Fifth Floor - JooHyuk

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October 26

With Minhyuk's relentless efforts to stay the night, I had finally just nodded and agreed. It wasn't that I didn't want him there, it was nice to know I wasn't completely alone. Which, at that moment, was probably what I needed most and why Minhyuk wouldn't give up.

"Okay, well I finished cleaning the kitchen for you, Jooheon, so I'm going to go," Chunghyeop voiced as he walked into the living room, "Minhyuk, do you need me to bring anything over?"

"Mm depends on if Jooheon can let me borrow clothes cause I didn't bring any," Minhyuk looked at me waiting for an answer.

"There's stuff in my closet you can borrow," I muttered, my voice still feeling like its battery was running low with the rest of my body.

Chunghyeop soon left and I told Minhyuk that he could use anything he found in the closet before I went to get ready for bed myself. Looking in the bathroom mirror, my reflection stared back at me looking lifeless. My eyes still showed signs of my weeping and my face seemed to droop with sadness.

Kihyun's information on who Vivian truly was made me look pathetic and clueless. The amount of stupidity it took not to realize who she really was. Every time she'd scream at me for the tiniest things, I'd brush off when she emptily apologized. There was never real softness in her eyes. Not when she looked at me. I had seen lies the whole time. "Who's blind enough to subject themselves to that shit for an entire year? And I still tried to defend her?"

I hadn't wanted to believe Minhyuk and Changkyun when they attempted to make me know how bad she was for me. Seeing the undeniable fact that Kihyun and Vivian knew each other made it impossible to deny what was said about her. "Why'd it have to be me, though?"

A knocking at the bathroom door, followed by Minhyuk's voice broke me away from intensely staring at my reflection with hate. "Hey, Jooheon?"

"Sorry, give me a minute," I choked out. Hurriedly, I took in a deep breath and changed my clothes like I had intended to.

I finished and walked back to my room where I found Minhyuk laying at the end of my bed reading a paper he held up above him. "What are you reading?" I asked, going to sit next to him.

"An invitation you got to a wedding. Who's Youngjae and Hyejin?" Minhyuk sat up and gave me the paper I had meant to put in the box in my closet a week ago.

"Youngjae is my older brother and Hyejin is the woman he's been with for a couple years. She's really nice." My heart sank with the memories of my family flooding in with only a small mention of them.

"Oh, okay. So what are you going to wear?"

"N-nothing."

"That's a very bold statement that I don't recommend."

"I didn't mean it like that!" I exclaimed with embarrassment quickly burning my cheeks, "I mean I'm not going, Minhyuk-ssi."

"Why?"

"If I go after not speaking for this long it'll just be awkward. Plus, my father will definitely yell at me and make a scene." I confessed this knowing Minhyuk was going to somehow persuade me into going anyways. I knew this was likely my only chance to fix things, but I was scared. I had disappointed my family, and I wouldn't want to speak to me either.

"Valid reasons for not wanting to go, but you need to. This is the perfect opportunity to stop this no-talking thing," Minhyuk started humming in thought with his hand on his chin, "To keep things from being awkward with your brother, why don't you text him and ask to meet before? Then you get out the uncomfortable greeting and so on early. For your father...there's not much to do about that. Either do the same thing as with your brother or avoid him until after the wedding. I recommend the first one, but I have a feeling you're going to avoid him."

"Probably."

"Well whatever he says, remember that his argument with Vivian is no longer valid. He can't blame you for what she did."

That wasn't the point I knew he'd be mad at me for. Even if Vivian was gone, he'd still be angry that I dated her at all. That I let a woman like her near me. My father obviously didn't know the extent of what she did to me, but he knew she was a rude person who spoke back to him. Just that was enough for his anger to come out at me too.

"I don't know, Minhyuk-ssi."

"You can do this. In fact, text your brother now!" Minhyuk was too excited for such a thing.

"It's late though," I whined.

"It's not that late. Do it." Minhyuk was right, it wasn't very late, and I knew my brother would still be awake. I had exhausted all efforts I could think of to get out of it, though. So with a pout directed at the older, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and sent a message to the last number I had saved for Youngjae, paying special attention to spelling and wording out of nervousness.

Me
Hello. This is Jooheon.
If it's still okay, I'd like
to attend your
wedding. Could we
meet sometime before
that, though?

I looked up at Minhyuk, silently hoping I got no response rather than a bad one. It took longer than a minute for the phone in my hands to buzz indicating a message. I dreaded looking down out of fear of that bad message, but Minhyuk resting his hand on my thigh gave me the courage.

YJ
Jooheon?

Yes! Of course you
can come, and I'd love
to meet up before.

We're pretty busy with
planning, but can I text
you when I'm free? 24
hour notice of course.

Me
Yeah! That'll be fine.
Thank you!

"Well?" Minhyuk prompted.

"He actually agreed. Minhyuk, I'm going to see my family again!" If it wasn't for the mix of fear, I may have cried out of happiness. The dread of things going bad could still come true. Not to mention the scene I knew would happen with my father.

"Please, tell me you're not still going to wear nothing," Minhyuk joked to which I rolled my eyes.

"No I'm not, but I don't have anything nicer than my work clothes either."

"That is a problem, but we have a month to get something. Oh! What are you wearing on Saturday?"

"Saturday?" I repeated, confused.

"For the Halloween event. At work, Yoo Entertainment. You remember that place?"

"I wasn't planning on going?"

"What? Please go. Changkyun will be there! He usually gets lonely with Kihyun being the CEO and all. You can meet my brother!" There was no doubt that Minhyuk badly wanted me to attend the event and meet his brother.

"Minhyuk-ssi, I couldn't even bring myself to go to work today. How am I supposed to survive a Halloween event? Maybe next year if things are different?" I asked, knowing he wouldn't be able to come up with anything.

Meeting Minhyuk's brother sounded great and keeping Changkyun company sounded wonderful, but only if I had the energy that Vivian took. I was only able to hope that I'd be back to some kind of normalcy by Youngjae's wedding, cause I was going to lose more of it again with my father.

"That's true. Sorry," Minhyuk apologized, although I didn't see a need for him to do so, "Will you meet my brother some time, though?"

"Of course," I agreed with a smile.

"You promise to go next year?"

"I can't promise anything that far in the future."

"I promise to go."

"I don't see why you wouldn't" I chuckled a little and took the invitation from Minhyuk's hands to put it in the box I had first intended to put it in.

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Word count: 1336