Jaebum felt like hell. He kept looking around for Jinyoung at school but he never showed up. Jackson asked him about it at lunch.

“Hey hyung, are you okay? You’ve been acting kinda weird today.”

“I ed up Jackson. I ed up bad.” he uttered.

“How?” his friend questioned. So he told him everything. His eyes were wide by the end. Then they hardened a little.

“You need to fix this, hyung.”

“You don’t think I know that already?” Jaebum snapped.

“You need to prove you and Seokjin aren’t dating, or whatever, and prove you love Jinyoung.”

“But how?” he said hopelessly. Jackson put his arm around him.

“You let your friends help you, that’s how.”

The pair explained the entire situation again to Mark, Bambam, Youngjae and Yugyeom. Yugyeom showed them the conversation he and Jinyoung had the last night, after he came back home.

Conversation: gyeomthestage, pepijy

gyeomthestage: ok u should be back by now so SPILL THE TEA

gyeomthestage: what happened? are u together now? is my ship finally canon?

pepijy: im jaebum is a ing liar, that’s what happened

gyeomthestage: what?

gyeomthestage: hyung what happened?

pepijy: while i was on my way to his house i ran into him and kim ing seokjin

pepijy: they had shopping bags so i assume they were on another date

pepijy: they were talking but i didn’t really hear what they were saying

pepijy: until i heard him say “i like you, kim seokjin, and i want to take you out”

gyeomthestage: oh my god

gyeomthestage: did that really happen? are u sure that’s what he said?

pepijy: im 100% positive. i never heard his response because they noticed i was there

pepijy: then my wonderful crush started saying like “it isn’t what it looks like” but i couldn’t be bothered with his bullcrap

pepijy: so i left

gyeomthestage: omg…

gyeomthestage: hyung i’m so sorry. that’s so awful

gyeomthestage: but im sure you just misunderstood the situation. jaebum hyung likes YOU not seokjin hyung. he told jackson hyung himself

pepijy: yeah sure he did. i’m not going to believe anymore of his lies

pepijy: i’m never going to speak to im jaebum again

pepijy: he’s a ing liar

pepijy: and he broke my heart

Jaebum groaned loudly, holding his head in his hands.

“Man, you really screwed this up.” Bambam observed, sounding a bit awed.

“Shut up, Bambam. This is serious.” warned Mark.

“He hates me. He hates me.” Jaebum muttered. “I’ll never convince him now, he’ll never listen to me.”

“Hyung, I know Jinyoung-hyung seems like he’ll never even look at you again, but he loves you too. He still has a crush on you or whatever. And you still love him. So it’s not like all of his feelings are completely gone. You can still win him over.” stated Yugyeom.

He sighed. “I don’t think I can. I think I’m doomed.”

“It’s the worse possible time too.” They all looked at Youngjae as he said this.

“Why?”

“Because of the competition? It’s next week.”

They all let out a simultaneous groan. “!”

“I completely forgot about that. Damn it, Youngjae’s right. We’ve got the contest in a week.” Jaebum ran a hand through his hair stressfully. “This is such a mess.”

“I don’t think Jinyoung-hyung would let the team down like that. He’ll come.” Yugyeom said reassuringly.

“Yeah, but he won’t be at his best. He’ll probably do a bad performance. I’ve seen the entries; there are some damn good entries from good schools in it this year. We can’t afford to have someone do bad. But because of me, someone will be. Maybe even two people.” He sighed again. “I’m sorry guys, I’ve ruined this for everyone.”

“You didn’t ruin anything, hyung. It’s not your fault.” Youngjae said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Maybe there’s a little drama but we’ll sort it out. We’re a team. We’ll get through this together.” Yugyeom said.

Jackson gave an optimistic grin. “We’ll still kick at that concert. Don’t worry about it.” 

“And everything will work with Jinyoung. He loves you. He won’t let you go.” Mark murmured.

“Everything will work out in the end. Both with Jinyoung-hyung and the contest. And we’ll look good doing it! So don’t worry.” Bambam laughed.

Jaebum couldn’t help but smile at his friends. “Thanks guys. That means a lot to me.”

They smiled back. “Now, let’s work on the Jinyoung situation, okay?”

The plan was to arrange a meet-up with Jinyoung and explain everything to him: the truth. But there was a problem. Jinyoung refused to meet up with Jaebum. It didn’t matter who asked, he still refused. When they tried to trick him into thinking he was going out with someone else he saw through it immediately and refused again. So Jaebum decided to go around to his house. Only that didn’t end well either.

He knocked on the door, which was opened by Jinyoung’s mother. He gave a smile.

“Hi Mrs Park, is Jinyoung home?”

“He is but… I don’t think you should come in, Jaebum.” she said uncomfortably.

“Has Jinyoung said something? Is he okay?” he asked, concerned.

“Well yes. He’s very upset at the moment and I don’t think seeing you will make it any better. I think it’ll just make it worse. So please, just leave.”

“But I need to talk to him. It was all a misunderstanding.” he begged. “Please just let me-”

“Jaebum, leave. Now.” she said firmly.

Jaebum knew better than to anger her further so he left, slopping back off to his own house. He went to send Jinyoung more messages but discovered that he had been blocked. Jinyoung really didn’t want to see him, any idiot could see that. But it wasn’t just Jaebum it was affecting, the team suffered too.

Their teacher noticed Jinyoung wasn’t coming into choir practises or showing up at school and asked for the reason. Jaebum could only reply awkwardly with “personal problems”. He let out a loud sigh of exasperation.

“Now of all times? It’s less than a week until the competition!” He rubbed his temple. “Is he alright though?”

“We don’t really know, he hasn’t spoken to us.” Bambam said truthfully. Apart from those few messages to Yugyeom, that was it.

“I’ll pay a visit to his house tonight just to make sure he can make it to the performance when it comes. If he can’t then you’ll just have to do it without him, boys.”

It was after he said that when Jaebum had an idea. If he couldn’t speak to Jinyoung personally, and he couldn’t send him messages, then this was the next best thing. He could write him a letter. He just hoped he read it. He scribbled it out before the end of the day, giving it to Mr Han to give to Jinyoung.

“Please make sure he gets it, sir.” he said.

“I will, Jaebum. Don’t worry about it.” he assured.

Jaebum prayed that Jinyoung would read it, that he wouldn’t throw it away the moment he figured out it was from Jaebum. He hoped he would hear him out. But he guessed he would only find out the next day, so he got his things ready, and headed home.

Jinyoung was surprised when his teacher came around. He explained that there were just some family issues going on but that he would be back at school the next day, he would be at all practises, and would be able to go to the competition. Before he left Mr Han gave him a letter. It wasn’t in an envelope. He unfolded it to reveal very familiar handwriting. Jaebum’s.

He almost threw it in the bin before changing his mind. After all, it could be something important. He almost read it but then remembered his anger towards Jaebum: what he had put him through, how he had sobbed as he came home afterwards. He was filled with rage. He crumpled the paper up into a tight ball and through it across the room. He wasn’t going to bother with it or Im Jaebum any longer. He was done with having his heart broken.