| Fan Fiction |
by Micah
“I’m going to run some errands and then get to Junsu’s house to give him this old cell phone. He’s should be back from the photo studio by then.”
“You got it fixed?”
“No, my friend could only recover some stuff from the chip.”
“Like what?”
“Pictures and maybe half of the numbers in the phone book,” Yunho shrugged. “I tried putting the chip into my own phone, but only the pictures and some numbers will pull up.”
“What pictures?”
Yunho placed his mug of coffee onto the plate and reached into his pockets. Changmin sipped his own coffee as he watched Yunho replaced the chip in his phone with the one Junsu had given him.
“Just pictures of Micky,” Yunho informed. “But I did find something funny about the pictures.”
“What is it?” Changmin was really curious now.
Yunho handed his phone to Changmin. “Micky’s hair is so short in these pictures compared to his current shoulder-length.”
Changmin held the phone at a good distant and examined the pictures. The person grinning at the camera looked so cute and handsome that Changmin could feel the rate of his heartbeat quicken.
“Maybe they’re old pictures,” Changmin tried to concentrate on the conversation.
“That’s what I thought too, but I had some of the pictures enlarged. Check this out,” Yunho uncovered a regular size photo from the pocket of his jacket.
Changmin took the picture and analyzed it. He wanted to coo at the charming grin and beautifully squinted eyes.
“You don’t see it, do you?” Yunho interrupted the younger man’s thoughts because Changmin was obviously lost in his own world.
“See what?” Changmin blinked.
“The way you look at the guy in the picture makes me worry. He’s Junsu’s love interest, Changmin.”
Changmin frowned. “Am I that obvious?”
“Not as obvious as me, I suppose,” Yunho sighed.
“What is this; some kind of movie? How can I suddenly be attracted to Micky after seeing him without the flu mask? How can you suddenly be attracted to Micky’s fiancé, of all people?” the younger man exclaimed, running a frustrated hand through his hair. The people who sat around them were giving them weird looks.
“Do you think Junsu notices?”
“He noticed you staring at Jaejoong.”
“But the important question is does he notice you staring at Micky.”
“Maybe he thinks I’m helping him observe Micky. I’ll stop staring,” Changmin paused. “I’ll try.”
“‘Try’ may not be good enough.”
Changmin’s brows furrowed. “Back on topic. Why did you enlarge this picture?”
“I had it enlarged and had this particular corner sharpened; it’s still blurry, but you can see the calendar hanging behind him,” Yunho pointed to the corner on the photo.
Changmin got a better look, forcing himself to not be distracted by Micky’s charm. He saw the calendar and the large X on each box in the first two rows. The X’s ended on the twentieth date.
“He crosses out each box as the days pass. The crossing stops on the twentieth so does it mean that the picture was taken on that day? Doesn’t the phone have information like date and time on pictures?”
“The phone was shattered. That part of the pictures wasn’t recoverable,” Yunho informed.
Changmin looked at his watch and noted today’s date. “I don’t think it’s possible for his hair to grow out that much in such short time.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Changmin thought about it. Then he said, “Do you think he isn’t the real Micky?”
“Possible,” Yunho shrugged.
“But…why?”
“I’m still figuring that out. I have several other cases to follow too, you know? Unlike you, I still need to work.”
“Hey, I didn’t work my butt off to graduate early and become a doctor for nothing. I’m enjoying it now while you suffer because you always ditched school.”
Yunho rolled his eyes, and then grabbed Changmin’s watch. “I need to get going. Junsu will throw another one of his tantrums if I’m late. I’m not paid to put up with it.”
“He’s still throwing random tantrums? I thought those stopped a while ago.”
Yunho sighed as he stood up, “Only for Micky.”
■■■■■
“Micky!”
Se7en turned around to see who had shouted the name. He saw the owner of the voice and was thankful that his classmates had just turned the corner.
“Doctor Shim, hi,” Se7en changed his voice immediately.
“I’m your age. You can just call me Changmin,” the taller man grinned.
Did Junsu tell Changmin how old Yoochun was?
Se7en raised his head and his eyes glowed with admiration, “Really? You’re that young, but you’re a doctor already?”
“I got lucky,” he was being modest and Se7en couldn’t help but admire him even more.
“I wish I was that smart,” the younger man said as they began to walk away from the school (before any professors or classmates saw Se7en).
“Junsu told me that you work part-time at this college,” Changmin eyed his backpack. Se7en told himself that it’s normal for anyone (who isn’t a student) to be carrying a backpack.
“Yeah.”
It was best to say as little as possible around this genius.
“I like your new hair cut,” Changmin tried to start another conversation. He also noted that Micky’s current haircut looked about the same length as it was in the pictures Yunho had shown him earlier today. This reminded him of WHY he had come looking for Micky in the first place (certainly not just because Changmin wanted to see him).
“Thank you,” Se7en grinned nervously as he touched his hair. The difference (between now and when Junsu made a comment about his hair) was that Se7en was unconsciously fixing his hair and hoping it didn’t look like he just woke up.
“So what does your brother do?” It was another topic to cover the silence.
“He’s looking for a job right now.”
“It must be hard for him,” Changmin murmured.
Se7en always got sensitive when talking about his brother. “Yeah, those stupid people are so superficial; so many have denied him a job because of his…appearance. It’s not his fault.”
Changmin didn’t miss the bitterness in the other man’s voice. “Sorry.”
Se7en blinked and looked up at Changmin. “For what?”
“For being superficial,” he replied, meaning he had been discriminate towards Yoochun too (although he didn’t make it obvious like Junsu had).
Se7en sighed as he looked ahead, “It’s okay. We’ve learned to accept it. We can’t change other people. At least most people are nice enough to not say anything. It’s worst when we encounter the people who make disgusted faces or give their unwanted input.”
“One disgusted face or one unwanted input causes a bigger blow to his self-esteem than ten people who pretend to ignore the scar.”
“You really can’t blame them. They’re not in our position so they don’t realize how much it hurts,” Se7en looked down and kicked a pebble that was in his way. “Hyung once said that we’d probably be as superficial as them if he didn’t have that scar on his face or if I didn’t have a brother like him. But the world isn’t all bad, you know? Cause there is also people like Jaejoong!”
He almost looked too childish to be the one who had taken such good care of Junsu back on the island, who had patiently waited outside the doctor’s office and carefully took Junsu’s hand to walk him out.
“I’ll try to change my views from now on,” Changmin felt the need to make that promise.
Se7en looked at him and grinned happily. Changmin forgot to breathe.
“Thank you!” Then he stopped smiling and Changmin regretted not having a camera in hand. With a frown, Se7en added, “If only other people could be like you.”