“I almost forgot to let you know about this. I was just going to take you and go, but I got distracted.”

Still completely bewildered, the chilling weather nipping at my cheeks, I followed Jongin with squinted eyes to where he was taking me. I wasn’t sure why we hadn’t taken the car, but he had just ran out of the apartment and expected me to catch up.

I eventually did, but I still was so confused.

I had lost track of where we were, but it wasn’t much farther than a mile from our apartment. Jongin grabbed my hand, his frozen fingers holding my own numb ones, as we continued our fast-paced stroll down to where he wanted to go.

He finally slowed down, a proud, half smile on his plump lips. I stood behind him, trying to find what he was looking at, only to come across the Inkigayo building. “Jongin, why did you bring me here?”

“SHINee’s performing!” he whined, pouting like a child deprived of sweet food.

Oh, yeah. SHINee was promoting “Why So Serious?” without Jonghyun tonight. I sighed. It was probably sold out, absolutely too expensive, and I didn’t want to stand, cramped between some rabid fangirl and my possibly insane boyfriend, for the rest of the night.

I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I had to. “Jongin, I don’t think now is the right time…”

Instead of protesting, he just grinned sheepishly and squeezed my cold palm. “Just kidding. I’ll save up the money for a show one of these days. I do have something to show you, though. That was just a stop along the way.” He started walking, and I rolled my eyes, following him closely.

Jongin turned the corner of a small, brick building at the end of a block before stopping to look at something with a big smile. Confused, I followed his solid gaze, only for my own jaw to drop. Above a small grocery store sat a long billboard. It was a picture of the practice room, the famous one with the sky wallpapers. I recognized it immediately. A few days before, a photographer had snuck in to our dance practice, when all of us stood in formation, our heads bent with most of our haircuts covered by hats. The small words “Coming in 2014” sat below our feet.

I was shocked.

It was us.

Jongin grinned at my reaction. “I was coming home from practice and I saw this. I can’t believe it, Kyungsoo. This is actually going to happen for you.” I nodded, still frozen, finding myself, up front with Jongin’s hat covering my exhausted expression.

“But, Kyungsoo… I have something else to show you. Follow me.”

We turned around the block, finding another billboard across from it, facing the back entrance of the store and a whole new street with other viewers. It had just been over two weeks since Dynamic became a possibility, but there was a picture of the same practice room, a smirking girl standing to face the camera. Jongin’s profile, as well as another man’s, caught my attention, both turned opposite ways, just to the side of the girl.

Below it was the same, taunting scrawl of words.

“Coming in 2014”.

My excitement for my own poster quickly faded, and I stood there, mind boggled. SM had put both of us up there? Because they couldn’t decide? One of our groups would be kicked to the curb, but they still didn’t know which one.

Jongin sighed, his breath coming out in a white puff against the frigid air around us. “This is getting serious, Kyungsoo.”

My voice cracked as I opened my mouth to speak. “I know.”

Upon hearing the crack, Jongin turned to me, eyebrows furrowed in concern, watching my expression I made sure to make absolutely blank. I wasn’t sure how to react to this. Happy for Jongin? That seemed the safe way, but I just couldn’t be. It was hard to fake enthusiasm when I felt my own dream crumbling underneath my feet.

Jongin obviously could tell. “Listen, Kyungsoo, if you wa—“

“No!” I cried, turning to stare at him. I felt the cord holding my cool together snap inside of me as my eyes bored into him. “If you offer giving this up one more damn time, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it! This is your dream! I would never let you lose it because of me!”

Jongin looked shocked at my sudden change of behavior. He was silent, just watching me as I heaved, my heavy breaths reflecting in the December air.

He nodded. “Okay. I understand now. Let’s go home.”

~*~

“I hate this monkey suit. Why do I have to go? It’s your friends. Jongdae still wants to kick me in the …”

I rolled my eyes, tightening the red silk tie sitting around his neck and wiping any small specks of dust I saw on his blazer. With his hair styled to perfection, he looked fantastic. Better than me, anyway. Jongin had tried to do something with it, and he had tried to make it look like his, but it wasn’t as horrible as it could have been.

The only other time Jongin had worn a suit was for Sehun’s funeral, and he was soaked from the rain. I sighed, staring into his dark orbs. “You look great.”

His half smile made my cheeks burn. “Thanks. You do too, baby.”

We briefly kissed before I lifted my eyes to check the clock. The wedding of my best friends was scheduled for an hour from now, but it was best to get there a little early and congratulate them. As I was putting on my dress shoes and Jongin was performing a last minute check on his hair, I heard his voice from the bathroom. “I want a dog.”

A dog? “What made that come up?”

Jongin sighed, emerging from the bathroom ready to go. He sat down next to me at the foot of the bed, the bed shifting from the weight change under me, slinking his arm around my hip and setting his chin on my shoulder. It was hard to do things with someone like him draped around you.

“I grew up with dogs my whole life, and I barely see Henry anymore,” he said with a small frown. “I don’t really talk to Joonmyun much anymore either, for that matter…”

I have a hard time saying no to him. “I’ll think about it, alright? Let’s go.”

“Can I drive?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s my car and you’re a ing crazy driver.”

Jongin grinned. “I know.”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, you.”

~*~

When we finally arrived at the chapel, it was already loaded with cars in the parking lot. The lawn and gardening was extremely cared for, and it was an all around beautiful church. Jongdae stood at the door, welcoming visitors and assisting them on where to go. Jongin faintly smiled. “It’s beautiful here.”

“Yeah, I know,” I breathed, not really paying attention.

“Can we get married here?”

That made my eyes widen. “What are you implying?”

He was silent. I turned to stare at him, but he just had that dumb smug look on his face. Was he asking me to…? Surely not here. “Kim Jongin, are you—“

“No,” he laughed. “Your expression was cute, though.” He unbuckled his seatbelt with a click before opening the door to my car and exiting. I was still stuck there. Hopefully he was up to something.

Hopefully.

Jongin grabbed my hand as we ascended the church’s steps, Jongdae grinning at me. I released Jongin’s hand so I could hug my seemingly out of touch friend, while he and Jongin shook hands with a smile. Well, it was getting somewhere. “Glad you could come. Chanyeol will be thrilled.”

“Why would I miss something like this? I’ve been around since dorky Chanyeol asked out the star of the middle school soccer team and I’m not leaving now.”

Jongdae laughed. “The ceremony is being held behind those double doors on your left. Oh, and, Kyungsoo, we’re having a shot contest after the first dance with the men of the hour. You in?”

“I’m not great with my alcohol,” I admitted, before putting my arm across my boyfriend’s shoulders. “Jongin, on the other hand, drinks like an Irish man. He can have twenty and still be coherent.”

Jongdae’s eyebrows raised, his gaze locked on him. “Aren’t you underage?”

He shook his head. “Been drinking since I was fourteen, though, so I should be alright.”

After the conversation ended, the two of us walked to where Jongdae had said to, stunned when the ceremony came into view. It had been decorated beautifully to compliment the chapel’s painted windows and stained wood walls. Baekhyun and Chanyeol, both dressed in slightly different suits, were welcoming their own sides of the family who had attended.

Baekhyun had dyed his hair to become brown again, while Chanyeol had hacked off his chocolate brown locks into a shorter black style. Jongin stuck close to me as we looked upon the many guests. “What side do I sit on? I’m here as a neutral party,” he whispered close to my ear.

That made me think. “Well, I’m Chanyeol’s best man, but Baekhyun likes you more, so you can go sit on his side.”

He nodded in understanding. Chanyeol looked up from welcoming his dad—I recognized him from how much I went to his house after school—to see me. That silly grin made its way to his face as he pulled me into a warm hug. “Hey, Soo! I’m happy you’re here.”

It was genuine, something Chanyeol doesn’t usually express. That feeling quickly disappeared as his gaze went up to my hair, touching my rigid from hairspray follicles. “This is a new style for you.”

“Jongin did it,” I defended. Speaking of which, I found him to be greeted by Baekhyun. They looked like they were genuinely getting along. With one look at Chanyeol’s hair, though, I managed to fight back. “Same for your hair. Why’d you cut it off?”

He shrugged. “It was getting kind of long. Wanted to look clean for the day I get married.”

“That didn’t mean you had to get rid of all of it,” I laughed.

He smiled. “It’ll grow back.”

Pretty soon, the ceremony started. I was handed the rings right before, and when it was my cue after all of the vows and the pastor babbling on about commitment and trust and love, I gave the rings to my best friends, watching as they took each other as husbands and kissed under the arch.

It was beautiful. I think I might have cried somewhere in there, but that’s not something to admit.

The reception was outside, amongst tress and such. There was dancing, drinking, and some of the best fun I’ve had since I was kicked out of college. Jongin and I moved together under a setting sun, and I had never felt more attached to someone in my small relationship past before.

That was, until the drinking game started.

I hadn’t taken a sip of alcohol damaging enough to affect me other than giddiness, but within seconds, a throbbing headache impacted me, making me almost drop. Jongin was too focused filling his shot glass to see this, and I really didn’t want him to, so, trying to fight what felt like a knife driving through my skull, I managed to get hidden in the trees.

It was there that I retched from all the pressure in my head, but its help was minuscule. I wasn’t sure what was happening, and why me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. I didn’t want my friends’ big night to be ruined, not because their college failure is puking a few trees behind the reception.

My phone buzzed in my dress pants, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who it was. I didn’t answer, couldn’t answer, due to the lump in my throat that was building.

I vomited again.

If only I had known that there would be more. Way more. Some that were duller, some that felt like a chainsaw ripping through my brain in comparison. I might have been able to stop it.

Something worse was coming.

Something much, much worse.

~*~

Hey guys! Were you surprised seeing this in your subs? I know the video said May, but, meh, my exams ended yesterday. I did great on my Math and English ones, but my Science and History... Yikes... Those scores will not be pretty...

Anyway, here you go! Sorry it's not great. >.< I was thinking more of the future chapters than the transition into it, so, ya know.

Thanks for reading~ Please comment! :D