Everything has its reason; even if it is just a simple ‘because’.

The morning came with a heavy headache and all around ache for WooHyun.

His head ached the most, as if someone had put and empty metal bucket on him and then hit it with a wooden stick with all one's might. His ears rang a little and eyes felt foggy and swollen, as it was hard to open them.

He sat up in his bed place and looked around, as he had no idea how he got there.

He remembered sobbing like a child, crying over his uselessness and how he ruined everything and… clinging to SungGyu as if he was a life-vest and WooHyun was the one drowning.

The conclusion was simple – he had embarrassed himself in a whole new level and making up for that will not be easy.

He sighed and raised his hand to rub his face, but stopped as a set of neatly put on bandages covered his palm.

He had no memories of what had happened after he had broken in to tears, so how the bandages had been changed and how he got to the bed was a mystery.

Well, it actually was not, if he thought harder, as there was just one more person here apart from him, but he would have preferred leaving it all as a mystery, to lessen his growing embarrassment that now already reached the ceiling.

He stood up and tried to smooth out the clothes he was wearing, but gave up soon enough, as the current set he was wearing was wrinkled beyond recognition, and changed.

He left his room quietly and turned to SungGyu’s and for his own shock found the doors open. Counting that as an invitation, he peeked in but found the room empty.

It was Sunday, so SungGyu should be somewhere there and if he wasn’t upstairs, he was probably at the diner.

Carefully, not to slip and fall on the stairs like WooHyun tended to do more than just occasionally, he went downstairs and seeing that the kitchen was empty, he headed straight to the main hall. And, yes, SungGyu indeed was there.

He was currently scrubbing the tables and only then it hit WooHyun, that he hadn’t finished his work yesterday.

He took a deep breath before walk out from behind the counter.

The bucket and other utensils he had used along with his rubber gloves were standing in the corner next to a single table that was usually not used by anyone. Though it all looked rather untouched, the floor was obviously well washed and so were the biggest part of the tables.

He sighed and put on his gloves, before going to the table SungGyu was currently cleaning, to take the disinfectant and a scrubber.

“Have you eaten breakfast?” SungGyu asked, taking back bottle and scrubber from WooHyun.

“I can…” WooHyun started to speak but was interrupted by SungGyu right away.

“I will finish in a bit and then we will go out.” He said and returned to his previous action as in cleaning the table.

“Out?”  WooHyun repeated.

“Yes. It starts to get obvious that you need a time out.” The red-hair said, not looking back.

“I’m fine.” WooHyun said, feeling that he slowly became a burden again.

“I am your boss and I say that we will go for a walk or something, so go eat and get ready.” He said, turning to WooHyun for a second and then returning to his job.

“But…” WooHyun wanted to say something but was interrupted once again.

“No but’s.” SungGyu said and WooHyun had no other choice but to obey.

“Out…” WooHyun murmured, as he entered his room and sat on the blankets.

What did that mean? Was that a date?

But, how could that be a date? WooHyun was more than sure that for first week SungGyu hated him and now things maybe, just maybe, had went better, but that did not mean any kind of affinity would have appeared. Or maybe it did mean that?

The feeling SungGyu gave to WooHyun form the very first minute he saw the red-hair hadn’t disappeared anywhere. The tingling was still there and it was weird as it did not fade away but just grew stronger, as well as WooHyun’s sense of guilt toward other. The tingling did not help working better, at least WooHyun hadn’t figured out a way it could help him. For now it was just a weird feeling, when ever SungGyu was close.

Could SungGyu possible feel the same or similar to that?

Or maybe he just wanted to be friendly? Maybe he was indeed just concerned about WooHyun’s sanity, as he had cried a river yesterday?

“He’s just concerned.” WooHyun said and stood up. “He’s just concerned and is too kind hearted to kick a loser like me out, so he thinks ‘fresh air’ will help and I will get myself together.” He murmured and nodded once, agreeing to his own words. “But what should I wear…” he said and turned to the chair where he had place the clothes he had with him, as in nothing much as it could fit on a chair.

Even if it wasn’t a date, he still wanted to look nice, because it could actually be a chance to see another side of SungGyu and maybe prove to him that he shouldn’t give up on WooHyun, even though WooHyun felt that SungGyu will not give up on him… not yet. But he couldn’t depend on this feeling alone.

He looked at the small pile of clothes and pulled out a white v-neck shirt, black cardigan and plain dark blue jeans.

He got dressed and for a good moment stared at the bathroom mirror.

His eyes were still a bit puffy, he looked paler that few months ago and skinnier as well. He has never been too bulky – he had muscles as keeping those in shape was one of his ‘hobbies’ – he had always been rather slim, but now he looked even a bit sick – tired and worn out.

He sighed and run his fingers trough his hair.

By the very look of himself he could tell that this was no date. No one would date a miserable being like him. Maybe only because of pure pity, but he doubted that he was good enough even for that.

He sighed again and left the bathroom, just to run in to SungGyu.

The red hair was wearing as plain jeans as WooHyun, grayish-white t- and asphalt-grey hoodie over it.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked and WooHyun nodded. He was not ready, but if he would say no, he would never answer positively.

Their ‘tour’ went from the diner, trough the small streets filled with shops, diners and food carts, where nearly everyone greeted SungGyu with a smile and SungGyu replied as cheerfully (that really showed a different side of SungGyu, as he didn’t smile like that at the diner), to a park and ended up by the river side, when it already got dark outside.

They didn’t talk much during the walk, or rather, they didn’t talk at all.

It was a nice, quiet walk and it felt comfortable. The silence wasn’t awkward and a conversation, forced by either of them, would end up being more awkward than that.

WooHyun did have questions to ask, but he has no idea how to formulate them, so he just walked next to SungGyu, looking at the city lights across the river.

“Maybe let’s sit down?” SungGyu finally spoke, attracting WooHyun’s attention, as they were passing a bench and both of them settled down.

“I was wondering” the red-hair spoke again “about yesterday.” WooHyun took a deep breath as that was a subject he would like to skip, but he knew well enough that it wasn’t something one could just skip.

“You were referring to some things that I didn’t quite understand.” SungGyu looked down at the ground, kicking the dust bellow his feet. “Maybe it’s not my business, but I would like to know what you were referring to.” He said and turned to WooHyun, who turned to him at the same moment.

Their eyes met and WooHyun could read true sincerity, not just plain curiosity, in them, along with some sort of calming warmth.

He sighed and then took a deep breath.

He had to tell all this to someone anyway, or else it all pressed him down and haunted him. And he knew, even after a short while like that, that he could trust SungGyu.

He told about the way he lived, about all the fancy stuff he had, the rich, spoiled kids he was friends with as they were the same as him back then. He told about those few true friends he had, he didn’t pause and told about SungYeol, about what he had done. He revealed what had happened to his family, not skipping any of his disappointment, any emotion he felt when his whole world came down crashing. He explained why he couldn’t have stayed with his friends and how he ended up here, talking to SungGyu.

All that time the red-hair just sat there and listened quietly, looking at WooHyun and as if analyzing every word other said.

When WooHyun ended his story, they sat in silence for a moment, before SungGyu spoke.

“This SungYeol… Do you still love him?” SungGyu asked and the question struck WooHyun like lightening from clear sky, because he didn’t know the answer, he hadn’t even thought about it before.

“I… I don’t know.” He said and tried to quickly organize his thoughts. “I have this strange feeling that…” he froze in the middle of the sentence, but then continued anyway “… that I have never actually loved him more than a friend.” He looked at SungGyu, who looked back at him with a questioning gaze. “For a brief moment it was something more than a friendly love, but then it returned back to that, with hints of previous… I don’t know how to call that… Lust, perhaps.” He said and continued to run trough his thoughts.

He knew that SungYeol meant a lot to him, but he never thought in what way. Did he mean a lot like a lover or like a friend? Or maybe both? And if both, then which feeling was stronger?

“Did you search for him?” SungGyu asked, breaking WooHyun’s trait of thought.

“When I realized that I should, I already had no chance and his phone didn’t reply. Other tried as well, but unsuccessfully.” WooHyun said with a sigh.

“So, you gave up?”

“In searching – yes. Right now I just hope that he’s safe and that maybe he will return one day.” WooHyun sighed yet again. “That maybe he will be able to forgive me…”

They fell in to silence again, only with the sounds from cars on the street behind them and distant chatter of other people filling the air. It was like both of them were rethinking something, analyzing something deep in their hearts.

This time WooHyun decided to speak first.

“And what is your story?” he turned to SungGyu, as he had stared at something across the river for a while.

“It’s not a happy one.” SungGyu said, turning to WooHyun and then returning his gaze to dust bellow.

“Mine wasn’t as well.” WooHyun said and looked at SungGyu, who in order started to gaze at the river.

“The diner belonged to my father since he was my age. He had this silly dream, so he did everything he could to make it happen, and as he always said – thanks to hard work and the support of my mom, a dream came to reality.
It wasn’t much bigger before, customers were a bit more, times and prices for everything were different, but over all life was good.
The breaking point was my first year of high-school. I didn’t rebel much, if you don’t count playing in a band dreaming about big future as an artist, rather than an owner of a diner. My dad didn’t support it, but didn’t forbid it as well, as I helped in the diner when ever I could. I did since I was able to walk, so I just saw it as a must.
But the breaking point… All three of us got sick.
It was poisoning of some sort that made some changes in one’s blood stream, giving extra risk of thrombus and first they discovered it on me and by using an expensive treatment got me back on my feet. But as the treatment was so expensive, my parents refused to even go trough check-ups.” SungGyu went silent for a moment and then continued.

“My mom passed away first. A thrombus formed and went to her heart causing a heart attack. My father didn’t last much longer first of all because of grief and second because in his case it reached his brain. It was in the middle of high-school’s second year.”

As if influenced by an invisible force, WooHyun placed his hand on SungGyu’s, which were clenched tightly together. He wanted to show his support, his understanding, his care and hoped that this gesture would be enough.

“So, I stayed alone with a diner to run and a school to finish. Not knowing much, I took a loan to hire someone to work in the diner while I studied.
Turned out that the one who applied to work was part of the ones I took the loan from that means they got the money I loaned back and I paid the same amount back with percents.
I thought they will back away when it was done, but they didn’t.
They insisted on me paying for something they called ‘protection’ of small businesses, which was basically paying to them not to demolish the diner.
I refused and asked everyone around to refuse as well, as I weren’t the only one fallen in their trap.
It turned out in not so pretty way, but in the end they backed away, at least for a while.
The bill you probably saw as a threat from them, demanding ‘the protection fee’ for the diner and everyone around, as I was the one ruining their ingenious scam of easy profit.
I won’t pay, that is for sure, neither will anyone else, but they will probably show up to demand the fee face to face.
Paying the fee would mean selling the diner and I can’t do that as it’s all that I have left.”

“What about friends?” WooHyun asked.

“They all went forward in life, slowly forgetting high-school dreams and friends. Beside, how can you remember someone, who had to rush back home to cook for stranger every day.” SungGyu said with a sad smile.

“I really wish I could be somehow useful.” WooHyun sighed, looked away and then back to SungGyu as he felt other's hand covering his own, that was still placed on SungGyu’s other hand.

“You are useful.” SungGyu said, looking straight in WooHyun’s eyes.

“I ruin so many ingredients and…”

“Everything is fixable.” SungGyu said with a small smile and stood up, still keeping WooHyun’s hand in his. “Let’s go home. We have to work tomorrow.”

WooHyun nodded and stood up as well, not even thinking about pulling his hand out of SungGyu’s grip.

He somehow felt, that SungGyu needed this touch and, to be honest, WooHyun probably needed it even more just… just because.

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Hey, hey, hey!
SungGyu’s story has been revealed (partly). The rest of it will appear somewhere in the future. ;]

If any of you are interested in getting a personalized fic written – as in your OTP and your plot, add me on tumblr and wait for a game on Sunday ;]

Till later <3

a really short a/n, because my leg is in an excrusiating pain >_<