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t w e l v e

$ t w e l v e $

Yifan was impatient all through breakfast, brooding in his chair as he watched Junmyeon and Hani side by side. His finger tips tapped on the table, his foot tapping on the floor, and eyebrows furrowed together. He wanted to tear her away from Junmyeon's side and hide her away again so that they'd never see each other again. He could deal with the fact that she didn't love him, and he could even accept it begrudgingly. But one thing he would never stand for was seeing the two of them happy together. 

It had once been him and Junmyeon, the best of friends. When Hani arrived, there was a wedge driven between them. Though it was always the three of them, he noticed the way Hani always had a slight inclination towards Junmyeon. It wasn't that she disliked Yifan any less, but she was in love with his best friend. 

To her good fortune, he liked her too. But that left Yifan alone once again. Eventually there had been less outings with him and more just the two of them together. Yifan remembered the hurt he felt as he tried to understand them. But he just couldn't bring himself to accept it. Not only was he losing the battle for the girl that he liked, he was losing to his best friend, and in the process their friendship was being broken. 

He resented Junmyeon for taking Hani from him, but he also resented the leader of the Wolves for abandoning him. He felt abandoned when they had both promised not to throw each other away. They had promised they would always be brothers. How little time that lasted, Yifan thought bitterly to himself.

Once everyone had breakfast and most of the members went back to their rooms, Yifan pushed his chair back and rose to his feet. Mitsuki watched with a frown as he walked away from her side, not having paid any attention to her at breakfast, and he made his way towards Junmyeon and Hani. Yifan had been polite, and even caring towards her the previous night. But whwnever Hani was around, it was like he couldn't think straight. All of his sanity and logic had gone out the window because he just wanted her that badly. 

"Come on, Hani." Yifan said to her, a voice full of authority. He held his hand out for her to take, but she didn't take it. "You had your little reunion with him, but its time to come back to your family."

"Can we talk about this, Fan?" Junmyeon pleaded, the more levelheaded one of the two. 

Rather than raising his voice and responding with hostility like his former friend, he wanted to find ways to resolve their problem peacefully. 

Yifan gave a shake of his head. "I know what you want to tell me, and you still won't take her from me."

By now the kitchen had cleared out and the only people in the room were Yifan, Mitsuki, Junmyeon, and Hani. Mitsuki left her chair and hurried to his side, again trying to be the peacemaker in all of this. She reached for his hand which was still waiting for Hani's own to take in his and she pulled it back to his side gently. Junmyeon was surprised that he hadn't responded to her with more violence. But rather, she seemed to be the only person who could keep him in check.

"If you would just listen to what he has to say..." Mitsuki encouraged.

Yifan turned to her with outrage and hurt on his face. "Now you're going to take his side too?"

She slowly shook her head. "I'm not taking anyone's side. I just think that if you would just calm down and talk to him, then things could be fixed much easier."

The leader of the Coven heaved a sigh, and refusing to look at Junmyeon, he said to him. "Talk." 

Junmyeon jumped at the opportunity and tried to word his request carefully. "I still remember all the good times we had growing up, Fan. We could still be friends if you wanted to." He started by appealing to him as a friend over anything else. "We don't have to fight like this. I know we hurt your feelings, and we're sorry. But we couldn't help it. We fell in love, and if you would just let Hani come with me--"

Yifan slammed his fist down on the table, cutting Junmyeon off and startling both Mitsuki and Hani. "I won her fairly, so get over it, Suho. I'd rather kill her over giving her back to you."

"I'll play you for her again. Another game of poker." Junmyeon offered. "if I win, you give her back to me. If you win, you get to kill me."

"No Jun--" Hani tried to stop him, but the offer was already out there.

Yifan only let out a bitter laugh. "I would be stupid to bet her when I have her in my hands. And you have nothing that I want more. I'll never bet her." He walked past the two of them, Hani flinching because she thought he would drag her away from Junmyeon. But he stopped short, right by their side. "I'll leave you to say your goodbyes because I'm only allowing his presence in my house since he helped Chen. But once my good grace is over, he'll have to leave and you'll never see him again."

He stormed out of the room, leaving Hani to cry in Junmyeon's arms. Mitsuki watched them both with pity and placed a hand on Hani's shoulder. "I can't promise that he'll listen to me. But I'll talk to him." The subject of Hani was one thing Mitsuki knew he was unwilling to budge on, but she was willing to make her attempt.

She followed Yifan upstairs. He had gone to the room that he had given her, instead of going to his own room, something that filled Mitsuki with relief because otherwise she'd have been unable to find him in the large mansion. He was sitting on her unmade bed with his head in his hands. But he looked up when he heard the door open and her footsteps cross the room.

"Fan, that girl is just suffering here." Mitsuki said to him. 

"Don't you think I know that?" He asked her, eyes firing with hints of resentment at the fact that Hani couldn't be happy with him.

"Why don't you let her go?" Mitsuki suggested, sitting by his side on the bed.

He quickly shook his head. "So she can go running to him? So they can be happy together while I continue to be miserable?"

"Find someone else who will make you happy." She encouraged. Though in the back of her mind, she hoped that someone would be her. But she didn't say it, since she didn't want to force her feelings onto him. 

"You more than anyone should understand me." He pointed out, knowing that she was in the same situation with him. "You know how much it hurts, loving someone who doesn't love you back."

"Exactly. I'm telling you this because I know how it feels." She nodded slowly, feeling a prick in her chest. "That would be like if I took you away from your family, and forced you to love me, and never leave my side. Its not right. You would resent me, and that's not what I want from you. I want your love, but if I can't have it, I at least don't want to have your hate."

"That's different." He said bitterly, knowing that it wasn't.

"How?" She challenged.

He had no answer for that because he knew that it really wasn't different like he claimed. Instead, he opted for saying something else. "Then if I tried to love someone else, I'd be lying to them. Like with you, Mitsuki. I'm going to be totally honest with you, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way." He sucked in a deep breath before blurting out the words. "I can't deny that I like you, I'm physically attracted to you. You're beautiful and, a great person. But I don't love you. Those are two very different things. I'm not going to take advantage of you because I care about you."

Mitsuki swallowed the lump in her throat and filled herself with bravery as she spoke. "If you were to tell me that from the beginning, then I wouldn't mind starting a relationship with you if you wanted to."

Yifan looked at her. Part of him wanted to take her up on the offer, but the other part of him realized that something like that would only end up badly.

-

a chapter filled with drama for today. since i still have today and tomorrow off, im going to try to update the prequel "lucky", as well as the q & a session in "lotto". also, in case you all have yet to notice, i have posted a spin off to this series called "another world" and its about nct u. 

so please go check that out if you have the time. it would mean a lot to me.

i want to post so many more spin offs and stories, but my main focus is going to be the ones that are currently posted. also, for those of yo waiting for updates in the exolpanet 1 series, i will try really hard to update them asap.

thank you for reading. have an awesome week!

-clary