Chapter 1

WOOHYUN

He doesn’t mean it, but Woohyun’s tired of arguing about this same thing over and over with his boyfriend. Before he registers what he’s doing, he hears himself shout, “How will I know what you’re thinking if you don’t tell me anything?”

His words are met with only silence – another case of him not telling Woohyun what he really thinks – though Woohyun really shouldn’t be surprised at that at this point. It’s just as well, because Woohyun’s sick of fighting about the same thing for the umpteenth time already. Standing up, he picks up his jacket to leave, letting the front door close without looking back.

Maybe this will go better when we’re not talking about it at two in the morning, Woohyun thinks, rubbing a hand over his face as he kicks a crushed can by the side of the road. He’s frustrated, and it’s the reason why he sighs.

“Won’t it be better if I can just date myself?” He says aloud to no one in particular.

There’s no one on the streets but it’s not like he’s expecting an answer anyway. He kind of just wonders what it’ll be like if there isn’t the issue of miscommunication because someone doesn’t talk to the other in a relationship. Woohyun feels his lips turn up at the thought – an almost smile that’s more bitter than anything – but it makes his heart sink and he sighs again.

He should really just hurry home so he can sleep it off and think about it in the morning.

Sleep does wonders for his mood.

When he wakes up, the first thing Woohyun wants to do is to pick up the phone and call – call to apologize, call to talk things over because he thinks he shouldn’t have left like that yesterday – but then he realizes he’s lying at a bench in the park. He looks around, and yeah, he’s definitely not dreaming. He’s most definitely in a park, lying on a wooden bench hidden by some trees and on top of that, he’s cold.

Rubbing his arms to warm up a little, Woohyun frowns as he tries to remember what happened last night. He’s pretty sure he had made it home last night after kicking all the cans on the side of the road on his way back. He distinctly remembers spending half a minute debating if he should shower before he lies on the bed or just lie on the bed and change out the sheets tomorrow because he hates getting his sheets dirty with his outside clothes, and he recalls having decided on the latter. It’ll make sense because he’s still wearing the same long-sleeved tee and jeans he had on yesterday, proving that he really did fall asleep without showering first. But then, it doesn’t make sense why he’ll be here at a park, when he’s almost certain he had fallen asleep somewhere else – his own bed – last night.

This makes no sense at all, Woohyun thinks, but what makes even less sense is how when he takes out his phone to call, it tells him that his boyfriend’s number – the same number he had called just yesterday morning – is not in service.

He’s not sure what to feel at this point.

. I messed up, didn’t I?

But then when he tries to call Sunggyu to tell him what happened (ask him how to solve this), his number is not in service either. Or for all that matter, any of his other friends’. Woohyun tries every number on his contact list, even the people he hardly talks to, but no one seems to have a working number.

What is going on?

On a whim, Woohyun tries the number for his favourite chicken restaurant, and for once, he hears a dial tone instead of a mechanized voice telling him the number is not in use. Two rings later, someone picks up.

“Choding Chicken Restaurant! How may I help you –”

Woohyun hangs up. He doesn’t need to order chicken, but he’s also somewhat surprised tha