightened his hold to his pillow, his heart booming from his chest. Youngho hyung? He doesn’t want to embarrass himself in front of the man he has been secretly pining for.

 

Yes, he likes the man who mistakenly stumbled in his apartment that fated Saturday night. After that, Doyoung found himself hanging out with his friends more than he did before he discovered Johnny was friends with them. The budding relationship between him and Johnny wasn’t an issue since Doyoung tried his hardest not to like Johnny. But with a man like the older, it’s extremely hard not to. Sensible, funny, patient and caring plus the fact that the man looks like a whole snack, Johnny is the perfect man for Doyoung. And the obvious fact that Johnny flirts with him, takes him to ‘friendly dates,’ and sometimes pick him up from school after work, making him feel the most loved and cherished person in the entire universe.

 

At the back of his mind, he knew that the whole ordeal won’t get passed by his friends observing eyes. Being friends with them for a long time makes it easier to read between the lines of the words they say and scrutinize their behaviour whenever they are together. No psychological explanation is needed for that.

 

And he absolutely knew that Jaehyun or Taeyong would suggest Johnny to be his plus one to this wedding. He hoped they won’t. He really did.

 

“Well? Don’t you have someone to call?” Taeyong emerged from the living room, Doyoung’s phone in his hand.

 

The purple haired male bit his lower lip, his mind clouded with the number of scenarios that this could lead to a disaster.

 

But the fact that Kun invited him is already a disaster so…

 

“Give me the damn phone.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*a week later*

 

“Are you all set, tokki?” Johnny asked, fastening his seatbelt.

 

“I told you to never call me that, hyung. It doesn’t matter if I look like a bunny!” Doyoung huffed from the passenger seat, his black tuxedo getting a bit crinkled from the restraint of the seatbelt.

 

Johnny laughed, the low tone sending sparks down Doyoung’s spine. He’s going to his ex’s wedding with the man he is currently likes. They’ll be alone in the car for almost three hours of travel to the venue.

 

The universe can off if this is its way of dealing with the situation.

 

The first twenty minutes of the travel was quiet and Doyoung was thankful for that. He can’t believe Johnny accepted his invitation without much of a thought. “I think it would be fun~” He recalled the elder’s voice after saying yes.

 

Also, the silence helped in Doyoung thinking of ways to approach Kun. He wants to show that jerk that he has become successful without him. It may sound lame but when Kun broke up with Doyoung days before graduation, it only made him much determined to prove the man wrong. That he’s much more to him than the weak boy he was before.

 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Johnny hums, his fingers tapping at the steering wheel. He has been worried about the younger’s state after knowing from Taeyong that the wedding they’re attending is Doyoung’s ex boyfriend’s wedding. This lit up Johnny’s curiosity but of course, he won’t push the younger into telling his past he may be uncomfortable to share.

 

Doyoung turned to look at him and offered him a small smile. “Ever been invited to an ex’s wedding before?” He asked, tapping his fingers on his lap. “I just don’t understand why he would take the time to cordially invite his ex to one of the most important days of his life. It’s like a big slap on my face.”

 

“Exes can be pretty crazy. Not that I have been invited to one of my ex’s wedding but I have lived long enough to deal with a bunch of people who haven’t moved on up my trail. I do think he is the one who hasn’t moved on, Doyoung ah. No one can be over someone as amazing of a person as you.” The older laughed, trying to brighten up the mood.

 

“Was that a compliment, Johnny Seo?” Doyoung snorted. In situations like this, the man had managed to still flirt effortlessly with him and damn it, now he can feel his cheeks burning with a blush. “Oh, you don’t know this man like me and Taeyong do. He’s the biggest I have ever met. I can’t even understand why I went out with him in the first place.”

 

“Mind telling me then? I am here to listen as always, tokki dokki~” Johnny sing sang, lowering the volume of the stereo.

 

Somehow, it took Doyoung minutes before he can start talking. Why did he go out with Kun anyway?

 

“College life is supposed to be a fresh start, right? Well, I was a loser in high school. Taeyong, who is a year up from me, was my only friend. I have other friends but either they are younger than me, like Mark and Donghyuck, or they are from the Internet. High school was the explosion of the Harry Potter fandom and I made friends because of that…” Doyoung chuckled at the memory. He can picture his childhood bedroom with everything Ravenclaw in it. From the sheets of his bed and pillows to the blue and gold theme of his clothes (mostly loose sweater, scarves and pants). “I was lonely and weird but I was happy. And then college loomed into view. I thought I could probably come out of my shell and start to make friends. Taeyong introduced me to Yuta and the others who were all my seniors in school. Then Qian Kun came into my life like a hurricane.”

 

“Hurricane, huh? Was it that bad?”

 

He can still picture the scene vividly. He let out a soft sigh, releasing the breath he didn’t know he was holding. “He came in swooping without a warning just like a hurricane. H-he… He made me feel welcomed during the first few semesters and I found myself falling hard for him. He was there when I needed help or someone to talk to when things were getting hard. He would take the extra mile to make me feel comfortable in school and since we’re in the same block of Psychology students, he was always by my side. I mean, for the first time in my whole life, someone understands me. And even if he didn’t, he will try. But of course, it only lasted for a while. Turns out, he kind of won me so that I could be dependent to him, you know.”

 

Harsh words.

 

Numerous insults.

 

Degrading terms.

 

Calling him stupid and useless.

 

It all ring inside Doyoung’s ears and how he foolishly believed that Kun was doing those things because he loves him with all of his heart.

 

“He would humiliate me in front of his more intelligent friends during lunch. When I am asking for help with our lesson, he will help me but he would say stuff like ‘Even freshmen know this, baby. Are you sure you’re in the right program? The Psychology program?’ His friends would laugh with him and I would just keep quiet and eat my food. He would often call me stupid in the middle of an argument and it got really worse when we’re approaching our final semester in college. During our first fights, he would apologize. But we fought so often that he would storm out of the argument and wait for me to say sorry even if he was the one at fault. I felt so worthless because he kept reminding me of the times he was there for me and tried to understand my own problems and when it’s him who has problems, apparently I wasn’t doing enough.”

 

Doyoung took in a deep breath, his chest tightening again. It still stings talking about it. “T-Taeyong hyung and the others tried to talk me out of our messy relationship but of course, I was spineless back then. I told them it was all my fault and I would go back to apologizing to Kun. They all got frustrated at me, telling me I was more than a door mat for Kun. The thing is I know they were right. B-but I felt like I have a debt for Kun’s kindness… Little did I know I was experiencing the battered wife syndrome only in our case I am not a woman…

 

“I-I loved h-him with everything that I-I am, Johnny hyung… A-and now… I am not sure why am I-I still affected with this… I thought I was over him…” Doyoung felt stray tears rolling down his cheeks, his voice started to crack and he tried to smile it off. “A-a-ah… You must think I am still a loser. Ha ha.”

 

Johnny was surprisingly quiet when Doyoung was talking and his expression now is unreadable. Slowly, they pulled over to an emergency parking by the highway. “W-w-why are we stopping?” Doyoung asked.

 

“Because I can’t stand seeing you forgo with this knowing that you’re still not over with how that bastard treated you.” Johnny turned off the engine, his hands clamping hard on the steering wheel. “No one, I repeat, no one deserves to be treated like . Not you, not any woman, not any man.” The older sighed and turned his head to Doyoung’s side.

 

“Hyung, I-I want to do this. I want my suffering to be over.”

 

“Doyoung ah, I know that… But seeing the person I love so much get hurt also hurts me.”

 

The younger stared at Johnny, his mouth slightly agape from what he heard. “Y-you don’t need t-to pretend, h-hyung-”

 

“No, I’m not kidding, Kim Dongyoung. I…” Johnny grabbed both of his hands, cupping it between his. “This was not the way I thought I would confess but I love you. I do. And seeing you suffer is the last thing I wanted to see. You’re much more than who that jackass thought you were. You need to realize how amazing you are in my eyes…” He tightened his hold around Doyoung’s smaller hands. “We can go back and forget this. You don’t need to do this if it hurts you. And I am ready to smack Kun’s face. I don’t care if it’s his wedding.”

 

Doyoung feel lightheaded. There are just too many things happening.

 

“I-I… Hyung…” He didn’t know what came to him but he unbuckled his seatbelt and hugged Johnny, tears now freely falling from his eyes.

 

Johnny let him cry for a few minutes, rubbing his hand up and down his back gently to soothe him. “Y-you know, the fact that we’re in an emergency parking and exposing our feelings is like something straight out of a movie. Aigoo, tokki dokki~” He cooed, letting Doyoung’s face be buried at the crook of his neck. “I’m so proud of you. The fact that you said you’ll go only meant you are determined enough to face your fears.”

 

Doyoung calmed down after that, he pulled away slowly and planted a soft kiss on Johnny’s cheek. “At first, I thought Taeyong and Jaehyun’s suggestion to bring you was ridiculous but I think they already know what I feel about you. And I was thinking that maybe if I go with someone I love the most, I can do it. And it proved I was right.” Doyoung smiled widely, bopping his nose with elder’s own. “I love you, too, you goof.”

 

He moved back to his seat, safely buckling his seatbelt, leaving a stunned Johnny to stare at him.

 

“We have a wedding to go to, Mr. Seo. Now let’s go.” Doyoung commanded.

 

Johnny smiled goofily at that. He intertwined his hand with Doyoung’s, giving it a kiss.

 

“And after that wedding, we will be going to ours next.” He winked at the younger.

 

Doyoung threw his handkerchief towards Johnny as they drove to Kun’s wedding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And who knew? After five years of being together as boyfriends, they did get married.

 

Thank you for that one atypical Saturday night, Doyoung thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A/N:

Hope you guys like it! Sorry for posting it late bc I was celebrating XD 

I PASSED MY PSYCHOMETRICIAN LICENSURE EXAMINATION HECK YEAAAAAAAAAAAH :D

Love you guys!

©OfficialT-Hope2017