| Fan Fiction |
by Micah
“This is almost pathetic,” Changmin mumbled.
“What? I think orange juice looks good in champagne glasses,” Jaejoong defended.
“Only you,” Changmin rolled his eyes.
“Shut up.”
“You always tell me to shut up when you know you’re going to lose an argument.”
“And don’t you steal that strategy from me.”
“That’s not a strategy!”
“Can we eat?” Kibum interrupted their bickering.
“Yes, of course, what do you want to eat?”
“Stop acting like a motherly hen,” Junsu teased.
“Funny,” Changmin threw a sarcastic expression at him. “I’ll spoil Kibum and you go back to spoiling Yoochun.”
No one missed the uncomfortable tension between Junsu and Yoochun.
“Shut up,” Junsu frowned.
“Junsu…” Yoochun began. Junsu had been avoiding him in the last couple of days when Kibum was in the hospital. Now that they had gathered for this celebration, he was going to take the chance to talk…
“Sir,” Kibum’s butler interrupted.
“Yes?” Kibum turned to the elderly man.
“Your staff sent this to you several days ago,” he handed Kibum a large folder.
The pictures. Junsu lowered his head and walked away from Yoochun. Yoochun, Changmin, Jaejoong, and Yunho stared at the folder.
“Thank you,” Kibum took the folder. He told the other five, “I’ll be right back.”
Kibum placed his glass of orange juice down and walked upstairs. Changmin watched him disappear from their sight and felt his gut twist. Was Kibum still going to try to send Yoochun back?
Junsu twirled his champagne glass (filled with orange juice) as he stood at the back door, staring out at the garden. Yunho and Jaejoong looked at him with concern.
Yoochun had his head lowered. He should talk to Junsu, but the experiment…he’d be disappointing Kibum. Kibum had worked so hard for this. But Junsu...
Fork! Yoochun felt his head hurt. What was he trying to think? What was he thinking about trying? Wait, what?
His thoughts were interrupted when Yunho first excused himself to go back to his room to ‘get something’. Then Junsu excused himself to go use an upstairs bathroom, running off before Changmin could point out that there was a bathroom downstairs.
Yoochun, Jaejoong and Changmin sat in awkward silence in the living room.
◙◙◙◙◙
“It worked.”
Kibum nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Yunho’s voice. He had been looking at the pictures, but it was no excuse. Yunho was too good a martial artist to NOT be able to walk in without Kibum noticing.
“Yes, the machine worked,” Kibum slid the pictures back into the folder.
“Then what are you going to do?” Yunho inquired.
“I’d like to know too.”
Kibum’s eyes widened when Junsu walked into his office. Yunho wasn’t surprised that Junsu had followed.
“What do you want me to do?” Kibum murmured.
Neither spoke for a moment. Then Yunho turned to Junsu, “He’s my best friend. I’m obligated to tell him.”
“He doesn’t have to know,” Kibum immediately interrupted, shocking the other two. “I failed. The machine doesn’t work. It’s okay.”
Yunho turned from Kibum to Junsu. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to tell him.”
Junsu sighed. “I wouldn’t stop you. He should know.”
“Junsu…” Kibum began.
“He deserves to know,” Junsu said before turning around to walk out of the office.
Kibum frowned at Yunho. “Why would you tell Yoochun?”
Yunho smiled. “Because he would be happy to know that you were able to succeed. Your success is important to him because he sees how important it is to you.”
“Junsu is more important to him.”
“He still needs to figure that out,” Yunho sighed. “The other reason to why I’d tell him…is because I know it won’t make a difference.”
◙◙◙◙◙
Yoochun, Jaejoong, and Changmin raised their heads when they saw Yunho and Kibum walking back downstairs. Junsu was still nowhere in sight.
Without a word, Kibum moved to sit down next to Yoochun while Yunho took a seat next to Jaejoong, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Yoochun,” Kibum began. He saw the mixture of emotion in Yoochun’s eyes. “It worked. The experiment was a success.”
Yoochun looked like he was being torn between a smile and a frown; Heaven and Hell. But the misery was more abundant than the happiness.
The news didn’t make him happy like he expected. He felt his gut twist, but his heart hurt.
“Congratulations,” he forced a smile.
“Are you mistaken? Maybe it…” Changmin tried.
“Maybe…” Jaejoong tried to help.
“It worked,” Yunho interrupted. Then he added, “But it doesn’t matter.”
Changmin and Jaejoong blinked in confusion. Kibum held up the folder that was in his hand and made a ceremony of ripping the pictures into distorted squares.
“Kibum!” Yoochun gasped.
“Thank you, Yoochun. You’ve done so much for me already. You’ve helped me with this experiment. You’ve given me the courage when I was in doubt. I’d always envied the relationship you had with Yunho and it makes me happy to know that you care for me as much as you care for Yunho,” Kibum smiled as he looked over at Yunho’s proud grin. “You’ve done enough. It’s about time I return your kindness.”
“But, don’t you…I mean…” Yoochun stammered.
“Even if we go through with it, at the last minute when you’re strapped to the machine, you’ll start regretting. You’ll regret even before it happens and I have to add that it would be dangerous for you to try to break out of those straps,” Kibum interrupted. “Not that I mind if you break the machine, because I plan to destroy it.”
“Where’s Junsu? He has to be here for this!” Changmin exclaimed.
“Did he pass out in the bathroom?” Jaejoong shouted as he shot up from his seat, nearly whacking Yunho’s head with his big movement. Of course, it was Yunho’s fault for sitting so close.
“We can leave that for Yoochun to figure out,” Kibum smiled.
“Go save him from the toilet, Yoochunnie!” Jaejoong cheered.
Yoochun still felt so confused. Kibum was right. Even if he cared/loved/pitied Kibum enough to be willing to go through with the experiment, he’d still end up regretting it. Because in the end, at the end of the day, he only wanted to be with Junsu.
He was in love with Junsu! What did it matter that they were love men? What did it matter what other people thought? It wasn’t as if he had loving parents to return to. It wasn’t as if he was still in love with Yoona.
Now that he knew he was, for sure, able to return home, he didn’t want to! As a matter of fact, he wanted the machine destroyed!
He was in love with Junsu. He is in love with Junsu.
It felt forkin’ good to admit it!
He shot up from his seat and ran upstairs.
Jaejoong leaned into Yunho’s arm and smiled. “I’m so proud of him, all grown up and willing to admit his sexual orientation.”
Yunho smiled and rubbed Jaejoong’s bicep to comfort the shorter man. He found it cute that Jaejoong reminded him of a mother who was sending her child off to school.
On the other hand, Kibum and Changmin were more normal. Changmin embraced Kibum and thanked him. Kibum said, ‘You’re welcome.’
◙◙◙◙◙
Yoochun had just run past Kibum’s office to make his way to the closest public bathroom. That was when he saw Junsu sneaking out of his room, looking shock and guilty because he’d been caught red-handed.
“What were you doing in my room?” Yoochun walked over to him.
“I…um…I…was looking for the bathroom. I…um…thought this was…I mean…wrong room?”
Silence.
Finally, “It’s a bit creepy.”
“I’m not being creepy! I swear! I just…I just wanted to find something small and unimportant to you. I mean, I just wanted something to remember you by. The lottery ticket’s debris is long gone. I’d expect you to want to take your ancient clothes and sword back with you. I tried to steal the bracelet you gave to Jaejoong from him, but he caught me and refused to let me have the bracelet.”
“Junsu…”
“And yes, I still have that bag of ancient money you gave me. I’m thankful I was too lazy to sell it to the museum when you first gave it to me. But…it doesn’t feel like enough. Money is so impersonal and…not something special. I was hoping you’d have another bracelet I could steal and…oh, God, I sound like a creep!”
He covered his face with his hands and felt like finding a hole to bury his head in. And because his face was buried in his hands, he didn’t see Yoochun smile.
“You pull off ‘creepy’ very well,” he decided to say.
Junsu uncovered his shocked face and stared at Yoochun. “What?”