“Do I have to go?” I whined. I genuinely wanted to stay home and just watch movies and eat my weight in buttery popcorn and not go to some stupid annual work party that Jongup's family always threw. It was going to be stupid and full of adults that were way older than me and their children that would be way younger than me.

“Daehyun, you're making this way worse than it's going to be. I promise.” Jongup sternly replied. “There will be other people there around our ages besides Jonghyun* and myself. I invited some of my old friends from when I was younger, so they might be there too. They're just a little bit older than myself.”

“But I don't know them...” I whined unnecessarily.

“Get to know them then. There's going to be an unhealthy amount of food,” he teased.

“Ugh,” I complained. I knew that any argument I made would be invalid, because as soon as Jongup said the word “food” my stomach growled so loud that my mother probably heard it all the way downstairs, reminding me that I hadn't ate all day, because I was saving room for the big party later in the evening.

I don’t want to be here. I thought to myself once we had arrived. I was suddenly unsure that food would be worth this chaotic mess. Cars were lined up on either side of the street, piled bumper to bumper. I was curious how so many people could fit into Jongup’s average sized house.

“You’ll be fine, I promise.” Jongup reassured me as soon as he saw the worried expression on my face. “If you get overwhelmed for whatever reason you can always go lock yourself in my bedroom for a few minutes to calm yourself.”

His phone chimed from his pocked and he took it out to see what it was and he smiled at his phone, “Junhong is here.” The stupid grin on his face lead me to believe that he got a smart- text from Junhong asking why he wasn’t at his own party yet.

I still don’t understand why Jongup’s family feels the need to throw such a huge work party. Being at a party with hundreds of my coworkers seems like a nightmare I wouldn’t go within twenty miles of. I could understand parties with a purpose, but this was just for surviving another year of working with each other. To me, it made no sense to have a party this large over nothing. Maybe a party this size when Jongup graduated, but that was only a maybe.

As we walked up to the house, I noticed that miraculously their driveway was free of all cars, but the cars were replaced with about fifteen children under the age of ten, screaming and chasing each other with fireworks, some that got dangerously close to the garage doors. Not only was I now concerned for my mental health from being around so many people, I was now concerned for my physical health because the young children were left unsupervised to play with fireworks.

We walked through the yard, past the driveway, narrowly avoiding a bottle rocket which breezed just past my nose. I followed Jongup to the house, and once we  entered the house it was a mixture of cool air from the fans and the air conditioning but it also felt hot from so many people being crammed into the small open spaces. Once we got upstairs we found all of the adults standing around with beer cans in their hands, some were at least attempting to keep an eye on the children in the driveway, but others couldn’t care less. Some of the adults were sitting around the large TV that sat at the opposite side of the room, trying to fill their children up with more sugar, as if they needed more excuses to run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

The dining room which normally was home to a rather large table and eight chairs to match were now replaced with two fold-out tables about the same length as the normal table. The table closest to the living room was filled with plastic plates and silverware. It also had napkins and red plastic cups which were  next to a giant bowl filled with what appeared to be a fruity drink of some sort. The other table, which is the one my eyes instantly darted to was filled with an assortment of finger foods and snacks.

At the other end of the tables were the fancy, french doors that lead back outside to the newly built deck that Jongup’s father had added only a few weeks prior. More people stood on the deck, casually chatting amongst each other. On the side of the deck were stairs that lead down into the yard where Jongup’s father stood proudly next to a rather large grill that I had never seen before, but on the grill was a whole pig, just roasting away. His mother stood next to his father, starting small conversations with anyone who would come up to her.

Jongup started walking towards the door and I was quick to follow behind him so I wouldn’t be left alone with a bunch of strangers. He quickly waved to his parents to let them know that we made it safely. I saw Jongup’s older brother, Jonghyun out in the yard playing with a few older kids, the Moon family were all extremely active people so I wasn’t surprised that one of them would be keeping up with some of the children.

I turned back around and went straight for the food, I felt like I was starving. I hadn’t ate anything all day just for this. I put at least a little bit of each dish onto two different plates simply to make sure that nothing was left untouched. Once my plates were filled to my satisfaction, Jongup promptly filled his one plate with his favorite foods and we grabbed drinks from the packed refrigerator and walked back outside where the children were allowed to roam freely. Luckily for me, the children were being rounded up by their parents because the pig had just finished roasting and I assumed the parents wanted to make sure that their kids were well fed.

We carefully set our plates down on the ground, sitting next to them, but above the drive way with our legs dangling freely below us. I started eating immediately after sitting down, but a pair of strangers walked up to Jongup and started a conversation with them that I didn’t bother listening to because, well, food.

I did notice that the taller one with a goofy looking haircut that was parted down the middle seemed to be the more talkative one of the two. He was also taller than the other guy who had unnaturally red hair, but it somehow suited him. I couldn’t get a good look at the guy with the black hair, his hair fell just perfectly over his face that I couldn’t describe what he looked like at all, but redhead had a squishy face and plump lips. After a few minutes of them catching up with each other, Jongup turned to me and politely asked me to stand up.

Jongup pointed to the cute redhead, “Daehyun, this is my friend from when we were younger, Yoo Youngjae, and this,” He pointed to the guy with the black hair, “is Kim Himchan, Youngjae’s boyfriend.” Oh, so he is gay. I bowed politely and muttered a hello under my breath.

“About the whole boyfriend thing,” Youngjae spoke softly, “can you two just keep that to yourselves? My parents are here, but they don’t know about Himchan and I or that I’m gay. They might kill me if they find out.” His cheeks flushed to my favorite shade of scarlet and I nodded silently and let him know that his secret was safe with me.

“However, we probably won’t be staying too long, but it was it was nice to catch up with you, Jongup, and it was nice to meet you, Daehyun” The dorky looking one smiled at both of us before grabbing Youngjae’s wrist and walking into the house.

Once the pair walked away, I was loaded with a bunch of questions for Jongup, but I decided to keep it simple. “Okay, so how do you know them? And Youngjae is gay? He seems too cute to be gay.”

“Our parents were really close friends a long time ago, so naturally we became really close friends, but we drifted apart once we started attending different schools. And I didn’t know about Youngjae until just a few seconds before I told you. I always suspected it though.” He chuckled.

Hm.. Yoo Youngjae seemed like a very intriguing person… Will I ever see him again?

A/N: Please excuse any spelling mistakes or errors. It's 2:30 in the morning, but I can't sleep, so I decided to write and update. Keep in mind that this is going to be a story of Daehyun falling in love with Youngjae, so things will be not very DaeJae-ey for a few chapters, but stick with it, I promise I'll get there. :) xoxo