“Bye Junjin!” His female classmate smiled and waved goodbye.

“Enjoy the semester break,” Junjin waved back. His classmate smiled sweetly before running towards the giggling group of girls behind her. Junjin sighed. If only he could be normal and fall for one of these girls. Any of them.

“Jin!” Minwoo suddenly pounced on him from behind. He hooked his arms across Junjin's neck.

“Hyung! You almost give me a heart attack,” Junjin laughed innocently as the two dorm mates walked down the corridor. 

Minwoo ruffled Junjin's hair, “are you going home this holiday?”

Junjin was silent for a short moment before replying “No” uncomfortably. He had plan to travel back to their hometown with Dongwan earlier in the semester, but when he learnt the brothers will be staying in the dorm (Andy and Eric had nowhere else to go), he wanted to stay too. Even if it was sick and wrong, his heart wanted him to be near to Andy.

Expectantly, when Junjin said he won't be travelling home, Dongwan decided on the same. Dongwan is his guardian angel since they were very young. At times, Junjin wondered what he did in his previous life to deserve such a friend. But again, what wrong did he do in his previous life to develop and be so consumed with his sin feelings towards Andy?

“So there will be no reasons for you and Dongwan to skip tonight's party,” Minwoo beamed.

“Of couse we will go hyung.” Junjin replied with a pretence smile. He was in no mood to party. His main reason for going was to see Andy. Junjin was kicked of his room when he stopped talking to the man in front of the hyung; not by Andy, but by the hyungs. One random day, Dongwan hyung suddenly came to him babbling about missing the old days and quite insistently made him shift into Dongwan's room. Eric hyung, rather happily, took over his private space with Andy.

He used to think of the room as his torture chamber. Being in such proximity with Andy, yet knowing nothing will happen. Nothing CAN happen. Because if it did, disaster strike.

But now that he was out of that room, the pain of missing Andy was not any better.

“Anyway, tonight will be a good time for you to start talking to Andy again,” Minwoo said nonchalantly.

Despite Minwoo's tone, Junjin knew better. Everyone thought it was his fault Andy and him stopped talking. 

Because Andy did tried.

Junjin was the one who's always running away.

But it wasn't fair, Junjin thought.

Andy wasn't the one whose brain stop functioning when they spoke. He was not the one who almost kissed the other when they were one foot apart, separated by a birthday cake. Andy was not the one whose heartbeat skyrocketed every time their eyes met, and he certainly also wasn't the one whom the whole world would despise if they found out his feelings.

“I'll try hyung,” Junjin replied. But he would not. He would just observed Andy from afar.

It was the most miserable way to face his feelings, but between choosing to expose his feelings for Andy in a cadet school full of guys and risking Andy being disgusted with him, versus waddling in this constant hopeless pain, he chose the latter. 

******

A party organised by Minwoo always had 3 things: DANCE, BOOZE AND WOMEN. 

Eric’s angry eyes followed yet another female schoolmate going up to Dongwan, trying to get his attention. There must have been at least 10 females crowding around the handsome man by now. Another laughter from the group he was spying on was the last of what Eric could handle. He pushed his ways out of being the center of his own group of fans (which wasn't any smaller than the one crowding around Dongwan) to get a breather.

Eric's heart was making a huge fuss when he made his way to the bar counter to get himself a new drink. He briefly glared at the host of the party who was at the dance floor showing off his dance skills.

Did Minwoo invited the whole female school population over today? Less than one tenth of the school population was female but they seems to be the majority in this party .

Usually, Eric has nothing against females,  but today they are just too much like a pest surrounding his Dongwan...

Wait...

The man rewind his thoughts. 

Did his mind just said “HIS Dongwan”?! 

The grumbling man let out a shy smile. But once he spotted more females making their way towards Dongwan, the smile disappeared. 

“Hyung!” Andy called when he spotted Eric. He excused himself from his table and approached his brother with his drink.

“Why do you look so upset?”

“I don't like crowed.” Partial true in it, but Eric still reflexively turned to Dongwan when answering Andy.

Andy followed Eric gazed, unsurprisingly finding Dongwan hyung surrounded by girls. This was always the source of his brother’s unusual behaviour since they enrolled into the police academy. Eric is his closest person in this world; Andy will never not noticed his feelings.

ERIC WAS CLEARLY IN LOVE!

Andy’s lips curled into a gentle smile, “Let's go get Minwoo hyung. That guy had been dancing non-stop since he reached.”

Eric nodded and advanced to the dance floor. 

Andy meant to distract Eric's attention from Dongwan and the girls, but what happened next completely blow his mind. The people at the party started chanting.

“Dongwan. Eric. Dongwan. Eric.”

The chant grew louder.

Eric perked his ears. The crowd in front of him suddenly cleared a straight path leading to the center of the dance floor for him. He saw another path magically appearing not too far away to reveal Dongwan.

Minwoo who was at the center let out an amuse smile.

He walked over, collecting Eric first before moving to the other path and hooking his other arm around Dongwan.

“Help me get out of this please!” Dongwan whispered so only Eric and Minwoo heard him as Minwoo led them to the center of the dance floor.

“I wish I could friend, but look around you. Everyone is anticipating. The chance that both of you come looking for me at the same time,” Minwoo laughed. 

Realisation dawned on Eric. “They thought we wanted to have a dance showdown?” He blurted. 

Minwoo nodded. The crowd had saw Dongwan and Eric approaching the dance floor at the same time and their wild imagination led to the chant. Coincidence was a concept too hard for fans to grasp.

“That is the last thing I'll ever voluntarily do,” Dongwan whined.

“Make it quick and get off the stage,” Minwoo advised. He raised his head to face the crowd. “Guys and girls. Ladies and gentleman,” Minwoo turned a full circle addressing everyone. “I say normal dance is too easy for the legends. DO YOU AGREE?” 

“Yes!” The crowd replied, as if they were at a concert.

“How about we challenge them with a funny theme?” Minwoo incited. The crowd went wild.

Eric started with a charming slick breakdance and ended off with a side samba to suit the theme. The cheer for him was deafening when he moved back to his spot on Minwoo’s left. His eager eyes shifted to Dongwan as the one he loved secretly (he thought) stepped forward.

Dongwan took a deep breath. Minwoo had already helped him by suggesting a funny theme to hide his incapability. 

Just do it!

The music of a female K Pop band started. Fighting all the embarrassment he felt in every fibre of his body, Dongwan danced to the song, twisting his hips and moving his limbs like a female idol. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Eric's jaw dropped, but the shock expression quickly turned into an inconspicuous smile. And everything suddenly became alright.

While all these happened, Junjin was a forlorn figure at a corner, eyes on Andy, and only Andy.
******

2 weeks had passed since the party. Minwoo was the only one that went home this semester break, leaving the brothers, Dongwan and Junjin in the dorm.

Andy was on his stomach, reading on his bed when he heard Eric sighed for the third time in a short while. He turned to his brother who was dazing before getting up and walking to the door. Andy opened a tiny slit and peeped into the living room – Dongwan and Junjin was on the couch, staring at the television but not really watching the show.

“Why don't you join them?” Andy asked, knowing that it was one of his brother's shy but craving-to-look-at-Dongwan-moment.

The pink on Eric's became more prominent as he shook his head.

“Hmmmm...” Andy pursed his lips. “ How about we go for karaoke, hyung?” He turned to Eric, but before Eric could replied, Andy concluded himself, “that seems like a good idea. We'll do just that.”

Andy opened the door fully and shouted into the living room, “Dongwan hyung, Jin, let's go for karaoke follow by dinner?”

Dongwan immediately get off the couch, agreeing to Andy's suggestion. It was unendurably meaningless to be always in the dorm. (Note: This part of the story is when smart phone doesn't exist and internet was expensive).

Junjin's heart, as usual did a marathon. But Dongwan had already agreed before he could stopped the man. Or did he actually wanted it himself?

“Let's prepare and meet in 5 minutes time!” Andy beamed before closing the door of the room. He turned to Eric and almost laugh out loud at the stunned expression on his brother's face.

“Get prepared, hyung!”

It was to some extend awkward for the dorm mates without Minwoo’s presence. Because everyone had someone they were uneasy with. With this strange dynamic, the four still managed to make their way to the nearest town.

Andy and Dongwan were all hyped up choosing songs and discussing about current popular bands when they reached the karaoke. Eric and Junjin, on the other hand, sat quietly on the sofa, each observing their heart’s interest. 

“We can sing this together, hyung.” Andy said excitedly to Dongwan, pointing to a song titled “Loving summer” in the song list. Dongwan selected the song. 

“What do you guys want?” Andy turned over to the two silent men.

“You choose for me,” Eric did his cute smile at Andy. Andy laughed heartily before turning to Junjin, “How about you, Jin?”

“I'll pick for him,” Dongwan replied. “Love doesn't come. He's great singing this.”

Love doesn't come......

Junjin wondered about the irony in life. “Love doesn't come" was a song that he always picked in karaoke. But must he sing this in Andy's presence? It was like scattering salt on his own wound.

The music of the first song started playing. Dongwan sang into the microphone and Eric can only awed at that vocal. 

His Dongwan is really good in everything! Well...almost everything. Maybe not so much dancing. But that awful dance was still cute so it is still EVERYTHING! Why did this jewel hide himself in a police academy when he could jolly well be an idol? But his jealousy was already hard to control with just the fans Dongwan had in school. If the man were really to debut as an idol.....

Eric pushed away the scary thought.

The first song ended. And Eric swore his heart almost pop out of his chest when Dongwan walked over to him, raising the 2nd microphone for him.

“I picked this song for us. Let's sing it together.” Dongwan smiled.

I have gone so rusty in writing so I hope this is still okay for you =) Finally another chapter done! I have broken up the chapter cos I realised too many scenes were squeeze into it. It was supposed to lead up to a confession scene, but I guess that will have to wait ;) But splitting the chapter caused me to be headache about the title I should give to this. In the end I made it "2 different paths" because Eric and junjin are actually facing very similiar situation in the story. But they chose differently.

Eric fought for his love. He wanted to prove that he is worthy for dongwan on the very first day they met, but Junjin on the other hand was afraid and he thought it was sick and wrong. 

I thought it made sense because no one matters to Eric other than Andy before they joined the dorm, so he wouldn't really care about how the world thinks. Junjin on the other hand was the Mr. Popular everywhere he went due to his friendly nature. He was the one always surrounded by people so when he realised his feelings, he got nervous about how these people will view him.

Btw, they are really choosing their own songs in the karaoke scene xD Any guesses what song Wannie chose for Eric?