Leeteuk was leaning against the wall next to restrooms while playing with the movie tickets he was going to watch with his friend-turned-lover. He didn’t see it coming, because his gaze was fixed to his hands when suddenly he felt a blunt and heavy thing hit his upper right arm hard enough to make him swayed and almost fell to his side.

Almost fell, because as soon as he tried to figure the thing that had hit him, a hard slap was placed on his left cheek making him swayed to the opposite direction.

“You !” a woman’s voice made an appearance then he could see his attacker in front of him. A petite woman was holding her bag with her left hand while her right hand moved fast to give him another slap. That stung more than the first slap and he could feel something warm and tasted awfully bad seeped through the corner of his lips. In the midst of his shock, he could recalled seeing that beautiful face somewhere but couldn’t really tell who the woman was. He soon came back to his senses and grabbed the woman’s wrist that was about to give him more slaps.

“Stop it, Miss. Why did you hit me?” he managed to say and took a quick glance to his surrounding and saw some people stopped on their tracks to give weird looks while whispering.

“Let me go, !” she swung her bag to his head and the impact was enough to make Leeteuk loosened his grip to quickly cover his now bleeding cheek from the bag’s attack.

“Ya, Sora, what are you doing?! Stop it!” a familiar heavy voice rang on his ears then the attack finally stopped.

As he slowly opened his eyes and took the sight in front of him, his heart started beating faster. When the view of a very familiar well-built man holding his attacker in a back hug and a rush of bittersweet memories passed through him, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped slightly as a whisper slipped from his mouth, ”Kangin…”

“Let me go, Kangin! I have to teach this a lesson so that he won’t try flirting and stealing—“ her rant was cut off as Kangin pressed his hand over and started dragging her away from Leeteuk.

“Sorry, Soo-hyung. You didn’t change your number, did you? I’ll call you later.” He flashed his trademark smile then just like that, they walked away leaving the slightly trembling man alone to be the sole object of people’s staring and whispering.

The door to gents’ restroom opened and a slender figure walked out of it towards Leeteuk’s still frame.

“Teukie-ah, what happened?” the dazzlingly handsome man cupped Leeteuk’s face and looked straight into his teary eyes.

“Ah, Heechul…” he snapped out from his trance and looked slightly dazed. “I’m okay. Oh, I dropped our movie tickets.” He bent down to retrieve the tickets he unconsciously dropped during the previous attack session. “It’s almost the time, let’s—“

“No, no, Teukie, look at me. Hey baby, what’s wrong? You’re bleeding.” Leeteuk started turning away but Heechul hurriedly grabbed his arm and pulled him into the restroom and stopped in front of one of the sinks. He silently cleaned the older’s face from blood and few stray tears while wondering why he was feeling a terrible ache on his chest and felt like crying too.

“Thanks, Chullie. Now I’m fine, really.” A faint dimpled smile accompanied his gaze which bore right through Heechul’s eyes into his heart. There, the younger saw a clear pain just like when they first met. “Come on Chullie, we’re almost late for the movie.”

Heechul was about to complain but when his lover entangled their fingers and squeezed his hand lightly, he knew that he just didn’t want to talk about it yet.

When they were seated next to each other in the dark cinema room, Leeteuk promptly leaned his head to Heechul’s shoulder and soon the latter felt warm liquid seeping through his shirt, wetting his cold skin. And all he could do was only to hold the hand on his own, wordlessly trying to convince that everything’s going to be okay. The movie was not that sad but he found himself, the great Kim Heechul, weeping silently.

***

The dinner after their date was relatively silent except for few comments on the movie they had just watched. When they were sitting on a couch in the living room, however, Heechul decided to voice out his troubled thought.

“Teukie, do you want to tell me about what happened this afternoon when I was in the washroom?” he watched silently as the smaller man shifted to face him and sighed heavily.

“Do you remember when I told you I’ve met a wrong person before I met you?”

Heechul recalled the first time he confessed to Leeteuk, the latter rejected him by saying that he wasn’t ready yet for a new love because he hadn’t fully recovered from the pain his previous ex had caused. As cliché as that seemed, he knew the older didn’t lie, judging from how he ended up sobbing while apologizing to the younger. But being Kim Heechul, he didn’t give up easily and kept staying by his side until one day Leeteuk said he liked him and would like to start a relationship. That had been one of his most memorable days.

“I do. So what does it have to do with your wounds?” he traced his fore finger to the still fresh scratches on Leeteuk’s right cheek.

“Kangin—that’s his name by the way—his wife attacked me.” So he recounted the incident to Heechul and when he finished, he was already in the latter’s warm hug. “I loved him, Heechul. At first I didn’t know he’s married and when I did, he told me he was going to get divorced because he didn’t love her anymore. But then he never came back to me. He left me in a deep pain, Chullie-ah—“

Heechul held his sobbing boyfriend while fighting his own tears. His heart hurt, but he wasn’t sure if it’s due to seeing his love crying his heart out or because of jealousy. He wanted to calm Leeteuk down but no words would come out so he settled with rubbing his back. They stayed like that for a while until Leeteuk pulled away and grabbed both of Heechul’s hands instead and kissed them.

“I’m sorry…” he felt the hands he was holding were being pulled away as the owner tensed noticeably but he didn’t loosen his grip. “I won’t promise you forever because I know such thing doesn’t exist. But for now, I know I’m in love with you, Kim Heechul.”

The said man blushed and tears were gathered in the corners of his large eyes. This was the first time he heard the man in front of him said he loved him. “Really..? Say that again,” he demanded.

“Hey why are you questioning my feeling? I do love you, Chullie-ah. Don’t you know that already?” an amused smile was formed on his angelic face as he teased the taller man who readily shook his head.

“You never told me that before. I thought you just like me. Now that you said you love me, I’m going to do my best to make you stay in love with me as long as I live.” His earnest statement earned a chuckle from Leeteuk.

“Just make sure you won’t walk out of my love, baby.”

“That will be the day when I stop being a Kim Heechul. I love you, Park Jungsoo.”

Both of them grinned widely then Leeteuk leaned closer to Heechul’s face. “I love you too,” he said before their lips merged in an open-mouthed kiss.

-The End-

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________