/A Perfect Day for A Love Declaration/ Day Seventeen
a perfect day for a love declaration
day seventeen ★ when things fall to pieces...
"It's something about Changmin? Yah, Lee Yeonhee. Tell me."
Yeonhee shook her head. "It's not my place, Yoona. Even if I wanted to tell you -- and I do, I really do -- I'd feel guilty about betraying Changmin because he doesn't even know that I know."
"We've known each other since middle school. Why can't you tell me?" I pleaded, pulling her hands in mine and staring at my troubled friend. "Don't I deserve to know, whatever it is your hiding from me?"
She frowned, shaking her head and squeezing my hands. "Of course you do, Yoona. But it's just like I said -- I shouldn't be the one telling you. It wouldn't be right and quite frankly, I don't know where I should stand with this." She let out a sigh, lowering her head.
"That's not fair."
"It isn't. Look, you are one of my best people I know, Yoona. And so is Changmin -- but this... arrangement is just killing me, because I can't choose sides and I want both of you to be happy."
I stared at her, confused. "Choose sides?"
"You're my friend, Yoong. And so is he. Regardless of how long I've known you two is irrelevant if you ask me. Because I care about both of you the same way."
"I would never ask you to choose sides." I was beginning to feel betrayed. How could she think I would ask her to choose sides?
Yeonhee nodded solemnly. "I know. But sometimes, your actions speak differently." Yeonhee stood up, setting my hands down to my lap and looked up at the stars outside our bedroom window. "I'm sure you don't intend to, of course. I don't blame you."
"Do I really do that?" I whispered, mostly to myself. "I hadn't noticed. I've just been moving on, you know..."
"Well, no one said loving a person is easy. It's hard work to keep feeling the way you do every moment of every day. But it's worth it -- even when it hurts."
I scoffed, managing a little (bitter) smile on my lips. "Kibum's never hurt you though."
She laughed, shaking her head and looking over her shoulder to stare at me. "Come on. We both know he's not perfect. I know about that girl he dated aside from me after our 100th day together. I would have killed myself if I wasn't so smart."
"You knew about that?" I asked surprised. That was the only time I had ever been so angry at Kibum in the course of our friendship. I had caught with another girl, while walking to class with Changmin, and had accosted him right after the girl fled the scene. If it hadn't been for Changmin, being the voice of reason at the time (He had pulled Kibum away to talk before I could punch him), I would have killed him myself for cheating on my childhood friend.
"Yeah. Kibum came clean the day you and Changmin assaulted him. He said something about what Changmin had told him and he realized his mistake. We've been even more honest and trusting with each other ever since." Yeonhee answered softly, the smile on her face widening. "Changmin always has to have the last say in things, ne?"
"He always used to say that it was the lawyer in him to want to say the last word." I muttered, pursing my lips. Mentally, I pictured him grinning down at me the way he did when he said those words. My heart gave a heavy thump inside my chest.
Yeonhee giggled, shaking her head at me before taking a seat next to me on my bed. She put her head on my shoulder, giving me a side hug. "Have you noticed how much you mention random anecdotes about Changmin when we talk? It happens a lot, and not just when you're talking to me."
"Do I really do that?" I asked, more to myself than to anyone, gazing out to the window -- a soft sigh crossing my lips, "I don't notice it. I mean, I know when we were in school I used to say things like this a lot, but now -- I didn't know I was doing it again." Yeonhee nodded, squeezing my shoulder comfortingly.
"I don't think you do it on purpose, Yoong. It's probably just some left over impulses. We've been friends for so long and you don't just forget things overnight," she said pointedly. I shrugged. "I'm not supposed to do this when Donghae's around though -- much less when Yuri is around too. I feel like I'm hurting them both with sharing tidbits of my past with Changmin with them."
"No way," Sooyoung's voice startled both of us when it boomed from across the room. I strained to look behind me and saw her leaning against the (now opened) door frame, smirking at us and holding up a peace sign in greeting. "What's 'no way', Sooyoung?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her as she flung herself towards my bed and crushing us under her weight. "Get off you monster!"
"Yah, I am not a monster!" she exclaimed, smacking me playfully with her right hand, before folding her arms around my neck and shaking me. "You -- you need to make up your mind, kid!"
"Huh? What? Me?" I asked, in between gasps of air as I wrestled out of her grip. Fortunately Yeonhee was able to get out of the chaos before she could get sucked in. She laughed at us as we rolled over.
"Hey! Where's HimYoona? I don't remember fighting a weakling from college?" Sooyoung bellowed, teasing me. I rolled my eyes before pinning her with a leg over her stomach and forcing her to lay flat on the bed. She laughed, shaking her head and relaxing into my pillow. "Okay, I've found HimYoona."
"What did you mean, Sooyoung?" I asked again, settling my head on her shoulder. Yeonhee went to sit on the edge of the bed. It felt just like old times -- when the both of them would come to my small apartment after class to talk about whatever. The thought of it made my eyes turn a little misty but I smiled, snuggling closer to Sooyoung and reaching for Yeonhee to lie next to me.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, missy."
Sooyoung giggled. "I know. I was just waiting for you to use that tone. It's been a while."
"Yeah, whatever. Tell me what you meant~" I whined, pouting as cutely as I could until she rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. Sooyoung sat up, bringing her knees towards her face, shrugging as she did so.
"You're not hurting Changmin by sharing the memories you both had all those years ago. If anything, I think you're remembering those times made him feel a whole lot better today than he had been feeling these past weeks." She pursed her lips, "As for Yuri -- well... I don't think she can help it if the two of you had memories together. Let's face it -- you're the girl Changmin loves. How can she compete with that?"
I almost choked on my own saliva when she said that last part. Loves? As in present tense?
"You can forget about it if you want."
"Will you?"
"No. I won't."
"Why?"
"Because I love you..."
Did he mean that? I thought, at the time, I didn't think that he did. I thought he was just saying it for effect. I watched Sooyoung and Yeonhee carefully as they stared back at me. "He doesn't love me like that, Sooyoung," I said, shrugging. "That would be weird."
She looked at me for a moment, before lowering her head and burst out laughing. A moment later, Yeonhee started to laugh as well. I watched them confused at their sudden outburst. "What? What did I say?"
"Your face says everything, Yoong. You know don't you? He's told you, probably before you started to take Donghae seriously."
Did it really show in my face? My eyes widened in surprise. "Huh? I-I'm not sure about what you're saying. N-no, not really. What was it?" I replied lamely, looking away as quickly as possible. I'm not a good liar. I might as well say the truth. I huffed. "Fine. So what if he told me? It's not like he went out of his way to fight for me."
"Believe me, Yoong. He's been fighting for you since he came back." Yeonhee said, pursing her lips, "Changmin just has a peculiar way of showing it. You shouldn't have lost faith in him so quickly."
"Are you picking sides now?" I asked, not really meaning it (only partly, maybe). A hurt expression fleeted across Yeonhee's face and I quickly felt sorry.
She shook her head, looking down at her hands. "It's not about choosing sides, Yoona. I'm just trying to say, that you should probably know all the details before you lose all faith in him. He might be protecting something for you that you don't know about."
"I hate that the two of you know something I don't." I muttered, noting the Sooyoung's knowing glance at Yeonhee. Then, my mind went to an image of Yuri telling me about her feelings for Changmin that day in the café. Her face was so sad and apologetic, she had wanted to "keep it a secret", she said-- "... but then again, I can't blame anyone for keeping secrets if it helps someone."
"Exactly. It doesn't necessarily help, but it eases the pain -- at least a little bit more."
"So what you're saying is, Changmin's protecting me from something. What is it?" I asked. Sooyoung smirked. She pulled a pillow into her arms and shrugged.
"Not 'what', Yoong. Who?"
"Look at that wave! Oppa! Look, look!" Yuri exclaimed, pulling Changmin as she raced down the beach. The sun was setting, making her hair look shiny and sleek across her back. Her hand was pulling Changmin's. He followed her with a small smile on his face (that cut through my heart, but I tried not to let it show on my face).
It was a new day and Yuri had suggested we all go down to the beach. It was sunny and breezy -- a perfect day to swim with friends and loved ones. We had a barbeque out, and some fun in the sun. Sooyoung caught up on her tanning, Yeonhee and Yuri swam around while Donghae and Kibum surfed. I stayed behind to watching everyone. And so did Changmin... that is until Yuri pulled him out with her.
I eyed the couple ahead of us and sighed, wrapping my shirt around me tighter. Kibum ran up next to me, bumping his shoulder with mine and giving me a look.
"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Talk to him."
I shook my head, and he groaned frustrated before pushing me hard by the shoulders. "Go before I hurt you. He's still the same guy, Yoong. Give him a chance."
I bit my lip, considering his words and looked back to Changmin's back. Yuri had let go of him to play in the shallow water and he was just standing there with his hands in his pockets. I sighed, looking down at the folds of my shirt -- feeling the beat of my heart strum harder.
Then I lifted my head and walked forward...
She was right behind me. And I didn't have to look to know it was her. I closed my eyes for a moment, rubbing my forehead before clasping them around the ring around my neck and hiding pulling it to my nape. Yoona didn't need to see that I had kept it.
"Hey." I said, as her steps came up next to me. "Hey," she replied, her arms crossed across her chest. I couldn't help but study her for a moment. Her hair was up in a bun on top of her head, but there were some tendrils loose -- flowing in the direction of the wind that blew past us silently.
"Donghae might not like you next to me, you know."
"I agree. But -- Kibum will kill me if I don't talk to you at least once during this trip."
I smirked. "We talked yesterday. About Jonghyun and his hot pink pants."
A laugh broke out of her (now that's music), and she visibly relaxed. Yoona punched me lightly on the shoulder. "They were awful, but Shim -- you know what I mean."
"Calling me Shim now? Should I call you Im, in return?"
"Shut up." She laughed again.
We stood silent for a moment, watching our friends playing. Yoona was laughing while watching Donghae pouring water on Sooyoung and getting chased afterwards. The twinkle in her eye struck a pang into my chest but I ignored it, looking elsewhere. This is useless, I thought, a week before my wedding and I'm still a coward to face reality.
Yoona stepped forward, surprising me out of my thoughts. She headed closer to the water, dipping her toes into it before stepping down fully. "The water's cool." She said dreamily, more to herself than to me. Turning her head slightly she looked back at me, and smiled.
"Sometimes I wish things were different between us."
"What?" I asked, surprised. Yoona shrugged. "I said 'I wish things were different between us'."
"Like, I wish I didn't sit next to you during Philosophy class. And even if I did, I wish I had just thought you were boring instead of interesting. I wish you didn't decide to be my friend, or vice versa." She cleared her throat, swaying her feet to and fro in the water. "I wish things were different."
My started walking towards her, and before I knew it I had my arms around her. "Changmin?! What -- what are you doing?" She was shocked, stiffening almost instantly under my touch but I didn't care. I only held her closer.
"I'm sorry." I whispered into her hair, to her ear. "I'm a coward, I know. I'm sorry." I love you.--
--"I'm a coward, I know. I'm sorry."
My heart thundered against my chest. His breath was warm against my ear, and I felt the tears welling up into my eyes. I bit my lip to stop them from falling, putting my hand over his to try and pull them off me. They wouldn't move. The tears were on the edge now. "Let me go, Changmin."
"I love you."
I stood still, mentally slapping myself. Was that--? Did I hear right?
"Chang--?" I stopped as he moved away, dropping his hands to sides. I reached out to him. "Wait--"
Donghae came out of no where. "I told you to stay away from her." He punched Changmin squarely on the jaw, and I yelped in shock. He threw another punch; one after another -- until Changmin finally retaliated but fell short (like he didn't want to hurt him). Changmin... I've seen him fight, but not like this. He's never fought so timidly.
He was on the ground again, with Donghae over him and I still couldn't speak or move. "Donghae! Stop! Wait, stop!" Kibum shouted, desperately trying to pull Donghae off of Changmin. Yeonhee and the others saw what was happening.
"Oppa!" Yuri screamed, running towards us but was held back by Sooyoung. "Oppa! Unnie, stop him! Stop him!"
I didn't do anything but watch. Watch as he got hit over and over again without even trying to protect himself. I caught his eye for only moment (before he turned away, bringing his arms over his face) and the tears came out--
It wasn't until I saw a glint of silver around Changmin's neck that I finally found my voice. And everything stopped.
"Donghae stop it. Please." I said, burying my head into Donghae's chest as I hugged him away from Changmin. Donghae snapped out of it, and groaned hugging me back, murmuring apologies into my hair.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Changmin get up -- the flash of silver finally revealing itself around his neck.
The tears finally slipped through my eyes, and I looked away just as he pushed past Kibum and ran away.
He kept it... My ring.
Please forgive the long (month long) wait. I've been busy and uninspired to write. But hey, after SMTOWN tonight - I just had to finish this one up. It was 6 pages in Word :))
day seventeen ★ when things fall to pieces...
"It's something about Changmin? Yah, Lee Yeonhee. Tell me."
Yeonhee shook her head. "It's not my place, Yoona. Even if I wanted to tell you -- and I do, I really do -- I'd feel guilty about betraying Changmin because he doesn't even know that I know."
"We've known each other since middle school. Why can't you tell me?" I pleaded, pulling her hands in mine and staring at my troubled friend. "Don't I deserve to know, whatever it is your hiding from me?"
She frowned, shaking her head and squeezing my hands. "Of course you do, Yoona. But it's just like I said -- I shouldn't be the one telling you. It wouldn't be right and quite frankly, I don't know where I should stand with this." She let out a sigh, lowering her head.
"That's not fair."
"It isn't. Look, you are one of my best people I know, Yoona. And so is Changmin -- but this... arrangement is just killing me, because I can't choose sides and I want both of you to be happy."
I stared at her, confused. "Choose sides?"
"You're my friend, Yoong. And so is he. Regardless of how long I've known you two is irrelevant if you ask me. Because I care about both of you the same way."
"I would never ask you to choose sides." I was beginning to feel betrayed. How could she think I would ask her to choose sides?
Yeonhee nodded solemnly. "I know. But sometimes, your actions speak differently." Yeonhee stood up, setting my hands down to my lap and looked up at the stars outside our bedroom window. "I'm sure you don't intend to, of course. I don't blame you."
"Do I really do that?" I whispered, mostly to myself. "I hadn't noticed. I've just been moving on, you know..."
"Well, no one said loving a person is easy. It's hard work to keep feeling the way you do every moment of every day. But it's worth it -- even when it hurts."
I scoffed, managing a little (bitter) smile on my lips. "Kibum's never hurt you though."
She laughed, shaking her head and looking over her shoulder to stare at me. "Come on. We both know he's not perfect. I know about that girl he dated aside from me after our 100th day together. I would have killed myself if I wasn't so smart."
"You knew about that?" I asked surprised. That was the only time I had ever been so angry at Kibum in the course of our friendship. I had caught with another girl, while walking to class with Changmin, and had accosted him right after the girl fled the scene. If it hadn't been for Changmin, being the voice of reason at the time (He had pulled Kibum away to talk before I could punch him), I would have killed him myself for cheating on my childhood friend.
"Yeah. Kibum came clean the day you and Changmin assaulted him. He said something about what Changmin had told him and he realized his mistake. We've been even more honest and trusting with each other ever since." Yeonhee answered softly, the smile on her face widening. "Changmin always has to have the last say in things, ne?"
"He always used to say that it was the lawyer in him to want to say the last word." I muttered, pursing my lips. Mentally, I pictured him grinning down at me the way he did when he said those words. My heart gave a heavy thump inside my chest.
Yeonhee giggled, shaking her head at me before taking a seat next to me on my bed. She put her head on my shoulder, giving me a side hug. "Have you noticed how much you mention random anecdotes about Changmin when we talk? It happens a lot, and not just when you're talking to me."
"Do I really do that?" I asked, more to myself than to anyone, gazing out to the window -- a soft sigh crossing my lips, "I don't notice it. I mean, I know when we were in school I used to say things like this a lot, but now -- I didn't know I was doing it again." Yeonhee nodded, squeezing my shoulder comfortingly.
"I don't think you do it on purpose, Yoong. It's probably just some left over impulses. We've been friends for so long and you don't just forget things overnight," she said pointedly. I shrugged. "I'm not supposed to do this when Donghae's around though -- much less when Yuri is around too. I feel like I'm hurting them both with sharing tidbits of my past with Changmin with them."
"No way," Sooyoung's voice startled both of us when it boomed from across the room. I strained to look behind me and saw her leaning against the (now opened) door frame, smirking at us and holding up a peace sign in greeting. "What's 'no way', Sooyoung?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her as she flung herself towards my bed and crushing us under her weight. "Get off you monster!"
"Yah, I am not a monster!" she exclaimed, smacking me playfully with her right hand, before folding her arms around my neck and shaking me. "You -- you need to make up your mind, kid!"
"Huh? What? Me?" I asked, in between gasps of air as I wrestled out of her grip. Fortunately Yeonhee was able to get out of the chaos before she could get sucked in. She laughed at us as we rolled over.
"Hey! Where's HimYoona? I don't remember fighting a weakling from college?" Sooyoung bellowed, teasing me. I rolled my eyes before pinning her with a leg over her stomach and forcing her to lay flat on the bed. She laughed, shaking her head and relaxing into my pillow. "Okay, I've found HimYoona."
"What did you mean, Sooyoung?" I asked again, settling my head on her shoulder. Yeonhee went to sit on the edge of the bed. It felt just like old times -- when the both of them would come to my small apartment after class to talk about whatever. The thought of it made my eyes turn a little misty but I smiled, snuggling closer to Sooyoung and reaching for Yeonhee to lie next to me.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, missy."
Sooyoung giggled. "I know. I was just waiting for you to use that tone. It's been a while."
"Yeah, whatever. Tell me what you meant~" I whined, pouting as cutely as I could until she rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. Sooyoung sat up, bringing her knees towards her face, shrugging as she did so.
"You're not hurting Changmin by sharing the memories you both had all those years ago. If anything, I think you're remembering those times made him feel a whole lot better today than he had been feeling these past weeks." She pursed her lips, "As for Yuri -- well... I don't think she can help it if the two of you had memories together. Let's face it -- you're the girl Changmin loves. How can she compete with that?"
I almost choked on my own saliva when she said that last part. Loves? As in present tense?
"You can forget about it if you want."
"Will you?"
"No. I won't."
"Why?"
"Because I love you..."
Did he mean that? I thought, at the time, I didn't think that he did. I thought he was just saying it for effect. I watched Sooyoung and Yeonhee carefully as they stared back at me. "He doesn't love me like that, Sooyoung," I said, shrugging. "That would be weird."
She looked at me for a moment, before lowering her head and burst out laughing. A moment later, Yeonhee started to laugh as well. I watched them confused at their sudden outburst. "What? What did I say?"
"Your face says everything, Yoong. You know don't you? He's told you, probably before you started to take Donghae seriously."
Did it really show in my face? My eyes widened in surprise. "Huh? I-I'm not sure about what you're saying. N-no, not really. What was it?" I replied lamely, looking away as quickly as possible. I'm not a good liar. I might as well say the truth. I huffed. "Fine. So what if he told me? It's not like he went out of his way to fight for me."
"Believe me, Yoong. He's been fighting for you since he came back." Yeonhee said, pursing her lips, "Changmin just has a peculiar way of showing it. You shouldn't have lost faith in him so quickly."
"Are you picking sides now?" I asked, not really meaning it (only partly, maybe). A hurt expression fleeted across Yeonhee's face and I quickly felt sorry.
She shook her head, looking down at her hands. "It's not about choosing sides, Yoona. I'm just trying to say, that you should probably know all the details before you lose all faith in him. He might be protecting something for you that you don't know about."
"I hate that the two of you know something I don't." I muttered, noting the Sooyoung's knowing glance at Yeonhee. Then, my mind went to an image of Yuri telling me about her feelings for Changmin that day in the café. Her face was so sad and apologetic, she had wanted to "keep it a secret", she said-- "... but then again, I can't blame anyone for keeping secrets if it helps someone."
"Exactly. It doesn't necessarily help, but it eases the pain -- at least a little bit more."
"So what you're saying is, Changmin's protecting me from something. What is it?" I asked. Sooyoung smirked. She pulled a pillow into her arms and shrugged.
"Not 'what', Yoong. Who?"
"Look at that wave! Oppa! Look, look!" Yuri exclaimed, pulling Changmin as she raced down the beach. The sun was setting, making her hair look shiny and sleek across her back. Her hand was pulling Changmin's. He followed her with a small smile on his face (that cut through my heart, but I tried not to let it show on my face).
It was a new day and Yuri had suggested we all go down to the beach. It was sunny and breezy -- a perfect day to swim with friends and loved ones. We had a barbeque out, and some fun in the sun. Sooyoung caught up on her tanning, Yeonhee and Yuri swam around while Donghae and Kibum surfed. I stayed behind to watching everyone. And so did Changmin... that is until Yuri pulled him out with her.
I eyed the couple ahead of us and sighed, wrapping my shirt around me tighter. Kibum ran up next to me, bumping his shoulder with mine and giving me a look.
"What?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Talk to him."
I shook my head, and he groaned frustrated before pushing me hard by the shoulders. "Go before I hurt you. He's still the same guy, Yoong. Give him a chance."
I bit my lip, considering his words and looked back to Changmin's back. Yuri had let go of him to play in the shallow water and he was just standing there with his hands in his pockets. I sighed, looking down at the folds of my shirt -- feeling the beat of my heart strum harder.
Then I lifted my head and walked forward...
She was right behind me. And I didn't have to look to know it was her. I closed my eyes for a moment, rubbing my forehead before clasping them around the ring around my neck and hiding pulling it to my nape. Yoona didn't need to see that I had kept it.
"Hey." I said, as her steps came up next to me. "Hey," she replied, her arms crossed across her chest. I couldn't help but study her for a moment. Her hair was up in a bun on top of her head, but there were some tendrils loose -- flowing in the direction of the wind that blew past us silently.
"Donghae might not like you next to me, you know."
"I agree. But -- Kibum will kill me if I don't talk to you at least once during this trip."
I smirked. "We talked yesterday. About Jonghyun and his hot pink pants."
A laugh broke out of her (now that's music), and she visibly relaxed. Yoona punched me lightly on the shoulder. "They were awful, but Shim -- you know what I mean."
"Calling me Shim now? Should I call you Im, in return?"
"Shut up." She laughed again.
We stood silent for a moment, watching our friends playing. Yoona was laughing while watching Donghae pouring water on Sooyoung and getting chased afterwards. The twinkle in her eye struck a pang into my chest but I ignored it, looking elsewhere. This is useless, I thought, a week before my wedding and I'm still a coward to face reality.
Yoona stepped forward, surprising me out of my thoughts. She headed closer to the water, dipping her toes into it before stepping down fully. "The water's cool." She said dreamily, more to herself than to me. Turning her head slightly she looked back at me, and smiled.
"Sometimes I wish things were different between us."
"What?" I asked, surprised. Yoona shrugged. "I said 'I wish things were different between us'."
"Like, I wish I didn't sit next to you during Philosophy class. And even if I did, I wish I had just thought you were boring instead of interesting. I wish you didn't decide to be my friend, or vice versa." She cleared her throat, swaying her feet to and fro in the water. "I wish things were different."
My started walking towards her, and before I knew it I had my arms around her. "Changmin?! What -- what are you doing?" She was shocked, stiffening almost instantly under my touch but I didn't care. I only held her closer.
"I'm sorry." I whispered into her hair, to her ear. "I'm a coward, I know. I'm sorry." I love you.--
--"I'm a coward, I know. I'm sorry."
My heart thundered against my chest. His breath was warm against my ear, and I felt the tears welling up into my eyes. I bit my lip to stop them from falling, putting my hand over his to try and pull them off me. They wouldn't move. The tears were on the edge now. "Let me go, Changmin."
"I love you."
I stood still, mentally slapping myself. Was that--? Did I hear right?
"Chang--?" I stopped as he moved away, dropping his hands to sides. I reached out to him. "Wait--"
Donghae came out of no where. "I told you to stay away from her." He punched Changmin squarely on the jaw, and I yelped in shock. He threw another punch; one after another -- until Changmin finally retaliated but fell short (like he didn't want to hurt him). Changmin... I've seen him fight, but not like this. He's never fought so timidly.
He was on the ground again, with Donghae over him and I still couldn't speak or move. "Donghae! Stop! Wait, stop!" Kibum shouted, desperately trying to pull Donghae off of Changmin. Yeonhee and the others saw what was happening.
"Oppa!" Yuri screamed, running towards us but was held back by Sooyoung. "Oppa! Unnie, stop him! Stop him!"
I didn't do anything but watch. Watch as he got hit over and over again without even trying to protect himself. I caught his eye for only moment (before he turned away, bringing his arms over his face) and the tears came out--
It wasn't until I saw a glint of silver around Changmin's neck that I finally found my voice. And everything stopped.
"Donghae stop it. Please." I said, burying my head into Donghae's chest as I hugged him away from Changmin. Donghae snapped out of it, and groaned hugging me back, murmuring apologies into my hair.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Changmin get up -- the flash of silver finally revealing itself around his neck.
The tears finally slipped through my eyes, and I looked away just as he pushed past Kibum and ran away.
He kept it... My ring.
Please forgive the long (month long) wait. I've been busy and uninspired to write. But hey, after SMTOWN tonight - I just had to finish this one up. It was 6 pages in Word :))