NTTTY.

Wet, bedraggled, exhausted, and hungry beyond belief, Changmin smiled at the brief message on his phone. His thumb caressed the screen, leaving a smear of mud across the surface, prompting a frown. Maybe a shower wasn't such a bad idea.

He let the hot water wash the grime from his skin and pelt him a little more awake than he'd been while he listened to his team mates plan dinner. Military life was turning out surprisingly easy for him. Easier, at any rate, than working his nuts off starting a solo career while Yunho was gone, only to put it on hold for his own military service when he'd just got it off the ground.

This was so much better. Yes, they were separated, but they could still talk, could still write music, and could resume their careers together when they'd finished their service.

For once, Shim Changmin was glad he'd stuck to his guns and hadn't let management persuade him away from his course. They'd tried, but not as hard as they might have done another time. Sometimes, being known as stubborn was a blessing.

Changmin returned to his phone later in the evening clean, fed and with the last of his duties taken care of. The message was still there and he smiled, just as he had on first seeing it.

NTTTY.

It had started as a joke while they were promoting Tone. The endless waits between shoots and appearances, tedious and too full of interruptions to let them write music or lyrics of any kind of quality, lent themselves to games. Yunho had been the one who'd started this one, a simple way to continue private conversation when they had to watch words, glances and the way they touched. Finding moments of privacy had become harder with just the two of them, without the others there to run interference, to distract managers, cameras, reporters or fans. And since the last thing he wanted was make things harder for Yunho, he'd joined wholeheartedly into the game.

Only for it to become much more than a game as time passed, turning into a means for sharing thoughts they couldn't possibly express aloud. It could take days to unravel a message, and even then the chances of misinterpretation were high, called for additional messages to clarify and verify earlier texts. In no time at all, a simple message could become as complex as a game of chess.

Changmin had loved playing. He loved seeing the spark come back into Yunho's face even more. He cherished some of their more outlandish conversations, and kept his most favourite messages on a special folder on his phone.

It was in a game of advanced mindreading that Yunho had first told him he loved him. And that was one conversation Changmin would never lose, whatever happened to his phone.

He checked his watch and realised he still had an hour until curfew.

GTG, he texted in reply to Yunho's message. Good to go. One of their standard replies. Just in case Yunho's mind reading skills had gotten rusty in the intervening four months.

Then he sat back and waited for Yunho's call.

***

"And you did what? Talked to him?!"

"Barely."

Yunho's flat tone took the fire right out of Changmin's. "I hope you tore him a new one."

"You don't mean that."

He did. And did not. And, of course, Yunho knew that.

"He's hurting, too, Min."

"Sure. And you still have a soft spot for him."

"So do you."

That was the way it had always been. The three of them together, once Changmin had gotten over his hangups. Ever since he'd met them he'd known that Yunho and Jaejoong had a connection. It had annoyed him, then angered him, then made him long for something he couldn't have.

Until the two had shown him how wrong he'd been.

It had been good after that. Safe and comforting and feeling like something solid. Something that would endure.

Of course, this was the reason why Changmin had been angriest with Jaejoong about the split. He understood the reasons, he accepted that—at some point—the arguments had become an impasse that couldn't be resolved. He could watch Junsu's latest video or Yoochun's latest drama without turning into snarling menace. He'd been in the auditorium when Junsu played Mozart and Dracula, had been in the crowd for the premieres of Yoochun's films.

But while he had always loved Jaejoong's voice and stage presence, he hadn't been to a single one of Jaejoong's concerts or even listened to his music. Jae walking away from them had hurt him as much as it had hurt Yunho, but he'd not had the opportunity to grieve or fall apart. Instead, he'd been there to hold Yunho together when he most needed it.

He knew that as well as Yunho, but the knowledge didn't make it any easier to imagine Yunho and Jaejoong together again. Not now.

"What do you want me to say?" he asked, voice quiet.

"Nothing, really," Yunho replied, and there was a smile in his voice that Changmin was glad to hear. "It's a strange situation. But it won't change what has happened and it won't change what is. Jae has his career and his life and we have ours."

The we sounded unbelievably good to Changmin right then. Strong and confident and… Yunho. It let him put the hurt aside, bury the anger and just say:

"Talk to him properly, Yunho. You didn't have the chance before and you need it. And if you're right, and he's hurting too, then maybe…"

"Maybe?"

"Yeah. Maybe."

He hung up without another word as was their habit, but hadn't made it back all the way to his quarters yet when his phone buzzed with a brand new text.

LYT.

As he'd done earlier that day, Changmin smiled at the message and touched the screen with his thumb in a quiet caress.