Baekhyun and Junmyeon exchanged phone numbers, and they met once a week at the bar to listen to Chanyeol and Chen’s performance. Sometimes, they went to the town square to listen to Chanyeol’s love songs. But the atmosphere was considerably different; it was no longer light and playful, but tense and reserved. There was a set boundary between the two that neither one of them dared to cross. The most they did was hold hands, and even that seemed awkward. Junmyeon was careful not to go out more than three nights and week, so he and Baekhyun were rarely together without Chanyeol or Chen.

            Nearly a year had passed since Junmyeon’s marriage with Soojung. He stared at the date on their calendar, and dutifully began preparing for their first anniversary a month in advance, sorting through a load of hotel reservations and airplane tickets to the furthest outskirts of the country. He eventually settled for a trip to Hong Kong’s Disney Park, something fun for a change of setting.

            Two weeks before their scheduled departure, Junmyeon was sitting beside Baekhyun, watching Chanyeol and Chen’s performance with another singer, Luhan. Junmyeon was absently stirring his soda, while Baekhyun had finished two bottles of beer.

            “Chen asked me out,” Baekhyun suddenly blurted out, his gaze set on the trio onstage.

            Junmyeon froze, but managed to reset his physical expression to a neutral emotion. “I see.”

            “Suho…” Baekhyun looked like he was going to say more, but instead, he reached for another can of beer and took a long gulp.

            “I hope it works out,” Junmyeon said politely, allowing a perfectly measured smile to cross his face.

            Baekhyun looked at Junmyeon with huge brown eyes. “I never thought you would say that.”

            Junmyeon swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth. “I hope you guys have fun.” He tried to ignore the look he could clearly see in Baekhyun’s eyes, pleading Fight for me, because as much as he’d love to, he couldn’t. There was simply too much at stake.

            “I told you I would try to forget, but…I guess you don’t ever forget your first love, huh?” Baekhyun chucked bitterly.

            First love. Junmyeon shouldn’t think of it, but he couldn’t help himself: the past summers with a beautiful, bright-eyed boy who stood beside him as they trained in the summer heat; summers of friendship, which they somehow managed to maintain, even when they were hundreds of miles away, in the middle of a busy school year. And the last summer, when he shouldn’t have been thinking about how well the other boy’s hand fit into his own, how infectious his smile was, how well their lips fitted together. Love had been a test, and for him, he’d failed. The words first love had failure imprinted on them.

            Suddenly, the music in the club was too loud, and the crowds of people were too stifling. Junmyeon closed his hand tightly around his glass, feeling trapped on all sides.

            He stood up abruptly. “I have to go.”

            “I don’t understand.” Baekhyun took Junmyeon’s straw and drank his beer through it. “What am I doing wrong? If I try to forget you, you leave, but it hurts if I keep holding on…”

            “You’re drunk,” Junmyeon said, even though they both know Baekhyun held his alcohol very well. He could drink Junmyeon, Chanyeol, and Chen under the table. “Get to sleep soon, okay?”

            “You can’t leave again…”

            Junmyeon can’t stand to look at Baekhyun again, to take in his crisp white V-neck that brought out his collarbones, the dark-lined eyes that captured his attention. He turned and walked out of the club.

            In a sense, he walked out of Baekhyun’s life—again.