"Come on, get up!"

Daehyun only allowed Yongguk to stay in bed until the morning. There's no time for a hangover. He pushes a hangover cure into Yongguk's hand, bottle uncapped. Daehyun didn't manage to sleep the whole night.

He had his own worries and thoughts to tidy.

Yongguk groans, the headache thumping viciously. He almost topples over the drink. Daehyun saves it in time, his own head throbbing from the lack of sleep.

"Yongguk, you need to get up now. Jieun called last night and it's very important."

"What?" Yongguk's eyes are squeezed tight, trying to fight the immense headache as he downs the cure.

"Jieun called last night." Daehyun repeats, handing Yongguk a cold wet towel to freshen up.

Yongguk places it over his eyes and sinks back into bed. The coolness sipping through his burning temples. His brain is registering but his mind doesn't want to move an inch.

He's tired.

Eventually, through Daehyun's coaxes and threats, Yongguk's washed up and awake, sitting at the dining table with a plate of fresh omelette before him.

He grabs the fork but doesn't begin to eat. Daehyun only hears the clink of the metal fork against the glass table. Yongguk balances the fork in his fist, staring blankly at the egg sitting in his plate.

"Hurry up and eat. You've got things to do." says Daehyun, cleaning his hands on a tablecloth.

"Oh? What things?" Yongguk mumbles with his chin on his palm, jabbing at the egg. He has no appetite.

Daehyun lets out a frustrated sigh through his nose and slams both hands on the table, startling Yongguk.

"Who was the one crying for 'Jieun, Jieun' last night?" Daehyun tilts his head fiercely at Yongguk, eyes boring holes into Yongguk's widened ones.

Surprised by Daehyun's outward aggression, Yongguk choose to remain silent instead of beginning their bickering as usual. He eats dutifully, cleaning the plate without tasting the food.

"You should go and see her. She's apologetic to what she did to you. She obviously didn't mean to." Daehyun mumbles as he clears the table, snatching the fork out of Yongguk's hand.

To Daehyun's ferocity, Yongguk merely smiles and stares down at the reflection of the turning ceiling fan in the glass table. 

"It's fine, Daehyun." Yongguk says. There is a silence as the scrubbing of plate and utensil ceased.

"What do you mean."

"It's not working out. Let's not carry on like this." Yongguk says and it makes Daehyun furious. He hates it when Yongguk uses the word 'let's'. It means they are in this together, they are trying to get Jieun back, they. The glaring 'they'. How is this even related to him at all, yet he is here, being a busybody trying to salvage somebody else's mess of a relationship.

He hates it how Yongguk's saying it to him. Didnt that line sound more like something he should be saying to Jieun?

He hears the shriek of the chair against marble floor and Yongguk's footsteps. 

Running away, that's what you do all the time.

The sudden rage inside Daehyun boils and seethes like a boiling kettle. He blows up, the anger escaping like hot steam.

"Would you stop being useless?" His voice came out softer than he expected. It's not his usual manner to be so composed.

Yongguk freezes in his step.

Daehyun throws the washing sponge into the sink and turns around, facing the backview of the man beside him.

"Jieun called last night, she was crying. She was sorry, and upset. She was probably crying her eyes out thinking about you. She's obviously still cares so much about you! Yet now you're saying you want to stop?" Daehyun throws the plate into the sink, the loud noise a grand disturbance through the chilling silence.

"Yah, you're the most useless man I've ever met. Even a dog knows how to court and chase. You're nothing but a loser."

Yongguk drops his head down, smiling in what he thinks is amusement but his heart seems to be hammering in his chest.

"You wasted her time, clinging on and hesitating-- all the time you've wasted! I can't imagine how it feels to be waiting for a man that doesn't even have enough courage to win you back!"

Daehyun, yelling at the top of his lungs, have already lost reason. His face is burning, the blood gushing in between his ears. His fists are clenched tightly, nails digging his palms almost to bleed, with the soap water dripping down from them onto the marble floor.

"That's why."

Daehyun glares at Yongguk's back, at the incompetent bow of his neck and his indignant head.

"Because I'm a ing loser, I need to let her go." 

Daehyun's teeth make a clicking sound as they clench against each other.

"I can't put her through this again. It was selfish to keep her ankles tied to this loser. I will release her now. I can't watch her, waiting alone at home, lonely and upset while I immerse myself in what I call my passion."

Yongguk turns around, eyes down in guilt and exhaustion, "I don't want her to have to compare her value with that of my work and feel dejected and unloved everytime I miss a date or an anniversary. I don't want to see her cry ever again but I can't give up on music either, I just..."

His eyes shift up to Daehyun's face.

He finds a face, ever more in misery than his own. Tears streaming down his face, cheeks red from frustration and lips quivering in indignance, Daehyun's pain crash onto Yongguk abruptly and overwhelmingly just like how this boy crashed into his life and his feelings.

"I hate how this is going." Daehyun maintains between sobs. "I hate how it is so difficult. What is so difficult?"

His voice cracks and he hates that he sounds so affected, so miserable. 

"What is so difficult about understanding and caring for each other? What is? What's so difficult about saying 'I love you' and 'I'm sorry'? Did you have to be so stoic? What's so difficult about letting her know you love her? Did it have to come to this then? This ing useless piece of--"

Daehyun shuts his eyes tightly, the tears gushing out as they were forced out, hot and fast, dripping onto the cotton fabric on Yongguk's shoulder. They form a large smudge, a puddle, and then a small lake, like Daehyun's sorrow. It grows in size and sinks deeper into Yongguk, driving him into another place he's never been before, his skin soaked.

"It's alright Daehyun. It's ok." Yongguk Daehyun's hair gently, holding the boy tightly in between his arms, feeling the sheer trembles from his body and the thinness of his frame.

Daehyun's audible sobs make his heart crackle like a burning fire. It burns him with small sparks, painful yet not painful enough to kill him but its heat hot enough to scald his skin.

"I hate this, I hate this." Daehyun cries out in melancholy. He knows this is not just about Yongguk and Jieun. This is about him. Him and his pathetic self. He hates how the two people who could have shared a valuable bond didn't manage to keep it together. If he had it, he would nurture it, keep it safe inside him. If he had it, he wouldn't be selfish, he would make sure the person he loved felt secure in his arms.

"What's so hard about this? I don't understand-- If I ever love somebody, I would let them go after their dreams, even if it meant I would get lonely! Because at the end of the day, when they are tired, they will still come back to me! Wouldn't they?"

Daehyun's heartwrenching reveal of his bottled up feelings catches Yongguk offguard. He pushes Daehyun off his shoulder and holds the boy by the arms, looking sternly into his eyes.

Daehyun, still unknowing of how his words affected the man, searches the other's dark pupils for recognition.

"Wouldn't they?"

That soft, timid probe from Daehyun plucks a certain string inside Yongguk. Like a pizzicato, quick and fluttering, it sounds and vibrates inside of Yongguk's chest.

He cradles Daehyun's face between both his hands, circling the boy's tears with his thumbs. He breathes in, feeling the constriction in his chest and places a soft kiss on Daehyun's lips.

He lifts his head and looks at Daehyun's eyes, bolding staring back at him, unmoved with an almost challenging fire. Behind the flames, Yongguk sees the longing.

Don't touch me, don't lead me. But... please hold me, please let me stay for a bit longer.

He engulfs Daehyun in an embrace, the smaller frame fitting into his perfectly. Combing his fingers into Daehyun's soft locks, he turns the younger's head to place their lips together again, deeper and longer.

Daehyun's lips are soft and inexperienced; His are chapped and demanding. He wants Daehyun for his own, this precious little thing that couldn't save his purity for himself, always trying to make someone else better while he hurts himself working hard for the sake of other people. Does he really smile that wide, truly?

Daehyun doesn't pull away, he's weak against the sudden kiss. As much as he wants to deny it, it has been his desire to touch Yongguk and hold Yongguk. He pities the man and wants to understand him, at the same time, he admires him and wants to become somebody fit for him. But all these are just thoughts, and can only be thoughts. He is just Jung Daehyun, small, nameless, insignificant. He will never take over the place Song Jieun has in Yongguk's heart.

"Daehyun." Their lips part as Yongguk tightens the hug, pressing every fibre of Daehyun against himself like he wants the boy to melt into himself, to come as close to him as possible.

Eons pass as Yongguk holds him. Daehyun takes in the warm scent of Yongguk's body, feeling the tension in his body leaving as he's comforted.

Yongguk releases the tight hug. He gazes down at the boy who stares up at his with dazed eyes and an innocent smile.

He wants to kiss him again but Daehyun loses his footing and almost falls.

"Are you okay?" Yongguk wraps an arm around the thin frame, managing to keep the younger from falling.

"I feel lightheaded." Daehyun holds his spinning head. "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday."

"That's worrying." Yongguk chides, expression heavy with concern as he carries Daehyun to the couch and lays him down. "I'll get you something to eat."

His head is spinning. He feels slight nauseous.

"Drink this." Yongguk hands him a sugared drink and a sandwich which was hastily put together. The man leaves the eating patient for the kitchen.

Daehyun finishes the food quickly, already feeling better and alright enough to begin feeling the lagging embarrassment from his outburst and the abrupt kiss shared just minutes ago.

He peers from the couch and sees Yongguk carrying a bowl of instant noodles to him.

"Eat." orders his boss and Daehyun obliges, not ready to begin a conversation on what just occurred.

It is just the sound of Daehyun slurping the noodles noisily until Yongguk breaks the silence with a consoling, "Don't worry about me. I've made a decision I think is right this time."

Yongguk's eyes are certain as they meet Daehyun's. His dark brown eyes seem to melt a little when Daehyun averts his gaze shyly.

"Do you feel better?"

"Yes." Daehyun replies meekly as Yongguk takes the finished bowl of noodles from him. "Thanks."

Daehyun ducks as Yongguk runs a hand through his hair affectionately. 

"Thanks for earlier. I needed to hear those." Yongguk smiles genuinely and ruffles Daehyun's hair before standing up from the couch to clean the dishes in the kitchen.

He feels his face burning as he hides his expression with his back Daehyun.

Daehyun lays on the couch, dumbfounded. What seemed like a passionate kiss ends with a brotherly act of affection through the ruffling of his hair and a 'thank you' for the advice... Just what is their relationship now?