You have always been fascinated with the idea of water and how it affects people.  It’s the most basic thing in life.  The thought of dying from thirst and making your throat dry causing your whole body to malfunction just from the absence of it and yet when you drown, that very same liquid that you’ve been aching for enters your lungs and prevents you from breathing.  Either way, you die with or without it. 

Junho has inevitably become your water.

“Oh it’s nothing like that hyung.  She’s not my girlfriend.”  Junho hurriedly answered in an equally loud voice as his eyes looked around.

Silence descended upon the room as you tried to register all he had said.  It has been a wonderful day.  Everything he did, everything he has been has lifted you up and your emotions so high that you forgot all about gravity.  Everything that goes up must eventually come down.

Your face was serene and your features appeared calm, but there was a presence of hurt in your eyes that you tried to hide with a smile that was crystal bright and just as fragile.  “Right.  Of course.”  You muttered to yourself quietly without losing the smile.  It was more than just embarrassing, it was hurtful, even cruel.  If you had a knife in your purse, you would have driven it straight into his chest just to bestow the same amount of pain he inflicted on you and to feel that relief of knowing he will never be able to torment you again.

“I wanted her to be, but she wouldn’t allow it.”  Junho’s mouth scrunched together in a grimace.  “Help me hyung.  I know you know ways on how to successfully get a girl.”  He held the actor’s hand with both hands as your group eventually drew a crowd of curious bunch in.

The actor stopped trying to hide a laugh and let loose with a howl of laughter at Junho’s distressed face.  “Are you serious?  The great Lee Junho has a girl he couldn’t get?”

“Very.”  Junho’s eyes flickered across your face searching for a sign that you believe him.  But you could only open your mouth a little hoping that the air that refused to pass through your nose would enter through your mouth.  “She’s kind of like … my happy spot…and a sore spot at the same time.  I guess she’s definitely proving I’m not so great of a man.”

“Well, come to think of it.”  Wooyoung joined in.  “We have already established that the only thing great about you is your .”

“Well…Bring her to the after party, we’ll talk about it there.”  He pats Junho’s shoulder and turns to you.  “Give the boy a chance.”  He smiles.  “It takes much guts to do what he’s doing.”

“And don’t forget he’s got a gorgeous .”  Wooyoung said drawing in laughter.

Junho caught your hand and held it gently.  You didn’t even realize when he got close to you until you felt his cold hands touch yours.  “Are you out of your bleeding mind?”  You whispered softly unable to make out if you were caught in a dream or a nightmare.  “People are looking.”  Your eyes wandered through a harsh silhouette by the flashes of a sea of cameras.  It was like watching an explosion, very bright and disorienting.

“Then let them look all they want.  The more witnesses the better, right?”  Junho smiles and tries to be reassuring.  But you could somehow feel his nerves in his touch, the loudly beating heart he wishes to conceal from the world.  He was just as nervous as you are.

“What are you doing Junho?”  A chill crawled down your spine as you met his stare. 

“Proving I’m real.  Proving this is real.”  Junho was smiling with his whole mouth all the way up to his eyes.

“This is intense and crazy and…”  You blinked several times as your eyes flickered away from his gaze, holding your head in place as if it was about to fall off.  “…this doesn’t make sense.”

He could feel the anxiety curling up in his stomach and hands clawing up his throat, choking him and letting the words he had practiced over and over again in front of his bathroom mirror be dragged back down his throat.  “Yes it does…it makes total sense.”  He closed his eyes and you saw his chest heave up with a slow steady breath in an attempt to calm his heart and his mind long enough to say what he wanted.  “This is the only way I can make you see my intentions clearly, the only way I could make you believe…I’m real.”

“Junho –“

He cuts you before you could even start to oppose.  “You would always say we’re different and that I have a world far different from yours.  Well, here it is.  This is my world…and I see you in it…and quite frankly, it doesn’t look so bad from where I’m looking.” 

“But Junho-“

“I know I’ve been an .”  He scratched the back of his neck and you finally smiled.  “A coward…for not jumping in after strapping up.  An idiot for not knowing what I truly want.  But now I’m sure that I want to jump into this with you because I know I’m sure that you’re the one I want.”  Junho very casually ran his fingers through the ends of your hair.  “But I also know that just saying all these wouldn’t make you believe me, so I’m saying it in front of all these witnesses, in front of all my friends and these flashing lights.”  He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.  “Would you be mine?”

“You do realize you couldn’t take this all back and undo all of these later, right?”  You looked up at him, trepidation hiding in your eyes and color rising in your cheeks.  You could feel his grip tightening ever so lightly around your hands.

“That’s kind of the point.”  He raises his eyebrows with a timid smile.  “So what do you think, be mine?”

You shivered and smiled.  “Well, that’s positively medieval of you or even stone age, very caveman like…”  You paused to look at him long enough to watch the color in his eyes change with the light.  “…but I find that I don’t particularly mind.”  And with just the slightest shake in your fingers and twisting your hand in his you linked your fingers through Junho’s.  “So yes…I would really like to be yours.”

Junho leaned in and kissed you softly.  He had a good idea that pictures of this moment are going to end up on every social network before you two could make it home, but quite frankly he couldn’t be bothered to care and the same goes for you.