Life was a dream. Jongin was living on a pink cloud. Every day, every moment was like a scene out of an epic love story. He could barely believe this was his life now. Happiness. Genuine, intoxicating happiness. And loads of it. His smiling muscles had gotten so buff they could bench press some serious weight. He looked forward to Kyungsoo coming home every night and every morning it killed him to have to leave the cute, sleeping Kyungsoo in his bed to go to school. It was not that Jongin didn't love dancing, he loved it more than life itself, he simply loved Kyungsoo so much more.

“Honey, I'm home,” Kyungsoo said in a soft voice, handing Jongin the bear.

Jongin did all he could not to fall even deeper in love, but it was no use. Kyungsoo was being extra attentive these days, so there was no escape for Jongin's heart. It was trapped in Kyungsoo's dungeon of doom and the dungeon was headed down to the center of the Earth, burning hotter than the surface of the sun. No one had ever been as happy with being incarcerated inside a scolding hot death trap. He didn't care what happened to him, as long as they would be together.

They made love nearly every night, cutting into his nightly hours of sleep, yet Jongin felt refreshed every morning. It was as if he had been drugged. His dancing had improved too, it had gained another dimension. All the teachers had mentioned it. Jongin was glowing.

One fateful Wednesday night, Jongin was spread out on the sofa, mindlessly watching TV to try and make the time go faster, waiting for Kyungsoo to return home.

Kyungsoo had sent him a message that he would be home early tonight, but even so, it wasn’t early enough for the impatient butterflies living in Jongin’s gut.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Jongin jumped up and rushed to the door, excited to greet Kyungsoo with a warm hug.

“Don’t tell me you forgot the stupid combination that you yourself stubbornly refused to change!” Jongin complained as he opened the door.

Instead of Kyungsoo’s beautiful eyes, his eyes met a pair of blue shirt buttons. He followed the trail of buttons up, higher and higher, until he found this tall stranger’s face. Surprised, Jongin forgot his manners and simply stared at him.

“Uhm... is Kyungsoo home?” the mystery man asked, flustered.

“Who wants to know?”

Jongin peered his eyes at him. What did he want with Kyungsoo?

“Oh, I’m, I’m an old friend of his.”

Neither Kyungsoo nor this guy were old enough to be old friends. And if they shared such a long friend-history, why had Kyungsoo never mentioned him? Something smelled fishy. Jongin’s spider-sense was tingling.

Jongin checked him out again, sizing him up. He was goofy but handsome. His clothes were low key chic and expensive, like he was rich and into fashion but not flaunting it. He was exactly Kyungsoo’s style.

“Have you ever attended the charity ball?”

The question popped out of Jongin’s mouth before he even realized what he was asking.

“Charity ball? Which one?”

The guy gave him a puzzled look, not following the logic of Jongin’s train of thought. Understandably so.

Ugh. He was so super-rich that he couldn’t even keep count of all the different charity balls he had attended. That meant he was rich enough to support Kyungsoo’s dream of a small restaurant, so Kyungsoo wouldn’t need Jongin anymore.

“The one on the 17th of December.”

“Oh, yeah, I went every year until recently,” the guy answered like it was no big deal, but it was a very big deal.

Until recently, huh? That is to say, until he broke Kyungsoo’s heart! Jongin was not just jealous, he was also burning with anger. No one hurt Kyungsoo and lived to tell about it, Jongin wouldn’t allow it. Not even when his happiness was thanks to that hurt. His heart sank. The happiness that was now over. This whole time he had known at the back of his head that this was too good to be true, and sure enough, it was.

“Eh, so... is Kyungsoo home?”

“No.”

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

“Late.”

“Would it be okay if I waited for him here?”

“No,” Jongin simply said and closed the door right in the guy’s face.

He was not going to assist those two in breaking his heart. Not a chance.

Jongin threw his back up against the closed door, knocking his head against it a bit too hard but he barely noticed the pain. It was nothing compared to what his heart was going through right now.

He slowly slid down to the floor, staring blankly into the void. The moment he had feared had come all too soon. The mystery man finally had a face. Mr. 1217, the love of Kyungsoo’s life.

There was only one question remaining, was Kyungsoo loyal enough to his family to keep honoring the prophecy, or was he so in love with his one and only that he would forgive him and leave everything behind to be with him?

Jongin felt so cheated and wronged. Kyungsoo had made him fall in love with him against his own will, becoming the most important person in Jongin’s life to the point that now he couldn’t imagine life without him, only to then leave him? Just like that?

The rational part of Jongin’s brain told him to wait, to verify that this was actually the guy before embracing the imminent apocalypse. Unfortunately, the irrational part was way bigger and stronger, keeping Jongin trapped in the darkness, sitting on the floor, going over all the possible scenarios of his demise.

Jongin could hear the keypad being used and the door pushed up against his back.

“What the...?”

Kyungsoo pushed and pushed, trying to open the door.

Jongin got up sluggishly, letting Kyungsoo in.

“Are you okay?”

Concern shone out of Kyungsoo's beautiful eyes. Jongin could feel his heart breaking into a thousand pieces. He couldn't lose him, he just couldn't. How was he going to live without him?

With tears in his eyes, Jongin lunged forward and threw himself into Kyungsoo's arms, hugging him so tightly that Kyungsoo winced.

“I'm fine,” Jongin whispered unconvincingly into Kyungsoo's shoulder.

“You sound kind of off...” Kyungsoo noted.

“I'm just tired from practice, I barely made it past the front door.”

Jongin said nothing about the strange visit from the mystery man earlier. He pretended it never happened and hoped never to see that guy ever again. He was carefully constructing a bubble of denial and intended to live in there with Kyungsoo for the rest of his days.

And it worked. The guy stayed away and everything seemed to have gone back to normal. Jongin's nerves had calmed down, letting the happiness back inside, but there was always this shadow hanging over him, threatening to block out the sunlight. But he had come to terms with it, as long as he had Kyungsoo, he could tolerate the shadow for as long as it took.

However, the shadow kept growing. He had thought it was the fear of losing Kyungsoo, but it turned out to be the guilt of keeping Kyungsoo away from the one he truly loved. He couldn't do it any longer. He loved Kyungsoo too much. He had convinced himself that what Kyungsoo didn't know couldn't hurt him, and that he wasn't physically keeping them apart. He was only lying by omission. Still, he felt like a scumbag. He knew the right thing was to let Kyungsoo go. True love was to sacrifice everything for the happiness of the one you loved. Why was it so hard to do the right thing?

Eventually, he couldn't take it any longer. After practice, he was going to march straight into Kyungsoo's restaurant and tell him. No, he couldn't wait. He ran out of practice despite his teacher yelling at him that they weren't finished, heading to Kyungsoo's restaurant without bothering to change his clothes. Sweaty and disheveled, he barged in. Thankfully, the restaurant hadn't opened yet, so the dining hall was empty. The kitchen, however, was not.

Jongin could hear voices coming from the kitchen. Kyungsoo was not alone.

“We've been through this before. It's over, Chanyeol hyung,” he heard Kyungsoo saying.

He froze. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, yet he held his breath and strained his ears.

“I know about the prophecy! I know that was the reason you left me.”

Excruciating silence ensued.

Kyungsoo said nothing. Jongin kept wishing Kyungsoo would deny it, but he didn't.

“No matter how I try to spin it, this is not the way, Kyungsoo-ya. We're meant to be.”

Everything that Jongin had feared was coming true. It was the guy from before, this Chanyeol, the love of Kyungsoo's life. But worse yet, it wasn't Chanyeol that had broken Kyungsoo's heart like he originally thought, it was all the prophecy's fault. The only thing standing in their way was Jongin himself.

A single tear ran silently down Jongin's cheek.

“Back then I went along with the separation because I knew I could do nothing to help you reach your dream, but now things are different. I took over my father's company, for you.”

Chanyeol's voice was so sincere and sweet, it was like a dagger through Jongin's heart.

“What? You've always hated the idea of working for your father!” Kyungsoo exclaimed in shock.

“Now I can support you in anything you want to do. Leave him. Come back to me,” Chanyeol pleaded.

“Come back home,” he added in a soft half-whisper.

Jongin couldn't bear to listen to any more of this. He wanted to run right out of there, but he was completely out of energy. He dragged his heavy body outside, letting the wind smash the raindrops in his face as he walked aimlessly around. He had lost everything.

All of a sudden, a door appeared before him. Jongin had been too out of it to watch where he was going. He recognized the door. He was standing on Suho's doorstep. It had stopped raining but the raindrops kept running down his face. Perhaps it wasn't the rain.

“Jongin? Ohh, look at you! You're drenched. Come in, come in or you'll catch your death. What were you doing out in the rain like that?”

Suho pulled him inside, asking Sehun to fetch some towels. Both Sehun and Vivi ran to the bathroom at once.

“Can... Can I... stay here, please?”