A/N: hi, guys! here's the next chapter! :)

So, the title of this chapter is "Announcement", and that's what I'd planned to call it from the start. But as I was writing this chapter, god, I was tempted to change its name to "Awkwardness" instead. Because that's what's in this chapter. It's just totally filled with awkwardness. And hurt. D:

Anyway, I hope you guys like it.

Changmin was walking out of the kitchen with a huge bowl of popcorn in his hands when the doorbell rang. He hurried to the front door, holding the bowl carefully with one hand and opening the door with his other hand.

“Oh, hey there, hyungs,” he greeted his brother's friends, Jaejoong and Yoochun. “Come on in.”

“Who else is here already?” Yoochun asked as they followed Changmin to the living room.

“Just Junsu. He arrived just about ten minutes ago,” Changmin replied.

“Jaejoong hyung! Yoochun hyung!” Junsu greeted them excitedly, looking up from the video game that he was playing when he saw the two older boys arrive with Changmin. Jaejoong and Yoochun nodded and smiled at him.

“Erin’s not yet here?” Yoochun asked Changmin, taking a seat beside him and reaching over to grab some popcorn from the bowl. Since the Jung brothers were very close with each other and always hang out together, it became the usual for their other friends (Erin, Junsu, Jaejoong, and Yoochun) to be together, too, and all of them had become close with each other over the years.

Changmin scowled and slapped away Yoochun’s hand before he could take any of his food, making Yoochun frown. “She’s just finishing her project at school. She should be here any minute,” Changmin explained.

“That Hogwarts castle model she’s working on for art class? I heard it looks really good. She’s really got talent for those kinds of crafts, doesn’t she? Right, Jaejoong hyung?” Yoochun turned to Jaejoong.

“Hmm? Oh- oh, y-yeah. She… really does,” Jaejoong replied, looking quite distracted by something in his mind.

“What’s up with you?” Yoochun asked his friend. “You’ve been acting oddly the whole day, you know…”

“Oh, uhm, it’s nothing. I’m… just worrying about what grade I’ll get for that math exam we took this morning. It was horrible…”

Changmin and Junsu nodded in understanding and sympathy, but Yoochun was still looking suspicious. He was the one that had known Jaejoong the longest (right after Yunho, of course) and he could easily tell when Jaejoong was keeping something a secret from them.

Which was exactly what he was doing right now.

However, before Yoochun could continue questioning Jaejoong, Junsu asked, “What about Yunho hyung? Where is he? I’m not used to seeing you without him, honestly, Jaejoong hyung. Aren’t you two always with each other?”

Yoochun became more suspicious when Jaejoong looked more uncomfortable than ever at Junsu’s question. Something was definitely up.

“Oh- oh, I think he had to… uhm, attend a meeting or two before he could go home today,” Jaejoong muttered, keeping his eyes fixed on the screen where Junsu was playing his soccer game, avoiding looking at any of them in the eye.

'You’re such a rotten liar, Jae', Yoochun snorted in his thoughts.

“I don’t know how Yunho hyung does it,” Junsu said, pausing his game and looking up at the rest of them earnestly. “I mean, he’s involved in all sorts of extracurricular activities and he still does so well in his classes. It’s just so unbelievable.”

“It’s not unbelievable,” Changmin scoffed at Junsu. “Everyone knows that my brother’s just brilliant that way!”

Junsu, Jaejoong, and Yoochun all rolled their eyes, sensing that Changmin was about to begin his tirade about how Yunho was ‘so good at this’ and ‘so awesome at that’.

“Yes, yes,” Yoochun cut in quickly before Changmin could begin the speech that they’ve all heard so many times already. “We know you’re ready to erect so many deities and temples of worship in your brother’s name.”

Changmin scowled and punched Yoochun on the shoulder, making him grimace.

“Man, you’ve got to stop working out, Changmin-ah!” Yoochun complained. “We’re all going to end up black and blue because of your strength!”

“You deserve it, Chunnie,” Jaejoong smiled a bit. “Besides, I think it’s really sweet how Changmin here looks up so much to Yunho…”

“And we all know that Yunho hyung would give the world to Changmin in turn,” Junsu chimed in. “Really, I’d never seen brothers as close as they are. I mean, Junho and I are twins, and we’re very close and all that, but Yunho hyung and Changmin’s brotherhood is just… Well, there's just no words for it.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Yoochun nodded. “It’s really very heart-warming to see. And it really makes me wish Yoohwan looks up to me the way Changmin does to Yunho, but god, that kid… he’s such a pain the !” he grumbled.

“C’mon, Chun, we all know how you also love Yoohwan so much,” Jaejoong chuckled, now seemingly distracted from his depressing thoughts before.

“Yeah, I love that kid, but doesn’t mean he’s not a pain in the …”

Just then, they heard the front door open and close, and a few seconds later, Yunho walked into the living room with Erin.

“Oh, good, you’re both here,” Changmin smiled happily, glad that his two most favorite people in the whole world have finally arrived.

But then-

His smile vanished and he felt cracks begin to form on his heart, and its pieces were slowly falling of one by one, as he looked down at Yunho’s and Erin’s hands in between them.

Their hands that were clasped together, with their fingers intertwined and everything.

Changmin felt his whole world begin to collapse around him.

“So,” Yunho smiled, not noticing at all something odd about the sudden stunned, tensed silence in the room. “Erin and I have something to announce to you guys…”

He raised their clasped hands, proudly showing them to the four other boys in the room. Then, he turned smile at Erin, who was very much red in the cheeks. He moved their hands towards his face and pressed a kiss on the back of her hand.

And then, so many things happened at once, all at the same time, and yet nobody was paying attention to all of it except to whatever it was that they were doing on their own-

“Congratulations, you two!” Mr. Jung suddenly boomed from behind Erin and Yunho as he and his wife suddenly appeared in the living room, just in time to witness their eldest announce his relationship with his younger brother’s best friend. “I am so proud of you, son! You’ve really become a man, now, haven’t you, boy?”

Yunho beamed at his father, his eyes bright and full of emotion.

Erin was just blushing furiously, looking down at the floor. But everyone (if they were actually paying attention) could see that huge, happy smile on her face.

Junsu gaped at Yunho and Erin, and then turned his head quickly to look anxiously at Changmin, who was so still that it was as if he had been petrified. Junsu was so upset and worried, because it looked like he was going to find out how Changmin would react to losing his love to his own brother. And, again, Junsu didn’t want to know that because he was certain it wouldn’t be anything good.

Yoochun was staring disbelievingly back and forth between Yunho and Jaejoong