Comfortable enough to stride the streets, Jonghun followed Hongki to his apartment. He couldn’t help but immerse himself with another staring contest at his reflection in the elevator. The skirt was tight but why didn’t his bulge fool people? Oh right, because the cardigan was long enough in the front to cover it up, and with such shimmering belt, who would look at a woman’s crotch area…? Besides erts of course.

They got off on the third floor, walked shortly to an apartment numbered 3C. He didn’t think twice before following Hongki into the apartment. It was stupid of him but they’ve got this far, what could Hongki do to him that he couldn’t do in a crowded place… suddenly, the grave terror of the entire situation of being locked in a secluded place with a stranger downed on Jonghun. He had to giggle awkwardly when Hongki commented on his mess of a place.

Well, if Hongki couldn’t see the beads of sweat on Jonghun’s face to accompany the look of panic, then he was an excellent actor. His eyes scanned the living room, moderately medium sized, filled with Hongki’s personal items. From the doggies toys to the acoustic guitar on the far wall, the many DVDs and CDs on racks, neatly and polished. There were also two shelves next to the couch, several books were perched lazily. Jonghun took a closer look and noticed couple of cute clay characters from Japanese comic books sitting on the laid down books.

Besides the living room, there were two doors; he guessed they were probably the bathroom and adjourning bedroom. He didn’t dare go anywhere further than the living room. He parked down the couch as Hongki rummaged in the kitchen. “Do you want tea or coffee?”

“Water would be just fine.”

“Okay,” Hongki murmured, somehow disappointed.

“Or coffee, yeah, coffee with milk and sugar, please…” He wiped a bead of sweat that threatened to soak through clothes. He had to calm down a bit. No serial killer would go through the effort of decorating a crime scene. Somehow, the ridiculousness of his own thoughts calmed him down. His foot stopped tapping softly against the wooden floor and his breath settled into a deep soundless inhale-exhale pattern.

Hongki returned with coffee for Jonghun and tea for himself. Jonghun sipped quietly but Hongki didn’t touch his beverage. Instead, Hongki stared openly at Jonghun. He tried not to burn his tongue on the scalding somehow too-bitter for his taste coffee and avoided eye contact.

Abruptly, Hongki got up and disappeared into one of the doors behind him. Jonghun didn’t bother mull over it, Hongki returned a minute later, literally leaving him no space to avoid eye contact as he closed up on Jonghun by sitting on his knees in front of Jonghun.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Hi,” Hongki’s face split into a smile.

“I just need to trim this a little,” he Jonghun’s fringe. He checked that the wig didn’t mix with Jonghun’s hair. He admired the sufficiently placed wig then. Jonghun seemed to follow all instructions.

“Okay,” he whispered the proximity too small for him to speak louder than that.

Hongki didn’t back off until Jonghun placed back his cup of coffee on the center table. Hongki then wrapped a towel he had by his side around Jonghun’s neck, and fastened it with hair clippers. He also clipped Jonghun’s wig to the back and smoothed the bangs before he grabbed the scissors that lay harmlessly by his knees. He took one big breath and Jonghun thought he saw his hand tremble slightly before those long fingers closed tighter on the slick scissors. He closed his eyes and recited a small prayer that his expensive stupid wig doesn’t get ruined.

Quiet yet sharp noises sounded as Hongki trimmed the bangs as well as the few front strands of the wig. When he felt the hand threading through the bangs, tickling his forehead, Jonghun opened his eyes. His face was inches away from Hongki’s intense eyes. They stared intently at him then back at the fringe. It felt much better to be able to see easily with it now as short as his eyebrows. It tickled him a bit but he braced himself. The front strands were now considerably shorter, since they hung below his s before but now they were nicely bouncing against his pectorals.

“There, done, now, I’m gonna curl it.”

“Huh?” he sat flabbergasted as Hongki removed the towel and crumbled it with care and tossed it into the bathroom. He returned before Jonghun, an iron curler hot and ready in his hand.

“Be careful, this is real hair,” he bitterly mumbled, he had spent quite the amount for this wig. He regretted the choice, sure, but he enjoyed the smooth and straight strands.

“Trust me; I’ve done this many times.” That didn’t calm Jonghun but he stayed still.

Hongki worked quickly and carefully, his face contorted into a serious pout. Jonghun got bored with watching Hongki’s face, especially when it disappeared to curl the hair in the back. He just aimlessly played with his fingers.

“Done,” Hongki sounded proud as he flicked the electricity of the curler off and placed it gently on a secluded corner near the plug behind the couch. He pulled Jonghun off the couch and into the bathroom. Jonghun noticed the sudden change in the wig. Instead of long and thread-like straight, it was now bouncier and felt much livelier. Although Hongki stirred away from tight curls and only loosely wrapped the strands around the curler, it gave the wig a much improved look.

“All you need is… there.” Hongki placed a delicate hair ornament, in the shape of a pink butterfly. It looked cheap but it had lots of gemstones on it, so it glimmered in the many shades of pink. He smirked and shoved it into his hair. Hongki disapproved of that move and hurried to fix it behind a twisted strand, next to Jonghun’s ear. The delicate hand on his hair stayed longer than he wanted. Still a little bit shorter than him; Hongki peered at him with an open expression—so open that he couldn’t decipher it.

“Now what?” he looked back into the mirror. It all fit well, but not quite. No matter how long he spent staring at the wig, or the outfit, he couldn’t find out what missed from this puzzle.

“Makeup,” Hongki said as a matter of fact.

Jonghun kept staring at his reflection and the idea didn’t seem that bad. He saw the point. He had a bit of dark circles under his eyes, his lashes were short, his lips dry and his skin lacked a certain luster.

“I’ve burrowed a kit from my ex-girlfriend for a play I’ve filmed, I could use it on you, and that’d be it.”

Somehow, the ‘that’d be it’ part dampened Jonghun’s mood. What is going to follow this? Is he going back to that avenue on his own? Is he seriously going to pick up guys in this outfit? The outfit that Hongki picked, with the wig Hongki fixed… and the face Hongki was about to beautify. It just felt unfair that the guy spent so much time, energy and money and not be paid back.

“Hey, say I get a guy to give me his number…” Jonghun started but stopped. He saw Hongki’s expectant expression in his peripheral vision and mustered the strength to continue.

“I don’t want to actually date a guy, not tonight, not in this outfit. It is just a bet and I know I’ve probably wasted your weekend, but I’m not gonna go as far as hook up with anyone.”

“Why not, I mean weren’t you supposed to seduce guys in a girl’s outfit?” Hongki looked confused.

“True, but I can pick up guys successfully without this attire.”

“That doesn’t make sense, why would you go as far as dress up that way if you weren’t going to hook up with a guy?”

“Because I happen to be not a ,” Jonghun muttered. He hated that Hongki couldn’t see the obvious discomfort the thought of sleeping with anyone to fulfill a dare brought to him.

Hongki stopped talking then and stared intently at Jonghun, as if he wanted to peer into his soul. He gave up on that a moment later and uncrossed his arms. He shrugged and said, “Whatever suits you, let’s just finish up and my moral obligation would be done.”

Jonghun wanted to ask more about this moral obligation of his but not unlike the entire day; Hongki simply took his hand and guided him into his bedroom. It was cleaner than the living room, with limited furnishing besides the queen sized bed, the built in changing room, the dresser on the opposite side of the bed and a simple nightstand next to the bed. There was an oil painting toppling the bed though and for the long thirty minutes Hongki spent in applying the smelly makeup, Jonghun’s eyes memorized the fine lines of the painting. It was an abstract piece, a mix of colors and skylines all melted into the fabric of the canvas. When it came to makeup, Hongki took more time deciding on colors but he was very efficient and confidant. His hands didn’t shake a tiny bit when applying the eyeliner or the mascara. The digital clock on the bedside night stand showed that it was ten to five pm. It was wondrous, how time went by so fast. It seemed like it was just two minutes ago Jonghun woke up dreading the afternoon. Not shortly after he arrived at the square, he had to stand there in the ridiculous attire Seunghyun—one of the friends daring him to such absurdity—handed to him the day before in a shopping bag for almost an hour before Hongki showed up.

“Why are you doing this?” Jonghun asked. His eyes were closed as Hongki flecked some sort of eye shadow on his lids.

“I’m applying makeup so the poor er you’re going to seduce won’t remember a girl with puffy eyes and paler than death skin,” Hongki said. Jonghun didn’t want to be an idiot and believe the gut wrenching bitterness he heard in Hongki’s voice.

“Not that,” Jonghun replied with a snap. “Why are you helping me seduce a poor er?” he emphasized the part that pissed him off the most. Hongki took a second to ponder.

“I don’t know,” he easily replied before he instructed Jonghun to open his eyes and look up.

Besides the smell of makeup, Jonghun’s nose was clogged with Hongki’s essence. It was a sweet musk smell that must have mixed Hongki’s body scent with the cologne, making a damn hypnotizing scent. He exhaled the long breath he inhaled through the nose. Hongki wrinkled his nose and told him to stay still.

When done with his eyes, Hongki moved to his brows, dapping a bit of dark brown eye line to fill in the gaps created by natural eyebrows’ hair growth. “You’re not gonna make me look like a drag queen, are you?”

“No, don’t worry; I happen to know a lot about cross-dressing.”

“Oh really now… Have you done this before? Dressed up as a girl to fool people?”

“Nope, not this kind of cross-dressing, but I have played a female part many times in school plays and I had to learn how to make myself look acceptable as a female characters on my own. I mastered it shortly after graduating from middle school. Sure, people called me a sissy for knowing how to apply perfect eye-makeup, but the more known I got from acting classes, the names changed from to amazing.”

Jonghun comforted Hongki through smiling softly. He also dived into how he thought that it must have hurt Hongki when people misunderstood his passion for acting and for taking extreme measures such as applying makeup to himself just to get into a character.

“Not really, it wasn’t much about finding my own identity as caring for how people thought of the final result,” Hongki spoke gently, he appreciated the sympathy although it was against his rules to make people feel bad for him.

“I would know a lot about name calling, especially since I came out as biual in high school. My parents had a hard time in the beginning, since I experimented with guys more often than girls. Due to my popularity however, I managed to rise above it all. I did have excellent social skills, topped the lists with perfect marks and was a responsible class representative throughout all three years of high school.”

“Show off,” Hongki grinned and Jonghun mirrored him. He got a smack on the shoulder.

“Don’t, you’ll ruin your blush.” Jonghun rolled his eyes gently, not wanting another smack.

With delicate , Hongki brushed some gooey lipstick on Jonghun. He couldn’t define the color since he couldn’t see it from his angle.

“Voila! I’m done,” Hongki sounded far too proud, it made Jonghun’s mouth curl at the sides. Hongki saw that and narrowed his eyes, his hand ready to smack his shoulder until Jonghun dropped his almost-a-grin into a normal non-expressional face.

It felt weird to sit there with a pile of makeup on his face and have this tingling urge to see it in a hurry. Hongki picked up his ex’s kit and made his way into the bedroom. He returned with a small mirror, it was a plain mirror the size of Jonghun’s face. Uncontrollably, he whistled at the sight of him.

“This is going to sound way gayer than I intend to be and clichéd, but is that really me?” he said more to himself than to Hongki. Hongki chuckled nonetheless and nodded.

“I look hot,” he added upon inspecting just how true that statement was. He saw Hongki roll his eyes in his peripheral vision but he ignored that.

Everything from his slightly dry skin to his droopy eyes looked plain pretty. On some level, he knew he was going to regret ever getting into that stupid bet, but at the moment, all he could do was be as gay as the stereotype allowed him.

His eyes, rimmed with black eyeliner, detailed and narrow, thickening on the ends to give his half-lidded eyes a smoky look. The eye shadow had been a glimmer, barely there but definitely there. His nose powdered and gleaming with a natural blush. His cheeks were flawless, tinged with the most intriguing hint of faint rosy pink blush. His lips never looked fuller. They were a shade redder than his natural color—although he had formed a bad habit of smoking during finals to relieve stress which made his lips lose a ting of their luster.

As the long inspection went, Hongki sat quietly next to him, their proximity making their hips touch. As the awe faded, Jonghun sat so terribly aware of their closeness.

“Erm… Thanks… You… sort of saved me today,” it took him a long moment to finish that but Hongki accepted the token of gratitude with an open smile.

“You’re welcome,” he replied.

They sat there in the quiet, slowly; it grew a bit awkward and Jonghun’s fingers fiddled with his skirt. He wondered if he should wear some stockings. A sudden touch to his temple got him snapping his head in Hongki’s direction. What he saw on his face was a quick blush because A) Hongki was only fixing a strand of his hair; B) Hongki had leant in to inspect closely hence they ended up with their faces four inches apart. A shuddering exhale from Hongki’s mouth stirred Jonghun’s reactions. Before he could stop himself, he leaned in and upward and kissed Hongki. His eyes were open, he wanted to prepare for any punch Hongki had in mind as a natural reflex. Instead, slow R&B music played in his mind in sync with him closing his eyes and Hongki’s hand cupped his cheek instead of bruise it.

Their mouths were warm and inviting, until the kiss turned urgent and uncaring. Jonghun’s hand pulled Hongki by the shoulder, as soon as he realized he really liked the taste of too-sweet coffee on their mouths. They barely sipped any of it, but over the course of hours, their mouths clung to the beverage’s taste.

It started with a whisper, Hongki calling his deity to give his lungs a few more second so he can kiss Jonghun for a longer time but he had to pull away. Their lips hurt and they panted pleasantly, their hands still touching each other.

Surprisingly, Jonghun got chit-chatty just then, which was more adorable than annoying.

“Oh Jesus, that was good, you’re a very good kisser,” he sighed, which made Hongki’s stomach flip. Jonghun had the most serene expression where his eyes closed slightly and his breath tickled his cheek. “I could probably kiss you forever,” he blabbered as he pecked Hongki’s lips. In-between of every peck, Hongki heard the soft whisper of mumbling ‘oh, god, this is so good.” He felt a bit too proud. Jonghun wasn’t a prude, but he was always clamped up and the rumors of him being an enigma made him snigger noiselessly. He tucked a hair of the wig behind Jonghun’s ear. The sight of Jonghun’s relatively small ear sparked a need in him to lean in and it and make the voice tremble and splutter. But Hongki got distracted with the way Jonghun prodded his lips apart, his tongue against his, slowly and in a scooping movement that made him think of ice-cream.   

Jonghun’s fingers were long and strong as they rubbed between his shoulder blades. They massaged a spot so delicate Hongki moaned without care. The noise made Jonghun’s eyes snap open attentively. The kisses paused, and the quiet stretched, weirdly, it made Jonghun’s brows frown.

“I think I just got hard.” Hongki’s brows shot into his hairline.

“You what?” the hint of a smile broke and in no time, Hongki was giggling. He fought the urge to look down and affirm it.

“Shut up, it’s been a while…”

“Well, I can’t help but be flattered.” Jonghun’s face got impossibly redder.

“Since I can’t already ruin the mood, per se, can I ask a question?” a nod. “Are you gay?” “Bi would be more accurate.” “Oh.” Pleasantly, Jonghun leaned in and kissed Hongki’s lips but before he could slip in his tongue, Hongki pulled back.

“Let me stupid and ask this anyway, are you going back to that square?”

“Hell no,” Jonghun said as a matter of fact. Hongki grinned and presumed their lovely game of kissing until carbon dioxide demanded to be exhaled.