Lingering Effects

            Heechul had never seen his cousin so out of sorts.  Not since he’d first arrived in Tokyo, four years ago, and was beginning his new life in a foreign country.  That’s when he also first started to tend at Heechul’s bar with him.  It had been a rough period of his life for many months, but for far different reasons.  This, he couldn’t quite explain.  Ryeowook refused to answer any of his questions about it, but it had first started nearly two months ago.  That was when his cousin had disappeared from the apartment for two nights without explaining where he’d been.  But he came back in a foul mood.  Still, despite the obvious anger—refusal to cook for days on end (Heechul thought he was going to starve), making a mess of the apartment, ranting about life and inconsiderate people, and glaring at every man who walked into the bar in a business suit (which was most of his patrons, unfortunately)—he could tell that the anger was just a mask for some deeper emotion that Ryeowook was hiding within himself.  He just couldn’t tell what.

            “Since you’re off early tonight,” Heechul said, scooting over to his cousin, “why don’t you call up Henry and see if he wants to go to the club with you.  You haven’t gone out in ages.”

            Ryeowook turned his direction and gave his older cousin a death glare.  Heechul felt certain his heart stopped beating out of fear for a few seconds.  “No,” he firmly stated, going back to cleaning glasses.

            Heechul bit down on his lip and thought about the possible reasons Ryeowook’s old favorite haunts were no longer so thrilling to him.  “Did you get drunk and get kicked out or something?”

            Ryeowook shook his head.  “I just want to go home tonight.”

            “But you love to dance!”

            “Not anymore,” Ryeowook declared, slamming the glass he was drying onto the counter. 

            Heechul wasn’t sure if it was worth broken dishes to keep bugging his cousin about what was really bothering him, but he had to get to the bottom of it at some point.  This had been going on too long to ignore forever. 

            “So, maybe you rest tonight, but tomorrow is your day off.  So why don’t you go out and do some shopping or go out with someone for lunch.  That cute guy from the other day that gave you his number.  Why don’t you call him up?”

            Ryeowook began to laugh humorlessly, almost manically.  “A date?  I don’t ing think so!  All he wants is my body!”

            “But did you see how y he was?” Heechul pointed out.  “What’s wrong with a little fun?”

            “Nothing, if that’s all you want,” he said, rather bitterly.

            Heechul’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.  “IS THAT WHAT HAPPENED?”

            Ryeowook frowned as he looked over his shoulder at his cousin.  “What the hell are you going on about now?”

            “That’s the reason you’ve acted like a for the last couple months?  Some broke your heart?” Heechul questioned.

            Ryeowook turned back to his dishes.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “Those two nights you weren’t at the apartment—the ones you refuse to tell me anything about—you were with some guy that just wanted to sleep with you, weren’t you?” Heechul asked, although he was already sure of himself, whether or not Ryeowook confirmed his answer.  He knew his cousin well enough.

            After a long pause, Ryeowook nodded.  “He left me in the hotel in the morning while I slept.”

            “Who is he?” Heechul demanded.  “I’ll kick his for you and then we’ll be done with this!”

            Ryeowook shook his head.  “He was only in Japan on business from Korea…I knew it was going to end from the very beginning.  It was the first thing he told me.  I guess I just thought, maybe, after spending a couple days with me, that he’d want to keep in contact.”

            Heechul sighed and wrapped his arm around his cousin’s shoulders.  “Where’d you meet him?  Here?”

            Ryeowook nodded.

            “I’ve warned you many times, never to fall in love with someone who picks you up from the bar.  They only want one thing.”

            “It isn’t his fault,” Ryeowook insisted, already being much gentler with the glasses, although now he’d been washing the same one for a long time.  “It’s my own fault.  I’m the one who picked him up.”

            “Why did you do that?”

            “I don’t know,” he said, shrugging.  “He kind of reminded me of a lost puppy.  I found it adorable the way he was fumbling with his Japanese as he tried to order a drink.  And he was my age—most of the guys that come into here are much older, sleazy business guys—and he looked so y in his suit!  He said he was feeling lonely and bored and I asked him if he wanted to go out with me.  Maybe I was feeling a little lonely myself.  So we went out to the club, danced, drank, and then headed back to his hotel.  And that was the part I wasn’t prepared for.”

            “What happened?”

            Ryeowook dropped the glass back into the sudsy water and covered his face with his hands, suddenly overwhelmed by the memories.  “Something just clicked between us!  I’d never felt the way I felt with him with anyone else I’ve been with.”

            “You’ve never ed before?” Heechul questioned, concerned.

            Ryeowook smacked his cousin on the chest.  Hard.  “No, stupid.  I’ve ed plenty of times.”

            “Then what are you talking about?”

            “I felt some kind of connection,” Ryeowook said, waving his arms in front of him.  “It’s hard to explain.  I guess, it kind of felt like, we fit perfectly together, like two puzzle pieces coming together.”

            Heechul gave him a blank look, still not really sure what he meant.

            “Never mind.  The point is, he asked me to stay with him until he left and we were inseparable for that short time, the was absolutely amazing, and I kind of began