Instead of interrogating us like I thought she was going to, Sooyoung chats and talks about normal things. Activities, schedules, the other guys, how Ilhoon has been. Sooyoung doesn’t press about what happened last night or how it came to be. And to be honest, that’s the scary bit, it feels like she’s waiting, like she’s just biding her time or waiting for the right moment to ask.

Ilhoon, simply carries the conversation on, speaking and asking questions. Everything almost like it’d been. This thought strikes me. Can Ilhoon and I actually return to that?

Sooyoung glances to me curiously as Ilhoon stands, him drawing my attention. “I have to go, I’ll see you guys later though.” Ilhoon says calmly. Turning to me he smiles, this is his playful one. Reaching out he caresses my face gently. “I’ll call you when I get done with my schedule. We have practice tonight, right?”

“Right.” I whisper at a loss, while I had been paying attention, my mind and thoughts had been elsewhere. “Bye Ilhoon.” I say quietly.

Instead of leaving he gives me this frustrated look. “If I could, I’d skip out on this filming, but I can’t Dayoungie.” He mutters while resting his hand on my shoulder very carefully. “Stop giving me that look, I don’t want to leave. I’d rather stay and see what Noona has for an attack.” He says with a knowing look, glancing to Sooyoung and then quickly back to me. “I’ll call.”

“I’ll answer.” I reply as I muster a smile for him. Ilhoon looks relieved as he leaves the table excusing himself from our company. “I’ve been wondering what your attack would be too.” I say. My eyes still glued to Ilhoon as he exits this small restaurant we’ve been sitting at.

“Your date with Jongsuk, I take it did not fare so well.” Sooyoung says when I finally face her again. “I mean I was quite shocked when I saw Ilhoon. Ignoring the situation I obviously walked in on, it was still pretty shocking.”

I cast my eyes down to the tea cup that’s been sitting in front of me untouched. “You were right you know.” I say gently. “We both wanted to start over and we both knew that we wanted a redo.”

“You can’t get those.” Sooyoung says very knowledgably. “Nothing had really changed, right?”

I shake my head to this. “I disagree with you there. A lot changed and it was what changed that made it impossible.” As I say this my thoughts drift to Ilhoon. “Though, I guess my mom was right.” I whisper.

“Right about what?” Sooyoung asks, cocking her head to the side before looking at me straight on. “You have so much going on in your head, it’s hard to keep up with you.”

I chuckle slightly at her comment. “She told me when I’d flipped out, she said I’d always love Ilhoon, but that’s not quite right either.” I say calmly, I take a sip of the now cold tea and let out a sigh. “It’s more like, I’ll always be in love with him.”

Sooyoung stares at me, a blank expression on her face for a moment before she looks relieved. “You both seem to be in sync again, like no time had passed, like you’d both been side by side all this time. But it worries me at the same time.” She says her face taking a more serious look. “Do you both just pick right back up where you left off, do you pick up right away, do you wait, what happens?”

“I’m honestly not too sure about any of that.” I say seriously as well. “We’re both different now, things aren’t quite like before. While He certainly does know me still, we both did change.”

“That’s a given, you’ve matured, though you’re still way too mischievous,” Unnie says in her usual direct way of saying things. “There are aspects that haven’t changed. Like you said, you’ll always be in love with him, and it looks like he’s still pretty deep in love with you.” Sooyoung sighs as she leaves forward, resting her arms on the table casually and rather gracefully. “I suppose the only thing you both need to answer is: Is this what you both want, without a doubt, nothing holding you back? Because if it isn’t I don’t want it for you. If you have and hesitations, anything that would stop you, I don’t want it. I only want to know because I watched you fall apart over him, I watched you crawl and struggle getting over him. I watched you and held you hand when you needed someone, I’m asking because I want you to be happy. If this is it, I’ll cheer you on. If it isn’t or if you’re unsure I don’t want this for either of you. If you aren’t sure, this will turn out just like it did with Jongsuk.”

“You really have everything in perspective.” I say after listening to her. “I’ll discuss this with him, but seeing as you already know, I’ll say it.” I tell Sooyoung rather easily. “I do want this, I want to be with Ilhoon.”

~~~

As Junhyung and Ilhoon walk in I can immediately feel both their stares on me. I’m stretching, getting ready for dance practice. While I can definitely decide what each stare means, the more concerning one is Junhyung’s.

“You slept with someone.” He blurts out in an all too unhappy tone. “Who? It better not be that you’re kinda seeing but not.” He says in his usual older brother kind of way.

“Oppa, that’s not a statement for when we’re with other people.” I state clearly as I continue to stretch. “I’m not seeing him anymore.”

Junhyung walks over to me and sits next to me, his stare being rather intense. “So you did sleep with someone.”

“Oppa.” I say seriously as I look at him, behind him I can see a very now panicked Ilhoon, which is amusing, but not the pressing issue I have at the moment. “We’re working.” I answer the stare with just a blank face.

I watch my older brother stand and let out a, “Tch.” He’s highly annoyed and I apparently very observant. I’m not exactly sure what gave it away.

“Besides how could you even tell?” I mutter as I stand up to continue my stretches. From my peripherals I see Junhyung hit Ilhoon on the head for staring at me. At lease I’m assuming it’s for staring at me.

“Because you’ve got this lighter feeling around you, you’re prettier too.” Junhyung says simply and in a smug kind of way. “Plus you just have this look about you.”

“So then if I use that logic, it’s been a while since you’ve slept with someone.” I note in a dead tone. I glance to my brother to see an equally unamused look on his face. “Junhyung, we can discuss it later, we need to practice the dance.”

Ilhoon gives me this, tell him now look. “I can tell you’re hiding something from me, you better not be engaged.”

“I’m not.” I answer while shaking my head. “I’m not engaged, and like I told you, we can talk about this when we’re not working.” I answer both Junhyung and the looks Ilhoon is giving me, both nod their head, Junhyung letting out a sigh. “Boys are so stupid.” I mutter under my breath as I continue to stretch, both Ilhoon and Junhyung taking part now.

Through practice I manage to stay on point and keep my focus to not Ilhoon or my brother’s intense and rather vexed attitude about him guessing correctly. To be honest, this is the first time he’s ever done this. So it’s rather surprising for him to do now.

As we finally wrap up practice after going through the dances for a few hours, and we’re talking about getting dinner Junhyung stops me as Ilhoon goes ahead of us.  “Just tell me it wasn’t Jongsuk.”

“It wasn’t Jongsuk.” I answer honestly. The look on my brother’s face does not improve at all. “Junhyung, I’m not a child, it was safe, and before you go off on me, we’re not alone.” I answer glancing to the doorway where I see the very person Junhyung doesn’t want it to be. “So if you’ll hold back, we can talk about it later.”

Junhyung turns around and grimaces at Jongsuk, a rather nasty glare is sent as he walks off joining Ilhoon down the hall, both boys glancing back at me worriedly as I turn to face Jongsuk.

“So I’m assuming I walked in on something?” He says awkwardly. I nod my head as I watch him curiously. “And you look like you want to know why I’m here.”

“I do.” I answer calmly as I enter the practice room again, I can feel both Ilhoon and Junhyung watching me. “I think you rather them not over hear?” I say gently as I turn back to see him standing in the hall just watching me.

“No, it’s okay. It’ll be brief.” Jongsuk says staying where he is. “Anyways, it kind of fits to be honest. We’re really going in separate directions now. You kind of stormed off last night without letting me say anything.”

“You didn’t look all that interested in talking, besides we were stuck in that same cycle.” I answer when he leads off.

Jongsuk nods his head, he glances to the side before looking at me. “It’s hard, you know? I pushed you away even though I didn’t want you to, and I can see that how you look at me is different.” He says slowly. “I just wanted to say good bye properly. I’m enlisting soon.”

Despite what I’ve felt and know, my heart does lurch at this information. “I know you’ve been thinking about it.”

“And I’m almost out of time, just like your brother.” Jongsuk says softly. “I didn’t want you to get it second hand and while I know I shouldn’t, I just wanted to talk to you properly, I know we haven’t in a long time.”

“No, we haven’t.” I whisper watching him carefully. I feel a lot of things right now, most of them being worry.

“Dayoung I want to apologize. Because I really am sorry for how I acted, how I treated you, I’m sorry.” He says in a very firm and low voice. One I’ve associated when he’s being very serious and he’s worried. “I know we can’t go back and we can’t simply get the do-over, but I don’t regret being with you. I don’t regret being in love with you.”

Walking forward I stop in the door way, I look up at him and frown. “I’m really sweaty, so I hope you don’t mind.” I say as I take the last few steps and hug him tightly. “I don’t regret it either. Just be safe okay?” I mutter. His arms hold me against him for a moment before I pull away and look up at him. “Safe.”

“I know.” He murmurs in his knowing way. He lets out a sigh and cracks a smile at me. “This is bye for now.”

“Bye for now.” I agree as I walk with him to the lobby. “Come back safe.” I tell Jongsuk as I give him one last hug. I watch him exit the building. In the reflection of the glass I can see both Ilhoon and Junhyung watching me very carefully, both with blank expressions, as I turn around I smile at them. “We should grab something to eat.”

“What did he want?” Junhyung asks, Ilhoon’s expression now asking the same thing. “He didn’t want to get back together did he? That looked like he wanted to take you away with him.” He says hastily.

I shake my head. “It was a good bye, he was letting me know he’s enlisting. His mandatory enlistment.” I say quietly. “Something you have coming up too.” I whisper as I look at Junhyung, I then glance to Ilhoon worriedly as well. “It was only a goodbye, it didn’t change anything.”

Junhyung lets out a sigh, I suppose thinking I meant those words for him as he hugs me. “I’m gonna miss you when I go.”

“I know Oppa.” I whisper gently as I hug him back, my eyes still trained on the very serious look Ilhoon is giving me. I smile at him, Ilhoon slowly returns the smile before looking relieved. “Anyways, let’s go grab something from the café and eat here.” I say letting go and trying to perk up a bit. “Apparently you want to talk.” I answer leaving both boys to trail after me.

Once we’ve gotten our dinner and we’ve sat down at a table Junhyung looks semi-awkwardly over at Ilhoon seated between us. He gives Ilhoon his usual go away look. “I was with Ilhoon last night.” I say as Junhyung looks at me. The look of shock, to anger, to relief, and back to anger is rather amusing to see.

“Oi, I said it was okay to love her, not to love her.” Junhyung says seriously and rather angrily to Ilhoon.

Ilhoon glances to me and lets out a small sigh. “I’ve thought about this for nearly two years. I held back, I knew what it meant when I broke up with her. I couldn’t just go around and change my mind later, I couldn’t beg for Dayoung to take me back, I could only watch from afar, I could watch her be happy and it was enough. All I’ve ever wanted was for Dayoung to be happy. I’d do anything to ensure that.” Ilhoon says watching me carefully. “I watched her fall in love again, I watched her move on, I watched you be happy, and I watched you love him.” He says turning to face me for that last part. “I just want you to be happy.”

Junhyung sends him an annoyed glance and then one to me as well. “You just stopped seeing Jongsuk.” I simply nod my head to this information, while I know it to be true, and everything, I think things will be okay, even with that statement.

I look to Ilhoon, the same sense of security washing over me, the one I’ve felt since we’ve grown close. I glance to Junhyung and then back to Ilhoon. I’m fairly certain I’ve loved Ilhoon far longer than I’ve been aware. I want to say this thing between Ilhoon and I started when he walked me home the night before we debuted. “You told me to be careful, you didn’t want me to fall for you like that.” I say quietly thinking about that night. Ilhoon gives me a funny look, the memory stands out to me. “You’d walked me home, the night before Prodigy debuted. You were really cool back then too.” I say gently smiling. “Honestly, I think I did though. Then and there I’m fairly certain I fell in love. I trusted you almost immediately. Ilhoon, my mom said I’ll probably always love you, and I think she’s right. I don’t think I’m ever going to stop. And as scary as that is, I want that. I want to always love you.” I say seriously and confidently.

Ilhoon smiles at me, he doesn’t say anything, not at first. “I want that too. I’ll always love you.”

Junhyung grumbles as he gets up, muttering about third wheeling and hating both of us, and hating that we wasted two years, that I have bad taste and that he was finally starting to actually like Ilhoon and he’s back to hating his very existence. That I, his precious, little sister has been completely corrupted by Ilhoon.

“He really is going to hate me now.” Ilhoon says watching as my brother grumpily walks off still muttering to himself.

I chuckle nodding my head. “He’ll come around. He always does.” I say confidently. “Now about Doki.” I say seriously. “Give him back.”

“What, I like having Doki. He’s the best to cuddle with.” Ilhoon says frowning. While he frowns, I smile. This just means he’ll smell like Ilhoon again when I get him back. “Then give back my shirt.”

“No, they were both gifts, give Doki back.” I say seriously, I smile at him feeling that safe, happy, and comforting air surround me again. “I’ll even wear the lace you wanted me to wear today when we go out on a date.”

“Well I think that’s solved that.” Ilhoon says abruptly while nodding his head. “Bless Jinri and Yoora.” He says easily and rather pleased. “So you can come by and pick Doki up tonight, you can stay and bring him back tomorrow.”

“No can do, I have a schedule, and I am positive that Sooyoung and Junhyung will not let us have an opening again for a very long time.” I say as I smirk at Ilhoon. “By the way, how was Minhyuk when you saw him?”

Ilhoon turns away blushing, an embarrassed look loon his face. “He was not very cool. He blabbed to everyone at the dorm. I got back and I was ambushed by the lot of them. It was awful. The only ones I can count on are Peniel and Hyunsik.”

“Sounds like that’ll be my future.” I answer smirking as I think about how Melody and the others will take this news. There is sure to be some resentment to follow when it gets around. I glance to Ilhoon and quickly decide it’ll be alright.

This chapter ended up summing it up? Kinda?
I dunno it seems like a nice ending to be honest, them gettign back together and all.
But I have a couple more things I want to do
like showing them back together.
Anyways, I want to aplogize for this chapter being late,
I've been sick and dealing with all that plus my family being home all together
and then them going back home.
ANYWAYS THOUGH.
I hope you guys enjoy and I'll probably have a few more chapters to add!
Love you my ducks.