PROLOQUE

♫ Everytime ♪

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlkpAExArTc

The guests at the New Year's eve party were an odd mix of celebrities and commoners but weirdly enough they blended in amazingly well together. Minhyuk and Jungshin had managed to get away from the military service for a holiday and it was nice to finally catch up. On the other hand he had not seen Jonghyun in a while.

 Yonghwa saw Jungshin chatting with one of his female friends from school days and he wondered if the maknae even knew that she was already married to the guy who was kind enough to watch the barbeque outside. Minhyuk, attentive as he was by nature, also noticed it and headed over to Jungshin to lead him away from potential dissensions. CNBLUE's youngest member might have been tall. But he was certainly no match for the buff man with the scissors and knives outside.

Yonghwa watched the two of them  walk over to the rustic bar, where they engaged into a fun conversation with none other than Krystal and Seolhyun who also ended up in the prairie with them.

CNBLUE originally had never truely been close to any girl group members, their label mates from AOA building an exception. However, for various reasons it was different with Krystal. Minhyuk and her had actually starred in the same drama before and stayed close ever since. She was in the same circle of friends with Shinhye and Ailee with whom they had been friends with all along. Yonghwa had a feeling that, nowadays, Minhyuk and Krystal were not only strictly platonic anymore though. On the other hand, Jungshin and Seolhyun had met up often lately to prepare for their upcoming drama. They looked even more comfortable with one another than they used to.

Yonghwa, who was originally a bit resistent towards the idea of CNBLUE members dating, had come to change his view on the topic, especially  over the past two years. While he wasn’t exactly a big fan of his dongsaengs hanging out with girls back in the days, now after completing their military service, he more than ever thought that it was only natural to return with a way more manly and less boyish appearance. Their time as young and sweet idols had already come to an end. He wanted to be taken seriously now more than ever. He knew the others had grown out of their former images as well. After all they had reached an age which slowly required them to carefully think about their future plans.

Looking at a couple he knew from high school that was stealing kisses from each other in a corner, Yonghwa couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of their stable relationship. It was admirable that his friends not only exactly knew what they wanted but also did all the right moves to secure that they was going to achieve this dream. The two love birds had somehow managed to date through all through uni-life and even survived the military service. They were, without a doubt, destined to be together and Yonghwa could only congratulate them on that.

It were moments like these when he wondered if he really made the right choice to only focus on career all through his twenties. It wasn’t like he didn’t have the chance to date. But there was only one person he ever truly imagined having that kind of deep and devoted relationship with. In the past, however, they decided that it was still too early to commit themselves to each other like this. It was just too hard to withstand the pressure of massive fan wars and a society where dating itself was already enough to cause a scandal on top of everything else.

Most importantly though they were aiming to fulfil their career goals and didn’t want to risk being a burden to one another. That was why they, in the end, couldn’t dare to become long term lovers. They didn’t want to end up with regretful feelings towards each other. How could they risk their strong friendship to break over this when it had been shelter and guidance throughout the countless years they had both spend in the entertainment industry together? What they meant to one another was just too valuable to be replaced by complete uncertainty. Preventing themselves from truly falling in love was the only right and logical choice. So they stopped before they became too invested and before they put what they had at a greater risk than they could handle.

Yonghwa stayed faithful to this decision. Admittedly though it wasn’t all that hard, because after this one incident he had never met any girl he could really imagine spending his life with. Most of his dating experience consisted of meaningless dinner meetings, no strings attached, and he knew very well that his special friend felt the same.

Sometimes they joked about what would have happened to them if they didn’t decide to focus on their careers – or if their timing had been better. But they consoled themselves with the idea that they could still get married later on if they didn’t actually fall in love with someone else until then. It was pretty much a bet, a silent agreement. He would ask her to marry him if she was still single at the age of 33, because they figured it would be the perfect time to eventually start a family. They would live with their three beautiful children in a