Hello everyone! :) I won't be home tomorrow, so I'm uploading this week's chapter today. ^^ Enjoy!

On the way back from the sea, Sunggyu took off Woohyun’s scarf because the latter had put the heater on full blast, given that the two of them were basically frozen when they got in the car. He wished he could keep that warm scarf smelling like Woohyun. The barman looked at him for a second before concentrating on the road again.

“It’s funny to see you with my scarf, since you’re always wearing just black.”

Sunggyu’s hadn’t even thought of that. For him, the scarf was just a light tone of gray. “What color is it?”

Woohyun shot him a smile. He liked to hear the other man ask about colors. “Yellow.”

“And what meaning does yellow have?” He chuckled at the confused face of the man.

“I don’t remember.” He pouted when he heard Sunggyu laugh. “I can’t memorize everything! It’s not like I wanted to tell you about yellow today!” He paused. “You should wear colors more often. It suits you.”

Sunggyu felt his face heat up, but it had become so normal over the past few weeks that he didn’t even care anymore. “I wouldn’t be able coordinate them.”

Woohyun then started to expose an elaborate plan of how he should write on the tags of all his clothes their colors, then ask an expert – say, himself – what colors he could wear together. They continued to talk for the rest of the car ride and, when they finally recognized the city’s streets, Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel a bit sad. However, his stomach unconsciously saved him, because it growled really loud, making the other man laugh.

“Do you want to go eat something? I already invited you to dinner anyway.”

Of course, Sunggyu agreed and they started to talk about what they would like to eat. When Sunggyu said he was craving for pasta, he didn’t expect the man next to him to tell him he was the ‘king of pasta’ (his words) and to actually invite him to his apartment.

Yet, there he was, in a small and cozy apartment on the top floor of the same building than the bar he knew so well. He learned Woohyun actually owned the whole building. However, he obviously didn’t need all of it, so he was renting the other apartments. Sunggyu was a little surprised by all this: owning a bar was something, but owning the whole building was another thing. However, Woohyun was really different from the image Sunggyu had of a rich person. He was just a simple man, as his apartment proved: no huge flat screen TV, no expensive hi-fi system… The apartment was just really Woohyun somehow, and Sunggyu though it was probably very colorful.

Woohyun started to cut the ingredients to make the sauce for the pasta, and Sunggyu admired his skillful hands. He wasn’t a really good cook himself, mostly depending on instant noodles to survive. When the barman was done with the cutting, he put everything in a pan.

“Do you want something to drink in the meantime?” Without even waiting for an answer, he had already taken two cocktail glasses and a shaker. However, he stopped and turned to Sunggyu, waiting for an answer.

“So now I get to choose?” The other man looked at him with a confused look on his face and Sunggyu smiled playfully. “You never ask me what I want to drink, you just make me whatever cocktail you want me to drink.”

Woohyun thought about it for a second then said: “I guess you’re right, I hadn’t seen it that way.” He hesitated then asked in a prudent voice: “Does it… bother you?”

Sunggyu laughed out loud this time. “Yes! I feel so bad not to be able to choose what I drink! I almost don’t sleep at night because of that haunting thought!”

Woohyun stuck his tongue at him, before saying something that made Sunggyu way too red and self-conscious. “At least, that makes you think about me at night.” He had probably noticed the color of his friend’s cheeks, but didn’t say anything. “But you’re my guest today, so you have the privilege to choose your drink! Isn’t it wonderful?”

Said guest didn’t even have to think about it twice. “I want that one. The first one you made me, the day we met.”

The barman flashed him a knowing smile. “You still want to know what color it was, right?” Sunggyu didn’t even bother to answer and just rolled his eyes, knowing too well that the stubborn man wouldn’t tell him anyway.

“Stop making fun of me and make the goddamn drink instead!” Woohyun chuckled but started making it anyway.

In Sunggyu’s opinion, the evening was perfect. The food was perfect, the music that Woohyun had chosen was perfect, the conversation was easy and perfect. Woohyun was perfect. The pasta that he had cooked was so good that Sunggyu had eaten three plates of it. He had thought that the whole ‘king of pasta’ thing was a joke, but he understood it wasn’t. But even when eating, they couldn’t stay silent. He didn’t know how he could talk that much to a person he had met not long ago, but it seemed they always had something to say. He wasn’t sure for how long he had been in that apartment, sipping to heavenly gray drinks, but he couldn’t care less. All he needed was in this room, where everything seemed so perfect. However, the sound of his phone took him back to reality. He groaned before taking the object out of his pocket, making Woohyun chuckle.

From: Dongwoo

Sunggyu! Are you still alive or did your little heart gave out? :P You’ll have to tell me everything, right? Right??? If you don’t answer, I’m just going to assume that you’re finally spending some quality time with your y barman~! ;) Fighting!!

When he looked back at Woohyun, the man had a curious look on his face. Hopefully, he couldn’t see the text from where he was sitting. Sunggyu just answered him a ‘Dongwoo’ while adopting an annoyed expression. However, when he took his phone out, he had looked at the time. Half past eleven. Well, that was more than he had thought, but he wasn’t surprised. Time was always flying too fast when he was with the barman. He didn’t mind being there so late, but, as his common sense came back, he realized that he probably shouldn’t impose on the other man that much. He bit his lower lip, hesitating. Then he awkwardly stood up, rubbing his hands on his jeans.

“Sorry, I didn’t know it was this late already. I should probably go now.”

Woohyun stood up, but didn’t say anything. They stayed like that for a while, standing up, looking in each other eyes. At that moment, none of them felt the need to start another conversation. If their talks were comfortable, their silence was the opposite: dense and electric. Sunggyu’s heart was beating way too fast when Woohyun finally took a step forward. He could hear his heart in his ears and wondered for a fraction of second if the other man, being so close, could hear it too. The thought didn’t remain long though, because his mind was too busy looking at Woohyun: his black hair, his flawless gray skin, his neck that he suddenly felt like biting, his eyes that were full of emotions that were most probably reflected in his own eyes. But, above all, he felt like he couldn’t look away from the plump lips. And when he saw Woohyun bite them while looking at his own lips, he gulped with difficulty.

The two men had come closer with each passing second and were now a breath away from each other. However, none of them was closing the ridiculously small distance that separated them, and Sunggyu knew why. He understood when he looked into the other’s eyes and saw the spark of challenge. It was a game. The first one to give in, lost. Sunggyu chuckled inside. He knew the man was terribly stubborn, but so was he. So he played along, letting a shade of defiance form in his own eyes. He felt Woohyun’s hand on his back, pulling him closer. Still not close enough though. In response, he placed his hand on the other’s forearms and slowly moved them up to the broad shoulders, letting his arms hang loosely around Woohyun’s neck. The air around them was heavy. Sunggyu felt like they were immersed in water. Their moves were painfully slow and only silence filled their ears, the music seeming so far away now. He couldn’t take it anymore. He would go crazy if he had to wait a single second more. At that point, he didn’t care if he lost the game.

He crashed his lips against Woohyun’s.

It was better than he could have ever imagined. He had never been kissed like that. Not with that much passion, desire and want, from the other man, but from himself as well. Woohyun nibbled at his lower lip, making him totally crazy. His moan was muffled by the soft lips still ravishing his own when he felt his back hit the wall. Everything about the kiss was completely intoxicating, the taste of that first gray drink still on his lips and on Woohyun’s. And Sunggyu realized that, whatever that color was, it was Woohyun’s color. It was invasive, curious, yet intoxicating and addictive.

Only when he was dropped on a bed did he realize that he had locked his legs around the other’s waist, who had carried him into his bedroom. He froze for a second as his thoughts shot back in his brain at an incredible speed. He wasn’t the kind of person who slept with people he wasn’t going out with. He would usually take his time to know the person, make sure they could work out before giving in to physical attraction. And there was a reason for that: he only entrusted everything of him to people he trusted entirely. For the first time in the presence of Woohyun, he felt nervous.

The man on top of him must have felt it, because he stopped dropping kisses on his neck, looked at him in the eye and placed a warm hand on his cheek, rubbing it with his thumb. There they were again, speaking with their eyes.

Woohyun had understood Sunggyu’s fears, and the latter could see in the man’s eyes that he didn’t have to force himself, that it was okay. He knew that with one word from him, Woohyun would let him go. They could take it slow, they didn’t have to rush anything because Woohyun would still be there tomorrow, and the day after.

But Sunggyu thought of the instant he had seen Woohyun for the first time, when he had stared at him in awe, feeling so attracted to him with just one eye contact. He thought of all the memories, of the drinks, of the laughter with his friends, of the song he sang on that stage, that happy feeling filling his stomach. He thought of the scent of coffee and paper. Then of the scent of the sea. The feeling of peace, freedom and possible.

So Sunggyu smiled, placed a hand on the back of Woohyun’s neck and pulled him down to kiss him once again.

* * *

Sunggyu woke up, but kept his eyes closed. He let his brain take in the warmness of the covers on his skin, the soft light of the sun on his face and the strangely soothing smell of the fluffy pillow below his head. He could hear close to him the soft, regular breathing that only people deep in their sleep have and he knew a soft smile had made its way on his own face. He didn’t want to open his eyes and let the aggressive luminosity of reality hurt his sleepy pupils. The events from the day before started to play back in his head, quickly yet clearly. He felt his heart beat faster when he thought of last night. He thought of Woohyun’s hands that caressed him ever so gently; Woohyun’s eyes that seemed to stare directly into his soul and understand everything about him in a single second, breaking down all the barriers he had vainly built upon the years; Woohyun’s lips that made every single inch of skin they touched feel like it had caught on fire. But he knew it was more, way more than that.

However, before he could think more about the matter, he heard the man next to him sight in his sleep and he smelled a strong smell of alcohol. They didn’t drink that much the night before. And that smell was definitely not the one of the heavenly gray drink Woohyun had prepared for them, but the smell of cheap soju that he disliked so much. He frowned and decided that it was maybe time to open his eyes.

Next to him, on top of the covers, was lying a man, pretty much as as himself, if it weren’t for the black boxers. That much was understandable, considering last night’s events.

However, that man wasn’t Woohyun.

“What the ?!” The scream came out before his brain could even process it and it apparently caused some reaction to the sleeping, unknown man next to him, since the latter grunted and turned his back to him, mumbling something about ‘happening again’ and ‘didn’t have to be so loud’. Sunggyu took a deep breath in a vain attempt to calm down.

“Who are you? What the hell are you doing here?!” However, the man seemed to have slipped back in dreamland. Sunggyu didn’t hesitate and shook the stranger harshly. “Yah! Don’t you dare go back to sleep right now! I said: what the HELL are you doing here?!”

It was now time for the sleepy man to lose his patience, obviously not too happy about being shaken out of his sleep. He started to scream as well. “Why are you being such a ing JERK about this?! I’m sorry I got it wrong once again so just ing let me SLEEP! My head freaking hurts so now stop being such a-” The man stopped screaming as soon as he opened his eyes, that automatically landed on Sunggyu’s face. “Wait. You’re not Woohyun.”

Sunggyu felt the sudden urge to strangle the man. However, before he could place his hands around his neck, he heard a door open and turned his head to see a shirtless Woohyun with wet hair, who seemed both lost and panicked. Despite the situation, Sunggyu really thought the man was definitely really y.

“What’s happening? Sunggyu are you-” His eyes landed on Sunggyu, almost strangling another man on his bed. “… okay?” Only silence could be heard in the room for a few seconds, nobody even making a move. Then Woohyun started to laugh really loud.

Sunggyu would have definitely gone to hit him. But, since he was , he stayed in between the sheets and threw death glances at the man instead. When the latter finally recovered from his laughter, Sunggyu spoke coldly. “Now, mind to explain this situation to me?”

Woohyun surely understood the other’s mood when he spoke, but he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sunggyu, let me introduce you to my best friend, Kibum!” They both looked at the man on the covers, who was already sleeping again, despite the whole situation. Sunggyu cocked an eyebrow.

“My Bum?” Woohyun looked at Sunggyu in disbelief.

“How do you know that?” Now was Sunggyu’s turn to chuckle. He didn’t answer though, letting the barman go through his memory. “Oh, right! You talked to him once, right? When we accidently exchanged our phones!”

Sunggyu nodded. “So… Why is your Bum sleeping next to me, in your bed, almost ?”

Woohyun almost started to laugh again, but he stopped himself when he saw the look on Sunggyu’s face: he was serious. So instead, he made his way to the bed and sat next to him. “That’s kind of a long story actually. To make it short, he’s having some trouble with money these days, so he’s staying with me. He has his own room, but sometimes, when he comes back totally drunk – like today –, he tends to get the wrong room and go sleep in my bed. I guess he came back when I was in the shower, because I didn’t even know he was home… Sorry about that.”

Sunggyu just hummed in response, earning a cocked brow from Woohyun. He had kind of lost his concentration during the man’s explanation. He was too busy letting his eyes follow a single water drop that had left Woohyun’s hair, gone down all the way from his neck to end up on his collarbone, from where it was threatening to fall again. Woohyun moved closer to the other man and grinned, before speaking in a low voice.

“Sunggyu… are you really looking at me like that right now?”

The latter’s eyes went up to meet the two black orbs in front of him. He his lips and smiled. “Again, you mean?” Just as he closed the distance between them and their lips touched, a pillow came flying in their direction.

 “Yah! Don’t you two dare make out next to me! That’s ing gross!”

The fastest to answer was Woohyun. He threw the pillow back, right in his friend’s face. “Find yourself an apartment then, you squatter!” He then moved further on the bed and pushed his friend off the bed. “You could at least go back to your room instead of sleeping here! You even scared my boyfriend!”

Only when Kibum had made his way out of the room and slammed the door did the barman look back at Sunggyu and realized, because of the incredulous look the man was giving him, what he had just said. “W-well, you know, by that I meant… err… well I mean, if you-”

A smile had made its way on Sunggyu’s face. He decided not to let Woohyun struggle with his words anymore and pushed him down on the bed before chuckling. “I didn’t know you could be this cute.” The blush on the other man’s face just made him laugh more. He really did laugh more than before. “I like it.” He reduced the distance between them to kiss those lips for the hundredth time since the night before.

* * *

The two men spent the day together. Sunggyu didn’t even go back to his apartment, and was thus wearing Woohyun’s clothes. After lunch, they went shopping for a while and Woohyun kept choosing some supposedly colorful clothes for his boyfriend, even though he never said which color they were. Sunggyu didn’t really mind though. If he had, he could have asked anyone about the colors, but he was enjoying this little game. Actually, he didn’t remember the last time he had as much fun as that day. They kept laughing, bickering and pouting, then laughing once more. And even if the weather was still chilly – even without the wind of the coast –, never once did he feel cold. Probably because of the warm fingers that were intertwined with his. Woohyun wouldn’t let go of his hand, even when an old women shook her head at them in a disapproving manner. Neither one of them minded.

There they were again, hand in hand in the street. The sun had disappeared behind the horizon while they were having dinner and the street was no longer full of busy, noisy people. They were walking slowly, without really any precise destination in mind. At some point, Sunggyu broke the comfortable silence that was surrounding them.

“I should go back now.” Truth was, he didn’t want to. He knew Woohyun would gladly let him stay at his apartment that night too, but he couldn’t. First, he had to work on the next day, so going home, preparing his things for the next day and wearing his own clothes wouldn’t be a bad thing. But more importantly, he had taken some decisions. And he couldn’t fulfill his newly found resolutions with Woohyun. He had been thinking of a lot of things since the day before, and he had a lot more to think about. A lot of things had to change. His life had to change and, for that, he needed to get rid of some aspects of his old one.

He looked down at Woohyun and saw that the man had a hesitant, uncertain look on his face. That was the downside of understanding each other without having to say anything. He had obviously understood that Sunggyu was serious, but he didn’t know what was going on and that scared him. Sunggyu knew he should reassure him and explain the thoughts that were roaming through his brain, but he couldn’t. Mostly because he himself didn’t understand everything and was at least as uncertain as the man in front of him. So instead, he just smiled and dropped a kiss on his lips.

Woohyun insisted on bringing Sunggyu home, so they took the bus. Silence never left them.

When they arrived in front of Sunggyu’s door, Woohyun released his hand and hugged him, pulling him as close as he could. Sunggyu felt the man nuzzle in the crook of his neck and he smiled. He rested his chin on the top of his head and breathed in the sweet smell of Woohyun.

“I have a question.”

Woohyun didn’t answer in any way, so Sunggyu went on. “What color was it?”

The man in his arms chuckled and looked up at him, smiling. “You never give up, do you?” Sunggyu ruffled in his hair.

“Never!”

The barman let out a last chuckle before whispering leaning on Sunggyu to whisper a single word in his ear.

“Red.”

One last kiss and he was gone.

* * *

When Sunggyu entered in his apartment, he made himself a cup of coffee and sat down at his desk. That night, he didn’t sleep. After thinking for hours, he wrote down a letter.

Things were about to change and there was no going back.

Red: the color of passion, ambition and determination.

I tried to top this chapter with an interrogation, even if I have the impression you will hate me for this! xD Don't worry, this is not the last chapter, I'm not that cruel! :p Chapter 6 will probably be the last though. I hope you liked this one... I didn't really know how to write it. I wrote the part with Sunggyu waking up like four times, differently every time. ><' In the end, I talked about it with my sister and we came up with the idea of a half- Key (while giggling a lot). xD

Also, I imagine some of you had figured out that the color was red a while ago (maybe not?), but at least, now you know! :p The last chapter isn't fully written yet, but I think it will turn out good! :3

As always, thank you so much for your support! I was almost screaming from excitement in front on my screen from last week's comments! :'D Love you all! <3

See you next Saturday, for the last time... (yep, I like to be dramatic xD)