Running (Chapter 17)
Title: Running
Pairing: Yoosu, ChangKi, Yunjae
Rating: PG-15
Genre: Angst, Comedy
Quotes:
"There is no such thing as [running] forever."
Junsu couldn’t fight monsters like Superman, but he can still save the day…and the ‘friendship’ between Kibum and Changmin.
“Yeah! You are! So just stop talking,” Changmin insulted.
“Why are you being such a jerk? Junsu has the right to learn whatever he wants.”
“He doesn’t need to know!”
“He wants to know!”
“You want him to know! Stop thinking that everyone is like you!”
“I don’t think that!”
“You sure act it!”
“Jerk!”
“Drama queen!”
Kibum gasped with a dropped jaw. “Meanie!”
Changmin was about to throw another insult (unsure of when he’d been capable of such childish arguments), when Junsu’s sobs pierced through the yelling. Both looked down at the crying Junsu.
Kibum quickly ran around the table to push Changmin’s hands away from Junsu’s ears. “You’re hurting him!”
“I was not!” Changmin defended. He grabbed for a napkin and started to dab at Junsu’s cheeks. “Junsu, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you? I’m sorry!”
Junsu sniffled (for added effect) and shook his head. “No, I just don’t want to see you angry at each other. Please, don’t fight.”
Kibum and Changmin looked at each other. Changmin was still staring when Kibum turned back to Junsu. “It’s okay, Junsu. We fight all the time. It’s nothing serious.”
Changmin stopped staring at Kibum’s sincere expression. He was now staring at the smaller hand that was holding his own. The napkin was still in Changmin’s hands, but instead of taking it into his own hands, Kibum was guiding Changmin’s hands to dab at the tear stains on Junsu’s cheeks.
And to hell if he knew why, Changmin’s heart was beating too fast to be healthy and there was a weird feeling in his gut.
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Yoochun sighed when he saw Changmin walk into the bar…again. “Are you here to lecture me again? You’ve done this so many times already, why don’t you just…?”
“Why are you and Kibum still together?” Changmin cut him off.
Yoochun was shocked and he almost wanted to smile. He liked the angry look on Changmin’s face. He’d been waiting for this question and wondered why it’d taken Changmin this long to explode (probably ‘Pride’). “Why do you ask?”
“Mi…Yoochun, this isn’t good. We’ve overlooked him. He’s always there and we haven’t asked ourselves why!” Changmin hissed.
Yoochun blinked, confused. Changmin wasn’t here because he was jealous?
“You think Kibum is here for a reason?”
“Maybe he’s one of Bae’s men or…or he’s one of those good guys! Maybe he’s here to hurt you and Junsu. And we’re letting him spend so much time with Junsu too! This can’t be good. This isn’t good,” Changmin was starting to mumble.
“Changmin, I think you’re thinking too much. Why would you suspect Kibum like that?” Yoochun popped the lid of a beer bottle and handed it to Changmin. He walked off to fix up several drinks before returning to the isolated area that Changmin was occupying. “Well?”
“I have a bad feeling about him. I get this weird feeling when he’s around. I feel like I’m missing something. It nags me. My instincts are telling me to beware of him,” Changmin explained.
Yoochun smiled a little. “You’re going to trust your gut?”
“My instincts!” the younger man corrected. “My instincts have never failed me.”
“There’s no such thing as ‘never,’” Yoochun pointed out. “Maybe it’s not a bad feeling, but because it’s so foreign to you that…you think it’s bad.”
Changmin frowned. “What are you trying to say?”
Yoochun knew that telling Changmin that he’s in love with Kibum is just going to force the younger man into denial. So he decided not to. “You’ll figure it out. I have to get back to work. It’s a Friday night so we’re going to be really busy.”
Changmin watched Yoochun walk back to the mid-section of the bar table, reading orders with his eyes while fixing drinks with his hands. Changmin still couldn’t understand.
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“Who are you?”
Kibum stared at Changmin like he’d grown a third eye. His cheeks were a little rosy pink so Kibum wondered if he was a little drunk. “Um…Snow White?”
Changmin frowned and Kibum figured that he wasn’t in a joking mood. “Who are you?” he repeated in the serious voice.
“Do you want to check my I.D.? I’m old enough to drink and this,” Kibum held up the champagne glass that he was sipping, “is just cranberry juice. And we’re out of cups so you need to do dishes tonight.”
“Why are you doing all this? Didn’t you say that you were going to break up with Yoochun after a week?” Changmin demanded.
Kibum raised an amused eyebrow, wondering if Changmin had eavesdropped during his and Heebon’s phone conversation. Kibum moved to set his laptop on the coffee table. He’d been writing another scene for his book, but Changmin was more interesting.
Changmin expected Kibum to tell him a lie, to try to evade his questions again. But he won’t give up. If Kibum is here to hurt Micky (and Junsu), Changmin will stop him. What if Kibum had something to do with Junho’s best friend? What if…?
“I’m trying to make Junsu jealous and that should eventually lead to the both of them realizing that they’re actually in love with each other,” Kibum answered with a sweet smile and twinkling eyes. “So romantic!”
Changmin wasn’t expecting that. “What?”
“You silly person, can’t you see? They’re obviously in love with each other! Junsu just doesn’t see it and Chunnie is in denial. But I’ll fix all that! They deserve to be happy!” Kibum grinned.
Changmin tried to understand. He’d suspected Kibum of being one of Bae’s spies or even an FBI. He expected Kibum to be here to hurt Micky and Junsu…for the microchip. Changmin wasn’t sure how or what Kibum’s plans were, but…he’d been convinced that Kibum was up to no good. His gut told him so and Changmin’s gut feeling was never wrong. He’d gone by instincts in the past, even when he had no physical evidence, and he’d never been wrong.
‘There’s no such thing as ‘never’.’
And it turns out that Kibum had good intentions. He wanted to play match-maker, because he saw true love between Junsu and Micky. But Kibum didn’t know the truth.
And so Changmin’s instincts weren’t completely wrong. Kibum was going to hurt Micky and Junsu…even when he just wanted to make the both of them happy.
“Hello? Earth to Light Pole,” Kibum was waving his hand in front of Changmin’s eyes. Changmin ignored the memory of Kibum holding his hand this morning. That was what gave him that ‘bad’ feeling about Kibum in the first place.
“You can’t do that!” Changmin exclaimed, masking his expression with anger.
“What?” Kibum blinked in confusion.
“They’re siblings! They can’t be in love with each other! It’s called ‘incest’ and it’s not acceptable!” Changmin reasoned.
Kibum opened his mouth, paused for a silent moment, and finally said, “It’s love!”
“Love isn’t Life! Love isn’t everything!”
“Don’t tell me you can’t see it too! They’re in love with each other! Love overcomes everything! As long as they’re truly in love…”
“No! They’re not characters in your romance novels! You can’t write them a happily-ever-after!”
Kibum’s jaw dropped. In a softer voice, he asked, “You read my novels?”
Changmin blinked and turned away from Kibum’s eyes. “Look, just…stop, okay? Just stop! I guarantee you; Yoochun is not in love with Junsu.”
Changmin started to walk into his room, but stopped when Kibum said, “Can you guarantee that Junsu isn’t in love with Chunnie?”
Changmin didn’t turn around, didn’t know how to answer. He took large steps towards his room, almost like he was running.
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“You confronted him last night?”
“Yes.”
“You were always like that in the past, rushing to do everything without thinking. But after all those years, I thought you’d learned to be patient.”
Changmin ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Back in his teen years when he first joined the mafia, he’d been impatient, immature, and stupid. Micky had trained him to be what he was today, trained him to be one of the best. And yet, now, everything he’d learned was crumbling to the ground. Why?
“I was worried that he might be one of Bae’s men…or the reason Junho’s friend had found you. We’re already late in noticing…in suspecting him so I didn’t want to give him anymore time to…to do whatever it is he was planning,” Changmin tried to find reasons, but came up with excuses.
Changmin had called him over this evening (after Kibum took Junsu out for ice cream) for a specific reason. “What did he say when you confronted him?”
Changmin sighed and ran a hand through his messy hair again. Yoochun wanted to hug him. The taller man suddenly looked like a lost little boy.
He’d lost most of his childhood when his parents died in a vehicle accident and he was left alone at an orphanage. Then he’d chosen to join the mafia. He’d turned himself into a powerful man that many feared, and yet Yoochun still saw the soft side of him. Yoochun saw that Kibum’s presence was bringing out the soft side, the side that Changmin had buried so long ago.
And yet Changmin was still confused, unsure of this new emotion that was driving him crazy…this new emotion called ‘Love’.
Yoochun smiled a little because it reminded him of when he first fell in love with Junsu.
“I don’t know what’s worst: Kibum being one of Bae’s men or…or…”
“Or?”
“…or Kibum trying to get you and Junsu together.”
Yoochun’s eyes widened. He blinked once, then twice. “But…why?”
“He told me that he sees the love between the both of you. He sees that you’re in love with Junsu and he sees that Junsu is in love with you…”
“Junsu isn’t in love with me,” Yoochun cut in with a serious voice.
“That’s not what Kibum said,” Changmin retorted. Those words sounded childish to his own ears. “That’s why he didn’t break up with you after the one week trial.”
“He said that he wanted to use me to make you jealous because he sees that you’re in love with him,” Yoochun blurted out.
“What?” Changmin’s eyes widened.
“But I guess that was his lie too,” Yoochun murmured, too distracted to see the disappointment in Changmin’s eyes. “I can’t let him keep doing this. I…I should get him away from Junsu. What ideas has he been putting into Junsu’s mind?”
“I don’t know. But at this point, it’s a fact that Junsu understands the possibility of a man loving another man.”
Yoochun ran a hand through his hair, “Shit. I can’t let him keep manipulating Junsu into thinking that he’s in love with me.”
Changmin wondered if he should point out that Junsu isn’t being ‘manipulated’. But Yoochun was still in denial about Junsu returning his feelings.
“Don’t worry. I told him to back off, to stop, and that it’s incest. I’ll make sure he doesn’t put anymore ideas into Junsu’s head,” Changmin assured. For some reason, he really didn’t want Yoochun to take Junsu and run away from Kibum, to cut Kibum out of their lives. It wasn’t Kibum’s fault that he didn’t know the truth.
Yoochun looked at Changmin with wary eyes.
Chapter 18 // “You heard everything!”