Among the many important dilemmas that a person can come across, Yoseob never thought he would come across one he thought was the most stupid and superficial: to go or to not go to a party.

Ok, it wasn’t as stupid simple as it sounded.

It was a party of elegant dresses and high class cars, of brand new suits and diamond jewels, a party where hypocrite people liked to show off a fake kind side of them; it was a charity ball —show off party would be a better name. Although all the earnings of the party were donated to charity, the people who attended those parties cared about anything but charity, which was probably why Doojoon hated them and did everything in his hands to avoid them.

Yoseob couldn’t blame him; he hated them too.

However, there were going to be a lot of important people that Doojoon needed to meet for both his father’s and his own company, so, Yoseob, as a good assistant had exchanged a dinner with him for their assistance to the party.

It would be easy to tell Doojoon to go on his own, but Doojoon would probably just ditch it as soon as he could which would develop into a chain of events that would end with him in trouble, or worst, fired.

“Are you done?”

The voice of certain man whose stubbornness had been giving him a headache after another for the last hour said behind the door.

“Not yet”

“Well, hurry up. We don’t have all day!” 

Yoseob had heard the same line so many times already, yet he couldn’t help but to release a heavy sight as he fixed the last button of the suit.

With anxious heart he walked out of the changing room and stood in front of the mirror to admire the gorgeous black Armani suit he was trying.   

“So?” Seungho asked in bored tone.

“It’s gorgeous” Yoseob said in sad voice.

“Say it again and I might believe it” Seungho said with bored expression. “It’s not that hard to smile, you know?”

“It’s just show how I feel”

“And that’s why I told you to not try it”

Yoseob knew his cousin was right, but he couldn’t help but to pout.

“I’ll go bring the first you tried; that’s the best” and saying that, Seungho left his cousin to mourn to himself.

Yoseob knew he should be glad his cousin was there for him, but there were things he really couldn’t help. Not being able to find a suit that suited him well was one of those things.

The grey one looked common; the black one looked mournful; the white one made him look like a child and the dark blue one like an old man. One after another, he had tried the suits in the mall without luck. None, absolutely none of the suits he had tried looked good on him.

He was about to give up and buy the white one, when his eyes caught sight of a gorgeous black suit. It wasn’t mournful like the other black suit; it looked gorgeous and stunning and before he could stop himself he was trying it despite his cousin warning him of its price.

So, there he was looking at his reflexion in the only suit that fit him perfectly and yet, the only suit in store he couldn’t pay —unless he worked the next two months just to pay it.

The suit was so perfect that Yoseob was sure anybody would look great wearing it; Seungho, Junhyung, the guy from the restaurant that hates him because he thinks his dating Seungho, Doojoon. All of them would look good wearing that Armani; especially Doojoon. Doojoon looked good in anything. And suits, they were made for him.

Before he could realize what he was doing, Yoseob imagined Doojoon in the grey suit he had tried before —it wasn’t ordinary at all. The mournful black suit he had tried before also looked good in the imaginary Doojoon, who wore it as if it was made for him. It matched his dark locks and deep eyes pretty well —and he liked it veeeeery much.

Black, grey, white; Doojoon changed for one to another suit as Yoseob imagined him in every one he had tried before.

It was when the pieces of suit were starting to disappear one by one that Yoseob decided his wild imagination had gone too far.

But it was hard to stop it when he had already seen the real thing, because, yes, he had seen a shirtless Doojoon.

It happened when they had their dinner together.

Hyunseung, as Doojoon had promised, prepared everything from the salad to the dessert, but sadly he wasn’t able eat with them because he already had plans —something about a date with Junhyung; which, by the way, sounded a lot like a lie to Yoseob. Either way, they spend a good night together. Doojoon updated Yoseob about his and Hyunseung’s lives in California —how troublesome it was to go back with them and how Hyunseung had melted their icy hearts with sweet smiles and very few words— and Yoseob told him about his life in Tokyo —though, with few detail missing here and there.

Everything was fine, until he accidentally threw hot sauce on Doojoon.

And it was hot.

Doojoon was jumping from a side to another trying to take off his shirt, and Yoseob, trying to help him somehow, didn’t have a better idea than to throw a jar of water on him. All over him.

The burning sensation stopped but Doojoon had already taken off his shirt.

Water drops were falling down his shirtless chest. Doojoon wasn’t all muscles, but hell he had everything in place and very well defined. And although Yoseob had reacted fast to give him a towel, the image of a shirtless Doojoon had printed itself in his mind.

“Go away, Doojoon!” He shut his eyes tightly and shook his head from side to side, trying to erase every image of Doojoon in suit or without it.

“But I’ve just arrived”

Caught by surprise, Yoseob jolted in his place as his eyes got wide open, just to see a pouting Doojoon in casual clothes through the mirror.

“Hi” It was just a casual, soft greeting and Yoseob’s heart was overreacting already.

After getting a hold of himself and managing to shortly greet Doojoon without stammering —the fact that Doojoon in casual clothes looked extremely good didn’t help his concentration— he changed into his own clothes before he damaged the suit —the salesman was looking weirdly at him just for wearing it while knowing he couldn’t buy it.

“I called you earlier and your cousin answered. He said you were here trying out everything and liking nothing” Doojoon explained, quoting Seungho, after getting a questioning look from Yoseob. “So I came to help you find something, but I guess you already did, right?” he added, signalling something with his eyes.

Yoseob followed Doojoon’s eyes and saw the gorgeous Armani.

“Oh, that. No, it’s out of my budget” he preferred to apart his eyes before his heart hurt more for not being able to pay it. Someday, he said to himself, someday he’ll save enough money and will be able to buy a suit like that. Someday that wasn’t today neither tomorrow, so he better get used to the idea and buys something else.

“I’ll take the grey suit” he told the salesman. He wanted to leave that place already, so the faster he picked a suit the better.

The salesman was about to pick the grey suit, but Doojoon beat him to it and gave him the Armani instead.

“We’ll take this one”

The sales man’s eyes almost popped out of his orbits, but wasted no time nevertheless, took the Armani and ran out to print the bill.

“What are you doing? I can’t pay that!” Yoseob felt his heart —and his wallet— clenching tight as he counted on his mind the many zeros the price had.

“I’ll buy it for you”

Yoseob’s mind stopped for a bit, trying to take in what Doojoon had just said.

“Excuse me?” the dumbfounded tone Yoseob had used made an amused smile to appear on the elder’s lips.

“Well, it’s my fault you have to go to this party, so I’m trying to lessen my guilt by buying you a suit”

That had to be the most absurd yet, somehow reasonable excuse Yoseob has ever heard in his life and there was no way he was going to accept it.

Or so he thought.

The next half hour Doojoon proved Yoseob that once he had something in mind he didn’t give up easily.

Although he couldn’t stop Doojoon from buying the suit, at least he managed to make him accept his money. Yoseob had learned that you’ve got nothing unless you’ve got it on your own, so of course he was going to pay Doojoon even if it had to be little by little.

They spend the rest of the afternoon eyeshopping around the mall.

Doojoon wanted to buy few things Yoseob said he liked, but the younger threatened to quit if he did. It’s not that he didn’t appreciate it, but, one, he didn’t want Doojoon to think he was a money er; and two, he didn’t want his cousin to think he was a money er. Besides, the later had been acting weird since they left the store and always stood between the two of them.

They parted ways before the sunset and from then on Yoseob knew the reason of his cousin’s weird behaviour.

“For the nth time, Hyung, I don’t need it” Yoseob was almost ready for the party when his cousin tried to sneak a pepper spray in his pocket. “And stop worrying as if Doojoon’s gonna try me”

It was the first time Seungho had met Doojoon, but he had already decided he didn’t like the man. One, he was wealthy —nothing he could do about that—; two, he was stupidly handsome and with nice personality —rich people should at least be ugly—; and three, he had noticed the way he looked at his cousin and he didn’t like it at all.

“He bought you a suit. And not any suit, but an ARMANI; like ARMONEY. Who buys their employees such expensive suit?”

“I’ll pay him back”

“That’s what I’m afraid of”

Seungho wasn’t the overprotective kind of people and he knew his cousin wasn’t stupid either, but he seemed to trust Doojoon too much just because they had been classmates back in high school, so he had been trying to make Yoseob open his eyes and see what he saw.

 “Besides it’s not like we’re going to be alone,”

“As if that will stop him”

But the younger refused to.

Seungho sounded more and more like a broken disc to Yoseob and he knew the older wasn’t about to shut his trap, so he just opted for ignoring him. When the older noticed it, he decided to finally shut up —to the younger’s relieve— until the man they had been talking about knocked on their door.

Yoseob got up to open it, but his cousin stood in front of him and looked at him with frowned eyebrows and really serious eyes.

“Seob, there are ert people in the world who would love to have cuties like you in their beds” Seungho said as he cupped his cousin’s face with both hands —they used to be so chubby—, his voice the most serious Yoseob had ever heard it “and I think that Doojoon is one of them”

Yoseob blinked twice at his cousin, wondering if he was indeed being serious. When the other did nothing more than to stare at him with the same serious expression, he knew he was and frowned at him.

“The only ert I see is you, Hyung”

His cousin said something else, but it got muffled by the door, so none of them actually got it fully and Yoseob was glad for that. One, because his cousin had been saying weird stuff for quite a while and if Doojoon heard, he might start getting weird ideas about Yoseob and maybe he could start avoiding him —which he would hate a lot. And two, he might start getting weird ideas about Doojoon and he might need to avoid said man —to have a creative imagination had never been so troublesome.  

Luckily, he found something to distract his mind with.

“I thought you didn’t drive” He said few minutes after the

Yoseob had always thought that, after the Jang’s accident, Doojoon had grown some kind of fear of cars, so he didn’t even comment about Doojoon taking busses or even walking from a place to another, despite his status. But then they drove a cab when they picked Hyunseung, so he decided that maybe Doojoon was afraid of driving because, seriously, the man had more than enough money to own a car or to have a driver if he wanted.

Now that they were on Doojoon’s car, said man driving, Yoseob was starting to wonder if he had been wrong since the beginning.

“I didn’t, but, the why is quite a long story”

“I guess we have time” Yoseob suggested, curiosity rising in him.

“Well, to make it short; Hyunseung drowned my car on the Han River and since he’s a minor, I, as his legal tutor, had to take responsibility over it”

He had what? Yoseob’s eyes went wide open as he kept listening to Doojoon.

“The case was taken to court, where, of course I was found guilty of recklessly raising and damaging the environment, as they had put it, and was sentenced to pay a really huge amount of money aside the bail”

“I’m guessing they also took your licence”

“For six months” Although it wasn’t a nice story he was telling and despite sounding actually a bit mad —probably recalling the stupidity of the judge— Yoseob could still hear the humour in his voice. The why, he couldn’t understand it. “I’ve got it back just today”

“Was he hurt?” Suddenly Yoseob found himself asking.

Although the teen had obviously survived the episode, Yoseob couldn’t help but to ask with real concern, as if just happened.

Doojoon, who had been keeping his eyes on the road, turned to him for a brief moment and Yoseob saw his expression changing from a mixture of sourness and amusement to surprise —good surprise— and then to amusement again.

“He wasn’t” a soft smile adorned his lips as he spoke “I was teaching him to drive and as a test I told him to park the car. Unfortunately he forgot to pull the hand brake and, well, the car rolled down to the river. We didn’t even notice it until someone told us so”

The rest of the ride, which wasn’t long, Doojoon couldn’t stop smiling and Yoseob couldn’t stop glancing at him from the corner of his eye.

“Well, we’re here” Doojoon announced when they finally arrived to the place where the party was being held.

For a moment there Yoseob doubted it was the same museum he had visited few weeks ago.

The place was totally different. There were lights everywhere and a red carpet and lots and lots of people and waitresses and a huge buffet and many tables and… it was crazy, but not crazy in a bad way. It was crazy good and actually looked pretty, many flowers here and there and the lighting gave it something special, different than how it usually looked. However, Yoseob liked it better how it looked usually.

“Welcome, Mr Yoon” said the waitress at the entrance after he verified their invitation. He checked their names on a list and told them their table.

The place was packed. People dancing, others chatting on the tables, some at the bar; it was so full Yoseob started to fear they lost each other there.

In their way to their table, people from one and other table got up to greet Doojoon and from where there tables were located, he guessed how important they were —he had eyed the waitress list— and most of them seemed to be very important.

“This is gonna be a really long night” Doojoon said as a foreign couple approached them.

“Don’t be a sore ” Yoseob told him, and Doojoon sadly glared at him for that “Just smile and shine” but then turned to greet the couple.

He was actually impressed, but Doojoon didn’t seem to like the attention that much.

There was an exhibition being held at the museum and since the money earned from the sold paintings was going to be donated, they decided to take a look —and Doojoon used it as a excuse to escape.

Yoseob had always liked exhibitions, but his friends didn’t and even when they went with him, they got bored easily when he started talking about a painting or a sculpture.

Doojoon was different.

Yoseob could talk about how good a paint would look in a living room or how scary another would be in a bedroom; he could talk about the authors and their previous works if he knew them or about the number of similar paintings with different meanings; he could talk and talk and talk even more and Doojoon would just listen to him.

“You’re not boring me out” Doojoon assured when Yoseob asked if he did after he realised he had been the only one talking in a while. “If more, you amuse me”

“I… amuse you?”

“In a good way” Doojoon hurried to say before Yoseob could misunderstand it “I mean… I like it how you talk about it. It’s like you’re living it. It’s like having a private guide” And while saying that, Doojoon smiled the most pure of his smiles that made Yoseob’s heart skip a beat.

Stop. Stop! He is not flirting.

Yoseob quickly repeated in his head, mentally slapping himself.

Doojoon is not flirting, his smiles is not a flirting smile, so he better don’t start getting wrong ideas.

Before he could think of something else, an old lady approached them. For what she said, she apparently knew Doojoon since he wore diapers, and before both knew Doojoon was being dragged away by her. 

He seemed ready to run but the lady had him locked by the arm and, being polite as he was, Doojoon just couldn’t help but to go with her.

Since he was left alone, Yoseob decided to look around a bit more while waiting for Doojoon, still smiling to himself at the memory of how hopeless Doojoon looked while being dragged away by a lady almost half his height.

When twenty minutes passed and Doojoon wasn’t back yet, Yoseob started to wonder if he should go rescue the man. Although it amused him the way the lady had dragged him and how much he must be suffering, he was getting bored being alone.

“Let’s rescue Doojoon” he said to himself, but then stopped. That actually sounded funny. As if he was the prince and Doojoon the princess held captive by the witch. Doojoon would make a very handsome princess.

Smiling to himself at the thought, he his heels and tried to pass through the mass of people, which wasn’t easy. However, his smile disappeared as he recognized a face in the crowd

Same height, same black straight hair, same crocked smile as he talked to his companion; it couldn’t be him. It was a ghost, Yoseob really hopped it was a ghost, a creation of his mind. His imagination playing him tricks again. It had to be.

The other turned around and they locked eyes for a short moment, but to Yoseob it felt like eternity.

Same sharp glaring eyes.

It was him.

Without wasting time Yoseob turned around and started walking the opposite direction, the rescue of Doojoon long forgotten. He needed to leave that place; he needed to leave the sooner possible. The hall. He at least should make it to the hall, find his table and hide there.

Hopefully the other didn’t recognize him; his change of look was a bit extreme so maybe it worked well. And even if it didn’t, hopefully the other will pretend he didn’t see him. That’s why he should make it to the hall: to hide.

He didn’t make it.

He felt a tight grip around his arm and then a voice he had almost forgotten whispered something to his ear.

He froze. Body and mind, Yoseob froze. His mind tried to recall how he ended up there, in that party and why he had decided to come while his body wouldn’t respond and before he knew it he was being pushed inside the restroom.

Yoseob only regained the will over his body and mind when he heard the door being locked.

 “What do you want?” He managed to say with steady voice while locking eyes with the other. He turned around in his place and locked eyes with the other.

“You dare to ask?” It took him a lot of effort to not flinch nor turn away “What are you doing here?”

“That’s none of your business” his heart was beating really fast, but he managed to make his voice even.

“None of my business?”

An intense pain invaded his body as the other pushed him against the sinks without any delicacy; a hand around his neck while the other held him in place.

“Have you forgotten about the order?” he said, his lips almost touching Yoseob’s ear. “You are my business, Seobie” His voice was cold and dangerous as Yoseob had never heard it.

Gathering all his strength, Yoseob pushed the other off himself. He coughed a bit while massaging his neck. He was a bit shaken by it, but he recovered soon. In light speed, his mind started working a way to get out of there, but he couldn’t find something.

“My life is not your business and let me remind you, you’re the one who dragged me here”

Luckily for him, he didn’t have to think too much as someone knocked on the door.

He was about to open it when the other held him by the waist

“I’ll see you around” he said seductively on his ear before passing by him and leaving a shaken Yoseob standing on the restroom’s door.

“Forget about the past; there’s nothing you can do about it” someone once had told him and Yoseob couldn’t help but to laugh sadly at it.

Yes, there was nothing he could do about past. He could just forget about it and start anew, but what it that past hunts him down? Should he still forget about it?

Don’t worry about the future, it haven’t happen yet.

The consequences of the past over the future were what worried him.

What if someone found out? What if… what if it was Doojoon? How would he react? Would he think badly of him? Would he act the same as before finding about it? Would he treat him differently? Would he hate him?

“There you are”

Yoseob had been so immersed, worried, about what happened earlier and its consequences in his life that he didn’t notice Doojoon presence beside him until said man spoke.

“You ok?”

Yoseob wondered for a millisecond if he could tell Doojoon the truth; that he was not fine, that he was scared his past would come hunt him; that it had already appeared and nothing stopped it from hunting him.

“Yeah, I … you were right; it’s just a boring show off party” But he decided it wasn’t the time yet. If Yoseob had to tell Doojoon, he would, but when the right time comes, and that time wasn’t there yet.

“Well, since you have already confirmed it can we please leave? There’s a really awesome ajhuma who prepares he most delicious fish cake near Hyunseung’s school”

Doojoon sounded almost as desperate as Yoseob to leave, but the younger didn’t have to wonder too much to know why.

“The old lady from before is looking for you right?” Yoseob said matter of fact.

“Yes… and this ajhuma really cooks delicious. Let me invite you to dinner”

“What about the dinner here? You’ve already paid”

“Correction: the money I gave wasn’t for the dinner” he said while looking at Yoseob with a soft smile “I’ve paid for it to be given to charity”

“So, would you let me invite you?”

Doojoon didn’t have to ask twice as Yoseob started pulling him out of the museum, and sooner than he thought, they were already ordering two portions of every dish the ajhuma had to offer.

There wasn’t any special lighting in the food stand; the tables weren’t huge and elegant; the food didn’t look even half fancy as the buffet in the party; the only flowers were those of the tablecloth, and they both looked pretty much out of place. It was like a total opposite of the place they had left, but Yoseob liked it thousand times more.

Live the present, it’s the time you’re living in. His cousin’s voice rang in his head once more.

While past comes hunting, the future that awaits is uncertain, so the only option is to live the present as if there was no future.

Yes, to hell with past. He has a present now, and it was eating in front of him.

NOTE: well, in case it wasn’t obvious enough, yes, I like it veeeeeery much when Doojoon wears suits. I think suits look great on anyone. And Doojoon, well, he looks just too frigging HOT and Y and *¬* and there’s nothing anyone can say to make me change my mind about it! XP