| Fan Fiction |
by Micah
It was so tiring.
“A joke? Death is not something to joke about! Yoona did this once when we were young and I was almost crying! Men aren’t supposed to cry! They shed blood, but they do not shed tears!”
Yoochun’s voice cracked and Junsu looked up to see that he was crying. “Yoochun…”
“She was eight. I was ten. I almost cried! Almost!” Yoochun blurted out. Even when he was young, he refused to cry. Now that he was older, he really shouldn’t be crying.
Yet he was crying now. Not ‘almost’. He really was crying.
Junsu couldn’t understand. He was afraid to understand.
“Yoochun…”
Yoochun continued to lecture. “We’re not kids anymore! You should know better than to joke about this stuff! And you…”
“Am I more important than her…in your heart?” Junsu’s voice was soft and quiet, compared to Yoochun’s loud lecturing.
But Yoochun’s voice dispersed the moment Junsu asked his question.
Yoochun blinked. He felt…so many emotions. He felt scared, confused, shocked, and so much more. Somewhere in that ‘so much more,’ Yoochun thought he saw ‘happiness’.
His cell phone decided to ring at that moment and Yoochun grasped onto the opportunity. He leapt towards their pile of belongings and grabbed the cell phone. “Hello?”
Junsu sat there in silence. Did he just have the guts to ask that question?
“What?” Yoochun exclaimed. Junsu’s head raised to see his beautifully confused expression distort into one of fear and anxiety. “We’ll be as soon as we can!”
Yoochun turned off the phone and grabbed for their shoes.
“What’s wrong?”
“Put these on, quick!” Yoochun ordered as he slipped his own shoes on. Junsu had just finished putting his socks on when Yoochun finished; so while Junsu stumbled to put on his right shoes, Yoochun moved to slip the left shoes on for the younger man.
“Yoochun, what’s wrong?” Junsu repeated when they were standing and Yoochun was dragging him along by the hand.
“We have to get back to the mansion. Jaejoong has been injured and Kibum has been kidnapped.”
◙◙◙◙◙
Changmin was pacing back and forth in the room, frustration on his brows and a frustrated hand running through his mass of hair. Yoochun and Junsu sat side by side on chairs, heads swinging back and forth to follow Changmin’s movement.
Jaejoong, sitting on the bed, was rubbing an egg against the bruise on his forehead and watching as Yunho massaged the bruise on his forearm. Yunho’s eyes were focused on Jaejoong’s bruise, applying enough strength to disperse the clot of blood, but not so much strength that it would hurt Jaejoong.
“Why did he leave the house without Yunho anyway? Why did he leave without any of his bodyguards or even his chauffer?” Changmin grumbled.
“Jaejoong, what exactly happened?” Junsu inquired as he turned his eyes to Jaejoong. For a quick second, he glanced at Yunho’s concentrated expression. He didn’t miss the slight pain in Yunho’s expression. The fact that Yunho was hurting mentally because Jaejoong had been hurt physically…brought a small smile to Junsu’s heart.
Jaejoong forced himself to turn away from Yunho and looked over at Junsu and Yoochun. “I was at work…”
[F.l.a.s.h.b.a.c.k]
“Kibummie!” Jaejoong smiled when he saw the other man walk into ‘Timeless’.
“Hello, Jaejoong,” Kibum smiled
“Come in and have a seat,” Jaejoong took his hand and led him to a table in the corner, without Kibum even having to request it.
Kibum looked at their connected hands and wanted to smile. The others, even Junsu, never touched Kibum because they could tell that he wouldn’t like it. Jaejoong was the only one who either could not tell or just didn’t care.
“Thank you,” he murmured as Jaejoong placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him down onto the chair.
“What do you want to eat? Are you still coughing? I’ll make you some congee!”
“Congee is on the menu?” Kibum inquired.
“Only for you!” Jaejoong grinned proudly. Kibum felt the urge to call him ‘hyung’.
“Jaejoong…” he began.
“Hmm?”
“Jaejoong! You’ve got an order!” someone shouted from the kitchen.
“I’ll be right back, Kibummie. I’ll ask Heebon to serve you. She’s a great waitress.”
Kibum nodded with a polite smile. He watched Jaejoong walk into the kitchen, stopping only to talk to a girl with braided pig-tails. The girl walked over to Kibum’s table right away.
“Hello, sir. My name is Heebon and I’ll be your waitress for today. Your name isn’t really ‘Kibummie’ is it?” she smiled brightly.
Kibum smiled in return. “No, it’s just ‘Kibum’.”
“I thought so. Jaejoong and his nicknames,” she shook her head with a sigh, but was still smiling. “So what can I get you to drink?”
“I’ll take some black coffee.”
“Umm…” Heebon bit her lower lips and her eyes shifted to the window, as if wanting to make a comment about his choice of drink.
“You want to tell me that it’s too late in the day for coffee,” Kibum spoke, not exactly asking a question.
“How did you know?” she looked at him with wide eyes.
“It’s okay. Coffee doesn’t keep me awake,” he simply replied.
“Okay then! I’ll be right back!”
She skipped off and Kibum had to wonder why he had explained that to her. Heck, he couldn’t even understand why he even had a conversation with a waitress. It wasn’t normal. Jaejoong, who was peeking out from the kitchen, noticed this and smiled.
She returned shortly with his coffee, telling him, “Jaejoong oppa said he knows what you want to order so I don’t have to ask you. He’ll be out with it soon. Just let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thank you, Heebon,” Kibum bowed his head slightly to be polite. This wasn’t normal either.
Heebon smiled even wider and tilted her head slightly as well, “You’re welcome!”
She skipped off again and Kibum was about to take a sip from his coffee. That was when Jaejoong walked out of the kitchen yelling, “Boss, I’m on break!”
An older man sitting at the cashier counter replied with an ‘Okay’ sign. Jaejoong came running to Kibum’s table and sat down. He laid a tray of food in front of Kibum.
“Here you go,” he grinned.
Kibum was shocked. The food not only smelt like Heaven, it looked too pretty to eat. On one plate, Jaejoong had even used some of the food to form a happy face. There was even a glass of ice water on the tray.
“I don’t know if I can finish all this,” Kibum confessed.
“You have too. Look at how skinny you are!” Jaejoong exclaimed as he reached over to grab Kibum’s mug of coffee. “Eat up, eat up.”
Kibum nodded and picked up the chopsticks. He really didn’t want to ruin the happy face so he decided to dig into another dish first. At the same time, Jaejoong was adding other ingredients (that had also been on the tray) to his coffee.
“This is delicious,” he automatically complimented, too distracted to even realize that Jaejoong was messing with his mug.
Jaejoong grinned as he swirled the spoon in the mug. “Your coffee is done too,” he slid the mug back over to Kibum.
Kibum saw the brown liquid and immediately protested, “That’s okay. I’ll just have water.”
“Have you ever had coffee with milk and chocolate?”
“No, I don’t…”
“Then try it.”
“It’s okay, I only drink…”
“Please?” Jaejoong pouted and Kibum wondered when his defense had gotten so weak.
“Okay,” he surrendered and took a sip from the coffee. When he removed the mug from his lips, Jaejoong started to cracking up. “What is it?”
“You’ve got a foamy mustache!” Jaejoong giggled as he reached over with a napkin to wipe away the foam.
Kibum felt his heart warm at the gesture and wondered why he didn’t get embarrassed or angry instead. “Thank you.”
“No need,” Jaejoong replied with a grin.
Kibum looked down at the food because he was beginning to feel too guilty to look at Jaejoong. Why did Jaejoong have to treat him so well? Almost like a best friend, a brother…family.
“Jaejoong,” Kibum suddenly spoke in a low tone.
Jaejoong grew seriously immediately. “Is something wrong? Is the food too spicy? I’m so sorry! I tend to get carried away…”
“No, no, the food is perfect. You’re perfect. You should never apologize to me. I don’t deserve it.”
“Kibummie, is something wrong? You can tell me. Friends share worries and fears.”
“I grew up learning that friends only share riches and happiness,” Kibum whispered, head low.
“Then those aren’t friends at all. It must have been hard for you when you were growing up, being so smart and rich. But it’s all okay now Kibummie. You have us, all of us.”
Did he? Didn’t he already lose Changmin’s friendship and trust? Wasn’t he plotting to send Yoochun and Yunho away? Sending them away would make Junsu and Jaejoong hate him too. Then he’d be left with no friends again.
“Jaejoong…hyung,” he strained to speak the second word. He’d never used it before. Jaejoong seemed to know because he grinned happily. “Do you trust people easily?”
Jaejoong was confused by the question, but still answered, “I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. I want to think I can be friends with everyone.”
“What if someone betrays you? What if he uses the friendship against you, to hurt you?”