Seconds are Sweeter

            Eunhyuk listened to the lovers downstairs in silence a moment as he laid on the bed beside Donghae.  “They sound happy,” he concluded, smiling at the thought.

            “At least someone in this house is.”

            Eunhyuk turned to face his lover, the momentary feeling of happiness gone.  “What do you mean?  After all this time, we’re finally together again.  The door’s open.”

            “Really?  Is this enough for you?” Donghae asked, turning onto his side to face Eunhyuk.  “Because it isn’t enough for me.  I want to be with you all the time, not just from midnight until dawn.  And I want to touch you again.  It’s been years since the last time I felt your warm skin against my fingers, years since I kissed your lips.  No.  No, this isn’t nearly enough for me!”

            If a ghost could produce tears, Eunhyuk would have cried now.  But he couldn’t.  So instead he just turned his pained gaze to his boyfriend, so he would understand that he wasn’t the only one that missed such things and reached his transparent hand towards Donghae’s face, even if he couldn’t actually touch him.  “No, it isn’t enough for me either, but I can’t leave this world without clearing my name.  I just can’t.  It hurt too much when you accused me of cheating.  The world needs to know what that man is like and that it had nothing to do with me.”

            “I already believe you, you know.  I have since before I returned and found you dead in our bed,” Donghae reminded him.  “I always believed you.  I was only angry that I walked in on some other guy kissing you.”

            Eunhyuk shook his head.  “But I’m afraid that if I don’t expose him somehow, he’ll do this again to someone else.  I don’t want anyone else to suffer as we have.”

            Donghae sighed heavily as he plopped back down onto his back.  “As much as I’ve suffered in death, nothing was worse than when I thought you were no longer mine.  So, if I must, I will wait as long as it takes…ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years…as long as I know that you’ll still be waiting for me at the end of it.”

            Eunhyuk smiled wide.  “I love you so much!”

            “I love you more.”

            “I would totally kiss you right now if I could.”

            “That only makes me feel worse,” Donghae complained, whining to himself.  “My God, I’ve never gone so long without since I was sixteen!  And listening to them just pisses me off.”

            “Do you think people still…you know…do that on the other side?” Eunhyuk questioned.

            “If they don’t, then we’re coming back here,” Donghae told him. 

            Eunhyuk looked around the room.  “Have you seen Bangshin?”

            “Do you want to stay the night?”

            Sungmin laughed at this as he got out of bed and began to dress.  “Of course not!  You’re just a diversion, after all.  I just needed to get my mind of the lovebirds humping downstairs for the night.  Might as well have some fun of my own, right?”

            Yesung watched the actor walking around the room, collecting his clothes.  He’d thrown them everywhere in his haste to get undressed.  Had he ever slept with Ryeowook, he couldn’t imagine them being very much alike.  Sungmin was very wild, but it wasn’t entirely unwelcome, just different. 

            “They will probably do it all night,” Yesung warned.  “They just met the other day.”

            “I’m tired from travelling.  I’ll take a sleeping pill or drink something,” he simply said.  “I’m not going to get Kyuhyun back by hanging around here.”

            “Certainly not,” Yesung agreed.  “But no matter what, you’re wasting your time if you’re here to get Kyuhyun back.  He’s not going back to you now that he’s met Ryeowook.  Trust me.  There’s no one quite like him…and Ryeowook will never give him a reason to leave.”

            “Kyuhyun was ready to marry me six months ago,” Sungmin informed him, buttoning up his shirt.

            Yesung stared at him from the bed.  “You should have taken him up on the offer then because he’s not going to make that mistake again.”

            Sungmin stood at the window, holding a half-empty bottle of soju in his hand, staring at the darkened upper windows of the café next door and thinking back to the hour he’d spent in the company of its owner earlier in the night.  What the hell did he know?  Yesung didn’t personally know Kyuhyun or him.  He didn’t know anything about their past together.  How did he know what would or wouldn’t happen?  He didn’t.

            Sungmin took a long drink from the bottle.  Thinking of the past wasn’t one of his favorite pastimes.  It was, unfortunately, full of regrets.  Especially in regards to Kyuhyun.  Sungmin didn’t honestly know what he’d been thinking at the time when he cheated on Kyuhyun with Siwon.  He knew that Kyuhyun was getting serious about him and the thought of settling down scared the hell out of him.  He’d never been in a relationship that long before and he wasn’t sure if he could actually do forever with him, let alone anyone.  And knowing that Kyuhyun was on the verge of proposing, he freaked.  And Siwon found him in a vulnerable moment. 

            That wasn’t to say that Siwon wasn’t dashing.  He was y, rich, and charming.  Everything that would make any man or woman melt instantly.  Sungmin had been easy to conquer, but Siwon was not easy to keep.  In fact, he had no interest in tying himself down to anyone and left before long and that was when the reality of the situation finally hit Sungmin.  He’d let the one man that had truly loved him go.  And he’d been looking for him again ever since.  Only to find him too late.  Hopefully he wasn’t and Kyuhyun could still be taken away from Ryeowook, but Kyuhyun seemed so happy with his new love, he almost didn’t want to tear them apart.  But that made no sense.  Did it?

            Sungmin was roused from his thoughts by scratching at the door and walked over.  It was called the Sleeping Cat Guest House for a reason, wasn’t it?  He’d seen at least one cat running around the house earlier in the day.  He walked over to the door and opened it, but when he looked down, he saw nothing there.  He peeked down the hall.  The hall was dark, but just light enough that he felt certain he would have seen a cat if it was there. 

            He stood there a moment, a little confused, but closed the door.  It had been a long day.  Nothing had gone the way he hoped it would.  Kyuhyun had found someone else.  He’d held out hope that his ex-boyfriend was still holding a torch for him only to find out he’d been so easily replaced.  And then he’d broken down and slept with the barista next door.  Why?  Was it just the need to feel needed by someone, even if just for a short while?  Or was there something about the man that appealed to him?  Perhaps the fact that the café owner was as heartbroken as he was, in losing someone he’d also loved a long time, brought them together for the moment.  Maybe he should have stayed the night.  But that would have maybe given the man the wrong impression.  He had no intention of just handing Kyuhyun over to the guesthouse owner without a fight.  They had too much of a history together to just walk away a second time.  This time, he wasn’t going to walk away until he knew that there was no chance of a reconciliation at all. 

            In the corner of the room, he heard a rustling of leaves.  He looked over at the houseplant that sat near the floor.  The leaves were moving, but he didn’t have the window open.  There shouldn’t be a reason they were moving around.  He headed that direction, his eyes narrowed as he looked over the plant, when he suddenly felt something brush against his leg.  Something fuzzy. 

            Yelping, he jumped back and looked around.  Did he let in a cat and not realize it somehow?  He glanced around the room, but still saw nothing. 

            “What the hell?”

            Just then, there was a knock at his door. 

            “Coming!”

            Ryeowook was still gasping for breath when Kyuhyun returned after using the bathroom and wandered back into the bedroom with two large glasses in his hands, closing the door shut with his foot.  Still a sweaty mess and undressed, Ryeowook sat up in bed to investigate what Kyuhyun had brought them. 

            “It’s just some cold lemonade, but I didn’t want either of us to get dehydrated,” Kyuhyun said, handing over one of the glasses to Ryeowook. 

            “Thank you,” he said, gulping down half the glass immediately.  He was thirsty.  They’d slept together the first time, then laid around in bed chatting until they both dozed off, then sometime later they woke up again and made love a second time.  Neither of them could get enough of each other.  Ryeowook could barely stand to let Kyuhyun leave the room, even for a few minutes.  Now that he’d found someone that he really cared about, he didn’t want to ever let him go. 

            “You’re welcome,” Kyuhyun said, rounding the bed and sitting down beside his new boyfriend, careful not to spill his full drink.  “I figured you were probably as thirsty as I was.”

            “Mmm,” Ryeowook hummed, still drinking.  Finally, he finished and set his glass down on the nightstand.  “And I still feel a little warm, although the window’s open and it’s freezing outside.”

            Kyuhyun smil