Running (Chapter 12)
Title: Running
Pairing: Yoosu, ChangKi, Yunjae
Rating: PG-15
Genre: Angst, Comedy
Quotes:
"There is no such thing as [running] forever."
Junsu turned the machine on and began to dry Yoochun’s hair. Even through the loud dryer, Yoochun could hear Junsu humming.
Yoochun relaxed his body and closed his eyes. Junsu was doing a good job.
Junsu was trying really hard to do a good job. He didn’t want to mess up because he wanted to do something right for Yoochun. Making Yoochun happy made Junsu happy.
It took a while because Junsu kept the blow dryer a bit too far from Yoochun’s hair, not wanting to burn (and ruin) his hyung’s pretty hair. His arms were starting to ache, but Junsu wouldn’t give up!
When he eventually finished, he craned his neck to see Yoochun’s closed eyes and relaxed expression. Feeling mischievous, Junsu waved the dryer at Yoochun’s face (just a quick swift). Yoochun’s eyes opened and he pretended to frown at Junsu. “I’ll get you back for that.”
He jumped out of the chair and Junsu squealed as he ran away. The blow dryer was still in Junsu’s hand and the plug was pulled out of the socket when he ran out of the room.
“Wait, Junsu!” Yoochun called as he ran after the younger man, afraid to death that he would trip on the long wire.
Yoochun found Junsu in the living room, standing on the sofa and raising the blow dryer up in the air. “You won’t catch me! I have my trusty weapon and will defend the world from all evil!”
Yoochun broke into a laugh. “You’re missing your cape.”
Junsu looked down at himself and turned his head to look behind him. “Oh, yeah, no cape. But that’s okay! I have my weapon!”
He was shooting at random corners in the living room and Yoochun laughed at how cute he was. Then, to accommodate Junsu’s fun, he acted his own role, “Come here! I will tie you up and feed you lots of veggies!”
He ran towards the couch to catch the younger man, but Junsu squealed again and ran into the kitchen. Yoochun followed him into the kitchen and froze when he stared into the tip of the blow dryer. Junsu was aiming it at him like…like it was a gun.
For a quick second, Yoochun thought he saw a gun instead of a blow dryer in Junsu’s hand. The image of Junsu pointing a gun at him burned into Yoochun’s heart. His blood ran cold and he found himself too frightened to move.
Junsu grew frightened when he saw Yoochun’s reaction. He immediately dropped the blow dryer somewhere and pulled Yoochun into his arms, hugging the older man’s head to his chest.
“I’m sorry, Hyung! I didn’t mean to scare you! Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you! I won’t ever hurt you! Don’t be scared, Hyung!” Junsu rambled on and on as he (roughly) soothed Yoochun’s hair. “It’s okay, Hyung. Junsu is here for you…always here for you.”
Yoochun almost wanted to cry at Junsu’s words. He clenched his fists and didn’t allow himself to wrap his arms around Junsu.
Junsu didn’t know that the one who was promising to never hurt him…was the only one who was capable.
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“You work too much,” Changmin analyzed Yoochun as he stopped playing with his new touch-screen phone and slipped it into his pocket. Yoochun didn’t sleep last night.
“You wouldn’t think that if you didn’t follow me all the time.”
Changmin watched the way Yoochun wiped the mugs and organized the bottles. Something was wrong.
“What happened last night?”
Yoochun’s hands stopped working and he blinked. He stopped only for three seconds before continuing. “Nothing.”
“What happened last night?”
“Nothing,” the older man repeated with finality.
“You’re playing with Death.”
Yoochun turned his back to Changmin, pretending to fix something. “I’ve been playing with Death all my life.”
“You’re right. You’re not playing with Death. You’re doing worse. You’re playing with Love.”
Yoochun frowned and Changmin saw the tension in his broad shoulders. “I didn’t deny anything because I didn’t want to lie to you.”
Changmin didn’t know whether to feel upset or happy. Micky was someone he’d always looked up to, the only person Changmin respected with his whole heart. To know that Micky cared for him, saw him as a friend, didn’t want to lie to him…should make Changmin happy (especially when Micky wasn’t one to express this in the past).
And Changmin cared for Micky so much that he really didn’t want Micky to hurt.
“Don’t you find that cruel? To make your enemy fall in love with you?”
Yoochun took a sharp 180 degree turn to meet Changmin‘s eyes. “I’m not trying to make him fall in love with me.”
Changmin didn’t falter; he continued to match Yoochun’s eyes. When the cell phone in his jacket’s pocket vibrated, he only slipped his hand in to end the call. He didn’t need interruptions right now. “I didn’t say you were ‘trying’. You’ve gone beyond ‘try’. You didn‘t have to ‘try‘.”
“No,” Yoochun spoke with stubbornness, eyes serious. He was thankful that they were on the far end of the bar table, safe from eavesdroppers.
“Yes,” Changmin retorted, more stubborn and with no fault because he was the one who was speaking the truth.
“He thinks I’m his brother,” Yoochun turned his eyes away. “I told him that I’m his brother when he woke up in the hospital…”
“To gain his trust? So you can make him tell you where the microchip is hidden? Bullshit,” Changmin hissed in a low voice, “You don’t care about the microchip. Junsu probably doesn’t even know where it is. You told Bae that he knew just so Bae wouldn’t kill him on the spot, didn’t you?”
Yoochun didn’t deny it again. “This is enough. I’ve let you walk back into my life because I truly…missed you. You’re a friend and no matter how much I hated seeing you again, I caved and didn’t move away. You really think I can’t just take Junsu and leave this town again? It’s not a difficult task for me, Changmin.”
Changmin heard the words that Yoochun didn’t say, ‘I’m not running from you because I trust that you won’t betray me. You keep trying to talk me into going back, but you won’t betray me.’
“You cave too easily. You give in to your emotions. You’re letting me stay, trusting me because I’m a friend. You would never have done that in the past. If someone was a threat to you, directly or indirectly, you would have gotten rid of the person. In the past, you would have killed me already.”
“If Bae had sent someone else to find me…and I end up being found, I would have killed that person,” Yoochun assured. But not Changmin,
“Would you?” Changmin whispered. “Can you still kill a human being without feeling anything?”
“Changmin…”
“I’m thankful that you’d trust me. You know I could harm you, but you’re trusting that I won’t. Thank you for that. It takes a lot of courage, especially for you, to give someone the power to hurt you…and trust that they won’t,” Changmin spoke in a sincerely voice. He looked so tired. “But Mi…Yoochun, I wish you would go back to being your old self. I wish that you wouldn’t give anyone this…power over you.”
Changmin was steering this back to Junsu again. “Changmin…”
“You’re too soft. You gave this power to me, trusting that I won’t hurt you. But do you realize that Junsu is different? You’re giving Junsu this power…but you don’t trust him to NOT hurt you.”
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Changmin flipped the page in the magazine. Junsu and Kibum were sitting next to him watching T.V.
“Don’t you work?” Kibum raised an eyebrow at Changmin.
“Don’t you?” the taller man retorted. Not that Changmin was interested, but he realized that he didn’t know much about Kibum after all.
“I write columns for magazines and newspapers. I’m also a novelist. My book is coming out in another month. You should read it.”
“You write books? What do you write about?” Junsu inquired while chewing on a slice of dry mango.
“Romance!” Kibum grinned. “My next one is about…”
The door opened and Yoochun walked in to see the three in the living room. “Hey.”
“Chunnie!”
“Hyung!”
Both practically tackled Yoochun and started asking him about his day at work. Yoochun was struggling to just reach the sofa.
Changmin found this weird. It was exactly a week. Isn’t Kibum supposed to be breaking up with Yoochun today? Changmin glanced at his watch to check the date. It was the right date.
Yoochun finally sat down on the middle of the sofa; Junsu sitting to his right and Kibum on his left. “Since you’re home early, let’s do something tonight!” Kibum suggested.
“What do you two have in mind?” Yoochun asked.
“Walk on the beach!”
“Amusement park!”
Silence took over after the disagreement. Yoochun glanced at Changmin, who just shrugged and went back to reading the magazine.
“Changmin!” Kibum suddenly shouted and the taller man looked at him immediately. “Take Junsu to the amusement park. Chunnie and I need some ‘boyfriend-time’.”
Yoochun glanced at Kibum and then Junsu. Junsu glanced at Yoochun and then Changmin.
Changmin wondered if Kibum wanted the alone time to ‘break up’ with Yoochun. Kibum did tell Heebon that he’d break up with Yoochun after a week. And being the hopeless romantic that he is, Kibum would want a break up to be during a walk on the beach.
“Okay, let’s go Junsu.”
“Hyung?” Junsu stared at Yoochun.
“Go ahead, Junsu. Kibum and I have some stuff to talk about,” Yoochun smiled at the younger man.
Junsu automatically smiled and nodded. He jumped up from the seat and followed Changmin. “Which one are we going to? I was watching T.V. and they said that a new one opened up last week. Can we go there? Can we? Please? Please? Please?”
They stopped hearing Junsu’s voice when the door closed.
Yoochun was still staring at the closed door (missing Junsu already) when Kibum interrupted his thoughts. “Let’s go walk on the beach, Chunnie! Or do you want to eat first? You’re too thin. You need to eat more.”
“Let’s just get it over with here.”
“Get what over with?” Kibum blinked innocently.
“It’s a week.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m not your ideal boyfriend.”
“Of course not,” Kibum made a cute waving gesture with his hand. “But I think we should date for another week.”
“What?” Yoochun was confused. “Why?”
Kibum paused for a quick moment. “Um…because I think Changmin is in love with me, but the jerk is too stubborn to notice it. I want to use you to make him jealous. Jealousy is a good sign of love, you know? It doesn’t work all the time, but it works most of the time.”
Yoochun wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh. Changmin? In love? Well, Yoochun did notice…a little.
“You’re very blunt…,” Yoochun pointed out.
Kibum shrugged. “I try.”
“…and I think you’d be perfect for him.”
Kibum grinned. “We’ll see.”
Chapter 13 // “It’ll be our little secret.”