"Paper Crown" [4/20]
Title: Paper Crown [4/20]
Pairing: Jaejoong/Yunho, Yoochun/Junsu
Genre: AU, drama/romance
Warnings: None
Summary: Sequel to Music Is My Life. It's early 2009 and Jaejoong finds himself forced to entertain a certain businessman with no intention of leaving until he finds what he's looking for.
It took some hovering around the general vicinity of the phone before he worked up the nerve to dial.
It wasn't so much being nervous as the apprehension that was eating at him. A thousand 'what-ifs' repeatedly ran through his head, like an endless loop of potential disaster situations playing itself out, most of them involving the imminent collapse of the corporate empire his father had built. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling.
Still, if he had to be honest with himself, Junsu's offer was tempting. Not because he felt he really needed some time to get away and 'discover' himself, but because the prospect of spending a month at home made him want to shoot himself. In the face.
It was only a week since he'd been released from the hospital. He had never quite realized how much time he spent at the office, because being at home without anything to do literally drove him crazy. He figured that as long as he wasn't chewing on the couch or curled up under his bed in a foetal position though, there was still some hope for him.
Once he had some respite from playing their own version of hide and seek with Jihye in their home, however (it involved him running in the opposite direction as soon as he heard her footsteps and Jihye popping her head at random into wherever he happened to be at any given moment during the day), he knew he was very close to being sent to the nice men in the white coats, so he finally caved.
It wasn't as though his conversation with Junsu hadn't been on his mind - in fact, he thought more about it in fleeting moments than the fact his father was dead, which, when it came down to it, said more about him than anything else - but he had also been trying very hard not to think about either of these issues. When he was at home, away from the office, his life seemed calmer. He could concentrate on outwitting his mother and sister. It made it easier to forget why he was at home all the time to begin with.
"Hello? Yunho?"
"Hey. Sorry about that, I was a little distracted. I wanted to talk to you about what we talked about that other day, in the hospital."
He could hear the smile in the other man's voice. "Yeah, I figured. How've you been? You're at home now?"
Yunho made a small noise. "I'm forced into bed at gunpoint by ten pm. My briefcase is hidden somewhere in Jihye's closet - a place even I wouldn't risk my life to enter - and..." He debated for about half a second before sighing softly, "...Yes, I'm at home."
There was a short silence, before Junsu spoke up again, softly and tentatively, "Are you okay?"
There were multiple ways Yunho could've gone about answering that question. Normally, he would plaster on a calm voice and reassure Junsu that he was fine, of course he was fine, he was well on his way to full recovery. Or he could thank Junsu for his concern and disregard what had arbitrarily came out of his mouth seconds earlier. Instead, he blinked hard.
"It depends on your definition of 'okay'," he rambled thoughtlessly, feeling a strange disconnect as he walked over to the couch. He paused. "Don't tell Yoochun, please."
"Alright," Junsu said carefully. "By 'okay', I mean whether you're - "
"I might be a little stir-crazy, but that's because I never realized how terrible I am at recuperating. It takes a certain kind of talent to wait for your body to stitch itself back together," Yunho interrupted, "Anyway, that really isn't the point. I've been thinking that maybe I need a vacation."
"Really?" Junsu sounded pleased, though still a little wary of the odd things coming out of Yunho's mouth.
"Yes." And if he sounded desperate, he trusted Junsu to ignore it. "Jihye managed to wrangle a promise out of me that I'd stay out of the office for a month. A distraction would be appreciated."
"Hm...A distraction," Junsu mumbled thoughtfully. "You're okay with me making the arrangements?"
"Well, what did you have in mind?"
Another short silence and Yunho patiently waited it out, his eyes drifting sightlessly around the room. It continued for another few minutes, during which he thought he heard something like a pen scratching against paper and the clicks of a keyboard.
"When I made the offer, I had a faint idea, but nothing really concrete," Junsu said carefully. "Um, if you want to go through with this...I guess if you consider this a vacation, you have to do two things for me. Is that okay?"
Yunho straightened up a little, interest sparked. "It depends on what they are." People who wanted things from him, to be honest, made him a little wary. It wasn't that he suspected the integrity of the other person (most of the time), but Jung Yunho was someone with just a bit too many things on the line. He knew how many ways another person could find some way to hold it over him.
Kim Junsu didn't strike him as the type to do that, but people had caught him off guard before.
"Well, give me some time to get the ball rolling. Several days, maybe? I'll call you back when I'm ready. That's the first thing."
He raised an eyebrow. "I generally don't have a problem with waiting."
"I don't know, you sounded a little like you were on the brink there."
It took a second, but he laughed. "Wow did I set myself up for that one."
Junsu chuckled good-naturedly over the line.
"So what's the second thing?"
"Trust me."
Yunho opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it. Those two words were so innocuous as to actually sound ominous. He had an idea that Junsu had meant for them to sound that way. "For all intents and purposes, Junsu, you're only organizing my potential travel arrangements."
"Yes."
He tried it from another angle. "Is there any reason why you're asking me to trust you?"
"That's why I'm asking you to, so that you wouldn't ask that question."
Yunho weighed the options in his mind. In this particular situation, he couldn't think of any worst-case scenarios. As long as he had his cell phone and reception, he could probably get himself back to Korea in one piece if Junsu felt like playing at something and send him to Antarctica. On second thought, he'd know where he was headed before he got on whatever mode of transportation the other man chose anyway -
"Yoochun wasn't kidding when he said he can hear you think, was he?"
If it got him out of the house, what did it really matter? At least he was doing something. "Yes."
"Huh?"
"Yes, I trust you not to send me somewhere remote or into potentially life-threatening environments."
"Yunho, you know I'm not going to do that," Junsu said, laughing, "besides, think how much planning it would take to hide your body."
Somehow, as silly as that sounded, it reassured him. It didn't stop the disaster scenarios from appearing in his head once he'd hung up, with repeated assurances from Junsu he'd call back as soon as everything was ready, but something about putting his life in someone else's hands for a change made him breath out in what some would've called a sigh of relief.
Personally, he considered it his own calm before the storm.
~*~*~
As promised, Junsu called back several days later. During that time, Yunho spent much of it ducking out of rooms to avoid his mother's sad gaze and Jihye's suspicious looks. At one point he dug out his old Japanese comics, stories he hadn't read since he was in high school, and spent several hours sniggering over the antics of Ranma and Luffy and Ichigo. Once that avenue of entertainment was exhausted, he took to building castles of cards, playing endless games of sudoku and solitaire (he carefully avoided Star Craft because a summer of non-stop gaming that one unfortunate year during high school was enough, thank you very much) and watching plants grow.
By the time Junsu's call had come through, his phone buzzing by his ear as he cracked one eye open in the wee hours of the morning, he felt like he would be happy to follow Junsu's plans, even if it meant getting on a plane to Greenland.
He couldn't promise he'd reach an epiphany about himself once he got there, but if it meant something productive to do, damn if he wasn't going to try.
" - and I'll tell you what to do when you get there tomorrow at the airport."
Yunho blinked. "Sorry?"
A pause. "Yunho, are you really okay?" Junsu sounded a bit too concerned.
He scrubbed at his eyes and ignored the question. "Could you repeat that?"
"I'll meet you at the airport tomorrow at five thirty in the morning for your flight at seven to Tokyo? I'll let you know where you'll be staying and what to do then?"
"Oh." Tokyo, Japan. Metropolitan city. Endless flashing lights. Right. Not the location he'd expected Junsu would come up with for a man who had narrowly escaped from being crushed in his vehicle a week and a half ago. But it made sense, really, because Junsu and Japan seemed to go together, past events withstanding. "That sounds great."
"Well, don't bowl me over with your excitement," Junsu said humorously. Yunho noticed that the other man had the strange ability to translate his smile into words. "It's far enough to get away from it all but close enough to head back here if things go wrong. You know, with your stuff."
It was odd to hear the company and his father's absence and his big empty house and his rather directionless life be reduced to 'stuff'.
Yunho could almost hear his sanity slipping away. He struggled to get a hold of himself. He wondered if this was how one began having a mental breakdown.
"Yunho?"
"I'll pay you back." Trust that to be the first thing to come out of his mouth - he tilted his head back on his pillow and closed his eyes tiredly.
"You don't have to pay me back, Yunho. Just think of it as a sort of thank you gift for not blowing my cover that time."
He smiled, because that brought back memories of nights at the bar, watching Yoochun and Changmin banter, or a nice, home-cooked meal at Stephanie's apartment with her and Yoochun. Days when he actually looked forward to being around people. "If you say so. Thanks."
The equally quiet, "You're welcome," came after a short silence. The line on the other end clicked as Junsu hung up and Yunho instinctively curled up to retain the heat beneath the blankets. He listened to himself breath, felt his body protest the position he was in, and fell asleep as the light streaming through his curtains rose higher and higher.
~*~*~
Convincing his sister that it wasn't a business trip in disguise took longer than he'd thought. She eyed him suspiciously but kept silent as his mother smiled, patted his hand, and agreed with him that it was a good idea.
"But isn't leaving tomorrow a bit too soon?" His mother asked worriedly, a frown lingering just beyond the pleased expression that had appeared on her face when he mentioned the trip.
Jihye pounced on that like a ravenous cat on a poor, unsuspecting mouse. "If you can barely get from your room to the kitchen without looking like you're about to collapse - "
"It'll keep me from holding a stake-out in front of your closet, Jihye," he said sarcastically.
She huffed. "It's for your own good, oppa!"
"It'll be fine," he turned reassuringly back to their mother, who was watching the two of them with an amused smile, "Relaxing. I won't stay longer than a week."
"Well, I can't keep you here if you're fighting to get out. Just be careful and take care of yourself. No working.” She eyed Jihye, who was biting her lip and stabbing at her food.
He looked at both of them, the two that made up his small family, seated at the end of a long, finely carved dining table. Their careful gazes that lingered a little too long on his neck and back, the close proximity and surveillance they forced on him that drove him mad but translated into a love that he could feel deep in his bones - suddenly, he regretted not taking better care of himself.
With a heavy feeling in his heart that felt strangely more liberating than the relief he'd felt at being able to get out of the house (and the country), he took their hands in his own and smiled. "I promise."
~*~*~
When Junsu saw Yunho approaching, he sighed in relief, plane ticket clutched in his hand. In the few seconds it took for Yunho to find him, he was able to take a closer look.
Jung Yunho pulled a small carry-on luggage. Dressed in a thick jacket and dark jeans, his hair soft and unstyled, he looked like any other young person. He was a tall and good-looking guy, so he attracted quite a few appreciative glances. It was clear, however, that there was something wrong. It was clear to Junsu's eyes because he'd had to see the same kind of person in the mirror during those years in Japan.
Eyes rimmed with tiredness, a worn out smile that never quite reached, a stiffness that ran along the lines of his shoulders and back, even the tight grip he had on the handle of his luggage - Yunho was a man emerging from a long and hard battle. With himself? Junsu wondered, and then decided it didn't really matter. Whether Yunho had himself or the world to contend with, he was obviously losing.
"Yunho!"
Having caught his attention, Junsu gestured towards the gate and met Yunho there. "Good morning," he said brightly. It had taken two alarms to wake him up on time, but Junsu felt that the effort was worth it, because Yunho returned his smile and it was a bit more genuine. It still surprised him a little, the difference between the Yunho of then and the Yunho of now. It shocked him more that it took so long for people to notice. "Did you sleep well last night?"
"As well as can be expected," Yunho answered and as if it was a reminder, his smile tightened. "I really appreciate this, Junsu."
Junsu sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know what I said back at the hospital doesn't really mean anything to you."
Yunho let that settle between them before answering. "Not really, no." At this point, he had nothing else to say. He only had honesty.
"I don't even really know if this is the right thing to do for you," Junsu continued, smiling wryly. " You just look like you need this. That's my excuse, if anyone asks. If you ask, once you get there."
"I understand - "
Junsu shook his head. "Here." He handed him the plane ticket and a small envelope. "Open this on the plane. It'll tell you all you need to know."
Yunho carefully folded it and slid it into a pocket on his jacket. It felt like there was a key in there. "I'll trust you not to send me on a wild goose chase."
The other man laughed. "Don't worry, they're very straightforward instructions. Should keep you occupied for however long you choose to stay."
"That's very good to hear."
They stood together for another minute in silence. Junsu wished fervently that it would all miraculously work out, as it had for him, and Yunho wondered what kind of breakfast would be served on the flight. Finally, Yunho held out a hand and Junsu pulled him into a quick one-armed hug.
"Take care of yourself, Yunho," Junsu said quietly as he pulled away, "I think a lot of people are waiting for you to come back. You, not..."
"Yeah. I...yeah." Yunho shrugged, smiling. "Thanks. You take care of yourself too. And Yoochun, Changmin."
Junsu watched as Yunho stepped through the gate, a jaunty wave over his shoulder. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he turned to head out, braving the crisp air of a winter morning quickly fading into spring. He hoped, god did he hope, that everything would be okay.
Pairing: Jaejoong/Yunho, Yoochun/Junsu
Genre: AU, drama/romance
Warnings: None
Summary: Sequel to Music Is My Life. It's early 2009 and Jaejoong finds himself forced to entertain a certain businessman with no intention of leaving until he finds what he's looking for.
It took some hovering around the general vicinity of the phone before he worked up the nerve to dial.
It wasn't so much being nervous as the apprehension that was eating at him. A thousand 'what-ifs' repeatedly ran through his head, like an endless loop of potential disaster situations playing itself out, most of them involving the imminent collapse of the corporate empire his father had built. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling.
Still, if he had to be honest with himself, Junsu's offer was tempting. Not because he felt he really needed some time to get away and 'discover' himself, but because the prospect of spending a month at home made him want to shoot himself. In the face.
It was only a week since he'd been released from the hospital. He had never quite realized how much time he spent at the office, because being at home without anything to do literally drove him crazy. He figured that as long as he wasn't chewing on the couch or curled up under his bed in a foetal position though, there was still some hope for him.
Once he had some respite from playing their own version of hide and seek with Jihye in their home, however (it involved him running in the opposite direction as soon as he heard her footsteps and Jihye popping her head at random into wherever he happened to be at any given moment during the day), he knew he was very close to being sent to the nice men in the white coats, so he finally caved.
It wasn't as though his conversation with Junsu hadn't been on his mind - in fact, he thought more about it in fleeting moments than the fact his father was dead, which, when it came down to it, said more about him than anything else - but he had also been trying very hard not to think about either of these issues. When he was at home, away from the office, his life seemed calmer. He could concentrate on outwitting his mother and sister. It made it easier to forget why he was at home all the time to begin with.
"Hello? Yunho?"
"Hey. Sorry about that, I was a little distracted. I wanted to talk to you about what we talked about that other day, in the hospital."
He could hear the smile in the other man's voice. "Yeah, I figured. How've you been? You're at home now?"
Yunho made a small noise. "I'm forced into bed at gunpoint by ten pm. My briefcase is hidden somewhere in Jihye's closet - a place even I wouldn't risk my life to enter - and..." He debated for about half a second before sighing softly, "...Yes, I'm at home."
There was a short silence, before Junsu spoke up again, softly and tentatively, "Are you okay?"
There were multiple ways Yunho could've gone about answering that question. Normally, he would plaster on a calm voice and reassure Junsu that he was fine, of course he was fine, he was well on his way to full recovery. Or he could thank Junsu for his concern and disregard what had arbitrarily came out of his mouth seconds earlier. Instead, he blinked hard.
"It depends on your definition of 'okay'," he rambled thoughtlessly, feeling a strange disconnect as he walked over to the couch. He paused. "Don't tell Yoochun, please."
"Alright," Junsu said carefully. "By 'okay', I mean whether you're - "
"I might be a little stir-crazy, but that's because I never realized how terrible I am at recuperating. It takes a certain kind of talent to wait for your body to stitch itself back together," Yunho interrupted, "Anyway, that really isn't the point. I've been thinking that maybe I need a vacation."
"Really?" Junsu sounded pleased, though still a little wary of the odd things coming out of Yunho's mouth.
"Yes." And if he sounded desperate, he trusted Junsu to ignore it. "Jihye managed to wrangle a promise out of me that I'd stay out of the office for a month. A distraction would be appreciated."
"Hm...A distraction," Junsu mumbled thoughtfully. "You're okay with me making the arrangements?"
"Well, what did you have in mind?"
Another short silence and Yunho patiently waited it out, his eyes drifting sightlessly around the room. It continued for another few minutes, during which he thought he heard something like a pen scratching against paper and the clicks of a keyboard.
"When I made the offer, I had a faint idea, but nothing really concrete," Junsu said carefully. "Um, if you want to go through with this...I guess if you consider this a vacation, you have to do two things for me. Is that okay?"
Yunho straightened up a little, interest sparked. "It depends on what they are." People who wanted things from him, to be honest, made him a little wary. It wasn't that he suspected the integrity of the other person (most of the time), but Jung Yunho was someone with just a bit too many things on the line. He knew how many ways another person could find some way to hold it over him.
Kim Junsu didn't strike him as the type to do that, but people had caught him off guard before.
"Well, give me some time to get the ball rolling. Several days, maybe? I'll call you back when I'm ready. That's the first thing."
He raised an eyebrow. "I generally don't have a problem with waiting."
"I don't know, you sounded a little like you were on the brink there."
It took a second, but he laughed. "Wow did I set myself up for that one."
Junsu chuckled good-naturedly over the line.
"So what's the second thing?"
"Trust me."
Yunho opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it. Those two words were so innocuous as to actually sound ominous. He had an idea that Junsu had meant for them to sound that way. "For all intents and purposes, Junsu, you're only organizing my potential travel arrangements."
"Yes."
He tried it from another angle. "Is there any reason why you're asking me to trust you?"
"That's why I'm asking you to, so that you wouldn't ask that question."
Yunho weighed the options in his mind. In this particular situation, he couldn't think of any worst-case scenarios. As long as he had his cell phone and reception, he could probably get himself back to Korea in one piece if Junsu felt like playing at something and send him to Antarctica. On second thought, he'd know where he was headed before he got on whatever mode of transportation the other man chose anyway -
"Yoochun wasn't kidding when he said he can hear you think, was he?"
If it got him out of the house, what did it really matter? At least he was doing something. "Yes."
"Huh?"
"Yes, I trust you not to send me somewhere remote or into potentially life-threatening environments."
"Yunho, you know I'm not going to do that," Junsu said, laughing, "besides, think how much planning it would take to hide your body."
Somehow, as silly as that sounded, it reassured him. It didn't stop the disaster scenarios from appearing in his head once he'd hung up, with repeated assurances from Junsu he'd call back as soon as everything was ready, but something about putting his life in someone else's hands for a change made him breath out in what some would've called a sigh of relief.
Personally, he considered it his own calm before the storm.
~*~*~
As promised, Junsu called back several days later. During that time, Yunho spent much of it ducking out of rooms to avoid his mother's sad gaze and Jihye's suspicious looks. At one point he dug out his old Japanese comics, stories he hadn't read since he was in high school, and spent several hours sniggering over the antics of Ranma and Luffy and Ichigo. Once that avenue of entertainment was exhausted, he took to building castles of cards, playing endless games of sudoku and solitaire (he carefully avoided Star Craft because a summer of non-stop gaming that one unfortunate year during high school was enough, thank you very much) and watching plants grow.
By the time Junsu's call had come through, his phone buzzing by his ear as he cracked one eye open in the wee hours of the morning, he felt like he would be happy to follow Junsu's plans, even if it meant getting on a plane to Greenland.
He couldn't promise he'd reach an epiphany about himself once he got there, but if it meant something productive to do, damn if he wasn't going to try.
" - and I'll tell you what to do when you get there tomorrow at the airport."
Yunho blinked. "Sorry?"
A pause. "Yunho, are you really okay?" Junsu sounded a bit too concerned.
He scrubbed at his eyes and ignored the question. "Could you repeat that?"
"I'll meet you at the airport tomorrow at five thirty in the morning for your flight at seven to Tokyo? I'll let you know where you'll be staying and what to do then?"
"Oh." Tokyo, Japan. Metropolitan city. Endless flashing lights. Right. Not the location he'd expected Junsu would come up with for a man who had narrowly escaped from being crushed in his vehicle a week and a half ago. But it made sense, really, because Junsu and Japan seemed to go together, past events withstanding. "That sounds great."
"Well, don't bowl me over with your excitement," Junsu said humorously. Yunho noticed that the other man had the strange ability to translate his smile into words. "It's far enough to get away from it all but close enough to head back here if things go wrong. You know, with your stuff."
It was odd to hear the company and his father's absence and his big empty house and his rather directionless life be reduced to 'stuff'.
Yunho could almost hear his sanity slipping away. He struggled to get a hold of himself. He wondered if this was how one began having a mental breakdown.
"Yunho?"
"I'll pay you back." Trust that to be the first thing to come out of his mouth - he tilted his head back on his pillow and closed his eyes tiredly.
"You don't have to pay me back, Yunho. Just think of it as a sort of thank you gift for not blowing my cover that time."
He smiled, because that brought back memories of nights at the bar, watching Yoochun and Changmin banter, or a nice, home-cooked meal at Stephanie's apartment with her and Yoochun. Days when he actually looked forward to being around people. "If you say so. Thanks."
The equally quiet, "You're welcome," came after a short silence. The line on the other end clicked as Junsu hung up and Yunho instinctively curled up to retain the heat beneath the blankets. He listened to himself breath, felt his body protest the position he was in, and fell asleep as the light streaming through his curtains rose higher and higher.
~*~*~
Convincing his sister that it wasn't a business trip in disguise took longer than he'd thought. She eyed him suspiciously but kept silent as his mother smiled, patted his hand, and agreed with him that it was a good idea.
"But isn't leaving tomorrow a bit too soon?" His mother asked worriedly, a frown lingering just beyond the pleased expression that had appeared on her face when he mentioned the trip.
Jihye pounced on that like a ravenous cat on a poor, unsuspecting mouse. "If you can barely get from your room to the kitchen without looking like you're about to collapse - "
"It'll keep me from holding a stake-out in front of your closet, Jihye," he said sarcastically.
She huffed. "It's for your own good, oppa!"
"It'll be fine," he turned reassuringly back to their mother, who was watching the two of them with an amused smile, "Relaxing. I won't stay longer than a week."
"Well, I can't keep you here if you're fighting to get out. Just be careful and take care of yourself. No working.” She eyed Jihye, who was biting her lip and stabbing at her food.
He looked at both of them, the two that made up his small family, seated at the end of a long, finely carved dining table. Their careful gazes that lingered a little too long on his neck and back, the close proximity and surveillance they forced on him that drove him mad but translated into a love that he could feel deep in his bones - suddenly, he regretted not taking better care of himself.
With a heavy feeling in his heart that felt strangely more liberating than the relief he'd felt at being able to get out of the house (and the country), he took their hands in his own and smiled. "I promise."
~*~*~
When Junsu saw Yunho approaching, he sighed in relief, plane ticket clutched in his hand. In the few seconds it took for Yunho to find him, he was able to take a closer look.
Jung Yunho pulled a small carry-on luggage. Dressed in a thick jacket and dark jeans, his hair soft and unstyled, he looked like any other young person. He was a tall and good-looking guy, so he attracted quite a few appreciative glances. It was clear, however, that there was something wrong. It was clear to Junsu's eyes because he'd had to see the same kind of person in the mirror during those years in Japan.
Eyes rimmed with tiredness, a worn out smile that never quite reached, a stiffness that ran along the lines of his shoulders and back, even the tight grip he had on the handle of his luggage - Yunho was a man emerging from a long and hard battle. With himself? Junsu wondered, and then decided it didn't really matter. Whether Yunho had himself or the world to contend with, he was obviously losing.
"Yunho!"
Having caught his attention, Junsu gestured towards the gate and met Yunho there. "Good morning," he said brightly. It had taken two alarms to wake him up on time, but Junsu felt that the effort was worth it, because Yunho returned his smile and it was a bit more genuine. It still surprised him a little, the difference between the Yunho of then and the Yunho of now. It shocked him more that it took so long for people to notice. "Did you sleep well last night?"
"As well as can be expected," Yunho answered and as if it was a reminder, his smile tightened. "I really appreciate this, Junsu."
Junsu sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know what I said back at the hospital doesn't really mean anything to you."
Yunho let that settle between them before answering. "Not really, no." At this point, he had nothing else to say. He only had honesty.
"I don't even really know if this is the right thing to do for you," Junsu continued, smiling wryly. " You just look like you need this. That's my excuse, if anyone asks. If you ask, once you get there."
"I understand - "
Junsu shook his head. "Here." He handed him the plane ticket and a small envelope. "Open this on the plane. It'll tell you all you need to know."
Yunho carefully folded it and slid it into a pocket on his jacket. It felt like there was a key in there. "I'll trust you not to send me on a wild goose chase."
The other man laughed. "Don't worry, they're very straightforward instructions. Should keep you occupied for however long you choose to stay."
"That's very good to hear."
They stood together for another minute in silence. Junsu wished fervently that it would all miraculously work out, as it had for him, and Yunho wondered what kind of breakfast would be served on the flight. Finally, Yunho held out a hand and Junsu pulled him into a quick one-armed hug.
"Take care of yourself, Yunho," Junsu said quietly as he pulled away, "I think a lot of people are waiting for you to come back. You, not..."
"Yeah. I...yeah." Yunho shrugged, smiling. "Thanks. You take care of yourself too. And Yoochun, Changmin."
Junsu watched as Yunho stepped through the gate, a jaunty wave over his shoulder. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he turned to head out, braving the crisp air of a winter morning quickly fading into spring. He hoped, god did he hope, that everything would be okay.