❝Only think about me today, okay~?❞

-Woohyun (120530 Sweet Sorrow)

Sunggyu grumbled as he plugged in the coffee maker into the wall. It was early, earlier than he normally woke up (one of the perks of being a professor and having classes in the afternoon), and he did it for one reason:  “Nam friggin’ Woohyun.” Who, of course, was nowhere to be seen. “I wake up at 6 in the morning, hyung,” Sunggyu mocked the other.  His eyes darted over to the clock on the oven. It was 6:30. He scoffed. “Filthy liar.” Anger was bubbling up inside of him like the boiling water in the coffeemaker.

No one messes with Kim Sunggyu and his precious sleep and gets away with it.

He then groaned, resting his hands against the countertop. This was kind of his fault in the end. Well, not his but his mother’s really. The night before, as the two were ironing out the logistics of their ‘relationship,’ Woohyun mentioned how they should start eating every meal together. That they continued even stop the charade behind their apartment’s door. “Because someone's mother keeps barging in unannounced. So we're not safe at home. Especially not home,” Woohyun declared shaking his head.

Sunggyu sighed, “I know she has problems and that she's hard to deal with at times.” He met Woohyun’s gaze. “But I'm all that she has.”

Woohyun averted his eyes and picked at his pants. “I didn't say she was bad...persay,” he partially retracted.

And so they agreed. Sunggyu would prepare breakfast, and Woohyun would make dinner. Sunggyu smirked to himself, knowing that he had the better end of the bargain. He was already done making breakfast. But he was still missing one thing. “Where is he? I'm not making all of this so he could bloody sleep through breakfast,” he mumbled bitterly. Sunggyu should have known. Nothing in his life came easily.

He marched over to Woohyun’s room and threw open the door (Woohyun had made himself at home in his room so many times that Sunggyu had no qualms about doing the same). But the sight in front of him, stopped Sunggyu in his tracks. “Gross,” he retched. Woohyun was dead asleep, mouth hanging wide open with a slimy trail of drooling dripping down his chin. The kid was also sleeping at the foot of his bed, with one foot resting on his pillow and the other touching the ground. His blanket was also wrapped around his head and scarily tight around his neck. Sunggyu walked over and muttered, “How are you even alive?” Carefully wheedling his fingers between the comforter and Woohyun’s neck, Sunggyu loosened the blanket’s hold around the other while simultaneously slapping the other’s cheek with his free hand. “Yah wake up!”

“No,” Woohyun defiantly slurred as he wrested the blanket away from the elder and flopped onto his other side. “Go away.”

Sunggyu grumbled some curses as he propped his knee onto the bed and leaned over to shake the other awake. “Woohyun,” he said more loudly and forcibly. And this time, to his surprise, Woohyun got up to his knees…but only to push Sunggyu off his bed while mumbling incoherently like a drunken sailor. “Aish!” Sunggyu yelled as his hit the floor. Woohyun was going to regret this.

But before he could exact his revenge, Woohyun’s cell phone rang, playing some sugary pop song that was way too peppy for this early in the morning. And to Sunggyu’s surprise, the other actually answered it. With his eyes closed, Woohyun took out the phone from the folds of his blanket. “Yea yea, I'm awake,” he lied (and rather unconvincingly). “Mmmmmmm. Bye Yeol!” He then hung up the phone, threw it onto the other side of the bed, and flopped back down.  

Lazy . Sunggyu was finally on his feet and shaking his head at the other. And so this is why Woohyun was so willing to cook dinner? The pop song rang throughout the room again. Sunggyu smirked as he got to the phone before sluggish and drowsy Woohyun. He answered it, “Hello, Yeol? It's Sunggyu, Woohyun's new roommate. I'll wake him up. You can stop calling now.” Sunggyu didn’t even bother to make out the surprised stuttering on the other end of the line. He hung up the phone and put it on Woohyun’s dresser.

He turned back around to see Woohyun propped up on his knees, still wrapped in his comforter cocoon. “Why did you do that?” he asked.

“Because unlike a phone, you can’t turn me off.”

“Huh? Wha—Ung!” Woohyun exclaimed as Sunggyu pounced onto him. Woohyun quickly flopped onto his belly and grasped desperately onto the edges of his bed, refusing to leave its comfy warmth. But Sunggyu had other plans as he hooked him arms under Woohyun’s armpits and began pulling him away from the bed. Why is he so strong? Woohyun’s fingers were slipping from the edges. He couldn’t hold on much longer. “No!” He felt his body being pulled away from the bed and dragged down to the floor. And then Sunggyu dropped him, causing Woohyun to collapse onto the hard floor. “OW! You jerk!” He tried to kick at Sunggyu’s ankles to make him fall down as well, but Sunggyu quickly side-stepped him.

“Now that you’re awake. Breakfast is ready,” he announced with a cocky smile and left the room.

Woohyun sat there for a few seconds, rubbing his sore behind and pouting. “Some loving boyfriend he is.”

But now that he was awake, his mind was already whirring with plotting thoughts. He always got the best ideas when he just wakes up and the fog of sleep had lifted. He grabbed his cell phone and walked out to join Sunggyu in the kitchen. Now Sunggyu looked like his mind has already shut down, after having wasted all of his mental energy waking up Woohyun. Woohyun smirked at the man ruffling his hair and willing the coffeemaker to speed up. Woohyun walked up behind Sunggyu, enveloping him in a back hug, smashing his cheek against the elder’s. “Smile,” Woohyun commanded. Click. He took a picture of the two of them with the camera on his phone.

“Huh?” Sunggyu’s reaction had been slow and he barely raised his head in time for the picture. Woohyun was still hanging onto him. Sunggyu grabbed the other’s arm, removed it, and nudged Woohyun away. “Why’d you do that?” he complained.

Woohyun was busy tapping away on his phone so his response was a bit slow. “I realized that we never told our moms. That was silly,” he explained with a slight chuckle. “But now there’s evidence.” Then Sunggyu’s own phone vibrated on the table. Woohyun grinned and commanded, “I sent it to you too. Make it your background.”

“Good idea,” Sunggyu said as he reached for his phone. Or it least seemed like a good idea before he actually saw the picture.. Woohyun was ready and smiling for the photo, but Sunggyu was bleary eyed with his mouth ajar. He was obviously caught off guard. And to make matters worse, they both look like they just woke up with the messy bed head and sleepy eyes (which they did). It looked like they woke up together. Sunggyu winced but made it his background anyway, just until he found a better picture of the two of them (or maybe just an embarrassing picture of Woohyun that he could show to everybody. That thought made Sunggyu smile just a bit).

“Seriously, this is breakfast?” Sunggyu turned around to see Woohyun push away his bowl of cereal in disgust. The flakes swam around in the milk, getting soggy. This isn’t breakfast, Woohyun thought as he reluctantly sat down and picked up his spoon. Even this was better than no breakfast at all.

“Eung,” Sunggyu just barely replied. The elder sat down at the table with his freshly poured cup of coffee. He then reached for the milk on the table and poured a long stream of milk into his cup. Woohyun looked at the other with wide eyes, which only got bigger as Sunggyu put spoonful after spoonful of sugar into his coffee.

Woohyun moved the sugar away from Sunggyu before he could dip his spoon into again. “Geez! Are you trying to get diabetes?” Woohyun exclaimed. He leaned over and inspected the other’s cup. The liquid inside was very pale, and it made his stomach churn just imaging the sweet taste. “Is there even coffee in there? It looks white!”

“I don’t like the taste,” Sunggyu replied with a yawn, stirring his cup.

Woohyun chuckled (and cringed) watching the other drink from the cup. “Then you don’t know love,” Woohyun suddenly said.

“Huh?”

“Love is acquiring the bitter taste of coffee,” Woohyun teased as he drank his own coffee, which was black.

Sunggyu put down his coffee and rubbed the space in between his eyes. He doesn’t have the mental capacity right now to make sense out of what the other just said. Sunggyu could barely keep his eyes open. “You just woke up two seconds ago! How are you so chatty?” Sunggyu grumbled.

Woohyun grinned and shrugged, “It’s a gift.”

“So is waking up on time,” Sunggyu retorted. Woohyun averted his eyes, looking guilty. All of the sudden his lips were stilled as if they were sealed shut. Sunggyu had him. “Yah, has Yeol been waking you up every morning?” he asked.

“He used to, while he was here,” Woohyun answered as he stared at his mug. He then lifted his gaze and jutted out his lower lip, shaking it a bit. “He was a lot more gentle than you,” he whined.

But Sunggyu ignored it. “He’s your old roommate?” the elder asked. Woohyun nodded. “And he’s been calling you every morning since he moved out?”

Woohyun raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was going. He answered anyway, “Pretty much.”

“Woohyun, since he left, how often have you been late for work?”

Woohyun paused, and all that could be heard was Sunggyu’s noisy chewing. “Every day,” Woohyun finally responded. “But yesterday, I was only late by a minute or two. I’m getting better,” he quickly added with a slight chuckle.

Sunggyu unexpectedly stood up from the table, taking his bowl and mug with him. “Tell Yeol that he can stop calling you,” he muttered before he put his items in the sink.

“Huh? Okay,” Woohyun agreed, slightly fearing that what happened this morning would become a regular occurrence (he might have to start wearing padded pants). “Hey, hyung?” Woohyun called out to the other, who was about to shut his bedroom door. Sunggyu stopped and faced him. “Have a nice day at work, honey. Only think about me today, okay?” Woohyun said cutely, giving the other a small heart.

He could hear Sunggyu mumbling something about getting diabetes from words. But before he closed the door all the way, Sunggyu replied in a barely audible voice, “You too…have a good day.”

---

 

Later that day, Sunggyu was still tired from waking up so early. After yawning for the hundredth time, Sunggyu was fed up and dragged his coworker with him to the nearest cafe. Now with the syrup-heavy drink in his hand, Sunggyu felt prepared to face his afternoon classes and the rowdy students that came along with it. But he still had a bit of time and one more thing to do before he returned to his part of the campus.

“Hold on. I need something from here,” Sunggyu said as he ducked into a nearby shop.

“Hyung, you’re changing the subject,” Howon said with a frustrated sigh. He followed the other into the store. “You can’t just tell me you’re in a relationship and walk away,” he complained as Sunggyu was still walking away from him and down random aisles searching for something. Sunggyu then finally stopped, having found what he was looking for. “Who is it? It’s not Minjin still, is it?” Howon demanded an answer.

“God no,” Sunggyu finally answered as he inspected a box. “It’s Woohyun,” he replied in a distracted voice.

“Well, that sounds like a guy’s name,” Howon responded curiously.

Sunggyu put that box away and picked up another one. “That’s because it is.”

“WHAT?!” Howon exclaimed. “But I thought…”

“It’s all fake though,” Sunggyu cut him off, handing his cup to Howon. “Hold this.”

Howon stood there dumbfounded with coffee cups in each hand. “What’s fake?”

Sunggyu was too embarrassed to face his friend and read the large box in his hands. “Our mothers have been trying to set us up together. They even forced us into being roommates. So we’re faking it to show them that it won’t work,” he explained. He smirked after he finished reading.Perfect. He took the box under his arm and took back his cup from Howon.  “And he’s the one dating Minjin, actually,” he added as he passed by the other.

Howon chuckled as he followed the other to the register. “Hyung, is this your life or some ty drama,” he joked.

“More like my ty life,” he grumbled as he gave his card to the person behind the register. His item was rung up, Sunggyu was handed a bag. He smiled more broadly. This is going to be fun.  “Thank you,” he said to the person and he left the store.

“Wait,” Howon cut out in front of him. He had a weird glint in his eyes. “It isn’t Nam Woohyun, is it?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“How did you know?”

Howon sputtered into an uncontrollable laughter as he patted Sunggyu’s shoulder roughly. He sharply inhaled and spoke, “Oh man! This is a drama I’d actually like to see. Good luck, buddy.” This time, Howon walked away from a dumbfounded coworker. “Nam Woohyun. HAH!”

---

 

Woohyun rolled onto his side and looked at the time on his phone. He had about five more minutes to sleep. Or fifteen if he rushed a bit. Half an hour if he cut out ‘breakfast’ with Sunggyu. He smiled relishing in the idea of sleeping for 30 more minutes. Sunggyu probably wouldn’t mind either, judging how the morning before went.

And he had fallen asleep quite easily last night (which he had been having trouble with before). It was all thanks to Sunggyu’s mother. After receiving the announcement of them getting together, in her zeal, she had sent Woohyun a list of her son’s likes and dislikes. It was more like a manual on how to deal with her son. And after reading a line or two, it put him immediately to sleep. Like it was a magic pill.

Before Woohyun could fall asleep again, a loud ringing filled the room. It was unlike any alarm Woohyun had in the house. It was booming and almost deafening. “F-fire?” he stammered, sitting up on his bed. He sniffed the air. It didn’t smell like fire. He looked around and sharpened his ears to the sound. He blinked in confusion. “It’s…it’s moving?”

Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw something dart under his bed. Crawling over to the edge, Woohyun hung himself upside down and looked underneath his bed. “AH!” Whatever it was, it just hit him in the face. He immediately sat back on his bed, rubbing his sore nose. What the Hell was that devil machine?

He then heard it run into his dresser. He quickly jumped off his bed and quickly grabbed for it before got away from him away. It was an alarm clock. Woohyun searched it. “Where’s the snooze?!” he whined. He then saw the small note attached to it: Put me back in my holder.

“Where the Hell is that?” Woohyun complained, stamping his foot. He could swear that his ears were bleeding from the noise. But then he finally saw it, a new black device on his dresser. He walked over and jammed the alarm clock into it. And then there was silence…except for the incessant ringing in Woohyun’s ears now. Woohyun grabbed the rolling alarm clock and it’s holder and marched into the kitchen.

“Hyung, what the Hell is this?” he demanded, slamming the alarm clock down next to Sunggyu on the counter.

Sunggyu glanced over and returned his attention to pouring coffee into his mug. “It’s an alarm clock, stupid,” he teased. He walked over and sat at the table.

Woohyun groaned, picked up the alarm clock, and placed it in front of the other again. “You can have it back. I don’t want it,” he declared and sat down to eat his soggy cereal.

Sunggyu shook his head. “It’s not mine. I got it for you. It’s yours,” he stated. He smirked. “And now you can finally wake up on time.”

So this is what he meant. Woohyun pushed the alarm clock away and repeated, “But I don’t want it.”

“Tough,” the elder retorted and left the table to use the bathroom.

“Tough,” Woohyun mocked the other and stuck his tongue out to the closed bathroom door. He sighed as he turned to face that bloody alarm clock. He glared at it. He then picked it up and threw it into the trash can. “There problem solved,” he said with a mischievous giggle, which only grew louder after he saw what Sunggyu had left behind on the countertop: his cell phone. Woohyun automatically reached for it and brought up the lock screen. He stared at it blankly for a few seconds, but then he remembered what he had read only the night before. “0-4-2-8,” he whispered as he punched in the numbers and the phone unlocked. Of course Sunggyu would use his birthday as his password, Woohyun thought rolling his eyes. And then he quickly darted into Sunggyu’s bedroom.

Woohyun dropped the phone on the bed and tore off his shirt. Flopping onto Sunggyu’s bed, he took up the phone again. Rolling around a bit on Sunggyu’s bed (which was fortunately still unmade) and snuggling his face in the elder’s pillows, Woohyun closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep. His fingers pressed the camera button. Click. Woohyun then shot up to look at his masterpiece. It did look like someone had taken it of him while he was sleeping. He giggled maniacally as he typed into the phone, “You look cute when you sleep, jagi. But stop drooling on my pillow. Sad face emoji. And send.” He waited for a few seconds before sending out a second text. “Oops. Sorry Mom. I meant to send that to Woohyun.”

---

 

But before he could revel in his genius any longer, he heard a toilet flush. Throwing back on his shirt and returning the phone to the counter, Woohyun returned to eating his soggy corn flakes like nothing was wrong.

However, he didn’t know how wrong he was.

“Alright, that’s it. You can leave now,” Sunggyu announced to his music theory class. Even after years of teaching, he wasn’t too sure about how dismiss a class. But his students didn’t seem to mind as they began to talk to each other, pick up their belongings, and leave the room.  He sighed as he began to gather up his own things. There was a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn’t right. Or at least not yet.Anticipation. That’s what it is. He had pranked Woohyun earlier with the rolling alarm clock, and if he knew his roommate/fake boyfriend well (or at all), something was coming, revenge. Sunggyu had to be on guard for anything.

“Professor?” a soft voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Yes, Sungjong, what is it? The paper is due Friday,” Sunggyu declared, barely glancing at his student as he loaded his briefcase.

“I know, but I have something to show you,” the student said in a nervous whisper, stepping closer to his professor.

Sunggyu finally looked up. Sungjong wasn’t normally this shy. “A draft?” he guessed. “Come see me during my offices hours and we’ll go over it,” he walked around the podium, ready to exit the room.

But Sungjong cut in front of him, ing his cell phone into the professor’s face. “No, I think you’d want to see this now,” he insisted.

“What…what is this?” he stammered, immediately ripping the phone from the student’s hand. He scrolled through the webpage. He stopped at the last photo, taken when Sunggyu wasn’t paying attention, of a seemingly Woohyun sleeping in his bed. Underneath the photo was a caption, a supposed text from Sunggyu. This was it. The revenge. It was worse than he had anticipated. With eyes wide, scared to death, Sunggyu looked up at the younger. “Sungjong, I…”

“It’s okay, professor. I won’t tell anybody,” Sungjong said with a reassuring smile and wink.

The corner of Sunggyu’s mouth lifted upwards in relief, but he couldn’t wholly relax just yet. Handing back the phone, he asked, “Where did you find this?”

“I came from the same neighborhood as the Nams. Woohyun’s mother and mine are friends,” the younger explained as he returned his phone into his pocket. He faced his professor again and grinned, “So as far as I know, no one at the university has seen this…except for me.”

“Thank you, Sungjong. I really appreciate this,” Sunggyu said, patting the other’s shoulder. But given the content of the photos his student had recently seen, Sunggyu immediately retracted his hand and dropped his gaze in embarrassment.

But Sungjong didn’t mind. He nudged the professor and winked, “And I’d really appreciate an A on my next paper.” Sunggyu’s face grew gaunt. Sungjong put his hands up and backed away. “Okay, chill! I was just joking, okay? See you later, professor!” He waved and left the room.

As soon as the door shut, Sunggyu pulled out his own phone and dialed a number. “Nam, you better pick up!” he growled into the receiver.

---

 

Woohyun was packing up to leave from work. It was later than usual, but he had come in this morning with mountains of paperwork on his desk. He had just finished processing the last one. He glanced around the office as he turned off his light. He was the only one. There was a slight tug at the pit of his stomach.

The feeling didn’t last for long because his phone vibrated in his pocket. He laughed, wondering if Sunggyu had finally found the photo on his phone. He answered the phone giving the most innocent, “Hello” that he could muster. However he wasn’t  expecting the voice of his best friend cracking with excitement on the other end.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend? I thought that I was your best friend! That’s it. You’re no longer Best Man. Dongwoo’s got the job now,” Sungyeol threatened on the other end.

“Huh? What? What boyfriend?” Woohyun’s heart dropped, and he dropped back into his office chair, turning his light back on. He hadn't told Sungyeol about Sunggyu yet and now he was paying the price. But how did he find out?

“It says you do on your mom’s blog. And the evidence is kind of overwhelming,” Sungyeol answered with a mischievous chuckle. “Are you really having a winter wedding? Or is she doing one of her fantasy posts again?”

Woohyun turn on his computer again while asking, “My mom has a blog?”

“Yea, it’s great for blackmailing material. Let me tell you,” Sungyeol teased. “ I didn’t know that you drank from the bottle until you were five, but I guess that explains your lower teeth. All that .” He clicked his tongue in disapproval.

Woohyun groaned and ruffled his hair, “What’s the address?”

“I emailed it to you,” Sungyeol responded. Of course he did. He sometimes was a step or two ahead of the other. “You know, she started this so that she could keep you posted on stuff that happened at home,” he added while Woohyun silently sifted through his email.

“She did?”

Sungyeol laughed and replied, “Yea, but you weren’t listening. You had that glazed look. But I was listening, and I’m glad I did.” Only Sungyeol (okay and maybe Woohyun) would withhold something like this for their own gain. Woohyun wouldn’t be surprised if his mother’s blog was Sungyeol’s most visited website. “So, who’s the boy?” Sungyeol teased in a sing-songy tone.

Woohyun finally opened to the blog, and it was worse than he expected. Every single picture he had sent his mother, even that Sunggyu had sent his mother, were plastered all over the blog. They truly did look like a couple, especially when paired with his mother’s commentary. And worse of all was that photo from this morning, plastered on the blog for the whole world to see. “. He’s just,” Woohyun paused, trying to clear his head. After ruffling his hair a few more times, he finally found the words, “It’s fake. Our mothers wanted to get us together and…Oh look, apparently our entire ‘love story’ is already posted for the world to see!”

“I know. I read it. But I just wanted to hear it from you,” the humor had fled Sungyeol’s voice. “So it’s fake, huh?”

Woohyun exited the webpage. He’ll have to talk to his mother about it later. “Yea, we’re faking it to show our mothers that we don’t work well together,” he explained. He began to regather his things.

“Well, you fooled me,” Sungyeol commented.  

Woohyun smirked. If they fooled Sungyeol, quick-minded and suspicious Sungyeol then they were a believable couple. “Good. Then we’re doing a good job,” he quickly spoke as he turned off his light again and headed out the door. “Look. Can I call you back later? I have to deal with this.”

“Sure thing.”

“And, Yeol…I’m still the Best Man, right?” Woohyun half-joked.

“Duh,” Sungyeol immediately answered. He didn’t even think about it for a second. “Unless my mom forces me to choose Daeyeol because we’re brothers or some crap like that.”

A small smile appeared on Woohyun’s face as he locked up his office. “And if that happens, I’ll be okay with it,” he reminded the other.

“I know you will. I’ll talk to you later. Send your boyfriend my love!” Sungyeol teased. Murmurs could be heard on the other end, clearly belonging to a woman. Woohyun’s smile widened. Of course the other wasn’t alone. “Oh and Soyeon says hi too. And she thinks you guys are cute together. Bye!” Sungyeol added before hanging up the phone, not allowing Woohyun room for comebacks.

Woohyun didn’t even take one more step before his phone vibrated again. He groaned looking at the name flashing across his screen. He picked it up and answered, “Hyung…it looks like we’re going to be more public than I thought.”

---

 

“What do you mean more public?” Sunggyu yelled as soon as he opened up the door to the apartment. The two of them decided that it was better to have this conversation face-to-face (and possible fist-to-fist if it came to that). The elder didn't even remove his coat before beginning the argument. He didn’t even say hello or ask how Woohyun’s ty day was. Sunggyu was impatient…and livid. “Woohyun, I have a career,” he growled finally shedding his shoes.

Woohyun sat still on the sofa. He had already resolved the issue with his mother. She promise to password protect the blog, and perhaps not put every detail of her son’s life up there (she apparently had not realized how public the world-wide web was).

Woohyun took in a deep breath. There was no reason for the both of them to be worked up about this. “And so do I,” he calmly argued. He watched Sunggyu roll his eyes as he plopped into the arm chair next to the sofa. “Look, it’s not like we’re idols. Our careers won’t end because of it. And you’re already established…internationally too, so if they don’t want you here, you can go somewhere else.” On the ride back home, Woohyun had crafted and memorized this line of reasoning. He had bet that it would win over his hyung, and it was working. Sunggyu had brought up his finger to his lips in thought, and was nodding in agreement. “I have more to risk than you do,” Woohyun added as the clincher. It was a half-lie. He was well versed in company policy as an HR person. He would fight tooth and nail to keep his job. They’d have a hard time getting rid of him, especially since he’s so well liked by all his bosses.

Sunggyu narrowed his gaze on Woohyun. “So then why are you?”

Well, Woohyun hadn’t planned for this. “Because I think…I think it’ll be worth it in the end. Don’t you?” he said. Sunggyu was nodding again. Woohyun was grinning. He didn’t think that winning over the other would be this easy, especially after the photo surfaced. Woohyun leaned forward, closer to the other. He knew that he was close to ending the matter. “And I’m not asking that we do PDA or that we come out. We just have to look close. Like good friends. Let people assume whatever they want. And to those who know our moms, that they’d be convinced that we actually like each other,” he set out the plan.

Sunggyu rolled his head over to look at the other. His face looked uneasy. “It’s not like I hate you,” he replied.

Woohyun grinned. “I don’t hate you either, hyung.” He patted the other on the knee (the closest part he could reach). “See. We’re off to a good start.”

---

 

“YAH! KIM SUNGGYU!” Woohyun shouted as he burst through his bedroom doors, clenching that damn alarm clock in his fist. Apparently Sunggyu had rescued it from the trash and hid it again in Woohyun’s room (underneath his bed). It took Woohyun 10 minutes to find the holder (5 of those minutes was him pawing fruitlessly at the top of his dresser).

“What?” Sunggyu perked up. He was already sitting at the table, sipping on his sugar infested coffee. He giggled in glee. “Oh yea. Have a good night’s sleep? I did,” he remarked, casually sipping on his drink.

Woohyun slipped into his own chair, setting the clock next to his bowl of cereal. “Enjoying your sugary milk?” he teased with a grimace.

Sunggyu smiled. “Yes, I am,” he replied.

Woohyun grumbled incoherently as he grabbed for his spoon. But as he was reaching for it, his fingertips brushed against something smooth and new. He looked down to see a couple of pills placed besides his bowl. He picked them up and inspected it carefully. “What’s this?” he asked.

“Vitamins,” Sunggyu answered. He pointed to the yellow one in Woohyun’s palm. “This one is good for your brain. You need it so you’re not so stupid,” he made himself laugh with that joke. He then point to a large beige pill. “And this one is for intestinal health. Now I know that you need this.”

Woohyun opened his mouth, about to curse the other, but then his eyes fell of Sunggyu’s own colorful assortment of pills. He then recalled the manual and what it said about Sunggyu’s poor health. I need to read that again. After all, it wasn’t exactly meant to be light reading.

Woohyun was about to ask the other about his own vitamins, but then there was an ominous click. Their front door was being unlocked. And soon Mrs. Kim’s voice rang throughout the room, “Sunggyu? Where are you?”

“Does your mom have a key?” Woohyun quickly whispered to the other as he attempted to smooth out his rat nest of hair.

“She does now,” Sunggyu groaned in response, making himself look presentable. He then looked up. Woohyun was no longer sitting across from him. The younger had dragged his chair over to the other side of the table, only centimeters away from Sunggyu. “Wait, what are you?”

The response he got wasn’t exactly what he expected. Woohyun leaned in and pecked him on the cheek. Then he pinched the spot he kissed. “Aigoo, hyung! How are you this cute this early?” he cooed.

Sunggyu could see his mother peaking around the corner. “It's, uh, a gift,” he stuttered.

“Aw. Look at you two. Smile!” Mrs. Kim commanded as she snapped a couple a photos with her phone. Woohyun draped his arm around the other and brought them close together. Mrs. Kim squealed in delight. “I’m sending this to your mother too,” she told them as she was typing away.

“Us too, Mommy,” Woohyun said cutely, his arm tightening around Sunggyu. Sunggyu turned to him and glared. Woohyun pouted and dropped his arm from him.

This all escaped his mother’s notice as she was too busy texting the photos (probably to everybody that she knew. Sunggyu would have to talk to her next). “Of course!” she chirped. Mrs. Kim gestured to Woohyun with her phone. “Sunggyu, you really lucked out with this one. He’s a real sweetheart.”

Sunggyu rested his cheek on his fist and stirred his spoon in his bowl. “Yea, I’m real lucky,” he muttered.

“Well, I’m going to go get ready,” Woohyun announced, getting up from his seat. Finally, Sunggyu thought in relief. But once again, Woohyun tried to overact his role. “I’ll see you later, honey,” he said. He leaned down and puckered up his lips. But they just hovered inches away from Sunggyu’s. The elder could see the other’s eyes widen in fear. Woohyun hadn’t thought this through.

Sunggyu forced out an obviously fake laugh and pushed away Woohyun’s face. “Not until you brush your teeth,” he warned.

Woohyun’s own fake laughter filled the room. “Right,” he added before he left, looking relieved. Sunggyu breathed his own sigh of relief as he returned his attention back to his cereal.

But he wasn’t off the hook just yet. His mother slipped into Woohyun’s chair. “Honey, you need to be nicer to him,” she reprimanded.

“Why are you here mom?” Sunggyu bluntly asked.

His mother giggled at her failed attempt to be sneaky. “I was on my to the doctors for a check-up, and so I thought that I would check-up on you too,” she joked.

But Sunggyu knew what she was getting at. He knew his mother well. “Do you want me to go with you?” he asked. He knew all about her fear of doctors and hospitals. After all, she had passed it down to him.

“Please,” she begged him. “And I can take you and Woohyun out for lunch later,” she excitedly offered.

“Can’t,” Sunggyu immediately declined, but he had failed to think of an excuse yet. “He’s busy and I have a faculty meeting,” he slowly lied.

“Okay,” she relented. “But one of these days, you’re going to have to say yes. I know I can be embarrassing, but if we’re all going to be family…”

“Okay, okay. We’ll schedule it later,” he gave in. A double date with the sons and mothers was long overdue, he reckoned.

His mother smiled happily and it only grew wider after she caught sight of Woohyun leaving. “Oh! Off to work already?” she asked, forcing a pout.

“Eung,” Woohyun answered as he buttoned his blazer.

Mrs. Kim leaned over and whispered to her son, “Sunggyu, I think he brushed his teeth.” She pulled away, staring down her son. The determined look in her eyes said that she wasn’t about to drop the issue anytime soon. Remember what I said, son. Treat him better.

Sunggyu groaned, hating how easily he gave into his mother. He got up from the table and dragged his feet as he walked over to Woohyun who looked confused. And the shock intensified as Sunggyu gripped his chin. The elder’s thumb pressed against his lips. “Goodbye…babe,” Sunggyu clumsily spoke as he leaned in and kissed his own thumb. He quickly pulled away before they became anymore awkward with each other. “Have a good day at work,” he wished with a pained smile.

“Uh huh,” Woohyun responded, still in a slight daze. Then he snapped out of it and slapped Sunggyu on his behind, retorting “And you too, honey.” He ran out the door, just missed being hit by Sunggyu’s foot.

Rubbing his violated , Sunggyu turned around grumbling, only to see his mother beaming at him.

Mrs. Kim gave her son two thumbs up. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” she praised.

“You’re disturbing. Do you know that?”

---

 

There was a reason why Woohyun couldn’t meet the Kims for lunch, and he was sitting right across from it right now. He still had to explain himself to Minseon. And knowing Sungyeol, the blabbermouth probably had already told Dongwoo, and either Dongwoo or Sungyeol had told Minseon. It only became more evident when she joked, “So I wasn’t the only one caught cheating, huh? And with the same guy.” And that stung Woohyun. He hadn’t even considered that. Technically, he was in a relationship with more than one person at the same time, and although Minseon  was more than fine with it (perhaps amused). But it didn’t sit well with Woohyun still. Probably because it still brought some unresolved feelings that he had tried to forced down.

 “Wasn’t I enough for you?” he ended up blurting out.

“Hmmm,” Minseon hummed in thought as she swallowed her soup. “it really wasn’t if you were enough. It was if you were the right one,” she concluded.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a lot of different types of guys out there: smart guys, y guys that you don’t bring home to the parents, then there’s the nerds you do,” she counted them off on her fingers. She shrugged. “You know, a lot.”

Woohyun put down his spoon and crossed his arms.“What about me?”

Minseon could tell that Woohyun wasn’t happy, that he was a ticking time-bomb just waiting to explode. She did her best to dissuade and reassure him. Minseon leaned forward and grabbed his hand. “You’re the best friend and playful oppa that I can see myself always having fun with,” she replied brightly.

“Really?” That did it. Nam Woohyun was defused and a grin returned to his face. He squeezed her hand. But then his face fell, remembering the other half of his equation. “What about Sunggyu?”

Minseon leaned back in her chair. She puckered her lips, thinking. “He was the handsome and financially stable oppa, you know being a college professor and all,” she reluctantly answered, hoping that it wouldn’t set off the other.

“Was he your teacher?” Woohyun asked as he did some quick math in his head. He had forgotten that she was in college when they first met. Their mental ages had been so similar; he just assumed that she was as old as he was.

“Eung.  It was the whole ‘hot for teacher’ thing. And it was exciting,” her smile quickly faded and her voice became somber. “Until we actually got together.”

Woohyun stared at her blankly. He couldn’t  imagine life with Sunggyu being dull, but that was possibly because of their mother’s constant interference in their lives. “Huh? What do you mean?” he gaped.

“He never really spent money on me,” Minseon complained. As it turned out, her ‘financially stable oppa’ had a tight fist. “I mean, you saw his ring, right? If that’s what he thought of me…” She shook her head and let it drop. She squeezed Woohyun’s hand. “Yours was way better. It was cute and shiny. Just like you!” Minseon cooed tapping Woohyun on the nose.

And Woohyun retuned it right back. “You!” he exclaimed tapping her nose twice. She giggled. But now Woohyun had something else niggling at him. “So Sunggyu-hyung never treated you?”

“Well, not never,” she recanted. “But when he did it was always, ‘Oppa bought you this, remember? You owe me.’ Any time he could bring it up, ‘Remember when I bought you beef. Aren’t I cool?’” Minseon mimicked Sunggyu (and quite well, even copying his gestures as he spoke). She shook her head and clicked her tongue. Minseon continued, “That’s not cool. It was like he was either keeping tallies of my debt or constantly reminding me of that one time he treated me. But he never bought me flowers or chocolates or did an event for me. He said it wasn’t worth his time or money. ‘Yah! I like you. Do you not believe me? Does Oppa have to do those stupid things to prove it? I’m a cool guy.’ Psh.”

Woohyun broke out into a hearty laugh. “You sound just like him,” he praised.

“Thanks! I had a lot of practice mocking him,” Minseon said. No wonder why we get along so well, Woohyun thought. Their interest were always very similar, even ‘annoying Sunggyu’ they had in common. However there were some things Woohyun couldn’t align with he had just learned from Minseon.

“But, Sunggyu-ssi, buys stuff for me. It’s not always the things you want, but what you need,” he argued thinking back to the alarm clock and those vitamins from this morning. “He takes care of people really well.”

“Mmm,” Minseon hummed as she leaned in closer and whispered, “Maybe he likes you more than me.” She then broke out in a cheeky smile.

Woohyun pushed her away. “Eh, that’s not true,” he denied.

“Well, you two are dating,” she retorted, picking her spoon back up and returning to her soup.

“Only to the public, but you’re my secret girlfriend,” Woohyun spoke in hushed tones, stealing  glances of his surroundings as if the two of them were about to get caught. He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?”

“Eung! Like I said, life with you is always fun,” she agreed emphatically and then fed her boyfriend soup from her spoon. “Delicious!” she exclaimed cutely, wagging her fists in the air. And at that moment, as the soup warmed his throat and heart, Woohyun decided that he care if he hadn’t been her only one in the past, just as long as he was able to  outlast the others. He still might marry this woman.

---

 

Later that evening, Woohyun returned to his apartment complex with a spring in his step. The high he received from Minseon had lasted him the whole afternoon. There was nothing that could ruin his mood. Not even the deadline that had been moved up to this afternoon. Not even Sungyeol making adorably gross phone calls to Soyeon in the break room and asking invasive questions about his love-life. Not even the fact that he had spilled what was left of the office coffee all over his shirt (it was thankfully cold). Nope nothing could take the wind from beneath his wings today. “!” Unless it was a broken elevator. Apparently the elevator in his complex was in serious need of repair, and so they shut it down for the night. And his apartment was on the eleventh floor.

But his night was still salvageable, or at least that’s what Woohyun told himself as he opened the door to the stairwell. However after reaching the fourth floor, it grew tiresome and Woohyun was weary. He had even lost the energy to convince himself that everything was still fine. And by the eighth floor, he was cursing his life and everybody in it. Woohyun was nearly crawling on his hands and knees as he finally reached his floor. When he reached his apartment, almost as soon as he opened the door he collapsed onto the floor. I’ll just rest here until I find the energy to move again…F**k it, I’ll just sleep here. He rolled onto his back and put his arms over his eyes, gearing for a nap.

A strange humming filled the room, and it was getting closer and closer. Woohyun knew the sound, but it wasn’t one that he heard too often. Curious, he raised his arm from his eyes and snuck a peak at what it was. And sure enough, Sunggyu was vacuuming, actually vacuuming. It was a strange and abnormal sight (mostly because he was eating a sandwich while doing it). Woohyun was half tempted to bring out his cell phone and record it for posterity…and also tempted to ask the other to make him a sandwich. It looked pretty good.

 “Move,” Sunggyu commanded, prodding the other’s foot with the vacuum. He then dropped the sandwich.

“Aren’t you just making more of a mess?” Woohyun pointed out as Sunggyu bent down to pick it up.

The elder vacuumed the spot where it fell while he continued to chew on the sandwich. “Better? Now move,” he sputtered out.

Woohyun, always defiant, and right now exhausted, flipped over onto his stomach and mumbled, “No.” Prods him with vacuum.

“Move. Move, please?” Sunggyu just barely pleaded. In response, Woohyun groaned and flailed his legs in a lame attempt to kick the other. Sunggyu smirked. “Fine. Since you’re dirty, I’ll have to clean you too.” Then he began to run the vacuum gradually up, up, up Woohyun’s body.

 “Huh? What are you?” Woohyun immediately gasped as he rolled back onto his back, which immediately proved to be a bad idea because the vacuum latched onto his neck, hard at the spot. “Wh-WHAT THE HELL? That’s my neck!” he yelled as he tore the horrible machine from his neck. It came off of him with a pop.

“And now it’s clean,” Sunggyu retorted with a cheeky grin. “I told you to move,” he added as he moved onto the next spot.

 “Aish!” Woohyun cursed as he got up from the floor and made his way to the bathroom to assess the damage. “Why are you so adamant about cleaning anyways? You never clean,” he shouted out to the other. He reached the bathroom and the light. A red spot was blooming on his neck. Fantastic.

 “Not true,” Sunggyu yelled back. He turned off the vacuum and walked up to Woohyun. He looked sheepish all of the sudden. “Besides, my Mom is coming over for dinner.”

“What?” Woohyun turned off the lights and met Sunggyu halfway, in the kitchen. “She came over just this morning!” He suddenly grew hot with embarrassment after remembering what had transpired several hours ago. Why did I ever think today was a good day?

“I told you. She…has a problem,” Sunggyu stammered as he leaned back onto the wall. His mother was adamant about sharing a meal with him and Woohyun, inviting herself over that night after Sunggyu took her home from the doctor’s.

Woohyun chuckled a little just thinking about Mrs. Kim, and then about his own mother. He would be lying if he said that his own mother wouldn’t do the same. They both had problematic mothers. “Is she at least making dinner?” he asked.

Sunggyu smiled too. “Why do you think I’m letting her come?” he retorted.  Then the door bell rang. Mrs. Kim was here, and Sunggyu realized that he had to still tidy up his room before her invasion. “Can you get that? It’s probably her,” he asked of Woohyun before darting into his bedroom and throwing everything into his closet.

“Bossing me around,” Woohyun grumbled at the closed door. But he still heeded the other’s request, albeit unhappily. “It’s not even my mom. That big f—Hello Mrs. Kim!” he put on the biggest smile he could muster as he opened the door for Mrs. Kim.

“Oh! Woohyunnie, it’s so nice to see you! Don’t you look handsome?” she praised patting his cheeks. Woohyun’s grin became genuine. If Mrs. Kim was a problem, it was a problem he could deal with. But then she turned his head to get a better glimpse of his neck. “And oh, what is this?” she asked letting go of the cheeks and pointing to the red mark deepening in shade on his neck. The middle-aged woman giggled and wagged her finger at the other. “Naughty, naughty. But I’m glad to see that things are going well between you two,” she remarked as she walked inside.

Woohyun groaned. Kim Sunggyu, on the other hand, he’d rather not deal with.

---

 

That evening, after a delicious homecook meal and after Mrs. Kim left saying that she’d go and let the two of them ‘pick up where they left off’ (Woohyun shivered at what she’d meant), Woohyun ducked out of the apartment to join Sungyeol and Dongwoo at a bar down the street. He could really use a drink right now, and apparently needed someone to rant to. For the last half an hour, Woohyun had told his friends every annoying detail about Kim Sunggyu and their relationship. And they had been entertained by the most of it, especially by the vacuum cleaner saga (which Woohyun might have added a few dramatic details, like Sunggyu chasing him around with the vacuum relentlessly). Dongwoo, however, began to lose interest (probably due to his short attention span). His smile kept faltering, although he was still nodding as if he was attentively listening, and he kept having to be reminded of Sunggyu’s name. Eventually, Woohyun took pity and let Dongwoo loose to play with the other patrons at the bar (Dongwoo knew half of them. He had so many friends). But Sungyeol on the other hand was not done with Woohyun.

 “Maybe you should just shut up and give him a chance,” Sungyeol declared, taking sips from his beer before continuing. “You obviously like him. You keep yammering about him.”

Woohyun scoffed. “I don’t like him. I’m annoyed with him. Besides, I’m not gay,” he reminded the other. He was starting to become annoyed that everybody was forgetting that fact.

“So what? Are we just going to forget the time you tried to make out with Dongwoo?”

Woohyun nearly spat out his drink as he reached over to cover Sungyeol’s mouth. His eyes drifted over to Dongwoo who was excitedly talking to a black haired man in the corner, far away from them. Woohyun breathed a sigh of relief and focused back on Sungyeol .“I was drunk!” he explained. Sungyeol rolled his eyes and removed Woohyun’s hand. Woohyun chuckled and joked, “And besides, haven’t you ever thought about doing it? His lips are really big.”

“Nope because I’m straight and in a happy relationship with a beautiful woman,” Sungyeol retorted, showing off his couple ring. “And Dongwoo was too. I mean except for the happy bit. Don’t you remember The ?”  Both of them growled at the name.

Of course Woohyun remembered. He’d never forget. ‘The ’ refused to date Dongwoo in public and forced him to carry on a secret relationship like some self-important celebrity. They never interacted outside the four walls of Dongwoo’s apartment. Not even a phone call, text, or email would transpire between their ‘dates.’ Dongwoo never even spoke the person’s name out loud, and so Sungyeol and Woohyun dubbed it ‘The ’ because it was a selfish coward. Woohyun never met ‘The ,’ but he hated it with his entire being for what it did to Dongwoo. Woohyun’s eyes drifted over to Dongwoo, who was still talking to that man happily in the corner of the bar. Who could treat him like that?

“Anyways, that’s why he pushed you off. Because they were still together,” Sungyeol continued and drained his drink. Woohyun chuckled to himself. Wasn’t he the one who was supposed to drown in sorrows?

“But then they broke up afterwards,” Woohyun added, recalling how Dongwoo broke up with ‘The ’ the very next day.

Sungyeol got another beer from the bartender and took a long sip before continuing, “And don’t you remember what happened at the party we had because that ty relationship was finally over?”

“I got drunk again?” Woohyun guessed with a sheepish giggle.

“Well, yea…You got to stop that,” Sungyeol reprimanded. Then he rapped the other on the head and he blurted out, “But you, ya big jerk, asked Dongwoo for Way’s phone number.”

“Who’s Way?” Woohyun asked.

“Who’s Way?” Sungyeol repeated, his eyes practically bulging. “F**k, Woohyun. The girl you almost proposed to.”

Woohyun rolled his drink in his hands and mumbled, “She told me her name was Minseon.” How many aliases does she have?

“Minseon, Way, doesn’t matter!” Sungyeol dismissed. He then turned in his seat to look the other straight in the eye. “Point is: Dongwoo broke up with The because he thought that you two were going to get together.”

And this time, Woohyun did spit out his drink, all over bar. “WHAT?!” he exclaimed in disbelief.

“Yea, you totally led him on. Hell, even I thought you liked him and encouraged Dongwoo to go for it. The whole party was one elaborate set-up for the two of you to finally get together, courtesy of yours truly,” Sungyeol said proudly patting his chest. But then a deep frown was etched into his face and he hit Woohyun in the head again. “But then you had to go and f**k everything up.” Sungyeol leaned forward and angrily whispered to Woohyun, “God, you’re so lucky that Dongwoo still talks to you. That hyung is too forgiving.”

Woohyun sat there, rubbing his head. He was speechless, astounded. He glanced over at Dongwoo again, who had moved to a table of girls and was casually chatting with them. Woohyun returned his attention back to Sungyeol, who looked determined to finish his beer. “You guys thought I liked him?” Woohyun couldn’t believe what he was asking.

“You did!” Sungyeol was adamant. “Think about it, Woohyun. Think long and hard,” he commanded pointing at his own temple. But then he dismissed that notion with a wave of his hand. “You know what? Don’t think. That’s always been your problem. You’re too worried about how other people see you. You want everybody to like you, so you try not to do anything to offend them. But you know what? It’s impossible. Why? Because you offend me. And I hate your friggin guts,” he declared and spun his bar stool away from Woohyun.

“Liar,” Woohyun retorted, hanging onto the taller’s back. “You love me.”

“I do not. Now go away, ” Sungyeol denied, trying to shake the other off, but Woohyun stuck on like glue.

Woohyun rubbed his cheek against the other’s. “Not until you say you love me!” he said in a sing-song voice.

“No. Not ever!”

---

 

“Why are we doing this?” Sunggyu asked as he was tying his tie in the kitchen. He wanted nothing more than to stay dressed in his sweats and fall asleep while watching a bad movie. But Woohyun had other plans.

“Because we haven't been on an actual date yet,” Woohyun answered as he walked out his bedroom. And now Sunggyu felt overdressed in his button down and tie if the other was just wearing a sweater. But it was too late to change. Woohyun walked forward with his hands in his pockets. “It was Sungyeol's idea. He thought if we made a double date, it would be less awkward,” he explained.

And that part may have been true…if Sunggyu knew Sungyeol and Soyeon. But it will be awkward because I don't know anybody besides you, he thought as he tightened his tie. Sunggyu could see it now. He was alone at the corner of the table as Woohyun joked and laughed along with the faceless couple. It wasn’t like he hated meeting new people, but he hated being the only new person. It made him feel like an outsider, an invader.

“Also Yeol wants to meet you,” Woohyun added.

“Why?”

“You're my boyfriend.”

Sunggyu scoffed. “Not really.”

“I know,” Woohyun responded. “Ready?” he asked with a twitch of his eyebrow.

“Sure.”

---

 

 The evening didn’t start too horribly. Sungyeol and Soyeon appeared to be nice. Although Sunggyu hadn’t expected Woohyun’s former roommate to be so tall, given the stories he had heard about their escapades. But after seeing the mischievous glint in Sungyeol’s round eyes, Sunggyu could see why the two were best friends. Soyeon, on the other hand, appeared to balance him out. She had a small frame and had an air of maturity. But there was also something in the way that she smiled that told Sunggyu that she was wily enough to keep up with the two ruffians. And Sunggyu just might like the both of them.

As Woohyun’s best friend, Sungyeol took the role seriously. His eyes watched Sunggyu’s every move like a hawk. And then finally he began with the questions that he was so eager to ask. “So, what do you do?”

It seemed harmless enough. “I teach music at the university,” Sunggyu answered casually. “And you?”

“I work at the same company as Woohyun but on the consulting end. Not in HR like him,” Sungyeol said with a shiver. “That's boring.”

Woohyun leaned over to Sunggyu and spoke in a loud whisper, “He doesn't like rules.”

Sungyeol cocked an eyebrow at the other. “And you do?”

Woohyun chuckled and sat back in his chair. “I like enforcing them,” he retorted.

Sungyeol scoffed and wagged his finger at his friend, “Drunk with power, this one.” Sunggyu could see Soyeon shaking her head at the two friends and softly chuckling at herself. Sunggyu couldn’t laugh though. This was what he had expected: the two best friends going off in their own little world and leaving poor old Sunggyu alone and forgotten. He just sighed and picked up the menu. He might as well decide on what to eat while the children are arguing.

“Please, like you wouldn’t do the same,” Woohyun fought back. “Besides, hyung, isn’t that why you went into teaching?”

Hyung? Does he mean me? “Huh?” And sure enough, when he raised his gaze from the menu, Woohyun and Sungyeol’s eyes were trained on him.

“Yea, you seem to be the type who enjoys being in control,” Sungyeol added as he looked the elder up and down.

Soyeon clapped her hands and jumped a bit in her seat. “Oh like that thing with the vacuum cleaner!” she exclaimed.

Sunggyu turned towards Woohyun. “You told them about that?!” he angrily whispered to the other.

Woohyun avoided the other’s gaze, fixing his eyes on the table and rubbing his neck where the bruise had finally disappeared. “I was walking around with a bruise on my neck. I had to explain it before people would get the wrong idea,” he explained himself in a small voice.

“What? Like the two of you are dating?” Soyeon retorted, and her fiancé gave her a high five. Sunggyu cocked his head and pouted in confusion. Maybe he was wrong about her being mature.

“But we’re not,” Woohyun argued. “Not really.”

But Sungyeol ignored his friend and leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table and resting his cheeks in his hands. :So Sunggyu, tell me more about yourself. I want to know everything,” he emphasized the last word.

“Yea, everything,” Soyeon mimicked the position and tone of Sungyeol. And Sunggyu’s throat became suddenly dry.

---

 

Sunggyu couldn’t believe that he’d originally thought that the three of them would ignore him because now he was facing an inquisition. Sungyeol and Soyeon alternated asking him questions in rapid fire succession, and Sunggyu had an odd feeling that this is what a suspect felt like under the hot lights of an interrogation room. He was sweating too much for just eating dinner. But luckily, Woohyun diverted some of the questions, answering them in Sunggyu’s stead. And he tried to turn the focus back on himself. Woohyun must really miss being the center of attention. But it not like Sunggyu would mind it. Any refuge from this torture would be welcomed, but the only thing that could stop the Sungyeol and Soyeon rampage was the waiter. And Sunggyu barely had enough time to look over the menu.

“I’ll take the special,” Sunggyu took a gamble, hoping that the special would be good.

But before the waiter put his pencil to paper, Woohyun stopped him, “No,  he won’t.” Sunggyu glared at him, but Woohyun didn’t flinch. “Hyung, you won't like it. It has horseradish on it,” he quickly defended himself. How did he know? And when Sunggyu really thought about it, Woohyun had answered several questions that Sunggyu had never told him. But before he could dwell on it further, Woohyun a menu in his face and and pointed to the roast chicken. “You should get this,” he suggested.

“Why?”

“Because I can't decide between that or this. So you can get that and we can share,” Woohyun responded with a light chuckle.

Sunggyu nodded and turned back to the waiter. “Okay. I'll get the carbonara,” he put in his order.

“Hyung!” Woohyun objected.

“What? It’s my meal. I’ll get what I want. And you order whatever you want,” Sunggyu teased, enjoying how upset the other had gotten over his foiled plan. Sunggyu then gestured back to the waiter who was growing impatient. “He’s waiting.”

Woohyun hid his face behind the menu and grumbled, “I’m not ready. Please take my order last.” And Sunggyu could hear him mutter ‘stupid hyung’ underneath his breath (which surprisingly made him laugh instead of upset).

Sunggyu then turned his attention away from his roommate and onto the couple across from him, who currently was staring right at him and giggling creepily. “What?” Sunggyu asked.

“Nothing!” the blurted out in unison, looked at each other, and giggled some more as if it was an inside joke.

Sunggyu shook his head. What a weird couple.

---

 

“Hyung, can you pass the salt?” Woohyun asked as he poked at his sirloin. But no salt ever came. He turned to face the man next to him. He sighed. Sunggyu and Sungyeol had been really hitting it off and now they were arguing (one of Sungyeol’s favorite pastimes) about the logistics of owning a domesticated monkey. And from experience (because he had had the very same argument with the other several times), Woohyun knew that it would take them a while to finish. His dinner was quickly growing cold. “Hyung?” he tried to quietly . Sunggyu must have not heard him (or at least Woohyun hoped he hadn’t) and began to drag Soyeon into the argument, who wore a look of resignation (she knew that she was probably going to end up with a monkey baby). So Woohyun decided to take matters into his own hands and reached over for the salt, which was on the other side of Sunggyu (and now his hyung couldn’t possibly ignore him any longer). His fingertips almost reached the salt shaker when he had felt his elbow knocking into something. Woohyun automatically shut his eyes and prayed, Please, don’t let it be…And when he cracked one of his eyes opened slightly, he saw a large purpley-red stain on Sunggyu’s pressed and pristine khaki pants. And his red wine glass was rolling on the table, completely empty.

“Aish! What the—Yah! Nam Woohyun!” Sunggyu cried, immediately leaping away from the table and Woohyun.

“It was an accident,” Woohyun insisted in a small voice.

Sunggyu rolled his eyes. “Sure it was,” he grumbled. He then looked past Woohyun to the couple behind him and bowed, “If you excuse me.” He left the table after shooting one last angry glare at the younger.

“Hyung,” Woohyun weakly called after him. Did he really think that I did it on purpose? Woohyun sprang from the table. “Excuse me,” he muttered quickly to the others as he grabbed for his napkin and chased after Sunggyu, into the bathroom.

When Woohyun had opened the door, he saw Sunggyu with his tie now loosened around his neck. He was just staring at the stained pants, inspecting the damage and plotting his next move. And when Woohyun had the faucet to dampen his napkin, Sunggyu finally turned towards him and growled, “What are you doing here? I got it.”

Woohyun turned off the tap and wrung out the napkin. “Just let me help, okay?” he insisted, bringing the wet napkin to the stain and began scrubbing.

“What are you—“ Sunggyu exclaimed, trying to slap the other’s hand away from his thigh, but Woohyun was adamant and latched the napkin back to the spot, scrubbing away with renewed vigor.

“Wow! I really made a mess, didn’t I?” he said with a light chuckle, looking up at his hyung with smiling eyes, trying to lessen the tension (but Sunggyu didn’t feel any more relaxed).  “Oh ! It’s spreading!” the younger shouted as he looked back down. The dark purple was seeping deep into the pants. “Maybe if I…” he thought out loud as he settled down onto his knees so that he could fight the stain eye-to-eye. “That’s better,” he announced as he began to scrub even harder.

“Woohyun! Stop!” Sunggyu commanded, slapping away the other’s hand again. Woohyun looked up at him, hurt. “Do you even know what you’re doing?” Sunggyu asked a little more calmly.

“Yea,” Woohyun answered. He pinched at the khakis, picking up the now soaked pants from Sunggyu’s thigh. He began scrubbing again, his brows furrowed in concentration. “Fixing my mistake,” he mumbled distractedly.

He really has no idea, Sunggyu thought a small laugh. “No. You’re not,” he said still with a bit of laughter. He cleared his throat and grew somber. “Now get up,” he commanded, tapping Woohyun on his shoulders.

“But it’s going to stain!” Woohyun argued, not even lifting his gaze up to the other. He was fully immersed in his task. He then finally let go of the pants and put down the napkin. He cocked his head to the side in thought (and maybe Sunggyu did too while watching him). “Maybe if we take these off,” Woohyun suggested, reaching for Sunggyu’s belt. We can wash them in the sink.

Sunggyu immediately reached down and pulled the other away from him by his hair. “WOOHYUN!” he whined.

Then the bathroom door swung open. “Hey, Soyeonnie said that this will…” Sungyeol stopped in his tracks, taking in the scene in front of him: his best friend on his knees while undoing the belt of his ‘fake’ boyfriend who had his fingers threaded in Woohyun’s hair. The two were frozen in their positions as Sungyeol stared at them with eyes bulging, jaw unhinged, and the cup of club soda in his hands spilling onto the floor.

“Oh my god! I knew it! I knew it! F**k, I need to tell Soyeon.”

---

 

It took awhile to convince Sungyeol otherwise, but he eventually came to believe that his best friend was really that dumb and stubborn. The four finished their meal in almost perfect silence, with just a few ‘safe’ comments made. And Sunggyu stayed there with wet pants and a damaged ego for the rest of the night, casually glancing at Woohyun who refused to look at him. Also he’d have to burn these pants later (not because of the stain, but because of the memories attached to them). However the meal was delicious.

The ride home was even more silent, completely silent save for the humming of the car’s engine. And when they finally reached the apartment, the boys fled to the sanctuary of their own rooms. Things seemed to be returning to the way it was before the ‘relationship.’ Becoming two ships that pass in the night.

And so when Woohyun woke up the next morning, he did not expect Sunggyu to be awake to eat soggy cereal with him. Half of his expectations were met. Sunggyu, surprisingly, was awake (but just barely). But on the table was not the cereal Woohyun had come to know and loathe. “Hyung, there’s rice…and sides dishes…and are you making soup?” he asked in disbelief. And Sunggyu lazily nodded as he brought the pot from the stove to the table, mumbling something about being particularly hungry this morning. Woohyun smiled as he sat down and began to stuff his face with an actual breakfast. He took this as a sign, a peace offering, promising that he and Sunggyu were going to forget about last night and bury it deep, deep, deep down in their memories. And the rouse could continue. So Woohyun fell back into his usual habit of annoying Sunggyu with endless chatter, and Sunggyu continued his habit of grumbling out comebacks and leaving the table when he had had enough.

But the unexpected didn’t end there. As it was Saturday and the two didn’t have to work, Woohyun had planned on lazing around all day. He wasn’t surprised to see that Sunggyu wanted to do the same and was watching some mindless variety show with him. But he was surprised that Sunggyu didn’t sit in his usual armchair and joined Woohyun on the couch, claiming that it was ‘more comfortable.’ And after several failed attempts of trying to keep the younger on his side of the couch, Sunggyu allowed Woohyun to rest his feet on his lap…and eventually he spread out to do the same.

Their television watching was cut short by a phone call. It was Dongwoo. He wanted to borrow one of Woohyun’s ‘cuddly and sophisticated sweaters’ (in Dongwoo’s own words). He had a date that night and wanted to make a good impression. Woohyun immediately agreed and after turning off the phone, he poked at Sunggyu’s side with his foot. “I have a friend coming over,” he announced and chuckled a bit at the elder’s annoyed expression.

Sunggyu then glanced down at his lap. “I guess I have to put on pants now,” he said in a sad tone.

“Yea, why are you always walking around in your boxers?” Woohyun teased the other, as if he wasn’t still in his boxers himself.

Sunggyu pushed Woohyun off of him and got up from the couch, tugging his undershirt down to cover more of his underwear.  “It’s my house. I do what I want,” he mumbled under his breath and shuffled into his bedroom to change.

Woohyun chuckled to himself, watching the door close behind Sunggyu. Hyung’s silly, he thought as he jumped off from the couch to throw on some sweatpants. Knowing Dongwoo, his friend will be here in a matter of minutes and come in like a storm. It would be interesting to see what reserved Sunggyu would make of the whirlwind of excitement that was Jang Dongwoo. Hyung will probably run back to his room and hide. But, he did get along surprisingly well with Sungyeol. Either way it would be interesting.

As soon as Woohyun pulled on some pants, there was a loud rap on his door. He smiled. Dongwoo was here, and Sunggyu was about to get the surprise of his life. Woohyun made his way to the front door and opened it while simultaneously stepping back, allowing Dongwoo to burst in like he usually did.

“Woohyun-ah! Thank you!” he exclaimed, wrapping his friend immediately into a hug. “You’re a lifesaver.”

Woohyun chuckled as he patted the other on the back. “It’s just a sweater.”

Dongwoo pulled away and sheepishly giggled, “But I have a good feeling about this one.”

A loud sigh passed through Woohyun’s nose. He had heard that from Dongwoo just as many times as he heard Sungyeol argue that monkey’s would make great pets. They were both almost always wrong. But his heart twinged as he saw Dongwoo’s face fall. It probably wasn’t the best to derail the other’s confidence before a big date. So Woohyun distracted him by putting his arm around Dongwoo’s shoulders, leading him to his closet. He could feel Dongwoo’s excitement building again, as he was practically bouncing under Woohyun’s hold. “So an accountant?” Woohyun asked. “I didn’t know that you went for nerds.”

“Not all accountants are nerds,” Dongwoo immediately defended. “This one’s hot,” he added with a bit of a cackle. “Besides, isn’t there something y about people with brains?”

Woohyun snorted as he searched through his closet, looking for the perfect sweater to lend his friend. “y?” he challenged.  He pulled out a white cable knit. “Here. Try this on.”

“Eung,” Dongwoo answered. His voice was muffled by the wool as he was trying on the sweater. “It’s like they know so much.” He finally poked his blonde head through the hole and pulled the sweater down. “And you wonder what else they might know,” he finished suggestively with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“You!” Woohyun faked a gasp, causing Dongwoo to giggle even more. He then threw a navy blue sweater at the other. “Wear this one instead. You might spill something.”

“Good idea!” Dongwoo agreed about to take off the white sweater, but his fingers froze as he grabbed the hem.

“You must be Woohyun’s friend. I’m Sunggyu, his roommate.”

Dongwoo slowly craned his neck to see Sunggyu standing in the threshold of Woohyun’s room. He let go of the sweater and shook one of Sunggyu’s hands vigorously. “Oh, I heard a lot about you. Nice to finally meet you.” Was it just Woohyun’s imagination or was Dongwoo’s voice abnormally loud? Dongwoo then turned back to his friend. “You know what? I’ll stick with this one. It makes me look more innocent, don’t you think? Because it’s white? I’ll be really careful. I promise!” he promised, returning the navy blue one. He then began to back out, waving to the two roommates. “I’ll get out of your hair now. I have to get ready for my date now. Like shower and stuff. Thanks for the help, Woohyun-ah. And nice meeting you Sunggyu-ssi! Bye bye!”

 “Well that was weird,” Woohyun remarked, his eyes fixed on the slammed front door. Dongwoo was normally friendly and outgoing. He didn’t even try to make conversation with Sunggyu. He must be really busy, he concluded with a shrug.

“Dongwoo,” Sunggyu spoke reluctantly, “is he a friend of yours?”

“Eung,” Woohyun replied. He then faced Sunggyu, who was now sitting on the couch with eyes fastened to the door. Dongwoo…never introduced himself. “Do you know him?”

“Uh,” Sunggyu pause, scratching his thigh. “We met through a friend.”

“Really? Who?” Woohyun asked as he plopped down next to the elder. “Sungyeol? Minseon? Oh, Minjin? Sungjong? Byunhee? Bora?” he listed but Sunggyu kept shaking his head. “Hyung, we both know a lot of people just tell me.”

“Howon,” Sunggyu blurted out. “It was Howon.”

“Ho…oh, Hoya!” Woohyun exclaimed with a clap of his hands. He had met Howon/Hoya several times before with Dongwoo, mostly to meet up and play basketball. But they hadn’t been doing much of that lately. In fact Woohyun hadn’t really seen Hoya since…“Hey, did you know The Dongwoo was dating three years ago? I heard his ex worked at the same place as Hoya.”

“,” Sunggyu repeated with a strangled chuckle. “Why are you calling his ex that?”

“Because no human acts like that, hyung!” Woohyun turned and yelled at Sunggyu. “It was ashamed of Dongwoo. Dongwoo! The sweetest guy on the planet!” Woohyun threw his hands up in the air. Then he continued, “And I never even met The , and I’m his best friend! It hid from us like we were the plague or something. Rude!” Woohyun sneered. Sunggyu had no response; he was silent. Which probably should have been expected after a spitting tirade. The elder just sat there nodding, and so Woohyun decided to switch gears. “Hey,” he nudged Sunggyu, making the other look at him. “Did your parents ever think that you were dating Dongwoo too? Mine did. Because he’s so touchy and cute and openly ga—Hm? What did you say?”

“We…we did date,” Sunggyu stuttered out, looking away.

Well, he hadn’t expected that. Woohyun stared at Sunggyu blankly, taking it all in. They dated…hyung is…what? Woohyun was about to ask if he was joking, but Sunggyu faced him again. His face was as serious as the grave. “Really? When?” Woohyun whispered as if there were prying ears in their apartment.

Sunggyu stared at Woohyun for a few seconds before answering, “Three years ago.”

Three years? Hyung had dated Minseon for 2 ½. But three years ago, Dongwoo was dating…Lightening struck, electrifying Woohyun to his core. His heart was racing with the realization, and he felt like he might just burst. Woohyun jumped onto the couch, towering over the other, pointing at him. “OH MY GOD! IT’S THE ! OH MY GOD! I’M SORRY! NO I’M NOT! YOU BROKE DONGWOO’S HEART! YOU BIG MO—”

Sunggyu pounced, pinning his jumping roommate onto the couch. He quickly clamped his hand over Woohyun’s mouth, muffling his continuous shouting. At this rate, all of their neighbors would know Sunggyu’s little secret. “Okay, okay. That’s enough shouting,” Sunggyu declared, struggling to keep the other still. Woohyun kept kicking and bucking (and his hand). Lord knows where Sunggyu found the strength to overwhelm him. But he had a lot at stake. “God! I swear my ears are bleeding,” he joked trying to lighten the situation. And it might’ve worked. Woohyun was beginning to calm down. Sunggyu sighed. “Are you done shouting now?” Woohyun nodded with round, innocent eyes. Sunggyu slowly removed his hand.

“I CAN’T BE-“

The hand quickly sealed in the rest of the words. But Woohyun this time didn’t fight back. He just laid there, breathing heavily, staring at Sunggyu with questioning eyes. It’s time. “Are you going to be quiet now?” Sunggyu asked, already loosening his grip. Woohyun nodded. Sunggyu removed his hand and retreated to the far end of the couch, and Woohyun back away until his back hit the armrest as well.

"Are,” Woohyun swallowed. His throat felt tight all of the sudden. “Are you gay?"

Sunggyu smiled a little and replied, "Just a bit."

"What do you mean 'just a bit'?” Woohyun asked, ruffling his hair. “Does that mean that you're sort of attracted or..."

"Fine!” Sunggyu cut him off. He closed his eyes as he angrily blurted out. “I'm really gay. I'm the gayest gay you'll ever meet. The biggest one in the whole world!"

"...what does that mean?"

"Woohyun,” Sunggyu groaned. Why is he so frustrating? “It just means that I am,” he spoke calmly and quietly. His gaze then met the others. He grew nervous anticipating the answer to the next question, “Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, no,” Woohyun immediately denied, shaking his head so hard that he could have gotten whiplash. “I mean, look at Dongwoo. He's my best bud. I love him!” He saw Sunggyu tilt his head and Woohyun began to retract his statement, “Ah, but not in the same way as you. Platonically...sort of,” he ended scratching the back of his neck.

"Sort of?" Sunggyu asked with a confused pout.

"Well, there was one night, just one night,” Woohyun emphasized putting up one finger. “We...uh, kissed,” he confessed. Woohyun didn’t try to make out with Dongwoo; after Sungyeol left to call them a taxi, Woohyun actually did that night. Dongwoo had finally given in. And if Woohyun could remember correctly, he might’ve pleaded Dongwoo to break up with The , with Sunggyu, in between heady kisses. I did lead him on. However, for Woohyun, the infatuation lasted for only a night. “But that was it! That was all! Dongwoo has really big lips, and I was curious."

"Curious?" Sunggyu cocked an eyebrow.

"Yea just a bit," Woohyun spoke with a chuckle, repeating Sunggyu’s answer from before.

"Just a bit,” Sunggyu laughed a bit as well at the vague answer. He then looked back up at Woohyun pleading, “Can we please stop talking about this now and watch a movie or something?"

"Yes! Please!" Woohyun quickly agreed, jumping up from the couch and darting over to his DVD collection. After selecting the perfect movie (full of violence, car chases, explosions, and cursing), the boys popped open a few beers and watched it in silence. The only time they spoke was when Woohyun suggested that they watch the sequel, and Sunggyu added that they should order pizza. Other than that, all that could be heard was yelling and gun shots, from the movies of course.

---

 

Finally, it became a decent hour to go to bed, much to the relief of both. But before Woohyun stepped into his bedroom, he turned around and called out,  “Hyung?”

“Huh?” Sunggyu responded, stepping back out of his room.

Woohyun looked down and played with the hem of his shirt. He didn’t know how to ask the other. Hell, he didn’t even know if he could ask this. It was hard for Woohyun to  measure the closeness of their relationship because he had done more intimate things with Sunggyu than with any other friend, but at the same time, Sunggyu seemed so distant. Maybe this fake relationship wasn’t only fooling their mothers. It might be fooling Woohyun to think that he’s closer to Sunggyu than he actually was.

Screw it. Woohyun cleared his throat and asked, “Why did you do it? Why did you treat Dongwoo like that?”

This whole time, while they were watching the movies, Woohyun was hardly paying attention because he couldn’t reconcile The with Sunggyu at all. Sure Sunggyu could be a jerk, but Woohyun couldn’t believe that the other was that much of a jerk. And to Dongwoo of all people, who was as harmless and cuddly as a teddy bear.

Sunggyu let out a sigh as if he had been suspecting this. And he might have. Woohyun had also noticed that Sunggyu was throwing him worried glances during the movies. Sunggyu leaned against the doorframe, also looking down at the floor. “It’s…it’s hard to explain,” he answered.

“Try.”

Sunggyu raised his eyes, seeing the defiant look on the younger’s face. Woohyun wouldn’t ever let this go until he got his answer. Sunggyu chewed on his lips in thought.  “I was scared,” he concluded. “I didn’t think that Mom would be so…accepting. But now I think that she likes the fact that she’ll always be the most important woman in my life. Isn’t that messed up?” Sunggyu ended with a light laugh, hoping that Woohyun would laugh along and they could talk about how crazy their mothers were like they usually did. That they would talk about anything but this. But the defiant spark never left Woohyun’s eyes.

“Now that you know that it’s…okay,” Woohyun was choosing his words carefully. “Are you…” he left the question hanging.

And Sunggyu finished it for him, “Going to try again with him?” Woohyun nodded. “Well, it’s not like we’re really dating,” almost immediately Sunggyu could see the joke stinging Woohyun. The younger perked up and pouted. And for some reason, Sunggyu became agitated at that. He was angry. Woohyun had no right to be upset with him. Woohyun was seeing Minjin or whatever she called herself that day. So Woohyun shouldn’t be hurt if Sunggyu thought about seeing someone else.

But…the angry fire burning through his veins died down a bit. It wasn’t just someone else. It was Dongwoo, Woohyun’s best friend. Dongwoo whom  Sunggyu had already seriously hurt. Maybe Woohyun was just trying to protect his friend.

So would he ever date Dongwoo again? “No. He deserves better than me,” Sunggyu eventually answered. And Woohyun was nodding along in agreement until Sunggyu added, “Better than us.” Woohyun opened up his mouth to argue but Sunggyu cut him off with a loud voice, “Don’t look at me like that! You know what you did! I’m not the only here!”

And after a few moments, Woohyun finally shut his opened mouth. “True,” he reluctantly agreed. “We’re such jerks.”  He closed his eyes and banged his head on the doorframe, recalling all of the stories he had told Dongwoo about Sunggyu and the pictures on his mother’s blog. Dongwoo had to see the two men who broke his heart so happy together. I’m lucky that he’s still my friend. Woohyun stopped hitting his head on the doorframe and instead dug it into the wood as if he was trying to bury himself in it.

Sunggyu watched Woohyun agonize over this. All the regret Woohyun had was showing now. And Sunggyu didn’t like seeing him this way. But how to make it go away? How to make him smile again? Sunggyu did the only thing that he could think of. He walked over and wrapped his arms around the other.  “Don’t worry about it. It’s all in the past,” he spoke softly, patting his back lightly. But Woohyun just lied limp and still in his arms. At least he wasn’t hitting his head again. Sunggyu eventually gave up, trying to elicit a positive response from the other, and cleared his throat. “Night,” he wished the other, returning to his room.

“Night, hyung,” Woohyun hushed to the closed door.

---

 

❝I want to run to you and give you a hug❞

-Woohyun (Infinite Official Fancafe)

Woohyun woke up late the next morning. He had a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep, and staying on his bed as he tossed and turned in the night. But he still woke up before Sunggyu. It was noon when the other awoke (which was only about half an hour later than Woohyun). Woohyun was digging through the fridge looking for anything edible and not expired to eat. 

“We’re out of…well, everything,” he announced to the elder. Woohyun stood up straight and closed the fridge. “I’ll go to the store later. Just put whatever you need on the list.”

Sunggyu shook his head as he yawned, “I’ll just go with you. It’ll be easier.”

Woohyun snorted, looking at the man who was barley standing up straight. “You sure?”

“Yea, we need to be more public, remember? Act like we like each other?” Sunggyu reminded with a small smile. “Just let me get dressed, and then we can leave.”

---

 

Strangely enough, even after what had happened in the last few days, the ride over to the market was quite pleasant. Sunggyu was chattier than usual, talking about the music on the radio and the discussions that he had in class about them. And Woohyun was being less annoying than usual, actually talking seriously to the other rather than cracking his cheesey jokes.

Once they got to the store, Sunggyu excused himself for a moment to go pick up something. Woohyun grabbed a cart and waited for the other. He was playing with the apples and the scale when Sunggyu finally returned. “What are you drinking?” he asked, nodding towards the cup in Sunggyu’s hands.

“Coffee. You want some?” Sunggyu offered the other.

“No. I’m not drinking all that sugar,” Woohyun retched. “My teeth hurt just thinking about it.”

Sunggyu shrugged, “Your loss.”

“And your gain,” Woohyun retorted. “No seriously you’re going to gain a lot of weight if you keep drinking that. “ Sunggyu whipped his head towards the other and narrowed his eyes to that fox-like glare. Woohyun chuckled. “But that’s  okay because I like my pillows fluffy,” he teased, patting the elder’s belly a few times.

Sunggyu raised a fist in the air and threatened, “I'm going to…Mijoo?’

“Mijoo? What’s a Mijoo?”

Sunggyu leaned in closer and pointed to a petite girl with long, wavy black hair. She couldn’t have been much older than 20. “That’s a Mijoo,” Sunggyu whispered. He tugged on the other’s sleeve. “We better hide.”

“What? Why? She looks cute,” Woohyun said, watching the pretty girl and ignoring Sunggyu’s tugs.

“Yea, well, looks can be deceiving,” Sunggyu quickly corrected. He tugged harder and pulled Woohyun with him behind a shelf. From here, Sunggyu could still keep an eye on Mijoo, between the small gaps, without being seen. He caught Woohyun’s confused pout out of the corner of his eye. But Sunggyu didn’t dare to lose track of the girl. He kept his gaze forward as he explained, “She’s a dongsaeng of mine. I used to babysit her when she was little and…she got attached. She ended up following me everywhere and is also one of my former students.”

“Sounds like a crazy stalker,” Woohyun hushed into his ear.

“Yea pretty much,” Sunggyu whispered back. “But mostly harmless.”

“Mostly?”

Sunggyu looked over at the other and continued whispering, “Look, her parents know my mom, so chances are that she also knows about this. So we need to…”

“This is great, hyung,” Woohyun cut him off in a normal voice. Sunggyu gestured at him fruitlessly to keep his voice down. “We can finally get her off your back now by showing how in love we are.”

“Woohyun, that’s not what I…”

Woohyun didn’t pay attention to Sunggyu’s objection. Instead he grabbed Sunggyu’s hand in his and wiggled his eyebrows. “Get ready. It’s game time.” And he then pulled the both of them into enemy fire.

“SAEM!” a high pitched squeal was almost like a warning before the girl ran up and crashed into Sunggyu. She hugged him tightly. “ It’s been so long!”

“Saem? What happened to ‘oppa’?” Sunggyu said light heartedly. Woohyun frowned. He could now see why Mijoo would grow attached to him if he was so nice to her…and he was even hugging her back?

Mijoo pulled away slightly from Sunggyu. “I kinda like the way ‘saem’ sounds better. Don’t you?” she said suggestively, biting her red lips.

Grabbing the back of Mijoo’s collar, Woohyun peeled her away from Sunggyu, and then he placed his arm around Sunggyu’s shoulders. And Sunggyu, knowing that he had to cozy up to the other to make it believable, awkwardly patted Woohyun’s hand. He wasn’t too good at improvising. But fortunately, Woohyun was. He extended his hand towards Mijoo and introduced himself, “Hi! I don’t think we met. I’m…”

“Nam Woohyun, I know,” Mijoo finished for him with a look of disdain. She took Woohyun’s hand and weakly shook it.

“I’m his boyfriend,” Woohyun added proudly.

“Yep, he’s my boyfriend. And I like him. A lot,” Sunggyu spoke stiffly. There wasn’t even a hint of happiness or cheer in his voice. Mijoo raised an eyebrow watching the couple carefully. But Sunggyu had just about reached his acting limits. It was time for them to go. “Well, it was nice seeing you.” He took Woohyun’s hand in his and dragged him away from the girl (handholding acting more as a leash than a sign of affection).

But nothing held Mijoo back from following, and she jogged back up to Sunggyu’s side. “So you guys are like seriously dating?” her question was drenched with suspicion.

“He’s my boyfriend,” Sunggyu bluntly replied, not even looking at the girl but the mountain of sweet potatoes in front of him (it was sweet potato season).

“Really?” she challenged sticking her tongue in her cheek. “You guys don’t seem that close. And this wouldn’t be the first time you played a prank like this on me. Remember Dong…”

Woohyun who was tired of being ignored by this girl, tired of Sunggyu being so giving to her, and most of all he was tired of being reminded of what transgressions they had done against Dongwoo. And Sunggyu didn’t need to be reminded of it either. So before the name could spill past Mijoo’s fake red lips, Woohyun took Sunggyu’s round cheeks into his hands and planted a small peck on his lips. Woohyun pulled away and chuckled at the shocked expression from both. “I’m sorry. He just looked too cute. I just love it when he…picks out sweet potatoes,” he apologized, still laughing. He then put his arm around Sunggyu again. “Come on, honey, we have a lot more shopping to do. Bye Mijoo!” he bid farewell to the girl as he pulled Sunggyu and the cart with him down the aisle.

And now Mijoo was alone. It was just her and the sweet potatoes. She picked one up and pouted. “He does look cute picking out these,” she remarked. Then her sharp eyes darted back to the fleeing couple, who were now separated from each other by a couple of feet. Nam Woohyun, that new obstacle in her path, was wiping his mouth furiously with the back of his hand. A couple indeed, she thought as she tossed the potato into the air.

“I’m on to you, Saem.”

---

 

“You know, you could have just used your thumb like I did,” Sunggyu reminded Woohyun who looked like he was trying to get rid of a bad taste in his mouth.

“I forgot how!” Woohyun whined with a stamp of his foot. “You’re going to have to show me how to do that some day.”

Sunggyu bent down to pick up a bag of noodles from the lower shelf. He muttered under his breath, “I’d rather not.”

“Fine,” Woohyun retorted sticking out his tongue at the other’s back. He immediately smiled innocently once the elder faced him. Then something caught the corner of his eye. He nudged the other. “Look, hyung, free samples.” And he dashed off to the table.

But because Woohyun was slowed down from pushing the cart, Sunggyu got there first and was ing the free sample of cheese in the other’s face. Woohyun looked at him curiously. “Mijoo might be watching,” Sunggyu said in a low tone, his eyes were looking away perhaps searching for his stalker.

And Woohyun decided to give the girl a show. He let Sunggyu feed him and hummed loudly, “Mmmmmm. Another. Aah!” He opened up his mouth wide at his ‘boyfriend,’ but he was busy chewing on his own cheese sample. Woohyun shimmied and whined, “Hyung, another!”

“It’s polite to only take one, right?” Sunggyu smiled broadly while speaking to the cheese ahjumma. The old woman readily agreed, much to the dismay of Woohyun’s empty stomach. “Let’s keep going,” Sunggyu urged the younger patting him on the back of the head. 

But apparently, they both interpreted ‘keep going’ quite differently. For Sunggyu, it meant to keep shopping. And for Woohyun, to continue down the line of free samples. And the both of them became separated. Sunggyu thought that it might be better this way, and that he could get all the items on the list in a timely manner…that was until he reached the next item on the list.

Sunggyu stared at the 50 lb bag of rice on the ground, and then his eyes flickered over to Woohyun, who was currently flirting with the noona handing out free-samples. Even from several feet away, Sunggyu could tell that Woohyun was laying it on thick. The noona was blushing beet-red, and he was wearing that smug smile while he kept stuffing the free pieces of sausage into his mouth. Sunggyu shook his head, seeing the younger sink so low for free food. “So f***ing embarrassing,” he grumbled under his breath, bending down to pick up the bag, and after a few straining, struggling minutes, Sunggyu finally put the bag into the cart and smiled triumphantly. But a familiar clearing of a throat took that smile away.

Sunggyu gulped and turned around, coming face-to-face with a smirking Mijoo. “I knew it, Saem! I knew it! You guys aren’t together.”

“What do you mean? He’s my boyfriend,” his voice was hardly convincing.

Mijoo put her hands on her hips and raised a eyebrow at him. Then she let out a short laugh. “Please that lil peck was nothing,” she responded defiantly. Mijoo then grabbed a man almost twice her age walking past her by the collar and drug him over to her side. She got up on her toes and pecked him on his cheek. With a cheeky smile, Mijoo pushed the man away and face Sunggyu again. “See! I gave him a peck. Are we dating?”

“I hope so,” the man responded with bright, hopeful eyes.

Mijoo grimaced and crossed her arms. “You can go now. I’m done with you,” she announced dryly, shooing him away.

Sunggyu was looking at her with wide eyes and a unhinged jaw. She’s crazy. She’s insane…and she knows. Sunggyu gulped.

---

 

Woohyun was smacking his lips. The sauce on the sausages had left a bad taste in his mouth, almost bitter. He frowned. Who’d ruin decent meat like that? But the poor taste didn’t stop him from eating half of the plate. It was free after all. And the noona was cute. Minseon was cuter though.

He then caught sight of Sunggyu by the bags of rice. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards, while he wondered how long the other had waited for him (or more specifically for his muscles to lift the heavy bags). “Hey! Hyung…” Woohyun’s voice fell as he realized that Sunggyu wasn’t alone. Mijoo was there too (and with some weird-looking ahjussi). And she looked smug.

Woohyun’s mouth grew dry, and the bitterness intensified. She knows.

“Oh babe,” Sunggyu’s tongue sounded heavy, and the endearment awkward and stiff. He walked up to Woohyun and took the round cheek into his hand. “You have something right here,” he muttered, leaning in closer, eyelids dropping with his gaze…right on the corner of Woohyun’s mouth, where all of the sudden he could feel the sauce caking against his skin. But it wasn’t there for long. Sunggyu bowed his head and latched his lips onto that spot. And Woohyun suddenly felt something hot and warm and wet sweep across that patch of skin, taking the sauce with it. But then, it was cold, when Sunggyu pulled away. “Sweet,” he whispered, thumbing the spot dry. Woohyun barely registered it though. Stunned. And his eyes were carefully watching the other’s pink tongue brush against the darker lips.

“Wh—” the words were trapped in his mouth, muffled by Sunggyu’s lips. They were kissing. No…Sunggyu was kissing. Woohyun, on the other hand, was frozen in shock and numb too. His ears were buzzing. His sight was gone (probably because he had closed his eyes out of habit). All he could feel was Sunggyu lips on his…and the other’s tongue in his mouth (how the Hell did that get in there?), lapping up all of the protests and curses from Woohyun and rendering him speechless.

The kiss was…whatever it was, but also short, lasting for only a few seconds. Sunggyu pulled his head away, along with the rest of him, taking a few steps away from the other and letting Woohyun finally be able to breathe. But he was still rigid, staring only at Sunggyu’s ugly loafers.

“Oh…my…god!” At that, Woohyun finally snapped out of it and turned to see an equally stunned Mijoo. Her face was flushed. “S-saem! I’m so sorry! I-I really didn’t think th-that…O-omo!” her words were fumbling, just like her steps as she backed away. “I have to go…now.” Mijoo then spun around and scurried away as fast as her feet could take her.

“Well,” he heard Sunggyu start with a strangled laugh. “That got rid of her.”

“Yea…”

The two of them stood next to each other in complete and utter silence, shifting from one foot to another.

“Do we still need toilet paper?”

“Yea, why don’t you go get some? And I’ll get the eggs.”

“Sounds good, hyung,” Woohyun agreed scurrying off as fast as he could, not looking back. He was smacking his lips again. The taste in his mouth was more bitter now.

And that’s when he remembered that Sunggyu was drinking coffee.

---

 

Sunggyu now was over by the dairy and egg products. He bent over to pick up a carton of eggs, but stopped once his hands gripped the sides, noticing how shaky they were. He sighed and walked back to the cart, taking his thermos and unscrewing the top. The dark brown, nearly black, liquid swished in the container. He downed the rest of it in one shot. It did nothing for the tremors, shaking every part of his body, but it did mask that strange taste in his mouth. What the Hell did Woohyun eat?

---

 

With their divide-and-conquer tactic, and with Mijoo gone, the two completed grocery shopping in good time and didn’t have any more ‘incidents.’ And now, they were in the car, riding home. Sunggyu insisted on driving, muttering something about control. And Woohyun let him because as he was shopping alone, it allowed him time to think, to think about everything. And he came to some conclusions.

“Hyung, I think I’m going to propose to Minseon tomorrow.”

“What?!” Sunggyu exclaimed. And he returned his attention back to the road. The light had turned red, and he slammed on the brakes, jolting them both forward.

“Yea, things have been going well. She’s proved herself to be faithful. And I already have the ring,” Woohyun joked at the end, hoping to cut the tension, but it snapped back.

“That’s no reason to propose,” Sunggyu objected. He glance over at Woohyun. “But if it’s what you really want…” he reluctantly spoke.

“It is,” Woohyun insisted.

Sunggyu twisted his body towards the other. “You know that you have to be with her for the rest of your life. Forever!” he reminded Woohyun.

The younger rolled his eyes. “I know.”

“And you make a family together. A home.”

“I know,” Woohyun repeated.

“Can you imagine yourself raising kids with her?”

“I can!” Woohyun yelled right back. “Hyung, why can’t you just be happy for me?”

A car honked at them from behind. The light had turned green. Sunggyu focused back on the road. “I just want to make sure if that’s what you want. I don’t want you to rush into it,” he said in a warning tone, just like a mother, just like Woohyun’s own mother. And that’s when he snapped.

“I’m not! What’s your problem anyways?” he demanded. “Yeol’s wedding is coming up soon and we’re breaking up, if you can even call it that. So I’m not even jeopardizing this whole…thing. And I know that you used to date her, but…you’re gay! You don’t even like her! Not really.” Kim Sunggyu had no right to give him this attitude. Who was Sunggyu to him anyway?

Sunggyu parked the car in their garage and turned off the ignition. There was no music, no running engine, no traffic. It was just them and the silence until Sunggyu broke it. “And you like her?”

“I love her!” Woohyun answered in a split second. “I love Heo Minseon, okay? Was that what you were trying to get me to say?” He put his hand over Sunggyu’s that was still clutching the gear shift. “Can’t you just…be happy for me?”

Sunggyu took him hand away and opened the car door. “Fine. I’m happy. Happy?” he asked the other before slamming the car door.

And now it was just Woohyun, the silence, and several bags of groceries. “Ecstatic.”

---

 

❝Just 30 seconds is all I need❞

-Woohyun (121225 Christmas Radio)

There was no breakfast the next morning. And there was also no alarm clock, and so Woohyun showed up to work a half an hour late, unshowered and unkempt. But he calculated that there would be enough time for him to rush home after work and shower while Sunggyu was still teaching. Perhaps he’d even have enough time to iron out the details of the proposal. He hadn’t thought this one out like he did with the last one, but maybe simple would be best. So he would only need the ring, a fancy dinner, a box of chocolates, champagne, a dozen roses, and the back of his trunk full of heart balloons.

Before he knew it, he was sitting at the table he reserved in his best suit, waiting nervously. He was going over the speech over again in his head about love and second chances, when the phone started vibrating in his pocket. Woohyun assumed that it might be Minseon, saying she’d be delayed, but it wasn’t.

From Gyu-hyung: I’m sorry about yesterday. I really am happy for you. Seriously. I guess that I was…jealous. Maybe it’s time that hyung gets married too kekeke. Good luck tonight. Nam Woohyun fighting!

Small hands covered his eyes as he reread the last line. “Guess who?” Minseon whispered into his ear. She giggled and dropped her hands, making her way to the other side of the table. Now that he could see her, she was as beautiful as she’s ever been. Every hair, every brush of make-up was perfectly in place. She probably had here suspicions about why they were there this night. “Why are you so smiley?” she asked, but Woohyun was still silent. “Do I have something on my face?”

And Woohyun probably watched her in silence for half a minute, ever since she came in. And his mind had been racing. It echoed with Sunggyu’s voice.

 You know that you have to be with her for the rest of your life. Well, Miss Gong had said that they would have a relationship to last a lifetime. It was technically a friendship, but…And you make a family together. A home. Can you imagine yourself raising kids with her? They were both too care-free to be effective parents, but more importantly…can he even imagine making kids with her? How does he really feel about her?

He placed his hand over his heart. It didn’t speed up. He glanced up at her as she looked back at him confused. It never sped up.

---

 

Sunggyu returned home after a long day on the campus which was preceded by a long night. He was exhausted in all sense of the word. All he wanted to do was to eat dinner and fall asleep. But Woohyun wasn’t home. And no Woohyun meant no home-cooked dinner waiting for him…among other things. Sunggyu groaned as he fell onto the couch. Looks like he would be ordering in tonight.

Then the doorbell rang. Had Woohyun ordered something for him as an apology? Sunggyu excitedly rushed over to the door and opened it.

“Dongwoo?”

“Is Woohyun here?” Dongwoo asked peering around Sunggyu. Sunggyu shook his head. “Then here you go. Woohyun forgot it while we were having lunch,” he handed over Woohyun’s ID card.

“That’s weird. He normally doesn’t forget things,” Sunggyu muttered as he inspected the card.

“He seemed like he had a lot on his mind,” Dongwoo reasoned, rocking back and forth on his heels. “Well, it was nice seeing you again, Sunggyu-ssi. I’ll see you—huh?” Dongwoo look down and Suggyu had grabbed his wrist, preventing the other from leaving.

“Sunggyu-ssi?” the elder repeated with a sad smile. “When did we become strangers?” Dongwoo shrugged, but Sunggyu still didn’t let go. He pulled the younger inside. “We need to talk.”

“About Woohyun and Way? I agree!” Dongwoo began to ramble after freeing himself from Sunggyu. He sat down in the armchair and continued. “Now how do we make him see that they’re—“

“No, I meant you and me,” Sunggyu cut him off. “We need to talk about us.”

“What about?”

“I…I don’t like the way we ended things,” Sunggyu stammered as he fell back into the couch.

“I know,” Dongwoo said with a heavy sigh. He was picking at the hole in his jeans. “I understand why things ended that way.”

“You understand too much. You’re too good of a person,” Sunggyu praised the other, bending down to catch his eyes.

Dongwoo lifted his head and smiled brightly. “I know!”

“Aigoo. Cocky kid,” Sunggyu teased, lightly hitting the other like he used to. Even the air between them seemed to have settled. It drudged up old memories of the two of them together. He watched Dongwoo laugh loudly as if he had been tickled instead of hit. If she could be given a second chance why can’t I? “Do…do you think that we could…try again?”

The laughter dissipated, taking the smile with it. A serious Dongwoo was scary, and it had Sunggyu slightly on edged. “So now that there’s no risk, you want to date,” Dongwoo spoke with venom.

“I never thought you were the risk-it-all-for-love type,” Sunggyu joked.

“I’m not,” Dongwoo insisted. “But, hyung, it hurts that you ask me now, when it’s convenient for you. It’s like I wasn’t worth the trouble before.”

Sunggyu inched over closer to Dongwoo, resting his hand on the other’s knee. “Dongwoo…”

“But then again, love should be easy, right?” Dongwoo cut him off. His eyes were fixed on the hand on his knee.  He placed his own hand over it and looked up. “Just like breathing. But it was never like that for us. It was more like panting, wasn’t it?” he asked with a smile small.

And even though he was just rejected, the smile eased his heart. “I’m sorry. I should have been better,” Sunggyu apologized.

“Don’t be,” Dongwoo rejected it. “We weren’t right for each other. Besides,” he smiled cheekily. “I’m already seeing someone else.”

“Yah!” Sunggyu yelled at the other and began to hit him. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place? Instead you made me feel so guilty!” He then returned his hands to his side and fell back into the couch. “I guess I deserved it,” he mumble.

“You did,” Dongwoo emphatically agreed. And Sunggyu perked up, eyes narrowed to points. Dongwoo got up from his seat, still laughing.  “I’m gonna go now before you kill me. But I’ll see you at the wedding. You can meet my new boyfriend then.”

“Terrific,” Sunggyu’s voice was dripping with pure sarcasm.

“You’re going with Woohyun, right? That should be fun,” Dongwoo said excitedly.

Fun? Sure, if you call staging a break-up with your fake boyfriend who’s engaged to a girl fun, then Sungyeol’s wedding was practically an amusement park. But Sunggyu decided to rein in the sarcasm and continue being truthful with Dongwoo, “We decided that it’ll be our last function together. We’re going to break up after, over some differences about marriage, or something like that.”

“That’s a shame,” Dongwoo lamented with that extreme pout of his. “You guys seemed good together.”

“Woo,” Sunggyu began with a roll of his eyes (maybe he couldn’t keep in all of the sarcasm) “it was a fake relationship.”

“Right,” Dongwoo spoke, but then the phone in his pocket rang. And judging by his overjoyed expression, it was the new boyfriend. “Oh, I got to take this. Excuse me. Bye, hyung. See you tomorrow!” And he left, leaving Sunggyu feeling more alone than before he had come.

---

 

“Are you okay?”

“Minseon, I…I don’t feel anything,” Woohyun stuttered, rubbing his chest.

“Hm? Are you okay? Are you numb?” Minseon asked with genuine worry. “Oppa, this better not be one of your stupid jokes.”

“No, I don’t feel anything here,” Woohyun replied, pointing at his heart. “I…don’t…love you. Or at least not like I thought I did.”

Minseon’s face fell. “A-are we breaking up?” Woohyun nodded.  “But things were going so well,” she fought. “Oppa, I swear that I didn’t see anybody else!”

“No, no. It’s not that. I believe you,” Woohyun insisted, taking her hand in his. “It’s that,” he paused, grappling for the right words. “They were all right. We make good friends, but that’s it. No offense, but I don’t think I’m attracted to you.” As it would turn out, there was no right way you could say that. It would’ve hurt in any way. The truth is like that.

“I,” Minseon stammered. She herself was having a hard time grasping the situation. However, much to Woohyun’s surprise, a small smile graced her face. “I think I know what you mean. To be honest, I don’t get the dugeun dugeun feeling when I’m with you either,” she confessed.

Woohyun was dumbfounded by the response. A slap to his face would have been more appropriate. But…maybe Miss Gong really is psychic? “Is it strange?” he thought outloud.

“Maybe it’s strange that we keep trying to force it,” Minseon answered. “Attraction isn’t something you can fake.”

Heh, fake. Woohyun had to agree, “I guess not.”

“Whoa,” Minseon said with a low whistle as she leaned back into her seat. “So this is it?”

“I guess so,” Woohyun replied with a shrug. But there was just one more thing Woohyun wanted from her. “Can I ask you something?” She nodded. “There’s one thing that always bothered me. Why did you never tell me your real name?”

Minseon blushed and attempted to cover her hands with it. “I read somewhere that names hold power,” she spoke quietly, afraid that others would overhear. But as she moved further along with her explanation, the louder she became, “And I think it’s true. The moment you tell someone your name, you move from strangers to acquaintances. When you get nicknames, from acquaintances to friends. Pet names, from friends to lovers. And you respond immediately after you hear it, whether you can recognize the voice or not. So after reading that, I decided that I’ll only tell my real name to people that I consider to be family, people I trust.”

“You,” Woohyun broke into a chuckle. “You’re weird.”

“I know. But at least I never tried to follow a manual that I wrote when I was 10,” she retorted sticking her tongue out at the other. “Dongwoo-oppa told me.”

“I guess we’re both weird then,” Woohyun joked, causing the both of them to laugh. It wasn’t happy laughter, and they weren’t laughing because it was funny. But they resigned, at a loss for what else to do. Things had run their course. “Do you think that we can still be friends?” Woohyun asked.

Minseon smirked. “Don’t you remember the fortune teller?” she reminded him. “We’re going to be friends for life.”

“Okay. Well, I guess that I should go,” Woohyun announced. He couldn’t stay there any longer. It didn’t feel right. “You’re good, right?” he asked Minseon before he got up from the table. She nodded and gestured for him to leave. Woohyun flashed her a smile. “Okay. I’ll see you around.”

“Bye,” she bid him. And as Woohyun turned around, she apparently had a change of heart. “Wait! Oppa! Wait!” she called out. Woohyun stopped and saw her chase after him as fast as she could in her heels. Minseon got close to him and whispered into his ear, “It’s Choa. Heo Choa.”

As she pulled away, she could see Woohyun grinning from ear to ear. “Well, Choa,” he said the name for the first time. “Goodbye!”

“Bye oppa!”

---

 

Alone. All alone. Sunggyu groaned loudly and rolled from his belly onto his back. He shouldn’t have eaten that whole pizza. But he couldn’t control himself. He had been losing his grip on that lately, and now he was paying the price. He also probably shouldn’t have made that large bowl of popcorn that he was currently pecking from. He couldn’t help it. He was just going to keep eating until he felt full, until he felt something.

He heard his door unlock. His eyes quickly darted over to the clock. It was too early for Woohyun to be home yet, but sure enough there he was bursting through the doors. “Gyu! Gyu-hyung!” Woohyun called out as he searched for the other.

“I’m right in front of you,” Sunggyu answered rather amused. He sat up on the couch so that Woohyun could see him.

“Guess what!” Woohyun commanded excited.

“She said yes,” Sunggyu mumbled, popping another kernel into his mouth.

“No!”

Sunggyu finally put down the bowl. “She said no?”

“No, I said no!”

“Did she ask you?”

“No.”

“Alright, I’m confused,” Sunggyu confessed, rubbing his temples. He looked up to see Woohyun bouncing up and down in his spot. “How about you calm the f**k down and tell me.” Woohyun shook his head.  Sunggyu narrowed his eyes. “Sit, Woohyun, sit,” he commanded the other jokingly and surprisingly, Woohyun finally obeyed, plopping down right onto the floor. “Good boy,” the elder cooed.

“Do I get a treat?” Woohyun pleaded. Sunggyu threw him a piece of popcorn. Woohyun caught it in his mouth. “One more.” Sunggyu threw another and he caught it again. “One more.”

“No,” Sunggyu denied, gripping tightly onto the bowl. “Not until you tell me.” At that, Woohyun crawled over and onto the couch, sitting next to the other. He wrested the bowl from Sunggyu’s hands. “Hey! You—” Sunggyu yelled reaching for the bowl.

“We broke up,” Woohyun finally confessed and Sunggyu let him keep the bowl.

“Why?” he asked, watched the other stuff his mouth with the kernels.

“Because,” Woohyun paused to swallow. “I realized that I’m not attracted to her.”

Sunggyu was taken aback. “You’re not?”

“No, I think I was attracted more to the idea,” Woohyun revealed as he played with the popcorn, picking it up and tossing it back into the bowl. “You know, settling down, getting married, having kids.”

Sunggyu laughed. “It sounds like your biological clock is ticking,” he teased.

“No,” Woohyun argued, turning his gaze towards Sunggyu. He was serious. “My heart is.” He sighed and turned his attention back to the bowl in his lap. “I really don’t like being alone, hyung. I don’t know how much longer I can handle it.”

Sunggyu scooted closer and nudged him. “You’re not alone now.”

Finally there was some semblance of a grin. “Eung, I have you,” Woohyun responded as he leaned against the other, resting his head on Sunggyu’s shoulder. And Sunggyu rested his head on the other’s. They both sat like that for awhile. Sunggyu could feel Woohyun’s head moving with every bit of popcorn that he chewed on.  The silky hair tickling his cheek. “Hyung.” Sunggyu lifted his head and saw the glassy eyed stare of the younger. He could feel himself slipping again. He bent his head down gradually, and a little bit more, just a little bit until…

Woohyun cleared his throat. A kernel had gotten caught in there. “Can you get me a drink?” he asked in a raspy voice. “This popcorn is salty.”

❝I rarely say the words ‘I miss you’, ‘I like you’, or ‘I love you’. But I do tend to say ‘I love you’ when she’s about to go to bed. And I’ll say ‘I miss you’ when I truly miss her. I’m not shy about expressing my feelings when it comes to loving someone.❞

-Sunggyu (08.2011 Inkigayo Magazine Interview)