Ji Min’s POV

I ate my breakfast in silence, not looking up from my meal.

The atmosphere inside the room that Dongwoon and I were in was incredibly uncomfortable. From the corner of my eye, I could see Dongwoon fidget in his seat, as if he was trying to brush away the tension. In a way, I felt guilty for being a liability to him, but at the same time, I had declined his hospitality many times just to avoid a situation like this. Dongwoon was too sweet to watch me fade away in a corner. He, along with his hyungs, seemed to always be determined to make me happy.

“Are you okay?” He asked me the millionth time that morning.

I faked a smile, trying to make him stop worrying about me. “I’m fine!”

He furrowed his brows, still unconvinced. “I know you’re not.”

“Then why do you keep asking me if you seem to know the answer so well?”

My tone seemed to throw him a little off, because he didn’t reply.

“I-I’m sorry…” I murmured, feeling a little bad.

Dongwoon sighed. “I think I know why you’re so upset nowadays… especially today.”

I turned my eyes towards him, anticipating his explanation.

“I know… you…” He lengthened his words, as if what he was trying to say were hesitant to leave his lips. “You… like Yoseob.”

I put my food down, feeling defeated. Was I that obvious? I mean, I doubt I was like those crazy fangirls that would throw themselves at him, but I always tried to be as subtle as possible with my feelings.

“Is it true?” Dongwoon asked me.

I nodded slowly, looking down at my feet.

 “You know that feeling,” I began; my voice was soft and low. “When you love someone so much, and yet they don’t even notice you?”

Dongwoon nodded. He was now looking down, too.

“Well, that’s how I feel right now. That’s what is making me feel so out of place nowadays, especially today. The worst part is…”

“That he likes your best friend.” Dongwoon completed the sentence for me. I remained silent and continued staring down at my feet. “I know how you feel; I can sympathize.”

“No you don’t,” I replied, defiantly. “You’re not pushed around by the one person you want to be with, just to be forgotten later on. You don’t get asked to do this and that, and try to put on a happy face all the time, just so you can have that one special moment with them. You don’t wait countless hours, just for that one single second of them to tell you ‘thank you’ or some other simple compliment. You’ve never cried yourself to sleep at night over the one person that never cared for you. You don’t feel the same pain I feel. You don’t. Do you know why?”

My heart thumped faster and faster as my anger boiled up, furiously pushing hot tears out of my eyes. I was standing up, looking down at Dongwoon, who had on a mixed look of shock and apprehension. I was always the quiet, calm one, so seeing me rant on with so much zeal was new to him.

“Because I. AM. A. NOBODY!” I cried. I collapsed back down on my seat, covering my face as I sobbed incessantly. Dongwoon, who was still dumbstruck by my speech, just sat there next to me, still staring. I cried so much, not caring about how I looked like or if I was breathing in too hard. The pain was too much of a burden to be just kept inside.

I felt him place a hand on my back and rubbed it consolingly, yet he didn’t say a word, as if he was afraid to say something else that might hurt me even more.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized as I blotted my eyes with the hem of my sweater’s sleeve. “I didn’t mean to be so sensitive. It’s just that…”

I couldn’t finish my sentence. The tears just kept flowing and flowing, as the image of Yoseob swooning over my own best friend flashed in my mind several times. I didn’t understand why I was crying so hard, or why I was too upset. Yoseob wasn’t “mine”. He wasn’t my boyfriend, nor has he ever said anything like “I love you” or even an “I like you” to me, so what gave me the right to feel so distraught over this?

I could hear the door creak open. I didn’t want to look up, but I quickly wiped away my tears, trying to compose myself. From my side, I could feel Dongwoon stand up quickly.

“Doojoon-ah,” he said surprisingly. I peeked up to see Doojoon standing by the threshold with a surprised look on his face that Dongwoon also had on earlier. He stared at me wide-eyed.

“Wh-what happened?” He asked, timidly pointing at me. Doojoon was a manly man, and situations like girls crying scared the living out of him.

“Nothing… happened.” Maknae Dongwoon innocently replied. He and Doojoon exchanged blank glances, but they kept their eyes on me. I huddled over even more, trying to hide my wet, tear-stained face from them. After a minute of not speaking, Doojoon finally cleared his throat.

“Dongwoon-ah, get back to the dressing room. We’re about to go onstage really soon, so you have to get ready.”

Dongwoon nodded quickly and gave me one quick, comforting hug before speeding out of the room. Doojoon muttered something incoherently to Dongwoon, who understood and proceeded on. He then sighed as he took a seat next to me.

“You… don’t have… to stay here… you know,” I told him in between sniffling.

Doojoon awkwardly patted my back. “I can’t just leave you here like this, Ji Min.”

“Come on, be honest. Since when have you ever cared about me?”

He quickly retracted his hand, looking a bit taken aback at what I just asked.

“I’m surprised you would even question that,” he replied. “I – including everyone else in Beast – care about you so much. I don’t think you can see it very well, but you’re one of the few girls we ever think about. You’re very special to us.”

Doojoon got up to get me the box of tissues that were sitting on a table, just as Junhyung barged into the room.

“Where is she?” He asked worriedly. I sat up and saw him look at me with so much concern. He sped towards me and took a hold of me. It was the first time Doojoon and I had ever seen Junhyung hug a girl when she was crying.

“Are you okay?” Junhyung asked me. I nodded.

Doojoon placed the box of tissues by my side, and smoothed out my hair. “I have to go back, Ji Min, to get ready for the show” he told me. “But Junhyung is here to help you in my absence. Just keep strong, okay? Don’t let anything get in the way of what you want.”

And with that, he patted my hand and walked out of the room, leaving me with Junhyung.

So much for my plan to try to ignore him today.

Yoseob’s POV

“Why was she crying?” I asked Doojoon hyung. “And why does Dongwoon and Junhyung both look like something bad really happened to her? What’s going on?”

“Ji Min’s just a little emotional today. I didn’t ask why, though. But I’m sure that she’ll be fine since Junhyung’s there to comfort her.”

“Oh,” I shrugged and then walked off. I rolled my eyes. There’s always something wrong with her. Why can’t she be normal like her friend?

I walked over to Dongwoon, who was getting ready. I tapped him on the shoulder. “Hi.”

He turned around slowly to face me. I expected a wave or a simple “hi” back, but instead I got a dark look from him.

“What?” He asked me.

I stepped back, stricken by Dongwoon’s hostility. He was never this cold with me, or with anyone for that matter.

“Wh-what happened to Ji Min?”

“Tch.” Dongwoon scoffed and turned back around to continue getting ready. “I don’t think you’d care.”

I opened my mouth to refute his statement, but our manager appeared by the doorway, gesturing for all of us to get out.

“YAH!” He called out worriedly. “Where is Junhyung?”

Kikwang looked around. “He was just with me a while ago.”

Doojoon spoke up. “I’ll go get him.” He zoomed past our manager by the doorway. Curious as a cat, I decided to trail right behind him. He quickly walked down the hall, stopping in front of another dressing room. He lifted his fist to knock on the door, before he noticed me.

“OMO!” He gasped, clutching his chest. He then slapped me on my right upper arm.

“Ow! What was that for?!” I yelped, rubbing the spot he hit.

“What are you doing here? Go back to the waiting room. Manager hyung doesn’t want another one of us missing.”

“But I wanna see…” I whined in the most aegyo voice I could muster. To be honest, I only acted aegyo in front of the cameras as instructed by my manager. I think he called it… fanservice? In front of my hyungs, however, I was 100% man.

“Wanna see what? There’s nothing for you to see.” He pushed me away as he proceeded to softly knock on the door. The door slowly creaked open as Doojoon pushed his head inside.

I heard another gasp come from Doojoon as he pushed the door even wider, revealing the cause of his shock.

Why was Junhyung kissing Ji Min?

A/N: kekeke sorry for the LATE update... I've recently became a SHAWOL and I've moved to a different account. If you love SHINee (specifically Key), why not check out my story called "So...I'm His Boyfriend?" 

I'll try to get on this account and update when I can, but for the time being... I'm focusing on my other story. Sorry, guys! <33