Stay With Me - You Me At Six

it's been said that time heals wounds, but no...

...stay with me

Mingyu heard the door heavily being slammed shut.

“Yeah! Go! It’s not like I need you anyway!” he screamed, still sitting at the kitchen table in front of his breakfast. The plate on the opposite side had just a bitten into apple lying on it.  Mingyu never quite understood how Jaehwa never felt hungry in the mornings.

Jaehwa, who had just left through the front door. Jaehwa, who was his girlfriend. Up until now.

Looking at the past few minutes and the past weeks, it really hadn’t been necessary to act the way he did, Mingyu realized. He just always liked teasing her and seeing her get mad at him if she didn’t like what he did or said. Her expression has always been the cutest then.

But this time Mingyu had really gone too far. He knew that himself. Now, even though multiple bowls with delicious looking were placed in front of him, he didn’t feel hungry anymore. As a matter of fact, the smells mixing together in the air made him feel nauseous.

Mingyu’s phone ringing in his pocket startled him and hastily he reached for it. He took a look at the display and it felt like something pushed down his chest. It wasn’t Jaehwa. It was Mingyu’s manager.

He picked up the call. “Hello?” He said and cleared his throat, surprised by the lump in it, causing his voice to sound weak and, in some way, sad.

“Yah, Mingyu, where are you? Your concert is tomorrow and you don’t even bother showing up for the last rehearsal?” His manager’s voice was bawling from the speaker.

Mingyu took a quick look at the clock on the wall behind him. He then noticed he had been sitting there for over half an hour. Normally he would have arrived at the company building ten minutes ago, already fifteen minutes late, as usual.

“I am sorry. I…overslept. Can you pick me up at my apartment? I just came out of the shower.” He lied, sounding very convincing.

“You, really! If you continue like that you’re going to miss your wedding one day. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Mingyu hung up before his manager could say anything else. It hadn’t been hard for him to quickly find a realistic excuse. He had gotten used to lying in the two years he had spent with his girlfriend, so they wouldn’t be discovered by his company. Actually, he wasn’t allowed to date, let alone be in a committed relationship, but that never stopped him. His band members knew though. He wasn’t that good at hiding. And they supported them. Wonwoo even moved out of the apartment, him and Mingyu were sharing, once they got out of the dorm and in a nice building of which SEVENTEEN was now blocking a whole story, just so they were able to secretly live together.

As Mingyu was getting his things together, he thought he might need throughout the day and stuffing them in a backpack, he spotted Jaehwa’s most valuable possession lying on a countertop, her iPod. It was a surprise she hadn’t already come back to get it, since she couldn’t survive two hours without it. Mingyu picked it up and looked at it closely. It was really damaged on the outside; the display scratched, the colour chipping off in the corners from the hundreds of times they have hit the ground. The ear buds as well; with the inside of the cable showing at the plug in. Mingyu had to smile. She had bought those just two months ago and they were probably the twentieth pair she got, ever since he knew her.

He stared at it for a couple more moments, then quickly got his laptop of his bag again and plugged in the small device. Knowing Jaehwa would come back and take it with her, Mingyu at least wanted to save all the music she had on it. She had an excellent taste in music, whatever genre it came to. And she did listen to quite a variety of them. Mingyu’s phone was ringing again and again, his manager’s name popped up on the screen. Nervously he looked back at his laptop, which showed the process of transmitting the data. Ten per cent to go. Mingyu bounced around, knowing that half his bandmates were waiting in the van downstairs, while the others were probably already at the venue, also waiting for him. Five per cent to go. Mingyu watched the bar filling up at the speed of a snake and when it finally was done, he pretty much tore out his girlfriend’s iPod, grabbing his laptop and pushing it into his backpack, while running out of the front door.  He sprinted down the stairs, because he knew, he was faster than the elevator, even though he lived on the twelfth floor. After nearly falling multiple times he ran out of the main entrance and after a quick look along the street straight to the van, jumped in though the opened door and let himself fall into the last empty seat next to Samuel, who was eagerly talking about how excited he was for their concert. Actually it wasn’t just one concert, but eighteen, all over the world. They had waited long to finally get a concert, but now it was a whole world tour. Samuel had the right to be totally excited. The van started moving.

“Finally woken up, Sleeping Beauty?” Jisoo asked, tapping Mingyu on the shoulder from behind. It wasn’t weird for him to say that, regarding the frequent compliments and skinship between all the bandmembers. At some point the “fanservice” just becomes regular and starts to take over everyday life.

“Well, there was no handsome prince to kiss me awake on time, so the evil stepmother had to do it by yelling at me.” Mingyu said, a wide smirk across his face and then turned around again.

Some seconds later he got a text message from Hansol, who was sitting next to Jisoo: Why? What’s wrong? Did something happen with Jaehwa?

Mingyu shook his head excessively, letting his friend know his answer that way. It would all be fine again anyway, so there was no need in telling everyone about what happened in the morning.

The drive to the venue of the concert was surprisingly short to Mingyu. Everyone was talking loudly around him, while he just sat there, staring out the window. It wasn’t quite like him, since he was actually the loudest out of all of them. But the thing with Jaehwa still bothered him. After all, he had never seen her that upset before. But what bothered him the most was that he hadn’t even had the chance to say he was sorry and even told her to leave. Mingyu also didn’t want to call her, because it was a really cowardly thing to do; not being able to talk to someone in person.

It wasn’t long until they arrived at the venue and all the happenings just sort of passed by Mingyu.

“Come on, something must be wrong with you.” Hansol stated during their lunch break. It was just him and Mingyu left at the table.

“Why?” Mingyu asked, saying the first word after hours of nodding and shrugging.

“You haven’t even touched your food.” Hansol replied “And you’re so strangely quiet today.”

“Am I?” Mingyu asked, putting on a light smile.

“Yes you are.” The younger replied, but before he could say anything else, their manager called for them, telling them their practice was continuing.

During the rehearsals for the solos Mingyu got some free time to spend, which he used to browse through his girlfriend’s music library. He knew almost all of the songs and each and every one of them reminded him of her and the times they spent together. That was when he stumbled across a song called “Stay With Me”. He knew the band You Me At Six, Jaehwa loved them. Between the age of ten and sixteen, she had lived in the USA, causing her taste in music to be influenced a lot by English songs. And luckily, Mingyu’s English had gotten a lot better over the past years, through living with three English speaking people and later Jaewha, so when he listened to it, he understood most of the lyrics. And really, it was just this situation, just with reversed roles in the verses.

A livestream of the rehearsals was scheduled for later that day Mingyu remembered and he got an idea. Jaehwa has never missed a single one of the SEVENTEEN streams, she would be watching it that evening, he was sure.

And what better way was there to apologize than though music? Also she had said multiple times how much she loved it when he sang songs for her.

“Jisoo hyung? If I give you chords for a song, can you play them until the livestream starts?” Mingyu asked the older one, who was just sitting across the room, strumming on his guitar.

“I guess. Why?” He replied.

“I’d like to sing a song later.” Mingyu said “For Jaehwa. As an apology.”

“So there is something wrong.” Jisoo concluded.

“Yeah, but it’ll be fine, you don’t have to worry.”

“Okay. Give me the chords then, so I can practice for a bit, yeah?” The older said and quickly Mingyu looked them up and gave them to his hyung.

The rest of the day was going by way too slowly. Very free minute, Mingyu spent by learning the lyrics for the song he was going to perform later and thinking about what he could say, that wouldn’t reveal too much about his relationship.

When finally it was time for the livestream Mingyu had to wait really long, replying to fan questions for ages and then to have the others stop their dance practice, so he could ask the PD and Jisoo whether he could sing now. When they nodded, he quickly got a chair for his bandmate, who was getting his guitar. He asked the rest of them to be quiet for a moment and started talking.

“Everyone, I’d like to sing a song now.” He announced looking to one of the cameras “My friend is having feelings similar to this, because she had just recently left her boyfriend, who is also a close friend of mine. I think the verses of this song are probably what she is thinking now, while the chorus is what he is thinking about it. Also I really like this song myself, so…” he nodded at Jisoo to start playing.

Singing the song was not that hard. But he emotionally it was; begging her to stay with him. When Mingyu was done, everyone was clapping. He smiled, as if everything was totally fine, when really he just felt worse than before, worries about what would happen next, clouding his mind.

The drive home was the most nerve-wracking time of Mingyu’s life. The simple state of nescience made him go mad and the fact that he couldn’t do anything made it even worse.

When finally the van arrived in front of the apartment complex, he felt like his heart was close to giving up.

“Mingyu!” Suddenly someone yelled and he dropped his phone, which he had just wanted to call Jaehwa with. It slid along the street for a few meters and immediately a car ran over it, leaving it in a hundred little pieces. There was no way Mingyu would, first, ever find a moment long enough that no cars were driving at full speed over the street, and second, ever be able to even save the memory card.

If Mingyu’s mood could have dropped just the smallest bit, it now had. The only person who also had Jaewha’s number was Wonwoo and Mingyu didn’t want to ask him for it, which would make him look pathetic.

“Mingyu? Are you coming?” said person asked, waiting at the main entrance with the door held open for the last one to get inside. Quickly Mingyu jogged over to him, forcing a smile on his face.

Silently the two boys took the elevator to get to their level and a spark of hope was fluttering in Mingyu’s chest. There was still a possibility, that Jaehwa saw the livestream and understood that it was Mingyu’s way of apologizing. Arriving at the right level, he walked towards the door of his apartment, muttering a quick good night at Hansol before.

Mingyu got his keys and slowly turned the right one in the lock until it clicked. So it had still been locked. Carefully he opened the door and took a few steps inside, closing the door loudly behind him, so that Jaehwa would hear. But there was no Honey?, no You’re back!, no one jumping at him, attacking him with a hug.

Like in slow motion Mingyu took off his shoes, walking towards the large living room and kitchen area. Jaewha wasn’t sitting on the sofa like she used to always do, waiting for him while reading a book or doing something else quietly.

There was no sound coming from the bathroom, so she wasn’t showering either. Lastly Mingyu opened the door to the bedroom. It was also empty. The feeling of heaviness in his chest re-appeared. He went over to the side of the wardrobe, which belonged to Jaehwa and opened it. It was empty. She was gone.

AN: So, here it is. I hope you like it. It would also be very nice if you left a comment. Now I shall go to bed (what a great idea it was to start editing this for posting at 11pm...)