florkyumin: I took a while, but I hope it's worth the waiting! (?)

"Ugh, again?"

"I'm sorry, but you know they might get suspicious if I say I can't go..."

"But we haven't seen each other in ages!"

"Suzy-yah, I'm sorry. I'll make it up for it, ok?"

"Fine" she hung up while rolling her eyes, and letting herself fall on her bed, carelessly.

"He stood you up again, huh?" Min said, walking into Suzy's bedroom, which had the door open, and sat on the mattress, by the younger one's feet.

Suzy nodded and rolled, facing the wall. She didn't want her friend to see her all upset. She wasn't even supposed to know about it, she was quite aware of that. If her boyfriend found out Min knew about them, he'd be pretty mad.

"What happened now?" the older girl asked, at the same time as she gently massaged her friend's feet, trying to get her in a better mood.

"Some reunion for I don't know what with some actors from that drama he was in last year"

"I see..."

They remained in silence for a while, Suzy quietly staring at the wall while fighting off the need to cry, while Min just sat there, silently supporting her friend. After a while, however, she decided to ask the younger one something that had been going on in her mind for a while; "Why are you still with him?"

The question sounded a little harsh, she knew. But she had been asking herself that question for so long; she hated seeing her friend like that, always upset and sad because he never had time for her. Jonghyun didn't even seem upset about the whole situation. Yes, he'd always ask for forgiveness and buy cute presents for Suzy, but then he'd just do the same thing, while her friend was having such a bad time with the secret relationship thing.

Suzy sat up and looked at Min, taken aback by the sudden question. "What do you mean why am I still with him?"

"Well" she tried to sound a little gentle, so that the younger one wouldn't get upset, "He's always busy, and so are you, and in the small time you guys have to be together, something always comes up. I guess that if your relationship wasn't so secret, then it'd be easier for you. I mean, you'd be able to go with him to parties and stuff, or his friends would understand if he ditched them to be with you. But this entire scenario is just... wrong".

"I... I know... But... I love him" Suzy replied, looking away. She hated being like that. She was tough. She didn't want others to see her down like this. But she couldn't take it anymore, Min was right. At least if they would come forward with the relation, it'd be much easier. She didn't fear the fans or the press, she was sure she'd be able to manage all that if she knew she could count on Jonghyun. But she didn't know; that was the worst.

"I know you love him" Min said after a while, sighing. "Come, let's get something to eat. We have schedule tomorrow so we should go to bed early".

Suzy breathed out heavily and lowered her head, while getting up and following her friend outside. Since they were the only ones in the dorm, they decided to order some pizza and watch a few movies until it was time to go to bed. Thanking her friend for trying to cheer her up, Suzy left the living room and went to her bedroom, laying in bed once more and covering herself with all her blankets. She fell asleep with only one thing circling around her mind the whole time, why was she still with him?

She woke up with the sunlight hitting her right in the eyes, since she had forgotten to close the curtains the night before, and she rolled in her bed a few times, before giving up and getting up, knowing she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep.

It was still one hour before the time the others would start getting up, so she went to the kitchen and had breakfast on her own, still thinking about the same thing. Was she being silly? Was she worrying too much? Or was it really time to end the whole thing, before she got even more hurt?

Thinking it'd be better to talk about it with him, instead of just making a decision by herself, she grabbed her phone and texted Jonghyun; "Oppa, can we meet today? I'll end my schedules around 4pm, will you be free? Should we meet in our usual place?" she texted him and waited, she knew it was too early for him to be up, but she was still anxious until, half an hour later, she got a new text.

"Sure, around 5, ok? Make sure no one follows you"; that last sentence made Suzy's blood boil in anger. She was so tired of it, she had finally realized. Were they doing anything bad? Breaking some law? Plotting to kill the president? NO. They were in love. They were ing dating. And she wasn't even authorized to mention that to her family? To her friends? To anyone?

Taking a deep breath, she left the kitchen after finishing her breakfast and took a shower before the others woke up. Once they were all ready, the got in the company's car and went to a studio where they were going to have some of the photos of their upcoming album.

"Suzy-shi!" the photographer said cheerfully, greeting her once they all arrived. They knew each other from previous photoshoots, so they were pretty close. "How are you?"

"I'm good" Suzy replied, smiling while shrugging her shoulders. "You?"

"I'm great!" she replied, with a huge smile covering her face, "Did you hear? I'm getting married!!"

"Oh!" the girl opened her eyes in surprise, and congratulated her a little awkwardly.

"Thanks, thanks. Hey! Don't be sad!" the photographer said, misinterpreting her silence, "You'll meet a nice guy one day too, you're still really young! It's ok to be single at your age!"

Suzy took the blow trying to let no emotion show in her face. She wasn't single. She ing wasn't. But why did it feel as though she was?

"Hey! Let's go!" Min came to her rescue, grabbing her friend by the arm and dragging her to where the others were, already getting their make up done for the photoshoot.

The rest of the day went by really slowly and deadly boring for Suzy. She tried as hard as she could to pull off her best smile but failed, gaining a few scoldings from her fellow members, since that only meant they'd take longer to get the photoshoot done.

By the time it was already 4pm, Suzy grabbed her stuff and quietly left the place without the other ones noticing, getting in a cab with her face covered with a face mask and a cap.

She arrived at the small coffee shop where they were supposed to meet, and sat on a table far away from everyone, waiting.

Almost half an hour passed, until she heard a boy's voice on her right. "I'm sorry" the boy said, in a weird mix on Seoul and Busan accent, "I'm so late, babe, I'm sorry" he appologized, sitting next to her and grabbing her hand. "Are you ok? Did anyone follow you?"

"No one" she replied codly.

"Great! So, should we order something?" he asked casually, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Well, you see... I--"

"Wait a minute" Jonghyun requested, lifting a finger in mid air. He called the waiter and asked for a latte and a cheesecake, also asking for a cappuccino and a muffin for Suzy, before gesturing her to continue. "Sorry, I'm starving. Go on".

"I..." she paused, not sure how to say what was on her mind. Having him there, next to her, made her doubt every decision. He wasn't mean to her, and she knew he loved her. But love's not always enough. There's also sacrifice in order to get the relationship going, and they weren't in the same level of sacrifice, she knew. "Jonghyun-ah..." she began, surprising him with the use of informal language. "I think we should break up".

He looked at her widening his eyes, opening his mouth to reply, but unable to make a sound. He cleared his throat a few times, before asking slowly, "What...? Why...?"

"I... I'm sorry... I... I've been thinking lately and..."

"Is this because of last night?"

"No... Well, yes, but... not really. I mean" she took a deep breath, trying to get her thoughts clear before continuing, "I'm just tired of having to hide every time".

"But... you know we can't... I mean... We..."

"We're idols, I know. We are celebrities. I know that" Suzy stated with a bitter smile. "I just... I just think we've been hiding for a while now. More and more celebrities and being open about their relationships now, why can't we? Is not as if this is some one night stand, we've been hiding around for almost two years now. And it's not that I actually want to go public, but at least I'd like to feel as if I have a boyfriend, and not some invented relationship".

"I know... I just don't think we... I mean, babe, I love you, don't do this. I swear I'll try to put you first in everything. I never thought you had a problem with this... I thought you understood why we had to hide like this..."

"I understand" she interrupted him, looking into his eyes. "But that doesn't mean I have to accept it. If this is the only kind of relationship I can hope for then... I rather have no relationship at all".

He froze, taken aback with her words. He just couldn't believe what she was saying. All this time he thought they were perfect, they were happy, they were just living the dream. Yes, there were some bad times, but they had always been able to overcome them. And now...

He watched her as she stood up while the waiter came with their orders, who looked at them a little confused now that he wasn't sure if they were going to have their coffees. Suzy politely bowed at them and left, while Jonghyun just sat there, too shocked to come back to his senses.

"Are you out of your mind???"

"What the...?" Yonghwa stood up, going towards the door to see who was screaming and banging the door like that. The others members of the group looked as surprised as he was, even more when they saw a short little girl walk inside their changing room, straigh to where Jonghyun was sitting with his guitar, paying no attention to what was going on.

"Yah! Lee Jonghyun! Are you crazy?" he looked up and widened his eyes, recognizing Min.

"What... what are you doing here?" he asked, looking around, confused. "How did you know where to find me?"

"We're also going to perform tonight" she explained. "But that's not the point! It's been 2 weeks!! 2 ing weeks! And you haven't even called her?"

The others looked at the two without understanding a thing, and soon Jonghyun grabbed Min, dragging her outside. "Shhh!" he said, frowning.

"Ugh, that's annoying even to me".

"What do you want?" he asked, starting to get a little upset.

"Why haven't you called Suzy yet?"

"What?" he looked at her in surprise, how did she know...?

"Tsk, of course I know, you " she exlaimed, correctly interpreting his expresion. "The question is, why didn't you get back together yet?"

He rolled his eyes, giving up. "It's... complicated".

"No it's not!" she replied, outraged. "What's wrong with you?"

"Yah! You know what she wants. I repect that. It's something I can't give her".

"You can't act like a normal boyfriend, then?" Min asked sarcastically.

"What? No" he breathed out heavily, trying to calm down. "Look, she wants us to go public, and I'm... I'm not ready".

"You're even more stupid than I thought" the girl comented matter of factly, making him jump defensively.

"What?? What are you talking about?"

"She doesn't want to go public!" Min exclaimed, as if trying to make a kid undertstand that 2 + 2 is 4. "She's an idol, she knows better".

"But, she said she was tired of all this hide and seek games, of sneaking out and--"

"And she is. But doesn't mean you have to go on national television and announce to the world that you are her boyfriend in order to get her back. You just need to make her feel she's not in a relationship with an imaginary boyfriend".

"What?"

"Dude, everyone thinks she's single, ok? So, everyone treats her like a single girl. She's just tired of that. She just wants her friends and family to know, she doesn't want the whole world to know".

Jonghyun looked at Min completely confused, not sure if he was following.

"So?" Min asked after a full minute in which Jonghyun said no word. "Will you man up and do something about it?"

He smirked at the comment and nodded, before turning on his feet and going into his changing room without even saying goodbye to her.

Suzy sighed, stepping out of the stage and drying the sweat of her forehead while walking towards their waiting room. She grabbed her stuff and headed to the car, while getting out her phone and noticing she had a few missed calls, all from Jonghyun.

She decided to call him the next day, when she wouldn't have any schedule and she'll be able to feel bad all day without worrying that anyone else would notice.

Suzy was the last one to step out of the car once they arrived, and froze when she noticed someone on their dorm door, waiting for her.

"Suzy-yah..." he called, walking towards her.

Fei and Jia looked at him in complete surprise, while Min smirked to herself and looked around, checking that no one was there watching.

"Oppa... what are you doing here?" Suzy asked, dazed.

"I already talked to your manager and he's ok... I have my car waiting too".

"What... what are you talking about?" the girl asked, still confused.

"I am taking you with me tonight" Jonghyun said, smiling.

Suzy looked around at Fei and Jia, who looked back at her seeming as confused as she was, and then her eyes rested on Min, who was smiling and nodding, encouraging her.

"W-where... where are we going?" Suzy questioned slowly, her eyes back on Jonghyun.

"I'm going to take you home... and you'll meet my family", he stated proudly.

"W-what?"

"Yeah, I want to introduce you to them, as my girlfriend".

Suzy froze in shock at his words, unable to believe what she had just heard. Jia and Fei were just as surprised as her since they knew nothing about their relationship, while Min let out a low "Yes!", triumphally, while no one noticed.

Jonghyun held out his hand, gesturing Suzy to take it, before bowing at the other girls as a good bye, taking Suzy with him towards his car.

She just looked at him, still too surprised to react, until they got into his car. After a few minutes, she managed to ask; "What... what happened?"

"Nothing, why?" he said, pretending not to know what she was talking about.

"What changed?" she replied, confused.

"I just..." he sighed. "You were right. I'm sorry. I was scared that our relationship wouldn't be the same if everyone else knew about it, and everyone else took part of it... I was scared that if the press found out, everything would start to fall appart. I was so scared of that, that I didn't see how much I was hurting you. I'm sorry. I promise that from now on, I'll be there for you. This doesn't mean I want us to go public, like nation-wide" he hurriedly added, making Suzy laugh. "I'm just saying... It's ok if our friends know. I'm sure I'll enjoy to introduce you as my girlfriend. And... If eventually everyone finds out... I'll be there as well" he stated firmly, while grabbing her hand with his free one that wasn't on the wheel.

She didn't reply, she only smiled while staring at him, mentally remembering herself that she should thank Min the second she saw her.

florkyumin: How was it? Did you like it? Hope so! And I hope it's long enough! u.u Let me know in the comments bellow! ;D

IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST A ONE SHOT, GO CHECK CHAPTER 1&2 :D