“Woohyun-sshi!!”.

“Oh, eh, yeah?” Woohyun realized he had completely zoned out, having no clue what Hyungsik had just said.

“Where did you go just now?” Hyungsik asked, a concerned wrinkle making an appearance on his forehead. He used to be his favorite boy toy, though boy toy was perhaps an overstatement since he was only half a year younger than him. But now he was starting to forget what it was that had attracted him to him in the first place. Sure, he was gorgeous, but he was getting kind of bored of his face. Maybe it was just time to let him go, cut the leash and set him free. After all, he had made an exception from his usual pattern in order to keep him on longer since he was his favorite, but in hindsight that had been a mistake. Instead of keeping his memory of their good times together untarnished, he was now fed up and everything poor Hyungsik did annoyed him.

He could feel his phone vibrate in his pocket. Usually he would ignore his phone during dates, but he was having such an awful time that he made an exception. It was a message from Dongwoo telling him to come by first thing in the morning to talk strategy. Dongwoo was in full damage control mode, trying to get ahead of the scandal that had completely blown up in their faces. Every tabloid in the city had published a piece about him and Eunji, stalking both of them to the point where going outside was a serious challenge. Dongwoo had assigned Eunji a full time bodyguard and arranged it so she could take time off work temporarily, for the paparazzi had absolutely no respect for a person's workplace if it meant getting the price winning shot.

“I'm sorry, I just got a very urgent message, I'm afraid I have to go.” he lied to get out of spending the rest of the evening with Hyungsik. He couldn't get out of there fast enough. He was going to break up with him via text later. Still, he didn't feel like spending the evening alone. And he definitely didn't feel like spending the night thinking about Sungkyu. That had also been a mistake, pursuing him. It had upset his whole system.

Before he met Sungkyu, his life had been running smoothly like a well oiled machine. He had figured out that the optimal number of guys to rotate at any given time was around four to five. He always had one or two that were on their way out. Even though the excitement had all but died down, they were comfortable, for those cozy Monday nights in, for example. Sometimes he was just too tired for too much excitement, so he had learned that it paid off to have at least one familiar face in the mix.

It was pivotal to have two and exactly two main guys, ones that were already established as his guys, but that still had that spark about them and were willing to have a good time anytime, anywhere, no questions asked.

And then of course, the newbies. Aigoo, the newbies. One, or at most two at a time. They were probably his favorite. That rush you get when you first get a crush and don't know exactly how it is all going to play out. Only thing was, that the newbies were the most time consuming, requiring the most attention and forethought. He didn't always have the time for that, nor the energy. That was why his system was so brilliant, he had a guy for every occasion. Only now the timeline had been completely offset by that jerk, Sungkyu. He had spent so much time and energy in pursuing him, that he had neglected all the other ones, so now he probably had to start all over again.

He scrolled down the list of possible distractors on his phone, not finding a single one he wanted to hang out with. He realized he didn't really have any normal friends, aside from Dongwoo. He had this bad habit of sleeping with his friends, which tended to complicate things, especially when he went ahead and slept with some of his other friends as well. He did have a long list of guys he could call for a hook up, but for some reason not one of them sounded the slightest bit appealing to him at the moment.

He was in a weird mood. Maybe it was performance anxiety after having failed so miserably in bedding Sungkyu. His failure hung over him like a black cloud, threatening to rain on his parade. They said the best thing to do in situations like these was to get right back on the horse, not giving the fall a chance to grow into a crippling fear. Perhaps that was what he should do. His finger hovered over one of the names, picked at random since he didn't really care which one it was, but he couldn't get himself to pull the trigger.

“Oh! You didn't have to come right away!” Dongwoo exclaimed surprised as he opened the door in nothing but his boxers.

“You know I don't like to wake up early if I can avoid it.” he spat at him as he forced the door to open wider and let himself in. Hoya jumped up with nothing but a pillow covering his front, frantically searching for his boxers.

“Sorry babe, do you mind...” Dongwoo handed Hoya a blanket and nodded towards the bedroom.

“Of course not, don't keep me waiting too long though.” he said in a way too cheesy voice, trying to be all casanova. Woohyun snorted. Hoya sent him a look, but when Woohyun matched it, he quickly made himself scarce, disappearing behind the bedroom door.

“Getting serious, huh?” he noted as he almost threw himself onto the sofa, thankfully realizing his mistake in the nick of time, not wanting to get any of their musk on him, sitting down at the living room table instead. Dongwoo just shrugged, but he couldn't hide that happy grin of his. He was glad he had found someone, though he would have been even more glad if his own life wasn't terminally ill. Dongwoo brought a stack of papers and sat down next to him.

“Okay, so, the response is way better than expected. You and Eunji have a 78% acceptance rating, which I'm pretty sure is a record. Everyone is in love with the idea of you guys together, all aboard the Wooji-train, choo-choo! It's the age old 'rich, handsome guy meets pretty, poor girl and they lived happily ever after' fairytale. After that balloon-bouquet stunt of yours, you've been labeled the savior of romance in a world where romance is all but extinct. And people are swooning over the fact that you refused to hide your relationship, letting true love blossom in the spotlight, damn the consequences.” he said comically as he showed him some graphs he had made, as well as a long list of positive comments.

“So the way I see it, it would probably do more harm than good to try and deny that you guys are together. I think the best way to tackle this is to just go with the flow, then when most of the hype has died down you can have an amicable break up. What do you think?” he concluded, pleased with his own solution.

Hmm. Dating Eunji. Eunji that lived with Sungkyu. It was a double edged sword. On the one hand it would give him an excuse to stay close to Sungkyu and perhaps even make some headway towards making something happen. Given enough time, constantly dripping water could put a dent into a solid rock, and all that. On the other hand, it might be best to just count his losses and give up, let him be the one (the only one) that got away. But thinking of giving up physically hurt, he wasn't a quitter. He had to sleep with him if he was ever going to get rid of him out of his head. If not, Sungkyu would always be there, at the back of his head, reminding him of his failure, coloring everything he ever did. No, he couldn't live like that.

“Eunji-ya?” he said as sweetly as he could muster into the phone. This was going to require some finesse.

“Oh, hey! I've been expecting your call. Dongwoo already went over the plan with me, I think it's really not only the best option, but our only one. Don't you think?” she said brightly. It was amazing how positive she had stayed through all of this.

“Ah, oh, right, yeah, exactly.” he stammered. He had prepared this whole speech to convince her, but Dongwoo, that sly fox, had beaten him to the punch. Manager of the year, that rascal.

“Who knows, this could be fun, pretending to be Korea's sweethearts.” she giggled unintentionally. He could almost hear her face turn red on the other end of the line.

“Who knows.” he replied in earnest, thinking it actually could turn out that way. Depending on one very important factor, of course. The S-factor.