Late One Night

            Ryeowook thought college would be a fresh start.  After being bullied all through high school for being overweight and having a high pitched voice, he made sure to get in shape, to eat healthy, and to pick a college far from home, in Seoul.  He was thin now—all the women were jealous of his slim figure and his fantastic cooking skills—and he’d joined the choir, where his voice was praised by his fellow classmates.  Shouldn’t he be happy?  The clicks from high school were a thing of the past, but the stress of being far from everyone he loved and everything he knew had settled in.  No one bothered him, but he was not very close with anyone either. 

            He was careful, for his first year, not to expose his ual orientation to others, but he soon realized that there was a sense of maturity on campus and several others were somewhat open about their preferences.  In the beginning of his sophomore year, he began to date one of the guys from his biology class—a theater major—and felt that things were finally moving in the right direction.  He had someone to connect with, someone to share his thoughts and feelings with, someone to spend time with.  Ryeowook thought things were going well until the day his history class was cancelled and he went over to his boyfriend’s dorm only to find him sleeping with someone else on the side. 

            This was the reality.  He really was alone.  Yes, life was more accepting of the type of person he was, but now the world was so much harsher in its truths.  People do not love you unconditionally, but they turn a blind eye to what they don’t want to see most of the time.  Boyfriends are not faithful, but swear their feelings are still genuine.  is just physical, love is emotional, the two need not mix.  Life is not fair.  Most of the time you work or you’re in pain and you wonder why you bother sticking it out for the rare, fleeting, happy moments.  That’s what Ryeowook thought as he downed another rum and coke at the bar, holding in his tears.

            Kyuhyun knew the sophomore student sitting at the bar, slowly sipping drink number…he’d lost count at this point.  It was at least three.  Maybe more.  Certainly more than a little man like him should be drinking.  Kyuhyun was sitting at a long table with several other members of the gamer club.  Not the most popular group to be associated with on campus, that was certain, but it certainly paid off when you wanted to play against someone at midnight instead of work on your homework.  Or if you needed cheat codes.  Or if you wanted to borrow a game.  There were several advantages.  Kyuhyun was also in choir and he recognized Ryeowook from the music department.  Ryeowook had a beautiful voice.  He was also part of the musical composition track.  Unlike most people wasting their time hanging out in the music department, getting degrees that weren’t going to get them anywhere once they were done, Kyuhyun felt certain that Ryeowook was going to make a living out of singing or writing music.  So…why was he sitting alone in a bar looking like the world just him out of a toilet?

            When he noticed his upperclassman get up and pay for his drinks, Kyuhyun dug money out of his pocket and handed it to Changmin.  “Will you pay my part of the tab for me?  I just remembered I have a bit of homework due that I forgot about,” Kyuhyun informed him.

            “Are you drunk?  It’s Friday night,” Changmin reminded him.  “You don’t have any classes until Monday morning.”

            “Just humor me,” Kyuhyun said, grabbing his hoodie and running out the door after Ryeowook.

            The road back to the dorms curved back and forth.  Actually, it didn’t, but Ryeowook was so drunk that he staggered down the street, so it seemed like the road wasn’t straight.  It was a rather chilly night, with the late October wind blowing off what remained of the red and orange leaves and throwing them to the ground.  One hit Ryeowook in the face and he bat it away and sputtered, shocked at having such a strange obstacle tossed his way.  And then he nearly tripped on a stick as he walked along the sidewalk because the leaf had distracted him and he stumbled a bit. 

            “God damn leaves and sticks and…and darkness!” Ryeowook cursed.

            Of course, the full moon was out, so it really wasn’t all that dark out.  Had he been paying more attention to the sidewalk, he could have clearly seen the stick in his path, but we can’t hold him to logical reasoning on such a night.  He’d recently broken up with his boyfriend because the was cheating and now he was drunk besides.  Clearly we have to give him a break at some point. 

            “Sunbae,” called a familiar voice from behind him.

            Ryeowook stopped and turned around.  Indeed, it would have been impossible to keep walking and turn his head.  That would have thrown off his equilibrium too much and he would have spun around and landed on the ground.  Even he, in his drunken state, could sense this and knew better than to attempt it.  So he stood there and squinted as a fellow student from the university jogged towards him and stopped beside him.

            “Sunbae, are you headed back to campus now?”

            “Ah, Kyuhyun-shii, I can recognize you now that you’re closer,” he said, patting Kyuhyun’s arm.  “Yes, I’m headed back.”

            “I’ll walk with you then,” Kyuhyun said.  “I’m on my way back as well.  I also noticed that you’re…not walking completely straight.”

            Ryeowook looked down at his legs.

            “Perhaps you twisted your foot?”

            “No, I’m just drunk,” Ryeowook admitted.

            Kyuhyun grinned at his upperclassman’s honesty.  “I see.”

            “The last couple weeks haven’t been going the greatest for me,” he claimed, beginning to walk again.  Within two steps, he walked into Kyuhyun, who redirected him.

            “Oops,” Kyuhyun said, latching onto Ryeowook’s arm and turning him in the right direction.  “You’re losing your way in the dark.  The campus is this direction.”

            “No, I’m just drunk.”

            Kyuhyun kept ahold of Ryeowook’s arm as they continued down the path.  “Well, we have a few minutes until we reach the dorms.  Perhaps you’d like to tell me what’s happened?  Are you having trouble with school?” Kyuhyun asked.

            “Where the hell do I start?” wondered Ryeowook.

            “I should think the beginning is a good place,” Kyuhyun suggested.

            “Sometimes it’s more interesting to tell stories backwards,” Ryeowook countered.

            “Suit yourself,” Kyuhyun said, shrugging.

            “Although I don’t see why I should tell you anything, since I don’t know you very well,” Ryeowook pointed out.

            “Sometimes strangers are the best people to tell.  They can be completely objective about what you’re telling them.  But also, you might also tell me because I’m the only one bothering to listen to you right now.”

            “That’s a good point,” Ryeowook said, nodding.

            “I thought so,” Kyuhyun muttered.  “Now from the beginning…or the end, whichever you decided on.”

            “My bastard ex-boyfriend apparently decided to buy online with my credit card.  I mean, I cancelled it and it’s going to be reimbursed, but that’s a big pain and I have to wait for a new card.  And the reason he’s an ex is his own fault anyway because I caught him cheating with me with one of his fellow cast members for this upcoming performance of All’s Well That Ends Well.  This coming after my lonely freshmen year away from home, not knowing anyone.  I was just starting to feel as if I was part of the campus community and—”

            “Well there’s one of your first problems right there, sunbae.”

            “Quit that and just call me Ryeowook.”

            “Really?” Kyuhyun asked.

            “Yes.  What’s my problem?”

            “Well, Ryeowook-shii, you shouldn’t be counting on a boyfriend to be your connection to campus.  But I think you’re silly to claim that in the first place, since I’ve heard of you from the very beginning of my time here.  You are well known and well liked, if not by the entire campus, then at least by those of us in the music department,” Kyuhyun informed him.  “The professors all adore you, the upperclassmen are clearly impressed—perhaps even a little jealous—of your work, and the rest of us are in awe of you.  You do not need to be someone’s boyfriend to be someone on campus.  You always were.”

            Ryeowook smiled to himself and pat Kyuhyun’s arm.  “I don’t know you very well, aside from listening to that golden voice of yours nearly every day, but I like you already.  I thought you were just a gaming nerd.”

            “I am a gaming nerd,” Kyuhyun informed him.

            “But you’re such a smooth talker as well.  And you know, you’re a little too y to be a full-fledged nerd,” Ryeowook pointed out.

            Kyuhyun began to blush.  “I’ve got singing to counteract gamer nerd vibes,” he said, nervously laughing.

            “That must be it.  You’ve got the college boy look down to an art,” Ryeowook said, pointing out the preppy attire he was wearing.  “It looks good on you.”

            “Are you telling me I’m your type or something?” Kyuhyun asked, glancing over at Ryeowook.

            “What if I said you were?  Would you start running the opposite direction and never speak to me again?” Ryeowook asked, laughing to himself humorlessly.

            “What makes you think I’m disinterested in you?” Kyuhyun asked.

            “Because you didn’t start off by seducing me in the first place,” Ryeowook said.

            “I just noticed you drinking heavily at the bar and thought I ought to you back because I was worried about you, but I’m flexible,” Kyuhyun said.  “I came out here worried that you were going to fall over somewhere and freeze to death.  I’ll be more than happy to fall into bed with you and keep you warm as well.  But I should probably warn you that it isn’t because I’m into casual hookups late at night after drinking at the bar.  I’ve actually wanted you for a while, I just knew that you weren’t single.  I confess, I didn’t know that had changed or I probably wouldn’t have waited this long to speak to you.”

            Ryeowook stopped walking.  They were on campus at this point and nearly to his dorm, but they were still walking down the sidewalk to get there late at night.  The campus was mostly deserted since the night was so cold.  Only the lights in the window they passed proved that people still hung around somewhere behind the cool planes of glass and brick buildings.  Still, no one was peering out behind blinds at them.  No one was listening in.

            “You’re really going about this all wrong.  I’m drunk, I’m miserable because I just broke up with someone…it really can’t be that hard to seduce me.  So quit talking about it and just do it already,” Ryeowook told him.

            Kyuhyun smirked.  Then he grabbed onto Ryeowook’s shoulders and pulled him into his chest.  He bent his head down and his kissed Ryeowook, making sure that neither of them had another chance to speak.  Then he picked him up and carried Ryeowook the rest of the block to his dorm.  Ryeowook scanned his security device in front of the scanner and then grabbed blindly for the door, pulling it open.  They made their way over to the elevator and the door immediately slid open.  Then they stepped inside, stepping on each other’s feet to get in, and Ryeowook peeked just enough to read the numbers on the panel and hit the right one.  Then he pushed Kyuhyun into the wall and kissed him back in earnest—the way you kiss when no one is looking with tongues gliding against each other, hands touching private areas, and loud —and then the doors opened again and they began to roam down the hall to Ryeowook’s dorm room. 

            “My roommate…Sungmin…is home…for the weekend,” Ryeowook said, between kisses, as he dug his keys out of his pocket. 

            They stopped at the door and Kyuhyun began to kiss his neck.  “No interruptions.”

            “None,” Ryeowook said, only slightly shaking his head.  He did not want to dislodge Kyuhyun’s lips from his skin.  In the darkness of the hall, it was hard enough to see the keyhole, but being drunk as well made it impossible to get the damn key in the slot and eventually Kyuhyun began to laugh as he looked down at Ryeowook’s unsteady hand.  Kyuhyun clasped his hand over Ryeowook’s, slipped the key into the hole, and turned.  The door easily opened into the dark of the room and Ryeowook practically shoved Kyuhyun inside. 

            “Little eager?” Kyuhyun teased, taking off his hoodie and tossing it to the floor.

            “I want you to erase him from my memory completely.  I don’t want the last person whose hands were one me to be him,” Ryeowook informed Kyuhyun.  “Can you do that?”

            Kyuhyun nodded.  “After tonight, you won’t remember a thing about him,” he said, grasping Ryeowook and pulling him closer.  “And you’ll never want to again.”

            Ryeowook woke to the sun hitting his face.  He covered his eyes with his hand and blinked repeatedly before he could glance out the window and spotted flakes of snow falling to the ground, reflecting the bright rays of the sun like glitter.  It was a light, dusty snow—not likely to accumulate much—but it was pretty as it fell.  Clearly, it must be cold out, but Ryeowook felt toasty warm and looked around.  That’s when his memories of the night before came flooding back to him.

            He was wearing thermal pajamas and was lying next to a half- freshman from the choir.  A damn y half- freshman, at that.  He’d followed him home…or helped him home…something along those lines and it hardly mattered anymore because clearly one thing had led to another and here they were.  Much better acquainted.  Thankfully, it was Saturday morning and he didn’t even have to rush out of bed.  Truthfully, nothing would have gotten him out of bed, but it was nice to think he would have gone to his morning classes if it was a school day.  He liked to believe himself to be strong willed. 

            So Ryeowook snuggled closer to the freshman who was lightly snoring on his back and pressed his cheek against his chest, listening to Kyuhyun's slow heartbeats as he slept and Ryeowook eventually drifted back to sleep.  An hour, maybe two later, Ryeowook woke to the feel of Kyuhyun moving beside him and tentatively opened his eyes. 

            “Morning,” he said, rolling off of Kyuhyun.

            Kyuhyun looked over, as if suddenly realizing Ryeowook was awake, and smiled broadly.  “Good morning, sunbae.”

            “No, no…you know me too well to call me that now, Kyuhyun-ah.”

            “I was just checking that it wasn’t something you’d blurted while you were drunk that you didn’t mean.”

            “But you weren’t worried that I’d freak out about sleeping with you?” he questioned, giving him a questioning look.

            “No, you seemed to enjoy it.”

            Ryeowook closed his eyes and shook his head.

            “Am I wrong?” Kyuhyun questioned.

            “No.”

            “Therefore I wasn’t overly worried about any regrets.  Besides, you were a little tipsy, but you never seemed so drunk that you didn’t know what you were doing,” he pointed out.

            Ryeowook nodded.

            “So no regrets this morning?”

            “No.  And you stayed the whole night, I see,” Ryeowook said.

            “Didn’t you want me to?” Kyuhyun asked.

            “I did, but that’s sometimes too much to ask from a one night stand.”

            “You were under the influence, so perhaps you don’t remember this, but I did warn you last night that this wasn’t going to be a one night stand.  I’m actually interested in you,” he pointed out.

            “What if you discover you don’t like me sober?” Ryeowook asked.

            Kyuhyun smirked and his side to face him.  “I liked you before last night, which is the first time I’ve ever seen you drink.  I think drinking has little to do with anything except for making you more likely to invite guys that say they think you’re cute up to your room.  So, from now on, no more drinking alone.”

            “You didn’t say I was cute.”

            “Fine, but I said that I wanted you, which is about the same thing,” he said, scooting closer and kissing Ryeowook briefly on the lips.  “You’re cute, you’ve got this spunky personality that I’m attracted to, your voice is amazing, and every time you bend your over the piano to play something in front of the class, I get hard.  I’ve wanted you since the first day of class.  Ask my buddy, Changmin.  Or Hyukjae.”

            “From the dance studios?”

            “You know him?” Kyuhyun asked.

            “Yeah.  He’s dating my friend Donghae,” Ryeowook said.

            “Then we’ll all have to go out together sometime.  Right, Ryeowook-ah?”

            “If you want, you can call me Wookie like everyone else does,” he offered.

            “Why should I call you what everyone else does?  Shouldn’t I get special naming rights?”

            Ryeowook nervously laughed.  “Such as?”

            “Like Ryeo…or…Ryeong.  I like that better.  Ryeong.  Or even, Ryeonggu,” Kyuhyun informed him, wrapping his arms around his lover and pulling him against his chest.  “Will you feel embarrassed if I call you that?”

            “Of course not,” Ryeowook insisted.  “If you have a special name for me, it will only make me feel more unique.  But that means I should come up with something to call you as well.”

            “Call me whatever you like, as long as you call me yours.”

***It is 8 am and I stayed awake writing this just for you...all I ask is for some love...I mean, comments (send your love in comments, my friends).  Thanks.***