Realization Chapter 13
“What the hell!” Jaejoong whispered furiously to Yoochun as they stood in the back of the recording studio, leaning against the wall. Through the clear glass they could see Junsu focusing on belting out his solo in the recording equipment. Changmin was sitting in one of the nearby sofas and Yunho was in the bathroom.
Yoochun didn’t turn his burning gaze away from Junsu and merely replied, “What’s your problem?”
“Why did you agree to Yunho’s stupid idea??”
Yoochun finally tore his eyes away from Junsu and looked over at Jaejoong. He simply replied, “You’re an idiot.” Then he fixated his eyes on Junsu’s singing form once more.
Jaejoong smacked Yoochun on the arm.
With a sigh Yoochun turned to Jaejoong once more, “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen in love with me or something.”
Jaejoong’s eyes widened at the ridiculousness of Yoochun’s statement.
Yoochun went on, “Or maybe you’re just utterly clueless.” He muttered as an afterthought, “Most likely the latter.”
Jaejoong sputtered, “W-what?”
“Look, try to use your pretty little head for one second. Do you even realize how Yunho is falling right into your plan? If anything he’s doing you a huge favor by acting like such a pretentious dick.”
Jaejoong just blinked his eyes rapidly. How can a dick even be preten-
Jaejoong shook the strange thoughts out of his head. Sometimes he took things way too literally.
Noticing Jae’s distraction, Yoochun turned and took Jae by the shoulders, shaking him a little. “Constant surveillance. What does that mean? Yunho will stick to our side all the time. He’ll be watching our every little movement, and judging by the way his face changed when I kissed you earlier he will hate every second of it.”
As understanding started to dawn on Jaejoong’s face Yoochun released his shoulders and just looked down at him with a smug face. “Take this opportunity to provoke him until he positively explodes in jealousy. And when you feel the time is right, you can sink your evil claws into him, just as you wanted.”
Jaejoong was nodding along with a gleeful smile. He wanted to knock himself over the head for not being able to see such how wonderfully things were actually turning out. He was just so used to fighting with Yunho these days he felt like he had to disagree and argue with him about every little thing. Habits were hard to break, even recently-formed ones. Well sometimes, Jaejoong thought he might be just a little stupid too…
“Thanks Chun…as always.”
Yoochun shrugged, turning to look at Junsu again, “Well it’s not purely for unselfish reasons I’m doing this.”
“Yeah well…still, thanks. You’re really going all out with this whole charade.”
Yoochun’s eyes were a little sad as he continued to gaze past the studio glass, “What other choice do I really have?”
***
True to his word, Yunho stuck with them wherever they went. Whether they were out on their schedules or inside their homes, there was no exception to Yunho’s persistence and devotion to the cause. His “surveillance” was going on for a good month now and Jaejoong was taking every opportunity to make him mad.
“You’d think he’d get tired of it, huh?” Yoochun whispered to Jaejoong as they snuggled together on the living room couch after a long day of work, watching a Japanese horror flick that came on at midnight.
Jaejoong glanced over at Yunho who was situated on one of the less comfortable armchairs a few feet away from the couch. Jaejoong felt a twinge of guilt seeing Yunho’s haggard face that was doggedly fixed on the screen, trying not to nod off.
But Jaejoong’s hands were tied about the matter as well. Though he felt bad about his fake “dating” with Yoochun, he had to do it to make Yunho come out of his shell made up of pride, responsibility, and pure hard-headedness.
Jaejoong thought back to the first real “date” he and Yoochun had gone on two weeks ago. The date had consisted of ice cream and a cheap, smutty American flick at the theater. Of course Yunho had tagged along.
When they started the night off with ice cream in the Japanese equivalent of Baskin Robbins, Jaechun made a big show out of feeding each other ice cream in their private booth (just like how the “real couples” that Jaejoong saw on TV did it), with Yunho staring in disgust as he sat across from them.
It wasn’t exactly the fluffy, romantic affair that Jaejoong had imagined (Yoochun’s strawberry ice cream had been especially melty that day and had a tendency of dribbling down Jaejoong’s chin when Yoochun fed him) but it was enough to irritate Yunho it seemed.
It was when Jaejoong’s spoon went up towards Yoochun’s mouth with the final, overly-sweet scoop of Rocky Road ice cream that a hand shot out of nowhere and stuffed a whole cone of pistachio ice cream between Yoochun’s lips.
Amidst Yoochun’s choking and hacking and Jaejoong’s attempts to help him clean up with a bunch of napkins, Jaejoong threw an especially nasty glare across at Yunho who was sitting back with a smug expression on his face. It was apparent that Yunho had been saving his ice cream cone (which he had barely been eating) especially for that one purpose.
When Yunho’s eyes locked with Jaejoong’s, he merely shrugged in his infuriating way and muttered “Oops”.
And then there was the movie.
Considering they had gone so late at night, there was barely anyone in the theatre except for the handful of couples that only came to the theatre with dirty thoughts in mind.
Jaechun had sat somewhere in the middle and Yunho a few rows behind them.
After the lights went out and the movie progressed quite a bit, there was a fairly erotic scene when the two lovers on screen were crying out in lust. This is when Jaejoong made his move.
Feeling Yunho’s eyes sear into the back of his head he leaned into Yoochun’s side and whispered in his ear, “Start kissing my neck.”
And Yoochun did just that. Jaejoong even let out a moan of pleasure for good measure, peeking back quickly to make sure Yunho was watching.
That’s when it hit them. What felt like small debris attacking the backs of their heads and necks. Yoochun stopped his ministrations and caught one against his neck. Yunho was pelting them with popcorn.
Yoochun’s eyes creased in amusement and Jaejoong’s eyes flashed with the desire to see how far Yunho was going to take this.
Grabbing Yoochun’s face in both hands, Jaejoong doggedly smashed his lips against him and started kissing. Before long Yoochun let out a small cry of pain.
“What the fuck?” Yoochun reached down for what bounced off his head and rolled towards the ground.
It was an eraser.
“Why the hell is hyung carrying around school supplies?” He muttered.
Ignoring him Jaejoong grabbed Yoochun’s face again. But it wasn’t long before Yoochun cried out, in more pain this time.
It was a juicebox, unopened and clearly bought from the concession stand.
Yoochun rubbed his head and his face darkened, “I don’t want to kiss you anymore. I think hyung’s gonna start going for the big guns. And I need my skull.”
Jaejoong sighed and looked back at Yunho whose face remained stony and disinterested.
The night after that had ended relatively mildly.
Thinking back on the night, Jaejoong didn’t know if he should laugh or cry out in frustration. It was almost cute the way Yunho was trying to so hard to keep them apart but that didn’t mean he was coming forward to confess his feelings to Jaejoong or anything. Jaejoong couldn’t tell if Yunho’s persistence in coming between the two was out of jealousy or mere adherence to his conservative morals.
I suppose we’ll wait and see.
Jaejoong just shrugged and nestled his head deeper into Yoochun’s shoulder.
Every time a ghost popped out on the screen Jaejoong pretended to be terrified and he would half-jump into Yoochun’s lap. Every time he did this Yunho would scowl.
***
After a harrowing array of practices, recordings, photo shoots, and broadcasts, it was on a Sunday evening when the boys finally got a half-day break from their crazy schedules. An appearance they were supposed to make on a comedy show was cancelled due to some internal conflict on the producers’ side. When the boys heard about this they sighed a sigh of relief. It was what felt like their first breath in weeks. For Yunho it had been especially hard, considering his double role as Jaechun’s personal surveillance camera.
When Yunho got home that day with the other boys, the first thing he did was sink into his bed and lay perfectly still. Jaejoong and Yoochun be damned, right now all he needed was rest.
Yunho lifted a hand to smooth the crease he knew was threatening to make a permanent indention in his forehead these days. Since when was he the type to worry about wrinkles and the like? That was more Jaejoong’s forte.
Jaejoong. Yunho groaned at just the thought of that name. “Jaejoong” now seemed like such a loaded word, a word that brought with it a barrage of memories and emotions, some that Yunho never wanted to let up to the surface.
But no matter how Yunho tried to suppress it (and Lord knows how skilled he was at suppressing things), it was “Jaejoong” that seemed to be his constant source of attention, worry, and general emotional investment these days. Anger, annoyance, perplexity, and perhaps some other emotions that Yunho didn’t want to admit to were slowly taking control of him, slowly chipping away at the strong and indifferent front Yunho had built up so well.
There was a light rap on his door that shook Yunho from his thoughts. The only person that ever bothered knocking on doors in this house was well…Junsu.
“Come in.”
Just as he predicted, Junsu’s little head peeped in until he saw Yunho and swung the door open a little wider, allowing his body to fully come into the room.
“Hey hyung. Whatcha up to?”
“Just resting a bit.” Yunho pat the space beside him on the bed for Junsu to come over. Junsu readily complied, walking over with eager steps that always reminded Yunho a bit of a puppy or a bunny.
Sitting down next to Yunho, Junsu’s eyes scoured his face a little worriedly, “Hyung you look exhausted.”
Yunho cracked a smile. Ever the strong leader. “Nah, nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix. What’s up?”
Junsu didn’t look completely convinced but he let it go. “I was just wondering what you wanted to order for dinner today.” He added after a pause, “Jaejoong hyung and Yoochun said they were going out to eat…like on a date I guess.”
Yunho didn’t miss the twinge of loneliness in Junsu’s voice as he said the word “date”. Though Junsu’s face was perpetually smiling, these days Yunho felt like he saw the fissures and cracks in those smiles. It angered him even more that Jaejoong and Yoochun’s selfishness was the cause of this.
“Hey, whatever happened to that girl Minji? Do you guys still keep in touch?” Yunho asked rather out of the blue. For some reason he felt like he should ask, that maybe this change of subject would bring the “true” million-dollar smile back to Junsu’s face.
But Junsu’s lips only remained in a ghost of a smile at the mention of Minji. Suddenly in his eyes there was a weariness and agedness that made Yunho feel as if he was the dongsaeng now.
“Hyung…you know that was something that couldn’t last.”
Yunho didn’t reply. He knew all too well.
“The distance, the fans…”
Junsu appeared to forcefully tug the sides of his mouth upwards, “It’s just too much of a hassle you know?”
Yunho nodded and clasped a hand to Junsu’s back. He understood that sadness. The inevitable inability to maintain a real relationship, when the thing you need most is comfort and understanding.
Junsu’s voice prattled on, “I guess in some ways Jae hyung and Yoochun are really lucky. To be able to love each other and be together all the time.”
“Love…” Yunho breathed the word quietly, “Yeah, if you can call it that.”
There was an awkward silence after Yunho’s last utterance.
Yunho cleared his throat. “I’m going out tonight. But you and Changmin order whatever you guys want.” He added with a wry smile, “Just make sure Changmin doesn’t order too much. Last time he had his head stuck in the toilet the whole night when we let him have his own way with the takeout menu.”
Junsu smiled his wisp of a smile and merely nodded, “Okay.”
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A/N
So forgive me if this chapter kinda sucks...but on the bright side i'm officially on summer break! i'm starting up my internship in a few weeks but plenty of time to finish this up before then. Probably i'll reach the end in the next few/several chapters
These days I've been heavily leaning towards 2min (shinee) so also wanted to write them a bit....ack taeminah so cute!!
anyways, will update again soon!