A/N: hi, everyone!

Sorry for the bit of delay for this update. I honestly didn't think I'd end up writing the first part of the Epilogue to be this long o.O

Hehe, so let's see know if they actually get a happy ending, or if you guys will be killing me by the end of the chapter instead, shall we? :))

I hope you all enjoy it! :3

December 13, 2013

It was about past six in the evening, and the campus was almost completely empty. I walked along the oval, heading towards the main library building. Next week, the Christmas vacation would be starting, so most people were already relaxing. You know, the usual student procrastination of just doing everything that they needed a day before the Christmas vacation ended in January.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t be blessed with the chance to do the same as the majority of the student population. I had another ten-paged paper due next Tuesday, the very last day of the regular classes before vacation starts. Yep, I always found it odd that my professor taught literature but didn’t even seem to know what the word ‘mercy’ meant.

I wasn’t complaining, though.

All the school work kept my mind from wandering into depressing thoughts. It kept me from thinking about "certain people". It kept me from thinking about a certain someone. And it kept me from wallowing about how things could have been. How things between us would never be.

So, yes, I was glad that the mountains of school work distracted me.

Mostly.

A bit.

Well, either way, I’m grateful for some kind of distraction. Any kind of distraction that would stop me from feeling how much I miss them all.

Though, of course, I suspected that looking at fansites and groups and forums every single night didn’t help me at all. And it also didn’t help with stopping Hanna from nagging me to "stop living in my dreams and get back to reality already!".

But I couldn’t help it. It was the only way that I could see how the boys were doing. Even if it was from a distance. A great distance.

Sighing to myself, I forced these thoughts to the back of my mind for the moment, trying to concentrate on my outline on how I’m going to discuss “Southern American literature in 20th century” as I dragged my feet towards the library.

Ugh.

The “Certain People’s” PoV

“Are you absolutely sure we’re at the right place this time?” Changmin all but snarled to Junsu as they got out of the car as soon as the driver had parked it.

“Of course I’m sure!” Junsu squeaked irritably, offended.

“That’s what you said the last time!”

“Cool it, Changmin,” Yoochun snapped at their youngest as he looked around the mostly empty place.

“It’s a very, very big campus,” Jaejoong frowned worriedly. “How can we even find a specific single person here?”

“Just because it’s a huge search area doesn’t mean that we’re already supposed to give up right away!” Changmin said hotly.

“I didn’t say anything about giving up, you idiot! Clean your ears, maknae!” Jaejoong shot back. He breathed in deeply, trying to remind himself that Changmin has just been so stressed these past few years and was already stretching to his breaking point because of the anxiety that he was feeling now that they were finally here. Now that Changmin was finally so close to finding his missing piece.

“Jaejoong hyung’s right, though. It’s quite a big place,” Yoochun nodded a bit. “We need some kind of plan. We can’t just go roaming mindlessly around, hoping we’ll suddenly get lucky and spot her.”

“Yes, but whatever we’re going to do, it will have to wait until tomorrow,” Yunho said firmly.

“Tomorrow?!” Changmin immediately protested. “I’m not waiting until tomorrow, hyung! I’m not waiting for another day to pass without her! I can’t-!”

Yunho cut Changmin’s rant off by hitting him on the back of his head. “I know you’re really close to breaking down right now, but goddammit, use your brains, Changmin! Or, at least, your eyes!”

Yunho waved an arm to gesture at the practically deserted campus.

“There’s barely anyone here, except for security and maintenance! She probably already went home already! So, I’m afraid you really have no choice but to wait until tomorrow!”

“Didn’t Junsu say that she stays in one of the dorms here in the campus?”

“What, don’t tell us you’re planning to break into a dormitory?!” Jaejoong screeched, looking at Changmin incredulously.

“We’re DBSK. We can surely talk our way in…”

Yunho hit him on the back of his head again.

“What did I tell you about not using who you are to always get your way?” Yunho demanded at him furiously.

“I need to see her again, hyung!”

“And you will! But just wait until tomorrow! It’s just one day more!” Yoochun said, getting quite exasperated. He was really looking forward to the time they see Erin again. And then maybe Changmin’s sense and rationality will finally return again.

“I’ve already been waiting for about four goddamn years!” Changmin argued.

“Changmin, we can’t act rashly!” Jaejoong insisted. “Think of Erin! If we do something risky, she might also get involved, even if it’s indirectly! Think about her!”

And everyone knew that Jaejoong had said the magic words that would effectively get Changmin to calm down and be reasonable. At least to some degree. After all, Changmin had always been the one that was most paranoid when it came to Erin’s safety and well-being.

While his other four members were busy arguing and discussing how they’ll actually search for her, Junsu took the opportunity to look around their surroundings, figuring s could handle the issues just fine without his help. The driver had parked their car in a parking lot in front of what appeared to be a few of the main buildings in the campus. Junsu walked a few paces away from s, out of the parking lot and into the main road along the oval. Standing on what appeared to be a bike lane, he looked left and right. Junsu wondered idly how exactly they were going to find his best friend. There were so many pathways and buildings. And this was only a part of the campus.

Junsu looked back at the parking lot and saw that s were still in deep “discussion”. And, unsurprisingly, Changmin was the one who looked the most stressed out among them.

Sighing and rolling his eyes at his four other members, Junsu just continued to walk a bit further along the oval, though he was careful to remain within sight. He was considerate enough not to add more stress on s by just suddenly disappearing on them.

But just then, Junsu suddenly spotted a lone figure walking further along the oval. A very familiar-looking figure, wearing a very familiar-looking backpack. As the person turned left around a corner, all thoughts of his other members left Junsu’s mind and he sprinted after her.

None of the other members of DBSK noticed that Junsu took off on them.

In fact, it was only about after about ten minutes or so that Yunho finally realized that Junsu was no longer with them.

“Where’s Junsu?” Yunho suddenly said, panicked, his eyes searching around the area frantically for Junsu’s . (What, it’s his most “noticeable” feature, after all, right?)

Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Changmin all turned around, surprised. True enough, Junsu was nowhere in sight.

“Aish, that duckbutt!” Yoochun groaned, rubbing his forehead. “You’d think that he would at least know better than to just disappear on us in an unfamiliar area!”

“Where could he be?” Jaejoong glanced back at Yunho anxiously. “What if some fans suddenly spot him? Oh, I knew that we should have brought Kang and our other bodyguards along with us…”

“We’ve already decided that a group of bodyguards around us would only make us stand out more,” Yunho remind him. “Besides, I’m sure that he’s physically fine, even if he might be lost by now. I mean, the campus is mostly empty already."

“Exactly! Which means that there would be practically no witnesses if something bad happens to him!” Jaejoong said shrilly.

Yunho paled at Jaejoong’s words. He didn’t realize that before.

“Grr, as if it wasn’t already enough that we have to look for one person! Now, we also have to look for him, too!” Changmin shouted angrily in frustration. All the stress was really getting into his nerves. He didn’t like it one bit. Erin was the only one allowed to get into his nerves. That was the only kind of annoyance that Changmin would tolerate (and, in fact, secretly likes).

Suddenly, Yoochun looked up, seemingly studying the trees around them.

“What are you doing?!” Jaejoong demanded incredulously at his soulmate, looking at him weirdly.

“Search the trees! Junsu might have spotted a palm tree and run off to it!”

Jaejoong muttered “You idiot!” and slapped the back of Yoochun’s head.

End of DBSK PoV

As I turned around the corner, the main library finally came into sight.

I let out a relieved sigh.

Normally, the walk from my college building to the library was nothing for me, but as it was already very late and I was now totally feeling wiped out thanks to my classes earlier in the day, I was grateful to finally reach my destination.

Well, almost reach it, at least.

Suddenly, I heard a very, very high-pitched squeal from behind me. I froze at the sound, scared. Now, walking around the campus when it’s already after sundown didn’t seem like such a brilliant idea anymore.

Then, I was nearly knocked over when somebody ran right into me, and I found myself being hugged to death.

My eyes widened in surprise.

Though the squeal and the bone-crushing hug were familiar, I still couldn’t believe it!

Hurriedly, I peeked over the person’s shoulder and looked down. Yep, there was only one person in the world that had that particular .

“Junsu oppa?!” I managed to choke out disbelievingly with the last of the air left in my lungs.

Junsu pulled back a bit and I could see tears streaming down his face. And I could finally breathe again, too.

“Oh God, finally!” Junsu squealed as hugged me tightly again.

“I missed you, oppa,” I sobbed as I also began to cry against his shoulder. “So, so much!”

“You missed me? Well, what about what I had to go through?! I had to live without my best friend for four years!” Junsu wailed, hugging me even tighter. I think a few of my ribs cracked, but God, I didn’t even give a damn anymore and hugged Junsu back just as tightly.

After a few more minutes of crying and mutters of “I missed you!”s and “Oh, thank God, finally!”s, Junsu and I finally let go of each other.

“Not that I’m not pleased to see you, oppa,” I began as I wiped away my tears, unable to remove the happy grin on my face even if I wanted to. “But what exactly are you doing here? I mean, the last thing I expected was a DBSK member running around in our campus.”

“What am I doing here?” Junsu repeated incredulously. “Looking for you, of course! We’ve just arrived here in your campus and were discussing how to best start looking for you when I saw you!”

“You were looking for me?” I asked, a bit startled.

So, Hanna was totally wrong when she said that even if it did happen, the only reason that they haven’t found me yet is that they either didn’t remember me or they just moved on with their lives without me! Apparently, they remembered me and had been looking for me!

God, I can’t wait to rub this on her face! Ha!

“Why are you so surprised? Did you really think that I’d just accept the fact that you were taken back away from us and not do anything about it? I need my best friend in my life, you know!” Junsu huffed, hugging me again.

I pulled back, a confused expression on my face. “But what took you so long to find me? I mean, it’s already been about half a year for me.”

“Uh, yeah, about that…”

But I cut him off as something that he said before just registered in my brain. “Wait, ‘we’? Did you just say before that ‘we’ve just arrived here’? The others are also here?” I all but yelped in surprise.

“Uhm, yes? Why, did you seriously think that they won’t be coming along to find you, too?” Junsu rolled his eyes at me. “Which reminds me, we should get back to them! They’re all dying to see you, too, you know!”

Junsu began to pull at my hand, but I refused to budge, my feet planted firmly on the ground.

“What?” Junsu asked me, puzzled. I think that he expected me to go running back with him to the others when I found out that they were also here. And, believe me, I really want to do that. It’s just that…

“They’re all here? All of them?” I asked again.

“Yes! What’s wrong? I already told you this!”

“Erm… even- even Changmin?” I dared to ask tentatively.

Junsu gave me a ‘duh’ look.

“It’s just that… that…” I stammered to find the right words. “Does he- does he even still feel… that way… for me?”

“What?! Why would you even think that he doesn't?!”

“Oh, I don’t know, oppa… I mean… it’s been years for you guys already… and he might have- I dunno- moved on or something? And I really don’t-“

Junsu rapped me smartly on the side of my head.

“Ouch! That hurt!” I glared at him. “What the hell was that for?!”

“For being a stupid idiot!” he glared right back at me. “Of course Changmin still ‘feels that way’ for you! You should have seen how he was like without you! He’s still goddamn crazy for you! God, you know what, we think he literally went crazy without you!”

“Really?” I said hesitantly, still not able to bring myself to believe that Changmin was still mine, even after all this time. I don’t think my heart would be able to take it if I was proved otherwise.

“Really,” Junsu said firmly. He took hold of my hand again. “So, let’s go!”

“Alright,” I muttered as I allowed him to pull me along. “Where are they, anyway?”

“I left them at the parking lot,” Junsu answered as he glanced back at me.

“Which parking lot?”

Junsu stopped and turned around to face me again, his head tilted to the side in confusion, as though he couldn’t understand my words.

Oh, dear.

“There are a lot of parking lots here, oppa,” I told him, raising an eyebrow pointedly.

“Erm…”

“You just ran off without caring where you were going at all when you saw me, didn’t you?” I snorted. Oh, that was so totally Kiim Junsu!

“Well, excuse me for being so excited at finally seeing my best friend again!” he pouted at me, making me laugh.

“Alright, alright. We’ll search all the parking lots in the campus if we have to. Just so that we can find them again,” I chuckled, shaking my head as we started off again, this time with me being the one to pull Junsu along.

“Yeah, and then maybe you can finally bring back our maknae’s sanity!”

It was when we were on our way to check a third parking lot when we finally saw them from a distance.

I stopped on my tracks.

Seeing Junsu again was one thing. But seeing all of them now? God, it still felt so unreal!

Someone pinch me awake right now!

Wait, no! If was really just dreaming again, please don’t let me wake up anymore!

Junsu put an arm around my shoulders and smiled down at me reassuringly. Somehow, he seemed to understand the tumult of emotions that I was feeling right now, even if I myself can’t untangle them and tell them apart.

“Come on, they’ve all been waiting for you for a long time,” Junsu told me. He held my hand and squeeze it reassuringly, before starting to happily lead me to s, who were grouped together in a circle and seemingly arguing worriedly amongst themselves. Probably about Junsu’s sudden disappearance.

“Guys, look what I found!” Junsu squealed excitedly as we approached them.

“Junsu! Thank God! Do you have any idea how worried we were about you?! Where the hell have you been?! We thought-“

Yunho was the one that was already facing our direction to begin with, so he was the first one to look at Junsu when his squeal announced his arrival. And the leader’s eyes widened and he broke off from scolding Junsu when he saw that I was trailing along behind their previously lost member.

“ERIN!” Jaejoong screamed loudly, his eyes big and round with disbelief, before dashing towards us and pulling me into another bone-crushing, rib-cracking, lung-damaging hug.

“Jaejoong oppa,” I mumbled against him as I hugged him back, my tears starting to flow out of my eyes again. “I missed you all so badly, oppa…”

That had Jaejoong bawling his eyes out as he hugged me even tighter. I think my body was going to be covered with bruises after all this hugging, but who the hell cares, right? I was finally back with them again! The world could suddenly crumbled into oblivion around us and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelid!

Then, I found myself being pulled away from Jaejoong and it was the leader himself that was hugging me.

“Yunho oppa!” I both cried and smiled at the same time as I looked up at him.

“Erin, I-“

But Yunho didn’t even get to finish what he was trying to tell me before I was passed along to the next member.

“My turn!” Yoochun said as he grabbed me from Yunho, earning himself a half-hearted glare from his leader (it was only half-hearted because Yunho can’t exactly give a full-out glare with teary and puffy eyes, can he, now?).

“You’re still incorrigible as always, Yoochun oppa,” I reprimanded him, but I also hugged him tightly as well, anyway.

“You missed that, admit it!” Yoochun snorted.

“I missed you,” I corrected him, laughing a bit. Oh, God, I don’t know how I managed to survive without them for so long, but I definitely didn’t want to do it again!

“I wanna hug Erin again!” Junsu suddenly whined. I guess he’s getting jealous from how s were hugging me so much.

“You had her all to yourself before you brought her here! So, let us have our turn in hugging her!” Jaejoong admonished him, trying to hug me again. But Yoochun just held me tighter against his chest, refusing to let me go.

In fact, he continued to hug me for several, long minutes straight. I thought it was quite odd, but oh, well…

But then, Jaejoong said in a warning tone, “Yoochun…”

“What?” Yoochun mumbled innocently at him against my hair. I could feel that he was smiling mischievously, though, making me look up at him, my eyebrows raised questioningly. He just grinned down at me “innocently”, hugging me even tighter against him.

“Let her go now,” Jaejoong said in the same warning tone.

“But I missed her!” Yoochun protested.

“Yes, we know you missed her,” Yunho rolled his eyes. “And we also know that you’re trying to bait Changmin’s temper, so let her go!”

At the mention of his name, I looked over Yoochun’s shoulder to see the last and youngest member, who was currently glaring at the smirking and unfazed Yoochun. When our eyes met, Changmin’s face went blank. He just stared at me.

I extracted myself from Yoochun’s grip and hesitantly walked a few steps towards Changmin.

“Uhm, hi…” I said quietly and lamely, not quite able to meet his eyes.

God, what if Junsu was wrong? What if Changmin didn’t feel that way towards me anymore?

But then, Changmin proved that my silly worries were just that. That they really were only silly worries.

Just like during my last night with them, Changmin suddenly pulled me towards him and hugged me tight, kissing me hard.

My eyes widened in surprise. But then, they fluttered close a few seconds later and my fingers tangled with Changmin’s hair. I pulled him closer to me, deepening our kiss.

And boy, did we kiss.

It was… passionate. Desperate. Fervent. Reverent. Slow. Frantic. Soulful. Gentle. Hard. Sensual. Sweet. Out of this world. Mind-blowing. Unbelievable. Inexplicable.

Well, I don’t really know if a kiss can actually be all those things all at the same time, but God, it certainly felt that way!

When we finally pulled away because our lungs were demanding for some air (not even Junsu’s and Jaejoong’s hugs combined could make me this breathless!), tears were flowing down our faces.

“God, I missed you!” Changmin whispered brokenly, pressing his cheek against mine, our tears mixing. He hugged me so tightly that it was almost painful. But I wasn’t complaining. It seemed like he was trying to convince himself that I was finally in his arms again.

We were in the same boat. I pressed myself closer against him, trying to make my mind understand that I was finally with him again.

“I missed you, too. Badly,” I mumbled, nudging his damp cheek with my nose.

“Never leave me again? I can’t take it if I lose you again. Promise me you’ll never leave me again?” he begged me, his eyes looking down right into mine that I could see the desperation clearly in them. The desperation to hear that he would never have to live without me again.

“Promise.”

And we were back to kissing again, pouring our everything into it. Our sadness, our happiness, our longing… Everything.

“Are you guys planning to resurface anytime soon?” Yoochun’s voice interrupted after a while.

Changmin pulled back only long enough to glare at him and say, “No! So, get lost!” And he went straight back to kissing me again.

Yoochun let out a noise of both amusement and exasperation, but I barely even noticed it, because at that moment, Changmin slipped his tongue into my mouth, making me moan a bit. God, I’ve only experienced his kissing for a bit before I had to leave, but I goddamn missed this so badly!

“Gah, my poor ears!” Junsu clapped his hands over ears. Then, his eyes widened, as though he just realized what he was seeing. He quickly closed his eyes shut. “And my eyes! My poor eyes and my poor ears!”

Yoochun gave him a shove.  “Oh, knock off the dramatics, Su! We all know you’re not that much of the pure, innocent angel Xiah that most of your fans believe you to be!”

“Yes, but I’m still not exactly comfortable with our baby maknae and my best friend making out in public, so excuse me if I’m a bit squeamish!” Junsu opened his eyes to shoot a dirty look at Yoochun.

Jaejoong and Yoochun just rolled their eyes at him, while Changmin and I were still mainly just ignoring them all and were busy losing ourselves into each other. Yunho was frowning, though. He walked over to us and pulled Changmin away from me.

“Oi!” Changmin said angrily, glaring furiously at Yunho.

“Yunho oppa, I wasn’t done kissing him yet!” I complained.

Yunho snickered at that. “I’m sure you weren’t.  But I’m afraid that you’ll have to wait until we’re in a more private place before you continue on with getting your lips ‘reacquainted’ with each other. Junsu’s right, you shouldn’t be making out in such a public place. It’ll be messy if fans or paparazzi spot you…”

“There’s no fans or paparazzi around!” Changmin protested. "There's nobody around!"

“All the same, just try to restrain yourselves for a while,” Yunho rolled his eyes.

The moment he walked back to Jaejoong’s side, though, Changmin pulled me back into his arms.

“No kissing!” Yunho insisted again firmly, eying Changmin warningly. Changmin rolled his eyes in exasperation, but just contented himself with nuzzling his face against my neck instead.

“That’s hardly any better,” the leader muttered under his breath, displeased.

“Oh, leave them alone, Yunnie,” Jaejoong smacked his arm playfully. “They missed each other!”

“Too true,” Changmin mumbled against my skin.

“I missed you, too,” I told him again, smiling at him.

“No, you didn’t,” Yoochun snorted, causing Changmin to glare at him.

“Yoochun