Title: Somewhere special
Rating: G
Pairing: Slight HoMin
Genre: Gen
Summary: "So where are we going?" "Somewhere special." Drabble.
Warning: Break-up!fic? I've forgotten the warning for these D:
Notes: 'Keep your head down' brain-damaged me. I don't like these sorts of fics, but I had to write it in order to keep from going insane.
Yunho knows that Changmin isn't the same. He isn't the same. None of them were. There was heartbreak in ever look, in every sigh. The quiet young man that sat in the corner looked for all the world like the boy he'd raised, but in fact was just a hollow shell of what was. What could have been.
It hurts, somewhat, to look at him. Knowing that what had transpired hadn't been what they had wanted, but what had been necessary. The world looked on it as a band falling apart. Yunho looked on it as a family being torn asunder.
"Min-ah," the younger looked up, a small smile on his lips that is all but genuine. "Let's go."
The other's expression turned puzzled and Yunho put on his most assuring smile. He held out a hand that Changmin took without hesitation and they both made their way out of the building, sneaking past the security guards and managers like they used to do when they were young and foolish. When they had been whole beings and not the pieces of what they once were.
"Hyung?" Changmin's tone was full of question and a bit afraid as they got into one of the manager's cars and Yunho started it up with a stolen key. "Hyung, where are we going?"
Yunho turned to grin. "Away."
The drive seemed aimless. A right turn there, a left turn here. U turn just up ahead. Changmin grew restless with each twist. "Hyung..."
Yunho smiled at the younger. "It's okay. Trust me."
Changmin looked doubtful and Yunho winced. Last time he'd said these words, it had been followed by pain. This time, he hoped to mend it. "Min-ah. You know I love you. We love you." Yunho didn't have to look over to see Changmin roll his eyes. The youngest of them all hated to be treated that way. Treated like a child who didn't know what to feel, what to believe. Who looked up to his hyungs as much as they all looked up to him.
"I'm not a child, Yunho." Not a child, indeed. Yunho smiled and this time it was genuine. "So where are we going?"
"Somewhere special." It took at least a hour to get there, but by the time they did, the sun seemed to peak out from the horizon. Yunho parked the car in the shade of a building, pulling up his hoodie before stepping out of the car. "Come on." Changmin followed suit, the dork glasses that one of the managers had given him becoming part of the disguise they used whenever they went out into public.
It was a bit pathetic that he had already memorized the code for the building despite this being the first time he'd been there. Heechul had given it to him at one of their few meetings, his eyes showing how disappointed he was in him. "If I could have prevented him from going, I would have." Was the words that Heechul had said when giving him the slip of paper. Yunho had almost forgotten that he wasn't the only one who was suffering.
"What is this place?" Changmin questioned as they took the stairs up the high rise.
"You'll see." Yunho said as he pushed open one of the doors to a floor that he'd only wished he could have come to earlier. The hallway seemed almost endless and yet so short. Changmin realized as the approached one of the doors where exactly they were.
"Hyung." He stopped, looking betrayed. "Hyung. No."
"Why?" Yunho questioned quietly. "Why not?"
"Because..." Changmin looked uncertain, afraid. "Because we can't..."
"Because we should." Yunho held out his hand. "Because we've been denying this for too long. Denying what we've known all along."
"But..." Changmin wavered, looking toward the stairs. Toward escape, and then back at Yunho and what he was offering. "But...I..." Yunho didn't need to know the rest of the sentence. Changmin was afraid. Afraid of not wanting to turn back. Of damaging everything that he'd been working on building all of last year.
To Yunho, this was the conclusion. Or the beginning. The answer to the question he has been asking himself time and time again. The same question Changmin had been asking himself and the world. And Yunho.
"Come." Yunho beckoned and Changmin finally broke, hand fitting into Yunho's as the elder dragged him to the door.
They knocked and waited for the door to open to the rest of their lives.