That day was indeed long and slow moving. It wasn’t too bad when he was filming and he had his mind occupied on something else, but during the breaks in between, Woobin felt as if time was crawling. He had made an effort not to check his phone too much, especially since he had made a mental note to be more conscious of his own actions. In addition, he had also managed to keep the fact that Jongsuk was drunk at his house from his manager. It wasn’t totally intentional that he hid it – although that may have been part of it as well – he just didn’t see a need to let his manager know.

Woobin was waiting. He was waiting for a message or a call from Jongsuk, to know that he has woken up, to know that he was fine.  He also had a burning question within him, to know what exactly it was that made Jongsuk drink like he did. Yet, the few times he had managed to check his phone, there was neither any missed calls nor message notifications. That worried him, but there wasn’t much he could do. He tried his best to focus on his work, and with much effort, he managed to do okay, although it was far from what he could have achieved on his good days.

It was a little past one in the afternoon when Jongsuk stirred awake. He squinted his eyes and put his hands over his head, rubbing his temple lightly hoping to soothe the splitting headache he had. He groaned lowly as he shifted his eyes around, wondering where he was and what had happened. All he managed to make out was that he was at someone’s home, on someone’s bed, and that someone wasn’t him. The way the room was set, the clothes in the room and the scent of the room reminded him of someone though. The last thing he remembered was that he was drinking with Youngkwang and the staff from his drama, and his throbbing head didn’t allow him to think any further, so he just thought that he was at Youngkwang’s place.

After lying on bed for a while more, he pushed himself up with much effort to be seated on the bed. It was then that he saw the painkillers and glass of water on the bedside table. He weakly stretched out to take them, popping the painkiller into his mouth and swallowing it along with the glass of water. He had swept the note that Woobin left off the table when he took the painkillers, sighing a little before he bent down to pick up the note. He glanced over at the note, only to see a handwriting that was very familiar to him. That calligraphic handwriting, he instantly knew it belonged to Woobin. The note read: Take the medicine and rest well. Have got some soup in the pot, heat it up and drink it. You’ll feel better.

Woobin…that definitely belonged to Woobin, even if he hadn’t signed off. He concluded that this house didn’t belong to Youngkwang, but rather, it belonged to Woobin. Jongsuk bit on his tongue as he tried to think through the possibilities of why he had ended up at Woobin’s house, but he couldn’t exactly think of anything, not in this state. He sighed and reached for his phone in his back pocket. He whipped it out, only to see that his phone battery was flat. He didn’t exactly have any appetite, but thought that he could do with a little food so he weakly stumbled over to the kitchen and got himself some soup, not bothering to heat it up. He finished the soup without much thought and looked around the house, a sigh escaping his lips and a conflicted expression forming on his face. Usually, he would have explored around the house, but that day, he didn’t feel like it. He knew he could have waited for Woobin to return to apologize for being a nuisance – not that he could remember if he did anything – but he didn’t want to. He thought he could just leave Woobin a text message after he got home.

He dialled for a cab, and while waiting for the cab, he washed up the dishes and cleaned up the place a little. After he was done, he just sat around a little more on the couch, not doing anything in particular and just staring blankly at the ceiling until the cab came, leaving Woobin’s house and returning back to his own.

It was about four in the afternoon when Jongsuk finally got back home, and the first thing he did was to take a shower to freshen up and rid the smell of alcohol from his body. He was still feeling groggy after the shower, but the headache was a lot better and his mind was much clearer as he started recalling the events from the previous day. He plugged in his phone to charge, switching it on and leaving it on the table while it starts up. He picked up the phone again when he heard it buzz, receiving the message from Woobin.

He knew it was only right for him to reply – and he had to text Woobin to apologize and thank him for having appeared drunk at his house, no matter how he ended up there – but at that moment, he didn’t exactly feel like doing it. As much as he didn’t feel like it, he eventually texted back.

“Hey, I’m back home. Phone died and didn’t see your text until now. I’m okay already, don’t worry. Sorry for having been a nuisance and thanks for the painkillers and all.”

He wanted to ask how he had ended up at Woobin’s house, but later decided against it. He threw his phone by the side after the reply and threw himself on his bed, switching on the television in front of the bed and staring blankly at it. He wasn’t exactly watching anything, but he didn’t like the room being so quiet.

After what felt like forever, Woobin finally checked his phone again during his dinner break. A relieved look formed on his face when he saw Jongsuk’s message, although he didn’t exactly believe that Jongsuk was really okay. Even then, the message he received was a reassurance and the rest of the night was slightly easier for him. It was about 9pm when they wrapped up for that day, a lot earlier than usual and Woobin was really thankful for that. He politely thanked all the staff and confirmed his schedules for the next day with his manager, before heading back to his car.

He left Jongsuk a text before he drove off. “Hey, you’re not asleep yet right? Call me.”

Jongsuk saw the text. He could guess what Woobin wanted to talk to him about, but he didn’t exactly want to talk to him about it. He could easily pretend that he was already asleep, but there was something within him that told him not to avoid the matter. Something within him told him that he couldn’t afford avoiding Woobin again. No way did he want to experience again the period of time where he had to deliberately keep a distance from Woobin. He returned the call, and Woobin answered within two rings.

“Hey…What’s up?” Jongsuk said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

“Are you okay?” Woobin sounded concerned.

“Yeah, I thought I texted you.”

“You did, but I didn’t exactly believe you.”

“….oh.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing much…” It wasn’t exactly a lie. It wasn’t anything big that happened, and Jongsuk had no idea why he was so troubled by it. Or maybe he knew, he just didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Lies. If it was nothing, you wouldn’t have drunk.”

Jongsuk swallowed hard. He didn’t want to talk about it like that, not on the phone. Even if he wasn’t sure he would be able to talk to Woobin about it face to face. Even if…but still, he wanted to see Woobin’s reaction. He needed to feel the reassurance.

“Really, it isn’t anything big….you still working now?”

“Nope, wrapped up for the day. Ended pretty early. Want me to drop by? I’m pretty close to your place.”

“Mmm, yeah, sure.”

They hung up and Jongsuk flopped back on his bed, throwing his head backwards and resting it against the wall. He sighed heavily as he looked up at the ceiling.

Woobin arrived a lot quicker than Jongsuk had expected. Jongsuk forced a smile on his face as he trudged to open the door, inviting Woobin inside and getting him a glass of water. Woobin headed straight for the couch and looked up at Jongsuk, as if waiting for him to say something, but Jongsuk doesn’t initiate any conversation and just sits himself next to Woobin.

Woobin takes a sip of water and initiates the conversation. “So…you want to tell me what happened?”

“Hmm…answer my questions first?”

Woobin nodded.

“How did I end up at your house?”

“Youngkwang brought you.”

“But why your house?”

“You texted me some sort of gibberish last night…you don’t remember?”

“I did?!” He immediately stretched out to grab his phone from the table, looking through the message log with Woobin. He hadn’t seen it earlier when he replied Woobin because he wasn’t exactly paying attention and had too many other things in mind. Seeing the messages he had sent, he looked up sheepishly and gave a slightly embarrassed grin. “Ah, sorry….I didn’t realize.  I must have been a real burden huh?”

Woobin just shook his head. “I called you and you fell asleep halfway. Apparently you didn’t allow bit and kicked Youngkwang when he tried to take you home when you were drunk. Only after you fell asleep could he take you, and since I was on the phone at that time, I told him to just bring you over since he wouldn’t have been able to enter your house anyway and you probably would have felt bad bothering him too much. You didn’t bother me though, you didn’t even do anything when you got here. You were too drunk and asleep to do anything, so don’t worry about that.”

Jongsuk nodded, relieved, when he heard that he hadn’t done anything too stupid, taking his phone and sending Youngkwang a short message apologizing for having to trouble him. Woobin just looked at Jongsuk, waiting for him to finish whatever he was doing, and for him to start talking.

Jongsuk sensed that Woobin was waiting and he knew Woobin wouldn’t leave it. He sighed and put aside his phone, looking up at Woobin as he tried to formulate his words. He took in a deep breath and started speaking, not really pausing so that Woobin wouldn’t have a time to interrupt, and so that he wouldn’t lose his courage of spilling everything out.

“I….I don’t know. It really wasn’t anything big and I don’t know why the hell I am so affected and conflicted…The thing is, yesterday afternoon, after eating the breakfast you made, my manager came to pick me to go for filming and all. On the way there, he told me that the rumours of us are resurfacing and that your agency wasn’t too happy with it and that if they started doing stuff, it would be hard for my agency to do anything to protect me and it would probably bring my career down all the way, especially since your agency is the one producing my drama this time. I honestly don’t know anything about these things. I don’t know how serious it is and if he is just exagerrating things and I’ve just been listening to whatever he tells me…and I honestly don’t know if I would be able to take it if this project was a flop again. You know how badly the previous one affected me and I really need this to pull myself up and if it doesn’t, I really don’t know. I don’t have the confidence that I would be fine….but even then, I really couldn’t bring myself to do it. I can’t bring myself to keep a distance from you again, I can’t….because it is you. Because it is you, Woobin, because it is you.”

Woobin just listened attentively, his eyes fixed on Jongsuk the entire time. When he sees the frown on Jongsuk’s face deepen as he talked, Woobin found himself uncontrollably shifting closer to Jongsuk, his hand reaching out to take Jongsuk’s, giving it a small squeeze. He gave Jongsuk a reassuring smile, shaking his head slightly. “It is something big if it made you drink like that. I know how conflicted you feel but don’t worry, my agency isn’t going to do anything. I made hyung promise and I know he will keep that promise. We don’t have to keep our distance, and don’t even think of doing it. Jongsuk-ah, don’t do it. Don’t.”

“You talked to your manager about it?” Jongsuk looked at him, confused and a fearful look flashed past his face. He couldn’t understand why Woobin would talk about something like this to his manager, unless his agency really was planning to do something.

Woobin sighed and nodded, as he recounted his conversation with his own manager. He stretched out his free hand to smoothen the frown on Jongsuk’s face, speaking gently. “Trust me, you’ll be okay. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you, especially not because of me. Trust me.”

Jongsuk smiled faintly as Woobin, nodding a little before he looked down and bit on his own tongue. He knew he could trust Woobin, and he did. He knew he would be safe and that he wouldn’t have to distance himself from Woobin, but this created more questions in his head. He didn't see a need to hide those from Woobin, not when they were talking about this now. He looked up into Woobin's eyes firmly, cautiously saying, “Woobin, what is this line they are all talking about? Why can’t we just do what we want, why can’t we just act the way we do? Why are they drawing lines for OUR friendship? What if…” he paused, before muttering, “What if…we find ourselves crossing the line that THEY drew?”

Woobin looked at Jongsuk, silent. No one spoke. Both of them had thoughts running through their head, yet neither knew what to say.