The blood in Changmin's veins froze. He could feel the plane losing altitude, its nose slowly taking a dive. His stomach fluttered as he experienced a moment of weightlessness, then the plane went into a free fall. They were going to die, he could feel it. This was it. Yunho put his hand over his shoulder and pushed him forward into the brace position. Yunho did the same, but didn't remove his hand from Changmin's shoulder, rather he held him tighter. Yunho had always taken good care of him and gotten him out of trouble more times than he could count. He was lucky to have known him and to have gotten to have him in his life for so long. He was truly thankful for that, even though there had been times where he had been close to driving him insane. Changmin turned his head to look at Yunho, their eyes met. He could see Yunho was scared too. That was bad. Yunho was the courageous one, the one who always had a trick up his sleeve to rescue the situation. Changmin guessed that this situation was too dire even for the master himself. They were helpless. The tears started to well up. “Changmin, look at me. Just keep looking at me.” Yunho reached for his hand and squeezed it tight, never breaking eye contact. “We're going to be alright.” Yunho tried to look as if he believed his own words, but the terror shone through.

Changmin could feel they were picking up speed. The plane was almost vertical now, the only thing holding them in their seats were their seatbelts. A tear ran down Changmin's cheek. He didn't want to die, not now, not so soon. There was so much he had yet to do. And.. and he hadn't told Yunho how he felt about him, not once, not even a little bit. It was his best kept secret, he had been guarding it for years. It was locked in his heart's vault and he had all but thrown away the key. Now that he was going to die, he didn't want the secret to die with him. But how could he tell him?

Even in this worst of bad circumstances, he was taken aback by how beautiful Yunho's eyes were. They were at the same time kind and fierce. Yunho had a way with people, everyone liked him and those few who didn't, were soon convinced by Yunho's powers of persuasion. Changmin found this ability of his both amazing and utterly annoying, especially when he used it on him. He could get so mad at him sometimes, determined not to let Yunho get away with whatever he had done to upset him, only to cave instantly when Yunho the charms to get himself out of trouble. It worked almost every time. As annoying as it was, Changmin would give anything to have one more moment like that.

He wanted to take a deep breath but he couldn't, his insides were all in a knot. “Yunho...” Changmin said, gathering courage. “Yes?” Yunho said with a trembling voice. “I.. I love you.” Changmin whispered, his words lost in the noise of the crashing plane. Yunho shook his head, indicating that he hadn't heard what he said. Changmin took a breath, leaned in closer and said in a full voice “I love you.”. Then everything went dark.

Yunho gasped for air, coughing up seawater. He had a splitting headache and every muscle in his body was sore. It took him a while to realize what had happened. Changmin! Where was Changmin? He looked around and saw Yoseob a little further up ahead, he was clinging to something for dear life. It was Doojoon, half under water, struggling to keep them afloat. He scanned the plane wreck that was quickly sinking into the sea. Yunho was starting to panic. He couldn't see Changmin anywhere. He glimpsed the top of someone's head, his heart skipped a beat. It was G-Dragon. He was glad he was alive, but Changmin was his priority. He had to find him. After everything that had happened during the past few years, Yunho couldn't bear the thought of life without Changmin. “Please, pleeease, don't leave me here alone.” he whispered. Fighting back the tears that were clouding his vision he stubbornly refused to give up. At the end of the horizon he could see land or so it appeared, he wasn't sure if it was reality or a hallucination. He barely had strength to keep himself above water. The survival center in his brain was screaming at him, telling him to head for shore, to save himself. He was not going to leave without Changmin.

Over there! A hand had reached up out of the water for a split second. Had he imagined it? He swam like the wind, not taking his eyes off the spot. When he reached it, there was nothing to see, only debris from the plane. He took a deep breath and dived. The sea was murky with plane parts scattered all over, making it hard to see. There! Changmin was fighting like a cat in a bathtub, flapping his arms and legs like crazy, yet slowly sinking. Why was he sinking?

Yunho swam, fighting through the debris, finally reaching Changmin that was sinking deeper by the moment. He grabbed his hands and pulled. Changmin wouldn't budge. He pulled harder, using the rest of his nonexistent strength, but to no avail. Yunho tried his best not to panic, but he was running out of air. He didn't want to let go of Changmin but he didn't have a choice. He could see the sheer terror in Changmin's eyes. “Don't leave me.” they appeared to be saying. Yunho had no choice. He let go, his heart breaking into a million pieces watching Changmin below him sink further into the abyss. He swam to the surface as fast as he could, drawing a few quick breaths to warm up the lungs and then took as deep a breath as he possibly could. He felt like his lungs were going to burst. If he had enough air, he could give some to Changmin. He dived again. He was too late, Changmin seemed to have lost consciousness.

Yunho refused to accept it, he was not going to let Changmin die right before his eyes. As he dove further he discovered the problem, Changmin's shoe was caught on the end of a sinking row of seats from the plane, dragging him down with it. Yunho tried to wiggle the sneaker loose, but it wouldn't budge. He then tried to untie his shoelaces but they were stuck and he couldn't see very well. What to do? What to do? He started pulling Changmin's foot out of the shoe but it was tied on pretty tight. He was going to get it off, even if it meant breaking Changmin's foot while doing it. He put his hands firmly around Changmin's calf, placing his feet on the edge of the topmost seat. Then he pushed with his legs and pulled with his hands as hard as he possibly could. For a moment it seemed like it wasn't going to work. Yunho used strength he didn't even know he had, his muscles felt like they were on fire. He was using so much force he was worried his muscles would snap at any moment. It worked! Yunho couldn't believe it. Changmin's foot had slipped out of the shoe that was now on it's way to the bottom of the sea. Yunho had no time to lose, he had to get Changmin to the surface.

Yunho's lungs stung as they inhaled the crispy air. He tried to slap Changmin, holding him above water with one hand, but he didn't respond. He needed to get him to shore, right this instance. He swam for what felt like forever, getting more and more worried that Changmin had been out of oxygen for too long, but he tried to focus only on the shoreline and the task at hand - Get him to shore.

Yunho didn't waste any time, as soon as it was shallow enough he started CPR, even though they were still surrounded by water. He blew once... twice... He was about to start heart compressions when Changmin coughed up half a bucket of seawater. Yunho had never been as relieved in his whole life, tears flowing. Changmin opened his eyes slowly and whispered something inaudible. Yunho moved his ear up to his lips.

“I really... thought we were going to die... forget... what I said on the plane... please...”