#JoongDunk Fanfic
🎬 A Love That Refused To Wait - Part 13
🚪The apartment door clicked shut behind them.
Dunk glanced toward his small apartment before looking back at Joong. Joong was still standing by the door, his suitcase beside him, as though he wasn't sure he was allowed to come any farther.
Dunk swallowed. "You don't have to stand there."
His voice was quieter than he intended. "...Come. Sit."
Joong hesitated for only a second before giving a small nod.
He wheeled his suitcase a little farther inside and followed Dunk.
Dunk motioned toward the bed, but neither of them sat immediately.
When Joong sat beside him, he leaved enough space between them for another person.
It felt absurd. They had spent years pretending to be close enough to touch, yet now they didn't know what to do with the space between them.
The apartment fell silent again.
Dunk was the first to break the silence. "You actually came."
Joong searched his face, almost desperately, as though he needed proof that this was real and not another dream.
"I couldn't keep pretending I knew how to live without you."
"....and plus P'Tha said to bring you back."
Joong's voice trembled before he could steady it. He gave a little laugh.
"And before I could even tell you anything that I wanted to say..."
He swallowed hard. "...I watched another man walk up to you."
The memory replayed in his mind with unbearable clarity.
"I saw him standing where I've wanted to stand for years."
Dunk's jaw tightened. "He wanted to kiss me."
"I know."
"I told him no."
"I know that too," Joong repeated softly. "I saw it."
Silence settled between them again, heavy and suffocating.
"It wasn't the almost-kiss that broke me."
A weary smile crossed Joong's face.
"It was how easily he stood beside you."
"He didn't stop to think about cameras. He didn't wonder if anyone was watching."
Joong lowered his gaze.
"I've wanted something that simple for so long... I almost forgot what simple felt like."
When he looked up to Dunk, his eyes were filled with exhaustion.
"Do you remember when we first met?"
Dunk nodded.
"We were kids. We were so in to each other."
"We thought if we worked hard enough, everything else would somehow fall into place."
A quiet laugh escaped Joong again, though there was no humor in it. "I thought growing up would make loving you easier."
He shook his head. "It didn't."
"It only taught us how to hide it better."
He drew a slow, uneven breath.
"I held your hand... but only when the cameras were rolling."
"I kissed you... but only after someone yelled, 'Action.'"
His eyes met Dunk's. "I don't want Script Dunk."
"I don't want Idol Dunk."
"I don't want Actor Dunk."
"I wanted you."
"The real you."
"The one who laughs until he can't breathe."
"The one who falls asleep on long car rides."
A faint, broken smile tugged at his lips before disappearing.
"I want to hold you because I have the right to."
"I want to kiss you because I wanted you to feel that I love you."
"Not because its in page 36 of the script."
His breathing became ragged. "I wanted dinner dates alone."
"No managers."
"No cameras."
"No staff."
"No pretending."
"Just us."
He wiped impatiently at the tears running down his face. "I would've given up everything for that."
"My career."
"My reputation."
"Every expectation people ever had of us."
"I would've burned it all if it meant waking up beside you every morning."
His voice broke completely. "You were worth more than everything."
The apartment fell silent again.
Joong could hear nothing except the sound of their breathing.
For years, one question had followed him through every shooting, every fan meets, every sleepless night. It was the question he had never been brave enough to ask.
"So tell me..."
His voice was barely audible. "...when will it be our turn?"
Dunk stared at him.
For several long seconds, he couldn't speak.
When he finally did, his voice was little more than a whisper. "...but why did you choose to hurt me?"
The words landed with quiet devastation.
"You knew too how I felt."
"So why did you even choose someone else?"
His breathing grew uneven. "Do you know what that did to me?"
Joong lowered his eyes.
Dunk let out a bitter laugh. "I tried to be happy for you."
"But every single day..."
His voice cracked.
"...I imagined him living the life I'd spent years dreaming about."
"I imagined him sitting across from you at dinner."
"I imagined him watching you fall asleep."
"I imagined him waking up beside you."
Dunk swallowed hard. "I imagined him kissing you. Your skin against his skin."
"It drove me insane."
"I hated someone I'd never even met."
"I hated him because I thought he had become your home."
Joong cupped Dunk's face. Guilt is all over him.
"I'm so sorry."
The words fractured as they left him. "I'm so, so sorry, I got tired."
💡Dunk remembered Ryu's voice:
"Sometimes people need to hear they’re wanted"
“…don’t spend so much time assuming he knows.”
💡His mother's too: "People need to feel chosen."
Dunk slowly shook his head, tears slipping down his face. "No."
His voice broke as he struggled to steady it. "I'm sorry too."
Joong looked up, his eyes widening.
"I kept expecting you to wait..." Dunk admitted.
A humorless smile flickered across his face before disappearing. "....and I really thought we were waiting together."
"I thought you understood."
His voice trembled beneath the weight of years left unspoken.
"I kept believing there would be a right time."
"When our careers didn't demand every piece of us."
"When we were old enough."
"When loving each other wouldn't cost us everything. Everything that we worked hard for."
He looked at Joong through tear-filled eyes, his expression softening. Joong wiped a tear.
"You've dreamed about being an idol for as long as I've known you."
"You fought so hard for Jasper."
"I watched your eyes light up every time you perform."
A sad smile touched his lips. "I wanted you to have your dreams first....
......and us later."
His shoulders shook with quiet sobs. "You deserved to live every dream you worked for."
"You deserved to stand on every stage."
His gaze never left Joong. He paused, drawing in a shaky breath.
"My biggest fear is that one day..."
"...you'd look back and see that I ruined it for you."
"I couldn't carry that."
"So I loved you the only way I think best."
"I thought if I sacrificed now and we wait just a little longer..."
"...one day we'd finally have our time."
His smile faltered. "I never realized..."
"...that while I was trying to protect our future..."
"...I was breaking your heart."
Gently, Dunk lowered Joong's hands from his face and took them into his own, holding them tightly as though he were afraid that letting go would make Joong disappear.
"I trusted our love so completely..."
"...that I thought it would always be there, no matter how long I asked it to wait."
".......I didn't see that every day I stayed silent was another day I was hurting you."
He closed his eyes. "I'm so sorry, MJ."
The confession settled over the room like a storm finally reaching shore.
Joong stared at him, unable to speak.
Every lonely night.
Every unanswered question.
All of it had been born from the same love. The same love they discovered when they were younger.
Joong finally closed the distance between them.
Tears blurred both their vision.
He squeezed Dunk's hands. He hesitated for only a heartbeat before intertwining their fingers.
"You idiot..."
The words escaped between a sob and a laugh.
"You absolute idiot."
There was no anger in his voice. Only grief for the years they had lost.
"Do you really think so little of me?"
Dunk looked at him.
"You think I would blame you for the sake of my dreams?"
Joong shook his head. "My dreams were never bigger than you."
He laughed weakly through his tears. "Jasper..."
"I loved every second of it."
"I loved chasing that dream."
He took another small step forward.
"But every time something wonderful happened..."
"...you were still the first person I wanted to tell."
His voice cracked. "Why do you think I always call for you in any stage I am in?"
Silence wrapped around them once more.
Joong swallowed hard before speaking again. "I tried to move on."
"I really tried."
"I kept telling myself that if I loved someone else..."
"...maybe I'd stop yearning for you."
A bitter laugh escaped him.
"Do you know what happened instead?"
Dunk couldn't answer.
"I compared him to you every single time."
Joong's hand tightened around Dunk's.
"I hated myself for it."
"Because he deserved someone whose heart was completely his."
He placed his right hand against his chest.
"But mine..."
His voice barely rose above a whisper.
"...it never left you."
The room dissolved into quiet tears.
Neither of them tried to hide anymore.
Years of loving each other so carefully that they had nearly loved each other apart.
Only now did they understand the truth.
Neither of them had walked away.
They had simply been standing on opposite sides of the same love and sacrifice.
Their foreheads touched first.
Then their noses.
A soft laugh escaped them at the same time, quickly dissolving into another wave of quiet tears.
When their lips finally met, neither of them rushed.
No performance. No rehearsal.
No cameras waiting for the perfect angle.
No director counting down to the next take.
There was only the quiet certainty of two people who had spent years finding their way back to each other.
Every silent "I love you" they had buried beneath years of fear and waiting.
It was all there.
The kiss deepened naturally, not because either of them demanded more, but because neither could bear to let go again.
Dunk's fingers curled tightly into the back of Joong's shirt, holding on as though he feared this moment would disappear the instant he loosened his grip.
Joong held him just as tightly.
The years between them seemed to collapse all at once.
The futures they had mourned before they were ever lost.
Unable to hold themselves any longer, they clung to each other until their bodies fell in the bed.
Together, they sank into it, still wrapped in each other's arms, still refusing to let go.
For the first time in years...
Neither of them did.
The kiss eventually softened, but it didn't truly end.
Their foreheads remained together, their breaths mingling in the small space between them.
Joong smiled through tears that refused to stop falling.
His thumb gently brushed away another tear from Dunk's cheek.
A small, relieved laugh escaped him.
Then he whispered the words he had carried across continents. "Now..."
His voice cracked with quiet relief. "I am home."
📸 Images not mine. #JoongArchen instagram
@annalovesjd@kookiestitties@ChenRcj@dunknatachai I am waiting naa 😭😭😭. I need part 14 asap but as a writer, you writing is way too good. I was always confused on how to write both side's opinion,these gave me some ideas. So thankyou na.
@ThaeThae28644 I want it too but since they have concert and many more events. They might need some time to get rest. And after me and thee ,and peach and mee, everyone has very high expectations from pondphuwin so maybe they are taking time carefully choosing script. Let's not hurry guys.