Nine

“Oh my God Wannie!” Minwoo squealed as he opened the small box and there were two silver rings, shimmering in his eyes. “Couple rings!? Really!?”

The younger man nodded and grabbed the box, as he took two of the rings and slid the smaller one to Minwoo’s finger. Their eyes met and smiles crept to their lips, as Minwoo blushed and slipped the bigger one to Dongwan’s finger. They were enchanted by them for couple of minutes, before Minwoo pecked Dongwan to the lips and sat onto his lap.

“These are beautiful.” He murmured.

Dongwan grinned and nuzzled his nose to the shoulder, while his arms curled around the waist and pulled the man much closer. Minwoo cuddled in the arms of Dongwan, and dozed off a bit, wondering how odd this all was. He hadn’t told Dongwan that occasionally he recalled that couple of months ago, he was still with the leader.

“I love you Minwoo.” Dongwan broke Minwoo’s train of thoughts.

“Huh?” Minwoo blinked his eyes. “Ah! I love you too!” He exclaimed. “So very much.”

                ***

After Eric’s drunk appearance in the press conference, Shinhwa members had had to fix what the leader had done. No one blamed him though. No one had ever blamed Eric when something like that happened; especially after he had been mistreated. Hyesung from all respected Eric more than ever, as he had fixed the scene that had occurred.

Everyone knew who Hyesung blamed though he hadn’t said it out loud. He still tried to be nice to all the members equally. And the members thanked him and Junjin for shutting down the unpleasant rumours of disbanding.

                   So the members could continue their coming back, as it was the day for the practising the choreography. Minwoo stepped out from his car, waiting for his manager to get in the building first and then him following, as he halted his steps and the other one next to him did the same at the corridor. The time just stopped and the noises of the cars outside tuned out all of a sudden.

Eric’s gaze lowered at the ring, which was, obviously, a couple ring, before he lifted his head up and the orbs of mourn stared right at Minwoo. The main dancer let the manager go without him, as the apology was written all over his face. The leader had never seemed so disastrous in his life.

“Hi.” Minwoo waved.

Eric ogled at him, fighting for tears, as he flashed a broken smirk and walked off as fast as he could, not even looking back at his ex-boyfriend.

For a second there, Minwoo felt remorseful.

But only for a second.

                ***

Eric messed up every move, every lyric, every beat. He did not remember the names of the songs and he kept stumbling onto his own clumsy feet. But no one yelled at him. Eric wanted them to yell at him. He wanted to be yelled at for ruining everything. He just needed someone to yell at him. That was all he wanted and needed now that Minwoo was gone.

“Maybe you should rest, hyung.” Andy suggested.

“I don’t need rest.” The leader mumbled.

“Well…just rest. Please.” The maknae seated Eric down and tapped his shoulders calmly. “When you feel less exhausted, you can jo—“

“I AM NOT EXHAUSTED!” The leader screamed, startling everyone in the room.

Andy jumped back and looked at the leader in shock, as he had never shouted at his kiddo like that. But Eric did not even care what he had just done. He was breathing out through his teeth, the sweat all over his face for trying too hard, as he glimpsed at Minwoo and Dongwan. Andy lifted his hands onto his hips and glared at the older man.

“Fine…you’re not exhausted then.” He spoke sternly. “Just sit here and stop ruining our choreography! You won’t get him back! You can see they love one another! Grow some balls and get over it!” He his heels and marched back to the formation.

Everyone looked at the shy guy – who now seemed like the legendary ZomDy – and gulped. Slowly Eric felt the smile creeping onto his face as he stood up and proceeded to the other members. Minwoo suddenly felt extremely proud of Eric and wanted to hug him. But Eric practically avoided him when he moved behind Junjin and chuckled.

Minwoo was okay.

He did not need Eric’s attention anymore.

He had Dongwan.