Tokyo- Chapter 18
Hyunjoong paced around his apartment, staring at the lonely cellphone laid out smack-dab in the middle of his coffee table. Earlier that morning he had strategically built a semi-fort around the thing with old hallyu magazines and TV guides, and that had prevented his gaze for about ten seconds before he remembered his favorite boy band had an article in one of the makeshift fort walls and unceremoniously ripped the whole thing down to read.
… Not that he would tell anyone he liked boy bands or anything… just…
“Shit shit shit shit shit. Joongie-ah, what the hell are you doing in Japan?” Hyunjoong groaned. He sat on the couch with a huff, burying his hands in his hair and trying to avoid the fact that he might have been developing a serious case of OCD over his phone.
Two days. Two days ago Jaejoong had called him God knew where to tell him he was being chased by cops and having the time of his life doing it. Was that the truth? Was his best friend actually doing dangerous things? It wasn’t likely. But…
Well… Hyunjoong didn’t know any better, but if anyone were to have a kind of drastic mental crisis it would probably be Jaejoong.
The man grew up with eight high-strung sisters and the unbearable idea that his original parents didn’t want him. That was cause enough for a breakdown on its own… and then Yoochun, that conniving little rump-humping bastard, screwed Junsu behind Jaejoong’s back.
Hyunjoong’s Jaejoong. His best friend in the entire world. They had braved high school together, and the ever-demise-inducing realization that they were both attracted to suits rather than skirts at mandatory formal dances.
And Yoochun hurt him.
His high-strung, slightly psychotic, surprisingly strong, and cooking-savvy Jaejoong.
… He had set Hyunjoong’s kitchen on fire once, but had laughed when it happened. Hyunjoong hadn’t thought anything of it then (other than the fact that the two had been a teensy bit tipsy at the time because Yoochun brought booze over that night), but he was rethinking everything now.
Once the love of your life dumped you, it was kind of diving-off-the-deep-end material, wasn’t it? So… so was that what was going to happen to Jae? Was he going to start strangling people with lines of sausage and calling himself the Chef of Death? Was Hyunjoong going to see his best friend on one of those criminal shows, the ones where they profiled where everything went wrong and led them to a life of crime and murder?
Omo! What is he doing now? I should call the cops. His moms have been calling too…
Hyunjoong hesitated only once, but reached for the cellphone on the table. He wished that just by holding the damn thing he could convey to his best friend the amount of worry and absolute pressure he felt knowing that Jaejoong was safe but not knowing how safe he was at the same time.
God, nerve-wracking didn’t even begin to cover it!
It was just three little numbers. Three little numbers, and Hyunjoong knew that Jaejoong would be in safe hands. But something was nagging at him, telling him not to dial just yet, although he didn’t know what it was.
When Jaejoong called him right after he found Yoochun and Junsu in bed together, the amount of pain in his best friend’s voice was enough to set Hyunjoong in the mindset to buy himself a plane ticket to Japan and track down the guy himself.
It was hard standing by when he could hear the tears in Jaejoong’s voice. It didn’t matter who you were or what kind of friends you had- they were your friends for a reason, and the feeling was mutual on all sides. You would make each other laugh and share experiences, both good and bad.
But of course, with a crummy journalist’s job that had him working 24/7, Hyunjoong had no choice. He couldn’t just abandon his articles, let alone the meager salary he received each week, now could he?
Jaejoong wasn’t worth his apartment’s rent, no matter how cool the guy was. Hyunjoong wasn’t ashamed to admit that.
“Ah, what to do? Think, think, think!” Hyunjoong shook his head now, trying to clear his muddled thoughts with the phone still in his hands. His finger hovered uneasily over the number pad as he realized the reason for him pausing had everything to do with the last call he received from his best friend. But why?
What was it about the last phone call with Jaejoong that made Hyunjoong stop himself from talking to the cops? Hell, the guy’s moms were calling at least thirty times a day now it felt like. Of course, Hyunjoong himself was calling his best friend a nice, triple-digit multiplied multiple of that amount- but that was always in the hope that the pretty boy would turn on his phone again at least once so that annoying answering machine wouldn’t come on!
It made Hyunjoong blisteringly angry to hear it now:
“Hey, there! You’ve reached- bahaha, Chunnie, stop!- haha, you’ve reached Kim Jaejoong- who has the sexiest lips in the whole world, c’mere you- ahaha, Chunnie no! Sorry, sorry, that wasn’t me it was Yoochun. Hehe, anyway, please leave me a message because I seem to be out right now. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible, okay?- or call me next! He’s always with me!- baha! Yeah. Call Chun. We’re always together.- And we always will be!- Hahaha! Yes, Chun, we will, we will. Always. Oops. This is so long! Look what you did, Chun! Anyways- BYE!”
Yeah, those were the days. When Yoochun and Jaejoong were mutually involved and not with anyone else. But then again, who was to say Yoochun hadn’t been messing around with Junsu the whole time he had been dating Jaejoong to begin with?
Hyunjoong’s hand clenched. That man was going to come home to unholy hell when his plane landed in two days, he could bet on it.
No one hurt someone as caring as Jaejoong. It wasn’t right on a level so high that even the clouds wouldn’t be able to catch up.
… And yet, Yoochun and Jaejoong had had a relationship worth saving in Hyunjoong’s opinion. It wasn’t that he would ever try to keep his best friend together with a back-stabbing manwhore, but at the same time maybe there was something left to salvage.
He thought of little moments, like the one he witnessed through Jaejoong’s answering machine. Where the caring man sounded so happy, full of giggles and warmth.
Wait. Hyunjoong’s head snapped to attention as he came to full realization through his spaced-out thoughts, and he couldn’t understand why he didn’t notice it before.
The last time Jaejoong called him… his best friend sounded happy. Excruciatingly happy. The kind of happy Hyunjoong had only ever seen the other man capable of showing in two settings: one, while he was cooking a meal for anyone and everyone who wanted it and two, whenever he had been with Yoochun.
And Hyunjoong knew for a fact that Jaejoong was no longer with Yoochun, and he doubted he was cooking for strangers on the sidewalks of Tokyo. So why did his best friend sound so… happy?
The cellphone in Hyunjoong’s hand vibrated for brief second before its ringtone called out into the air, breaking the confused man’s thoughts to pieces. He answered immediately, shouting out his concern. “YAH! Kim Jaejoong! Where the hell are you and who the hell are you with? I know you’re not with that sleazeball, so you better have a good answer, do you hear me man?!”
“Um… hi.” The voice that responded was definitely not Jaejoong’s, but deeper, familiar still.
Yoochun? Hyunjoong couldn’t hide the sneer on his face. “I’m sorry, you have reached the wrong number. I only answer those who treat people with respect and don’t fuck their best friends behind their boyfriend’s backs,” he said snarkily.
Yoochun ignored him. “Yeah… hi. Can we… can we talk?”
“To which part of me? My hand or my ass? I hear you approve of both if they belong to Junsu.”
“Look, really! Can you try to be civil for a minute, Joong? I know what I did was-“
“Civil? Did you just ask me to act civil? Oh, boy, I hope your plane crashes on your way back to Seoul, because if It doesn’t you are so dying a fate worse than fiery metal bits crashing into your disgusting, dimpled, greasy, 70% forehead face,” Hyunjoong growled. His hands clenched on the sofa, and he told himself to calm down.
Jaejoong wouldn’t want him to strangle Yoochun, would he?
Nah, he thought. He’d want to talk it all out over some fresh tea and a batch of finger sandwiches he’d be trying a new recipe on. But that’s so… so civil!
… Okay, maybe Yoochun had a point. “Are you done?” the other man asked exasperatedly on the other end of the phone. Hyunjoong could hear another voice in the background, and his eyes narrowed as he responded as calmly as he could.
“So, how’s Junsu?” He tried as hard as he could to hide the mock concern in his words, but to no avail. Well hell, was he supposed to?
Think of kittens and puppies and your hot neighbor next door, Joong. Come on, me. Woo-saa. Woo-saa.
… Ahh, he has such a nice body <3.
All better!
“Junsu’s okay, Joong. He’d be better if he knew how Jaejoong was doing. He feels bad about what happened. He’s decided to stop talking to me until I know the guy’s alright,” Yoochun continued.
“Well, it’s nice to know one of you has a brain in the correct head.”
Yoochun sighed. “Yes, yes, I know Hyunjoong! I know! I fucked Junsu without breaking up with Jae first! I’m sorry. Is that what you want to hear?!”
Not even thinking of his hot neighbor stopped the anger rising in Hyunjoong at that. “No!” he burst out. “No. You think I’m the one who should be getting an apology? Go tell your ex-boyfriend, you hound!”
“Well, he’s not picking up his phone,” the other man admitted quietly.
“Join the fucking club.”
“And… well, the other day I saw a guy on the street who looked a lot like Jaejoong and it… it made me- well, both of us really, Junsu and I- we really… we’re concerned about him, Joong. I-I don’t know where he went, he’s obviously not coming back to our hotel, and you know how irrational he gets when he’s upset-“
“Why do I have to repeat myself all the time? Join the fucking club,” Hyunjoong hissed.
There was a muffled noise playing over the receiver for a second and then the angry man heard a new voice on the phone speaking to him. “Yoochun isn’t the only one who did something wrong, you know,” Junsu muttered softly.
Hyunjoong snorted, thinking of the bashful look on the other man’s face right now. The guy was so damn good at looking pitiful, almost like it was a skill; but it wasn’t going to work right now. “You know, Junsu- as I recall, you weren’t in an established relationship before you slept with Yoochun, right?”
“Well, yes, but-“
“Then you have nothing to say for a man who can’t even speak for himself. Give the phone back to Yoochun,” Hyunjoong commanded. I am burning every picture of that guy I own in a frying pan once we’re done here, he told himself. It seems so fitting for him hurting Jae so bad.
“Hullo?” Yoochun asked cautiously again.
“Goodbye,” Hyunjoong said bitterly, immediately turning his phone off afterwards. He had just wanted to give that backstabber the last word from his own lips.
And then he smirked through his anger as he realized why Jaejoong must have been turning his own phone off lately- it saved you from a lot of unwanted calls.
And it wasn’t like he was going to be calling the cops anytime soon, at least. Hyunjoong figured that with whatever his best friend was doing now, it was making him happy. Jaejoong was a smart guy- very cautious, very calculated. If he was in trouble he knew who to call, and he could take care of himself if need be.
At the very least, those muscles he hid under petite suit jackets and stylish haircuts could warn away the bad guys in the worst case scenario Hyunjoong could think of.
Hyunjoong fumed for a few minutes on his couch before he finally stood up, letting himself look out the window at a perfectly lovely night that any time before now he was sure his best friend and very very very ex-boyfriend would have gone on a date on.
He wondered what Jaejoong was doing at this very moment in the middle of the night- sleeping? Dreaming? Tossing and turning- crying?
Tch, Hyunjoong thought to himself as a joke, he’s probably running from the cops like he said he was. My best friend, the criminal. He laughed, clutching his stomach as he released more than a week’s worth of concern and fear for Jaejoong in the hearty amused sounds he released into the air.
“Yeah,” he mumbled to himself afterwards as he walked back into his apartment, “like that would ever happen.” He shook his head, wondering where in the hell his best friend was, but smiling knowing that he had sounded happy and that Yoochun was still very much in the dark about it all.
Served him right.
A/N: FILLER, YAY! Lol. To be honest, between action scenes there has to be something sobering me up from getting too crazy with my chapters XD And plus, Hyunjoong is adorable and needed to defend his best friend and I love him 0_0 Yunjae comes back next chapter, NOOO WORRIES. :D
Oh my god, I’m putting female characters in the story soon. What the fuck is wrong with me?? ><”
Comments are like Nutella-flavored cookehs for Changmin at midnight, desperate for food.
WHY WOULD YOU DEPRIVE MIN OF HIS COOKEHS? D:
Give him cookies. Come on.
You know you want to. XD
<3
CLICK HERE!! => Chapter 19