dear friend
dear friend
1340 words; g
junsu/liyin
Of all places to meet, Junsu conveniently chose one where, although the night scenery was gorgeous, the wind blew at a bloody cold temperature as it passed over the river. Liyin silently curses, mind rattling at all possible explanations that went on in his head. It's the middle of winter, for god's sake, and here?
Her train of thoughts are interrupted by a tap on her shoulder, and she turns, glaring at a pair of twinkling eyes that she recognized too well.
He laughs, a bit mockingly, and motions her to his car. Liyin doesn't say a word and welcomes herself into the heat of his Ferrari Italia, before he could've even present himself as a gentleman and hold the door open for her.
"I know this is your absolute favorite spot to be," Liyin breathes, voice a little nasal from the cold, "but a warmer location would've been more, oh I don't know, appropriate?"
"Of course, but this place is sentimental," Junsu answers, smiling. "You know that."
"Yes, if you want me to freeze to death," she replies tiredly, hand gesturing for a bottle of beer.
It was an annual meeting both agreed to set after they went their separate ways. Their breakup was an irregular one; it wasn't filled with tears, neither of them didn't feel broken, rather, the feelings for one another couldn't remain the same. Junsu and Liyin were better off as friends, and ended the intimate two and a half year relationship with a mutual agreement.
"So, dear friend," Junsu begins inquiring, pausing as she swallowed her drink, "any potential candidates?" She stares at the man beside her in slight disbelief, blinking to comprehend at whatever words he just spat out.
"Blissful, thanks for asking," Liyin scoffs indignantly, "you can't even start by asking how the year has been?"
Junsu can't help but laugh at how perplexed her expression was, and he reaches over to clank his beer bottle against hers, "okay, Liyin, how was your year? Surely, you had a great one, you always do," he says by way of sounding like a smart ass, "so, next question, any potential candidates?"
Liyin laughs scornfully, baffled at how frank he was when it came to poking around her private matters. She peers back at his questioning gaze, and lets out a long sigh of despair.
"There's a prospect," she answers, swirling the contents of the bottle. "A bit younger. He's nice."
He lets out an inaudible snort at the word younger; he recalls her mentioning about her preference for older men, and that she wouldn't ever look at a younger man pass from being a baby brother. Then again, that claim was over five years ago, she was also surrounded by males that were older, surely that played a role somewhere.
He sees her peek towards him and he gives the best supportive smile he can.
"Time's changed, Junsu. So did my taste," she jeers, rolling her eyes at his inquisitive expression. "What?"
"Nothing," Junsu chortles, amused at how fast she always read him, like before. "Tell me what he's like."
She wonders if the beer had gotten to him already; he never tolerated alcohol well, after all. He watches her expression contort a little-probably wondering why on earth would she grant him any information about this younger man and he's right-then finally sighs and rubs her fingers against her brow.
"A gentleman," she begins, eyes distant. "Very mannerly, never stops smiling. He has a wonderful laugh, contagious, actually. Asks a lot of concerning questions, sweet; amusingly charming," she smiles a little when she remembers a fond memory.
"Capable, especially responsible, and tells the most stupid jokes," Liyin mildly complains, "but his singing makes up for that."
"Sounds like a great guy," he nods approvingly, taking a mental note on the singing part. "Are you sure he's real?"
She laughs, "one-hundred percent positive. I won't question your doubts, I had similar thoughts."
Junsu finishes the remaining contents of his first beer and ponders for a different question. "Are you going to entertain him? Looks like he's already entertained you."
She gives a small chuckle and turns towards him completely. He feels her gaze on his side profile, he knows she wants to confide to him about something, but she was hesitating, so he waits. They read each other like an open book, a skill both acquired in those years of being together.
"Dear friend," Liyin says tentatively, "if I do decide to entertain this prospect, these kinds of meetings would have to stop."
He looks up, surprised, but he clears his throat and adjusts the sleeves of his coat. He shouldn't be shocked, it was a condition from the beginning, it was going to come to sooner or later.
"Friends can't meet?" His voice comes out low, looking at her.
"Not like this," she giggles, surveying the creases and bends of his car. "It feels like a secret-which shouldn't be since we're not hiding anything, and it's not like we're lovers anymore."
They weren't, that's why she was able to say it. Her growing concern for the potential, intimate relationship with this man didn't exactly make him feel indifferent, there was something else, but couldn't pinpoint what, so he pushes the weird feeling to a box of other unnecessary emotions stored away in his thoughts.
"Right," Junsu grins, surveying their surroundings, "my future girlfriend would find it a bit suspicious."
"See, thinking ahead," she agrees, finishing her second bottle, "we can still meet, in a normal setting, and with coffee instead of beer, but we can't promise neither of us will make it." He makes an indistinct murmur of agreement, and they sit in silence for a few minutes.
"She's pretty," Liyin says softly. He looks over at her and sees her genuine smile, eyes twinkling. Her smile falters when his expression became clear to her and she laughs. "Of course I knew, I don't live under a rock! Congratulations."
He stammers as he tries to find the words to say and she laughs even more. He had meant to tell her personally; she wouldn't have found out through the news because gossip was never her area of interest. But the laughs of amusement tell him otherwise and he gawks at the woman sitting in the passenger's seat.
"Junsu," she calls, eyes moon-shaped from suppressed giggles. He blinks, straightening himself. "You certainly have my blessings," she continues, everything sincere, and a sigh escapes his lips.
"That's not fair," he huffed, leaning back on the headrest, "you can't know how she looks like when I don't know yours." Liyin turns at his mild childish behavior, a part of him that never seemed to diminish even with age. Her smile widens then giggles, to which he squinted.
"Okay," she says slowly before putting both her index fingers against her brows in a slanted manner, "his eyebrows fall to the sides when he smiles or laughs, like this."
He's about to open his mouth to say something-along the lines of in what world do humans have eyebrows like that- but he stops himself, because he had no right to judge when she didn't. Instead, his mind boggles for an individual who matches the description, but finds it impossible because who in the world would have eyebrows that moved sideways-
"I think it's amazing how I know exactly what's going on in your head, but," she stops him before he protests, "I won't tell you off because this our last night and I don't want to leave after having a fight about stupid stuff," Liyin points at him with the beer bottle and he holds back a smile. A close-to-becoming-drunk Liyin was always an entertainment.
"To a growing relationship with our significant others, then," Junsu says after a while.
"To a healthy one."
The bottles clank each other's for the last time and both emptied their third.
"You know, if this doesn't work out-"
"Don't even start."
"We can totally have a second chance at timeless-"
"Stop. Talking."
Author's note: Yes, I am back. Tentatively. Hello all!