Author note: Hey everyone, it's been a long time since I've last updated. For that, I apologize. This update, well... read it at your own risk. Don't said that you haven't been warned. It's the continuation of the previous chapter. Chapter 12 turned out to be longer than I expected.

Anywho... this story is finally closing to the end. One or two more updates and the story should have come to an end. Fighting everyone, to me and all your patient readers. I love you all ~~~chu~chu~~ (>3<)

 

CHAPTER 13 Truth that lays underneath that strong exterior 

 

Present (After Yunho discovers their wedding photo in Changmin’s house as he waits for him –Chapter 12 part iii)   Changmin ruffles his wet hair as soon as he closed the door to his room, childishly thinks that the room would provide the safety he needed at the moment when he had already been caught red handed. The scene happen earlier recalling back inside his head, Changmin had just came out from the shower, feeling well satisfied after having his long overdue shower when he felt like having a glass of water. He thought he could offered one as well to his waiting guest when he saw Yunho picking up the picture frame and staring at the picture. ! No! His first reflex was to hide the picture, wherever it might fits, but of course it was already too late. Yunho had already seen it. The picture didn’t used to be there. Because the whole interior of the apartment was done by his mother, his mother knows her son very well especially his taste so he had nothing against it except the fact she despises her son’s marriage very much. It was impossible to have her put the picture there along with all the other pictures. And so the picture was placed by Changmin himself, by his own hand when he was rummaging back on all his private stuffs. About two weeks after he got back to Korea, barely 8 days after he started his internship as a young doctor, all his belongings he sent through cargo had finally arrived. All his books collection, clothes, winter coats and boots, along with all those other things had finally returned back to the rightfully owner, that include along with that picture. That wedding picture Changmin had it stashed in one of his anatomy books that he rarely looked into. It took him by surprise, the fact that he still had this one picture left of them. See, when he signed the divorce paper, because of the way how they ended their marriage was too bitter for him and how depressing all the thoughts had caused him, he decided to burn all the remaining of their marriage. That include all their pictures together, their stupid couple items, matching sweater and sneaker such, even small gifts like the stuff animals and friendship bangle had been destroyed in the flame of anger and anguish, disgusted back then, by the fact he let himself be a fool and getting marry out of love. That was all the bitterness Changmin had when they decided to end it, but the fact that the picture survived that phase had cause Changmin a strange puzzle.  He wanted to burn it, day in, day out whenever he came across the picture, but kept it just for another day. ‘Tomorrow, I’ll burnt this thing tomorrow.’ So he kept saying that to himself. And then ‘IT’ happen. He met Jung Yunho again, in the flesh, blocking his car, making him irritated for no reason at a whole new level of irritation. The way he got back on him was merely a childish prank but he wasn’t that easily satisfied with just that, to meet that person again seemed like an occurrence that would never take place. But the second meeting happen anyway, throwing him out of his comfort zone. For the period he had been separated from Yunho he often comforted himself that this is better, he doesn’t need anything else other than the life he currently living. That why the stare they had shared for a brief moment at the staircase while hiding from his mother back in the hospital when the two almost ran into one another, caused catastrophes to all his balance system in life. Something big is stirring him and it’s gonna changed him fast. Still… the picture was left forgotten, slipped inside the anatomy book. The moment when Changmin decided to frame the picture and put it along with all the other picture was when Changmin saw how Yunho had treated his mother in the hospital ward, back then when both of them were hospitalized together, Yunho and his mother. He felt bad at that time, the fact that he knew his mother had been giving Yunho a hard time but seeing how Yunho doesn’t hold any grudge against her make him re-considered back of what they had before and what they had lost. It would be a lie to admit that it was entirely Yunho’s fault that they got divorce back then. Relationship doesn’t happen only in one way, it takes two to tango. His mother had been pressuring them and their financial situation wasn’t all that splendid either. That were what had caused the crack in their marriage.   I beg your pardon I never promise you a rose garden Along with the sunshine, There’s gonna be a little rain sometimes - Abba, Rose Garden.   An old song he used to listen to when he was little resounded in his head. Yeah, a little rain, only what he didn’t expected for them was ‘the rain’ to be down-pouring along with the lightning and thunders instead, and Changmin realized this a tad too late. All their miscommunication that eventually ended up with avoidance and a lot more cold shoulders between them worsen the reef that had already started.   Although everyone around them might had seen it as Changmin taking a lot of responsibilities in providing for the two of them, sacrificing a lot, but the truth is… he simply just running away. He pursued medical field because his family told him so, and when he married Yunho, he thought he just started his late rebellious phase against his family and wanted to see how far he was able to go if he ever tried to run away from his comfort zone, his protective shell even if it is just an inch. Meeting Jung Yunho was like that, the feeling of being like a locked bird inside a golden cage for so long, never knowing what the outside world looked like, because he had only being able to stand in the observant position as long as he remembered, he was curious on what the outside world could offer. All the hardship lays outside the cage, and his tangle fate with Yunho broke the lock seal little by little, setting him see how the real world really works. Little did he knew back then, by letting Yunho breaks him free from the golden cage, he found loves and also faced the cold reality of what the harsh world had in store for him. And it scares him. Scared the hell out of him. But Yunho had always been so positive about everything, making he believes in him, trust him, that they are going through this together. Except that they didn’t last that long. Pity. But the moment they had shared, at least when they were disgustingly happy in love was real, and the picture was the last prove he had kept. He would looked at the picture, every now and then to remind him, that he had reached that sort of happiness, once, in his life. It was like a small secret of his, one that he would want to keep to himself until death or whatever came close to that.   The towel he had left outside the room was returned back to his head as Changmin kept his head buried in between his knees, face covered in his arms as he sits in the fetal position on the bed, feeling a strong pair of hands help drying his wet hair, not uttering any other word but just simply continuing the task that was being left off. “Changmin-ah, you should dry your hair properly or else you’re gonna catch cold.” Yunho’s gentle voice filling in the gap between the sounds of the towel ruffling against his hair, trying to catch every drop of water dripping from the wet lock. Changmin caught one of Yunho’s hand, halting his movement, “I can do this on my own.” His quite replied yet he refused to lift his face. Refuse to see what sort of expression is Yunho currently wearing. “Changmin I…” Yunho starts to break the awkwardness between them, making everything seem like it was fine, and it is. Because to Yunho, what he just discover is nothing to be ashamed off. Just because Changmin showed his lingering feeling to him, doesn’t mean that Yunho’s love for Changmin was anything lesser than his. If the one that loves his other half more is the weaker one, then he rather be that weaker one.  But to get Changmin to know that, it was