A few days later

Eunhyuk was sitting in his car, driving towards his home town. The time to leave came a lot earlier than he expected it and throughout the whole week he was really looking forward to it. However, now he wasn’t really that excited anymore and nervousness slowly started kicking in. He was still very excited to see all of his friends, but the fear of meeting Donghae was beginning to grow big. That morning, he almost decided not to go but in the end he went anyways since he already made a promise to Shiwon and Junsu.

Eunhyuk stopped his car at the traffic signal and nervously tapped with his fingers against the steering wheel. The radio programme that he was listening at that time was playing some sappy romantic ballad and he rolled his eyes, immediately changing the station. When he finally found a decent song, the lights on the traffic signal changed and he moved. He took a quick glance at the clock and was surprised to see that he was already driving for three hours.

“Two more hours to go,” said the man to himself and sighed. He really did hate driving on his own, because it was so damn depressing and boring. He tried to talk Shindong into joining him for the reunion, but his friend rejected him flatly by saying that he didn’t have time. Well, Eunhyuk knew why the older one didn’t have time. It was because of his precious girlfriend, which he didn’t really like. To be honest, since Donghae’s wedding, Eunhyuk wasn’t really fond of women anymore. Knowing that he was being childish about it, Eunhyuk still couldn’t help himself but to feel this way.

Eunhyuk yawned and stretched his neck a little bit, because it started to hurt from all that driving. He was really excited about the fact that he was going to be able to spend the whole week in his home town. It took him a lot of begging, but in the end he somehow managed to convince Heechul to give him some time off. Eunhyuk chuckled to himself, thinking that his boss wasn’t really a bad person. At least not all the time, he had his moments. Shindong was also happy for him that he decided to go and his smile grew wider. The following week was going to be great, he just knew it! He tried not to think too much about Donghae and since he spent the whole past few days mentally preparing himself meeting Donghae, he thought that he was kind of prepared for the situation.

Eunhyuk continued his way in silence. He made a few stops along the way, to get something to eat and drink and before he knew it he was already in his home town. When he arrived, he decided not to go over to Shiwon’s quite yet, because he wanted to drive around the town and see how much it changed since his move. As he was driving around, he was quite surprised to see that things didn’t really change that drastically. Well, he was gone only for about 5 years. When he drove past his old apartment, a sad smile came on his face and he sighed. He wondered who lived in there now. Even though it passed so much time, he still felt very connected to that place. It was his first apartment that he bought with his own money, so of course it felt so dear to him.

After an hour of driving around, he finally decided that he had it enough and he headed over to the house of Shiwon’s parents. He soon reached it and parked his car in the empty spot, next to a black sport’s car, which he assumed was Shiwon’s. When he stepped out of the car, a warm breeze welcomed his face and he stretched his body, letting out a little moan of discomfort. He then took a deep breath in and sighed, a smile forming on his lips. Yes, it definitely felt good to be back. Just as he was about to head over to the door, he suddenly felt a pair of strong arms around his waist and before he knew it he was already pressed into a tight hug.

“Eunhyukkie,” said a voice which was far too familiar to Eunhyuk and he chuckled when Shiwon squeezed him tighter to himself. Eunhyuk wrapped his arms around his friend’s neck, returning him the hug. “I can’t believe that you really came. I was waiting since this morning,” said Shiwon and then pulled back to take a closer look at Eunhyuk.

“Hey,” said Eunhyuk, feeling a little bit awkward and he then laughed. “You sure do seem pretty excited to see me.”

“Of course,” chirped Shiwon and studied Eunhyuk’s face carefully. “What, you aren’t exited to see me?” he then asked and pouted.

“Of course I am, you big baby,” said Eunhyuk and playfully punched Shiwon’s arm when he started ‘sulking’. “You really haven’t changed, have you? Still looking great as ever.”

“Well of course,” said Shiwon and flashed him his attractive smile. Eunhyuk rolled his eyes and chuckled as he remembered that Shiwon tended to be a little bit of a narcissist. “You don’t look half bad either. Now, let’s go inside… my parents also are eager to see you after such a long time.”

Eunhyuk nodded and then walked to his car. “I just have to get my things out of the car and I’ll be right--”

“No, leave them inside for now. You’ll have plenty of time to unpack your things,” said Shiwon and then stopped. “Does this mean that you’ll be staying a few extra days here?”

“Yeah,” said Eunhyuk and smiled when he saw how Shiwon’s eyes literally lit up from excitement. “I managed to convince my boss. It took a lot of begging, but in the end he agreed to give me the whole week off, so I’ll be staying the whole week here.”

“Oh, this is great then!” said Shiwon and then slowly started walking. “Oh and one more thing, Junsu is already here too.”

“Really?” asked Eunhyuk, feeling how his heart fastened from the excitement. He really couldn’t wait to see his friend. “He is over at your parents’ house?”

“Yeah, he is already inside.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” said Eunhyuk and locked his car. “Come on then, let’s go inside,” added Eunhyuk and quickly started walking towards the house. Shiwon watched him for a couple of seconds, amused at how excited Eunhyuk had gotten all of the sudden. He then chuckled and joined Eunhyuk.

“Man, those were the times, huh?” said Junsu and eyed Eunhyuk, who eagerly nodded. The three of them were sitting in Shiwon’s old bedroom, talking about old times. Eunhyuk smiled and then sighed. Being reunited with both of them and now sitting in Shiwon’s bedroom it felt like as if no time passed. It really did feel like good old times.

“Yeah, sometimes I really wish that I could just go back. We were so happy back then,” said Eunhyuk and folded his arms.

“Yeah, we were. But still, life is good even now,” commented Shiwon. “I mean seriously, what was better back then than it is now?”

“Well,” stated Eunhyuk. “Back then I didn’t have to work for a devil named Kim Heechul,” he then replied and Shiwon started laughing. Junsu, on the other hand, tilted his head in confusion and blinked a few times.

“Who’s that?” asked Junsu curiously.

“My boss,” said Eunhyuk and bowed his head.

“Oh yeah,” said Junsu. “Shiwon mentioned that your boss didn’t really like you.”

“Jeez, thanks Shiwon,” said Eunhyuk and rolled his eyes when Shiwon showed him his teeth. “So, how about you, Junsu? We haven’t seen each other in years, has anything new happened?”

“Let’s see,” said Junsu and made a short pause to think about what he was going to say. “You know how I always wanted to be a singer, right?” asked Junsu and looked and Eunhyuk, who nodded and smiled when he remembered how much singing meant to him. “Well, things are looking good for me, because I’m right in the middle of recording my first album.”

“Wow, seriously?” asked Eunhyuk with his eyes wide opened. He proudly tapped Junsu’s shoulder and showed him his gummy smile. Those were really fantastic news and he couldn’t be happier for him. “That’s so great, because you’ve always said that you wanted to become a singer. I bet that it is a very difficult job, right?”

“It is, but it’s not that hard since I love doing it, you know what I mean?” asked Junsu and Eunhyuk nodded. “It was much difficult to get into a good company. You don’t know how many demo tracks I sent to various companies, but I received no replies from them. But with the help of my boyfriend, I finally managed to get into one. It is not a famous company or anything, but you have to start somewhere.”

“You have a boyfriend?” asked Shiwon and looked at him. “You’ve been here for two days already and you haven’t said anything about that.”

“I’ve told you already that, Shiwon,” said Junsu slowly. “But you just haven’t been listening to me. I said that I was dating Yoochun. Come on, don’t play so dumb.”

“Oh wait, you’re right,” said Shiwon and Junsu rolled his eyes when Shiwon started laughing at his own mistake

Hearing out Junsu made Eunhyuk feel a little bit depressed about his own life. It seemed like Junsu had everything at that point; a bright career and somebody that loved him. What about him? He was still pretty much stuck where he was five years ago; with a ty job and unrequited love. He sighed and then somehow managed to smile.

“I am happy for you,” said Eunhyuk.

“And? How about you, what have you been doing for the past ten years?” asked Junsu curiously and blinked.

“Me?” said Eunhyuk and sighed. “Not much really. I work in a ty company which has a devil for boss, but I can’t really complain about it too much because it pays really good. I made some friends since I moved and I don’t know… that’s it. I’m still enjoying single life,” said Eunhyuk and shrugged.

“Cheer up, Hyukkie,” said Shiwon happily. “I am single too, yay!”

Eunhyuk and Junsu exchanged looks and then both rolled their eyes. “Oh yeah, why did you move, Eunhyuk?” then suddenly asked Junsu and Eunhyuk looked away. His good mood suddenly disappeared and his face darkened. Shiwon quickly glanced at Eunhyuk when the question was asked. Junsu frowned when Eunhyuk didn’t respond, because he didn’t get it what was going on. However, he soon realised that he probably shouldn’t have asked that question. He gently placed his hand onto Eunhyuk’s shoulder, making him look up.

“He has his reasons,” said Shiwon, his voice suddenly serious. “He doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“I had no idea, I am sorry,” said Junsu quietly, feeling bad that he asked that. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Eunhyuk sighed and then shrugged. What was the point of hiding something like that in front of Junsu? He already knew how much he liked Donghae during high school so he knew that he could tell him his reasons for his move. “No, that’s okay, Shiwon,” said Eunhyuk and then gave both of them a sad smile. “He already knows about Donghae.”

“Really?” asked Shiwon and his eyes widened a little bit.

“What about him?” asked Junsu confused. “We were friends during high school and I know that you had a huge crush on him back then. But that’s it.”

Eunhyuk pressed his lips tightly together and gave Junsu a meaningful look and the latter one quickly understood what he meant. “I guess it wasn’t just a crush, Junsu,” said Eunhyuk quietly and looked back down. “I had really fallen in love with him and before I knew it, he was already getting married. I tried to tell him how I felt about him, but it was already too late and I couldn’t do anything about it. So I ended up moving, because I couldn’t watch him with his new wife. It was far too painful.”

“Oh my god,” said Junsu quietly and moved a little bit closer to Eunhyuk, so that he could wrap an arm around his shoulders and he pulled him closer. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“Not only that, but he was his best man at his wedding,” commented Shiwon quietly and shrugged. “He really had it bad back then.”

“You were his best man?” repeated Junsu and his eyes widened. Eunhyuk gave him a small nod and then closed his eyes. It’s been quite a while since he last spoke about this with anyone. Even though it’s been so many years, it was still difficult for Eunhyuk to talk about it. “But you’re okay now? I mean, you have moved on, right?” asked Junsu, just to make sure.

“I wish,” said Eunhyuk and scoffed. “I’m still in love with him,” he then added and hid his face into his palms. He didn’t cry, he just needed to calm down a little bit and collect his thoughts. His heart felt heavy and just as he was about to hug his own body, he felt how Junsu’s arms pulled him into a tight and warm embrace, which he didn’t mind. In fact it felt good not to be alone during these kinds of times. He turned around and hid his face into Junsu’s shoulder, while the other one kept drawing soothing circles against his back.

“This is why he didn’t want to come here today,” added Shiwon and then gently ruffled Eunhyuk’s hair. “It took a lot of begging from my side to get him to come here. But I think it’s good that you came, right Eunhyuk?”

Eunhyuk pulled back from Junsu’s hug and he slowly nodded. Even though there was still sadness present in his heart, he was feeling a lot better now that he got a chance to talk about that with two people who meant a lot to him. Yes, Shindong was a great friend, but no one could compare to Junsu and Shiwon. His smile grew and then he took a deep breath.

“Yeah,” he said and nodded. “I’m glad that I came. Thank you.”

“No problem,” said Junsu and smiled. “Do you think that you’ll be okay if you see him?”

“Yeah, I’ll just ignore him or something like this,” said Eunhyuk lightly. “Besides, you two are also going to be there, so we’ll think of something if he would try to talk to me.”

Shiwon smiled and then looked at the clock, surprised to see that it was already really late. Well, time always does fly fast if you are having fun or hanging out with great people. “Hey, I think that we should start to get ready for the reunion, because it starts in about an hour or so,” said Shiwon and got onto his legs.

Eunhyuk felt how a knot formed in his stomach as Shiwon said that, but he didn’t say anything about it, because he decided not to ruin the night for his friends. Plus, he should also start having fun himself. So because of this, he nodded and then started to get ready for the reunion.

The reunion was in their old high school’s gym and Eunhyuk was quite surprised to see that the gym and the school in general didn’t really change that much. He was also very surprised to see that the place was very crowded. He definitely didn’t remember that much people being in their class. As he took a closer look at the people, he could recognise some of them. In the end, he came to the conclusion that some of them came with their families, because he could see some kids running around as well. He looked around again, just to make sure if he was going to see Donghae and Hyosung among the crowd. However, to his luck, he couldn’t see them.

Feeling relieved, he turned to his friends and then they made their way to the table with food and drinks. He eyed his friends again and it looked like they were having a great time. He smiled and he knew that he should relax as well and enjoy his time there. The three of them got their drinks and then they were soon accompanied by their old classmates. All of them immediately started talking about their successful j