Chapter 44 - Stalker

Third Person POV

"I think you've had enough young man."

Mingi managed to raise his head long enough to glare at the bartender, and pulled his glass towards his chest to protect it from the concerned man. Or at least, Mingi assumed that he was concerned. All he could really see was a blurry figure who just happened to have been topping up his glass all night long. In his intoxicated state, he was barely aware of how much alcohol was in his system, or just how long he had been sitting in the dive bar on the edge of the city.

"No, I... I'm fine. I have money, and... I want to d-drink more." The tall man was clearly struggling with his speech, and the bartender shook his head. The aged business owner was used to the alcoholics that were regulars at his bar, but he hadn't seen this kid before, and clearly the boy wasn't holding his liquor all that well. He probably should have cut him off hours ago.

"Son, I don't care how much damn money you have. It's 4am. The bar is closing." The man sighed. "I'll call you a cab home if you want."

Mingi grumbled at the mention of home. No way he would go back there. Not after the big scene that he had made. He took another sip of his drink, hoping that it would help him forget. No matter how much he had drank that night, he hadn't managed to block everything out. How scared he was when Y/N had said the word "pregnant". How guilty he felt for yelling at her. How much, no matter his denial, that he wanted to run back into that apartment and apologize and tell her how much he loved her.

But he couldn't. Because what kind of father would Mingi be? The young man hadn't done anything worthwhile with his life so far. He had nothing to offer a child, except the wonderful trade of successfully robbing banks. What a great example he would be for a kid. No, the child would be better off without him.

At least that's what Mingi convinced himself.

He brought himself back to the situation at hand, with the older bartender giving him an annoyed look and motioning towards the doorway. Mingi stumbled off of his stool and barely managed to not topple over as he made his way out onto the dark street.

He hadn't payed much attention to anyone else in the bar, since he had more important worries. There were a couple stragglers left there, most of them in a similar state to Mingi, except for one who had been sitting in the corner of a booth, nursing one beer for hours. The bartender also didn't recognize this man, who didn't seem like the type to frequent bars and seemed oddly interested in Mingi.

The bartender got a weird feeling about him, but technically, he wasn't doing anything wrong, and the old man never liked causing problems or turning away good business.

-

Y/N's POV

When I finally left my room, everyone already seemed to know what was going on. I walked into the kitchen, and was immediately met with tender and mildly-pitiful looks. Whether Yunho had told them or they overheard last night's fight, I didn't really care. As long as no one was asking about it, I was satisfied enough. I just wished they wouldn't act so weird.

"Hey, Y/N, what do you want me to make for breakfast?" Seonghwa smiled awkwardly, showing all of his teeth. "Anything you want, I'll make it."

"Um, I guess eggs would be good." I mumbled, embarrassed by his overconcern. I knew very well that he would persist if I didn't give him an answer, so I just said the first thing that came to mind.

He seemed satisfied with the response, "Okay! They'll be ready in a bit. Yeosang can you make coffee?"

Yeosang looked worried, and glanced back and worth between me and Seonghwa, finally stopping on him. "But Hwa... can she... um, have coffee in her... condition?"

Seonghwa suddenly matched his expression, "Oh... I didn't think about that. I don't know."

For some reason, both of them turned to Yunho for the answer. Why they expected him to know more than either of them did, I had no idea, but alas, the three idiots just stared at each other, completely clueless and uncomfortable.

"You know..." Jongho piped up from the other side of the table. This can't be good.

"My mom said she drank a bunch of coffee when she was pregnant with me." He stated, as though he was some kind of expert on the subject.

"Exactly! And look how he turned out!" Yeosang shouted, addressing the whole room, "Maybe that actually explains a lot about you, Jongho."

I snorted, trying to hold back a laugh. I cut in before Jongho could respond, "Look, someone just bring me a coffee. I promise that it's fine."

After that everyone calmed down a little bit. Maybe they were worried that I would be more of an emotional mess. Sure, I was upset, but it was more of an empty sadness than a "I want to cry for 2 weeks straight and eat nothing but ice cream" sadness.

The group was comfortably sitting around the table as Seonghwa served breakfast. I picked at my food a little, but ultimately ate some of it, mostly because Yunho kept piling more eggs onto my plate and watched carefully to make sure I ate enough of it.

"Eat more," He whispered to me kindly. The others paid no attention, as they were wrapped up in some conversation about San's new video game, and, to quote Wooyoung, how he was spending too much time playing it and wasn't paying enough attention to his boyfriend.

"Actually, we have an announcement," San commanded the table's attention while glancing over to Wooyoung. I put down my coffee mug, thoroughly intrigued. He took a deep breath. "We're going to move to Spain together."

"Really?" I asked, shocked by the suddenness of it all.

"You and Wooyoung?" Yeosang questioned.

"Yeah, well, I think that we all know that we can't stay here forever. And although I love living here with all of you, me and Wooyoung want to start a life together. You know, in a place where we can go outside without the fear of being arrested." San explained. Wooyoung squeezed his hand in reassurance.

"Actually, me and Dahyun were talking about where to move as well. We considered maybe moving to the US," I started, then turning to Yunho to see his reaction about this. "I know we haven't discussed this much, so just tell me if you think it's a bad idea. I know you said that you used to love dancing, and there's lots of dance studios in LA."

"But I can't speak English," Yunho responded, slightly unsure. The tall man had never even left the country before.

"I can teach you!" I smiled at him, "You would pick it up really quickly, I swear."

"Okay..." He began, a grin slowly forming on his face. "I've always wanted to see what America is like. Let's do it."

The others had also been secretly considering where they wanted to move to. Dahyun had decided that she too would move to the US, and I was glad to hear it. Leaving all my friends behind would have been too difficult. Seonghwa mentioned that he wanted to go to Japan and, unsurprisingly, work on his culinary career. Yeosang decided to go with him, unable to leave his friend, and potentially also unable to part with the eldest's cooking. The only person left who was yet to decide was Jongho, who had been oddly quiet.

Finally, he broke his silence. "Um... is it okay if I go to America as well?" The youngest quickly muttered under his breath, as though he was hoping that no one would hear him.

I grinned mischievously, "What? Worried that you'll miss me?"

"Shut up, I still hate you." He spat; half jokingly, then he quickly grew serious and snuck a quick glance up at Dahyun. "Actually, I'm worried about missing someone else."

I didn't even have to look at my best friend to know that she was smiling ear-to-ear.

"I think it's a great idea," she said, blushing profusely. My god, what was I going to do with this girl.

"But wait," San's brow had furrowed into his thinking face. "You'll all be so far away."

"You just realized that?" Jongho sighed, rolling his eyes overdramatically.

"We can FaceTime," I assured him, ignoring the youngest's comment. "And we can visit each other too."

"Okay, I guess that'll work," San pouted childishly, returning his attention to his toast. San had never had many friends before, and it hurt him to consider leaving them all. He mentally reminded himself to plan to visit his friends every year.

"How soon can we leave?" Yeosang brought up. "Not that I want to get away from you guys, I just miss being relaxed when I go outside."

Seonghwa took out his phone and scrolled a little bit. "I can book us all plane tickets in... a week? Does that work?"

A week wasn't a very long time. I felt myself get mildly worried. At first, I couldn't recognize why. I wanted to leave, and go start my new life. I didn't want to live in fear anymore. So why was I so nervous? Then it hit me.

I didn't want to leave because I was waiting for Mingi to come back.

It was stupid. After all, he told me that I was ruining his life, why would he come back? He clearly didn't love me anymore. Even knowing all that, I wished that he would appear at the apartment door, no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise. Maybe because I wasn't ready to never see him again, or maybe just for closure.

Sitting at the kitchen table as the others chatted, I made a promise to myself. If Mingi didn't come back by the end of the week, I would force myself to forget about him forever.

-

Note to Reader:

sorry this is a long one. 

happy thursday, one more day until the weekend! :)