A/N: again i am saddened i cant follow the actual timeline of the songs being released bc the song here came out before moving on,,, but then i also made up a season of njttw with all seven members so im doing what i want;; Im so emotional i actually finished this i love these two characters so much

“Where are you going this time?” Heechul asked, his head hanging from the edge of the couch and his legs propped up and leaning on the wall. He watched, upside down, as his sister started standing up from her place on the couch and gathering her things into the small bag she brought. They had gone out for lunch together and ended up in his apartment while lost in conversation for hours because the two of them were always the talkative ones in the family. “Is it for work again? I told you to rest. Just stay here and we’ll have dinner together too.”

“It’s not for work!” Heeyoung replied, taking her jacket from the chair she left it on. “And Kyuhyun-ie asked me to meet up with him because he wants me to check on the song he’s working on, so we’ll probably eat dinner after that.”

Heechul blinked three times before he scrambled to sit up properly. “Does this happen often?”

“What? Checking his songs?” Heeyoung paused to think. “No? I wouldn’t say so… It only happened with Aewol-ri back when he asked me to help write the script. But I usually get to hear his songs in advance! You know how he just normally sings a lot. So, he tends to be singing his own songs when we meet up or sometimes we meet up at the recording studio like last month, he was recording—” She stopped herself from saying the title, always ignoring the way her brain stops thinking whenever she remembered the lyrics.

Her brother didn’t say anything about the awkward way she stopped talking, but he patted the spot on the couch beside him. “Heeyoung-ah, can you sit here for a second, please? Oppa just wants to talk about something.”

“We’ve been talking for the past three hours.” She groaned, but followed anyway. “This is why omma used to always get mad about how loud we are.”

Heeyoung met her brother’s eyes expectantly until the question came out of his mouth. “You know that you and Kyuhyun love each other, right? In a more-than-friends, you're-probably-going-to-get-married-and-be-together-forever kind of way?”

She rolled her eyes and moved to stand up. “It’s actually getting annoying how you keep bringing this up.”

Heechul stopped her with a hand on her wrist, pulling her back down. “Look at that. You can’t answer because you can’t lie, which I always found so funny because you’re an actress. But my point is you don’t say ‘no’ because you know that would be a lie, and you don’t say ‘yes’ because you’re…? What? Afraid?”

Heeyoung pursed her lips. “I don’t get why you’re doing this.”

“If you answer me this one question, I will never ever bring it up again.” Heechul promised. “Are you or are you not in love with Cho Kyuhyun?”

“What kind of question is that?” She whined, unable to escape her brother’s piercing gaze.

“A smartly worded one. If I asked you if you liked him, you’d defend it by saying ‘as a friend’. If I asked you if you liked him as ‘more than a friend’, you'd say he’s your best friend. If I ask you if you love him, you’d say you love all your friends, as if none of us know that Kyuhyun was always special to you.” Heechul elaborated, pointing at his sister every once in a while to emphasize his words. “Now answer my question, maknae.”

“Oppa, if I answer this, will you really stop bothering me about it?” Heeyoung asked after a moment of silence.

Heechul scooted over closer to his sister, nodding quickly and encouraging her with wide eyes. “Yes, of course. I just need you to admit it.”

Heeyoung swallowed and took a deep breath before looking her brother straight in the eye. “Then keep bothering me. I don’t really care.” She snatched her wrist away from his grip, taking advantage of the fact he hasn’t processed her words. “We’ve been bothering each other since I was born, waiting until I die isn’t that much of a big deal.”

The older sibling’s jaw dropped in disbelief as his sister stood up with a smirk. “What?”

“Bye, oppa!” She flipped her hair as she walked away. “Bye Heebum-ah and Kibok-ah!”

“YAH!” Heechul screamed, hearing her laugh as she reached the main door. “YOU KNOW NOT GIVING AN ANSWER IS STILL AN ANSWER, RIGHT?” 

The sound of the door closing answered him back and Heechul fell back on his couch. Kibok had stopped playing with his toy by his cage and had made his way on top of his owner’s chest, tugging at his fingers as if asking to play. Heebum remained at the edge of the couch, watching everything with judging eyes. 

“Heebum-ah, Kibok-ah,” Heechul sighed as he sat up again to pick up Kibok’s toy from the floor and threw it to the side, making the energetic rascal run after it. “What are we going to do about those maknaes, hmm?

“Oh, you’re here!” Seokmin stopped outside the door he had exited, blinking at Heeyoung who was just about to enter. “You’re going to meet Kyuhyun, right?”

“Yes, oppa. Are you leaving?” Heeyoung tilted her head in confusion after spotting him carrying his backpack. “I thought you were still recording?”

Seokmin opened his mouth then closed it again, rethinking his response. “Yes. I will be back maybe later. There is an… emergency? I have to get home, but you don’t have to wait for me and can leave when you’re both done.”

Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at him. “Are you sure? You sound like you’re not sure. Do you need help?”

“NO! No, I’m fine.” Seokmin smiled. Heeyoung bit her lip to stop from laughing at how suspicious he looked because she was still so confused. “I’m going to go now.”

“Okay. See you later, oppa.” She said unsurely as the man had already left before she could finish her sentence. Heeyoung shook her head at his actions and just went inside the building instead.

The building was small. It really just had a bunch of recording booths that were available for rent. Heeyoung was familiar enough with the place because she would sometimes visit whenever Kyuhyun chose to record his covers or his solo songs there, which was often enough since it was closer to the dorms. She easily found her way to the room that Kyuhyun usually used and knocked lightly.

“You’re here.” Kyuhyun stated and smiled at her, but she knew in an instant that it was fake. “Okay… Hello.”

Her hand stayed on the handle and she frowned in confusion and concern. “Did you not want to see me?”

He quickly stood up from the couch. “No, no, no, it’s not that.” Heeyoung saw him avoiding eye contact and recognized the signs of nervousness. “Get in. Take a seat.”

Heeyoung hesitated for another minute before entering. She ignored his gestures to sit at the small sofa beside him and opted for the one of the tall wooden stools at the corner of the room, placing her bag on the main table and leaning on the wall when she sat down.

“Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?” She watched him closely while he still failed to look in her direction. “You look so nervous. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you this nervous.”

He cleared his throat before standing up and moving to the screen that was used to edit the songs. “I’m just a bit nervous about your reaction to the song. I probably shouldn’t be, but I am.” Kyuhyun took one of the papers at the side of the table and offered it to her.

“Well, yeah. You shouldn’t be. I always enjoy your songs.” Heeyoung accepted the paper, but just glanced at it before focusing back on her friend. “Are these the lyrics?”

Kyuhyun confirmed that it was as he went back to the couch. “I was asked to sing for an OST. They had the entire thing prepared already, but I thought that I could write my own lyrics instead with the message that they wanted, and they let me.” Heeyoung’s hand gripped the lyric sheet a bit tighter with his next words. “It’s kind of a response to the part you wrote for Aewol-ri.”

Neither of them said anything for a minute. One of them was trying to keep her breathing in check while the other was nervously looking at his hands. “Can you click the play button? The song’s loaded up for you to listen to it. Just click the spacebar when you’re ready.”

Heeyoung was pretty sure that if she waited until she was ready, she wasn’t going to be able to hear the song today. She blinked three times and took a deep breath before mechanically clicking the key then sitting up stiffly on her seat as the sound of a piano played in the room.

It’s deja vu to be sitting there, realizing that the lyrics of the song playing were a message for her. The first part was fine. She could tell herself it wasn’t that deep, and maybe it was simply just a response inspired by the Aewol-ri lyrics instead of actually being a song for her. 

나의 맘이 부담이 돼

그대가 달아날까 봐

함께 있는 지금만으로도

충분하다 생각했지만

점점 커지는그댈 향한 마음에

이젠 말을 하고 싶죠

I’m afraid my feelings will overwhelm you

And make you run away

So I thought it was enough

That we were together in the same place

But my feelings for you keep growing

And now I want to tell you

But then that would be lying and, Heechul was right, she can’t lie. There’s this weird disgusting feeling under her skin when she lies and that’s why she doesn’t. But she can push and hide certain emotions deep enough so that she could trick herself and be blind to the fact that it was ever even there.

Every single line she was hearing, she could sing back to him as well. Heeyoung could feel her heart speeding up as the music played, his voice delivering the emotions as perfectly as always. He sang about his fear, one that she always had and had been holding her back. But he apparently overcame it, seeing as he was confessing through this song.

그댈 사랑하고 있어요

꽤 오래전부터

그대를 처음 본 후 지금까지

내 마음이 한순간 네게 움찔했죠

그때부터 나의

세상은 달라졌죠

I’ve been in love with you

Since a quite long time ago

From the moment I first saw you till now

In just one moment, my heart twitched toward you

Ever since then, my world has changed

Kyuhyun watched as the tension in her shoulders didn’t fade. But she sat sideways, back to the wall, and he could see her face. He saw the corners of lift up ever so slightly when they reached the chorus, and it was enough for Kyuhyun to want to jump up and down with joy. Of course, nothing was sure, especially for what he was doing. But he let out a small sigh of relief as he saw her expression. 

No matter what happens, he knew they were going to be fine. This had waited too long. A confession pushed back by fear, by ignorance, by hesitation, and by circumstances. Everyone around him had been encouraging him to do something or to tell her the truth, but they were good. They really were. It’s just that the possibility of losing that wasn’t something Kyuhyun wanted to ever consider.

그댄 아마 모르겠죠

나의 이런 마음들을

요동치는 소리까지도 꼭 숨겼으니까

난 아직도 많이 겁이 나지만

이제는 용기 내볼게요

You probably don’t know

That I have these feelings

Because I even hid the sounds of it moving

I’m still really afraid

But I’ll take courage now

He wondered if it was true, what people around them said. Kyuhyun had kept the fact that he liked her more than she knew a secret as much as he could. It didn’t stop people from trying to point out to him that Heeyoung treated him differently. He won’t deny it, it’s pretty obvious. But Heeyoung had always emphasized how he was her closest friend or her best friend, so he took it as a given that she’d treat him differently from her other friends. 

Kyuhyun didn’t realize that he was smiling as he looked at her. Any sort of nervousness or fear he felt was fading just at the sight of her, as it always has been. She always had that effect on him. Even if it was the most stressful, anger-inducing, tiring day that he had ever lived, she managed to make him feel better, with just a short phone call or quietly sitting by his side.

곁에 있는 지금도 행복해

여태껏 아껴뒀던 말

I’m happy just by being by your side

Words I saved up till now

Heeyoung kept her eyes on the paper, in a trance as she followed each line being revealed to her in the song. He was singing everything that she had ever thought of as well, but never revealed. She felt like she was playing one of those games she saw on shows, like the balloon game that you keep clicking until it pops. Each word was a click and she’s not entirely sure she’s ready for everything to burst out in the open. She’s not really sure how she feels in general. A part of her feels happy? Excited? Nervous? And there’s a part of her that feels like none of this is real, and wouldn’t that just be disappointing?

그댈 사랑하고 있어요

꽤 오래전부터

혹시 그대도 나와 같길 기도하며

내 마음이 한순간 네게 움찔했죠

그때부터 나의 세상은 달라졌죠

I’ve been in love with you

Since a quite long time ago

I’m praying that you feel the same

In just one moment, my heart twitched toward you

Ever since then, my world has changed

The last notes of the song faded away. They sat in silence for a moment until Kyuhyun realized that Heeyoung was still staring at the paper and, most likely, had not realized that it was over. He bit back a smile seeing her focused expression and cleared his throat as he stood up. Heeyoung slightly jumped in surprise at the sound, but kept her eyes down when Kyuhyun moved the desk chair beside her and sat on it, leaving only a little space between them. 

He faced the glass of the recording booth so Heeyoung was still sitting on the stool on his left and facing him. Kyuhyun placed his hand on the table, drumming his fingers on the wooden surface lightly as he considered what he should say.

“How’s the song?”

“Good.” Her reply was automatic. Instant.

“Do you think it fits as an OST? Is there anything you think I should change?”

“I think it’s good.”

“You already said that.” Kyuhyun huffed. He closed his eyes for a moment before making up his mind and turning his chair to face her directly instead, their knees barely touching. “Let’s be honest. You’re not stupid, right? You know what this song meant?”

She softly smiled, amused at his words. “Yes.”

“I meant what I put in the lyrics.” Kyuhyun started, his tone soft and sincere. “I did like you from the start. Maybe I didn’t realize it immediately, but I have liked you since we were trainees. I’ve been told I was pretty obvious, so it’s really weird you never noticed.” He chuckled.

Kyuhyun tilted his head as he looked at her thoughtfully. “Remember when that whole thing with the nurse happened and I started saying I didn’t believe in destiny? The whole fated encounter to meet your soulmate thing? Sorry, I think I was lying about that.” He grinned sheepishly. “I was lying because I’m pretty sure the way we met in that hallway was a fated encounter. Imagine if someone was there earlier to help you and we never met?” He shuddered and saw her smile at his actions. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

“So, that counts for the fated encounter part. The soulmate one?” He sighed then shook his head. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think that needs an explanation for the both of us, right? No words can even begin to describe it.”

“You’re…” he paused, swallowing before he continued. “You and I know how important you are to me as my friend. And I think the level of importance you reached scared me so ing much, so I ignored the feelings I had for you that was more than what friends should have for each other. Pretended it wasn’t there and denied it to anyone who asked.”

He ran a hand down his face. “I tried to move on. I really did. But we would always find each other.”

“You literally moved to America for a while! I thought I would be able to move on, but no.” Kyuhyun laughed as if having an inside joke with himself. “When you told me you were dating someone, the first serious relationship you’ve had, I was on autopilot for a month until you told me you broke up and I was able to ‘get better’.”

“Then you visited me.” Kyuhyun closed his eyes, getting lost in that memory. “I knew I missed you, but I just didn’t realize how much until I saw you standing there. I just felt so, so, so, ing happy to see you. It’s not like we didn’t talk a lot since you left. We contacted each other as much as we could, but at that moment? When I saw you and I was able to hug you again? It felt like I was home.”

He opened his eyes again, and looked at Heeyoung. He really, really wanted to brush that strand of hair that escaped back behind her ear, but this didn’t seem like the right time.

“You wrote the chorus of Aewol-ri for me. I’m actually not sure if I’m right, but when you were singing it in the cafe, I was pretty sure that you wrote it for me. About me. And it sounded like you were giving up.” Kyuhyun stopped to laugh again. “I’m so annoyed, by the way, because you never listen when you’re focused. I literally confessed to you and told you that I liked you after you sang, but you didn’t hear me! So rude, if you ask me.”

His smile faltered a bit in his next words. “I just said it without thinking. ‘I like you’. If you heard it, I would have said everything right then and there. But then when I did think about it during that moment, I remembered you’d have to go away for a while again, and I’d have to continue the military thing… The timing wasn’t right.”

 “But wait,” Kyuhyun widened his eyes dramatically, changing his tone to somehow lift the mood. “You came back!” He smiled. “And I expected it this time, but woah, I was so, so, so, so unbelievably happy to have you back here. And I’ve just been enjoying our time together since you came back. It felt like I was going through all the emotions again. I’ve been recalling our memories together more often, both good and bad.”

“I wrote Moving On about the day you left.” He nodded slowly as he confessed. “I know you noticed that. It’s not like I tried to hide it, and Seokmin hyung pretty much gave you all the information you needed to figure it out. You obviously noticed.” Kyuhyun narrowed his eyes at her playfully. “Pretty rude you didn’t say anything.”

He looked at the lyric sheet that Heeyoung had placed on the table. “So I rediscovered these feelings or whatever and just came to a realization. I had to tell you about it because this isn’t going away. It probably never will. And I don’t like hiding things from you.”

“That’s pretty much it.” He clapped his hands together once. “You don’t have to say anything or accept this confession. We can go about the rest of the day as if nothing happened.” He looked at her and smiled once more.

“My point is, I’ve liked you as more than just a friend for so long that I will skip saying that and go straight into telling you that,” Kyuhyun paused to take a deep breath, “I’m in love with you, Heeyoung-ah.”

The room was silent for a while.

Kyuhyun huffed, pouting at the woman in front of him. “I literally just confessed my undying love for you and not once have you looked me in the eye.”

Heeyoung, who had been looking down at her hands the entire time, suddenly burst into laughter as she looked to her right, still avoiding eye contact. “I can’t.”

"Just try!

"I can't!"

“Why not?” Kyuhyun asked, dragging out the last syllable.

Heeyoung shook her head with a wide smile, still looking at the empty couch instead of the man sitting in front of her. “I just can’t!” She imitated his whining tone.

Kyuhyun thought for a second before reaching out to gently grab one of Heeyoung’s hands. He waited for her to pull back, but when she didn’t he settled their hands in the space between them as he softly ran his thumb across her knuckles. “Okay,” he said. “Then at least try to say something. Not about the entire thing I just told you. How about you tell me where you wanna eat dinner, hmm? Or is there something you actually think I should work on about the song but you couldn’t be objective about it because of the meaning? Sorry, that’s on me.”

A light chuckle escaped Heeyoung as she brought her eyes to look at their hands. “I think I liked you from the start, too.” She finally said, her hold on his hand tightened for a second. “I always wanted to spend time with you and I always felt like I could be free to be myself around you. So, yes, I didn’t know you liked me,” she looked up to meet his eyes, “but it turns out, you’re just as bad. You didn’t know I liked you too.”

The eye contact ended when it was Kyuhyun who couldn’t handle looking at her right now. She had a fleeting thought that they probably looked like a couple of teenagers confessing to each other with how they were acting, but she only looked back down at their hands without a word.

“You’re my soulmate, Kyuhyun-ah. It’s not something I ever doubted too. You became someone I didn’t think I could live to lose so I, like what you did, kept what we had as friends because we were already comfortable with that,” she laughed shortly, “even if everyone always said that we always acted like we were dating.”

“We’re so stupid.” Heeyoung said. She shook their hands lightly, getting her point across and making the other laugh. “We’re both such cowards and we’re both so stupid.”

“I’m pretty sure that if you told me to, in a serious way?” Heeyoung continued, a hint of hesitance in her tone, “ Not half joking like you always did? I wouldn’t have gone all the way to America.” She felt his gaze go back to her so she met his eyes again. “I know, you wouldn’t have done that. You were always so supportive of me and I always felt so grateful to have you by my side.”

Some memories came back to her and she looked away with a heavy sigh. “I missed you so much.” Heeyoung could feel like she could cry any second now, but she held it in. “I didn’t say that often enough, but I think it’s obvious from the thousands of times I called you even if those calls could sometimes only last for a few minutes.”

“And the fact that I wrote Aewol-ri supports that too. Look at us, reminiscing memories and writing songs about it.” She shook her head. “Yeah, I did write that about you. That was me attempting to move past whatever I felt for you, by the way. It was like I was just resigning myself to the fact that we’ll always just be friends and I was happy with that.”

Heeyoung looked back at him, grinning. “But like you said, it’s like we weren’t allowed to move on. It just wasn’t an option.” She exaggeratedly sighed, as if it was the biggest burden in her life. “I came back and we would meet up whenever we were both free, and you wrote that stupid song, which, yes, I noticed.” She rolled her eyes playfully.

Her tone went soft again. “It’s just so weird, how the mind works. I knew deep down that the song was about that day, but I kept convincing myself otherwise. I kept thinking maybe you just used it as an inspiration with no deeper meaning or something, but now—” She cut herself off with a laugh. “It’s not like I can pretend anymore if you said it straight out.

“I cannot believe we were supposed to be the smart ones!” Heeyoung looked at him with wide-eyed disbelief. “You, the Math Olympiad. Me, the best in studying between us 3 siblings.” She paused and thought about what she just said. “Okay, to be fair, that doesn’t sound like much when you think of Heechul oppa, but Heejin unnie was pretty good. Let’s just focus on the fact that you were the Math Olympiad and I was the class president for several years! We’re supposed to be smart!”

Kyuhyun was already laughing at the sudden direction the talk went. “Yes, we were.”

Heeyoung watched fondly as Kyuhyun calmed down. Her eyes went back to their hands and she squeezed tightly. It felt different, despite the numerous times they’ve held hands before. “My point is,” she said softly, “I think we’ve been so stupid for too long. We have to end that now.”

Their eyes met once more as Heeyoung smiled. “I’d be stupid to turn down your confession if I love you too.”

She laughed when Kyuhyun breathed out a sigh of relief. His hand gripped hers surely as he slightly moved the chair closer to her. He finally let his other hand tuck the loose strands of hair behind her ear and took a second to gaze back at her

“Can I kiss you now?” He asked softly.

She smiled. “I think that is very much part of our agenda in beating the ‘we’re stupid’ allegations.”

He laughed at her words before leaning in, gently pushing her back to the wall with his hand at the back of her neck as their lips met. The kiss was short and sweet, both of them pulling away to lean their forehead against the other’s. 

Kyuhyun hummed contentedly, the smile on his lips feeling like it was going to be there forever. “I love you.” He whispered.

Heeyoung grinned and let go of his hand in favor of wrapping her arms around him. “I love you, too.” She said, burying her head against his neck as he pulled her closer in response.

“We’re not stupid anymore!” Kyuhyun announced excitedly to the quiet room, he pressed his cheek against her head as she shook with laughter.

“Finally.”

A/N: im tagging this as completed bc idk when im gonna be putting the epilogues or if im even going to do it but omgggg its finished shfbxwehsdf im still so v emotional