sixty seconds is enough for our story.

“Howon!”

Sunggyu’s bright voice pierces through the low, gray clouds in the sky. Howon spins around, a smile already forming on his face.

“What about it, hyung?” he asks proudly, opening his arms to show off his new medal. The pure glee in Sunggyu’s laugh has his eyes squeezed into crescents and body trembling to resist from pouncing upon someone - Howon, specifically.

“So, ing, proud!” Sunggyu manages to squeal, finally giving into his urges and crushing Howon’s bones in a huge hug.

“Hyung, hyung,” Howon laughs, wincing with the pain of pulling himself away. “You’re going to kill me before anything else.”

Sunggyu slaps him on the back, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry,” he says, but Howon knows he’s not. He couldn’t be less sorrier, because Howon just won the state championships for the hundred-meter dash, and Sunggyu is never going to stop bragging about it.

“Let’s go out for something good,” he says now, eyes flashing with excitement. “We haven’t hung out since forever.”

Howon finds himself nodding. “Yeah,” he agrees. “I call shotgun!”

Sunggyu gives him a long-suffering look. “Yes,” he says snippily. “I know. I’m the one with the license.”

--

“I’m so in love with him,” the sobbing voice crackles over the radio, “and he just doesn’t know, and even if he did, he would hate me, so I just… I don’t know what to do, but it hurts. It hurts.”

“Oh, caller, I’m so sorry…” Even the DJ has no words of comfort. He’s heard all sorts of confessions before, but it’s always the unrequited loves that get him. Especially, like right now, the ones that are taboo.

The agonized crying on the other end of the line quiets down to a heartbroken sniffling, and the DJ says, gently, “I believe, caller, that you will find someone who deserves your love, be it him or someone else, because you deserve the world, dear. I believe, wholeheartedly, that the Lord above will save your heart. Are you feeling a bit better now, dear?”

“Yeah,” the caller says quietly, voice stuffy and still breaking. “A little. Thank you.”

Regretfully, the DJ hangs up, but leaves a few last words of encouragement. He goes through the rest of the show a bit absentmindedly, as he always does when a call strikes him.

At the end of the night, the clock reads 1:14, and the DJ walks out into the rain. It doesn’t bother him today, and he walks home, letting the storm drench his heart.

The fates of the people who were not meant to be, and the ones who were. The reality of the prejudice of the society around them. It's part of the reason he hates having such a confession corner.

He looks up, letting the rain wash his face, and the sorrows of the caller who cried.

--

“Hyung.”

Howon’s quiet voice penetrates the multitude of thoughts in Sunggyu’s head.

“What?” he asks, looking up with a start. Howon’s face is oddly blank, and he sits down in the seat opposite Sunggyu, not beside, as he usually does. Sunggyu’s eyebrows furrow, and he opens his mouth to ask, but Howon cuts him off.

“Yesterday, I was listening to the radio,” he says, and Sunggyu can already see where this is going. “It was late at night, and I was dancing, and I accidentally kicked the knob, so it turned to a different channel, and I heard someone crying.”

“No.” Sunggyu is already half out of his seat. “I don’t know what you’re here for. Howon, I need to study.”

Howon stands up, eyes flashing with more anger than Sunggyu had ever seen, and Sunggyu stops. The entire library is looking at them, and Sunggyu sits down, trying to calm his erratic breathing. The beating of his heart drowns out everything else - everything but Howon.

“And it was you,” he continues softly, as if nothing had happened. “You were crying, and you were in love, still are in love, and you’re hurting.” He looks into Sunggyu’s eyes; Sunggyu looks away. “Hyung, tell me what’s wrong. If there’s something I can help with, I want to help.”

“You can’t.” Sunggyu can’t help the way his voice becomes strained, the way his words become clipped. He can’t help the tears that prick behind his eyelids, the barrage of pain that attacks his heart. He just can’t.

“Hyung!”

The library is staring again, this time in annoyance as Sunggyu walks away and Howon’s voice is too loud. And to be honest, Sunggyu couldn’t care less. Not when he’s like this.

--

“hyung. seriously. whats wrong?”

“hyung i dont want to know who it is, i just want to hlep.”

“help* hyung why are you ignoring me”

“did i make you mad? im sorry hyung but please let me help you”

Oh, Howon. Sunggyu turns off his phone and pulls his knees up to his chest. He hates the fetal position. It makes him feel vulnerable. But tonight, tonight he craves it. He wants the comfort in knowing that he’s flawed, wants the hurt that batters the fragile pieces of his heart.

He wants to cry.

But Kim Sunggyu does not cry, will not cry, has not cried since middle school, until that night on the radio confession.

And the sobs burst out of him, wrenching his breath away with a twisting pain that can only come with love - and Howon.

Oh, baby. It can’t be over like this.

--

Sunggyu doesn’t leave his room for the entire weekend. His parents think he’s studying his head off. His friends think he’s being a lazy . Howon thinks…

Who knows what Howon thinks, and who cares?

Sunggyu growls, throat sore and eyes red. A hiccup wracks his body, and he can’t help the whimper that rushes out, the tears that drip onto the exam book. Ink runs, and for the second time that day, Sunggyu cries.

--

As soon as school starts again - it’s only been two days - Howon grabs Sunggyu’s sleeve, whirling him around in the crowded hallway.

“H-hyung,” he stutters, shocked. Sunggyu has never looked worse, and Howon worries that he might have fallen sick. Sunggyu only glares at him, a pathetic, exhausted look mustered from all the strength he could spare.

Howon follows Sunggyu around the school that day. What did you do to yourself? You stayed up too late studying again, didn’t you? Hyung, I told you not to stay inside too much. I’m sorry if I made you mad. Can we leave that behind? I won’t tell anyone, I swear. Hyung, please just look at me. You’re still mad, aren’t you? You are. I would leave you alone, but I’m worried about you.

Finally, at the end of the day, after all the students have dispersed, Sunggyu turns around, hair blowing in the wind, eyes narrowed to slits.

“You’re asking all the wrong questions, Howon,” he says, voice trembling. Howon is taken aback, shocked into silence. It’s the first time he’s ever seen, heard, Sunggyu so vulnerable, so honest, so- so open.

“Then what should I ask, hyung?” he says, softly. The wind rises, and low, gray clouds close in. Sunggyu closes his eyes, turns away.

“You shouldn’t ask anything at all,” he whispers. The wind carries his words away, but Howon hears them anyway. He hears the resignation in Sunggyu’s voice, the lifelessness, the hurt.

And he doesn’t know what’s wrong.

let’s not fall in love.