16

Meeting someone after so many years can be awkward —no one knew that better than him. Meeting your best friend after so many years wasn’t it at all. It was like the time hadn’t been long, as if it had been a pair of days, weeks at most. None of them realised they hadn’t seen each other in almost ten years. None of them really cared about the time that had passed because they simply didn’t have time to waste. As soon as they broke their bone braking hug, they decided to go eat somewhere to catch the lost time; both of them forgetting already that they had other important things to do.

Even thought Junhyung was mad at Doojoon for not contacting him in all this time, he forgave his friend when the other explained the situation with his parents. He said that, as soon as they got Hyunseung back, they took the first fly to California. Since they didn’t like Junhyung, he had forbidden Doojoon to keep in contact with him and they had been there until a year ago, when Doojoon decided to start his own business. It wasn’t hard to understand it actually because the first time he had met them was the start of mutual dislike. They were unbearable and he couldn’t help but feel pity for his friend since he had no other choice than to live with the pair. But he knew he was doing it just because of his nephew.

“It must have been hard for Hyunseung to live with them” He said remembering how they had looked at the kid as if he was a pest the first time they met.

“You wouldn’t believe it” Doojoon said after a scoff “They adore him”

Since the day he had gotten Hyunseung back, the kid didn’t talk. He just called Doojoon ‘hyung’ when they were alone, as if he was afraid someone else could hear him. The psychologist had said it was due to the shock of the accident and they should just wait until Hyunseung felt more comfortable. It took him almost six months to say another word and the first thing he said was “Thank you, Halmoni, Abuji” at Christmas.

However, what surprised him the most wasn’t the fact that his nephew was finally starting to talk, neither that he had thanked his parents —who he thought were indifferent to the kid— but the fact that his parents got up and cherished for him. The big grins in their faces were something Doojoon wouldn’t be able to forget.

“You’re kidding” Junhyung said in disbelieve. Those can’t possibly be the same people they were talking about. “Are you sure they weren’t just acting?”

“I couldn’t believe it at first either, but then the maid told me they were really caring with Hyunseung when I was at school. She said that MOM baked cookies with him and Dad forgot about work just to play with Hyunseung”

“Maybe the loss of your sister make them realise... you know that it was somehow their fault” Junhyung said carefully. He knew it was a delicate topic to talk about “also, it’s really hard not to love Hyunseung” yeah, it was better to change the topic before Doojoon got sad remembering about his sister.

As they continued talking about each other’s lives, the time went by and Junhyung remembered he still had to go to CUBE to see if they could help him. He surprised Doojoon when he told him he had just finished law school and graduated like a lawyer, but he was actually a writer. In return, Doojoon surprised him when he said he was the CEO of CUBE.

Now that he got to the topic of work, Doojoon told his friend about his misfortune or good luck. He didn’t know what it was anymore.

“You did what??!!” Junhyung almost yelled when Doojoon told him that he had pretended he didn’t know Yoseob at the restaurant. That surprised him more than when he said he had run away from the man —which he actually found pretty funny—“Why did you it?”

“I wasn’t expecting to meet him again, ok. Not the same day. I was preparing myself to meet him on Monday because Gina had informed me she had hired him already... I wasn’t prepared”

“That’s such a lame excuse, you know” Junhyung said while shaking his head lightly in disapproval

“What did you expect me to do? Hug him? Talk as if nothing happened? Come on, he probably never forgave me for stood him up back then”

“Wait, wait, what? Why would he be mad at you? There was nothing you could do about it, ok?” Junhyung was mad. He sure knew that his friend had a hug crush on Yoseob back then, but that wasn’t a reason to feel guilty for something he had no fault at all “Also, he never told you he was moving out. If someone has to be mad here that’s you”

“It wasn’t his fault either, ok”

“Stop defending him, if I---“ he was cut by his phone. He took it out and saw the number of the Cafe. It was the first time they had ever called him and he was about to cut it, but he decided to answer it just out of curiosity. Big was his surprise to listen his sister’s voice at the other side. “How can you get lost?” he yelled, not really caring when the people around gave him disapproving looks “I thought you had pay attention to the road?”

Doojoon, on the other hand, was looking at his friend in amusement: some things really never change. Just when he was about to make a comment about it, he felt his own phone vibrating in his pocket. The ringtone was telling him already who it was and he really didn’t feel like answering.

“Aren’t you going to answer?” Junhyung asked him when he hung up. Doojoon was about to answer him that he didn’t want to get deaf when he heard a scary sweet voice behind him.

“Yes, Doojoonie~ aren’t you going to answer?” Doojoon’s eyes went wide and he gulped, while Junhyung looked at the pregnant woman behind his friend. “I think I was clear when I said to never avoid my calls, wasn’t I?”

As Gina scolded Doojoon for not answering her calls, for missing some meeting he was supposed to attend at noon, and he tried to excuse himself for his actions, Junhyung observed them and wondered what their relationship was.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Gina, THIS idiot’s assistant” she said, pulling Junhyung out of his thoughts and holding out her hand. Junhyung was kind of surprised; you don’t see a woman, pregnant, introducing herself like a businessman... woman.

“Oh, I’m Junhyung” he said and shook her head. She smiled sweetly at him and Junhyung had to admit that, even with her big belly, she looked hot.

“Don’t fell for her charm, she’s gonna get your if you let her” Doojoon whispered a warming to his friend. He knew her the best after all. However, that earned him a slap on the back of his head.

It didn’t matter how many times Doojoon complained, there was no way Gina would let him go. And he knew it, so he had no other choice than to leave Junhyung. Of course they exchanged numbers before leaving and Doojoon promised to help Junhyung as soon as he received the book.

After another good scolding as they walked out of the restaurant, a meeting with some investors at another nearby restaurant, another scolding and a cup of ice-cream at the park —they didn’t care it was freezing out there— they got back to CUBE’s building. However, Gina hadn’t gone looking for him just for that. There was more.

If Doojoon thought the dinner from the previous day had been the most uncomfortable situation he has had in his life, he was wrong. And he knew it the moment he saw Gina entering his office with Yoseob following her.

“This is the person I wanted you to meet yesterday” she said stressing the last word “and since you were busy I asked him to come and not wait until Monday” 

The first time he had run away —Yoseob hadn’t recognized him— and found a chance to meet him again when Gina told him she had hired Yoseob already. The second time he wasn’t prepared yet so he had pretended not to know him at the restaurant. And like some says, the third time is the final one. They were right. Right now, there was nothing Doojoon could do to escape this situation.

“I was planning on giving him a tour around the building and its different departments, but being as round as I am makes it hard to walk” it didn’t really bother him. It’s not as if his heart would beat a mile per hour, not that it can anyway. It wasn’t either that he was about to poop into his pants because he didn’t know what lame excuse use to apologise to Yoseob for ignoring him the previous night. “I hope you don’t mind doing it for me?”

“No, of course not” and it’s not like he had a chance of living if he said he did.

They stood there in an awkward silence after Gina left. None of them knew how to break the uncomfortable silence. Doojoon didn’t, but he gathered all his courage to do it.

“Should we go?” he said. Bright, really bright.

As he had promised, Doojoon took Yoseob in a tour around all CUBE’s building. They met Mir, Jiyoon and other works at their floor and then they went to the floors below where he showed Yoseob the photography studio at fourth floor, the audio recording and video edition at third floor, and finally more offices at second and first floor. Even though CUBE’s building wasn’t really big, Doojoon didn’t feel bad at all. They were practically a new company that had just started a year ago, after all. It was actually a good thing to be so young and own their building already.

After knowing the installations and the people he was going to work with, and noticing the sunset, Doojoon offered to accompany Yoseob to the bus station. After all, he was walking that way too. Yoseob said he was fine, but Doojoon insisted. At the end, as always, Doojoon won and they walked together.

No matter how he looked at it, Doojoon though it was a déjà.

“You have a chocolate-kiss mark on your cheek”

He had to hide his smile as the precious memory flashed in his head.

Like the first time, Yoseob asked the bus driver to wait, jumped down of the bus and hopped to Doo Joon. It was exactly like the first time, as Doo Joon saw it, but this time there was something different. This time Hyunseung wasn’t there. This time there wasn’t a chocolate kiss on his cheek. This time, the goodnight kiss was for him.

But no matter how beautiful his memories were, Doojoon knew that it was no use to look back at them. That happened years ago, when they were just teens who were learning about love. It was for the best to treasure his memories and keep them as that, beautiful memories of his teenage. However, he couldn’t help but to wonder what could have happened between them if things were different… if it still could happen.

People changes and he was sure they had changed. He had changed. Nothing would assure him that Yoseob felt the same way as before. Maybe he was dating someone already and Doojoon was just someone from his past. But then again, no one has died for asking —no one that he knows.

But before that he needed to clear what happened the previous night. He had tried doing it many times as he showed him around, but it wasn’t something you would talk about so carelessly. That’s why he had waited for the right time. And now was when.

“Listen, about yesterday I-“ Doojoon was trying to apologise, but Yoseob cut him off.

“It’s Ok, Doojoon. You don’t have to worry”

“Really?”

“Yes, don’t worry. I mean Hyunseung probably doesn’t even remember me and well it must have been confusing for you that I slipped and well, kissed you accidentally back then, right?”

Accidentally?

“I won’t mention it ever again as I don’t want to remember it either, so you don’t have to worry, really” Yoseob said but Doojoon couldn’t decipher if his voice sounded like joking or apologetic. Or maybe it was a mixture of those. Whatever it was, it made Doojoon’s chest tightened.

“Good to know we feel the same” Doojoon was sure he would have been a really good actor because he was able to hide this uncomfortable feeling in his heart from Yoseob. None of them said another word after that. What was there to say anyway? They had cleared everything. Yoseob had forgiven him for ignoring him at the restaurant and he had forgiving him for accidentally kissing back then. Yes, everything was fine.

“Well, then I guess I’ll see you on Monday” Yoseob said when the bus finally arrived and then walked to the bus. He got in, paid the fee to the driver and took a seat on the back. Doojoon waited until the bus left, just in case Yoseob decided to wave at him; but he never did it.

More than a déjà, it felt like an old mute movie in bad quality. In really, really bad quality. And it was also bad movie. So bad that there was not stopping the bus; no chocolate mark on the cheek; no skipping back to give a goodnight kiss. And even though it was a bad movie, he kept on watching it and breaking his heart in the process.

He didn’t really know why. I mean, yes he had a crush on him —he had a big crush on him— but that happened long ago, when they were sixteen. No matter how hard he tried looking for an answer; no matter how hard he tried to find a valid reason; he couldn’t find it. Maybe it was just the horrible feeling to know that who you once thought loved you back, never really did it.

~~

A/N

You guys have no idea how hard it was to write this chapter. I actually had chapter 17 and 18 done already... A WEEK AGO!! Even chapter 19 is midway. But this, THIS one, had been HELL to write. And that is because I was lacking inspiration *sigh* that’s the most frustrating thing that ever happened to me. I really didn’t know how to start, neither what should I write here. It was like filling and empty hole. So, in order to advance at least a bit I had to write it in parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. I started by 3 then jumped to 5 to go then to 2 and again to 3 because something came to my mind. And when I didn’t know what to write I started writing chapter 17 because I had something planned already and OH I SOOOOO wanted to write it. Then while I was writing an idea popped up in my head and I went back to chapter 16-part 4.

AS you see it was a HELL.

But I finally finished it. But due to the problems with AFF I think you haven't been able to read it u.u

So, you better enjoy ¬¬

PDDT: I'm going to update the other chapter when AFF is totally fixed, so maybe by the weekend.