They called this a meeting for the Conversational English Club, but the only English word that Sunggyu could hear once he entered the restaurant (the one Woohyun’s family owned) was “one-shot!” Once he walked closer to their table, he could see at least one couple trying to seriously converse in English: Karen and Hoya, who were seated in the middle of the group. The rest of the group was happily drinking and eating. They were so cheerful that it was intimidating. The group seemed impenetrable. Even though Sunggyu knew each and every one of the people sitting at the table, he felt like he didn’t at the same time. Together like this, they seemed different. He had half a mind to turn around, give up, and return home. But, Kate and Sungyeol, he could sit by them and slowly work his way in. Where were they anyway? Oh, there at the end of the table , with their backs turned towards him, which was unfortunate for Sunggyu because they couldn’t see him and call him to join them. But sitting across from them was him , Woohyun. He was laughing, hard, at something that Sungyeol had just said. The three of them, they were actually close friends, really close. It wasn’t just the three of them, it was all of them. Jang Dongwoo, with whom Sunggyu had hardly talked, was heartedly patting Sungyeol’s joke, also laughing at the joke. Sunggyu swallowed harshly and averted his gaze, growing more and more anxious by the second. This was different from the club he used to know. Did they all get along better without him?

“Sunggyu-ssi!” Finally, someone noticed him, and it wasn’t one of his good friends. Peanut is the only one who cares about me .

“Sunggyu?” Sungyeol repeated in great shock as he spun around in his seat. Once he saw his friend, standing there awkwardly, Sungyeol’s eyes lit up, and he jumped up from the table to usher his hyung to the table. “Oi! What are you doing here? I thought you were studying.”

Sunggyu frowned as Sungyeol put his hands on his shoulders and guided him towards the group. “You don’t seem happy to see me. Maybe I’ll just go back,” Sunggyu grumbled. He tried to twist around and out of his friend’s grip, but Sungyeol held on tighter and forced him to walk towards the table. A chair suddenly appeared at the end of the table.

“No, no, no, no! Sit down!” Sungyeol commanded as he pushed the elder down in the new seat. Kate moved down so that Sungyeol could sit next to him. “I’m happy. Really happy to see you. Just surprised is all. Here.” Sungyeol slid a glass towards him and filled it with beer from the pitcher at the table. Sungyeol then stood up a bit from his seat and waved to the owner of the place (Woohyun’s mom). “Imo! Can we have one more place-setting?” he asked and pointed over at Sunggyu. Sunggyu could only give her a short and apologetic bow before hiding his face behind his hand and turning his head. But now his eyes fell on her son, who was staring at him with a blank face. Sunggyu quickly shifted his gaze over to Kate, whose expression matched Woohyun’s perfectly.

“Speak of the…” Kate swallowed the words that she almost said and then put on an embarrassed smile. “I mean. We weren’t just talking about you,” she tried to remedy.

“Smooth, Kate,” Sunggyu spoke lowly before picking up his glass and taking a long drag from it. This was going to be a long evening. He could feel it already.

“What? Are you like one of those creatures that come if we say your name three times?” Kate asked, turning the whole situation into a joke. “I should have tried this earlier.” She turned towards him, leaning over Sungyeol to get closer to him. “Kim Sunggyu. Kim Sunggyu. KIM SUNGGYU!” her voice raised every time she spoke his name.

“I’m here!” Sunggyu exclaimed, waving his hands cutely. There was a scoff at his side. Woohyun was rolling his eyes at him. Sunggyu picked up his glass again. Why did I come here? He gently shoved Kate away. “Stop it. I’m already here,” he put an end to their play.

“What made you change your mind?” Sungyeol asked as he pulled a dejected Kate back into her seat.

Sunggyu’s eyes fell down to the glass in his hands. “I wanted to check on something,” he mumbled.

“What?”

Sunggyu shrugged and drank instead of answering. What should he say? The whole truth? His gaze flittered over to Woohyun. No, Sunggyu put down the glass down on the table with thud. It’d better if he were to keep it to himself, for now. Maybe if we were alone, we could speak about it more freely. Clear the air . Thankfully, Sungyeol let him be and then left the table for the bathroom.

But his seat was soon taken by Jang Dongwoo, who was emboldened by the atmosphere and (alcohol) and began talking to Sunggyu as if the were old friends. Dongwoo’s arm was on his shoulder, shaking him happily. “I’m glad you could take a break from studying and come hang out,” Dongwoo announced after a few moments of casual conversation. “This is a treat!”

“Uh, thanks,” Sunggyu awkwardly replied. “It’s good to be back.”

Sunggyu felt a tap at his shoulder. He leaned back in his chair and saw Kate leaning back as well. She brought a hand to the side of . “We told them that you quit so that you could catch up on your studies because your real reason was stupid,” she spoke in a loud hissing voice that she called ‘whispering.’

“Was not,” Sunggyu retorted and shoved her away. “Get off. Don’t you have a boyfriend to bother like this?” he hissed as he sat back in his chair. Hot breath hit his ear as soon as he returned to his spot.

“Your real reason for leaving was stupid . So we lied for you,” someone whispered loudly into Sunggyu’s other ear. Sungyeol was back from the bathroom.

But before Sunggyu could shove him away too, Kate called out to him, “Boyfriend!”

“Girlfriend!” Sungyeol exclaimed back.

“Sit by me,” Kate commanded in a saccharine voice, patting the now empty seat besides her (Dongwoo had fled to the other side of the table and Sunggyu half-wished that he had too).

“Already am,” Sungyeol responded back just as cutely.

Kate spun towards him. “I was told to bother you, so...bother, bother, bother!” she squealed as she tickled Sungyeol’s side and made him squirm in his seat (and whack Sunggyu with his flailing elbows).

And Sungyeol looked as if he were going it for awhile. But he was only liking her attention; the tickling, he hated. So he eventually snapped, “Stop it. STOP!”

“Sorry,” Kate apologized, pulling her hands into her lap and facing forward with her head hanging low.

Sungyeol smiled, watching her as she turned in her seat. “Let’s see how you like it,” he teased and began tickling her in return.

“Stop. It tickles!” Kate squealed but she was barely fighting against him.

Sunggyu had to look away. They were embarrassing him. “Wah! It hasn’t even been two days, and I’m already sick of you two as a couple,” he tried to speak harshly but his broad smile was betraying him, revealing that he was joking. “Break up.”

“I think they’re cute.” Sunggyu had forgotten that Woohyun was even there until he had spoken up. He lifted his eyes up to the man. He could tell by the look on Woohyun’s face, he’d taken Sunggyu’s words seriously. What does he think of me? Would he really think I’d mean it?

“You would,” the words slipped past Sunggyu’s lips before they registered in his mind.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Woohyun growled, narrowing his eyes on Sunggyu’s.

“I...I don’t know,” Sunggyu stammered. He couldn’t help it. Even when he was trying to be pleasant, even when he felt wronged, Sunggyu’s first instinct was to insult Woohyun, to be short with him. It’s getting worse . Sunggyu wasn’t only stirring the pot, but he was turning up the heat. Soon there’d be no soup left, nothing for Sunggyu and Woohyun to fed on and grow. They’d die; their relationship would die. Do I want that? Do I still want that?

“Sunggyu-ssi!” Luckily, someone pulled him out from drowning in the thoughts swirling around in his head. Ho...ya. It was Hoya, standing up in as he was preparing a lettuce wrap in his hand, piling one thing after another. It was all too big for one person to eat (comfortably). “Since you came back, you have to undergo our new initiation rite,” Hoya announced, gesturing to the wrapt in his hands. “We all had to do this, so it’s only fair.” As a finishing touch, he added a splash of soju to the wrap, and then another when Hoya didn’t deem it enough. “I’m making this with lots of love.”

“What is it?” Sunggyu whispered to Sungyeol.

“Soju wrap,” Sungyeol spoke in a distracted voice, his eyes fixed on the said wrap.

“Did you all do this?” Sunggyu asked. There’s no way they all did. What are they? Insane?

“Yes,” Dongwoo answered.

Karen then raised her hand. “I took a pass,” she revealed.

Hoya nodded. “All but Canadians have to do this. It’s a rule,” he glossed over the entire issue, the tips of his ears turning red. Sunggyu scoffed. Hoya probably came up with that rule to appeal to her. Well, it worked.

However, there was one person who took the rule seriously. “Stupid rule. I was this close,” Kate whined. Her boyfriend patted her sympathetically on the back.

“So how do you become a Canadian?” Sunggyu joked, but if Karen was willing to take it seriously, then Sunggyu would have no problem singing ‘Oh Canada’ and eating poutine for the rest of his life if it meant getting out of eating that wrap.

“Stop stalling,” Hoya called him out. He was already making his way to Sunggyu at the end of the table. “I put a lot of effort into this. I think it’s my best one yet.”

“He’s gotten good at this,” Dongwoo spoke as if it were a real accomplishment.

“My man is very special. So many gifts,” Karen, on the other hand, was completely sarcastic, but was still smiling at him fondly as Hoya pulled Sunggyu up from his seat. Sunggyu was waving his hands in the air, saying ‘no’ as many times as and as quickly as his lips would allow.

“Kim Sunggyu! Kim Sunggyu!” That drudged up a irritating memory from months earlier, Woohyun chanting his name. Sunggyu’s gaze flew over to the man who was still happily chanting his name, and the others had slowly joined him. And while Sunggyu’s mouth was still and hanging wide, Hoya took the opportunity and crammed the wrap in his open mouth. But that wasn’t the end of it. The real point of the soju wrap was, of course, the soju, which Hoya was pouring into Sunggyu’s already full mouth. Sunggyu tried his best to swallow, to chew, to do everything to get rid of the damn thing from his mouth, but it became too much, entirely too much. He had to get rid of it any way that he could, so he spat it up, all over the table (and Sunggyu was too afraid to see where else it had landed). He brought his hand up to his mouth to catch the most that he could, which was very little. He kept his head held low and hand close to his mouth as he sprinted off towards the bathroom.

Before he even looked at himself in the mirror, Sunggyu washed out his mouth and cleaned his face and hands the best he could. Then he finally looked up at his own reflection. His face was so red that it was threatening to turn purple. And there was a large trail of soju, food, and maybe drool down the front of his shirt. He sighed as started washing his shirt with water and a paper towel. Why did I even come? Can I even go back out there? Sunggyu zipped up his hoodie, covering the stain, and stared at his reflection again. His face was more of a pink now. He was decent enough to return to the meeting. But do I want to?

There was a timid knock at the bathroom door. “Sunggyu?” Kate called out to him cautiously through the door. “Are you okay?”

“Yea,” Sunggyu replied after peeking his head through the door. He wasn’t risking coming out of the bathroom just yet. His eyes darted around to see if anyone else was there. It was just her, and she looked anxious. Sunggyu stepped out. “Did you all seriously do that?” he asked as he closed the door softly behind him.

“Yea, and you did better than most of us,” she consoled him. She then sputtered into a laugh at the memory of them trying. “You should’ve seen Woohyun try,” she wheezed, but she quickly tried to that statement back into , knowing how sensitive of a topic that was, and tried to hold back her laughter by sealing her lips and keeping her face still. “It was funny,” Kate spoke, barely moving her lips. She then gestured at her friend to follow her back into the dining room.  “But Dongwoo and his big mouth, wow, it was perfect.” They passed by the person that she was talking about. “Good job!” she praised as she sat back down at her seat by her boyfriend.

“Do you want me to do it again?” Dongwoo offered.

“Maybe later,” Sunggyu wasn’t going to say ‘no’ to that, but he also didn’t want to see another one of those wraps for the rest of his life (or at least for the rest of the night).

Hoya then stood up straight, craning his neck to look at Sunggyu. “Is everything okay?” he asked, looking even more nervous than Kate had. Guilt was practically written across his face in big, bold letters.

Sunggyu smiled the best that he could manage. “Yea, everything is fine,” he replied.

Hoya looked convinced by that and relaxed. “Good,” he said and returned to talking to the others.

Sungyeol tapped at the elder’s arm, trying to get his attention. “Are you okay?” he whispered lowly, wanting Sunggyu to tell him how he really felt. But it wasn’t the time for that. Other people could still hear.
“Yea,” Sunggyu lied. “Why is everyone asking that?” his voice cut through the air. He was annoyed.

“Because you look like you’re about to kill someone,” Woohyun answered, stepping into the conversation. Sunggyu whipped his head towards him and glared at him as sharp and cutting as his voice was earlier. But Woohyun wasn’t pained by it at all. He gave a half-smile and sighed before turning to his own drink. “Just saying,” he muttered and then took a sip.

“Well...I’m not,” was all Sunggyu could manage to say in response, and just barely so. His gaze softened and lingered on the other, but Woohyun wasn’t paying him any heed. Sunggyu frowned. He’d been annoyed by Woohyun, he’d been tricked by Woohyun, he had been harassed by Woohyun, but he’d never been ignored (even when they were acting like statues, they’d at least greet each other). Now, Woohyun was completely ignoring him, and was starting to turn his back to him as he was talking to Peanut. What was this? And what was this feeling? Out of everything Woohyun had done to Sunggyu, he hated this the most. All Sunggyu wanted to do tonight was to have an honest conversation with him, but that was seeming to be less and less of a possibility. They’d barely spoken to each other so far, and the meeting was nearing it’s end. How am I supposed to get rid of this? Sunggyu wondered as he rubbed his chest. He had a lot stacked up inside. It was suffocating him, just like the soju wrap earlier.

“Woohyun-ah,” that wasn’t Sunggyu who called him but Kate. Woohyun finally sat back straight in his seat and looked at his friend attentively. “You have something here,” she revealed, pointing to his sleeve. Sunggyu looked down to where he was pointing and then quickly looked away, cursing underneath his breath. It was his spit-up from earlier. He had not only spat up all over the table but also all over Woohyun.

Sunggyu raised his head slowly but not his gaze. “Woohyun, I…”

“,” Woohyun swore. He immediately pushed back his chair and stood up. “I’m gonna change,” he declared in an annoyed voice before leaving.

Sungyeol scoffed. “It wouldn’t be the first time he had to change at one of these things. It’s lucky that he lives next door,” he remarked. Sungyeol reached over and tapped his friend on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m not!” Sunggyu snapped back, and Sungyeol immediately raised his hand and pulled it away before Sunggyu could bite it off.

Sungyeol pushed Sunggyu’s glass in front of him. “Drink,” he insisted. “You need to calm down.” Kate then tapped her boyfriend to get his attention and signaled him to stop and leave him be. After doing so, she leaned over at looked at Sunggyu.

“Is there anything that I can get for you? Food?” she suggested.

Sunggyu’s mouth drew tightly across his face as he shook his head. “I’m not hungry,” he answered. “I lost my appetite.”

“Well, if you find it,” Kate forced the joke and the laugh. “Just tell me.” She then leaned back but not before casting a never glance at Sungyeol who waved her off and whispered that he’d ‘be fine.’ Man, those two really needed to get better at whispering. The whole table probably heard them. Everyone knew that he’d be ‘fine’ but for now he wasn’t.

Sunggyu took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as his gaze traveled to the door. They had barely spoken to each other all night, and Sunggyu couldn’t even get out an apology. Maybe it was too late. There was nothing left to stir in the pot. It had all evaporated into the air. Did he even hear me?

Restaurant's bell rang. Someone was coming in through the door. It was Woohyun, who probably threw on the first shirt that he could find because it was a little too thin for the cold night. Sunggyu opened his mouth, getting ready to spit out his apology as soon as Woohyun sat down. But Woohyun never did. He was just a flash of blonde hair darting past the table. Sunggyu looked about him. No one else seemed to notice or acknowledge Woohyun’s return. They were carrying on the same conversation uninterrupted. Even Sungyeol and Kate didn’t see Woohyun. Sunggyu was perplexed. Was he really the only one? Was it not really Woohyun but a figment of his own mind? Sunggyu leaned back in his chair and craned his neck, searching for him. It wasn’t hard. Woohyun’s bright hair contrasted greatly against the dark walls, like a beacon. But the beacon was slowly fading as Woohyun opened up the back door to the restaurant and exited out of it. Sunggyu cocked his head. Where is he going? Well, there was only one way to find out.

Sunggyu got up from the table and followed Woohyun out the door.

The door led outside to a small fenced in area. Sunggyu quickly found Woohyun at the edge of the fence, putting a bag into a trash can. Sunggyu winced. Several curses bounced around his head and he bit his tongue, forcing them to stay inside. Of course, this was Woohyun’s family’s place. He was probably checking up on his parents and asked if he could help, like a good son, like Sunggyu probably would’ve done. What was Sunggyu expecting to find out here? For Woohyun to reveal his ‘wolf’ side and howl at the moon? I am stupid . Sunggyu tried to sneak back out, but it was already too late. Woohyun’s head whipped towards him as soon as the door creaked open. Woohyun stared at him blankly for a second or two before placing the lid back onto the trash can.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. It had almost sounded like a sigh, as if he’d knew it’d be Sunggyu.

“I was just...curious,” Sunggyu stammered as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. At least he spoke the truth this time. He was improving. He then dropped his hand, stuffing it into the pockets of his hoodie. He finally had his chance, and he was going to take it. “I wanted to talk to you.”

Woohyun crossed his arms over his chest (Sunggyu hoped it was because of the cold more than anything else). “About what?” he responded. His voice still had an edge to it (so it wasn’t because of the cold).

Sunggyu tried to disarm him with a smile. “I just think that we need to,” he reasoned. He didn’t quite know where to start, but this was as good of a start as any. They were already speaking more to each other right now than before, even if Woohyun were to turn him down and walk away.

But luckily for the both of them, he didn’t. “Well, there’s something I want to talk about,” Woohyun revealed. He stepped closer to the other. His arms tightened across his chest. “I heard Kate and Yeol whisper to you earlier.”

“Aish,” Sunggyu interjected with a curse. He chuckled out of embarrassment knowing exactly where this was leading, but he still tried to distract the other, “They are so loud.”

It didn’t work. “You didn’t need to leave because of your studies, so why did you quit the club?” Woohyun asked, finally meeting his gaze.

“Seriously?” Sunggyu checked.

“Seriously.”

Sunggyu took in a deep breath before he took the plunge. “Because of you,” he finally said it. “Because of you, I quit.”

Woohyun’s eyes rapidly blinked as he looked away. “I knew it,” he admitted, a faint smile flashed across his face.

“How?” Sunggyu couldn’t believe it.

“The way you look at me,” Woohyun revealed. His eyes fell back down onto the other, razor sharp. “You look at me differently than you look at everyone else.”

“No I don’t,” Sunggyu immediately denied, loudly too. His voice echoed in the small alleyway.

“You do!” Woohyun’s voice matched his. “You look like you’re tired of me all the time.” At that, Sunggyu rolled his eyes (he didn’t even notice that he was doing so). “Wah! Look! You’re even doing it now,” Woohyun exclaimed in disbelief. “Why?”

“Because I am!” Sunggyu snapped back, but then he immediately corrected himself. “Or I was. Everyone loved you because you were ‘cute,’ but I could see through that.”

“See through what?” Woohyun said with a scoff. And that’s when Sunggyu saw it for the first time that night, Woohyun’s canines flashing in the moonlight. Sunggyu saw the wolf that he was so familiar with, Woohyun’s ‘true’ nature (or what he’d thought to be true). And Sunggyu felt his anger rise.

“Anybody can see that you being ‘cute’ is just a desperate cry for attention,” he shouted.

“So?” Woohyun spat with a shrug.

“So?!” Sunggyu repeated, mocking him, even his shrug. “It’s all fake! You act like that so that later on people will pity you, think you’re helpless, and do stuff for you,” he argued.

“I don’t ask people to do stuff for me…that often,” Woohyun added the last part after Sunggyu raised an eyebrow at him. He’d admit to that but he refused to back down. He finally uncrossed his arms and pointed to Sunggyu. “You! You were the one who thought I was helpless and did the whole presentation because you were afraid that I’d mess it up. And I let you because you’re so f***ing difficult.”

“Really, I’m difficult?” Sunggyu placed his hand over his chest, blinking in disbelief.

“Yes!” Woohyun yelled. “I mean, you hate me because I’m cute and people dote on me for it. You hate me because I like attention. Well so do you!” Now his finger was digging into the other as he stepped closer and closer to him. Sunggyu could see and feel his breath, hot and heavy against the cold air.

“No I don’t,” Sunggyu denied. He batted the other’s finger away and then shoved him away.

And Woohyun just allowed himself to stumble backwards, exaggerating how hard Sunggyu had shoved him. “Really?” he challenged, cocking an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth picked up into a knowing smirk. “With your sarcastic remarks about everything, trying to draw a laugh? You being the smartest in class so that people could look up to you? You talking ALL the time? Really? You really don’t like attention?”

“Fine, fine,” Sunggyu gave in. “I like it too.” Now he was the one to cross his arms over his chest and avert his gaze. He slowly backed up against the wall, hiding slightly in the shadows. He didn’t know Woohyun could read him so easily. It made him feel uncomfortable, vulnerable. He didn’t like it.

“You and I.” Sunggyu cautiously looked up at the other as he began to speak again. Woohyun seemed to feel just as uncomfortable with the situation as he did. The corner of his mouth was shaking as he tried to maintain his fragile smile. “We might be more alike than we think.”

“That’s a scary thought,” Sunggyu remarked with a slight laugh.

“Yea it is.”

“Where did they go? Everyone is about to leave,” Sungyeol muttered under his breath as he stepped out of the bathroom. His head was on a swivel as he searched the area for Sunggyu and Woohyun. The meeting had come to a close and people were already starting to leave. There was talks of making a second round elsewhere. He should at least invite the other two, even though he was certain wet-blanket Sunggyu would opt out to study or sleep. But no one had seen Woohyun since he left to change, and Sunggyu disappeared suddenly as well. Sungyeol swore that he saw a flash of his hyung walk down this hall. He assumed it would be the bathroom, but it was empty. Maybe he already left? Sungyeol guessed. I should at least check the kitchen to see if Woohyun’s there, or at least say ‘hi’ to his mother .

As he was on his way to the kitchen, Sungyeol passed by a door that he’d never noticed before, and the only reason he took notice now was because there were loud noises coming from the other side. Sungyeol cocked his head and stared at the door for a few seconds, suspiciously. What is it?

“No I don’t!”

Ah, that voice, Sungyeol knew that angry shout very well. He finally found his hyung. Sungyeol stepped closer and pressed his ear against the door. “Oh!” he gasped. Woohyun seemed to be behind the door too. What are they doing? Sungyeol’s hand rest on the doorknob, wondering if he should open the door and interrupt them.

“Because you’re so f***ing difficult!” Woohyun’s muffled voice went through the door.

Nevermind interrupting them, this was getting interesting. Sungyeol held his breath as he pressed his ear and cheek closer to the door. This was gold, entertainment gold. He bit his lip, trying to keep him from laughing.

“What are you listening to?”

Sungyeol’s eyes flicked to the side. Thankfully it was only Kate, so he answered honestly, “Sunggyu and Woohyun.”

Kate clapped her hands together in delight. “Are they out there?” she asked, stepping closer to her boyfriend. Sungyeol put his finger to his lips, silently telling her to be quiet, and nodded, Kate skipped the rest of the way and wiggled herself between Sungyeol and the door. “Move over, please,” Kate begged even though she was already forcing her way. Sungyeol still stepped slightly back so that she could crouch down with her body flushed against the door. His own body was pressed against her back. But the both of them were too busy eavesdropping with their ears pressed against the door to think anything of it.

As Kate was settling herself in, she had noticed something. “Oh,” she gasped and a sly smirk slowly formed on her face. The door had a lock, as most doors do. But unlike most doors that Kate had encountered, this door had the ability to lock both Woohyun and Sunggyu outside, together, alone, in the cold, and if they are left there for too long, they might have to huddle together for warmth. Unable to fight against all of the temptations that her mind was spewing, Kate finally reached up and turned the lock.

“Are you crazy?” Sungyeol hissed as soon as he heard the lock click. He removed his head from the door and looked down at his girlfriend who was smiling gleefully back up at him.

“No. I’m cupid,” Kate responded while thinking, I’m pretty much writing their love story now.

“Huh?”

“Um, wouldn’t it be interesting?” she reiterated. “Let’s just see what happens.”

Sungyeol gave a short chuckle. “You are crazy,” he retorted, but a broad grin overtook his face. “I like it.” And with that, the sneaky couple returned to listening through the door the best that they could. The conversation was just getting interesting.

“There are some things that I want to get cleared up,” Sunggyu suddenly declared. He had found an upturned trashcan to sit on top of, and he sat with his back pressed against the brick wall. His eyes fixed on the sky, even though it was dark, cloudy, and lightless, but he deemed it better than the other view he had (a pissed-off Woohyun, that Sunggyu had made that way).

“Like what?” there was a quiver in the other’s voice.

Sunggyu’s gaze fell down. Okay, now Woohyun’s arms were crossed over his chest because of the cold. He was shivering. He was angry and shaking from the cold. Sunggyu’s hand played with the zipper of his hoodie. Should he? Shouldn’t he?

Sunggyu dropped his hand, stuffing it in the pocket of his sweatshirt, deciding against it. “Like that day we had a group meeting. Where were you coming from?” he asked the other.

“I was working here,” Woohyun replied, nodding towards the restaurant behind them.

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes on Woohyun. Something was amiss. “Hoya said you were out drinking,” he recalled, catching Woohyun in his lie.

“Then he must have misunderstood when I said that I was at the restaurant. I might’ve wrote that I was serving drinks. Or something,” it was a weak excuse. Woohyun didn’t sound at all convincing, just cold.

“Are you telling the truth?” Sunggyu challenged. He couldn’t keep his skepticism in check.

Woohyun scoffed at Sunggyu’s blatant doubt. “Do you want to ask my mom?” he offered, uncrossing his arms and reaching out for the door knob.

“Ah, no!” Sunggyu objected and stood up from his seat. He successfully stopped Woohyun who was now leaning against the wall too, close to Sunggyu, as close to Sunggyu as he could to siphon off his heat but not too close so that the two of them felt uncomfortable. Sunggyu sat back down, deflating into his seat. “It’s fine,” he murmured. He then quickly glanced at Woohyun before turning his eyes to the sky again. “What about Inha? I know you stuck her on me.”

“Okay, well that I did on purpose, to mess with you,” Woohyun admitted with an anxious chuckle. Sunggyu kept his eyes to the sky, but he felt Woohyun’s glare burning through him. Sunggyu shifted awkwardly as Woohyun further explained, “But you really pissed me off when you cut me out of the group project. And you’d been giving me dirty looks all night. You deserved to be harassed a little like you were harassing me.”

Sunggyu then snapped his head to look at the other. They both stared at each other for a moment or two. Woohyun sniffed, and he just appeared miserable, almost as miserable as Sunggyu himself was feeling. I harassed you? Sunggyu tore his eyes way. If he’d thought Woohyun to be a wolf, what was he then to Woohyun? A fox? Sunggyu finally pulled down the zipper of his hoodie, roughly pulled it off, and handed it to the other without sparing him a glance. And Woohyun appeared to be too cold to refuse. Once Sunggyu felt the sweatshirt being taken from his hands, he finally looked at the other out of the corner of his eye. Woohyun had put on the sweatshirt quickly and pulled down the sleeves to cover his hands. Sunggyu’s eyes fell down to his own hands, which were hiding in his long sleeves. We might be more alike than we think. Sunggyu roughly pushed his up sleeves to his elbows and cleared his throat awkwardly before asking, “What about Inha, though? It wasn’t nice to use her like that.”

“Well, I thought it’d be better for her, to chase you over me,” Woohyun struggled to put it into words. His voice dropped. “It wouldn’t have been nice of me to keep being nice to her either.”

Sunggyu glared at him. “In what world…” he muttered. It had made no sense. And before he could complain anymore, Woohyun revealed it all.

“I...I don’t like girls, or at least I think I don’t,” he spoke in a voice above the whisper. It was shaking again. This time the cold wasn’t to blame. Sunggyu stiffened but kept his gaze on the other, trying to remain as unchanging, unfazed as he could. “Not many people know about that. Inha surely didn’t catch on,” the teasing joke Woohyun said with more surety than anything else.

Sunggyu laughed. “She’s oblivious,” he added.

“Right?” Woohyun chuckled a few times, but it was soon strangled in his throat. His gaze flickered over to Sunggyu but then fixed on his feet. “But I told Kate. She knows.”

“Huh?”

“Yea,” Woohyun grunted. His eyes darted everywhere: his feet, the sky, the trash, Sunggyu. He sighed, at a loss for what to look at. “She said it would be good if we got to know each other because…”

“I don’t like them either either,” Sunggyu finished off the other’s sentence (Woohyun was taking too long to say it).

“Right,” Woohyun seemed calmer now, voice was more steady. He moved along the wall, setting his shoulder against it and facing Sunggyu head one. A faint smile played at his lips. “But just having that in common won’t make us get along. Obviously,” he added, gesturing into the empty air.

“Obviously,” Sunggyu repeated and turned towards the other. “But...It clears up a lot of things,” he muttered lowly, more speaking to himself than anything else.

But Woohyun had heard it and it piqued his curiosity. “Like what?” he didn’t let it go.

“The relationship between you and Kate,” that one was easy for Sunggyu to admit. Her closeness with Woohyun didn’t seem suspect anymore. She had been his confidant, and probably he was hers, judging how readily he understood that he couldn’t eat lunch with them for a stretch of time. And she could barely confess it to me . But the second admission came with a great struggle. Sunggyu sped through it as quickly and lowly as he could, “...that you’re probably not having an affair with Professor Kang.”

“Affair with Professor Kang? Who? Me? ME?!” Woohyun exclaimed in disbelief, chuckling as if it were a greatest joke he’d ever heard.

“What’s the relationship between you two anyway?” Sunggyu tried to divert the attention back onto the other.

“I referee for the boys’ soccer clubs. Sometimes the girl teams don’t have refs, so Kang asks me to referee for her daughter’s games,” Woohyun explained. And this ‘excuse’ made complete sense, much more sense than Sunggyu’s accusation. It’s not even an excuse. It’s the truth . Sunggyu covered his reddening face with his hands. “You thought I was having an affair? With her?” Woohyun couldn’t even ask the question without breaking into another peal of laughter.

Sunggyu leapt from his seat. He wasn’t going to take this sitting down. Nam Woohyun was still partially at fault. “Well, you were being very secretive about it all! What else was I supposed to think?” Sunggyu reasoned.

Woohyun did his best to keep his laughter in check, but his smile revealed that he was on the verge of cracking into it again. “Okay that was probably my fault,” he confessed. “You’re really fun to mess with sometimes. So easy too.”

“Am not,” Sunggyu objected.

“You are. And then you get that look,” Woohyun revealed. He then tried to mimic Sunggyu’s ‘look,’ letting his eyelids fall down until they were mostly closed and then opening them up as wide as he could in horror. I do not look like that . But apparently Woohyun thought he did. He chuckled at his own imitation.

“I think we’ve talked enough,” Sunggyu grumbled lowly as he made his way to the door. His hand gripped the doorknob and he tried to twist it. It wouldn’t budge. He tried again and failed. His head whipped towards Woohyun (probably wearing the ‘look’ that Woohyun had just imitated). “The door’s locked!”

“What?” Now Woohyun panicked too. He elbowed Sunggyu out of the way and tried to open the door. “It’s locked!” he exclaimed.

“That’s what I just told you!” Sunggyu whined. How little trust was there between them?

But Woohyun just ignored that remark and began banging on the door. “Help! Can anybody hear us? Help! Mom! Mommy!” he called out to anyone who could hear. But then, after realizing what he was saying, his gaze flittered over to Sunggyu. “Don’t give me that look. If your mom was here, you’d be calling for her too,” he excused himself.

“I’d be yelling for her louder,” Sunggyu admitted without any qualms. “Who could hear that?”

On the other side of the door, Sungyeol was chuckling silently to himself, biting his knuckle in order to stifle it. “He’s calling for his mom,” he muttered to Kate. “Daebak!”

“What do we do? What if she comes?” Kate asked in a panic.

That stopped the laughter. “Oh, I didn’t think of that,” Sungyeol murmured.

Kate took in a deep breath and closed her eyes tightly. “Woohyun-ah?” she called out to her friend in a disguised voice. She almost sounded older. Kate then jiggled the doorknob, acting as if she were trying to open it. “Oh, son, the door is jammed,” she whined, nasally. Sungyeol gave her a thumbs up. With the door as a filter, she probably sounded exactly like Woohyun’s mother.

“Mom?” Woohyun muttered with his ear pressed to the door. He pulled away and looked at Sunggyu. “That doesn’t sound like her,” he declared. Woohyun then pointed to the space between the door and the frame. “I can see the bolt too. I don’t think it’s jammed.”

Sunggyu winced. He had a sneaking suspicion as to who was behind the door. You’ve got to be kidding me . But he tried to play around with the lame rouse, “Woohyun’s mom?”

“Hm?” there was a nasally hum coming from the other side of the door.

“Should we just try to break down the door?” Sunggyu offered, shouting. “Woohyun-ssi and I can do it by using the stuff out here.”

Woohyun put a hand on his shoulder, pulling the other to look at him and see his confused face. “What stuff?”

“They said they’d break down the door,” Kate hissed up to Sungyeol.

“I heard it,” Sungyeol groaned, rubbing his face roughly as he thought. “We can’t let them do that. I’m not paying for it.” He sighed and concluded, “I guess we unlock it then.”

Kate clasped the hand reaching for the doorknob with both of hers. “No!” she objected, falling onto the door but still holding his hand tightly. “Just a little bit longer. They’re almost there.”

“Almost where?”

“Son, don’t break down the door!” she continued her poor imitation. “We’re getting...stuff.”

“Aish!” Sunggyu cursed as he pulled his ear away from the side of the door. “It’s Kate and Sungyeol.”

“Hm? Why would they lock us out here?” Woohyun murmured as he pulled away from the door as well. He then shook his head. “Nevermind. I know. I know,” he spoke with a groan. Kate probably had been pestering him as much as she’d been bothering Sunggyu. “What did they expect to happen? For us to come out as friends?”

“Probably,” Sunggyu concluded. “They watch too many dramas.”

“Unfortunately for them, this isn’t a drama,” Woohyun remarked at turned towards the door, devoting his whole attention to it, set on unlocking it. Sunggyu sighed as he watched the other examine the door carefully. That’s right. It’s not a drama . Maybe it was entirely too late for them to overcome these issues and prejudices. Sunggyu himself held grudges, so Woohyun probably did too. How would Sunggyu feel if he knew that someone had thought so little of him? Awful. I’d hate it. I’d hate him.

“And when I get out of here, they’re dead,” Woohyun grumbled as he struggled with the doorknob. He couldn’t break the lock by force. He tugged on the tail of Sunggyu’s shirt to tear the elder away from his thoughts. “Do you have a credit card? Or your ID card? I could unlock the door with it,” he asked.

“Yea. In my jacket back inside,” Sunggyu revealed with an apologetic smile.

“Great,” Woohyun grumbled as he let go of the doorknob. He then began banging on the door again, harder than before. Much harder.

“Sungyeol-ah! Kate! Let us out!” Woohyun’s voice rang through the door as clear as day.

“Damn, how did they know it was us?” Sungyeol exclaimed in disbelief as he jumped away from the door, making his girlfriend, who was leaning on him for support, stumble backwards and fall to the ground. Kate stood up with a groan. She turned to Sungyeol and was about to speak.

“KATE! Let us out!” But Sunggyu’s voice cut her off sharply.

“Don’t let him out,” Sungyeol demanded, pulling her away from the door as if it would hurt her. “He sounds angry.”
“Eh, he’s not angry,” Kate dismissed. “He’s just really loud.”

“KATE!” Sunggyu’s voice was louder now than ever.
“Okay, so maybe he’s angry,” she yielded.

“You think?” Sungyeol . He then lifted his eyes to the door and bit his lip as he thought of how to deal with this situation, how to escape. But he knew that they both couldn’t. “Run,” he commanded of her. “You can still make it out of here alive.”

“What about you?!” Kate asked.

“One of us has to unlock the door, and it might as well be me,” Sungyeol reasoned. “I can outrun them, maybe.”

Kate nodded, giving in. But she reached up and pulled him down by placing both of her hands on his cheeks. “Run fast!” she wished before giving him a kiss. “You’re my hero,” Kate spoke after letting him go.

“I know,” Sungyeol replied with a growing smile. He then placed his hand on her back and began to tried to urge her to move. “Now go!”

He didn’t need to say it twice. Kate took off with a sprint as was already almost out of the front door. Sungyeol first watched the door shut behind her, making sure that she had enough of a headstart. After it closed, Sungyeol swallowed harshly. It was now or never. And he was really considering on the “never” part and just backing away slowly from the door and leaving those two savage beasts to fend for themselves out in the cold. But, sadly, they were his friends and this was the very least that he could do for them. Sungyeol took a deep breath before he took the plunge and he unlocked the door.

Sungyeol didn’t even see the door swing open because he was already running away as fast as he could. But he could hear it slam against the wall. And he could also hear the angry shouts and curses that were dogging his every step. He could feel ice cold fingers grazing his neck, trying to grab at his collar. But Sungyeol manoevered away and picked up his pace. In the process he nearly stumbled over a chair. He managed to dodged it, narrowly. Since he was close to it, he kicked it over, hoping that it would trip up one of his pursuers. Judging by a piercing yelp, it did. Sungyeol smiled in triumph, but his heart was hammering away in his chest. His breath was getting shorter and shorter. He didn’t know how much longer he could last.

“SUNGYEOL-AH!”

A voice of an angel, his savoir! “Yeol, get in!” Kate yelled. She had gotten a taxi with the time Sungyeol had given her. She was already inside, but she was leaning halfway out of the car with her hand stretching out towards Sungyeol. And he took it. She pulled him inside, and the door closed behind. He was safe. He collapsed onto Kate as he tried to regain his breath. They were both safe from those monsters, the fox and the wolf.

Woohyun and Sunggyu were panting heavily as they watched the taxi slowly peel away from the curb and travel down the street at a snail’s pace. They could easily overtake it, but there was really no point to pursue it. They gave the other two enough of a fright. Those two would apologize the next time they’d all meet. And that was probably the most that Sunggyu could hope for.

But this situation that he was in now was more than he’d hoped for, much more. First of all, he had a throbbing pain in his shin from when Sungyeol had kicked a chair at him. That’ll bruise . So he was walking around with a slight limp as he made his way back into the restaurant. Second, he realized that along with his friends, the rest of the group had also left. All that remained was him and Woohyun, who was picking up the fallen chair, putting it back in its place, and then began to work on restoring the dining room to it’s usual state, removing any trace of the meeting. Sunggyu wished he could too, but...Third, he and Woohyun had talked, a lot. It was what Sunggyu had wanted to happen, what he’d hoped for. However, he had planned on what he’d say to Woohyun, what he’d ask of him, but Sunggyu never planned on what to do afterwards, what to do with this awkward silence and thick tension, and how to ask for his sweatshirt back. But he knew where to start.

“I’m sorry,” Sunggyu apologized. Before this night, Sunggyu never imagined saying those words to Woohyun (or at least not genuinely), but now, he didn’t know what else to say besides that.

“For what?” Apparently Woohyun hadn’t expected it either. He stopped what he was doing as he asked, literally freezing in position, still crouched over the table and about to pick up a discarded spoon.

Sunggyu nervously pulled at the ends of his sleeves. How was he supposed to answer? ‘For getting us locked outside’? ‘For spitting up all over you’? ‘For cutting you out of the project’? ‘For thinking so little of you this entire time’? ‘For everything’? Any one of those would be better than what he’d actually said. “Stuff,” he grumbled through barely opened lips.

Woohyun took it though and the spoon from the table; he did so with a small smile. “I’m sorry for stuff too,” he said back. It sounded like he meant it, and he wasn’t just teasing Sunggyu (oh, Woohyun was still poking fun at him though).

Sunggyu grinned too. That was easy, and so was the silence that now fell between them. No longer tense, just easy. Sunggyu hobbled over and helped him to clear the tables and to divide the large table back down to separate ones. He’d wished that this easiness would start being the new normal for them, no more struggling, no more butting heads, just smooth sailing from here on in.

Sadly, that didn’t seem like it was going to happen. Sunggyu’s stomach rumbled loudly, impossible to ignore although he tried. Woohyun didn’t though. “You hungry?” he teased. They had just put the last table into its original place.

“No,” Sunggyu tried to brush the matter away. But his stomach was a bigger traitor than either Kate or Sungyeol, and it angrily rumbled again. “Maybe a little,” he confessed with a nervous laugh.

“Me too. Let’s get something to eat.”

In spite of being at a restaurant, there was no food leftover from the meeting, and Woohyun (and Sunggyu) would rather not bother his parents into making some more. Instead, the two of them left and went to a store nearby, opting for ramyun, something cheap yet substantial to fill them up. But ramyun wasn’t enough for Sunggyu. He had nothing all night besides beer and almost a soju wrap. Now that he’d found his appetite again, he found a lot of it. He grabbed several pieces of triangle kimbap and filled his ramyun cup with water before joining Woohyun at the counter, who was already stirring his noodles.

“Who eats as much as a wrestler at this hour?” Woohyun remarked after seeing the pile of kimbap laying next to Sunggyu’s cup.

Sunggyu picked up one and began unwrapping it. “I’m not giving you one,” he spoke in a singsong voice. He then took a big bite before speaking with his mouth full, “This is all mine.” He glanced over and smiled at Woohyun’s saddened face. Sunggyu was beginning to (truly) see through Woohyun’s ploys better. He was becoming as easy to read as the instructions on cup ramyun (well, Sunggyu thought he could read Woohyun that easily before, but it had turned out that Woohyun’s instructions were in a completely different language).

“Kimchi,” Woohyun interjected. “Buy Kimchi.” Sunggyu looked over at him, interested, but kept eating. Woohyun continued, “I want to buy one, but I don’t have 500 won. Ramyun without kimchi is like bread without red bean and cabbage wrap without pork and chicken without pickled radish.” He then paused and cocked his head. “What else is there?” Sunggyu didn’t answer in words but instead dug through his pockets and slammed a 500 won coin onto the counter. “Thank you,” Woohyun chirped as he left to go buy his beloved kimchi.

Sunggyu eyes followed that blonde mop of hair until they couldn’t anymore. He then faced the window and threw his head back. “This is so good,” he exhaled as he finished his first piece of kimbap. He didn’t know if it was the brand or the fact that he’d been starving, but that was the best kimbap he’d ever had.

Woohyun soon came back with a small packet of kimchi. He plopped it onto the counter and peeled off the lid. “Bon appetit,” he mumbled as he took out a piece and put it into his mouth. He hummed, completely content. While he was busy eating, Sunggyu reached over to take a piece of kimchi as well. Woohyun had caught him doing so out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t eat that,” he warned and pulled the packet away from the other’s reach. “It’s mine.”

Sunggyu glared at him “I paid for it,” he argued.

“You bought it for me, so it belongs to me,” Woohyun retorted.

“Then we can share,” Sunggyu stated, not even waiting for the other to respond before he tore of the lid from his cup ramyun and began putting his share of the kimchi on it.

“Split it exactly in half,” Woohyun interjected. He then took some from Sunggyu’s pile and put it back into the packet. “You took too much.”

“Ah, wait,” Sunggyu whined as he now tried in earnest to divide it more evenly between them. “Okay,” he muttered when he was done. The two of them ate for a few seconds while looking each other up and down, making sure that the whole food issue was settled. After no other move was made, Sunggyu gave a short chuckle. “You must be really strapped for cash if you don’t have 500 won for kimchi,” it wasn’t until after he’d blurted that out was when he realized it wasn’t an appropriate thing to say.

But a lot of inappropriate things were said by both parties that night, and so Woohyun wasn’t even fazed by the remark. “It’s because of you,” he replied. Sunggyu stopped chewing and looked over at him. “I was thinking that I’d get the business school scholarship to pay for my classes next semester, but because you’re the top student, you’ll get it,” Woohyun explained with a heavy sigh.

“Can’t your parents help you pay for it?” Sunggyu asked.

Woohyun shook his head. “I don’t want them too,” he answered. “They should invest more in the restaurant instead, so I told them I could handle it. I told them not to worry. I’d get a scholarship.” Woohyun then looked over at Sunggyu and heaved another great sigh. “I lied,” he muttered before slurping up his noodles.

“There are probably other opportunities and scholarships…” Sunggyu began.

“Like being Kang’s research assistant?” Woohyun cut him off. Sunggyu swallowed his food down harshly. “Yea, I was counting on that too. I had been talking to her all semester, trying to get on her good side. I thought that I had an ‘in’ after reffing for her daughter’s games, but no,” he mumbled. He put down his chopsticks and gave Sunggyu that fake, fragile smile. “I couldn’t pay for school because of you, so you could at least buy me 500 won worth of kimchi.”

Sunggyu winced. I didn’t even let him have all of that . Sunggyu inhaled sharply. No, he shouldn’t let the other guilt him (too much) for being a better student or for having better luck. “Well, at least you have Myungsoo,” he retorted.

“Yes, thank god for Kim Myungsoo and god damn Kim Sunggyu.”

“Fine!” Sunggyu finally gave in, pushing his share of the kimchi over to Woohyun.”You can have all of it!”

“Thank you!” Woohyun took the lid from the other happily. And then he reached over again to take the last piece of triangle kimbap. “I’ll just take this too.”

Sunggyu slapped his wrist. “Don’t push your luck.”

If Sunggyu thought talking about financial matter was crossing a line, he’d forgotten that they’d crossed a gaping ravine earlier. It was only natural that Woohyun would want to return to it: “So you like guys?”

They had just thrown out their trash and were now walking out of the store. “Yea,” Sunggyu replied casually. He looked the other up and down and cocked his head. “But I have high standards. Really high. You probably couldn’t reach them even if you tried, shorty,” he joked.

“Shorty?” Woohyun repeated with a scoff. “Fine, I’m short. But I’m all handsome,” he gave in partially. Sunggyu raised an eyebrow at him. Woohyun snorted at that. “Whatever. It’s not like I’d be interested in a guy like you anyway,” he remarked.

Sunggyu stopped in his tracks. “Why not?” he blurted out.

Woohyun faced him and coyly replied, “Do you want me to like you, or not?”

Before this night, Sunggyu had always wanted to hit Woohyun for saying things like that, but it wasn’t until this night when Sunggyu realized Woohyun said those things, begging to be hit. Sunggyu stomped up to the other and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “You say some really weird things,” he spoke through gritted teeth as he did so.

“It’s fun,” Woohyun excused himself. And for that, Sunggyu hit him again.

“ This is fun,” Sunggyu retorted and hit the other for a third time. “This is a lot of fun,” he said happily now hitting the other a bit harder.

“You’re a bully,” Woohyun whined and then threatened, “I’m going to tell my mom!”

“What?” Sunggyu blubbered and froze with his fist still in the air.

Woohyun grinned because he’d successfully stopped the other. He rubbed his arm gingerly. “It hurts a bit,” he said with a pout.

Sunggyu reached over and pat where he’d hit. “Sorry,” he apologized.

Woohyun dropped his hand, stuffing them into the pockets of the borrowed hoodie. Sunggyu stuffed his into his jean pockets, almost the same but still different. Woohyun smirked for a second but it fell away. “You’ve been saying that a lot tonight,” he murmured.

“Well, I got a lot to be sorry for,” Sunggyu admitted as he began walking again. Woohyun followed, soon joining his side. “I’m a big enough man to admit when I am wrong,” he spoke coolly.

“Ooh!” Woohyun exclaimed, impressed. But then he clicked his tongue as he leaned forward, tilting his head sideways in order to get a good look at the other. “Yea, I guess you are pretty big, especially around here” Woohyun concluded, gesturing with his hands around the stomach.

“Yah!” Sunggyu shouted, raising his fist again, but Woohyun had sprinted up the street.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Woohyun yelled back as he ran. However he ran to only at far at the corner of the block, and there he waited for the elder to catch up with him, which he eventually did. Sunggyu was walking at a leisurely pace and slowly enough to calm down by the time he’d reached Woohyun. Once they were together again, they turned the corner and Woohyun tried to start up the conversation again: “You know, this is probably the most we’ve ever talked to each other. Tonight.”

“I guess so,” Sunggyu mumbled. He wasn’t quite sure how to continue off of that. Guess at why they hadn’t talked more? No, they both knew why. Should he say that he enjoyed it? Well, Sunggyu didn’t enjoy all of it. It was probably best for him to say nothing more on the matter. And so the conversation had died almost as soon as Woohyun had tried to breath life into it again.

Woohyun laughed nervously. “And I just ruined it by saying that,” he stated.

“Do you ever think before speaking?” Sunggyu teased the other, laughing along with him.

Woohyun shook his head. “Not always.”

“It’ll get you into trouble one day,” Sunggyu warned him.

“It already has,” Woohyun revealed. “Almost,” he quickly added after that. Sunggyu kept silent, wanting the other to elaborate, and that silence was more than enough of an invitation for Woohyun: “I told my mom once that I’d marry any girl of her choosing. Just pick a girl out, and I’d marry her on the spot.”

Sunggyu sputtered, chuckling as he asked, “Why would you say something like that?”

“To show that I trust her? Make her happy?” he guessed with a shrug of her shoulders. “I don’t know. It just came out.”

“What did she say?” Sunggyu was caught up in the story. “Some moms would jump on that chance.” He knew that his would.

Woohyun smiled broadly. “Not mine,” he bragged. “She knows when I’m saying for the sake of it, when I get carried away with the mood. Haven’t you ever done that before?” he asked the other. Sunggyu looked up, trying to sort through his memories, searching for an instance. He was sure that he had. His mouth was big and his lips were loose. Several instances came up in his search, but none appropriate enough to tell Woohyun whose mouth was as big as his, if not bigger (his lips surely were, so judging by those...). Woohyun, however, took Sunggyu’s silence wrongly. “Is it only me?”

“No, I have too,” Sunggyu tried to assure him. “My mouth has gotten me in trouble a lot!” That prodding was all he needed for a decent example to come to mind: “I had this pair of pants that I liked. Hip-hop pants. Do you remember those?”

“Yea, a little,” Woohyun replied.

“Well, I liked them. Wore them a lot. But my mom hated them. She said that I looked like I popped my pants,” he grumbled lowly at the last part, recollecting the same contempt that he felt back then. But it had made Woohyun laugh, which caused him to as well. “I know, right? She didn’t understand fashion,” he joked.

“Ah,” Woohyun hummed knowingly. “So that’s where you get it from, your fashion sense.”

“Sh!” Sunggyu hushed him and tried to rub away the cheeky smile from the other’s face (Woohyun had dodged him though). “Anyway, where was I? Oh, yea, she threw out my pants,” Sunggyu continued his story. “And so, to get revenge, I threw out her make-up. I know. It was bad of me. What made it even worse was that when she asked what happened to her make-up, I said my noona used it all. I didn’t even think about it. It just came out. And then she had to buy a new set for my mom.”

Woohyun rolled his eyes and pointed out, “That’s not really your mouth getting you into trouble, but your sister.”

“Right,” Sunggyu mumbled. He looked up again and the night sky, this time stopping (or that might be because Woohyun had stopped walking first). “When did I get in trouble…” his voice drifted off as searched again through his mind’s eye.

“If you come up with one, tell me later, okay? Don’t hurt yourself now trying to think of one,” Woohyun joked through a yawn. And when his hand covering his mouth fell down, it rested on a doorknob. It was his house. They were standing in front of Woohyun’s house. When did we get here? “I’m getting sleepy,” Woohyun added.

Sunggyu’s eyes fell from the door and onto his watch. The two of them had stayed out for longer than he expected. “When did it get this late?” he thought out loud.

“I don’t know,” Woohyun replied. Sunggyu looked up from his watch to the other’s face. Woohyun was just as at a loss as he was. But Sunggyu wondered if they were at a loss over the same matter. For Sunggyu, he didn’t quite know how to say goodbye. He had unintentionally walked Woohyun home, Nam Woohyun. And they had spent most of the evening alone, but it wasn’t a date. No it was far from it, which was why he was so confused about how to put an end to the evening. Should stay until Woohyun went inside? Or was Woohyun going to wait to go inside until Sunggyu left? The both of them were hovering and with their gazes flitting everywhere but on each other.

“I’ll see you at school, okay?” Woohyun hesitated as he finished the statement, staggering through it. He opened the door, but would not step inside.

I guess I would leave then . Sunggyu drew a tight lipped smile across his face and nodded. “Okay,” he agreed. He then began walking down the street, waving at the other. “Bye, Woohyun.”

“Bye, Sunggyu,” Woohyun said back, waving and watching the elder walk down the street. Curious, Sunggyu walked backwards, waving at the other all the while, wondering how long Woohyun would do the same. And they kept awkwardly waving at each other until Sunggyu had turned the corner. What is this? A waving contest? He chuckled to himself at that, while he crossed his arms over his chest. It had gotten cold all the sudden. “My sweatshirt!” Sunggyu ran back to the corner and peered down Woohyun’s street. “Oh, now you go inside!”

Kim Sunggyu might’ve understood Nam Woohyun a bit better that night, but Woohyun was still irritating, just in different ways now.