"There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment." Sarah Dessen

|Out of the blue-two are made happy|

I: The strangest feeling ever

"Soojung-ah! We're up next! Hurry up, the coordinator's calling us now!" Victoria yelled as she knocked on the door of F(x)'s waiting room. Her knuckles produced dull metallic thuds and she winced slightly. The door was really rather hard.

"Almost!" The returning holler was rather muffled. Minhyuk recognized the voice as Krystal Jung Soojung's. And he's rather surprised. He had never imagined that someone that carried herself like she did had the ability to yell like that. It made her seem... almost human.

Kang Minhyuk was one of those in the masses of people who believed in Krystal being, well... crystal-like. A perfect, crystalline and solid rock. Maybe he was being a little unfair, no one could be a 'perfect rock'-but she did seem to be more 'icy' than her sister was. He knew Jessica, and Jessica was nowhere near the ice-princess that she had been dubbed since forever. But Krystal? He didn't know her. And in his opinion, he wouldn't ever want to get within a metre's radius of the girl, lest he froze on the spot. He could only picture himself freezing to the ground at her intimidating glare, and no way in hell was he going to let that happen.

And she was going to get out of the waiting room soon, he'd better get going-

Damn. She came out. He's too late.

She opens the door hurriedly, with a resounding crash as she rushed out of the now dark room. "Sorry unnie. I had to get some things settled before..."

Victoria hushed her. "No time for that now. You've sorted it out with... him?" Her voice was soft, but Minhyuk still possessed good hearing even after the billions of drum practices that he had undergone. One would think that he would've gone rather deaf by now, but he still had hearing that could rival a blind bat.

Krystal stared at the oldest member of F(x) for a moment, her shoulders slumped slightly, before nodding slowly. Her eyes dimmed slightly as the corners of her mouth quivered slightly. "Yeah, I did. Good riddance to him."

Victoria rubbed Krystal's back comfortingly and her voice lowered even more. "It's alright. It's done and over now. Come on, we really need to prepare for our stage."

Krystal straightened herself, pulling her shoulders back and plastered a confident mask over her face. "You're right. We need to get this done with." She smiled at Victoria as she allowed herself to be pulled away.

Minhyuk watched the pair saunter away briskly, and he couldn't help but wonder why the strings his heart's strings were twanging. Curious. It was almost as if his heart was made of violin strings being played by David Garrett.

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.

What an odd sensation.

That was the strangest feeling ever, period.

II: Gnawing

He thinks that he's too young to have a heart disease.

He's still 21, for crying out loud. No one suffers from coronary whatevers at 21, do they? Those diseases usually wait till one is grizzled and ancient at the age of 42... right?

He might need to talk to a doctor about this. His heart feels strange. It pulses like a normal heart should-lub,dub,lub,dub. But there's something off about it. It throbs.

His heart felt alien to him at the current moment.

It twanged on occasion.

But the worst thing was, something was gnawing away at his heart. And it was perpetual, unceasing gnawing. Not a nibble that lasts for a second, not one that lasted for a day. His heart had felt like that for the past week, damn it.

There weren't any worms that could get to your heart... were there? He shuddered, pushing that thought away quicker than you could say "Da! Juk! Ja!".

Entertaining such a notion wasn't going to keep his dinner down.

III: Realization

"Hyung. I don't feel well," Minhyuk sat in front of Jung Yonghwa as he bemoaned the experiences he had felt for the past three weeks. "I think there's something wrong with my heart. Like... really."

Yonghwa raised a brow. His hyung placed the I-Pad he had been fiddling with earlier down and looked straight into the drummer's brown eyes. "I'm not a doctor, you know. Still, tell me what's wrong."

He sighed audibly and pointed at his heart. "It hurts, here. Wait, retract that. It's not painful, per say. But it feels as if something's eating away at my heart. It's always there and it never goes away. I can't even sleep properly." He groaned. "Hyung, do you think that I somehow contracted a rare heart disease? This is terrible! I don't want to die-"

His hyung cut him off with a laugh. "When did this start?"

Minhyuk looked affronted. "Here I am, telling you that I believe that I'd die soon... and you're laughing?" He huffed but answered his hyung's question. "Three weeks ago."

"No, I mean..." His hyung struggled to find the correct words, the proper phrasing. He gave up on that task and pressed, "When exactly?"

"I don't really know..." Minhyuk's brows furrowed as he tried to think. "Wait, I do know! When Krystal and Victoria walked out to prepare for their stage-" Then he stopped short. "Wait a second."

Jung Yonghwa smiled. "Do you know now?"

Minhyuk wrung his head. "Are you kidding me?"

"That would depend entirely on what you're thinking right now," his leader's reply was diplomatic as he tried to keep his face expressionless. He failed miserably as he grinned broadly from ear to ear.

"Do you think... I might like Krystal Jung?" He whispered hoarsely. "I mean, there's no way I could begin to like a girl so quickly and fall so hard... right? I mean, I never even talked to her. I don't even know her. She's too scary for me to like in the first place, her sister's way nicer than she is. I've always liked older girls, not someone who's actually three years younger than I am... Not someone who's unattainable, even if she did just break up with someone..."

Yonghwa raised his hand for silence. "So... Krystal, huh? And stop rambling. While I appreciate that you're able to form coherent sentences about the girl you like, I'd rather hope that you save it for her. Heavens knows that all you boys get tongue tied in front of a girl..." Yonghwa shook his head, recalling all the instances that the younger CNBLUE members lost their tongue to the cats whenever they tried to converse with a girl, especially one that they had a crush on.

Lee Jonghyun walked into the living room and chuckled, placing his guitar down so it leaned against the sofa. "Krystal? I'm not that surprised you know. He's been looking her up sometimes on his phone. Sorry for eavesdropping, but even before that little backstage encounter, he was always interested in what Krystal did."

Minhyuk snapped his head up and glared at the pale guitarist. "Oh, shut up."

Then he groaned again. "What am I going to do now?"

IV: Hello

He swears that the next time he sees her, he wouldn't turn tail and run. He'd rather not suffer through weeks of agonizing over his cowardice post a fleeing incident.

He's rehearsed this alone, repeatedly. Orchestrated the scene so many times in his head, and practiced it out loud so many times that even easy-going Jungshin threatened to snuff him out in his sleep if he tried reciting those lines aloud once more.

"Hello, I'm Minhyuk of CNBLUE. I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?"

Or: "Hello Krystal, I'm Minhyuk of CNBLUE. I was wondering if you'd agree to go out on a date with me."

Or maybe: "Hi, I think you're pretty and rather nice... I'm Minhyuk. Would you like to go out with me?"

He sighed. Maybe he hadn't got any of it down at all. At times like this, he wishes that in real-life, he was Cha Sekwang. With a script prepared for him and a girl who'd be charmed by whatever he would do.

He sees her, and they're backstage again. Jungshin nudges him forward and Jonghyun glares menacingly at the drummer, as if he's daring him to screw this up. They're muttering about a scenario where Minhyuk chickens out and the two of them would have to interfere-simply because they didn't want to experience the next few weeks with a mopey Minhyuk.

Minhyuk ignores them and tries to assume an aura of confidence and carry himself with some sort of dignity, at the same time, praying to whatever deity out there that would save him from becoming a shrivelling msss under Krystal's gaze. Apparently, none of them heard him.

"Hello Krystal," He began, almost stuttering. Oh, who was he kidding? He couldn't do this.

Krystal looks at him confusedly. Amber and Luna hang by her side, hovering over her somewhat protectively. The three had ceased their chattering and are listening to him now.

Minhyuk gulps as he feels the heat of their attention on him. "Erm, I'm Minhyuk." She taps her feet slightly impatiently and waits for him to continue.

Amber and Luna decide that Kang Minhyuk wasn't a threat to their maknae. After all, they've heard that the CNBLUE members were all decent guys that didn't play around. And besides, they've also heard that the younger CNBLUE boys were ridiculously shy-never dating anyone. The two girls shrug and leave Krystal alone and resume their conversation, part of which involved a dilemma on whether to drown Minho in acid or to dismember him limb by limb, subsequently throwing the pieces into a huge cauldron.

Jungshin and Jonghyun groaned slightly to themselves. "Krystal," Jonghyun cuts in. "Minhyuk wanted to say that he likes you."

Krystal regarded the three boys with a strange expression, before frowning at Lee Jonghyun and stepped up to him. She looked straight up into his eyes, fiercely.

"I'm not about to dignify this with a response. Go and tell your friend Choi Minho to stop playing games with me," she snarled at the stunned guitarist.

"Wait, what?" Jungshin spluttered. "You've got it wrong!"

"I just wanted to say hello..." Minhyuk added softly, his eyes looking oddly glazed.

Krystal spun around and hissed at the three of them, before stalking off towards her other members without a backward glance.

Minhyuk swore that his heart was being trampled by her heels as she walked haughtily away. Those heels. Thud, thud, thud. Each thud hurt even more than the previous one.

V: Guilt

"Tell me, unnie. Was I wrong?" Krystal said finally. She leaned back against the soft, fluffy pillows of the hotel bed. "Do you think that Minho had really put them up to..." She didn't know how to word the question. "I mean, I... I'm not usually... a... bitch, you know? And he seemed... well..."

"I wasn't there, you know," Victoria reminded her. Moments earlier, Victoria had listened to Krystal as she poured out the tale. It wasn't a long story, but somehow, Victoria felt that Krystal was rather affected by the incident. The girl was evidently distressed about it.

Amber switched of the television, silencing that whiny voice in a music video on MTV. "Really, Krystal?" Amber's tone was reprehensive. "You could've heard the poor boy out you know."

Sulli popped out from the bathroom. "What did you do?" Sulli looked at Amber, and they both seem to gain a mutual understanding. "Yonghwa's been asking about it. He's complaining about Minhyuk being horribly disheartened and lifeless recently. So tell me, why did you do it?"

"I don't know! Minho's left me all defensive around guys now!" Krystal shouted. "I don't know what to do anymore!" She wailed and began to cry. "I don't even know why I'm crying!"

"I don't know why you're crying either," Luna tried to alleviate the tense mood, but no one was mollified. "Honestly? You aren't Kang Minhyuk at the present moment. You practically crushed his heart."

"I know that," Krystal snapped. She stops crying and the four other members secretly heave a sigh of relief. None of them enjoyed Krystal's water taps. "I feel terrible about this. Even if I was to reject him, I'd usually be more tactful..."

"She's feeling guilty," Victoria deadpanned and Krystal harrumphed a response. "Should we leave you be then?"

"No!" Krystal cried frantically. She calmed herself down before speaking again. "No, stay. I need to sort this situation out."

Luna shrugged. "Then set your priorities straight first. Do you think you might actually like him?"

"I don't know," her voice was hoarse. "But I do know I feel terrible about this."

VI: To be happy again

"Minhyuk's such a miserable sod," Jonghyun grumbled. "I'd actually rather see the boy smile. He does look better when he smiles, even if his eyes do disappear."

Yonghwa made a sound of agreement, 'Mm-ing', while Jungshin just nodded fervently. "Isn't there a way that we can pull him out of that hole of depression?" Jungshin asked. "This is terrible! I mean, I appreciate that he's throwing himself into doing all the chores at the dorm nowadays, but this is... too much!"

Minhyuk had been doing all of their chores ever since Krystal walked away from him in the backstage corridor.

"Hey, I'm still here you know," Minhyuk says as he twirled his drumstick, skilfully, artfully and easily. But his eyes remain downcast and the smile he attempts falters and dies quickly.

"You're such a mopey person, really." Yonghwa accused the once smiley-eyed drummer with a frown. "Can't you just get over it?"

He knew that was the wrong thing to say the next instant.

"You know me, don't you hyung?" Minhyuk implored the leader sadly. "I don't just... get over things."

"You linger too much," Jonghyun sighed. "But please get out of that rut of yours soon. It's seriously dampening my mood."

Minhyuk frowned. "I'll always seek this... love. Really. You do know me, and I don't just give up like that. Even if it's killing me inside.

Unbeknownst to them, Krystal was standing at the other side of the closed door. She stood outside the FNC cafeteria tentatively, her nerves somehow betraying her and making her panic slightly. Damn it, she never panicked at the possibility of meeting a guy... It usually was the other way round.

For the past few days, she had been utterly miserable. After having the little chat with her members in the hotel room, she did feel horribly guilty. But, there was something more to it, and she had realized with a start that she didn't mind trying out a date with Kang Minhyuk. She didn't deliberate over her decision like Minhyuk must have. She had decided that she would sort this out immediately the moment she got back to Korea.

And here she was, standing listening in to their conversation.

Well, it was now or never.

She pushed the door open and offered a smile at the four boys, trying for a peace offering to three suddenly stony faces. The only face that did not suddenly darken in her presence was the person she had come to talk to.

"I, erm..." She began, and she stuttered. Damn, she never stuttered, never!

She looked imploringly at the three other members, hoping that they accept her olive branch, and somehow trust her enough to leave. Damn it. Really, damn it. Sod it all. She hadn't planned on what she was going to say. She didn't even know what she should be saying. The weight of her presence hung in the air stiffly, heavily. It seemed to buoy everyone in the room down.

They warn her with their eyes as they leave. She understands that she couldn't do something that would devastate the drummer of CNBLUE. His eyes looked hopeful, as if it had been searching for some reprieve from the pain he was stuck in-and had found the oasis in the desert where he could stop and rest his tired heart.

"I'm sorry," She blurted out. And the hope in his eyes fizzled out as quickly as it appeared. "Don't. Don't look at me like that, Kang Minhyuk." She felt like wringing her head, she wasn't good at this. Apologies or confessions. She didn't like apologizing, she was too prideful. She didn't do confessions-it was usually the other way round. Either way, she lacked practice in both. A greenhorn really.

"I'm not good at these things," She said quickly. She had to get it out of her system as quickly as possible. "But I apologize for what I did that day, it was rude of me and really rather unacceptable. I'm so, so, sorry for... causing you this grief. Before you say anything, please hear me out."

He shrugged, motioning for her to sit. He thinks that he couldn't feel any worse than he already did anyway.

"Skipping my apologies..." She swallowed. plucking up some courage. "I'm not adverse to the idea of dating you. Wait, that came out... weird. I would like to date you, if you'd still give me the chance. Heck, I think I kind of like you."

His brows shoot up, and they're hidden by his fringe as he stared at her in bewilderment. He doesn't know what to think. He wants to throw his arms around her in elation, but he's not sure what his brain was telling him at the present moment. Maybe he's deluding himself. "Sorry?"

"You heard me."

"So... you're saying... you want... to... give me... I mean... us... a shot?" He tries the sentence slowly and hesitantly, and he fears that her response would tell him otherwise.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, of course. That's what I just said. So, are you... willing to accept me?" She hoped he'd accept her. She was terrified that he'd reject her. She was trying oh, so very hard to keep her bottom lip from quivering-and she sets her face into an impassive mask.

Minhyuk had no words for her. He leapt to his feet, pulled her to hers and hugged her lightly.

Then he flushed deeply. "Sorry. I'm just... really happy."

"Happy," She repeats, the word is somehow foreign to her tongue.

But it felt so right to use the word "happy" at that current moment.

Then she realizes she hadn't been happy for quite some time now. There was now a removed guilt, and the promise of a guy who liked her, and would probably always like her. He was Minhyuk after all. Somehow, she knew that he promised her happiness. Her heart soared and swelled, and she grinned at him.

She tells him what she feels about it, being happy. "I've never... felt happy for... quite a bit now. But at this moment, you're making me... feel joy."

"It goes both ways," Minhyuk was smiling like a fool by now, but this sudden, unexpected confession of her evoked a strange euphoria in him.

Her unforeseen, unheralded move made them both happy fools.

Yes, they were happy.

~FIN~