"Did you kiss her?"

"Whom?"

"Your girlfriend."

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"Really?"

"Not yet."

Sunggyu rolled over to his side, relieved. His laptop cable was digging into his back, but he was too lazy to reposition it. All day long, he had been in bed, on his laptop. He was having a lazy day, watching mindless programs. Despite that, he had been constantly anxious. Today was the first day of Woohyun's drama filming. He knew it was a romantic drama, with too many pretty girls in it for his liking. Not that he didn't like pretty girls, he just didn't like them around Woohyun.

"Why do you care anyway?"

He had half forgotten that he was still on the phone with Woohyun.

"Just checking how filming went today."

Woohyun hummed; there was a slight sarcastic tone to it. He couldn’t explain how a hum could be sarcastic; he just knew.

"Well, that wasn't your question."

"I'm just looking out for you." It was much easier to converse when you had been relieved of your anxiety. Sunggyu even chuckled. "So how did it go?"

"Okay, I guess. Not great. I'll have to do better next time."

It was no secret that Woohyun was an over-achiever. Even if he did his best, he would not be satisfied. That was why Sunggyu was there to remind him not to beat himself up.

"I’m sure you did great,” he said with emphasis. “How's the rest of the cast?"

"Sweet." Woohyun yawned. He could imagine him stretching his arm, his stubby fingers trying to reach the ceiling and opening his mouth too wide, his lower incisors sticking out and making him look like a wolf cub.  "They are all pros though."

"Anyone you particularly liked?" Sunggyu probed.

"Hyung!" His voice rose an octave. "What's it to you anyway?"

"It's my business if you're kissing someone-"

"Oh yeah, like you haven't kissed that actress from your musical a hundred times..."

"You didn't talk to me for a week back then."

The conversation had become pretty heated, not where Sunggyu had expected it to head. He was happy just finding out how Woohyun's filming had gone. He didn't want to fight, not when he was obviously tired and stressed out. It was like back when they were trainees, fighting about every little thing,  no conversation ending decently. Fist fights were common because Woohyun didn't like being pushed around and Sunggyu wouldn't take crap from a dongsaeng.

They were past that point now. Sure, they had little fights from time to time, about silly things mostly, but it stopped before it got too heated. He liked to think that they were adults now, that they were just two friends, very close friends and there was nothing more to it.

Woohyun didn't seem to agree. On and off, he had brought up the suggestion that maybe they were more than friends. Sunggyu had laughed it off of course, there was nothing more than friendship, it just wasn't possible.

"Admit it, you're jealous." Woohyun's voice had gone quieter but there was a steely quality to it, like he was not messing around. This phone call started to look like a bad idea every second.

"If that appeases you, then fine." Sunggyu sighed. "I don't want to fight."

"Since when?" Woohyun snorted but he seemed to have cooled down a bit. "Look, you don't have to worry. I -I won't just suddenly get into a relationship with a girl. I may flirt but that's the extent of it. You know why."

"Aha I don't." Sunggyu really had no idea, or even if he did, he didn’t want to think about it. Then the ‘girl’ in Woohyun's sentence sounded ominous.

Woohyun sighed exasperatedly.

"Ok, so you don't know what's stopping me from getting a girlfriend?"

"Fans?"

"Most of them would like me to be in a loving healthy relationship."

"So, you should..." Sunggyu lost steam mid-sentence, realising what he was implying.

"You get jealous thinking about me kissing someone in a drama and now you're telling me to be in a relationship? You're really sending mixed signals here."

The elder sighed. Even he himself didn't know what he wanted. He wanted Woohyun to be happy for sure, but he didn't want him to be happy with someone else. And yet, he couldn’t think of the two of them as something more than friends, partners-in-crime, soulmates … soulmates?

Sunggyu gulped nervously – he was very glad that this was a phone conversation – if only Woohyun could see him now. He could feel the heat rising off his face, the beads of sweat sprouting on his forehead.

“We can’t – we shouldn’t – we’re not meant to-” he stammered pathetically, not knowing where he was going. He thought he would go crazy if he stayed quiet and yet, when he spoke, he only blabbered nonsense.

He heard a deep sigh at the other end. Woohyun must be so frustrated with him.

“Hyung, the fact that there’s a we, you can’t deny that. It’s a meaningful we and I’m not sure exactly why you are lying to yourself but you and I are not just friends or colleagues, you know that.”

He was right, Woohyun was frustrated, angry. All for good reasons. It had been almost 10 years now, he had kept doubting his heart, denying that it beat for Woohyun. It was beyond any type of attraction or infatuation – Woohyun simply was …

“My soulmate.”

“Hyung?”

Startled, he cleared his throat to buy himself some time – he had realised that he had spoken out aloud. What was the point of holding it off anyway, he had already accepted it, hadn’t it?

“You…you’re my soulmate.”

There was a sharp intake of breath and then silence. Did Woohyun hang up? Was it too much for him to handle? Sunggyu frowned – had he ruined everything after all these years?

He should say something, anything to break the tension. But before he could settle on something innocuous, he heard Woohyun laugh.

“You’re an idiot, Sunggyu!” he almost screamed. “You frustrate me to no end and you’ve been stringing me along for too long.” Sunggyu didn’t know where this was headed but he listened with bated breath. “However,” Woohyun’s voice had calmed down. “I agree with you on one thing - you are indeed my soulmate.”

To hear him say that dissolved an uncertain fear in Sunggyu. Leaning his head back, he sighed with relief. It was as if a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulder. He had no plans on how to make it work, he didn’t need any. In the end, it would be the two of them, and that was all the sense he needed to make out of the world.

“We,” he said, savouring the word.

“We,” Woohyun agreed.