“S-Soojung?”

Joonmyun doesn’t need to tell Yixing who the woman is. He knew that at some point she was bound to come up somewhere. It was just bittersweet that he had to find out about her like this.

“I… I can go if you two need to talk” he says quietly, turning around to grab his jacket.

“No!” Joonmyun exclaims, finally snapping out of it and rushing past Soojung, grabbing Yixing’s wrist. “Stay. Please.”

Yixing’s gaze wonders from Joonmyun to Soojung who is still stood by the entrance, playing with the sleeve of her coat. “You two need to talk. I-I can’t be here for this.”

Joonmyun still doesn’t let go of Yixing’s wrist, the same urgency on his expression that had been there since he had come back. Not letting go, he rushes down the hallway and opens his bedroom door.

“Just wait in here, please” he begs, “I’ll talk to her, I promise, I just… I need you here, okay?”

Biting his lip, Yixing silently nods his head and walks into the room. When the door gently shuts behind him, he sits down on the bed and just stares at the door, waiting for Joonmyun to come back.

Soojung’s still stood by the entrance when Joonmyun returns, silently pointing to the living room. He stops himself at the last second from slamming the door shut and when he joins her, Soojung’s perched herself on the edge of the sofa. Joonmyun sits at the other end and makes sure that there’s a sizeable gap between them.

“Joonmyun, I-”

“Do you know how embarrassed I felt, when I was stood at the altar and realised that you weren’t going to come? When all the guests were staring at me and muttering to each other? How angry and humiliated I was left feeling?” Joonmyun asks angrily, using every ounce of energy to not just start snapping at her.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” he scoffs. “Is that all you can really say to me? No phone calls, no messages, instead you turn up like this, and all you can say is sorry?”

Soojung drops her gaze to the floor both looking and feeling guilty. Joonmyun shakes his head and asks what she wants, wanting to get this conversation over and done with quickly.

“I came here to tell you before your mum did” she replies quietly.

“Tell me what?”

“… the wedding. It’s back on.”

After the previous events of the evening, Joonmyun couldn’t believe Soojung when she said that. Instead, he starts laughing, a part of him believes her, but he doesn’t want to believe her and instead just passes it off as a cruel joke.

“Why are you laughing?” Soojung asks moodily.

“Because that’s bull and you know it” Joonmyun laughs in reply, “The wedding was off the moment you failed to turn up. There’s no way our parents could spend that much money on a ceremony like that again.”

“It’s why they’re doing a smaller, cheaper ceremony this time. They’re rushing it so that this time neither of us can get away and the wedding will happen” Soojung explains and Joonmyun doesn’t want to believe it. All this time, all this time his parents knew that Soojung was back and didn’t tell him once? What about his brother, did he know? Did Jongdae know? Why did he have to find out like this?

“This isn’t happening” he says, more to himself than to Soojung as he stands up and paces the living room, running his hand through his hair.

“Look, I know this is hard for you-”

“No, you don’t know what it’s like!” Joonmyun interrupts, raising his voice. “You have no idea what it’s like. I suffered because of you. I overworked myself to make me forget the embarrassment of being jilted that I was forced to take time off of work. I’m finally able to accept who I am and I have everything going on right in my life. What about Yixing? What do I tell him? Did you never consider that maybe I found someone else whilst you ran away?”

“I had someone too!” Soojung shouts, jumping off the sofa and glaring at Joonmyun, tears pooling in her eyes. “I had someone else, why did you think I ran away in the first place? I was happy, I was doing something for myself, and then my parents found him! They found him, got inside his head, and he pushed me back to them!”

Joonmyun doesn’t want to hear anymore. He doesn’t want to be guilt tripped and begins to walk away. Soojung goes after him as he walks into the kitchen, grabbing his arm and making him turn to face her.

“I did what I had to do to stop this from happening. I did my part! What about you? You’re just running away from the problem and unless you do something, you’re gonna lose Yixing and we’ll be married in a couple of weeks… whether you like or not!”

“Get out” Joonmyun says through gritted teeth, shouting it when Soojung doesn’t listen to him. “Get out!”

For a moment, Soojung stands there glaring at him, now beginning to cry. Shaking her head, she marches out of the apartment and slams the door behind her.

Yixing can’t hear everything that’s being said. He can hear it when their voices rise. He can hear Joonmyun shout and Soojung shout, slamming his hands over his ears so that he doesn’t have to hear it anymore. He can feel the door slam shut and after that, the apartment is in complete silence.

He waits for Joonmyun to come get him, to reassure him that everything was okay. When he doesn’t, Yixing gets up from the bed and quietly opens the bedroom door. He walks down the hall and first goes to the living room and when he doesn’t find Joonmyun there, finds him in the kitchen with his hands clutching the side of the table, his head bowed.

“Joonmyun?”

Joonmyun stills at Yixing’s voice, standing up straight and rubbing his hand over his face before he turns to him with a smile. Yixing can tell almost straight away that this wasn’t a genuine smile at all.

“What’s wrong?” Yixing asks and a part of him feels like he already knows.

“Nothing’s wrong!” Joonmyun replies cheerfully and it scares Yixing how convincing he almost is. “Everything’s fine!”

“Don’t lie to me” Yixing says, taking Joonmyun’s hand in his as Joonmyun’s smile wavers and he looks away from him. “Please tell me the truth.”

There’s a moment of silence and before Joonmyun even opens his mouth, Yixing already knows what he’s going to tell him.

“She, Soojung, she came to tell me before my mum could” he begins, “Apparently the wedding is back on an we’re apparently gonna be married in less than two weeks.”

Yixing doesn’t mean to, but he lets go of Joonmyun’s hand when his words finally sink in. Joonmyun frowns at the loss of contact, reaching for Yixing’s hand this time.

“It’s not gonna happen. I’ll think of something, okay? We’ll get through this. I’m not losing you.”

Waiting in the bedroom, Yixing had already made his mind up. He just needed to hear it from Joonmyun himself before he did anything. Saying nothing, he pulls his hand away from Joonmyun’s and silently turns, walking out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

“Hey! Hey!” Joonmyun exclaims, running after him and stopping him from going any further. “What are you doing?”

“I’m making this easier for both of us” Yixing replies, his voice cracking. “You say you’re going to fight your parents, but I’m not sure I can stay for the fight… it was hard enough getting you to like me in the first place”. Now he’s laughing and a few tears start to fall. Joonmyun’s expression is heart breaking, but he has to do this. “At least I got to spend some time with you.”

He moves away from Joonmyun and continues for the door. This time, Joonmyun blocks his way out, the desperation on his face evident. “No! I’m not letting you leave me! We can work this out, please Yixing” he pleads and Yixing shakes his head.

“It’s okay Joonmyun, I’m letting you go. Please don’t make this harder for me than it already is, just let me leave and don’t come after me.”

Yixing leans in for one final kiss before pushing past Joonmyun and darting out the door, running as far away from the apartment as fast as he possibly could.

“Hurry up Jongin! I’m gonna run out of hot water by the time you finish your shower!” Kyungsoo shouts playfully, knocking on the door to the bathroom. Tonight, Jongin was staying over his and having no desire to cook anything, the two of them had racked up an impressive bill on some takeaway.

“I’m almost done!” Jongin whines from the shower, “Is the pizza here yet?”

On cue, there’s a knock on the door as Kyungsoo laughs and skips down the hall. “Coming” he calls happily, opening the door and expecting a delivery man, his smile faltering when Yixing’s stood there instead, concerned when he sees the state his friend is in.

“Yixing… what happened?”

When Yixing breaks down crying, Kyungsoo quickly hugs him. Even when Jongin peeks out from the bathroom to see what’s going on, Kyungsoo doesn’t acknowledge him. He lets Yixing cry onto his shoulder, holding him tightly as he moves them inside the apartment and shuts the door behind him.

Turns out listening to ballroom music is a very effective method for chapter writing. 

To anybody who thought I was gonna make Soojung a super to ruin Joonmyun's life: no. She's just as much a victim in their parent's meddling as Joonmyun is. Plus, I didn't want to put her through that. 

Probably the worst chapter to write this (because of everything that's going on), but updates may be more sporadic for a while. Life he being very... hectic right now, and I need time to stuff outside of this fic. This fic will finish, so help me, but there might be more sporafic updates in the next couple of days. 

Until the next chapter!