“Let’s break up.”

Sungyeol repeated. They were now inside Myungsoo’s apartment. He didn’t want to have this conversation outside. But Sungyeol started it up again once Myungsoo closed the door. He watched the other walk past him into the living room. “It’s not fair to you if I continue this because...I’m not completely faithful. Emotionally! I’m not faithful emotionally! Physically I haven’t done anything unfaithful, at least I don’t think so...” Sungyeol thought it over again. Yeah, he was probably fine, even though the swimming lessons involved a lot of hand holding and…body touching. Sungyeol looked up at the other, whose back was still turned against him. Myungsoo was lost. Sungyeol walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “It doesn’t mean that I don’t care for you! I do! You’re my best friend! I do love you, but...I don’t think that I’m...in love with you.”

Myungsoo finally looked over at him again. He blinked. He blinked again and again. And when he accepted that this was really happening, Myungsoo fell into a nearby chair. “Woah.”  Sungyeol knelt by his side, pleading, “Myungsoo, I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry, like you don’t even know how sorry I am. You are the last person that I wanted to hurt.”

But Myungsoo shifted away from him. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay!” Sungyeol insisted. “Hit me!” He got onto his feet as slapped his chest. “Go ahead and hit me! I deserve it!” He shut his eyes tight and balled his fists at his side. “I’m ready.”

But all he felt was a soft pat on his thigh. “I can’t hit you.”

“Myungsoo, this is no time to be noble!” Sungyeol bellowed. “Hit me!”

“I can’t do it!” Myungsoo snapped. He crossed his arms over his chest, huffing. “Why does everyone keep…” he stopped, closed his eyes, and took in a breath to calm down. It didn’t work. He groaned and ruffled his hair. Sungyeol watched him carefully, not knowing what to do. They’ve never broken up before. But Myungsoo still insisted, “Sungyeol, it’s fine.” Once again with a soft touch at his thigh.

“Are you sure?”

Myungsoo finally looked up at him. “Yes, let’s break up.” He then got up. Sungyeol stumbled backwards. “I should put the rest of the ice cream into the freezer.”

After just standing there, blinking, Sungyeol followed him into the kitchen. He leaned against the doorway, as he watched Myungsoo put in an ice cream novelty one after another into the freezer. Myungsoo caught his gaze. “They were on sale,” he mumbled and slammed the door shut.

“Are you okay?” Sungyeol asked. Myungsoo only nodded, zoning out as his freezer. Not a tear in sight. Not one beg to make things work. It was kinda aggravating. “Have you always been this complacent during break-ups?” he blurted out.

“Are you really criticizing how I’m handling this?” Myungsoo raised his voice. Yelling. His only reaction was yelling at Sungyeol.

It was weird. “Yes,” Sungyeol argued. “Myungsoo, there is no one on this ing earth who knows you better than I do. And this is not how a heartbroken Myungsoo looks.” It was all weird, Myungsoo’s behavior lately. And Sungyeol had been too wrapped up in his own ty problems to realize it. But now, he finally acknowledged it. Kim Myungsoo was being weird(er than usual).

“That might be because my heart...isn’t really broken,” Sungyeol could barely hear Myungsoo speak, probably because Myungsoo didn’t want to be heard. Myungsoo took in a deep breath and sat down at his table. “At least not yet. I’m still processing this. Hold on.” He covered his face in his hands. And Sungyeol stayed in the doorway, watching, searching for signs of what on earth the other was thinking. It became easier when Myungsoo lowered his hands and finally there were tears. Not many, just a few clouding his eyes. For some reason, that made Sugyeol finally relaxed. But Myungsoo’s next question made him stiff again, “You’re talking about Kim Sunggyu, right? That’s who you like?”

“Yes, what other Sunggyu is there? Well, except Jang Sunggyu, but you don’t know him,” Sungyeol blubbered. He then dropped his gaze to his feet. “Is it really that unbelievable?”

“No,” Myungsoo spoke. He was fidgeting with the cuffs on his sleeves as he talked, “No, not at all. It makes sense…The swimming lessons.”

Sungyeol finally lifted himself from the doorway and strode over to the other. “They were just lessons, I swear! We never did anything naughty,” he defended. “I didn’t cheat. I promise!”

Myungsoo gazed up at him and gave a tight-lipped smile. “I know. I trust you.” He then hung his head. Man, that was a deep sigh.

“Then what’s up with you?”

“Nothing,” the way Myungsoo said that didn’t sound like it was nothing. “I’m still processing,” a lie.

Sungyeol knew how to get him to talk. “We’re breaking up. I think that calls for a drink.” He went over to the fridge and pulled out a few beers.

“What?” Myungsoo sputtered into a bitter laugh. “Are we celebrating?”

“Should we be?” Sungyeol pressed as he sat down, handing the other a beer.

“Ah, well, no, but…” Myungsoo blubbered. Sungyeol drank as the other sorted out his thoughts. “I…I believe that it’s for the best. To break up…when you like someone else.” He still hadn’t opened his beer. He was just playing with it in his hands. “Did Sunggyu-ssi confess to you?”

“No, but I have a pretty good idea that he likes me back.” Sungyeol hid his smile behind the can. He really shouldn’t be happy at a moment like this, especially when Myungsoo was still ‘processing.’

Myungsoo was confused. “A pretty good idea?” he repeated. He bit his lip and cocked his head. Sungyeol was waiting for it, for the: ‘you really think giving up on us for a viritual stranger is a pretty good idea? You thought having a pet monkey was a pretty good idea. You thought investing in FTX was a pretty good idea. Your pretty good ideas !’ The smile faded. Maybe he was wrong.

“Well, then good luck, I guess,” Myungsoo mumbled. He then sighed and finally opened his drink. 

Sungyeol frowned. He might’ve been wrong about a lot of things. He probably had a .001% chance of being wrong about Sunggyu. But he definitely wasn’t wrong about Myungsoo. Something was up with him. “Yah, Kim Myungsoo,” Sungyeol called to him, making the other jump. “You’re not telling me something. Don’t deny it. Just be honest with me. Something has been up with you for a while. It’s obvious.” 

“It is?” he wasn’t even going to deny it.

Sungyeol nodded. “Look, it was really, really hard for me to tell you about how I feel because I didn’t want to hurt you, but look at us now. Aren’t we better now? We broke up, and you barely even cried.” 

“I didn’t cry,” Myungsoo combatted. “I just teared up. I just feel…” he let that drop.

“Not sad,” Sungyeol filled in.

“I don’t feel sad,” Myungsoo finally admitted. “I feel guilty. I feel guilty that I don’t feel sad, that I feel…relieved.” He confessed while his chest. “Honestly, we haven’t been…”

“Clicking?”

Myungsoo snapped his fingers. “That’s it! Clicking!” Clicking, meshing, ing, they hadn’t been doing any of that. Their ‘honeymoon’ phase lasted for two nights, and now they were just going through the motions, which is why they always felt like an old couple whose spark was on the brink of going on. They tried and tried again to turn the key and light the ignition. But the sparkplug was dead. “I really thought it would work. I was certain of it.”

Sungyeol felt relieved that Myungsoo had brought it up and not him. Their great friendship didn’t turn into the great romance that either of them was hoping for. Everything about it felt forced, as to not hurt the other’s feelings. “Even us kissing…wasn’t great.”

“It wasn’t?” Myungsoo popped up. Oh , Sungyeol had forgotten that Myungsoo wasn’t too experienced in these matters. Aside from Sungyeol, he probably dated one or two other men. And now Myungsoo seemed hurt. Out of all of the things said that night, Myungsoo got hurt by the insinuation that he wasn’t a good kisser.

“Well, was it good for you?” Sungyeol got defensive.

“I guess not,” Myungsoo grumbled. He then took a drink, while glaring at the other. “You too.” Okay, now he was being petty.

Sungyeol would let him because they were breaking up. It was the time to be petty. “You want another drink?”

“Yes, please.”

One drink led to another. It was the oddest break up that Sungyeol had ever had. Normally the drinking would be done alone, in his dark apartment. He never imagined drinking through a break up with a fresh ex, but then again, he never tried dating his best friend before…or dumping someone for that matter. It was his first time dumping and not getting dumped. It was all odd. 

However, Sungyeol wasn’t going to stop it. Myungsoo was still hiding something from him. He kept talking about feeling guilty. He’d open his mouth to speak only to close it again. Luckily for Sungyeol, Myungsoo’s drinking habit was to bark like a dog, so the truth would come out eventually. But this mad dog just kept barking about the first time that they met in college.

He was going through the nostalgia phase of the break up.

Sungyeol didn’t wanna hear about the past. He wanted to talk about the here and now. “Yah, yah, yah, Kim Myungsoo, just spit it out already,” Sungyeol slurred as he kicked the other under the table. “What aren’t you telling me? If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna, whack, bite your nose off.”

Sungyeol had some bad drinking habits of his own.

Myungsoo shook his head. “Don’t wanna.”

“Alrighty then,” Sungyeol muttered as he pulled up his sleeves. He then put his knee up on the table, getting ready to crawl on top of it. “Say goodbye to smelling, you ing erted sniffer.”

“NO!” Myungsoo cried, hiding his nose and sliding his chair across the floor. “Fine, I’ll tell you,” his voice was nasal. “While we were dating, I received a confession.”

“From who?” Sungyeol was still on top of the table, staring the other down.

Myungsoo hung his head. “From Woohyun.”

“From Woo...Nam Woohyun? That cheeky bastard! While we were dating?!” Sungyeol exclaimed, jumping from the table. He was now pacing across the floor. “Ha! Some friend.”

“He confessed, but he never once tried to break us apart, you know that. He didn’t ask for my love in return. He just asked if he could like me,” Myungsoo explained. He’d gotten up too and was trying to get Sungyeol to stop pacing. But all that was happening now was the two of them were walking circles around the small kitchen. “He told me to confess to you and not to waver. He even told me to be mean to him so that he can stop liking me.”

That made Sungyeol stop. “That cheesy, cheeky bastard,” he swore. His face twitched. “Ugh, I cringed so hard, I think I pulled a muscle.” He spun towards the other. “How did you not just…” he mimicked punching. Myungsoo just shrugged and then blushed. Sungyeol’s face twitched again. He couldn’t watch this. “Ah, I forgot. You like that stuff,” he grumbled. “Wait!” he spun back around and Myungsoo jumped up. “You like that stuff. You like cheesy s!”

“I don’t know.” So shy, so coy, so ing annoying.

“You! You bastard! You like Woohyun!” Sungyeol wasn’t really cursing at Myungsoo, but he was excited. He’d finally hit the nail on the head. Myungsoo glared at him. “Don’t give me that look!”

“You called me a bastard, you…meanie,” Myungsoo slunked off into the living room and threw himself onto the couch.

Sungyeol followed, whining, “Myungsoo!”

“You’re right, though,” Myungsoo’s voice was muffled by the cushions. “I am a…jerk.”

Sungyeol sighed and knelt by his side. “Look, I am not mad at you.” If he was, he’d be a hypocrite. “But I’m kinda pissed at Woohyun.” He flopped onto the floor. “Who the does that? I mean, it’s not hard to believe that he really said all of those things to you. The man won’t shut up. He’s the type to talk to the GPS while driving.” Sungyeol sighed. “Given that, I guess it was only a matter of time before he’d confessed. But..., he still supported us. He told you to confess to me? , he didn’t want me to break up with you, to hurt you, even when I told him that I liked Sunggyu.” Sungyeol kicked the couch out of frustration. He really wanted to be mad at Woohyun, but at the same time, he couldn’t. “He’s like the worst and greatest friend at the same time,” he grumbled. “What a ing weirdo.” He sighed and gazed up at Myungsoo who was now looking down at him. “So do you have feelings for him, or not?”

“Why do you keep asking that?” he screeched and hid his face back into the cushions. His legs were kicking the air.

Well, that was an answer enough for Sungyeol. Myungsoo did, but he was ing slow to realize them. He was always so slow. 

“I’m going to get us water,” Sungyeol stated. “You’ve had enough to drink.”

“Fine.”

The water seemed to calm Myungsoo down, even though his face was still too pink. He was sobering up. Sungyeol was too. This break up was going on for hours, the marathon of break ups. But Sungyeol had never done it before. He didn’t know when to leave.

He was only going to leave when Myungsoo was settled. So it was still too early. Especially since Myungsoo wanted to keep talking: “Sungyeol, you talked about lines earlier. But I’ve been thinking more about relationships as triangles.”

“Triangles?” Sungyeol scoffed. He’d raided the ice cream hoard in the freezer. He needed to keep up his energy for this marathon.

“What? It’s not that weird. Love triangles exist,” Myungsoo spoke through a pout.

“They do,” Sungyeol admitted. “But are we in one? It’s more like a love...pentagram. ing satanic.”

“Can you let me speak? I let you say your piece! Let me say mine!” Yep, Myungsoo wasn’t settled at all. He still needed to ‘process.’ And the best way to do it is to talk through it with someone. “The way I see it, the three of us, you and me and Woohyun, we were in a triangle, and I thought we were closer together and Woohyun was further way,” he went back to drawing diagrams in the air. “Like a scalene.”

“Our lovely third wheel,” Sungyeol interjected.

Myungsoo ignored that and continued, “But then sometimes it feels like we were an equilateral.” 

“Equilateral? The one where all sides are equal?” Sungyeol argued. “But I’m not in love with Woohyun!”

“Okay, an isosceles, an isosceles!” Myungsoo yelled. “Stop interrupting me. I forgot what I was trying to say!’

“I get you though,” Sungyeol cooed to soothe the other. “Relationships are like triangles. You’re right.” Myungsoo replied with a glare. He felt coddled. It made Sungyeol laugh. This dog would bark about anything except the thing that mattered. ing lines and shape metaphors! They were accountants! Not geometry professors! But if that’s how Myungsoo was processing this, then Sungyeol was going to help him out. “You know, all triangles add up to 180 degrees, a straight line.”

Myungsoo flipped onto his side. “Yeah so.”

“I’m taking myself out of your triangle, so you’re left with a straight line between the both of you,” Sungyeol stated and got up. He wagged his empty ice cream wrapper at the other. “Sort out your feelings carefully. I destroyed your love triangle, but I don’t want you to ruin my circle of friends!”

Myungsoo sat up and nodded. “That’s what I’m trying to avoid. This whole time,” he grumbled. He then looked up at the other. He frowned. “You leaving?”

“Yeah, I think we’ve said everything that needed to be said,” Sungyeol gave up on ‘settling’ Myungsoo for now. That slowpoke processed slower than a computer from the 1980s. It wasn’t going to happen tonight.

“Not everything.”

Uh oh. Sungyeol faced him with a nervous smile. “What is it?”

“Was Sunggyu-ssi that drunk guy in the video?”

Sungyeol blabbered. “Ho-how did you know?”

“I have a type and so do you,” Myungsoo replied with a twinkle in his eye. “Besides, you came here rambling about fate and timing. I knew something was up. You never talked about those things before.”

“Well,” Sungyeol started. “The timing ing . He searched for me for four months and found me two days after we got together,”

“Four months?!” Myungsoo exclaimed with his mouth agape.

“It wasn’t a constant search,” Sungyeol gave him the same lame excuse that Sunggyu did earlier that night.

“I know, but he’s Woohyun’s best friend and we’re…”

“He’s a moron, okay? He’s the smartest moron that I know,” Sungyeol interjected. “He uses ing big and pretentious words but couldn’t figure out who I was.”

Myungsoo stood up and put a hand on the other’s shoulder. He leaned in and whispered into his ear, “But you didn’t figure out who he was either.” He pulled away with a smirk.

But Sungyeol wasn’t smiling. “Let’s break up.”

“Done.”

Sungyeol: Hey, do still you want to play golf next weekend? I need to reserve a tee-time.

Woohyun: Sure, but I’m not betting this time.

Sungyeol: You’re no fun.

Woohyun: You just want my money.

Sungyeol: Of course! I need to feed Aga somehow.

Sungyeol: By the way, Myungsoo and I broke up.

Sungyeol: How’s 9:15 am on Saturday?

(15 minutes later) Woohyun: k

Woohyun was flipping out. He didn’t know what to say or do. He stared at his phone, open and closed KKT to make sure it wasn’t a glitch. Yup, Sungyeol actually wrote that. And so Woohyun wrote the best reply that he could think of and tossed the phone across his bed, which then bounced and fell off.

“!”

Woohyun rolled off the bed and rushed to the window. Myungsoo was coming back from his morning jog, looking all flushed and sweaty, in those form fitting running clothes, which were now clinging onto his well-defined…“! , !” Woohyun cursed and pulled down the blinds. He closed all of the blinds in his apartment, turned off the lights, and hid in a corner underneath his blanket.

He had his phone with him, which now had a small crack on the screen. But he didn’t even notice that. He just made a call to his brother-in-arms in this tumultuous love war they’d been waging.

They were now about to enter into no-man’s land.

“I’m charging you by the minute, so make this cry a quick one,” Sunggyu immediately said as he picked up the phone.

Woohyun ignored it and cut to the chase: “They broke up.”

“Huh?”

“Myungsoo and Sungyeol broke up!” Woohyun hissed in a low whisper as if his neighbor across the way could actually hear him.

“Hold on, I’m almost in my apartment,” Sunggyu whispered right back. Woohyun could then hear his friend politely greet the grandma next door, before going into his apartment and closing the door. “What the did you just say? Sungyeol and Myungsoo broke up?”
“Yup, Myungsoo and Sungyeol broke up.”

“Sungyeol and Myungsoo broke up,” no matter how many times the both of them said it, it somehow wasn’t it making it through their dense skulls. “When?” 

“I don’t know. Sungyeol just texted me about it, when we were making plans to play golf,” Woohyun whispered. Sunggyu cussed under his breath. That guy was writing his own modern Catullus 16. “What should I do?”

“What should you do? What should I do?” Sunggyu whispered back. Why was he whispering too.

“Hey! I asked first!” Woohyun yelled and stood up. He now looked like a ghost, haunting his own apartment.

“Well, I guess it depends on Who broke up with whom?” Sunggyu mused. “Do you know?”

“I don’t know,” Woohyun whined, slumping back down onto the floor.  “Should I ask?”

“NO!” Sunggyu bellowed. “We should just wait. Eventually they’ll…”

“They’ll what?” Woohyun eagerly broke in.

“ if I know,” Sunggyu spoke with a sigh.

“You’re right. We should wait,” Woohyun concluded, nodding to himself. “I’m just going to do nothing. Absolutely nothing.” And he was going to try to say nothing either…if he could help it. Maybe he should tape his mouth shut. Yeah, and he could cover it with a mask and no one would notice. That could work.

“Then same here. I’m going to do absolutely nothing,” Sunggyu agreed. Then he thought about it a bit more, “But wait…what if they do nothing too?”

“We do nothing first, and if they do nothing too, then we do something.”

“Okay, what?”

Woohyun groaned, “We’ll cross that bridge once we get there.” He didn’t have all of the answers! He was already having a hard enough time staying in his own apartment. Not now that he knew that Myungsoo was home…probably taking a shower…people tend to do that . “Ugh.” Woohyun hit his head against the wall again and again and again.

Sunggyu was too wrapped up in his thoughts to even notice the soft thudding on the other end of the line: “Fair enough. But for now, nothing.”

“Right. Nothing.” And try to think about nothing, Nam Woohyun.

…what kind of soap does Myungsoo use?

“Woohyun,” Sunggyu wasn’t yelling his name, but Woohyun reacted like he did. “Would going over to, you know, a certain chicken place count as something?”

“Yes!” Woohyun barked. What was Sunggyu thinking?

“But what if it’s just because I really want some chicken.” Woohyun was starting to think that the man really had a crush on the chicken from the ramyun packet.

“Order in or go to those 50 other chicken places that you know! One of them has got to be better anyway. It isn’t hard to be,” Woohyun ranted. “Let’s be real. We go there more for the service than for the chicken. It’s a bit dry.”

“Wh-what? DRY?!” Sunggyu huffed. “You’re dry, Nam Woohyun. Like the ing Sahara Desert.”

Woohyun sighed. “I know.” 

“You think tonkatsu needs to look black for it to be done!”
“That was one time!” Woohyun yelled. You post one bad dish on instagram, and then all of the sudden you’re ‘an awful cook’ who ‘burns things’ and ‘doesn’t know the difference between serrated knife and a butter knife.’ And then your friend (Sunggyu) sends it to Gordon Ramsey to critique you. “Get off my ing back!”

“Sorry, it’s just…” Sunggyu let out a deep sigh. He was just as exasperated, lost like Woohyun. “I don’t like this. I don’t like not being able to do anything.”

“But they need time,” Woohyun reasoned and pulled off the blanket. He stood up. “What if they get back together? Say it was a mistake?”

“Fine. You’re right, they could,” Sunggyu gave in. “I’ll do nothing. Stay home alone and do nothing.”

Woohyun was gathering his things and putting on his shoes. “How about we do nothing together?” he couldn’t really trust Sunggyu to just do nothing. Their definitions of ‘nothing’ could be two entirely different things.

“Good!” Sunggyu liked that idea. “My place or yours?”

“Your place! Definitely your place.”

And Woohyun couldn’t trust himself being a stone’s throw away from Kim Myungsoo, no matter what state of dress he was in.

As it would turn out, Myungsoo had been and taking a shower. But he still felt grody, even though he scrubbed down his body and shampooed his hair twice. It wasn’t enough to wash away the dirt of guilt from him. He’d been feeling this way for a long time, even before the previous night. Running didn’t help. Cleaning his whole apartment didn’t help. It didn’t seem like anything would.

Sungyeol was always so honest, too honest. Myungsoo loved it and hated it, but most of all, he was envious of it. It wasn’t like Myungsoo was a liar, but he always liked to be certain, completely certain. And being certain took time. 

Did he like Woohyun? Honestly, Myungsoo couldn’t be certain of it. The man was definitely pulling his heart into that direction. But was it just because of the confession? Was it because Woohyun was pitiful? Sweet? y?

Myungsoo had thought he was certain that he still loved Sungyeol, as ardently as he did in college. Being in love with Sungyeol, he thought it was part of his character. But if that were true, how could he be so swayed by a man that he met not even a year ago? 

How could he feel so relieved at the words ‘Let’s break up’?

No, he had to be completely certain this time. Woohyun deserved certainty.

Now, what did Myungsoo have to do to be certain? What problem would he have to work out? More triggernometry? Line graphing? Maybe he had his old graphing calculator somewhere. 

As he searched for it, he noticed something move outside his window. 

“Oh, it’s Nam Woohyun!”

Myungsoo ran outside of his apartment. “Hyung! Woohyun-hyung!” he shouted across the rooftop. The man at the other side froze and went pale. Myungsoo laughed. “Hyung, it’s me. Over here!”

Woohyun creakily spun towards him and gave a mechanical wave. “Oh, Myungsoo-ssi. Hello.” His voice sounded robotic too.

Myungsoo sighed. Woohyun was guarded, of course he was. So as much as he knew, Myungsoo was still a taken man. Maybe Woohyun would ease up if he knew: “Sungyeol and I broke up.”

“I heard,” Woohyun didn’t loosen up. He walked stiff legged over to the edge of the rooftop. “Sungyeol told me, in a text.”

“Oh,” Myungsoo muttered. Okay, yeah, it made sense for Sungyeol to tell Woohyun. Woohyun was his friend first. Myungsoo eyed the other suspiciously. But that didn’t really explain why Woohyun was being so stiff and avoidant. “Where are you heading off to?”

Woohyun pointed off into the distance. “I’m going over to Sunggyu’s,” he announced. He then started to walk away. “He doesn’t like waiting, so…”

What a second maybe Woohyun is putting distance between them because…“Are you two together? Like dating?” Myungsoo shouted, gripping the edge of the railing tightly.

“No!” Woohyun took a couple of paces back and faced the other. He at least looked more lively now as he was shouting across the alley, “No, we're not! Why do people keep asking that? We’ve never dated! We will never date! We’re just...hanging out.”

“Okay, I understand,” Myungsoo took it in. He’d evaluate it later. He then leaned over the railing. “What are you doing…”

“Good have a night!!” Woohyun shouted as he ran away, literally. Myungsoo watched the man sprint down the stairs and jog down the street.

Woohyun must’ve really wanted to put some distance between them.

Maybe he was onto something. Some distance from this mess might be good so that Myungsoo could take all of the time to do what he did best: think.

“You look like a mess.” Woohyun would like to say that Sunggyu normally didn’t greet Woohyun in that way, but he often did. And he was often right.

Woohyun was panting and clinging onto the doorway. His hair was plastered to his forehead, and maybe a fleece-y, teddy bear-like sweatshirt wasn’t the best choice to run a few miles in. He swore there were a few fluffballs in his mouth. He also lost his bucket hat midrun, but that was okay. He had 20 more back home.

“I ran into Myungsoo on the way over here,” he sputtered.

Sunggyu crossed his arms over his chest. “You mean that you ran away from Myungsoo on the way over here,” he corrected.

“Just let me in,” Woohyun gasped as he pushed through the door and subsequently collapsed onto the floor. “Water!”

Sunggyu did go to get him some water, but not without a snide comment, “You think with all of this running away, you’d be more in shape.” He bent down next to the other. “Here.”

“Sh,” Woohyun hissed as he rolled back up to drink the water. As he guzzled it down, he glared at Sunggyu. He would’ve run away too. Myungsoo, he had just taken a shower and his hair was slowly drying and curling up. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt as he leaned against the railing, showing off muscles that Woohyun didn’t even know that he had. And worst of all, Myungsoo wanted to personally tell Woohyun about the break-up. He just came right out with it too, right as they started talking. What was Woohyun supposed to make of that? 

“Namu, would it be weird if I ordered from two different places?” Sunggyu asked as he riffled through a few menus. “I like the plain chicken from this place, but the seasoned chicken from here is, wah, really ing good. My mouth is already watering.”

Woohyun pulled himself up from the floor. It hurt. He should really stretch before running away next time. He shook his limbs as he walked up to the other. “You really were in the mood for chicken, weren’t you?” he asked. “Are you like some kind of addict?”

“Replacing one addiction with another, I guess,” Sunggyu mumbled. He then found another menu. “Holy mother of fried ! I forgot about the cheese sauce from this one. Woohyun, we’re ordering from 3 places tonight! It’s going to be the Holy Trinity of Fried Chicken!” He was so excited that he was bouncing in his seat. “Why haven’t I tried this before?”

“Because you’d die from a coronary,” Woohyun remarked and headed for the kitchen. “Do you want some beer? I could get you some when I get more water,” he offered.

“No,” Sunggyu replied. “But there should be some cider in the fridge. Bring that out.”

“Cider,” Woohyun repeated lowly and cocked his head. Okay, he wasn’t going to complain about that. Cider it was. Woohyun opened up the fridge. “Huh?” He knelt down and began digging through it searching every nook and cranny. “What the…” There was cider, and juice, and even some Korean medicine (which Woohyun pocketed). A variety to be sure, but that was it. Woohyun closed the door and scanned the kitchen. Nope, nothing on the countertops. Then Woohyun began opening cupboards, including the high ones that he needed a chair to reach. He still couldn’t find it. Besides some mouthwash, there was nothing with alcohol in the kitchen.

While Woohyun was closing the final cupboard, he muttered to himself. “Don't say anything. Don't make a big deal out of it. Don’t be weird. Or he’ll feel weird.” He took in a deep breath and walked back into the living room, completely forgetting about the cider and water. When he saw Sunggyu, finishing up his phone call with the third restaurant and still acting jittery, Woohyun couldn’t help himself. He wrapped up his friend in a big bear hug.

“Oi! What are you doing?” Sunggyu complained and tried to pull the other off.

Woohyun wouldn’t let go and instead held him tighter. He swayed with his friend as he sung, “I'm proud of you! So proud! Kim Sunggyu is my precious pride and joy! My beautiful and lovely, Kim Sunggyu!”

“Okay okay, I get it. Just let me go!” Now Sunggyu was kicking the other to get him off. “You smell horrible.”

Yes, Kim Sunggyu was on the path to sobriety, of sorts. He didn’t really know what his own journey would look like yet, or what his future with alcohol was, but cutting back was a start. He was trying to see if he could last an entire month without drinking. It had already been a week, a whole ing week. Sunggyu was (sadly) impressed at how easy it was. It helped that he had Woohyun on his side, ever wanting to help and holding him accountable. So he expected to sail through another week. 

But he was already half-way through week two and already aching for a drop of sweet release. It’d been a really rough day at the school. He’d been yelled at by parents of his students and then by the principal, and for what? Because he didn’t put two tone-deaf kids with influential parents into the Honors Choir. Now that was all ed. He was going to put in hours, days, so much friggin’ time into this dang choir only to have it sound like cats fighting in an alleyway. Those kids were cocky enough to demand solos too, which meant taking them away from more deserving students. And what did those hard working, talented students do to deserve getting ed over? What did Sunggyu do?

For the nth time, he considered quitting his job, but he couldn’t. He had bills to pay and…well, just a lot of bills to pay. Stupid ing microtransactions from stupid ing mobile games. Sunggyu spent so much money on literally nothing, nothing tangible, just a bunch of virtual bull.

Kim Sunggyu was a man with a lot of bad habits, but that didn’t make him a bad person. He had friends, who were all busy right now. He had a decent job, that was giving him a lot of stress. He had a family that adored him and lived all the way out in Jeonju. And sure, he was single right now, but if you’d seen him a few years ago, man, he was seriously popular.

See, he wasn’t a bad guy.

He just really felt like one now. And so he was going to act like one.

Sunggyu headed for the drinking tent in his neighborhood. He was about to open up the red flap when he heard a familiar, “Hey.” Sunggyu let go and took a step back out. Lee Sungyeol was standing right next to him. , he looked concerned. “What are you doing?” sounded it too.

Sunggyu faced forward. “What does it look like?” 

“Woohyun said you were quitting.”

“That ing snitch,” Sunggyu hissed under his breath. Of course Woohyun blabbed. There was no such thing as a secret with that man. Sunggyu rolled his tongue around in his mouth and threw back his head. , he was so embarrassed. So embarrassed that he just might cry. Sungyeol, it had to be Lee Sungyeol who found him wandering off the path. “It’s not like that. I...I never said that I was quitting. I’m just...cutting back,” Sunggyu tried to defend himself. “What about you? What are you doing here? You’re here to drink too, right? So...”

“I am here because of you,” Sungyeol interrupted. Sunggyu cocked his head. What did he mean? Sungyeol clarified. “I was looking for you.”

“Oh.” , now he was really going to cry. Sungyeol knew that he would be here, which meant Sungyeol knew that he would fail. Sunggyu glanced over at the red tent. Well, if this wasn’t a big red flag, he didn’t know what was. This is probably the lowest low in his life.

“Hey,” Sungyeol came closer and put a hand against the other’s back. “Do you wanna do something with me?”

“I don’t know,” Sunggyu sniffed as he wiped his face. He frowned. “I don’t want to go in the water.”

Sungyeol laughed. “I don’t either.” The hand moved up the back and around the shoulder. “I was thinking about letting out stress another way. Come on, let’s go!” he said and tugged on the other to follow him.

Sunggyu did. At this point, he’d follow Sungyeol off of the highest high dive in Seoul. Any place was better than here.

“Yah, are you ever going to let me sing?”

They were at a noraebang now. Sungyeol, like Sunggyu, probably remembered their drunken concert from that night (although would they ever talk about that bleak and embarrassing moment? Probably not). And truly there was nothing better for getting rid of stress than shouting out your heart into a ty microphone in a small room.

Unfortunately for Sungyeol, Sunggyu wouldn’t give up the mic. “We’re relieving my stress right now,” Sunggyu was still clutching onto the mic and speaking into it. “You can relieve your stress somewhere else.” He pointed out the door.

Sungyeol leaned forward, placing his forearms against his thighs and laughing in disbelief. “Yah,” he called out rudely to the other again. “Do you know what’s really stressing me out right now? What’s really driving me crazy?”

“Myungsoo?” Sunggyu guessed. That name echoed in the small room. “I heard you guys broke up. I’m sorry, man.” He patted Sungyeol on the back a bit too hard.

Sungyeol brushed the hand away. He stood up next to Sunggyu. “No, it’s not Myungsoo,” he revealed. “It’s you.”

“Me?” Sunggyu repeated, pointing at himself. He then looked around the room in disbelief. “Bu-but why would I be a stress for you?”

“Let’s stop the bull, okay? I’m tired of it,” Sungyeol whined. “Be honest with me, and I’ll be honest back.”

Sunggyu pouted and shouted into the mic again, “Why do I have to go first?”

“Because you have seniority,” Sungyeol snapped back.

That’s right. Sunggyu was the older one out of the two of them. It was really time that he should act like it. Be a man. He finally put down the mic. S.E.S.’s “I’m Your Girl” began playing in the background, but that wasn’t going to stop him. He lifted up his chin and puffed out his chest. “I like you. So...what are you going to do about it?” He raised his arms. Mic drop. It was Sungyeol’s turn.

“I’m going to kiss you.”

“What? W-wait!” Sunggyu ducked away and fell back down onto the lounge chair along the wall. He got up to his knees, putting his hands between him and Sungyeol who was getting closer and closer. “Ho-hold on! Just a moment.”

Sungyeol held onto those hands and moved them out of the way. His face was just centimeters away now. His eyes darted all over Sunggyu’s face. “Why? Do you feel like throwing up again?”

“No,” Sunggyu muttered sheepishly.

“Good.” 

Sungyeol closed the gap and kissed him. This, this was the moment they’d been waiting for months, and it was already ending so soon. Sungyeol’s kiss was sweet, tender, but he was already pulling away. Sunggyu grabbed him by the shirt and back of the neck and brought him back in. There was no way that he was letting go of this er again.

And Sungyeol let himself be manhandled like that. He encouraged it, climbing onto the other’s lap and deepening the kiss. 

And no, Sungyeol’s tongue did not want to make Sunggyu vomit. Instead it was melting him into a puddle right there in that small room on a gross lounge.

“W-wait. Hold on,” Sungyeol stammered and pulled away. It was probably Sunggyu’s naughty hand, trying to feel up the other’s muscles that brought Sungyeol back to his senses. He then climbed off of the other, leaving Sunggyu cold. “I got to think…What are we doing?”

Sunggyu whined and hung his head. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

“Well, if I know either,” Sungyeol spat back. Sunggyu then got up too and walked to the other side of the room, only to crouch in the corner, holding his head between his hands. “Can we?” the slight pause between this and the next thought almost made Sunggyu combust, “Can we do this so soon? Is it right? Myungsoo and I just broke up…”

Sunggyu popped up. “The other week, I know!” he exclaimed. He pointed a finger into the other’s firm chest. “Look here, you kissed me first. Don’t act like I’m the one rushing things.”

“I know, I know. I did it. I do things without thinking. I just...” Sungyeol muttered as he fell back onto the lounge, arm over his eyes. Neither of them were great with impulse control, but they both knew that they had to tread carefully. It wasn’t just their hearts and feelings on the line. Sunggyu slumped down next to Sungyeol, resting his head on the other’s upper arm. What Woohyun had said was echoing in his head: what if they get back together. This was around the time that most freshly broken up couples would. Heck, even Sunggyu was trying to get back on the bottle after a week. Of course they’d get back together.

Sungyeol shifted to look down at the other. He was frowning, but not in a bad way. He was thinking over this seriously. “No, no I think we can do this. I mean, Myungsoo already knows,” he concluded, lightly touching the other’s cheek.

“Already knows what?” Sunggyu asked and tugged at the other’s shirt..

“That I like you.” 

Sunggyu pulled away, eyes wide and blinking in disbelief. “He does?!”

Sungyeol gave a short nod and spoke softly, “Yeah, that’s why we broke up.” 

“EH?” Sunggyu popped up again. Now Shin Haechul’s “To You” was playing dramatically in the background and in his heart. He looked around stunned.

“I told Myungsoo that I liked you, and it wasn’t right for us to stay together when I had feelings for someone else.”

Holy freaking fathoms of ! Lee Sungyeol chose him. HIM! Over Kim Myungsoo! Over Accounting Fairy Kim Myungsoo! Shin-mol-nam Kim Myungsoo! The gods gave him everything but Lee Sungyeol! That belonged to Sunggyu now. Kim Sunggyu was the champ! “Assa byong!” Sunggyu jumped and pumped his fists in the air.

And just like that, all of his stress melted away.

“Calm down! Calm down!” Sungyeol chided him and pulled Sunggyu down to sit with him. The man was fighting back a smile because they still had some serious things to discuss but Sunggyu was being ing adorable again. “I’m trying to have a conversation here.”

“Ah, right. Go ahead,” Sunggyu gave in and gestured at the other to go ahead, but he still could barely rein in his giddiness.

“As I was saying, I told him. He knows. We broke up. It’s not like I ran to you right after it happened. I waited a few days. Right?” Sunggyu nodded along with what Sungyeol was saying. But was he actually listening to it? “He acted fine then but...Ah, but Myungsoo is so ing sensitive. I don’t know.”

Sunggyu was listening to it all. His chest tightened again. Maybe he wasn’t the champ after all. “Look, you’re obviously feeling conflicted about this. So maybe we shouldn’t.” 

Sungyeol rolled his head and looked the other up and down. “No, I don’t want that either.” There was an obvious lust in his eyes.

“Then what do you want?!” Sunggyu whined.

“You,” Sungyeol was quick with his reply.

Sunggyu scoffed. He felt like he was being jerked around all night. “The you do,” he remarked with sharp nudge in the side.

Sungyeol sat on his side, facing the other. His arm resting across the back of the lounge. “I want you. I mean it,” he insisted. “But…” he shifted and dropped his gaze. “Honestly I don’t think my heart will be at ease until Myungsoo is settled.”

Sunggyu sighed and grumbled, “That’s understandable.” The two of them may be impulsive. They may have bad habits, but they weren’t bad people. They wanted what was best for the people they loved.

“Well,” Sungyeol perked back up. “Hopefully, that can’t be too much longer. I mean Woohyun already confessed his feelings for Myungsoo.”

“Huh?” Sunggyu gasped. The cheeky er, Woohyun was never going to tell him that, was he? “Of course, he did.” And that’s why he kept running away from Myungsoo. It all made sense now.

“And I’m pretty sure Myungsoo likes him too, although he’s being weird about it. Ugh, I don’t know,” Sungyeol continued. “He’s so ing slow sometimes. I can’t handle it.”

“Hold on...what?” Sunggyu now rolled onto his side and now was nestled right along the other. But it really wasn’t as romantic as it sounds. Not with the frown on Sunggyu’s face. “What did you just say?”

“Ah, what part?”

“Not the part that Myungsoo knows that Woohyun loves him,” Sunggyu clarified.

“Uh huh…Wait, love?!” Sungyeol flinched. “I thought it was just like.”

Sunggyu just glossed over that. “I meant the part when you said that Myungsoo might reciprocate those feelings.”

“I don’t know about replicating,” Sungyeol muttered. “I mean...love? We just broke up.”

“Well, .” Sunggyu now sat forward, pulling at his lips in thought. He then glanced back at the other. “Does Woohyun know?”

“I don’t think so...HEY! Hey! Woah! Woah! No! Put that down!”

Sunggyu clung tightly onto his phone which Sungyeol was trying to wrestle away from him. “Why? Why? WHY?” he argued and finally made a point. “He should know!”

“Gimme that!” With a sharp tug, Sungyeol now had the phone in his hands. He was now holding it high in the air and away from Sunggyu’s reach. It was nice being so tall. “Look, I don’t even know for sure myself. I mean, I can guess but…” Sungyeol was trying to calm the other and get him to sit back down. “Myungsoo only knows how he feels. He should deal with Woohyun on his own. So just sit...the ...down.”

“Sorry,” Sunggyu plopped back down. “I just…” he just wanted to resolve everything right then and there so that there were no more road blocks for them, so that they could finally be together. But no, he had to wait, again. It . “Give me back the phone. I’ll put it away.”

“Promise?”

“I promise. You can take me skydiving if I don’t,” that was the most serious oath that he could take right now.

“Alright,” Sungyeol handed the phone back over. “You know, I hadn’t thought about going skydiving before, but that’s not a bad idea.”

“Well, my phone’s away, so you’re not going with me,” Sunggyu replied, crossing his arms over his chest. He then sighed heavily looking up at the other. “So what are we going to do? What are we?” Sungyeol bent down and kissed him. Sunggyu pouted. “That’s not an answer.”

“It could be,” Sungyeol suggested, wiggling his eyebrows. “No?”

“I’ll let it be. Just this once,” Sunggyu responded before pulling the other back down into another kiss, and another. But it soon ended after that because the ahjussi that owned the noraebang kicked them out. Apparently there was a ‘no kissing’ policy, and he already let them slide once, but now they were slapped with a personal ban from the noraebang. That was okay. There were many noraebangs in Seoul. Sunggyu could relieve his stress there…or back at his apartment where he brought Sungyeol.

The two of them really at this love thing. Sungyeol fell too hard, too quickly. And Sunggyu was so full of self-preservation that it was hard for him to let loose and let someone deep into his heart. But in a weird way, they complimented each other.

So it didn’t matter how much they at it. The both of them were really trying their best. And that was good enough.

They were also trying to be respectful. So even though Sunggyu and Sungyeol continued to hang out, they weren’t really ‘dating’ dating. Is it really dating if you brought a Woohyun with you at all times? No, it wasn’t. The two of them were just hanging out (and making out) sometimes. That was not dating.

But it could be dating, if Nam Woohyun ever got off his lazy and contacted Myungsoo. Sunggyu didn’t get what was so difficult about it. But Woohyun got all sulky whenever they brought up the topic.

“Just because it worked out for you doesn’t mean it would work out for me,” Woohyun insisted.

And Sunggyu just had to keep his mouth ing shut because he knew the moment he told Woohyun, Sungyeol would have them jumping out of a plane the next day. And Sunggyu was happier than he’d been in a long time, so he didn’t want to die. That’d be ing sad.

It was irritating though, having to keep this large bomb of a secret locked away. And it got even more irritating when Myungsoo started his Chuseok holiday early and went on vacation. Where? No one knew. Myungsoo had ghosted everyone.

Including Woohyun.

Now Woohyun felt at an all-time low. His best friend was now dating his other good friend, and they were dragging him around as their third wheel on his hellish love tricycle. Fine, he’d tolerate it. It was better than third wheeling with Myungyeol. Sunggyu paid for . And he wasn’t secretly burning with a hot love for either of them. So it was all good.

But what about this burning, hot love, which seemed to scorch his soul at every turn. It got worse when Myungsoo went incommunicado, not just with him but with everyone. It seemed like Myungsoo was going through a rough time after the break up. The flames of love and jealousy burned all the more.

That was okay. He was going on vacation too this holiday. He was going to smother these fires in a hot spring and cleanse his soul. That was the plan. He flew all the way to Northern Japan, in a small town where people only spoke Japanese. That was okay. He was nearly fluent. But he didn’t need to talk to anyone anyway. He was there to be alone and to cleanse, that was it.

But the sun was setting on the first day, and Woohyun had never felt more alone in his life. He was regretting this entire trip and thought about canceling the rest of it. But there were no refunds at this hotel and barely any wifi to reschedule his flights. So what was he to do?

He didn’t know. So he just walked.

The walk calmed his anxiety down. The snow was falling and the white flurry contrasted nicely against the oranges and pinks of the sunset. It’d make for a pretty picture. That was probably what the photographer out in the field was thinking too. He had his tripod set up, pointing at a black tree against the sunset. 

Woohyun smirked to himself and laughed bitterly. He came all this way to cleanse himself of his dirty, jealous-driven love. But he’s reminded of Myungsoo in a random stranger in Japan. This love was going to be tricky to get rid of.

“Aigoo!” the photographer cursed as the tripod collapsed beneath him. “Aish! Seriously?!”

Woohyun stopped dead in his tracks. “Holy ,” he whispered. He then turned around, watching the photographer fumble with the tripod. “Myungsoo?” He then cleared his throat and shouted out louder. “Myungsoo? Hey! Kim Myungsoo!”

“Wh-wh-what? Who is it?” Myungsoo blubbered as he spun around. But then his eyes found his tiny friend waving at him. Myungsoo blinked rapidly. He couldn’t believe it. “Woohyunnie? Woohyun-hyung, is that you?”

“Eung,” was all that he could say.

No, this love was going to be impossible to get rid of.

COMING UP NEXT:

The next episode is the last one. Do you think I'm going to give spoilers for that?

Okay, okay, because you asked nicely, if you do the Scorpion dance from BTD, I'll give you a spoiler.

No? You can't do that? Your old grandma fan joints are too rusty to even do the hip from Paradise?

Mine too.

...

...

Here's a spoiler because we're old and life is sad:

"“This is my room...Do you wanna come in?”

"Lasagna, the pride and joy of Italia!"

“Date me...I’ll do anything if you date me.”

“Maybe we shouldn't be doing this, in public, when we’re both , and hot.”

“There’s no ‘cool’ way to love! Love is inherently cheesy.”