“This is the best day of my life!” Changmin shrieked, rolling back and forth across his bed, clutching his stomach, laughing almost maniacally.

Minho, who was only slightly more put together, asked Kyuhyun with a wince, “He showed up at your work?”

“My god! Yes!” Kyuhyun wailed, fingers digging into his hair, pulling at the strands hard. “He found out where I work and he was there, waiting for me five minutes after my shift started!”

“Best. Day. Ever!”

“Shut up!” Kyuhyun snapped at him, giving Changmin a vicious kick that sent him toppling to the ground. “You’re supposed to be helping!”

“How’d he know where you work?” Minho asked.

Kyuhyun ignored the way Changmin continued to gasp for air. “I swear to god, Minho, I had no idea at first. Then he said he heard me talking on the phone with Changmin about going to work, and the bus route I was going to take, and apparently he wanted to talk to me so badly that he stalked every café on the route until he found the right one.”

Minho made a face. “That’s creepy.”

“Tell me about it.”

Changmin tried to pull himself up using the bed. “I can just imagine the look on your face when you saw him. Seriously, Kyuhyun. This is the best day of my life. It totally makes up for having to dress in drag and nearly getting trampled to death by fangirls.”

Kyuhyun rubbed his fingers across his forehead, fighting back the headache that was building.

“I dropped a paycheck’s worth of dishes, okay?” Kyuhyun told them, doing his best not to relive the moment when he’d heard that there was a tall, handsome man asking for a Cho Kyungji at his place of employment. He’d been so startled he’d dropped everything he was carrying, earning him the wrath of his boss, almost a full paycheck to the damages, and it was still the worst moment of his life thus far.

Though after agreeing to a date with Siwon, there was always room for it to be replaced.

“How’d you fool him again?” Jonghyun spoke up for the first time. He was seated far across the room, surfing the web on Kyuhyun’s laptop, sounding less worked up than Minho, who was really only giving him disapproving looks now.

“Thank god for ugly uniforms,” Kyuhyun said. “Baggy, ugly, gender neutral uniforms. And for the first time in my life, my laziness was a godsend. I still had the wing in my locker, from when I changed into my work uniform that day of the signing. I hadn’t taken it out yet.”

“Ah,” Jonghyun said, “here are the most recent pictures with a completely different angle. I have to say, Kyuhyun, I understand why he’s so infatuated with you. You do make a very pretty girl.”

Kyuhyun slammed the lid to the laptop down and demanded, “Can you possibly try and help me here! I’m in deep !”

Changmin was rolling across the floor by then, laughing another round of hysterical chuckles.

“You know,” Minho said, flipping onto his stomach on the bed, “You didn’t actually have to agree to a date with him. No one forced you.”

“I …”

Changmin stopped. He grew silent, his eyes widened and he sat up. “Oh my god.”

“Shut up.” Kyuhyun raised a finger to him. “If you even think about--”

“Kyuhyun has a hardon for Siwon!”

Minho’s head cocked.

Jonghyun sighed out, “I don’t know why I’m friends with any of you.”

“I …” Kyuhyun tried again, but had to stop. He couldn’t very well admit to any of them that part of him, the dominate part, had agreed to one last farewell dinner with Siwon, because of his crush. Because he’d been unable to part completely with Siwon, no matter if it was the smart thing to do or not, and because he was weak willed when it came to that handsome face.

Siwon had looked so damn earnest.

And then he’d asked Kyuhyun to trust him. He’d asked Kyuhyun to let him prove that he was trustworthy.

No.

He’d asked Kyungji.

“I didn’t know if he’d leave me alone if I didn’t!” Kyuhyun ended up shouting .”And he promised, he gave me his word, that if I had dinner with him, he’d leave me alone. I had to!”

“Yes,” Jonghyun snorted, “he was twisting your arm to get you to agree.”

“Psst! Minho,” Changmin said all too loudly for it to be a real whisper. “One time I saw a file on Kyuhyun’s computer marked math, but I bet he had Super Junior fan fiction there. About himself and Siwon.”

“Changmin!”

He’d only written fan fiction once. Just once! He did not have a file of it.

Jonghyun spun in his chair and asked Kyuhyun calmly, “How do you expect this to turn out well? A celebrity, a member Super Junior, the biggest idol group right now, asked who he thought was a girl, out on a date. How does this not end badly for all parties involved?”

Slowly Kyuhyun sunk to the floor. “I’m going to go to the dinner. And I’ll be nice and on my best behavior, and then at the end of the night I’ll tell him I don’t want anything to do with him and to leave me alone. He will, we’ll never see each other again, and I’ll never again be forced to cross dress.”

“I never made you cross dress in the first place, remember?”

“So you’re really going to do it?” Minho inquired. “Get all dressed up like a girl and pretend to be a woman?”

“What else can I do?” Kyuhyun asked, torn between despair and fright. “I told him my name was Cho Kyungji. He knows where I work. What happens if he goes back to the café again asking for this girl who doesn’t exist, and I get pointed out to him? Or what if he even just sees my face? I can’t exactly change my face.”

“Rough,” Minho said.

“Hilarious,” Changmin corrected.

Jonghyun gave Kyuhyun a comforting pat on the shoulder. “Look, a few weeks from now this guy Siwon will have supermodels, you know, actual girls, throwing themselves at him. He’ll hook up with a couple of them and you’ll just be a fleeting thought by that point. Stop freaking out. This will blow over.”

Kyuhyun really hoped so. But if he was just some kind of conquest for Siwon, or a passing attraction, it didn’t really account for the way Siwon had pursued him so determinedly. This didn’t just feel like a guy wanting to make a move on a girl. This didn’t feel like a ual cat and mouse game. This felt … different somehow. Siwon felt different.

“It’s just dinner,” Kyuhyun repeated, maybe for himself than any of them. “Dinner. I can get through dinner. And he promised that we’d go completely undercover. No media attention.”

“I hope you’re right,” Changmin said, for the first time sounding serious. “Because the only thing worse than this guy finding out you’re not really a girl, is going to be the media finding out. You’ll kill his career, Kyuhyun, and then his fans will kill you.”

Kyuhyun tried to swallow down the lump in his throat. “I know.”

On Monday, after a full day without contact from Siwon, he got a message from an unkonwn number. It said simply: Steak?

It had to be from Siwon. Phones were hacked all too easily these days, so Kyuhyun appreciated the curtness of it.

He ended up texting back: Kobe

It was an hour later before he saw on his screen: Done. Tuesday?

He responded: Thursday?

They settled on Saturday.

Getting dressed up as a girl, one last time, wasn’t like the first time he’d done it. The first time he’d been utterly preoccupied with making himself look as much like a girl as possible. The goal had been to pass himself off as the other gender and nothing else. This time, for this one and only date he’d ever have with Siwon, he wanted to look good. He wanted to be pretty. For Siwon and for himself.

Once more he shaved with the utmost care, applied his makeup with a steady hand and selected the most beautiful of his sister’s dresses. He was taller than her, which mean he was showing more leg than the dress intended, but guys liked that, right? Guys liked girls who showed leg. It was y.

If he had any luck, any luck at all, his sister would stay out the entire night with her friends and it would give him enough time to replace the dress before she even knew it was missing. Their parents weren’t expected to be home for several more days, and if everything went according to plan, Kyuhyun would get away with what he considered the single most stupid thing he’d ever done in his life.

Giving Siwon his address was too tricky. He couldn’t risk the man knowing any more about him than he already did, so instead he hailed a cab and headed towards the agreed upon destination.

He’d be lying if he didn’t admit that he had butterflies in his stomach. He’d been nursing a crush on Siwon for the longest amount of time, fully believing that he’d never get to meet the man, much less anything else. So to now, getting the opportunity to live out his most coveted fantasy was … overwhelming. It still hurt that he had to pretend to be a girl to have tonight, but it was a small price to pay. And he’d have the memories forever.

The cab stopped in the heart of Seoul, in front of a building that Kyuhyun had never been near before, all clean lines and windows, reeking of expensive things. He paid the cab and took another step towards the building.

He was starting to have second thoughts.

What was he thinking? What was wrong with him?

“Cho Kyungji?”

Kyuhyun barely had time to register that someone was calling for him before a kind faced man was standing near him. He bowed to him and gestured for Kyuhyun to follow him.

Kyuhyun rode in the glass elevator up twelve stories to where the restaurant was located. And when he stepped out onto the classic hardwood floors, polished and shinning, he was startled to find the place was nearly empty. There was only the man who’d escorted him and a young waitress waiting for them.

“This way, please,” she requested, and Kyuhyun had no choice but to follow, not sure what else to do. The elevator doors were already closed and there’d be no making a break for it now.

Kyuhyun saw him when they rounded to a more secluded area of the restaurant. Siwon was sitting facing the clear windows, looking out over the sparkling city, looking absolutely and spectacularly handsome in his suit.

“Kyungji,” he said, falling over himself a little to get to his feet the second he saw her. “You came.”

He moved to help Kyuhyun to the seat across from him, leaving him feeling a little uncomfortable at the action. Kyuhyun reminded, “I said I’d come.” He added quickly, “Oppa.”

Siwon returned to his seat and turned to the waitress, asking her to bring them a bottle of wine.

Kyuhyun perked at that. It was a guilty pleasure of his, one that his friends couldn’t related to. While they were content to drink soju or beer, Kyuhyun almost always preferred wine.

“You did come,” Siwon said, smiling at her when they were alone. “And you look very beautiful.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t help returning his own smile. “You look very handsome.”

Siwon’s head ducked a little as he admitted, “I wasn’t sure if you would come. I know you said you would, but I would have understood if you didn’t after all.”

Giving the place one more look over, Kyuhyun noticed, “It’s empty in here.”

“I bought out the place,’ Siwon said simply.

Kyuhyun froze. “You … what?”

Kyuhyun watched him lean forward and fold his hands together on the table top. He didn’t look smug, per say, but merely pleased with himself as he said, “I promised you a media free dinner. So I made sure the only people who would be here tonight were the absolutely barest minimum, and all of them trustworthy. No matter who sees you here tonight, or what they hear us speak about, none of it will get out. You’re safe.”

If that wasn’t romantic, Kyuhyun didn’t know what was.

“So,” Siwon said, straightening up, “I think we should get that Kobe beef I promised you. But if you want something else, I’m sure the chef here will whip it up.”

They had chilled oysters for an appetizer and the wine was the best Kyuhyun had ever had in his life. He was on his second glass before their actual meals were even at the table, and as Siwon regaled him with tales from Super Junior’s latest trip to Taiwan, it struck Kyuhyun that he was truly having the great time he’d dared to hope he would.

“We had a few hours free,” Siwon said, fingers tapping along the stem of his glass, “so we decided to go for a hike. There were amazing waterfalls nearby. I don’t know how it happened, but Eunhyuk and Heechul got into a fight over the rooming assignments.”

Kyuhyun laughed, “Only really close brothers fight with each other over things like that.”

“Or people who spend too much time together,” Siwon cut back, stretching his hand across the table. Anyway, the point of the story is that we were supposed to be heading back for a dress rehearsal when Eunhyuk slipped. It’s possible Heechul gave him a little nudge. Then both of them were toppling off the edge of the waterfall. This would have been fine if either of them could swim.”

Siwon, in Kyuhyun’s opinion, never looked more youthful than when he was talking easily about the people he considered family. His posture was relaxed, his eyes constantly crinkled in a smile, and if Kyuhyun hadn’t already been a little in love with him ….

“Leader hyung jumped in right after them, along with Donghae, and all of us ended scrambling down to meet them.”

“Did you get into a lot of trouble?” Kyuhyun asked.

“A ton,” Siwon chuckled out. “We got yelled at for an hour--the hour it took for us all to get dry and do our hair and get ready for our performance, and then for an hour after the performance. Eunhyuk blamed Heechul, Heechul blamed Eunhyuk and Leeteuk didn’t talk to either of them, aside from when he was yelling, for the rest of the trip.”

Kyuhyun noted, “That must have been hard on Heechul. He and Leeteuk seem very close. At least as a fan, it seems that way to me.”

With their food making their way across the dinning area towards them, Siwon snuck in, “It was probably harder on Ryeowook. He’s always upset when we aren’t all getting along. Considering that’s always, he’s never all that happy until we make up and forgive each other.”

“Wow,” Kyuhyun said when his plate was set in front of him. Once in a while Kyuhyun and his parents went out to eat at a nice place, and Kyuhyun had been on a few, above average dates in his life, but none of those compared to the quality in front of him. “It looks amazing.”

Siwon’s hand inched closer to Kyuhyun’s on the table. “I would have been happy with ramen from a convenience store if you’d agreed to meet me there.”

Kyuhyun’ knife cut into the beef portion in front of him like butter, making his mouth salivate. “I think I only ate ramen my first year of college. It’s all I could afford.”

Siwon gave a serious nod. “I know college can be very expensive.”

“It’s not that,” Kyuhyun said, then took his first bite of beef and nearly melted into his seat. He had to remind himself to act like a lady instead of eating as fast as possible. “My parents, no matter how unhappy they were with me choosing to study music and work on my vocals, still paid for my classes. But I was desperate to get out of their house and live on my own for a while. Or with a roommate. I moved in with a friend of mine and even with school being paid for by my parents, almost all of my pay from work went to rent and basic necessities. There wasn’t a lot of money left over to food.”

“Were things that unfavorable at your parent’s home?”

“Not at all,” Kyuhyun said truthfully. “I think I just wanted to see if I could be okay on my own for a while. I guess I found out that I needed them more than I thought. I moved back in at the beginning of this term. I think I’ll live there until I graduate, at least.”

“Hmm,” Siwon said, barely touching his food as he stared at Kyuhyun.

“Huh?” Kyuhyun asked, feeling desperately paranoid that maybe his wig was out of place or something. “What?”

“It’s nothing,” Siwon said, his fingers finally brushing over Kyuhyun’s free hand on the table. His fingers tiptoed their way over Kyuhyun’s knuckles making him shiver. “It’s just that I’ve been thinking about moving out on my own lately, too. Or maybe with one of my members.”

Kyuhyun wondered, “Can you do that?”

“We’re not rookies anymore,” Siwon laughed. “We’re a little more responsible, a lot more older, and even though we’re split between two dorm spaces, I’ve never really lived apart from them. I think I’ve been afraid to try.”

“Afraid to fail?” Kyuhyun guessed.

“Got it in one.” Siwon’s hand curly fully around Kyuhyun’s. “But, and take this in the best way, I’m comforted hearing that you tried and had to go back in the end. It tells me that it’s okay to fail and admit defeat, as long as you tried in the first place.”

The feeling of Siwon’s hand on his was almost overwhelming, but Kyuhyun found himself squeezing back, telling the elder man, “Something about you tells me that failure isn’t something you experience very often.”

Christ, could he be anymore cheesy? Kyuhyun wanted to die on the spot.

But instead of criticizing him, Siwon said, “And something about you tells me that you’ll try again, and when you do, you’ll be successful.”

This, Kyuhyun decided, was perfect. He took another drink of his wine, savoring the rich taste, and sighed happily. Even if this was a moment built on a lie, and it was a moment that could never happen again, he was happy to have it for the moment.

“How is your meal?” Siwon asked.

Kyuhyun, filled with so much happiness, told him, “Pretty good. But the company is better.”

Then it was Siwon’s turn to blush and Kyuhyun decided he really liked the red tint that was gone too quickly.

“I should admit,” Siwon said, pouring more wine into both their glasses, neither of them having to worry about driving, “at the signing event, when the crowd got out of control and I grabbed you, I didn’t just reach for the nearest person near me. I saw you standing in line earlier. I was really hoping you’d talk to me, even if it was for a second.”

Kyuhyun felt his appetite vanish. “You … saw me?”

“Of course I did,” Siwon said, reaching for the tips of Kyuhyun’s hair. He’d tried to get it up into a few elaborate holds that youtube had said even a novice could master, but in the end he’d been running behind schedule and thought it best to merely leave it down. Hadn’t Siwon liked it down before, anyway? He’d constantly looked to Kyuhyun’s wig like it interested him some way. “The color, first, then how you kept it free from the barrettes and ties that most girls like to put in their hair.”

“So you just like me for my hair?” Kyuhyun teased, trying to settle himself back down.

“Not just.”

Then Kyuhyun was forgetting what it felt like to breathe, because Siwon’s fingers weren’t at the tips of his wig anymore. Instead they were where the wig’s bangs curled down to his jaw, the pads of Siwon’s fingers over the soft skin there.

Kyuhyun had never been so thankful he’d shaved and reshaved his face within an inch of his life to make the skin flawless looking. He never really had much facial hair, but what he did was hidden easily.

“What else?” Kyuhyun heard himself asking, but it was like it was from a distance, and he wasn’t even in control of his body anymore. “My pretty face?”

“You are beautiful,” Siwon agreed, his fingers searing across Kyuhyn’s face. “Very beautiful. And that’s what I saw just after your hair. But I like your personality very much more than those two things put together. I like that you’ve made me laugh a lot, and you’re interesting. You don’t tell me the things I just want to hear, and you’re not awestruck.”

Kyuhyun tried to force himself to keep breathing, managing, “I’d be awestruck if it were Leeteuk oppa who’d asked me out on a date. He’s my bias, remember?”

Siwon leaned forward, up off his chair a bit. “Then I’ll be sure to never let you anywhere near him.”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Kyuhyun whispered out, afraid he’d lost his voice completely.

“True,” Siwon agreed, leaning fully into Kyuhyun’s personal space. “I’d never dare to, either.”

They were going to kiss. They were going to kiss. They were going to kiss.

There was nothing else Kyuhyun could think of.

Siwon, his ultimate crush, the man that personified what Kyuhyun felt was the total package, was going to put his lips on Kyuhyun’s and … maybe the world was going to explode around them. The perfect way to go.

“You …” Kyuhyun breathed out.

Siwon didn’t kiss him. After only the briefest of hesitation, the man eventually pulled back, leaving Kyuhyun feeling equally relieved and disappointed.

“I,” Siwon said firmly, reaching for his fork again, “am going to do this right. I will treat you like a queen.”

Oh, the irony.

By the time they were finishing with dinner, and desert was on the way, Kyuhyun and Siwon had settled back into a nice repertoire of conversation.

Siwon spoke about how he wanted to do more acting, and Kyuhyun said he wanted to try writing his own music, maybe producing.

“What’s holding you back from acting?” Kyuhyun asked, not believing for one second that Siwon couldn’t do what he wished if he put his mind to it. “Do you think you won’t have enough time for Super Junior?”

“Maybe,” Siwon shrugged. “Or the members? We’re getting older. Leader hyung has been talking about going into the military in a few years, and so have others. If I take all of the free time I have with them now, and trade it for more acting jobs, will that hurt the relationship we have now?”

Kyuhyun shook his head, saying, “Not if you’re really family. If you are as close as you claim, and if you all care about each other as much as you say, then they’ll be happy for you, and your time together as Super Junior will be enough.”

Siwon seemed to be contemplating his words when he asked in response, “You didn’t consider auditioning at other agencies? Even if SM didn’t recognize your talent, there are a lot more places to become a trainee at, out there. JYP is flexable and fun. YG really caters to an artist’s creativity. Or what about any of the others?”

“It’s stupid,” Kyuhyun confessed, brushing at his bangs, trying to ignore how itchy the wig was making his scalp, “but SM was the company I wanted to be with. I know they demand a lot from their artists, and they aren’t always fair or nice about it. I know their shortcomings. But SM commits fully to making their artists stars, and I wanted to be a star back then. I wanted to have it all. To have the best and be the best. That’s why I wanted SM. And like I said, I’m at peace with the fact that I didn’t get chosen. I’m happy where I am in my life.”

He was. It wasn’t a lie. He had Changmin and Minho and Jonghyun as his best friends. He went to a good school, was getting a great education, and worked at a place where he got to meet and interact with all kinds of people. His whole future was ahead of him, and most days he was more happy than anything else. There was no use in him thinking about missed opportunities. Where he was, was a good place.

“I still haven’t heard you sing,” Siwon said. “Would you?”

“Here?” Kyuhyun asked, baffled. “I don’t think so.”

“Later?”

The single word made Kyuhyun pause, then frown. Siwon had no way of knowing it, but there would be no later. There’d be no tomorrow, even. He and Siwon would never see each other again.

“No, really,” Siwon said, missing Kyuhyun’s expression completely as desert arrived in the form of two bowls of cherry cobbler, vanilla ice cream and mint. “We could sing a duet together. A ballad.”

“Ah,” Kyuhyun said, picking up his own spoon, “then your fans would want to kill me even more than they already do.”

“You can’t read the comments.”

Kyuhyun looked sharply to Siwon at his tone. “Excuse me?”

“The pictures,” Siwon said, his face firm and his words even. “And the comments netizens make about them. You can’t read them, and if you do, you can’t believe them or take them to heart. I love my fans, Kyu. I love them and I appreciate them and I understand that if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have had the success with Super Junior that I was lucky enough to have had. But they can be ruthless and unfair, Kyu. They can be very hurtful. I don’t want you getting hurt because some of them don’t know how to be kind.”

“I saw the pictures, they’re everywhere,” Kyuhyun admitted, “but I tried not to read the comments. Some of my friends did, though. That’s how I knew your fans were angry with me.’

Siwon said sincerely, “I won’t let them know about you. I’ll keep you--”

“Protected?” Kyuhyun asked angrily. “I don’t need to be protected by you. And I don’t need to be your dirty little secret.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Siwon said quickly.

“It’s just as well.”

It was time.

Kyuhyun had promised himself one last go as being a girl. One last time fooling Siwon. And now the time to end it all was upon him. He had to leave Cho Kyungji behind, where she belong, and go back to being Cho Kyuhyun, average university student, who didn’t fool people.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Siwon asked with a frown.

Carefully, Kyuhyun took the napkin from his lap and set it on the table. His desert was only half finished, but he felt a little sick at what he was supposed to do, so it was just as well.

“What I mean,” Kyuhyun said, standing on shaky legs, “is that I had a really good time tonight, oppa. No matter what, I did. But you asked me for one date, one dinner, and that’s what this was. Now I need to go back to my life, and you need to go back to yours. Those two lives shouldn’t cross again, either.”

“I thought things were going well,” Siwon said, voice shaking.

“They were.”

“Then--”

“We are living radically different lives,” Kyuhyun said, trying to be as kind as possible. “Your life is out in the spotlight, and mine isn’t. I think we both like our lives the way they are, too.”

Siwon shook his head. “But I like you more.”

“More than Super Junior?” Kyuhyun scoffed.

Siwon got to his own feet, demanding, “Super Junior and Cho Kyungji are not mutually exclusive things. In no way do I have to choose one or the other. Listen, just listen. I’ve been at this long enough to understand how to keep my private life separate from my public life. You trusted me enough to come tonight. Why can’t you trust me a little bit more?”

Because Kyuhyun wasn’t really a girl. That’s what it ultimately came down to. And even if, in some impossible word, Siwon had known he was a boy and still liked him, it would have been just a different reason.

If Kyuhyun didn’t end this now, they’d ruin each other’s lives. Kyuhyun would ruin Siwon’s for sure.

“You asked for tonight and I gave it to you,” Kyuhyun said with finality. “Now I’m asking that you leave me alone. Don’t look for me. Don’t contact me. Try to forget I even existed. Please. You want me to trust you, this is how I can.”

In desperation Siwon reached out for him, causing Kyuhyun to take a firm step back.

“I can’t let you go,” Siwon said.

Kyuhyun told him plainly, “You have to.” Then, with only one last look to Siwon, Kyuhyun headed towards the nearby bank of elevators.

“Is everything alright, miss?” The same man from before, the one who had escorted her into the building, was waiting, likely for her, in the elevator. He asked her again, “Are you okay?”

Kyuhyun took a deep breath and nodded, stepping into the elevator. He couldn’t help looking out into the restaurant, to where Siwon was now visible halfway across the floor, looking back.

“Don’t go,” he called.

The man in the elevator held his hand across the threshold of the doors, keeping them from closing. “Miss?”

“I’m sorry,” Kyuhyun said, and it was almost enough to make him regret coming at all.

The doors closed and it was a somber, quiet ride to the ground floor.

Kyuhyun exited the building a few seconds later to find the somewhat warm night from earlier had transformed itself into a summer rain storm. Kyuhyun wondered how it was that he’d been so distracted by Siwon, he’d missed the storm completely.

It was bad luck on his part, because even if he called for a cab right away, it would likely be twenty minutes before it arrived. That meant twenty minutes huddled under the awning near the building’s front door, wearing a short dress, running the risk of Siwon coming out at any moment.

He just wanted to go home. He wanted to take off his wig, his makeup and the dress. He wanted to be himself again, and look in the mirror and know that one day, he’d find someone like Siwon who liked him for just being him.

And god knew he’d never go about deceiving anyone again.

As a gust of wet wind hit Kyuhyun, making him shiver, a heavy, warm weight settled across his shoulders.

“I guess this could be considered not taking no for an answer,” Siwon said, looking directly ahead, not meeting Kyuhyun’s gaze. “If this were a drama, it would be the part where I grab you and kiss you, and you declare your undying love for me. But considering we’re in real life, this could more likely be the part where you knee me in the balls and sue me for harassment.”

“I’m not trying to hurt you,” Kyuhyun said quietly, his voice nearly swallowed by the wind.

“Then I just don’t understand. Because I like you very much, and I think you like me. When people like each other--”

“--they try not to hurt each other.” Kyuhyun met his eyes finally.

“You aren’t hurting me,” Siwon argued calmly. “And really, I think it’s up to me to decide what in life is worth getting hurt over. I can’t tell you what to do any more than you can try to make me not want to take a risk with you.”

“I just--”

Siwon’s hand came up to catch the side of Kyuhyun’s face. The hold was gentle, but firm, and he turned Kyuhyun towards him with the smallest of encouraging smiles. “There is something so unique and magnificent about you. There’s something different about you.”

Kyuhyun let out a dry chuckle. “You have no idea.”

“But I want to,” Siwon said, head ducking again, just like earlier in the restaurant. “I want to more than anything I’ve ever wanted before. No one is more surprised than me.”

“I just can’t--”

Anything he meant to say, purposed to say, or even was thinking, fell away in an instance. In fact, the entire world ceased to exist as he felt Siwon’s lips press against his, and the reality that they were having their first kiss slammed into him.

It wasn’t just any kiss, either. Kyuhyun, who didn’t have that much experience, was still able to determine that the kind of kiss they were sharing was exceptional. Their mouths moved easily against each other, full of pressure and wetness and even bits of desperation, all wrapped up in something that made Kyuhyun’s toes curl with pleasure.

Siwon’s thumb moved lazily against the skin at Kyuhyun’s cheek, guiding him into a deeper kiss, one that had Kyuhyun’s mouth opening in response.

It was nothing like the kisses he’d seen in a few dramas, particularly the ones his sister really liked the watch. Those were mostly guys grabbing girls, the guy kissing with desperation, the girl slack jawed and in shock.

Kyuhyun found himself gasping for precious air as Siwon drew back, professing, “I’m not as much a gentleman as I wanted you to believe.”

Then they were kissing again, with short, daring pecks that made Kyuhyun’s eyes close with enjoyment.

However, when he did open them, mostly to try and bring himself back to his senses, a flash of something caught in the corner of his eye.

“Siwon,” Kyuhyun tried, a little short on breath as Siwon kissed him again, gentler than before, but just as fully.

“Hm?”

It flashed again, whatever it was.

“What’s that?” Kyuhyun asked, pushing at Siwon’s shoulder.

“What’s what?”

Kyuhyun recognized the flash for what it was a few seconds later, his muscles locking up. He pinched Siwon sharply in the arm, whispering fiercely, “Someone is taking pictures of us.”

Siwon froze next, and just afterwards Kyuhyun knew he’d seen the flash, too.

Kyuhyun found himself angled to the side as Siwon moved deliberately in front of him, attempting to block him from view.

“You took a cab, didn’t you?” Siwon asked, one of his arms coming around Kyuhyun protectively. When Kyuhyun nodded, Siwon sighed and said, “I planned to call a car to pick me up at the end of the night.”

Kyuhyun squeezed at the material of the coat Siwon had put over his shoulders. “So what are we going to do?

Siwon pursed his lips and asked, “Can you run in those shoes?”

“Are you serious?” Kyuhyun deadpanned.

Siwon reached for his phone in his pocket, his fingers flying over the keys. “Very. That isn’t the flash of a cell phone camera. It’s much worse, and there’ll be dozens of them out here in another five minutes. And going back inside will only buy them time to build their numbers and cover all the exits. We have to make a run for it. I’ll call Leeteuk hyung.”

Kyuhyun looked back out to the heavy downpour as thunder cracked in the sky. “Okay,” he said, praying the rain wouldn’t destroy his disguise. “I’m ready.”

Together they ran.