“Jaejoong-ssi..” I called to him but, again, somebody else came.

“Yah! What is taking you so long here? Oh, Raya! So Haru was right that you’ll be here.” It was Jine. I smiled at him. He turned back to where he came from, waved then shouted, “They’re here! Come on. You only ate pizza, why are you walking so slow?”

Two guys arrived. “That’s the point, we only ate pizza. Why didn’t you have any other food at home? Can we go and eat more somewhere else? Or Raya, did you bring food from uncle’s house?”

As soon as that sentence ended, I watched Jaejoong’s head jerk up. “Changmin-ah.”

We all froze.

Jaejoong slowly left the swing and approached the two. “Changmin-ah. Yunho-yah.”

Changmin turned to Yunho at his right, as if he was asking him what to do. Yunho turned from him towards us. He said, “Why is he here?” He was talking to me for I could see and feel his gaze at me.

“They had dinner with us. Uhm, he lives in this neighborhood, too, so we went together,” I answered, though I know I could have said something more.

“Don’t worry Yunho, I have no plans on stealing her from you,” Jaejoong said after me.

All five of us were surprised at that statement and were about to say he must have misunderstood but Jaejoong spoke up again, “Last time at the restaurant wasn’t really a good place and time for us to talk. Can we talk now? Aren’t you guys glad even for just a bit to see me?” His serious face was fixed on them. “Say something,” he added while his voice broke.

Yunho didn’t say anything at all and just walked towards Jaejoong and gave him a bear hug. “You don’t know how much Changmin misses your cooking.”

“Yah! Hyung, what are you saying?”

I was trying hard not to laugh at Changmin’s frowned face. Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Incoming call from Yoochun.

I distanced myself from the guys before I answered the call. “Yobuseyo?”

“Yobuseyo. Raya-ssi?” Yoochun’s voice asked on the other line.

“Yes. Yoochun-ssi? Why did you call?”

“Oh. I was just wondering if you and Jaejoong hyung got safely home,” he said, then as if he was hesitating, he added, “Actually, hyung is not answering his phone right now. I haven’t yet received a message from him that he’s already at home. I’m just worried that he went out alone.”

“No need to worry Yoochun-ssi. Uhm, I’m with him.” I looked back at Jaejoong and Yunho who was now being approached by Changmin.

“He’s there? Where are you guys? Why are you still together?”

“Uhm, you see we decided to hang out at a park nearby our place, then we ran into some people.” I can’t decide if I should tell him that Jaejoong is now with Yunho and Changmin, talking and—throwing punches on one another. Wait! What are they doing?!

“Just call him later or early tomorrow, okay?” I hurriedly told Yoochun and ran back to where the guys are.

“Are you guys in trouble?” I heard him ask again.

“Not really, I’m sure Jae will tell you all about it later. Okay? Bye for now.” It must have been the shock—I called Jaejoong by his nickname and I hanged up on Yoochun.

As I got to them, Jine was holding back Changmin and Haru was holdig back Jajeoong. Yunho was in between them. I heard Haru say, “Okay, I think that is enough guys.”

“I second that, a few punches is enough, get into more words, okay?” Jine said. He slowly let go of Changmin then turned to me, “Let’s get you home Raya. Let’s leave them to talk.”

“Are you guys okay?” I examined Yunho, then Changmin, then Jaejoong.

“They’ll be fine,” Haru said as he pulled me away from them. We walked towards my car but he shouted back to them, “I’ll bring my car over! You guys talk and stay alive until I come back, okay?!” Three pairs of eyes only stared at him.

Haru pushed me into the driver’s car and they got in. I had no choice but to drive away. However, before I did I glanced back at the three guys we left. Jaejoong and Changmin were now each seated on a swing, with Yunho standing in front of them. His back was on us, but the way both his hands were on his waist tells me he is taking charge to make things well.

Five minutes later, when I parked home, I turned to Haru who was seated at the back, “Did Changmin jumped on Jae?” There goes the nickname again. “Why?”

“Because he missed him, that’s why,” Jine answered. Though I’m not sure if he’s just joking.

“Just let them be, okay? You guys go up now. I’ll drive my car back and lend it to Yunho so they can drive home later,” Haru said.

I sighed in defeat. I know I will not get anything more from them. So I just went into our apartment and get myself ready to rest. But I actually stayed up until Haru came back.

I prepared milk for myself and sat at our kitchen. I forgot to make sure it was hot so in one gulp I’ve finished it. I made another one, a very hot one, and waited for Haru.

He must have noticed the kitchen lights on so he went in and saw me. I only looked at him.

“They talked. And cried.” My eyes grew wide at that.

“Seriously, those guys need to get back together,” Haru added. “You should go to sleep now. We’ll see Yunho and Changmin tomorrow anyway. And Jaejoong said he’ll call tomorrow.”

“Okay, I’ll just finish this.”

“Just bring it to your room.”

And I just decided that I will. I got into my room and remembered to check on my phone. I noticed I had unread messages. One was from Junsu, it says, Raya-ssi, thanks for driving hyung home. Did you guys got home safely? Actually Yoochun is bothering me, he said hyung hasn’t sent a message that he’s home already. Are you still together? Can you please tell hyung to call Yoochun? Thanks again!

Another one was from Yunho, it was sent at the time Jaejoong and I got at the park. It says, Yah! What time are you coming home? It’s past midnight already. We’re at your place, had dinner with Haru and Jine. See you when you get here. :)

The other one was from Changmin, Dongsaeng, will you be kind to your oppadeul as you always do and bring us food from your uncle’s house? Jine’s just ordering pizza. That is so not dinner... Save me, I mean us, please?

The last one was from Jine saying, Changmin’s eaten all my food here at home. :’( Where are you? Haru’s going out to see if you’re at the playground.

What if I have checked my phone earlier? I was trying to answer that question until I finally fell asleep.

The next day, we had our usual busy schedule. Before our last schedule for the day, we first headed back to our company building because the president had called a meeting with us and with TVXQ.

Yunho and Changmin were already at the president’s office along with their manager when we arrived. As soon as we got into our seats, our managers handed each of us a folder. Then the president spoke, “Here’s a proposal that our company and C-Jes came about to have their artists JYJ and TVXQ perform together. I want you to take a look at it.”