VANILLA COFFEE - n. yuta

eighteen. reassurance

"i just want to spend my life with you."

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daehyun was acting different lately and meiling and minjun were starting to get worried. they knew why he was acting that way, but he was progressively getting more sad and unmotivated.

he needed yuta.

meiling and minjun sat in the boy's room on his bed discussing ways to help fix daehyun and yuta's relationship.

"we tried convincing daehyun, but that didn't work," minjun started.

meiling hummed, "doyoung knows something is up, so if we tell him then he'll definitely help us."

"what we need to do is get daehyun and yuta alone in a room so they have to talk."

meiling smiled and took out her phone. "i know just what to do."

-

daehyun was standing beside meiling as they walked to the practice room. doyoung texted daehyun about coming while meiling said she was there to see jaehyun.

he stood outside the door and slowly raised his hand to knock before meiling simply opened the door and walked inside.

daehyun smiled at his sister and followed her into the room. he was attacked by doyoung in the form of a hug.

doyoung pulled away and slapped the back of daehyun's head. "i'm glad you're here, but you're an idiot and i'm mad at you."

the brunet's head tilted and he rubbed his head as he looked up at his best friend.

"i'm so confused. what did i do?"

meiling grabbed daehyun's arm and dragged him to the side of the room where the computer was. "we should let them start their practice now."

after a few hours of 127 practicing and perfecting their choreography, it was just meiling, jaehyun, doyoung, yuta, mark, and daehyun in the room.

meiling, doyoung, and jaehyun were whispering to each other while the other three awkwardly looked at each other in confusion.

"we should get some snacks and play truth or dare or something," doyoung said as he stood up.

jaehyun nodded and copied his actions, "yeah, mark come with us."

mark smiled and nodded, following the two older boys to the door. meiling jumped up right before they left.

"let me come with you!"

the four left the room quickly and the sound of shuffling was heard. daehyun furrowed his brows and walked towards the door, trying to open it but finding that he couldn't. he turned to yuta with an amused smile.

"they trapped us in here."

yuta's eyes widened and he walked closer to daehyun, also failing at trying to open the door.

"why would they do that?"

"well, maybe we should talk. i'm assuming that's what they want us to do."

yuta looked at daehyun with an unreadable expression before he simply nodded.

daehyun nervously walked to the middle of the room and started pacing. he was silent for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to say to the boy he desperately wanted to mend things with.

"you don't need to be so nervous, sunshine." yuta walked over to daehyun and made him sit down in front of him on the floor. "take your time."

daehyun smiled at nickname and took a deep breath. "i'm sorry. i don't like how distant we've become."

"so what are you gonna do about it?"

daehyun was having an internal battle with himself, wanting to kiss the boy so bad but knowing they had to address the bigger issue first. he sighed, "i want this to work, yuta. i want us to work, but i'm scared."

yuta grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently as he smiled. "it's okay to be scared. just tell me why you're scared and we can find a way past it."

daehyun nodded and held yuta's hands a little tighter. "i didn't have the best life growing up. my mother died giving birth to me and my father remarried meiling's mom. as you know, my father isn't a good person. after meiling's mom passed six years after she was born, he started to get rough with her. every time i stopped it i would get hurt instead, which was fine with me. i needed to make sure meiling was safe. sometimes i couldn't stop it and sometimes he acted like nothing happened at all. sometimes our father was happy and nice to us, he was civilized. we would think everything was back to normal and that we could live happier, but he would take that happiness and hope away from us. he would always take it away from us."

yuta was rubbing his thumbs on the back of daehyun's hands. it broke his heart to hear the full story of daehyun's childhood. he just wanted to protect him from any further harm.

"after the encounter with him a few months ago, it made me realize that meiling and i will never be able to escape him. he'd always come back and rip our happiness away."

"you didn't want me to get hurt," yuta realized.

daehyun nodded, "there was an incident two years ago. i was living with my boyfriend at the time and we were having a movie night when my father found me. he..." tears started rushing to his eyes as he relived the memories of that night.

"take your time, you don't have to tell me."

daehyun shook his head, "no, i need to tell you. my father got aggressive, he started attacking me and when my ex stepped in to help me...my father turned on him. he had to go to the hospital because it was so bad. he didn't speak out about what happened because he didn't want to ruin my reputation as an idol. we broke up the day after he was admitted to the hospital and i still took care of him until he was checked out. i haven't seen him since."

yuta brought the boy into his arms and daehyun silently cried against his chest. the japanese boy ran his hand through daehyun's hair to calm him down.

"it's okay, my sunshine. i understand now why you were scared and pushed me away. i know you're still going to be scared, but this doesn't change what i feel for you. i still love you and want to be with you, daehyun."

daehyun looked up at him, "really?"

yuta wiped away his tears and nodded, a reassuring smile on his face. "i don't care about what could happen, i just want to spend my life with you."

daehyun stared at the boy with so much love in his eyes that yuta could practically feel it. the younger boy grinned and leaned forward, wrapping his arms around yuta with so much force that they fell back on the ground.

"i love you."

"i love you too, sunshine."