Heechul sat in the kitchen. He sat alone in the silence of the early morning. The only sound to disturb his thoughts was that of his cat, crunching his breakfast between sharp teeth. Heechul looked at the Russian Blue and reached to pet along his back. Heebum purred and closed his eyes as he continued to eat.

“It should be Leeteuk feeding you, I know.” Heechul spoke softly, not wanting to disturb the contentment of Heebum’s purrs. He sighed and rested his palms flat on the table, his chin to the back of one hand. Looking at his cat, Heechul mused about his boyfriend and how the little gray kitty had ended up playing a major role in bringing them together last summer. If not for Heebum, Leeteuk wouldn’t have had an excuse to stay in his room. Leeteuk might not have had another chance to express his feelings for Heechul, since the cat made him calm down when he otherwise might have kicked Leeteuk out of his room in anger.

Smiling, Heechul pet over Heebum’s back again. “My little matchmaker.”

Heechul remained silent as Heebum finished his food. In the ultimate cat speak for love, Heebum bumped his head against Heechul’s and mewled softly at him. Sitting straight, Heechul scooped his cat into his arms and listened to him purr as he petted him.

Both their routines had been interrupted ever since Leeteuk left for Korea. Where normally Heebum would wake Leeteuk up for breakfast, he’d come back to bothering Heechul and in turn, Heechul didn’t get to sleep in as usual. At first the change had made him grumpy but now he was used to it again. Leeteuk had been gone for a month and there were two more months to go before he’d come home.

Heechul kept his dislike for Leeteuk being gone so long, a secret. He put on a brave face and encouraged Leeteuk to go home, with all his heart. Leeteuk probably saw through him, but he hadn’t made a fuss over Heechul’s reactions and they didn’t have any kind of fight about it. The truth was, Leeteuk had been offered a few contract jobs, with big name companies, back in his home country. Leeteuk had sold a few commercial jingles during the end of last year, but couldn’t make a break into songwriting (his true passion) until he sent some sample work to a friend with connections back home. He was finally getting his chance of working in his desired field, at being truly happy with his work and Heechul, more than anyone, knew the wealth of emotions Leeteuk’s work caused him. Heechul certainly wouldn’t be the one to keep his boyfriend from happiness. So he’d smiled, even on their drive to the airport and all through their ‘goodbyes.’ Even when Leeteuk called sometimes to check in, Heechul didn’t betray that on the inside he was a mess of loneliness and worry. He simply changed the topic of their conversations to something one of the Sharehouse members had said or done.

The start of the year had brought new faces to their home and goodbyes to some of the old. Jia moved out not long after Gain left. Heechul and Leeteuk kept separate bedrooms, but Leeteuk had turned his into his workspace and more often than not got his rest in Heechul’s room. Simon had stayed with him too, making the excuse that Heechul and Leeteuk needed someone to keep them from walking around all the time. Heechul knew he was really staying because he could be closer to Gain here. If she called Heechul, Simon would have the news right away and sometimes even steal the phone from him. Face chat had quickly stopped being an option for Heechul and Gain due to Simon hogging up their time. Heechul didn’t mind so much, especially now that Leeteuk wasn’t home, it was nice to have some familiarity and if Simon offered nothing else, it was familiarity.

The Sharehouse had picked up two new members this year, both rather contrary and making for a never-a-dull-moment kind of atmosphere. The first new member of the house was a young lady, but at first glance most mistook her for a guy. She called herself Amber and Heechul hadn’t bothered to ask if it was her birth or nickname. Simon had offered Amber her place in the house. She worked in a body shop, fixing and remodeling cars to customer specifications. Amber was too hot headedly independent to continue living at home and for the same reason she’d worked her way out of the roommate options. But Simon felt a kindred spirit with the mouthy young girl who didn’t give a damn on the outside and housed a heart of gold on the inside. She wasn’t afraid of Heechul, just as Gain hadn’t been, and Heechul felt certain he could make a friend of Amber, they just hadn’t had their moment yet. Amber took her joking around too seriously and ended up offending Heechul more often than not, but she was quick to apologize and Heechul liked her enough to tolerate her.

The second had been a young man by the name of Kim Kibum. He went by Key for short and since most every member of the house had some kind of nickname, Heechul and the others had almost forgotten Key had any other name. Heechul met Key at a salon when he decided it was time to at least trim his shoulder-length, black hair. Through general, stylist to customer talk, Heechul had found out that Key was facing being kicked out of yet another room mates’ house for his ual preferences and had long since been tossed aside by his parents for the same reason. Something about Key brought out the caring, paternal side in Heechul and he’d offered him a room at his Sharehouse. Key happily accepted and had since seen three different jobs, each one lost to something inappropriate being said to a customer or co-worker. Key was a work in progress and Heechul felt he and the Sharehouse members were on the good side of that work rather than the negative. Key currently worked as a server at a mid scale restaurant. Heechul never offered Sharehouse members the chance to work in his restaurant. They could eat there all they wanted, but he'd learned the hard way how conflicts in the workplace managed to weed their way into conflicts at home.

Heechul's restaurant continued to bring in customers and good reviews and ever since Leeteuk's departure, Heechul had been spending more time there than at home. His head chef Sung Yuri, a sassy girl two years his senior with aims at opening her own restaurant, had convinced Heechul on the idea of a catering offshoot to his own restaurant. Heechul liked the idea and since Yuri had become his good working partner over their years together, he'd founded the side business in her name. Heechul was hugely interested in promoting his friends' talents and Yuri was smart enough to know he wanted at least some of the accolade as well; she insisted that Heechul remain her partner in the new venture. Heechul welcomed the distraction from home and dwelling on Leeteuk.

As he pet his cat, the sun started to spark up a lively conversation with the sky, growing brighter and stronger. Glancing at the clock on the microwave, Heechul sighed softly and sat his puddle of a cat back on the kitchen table. Time had a way of passing all too quickly and sometimes not at all. The minutes were squeezing themselves out of a cold syrup bottle this morning, just as they had been all month. Heechul busied himself with Sunday breakfast to help the time beat its wings and learn to fly.

Simon was first into the kitchen to the smell of omelets frying their way to fully cooked. "Morning," he said to Heechul and helped himself to one of the pancakes piled on a serving plate. Even with two new members, Simon thought the house was too quiet. It was all Leeteuk's fault, leaving Heechul a depressing mess. Heechul still liked to play around and provoke fun, but there was something missing in the form of a short, half as muscular man in his life. Simon hated to admit it, but Leeteuk had managed to bring out the best in Heechul in a way that not even he or Donghae could. Simon smirked as he looked at Heechul. He felt his own kind of melancholia over Gain's absence, so he didn't bother him about it too much. They both were in a funk that needed to be shaken off, badly.

"What are you up to today?" Heechul asked him, sliding three more pancakes on the plate to replace the one Simon had stolen.

"Oh, you know. Being lazy, eventually getting to work. I've got this guy coming in today to have some restoration done on one of his old tattoos. He had a girlfriend's name inked in that he wants covered up now."

"It's always like that isn't it?" Heechul laughed softly. "Jumping into something permanent before you really know what you're into."

Simon rolled his eyes. "I guess. What I think is awesome is when they come in with really horrible designs some loser did in prison for them and I get to make it look badass."

Heechul chuckled, thinking Simon was just like him for wanting to fix things. "I think I'll be out all day today." He glanced at the clock again as the morning rounded on 8AM. "I've got a catering location. I should probably leave soon."

Simon chuckled. "Why did you even bother with all the breakfast if you have to run out?"

"I got bored."

"Heebum woke you up again huh?"

"He doesn't like waiting." Heechul chuckled and slid the last of the omelets onto a serving plate. He turned off the oven and had the food set on the table before continuing. "Leeteuk wakes up too damn early," he laughed. Heechul had been awake since 5AM, part nerves for the day and part Heebum's hunger.

"That's true. You heard from him lately?"

"I get texts." Heechul smiled. "He's doing well, but they're working him hard. Any word from Gain?"

"None." Simon didn't elaborate on how long it had been since he'd heard from her.

Heechul nodded and grabbed a pancake, folding it in half like a taco and setting a small piece of omelet inside it. "Hate to eat and run," he said with a wave.

Simon waved him on, watching him go before sitting down to make himself a plate.

Yuri had opened the catering business a little over a month ago and shocked Heechul with her shameless self promotion, landing them job after job. The business opened a few weeks before Leeteuk left and it had been a godsend for Heechul, keeping him busy enough to avoid the temptation toward depression. Today's job was a film set and Heechul got to work just in time to help fill the catering van with equipment and food. Yuri managed through endless support from Heechul and his restaurant staff. The line cooks all stepped right up to help whenever needed, feeling the passion that Yuri and Heechul gave off for their work.

Since opening, Yuri hired some of her own staff, even stealing a couple of Heechul's line cooks. They teased each other frequently about it, but all in good fun. Yuri and Heechul were in it together and it made both of them happy to know they could work and laugh as friends.

"Heechul. Can you help me with this?" Yuri called over, voice straining as she carried a vat of soup too heavy for her.

"Yah, what are you doing?" Heechul chided, taking the large metal container from her and securing it in the van.

"You could have just guessed I needed help with it," she joked right back.

Heechul clicked his tongue at her, making a disgusted face. They both laughed and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, looking into the packed back of the van. "Ready?" He asked.

"So ready," she smiled. This would be their first movie set job and the excitement was high with everyone. Yuri checked her watch. Shoving Heechul off gently she closed up the van and tossed him the keys.

"I see how it is, if anything get ruined on the drive in, it's my fault." Heechul smirked.

"Duh," she teased and dodged his pretend backhand to get in the passenger seat.

There were two more company vans ready to follow them and Heechul took a breath to marvel at how quickly this idea had taken off before getting in the lead van.

New York was the heart of Broadway and L.A. was the heart of film. It was hard to make it in either city unless you had an iron will and a cutthroat yet compassionate outlook toward networking. Jung Yunho had all of that. A Canadian native, he'd lived first in New York, making a small time name for himself in Off Broadway productions. Party after party finally got him noticed by an L.A. agent with yellow fever. When his whole life had been spent with people telling him to audition in Korea, Yunho jumped on the chance to first small roles, then hitting the middle of the road in American independent film. The big awards appealed to him as much as any other actor felt aspirations, but Yunho wanted the independent awards more.

Yunho sat in his trailer, looking over his script and waiting for his call to set. It was a simple love story, made complicated by drug use, abuse and racism. Yunho had struggled through reading it at first and immediately fell in love with the ending. He'd called the director himself and advocated how much he loved the script and would fight to keep the integrity of the film. Yunho then impressed himself on the producers and landed the role with minimal help from his agent. Yunho's agent was only there to mete out his contract and make sure he got the best deal for himself and his actor.

The actress playing Yunho's girlfriend was a newcomer to Hollywood but already being hailed as one to watch. While slightly jealous, Yunho knew this was a great opportunity for himself to be noticed and he steeled himself to bringing everything he possibly could into his performance. His call to set came and Yunho ran his lines through his head as he left his trailer for the careful hands of a makeup artist's touch ups.

Heechul produced their pass for the security on set and were waved to their section of the lot. Yuri and Heechul exchanged a giddy squee before getting out to begin professionally setting up their catering table. Professional to them still including whispered jokes and excited giggles. While Yuri and her crew put together the food, Heechul placed their signage and business cards, both his and Yuri's. He wasn't about to miss a chance to advertise his restaurant on a movie set.

When finished, Yuri came to the front of the tables to stand by Heechul. She wrapped her slender arms around his equally slender waist and squeezed him.

"Ready for your closeup?" Yuri teased.

Heechul couldn't help placing a soft kiss on the top of her head. "As I'll ever be," he said with a smile. Letting her go to find his chef jacket, Heechul pulled it on at the back of the van. "What's the movie about anyway, did you get any info?"

"None," Yuri said. Their whole team had signed non-disclosure statements, but that didn't seem like enough for this film crew, still keeping them in the dark. "It's annoying," Yuri whined a little with a pout. "I want to know what kind of pretty people I get to look at when lunch time comes."

Heechul laughed. "What if it's a ?"

With a slight blush and a slap on Heechul's arm, Yuri chuckled. "If it is, I'll never forgive you."

"Me?" Heechul almost yelled. "You're the one who set up the job."

Yuri laughed and double checked her chef jacket, leaving Heechul to take her place behind the tables they'd set up.

Heechul shrugged and decided to do a little inconspicuous investigation. He walked around the vans, propping up on his tip toes to try and see around the actor trailers to the set.

"Cut!" Came the director's voice from behind Yunho. He wiped his own eyes and shared a hug with is still crying lead actress. The director called for a break as the crew moved in to break down the scene for the reaction shots they needed. The assistant director called for lunch as Yunho pulled from their hug, satisfied to see his leading lady smiling again. Yunho's stomach grumbled angrily at the mention of food and the fact that Yunho wasn't walking that direction already. The actors shared a laugh and parted ways for their respective crews to take pieces of their costumes and point them in the direction of catering.

To keep himself in character during the break, Yunho plugged his ears with music, tucking his phone into his pocket. He was surprised to see food with a Korean flare at the catering tables. The smell of gochujang and something that had to be bulgogi made his mouth water. There were vegetarian options and kimbap. Yunho could have cried for how at home this made him feel, his emotions were still amped up from the scene he'd just shot. He reminded himself to thank whomever had made this catering choice later.

Yunho was hardly looking up at the servers as the food had him salivating even more while he piled some of everything on his plate. Looking up at the servers finally, Yunho's eyes were wet as he met the steady gaze of a woman in her early 30s by the look of it. "Did you make this?" Yunho asked her in Korean as he pulled his earbuds out and tucked them into the neck of his shirt.

"Oh, you're Korean." She answered back in their native tongue with a nod. "I made this with the help of the crew here."

Yunho stayed to talk with her, careful to get out of the way of the hungry crew passing him along the line of the table. "I haven't had anything like this in a long time."

"Where are you from?" Yuri couldn't help asking.

"Canada originally, you?"

"I was born here in LA." Yuri said with a smile. "If you're missing home cooking, you should stop by our co-owner's restaurant."

Heechul could have kissed Yuri, he was trying not to in on their conversation but his ears had perked up at the sound of Korean.

Yunho took the card advertising the restaurant and bowed low to Yuri. "Thank you for the meal."

Yuri laughed graciously and bowed in return. "Enjoy it."

Yunho stopped at the kimbap and nearly stopped in his tracks looking at the big brown eyes that held expectation in their depths.

"Kimbap?" The man asked him, his big lips pulling into a smirk.

Yunho blinked and nodded. "Thank you," he muttered in Korean.

"No problem," the man replied in easy Korean and Yunho looked up, grinning that he'd forgotten to say 'thank you' in English.

"You speak Korean too?" Yunho asked.

"I hope so, otherwise this is gibberish and I've been possessed."

Yunho laughed at the absurdity and nodded. "Sounds like Korean to me."

"God be praised!" The server joked in English and Yunho laughed.

"Monty Python, right?" Yunho asked.

The man chuckled and nodded, slipping back into Korean as he asked, "You're an actor here?'

"Male lead, actually," Yunho nodded, puffing up proudly as he stole a glance at Yuri.

"Are you new at this?" The man asked.

Yunho deflated. "No," he said, colder than he'd meant to sound. "I've been acting for a while."

"First big movie?" The server asked, seemingly unaware of how this line of question bothered Yunho.

"No, actually." Yunho didn't offer any more information and nodded for the server to put another kimbap on his plate, trying to emphasize that he was important and a server was clearly, not.

The man simply smiled and added more food to his plate, unfazed by Yunho's attempt at slighting him. This only ruffled Yunho's feathers more and he bowed slightly and left with a small 'thank you,' in English.

That guy, Yunho thought as he walked to his chair near the set and sat to eat. He should definitely be fired, or reprimanded, something. Eventually, Yunho shook his head and smiled. He couldn't pay attention to someone's questions and his own reactions when the food on his plate was this good.

Lunch was a success. Not only had all the food, save a few scraps, been eaten but all their business cards and menus had disappeared off the tables as well. Heechul and Yuri shared a round of hugs and high-fives with their staff and each other. As they set to cleaning up, Yuri couldn't help getting girly at Heechul.

"Wasn't that actor kid really cute?" She said with a sigh.

Heechul raised a brow. "Oh the Korean guy?"

"Oh, the Korean guy, he says. As if you weren't looking at him." Yuri laughed and shoved his shoulder, going to get into their packed van to leave.

"Yah," Heechul laughed as he followed her, getting in the driver's side. "I was not looking. I'm happily boyfriended thank you."

Yuri laughed. "It doesn't mean you can't look Heechul. I didn't say you'd do anything."

Heechul shrugged. "I don't know. He seemed to like you more. But he's a little young, don't you think, old lady?"

"Yah!" Yuri laughed, reaching over to slap the back of Heechul's head gently. "I'm not old yet, I'm not even in my forties."

Heechul winced from the hit, laughing as he said, "Could have fooled me."

"Listen punk, want to die?" Yuri chuckled and shook her head. "Young guys often go for older ladies."

"Yeah, ladies." Heechul looked pointedly at her and they burst out laughing together.

"He did look like he was about to punch you. What were you asking him?"

Heechul shrugged. "I just wanted to know if he was new to movies. I've never seen him before."

Yuri nodded. "Yeah, I've never seen him either. Did you ever find out his name while you were sneaking around trying to be important?"

Heechul rolled his eyes. "Like you didn't want to accidently walk on set and feel like a star. But yeah, his name's Jung Yunho." Heechul looked at Yuri for any hint of recognition.

"Oh," she started, but paused, thinking. "No. Never heard of him."

Heechul laughed. "What was that? Acting like you knew."

"What?" Yuri laughed. "It's a popular name isn't it?"

They kept laughing at each other all the way back to work where Heechul deftly avoided cleanup by claiming he needed to be home. Yuri let him go without too much fuss and Heechul took the rest of the afternoon as a drive along the beach.

Heechul relaxed and listened to music, definitely not thinking about how cool it was to work on a movie set. His thoughts certainly didn't come back to Jung Yunho's frustration at his probing questions either. At 5PM Heechul had parked at one of the various photo ops along his coastal highway and waited. He sat in the open back of his Forester looking out at the ocean and feeling the cool breeze off the water. There were warm blankets tucked alongside him, on the chance he stayed out here too long, even a case of bottled water.

He didn't have to wait long before his phone rang with Leeteuk's ringtone.

"Hi baby," he answered the phone.

"Hey Heechul," Leeteuk said with an obvious smile. "How are you?"

"Great. I got to do something fun today. But how are you babe?"

"No, you have to tell me your news first," Leeteuk chuckled.

"Do I have to?" Heechul teased. As if he weren't bursting to tell Leeteuk anyway. "I got to work on a movie set today with Yuri and our catering."

"That's so awesome." Leeteuk said. "Did you meet anyone cool?"

"God no. Just this annoying brat of an actor that didn't like my questions." Heechul chuckled.

"Oh, Heechul, you didn't did you?'

"Do what?" Heechul smirked. "No, I didn't hurt his feelings by telling him I didn't know who he was." Heechul imagined Leeteuk's facepalm reaction, smiling.

"You." Leeteuk laughed softly. "I love you so much."

Heechul laughed. "Because I don't take crap from anyone, especially brat kids who think they're stars?"

"Yes, not even from your boyfriend who thinks he's a star." Leeteuk smiled. "Speaking of brat kids. How's Simon and the new kids?"

"Yah, stop asking questions and tell me how you are, Teukie. You're okay aren't you?"

Leeteuk laughed. "I'm fine. I just feel like I haven't heard your voice in so long, I want you to talk to me about everything."

"Aww, it's kind of like you miss me." Heechul teased.

"I do miss you, don't rub it in."

They were quiet for a moment then Heechul disturbed it. "Tell me how your songs are coming along, are they loving you?"

"It's great. Really." Leeteuk smiled. "Things are going really smoothly, they're not forcing me to compromise anything."

"Not that you'd let them anyway," Heechul interjected.

"Well yeah. If I didn't stick up for myself over here I'd never be able to face my boyfriend again."

"No," Heechul grinned. "Your boyfriend would fly there and make them eat their words against you."

Leeteuk laughed softly and Heechul smiled to hear it. "I love you," Heechul blurted, happy to have Leeteuk, even if it was only phone calls for now.

"I love you too," Leeteuk said exactly the same way he did when he was holding Heechul close and whispering in his ear and Heechul felt emotional fireworks light themselves in his stomach and explode into his heart.

"So, the kids," Heechul said. "They're good. Simon's still melancholy over Gain. We haven't heard from her in a while and I think it's making him nervous."

"I'm sure she's just busy," Leeteuk offered.

"I think so too." Heechul sighed. "Heebum misses you, he's still waking me up at ungodly hours."

Leeteuk laughed. "It won't hurt you to wake up and not sleep all day."

"Yah," Heechul smiled. "I'll have you know I leave the house everyday and do something productive."

"You wouldn't if I were home."

"Of course not, and you wouldn't leave my bed either." Heechul grinned.

"I miss those days." Leeteuk's voice was smiling as much as he was.

"You'll have them again soon," Heechul assured. "How's your family treating you?"

"Well," Leeteuk nodded. "They're not pushing me to find a girl as much as I thought they would."

Heechul laughed. "Are you going to tell them?"

"About us? Yes, eventually. But I want you here with me when I do."

Heechul felt a little swell in his heart and sighed happily. "Teukie?"

"Yeah, love?"

"I told you I love you right?" He smiled.

"You did, but you can tell me all the time."

"I love you, all the time."

"I love you, mostly when you're ."

"Yah," Heechul laughed. "What are you up to today?"

"Oh, just going to shower, then into a real studio to record a demo of my new song."

"Will they let you have a copy of it?"

"Yes, it's mine."

"Will you send me a copy of it?"

"No, never," Leeteuk said, his voice teasing.

"Fine then, I don't want to hear your songs anyway," Heechul teased back.

"I'll see if I can send you something soon." Leeteuk said sincerely.

Heechul could feel the end of the phone call creeping up on them and he wanted to punch it. "I'll listen right away if you do." They were quiet again and Heechul swallowed, not wanting to say goodbye. "Leeteuk?"

"Heechul."

"If I need you, can I call you?"

"Yes, you can. If you're feeling anything and you need to talk to me about it. Call me. I'll make time for you, I promise."

"You can do the same babe. For anything, you can call me."

"I know. And Heechul?"

"Yes?"

"Promise me you'll keep smiling okay? I know this is hard on you. It's hard on me too. I miss you. But it's not for long and don't start thinking that I'm looking at other guys, girls or anything silly like that. I'm yours."

Heechul smiled, sighing softly. "Teukie, I don't think you're looking at anyone else. I just miss you looking at me, is all. And if you're worried about it too, don't. I'm not thinking of anyone but you when I take a really long shower."

Leeteuk laughed. "How did you know I was about to take a really long shower?"

"I don't know, maybe because you're used to lots of ?" Heechul grinned. "I'm just as much yours. My body is missing you just as much as yours too."

Leeteuk chuckled.

"And if I have to keep smiling, you do too babe." Heechul sighed. "I don't want calls from unhappy Teuk, just like you don't want calls from silent Heechul."

"Thank you baby," Leeteuk said with a smile. "I didn't really want to admit that I've been sad lately, missing you. Thanks for making it okay."

"It's only natural to get sad because you miss me and my gorgeous body," Heechul teased, smiling when Leeteuk laughed. "I love you."

"I love you too Heechul. I'll call again when I can."

"I look forward to hearing your laugh, so I'll answer right away."

"I love you, bye." Leeteuk said with a final tone.

"Bye, baby." Heechul smiled and ended the call. He sighed heavily and hugged his knees to his chest, hating time even more as he squeezed his phone.