10. Jonghyun's Gift

Just Friends

A/N: Hi everyone, it looks like there will be one more chapter after this. I hope you enjoy it!!

This one doesn't have much "YongHyo" but I promise that the next time will have lots of it. XKEI


‘But seriously, you want to know how to get him to tell you his real feelings—I have a plan.’

Hyoyeon didn’t like their plans, they never worked out... and yet this time, stupidly, or maybe in desperation, she had to trust them.

 

+++

Hyoyeon was nervous. She’d never been this nervous in her life, but she reminded herself that every time she felt this way in high school she lived to tell the tale.

Still, standing backstage and waiting for the moment when she and Jonghyun would go on stage was quite daunting-- Especially since Jonghyun had very casually dropped a bombshell on her just a few minutes earlier.

 

10 minutes earlier...

‘I think we’ve got this,’ the Busan boy grinned happily as the last notes of the song, the bitter sweet harmony, faded in the air, ‘I knew you were the right person for the song because I wrote it for you—but even I didn’t think it would end this well.’

He turned to tune his guitar one last time while Hyoyeon stared at him blankly.

‘What do you mean you wrote the song for me? It’s about a guy who’s always been watching over a girl and taking care of her, without her noticing... that’s not me,’ she laughed, deciding he was joking.

Jonghyun looked up, ‘Oh, it's definitely you.’

There was an awkward pause.

‘This isn’t you confessing to me is it...’ Hyo took a hesitant step backwards.

He grinned, ‘Hey!! You don’t need to look like I’m about to jump you! Besides... I wasn’t talking about me.’

Her brain must not have been functioning properly, she decided, before a light bulb clicked, ‘You mean the way that Jungshinnie and Minhyukkie have been looking after me all this time?’

Jonghyun sighed, ‘It really is no fun if I have to spell it out for you.’

‘Please do,’ she very nearly begged. Her head hurt from all the cryptic messages.

‘Yonghwa.’

Hyoyeon laughed but fell silent when she saw that Jonghyun was looking more serious than she'd ever seen him.

‘Think about it Hyo,’ he said softly, ‘from the start of high school-- you’ve always been someone special to him.’

‘I--,’ she was going to laugh it off, but at the last moment decided to be honest to him, ‘I can’t let myself hope that what you’re saying is true... it would break my heart if it wasn’t. So I’m sorry if I can’t just accept that right now.’

He was about to say something else but there was a knock on the door telling them there were ten minutes...

 

Back to the present...

So her she stood, still processing everything with each word of the song suddenly meaning so much more to her.

‘Hyo-noona,’ Minhyuk grinned slyly, ‘invite hyung to your performance. Make him jealous with Jonghyun—make him wish that he’s the one standing there with you. Make it so that at the end of the song he'll have no choice but to rush up on stage and tell you what he feels. Of course we’ll tell Seohyun-ah before hand...’

That plan went right out the window though when Hyo’s eyes naturally found Yonghwa’s in the crowd. And because she wanted so much to see whether it was true, she practically forgot Jonghyun right next to her.

Each word went straight to Yonghwa, searching his eyes as to whether he understood the meaning or if it was all just fanciful thinking by Jonghyun.

What she saw in his eyes shook her, as his level gaze held onto hers—but before her hope could even rise too much, he suddenly looked away and disappeared into the crowd the moment the song was over.

Her heart sank.

Well there you go Hyo... there's your answer.

And it hurt.

 

+++

 

‘Hyung!’ Jungshin and Minhyuk ran after him as he hurriedly walked away from the auditorium.

But while Yonghwa needed time to himself, he just knew that with these two he wasn’t going to get it, ‘Guys, I need some time to think.’

‘What’s there to think about?’ Minhyuk demanded.

Jungshin put an arm on his shoulder as if to pull him back.

‘It’s none of your business,’ he tried to say turning away from them in attempt to shut them out, but his dongsaengs weren’t buying that.

‘You mean the fact that you have feelings for Hyo-noona?’ Jungshin asked quietly, the opposite of volatile Minhyuk.

Yonghwa turned to face them.

‘If you think it’s that then you have no idea--,’ Yonghwa shook his head angrily. Not angry with them, but angry with himself.

‘Explain it to us,’ Jungshin challenged him.

The three of them stared at each other, willing the other person to speak.

Yonghwa shook his head, ‘I know I like Hyoyeon. I like her now. I’m supposed to ONLY like her now. It was supposed to be a friendship that became something more... that’s what it was supposed to be.’ He kept stressing out the words "supposed to".

‘But it’s not?’ Minhyuk asked, confused.

‘When I heard that song—it brought me back. To the first day I met her, to more than a dozen moments throughout the whole of high school... including the time I was with Hyun. And it kills me to think that I may have been close to doing something wrong back then. Or maybe I did do something wrong—scaring off all those guys, not giving her a chance to be happy because subconsciously I was being selfish.’

‘Hyung...’ Jungshin blinked at him.

‘... you’re an idiot,’ Minhyuk finished.

‘What?!?’ Yonghwas asked, outraged, ‘Your hyung is suffering guilt and that’s what you say?’

‘You were nowhere close to doing anything wrong—you treated Seohyun-ah like a princess. You cared for her and you loved her. You also didn’t act anything more as a friend to Hyo-noona regardless what you think. Your feelings for them didn't need to be one or the other. You didn't cheat anyone.'

Yonghwa wanted to believe them.

'But is now the time to be stressing about the past?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that we planned—I mean suggested— to Hyo-noona to test your feelings. And you just ran out of there like you couldn’t get away fast enough. I’m pretty sure that she’s taken that as your answer.’

‘What?!?’

‘That you don’t feel the same way.’

‘She likes me?’

The two dongsaengs shared an expasperated look, ‘Seriously, we’re the slow ones?’

When Yonghwa continued to stare at them blankly, Jungshin sighed again, ‘Well she did up until this morning. But I don’t know how she’ll feel having been rejected by you indirectly just now.’

Yonghwa didn’t even warrant that with an answer and broke into a run.

 

‘Hyoyeon, where’s Hyoyeon?’ he burst into the backstage room where Seohyun and Jonghyun were talking quietly with each other. They both turned to him with wounded puppy looks.

‘I don’t know if I want to tell you,’ Jonghyun glared at him, ‘what a way to act, Yong.’

Yonghwa, tired of being judged by everyone and seemingly being blocked at every turned rushed forward and grabbed Jonghyun by the collar, ‘tell me where she is.’

‘Yong, let go,’ Seohyun placed a calming hand over the arm he was using.

Sanity momentarily returned and he slacked his grip and pushed his best friend back.

‘She went to the dance studio, she’ll probably be there all night... she was a bit upset,’ Seohyun told him, ‘I tell you this Yong, because I trust you. But...’ she looked dead serious, ‘if you hurt my unnie—I’m going to have to hurt you. Even if I don’t believe in violence.’

Yonghwa nodded, ‘No problems. I’ll be the first to hurt myself if I hurt Hyo.’

Then he decided.

 With no interference from anyone, with no elaborate plans, with no mind games—he was going to sort this out.

Just Hyoyeon.

Just him.

+++


A/N: Thanks everyone for the kind comments and for the new subscribers! I'm grateful for all of you!!

 

 

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Comments

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haruma2911
#1
re read..
p/s waiting for another story from you...
shea_shariff #2
Chapter 12: rereading this again - love it. one of the best hyo ficts : )
zara1234 #3
Chapter 12: Just letting you know that i have read this story for the tenth time already. I truly love the way you write. Hope to get some more stories on hyo from you :)
KimHyeJoo #4
Chapter 12: cuteee!
update soon^^
ValenskyK
#5
Chapter 12: cute cute cute ! >.<
hyofandom #6
Chapter 12: i simply love this fanfic!! i, too, love hyoyeon and wouldn't mind her coupling with anyone. but i really like yonghwa, so i ship yonghyo yay! Thanks for writing this beautiful piece!
Hyosmilely #7
Chapter 12: Finally, Happy HyoYong
shea_shariff #8
Chapter 12: rereading this story again.. aaaaawww my feels : )thank u.
psycho_d
#9
Chapter 12: i love this story so much !!!! <33333
i remember reading it before i create my AFF account .... finally now, i can leave a comment :)
popgirl345543
#10
Chapter 12: OMG. DHAOSJ spazz attack. Too nuch- too much fluff. I can't breatheee. Lol love the adorable ending :) could you find some way to add Seohyun and Jonghyn into your following stories? Maybe just as a small side couple but I think they might be a new ship of mine :P