A few days would've been fine - understandable, even. Ten days was pushing it. But one entire month? Now that was being overly paranoid.

Considering the fact that they worked together, lived together, and saw each other almost everyday, that was quite an accomplishment. All joking aside, Daehyun was devastated. Granted, the tough leader deserved to be cut some slack for being thrown into a rather...touchy and complex situation so suddenly, right? Yongguk couldn't possibly have known Daehyun's true feelings for him; jeez, he wasn't a freaking mind reader! But no matter how much he wanted to deny it, all the clues had been there all along, and now everything made just as much sense as the conclusion he'd previosuly jumped to in which the younger boy liked Jieun - the only changing variable being the love interest.

Wait, so that meant Daehyun liked men? Well, that was an interesting twist. Yongguk rubbed the back of his thick neck, slick with a newly formed sheen of perspiration. Since the confession in the alleyway, he hadn't spoken to Daehyun - hadn't said anything more to him than necessary, anyway. Still, the past month had been painfully awkward - not just between the two of them but also between him and Jongup (and by awkward, he really meant tense), though he had no idea what the latter's reasons were for creating such an atmosphere. While Yongguk was busy avoiding Daehyun at all costs, Jongup seemed to be doing the same to him, giving him the cold shoulder and shooting him piercing glares once in a while when he knew he was looking. Thank goodness, though, the other members didn't seem to know the details about the incident, and he was determined to keep it that way.

He knew Daehyun didn't do anything wrong; was it a crime to love someone? No, he could never blame him for that. Still, it admittedly bothered him, and he saw it as nothing more than a burden. Yes, he was embarrassed, flustered, and more disturbed than flattered, but these feelings only made him feel all the more sorry toward Daehyun.

And how did he, himself, feel about Daehyun? Well, Daehyun was his band mate, of course. He was a dongsaeng, a good friend and listener whom he'd felt comfortable around up until now. Although they'd gotten especially close not too long ago, he really liked him - not romantically, of course (Yongguk couldn't fathom the idea of possessing those kinds of feelings for another man). At this, Yongguk frowned. He'd obviously never thought of Daehyun that way before the said boy's confession, but ever since then, he couldn't seem to shake the thoughts of his pearlescent smile, his soothing voice, his reserved and gentle nature - all his various charms that might make him attractive. Did that mean he was beginning to see him as something more than a fellow member, a friend, a younger brother? Impossible, right? After all, he liked Jieun. Jieun was the only person he would ever fall in love with - he was sure of it.

But one thing did bother him. After finding out that Daehyun had no romantic feelings toward Jieun, Yongguk hadn't felt the immediate wave of relief as he thought he would have - and he still wasn't sure he did, and not only because he felt he didn't deserve to feel relieved when Daehyun was probably hurting so much. He had been so preoccupied with loving Jieun that he was completely blind to everyone else. What would he have done, then, if Daehyun did like Jieun? Was he planning to throw their friendship away for a girl? Though it wasn't an unusual scenario, it would be, admittedly, selfish and insensitive, and he felt even worse for not realizing that he'd been exactly that until now, after the bomb had been dropped and all he could do was pick up the pieces or leave them to rot.

"Guk-ah?"

Yongguk hummed subconsciously, still immersed in Daehyun-related thoughts. His incoherent mumbling, head-shaking, and self-abuse would've been quite amusing to witness, he assumed, though he was too preoccupied to even care or notice, really, at the moment.

"YAH! BANG YONGGUK!"

He jumped in his seat, jolted back to reality by her booming voice and sudden outburst. His eyes, now wide as discs, flashed to the girl seated next to him on the couch. "Wh-What?! What?!"

Not a second later, he felt a stinging pain in the center of his bare forehead. All the while, Jieun's face remained even as she brought her arm back down to her lap. "You were spacing out again, stupid."

Yongguk absently rubbed the sore spot as he stared at the vast wall opposite him. "Sorry. Remind me where we were?"

"Weeell...," Jieun began. "You were going off about how you feel burdened by Daehyun's confession, firmly claiming that you don't feel the same way he feels about you, yet you feel guilty because of it and you must seem like the oblivious bad guy whom you think can't man up and face him again because you're worried that nothing will ever be the same. You said you were confused - how exactly do you feel about him? You've always considered him your friend and nothing more, right? As you've already emphasized, you've always liked women and only women." Jieun sighed. "That pretty much sums up everything up until the point where you just kind of trailed off."

Hearing his complicated mess of thoughts abridged and coming from someone else's mouth compelled him to continue his previous rant, making him want to elaborate on its basic contents again for good measure; if he didn't, he suddenly felt as though he would explode from not knowing what else to do in his situation. "It's just so crazy! It's crazy, right? I'm not the one at fault here. It's him, it's all on him! I didn't ask for him to fall in love with me!" At this point, he was just about ready to pull all his hair out. His unreasonable rationalizations which he, himself, didn't believe to be true, couldn't seem to be prevented from spewing from his mouth. "Man, this is so frustrating! Why did he have to go and confess?! Why couldn't he just keep it to himself?! I mean - "

Jieun finished his sentence. "He'd been holding it in up until now, so why couldn't he just keep it to himself for the rest of his life and make it easier for everyone?"

Yongguk jabbed his index fingers in Jieun's direction repeatedly in an emphatic manner. "Exactly! And - "

"He should be the one to initiate conversation if he wants to make up for it, since he was the one who'd started all this in the first place. It's the least he can do to try and patch things up and see if you two can go back to the way things were before," Jieun guessed, confident that she was right. She opened one of her closed eyes to find a gawking grown man, seemingly incredulous at her uncanny mind-reading skills.

"Y-Yeah. That's...that's right." He blinked, as if doing so would lift the veil uncovering the one thing he was missing and that she was getting. "How did you - "

"Ahhh..." Jieun let out a brief sigh. "You might've mentioned it once or twice before...or more, for the past - oh, I don't know," she glanced at the analog clock on the wall, "two and a half hours." She shrugged, trying to pass it off as no big deal when, really, his confiding in her was beginning to get a little irritating - not that Yongguk could tell, anyway. He ruffled the hair on the back of his head in embarrassment. "Haha, my bad, my bad. You must be sick of hearing me complain about my problems." A bashful, throaty laugh surfaced, but as he turned away from Jieun, the smile that never reached his eyes was replaced with a deep frown. "It's just that...I don't love him, you know?"

Another sigh escaped between her glossy lips. "I never said I didn't believe you."

Yongguk nodded, slowly, his head now bowed. "Yeah," he replied absently. The wrinkles in his forehead grew more prominent as his eyebrows furrowed closer together. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know many details behind it. Since when had Daehyun realized he loved him? He swallowed, endeavoring to push down the lump forming in his throat. For how long - how long had Daehyun been suffering because of him? What could he do - no, what must he do now to ease the boy's pain?

Well, he had some ideas.

But I don't! I...I don't. One couldn't force another person to love one, right? So he shouldn't pretend to love Daehyun just to mend their broken relationship; that was just wrong, and he'd end up hurting Daehyun even more in the end.

He didn't love him. But he did miss him.

After all, it couldn't hurt to give Daehyun a chance, could it? It would benefit the both of them - to fulfill his selfish desire of wanting to keep the younger beside him and to give Daehyun hope that something more between them was possible.

Yongguk stood up in a flash, earning a curious sideways glance from Jieun, who was still seated on the couch, her legs crossed in a casual manner. "Alright, I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna be a man and fix this mess!" He turned to Jieun then. "Thanks a lot, Jieun-ah. Your advice was really helpful!" The last image she had of him was his grinning face before the front door to the recording studio slammed shut behind him.

--

Jieun fought the growing urge to roll her eyes. Whenever Yongguk randomly spaced out, lost in his own thoughts, or whenever he was too busy venting to still be aware of her very presense next to him, she turned most of her attention to her painted nails and entertained herself by picking mercilessly at her neglected cuticles. An instant before she sensed eyes on her, she tore her eyes away from them and plastered a please-go-on-this-is-fascinating-stuff expression on her face, nodding every now and then to pretend she was listening intently when, really, everything that passed through her head was registered as "blah, blah, blah."

Jieun now fought the growing urge to yawn right in his face; she didn't think he'd get the idea unless she did it blatantly.

This is so stupid. She stared at the coffee table before them, wondering if it would be worthwhile to bang her head against it. Why meeee? she whined internally.

He'd been going at it for well past two hours now, and he'd said nothing new since his first ten minutes here. She had a pretty good idea of where he was going before he even started, anyway, just at the mention of the words "Daehyun," "love," and "confessed."

Why did she even bother putting up with all this? If she was bored to tears, why couldn't she just tell Yongguk to take his issues somewhere else and leave the goddamn studio (neither of them had to record today, anyway - and shouldn't he be celebrating the physical release of his group's debut CD?)? She had clearly declared and decided that she didn't - could never - love Yongguk as he loved her. But why couldn't she seem to push him away, either? Why did she want to keep him close to her, to have him by her side at all times?

Oh. The truth slapped her, and it hurt so much she outwardly cringed.

For the first time in her life, she felt that she was truly a selfish . But at least she was a selfish with reason.

Suddenly, all this talk about Daehyun got on her nerves. The irritation she felt surprised even herself, and by the time she realized what it was, Yongguk was already on his feet. Jieun tilted her chin skywards to get a better view of him. She raised a curious brow. "Alright, I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna be a man and fix this mess! Thanks a lot, Jieun-ah. Your advice was really helpful!"

"Do...what?" Yongguk now stood by the door, hand covering and turning the knob and ready to leave. "Guk-ah! What are you going to do?!" The only response she received was the slamming of the door. Biting her bottom lip, she leaned back into the comfort of the couch, snorting as her back fell against the boxy cushions. "Idiot. What advice did I even give you?" Jieun gazed at the ceiling, trying to make some sense of the last words he'd uttered just before he'd left.

She realized two things at the same time, and both scared her less:

One was that she understood too late that Yongguk was going to give Daehyun a chance.

And the other was that she didn't want him to.

--

It had been a rough few weeks - no, more than a few weeks in Daehyun's case.

The said boy sat huddled in the very center of his bed, his arms pulling his knees closer to his chest and tucking them under his chin. He leaned forward ever-so-slightly, staring at his toes with solemn eyes. To this day, the scene of his inevitable confession replayed over and over again in his mind without his consent, clear and vivid in his memory as though he were watching something out of a movie. And every time it did, he couldn't help but ask himself the same questions: Had he done the right thing? Why did he have to go and screw everything up with his own stupid feelings? Wasn't there another way he could have taken besides the one he'd chosen?

But he had no other options at the time - that was, unless he wanted Yongguk to think that he was in love with Jieun (and the assumption still managed to baffle him). The truth seemed better than that; if anything was going to ruin their relationship, let it not be a mere misunderstanding.

He'd done nothing wrong, and yet he felt as though everything was his fault.

The sight of his toes was suddenly too much to bear. Daehyun closed his eyes and buried his face in his arms, their hold on his knees tightening so hard that his entire form began to tremble. He let out a soft whine that was eerily similar to that of an injured or dying animal.

Well, he'd done it, and there was no going back now, meaning it was useless to dwell on the matter. Maybe it was a good thing, as he wasn't sure if he would've told his hyung his true feelings at all prior to that day. What would've happened then? The gash in his heart might've deepened from locking it within himself, Yongguk might've asked Jieun to be his girlfriend, and the despair might've killed him. But now that it was all out in the open, he could do nothing more than wait. Wait for an answer - a sign, even. Just...something. And by the way Yongguk had been avoiding him like a virus this entire time, he wasn't sure how long he'd have to wait.

Which was why a knock on his door startled him.

--

He hadn't waited for a reply, because he doubted he was going to get one. "I'm coming in."

He didn't need to have x-ray vision to know that Daehyun was curled up on his bed, and he didn't need to be a mind reader to sense the turmoil in his heart and know the cause of it. In other words, he wasn't at all surprised to find his beloved in the same position he'd been frequenting since the day of the confession.

Jongup eased the door shut, waiting a moment longer with his back facing Daehyun. As he casually and calmly turned around, his eyes immediately found the other's disappointed ones. He didn't know if he should feel upset or angry or both at this. "Sorry for not being Yongguk," Jongup said bitterly, his voice more icy than he'd intended to make it. Daehyun opened his mouth and began to utter some kind of explanation, but decided against it in the end and closed his mouth. He hung his head, seemingly ashamed. He flushed with embarrassment at being easy to read and at being caught because of it. Still standing before the door, Jongup heaved a long sigh. Daehyun remained silent even as he crossed the room and sat down on the bed beside him.

His own added weight on the mattress shifted the older boy slightly, but he made no effort to move on his own; he neither encouraged Jongup to move closer nor objected to his nigh presence. Jongup crossed his legs and turned his body so that he could see Daehyun's face a little better, but in a way that he still wasn't directly facing him. He glanced down at his hands in his lap. "You should stop torturing yourself, hyung. This can't be healthy." Not for you nor for me; seeing you like this for him - because of him - is making me crazy. He willed himself to peek at Daehyun, searching for any kind of reaction to his words. All he got was a blank stare, and it wasn't even directed in his direction. "You shouldn't feel sorry for him; he doesn't deserve it. Just look at what he's done to you, hyung." Jongup's voice was reduced to little more than a whisper, but he couldn't hide his irritation at Daehyun's lack of response to him. In the next instant, his hands were locked around Daehyun's wrists, which he wrenched away from covering the bottom half of his face. "He's not worth it, hyung!  You can deny it all you want, but he's done nothing other than hurt you all this time!" Jongup paused, his huffing filling the silence that had envelopped the room once more. "He can't make you happy." His dropped his eyes from Daehyun's impassive face before he could see his lips part.

"How did you know?"

Jongup was so taken aback by the sound of his voice that he dropped the other's wrists from his firm grip. He'd spoken impulsively, and now he realized that he'd made a mistake. He swallowed. "What?"

There was no shift in Daehyun's expression. His voice remained even and quiet, almost frighteningly so. "How did you find out how I feel about him?" And now, Daehyun looked him in the eyes for the first time since he'd entered the room. "Since when did you know?"

Jongup was at a loss for words. How had he known? A better question would've been how could he not have known? Or maybe he just had a talent for sensing other people's feelings and everyone else was completely clueless on the matter unless it slapped him or her in the face.

He had a strange feeling that day, anyway.

The moment Yongguk and Daehyun had left the room, he felt uneasy. He couldn't explain it, but he was certain that something larger than everyone else in the room could imagine was about to happen. He looked back at a chewing Jieun, who must've felt his eyes on her. She met his gaze without hesitation and held his eyes. Slowly, a wicked smile stretched across her face that he knew she would never have worn if anyone else was paying attention. She knew - she knew that he saw right through her facade.

And he knew right then and there - he knew she knew about Daehyun's feelings.

Jongup's hands were balled into tight fists as he stormed out of the recording studio without a second thought.

He didn't know how far they'd gone, but they couldn't have gotten more than a few blocks away if they planned to go back before the others started getting worried...or suspicious, even. He came across a deep alleyway in no time, and based on the faint voices he heard emerging from it, he knew he'd found the place.

Jongup froze in his tracks just before he reached the corner, as the only sound he heard now was the unsparing wind and his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. Time seemed to slow, and the two he'd sought out seemed to be holding their breaths, afraid that the sky would fall if they let go.

"I...I love you, hyung."

Oh, how he wished the wrath of the wind was enough to drown out those words.

His own breath caught in his throat as he stood there, wanting to believe the words he'd just heard unmistakably coming from the person he loved were just his imagination. By the time Daehyun ran past Jongup without recognizing him (the boy's eyes were clouded with dreaded water), Jongup snapped out of his daze too late to stop him or go after him.

He was too far gone.

Jongup stared in the direction Daehyun had ran, which was also the way he'd come. His eyes filled with concern for his hyung, but Yongguk's dazed form stumbling out of the alleyway triggered a new wave of fury within him. He thought of the tears in his eyes, the tears that had spilled onto his flushed cheeks, and grabbed Yongguk by the front of his shirt. "What the hell did you do to Daehyun hyung?"

The older's surprise was evident in his face. He must've still been processing Daehyun's confession if he didn't realize how disrespectful Jongup was behaving toward him. "It's...It's none of your business."

Jongup's eyes narrowed. Fine - if he wasn't going to tell him, he would get to the bottom of this himself.

It seemed as though Yongguk was slowly coming back to reality, as there was a sudden hardness in his voice. "Let go, Jongup."

He held on a little longer, just for good measure, before finally complying. "I'm not sorry." He then his heels and started in the direction he'd come. A few paces later, he stopped. "And I won't forgive you for making him cry, hyung."

He continued on without looking back.

Jongup couldn't look Daehyun in the eye. He felt like a traitor, a backstabber who'd betrayed Daehyun who'd always thought his love was his own secret when it wasn't. "I've always known..."

Maybe he was no better for Daehyun than Yongguk, if he could cause him the same amount of a different kind of pain.

As expected, Daehyun's eyes filled with fresh, hot tears. But he hadn't expected what came after.

Because Daehyun was now clinging to the front of his shirt, his face buried in his shoulder. He was weeping uncontrollably. "H-Hyung?" Jongup's eyes had grown wide, and he blinked several times until he was sure this was real, that this was actually happening. His eyes grew softer as he wrapped his strong arms around the other, holding him close in a protective and reassuring manner. "Shh. It's okay, hyung. Everything's going to be fine."

Jongup felt Daehyun jump slightly in his arms when he hiccupped. "I-It's been so...so h-hard, Jongup-ah." He was momentarily cut off by a series of soft sobs. "I-I don't...don't know wh-what to-to do anymore. I'm sc-scared."

"I know," Jongup whispered into Daehyun's ear. Afraid of losing Yongguk as a friend. Afraid of being rejected. He rubbed the boy's back soothingly in an attempt to calm him down. "I'm always here for you, hyung. Always."

And then it occurred to him that Daehyun had wanted - needed - to tell someone all along.

///

Since that day, Jongup hadn't spoken much to Yongguk. However, this changed as soon as the members of B.A.P stepped out of the van. "Let's talk," Jongup said without looking at the older, waiting a moment just to make sure he knew he was talking to him.

Without a word, Yongguk followed Jongup into the building, up a few floors, down countless hallways and to the bottom of the staircase that led to their waiting room. "Make it quick; we have to get ready soon."

"I'm aware of that," Jongup replied in the same impatient tone. But if he didn't do this now, he wasn't sure if Daehyun was going to be capable of performing this evening. "Look, you know how Daehyun feels about you." When Yongguk tried to speak, he cut him off immediately, not allowing him to get a single word in before he was done. "It doesn't matter how I know. And you're a huge cowardly jackass for ignoring him for so long. Do you have any idea how he's been faring while you've been busy running away and hiding? Just tell him straight, hyung; just give him a goddamn answer because he deserves one. I don't want to see him hurting because of you anymore."

Damn, he was being rude. But Jongup believed that rivals in love should be seen as equals, and since they were equals, it didn't matter how he talked to the other. And at least he still called him "hyung."

Yongguk chuckled, clearly amused, though his annoyance managed to shine through. "You didn't have to tell me that, my dear dongsaeng. Because I was just about to go tell him exactly how I feel."

Their shoulders collided as Yongguk pushed past him. Jongup scoffed, stumbling back a step before regaining his balance. When the sound of the other's heavy footsteps trudging up the stairs had passed, Jongup's eyes filled with sympathy toward Daehyun, and he swallowed.

He was going to break Daehyun's heart. But this was the only way they would get past this, the only way that allowed Daehyun to move on. He let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and closed his eyes. "Be strong, hyung."

Because he would make sure this was the last time Yongguk ever hurt him.

--

Yongguk paced up and down the hallway just outside the bathroom, endeavoring to work out in his head what to say to Daehyun when he came out. His heart was racing, as was his mind. He was beginning to have second thoughts.

He crossed his arms over his chest, then dropped them back down at his sides. He then put his hands to his hips, but decided a moment later that they'd be better off scratching the back of his head. God, what the hell was taking him so long? Yongguk eyed the nearest corner, considering heading back to the waiting room when the bathroom door opened. Yongguk stopped pacing directly in front of a very confused Daehyun.

Well, it was now or never.

"Daehyun, I - "

"Oh, you came to get me, right, hyung? Is it almost time already?" The door clicked shut behind him.

"Umm...y-yeah." Come on, Yongguk, just spit it out! "But I have something to tell - "

"Then we'd better hurry - "

"Daehyun-ah."

He froze at the sound of his name being called with a hint of urgency. Daehyun raised his eyes to meet his own. Yongguk's heart was still racing, but he appeared calm, and his thoughts were clearer than he'd thought they'd be in this situation. Suddenly, all he could see was the floor beneath his feet as he leaned forward, his back parallel to the ground.

"Please go out with me!"

Silence. Complete silence. Yongguk willed himself to stay in his position. He couldn't possibly tell what was going through Daehyun's mind, as he offered no hints. Slowly, he pulled the upper half of his body up, and before he had a chance to straighten his back, the younger slammed into him in a burst of happiness. He felt arms around his neck, and he didn't fail to notice how well the boy's smaller body fit into his own. Yongguk couldn't hold back his smile as he enveloped Daehyun in his tight embrace.

And that was when he decided, maybe this isn't so bad after all.

A/N: I know I keep saying this (and I know you're all probably sick of hearing it), but I'm reeeally sorry for not updating sooner!

It's been a rough month (as in this chapter, lol).

It seems like I keep making excuses. D|

But this chapter's a bit longer than the others, so I hope that kind of makes up for it? [/hopeful]

Anyways, I'm not going to make any more promises that I can't keep! [/nods firmly]

But I will definitely, DEFINITELY not wait another month to update again. DEFINITELY.

EDIT: Because of the problems with the database, I'm reposting this chapter ~ ^^

The next chapter should be up soon ~ ! Sorry to those who already read this chapter and have to wait for the next one. D';

Please wait a little longer ~ ! Thank you to all of my readers for sticking with me and this story so far! ;D