fic: forever minus twenty (as long as it's even), yewook, pg, [2/2]
Title: forever minus twenty (as long as it’s even)
Author: pinefir
Pairing: yesung/girl!ryeowook, girl!ryeowook/kyuhyun, girl!ryeowook/henry, girl!ryeowook/sungmin, yesung/girl!eunhyuk, sungmin/girl!zhoumi, kyuhyun/girl!zhoumi
Genre: fluff/drama/angst
Rating: pg
Summary: “Do you not plan to stay with me until forever? Why only give yourself eighty years with me?” Sometimes, the best decisions come to you only after you’ve spent your entire life making the wrong ones.
Warning: AU!, genderswitch
Words: 11312
AN: it gets a bit draggy in the middle, and it's because i've done this 5 months ago and i forgot all about it. the writing style changes from time to time since i didn't write this continuously. it's too long yet too short. and the ending is abrupt and open for interpretation. i honestly don't know if i'm gonna write a sequel for this, i'm not much of a yewook shipper anyway. but i hope you guys enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it even if it took me almost half a year to finish such a boring ass story. inspirations came from : broken by lifehouse, shiver by natalie imbruglia, bring me flowers by hope, just a feeling by maroon 5. i've basically made a soundtrack for this fic because lol . this has been a long ass author's note. i will not hold you back from the angst .i'd probably make a spinoff about kyu/wook mi/min though but knowing me, it;'d probably take another 5 months.
PART 1 | PART 2
Almost 20:Not Quite 18
Ryeowook finds herself downing some shots of whiskey in the pub where she and Kyuhyun celebrated their second anniversary two years ago. She smirks to herself as she recalls that night. Wasn’t it the night when Kyuhyun has told her so many times that he loved her and that he will always love her? Where is he right now, she thinks scathingly, off in China with Zhou Mi doing who else but Zhou Mi.
She was no idiot, all the dwindling email’s, the quick excuses to get off skype, they were signs that their relationship was dying. Zhou Mi being there for him all the time was just the trigger Kyuhyun needed.
Zhou Mi was a good friend and was a good girlfriend to Sungmin. He loved her so much and Ryeowook wishes that she had loved Kyuhyun just as much Sungmin did love Zhou Mi. Maybe she did, but she wasn’t too sure now. She was no liar after all, and she feels guilty every time, during the time that Kyuhyun was off studying in China, she tries to think of ways to meet or see Yesung. Most people thought she comes to the pub regularly just because it was memorable for her, but only she knew the reason why she’s really here.
And maybe, Sungmin knows too. She groans feeling a headache coming. Waking up naked with Sungmin was idiotic, she thinks. If there were things she’d willingly lie about, sleeping with Sungmin right after they found out that Kyuhyun and Zhou mi were cheating on them together would be one of those things. It was a petty move, but in her defence, they both needed it. But still, she wanted to forget everything about it. It wasn’t a bad experience for her, she could honestly say that Sungmin, even in his anger, is a passionate and generous partner; but her conscience won’t just let her rest about it.
She orders a bottle of soju next and Siwon can’t help but give it to her. He’s tried not giving her any but she threatened to tell Shindong of his non-compliance to a customer as breaking one of his responsibilities. That and he actually felt bad for her and for what his cousin did to her. In his mind, as long as Ryeowook hasn’t lost count of the bottles she’s been drinking, all would be fine. If ever she does become drunk though, he’s ready to take her home, it’s the least he can do for having protected Kyuhyun and hurting Ryeowook in the process.
Yesung who is now in his last year of university has been more than busy. Between keeping a night-time job as a student assistant and day-time classes with some tutoring on the side, he hasn’t been to the pub for months. Shindong has told him so many times that he’s welcome to come back to perform in the pub, unfortunately though, he couldn’t follow up on that.
But this night is unlike other nights. For once, he was let out early from his post as a student assistant and tomorrow would be a no-classes day. He isn’t about to let this night pass him by with him cooped up in his room so he makes his way for the pub as soon as he gets out of the building.
Flagging down a taxi, he sends a message to Siwon who he knows has his duty today, saying that he’s on his way. When Siwon replies with an “Oh god , finally someone to help me!” , he could only chuckle.
He doesn’t notice her at first, maybe because he was preoccupied with getting a free non-alcoholic drink from Siwon or maybe because he was just exhausted from university, but either way, he doesn’t notice her nursing a drink until Siwon tells him.
“You know her, right, hyung?” Siwon asks as he points towards Ryeowook.
He turns to look at the person Siwon pointed to. “I thought she stopped coming here?” Yesung asks him.
Siwon shrugs, he didn’t really want to tell Yesung of the reason why Ryeowook was here. Ryeowook was a regular for almost 2 years now, or at least for as long as Yesung was here. That night when Kyuhyun brought Ryeowook to the pub was the start of them being regulars. When Kyuhyun went off to China to study, Siwon thought that he’d never see Ryeowook again, but he was wrong. Because now with Kyuhyun gone, she seemed to come to the pub more often than before. At first, Siwon thought that it was all about reminiscing and missing Kyuhyun, because she didn’t accept any of the guys’ advances and from what he knew, both were going strong and steady even with the long distance. From then on, he has taken it upon himself to look after Ryeowook.
But then one day, she stopped coming. He wondered why, and he even asked Kyuhyun about it, but Kyuhyun assured him that there’s nothing wrong with them. Now that she’s back, Siwon realizes something that he’s failed to pick up on over the course of Ryeowook’s regular visits and that is the fact that she seemed to stop coming to the pub when Yesung stopped performing. But of course, Siwon doesn’t tell anybody this because it’s only an assumption.
“She’s been drinking nonstop,” he tells Yesung. Yesung seems tense , and seems to be very concerned about this girl, he observes. Siwon doesn’t know if they’re friends but the way that Yesung is currently watching her tells him that maybe they are.
“Do you know why?” Yesung asks him.
He knows why, he thinks, but should he tell Yesung? “I don’t know,” he lies. “You know her right?” he asks again. Before Yesung could answer, he continues. “And she’s more than a familiar face to you, right?”
Yesung nods and pushes himself off the bar. “She’s more than a friend to me, too.”
Ryeowook swirls the shot glass in front of her, watching the different layers of her drink mix and then separate. She smiles to herself, a bit amused as she remembers the lava lamp that Sungmin keeps on his bedside table. When someone takes the glass from her hands, she snarls and turns to look at the person who did that.
It was Yesung.
It’s been years since she’s been this close to Yesung. She frequented the pub, but the stage separating them, him being a performer and her being a customer gives them more than enough distance. Just what was he doing here? And, is he really even here? Why was he near her? Didn’t, wasn’t he the one who wanted nothing to do with her? He didn’t even acknowledge her back then when she was one of the customers. Why now? Why now? Her mind was asking so many questions and she wishes she can just shut it down.
“Just who taught you how to drink? And that strong of a drink too!” Yesung frowns, unaware of the thoughts passing in her mind, as he rubs his chest and moves to sit down next to her. Ryeowook who was still in a state of confusion and disbelief only stares at him. He wasn’t much of a drinker, sure he worked in a pub, but his job description doesn’t include getting smashed so he finds no reason to drink. When Ryeowook doesn’t answer, he just slumps forward in his seat and continues to mentally curse his low tolerance for alcohol.
“Kyuhyun,” she says and Yesung wonders why she’s saying Kyuhyun.
“Kyuhyun?” he echoes as he straightens up.
“He has a high tolerance for alcohol,” she says as if that explains everything.
Yesung looks at her quizzically. “I didn’t know that alcohol tolerance can be passed,” he jokes.
Ryeowook snickers. “Maybe it’s the years of making out,” she muses and then she laughs and downs another drink again. Yesung laughs with her just so she wouldn’t sound ridiculous even to her own ears, but in reality, he doesn’t find it funny.
Ryeowook sobers up and leans forward to Yesung. “Do you know that kissing increases your immunity?”
Yesung smiles, finding the trivia somewhat random and a bit ridiculous, he was about to make fun of her and make light of the situation when there are fingers on his collar pulling him closer to her and pulling him out of his stool. Before he knew it, her lips was on his and he’s completely leaning on to her.
She’s the one who leads them both, Yesung was too stunned to be even caught in the moment that he involuntarily shudders as she licks his lips and begs for entrance. He gives in of course, because this is Ryeowook and although they haven’t had a decent conversation in the past 6 years, they had a bond and it was undeniably strong even if it wavered during some time.
He opens his lips, letting her prodding tongue in to caress his own.She was demanding and kissing him desperately that Yesung thought he could be her lifeline with the way she was acting. She tastes like soju and some kind of cigarette and then he realizes just how much she has grown when he was away. He holds her travelling hands which were then running up and down his clothed chest and pulls away, stunning her into confusion.
“I’m sorry,” Yesung apologizes as he fixes his shirt and looks at anywhere but her. He moves to go away but she stops him. She makes him look at her and he releases a breath he hadn’t realized that he’s been holding. Here standing before him was not the ryeowook he knew when they were kids. It’s unsettling how similar they can look but the present ryeowook now has something that the old Wookie didn’t have. He just couldn’t pinpoint it.
“I’m not sorry,” she says with conviction, and then she pulls him into her again by the neck before kissing him more gently than before. She pulls off first before Yesung could even savor it, and then she leans her forehead against his chest. “Don’t take me home,” she pleads him before she sinks into him and slips into unconsciousness.
Yesung couldn’t really take her home, aside from the fact that she pleaded him not to, there was also the matter of them being hours away from their hometown. They were both in college now and even if they (or Yesung, he didn’t know about Ryeowook) wanted to study somewhere closer to home, their parents would have forced them into studying in one of those big-city colleges.
He flags a taxi with a bit of difficulty as she was leaning on him the whole time. After setting her safely into the backseat of the cab, he enters and tells the driver that he’s ready to go. When the driver stares at him blankly, it’s then when he realizes that he has yet to give an address.
“Wait,” he signals to the driver as he raises a hand up to him in the reflector. “I’ll check her address in her id.”
He rummages through Ryeowook’s pouch and looks for an id in her wallet but finds none with an address that is not her hometown address. He doesn’t know where she is currently staying, so he was at a loss for where he can bring her to. He then decides that maybe bringing her to his apartment would be the best idea, after all, it’s a Friday night and he’s pretty sure that his friends are out.
He didn’t find it too difficult to haul her on his bed. She was tall for girls her age but she was slim and she was very easy to carry. When he finally laid her on his bed, he couldn’t help but think back on the days they used to sleep on each other’s beds. He chuckles as he brushes away some strands that stuck to Ryeowook’s sweaty forehead. He thinks he should probably let her rest first.
Ryeowook can feel sleep evaporating off her skin as she stretches awake. She looks around the unfamiliar room and wonders where she is. She really can’t remember anything aside from bumping into Yesung in the pub, and after that, she didn’t know what happened anymore. She pushes herself off the bed and sits up, eyes wandering the room, trying to identify things she’s familiar with. There was a low bookshelf in one corner of the room that was made into a makeshift cabinet which held the owner’s polo tops and pants. The thought of the owner’s undergarments left exposed makes her flush in embarrassment and she immediately reminds herself to tell the owner that maybe, keeping his clothes open for everyone to see isn’t a good idea. There was a very big drawing table on one wall and then there’s another bookshelf but this time it’s at least 5 levels high and it was full of books and journals. Next to the bed were two laminated wooden shelves that held some bathroom essentials.
The room was small, but it was clean and nice. It was quite bland but any room without posters pales in comparison to her room which had lots of photos, posters and other stuff on her wall. She stands up and walks around, trying to familiarize herself when a frame that sits alone on the second shelf next to the vanity catches her eyes.
Yesung woke up earlier than Ryeowook. He pads across the apartment to his room in order to check on her. when he sees her soundly asleep on his bed, he smiles to himself and resolves to make some breakfast for them, maybe catch up on the years they’ve both lost and thaw out their freezing attitude towards each other.
He goes to the kitchen and hums to himself as he gets pans and utensils that were usually used by Hankyung alone. He wasn’t foreign to cooking, but he wasn’t very familiar with it either. He knew the basics and as long as there were no French words involved, he’d be fine.
Ryeowook gets the frame off the shelf. It was a simple, wooden frame, there were no ornate carvings or other splashes of color, just a black, laminated frame. Its minimalist design (if it could even be called a design, at all) greatly contrasts with its content though. In it was a picture of them together during Yesung’s graduation from grade school. He was 12 back then and she was 10. They were so young, and she couldn’t believe that she’d see this again. Where did she even put her picture? She knows she had a picture like this too, but now she can’t even remember if she still has it. Ten years ago, her mind kept repeating those words; this picture was taken ten years ago. It was their last picture together, and she didn’t think he’d have it framed; not when he acts like he’s forgotten everything between them.
Yesung remembers a day when he and Ryeowook were kids and they used to have breakfast at each other’s house. He remembers her almost sleeping into her kimchi fried rice and egg. He has laughed at her during that time because she has pieces of kimchi stuck to her face when she woke up, from then on she vowed that she’d demand breakfast in beds from him. He only ignored her during that time, but he kept it in his mind for future reference.
He was no cook, and he certainly was no waiter either. He had a bit of difficulty carrying the bowl of kimchi fried rice and some cold water for her hangover while attempting to open the door. When he finally got the door opened, he suddenly realized how stupid it all seemed after all she could be asleep and he could just leave the plates and the glass next to her-who was now awake.
Ryeowook turns around when the door opened, hands still holding on to the frame.
“Oh, you’re awake,” Yesung says.
She nods at him dumbly. “Yeah, I guess I am,” she replies. Yesung doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and she catches sight of the plate and glass he’s holding. She doesn’t assume it’s for her though. “So, do you like eating in you room, then?” she asks him as she stares pointedly at the food.
Yesung looks down and then looks back at her. “Ah, no, it’s actually for you. I thought you were still sleeping, but I guess you’re awake now.”
Ryeowook loves breakfast in beds, but that doesn’t mean that she gets to have them often. Seeing that only a few people could cook for her, she’s never had anybody, aside from her mother, bring her breakfast. But this, what Yesung did, she doesn’t recall telling anybody of her secret guilt and for him to kno, it was both amazing and unexpected.
“I think, I should just leave this here,” Yesung’s voice breaks her thoughts.
She thinks for a moment, deciding if she should agree or not. In the end all she does is sit on the bed and pats the space beside her. “Can we talk, Yesung?”
And so they talked. It was awkward at first. But they soon find themselves laughing, and leaning on to each other, talking about when they were kids, talking about Henry who Yesung vaguely remembered as the small guy with chubby cheeks, talking about Eunhyuk who Ryeowook admitted to being partly jealous of. They talked about Kyuhyun who Yesung admitted to be a bit annoyed of, and Ryeowook found it cute that during the early stages of them dating (her and Kyuhyun) , Yesung found it uncomfortable that she was growing up right before his eyes. They didn’t talk about what passed between them last night though, Ryeowook thinks it’s a bit too fast and Yesung thinks it’s a bit too rude to bring it up.
They were lying on Yesung’s bed, Ryeowook resting her head on Yesung’s chest as they laugh together like they’ve been doing all of this a long time ago. Yesung had his right arm around her, with the other behind the back of his head and she lies facing him.
“What happened to us?” she asks him when they quiet down and get a hold of themselves.
Yesung thinks and realizes that he happened, not Jongwoon, that’s why they were only recalling one sided experiences and were unfamiliar with other names. Ryeowook looks at him, waiting for an answer. “I don’t know,” he shrugs and looks away from her.
Ryeowook nods and then sits up. She was a bit disappointed of his answer but she knew that he couldn’t tell. “Let’s start again,” she says as she pulls Yesung up to sit with her.
He looks at her incredulously and shakes his head. “What?”
“I wanna start again with you,” she says. “As Jongwoon, not as Yesung, I suppose.”
“But, after all the things I did?” he asks. This seems so surreal. If anybody told him two years ago that he would be given a second try at fixing their no existent friendship, relationship, whatever it is called; he would’ve laughed at that person. But now, Ryeowook was here, and it looks like they’re giving each other the chance to be friends again, at the very least.
She nods. “That’s why I want to know you again as the Jongwoon-oppa I knew not Yesung.”
“But I’m not the Jongwoon you knew, I’ve changed,” Yesung replies, he thinks it’s stupid that he’s denying himself of this chance but he felt like this would be the way to not end up leaving Ryeowook again, because it’s true he’s changed. He doesn’t know how much but , he didn’t want to build a bridge with her again and be the one to destroy it again.
Ryeowook thinks. Right, he’s changed and it’d probably take a long time for him to revert back to the old Jongwoon, if he does revert back. So she sighs and makes a compromise. “Fine. I, I just want to know you more now, whoever you are, however you call yourself
now. Let’s be friends again, I miss you, you know that? and right now, I’d take anything I can get as long as it is you.”
Yesung nods and takes her hand. “I honestly don’t know what I did to you, but I regret all of them. And I miss you, I missed you too,” he says pulling her into a hug. He strokes her hair and she breathes in his scent. “We’ll start again,” he promises. “And if I become a douche to you again, just give me a kick and shove, like you always did.”
Ryeowook laughs and then pulls away from him. She shoves a hand before him and smiles brightly at him. “Hi , I’m Ryeowook. I’m not yet 18 but I smell like alcohol and I can hold my liquor well,” she says just as her stomach starts growling, Yesung laughs. “And I’m apparently very hungry, can we be friends?”
Yesung nods at her and shakes her hand. “Hi, yes, let’s be friends. I’m Jongwoon but most people call me Yesung nowadays,” he says , playing along with her. “I’m gonna turn twenty soon, and you’re hungry and I made you breakfast; but don’t expect much because I’m not a cook.”
Ryeowook giggles at him and slaps him playfully, before pulling her up with him and taking the glass of water with her while Yesung took the plate with him. “Let’s eat then, I’m starving.”
“But I brought you breakfast in bed!” yesung says, raising the plate he’s holding.
“That’d be for another day then?” she says.
Already 18 : Just turned 20
“Happy birthday, oppa!” Ryeowook screeches at him happily as she smashes a cake on his face.
“ADSFAFRGD!” was all Yesung could say since she seems to be flattening and clearing out the layers of cake on his face. When she pulls the cake off his face and he could finally breathe again, she begins smearing the red icing on his face to make him look like the joker. Yesung lets her do so, because he really can’t do anything to stop her.
“I hope that you made me another cake for me to eat,” he says as she continues drawing on his face.
“Of course I did,” she tells him. “From now on, I’m doing you two cakes every birthday just so I can make up to all the birthday’s I’ve missed.”
“Isn’t that too much? I mean not everyone gets a cake facial every year,” he humours her.
“160 cakes are not too many though,” she reasons and she finally releases her hold on his face. She brings out a camera and tells him to smile, and he does. He motions for her to show him the picture and she laughs telling him how sweet he looks.
He grabs the camera for her and then takes a picture of them together, pushing his face against hers just to hear her squeak away in surprise and amused disgust.
“Ewwwwwwwww, now I’m all sticky too!” she complains to him. He only laughs at her and then he proceeds to wipe some leftover cake and icing on her face. When she’s suitably clown-faced, he stops.
“Why only 160 though? Do you not plan to stay with me until forever? Why only give yourself eighty years with me?” he asks her.
“We’ll see about forever after we get past a century.”
They’re friends and they’re obviously in love with each other. But 10 years can do so much to a person and they’ve realized that first hand.
They’re like babies again, back then Tyeowook was putting her saliva-coated fingers to Jongwoon’s face, things are the same now, except her fingers are coated with cake.
At the rate they’re going, they will probably realize that they’re in love with each other 10 years. They’d make more mistakes, they’d have petty fights. They’d be jealous of the people they’re going to go out with each other, and their life might start at 30, 40 even. But who was counting? As of now, they’re glad that they will be able to make up the 10 years they’ve wasted because of teenage angst and issues.
It’d probably be a story for another day, the days leading to their forever is gonna be another long story and it’s only just beginning.
I’m ready to feel now
No longer am I afraid of the fall down
It must be time to move on now
Without the fear of how it might end
I guess I’m ready to love again.
#
Author: pinefir
Pairing: yesung/girl!ryeowook, girl!ryeowook/kyuhyun, girl!ryeowook/henry, girl!ryeowook/sungmin, yesung/girl!eunhyuk, sungmin/girl!zhoumi, kyuhyun/girl!zhoumi
Genre: fluff/drama/angst
Rating: pg
Summary: “Do you not plan to stay with me until forever? Why only give yourself eighty years with me?” Sometimes, the best decisions come to you only after you’ve spent your entire life making the wrong ones.
Warning: AU!, genderswitch
Words: 11312
AN: it gets a bit draggy in the middle, and it's because i've done this 5 months ago and i forgot all about it. the writing style changes from time to time since i didn't write this continuously. it's too long yet too short. and the ending is abrupt and open for interpretation. i honestly don't know if i'm gonna write a sequel for this, i'm not much of a yewook shipper anyway. but i hope you guys enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it even if it took me almost half a year to finish such a boring ass story. inspirations came from : broken by lifehouse, shiver by natalie imbruglia, bring me flowers by hope, just a feeling by maroon 5. i've basically made a soundtrack for this fic because lol . this has been a long ass author's note. i will not hold you back from the angst .i'd probably make a spinoff about kyu/wook mi/min though but knowing me, it;'d probably take another 5 months.
PART 1 | PART 2
Almost 20:Not Quite 18
Ryeowook finds herself downing some shots of whiskey in the pub where she and Kyuhyun celebrated their second anniversary two years ago. She smirks to herself as she recalls that night. Wasn’t it the night when Kyuhyun has told her so many times that he loved her and that he will always love her? Where is he right now, she thinks scathingly, off in China with Zhou Mi doing who else but Zhou Mi.
She was no idiot, all the dwindling email’s, the quick excuses to get off skype, they were signs that their relationship was dying. Zhou Mi being there for him all the time was just the trigger Kyuhyun needed.
Zhou Mi was a good friend and was a good girlfriend to Sungmin. He loved her so much and Ryeowook wishes that she had loved Kyuhyun just as much Sungmin did love Zhou Mi. Maybe she did, but she wasn’t too sure now. She was no liar after all, and she feels guilty every time, during the time that Kyuhyun was off studying in China, she tries to think of ways to meet or see Yesung. Most people thought she comes to the pub regularly just because it was memorable for her, but only she knew the reason why she’s really here.
And maybe, Sungmin knows too. She groans feeling a headache coming. Waking up naked with Sungmin was idiotic, she thinks. If there were things she’d willingly lie about, sleeping with Sungmin right after they found out that Kyuhyun and Zhou mi were cheating on them together would be one of those things. It was a petty move, but in her defence, they both needed it. But still, she wanted to forget everything about it. It wasn’t a bad experience for her, she could honestly say that Sungmin, even in his anger, is a passionate and generous partner; but her conscience won’t just let her rest about it.
She orders a bottle of soju next and Siwon can’t help but give it to her. He’s tried not giving her any but she threatened to tell Shindong of his non-compliance to a customer as breaking one of his responsibilities. That and he actually felt bad for her and for what his cousin did to her. In his mind, as long as Ryeowook hasn’t lost count of the bottles she’s been drinking, all would be fine. If ever she does become drunk though, he’s ready to take her home, it’s the least he can do for having protected Kyuhyun and hurting Ryeowook in the process.
Yesung who is now in his last year of university has been more than busy. Between keeping a night-time job as a student assistant and day-time classes with some tutoring on the side, he hasn’t been to the pub for months. Shindong has told him so many times that he’s welcome to come back to perform in the pub, unfortunately though, he couldn’t follow up on that.
But this night is unlike other nights. For once, he was let out early from his post as a student assistant and tomorrow would be a no-classes day. He isn’t about to let this night pass him by with him cooped up in his room so he makes his way for the pub as soon as he gets out of the building.
Flagging down a taxi, he sends a message to Siwon who he knows has his duty today, saying that he’s on his way. When Siwon replies with an “Oh god , finally someone to help me!” , he could only chuckle.
He doesn’t notice her at first, maybe because he was preoccupied with getting a free non-alcoholic drink from Siwon or maybe because he was just exhausted from university, but either way, he doesn’t notice her nursing a drink until Siwon tells him.
“You know her, right, hyung?” Siwon asks as he points towards Ryeowook.
He turns to look at the person Siwon pointed to. “I thought she stopped coming here?” Yesung asks him.
Siwon shrugs, he didn’t really want to tell Yesung of the reason why Ryeowook was here. Ryeowook was a regular for almost 2 years now, or at least for as long as Yesung was here. That night when Kyuhyun brought Ryeowook to the pub was the start of them being regulars. When Kyuhyun went off to China to study, Siwon thought that he’d never see Ryeowook again, but he was wrong. Because now with Kyuhyun gone, she seemed to come to the pub more often than before. At first, Siwon thought that it was all about reminiscing and missing Kyuhyun, because she didn’t accept any of the guys’ advances and from what he knew, both were going strong and steady even with the long distance. From then on, he has taken it upon himself to look after Ryeowook.
But then one day, she stopped coming. He wondered why, and he even asked Kyuhyun about it, but Kyuhyun assured him that there’s nothing wrong with them. Now that she’s back, Siwon realizes something that he’s failed to pick up on over the course of Ryeowook’s regular visits and that is the fact that she seemed to stop coming to the pub when Yesung stopped performing. But of course, Siwon doesn’t tell anybody this because it’s only an assumption.
“She’s been drinking nonstop,” he tells Yesung. Yesung seems tense , and seems to be very concerned about this girl, he observes. Siwon doesn’t know if they’re friends but the way that Yesung is currently watching her tells him that maybe they are.
“Do you know why?” Yesung asks him.
He knows why, he thinks, but should he tell Yesung? “I don’t know,” he lies. “You know her right?” he asks again. Before Yesung could answer, he continues. “And she’s more than a familiar face to you, right?”
Yesung nods and pushes himself off the bar. “She’s more than a friend to me, too.”
Ryeowook swirls the shot glass in front of her, watching the different layers of her drink mix and then separate. She smiles to herself, a bit amused as she remembers the lava lamp that Sungmin keeps on his bedside table. When someone takes the glass from her hands, she snarls and turns to look at the person who did that.
It was Yesung.
It’s been years since she’s been this close to Yesung. She frequented the pub, but the stage separating them, him being a performer and her being a customer gives them more than enough distance. Just what was he doing here? And, is he really even here? Why was he near her? Didn’t, wasn’t he the one who wanted nothing to do with her? He didn’t even acknowledge her back then when she was one of the customers. Why now? Why now? Her mind was asking so many questions and she wishes she can just shut it down.
“Just who taught you how to drink? And that strong of a drink too!” Yesung frowns, unaware of the thoughts passing in her mind, as he rubs his chest and moves to sit down next to her. Ryeowook who was still in a state of confusion and disbelief only stares at him. He wasn’t much of a drinker, sure he worked in a pub, but his job description doesn’t include getting smashed so he finds no reason to drink. When Ryeowook doesn’t answer, he just slumps forward in his seat and continues to mentally curse his low tolerance for alcohol.
“Kyuhyun,” she says and Yesung wonders why she’s saying Kyuhyun.
“Kyuhyun?” he echoes as he straightens up.
“He has a high tolerance for alcohol,” she says as if that explains everything.
Yesung looks at her quizzically. “I didn’t know that alcohol tolerance can be passed,” he jokes.
Ryeowook snickers. “Maybe it’s the years of making out,” she muses and then she laughs and downs another drink again. Yesung laughs with her just so she wouldn’t sound ridiculous even to her own ears, but in reality, he doesn’t find it funny.
Ryeowook sobers up and leans forward to Yesung. “Do you know that kissing increases your immunity?”
Yesung smiles, finding the trivia somewhat random and a bit ridiculous, he was about to make fun of her and make light of the situation when there are fingers on his collar pulling him closer to her and pulling him out of his stool. Before he knew it, her lips was on his and he’s completely leaning on to her.
She’s the one who leads them both, Yesung was too stunned to be even caught in the moment that he involuntarily shudders as she licks his lips and begs for entrance. He gives in of course, because this is Ryeowook and although they haven’t had a decent conversation in the past 6 years, they had a bond and it was undeniably strong even if it wavered during some time.
He opens his lips, letting her prodding tongue in to caress his own.She was demanding and kissing him desperately that Yesung thought he could be her lifeline with the way she was acting. She tastes like soju and some kind of cigarette and then he realizes just how much she has grown when he was away. He holds her travelling hands which were then running up and down his clothed chest and pulls away, stunning her into confusion.
“I’m sorry,” Yesung apologizes as he fixes his shirt and looks at anywhere but her. He moves to go away but she stops him. She makes him look at her and he releases a breath he hadn’t realized that he’s been holding. Here standing before him was not the ryeowook he knew when they were kids. It’s unsettling how similar they can look but the present ryeowook now has something that the old Wookie didn’t have. He just couldn’t pinpoint it.
“I’m not sorry,” she says with conviction, and then she pulls him into her again by the neck before kissing him more gently than before. She pulls off first before Yesung could even savor it, and then she leans her forehead against his chest. “Don’t take me home,” she pleads him before she sinks into him and slips into unconsciousness.
Yesung couldn’t really take her home, aside from the fact that she pleaded him not to, there was also the matter of them being hours away from their hometown. They were both in college now and even if they (or Yesung, he didn’t know about Ryeowook) wanted to study somewhere closer to home, their parents would have forced them into studying in one of those big-city colleges.
He flags a taxi with a bit of difficulty as she was leaning on him the whole time. After setting her safely into the backseat of the cab, he enters and tells the driver that he’s ready to go. When the driver stares at him blankly, it’s then when he realizes that he has yet to give an address.
“Wait,” he signals to the driver as he raises a hand up to him in the reflector. “I’ll check her address in her id.”
He rummages through Ryeowook’s pouch and looks for an id in her wallet but finds none with an address that is not her hometown address. He doesn’t know where she is currently staying, so he was at a loss for where he can bring her to. He then decides that maybe bringing her to his apartment would be the best idea, after all, it’s a Friday night and he’s pretty sure that his friends are out.
He didn’t find it too difficult to haul her on his bed. She was tall for girls her age but she was slim and she was very easy to carry. When he finally laid her on his bed, he couldn’t help but think back on the days they used to sleep on each other’s beds. He chuckles as he brushes away some strands that stuck to Ryeowook’s sweaty forehead. He thinks he should probably let her rest first.
Ryeowook can feel sleep evaporating off her skin as she stretches awake. She looks around the unfamiliar room and wonders where she is. She really can’t remember anything aside from bumping into Yesung in the pub, and after that, she didn’t know what happened anymore. She pushes herself off the bed and sits up, eyes wandering the room, trying to identify things she’s familiar with. There was a low bookshelf in one corner of the room that was made into a makeshift cabinet which held the owner’s polo tops and pants. The thought of the owner’s undergarments left exposed makes her flush in embarrassment and she immediately reminds herself to tell the owner that maybe, keeping his clothes open for everyone to see isn’t a good idea. There was a very big drawing table on one wall and then there’s another bookshelf but this time it’s at least 5 levels high and it was full of books and journals. Next to the bed were two laminated wooden shelves that held some bathroom essentials.
The room was small, but it was clean and nice. It was quite bland but any room without posters pales in comparison to her room which had lots of photos, posters and other stuff on her wall. She stands up and walks around, trying to familiarize herself when a frame that sits alone on the second shelf next to the vanity catches her eyes.
Yesung woke up earlier than Ryeowook. He pads across the apartment to his room in order to check on her. when he sees her soundly asleep on his bed, he smiles to himself and resolves to make some breakfast for them, maybe catch up on the years they’ve both lost and thaw out their freezing attitude towards each other.
He goes to the kitchen and hums to himself as he gets pans and utensils that were usually used by Hankyung alone. He wasn’t foreign to cooking, but he wasn’t very familiar with it either. He knew the basics and as long as there were no French words involved, he’d be fine.
Ryeowook gets the frame off the shelf. It was a simple, wooden frame, there were no ornate carvings or other splashes of color, just a black, laminated frame. Its minimalist design (if it could even be called a design, at all) greatly contrasts with its content though. In it was a picture of them together during Yesung’s graduation from grade school. He was 12 back then and she was 10. They were so young, and she couldn’t believe that she’d see this again. Where did she even put her picture? She knows she had a picture like this too, but now she can’t even remember if she still has it. Ten years ago, her mind kept repeating those words; this picture was taken ten years ago. It was their last picture together, and she didn’t think he’d have it framed; not when he acts like he’s forgotten everything between them.
Yesung remembers a day when he and Ryeowook were kids and they used to have breakfast at each other’s house. He remembers her almost sleeping into her kimchi fried rice and egg. He has laughed at her during that time because she has pieces of kimchi stuck to her face when she woke up, from then on she vowed that she’d demand breakfast in beds from him. He only ignored her during that time, but he kept it in his mind for future reference.
He was no cook, and he certainly was no waiter either. He had a bit of difficulty carrying the bowl of kimchi fried rice and some cold water for her hangover while attempting to open the door. When he finally got the door opened, he suddenly realized how stupid it all seemed after all she could be asleep and he could just leave the plates and the glass next to her-who was now awake.
Ryeowook turns around when the door opened, hands still holding on to the frame.
“Oh, you’re awake,” Yesung says.
She nods at him dumbly. “Yeah, I guess I am,” she replies. Yesung doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and she catches sight of the plate and glass he’s holding. She doesn’t assume it’s for her though. “So, do you like eating in you room, then?” she asks him as she stares pointedly at the food.
Yesung looks down and then looks back at her. “Ah, no, it’s actually for you. I thought you were still sleeping, but I guess you’re awake now.”
Ryeowook loves breakfast in beds, but that doesn’t mean that she gets to have them often. Seeing that only a few people could cook for her, she’s never had anybody, aside from her mother, bring her breakfast. But this, what Yesung did, she doesn’t recall telling anybody of her secret guilt and for him to kno, it was both amazing and unexpected.
“I think, I should just leave this here,” Yesung’s voice breaks her thoughts.
She thinks for a moment, deciding if she should agree or not. In the end all she does is sit on the bed and pats the space beside her. “Can we talk, Yesung?”
And so they talked. It was awkward at first. But they soon find themselves laughing, and leaning on to each other, talking about when they were kids, talking about Henry who Yesung vaguely remembered as the small guy with chubby cheeks, talking about Eunhyuk who Ryeowook admitted to being partly jealous of. They talked about Kyuhyun who Yesung admitted to be a bit annoyed of, and Ryeowook found it cute that during the early stages of them dating (her and Kyuhyun) , Yesung found it uncomfortable that she was growing up right before his eyes. They didn’t talk about what passed between them last night though, Ryeowook thinks it’s a bit too fast and Yesung thinks it’s a bit too rude to bring it up.
They were lying on Yesung’s bed, Ryeowook resting her head on Yesung’s chest as they laugh together like they’ve been doing all of this a long time ago. Yesung had his right arm around her, with the other behind the back of his head and she lies facing him.
“What happened to us?” she asks him when they quiet down and get a hold of themselves.
Yesung thinks and realizes that he happened, not Jongwoon, that’s why they were only recalling one sided experiences and were unfamiliar with other names. Ryeowook looks at him, waiting for an answer. “I don’t know,” he shrugs and looks away from her.
Ryeowook nods and then sits up. She was a bit disappointed of his answer but she knew that he couldn’t tell. “Let’s start again,” she says as she pulls Yesung up to sit with her.
He looks at her incredulously and shakes his head. “What?”
“I wanna start again with you,” she says. “As Jongwoon, not as Yesung, I suppose.”
“But, after all the things I did?” he asks. This seems so surreal. If anybody told him two years ago that he would be given a second try at fixing their no existent friendship, relationship, whatever it is called; he would’ve laughed at that person. But now, Ryeowook was here, and it looks like they’re giving each other the chance to be friends again, at the very least.
She nods. “That’s why I want to know you again as the Jongwoon-oppa I knew not Yesung.”
“But I’m not the Jongwoon you knew, I’ve changed,” Yesung replies, he thinks it’s stupid that he’s denying himself of this chance but he felt like this would be the way to not end up leaving Ryeowook again, because it’s true he’s changed. He doesn’t know how much but , he didn’t want to build a bridge with her again and be the one to destroy it again.
Ryeowook thinks. Right, he’s changed and it’d probably take a long time for him to revert back to the old Jongwoon, if he does revert back. So she sighs and makes a compromise. “Fine. I, I just want to know you more now, whoever you are, however you call yourself
now. Let’s be friends again, I miss you, you know that? and right now, I’d take anything I can get as long as it is you.”
Yesung nods and takes her hand. “I honestly don’t know what I did to you, but I regret all of them. And I miss you, I missed you too,” he says pulling her into a hug. He strokes her hair and she breathes in his scent. “We’ll start again,” he promises. “And if I become a douche to you again, just give me a kick and shove, like you always did.”
Ryeowook laughs and then pulls away from him. She shoves a hand before him and smiles brightly at him. “Hi , I’m Ryeowook. I’m not yet 18 but I smell like alcohol and I can hold my liquor well,” she says just as her stomach starts growling, Yesung laughs. “And I’m apparently very hungry, can we be friends?”
Yesung nods at her and shakes her hand. “Hi, yes, let’s be friends. I’m Jongwoon but most people call me Yesung nowadays,” he says , playing along with her. “I’m gonna turn twenty soon, and you’re hungry and I made you breakfast; but don’t expect much because I’m not a cook.”
Ryeowook giggles at him and slaps him playfully, before pulling her up with him and taking the glass of water with her while Yesung took the plate with him. “Let’s eat then, I’m starving.”
“But I brought you breakfast in bed!” yesung says, raising the plate he’s holding.
“That’d be for another day then?” she says.
Already 18 : Just turned 20
“Happy birthday, oppa!” Ryeowook screeches at him happily as she smashes a cake on his face.
“ADSFAFRGD!” was all Yesung could say since she seems to be flattening and clearing out the layers of cake on his face. When she pulls the cake off his face and he could finally breathe again, she begins smearing the red icing on his face to make him look like the joker. Yesung lets her do so, because he really can’t do anything to stop her.
“I hope that you made me another cake for me to eat,” he says as she continues drawing on his face.
“Of course I did,” she tells him. “From now on, I’m doing you two cakes every birthday just so I can make up to all the birthday’s I’ve missed.”
“Isn’t that too much? I mean not everyone gets a cake facial every year,” he humours her.
“160 cakes are not too many though,” she reasons and she finally releases her hold on his face. She brings out a camera and tells him to smile, and he does. He motions for her to show him the picture and she laughs telling him how sweet he looks.
He grabs the camera for her and then takes a picture of them together, pushing his face against hers just to hear her squeak away in surprise and amused disgust.
“Ewwwwwwwww, now I’m all sticky too!” she complains to him. He only laughs at her and then he proceeds to wipe some leftover cake and icing on her face. When she’s suitably clown-faced, he stops.
“Why only 160 though? Do you not plan to stay with me until forever? Why only give yourself eighty years with me?” he asks her.
“We’ll see about forever after we get past a century.”
They’re friends and they’re obviously in love with each other. But 10 years can do so much to a person and they’ve realized that first hand.
They’re like babies again, back then Tyeowook was putting her saliva-coated fingers to Jongwoon’s face, things are the same now, except her fingers are coated with cake.
At the rate they’re going, they will probably realize that they’re in love with each other 10 years. They’d make more mistakes, they’d have petty fights. They’d be jealous of the people they’re going to go out with each other, and their life might start at 30, 40 even. But who was counting? As of now, they’re glad that they will be able to make up the 10 years they’ve wasted because of teenage angst and issues.
It’d probably be a story for another day, the days leading to their forever is gonna be another long story and it’s only just beginning.
I’m ready to feel now
No longer am I afraid of the fall down
It must be time to move on now
Without the fear of how it might end
I guess I’m ready to love again.
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