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"Donghyuck-ah" a woman in her early fifties said, "you haven't touched your stew at all." She looked from her husband and her son to her nephew. Donghyuck was playing with his spoon, slightly annoyed. "Hyung, Mum is talking to you." 

Donghyuck's cousin, twenty-year-old Jung Sungchan, nudged his side and Donghyuck shook his head. "Sorry, Auntie. I was in thoughts." The woman, Lee Baram, chuckled. "I could see that, Hyuckie. What's up?"

Donghyuck started eating his stew and sighed. "Troubles in paradise?", asked Sungchan and chuckled. "Jieon broke up with me, Chan. You know that" answered Donghyuck and his younger cousin chuckled. "Sorry, I wanted to lift the mood."

"Auntie" Donghyuck asked and his aunt hummed, waiting for him to continue, while eating her stew. Her husband, Donghyuck's uncle, was quietly enjoying his food. "Is it necessary for Elphaba and Fiyero to kiss during As Long As You're Mine?", he asked and Sungchan rolled his eyes. "Here we go again" he said and looked at his father, that only chuckled. "Leave them be, Jung Sungchan" his father said.

"Oh my" Baram said and gently put the spoon on the table, "I think it is necessary. They only have one night together. No one knows what the future brings. The guards are after Elphaba and then there's stupid little Dorothy on her way to kill Elphaba... I think if they wouldn't have kissed each other they would've regretted it for the rest of their lives."

Donghyuck sighed. "Is it necessary for a college rendition of Wicked to have a kiss scene?", he then asked and Baram sighed. "I don't know where your problem is, Donghyuck. You have a great role! Glinda is a wonderful role and I'm incredibly sure you're going to slay it. Even if you don't have a kiss scene."

"Mum" Sungchan spoke, "I don't think that's Hyung's problem." Donghyuck glared at the 01-liner and Sungchan chuckled. "Is it because Renjun gets to kiss a girl and you don't?", he teased and Baram looked at her son. 

"Chanie... don't tease your cousin like that! He's working in a wonderful field of entertainment so don't judge him like that!" Sungchan lifted his hands and looked at Donghyuck. The older male had a frown on his lips and sighed.

"I'm sorry" he spoke, "but I don't think I'm that hungry." He bowed. "May I stand up?", he looked from his uncle to his aunt and back to his uncle. Jung Yedam nodded. "We're going to leave the food on the counter in case you want to eat it later" his aunt spoke and Donghyuck bowed politely.

"I'll step out for a while" he apologized himself and left the dining room. Baram looked at him, a worried expression in her eyes. "He's going through something" she said and her husband nodded. "Maybe he's stressed. I'll talk to him later." Baram nodded and looked at Sungchan. "Come on, Chan. Eat up. You have a match on the weekend."

After Donghyuck left the dining room he grabbed his phone, his jacket and his shoes and stepped out of his aunts home. The night air was fresh and it calmed his racing mind. He hated this weird feeling in his gut. 

He breathed in some air, while walking down the road to the closest convenience store. He felt like getting drunk. He knew his aunt hated it when he got drunk; but Donghyuck felt shitty. The past few days had really dragged him down and he didn't knew why. He usually loved drama practice, but ever since Izumi and Renjun's kiss scene he despised going there.

He was moody and impulsive—classic Gemini energy. He lashed out on Renjun two days ago, when latter only asked him if he wanted to tag along with him, Izumi and Giselle to eat Tteokbokki during lunch break.

"I don't fucking care about Tteokbokki!" Donghyuck had yelled, to which Renjun only cocked his eyebrow and clicked his tongue. "No need to yell at me" Renjun had answered and left the theatre with Izumi trailing after him.

Donghyuck hadn't notice Izumi looking at him with worry in her brown eyes.

Donghyuck jumped down a few steps before walking over the street to the C&U store. He entered the store, bowed politely towards the clerk that was playing on his phone and walked over to the alcohol section.

He looked through the various bottles of Soju until he grabbed the original flavor one and went to grab a pack of paper cups and a pack of shrimp crisps. He paid for his stuff and sat down in front of the store and shook the bottle of Soju before filling his cup and downing it in one shot.

"Krrrr" he let out and closed his eyes as the alcohol traveled down his throat. He opened the pack of crisps and started munching on them. He felt bad for his family. His aunt had cooked his favorite Tofu stew today and here he was getting wasted and eating artificial crisps. What a life.

The twenty-one year old sighed. He knew he was acting on his emotions. He knew it wasn't Renjun or Izumi's fault. It was their job to kiss each other—yet it annoyed him. He rolled his eyes. "Why don't they just fuck each other on that stage, huh?", he yelled and downed another cup of Soju.

He had a high alcohol tolerance and could down two and a half bottles of Soju without feeling drunk, so he wasn't too worried about going home. He was just going to drink this bottle and go back home and eat the stew his aunt made for him...

Half an hour later he was still sitting on that same chair in front of that same convenience store. He had just finished his first bottle of Soju and was contemplating to buy another one, when he heard someone call his name.

"Lee Donghyuck!"

Donghyuck looked up and cocked his eyebrow. Walking up to him was one of Izumi's best friends, Na Jaemin. He had a volleyball under his arm and looked tired. "Yo, Jaemin!", Donghyuck smiled. "What are you doing here?"

Jaemin glanced at the Soju bottle. "I just came back from Volleyball practice. I live over there" Jaemin pointed to an apartment building on the other side of the road. "Ah, nice! I live over there!" Donghyuck cheerily pointed to his aunts house. "D'you want to sit with me for a while?" Donghyuck asked and Jaemin chuckled.

"Let me buy something to drink first" he said and put his volleyball on the chair opposite of Donghyuck. Donghyuck didn't know why, but maybe he could find out more about Izumi from Jaemin. Not that he cared. He wasn't mad or upset about the kissing scene at all.

It was Renjun and Izumi's job after all. Why should he be upset?

He rolled his eyes and looked at his empty cup. A few drops of Soju were still in it and he quickly poured them down his throat and groaned when it wasn't the amount of alcohol he wanted in his system. He leaned back in his chair, when Jaemin came back.

He dropped a can of Coca Cola in front of Donghyuck, before sitting down opposite of him and opening his own can of coke. Donghyuck watched him, before grabbing the can and opening it. He took a big sip before letting out a sigh.

"Thanks" he said and Jaemin shook his head. "No biggie." It was a bit awkward between the two men. Jaemin was pretty introverted compared to Donghyuck and fumbled around with his shirt a lot. It took him a while before he opened his mouth and started speaking.

"How's Izumi doing?", asked Jaemin and took the can of coke in his hands, taking a sip. "During rehearsal I mean. We don't have so much time to hang out lately, because she's constantly rehearsing and I have a lot of volleyball games coming up" the athlete spoke and Donghyuck nodded.

"Izumi's doing great. Miss Lee is very surprised by her talent. She's the perfect Elphaba." Donghyuck smiled as he remembered little episodes from rehearsals. "Like, when we practiced the flying system for the first time for Defying Gravity she started screaming from the top of her lungs while literally being six feet in the air." Donghyuck chuckled.

"She screamed? She never usually raises her voice" Jaemin noted and chuckled. "Yes! The tech crew started lifted her and she let out an ear piecing scream; even Miss Lee held her ears. She was so mad because Izumi is meant to sing up there." Donghyuck chuckled and shook his head.

"Giselle and I looked at some videos from Wicked" Jaemin started and pursed his lips, playing with the can of coke in his hands, "Not going to lie, Donghyuck-sshi—"

"Just call me Donghyuck. We're the same age after all."

Jaemin nodded before continuing on. "We were quite shocked to see that the role of Elphaba kisses the one of Foruru." Donghyuck started laughing. "It's Fiyero" he said and leaned back in his chair. A sassy chuckle left his lips.

"Yes... there's this song... As Long You're Mine" Donghyuck bit the inside of his cheek, "and Izumi has to kiss Renjun twice." Jaemin cocked his eyebrow and looked at Donghyuck. The two month older male looked pissed off. He chuckled. "I hope she isn't as clumsy as usual" Jaemin said and watched Donghyuck's reaction. The tanned boy pursed his lips.

"Clumsy? That girl would swallow Renjun if she could" Donghyuck exaggerated with a roll of his eyes and Jaemin started laughing and downed the rest of his coke. "Dang, your musical sounds really spicy" he teased and stood up.

Donghyuck watched the Leo boy throw away his empty coke can and grab his volleyball. He spun it around his hands for a few times, before putting it under his arm. Jaemin smiled at Donghyuck and pursed his lips.

"It was very nice hanging out with you, Donghyuck" he said and bowed politely. "If you ever need to know more about Izumi, hit me up" the curly haired boy teased and Donghyuck opened his mouth and gaped for air. "Just kidding, it's funny to tease you." Jaemin waved and bid his goodbyes before walking down the road.

Donghyuck shook his head. What kind of reaction was this? Why was everyone teasing him about Izumi lately? Renjun was asking him if he liked her and this Jaemin kid made ambiguous statements.

"This sucks" Donghyuck sighed and finished his coke before throwing away his stuff and walking back home. He wasn't into Park-Miya Izumi. That girl was a walking catastrophe. She was clumsy, chaotic and NOT HIS STYLE! 

He quickly took a deep breath and looked at the starless sky above him. "Maybe I need to start Yoga or something. Ever since Jieon broke up with me, my mind has been an absolute mess." He rolled his eyes once more and then started walking back to his aunts house.

— ❄︎ —

𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠!

𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞.

𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

—𝕤𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕗𝕝𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕞𝕪𝕝𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕠𝕡