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Silence boomed between the two men. Buzzing electric particles crowded the air between them, hot and sending sparks.

“Um… Cheondung oppa?” called the girl. In her opinion, the silence was long and boring – but also somehow weird, heavy with the unsaid. “Cheondung oppa, are you alright?”

Cheondung ignored his pretty new girlfriend altogether. Eyes locked on Joon’s face, Cheondung wanted nothing more than to burn through that skull with his gaze and learn the secret within. What are you up to this time? Cheondung asked with his eyes. What are you planning, Joon?

Cheondung had expected anything – just not this complete indifference.

For the past two years, Joon had successfully tried to ruin each and every relationship Cheondung ever got into. Sometimes, gossip was enough to do the trick – but Joon was a creative guy, and his methods were almost as unpredictable as Joon himself. The only thing Joon could not do when Cheondung got a new girlfriend was remain calm – he’d attack, instantly and passionately, the very moment he sets eyes onto the poor girl.

Today, however, Joon only smiled, edges of his luscious lips only slightly pushed upwards.

“Yeah, I’m fine?” Cheondung finally told the girl, sending her that superstar smile she seemed so fond of. Dazzled by the white grin, the girl didn’t even notice Cheondung glancing back at Joon. Wary, he eyed the man who’d destroyed every single one of his hopes for a long-lasting relationship.

Something was deeply disturbing about that smile of Joon’s. It tied Cheondung’s guts into a knot, and suddenly Cheondung felt a violent tug in his chest, a tug that seemed to pull his heart downwards. A single thought disturbed his mind, echoing again and again. Has he finally… given up?

Has Joon given up on making Cheondung’s love life an embarrassing mess?

Instead of relief, what Cheondung felt was an abrupt rush of panic. As though a carpet had abruptly been jerked from below his feet, Cheondung continued to blink in confusion at where Joon was lounging casually in the sofa across Cheondung and the girl. Cheondung had a sudden unexplainable urge to yell at him. What the hell are you waiting for?!

But then, something even worse happened.

As though unaware of Cheondung’s shocked expression, Joon calmly took a newspaper and spread it over his knees. Having flipped through a few pages, Joon apparently found something interesting and started to read.

Meanwhile, Cheondung caught himself shaking, hands clenched into angry fists. It took all of Cheondung’s willpower to stop himself from running to Joon, pulling him out of his stupid sofa by his stupid collar and grabbing his shoulders, shaking the man to sanity. Why the hell are you giving up?!

“Cheondung, are you quite sure you’re fine?” asked the girl again, this time sounding a little scared. The silence had gone on for way too long, and she did not understand why there were mental bullets shooting from Cheondung to Joon. Have they had a fight just before I came? she wondered.

Spurred on by a sudden brilliant idea, Cheondung turned to her. “I know it’s a little early, I know we hardly know each other,” recited Cheondung, trying not to glace at Joon too often or too obviously “but I love you. I really do.” He HAS to react to this!!!

But Joon only cast a brief, disinterested glance at the two people across him before his attention shifted back to the newspaper.

Cheondung felt not unlike the times when, during a really fast rollercoaster ride, a moment comes in which you stop enjoying yourself and start questioning if you will finish the ride alive.

The girl, to Cheondung’s dismay, looked completely charmed. She closed her eyes, and her smiling pink lips learned forwards into a kiss.

She tasted like every girl tasted to Cheondung – like lipstick and toothpaste. Just as soon as she pulled away, eyes shining, Cheondung snapped around towards Joon.

But Joon still gave no response.

On the brisk of explosion, Cheondung steamed with hurt pride, unanswered questions, total confusion, a dire need for attention, but, most strongly, a desperate desire he didn’t dare name. Instead, he screamed:

“WILL YOU IN DO SOMETHING ALREADY!!!”

Finally, at long last, Joon’s eyes returned to Cheondung’s face, and a soothing wave of relief washed over Cheondung, even if Joon looked totally baffled.

For the first time ever, Cheondung himself had accidentally got rid of his girlfriend, without any “help” on Joon’s part. Shocked and scared at Cheondung’s scream, she jumped off the couch and, walking backwards, tentatively retreated from the room, casting one final wide-eyed glance before she ran out of the apartment.

“Well,” Joon finally broke the silence, ”I thought I was good at embarrassing you, but it seems you can embarrass yourself just as well on your own.”

Cheondung chuckled at that. Finally at peace, he slumped into the couch’s soft white meat.

Later that day, Seungho asked during dinner about “Cheondung’s new girl”.

“Aish, this bastard ruined everything again!” complained Cheondung, waving his chopsticks at Joon. Joon took the opportunity to steal the bite perched on those chopsticks, causing the table to burst into laughter. “He always messes everything up! She was real pretty too…”, Cheondung continued, smiling softly at Joon’s blissful expression as Joon chewed on the food like some happy cat. Just how Joon kept his perfect figure was beyond logical reasoning. And that thought, too, made Cheondung smile a little.

“Don’t ever do that again“, whispered Cheondung later that night. Though he tried his best, he couldn’t stop his voice from sounding worried.

From the next bed came the quiet answer.

“Deal.” whispered Joon. Even in darkness, Cheondung could see his smile and the glimmer of his eyes.

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