Chapter 23: No Goodbyes

Donghyun is in the middle of Yougmin’s student council work. Now that he’s doing it, he starts to wonder about how tired Youngmin is at the moment. The work is really boring. He’s sure that Youngmin has passed out and is sleeping from dead tiredness.

He’s immediately proved wrong by the door being swung open. Youngmin runs inside. Fully awake, with a big grin on his face.

‘Hyung! Guess where we are going?’

‘To bed?’ Donghyun asks jokingly. Youngmin ignores his bad joke.

‘Jeju island! I know this cool and rich hyung. He’s going for a business trip and asked me to take care of his house and I can take whoever I want!’

‘No way!’ Donghyun exclaims, jumping up from his seat.

‘So, I thought, why not asks Kwangmin and the others.’ Youngmin says. Donghyun grins. ‘Look at you saying Kwangmin’s name first.’ He says. He feels Youngmin is really cute when his cheeks turn pinkish. ‘It’s not like that…’ He mumbles. Donghyun just laughs. ‘Should I let the others know?’

‘If you want to. I’ll tell Kwangmin this weekend when I meet him.’

~

Kwangmin enters the café and takes a seat at their table. He orders their favourite drinks and is almost immediately lost in his own thoughts.

This was where Youngmin had the blind date. This was also where they made up. He still remembers Youngmin’s hand on his while he was crying. Youngmin is the best. And now he’s his boyfriend. It’s been a while since they met. They can’t meet every weekend because they are both busy with student council work. The difference between them is that Kwangmin would skip his work for Youngmin but the other won’t. It used to upset him and it still does but Kwangmin promised himself he wouldn’t get mad. After seeing what happened to Minwoo and Donghyun he decided that he didn’t want to be too attached to Youngmin. He doesn’t want to be a bother.

Just when they cappuccino and Americano arrive, the door is opened. Kwangmin immediately looks up and smiles brightly when he sees Youngmin. Youngmin returns his smile while walking towards him. Kwangmin gets up and they wrap their arms around each other.

‘Hi Kwang.’ Youngmin says. The affectionate tone in his voice makes Kwangmin’s heart drop to his toes. ‘I missed you hyung~.’ He says. Youngmin laughs and ruffles his head with his hand, turning Kwangmin’s hair messy. Kwangmin just smiles and quickly fixes his hair before sitting down.

‘Weren’t you busy this weekend?’

‘Donghyun hyung still hasn’t repaid me fully for pitching things up with Minwoo.’ Youngmin explains.  ‘Lucky me.’ Kwangmin says as he gulps down his Americano.

‘I don’t know how you always drink that bitter stuff like it’s coke.’ Youngmin says in awe before taking a sip from his cappuccino. Kwangmin smiles proudly. ‘You’re cute.’ Youngmin says.

‘You’re handsome.’ Kwangmin’s compliment results in a big grin spreading on Youngmin’s face.

‘You said you missed me right?’

‘Of course I did!’ Kwangmin exclaims.

‘Then, should we run away from this place? From this life?’ He asks. The pride he had for his words are destroyed when Kwangmin bursts into laughter.

‘WHAHAHA! Hyung, what the…?!’ He chokes on his cappuccino and starts coughing like a crazy person. ‘What’s with the *cough* whahaha *cough* such a *cough cough* drama-like line!’ Kwangmin can’t stop laughing. Youngmin watches his choking boyfriend with a shocked expression. ‘Didn’t I sound cool?’ He asks. Kwangmin laughs even more, realizing the other is very serious at the moment.

‘That was probably the most uncool thing you ever said. So mushy!’ He announces. Youngmin pouts. ‘I thought you said I had to be more affectionate.’

‘But not in a lame way.’ Kwangmin says, tapping Youngmin’s pouting lips with his finger. Youngmin laughs and quickly takes Kwangmin’s hand. He turns it around and kisses the back of it. ‘Better?’ He asks, his eyes meeting Kwangmin’s. Kwangmin’s cheeks immediately turn red. His mouth opens but no sound comes out. Youngmin’s eyes sparkle with satisfaction. ‘You’re cute.’ He says and he turns Kwangmin’s hand again and and kisses his palm.

‘Stop it. It’s embarrassing.’ Kwangmin says, quickly pulling his hand back. Youngmin smiles as Kwangmin takes another huge amount of Americano at once.

‘I wasn’t lying Kwang. We should get out of here for a little bit.’ He says. Kwangmin is now all ears again and the blush on his face slowly disappears.

‘Are you tired?’

‘A little. The main reason is that I got a call from Hyunjoong hyung. You know, the one that lives in Jeju island.’

‘The one with the erted parrot?’

‘Yeah, that one. He asked me to look after his house, especially the animals, because he’s going on a business trip for two days.’

‘Seriously?! Can I go with you?!’ Kwangmin asks, totally excited. Youngmin nods . ‘You’re coming?’ He asks.

‘Obviously.’

‘I also asked Donghyun hyung and the others. It’ll be some special free time for all of us.’ Youngmin says. He’s surprised when he sees Kwangmin’s disappointed face.

‘They are?’ He asks, his voice is incredibly pitiful.

‘You don’t like it?’ Youngmin asks, totally surprised. ‘It’s not that I don’t like it. I thought it was going to be the two of us.’ Kwangmin admits. Youngmin shows his thinking face. ‘Hmmm… Well, it’s not like we’ll be with six people all the time. Let’s have fun with six on the first day and then we’ll go for separate days the next. How does that sound?’

‘Sounds amazing.’ Kwangmin admits. ‘I’ll book the tickets then.’ Youngmin announces. Kwangmin nods in agreement and waits for his hyung to finish his coffee.

They pay the bill and get their stuff. Kwangmin is the first one to stand outside.

‘What do you want to do now?’

‘What are you talking about? I have to go back and work for the student council of course.’ Youngmin answers.

Kwangmin’s eyes open wide. ‘WHAT?! You never told me about that!’He yells from the shock. Youngmin starts laughing. ‘I was just kidding.’

‘What the heck…’ Kwangmin mumbles, feeling stupid for yelling. Youngmin laughs at his boyfriend’s cuteness. ‘Do you want to go karaoke. I wanted to go to the park first but I saw there’s going to be a rain shower.’

‘Really? I didn’t know about that.’ Kwangmin announces and he regretfully looks at his t-shirt. Youngmin laughs. ‘Don’t worry. I already thought you didn’t so I brought two jumpers with me. I also have an umbrella so we’ll be fine.’ Youngmin says. Kwangmin smiles. There are times a wondered if hyung really cared about me but now I know what kind of person he has become. He takes care of people without making it too obvious he does. He says I’m cute but he’s the cute one. He thinks.

~

Jeongmin closes the window of his room. ‘It’s raining so suddenly.’ He announces. ‘You should stay a bit longer.’ He says as he walks towards his bed and gets on his spot next to Hyunseong.

‘I wasn’t planning to leave anyway.’ He admits. Jeongmin laughs at Hyunseong who is completely absorbed into the new game they bought together.

‘Aren’t you liking it a bit too much?’

‘I’m just happy we had some money left after paying for the bungee jump.’

‘But it was totally worth it, right?’ Jeongmin asks, immediately excited when he remembers the thrilling experience. Hyunseong laughs bitterly . ‘Don’t think I’m going to do something like that ever again.’ He warns. Jeongmin laughs. ‘I’m proud of you babe.’ Jeongmin says. To give his words more impact he pecks Hyunseong on the cheek exactly 11 times.

After playing for a while Hyunseong noticed that the boy lying on his lap has stopped talking. The sides of Hyunseong’s lips curl up slightly when Jeongmin’s peaceful breathing and the rain ticking in the windows is the only thing heard.

~

Youngmin hops off from the bus first and opens his umbrella. Kwangmin quickly dives under it. ‘Shouldn’t you go to Paran?’ Kwangmin asks, for the millionth time after the karaoke room. Youngmin sends him a warning look. ‘How many times do I have to say that I’m going to walk you to the dorms?’ He asks. Kwangmin pouts. ‘I know what you said but still.. it’s cold because of the rain. You have to wait for the bus for 20 minutes even if you walk me back and forth.’

‘I don’t care. You may want to go alone but I’m going to do what I want and what I want is to spent as much time with you as possible.’ Youngmin says with a stern voice. Let’s go.’ He starts walking. Kwangmin is immediately attacked by the pouring rain.

‘Wait!’ He screams. He quickly runs towards Youngmin and sticks closely to Youngmin to stay under the umbrella.

They don’t say anything. They could do the walk in 5 minutes but they’ve been walking for 15. Both walk as slowly as possible and they hardly speak. Both of them are still not used to separating yet. Maybe it’s because they only started to realize the reason of goodbye after falling for each other. Youngmin had always thought that they didn’t have to say goodbye because they would never  get along. Kwangmin on the other side had never thought he would say “good to see you again” or “I missed you” in the first place. Farewells are still awkward for them. They feel like saying it will untie the knots of their string. The string will get longer and they will be farther from each other again. in the end they would be so far away from each other that the string will break. Both are still too afraid of hurting or being hurt by the other again. Youngmin and Kwangmin are still no good when it comes to saying goodbye.

Just like that, they reach the entrance at the dorm. Kwangmin sneaks a side glance at Youngmin. ‘You got wet!’ He says, surprised. Youngmin’s shoulder is soaked. Kwangmin looks up and immediately sees that the umbrella is turned to protect him from the pouring rain.

‘It’s alright.’ Youngmin mumbles. Kwangmin sighs. ‘You’re so stupid hyung. It’ll be my fault if the student council president gets sick!’ Kwangmin announces. They both laugh awkwardly. In another situation they would’ve laughed until tears would roll over their cheeks but now isn’t the time.

Kwangmin can’t say he wants him to stay longer. Youngmin can’t say he’ll miss him. This is not goodbye. They will see each other soon.

Kwangmin bites his lip. ‘Can we kiss?’ He asks.

Youngmin has to restrain himself. Kwangmin’s begging eyes are going to kill him one day. ‘We’re in front of the dorms babo. What if someone sees us.’ He says. Kwangmin nods in understanding, still disappointed. Honestly, Youngmin doesn’t really care about that. He’s just afraid that when they kiss Kwangmin will leave because he’s satisfied with their farewell. Youngmin knows himself too well. He knows he’ll feel rejected by Kwangmin if he leaves first. He doesn’t know why but he feels like Kwangmin will run away from him one day and he wants to stay away from that situation as long as possible.

He pats Kwangmin on the head with a smile. He then turns around and leaves without looking back.

Kwangmin watches him until he disappears from his sight. ‘by…see y… call me when you get back…’ Everything sounds cheeky to his ears. Then, his phone vibrates. He takes it out and opens his e-mail.

Subject: you’re copy of the tickets to Jeju Island

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Let’s bounce come with me
Bounce come with me
B-B-B-B-Bounce come with me<333

The song is stuck in my head srsly...

I have +200 unique subs. I'M SO THANKFUL :')

I love you all so much >,<

I'll try to get another chap up as soon as possible as a 'thank you' ^^