(Two weeks after Henry left)

—Yesung’s POV—

Henry had been gone for two weeks now. Surprisingly, Zhoumi doesn’t seem all that affected. Apparently, Henry had met up with Zhoumi and told him that he would be back by the end of the holiday. Well, at least that’s what Zhoumi claimed.

Over the course of the past week, we had visited him a couple of times, both Wookie and I, and the others, too. Zhoumi hadn’t looked anything but happy, and after he told us what happened at Han River, he never mentioned Henry again. He did, however, mention Yuri, a high school friend of his who was a part of Sooyoung’s little group. He even introduced her to us yesterday.

I definitely recognised Yuri, but I never actually got to know her. She came across as a nice girl, just like Seohyun, Taeyeon, and Hyoyeon. Nonetheless, Wookie told me that something was wrong. His intuition was always right, so I couldn’t help but wonder: was Yuri sent by Sooyoung, too?

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I felt someone poking me in the rib, and I turned around to scowl at Jongjin. “What?” I asked. Jongjin smiled sheepishly at me and held his hand out.

“Hyung, can you lend me some money?”

“Kim Jongjin, why can’t you ask umma for your pay?” I questioned. Jongjin shrugged.

“She already gave me my pay for May, but you know I didn’t work much in May…” Jongjin trailed off and gave me his best puppy eyes, which I wouldn’t ever fall for. “Please hyung? I’ll work hard in June to pay you back!” he promised.

I opened my mouth to say no, but Wookie walked out of our room with my wallet in hand. “Sungie, come on. Can’t you lend Jongjin some money?” he asked with a pout. Remind me again why my own boyfriend was on my brother’s side?

“But I’m broke!”

“Ugh, fine. Jongjin, give me a moment,” Wookie said, disappearing back into our room only to remerge with his wallet in hand. “Is 50000 won enough?” he asked. Jongjin beamed and nodded, causing Wookie to smile and give him the note.

“Thanks Ryeowook hyung! No thanks hyung!” Jongjin stuck his tongue out at me before he grabbed his stuff and dashed out the door before I could say anything. Once Jongjin was gone, I turned to give Wookie an incredulous stare.

“Really now?”

“Oh come on. Just because we aren’t in the mood for a date doesn’t mean that Jongjin isn’t,” Wookie reasoned. I sighed and went to feed my pets before going back to our room and plopping down on the soft bed, beckoning Wookie to join me.

After Wookie lay beside me, I turned around and hugged him. “You won’t leave me like Henry left Zhoumi, right?” I asked. Wookie was the one to be incredulous this time, raising a brow at me.

“Why all the insecurity?”

I shrugged. “I just did some thinking and well, if I were Zhoumi, I definitely wouldn’t be this calm if you left me,” I admitted. Wookie blushed lightly and hit me.

“Of course I won’t, you babo. Are we supposed to go out today?”

I nodded and rolled over, still hugging Wookie. “We were going out for a movie with Kangin and Leeteuk, remember? And then we’ll eat lunch together?” I reminded him.

“Right.”

“Let’s go get ready, shall we?”

Wookie nodded and I let him get up to change.

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It took about a half hour for us to get ready and then Wookie and I headed next door. There was a movie that Wookie and Leeteuk really, really wanted to watch. I didn’t really see what was so great about the movie and neither did Kangin, but we just went along with the plan since Wookie and Leeteuk would be happy.

Wookie had gotten the new keys a long time ago, so he simply let us in instead of ringing the doorbell and waiting for Leeteuk or Kangin to open the door. Wookie’s parents were, once again, overseas on some unknown business trip. If I remembered right, they were headed to Burkina-Faso or something, this time around.

“Hyung!” Wookie called out, lying down on the sofa and rolling onto his back. I had to laugh and quickly take a picture because Wookie looked absolutely adorable that way. He heard me laughing and turned around to glare at me. “Yah.”

“What? You’re cute,” I said simply, forcing Wookie to sit properly before I sat next to him.

“We’ll be out in a minute!” Leeteuk replied.

“I highly doubt that,” I mumbled. It wasn’t as if I suspected them of doing anything, but Kangin had the habit of being slow and indecisive. And stubborn. He was definitely stubborn, but that didn’t matter for now.

True enough, it took nearly ten minutes before Leeteuk and Kangin emerged from their room, casually dressed in jeans and couple tees. Both Wookie and I gaped at them as they stood in front of us, because come on; how long does it take to change into jeans and couple tees, huh?

Instead of voicing our annoyance at how long the couple took, Wookie and I stood up wordlessly and walked out of the house, waiting for Kangin and Leeteuk to get into the lift. We went down together and got into Kangin’s car, and he began the drive to the mall.

“Why aren’t you guys talking?” Leeteuk asked, sounding worried.

“Oh, maybe it’s because you guys were too slow,” Wookie answered.

“Sorry about that,” Kangin apologised.

“Sure.”

We fell into another period of silence as Kangin drove, and before long we were at the mall. We bought our movie tickets and got into the queue to get some popcorn and drinks. Leeteuk turned to us and crossed his arms, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently.

I glanced at Leeteuk and nudged Wookie, leaning down to whisper in his ear. “Leeteuk’s angry.”

Wookie looked up from the ground immediately, his expression similar to that of a kid who made his umma mad. “Teukie umma?” Wookie called out guiltily. Leeteuk looked at Wookie and sighed, shaking his head.

“I know, we shouldn’t have made you wait. We’re sorry, alright?” Leeteuk said.

“We were being idiots. Sorry Teukie umma,” Wookie murmured. Leeteuk smiled and patted Wookie on the head. Kangin and I raised our brows at each other, wondering why Wookie was so good to Leeteuk. We didn’t say anything about it, and we just bought the popcorn combos before heading into the theatre with Wookie and Leeteuk.

Once seated, Wookie leaned against me and nuzzled his cheek into my shoulder before turning back to stare at the big screen. A smile made itself onto my face in spite of the fact that I was a tad bit upset about him being so nice to Leeteuk. I figured that I was just jealous, even though Wookie was much better to me.

Throughout the zombie movie, which was a little creepy, I felt like someone we knew was in the theatre with us. I couldn’t put a finger on it, because my intuition wasn’t always accurate. In the middle of the movie, though, Wookie turned to me.

“Sungie, does it feel like there’s someone we know in here?” he whispered. My eyes widened slightly and I nodded in agreement. In the dark, Wookie furrowed his brows and bit his lower lip before turning back to the big screen.

So I wasn’t the only one who felt that. Well, I had no idea if that was a good or bad thing.

By the time the movie ended, I couldn’t keep my mind off the odd feeling that someone we knew was in the theatre with us. But who? We had asked everyone, and all of them had something on. None of them told any of us that they were coming to the mall.

After we left the cinema, we headed to the restaurant that we usually ate at whenever we came to the mall. We placed our orders, eating the usual, and waited patiently.

“So… what do you think Zhoumi’s feeling?” Kangin asked all of a sudden.

“I don’t know. Why?” Wookie asked.

“Teukie and I were talking about it earlier on. We couldn’t comprehend how he’s so calm, happy, even,” Kangin explained. I nodded in agreement, as did Wookie.

“We thought about it too, because how could anyone be that calm? But we couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation as to why Mi isn’t freaking out,” I said.

“I personally think that he’s hiding his feelings, because he’s good at keeping things to himself,” Leeteuk piped up. Wookie and I exchanged glances and nodded in unison. I knew Zhoumi well, so I knew that he had a tendency to keep things to himself.

I was about to say something when a figure caught my eye.

Is that…

“Zhoumi?”

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I stared intently at the guy and yes, it was definitely Zhoumi. And beside him was… Yuri?

The other three followed my gaze and their jaws dropped at the sight. Zhoumi was laughing with Yuri about something, both seeming genuinely amused by whatever they were talking about. But that wasn’t the thing that shocked us. Oh no.

Zhoumi was holding Yuri by the waist and walking beside her, and they totally looked like a couple. There was a collective gasp around our table and we looked at each other, all equally shocked at the sight of Zhoumi and Yuri together… like that. Without a single word being spoken, we got up and walked out of the restaurant, telling the waiter to cancel our orders.

“Zhoumi, stop walking!” Leeteuk shouted, uncaring of the other people who had turned their attention to us. Zhoumi stopped in his tracks as told upon hearing the familiar voice, and he turned around to give us horrified looks.

“T… this isn’t what it looks like,” Zhoumi said immediately, withdrawing his hand as if he’d been burnt. His expression resembled that of a deer caught in headlights, causing me to narrow my eyes at him suspiciously. It didn’t matter that I was close to him, because Zhoumi wasn’t acting like the Zhoumi that I knew.

“Wait, were you guys in the cinema earlier on?” Wookie asked. Zhoumi was surprised, but nodded. So he was the familiar presence in the theatre, huh? That still didn’t explain why he was at the mall, with Yuri no less. He could have asked someone else, like EunHae or Sungmin. Why Yuri?

“What was that just now, huh? What about Henry?” Kangin asked, sounding very pissed off. He had good reason to be pissed off, too. After all, he had felt cheated on before, so he didn’t want Henry to experience the same thing.

There was a glimpse of hurt, then anger, in the depth of Zhoumi’s eyes, but both disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared. “You don’t understand anything, hyung,” Zhoumi muttered. “Yuri, let’s go,” Zhoumi said, grabbing onto Yuri’s hand and pulling her away. We were left dumbfounded, but Leeteuk had run up to Zhoumi and held him back.

“Zhoumi, what did you mean by that?”

Zhoumi shook his head and wrenched his hand out of Leeteuk’s grip. “Hyung, leave me alone.”

Leeteuk stared as Zhoumi walked away, not even sparing us a glance. Yuri just followed along, not looking back at us either. I couldn’t believe that Zhoumi just acted that way. Out of the entire gang, Zhoumi was one of the most well-mannered people.

“That isn’t the Zhoumi I know,” I whispered to nobody in particular.

I felt Kangin pat me on the back understandingly. “I know, Yesung. He isn’t the same.”

I wanted to talk to Zhoumi about his change in attitude, but seeing how he acted that way gave me the idea that I wouldn’t get any answers. But I didn’t understand what happened. He had been fine for the entire week, so what triggered the change in attitude?

When Leeteuk walked back to us, getting over the initial shock about Zhoumi’s attitude, Wookie spoke up.

“I think this has to do with Henry.”

And... Jongjin appears again! What am I even doing with this? ._.

So everyone SHOULD know what's going on with Zhoumi. It was in chapter 51, so you can go refresh your memory or something :)

I just finished this and I don't know what was happening half the time, but I hope it met expectations~

Well, that's all from me now. It's late, I should be sleeping, but I'm not. Annyeong! ^-^