as good as new
jaejoong, gen; 561
g
written because jaejoong deserves some serious lovin' lately. and because i'm procrastinating on finals week shit. :D
It's fact amongst the five of them that Jaejoong dates the least, not because he wants to, but because he is the one that gets I thought you'd be different the most. None of the other four will ever admit to it, but when Jaejoong does find a girl, at the same time they tell him they're happy for him they also sit around waiting for her to realize that who she wanted from the beginning was Youngwoong and not Kim Jaejoong.
And when Jaejoong does hang up the phone newly single once again, the rest of them are there in their own ways, prepared to put him back together as always.
Yunho will be the one who hugs Jaejoong immediately after finding out, who pulls Jaejoong in and squeezes so tight that all Jaejoong can do is hold on and breathe, leaving no room to think too much about who he is and who he can't be. Yunho's hugs have a way of making him feel like he could disappear if he wanted to, but he never does and maybe it's just knowing he has the option is what comforts him.
At night, Yoochun will make up an excuse about how the left side of his mattress suddenly feels really lumpy and force his way into Jaejoong's. He'll press up against Jaejoong's back and hold onto him like a teddy bear, breathing heavily into Jaejoong's ear. Somewhere between two and three a.m., he will tell Jaejoong that he can cry if he wants to even though they both know Jaejoong never does and probably never will; but they also know that Jaejoong has never fallen asleep until Yoochun offers those words.
He'll wake up to the banging of pots and pans, and when he finally stumbles out to the kitchen, Junsu will be in the middle donning Jaejoong's red Kiss the Chef apron and covered head to toe in ingredients for making pajeon. Junsu will order him to sit down and refuse any offers for help before they're even made. In the end, Jaejoong will wait until after Junsu burns two batches of pancakes plus accidentally elbow the rest of the mix into the trash to stand up and hug Junsu from behind, grateful for his big heart but also to keep Junsu from destroying the entire apartment.
A week will pass by before Changmin approaches him because neither of them know how to detach from the simple few-words relationship they usually have without spending a couple days apart first. He'll find Jaejoong in the living room and start the conversation by telling Jaejoong how it's good that it didn't work out and then give a list of reasons why the four of them would have never gotten along with her. It is with Changmin that Jaejoong always almost cries, because Changmin is the only one that talks about it without pretending like he isn't, the one who makes Jaejoong listen to how he's been screwed over again all for the sake of letting him move on. But he'll laugh instead while listening to Changmin rant, not wanting to feel sorry for himself or face Changmin's fist for the same reason.
Jaejoong talks about living with the group even after he marries. Sometimes they laugh like it's a joke. Every now and then they laugh like it's inevitable.