PART II: THE STORY HAS JUST BEGUN

Jaejoong stared holes into the clock hanging over the chalkboard. There were only 30 minutes left until the end of the school day, but they ticked by slowly, the minute hand creeping around the clock at a snail's pace. A year ago, he'd been a good and attentive student during his English lectures since he'd considered the language essential to his songwriting, but for his final year, the class had been moved to the end of the day, right when he was itching to leave school to head over to C&M and get to work. Of course, the rigorous dancing and lessons from the vocal coaches could be just as difficult as mastering English, but he found his idol training a bit more rewarding, especially since that was the time he could spend together with Yunho.

While Jaejoong continued obsessively watching the clock, he could feel his bored classmates staring at him. He'd never been popular before, and he wasn't sure that he was now, but after it had been leaked out that he'd become a trainee, everyone finally knew who he was. The amount of girls who were willing to be on speaking terms with him dramatically increased, and some even pestered him in between classes about him introducing him to other famous people or getting them into agencies with his newfound standing. Even the guys looked at him respect now, mainly because C&M happened to be the label of trending girl group Starkiss, though Jaejoong told them repeatedly that he hadn't gotten to meet any of them in person yet.

Jaejoong didn't care in the slightest about the increased interest in him among his classmates. It was years too late for them to erase their previous indifference or outright bullying, and now that he knew what having real, legitimate friends felt like, he knew they would only be pale copies even if he did forgive them. He was just happy to at last be doing something he loved, and if that cut down on being picked on at school, that was fine by him, even if his classmates had their shallow reasons for being nice.

As soon as the lecture concluded, Jaejoong grabbed his backpack and darted off before someone could stop him and bother him about Starkiss or any other idol they wanted to meet. He had special permission from the school to miss some classes according to the company's schedule, provided he still did his homework and passed his tests, but since Starkiss had just released a single and were promoting, the trainees' schedules had loosened up a bit since everyone at C&M was occupied with their star talent. It had been a few days since Yunho had been able to take the bus up to the company, since he was forced to use their greater free time to catch up on school given that he wasn't doing as good of a job as Jaejoong was at passing his tests. He'd texted Jaejoong earlier that he'd be able to make it today, though-- and that he was coming to stay for the weekend so he could stay close to the company-- and Jaejoong wanted to get over to the agency as soon as possible to see him.

Luckily, it wasn't too far of a walk. Now that it was fall, the heatwave had effectively ended, and it was even a bit nippy as he jogged down the streets, hugging his blazer close to his chest. He tried to appreciate it while he still could, since he usually worked up a sweat as soon as he stepped into the practice room. With Yunho on the trainee team, they'd all had to step up their dancing, but no matter how hard they worked, it didn't feel as if they'd ever come close to catching him.

When Jaejoong made it to the agency, only Chansik had made it there already; Yunho and Seungmin were still missing. The four of them had been the ones to pass the first round of auditions, which were still ongoing. According to their trainers, they would be picking up new trainees over the upcoming months, and their groups would most likely change a few times before debuting became an issue; some of them would move onto other agencies, and there was a chance that a few of them would get to debut before the others. But that was all off in the future. Right now, the four of them were fairly close and enjoyed working together even if they weren't going to be the final line-up of a group for certain.

“Hey, hyung,” Chansik said, stretching out his long limbs. He was a low-range rapper, and his height and deep voice made him seem older than Jaejoong, though he was only sixteen. “How was school?”

“Boring. Have the others dropped by?”

“Not yet.”

Jaejoong sighed. “All right. I'll get changed, then, and be out in a second.”

Once he was in their makeshift dressing room, Jaejoong pulled off his school uniform and dug around for his workout clothes. He always changed quickly, since the room, like all the others in the C&M building, were smothered with posters of Starkiss, the only group they had managed thus far. They were wildly popular, though, not just because they were beautiful, but because they had a way of commanding their stages that made it hard to look away from them whenever they were singing. Though he hadn't met them yet-- their training schedules were completely opposite from the new entrants'-- he felt like he knew them well just from listening to the trainers talk about them and from monitoring their stages. Leader Gaeun had been from the countryside before self-funding a trip to Seoul to audition, sub-vocalist Saehee was in the process of debuting as an actress, rapper Brie grew up in England and was fluent in English, and the lead vocalist and maknae Soorin was quiet and didn't speak unless there was a camera pointed at her.

Right when he was pulling on his t-shirt, the door creaked open and Yunho poked his head in. When he saw Jaejoong, his eyes lit up. “Boojae!”

Jaejoong's heart fluttered pleasantly in his chest. It was October now, and they had technically been dating since August, but sometimes when he looked at Yunho, he was still amazed that they were actually together. When he moved back home, he'd worried a little bit that the whole thing had been some sort of swept-up-in-the-moment accident on Yunho's part, but miraculously Yunho seemed to like him just as much as he had before, though he was much more subdue about it when they weren't alone. They'd already received the “dating-and-being-a-new-idol-don't-mix” lecture, and the “if-you-are-gay-or-bi-you-aren't-if-anyone-asks” addendum, and Yunho had decided keeping Jaejoong out of trouble was more important to him than being able to kiss him whenever they met.

“Yunho,” Jaejoong said, unable to hold back his grin. “How have you-”

Yunho put a finger on his lips, and kicked the door shut with his foot, keeping it there so that anyone else who wanted to get in wouldn't be able to until he moved. Using their few brief seconds of privacy, he leaned in and gave Jaejoong a fleeting kiss on the lips that was so short that it only made him feel a pang in his heart. I know it can't be more than this for now, but still...

“I've been fine, but I'm better now,” Yunho said, moving his foot from the door. “Auntie Minjung and everyone says 'hi'. Oh, and Junsu got into the agency he was recommended for, so it's just Yoochun and Changmin hanging around regularly.”

“Is his father upset?”

“Very. About as upset as mine, I think.” Yunho winced. His parents had apparently been furious when he broke the news of his acceptance to C&M to them, but rather than take it out on him, his mother had called Auntie Minjung and yelled at her for letting him “knock his life off track.” Auntie Minjung wasn't exactly the kind of person you yelled at for anything, and Yunho had reported back that his ears still rang from the resulting explosion.

“I bet poor Changmin ah is feeling lonely,” Jaejoong said. "And Yoochun ah, too?"

“That's putting it mildly.”

There was a light knock on the door, and Seungmin walked in. He was the youngest of them, and also the shortest since he hadn't hit his growth spurt yet, but as a former ulzzang, he was almost annoyingly good looking with his dyed blonde hair and dimpled grin. He had a decent voice, but the company had almost certainly picked him for his visuals and charisma over that. He already seemed perfectly primed to go on varieties and make people laugh and fangirls swoon. Seungmin, on the other hand, had openly admitted to them that he'd specifically applied for C&M because he had a crush on Saehee noona from Starkiss.

Sure enough, the first thing out of his mouth was about Starkiss. “The noonas are on Inkigayo right now, hurry up and get dressed so we can monitor.”

“Seungmin ah, we're doing dance training today,” Yunho sighed. “You can monitor after we're done.”

“But I want to watch it live.”

“I'm sure it will be pretty close to all the music show performances you've seen of the song so far,” Yunho said, rolling his eyes.

When they finished dressing, the three of them walked out to the dance room. Their instructor had arrived and some music for them to warm up to, which helped Jaejoong release some of the tightness in his limbs from sitting at a desk all day. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched Yunho start to dance. With professional training, he'd only gotten better, and even their instructor, a former back-up dancer who'd worked in the United States for fifteen years, was impressed by him. Jaejoong felt clumsy next to him, but he was working to get better. He'd even paused his songwriting for awhile to devote himself to dancing in front of mirrors whenever he was back home, though this earned him several weird looks from his parents whenever they caught him.

For the next few hours, they worked on their practice routine until their muscles ached. Jaejoong made a few mistakes, but he felt like he was slowly getting the hang of it at the end. Still, their instructor requested for Jaejoong and Chansik to continue working on it tomorrow. Yunho and Seungmin had pretty much already mastered it.

Finally, they got to head into the break room and eat the take out one of the staff had brought in for them. Seungmin immediately turned his laptop on to watch the Inkigayo performances they had missed, and the rest of them watched over his shoulder.

“Starkiss really is the best,” Seungmin sighed. “Do you think we'll be able to be like that one day?”

“I think we're lacking the necessary parts,” Chansik pointed out.

“I meant being that good of performers, hyung,” Seungmin retorted, smacking Chansik on the arm. “Having all those people watching us and loving us, and all.”

“I'm sure if we do a good job with our trainee period, we can work to that point,” Yunho said. “We have to earn that love.”

“With blisters and sore throats and sleepless nights, yeah, yeah,” Seungmin rapped with a level of skill which proved there was a good reason why Chansik and Yunho were supposed to be in charge of rap.

Chansik stood up once he'd finished chowing down his food and downed the rest of his water bottle. “Jaejoong hyung, want to go over the dance one more time before we go home?” Jaejoong glanced at his watch. It was about time for them to clear out for Starkiss, who needed to come back and run through their stage for their next music program tomorrow.

“Okay, one more time,” he sighed, rising to his feet. Chansik grabbed his hand and dragged him back to the dance room. Though they were both exhausted, they managed to get through it without mistakes. Chansik was just giving him a high five when they heard something shift in the hallway leading from the dance room to the managers' offices.

A girl was standing there, watching them. She was slight and petite, almost waifish, with long black hair that reached past her chest and eyes heavily layered in stage make up. She was still in a stage outfit, too; a black-and-white mini-dress, checkered like a racing flag, paired with bright red wedges. She stared at them for a minute, expressionless, then her heel and marched to the offices without saying a word.

“Jaejoong hyung,” Chansik said softly, “is it just me, or was that Soorin noona?”

Jaejoong nodded. Though Starkiss was popular, Soorin was the most divisive member. She was an excellent singer, one of the best in the industry, but as soon as she stopped singing, it was like she faded away. She didn't talk often in her interviews, and she wasn't good at emoting anything that wasn't brooding or introspection. Half of netizens thought she was a tortured genius, the other half thought she was haughty and stuck up.

“Wow, she's something in person,” Chansik mused. “Who knows what she was thinking just then? I can't tell if she hated it, or if that's just her normal face.”

“Her normal face, I think.”

“I'm kind of glad she left. I don't think I would have known what to say to her. I've never even met a real celebrity before.”

“I'm sure the company will introduce us later,” Jaejoong said, not wanting to admit that he was nervous, too. He wasn't like Seungmin with his case of the girl crazies (for obvious reasons), but he didn't know what it would be like to talk to people who were at the top of the music scene, who lived the kind of life he'd dreamed of having since he was little.

“By the way, hyung,” Chansik said, shutting off the speaker system now that they were finished. “Are you doing anything this weekend... outside of our training, I mean? Some trainees who are about to debut in a hip-hop group are supposed to be doing guerrilla concerts around my area, if you wanted to go.”

“We'll see,” Jaejoong said. “Yunho's staying over this weekend, so if he wants to...” Jaejoong secretly hoped he didn't. He liked Chansik and loved going to concerts, but this was going to be the first time in awhile where he and Yunho would be able to have semi-alone time, and he didn't want to be interrupted.

“You knew Yunho hyung from before, right? You guys are really close.”

“Yeah, we met this summer,” Jaejoong said, trying to keep his voice neutral. “We worked together at a farmer's market.”

“That must be fun. To do this with a good friend.”

“Don't worry, Chansik ah, we'll definitely all be good friends soon,” Jaejoong said, patting his shoulder.

“I hope so...”

Yunho and Seungmin popped their heads into the room. “All done in here?” Yunho asked, yawning. “I think we should be leaving by now. Our sunbaes should be coming in.”

“I think they might be here,” Chansik said. “We saw Soorin noona, at least.”

Seungmin's mouth fell open. “Soorin noona? She was here? Where?”

“She's in the offices right now,” Jaejoong said. “But she was here watching us in the dance room for a few seconds.”

“Holy crap, what was she like?” Seungmin asked, a bit rabidly. “I mean, I prefer Saehee noona, but if Soorin noona is here, she might be here, too!”

“If they're here we should definitely leave,” Yunho said patiently. “They'll need to use the practice room.”

“But Yunho hyung, if we linger around a little longer, we might be able to meet them!”

“C&M will decide when we can officially meet. C'mon.” Yunho grabbed Seungmin and forced him to go downstairs to the front of the building, ignoring his repeated whining.

Seungmin was put out, so he left to go back without saying goodbye, but Chansik hung around as Jaejoong and Yunho walked back to the house, though he too eventually split off with a wave when they reached the intersection. At long last they were alone, or would be, at least, until they reached the front door.

“I missed you,” Yunho said quietly. “Every time I'm in my room or at the market, I think about you. I miss singing with you the way we used to, and-” Wordlessly, he reached out to grab Jaejoong's hand to squeeze it.

“I missed you, too,” Jaejoong whispered back. “For every single day that I haven't seen you. But just imagine how it would be if you hadn't joined the company. I wouldn't be seeing you at all.”

“I know,” Yunho said grimly. “I've never been so grateful about someone going behind my back in my life.”

All too soon, they reached the front steps of Jaejoong's house and stepped inside. It was already pretty late, but his parents were still up, waiting with tea and rice cakes. They weren't fully sold on the idea of Jaejoong being an idol just yet, but they seemed to rest easier now that we were getting to know Yunho. They never said as much to his face, but they quite obviously thought that their somewhat emotionally fragile son needed taking care of, and that the strong looking Yunho was a good candidate. He wondered if they'd change their mind about the whole thing if they figured out he and Yunho were dating.

After they'd finished eating, the two of them went up to Jaejoong's room, locking the door behind them. Since he'd had to share the house with so many sisters, Jaejoong's room was on the small side, and it was a bit of a stretch to get them both in there comfortably, at least with the futon Yunho was almost certainly not going to be using spread out on the floor.

“Did you really see Soorin sunbae?” Yunho asked when they were inside. Jaejoong was a little bit surprised-- truthfully, he wanted to move straight into the kissing-- but he supposed Yunho did have a right to be curious.

“Yeah, but just for a few seconds. Why?”

“Wouldn't it be perfect if you two had a duet together? I know it won't happen now since you're still a trainee, but I think it would be great to hear.” Yunho wrapped his arms around Jaejoong- kissing now?, Jaejoong wondered excitedly. “Honestly, I'm going through withdraw from not hearing your voice. I wish we had more of our vocal lessons together.”

“You aren't going to make me sing something now, are you?”

“No... but only because your parents are probably going to bed right now.”

“Good,” Jaejoong said, standing up on his tip-toes and hovering his mouth near Yunho's. “Maybe if you take care of me well now, I'll sing for you tomorrow...”

“God, when did you get so bold?” Yunho murmured, his eyes dropping down to Jaejoong's waiting lips. “Wasn't the Boojae from a few months ago very disbelieving of the fact that I would even want to kiss him to begin with?”

“That's why I need you to reconfirm.”

“I think I can just about manage...”

Yunho pulled him closer, sitting them down on the bed as their lips came together. It had been so long since they'd had a kiss that lasted more than a few seconds that Jaejoong already felt himself losing control when Yunho's tongue slid through his lips. He grabbed the collar of his shirt desperately, leaning into him, wanting everything. He really had gotten bolder; absence did that to him. Absence, and the constant worry that their relationship was facing a looming chopping block if they weren't careful enough and their company found out.

For a moment, Yunho tilted him back, almost as if he was thinking of laying Jaejoong down on the bed so he could lean over him, but he seemed to think the better of it and pulled away. “If we don't put the brakes on this a little bit, I'm going to wind up doing something I'd rather not do when your parents are in the house,” Yunho whispered roughly.

“Is there really a way to do this chastely?” Jaejoong whispered back, pouting a little. He needed his own apartment, right away. He had previously been a bit terrified at the idea of doing it with Yunho, but after coming home, he'd done his research well and felt a little bit more ready than he had been before. Still, he also didn't want to do it while his parents were around, and it wasn't like they could easily rent a hotel room at their age. Even worse, when they debuted, they would be sharing a dorm with their group members and managers, making any kind of intimacy a distant dream. If that was his fate, he at least wanted to be able to enjoy a nice kissing session with Yunho without having to worry about it escalating and forcing them to stop.

“I'm sorry,” Yunho said. “I want to control myself, I do, but you... everything you do is y to me. Just looking at you sometimes make me want you...”

God, and how do you expect me to feel when you say that?

“Then what can we do?” Jaejoong asked. “I want you, too. We're busy half the time, and you're usually away. Where can we go to be together?”

“I don't know yet,” Yunho sighed. “So this will have to be fine for now.”

He reached over and flicked off the light switch, then gently pushed Jaejoong down into the bed. Giving in, he started kissing Jaejoong again, though this time it was softer, gentler. A short joining of lips, a gentle withdraw, and then another peck. It was child's play, almost, but better than nothing. Better than I'll probably get when we're further into our careers than this, Jaejoong thought sadly. Would debuting and being able to stand on the stage really be able to replace whatever they were missing by putting themselves into this kind of lifestyle?

Any lifestyle would have been difficult, Jaejoong reminded himself, giving himself over to Yunho's more careful kisses. They were still kisses, after all, and they were still with the person he loved and had been missing so badly. Life wasn't bad by any means, and now wasn't the time to get greedy. He had Yunho with him now, and he didn't know how long that would be true, so all he could do was take what he could from it while it was still right in front of him.

The never-ending songs that fill my heart
How nice would it be if only I could sing it for you
How beautiful would it be
The songs I built up while waiting for you like this 
While dreaming about you
Don't worry, you can go
You can go anywhere
A small road that just appeared in front of you
Don't worry, you can do it
You can go anywhere
The road that appeared in front of you
Is the story that has just begun, just begun