“Minnie-ah-“

“Don’t, Kyu, just... don’t,” Sungmin sighed heavily, desperately fighting to keep his face straight and his voice from wavering, despite the fact that this was probably the hardest thing he had ever had to do and thus felt more like curling up into a ball and sob his heart out.

“I love you,” Kyuhyun begged, his hold on the smaller man’s wrist tightening. He didn’t want to let go, not now, not ever.

“I know. But this has to stop. You are getting married for Christ’s sake!” Sungmin responded and yanked his arm free, clutching it to his chest and rubbing the wrist where Kyuhyun’s hand was just a second ago, as if the touch had burned a mark into his skin.

“Min, I can’t... I can’t lose you! Please!” Kyuhyun yelled, clearly desperate now, tears b his eyes and threatening to fall.

“You won’t, Kyu. You will never lose me, but we can’t continue. I will leave now and then I will see you at... the wedding.” Saying your wedding was too hard.

“And then we will be friends. Nothing more than friends. You owe it to your family to at least try to work it out with her, and it won’t work if you and I are still... If we are...” he trailed off, unable to put a label on what they were and what they had been doing. He pulled himself together and made to leave, only to be stopped by Kyuhyun’s arms that s around his middle and clutched him a little too tightly, pressing Sungmin’s back against his front.

“Don’t go,” Kyuhyun choked, his head resting against Sungmin’s shoulder, tears falling onto the fabric that covered the skin he knew so well. Sungmin froze completely, clenching his eyes shot tightly and taking one deep breath.

“I have to,” he replied, his voice breaking as he shook the younger off and ran out of the apartment.

The wedding was grand. Only the best man noticed the pain that was masked well in the eyes of the groom, and that was only because he carried it himself. However, he managed to mask it so no one could see it, not even the groom. The bride was beautiful and if the groom cried during the ceremony, the guests simply cooed while the parents of the two lovebirds congratulated themselves on a successfully arranged marriage. It seemed that the two young people had every chance of living happily ever after with each other despite only having met a handful of times before the wedding. After the reception the best man drove to the airport and got on a plane to Japan, leaving everything behind. He tried to ignore the tuck in his heart when the airplane took off, though it felt as if his heart hadn’t left Korea with him.

Sungmin decided to go pick up some takeout on his way home from work. He would usually cook dinner for himself every night, but today had been long and horrible and he just wanted to go home and cuddle up under a blanket. Even though he had been in Japan for a little over a year now, he still hadn’t build up an impressive social network and the people he considered as friends were nothing more than that. None of them were close friends and he had never told any of them why he had left Korea in the first place. When he had just arrived here, he still kept in contact with his old friends at home, but all of them knew Kyuhyun as well; Sungmin wasn’t strong enough to not ask about Kyuhyun. 5 months ago Donghae had answered Sungmin’s inquiry with the message that Kyuhyun’s wife was pregnant and that the couple was practically shining with happiness. Sungmin still had no idea to this day how he managed to not just hang up immediately after he got that message. When he finally had hung up, however, he curled up in his bed and cried for hours. The next day he had called in sick and spent the day systematically going through his apartment and throwing out anything that was connected to Korea. He closed down his email account and called his phone operator to change his number and make sure that messages and calls to the old number wasn’t redirected to the new one. He even dyed his hair blonde in an attempt to fool himself to believe that he was really starting over. When he was done, he had cut all the ties he could remember existed for the people back in Korea to reach him, as well as tried to cut all things that could remind him of his old life. Instead of feeling liberated, he had felt empty.
He pushed the door open and the lights, sighing in relief when his feet where finally freed from the shoes he had worn all day.

“Hey Zen,” he greeted, smiling when the cat began purring at the attention. As usual, the cat was sprawled out on the floor just inside the door, ready to be given immediate attention as soon as her owner stepped in through the door. Sungmin bent down and petted the cat, scratching her behind one of the pointed ears. He smiled at the cat’s content expression and then stood up to go to the kitchen and get some chopsticks so he could eat the takeout he’d bought. Once he had found the needed equipment, he flopped down on his couch with a heavy sigh. He only just managed to drape a blanket over his lap before Zen jumped into it and busied making herself comfortable with loud, happy purrs.

“I had a horrid day,” he admitted to the cat, staring at one of the pieces of chicken he was currently holding up in front of his eyes to study thoughtfully. He shrugged, stuffed it into his mouth and continued his ramble through his chewing.

“I haven’t been able to take my mind off of home the entire day. I felt like locking myself in a toilet stall and just cry my eyes out, but what good would it do? I really need to pull myself together. The only thing keeping me here, is myself, so I really shouldn’t moan about being here like this.” He sighed deeply.

“I just really miss everyone,” he mumbled sadly. Zen answered with a noise that was a mix between a purr and a meow and rubbed her head against his hand.

“I love you too,” he answered with a sad smile, trying to forget that he was pretty much all alone in his life and how lonely he felt. He spent the next hour and a half watching television and petting Zen, who purred happily until she fell asleep on his lap. He was beginning to doze off himself when her ears suddenly seemed to concentrate on the hallway and a second later she rose, lazily stretching before she went to the hallway and meowed. Sungmin frowned and stretched as well, wondering what the cat was doing until the doorbell rung mid-stretch. His frown deepened and he rose with a grunt, making his way to the front door. Zen was rubbing her entire body on the door while purring. Sungmin bent down and picked her up, wanting her in hand to make sure she wouldn’t run off when he opened the door. He adjusted her slightly, before unlocking the door and opening it. He was left completely speechless when he saw who stood on the other side of the doorway and he unconsciously hugged Zen closer in an attempt to be sure he wasn’t dreaming. The cat hissed and fought, not liking to be squished like that, and scratched his arm, immediately running away to hide when Sungmin dropped her in surprise. He clutched his arm to his chest, doing his best to stop whatever bleeding there was, and was painfully reminded of a horrid day in his past.

“Min?” the figure in the doorway breathed, cheeks red and breath pant