| Fan Fiction |
by Micah
“I was just guessing when I suggested the date, but once the date started, I was pretty sure,” Junsu paused when he saw the taller man’s confused expression. “Changmin, the date sucked. You were bored and made no attempt to change my heart. You kept talking about how Kibum suggested this restaurant or Kibum would have liked the sci-fi movie. I didn’t know you were that close to him.”
“I’m not.”
“And yet you noticed what his favorite food is and you noticed that he likes sci-fi.”
“Didn’t you notice? I’m sure I’m not the only one.”
“No, I didn’t notice. I had no reason to notice,” Junsu retorted.
“And I do?”
“Because you think you’re in love with him.”
“You think?”
“I know you’re in love with him,” Junsu assured. “I don’t know how he feels about you though.”
“Jaejoong said he has a crush on me,” Changmin recalled, unable to hide a proud smile.
“Jaejoong…” Junsu murmured.
“Junsu,” Changmin cut him off. “I was supposed to be your mole in this past week and keep an eye on Yoochun for you, but I didn’t do any of that. I went to Kibum’s house to see him, to talk to him. I pick fights and try to draw him into revealing more about himself to me. It didn’t work.”
“It didn’t work? What do you mean? But you know what food he likes and that he likes sci-fi movies.”
“But everything I know about him is stuff that I observed on my own. He never told me with his own voice. Hell, the guy not only doesn’t tell me things, he tries to keep himself from opening up to me. That makes it difficult.”
“So…” Junsu couldn’t figure out what to say.
“So I think Jaejoong was just covering up his own ass when he told me that Kibum has a crush on me,” Changmin finished.
Junsu’s eyes widened. “You knew?”
“Why are you guys so shocked by this? I am, after all, intelligent and observant,” the tall man reminded.
“‘You guys’? Who else?”
“Yunho reacted the same way when I revealed to him that I knew about Jaejoong’s feelings.”
“Yunho knows?” Junsu’s widened a little more, to the limit.
“Jaejoong told him,” Changmin revealed.
Junsu’s mouth dropped to make up for his inability to widen his eyes any further. “If my eyes weren’t so small, they’d be wider than they are now.”
“I realize that, fish eyes,” Changmin rolled his eyes. “Oh, the good old high school days when Jaejoong and I would munch on goldfish shape crackers.”
Junsu frowned. “I remember. You two idiots would hold a fish up to your eyes and run around yelling, ‘I’m Junsu!’”
Changmin laughed at the memory. “He started it.”
“You miss that, don’t you?”
Changmin’s smile faded and he looked down sadly. “Yes, yes, I do. We used to have so much fun.”
“We can still have a lot of fun in the future,” Junsu smiled.
“How? I no longer love you, but it’s not because I’m in love with him. I…hell, I still can’t believe I’m in love with Kibum. How long have I known him?”
“Does it matter?”
“I don’t know. What if I’m just mistaking it for love? Maybe it’s because Jaejoong brought up the idea that Kibum has a crush on me so I’m getting mixed feelings.”
Junsu sighed. “It’s so hard to tell when it’s true love.”
Changmin nodded. “So what do I do?”
Junsu was silent for a moment before offering, “Want to listen to ‘Day of Peace’?”
◙◙◙◙◙
“How many days has it been?”
“I lost count,” Jaejoong replied. “But stay strong, Su-ie! Stay strong!”
“Maybe I should go back to work so I don’t mope around the house all the time,” Junsu grumbled.
“But didn’t you ask for a month’s worth of vacation?”
“Yeah, imagine my boss’ shock when I turned in the form. He said it was about time I use up all my saved vacation.”
“It’s better to have you on vacation than to work when you can’t concentrate.”
Junsu sighed. “I know.”
“It takes time, Su-ie,” Jaejoong patted his back.
“It’s easier for you to say. You’re staying away from friends. I’m staying away from someone I’m in love with,” Junsu pouted.
Jaejoong’s eyes lowered. Really? Then why did this plan to stay away irritate (hurt) Jaejoong as much as it irritated (hurt) Junsu?
◙◙◙◙◙
Junsu glanced at his watch. Changmin had finally worked up the courage to ask Jaejoong out for an official date. At this time, they were probably at the movie. This gave Junsu a chance to sneak out and…
“Junsu?”
Junsu nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice. He stopped sneaking around in the bushes and greeted Kibum, “H…hi, Kibum.”
“What are you doing out here?” Kibum inquired. “Do you want to come in?”
Junsu’s hands were rubbing nervously behind his back as he glanced at the mansion. He’d been pacing outside the entrance for twenty minutes already.
“Um…well, I…I don’t think…I mean…”
“Are you here to see Yoochun?”
“N…no, I’m here to see…to see Yunho and you. Jaejoong and Changmin are on a date, that’s why I came alone…I mean, I came alone…er…I mean…how’s the experiment going?”
Kibum pretend to not hear ‘Jaejoong and Changmin are on a date’. Junsu was probably using it to explain why he was sneaking around the mansion on his own without his two best friends…so Kibum wouldn’t know that he came to the mansion without Jaejoong and Changmin knowing.
“Very well, we found the glitches and are in the process of fixing them. It should be ready for another test drive in several days and success seems to be close.”
“Oh,” Junsu looked down with disappointment. “I bet Yoochun is happy to hear that.”
“Yes, Yoochun was very happy when I told him. It makes me proud to be able to help him, especially since he seems to be missing his fiancée more and more each day. I walked by his room the other day to hear him calling her name in his sleep,” Kibum revealed as if he did not notice the hurt on Junsu’s expression.
“Oh, that’s nice. Tell Yunho…and Yoochun that I said ‘Hi’. I need to get back to work now. I was just…uh…passing by on my way to my next job. Good bye.”
Kibum watched Junsu walk off and wondered if he should be feeling bad for lying. But he only did his best to shake away the guilt and walked into the mansion. He was good at not caring about other people’s feelings…it just bothered him that it was more difficult to not care when it came to the five people that he’d met two months, three days, and fifteen hours ago.
◙◙◙◙◙
“How was your date yesterday?”
Changmin blinked in shock. “You knew?”
“Junsu came by yesterday and told me,” Kibum shrugged with indifference.
Changmin wasn’t sure if he should concentrate on figuring out if Kibum was jealous or if he should concentrate on the fact that Junsu had came to the mansion behind his and Jaejoong’s back.
Kibum picked for him by continuing with the topic, “He was sneaking around as if he wasn’t supposed to be at my mansion.”
“He’s trying to stay away from Yoochun.”
“It’s what you want, isn’t it?”
Changmin sighed. “No, not anymore.”
“Not anymore?” Kibum spoke in a voice that hinted too much annoyance. This shocked Changmin.
“Yes,” the taller man replied, stunned and a bit disappointed that Kibum did not look happy by the news.
“What do you mean ‘not anymore’? You want Junsu’s love for Yoochun to fade. Why give up now?”
“You did say that you wanted to help me separate Junsu and Yoochun. I thank you for that, but I should tell you that there is no need to do that anymore. We shouldn’t cause trouble between them anymore.”
Kibum turned his eyes away for a moment, as if contemplating his next words.
Changmin noted the slight trouble in his barely frowning brows. Why was Kibum troubled?
In the beginning, Changmin had thought that Kibum was helping him separate Junsu and Yoochun because he wanted to help Changmin. Changmin though Kibum was in love with him and was willing to sacrifice himself to help Changmin win Junsu back. But now…Changmin wasn’t so sure if that was Kibum’s intention.
“You’re right. We shouldn’t stop Junsu from loving Yoochun,” he finally spoke and those words confused Changmin even more.
“Yoochun has no emotional ties with his parents and his fiancée doesn’t even return his love. Maybe it’s best if he stays here. Yunho has no reason to return either so maybe you should just give up on the time machine,” the taller man tested his hypothesis.
“No!” Kibum suddenly reacted, but quickly collected himself. “I mean, it would be cruel of us to separate Junsu from Yoochun. But wouldn’t it be cruel to purposely give up on my experiment and separate Yoochun from Yoona? He loves his fiancée, not Junsu. He does not even believe in same gender relationships. We cannot force it on him.”
Changmin was stunned for a moment by Kibum’s lost of composure. But the shorter man had easily put up his façade again.
“If we send Yoochun back, we know that he won’t have any hope with Yoona. But if you’d purposely tell them that your experiment fails and that you have no other way, we can make him stay. At least if he stays, there is some hope of him and Junsu getting together.”