"So, Sunggyu," his mother starts calmly, sipping her coffee. "When are you getting married?"

Sunggyu slams his cup down. "I'm sorry, I think I misheard you. Did you just ask when I was getting married? I'm not even dating anyone."

"Yes, I did ask that." His mother's eye sort of twitches. "You're almost done with university. Haven't you found a nice girl yet? Do you realize how hard it'll be after you graduate?"

Sunggyu sighs. He's heard that line quite a few times. "You know I'm not really interested in relationships. Even if there was more time for it."

"That just makes no sense. You're never going to be this young ever again, why not just-"

"Mom... enough about my age, please..."

"What if I found someone for you?" his mother tries.

"Like who? Your boss's daughter? She tried to throw out my Nam Woohyun CDs. Actually, you know what? If you really want me to get married so badly, find me him first and then we'll talk." He sort of laughs at himself - the entire idea is ridiculous. It's perfect because this way, he'll never have to get married - and gulps down the last of his coffee.

He, at least, knows he's joking. But his mother's eyes light up - the first positive, or at least affirmative, reaction she's ever gotten regarding this subject. He figures it's good enough and she'll give up soon because she drops it and starts talking about something else.

Except he was wrong.

As he finds out about a month later.

It happens on a day that's particularly stressful, because of course everything always happens all at once like that. He goes straight home after work, which he went straight to right after school, and he's tired and had to put up with a lot of noisy people all day and he's not really in the mood. He's pretty sure his body can't handle any more excitement. Even the bus being a couple minutes late was stressful on his heart.

So naturally, this is the worst possible time.

He doesn't announce his presence when he gets back, though normally he would. Instead he just sighs and slams the door shut, practically throwing his shoes on the floor before walking farther into the house. "Finally back... ugh, that was so bad..."

Sunggyu is about to start complaining about Howon - his friend but also kind of the bane of his existence, sometimes. Like today, when he spent half of his shift texting. Who does that and doesn't Sunggyu to join the chat? They have all the same friends! - but his mom talks first.

She stops him in the living area between the kitchen and the front door.

"Guess what?" she says excitedly, practically bouncing up and down on her heels. "You have a visitor!"

"Really?" He throws his bad onto the couch. He'll deal with his coursework... later... probably... "Who is it?"

"Oh, you know." She smiles like it's not a big deal, even though it apparently was a second ago. "No one in particular. Just someone."

"Okay, okay." He walks toward the kitchen but stops in his tracks when he...

"Hey," literal Nam freaking Woohyun says, sipping orange juice with a straw - a curly straw, that's so cute, and where did he even get that, his parents never buy Sunggyu curly straws, that's not fair - and he's just sitting there. At the counter next to Sunggyu's dad. Like it's not even a big deal.

Because apparently it's not.

He gets up and bows politely, and Sunggyu returns the gesture weakly.

"Oh," Sunggyu says intelligently. Then he turns back to his mother and says something along the lines of "Sdjklghdg??"

His mom just shrugs with that wide smile of hers plastered on her face. She looks entirely too pleased with herself.

"This is probably as weird for you as it is for me," Woohyun says next. He's fiddling with his shirt sleeve, which is also cute for some reason.

"Wait. What is...?" Sunggyu tries to ask his dad. Then he remembers, suddenly, that conversation he had with his mom. Oh no, what have I done...

"What? We know how much you like Woohyun-ah. Aren't you happy to meet him?" His mom crosses her arms. His reaction is pretty rude considering what they went through to make this happen! Woohyun didn't even respond to any of their mail for at least a week and a half.

"Yeah, isn't he your favorite singer?" his dad adds unhelpfully. "I know how much you like watching those music shows of yours." He might not be the most attentive of parents, but even he pays that much attention.

Sunggyu blushes and looks down at the floor. "Dad... nobody in this room needs to hear about that... Can you just tell me what's going on?"

"Well..." his mother starts.

"We were afraid you'd never get married!" his father says.

"And we had to take 'drastic measures,'" his mother finishes, doing air quotes. Then they both run out of the kitchen. Like, full-on sprinting. Sunggyu wonders if he should've expected this.

"So... they must've contacted you." He looks at Woohyun again. "But why did you come here?" He bites his lip. It's maybe a little bit jarring to be alone in a room with him.

"Because you were just too cute!" He pats Sunggyu's cheek and he's pretty sure his heart just stops. Or maybe melts into a goo that's now dripping down his ribs. Eww. He's probably making some terrible face, too, which is kind of mortifying just by itself.

Woohyun elaborates before he has an aneurysm. "No, really." He sits down on the same kitchen stool he was on earlier, still turned toward Sunggyu. "Come here, sit down with me."

Despite it being his own house, he doesn't call him out on the invitation and just does it. He probably needed to sit down anyway.

"There were a few pictures in some of the letters and I wasn't sure you actually existed. It could've been a trap. At first I wondered if this was some weird scheme to get me kidnapped. Can you imagine the headlines for that one? 'Nam Woohyun kidnapped; what lured him will shock you!'" He laughs about that one. "Well, probably no one's ever gone that far, and I wanted to see for myself if you were real." Woohyun laughs again.

Of course, this kills Sunggyu, who drops his elbows on the counter and hide his face in his hands. If you'd been there, you'd hear a low, muffled "whaaaat" from him.

Woohyun takes it in stride. He imitates his pose, but rather than hiding his face, he props it up on his hands. A curious idea pops in his head as he's watching Sunggyu.

He actually is cute. If he was a girl, he'd be exactly his type. Of course he doesn't know anything substantial about him, but he knows himself and he knows he appreciates the way he looks right now. He's sitting there with the sleeves of his button-down rolled to his elbows, and his hair is messy but still looks nice, and it's dyed orange - or brown or some color around there, who knows, really, but it's something good - and he can see a blush on the side of his neck...

So he's not hard to look at, not at all. Ah, Woohyun's so lucky. And if he was a girl, this would probably be like fate or something. Or to an outsider, this might look pretty super romantic. Woohyun does love his dramas.

Sunggyu returns to the land of the living by the time Woohyun's done maybe checking him out a bit (in the name of science). He puts his hands down and takes a deep breath, about to say something, and Woohyun cuts him off. How absolutely rude of him.

"I'm really sorry but I've got kind of a tight schedule right now and I have to get back soon but if it's alright, I think I'd like to come back to visit again." His voice rises at the end of the sentence like he's unsure of himself.

Sunggyu manages to react like an adult for the first time since he got home. "Really? That would be, uh, nice. Listen, this probably wasn't the best timing for me, either. It's been a long day. And they didn't tell me you would..." He taps the counter. "So, I'm sorry too?"

"I completely understand!" Woohyun grins at him. "It's not your fault I'm so stunning."

Sunggyu fake-laughs. "What was that? I thought you just said something to me but you must not have."

Woohyun just keeps smiling at him. "Okay, I really do have to go now. It was nice meeting you."

Sunggyu follows him to the door and lingers a few feet away while Woohyun puts his shoes back on, and they bow again before he leaves. As soon as the door is shut, Sunggyu's parents suddenly reappear.

"Oh, we were too late," his dad says.

"Why is he leaving? What did you say to him?" his mom looks a little scary.

"He's in the middle of promotions, Mom..."

"What does that mean?" she demands.

"He's busy?"

"Did you at least invite him to come back again?"

"Sure," Sunggyu says. "He might be back some time."

"Well! That went well then, didn't it?" his father says. "You're not as bad at this as I thought."

"I'm great at everything," Sunggyu says immediately as a knee-jerk reaction. He only feels the slightest bit of shame. "Uh. I'm going to my room now..." He runs upstairs. He makes it to the window in time to watch Woohyun's car drive away. In hindsight, he has no idea how he didn't notice it in front of the house. He almost waves before he realizes that's stupid.

This whole thing is, actually. He just wanted to relax after all the day's activities! Why did his parents have to go and do that? How embarrassing. He's a grown adult; he can take care of things by himself. Of course he wanted to meet him, but not like this. God, his hair probably isn't even brushed.

With that in mind, he changes his clothes quickly and gets online to complain to all his friends.