“Is she?” gasped Junsu. He turned his head from the man to Eunmi, who was still smiling widely.

“Woof, woof,” barked the puppy to them, sending signals to Eunmi to put it down. She did so, and the puppy happily ran all around them, but it didn’t go too far from its savior.

“Eunmi-ah, that was very nice of you to save the puppy, but you shouldn’t risk your safety,” her father sighed.

Eunmi, who was rubbing the puppy’s fur playfully, tilted her head and gave them what was supposed to be laughter. Her eyes were beautifully curled up to form typical Korean eye-smile and her milky skin shimmered in the first touch of sunshine. She was so pretty Junsu had to hold his breath witnessing her, but never in his life had he seen anything more heartbreaking than that; there was totally no sound coming out of her lips.

“She’s been suffering for aphonia since she was fifteen. Her lovely voice was long lost due to a serious trauma in her laryngeal nerves. She got it in a car accident which had killed her mother. She’ll never be able to talk anymore, or produce any little sound either, that was what the doctors told me,” Joonwoo told him.

Junsu could only stare back to the miserable family in shock. At first, he thought that Eunmi was just playing around, that she didn’t speak at all on purpose. Even he’d accused in mind that the girl was possibly suffering for laryngitis like him. But what had happened to her and her father was much worse than just a simple sore throat.

“Oh, my God,” whispered Junsu once he found his raspy voice back. “Ahjussi, I’m… I’m really sorry to hear that. Can’t we do anything to…?”

“I’ve tried everything, from general practitioner to surgeon to traditional practice, but none of them worked,” Joonwoo shook his head in sadness. “It’s permanent.”

Junsu was stunned. For a moment, he imagined how hard it would be to permanently lose his voice. He wouldn’t be able to speak at all; no, he wouldn’t be able to make any little sounds. If he couldn’t do so, how would he state that he was alive? How would he express his feeling? He definitely couldn’t talk to all people around him; even he wouldn’t be capable of saying ‘I love you, umma’ to his beloved mother. He couldn’t fight with Junho, his twin brother no more, as well as his Yoochun and Jaejoong-hyung. And more specifically, he couldn’t do his most favorite thing in the whole world: singing and entertaining his Cassiopeia. If the temporary voice-lost caused by laryngitis was terrible, then aphonia was dreadful.

Junsu took a deep look at Eunmi. The girl had lately been vanishing to inside her father’s shop for some five minutes time before coming back with a bowl full of milk. She carefully put the bowl down onto the ground and began feeding the puppy. Junsu’s inside was screaming; how could a very adorable girl like her suffer from such disease? He wondered how it would be like if he were filling Eunmi’s shoes. There mustn’t be JYJ’s Junsu for sure. Uncontrollable, something was dampening Junsu’s eyes. He quickly stared at his side to avoid the family witnessing his tears.

‘How horrible,’he thought. ‘She’s so beautiful; it must be hard for her…’

Eunmi, upon noticing Junsu’s face, swiftly went back to her father’s store to take a small white board and a marker which she always used to build a communication with another person. She wrote down some words before handing the board to Junsu.

Junsu took the board in surprise and read:

Don’t worry, I’m all fine. I’m just having a problem with my voice, just like you are ^^

Such a great pleasure to meet you, Dong Bang Shin Ki’s Xiah Junsu-ssi

“You’re such a strong girl,” smiled Junsu. He eventually managed to hold back his tears and gave the board back to Eunmi. “So you know who I am? But you don’t have to address me so formally. Just call me oppa instead… and it’s not Dong Bang Shin Ki’s Xiah Junsu anymore. I’m JYJ’s Kim Junsu right now.”

Eunmi cleaned up the board to write another sentence for Junsu to read.

But JYJ is always a part of Dong Bang Shin Ki, isn’t it?

Reading the sentence, Junsu couldn’t do anything but smile. That would always be like that. No matter how far apart JYJ and TVXQ or Dong Bang Shin Ki were, there were many people who kept trying to associate one another. Junsu couldn’t blame them, they had been a part of TVXQ for quite a long time, and they had enjoyed quite a great achievement too, and for some people, those things might be somewhat hard to forget.

But they had been only memories. Junsu had left the days he had spent with U-know Yunho and Max Changmin far behind. He had kept all his bittersweet souvenirs of his past in a locked chest and he had decided not to remember any of them anymore, just like what Yunho and Changmin had done.

Seeing that Eunmi was still looking at him expectantly, waiting to get a word or two of him, Junsu quickly redirected the conversation.

“I see you run an antique store. Can I have a look?” asked Junsu to Eunmi’s father. “My mother has asked me to find some souvenirs for her foreign friends…”

“Sure you can,” said Joonwoo happily. “Actually it was opened just now, right before you came, so it’s quite empty. But of course, you could take your time.”

Joonwoo then brought Junsu with him into the store. It was a middle-sized room, fulfilled with fragile and antique stuffs from probably the fifteenth century or some kind. The wall, which was almost invisible beneath dozen of vintage tapestries and paintings, was polished in yellowish brown. On the left side of the entrance, Junsu could see numerous ancient vases and a shelf full of historical books.

“Mostly from King Sejong’s era, they are,” explained Joonwoo once he noticed the books Junsu was staring at. “If you found history interesting, you should grab one of them.”

“What are those?” asked Junsu enthusiastically, pointing to the right side, where he could see a cabinet with many beautiful ornaments in it.

“Ah, you have such sharp eyes,” cheered Joonwoo. “They come from the royal family before its fellness in around World War II. They’re rather hard to find; the invaders had taken almost all precious items of the royal back then. They’re pretty good to be souvenir, aren’t they?”

While Junsu and her father were busy picking the ornaments, Eunmi continued playing with the puppy. She kept wondering why Junsu acted like that. She was a fan of Dong Bang Shin Ki too, just like many other girls of her age. She always admired their friendship or their tight bond to one another, always laughed every time she had seen Junsu being bullied by his band mates, always being touched by the way Yunho treated s, and being slightly jealous as she witnessed the closeness between them for she might never had such best friends.

But from what Junsu had said previously, Eunmi couldn’t help but conclude that things were more complicated amongst her idols. She followed the news actually, although she didn’t really like what they reported. She always believed that nothing could ruin the brotherhood between DBSK members.

‘If only I could ask him what had happened,’Eunmi thought as she caressed the puppy’s head with one hand. ‘But that couldn’t be, he looked annoyed just now. Besides, he’s here to get his things.’

“Thank you very much, Junsu-ssi,” bowed Joonwoo as Junsu finished his shopping. He had bought one mini tapestry, two scrolls of Korean traditional calligraphy, and some more old-fashioned ornaments which he considered his mother would love. To Junsu’s relief, it was just him who visited the shop at that time, so he could easily get the things he needed without any interruption of his extreme fans.

“Ah, never mind, ahjussi. I should thank you for giving these books for free,” Junsu held up two books Joonwoo had granted him. “My mother would like to read them.”

Much to Junsu’s unease, Joonwoo kept bowing respectfully until he stepped out of the shop, where he stood face to face again with Eunmi. Forgetting what Eunmi had asked him before, Junsu flashed the girl a sympathetic smile.

“It’s a great pleasure for me to meet you and your father, Eunmi-ssi,” he encouraged the girl. “Please stay strong and keep fighting. Hwaiting!”

Junsu raised his fist up, and Eunmi replied by doing the same gesture, undoubtedly without saying a thing. But just when Junsu was about to leave, Eunmi held a piece of his jacket. As Junsu turned around in surprise, she gave him the board, where she had written:

Junsu-oppa, would you turn me a favor of giving a name to this puppy?

Junsu spent a good sixty seconds just to think about the answer.

“Call him Fate,” he finally answered.

Eunmi waved her goodbye to the man she always adored for his lovely voice; her lips were smiling so widely.

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Updated!!! Oh, hello new subscribers! :))