Sehun buried Jongin in a stack of towels. Suho used a bunch of them to try and dry Jongin's shivering body, while Sehun proceeded to give him the biggest, heartiest hug. Even Vivi showed him some love by the salty raindrops that were sticking to his cheeks.

“Aigoo, Sehun-a, you'll get all wet too!” Suho scolded him, but you could see it in his eyes that he said it with endless affection.

Jongin felt a pang of jealousy watching them exchange worried looks. They were so sure of each other, and it was clear as day that they loved each other very much. They were a team. As the team leader, Suho did 99% of the work, but they were still a team. Jongin wondered whether Chanyeol and Kyungsoo had looked like this when they were together. The knot in his stomach tightened its grip on his internal organs, nearly making him puke.

Ah, the thought of Kyungsoo with Chanyeol made Jongin realize that it was really over. He got a searing pain in his chest, making it hard to breathe. Was he having a heart attack? He tried to swallow, but his throat wasn't listening. And then, as if a faucet had been , the salty raindrops started pouring out of his eyes again.

“Oh,” Suho looked a bit lost for what to do, he sent Sehun a secret wink and made himself disappear.

Great. Thanks for the support in my time of need, Jongin thought, cursing him under his breath as he leaned into Sehun's arms. Sehun tightened his hold on him, his back.

“It'll be okay,” Sehun whispered sweetly and squeezed him until it hurt.

He winced. It was actually kind of nice, because the physical hurt distracted from the mental pain. He had a figurative wound on his heart and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Even though he looked okay on the outside, he was dying on the inside.

A good twenty minutes later Suho returned with a cup of hot cocoa. Sehun also got one, his face lighting up like a kid at Christmas.

“I made the bed for you in the guestroom, you can stay as long as you like,” Suho said, making Jongin feel guilty about cussing him out earlier.

“Thanks.”

Jongin took a sip of the cocoa, feeling the warm liquid travel all the way down to his stomach, the heat and the sugar softening the knot that was holding his insides hostage.

“Don’t worry, I won’t stay long. Just until I find my own place. I would have gone to Taemin’s, but he’s practically moved in with Minho and they are enjoying the honeymoon phase so I didn’t want to ruin it for them,” Jongin admitted apologetically.

“Hey, we’re also in our honeymoon phase!” Sehun objected with a big pout.

Jongin chuckled through the tears.

“You guys are more like an old married couple, about to celebrate forty happy years together.”

Sehun’s pout turned into a wide grin as he looked at Suho, beaming. He was visibly proud of their geriatric couple status.

“Like I said, stay as long as you want,” Suho said and then hesitated as if he wanted to add something.

He finally took a deep breath and continued.

“But don’t you think you should talk this over with Kyungsoo before deciding to move out?”

Suho spoke extra carefully, like he was treading through a minefield, expecting a mine to go off any second.

“No. He’s said all there is to say. The marriage is over. It wasn’t a real marriage anyway.”

Jongin threw his hands dramatically in the air.

“The guy that Kyungsoo really loves came back. Who am I to stand in the way of their happiness just because of some prophecy that for all we know could just be the ramblings of some lunatic. Kyungsoo deserves to be happy,” he explained with difficulty, trying to convince himself as well as Suho.

Giving up Kyungsoo was the hardest thing he had ever had to do. He still wasn’t completely sure he could do it and survive, but Kyungsoo was more important.

“Mmm... remember when you asked why I had never gotten together with Kyungsoo and I told you that the timing had never been right?” Suho asked softly.

“Yeah...?”

Sehun shifted in his seat, listening intently but clearly finding the topic extremely uncomfortable.

“And I said that when I finally broke up with my long-term boyfriend, Kyungsoo had already fallen in love with someone else.”

“Yeah, Chanyeol.”

“No, you.”

Suho looked straight into Jongin’s eyes.

“If this is a joke, it’s not funny,” Jongin scowled.

“It’s not.”

“You must’ve misunderstood, Kyungsoo didn’t even know me then.”

Jongin usually loved being right, but this time he really wished he wasn’t. Only, there was no way he was wrong.

Suho opened his mouth to add something when the doorbell rang.

Sehun put up a face that read ‘who could it be this late at night’ and skipped over to the door, accompanied by his trusty sidekick Vivi.

Kyungsoo walked through the door like a puppy with his tail between his legs. Jongin had a visceral reaction. The knot in his gut went crazy, threatening to beat up every single organ in there.

”I told you not to tell him I was here!!” Jongin yelled at Suho, actively avoiding looking in Kyungsoo’s direction.

He got up, ran into the guest bedroom, slammed the door with as much force as he possibly could, and locked it shut. It made a loud bang. He hoped Kyungsoo would take the hint and leave. He didn’t trust himself to stay strong in Kyungsoo’s presence. He was barely holding it together as it was.

There was a light knock on the door.

Please be Suho telling me that Kyungsoo left, he begged.

”Jongin-ah”

Kyungsoo’s voice sounded sweeter than ever.

”Jongin-ah, please talk to me. Remember, we agreed to always talk to each other before jumping to conclusions.”

Kyungsoo’s slightly muffled voice came through the door. The nerve, to come back here after the conversation he and Chanyeol shared earlier! What was his deal? Couldn’t he just break up with him in a text, did he have to break his heart face to face? That was too cruel. Jongin wasn’t going to let him, he was going to take initiative and take ownership of his own heartbreak.

Seeing red he swung the door open, starting to shout at Kyungsoo before the door was fully open to make sure Kyungsoo wouldn’t get a word in edgewise.

”You said it all already! The only reason you broke up with Chanyeol, the love of your life, was the prophecy. You two were meant to be, a real-life Disney couple, and the only thing standing in the way of your happy ever after is me! So I’m removing myself from the equation. You’re free. Go be happy!”

Barely holding back a tsunami of tears, Jongin slammed the door in Kyungsoo’s face. And then the waves of tears hit one after the other. Jongin held his breath so Kyungsoo wouldn’t hear how hard he was crying. He was sure he had done the right thing, but it hurt so much that his whole body was shaking.

”Jongin-ah, listen...” Kyungsoo pleaded through the door, ”exactly how many of those words came out of my mouth?”

”Uuuhm...”

Jongin thought back. Now that he mentioned it, Chanyeol had been the only one speaking. But it didn’t matter, the results were the same.

”Well, you didn’t deny any of it!” Jongin spat at him.

A loud sigh came through the door.

”Open the door.”

”No,” Jongin stubbornly refused, clinging to what was left of his pride.

”Open. The. Door.” Kyungsoo commanded, practically growling.

Jongin had never heard him sound so angry. He got scared and chickened out. He unlocked the door at once and took a step back.

Watching the doorknob slowly turn, Jongin’s heart went wild in his chest. It felt like he had stepped right into a scene out of a horror movie. He gasped as the door flew open and Kyungsoo barged in.

For a moment, they just stood there, looking into each other’s eyes. The weird thing was, Kyungsoo didn’t look mad. He looked sad. His droopy pout and sorrowful eyes made Jongin wish he had been angry instead.

”Okay, here’s how it is. Listen up because I’m only going to explain this once.”

Kyungsoo’s voice faltered. He took a strangely long pause before taking an extra deep breath and continuing.

”Do you remember the first performance you ever did at the charity ball on the 17th of December?” he asked.

”Oh, yeah, it was the first time I performed a routine composed entirely by me in public. Oh, it was horrible. I was so inexperienced and I made so many mistakes.”

Jongin got goosebumps just thinking about it, and not the good kind.

”That’s when I fell in love with you.”

Kyungsoo’s face managed a tired smile as he reminisced.

”Wait, no... but... but that was more than four years ago.”

Jongin’s brain hurt from trying to do the calculations. Kyungsoo didn’t look like he was joking, but he had to be, else the math didn’t add up. Maybe he was confusing together two different performances.

”I know,” Kyungsoo just said.

”You’re telling me... you fell in love with me four years ago?”

”Yes.”

”And you’ve been in love with me for all those four years?”

”Yes.”

Kyungsoo was as serious as a heart attack. Jongin was having a hard time processing this new and shocking information.

”For four years you've never wavered? Not once? Or fell for someone else for a while and then picked up where you left off?”

Jongin just didn’t buy it. They didn’t even know each other then, they only knew of each other. And Jongin had never been particularly nice to him or interacted with him at all. If memory served him, Kyungsoo had never even tried to have a conversation with him. He was always the weird kid in the corner.

”You know, our keycode, 1217, the one you detest so much...”

”Yeah...?” Jongin begrudgingly agreed, not believing he was changing the subject in the middle of such an important conversation.

”It’s you, you idiot! It’s the first time I saw you, and after that, I never saw anyone else.”

”That’s so not true, you dated Chanyeol!”

Jongin could feel the protective walls going up again, getting ready for the battle of a lifetime.

“Well, I thought you were straight and that there was no hope, ever, so I came to terms with loving you from afar for the rest of my life. Chanyeol was nice, he was comforting and upbeat, and... and people have needs.”

The last part was barely audible and Kyungsoo's cheeks caught fire the moment he said it.

“But then the whole deal with the prophecy came up, and when my father told me you were on board, I just used it as an excuse to get close to you. I was ready to be happy living with you as a roommate for the rest of our lives, never in my wildest dreams did I dare imagine you would... that we would... it's the best thing that has ever happened to me! I've never believed in that prophecy nonsense, but I've always believed in you.”

Kyungsoo's eyes sparkled intensely.

“And I'll prove it to you.”

He handed Jongin an old, tattered box. What could possibly be in that box that would be able to bear evidence for Kyungsoo's crazy story? Slowly, Jongin removed the lid, half expecting something to pop out. Maybe a genie, like the one in the lamp, except this one was a hobo genie living in a cardboard box. Instead, the box was filled with ticket stubs, old programs, a wilted flower, and a used fork. It seemed more like a trash can than a treasure box.

“I've seen every performance you've ever done. This,” Kyungsoo fished out a ticket stub, “is from the annual year-end performance at your school. This flower fell out of a bouquet you received when you won the academy dance competition. Oh, and this is your fork, you handed it to me when I dropped mine at the charity ball.”

Kyungsoo kept going, but Jongin's head was spinning. He didn't remember the fork incident at all, and he didn't remember seeing him at the dance competition either. He would have accused him of lying, but the evidence was overwhelming. A whole boxful.

“Hang on,” Jongin grabbed a stub that was stuck in the corner of the box, “This is from an in-house event at the academy. It was a conference of sorts, only professional dancers were invited.”

“I have my ways,” Kyungsoo said, a couple of giggles attacking him.

“I... I don't know what to say...”

“Say you'll come home. Say you won't leave me... ever again,” Kyungsoo said in a whisper, a wave of pain washing over his face.

“Say you'll talk to me first next time you have a problem.”

“Say...”

Kyungsoo swallowed, his eyes fixated on the floor.

“Say you love me back.”

He looked so vulnerable and awkward. It was the cutest thing Jongin had ever seen, it was so cute it hurt. Jongin couldn't take it anymore. Who was he kidding? It was impossible to resist that little intense bundle of amazingness. Kyungsoo never did anything half-assed, it was either zero or a hundred thousand million percent. It was almost scary, for if Kyungsoo truly loved him, there was no telling how deep-rooted that love was. Overwhelmed and completely blown away, Jongin threw himself into Kyungsoo's arms.

Kyungsoo coughed, winded by the sudden sneak attack.

“You're the only guy I've ever loved,” Jongin confessed, “...and the only guy I ever will.”

He buried himself into Kyungsoo's neck. Oh, how he had missed that smell. That smell was home for him now. Jongin wanted to stay there forevermore, but after a while, Kyungsoo pulled back just enough to be able to look Jongin in the eyes. Silent tears were running down Kyungsoo's cheeks. Jongin used his hand to wipe them away before leaning in for a sweet kiss. He sank into the kiss, marveling at how soft Kyungsoo's lips were, all the doubts from before being swept away in one fell swoop.

Kyungsoo snuck his hand in Jongin's.

“Let's go home.”